Oh my gosh! Story updated on the same day this story was created! Happy birthday "Web of Intrigue", long may you bestow your fans love with every new chapter full of adventure and side-stories everyone is dying to read! Sorry I came late to the party, my readers!

I went into the movie theaters feeling I was moments away from a heart attack—and I left the building in the back of a freaking ambulance. I feel like something has exploded and left a huge fucking crater in my chest. I cannot, I cannot, I cannot (slowly dissolves into a a screaming mess from within to echo in the dark vastness of space).

Ahem.

Yay! We're at the last chapter before we move onto "Ariadne's Web"! You guys must be so excited like you're losing your shit from the other side of the computer screen, am I right or what? I'm not only eyeing the sequel but I'm also thinking about going back to "ACASW" to fix that mess up a bit. You can tell from looking at the "Web of Intrigue" that there's been a lot of changes done to make this perfect as I previously mentioned in the last few chapters. But yeah, when you guys have the time, you can go look to see if there's been updates made with "ACASW", but don't go look everyday because I'm too lazy to get right into it. Like, go look into in another month, yeah?

But I'll leave you guys alone to let you read the rest of this story. It's been what ya'll been waiting for since the cliffhanger chapter back in the first story, lol! Remember to leave me a comment because that's what every author kind of lives for!

Disclaimer: MCU belongs to Disney and Marvel Studios/Comics, I only claim ownership over my Original Character(s) and a little bit of the plot!

Warning: Language, Violence, Adult Content, possible Triggers (there will be heads-up for these things), and whatever comes to mind.

Trigger Warning! References to SUICIDE IDEATION! Read at your own risk!

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ഢҼb oҒ أӣҭԻأᏩմҼ

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B Ƭ

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She was having a panic attack.

Bucky felt his stomach twist, feeling sick at the thought that his presence was terrifying to her.

Even when he tried to reassure her that they weren't here to hurt her (that he wasn't here to hurt her, never again), it fell on deaf ears. Her breathing was tight, like she was inhaling air through a straw. When he felt someone pull him away, he didn't hesitate to back off and let someone else try to calm the poor girl down.

'What did you expect, moron?' he chided himself, looking away. 'Ya think she was gonna welcome you with open arms?'

Bucky looked back to the scene, appalled that he had caused such a strong reaction from her. Fury was right, as much as it pained him to admit, Bucky should have stayed away. Just because she had helped him out didn't automatically make them mutual allies, and the high expectations he had set for her caused this disastrous first meeting. God, Bucky felt like a giant asshole here.

"C'mon, you can do it. Again." Stark gently ordered the girl.

Stark held her face in his hands, counting the numbers that she struggled to follow but stumbled little by little until her frustrations with messing up gave her confidence to try and do better. All the while, Stark was uncharacteristically patient with her (or maybe it's because he didn't show this side of himself to Bucky).

"—SEVEN, EIGHT," the girl forced out after awhile of screwing up the numbers, her eyes still scrunched closed. "NINE, TEN."

She was no longer a wheezing mess.

Stark encouraged her to keep going until she no longer struggled with counting, still holding her face up as he counted the numbers alongside her. The strong grip she had on his wrists (Bucky wondered if there was going to be bruises or sprained wrists later) until her hold grew lax. The tense atmosphere was no longer crowding the small apartment and the feeling of something about to burst into violence quietly evaporated into nothing.

She opened her eyes for the first time. Big coffee brown eyes, still frightened as he remembered.

'No thanks to you, jerk.'

"Okay, not how I imagined my meeting with the illusive Spider-Woman would go, but I suppose it's better than getting a punch in the face or something." Stark greeted her, missing the sharp look Bucky threw at the back of billionaire's head at the allusions he knew the older man was referencing towards. "Also, nice to finally meet you, Ms. Not-so-Itsy-Bitsy-Spider."

"Why do you keep comparing other meetings with people to our meeting?" Bucky quietly complained, feeling miserable enough to know he was the root of some of today's problems (and certain people). Stark had the right to be cross with him, more so given what happened in the past, but to Bucky it was a joke told in poor taste.

"Really? You can't actually expect someone to act all courteous after finding out certain things, Barnes." Bucky warily eyed the Black Widow who sidles up next to him, a single brow raised at him. "Be glad Stark went with a love tap rather than straight out murdering you."

Bucky didn't bother to say that he did have moments where he wished Stark did follow through with his threat and killed him on the spot. The world would have been better off without the Winter Soldier to haunt them. His line of thinking sometimes caused him to stare at the power tools Stark left lying around in his workshop with consideration.

But then those ideas were scrapped immediately when he found himself locked out of places by JARVIS (this was probably payback for having tattled on Stark when the man was dying). It was a punch in the gut when Rhodey gave him those knowing looks, feelings like shame and worthlessness crawling over Bucky's face because he couldn't stand up to what he did.

It was the coward's way out. How could he do that to himself? Run away with his tail between his legs when there was a man who he worked closely with, and who was dedicating himself into fixing all his wrongs despite the world slandering his name?

Stark was an ass when he wanted to be, but after being kidnapped, tortured, escaping, shutting down his weapons company, he still looked everyone in the eye with his head held high and promised the world to turn his mistakes around and do better. His ignorance and scandals blinded him of the truth, and seeing what he saw, he was going to protect his country and others the only way he could: by building himself a suit of flying armor and personally taking responsibility for it.

(ifamanmadeofironcanspitedeathsocanyou)

Stark finally deigned them a crossed look from over his shoulder, his hands still holding the stunned girl's face. "Did you seriously call that ass-whooping a love tap?"

"... What the fuck?"

"Oh hey, she speaks!" Tony praised. "You good? You look good."

"Ah, I..." she rapidly blinked, still looking a bit overwhelmed. "W-what?"

"I'm gonna let you go now." Tony warned her before slowly drawing his hands away from her face, taking a step away to give her breathing room. "I don't have to worry about you sticking webs in my face, do I?"

She shook her head, her shorts strands of dyed locks swaying while still sporting the wide-eyed look.

"Ms. Booker," the Black Widow stepped in. "Do you know who we are?"

The girl stared at Natasha in a cautious manner as she met the Widow's sharp eyes. The answer finally came in the form of a slow nod, her eyes never leaving the assassin in front of her. This information made Bucky blink in surprise. The Black Widow program wasn't as obscured as the Winter Soldier, but it's secrets were just as guarded. It made him wonder if the girl heard it in passing way back when they were still with HYDRA with some higher ups wanting to recreate it, or if she had come across it when she was looking through the USB.

The only reason Stark knew about the Black Widows was because Bucky told him after his scuffle with the redhead. Seeing her face jogged his memory of previous missions where her information came up in HYDRA's radar after she defected from her former organization before SHIELD recruited her.

"James Buchanan Barnes," he startled to hear his name again from her, and she was looking at him straight in the eye with no hint of breaking down like she did moments earlier. "Captain America's best friend."

That was what she told him once, Bucky remembered when he watched the girl disappear on the snow covered streets of Moscow, his name given to him like a gift. A name so foreign yet seemed to click as a missing puzzle piece that fit, not quite well, but slipping into his empty space all the same.

Months of running, wandering, fighting off HYDRA agents that dogged his heels, memories old and new filtering inside his mind that they slowly drove him mad, all of it gradually opening the door back to his humanity where he spent running around the streets of Brooklyn with his best friend before running after the scrawny guy who turned into a beef cake into the war. A journey that took him so long but finally led him straight into the familiar streets of the city he was born in. And it led him to stopping in front of a closed off mansion that he vaguely remembered was bright with expensive chandeliers and foofy-tasting champagne.

And that led to Tony Stark finding him (after knocking Bucky around, of course).

She pulled her eyes away from him to face the older man. "And you're Tony Stark. Iron Man."

"Do you know who I am?" the Black Widow asked. Bucky wasn't the only one who caught the girl's expression when she eyed the other woman.

"Sort of," she gave a light shrug. "You're good at manipulating people; especially when they're vulnerable."

It was like an accusation being thrown at the Black Widow. Bucky's memory was still a little screwed up, but he was smart enough not reveal anything to the redhead or else she would dissect it and end up throwing it back into his face when he least expected it. This was proven true when she did this with Tony, playing with the man's vulnerability while he was fucking dying.

And now the younger woman was giving the Black Widow a challenging look, daring the Widow to refute her claims.

"Now, now," the billionaire slides between the two women. "As entertaining as it would be to see two spiders duke it out, we've come to you in peace."

"I..." the girl faltered. "There's nothing else I can tell you. I'm sorry if you didn't find enough inside the USB's—"

"Where did you find them?" the Black Widow interrupted, ignoring Stark's sharp look.

"An agent gave it to me. I don't know if he was one of yours."

There was confusion from all sides. What agent was she talking about? Better yet: what agent thought it was a smart idea to give such vital information to a young woman who they had no clue about? Unless... Bucky forced himself to stop, breath in and exhale a few times, and wait for the rest of the story. There was more to it.

"Which agent?"

"Parker. Rick and Mary Parker."

Silence fell over the Black Widow, her frame turning taut with tension despite her face giving away nothing.

"Somebody you know, Romanoff?" Stark demanded. The Widow didn't say anything, and after awhile the girl continued.

"I was on the plane with them. The Oceanic Flight 0422."

"You talking about the plane crash from last year?" Stark asked after a moment. "You were there?!"

The girl nodded and Bucky's mind flew back in time where he heard about the incident while passing through a small town in Europe. He hadn't thought much of it at the time, too busy following his own leads towards a city while navigating around the HYDRA cells who were in the area.

"The reports came that there was a gunfight—"

"Are these guys idiots or something? You can't shoot a gun inside a cabin pressure aircraft!"

"—and there was even signs of an explosion near one of the exit areas of the plane." the Black Widow bored her eyes at the girl, silently ordering her to start talking or else.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Stark glared at the redhead. "So this was one of your guys then? How come I'm only hearing this now?"

"It didn't seem relevant at the time."

The older man stared at the redhead for a long time, dark eyes not blinking.

"Wow," a humorless chuckle came from the businessman. "I can only start imagining what other irrelevant things you and Fury got hiding behind your closet full of dirty secrets. Should I also be expecting bodies as well, agent Romanoff?"

Bucky decided to continue with the questioning before an argument blew out between Stark and the Black Widow. They were running on precious time and there was plenty of other opportunities that could saved for later.

"How'd you escape?" he asked the girl.

"When one of the HYDRA agents threw a grenade at me—"

"What?" Stark snapped to attention at that.

"I managed to pull out an inflatable from the plane's entrance right before I opened the exit and got sucked out." the girl explained. "I was able to avoid getting caught in the explosion."

"I can't believe you actually pulled an Indiana Jones." Stark remarked, sounding both sides of shocked and impressed.

"I saw it on Myth Busters once, so I thought I'd give it a shot considering my only option was staying inside a burning plane about to crash."

"What're Myth Busters?" Bucky couldn't help but ask.

"Focus people," the Black Widow drawled, tone bordering a little on the impatient side.

"They found me in Spain," the girl continued. "Just my luck that I escaped one team only to fall in the lap of another's. Well, they weren't expecting me because they were too busy trying to kill Rick and his wife."

Bucky knew she was speaking the truth. He had, at the time, been in Spain as well.

Developing enough of a conscience after being away from HYDRA's (the Chair's) influence, the memories behind the wall of ice began to thaw and come in until there was enough for him to piece together the puzzle. His past was vague, frightening often times, but beyond them there was a neighborhood whom he walked alongside a scappy-looking boy who had trouble breathing and wore clothes too big for his little frame.

The more he started to understand (he wrote them down in journals he stole, writing them mostly in Russian before struggling to write them in English), he felt both excited and horrified.

The name the girl had left with him before she disappeared rang like an alarm bell. A name that started to go with a face, a story, a life lived before it was torn apart by Doctors, Scientists, and suffering. Their personal block of ice they would carve with sharp knives until the Winter Soldier was all that remained of Bucky Barnes, the Howling Commando who stood beside his long time best friend, Steve Rogers.

Her order was still there, but he understood what they meant. They were meant to keep Bucky safe, keep him away from his captors, keep him free so they wouldn't fall back into the real enemy's hands. There was still the urges, still some part of him that begged to be put back into the cold chambers so he would return to sleep and forget his experiences. The girl must've known that everywhere he would go, he would be in constant danger, so he had to keep away for his own safety... but he couldn't. The girl was probably the only person in the world who didn't mean him harm, and they were going to hunt her down. He couldn't leave her to that horrible fate. That's when he, for the first time in forever, decided a mission for himself: save the girl who saved the Winter Soldier.

(andgaveyouatasteofwarmthsoaddictingyouwantedmore)

He had missed her by two days. Surprising a group of agents that were harassing some poor man and his family's home; he questioned the trembling husband who stuttered the entire time, dead agents surrounding them, until Bucky learned that the girl had bribed the man into helping her get a plane ride into the United States.

The Black Widow's hard stare wasn't letting up.

He already could see what conclusions she was coming to after hearing the girl's story, and if Bucky had been in her shoes he would have also starting giving the small woman an assessing look. Sneaking inside a place where it also included a couple of SHIELD and HYDRA agents which resulted in everyone dying? Yeah, the whole story sounded pretty suspicious to be coincidence, and in their line of work there was no such thing as coincidence.

But then there was the argument where the Widow had acted too quickly with her assumptions, thinking that the Winter Soldier was back to finish the job when he shot through her to get to the nuclear scientist; Bucky's only crime was showing up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Originally heading towards the break room to meet up with Happy, Bucky had come across Pepper who was struggling with a heavy box in her arms. Not wanting to leave her with the burden, he offered to take it and trailed after the businesswoman towards the main office she and Stark shared.

Suffice to say, he didn't get a chance to go out for some of that delicious pizza Happy was telling him about.

The girl seemed to also know what was going on in everyone's mind, especially with the Black Widow. She immediately knew that with a story like hers, this put her in a tight spot where she was both a witness and suspect to the events that happened before and after the plane crash.

"I know. I'm the only survivor and anything I could be a fabricated story, but I don't have anything to prove to you that I'm not against you." she sighed, crossing her arms like she was trying to comfort herself because of the scrutiny she was under.

"But you're not working with us," the Widow quickly points out.

"With you? I can shoot webs and beat up thugs, but even I'm not stupid enough to get tangled with your kind."

The Black Widow opened her mouth to say more, probably trade blows and get more of a reaction so she could read the girl better, but Stark once again stepped in.

"That's enough. We've wasted enough time with your twenty questions. Ask her later after we get her out." Tony ordered then turned to the girl. "Listen kid, as much as I like to talk—and I really do want to talk—we're on a tight schedule here."

The girl appeared taken aback then started to scan her door and windows of the apartment. Again, a cautious look bloomed over her face, her demeanor becoming more tight with tension as she returned her gaze back to Stark.

"Are there people looking for me?" she asked, her voice soft and her eyes turning frightened.

"There's a high possibility, yes." Bucky answered, feeling awful of bearing the bad news and shattering the girl's life of normalcy.

The Black Widow cuts in before they could continue. "We're bringing you in. Are you okay with that?"

Bucky wasn't the only one giving the Widow dark looks. The young woman knew she was in no position to rebuff them, not if she wanted to keep her freedom a little while longer. Stark walked up to the girl, easily resting a hand on her shoulder and gesturing towards the doorway.

"You can do your power play once when we're in a safe location, Romanoff. I think it's time we blew this Popsicle stand."

"What about my stuff?" the girl asked, looking back towards her bedroom door.

"That's why we have the clean up crew, Itsy Bitsy." Stark said, leading the way towards the door. "We'll send it to California later on when it's safe enough. And don't worry, I got your little costume right here."

Much later, Bucky was going to ponder about the possibility of karma actually existing in scales because just when the good stuff started to get heavy on one side, bad shit was allowed to rise up and give them all a nasty surprise.

Before Stark could open the door, the girl suddenly grabbed the older man by his arm and yanked him backwards while she kicked a foot forward to dislodge the door frame from its hinges, sending it crashing into the other wall opposite of the doorway. The brief pause that left them bewildered at the random act of violence was quickly answered when they noticed a fallen weapon on the floor. His eyes trailing towards the door, Bucky got a good look to see the arms and legs sticking out from the door frame, the person knocked into unconsciousness before he could think about riddling them full of bullets had the girl not caught on.

"That was a scout." Bucky noted, seeing no one else in the hallway.

"I can hear the others moving in," the girl announced, head tilting in a way that said she was listening for something only she could hear. "I think more than ten."

"I hear them, too." Bucky caught the distant thumping of multiple heavy combat boots climbing the stairs from both sides of the hallway. They were going to flush them from either side.

The Black Widow pulled away, tapping into her own comms to give Coulson and the others a heads up.

Bucky was going to have words with Coulson later because he wanted to know why these bastards were able to slip through the perimeter without their notice, but he needed to focus on more important things like surviving while not revealing his face. The soldier grabbed the ski mask he had tucked away in his back pocket, slipping it on as he pulled a handgun from its holster tucked inside his jacket. Under no circumstances was he to reveal his face to the public, nor that he was hiding under Stark's protection.

The medical team still were working on dismantling the trigger words from his head, so him staying hidden would keep anyone from making him go berserk should they happen to have the words on them.

Bucky would sooner choke on a bullet than turn against Stark and everyone who's ever been involved in helping him find his way back. Months spent hanging around the SI company and medical team gradually brought on the idea that not everyone was out to get him, that not every doctor was going to rip him from the inside out like his former handlers did, and not one of them was going to let any harm come to Bucky.

The feeling was mutual.

"Well, I guess now's a good a time as any." Stark said as he summoned his gauntlets from the two metal bracelets he carried with him almost everywhere. The rest of the suit, Bucky knew, would be following soon after. Stark pulled a familiar black and white cloth up to the girl's face. "You up for round two, kiddo?"

The girl grabbed the suit, shrugging off her own dark blazer with a determined look in her dark eyes. No longer was there a fragile and frightened girl but a young woman prepared to unleash war upon the morons who dared to threaten her freedom.

"Ready when you are, Mr. Stark."

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B Ƭ

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Escaping from one prison only to land his ass in another, life was funny that way.

That, or it was telling Bucky he didn't deserve to walk away scot free because the only reward men like him deserved was so much worse than whatever deed HYDRA committed. Every life taken, every chance destroyed, every good thing stolen, manipulated or not, these were his crimes. Whatever judgement these people made on him, he had to accept.

(allthewhilestiflingasmallvoicethatpleadedtolive)

From inside the enforced glass prison which was quickly set up for him, something that surprisingly left him feeling quite impressed at the precautions they took to keep someone like him secured, he was left to sit on a cot (a luxury item?) and watch the people outside watching him. There was four of them: three men and a woman.

The ginger-haired businesswoman was Stark's CEO, Potts. He recognized her on the tabloids he read from public trash bins when he'd been looking for some food. The last time he checked she was Stark's personal assistant, or henchwoman as some said, but she'd been given reign of the entire company due to some reason Bucky didn't know. Yet. The man who accompanied her was big. Bigger than Bucky even, but he didn't look all that well trained enough to take him on, not that a lot of people were thanks to his bastardized version of the serum.

The next guy was another one of Stark's closest confidants. An important official of the military who previously served as a liaison of Stark Industries who was clever not to turn his back on Bucky even when it was safe to do so with the Winter Soldier secured by something to keep him from moving. The Airman kept his eyes trained on the Soldier, gun aimed and kept away from Bucky's range to prevent his quick reflexes from getting his hands on it. The Lieutenant Colonel was the second dangerous person in the room.

The billionaire never left the Soldier out of his sight, a glowing armored gauntlet ready to discharge in his face if he made the wrong move. The entire trip was full of silence and tension when they safely delivered him inside the mansion's basement, but even with him locked up and on the other side of the glass wall, the suspense never left anyone.

Bucky Barnes—she called him Bucky, the history books from the libraries called him Bucky Barnes, his new captors called him Barnes—sat quietly in his prison while the others looked into these holographic screens they held in their hands, something that stirred a slight fascination and awe within him but was immediately snuffed out. There was an absence of noise, their lips moving but they were smart to turn away from him so he wouldn't be able to read their lips.

These people were clever, Bucky thought, but only slightly.

Finally, all eyes fell back on him. Howard's son stepped towards a panel and pressed something, and Bucky could guess from how sound seemed to be negated by the wall surrounding him, it was a speaker intercom being connected between this space and the one outside the glass prison.

"Do you know who I am?" Stark asked. Demanded. Eyes as dark as they were when he saw them up close in the night.

"Anthony Edward Stark," Bucky's mouth moved before his brain could respond. "Born 1970 in the 29th of May, owner and CEO of Stark Industries. Specialize in weapons manufacturing—"

"Stop." Stark's voice ripped through the fog, bringing him back to the basement, the glass walls, the four people staring at him with wide eyes. "Jesus, shut your mouth, Barnes."

His teeth clacked noisily from how quickly he snapped his mouth.

"... I thought it was bad, Tones," the Lieutenant Colonel spoke in hushed tones, unaware that the intercom was still on. "But I didn't know how fucked up he was."

"He sounds like a goddamn robot!" the bigger man of the three spoke up, nothing bothering to lower his volume. "DUM-E's got more spunk that this guy!"

Potts pushed herself between the three men, looking straight at Barnes like she was daring herself to look straight into the maw of something horrific from people's worst nightmares. He prepared himself for what was to come, the inevitable judgment when he would stand trial for the atrocities he committed.

It was something he imagined when he thought of the multiple scenarios of the victims whom he would face when they discovered his identity and part in destroying their lives while reaping the rewards HYDRA collected, calling them trophies to celebrate in another successful effort to direct humanity the way they wanted it to go.

"Why were you at that house?"

But he was not expecting that.

Bucky momentarily floundered, forgetting that he had a mouth and voice to answer the question. Nobody demanded he hurry, no one snapped at him to get his attention straightened, so after a few seconds, he finally replied.

"I remembered it being open," he said, voice slow and unsure. "I... I think I was there. It was at a party. Someone I knew—No, maybe I didn't know him well."

Stark moved, moving to a different panel where his fingers flew rapidly across the keyboards.

A picture morphed in front of Bucky, in front of his prison.

He knew that man. Definitely knew all the other people that surrounded him, too, his mind screamed from somewhere in the depths of his forgotten self. He hurried towards the image, wishing there was nothing between him and the picture that he wanted to touch with his flesh hand.

He wanted to grab it possessively, keep it close and never let go, bite and kick anyone who dared to try and take it from him because this was something he didn't want to impart so easily now that he had physical proof that there was a man before a killer. There was a life before this hell he lived up to until released, a world that aged while he remained behind. But it was right there, a picture that meant so much of what he hesitated to claim as his own until he was sure that it was real.

This was something he wanted for himself because all that he had was taken, stolen, hidden, shredded beyond recognition until he was nothing but a mindless puppet who had nothing to his name but his mission and orders. He wanted it because there was proof that life before the pain and hurt and cold was real, was warm, was true.

"Do you even remember them?" Stark's voice came back to ground him once more, solidifying that he was more than the Soldier, the Asset, and the Fist of HYDRA.

"I remember all of them."

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B Ƭ

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Four of the mercenaries went ahead, weapons up as they took in the hallway where one of their own lied battered beneath a broken door with its hinges barely clinging on the side of the wooden frame. The leader of the small team signaled for two of them to proceed while him and another stayed behind to keep an eye on the hallway for any unexpected surprises.

From the corner of his eye, he watched the pair enter the quiet apartment building. The doorway led into the darkness of the apartment. One of them tried to flick on the lights but nothing happened. The two switched on their flashlights and night vision then quietly returned to searching the small abode for any hidden figures they were order to subdue by their client who promised them a handsome amount of money should they retrieve the target.

The bedroom and bathroom was empty, kitchen and living room area included. They even went so far as to check the cupboards that could fit a child inside, but still nothing to reveal a hiding wall-crawler. The two searched another five minutes before calling it quits. The Spider-Woman must've known they were coming and fled out the window, but not after she knocked out one of their own when he tried to catch her by surprise.

"Shit," one of them cursed while heading towards the entrance. "Gotta check if they caught her outside!"

The other gave the apartment one last look before following after his partner, cursing under his breath.

"Who the hell tipped her—?" the mercenary loudly demanded to his partner and boss before being cut off abruptly.

Three things happened in the span of a few seconds.

First thing that happened was coming upon the scene of his partner slumping down on the floor after a redheaded woman released him from her clutches. Behind her, a man in a black ski mask stood straight from looming over the other two men that were suppose to be watching the area.

Second thing that happened was getting knocked off his feet from a blow that came behind him, the world tipping horizontally then becoming topsy turvy when he found himself being slid off the ground and up in the air by his legs. He thrashed, but he got increasingly tangled by something sticky that continued to cover him until it reached his upper torso.

And lastly, he watched an apartment door open for Iron Man to step out.

Then it was lights out.

"Wow!" Tony couldn't help but compliment as the young girl gracefully landed back to ground level. Flimsy suit or not, it was quite the ass-kicking show a lot of people on the streets hyped it up to be. "That was much cooler up close than having to watch it in some crappy camera on somebody's phone. But it was also kinda gross."

"Gross?" the wide-eyed mask turned towards him.

"I mean, with the whole web thing, all of it kind of sticky and gooey while you were wrapping him like a fresh taco on Tuesday. Sorry, but it was gross."

"Mr. Iron Man?" a little old lady's voice stirred him from crowding the front door.

"Oh, so sorry to inconvenience you, Mrs. Finnigan!" Tony apologized, carefully taking the withered and wrinkled hand of the small lady. "JARVIS already got your number and we'll work on moving you to a much nicer and safe neighborhood, along with all the other tenants caught up with this—"

"You take care of that Edelweiss, ya hear?" Mrs. Finnigan firmly warned Tony, as if promising to whack him with her cane she had if he messed up. "That poo' girl's been cryin' her heart ou' since she go' here."

"Don't worry," Tony promised. "I'll take care of her. Promise."

He owed it to Itsy Bitsy, thrusting him into a much bigger circle of awareness than he had ever been since returning from Afghanistan.

"Stark!" Romanoff's voice snapped with JARVIS quietly reminding him of the dire situation they were in.

"Head back inside and lock the door." Tony warned the old lady before stepping away from the doorway.

"Sir, it seems more reinforcement are closing in the hallway." JARVIS warned him, bringing up small CCTV cameras in the side of his holographic panel to watch the two teams coming to block them from both sides. "Your next course of action?"

"Excuse me?" Itsy Bitsy waves a gloved hand at him. "Do you happen to have a flash grenade on you?"

"Um," he looked down at his multi-billion dollar suit that was modified and designed to carry any and all weapons he could get away with and fit inside. "I think so."

"You take that side and we take this?" she suggested, thumb pointing towards the other end of the hallway of the incoming mercenaries.

Quick and to the point, something he could appreciate when he wanted things done in time without causing collateral damage. It was both thoughtful about the people who were hiding inside their apartments and nowhere near demanding like when Fury or Romanoff tried to lead the whole operation with more force than cooperation from Stark's side. The bonus was that Itsy Bitsy was asking him nicely, so Tony didn't hesitate to pull out one of his many flash grenades from his gauntlet and tossed it over to the girl.

"Thank you!" she beamed.

Tony smiled when Romanoff gave him a look over her shoulder. Anything to tick the Black Widow off was a good mark in his book, but he could tease the redhead in a later date because right now he had another little spider to help out of her own sticky situation. Gosh, there was a lot of puns today, wasn't there? He probably needed a drink or someplace to take a nap because this was kind of getting out of hand.

"You know how to use that?" Barnes asked the girl, picking up a weapon off the floor.

"I got it," the young lady assured. "Don't start shooting here yet. This place isn't exactly bulletproof."

"Those assholes ain't inclined to agree with you, doll." Barnes pointed out.

'Doll?!' Tony blinked from behind his helmet.

"They won't get a chance to."

And with that, she threw her flash grenade towards the other end of the hall. Tony quickly turned away, facing his side of the hallway when JARVIS warned him of the imminent arrival of his own squad of mercenaries. With a thrust of his boosters, Iron Man flew down the hall to meet the surprised faces of the armed men and rammed into them like a bowling ball to a stack of bobbing pins.

While he was busying himself in knocking the men backwards with he force of his suit, pushing them all back out to where they came from, uncaring of the bullets bouncing off his armor (and idiotically catching the bullets, lowering their numbers), he watched in the corner of his eye from the CCTV camera of the other hallway. The flash grenade he gave to the kid blinded the gunmen, momentarily stopping them in their tracks. That hesitation costed them big time because they were instantly set upon by both the Spider-Woman and Winter Soldier.

Black Widow helped, Tony grudgingly noted as well.

The girl was leaping around the hallway, snatching away guns and throwing them away from the range of the mercenaries while webbing their faces to distract them from the powerful incoming fist of Barnes. Black Widow weaved around the crowd, knocking them with her killer thighs and making quick work take out as many as she could get away with.

"Sir. If I can take you away from the screen for a moment, please."

"Right." Tony focused back on pushing the other mercenaries to the outside ground of the apartment complex. The kid was right, those hallways weren't tough enough to withstand flying bullets, so he wasn't going to risk firing a repulsor blast if it meant people were going to get a nasty surprise when something crashing into their homes and potentially killing them.

Once the men stumbled and fell backwards on the stairs, Iron Man blasted his thrusters and blew everyone backwards, sending them flying in various directions. One of them even flew into the public pool with a loud splash.

Something scratched gratingly against his suit.

He snuck a look over his shoulder to find a broken knife pressed against the space between his neck and shoulder, where his jugular was. The surprised face of the mercenary baffled Tony for a brief second.

"Didn't anyone tell you not to bring a knife to a gun fight, moron?"

And with that, Tony literally blew him off with a single repulsor blast to the chest. Honestly, what made that mercenary think he had a chance against a bullet proof armor that had taken hits from tanks and fighter jets with a flimsy knife? Whoever hired this bunch was either a moron or a cheapskate because these jackasses only had quantity not quality to them.

Or maybe, Tony thought, that was the point. These losers weren't really the top of the game because they're of a cheap brand hired by someone within HYDRA (or SHIELD). The whole thing could be a test which they didn't expect their runaway to cheat on with her own little back-up.

"How are the others holding up, J?" Tony asked as he slowly ascended, making sure his side was well and truly taken care of.

Coulson better move his ass pronto because they needed these guys to be taken in and interrogated. Several of them were bound to give away a clue of their client.

"Sir? The situation has been handled. It's only..."

"Only what?"

"You might want to meet up with the others, Sir."

.*.

B Ƭ

.*.

It was insane, Pepper argued.

It was wrong, Rhodey returned.

Happy was the only one who looked at him, silently asking what their next move would be. Because in the end, this was Tony's decision. He had someone's life sitting in the palm of his hands, a life that had been used to destroy all others.

It would be within his rights to take care of the problem, permanently removing James Barnes. Maybe nobody would be able to look him in eye, but they would understand because they were there, they saw what was done, they know what the Winter Soldier took part in. So if this ended in bloody hands and a truth that would never reach the light of day, Tony knew the others would take this to their graves.

But he needed to know something.

A question which pestered him since he returned from New York with his parents' murderer in tow, tucked away inside his basement. Time where he spent staring up at the ceiling, quietly talking to JARVIS, not paying attention to the cooking channel, not even able to focus on SI plans or business proposals.

This question needed an answer, and he was going to get it.

Another sleepless night where the day took care to illuminate the bags under his eyes, Tony climbed down the stairs of his workshop and ignored his bots that were curiously poking the glass prison. Grabbing a functional gauntlet and wrapping it around his wrist so it would fold easily around his hand, he ignored JARVIS' inquiries and unlocked the door of the prison.

Barnes went still.

"Mr. Stark."

Pulling up a rolling stool so he'd have something to sit, because he wasn't going to sit in close proximity to that fuck, and he sure wasn't going to use the toilet as his sitting spot, he made sure to keep a good distance from inside the prison. Blue eyes glanced down at his repulsor, acutely aware of the power behind the blasts once Tony made a quick adjustment to it.

"There's been something that's bothered me, Barnes." Tony slowly began once he was settled, dark gaze taking in the man sitting on the far edge of the cot like he was trying to coil away from Tony. "Something that's, well, kept me up late at night."

Barnes remained utterly silent, watching him like a hawk.

"What are you doing here?"

When the dark-haired man moved to speak, Tony interrupted him because somehow he knew he was going to talk in circles about the memories that were or weren't there clogging his head. That's not what Tony wanted.

"No, I don't care about your amnesia deal." Tony bit out. "All I want to know is how a brainwashed assassin ended up in the front steps of my family's house."

Barnes went absolutely quiet, his eyes falling low. Tony was tempted to shoot him then and there, end it all because this was going nowhere. Just when it was beginning to sink in that he was not going to get his answers, Barnes finally spoke up.

"Someone saved me," he quietly confessed.

The engineer paused in his move of standing up from the stool. "What?"

"A... a girl. She couldn't have been older than twenty, I don't know... But even after everything, she took me away from them."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Tony seethed, feeling more confused than satisfied. "What girl?!"

"A girl HYDRA stole, from... from somewhere far away. They wanted a weapon, but they got her instead. But she tricked them, fooled everyone, and when she ran, she took me along." Barnes struggled to explain. "She was a strong person. Stronger than me. But she was scared, so incredibly scared even after I broke her bones many times!"

The confession made Tony's stomach constrict like worms, all sick and squirming as a bile rose in the back of Tony's throat.

"Even when they cut her, bruised her, beat her, did other awful things to her, she took me with her. I helped her destroy the base, eradicate every one of those bastards who hurt us both." Tony was shocked to see tears streaming down the man's face. "I don't know why! I don't know why she did, but she saved me!"

Slowly, Tony returned to the stool. Eyes watching Barnes as he folded over, eyes red with tears and mouth wet, the other man cried quietly. If this was an act then Emmy Awards belonged to this guy right in front of him.

"Tell me who she is." Tony wanted to know. There was a feeling, something deep down telling him to shut up and listen closely because it was a blink-and-you-miss kind of thing he was dealing with. "Barnes? Who is she?"

"She... told me my name before she left me all alone. She told me what my name was, my real name." Barnes sobbed. "She's really a strong person, Mr. Stark. She moves like... like she isn't human. But she's scared, and that's why I was trying to find her."

"They're not normal. It was like I was—it was like I was up against a super human."

Happy's words from a month ago came ringing loudly in his ears like church bells. Giant spider webs, a small individual dressed in a tight skin suit, moving inhumanely and quickly to subdue the security team assigned to Pepper and the other businessmen.

Someone who warned him of HYDRA.

Someone who quickly and silently disappeared after leaving Pepper with their message.

Someone who led Barnes all the way to New York.

Standing up, he marched out of the prison glass, not caring that it was left open. Passing the many work stations with various projects left on the side, Tony reached his main desk and yanked one of the drawers out. The whole thing spilled out, messily falling all over the floor but he didn't give a rats ass about that, what mattered was where he left the picture he took with him from the sketch artist.

The only clue he had of the person's identity.

Finding it, and grabbing the other photos he took from the scene, he quickly made his way back to the glass prison where Barnes remained. The man looked trapped with the door open than he did with it closed, wide eyes taking in Tony's crazed movements. Once he was close enough, he flipped the picture and showed it to the assassin, watching his expression.

"Does this mean anything to you?" Tony presented Barnes the picture, letting the assassin grab it along with the other pictures. "Do you know who this is?"

Finally, Barnes moved.

He snatched the photos, eyes dancing back and forth as he took in everything while Tony reminded himself to keep a distance, keep out of range from the super soldier less it give the bastard an upper hand to break his neck and move onto the next target (Rhodey, Pepper, Happy). Recognition gleamed from those dead eyes, dying them bright blue than dull steel.

"She was here." Barnes whispered, a note of relief in his voice. "She really was here."

"And she left me a present." Tony chimed in.

Barnes suddenly remembered that he wasn't alone.

"JARVIS."

At his command, JARVIS sprang up documents and old film reels of every HYDRA activity that took place, and some most recent. Barnes moved towards the glass wall again, taking in everything before finally coming to a stop when they fell on the Stark assassination file. Howard and Maria's profiles, pictures of their attendance in galas and charities where they posed together in front of the camera, few of them where Tony was featured because he was away in boarding school or college.

"She gave this to you...?"

"Yes."

Barnes stared at the files a minute longer.

"I'm glad you know then." Barnes murmured. "I'm only remembering a few things about myself, so better that you know now what happened to them than find out years later when I suddenly remember killing your mother and father."

Tony had to remember to breathe, slowly and precisely so he won't scream.

"Do you think everything is here? All of HYDRA's activities? Even their current ones?" Tony dared to ask.

The other man shook his head, long dark hair swaying with him. "The organization is always on the move, always quick to work when some things go wrong. You have a lot of information to start with, but they can easily be changed should HYDRA feel that a part of them has been exposed."

"Do you know their movements? Their next plans of actions?"

"Some."

"But enough."

"Enough." Barnes nodded.

Both of them stared at the files, the pictures in their hands scattered on the floor with the only remaining image of a black and white figure with pink marks and bulbous blue shoes staring back at them.

"You're going to help me."

Barnes looked at him.

"I'm not asking you; I'm telling you that you're going to help me find these bastards, find all these snakes, and find the motherfucker who ordered the hit, and you're not going to give me any lip." Tony snarled at him. "Do you understand?"

Slowly, Barnes nodded. He had no choice. His life was in Tony's hands now, and he was going to take full advantage by finding every piece of connection that would eventually lead towards the main head who condemned his family to their deaths. And he was going to slowly topple HYDRA, carefully undoing every intricate plan they've been waiting years to set upon the rest of the world only to realize they were only setting themselves on fire.

Tony was going to watch them burn.

(herecomestheironandthefrostthatfollowsafter)

.*.

B Ƭ

.*.

One minute everyone was fighting, trying to lessen the commotion, trying damn hard to keep it all within the parking lot and kiddie park so nobody from the apartment complex or nearby houses would get involved in their bloody fiasco, and the next minute...

A fucking circus rolls up.

Shup!

"Oh," the girl watched a body fall over, an arrow sticking out from the neck. "Okay."

Shup! Shup!

"Finally took your time!" Romanoff called over her shoulder from where she was strangling some guy. "Getting old, Clint?"

"Sorry," in comes a guy straight out of Green Arrow comics, except he seemed to favor the color purple. "It was kind of fun to see her bouncing around like a hyperactive kid who's eaten too many candies. And what are thooose?!"

The archer was staring pointedly at the girl's bulbous blue Croc shoes, not even paying attention to where he was aiming and releasing his arrows even though they hit their intended target without hassle. Bucky and the girl exchanged looks.

"Yeah, he's weird." Bucky could only tell the masked girl before returning his attention on breaking some random mercenary's arm.

"That's no way to greet your sniper bro, man! We're practically brothers, or like brothers from other mothers! Great-grandmothers!"

Bucky ignored him, more intent with beating someone up than paying attention to whatever garbage was coming out of that other guy's mouth. Maybe she was imagining it, but was Bucky picturing Clint's face on that mercenary because he was really pounding that guy into the dirt.

"Okay. That's good to hear." Spider-Woman nodded to herself, barely noticing someone crawling towards a fallen gun to grab and aim towards her. "Shit...!"

Before she could move, jump away, throw a web at his face, or anyone else do something about him, something came speeding towards the mercenary at alarming speed. The only thing the girl could catch was that it was red... and blue... and white...?

"Gwuah!"

The object that slammed into the mercenary's back bounced off, and it was during this time when Tony arrived, landing between Bucky and the Spider-Woman who were watching the large sphere-shaped object fly around. It hit an electric pole, a jungle gym, and a nearby car (better hope they have great car insurance because that was one big dent on the car door) before it sped back towards where it came from.

Right into the hands of a man standing at the far edge of the parking lot under the flickering light of a lamp post.

Everyone stopped and stared.

Steve Rogers gave them all an awkward smile. "Hi."

"What the fuck?" both Bucky and Tony blurted out loud.