Disclaimer: I do not own the original canon nor am I making any profit from writing this piece. All works are accredited to their original authors, performers, and producers while this piece is mine. No copyright infringement is intended. I acknowledge that all views and opinions expressed herein are merely my interpretations of the characters and situations found within the original canon and may not reflect the views and opinions of the original author(s), producer(s), and/or other people.

Warnings: This work contains content which may be offensive to some readers. Please exercise understanding of personal boundaries before and during reading.

Author's Note: I'm back again with more opportunities for Team Cap to face the consequences of their decisions. This time, Bucky decided to be proactive in his protests against Steve's stupidity and took steps to do the logical thing. You know, instead of whatever the hell Steve was thinking.

Dedication: to Gwen. Joyous Yule, from your Secret Santa!

Reminder: if you are a fan of Team Cap, my fics are not for you. You will not enjoy them and should exercise understanding of your personal boundaries and leave. Also, you will be wasting both our time if you rant to me about not pretending that canon didn't, you know, happen. I'm sure there's a lovely streetlamp just waiting for that rant, if you really feel the need to give it.

Competition/Challenge Block:
Stacked with: MC4A (SSE; SuB; Swap; DP; TY; Share; FPC; BAON; ToS; StL; SIN; NC; LL; PP; SoC; FF; Star; Fence; ER; AV; RoB; MLG; Rum; Cluster; VV; T3; SN; FR; O3)
Individual Challenges: Metahuman MC (x4); Hydra MC; Seasoning Fix; Hitter MC; Thief MC; Hacker MC; Seeds; No Proof; Point of Pride; Matter of Means; The Third Phase; Time for Change; Old Shoes [MCU]; Team Logic; Marvelous Cinema; Location, Location, Location; Themes & Things A [Love] (Y); Themes & Things B [Protection] (Y); Feeling So Logical [Logical]; Ethnic & Present; Rian-Russo Inversion; Laws; Shipwreck; Short Jog; Two Cakes!
Representations: MCU Characterizations; Team as Family; Wanda Maximoff; Friday; Bucky Barnes is the Winter Soldier; Team Cap aka Team Treason; Bi Disaster Scott Lang; Asexual Bucky Barnes; Soldier Zucchinis (Steve & Bucky)
Bonus Challenges: Hot Stuff; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Persistence Still; Found Family; Nontraditional; Sneeze Weasel; Zucchini Bread; Middle Name; Mother Hen; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; For the Vine; Lovely Coconuts; Grease Monkey; Lyre Liar; Muck & Slime; Rock of Ages; Casper's House; Shiver & Shake; Under the Bridge; Where Angels Fear); Chorus (Odd Feathers; Pear-Shaped; Wabi Sabi; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Tomorrow's Shade; Eternal Boredom; Larger than Life; Unicorn; Wind Beneath; Abandoned Ship; Head of Perseus; In the Trench; Turtle-Duck; Sitting Hummingbird)
Tertiary Bonus Challenges: T3 (Toad); SN (Spare); FR (Liberation; Satisfaction); O3 (Orator; Ox); TY (Ntaiv); DP (Yearn)
Other MC4A Challenges (Prompt): Su Bingo [3B] (Sacrifice); Swap [Outer Wear] (Red Cardigan); Sp Micro 1 (Turned Left AU)
Word Count: 1778

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No Resistance
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The first clue that any of them had that something was going wrong was when the Avengers Compound appeared in the cockpit window of the quinjet. That alone would have been a comforting view, especially to Scott and Clint who were planning to go immediately back to their families despite current events. Even Wanda had tentative plans of reuniting with Vision who was most likely to be at the Compound. The problem with the designation they were quickly approaching now was that it was nowhere near the coordinates that Steve had fed to the autopilot.

In fact, the instruments in front of Steve currently told him that they were still an hour out from Madrid.

Which was impossible given that the quinjet was already going through the familiar protocols that it always did when it landed via the autopilot instead of being manually landed by one of the few pilots on the team.

For the first time since coming out of the ice, Steve cursed never bothering to actually learn to fly a plane. It wasn't like Tony hadn't offered to teach him or pay for the lessons (flying had been only one item on a long list of things Tony had made that offer about), but Steve hadn't seen any reason to bother with it in the past six years. When he was with the STRIKE team, SHIELD provided all transportation. For Avenger missions, both Clint and Natasha knew how to pilot anything necessary, and Tony was also often with them despite only being a consultant. If those three couldn't fly for some reason (or didn't want to, as sometimes happened), all the Avenger quinjets had an autopilot that was capable of everything short of operating the weapon systems.

"Steve," Wanda greeted as she came in from the back area. She looked comfortable in the red cardigan that she had found stashed in one of the cubbies, probably left over from some past mission. "Why are you suddenly worried? Are we being followed?" She looked beyond him to through the window. Her already pale face got even paler. "Why are we back at the Compound? You said we were going to Spain!"

"That was the plan," Steve said. He stared helplessly at the controls. Just like back in 1944, his only option other than letting the plane continue was to deliberately crash it. He couldn't do that, not with Bucky aboard and counting on him. He felt like he was going to vomit with the realization that he had taken Bucky straight into the lion's den. "Everything says that we were going to the place I told it to take us."

"Obviously something went wrong," Wanda snapped. Steve bit his tongue to keep from snapping back at her. She was just a kid, despite all that she had gone through already. He had to be patient with her.

"What's going on, guys?" Clint asked as he stuck his head into the cockpit. The argument must have drawn his attention. Just like Wanda's had been, his attention was immediately drawn to the view outside the window. "Uh, unless something has changed after we busted out of the Raft, this is not where we want to be. Why did you bring us back here, Cap?"

"I didn't," Steve protested. "I set the system for Madrid as planned!"

The quinjet set down with more force than it normally did with autopilot. In fact, the landing was a bit harder than it was even when Natasha was the pilot. The bump sent them all falling in some way. Clint managed to catch himself on the doorway and Steve managed the same against the control panel in front of himself, but Wanda wasn't so lucky as she fell against the co-pilot's section. Hitting her forehead against the seat hard enough to split the skin open was nothing compared to the wet crack that her arm made when she failed to brace herself properly with it.

Worryingly, she fell completely to the floor as she lost consciousness.

Even more worryingly, the quinjet continued going through its landing protocol as if nothing was wrong. The doors to the Compound's main hanger opened as it rolled up to them, though the lights within did not raise above the emergency recessed lighting that Tony and Rhodes had insisted was standard. The red light, meant to aid in navigating the hanger using one's night vision, did very little to help Steve assess Wanda's injuries. With a muttered curse, Clint pulled a small flashlight out of the stash of gear that Tony kept in the cockpit for emergencies.

"She's going to need Medical," Steve said as he turned her onto her back as gently as possible. He was too familiar with the sound of a breaking bone to not recognize it, even if it had been years since he had last heard it.

Clint scoffed in the back of his throat, no doubt thinking about how unlikely they were to get any help here. Tony paid all of the staff at the Compound, including the medical staff. It had been less than a day since Tony had had them all thrown in the Raft for not agreeing with his Accords nonsense. The likelihood of receiving any help, even to potentially save Wanda's life, was less likely than the Dodgers returning to Brooklyn where they belonged.

"Hey, that was a rough landing," Sam said as he came through the door with Scott and Bucky tagging along behind him. Thankfully, Scott and Bucky both stayed near the door. With all of them crowded into the cockpit now, it was getting to be a tight fit. "Oh, shit, is Wanda okay?"

"I know head wounds bleed a lot," Scott agreed nervously, "but she really doesn't look good. We oughta get her to a hospital or something." The lanky man seemed to be almost vibrating with nerves now, and unfortunately, he tended to talk when he was nervous. It was even more annoying than when Tony did it, too. "Does anyone know what effect head injuries have on her powers? Because I'd rather not be trapped in my nightmares or thrown around like the cars at the airport, you know. I'm a bit more fragile than a car. Also, I'm kind of fond of the real world at the moment. Things are going really well, even with the whole arrested in Europe thing."

"Dude, shut up," Clint snapped, clearly at the end of his patience. "She's not gonna toss ya around just for fun. She's not like that."

"Clint's right," Steve agreed as he ran his hands over Wanda's arm. Even unconscious, she flinched when he passed over the lump where the break was. "Wanda's a good kid. Definitely broken but it's mostly still in position. We should be able to set it ourselves with the right equipment."

"Should we risk the infirmary? I doubt Tony would have had time to empty out everything, even if he did beat us back."

"Beat us back?" Sam asked. "We're at the Compound? Why are we at the Compound? Did Tony get over his tantrum already?"

"Because that's so likely," Clint countered. His tone was hot and bitter just like the way that Tony preferred his coffee. "Asshole's probably nursing a grudge the size of Jupiter at how everyone is against his precious Accords. It will be ages before he gets over himself enough to apologize and ask us to come back. Nah, this is something going hinky with the autopilot. Cap set it for the right location, but it brought us here instead."

"Hank did say that Starks couldn't be trusted," Scott commented. "Maybe that goes for Stark Tech, too? And can I just say that the red light is very ominous?"

"Bug Guy—"

"Scott Man," Scott interrupted automatically. "I mean, Ant Lang—shit, no, that's not it either." The engineer gave a sudden yawn. "Is it getting dark in here to anyone else? Just me? Oh, boy, the world is really spinning, isn't it?"

Scott crumpled to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. Sam lunged to catch him but stumbled himself before he could. Whatever was happening was bringing Sam to his knees as well. Even Clint was now leaning against the co-pilot's seat pretty heavily. Steve couldn't smell or taste anything, but that didn't mean that there wasn't something in the air, something to knock them all out.

Steve immediately checked on Bucky. Anyone who would go through this much effort had to be Hydra trying to regain control over their missing asset. It was the only thing that made any sense.

The other man was kneeling on the floor near the door but out of any paths into the space. He had his hands on the back of his head and wasn't moving. It was like he had realized the same thing and was already surrendering.

"Bucky," Steve protested, trying to push back to his feet, "we've got to get you out of here. We've got to get ya safe."

"I'm not safe, punk," Bucky said softly. He barely moved his lips. Steve's vision started turning fuzzy around the edges. "Not so long as I've still got these words inside of me, just waiting to turn me into someone's puppet again. I can't let anyone else get hurt 'cause of me."

"That T'Challa guy said he knows someone who could help! We just need to get to Wakanda!"

"What about all the people I've already hurt, Stevie? What about them?"

"It wasn't you," Steve protested. It sounded weak to him, but it had to be whatever was making him dizzy. Bucky just gave him a sad look as the gray eroded the edges of Steve's vision.

"But it was," Bucky countered as Steve collapsed on the floor. He sounded both calm and certain, and much less affected than Steve who was starting to be overcome by the fuzzy grayness. "I'm done running from everything and just hurting more people." Steve closed his eyes and found himself unable to open them again. "Ms. Friday, I think it's safe for the agents to enter now. As we discussed, I will not resist."

"Letting them in now, Sgt. Barnes," the AI announced through the quinjet's speakers. She sounded overly solemn without her normal jovial tone. "You made the right choice contacting me. And we were able to retrieve Boss in time. He should recover completely thanks to you."

"No," Steve protested even as the gray turned to the black of unconsciousness. His last conscious thought was that Tony had won after all, despite all of Steve's efforts to protect Bucky.

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An Ending
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