-Broadcast-
Behind the three men, moving with predatory silence, T'Challa slipped into the chamber. His enhanced senses allowed him to navigate the shadows, keeping just out of sight as he observed the unfolding scene.
Steve stepped closer to the reinforced window, his voice hard. "I bombed the UN in Vienna just to bring us here?"
Behind the glass, Zemo's face twitched, emotions flickering across his features. He stared at Steve with unsettling intensity.
"I've thought about nothing else for over a year," Zemo said, his voice carrying a strange mixture of obsession and satisfaction. "I studied you. I followed you. But now that you're standing here, I just realized... there's a bit of green in the blue of your eyes." He let out a soft, almost unhinged laugh. "How nice to find a flaw."
Steve's jaw tightened. "You're Sokovian. Is that what this is about?"
Zemo shook his head slowly. "Sokovia was a failed state long before you blew it to hell. No. I'm here because I made a promise."
Understanding dawned in Steve's eyes. "You lost someone."
The words hit their mark. Zemo's eyes reddened, moisture gathering at the corners. His voice cracked slightly when he spoke.
"I lost everyone." He paused, his gaze moving between Steve, Tony, and Bucky. "And so will you."
His finger pressed a button on the control panel before him.
On the wall beside Steve, an old computer monitor flickered to life. Green text appeared on the black screen: "December 16, 1991."
Steve glanced at it, uncertain what he was supposed to be seeing.
Zemo's voice continued, taking on an almost philosophical quality. "An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again. But one which crumbles from within? That's dead. Forever."
Tony approached, looking first at Zemo, then at the screen. Something about the grainy security footage looked familiar. The angle, the treeline, the curve of the road—
"I know that road," Tony said, his voice suddenly tight. His eyes flicked to the date again, and his chest began to rise and fall more rapidly. "What is this?"
Zemo said nothing. He simply watched, waiting.
Tony turned back to the screen, his breathing becoming more labored. His hands clenched into fists.
The footage showed a car speeding down a wooded road. It swerved suddenly, violently, and slammed into a tree. The front crumpled on impact. Smoke began pouring from under the hood.
A figure on a motorcycle appeared in frame, approaching the wreckage.
Both Steve and Tony recognized the implication in the same instant. Steve's eyes widened. Tony's entire body went rigid.
The driver's side door opened, and a man crawled out—injured, bleeding, but alive. Howard Stark. He looked up at the approaching figure and raised a hand, his voice desperate.
"Help my wife," Howard pleaded, his words slurred from pain and injury. "Please. Help."
The figure dismounted the motorcycle and walked toward him. As he drew closer, the Winter Soldier's face became visible. Bucky Barnes, his eyes empty and cold, grabbed Howard by the hair.
For just a moment, something flickered across Bucky's face—confusion, recognition. His grip loosened slightly.
Howard saw his face clearly now. Recognition and disbelief washed over his features. "Sergeant Barnes?"
From inside the car, a woman's voice called out weakly. "Howard!"
Tony's head jerked up, looking at Bucky. The former Winter Soldier's face was a mask of barely contained anguish. He remembered. He remembered all of it.
Tony forced his gaze back to the screen.
Bucky's fist drew back and slammed into Howard's face. Once. Twice. Three times. Four. Each impact brutal and methodical. Howard's head snapped back with each blow, blood spattering across the snow.
"Howard!" Maria Stark's voice screamed from inside the car, filled with terror and desperation.
Finally, Howard went limp, unconscious. Bucky dragged his body back to the car, positioning him in the driver's seat to make it look like he'd died on impact.
Then Bucky walked around to the passenger side.
Maria Stark looked at her unconscious husband, her breath coming in panicked gasps. She was trapped, injured from the crash, unable to move or escape.
Bucky reached in through the window. His metal hand wrapped around her throat.
Maria's eyes went wide. She tried to struggle, but her injuries made it impossible. As Bucky's fingers tightened, cutting off her air, her struggles became weaker. And weaker.
Until they stopped entirely.
The final shot of the footage showed Bucky noticing the security camera mounted on a nearby tree. He raised his weapon and aimed it directly at the lens.
The screen went black.
The chamber fell into terrible silence.
Tony stood frozen, his breathing ragged. Every muscle in his body was taut with barely restrained fury. He'd watched his parents die. He'd seen his mother murdered. And he'd seen who did it.
"Tony," Steve said, stepping forward and placing a hand on Tony's shoulder. "Tony."
Tony's head turned slowly, mechanically, until he was looking directly into Steve's eyes. When he spoke, his voice was dangerously quiet.
"Did you know?"
Steve hesitated, his expression pained. "I didn't know it was him."
"Don't bullshit me, Rogers!" Tony's voice rose to a shout, raw with betrayal and rage. "Did you know?!"
Steve held his gaze. For a long moment, he said nothing. Then, quietly, with the weight of damning truth behind it:
"Yes."
The word hung in the air like a death sentence.
Tony stared at him in disbelief. The man he'd trusted. The man he'd called friend. Steve had known. He'd known who killed Tony's parents, and he'd kept it from him.
Tony jerked away from Steve's hand, lowering his head. He took a deep, shuddering breath. Then another.
His helmet snapped into place, covering his face.
Tony's armored elbow drove into Steve's face, sending him sprawling backward.
Bucky immediately raised his rifle, but Tony was faster. A repulsor blast knocked the weapon from his hands, sending it skittering across the floor.
Bucky swung his metal fist at Tony's head. Tony caught it mid-strike, holding the metal arm in his gauntleted grip.
Behind the reinforced glass, Zemo turned away from the window, a smile of grim satisfaction on his face. His work here was done.
-Real World-
"Oh! My God! So this is why Tony and Captain America became enemies after that?" Natasha glanced at Captain America.
She noticed that he was also frowning and staring at the sky.
Bucky lowered his head.
Tony clenched his fists and said, "Honestly, seeing this scene is really infuriating!"
"Tony..." Rhodes looked at him a little nervously.
"I'm fine! Where is this base? Have we found this base?" Tony waved his hand, trying to appear calm, and looked at Nick Fury.
Nick Fury nodded and shook his head. "Yes and no."
"What do you mean?" Tony narrowed his eyes.
"Carol has been there! The Winter Soldiers were awakened and died at her hands, and then the last HYDRA agent blew up the base, destroying everything inside!"
Tony lowered his head with a hint of regret. "Okay! I still want to go and see it!"
-Broadcast-
Tony grabbed Bucky by the throat with one hand, activated his boot thrusters, and drove him backward into the ground. He planted his foot on Bucky's metal arm, pinning it down, then aimed his right palm repulsor directly at Bucky's face.
Steve's shield flew through the air, striking Tony's arm just as he fired. The repulsor blast went wide, scorching the concrete floor instead.
Tony spun toward Steve, his faceplate locking onto the super soldier. Steve rushed forward, shield raised. The shield connected with Tony's chest plate, and the impact sent Tony sliding backward several meters across the floor.
But Tony's armor stabilized quickly. His thrusters flared, and he charged back at Steve.
Steve raised his shield to block, but the force of Tony's flying tackle was too much. The impact launched Steve backward, sending him tumbling across the chamber.
Two metallic devices shot from Tony's armor, attaching themselves to Steve's legs. They snapped together with a magnetic clamp, binding his ankles.
Bucky finally recovered and pushed himself upright. His metal fist swung at Tony's head, connecting with the helmet in a ringing blow that would have shattered a normal man's skull.
Tony's head barely moved. The Mark 46's durability was beyond anything Bucky could damage with his bare hands.
Tony grabbed Bucky by the front of his jacket, activated his thrusters, and flew sideways, slamming Bucky into a concrete support pillar. He aimed his palm repulsor at Bucky's head at point-blank range.
But Bucky's metal hand shot up, grabbing Tony's wrist. With mechanical strength, he forced Tony's arm upward and crushed the repulsor emitter in his grip, sparks flying as circuits shorted out.
Tony's other arm came up immediately. A compartment opened on his forearm, and a micro-missile extended from its housing.
Bucky's hand clamped onto Tony's wrist again, forcing it to the side just as the missile launched.
The projectile shot past Bucky's head and slammed into the wall behind them, exploding in a cloud of smoke and debris.