-Broadcast-
The shield struck Tony squarely in the chest, the impact sending him stumbling backward. He recovered quickly, spinning and firing a repulsor blast.
Bucky raised the shield defensively, the vibranium surface absorbing and deflecting the energy upward. In one smooth motion, he tossed the shield back to Steve.
Tony threw a punch at Bucky, but the former assassin's reflexes were razor-sharp. He ducked under the strike and drove his boot into Tony's midsection.
Steve caught the shield mid-spin and used his momentum to bring it around in a devastating arc, slamming the edge into Tony's faceplate.
The two super soldiers worked in perfect coordination, their years of training and combat experience evident in every movement. While Tony blocked Steve's shield strike with his right side, Bucky's leg swept in from the left, kicking Tony's knee and forcing him down to a half-kneel.
Tony fired his palm repulsor, but Steve's shield came up again, deflecting his aim. The blast went wide, scorching the ceiling.
Bucky caught the shield as Steve tossed it to him and brought it down hard on Tony's shoulder. Steve followed immediately with a punch to Tony's helmet.
Bucky threw the shield back to Steve, but the motion left his guard open. Tony seized the opportunity and fired point-blank, the repulsor blast catching Bucky in the chest and hurling him backward.
Tony and Bucky engaged in close-quarters combat, trading blows. Tony's attacks were more aggressive now—against Bucky, he felt less need to hold back.
He threw a punch while simultaneously charging his palm repulsor. The combination attack came fast, but Bucky's enhanced reflexes let him catch Tony's wrist.
Bucky forced Tony's arm upward. The repulsor fired, drawing a bright yellow line of energy across the ceiling and walls as Bucky controlled where it pointed.
"Ahhh!" Bucky shouted, and his metal arm slammed into Tony's chest reactor with tremendous force. The impact drove Tony backward, his boots scraping across the floor until his back hit the wall.
Before Tony could recover, Bucky charged forward and drove his full weight into Tony, pinning him against the concrete. His metal fingers clamped around the arc reactor housing, trying to tear it out of Tony's chest.
Tony grabbed Bucky's arm with both hands, his armor's servos whining as they fought against the mechanical limb's strength. Bucky's fingers dug deeper, leaving gouges in the reactor casing. Sparks flew as circuits were damaged.
On the ground nearby, Steve pushed himself up on trembling arms, trying to rejoin the fight.
Bucky's grip tightened further. The reactor's outer shell began to crack.
Tony knew if the reactor was destroyed, the armor would shut down—and he'd be defenseless. He made a split-second decision and activated the emergency chest repulsor—the unibeam.
A massive beam of concentrated energy exploded from the arc reactor, point-blank into Bucky's torso. The force launched Bucky across the chamber. He crashed to the ground and slid several meters before coming to a stop.
His left arm—the metal one—was melted and twisted, the vibranium alloy partially liquefied by the intense heat. Wisps of smoke rose from the ruined limb.
Bucky stared at his destroyed arm in shock, trying to process what had just happened. Before he could move, Tony fired again, a repulsor blast that knocked him flat.
Steve immediately raised his shield and charged. Tony's repulsors fired in rapid succession, but each blast deflected harmlessly off the vibranium, scattering in multiple directions.
As they closed distance, Tony charged up a sustained beam. Steve angled his shield, and the energy washed over its surface, creating the iconic image of Captain America advancing through Iron Man's full power.
Outside the base, far from the violence within, Helmut Zemo stood at the edge of a cliff overlooking the frozen landscape. He held his phone in his hand, an old voice recording playing on repeat.
"You should have seen his little face," his wife's voice said, warm and full of love. "Just be sure to come back soon, okay? I'm going to bed. I love you."
The message ended. Zemo stared at the phone, his thumb hovering over the delete button.
A voice spoke from behind him. "I almost killed the wrong man."
Zemo turned slightly. T'Challa stood a few meters away, his Black Panther helmet retracted, revealing his face. His expression was hard but not hostile.
"Hardly an innocent one," Zemo replied quietly.
On the phone screen, Zemo's thumb pressed down. The recording disappeared. Deleted. A small act of letting go.
"Is this what you wanted?" T'Challa asked. "To see them rip each other apart?"
Zemo didn't answer directly. Instead, he spoke in a distant voice, seeing memories rather than the present.
"My father lived outside the city. I thought we'd be safe there. My son was excited. He could see Iron Man from the car window." His voice cracked slightly. "I told my wife, 'Don't worry. They're fighting in the city. We're miles from harm.'"
He paused, swallowing hard.
"When the dust cleared, it took me two days to find their bodies. My father... he was still holding them. My wife and son."
Zemo's lips pressed together, his jaw clenching against the emotion.
"The Avengers... they went home. I knew I couldn't kill them. More powerful men than me have tried. But if I could get them to kill each other..."
He glanced at T'Challa. "I'm sorry about your father. He seemed like a good man. With a dutiful son."
T'Challa shook his head slowly. "Vengeance has consumed you. It's consuming them."
He closed his eyes for a moment, making a choice. When he opened them again, they were clear.
"I will not let it consume me."
The claws retracted into his suit with a soft mechanical whisper. "The living are not done with you yet."
Zemo's expression twisted into something bitter. "Tell that to the dead."
Without hesitation, he raised a pistol he'd concealed and pressed it under his chin.
T'Challa's hand shot forward, impossibly fast, gripping the barrel just as Zemo pulled the trigger. The bullet ricocheted off the vibranium weave of T'Challa's palm, harmless.
T'Challa grabbed Zemo by the throat and slammed him to the ground. His voice was cold as ice.
"The dead are not here. And we are not done with you."
-Real World-
"This guy is also a poor man!" Captain America shook his head.
Tony narrowed his eyes and said, "But he is also a hateful person!"
He opened his watch and glanced at the message. Jarvis had sent the news that Zemo had been arrested.
Since Zemo had had no chance to investigate the information, he had no idea where the base was located.
The local government soon learned that the base had been destroyed in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s operation against HYDRA, and realized that Zemo was no longer useful, so they decisively handed him over.
Nick Fury had already sent someone to make contact, and Tony believed he would soon be in the company of the big liar Quentin Beck!
-Broadcast-
Inside the base, Steve and Tony continued their brutal fight. Tony, relying primarily on hand-to-hand combat rather than his full weapons suite, was being pushed back by Steve's superior close-quarters skills.
"You can't win in hand-to-hand combat," Friday warned urgently.
But Tony had already anticipated this scenario. He'd prepared for it.
"Analyze his fight pattern," Tony commanded.
"Scanning." Friday's sensors tracked every movement Steve made, cataloging his attack sequences, measuring the angles and timing of his strikes, building a predictive model.
Within seconds, she had her answer. "Countermeasures ready."
Steve threw his shield. Tony's hand shot out and caught it mid-flight—something he'd never been able to do before. Steve's eyes widened in disbelief.
"Let's kick his ass," Tony said.
A repulsor blast launched the shield out of Tony's grip, sending it spinning away across the chamber.
Before Steve could process what had happened, another blast struck him in the chest, lifting him off his feet and throwing him backward.
Steve rolled and came up swinging, his fist driving toward Tony's helmet. But Tony's hand intercepted the punch, redirecting it past his head. His elbow came up and cracked into Steve's jaw.
An uppercut followed, snapping Steve's head back. While Steve was stunned, Tony fired a repulsor blast directly into his torso at point-blank range, the impact dropping Steve to his knees.