10 C (27) Steve Reveals the Truth

AVENGERS COMPOUND:

Steve was waiting for him when Tony returned to the Compound, making his way towards his office.

Surprised to see him there, Tony made himself comfortable on the chair, whilst Steve leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, looking across at him.

"This isn't about the Accords," started Steve. "It's something else. Something I should have told you years ago…"

'Ah, my parents.'

Tony was surprised. At least he was assuming it was about Bucky.

"But I need to know something first…" Steve was hesitant.

Tony could guess. "They want to bring the Winter Soldier in, Steve. If they ever need to go after him, they will only kill if they have to but it will not be their first option."

"It shouldn't be an option at all," stated Steve.

"And if he kills people because he's been activated? There is a way out there to control him but we do not have it in our hands," replied Tony carefully. 'I hope we get the Red Book soon before Zemo gets his hands on it.'

"Bucky shouldn't be punished for the actions of other people into forcing him to do things he doesn't want to do," argued Steve, pointing out the obvious.

"I know that, Steve, but what if he was on the brink of destroying a whole city with a push of the button and the only way out was to shoot him dead? What would you do? Sacrifice a whole city on the off-chance you could save your friend? How would Bucky Barnes take it if he found out you chose his life over thousands of others?" Tony leaned forward.

Steve couldn't be this close-minded. "I know he is your friend but sometimes we have to make difficult choices, no matter how much it hurts us, just to save the world." Tony said.

"I'd choose the city…" Steve admitted quietly.

Tony wasn't sure Steve was sincere in his answer. His experiences before coloured his view of Steve.

Steve had prioritised Bucky over the safety of the general public. He'd been misled into believing there was a kill order for Bucky.

Sharon Carter had been misled by Thaddeus Ross. The soldiers in Bucharest had not gone in with kill orders.

They'd been told to bring the Winter Soldier in for questioning, but if necessary were to kill if he resisted arrest.

Sharon's bad advice to Steve had caused the whole mess in the first place.

But that deception hadn't happened yet and hopefully wouldn't.

"Tony…" Steve asked quietly. "How did you know I was going to ask about the Winter Soldier?"

"I read the Hydra files, Steve. There is a lot of information on the Winter Soldier out there. It is all in the public domain. However, there are still some things from the Hydra files that have yet to be decrypted. I'm sure all their secrets will come out eventually. I know what Bucky Barnes means to you and I promise you I will do everything in my power to protect him." Tony meant that.

Despite what Barnes had done to his parents, he hadn't carried out the task willingly.

He'd had no choice and Tony had accepted it. It didn't mean he should condemn the man who had carried it out.

Steve bowed his head, almost in shame. "I'm not sure you will still want to protect him after I tell you what I need to."

Tony swallowed. So this was about his parents.

"I'm telling you this because we need to trust one another and stay together. The Accords are trying to split us because we have different views about them but if we are to stay together I have to be truthful and not keep secrets. I've kept this from you for longer than I should have done and I'm sorry for it. I was afraid of your reaction."

"Steve?" Tony proceeded cautiously. "You can trust me."

"I know." Steve raised his head, took a deep breath and said: "The Winter Soldier murdered your parents."

Steve had said it. He'd come out and said what Tony had wanted to hear.

Steve was trying to build bridges, build the trust between them that should have always been there.

"Ok," replied Tony.

"Okay?" Steve looked at him suspiciously. "You already knew?"

Tony shrugged. "As I said, the Hydra files leaked onto the internet. It was within them. I did a search for 'Stark' and it gave me all the information Hydra had on me and my parents. I didn't know you knew though. How long have you known?" Originally, Tony had never made that specific search into the Hydra files, deciding he didn't want to know what was there.

But this had been one of the algorithms he had been searching for since coming back in time. He wanted to know what Hydra had on him.

Steve winced. "When I was at the old training base during the brief time I was on the run, I found out there. Armin Zola told me. He showed me newspaper cuttings of Howard's death and how it had been made to look like an accident. He implied the Winter Soldier was responsible. I figured Bucky was the one to kill them but I don't know for sure if he was responsible. I'm telling you this now because I do not want it to become an issue that can be exploited against us later. If you can find out your parents were murdered, others could too."

They could. It was a risk which Tony could not eliminate unless he had Friday do a deep search of all released Hydra files to find the information and delete it.

But there was a lot of information to traverse through. Ultimately the information would become public knowledge. Tony could keep it hidden but he just didn't want to.

"You've known for a while though," noted Tony. "Took you a while to come and tell me."

"I know," replied Steve quietly, his face burning. "I should have told you years ago. Even if I didn't know who their killer likely was, I still should have told you they had been murdered rather than killed in an accident."

"It matters you admitted it," reassured Tony. "Thank you for taking the time to tell me. You can trust me not to go after Barnes. I know he wasn't of his right mind if he did kill them. It would be bad form if I attempted to kill him for something he didn't have a choice over." After the fight in Siberia, Tony had realised he had reacted badly to watching the video of his parents murder and his subsequent attempts to hurt Barnes as much as possible.

He wished he could apologise for it, now he never could since the Siberia events would not be happening.

Steve visibly relaxed, as if he had finally released tension which had been holding him back. "Thanks, Tony."

****

Power Stones!!

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