Torn

Tony entered the warehouse carefully, watching his screen as Friday scanned the area for any form of activity. The concrete floor cracked beneath his feet as he slowly made his way across the room. Steve watched, waiting patiently in his full uniform, leaning against the back of an old chair, his shield resting within reach on a dusty workbench. Tony opened his face plate up as he finished his approach, a thin smile edged with tension on his mouth. Steve tried not to wince at the black eye spreading out across his face, wondering if this was why Tony had removed the helmet, to guilt him.

“You’re in armour,” Steve commented as Tony came to a stop before him.

“Very astute.”

“We agreed to come unarmed.”

“We did,” Tony replied coldly, nodding his head at the shield on the table.

“Fair enough.”

Tony pulled a chair out from around the table, made to sit on it, then thought better of it and straightened back up. “Well, you arranged this little get together, what do you want?”

Steve sighed. “To talk. To try and work something out… Before anyone else gets hurt.”

Tony bristled at Steve’s words, the image of Rhodey laid unconscious in his arms flitting through his mind. He tried to shut it out, but it still lingered. “And how do you propose we ‘work something out,’” he said, words dripping with sarcasm. “I’m not going back on the Act, Steve, I believe in it.”

Steve ran a had wearily across his face. He looked tired, Tony noticed, and he was glad. “I know,” he said quietly, “but I believe in human rights, privacy, giving a person the choice to-“

Tony cut him off angrily, “I’m not trying to take that away, but I am trying to protect the people! I want accountability. Responsibility…”

“Look, I didn’t come here to argue with you.”

“It’s too late for that,” Tony spat.

“I know, and I’m sorry. Maybe if we just work together, we could come up with something?” The hope died out of Steve’s voice when he saw the anger in Tony’s eyes. “I don’t know…” he trailed off, sheepishly.

Tony straightened his posture, not realising he was doing it. “Let me ask you something, and think about this first, before you answer. If it wasn’t for your deranged friend would you even be opposing the act?” Tony broke off to laugh bitterly. “I’m doing this to protect innocent people, I’m trying to do the right thing. I thought you got that?”

“You’re doing it at the cost of our freedom,” Steve shot back, ignoring the question.

“Yes, when its deserved, when there’s a situation. Again, this is about repercussions, accountability. Something your nut job serial killing pal doesn’t understand.”

“Hey,” Steve’s face tightened in anger. “Do not talk about him like that. It wasn’t his fault; he didn’t know what he was doing.”

“I know that, but he still did those things! They just asked him to come in Steve, they just wanted to talk to him.”

“Bullshit!” This time there was no joke about Steve’s use of language. “They would have taken him out, or left him to rot in prison.”

“Yes, where he can’t kill anybody else!”

“Let me ask you a question, and I want you to think about it before you answer,” Steve mimicked, angrily. “If he hadn’t killed your parents, would you have allowed this to escalate the way it has?”

Tony’s eyes narrowed, his voice was dull, tight. “This has nothing to do with my parents. I thought you knew me better than that.”

“Well I thought I did, now I don’t know you at all.”

Tony scowled, gritting his teeth to bite back another angry comment.

“If your plan works Tony, who watches the watchers?”

Tony shook his head. “This was a waste of time, I knew I shouldn’t-“

Both man turned as a clang was heard behind them. Tony shot Steve a searing glare, his anger notching up a level. “Well, this serves me right,” he muttered, “I can’t trust you anymore.”

“I didn’t tell him where we were meeting.” Steve was incredulous as Bucky approached them.

“What’s going on?” Bucky asked, standing a few feet away.

“Nothing,” Tony cut in before Steve had a chance. “No offence, but you weren’t exactly invited to this meeting, so why don’t you turn around, and run back into hiding.”

“I’m not hiding,” Bucky said, eyes narrowing. “Not anymore. But I’m sorry about your friend. That was an accident.”

Tony laughed again. “You seem to have a lot of accidents don’t you?” He mocked, before his face plate slammed down. His voice filtered through the suit. “Now I’m going to take you in.”

“Tony no!” Steve yelled, but it was too late.

Tony and Bucky charged at each other and Steve could only watch as man and metal collided. Tony used his repulsors and fired without hesitation and Bucky ducked and dipped and pummelled the suit with his enhanced arm when he could. The men rolled on the floor, Iron Man now trading scuffed punches with Bucky, and Steve watched frantically, not knowing what to do as the men continued to attack. He hadn’t wanted this, he had come to talk peace, not this.

Tony yanked on Bucky’s arm, his aim on target, hitting the area where the metal was fused to tissue and nerves. Bucky dropped to the floor with an agonised howl. Steve suddenly saw red, didn’t even remember throwing the shield, but watched his satisfaction as it his Stark, knocking him off balance and away from Bucky as he turned to face his second opponent.

“You sure you want to do this Cap? I can bring you both in, or you can walk away.”

Steve felt his rage grow at Stark’s arrogance. He chose to respond with actions rather than words, and launched his shield back at Iron Man, aiming for the helmet. Tony ducked then staggered to one knee as Bucky attacked him from behind. Then the three men were in a scrum, fighting and charging at each other as best as they could. Tony had the advantage of Iron Man, but its weight slowed him down, allowing him to be overpowered by the two super soldiers who could crush body of the suit with their bare hands. For every step of ground he covered against one soldier, the other would get back up and overpower him. He switched to his more lethal weapons, but Steve deflected with his shield, and Tony wasn’t sure if he really wanted to hit his target. Not Steve, anyway. Tony grunted as his suit started to bend inwards from the force of the blows, tried to fly upwards, to get some space between them, but one of his boots was damaged. He retreated a step, scanning for the two men and felt his back against the wall.

“Friday what have we got?” He asked, desperate now, trapped between the two men who were alternating their moves – Bucky pounding the suit from the right, Steve’s shield battering him from the left.

“Suit has sustained damage, flight capabilities-“ Tony didn’t hear anything else as the connection went to static. Through his helmet he could see Barnes clawing at the reactor that powered the suit. The thought of Barnes defeating him gave him more energy, more fight, and he managed to blast Barnes in the face with a repulsor. As he turned to do the same to Rodgers the shield hit him square in the face, denting the metal of the face plate inwards, into his chin. He fell to one knee, surprised, feeling blood drip down his chin, and then Barnes was back on him and the reactor was damaged and the suit was without power. His vision went dark.

He raised his arms as best as he could to field off the blows, but the suit was too heavy and he collapsed against the wall. The suit continued to take abuse and he tried to think of a way out but without power there was nothing. Panic surged as he felt the chest plate ripped clear off and then he thought he could head Steve shouting. His arm was dragged back as the plating was attacked and Tony knew he needed to do something – but what? He was completely immobilised and the suit was taking a battering, being literally ripped from him in places. He tried not to cry out as the faceplate was torn off with the ease of one pulling off a foil wrapper and he opened his eyes and tried to fight again. But Bucky was on him, savagely tearing at the suit to get to the target beneath it and Steve was fighting him now, trying to pull him off.

‘May have bitten off more than I can chew,’ Tony thought to himself, almost humorously, and then the metal fist ploughed straight into his face and there was nothing.