Into the Ice
The soldier felt the rifle register twice against his shoulder. He felt a sense of accomplishment as the two ‘thuds ’ echoed through the cavern station.
His aim was perfect. Hitting under the armpit between the bulletproof steel plates ensuring the heart would be punctured.
Then the second shot was right above the collarbone, piercing the esophagus. He hit both marks perfectly.
And he was proud.
Until the choking gasping sound of someone struggling for air made his spine stiffen.
A memory of someone gasping for air. Always gasping for air.
The sound was too familiar.
Then the choking-gasping turned to choking-drowning sounds. A gurgling that made his stomach turn.
The soldier saw the tall blonde man sink slowly to his knees, blood poured from his mouth and the hole the soldier had just put in his neck.
The blonde man was making the noise. The familiar noise. The noise of struggling for air.
The soldier did not like that noise.
Soldier, return. His earpiece beeped.
The soldier didn’t want to return, he wanted to jump down from his high perch and ensure that the blonde man stopped making that noise.
Soldier, return.
He only hesitated a second before he pulled back into the shadows and was gone.
—————
Steve could feel his esophagus filling with blood. He choked and gasped at it as he fell to his knees. His brain wasn’t processing anything as he clutched at his neck and tried to breathe in.
It’s such a familiar struggle. Except this time, instead of having tight lungs and using Howard’s device, his lungs were filling up with his own blood.
His eyes caught the barest glimpse of a face in the shadows as his vision went black.
—————
“— citizens in the capitol are celebrating the death of the so-called ‘Eagle’ who has terrorized the districts for months after the tratiorous actions of the rebel group of previous victors. We have to warn you, the following footage of his death is graphic—”
The screen glitched and showed Steve, standing and talking. His speech was garbled. Only a few phrases were heard.
“—fighting each other! —want to kill anyone — you’re —our enemy.” Steve pointed in the direction of the Capitol, “the citizens of the Capitol are —our enemy— “
The shots happened loudly and the footage showed Steve dropping to the ground, bleeding out. Howard threw his mug at the projection. It shattered against the wall and dripped to the ground. The footage was clearly a cut job from the capitol to paint Steve as the evil leader trying to take over.
Howard looked over at the lifeless body of Steve and gasped, his throat raw from crying and raging.
—————-
The soldier watched the footage.
He watched the way his bullets hit the body. The way the blonde man was frozen for mere seconds before his weight shifted and he hit the ground of the cavern hard. First to his knees. Then the blonde man fell backward, head slamming against the concrete as his eyes rolled back in his head.
And the deepest sense of unease alighted every nerve under the soldier’s skin as he watched the footage over and over.
—————
Dugan looked up as Peggy appeared at the door. Her eyes were nailed to Steve’s body and he stood, blocking Steve from her view.
Denier, Morita, and Monty stood up as well, and Jones looked up, his face looking ragged.
Olive was tucked up against Steve’s form and Rebecca was crying with her head down against the blanket. She hadn’t noticed Peggy’s arrival.
It was silent as Dugan looked at Peggy. She looked hollow and haunted. She stepped forward and the group moved to block her.
The pained expression on her face is vivid. “Please.” She whispered hoarsely. “I need to see him.”
“No.” Morita snapped. “You don’t.”
Rebecca looked up and her tear streaked face turned white. “Get her out!”
Peggy’s face turned frantic, “I promise, I didn't know! I didn’t know!”
“He’s dead—“ Olive shrieked, “because of you!” She’s leaning forward and stabbing a finger at Peggy, “You betrayed him again! ”
“No!” Peggy shouted, stepping forward only to be hauled back by guards, “I wouldn’t do that!”
Howard’s voice appeared behind her, thin and clipped and furious, “you’ve tried to kill him before.” He snapped and two District 13 guards appeared, grabbing her arms.
She struggled weakly against them, her eyes never leaving Steve’s face. “Please, I didn’t know, I wouldn’t!” Then she sobbed and let herself get pulled from the room.
Howard stalked forward and looked sadly at Rebecca. “The footage will be released soon. The full thing. Just fair warning.”
“Why do we need to release it again?” Olive whimpered, “I can’t watch it again .”
“The districts need to see the actual footage.” Howard sighed, “they need to hear the actual speech he gave. Not the hack job the capitol showed.” Then he paused and looked meaningfully at Dugan. “And we have a new angle.”
Dugan looked at him, “what does that mean?”
Howard gestured his chin towards the door. “Let’s talk outside.”
Every man stood up and followed Howard out the door. He led them to a control room lined with projections. He tapped a few keys and sighed, “it was Barnes.”
He clicked play and a partial view of the sniper from up above is shown as he fires twice. His metal arm is reflecting light and then he’s gone.
The team was silent. They knew what Barnes meant to Steve, and what Steve meant to Barnes.
“I’m assuming the capitol had this planted in them as a contingency plan. When they discovered that Peggy’s nails didn’t do the trick, they must have bided their time.” Howard scrubbed his hand through his hair, “Rebecca told us that Steve told her and Peggy that he was going to District 2, and then we get ambushed by double the guards.”
He pointed at the screen. “Barnes was there, which means he was there for Steve . Somehow Peggy alerted them.”
Denier spoke softly in french. And Jones sighed at the question.
“What?” Morita asked.
Dugan huffed, “I don’t know ‘ why now’ . All I know is that we should have been able to take that mountain by surprise, and now Steve’s dead.”
Denier spoke more agitated and Dugan glared at him. “It doesn’t matter! Maybe this was Peggy’s plan from the beginning! Maybe she didn’t—“ His voice died and he growled angrily, “what does it matter! Steve is DEAD .”
The room fell silent and Howard’s fist smashed against the keyboards, sending keys clattering.
————-
The soldier hated the glee on the leader’s tight face. “A job well done. Your work is a gift to mankind.”
The soldier did not respond.
“Now that he is dead, their support will crumble and we will once again crush them into submission.”
The man with the small round glasses, that the soldier wanted to wince away from but didn’t, entered and spoke, “sir, the rebels took District 2, but DIstrict 1 was able to hold them off. But—“
The screen flicked to life and the soldier watched as the leader’s face turned agitated. “Is this them again?” He snarled, “Zola, I told you to keep them off the airways. ”
“My apologies, President Schmidt, but they have Howard Stark, they keep finding new ways to—“
The screen blared the tune of the rebellion and then a face that the soldier did not recognize appeared.
“We mourn his death with you.” The voice said, “but we take his death as a sign that the Capitol knows we are a threat! The Eagle’s goal will still soar and unite us as one! The capitol has filled the districts with their lies for almost a century! It is time for the truth to come out!” The man, a bald headed man with a graying beard smiled, “the capitol spews more lies, editing footage and making you think one way. But here is the truth!”
The video footage of the blonde man appeared. He spoke words. Words that make the soldier want to listen forever. Words that make the leader growl in anger.
Then the shots. Then the death.
The soldier knew he was ordered.
He knew it was his mission.
But he despised it all the same.
—————
Steve woke.
Shivering violently and coughing. He hacked as his lungs protested against the cold air and dried flakes of blood spewed from between his lips. He gasped and wheezed and shivered again. It took an enormous amount of energy to open his eyes and what he saw confused him. Steel walls, coated in frost. He tried to sit up but couldn’t. His muscles didn’t respond. Spasming instead and fighting against him.
His throat felt like it was frozen and on fire at the same time. He twitched his hands but couldn’t get them to reach.
He tried to suck in enough air and only managed half a breath before he was hacking again.
His vision went white and then faded to black.
—————
Howard glared at Stane. The smug bastard sat in his desk chair and looked amused as the Capitol airwaves were once again hacked to display the memorial footage they had created of Steve.
Stane had been positively glowing since Steve’s death. He now used Steve’s name as a battle cry to rally the troops. Every speech was about Steve’s sacrifice and making him into a martyr and how the Districts couldn’t let the momentum die. HOw they had to honor Steve’s sacrifice by fulfilling their legacy.
“I say we need to bury him in the suit.” Stane said lazily, “we can record the whole funeral and memorial and then play the footage for the capitol. Using that as a distraction for our attack on District 1.”
Howard looked around. The realization hit that he was the only person in this room who had known Steve from before he was the Eagle. The only family Steve had to speak up for him.
“No.” Howard snarled, “we’re not televising his funeral! And he’s not being buried in that god awful suit—“
“You designed it—“
“You think I care?” Howard snapped, “you think he would want to be buried in the costume we made him wear?” He could feel the anger taking over, face heating, “I’m not letting you make a circus or a distraction out of this. He deserves more than that. He wouldn’t want it—“
“He’s dead, Stark.” Stane said blandly, “he doesn’t have wants anymore.”
Howard’s brain snapped and he stormed from the room.
Phillips was waiting in his quarters. Stane had long ago banned Phillips from his office after Phillips had not so subtly implied Stane was at fault for Brandt’s death.
“Stark.” Phillips said gruffly. “Calm down.”
“I can’t!” Howard groaned, “I just keep picturing the way Steve—“ he sank to the floor and held his head in his hands. “He trusted us.” He practically whispered, “he trusted me. And I let him get killed.”
“We all let him down.” Phillips responded sadly, “but now we make sure his death isn’t for nothing.”
“We dressed him like a pig for slaughter.” Howard hissed, “all I did was make him a bigger target for Schmidt!”
“Stark, you’re spiraling.”
“I won’t let him.”
“Won’t let him what?”
“I won’t let him dress Steve in that uniform. Steve may have been the Eagle but he was still Steve and he deserves to be buried like a human being not a political symbol!”
Howard was up and racing out the door.
—————
Steve’s entire body felt stiff and brittle. It took agonizing hours but he managed to sit up. It was dim. Only a bit of light coming from somewhere he couldn’t really see.
He looked around and with a sickening drop in his stomach he saw a body laying on a metal table next to him. And another beyond that.
And when he slowly got his stiff neck to turn, there were more.
If he had anything in his stomach, it would have been on the floor.
He looked down to see his bottom half covered in a sheet and his skin pale and blue.
His fingers gripped and managed to lift it. He groaned at the realization that he was naked underneath. His side ached and his throat ached and everything ached.
Somehow he must have…
He couldn’t get himself to process the word. The bodies around him made it crystal clear.
He used every ounce of willpower to drag his legs over the edge of his metal slab. He felt pain in ways he could never have imagined and the tears that leaked from his eyes froze onto his face.
His legs didn’t hold his weight and he thudded to the ground, pain sparking and firing through his whole body. He cried out but the sound was strangled and stabbing pain filled his throat at its use.
He laid there for a long time before he managed to roll himself onto his stomach. He clutched at the sheet, bringing it with him, and gripped whatever was in arms reach, pulling himself towards the dim source of light.
————-
Howard snagged a guard’s keycard and made his way down to the morgue. He tried to look confident and busy and cover his face whenever someone he knew was walking past.
He managed to make it to the body vault. He donned the gloves he would need to be able to handle the cold rolling table that Steve’s body was on, and he zipped up one of the jackets that was hanging outside the door.
Howard took a deep breath and pushed open the insulated steel. He turned on the light and was about to step forward when he stopped.
Everything narrowed to the body on the floor.
Howard sucked in a choked gasp as he crashed to his knees. Steve was laying just inside the door, as if he’d tried to open it and had fallen. His body was blue and translucent and Steve was clutching a sheet against his chest. Howard cried out, ‘Help!” He shouted, “someone come help me!” He reached out and tried to grab Steve’s hand to begin to drag him, but he felt Steve’s forefinger snap and he yanked his hand back. “Oh—“ he sunk lower, shoving his arms under Steve’s armpits and gently pulling him towards the still open door. The man felt like a ton of bricks, but there was nothing that would stop Howard in that moment from dragging Steve’s body into the warmth.
He finally got Steve’s feet past the door and collapsed. Steve’s body half on top of him. He yanked off his jacket, carefully maneuvering Steve’s arms into it. He grabbed the sheet and wrapped it around his lower half and then pressed his ear against Steve’s ice block of a chest.
The smallest flutter had tears instantly springing to his eyes and he shouted with joy, before shouting for help.
—————