His Spiders

Yes, there were folks in that brave era

Who had the hearts and souls of heroes:

Real men, unlike you lads! 

They battled, but their luck turned ill, and

So many brave young men were killed then. 

But Moscow, if God had not willed it, 

Would never have changed hands!

 --"Borodino" by Mikhail Lermontov

They were surrounded by a frozen ocean. 

Tony shielded the sun from his eyes. 

The tales of the good 'ole days had faded since they'd entered these frigid waters. 

Grief is cold like the chill in the air. It wraps around your body until you're absolutely numb. 

Howard glared at the ice as if it were to blame. "That damned ice."

Tony had always wondered how he kept doing this. 

Over and over again, the ice never yielded its secrets. 

Not a trace of the Valkyrie or Captain America had ever been found. 

And yet, Howard hadn't given up hope. He knew that his friend was gone, but he wasn't about to give up on him.

Tony knew that he would have given up decades ago. 

Even if it were Rhodey...

"Should we get to it?" Dum Dum asked sadly. 

Howard nodded. He pulled out the graphs and maps that he'd collected over the years. 

The Howlies stared sadly at the ocean of x's. 

"T-There are a few spots left," Howard said softly. "The sonar equipment's improved a bit."

Gabe forced a smile. "Maybe, we'll get lucky."

Tony sighed. "Let's get this over with."

It was grueling work. 

The ship could not cut through the ice, so they had to ski over to the unmarked tundra. 

The sonar equipment was heavy and slowed them down. 

But the Howlies and Howard knew that they might not return. 

"Dad, take a breather!" Tony begged. 

Howard ignored him and kept pushing further. 

Falsworth patted his shoulder. "Leave him be."

"Fine, it's not my fault if he keels over!" Tony growled. 

Falsworth frowned. "He blames himself for what happened."

"Why? It's not like he could have done anything!" Tony exclaimed. 

Falsworth shrugged. "He thinks that if he'd been on that last call with Cap, he might've been able to come up with something."

"But then Aunt Peggy wouldn't have been able to say goodbye." Tony frowned. 

Falsworth nodded. "He knows that, but he can't stop playing it over in his head."

Tony breathed a sigh of relief when they finally stopped for lunch. 

They were a good mile from the ship. 

Tony leaned up against a mountain of snow and ice. He shoved a sandwich in his mouth. 

"We'll get to the next two quadrants today," Howard said. "Tomorrow, we'll get further out--"

"Why?" Tony asked. "We're not going to find anything!"

"You don't know that!" Howard refused to see reason. 

"It's been forty-three years!" Tony threw his hands up scattering crumbs in the wind. 

"He's out here! I know it!" Howard yelled. 

"Even if we find the Valkyrie, he's not there!" Tony yelled. "He's dead! He probably died on impact." 

"Do you think I don't know that!" Howard cried. He threw his arms out clanging against the mountain of snow and ice they'd been sitting upon. 

"Shut up!" Dum Dum bellowed. He grabbed his ski pole and hit the mountain of snow and ice. 

The clanging was clearer. 

It was not snow and ice that made such a distinct clanging sound. 

"That's metal!" Falsworth cried. 

Tony watched almost frozen himself as the Howlies and Howard used their skis and poles to chip away at the mountain of snow and ice. 

Time seemed frozen.

Until at last the tip of a wing was revealed.

"It's the Valkyrie!" Howard cried. Tears fell freely from his eyes. "W-We found her!"

Dum Dum fell to his knees. "We found him--"

Ghosts whispered somewhere above. 

Had death finally come for him?

"It's like a tomb," Tony whispered. 

It was like descending into hades. 

Darker than the darkest night. 

Colder than the harshest winter. 

This is what death felt like, Tony realized. 

"God," Dum Dum's voice broke through the darkness. 

And then Tony saw him.

He was lying down, almost as if he were sleeping. 

Tony blinked back his own tears. 

After forcing the plane into the ice, Captain America had, had enough time to leave the cockpit and lie down on this death bed. 

He'd waited for death's slow embrace--

"H-He's alive!" Falsworth's voice cracked. 

"What?" Howard asked. 

Tony could see it now. 

Even frozen, Captain America had more light and warmth than anything in this frozen tundra. He was not a corpse; he was alive.