The Winter Is Coming
"Bonesss!" The Lizard screeches into Brock's ear, making him and Darren whip around. The window of Stark's office shatters and the shards of glass rain down to the street when a table crashes through, and, with it, Johann. Brock's scared because there's nothing he could do. They're too far away and catching him wouldn't help, it's the 100th floor. Both would die.
The Lizard leaps out of their hiding place and to the street, jumping from car roof to car roof and between the two buildings like a cartoon ninja. It catches Johann midair at about fift floor, and slows down their fall by smashing it's claws to the building. Brock dumps his helmet and rifle to the floor of their shelter on an impulse and runs to Lizard and Johann as fast as he can. Johann doesn't move, but he was alive when Lizard caught him, he's tighly gripping the creature's arm. Darren can see him shaking a bit, he lives. But what about zemo?
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Helmut doesn't really have a home, so he goes back to The Triskelion. Susan Scarbo is there too. She's pregnant with Johann's child, doesn't know that Helmut knows, hasn't told anybody yet.
What will she think?
Helmut tries to avoid the illusionist's gaze, and she notices. Scarbo says nothing, but watches him from the corner of her eye. Helmut tries to eat something, but has difficulty swallowing, and looks nervous in general.
"What did you do?" The sudden question makes Helmut wince a bit.
"P-peg your pardon?"
"Don't play polite, Zemo. I'll ask again: what did you do?" Helmut doesn't think, he just goes and blurts it out, and immediately regrets explaining in that way.
"Johann's dead. It's my fault, i killed him."
Scarbo freezes in place, back facing Helmut. After few seconds, the illusion of her still standing there vanishes and she, having walked behind Helmut, hits him as hard as she can, which is very fucking hard, Helmut almost loses his consciousness.
"Wait! It came out wrong! Let me explain! Osborn said he was a threat! He stabbed me and i kicked him off! It was a reflex! I didn't know Stark's table was so light! I couldn't grap him! It was an accident! I didn't mean to kill him! I swear to god!"
Susan stares at Helmut in disbelief. Stark? Osborn? Osborn?!
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Johann opens his eyes slowly. Darren sees a crowd starting to gather, and urges the three to get going. When Rumlow has fetched the equiptment left in their hiding place, they run to the outskirts of city center and, having no other place to go, hide in the structures of a bridge. Johann is obviously still a bit shaken because of the fall (Who wouldn’t be?), but tells them that Osborn’s a traitor. Helmut too.
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By the evening, Helmut has somewhat calmed down but is also doubtful and feels the need to talk to somebody. At this hour there’s nobody in the building exept for him, Scarbo, and Osborn so he walks toward Osborn’s office. He’s about to knock at the door when he hears The Iron Grip’s voice, sounding like it comes from a video communicator, and another voice. A brooklyn accent. No, no, it can’t be -- he knows that voice from the old propaganda films! Helmut, carefully and as silently as he can, pushes the door – which Osborn apparently forgot to lock – a bit open and peeks inside.
. . . . . .
In the chair behind the desk crouches a creepy green gremlin, and in the chair in front of it sits a supposedly dead traitor to his country and a nazi war criminal Steven Grant Rogers. He looks excatly the same as in over 70 years old pictures: a bit lazily slicked back blonde hair. The SS officer hat on the corner of the table. A black longcoat over a dark blue costume with dark red and dirtied white stripes, white star on the chest partially stained with dried blood. A gun holster on his hip, the triangular shield with stars and stripes resting against the table in his hand’s reach.
Behind him stand two other men. Helmut doesn’t recognize the black one dressed in black costume with red accents and carrying some kind of metal backpack, but the white, masked one with brown hair and a metal arm is Bucky Barnes, The Winter Soldier.
Rogers stops talking, and, probably having heard Helmut’s gasp, slowly turns his head toward the doorway, Helmut’s normal eyes meeting Rogers’ sharp, bright, and reflectionless ones. Helmut runs for his life, not realizing to close or barricade the door behind him. He can hear the footsteps closing in.
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When Helmut gets to the front door, which is obviously locked, his keycard doesn’t work and he sees Barnes in the glass’ reflection. He runs the other way, intending to get into the parking hall or on the roof and then figure out what to do. He doesn’t have his weapons, because rules forbid bringing one to the director’s office unless you’re a bodyguard.
He doesn’t hear the steps any more in the deserted hallways but knows that Barnes is still somewhere. And he feels like somebody else is watching him too. He heards a silencer whizz and a bullet rips through his leg, making him fall to the floor. He desperately crawls to the elevator and hits the closest button. The door slides shut and is dented by three more bullets. He tries to call every number on his phone to pass the information before it’s too late but no one answers.
Helmut barely has the time to tie a tourniquet before the door slides open and he limps under a car. It takes mere seconds until he hears the footsteps again, and starts typing the text rabidly, trying to control his breathing to not be heard. The footsteps come closer and pass him. They stop. So does Helmut’s heart when he hears a bazooka being fired. He presses ”send” button and the next thing he hears is an explosion.
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Rumlow’s phone suddendly beebs to signal a text message. The timing – and the whole thing after all that’s happened by now – somehow feels so absurd that Darren (Who, by the way, hasn’t slept in at least five days) is on the brink of hysterical laughter. The others might think he’s gone crazy.
Brock opens the message, which is from Helmut. It’s typed in hurry and full of misspellings and strange grammar, but is still understanddable: Rogers lives. Barnes too. They have a new ally. A conspiracy with Stark and Osborn who’s turned into a ”creepy green gremlin”. Project Vision. Inside Triskelion. The short message ends with ”I’m sorr”. Whatever happened to Helmut, he didn’t have the time to finish the sentence. And he sure as hell isn’t usually the one to apologize.
He might be dead.
Darren expects Johann to say ”I knew it!” or something, but he doesn’t. He processes the information in his head. He was right, Rogers was behind this. Helmut and Brock had been right, Stark was involved too. They would have to infiltrate The Triskelion and attack the technological floor. There’s only him, Yellowjacket, Brock, and The Lizard, four of them against Rogers and his two acolytes, Osborn with suit of armor ”reverse-engineered” from The War Machines, god knows how many double agents, and possibly Iron Grip and his swarm or War Machines. The odds are against them, they have to plan carefully and play their cards wisely.
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The next morning, Susan Scarbo’s phone rings. Her focus is somewhere else and can barely answer in time. It’s Brock’s phone. Rumlow has went hiding, there will be only a couple of seconds before the signal is noticed and tracked. No time for explanations or speeches.
”Susie…” Susan and Helmut are taken by surprise because, despite the phone being Brock’s, the caller isn’t him. It’s Johann. Susan gestures Helmut to shut the fuck up. There’s a moment of silence, both know these could be the last words they speak to each other.
”I-ich liebe dich.”
The line goes dead before Susan can answer.
Next: The Last Gambit