Story [MCU] I Remember All of Them [CACW/Tony Stark]

Title: I Remember All of Them
Author: daenabenjen42
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe (Captain America: Civil War)
Characters: Tony Stark (...and others)
Disclaimer: To Marvel and Disney go the profits.
A/N: Normally, I'd be the last person to write anything Marvel. This isn't normal circumstances, and CACW was awesome. Slight spoiler warning.


~*~*~*~


At the end of it all, he is left with a severed cybernetic arm, a vibranium shield, non-functional arc reactor, a quinjet, and nursing his pride. Alone in the bunker in the middle of the Siberian wilderness, Tony Stark has time to gather his thoughts, to think, and to remember where he is.

The fight had been brutal. The fight had been... emotional.

He felt betrayed. Drained. Horrified.

"Do you even remember them?"
"I remember all of them."

It comes back to him in a flash as he's staring at the ceiling of the main chamber with the cryostasis pods with the bodies of the dead soldiers. Had Barnes really said that to him or had he imagined it? And if he hadn't imagined him saying those words, what did it mean?

"I remember all of them."

Slowly, Tony looked around at the chambers, both damaged and undamaged, eyes finally settling on the monitor that had played something so horrifying.

"Sergeant Barnes?"

Tony blinked, at once reminded of his father during one of his more introspective moments. His father had told him about two soldiers while he was growing up, two men who had made such an impression on him that he told stories to his son of the long-dead men. One of whom he had spent nearly forty or so years, on and off, looking for. The other... had fallen off a train and 'died.' He remembered the story of how everyone's first concern had been the Captain, and then... and then... "****."

"I remember all of them."

Walking to one of the still-intact chambers, he stared at the man inside. At the thing that Steve and Barnes had fought through all of them to come and put a stop to, to do the honorable thing and sacrifice again. Asleep... dead... this man didn't seem to pose much of a threat. Awake... Tony shuddered at the thought of Barnes at the Bundestag Task Force building. Awake would have been very bad. For everyone. "****."

"I remember all of them."

The sentence kept reverberating in his mind as he turned to take in the chamber in it's entirety, noticing the open and empty cryo pod... and then the equipment in the middle of the room. Frowning, he approached it and inspected the halo device attached at the headrest. Why would they...? Was this an ECT device? He frowned and looked again at the empty cryo pod.

"I remember all of them."

His hand on the halo device, Tony's eyes widened in realization. It wasn't that Barnes didn't know... was that he hadn't known. Couldn't have known. Because they didn't let him. Didn't let him do anything but what they wanted, how they wanted it done. Steve was right... there had been no choices given or made. At all.

"I remember all of them."

He wasn't sure how long he stood there, staring at the open, empty, waiting cryo pod. If someone had asked him later, he wouldn't have given them a straight answer.

 

...that entire section of the movie was a punch to the emotional solar plexus. Thank you, Mira.

And as I can't seem to STOP writing and have killed six ink pens in the process... there will be more set in this fandom.

 

Wow, hi. You're great at the introspective thing which is something that draws me in like a large magnet. Well written and a poignant slice of life.