Chapter Text
When he came to, he’s embarrassed to admit, it took him a good hour or so to figure out what the hell was going on. He felt fine but he was surrounded by out of date tech in what looked like an old bomb shelter. He found the missile silo during some exploring later that day. The last thing he could remember was racing out to Siberia to help his stubborn ass friend. He supposes that's where he is now. The thing that doesn’t make sense is he in an unheated abandoned Hydra base in the middle of the Siberian Tundra and he's not cold. He got nothing more than jeans and a light leather jacket and he’s not even chilly. He should be cold enough for hypothermia to be an issue but he feels like he’s at a comfortable 75 degrees.
He also can find neither the suit nor Steve. He did find five frozen corpses presumably the other soldiers, but he has trouble believing that Steve could have murdered them in cold blood that way. He supposed Barnes did it. The man may have been brainwashed into doing all those heinous acts making him technically innocent, but the crimes would still weigh on his soul making him darker, a little broken. He doesn’t think Steve could understand that, he hopes Steve doesn’t let Barnes continue this way.
He tries to finagle with the tech to get some sort of signal out of the bunker, but it's completely dead. He can’t even get the strange screen to light up. Someone recently cleaned it of the dust and ice. Repaired it a little so he had hoped he get it to do something, but it was uncooperative as the rest of the outdated shit. He continued his search for his armor wandering for the life of him what the hell had happened. He spends a few days there convinced he's having some sort of hallucination or dream. He calls out for Steve anyway.
~~~
He’s been counting the days by the Solar cycle like some kind of caveman. He’s been here three weeks since he woke. He’s certain that he isn’t hallucinating, but that's about all he can determine. He hasn’t found any food, but doesn’t feel hungry. He’s been drinking the snow he gathers in a rusted pail he found. He's not sure what to make of this. He starting to seriously consider the craziest explanations when he hears men shouting.
He follows the sounds of humans, he careful not wanting to be seen if their Hydra or Ross. He noticed the insignia for the airforce and smiles. Rhodey no doubt. He smiles wide before showing himself. Except his crazy ideas seem to have a little more reality than he’d like. Because no one notices him. Not when he screams, not when he stands in front of them, and not even when he pushes on man. The man looks startled and confused but quickly shrugs it off and smiles at his friend teasing him for being clumsy. He crazy idea gets a hell of a lot more merit when he follows more panicked shouting to a group of soldiers and medics carrying a body bag to the planes.
His first thought is no! Steve! He's already crying and sobbing for his lost friend when he noticed the next thing to be loaded onto the plane is a disassembled Iron Man. He doesn’t want to believe it, but he can’t deny himself the curiousity. He follows the men onto the plane and listens as they talk about the various injuries the found on the body. He doesn’t remember those happening and he doesn’t believe it. Not when more soldiers onboard carrying a shield and a metal arm. Not when after landing a medical examiner is cataloging the obvious injuries. Not when he witnesses the man match the measurement of the fatal wound with his friends weapon of choice.
His only comfort is that someone else must have stolen the shield and used it. Or that Steve was under some kind of mind control. It must have been an accident. He isn’t sure why needs to justify it, but he does and it makes him feel a little better. He knows Steve murdered him, but he can’t accept it's as simple as that.
~~~
“Thats him. Its Tony”
“I am sorry Colonel.”
“I need to arrange transport for the body. Where there any personal effects?”
“Yes, sir. Interpol collected most of it as evidence.”
He manages to hold his tears in long enough to get inside the car. Happy helps him get inside and the round toward the front to drive. He can see the tears slowly leaking out of Happys eyes as well. It's not long before they’re both sobbing. He can’t help but remember that crazy little 15 yr old kid that looked up to him the first time with the swollen eye and wobbling lip. “Don’t worry kid I'll look after you.” he’d promised. He’d never broken that promise despite Tony avid belief that he didn’t need ‘looking after’.He remembers the first time he’d met Howard and the man had dismissed him from his dorm to speak with Tony. He remembers holding the crying boy in his arms as he parsed through the sobbing to know that Jarvis his beloved butler the man that had truly raised Tony was dead.
He had kept the grieving maniac fed and in classes as he binge engineered the impossible. Four and half months later JARVIS had come online. He’d been so proud of his little brother that he'd teared up then. Tony had teased him for his ‘old man ways’ for years. He remembers the last three decades and tries to reconcile that lively infuriating man with the beaten and broken body the Rogers had left behind. He’s been a military man for as long as he’s known Tony. He’s met the best and the worst of humanity, yet he can not remember being so disgusted with a group of people.Not even the Ten Rings had done this much damage.
Now he has to plan his little brother's funeral days before his 46th birthday. He has to go home and tell the woman who loved Tony too much who feared this day with all her heart that Tony’s not ever coming home. He has to explain to go home to a different 15 yr old boy and explain to that boy that his mentor, his idol was murdered by his family.
He doesn’t have the strength for this without Tony by his side.
~~~
He follows Rhodey after the meeting the examiner. Hoping he can get through to him. He is nearly blindsided by the harsh ragged sobs that envelope both of his closest and oldest friends. He wishes he could comfort Rhodey cuddle to him like they haven't done since their days at MIT. He hates Steve a little for not being here to do what he made sure Tony couldn’t do himself.He knows the man didn’t mean for what happened. Has his doubts that Cap did it in the first place, but he’s the team leader and one of the Avengers needs him.