Chapter Text
The tunnel collapsed behind them.
Steve was barely aware of it. He was more concerned with the man that suddenly leapt at Bucky on the bike his friend had just appropriated. The man grabbed Bucky and tore him from the motorbike. They hit the ground and Bucky fell limp. Steve pulled his shield back to throw it but he suddenly felt pain rip right through him. The next thing he knew he was on the ground, his entire body aching.
There were lines of red liquid circling his arms in front of him. When he tried to move, he found they were just like cuffs – except they didn’t give when he pulled against them. No matter how hard he yanked, they did not yield to his strength. Steve looked around, frantically seeking out Bucky.
He found him, exactly where he’d been knocked out. He was sitting up now, a sizeable bruise on the side of his face. But he was cuffed with the same red stuff that they’d caught Steve in. There didn’t seem to be as much on him though. Steve looked around for his shield. Sam was down too, his wings removed from him and being held by the same bonds.
Steve vaguely noticed that he looked kind of unfocused.
There was also a guy in a black suit that was struggling against his own bonds. The man seemed deranged and violent.
There were people milling around too, all in uniform. One of them stood over Steve, a gun in hand.
‘Hey, what’s going on?’ Steve demanded.
The man just glanced at him. Otherwise, he didn’t move and he didn’t acknowledge him.
‘Don’t ignore me! What’d you do to Bucky?!’
Still nothing.
‘Hey, don’t ignore me!’ Steve started struggling again.
‘Did it occur to you that he might not speak English?’ An accented voice asked from behind him.
Steve twisted his head again. A man with sharp features, deep-set brown eyes, and shoulder-length dark brown hair was approaching. He was dressed in much the same way Tony was during special occasions – in a pressed three-piece suit. Steve was shocked when the man standing over him immediately stood at attention and then bowed. He looked awestruck at this new arrival. It was the same look people got in America when they recognised just who Steve was.
The guard began speaking in a language – Steve presumed it was the local one. The man, who deeply unsettled Steve, responded in kind. He completely ignored Steve’s demands and conversed only with the guard. As he finished up the conversation and went to walk past them, the guard suddenly called out, ‘Voivode?’ and quickly asked something, pulling something out of his pocket.
The man asked something. The man he’d called “voivode” smiled and took it. Steve saw it was a card of some kind. “Voivode” pulled a marker out of somewhere and signed the card before handing it back. The guard looked almost beside himself with happiness as he seemed to thank the other man and allow him on his way.
“Voivode” walked over and joined a man and girl who both seemed to be about half his age. They were both dark-haired and dark-eyed but lacked the severe sharpness of his features. Certainly, both had long, straight noses and seemed equal to him in physical height. But they weren’t as imposing as this “voivode”. They seemed to talk amongst themselves. Steve studied them, trying to get some kind of cues from them but he got nothing.
Then Rhodey arrived.
Rhodey glared at Rogers before he walked over to the group where Steve heard the introductions. ‘These are our local superheroes, colonel,’ one of the uniformed men said. He introduced first the young man. ‘Printul de multe daruri.’
‘Call me Radu,’ the man said. Steve realised it was the same one who’d attacked Bucky!
Then came the girl. ‘Pazboinicul printesa de sange.’
‘Crina,’ she said.
‘And their father, Printul Intuneicului.’
“Voivode” nodded his head. ‘Vlad.’
***
It wasn’t surprising for Tony to hear that Romania had its own team of superheroes.
Rogers, on the other hand, seemed shocked that such a thing should occur. As Tony tried to reason with Rogers, he found that he had allies in the form of both Crina and Radu.
Apparently, Steve didn’t like Radu on principle. ‘You attacked Bucky,’ he said with disapproval.
Unlike every other person Steve had used that look on, though, Radu was unaffected. ‘Bucky had just torn a civilian off of his motorcycle and threw him into oncoming traffic in order to acquire the vehicle. Would you like to justify that to the man’s family?’ He checked his watch. ‘The authorities should be notifying them of his death right about now.’
Rogers did a rather artful impression of a landed fish for a moment. ‘Bucky didn’t mean for him to die! He was scared! They were going to kill him!’
‘And yet,’ Crina leaned on the table, ‘he’s still alive. He’s been pulled into custody and he’s not been killed. On the other hand, do you know where all that blood I got to tie you down with came from? It came from the bodies of the people you, Barnes, and the Black Panther killed on your little rampage through the tunnel.’
Steve looked appalled. ‘You took blood from corpses to tie us down?!’
‘That’s what you got?’ Crina demanded. ‘Not that you killed civilians; that innocent men, women, and children were killed on account of you, but that their blood had to be used to tie you down and stop you from killing more people!’
Steve shook his head. ‘We can’t save everybody, but—’
Radu cut him off. ‘Those people would never have been in danger if you hadn’t been there. Stop making excuses, and own up to your screw-ups. People are dead, because of you. Children are orphans, because of you. Parents have lost their children and now have to bury them, because of you.’
The more these two refused to put up with Steve’s bullshit, the more Tony realised that Steve was used to getting away with bullshit. He said these kinds of things all the time, but nobody called him out on it. Now that somebody was, it was obvious that Steve had gotten used to justifying his mistakes and walking away scot-free without so much as a by-your-leave. But this wasn’t America.
This was a country that regarded Vlad the Impaler a national hero while the rest of the world considered him a tyrant.
Who was to say the same thing couldn’t be said for Captain America.
‘They were going to kill Bucky!’
‘And yet, once again, he’s not dead.’ Radu took a firm hold on his shoulder. (Radu was strong enough to knock Barnes out so he was certainly strong enough for Cap) ‘Do you know what the phrase “conflict of interest” means?’ At Rogers’ blank look, he continued. ‘It refers to the fact that if one has an emotional investment in something they should not be involved. It is enforced across all fields. You are emotionally attached to Barnes, so you never should have come here.’
Rogers went to protest.
‘And that’s exactly what the Accords want to help mitigate,’ Tony said.
Steve got the mulish look on his face. ‘The Accords turn us into government lapdogs. I’m not signing.’
‘The Accords are a UN document,’ Crina said as if this should be obvious.
‘I know that. They’ve got an agenda.’
Crina frowned. ‘Rogers...you do realise what the United Nations is...don’t you?’
‘A bunch of governmental paper pushers trying to bully the Avengers into being their own personal attack dogs.’
Tony sighed. Figured, he didn’t have any clue what the UN was. ‘Rogers, the United Nations are an international peace-keeping organisation that are comprised of representatives from most of the countries on earth. They see to human rights and humanitarian efforts. They are not a government.’
‘Then why are they working for Ross?’ Rogers challenged him. ‘Come to think of it, why are you working for Ross?’
‘Thaddeus Ross is the American Secretary of State,’ Radu stated. ‘What choice does he have?’
‘There’s always a choice!’ Steve insisted.
Crina’s eyes narrowed, and then she straightened up. ‘Mr. Stark, a word?’
Tony got up and followed her out of the room. He saw Steve try to follow, only to be held in his seat (much to his indignation) by Radu. When they got outside, Crina rubbed her temples. ‘What idiot put that twit in charge of a team of superheroes?’ she asked tightly. ‘He obviously understands nothing about the current political climate, law, psychology, or even how the world in general works. And he certainly has no respect for sovereign borders. No one was expecting him to come running in when we went to apprehend Barnes.’
Tony had figured they’d been called in to help detain an enhanced man. If he was in Romania, it made sense to get help from the Romanian enhanced team. Tony shrugged. ‘Nick Fury. I think he was hoping to get people behind the Avengers with Cap at their head.’
‘Well, it was stupid,’ Crina said. ‘That man thinks nothing of injuring civilians if his friend is in danger. I bet the world could burn and he wouldn’t care as long as that one guy was safe. I don’t know a lot about Project Rebirth but I know the man who had the serum had escaped from Germany.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Mr. Stark, I know your father was involved in the Project so you must have grown up hearing about how great he was, but you must’ve seen that there.’
Tony slowly nodded. ‘I think we gave him too much leeway. I mean, until that conversation back there I never really thought about it. During the battle of Sokovia, he wanted us to make sure no civilian died.’
Crina gave him a flat look. ‘Did he ask you to reverse the turn of the earth while you were at it?’
Tony cringed.
Crina sighed again. ‘Mr. Stark, is it true that you are no longer an Avenger?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then why are you still bankrolling them?’ Crina asked. ‘If you aren’t, then where in hell did they get the money to get from wherever they came from to Bucharest before the local authorities found them? Why are you here, fixing this mess? And why did Romanoff seem to expect it of you?’
Good questions. He was, officially, no longer an Avenger. Yet he still paid for and maintained them. He was still cleaning up their messes. Business had taught him that once something was behind you, you didn’t deal with it again. Yet he seemed to be forever chasing after the Avengers and trying to mitigate. Natasha had made some remarks earlier that made it clear (that she thought) it was his responsibility to deal with this.
Crina must have heard her.
‘I don’t know.’
‘No, you’re a genius. People like you are somewhat notorious for poor social skills. Shall I tell you?’ She waited for his non-verbal affirmation. ‘They don’t want you on the team, but they still want your money and resources. You’re not a person to them; you’re a tool.’ She inclined her head. ‘I say, if they’re going to act like a bunch of whiny spoilt brats, they should be punished like whiny, spoilt brats.’
At that moment the power cut out.