One side was led by Steve.
The other stood behind Tony.
The two groups faced each other clearly divided, tensions sharp as drawn blades.
"Cap, what do we do?"
Sam looked at Tony's side.
Their combat strength was obviously far greater. Aside from Natasha, every single one of them was equipped with high-tech armor—even Peter was wearing a nanotech suit.
Steve's gaze hardened as he tightened the straps on his shield.
"We fight."
With that, Steve took the first step forward.
The others immediately followed.
"Well, here we are," Natasha sighed. "Looks like we really have to settle this the hard way."
She moved first.
Tony and Rhodey slowly rose into the air while T'Challa, Erik, and Peter advanced behind them.
Walking turned into running.
Running became a full-on charge.
Just as both sides were about to clash head-on—
The surrounding temperature suddenly plummeted.
White mist appeared in everyone's breath.
An enormous wall of ice erupted from the ground, blocking the path between the two groups.
Thwip!
A web shot through the air, and a nimble black-and-white hooded figure landed lightly atop the ice wall.
Immediately afterward, waves of vibration burst outward, forcefully pushing everyone back.
Then a scarlet figure descended from the sky.
The newcomers were Gwen, Skye, and Wanda.
At the same time, a silver-haired figure in black rushed straight toward Peter and threw him over her shoulder onto the ground in one clean motion.
"F-Felicia?"
Lying on the ground, Peter finally recognized her in the sunlight.
It was his girlfriend—Black Cat, Felicia.
"Well, well," Felicia teased as she sat on top of him, "weren't you supposed to be helping Captain America? Why'd you end up in a giant superhero brawl?"
"Uh… c-could you get up first? Everyone's watching…"
Peter's face turned bright red beneath the mask.
Being pinned down by his girlfriend in front of this many people was unbelievably embarrassing.
Felicia obediently stood up and pulled him to his feet.
At that moment—
Crack!
The ice wall shattered.
Gwen landed gracefully on the ground as Karl descended from the sky, landing where the ice wall had stood, separating Tony's side from Steve's.
"Steve," Karl said calmly, turning toward him, "hand Bucky over. Then you'll understand everything."
At this point, everyone except Steve already knew the Bucky beside him was fake.
The problem was that nobody had hard evidence—they only trusted Karl's word.
"Karl, Bucky isn't the killer. The real culprit is someone else. I'm trying to find that person right now. Every second we waste puts more people in danger."
Steve was still trying to defend the fake Bucky.
Little did he know, Karl knew the truth better than anyone.
After all, the real Bucky had died by Karl's hand.
There wasn't even ashes left.
"The Bucky beside you is fake."
Karl spoke bluntly, exposing him outright.
He wasn't worried about alerting the enemy.
With this many people here, if fake Bucky still managed to escape, they might as well all retire in shame.
"Fake?! Impossible!"
Steve froze for a moment before immediately rejecting the idea.
"What proof do you have?"
"He is the proof."
Karl pointed directly at fake Bucky.
The fake Bucky said nothing.
Internally, he was desperately trying to figure out where he'd slipped up.
His plan had been flawless.
He even possessed Bucky's memories.
There should have been no way anyone could tell.
"No," Steve insisted. "Bucky knows everything about our past. Things only the two of us would know."
"Steve," Karl said, "you want proof? Fine. I'll show you."
The moment Karl moved, fake Bucky instantly sensed danger and tried to flee instinctively.
But how could he possibly be faster than Karl?
Karl teleported directly beside him and reached for his face.
He was gambling.
Betting that fake Bucky was using the same kind of high-tech disguise mask Natasha once used—a thin, skin-like facial overlay.
And he won the bet.
Karl tore off a nearly transparent mask.
Beneath it was fake Bucky's true face—
A face horribly scarred by acid burns.
"This… this is impossible!"
Everyone was stunned.
Steve himself stood frozen in place.
"Steve, it's not what you think!" fake Bucky shouted desperately.
"I had to wear the mask because I was disfigured! I really am Bucky! Your comrade! Your best friend!"
"Remember when we used to get into fights in the alleys? Enlisting together? Going on missions together?"
"And when I fell from the train—"
He kept trying to defend himself.
Maybe he could still fool Steve.
But there was no convincing everyone else.
"Steve," Tony said at last, "now you understand why I was so determined to bring both of you back."
"He really was the one who bombed the UN building."
"He just happened to be wearing Barnes' face."
Now that the truth was exposed, Tony no longer bothered hiding anything.
"You already knew?"
Steve turned slowly toward Tony.
Thinking back carefully now, everything Tony had said earlier suddenly carried a completely different meaning.
"Yeah," Tony admitted.
"We didn't want to tell you directly. If we exposed him too early, he might've escaped. So we tried hinting instead and getting you back peacefully."
"Who the hell are you?!"
Steve grabbed fake Bucky by the collar and lifted him clean off the ground.
"I… I…"
Suddenly—
Fake Bucky punched Steve square in the face.
Caught off guard, Steve was sent flying backward.
The fake Bucky immediately turned and sprinted toward the Quinjet, intending to escape using its superior speed and mobility.
Boom!
Scarlet energy exploded outward.
Chaos magic instantly wrapped around his entire body.
In an instant, fake Bucky froze completely in place.
Aside from his eyes, he couldn't move a single muscle.
Wanda raised her hand sharply—
Then slammed it downward.
BAM!
Fake Bucky crashed violently into the ground and blacked out on the spot.
At the same time, his metal arm was instantly disassembled by Wanda's chaos magic.
"Steve," Tony said as he walked over and extended a hand, "come back with us."
"We already have leads on the real mastermind behind all of this."
"His goal was to tear the Avengers apart. We can't keep playing into his hands."
Steve stared at Tony silently for a long moment.
Confusion slowly faded from his eyes.
Determination returned.
Finally, he reached out and gripped Tony's hand tightly.
From this moment onward, the Avengers—once heading toward division—became united again.
"What about the Sokovia Accords?"
Steve asked.
He still refused to sign them, and he had no intention of becoming anyone's obedient weapon.
"Relax," Tony replied with a shrug.
"The Accords don't really matter that much anymore."
"All this 'oversight' nonsense was mostly an excuse to begin with."
"Once we expose the mastermind behind everything, the Sokovia Accords won't have much leverage over us anyway."
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