2070 Stabbed, Choice
Tony was a little stumped, but he wasn't in a hurry.
Steve and Bucky had already fallen, and Luke clearly had no intention of letting them go, so waiting for a bit wasn't a big deal.
After taking care of Steve, Luke took out a military knife from his inventory and placed it in Steve's hand.
Then, he grabbed Steve's hand and stabbed Bucky in the chest.
Steve: "…"
Tony: "…"
Luke got up and threw out a rope dart to tie Steve up. He then looked at Tony and said, "You can consider this as Steve doing the stabbing, which cancels out the fact that he lied to you."
Steve: "…"
Tony: "…"
They understood what Knight was doing.
If it was Bucky's fault that he had killed Tony's parents under someone else's control, then it was indeed Steve's fault that he had stabbed Bucky under Luke's control.
But… they had both seen with their own eyes Luke grab Steve's hand to stab Bucky, which wasn't right.
Ignoring the two conflicted old men, Luke continued, "This only nicked Bucky's blood vessel. It'll be an hour or so before he bleeds out and dies."
Pausing for a moment, he looked around and said, "If Bucky really dies, then I'm the one who killed him. Whether he lives or dies is up to the both of you."
With that, he crossed his arms and walked to the side, clearly not wanting to interfere.
Tony and Steve completely understood that this was a multiple-choice question.
One hour was enough for Tony to calm down and figure everything out.
He could take out Life 1 and the Light Dagger at any time to save Bucky.
Steve had 'betrayed' Tony for Bucky's sake, and now had to earn Tony's forgiveness in order to save Bucky.
This was double the revenge for Tony's parents' deaths. Only Tony could make the choice.
Even if Bucky was innocent, Luke didn't think he had the right to forgive him on Tony's behalf.
You should stay further away from those who told you to be magnanimous when they didn't know what was going on, so that you weren't implicated when they were struck by lightning.
Both Tony and Steve looked conflicted.
Steve wanted to say something, but was afraid that it would backfire on him, so he didn't dare.
Tony could wait for Bucky to die without him doing anything, but he wasn't thirsty for revenge.
The tycoon wasn't an idiot. He had seen mind control many times over the years.
Logically speaking, he knew that Bucky wasn't to blame.
But it was like how someone who knocked into a railing when walking would hit it.
Although this could be considered the person's own fault, they couldn't help but want to vent the unhappiness in their hearts.
By the same logic, Tony couldn't swallow his anger when he saw Bucky kill his parents in the video.
Steve's reaction made him feel even more betrayed.
Even if Bucky wasn't in the wrong, why didn't Steve tell him?
Fine, he just wanted to vent.
Luke had known about this beforehand, but hadn't told Tony either.
Apart from the confession he had extorted from that Hydra member, he didn't have any concrete evidence — like this video.
Apart from reminding Tony of the pain of losing his parents, it wouldn't have done much.
Also, Luke had been secretly investigating the whereabouts of the Winter Soldiers over the years, and had already caught a lot of them. The only thing he hadn't found was the person in charge of the base who had given the assassination order.
The mastermind behind this was probably Alexander Pierce, who was already dead.
Could Luke tell the tycoon not to worry since he had already killed the mastermind? Tony would suffocate to death.
Luke had wanted to first find the person in charge of the base who had given the order before he talked to Tony about it.
At that time, Tony could deal with the person who had gotten his parents killed however he wanted.
But now that Zemo had appeared and exposed the matter, it was impossible for Luke to cover things up.
Carrying out a private investigation could be considered helping Tony, but keeping the information under wraps was crossing the line.
At most, he would leave the Hydra members to Tony.
This could be considered Luke making it up to Tony for hiding the information previously.
…
Tony's expression changed, and was no longer as fierce as when he had fired at Bucky's head.
It was easy to get carried away with revenge.
Once he had time to think, there were a lot of things which he had deliberately ignored that could no longer be covered up.
After his initial anger passed, Tony realized that what he was really angry about wasn't Bucky, this 'tool,' but Steve's 'betrayal.'
If Steve could take the initiative now to admit his mistake, Tony would consider forgiving him.
Steve was caught in a dilemma and didn't dare say anything.
If it involved anyone else, he would've dared to speak.
But Bucky was really different. Steve's mind whirled with all the words he could say, but he couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't trigger Tony.
If he said something rash to set Tony off, Bucky would die.
Steve knew that just as he would definitely stop Tony, Knight definitely wouldn't stop Tony from taking action.
Luke paid attention to their mental fluctuations. Seeing that they were almost ready, he used Real Dream to guide Steve's thoughts.
Steve had been about to apologize anyway, and with Luke's guidance, he finally couldn't help but say, "I'm sorry, Tony. I hid the truth."
Tony snorted and turned his face away.
Steve stared at him. "I was afraid of hurting you, but… I did have my own selfish reasons. I was afraid that you would kill Bucky. That was my fault."
Tony didn't say anything, but lifted his head even more.
Nothing had gone smoothly for him recently.
Despite his best efforts, it seemed that the Avengers were going to split up, given the current situation, so Tony naturally became anxious.
That was why he couldn't stand Steve's 'betrayal.'
It could only be said that Zemo had chosen a good crack in which to drive the wedge.
Just when the Avengers were already deeply divided over their 'party line,' Zemo threw out this 'landmine' of a private grudge.
After this, the Avengers were doomed to split up — or more precisely, to be split up.
But in essence, the final outcome was completely different from what Zemo had been looking forward to.
In the end, Zemo's revenge came to nothing.
Listening to Steve sincerely 'coax' Tony, Luke was relieved.
Tony was his friend.
Luke would never use mind control on Tony when it came to his parents.
Tony had to be willing to forgive Steve and let Bucky go.
If Tony really didn't want to, Luke really would watch Bucky die.
Luke was just that sort of person.
But given Luke's understanding of Tony and Steve, things wouldn't reach that point.
No matter how inflexible Steve was, he would definitely give in.
No matter how arrogant Tony was, he would let Bucky live.
Luke had stabbed Bucky until he was half-dead to give Steve time to coax Tony.
As it turned out, Steve was very good at coaxing people.
After all, the captain had once been the star of the USO performance tour and the leader of the Howling Commandos.
But after Steve talked for a few minutes, Tony stopped being silent and started arguing with him.
A few minutes later, Tony got the upper hand, and Steve looked guilty.
At that moment, the unhappy tycoon finally took out Life 1 from the public space storage and injected the unconscious Bucky with it.
Then, he pulled out the knife from Bucky's chest and sealed the wound with a spray.
Steve heaved a long sigh of relief. The crisis that could have destroyed his friendship with Tony was finally over.
