Zemo: Lost and Found (Pt. 1)
Katy was checking her phone when Zemo couldn't stop looking over his book to stare at her. Katy had to reluctantly take the seat across of the terrorist since Sam and Bucky were on the other side. She decided to avoid looking at him by being on her phone. Zemo didn't mean to stare at her. But she looked so familiar. She couldn't be an old lover with her age. Her chocolate orbs, long brown hair. There was something about her.... "Got a staring problem?" Bucky challenges. He didn't like his enemy staring at his ward. "None less than you." Zemo answers, attempting to go back to his book. "Why are you staring at me?" Katy finally asks. "What's your problem?" "I can't ignore you. You... Remind me of someone." Zemo explains. Katy shrugs her shoulders. "Who?" She wanted answers if she was going to get stared at. "Never mind." Zemo everts. Katy rolls her eyes, then looks at Bucky for help. "Zemo, this is a multi-hour plane ride, if you have something to say, say it." Bucky challenges. Zemo closes his book, looks at Bucky, then Sam, then Katy. "What was your childhood like?" He asks her. Katy scoffs. "Fine, I'll humor you because I'm bored. My dad was a deadbeat and left me and my mom when I was 4. My only memory of him is my mom physically pushing him out the door. Then it was just me and my mom until she died in sokovia and I lived. She used her body to shield me from the rubble. In and out of homes until Bucky found me. Stuck with him ever since then." Katy explains. Sam had never heard the story of he was intrigued. "Your first memory of your father, what specifically do you remember?" Zemo asks. Katy takes a moment to process why he would ask such a question. "Um. My mother was angry and both of them were speaking sokovian, I couldn't make it out. I was too short to make out his face. But I remember his boots were shiny leather, fake though since they were a dark purple. The way his black coat flowed as he tried to fight off mom and stay. He fought so hard to stay yet he never came back." Katy chuckles at the last part. "And your mother? What was her name?" Zemo asked. "Elsa." Zemo smiles. Katy shifts uncomfortably. "Katerina." Katy's heart drops. Tears well in her eyes. "No." Katy refused to believe it. She refused to believe the man in front of her was her biological father. "I knew it was you," Zemo muttered. "No!" "Wait Zemo, what's going on?" Sam asks. "This is not Katy, but Katerina. My daughter." A tear escapes Katys face. Bucky furrows his eyebrows. "How is that possible?" He asks. "Her mother and I were in love, but my parents refused to let me marry a common person. But we continued to see each other. Then we had Katerina. When she was about two, that's when I got married to my public wife. I didn't love her but I had to care about her and play the part. Elsa kicked me out of her house two years later when she found out I had another child."
My heart broke as I watched my true love cry. "Please, she means nothing to me." I whisper. "Helmut, I can't live like this." Elsa whimpers. I shake my head. "Please, my love, what changed? You didn't act like this when I married her!" Elsa looks at me with her glistening eyes. "Katerina. I won't have you in and out of her life! I won't let her be the second family." I could see right through the white lie. She doesn't want to be the second family. "So I think it's time to leave and be with your pregnant wife." "Don't be like that." I bite. I tried to take a step towards her but he puts her hands up to separate us. "You know I love you! You and Katerina." Elsa starts to sob. "That's why I must let you go!" Elsa places her hands on my chest and applies a little bit of force. I didn't budge. "No. I'm not leaving you two alone." I push back, removing her hands from my chest. Elsa gets angry. "Just go!" She yells. I would allow her a few days alone to calm down, then I would come back. "Fine. But I want to say good bye to Katerina first." Elsa shakes her head. "No. You don't deserve that." "She's still my daughter!" I yell. "I don't care! I won't let her call a two-faced cheat a father!" That broke my heart, truly. Elsa was fed up with me so she really started pushing me, so much I had to stumble back as to not fall. I tried fighting back but at the same time I didn't want to hurt her.
"Mom told me you just left us. She never told me who you were because it didn't matter. I would never see you again." "I tried going back after a couple of days but your mother wouldn't let me in the house. I kept trying to see you but then my wife was suspicious where I kept going so I had to stop. Then my son came and I knew I was stuck." Zemo tried to defend himself. "You're telling me you were a baron, but couldn't find a way to see your own daughter?" Sam asks. Zemo glares at him. "It's much more complicated than that, Sam. My whole country was watching me, my family, my wife." Katy desperately wanted to change the subject. "Where are we going anyway?" She looks out the window to see vast ocean. “The same place your mother and I celebrated her engagement, Madripoor,” Zemo answered. Katy looks at him. “There was a point where I was going to defy my parents and marry her. But then they found out and said if I did, I would have no money, no name. Your mother called out the engagement to save me from that fate.”
While walking down the highway, Katy loosely held onto Bucky’s metal hand. She didn’t feel safe where they were headed and Bucky sensed that. He didn’t feel like this was a place for her either. Katy overheard Bucky ask Sam to watch over her since he had to be the winter soldier so she wanted to spend as much time together as possible. Once in the car, Katy was between Sam and Bucky. When the motorcycles started surrounding the car, Katy unknowingly pushed into Bucky. But Bucky still felt it and put his metal arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to his chest. Sam glances at them and their relationship. Zemo could hear the shuffling behind him. He sits there and contemplates on how he can get his daughter back and away from the supersoldier. While walking through Madripoor, Zemo pulls Katy close to him. It was like his fatherly instincts never left. “Stay close to me.” He mutters. Of course Katy wanted Bucky, or even Sam. Anyone but the terrorist. But she complied so as to not make a scene. Zemo mistook this as progress. Lots of people turn to stare at Katy. Probably wondering what a minor was doing with three grown men. Probably thinking how much she could go on the black market. Probably thought she was just pretty. All these theories ran through Zemo’s head.
Once the four arrived at the bar, Katy stood between Zemo and Bucky, not saying a word the whole time and watching Sam struggle to stay in character. Once Bucky spots a man coming closer to them, he grabs Katy and pulls her closer to him, all while trying to stay in character himself. When Zemo gestured to Bucky as part of his threat, the man looked him up and down, then at the girl. “New haircut?” He asks, trying to play off his confusion. As Zemo looks around and sees men encircling them, he grabs Katy from Bucky. “Winter Soldier,” Zemo says in russian. “Attack.” Zemo commands right as the man places his hand on her shoulder. His grip on Katy’s arm gets tighter, almost painful. “Come here.” Sam softly beckons, he knew that Katy couldn’t have been comfortable that close to Zemo. Katy rushes to get in between the two men. Sam leaned his body to sheil;d her while Zemo kept a hand on her upper back. When Bucky was strangling the man on top of the bar, and heard all the guns click, Sam tried to stop Bucky from killing the man. Upon hearing the safeties off, Zemo wraps an arm around Katy. “Stay in character or the whole bar turns on us.”
As the four walked to the back to speak to Selby, Katy held Sam’s hand the way she held Bucky’s on the highway but tighter as nerves were getting to her. Katy stood next to Sam once in the room. “You’re taller than I’d heard, Smiling Tiger. And who’s this girl with you? Flavor of the month?” Selby asks. “That is my daughter.” Zemo answers. Selby looks at the baron. “I thought you had a son, and was deceased?” Zemo chuckles the pain away. “I did. She is my first born. Out of wedlock. I had to keep her a secret in order to protect her from my parents.” Zemo lied. When Sam’s phone started vibrating, Katy’s heart dropped. But luckily her face didn’t show it. She felt both Zemo and Bucky’s eyes on her. Bucky walked over to be behind Selby who was in front of Sam. Selby pointed to one of her goons who got up behind Sam and Katy with his gun. Zemo signaled Katy to come to him with a simple hand gesture. Katy walked over without a second thought. She sat next to him on the couch, Zemo pulled her close. Katy had to play along and lean into him. She watched Selby walk around the room while Sam talked to Sarah. When Selby placed her fingertips on Katy’s shoulder, Zemo brushed them off. As soon as Selby hit the ground, Katy immediately got up. Zemo led her to the door by the small of her back while Sam and Bucky protected them.
When the lights went out and people started shooting, Zemo’s first instinct was to grab Katy and run the opposite way Sam and Bucky headed. When Bucky looked back to grab Katy himself and saw her and Zemo were gone, he cussed to himself and started to run with Sam.
Once Zemo saw someone attempting to attack Sam and Bucky, he raised his gun, but before he could shoot, someone beat him to it. Sam looked around for the shooter, so did Katy fearing she was next. “Seems you have a guardian angel.” Zemo comments. Once Katy realized it was safe, she ran to Bucky. He engulfed her in a tight hold. “Well this is too perfect. Katy whips around at the voice. Bucky pushes her behind him. “Before we go…who is that?” Sharon asks, pointing at Katy who was now hiding behind Zemo since Bucky kept walking forward. “My daughter.” Zemo and Bucky say at the same time. Then they both look at each other funny. Sharon looks at them funny, too, and Sam rolls his eyes. “What?” Sharon asks. Bucky sighs. “I adopted her,” Bucky answered. “And I am her biological father,” Zemo adds. Katy rolls her eyes. “…Whatever,” Sharon mutters.
In Sharon’s living room, Katy lay her head on Bucky's shoulder, trying to get a minute of rest with her eyes closed. She had changed out of her dress into an all-black outfit and less dramatic make-up. She wasn’t asleep, so she could hear everything. Sharon and Sam shake hands before she takes a sip of her drink. “How are both of you her dads? I thought you had a son.” She asks. Bucky looks at Zemo to share his part of the story. “I did. But that was my royal family. But I was truly in love with her mother, but my parents wouldn’t allow it. Once my son came, she kicked me out of their lives.” Zemo explains. Sharon turns to Bucky. “I found her when I was trying to adjust to civilian life in Romania after being The Winter Soldier. We needed each other. So she’s stuck by my side ever since.”