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1) Pepper Addresses the UN
It was frankly a miracle that Pepper managed to use SI’s influence to swing the opportunity to address the UN but she managed it. She was entirely in favor of having superheroes under some sort of regulation but she understood that if that regulation was too heavy-handed those whose cooperation was most needed to make it successful would balk and that would only make things worse for everyone.
Pepper smoothed her skirt as she stood and walked up to the podium. She glanced down at her notes then addressed her audience. “I’m here today to talk to you about section 82, subsections 5 thru 12 of proposed Sokovia Accords.
“In 2008 Tony Stark discovered that Stark Industry missiles were being sold on the black market and he took it upon himself to reclaim and destroy those missiles. It wasn’t his job, it wasn’t even strictly legal but the world decided to support his actions. Later that same year a rogue Enhanced created by General Ross rampaged through Harlem. When traditional military forces proved helpless in the face of this threat, General Ross turned to the man he’d spent years hunting to save New York from the threat that General Ross’ obsession had unleashed. In 2012 the Earth was invaded by aliens, the Avengers rallied to drive them back, preventing the WSC’s ill-advised launch of a nuclear warhead from rendering Manhattan and the better part of New York and the neighboring states a lifeless wasteland. When HYDRA was poised to take the world hostage Captain America, Black Widow and the Falcon acted quickly and decisively to end the threat.“
“Quickly but not wisely,” Pepper heard someone say to their neighbor.
“They have made mistakes, they’re still human. Despite their best efforts there has been loss of life but without them the world would be a much darker place. Assuming anything was left of our world had the Chitauri had their way. Place too strict of limitations on those, who out of the goodness of their hearts, place themselves in the line of fire to protect you and you may find you’ve lost more than you’ve gained.
“I urge you all to work with the heroes who have saved us so many times before rather than cast them in role of your opposition with a hastily pushed through piece of legislation.”
During the following day of the special UN session King T’Chaka of Wakanda addressed the assembly. “My country is renowned for our adamant refusal to allow men draped in foreign flags to come in and dictate what is best for us. Last year in Johannesburg and last month in Lagos demonstrated, once again, the wisdom of this policy.
“We do not deny the good the Avengers, and others like them have done. We do not wish to stop them- If we did there would be no need for the Accords or any other new law which would serve to legitimize their actions. We would simply prosecute them under the numerous anti-vigilante and trespassing laws that they have willfully and repeatedly violated- We merely wish a voice in their actions.
“Those countries that the Avengers would help require that these foreign Good Samaritans ask what help is desired, and perhaps more importantly, accept that we have a right to refuse their help should we so choose.
“After the recent disaster in Lagos we ask, no we demand that these would-be do-gooders work in cooperation with those trained, local forces that they have, thus far, made a practice of superseding. We demand that they submit to review so that the world can see that they are doing due diligence to prevent repeats of the loss of life seen in Lagos, something that has been sorely lacking in the Avengers’ response to this latest disaster.”
In spite of Pepper’s efforts the Accords were ratified in current form by a majority of the Earth’s countries.
2) Pepper talks to the Avengers
Pepper sat off to one side while Secretary Ross presented the Sokovia Accords to the Avengers, she felt very out of place but with Extremis dormant in her blood she had wanted to hear about this new legislature. Pepper listened quietly while Ross illustrated the need for oversight with the collateral damage racked up by the Avengers and as the Avengers debated the Accords after the Secretary of State’s departure until Steve stated with utter conviction, “We may not be perfect but the safest hands are still our own.”
“I can understand feeling like that,” Pepper found herself replying. “With Extremis running through my veins I held the power in my hands. I didn’t need to count on basic decency from people like Adrian Killian or Maya Hansen. I didn’t need to count on Tony or Rhodey to rescue me. I held the power, I could rescue myself, I could stop Killian, myself. I felt much safer with my destiny in my own hands. But when someone takes power into their own hands, you have to consider who they’re taking it from. You don’t trust the UN to hold that power? Don’t trust their agendas? Well, they don’t trust your agendas. They don’t your judgement.”
“We have made some very public mistakes. We need to win their trust back,” Natasha allowed.
“Focus up. I'm sorry, did I just mishear you or did you agree with me?” Tony asked, somewhere between sarcastic and amazed.
“Absolutely not,” Natasha disagreed, “I agreed with Pepper, whom you also happen to agree with.”
“Always,” Tony laughed. “Pepper thinks we should try this. Okay, case closed - We sign.”
Steve’s phone vibrated, he glanced down and saw a text message: 'She's gone. In her sleep.'
“I have to go,” Steve said. He got up and walked out without another word. Sam went after him a moment later. Tony, Rhodes, Vision and Natasha decided to sign. Clint pointed out that the choice was sign or retire and he was already retired. Wanda refused to sign without talking it over with Steve. After the meeting broke up Natasha called Steve then Sam when Steve didn’t answer to find out what was going on. Then she asked Tony if she could borrow his jet and made it to London before Steve’s plane landed but decided that there was no point talking to Steve about the Accords until after the funeral.
3) Pepper talks to Wanda
After the meeting about the Accords broke up Pepper nudged Tony to go after Wanda. “I explained the situation to Vision,” Tony protested. “If it comes up she’ll take it better coming from him. It probably won’t come up anyway. Would you go out for groceries when people are burning you in effigy all over the news?”
“Tony!” Pepper sighed in exasperation.
“She hates me,” Tony whined.
“Somehow I feel like I’m back to dealing with your one night stands.”
“Pepper! Don’t be disgusting,” Tony exclaimed. “Wanda’s just a kid.”
“Just stay here,” Pepper ordered exasperated.
She went to find Wanda. “Tony’s lawyers were able to talk the government out of deporting you,” she said.
“What?!” Wanda’s voice rose in shock.
“Oh for goodness sake, Tony,” Pepper muttered. Then to Wanda, “I’m going to assume that everyone has been treating you like a child and no one has explained your situation to you.
“It was hard getting a visa for you. The CIA and several other intelligence agencies were aware of your powers and your history with HYDRA before Ultron ever happened, that’s where Maria Hill got the report on you and your brother. Tony convinced the government that it was better to have you under the Avengers’ observation rather than roaming the world, falling under who knows what influence.
“But Lagos changes things. You were the most visible factor in the tragedy, excluding the guy who’s a bunch of bloody bits scattered over the blast radius, the Wakandan and Nigerian governments are demanding your extradition-“
“They could try,” Wanda hissed.
Pepper took a deep calming breath, “Tony implied that if they did, Steve would also turn himself over to them as well and because he’s Captain America that’s a political hot potato no one wants to be stuck with. So the government has agreed not to extradite you but you need to stay in the Compound until our lawyers settle this and the media moves on.”
“How long will that be?” Wanda demanded.
“Longer than it has to be if you keep feeding them,” Pepper said.
“And what if they do not ‘move on’?”
“One thing I’ve learned from years of dealing with Tony Stark is that the media always moves on,” Pepper assured Wanda.
Several days later Clint broke into the compound, “You gotta help me, Wanda. Look, you wanna mope, can go to high school. You wanna make amends, you get off your ass.” Seeing a chance both to get the public to look at her in a better light and to show her fellow Avengers that she wasn’t a child Wanda went.
4) Pepper talks to Steve after Bucharest
Pepper walked into the conference room where Steve had been asked to remain pending charges being brought against him for the injuries to the GSG-9 soldiers and civilians plus the massive amounts of property damage from Bucharest.
Steve leapt to his feet at the sight of her, “Pepper, what are you doing here?”
Pepper smiled wryly, “A favor for Tony. Usually he does his best to keep me out of Avengers business but given the way the two of you generally end up at loggerheads he asked me to see if I could phrase things a bit more diplomatically.
“You’re in trouble, we’re trying to get you out. I know Sgt. Barnes is incredibly important to you but jumping into the middle of the situation immediately after you blew off the UN by not going to Vienna looks really bad. It looks like you just gave one hundred and seventeen countries the middle finger. You chose not to hear out their concerns about how the Avengers operate. They asked you to stop ignoring their sovereign rights, you did not stop. You injured officers and civilians to protect the primary suspect in the bombing of a UN special session called to enact a piece of legislation of which you made your disapproval of plainly clear.”
“The Sokovia Accords aren’t a solution, they’re simply a way of shifting blame,” Steve said shaking his head.
“To who?” Pepper asked. “I look at Lagos and I don’t see anyone stepping up to take responsibility for the twenty-four people who died there.”
“We try to save as many people as we can. Sometimes that doesn't mean everybody. But if we can't find a way to live with that, next time, maybe nobody gets saved,” Steve said. “Rumlow set off that bomb, we did what we could to save people.”
Pepper shook her head, “That’s not what the public is asking. They’re asking why you were there in the first place. Why you weren’t in communication with local authorities.”
“We got a tip that Rumlow would be there, we intervened. To stop something worse from happening.”
“And now people are asking: If you’d handled it differently, would it have been worse?” Pepper said. “And no one’s stepping forward to answer that question. Natasha spoke to King T’Chaka at Vienna before the bomb. An apology, a willingness to change, to open yourself to scrutiny in an attempt to do better in the future. That’s what Wakanda was looking for, what they hadn’t gotten up until Natasha showed up, without you, to listen to the world’s concerns at Vienna.
“Tony’s arranged a deal to make your and Sam Wilson’s actions in Bucharest a sanctioned mission. Sgt. Barnes will receive treatment in an American psychiatric hospital instead of being turned over to the grieving young monarch whose father he is suspected of murdering. But we need you to sign, you need to show the world that you don’t hold the UN in contempt.”
Pepper handed Steve the Accords document.
Reluctantly Steve took it, “I'm not saying it's impossible, but there would have to be safeguards.”
“There were always going to have to be safe guards, for everyone,” Pepper stated. “Do you think the Russian or Chinese governments are thrilled with the power play Thaddeus Ross is trying to make by forcing himself into the Accords process? We need a gesture to show the world that you’re willing to compromise, to listen. You’ll probably end up benched along with Ms. Maximoff for a time but-”
“Wanda? What about Wanda?” Steve demanded frowning and stepping closer to Pepper, looming over her.
Pepper frowned. “Wanda has been confined to the compound until her visa situation has been straightened out.”
“That’s internment!” Steve exclaimed.
“It’s house arrest,” Pepper snapped, “Better than deportment. She’s not a US citizen, Wakanda and Nigeria were demanding her extradition to face charges related to Lagos. It would have been all too easy for our government to simply wash their hands of her.”
“She’s a kid!”
“She’s a twenty-three year old young woman,” Pepper stated. “A young woman you had no problem bringing into a battle. She is not a child and you know it.”
“I’m sorry Ms. Potts,” Steve stated handing the Accords document back. “If this is what the Accords are about I want no part of them.”
5) Pepper is sent to recruit Spider-Man
Pepper’s phone rang, she glanced at her bedside clock and groaned. “Tony, why are you calling me at 6:00am? What couldn’t wait fifteen minutes for my alarm to go off?”
“And risk missing you because you’re in the shower?” Tony replied. “I need a favor. You’re in New York right? There’s this kid, a freshman, makes this brilliant adhesive. Probably in his bedroom. I want you to offer him a scholarship. If you hurry you can catch him before school.”
“How does this constitute an emergency?” Pepper asked rolling her eyes.
“Because of what he does with it, turns out it’s great for the non-violent apprehension of criminals,” Tony said. “I’ve been given thirty-six hours to bring in Cap, his sidekick and his ex-sidekick, the Manchurian Candidate or Ross will go with a shooting solution. Use the scholarship to get your foot in the door, the kid thoroughly deserves it, I’m serious about that. But anyway, he lives with his Aunt, I don’t know if she knows. So you need to talk to him alone, tell him you know about the whole Spider-guy thing. Find out why he spends his nights apprehending muggers. I trust your judgement, if you think he’s on the up and up, put him on a plane and send him to Germany. I want to bring Steve in, I don’t want to hurt him but that guy never met a fight he didn’t want in on.”
“Alright Tony but you owe me.”
Which was how Pepper found herself knocking on a door in Queens an hour and a half later. She told Peter’s aunt about the scholarship while they waited for Peter to make himself presentable and come downstairs. May Parker was a younger woman than Pepper had expected and she started to get a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Then a baby-faced fifteen year old raced down the stairs and Pepper groaned.
“Ms. Potts, is everything okay?” May asked.
Pepper heaved a massive sigh, “Tony,” she stated in a dark tone, “Failed to mention High School freshman.” She turned to Peter, “The way he talked about your adhesive I assumed I was going to be meeting a college freshman. I bought the wrong paperwork. Since you’re a minor there are different considerations to keep SI on the right side of child-labor laws. If you don’t mind, you could drop by the Stark Tower anytime next week and I’ll have the correct paperwork ready for you to pick-up.”
Once Pepper had finished making small talk and escaped she immediately hit Tony’s speed dial number. “Eight hour flight? Tell me you didn’t have to get him a passport,” Tony said.
“Anthony Edward Stark, DO NOT TRY TO MAKE ME A PARTY TO KIDNAPPING EVER AGAIN!!” Pepper shouted.
“So Spider-person is a no show?” Tony asked. Pepper hung up on him.
When the two Avengers teams clashed at Leipzig, there was no one to stop Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes from getting to the Quinjet and getting the engines hot. But the two of them were also removed from the fight when Vision blocked the remaining Avengers from the jet. Steve found himself facing off against T’Challa, trying to convince the vengeful young king that Bucky was not responsible for his father’s death and only enraging the man more. When Scott Lang threw War Machine there was no one there to catch Rhodey, he smashed through a plane and into the ground at nearly terminal velocity. The angle of the fall was different. He suffered severe damage to his shoulder, compromising the use of one arm instead of damaging the spinal cord resulting in paralysis. The fight ended abruptly when both teams realize that Rhodey was down hard but Steve and Bucky were already on the Quinjet and gone without looking back. Sam was also on the Quinjet when it made its escape, there was no one on the Raft willing to talk to Tony but Zemo had left a trail of digital breadcrumbs and Tony was able to trace his movements once he started hunting. He arrived at Siberia right on time.
Sam watched the video of Howard and Maria Stark’s assassination and heard the confirmation that Steve had known and had withheld that information from Tony in shock. But when Tony punched Steve and Barnes raised his rifle in preparation to defend his old friend, Sam grabbed the barrel and shoved it down. He stepped squarely between Tony and Bucky. “Steve thoroughly deserved that punch but enough. We’re surrendering.”
“Bucky’s innocent!” Steve protested as he pushed himself back to his feet giving Sam a betrayed look. “Bucky run!”
Bucky yanked his rifle out of Sam’s hands and smashed the butt into the other man’s face, knocking him unconscious.
Roughly forty minutes later, Sam regained consciousness. “Congratulations, you’re not dead or a vegetable,” a painfully weary voice informed him. “I was starting to worry. ‘Course I wouldn’t rule out brain damaged yet, you just took a riflebutt powered by supersoldier muscles to the face. Maybe we should keep that option on the table…”
Sam groaned, wishing whoever was talking would just shut up. He felt like his brains were draining out of his ears and he didn’t want to think about his nose.
“Ross is letting assumed power go to his head and tossing people into secret prisons. Not really a shock,” the voice continued ignoring Sam’s fervent but unspoken wish for silence. “So we might want to use medical considerations as a reason to hold off your whole surrendering thing until you can do it with a team of my lawyers in attendance.”
Sam wrenched his eyes open and saw Captain America’s shield laying on the ground several feet from a battered Iron Man armor. There was a gash across the chest of the armor, cleanly bisecting the arc reactor.
“Lucky us, they didn’t think to take out your radio,” the voice was coming from Sam’s left. “Even luckier, when I called FRIDAY it turned out she’d already told Vision I was going to need pick-up. It’ll be a couple more hours. I found us some blankets, they’re moldy but we’ll survive the smell without needing to resort to anything embarrassingly cliche.”
Sam turned his head and immediately regretted it. He saw Tony Stark slumped against the wall gingerly rubbing his chest. As mentioned there was a moldy blanket around Stark’s shoulders and another across his legs. Now that he was thinking about it Sam realized that he was lying on top of a folded blanket with another thrown over him.
“Steve?” Sam croaked.
“Rode off into the sunset with the one-armed bandit. Guess he forgot about you,” Stark’s voice was a mixture of bitterness and sympathy. “Just for curiosity’s sake, why’d you side with me anyway?”
Sam decided he hated Tony for asking questions like that right then. “Signed on to do- right thing,” he grunted. “Not to- fugitive. Thoreau.”
Stark was thankfully silent for several minutes. “‘On Civil Disobedience’? Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison… If any think that their influence would be lost there, and their voices no longer afflict the ear of the State, that they would not be as an enemy within its walls, they do not know by how much truth is stronger than error, nor how much more eloquently and effectively he can combat injustice who has experienced a little in his own person. Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight. If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate which to choose. If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible,” Stark quoted. “Well, I still think lawyers to make damn sure everyone knows your side are important. You know, I needed you guys telling the world what was wrong with the Accords. Too bad you couldn’t have given Cap a crash course in CIVIL disobedience before everything went to hell.”
+1) Pepper talks to Tony before Berlin
“Prince Lion-o’s involvement means a lot of people are wanting to sweep this whole mess under the carpet. That’ll help with Cap and co. The smart money says Bagheera still wants his pound of flesh but he’s made enemies with this shit-storm too. If I work fast and push the POW angle I’m certain I can get Barnes back to the US, get him the treatment he has got to need,” Tony said talking a mile a minute. “We’ll have to give them something-”
“Tony!” Pepper broke in. “Stop.”
“Stop? Stop what?” Tony asked, bewildered.
“Just stop,” Pepper repeated. “Ross is leveraging the reaction from Bucharest to put some of his more draconian measures back into the Accords, King T’Chaka is not there to act as a counter-balance. It will take all your political capital to get Captain Rogers and his friends a free pass for their actions in the last twenty-four hours. And if you do that, Ross wins. If you want to save them, and not just for today, you need to get in front of this. We need someone pushing the moderate agenda for the UN, between the bombing and King T’Chaka’s death the extremists are practically unopposed. You’re the only one positioned to make a difference… And Tony, you’ve already lost ground you won’t be able to make up. You’ve still got a chance to keep this from becoming a complete rout, but not if you’re trying to rescue Captain Rogers from the consequences of his actions.”
Tony didn’t make an appearance in Berlin. He was in the middle of doing damage control with the various UN delegates when Ross put out the orders to send military forces after Steve Rogers, James Barnes and Sam Wilson. Natasha crossed the lines and warned Steve that he was being hunted. Tony, along with the rest of the world watched through a TV screen as Captain America, the Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, the Black Widow, the Falcon and the Winter Soldier tore through a JCTC unit like they were going through tissue paper. Ant-Man was there as well but shrunk down so no one saw him. Without orders to intervene War Machine and Vision did not make an appearance, nor did a little known, newly emerged hero from Queens. The Black Panther did show up but there was little he could do alone against the six Avengers following Steve Rogers’ lead. With his armor T’Challa suffered fewer injuries than the JCTC forces from being thrown around by the Scarlet Witch’s telekinesis but he didn’t stop anyone or even slow them down significantly. After the military long range transport jet flew away with the Avengers onboard, leaving the tarmac at Leipzig littered with the injured, unconscious and dead bodies of the JCTC officers, Tony resumed the even more herculean task of persuading the world that Enhanced individuals could be trusted NOT to abuse their powers to run roughshod over the regulations that bound baseline society.
In a lonely bunker in Siberia Zemo stared out of his armored room with a look a disappointment. “I was hoping for a different audience,” he said. “But I will have to be satisfied with your overwhelming, public display of contempt for the world of normal people.”
He started a video playing. The assembled Avengers watched first with confusion then with discomfort as the Winter Soldier assassinated Howard and Maria Stark. “If you expect Tony Stark to bail you out, don’t. By the time you make it out of Siberia he, along with the entire world, will have seen what you just saw. Along with the evidence that convinced me that good Captain and the Spider chose hide their knowledge of the Starks’ murder for years.” Then, while the Avengers watched from the other side of the transparisteel wall, Zemo turned his back on them. He listened to a saved voicemail, put a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.