Chapter Text
How the U.S. would get away with pardons?
2016 – Post Civil War.
Ellis once again changed suits, for perhaps the fifth time the same day. He was sweating like there was not tomorrow and a little worried about dehydration due to the fact that he hasn’t had anything to drink since the day before.
“Mr. President? The Nigerian delegation is on the line.” And coincidentally, that was the fifth assistant he had this week because they quit or had very strong opinions about his latest decisions, whether they agree with them or not it seems that Ellis couldn’t find an assistant that didn’t react very violently to them.
The fact that he would have another very passive-aggressive meeting was small fry in comparison to the fact that the Sokovia Accords were on the verge of being ratified and all of this would no longer be his problem.
And Ellis almost swallowed his own tongue when the Nigerian president showed up on the screen. Up to that point, he thought he would talk to their Secretary.
“President Ellis, our countries have long since been allies. U.S is one of our most important diplomatic partners and I would hate to see our relationship put in jeopardy. But Captain America was involved in the deaths of thirty two of Nigerian civilians and that when not mentioning Air Force Staff Sargent Wilson and two foreign women that your government granted visas to.”
“I understand and I assure you that all possible measures to correct their behavior and make the proper amends.” But Ellis stopped talking when the other man politely raised his hand.
“Much like I would be extremely offended if you tried to tell me how to run my congress, I will not have a condescending attitude nor will I make any demands that I’m not making towards all countries with extradition agreements. Mr. Rogers, Ms. Romanova, Ms. Maximoff and Mr. Wilson are wanted in my country for thirty counts of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment, destruction of public and private property and illegally passing our borders. Now, I understand that they, along Mr. Lang and Mr. Barton are not on U.S. but if they ever come to you, I request extradition so the families and friends of my citizens can have justice for those they lost. That was all I wanted to say.”
And Ellis broke into sweat once again. Flashbacks from the Sokovian president in the exact same position – who has a dozen times more allies nowadays than he had a year ago – on his mind.
And the amazing thing is – as grateful as Ellis is to Stark and Rhodes – Stark was the only one that the Sokovian didn’t want extradited since the man was the only one to actually willingly step forward.
Stark didn’t lie… and neither did the footage. The public didn’t know but Maximoff wasn’t as hands off in the whole Ultron business as they thought and Ellis was sweating over the very smug looking Sokovian president that has yet to release his knowledge to the public. And since Captain America was vouching for her – like he vouched for Romanoff and Barton even after the whole SHIELD is Hydra fiasco – Americans weren’t saying a peep against her… until Lagos happened.
Now, Ellis had a few options.
His first one: He could throw Maximoff and Romanoff to the wolves.
No skin off his back, granting visas to those two wasn’t exactly very popular to most Americans and boy was the new candidate for presidency aiming at that – but that would mean discrediting Captain America… and Americans wouldn’t be very happy with that… and that also wouldn’t be very good on the whole feminist side.
Besides the fact that thirty Nigerians die because of three Americans – counting Rumlow – a Russian and a Sokovian and the U.S. president only hands over the Russian and the Sokovian? Yeah, that would go over very well internationally.
Option number two: making Rogers and Wilson bite the bullet with those two, it wouldn’t go very well for the Americans… that were conveniently blaming Maximoff and only Maximoff if the protests were anything to go by. Those people wouldn’t be very happy once the results of the investigations are made public. That Rogers and Romanoff took CO position with the new members – disregarding Rhodes… Air Force Colonel Rhodes – and instead they thought that putting the Former-Red-Room-Former-SHIELD-Possibly-Hydra-Sorta-Former-Russian-Spy was one of the best candidates for the job.
People can’t even argue that Rogers and Romanoff were the best bet because they were used to working as Avengers… the team completely changed. The Avengers that Rogers and Romanoff were used to were Iron Man, Thor and Hulk. Not Falcon, Scarlet Witch, War Machine and Vision…
And ha if the public wasn’t already snarking about putting two white people in command when there was someone else with official and sanctioned training with more combat and command experience than the both of them combined who happens to be of African descent.
Back to the matter at hand. Even if Ellis threw Rogers and Wilson under the bus, he would appease international tensions but he wasn’t a hundred percent sure if that tension wouldn’t spill over to U.S. and what would be worse? The riots about Maximoff killing off thirty Nigerians or the riots about Captain America being prosecuted and extradited?
If there was justice in the world and if Ellis was with a gun to his head, after reading the reports, the Lagos disaster was on Romanoff and Rogers.
Maximoff was completely unprepared and clearly lost once the other three started to move which meant that Romanoff and Rogers didn’t do their jobs as trainers and COs.
But that would be Ellis playing jury and judge and no one had the right to do that. If Rogers and Romanoff were or weren’t the guilty party here, it wasn’t for him to decide.
In no time at all, Bucharest happened.
Stark calling about a possible way out made Ellis’ eyes shine with unshed tears. When the UN put the provisions for amazing individuals to work off their sentences via avenging, they weren’t really thinking about the current roster any more than an ad about its efficiency. If only they knew.
And look at that, another irate president calling him about extradition once Barnes escaped – injuring and killing many German officers – and trashed an airport along with Maximoff, Wilson, Rogers, Barton – which Ellis was still confused about – and someone called Mang?… or Lang… and it had to be an airport… with its millions of dollars’ worth of property. It had to be.
And of course, the deal of signing for Maximoff, Rogers and Wilson was off the table. For Romanoff too since she was the one that facilitated their entry into Russian… illegally of course.
And then Stark was coming back to U.S. needing extensive medical treatment…his life being saved by the Russians which would for sure mollify SI. Great. Because the rumors about the Russians’ interest in the upcoming election weren’t enough.
And then videos were released online about Maximoff waving her fingers at Stark’s head that the Sokovians just swear it wasn’t them, but it probably would be more convincing if the bastard wasn’t smiling so hard. The man looked like he was a pat in the back away from laughing until it hurt.
And because Zemo – somehow delivered by the king of Wakanda with the most lazy and sorry ass excuse in the world, “I apprehended Mr. Zemo, the real culprit of the tragedies in the last few days” yeah, genius, how and where did you apprehend Zemo again that coincidentally you don’t know where Rogers and Barnes are? And was it racist that even in his head Ellis mimicked T’Challa’s accent? Well… if not racist, childish for sure – wasn’t done ruining everybody’s lives, the Sokovian – because of course he was Sokovian, they are gaining the fame of loving their footages – released the video of the fight in Siberia and the reason why Tony Stark was in the hospital.
If Ellis used to have a problem with waving Rogers away from U.S. before this shitstorm, well…the hashtag “Not my Captain” was still trending three weeks and counting.
That said, Captain America was an icon for seventy years, people don’t just let go of that. This means that the more extremists Cap fans were making their hatred of all things Stark very clear.
And Ellis was just praying to any deity that would listen that the rumors of SI moving their headquarters to Germany were just rumors…that Stark had German citizenship wasn’t helping in keeping his hopes high but if his captivity in 2008 proved anything is that the U.S. economy depended on Stark. The man hired and created more revenue in one year than any other company managed to.
“Sir? There is a rep from SI waiting for you in the meeting room.”
Of course there was.
“Good evening, Mr. President, I’m Jennifer Walters, here on behalf of Stark Industries.”
“Pleasure to make you acquaintance, Ms. Walters, to what do I owe the visit?”
“Well, in the last week you have been advocating for a…I believe the term was “reasonable” approach as far as Mr. Rogers and… co are concerned.”
And Ellis broke into a sweat again, “Yes. I believe that if we all reach middle ground, everybody can leave happy.”
Jennifer smiled politely and Ellis didn’t trust it one bit, “Right… so I’m here more as a messenger to say that the rumors about Dr. Stark emigrating to his family’s home country to be with the majority of the family he has left in Europe are not so much rumors as a conflicting schedules from his favorite demolishing crew that didn’t have enough time this week to take down the so called Avengers compound to begin building the newest Maria Stark’s New Family. You see, as recent experiences left the scar of his parents’ deaths so raw and Dr. Stark, being the very generous man that he is, he decided to contribute to the foster care system in housing and fostering all vulnerable children with no one to turn to.”
The Accords committee made it very clear that Rogers and co – Ellis had to inwardly grimace at the name call – were not in consideration for membership and of course they weren’t. Thinking that any of Rogers’ little companions would ever again act in international soil was like expecting unicorns in suits to solve his problems with Romania.
Which means that if the pardons went through, Rogers wouldn’t be mooching off of Stark anymore, they would be Ellis’ problem and, he winced, why was he expecting Stark to pick up where he left off when it didn’t really go spectacularly for the inventor’s hospitals bills the first…second, no wait that was Sokovia… third time…? Yeah, that was bad.
When all this began, Ellis thought that probation, a change in leadership, perhaps in MO and a promise of not letting Rogers, Maximoff, Wilson and Romanoff step one foot in Nigeria and EU ever again would be enough if Rogers and Romanoff took the public fall for Lagos, Maximoff kept her head down and Wilson…just did his thing of following Rogers’ lead.
Instead, Ellis was facing a raging crowd for the deaths of Howard and Maria Stark, South Africa joined Nigeria in wanting Sokovian (and American for covering Sokovian) blood, EU was up in arms for Bucharest, Berlin and Leipzig and now Russians joined the party if only to take all possible advantage of how Rogers and Barnes illegally crossed their borders…and ok, assaulted Stark in Russian soil and their non-plan to deal with the Russian Super Soldiers.
And how was he to know that Maximoff provoked the Hulk into attacking Johannesburg or that she was a willing volunteer for Hydra if the only one that says anything – Stark – didn’t say anything? Ellis winced again, that was not something that he wanted the public focused on, that Stark was pretty much the only original Avenger that gave any explanations whatsoever. Yeah, that was bad. Again.
On the other hand, Cap fans shifted their hatred from all things Stark and latched on with teeth and nail on Maximoff’s mind control powers and “the fact” that Captain America would never side with Hydra so of course that Maximoff was mind controlling him.
Ellis rolled his eyes. Yeah, right.