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“Wanda Maximoff, you are hereby arrested for your crimes against humanity. You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to refuse to answer any questions that may incriminate you. Do you understand these rights?”
“Steve, what is happening?”
Steve held his hands in the air, confused. In the middle of the Avengers Compound stood about two dozen soldiers, all with guns pointed at Wanda. Through the glass of the training area, Steve could even see a helicopter on the grounds.
“What are you guys doing here?” Steve asked.
The military ignored him. “Wanda Maximoff, do you understand these rights?”
Seeing the confused looks on everyone’s faces, Wanda realized she was on her own. “I… yes, I understand.”
“Please raise your hands slowly,” said the soldier. Once Wanda complied, they carried on. “Please place your hands behind your back, slowly. We will then place handcuffs on you.”
Wanda did as she was told, confused, and stunned by the Avenger’s inaction as she was being taken away. As the odd-looking handcuffs snapped around her wrists, she felt like something was wrong, something was missing.
“My powers! Where are they? What did you do to me?” Wanda asked, a dangerous edge to her voice.
“We placed power-dampening cuffs on you. You will now be escorted into the police vehicle waiting outside, where you will be taken to a prison for magically enhanced individuals to await your trial.”
As Wanda was taken away and the military retreated, Steve could only stare, gobsmacked, unsure of what just happened.
Tony was in the middle of lifting some rubble off a corpse when a blinking light in his suit showed an incoming call.
“TONY! We need to rescue Wanda, but the quinjet won’t take off! Come and fix it.”
“Wow, not even a hello, Capsicle? What do you mean, rescue Wanda?”
“We need to save her! A bunch of guys in military costumes came and took her away! She’s locked in some underwater prison!”
“Military costumes? Were they not the real military? Let me call the Secretary of Defence, he said he was sending the army to come get her yesterday. Was it Hydra, helping her escape?”
“What do you mean, the army was coming to get her? You don’t get it Tony, just come out of your lab or wherever you’ve been holed up selfishly, and come fix the quinjet,” demanded Steve.
Tony, having spotted a leg twitch, promptly went over and tried to lift the rubble, hoping the person was still alive.
“Um, yeah, okay, I’m in the middle of something here. I’ll fly back to the States tomorrow and sort this out, mmkay? Bye now.”
Tony hung up, putting all of his concentration into lifting the piece of rubble to help the trapped Sokovians. What was Rogers talking about? Unable to deal with Rogers and his bullshit for at least a few more hours, Tony concentrated on helping rescue who he could, and clean the city where he could.
A few hours and a shower later, Tony sat down next to an equally exhausted Rhodey. “Hey sourpatch. Long day?” he joked, as they both looked around the tent they were in, full of displaced Sokovians. “Good one Tony. We both need some sleep. You better get some rest. I’m not joking, you’ve been going for three days straight.”
“C’mon honey bear, what’s a little bit of hard work? Anyway, you get your wish, I’m going back stateside tomorrow, something happened with Maximoff.”
“God Tony, is everyone okay? What did she do?”
“Apparently, get arrested.”
“Wait, wasn’t that supposed to happen?”
“Yeah, but Rogers is saying that it wasn’t really the military, even though Ross confirmed she was on the Raft, so now I have to go down there and sort it out.”
“Damn,” Rhodey said, shaking his head. “Good luck dealing with the band of merry idiots. Call if you need me, okay?”
With that, they said their goodbyes, and Tony got on a plane, already dialling Secretary Ross’s number.
Tony sat in a conference room with Steve 'righteous’ Rogers, a prosecutor, a military squad leader, and Sokovia’s UN representative.
Tony ran a hand over his head, sunglasses already on to mitigate the massive headache he has.
“Alright, run this by me one more time.”
“The United Nations looked into who was responsible after what happened in Sokovia and found Wanda Maximoff and her late brother to have aided and abetted the being known as Ultron. In conjunction with Sarah’s team, the United Nations formally charged Ms. Maximoff with crimes against humanity.” The UN representative then gestured and said, “Sarah, if you will.”
“Yes, my prosecutorial team and I have charged Ms. Maximoff with crimes against humanity, which entails the acts of enslavement and murder committed as part of a widespread attack directed against the civilian population, with prior knowledge of the attack. As such, an order for her arrest was issued with the military, rather than local police enforcement.”
“My team and I were given the task of detaining Ms. Maximoff. We contacted the enhanced persons guidebook, and I talked to superiors who have detained enhanced persons before. We were advised to bring back up, and only use rubber bullets, in case they used their powers against us. We attempted to contact Mr. Rogers to organize a good time to collect Ms. Maximoff, and what technology you were using to subdue her to know what we should use. When Mr. Rogers did not answer any of our calls, we sent him multiple emails.”
Tony rubbed his forehead. “And when he didn’t reply to these emails, why didn’t you contact me? Or any of the other Avengers?”
“We were told by our superiors not to tell too many people, as we didn’t want Ms. Maximoff to have time to plan an attack, or any of her associates to find out and attempt to help her.
We knew you were unavailable, Mr. Stark, as you have been seen working nonstop in Sokovia to help with rebuilds. It had been our understanding that you had sent Mr. Rogers back to America to watch over Ms. Maximoff’s detention until she was taken to prison, as he has not been aiding in the reparations with Sokovia.”
“Right, okay. I…” Tony shook his head, then gestured for the soldier to go on.
“My team and I mobilized, bringing two additional teams and a helicopter for transport. The original plan of action was to send one team to the door, to meet with Mr. Rogers and ascertain the situation with Ms. Maximoff. As the chopper got closer, I saw through the glass window of the training area that Ms. Maximoff was using her powers freely, and the other Avengers were training. We were unsure of the situation, and decided it was possible that she was using her powers to control the Avengers and train them for an attack. I made the call to storm the area, to attempt to catch Ms. Maximoff off guard. When we got there, everyone was lined up, and Ms. Maximoff was hovering in the air, using her powers. Due to her active powers, I made the call to have weapons up. Everyone put their hands up when we arrived, and Ms. Maximoff seized the use of her powers. I read her rights to her, and had to ask twice if she understood, which she agreed to on the second ask. She complied when we asked her to slowly put her hands behind her back, then placed power-dampening handcuffs on her. She was compliant when we took her to the Raft, although became distressed after being placed in her cell and given a collar to replace the cuffs. We left soon after and have been tasked with bringing her to the trial.”
“Alrighty, it seems to me like only one thing went wrong here.” Tony turned his gaze to Steve, features hardening. “What the hell, Rogers?”
“Wanda is an Avenger!”
After hearing the story of how Rogers had come to that conclusion, everyone in the room was thoroughly flabbergasted.
“Mr. Rogers, you do not have the authority to pardon someone of their crimes. You do know that, don’t you?” the prosecutor asked hesitantly.
“But Wanda didn’t commit any crimes,” replied Steve, ignoring the question, “she’s innocent! She was used by Hydra, and she saved the world, that’s all that matters!”
The prosecutor, Ms. Helman, looked pained. “Be that as it may, it doesn’t mean that she won’t get tried for her previous crimes. It will certainly come up in her trial, and her defence may call upon you as a witness if they so choose, but it will not get her out of having a trial.”
“Well, if saving the world wasn’t enough to stop her from getting arrested for past crimes, then how come Tony hasn’t been arrested too?” Steve said, looking smug.
Tony sighed. “Because I haven’t committed any crimes?”
Everyone in the room nodded their heads in agreement, shocked that Steve would even think that.
“But, but,” Steve sputtered, “you created Ultron! It’s all your fault!”
“Steve, if you had been paying a modicum of attention, you would know that I didn’t create Ultron. Ultron was an unfinished base for an AI that was years of coding away from even being remotely functional. An energy surge from the staff, the one that Wanda used her powers to convince me to take, took the code and mangled it with something extra-terrestrial. Wanda created Ultron, not me.”
Steve looked around, as if waiting for someone to challenge Tony, to pull out the handcuffs and take him away.
“Mr. Stark is correct. We even watched the security recordings in Stark Towers to verify this, and the only illegal thing we saw was Thor choking him. Unfortunately, Tony refuses to press charges, so there is nothing we can do about that. In fact, after hearing your tale about meeting the Maximoff twins, we could take that as a confession of guilt and chose to charge you with aiding and abetting two known terrorists, but with the circumstances and your status in society, there is no reasonable prospect for conviction. Unfortunately.” Melinda said with a shark-like smile.
“Well, if that is all cleared up,” said the Sokovian UN representative, “then there is nothing more here to say. Ms. Maximoff was legally arrested by the military, not Hydra,” he looked pointedly at Rogers, “and with be detained at the Raft until her trial, where I will see you all next.”
He turned to Tony. “If you would be so kind as to show me to the door.”
Tony got up, walking with the representative to the front door, all but Rogers trailing behind. Knowing there was always a reason when someone asked to be shown to the door by someone, Tony waited, for some threat or blackmail or angry comment, but none came. In fact, he said nothing until they reached the door and the others left. Tony held his hand out to shake, and with a vice-like grip, the man thanked Tony, thanked him for saving Sokovia and for all the repairing work he was doing and all the money he was donating. With a quick, firm hug, the man left, leaving a flabbergasted Tony in his wake.
Wanda sat in her cell, tears streaming down her face as she cried about the inhumane way they treated her. Putting a collar on her, making her stay in that one room. She wasn’t allowed to leave or use her powers on anyone! They even escorted her to the washroom with guns, as if they didn’t trust her! Whenever she complained, though, one of the other prisoners called her names and talked about how, at least their toilet isn’t in their room like real prison, or at least it was clean, or at least the guards were nice and didn’t hurt them. Wanda thought the other prisoner was crazy. Who would call their prison cell, or their tiny bed, nice? After only two days, Wanda couldn’t take it anymore, and she wrote a letter to Steve, asking him to rescue her, complaining about how she was being treated, and reminding Steve that she helped save the world.
A few days later there was a huge commotion, the most exciting thing to happen in the Raft since she got there. Sadly, Wanda couldn’t see or hear anything, and after a few sounds of metal on metal and some bullets being fired, nothing else happened. Bored, Wanda went back to picking at her bedsheets, wondering when Steve was going to come save her.
Meanwhile, Steve was being carted off in power-dampening handcuffs to a cell on the men’s side of the prison, all the while yelling, hoping Wanda could hear his voice. The guards, being a little more rough than usual after Steve had badly injured and killed some of their co-workers, their friends, put the collar on Steve so he could use his hands, unlocked the cuffs and shoved him into his cell.
Tony was back in Sokovia, doing some heavy lifting while on a conference call with Pepper and an event organizer, planning the charity gala for Sokovia. They were hoping to raise enough money to pay for every Sokovian funeral. The gala they just held, that Tony went to before returning to Sokovia after that eye-opening meeting with Steve, was to raise money for the repair of the country.
When his shift was over, Tony headed to one of the tents, where he found it was dinner time, so he took his position in the line and began pouring the food for everyone. While doing that, he felt his phone begin to buzz, so quickly took a break to answer it.
“Rogers got himself arrested trying to break into the Raft.”
“I’m sorry, WHAT?”
“He called you, asking for you to help him. I looked into it and sent it over to the legal and PR team, and they looked it over and said it wouldn’t be good for your image to help him, if you even wanted to. Tony, he killed four guards breaking in, and seriously injured over a dozen.”
“Okay, back up there for a minute Pep, because you are telling me that Steve ‘Righteous’ Rogers not only killed someone, but killed A LOT of someone’s?”
“Yes Tony, that is exactly what I’m saying. I know it sounds crazy, but if you take a minute to think about it, suddenly it doesn’t sound so crazy. Apparently, the team that is prosecuting Maximoff is taking Rogers’ case, and it doesn’t look good. They are going back into other things his done, and it looks like they’re going to add a few more charges to his count.”
“Jeez Pep. That’s, wow. Do I need to come back?”
“PR thinks you should come back and be present at both the trials, but really that’s up to you. They agreed that it looks just as good that you stay in Sokovia during Maximoff’s trial as it does you being there, but for Rogers, it would be better for you to be there in person. There is also a chance you will be called to testify for Rogers, but I asked the prosecution to try and avoid that.”
“You really have everything under control, don’t you? This is why I need you, Pep. Alright, yeah I don’t think I want to go to Wanda’s trial anyway, what with her hating me so much she wants to kill me, but Rogers, I need some time to think about.”
“Don’t worry, you have months before Rogers’ first trial date is set. Take care of yourself, Tony.”
“I will. Bye, Pepper.”
Tony missed Pepper. They had broken up after Tony realized he couldn’t give up Iron Man, but they stayed close friends. One day, Tony hopes he will finally be ready to give up Iron Man, and hopefully, Pepper will still want him when that day comes. But with threats like Maximoff and now Steve out there, Tony isn’t sure if it’ll be anytime soon.
Tony decided not to go to Maximoff’s trial and denied his PR teams request for a photoshoot of him helping in Sokovia. Nonetheless, he found himself in the headline the next day, with a picture of him helping a distraught Sokovian next to a picture of Wanda Maximoff’s headshot.
As for Rogers, well, Tony decided to agree to a private meeting with him, a week before his trial. Suffice to say, it didn’t go well.
“Tony, thank god you came! Has someone been hurting you? I tried calling you, but no one answered, and I haven’t heard from anyone in months. No one has come to see me, not Nat or Clint! What happened?”
“Nat and Banner are still mad at Maximoff, and you for supporting her, and Clint got some sense talked into him by his family. So, Rogers, you wanted to talk?”
“Yes, Tony, obviously. You have to get me out of here! They obviously made some kind of mistake! I was just trying to rescue Wanda, and they’ve kept me here every since! They even got rid of my powers, somehow!”
Tony looks at Rogers over his sunglasses, seeing him in a whole new light. “Rogers, they didn’t make any mistake,” Tony said slowly, as if to a toddler, “Wanda Maximoff did not need rescuing, she was a terrorist who was arrested and tried for her crimes. She’s looking at life in prison. And you broke into a prison and killed people. You killed people, Steve. You’re not just walking away from that.”
“It was for the greater good, Tony. You can’t save everyone. They were evil, keeping Wanda here, locked away. Keeping me here!”
“They weren’t evil, Rogers, they were doing their job.”
Rogers ignored him. “And Wanda’s not a terrorist. She’s just a kid! She was misled, she thought it was SHIELD, not Hydra!”
“And yet, she is a terrorist, she’s not a kid, she’s 26, and even though she initially signed up for experimentation with SHIELD, she was well aware it had turned into Hydra and didn’t care, because the only reason she got her powers was to kill me. I don’t know about you, but SHEILD or Hydra, actively trying to kill someone for years is not an innocent reason to join ANY organization.”
Steve looked enraged. “Your lying!”
“We were both there when she first attacked, saying how she wanted to kill me and take down the Avengers. We were both there, Rogers, or don’t you remember?” Tony responded quickly, feeling a bit angry himself.
“Shut up Tony. She didn’t mean anything. She’s just a kid, she doesn’t know what she’s saying.”
“Oh, so now she’s invalid too? Either way, it doesn’t matter. Her powers are to be bound and she’s being tried as we speak. There is nothing either of us can do about it.”
“You could help her!”
“Even if I wanted to, I just told you that I can’t. She made her bed, its time she lied in it. And Rogers?” Tony added sweetly, “you’re next.”
Tony got up, spun on his heel, and marched out the room, not looking back, never looking back again.
The End