Chapter Text
Chapter One:
A month after he’d received Steve Rogers’s letter and the phone he’d sent along with it, Tony Stark sat his desk staring at the old fashioned flip phone. He’d just hung up his office phone after another back and forth volley with Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross over the Accords.
Tony knew from the beginning that, regardless of what the rest of the countries who signed the Sokovian Accords wanted and expected from the ratification of the novel length document, Secretary Ross had his own agenda. An agenda that he’d cultivated for years, growing in power and manipulating events as much as he could to get what he wanted.
Even if his former science brother and ex-Avenger Bruce Banner had never told him how the Hulk was born (and why he eventually ran) and Ross’s involvement in it all, Tony had known the former general was bad news immediately upon meeting him years ago after the catastrophic fiasco between Bruce and Blonsky in Harlem.
The speech Ross had given the Avengers at their meeting of gaining a new perspective over the years and being a changed man still rung hollow weeks later. The former US general had wanted super soldiers to control and he hadn’t cared about morals in the getting. That it had backfired on him was a blessing at the time.
But Ross was smart, using the years in between to gain respect and a power base that enabled him to take over the position of Secretary of State after the previous Secretary, Alexander Pierce, had been outed as a leader of Hydra and mastermind behind Project Insight that would have wiped millions of people off the face of the earth if not for the interference of Captain America and friends. In this position, Ross had been able to get the ear of the President of the United States and put himself as the US representative to the UN instead of the ambassador/Perm Rep for anything related to the Accords. *
But Tony did not believe for a moment in Ross’s new altruism, especially not after his interactions with the man over the last month and realizing how little he’d actually changed under the surface from the defeated general he’d met years ago.
Mind wandering for a few moments, Tony thought about Bruce and how disappointed he’d be in Tony for choosing to side with Ross on anything, let alone legislation that stifled the Avengers and relegated them to a special ops team answerable to politicians.
Knowing that path led to nowhere good, Tony sighed and returned to staring at that god awful technologically backward flip phone and the increasingly heated conversation he’d just finished with Ross.
Originally Ross had blindsided the Avengers when he’d come to them with the Accords. They’d only had three days until the UN met to ratify the Accords. Three days to read over all the fine print and sign or else be forced to retire. Documents like that didn’t get written overnight and 117 countries didn’t just suddenly agree to ratify them in such a short span of time. And the panel that would be responsible for the actual oversight was problematic at best. One of many things Tony’s lawyers were trying to get amended.
Even though he’d agreed to sign, Tony was no fool. He’d immediately gotten his entire team of lawyers to go over the Accords with a fine toothcomb and he’d balked at some of that aforementioned fine print. Still, he knew which way the wind was blowing and decided that it’d be best to sign then amend the parts that were unreasonable, illogical or unworkable.
Unfortunately, not all his teammates had agreed. Rhodey, unsurprisingly had been enthusiastic, pointing out, somewhat naively, that this was the UN demanding this. As though the UN was infallible or always had the best interests of the world at heart.
Vision had agreed with them, well as much as his logic allowed. He hadn’t outright supported the Accords but did admit that the idea behind them could not be ignored. Eventually, he did land on the side of the Accords reservations or not.
Natasha had seemed resigned, wanting the path of least resistance after reading the terrain while Wanda had still been quietly reeling from all that had happened in Lagos. The dozen innocent lives lost weighed heavily on her and the team, especially as most of the reporting of events had glossed over or ignored the fact that had she not interfered there’d have been many more deaths in the crowded marketplace Rumlow had blown himself up in. And had they not gone after Rumlow and his team in the first place, a deadly biological toxin would have fallen into the wrong hands. That vial would have caused at least hundreds of deaths had it been released.
And Steve – Rogers, he should really call him Rogers as they certainly weren’t friends now, if they ever had been – had chafed at the entirety of the Accords as they were reading through it. At least until he’d took off to London with Sam Wilson, loyal sidekick at his side, leaving the rest of them to continue through the document.
And that cut short meeting had been the turning point, the beginning of the end of the Avengers. Things went to hell in a hand basket quickly after that.
Bringing his thoughts back to the increasingly worrying conversation he’d just had with Ross, Tony stared at that flip phone again before finally taking out Roger’s letter to read over again, even though he’d already memorized it.
“I’m glad you’re back at the compound. I don’t like the idea of you rattling around a mansion by yourself. We all need family. The Avengers are yours. Maybe more so than mine. I’ve been on my own since I was 18. I never really…fit in anywhere – even in the Army. My faith’s…in people, I guess. Individuals. And I’m happy to say that for the most part, they haven’t let me down. Which is why I can’t let them down either. Locks can be replaced, but, maybe they shouldn’t. I know I hurt you Tony. I guess I thought by not telling you about your parents I was sparing you, but…I can see now I was really sparing myself. I’m sorry. Hopefully one day you can understand. I wish we agreed on the Accords, I really do. I know you’re only doing what you believe in, and that’s all any of us can do, it’s all any of us should. So no matter what, I promise you, if you need us. If you need me, I’ll be there.”
Despite what he thought was arrogance and some condescension on Rogers’s part in some of it, Tony decided that the sentiments behind the letter were sincere. He knew that temporarily putting aside the personal devastation that happened in Siberia the last time he and Rogers were face to face was the only way he’d be able to talk to the man now without blowing up at him before the conversation even started.
As hard as that seemed during and immediately after the event, Tony’s ire was somewhat abated now. Six weeks had passed since that awful confrontation and Tony had eventually admitted to himself that his intention had been to kill Barnes, regardless of who got in the way. Yes, Barnes had been brainwashed, tortured for years and only the weapon. Hydra had pulled the trigger, using Barnes as the gun. But Rogers’s betrayal in not telling Tony earlier what he’d suspected, but willfully ignored in his blindness of anything related to Barnes, was still a bitter pill to swallow.
As difficult as it was and as much as he still wanted to tear Rogers a new one, Tony knew that would have to wait until they fixed the Accords. And the only way to do that at this point was to find a way to work together and save his bitterness for after. Tony was gambling that Rogers would cooperate, or at least listen to what Tony had to say. Rogers had almost signed at one point, before everything went completely off the rails in Berlin and the final split of the team.
One last quick debate of the pros and cons for the nth time since he’d received that FedEx package, Tony made sure his office was secure and picked up the phone, ready to dial the only programmed number.
*According to UN rules, the Secretary of State or the POTUS can replace the UN ambassador (also referred to as the Permanent Representative of the US) in general assembly or Security Council meetings. It’s usually only done rarely, but MCU made it seem like he planted himself there permanently, at least in matters related to the Accords.