Chapter Text
The Starkjet was flying through the sky, piercing the clouds at a speed no ordinary plane could reach. Clint was seated behind the pilot’s seat, his legs shaking nervously. It had been two years and eight months since he was breached out of the RAFT and was deemed a criminal. Thirty two weeks since he had been put on the Wanted list of many countries around the world. It all had come to a halt a few days ago though. King T’Challa had come to their common area to tell them that the UN and the USA had accepted to get them back. It didn’t mean that things were good though, just that it was a start and that there was still a lot of work to do to make things better. But all Clint could think about was that he would finally see his family again. God, how he had missed them!
Glancing around, he could see his friends showing various degrees of anxiousness. The worst offender being Scott Lang. Clint could actually pity the man, he clearly had no idea what he got himself into when he answered the Captain’s call. He really didn’t deal well with their banishment from their home country. He was on probation back then and even if he had been pardoned for some things, there were still consequences waiting for him back home. Consequences waiting for all of them, whether they wanted them or not.
Soon enough, sooner than he realized, he could feel the plane preparing to land and, despite his years of spy activities, he could feel his heartbeat pick up. When the jet touched the ground, he got up and stretched, trying to push his nervousness as far as possible. Then, for the longest seconds ever, the door slowly opened. They all exchanged a look then faced the opening, bracing themselves for what was to come. What they didn’t expect was for a petite woman to be waiting down the stair, a note book in her hands.
“Welcome to the Avengers Compound. My name is Red and I run the place,” she said in a monotonic voice. “Here are the badges giving you access to the building. If it doesn’t open a room, it means that you don’t have the clearance necessary.”
She then handed to all of them said badges. Once she was done, she took a step back and looked at all of them.
“I will guide you through the layout then give you two hours to rest. Afterwards, we will go to the meeting room. There are some people who have to walk you through what’s coming next. Please follow me.” She turned around, leaving them all perplexed. Scott just shrugged then started walking after her, quickly followed by all of them. The silence was heavy. “Here is the waiting area for anyone coming from outside,” she started, after they had all walked through the first set of doors. “Normally there is someone here to check upon the agents and verify that everything is alright before they can proceed to the main area, but today is not a normal day. Please note that only when you’ve been given the ‘go ahead’, you can walk through the doors. Your badges don’t open them.” She flashed her badge to a small screen next to the second set of doors, and after a few second, they opened. “Now, here you have the main area. The compound has been changed since you last came here. Where we came from was the south wing. On the east wing you have the private area with the dorms and all the common areas such as the kitchen and the living room. On the west wing, you have all the official rooms meaning the meeting room, training grounds, medical bay and the gym. North wing is the R&D department. Please don’t bother them, they are quite fussy about interruptions and only go there if asked. Your badges won’t open the doors for you anyway. Questions?”
An awkward silence answered her. They all were quite bothered by the clinical welcoming they had received and this overload of information was not what they expected.
“I’m sorry, miss, but I’m not sure I understood what your role was here?” finally asked Sam.
“I’m the manager of this whole place, though I’m mostly here as a handler for all the avengers members. I’m here to answer your questions, put through any requests you have to the right people and make sure everything runs smoothly” came the unbothered answer.
“And how did you come to work here? I mean where do you come from?”
“I was hired”, the duh went unsaid. “Any pertinent questions?”
“Yes, hm. Where is everyone else?” asked Scott, looking around. “From my understanding, many more people signed up to be Avengers, right?”
“It has been decided that you should have the compound for yourself to begin with. The others, who are not on mission right now, will come back later. A formal meeting will be called to introduce everyone officially. Now follow me, I’ll show you your quarters.”
They all fell in line behind her, walking towards an elevator.
“Your badges give you access to your floor, and your floor only. Same goes for everyone else. If you want someone who doesn’t live on your floor to be here, you will have to go fetch them yourself. You are the only ones of this floor for the moment so you can pick your rooms. Each floor has the same layout: twelve bedrooms each with their own washroom, a living room and a kitchen” she finished saying when the elevator doors closed, after she pushed the button for the fourth floor and flashed her badge.
The ride to their floor was silent, only breached by the noise made by the elevator. Once they reached their floor, the doors opened and Red stepped out, straight into the living room.
“Kitchen is on this side and the two corridors over there lead to the bedrooms. Six bedrooms per corridor. I will be waiting for you in the entrance hall in two hours. Please don’t be late.” And with those last words, she got back on the elevator and left.
“Can someone explain to me what’s going on here?” finally asked Scott, looking completely out of the loop.
“I’m not sure I know…But I think we will get all the information we need at this meeting. Why don’t we freshen up?” said the Captain, speaking for the first time.
Without another word, they all went to the first corridor and split into the rooms. It was just enough for all of them. Fifteen minutes before the meeting, they were all in the living room again, looking better than before, in a change of clothes.
“Well, let’s go and get it over with” said Steve.
They all nodded then Wanda pressed the call button for the elevator. When they reached the entrance area, Red was not waiting for them. Looking at his watch, Clint saw that they were twelve minutes early.
“Should we go to the meeting room or should we wait for our handler?” asked Scott.
“I think it would be better to wait. We don’t want to start this whole thing on the wrong foot. And…”
Steve was interrupted when the door from the north wing opened and Tony Stark walked out, followed by two women. He wasn’t really paying attention to his surroundings, working on something on his tablet but then he raised his head and stopped when he noticed them standing there.
“Uh. I thought they were supposed to come back on Thursday?” he wondered.
“It is Thursday, Tony” answered one of the women, with a French accent. She was tall, blonde and very beautiful. She wore a pastel dress and nude high heels. “Why do you think I dragged you out of that lab? Ari and Teddy are waiting for you at home and you have your regular schedule to take care of for the next few days.”
“I didn’t realize…How mad do you think Ari is?”
“Depends on if we are back home in the next twenty eight minutes.”
“We should be going then. We don’t want to get her mad.”
“I’m not coming with you, Ginny is though,” she said pointing to the other woman. A redhead, dressed in a black suit and killer boots.
“Why?” Tony asked, surprised.
“Because someone from Stark Industries needs to be here. Really Tony, when was the last time you slept?” she huffed, annoyed. “Now shoo, let me handle things here.” She concluded, pushing Tony towards the front exit, at the opposite of where the Starkjet was stationed.
She exchanged a smile with the woman called Ginny, then turned around and walked towards the doors leading to the west wing. Throughout the whole thing, no one had talked to them and it left Clint feeling unsettled. They didn’t have the time to deal with it though, because Red came around to collect them. The doors to the west wing opened straight on the training area. It was immense, everything needed was there. Stairs on their right lead them to the second floors.
“This floor has three meeting rooms and the gym. The stairs over there lead to the medical bay. Follow me.”
She walked towards the second door on their left then opened it. It was a huge meeting room with a big table in the middle. Around twenty chairs were surrounding it, three people were already seated. One was a man they didn’t recognize, another was the blonde woman from before and the last one was James Rhodes.
“Please seat down,” Red said, before taking the chair next to Rhodes.
“Good morning and welcome to the Avengers Compound. My name is Lucas Bidden; I’m the government liaison between the Avengers and the big bosses. You already know Red and James, let me introduce you now to miss Fleur Delacour, our liaison to Stark Industries,” said the unknown man.
“Why? Where is Tony?” Steve asked.
“Mr. Stark has a company to run and countless other responsibilities. It was decided that I will be the one handling most of the things that have to do with the Avengers. One man really can’t handle all this workload alone, why he insisted on doing so before is a mystery.”
“But he is an avenger, shouldn’t he be here too?” insisted the Captain.
“We have a program, we will answer your questions later Mr. Rogers, let’s not get carried away,” interrupted Bidden. “Now I will give you an overview of how things work around here then we will talk about all of your individual cases. Questions will be answered later. Do you agree?” Everyone nodded and Bidden smile at them. “Good. Now, the compound hosts many people. Not all of them have special abilities and not everyone lives here 24/7. You can do whatever you want in the privacy of your rooms as long as it’s not illegal or dangerous. Due to the number of new members, the avengers have been divided into teams. Since we didn’t want to disrupt the other teams balance, it was decided that you all will stay together. Each team has their own assignments but since you all need to be able to work together, monthly team building workshops are put in place. Every avenger available has to participate, in case we might need you to work together or shuffle the teams’ compositions around for some reason. If you find yourself in need of something, Red is there for you. She has an office on the ground floor and her phone number is in the phones that will be given to you all later. Do you have any questions so far?” they all shook their head from left to right. “Alright, I’ll let miss Delacour talk to you about gadgets and weapons.”
“Thank you, Lucas. Now it’s not really important since everyone here is already aware of this fact but, since things worked differently back then, I have been advised to notify you that Tony Stark is no longer in charge of arming you or improving your gadgets. That’s what the in house R&D department is for.”
“What? Why? Is this Tony being petty?” Steve asked, clearly pissed off. Miss Delacour didn’t seem very impressed.
“No, Mr. Rogers. This is Tony Stark prioritizing. He has too many duties on his shoulders to continue fostering the Avengers too.”
“Why isn’t Stark Industries taking over then?” the Captain insisted.
“Stark Industries closed its weapon department years ago. This is common knowledge,” the woman answered, frowning.
“Then how were we still receiving improved weapons and all?” Clint asked in lieu of the Cap.
“The Avengers armory was never a Stark Industries project. It was something that Mr. Stark did on his own, with his personal money, in his personal lab. SI was never attached to any of this. It would have been very imprudent and contradictory to the changes made internally. Everything that Mr. Stark did was free of charge…Just like housing and feeding you,” she added after a bit. Clint was certain he saw at least half the people in the room wince. “Apart from him being too busy, there is also the fact that the compound is not owned and paid for by Mr. Stark anymore. With the accords in place, the compound has been turned into UN property. Mr. Stark can’t get involved in how it runs. It would be a conflict of interest. However, he has agreed to work as a consultant for R&D. You might run into him from time to time” she finished.
“He doesn’t live here then?” wondered Scott. Miss Delacour answered with a ‘do you really see Tony Stark bunking in a dorm when he has more houses than you have shoes?’ look. Scott flushed and looked elsewhere.
“Although if you have some request that you want passed along to him, Red is here for that.” Finished the young woman.
“Thank you, Fleur. Colonel Rhodes?”
“Right. As the leader of one of the other teams, I have to walk you through your role Mr. Rogers. Reports after every mission are to be given, in written form, to miss Red. They must contain everything from the moment you left the compound to the moment you came back, not just things directly related to the mission. For example if there was a fight between the members, it must be reported. If there was a show of insubordination, it must be reported. If inconsistencies are found, it might lead to team being grounded until internal investigations are finished. Team building exercises are strongly advised but you’ll have to book the training ground for the time you need. There are also monthly team leaders meeting, to share information or just to get to know each other better. We try to be as transparent as we can here; we never know when having the right Intel might save our lives. That is all I have to say at the moment, any further questions might be answered by miss Red.”
The Colonel never stopped to breath throughout his whole speech; he wasn’t even really looking at them while speaking. It made Clint feel uneasy, and he could say he wasn’t the only one.
“Wait, what about Stark? I suppose he is on this team too, right?” Sam inquired.
“Tony Stark has his own team. He is semi retired anyway; his body hasn’t completely recovered from some injuries he received a few years ago. His doctors all agreed that it would be for the best if he could keep from engaging in physically taxing activities. Iron Man will only come back in case of a major issue.” Said Bidden.
“How come he has his own team if he can’t be on the field?” insisted Sam.
“He co-leads my team. And being on the field isn’t everything, he is a great support” snapped Rhodes. The silence that fell upon them was awkward to say the least. Bidden coughed to break the tension then continued.
“Your team being a special case, you haven’t been cleared for active duty yet.”
“We are completely fit to go out there!” Steve intervened, insulted.
“You might think so but you have some issues to clarify first. Mr. Barton is a civilian; miss Maximoff is not an American citizen thus legally has no right to be in the country and Mr. Lang left while he was still on probation. As for mister Wilson, well his superior in the Air Force would love to have a chat with him.” Corrected the young man.
“Wait, I thought we had been exonerated?” asked Scott.
“And you have been. For your actions in Germany and cleared of your status as fugitives and international criminals. It still doesn’t change the fact that you left the country when you knew you couldn’t. By the way, Hank Pym would also love to have a chat with you, Mr. Lang.”
“And what about me? I am no civilian…”
“You officially retired from the Avengers three years ago. It’s on record. You, however, never put forth a motion to be reinstated. You have to do so, before being cleared.”
“What about Wanda?”
“Miss Maximoff is a complicated case. She’s still a person of interest in Nigeria, and I don’t really know what’ her status with the Wakandan authorities. She can’t be considered a political refugee with her history and will have to formally either ask for a special work permit or work on gaining the American nationality. Which might take years. We were only able to bring her back with you because the compound is considered UN territory. She has immunity here but if she goes out there, well she would be an illegal immigrant and, to be quite honest, there are still people out for her blood.”
“Can’t you do anything for her?”
“No. You can hire a lawyer to help her though.”
“How can she go on missions then, if being outside is illegal?”
“When on missions under the Avengers banner, she’s still under the UN immunity.” Steve exchanged a glance with Wanda, smiling in a reassuring way. “When all those issues are cleared, you’ll have to go through team building exercises. Once the big bosses are satisfied, you will be cleared for field duty.”
“And when will that be?”
“When the shitstorm that’s coming for you passes. If you don’t have any more questions, we’ll adjourn this meeting. Private ones will be made on a later date to discuss your personal issues. Thank you for coming.”
They all knew a dismissal when they saw one. They all got up and waited for Delacour, Rhodes and Bidden to leave. When it was just seven people left in the room, Red addressed them.
“The compound is now all yours, you are free to do whatever you want. If you need me, I’ll be in my office. Good day.” She then left them all standing there.
“So…” started Clint.
“We’ll get through it. Everything will be fine” assured Steve, holding Wanda’s hand.
Clint and Sam looked at each other, clearly not sharing the sentiment.