A/N PLEASE READ!
This story is an AU and it takes in a universe where Captain America: The Winter Soldier never takes place.
Full summary:
I just wanted to be a hero. I wanted to be like you.
When Tony Stark fails to reach out to Peter Parker after managing to avoid a brawl with Steve over the Accords, SHIELD steals an opportunity. They grab it in a chokehold and refuse to let it go.
Caught in the middle of something horrible that promises to change everything and New York on the brink of ripping itself apart, Peter needs to learn who he can trust and who the real villains are before he becomes the one thing he promised he would defeat.
I never meant for this to happen. Mr. Stark…I'm sorry.
Tony sighs, massaging his temples in the emptiness of the conference room. This isn't going well. Isn't even on the same map of well. Tony drops his head into his hands, his elbows boring holes into his thighs. When he was younger, Jarvis would crouch down, putting both of his hands on Tony's shoulders and smile in that gentle way that made Tony ache for a father. "Always look on the brighter side of things Tony. Every cloud has a silver lining."
Nice sentiment.
Not really helpful.
Not when the negative side was his father looking at him in that special derisive way that made Tony wish he never had the audacity to be born though he never remembered asking to be. Not when the negative side was everyone in school envying him to the point of hating him. Not when Jarvis died. And there was no one left to remind him to at least try to pretend the world wasn't as dark as it always seemed to be.
Tony looks up at the ceiling. He drops back down. What was he thinking? Was he hoping Stark Tower would melt away so he could see the sky and pretend to have some sort of enlightening epiphany?
He doesn't even like the sky.
He's afraid of it.
He's afraid of the night more though.
Tony shakes the thought away. He doesn't know how to fix this. The mess the team has become. But he knows he has to. The Accords were driving the Avengers apart and this was the one thing…
It doesn't matter. What matters is that Tony has to keep them together. For all their sakes. For the world's too. He thinks about what he saw in that wormhole. The thousands upon thousands of ships looming over his home one step away from attack. He thought about how tiny their blue planet was. How defenseless. Like a newborn. Never knew it wasn't alone until suddenly aliens were falling out of the sky.
The world needs them. If it's to have any shot of surviving The Return- and they would return, Tony knows they would. He knows it with a certainty that takes root in his bones and tremors in his very soul. When they come back, Earth had to be ready. And it's best- only- defenders were its best shot.
Tony's heart clenches.
There are other reasons. There has to be. More sentimental reasons. The way Natasha smiles, small and real, when Tony slides her a cup of coffee in the morning, wordless. The clutter in his lab Bruce leaves lying around after a night of breakthroughs that he'd rush through excitedly with Tony, both of them relishing that neither had to slow down. Thor's booming laughter when he watches sitcoms Tony had introduced him to on a whim. He likes The Brady Bunch, who knew. Clint, in all his goof ball glory, cracking one liners that have Tony's lip twitch. And even Cap. The great American Hero…somehow…he had become the confidante Tony wished were real when he was still a child playing around with a plastic shield and a hand-made mask.
Tony has a family. He has the love of his life (though they were on a break just then) and his best friend and his favourite security man. But being with the Avengers, that was…that was being part of a team. Of being with people like him, who had flaws to overcome and things to prove and a desire to save the world to have a chance at redemption for all the ways they went wrong. It isn't better. Just different. And Tony wants them to stay. He wants it and somehow, he's stopped being afraid of saying it. Of saying he needs anyone.
He blames Pepper.
Tony gets up, takes a breath and cocks his head up. "Hey baby girl, know where Steve is?"
FRIDAY's voice is chirpy when she replies, "Looks like he's getting ready to leave boss."
He could let him go. He could. But Tony won't. Not this time. Because if things kept going the way they were, it was going to get ugly. Fights with words becoming fights with fists and no one wanted that. No matter how much they sometimes wanted to punch each other right in the face. That's just how teams were though. You argue and you fight but it's because you want to stay together. Because you want to have the same plan. So you bicker and you nitpick because you don't want to splinter and then one day blink and realize you've drifted apart.
Tony runs.
He catches Steve just as he's about to leave his room and he can tell Steve's on guard. It's in the slight tension of his shoulders, the apprehension in his eyes. "The way you're looking at me right now," Tony starts, "it's like I'm the enemy."
Steve looks taken aback and Tony pushes more, "Look where we are right now Steve. Is this really what you want?"
"What I want is to be able to save people when they need saving without having to wait for someone else to say it's alright with them and their agenda." Steve pushes right back.
Tony sighs. "Can we sit. We need to sit because if we do one more thing, just one more thing that gets us on the news, we're toast. Do you get that? Nothing else is important right now. We need to figure out a way for us to work together and you not-" Tony stops.
Blaming isn't the way to go. In his head, he gives a nod to Pepper again. Steve was a proud guy, imply he was anything but a moral upright citizen and everything you had to say would just go right over his head. "We need to work it out. We can't just all be doing our own thing right now."
"Tony-"
"You walk out that door right now and you're saying to me that you're giving up on everything we stand for as a team." It comes out before he can really think about it but it hangs there in the air, bolded and underlined and heavy.
"I don't want to give up the Avengers." Steve says, "But I can't trust that the World Security Council is going to be able to let us do what we need to do to save lives." Steve asserts and his ideals are like glaciers that engulf his eyes.
Tony slashes his hand through the air, "That's all well and good Steve, but what we're doing right now," he gestures between them, "this is going nowhere. And it'll lead to a shit show later and we both know it. We need to resolve this now." And Tony's less imposing than Steve is, he's shorter and less brawny, but his stance is firm and he feels like a mountain, he refuses to be passed over.
Steve assesses him and something seems to deflate inside him. "Okay Tony. Let's talk."
Tony's almost sad a little, that's he's surprised by that. Steve's his team-mate, their leader most of the time. It shouldn't be strange that he'd put down his habit of barrelling through people instead of negotiating with them for him, but still. Tony's surprised anyway.
They argue for two hours. They go back and forth on the same points until Tony's parched and Steve's knuckles are white from clenching his fists so much. What finally gets him is Tony's confession, loud and accidental. "I need you guys! Is that what you want to hear? I can't do this without you." He says, quieter. Embarrassed a little, at his outburst.
It's so quiet he could hear the cars driving fifty stories down. Steve blinks, mouth parting.
"What I saw…" Tony looks away, unable to face the man whose shadow he had fought to fill his whole life, the same man who's seeing his vulnerability now, disgusting and childish, "what I saw…in that wormhole. I never told you…" he twists his lip, "how afraid I was."
Tony looks right at him. "If you saw what I saw, you'd understand what I'm trying to get across to you. We can't beat them. I spend every second of every goddamn day thinking of a way to improve our defenses, to up our offense, to make some kind of anything to give us just a chance at defeating them when they come back. Because they willcome back. We both know it. Because that, that up there?" Tony's voice almost shakes, "That's the endgame."
"And we can only do it together. And I hate that. I hate everything about that. The cheesiness, the utter lameness of even saying it. But it's true. We're not half as good without each other and every big bad guy we've come across so far we've managed to get rid of and I know that we couldn't have done all that solo. So no. This is more important than what we want and how we think the world should run."
"The future is always more important than what we want right this second. You think I want to let some international big wigs tell me what to do? You saw me tell my own country's Congress to fuck the hell off but we can't just go into other people's countries and do whatever the hell we want. We're not above the law just because we've saved a few lives and have fancy powers or big brains. We don't have that right."
Tony falls in his chair, closing his eyes. "But like I said," and he's so tired he thinks this might be the end of it for him, "it's not about that. It's about being together when the worst comes. We need to keep the Avengers together. No matter what it takes. Accords can be amended and once they see their system is inefficient they'll change it or we'll find a way around it, we're good at that. But us? Together? That has to be non-negotiable."
There's something in Steve's eyes, something Tony can't quite place. But he almost looks moved, like all the fight drained right out of him. "I want to do that Tony. I just don't know how you expect me to throw away everything I believe in."
"I'm asking you to trust me."
The air is thick in the room and it's so quiet Tony's sure Steve can hear his heartbeat. There's a long pause and Steve pulls his lip, pressing a hand over his face. Tony almost thinks he's going to punch a hole through the wall. But Steve takes a breath instead and his shoulders drop. "Okay."
Tony doesn't dare to breathe.
"I'll sign. But as soon as we can change them, we change them. And as soon as they get in the way of what we were tasked to do, we leave. As a team."
"Deal." he says immediately. Without even having to think about it.
He shoots up, breathless and so relieved his legs almost being to shake. Tony's not even sure what leave means. But it doesn't matter. Everything was a series of baby steps and this one, this one was a big one.
"But I want to make it clear. I'm not doing this because I believe in the Accords." Steve levels.
And Tony can't help the overwhelmed feeling in his throat when he says, "I know." And wonders what it would be like to be more like Rhodey, who could say what he felt and never worry about it, so open and honest.
Something passes between them and in that moment, Tony knows this is the right thing to do. He thinks Steve knows it too.
Steve's signature is firm and bold and Tony feels the weight of the world off his shoulders. Across the ocean, a building filled with dignitaries explodes in a storm of glass and fire. But in New York, Steve and Tony sign away a new beginning.
Peter's swinging through the streets of New York, shivering slightly as the high winds seep through the cotton of his sweater-suit. It's not the best look, he knows. It's not sleek or cool or even that protective. But it covered his face and hid his identity from the world and that's what mattered. Plus, the logo was kinda neat. A big black spider splayed across his chest. That was a nice touch. Very on brand.
Peter grins, the rush of flying in the air too much for him to keep worrying about his look. He pulls tightly on his web so that he soars up into the sky, grasping the edge of a building and flipping his body around so he lands on his toes, knees bent. He peers over the city, scanning the ground to find anyone who might be in need of him. A lot of being Spiderman was just waiting honestly. He hadn't figured out a way to attach a police scanner on his suit without it being too bulky. It would be just his luck to get thrown into a wall or something and have the entire radio shatter into his skin or something. So for now, he had to rely on his superhuman senses to alert him to trouble.
And trouble always found him. He spots the girl before he really registers anything could be wrong about the picture. She's walks out of a Marshall's staring wide eyed into the crowded street like she was trying to find someone. She takes one hesitant step, then another and another, eyes darting around, her steps slowly picking up pace before a man cocks his head, looking at her for a moment before walking up to her. Peter narrows his eyes, straining his ears to hear what he says. "Hey sweetheart, are you okay?"
The girl's lip wobbles, she couldn't be more than seven years old. "I'm trying to find my mommy. I lost her." She confesses and even from above it all, Peter can make out the shining in her eyes.
The man smiles and Peter wonders if he was aiming for gentle because all Peter's getting is predatory. "It's okay, I can help you find her. Come on, I'll take you to her." He holds out his hand and the girl stares at him.
"Really? You can help me find her?"
"Oh don't worry, I already know where she is." He promises and Peter snaps into action.
He's flipping off the building, shooting a web at a light post so he swings around it, landing right between the man and the girl, straightening his back and crossing his arms. "What do you think you're doing man?"
The man gets right in his face. A fighter then. Great. "What do you think you're doing?"
"You think I'm just going to let you kidnap a kid in broad daylight?" Peter snarks, "Wouldn't make a good superhero would it?"
"I'm not kidnapping her. She's my niece. I'm taking her out."
Peter wags his finger exaggeratively, "A kidnapper and a liar. Wow. Double whammy. She's looking for her mom and you pretended to know where she was." He gestures to his ears, "I have super hearing. Comes with the gig." He shrugs like he's trying to look apologetic.
The man falters before turning tail to run. But Peter just fake yawns, shooting out a web that locks his feet together before doing the same to his hands. The man hits the floor with a yelp, blood staining the cement beneath his chin. "I don't know if you can get charged with attempted kidnapping but we're gonna find out."
He pushes him up, webbing him straight to the wall so he can't escape so he can call the cops and have them deal with it.
He turns to the girl, whose fear has sucked the colour right from out of her face. Peter softens, bending down to be at her level. "Hey, I'm Spiderman, what's your name?"
"Lucy." She whispers, still looking apprehensive.
Peter reaches out his hand for her to shake. "Nice to meet you Lucy. You've been very brave right now. I'm sorry you had to see all this. Did you lose your mommy in the store over there?" he asks, pointing back at the Marshall's.
Lucy nods, the tears finally spilling over her cheeks. "That's okay. We're just going to go back inside and see if she's still there okay? You should never leave the place you got lost. I'm sure your mommy's looking for you." Peter reprimands.
Lucy bows her head. "I'm sorry. I want my mommy." she cries.
"It's okay. We're going to find her, come on." Peter holds out his hand and hesitantly, Lucy takes it.
Peter leads her inside the store to see a woman frantically running through the store calling Lucy's name. "MOMMY!" Lucy yells and the woman turns around looking like she might collapse on the spot.
"Lucy! Oh my God Lucy where have you been?" her mom cries, running to her daughter and scooping her in for a hug.
She looks up from where she's buried her head in her daughter's hair. "Thank you."
Peter never knew two words could be said with so much emotion. "It's my job ma'am. Please be more careful next time." he nods at her before disappearing out the door, off to the next crisis.
It all goes to hell when they find out what happened in Vienna and what happened when Barnes got broken out. Zemo's plan failed, he didn't get to escape with his victim, but they're both on the loose now and Steve is near panic. "You can't go after him. They'll find you in violation of the Accords." Tony says, mostly because someone has to.
Steve turns on him, pinning him with a stare so intense Tony almost feels the need to take a step back. "I have to get him. He's my friend. They'll kill him Tony."
And Tony wonders what he would do, if it was Rhodey or the world. He remembers being given the choice, the President or Pepper. Remembers saying fuck that and saving both. God living was such a headache. And he kind of hates that he already made a decision without even really having to think it through. "I have a suit to work on." he announces, stuffing his hands in his pockets, "I'm going to the lab. No one's allowed down there and FRIDAY knows better than to bother me by telling me what my room-mates are up to."
Steve sucks in a breath. "Tony-"
"I'll trust you too." Tony's back is turned so he can't see Steve's face, but he can hear him when he leaves.
He hopes he did the right thing.
More than that, he hopes they won't get caught.
It's then that his phone pings with a news update. Tony keeps tabs on quite a few people and topics. Having grown up in the spotlight, Tony knows it's always smarter to get ahead of the story than get caught by surprise. He has red alerts for anything Avengers related, everything about him and Iron Man, a few on the military, anything that was allowed to be published on SHIELD, and recently someone altogether new. And intriguing. A kid swinging around the streets of Queens in a onesie helping old ladies cross the street and stop muggings. Unable to help himself, Tony cracks a smile. He glances at the headline, SPIDERMAN STOPS KIDNAPPING IN BROAD DAYLIGHT.
Good kid that Spiderman.
He closes the alert. Thanks whatever entities that might be that he didn't need to follow through with that plan. He had wanted something different for Spiderman, a different sort of introduction into the hero world. Dragging him into an Avengers dispute isn't his ideal meeting scenario. He wants to wait a little, see what the kid is made of, let him grow a little on his own before going down there and upping the game. Wants to figure out if he's really as good a kid as he looks. Tony never wants to give power to the wrong hands ever again.
But as it is. Bringing Spiderman was a last resort. Somehow, they'd managed to avoid it. Tony's still not quite sure how.
It's a day later when he gets a call from an unknown number, though he knows who it'll be when he picks up. "Tony. We got everything wrong. We need to get the team together."
Steve sounds panicked and so Tony snaps into action.
They hang up without having said anything at all. They both know better than to talk about sensitive topics over the phone. Tony calls Natasha. It would be better to keep Wanda and Vision together in the tower for now. Better for Wanda anyway.
The four meet up in a bunker Tony really doesn't want to be inside of and when he sees Barnes, he thought he'd feel something, but he mostly just feels pity. "Where are the others?" is the first thing Steve asks.
"Wanda should lie low for the next while. It's not safe for her or us if she gets harassed outside. Vision's with her. And the more I keep from Rhodey about this the better off he'll be. The last thing I want is to cause another military headache for him."
Steve nods though from the crick in his jaw Tony knows he doesn't agree. "You can't just keep Wanda locked up like a prisoner."
"It's a multi-million dollar tower with every amenity you could possibly think of." Tony drawls, "Most people would kill just to be inside it."
Steve looks like he wants to argue some more but Natasha cuts in, "Calm down boys. We're not here to fight." She's looking at Barnes like she's afraid, but not of him.
He's looking at her the same way. "Natasha?" he whispers and her eyes widen, lips parting.
"You know each other?" Steve asks, incredulous.
"You could say that." Natasha says, voice dry.
Tony can't deal with this right now.
"Hey guys, apparently there's a big mission we need to do? Some more Avengers saving the world kinda thing? Maybe we can keep the reunions to later when we actually have the time?"
Natasha snaps out of it, regaining her composure. "Of course. The mission. What happened Steve?"
As Steve tells them about Zemo's plans and the team of vicious Winter Soldiers just waiting to be awoken Tony feels dread pooling in the pit of his stomach. "Okay." Tony stretches the word. "So we just need to find where he's keeping them and make sure he doesn't release them. Easy."
"it's not that easy. What happens after? We can't just hide the fact that we have the world's most wanted criminal hanging out in our basement." Natasha points out, looking away from Barnes when he catches her eye.
Tony nods. "They can't hold him accountable if he was brainwashed."
"The justice system isn't exactly known for being just." Steve counters, voice low.
Tony nods again, slower. "Then we just need a bargaining chip. Something to bait them with. You give our guy a fair trial and get that mumbo-jumbo out of his head and we'll give you…"
"Zemo." Natasha finishes, looking almost excited, "That could work. And whatever we find at the compound where he's keeping all the experiments. There must be good HYDRA intel, SHIELD's been after anything related to HYDRA since before I joined. They have a whole dossier of mission files that are insanely confidential. Even Fury can't see some of them."
Tony's brows furrow at that, but before he can ask her to elaborate, Steve crosses his arms, looking uncertain. "I can't take any chances. Not with Bucky's life." he shakes his head.
Tony sucks in an exasperated breath. "And what's your alternative Steve? Become fugitives? We're the Avengers, if we had to escape the US military we could do it. Why would you piss off the government before you have to? We have a good thing going, with the Avengers Initiative and the tower and the missions. You wanna throw that all away because you think there's a 1% chance our plan won't work? Don't be crazy."
"It's not crazy, it's about Bucky's life." Steve reasserts, but Barnes shakes his head.
"Steve, he's right." Barnes looks at Tony, something terribly sad swimming in his eyes, "You're Howard's kid right? You look like him." beside him, Steve swallows hard.
Tony's forgotten, or maybe not forgot, just hadn't really thought about it. That there's now one more person who knew his dad before he became the man Tony learned to fear. Someone who saw Howard Stark at his prime, a genius inventor beyond his technology. The thought makes something inside him squeeze.
"We have to stop Zemo from releasing the other soldiers. And their plan makes sense." Barnes says, his voice oddly soft for a men with so many edges.
Steve's shoulders sag. "I don't want to fail you. Not again."
"You haven't. And you won't." Barnes says, firm and true.
Tony levels his gaze at Steve, "Cap?"
Conflicted but unable to deny the truth, Steve sighs, "Alright. Let's go."
Tony claps his hands together, "Okay chop chop team, I have an important meeting at eight."
Natasha rolls her eyes, but she looks fond, "You haven't gone to a meeting in three months."
"Yeah but the bad guys don't know that." And even Steve can't help the tiny smile as Natasha snorts.
They fly in one of Tony's helicopters. It's sleek and dark toned, perfect for the stormy sky. There's tension inside the aircraft but for once, it has nothing to do with who was inside and everything to do with what they were about to face. Though Tony doesn't miss the meaningful glances between Bucky and his secretive friend. Tony appraises Barnes, notes the softness of his demeanour despite the potential for violence he knows lies just beneath. He looks damaged. Battered maybe. Like waking up got more and more tiring every day he did it. Tony relates.
He looks at Steve and thinks of Rhodey and thinks that maybe Steve isn't so crazy. Tony would probably fuck over the world for Rhodey too. But would he have fucked over his team?
"Hey, Manchurian Candidate, got any leads on how to cure your whole split personality thing you got going on?"
Barnes' lip twists into something almost wry. "Not a clue. I'm a soldier, not a brain scientist."
Bruce flashes in Tony's mind and he pushes away the thought before it can hurt too much. "Well lucky for you Barnes, I know the most brilliant person in the medical field. Her name's Helen Cho. If anyone can figure out your whole thing it's her. We can get her to come down once we finish with this nutjob."
Barnes' smile is small, like a belladonna waiting for the moon to bloom, and there's a guilt that swirls in his eyes that Tony can't quite place. "Thank you." His sincerity shouldn't be that touching, but it is and Tony squirms in his seat.
"Don't sweat it." he says, and hopes he sounds as nonchalant as he's trying to be.
Natasha's side eye proves that he isn't.
They touch down on a rocky platform and the four make their way in a 2x2 formation, walking through the base with caution. Eventually, they step into a circular room and the glass tubes that line the walls look like flooded coffins, the dead bodies of the fallen Winter Soldiers bobbing within them. Tony's shoulders tense, a vague sense of danger piquing his senses. In front of him, Barnes watches with something like a confused detachment as he walks into the centre. That's when the voice reverberates across the room.
It's Zemo and he's railing about his woes and grievances and Tony wants to punch a hole in a wall because he knows. He knows they aren't perfect and he knows they've failed but they've tried and without them it probably would've been even more devastating and no one ever seems to care about that. He knows he's made mistakes. He's trying to fix them.
He always seems to make his own demons. Turns out now is no exception.
Zemo's speech paralyzes them. There's a moment of silence before his final words echo in their heads. "An empire that crumbles from its enemies can rise again…But an empire that crumbles from within…" Tony's gaze jumps as a small screen switches on, its light flickering ominously in the dark room. "that's dead. Forever." Zemo finishes and Tony stumbles toward the light.
"I know that road." his voice feels hoarse, feelings he thought he had crushed bubbling to the surface like they're out for retribution.
"What is this!" he demanded, but he sounded like he was going to be sick, somewhere in between terror and denial.
Zemo doesn't answer but Tony barely registers that as he watches his parents' car smash into a tree, its hood bending like storm waves. He hears the dying of a motorcycle engine, a man walking forward. His father tumbles from the driver's seat, blood on his face, his lungs heaving for air. Tony's stomach seizes, his breath comes faster, for the first time in a long time, his brain, usually in overdrive, focuses only one thing. Just one. He hears his father begging for his mom's life and his body shakes. The motorcyclist enters the frame and Tony's heart stops.
No.
No no no no.
That's not possible. That's not- but he looks at Barnes' face and he sees the self-hate that flickers in his eyes, the disgust that weighs him down, the glaring admission of guilt.
Tony goes white hot.
In the video, The Winter Soldier stares down at Howard, "Sargent Barnes?" he manages to gasp before he's being punched over and over until he slumps to the ground and this time Tony knows he won't get up.
Tony remembers being younger. Of wishing he had said goodbye to his parents properly before they left. He remembers wishing he had gone with them, maybe they would've made it. Maybe he could've saved them. He knows now, he would have just died with them. But he remembers the grief he felt.
It's worse now.
What were his parents last thoughts before they died? He used to wonder. What were their last expressions? What were they doing?
Now he knows. He saw the life get knocked out his father's eyes. He heard his mother's last gasps.
He wants to be sick. He wants to punch something. He wishes he could cry. He wants to scream. He wants to punch someone. He wants to- he wants to-
He didn't know his heart could break this way again.
Without even thinking about it, he lunges in Barnes' direction. The man doesn't even try to get out the way. But Steve does. He grabs Tony's arm and pleads with him. "Tony please-"
His tunnel vision disappears and suddenly there are a million things his brain is thinking about, calculating, assessing. He registers Natasha's pale face, the uncertainty of her posture. For once, the woman who's always been ten steps ahead is suddenly twenty steps behind. He sees Barnes, looking unforgivably sorry and guilty and who gave him the right. He feels Steve's hand around his arm and something terrible and awful and so explosive he feels the thought pulse in his head until it's all he can think about. His voice is a barely controlled whisper. "Did you know?"
He turns around, still in his grasp, so he can look at him so he can't lie. Steve can't speak, his lips part but no words come out and Tony takes another step forward, "Did you know?" he repeats, more forcefully this time.
"No." Steve's voice cracks, "How could I have known about a HYDRA mission?"
Something close to shattering inside him unclenches. Tony breathes again, but it's erratic and he's having a hard time trying to settle everything inside him. It's been a while since he's felt so out of control but he has no idea what to with himself. He has no idea, no baseline, no model by which to act against.
He feels like he's dying.
Natasha's voice is like a balm, "Tony," she steps toward him, slowly, like she's trying not to scare him, "Tony I know how you must be feeling right now. I do." Her eyes are locked on his, earnest and intense. Tony wonders if any of her is real, "But you can't do this. It's exactly what Zemo wants. He wants us to fight each other, we have to be stronger than that."
"You wanted to keep the Avengers together remember?" Steve jumps in quickly. Vaguely, Tony thinks he's pleading, "Tony please-"
"I don't care." his voice drops, "He killed my mom." he rips his arm from Steve's grasp and turns on Barnes, his wrist gauntlets blazing before Natasha jumps between him and Barnes, her arms spread out and her lip shaking.
"I can't let you do this."
Tony's helmet shoots up, the hurt bright in his face. "You going to take his side too? Why am I surprised." The sardonic tone isn't lost on her but Natasha stands firm.
"This isn't about sides Tony. I won't let you kill someone you're going to regret killing. And I won't let you kill someone who didn't have a choice. Bucky didn't kill your parents. HYDRA did. That's the real enemy. Zemo's the real enemy. You're better than this Tony. I know you are."
Tony sneers, "Actually, I recall you thinking I'm not better than that. Does your Avengers Initiative Report ring any bells?"
Tony still has his gauntlets trained on her. Natasha doesn't flinch.
"I was wrong. I can admit that." She catches his eye and like a challenge, "Can you?"
The anger is burning through his system. It's corrosive and it courses through him, consuming more and more of him. Logically, he knows they're right. But he doesn't care. He doesn't care. That was his mom. That was his mom.
But in front of him is Natasha. And behind him is Steve. And there's a man who Tony knows is a victim and yet. And yet.
Tony lowers his gauntlets and he can see the relief flood through Natasha's eyes.
He almost feels bad.
He shoots a beam at her feet, he knows how her training works. She'll dodge to the left, she'll reach instinctively to her belt for her Widow's Bites. In that seven second window, Tony shoots like a missile in Barnes' direction, lands a solid punch to his face, he can feel his cheekbone and nose cartilage breaking beneath his fist. Barnes falls to the floor with a cough. Steve yells his name. Tony looks back for just a second before thrusting his hands down and flying upward where he can see the hatch is wide open.
He doesn't want to fight Natasha. Doesn't even want to fight Steve either. And he doesn't want to be the kind of person that tears through his friends because he went out of control. He didn't wanna steal the Big Guy's thing.
So he flies.
He doesn't think about how much he wants to bash Barnes' face in. He just thinks about how much he wants to leave. How far away he wants to be from here.
How he never wants to see what was left of the Avengers ever again. He may not want to fight them but he can't bear to look at them either.
Zemo was right. And worst of all, he won.
You'd think after a while, the betrayals would stop hurting so much. But as he flew across the stormy waters and tried to pretend the water on his face was from the spray, Tony remembers that it never stops hurting. It only gets worse.
Peter has one last stop to make before he'll slip back inside his room. There's a community greenhouse garden on the roof of a rent-controlled apartment block. Well, it was rent-controlled. As part of a community building initiative, The Greenery, a small non-profit helped build a greenhouse so residents could plant their own vegetables and herbs. It was a nice way to learn a new skill and make some friends. But after the policy was revoked in an attempt to kick-start the housing market, the building owners decide they wanted to rebuild into a condo, destroying the greenhouse in the process.
The tenants are all up in arms about it, trying to find some legal recourse to the ruthless gentrification that was eating up their neighbourhood. But until then, the roof had been locked up as the greenhouse was being dismantled in preparation for the demolition. There was no real reason to do that. If the landlord won, which they often did, he would be getting rid of it anyway. But he was spiteful and thought he could punish everyone who loved it if he barred them access from it. And technically, it was within his right to bar them from the roof.
Enter Peter.
He doesn't need to follow any of the security proceedings. He doesn't need to walk in through the front door and get buzzed in, clearing his name by security. He doesn't have to take the elevator up that now stopped at the tenth floor and wouldn't go higher. Peter can't make the courts side with the tenants, but he can derail the deconstruction. And he can water the plants.
The key though, is not getting caught. Having a vigilante's name tied up in a case like this wouldn't do the tenants any favours, so Peter takes extra care in making sure he isn't seen whenever he goes. He comes in from below, not wanting to attract attention by swinging down. Making sure he doesn't hear anyone around, he walks to the side of the building where he's shielded by the shade of the taller tower next to it, scaling the wall quickly. He keeps still when he's at the top, not high enough for his fingers to curl over the edge, but enough to hear a footstep or even just a breath. A minute passes, then two. Not hearing anything, Peter peers over the edge, scanning the small enclosure before swinging his body around, landing quietly on his feet.
There are two cameras installed after someone broke in and spray painted some derogatory comments about the landlord all over the floor, but Peter knows how to handle them. The first is pointed directly at the greenhouse and the other at the door. He can avoid the door completely and for the other one, well that one was alarmingly easy. All he had to do was stick one of those nanny cams to the side of the camera for a day before retrieving it and uploading the footage on his laptop. From that point, it was just a matter of learning how to substitute their video into the surveillance system, which was apparently a widely Googleable and relatively simple process to do. It was just a whole lot of coding and debugging and it was actually a really frustrating process, but the actual idea was pretty straightforward.
He's already looped it before he left so he should be good. He'd quietly recuse himself from the system when he got home too. Once again, the crew the landlord had hired would find that all their demolition tools had mysteriously ended up dismantled and on the ground as they were when they were shipped there. And as for the plants, Peter steps into the greenhouse, admiring the roundness of the tomatoes and the strong scent of rosemary from the herb garden. He fills the watering can with the hose, needing to refill it five more times before he's done with his rounds. They all look healthy enough. He wishes he could pick some of the ripe ones for everyone below him. But he knows they would never get to see it.
He also knows that eventually, the landlord would get sick of this game and either hype up security or just tear the whole thing down himself. But until then, Peter can do what only he can do and try to stave off the inevitable. He trims some over-growing leaves and makes sure the soil is the right acidity before closing the door gently behind him. Stretching his arms behind his head, he gazes out into the New York landscape, glazed in orange and pink. His eyes widen when he catches sight of what could have been a shooting star streaking down into Avengers Tower. Peter rushes to the edge of the building, trying to absorb as much as he could of his hero flying back home.
Iron Man is unmistakable.
Peter wonders where he'd been. Had been off saving the world? Was he just doing a local mission? Did he hear back from the disappeared Bruce Banner? Or even Thor? Mostly, Peter wishes he could be like Tony Stark. Brave and resilient and insanely smart. One day, he wants to be an Avenger too. Going on missions with the other heroes and saving the world.
Peter loves what he's doing now. Protecting Queens is great, he loves it, he really does. But he could be doing so much more. He's stronger and more capable than this. He could make a real difference. He knows he could. He just wishes he could prove himself. Maybe catch Iron Man's notice.
Peter shakes his head, a self-deprecating smile on his lips. Yeah right. There's no way he's on anyone's radar right now.
Nick Fury strides down the hallway of SHIELD headquarters, his jacket rippling behind him. He knocks twice, quick and curt against Secretary Pierce's door and doesn't wait before walking in.
Pierce looks at him with a wry expression. "Still just barging in I see."
Fury cracks a smile. "I'm big on transparency."
"So? Where's the fire?" Pierce leans back in his chair, looking resigned to the fate of the world to catastrophe.
"No fire. Not this time. Just wanted to make sure you knew that all the Avengers have signed the Accords. You can go tell the rest of the World Council now to get off our backs. They're in the law."
Pierce smiles. "Really? That's great news." there's something in his voice though, something insincere.
"We'll see if it's good news. No one knows what a world of accountable superheroes looks like." Fury retorts dryly. "And one more thing, Project Insight is ready for development."
Pierce perks up at that, sitting straight up in seat. "It's done?"
Fury holds up his hands, "Don't get so ahead of yourself. The plans are ready. We can start development next week."
Pierce smiles and for a second, it almost looks menacing. Must have been a trick of the light. "Fantastic. You're running a good show Director. I'll pass on the good news to the World Security Council. By the end of the week, we should have full control of the Avengers team again."
Fury nods and turns to go before Pierce calls his name again, "One more thing, how are we on our covert missions recruitment project?"
Fury's lip turns up, "We found a candidate. Contact's going to be made tomorrow."
"Does this candidate have a name?"
Instead of answering, Fury pulls out his phone, pressing a few buttons before a notification pops up on Pierce's screen. "Meet Peter Parker," a video of a red and blue blur swinging down the streets of New York plays on Pierce's screen, "but you might know him better as Spiderman."
Pierce looks unconvinced, "He looks like a kid. You really think he's capable?"
"Tony Stark seemed to think so. But Tony doesn't seem to be needing him at the moment."
The video clip ends with Peter doing a backflip over the streets, something carefree in the openness of his arms.
But even spiders can get caught in a web.