Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel Cinematic Universe.
This story is not Tony-Stark-friendly, so if you stan him this story is not for you.
I want to thank all who commented on my story and liked it. And I want to thank those who favorited and followed it.
So, now on to the last chapter. I hope you enjoy it and like the payoff and conclusion to the story.
And I want to thank all the Tony-Starks-stans for their 'lovely' comments. The truth really hurts, yes?
This sets after Endgame, everybody lives, and nobody other than Thanos dies in the fight.
Nebula left Tony Stark the first chance she got and came to Earth early enough to join the fight against Thanos. She made the killing blow after the Avengers took Thanos down together.
Everyone turned to dust through the snap came back after Steve and all the others true Avengers who defeated Thanos took together control of the stones and reversed Thanos' snap.
The Avengers now know that Coulson is alive and how Fury brought him back with all the consequences this had for Coulson.
After the fight Nebula tells them about Stark and SHIELD's space ship, commanded through Coulson, can rescue Stark before he dies through asphyxiation. Nobody missed him in the fight, the Avengers like working together without someone who betrays them at every opportunity, who has no interest in helping others when there is no profit for him and only fights for his fame.
In the months between the two snaps, Ross shows his true colours and lost every restraint in the way he treats an enhanced being. The only problem he has is a masked man, who thwarts Ross' plans at every turn and who calls himself Ronin. Finally, the president fires Ross because he got evidence sent anonymously that Ross is planning a coup.
Barton reunites with his family. In his time as Ronin, he hunts as a hobby everyone down who is a threat to his family and kills them, so now his family is safe again after Stark betrayed their existence to his enemies.
Because the true Avengers defeated Thanos, the governments comply with their demands for a massive modification of the Accords.
And too, because the public, finally clued in through Ross' actions how oppressive the Accords really are to enhanced beings and the resulting human rights violations, want blood and it is not the blood of the Avengers.
The Accords as they now are got repealed and a committee, which is staffed in equal parts with 'normal' and enhanced humans, rework the Accords with consultation through lawyers with a specialty in human rights.
The completed passages are at regular intervals presented to the public.
Steve Rogers and all the other true Avengers already announced that they would sign the Sokovia Accords in this form because they were never against oversight but that the first Sokovia Accords were about control and subjugation. They did not have any say in them and did not want to give up their human rights.
To mourn the dead, who died because people turned to dust and whom nobody could bring back again and to celebrate the defeat of Thanos, Pepper declares that she wants to honour all the Avengers who fought against and defeated Thanos. She has invited all the Avengers and the press too with the announcement that there will be news, which will be the big talking point for the next months and years.
21. Epilogue
Be nice to people on your way up
because you might meet them again
on your way back down.
Wilson Mizner
Pepper stand on the stage and looked through the curtains. Satisfied she saw that every journalist she invited had come. She would bet that all these journalists thought that they already knew what she would announce, namely the date for the marriage of Tony and her. Well, they were in for a surprise!
Coulson walked up to her. "Are you sure, you want to go through with it?"
"Yes I'm sure but thanks for asking." Pepper looked at her old friend. She was so glad that he was alive once more and finally come forth to her. "Is everything prepared?"
"Yes, Daisy stands by and is only waiting for your sign." Coulson smirked, he had waited for this moment a long time.
"And, are Clint and Natasha speaking with you again?"
Coulson winced. "Clint has forgiven me, mostly. Natasha plays with her knifes, every time she sees me but she will come around. To my great luck they are angrier with Fury than with me."
"And you left him to his fate?"
"He can take it and he owes it to me", replied Coulson with sparkling eyes.
Pepper shook her head. "You have an interesting friendship."
"Yes, we do. Will Stark be on stage or wanted he to sit in the audience?"
Pepper scoffed. "Of course he wants to sit on the stage. Missing a chance or an opportunity to be a focal point or to braggart to the public? It is Tony we are talking about, he is an attention whore." Than an evil smirk appeared. "I'm curious if he still thinks like that in the end."
"I doubt it." Coulson now smirked too than laid a hand to his ear. "The Avengers have arrived. You will welcome them?"
"Yes of course, I'm so happy to see them again. Clint even brought Laura and his children with him."
"Yes, if Clint dedicates himself to something he is very thoroughly and consequent." Coulson winced again. He knew too well, what Clint had done between the two snaps. "He gave Daisy all the evidence against Ross he found or acquired in the last few months, the prosecutor and the press will have a field day with this. With a little luck…" Coulson did not speak further.
"Do I want to know how he got this evidence?"
Coulson smiled coldly. "No, you don't. But as a little hint, Natasha will only kill you if you cross her but Clint will destroy you if you make him your enemy and you will forever regret the day you underestimated him."
"Good to know." Pepper kissed Coulson on the cheek and did go to welcome the Avengers. There were hugs and kisses and Pepper did her upmost too to make the Guardians of the Galaxy and Nebula welcome who had come back for the celebration.
"Where is Stark?" asked Steve, as he did not see his former colleague.
"As usual, he will wait for the last minute to make his grand entrance", answered Pepper. "And I think he doesn't want to meet you when he is not in the presence of the public."
"Oh, so he is scared of us, good." Clint smiled nastily and Pepper thought about what Coulson had said about Clint.
"Or he wants to avoid too much attention on his actions in the Civil War." Steve shrugged with his shoulders; he did not care about Tony anymore one way or the other.
Pepper kept her face blank, neither of the Avengers knew that there was another reason for this big celebration; it was time that a lot of people finally got the justice, they deserved.
Coulson appeared next to her. "We will begin in a few minutes. Hello, Avengers, everyone!"
"Director", said Steve politely. "Why does the director of SHIELD plays your assistant, Pepper?" Steve looked suspicious.
"What can I say, I always admired Phil's competence", replied Pepper tranquilly.
Clint and Natasha changed looks in the creepy twin way they had and then smirked.
"I think it will be a very interesting celebration", said Clint and laughed.
"Oh it will be fun", promised Pepper. "Please follow Phil's instructions, he knows the time table."
Natasha and Clint walked next to Phil and positioned themselves on both sides from him. "I don't think we will have a problem with that."
Coulson felt warmly at the support of his former charges. He knew that the others Avengers would now follow their lead in this.
"Ok then let us begin", said Pepper and walked on the stage. She stood behind the rostrum and someone pulled the curtains back after a nod from her.
The murmur of the audience stopped and with a warm smile, Pepper began to speak. "I am happy that so many of you followed my invitation. Let us first take a minute of silence to commemorate the many dead who lost their lives as a result of Thanos' snap. We got back our loved ones turned to dust by Thanos, but unfortunately, there was no way to bring everyone back to life."
Pepper lowered her head and everyone followed her example.
"We are here today to thank the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy and many other heroes who banded together to defeat Thanos and then in an extraordinary display of team work managed to take control of all six infinity stones and reversed the snap. Let us welcome them!"
Pepper turned to the ascending stairs and clapped with her hands. The audience got up and started clapping too. At first, Steve Rogers came up as the undisputed leader of the Avengers followed by the original Avengers sans Tony Stark and then came all the other heroes. The audience started to cheer loudly.
The Avengers stood in a straight line and bowed. More than one of them had blood rising to his or her face and you could see how embarrassed some of them were.
The cheering got even louder. In a way, the audience cheered for themselves too, to celebrate that they were alive and came out stronger than before out of this terrible six months, which followed Thanos' snap.
Pepper let the applause continue for several minutes before she lifted her hands and the audience went quiet again. "Please sit."
In her ear, she heard Coulson say that Stark was now backstage. As she had planned, there was only one chair remaining who was a little more in the background than the other heroes were.
Stark came now up the stairs and surely awaited that the audience raised again to greet him like the others but Pepper put a stop to that.
"Please sit, Tony, you are too late", she said in a cold voice without turning to him. She didn't need to turn to know that Stark looked offended that she had denied him his big entrance. She heard that Stark tried to move the chair but he couldn't, all chairs were bolted to the ground, he had to sit behind the others. Today Tony would have no chance to steal away their rightful place in the spotlight, which he didn't deserve at all.
"Captain America asked me to speak before you, so let's change places, Steve." She turned and walked to Steve who get up and went to the rostrum.
"Thank you for friendly welcome and the appreciation you showed all of us. It was for all of us very difficult years and all of us more than once wanted to give simply up because it was too much to bear.
But we are humans or even when not all of us are humans we share the same character traits, we love, we hate, we care about each other and what is most important, we don't quit.
We will always stand up again and fight because we know what is right and what is wrong. We won't let fear and despair rule us, we won't tolerate tyrants who want to keep us down and take away our rights." The audience cheered, everyone understood the reference to the first Sokovia Accords.
Pepper looked at the flat screen, which showed the heroes who cheered their captain on too. The only one who didn't follow the outburst was Tony Stark whose face was red with anger.
"We all follow the committee and their work on the new Accords. This time we all have a say in the accords. Not like last time where we only got three days to read them and the government wanted us to sign them without resistance. Well, we all saw how that turned out!
We all saw the human rights violations, which followed after. We all saw the abuse, which were inflicted on enhanced beings through people like Ross who saw it as a free pass to do everything they wanted to people they considered without rights or say in their choices." Steve breathed deeply in.
"In this minute the FBI, other organisations and the press too were handed over all evidence we collected in the years since the implement of the first accords. It shows all the crimes against humanity Ross and other people like him committed.
I am sure, that the FBI will investigate thoroughly and without consideration for the respective position of a person so that all these people wronged will get the justice they deserve. Thank you for listening to me."
The audience raised again and gave a standing ovation. Steve smiled, bowed and walked back to his place.
Pepper hugged him than she walked back to the rostrum. "We all know the way the Avengers who didn't want to sign were portrayed, as criminals, as traitors. The coverage was very biased and could not be further from the truth. Let me show you the truth, not censored as first offered to you. Let me show you the other side!"
On the screen appeared first the fight on the airport than appeared one avenger after the other, who had not wanted to sign the accords, on the screen and told their side of the story.
Last appeared Bucky on the screen, who now sat beside Steve Rogers, and told about his seventy years as prisoner of war, of the abuse, the brainwashing and the murders he as the Winter Soldier committed for Hydra.
The audience was dead silent until pictures showed the brainwashing or the activation of the Winter Soldier than you could hear more than one sniffle and snorting of noses.
"I am sure we all can agree that James Barnes is the victim here, who needs our support, our help and our understanding."
"He murdered my mother", Tony Stark yelled in the audience.
"No, Tony, Hydra murdered your parents! But let's talk about committing murder."
On the screen appeared the fight in Siberia. The audience started to murmur and not in a good way as it saw the calculating way Tony Stark attacked Bucky Barnes, who only wanted to get away, to cause him the most harm.
"This material is coming directly from the sensors of the Iron Man suit. You all can see how the attacks shift from Sergeant Barnes to Captain America, because Steve did not want his friend murdered and defended him. Tell me, Tony, did Captain America kill your mother too?" There was no answer. "I thought so.
After this celebration, Bucky Barnes will fly to DenHaag to stand before the tribunal of war crimes. Steve Rogers and his attorney, Matt Murdock, will escort him to defend him. I am sure we all are curious of the outcome.
Now I will show the events surrounding Ultron and Sokovia, everything is from the internal sensors of Avengers Tower or the sensors of Iron Man's suit."
The audience was once again dead silent and it remained so until the end.
"I spoke beforehand with the board of Stark Industries. We decided, as protection for all the people who work for Stark Industries, to separate the private means of Tony Stark from the property of Stark Industries. I have already begun to make reparations for the part I feel responsible for. I am sure the country of Sokovia will want to sue Tony Stark for his part in creating Ultron and destroying their country."
Pepper smiled coldly and turned to Tony Stark. "As you sure now know, I hereby release our engagement. I could have chosen a more private setting, but as you once said so nicely, you proposed to me was because you had to give the press something to replace an announcement you originally wanted to make."
Tony Stark blanched and Deadpool who sat on the stage too started to cackle.
Pepper turned back to the audience who had started to murmur a lot louder now. "I investigated a lot in the last year but there are two things I found out which I consider disgusting and unforgivable.
This is a recording from the Raft, which shows how the Avengers were locked up and treated when they didn't want to give up their rights. This is from the internal monitoring system of the Raft and shows all interactions between Tony Stark and the imprisoned Avengers."
Pepper had asked Clint beforehand if he approved of the mention of his family. He had only smiled and replied that his family was not in danger anymore and she could show it all.
Again, there was whispering as the audience saw the images and the callous interactions between Tony Stark and his former co-workers.
"To explain some things to you and bring everything in the right perspective. Hawkeye's family was off the records because he had enemies, which would kill them if they knew about them.
After Ultron Hawkeye brought the Avengers to the place, where his family was hiding and only asked of them that they keep his secret and never tell a soul about them. To be clear, we speak about a mother with three children.
Tony Stark told Ross the perfect method to bring Hawkeye under his control because he wanted to punish him that Hawkeye choose the side of Captain America. Who know who else listened to this?
And only as he wanted to hide his violations against the accords he willingly signed, he interrupted the internal monitoring system."
The whispering grew louder by any second and the unfriendly stares at Tony Stark let him grew small and smaller.
The doors opened and Pepper saw May Parker at the entrance together with some men in suits. May nodded and Pepper nodded back.
"As disgusting this behaviour is, it is nothing against the other crime he committed. I am sure, you all remember Spiderman from the fight in Leipzig? Let me introduce Peter Parker to you!" On the screen appeared Peter Parker and there was loud gasping. "By the way, he was fourteen as he fought against the other Avengers." Dead silence.
Peter Parker now talked about his recruiting through Tony Stark and his innocent account let the audience mutter.
"Because Tony Stark takes his suit with him wherever he goes let's hear his recordings." Pepper smiled grimly as she delivered the deathblow.
This time there was no outward reaction to the recording but Pepper was sure that more than one person in the audience plotted the murder of Tony Stark.
"The FBI got these recordings and my testimony too and is now here to arrest Tony Stark after May Parker, the legal guardian of Peter, pressed charges against Mr. Stark because of kidnapping, child endangerment, extortion and custodial interference."
At her words, the men in suits came down the corridor.
Pepper turned to Tony Stark who was now pale as a wall. "I suggest you leave this stage now, Mr. Stark.
I think you will now get all the attention you so craved. Of course, it is not the attention, you always wanted but we cannot always get what we want.
You don't deserve to sit under all this heroes and like a few people already said to you, you are not an Avenger anymore!"