They had to get another chair.

Well, not "they." Mordo had to get another chair. He did it before the other Illuminati members arrived so none of them knew it even happened but it was… something. Mordo wasn't the sentimental type. He wasn't going to keep five chairs in a room for six people just because a dead man hadn't needed one. Still, it was a reminder that things were changing.

Then Lockjaw teleported in and crushed one of the chairs under all his massiveness and Mordo realized getting so fixated on the whole new chair thing was kind of pointless.

Lockjaw snorted and snuffled loudly, plopping his rear on the remains of the chair and putting his giant paws up on the meeting table before realizing he could still see over the edge lying down. It was a very loud, slobbery affair. Mordo was glad the others weren't here yet to see. He really had no idea what he was supposed to do about… whatever this was.

"I'm glad you could make it," Mordo said neutrally, taking his seat at the other side of the table. Lockjaw chuffed in response and Mordo wanted to bury his head in his hands. Sure, Black Bolt hadn't been much of a conversationalist either so Mordo supposed he shouldn't treat Lockjaw any differently but there was still a pretty big difference between having a meeting with a mute man and a giant, drooling dog.

"Thank you all for coming," Jean said once the rest of the Illuminati arrived and took their seats. "I know it was short notice."

"It's not like we had anything better to do," Stark responded, pretending to examine his nails through the Iron Man gauntlet. Mordo couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic. "So what's this about?"

"Magneto visited the mansion."

Mordo raised an eyebrow. The name sounded familiar but he couldn't put a face to it. "The mutant terrorist?"

"From what I've seen in Ben's newspapers," the Surfer spoke up, "most of the human population is under the impression the X-Men are also a terrorist group. Some claim the same about the Inhumans."

Lockjaw rumbled but it sounded more like displeasure than an attempt to communicate. Mordo wasn't sure though but Sue began talking over him so it seemed Mordo wasn't the only one with that problem. "I thought he was bad news but he's Wanda's father and Johnny's friend. I don't trust their judgment of character but I trust that they wouldn't allow Billy, Tommy, Franklin, or Valeria near him if he was dangerous."

"Who are those people?" Tony murmured so quietly Mordo wasn't sure if anyone else heard it before speaking up. "You're telling me the Human Torch is palling around with a supervillain?"

Sue shrugged. "I don't exactly approve but he doesn't get mud on the couch which is more than I can say for some of Johnny's other friends."

"Isn't he like eighty? And, y'know, evil?"

"I wouldn't call Magneto evil," Jean interjected. "He's… He has good intentions. Almost the same as the X-Men, actually. It's his methods that we disagree with."

"Could you expand on that?" the Surfer requested and it took Mordo a lot of willpower not to laugh or mock him. Who said expand like that? This was no socratic seminar and they were no high school students. Ridiculous. "I'm not terribly familiar with Earth politics and it seems mutants keep their affairs private from the media."

"Are you familiar with mutantkind at all?"

"Um, no. The X-Men are the only interaction I've had with any mutants."

"Me too," Mordo added. May as well, he figured.

"Johnny's the only one of us who ever built a relationship with the X-Men. Most of the Four's missions were away from Earth so we never looked into the x-gene or kept up on mutant politics," Sue said, sounding apologetic. "I always assumed you had it handled."

"We try. I think it's unfair to call it politics though. The only thing I would even consider calling politics is internal division about leaders in the community, but even then calling it politics isn't quite accurate seeing as there is no single, overarching organization that mutants belong to," Jean said, leaning forward a bit. "We are a marginalized group and each and every one of us is forced to fight for our rights, and therefore any mention of us is politicized but it really shouldn't be. We're only existing."

"That's a problem a lot of minorities face. Or so I'm told," Stark said. "Shiny here does have a point though. You muties are kind of private about all this stuff."

"First off, mutie is a slur."

"Oh. My bad."

"Second, I was just going to get into that. Magento proves a threat to humankind and I think it's time the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and general public become more involved," Jean went on. "The professor and Magneto were old friends and both wanted mutants to peacefully coexist with humans but Magneto believes the only way that was possible if mutants were the dominant group in society, that mutants would always be oppressed, if any humans were in power while Xavier thought that humans could learn to accept mutants if they understood us."

"Magneto kind of has a point," Mordo spoke up, surprising himself. Every head in the room swiveled towards him. "I mean, look at the situation with race in the United States. Sure, it's better than it was when I was a kid but I've been lucky. I know plenty of people who aren't. Or, look at the Inhumans. Superpowered beings are the majority and the people in power in Attilan yet they don't discriminate against those without powers or with weaker powers."

Lockjaw barked and nodded, his jowls bouncing with the motion.

"Maybe but that doesn't change the fact that kind of overturn of power would be messy and hurt a lot of people in the process," Stark pointed out. "I'm with the X-Men on this one."

"I don't want to cause a divide in the Illuminati about how to handle mutant rights. Not when Magneto is making a grab for power." Jean shook her head. "Disagreements within the mutant community only stayed in the mutant community because Xavier and Magneto were friends. With Xavier gone and a need for mutant representation on the Illuminati council, I don't think it's going to stay that way."

"What do you propose we do?" the Surfer asked and the discussion melted into debate. More than that, maybe. Mordo thought it would be pretty fair to call it an argument, or even a shouting match. Control was effectively gone.

Internal and external mutant affairs were very different and, as the Surfer and Stark pointed out, the regular human population wasn't privy to the history between the X-Men and the Brotherhood. Mordo himself didn't know much about the battles with the Friends of Humanity or the systematic issues that drove mutants underground to the Morlocks. He hadn't even known the Morlocks existed, which was kind of the point but still. Seemed like something important.

The Avengers had other problems though. Or, Stark did. They kept the population safe from rising villains. And, they worked with the US government. Jean thought that gave them an opening to make some change on the legal side of things but Stark said it didn't work that way and may jeopardize the already strained relationship the Avengers had with the government.

Similarly, the Fantastic Four and the Surfer's scope were too far off from Earth to do much good. Mordo's realm, arguably, was even farther. He wouldn't risk exposing the pockets of mystics placed around the world to join a fight he was uninvolved in. The Four had social influence but they couldn't do much more than physically attend mutant events themselves or speak on social media, which wasn't exactly what Jean was looking for. And the Surfer was totally out of his depth. He had no connections on Earth to draw on. The only help he could be if the X-Men ended up fighting Magneto himself. That was a whole different can of worms.

Magneto was a potential threat to humanity. He was amassing an army of mutants with a distant goal to eventually wage war. What that would look like was unclear but it was still a threat looming over them. Not an active threat yet though and that posed some complications. It wasn't like the Illuminati could just take Magneto out. Not only would it be seen as an attack on mutants but there was no way they could actually hold Magneto in a prison. Besides, the legality of what he was doing was incredibly questionable. Something was probably considered illegal if they wanted to go after them but at the same time, on paper Magneto's actions did look a lot like the X-Men's. When it came down to it, they weren't all that distinguishable to anyone who wasn't immersed in all things mutant.

That made some of the Illuminati members have a hard time understanding exactly what Jean wanted them to do. And what was right for mutants wasn't necessarily what was best for the rest of them. They each had their own responsibilities and they were all looking out for number one, whoever that was in their minds. The bottom line was involvement with mutant affairs would interfere with that.

"This was never a problem with Xavier," Mordo said aloud, fingers curling over the edge of the table. "Mutant problems have always been dealt with by mutants. I don't see why that has to change."

Fury blazed in Jean's eyes. "Mutants are people and if you don't think we deserve to-"

Lockjaw barked loudly, voice echoing through the conference room. Mordo suddenly realized he was standing and forced himself back into his seat. The others did the same. They were all getting too worked up over this.

"I think slobberface here has a point," Tony said, rubbing a hand over his neck. "We should take a break."

"Agreed," Mordo responded, rising once more. "Everyone's dismissed."

Tony stormed out of the Baxter Building the moment he got the chance, the roar of the Iron Man armor filling his ears as he flew back toward Avengers Mansion. That- That situation had gotten hot and he'd lost his cool. Everyone had but Tony was, well, Tony Stark. He was used to these sorts of meetings, heated ones especially. If anyone was supposed to be able to keep their cool, it was him. Jean, Sue, even the Surfer- they all had an excuse. This was new for them. They didn't know how to keep their tempers at bay. Tony did and yet, he was yelling louder than the rest of them.

Maybe it was a reflection of them and how new the Illuminati was rather than an issue related to the topic itself. Then again, mutants were always a difficult topic to tackle. It surrounded human rights, which wasn't something superheroes got involved with, and those who supported mutants usually fell out of public favor, which wasn't ideal for a corporate boss or a superhero. That didn't make their ignorance right, of course, but it did make it easier to rationalize that little voice in Tony's mind saying things should just stay how they had been. Mutants had been doing fine so far, right?

That wasn't true and he knew that. Mutants were still struggling to stay afloat. Things weren't getting any better with the old way of doing things. Jean saw an opportunity to change that and she was trying to seize it, and all she was getting was pushback. Tony could understand her frustration but he was still hesitant to get involved. And that was before all this Magneto stuff. Jean said it wasn't politics but Tony couldn't see it as anything but. Two pillars fighting for power was practically the definition of politics.

Where was the balance between getting involved and letting mutants run the show? Where was the line between helping and overstepping? How could they go after Magneto when the general population saw little difference between him and the X-Men? How could the Illuminati focus on other issues if helping mutants drained their time, attention, and public favor? What would happen if Magneto went unchecked? What were the Brotherhood's end goals? What were the X-Men's?

Too many questions, no clear answers, and too many different voices in the room. It was a complex subject, it had to be if there wasn't already a solution, and putting it in front of six people– or five people and a dog– who didn't know how to work together was a recipe for disaster. Tony didn't know what he expected to come of this but as he landed at the mansion's doors, emotions still running high, he found he wasn't surprised.

"Your face is red," Clint commented as Tony stormed through the mansion down to the armory. Tony flipped him off and kept walking. "Wow, geez. Fuck you too, I guess."

Tony knew that he was being a bit brash but he didn't really care much right now. In a whirlwind through the mansion, he tossed the pieces of his armor on the armory floor– really, why did he need to wear that to an Illuminati meeting? Next time he'd wear the nanotech version, even if it was just a prototype. Way less of a hassle– and stormed into the kitchen where he quickly began inhaling whatever he could get his hands on.

"Skip lunch?" a voice questioned. Tony pulled his head out of the fridge to see Rhodey leaning on the counter next to him. "Hangry is not a good look on you."

"Excuse me? Hangry?"

"I'm assuming it's when you're hungry and angry at the same time? I don't know. The kid says it sometimes."

Tony swallowed- oh, ew. He'd been sucking yogurt right out of the cup. Maybe he was more upset than he thought. "I guess I did skip lunch. Went to my first Illuminati meeting."

"Oh! How'd it go?" Rhodey straightened with interest before his eyes flickered up and down, reminding him of the scene before him. "Not good I'm guessing?"

Tony closed for the refrigerator door. "We talked about Magneto."

"I don't know a lot about that guy."

"Me neither. That's the problem. None of us do." Tony wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He loved his facial hair but it didn't make the aftermath of these impromptu food frenzies all that fun. "Honestly, I think Jean laid it out really well but…"

"But?"

"The X-Men are fine. They're a superhero team like the Avengers. But in their personal lives, they're not. Fine, I mean. And I can't really see that." It was something Peggy struggled with too, Tony noted mentally. Iron Man and Tony Stark were practically synonymous. Peggy Carter and Captain Carter were even more so. Made it difficult to understand people like Clint who had a life totally separate from the life they saw. "I don't know if I'm cut out for this Illuminati stuff. You know I'm not good at playing well with others but I'm even worse at seeing things from other people's perspectives. I mean, Mordo didn't want to get involved either but at least he could relate to what some of Jean was saying."

"I don't think being Black and being a mutant is really comparable, Tony."

Tony groaned and began walking out of the kitchen, knowing Rhodey would follow him. "I don't know anything about mutants. Found out mutie's a slur today, did you know that? I've heard Wolverine and Juggernaut say it before. Thought it was just a slang term or whatever."

"Well, Wolverine is a mutant. Kind of works different when you're part of the group a word is meant to hurt. And he's old as hell, right? Probably didn't mean the same thing when he was growing up."

"Juggernaut's super old too, right? Thought I heard something about him and Xavier being brothers."

"Well, yeah. Step-brothers. But Juggernaut's not a mutant."

"Wait, really? Then how'd he get his powers?"

"Magic? I dunno. You know his whole thing is that he hates mutants, right? Or the X-Men at least."

Tony had not known that. He sort of thought Juggernaut was an X-Man actually, or one of Magneto's goons. That would actually make more sense. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants? That's what they were called, right? Who named themselves that? Then again, Tony would be thrilled to join a group called the Brotherhood of Evil Engineers or something, even if they weren't doing evil. Not that he wanted to do evil, but he supposed these mutants didn't want to do evil either.

"Maybe you should take my spot on the Illuminati," Tony suggested after a moment of silence. "God knows I'm not cut out for this. I don't know what I was thinking."

"You were thinking that it's what Peggy would've wanted."

"Peggy's dead. Who cares what she would've wanted? I don't have the feet to fill her shoes. Or boots or whatever. I don't understand any of this stuff. You do. We could be like Scott and Jean! Well, not exactly like Scott and Jean but you catch my drift. I was always the field leader and Peggy always did all-" Tony paused for a moment to gesticulate wildly- "that stuff. You'd be good at it."

"I'm already the liaison between the military and the Avengers, Tony."

"Which is why you'd be good at it!"

"Which is why I shouldn't do it," Rhodey corrected and Tony saw his point. Even with Avengers business, sometimes Rhodey's attachment to the government interfered with things he needed to do. "Besides, there's really only one man for the job."

"Who?"

"You'll figure it out," Rhodey told him and promptly walked away. Tony was too stunned to follow him. If not Rhodey, who could possibly take Peggy's spot on the Illuminati?