While researching timelines and figuring out how I'm going to sort things out, I realized that Iron Man 3 would probably be currently happening so I had to rewatch it and I realized what a piece of work (but a really fun piece of work) it's going to be including it. For the purposes of my own convenience, I've moved it a month or so later, so like a few weeks from now. It's going to happen soon, promise.
Also we really don't know much about what happens and how the Avengers live in between the Avengers movies, so I'm going to take a fanfiction-type approach instead of a more realistic one. The Avengers (mostly Clint and Natasha) go on a lot of SHIELD missions, usually in pairs or trios. Bruce works with SHIELD as a scientist consultant and Tony and Steve are rarely called in to SHIELD missions unless it's a bad situation. This being post-Battle of New York, bad situations aren't that uncommon. Thor is in Asgard doing whatever. The Avengers work and train together but don't live together for periods of more than a few weeks and Clint and Natasha are gone a lot working for SHIELD. They were all in Stark Tower while the gryphon attacked to eat dinner together for publicity reasons so the public sees the Avengers as a united front that all like each other. (I think fanfiction writers often forget that the Avengers being in the eye of the public so much means that half of their job would be to gain trust and good publicity with the public, so they feel like the people's heroes instead of superheroes under SHIELD's control. Tony is a narcissistic billionaire and used to be a multinational industrial weapons tycoon, Bruce Banner can't really control his alter ego, the Hulk, and Natasha and Clint are incredibly efficient SHIELD agents. People would have had very mixed opinions about the Avengers.)
If you have any questions about specifics or my timeline or anything else, please ask!
I'm also not sure how important I want to make Iron Man 3 (really, I don't know how much Aura would/should be involved) so if you have requests about how much she should be involved feel free to tell me. Considering Tony's interest and relationship with Peter Parker (though that doesn't happen yet) I think it's safe to say that he would be the most interested in Aura and committed to taking matters into his own hands to figure out who she is. Her helping out with the events of Iron Man 3 would be a good time. Though, before you make a decision, take into account that although I really like Tony as a character I have huge reservations about him as a person.
I know that his upbringing complicates things, but it's honestly insanely embarrassing and sad that it took a grown man so long to figure out that weapons hurt people and he should not be letting his company sell them. He is also incredibly misogynistic to women. Again, I understand his upbringing is responsible for that, but it's still terrible and he never really learns from it, we just focus on him less and don't see it. He treats Pepper very poorly in general and doesn't seem to actually respect her. He never really respects anyone, he's just never called out on it so it's played off as quirky and arrogant. His words and charisma make it seem like his outward, jokey and ungenuine personality but based on his actions it's probably how he actually feels about people. I mean, he blackmails Peter to make him help fight a bunch of powerful adult heroes, and doesn't even tell Peter what the situation is so Peter can decide what side he would be on. (yes, blackmails, he tells Peter that if he doesn't help fight he'll tell Aunt May that Peter is Spiderman, and whether or not he really would have done it, Peter thought he was telling the truth and that's a horrendously terrible thing to do.) Given the details of the situation, I highly doubt that Peter would have been on Tony's side. Peter believes in protecting the little guy (say, Bucky, and all the people the Avengers wouldn't be able to help without the permission of the government if they signed the accords), and considering Peter is an illegal vigilante I don't think he would agree with government control of all powered people.
From the MCU fanwiki, we can see that the accords say "Any enhanced individuals who agree to sign must register with the United Nations and provide biometric data such as fingerprints and DNA samples. Those with secret identities must reveal their legal names and true identities to the United Nations. Those with innate powers must submit to a power analysis, which will categorize their threat level and determine potential health risks. Those with innate powers must also wear tracking bracelets at all times." And "Any enhanced individuals who use their powers to break the law (including those who take part in extralegal vigilante activities), or are otherwise deemed to be a threat to the safety of the general public, may be detained indefinitely without trial. If an enhanced individual violates the Accords, or obstructs the actions of those enforcing the Accords, they may likewise be arrested and detained indefinitely without trial." Peter would have to register with the government, give up vigilantism (the most important thing in his life, which he TELLS TONY during their first meeting, like five minutes before Tony threatens to tell Aunt May about it, who would probably make him give it up, to force Peter to fight for something that would definitely make him give it up), and if Peter ever broke the laws of the accords (which we don't even know the full extent of, but from what information we have, they seem incredibly unfair towards powered people) he could be detained indefinitely without a trial. Indefinitely means as long as the government wants with no way for anyone to do anything about it and without a trial means with no record of the case. As Professor Robert Burns said, "The death of trials would… remove a source of disciplined information about matters of public significance. ... It would mean the end of an irreplaceable public forum and would mean that more of the legal order would proceed behind closed doors. And it would deprive us, as American citizens, of an important source of knowledge about ourselves and key issues of public concern." The government could arrest any enhanced person at any time with little to no reason and the public would never have to even know about it, much less do absolutely anything. Enhanced people would immediately become second-class citizens at best, and treated like terrorists at worst. Fun times! Also, the whole reason the Accords were widely agreed upon and accepted is because of the events of Age of Ultron, which Tony is entirely responsible for. He told the Avengers the story of the kid who was crushed under a building like the other Avengers were responsible for it even though it never would have happened if Tony didn't decide that making Ultron and not telling anyone was a good idea. He felt ashamed and responsible for something that he should feel ashamed and responsible for and acted like the other Avengers weren't doing the absolute best they could and they should share the blame. The way he treated Bucky (a brainwashed victim) and Steve (someone rightfully protecting a brainwashed victim) was unforgivable, even if he had his reasons. Having his reasons for defending the Accords misunderstood doesn't excuse not talking it out or trying to murder a brainwashed victim. Steve was also being an idiot but at least he didn't blackmail or try to murder anyone. I also think that he gets too much credit for the nuke in the first Avenger movie. If the nuke had gone off, he would have died alongside the rest of New York. His options were die and let New York get blown up or maybe die saving everyone. It's entirely possible that his decision was out of heroism but I wouldn't call it a self-sacrificial act. And his sacrifice in Endgame wasn't the culmination of a character arc, it was the one truly selfless thing he ever did.
Wow. I had way more feelings towards Tony Stark than I thought I did. What I'm actually upset about is the way he was treated, not Tony as a person/character. Ultron going bad was a total movie cliche and something he couldn't have anticipated. And everything (I mean everything) he and Steve said and did in Civil War was pushed to the very limits of what their characters might do. There are so many things that were out of character, and if they had had one single actual conversation it would have gone way differently, even if they both took the sides that they did in the movie. The writer's team was dedicated to a huge fight between the Avengers, not being true to the Avengers' characters and motivations. And again, I love Tony Stark as a character. Characters don't have to be good people to be a ton of fun. I just think it would be way better if he wasn't always played as a really good guy. Whenever someone calls him out on his narcissistic behavior, it's not played off as them being right for doing so. I think people would like him a lot less in general if he was called out on the way he treats people- the way he treats women, immediately going for personal insults whenever someone disagrees with him, and generally never valuing anyone's opinion if it differs from his. Which, again, would be fine if he was shown to be wrong. He never really learns from his mistakes.
I do plan on taking a more fanfictiony view of him, in which he's genuinely a good person but has very much not emotionally mature ways of expressing it. Honestly the amount of fanfiction I've read has made me dislike the movie version of him way more because it would have been extremely easy to make him infinitely more likable. You don't have to get rid of his self-centeredness or arrogant manner to make him a good person.
…
Chapter 10: This Is Why I Don't Socialize
Natasha Romanoff was sitting at a table in the Starbucks Aura worked at.
She was wearing sunglasses and a black wig, but the table she was sitting at faced Aura, she was holding a book upright (to be able to look at Aura without seeming conspicuous, because the sunglasses made it impossible to tell where she was actually looking), she hadn't ordered anything, and she came in near the end of Aura's shift.
Maybe it was a stretch, but Aura's bad news senses were tingling and she had been expecting the Avengers to show up for a few days now.
When Aura's shift was over, she walked over to the table and sat down. This was going to be rather embarrassing if it wasn't actually Natasha, but given the way the woman seemed to tense when Aura sat down, it was a safe bet.
"I'm sure you have questions," Aura said flatly.
Aura had already resigned herself to having to run to somewhere SHIELD wouldn't be expecting, get Nico to shadow travel her away, and then live the rest of her life at Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter. It was best to assume the conversation would go poorly and go from there.
"We do. Will you come of your own free will?" Natasha said as she closed her book and slipped the sunglasses into her bag, giving Aura a cold stare.
Aura had one last card to pull.
Well, unless temporarily blinding the Black Widow with a ray of sunlight to the eyes, shoving the table over, yelling something like, "Humanity isn't ready! Stay away from the people of Kepler-1649c!", and then hightailing it out of there counted as a card. She could always do that.
"Look," Aura said, crossing her arms over the table and leaning closer. "I would like to tell you. Really. But a lot of people would get hurt. I don't know why the gryphon attacked you, but a lot more monsters like it would come for you, and anyone else who knew the truth. The reason humanity is left alone is because it doesn't know, therefore it doesn't pose a threat. You couldn't hurt the gryphon for a reason. Knowing won't do anything but complicate things."
She was lucky that it had been a gryphon. Gryphons weren't exclusively from Greek mythology. If it had been a minotaur or hydra or something she would be screwed.
"Why would I trust you on that?" Natasha said. Her face was carefully expressionless, though she seemed interested in what Aura had to say.
"I helped you, didn't I?" Aura didn't know what else to say. She felt like she was handling this moderately well, but to a spy who was trained in reading people she probably seemed like a bundle of nerves.
Natasha looked solemn. "Yes, you did. But that doesn't prove what you're saying."
"Nothing can, really. If you only believe one thing I say, let it be this: You need to be taking this more seriously. What you're looking into has massive ramifications for the future of the human race. Don't involve anyone who isn't already involved. If it comes between the Avengers finding out about this or all of SHIELD and then everyone else finding out about this, I'll tell you if I have to."
Aura knew that she was in no position to speak for all demigods, but she did know that if the Avengers decided to involve SHIELD things would get much worse. All she could hope was that they hadn't already.
"Then why haven't you?"
Aura looked her in the eye for a few seconds, letting a bit of desperation show on her face.
"You don't want me to. Please, move on. This isn't some conspiracy or alien invasion."
"I can't do that."
"I know," said Aura, leaning back from the table.
This was already going way better than she had thought. Based on what she knew about the Avengers' priorities, there was one thing that might convince them.
"If you've looked into this with any level of competence, you'll know that almost everyone like me is under eighteen. Do you want to know why?"
The Avengers had to be wondering how she was only sixteen and as skilled as she was.
"Why?" Natasha asked.
"Because once we hit eighteen, if we can make it to eighteen in the first place, we get good at hiding and fighting or we get killed off."
Aura stood up. This would probably be the best time to leave she would get.
"If you try to follow me, I will cause a massive scene. Please don't make me."
Before Aura walked out the door, she glanced back. Natasha was watching her with something close to pity, though still with a good deal of interest.
Aura could only hope that she'd improved things. She waved to the coworker who had taken over after Aura's shift had ended, and left.