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AN: I've had a few talks with other authors recently regarding our thoughts on the Sokovia Accords, and one detail that bothered me about some of the fics written on that topic is the way certain authors are so focused on being 'pro-Tony Stark' that they just act as though the Accords are automatically right without looking at the negatives. With that in mind, I decided to write this fic to give the Avengers more time to talk about some of the potential negatives of the Accords, before things became so tense regarding the Winter Soldier's apparent attack on the UN, and all it took was delaying one message by a few crucial minutes…
All a Matter of Timing
The real problem Steve had with the aftermath of Lagos was the way that so many people acted as though the Avengers had been unconcerned about the collateral damage caused by their actions.
It wasn't as though anyone on the team didn't care about innocents getting caught in the crossfire; it was just that there often wasn't time to think of everything in the heat of the moment. While he appreciated that he and Wanda were to blame for not stopping Rumlow before he could trigger his vest, acting as though they were indifferent to the loss was unfair on several levels. The team had stopped Rumlow stealing that virus and causing potentially millions of casualties, but it wasn't as though they'd made a deliberate decision to kill those Wakandans instead. Wanda might need more training to ensure that she could control her powers in the heat of battle, but that didn't mean she should be treated as some monster who didn't care what happened around her…
Like he'd told Wanda, sometimes they couldn't save everybody, but if they gave up trying, that could just mean that nobody was there to save the day next time.
As though things hadn't been grim in the compound already, it just became worse when Secretary Ross showed up. Steve might still officially be a captain, but once he became an active part of the campaign against HYDRA he'd promised himself that he'd never be the kind of soldier who'd just salute every superior officer just because they were superior. He'd show due deference to the rank, but the man wearing the suit would have to earn his personal respect first, and he had heard nothing about Ross to make him worth respecting. As though what this man had wanted to do to Bruce wasn't bad enough, the role he'd played in turning Emil Blonsky into the Abomination…
Even his big speech in the conference room had been far from comforting. His talk about the debt the world owed the Avengers would have been easier to believe if he didn't start talking about them as 'vigilantes' and refer to Thor and Bruce as though they were nothing more than weapons. Steve had started his current line of 'work' fighting against people who thought of other people as things, and the fact that Ross thought of two people Steve considered friends as nothing but weapons set off all kinds of warnings as far as he was concerned. He wouldn't deny that he was concerned about where Bruce and Thor were at the moment, but Ross's nuke analogy was far from appropriate; Steve could trust that his friends would be able to cope on their own.
Ross might be right that they were dangerous, but that could apply to anyone so long as they got the right connections or were just in the right place at the right time. The team had always been concerned about the collateral damage left behind after their battles, but if Ross honestly thought it was possible to stop the kind of threats they had to face without damaging everything around them Steve wanted to know what kind of war Ross had been fighting. The Chitauri invasion, the battle to stop Project Insight, and the final confrontation with Ultron had all been tragic, but the destruction had all been provoked by villains who had been intending to cause even greater harm; the idea that giving them a 'supervisor' was going to solve the problems Ross had allegedly identified with the team was stupid at best.
'Operate under the supervision of a United Nations panel, only when and if that panel deems it necessary'… Steve would have snorted at the thought if he'd been the type to do so. And what are the odds of that being practical?
When he'd fought HYDRA back in the war with the Howling Commandos, they'd always known there wasn't time to wait for outside approval once they knew where they would be needed, and there was often even less time to deal with the Avengers' enemies so far. This kind of arrangement might work in a few cases, but with the kind of threats the Avengers could face it just wasn't practical full-time for them to rely on external approval to go into action.
The more he looked over the large document in front of him, as much as Steve knew he didn't entirely understand some of the legal language, he understood enough to know that he didn't like what parts he did comprehend.
"Secretary Ross has a Congressional Medal of Honor, which is one more than you have," Rhodey said as he and Sam stood near the edge of the balcony while Steve studied the Accords.
"So let's say we agree to this thing," Sam replied (Steve was proud of the way Sam ignored the bit about the Medal of Honor; in his own experience, just winning an award didn't make someone great unless they earned it for the right reasons). "How long is it gonna be before they LoJack us like a bunch of common criminals?"
"A hundred and seventeen countries want to sign this," the colonel countered. "A hundred and seventeen, Sam, and you're just like, 'No, that's cool. We got it'-"
"How long are you going to play both sides?" Sam interrupted.
"I have an equation," the Vision put in from his position sitting alongside Wanda, his head lowered as he studied his hands.
"Oh, this will clear it up," Sam said; without even looking around, Steve could tell his colleagues had turned to face the Vision rather than each other.
"In the eight years since Mr. Stark announced himself as Iron Man, the number of known enhanced persons has grown exponentially," the android explained, briefly templing his fingers as he spoke. "And during the same period, the number of potentially world-ending events has risen at a commensurate rate."
"Are you saying it's our fault?" Steve asked. The Vision might still have some trouble picking up on human cues at times, but Wanda had assured him that it was more because he didn't entirely get how people would react to him on an individual level rather than him being deliberately rude, and he certainly had interesting insights in the field.
"I'm saying there may be a causality," the Vision continued solemnly. "Our very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict. And conflict… breeds catastrophe. Oversight… oversight is not an idea that can be dismissed out of hand."
"Boom," Rhodes said as though that settled the matter.
"Tony," Natasha put in, looking over at the couch where Tony Stark was currently lying, the CEO having returned to the compound for this meeting despite his stated intent to retire from the team. "You are being uncharacteristically non-hyper-verbal."
"It's because he's already made up his mind," Steve put in. In his experience with Starks, they would talk a lot when making plans but preferred to be silent once they knew what they were going to do.
"Boy, you know me so well," Tony said as he stood up, rubbing the back of his head with a wince and walking over to the dining area. "Actually, I'm nursing an electromagnetic headache; that's what's going on, Cap. It's just pain. It's discomfort. Who's putting coffee grounds in the disposal? Am I running a bed and breakfast for a biker gang?"
As Tony spoke, he walked away from the coffee machine and put his phone down near a fruit basket, tapping it to project the image of a smiling young man with dark skin in a light shirt, before making a show of 'pretending' to see it as he looked around the team. "Oh, that's Charles Spencer, by the way. He's a great kid. Computer engineering degree, 3.6 GPA. Had a floor level gig at Intel planned for the fall. But first, he wanted to put a few miles on his soul, before he parked it behind a desk, see the world, maybe be of service. Charlie didn't want to go to Vegas or Fort Lauderdale, which is what I would do. He didn't go to Paris or Amsterdam, which sounds fun. He decided to spend his summer building sustainable housing for the poor. Guess where? Sokovia."
Steve could guess where his friend was going with this, and wasn't sure how to feel about this new side of Tony; he could appreciate Tony wanting to take responsibility, but did he have to take responsibility for something that none of them had actually caused?
"He wanted to make a difference, I suppose. I mean, we won't know because we dropped a building on him while we were kicking ass," Tony continued, a bitter edge to his voice as he took a pill along with a sip of coffee, before he looked at the others. "There's no decision-making process here; we need to be put in check! Whatever form that takes, I'm game. If we can't accept limitations, if we're boundary-less, we're no better than the bad guys."
"Tony," Steve said at last, "someone dies on your watch, you don't give up."
"Who says we're giving up?"
"We are if we're not taking responsibility for our actions. This document just shifts the blame."
"I'm sorry. Steve; that- that is dangerously arrogant," Rhodey looked firmly at him. "This is the United Nations we're talking about. It's not the World Security Council, it's not SHIELD, it's not HYDRA-"
"No, but it's run by people with agendas," Steve cut in. "And agendas change."
"That's good," Tony affirmed as he walked over to stand above Steve's seat. "That's why I'm here. When I realized what my weapons were capable of in the wrong hands, I shut it down and stop manufacturing."
"Tony, you chose to do that," Steve pointed out, looking around the table at the rest of the team. "If we sign this, we surrender our right to choose. What if this panel sends us somewhere we don't think we should go? What if there is somewhere we need to go, and they don't let us? We may not be perfect, but the safest hands are still our own."
"If we don't do this now, it's gonna be done to us later," Tony said. "That's the fact. That won't be pretty."
"You're saying they'll come for me," Wanda put in, her tone solemn yet apprehensive.
"We would protect you," Vision put in, looking at Wanda with a firm yet reassuring smile. Even in this dark moment, Steve appreciated this sign of the bond the two were forming. The Vision might be the subject of some debate outside the team about whether he qualified as a 'real' person, but as far as Steve was concerned the android was as alive as any of them, and the bond that had formed between him and Wanda was… sweet, in its way.
"Maybe Tony's right," Natasha put in, drawing a surprised look from the man in question. "If… we have one hand on the wheel, we can still steer. If we take it off-"
"Aren't you the same woman who told the government to kiss her ass a few years ago?" Sam leaned over.
"I'm just… I'm reading the terrain," Natasha replied tentatively. "We have made… some very public mistakes. We need to win their trust back."
"Focus up," Tony waved a hand urgently. "I'm sorry, did I just mishear you or did you agree with me?"
"Oh, I want to take it back now…" Natasha said.
"No, no, no, you can't retract it," Tony cut her off. "Thank you; unprecedented. OK, case closed; I win."
"It's not that simple." Steve countered.
"What, giving them authority now so they don't completely take it away from us later is a bad call?"
"What if this had happened immediately after the Battle of New York?"
"The Battle of- what does that have to do with anything?"
"It's a serious question," Steve said, turning to look at Tony, recalling those dark few days when he thought the other man's arrogant defiance of a terrorist had gotten him killed before the dramatic debut of the Iron Legion at the dockyards. "If the government had enforced this kind of legislation on us straight after we stopped the Chitauri, what would have happened?"
"Very least, this guy'd be dead," Sam patted Rhodes on the shoulder.
"Hey!" the colonel turned to glare at the former paratrooper.
"Not saying that as a criticism against you; just pointing out that the Mandarin thing was a mess as it was, and this is coming from the guy who wasn't part of the team at the time," Sam held up his hands defensively. "But seriously, we had the vice-president collaborating with a terrorist, and you think giving someone else authority on whether we take action on a certain situation would have been a good idea when there was a terrorist with artificial superhumans on the loose?"
"That is… also a good point."
"Hey, you just said you were on my side-!" Tony turned to Natasha in protest.
"I'm looking at both sides of the argument," Natasha held up a hand to halt Tony. "If we were subject to the Accords from the Battle of New York onwards… like Steve and Sam have just pointed out, Vice-President Eduardo Rodriguez would have at least been able to recommend that we should stay out of the Mandarin crisis, and Killian's plans would have probably succeeded."
"Rodriguez would have been part of a committee at worst; he wouldn't have been the only voice-"
"But all it takes is one dissenting voice and we're in trouble," Steve cut in. "Rodriguez could have convinced other people on the committee that they should leave hunting for the Mandarin to conventional military forces as he hadn't done anything openly 'superhuman' yet, which would have likely led to his forces finding another way to capture the Iron Patriot armour to let them grab President Ellis."
"That…" Rhodey began, before he paused in thought for a moment and finally nodded. "OK, much as I hate to sound like a sucker, that's not actually a bad point."
"That's only because of a very specific set of circumstances-"
"But we can't always rely on circumstances being in our favour either," Steve countered before Tony could say more. "And even assuming everything still worked out on that occasion, would there have been any point to the Accords when Thor had to deal with that invasion in London or when I discovered what was really going on in SHIELD after Fury was attacked? There's no actual way anyone here could actually arrest Thor for violating the Accords even if he hadn't just saved the universe, and it's not like I would have had time to find someone I could trust when I realised something was rotten in the heart of SHIELD itself and Fury was apparently dead."
"Is that your attitude?" Rhodey looked sceptically at the world's first successful super-soldier. "We can do whatever we want because the people 'need' us to save them? Is this how you justified going after Rumlow?"
"What does Rumlow have to do with this?" Steve stood up, now fixing Rhodes with a firmer stare.
"You were so insistent that you take that mission; you're going to tell me it wasn't personal?" the man in the War Machine armour clarified. "After everything the guy did to you during the fall of SHIELD… I didn't want to bring it up because I get that it gave you insight into how the bastard thinks, but maybe you were taking that a bit too personally?"
"He provoked me, and I regret that, but the fact remains that conventional forces would have suffered or caused far heavier casualties than what we did by going in at that time," Steve replied. "Have you read the reports of what happened at Culver University when Ross tried to capture Bruce?"
"I looked at it; what does-?"
"None of that damage would have happened if Ross had just left Bruce alone, but he wanted to bring Bruce in to try and recreate his powers because he saw Bruce as 'property of the US army', and that led to Emil Blonsky becoming the Abomination," Steve affirmed. "Ross referred to Bruce as a walking nuke; I'd like to think that none of us should be comfortable with that kind of attitude. The Hulk might be volatile, but he's more than just a weapon; what does it say about Ross's thoughts on us if he considers two of our most powerful members to be weapons rather than teammates? Joking aside, I'm sure none of us think of Vision as just another drone in the Iron Legion, and we didn't go to all the trouble of getting Wanda American citizenship so that someone could treat her as another 'nuke'."
"It's not like everyone out there is going to want to create an army of us-"
"From what I've heard, knowledge of the super-soldier serum on its own inspired an arms race even before the likes of Bruce and Wanda went public to show off other kinds of superpowers," Steve cut Rhodey off. "This stuff about testing the Enhanced to confirm how our abilities work sounds good in theory, but again, what happens if someone decides to use the Accords as a reason to take samples from Wanda to recreate what was done to her? Emil Blonsky destroyed Harlem because he got the chance to become a new Hulk after acquiring a sample of Bruce's blood, and Bruce said himself that he's not sure how he survived what he went through; giving anyone the opportunity to recreate us puts too many people at risk."
"Because they might turn out like Blonsky?" Wanda asked.
"Or because they might just die as their genetic structure can't cope with what's been done to it," Steve confirmed.
"It's… OK, that's a risk, but we can't just turn down the Accords because we're scared of the consequences," Rhodey said, even as his expression made it clear he was more open to being persuaded than he had been at the start. "You have to recognise that this is what the people want, Steve; they voted for this-"
"The governments voted for this; speaking as the man who was there for the Great Depression and the aftermath, I'd like to remind you that people may not always realise what they're voting for," Steve said, not wanting to directly reference Hitler but hoping he was making his point anyway. "Maybe you're right and we can offer the UN a degree of authority when we're dealing with a smaller-scale problem like Rumlow, but if we hand over our freedom for no better reason than keeping a few politicians happy we don't deserve to defend it."
"Hand over our freedom?" Rhodey repeated. "This isn't about making us slaves-"
"When the law would require us to fight just because we have abilities?"
"What?"
"According to this, any enhanced who signed up would be required to wear tracking bracelets, and any enhanced who does anything against the Accords could be detained without trial," Steve clarified. "I don't even see anything about the possibility of someone signing this and then being able to choose not to take part; if we sign up we're committed and that's it."
Rhodey didn't respond to that comment, but the contemplative expression on his face as he looked at the book made it clear that he hadn't considered that side of the situation before.
"Rhodey," Steve continued, looking at his fellow soldier with a new sense of certainty, "when you and I signed up to the military, we were both free to quit if we wanted to do so; as far as I can tell, these Accords commit anyone with abilities to active service even if they don't actually want to fight."
"Didn't you volunteer for Erskine's experiment?"
"When I was faced with a clear and present enemy on the understanding that I'd be part of a group, and even then there was nothing making me obligated to do anything I didn't want to do," Steve corrected. "Even after Erskine's death, Colonel Phillips had no authority to force me to submit to further testing beyond taking blood samples from me; he might have asked, but I was free to say 'No'. I chose to take part in those war bonds tours because I wanted to do something to actively make a difference, but I could have still quit if I wanted to; if the Accords had existed back then, not only would I have been basically forced to be a soldier even if I wanted to leave, but I'm fairly sure I could have been locked up just because of that time I went out to save the 107th from Schmidt's research facility."
"Really?" Wanda looked at Steve in surprise. "I thought you saved lives?"
"Yeah, but if I'm reading this right, if the Accords had existed back then, I could have been arrested just for going to another country without permission from the supervising committee; I'm willing to concede that the idea of needing permission from the country's government wouldn't have been a big deal during an active war," Steve said, as he placed his hand grimly on top of the book. "And all this stuff about us needing the approval of a committee if we're going to take action… maybe I was just being paranoid when I talked about how Rodriguez would have tried to stop Tony hunting the Mandarin, but even assuming that such a committee is never infiltrated by someone whose interests are actively against us going out there to stop something, how many lives could it cost if we need to get external approval every time? What if we found evidence that someone's going to mount a biological attack in China in the next few hours; isn't it more important that we get out there to stop the threat as fast as possible rather than that everyone involved approves of our presence there in the first place?"
"So you think we should just have the authority to do whatever we want even when people die because of us?"
"No," Steve looked firmly back at his teammate. "I'm saying that nobody is ever perfect, but putting additional regulations and restrictions in place won't make it any better in the field; it might make the politicians feel like they have more power, but people will still die and our priority should be to try our best to make sure that as few people die as possible. We were formed to fight the battles that nobody else could, which means that we're here to save lives; we're not here to keep politicians happy because they get to say that they approved our latest mission. We can't afford to waste time getting votes and winning people over every time we have to go into action; if we know for a fact that a situation is going to go south, we need to have the authority to get there as soon as possible."
"And what happens if things go wrong?"
"Like I told Wanda earlier," Steve looked directly at Tony, "if we focus on the people we couldn't save today, we won't be available to save anybody the next time."
"Sounds like an excuse to just go out and play God-"
"When have we ever done that, Tony?" Steve cut his friend off. "For all our arguments over the years, you and I both know we've never done anything if we weren't sure that the team as a whole were needed to deal with the situation at hand. People have died, and we all regret that, but we can't use that as an excuse to abandon the ability to save lives in future."
"And has that freedom always been a good thing?"
The bitter edge in Tony's voice prompted Steve to look more cautiously at his friend as Tony sat in silence, looking around the room at the rest of the team for a few crucial moments. Even Wanda and Sam, who definitely knew Tony the least of those present (even if it was probably debatable whether whatever knowledge Vision had acquired from JARVIS counted as 'personal' experience) recognised that it was more important to give Tony time to say his piece at his own pace rather than try to pressure him into talking.
"Maybe…" Tony began, initially hesitant before he sighed and leant over. "Maybe if we'd had that need for approval… I wouldn't have created Ultron…"
"Maybe," Steve conceded, recalling one section of the Accords had mentioned something about prohibiting the creation of artificial intelligence. "But on the other hand, would it have helped?"
"Mmm?"
"Tony, I don't pretend to understand how you'd create an artificial intelligence like Ultron in the first place, but I think I've got enough of an idea about how committees work over the years," Steve observed with a brief smile as Tony looked up at him. "Assuming your work reached a point where you could submit some kind of approval to this committee, the basic idea behind Ultron would have been sound; you wanted to create something to protect the world where we might not always have been able to act, and you definitely didn't intend Ultron to achieve that kind of sentience on his own so quickly. Maybe this supervisory committee would have taken the sceptre from you before it could trigger Ultron's creation, but on the other hand, would they have had anyone remotely qualified to do anything with it that would be able to do a better job than you would?"
"He's got a point, Tony," Rhodes looked over at his friend. "I mean, we both know Hammer proved to be an idiot in the end, and after that… well, who's left out there who's half as smart as you? Stane's kid?"
"Stane's kid?" Sam looked at Rhodey in surprise before turning to Tony. "Wasn't Stane the guy who sold you out in the first place?"
"Yeah," Tony nodded tentatively, clearly not comfortable with the current turn of conversation but at least willing to listen to it. "His son Ezekiel… well, I've looked him up; kid has some interesting ideas, but it's mostly all about adapting what's already there; he's pretty much like his dad in that regard."
"Obadiah Stane's idea of development did seem to follow a pattern of making the weapons bigger rather than creating anything himself," the Vision put in with a slight smile.
"You remember that?"
"I retain access to most of JARVIS's old files," the Vision observed to Tony, the two sharing a brief smile at whatever memories they might 'share' of Stane's mistakes before the Vision adopted a more serious expression. "The key point here is that Captain Rogers is correct; the leap to full sentience on Ultron's part was a fluke event that you were not present for and could not have anticipated, and yet you would have been chosen to analyse the sceptre even if the Accords had been in place at the time."
"So Ultron was inevitable?"
"And if the Accords had been in place, even assuming they let us keep trying to go after Ultron, would they have let you and Bruce create the Vision?"
"As I recall, you objected to that anyway," Tony countered with a brief smile.
"Maybe, but you still ended up getting the chance to create him," Steve responded with a slight smile of his own. "I'm willing to admit that I was wrong then, but would such a committee have even allowed you the chance in the first place?"
"And we needed Vizh to stop Ultron," Wanda said firmly, reaching over to take the android's hand.
"…Can't argue with that," Tony said, leaning over to rub his forehead in frustration. "Damnit… even when you want to do the right thing, there's never a simple way to do it…"
"It's just a matter of finding the balance," Steve smiled reassuringly at Howard's son before he turned his attention to the rest of the team. "I can get why some people might want us to be put in check, and I recognise that we need government approval if we're going to operate, but we need to set out limits on that committee's power in turn so that we don't get rendered useless."
"Exactly; no sense turning ourselves into RoboCop 2."
"RoboCop 2?" Rhodey looked at Sam in surprise.
"That bit when he got rebuilt with so many new dumb 'Directives' he couldn't even officially arrest anybody because it was 'too aggressive'?"
"Oh, that bit," Rhodey nodded at his fellow flyer before he looked back at Tony with an awkward smile. "You gotta admit, that would suck…"
"Exactly," Steve nodded, hoping he understood the context of what the two were talking about and making a note to watch the movie they were talking about when he had the time. "If we get bogged down in legislation, we're never going to get anywhere. If we have to agree to the existence of a committee, we need to be able to guarantee that we can take action when we're sure it's necessary and be able to tell such a committee when we won't do something."
"So nothing changes?"
"We were always answerable to public opinion, Tony; deaths like Charles Spencer's are a tragedy, but we can't let the guilt over our failures stop ourselves from being able to save more people later."
Tony sat in silence for a moment at that statement, before he looked up at Steve with a brief smile.
"Well," he said with a brief shrug, "I'd prefer to go down in history as the guy who made it easier to save lives rather than harder."
"Thanks," Steve nodded at him in turn before he turned back to the Accords. "And if we're going to see about getting these things amended, we definitely need to get rid of the idea that we can arrest people without trial just because they're enhanced."
"That's part of it?" Wanda looked at Steve in shock.
"'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'," Steve quoted, flicking through the book to the relevant page of the Accords before he looked up at the rest of the team. "I'm willing to concede that some of our opponents have been dangerous, but what if we had arrested Wanda and Pietro for what they did when they just didn't realise who they were actually working with? We need to at least confirm that the people we're dealing with have genuinely hostile intent as opposed to just being misguided or panicking, and we are not going to force them to join us if they don't actively want to do so. Can we all agree on that?"
The nods of agreement from all those sitting around the room might not have been as firm as Steve would have liked, but he could appreciate that they were at least thinking about his points before he received a text.
She's gone. In her sleep.
He didn't need to ask what 'She' the message was referring to.
Steve knew that he had to respond to this, but at least he could say that he'd been able to explain his reasons for rejecting the Accords. However things unfolded from this point onwards, he'd made his stance clear and given his team points to think about; if he tried to force them to go along with his view, he'd be no better than the government he'd just been criticising.
When Natasha came to him after the funeral and told him that rejection of the Accords had been unanimously agreed by the rest of the team, it considerably brightened Steve's mood. He wasn't looking forward to the notion of going over all that paperwork to trim it down to something that all concerned parties would find acceptable, but at least he knew that they would do it as a team.
