Chapter 72
"Dude have I told you how cool your life is?" Ned said, as Peter walked him through the hotel room they were staying in over video chat, "Because your life is so freaking cool!"
"I know," Peter said with a laugh, because really, when Toni had agreed to let him come to Vienna, he had no idea that he would be staying in a suite that looked like something out of a movie.
And he'd done all the stereotypical things "normal" people do when they're left alone in a fancy suite without any supervision. Well, Happy was staying with him so he wouldn't say he was totally unsupervised. But Happy was perfectly fine letting Peter run around the room like a tornado given that he wasn't in any immediate danger and was enjoying himself.
He'd ordered dessert from room service, had an energy drink out of the mini bar, and eaten some of the chocolate bars that he knew for a fact they'd definitely be charged for.
He still felt guilty spending his mom's money, given that it still didn't really feel like it was his. But she'd told him that this was a special trip. It may not be the most leisure filled one, but it was their first trip as a family and she wanted him to enjoy himself. And she'd left Happy with strict instructions that Peter was supposed to enjoy himself while she and Steve were off together trying to ratify the Accords.
They'd both checked in with him a few times since they left to meet the other UN members. He'd watched them arrive on the room's television, as the reporter speculated as to whether they were as unified in their opinions as they seemed to be showing off to the world.
And there was a lot of that lately; speculation as to what was really going on behind the scenes. If his dad didn't smile for a moment in public the press would print an article claiming that there was a divide forming between the two of them as his mom dictated the way their relationship would go. And most of those articles had many, many speculations about what would happen to him if they did get divorced.
Still, he knew it couldn't be further from the truth, so he ignored them all.
"Dude, do you think next time you go somewhere fun I can tag along?" Ned asked, somewhat hopefully. "I mean I get it for sure if it's a just family thing and I definitely don't want to take away from your time with them. But you know if it's ever a thing where others are coming too, please remember that we're best friends."
"Ned, of course I remember that," Peter laughed, thinking about all the things they'd gotten up to over the years. Sure, Ned was excited that Peter's parents were famous now, but he knew that Ned would never try and use him for that. Not when he'd been there for Peter when he was just a nobody with no fame attached to his name. Ned was his brother. His Rhodey, as his mom had put it. And he definitely wasn't like half the other kids at school who seemed to take an interest in him now that he was a somebody.
At least Flash was consistent in his hatred of Peter.
"Next time it's something I can invite you on, I promise I'll ask," Peter told his best friend. "I'm sure they'll have no problems with you coming over. They think you're a good kid."
"Iron Woman thinks I'm a good kid?" Ned said, eyes widening.
"You've met her several times now," Peter argued, trying to stop his friend from passing out from his statement.
"Still, holy crap!" Ned said in shock. "They think I'm a good kid. This may be the best thing that's ever happened to me."
"Sure, Ned," Peter said with a shake of his head at his friend's theatrics.
"So what are you getting up to today?"
"I think Dad mentioned wanting to check out the Belvedere Palace," Peter said. "Mom has a few markets that she wants to checkout. Said the food there is supposed to be amazing."
"You call them Mom and Dad," Ned said with a shake of his head, despite knowing fully well that Peter called them that. He'd freaked out to Ned a few times before bringing it up to them that he wanted to and his friend had been supportive. Peter gave him an exasperated sigh, and Ned laughed, "Sorry, carry on. That sounds like a fun evening."
"I can't wait," Peter grinned, "Mom has disguises for us. Not really sure how well it will work because she is Toni Stark, but I've never gone undercover before. I'll be like a real-life mission!"
Happy barged into the main room then, with a grim look on his face. He didn't say anything as he turned on the television, and there on the screen was the sight of a building explosion.
"I'll talk to you later, Ned," Peter said, hanging up the phone, as he looked at the footage. It was the building that his parents had arrived at a few hours ago.
The headline read: Unidentified Explosion at the Accords Signing. Number of Casualties Unknown.
He started having difficulties breathing as he sunk down to the ground.
Casualties Unknown.
Oh God. What if something had happened to his parents? What if Steve and Toni were dead? Just like his birth parents and his Aunt and Uncle. What if they were gone too?
"Hey, kid!" Happy said, trying to get his attention. "Breathe with me, okay? It's going to be okay. Your mother is Iron Woman. She's made it through worse. She's going to be okay. And your father survived being in the ice for seventy years. They're both fine, okay?"
"You don't know that," he said, struggling to get out.
Happy's phone rang then, and he picked it up. "Hello? Hey Boss. I'm with him now. Yes, I'll put him on the line." He handed the phone over to Peter, "They're okay."
He trembled as he took the phone from Happy, raising it to his ear, "Mom?" he said, voice shaking.
"Peter?" his mom said, "Sorry I couldn't call you sooner. I didn't want you to find out before you heard from me, but it's been complete madness here. I just wanted to let you know that your father and I are fine, okay? A bit banged up, but nothing serious, I promise. We're both okay."
"Okay," he said, trying not to cry at the panic he'd been feeling. "And the others?"
"They're all fine too, Darling," his mother soothed him gently, "There were a few casualties, but we're all fine, I promise. But with the explosion the city's going to be on lockdown while they search for the bomber. I'm sorry Peter but I don't know if we'll be able to do very much tonight."
"I don't care about that," Peter promised her, "I just want you guys to be okay."
"We're fine," his mom promised. "I promise I'll tell you more as soon as we have any other details. But we're fine. And we'll be back at the hotel as soon as we can, okay?"
"Okay," he said as his mom ended the call.
"She's going to be fine, Kid," Happy promised him. "Your mom's one of the toughest people I know. Not even sure why she keeps me around, honestly. Cause she's more than capable of protecting herself. She and your father are fine."
"Thanks, Happy," he said, as he stood carefully. He wiped a tear away that he didn't even remember shedding, as Happy sat him down on the couch.
"Now let's get you some real food, shall we? You've had nothing but junk all day and your father definitely will not be pleased if we don't get something nutritious into you."
"Okay," he said again, as Happy ordered a bunch of food to the room for them. He closed his eyes then, wishing for nothing more than both of them to be okay. He couldn't lose them. And he knew that they were fine now, but the worry didn't cease.
He continued watching the news report, wanting to learn as much as he could about the attack.
And when the food came, he ate a few bites, enough to satisfy Happy.
He couldn't relax, not fully. But knowing his parents or any of the other Avengers weren't casualties definitely helped.
He sighed.
He just wanted everything to be okay.
"I don't believe it!" Steve snapped as they gathered at the headquarters the UN had set up in the wake of the explosion. "It wasn't Bucky! He's free of HYDRA. It wasn't him!"
"Then how do you explain the footage of him planting the bomb?" Ross asked him with a raise of his brow.
"You know as well as I do that footage can be tampered with," Toni said, shaking her head in disbelief.
It had been a long couple of hours after the explosion at the signing of the Accords. King T'Chaka was dead. As well as numerous other delegates. And the world was demanding answers for the terrorist attack.
And half an hour ago footage had been pulled from a CCTV cam which showed none other than James Buchannan Barnes planting the bomb in question.
Except as far as she knew Bucky was in New York still.
Wasn't he?
Because the emotional part of her, the part who knew Steve's best friend, and Ava's lover knew the man wouldn't do anything as horrible as what he was being accused of.
But the scientific part of her demanded she chase all possible leads. That she didn't eliminate any of the possibilities without solid, irrefutable evidence.
And she didn't have and of that either way.
"Are you certain about that?" Ross asked, raising a brow at her questioningly. "Because we haven't been able to authenticate it yet. So how can you say that definitively. And moreover Barnes was a prisoner of HYDRA for decades. How can you say firmly that there are no lingering side effects?"
She didn't say anything about that.
BARF was meant to help him treat the PTSD. To get rid of the aftermaths of the brainwashing he'd endured.
But he was right.
They didn't know if there were any hidden surprises waiting for them. They didn't know if there wasn't any other side effects of his time with HYDRA.
Ava had confided in her that Bucky still had nightmares from time to time of the horrible things he'd had to do for them.
"He didn't do it!" Steve said heatedly. "Look, verify the footage first and you'll see it's false. You can't issue a kill order on him when he hasn't done anything!"
"The King of Wakanda is dead!" Ross said angrily, looking him in the eyes. "A man who came here after his people were killed in Lagos after your mission went wrong. Third world country or not, the world is demanding answers. His people are demanding answers. His son is demanding answers. What would you have me tell them? 'Sorry we have a lead, but Captain America assures us it's not real.' They would crucify us faster than you could throw your shiny shield."
"I'm just saying that you need more than this to go off on!" Steve said, but Ross shook his head.
"Look, we'll bring him in and ask him a few questions. He's either innocent or he's not. Simple as that. But we need to chase this lead," Ross said.
"Then let us bring him in," Toni said, cutting in, knowing it was going nowhere. "He trusts us. And then the investigation can prove he's done nothing wrong. We won't obstruct you, but give us a chance to bring him in peacefully so we can prove to you as well that he's innocent. He's a person of interest at this time. He's not proven guilty. So treat him as such."
"Fine," Ross spat out at them, before walking away.
"I can't believe the world would turn on Bucky like this," Steve said heatedly, "After everything he's been through! They know he's innocent of everything and they still treat him like a criminal. What was the point in us going through the public trials to clear his name if at the end of the day it means nothing, and they can turn on him so easily?"
"I know, Darling," she soothed him tenderly. "But you have to see it from their point of view. They don't know Bucky, and they know someone who looks an awful lot like him set that bomb. Which means someone is trying to frame Bucky. But why? Especially given his public trial. Why would they want that?"
He didn't say anything as he thought over what she'd said to him. She prodded him and his eyes widened, "They want to discredit us."
"Exactly," she told him, "We have to do this properly. Otherwise we'll be falling right into their trap. We'll be the monsters they're claiming us to be. So we bring Bucky in, and prove he's innocent. And we do it fully above the board so they have nothing on us."
"I don't like this," Steve said unhappily.
"I know," she said as she held his hand. "I don't either. But we need to show the world that the Avengers are not above justice. It's unfair when we know the truth. When we don't know who is setting him up, but that someone is. But the world needs to see that we care about the justice system and will put the best interests of the people first."
He took a deep breath, "What do you need from me?" he asked her.
"Bucky's in the Tower. We know Bucky's in the Tower. JARVIS can send me the footage of it right now so I can submit it to the Accords council for review. J's also scanning for any external footage of Bucky's venturing out of the Tower. It'll be easier to dispute if we can get multiple sources of Bucky being on American soil and not in Vienna during the time of the signing," she told him. "And gather any witnesses. They're not always the most reliable in situations like this, but people like to believe witness testimony. I have JARVIS verifying the authenticity of the footage of the explosion, but I've also hired several third-party contractors so they can reach similar findings. The more independent confirmations the better. Legal wise, I have this covered. But I need you to bring in Bucky. We need the world to see that we are cooperating, so they don't demand our heads. I'll make sure he's not placed in a cell. I have Stark Lawyers on their way here already to help handle the situation. Just get him here, okay?"
"Okay," Steve exhaled. "I don't like any of this. And my first thought is to fight everyone who says Bucky is responsible because we know he isn't. But I trust you. You have more experience in this sort of thing and if you say that this is what we need to do then I'll do that. Whatever needs to be done."
She wrapped her arms around his waist. "We're going to get through this. All of us. I'm going to go see Peter for a bit, I'm worried about him given everything. I know he's doing okay, but still."
He nodded at her, "I promise I'll be back soon," he kissed her forehead. "Thank you, Toni. I don't know what I'd do without you."
"Of course," she nodded at him, "We're in this together."
He pulled away from her reluctantly, as he headed towards the roof where the Natasha had landed the quinjet for them to head back to New York in.
She sighed, as she headed back to the hotel to see her son. She pressed her hand to her stomach. It was going to be a long few days.
Grief was a horrible thing. Toni knew it all too well, having lost enough people that she'd loved in her life to know what the Prince of Wakanda was feeling.
It was why she'd made it her mission to seek out Prince T'Challa when she'd returned after spending a few hours with her son, letting Peter know exactly what was happening so he wasn't left in the dark through it all.
She walked towards the balcony the Prince was on, only to be stopped the minute she stepped foot outside by two Dora Milaje.
"You have no business here," one of the women said, as she looked down on Toni intimidatingly.
"I wish to speak to the prince," Toni said, and Prince T'Challa looked back at her.
"Let her pass, Ayo," he said, "Let's see what Mrs Stark-Rogers has to say."
The woman looked at her without an ounce of trust in her eyes but stepped aside. She made her way over to the man, looking over the view of the city that he was taking in.
"If you are here to claim innocence of your friend, I do not wish to hear it," the Prince told her in a calm voice. "My father is dead, and my country demands that his death does not go unpunished."
"I'm not here for that," she told him, and he shot her a look of disbelief.
"You do not wish to clear the name of your husband's best friend?" he asked her sceptically.
"No, I plan on doing that," she told him, "He is innocent of the crimes he is accused of. But I'm not here to convince you of that. "
"Then what are you here for?" he said, all of a sudden getting wary.
"Relax Your Highness," she raised her hands. "I just thought you could use some company. I don't have any ulterior motives. I, uh, I'm not sure how much you know about me. But my parents died in the late nineties. At the hands of the Winter Soldier."
The Prince's face betrayed nothing, and she wasn't surprised that he knew. Especially given he was the prince of a country and her parents deaths, and Bucky's trial was highly publicised.
"And yet you forgave the man and welcomed him into your home," he said, a little disgusted.
"It wasn't easy for me," she told him, admitting the truth. "I knew objectively, that it wasn't him. And that HYDRA was controlling the man. But it was hard for me when I learned what happened to my parents. I spent a few decades thinking my father killed my mother. But that wasn't the truth. And I was devastated when I found out the truth. But nothing was more devastating than when I first received the news that they were gone. I cried for days and wanted nothing more than to hide away. But I couldn't. Not when my company needed me. As you cannot, because your people need you."
He looked at her for the first time, truly understanding their similarities then.
"You know what it's like to grieve without the world seeing your pain," the Prince said, with a sense of understanding.
"I do," she told him. "It's the hardest thing you'll ever have to go through. The rest of the world lost a public figure. For me, America lost Howard Stark. They lost his genius and his leadership of Stark Industries. They lost any innovations he'd possibly come up with in the time he would have had if his life progressed. America lost their foremost tech expert. The world lost the man that was Howard Stark. Like the world lost the King of Wakanda. Your people lost their leader and the man they respected and looked up to. The man who made decisions and ran your country. But you? You lost your father. And those are two very different losses."
"They are," the Prince said, and she looked over at the man, sensing how young he was for the first time. He may have been in his thirties, but she knew the look of a man who hadn't had an overly difficult life. It made it all the harder on them when they suffered from tragedy
"You don't need to trust me," she told him, "You don't even need to like me. But I just want you to know that you are not alone in your pain. And that you are allowed to feel your loss. Your father died, and that's an awful thing for anyone to have to endure. Especially when the circumstances were not natural. But I want you to know that you have people around you who understand what you are going through. Who will be here for you and help you get through it. The rest of the world may need you to be strong, but the best advice I can give you is to let in people who you can be weak around. Who you can drop your masks around and let them in. That is what will make you a powerful leader."
"Running a country and a company are two different things," he said, lightly.
"Yes and no," she shrugged. "I agree the politics of it vary. But we both care about the people under us. And we both want to make decisions that allow us to flourish. We both want to thrive. So not as different as you may think, when you look at it in simple terms."
He didn't say anything for a few minutes.
"My country's honour demands I bring my father's killer to justice. That he faces punishment for what he's done to my country. That he pays for his crimes and for taking the life of the King of Wakanda," Prince T'Challa said to her.
"And what is it you want to do?" she asked him, carefully.
"I want him dead," Prince T'Challa said, vehemently. "I want him to suffer for what he did. For taking my father from me. I want him to pay for it all."
"And then what?" she asked, and he looked at her in confusion. "After, I mean? Because say you killed James Buchanan Barnes. Then what? He's dead, but so is your father. Nothing is going to bring him back to you. He will still be gone. And all your pain will still be with you. It won't alleviate your grief. Nor will it take away the anger that you're feeling now. You'll still feel all of those things. Trust me, I know a thing or two about dealing with people who've hurt you. My Godfather tried to have me killed, then he tried to kill me himself, multiple times. And he was nearly successful in a few of his attempts. The reason I became Iron Woman, the reason I was captured in Afghanistan was because of him."
The Prince looked surprised at that, but she wasn't. She hardly advertised the truth about that entire time.
"I killed him in self defense," she told him finally. "I didn't do the deed, but I might as well have. And it didn't make my pain any less present. It didn't make me any less angry. I was still furious at him. Because he gaslit me for years. He made me think he cared about me despite my own disagreements with my father. He made me think we were family. And killing him didn't make any of that anger or pain go away. It rarely does. You can kill Bucky for what you perceive him to have done to your father. And we're not debating his guilt now, but what it will do to you if you kill him. It won't help your anger. It won't bring your father back. It won't take away the pain of his loss. So I'm asking you, what will you do after?"
"You have a way with words, Mrs Stark-Rogers," the man said finally, as he took in everything she'd said.
"Toni," she said, "I love my last name, but I'd like to think of us as friends. Or at least acquaintances who share in similar experiences."
"Toni," he nodded.
"We are going to have a trial for Bucky," she told him, "He didn't do it, and we're going to have multiple pieces of independent evidence to prove it. But that raises the question, Your Highness. Who did?"
"You want my help in finding the real killer?" he asked her in surprise.
"I think you have a vested interest," she shrugged, "If you believe me about Bucky, then I'm expecting that you most likely will want to find out the truth. And when that happens, give me a call."
She nodded at him, as she walked back inside, leaving the man to his thoughts. She felt for the young prince, and she hoped for his sake that he handled his grief far better than she had.
