Chapter 24 Captain America: Civil War
AN: WARNING - this chapter will be triggering for arachnophobes!
Tony's point of view
I didn't want to relive this situation. It was embarrassing and stupid and no doubt everyone would blame me. I scowled at the screen.
"OK Everyone, it's time to watch Captain America: Civil War… now before we begin, I want to say something really important. There will be NO fighting about this because it's already happened. There will be a discussion opportunity, later, but it will be controlled… Rufus?"
"Tensions within the team and political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability when the actions of the Avengers lead to collateral damage. The new status quo deeply divides members of the team. Captain America believes superheroes should remain free to defend humanity without government interference. Iron Man sharply disagrees and supports oversight. As the debate escalates into an all-out feud, Black Widow and Hawkeye must pick a side."
"Wait a minute" said Mom "Bruce, where were you and where was Thor?"
"I'd gone back to Asgard"
"I was on Sakaar. I realised there was little to nothing left for me on earth. My relationship with Betty was unviable, and I felt like I didn't belong on the team - like I was a liability and a danger to myself and others."
"Gosh, Bruce we're sorry we made you feel like that, right guys?"
"Right"
"We're also sorry we made you feel like you couldn't share how you felt." said Pepper
"Exactly"
"Dude you could have come to any of us."
"I didn't want to be a burden… as usual"
"You're not"
"I've been two people since I was 17 years old… you'd think I'd have it together by now right?"
"Not necessarily."
"The emergence of The Other Guy was like being a toddler and then a kid and finally a teen all over again… it wasn't fun."
"Bruce this is partly my fault, OK? I shouldn't have asked you to help me try to experiment with the super soldier serum."
Peggy's point of view
I could feel Howard trembling behind me. I was sitting on his lap. The next part of the video would be horrendous for us to watch and we both knew it. I put my head on Howard's shoulder, for two reasons. Firstly to calm myself down and secondly to reassure Howard. Pepper was in a similar position on Tony's lap.
December 16th 1991 surveillance footage
Howard's point of view
*FLASHBACK*
We were driving from our house on Long Island to the airport. It was 21 below out and the roads were untreated. I don't know why I thought it was wise to put the super soldier serum in the trunk of the car and drive to DC before heading out to The Bahamas. A motorcyclist came out of nowhere. Peggy screamed, I applied the brakes, hard and turned the steering wheel before putting the shifter in neutral but somehow, it didn't work. We hit the tree in front of us, which broke in half and fell over, revealing the gang on motorcycles, they grabbed Peggy, while the leader grabbed me. I tried to fight back… the leader hit me in the back of the skull with something heavy. As I lost consciousness, I heard Peggy's supersonic shriek.
When I came to, I was alone in a clinically white room. I tried calling for Peggy, but she didn't answer… then someone came in, they dragged me into another room… I was pushed into a tube and zapped, and I passed into the bliss of oblivion once more. I don't know how long had passed when I regained consciousness. There was a girl in the room… and that's when it hit me… I'd been in cryostasis.
"Mr Stark" the girl said softly "My name is Shuri. You are in Wakanda. Here…" she handed me a glass of water.
"Where's Peggy?"
"She's down the hall, you will see her soon."
"What happened to us?"
"You were ambushed by The Winter Soldier and his goons… Nick Fury was discovered at the scene… he's HYDRA"
"WHAT?"
"I know… that was my brother's reaction…"
"Can I see Peggy?"
"Of course… we just have to"
"Shuri?" yelled a voice
"Coming mother. Sorry, Mr Stark, I have to go. I promise I will return when I can and explain things… and of course take you to see Mrs Stark"
Shuri kept her promise… She returned a few hours later, with Councilwoman Hawley of the world security council. Then, I was reunited with Peg. We had several intimate nights together, sneaking off base to a secluded cave to be alone together. Getting caught by Okoye… Shuri informing us that our children weren't doing well… returning to the US. Dealing with the aftermath of Fury's betrayal and beginning the mission.
*END FLASHBACK*
"So not only did Fury try to end both of your lives, he took you to a place you'd never been before against your will?"
"Yes"
"Was he arrested?"
"By the Dora Milaje, much later"
Calamitous mission
As the events of our disastrous mission to Lagos showed on the screen both Thor and Bruce cringed.
"OOH! That shouldn't have happened"
The Sokovia accords
"So this is General Ross interfering" Bruce snarled, his eyes glowing bright green with venomous rage. That bastard almost had me killed. If I get my hands on him… I'm letting The Other Guy out to play and I won't be suppressing or controlling any of my emotions!"
On a break
"Yeah… nice of you guys to make me feel better about Pep and I being on a break… oh wait, you didn't" said Tony. There was sarcasm dripping from every word. "You made me feel one hundred times worse about it!"
Peggy
"Wow… I was 95 when I passed?"
"Yes"
"It affected you?"
"Yes, badly."
MIT Mishap
"This was while we were on a break wasn't it Tony?"
"Yes Pep"
"You made me the head of the foundation before you made me CEO. Then you made me CEO and things got a bit… muddled. I double-booked myself a number of times. That was one of those times. I was supposed to be at MIT with you but I was also booked to be in Tokyo for a Future Energies meeting… and you and I weren't speaking so I called MIT and told them that I wasn't going to be there but they didn't have time to take it off the autocue and I didn't have time to email you to inform you."
"OK"
Secretary General interferes.
"He wants to put us in our place but…"
"He was a sick, twisted, hypocrite. He wanted us to retire or treat us like criminals it's ridiculous that such a being was even allowed to be within this department especially after what he did to Bruce. I humoured him, I didn't want to create unnecessary issues for Pepper by stepping on his toes. I figured that Ross would try to attack Stark Industries if I stood up to him too much. After the big fight, I gave him a piece of my mind."
Discussing the Accords
"Tony's right, maybe there should be some controls. Perhaps not under the mucky boots of a world security council panel. As Nat said if we have one hand on the wheel we can still steer, if we take it off we're not in control and chaos happens."
"Exactly"
Charles Spencer
"Sokovia was a disaster from beginning to end."
Spider-Man
Jay's point of view
"Tony, what were you thinking?"
"I'd seen this kid on YouTube and I tracked him down"
Serendipity made a funny noise in her throat, like she knew something about the kid in question.
"His name is Peter Parker and he's 16. He became Spider-Man because of an injustice that played out before his eyes…" said a sad slightly sarcastic voice.
"See, Peter was orphaned when he was 6 years old. He'd been staying with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May while his parents went to a conference in Paris - They were scientists. They worked for Stark Industries and… well, they died when Ivan Vanko's drones exploded at the Stark Expo. Iron Man saved Peter Parker that night. When Peter was 15 years old, two things happened to him… First Uncle Ben died, in an armed robbery, but he was a victim of mistaken identity. The robber mistook him for someone else. About 4 months after Uncle Ben's death, Peter was on a school trip to Oscorp Industries - the company owned by Peter's best friend's father, Norman Osborne. While on the trip, school bully Eugene "Flash" Thompson pushed Peter into a glass case filled with radioactive spiders. One of the spiders crawled down a hair fine web and landed on Peter's shoulder and bit him on the side of the neck… After the bite, Peter's aunt had him evaluated by a psychiatrist. Turns out he has PTSD and anxiety… just like his hero Tony Stark. We've known for years that Peter has high-functioning Autism, but he's very good at masking… except when he's under a lot of stress. After the debacle, Peter's best friend Harry Osborn moved to Florida to live with his mother. "
Dad and Tony both screamed and covered their eyes when the spider showed up on screen.
Vienna disaster
Howard's point of view
"Oh good lord."
"This is where the team really started to fracture and turn toxic. OK Fine, Ultron mostly was my fault but YOU DON'T GET TO BLAME ME FOR IT MORE THAN ONCE. YOU BLAME ME ONCE AND YOU MOVE ON. DO NOT JUST KEEP SHITTING ON ME ENDLESSLY!" Tony was more furious than I had ever seen him. His eyes were glowing amber. He looked dangerously angry as though he had been unable to express these emotions since the incident happened and had effectively been 'sitting on them' and suppressing them for so long that when they came out it was unsurprisingly explosive.
Avengers: Civil War
Tony's point of view
"An all out war broke out between the two factions of the team. In fact, the team split into two. Steve and I had a massive row about the whole affair. We ended up fighting as two separate teams at Leipzig airport. I brought Peter in as backup. I know he's young, but he knows that he's got to learn. He said he wanted to be part of the team and I agreed to train him."
"And included his guardian in the process too, right?"
"Kind of… we created a cover story… eventually May found out and at first she wasn't impressed at all. She chewed me out for four hours… but once Peter explained to her that I wasn't the one who started him doing this — he'd been doing it on his own for a long time — she realised that my taking over responsibility for his education and welfare as a superhero was probably not a bad thing. She was furious when I removed the Iron Spider suit but I explained to her why - Peter had been going behind my back trying to get The Vulture when I already had it handled"
A boy sitting four rows from us stood up and walked to the front.
"Mr Stark, you expected me to know things without even telling me anything! I'm not psychic. YOU NEED TO COMMUNICATE BETTER!"
Wanda and Vision
"That's a toxic relationship waiting to happen right there. Vision isn't worldly enough for Wanda and Wanda is too conflicted for him. They do not belong together!"
Police chase
"What were you guys thinking?" Pepper asked
"Someone could have been hurt or worse"
"I was trying to sort it out and then Zemo goes and makes things a whole lot worse than they were."
"Tony extends an olive branch and you ask about me? What kind of idiot are you Rogers?" Pepper growled.
"What?"
I lost what remained of my composure stood up, turned towards Steve, walked towards him and yelled…
"You don't know what you're doing! You don't know what it was like to grow up as the child - the only biological child of Howard Anthony Walter Stark And Margaret Elizabeth Carter. They were good parents, but it was very, very difficult to live up to such fantastic human beings. I already told them this when I was 7 years old, and I didn't get into the baseball team. Dad wasn't exactly furious, but he wasn't exactly pleased either. He asked why I didn't make it and I exploded with rage… this was the first time I absolutely lost my temper with both of my parents… i remember yelling 'YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE YOUR KID… YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO HAVE EVERYONE EXPECTING YOU TO ACHIEVE EVERYTHING YOUR PARENTS ACHIEVED AND THEN SOME. SURE, I HAVE A HIGH IQ, BUT I'M NEVER GOING TO BE PART OF THE MANHATTAN PROJECT, OR BE A HOWLING COMMANDO, OR THE HEAD OF THE STRATEGIC HOMELAND INTERVENTION, ENFORCEMENT AND LOGISTICS DIVISION. YOU'RE GOOD PARENTS BUT, I JUST… I CAN'T LIVE UP TO YOU'and I broke down, sobbing uncontrollably. Mom pulled me onto her lap and said 'Tony we don't want you to live up to us OK? We just want you to be a good citizen and do well in school, and you're already doing both of those things.' and I replied 'That's kind of my point Mom, you and Dad don't expect me to live up to what you did or to be the next Steve Rogers but everyone else does. I've got all this pressure and expectations on me and… I'm just… I'm gonna fail miserably!'
'You won't Tony because we won't allow you to'
'Not making the baseball team was the final straw for me… I realised… I'm always going to be mediocre'
'That's not true Tony. You can't be mediocre with a 280 IQ.'
'I meant… in every other way.'
'Why don't we look at another form of activity then… dance class perhaps?'
'I guess that could work but… what do we do about me being a mediocre heir?'
'Well, we can't have any more biological children, but there's nothing to stop us from looking into adoption'
As it happened, later that night, someone came to the house - three someones' actually… which dramatically changed the dynamics of our family forever… it meant there was a lot less pressure and expectation on me. I went from being an only child to being the 3rd oldest of 4 boys overnight. There's more to it than that, but I don't think this is the time or the place to discuss it."
"OK"
Pepper's point of view
I understood where Tony was coming from, he really did have a lot of pressure on him as a young child, from society and not his family. I had been kept a secret until I was 11 years old… once I was debuted, I had to endure years of snide remarks.
The battle of Leipzig
When Tony had returned from Germany, he was broken, lost, a shell of his former self. He came to me and begged me to give him another chance. He told me everything, including how Jay got injured.
Orange slices
"Oh Ewww! Of all the things you could have asked for? You just had to ask for my nemesis fruit" said Constance and I together.
"Now you know how I feel about strawberries!" Pepper and Meg muttered.
"Oranges have a lot of sugar in them that absorbs quickly and some bonus fluids that help replace the electrolytes lost…" I explained
"But they are one of the major triggers of migraines"
"True citrus fruits are one of the worst for that."
Jay gets badly injured
"I'm sorry Lieutenant Colonel" said Vision
"Don't worry about it Vis, as soon as Tony realised what had happened he got emergency medical assistance, and he's been helping me with rehab. Blaming him for all of this is NOT the answer" Jay said furiously, turning to glare at Clint.
"It's his fault!"
Siberia
"You went to Siberia?"
"Yeah I had to know what was going on."
Zemo's ultimate revenge
Tony's point of view
"Oh my god that's THAT'S HOW YOU FOUND OUT?" Pepper yelled and then she stood up and punched Steve on the nose, knocking him out cold.
"Wow remind me never to tick you off Pepper!" said Jay.
Serendipity poured a conjured bucket of ice over Steve and magicked him into an armchair in a corner well away from Pepper. She was still absolutely furious with him.
No going back
"There's really no going back from this… no trust either. You chose to conceal crucial information from me so that makes you a liar"
"Whoa"
"Tony's right"
"Even though I did it for the right reasons?"
"How can you even say that?"
"I tried to prevent you from getting humiliated… again"
"Yeah right! All you wanted to do was humiliate Tony!" Pepper growled
"That just proves that you're not a good friend."
"I'm sorry, Tony. What else do you want me to say?"
"Next time something like this happens don't wait until the last second to tell me about it, and then I might and I stress might consider letting you help me to deal with it but not this time. Thanks to your friend and your boss, I believed for 20 years that my parents died on that horrible night in December so don't you DARE sit there and act as though you're the innocent party because I can assure you, you're anything but… far from it actually. You can beg and you can plead and you can try to explain but you're never going to fully regain my trust so… I might as well just step back from the team while the time is right."
"Unfortunately, you can't do that Tony, we need you"
"Yeah and I needed you… I needed you to tell me the truth and you didn't. I needed you to be the person I most admired and respected in the whole world once again and you didn't… I needed my Uncle Steve and where were you… nowhere to be found. I don't need you any more."
"It wasn't me who said that Tony, it was Rufus"
"What do you know that we don't?"
"I can't tell you that"
"A likely story. I'd love to blow this pathetic totalitarian popsicle stand and get out of here with my girl but I promised I would complete the mission so that's what I am going to do. If we find ourselves in the same situation as before I'm NOT going to be the one who will make the sacrifice play. Not this time. I did it before and my efforts went unappreciated."
Helping Jay
While the others bickered and debated about the Accords, I concentrated on what was important. Taking care of my brother from another mother.
"I appreciate every bit of help you gave me Tony"
"I know."
"Thank you for having my back"
"What are adoptive brothers and best friends for?"
"I know that you believe you were just doing what was right but I am truly thankful for all of it."
"It was my pleasure. You would have done the same for me."
"Exactly
Face of betrayal
I'd been considering retirement from the Avengers for a while. I wanted to spend more time with Pepper. I started building her a farm Upstate - The Stark Eco-Compound. Though I kept it to myself for a while, I didn't want to rush Pepper into anything she wasn't ready for. I put in a workshop for myself, a garden for Pep, I got us a couple of alpacas. Gerard and Gianna. In my frustration over the whole disaster with the team, I locked the shield away in the trunk of my new Audi E-Tron...
Send this to Ross
On the way home from Leipzig, I got some Intel from the Leipzig police which I had FRIDAY send to General Ross.
Playing hooky on the phone
"I was on the phone to Pepper the entire time I had him on hold. Finally, he hung up, called the main building, screamed at Bambi and demanded to be put through to me… at which point before I could put him back on hold he starts yelling at me. I put him on hold and told Pepper the truth. She said 'Tony you have to talk to him, Text me when you're done on the phone with him, and I'll call you back.' to which I replied 'here's a great idea, why don't you come up to my office and talk to him? You're the diplomatic one! You're good at handling idiots without getting your feathers ruffled, I just get indignant.' and she did cos that's how awesome Pepper is."
I suppose it's time to man up and try and be a little more… responsible and see if I can talk to Pepper.
"I did call you, didn't I? We started talking again right?"
"Yeah, we'd been talking for a while before the whole Civil War thing"
"We started talking, and then we got back together, after a month of talking."
"Not at all like Ross and Rachel from Friends then" said Constance "For the longest time they couldn't even be in the same room as each other."
"He cheated though"
"I know"
"I didn't cheat, I was just… a superhero and the expectations and risks of that were a little much for Pepper to take at first so we put some distance between us for a while and she figured out what was causing her to feel so afraid, we talked, we dated, and then she finally moved back in and when the time was right, I proposed."
