"Secretary Ross has a Congressional Medal of Honor, which is one more than you have" Rhodey pointed out to Sam.
Sam didn't back down, "So let's say we agree to this thing. How long is it gonna be before they LoJack us like a bunch of common criminals?"
"117 countries want to sign this" Rhodey let out, "117, Sam, and you're just like, no, that's cool. We got it"
Sam scoffed, "How long are you going to play both sides?"
Vision spoke up, "I have an equation"
"Oh, this will clear it up" Sam said mockingly to Rhodey.
"In the eight years since Mr. Stark announced himself as Iron Man the number of known enhanced persons has grown exponentially" Vision explained, "During the same period, the number of potentially world-ending events has risen at a commensurate rate"
"Are you saying it's our fault?" Amora asked.
"I'm saying there may be a casualty" Vision told her, "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" Rhodey commented.
Natasha turned her attention, "Tony… you are being uncharacteristically non-hyperverbal"
Steve responded, "It's because he's already made up his mind"
"Boy, you know me so well" Tony slowly got up.
"Actually, I'm nursing an electromagnetic headache" Tony moved to the kitchen, "That's what's going on, Cap. It's just pain"
Tony pulled out a mug, "It's discomfort. Who's putting coffee grounds in the disposal?"
"Am I running a bed and breakfast for a biker gang?" Tony turned to lecture them.
This attracted Amora's attention as for the past year, she's never seen Tony like this. She watched as he paced around the kitchen trying to find the medication and liquid he needs to swallow down a pill. She wasn't the only one who seemed to have noticed this as well because the room got eerily quiet. Amora had to admit that while they were all discussing the Accords, she forgot that Tony was even in the room. The man took out his phone and enhanced a picture of a young man smiling to them.
"Oh, that's Charles Spencer, by the way" Tony let out.
"He's a great kid" Tony mentioned, "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" Tony went on, "Maybe be of service"
Tony explained, "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"
Amora looked down to her hands as Tony continued, "He wanted to make a difference, I suppose. We won't know because we dropped a building on him while we were kicking ass"
"There's no decision-making process here" Tony finished, "We need to be put in check! Whatever form that takes, I'm game. If we can't accept limitations, if we're boundaryless we're no better than the bad guys"
"Tony, someone dies on your watch, you don't give up" Steve told him.
"Who said we're giving up?" Tony questioned.
"We are if we're not taking responsibility for our actions" Steve explained, "This document just shifts the blame"
Rhodey spoke up, "I'm sorry, Steve, that is dangerously arrogant. 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, and agendas change" Steve pointed out.
Tony let out, "That's good. That's why I'm here. When I realized what my weapons were capable of in the wrong hands, I shut it down and stopped manufacturing"
"Tony, you chose to do that" Amora said, "Steve is saying if we sign this, we surrender our right to choose"
Steve nodded and continued, "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"
Tony slowly explained, "If we don't do this now, it's going to be done to us later. That's the fact. That won't be pretty"
Wanda said, "You're saying they'll come for me"
"We would protect you" Vision told her.
"Maybe Tony's right" Natasha said, "If we have one hand on the wheel, we can still steer. If we take it off-"
Sam turned to her, "Aren't you the same woman who told the government to kiss her ass a few years ago?"
"I'm just reading the terrain" Natasha explained, "We have made some very public mistakes. We need to win their trust back"
"Focus up. I'm sorry. Did I just mishear you or did you agree with me?"
"I want to take it back now"
Tony quickly said, "No, you can't retract it. Thank you. Unprecedented. Okay, case closed. I win"
"I have to go" Steve said suddenly as he quickly left the room.
Amora placed her fingers on her pursed mouth as she scanned the surveillances over just about anywhere. Her eyes were tired but she refused to rest as she tried to find the fastest man on the planet. Ever since her first encounter of Pietro, she's been working tirelessly at trying to figure out where he could have possibly gone. It would've been easier to tell Wanda but Amora didn't want to put too much stress on the sister, especially when she believes her brother's dead. Amora stopped on a pictures that looked like a flash of silver that everyone could possibly miss if they didn't know what to look for.
A voice came from the entrance of the room, "What're you doing?"
"Nothing"
"You've been on that thing ever since we got back from Lagos. You spend more time on your laptop than the whole year combined when Tony gave it to you"
Amora closed her laptop and turned to Wanda, "Just trying to find some street footage"
"Fridays already been over it" Wanda slowly walked over to her bed, "There were few in the marketplace and in such poor quality. None of us were even seen on those footages. Nothing proves of innocence in my standing"
"Our standing" Amora corrected.
"Thank you" Wanda barely let out, "Your loyalties to my actions speak louder than words"
"When I was in Asgard, the people I looked up to more than my father were the Valkyrie's and they believed that if one got disbanded then they all should be" Amora explained.
Wanda nodded, "Sounds like you are a lot like your father with your need to protect"
Amora shrugged, "Well, he was always off fighting battles and whenever he came back spoke of nothing but them. You could tell he wanted boys but instead got two daughters which, in the end, he wasn't too upset about. He trained us nonetheless. Of course, my mother didn't approve but chose to complain and not intervene"
"Sounds nice, he chose to stay with you as much as he could" Wanda smiled.
Amora smiled back as she glanced down to a ring she recently bought, a gold band with a ruby in the middle. She bought it because it reminded her of her father's blonde locks and ruby cape when she missed him terribly. The question Secretary Ross asked her made it burn in her mind as now she wondered if her father truly was safe, she hoped so. Amora would hate to know that he needed her help and she wasn't there to aid him.
"Come on" Wanda told her, "Smells like Vis is trying to cook something"
Amora smiled as she followed the woman out of the room and into the kitchen as Wanda asked, "Is that paprikash?"
"I thought it might lift your spirits" Vision told her.
Wanda chuckled as Amora went over to a barstool and watched as Vision stared at Wanda as she went over to try his food. Vision glanced over to Amora as she gave him a teasing look before the man looked away from her. Amora couldn't help but smile at Vision's little crush on Wanda.
Wanda turned to Vision, "Spirits lifted"
Vision heard the underlying tone, "In my defense, I haven't actually ever eaten anything before, so-"
Wanda cut him off, "May I?"
Vision nodded, "Please"
"Wanda?"
"Hmm"
"No one dislikes you, Wanda" Vision said, making Amora turn and look at him in a weird way.
"Thanks" Wanda replied with little enthusiasm.
"Oh, you're welcome" Vision told her, "No, it's a involuntary response in their amygdala they can't help but be afraid of you"
Wanda thought for a moment before she asked, "Are you?"
"My amygdala is synthetic, so" he shrugged.
Amora and Wanda laughed as Wanda said, "I used to think of myself one way but after this… I am something else. I'm still me, I think, but… that's not what everyone else sees"
Vision looked to Amora as if asking her something, Amora knew exactly what and gave him a nod as he gestured to the mind stone, "Do you know, I don't know what this is? Not really. I know it's not of this world, that it powered Loki's staff, gave you your abilities, but its true nature is a mystery and yet it is a part of me"
"Are you afraid of it?" Wanda asked.
"I wish to understand it" Vision told her truthfully, "The more I do, the less it controls me. One day… who knows? I may even control it"
Wanda pointed to the dish, "I don't know what's in this but it's not paprika. I'm gonna go to the store. I'll be back in 20 minutes"
Vision phased over to be in front of Wanda, "Alternatively, we could order a pizza?"
"Vision, are you not letting Wanda leave?" Amora asked from her corner.
"It's a question of safety" Vision confessed.
"I can protect myself" Wanda said as she tried to walk past him but he stopped her again.
"Not yours" Vision stated, "Mr. Stark would like to avoid the possibility of another public incident until the Accords are on a more secure foundation"
"And what do you want?" Wanda asked him.
"For people to see you as I do" Vision told her.
"What about me?" Amora spoke up, "Am I under lockdown, too?"
Vision turned to her, "I wouldn't use those terms but yes, neither of you should go anywhere"
"Why?" Amora asked him.
"Because the world believes it is your fault for not going back in time to fix this mess and Wanda's fault for causing the destruction" Vision glanced down.
Amora rolled her eyes, "And yet Rumlow gets off the hook. Funny how that goes, huh? The bad guy gets off with not even a word of acknowledgement and we get the paddle"
"Amora, we're doing the best we can out of this situation" Vision said.
Amora sighed, "This is just not how things would've worked in Asgard. I don't see how we're at fault in all of this. My people would not place the blame on me because of my abilities and it was always Odin's approval if I should turn back in time. How is this so different in Midgard?"
Vision let her vent before he said, "Because we don't have magic in our realm"
"But it's starting to" Amora shifted, "Everyone's realm is starting to get a piece of what the others each have ever since the almost Convergence"
Wanda quickly stepped in, "Pizza does sound good, you know?"
"I'll order some" Vision nodded, "Anything else?"
Wanda said, "Yes, everyone gather up as many movies as you can find and we'll vote on which ones to watch"
"Fine" Amora mumbled.
Amora stomped off to her room and had to remind herself not to slam her door as she let out a frustrated sigh. She went over to her cabinet before she heard her laptop beeping.
"Did they place the Accords online too?" she asked her laptop, "What do you want?"
She opened it and found over 25 matches of the blur that she asked for it to run. Amora leaned over as she realized that for the past four months it was all in one place.
"High Wycombe, United Kingdom?" Amora asked.
She then noticed the other strays that were around the world as Amora's mouth almost dropped open, "He's been to nearly all of the missions we had… even this base"
Amora glanced out of the window as if Pietro would be there, waiting for her to notice him. She turned to tell someone but then stopped as she noticed something. Amora couldn't leave, she can't randomly go off to the United Kingdom because of her lockdown. She closed her eyes and let out a small breath, yes she could. But this was under selfish reasons. Amora could go back in time before the Accords came to the facility and escape before the lockdown.