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To My Wondering Eyes
The phenomenon known as ‘the triumph of hope over experience’ is a very common cliché.
To Tony Stark’s unending irritation, as he stares (fine, glowers) into Steve Rogers’ baby blue eyes, it is also true.
And when he finds out exactly who coined that loathsome phrase, he’s going to shoot them in the face with a repulsor.
But let’s back up for a minute.
Start from the beginning, as it were.
Actually, considering Tony’s life, three-fourths of the way down will be a much more productive use of everyone’s time. And, frankly, it should be more than enough for people to get the gist of what’s happening now.
You see, about a year ago, a deadly, unholy amalgamation of Wanda Maximoff, the Mind Stone, Tony Stark’s PTSD-riddled, protective-driven genius, and an imprint of the Mad Titan, Thanos (not that anyone knew his name, but still) combined to create the insane, murderous being known as ULTRON. After it was all said and done — and Tony does mean ‘all’. After Bruce disappeared, the ruins of Sokovia quit smoking and catching fire, the two separate investigations into how such a creature came into being, both of which found Tony (and Bruce) to be completely without fault, as there was demonstrably no way for either of them to have known about the entity already in the scepter and video evidence clearly showed that Thor didn’t take a second to check for any irregularities himself, and a truly impressive amount of bitching, moaning, and screaming (three guesses as to who did what) — he thought that perhaps the results of those investigations would finally knock a modicum of . . . not common sense, even Tony wasn’t that desperate for a miracle . . . but basic trust into his teammates.
After all, he’d built four AIs prior to ULTRON without any problems, and JARVIS, his brilliant but most advanced youngest son, had created several backups of himself and was able to restore himself. Not that anybody knew that, of course, since he’d failed to mention it in the complete and utter chaotic clusterfuck that was dealing with ULTRON.
Of course, nobody had bothered to ask, either.
Well, no one on the so-called ‘team’ had bothered. Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy knew.
Whatever. Tony understood that most people didn’t, couldn’t, grasp who, or rather what, exactly, JARVIS was, so their ignorance about what they thought was his demise was expected.
Less expected, though it probably shouldn’t have been, was their attitude about Tony’s initial grief, before he’d discovered his son’s brilliant paranoia (inherited from him, of course, and yes, he stuck his tongue out at an empty room in his vindication that said paranoia was both warranted and, in this case, a literal lifesaver). The hostility Barton and Wilson piled on him was jarring, especially since he had no clue why Wilson was acting that way, while Romanova’s snide comments were expected and ignored. Rogers’ indifference, which was also heavily tinged with exasperation, was disturbing.
Again, it shouldn’t have been, but Tony was still lacking a few pieces of crucial information at the time.
Now, here’s where he lost the plot.
And he will freely admit it’s his own fault.
The te—no, the group’s collective mistrust of FRIDAY, whom he’d activated as a failsafe to protect JARVIS, wasn’t a surprise. Barton, Romanova, and Wilson were the only ones who had more than the basic working knowledge of how to turn a computer on and off (which was, at that point, all Rogers could do; he actually had to hand-write a note to even do Google searches), and none of them could begin to grasp what JARVIS and FRIDAY were, much less what ULTRON was supposed to be.
So their fear and anger and distrust was unavoidable, especially since Bruce had bolted and he was the one they might, possibly, maybe, have listened to.
Add the witch feeding their fear and anger and distrust by actually quivering when she saw him, complete with huge eyes and trembling lips, and there was no way on Earth or the wider galaxy that Rogers or Barton or even Wilson would give him an ounce of the benefit of the doubt, much less trust.
The Black Widow needed no explanation.
And Thor was gone again, not that he was of any use or remotely helpful when it came to their ‘teammates’.
Tony had been foolish in retrospect to think that being cleared by two different investigations would be enough proof for the group to understand and accept that no, ULTRON hadn’t been his fault, but he’d drastically overestimated their ability to accept truths they didn’t want to hear. Rogers in particular was so stubbornly intransigent about it, not to mention hateful, that Tony finally just gave up and quit coming to the Compound for anything that didn’t require his personal presence. He also stepped back from Iron Man for a while, needing desperately to recharge.
But while he was doing that, and also catching up on his massive backlog of SI work, he missed the fact that the entire miserable bunch of them kept badmouthing him. To each other, to people on the streets . . . and to the press. Steve ‘I refuse to do interviews because I’m not a dancing monkey and they’re beneath me’ Rogers gave three different interviews in the first five months after ULTRON and he pointblank stated in each one that Tony had built the murderbot and that was why he was no longer on the team: his guilt about ‘killing poor, helpless wittle baby Wanda’s family’ (yeah, it was a direct quote. And he’d gagged in disgust the first time he’d heard it) on top of his responsibility for creating ULTRON had made him see that he wasn’t fit to be an Avenger.
Barton had retired and was gone, but given his attitude the entire time Tony had known him, he would have concurred. Romanova said nothing, but her silence was taken as the agreement it was, while Wilson and Maximoff gleefully threw another bus on top of Rogers’.
It had taken Tony (and Pepper, to her annoyance) entirely too long to figure out what was happening, but the second they did, SI’s lawyers were on everyone’s ass, serving a record-breaking number of lawsuits in the process, while PR released the results of the investigations proving Tony’s innocence and started damage control.
As with most things related to Tony Stark, actual information changed the minds of about half the population, softened a few who still bitched and moaned about his past but reluctantly conceded that ULTRON hadn’t been his fault or his mistake, and made no impact on everyone who hated him regardless.
A small fact that nobody realized until FRIDAY did a sweep the day Ross presented the Accords to them was that the lawsuits and cease-and-desist orders had exactly zero impact on the so-called Avengers. No more official interviews were given, but when people on the street asked, they still blamed Tony for everything (literally; at one point, Romanova heavily implied that world hunger was his fault, too).
So Tony stepped back further. He kept funding them because the US government busted a gut laughing when he tentatively presented a proposal for joint sponsorship; there was no way they could afford to pay for the damages the Avengers caused, Stark, are you out of your mind?
Some days, he wonders that himself.
Anyway.
He’d just assumed the behavior and refusal to acknowledge reality were both a reflection of their attitude toward him in general and Steve’s inability to admit he was wrong about Tony. Irritating, but not all that unusual.
Wasn’t he just adorable?
Because as he stares into those guileless baby blue eyes and listens with disbelief as Rogers bleats that the video of his friend Barnes setting the bomb that had blown up the UN building isn’t real, Bucky is innocent, Tony Stark is hit so hard and so fast with an epiphany that he would have fallen on his ass had a suit made of titanium alloy not been holding him up.
Fortunately for everyone, his genius brain and lifelong experience of dealing with Seriously Stupid People allows him to recover almost immediately from his epiphany and he huffs out a bitter laugh.
“Are you kidding me, Steve?” he demands. “Are you fucking kidding me right now?”
The other man scowls, his whole face darkening with the patronizing disapproval that makes Tony’s blood boil.
“Language!” Rogers snaps back. “And of course I’m serious. Bucky is innocent and this is why the Accords are wrong.”
Next to him, Rhodey chokes on thin air and in his ear, Peter does the same. Tony sympathizes, truly, but he is also just done, and this has been a loooooong time coming, so he allows himself the genuine pleasure of finally putting Steve Sanctimonious Rogers in his place.
“You are a moron,” Tony acidly informs him, making a sharp gesture that actually keeps Rogers from objecting. “I thought, with the ULTRON mess, that it was just me. But you honestly can’t process or accept anything that disagrees with what you’ve decided, can you? You declared I was solely responsible for ULTRON, so the TWO SEPARATE INVESTIGATIONS that cleared me, along with a shit ton of proof, didn’t count, because I just bought them off, right?”
He doesn’t need the nod, but it’s nice to have confirmation for the lawsuits he was personally going to rain down on that blond head.
But he digresses.
“And now, we have video of the Winter Soldier, your buddy Barnes, setting the bomb at the UN building, but that’s a lie, too, isn’t it? You don’t want it to be Barnes, therefore the governments of 117 countries, elected by the billions of people who live in those countries, people who don’t know you or him from a hole in the ground, are faking it for the sole purpose of framing Barnes so the evil UN government can use the mean Accords to hunt him down. Right?”
His sarcasm flies over Rogers’ head, but Wilson and Barton (wha—why was he here?!) both wince. They don’t relax their fighting-ready stances, but there is definitely a lot of ‘Crap. That . . . that does sound stupid’ clearly visible on their faces. Shockingly, Maximoff is glaring at Tony.
Rogers just looks bewildered, but not in an ‘my logic was just decimated’ sort of way. Rather, it was that ‘how does nobody understand my version of reality?’ expression that has always driven Rhodes nuts. He’s used to it from Tony, but his best friend’s level of genius means that he does operate on a slightly different plane from everyone else.
Rogers is just . . . well, not to be rude, but the man has repeatedly shown himself to be delusional.
Tony — well, truthfully, nobody has really understood just how deep it went until now.
Hey, ‘genius’ doesn’t mean ‘all-knowing’, okay?
“No, Tony,” Rogers replies sarcastically, proving that exact point. “I mean that it wasn’t Bucky who did it. It was the Winter Soldier. Bucky is innocent.”
Everybody’s brain bluescreens at that, with the exception of Maximoff, who isn’t stupid but is rabid with Tony Stark Hate™, along with ‘Steve Rogers Is My Emotional Sugar Daddy, So I Must Agree With Him’ syndrome.
His long experience with idiocy in general and Rogers’ special brand of stupidity in particular allows Tony to process that pretty quickly, though even he can’t stop himself from gaping a little longer before he finally manages to recover enough to decide that letting this — this farce — play out while he and Rhodey and Peter record it on their suit cameras is the best option. That way, nobody will legitimately be able to claim that he had twisted things around to make Rogers look bad or reprogrammed the world or whatever.
In fact . . .
“Hey, JARVIS?” he murmurs, pitching his voice so super soldier hearing can’t pick up on it and taking a moment to be thankful his faceplate was still engaged. “Can you livestream this to the actual UN Council and the emergency Accords Panel?”
“Of course, Sir,” his darling AI replies just as softly. “Give me a moment to access their camera feeds.”
Access . . . hijack . . . hack . . . whatever. As long as it gets done, Tony doesn’t care.
“Done, Sir. Full audio and video.”
So Tony needs to keep his more scathing comments to himself. That’s going to suck, but life so often does.
Pushing his mild disappointment aside, Tony takes a deep breath, then toggles a private line to Peter and Rhodes. “Hey, Kid, I need you to circle around and be ready to do a mass webbing from behind. Use the wide-angle option. It might not stop Rogers, but it’ll slow him down enough for me to take him down while Rhodey takes care of Maximoff and you finish with the others. Okay?”
“Gotcha, Mr. Stark,” the young man whispers, followed by an equally quiet, “Done,” from Rhodes.
Plan for containment set, Tony takes another deep breath and then steps back three paces, removes the faceplate, and looks Rogers dead in the eyes.
“Let me get this straight,” he starts in a clear, steady voice. “Despite three different cameras catching this man” — he gestures at Barnes — “in the act of placing and detonating the bomb at the UN building, you’re telling me that he’s innocent. Okay. Where’s your proof?”
It’s comical how Barton and Wilson look at Rogers with such eager curiosity. They so clearly expect him to have a legitimate reason or explanation that it’s almost — no, not ‘almost’. It’s just plain sad. Romanova looks impassive, Maximoff is still glaring at Tony, T’Challa is hidden behind a mask but he isn’t attacking yet, and Barnes looks like he is either thinking really, really hard or he’s constipated.
Rogers, however, looks puzzled, but he readily answers Tony’s not-entirely-sarcastic question.
“Because I know Bucky,” he says, giving the man a fond look. “He would never do something like that and he isn’t responsible for anything HYDRA made him do.”
. . . ooooookaaaaaay.
“Right,” Tony says carefully, making sure his face doesn’t betray his feelings at that complete non-answer. “But what’s your actual evidence? We have him on multiple cameras. What can you give us to show that he didn’t do it?”
“Because Bucky wouldn’t do something like that!” Rogers shoots back, exasperation painted across his face.
God give him patience.
“I hear that, Steve,” Tony manages to say instead of screaming in frustration, though it’s more hit-or-miss than he’d like. “But you saying that the sky is purple doesn’t, in fact, make it true. Again: aside from your personal belief, what actual, honest, real proof do you have that Barnes is innocent of the cr—act he’s been caught on video doing?”
A short stare-off commences. For Barton and Wilson, ‘sad’ has upgraded to ‘sadly hilarious’, if their hangdog expressions of ‘oh, shit’ dawning awareness are any indication. Maximoff is still glaring at Tony, Romanova is still impassive, and T’Challa is still masked, though Barnes suddenly looks a lot more awake than he did a minute ago, and he seems to be contemplating something.
To nobody’s surprise (including the watching UN and Accords panels), Rogers just looks stubborn.
“I don’t need anything else,” he insists, with that condescending note in his voice that makes everyone who hears it want to punch him. “I know Bucky is innocent and that’s enough. If the governments behind the Accords weren’t corrupt, they’d know that too but instead, they’re hunting down an innocent man and trying to kill him.”
Okay, forget patience. God give him strength and an industrial-sized bottle of Excedrin.
And a sledgehammer.
Either way, Tony has everything he needs and either God forgot to give him patience or the tube sprang a leak somewhere, because he’s out. He literally cannot deal with another second of this, so he toggles over to Rhodey and Peter again and says, “Now.”
It’s over in a minute; Peter has put his time to good use and manages to successfully hit Rogers and his groupies with two shots of webbing, which is more than enough for everyone but the super soldiers. That said, Rhodey takes considerable glee in shooting the witch’s hands with a medium-level repulsor blast, which both renders her unable to use her magic and hurts like a son-of-a-bitch. T’Challa leaps at Barnes but is slowed down enough by Romanova’s Widow Bites that Peter is able to web him up as well, keeping a wary eye on the Black Widow in the process before he snatches Rogers’ shield out of the air and swings it to Tony, who is hard-pressed not to just shoot the asshole with a tank missile and be done with it. Barnes sensibly drops to his knees and raises his hands, which everyone appreciates for more reasons than the obvious, and Rogers . . .
Did you know that slamming a super soldier’s vibranium shield against his mouth at a 72° angle will render him unable to speak for four hours?
Tony did.
And it is so very, very satisfying, especially when he’s unable to fight his way free of Tony’s ‘just in case’ restraints, which he has Peter reinforce with the ‘keep a building upright’ superstrength webbing, also just in case.
Then a random man that nobody knows suddenly grows to normal height from out of nowhere, startling the hell out of Rhodes, and the newcomer only misses being incinerated by virtue of Spiderman webbing him out of the way and taking him on a mini-rollercoaster ride in the process. This doesn’t end as well, what with the man puking his guts up for a few minutes once Peter puts him down, but on the upside, he doesn’t try to resist arrest and the entire kit and kaboodle of Rogers and His Band of Idiots is bundled into the waiting quinjet.
Just before Rogers is shoved up the ramp, Barnes stops behind him, looks straight at Tony, and says, “I—I’m sorry, I just put it together. When Stevie came to get me in Romania, I was — I was confused and he didn’t explain anything. But I’ve been in Romania for months and two days ago, I only left my apartment to buy some plums.”
Rogers’ muffled shouts are easily ignored by . . . well, everyone, much to his disgruntlement. Rhodes raises a threatening hand, repulsor primed in a clear warning, while Tony just looks steadily at Barnes for a minute before he nods.
“Okay. Do you have any way to prove that?” he asks, making sure his face and voice are expressionless, and Barnes nods slowly.
“Assuming the plum seller cooperates, yeah,” he replies. “And my landlord might be able to corroborate too; he’s in his office most of the time, but I didn’t see him, so I have no idea if he saw me come home.”
That’s understandable and both Tony and Rhodes nod. “Fair enough,” Tony replies. “We’ll check it out. But until then, you have to stay in custody.”
Once more ignoring Rogers’ outraged objections, stifled as they are by his flattened tongue and fractured jaw, Barnes just nods. “I understand. And . . . for what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I didn’t want — well, this. I just wanted to live a quiet life. I never meant to — I didn’t . . . I didn’t, I don’t, want to hurt anyone.”
Despite everything, Tony can’t help but sympathize with the torment he so clearly sees in the other man. He felt the same after Afghanistan, when he realized what his weapons were being used for. He can’t (and doesn’t want to) stop himself from giving Rogers a disgusted look as he sneers, “See, Rogers? Barnes here has this thing called ‘evidence’ and ‘an alibi’ that can potentially prove his statement and innocence. He doesn’t expect anyone to believe his assertion just because he says so and he isn’t offended or upset at being asked.”
The blond moron who’s caused so much trouble for Tony in particular and the world at large looks astonished at that, to which Tony, Rhodes, and Barnes all sigh in eerie unison, before Tony finishes his thought with malicious satisfaction. “It’s called being an adult. I’d tell you to try it sometime, but you’ve more than proven that would be a wasted endeavor. So sit down, shut up, and let the adults work.”
Being the smart, wonderful best friend that he is, Rhodey doesn’t give Rogers the chance to object; he gestures to Peter, who grins and grabs the man by the scruff of his neck and frog-marches him to the jet’s brig (which is just as funny as it should be and he makes a mental note to have JARVIS save that particular footage) and tosses him in with a complete lack of care or ceremony that’s hilarious to see, and everyone smirks when JARVIS alters the programming so he can slam the door shut in the man’s face. The second the lock clicks, he reengages everything to ensure Rogers can’t break out, starting with a powerful electric shock should he prove to be that stupid.
(if everyone on board is secretly hoping for that, can you really blame them?)
Since Barnes is willfully cooperating, he gets cuffed to a chair and doesn’t object when Rhodes has Peter web him down. Barnes isn’t as strong as Rogers, but he’s a hell of a lot smarter and extremely well-trained, so it would be foolish to take any chances. Rogers shouts again on seeing this and is again ignored. He takes this about as well as a five-year-old, so JARVIS does everyone a favor and darkens the glass so he can’t see what’s happening; the immediate loud protests are then muffled by soundproofing, which the AI immediately does for Maximoff’s cell, too, and the flight back to Berlin is made in peaceful, if tense, silence.
Aside from one obvious complication, it’s a much more tense, though unexpectedly trouble-free four days while people verified Barnes’ alibi for the bombing (he was indeed buying plums and while the landlord hadn’t seen him return, CCTV had), so he was cleared. Rogers’ smug vindication on hearing this infuriates everyone, especially since he’s still holding on to his attitude of ‘See? I told you so!’ that’s irritating on a good day.
Thanks to a whole different complication, though it turns out to be more entwined with Rogers than anyone would ever have imagined, these are not good days.
On realizing that the man who’d triggered Barnes in Berlin wasn’t the actual doctor, Tony sets JARVIS to track his movements and UN security captures the rogue doctor as he boarded a flight to Russia. Holding true to form in making everyone’s lives difficult, he refuses to speak to anyone but Tony, who is as annoyed as he is intrigued by the demand, but also way too busy to deal with another would-be villain with delusions of importance.
. . . he has no idea how deeply he will come to regret that thought.
When Everett Ross, looking more apologetic than any human had the right to appear, brings him a note from their captured mastermind, Tony honestly can’t do anything but sigh. Still, he has to admire the man’s perseverance, so he gestures for Ross to put the note on the desk, which is done with no muss and no fuss — a massively welcome change from the Avengers, but he isn’t going to let himself think about that right now.
Instead, he heaves another sigh pulled from the depths of his soul and, after swallowing down an unexpected pulse of unease, picks the paper up.
>>> December 16, 1991
April 6, 2014 <<<
Tony goes still.
The first date needs no explanation, no reference point.
It only takes him a minute to recall the second one, though its meaning escapes him for a few more minutes.
Unless . . . he flicks a glance at Barnes, AKA the Winter Soldier, then throws a second glance at the corridor where Rogers’ cell is, his thoughts churning.
If Rogers discovered the Winter Soldier, Barnes, during that thrice-cursed Data Dump, then all those little trips overseas . . . of course. Fishing expeditions. But why would this — oh, what’s his name? — this man give this information to Tony?
Unless . . . unless it wasn’t a car accident, but a HYDRA-ordered assassination.
. . . which Rogers had to have discovered at the same time.
Which finally answered the longstanding question about why he — and Nat, damn her to eternity — didn’t call Tony to help with that mess.
Meaning Rogers’ vitriol and attitude over not just ULTRON, but in general, probably had less to do with the murderbot than it did with keeping Tony away from the team. After all, Rogers couldn’t have the team’s wallet and pooper-scooper learn that his long-lost bestest buddy had murdered Tony’s parents. It also explained why he was so eager to defend Maximoff; after all, if people were willing to accept a willing HYDRA volunteer, they’d definitely be okay with an unwilling, brainwashed assassin.
Egads, this sounds so ludicrous that Tony finds himself looking for Susan Lucci. But . . . but it makes sense. Sick, twisted, stupid sense, but still: it puts almost every puzzle piece together, while also exposing how truly uninformed Steve is about the modern world. The only thing he can’t figure out is why whoever this guy is had decided that bombing the UN building during the Accords summit was his best option instead of, say, reaching out to Tony.
Vaguely aware of Ross’ puzzled expression, Tony dismisses him by leaving the room, note in hand and thoughts still whirling furiously.
To exactly no one’s surprise, he ends up at — oh, what is the man’s name?! — the cell door and is met with an impassive look that holds hints of both grief and empathy, and his stomach knots for no reason whatsoever.
“Why?” he rasps, unable to be more eloquent, and the empathy deepens.
“I assume you’ve made the connection,” the other man states, getting a single nod, and he nods back before continuing. “I thought of contacting you directly once I learned the truth and realized that Rogers hadn’t told you, but I decided against it for two reasons.”
He holds Tony’s gaze for a long minute, looking for something he apparently finds, because he keeps going.
“The first reason is that I wanted to destroy the Avengers. Due to his and his team’s arrogance, I lost my entire family in Sokovia. I do not blame you, you understand; I was the Sokovian equivalent of a CIA agent, so I had information the average citizen did not, and I know what you did and how badly the deck was stacked against you, and the fact that you saved as many as you did in spite of Rogers’ idiocy is impressive.”
Taken completely aback, Tony can only stare as he processes that. Fortunately, this isn’t an actual conversation, at least not yet, so he doesn’t need to reply to get answers.
“But Rogers’ hubris and arrogance are murderers,” the man continues, his voice ice cold, and Tony can’t even pretend to disagree with that. In actual fact, it’s a thought he’s been shoving down and ignoring for a long time (too long), and in light of what he’s almost certain actually happened, he—
Well. Defending or justifying Ste—Rogers’ actions isn’t high on his bucket list.
“And I know that happens; sometimes, it’s impossible to save or rescue everyone. But decent people like you acknowledge your actions and apologize and try to help. Rogers doesn’t. He comes in, destroys anything in front of him because he’s too lazy and too stupid to think about trying to go around, and when it’s over, he just leaves. No words to the people, no attempts to clean up his mess — and no change in behavior.”
This bitter summation yanks Tony’s full attention back to the conversation and again he nods, unwilling to speak, though damned if he knows what he’d say.
“It was his refusal to use your initial plan that endangered my family. It was his refusal to heed your warning about what he demanded you do instead that murdered them. And then he had the unmitigated gall to not just leave the country he single-handedly destroyed, but he and his people blamed you and only you for what happened. I — my feelings were so powerful, and I had no reason to hold back and stay alive or out of prison, that I had made plans to assassinate him. But then he destroyed half of Sri Lanka.”
Several beats of silence follow this, which Tony appreciates. Sri Lanka had been . . . until Lagos, he hadn’t thought anything could be that bad.
There was that ‘hope over experience’ crap again.
Unaware of his brief foray into self-disgust, the man finishes with a frigid declaration.
“And I realized that simply killing Rogers would only turn him into a martyr, which he is not.”
Fair point.
“So I decided to show the world who and what he really is. To that end, I dug into the files he and that stupid Black Widow dumped online for the world to see and found all sorts of interesting secrets — including several of HYDRA’s kill lists. I realized when I saw your parents’ names that he knew and hadn’t told you, which actually managed to lower my opinion of him even more,” the man spits, fury etched on his face, and Tony can only nod.
He doesn’t want to know this, he really doesn’t, but he’s a realist as well as a futurist.
So he knows that he needs to know this.
Even if it kills what little trust he has left to give.
The man — okay, the lack of a name is driving Tony nuts but he can hardly ask at this point, so he decides that ‘Zero’ is an ironically appropriate moniker — gives a single solemn nod to whatever he sees on Tony’s face and his voice softens into something almost gentle as he says, “To that end, and leading to my second reason: the Winter Soldier needed to be found because I am not the only person who can, or did, discover his identity and instruction manual. But even if I were, you and his other victims deserved to know. And Rogers was never going to tell you.”
He pauses for a very fraught minute, then sneers, “And that is the other thing that people need to know about Steve Rogers. He isn’t just a human wrecking ball with no honor and no conscience. He is a traitor and a liar and he will betray anyone if he thinks they’ll stop him from getting what he wants. My plan was brutal and what it would have done to you is . . . but I see now that it would have been wrong,” he murmurs to himself, eyes dropping in what looks like shame.
“Yes, it would have destroyed the Avengers, but it would have also destroyed you, and that’s not right. And, frankly, most of the others are just sheep who have been brainwashed about Captain America’s perfection. They aren’t any different from the Eastern Europeans who believe that Dracula is really a nice guy, just misunderstood. No. No, it’s only Rogers who needs to be destroyed.”
Another pause, this one considering, and Zero looks back at Tony. His gaze is clear and steady, and so is his voice.
“I’m glad you caught me before I was able to enact the last part of my plan. This way is better because you now know the truth and can confront Rogers without facing a threat to your life. Because he would try to kill you to protect Barnes, Stark,” the would-be villain tells him, eyes full of dark knowledge that resonates deeply with the feral part of Tony that he goes to great effort to keep locked down. “And it wouldn’t even be for Barnes’ sake, despite the lies he tells himself. Steve Rogers cares for nothing and no one but what he wants, and what he wants is the past back. He’s too willfully blind to understand that it cannot happen, but he will burn down the world trying.”
Brown meets brown in a look full of mutual understanding that would have destroyed anyone else.
“The world deserves better,” Zero finishes in a hushed tone. “You do. I do. My family does. So take him down, Stark. Make him bleed if you wish, but the worst hurt he can suffer is being made irrelevant.”
God only knows that is an appallingly true statement, so Tony just nods. He still can’t talk, though that’s good because he can’t think of a thing to say. Not even ‘thank you’, though this man of all people will understand that. He gives the man — no, he owes him that much courtesy, at the very least.
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t informed of your name,” he croaks, his throat feeling like sandpaper.
“It’s Zemo,” comes the equally quiet reply. “Helmut Zemo.”
Tony’s too far gone in his head to appreciate just how close he’d actually been, but he manages another nod and turns to walk away, only to be halted in mid-step by one final courtesy.
“Stark . . . don’t watch the video. It will do you no good, nor serve you any purpose. You actually have the choice here, so spare yourself the pain. Please.”
Tony . . . doesn’t know what to do with that. He can’t even turn back and face his liberator. But he appreciates the advice and in the end, Rhodey and Happy make sure he takes it.
The trial for Rogers’ team is almost perfunctory once everything is moved to the UN headquarters in New York; despite their collective best efforts, their guilt in the death and destruction of Lagos, which kickstarted a lot of things, isn’t brushed aside, because a dozen people (literally) effortlessly puncture their ‘but we didn’t know a terrorist would be there’ excuse and watching their expressions is priceless. As multiple military officers brusquely explain to both his horror and his shame, ‘’not knowing’ doesn’t mean ‘can’t adapt’ and Technical Sergeant Wilson knew perfectly well not to blunder in the way he did. He could have at least tried to make Rogers stop and think things over or taken the initiative and worked to evacuate the street’.
Anything but follow like a mindless lemming, in other words.
Even more entertaining is seeing the Russian ambassador tell the entire world that despite Romanova being one of their worst Red Room graduates, she still knew better than to go along with such a moronic ‘plan’ as the one Rogers made up. Of course, he continued even more contemptuously, after her actions in the Data Dump of 2014, perhaps her idiocy wasn’t so surprising. But she was still trained better and is most assuredly intelligent enough to know how stupid their actions in Lagos had been.
Barton’s illegal actions as a SHIELD agent were exposed by his partner and best friend Nat in the Data Dump and Tony gleefully presses charges for assault on Vision and destruction of property. He still might have gotten away with a decade of house arrest had his eldest child not sneaked in to the hearing and made an impassioned plea for the court to put him in prison until his newborn baby brother is eighteen, so Barton can’t have any say or impact or choice about their upbringing or their futures.
Tony will never know who is more stunned: Barton or the court. Either way, Cooper’s plea is granted and that’s before Laura arrives to a) scream at her son for sneaking out and b) confirm his request so fervently (and with such venomous language) that Barton can’t even muster the balls to object. He just meekly allows himself to be cuffed and taken to prison, much to the shock of his teammates.
Helmut Zemo takes care of Maximoff; he’d dug up her HYDRA records along with Barnes’, and they make for a horrifying display.
In short order, everyone but Maximoff and Rogers are in prison for at least two decades, parole not an option.
Sokovia demands Maximoff’s execution and gets exactly zero pushback. Even the UN Panel, which is notoriously anti-death penalty, can’t find a legitimate objection. Rogers, on the other hand, screams and wails so much about how she’s really a good girl and didn’t mean to do any of the things she volunteered to do, she was just misguided and used, that the Sokovian ambassador changes his mind about lethal injection and about waiting until she’s back on her homeland’s soil.
Deeply appreciative of this, Nigeria grants him permission to use their embassy and allows a very select group of people to be present. Once the arrangements are made, Sokovia’s ambassador has her hauled to the courtyard and placed directly in front of Rogers’ temporary cell window.
Then he has her executed by a three-man firing squad.
One shooter at a time.
Rogers’ screams and wails of outrage (but little grief, so far as anyone can tell) are immensely satisfying and Tony snorts in amusement when he sees Russia’s rep accept what is clearly a payout from China; idly, he wonders what the bet was for before deciding he doesn’t care.
Because it’s finally time for Rogers to face the music.
Everyone and their pet rock had rallied together and refused to let Tony be involved in his trial. He has to admit their reasoning is sound, though it also rankles. But Rogers’ follies, mistakes, and disasters are more than enough on their own and, as Happy so ruthlessly put it, it would enrage the arrogant prick (direct quote, there) to be so easily and contemptuously dismissed by Tony.
And there really is no need for Tony to subject himself to Rogers’ presence, lawyers, the press, Rogers’ presence, cross-examination, the press, Rogers’ presence . . .
In the deepest part of his soul, Tony is pathetically grateful that he has someone, several someones, who believe that his health and well-being is more important than satisfying the world’s demand for a sacrifice. Tony could condemn Rogers to death all by himself, but everyone else took Zemo’s declaration that the world needs to see the full scope of the man’s crimes as a gospel truth, and that can and will include those he committed against Tony without making him the focus.
So Tony stays away and uses the time to go with Peter to break the Spiderman news to his aunt, indulge himself in a soul-cleansing screaming match (conducted almost entirely in Italian, which is even better), and start the process to not only officially set up Spiderman as Iron Man’s protégé, but also the brilliant Peter Parker as Tony Stark’s intern.
He doesn’t see the prosecution play the recording where he accuses Rogers of ignoring video evidence he doesn’t like and embracing it when it says what he wants to hear, backed up by footage from SHIELD that was clearly used to predispose him against Tony, which is further proved by the recording of their first meeting. Then footage is shown of Rogers and Romanova not only hearing the truth about the Starks from Armin Zola, but the world sees him play the taped proof of the assassination for them.
They see Romanova hand him a file about the Winter Soldier, including a list of his missions.
(JARVIS was vindictive, protective, and a bloodhound)
They see video after flight log after audio recording where Rogers and Romanova fret about finding Barnes without Tony discovering what they’re looking for, and Wilson wondering several times why they don’t just tell Tony so he (and his full resources) can help (not that he tells Tony, of course, but he does wonder).
What is never seen or heard is a single attempt by Rogers or Romanova to report the Winter Soldier’s mission list to anyone. In fact, so far as the evidence shows, Rogers was concerned only about Tony learning about his parents. He never mentions the other victims and never expresses any regret for his supposed friend Howard’s murder.
From all appearances, Rogers cares only that ‘Bucky didn’t do it’ and ‘Tony can never find out’.
When given the chance to speak about this, Rogers confirms that he doesn’t give a damn about Tony or anyone else whose loved ones were victims of HYDRA by way of the Winter Soldier. He cares only that people understand that Bucky is innocent.
But even that callousness pales in comparison to the rest of his crimes. Rhodes gleefully provides copies of all his suit’s recordings of battles he’d joined and the majority of them paint a picture of a man who is arrogant to the point of absurdity but lacking both the experience and the native intelligence to back it up. They hear Rogers sneer at and refuse most alternate plans Tony proposes and listen in disbelief as he tries (and fails) to rebuke Rhodes for following Tony’s alteration or using his own experience and judgment when he himself deems Rogers’ plan a poor one.
They also hear him listen to Wilson when he proposes changes, though he doesn’t always implement them, and Wilson is never lectured after, or punished.
Tony is not given the same courtesy or consideration.
Rogers’ bias is clear as day, but even more so is his complete disregard for anything but his own ego. The recordings show a man who cares only about being The Hero, and that supposition is supported by death tolls and the damage and destruction of anything in his way.
It’s his clear lack of not just remorse, but even basic understanding of why people are upset, that seals his fate.
The Accords Panel sentences him first to a medical removal of the serum, which Helen Cho and a gaggle of biologists that don’t include Bruce Banner have successfully created. Once he is no longer a walking tank, he will serve five years in a maximum-security prison in Nigeria before being taken to Romania and executed.
Tony allows himself to watch the sentencing and the look on Rogers’ face is . . . he doesn’t even know. Priceless? Wonderful? Screenshot worthy?
Either way, the man isn’t his concern . . . though even the German rep gapes like a fish when Rogers starts shouting for Tony to come and fix this, it’s his fault and not Steve’s and he needs to take responsibility.
Four tranq darts shut that idiocy up and the entire world breathes a sigh of relief when he crumples to the floor in an insensible heap of muscles and blond hair.
He’s offered the option to witness the injection and the destruction of Captain America and is surprised to learn that he isn’t tempted even a little. It's taken four decades, but he’s finally done with Steve Rogers.
He does offer the use of a few suits, piloted remotely, just in case, but Rhodes sweeps that aside with the rather haughty reminder that he is War Machine and is perfectly capable of knocking one man on his ass, even if he’s still a super soldier at the time.
Tony just laughs at that, as do Pepper and Happy, and they leave the world to it.
After all, there’s a ring burning a hole in Happy’s pocket and Tony really needs to do something about that.
A word in Loki’s ear by way of some sweet subterfuge ensures that Thanos decides to pick a fight with the wrong iteration of Death, which ends his looming threat.
And Tony — and his family — live happily ever after.
~~~
fin