Too Little Too Late

James Rhodes / Steve Rogers

Tony was a lot stronger than Rhodey on that. The colonel could be civil enough when he had to. He didn't need to like the people to be able to work with them. He wouldn't have gone very far within the army otherwise. Half his job meant dealing with stupid, selfish or despicable people. General Ross had been the one to bring the accords to them. Not the one to write them. The man was definitely in the three categories. That didn't mean that everything was wrong in the U.N. document. Ross was the secretary of state back then. They couldn't exactly work against him that easily. If only Steve, Sam and the others had actually read the document maybe things would have been a lot different.

Steve was still there frowning as if he was trying hard to understand what was happening. Tony had few words with Natasha but Rhodes was pretty sure that she had understood where Tony was standing. He had forgiven them but he did not forget. Tony had this habit to learn from his mistakes. He wouldn't let the Rogues nowhere near him or his family if he could avoid that. They actually talked very openly about the Avengers. Rhodey, Vision and Peter. The three of them were to be part of the team once again and wanted to carry on the good work. Tony would never tell them what to do with their lives but he did worry. Enough to give them the possibility to be beamed up somewhere else at their will without him activating the process. They all knew what had happened between the Rogues and Tony and in all honesty weren't too sure that they would have other people's back. Harley was just training for now but the kid actually hated anybody who had hurt the man who was like a father to him. Rhodey and Vision were not completely in his good books yet but they were working on it.

Steve was only a name among many heroes now. He wasn't in a leading position and enhanced people seemed to appear all over the place. He wasn't a special cookie anymore. His family was scattered away. Bucky was studying thanks to Tony. The billionaire wanted something on them. His friend was acclimating to his new world a way that Steve had never been able to. He was a hero out of time. Everything was so fast, so loud, too much for him. Once Bucky had asked him why he didn't embrace that second chance at life. He could try to go to college himself. Or just try what the world had to offer. They had a fantastic art cursus and Steve had always been so good at drawing. He could have even used that gift to do some good. He could draw the faces to help apprehend criminals. Steve didn't want that. He had been around on his motorbike before, to find himself. He would carry on being a hero. That was his calling.

Natasha wasn't in his team anymore but that wouldn't have changed a lot between them. She wasn't talking to any of them anymore. Not even Clint. The woman was always on edge it seemed and wanted to disappear in the crowd most of the time. The Black Widow needed to disappear completely. Steve suspected it was due to her conversation with Tony but he didn't know what it had been about. Natasha didn't want to talk about it. She had told him that she had been playing the game. Her judgement of character had been all wrong and she had made the wrong choice following Captain America. Shield made her believe that she was changing for the better. Steve made her feel like she was doing some good work, wiping the red in her ledger. In the end,Natasha was still the girl from the red room. The people who gave her orders might have changed, the method had stayed the same. She was still the same. Steve tried to convince her otherwise. Natasha looked at him with a small smile and left him behind.

Clint was an instructor for the new Avengers but not on active duty anymore. He should have stayed retired the first time around. He had not found more glory following Captain America. Things could have turned a lot worse. His family was alive and kicking. Tony had given them a new life. Steve couldn't help but wonder if the animosity they felt towards Clint was because of the billionaire. The smaller man probably had talked against the Rogues and especially Clint. When Tony started babbling, he couldn't be stopped so easily. He had been saying that he had forgiven them. Steve still believed that Tony would be the kind of person to influence others without even thinking of the repercussions. He had this need to prove constantly that he was right. Clint was happy as he was now. He had thought his family dead for so long. He didn't feel he was in a position to ask anything of them when he had abandoned them in the first place. His Ronin days were not a good example to give to his children. It felt like a second chance that he wasn't about to destroy. Not this time. Whatever Steve would say about it.

Sam was still an Avenger but in the rescue team. The wings were built just for that, to help in case of natural disaster. Sam and his partner Riley had been the best pararescue airmen there was. His wingman demise had put a stop to that. Sam was feeling the calling once again. Falcon wanted to go back to his roots. He simply wanted to help. On the right side of the law. That was all he ever wanted. Sam had told Steve how he had been blinded by his aura, by his reputation. The man was disappointed in himself. He had not seen the signs even when right in front of him. As a counsellor he should have realised what was happening. Sam had gone back to school then because he really had to review the basics of his profession at the very least. With Bucky and even Vision, they were going forward. Without Steve.

The Avengers had always been difficult to deal with. The amount of paperwork for a mission only was difficult to even fathom. Rhodey was spending more time in his office than on the ground. The U.N. personnel was very helpful and everything was going smoothly. Tony had decided to stay away from all that, preferring his role of defender from the moon. He wasn't comfortable with the public still, a little bit wary of their reaction. He wasn't mad at them anymore but then again he wasn't about to give them ammunition so they could shoot him down once more. Steve could understand that even if he thought it was a bit cowardly.

Steve would try again to approach Tony. The man was well known for his stubbornness but so was Rhodey. He was determined to be the friend he should have been all along. The colonel was protecting his friend from everyone. No, the army couldn't take the technology just because they wanted it. No, the Avengers couldn't live off Tony's money anymore. People were not allowed to attack him because he didn't want to meet them or help them in their endeavour. Finally, Tony wasn't the rogue's father and he shouldn't have to suffer from their mistakes.

The New Avengers seemed to be on the same page. Very protective of Tony as soon as they had met him. They didn't like the Rogues all that much. They weren't what heroes should be. The world had learnt its lesson the hard way. Life had changed. Priorities too. They all saw what was really important now. Tony would live a long time, longer than Rhodey. Probably longer than Steve. Extremis had that kind of side effect. He was determined to be the man on the moon, the one to keep an eye on the Earth even when the population would have even forgotten his name or his existence all together. When he wouldn't be there anymore, Rhodey felt a lot more confident in the future but somehow even sadder. Earth never deserved a man like Tony Stark.

Steve would disappear from people's mind way before that. Nobody cared what Captain America had to say these days. He was only a voice among many and most of the times his views on life were considered too old fashioned, or downright wrong. A lot of them all around the world were demanding that he would give the shield to someone else, someone worthy. The legend of Captain America could stay alive. Steve thought it was a joke at first but the movement got bigger and bigger. So much so that one year after Thanos, Rhodey summoned him to the avengers building.

Bucky was there. Steve was ready to fight for him once again. After all that time, he would have thought that they had understood that his friend was innocent. But it wasn't about that at all. Steve was ripped of his title of Captain America there and then. Steve was too stunned to even say anything. And then the colonel made James Buchanan Barnes the new Captain America just in front of him. Steve couldn't even understand the betrayal. After all he had done for him, Bucky could not do that to him. It was happening nonetheless.

Bucky didn't really explain himself. The world was thrilled with Bucky as the new Captain. A good redemption arc they called it, whatever that meant. Steve wouldn't go back to the avengers. He decided on travelling the world, helping when he could. People started to call him Nomad. He liked that well enough. He didn't have any other choice. Even the Simsonian had changed their expo showing off Bucky as Captain America.

Tony Stark was on the moon but he had a larger family than Steve. The genius had money, fame, recognition when he had nothing. But he had been right for the accords. He wasn't helping the world to get his face on the front page of the newspapers. He had won their Civil War because at the end of the day he was right. At least, the accords had changed thanks to him planting himself like a tree and saying no.

Right?