Point of No Return

Introduction

Nothing was the same.

Everything was different.

Nothing could go back to the way it had been.

Bridges had burned.

The more Tony thought about it, however, the more he realized he didn't want things to return to how they had been.

He didn't want to rebuild bridges.

He had been abused and betrayed by his team--his supposed friends--for years.

It took him literally being stabbed in the back, or in this case taking a vibranium shield to the chest, and nearly dying for him to truly realize where he stood.

Bruce was right.

The Avengers were just a chemical mixture, a ticking time bomb, and here was the aftermath of the explosion.

Tony was laid up in a hospital bed with a whole list of medical issues and too many problems he needed to fix.

No more.

He wasn't going to take this lying down.

No, he was going to get back up on the horse and grab his life by the reins.

He had been working on plans for a while now, but now it was truly time to start putting those plans into action.

But first things first, he needed to fix himself.

Well, at least physically.

********

The next month of Tony's life was hectic. On top of being gravely injured and needing to work on a permanent fix for his chest, he was also dealing with the UN.

Everyone had so many questions and even more demands. They all wanted to talk about the 'Civil War' and know what was going to happen next.

What was Tony's Plan?

With his very obvious health issues, he did most of his meetings over the phone to keep up the illusion that he was fine, promising for in-person interviews and meetings at a later time.

He wasn't entirely sure why he was protecting Rogers, hiding his injuries and lying about his health, but he just figured it would be better that way.

He felt like if the public knew what Captain America had done, there would be riots or something, and there didn't need to be more bloodshed; not over him. He needed to take care of damage control, keep things calm.

Luckily, with his silver tongue, he was able to buy himself some time. In a private holograph meeting with the UN council, he provided them with a very vague explanation of why he wasn't able to give them a <em>complete</em> plan that they could work with, but that he had one in the works that just needed some kinks ironed out.

Pun completely intended.

While Tony was still working on his fix, Rogers had broken his team out from the Raft.

Thankfully, this was one thing that Tony and the Accords committee were able to come to an easy conclusion on. If the Rogues (or Ex-Avenger, as many had started calling them) showed up anywhere, they would be arrested.

Tony just hoped they would lay low. He knew where they were, but he wasn't about to say anything unless they did something, figuring that if they were safely tucked away, they would stay out of his way.

...Right?

Tony was given about 4 months to get whatever he had planned together before he'd be requested to come forward with the full blueprint. If not, the UN would take matters into their own hands. He wouldn't need that much time, but he wasn't about to fight them on it.

It was then that he activated the New Avengers protocol. FRIDAY had already begun searching and documenting crimes, watching those who responded to said crimes. Though research had already started a while back, with the protocol active it became a top priority to track all potential heroes that Tony had deemed worthy.

Peter was already safely in Tony's line of sight and being initiated into the New Avenger roster, but there were plenty of others around, especially in the New York area.

As Tony worked on his new chest piece, he watched videos--so many videos.

About a month later, he finished his nanobot arc reactor hive, along with modifying the extremis virus to make it safer.

He planned to fix himself with Extremis and use the nanobots to help regulate the virus inside of him. They also had an added bonus of being programed to become an Iron Man suit, along with some other effects he might receive, though he was unsure of all the possibilities at the moment. He had theories, of course.

Finally, he was ready.

Well, as ready as he could be, at least.

He had spoken with Vision, Peter, and Rhodey about his plans.

He had the new itinerary of what he wanted done prepared, and if he didn't survive he was leaving it to them to continue what he had started.

There was a lot of fighting (mainly Rhodes' stance on this craziness), but in the end there was nothing any of them could do.

Tony had more problems convincing Pepper than anything, but eventually she came to the same conclusion: there was no changing this man's mind.

So roughly two months after Siberia, Tony went into surgery. Extremis was added to his system and the new sternum and nanobot arc reactor were placed. Funnily enough, the metal plate stabilizing his sternum and the nanobots were made of the vibranium from Rogers shield (Oh, did Tony have fun melting that bad boy down).

All of which was placed in his chest with success.

Watch out world: Tony Motherfucking Stark was back in business.