The Accords
A news anchor. "Eleven Wakandans were among those killed during a confrontation between the Avengers and a group of mercenaries in Lagos, Nigeria last month. The traditionally reclusive Wakandans were on an outreach mission in Lagos, when the attack occurred."
The King of Wakanda, T'Chaka."Our People's blood is spilled on foreign soil not only becuase of the actions of criminals but by the idifference of those pledged to stop them. Victory as the expense of the innocent is no victory at all.
News anchor again. "The Wakandan king went on to-"
Steve paused the screen and shared a guilty glance with me.
"It seems you have a name now," Steve said grimly.
I nodded. "'The Silver Spirit'," I mused. The nickname had a certain ring to it, the silver referring to the markings on my suit. I liked it, but now was not the time to revel in it.
We frowned as the voices continued in the distance and we followed it to find Wanda in her bedroom watching a similar broadcast about her. Steve clicked off that screen too.
"Stop torturing yourself." I said softly as we lingered in the doorway.
"It's my fault," she replied.
Steve shook his head. "That's not true."
"Turn the TV back on. They're being very specific." Wanda's voice was sardonic.
"I should've clocked that bomb vest long before you had to deal with it," Steve said as we walked further into her room. "Rumlow said "Bucky"...and all of a sudden I was a sixteen-year-old kid again, in Brooklyn. And people died. It's on me."
My brow furrowed as Wanda said, "It's on both of us."
"All of us," I corrected her, the pair of them looking at me. My voice had cracked halfway through. I swallowed. "It's on all of us."
Steve sighed and looked down. "This job...We try to save as many people as we can. Sometimes that doesn't mean everybody. But if we can't find a way to live with that...then next time...maybe nobody gets saved."
Before either of us could speak, Vision materialised through the wall, dressed in a collared shirt, a sweater and smart trousers. "Vis!" Wanda cried. "We talked about this."
"Yes, but the door was open so I assumed that..." he broke off and I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing. "Captain Rogers and Miss Stark wished to know when Mr Stark was arriving."
"Thank you. We'll be right down." Steve replied.
Vision pointed awkwardly at the door. "I'll use the door." He paused as he reached it and turned back. "Oh, and apparently he's brought a guest."
I frowned. "A guest? Who is it?"
"The Secretary of State." Vision said solemnly as he left.
I let out a low, nervous breath and raked my hands through my hair. Steve's hand found my knee and squeezed it gently. In any other situation, it would've set something in me on fire. But this was not the time. This was far too serious, too important. We had messed up and caused too much damage and now we had to face up to our actions.
Together.
As the three of us ventured downstairs, I spied Tony lingering by the long meeting table. His face was the image of concern. He lifted his frown as he spotted me though.
"Tony," I half-smiled as he wrapped his arms around me briefly.
He looked at me and sighed. Then shook his head gently. "What've you done, Rosie?" he said, his voice barely a whisper.
Something inside of me broke at the sheer impact of his words. My eyes filled with tears and I squeezed my lips together, this time to stop myself from crying rather than laughing.
Steve's arm wrapped around my elbow and I blinked hard, looking to his worried face. He glanced between me and Tony. "Tony," he nodded in greeting.
"Captain." Tony replied, his voice clipped.
Then we were told to sit as the Secretary of State made his way to the head of the table.
Secretary Ross sighed. "Five years ago, I had a heart attack and dropped right in the middle of my backswing." He swung an imaginary gold club to demonstrate. "Turned out it was the best round of my life because after thirteen hours of surgery and a triple bypass...I found something forty years in the Army had never taught me. Perspective. The world owes the Avengers an unpayable debt. You have fought for us...protected us, risked your lives, but while a great many people see you as heroes, there are some who would prefer the word "vigilantes"."
"And what word would you use, Mr Secretary?" Natasha spoke, her voice calm and level but the question of authority was there.
He lifted his head to her. "How about "dangerous"?" his voice had no humour to it. "What would you call a group of US-based, enhanced individuals who routinely ignore sovereign borders and inflict their will wherever they choose and who, frankly, seem unconcerned about what they leave behind?"
My blood began to boil at that last part. "That's not true." I said firmly.
Ross raised his eyebrows. "Isn't it?" He stepped aside as the screen flickered on and showed a clip of people running and screaming and of destruction. "New York." Rhodey looked behind at Nat, Steve and I, and I could feel the judgement. "Washington, D.C." Another clip of destruction from when we took down S.H.I.E.L.D. "Sokovia." A clip of the city rising as we fought Ultron and buildings falling. "Lagos." A clip from last month of the building that we wrecked.
Wanda looked away, turning her chair into the table, as a clip of a child on the ground showed.
"Okay," Steve said, his voice hard. "That's enough."
Ross nodded to his assistant and the images left the screen. "For the past four years, you've operated with unlimited power and no supervision. That's an arrangement the governments of the world can no longer tolerate. But I think we have a solution." His assisant handed him something, a stack of papers. Ross placed it on the table and pushed it to Wanda, who took it. "The Sokovia Accords. Approved by 117 countries, it states that the Avengers shall no longer be a private organisation." The papers passed to Rhodey. "Instead, they'll operate under the supervision of a United Nations panel only when and if that panel deems it necessary."
I held back my disgusted scoff.
"The Avengers were formed to make the world a safer place." Steve said, staring at the table. "I feel we've done that."
"Tell me, Captain, do you know where Thor and Banner are right now?"
I frowned. We didn't...but what did that matter?
Steve glanced up at Ross. "If I misplaced a couple of thirty megaton nukes you can bet there'd be consequences."
"But you're talking about people," I shot back as Ross stalked to the front of the table. "Thor and Bruce are people, not weapons."
Ross shrugged at me. "That is debatable." He glanced at all of us. "Compromise. Reassurance. That's how the world works. Believe me, this is the middle ground."
Rhodey places his hand on the papers. "So, there are contingencies."
"Three days from now, the UN meets in Vienna to ratify the Accords. Talk it over."
"And if we come to a decision you don't like?" Natasha asked as Ross and his assistant made to leave.
He paused. "Then you retire."
A wry, sarcastic smile played at my lips as he left.
#
We had descended into arguing.
Rhodey and Sam were currently battling it out together behind where Steve and I sat, him flipping through the Accords.
"Secretary Ross has a Congressional Medal of Honour," Rhodey said. "which is one more than you have."
Tony was slumped on a chair, covering his face looking bored.
"So let's say we agree to this thing." Sam retorted. "How long is it gonna be before they LoJack us like a bunch of common criminals?"
"117 countries want to sign this," Rhodey argued back. "117, Sam, and you're just like, "No, that's cool. We got it."."
"How long are you going to play both sides?"
"I have an equation," Vision spoke up loudly, interrupting them.
"Oh, this will clear it up," Sam said sarcastically.
"In the eight years since Mr Stark announced himself as Iron Man the number of known enhanced persons has grown exponentially. During the same period the number of potentially world-ending events has risen at a commensurate rate."
"Are you saying it's our fault?" Steve asked, looking up from the Accords.
"I'm saying there may be a causality." Vision replied. "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 said.
"Tony..." Natasha then spoke. "You're being uncharacteristically non-hyperverbal."
"It's because he's already made up his mind." Steve answered.
I looked to Tony and frowned. "You have?"
"Boy, you know me so well," Tony said, sitting up. "Actually, I'm nursing an electromagnetic headache." He got up and wandered into the kitchen. "That's what's going on, Cap. It's just pain. It's discomfort. Who's putting coffee grounds in the disposal?" He turned around with the coffee maker at us. "Am I running a bed and breakfast for a biker gang?"
"Tony." I said imploringly.
He simply got his phone out and tapped it, a picture of a young man appeared above. He paused, pretending to ignore it, then acknowledged it. "Oh, that's Charles Spencer, by the way. He's a great kid. 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. Maybe be of service. 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."
His voice had grown steadily angrier during his speech. The room went silent.
"He wanted to make a difference, I suppose." Tony went on. "I mean, we won't know because we dropped a building on him while we were kicking ass." He paused to take a sip of coffee, placing his cup back down on the side rather harshly. "There's no decision-making process here. We need to be put in check! Whatever form that takes, I'm game. If we can't accept limitations, if we're boundary-less, we're no better than the bad guys."
"Tony, someone dies on your watch, you don't give up," Steve replied calmly.
"Who said we're giving up?
"We are if we're not taking responsibility for our actions."
"This document just...shifts the blame." I added gently.
"I'm sorry, Steve, Rosie," Rhodey said. "That...that is dangerously arrogant. This is the United Nations we're talking about. It's not the World Security Council, it's not S.H.I.E.L.D., it's not HYDRA."
"No, but it's run by people with agendas, and agendas change." Steve pointed out.
"That's good," Tony came back over. "That's why I'm here. When I realised what my weapons were capable of in the wrong hands I shut it down and stopped manufacturing."
Steve adjusted his position to face Tony. "Tony, you chose to do that. If we sign this, we surrender our right to choose."
I turned to Tony. "What if this panel sends us somewhere that we dont think we should go? What if there is somewhere we do need to go, and they don't let us? How are we going to be able to live with that afterwards, knowing that we could have helped but we weren't allowed? Or that we did something that is entirely agaisnt what we stand for? I don't know these people, I don't trust what they may want to do with us. We're all adults here, Tony. We do not need babysitting."
He looked away from me and my blood heated.
"We may not be perfect," Steve added, "but the safest hands are still our own."
"If we don't do this now, it's going to be done to us later." Tony's voice was low and pained. "That's the fact. That won't be pretty."
"You're saying they'll come for me." Wanda said from across the room.
"We would protect you." Vision told her.
"Maybe Tony's right." Natasha spoke up and Steve and I shared a glance, Tony looking shocked himself. "If...we have one hand on the wheel, we can still steer. If we take it off..."
Sam almost snorted. "Aren't you the same woman who told the government to kiss her ass a few years ago?"
He had a point.
"I'm just...I'm reading the terrain," Nat went on. "We've 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?" Tony turned to Natasha.
It make me smile sadly as Nat pulled a face. "Oh, I wanna take it back now."
I looked to Steve to gauge his reaction but he was staring blankly at the floor.
"No, no, no," Tony replied. "You can't retract it. Thank you. Unprecedented. Okat, case closed - I win."
Steve's phone buzzed and he pulled it out to check the message. His face fell and I frowned.
"I have to go." He said solemnly, standing up and swiftly leaving.
The others frowned too, and turned to me for answers. I chewed my lip again. "I don't know," I mumbled as Tony raised his eyebrows in question.
I got up from the sofa and followed after Steve, finding him in his room (the one next to mine), packing a small overnight bag.
I rapped my knuckles on the door gently. He looked up, bleary eyed. He was crying.
"Woah," I entered and closed the door, going up to him and taking his face in my hands. "What's wrong?"
He sniffled and shook his head. "She's gone, Rose."
His voice had broken halfway through and so had my heart. I knew who he meant: Peggy. My mouth sort of dropped open and my own eyes began to well with tears as I let my gaze fall. Peggy - the closest thing I had to an aunt, a woman who had been there for me when my parents had died all of those years ago, who I had only seen two years ago - was dead. The last remaining family I had beyond Tony was gone. That was it.
There was only Tony Stark and his little sister Rosalie.
"Are...are you okay?" I swallowed my tears and looked back up to Steve.
His lip was trembling. I could see in his eyes what he was feeling. He had loved her - she had been his first ever love, and now there was this thing between us, we were together, a couple now. There was guilt there, that he felt as if he'd abandoned her when he went into the ice.
And I knew deep down that, if he could, he would pick her over me.
He wiped my tears and then his own. He nodded. "There's a funeral in London tomorrow. Do you want to come with me?"
"That would be nice, thank you," I replied, smiling sadly.
He cupped my face then and pressed a soft, gentle kiss to my lips.
A moment of love admist everyhing that was going on felt rare. The Accords...now Peggy...everything seemed to be happening all at once. And Steve and I had barely spent time alone together since Lagos, besides training. But those nights where nightmares wracked our bodies...we would always find our way into each other's bed and hold each other tightly until the nightmares left. We had become a close time and unit and with this division in the group, I was scared that it would drive us apart. But I knew that Steve and I agreed it was a bad idea.
Which meant that now I was divided from Tony, my last remaining family. With everything going on...I just couldn't help thinking:
Am I just doomed to be split from those I love?