Everybody wants a happy ending, right?

Ally’s job through most of the fight was to keep her teammates safe. Similar to Wanda, she bounced from stand-off to stand-off, giving a helping hand when needed. She was in the midst of putting the fires out from the truck–she heard on the coms Scott thought it was a water truck–when her father approached her. She didn’t stop what she was doing–she didn’t even think to go into a defensive stance–because she didn’t think he was a threat. Obviously he could’ve been if he wanted to be, but she didn’t think he’d fight her. Or he at least wouldn’t throw the first punch.

“Don’t act like I wanted this,” she sneered, raising her voice to be heard over all the commotion. “There is more at play here than you know. We have to stop that doctor, the one that triggered Bucky at the UN.” She wasn’t there, but Steve and Sam had filled her in on what happened. “This isn’t about us and it definitely isn’t about you.”

The echoes of their conversation from the Avengers compound replayed in her head, the differing views and lack of answers. “I’m not going to fight you.” Her voice was firm, decision made. The fires below them finally went out, and she turned to face her father. “But I’ll happily keep you busy.” With her hands now free, she wrapped two air currents around his wrists, pulling his arms behind his back.

“If it is just about that, come back with us. Work with the government, we still have time. But it is not just about it, is it? For some reason, it is more important to get Barnes out of there so he doesn’t have to face charges than to actually go after that doctor.” Tony pointed out. He hated it himself, but in the wake of this, the world needed to see they were taking it seriously. “If Barnes is innocent, I’ll be the first one to pay the lawyers in his defense and make all the statements, but I will not break the law like this. We can play by the rules and stop that guy!” He wished she would see reason in this. He wished for just a moment she would turn and see what they were doing, what they were facing and what would happen if they pushed this too far. In the worst-case scenario on top of the rift this would cause and the criminal status they would get, some of them might be hurt. Both sides had just normal people on their team. 

Even with all the warnings from Steve and the mental preparation she put upon herself regarding facing her father on opposite sides of the battle field, she still felt her heart sink when she finally saw him. Only Steve was out in the open for now, the rest of their squad waiting in the terminals while Clint searched for their real escape plan, not the planted helicopter.

“He has to know that’s not true,” she muttered to herself as Tony spoke of zero consequences. “He doesn’t make that decision. The man holding his leash does.” Wanda snorted next to her, and she looked over at her with a smirk just as Clint announced he’d found their way out. Steve’s hands went up and they were off. Wanda and Clint started running toward the quinjet, Sam and Bucky doing the same from their position, but Ally took off toward the center of the action to help Steve. She watched as Tony took off and there was an instinct to go after him, but Steve was fighting two people at once and that seemed more pressing. So, she let her father go and blasted the Black Panther with an air blast, sending him back against one of the jetways.

Tony tried to keep eyes on the entire fight, even as he got injured by Wanda. Once again the arm, but for once he knew she hadn’t aimed at it. The cars fell as they fell, she just put them in motion. That one paled in comparison at what Rogers and Ant-Man did with Rhodey. Throwing a truck full of flammable liquid at Rhodey just crossed every line. Tony had not wanted to hurt anyone, he had hoped they would realize that they had an option here beyond taking justice into their own hands. There was a protocol, one they had to follow, to protect lives, to protect the rights of people who just wanted to be left alone. Now here they were on an airport that Tony had to have evacuated because they didn’t. They once again seemed willing to deal with collateral damage.

And that came in the form of them squaring up against each other six against seven with Tonys side being the one outnumbered. Still, they had to try. And they did. Throughout it he tried to have Friday look out for everyone. He kept taps on Spider-Mans whereabouts the entire time and he had to. They were wreaking this place. Several of the damages would have cost lives, had they not evacuated. And he was half sure his side was the only one to see that. 

Eventually he saw their tactics change. And with that he knew they were just trying to get Barnes out. It was all about Barnes. The irony of it all was the fact that Tony had the means of getting him a good lawyer and start a good investigation that would clear him if he was really innocent without lives being endangered.

A snort escaped Pietro’s attempt to NOT laugh, with his head dipping downwards to hide the growing smile on his lips. It wasn’t the fact that the older man considered someone other than BLOOD to be like family, Wanda had often expressed similar sentiments with the other Avengers and while it differed from his own views on what family was to the speedster———   ❝      He is Spider-MAN? His voice still sound like young girl.     ❞     And Pietro had only really glimpsed the other on the battlefield against Thanos, he himself moving around as a blur most of the time so his more lasting impression was at the airport that day when the Avengers became divided. It was certainly one hell of a name to pick considering the very evident YOUNG age of said bug boy. Spider, he could understand, but to add the title of man to someone that was given away as a boy with just his voice?

But at least Pietro could manage that much humour in him, a sign that not ALL hope was lost for the now former Avenger, though Pietro didn’t see himself returning to the team anytime soon. It certainly was a weight off of his shoulders. Head lifting once more to meet Tony’s gaze, there wasn’t even a glance to the aforementioned arm or hip. Really, the man was lucky to be privilege to such things when people injured to such an extent in Sokovia were left to suffer. This, this was nothing even remotely NEW to Pietro. Not when even their own military would attack its citizens under the dictatorship. 

❝       As impatient as Wanda always tells me I am, I can certainly wait to be kicking your ass again even just in race.  I do not think your suit of armour could go faster than NATURAL speed like mine.     ❞      Well, sort of natural though that was a whole other can of worms that Pietro certainly wasn’t about to open just yet, not without discussing it first to others.

“Cut the kid some slack, he earned his stripes.” Tony pointed out. “Not every sixteen year old can say they fought in space.” Or that they had powers like that. “But yeah, he is sixteen. It’s just Spider-Boy really doesn’t cut it as a name. ANd biologically he is all grown up, you know? He won’t get any taller. Chronologically he should even be twentyone now.” But he wasn’t. They could handle that. Peter had been through so much. War was not easy. Especially when one of the people hurt badly was someone you cared about. Peter was by his side diligently through recovery. For a kid that young his bedside manner was excellent.

“Yeah, I think it might not ever be as fast as you. Your body can take that speed, but I think a regular human might not be able to.” But he had to actually put some effort into calculations there. But it was safe to say he might not be the one to ever pilot a suit that as faster than Pietro.

“Everyone tends to keep the motives hidden.  Not everyone can be so transparent.”  She said.  Though really if people did try it would be a very different world.  “At least you understand Tony.  You don’t have rose colored glasses on.”  She had never seen Tony as one of those people.  Even when he’d been self-destructing.

“Clint.”  She said.  “Though I’m sure that’s not a surprise.”  She shrugged.  Hands slipping into the pockets of her jeans.  It was nice to have a normal conversation.  She didn’t have to hide anything with Tony for this moment.

“And then there are those that don’t hide motives but nobody seems to understand them.” It was one of the problems he had with this life. He was a billionaire, so people expected some ulterior motives from him, when they were not the case. He had gotten used to that kind of treatment. 

“Never had those. You can’t afford them when you become responsible for so many employees at such a young age.” At every step he was aware of his responsibility, the role he had to play. Part of his escapades were due to this. Keep up a carefree spending role - aside from the fact that he enjoyed it very much - and the media knew he had money, his company had money, jobs were save, people knew they were save. It mattered.

My AI: Welcome home! Please tell the cat to stop torturing me!

Me: What cat???? We don't have a cat!

“Yeah, yeah, your life was horrible, he was absent. At least you knew who your father was.” It was common knowledge that as a young kid Ally did not worry about the identity of her biological father, and she had made it clear many times in the years she had been with Tony that she held no ill will other than that her mother had deserved child support. However, right now she was mad and it was a dig, so she spat it out even if there weren’t true feelings behind it. 

Ally knew Steve went through more training than that with SHIELD post The Battle of New York, but at this point going back and forth on Steve’s history was not helpful in any way. “But we’re not a task force! And we’re not military!” Not yet, anyway. While Ally didn’t agree, she could see his point on that front; she could understand the logic in which her father reached his conclusions. When he didn’t answer her question, however, any empathy she might have had dissipated nearly as quickly as her trust. Her shoulders were flexed back so tightly it nearly hurt, her temple starting to throb. Her breath was harsh through her nose, and she took a step back from him. The air shivered as she flexed her hands, trying to keep her emotions at bay until she could get out of the room. “Of course it matters,” she said, voice shaking. He turned around; what a coward. “Don’t worry about your lawyers. You can take me off your payroll.” 

She turned around now, chin falling as she just tried to breathe. “Fuck you, Tony.” With that she took her leave, managing to get out of the compound and into the sky before she couldn’t hold the tears back anymore.

The sense of betrayal got deeper and deeper every moment after the explosion at the UN, or well Peggys funeral, of whom he wasn’t even informed properly. He knew, of course, but the lack of personal information was quite clear and so he did the only thing he could do and the thing he usually did: Quietly take care of matters and stay in the background. There was betrayal at every corner, but then again, he kept reprimanding himself: Why was he even surprised o begin with? SHIELD had been very clever in how they placed the team, how they created an instant imbalance in the team, which made it easy to control them for them. But once SHIELD fell, that set up became problematic and here they were now, the problems surfacing and slapping them in the face.

At the airport in Leipzig Tony was only mildly surprised by some people having chosen Steves side. Sam would obviously join him, he was still sure Wanda had some residual anger towards him, so that, too, besides he was sure she absolutely misunderstood why he wanted her to stay home. Same with Steve and Sam and probably his own daughter. After their confrontation, it came to no surprise with him at all that she chose his side. Barton was a spy, which in many ways equaled double agent. In a way Tony was convinced that had he called him frist, he would be on his side now, but unlike Steve, Tony had no desire to pull him away from his family. And then there was the fact that the side he chose was the one breaking the law.

“Hold the phone.” Ally put her hands up, eyes wide in disbelief. “Did you just say that Steve Rogers has no military training? Have you ever read a history book or, I don’t know, talked to the guy?” Now she was just getting annoyed. Her hands curled as he stopped himself about Wanda, their teammate most similar to Ally in terms of type of threat she might be considered. “These decisions shouldn’t be political! We’re not trying to spread an agenda or some kind of message. We’re just trying to help people. Or did I miss something?” 

All she could do was shake her head, fists pressed so tightly her knuckles were white. “Oh good. Nice. Way to leave your family high and dry.” She wouldn’t tell him flat out, but she figured it was pretty clear that her decision was already made. “I just have one question for you–when you look at me do you see a person or do you see a weapon?”

“You are aware I had the misfortune of growing up as Howard Starks son, right? I don’t need to look into any History books, I grew up right at the source.” Right in Steves overlooming shadow on top of it. But yeah, he knew what training Steve received, intimately. “Steve Rogers had grunt training. You know the kind of training that has you run track, shoot a weapon, follow orders. He had no leadership training whatsoever. He was not meant for the active duty that he pushed himself into and thus never trained for it.” Everything on top of it, Steve pushing into his role and his role as Captain America making him a leader, didn’t cover the fact that he had no formal training in it, as Tony had now felt intimately over the course of several years. “Trust me, Rogers is not qualified for this. And it has to be policital. We are essentially violating the rights of a nation to deny another nations task force or military personal entrance into the country. Kinda part of the whole independence spiel that we americans are so fond of. So, yeah, political.” And necessarily, too. There was no way Nigeria would legally let them back into the country without them making amends. And had they gone for permission, rather than not, they might have actually had assistance in the field. He stood by that decision and everything he said.

Things really started to show their colors in this. He was not too surprised about how Rogers reacted given the previous experience, but his daughters' reaction? Her question? Yeah, he would have hoped she’d see reason. He knew she stood with Rogers, he only hoped for the both of them they would not make any stupid decisions, because he might not be there to stop them, with how he planned on standing with the law and with an actual future in which the Avengers were in a position to help. Then again he did go from consultant to retired and the later should just stick.

“Yeah, well maybe that PR department needs to be restructured considering the problems we are now dealing with.” It wasn’t the PR department’s fault, obviously, but it was ludicrous to Ally that all of this could just be boiled down to reputation. It was more than that, and she knew Tony knew that. 

“Because we know better! These politicians and ambassadors, as well intentioned as they might be, have not seen what we’ve seen or gone through what we’ve gone through. In the military people who are higher up are soldiers who worked their way up the ranks, right? They’ve experienced battle, know what the guys lower on the totem pole went through, so they can make practical and well informed decisions. A panel of ambassadors would be, as smart as they might be, guessing. Unless they have some powered individuals, heroes, on the panel, I don’t know if it’s enough.” 

“And protect those willing to sign too. Honestly I think people who sign may be under more scrutiny than those that don’t. Those that don’t–if they follow what they say–will just go living their lives as is if they weren’t acting as heroes before. But people who sign are basically signing up to become military assets. It puts a whole different spin on what we’re doing.” Ally could tell she was starting to talk in circles and she shook her head, drinking more of her gatorade. “I just have to think about it, I guess. Like, I get it, I do, I just don’t think rushing into it is a good idea. For anyone.” 

“The PR team is not the problem here.” he said simply. He stood by his statement and he stood behind his employees. They were all doing an amazing job. Honestly, had it not been for that team, the accords might have become pressing a lot faster. Same went for his lawyers, who had worked with the government for a while, extending not only an olive branch, but an entire bloody olive tree, which was why the acoords never became as urgent until the damn destaster in Lagos.

“We know better?” Tony asked her, finally his heart fluttered angrily in his chest. How on earth did anyone get the idea that they knew better? What qualified them in the least bit?

“What exactly qualifies us to make that decision? Those are highly sensitive political decisions. I for one don’t see a single one of us qualified for these decisions. I for one am just someones son, a mechanic. I have money, but that is it. I have no qualifications to make political or humanitarian decisions. Rogers doesn’t even have formal military training or training in leading a team, what qualifies him? His track record shows a spectacular disregard of lives. Barton is a sniper and spy. Natasha is an assassin and spy. Neither is qualified for these decisions. Banner himself would call himself unqualified. Wanda ... well should I continue? Now here is the fun fact: Councils make decisions about highly specialized teams already and most of them great decisions. They don’t need powers to know where we are needed.” He hated this argument, he hated knowing that half this team would happily abolish the team to preserve their power of decision. 

There was much to be done as his ‘children’ searched far and wide throughout the cosmos to obtain the infinity stones. Only with these great vessels of phenomenal powers could true peace be achieved for good. Gamora did not agree with his ‘divine revelation’, nor did she consider him her father after all he’d done to her. When she closed her eyes, she could still hear the screams of her people, of her mother, as they were massacred by the thousands. The memory was enough to make her blood run cold. All she could do was bide time, to become stronger, wiser to his methods and await her opening to leave behind this life for good.  But when would that be? What point would there be? Often, she found herself wondering if the escape would be worth it. After all, she’d been turned into a living weapon, the most lethal woman in the galaxy, renowned for her relation to Thanos, destroyer of worlds. Perhaps there was no life outside of these frigid metal walls for her, this was all she had - damned in life as well as in death for her crimes against humanity. 

A multitude of prisoners had been taken captive across the galaxy, atoning for countless sins against the titan called Thanos, the one who deems himself the savior of the universe. But never before had a Terran been abducted before, nor had she ever seen one outside of the briefing holograms.  Curiosity getting the better of her, Gamora made her way to the dungeons and toward the cell with a shimmering holographic barrier standing between her and the enemies. The Terran was clearly male, but not as she’d pictured one to be. Terrans were supposedly weak and powerless, lesser beings than that of other planets that littered the universe. But this one was different, covered in a special armor that looked entirely advanced, surely the only thing that had kept him alive as he’d drifted through the stars, the wormhole closing his only chance at returning home. 

His inquiry surprised her. English, one of the many languages of the Terrans and one that she could speak fluently. But how to respond to such a trivial question. Brow furrowed, Gamora stepped closer, inches from the barrier as she stared down this man in iron. 

“I’d be far more concerned with your own affairs, if I were you.”

@ironxhero​

Tony had resorted to not being able to understand the others. He would, of course, potentially pick some words up if they continued to talk in a foreign language around him, but that was it. That was it pretty much covered it. He was stranded, imprisoned, but at least New York was safe, the people could not be harmed by the nuke anymore. Instead, he probably nuked a ship of a fleet and closed the gate, which meant he was a prisoner of the people that tried to take over earth. Fun. 

From the top of his head, Tony could imagine a lot of things that could happen now. Most of which contained getting information out of him or revenge on him. Given they were an invading army, there was no way not to assume they were aggressors. Pain was imminent, but he had been there before. Afghanistan did not happen without torture. Several things still sent him into nightmares and anxiety attacks, and he guessed he would soon add more to it. But, somehow he had the feeling that he could not simply build his way out of this one. He was at their mercy. So either they did not kill him, maybe even released him or he would die at their hands. And something told him that under usual circumstances he would not survive this. 

Surprisingly to him this one spoke English, so at least he might understand the questions they would pose if they did. Not, that it was any consolation to understand what he would not under any circumstances answer. He could not. He could not sell out his entire planet to spare himself pain.

She knew that Tony could easily put a crib together on his own but the fact that he offered to let her help was a nice gesture. She would always appreciate that he let her stay in his and Pepper’s lives and then the baby when it was time. Gwen had always viewed them as family and when Tony and her father had begun to fight she had been heartbroken and scared that she would lose them as family.  She was glad that wasn’t the case even if her father and Tony’s relationship had become nonexistent. 

“ Yeah sounds great. I’m one of the best people to ask if you need help painting the ceiling,” she joked lightly. Most days she wasn’t putting her powers to use, at least not in a meaningful way. It’d be nice to use them for something easy and maybe even a little bit fun. “ Did you guys pick out a theme for the nursery?” she asked curiously. She wanted to be part of the baby’s life as much as Tony and Pepper would allow. 

“ Thanks for the invite. I can probably stay around for lunch. Got dinner plans with Pops though,” she said with a small smile. The two blonds had always tried to have family dinner together whenever they could and now with Captain America in retirement it made it a lot easier. A lot of the time growing up Gwen had wished that Steve wasn’t Captain America but she had never thought it would be because half the population was gone.

“I honestly didn’t even think about that.” Being away from the team, it was easy to simply forget about the powers everyone had. It didn’t matter to him most days anyway. He hadn’t mentored Peter because of his powers, though that was why he found him, he mentored him because he saw potential in him to change the world and because he liked him. It was similar to Gwen, only there was an underlying  ‘I won’t follow in my fathers' footsteps and punish a kid for Steve Rogers choices’ least of all her. She was a great kid after all!

“Not so much a theme even.” He said. “But yes we agreed on decoration. It came quite easily once we really talked about it.” He admitted. “I mean we love this place. We love to be outside, love the fresh air, love our little garden of trees. So the woods it is. Perhaps we can take it ful on and paint the ceiling sky blue. Maybe we could even install little lights, like stars. I printed some fake trees with wood filament and fake leaves to go with it. I will install them today maybe. And the crib is hand carved by one of Peppers brothers.” Settling down allowed the couple to also make amends with the remaining family of his wife and suddenly thelittle one had a lot of family. It was more than he ever imagined and it made him so happy.