22. Chapter Not my best but whatev

I was going to explain everything that's happening in my life in this AN, but I chickened out. I'll explain next time, promise. It'll be next week, if I don't get hit too hard by Florence. Actually, from now on, I promise to have a max of four weeks without posting, barring major incidents. And if I don't post again after this chapter… I think it'll be reasonable to assume that Flo got me.

As soon as Paramexor's heavily modified starfighter - something Tony would love to get his hands on - was safe inside the last transport shuttle down to the remnants of the base, someone broke out the alcohol. It was not the weak beer or fermented ale of canteens, no, it was good, hard smuggler's whiskey. As it became clear that the KSC were on the retreat, bounty hunters began pouring into their rather destroyed base to join in the cheer.

Not even Tony was able to resist joining in the good cheer, accepting a few shots as he made a long, meandering path through the increasingly boisterous crowd. He had to stop Kovlo from going overboard with a whole mug of the stuff. When he spotted Suffee, Tony sent Kristoff after the Rodian, unable to remember if Suffee had said he had a drinking problem or not. Just before Tony stepped out of the room, he hooked his finger under the collar of Gis's shirt and pulled him out with him.

"Gis, I probably have no right to rag out on you for this, seeing that I'm, well, me, but what do you think you're doing?" Tony tapped his foot and pointedly stared down at the glass of burnt umber liquid. Tony held out his hand until Gis reluctantly put the shot on it.

Gis scowled back up at him. "Gis - I - old enough to drink!"

"By the standards of the T'doshok, he is old enough to drink," FRIDAY acknowledged tightly before adding, "Then again, seeing that there is no minimum drinking age in Trandosha, that's not saying much."

The way the downturn of Gis's maw grew more pronounced told Tony that FRIDAY probably let him in on it. "By- Dangit, Gis. I want to help you. I don't want you to be like me when you grow up, I want you to be better! Just because- Oh, you know what? Kriff it," Tony said, seeing that he was not getting through to the stubborn Trandoshan. Saurin. Whatever. "If you go to another planet, you have to follow that planet's rules. Denevar's legal drinking age is-"

"Seventeen," FRIDAY supplied sulkily.

"-seventeen. Are you seventeen?"

"Gis'tik is currently twelve standard years old," FRIDAY provided with a monotonous voice.

Tony paused, then looked to the nearest camera, trusting that FRIDAY was able to worm her way through whatever firewalls Paramexor's security division could devise. "Are you saying that we brought a kid that's not even in his teen years into a battlefield?" Tony asked, nearly spitting the words out in his haste. Force, the lizard was younger than Peter was during the 'Civil War' fiasco. Older than Harley was during the Extremis thing, but still!

FRIDAY sighed, a soft breath of air that sounded so clear that Tony could almost feel the brush of carbon dioxide molecules against his ear. "No. Trandoshans have shorter lifespans than most species. They cease to be children by eleven standard years. By fifteen standard years, they are considered full adults. Gis has been a 'teen' for the better part of two years."

Taking a good, long look at Gis as he put the shot on a nearby table, Tony asked, "Am I breaking any laws?"

Here FRIDAY paused. Tony could almost hear her processors whirling as she scanned through hundreds of laws and regulations. "On Denevar, you have violated several child endangerment laws. However, a case can be made on how you ordered him to stay on the ship. You had no knowledge that he was outside of the Black Fist during the battle."

"What?" Tony said almost gently, eyes staring daggers at Gis when he realized the Saurin had been out and about while there were murderous slavers roaming the small city.

"Meanwhile, you are skirting several education regulations. However, since you have only arrived recently, you cannot be held accountable for another six planetary rotations. On Coruscant-"

Realizing that laws on putting minors in dangerous situations were not his only worries had Tony cursing. "Kriffing-"

FRIDAY neatly cut him off by increasing her volume. "-you have violated three safety regulations, two health regulations, two traffic laws, a minor law on working conditions, a speeding law, and a parking regulation."

Tony pinched his nose. A parking regulation. He had crashed his ship saving hundreds of lives, and they stuck a parking ticket on him. That sounded on par for the course. Noticing FRIDAY's silence, Tony said, "No, no. Don't stop on my account. Please, keep telling me how many ways I can be charged and apprehended." He turned to see a large, bearded bounty hunter watching him. "Oi, you. Leave."

"The parking regulation and other related incidents has been pardoned by the Chancellor, while the civil suits have all been quietly paid for in full by one Prestor Organa."

Just one more thing he owed the Organas. He had saved them, but the costs were quickly adding up. Tony promised himself to keep a closer eye on the Organas, who had been watching over him and covering his back before he even thought to do so himself.

"Of Republic laws… As of today, you have broken a total of two hundred and eighty-two, seventy-nine of which you are still currently breaking as of this moment. I don't think you want to know about the charges pinned on Iron Man."

Tony swiped the shot away from Gis's inching talons, wagging a finger at him. "Back to the ship. Can I trust you with that? Or do I have to follow you to make sure you get there safely?" Gis gave him a long look and stalked down the hall and through a missing chunk of wall despite the fact that there was an open door beside Tony. Tony was about to open his mouth and request FRIDAY check on him and make sure the lizard got back safe and sound, but FRIDAY spoke first.

"Boss, we need to talk. You replaced me." FRIDAY said quietly.

"Fri… it's not like that," Tony said tiredly. Deafening silence met him through the earpiece. "Fri, baby girl, you gotta understand. I thought it would be you. Different protocols, Republic coding, but still you. I thought that, once you got back from visiting Bail, you would… merge codes, become one whole. Fri..." Tony waited for her judgement. Would he be able to forgive himself if one spur-of-the-moment decision ruined all he worked for with FRIDAY?

Waiting for an answer was worse than the thrum of thrusters as Rhodey flew away from him in War Machine. Moments thudded away like the slow tap of Pepper's heels as she walked away from him for what Tony had been convinced at that moment was the last time. "I didn't visit Bail," FRIDAY said finally.

"What?" Tony asked, the tension bursting like a bubble.

A slender figure approached from down the hall and Tony stepped back against the wall to let the girl step past. "When I downloaded in the suit, I came here," FRIDAY admitted. "I wanted to see Bail, but you need me."

Tony was about to answer when the girl stopped in front of him, unnaturally still. "Hold up for a sec, Fri." She was pretty, Tony noticed in a detached way. Somewhere between late teens to mid-twenties. Age sort of blurred after a point. Black hair in a pixie cut that needed trimming and a shockingly pink pilot's helmet tucked under her arm, she somehow managed to look good in a matching pilot jumpsuit. "You're missing out on a good party. Whiskey's that way," Tony said, making a grand gesture to his right.

She tilted her head, just staring. Tony stopped and looked closer.

"Don't worry, I'm allowed to be here," Tony said, examining her. There was something familiar about her. Straight nose. Strong jawline. ...How did women always manage to have perfectly done makeup on?

Her blood-colored lips curled up. "...Boss?"

Tony started at the voice. "Friday?"

Those lips turned down and pouted mockingly. "No hug? Not even a hello? You're seeing your daughter for the first time, and all you do is stare."

"Code, holographics, does it matter? You're still you," Tony answered blithely. "Please blink. Every time you look in another direction or every five or six seconds. Blink. Just… blink."

The eyes fluttered shut, then opened. "Better?" Friday asked, amusement in her tone, though it did not show on her face.

"My daughter. Eyes up," Tony snapped, glaring at a passing bounty hunter that slowed down to stare curiously at Friday. The man held his hands up in the universal sign of surrender as he walked away.

"You're going to be that parent?" Friday asked, tilting her head. Realizing that he had become somewhat of a helicopter parent, Tony snorted, a vague smile playing across his face. Friday observed, then copied it.

"Try Charell's smile," Tony suggested. "The one she uses after a successful bounty."

Friday paused, reviewing her recordings and multiple angles. Her small smile strengthened into a victorious smirk.

"My girl's going to be a real heartbreaker," Tony said proudly.

"Thanks, dad," Friday said softly, but where most women would look down at the praise or smile gently, Friday was unmoving as stone. A heartbreaker indeed. Tony could already see boys throwing themselves at her feet, only to be ruthlessly turned down without a second thought. "Dad, we have to talk about her. Wasn't I enough? What did I do wrong? Dad?" Her voice trembled, but tears did not form in her eyes and her face stayed firm.

"You didn't do anything wrong," Tony said firmly. He faltered after that. Heart-to-heart...er, code, just was not his forte. Children doubly so. Take Harley, for example. He handed a kid a weapon. He pinched his nose. "Just give her a chance, will you? I made U and 'Fingers, but that doesn't mean I love DUM-E any less."

Friday just looked at him, considering his words. Tony was pleased to note that the holoform kept blinking and 'breathing.' "Fine," Friday said stiffly.

Tony waited patiently.

"Now?" Friday asked when the moments stretched out.

"Now," Tony confirmed. "I think you'll like her. She's a bit… serious, but… just meet her, okay?" He smiled at Friday's hologram and leaned back against the wall, not letting his tenseness show. This was the moment that could make or break his family. Friday's hologram was unmoving as she connected with MONDAY. Tony could see the moment they finished - Friday focused back on him.

"She needs someone like a big sister to help her loosen up," Friday said decisively.

Tony's face broke into a smile. His little girls were getting along. "So, girls? My beautiful, smart, wonderful AI ladies? How do I not get arrested?"

FRIDAY gave MONDAY a few pointers as they ran through all the laws Tony had bent or outright broken. It turned out that Tony was breaking several health and work safety laws. His past ships had to be inspected. FRIDAY had started off well with the bounty hunting permits. Without them, Tony would no doubt be breaking laws in the lower thousands. Actually, they even got him out of fines created by property damage on his hunts.

There were only two things saving Tony by this point - the fact that it was apparently very hard to stick a crime on a single bounty hunter, and the fact that he was somewhat a very minor celebrity on Coruscant. Still, Tony felt bad about the property damage and put MONDAY to the task of recording them all. He would pay them back. One day.

FRIDAY and MONDAY promised to have things straightened out within a week. Tony hoped that it meant they were just paying fines, not… changing the laws or anything. Or hacking and deleting the evidence, now that he thought about it.

Tony kept thoughts of AI overlords out of his mind, not because it he feared it, no. It was more because mind readers seemed to be everywhere, these days. Giving them a warning was a no-go. Tony would side with his girls, no matter what.

"Oh, and while you're at it, sign Gis up for school. Alderaanian."

-Insert Quote HereEven an hour after Tony finished hashing out petty details, the party was still going strong. Paramexor had been rushed off the shuttle and bustled into the med bay, though not before he gave Tony a Look, one that clearly said they would be talking. Tony did not mind - after all, he had his own bone to pick with Paramexor. Colton's bloody face was still vivid in Tony's mind.

Sure, there were minimal efforts to remove rubble. A few of the more serious bounty hunters continued to dig through collapsed buildings and the medical teams were still on duty. For the most part, though, Paramexor's men seemed to think that they were all done.

Tony sought out Fett the moment he could get clear of the celebration. He had FRIDAY track down the absent bounty hunter and intercepted him five blocks away from Paramexor's base, tracking down errant slavers.

Iron Maiden lifted a large, cracked section of wall off a bounty hunter as Tony walked past, blank eye slits following Tony's path. High in the air, Iron Man circled the air like a bird of prey. Some of the bounty hunters eyed it warily, but Tony could see clearly that it was MONDAY who was in charge of the armor, testing its capacities without the pressures of battle or with injured bounty hunters on the line.

He reached Fett just as the Mandalorian ferreted out one of the KCS panicked slaver burst out from a pile of rubble and made a break for it as Fett leaned down to peer at his hiding spot in suspicion. Seeing that the man was unarmed, Tony crouched down with his arms out, blocking the only way out of the ally.

The slaver feinted right, but Tony saw through the trick, tackling him unerringly. Pinning him down in a boxer's move that Happy had taught him what seemed like a lifetime ago, Tony withdrew his blaster and jammed it under the man's chin.

"Surrender or I'll shoot," Tony threatened. It was a bluff. He did not make a habit of killing unarmed men, but the slaver did not need to know that.

"I surrender!" the brown-haired nobody whimpered.

"Stay down. One wrong move and hot plasma will be eating through that empty skull of yours," Tony ordered. He got to his knees and stood up, one foot on the brunette slaver. Force, the man could not have been more than his early twenties. He looked roughly the same age as Colton, possibly even younger. "Got a pair of cuffs?" Tony asked Fett, making a decision.

"Going to turn him in to the authorities?" Fett asked, giving him an indecipherable look.

"Yep," Tony answered. He turned his eyes to the man in question, lifting his foot off. "Get up, hands behind your head. No cuffs, but you better not run. This blaster here can literally burn your legs off. Got a name, rookie?" Tony ordered firmly, listing off everything he could think of.

"I- Foyer," the brunette answered, eyes on the ground. "Sir," he added belatedly. Tony rolled his eyes.

"Look, rookie. I'm not going to lie. You screwed up, and you screwed up big. But here's the thing: your life isn't over. You can take this mistake and build yourself up better. You don't have to be a criminal. This is your chance to start over. We can help you. I promise," Tony said reassuringly, keeping an eye on Fett. Not all of his words were sorely for the slaver, after all.

From the corner of his eye, Tony saw Fett draw himself up. "Stark, may I see your blaster?" Fett asked politely, reaching a hand out. "Something's off with your aim."

Tony blinked, having not seen anything wrong with his aim. He had been designing guns and weapons of mass destruction for decades. He could say with absolute confidence that this blaster that he had created from scratch was like any of them - lethal and unerring. "Right," Tony said dubiously. "Thanks. Tweak it up with your Mandalorian secrets." He reluctantly handed it over, watching it like a hawk. "What's wrong with it?"

"For one thing, your safety's on," Fett said, flicking it off.

"Well, yeah," Tony said, looking at Fett like the man suggested 'bedazzling' it with rhinestones and glitter.

"Second of all, you were twenty degrees off. Shooting at this angle-" Fett pressed the blaster to Foyer's chin in demonstration. "-is much more efficient."

Tony eyed KSC's man, who had frozen in alarm and shot him a pleading look when Fett decided to use him as a model. "Fett, stop wasting time. I wasn't planning on killing him," Tony scolded, holding his hand out for the blaster. "Come on, I bet we can capture at least half a dozen more of these guys. Well, you can. I'll just head back with Joshua John Ward, here."

Fett looked at Tony in the eye. "Your third problem," Fett said, not moving an inch, "Is that you have to pick a path." His finger twitched onto the trigger. "And stick to it." He fired.

Looking back at it, hours later, Tony would say that the most disturbing thing about the whole event was that it was soundless. Like every weapon he made for his crew, Tony's blaster was silenced. There was a pleasant hum, a bright flash, and Foyer fell noiselessly, eyes barely beginning to widen in surprise.

"Work on your aim." Fett then tossed the blaster back to Tony and walked away, leaving the inventor with a cooling corpse. Tony stared at the dead slaver, then after Fett, stunned. He snapped out of it as Fett left the ally, disappearing from view.

That was not self-defense.

Murder.

It was cold-blooded murder.

With a last look to the corpse that had once been Foyer, Tony ran after Fett.

"What the fu- Force do you think you're doing?" Tony snarled, wanting to pin Fett to the wall to make a point. He restrained himself though. Part of it was because he knew he was already on thin ice with the Mandalorian. Most of it was because he was better than the Rogue Avengers. He could use words, not react with physical violence at the first 'difference of opinion.'

This was much more than a disagreement, though. Fett just killed someone. Foyer. Mid-twenties, brown hair, brown eyes.

"What did you think was going to happen? He'd follow you in, play nice, and by the end of the week he'd be broken out by his slaver friends," Fett said. Another person might have sneered those words, but Fett was calm. Clinical, even. "People don't change. They pretend, then they use you."

Fett abruptly fired into a window a building, causing another guy, presumably another one of KSC's lackeys, to fall out of a second-story window. He landed with a crack that had Tony wincing and loud screams, but Fett was on him in a second, with no regard to his injury.

Tony winced as Fett brutally twisted the guy's arm behind his back in a way that would have set off police brutality protests back on Earth. He immediately moved to intervene. "Fett… He already broke a leg. Don't you think that's a little harsh for-" Fett slammed his… well, Tony had no idea what it was… against the slaver's head to discourage him from struggling.

"No," Fett said shortly, making an aborted move towards his blaster.

Despite his unsaid threat, however, Fett did not actually withdraw his blaster. Realizing how much he was pushing the other man, Tony nodded. "Oh, okay. Yeah. Keep doing what you're doing."

Fett did so, smashing his elbow into the man's head to stop him from struggling. "They have a problem," Fett said, declining his head towards Paramexor's base. "I have a solution.

Tony felt the urge to chuck a brick at Fett's head. A brick for a brickhead. Or blockhead. Whatever the term was. He told himself it would not help the situation. "Your solution is killing everybody!"

"No, just the ones that deserve to be killed."

"And who gets to decide that? You?"

The two men observed each other, neither willing to budge. "Wanda Maximoff," Fett said abruptly.

Tony was taken aback. "Excuse me?"

"The witch. She joined HYDRA. She hurt people on purpose, killed them. She was wrong and deserved to be punished. You agreed. I agreed. They are no different. They joined KSC of their own free will. They deserved to be punished."

"I don't deny that she deserved some kind of punishment, but death? Really? How about a couple decades of imprisonment and and community service?"

"There are many planets that still accept the death penalty."

This was really not the direction Tony wanted the conversation to take. "Do you really think death is an acceptable punishment?" he asked instead of the 'you're insane' and 'I have the number of a great therapist' he wanted to say. "I mean," Tony continued, gentling his voice, "sometimes, I envy the dead. They get to rest. We have to struggle on." Honestly, Tony paraphrased it from some movie or show he watched, but Fett did not have to know that.

The slaver nodded, face pinched in pain. "I'm sorry, I-"

Something about Fett's face changed, hardened somewhat. "Quiet, you," Tony quickly ordered the slaver before turning back to Fett. "I know that look on your face," Tony declared, seeing that speech #1 was not working and quickly changing tactics and using another movie. "You lost people. Maybe they died for you. Heck, maybe you think they died because of you."

Fett threw his hands up in disgust and stalked away, leaving Tony with the slaver. The slaver looked at Tony. Tony looked back at the slaver. "I didn't think that was going to work," Tony commented. He was glad it did. Speech #3 was actually from a musical, and even when he translated it to Basic, it still sort of rhymed.

The slaver nodded. "Thought fo' sure I'd get a blast to da' skull," he admitted.

Tony hummed thoughtfully, then signaled at the armors. Iron Man slowly flew down. The slaver's eyes bulged and he began yelling fearfuly in a language Tony did not recognize. "Yeah, just put him in a brig, cell or something," Tony said. The armor nodded curtly and grabbed the guy, flying off. The guy was still screaming.

With a sigh, Tony followed after Fett, resigned to spending the next few hours making sure that the bounty hunter would not be killing anyone.

"Your morals have no place here," Fett said without looking at him.

"I'm too awesome to change. In fact, I find that a compelling argument on why this place has to change."

"Watch," Fett said blandly. "This world will tear your morals apart, and with it, you."

"That's not going to happen. The crew has my back," Tony said with a little smile. Really, if you ignore the wild crime rates, this place was an oversized Earth taking place over an entire galaxy.

"They'll die too."

Tony's smile dropped. "Excuse me?" Tony rounded out on the Mandalorian, angry that Fett implied that he would end up being the death of his crew. He had faced that kind of negativity with his old team, and this was not was he was going to deal with about his new team, in a new universe. "That misstep on the rooftop was an honest mistake, one that I'd like to make clear wouldn't be happening again. You haven't given me a chance. You've formed opinions about me and refused to change them despite all evidence otherwise."

He glared at Fett, but the younger man did not care to make a response.

"I've given you time. I've given you space. I didn't press when you made it clear you didn't want to talk. I kept a figurative open door for you and made sure you wouldn't be left out. I took every criticism and made myself better, but I won't do is let myself be put down again." Every sentence that came out of his mouth, Tony advanced a step, prodding the Mandalorian's chest. "If you didn't want to be part of the team - if you didn't want my kriffing friendship - Fine. I got the message. We'll get out of your hair. I won't ask you for help again."

Tony turned on his heel and stalked off, intent on bartering with Paramexor for a ship. He would beg Paramexor for a ship if he had to.

"Wait!" It was said with a tone of urgency. Tony stopped but did not turn around. Fett was silent, but the moment Tony was about to start walking again, the other bounty hunter muttered, "Sorry."

Tony made a strangling motion, clawed hands twisting to mime the action of wringing someone's neck. That one moment of loss of control over, Tony slowly pivoted to face Fett, who looked back apprehensively at his hands. Tony felt a twinge of satisfaction at seeing tinge of fear in Fett's eyes before the other man stamped it out, then instantly felt like a monster for feeling so.

"Y'know, you're sort of sending me mixed signals here. I think something's getting lost in the translation. Makes me sort of wonder if you're thinking about getting back-stabby here," Tony said, releasing some of the pent-up snark he had been keeping in.

Tony watched as Fett puffed up with anger and indignation, then slowly sunk down with a look of guilt and self-blame. "I-I have honor. I wouldn't do that." Fett frowned, seeming to mull over his words. "I wouldn't do that to you," he amended.

"But you can and will do that to other people," Tony said, stating the unspoken obvious.

Looking down, Fett pursed his lips. When Tony caught his eyes, Fett lifted his chin up. "It's not going to change. I'm not going to change."

"I can respect that," Tony said agreeably, "but I certainly hope that my crew was included when you said you weren't going to leave me hanging with the bill."

"It was implied," Fett said flatly.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Live a little. It was a joke. We good?" He raised his fist for a bump, belatedly wondering if Kristoff had taught Fett that bit of Earth customs or if they had some sort of Mandalorian equivalent.

Ever-present scowl on his face, Fett marched up to Tony. Without pause, the Mandalorian planted his foot flat on Tony's chest and used it to shove him backwards.

Tony was about to feel betrayed before a blaster bolt skimmed past his nose. "You could've just warned me!" Tony yelled as they took cover. Above them, Iron Maiden swooped down to assist in taking down KSC's newly-revealed pocket of resistance.

"Where's the fun in that?" Fett asked.

-Insert Quote HereTony did not know how politicians and leaders managed it, but Paramexor looked completely put-together and dignified, despite the bandaged cut on his forehead and his arm in a sling. And glisten of sweat on his skin and the dust placed exactly right on his face, emphasizing his features… he was pretty sure the term was called 'heroically' scuffed or something.

The bounty hunter laced his fingers together and examined Tony, who struggled not to fidget. He had stared down countless board members before, but this was a whole different level. Tony was not going to start the conversation, but it seemed that Paramexor was equally reluctant.

To Tony's left, Suffee sat calm and poised. To his left, however, Tony could almost feel Kristoff's nervous tension as a physical force as the larger bounty hunter scuffed his foot on the expensive carpeting. Tony willed his third-in-command to be patient. The other two members of his crew present for the meeting, Galee and Friday, both chosen for their level-headed personalities, sat still and looking bored and unapproachable, though the latter received curious looks.

Having arrived moments before the meeting had started, Tony did not have time to reintroduce Friday to the crew. Actually, he had not recognized her himself, when he arrived. Friday had changed her avatar, this time to a tall, poised redhead with high cheekbones.

However, it was one of Paramexor's men that talked first. "So your… StarkPads," he said with distaste, "can remotely control starfighters?"

"Tiss'shar," FRIDAY whispered in his ear through the earpiece. Tony inclined his head a couple millimeters to let FRIDAY know he heard, eyes not leaving the Tiss'shar's.

"My StarkPads can. Your StarkPads can't," Tony clarified. He gave out good gadgets, but he kept the best for himself and his crew. Tony's eyes went to Paramexor. He was probably the only one that noticed the pinched look around Paramexor's eyes.

"What do you want for them? More money? We are your best customers!" continued the alien that reminded Tony of a velociraptor or some other bipedal dinosaur.

Suffee exchanged a look with Tony. "Surely you can understand keeping the best for ourselves," Suffee said reasonably. "It would hardly do for us to be attacked by our own inventions."

"We can work out a compromise, though," Friday added.

"And who are you?" the Tiss'shar asked, looking down his nose-snout thing down at Friday. Because Paramexor had a woman two seats to his left, Tony was inclined to think that it was not Friday's gender that was the problem, but her age.

Friday lifted up her chin. "I am Friday Stark, daughter of Anthony Stark," Friday proclaimed haughtily, playing arrogance and disdain. It was working - Tony could almost feel the Tiss'shar simmering in anger. His crew jolted slightly as Friday's words hit them, glancing at Tony before turning back to look at Friday's avatar with new eyes. Galee cast Friday an approving look.

"You don't look like him," the Tiss'shar said accusingly. Next to him, Paramexor looked like he very much regretted calling the meeting.

"I take after my mother," Friday replied icily. "She is a queen of her own making," Friday declared with pride.

"Kal-tan-shi," Paramexor finally spoke, "You of all people should know that age does not matter. Even children are every bit as capable as adults when it comes to killing."

The Tiss'shar scowled. He glanced from Suffee to Charell and Galee, his mouth curling up into a sneer as he looked back at Tony. Tony could see the hostile alien gearing up to say an insult of a more personal nature and was prepared to cut the negotiations short. His crew would not be enduring any insults.

"Kal-tan-shi, please," Paramexor said quietly.

The Tiss'shar glared at Tony but obligingly fell silent.

Tony inclined his head, then turned to stare at Paramexor. "Please explain to me why there was a trap laid out for me," he said casually. "And while you're at it, explain to me why my crew was put in danger." His voice rose in intensity. "Explain to me why one of my allies, one of my friends lost an eye."

Paramexor's eyes did an odd squint, gaining some wrinkles on the skin around it as he fought back a wince. "Please understand that it was not our intention…" He looked to Tony.

Tony looked stoically back, not giving an inch.

Paramexor sighed, like it was some large favor Tony was asking of him. "I used the gadgets I bought from you to began establishing my own house in the Bounty Hunter's Guild. Certain members of my house may have implied that we had SI backing."

"Certain members… or you?"

There was silence at the table.

"I see," Tony said quietly. "And why are they targeting me?"

With another large exhale, Paramexor glanced at on either side of himself. It must have been a signal, because as one, the odd grouping of bounty hunters on Paramexor's side of the table stood up and left, though not before casting Paramexor some concerned looks. Tony caught those briefs looks, the real concern that Paramexor's men held towards their leader.

"Go with them," Tony said, looking at his crew. The girls stood up immediately, but Kristoff lingered.

"You sure?"

"Yes," Tony answered.

Tony could see Paramexor examining his crew as they left, in a way reminiscent of how Tony himself had studied the reactions of Paramexor's advisors.

"Please, Mr. Stark, let us speak as businessmen," Paramexor said as the door closed behind the last man. "Risk... profit."

"From what I'm seeing, I'm risking my crew's life for a handful of credits." Tony said with a scowl. "You're hardly the biggest fish in the sea."

"You have something I would like, and I have something that you need," Paramexor said. "So logic dictates that we help each other reach our goals."

"I'm not seeing it. You need my gadgets. I don't need your money. There are plenty of other people willing to pay."

"And I think you are misunderstanding what I am offering," Paramexor said. "I have over three hundred bounty hunters on this base alone. The support personnel number eight hundred."

Honestly, that sounded like a threat to Tony.

"We could do more," Paramexor said. "We number almost two thousand. You and your Red Droid… your Iron Man… You fight for freedom. We are not adverse to that. After all, we have just fought slavers."

Then, Tony realized the boon he was offered. FRIDAY did too - she began spititng statistics and facts at him, almost too fast to comprehend. "Fifty percent. Give me half the power in your little organization and you'll have SI's support."

Paramexor looked pained. "You are asking for half of what I spent years building."

Tony listened to FRIDAY. "I get the situation," Tony said. "You're in over your head. You started a war you can't win. A little new guild of two thousand up against a regime that's been around since the Old Republic. You need my help, but I'm done creating things with no say on how they are being used. I think it's a fair deal. I get a say in what's happening, and you get SI's full support."

Because Tony saw it. Hundreds of bounty hunters, scattered throughout the galaxy, armed with SI products and ready to jump at his call. Many of the mid and upper-tier bounty hunters could already go toe-toe with Jedi using whatever they had at hand. Fett himself was a prime example of this - rumor had it he killed six of them with his bare hands. Armed with SI tech or - Force forbid - Stark weapons, what could they accomplish?

Tony knew from experience that tech could make all the difference. He was living proof. Falcon. Ant Guy. Barton and the Widow, to a degree.

But if he made weapons, how could he keep them out of enemy hands? If he gave a, say, SI automatic blaster to a bounty hunter, but that bounty hunter was killed in a scuffle, what was to stop the other side from simply picking it up and turning it on other bounty hunters?

Tony's eyes fell on his StarkPad, the one displaying all of the camera feeds on the Black Fist. He looked and saw a little petri dish with filled with fungus.

"You have a deal," Paramexor said.