31

Chapter-specific warnings: the usual [unreliable narrator, not Avengers friendly, uncomfortably-close-to-Skynet!JARVIS, etc.], as well as canon-typical violence [the bomb in the UN, discussing the aftermath—not very graphic, but still], plus the start of legal drama meriting the use of the 'BAMF SI Legal Team' tag, despite my not having a strong legal background so expect quite a bit of jargon, and hand-waving of the comic book science and/or logic variety.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Playing nice with the team was one thing, even if he didn't really trust them he still at least had a bit of their measure and they probably weren't that bad, Maximoff notwithstanding. He could work with them, at least, and it wasn't like he'd had to deal with worse people before.

Case in point…

"Long time no see, General. Oh, I'm sorry. Secretary of State. Ross." Tony smiled tightly as he shook his hand, and let it sharpen, just a bit, when he recognized the gleam in the other's eyes.

Yep, Ross was definitely up to something. This would not be fun.

Because Tony may not like the team, but he needed them, at least for now, and while they were heavy hitters, only Romanov stood a chance against this kind of threat. Especially since Tony didn't know Ross' play, not yet, but he knew his style, and thanks to his work with both SHIELD and Legal, had a very good idea of what he was capable of if push came to shove.

But that was for the Avengers; why'd Ross try to drag him into this? [One way or another, he'd make him regret it.]

The rest of the room didn't seem to notice the tension; of them, only Romanov recognized his name, and even then it was only a carefully controlled blink that belied her knowledge. The way her gaze sharpened, however, told Tony everything he needed to know, and he felt himself relax a hair because whew, he wasn't the only one in the room who knew who Ross was. Of how dangerous he could get.

"Stark."

"That's Dr. Stark, to you, Mr. Secretary." Technically, he had several doctorates, but semantics; as long as it it irritated Ross, Tony didn't mind sounding like Hammer, just for a little while.

The team, meanwhile, was blinking in the back, eyeing him oddly, and Tony didn't get why—then he realized just how close he was to channeling the Merchant of Death, and dialed it back. [Only for emergencies, right.] Men like Ross just brought out the worst in him, didn't they? He'd need to work on that.

"I take it you've met before?" Rogers asked, looking at him curiously and with a hint of suspicion from his seat, and Tony shoved back the Merchant of Death as much as he could as he flashed his media-friendly smile and waved it off.

"Long story, we've met before. Oh, Mr. Secretary, may I present you the Avengers?"

"Sit down, Stark, you're included in this too."

"See, I have it on good authority I am not—"

"Hear me out. This applies to everyone in this room."

It was the confidence in his voice that Tony responded to, really. His smile didn't change even as his blood ran cold, and he didn't need to hear the quiet chirp of his headset to know Ross had gotten JARVIS' attention as well. He sat down, pointedly away from the team, and settled in for the long haul even as he started to think of potential battle plans for Legal.

Ross did his spiel, and Tony couldn't help but mentally scoff as it went on, even as he tried to figure out Ross' play.

All this talk was one thing, but it wasn't really the man's style…then again, he might be going for the emotional approach, which tended to be a bit softer than what Tony'd prefer when making his pitch, but then the faces Rogers and Maximoff had made hearing Lagos showed Ross' technique was effective. Then, however, he went for the kill, and brought out the Accords.

"—if that panel deems it necessary." Ross finished, and in that moment, Tony knew what his play was.

While the room seemed oblivious to what was going on, as Ross did the impromptu Q&A session, Tony leaned back and started to go over his plan, over what the man's endgame clearly was.

Steve Rogers.

The man had drained countless slush funds, had done backdoors deals and bribery and blackmail, in his relentless pursuit of Bruce Banner with his version of the Super Soldier Serum, and now the had the original in his sights. The rest of the team was probably a bonus, but Rogers was what he had his eye on and that…

Suddenly, any issue Tony had with having to help the team one last time went out the window, because even if he didn't like them, Ross was another beast entirely. Especially since he now had even more power than before, as the Secretary of State, and—fuck.

If he didn't help, Rogers wouldn't know what hit him, because the threat the team was meant for was not the type Ross was, and Romanov was the only one who seemed to be picking up on that while Rogers was probably remembering the mess that was Project Insight, and at this rate Tony would have a stress headache because—wait.

This made even less sense, now. Why the fuck was he even here?

"Mr. Secretary, you are aware I'm not involved in this, aren't you?"

"You say you're not part of the team, Stark. But we have reports of them running around with your gear, and—"

Okay, this, Tony could work with. "Funny story, actually. You've got a problem with that, take it up with the Council."

The team was eyeing him oddly, again, though Rhodey was doing a terrible job of hiding his amusement because he'd heard more than one session of Tony's ranting about it since DC. Vision managed to be more impassive about it, but Tony knew him well enough to know he was also anticipating the chaos, and good, at least someone was enjoying this mess.

He looked Ross in the eye as he threw down the gauntlet because suddenly, all the headaches he'd gotten from his dealings with them were worth it, just to see the look on Ross' face when he tipped his chair back, and clarified, "The World Security Council, I mean."

"I'm sorry?" Romanov cut in, looking at the two of them with the perfect amount of confusion appropriate for the situation. "What does the Council have to do with this?"

"Oh, long story. This case, I'm legally providing you guys with gear," Tony replied and turned to look at Ross with a beatific smile, "and it's all above-board and through the proper channels and everything."

No, Tony didn't have anything to do with Ross' leaving earlier than expected and looking annoyed, nope. Nothing to do with it at all.

But the moment he was gone, Tony dropped his casual mask, turned to the team, and his smile shifted to a grim one.

They'd been arguing, with Rogers and Wilson being especially against the idea, and Tony didn't blame them. Again, Project Insight was probably still fresh in their minds as for bureaucratic disasters, this was probably feeling like deja vu. However, they had way, way bigger problems than that, and he pulled up his chair and leaned in.

"Who here knows about our last guest?" He asked, and maybe it was the look in his eyes or the serious tone—the one he never used outside of the board room if he could help it—that had them looking at him warily.

"Ross? Anyone, anyone here know who he is?" Tony continued, and bit back his alarm as he got blank looks from most of them and Romanov leaned back. [How?!]

Finally, Rhodey spoke, setting the stage because while Ross was Army, Tony was pretty sure everyone in the armed forces had heard about at least part of the mess that he'd been involved in. "Man has a Congressional Medal of Honor."

Fine, he could work with that as a starting point.

"Currently Secretary of State, former General, four stars and apparently had been nominated for five before…" Tony added, and looked at Romanov to see if she'd chip in.

Silence. Great. Did he have to do everything himself?

"He's dangerous," Tony added, after a beat when nobody said a thing. "Relentlessly hunted Bruce for years, after his blood, and I think you're his next target, Steve. Man's been trying to get to the Super Soldier Serum for…god, how long's it been, now? And that was the 'failed' version. You?"

"Oh, I think he'd jump at the idea of the team." Rogers started darkly, and Natasha finally cut in.

"You don't understand, Steve. He's dangerous. Tony says he hunted Bruce, but that's an understatement. SHIELD helped hide Bruce, when he went on the run, and the man still searched the globe for him. Once he's got you in his sights, he's something else. Only reason he stopped was because of his career as a general tanked after Harlem, but now he's back. Tony's right. Be careful."

He very carefully didn't blink, at that. Wow. Romanov'd actually agreed with him? Another sign of the apocalypse, right there…then, he shifted back to the more pressing matter at hand, the one he'd been pushing for since DC and was so close he could almost taste it.

"As for the Accords? They're not as bad as you think. Ross is an ass, yes, but stuff like this takes time. Good fucking luck getting 116 other countries to agree with him, is all I'm saying. It's not as simple as it sounds, either."

"You haven't been saying a lot for something you sure sound confident in, Tony." Romanov observed, and Tony felt what little his guard had dropped since Ross had left snap back up again. Right. How was he supposed to say 'yeah, I actually could not care less about you guys otherwise, it's just that I hate Ross more than I am indifferent to you' in a way that wouldn't piss anyone off?

"I'm busy helping run a multinational company, Natasha. Do you really expect me to know everything? It's come up in passing for some of our contracts with several countries, but I mean it's not like I—" he cut himself off as something buzzed, and blinked when Rogers pulled his phone out, looked at the screen, and his face went blank.

Then, Rogers abruptly stood up, said "I have to go," and damn it, he was the one most at risk here!

"Natasha, mind drilling it into his head that Ross is out for his blood when he returns? I need to head out soon, I really do have a company to run and Pepper's going to kill me if I miss this next meeting." Tony said, and once she nodded, he strode out, giving her the Widow's Bite on his way out.

Time to draw up battle plans, because knowing Ross, this was only the opening gambit.

JARVIS had gotten ahold of the version of the Accords Ross had presented to the Avengers, and compared it to the version Legal had been working on.

The changes were numerous, and perhaps he was being a bit mean-spirited by highlighting them and forwarding it to Legal, but…well, in retrospect he probably should have expected the reaction.

He was also working hard on monitoring Secretary Ross the best he could, as this latest trend bumped him up several positions on the Threat Assessment Index, and given his and Sir's past history the likelihood of the two interacting in an unfavorable manner was a near certainty. Especially since Secretary Ross seemed inclined to hold a grudge, between that, and the constant thorn he'd been in Legal's side since his interest in the Accords started.

Then there was the discovery that Sir's godmother had died, which, compounded with Sir's recent revisiting of his parents' death, had meant Col. Rhodes' presence had been very appreciated. Especially since Sir had not been able to attend the funeral for more than a brief time, as their connection had not been well-known and Sir preferred to keep it that way. JARVIS wished he could assist more in this, but as it was he could only do his best to alleviate his stress the best he could, and collaborate with Col. Rhodes, Ms. Potts, and Mr. Hogan even more in this endeavor.

But he did what he could, and while it may not be much, helping safeguard Sir's interests was still something. After some deliberation, and much discussion with both Ms. Potts and Col. Rhodes, he had submitted a request to help provide security at the UN gathering had been routed through Stark Industries' servers, just in case. Sir had enough stress to deal with as it was, after all, and the gathering was high-profile enough that the likelihood of attack fell within his margins of concern for something Sir had been so invested in, and at worst the Iron Legion would be only superfluous.

When his request was granted, it had been the source of some consternation, sure, but JARVIS could not care less. The PR department and FRIDAY would be of great assistance in preventing unsavory rumors from spreading, after all. The Iron Legion would take care of everything else.

And then the Avengers would officially be no longer a concern Sir would have to deal with. Yes, that sounded most favorable.

To: Kim, A. Corporate Counsel [Legal, Los Angeles branch]

From: Lopez, K. Secretary [R&D, Security, Los Angeles branch]

Subject: The Noise Coming From Legal

Sounds like the entire department is screaming.

…is everything all right in there?

—Lopez

———————

To: Lopez, K. Secretary [R&D, Security, Los Angeles branch]

From: Kim, A. Corporate Counsel [Legal, Los Angeles branch]

Subject: NO WE ARE NOT OKAY, THIS MEANS WAR

We just got our hands on a copy of the official version of the Accords the U.S. State Department's trying to push. And the audio from Ross' spiel to the Avengers, courtesy of JARVIS, and this means war because shots were fucking fired.

Ross is trying to undo literally everything we've been pushing for years now and I think Sandoval'd be willing to take on the Hulk right now, and win, it's that bad.

You're lucky nothing's on fire. Yet.

—Kim

———————

To: Kim, A. Corporate Counsel [Legal, Los Angeles branch]

From: Lopez, K. Secretary [R&D, Security, Los Angeles branch]

Subject: Anything We Can Help With?

I may or may not have coworkers who may or may not have old affiliates they still keep in touch with, who still owe them favors.

Hypothetically speaking, of course.

—Lopez

———————

To: Lopez, K. Secretary [R&D, Security, Los Angeles branch]

From: Kim, A. Corporate Counsel [Legal, Los Angeles branch]

Subject: This Isn't Our First Rodeo

But the gesture's appreciated all the same. We don't need help from R&D, that sort of thing isn't our division, /but/ if anyone from Security's interested, we're already coordinating with every Legal branch in the company. And PR. And Communications, and the list goes on because, again, shots were fired.

If it were just the Avengers, it'd be bad, but looking at some of the clauses our friendly AI's pointed out…well.

Ross basically declared war, but if he thinks we're fucking Hammer 2.0 he's got another thing coming, because if he wants to get his hands on Dr. Stark then he'll find out just why we were #1 in the defense industry back in the day.

If you want to join the the team, though, go right ahead.

—Kim

Natasha Romanov didn't like Tony Stark. That didn't mean she wasn't willing to work with him, not against a greater evil like Ross, because she'd seen firsthand what he was capable of.

Why was it so hard for the rest of the team to realize that?!

Stark's friends and affiliates had gotten it—Rhodes had wholeheartedly agreed with the concept [which made sense given the nightmarish amounts of politics involved with War Machine], Vision had also been on board with the idea of the Accords [and sounded almost alarmingly confident that Ross would not be a problem soon], but the rest of the team was another story and Natasha could not seem to drill it into their head the gravity of the situation because didn't they realize that working with a lesser evil was a better idea?!

Sure, Stark was a nuisance.

But at least they had a read on him, knew how he'd operate, and had dealt with Ross before. That he'd warned them, had tried to warn Steve, about the threat Ross posed spoke for itself, for crying out loud! Even if he reminded her uncomfortably of what Clint had mentioned of Lex Luthor, even if he didn't act as open as before and seemed to be regressing to his old ways, he was still better than the alternative.

If Ross had his way, Steve would be in danger, and Wanda. Working from within the system was a lot easier than outside it, and why was it so damn hard to get that into their heads?! Sam, she understood, he wasn't as much at risk and could always just retire like Clint had, plus his relatively outsider perspective during the fall of SHIELD meant he probably only saw the cons instead of the pros.

The other two, though? Just—Natasha understood why Steve was so reluctant, but his stubborn insistence wasn't helping anyone, and the frustration sometimes made Natasha want to scream because she'd seen the files they'd made on Bruce, later on, had helped sabotage them even, and the thought of anyone else she cared about going through the same thing was enough to give her chills.

As it was, she'd ended up agreeing and signing on. She could play the game, if it meant keeping her team safe.

Steve still thought it'd blow over soon. But, looking at the full auditorium, looking at the delegates from various countries, and listening to the murmurs going on in the background, Natasha only wished she had his type of confidence.

JARVIS had been concerned when he'd first gotten ahold of the blueprints of the building. Given the nature of the meeting, it had far too many holes in its security for his liking, which had been part of the reason for his submitting a request to assist in the first place.

However, the moment his cameras registered the disturbance, he had absolutely no regrets about the matter.

Data at hand: short-range EMP knocked out all electronics in a given area, leaving him locally blind. Several Legionnaires affected, the ones out of range register a white van whose license plates did not check out, and the vehicle had no clearance to be in the area [Personal Query: how did it get past security, especially with the readings it was giving off? Investigate further] during a very high-profile event that was crucial to furthering Sir's interests.

Conclusion: likelihood of disruption of the UN's address: 98.1%. Notify first responders.

However, that wouldn't be fast enough, would it?

Data at hand: the Iron Legion was ill-equipped to contain the predicted explosion at current, warning attendees would only cause panic as awareness of full AI capabilities still unknown.

Conclusion: Advanced reaction time would be of best assistance in evacuating those caught in the estimated blast radius. [Personal Query: research shortcomings in further detail at a later date.]

There was much screaming when the first few Legionnaires burst in and snatched up those most at risk, but the ends justified the means in this case, as the bomb went off not a minute afterwards and took out the half-dozen Legionnaires who had been dispatched in a vain attempt to contain the explosion anyway.

Unfortunately, due to the short notice, there were still dozens of injured, on top of those injured during the emergency evacuation, but the Legionnaires were well-equipped to assist with triage while the first responders who had been notified arrived. At current, the shrapnel was the cause of the majority of the injuries, on top of temporary deafness caused by proximity to blast radius, but there was also a significant number of concussions, and a possible coma from the one closest to the explosion when it hit.

JARVIS put in a call for other nearby Legionnaires to make their way to the site as well, to help further secure structural integrity and search for anyone missed during initial sweeps. He was reluctant to move the victims unless absolutely necessary, after all, and while he normally would have gone with normal procedures when it came to treating this like a natural disaster, this was most definitely not one and that someone had somehow gotten past his security, was an insult of the highest order.

And now, Sir would be stressed over it, because with this attack any work to be done on the Accords would be greatly delayed, especially since one of its most vocal proponents was almost certainly in a coma if his readings were anything to go by, and the rumors already starting to float around regarding the instigator would not help matters at all.

Especially since his subroutine monitoring Ross was also picking up chatter that was painting a very interesting picture, and…oh, dear.

If JARVIS were human, he would have cursed.

Tony Stark was not having a good week. At all. Or month, for that matter, but still.

"New crews are already calling it an act of terrorism, boss." Maria Hill said tersely.

First, the reminder that he was now officially older than his mom ever had the chance to be. Then, the mess with Lagos and Ross butting in where he wasn't wanted, the same day his godmother died. And as if that wasn't enough, now this?

"How're the victims doing?"

"Lot of concussions, broken bones, some burns—the works. One of the worst off is King T'Chaka; he was at the epicenter of the blast, currently comatose. No word on if he's going to wake up, shaping up to be a diplomatic nightmare, especially given Wakanda's…everything. But boss—it's the Winter Soldier."

That stopped him short, and he couldn't help but turn away from his tablet giving him the latest updates on Ross to make sure that he hadn't misheard Hill.

"Rogers' Bucky?" And if Tony sounded incredulous, it was because he may not have spent a lot of time with Rogers but even he'd heard of his obsession with finding his old friend. With insisting there was still good in him.

"The one and the same." Maria answered with a grim look in her eyes. "Personally, I'm not sure how they ID'd him, we know how camera-shy he is, but someone must've gotten lucky with the footage. Either way, there's currently a manhunt for him, and a push for you to be on the case."

"Why me specifically?"

"The contracts for privatizing world peace?"

Tony groaned as the realization hit, and he raised a hand to rub his temples, because of course it had to happen now. Of course. "They want Iron Man, you mean."

Why Hill frowned at him like that for a moment, Tony didn't know. "…Actually, no. You. Specifically. By name, even, I think they consider the suit as bonus. If I may ask, why…"

Despite everything, Tony felt a corner of his mouth twitch up for a second there even as he shook his head and started walking again. "Oh, long story. One of those things where it's only funny if you were there."

Huh. Tony Stark: yes, Iron Man: not recommended…there was a joke in there somewhere, wasn't there.

Still. He had work to do.

"Think Ross'll try to interfere?"

The vicious smile she gave said it all. "Oh, he's trying. Rumor has it he's already pissed off the Council trying to indict you, and Legal's…well, you heard."

Tony couldn't help but smile back, at the reminder. "Yeah, that was…I almost feel sorry for Ross, actually. I have never seen Legal get that pissed off, ever."

"You're taking this all pretty well, though." Hill observed, and Tony couldn't help but laugh, at that.

"Oh, that really depends on who you ask." He replied, and let his smile sharpen even more as he went on. "I've tried to be nice, tried to be patient. But…well, let's just say there's a reason they used to call me the Merchant of Death."

Tony liked to think he was a patient man. But even he had his limits.

Notes:

Unreliable narrator moments:

—The team's under the impression that Iron Man is the most serious Tony ever gets. The Merchant of Death, however, was starting to leak out because like recognizes like, and Tony's worked with the type of dangerous Ross was for the majority of his career and the weird looks he's getting are because this is the first time they're seeing traces of it.

—Steve's still dubious of the Accords, but Tony's casually mentioning the WSC isn't exactly doing him any favors either. [He and Natasha especially are starting to get Lex Luthor vibes from Tony, which...admittedly, fair enough, given the world domination thing.] Also, Tony's warning of 'fyi Ross'll stop and nothing to get his hands on the Serum' actually backfired, since Steve's immediately flashing to Bucky, who would actually be the most at risk of Ross doing his thing, and is thus an additional motivation for his search.

—JARVIS is very, very pissed because someone got past his security. [Zemo had to do extra legwork to figure out a way to get past it, but he managed.]

Slightly different take on canon, here, on the basis that Ross is wilier here than he seemed to be in the movie, and with more of a nod to continuity because here, he's also got a grudge against Tony from the events of 'The Consultant' short [wherein Tony buys and schedules the bar Ross likes for demolition, before the first Avengers movie]. Which, btw, is something that Tony plans on fully exploiting as a distraction if it means the SI-approved version of the Accords passes.

And yes, Legal just unofficially declared war because the sheer collective rage felt at seeing Ross' version of the Accords would've impressed the Hulk, probably. This'll end well. [Not. RIP, Ross.]

——————

Again, this fic's sparked out of like equal parts spite and self-indulgence, and since I disliked CW even more than AoU it'll probably show. [really, really looking forward to the airport scene, ngl.] Also, I'm nowhere near caught up on what's going on in the MCU [last one I saw was Doctor Strange, to give you an idea], and this fic was outlined before Homecoming came out.

Erratic updates, as always, are a thing.