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Tony’s throat was raw by the time he’d finished recounting the events around Ultron and Sokovia. The investigators that had contacted him worked for the International Criminal Courts and had requested a meeting as soon as he was able, to which he had promptly scheduled for the day after the call.
The investigators were American and working on behalf of the ICC, as the ICC had no investigators themselves. The two interviewing him were FBI agents, Agents Lowe and Mitchel, and were completely unbiased and professional. They’d taken copious notes throughout Tony’s statement, expressions bland but interested, and had accepted all the video footage from his suit and the Tower.
The request for statements had gone to all Avengers members, thought Tony wasn’t sure when the others would be questioned about what had happened. Bruce had vanished, and Thor was off world.
Technically, Tony was retired as an Avenger.
“Okay, Dr Stark, I believe we have all the information we need,” Agent Lowe said, offering a polite smile. She began gathering her notes and the hard drive of video evidence he’d handed over without complaint. “You’re not officially under arrest or anything, the ICC just wants to clear the air with everything that happened in Sokovia. The data you’ve handed over will be reviewed and analysed by a panel of technical experts hired by the ICC’s prosecution.”
“Not a problem, Agent Lowe,” Tony said, standing. “Anything else I can do to help, please don’t hesitate to call me on my personal number.”
Tony handed his personal card to Agent Lowe, who looked pleased, and nodded at Agent Mitchel before he was escorted from the FBI Headquarters to his car, where Happy was waiting with a cup of coffee.
“All good, boss?” Happy asked, a concerned frown on his face.
“Yeah, they just needed a statement and all data pertaining to Ultron,” Tony said wearily, sliding into the passenger seat of the Audi.
“Ah, makes sense.” Happy handed Tony his coffee and a croissant and started the car. “It went all right?”
“I think so,” Tony muttered, inhaling half of his coffee. He’d had trouble sleeping ever since Ultron was defeated.
He leaned back in his seat with a sigh and watched as houses and trees flashed by as Happy drove them to the airport, hoping the whole mess would be over soon.
***
Three weeks after Tony Stark dropped everything to give them a statement, the rest of the Avengers still hadn’t responded to Agent Lowe and Mitchel’s many...many, many requests to meet and go through their version of events surrounding Ultron and Sokovia, so Lowe went to her supervisor and requested permission to travel to New York to approach the Avengers herself.
Her supervisor agreed and gave her the lead on the questioning with a team of experienced interrogators behind her.
The Avengers had relocated to a Compound renovated by Dr. Stark on his own dime, so Lowe and her team flew to JFK and picked up two SUV’s at the New York field office before starting the drive Upstate.
Lowe hadn’t been surprised by Dr. Stark’s transparency and eagerness to comply with the investigation, and not just to clear his own name. He truly wanted to help, evident in the news broadcasts of Stark himself in Sokovia assisting with clean up and rescue efforts with the Maria Stark Foundation. The media adored him despite everything, and the tumultuous Sokovian government appreciated his efforts.
The Avengers Compound was large and slightly intimidating. Lowe and her team were admitted entrance at the gate by Dr. Stark’s AI Friday and parked by an aircraft hanger, many of the team ogling the jets parked there. And the cars.
Lowe approached the front doors and was promptly admitted and met by Maria Hill, who Dr Stark had told them would meet them and help coordinate, as was her job.
“Agent Lowe, I’m Maria Hill. I rounded everyone up for the questioning. I’ve allocated several conference rooms for your use,” Hill said briskly, shaking Lowe’s hand firmly.
“I appreciate your assistance, Miss Hill,” Lowe said, nodding. “These are my colleagues: Agents Mitchell, Watson, Pond, Deveraux, and Jessop, and Frankston.”
Hill and the Agents nodded at one another in greeting, and Lowe and her team were escorted to the conference rooms. Watson had a degree in psychology and had agreed to question Miss Romanoff and after Mr Barton, who were known for manipulation. Pond would question the being known as Vision, Mitchell would assist Lowe in her questioning of Mr Rogers, Jessop would question Maria Hill herself, and Deveraux would handle the questioning of Dr Helen Cho. Frankston had the dubious honour of questioning Wanda Maximoff.
Lowe’s fingers twitched toward her hip when she saw Maximoff, but managed to keep her cool. She’d been an agent for nearly twenty-five years. She was able to be unbiased, but Dr Stark’s warnings about the Maximoff girl raised her hackles.
“This is Agent Lowe and her team, who are here to question us regarding the Ultron and Sokovia situation,” Hill explained.
Lowe nodded and began to separate everyone into conference rooms, valiantly ignoring the impatient gleam in Mr Rogers eyes and the contempt shot their way by Romanoff and Maximoff. Once she was settled in a room with Mitchel, a legal pad in front of her, she began her questioning.
“When were you made aware of Ultron’s existence?” she asked Rogers.
“The night of the party, when it attacked using one of Stark’s damaged Legionnaire suits,” Rogers said.
“How do you believe the being known as Ultron came to exist?”
“Stark made it using the sceptre.”
Lowe paused minutely before continuing, her disbelief and wariness growing the more time she spent with Mr Rogers, who continued blaming Dr Stark and remarking that it was a good thing the man had retired, as it was clear he wasn’t a hero.
Lowe held her tongue quite forcefully when the man mentioned getting a new pilot for the Iron Man team, someone who was more of a team player, and Mitchel choked on air.
As if Stark would ley anyone else use the armour he’d created.
Lowe shoved her personal beliefs to the back of her mind and continued the questioning.
***
Abraham Pond was in awe over the being known as Vision, but he did not let it show as he prepared himself for the interview. “Are you opposed to being taped, Mr...Vision?”
“Just Vision is fine, Agent Pond, and no, I do not mind,” Vision said, offering a small smile.
“Okay, can you please tell me in your own words and what you recollect about the Ultron incident and subsequent fight in Sokovia?” Pond asked briskly, Pen poised to take notes.
“Of course, agent,” Vision murmured, and began.
***
Maria had been questioned by the FBI and CIA after SHIELDRA’s fall, and knew how to keep her cool. Her questioning was brief, as she was only technically around for Ultron’s wake-up and the rescue of Sokovian nationals in Novi Grad, so afterward she went to her office to go through social media to ensure that the Avengers weren’t being crucified in the media.
The majority of the tweets and Facebook posts were positive, many were neutral, but a chunk of them were absolutely horrible, calling for the Avengers to be arrested to face justice.
Stark had issued a statement via Twitter sating that he, personally, was cooperating with the investigation ongoing about Ultron and Sokovia, and that he’d address it further once he received permission to do so.
Maria sighed and grabbed a notepad and began jotting down her own statement for the other Avengers. Stark didn’t need to do this, he’d retired. And she knew why he had, buy not because of the clear guilt he felt over Ultron and Sokovia.
It was because of the witch.
Maria herself felt uncomfortable around Maximoff; she felt especially uncomfortable with Cap’s decision to let her join the Avengers when, only several weeks ago, she’d tried to kill her new ‘team mates’ and messed with their heads.
Shaking her head, Maria refocused on writing a statement.
***
Raj had been a computer science expert for over ten years, and his team had experience either longer than his or almost just as much. They were impartial to what happened in Sokovia with Ultron, and the data they’d been sent by the FBI regarding the issue had been combed through with a fine-toothed comb.
The logs were long and tedious to comb through, but Raj’s team barely complained. Emma, Isaac, Hans, and Raj himself had dedicated hours upon hours to it all, and once they had finished looking through the data, they began compiling their reports for the ICC.
Emma was going over the footage from the Iron Man armour a fifth time when she called him over, her expression pinched. “Boss, look at this.”
Raj leaned over her, squinting at the screen as she zoomed in on a piece of footage and pressed play. The angle was odd, but he could almost clearly see Dr. Stark out of the armour staring at the alien sceptre they’d been trying to obtain from HYDRA for months.
Then Maximoff approached him from behind, and Raj leaned closer to the screen in surprise as red mist surrounded Stark’s head and the woman slipped away. Emma tapped at the keyboard, and the video feed changed angle, and he frowned as the Maximoff twins watched Stark with ominous grins.
Emma once again changed the angle of the video, which showed Stark standing before the sceptre with a slack, horrified expression for several moments before he seemed to shake himself, and he threw a hand out. She paused the feed.
“Looks like Maximoff gave him some sort of vision, which is her forte,” Emma said, a note of disgust in her voice.
Raj pursed his lips. “Make sure to add that to your report, Em. If Stark was under duress while trying to make Ultron, it’ll be considered diminished capacity.”
“You got it, boss,” Emma said firmly.
“Raj!” Hans called, waving him over. “I’ve got footage from Stark’s lab; watch this.”
Raj watched the feed, eyebrows raising higher and higher as he watched. “That’s...”
“Yeah,” Hans muttered, pausing the feed. “Shall I add it to my report, sir?”
“Yeah,” Raj sighed, rubbing his face. “There’s more to this than it seems.”
A pale Isaac stood and hurried into the small bathroom their office had, and Raj straightened when he heard sounds of retching. He hastened over, worried. “Isaac?”
“Sorry, boss,” Isaac rasped, grabbing a wad of toilet paper to wipe his mouth. “I just watched the footage from Johannesburg...God, poor Dr. Banner...”
Raj’s mouth tightened. He really didn’t like the witch.
***
Jodie De Vries had been a prosecutor for the ICC for twenty years, and yet she had never seen a case such as the one she’d been put in charge of. Many of the possible charges put forth were unprecedented, but the judges at the preliminary examination had agreed that the world needed answers, and Jodie had evidence there was a crime.
Now, several weeks later, Jodie was...utterly baffled by the reports handed in by the American Federal Bureau and panel of technical experts. They made sense, of course they did, but the contents made Jodie’s head pound.
Especially the statements handed in by the Avengers. Their reports were pretty much full of complaints against Stark, blaming him for creating the ‘murderbot’ as they put it, even though Stark, Rhodes, Hill, and Dr Cho all state quite clearly – corroborated by the tech experts she hired – that Stark and Banner were nowhere near an interface, and the Ultron Code wasn’t usable for any kind of Artificial Intelligence.
Dr Raj Singh had also stated in his report that the studied done on the sceptre that Dr. Stark had managed to salvage were indicative of an alien intelligence, that the scans showed that the sceptre had an intelligence of its own that Dr Singh believed hijacked the Ultron name and objectives and ran with it, twisting those objectives into global annihilation.
Jodie had needed to take a brief break when it came to Isaac Jansen and Emma Ericsson’s reports, too, since they had scoured the footage from the HYDRA base and Johannesburg, reporting on Wanda Maximoff’s mind control powers.
Jodie rubbed her forehead, frowning at the reports. It was quite clear that the case was difficult and unprecedented; Stark had been extremely transparent and quite self-deprecating, though Jodie wondered why and how so many people could blame him for Ultron when he was the foremost expert on Artificial Intelligence in America – and most of the world – since he’d created JARVIS, one of the most sophisticated AI’s Raj said he’d ever seen.
Jodie didn’t understand computer science, but she trusted Raj’s reports on the matter.
She shuffled through the statements given and browsed over the transcript of Dr. Stark’s interview.
‘Dr. Banner and I worked for three days on the interface for Ultron alone, and abandoned the idea when it became clear that nothing would come from it. We weren’t even close to a workable AI Interface when...something happened and Ultron was created. The scans we took of the sceptre showed a clear, computer-like intelligence we wished to study in order to make Ultron, but we couldn’t. Our tech wasn’t advanced enough to harness the intelligence from the sceptre, so the whole idea was abandoned.’
Jodie hummed, brows furrowed as she continued through thr transcripts.
‘I don’t know why I wanted to revisit the Ultron program. I just felt this huge sense of...foreboding, like some great evil was lurking over my shoulder preparing to pounce. I felt like an AI like Ultron, that could scan space for threats was necessary.’
Jodie glanced at Emma’s report, her lips pursed. ‘Dr. Stark was clearly compromised by Miss Wanda Maximoff in the Sokovian HYDRA bunker, as evident on the video data given to us from the Iron Man suit. I asked a Psychologist that specialises in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Anxiety Disorder to analyse Dr. Stark’s behaviour afterwards, and Dr. Clarissa Voss agreed that Dr. Stark showed signs of anxiety, PTSD, and mania. She wrote her own report on what she observed in the video data, and that report is attached.’
Jodie shuffled through the piles of paper on her desk and found Dr Voss’s report. She pushed her glasses up her face and began to read.
‘I observed Dr. Stark’s behaviour via video data thoroughly and conclude that Dr. Stark was showing signs of a severe anxiety attack, a PTSD episode, and a manic need to revisit the Ultron program. Something happened between collecting the sceptre and returning to Avengers Tower that compromised Dr. Stark’s mental state, and I believe he could not be held accountable for any actions that occurred during this episode.’
Jodie nodded and grabbed Maximoff’s report, scowling when the woman never once mentioned giving Stark any kind of vision in the bunker. Of course, she hadn’t.
Jodie sighed and grabbed her phone.
***
Tony had just finished the new upgrades for the third Gen StarkPhone when he received and e-mail from Agent Lowe, who was informing him of the ICC’s prosecution wanting him to meet with a psychologist for a mental assessment.
Sighing, he agreed readily. He wanted the investigation to be done with, but he understood due process and the fact that he had created a murderbot that had destroyed a country. The Sokovian government – what was left of it – had appreciated his assistance in clean up and rescue, but he knew they were less than impressed with him.
It didn’t take long to set up a meeting with him and Dr Voss via video-link, and he made sure to clean up a bit before the meeting began; he’d been bogged down in work ever since he returned from Sokovia, Pepper now demanding his time for SI.
The meeting with Dr Voss went on for over an hour, in which he described his panic attacks over the wormhole in New York, and the flashback – vision? – he’d had after seeing the Chitauri leviathan in the Sokovian base.
Dr Voss was kind and patient as Tony choked out his fear and terror and absolute need to protect the team, which lead to his disastrous decision to fiddle with the sceptre and Ultron, leading to Ultron’s birth.
Tony hadn’t looked at the footage he’d handed over to the ICC prosecutor, so when Dr. Voss mentioned the mental tampering by Maximoff, he was stunned.
The vision he’d seen of the team dead and alien invasion hadn’t been a PTSD attack? Afterwards, Dr Voss stated gently, he was clearly in an episode that had been triggered by Maximoff’s mental manipulation, but the mania and obsession to revisit the Ultron Defensive AI had been triggered by Maximoff.
Once the session was over, Tony felt absolutely wrung out and left to dry. He hadn’t known Maximoff had messed with his head like she had with the rest of the team. He hadn’t liked her from the beginning, and her mind-rape of Bruce and subsequently the Hulk and the destruction wrought in Johannesburg had only solidified that.
Tony grabbed his phone and called his lawyers, absently telling FRIDAY to freeze all Avengers funds.
***
When it became clear the truth behind the creation of Ultron, Tony helped coordinate Maximoff’s arrest with the help of Vision and Agent Lowe. Vision was the only person able to control Maximoff’s ability, and Tony didn’t want anyone to get hurt if Maximoff decided to go nuclear and attack with her mind-rapey abilities.
In the end, it was almost easy for Vision to incapacitate Maximoff with the stone in his head, successfully stripping Maximoff of her powers so the FBI could arrest her on charges of crimes against humanity for volunteering for HYDRA, cognitive coercion, attempted murder, reckless endangerment, and reckless homicide.
Tony watched as she was bundled into an SUV, lips pursed.
“Tony!” Rogers shouted, storming towards him. “What the hell are you doing?!”
Tony stared at the man. “I’m not doing anything, Rogers. Maximoff committed crimes and has to pay for them.”
“You created Ultron, not her!” Rogers snapped.
“Mr Stark was cleared of any wrong doing,” Agent Lowe remarked as she approached. “Mr Rogers, you’re wanted for questioning regarding your decision to add Miss Maximoff to the Avengers.”
“She’s only a kid! She knows she made a mistake, she’s trying to make up for that,” Rogers blustered, glowering at the Agent.
“Miss Maximoff is twenty-five years old. She and her brother voluntarily joined HYDRA for human experimentation at eighteen years old and evidence has come to light of Miss Maximoff using her powers on innocent men and women under HYDRA’s command to strengthen her abilities,” Agent Lowe said blandly, and Tony felt bile riding in his throat.
Rogers stammered uselessly for several moments. “She didn’t know they were HYDRA -”
Agent Lowe pursed her lips. “Mr Rogers, please come in for questioning quietly or I will have to arrest you for obstruction of justice.”
Tony excused himself and approached his lawyer and Rhodey, both of whom smiled grimly at him. “What do you think, Jen?”
Jennifer Walters, Tony’s lawyer, sighed. “Well, you’ve been cleared of any wrongdoing. But onto other matters, you have no obligation to continue funding the Avengers, Dr Stark, if you don’t want to. You could limit the allocated funding, hire an accountant to monitor spending. I’ve gone through the statements and I’ve circled several unsanctioned, unofficial missions Mr Rogers, Miss Romanoff, and Mr Wilson have gone on in the last few months.”
Tony accepted the statement and browsed it. “They didn’t coordinate with governments, did they?”
“No,” Rhodey said, sounding pained. “The government’s of the countries they entered want answers as to why they entered illegally.”
Tony sighed and rubbed his forehead. He met Jennifer’s gaze. “I want a complete audit done on all Avengers funds. I want to know what they used my money for, down to the last dime.”
“Of course, Dr Stark,” Jennifer said, smiling. “I’ll let my legal team and the finance team onto it immediately. Have you frozen the funds so far?”
“Yeah, I had FRIDAY freeze them,” he said, glancing at Romanoff and Wilson, both of whom were muttering to themselves as Rogers was ushered into an SUV.
“Tones, it isn’t up to you to fund the Avengers anymore. You retired from Avenging,” Rhodey said as Jennifer walked away, muttering into her phone.
“I know,” Tony murmured, glancing at Rhodey. “But something is coming, Rhodey. You know what I saw on the other side of the portal.”
Rhodey nodded, smiling grimly. “You heard about those Accords the UN are working on?”
“Yep,” Tony said, “Maybe they should take control of funding the Avengers.”
Rhodey snorted. “Absolutely. After SHIELD fell, the Avengers haven’t had any kind of oversight or chain of command except you and Hill.”
Tony winced. “Yeah, I know. Bad move on my part, basically funding a group of vigilantes.”
“Talk to the UN, Tones. The prelim accords I read make sense to me, it’d be good to have an impartial panel of people overseeing where the Avengers go and what they do, especially since most of them are American citizens,” Rhodey muttered.
Tony couldn’t help but agree. Ever since he’d returned from Afghanistan, all he’d wanted was transparency and accountability. It’s why he’d ended weapons manufacturing; that and he’d never wanted to go into weapons in the first place, but it had been Howard’s legacy – and Howard had been all about legacy. That and Stane had guilt tripped a grieving, young Tony into continuing his father’s dream.
Once Maximoff and Rogers were taken off, one to prison and the other an interrogation room, Tony stepped into his armour and made his way back to the Tower, mind mulling over what the future held for the Avengers.
***
“Dr Anthony Stark has been cleared of any wrongdoing in the creation of Ultron and subsequent destruction of Sokovia when new information came to light that Sokovian national Wanda Maximoff compromised Dr Stark’s mental state with her psionic abilities in the HYDRA bunker in Sokovia.
Miss Maximoff has been charged with a plethora of crimes for her involvement with Ultron and HYDRA, and the International Criminal Court have concluded a pre-trial which ended with Miss Maximoff declaring that she would kill them all, and that she wished Ultron had succeeded in his plans of global annihilation; she also went on to express regret that her mental manipulation of Dr Stark didn’t end with his death, her motivation behind everything.
In other news, the United Nations have put forth a set of Accords for Enhanced beings over the globe. The purpose of the Accords, a spokesperson said, was to ensure that something like Sokovia doesn’t happen again; that by endorsing the Accords, groups of Enhanced like the Avengers would be held accountable for unnecessary collateral damage and property damage. That world governments could protest foreign enhanced from entering their country, that the Avengers might be properly policed by a chain of command and not enter foreign borders without proper due process.
Tony Stark has rescinded funding for the Avengers Initiative and sold the Avengers Compound to the United Nations and expressed his support of the Sokovia Accords, stating he was assisting in amending the documents to ensure protection of Enhanced people all over the world. Dr Stark said this in a press conference held yesterday morning:
“Despite being cleared of any wrongdoing, I still feel responsible and a wealth of guilt for what happened in Sokovia. I know no amount of financial assistance or apologies can fix what happened, but I do hope that I can help ensure it doesn’t happen again by signing the Sokovia Accords and following due process with oversight and transparency.”’