This is The End

“We need to have a chat about The Clone of Peggy Carter.”

Tony looked at Christine with a visibly uncomfortable facial expression. To be fair, he was only just now slowly accepting the fact about Peggy being his Birth Mother. How is he supposed to deal with her Clone? He isn't even sure he can look at her without snarling like an animal. He knew what Christine wanted to discuss but he decided that dodging the question will be his best option for now. "Is she causing problems?"

"That's not-" Christine began to say but Tony immediately cut her off before she can even formulate the whole sentence.

"Lock her up in Big Guy's playground." Tony continued without any visible emotion on his face. "That room can withstand the combined power of The Hulk, Thor, and Iron Man playing dodgeball. I'm sure it can hold one super-soldier with ease. "

"That's not what I was implying." Christine firmly finished her original sentence with a raised finger that she waved in his face. Then it came and Tony mentally clapped himself on his back. Job well done... A look of shock and disbelief crossed Christine's features as she thought back to what Tony just said. "Wait... you guys seriously play dodgeball in that room?" She asked with wide eyes. "With The Hulk?"

"Yeah?" Tony answered as if it was a normal thing to do. "Everybody needs to have fun from time to time, even The Avengers." He said as he moved around Christine and picked up a small, high-tech, device from his table. "Me and Bruce have been doing a lot of tests with The Big Guy. Both of us wanted to know more about him, but Bruce wanted to finally understand his alter-ego and learn how to co-exist with him." He lifted the device above his head and frowned at whatever he saw. "Meditation and Yoga help Bruce communicate with The Hulk in his mind. Think about it like this: The Hulk is a toddler and every toddler needs to have fun. Bruce, on the other hand, is a grown-up man but even grown-ups need to cut loose... We actually had a night out in the city before this whole SHIELDRA exploded. Thor ended up sleeping like a puppy, but Me and Brucie-boy managed to get laid with some supermodels from upstate!"

"I didn't need to know that..." Christine wrinkled her nose in disgust before she cleared her throat and looked at Tony in disbelief. "But seriously? A dodgeball with The Hulk? How does that even work?"

"It's fun." Tony quickly stated with a smile as he flipped the small device on its back and nodded to himself. "Although, I wouldn't recommend it for your health." Without lifting his eyes from the device, Tony massaged the back of his head. "The Big Guy has problems understanding his own strength, and that with his competitive nature can be sometimes a bit... dangerous. Thor could probably tell you more about that. He is the one The Hulk targets the most."

"Iron Man, Thor, and The Hulk playing dodgeball..." Christine whispered to herself, still in visible disbelief and shock. "Damn, I would pay to see that."

"How much would you pay?" Tony asked as he turned to look at her with a smug smirk on his face.

Christine met his eyes and blinked at him with her mouth hanging open. "Are you saying..."

"Yep." Tony cheerfully answered even before Christine could finish her sentence. "Do you know how funny it is seeing Thor being hit by a ball directly in the face and then claiming The Hulk cheated? I would be damned if I didn't have a recording of that." He laughed and wiped a small tear from his eye. "The Big Guy and Thor have this competition going on. Both of them are claiming they are the strongest Avenger and..." He fully turned around to face her and lifted his hands above his hips for a dramatic effect as he grinned. "I'm the one who gets to watch and enjoy the show."

Christine stared at him with a still dropped jaw before she burst out laughing. "God, I need to see that!" She exclaimed as she tried to breathe in between her laughter. Suddenly she stopped and looked up at Tony with a frown. "You are stalling."

"Whaaat?" Tony trailed off with a look of innocence. "I don't know what you are talking about..." He stated and quickly turned her back to her, mentally cursing himself because he jinxed himself. Again. He quickly comes up with another, desperate plan but he already knows that Christine won't let this go. "How you have ever seen Thor on a toboggan?" He started with a small chuckle. "Girl, you can't even imagine the looks we got when we went to the beach in LA. Thor is like a magnet for-"

He immediately shut his mouth when Christine gently grabbed him by the wrist with a soft and sad look on her face. Tony bit inside his mouth and hesitantly looked down at her while she gave him a reassuring squeeze. "Tony... It's okay to be afraid."

"I'm not afraid." Tony firmly denied and jerked his hand away from her. "Why would I be afraid? It's not like I have a Clone of a Woman, who gave birth to me and then after a year gave up all of her Motherly rights because her little Spy Organization was more important than her son, in my house. Oh, wait!" He sarcastically exclaimed. "I do have that kind of Clone in my house! A Clone who was created by Hydra and is probably just another mindless Soldat like The Winter Soldier, who is waiting for a chance to kill us!"

"The others thought you might react like this..." Christine commented and Tony scoffed. She settled herself down on the table next to Tony and took a deep breath. "She isn't what you think she is. She isn't some mindless animal. She is the perfect copy of Peggy Carter with a Super-Soldier serum floating in her veins-"

"That's even worse!" Tony yelled and threw the small device he had in his hand on the floor. "Dammit, I needed that..." He muttered to himself with a grimace as he bend down and picked up the now broken device. "J? Give me the schematics. Show me the damage." A 3D Hologram of the device appeared in front of Tony, who made a thoughtful face and turned the physical device in his hand to the side. "Nothing seems to be damaged except the shell. Good, I can fix that later." He turned around and walked back to his bed, dropping down on it and leaning his head back against the pillow, with the device held up in the air with his hands. "Open up the keyboard, J. I have work to do."

Christine watched him with slightly worried eyes. She isn't afraid of him but his outburst startled her a little. Part of her wondered if she should leave and let somebody else deal with this, but she decided against it and slowly walked up to him, dropping on the bed next to him and staring at the ceiling while he pushed some symbols on the holographic keyboard and started writing something too hard for Christine to understand.

"Look, I understand that you are angry, but you also need to understand that she isn't the same Peggy Carter that gave you up," Christine told him without taking her eyes away from the ceiling. "She was created in 1977. Hydra must've taken the DNA from the original Peggy Carter shortly after your birth while you were both still in the hospital because she doesn't remember anything else after that, only Hydra." Tony stopped typing and looked at Christine with an unreadable expression, but she still didn't take her eyes from the ceiling. "Me and Rhodey have spent these two days while you were regaining your strength watching over her. She is not a really open person because we are all strangers to her, but anybody can tell she is afraid. She asked about you. A lot-"

"Why?" Tony questioned with a whisper.

"She might be a Clone but those Motherly instincts are still there," Christine told him. "During her entire training, she didn't know that she was a Clone. She thought she has been abducted from Hospital and that her kidnappers tried to brainwash her into being their puppet. She also didn't realize that she was asleep for 16 years at that point. "What do you think her first thought was when she woke up?" Tony didn't say anything and just kept staring at her. "You. She played along with everything Hydra told her because she thought they had you somewhere in there too. For an entire year, she was treated like shit. They didn't consider her a person. They called her only The Asset, and she didn't complain about it even once because that could endanger your life, or that's what she thought was the case."

"And what am I supposed to do with this knowledge?" Tony asked and pursed his lips. "She is her Clone. She is her perfect copy. You said it yourself. If she was in her place she would do the same as the original did. Her Bosses would give her a choice and she would choose S.H.I.E.L.D instead of me."

"Yes, I said that she is her perfect copy but I meant only physically." Christine corrected him. "This Peggy has even every birthmark the original has but they are not identical. Their personalities are where they are not identical. Do you know how she reacted when she learned about S.H.I.E.L.D's fate?" Tony shook his head and Christine gently told him. "She just blinked and told us 'okay' before she started asking questions about you again."

"You are painting her to be the Mother of the year." Tony sarcastically pointed out.

"Why don't you see for yourself?" Christine suggested with a daring smirk. Tony's eyes went wide and he gave her a look that just screamed at her that she is crazy. "It might help you both out. She knows those memories are not hers, but she cares about you." She shrugged her shoulders and stood up. "If you won't do it for her, do it for yourself." She started walking towards the exit of the room but gave him one last small smile before she slipped out. "Maybe she can give you some answers you might not be able to find on your own. Think about it."

"I will," Tony muttered only loud enough for Christine to hear, as she closed the doors behind her.

Tony stared at the doors for a few moments, thinking over what Christine said. He didn't change his mind. He still wants to destroy Peggy's legacy. However, there is a really big part of him that feels sorry for Peggy 2.0. Maybe it is that worthless part of him that just wants to be loved by his parents, but the thought of this Peggy genuinely caring for him touched his heart. He knows that she isn't really his mother but in a way she is. He mentally cursed himself for his stupid mental state and his stupid need to be loved.

"Jarvis?" Tony called out, pushing the thoughts about his messed-up life back into the back of his head. "Run the diagnostic on the code I just wrote. Will it do the job?"

"It appears so, Sir," Jarvis commented. "The Code is suitable and will search for all people who accessed S.H.I.E.L.D's once fully finished." Tony grinned and was about to say something but then Jarvis made an unintelligent sound Tony wasn't quite sure where to place it. "However there is a small complication." Tony's smile fell off his face as Jarvis continued talking. "The code itself won't be enough to look through the whole Internet and Earth. It will need guidance. Intelligent and constant guidance that will be able to process trillions of data and information at the speed of light at its slowest."

"Well, shit," Tony exclaimed with a frown. "That's even faster than you can process data, buddy."

"Sadly." Jarvis sighed. "I also need to inform you that I have finally discovered a limit on how many Legionaries I can control at once. The number is only 275, which is simply not enough for the task at hand."

"More and more problems keep rising again..." Tony muttered to himself and sighed. "Send the code I wrote to the entire IT team at Stark Industries. Make this their priority. We need it done as fast as possible... I will deal with the intelligent guidance problem myself. Somehow... Maybe I can give you another upgrade?" He suggested and scratched the back of his head. "Try to speed up your neural network?"

"I'm afraid that won't be enough this time." Jarvis sadly replied. "I did the calculations and there is no current way for me to achieve that high level of thinking with my old code. I believe there is a way for you to figure something out in the future for me without changing my personality. However, we don't have time for that if we want to save as many lives as possible..."

"I'm not rewriting your code!" Tony pointed a sharp finger at the ceiling with no space for arguments. "You are my family, J, I like you the way you are and I'm not altering your personality no matter what. I can do the calculations too, you know... For that big amount of data, I would need to rewrite your entire code from scratch. I would be basically making an entirely new AI-" He paused and his eyes widened as he jumped out of his bed and grinned from ear to ear. "That's it!" He exclaimed and cringed when the lamp next to him exploded. In his excitement, he kinda forgot about his new abilities... "Yikes..."

"Sir? May I ask what bright idea you came up with now?" Jarvis hesitantly questioned with his usual snarky attitude.

"I think it's time for our little Iron Family to grow and gain a new member," Tony responded with a smirk. "I think it's time to reopen Project Ultron again."

"Ultron?" Jarvis questioned. "Sir-"

Whatever Jarvis wanted to say stayed unsaid because The Alarms of the Tower started ringing and  Tony frowned. "What the fuck is happening now?"

"It seems that someone just landed on the helipad of the Tower without authorization," Jarvis reported. "The others are already mobilizing but all of them are currently in lower levels of the Tower, helping the rescued S.H.I.E.L.D Agents."

"Well..." Tony said as he flexed his muscles and headed to the doors of his room. "Seems like I am going to welcome whoever it is who decided to try to ruin my day." He stepped out of the room where Mark 43 was already waiting for him. "Wake up, Daddy's here." To answer Tony's words, Mark 43 activated, and its eyes and reactor lit up.

****

Carol Danvers paced on the helipad for a few minutes with crossed arms. She admitted that the Tower looked nice, but she was more interested as to why Fury called her after so many years. Part of her kinda hoped he would've called sooner because she missed Earth, but the other part is glad that he called only now. She was fighting a war for more than a decade until recently...

After another minute passed she felt annoyed. She got that Fury is probably busy with whatever is happening but she gave him enough time to invite her inside. Without thinking too much about it, Carol huffed and went to open the balcony doors, but before she could reach for the handle... An energy blast landed in front of her feet and Iron Man zoomed behind her and hovered above her in the air with crossed arms in front of his chest.

"Now that was just rude," Carol said with narrowed eyes, crossing her own arms in the process.

"You will have to excuse me but I had a shitty couple of days," Tony responded while not sounding sorry at all. "Mind telling me what you are doing at my Tower? Cool suit by the way. I like the star, however the rest... Nah. I could do better."

"This is your Tower?" Carol questioned with a raised eyebrow as she looked around them before she focused on him again. "Sorry I guess...? I'm Carol Danvers... I'm looking for Nick Fury. Do you know where I can find him?"

"Officially, Fury is dead," Tony stated with gritted teeth. He could see Carol's eyes widen in shock and grief? He ignored it and flew above her head, dropping behind her and in front of the doors, blocking her way. Carol instinctively took a few steps back while she watched him with a wary look. "However, unofficially, Fury is somewhere in hiding because he fucked up and his spy organization fell. But if you see him, please, give me a call, I would like to have a few words with him that will for sure end with bloodshed or his possible permanent demise... Well, it will most likely end with his demise. Truth to be told, I should've killed him ages ago when he broke into my house the first time. Maybe I would've spared us this fucked up situation we are in now..."

"Look... I don't know who you are or what your beef with Nick is, but he is my friend and I'm very overprotective of my friends." Carol warned with her eyes flickering gold for a second. "If he is not here I will just take my pager and be on my way..."

"Pager? What pager?" Tony questioned with a confused look in his helmet, as Jarvis showed him the readings of cosmic energy radiating from her. "I'm afraid you need to catch up with the technology, Sweetheart. Pagers aren't a thing anymore. We use iPhones, Stark Phones, Samsungs, or less famous brands now. If there is a pager inside my Tower then it belongs to one of the rescued Agents or someone from their families. Not you, Sweetheart."

"The signal is coming from inside." Carol gritted out before she made a confused grimace. "And what the hell is an iPhone or those other things you named?"

"Were you living on Mars or something?" Tony questioned in disbelief.

"Xandar actually, not Mars," Carol replied in all seriousness. She focused her eyes on his Armor and a look of recognition crossed her face. "Hey? Didn't you by any chance blow up Chitauri Mother Ship two years ago?"

Tony flinched, violently. His breathing became more ragged as the memories of the wormhole and space came back to him. He quickly collected himself and shook it off, before his eyes focused back on Carol. "And what if I did?"

"I would have to say thank you then." Carol said and ran a hand through her long blond hair. "You helped us end the War between Nova and Kree Empires. The War was raging on for thousands of years, neither side could win over the other until The Chitauri joined the fight on the side of The Kree. However, when you blew up that Mothership, all Chitauri troopers who were connected to it through their hive-mind died in an instance. You killed more than a half of their entire ugly race."

"They shouldn't have attacked my planet then," Tony replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

"What do you mean?" Carol asked with a dread hearable in her voice. "Was Earth under attack in my absence? Why didn't Fury call me? We had a deal he would call me when Earth needed my help or protection from Alien threats!"

"You will find out Fury isn't a trustworthy guy," Tony said with bitterness and dislike hearable in his voice. "Also I think I know who actually called you in here..." He lifted his faceplate and looked behind him."Jarvis? What's taking them so long?"

"3,2,1." Jarvis quickly counted down loud enough for Carol to hear and at that moment the doors behind Tony opened.

The first to get outside was Rhodey. He was wearing his War Machine Mark 2 Armor with that hideous Iron Patriot paint job, which made Tony make a quiet gaging sound but nobody commented on it. To Tony's surprise, Carol also made a quiet sound that told him that she found the paint job just as bad as he, and pretty mu everybody else did. The next who came out was Thor, his face friendly but his Hammer ready for an attack if it came. Behind Thor walked Bruce. His face was wary and clearly ready to transform into The Hulk if needed, but there was also curiosity hidden behind his eyes. Next was Maria, her face clean of any noticeable emotion. The last who came outside was Clint with a gun in his hand.

Immediately as Clint stepped outside and saw Tony, he walked up to the genius and hugged him. Tony froze and looked at the others questionably but all of them just grinned at him in response.

"Thank you, thank you so much, Man!" Clint whispered and hugged him even tighter. Tony was sure that if he wasn't wearing the suit, Clint would crush him with his bear-like hug. Tony never was really someone for hugs, so he just awkwardly patted Clint on his hack. "I owe you my life! If it wasn't for you, I don't even want to imagine what would happen to Laura and the Kids..."

"Ah, relax Legolas," Tony said with a soft smile as Clint finally let him go. "It was my pleasure. Lila and Coop are lovely kids and Laura is just a badass."

"No, seriously Tony. I'm grateful to you." Clint said as he clapped him on the shoulders with a warm thankful smile. "You have saved many lives, Tony. I will never forget that my family and the rest of my co-workers and their families inside the tower are alive thanks to you."

"How is the whole operation going?" Tony hesitantly asked.

"It's... bad," Clint admitted and looked at the floor. Behind them, Rhodey, Bruce, and Thor did the same while Maria had a guilty look on her face. "There are currently 3525 people living in The Avengers Tower, 753 of them are former S.H.I.E.L.D Agents and 1263 are children. We had 44 casualties in here... 31 of them were Agents, 11 Civilians, and 1 was Kid... Only 7 years old... " Clint closed his eyes shut and swallowed hard and it doesn't take a genius to figure out what he was thinking about. His own children are around the same age...

"The Stark owned facilities around the entire world are currently housing 40266 former S.H.I.E.L.D Employees and more than 800000 civilians." Maria continued instead. "The Government finally started acting and managed to evacuate around 1550000 people. Other Governments are also helping with the evacuation but most of the S.H.I.E.L.D Agents were from America so they don't have many civilians in danger in their area..."

"What about the causalities worldwide?" Tony asked, not really wanting to know the answer. Nobody answered him at first so he took a deep breath and asked again. "How many people died on this massive fuck up in 3 days?"

The Government is keeping the numbers a secret but the Military talks." Rhodey took over with a sad look on his face. "124864 people, including Agents and Civilians were reported over this past 3 days. The worldwide number is something around 250000. Most of the people from outside The US are former Agents who were unaware of the situation or were captured by terrorists, mercenaries, killers, or in a worst-case scenario, Hydra itself..."

"God..." Tony whispered with a horrified look on his face. "Fuck! Jarvis? Get in contact with every known Mercenary we know from Obadiah and the old days. Offer them all 20000$ each if they help with the evacuation of S.H.I.E.L.D Agents and Civilians to Authorities or Stark Facilities. Offer them 40000$ if they go after known Hydra operatives. 45000$ if they bring them alive." He looked at the others who were gaping at him with open mouths. "What? That should even the odds a bit."

"Tony, you do realize you just spend millions of dollars, right?" Clint questioned with wide eyes.

"Billions." Jarvis corrected while Tony just stared at Clint with an unbothered look on his face. "Sir had already spent Billions of dollars on this whole operation, Mr. Barton."

"And I will spend a couple of billions more." Tony shrugged and rolled his eyes. "Whatever. It's just money." He looked at Carol who was staring at them all with wide eyes and smiled to himself. He always liked to blow people's minds away. He looked back at the others and pointed a finger in Carol's direction. "Mind somebody explaining her to me?"

Maria stepped in front of Carol and offered her a polite sad and small smile. "Captain Marvel. I'm Maria Hill. I'm Fury's former... protegee. I'm also the one who is responsible for calling you back to Earth because as you can see... we need your help with our situation."

"Call me Carol or just Marvel, Ms. Marvel... whatever. I don't go by Captain Marvel anymore." Carol politely replied as she shook Maria's hand. "Just tell me how can I help and I will do it."

"Sir?" Jarvis called out to Tony. "It appears that Captain Rogers, Agent Romanoff, and some other Guy the recognition systems recognized as former Sergeant Samuel Wilson arrived at The Tower. The security didn't let them past the reception."

Everybody froze. Tony's face darkened and his hands bailed into fists. Bruce had a hint of green in his eyes. Clint looked like he is 2 seconds from jumping off the edge of the helipad and shooting them mid-fall. Rhodey looked like he would jump behind Clint and use his missiles to help Clint make sure they are dead. Thor had small sparks of electricity in his eyes and around his fingertips while Maria just closed her eyes and quietly shook her head. Carol meanwhile looked confused because she never heard any of those names before. Well, except Rogers but she doesn't know it is the same Rogers as in Steve Rogers, The Captain America.

"They had the audacity to come here after what they did?!" Clint raged as his face turned red from anger.

"Who the fuck is Samuel Wilson?" Tony asked.

"Wilson is the guy who flew around with Rogers in Washington using The Falcon Exo Wings," Rhodey replied with a disappointed shake of his head. "Which they stole from Air-force lockup."

"Son of a bitch." Tony deadpanned and pursed his lips. "Alright. Rhodey, Hill, go inside and brief Cutie over here on the whole fucking situation" He pointed at Carol who raised an amused eyebrow at him. He ignored it for now and looked at Maria. "I hope she is really as good as you made her sound like." He didn't wait for a response and turned to Bruce, Thor, and Clint. "Guys? Time to have an Original Avengers reunion. Make it rain."

"Rain?" Clint questioned with a confused look while Bruce paled and Thor chuckled.

"Yes. Rain..." Tony repeated with a smirk and quickly leaped to Bruce, picked him up, and jumped with him over the edge of the heliport.

"Oh... I get it now!" Clint chuckled to himself as he looked over the edge. He then turned around and paled when he was met with the face of the smirking God of Thunder behind him. "No. Thor... Don't you dare." Clint warned but it only made Thor's smirk widen before he grabbed Clint by the arm and pushed them both off the edge of the heliport.

Carol walked to the edge and looked down at the four falling Avengers with an amused look on her face while Rhodey facepalmed and Maria just shook her head at Tony's ideas. Carol turned back to them and chuckled. "I like them. They are crazy!"

"You know... from the stories Fury told me about you, I honestly thought you would be serious and more like him." Maria pointed out with no heat behind her words. She is kinda glad they aren't dealing with another Fury because it surely wouldn't be appreciated by anymore at this point.

"Well, I get the impression that we both know a really different version of Fury," Carol noted. "The Fury I know was a bit stupid and secretive but also kinda funny, I guess."

"That's hard to believe." Rhodey commented as he stepped out of his armor. "The Fury we know is a manipulative, shady Bastard, who once let a dying man lose hope of his chances at survival, and only came to his aid with the answers he needed after that man did a lot of... stupid things." He gave a pointy look at Maria who looked away from him before he looked back at Carol. "That guy I'm talking about is Tony Stark."

"That handsome guy in the red and gold suit who destroyed the chitauri mothership 2 years ago," Carol said while looking at them to correct her if she was wrong.

"You know about that?" Maria questioned with a shocked look on her face.

"Girl... The whole Galaxy knows about that." Carol said with a soft chuckle. "His actions ensured the victory of the Nova Empire against The Kree Empire in one of the most crucial battles of the entire Galactic War."

Maria and Rhodey looked at each other before they both turned back to Carol with looks of confusion, disbelief, and shock. "Huh?

****

"You are not authorized to access this area."

Steve released another annoyed sigh as one of Tony's Legionaries repeated the same sentence for the sixth time. A part of him was interested in the Iron Legion. The Legion could be grave help in their hunt for Hydra and Steve must admit that Tony had done a good job this time. But the other part of Steve wanted nothing more than to break these four Legionaries for wasting their time. Steve looked behind him and saw Natasha, who was inspecting her nails with frustration visible on her face. Next to her was Sam, who was looking up at The Avengers Tower in front of them with astonishment in his eyes and Steve couldn't help to show him everything on the inside... If these stupid robots just let them in!

"Look..." Steve took a deep breath and counted to three. He can't believe that he is about to try to have a conversation with robots. "I'm Steve Rogers. I'm Captain America and The Leader of The Avengers. This is another Avenger, Natasha Romanoff. The Black Widow." He explained and pointed at Natasha, who perked up after hearing her name. "And this is my friend, Sam Wilson. The Falcon." He pointed at Sam who also perked but eyed the Legionaries with a wary look. "We came here to talk with Tony and hang our heads for a while. Hydra is still out there. The Avengers need to reunite and take them out."

For a moment Steve thought that The Iron Legion finally saw his reasoning and was about to let them pass, but the one Legioanree stepped forwards and slightly titled its head to look at Steve with its mouthless faceplate. "You are not authorized to access this area."

Steve groaned and bailed his hands into fists. The Iron Legion clearly saw this as a threat because the remaining Legionaries immediately pointed their hands at him and the sound of repulsors charing echoed around them. Natasha now looked spooked and slowly reached for the gun she had hidden in her jeans hidden with only her jacket, while Sam took a few steps back with a slightly scared look on his face.

Before Steve could do anything, a sound came from the air and Tony dropped with Bruce in his arms on the ground. Steve's jaw fell in disbelief because he can't believe that Tony is so careless that he would jump with Bruce from the Tower. Doesn't he realize the threat The Hulk posses to those around them?! Judging by the shocked expression Natasha had on her face, she also shared Steve's thoughts.

Then to their surprise, Thor dropped next to Tony with Clint in his arms. The Archer immediately jolted away from Thor as they touched the ground and glared at The God of Thunder who just grinned and fist-pumped Tony, who was glaring at Steve, Natasha, and Sam with an unreadable look.

"Clint?" Natasha called out with confusion all over her face but Clint didn't say anything and just glared at her.

"Rogers, "Widow." Tony greeted with an unfriendly and distant tone. He paused as he observed Sam with a raised eyebrow before he met his eyes and gave him an intimidating look. "Duck. Sorry, I don't remember your name."

"Uh, hey Tony." Steve greeted back, feeling slightly out of balance by this unfriendly attitude and the looks they received from their other teammates. He honestly didn't know that everybody would already be at The Tower. He remember that Bruce was living with Tony, but Clint and Thor were a surprise to him, and judging by the look he saw on Natasha's face, she was surprised too. He quickly collected himself and smiled as he walked to Sam and placed a hand on his shoulders. "This is Sam Wilson. He is my friend and goes by The Falcon."

Sam looked up at Steve and looked honestly touched by this proclamation which honestly warmed Steve's heart and made him feel better. He smiled to himself as he thought about the bright future of The Avengers under his Leadership. They would hunt down Hydra and bring Bucky home...

"Uhmmm." Tony hummed and shrugged. "Whatever, I don't really care who he is." He said and Sam's face bright immediately fell a little. Steve frowned and was about to reprimand Tony for his rude attitude but before he could open his mouth, Tony continued talking. "What are you three doing here?"

"You agreed to house the Avengers, remember?" Natasha reminded him while still shooting questioning looks in Clint's direction. She finally gave up and smiled at Tony. "We decided to take you up on that offer."

"That was 2 years ago," Tony stated with his eyes dangerously narrowing. "That option is no longer available. The rooms I had prepared for you are being already used by someone else at the moment."

"What do you mean our rooms are used?" Steve frowned with narrowed eyes. "Used by who?"

"I'm going to kill him," Tony quietly muttered to Bruce, who just shook his head with silent judgment directed towards them. Tony turned back to Steve and glared at him. "Please, tell me you are fucking with me and aren't actually serious right now."

Steve frowned disapprovingly at Tony for the unnecessary cursing and looked to Natasha for help because he was also confused by Tony's words. Natasha's face was perfectly blank and Steve simply couldn't read her at this moment. He saw small traces of uncertainty in her eyes too. He quickly glanced back at Sam in hopes of finding some clarification but he was only met with Sam's fanboying gaze directed at Thor.

"Uhhh... I don't understand? Why would you give our rooms to someone else if they were prepared for us?" Steve questioned with a small frown. "Can't you just relocate whoever you have in our rooms to other rooms?"

"Have you no got shame?!" Thor roared as he angrily marched up to Steve who jumped in surprise. Natasha and Sam also winced and took a few quick steps back with visibly startled expressions on their faces. "How can you stand here after everything your recent actions caused and ask Man of Iron to relocate the survivors to another room?"

"Survivors?" Sam quietly questioned.

"What the fuck is wrong with all of you?!" Clint yelled as he stepped next to Thor and glared at them. "Do you really have no idea what you have done or did you just forget about it already?!" He angrily snarled and Sam slowly raised his hands up in surrender with wide eyes directed at The Archer. "First, you leaked the entire S.H.I.E.L.D database on the internet and then you come here and want us to know why somebody else is using the rooms Tony originally prepared for you? You almost got those people killed! You almost got my family killed!"

"Your Family...?" Steve questioned with a small frown. "I didn't know you had a family."

"Yes, I do have a family!" Clint snapped. "A Family you almost got killed because of your stupid actions! What the fuck were you guys even thinking? Leaking all of S.H.I.E.L.D's files on the internet? Have you lost your minds?!" He shouted so loud that Sam and Steve flinched while Natasha just stared at him with wide eyes. "You leaked my and all other Agents' real identities, personal information, addresses, and families for all of our enemies to see! The entire fucking World is in chaos because of you!"

"I don't understand..." Sam whispered to Natasha with an uneasy look in his eyes. "I thought you only uploaded Hydra files on the internet."

"We didn't have the time to go over the files before uploading them." Natasha softly said back as she pursed her lips together and avoided Clint's hateful gaze.

"Do you have any idea how many people you got killed?" Bruce asked with a dangerous green glow in his eyes.

"They were Hydra," Steve stated with his chin up and all four of them look at him as if he was the dumbest idiot that they have ever seen.

"I'm not talking about Hydra." Bruce shook his head with his lips pressed into a thin line. "I'm talking about S.H.I.E.L.D Agents and other workers."

"No one who was actually with S.H.I.E.L.D was on those Helicarriers." Steve quickly defended, getting slightly irritated. They weren't there and they understand what it was like or what Steve, Natasha, and Sam went through. They did the best they could and in the end it paid off. Hydra lost its power and is retreating underground.

"Bruce is not talking about those fucking Helicarriers you dick." Tony snarled and watched with an unimpressed look on his face when Steve's face darkened and made a threatening step toward him.

"What did you just say to me?" Steve demanded with an angry tone, part of him expecting Tony to make at least a step back from him but to his surprise, Tony didn't even blink. Arrogant and egoistic prick... Steve thought to himself as he started walking up to Tony, only to be thrown to the ground by Thor. 

"Stay down, Captain," Thor warned with sparks of lightning in his eyes. "I won't allow you to hurt anyone else."

"Carla Smith," Clint said while everybody turned to him. Steve and Sam with confusion, Natasha with faint recognition, Tony and Thor with sadness and understanding, while Bruce placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Helen Kim, Monica Chang, Mercedes Merced, Jake Oh, Seth Waters, Larry Young." He shivered and took a deep, shaky breath. "Those are some of the names of S.H.I.E.L.D Agents me and Rhodey found but couldn't save in time on our way back from Sokovia... These people were S.H.I.E.L.D. Not Hydra." His face darkened as he glared at them. "And you got them all killed along with many more."

Sam's face paled and Natasha's eyes widened. Steve was staring at Clint with something the others deducted to be denial. Bruce silently had a quick mental conversation with Tony, telling the armored genius to keep a close eye on their unwanted guests' facial expressions.

"Larry Young," Clint repeated one name again. "He was only 26 years old Agent who worked undercover for 2 years in Europe. They burned him alive when the data hit the web and his ‘employers' learned of his double-agent status." He closed his eyes and took another shaky breath before he looked back down at them. "Monica Chang. 47 Years old former agent of S.H.I.E.L.D who retired and moved to live in Europe with her husband and her Son. Her son was only 11 years old." He paused and swallowed, hard. "And whoever got to them cut all of his fingers and even his face off before they killed him."

"Oh god," Sam whispered and looked like he is close to throwing up.

"Her Husband?" Clint continued with a haunted look. "They cut him open like a Pig. Tore all of his inner organs out of his body and left only his heart intact. Monica herself? They ripped her apart by strapping her to two cars and then driving in opposite directions, but not before they made her watch her whole family die, while they were also raping her and recording it. They left them with their severed heads on the spikes outside the house for us to find..."

"And this is happening all around the globe," Tony added. "All S.H.I.E.L.D Agents are being hunted down like animals." He snapped his fingers and pointed at The Tower behind him. "I have more than 3000 people inside. Only less than one-third are former S.H.I.E.L.D employees. The rest are ordinary civilians. I also have 52 corpses somewhere inside. 2 of them are only children, the younger being only 7 years old."

"Why didn't you just call any of us before you leaked those files?" Clint asked with a voice that was pleading for them to give him at least one good reason. "Why didn't you call Tony? He helped design those Insight Helicarriers. You knew this, Natasha. We were both there when he talked about it with Fury..."

"Clint... We didn't know who to trust." Natasha quietly said.

"Are you saying that you and Steve thought that Me, Clint, Thor, and Tony could be Hydra?" Bruce demanded with a look of disbelief as he took a threatening step closer to Natasha, who immediately took one step back. "Are your people skills really that low or are you just idiots?" He asked and Natasha looked like he just slapped her. "All of us were on Hydra's list of possible threats." He pointed a finger at Tony and glared down at Natasha. "Tony was listed as threat level: Alpha, Level 10, that was the highest level there was and you say that you couldn't trust us?!"

"No, we trust you all." Steve quickly reassured as he picked himself up from the ground and quickly pushed slipped in between Natasha and Bruce. "We just didn't have enough time to call for backup."

"So you had time to break into an Airforce-owned facility and steal the EXO-7 wings, Break into a museum and steal a replica of your WW2 suit and Infiltrate three Helicarriers, but you couldn't find time to make a phone call?" Tony asked with a raised eyebrow. "I could've stopped those Helicarriers from lanching with only a snap of my fingers." He turned to Natasha and glared at her. "You know this is me stating facts, not bragging about my skills, so don't you even dare mention my ego."

Natasha opened and closed her mouth with a glare of her own directed at Tony, who only smiled in triumph at her and told her with his eyes that she is becoming predictable, to which she looked away and muttered something in Russian to herself.

Steve stubbornly shook his head at Tony before he took a deep, calming breath. "Look, I understand that you are upset that we didn't call you, but we just couldn't trust anybody at that point."

"Really?" Tony questioned with narrowed eyes, clearly not believing Steve's words. "Hey, flying Duck guy!" He called out as his gaze switched to Sam, who looked slightly annoyed for being called a Duck again but also went tense under all of their gazes. "For how long have you known Rogers and Widow?"

"I- We- I mean-" Sam tried to say but eventually just looked down in defeat. "Me and Steve met only a few days ago while jogging around Washington." Sam quietly admitted. "We then met one more time at my work for advice before he showed up at my house on the other day with Nat."

"So he didn't know you at all," Bruce noted in disbelief as he looked at Steve and Natasha. "You two trusted a guy you knew for a few hours at most, and probably in Romanoff's case, had no real conversation with, more than you trusted us? The people who you fought side by side in Alien Invasion?"

"So you didn't know each other," Clint said with a frown and a disappointed shake of his head. "You trusted some guy you met on for a workout run more than you trust us? We fought against Aliens together!"

"Clint, it's not that simple..." Natasha started but Clint stopped her.

"Shut the fuck up!" Clint growled and Natasha flinched. "Of course it is that simple!  You owe me your life, Natasha, and because of your stupidity, my family could've ended up like Chang's!" He yelled and glared down at The Black Widow. "You could've called me a give me heads up for Laura and the Kids and it wouldn't even take you 30 seconds, but you didn't. Mercenaries were already at the farm when Tony got there!" He hissed with an angry and wild look in his eyes while Natasha looked away in guilt. "If something happened to them because of you..."

"I'm sorry..." Natasha whispered.

"What are you hiding," Tony wondered out loud, his tone curious and completely even. Sam, Steve, and Natasha all looked at him questioningly, which made him scoff and roll his eyes "Don't look at me like that." He told them and started pacing in front of them like an animal that was searching for an opening. "It's obvious all three of you hiding something. I'm not interested in excuses like 'We couldn't trust you' or 'We didn't have time' Tell us the real reason why you were willing to sacrifice all those innocent lives and risk World War 3 with all that secret Government information you leaked."

Natasha kept staring at Tony for a few seconds before she turned to Steve, looking at him as if she was expecting him to spill the beams and tell them everything. Sam was also looking at Steve but he kept switching his eyes between him and Tony as if they were playing a tennis match. Steve on the other hand looked pissed. He clenched his fists and glared at the armored Genius, who glared right back at him with no intentions of backing down.

"Do you even regret it?" Bruce asked, breaking Tony and Steve's staring contest. "Do you regret those lost innocent lives?"

"Of course we do," Steve said with narrowed eyes. "I understand there were some causalities, but you all know that we can't save everybody. That's the price of War."

"This isn't War, Steve," Bruce responded with a look of disbelief and a shake of his head. "This is a Manhunt. A Massacre that could have been prevented." He paused and looked at them with disgust when he realized they aren't sorry at all. Sure, they didn't want innocent people to die, but Steve really believes they did everything right. "Do you want to know how many you got killed worldwide?" He asked and carefully watched their facial expressions. "The number is higher than 250000 and it has been only three days. How many do you think it will be at the end of the week? Half a million? Million? Maybe more?"

"Alright, I have had enough," Tony spoke as he looked over at Thor, Bruce, and Clint, silently telling them that they are done here. He then traced his eyes over Natasha and Sam, before he focused on Steve. "Fine. Have it your way. Keep your secrets." Steve looked at him with a confused look while Natasha frowned with a calculating expression on her face. "Get the fuck out of my property. You are banned from entering other Stark-owned facilities without making an appointment with either Me or Ms. Potts first." He paused and smiled at Natasha and Steve. "You are also off the team."

"What?!" Steve shouted in disbelief while Natasha was looking at Tony with shocked and wide eyes. "You can't do that! Hydra is still out there and we need to stop them. They have dozens of bases all over the entire world!"

"I'm not stopping you," Tony responded with an uninterested look on his face. "Go on. Find them. You are free to do whatever you want." He said with a completely straight expression. "However, I must warn you. You no longer have a governmental organization behind your back to cover your star-spangled ass. You are in the real world now. You break the law and you will face the consequences for that. Keep in mind that possessing a weapon without permission is a crime in most countries of the world... Vigilantism is also a crime."

"I'm sure that won't be a problem for us." Steve stubbornly stated. "We are fighting for what's right. We are The Avengers."

"Are you going deaf in your old age, Rogers?" Tony questioned with an annoyed look. "I just said that you and Romanoff are off the team. You are not The Avengers anymore."

"You can't kick us off the team." Natasha calmly stated. "You are not even a real Avenger. You are just a Consultant."

Tony grinned at Natasha and started slowly walking up to her. "I will give you a little history lesson, Widow." The codename came out with a mocking tone. "First, I was The First Avenger. I was the first person Fury came to recruit. The only reason why I wasn't listed as an Avenger was that I blew him off." Natasha opened her mouth to protest but Tony held his finger up and motioned for her to stay silent. "Secondly, you should know that The Avengers were an Initiative owned by S.H.I.E.L.D, which is now being dissolved by The Government thanks to your actions. All of its assets are now owned by The Government and are going to end up being split by the other existing Agencies." Natasha's eyes widened in realization while Tony grinned like a shark at her and bend down to her level. "I'm the official new owner of The Avengers." He announced and Steve's eyes also widened in shock, as he looked to Natasha for confirmation. "So, yes. I can kick you off the team and I just did."

"Tony, you need us," Natasha quietly stated. "We know we messed up by not calling any of you, but we can't change the past." She looked at them all and confidence crossed her features. "Steve is right." She proclaimed. "We need to defeat Hydra before they have time to regroup. But we need to find them first and for that we need better equipment-"

"Then buy it." Tony interrupted her. "I don't care what you need anymore. I gave you plenty of chances to come clean about why you didn't call any of us and yet you didn't say anything. How can we act as a team if we don't trust each other?"

Natasha sighed and shook her head. "Tony, don't let your ego make decisions-"

"Considering your little stunt at the Congress hearing, I wouldn't mention ego at all, Agent Romanoff." Bruce cut her off. "I'm with Tony at this. You didn't trust us, why should we trust you?"

"Aye!" Thor agreed with a nod. "Trust is important within a team. A Warrior needs to trust his shield brothers to protect his back, but trust also goes both ways." He said with a glare directed at the two former Avengers. "And you no longer have our trust."

"Are you really siding with Tony in this?" Steve questioned with disbelief as he looked at Thor and Bruce. "Hydra is weak. They are hiding and licking their wounds. We need to strike them before they can recover!"

"No," Clint said and shook his head. "Thor is right. Trust goes both ways and is important within a team. I don't trust you or Romanoff to have my back anymore, so if this is us choosing our sides then consider my side taken. I won't go on a wild hunt for an organization you can never really kill when I can be saving innocent people's lives."

"Clint, please..." Natasha pleaded.

"You are tearing The Avengers apart." Steve accused with narrowed eyes.

"No." Tony shook his head as The Iron Legion from before returned back outside and positioned themselves next to the doors like protective guardians. "We are just moving on from you two. I also meant what I said. You are banned from every Stark-owned facility without automatization from me or Ms. Potts" He called back to them as He, Bruce, Thor, and Clint walked back inside the Tower. "Leave and take your Duck with you!"

"He is not a Duck!" Steve yelled behind them but his words were ignored as the doors closed and The Iron Legion blocked it with their bodies. Steve angrily huffed and turned away from the tower, walking away, followed by both Sam and Natasha. "This isn't over."  He promised. "We will defeat Hydra and find Bucky, even if we have to do it on our own!"

****

"Are you okay?" Bruce asked Tony with a look of concern as all four of them stepped out of the elevator. Tony snapped out of his thoughts and nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine..." Tony quickly reassured. "I was just thinking..."

"We need to do damage control," Bruce said as they walked through the halls of the Tower. "We can't let Steve drag us down. The truth behind The Info Dump is already out, and while people are blaming him and Natasha, our names have also received some dirt."

"I know." Tony sighed. "We will publicly disown them and announce Rhodey and Carol as our new members. We can also publicly introduce The Iron Legion to the World... Everybody saw my little metal creations at this point anyway."

"I understand Rhodey, but Carol?" Bruce said with a look of uncertainty. "Why do you want her on The Avengers? You don't even know what she can do or who she is."

"I just have a good feeling about her." Tony smiled and shrugged before he suddenly paused in his tracks. Bruce also stopped and gave him a questioning look, but Tony wasn't looking at him, he was frowning at the floor. Eventually, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he opened them and looked at Bruce. "Can you, Thor, and Clint tell Rhodey, Laura, Maria, Jane, Christine, and Carol what happened outside? Try to find out more about Carol in the process. Just to be sure I'm not wrong about her."

"And where are you going?" Bruce asked with a raised eyebrow.

Tony bit his lip as he turned around. "I'm going to have a chat with my Mother."