Epilogue
Pepper walked through the front doors of the compound, having finally arrived just a few days after Tony sent her the message that it was safe for her to return. She had been in a business trip in Sweden, talking with an energy company about the use of utilizing Starktech renewable energy sources, when she got the call from Tony that she needed to go ‘off grid’ for awhile. At first the information he offered was limited, until she got a few text messages summarizing the rescue mission and what Ross and his men had done on the Raft. She knew he was being cautious about how much information he was sharing, probably to protect her, but she still wanted to know exactly what was going on.
Regardless, she went into hiding as he asked, disappearing into the wind as soon as the last conference was over. She had gotten good at that, having been trained to do that by Natasha, just in case something ever happened and none of the Avengers could protect her. She also had her own, backup protective suit in case she was found, but for the just over a month she had been hiding, she had not seen any trouble and had not needed to use it at all.
All the information she got was still limited. They couldn’t risk too many messages being sent, less someone was able to track them and find her. Still, she knew something bad had happened, even if she wasn’t entirely sure who was involved.
It wasn’t until the videos were released, two weeks ago, that she got her answers. She wished she hadn’t. She had been at one of Tony’s random international safe houses, watching the news on TV when she saw the leak. She decided, for some awful reason, to watch the videos. She remembered sitting on the couch, looking on in horror as horrible recording after recording played, of extremely violent beatings one after the other. She remembered, at the end of one of the most brutal ones, which had shown Natasha – of course she would recognize her immediately – bound with her arms above her head, forced to stand, as she was punched violently in the ribs until the give of her ribs breaking was visible, and Pepper had to rush to the bathroom before she was sick.
After those videos had dropped, Pepper had attempted to contact Tony about Natasha’s condition, but it was difficult to get any concrete responses from him. The Internet had blown up all across the world, however, with everything from political leaders, to human rights groups, and just ordinary individuals, speaking out against what had been done.
While there had been a small subset of people treating it like it was okay, because the victim was probably inhuman in some way, the vast majority were outraged.
King T’Challa from Wakanda had even issued a public statement, stating that his country would withdraw support from the Accords given the mistreatment of prisoners and torture, stating that this was not what he had signed up for. Several other countries followed suit, with politicians demanding justice, stating that torture was not tolerable whether the victim was human or super human.
After that, it was Ross who had disappeared, when the security council of the Accords publicly denounced him, claiming that his actions were unknown by the council and they had no hand in what had occurred.
Regardless, the Accords fell apart when at the end of the first week after the videos being published, 102 of the supporting countries withdraw their support. The remainder had either not issued any statement, or had decided they were going to wait for General Ross’s trial before they made a decision. The backlash of individuals across Facebook, Youtube and Reddit was extraordinary. Two of the platforms had been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of posts and content being uploaded, resulting in a massive crash of the servers, sending people to other media websites.
Pepper was grateful that almost no one was aware of ‘who’ the victim was. Natasha would not want anyone knowing, and it would only make the spy feel ashamed if the entire world knew what had happened to her.
Nearly a week after that, she got the message from Tony that everything was ‘taken care of’, and she was safe to return to the Compound. Pepper didn’t waste a moment on returning, getting on the first flight she could before driving to the Compound. FRIDAY’s voice greeted her, and she felt a sense of relief to finally be back in one of the places she belonged.
“Boss and the Avengers are on the communal floor, watching a movie,” FRIDAY told her, before Pepper could even ask the AI where everyone was.
That gave her pause. All of the Avengers? Did that mean Steve and his group was here as well? It had been difficult not to be too angry at them, given how Tony had returned following the events in Siberia, and what he had told her about the video and the death of his parents. She didn’t hate the man by any means, but she had been disappointed and angry and wanted to yell at him for his choices. Of course at the moment, yelling at anyone was the last thing she felt like doing. She wanted to see everyone, especially Tony. And Natasha.
She was certainly worried about what she was going to walk in to.
Of course, seeing the entire team, from Steve to Tony, with Clint and Wanda and Vision, and Sam and some guy she didn’t recognize – was that the tiny/big guy? - and everyone else was actually nice. In fact, it made her smile, seeing them all sitting together on a massive couch.
Steve and Tony were sitting on opposite ends, but they were in the same room together which was not something she had expected for at least… another year or two.
Sam was next to Steve, and Thor was next to Sam – and when did Thor even get here? And was that Bruce? Her eyes fell on the middle of the couch.
Natasha looked small and frail, legs drawn to her chest, arms – one in a cast – wrapped around her own chest, pressed against Clint. She looked like she was asleep, eyes closed, breathing slow and shallow. There was a fresh bruise along her jaw, and she wondered what had happened to put it there.
Tony looked up at her with a smile, jumping up immediately.
“Pepper! You made it just in time. Simba here is just about to kick Scar’s ass,” Tony announced, throwing his arms around her. She felt the slightest tremors in his stance, and knew that he wasn’t totally alright, but he also wasn’t totally in a bad place, either. And oh, of course they would be watching a Disney movie.
She smiled as everyone greeted her, happy and welcoming. She met Natasha’s eyes, noting how tired the green eyes looked, and how thin the spy was.
The spy sent a soft smile at her, though, and Pepper was certain things would be alright.