Fall of SHIELD ONE SHOT
Tony leaned forward over the bar as Nat and Steve, alongside a Sam Wilson, stood before him to make their little proposal. His body shook with repressed anger.
“So, you want me to take over where SHIELD left off. For what?”
“Hydra is still out there, Tony. Someone has to beat them back before they can regroup and try another Project Insight,” Steve said sternly.
“And not so much in the role of SHIELD as funding the initiative. I know you gave considerable funds to Fury,” Natasha added matter of factly.
“Right. So, you want me to butt out and just bank roll you. Nah. Not gonna happen,” he said shortly as he crossed his arms over his chest. Natasha just rolled her eyes.
“We both know you’re not in a position to be involved with the day-to-day upkeep of SHIELD due to your position in SI.”
“How considerate of you, but had I kept more of an eye on Fury we wouldn’t be dealing with the fall out of your little rebellion right now, Romanov.”
“We did what we had to do,” Steve said taking an aggressive step forward.
“Uh huh. Who are you again,” Tony asked suddenly, turning to Wilson.
“Um, Sam Wilson. Retired Air Force. I test piloted your Falcon Prototype actually,” Sam said easily.
“How long have you known Cap and Romanov here.”
“We met a couple of days ago. Cap runs the same jogging path I do.”
“A couple of days ago. Tell me again why you couldn’t risk calling me,” Tony said as he turned to face Romanov, completely disregarding Captain America for the time being.
“I didn’t have a secure line, Stark,” Romanov gritted out.
“Aaaa,” Tony yelled, making an irritating buzzer sound that had Romanov glaring at him dangerously. “I gave each of you custom Stark phones after New York with direct contact to Jarvis programmed into them. Try again.”
“Jarvis can be hacked,” she began again.
“Aaaa! We both know that Jarvis has never been hacked to the point where he is shut down or unable to detect the threat. Try again.”
“We didn’t know who we could trust,” Steve said loudly, jutting out his chin.
“So instead of calling in the tech guy who recently helped you save the world DESPITE the World Security Council and SHIELD’s methods that I warned you about on the hellicarrier, you decided to go pick up the guy you met jogging the other day—because you can trust him?”
“It sounds really bad when you say it that way,” Sam muttered under his breath.
“Well, isn’t this a breath of fresh air. Someone with at least a bit of sense. That’s because it is really bad, Mr. Wilson. These two idiots just made you an accessory to treason and several hundred cases of accidental manslaughter. Congratulations.”
Sam and Steve looked at Tony in horror, but Romanov didn’t even flinch.
“Sometimes sacrifices have to be made,” she said softly.
“Yet Jarvis noticed that you took the time to remove the information surrounding two names, Natashalie: your buddy Barton and a Winter Soldier. Interesting choices there.” Tony watched out of the corner of his eye as Steve tensed.
“As I said . . .”
“Not good enough, Agent. Let me tell you how this is going down,” Tony said with a dark look in his eye. “The Avengers initiative is on hiatus. We’ll revisit the idea of the team once we’ve cleared up the utter catastrophe that you both caused,” he added before Steve could jump in. “But Romanov . . . you’re out. What was it you said? Iron Man, yes, but Tony Stark, not recommended? Well you’ve failed your own little profile now, Romanov. The feds contacted me this afternoon and asked why I wasn’t involved to prevent the National Security disaster that you caused, and I explained everything to them. EVERYTHING. They know that while Steve here might have had the idea, you should have known better and would have fully understood the repercussions of the actions you were taking.”
“Tony, no! You can’t turn on Nat like this,” Steve yelled in surprise.
“Oh, there is no loyalty or love lost between the two of us, Steve, because I know better. I know exactly who Natashalie is and what she was up to.”
“She outed everything that she ever did, too,” Steve roared. “She sacrificed her own safety to ensure everyone knew the truth!”
“Not quite, Steve,” Tony yelled back, turning away from Steve to stare at Nat. “This was no sacrifice. She knew that the best protection she was going to get once SHIELD came up for review as a result of your discoveries was to out everybody else at the same time. This disaster is the best cover she could have hoped for. Everyone is too busy scrambling to save everything else to worry about one little spy, right Romanov. What better way to escape the fallout of SHIELD’s dirty laundry than to disappear into a crowd?”
“I wouldn’t expect you to understand about doing what’s right to wipe the red from your ledger, Stark,” she said haughtily, crossing her arms.
“I have no red to wipe away, Black Widow. Everything I’ve done is legit. Selling weapons to the U.S. military was always an act of American patriotism for my family. Obie’s double dealing was dealt with as soon as it was discovered and I had no reason to suspect my godfather in the first place. No, my conscience is clear even if the guilt for deaths in general is something I choose to embrace now that I see the world differently. I changed, and that’s the difference between us, Natashalie.
There’s a reason you didn’t recognize Hydra in SHIELD. You may have switched sides, but you never switched methods. And you knew that everyone would know that very soon. Well, they’re coming for you, little spider. Better start running.”