Sam's (and maybe Clint's) redemption #2
Sam stood in front of the locked, chain link fence and sighed, rubbing slightly at his forehead.
“What happened,” Wanda screamed, red tinging her hands and her hair beginning to fly around her. Bucky flinched back and stepped away from the witch.
“Tony,” Nat sighed. “I had hoped he could let his ego go for once, but,” she trailed off shrugging.
In front of them, the compound was nothing but rubble.
“How is this about his ego,” Sam asked, completely sick of this bullshit. He had followed Steve, sided with him continually, and usually into the dumbest situations (like the chase for Barnes where they killed and injured several bystanders all for Barnes to be . . . simply arrested. So much for the shoot on sight orders. Honestly, between Nat and Sharon Carter, Sam was not at all impressed with the espionage capabilities of his country.
He had sat back and judged Stark, giving him that STUPID ultimatum—“OK, but you have to go alone.” Right. Stark went alone. Then Steve and Barnes completely destroyed the man’s suit (and any way to communicate), left him battered in the snow, and wandered off together as if his life didn’t matter all because he reacted to a traumatic situation in a way that Sam would have completely expected.
Wasn’t that an eye opener, when both videos had been released to the public? Barnes killed the Starks. Tony watched while Steve side-eyed the genius like he was a loaded weapon instead of a human, a teammate, and a friend. “OK, but you have to go alone.” Stark was the only one that went into that situation alone, and he got betrayed even more than the years of searching for his parents’ killer on his dime that Captain America had done. How’s that for your favorite super hero, Howard Stark?
It was that point when Sam had to step back and examine who and what the Avengers were. Steve said the safest hands were their own, but that was clearly only true if you were one of the select few that had the Captain America stamp of approval. Steve’s hands were NOT the safest for Rhodes (a decorated hero that had been a role model for Sam in the Air Force), Tony Stark (the man who made their gear and a patriot whose weapons had protected soldiers for years before the Stane incident), and even that Spider Kid (Steve had dropped a shipping container on that kid without even knowing if he could handle it and walked away with a quippy remark while the boy began to slip and struggle under the weight!—watching the footage of the Leipzig fight had been an eye-opener as well since he could see the other side had clearly pulled punches while Steve and their team were doing all they could to put them down HARD).
What did he stand for? He was a Vet, and Captain America was an American hero, but Sam was also a counselor. He had a background in dealing with trauma. And he didn’t like what he was seeing once he examined the patterns of Avenger behavior that he had also participated in.
During the Ultron incident, Tony had been lifted by his throat by a teammate while the others stood by and watched (including Tony’s friends). Bruce didn’t say a word; Thor didn’t acknowledge that he and Steve had given Tony the go ahead to run tests on the scepter. They just treated him like a villain. Later, when everything was over, Tony gave them the story of Wanda and her part in Ultron, even showing footage he had found of right before he had taken the scepter. Wanda had confirmed it with a shrug and then gone on to blame Tony for the death of her parents because of a missile that his company had made (and maybe sold legally to a government that was an American ally!). Then she had the nerve to blame him for the death of her brother despite her own part in the creation of the robot. No one pointed out this hypocrisy. No one pointed out that Tony’s intent behind Ultron had been nothing but good while Wanda’s part had been decidedly malevolent. In fact, Steve agreed with the Sokovian girl and then proceeded to tell Tony that he owed to her to help get her out of legal trouble and provide a new home since Tony had destroyed hers (not Ultron, or even the girl who had masterminded the event with her negligent attempt at misguided revenge).
And Sam had simply nodded along like he didn’t know about the guilt that Wanda had heaped on the genius’s shoulders. He simply nodded while Steve stole away Tony’s friends, his family, and replaced the genius with the girl that openly admitted that she not only wanted to kill Stark—she wanted it to be slow and painful. Steve had made Tony hand the girl the keys to the kingdom as the others snidely pointed fingers at him, as if Wanda hadn’t manipulated the entire thing. Sam knew how bad PTSD was, but to add Wanda’s powers with an element of suggestion as well. Tony never stood a chance.
So, Tony stepped back and became nothing but a pocket book. Tony was a pocketbook for Nat, Steve, Wanda, and (he hated to admit his part in it, but . . .) Sam, who all helped Steve in his search for Bucky Barnes. Nat and Steve had known all along they were being funded by a man who still struggled to accept his parents’ death—but his feelings clearly didn’t matter. He was less than a person to them. To Nat, he was a mark. To Steve, he was a resource, and later, a threat. And Sam had condoned every second each time he never stepped up to stop the victim blaming and gas-lighting that he regularly witnessed. Who had he become?
“I’m not sure what you mean, Sam,” Nat replied in that pseudo-therapist voiced she liked to use. Like she mediated shit. Nat didn’t mediate, she manipulated.
“I mean, did you really expect that he was going to provide a place for us to live and work on his dime? Nat, come on. You turned on him, and let Steve and Barnes go to later beat the ever-loving shit out of the man. He got Wanda off the hook for Neo-Nazi terrorism and war crimes after Ultron AND gave her a place to live while we kicked him to the curb so she would be “more comfortable”. Then she sent her boyfriend through several floors and damaged the compound before attacking Stark with a vengeance alongside Steve and us. Did you really think he was going to bother fixing the damage she did? That he would pay for you guys to betray him again and again?”
“Sam, Bucky is innocent. You know this,” Nat tried.
“Yeah. Steve might have mentioned that once . . . or a million times. That doesn’t mean that Stark needs to provide a place for him to live and take care of his every need. What about Stark’s needs?”
“Where is this coming from,” she asked, cocking her head like a confused puppy.
“Be honest, Nat,” Sam sighed. “It’s not ego. It’s self-preservation. We’re the worst things that ever happened to Stark, and it was only a matter of time until he realized it.”
After a moment, Clint spoke up, a frown on his face.
“You know,” he said. “Bruce and Rhodey loved to tell the story of the time that Tony met Thaddeus Ross in a bar. Ross raved about how the place was his favorite and how he went there almost every day to relax and enjoy life. Tony bought the bar and then had it bulldozed as a “Fuck You” to Ross.” Clint turned to look at Nat and Steve. “I got to say, Nat. Sam’s right. Doesn’t sound like ego. Sounds more like a “Fuck You,”