What happened after Ultron, before CW?
Tony sighed and smiled as he walked into the Compound where Rhodey stood waiting. Rhodey slapped him on the back and congratulated Tony, who was being steadied by Happy at his side.
“Hey, what’s up,” Steve asked, coming up to the trio with a big smile on his face.
“Well, I’m finally out. Proved my innocence in the Ultron incident,” Tony said with a sigh of relief.
“Oh, uh. Great. What do you mean out? And how’d you do that,” Steve said with wide eyes. Tony had a lot of connections, but Steve didn’t see how he was going to cover up something THIS big!
Tony stared, his mouth hanging open.
“Steve, I’ve been in prison for the last six months!”
Steve suddenly noticed just how the genius looked. Tony had dark circles under his eyes. His beard was completely grown in and his hair was a bit scruffy as well. He also looked quite thin, like he’d been under a lot of stress.
“You went to prison,” Steve asked, shocked.
“What did you think was going to happen after Ultron?! And with so much loss of life and property damage as well as my obvious wealth, there was no way they were going to let me out on bail. I was too big a flight risk,” Tony replied.
“Oh, well. That makes sense, I guess” Steve replied with a grimace. “So how’d you convince them it wasn’t your fault,” Steve asked as if he hadn’t just implied that Tony was guilty of some sort of cover up.
Rhodey and Happy glared, while Tony’s mouth continued to hang open.
“Um, because I DIDN’T do it! The Ultron program had been scrapped, and I had no intention of going back to it. It was just too big in terms of scale for where I am with AI’s, but something was just niggling me to try again AND to use the scepter this time. It was almost like a compulsion—though not quite. More like my fear of another invasion was so overwhelming that I was willing to take any risk, sacrifice anything to protect everyone,” Tony shuddered.
“That’s terrible Tony, but I don’t see how that means you’re innocent of Ultron,” Steve said, crossing his arms and looking at Tony judgmentally.
“It wouldn’t, but it did make me think about when, if ever, I have reactions like that. I’ve been getting them since New York when I went through the portal, but there’s always been a trigger in the past to set me off. I’ve been getting treatment,” Tony shrugged in embarrassment.
“Makes sense,” Wilson said as he walked up with Natasha.
“It is what it is,” Tony smiled shyly, not used to the rapid changes in his life from SHIELD to New York, the Mandarin, and now Ultron. He was trying to be better, do better, but he just couldn’t keep up. “Anyways, I kept thinking that it all led back to an episode that I had at Strucker’s base. From that moment there was something that just made taking the scepter seem RIGHT, and that I just HAD to do more. Hence, rejuvenating and rushing through the Ultron project and looking at how the scepter—alien tech that I’m completely unfamiliar with, man, even I know that’s a no-no—could address the issues we were having.”
By now, Clint had wandered up as well, though he was looking at the genius skeptically.
“Anyways, you guys know that Pepper has been—pretty mad about everything, but when push comes to shove, she always comes through. We talked about my thought processes and she even went to my therapist with a note from me giving permission to discuss my treatment and case. They both agreed that something would have had to trigger me to react like that.
So, Pepper had the security team we were with that day look through the files that we retrieved, and there was security footage as well. There’s video of that Maximoff girl messing with my head, me reacting, and then her and her brother standing by while I take the scepter.
Her brother even asked why they didn’t try to kill me instead of letting me take it. After reviewing the video and my therapist’s remarks about how I’m to the point where only major triggers cause the type of reaction I displayed—well, there really wasn’t a case against me after that. Ultron simply wasn’t ready for an interface, and if her interference and the scepter weren’t added into the situation, it would have stayed right where I had it—in the scrapheap. Ultron never would have gone online. It all added up to a tragic accident, and the only one with real intent was the Hydra terrorist,” Tony shrugged.
“No! It’s your fault! YOUR FAULT!”
Tony jumped as everyone turned to the doorway where Wanda Maximoff stood in a housecoat and slippers, drinking a latte.
“WHAT’S SHE DOING HERE,” Tony screeched.
“She lives here,” Steve said in surprise.
“SINCE WHEN?!”
“Well, after her home was destroyed she needed a place to stay. She helped us,” Steve shrugged.
“She helped you? She caused the whole thing in the first place!”
“You killed my parents, and you’re the reason my brother is dead, my home destroyed,” she screamed, red beginning to glow around her fingers.
“What are you talking about? I don’t even know what you’re talking about?!”
Wanda proceeded to sob out the whole tale of how her parents were bombed during a Sokovian Civil War. How she and her brother had laid in the remains of her home waiting to die. How they had decided to get revenge and joined Hydra to destroy Stark, and the Avengers were just Hydra-flavored icing on the cake.
“Wait—you’re saying he designed a weapon, and so you decided to get revenge on him and not the ones who fired the bomb,” Sam asked, confused.
“Well, he did make it,” Steve shrugged.
“Um, just to interrupt, but the designs she’s talking about were not mine. I’ve only made the really high-tech, newer stuff. Those designs, for weapons provided for American allies, would have been dad’s—Howard’s” Tony added when Sam stared blankly alongside Steve. “Otherwise they were part of the stock that Obadiah was selling illegally and tried to kill me for.”
“And Tony’s worked tirelessly to get any weapons that Obadiah sold back. You might have noticed that when he was almost blown up, his response was to do everything he could to be better and fix things. Whereas witchy over there apparently decided to respond by becoming a Nazi and sticking a loaded gun capable of world annihilation into the hand of someone who recently got major PTSD from saving the world. Are you seriously judging him and sympathizing with her,” Rhodey asked, turning to Steve angrily.
“He’s right,” Sam said, looking at Steve uneasily. “She can’t say that she expected anything good to happen by sending him on his way with the scepter after working to give him lasting panic.”
“Or the Hulk! She set the Hulk loose on a major city with a Hulking case of PTSD! (“What? Sam yelled). It doesn’t even matter. Why is she here?”
“Like I said, she needed a place to stay,” Steve said harshly, crossing his arms.
“How about jail? That’s where I was staying. And none of this even accounts for the crimes she committed while she worked for Hydra. They surely didn’t have her and her brother sitting on their thumbs that whole time,” Tony cried.
“I only did that because you made me,” she screeched.
“He didn’t MAKE you become a terrorist and submit to experimental human testing to try to get revenge. That’s on you, sweetheart. None of this matters. Tony’s here because he was exonerated. The whole sordid story has been released to the public now, and the authorities are looking for Maximoff. No one knew you had her sitting here in the lap of luxury, living off Tony’s dime while he was in prison,” Rhodey said angrily. “It’s time to pay the piper, princess.”
*****
Ultron Transcript:
Tony: Thor, I got eyes on the prize.
[Wanda creeps up behind him and uses her powers on him, suddenly the Chitauri comes to life, then Stark sees the rest of the Avengers team are all dead, he goes over to Steve's body to check his pulse when Steve suddenly grabs him]
Steve: You could have saved us.
[Steve dies but Stark continues to hear Steve's voice in his head]
Steve: Why didn't you do more?
[Stark sees that he is in the Chitauri realm, that's when he snaps back and we realize Wanda had used her mind powers on him]
[Wanda and Pietro watch as Tony grabs the scepter]
Pietro Maximoff: We're just gonna let them take it?
[Wanda smiles to herself as Tony takes the scepter]