Too Little Too Late

Tony Stark 02

Tony didn't start his story with the civil war. They needed context first. He explained how he had met Natasha during a difficult moment in his life. They had all seen the spy injecting him with something. They could do with knowing why and when. He didn't lie. Back then, his ego really needed to be checked. They didn't know back then that Senator Stern, the man who wanted the Iron Man technology to be given to the United States of America, would end up being a Hydra agent. So yes, Tony was acting like the arse the media liked him to be. To be fair, he was dying. The arc reactor was killing him. To remove it also meant death. Talk about being between a rock and a hard place.

So again, Natasha injected him with something without his consent, without knowing his medical past, not knowing if it would actually work all the while calling him out for his recent behaviour. Maybe he deserved that. Maybe Shield could have been forward with him and helped before things went too far. Rhodey snickered at that. As if the darkest shadow agency would do anything out of the goodness of their hearts, without manipulations or without expecting something in return. That much was true. Tony was a genius. He should have known that he really should have kept them as far as he could from him and his loved ones. Unfortunately, Shield was everywhere.

Then Loki came to New York. Tony finally met the great Captain America. The man Howard was always looking for, leaving his own son behind. It didn't go well. From the very start, they didn't get along. And again, Tony accepted that he was a difficult person to handle. Steve had most probably been fed Natasha's stellar report that had been made during his dying moments. Captain America mentioned having seen the footage. What video was that? Tony didn't know but with hindsight now, he would say that it was most probably one showing him on his worst behaviour. Shield knew that Howard had always compared his son to Rogers. Even when Tony built his first circuit board at four years old. He wasn't and would never be as good as the great and unique Captain America. Tony would certainly want to prove his dad wrong even from beyond the grave.

Tony was trying to be fair. He wasn't without faults. Steve and he were just polar opposites. One being from the past, the other always looking into the future. Some values of the good old days couldn't be applied anymore. A time when homosexuality was rewarded with arrests, beatings and imprisonments. Women were allowed to vote thankfully but were mainly still stuck in the more "traditional" roles such as mothers, of course, nurses or secretaries. As for Black People, racial segregation was still in full application. Even now a lot had to be done regarding those matters. Still it was a lot better than in the forties.

And then Steve made that comment about "only one god" existing when going after Loki and Thor and boy, that was a bag of cats that Tony didn't want to touch with a ten-foot pole. He didn't believe in god per say and they had living proof that at the very least, two of the Norse deities were real, even if they were just powerful aliens. True, everybody is allowed to believe in what they want. Tony would not deny that to anybody even if, as a scientist, he couldn't buy it. Still Thor and Loki made him reconsider what he held as the truth. Steve would never.

Steve was the most stubborn, pig-headed guy he had ever known. That was saying something considering he was very headstrong himself. Tony should have known the other would not change his mind. Ever. They faked the friendship, he guessed but the opinion Steve had of Tony never really changed from that first impression on the helicarrier. It became clear to Tony when none of that boy band team even asked if he was really dead. Of course, he wasn't. He had been hiding in Tennessee in Harley's garage. The kid smiled brightly at that.

Then Captain America dumped all Shield's files on the internet without consulting the tech guy. But Fury and Romanov agreed to that plan so why attempt to sort out the info to try to find and then spare the real agents from the moles? Shield wasn't all Hydra. Only about thirty percent. And for that matter why not call the brain behind the propulsion engines, you know, just in case he would know a way to land safely the three helicarriers? "Naaaah... let's just drop them on D.C. that'll be all better!" Tony wished that whatever Steve and Shield thought about him, they would get past that to save the maximum lives.