Rosie had been really happy when she'd gotten a message from Shuri that Jake was almost well enough to come back home. She'd said that he was responding well to the treatment the Wakandan doctors were providing and the tech that Rosie had helped make before she left was proving quite helpful.

She grinned proudly, remembering the device she had come up with, which hacked into a person's hippocampus to help clear traumatic memories. It was an idea she'd been trying to make a reality for a long time, but it was too expensive to try and manufacture in America. Shuri had managed to modify it, combining it with the medical and technological advancements of Wakanda to make a cheaper, more practical version of it.

Shuri had also forwarded the data and scenes they had managed to recover from Jake's memory, with a note saying that they were obtained painlessly without Jake having to relive the painful moments of them.

She had immediately jumped at the new intel and had found quite a few agents that were still at large, many of them working in governments all over the world. Rosie had run facial-recognition on many of the people visible in Jake's memories and once she got their names, hacked into databases and personal records to find dirt on them.

After that, she forwarded everything she had found on the agents to their higher-ups in the government who she knew were not HYDRA. Within days of the team being gone on their big mission, she had managed to expose and get a number of HYDRA agents arrested.

Rosie cackled evilly when she read the next name. 'Thaddeus Ross, Secretary of State, USA.' Ross was going to pay for what he had done to Bruce and dozens of other mutants. Yes, she had heard about the Raft Prison, and dug up files on it, horrified by the measures put in place there to keep mutants 'under control'. Shock collars, manacles, straitjackets, temperature control, drugs in their food. It was horrifying.

Incensed, she began collecting every scrap of data she could find on Ross, during which she found out that he had been spotted in the same vicinity as one Helmut Zemo, also HYDRA. There was no footage or proof that they had met, but the two men being in the same city at the same time was enough to raise her suspicions. Neither was dumb enough to meet where cameras could see them, but her gut told her that they were plotting something.

It was only after sighting Zemo in Lagos where the team's latest mission had gone awry, that she managed to realise what the two were planning.

"Hey Maria? I've got some disturbing news."

CLINT BARTON'S POV:

Clint was close to dozing off in his seat during the debriefing, having had close to no rest at all for the last few days. Their mission in Nigeria had gone south and had ended up in a chase through the streets of Lagos. At the end, one of the weapon smugglers had set off a bomb in the middle of a street. Wanda had immediately used her powers to contain the blast and was in the process of levitating it high enough for the explosion to not affect anyone when another smuggler somehow shot her.

A bullet had hit her shoulder, another one tearing through her calf and she had collapsed, her hold on the bomb disappearing. It had exploded about thirty feet in the air, demolishing most of a nearby office building. Wanda had been taken to a hospital, while the rest of the team helped in search and rescue at the downed building. They had been helping pull people and bodies out of the rubble for the last three days and Clint was utterly exhausted. Everyone had gathered in the debriefing room in S.H.I.E.L.D, covered in ash, dust and blood, barely able to stand.

The only ones doing the actual talking were Steve and another Level 11 agent who was in charge of the S.H.I.E.L.D teams doing cleanup, which Clint was thankful for. The memories from the aftermath of the mission were haunting him and his head was so cloudy that he had no way of differentiating between his nightmares and reality. He gratefully followed an agent who showed him to the Medbay and Clint happily collapsed on a bed, falling asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, ignoring the doctors coming to patch him up.

Clint was shaken awake after what seemed like no time and he opened his eyes to be assaulted by a bright light. "Ugghh..." He groaned, blinking his eyes. A head popped up in his vision, blocking some of the light and Clint recognised the particular shade of red hair. "Nat? Whassamatter?" He asked, still groggy from lack of sleep.

"We're wanted in the meeting room."

"Now?"

"Five minutes ago. Get your ass off that bed, Barton."

She splashed water in his face and Clint reluctantly got up, grumbling all the way to the meeting room. He settled down in his usual chair and grabbed an energy bar from the bowl on the table, looking around as he ate. Everyone else who had been on that disaster of a mission were there, including Wanda who was in a wheelchair with an IV pole attached to it. Her leg and shoulder were bandaged and she looked a little pale, but smiled at him when he caught her eye.

The door to the meeting room opened and a man strode in, acting as if he owned the place. Tony obviously recognised him, for he scowled darkly and looked ready to murder the guy who was in his mid fifties or so, with greying hair and wearing a military issue tailored suit. Clint recognised it as being quite similar to the ones Colonel Rhodes wore.

"Mr. Secretary." Natasha said. Clint realised who the man was and felt the urge to join Tony in his I'm-gonna-murder-you club. It was General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, Secretary of State. Ross had been obsessed with capturing the Hulk and had nearly killed Bruce on various occasions, even going so far as to recreate the experiments on another man to give him the ability to fight the Hulk. This incident had caused widespread outrage at the time, with Ross' man going rogue within days of discovering his new abilities.

If Ross was here, it didn't mean anything good. Clint stared at the screen one of Ross' lackeys was setting up, his expression unreadable. The Secretary began his little speech, "Five years ago, I had a heart attack. I dropped right in the middle of my back-swing. Turned out it was the best round of my life, because after 13 hours of surgery and a triple bypass . . . I found something 40 years in the Army had never taught me: Perspective. The world owes the Avengers an un-payable debt. You have fought for us, protected us, risked your lives . . . but while a great many people see you as heroes, there are some . . . who would prefer the word "vigilantes"."

"What would you prefer?" Nat asked, her voice low and threatening.

"How about "dangerous"? What would you call a group of US-based, enhanced individuals who routinely ignore sovereign borders and inflict their will wherever they choose and who, frankly, seem unconcerned about what they leave behind?"

Clint hid a flinch as scenes from their battles began playing on the screen. New York, Sokovia and their latest disaster in Lagos. Wanda physically shrank back as the footage showed the bomb bringing down the building and the paramedics carrying out the injured. Steve must have also noticed that, for he snapped, "Okay. That's enough."

Ross shrugged, before continuing, "For the past few years, you've operated with unlimited power and no supervision. That's an arrangement the governments of the world can no longer tolerate. But I think we have a solution. The Sokovia Accords." He slid a thick document over to Colonel Rhodes. Clint looked at it in revulsion. The damn thing had to be at least a thousand pages long, if not more.

"Approved by 117 countries-"

A familiar voice from outside the room finished for him. "It states that the Avengers shall no longer be a private organization. Instead, they'll operate under the supervision of a United Nations panel, only when and if that panel deems it necessary."

Maria Hill walked into the room, a woman Clint assumed was some kind of secretary following her, clutching a big stack of papers in her hands. The secretary moved around the table, placing small booklets in front of each of them while Maria talked. "The Sokovia Accords were never approved by a hundred and eleven countries. These ideas were merely suggested a short while after the Ultron Incident and temporarily considered by worried representatives from all those countries, but they never reached fruition."

"What are these?" Clint asked, holding up the booklet.

"Condensed copies of the Accords to help them understand what they're getting into if they sign."

Ross did not look very happy with that, causing alarm bells to ring in Clint's head. It was obvious the man had other intentions when he had thrust the Accords on them. He opened the booklet in front of him and began to skim through it, not seeing anything too bad, until-

"You were going to reduce us to your slaves!" Tony exclaimed, glaring at Ross. He was seething with anger and Clint could see the billionaire's hand twitch towards his watch which had a miniature repulsor. Clint couldn't blame the man after he heard what Ross was trying to do; he was itching to get his hands on his bow and teach the Secretary a lesson he wouldn't forget soon.

"Nonsense. Mr. Stark, you are mist-"

"I don't think I am, Mr. Secretary. There is a multi-billion dollar company there that has my name on it. I've read my fair share of legal contracts and I know underhanded phrasing when I see it." Tony growled. "I can see thinly-veiled mentions of registration and containment of enhanced individuals, veto power on actions of the Avengers and transfer of decision-making authority during missions to the government."

"You are overthinking this-"

"Do you really want to finish that sentence, Mr. Secretary?" Natasha asked, her voice low and threatening, "I'm quite familiar with legal phraseology as well and I know for a fact that you were trying to make us into attack dogs to further your own interests."

While Ross angrily sputtered, the secretary spoke for the first time in a soft tone that contrasted with her harsh words, "Agent Romanoff is right. I was one of the many people that analysed the original unapproved version of the Accords and we were able to find a number of scattered clauses and sub-clauses which directed a transfer of power from the UN to the body that handle the foreign affairs of the country the individuals are based out of..."

Maria continued, "What Miss Parr is trying to convey is that the Avengers are based out of the USA, so-"

"-you would take over as Secretary of State." Tony finished with a hint of disgust in his voice, "You were planning on us not reading between the lines and finding the fine print-"

"-and not being able to comprehend the legalise, you would end up making drastically different decisions that would eventually tear the team apart." A new voice spoke and Clint nearly fell out of his seat in shock. The screen was now displaying a video call from the fricking President of the US!

"I must say, Thaddeus, this leads me to believe that you've got your own agenda that is definitely not in the interest of the country, or the world as a whole. Rest assured, Gentlemen and Ladies-" he nodded to Natasha and Wanda, "-the US Government does not support this version of the Accords, but we do wish to see some form of settlement or agreement between yourselves and us. I hope to work with you to make them acceptable to both parties."

"Of course, Mr. President. We would be honoured." Steve said, standing up in respect.

"Good. I would also like to commend your efforts in the clean-up operations during the last few days and I wish you a speedy recovery, Miss Maximoff. Agents?"

A swarm of men in tactical gear flooded the room, converging on Ross. Clint hid a grin as he watched the Secretary get frog-marched out by the men, angrily yelling threats. An agent was following them, reading out his rights. The President spoke again, "Director Hill? How did you know that Secretary Ross' had connections with HYDRA?"