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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟓
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇 𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐈𝐂𝐄𝐒

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After the Secretary left, Charlie found herself still sitting in her chair with her arms crossed over her chest. Her mouth stayed sealed shut as her thoughts bounced off the walls of her head. She occasionally glanced over at Steve to try and read the look on his face, only to find his expression blank as he read through the Sokovia Accords. As Sam and Rhodey's argument continued to fill the silence that surrounded them, the speech that they just heard replayed in the archer's head. No matter how hard she tried to find a valid reason to actually sign the agreements, she failed every single time.

"Secretary Ross has a Congressional Medal of Honor...which is one more than you have," Rhodey retaliated against Sam's previous statement while the rest of them continued to sit in silence.

"So let's say we agree to this thing," the Wilson man responded with an annoyed look on his face and his arms crossed over his chest, "how long is it gonna be before they LoJack us like a bunch of common criminals?"

"117 countries want to sign this. 117, Sam, and you're, just like, 'no, that's cool. We got it.'"

"How long are you gonna play both sides?"

"I have an equation," Vision announced, interrupting their argument and drawing everyone's attention to him.

"Oh, this'll clear it up," Sam sighed while he turned around to face the red and silver man.

"In the eight years since Mr. Stark announced himself as Iron Man, the number of known enhanced persons has grown exponentially. During the same period, the number of potentially world-ending events has risen at a commensurate rate."

"Are you saying it's our fault?" Steve questioned after pausing mid-page to look at the Synthezoid.

"I'm saying there may be a causality. Our very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict. And conflict...breeds catastrophe. Oversight...oversight is not an idea that can be dismissed out of hand."

"Boom," Rhodey muttered under his breath as he turned his head to look at Sam.

After she took in the information that Vision just gave them, Charlie glanced over at Wanda, only to find her looking back at the Barton girl with an unreadable expression on her face. The two girls just stared at each other before Nat called out to Tony, drawing everyone's attention toward the Stark Man.

"You're being uncharacteristically non-hyperverbal," the redheaded woman said without taking her eyes off the billionaire.

"It's because he's already made up his mind," Steve stated while finally letting go of the page that was between his fingers as he looked over at the billionaire.

"Boy, you know me so well," Tony scoffed before getting to his feet and walking into the kitchen, "actually, I'm nursing an electromagnetic headache. That's what's going on, Cap. It's just pain. It's discomfort," he paused his response and looked down into the sink then let out an irritated sigh, "who's putting coffee grounds into the disposal? Am I running a bed and breakfast for a biker gang?"

The Barton girl rolled her eyes at Tony before she watched him pull out his phone to project an image of a man who looked a bit older than her. The Iron Man studied the image for a long moment then let out another long breath and turned his attention away from the screen. An uncomfortable silence filled the room as everyone waited for the brunette man to speak before he pointed at the picture as if he didn't know it was there.

"Oh, that's Charles Spencer, by the way. He's a great kid. Computer engineering degree, 3.6 GPA, had a floor-level gig at Intel planned for the fall. But, first, he wanted to put a few miles on his soul before he parked it behind a desk. See the world. Maybe be of service. Charles didn't want to go to Vegas or Fort Lauderdale, which is what I would do. He didn't go to Paris or Amsterdam, which sounds fun. He decided to spend his summer building sustainable housing for the poor. Guess where. Sokovia. He wanted to make a difference, I suppose. We won't know because we dropped a building on him while we were kicking *ss."

Tony paused his rant to take a sip of his coffee then he turned his full attention back to his allies sitting across the room, "there's no decision-making process here. We need to be put in check! Whatever form that takes, I'm game. If we can't accept limitations, if we're boundary-less, we're no better than the bad guys."

"Tony, if someone dies on your watch, you don't give up," Steve retaliated while glancing over at Charlie in the process before he looked back at the billionaire. A small wave of irritation washed over the Barton girl at the many hints the Man Out of Time dropped since she got there before she quickly suppressed it.

"Who said we're giving up?" the Stark man questioned, drawing the archer's attention away from Steve.

"We are if we're not taking responsibility for our actions. This document just shifts the blame."

"I'm sorry, Steve. That...that is dangerously arrogant," Rhodey chimed in without even attempting to hide the annoyance on his face, "this is the United Nations we're talking about. It's not the World Security Council, it's not S.H.I.E.L.D., it's not HYDRA-"

"No, but it's run by people with agendas, and agendas change," he defended his thoughts while everyone else in the room watched their exchange with blank expressions on their faces.

"That's good. That's why I'm here," Tony told the Rogers man after he left the kitchen and his coffee behind to join everyone at the table again, "when I realized what my weapons were capable of in the wrong hands, I shut it down and stopped manufacturing."

"Tony, you chose to do that. If we sign this, we surrender our right to choose," Steve stated, making Charlie realize exactly why she was having so many conflicting thoughts over the Sokovia Accords, "what if this panel sends us somewhere we don't think we should go? What if there's somewhere we need to go and they don't let us? We may not be perfect, but the safest hands are still our own."

"If we don't do this now, it's gonna be done to us later. That's a fact. That won't be pretty."

"You are saying they will come for me," Wanda said while Charlie went back to staring at her intertwined hands resting on the table.

"We would protect you," Vision told her without an ounce of hesitation in his voice.

"Maybe Tony's right," Natasha sighed, causing the Barton girl to look up at her former mentor in shock before the spy continued speaking, "if we have one hand on the wheel, we can still steer. If we take it off..."

"Aren't you the same woman who told the government to kiss her *ss a few years ago?" Sam asked the same question that was running through Charlie's head.

"I'm just...I'm reading the terrain," the Romanoff woman retaliated with a hint of uncertainty in her voice, "we have made some very public mistakes. We need to win their trust back."

"Focus up. I'm sorry. Did I just mishear you...or did you just agree with me?" Tony questioned as he placed his hands on the table in front of him to get to eye level with Natasha.

"Oh, I want to take it back now."

"No, you can't retract it. Thank you. Unprecedented," Tony told her before Charlie watched his eyes move away from the redheaded spy and land on her. The Stark man just studied her then finally opened his mouth to speak. "You look like you have something to say, Katniss."

The Barton girl's body involuntarily tensed as everyone's attention moved toward her. She let the silence fill the air for a long moment before letting out a long sigh. "I'm just a spectator."

"No, no. Your opinion matters, too."

"Fine," the young archer scoffed while ignoring the looks from everyone around her as she sat up straighter in her chair, "I agree with Steve and Sam. There is no way I'm signing that. It's just trying to keep us from doing our jobs and, like Steve said earlier, it's taking away our ability to choose what we do."

"Can you elaborate a bit more?" Tony questioned, causing the irritation that was running through her veins to increase.

"My mom and brother were taken from me because my dad got on someone's bad side. Instead of going out on another mission, like he was told to do, he chose to come home early. If he didn't make that choice, I probably wouldn't be here either. If they let him make that choice earlier, my mom and Asher might still be alive," Charlie hesitated for a moment as she glanced over at Wanda while continuing to ignore everyone else's stares, "Pietro...Pietro chose to give up his life so that boy and I could make it out of that crumbling mess. Our choices matter, Tony, and we're gonna lose a lot more people if you take that away."

Once she finished explaining her thoughts, the Barton girl got to her feet and walked out of the room. Charlie ignored the sound of her name being called by multiple people she left behind as she made her way toward the exit of the Avengers Facility.

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After calling an Uber to pick her up, the archer sat in the backseat in silence while she stared out the window. Her thoughts were littered with everything that occurred moments ago as her fingers fiddled with the sparrow charm and dog tags hanging from her neck. While they drove through the streets of New York, her eyes spotted the spirit of Pietro popping up more times than he usually would, causing her blood to run cold before she turned her attention away from the window. Charlie said a quick "thank you" to the driver after they reached her apartment before closing the door and making her way inside the building.

As she rode the elevator up to her floor, she read over the many text messages she received from the Avengers she left behind. Her eyes never left the screen until she heard the ding signaling she reached her floor then she left the elevator and walked down the hall. When she entered her apartment, the Barton girl found Alex sitting alone on the couch with a bag of popcorn and soda in hand. A small smile made its way onto Charlie's face at the sight of the girl acting like a normal teenager before it slowly faded when she saw she was watching the news story of Lagos.

"I can't believe they've been covering this for a month," the Easton girl scoffed as the older girl sat down on the couch next to her, "isn't there something else going on in the world?"

"An Avenger making a mistake that cost lives is pretty big," Charlie responded after watching the footage of Wanda sending Rumlow into the building, "not much else could top that."

"Did anything exciting happen at your meeting with the Avengers?"

After sitting on the couch in silence for another moment, the Barton girl let out a long sigh before reaching for the remote to turn off the TV. Alex's eyebrows furrowed together as she turned her head to give Charlie her full attention before the latter told her exactly what happened not even an hour ago.

"Wait. So if you don't sign it, you can't go back to being a hero if you wanted to?" she questioned after hearing all the details about the Sokovia Accords.

"Basically...but I'm not signing it. If I did, I'd never be able to get out," the archer told the speedster before letting out another long breath then continued speaking, "I'm not gonna tell you what to do, Alex. All I'm saying is, think hard about the decision."

"But won't they make me sign it?"

"How could they?" Charlie said as a small smile appeared on her face while she studied the confused girl sitting next to her, "other than my father and Peter, no one outside of this room knows you exist."

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