Chapter 80: Rhodey
A/N: In the aftermath of Project Insight, there's really only one man Tony really feels like he has to answer to...
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“Rhodey-Bear!”
The first thing James Rhodes tries to do when he finally finds himself face to face with his best friend is punch him in the face. Key word there being tries, because even as Rhodey’s fist rockets towards Tony’s perfect, smug face, the other man’s hand snaps up and catches it, holding it steady without even breaking a sweat while Rhodey is left with his entire arm trembling for a moment from the reverberations.
“Ah, sorry Rhodey… but you really don’t want to do that. You’d just break your knuckles and then where would we be?”
Rhodey’s eyes widen and he pulls his hand back when Tony lets go of it a moment later. Then, he looks at his best friend… truly looks at him. He doesn’t even try to call Tony’s bluff, mostly because he can tell it’s not a bluff. Instead…
“Tones… what did you do to yourself?”
Tony smiles crookedly, before glancing down at his chest for a moment.
“You’re one of the few who saw it, back in Afghanistan. The thing I had in my chest. Never really explained it, did I?”
Rhodey grimaces at that.
“You don’t have to, Tony. What you went through over there, what you had to do to survive… you don’t owe anyone any explanations.”
His friend nods, but then explains anyways.
“It was an Arc Reactor. Like the large one my dad made that powers the Stark Building, but miniaturized. I perfected the technology. It’s the black boxed energy source behind the Repulsor Tech that I’ve been selling to the US Military all these years. The one you saw in my chest had one singular purpose… a magnet to keep shrapnel from a bomb from reaching my heart and killing me.”
Rhodey’s breath hitches in horror. He can only imagine how reliving this is making Tony feel.
“After I got back to the States, I knew I needed to get it all out. Both the Arc Reactor, because the first element I used for it was poisoning me and slowly killing me, and the shrapnel shards… for obvious reasons. So I started looking into things. I started looking for answers… and I never stopped. What you see before you is how far I’ve come, Rhodey.”
Tony reaches up and puts two fingers through the two inch hole in the chest of his Armani Suit. Rhodey had noticed the hole but hadn’t really understood what it meant.
“Earlier today, Alexander Pierce, Secretary of the World Security Council and secretly one of HYDRA’s leaders, detonated a thermite charge in a security badge I’d pinned to my chest. It burned a hole through this suit, which is lined with bulletproof and knife-resistant fabric, in three seconds flat. It burned a hole all the way through my sternum and my heart, in fact. Would have died… if I hadn’t made myself a whole lot more than human in the past several years.”
He speaks so nonchalantly about it. Like it was no big deal that the Secretary tried to have him assassinated. Mouth dry, Rhodey stares at the hole as Tony plays with it. Finally though, his curiosity overcomes him.
“Why… why not tell me? Why keep this all a secret from me?”
Tony smiles crookedly at that.
“Didn’t want to implicate you, Rhodey.”
What? Rhodey’s look of confusion prompts a sigh and an explanation from Tony.
“Certain biotechnological research is banned in the United States, Rhodey. You’re a Colonel with the United States Air Force. I was trying to spare you having to decide between me or them. No need for you to be torn up over who deserved your loyalty the most if you didn’t know what I was up to.”
That was… a fair point. But then…
“So why are you telling me now?”
Tony raises an eyebrow.
“I assume Captain Carter filled you in on everything as best as she could, yeah?”
Rhodey slowly nods, even if it feels like he still has more questions than answers.
“Well, we won. I’m sure you kind of figured that out given that we’re even able to have this conversation, but still… we won today. HYDRA is no more. The World Security Council has prevailed, albeit with only four of us left alive. As well… the Project Insight Helicarriers are still operational. Currently in orbit above the planet under JARVIS’ control. Basically… if the President wants to kick me out of the country for going transhuman, let him try.”
… Shit.
The implications aren’t lost on Rhodey. What Tony is saying…
“Tony… did you just take over the world?”
Far from getting angry or defensive, his old friend laughs and shakes his head.
“Worse, Rhodey-Bear. I just saved the world. Again. New York was public but contained. Project Insight was private but worldwide. The common person loves me for New York. Thinks I’m a hero or something. But it’s the people in charge who will know how close they came to dying from Project Insight and know that I’m the one who stopped it. It’s the movers and shakers who are starting to pay more attention now.”
Tony shrugs.
“They already knew who I was, of course. Richest man alive, owner of the biggest company in the world. But this… well, this is the next step. Inevitable, really.”
Rhodey’s mouth is dry again. This time for a different reason entirely. However, he’s also starting to get just a little bit angry. Mostly for selfish reasons.
“Is that why you grounded me, Tony? I could have helped you; you know. Against HYDRA and all of them. Instead you had me drugged and kidnapped and shipped out to a farm in Iowa. What the hell, man?”
Looking rather unfazed, Tony just raises an eyebrow in response.
“This wasn’t the kind of fight where you could have helped, Rhodey. Not as War Machine or Colonel Rhodes.”
“Like hell it was!”
Now Tony gets a little angry. He growls and points a finger at Rhodey’s chest.
“Look at the company you found yourself in, Rhodey! Three Super Soldiers, three SHIELD Agents, and you! If you could have helped, don’t you think I would have called in everyone! Instead, I sidelined you. Why do you think that was?!”
So he could carry out his Master Plan, Rhodey almost wants to say. That’s certainly what it feels like. But he can’t bring himself to say it out loud, so he stays silent instead. After a moment, Tony huffs.
“This wasn’t a battle, Rhodey. There were no gunfights until after the fact and even then, those were mercifully short and few and far in between. The moment I found out Pierce ordered your death, I had to move to get you to safety. Same with the others. If he’d found out that any of you were still alive before I was ready to act, he would have known something was up.”
Fair… except for one thing. Rhodey looks meaningfully to the hole in Tony’s suit. In response, Tony rolls his eyes.
“Even then he didn’t know, Rhodey. If he’d known just how much I knew, if he knew even half of what I was capable of, he wouldn’t have settled for a single thermite charge. He thought he was cleaning up loose ends, removing me and JARVIS from the board so him and HYDRA could play with my toys with impunity.”
Hearing Tony call hulking military platforms capable of space orbit and bristling with weapons ‘his toys’ actually serves to set Rhodey a little bit at ease, in spite of how paradoxical that sounds. It’s just… so Tony, really.
“I won’t lie to you, Rhodey. This cloak and daggers shit has killed me. Ever since I found out about HYDRA, it’s been killing me. But I knew it had to happen this way. I knew that the only route was to catch them by surprise. So I did. I got my important people to safety, I got you to safety, and then JARVIS and I took them down. We took them all down.”
It takes a second for the full meaning of that to hit Rhodey.
“… You’re serious.”
Tony nods, suddenly solemn as the grave.
“As a heart attack, Rhodey. The remaining members of the World Security Council signed off on it, but I won’t try to sugarcoat it. I’m one of them. I agreed with them. The Helicarriers might have been rated for space, but not for occupation IN space. JARVIS was able to confirm that every single crewmember was HYDRA, but even still…”
All those people. Dead. Rhodey wishes he could be upset about it, to be honest. But he finds his gaze sliding to Tony’s chest. If Pierce and all of them had succeeded today, then it wouldn’t just be Tony and the rest of the WSC who died. Lots of good, innocent people would have lost their lives.
“You made the right call, Tony.”
His friend looks startled at receiving that support. Reaching out, Rhodey places a hand on the other man’s shoulder, smiling crookedly. In that moment, Rhodey realizes… he’s not afraid of Tony. Even now. He might have been scared for a moment by something he was projecting onto his best friend, but the truth was… Tony Stark was still the same man as he always was. He was even beating himself up over taking out some terrorist trash.
“I’m still pissed I couldn’t be involved, but you did it all the same. You saved the day. And you might try to be a cynic about it, say that you’re going to use it to escape the consequences of whatever illegal shit you’ve done to yourself… but the fact is, people are alive today because of you.”
“People are dead because of me too, Rhodey.”
Shaking his head, Rhodey huffs.
“Terrorists, Tony. Not people. Terrorists.”
His friend hesitates for a moment like he wants to argue the point before finally nodding. Which is good because frankly, HYDRA deserved to be wiped out. Every last one of them. Not just for trying to take over the world, but for how they’d used his friend. Used and then tried to discard like Tony was some broken tool they no longer needed. It’s enough to make Rhodey’s jaw clench in anger, but he forges ahead all the same.
“What happens next, Tones? What’s the end goal here?”
Tony glances off into the distance.
“… The World Security Council and SHIELD could have died today. Even if HYDRA was still defeated, beaten at the last second somehow, it still could have all come crumbling down. But it hasn’t. Instead the WSC is poised to be in a stronger position than ever before and so is SHIELD. And the world will be with it. That’s the end goal, Rhodey. That’s what I’m working towards, what I’ve always been working towards.”
That gives Rhodey some pause. Not the United States. But the world.
“Tony… what do you think is coming for us?”
Looking back at him, Tony’s gaze intensifies.
“It’s not what I think, Rhodey. It’s what I know. When I flew that nuke through the portal over New York City, I saw them. An entire fleet of spaceships. Blew them the hell up too, but that was just one alien armada. What about the next one?”
Tony pauses for only a moment before huffing and shaking his head.
“Hell, I got dragged over to Asgard last year and had to help the All-Father himself along with his Crown Prince fight off a bunch of Space Elves who were invading their home as well. They only had one big ship and a bunch of smaller fighter craft and Asgard has been around for over five thousand years. And yet, the amount of damage they were able to do sends shivers down my spine.”
Reaching up, Tony grabs the arm that Rhodey has stretched out so he can hold onto Tony’s shoulder. He squeezes it for support.
“We’re not ready, Rhodey. Not yet. The Earth isn’t ready for the sort of shitshow that could come down on us at any moment. Infighting, power-grubbing dictators, global conspiracies like HYDRA… we’re squabbling with each other like children when we should be looking outwards, for the next big threat that could wipe out our civilization with a snap of their fingers.”
He punctuates his statement with a snap of his own fingers, and the action combined with the seriousness in Tony’s voice sends fresh shivers down James Rhodes’ spine. He likes to think himself a rather courageous man. Certainly not cowardly. But the shit Tony is talking about…
“I could have taken over the world today, Rhodey. Where HYDRA failed, I could have easily succeeded. But I’m not HYDRA. Still, I’m not going to let the human race wrestle in the mud with one another any longer. I’m going to do everything I can to prepare humanity for what comes next. Honestly, if today doesn’t wake up the Powers That Be, I don’t know what will.”
Rhodey snorts at that, giving Tony a wry look.
“Tony… you’re the Powers That Be now. I don’t think it’ll be as hard to convince them to play nice as you think.”
His friend looks weary then.
“I don’t want to be a dictator, Rhodey-Bear. I don’t want to hold them at gunpoint and force them to do what I say.”
Grinning, Rhodey nods and then pulls Tony into a hug. He can tell the action surprises his friend for a moment, but after a beat Tony relaxes and returns the hug.
“I know Tony. That’s why you’re the best man for the job.”
“… Thank you, Rhodey.”
When they pull apart, however, Tony gives him a grin.
“Wanna join me and Pepper on the transhuman train, by any chance? Could make you a Super Soldier capable of regenerating from any wound in mere minutes and all it would take was a single injection.”
Jesus. Rhodey wants to say yes, of course he does. But…
“I’m an USAF Colonel, Tony. They screen us pretty regularly, and I get medical checkups every time I come back from a mission in the suit. Not sure that would go over so well, man.”
Tony frowns at that… no, actually, he scowls.
“Then come work for me. Specifically, come work for the World Security Council and the United Nations. I’m sure we can make it happen. Bring War Machine under the WSC’s umbrella, bring you under the WSC directly. No more listening to Generals, no more taking orders from some men with more medals than sense. And you could have as much power as you need to be safe. To be strong.”
God it’s tempting. Very, very tempting. But Rhodey is a patriot. Always has been. He loves his best friend, but he’s loyal to his country above all else. And yeah, sure that might sound like it runs counter to everything they just talked about, but James Rhodes doesn’t think so. He can’t really imagine a world in which the United States doesn’t help lead the charge towards unification and global defense against potential alien threats.
Regardless of what Tony plans for the future, Rhodey fully expects the US to be right there at Tony’s back, supporting him every step of the way. Would Rhodey love to be the first black Super Soldier? Of course he fucking would. But he swore an oath. And that takes precedent.
But he can’t just say all of that. Instead, Rhodey gives Tony a weak smile.
“… Let me think about it for a little bit and I’ll get back to you?”
Smiling a knowing, regretful smile right back, Tony nods and takes a step back.
“Sure buddy, of course.”
-x-X-x-
As he and Rhodey part ways after that, Tony tries not to feel too guilty. He did just manipulate one of his closest friends, however. Turning Rhodey around to his way of thinking, convincing the man of what had to be done. He’d watched as Rhodey went from angry and a little fearful to convinced of Tony’s reluctant heroism and strong morality in record time.
Even the offer to turn Rhodey into a Super Soldier was one Tony knew would almost certainly be rejected. Though if the President found out, Tony suspected that the ban on biotechnology that had so thoroughly pained Aldritch Killian in the previous timeline would suddenly have several exceptions… Rhodey among them, more than likely.
Still, for all that Tony knew he wasn’t a hero, it still stung a little bit, having to do all those mental gymnastics to keep Rhodey on his side. At the end of the day though, Colonel James Rhodes was simply made of stronger moral fiber than Anthony Edward Stark.
… Nothing for it, in the end. Tony would do whatever he had to in order to ensure his precious people were safe and Thanos was defeated with a minimal loss of life. Up to and including lying to those precious people when necessary.
At least Rhodey was the only one of his kidnappees that he’d felt the need to meet with personally. Everyone else, he’d be hearing about from Peggy. In fact, it was just about time for her to debrief him on the three SHIELD Agents he’d gone out on a limb to save…
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A/N: Tony and Rhodey's relationship probably won't ever be what it once was, but they'll always be bros nevertheless.
Next time, Peggy debriefing!