Chapter 204: Crack
Tony finished speaking and looked toward Bruce.
Bruce gave a slow nod.
"I'll sign as well."
His voice was calm.
"For essentially the same reason."
"Regulation won't be perfect. No system ever is."
"But complete freedom for people capable of destroying cities is more dangerous."
He glanced at the document.
"If the Accords are adopted, Wayne Enterprises will support the legal and administrative work necessary to implement the framework."
Steve listened without interrupting.
His gaze remained on the document lying before him.
His fingers traced the edge of page forty-seven, the section dealing with authorization for international operations.
After a moment, he looked up.
"I have a question."
Tony gestured for him to continue.
Steve's voice remained controlled.
"Suppose there's a massacre somewhere."
"The United Nations refuses to authorize intervention because the political situation is complicated."
"What do we do?"
"Stand here and watch?"
Tony's lips parted.
"That's hypothetical."
Steve immediately answered.
"Genocide isn't hypothetical."
The room became quieter.
"Rwanda."
"1994."
"The international community knew what was happening."
"Yet the response was catastrophically inadequate."
Steve's eyes moved across the table.
"Roughly eight hundred thousand people were murdered in approximately one hundred days."
"If we'd had people capable of stopping it..."
"Would we really want them waiting for permission?"
Tony's fingers stopped tapping.
"So you're saying we shouldn't sign."
"I'm saying the agreement takes away our ability to make a decision when time matters."
Bruce leaned forward.
"And how do you know your decision will always be correct?"
Steve looked directly at him.
"I don't."
"But at least I can make it."
"If someone is dying in front of me, I don't want to wait for a committee to decide whether I'm authorized to save them."
Bruce's expression remained unreadable.
"The price of unchecked intervention was more than six thousand dead in Sokovia."
Steve did not deny it.
Because it was true.
But he also did not retreat.
"If you believe signing is the right decision..."
"I won't stop you."
Steve stood.
"But I won't sign."
Clark finally raised his head.
He had remained silent throughout most of the discussion.
"The Captain has a point."
"So does Bruce."
Everyone turned toward him.
Clark rested one hand on the treaty.
"I've seen governments at their best."
"And I've seen them fail."
"Human law isn't perfect."
"But that doesn't mean law itself has no value."
He paused.
"I haven't made my decision."
"Give me some time."
Diana stepped away from the window.
"My position is similar."
"The Amazons have never accepted that the affairs of mankind should automatically determine our actions."
"Nevertheless, I respect humanity's right to govern itself."
She looked at the treaty.
"This document should be revised."
"Not blindly accepted."
"Not simply rejected."
Barry raised one hand.
"Can I say something?"
Tony sighed.
"Go ahead."
Barry pulled the document toward himself.
"I counted seventy-three provisions where the wording is vague enough to support contradictory interpretations."
"Twenty-one clauses conflict with another provision elsewhere in the document."
"And at least four provisions appear inconsistent with established principles of international human rights law."
The room went silent.
Barry shrugged.
"What?"
"I'm a forensic science major."
"I read quickly."
Natasha looked up from her copy.
"He's right."
"The language is poorly drafted."
Bruce answered immediately.
"It's still a draft."
"The final text will be revised."
Steve shook his head.
"Revision isn't the central issue."
He placed his hand flat on the document.
"The real question is simple."
"Who gets to decide when we're allowed to help?"
"And who decides when we're not?"
Silence.
Then Pietro spoke.
"I've got a simpler question."
His tone carried unmistakable contempt.
"Can this thing control him?"
Nobody needed to ask who he meant.
Pietro answered himself.
"No."
He stood and placed both hands on the table.
"Not one page."
"Not one hundred forty-seven pages."
"Not a thousand pages."
"That man can act whenever he wants."
"He can disappear whenever he wants."
"He doesn't answer to governments."
"You don't even know where he is most of the time."
Pietro's eyes swept across the room.
"So what's the point?"
"You bind everyone willing to obey."
"And the people who refuse?"
"What happens when a threat appears that none of you can handle?"
"Do the rest of you sit there waiting for the one person you can't control to decide whether he feels like helping?"
His voice sharpened.
"You chain the people who cooperate."
"But the people who don't cooperate remain completely free."
"That's not fairness."
"That's bullshit."
Wanda gently tugged at his sleeve.
"Pietro."
He glanced at her.
His expression remained angry.
But he sat down.
Steve did not reprimand him.
Because the objection was legitimate.
An agreement could regulate those who voluntarily accepted its authority.
It could not, by itself, restrain someone who possessed overwhelming power and rejected the system entirely.
That was the flaw everyone in the room understood.
Tony finally exhaled.
"Meeting adjourned."
His voice sounded tired.
"Those prepared to sign can complete the signature page."
"Those who refuse won't be forced today."
"But understand this."
"Refusal will have consequences."
Steve picked up his copy.
He turned toward the door.
Wanda rose shortly afterward.
As she passed Tony, their eyes met.
Her breathing became slightly uneven.
The indicator on the black collar around her neck changed from blue to yellow.
Wanda stopped.
Closed her eyes.
Inhaled slowly.
Then exhaled.
Once.
Twice.
The indicator returned to blue.
She opened her eyes.
The media had already given her several names.
Scarlet Witch.
The Red Witch of Sokovia.
The Unstable Superhuman.
She knew exactly what would happen if the Accords became law.
She would become one of the first enhanced individuals placed under strict observation.
Possibly one of the first required to surrender detailed information about her abilities.
Her hand briefly touched the collar.
Then she remembered something Lynn had told her during months of training.
"Your power isn't a curse."
"It's a tool."
A tool did not possess guilt.
A tool did not possess political allegiance.
The person holding the tool did.
Wanda followed her brother out of the chamber.
...
Sokovia.
The ruins remained.
Helmut Zemo walked slowly through the wreckage of a collapsed apartment building.
He wasn't searching for survivors anymore.
That work belonged to the rescue teams.
He was searching for something much smaller.
Something that no government report could replace.
His wife's wedding ring.
Three days passed before he found it.
The jewelry box had been buried beneath several tons of broken concrete.
Zemo crouched beside the rubble and carefully removed the fragments by hand.
Eventually...
The crushed box appeared.
Inside...
The ring.
He picked it up.
For several seconds, he simply stared at it.
Then he noticed another object beneath the box.
A small plastic bag.
Inside were several children's toys.
Zemo removed a little toy fire engine.
His fingers tightened around it.
He placed it carefully inside his coat.
At the very bottom of the debris...
He found a photograph.
A family portrait.
One corner had been burned black.
The rest showed his family smiling together.
He slipped it into the inner pocket of his coat.
Then stood.
Around him...
UN relief workers and international rescue teams continued moving through the ruins.
They were no longer searching for many survivors.
Most of those who could have been rescued already had been.
Now...
They were recovering bodies.
Zemo looked toward the distant horizon.
Then toward the heroes who had caused and ultimately ended the catastrophe.
He understood something fundamental.
An ordinary human being could not realistically defeat Superman in direct combat.
Nor could he overpower Iron Man.
Thor.
Wonder Woman.
Or any of the other extraordinary individuals now shaping world events.
Physical assassination was therefore inefficient.
Killing one hero solved nothing.
Another would take his place.
Perhaps several.
No.
The real target wasn't their bodies.
It was their trust.
Zemo's eyes narrowed.
Break the alliance.
Turn friend against friend.
Make them distrust one another.
Make them question their own decisions.
That was how an ordinary man could bring extraordinary people to their knees.
He hadn't become dangerous through superhuman strength.
He had never possessed any.
His training had been entirely human.
Military command.
Intelligence analysis.
Psychological warfare.
Counter-infiltration.
Strategic planning.
Zemo had once served as an officer in Sokovia's armed forces.
He understood soldiers.
He understood organizations.
And more importantly...
He understood what happened when frightened people stopped trusting the person standing beside them.
He looked once more at the ruined city.
His expression was empty.
The crack had appeared.
Now...
All he needed to do was widen it.
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