Memories of his time with Coulson flooded Tony's mind, not especially pleasant ones. Coulson, like Romanov before, had been sent to deal with him, to rein him in like some unruly child, as if Tony needed someone to keep him in line. But perhaps the worst part of it all was the realisation that the one-eyed pirate had manipulated them all. The director of Shield had always thought of himself as the puppet master, pulling the strings behind the scenes to his ultimate goal. Fury really thought he had all of the answers to every problem imaginable. When he couldn't do what needed to be done himself, the old spy had no problem manipulating events and people to suit his own purposes, regardless of whether it was what the world actually needed.
The concept of Avengers had always been a good idea on paper. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable beings to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when the world needed them to fight the battles others never could. Tony couldn't deny that the speech was good. Fury had a way with words. He just had a strange way to make things happen.
The spies had become so used to using and manipulating people that they had forgotten how to trust or recognise people's good intentions. Since Afghanistan, Tony had dedicated his life to using his brain and resources for the greater good, with the Iron Man armour or with the Arc reactor green energy. All the mess caused by the Palladium poisoning might have been avoided if Shield had played fair.
Pitting Tony against the majority of the Avengers was not a good idea either. Then again, Fury was only preoccupied by maintaining control over the team and had potentially been blinded to the bigger picture. It was a short-sighted approach, just wanting to be the higher authority above them all.
"Baby girl," Tony muttered, almost as if he were thinking out loud. "I think we need to expand our list a little."
"Who do you have in mind?"
Tony paused for a moment, considering his options. "Right now, I'm thinking about Fury, but let's keep our options open, shall we?"
"Good choice, Boss. I couldn't agree more," Friday replied with enthusiasm.
"Exactly," Tony affirmed, nodding to himself as he considered the implications of their new plan. "We should go back before he became director, that should give him less time to cause significant damage to the world."
The Avengers knew now that Fury had already met aliens before, long before Loki's invasion of New York. It wasn't all that surprising. There was a reason why the man wanted to prepare the planet for an attack, building a team of heroes. Perhaps Fury could have handled things differently back then, which would have ultimately changed what had happened with Thanos. It was a long shot. Perhaps it was giving Fury way too much credit.
The pirate was really living a life of secrets and deception. Despite his role with Shield, the agency's files contained very little details about him. It was as if Fury, once promoted to director, had meticulously scrubbed any traces of his past, leaving only faint whispers of his work. Despite his best efforts, Fury's name continued to appear occasionally, his fingerprints found on countless missions. Although he was not named directly, it was clearly visible to those who knew where to look. Fury was cunning and it was proved by the fact he had evaded detection for so long.
Fury had fingers in a lot of pies, and not all of them were good. It makes sense why he hadn't been able to notice Hydra there in front of him. He really was just like them.
"Boss, there are a handful of missions with apparently Fury as the main agent. They are under the diplomacy folder," Friday said with incredulity.
"Diplomacy? Fury? It has to be a joke," Tony replied, unable to suppress a chuckle.
