Chapter Text
"Cut!" An irritated and impatient voice shouts for the six time in just as many minutes, interrupting the music once again at some random part of the song, causing the band to groan. Most of the extended group of ten sent glares at their lead singer and Bruce Banner, pianist, sound specialist and one of the song writers of the band, didn't know whether he should fidget or get annoyed on said lead singer's behalf. As if it was all her fault. No matter how many times one of the others missed a chord or fell out of rhythm. Unfortunately, they had both gotten used to this by now. It was too regular an occurrence for them not to, especially as of late. "Stark! Get your shit together and start hitting those notes already! We don't have all day!"
Antonia 'Toni' Stark, known by the world as the lead singer, song and music writer as well as frontman - or front-woman, to be exact - and face of the Avengers, was by far one of the most talented people Bruce had ever met and he hated that she was bowing her head to these people. She didn't need this. Before being an Avenger, Toni was Iron Maiden, the nickname given to her by the band themselves after she rocked a cover of one of their songs so well that they asked her to preform the song Iron Maiden with them on stage back in 2008. And before that, she was Toni Stark. She had a fan base of millions and certainly didn't need the Avengers. And yet, when Nick Fury came to her about a collaboration in 2009, 2010 and then again in 2012, she joined because she wanted to change the world of music with other icons of their time. Bruce, too, was approached and he only joined because he knew Toni would be there. It was always a pleasure to work with her. He knew, intimately well, that she doesn't miss chords and notes, especially not in her own songs. She doesn't deserve the crap everyone's been giving her since 2014 for their Ultron album and then her own Twisted Reality EP that resulted from it and only managed to get her a larger fan following. Now, two years later, the Avengers were once again trying to ride on the coattails of her fame and name and influence in the world of entertainment.
Bruce wasn't entirely sure why she was taking all of this but he knew better than to interfere. She didn't like others trying to fight her battles for her.
"Listen, Nick, we both know the problem's not in me. Tell Maximoff not to mess up the xylophone and Barton not to speed through his bass and then Rogers could maybe get a good chord in," Toni replied with a tired sigh that Banner felt in his own bones, which was not fair as Toni was three years younger than him. No one in their late twenties should sound so tired of and worn down by the world. The last ten years have been hard on her.
The criticized musicians instantly bristled and puffed up, making Bruce groan while Thor frowned and patted his back. Thor Odinson, their drummer, was the only person on the team both Bruce and Toni really got along with. The big blond was like an excitable puppy and was always more than eager to help the two writers develop a beat for their new songs. Clint Barton, their bass guitar player, and Wanda Maximoff, who more and more joined them on the xylophone as of late, were two people Toni and Bruce could never find any middle ground with. Mostly because Clint used to be a poor traveling street performer until Fury pulled him into the Avengers and Wanda Maximoff was called on by Steve Rogers, their lead guitarist and occasional male singer, for Ultron and stayed since. She had some personal grudge against Toni and Stark International because they wouldn't hire her and her brother during some talent-hunting audition. After Pietro got hit by a car right after they were turned down at their audition, Wanda near ran Toni over with her own car in an act of vengeance. Just because she shed a few tears later and batted her eyelashes at Steve didn't mean she should have been allowed into the band. It's pretty much why both Toni and Bruce had distanced themselves from the Avengers until this collaboration was called and they had to assemble due to their contracts expiring only next year.
It's going to be a long year for them.
"Of course. Toni Stark, who can make no mistake, the queen of music. Do you have any more bullshit to attack us with?"
The woman in question only arched an eyebrow at him and Bruce could feel the snark ready to roll out. So it was going to be one of those sessions. "It's constructive criticism, Barton, and yes, I do. Try not to suck so bad."
"You're just big name because of your father's company, Stark. You have no real talent."
"I'd say right back at you but then I realized that it would imply that you are right and that I am as talentless as you. As it is, Maximoff, you can go jump off a cliff and I wouldn't care." That, of course, only made the Sokovian woman looked more ready to claw Toni's eyes out, but Steve stepped in to mediate before she could launch at the brunette and Bruce groaned louder. This was so not going to end well.
"Toni," the former soldier told her in a scolding, authoritative voice that would never make her cower and would instead make her more defiant. Toni never did do well with fake authority figures. "You need to back off. We're all under stress to get this album done before the tour."
"You can jump off right with her for all I care, Rogers," Toni immediately snapped back, as they all no doubt knew she would. It happens when your boyfriend of two years cuts off all contact with you until he needs you again two years later, only to shove his tongue down your cousin's throat two days after your first make up date for the lost time and then accuses you of cheating on him in the two years of hiatus in communication, as though he had expected you to wait like a faithful dog. Toni had zero tolerance for betrayal. Ultron was a big one but she had accepted that most of the other Avengers didn't see anything wrong in inviting a woman who hates her guts into the band that always preached about being a family. The Civil War album, as Fury called it, they were forcing her in doing was an even bigger one but Toni would abide her contract. Personal betrayals was something she wouldn't lay down for.
The communication hiatus she had been willing to forgive because Steve's best friend, their new metallophone player - why they needed both the metallophone and the xylophone was anyone's guess but both Fury and Rogers insisted on them so Toni and Bruce just made them follow the occasional violin parts they give Natasha - James 'Bucky' Barnes was in an accident that cost him his arm and he needed assistance in recovering and getting used to life with only one arm and hand. Toni could understand that, as her own best friend and practically older brother, James 'Rhodey' Rhodes nearly lost all function in his legs around the same time and she kept going to physical therapy with him for support. She would not allow herself to be used or a side-piece and for her own cousin, no less. They had a row, Rogers actually dared grab her upper arm to leave dark bruises for a week and they broke up and Bruce and Toni nearly left the bend right there and then. Fury called them out on violating their contract before they could leave, mostly because them leaving meant Thor would go, too, as he had no real investment or interest in the Avengers when he, his brother and some badass woman called Brunhilde that Bruce was sure Loki Odinson had a huge crush on, were planning on making a new band themselves.
Losing Thor while also losing their only song writers and their most experienced musicians? It was a surefire way to bury the Avengers six feet under. And losing the Avengers would serve as the final nail in the coffin known as Shield, the entertainment company that had tried to concoct a volatile mix of too different people and make them work. Shield, the organization that was infiltrated by a money washing German gang known as Hydra and had been under investigation for three years, all of its other talents and potential talents scattered to the wind in an attempt to get away from the fall out lest they be labeled criminals. The Avengers only survived 2013 because Toni had been personally invested in the band back then and had bought all rights to them from Shield lest they fall apart. She kept them from sinking. Bruce wondered if she regretted it now.
"Toni, this is about the band. It's bigger than you so just set aside your ego, stop antagonizing everyone and let's go back to working together to make great music, like we always did." Natasha Romanov, a redhead Russian woman no one believed that was her actual name given she had tried forging an identity as Natalie Rushman back in 2010 to get into SI to get an exclusive picture of Toni when she had been near deathly sick while making her album Starkenium in honor of the Stark Music Expo her father had started decades ago, scolded with a disappointed frown on her face and Bruce wanted to gag. To think he used to date her, for a short while. He and Betty Ross, his former manager, had gotten into a serious fight and broken it off and he had been a bit desperate for company and Natasha, Fury's right hand woman for manipulation, had been right there for him. He didn't even realize it until Toni expressed her surprise that he had extended his contract with the Avengers beyond just the two years they were meant to work on the collaboration. And then he'd realized Toni had signed on for two more years because of him, too, and he felt bad that his friend was as fooled as he was. Romanov wasn't even ashamed or sad when he confronted her about it and broke it off. She had only said he'd eventually cool down and everything would be like before.
Bruce was so disgusted with himself that he ran off and disappeared as soon as the album was released and they had a mini tour in eastern Europe. He'd stayed in touch only with Toni but he'd eventually ran into Thor, Loki and their Brunhilde friend in Australia. Talk about a small world.
"Oh, go screw yourself. In fact, all of you go screw yourselves - not you Brucie-bear and Point Break. You two are cool. If this is what you imagined when you talked about a collaboration, then you can count me out. I don't have to stand for this level of unprofessional bullshit-"
"Language," Steve scolded and Banner can tell the exact second when Toni's patience snapped. Given she'd held out for two months by now, he was impressed. Then again, it is the reason why he had called on her while he was making The Incredible Hulk album in 2009 for the songs Control, Anger Management and Issues. Toni wasn't just a musician, after all. She was a businesswoman, too. But even she was only human and given how much Rogers has been pushing her as well as the others ...
Let's just say Bruce is impressed she had lasted this long without at least lashing out at the others. And now it was all going to come down like a rain of fire. The expression on her face reminded him of her single from 2008, Gulmira, and he winced internally. Oh, this was all going to hell.
"You know what? You can go and fuck yourself and your language, Rogers. You don't control me. You don't have a say in my life, in how I dress, what I say or what I believe in. You're not my father and even Howard knew better than to try, so you can taking you're fucking 'Language' and shove it up your ass so deep that you're choking on it and if you try to sell that bullshit to me again, I'll do it for you." And that tone reminded him of the theme behind Et Tu, Godfather?, which, while an amazing song, was one all about betrayal and anger and heartbreak at said betrayal. Really, Toni's 2008 Iron Maiden album was a thing for history books. Not that 2010 Iron Maiden - Starkenium wasn't good, but Toni didn't think so since her voice was rough and damaged from her illness. The 2012 I Am Iron Maiden one made a perfect cycle for it, but Toni still thought the first one was best. That trilogy was pretty much the future of the music for the past eight years.
In contrast, Steve's first album in 2011 called Captain America was a bit too much of a blast to the past. Their styles, like their personalities, clashed and Bruce wondered how they had managed to survive two years of a relationship. But then he remembered the arguments, how accommodating Toni had been in an attempt to keep the relationship steady and how Rogers hadn't even noticed the weight she was constantly carrying. Extremis, while a reminder to the world that Toni Stark is not to be trifled with, was also a call for help that no one but Bruce heard and even he couldn't do much about it.
In hindsight, it was no wonder they ended in such an explosive way.
And it made their current interactions all the more logical.
"I'm warning you, Toni. If you don't back off, you'll be kicked out of the band."
Toni actually laughed at that, bitter and ugly. Bruce shivered. That one actually reminded him of Palladium 2010 and he hated that song. It was all about how his best friend was slowly dying from the very thing keeping her alive, i.e. music. None of Toni's closest friends liked that song and yet it was one of the only ones which could rival I Am Iron Maiden from the end of her album of 2008. He personally wants to burn the song.
"Really, Rogers? Can you even do that? Can any of you?" She challenges, getting into Steve's face and Bruce tenses. This, though, reminds him too much of their very first day at Shield and the argument they'd had in the recording studio with Toni and Steve looking ready to go a few rounds right then and there. This had the same vibe and Bruce thought he might get sick. Toni didn't back down then and she won't back down now. And now that he knows Rogers won't think twice about laying a hand on Toni and leaving her bruised, Bruce was desperate for this to end already. For someone to step in and stop them. A fight from the within would destroy the band forever and while he wasn't particularly fond of it, Toni had put too much work in this band for it to go to shit.
He was also of the opinion that the break of this band might be what breaks her.
"No one's irreplaceable, Stark," the tall, broad shouldered blond man all but barked at her but Toni only smirked. This was definitely getting way out of control. And the only ones who could stop it, namely Thor in a physical sense and Fury in the get-back-to-work-you-motherfuckers sense, were just standing aside, watching like they couldn't look away. It was like watching a train wreck.
'Oh, this is so going to end in disaster.'
"Good to hear, because I'm done with this shit. You can go find another sugar mama while you're at it because this check book, this studio, these privileges are off limits. I'd say I wish you the best of luck, but that would be a lie. Please do let the door hit you on the way out." There was a moment of silence as she let that sink in, obviously enjoying the stunned reaction she was receiving. To be expected. No one had fought so hard for the Avengers and their brand as Toni had. No one had ever thought she'd be the one to kick them out, as though it could ever go the other way around. They were using her studios, her PR teams, her lawyers, her connections, her money to keep the band afloat. While they needed Toni, she didn't need them. Perks of not only being a part of the entertainment industry as a talent but also as one of its administrators and leading businesswomen. Between Toni and the SI CEO, the fearsome Ms Potts, Toni will get out of this crash and burn with nary a scratch on her while the rest of the Avengers will be ashes in the wind. Except Thor. His father owned his own entertainment company in Norway, but they specialized in action movies. Still, Thor would survive and Toni would no doubt drag Bruce out with her, too.
Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton, Wanda Maximoff and the until now quiet Sam Wilson, a saxophone master, Scott Lang, a backup vocal and background special effects guy that Wilson had brought in to meet the band and had somehow ended up being invited for the Civil War collab album, and Bucky Barnes, who looked like he just wanted to go home ... not so much. Oh, no. They won't even burn. The world will forget about them by the end of the next year if they don't get something out and without song writers, that's gonna be tough.
"Stark, be reasonable," Phil Coulson, their manager, tried to reason but Toni just shook her head and crossed her arms, taking a step back from Rogers.
"No. I'm done. You're on your own, effective immediately. JARVIS, inform Pepper to cut all founding for the 'Avengers Initiative'."
Not a moment later, the cultured, British voice of Toni's Artificial Intelligence replied. "Done, Sir. Also, there is a visitor requesting a meeting with you. Shall I let them up?"
Toni frowned, confusion and curiosity distracting her from her - now former and soon to be officially so - band mates. "What? Who? I didn't have a meeting a forgot about, did I?"
"No, Sir. And he says he'd rather it be a surprise."
"A he, huh? You know I don't like surprises. Not anymore."
"I believe you will enjoy this one." The woman paused, considering, before nodding along. "I will send him right in."
Toni just grins at the implication that JARVIS had already figured out what she would reply and had led this surprise guest somewhere close until he got a confirmation from his creator. "Sneaky," it was said with a pride Bruce knew to be genuinely felt. Toni adored JARVIS and it was clear the affection was reciprocated. She was the only one he addressed with 'Sir', despite it being the wrong gender. It had been a powerplay between Toni and Obadiah Stane, her honorary uncle and godfather, in the year after her parents died in a car crash and the Stark company, fortune and the custody of Toni went straight into the sleazy business man's hands. He'd tried to take over the company completely and shut down the entertainment side, instead focusing on the technological especially Howard Stark's old weapons division that he'd shut down after the Cold War, but JARVIS had caught him in the act and the man was now serving his dues in prison after staging an attempt on Toni's life while she was visiting a friend in Gulmira. No one knew all the details of what happened except those who had been there, but all the world knew that Toni came out of it with her new pacemaker that she'd built in a cave and revolutionized the field of clean energy after three months of captivity for ransom in Afghanistan. No one heard from that terrorist cell again beyond in The Ten Rings. JARVIS runs half the business ever since that happened back in 2008. It was not an easy year, for anyone. "If you'll excuse me."
"No," Steve ordered and grabbed Toni's upper arm. "We're not done here."
Toni slapped his hand away, fury in her usually warm brown eyes. "Get your hands off me, Rogers. I thought I made it perfectly clear last time that I don't want you touching me. And believe me, yes we are. You are."
Steve just clenched his jaw, a mulish sort of determination entering his eyes. "We're not done here. You're an Avenger, Stark, whether you like it or not. You can't just break off the contract like that-"
"I can and I will. It's what my legal department is for, after all."
"You're acting childishly."
Toni just shrugged, appearing nonchalant despite the tension in the set of her shoulders. "If that's what you think, then that's your opinion. I doesn't mean shit to me nor does it have an impact on my life or my career."
"Your career is over if you leave the Avengers, Toni," Romanov tries to reason but Toni just shrugs again.
"I doubt it, but even if it does, it's not the end of the world. I'll just be better off without it all. This group is toxic. That said, I'm leaving now."
"No, you're not going anywhere until we resolve this Toni." Rogers once again grabbed Toni's upper arm and she actually pushed him back this time, and with a surprising strength for someone her size. Then again, she wasn't just petite, she was compact. When she wasn't making music, Toni was tinkering in her private lab with all sorts of machinery and not all of it is light or automatic.
"I said, don't you fucking touch me," Stark hissed through her teeth and Rogers, having regained his footing, made a move as though to, much to the shock and horror - or glee, in Wanda's case - of everyone watching, punch her-
When a hand caught his wrist and twisted painfully. Steve crumbled to the ground like a house of cards, a pained gasp leaving his lips.
"She said," a familiar voice both Bruce and Toni had honestly thought they'd hear live ever again, making the two geniuses snap their heads up at the tall, well built, pale, dark haired man in an impeccable business suit in shock. "Not to touch her, you bastard."
"Stephen?"