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I'm sixty-two percent physically incapable of accepting responsibility according to the personality test I got in an email. I was trying to keep people from dying. That's why we were there in the first place. We couldn't save the planet, but we could damn well try to save as many as possible. He had Barton to cover him.

I was making a call.

You made the wrong one! You made a shitty call to go play hero five hundred yards away from the people you were supposed to be looking out for. No need to worry about keeping them from dying, because you're Tony goddamn Stark and you always know best, even though you don't know jack shit about fighting reapers! Way to go, Stark, let's break out the ticker tape and confetti and throw you a parade, you're the man of the hour!

You may have saved one or two more people, but it cost Garrus his life and nearly cost you your whole squad. If this is how you act when you're on a team, if this is how you prioritize their safety, then I fucking pity whatever sorry bastards you team up with. You're gonna get all of them killed.

[He's almost baring his teeth. He's not raising his voice, not yet, but Tony's not backing down from this fight either.]

I made the call I was comfortable with. I know what I can do. I could have handled it. He should have left them to me. I never asked him to send anyone to back me up!

[Okay, so maybe not that calm.]

All he had to do was keep moving. He just had to get everyone else back and it would have been fine. Saving people was the whole point of flying down there. If we can't save people when we see them, then what the hell are we fighting for anyway?

You know what, Stark? I actually agree with you. Garrus shouldn't have sent Barton after you. You wanna know what your odds were of getting out of the shit you were in without back-up, and then getting through the troops that Vakarian would've taken out? Slim to fucking none. You would've been the casualty for this mission and it would've been you that the reapers turned into a husk, and let me tell you, I wouldn't be shedding too many tears over your corpse. And I can promise you that nobody would've blamed Garrus for making that call, because you made your bed and you should've damn well lain in it. He jumped on a grenade for you, Stark, because he's a better fucking man than you will ever be. So don't you dare pull that self-righteous bullshit about saving people, because if you gave half a damn about anyone's lives, you wouldn't have carelessly risked your own squad.

[The rest of it is all stuff he already knew. That had been part of the plan anyway, so he wasn't too worried about what could have happened if Garrus had cut him off. But when Joker gets to the end of his speech, Tony's expression gets tighter and he shows some teeth.]

Maybe he shouldn't have been risking anyone else over one man. We had a chance to pull those guys out of there, which as far as I remember is what you all wanted. On man wasn't going to break the mission. What happened to the space military code or whatever it is you guys live by?

[He feels guilty. Of course he feels guilty. But Joker's pushing, and Tony hates when people push.]

You're just mad that you couldn't do anything out there yourself.

Yeah, we've got something like that, Stark. It's this little thing called the marine code, and it says that you don't leave a man behind.

[So clearly if you hate it when people push, the best thing was to push right back.]

[The next words out of Stark's mouth hit Joker like a bullet to the chest, with almost physical force. More than half of it was because it hit so close to the mark that it was hard to believe he wasn't aiming for it.]

[He hadn't been able to do anything during the mission but his job; he'd had to sit there on the line all but begging Vakarian to tell him where he was so he could find him, and ultimately he'd had to follow his orders. He sure as hell hated that he couldn't do more, and there was some part of him that was a little disgusted with himself, that saw the hypocrisy in how willing he'd been to ignore his orders in favor of one person. He hated that flying was the only thing he could do and that it wasn't enough; he hated the helpless feeling that came with knowing that someone was dying on his watch, and more than that hated the fact that it wasn't for the first time.]

[He had already been so angry and frustrated and here was Stark, pushing back and making himself an acceptable target; Joker just wanted to hit something because even if it hurt him more, it was a kind of pain that he'd learned to deal with, unlike the kind that twisted knots in his chest. He could put bones back together; this was something that he couldn't just shove back into place and ignore.]

[Joker's fist was on its way towards Stark's face before he could even register the thought.]

[Tony registered it. There's a fraction of a second where Tony could see the back swing and he knew what was coming. It wasn't a lot of time, but it was enough that if he reacted immediately he might have a chance to dive out of the way. He didn't react. Joker swung and Tony set his stance. The impact was enough to make him stagger and push him back a step, but he could feel the recoil when Joker's hand connected too.

It was hard to tell what hurt more. his jaw or the fact that Joker was willing to bust his knuckles on Tony's face. It always hurt when people he came to think of as friends finally decided to take that step. It was coming--he always had it coming--but it still hurt.

And apparently he'd split his lip too.]

If it was that hopeless than you should have cut your losses.

[He was holding his ground. God knew why anymore. It wasn't like he believed that he'd won anything. But once Tony committed it was too late to pull back. Still, his voice was low, hopefully hiding that he was getting hoarse.]

We pulled a few more innocent people out of the fire, and if you didn't think I could do that, then none of you should have backed me in the first place. You knew who you were dealing with when you signed on to work with me.

[He dropped his gaze. Joker seemed to know more about him than he was comfortable with sharing. It never really came up, but there were comments, little details that were all too familiar. Right now, that just served to remind him that his chest hurt.]

And don't give me that bullshit about leaving no man behind. They were being left behind. No one was going back for them.

[Joker's knuckles shattered when his fist hit Stark, and he could feel the bone give way; it was a red hot, burning sensation that blitzed up his arm, almost comforting in its familiarity. Once he'd followed through and Stark's lip was split and his hand was throbbing, though, he found it had done nothing to stop the sick feeling in his chest, the guilt. All it had done was break his hand.]

I thought I had you figured out, Stark, but now I don't think I did.

[There was still venom staining his voice and he wouldn't have been able to get it out even if he'd wanted to.]

Hell, does anyone know you at all? Is there anything there under all that fucking arrogance and self-importance? 'Cause all I hear right now is you trying to shift blame onto a dead man, so either you can't see past your own ego or you actually think it's his fault that you weren't able to do your job.

Edited 2013-07-23 06:18 (UTC)

I was doing my job.

[He can take everything else. It's his fault, of course, and he knows that already. He knows he screwed up and that Garrus was bailing him out. That's already wounding his pride enough, but he won't sit back and let Joker tell him that it wasn't for the right reasons.]

I was doing your job. I was keeping those people from becoming more missile fodder. You can throw any military protocol crap you want at me, but it doesn't mean anything if we aren't pulling them out of the fire.

[He turns back sharply as if he were magnetically repelled and takes several strides on the momentum. Then he turns back, hackles raised and muscles tight.]

You're right. It shouldn't have happened to him. It wasn't supposed to happen. I thought he knew better than that.

[Joker watched Stark start to leave with an expression that was a mix between outrage and disbelief.]

You are a piece of work, Stark. You can't even see past your own fucking arrogance, can you? I shouldn't even wasted my time coming down here.

Edited (i can html, really) 2013-07-28 16:38 (UTC)

Maybe you should think about that before you march down my side of the hangar to take everything out on me, Joker.

[He throws more arrogance in that just to drive it home. They're already fighting. Nothing that Tony says at this point will help... and he doesn't want it to.]

They wouldn't have bothered with them if they'd just left the way they were supposed to. He knew that. I don't know what he was thinking.

[He wishes he did. Then maybe this would make sense.]

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THIS IS THE ULTIMATE SHOWDOWN

OF ULTIMATE DESTINY

Tony goddamn Stark sums it all up nicely

That's just how he rolls

You can't tame Tony.

Wow Tony, you're kind of an asshole

He said with great imitation of surprise.

I suppose if we're being fair, they're both assholes

They are brothers in arms for being jerks.

Re: They are brothers in arms for being jerks.

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