"If you think I wouldn't burn the world down to keep you safe, Honeybear, you got another think coming." Political clout or no. Accords or no. He'd tried, he'd been trying to keep things together but without Bruce on the team? Without being there himself? It wasn't that he was less invested so much that he'd been sure Rogers and Rhodey had it locked down. Being proven wrong was always some kind of disappointing. But that? That was something special.

If they'd all been there, if the'd all needed him? He would've stuck it out. As it was, they didn't, he stepped back, didn't do enough (as usual) and...

They were where they were.

"It was supposed to be my legacy. Something I built that would do good. Outlast me. That's the real bitch of it- Rogers'll be around to see whatever will be coming down past this fight or the next one, see if it ever grows back. I won't." It'd been getting harder and harder to bounce back, current wristband induced mojo notwithstanding. They could've been the framework for something great. Instead? A mess. A broken mess he had to rebuild alone, which- not surprising. Not really. "We were supposed to save the world. And...we didn't."

They failed in the most spectacular way possible. "...I had it in my hand, Bruce. We had a plan, me and the kid- we almost had the gauntlet off of him."