Chapter Text
Tired, Tony felt tired, from the second Ste… Rogers left with his bestie all the murderous rage just abandoned him. The adrenaline rush ceased and all the pain came. His head hurt, his arm hurt and his chest absolutely throbbed with pain (a broken sternum could do that). Also he just realised how cold it was and being in an iron coffin didn’t help.
The suit weighted too much to sustain and gravity brought him down.
Years of friendship, of trust, years of being a supposed family, they were all lies. He thought he had a family and he lost them, no, not lost, they left him. What was Clint even doing there? Wasn’t he retired?
His breathing was ragged. He definitely had at least a couple of broken ribs, mabye a punctured lung.
All left but Rhodey and Vision, who were paralized and heart-broken respectively. Even Pepper couldn’t deal with him anymore. Wow, now that was a pity party.
He started tasting iron on the back of his throat.
He felt utterly alone, betrayed, hurt and kinda guilty. But most of all, he just felt tired. Tired of doing the betrayal thing all over again, tired of having his trust shoved in his face, again, tired of having to get up and fix it, again, tired of this routine of broken trust, just tired of living a life full of betrayal and loneliness. Pain seemed to be his most loyal companion since Howard first hit him.
The cold clawed its way up his body. He needed to get out of the suit… something like five minutes before.
Was he doomed to have his trust broken or was it just faith having a sense of humor? Maybe he even deserved it, maybe he just had it coming for expecting mutual respect and trust. Geez, It felt like Obie all over again.
He couldn’t feel the tip of his right hand anymore.
The realization hit him like like a truck: he was alone. Nobody knew where he was, St… Rogers and his boyfriend left, his kittines was probably gone too (yeah he knew Garfield was there, thank you very much, but hey they could have used a paw against Zemo so…, also, he kinda liked the guy), the suit couldn’t fly or call for help, he was alone. Tony Stark was going to die silently without anyone noticing. He would have laughed at the irony of it if it wasn’t for the blood half choking him.
With the suit down the only way to reach the relise button was through sheer force, but the suit’s arm weighed too much and he… he was stuck.
Man had he messed up bad this time. He thought about closing his eyes for good. He was so tired. God was he tired. Maybe he could just sleep for awhile. Wasn’t that a bad idea with a concussion? Wouldn’t he risk dying? would that be such a bad thing? Did it hurt? Mabye it wouldn’t hurt if he was sleeping. Mabye he could just lay there and pass out. Mabye for once in his life he would be lucky.
So he just lay there until sleep or death finally claimed him (he didn’t know wich, only that he was embraced by lovely darkness).
* * *
He woke up with a start, darkness all around him, pain and cold deep inside his veins. His tired eyes moved around, only to be met by silence and shadows.
He must be dead, and this must be hell, or something.
He lay back down
“So this is the great Iron Man? Tony ‘fucking’ Stark I presume” the woman’s voice didn’t sound impressed. He opened his eyes and saw the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her skin was olive dark, in contrast with her light blue, almost white, eyes, her light brown hair fell in a waterfall of curls on her back and her lips were full and white. Her cheekbones were sharp as knifes. Her body tall and majestic. But he was too tired to smile or comment about it, so he just layed there and stared at her, his face blank giving nothing away.
“The one and only” he tiredly answered. She looked down on him and then offered her hand. He took it. Her hand was freezing cold but he was used to that at this point, how many hours was he concious in freakin Siberia before he fell asleep (because this must be a dream)? One? Two? Five?.
“Six and a half” she responded, apparently reading his mind. Yep, definitely a dream. “No, it isn’t”
“Ok, that’s creeping me out, could you just… not do that?” He asked, voice wavering just a little.
“As you desire” was her response, but he was sure she was still reading his mind. A small satisfied smile made its way on her face, probably a response to his latest thought. Her smile grew wider.
“Who are you and what do you want from me?” He inquired, letting his curiosity show.
“Why do you think I want something from you?” She wondered.
“Everyone does. So, what is it?” He demanded a bit impatient.
At that she took a moment to observe him. After a few seconds or so, she finally answered his question. “I want you to reunite the Avengers.” He looked at her like she was crazy, wich she probably was if he was being honest with himself. Half of them were in prison, another two were fugitives, and the last two were broken. And then there was him, more broken that he had ever been, broken by one, two counting that probably Romanov knew too, of them. What could possibly be so important? “There is a threat” she explained. Well when isn’t there one? he asked himself. “A big one” how big? And when exactly did he give up speaking? “It threatens all of Creation” so… big enough.
“I suppose the cold and being Rogers punching bag will leave me with some presents, won’t it? How can I piece them back together when I’m trying to survive?” He pleaded. He was probably going to miss a couple of fingers, mabye a hand, depending on how much time it took to find him. And then there was the concussion.
“You’ll survive” she assured him. “You are stronger than you think, and I’ll make sure you make it”.
“How do you have the power to make this kind of promise? Who are you? And how come you think you can stop me from dying?”
“Oh Tony, I thought you would have figured it out by now, I’m Death” he froze for a second before relaxing. “Not surprised?” She asked brows forrowing noticing his behavior.
“Not really, seen too much weird shit in my life to be surprised I suppose” the concussion might have a hand in that too. He watched her for a moment. “I’ll do it” she sighed relived “but” at this she perked up, not expecting demands as she just saved him from herself. “Then, can you heal Rhodey?”
“Ah, your friend right?” At his nod she continued “no, the damage is already done, I can only save you because you’re not dead yet. I can stop things from happening but not change what already happened” taking pity on him she chose to give him one last gift “is there anything else you want?” Taking him by surprise she watched as he tried to seriously think about it.
“Pain” he said
“What?”
“I can’t deal with it anymore, I just can’t, it’s too much”
She looked at him with a sad and slightly surprised face, before she agreed with a nod. “I’ll see you too soon for it to be a goodbye, Stark, so go back to sleep”.
She placed a hand on his forehead.
He closed his eyes just before the darkness swallowed him. And something inside of him snapped.
A strange numbness started wrapping itself around him, going all the way to his heart, making him painless, numbing on its way also his basic will to survive. And then his emotions were muffled, almost completely gone leaving in their place a wall of indifference.