Chapter 57

Tony's face turns into something else I've never seen before.

Emotionless.

My fingers twitch and I forced my powers to come forward, screaming my pain as the veins continued to crawl the same time Tony lunges.

Black lights began to push Tony back towards the wall, my will, beckoning it to do its job.

Steve and Bucky are also pushed back against each other as the black lights moved by their own mind.

I didn't care if using my powers now would speed up the process of me dying. 

I didn't care if killing myself from the inside out would ultimately get them stop.

I had to stop them.

I had to.

"Don't do this!" I shout my dismay, struggling to hold onto my brother.

Staring around the room, I face both Steve and Bucky with painful tears rolling down my face.

My Protector looks utterly heartbroken at my state and I can't bring myself to hate him for what he did.

All I can think about was stopping either of them from making this worse.

"Get out! Get out, go!" I shout out loudly, scrambling to my feet as I fought to prevent Tony from losing his control.

Tony stares at me through his Iron Man mask and without warning, hurls a repulsor beam at my direction.

I threw my body aside, narrowly missing the fatal shot and my brother collides against Bucky, metal fist against metal fist, punching their way across.

Steve kicks my brother aside and knocks his shield onto him, making him stumble back.

It was two against one.

And one against three.

"Tony please!"

He doesn't listen. I felt his bubbling rage.

The anger of it all overflowing off the too full cup.

They will never love you the way you love them.

My heart constricts and I grit my teeth as the veins collapsed deeper into my body like sharp edges that bury under my skin.

I have to stop them... Let me... stop them...

And for a moment I thought I heard dark cackling laughter in return.

"Steve, don't, you'll make it worse!"

The Super Soldier doesn't pay heed to my words as my brother pummels into him, jacking off electric restraints that held Steve in place.

Now with Steve out of the way, Tony grabs onto Bucky's neck and hoist him up high, slamming him against the brick pillars with such force I heard it rattle.

My arms tremble as I snack a black branch around Tony's Iron torso, throwing him back before he could rocket Bucky's face.

"This is not who we are!"

Agony. I'm in agony.

The rocket hits the cradle and it blows apart, destroying the old HYDRA base and turning it into nothing but debris.

All three of them were knocked aside and I held my palms out, biting my lip so hard it drew blood.

The heavy rubble slam against the shield and I cried out, unable to hold onto it like before.

But it was enough for all three of them to get out of the way.

I collapsed to the ground, feeling the heavy weight lay waste on me as the veins did its job in killing whatever was left alive.

"Get out of here!" Steve shouts clearly and I saw Bucky's figure dart past me, running for his life as my brother chased him down.

I struggled under the debris, determined to get out but failing altogether.

"Come on, come on." I pushed with all my strength but the crushing weight makes me scream in both pain and frustration.

I heard the resounding echoes of their fight as they took it upstairs and at that moment, I've never felt more alone, trapped under that pile of bricks.

You will always be alone.

Tears form in my eyes and I struggled to keep them at bay.

I needed to stop them.

I needed to save them.

"Tony! Steve!" They don't hear me and I struggle once more.

This was it. This was the end of me as it will be the end of others.

Painful memories began to penetrate my mind and I shut my eyes, finding it to difficult to recover.

My mind flashes back to the moment this all began.

"Another secret... J-Just another secret to keep..."

The irises in my eyes turned full on black and I shut them, not wanting to see the monster.

"One last time..."

The secret that would ultimately kill me.

I hurled as much as I could onto the rubble trapping me and it disappeared in a cloud of black mist.

Dust rose everywhere but I paid no heed.

Pure agony rippled my soul and I coughed, spewing black goo all over.

"Walk Lorelie, you're a fucking Stark." I clumsily got to my feet, limping my way forward onto the fight they had taken upstairs.

When I reached the winding dome, that led outside, I peered upwards to see what has happened.

Bucky was hastily crawling up the man hole while Steve was a few levels higher then I was.

Tony's pulled up his hand and aimed but he can't quite get it so he shoots at the closing ramp, causing an array of explosion to happen.

The ramp slams shut and Bucky is forced to let go, falling lower.

My brother gets on top of him and I stretch my hand, forcing the two of them to fall over the edge and come down.

I am practically seeing everything through blurry eyes at this point and I am well aware of the last few moments of my body's consciousness.

The veins had made it past my cheeks and I was looking more like a ghost then ever.

Steve lunges across the winding circle and all three of them plummet downwards to the basement, landing hard on the concrete.

I ambled my way through as fast as I could, my limping worse then usual as all my battle wounds reopened.

"Tony, listen to me!" I demanded as I finally got in between them, hands held out on each side.

My breathing is harsh and my movements are sloppy, yet I managed to block them off.

Steve had just barely gotten to his feet when my brother did the same, the two of them never breaking eye contact.

"This is what he wants. This is what's going to break us!"

They don't listen.

My brother barely even cast a glance to my weakened state as my entire being screams at me to fall right there and give in to the darkness that's been so patiently waiting for me.

"Get out of the way Blues!"

"No!"

"Get out of the way because I won't hesitate to kill you too!"

He barrels past me and into Steve.

My body is thrown aside and I blink heavily as pain made itself known on every square inch of my body.

My brother and Steve began fighting harshly against each other.

Each movement, each calculated attack was harsher then the rest and I felt my will breaking once more.

Bucky stabs the shield onto Tony's back and he rolls, avoiding another hit.

By then Steve had recovered and both the man I loved and my Protector double teamed in taking Tony down.

I felt my weakened body fade away but I held on to the last shrewd of emotions left, needing to stop them.

Just... needing for it all to stop.

Crawling on my knees, I rose steadily and leaned against the wall, hoping it'd support me long enough for me to gain my footing.

Tony's repulsor beams had hit Steve and he groans, holding onto his wounded side.

Enraged, Bucky threw Tony against the wall and clawed his metal hand clean through my brother's arc reactor.

A loud scream of anger escaped him as he continued crushing my brother's life force with everything he's got.

"No!" I shout, pulling myself forward and slamming onto both Tony and Bucky.

For a moment, Bucky's eyes do not look back at me with the same fondness.

Instead I saw the Winter Soldier.

"Let him go." I begged, desperately shoving Bucky off my brother who was being crushed to the wall.

My hands pressed against his shoulder, pushing hard and urging him to listen.

Urging him to stop.

"Stop, Bucky!"

But he doesn't move. His face is deadly and harsh and my soul screams their pain.

"Let him go Soldat!"

He freezes.

That's all it took for my brother to ignite his arc reactor and blast the two of us off.

I hit my head hard and saw stars the same time Bucky rose to his knees, eyes glancing in horror at what was once where his metal arm was.

It had been destroyed.

Torn clean off.

By god have mercy.

Save us all.

Steve makes a run for it, he picks up his shield and lunges at Tony.

And the two of them clash.

Arc reactor beam and Vibranium shield, hitting each other with such force that it rattled the very foundation.

Orange firelight scorn the room, lighting up the snow and everything else.

I struggled to stand, unable to move and unable to feel anything other then the pain that was steadily crawling up my eyes.

I felt his right hand over my shoulder, turning me slightly.

Bucky's face is filled with remorse but all I could do was watch as he takes in my true form.

"Chto my nadelali?"

What have we done?

He exclaims in horror, suddenly aware of how sick I looked at how pale my features are.

I shook my head weakly.

I've used to much. I've spent it all. I didn't have enough time.

Not anymore.

And yet I'm already dragging myself towards Tony and Steve.

Still hoping they'd listen to me.

Still hoping I could fix what's already been broken.

I know I can fix this.

I know I can stop them.

They'll listen.

I'll make them listen.

Steve was now winning against Tony, having had more training.

My brother counter measures his attacks and it looked more like the battle had grown seriously even.

Branching out black lights they worm their way between the men, tearing them apart and hurling them outwards against each other.

Steve huffs, blood on the side of his mouth as he flips to his back, hands support himself.

"He's my friend."

Tony's stood over Steve, fists tightened. "So was I."

He strikes Steve across the face, left, right, over and over again.

"Tony, this isn't you!" I desperately try to grope for his shoulders but this was out of my hands and I wasn't as powerful as I was then.

"You're my brother! You're not a killer!"

He pulls against me but I remained willful, strengthening the bond that threatened to be let loose by the sheer determination of an angry Stark.

When I tried to get my powers involved Tony simply knocked me aside like a rag doll with a heavy lidded snarl.

Painful tears etch themselves on my face and the voices grew louder, threatening to over power me within each staggering second.

"Stay down. Final warning." Tony pulls up his hand, showing it to Steve without an inkling of regret.

Steve staggers upwards, hands out. "I could do this all day,"

This wasn't suppose to happen.

This wasn't how we won.

This wasn't how we lost.

In the end, what I dreaded came true.

And what I dreamed did not.

Bucky ceased my brother's foot and Tony kicks him aside brutally, knocking my Protector half-dead.

I watch as Steve took his chance.

Everything happened in slow motion and I was too late to react.

He throws his arms around Tony and holds him up, defiling everything in his body as Tony's thrusters tried to take off.

In one brutal move, Steve slams Tony on the ground and crawl up on him, keeping him in place.

The Super Soldier began to punch Tony's Iron Man suit with crushing force.

No mercy.

No stopping.

And then its too much.

The crushing of my heart.

The heavy weight on my lungs.

They're killing each other.

They're killing each other!

"STOP! YOU'RE KILLING US! You're killing us!"

The two people I love the most began to battle harder and furiously at each other. Their punches were brutal.

Their hatred undeniable.

Please...

Make it stop...

The blue veins have reach their mark and now there was nothing I can do.

"PLEASE!"

Steve grabbed his shield at the side and tore at Tony's mask like it was nothing but a cheap plastic helmet.

Each strike, weakened the metal.

Each strike, brought death.

Each strike, killed me.

Tony's mask comes clean off and I watch as Steve's eyes grew blood thirsty with rage.

He wasn't stopping.

And that shield came closer to killing my brother.

My body reacted and as a last act of finality, I lunge across and threw myself in between them.

A violent scream escaped me from the high voltage running through my veins as the blue reach over my eyes.

I felt the familiar cold darkness before Steve's shield hit me in the chest around the same time Tony's hands push me forward.

I choked.

Time froze.

I felt my ribs break, my lungs punctured and my being failed as the metal made its mark.

It all happened to quickly and to fast for anyone to realized what just happened.

Tony's shocked gasp and Steve's careless cry is all I hear as my body slumps, unable to move no longer.

Blood poured out of my mouth and I gurgled, fighting for oxygen that wasn't there.

I brush my fingers over the shield and looked down to see blood gather all over my chest and lower abdomen.

It was gushing everywhere like a waterfall and soon my eyes faltered before I hit the ground by Tony, the bloody shield landing beside me.

I heaved, still in shock.

Still in pain.

Still in horror filled sadness.

Tony's arms are around me but its odd that I can no longer feel them no matter how hard he shakes me or how hard he yells at me.

My ears grew dull. Useless.

Struggling to breath, I raise my bloodied hand to Tony's face, stroking his cheek before I felt the swirls of black light enveloped around me.

The veins had done its job.

Was this how it felt?

Dying?

Because I wouldn't know.

Not when I see no light at the end of the tunnel.

Not when I see the fading black swirls as they circled me whole.

My hand dropped and my eyes shut.

In a gust of familiar wind, I was swept away.

And then...

Nothing.

~~@ @ @~~

A/N

I love you all, truly, stay with me till the end okay?