Chapter 58

Tony walks in the Avengers Facility, plastering a fake smile on his face as he carries a small present he had for Rhodey.

Smile.

Something he did not want to do but was forced too.

"Hey Rhodes," Tony flipped open his sunglasses and approach his best friend who was on a wheelchair.

Rhodey raises an eyebrow at Tony, looking down at the package he held. "Please tell me you got me an electric wheelchair."

Rhodey gestured to the manual- wheelchair he was sitting on and Tony grinned, holding up the long metal briefcase.

"Something better."

Tony set to work in putting the new parallel bars on Rhodey's legs.

This would hopefully have him walking around normally in no time.

They took to the handle bars by the entrance and Rhodey had one hand on Tony's shoulder, the other on the bar.

"Its just the first pass," Tony gestured, mind thinking about seven different ways he could upgrade the design.

"Yeah?" Rhodey smiled, patting his best friend's shoulder.

"Give me some feedback. Anything you can think of. Shock absorption. Lateral movement. Cup holder?"

Rhodey and Tony made it down the bars and Rhodey laughed, feeling Tony's tech working. "You may wanna think about some AC down in-"

His hand slips from the bars and he falls to the ground, flat on the surface.

Tony immediately squats down next to him, worried and regretful.

"Let's go. I'll give you a hand."

"No, no, don't. Don't help me. Don't help me." Rhodey waves Tony's hands away and rises to his hands and knees, turning over so he sits on the floor beside Tony.

The two of them lapse in silence and Rhodey could sense Tony's uneasiness.

"A hundred and thirty eight." He tells him out loud, making Tony frown. "A hundred and thirty eight combat missions. That's how many I've flown, Tony. Every one of them could've been my last, but I flew 'em."

Rhodey wanted Tony to brightened up. This wasn't the end of the world for him.

Neither was it the end of everything else.

What happened was simply too fresh and needed time to heal.

Tony, needed time to heal.

"Because the fight needed to be fought. It's the same with these Accords. I signed because it was the right thing to do. And, yeah, this sucks." He pointed to his paralyzed legs.

"But it could've been worse if Lorelie didn't step in." 

Tony's mood reached and all time low and even though Rhodey doesn't mean to bring up her name, he has too. 

To let his best friend know that she would've never wanted him to continue on like this.

Tony's emotions faltered. 

Rhodey was right. Blues saved Rhodey's life and as much as he wished Blues caught Rhodey in time, that still doesn't change that he lived because of her.

Everybody made mistakes, why does he find it so hard to believe, his Blues, made mistakes too?

Rhodey sighed tiredly and wiggled his legs, the machine making it easier to move.

"This is... This is a bad beat. But it hasn't change my mind. I don't think."

Rhodey gave Tony a crooked smile and for the first time in days, Tony felt his spirits lift slightly.

He holds out a hand for Rhodey to take and he accepts it as Tony immediately helps him up to stand.

"You okay?" Tony raises an eyebrow, concern.

"Oh yeah."

There's soft knocking on the glass behind them and the both of them frowned at the sight of an old Fedex Driver with a parcel in his hands.

"Are you... Tony 'Stank'?"

Tony opens his mouth, offended but Rhodey laughs, patting Tony's shoulder aggressively.

"Yes, this is- this is Tony "Stank". You're in the right place." Rhodey begins to walk away. Shouting behind him.

"Thank you for that! I'm never dropping that, by the way. Table for one, Mr. "Stank". Please, by the bathroom."

Tony laughs at Rhodey's sarcasm and quickly signs the forms before heading up to his office to open the parcel he just received.

He tears the package gently, sticking his fingers in and retrieving a letter with his name, neatly cursive on the front.

He doesn't have to open it to know it came from Steve.

Biting his lip, he stared at it for a moment before sighing heavily and tearing it open.

He had no one else.

The least he could do was atone for his mistakes that got his Blues killed.

Tony, I'm glad you're back at the compound. I don't like the idea of you rattling around a mansion by yourself.

We all need family.

The Avengers are yours, maybe more so than mine. I've been on my own since I was 18. I never really fit in anywhere, even in the army. My faith's in people, I guess. Individuals.

And I'm happy to say that, for the most part, they haven't let me down. Which is why I can't let them down either.

Locks can be replaced, but maybe they shouldn't.

I know I hurt you, Tony. I guess I thought by not telling you about your parents I was sparing you, but I can see now that I was really sparing myself, and I'm sorry.

I'm sorry that our mistakes got the one we loved killed.

I'm sorry that you have to go home to nothing.

I've lived with guilt all my life but it never gets easier.

Hopefully one day you can understand.

I wish we agreed on the Accords, I really do. Maybe if we did, she wouldn't have been caught up in our mess.

I know you're doing what you believe in. And I know she would feel the same way, and that's all any of us can do. That's all any of us should...

I failed you and I failed her.

So, no matter what. I promise you, if you need us, if you need me, I'll be there.

~Steve

It was an apology.

Both to him and Lorelie.

Tony lets the letter drop on the table and palms his face, trying in vain to stop them from sinking in.

The burner phone Steve had given him lay on the glass table, just inches away from Tony's fingers.

"Priority call from Secretary Ross. There's been a breach at the Raft prison."

FRIDAY announces, taking Tony out of his trance.

"Yeah, put him through." Tony sighs, already knowing Steve had probably taken the rest of his friends out.

He wasn't complaining however.

"Tony, we have a problem."

But he wasn't going to entertain it. Not one bit. He earned his rest and he's had enough trouble for a lifetime.

"Ah, please hold."

"No. Don't-"

He taps the hold button, his elbow hitting the monitor and the line blinks rapidly making Tony release a small smirk.

A small smirk that eventually dwindled down.

It was too quiet.

And Tony hated it.

He taps the side of his chair anxiously before slipping the Burner phone in his pocket and leaving his office, unable to take how silent it was.

He slowly walk down the long hallway of the way to big facility and kept his breathing even.

It was lonely. Even for him.

And even though there, being Rhodey and Vision, Tony could feel his eyes burning at the sight of person he was waiting to see.

The person that never failed to stay by him no matter what.

Blues...

And despite what went down that day, Tony couldn't bring himself to ignore it.

Everything happened too fast.

Everything happened too quickly.

Tony stops in the middle of the hallways, fists tightening as he harshly runs a hand through his hair, the pain making his own mind, blur at the memories.

;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;

Tony never felt more pain in his life.

Not when his own bomb nearly killed him.

Not when the arc reactor nearly killed him.

Not when a nuclear bomb nearly killed him.

Words fail him as he watched in horror as his sister get impaled by the very thing their father created.

"No." He twist around and holds onto her, desperate to stop the bleeding that was rapidly spreading all around them.

The shield lay uselessly beside her, the edge, red with her blood.

"No, no, no." If he repeated it then it wouldn't be true.

If he said it, then it wouldn't have happened.

Blues lay on his lap, brown orbs going unfocused as though she is unable to understand what's happening to her.

But Tony does and by god does he begged it to stop.

The Super Soldier beside them is motionless. He's staring at his Lorelie like she was a ghost.

All the anger.

All the rage.

All the feelings that made them like this.

It all evaporated.

"Blues? Hey, hey, you can't, okay? You can't." Its a command that sounds like a choke as Tony forced the words out, shaking her desperately.

Her skin is pale, the veins glowing a sick blue and Tony notices it for the first time.

He tries to stop the bleeding but his hands just ended up smearing the metal gauntlet with blood.

It was too much.

He couldn't stop it.

Blues raise her fingers and stroke his cheek. He doesn't know if she wants it for reassurance or if she's telling him it was okay.

Because it wasn't.

It wasn't okay and his heart was hammering.

This was his fault and he blamed himself.

All. His. Fault.

Black lights began to surround her and Tony could only watch as they grew more frantic, surrounding themselves around his sister.

He couldn't do anything but wait.

He couldn't do anything but watch.

He tries to hold onto her. To not let go.

"Blues, come on. Don't. Don't, you c-can't-"

The hand that held his cheek dropped and her eyes shut.

Before they knew it she was gone.

The black mist fell over her and slowly, her body started to fade.

Like dust. Like disintegrating paper.

The next time it cleared, Tony's arms no longer held his sister.

Her blood stains his cheeks, the smell of copper making him sick.

It was the only proof that she had been here.

Tony let out a gasp and dropped his hands to the side uselessly, staring at the spot where she once was.

She was just gone.

Leaving behind a trail of blood that serves as a painful reminder of what went down that caused her, her life.

She had to be. She had to be alive.

Tony lets his eyes roam the ground desperately before the weight of it all hits him.

Because Tony could not longer see her again.

And it makes his heart shatter even worse then when he saw the video of his parents.

Steve could only blink at what just happened. He could only watch in complete horror and what he did.

What had they done?

The two males succumb to silence.

Nothing was left to said.

She was just gone.

;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;

He remembers the moment like it was just seconds ago.

Steve had left with Bucky after that and none of them chose to actually speak of what had happened.

When Tony got back, he barely even remembers what was happening around him or what he had to do.

But it was declared;

'Lorelie Brook Stark, dead after the unfortunate fight between the Avengers.'

He tore up the papers so furiously that day that Vision chose to stay away, not wanting to edge the older Stark on.

It was confirmed when Tony heard of what happened back at the Raft.

The same time, Blues... died, Wanda started screaming hysterically and she didn't stop until they injected her with something to keep her asleep.

When she came too she had tears in her eyes and was mumbling for his sister, crying and begging for it not to be true.

He was guessing the others had probably heard of it already.

The Dark Witch.

Dead.

It felt so surreal. She's always been one to escape it but now... it was unbelievable.

He didn't want to believe it but every fiber in his being forces him too.

You're sister is dead, because of you.

He finds himself hissing, hurting his already pained heart more.

Tony clutch his chest, squeezing tightly to relieve the tension that made him feel like his lungs were collapsing.

He already felt like he was dead.

What was left was just an empty shell.

Letting his hands drop, he bowed his head and looked down to his shoes, finding them oddly shiny.

He had no one.

All over again.

"Tony? Tony!"

His heart raced. Flipping around behind him, he faced the corridor with wide eyes.

That voice.

That sound.

"Tony? Tony!"

~~@ @ @~~

A/N

*Waves halfheartedly*

"I love you guys."