"Steve's dead."
Tony's mind went blank, unable to think, to process what Bucky was screaming in his face. It couldn't be true. He couldn't be gone.
He could feel the blows pounding against his chest, but he couldn't be sure if they were coming from Bucky's fists or his words. Both hit him equally hard and in the darkest corner of his mind, Tony thought that maybe it would be best if the jolts to his heart killed him.
He stopped fighting, just falling to the ground and lying there, not caring what came next. Bucky stopped, the pain and anger on his face mirroring Tony's own. He stared at Tony, but could see that wherever Tony was, it was a million miles away. He was tempted to take his rage out on Tony, but turned away before someone else's life was taken. He took off, needing to get away before anyone else came for him.
"Stark?"
Tony's brain tried to focus on the voice coming through the open line in the suit.
"Stark, you still there?"
"Nat?" Tony mumbled, already knowing by the tone of her voice that she hadn't found out yet.
"What's going on Tony? Everything kind of stopped—"
"He's gone" Tony said, his voice weak. Natasha paused, trying to hear him over the commotion on her end.
"What? Where? How did you lose him?"
"No." Tony's eyes welled up with tears. "He's gone" he repeated, his voice cracking.
"No." Tony could hear her sharp intake of breath. She fell silent, the quiet sounding louder than any of the explosions going on around them.
Natasha took a deep breath against the sudden tightness in her chest. She pushed down the rising panic that she felt, wanting to fix it, but knowing it was too late. She steeled herself to keep going, the way she always did, always had to. She knew better than to let people into her life. You got too close and things like this happened.
"We have to stop it, Tony" she said, her voice hard, keeping her emotions buried deep. "They have to know. Everyone. It never should have gone this far."
"Ok" Tony said, slowly getting to his feet. He just needed someone to tell him what to do so he didn't have to think right now. He kept thinking about the last few days, how they'd fought, ruined what had been. But they'd fought before and had moved past it. And he naively thought that nothing could actually stop Steve.
He heard Natasha speaking to someone else on her end, then the sound of many more voices, talking loudly. Gradually things grew quiet. Everyone stood in shock. Even to those who'd been after him, they hadn't wanted it this way. It didn't seem real.
Now they still didn't have Bucky and Steve was gone. The fight had gone out of them and suddenly the whole thing didn't seem so important. Tony felt like he had aged a hundred years in the last ten minutes and all he wanted to do was get home, crawl into bed, and shut out the world.
"Where is he?" he heard Natasha ask, a slight tremor creeping into her voice. Before she could say anything else, Tony shut the line down, not responding. He took off, flying up and out of the building, needing to get away. He flew higher and higher, trying outrun the pain, but it was there. It followed, no matter how far or fast he went.
He knew he'd have to go back eventually. Someone needed to be there for Steve, even if it was too late now. He had to make sure everyone stopped. Let Bucky get away, what did it matter anymore?
They'd let politics get in the way of the greater good and Tony feared that the loss of Steve was one that they'd never recover from.
He knew he wouldn't.