jessbesublime is my new favorite person. They went and reviewed every one of my chapters (obliterating my goal of having twice as many reviews as chapters) so this is dedicated to them.

Steve

"Cap, do you read me! We have a missile headed straight for the city." Fury's voice rang through his comm.

Shit, "How long?" He demanded, throwing his shield. It ricocheted off several aliens before he caught it again.

"Three minutes, at best." Fury answered.

Steve breathed, punching one that got too close. He didn't have time for this! There were too many aliens, how were they supposed to deal with them and a missile?

"Cap I can close it!" Widow told him, "I can close the portal!"

Steve almost breathed a sigh of relief. At the very least, now they wouldn't have to worry about the unending supply of enemies, "Do it."

"No, wait!" Ironman cut in quickly, "I have a nuke coming in, it's gonna blow in less than a minute,"

Steve gritted his teeth. He already knew that! What did it have to do with the portal?! Steve opened his mouth to ask just that, but Ironman beat him to it.

"And I know just where to put it."

What?

Steve turned, trying to get Ironman in his sights, a bad feeling squirming its way up his throat. If he wasn't still fighting on autopilot he would have said it was like the world stood still as he finally caught sight of the red and gold figure.

With a nuke on his back.

Headed straight for the portal.

He almost couldn't believe it. The being that had made it his life's goal to cause as much trouble as he could for pretty much everyone in the world was, if Steve was seeing it correctly, going sacrifice himself for all of Manhattan (and the surrounding area); even after the conversation they had just had that morning. It was a shock.

Ironman was fast; faster than any quinjet. If he had wanted to leave, to quit playing the role of hero, he could with very little problem. This-

"…Ironman, you know that's a one-way trip." Steve stated more than asked, because of course he did, and watched the figure get closer to what could only be a death sentence, even to a robot. Or whatever Ironman was.

Steve was starting to think 'human' wasn't entirely impossible anymore.

"Yeah," Ironman answered with a slightly shaky voice, "But that's okay. I was never supposed to exist, anyway."

"What?" Steve demanded over the ringing in his ears and multitude of other voices on the comms, "What does that mean? Ironman?"

But there was no reply.

What did he mean, never supposed to exist? A part of him wanted to brush it off, as he watched his enemy-turned-teammate fly through the gates of a virtual hell. Wanted to say it was just him being self depreciating; it would be awful if Ironman really thought that low of himself, it would be even worse if it were true.

But it had been said with such bitter acceptance that it couldn't be anything but true.

But what did it mean?

After a few minutes, after several derogatory terms were cursed at the flying man of metal from the entire team, when all the aliens had keeled over dead. When Ironman didn't resurface. When Steve could see the supernova of an explosion coming from the portal. He made the call.

"Close it."

And he watched as the portal closed, his last bit of hope dying. He wanted to look away, but forced himself to watch. It was the least he could do, since it was his choice.

In the end he was glad he did, because seconds before the portal completely closed a lone figure fell back through, and even without the serum it would have been easy to tell who it was.

'Oh, thank God,' Steve let a breathy chuckle of relief, "Son of a gun."

After a moment though, Thor tensed beside him, "He's not slowing down." And started swinging his hammer to fly.

Before either of them could do anything, though Steve doubted he would have been of any use, earthbound as he was, the Hulk jumped and caught the villain straight out of the air.

Using a building to slow his decent, Hulk landed, leaving a small crater in his wake. He cradled Ironman with a gentleness Steve hadn't known was possible with the giant. A memory of what Ironman had said came to mind: "The giant green rage monster likes me."

Steve realized that it hadn't just been him being superfluous when he said that, as Hulk slowly lowered the metal clad figure to the ground, stepping back but not far with a weary sort of movement in his step.

But it didn't matter, didn't even register, as Steve stepped closer to his downed comrade (Ironman had earned the title, after that stunt). The blue glow Ironman had been so keen on covering, on tapping, on just plain touching, was out, its owner lay unmoving. Steve had never questioned what it was; had never thought it mattered, not really. Now he wished he had, because now he didn't know. It could have been anything; decoration, a battery. Completely useless, or the most important thing to the robotic like man.

He kneeled down, his hand hovering where the light should have been. He glanced at Ironman's face, not for the first time wondered what was behind it. He contemplated just ripping it off, now that it was starting to look like it wouldn't matter. The urge left just as it had arrived, though. Human or robot, it didn't mean anything.

"Cap, what's it look like?" Clint asked. At this point it was definitely Clint -not Hawkeye- talking.

Steve swallowed, closing his eyes and dropping his hand, "I-"

The Hulk, finally tired of watching, of waiting for something, anything in the silence that had followed him lying Ironman down, cut him off, letting out a resounding, echoing roar, filled with anger and anguish in equal measure, right at the metal man's face.

Ironman jolted, the blue light flickering back into existence, "What! What!" He sat straight up, "I'm awake! What happened? Why are you all staring at me like that?" He asked as if he hadn't just been lying dead on the pavement. While his voice had cracked with static in some places, cutting off into white noise in others, it was plain and real and alive and Ironman, and that; that was enough.

Steve sat back, too many emotions swirling through him to be able to identify any of them, before his hand came up to the comm in his ear, "All clear." He gave; Twin sighs of relief answered him, saying that his team had been just as worried as he had been.

"But, seriously?" Ironman asked with slight static, stumbling to his feet.

Steve looked back at him, a little worried, before also standing up, "We won." He answered.

"Oh, that's great!" He cheered with fake enthusiasm, "That's- that's awesome. Good job, everyone! Can I go, now? Because while this has been, an enlightening experience, I think. I think I've had my fill of playing hero, so."

Steve felt his lip twitch, if only a little. Then he glanced up at the tower where he knew Loki was, "Not yet," He said, "There's one more thing we have to do."