Captain America versus Iron Man
Here's the thing about war. No one ever really wins. The whole prospect of victor and loser is just a smokescreen to hide the harsh reality of what war really entails. Soldiers come back home with a broken conscious, a broken mind; a broken heart. Lives are lost, sanity is forgotten, love is unrecognizable, and all that is left over is a shell of a human being; a person that was once full of life but is now stuck in the ever-lasting loop of destruction and death that they cannot leave.
Here's the thing about war; you will always lose.
Steve Rogers and Tony Stark did not realize this as the latter barges into the cold Siberian bunker; hoping for a chance to fix things with the hero he spent his childhood worshipping.
"It's good to see you, Tony," He meant it. Steve Rogers really did. He didn't know when and how, but what he did know was that the intelligent (intelligent doesn't even cut it) billionaire had become one of his best friends, and he had never wanted to lose that.
Tony Stark returns the sentiment, and he loses his playful tone to genuinely tell his teammate, his friend, "You too, Cap."
Bucky Barnes watches the interaction with a rapid fascination. It hasn't even been twenty-four hours yet and he has battled a series of superheroes led by Stark, learnt that Steve was in love with Stark's sister (who is also a Stark), and now the man himself walks into the room and calls a truce with his best friend and he's supposed to drop the gun down and braid his hair? Not happening.
So even though his gun is down by his side after Steve gestures for him to do so, his thumb is placed firmly at the trigger, in case this is all an elaborate trap to get to him and Steve. He doesn't think his machine gun would do much good against whatever Stark's suit is made up of, but he can damn well bet that he can hold the billionaire off until Steve gets the window to escape and save his friends.
"We need to go." Steve implores impatiently. The main goal was to get here before Zemo and while Tony's presence is more than a good thing, he needs to get to the Winter Soldiers now.
But the philanthropist shakes his head in refusal, "We're waiting on someone."
Steve vaguely sees Bucky aim his gun at Stark once again from his peripheral vision and he hisses out through clenched teeth, "I thought you said no one knows."
"No, I said Ross doesn't know," Tony corrects, "Besides, I'm sure you wouldn't mind this particular person making an entrance."
And just as the words are being said, Elizabeth Stark walks into the room, changed into a new suit, purple and blue with just enough black to make it look lethal, her entire attention focused on the sleek device in her hands, trying to figure out precisely where she is and what relevance it has to her.
"Tony, I have had the worst day of my entire life and I really just want to go home, curl up into a ball with some whisky and just cry, so the sooner you plan on telling me what the hell I'm doing in some deserted Siberian Bunker, the sooner I can go home and do all those things preferably in the same—" The exact moment Liz sees Steve and his partner in crime is the exact moment she stops speaking and stumbles slightly, her mouth open in a way that would be considered comical were it not for the heartbreaking undertone.
The young doctor stares at the superhero for a moment before she turns towards her brother, "What's going on?" her voice is monotone, completely devoid of life compared to how it sounded a couple of minutes ago.
Steve's hands clench painfully at his side. A few days ago, he was chasing this woman around their apartment and now she won't even look at him. He barely acknowledges Bucky's hand on his shoulder in the form of support. His childhood friend has been giving him the sympathetic glance ever since he figured out about his feelings for Liz and quite frankly, he's tired of it.
"We're helping Rogers stop the Winter Soldier," Tony tells his sister as a matter of fact, and it's during moments like these; when Tony's voice would take on an authoritative form, that most people stop having difficulty picturing him as an older brother and not the other way around.
The two siblings share a look, somehow managing to have a whole conversation in that one stare, and based on Liz's obvious grumble and look of exasperation, Tony evidently wins the argument, and, blowing a loose strand of hair off her face, she grumbles, "Fine, lead the way."
The mechanical whirring of the Iron Man mask jolting itself into place is the only source of sound in the quiet eerie bunker, and Steve doesn't miss the pointed look the older Stark gives him, tilting his head towards Liz, who, despite her unbothered stance, is obviously hiding a whole lot of hurt.
Before they can exit the entrance of the bunker, Steve grabs a hold of Liz's hand, calling out her name softly.
She pulls back as if she's been burnt, and Steve thinks he feels the same way when the woman he is madly in love with, cradles her hand as if he fractured it, biting out the words, "Don't."
As a child, Elizabeth Stark had one too many role models; Maria Stark, Howard Stark, Edwin Jarvis, Anna Jarvis, The Carters among many others. Each of them inflicted their own set of values and morals and shaped her into the person she is right now; the person she nor anyone wants to change. One of these important morals and values was forgiveness. Anyone who knew Elizabeth Stark knew that she was the person who was capable of giving others second, third, and fourth chances as long as she felt they deserved it (so far, a day where someone didn't deserve forgiveness hasn't come yet).
So standing here, the man who still holds her heart in front of her, looking at her with such regret and guilt, Liz cannot help but speed up her strides as she follows her brother and Steve through the disgusting bunker, so that her shoulders brush his, causing him to look at her with vulnerability that tugs at her heartstrings.
"We can talk about us after this is over," She phrases the statement as a question, her lips stretching into a tentative smile to reassure the Captain that she does not have a bad confrontation in mind.
Steve smiles back at her, his heart soaring in happiness, the chill he felt in his bones since he left the airport and Liz behind slowly seeping out through every breath, every smile.
Led by Iron Man, the four walk into the open dingy room. Liz doesn't hide her obvious distaste as she looks at the caked walls, broken ceiling and shattered glass. Bucky just hides his smile. She, inarguably, is humble in all the ways that matter, but he can't help but be amused at Elizabeth's Stark's discomfort and unfamiliarity to the room she walks into, while for him, this is close to luxury. He's had worse during these years in the run.
"I've got heat signatures," The modified voice of the Iron Man suit startles Steve, but he keeps a lid on it. A lot is depending on him at the moment, and the last thing he needs to do is startle himself and startle Buck and cause another disaster before completely fixing this one.
"How many?" He asks Tony, immediately after he regains his composure, unknown to anyone but Liz, who has to hide her first smile in 48 hours.
Instead, she focuses on the readings displayed in front of her own screen, through her contact lenses and frowns in confusion at data, "One?"
Waving his gun around the room in paranoia, Bucky feels his eyebrows constricting to whole new levels, one doesn't sound right. There should be a whole lot more than one. He's fought so many, mourned for so many.
The four walk into the room, completely alert, the only source of light coming from Tony Stark's repulsor and Elizabeth Stark's yarn of lightning. They each stare in different directions as the lights come on, bathing the room in an almost dirty yellow, and Liz recognizes the synchronized beeping; she hears it every single day.
"They're dead," She breathes out, barely a whisper, but the words echo and it reaches the ears of everyone in the room, not excluding the King of Wakanda.
Tony's heart pounds once the automated voice comes back on, and he stares at his sister, who is also undoubtedly trying to locate the source of the terribly automated voice, "if it's any comfort, they died in their sleep."
Tony can almost picture his sister's look of angered disbelief at the prospect of that even remotely being enough to comfort her, but he determinedly runs scans again, Jarvis' drive working non-stop. His sister takes a couple of steps towards the nearest Winter Soldier and he follows her, leaving Rogers and Barnes as they venture to the opposite side of the room, presumably looking at the same thing.
"Did you really think I wanted more of you?" Up close, the billionaires can see the single shot wound to the head, and Tony can see his sister's nails start to pierce her palm in an effort to regain her emotions and it's during these moments that he wishes that Thor didn't tell Liz that she couldn't burn or shock herself with her powers because they are tethered to her and won't willingly hurt her. This way, she'd still have her gloves on.
The voice comes back on, the slight emotion in them confirming everyone's thoughts; someone else is in here. "I'm grateful to them though. They brought you here."
The lights shut dramatically, and the room is bathed in a momentary darkness before everyone's focus is directed towards the man behind the glass. The same man both Bucky Barnes and Liz recognize and the Winter Solider gives Fyra a reassuring shrug, as if to tell her that leaving him alone with the fake therapist wasn't her fault.
Steve, however, isn't in control of his fear and anger as much as he thinks he is. He swings his shield at the sturdy wall and, as expected, the circular disk comes flying back as if it were just a mere Frisbee instead of Wakanda's vibranium.
"Please Captain, The Soviets built this chamber to withstand a launch blast of UR-100 rockets." Zemo doesn't seem the slightest bit unfazed and it starts to bug Tony.
"I'm Betting I Can Beat That!" The engineer says, in a voice that barely controls his fear.
"Oh, I'm sure you could Mr. Stark, given time."
Liz blows an angry breath, but it doesn't help, and she sing-songs loud enough for everyone to hear, "And I'm sure you'll only be in a coma for the rest of your life if I decide to blow up that wall."
For the first time, Bucky sees a slight hesitance Zemo's face, and he thanks whoever the hell he's supposed to thank that Tony Stark decided to bring himself and his sister to make amends.
"You killed innocent people in Vienna, just to bring us here."
The truth, previously known by only five of the six people in that room is now known by all, and T'Challa cannot contain the ringing in his ears and the plaguing guilt as he remembers the last words he said to Elizabeth Stark before both she and he left. Or more accurately, the last words she said to him.
Your father would have never wanted this.
Back in the room, Zemo faces off against Steve, who stands right in front of the glass wall that separates him and the sociopath. Liz's fingers sparks with electricity, the energy threatening to burst out as it (somehow) senses Fyra's fear. She's always had an inkling of suspicion about it, but now as she tries to get rid of the crackling electricity, she knows that these powers, whatever they may be, are a life of their own, has a soul of their own. The thought should scare her but it doesn't, not when the very thing has been protecting and guarding Liz her whole life, as if its sole purpose was to do just that.
"I thought about nothing else for over a year. I studied you, I followed you, but now that you're standing here, I just realized; there's a bit of green in the blue of your eyes." his chuckle is barely audible and he continues, "How nice to find a flaw."
Behind him, Steve can hear Liz snort in bewilderment and exclaim, "Flaw?" under her breath and for the first time today, he can recognize Elizabeth Stark, the woman who has no brain to mouth filter and has grown to own it proudly.
But instead, he focuses on the man in front of him, the manic who has caused so much hurt, the manic whose accent he can easily pinpoint, "You're Sokovian. Is that was this is about?"
He shakes his head, answers with a cold numbness that most sociopaths are associated with, "Sokovia was a failed state long before you blew it to hell. No. I'm here because I made a promise."
Liz, curiosity fully piqued proceeds to make a step forward, questions itching to be answered, but the cold metal of the Iron Man suit stops her. Her brother shakes his head and the actions cause the young doctor to keep her feet planted in place.
"You lost someone," Liz can't help the sympathetic undertone that occupies her statement. She's woken up with nightmares and spent the whole day in grief for the unnamed people that were lost to their loved ones. She spent hours holed up in the bathroom crying her heart out for them until there were no more tears left to shed for the day.
So her heart reaches out to the man behind the glass for a moment as he says, "I lost everyone. And so will you" And then the moment is gone.
His focus is diverted from Steve and he looks down, presses a single button, and ruins everyone's life.
Here's the thing about war. No one ever really wins. There's always a tipping point. The point where you stop and realize that you've signed your soul to the devil and there is no coming back. There is nothing you can do to save yourself anymore. There is always one moment, one word, one action, one breath that changes everything.
That one moment that defines the beginning of your loss.
Here's the thing about war. You always lose.
Steve Rogers and Tony Stark found their tipping point in a single press of a button and in a single one-minute video.
Tony and Elizabeth Stark were, and can be said to always be one of the smartest people in any room. Both had grown up walking into classrooms filled with kids much older than themselves and had a countless amount of awards and trophies that neither bothered to frame. Regardless, neither recognized the odd letters on the ancient T.V screen but watched with avid curiosity as the black and white reel began to come to life.
Ever since he was old enough to understand, T'Challa was groomed into being the future king of Wakanda, and was taught everything he needed to know, all the traits he would need to possess.
One of those traits was sensibility. Another was compassion. Both combined together made a wonderful king. Since that wretched day in Vienna, T'Challa had managed to lose his compassion and his ability to see things straight. The only thing that was left was his thirst for vengeance and his anger; the two emotions that his father despised.
It's coming back to him now. The pain, grief, suffering. He's finally feeling the inexplicable sorrow of losing a parent; of losing a part of your whole.
It's coming back to him as he watches Tony and Elizabeth Stark look at their parents be brutally murdered, and if he didn't regret telling Liz that she doesn't understand what losing his father felt like, he sure does now.
And he will regret the decision he makes then, for the rest of his life; he will spend all of eternity wondering what would have changed suppose he planted his feet to the ground and stayed there to witness the aftermath, partake in the events after the life-changing video. Instead, he runs out of the central control room, out into the freezing cold, the events of the past few days finally reaching him and he does his own kind of breaking in front of the Siberian bunker, completely oblivious to all that had happened after he left.
The decision he will spend his entire life regretting.
She's crying. She doesn't know it. But Steve knows that he will have nightmares of Elizabeth Stark's heartbreaking sobs echoing through the Siberian Bunker every night for the rest of his life. Tony's face remains impassive, but judging by the painful clenching in his jaw, Steve knows he is anything but. He looks over to Bucky who is lost in his own nightmare and has the overwhelming need to run to his side and protect him. Everything he had feared would happen is happening. In the worst possible way, much worse than what he had expected.
Mahatma Gandhi said that the future depends on what we do in the present. There are a thousand different ways the aftermath of the video could have played out; a million different choices each of the four individuals could have made, a plethora of things that could have been said, a countless amount of outcomes.
However, the tipping point that lost the so-called 'civil war' happened when Tony Stark, in his anger filled haste made a movement to attack his parents' killer and when Steve Rogers, in his haste to protect his friend once more, grabbed the red and gold suit, preventing him from moving any further.
Liz, stays frozen, staring at the black screen of the TV, tears streaming freely from her eyes, her posture stiff and cold, lifeless and dead, so very opposite of the woman herself.
"Tony, Tony," Steve implores with his teammate, his voice taking on a note of desperation. He knows how this ends. He's dreamt it every single night.
And that action, that single action, tips the scales in no one's favour, because that one action, that one implore, gives away everything Steve has managed to hide for the better part of almost two years.
By some divine miracle, Liz manages to keep herself from exploding and destroying the entire country by looking at her brother, who has surely fallen over the edge and, unclenching her tightly woven jaw, hisses out at Steve, "You knew?"
She knows the answer before he says it, if his glassy eyes are any indication, but whatever sympathy she had for the man is long gone as her heart cracks through the middle when he says, "Yes."
And then, the scales tip, even more, when Tony takes a giant step back, his anger building up to extremes, and with a powerful thrust of his repulsor, his metal hand makes contact with the Captain's jaw, causing him to fall on the ground and stay there for a few moments.
Bucky has his gun drawn out and ready to shoot, but find himself unable to when he pulls the trigger, his hand turning mind-numbingly cold. He turns towards Liz, who was standing still and quiet in shock the entire time but now has the dangerous fire in her eyes, and a kind of ice in her heart Bucky has never seen before.
But some part of him, the part he not so affectionately calls the Winter Soldier comes back to life. Because while Bucky may be in control of all his emotions, and can remember every single thing that has happened to him ever since he was a child, he knows that this fuelling anger and sick satisfaction isn't himself at all.
But the Winter Soldier has always been strong, he's always managed to overtake Bucky Barnes and posses every inch of his mind until there was no trace of himself left in his own body. So while The Winter Soldier isn't in control right now, the Hydra based killer most certainly influences him, especially when he hauls the large, heavy machine gun with incredible force at the brown-haired woman (the only woman in the room actually) and charges towards her brother.
Tony Stark puts up a fight, something he couldn't have said back when they were fighting in Berlin. But the man can fight now, and as Bucky's being held by the throat and whisked into the air, he can vaguely remember the Winter Soldier being impressed when he shot a gun at the billionaire, only to be met with resistance in the form of his glasses.
As for Steve Rogers, the impact of Tony Stark's punch kept him on the ground for a good chunk of time, before he manages to get himself up. He gets up on the ground just in time to see the metal leg of Iron Man pin Bucky to the ground, and before his best friend can receive a particularly hurtful punch, he is running towards the suit, ramming into him with such a powerful impact that it sends the metal man stumbling a few feet back.
The movement allows Bucky to get back up, against his protesting muscles and he closes his metal hand into a fist, ready to punch the distracted genius. The Winter Soldier's hard drive is programmed too deeply into his skull and he knows it. The thoughts and impulses that float through his brain are an indication of the fact.
But before he can strike the red and gold clad superhero, the familiar mind-numbing cold washes over him again and he turns to spot Elizabeth Stark, who removed herself from the fight for a few seconds to grab the video of her parents and trap it in an ice block for further use. And it's true that Liz was the only person apart from Steve who talked and interacted with Bucky as if he were any other human being, but at the moment, the same woman is preventing him from getting to Steve and that is something he and his anger cannot handle.
Charging towards her, he uses his iced hand to punch her, a punch she so easily dodges. She seems surprised at his level of functionality with a frozen hand, but she doesn't understand that he's been frozen since he fell off a train that fated day.
He fights in a way he has never done before, and she matches his every kick, punch and strike with her own. He's never seen anyone fight like her, with so much emotion and skill, with so much power coursing through her veins, but the absence of it until it is absolutely necessary. She doesn't fight methodically; there is no pattern to her moves. Her actions are as wild and as impulsive as she is, and it makes taking her on that much more difficult. In the background, he can hear Steve struggling with Tony and Buck headbutts his opponent, not giving her the opportunity to recover before sending a harsh blow to her stomach, a blow that causes her to go flying across the other side of the room.
He only learns what a terrible idea that was a moment later.
See, here's the thing about Tony Stark. He has the capacity to think straight under the direst of circumstances, including when seeing his parents be brutally murdered by the very presence in the room; he just doesn't because he's angry and petty and so very betrayed. Still, he has a lid on his anger. He's not blowing the entire place up into shambles and to him, that's a win.
Bring his sister into the equation and hurt her, well,prepare for any trace of thinking straight to be blown out the window.
So when he sees his sister go flying through the air in a not so graceful manner, it only takes a click of a button to send the large chrysalis thingies to go crashing everywhere, the tech on Liz's locket opening under Tony's electronic command and dispersing an impenetrable wall that shields her from the falling objects. Not so much him though.
It doesn't matter regardless, because where Liz is Tony's weakness, Tony is also Liz's. Breaking out of the azure shell, she sends the circular orb to her brother, and watches with satisfaction as the heavy beams bounce off the round cocoon made by her powers. It's then, just as one of the containers holding a dead Winter Soldier falls over her head, that she screams in shock before hurrying to protect herself.
The scream stops Steve, who has the escape plan playing out spectacularly and he turns around at the familiar voice of distress. The long-haired brunette has an ice shield on the top of her head created by one hand, while the other creates a wave of water that forms into a bubble, each one holding the dead Winter Soldiers. Even when a building is collapsing around her, she's still saving people.
Steve should have known better. One cannot even imagine staying the same after seeing such a tragedy happen right before their eyes. The old Elizabeth Stark, the one who found her family in a dysfunctional team of superheroes and love in a super soldier would have put a stop to the whole fight and demanded reasonable thinking. This Elizabeth Stark, the one defined by the love of her life's broken promises, lies, and the seeing of her parents' murder, flings each and every dead body collected, at Steve, the water suddenly turning into raging fire for a better impact.
Here's the thing about war. You never win. There is always a fight. Always a battle. A battle that never ends. It's messy, and bloody, and never worth it. The fight intertwines in a method where it is impossible to distinguish one side from the other; the enemy to the hero. It only lasts for an hour, maybe two, but it feels like days. Halfway into the fight, your bones are weary; you're on the verge of collapsing but there's that anger in you. The anger that makes you keep going, the angry that shuts down every thinking mechanism you have and pours all your attention into the war; into the fight.
Here's the thing about war. You always lose.
The fight never stops.
Tony Stark and Steve Rogers didn't realize that as they fought in the wretched bunker in Siberia, throwing punches and drawing blood.
It's not a long battle. Between Afghanistan and the battle of New York and Sokovia, Tony has had worse. He's used to the feeling of exhaustion, the pain from sharp wounds, and the throb in his skull.
He's not used to this feeling of hurt. So much hurt. He's not prepared for the great pang of guilt that overwhelms him every time he punches Steve Rogers; the man he learned to call a friend and partner, the man that his little sister loves to bits.
Behind them plays another battle, between the Winter Solider and Liz. He's trying to get to Steve to save him, and she's trying to prevent the former Hydra Soldier from getting to her brother. After what she saw, she'll be damned if Barnes goes anywhere near her family.
He's been fighting for decades and she's been fighting since she was six, but her powers give her the advantage.
She's been devoting a solid three hours every single day into researching and learning more about her powers and the extent of their usage. She's already established that somehow, they're connected to the Infinity Stones Thor rants about, the stone that lies on Vision's forehead and fuels Wanda and Pietro's power.
She can control them better now. She can now fight Bucky Barnes, hold him down on the ground, have a large blue electric rope break out of the ground, and wrap itself around the former Sergeant. She's never been violent by nature; she's sworn an oath to protect all life and so far, with an exception of a few aliens, she's lived by that code.
But right now, at this moment, her morals, code and values fly out the window as she pins Barnes down, watching him struggle the way her mother did, the way her father fought for his life, fought for their life. He deprived her of her parents. He deprived her parents of the opportunity to see her and Tony grow, to watch their son save the world not only with his suits, but also with his mind. He singlehandedly destroyed her family and right now, she cannot see anything beyond that.
(It's only months later, after watching the video on the cassette 187 times, that she's able to point out the subtle differences between the Winter Soldier and Bucky Barnes; human and Hydra. By that time, it's too late.)
The electricity crackles and she mentally calms herself so that the ropes won't shock the man; because that is what he is, a man, and if Liz keeps reminding herself that, she'll be fine.
But just as she mentally regains herself, she loses it, because the Captain, in an unsuccessful attempt at saving his friend while taking on Tony, throws his shield at Liz, the vibranium hitting her abdomen and sending her crashing into the ground.
What was once two fights between four people then becomes one fight between four; the cracks that slowly break apart a team defined by trust, blood, and hardship becoming more prominent than ever.
However, there is always more to everything than what meets the eye. Steve Rogers maybe be violently protecting his friend, but he'll be damned if one drop of blood leaves Elizabeth Stark's body because of him. Tony Stark may be angry, but he has his repulsors and guns lowered to minimal damage, he's not going to have more blood on his hands. Bucky is in the middle of his own mental battle between the person he is and the person Hydra engraved into his system. His movements are hesitant and scared and an exact representation of the inner turmoil in his head at the moment. And Liz, Liz, for the life of her, doesn't have it in herself to hurt anyone, not the man she is still so in love with and certainly not the man who she, in some small part in the back of her head, knows is innocent in all this.
However, all of this changes when Steve gets angry. When Tony does too. When the anger turns its ugly head, and now, the punches are directed at each other, for the sole purpose of injuring and drawing blood. All of a sudden, Steve has Tony on the ground, pounding into his chest with his fists again and again.
He's tired, he's scared, and he's angry. His sole purpose is to protect Bucky, but somewhere along the way, both their anger manifested into something impulsive and destructive; something regrettable.
Liz, who was half-heartedly trying to keep Bucky away from her brother, panics when she sees the Captain punching the life out of Tony. She's fought Steve before; their first meeting was based off his ability to break a punching bag, and she knows how strong he is; how much damage he can inflict with just a single punch.
And in her panic, she forgets her powers. She completely disregards the sparking electricity that engulfs her figure and the red flame that dances in her irises; two things she cannot control.
Bucky, however, sees it and now, he's the one panicking. He knows that Elizabeth Stark is in love with his best friend, but he also knows that she loves her brother more, and so when Liz rushes to her brother, her entire form covered in a multitude of colours, Bucky, in fear for Steve, jumps in the air and tackles her to the ground, keeping her there as Steve punches Tony. His metal arm constricts oddly, in an effort to pull her back as she thrashes wildly, her silent struggles starting to become screams and pleas.
"Stop! Stop! Stop it! Steve, you're hurting him!" Liz is crying freely now, her tears multiplying with every dent that is made in the red and gold suit she helped make two weeks ago.
Steve can feel his own tears building up, his eyes burning with the effort of trying to rein them in. The rushing in his ears and the pounding of his heart is too much to bear as Liz continues to brokenly sob and struggle against the Winter Solider keeping her on the ground, "Please Steve. I'm begging you. Stop it! Let him go."
And Steve snaps. The frustration and tension that has been building up ever since Nick Fury showed up in his apartment two years ago finally blows apart in the worst possible way.
Here's the thing about war. You never win. Both teams, both armies, both sides, regardless of right or wrong, hero and villain; they all go with a blast. The fight ends explosively, not a single drop of peace present. The explosion breaks everything apart, kills so many people, ruins so many more, but no one cares. It never matters. Because at the end of the day, the explosion finishes the battle, finalizes the end, and everyone gets to go home.
But here's the thing about war. No one ever wins. The explosion does nothing but destruct.
In this case, Elizabeth Maria Stark created an explosion that not only broke apart the Avengers, but also caught the attention of the one who placed a bounty on her head the second she was born.
It all happened in a matter of seconds; Steve Rogers, in his angered haze, lifts his vibranium shield into the air, positions it right above Tony who brings his hands up over his face in an attempt to prevent any fatal damages to his brain.
Liz. She screams. Louder than ever before, her entire body wracking with fear, she screams.
And in six different locations, six different people, five different planets watch in awe as for the first time since the beginning of the universe, the Infinity Stones began to act up.
Loki, whose dedicated small fragments of his day to make sure the Tesseract was still present, smirks knowingly when the blue cube levitates in the air before falling back after releasing a strong force field that knocks him out of his feet.
Vision screams in pain when he is lifted off the ground, the gem on his head shining brightly, and Pepper rushes to him, only to fall back due to the yellow force field, somehow able to hear Vision's croak of a name, "Liz."
Stephan Strange is forced to open the Eye of Agamotto as the Time Stone lifts itself into the air and sends a large wave of green, shattering the large window and knocking himself and Wong off their feet, before the Stone gently returns into the eye, and the world is still once more.
The collector runs into his treasure room, looking at the destruction the red barrier of energy caused, and finds that for the first time since it came to his possession, the liquid of the Aether is sizzling no longer, but is rather calm and delicate.
In Xander, the Nova Corps' attempt to shield themselves from the blast of the purple energy is futile, as Irani Rael rushes into her chambers, flipping through the book her great-grandfather passed along, finally pinpointing the reason for the activity. The Infinity Stone does not belong to them. It's trying to find its way back to its owner.
In Vormir, the Red Skull watches in fear, as the soul stone presents itself for the first time since he's been here, rising out of the ashes only to collapse back again with a great burst of power that tosses his liquefied form to the ground, and he knows, he knows, that the keeper of the Stones has finally arrived to take back what is theirs.
And it's a marvel to see. The six different powers, the six different colours, the six different entities zoom through the skies at a speed incomparable to anything before taking their place side by side, surrounding Elizabeth Stark and erupting into a large wave of pure energy that causes Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, Helmut Zemo, T'Challa and all of Siberia to crash into the ground, the entire region falling into darkness.
All in a matter of seconds. With a single scream from Elizabeth Stark.
She crawls over to her brother, who is knocked unconscious and checks for a pulse, breathing in relief when she can feel the steady patter of her brother's heart.
It gives Steve enough time to summon the rest of whatever strength he has left to help Bucky up and hold onto him; the blast protected Liz (as her powers always do) and therefore protected the ones near her vicinity to some extent.
Together, they walk right behind a quiet Liz, her head resting on Tony's chest.
Steve calls out to her,
"Liz,"
In a flash, she's up on her foot, her hands raised protectively in front of her, her eyes completely purple and swirls of red, blue, yellow, green, orange, and purple encompassing her entire figure. Steve has never seen her so angry, so dangerous before, and for the first time in his entire life, he's scared of Elizabeth Stark.
"Liz," he tries again, trying to change this nightmare; trying to fix things one more time.
The next thing he knows is the brutal pain of Liz's palm coming in contact with his cheek, an electric shock leaving its wake, the slap resonating through the fried Bunker. Steve stands there shocked, staring at the woman in front of him, feeling all the warmth slip away from his body at the ice-cold gaze of the woman he loves.
She takes a step closer to him, her eyes still purple, and up close he can see streaks of red and blue inside of them, she steps forward until she's almost toe to toe with him and in a voice so dead and broken and chilling, she says,
"You're going to leave. And you're never going to come back. Because the next time I see you, Steve Rogers, I'm going to kill you."
He knows she doesn't mean it. He knows she'll regret saying it as soon as she gets a good night sleep. He knows that she is incapable of any sort of harm to anyone. But still, the words hurt more than anything in the world did. It hurts more than gunshot wounds, and knife stabs. It hurts more than watching his friend try to kill him and watching his friends die. It hurts more than falling into ice and waking up 50 years later.
And it's the hurt that allows him to turn away from Liz's tear-stained face and walk away, tune out the single sob he hears and climb onto the jet and fly away, never looking back.
This isn't his nightmare. It's worse.
Here's the thing about war. It slowly picks your soul apart until there is nothing left of it. Here's the thing about war.
You always lose.
You don't realize it. You may go home safe and sound with both arms and all ten toes. Your eyes might still be able to see and your ears can still hear. It's only after you wake up drenched in sweat at twelve a.m in the morning and flinch violently when your three years old daughter tackles you into a hug that you realize that you've lost.
The revelation may come anywhere. During a private dinner with your husband and you grip the glass so tightly it shatters. Taking a relaxing bath at home before you have the sudden urge to go under and never come back. Walking up the steps to church and being unable to breathe due to the onslaught of memories of the ones you called brother; the same ones who died bleeding in your arms. You realize you lost the war; anywhere, then everywhere.
Steve Rogers and Tony Stark realized it in a cold deserted Bunker in Siberia.
Elizabeth Stark realized it on a bright sunny day in an ugly conference room in the Avengers Tower, as a single document was being thrown in front of her.
