Yaaaaayy! New chapter!

So I've been brainstorming A LOT for the future of the book and the conflicts, and the skeleton is complete for this next portion of the book! I've got some pretty exciting twists planned, so stick around... :)

This was a pretty fun chapter to write... I think you'll see why...

Not much to say here. Enjoy!

Disclaimer:

I do not own the Avengers movies, the Marvel franchise, or any of the characters. That all belongs to Marvel Studios. Everything to Marvel Studios. Any added dialogue, plots, or characters are mine, but nothing else. I don't own it.

Chapter Twenty-Four - Drunk on Legacy

Metal grinds on metal. Screams in the dark. Explosions of flame blooming in bloody, orange flowers. An arc reactor, beating, beating, beating, the annular skeleton of blue collapsing in on itself. The Iron Man helmet melts in a molten grave, and with it, my legacy.

The arc reactor. Again.

Heartbeat slow.

Slow. Slower. Gone.

"Tony!"

The nightmare shatters. I jolt upward with a cry, clambering from the bed as a shadowed figure reaches out to me.

"Tony, it's me! It's okay, it's me…" The moonlight from the window reveals Pepper's tense features.

I lower my arms that I had flung up upon instinct. My heart pounds with every wheezing gasp and my hands scramble feverishly at my chest. I relax in the slightest as the familiar circle of the arc reactor meets my fingers. I slam my eyes shut, skin tingling. "I-I'm sorry, Pep. I just– I can't– I…"

Pepper sits up and blinks at me, cocking her head. "You haven't a nightmare in a long time, Tony… What was this one about?"

Adrenaline races through my veins. My breath catches in my throat.

"Both of our legacies fell the day of our division. We didn't fall together, we fell separately."

Pepper squints. "Tony? What was this dream about?"

"My legacy."

No one speaks.

"What?"

"My legacy. People were screaming. Metal was destroying metal. Blasts of fire around me. A cemetery of broken parts and…my arc reactor. Beating until nothing remained…"

Pepper slides from the bed and approaches me in tentative steps. She lays a thin hand on my sweaty shoulder. "Where did this come from? You haven't had any trouble recently, and then all of a sudden, this. Ever since Steve left today, you've been distant and…not you. What is it you're not telling me?"

I withdraw from her grip, moving to the closet and grabbing a button-down shirt from the rack. Dragging my eyes to the clock, I flinch. Four in the morning. "Cap and I had a talk before he left."

Pepper stares at me, dark realization dawning on her. "Oh-no, Tony… What did you say?"

The careful fastening of my flannel turns into vicious tugging that sends a button hurtling across the room. "What did he say is the appropriate question." I give up on buttoning and rub a hand over my face. "Jarvis, get a few bottles of scotch ready– ."

"No, don't." Pepper stops my hands with her own. "Tony, please, we can work this out together. If we could just talk about it– ."

"You want me to yell at you?"

Pepper recoils, gasping at my sudden roar.

"Do you want me to yell at you?"

"No, but– !"

"Then let's not talk about it. Let's go the easy way out."

"Tony, don't do this. I'm not going to sit around and just watch as you struggle in silence and drown yourself with alcohol! There are better ways to deal with this! You let me help you after the Civil War. You let Rhodey help you. You got over it– ."

"Pep, I didn't get over it. I was in pain every single day. To be honest, I don't know how I survived after the Civil War."

"You got help. You worked on softening the memories. You worked on getting past the truth."

I get to work straightening the damp sheets to distract myself.

"We can do that again. Maybe even better. Maybe this time…you can learn to let go– ."

I whip around. "You think I didn't try that? You think I didn't try to forget about Siberia? It's taken– I know what– I can't– ." My voice hitches on a lump blocking my throat. Blood boils in the veins bulging from my arms. I rip off the flannel, the next words as cold as steel. "It's been a year and half, Pep. If I haven't gotten over it by now, I never will." After a few agonizing seconds, I tromp out of the room and clap twice. "Jarvis, get me two bottles of scotch up and ready. Time to toast Cap's departure."

The next time I wake up, Tony's side of the bed is empty and the clock is blinking eight AM. It takes a few seconds for reality to make sense. The vacant sheets. The cracked closet. The door wide open. I jump to a sitting position. Tony. Oh my gosh, Tony… I scan the room. He's not here. The rock in my stomach drops lower when I recall his last remark before leaving. Scotch. Two bottles. A toast.

I kick my legs out from under the blanket and swing them over the edge, twirling my hair into a crude knot. I throw a mess of an outfit over my nightclothes and head out the door. "Jarvis, where's Tony?"

"Mr. Stark is in the bathroom near his workshop."

My mouth goes dry. Oh-no…

I rush to his workshop's bathroom to find Tony slumped against the wall in his suit, a glass of scotch clutched in his hand. His hair is a tangled mop and his face is drained of all color.

Fire boils in my lungs and I ram my fist against the door. "What are you doing?"

Tony's head lolls to the side and he gives a drunken smirk. "Oh, hey, Pepper… Want to join me?" He lifts his glass to drink only to spill it over his suit. He bursts into giggles.

Gawking at him, I address our AI. "Jarvis, how long has he been in here?"

"Mr. Stark has been in the bathroom since four-thirty."

My body tenses and I fight to stay calm. "Tony, you've been in here for three and a half hours…?"

"Not that long, just…just…just… Y'know what, come on in here and we can have our own little party together."

"Tony, no. You need– ."

"Want a drink?" He raises his eyebrows at me.

"Stop."

"I've got some scotch left in my suit if you just– ."

"Your suit?" I cross my arms.

"No, I mean– I mean…the bottle."

"Tony, you need to come with me. You need to sleep this off, then we can talk about Steve– ."

Iron Man breaks into song.

Twenty minutes later, the hungover billionaire snores in the bedroom, stripped down to his undergarments. My temples ache as I stand by the bed, contemplating my options.

Bruce clears his throat from my side.

I whirl around, startled. "Oh, Bruce, I didn't see you. What are you doing here?"

"I-I wanted to ask Tony about his progress on the medical-tech equipment for Clint. But I heard you had some trouble this morning." He nods at Tony.

A groan drags from my throat. "I don't know what to do…"

"If you don't mind me asking– what happened?"

I hesitate. "Did you hear him and Steve arguing yesterday?"

Bruce shivers. "I did, yes."

"I haven't heard many of the details, but a nightmare woke Tony up this morning. We had an argument ourselves, and it ended with Tony leaving and saying something about toasting Steve's departure. When I got up this morning, I found him…" I gesture to the situation. "I just don't know what to do about this, Bruce. I want to focus his mind away from whatever he's struggling with, but I don't know how to do it. He's got other responsibilities now too. The Avengers are living in his home. He's a father figure and a mentor to Peter. He can't just retire and forget about everything else…"

"A party might help him to forget temporarily."

"No, no, no, that's the worst thing in this circumstance…"

"It'll stop him from thinking about it. Partying is one of his favorite things to do, right? And, since he wouldn't want Steve or Bucky anywhere, he'd be partying without them in the picture. We could book a game room in Queens and bring the Avengers together."

"But after this morning, he can't be near alcohol right now."

"It could be a party without drinking."

"Oh… I don't think it's a party to Tony without drinking."

Bruce shrugs. "We could see how long it lasts. Tony likes having fun. We could invite Rhodey if he has an opening from his mission over seas. It's worth a shot."

As the idea takes shape in my head, I surrender to a hopeful smile. "Yes, it is. Thank you, Bruce. That's what we'll do." I follow the scientist out of the room and leave the door open.

It's worth a shot.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Just in case anybody doesn't know, I have officially taken Rhodey out of the story. I haven't killed him or anything, but he was just kind of a drag to have in the story because he is one of my least favorite Avengers (I still like him tho, just not a ton) and I couldn't see a reason for him to be in my story aside from just being there. I decided to have him be MIA and he is over seas on a mission for the government. I also changed Tony's phone conversation partner in the Prologue from Happy to Rhodey because the dialogue fit Rhodey better and I want the readers to know in the very first chapter that Rhodey is gone. The dialogue in the prologue has been slightly altered because of this fact, so if you want to head over there and read what's new, go right ahead. It's also mentioned that Rhodey is over seas in Buried Rivalries. I think it's better for the story and more enjoyable for me. :) He is going to be in the next chapter though for humor's sake.

Read and review!