Chapter 24.
Chaos.
His mind was chaos.
Tony struggled in the dark. It was all he had these days. Darkness. He remembered now – a hooded figure in the Tower late at night, the tapping of the gnarled staff, the feeling of being unmade – but the memories did him no good. It was useless to know without being able to act.
He was deep underwater, trying to swim with no sense of direction.
Slowly, slowly, the sounds penetrated his prison.
Steve.
He was gasping, fighting. Walls were breaking. Metal was striking metal. His communicator buzzed in his ear. He had gone so long without hearing it that the sound jolted him to the surface.
"Sir, can you hear me?"
Tony spoke through the haze, "Jarvis?"
"You have restarted my programming, sir."
Tony dropped his hand, realizing he had tapped his earpiece, bringing Jarvis back into the world. He could see again, breathe again.
"Sir, Captain Rogers appears to be in grave danger."
Tony stirred, staggering upright, taking in the scene. Steve was on the ground, hands up to protect his face, while Tony's empty Iron Man suits laid into him. Punches and kicks. No lasers. It was like they were programmed to hurt him.
Deep down, he knew he had designed them to save Steve for him.
"Disarm," he ordered, breathless.
Just like that, the suits dropped, falling noisily into the rubble.
Tony stumbled, having a hard time getting his legs to listen. He fell to his knees beside Steve, tapping his arms, "Hey, rise and shine. No time for a nap, Rogers."
Steve dropped his arms, laid out on his back. If the fight had not been over, this would be the moment it ended. Tony was finally free of the hatred he felt for Steve, and only mustered concern to see him like this.
"Say something, proof of life," Tony said.
Steve opened his eyes, groaning.
"Good enough."
Jarvis said, "Sir, there are ships entering the atmosphere."
"Let me guess, Deltaran?"
"Correct."
Tony pushed himself up, swaying. "I gotta split. Do me a favor and don't die. We've come too far to lose to a technicality."
Steve seemed to be fading in and out of consciousness.
Tony found his suit in the other room, where the rest of his team was battered, but alive. Nat drew her gun the moments she saw him.
"Where is Steve? Tell me you didn't."
He took in the sudden horror, grief, and surprise that painted her face.
Tony put his hands up. "He's fine. I'm fine. We're all fine. Let's relax. Yoga is good for that. I can show you some moves later, maybe make us a spinach shake – or whatever it is the kids are drinking these days."
She dropped the gun, "Tony?"
"The one and only."
"How did you…?"
"Later, got a thing I need to deal with."
Tony donned his suit, surging straight into the sky, shattering the rest of the roof in the process.
The Deltaran ships were already in view. Dozens of menacing black death donuts.
Last time he fought them, Tony had disabled their computers and momentarily disrupted their entire flight systems, sending them all wheeling through the sky. He let them off easy. Steve was all about doing things without violence whenever possible.
"Not this time," Tony said, rising, vengeance on his mind. "You get one chance. One. Jarvis, bring the suits online. Send them up, give the mothership a hug."
Tony hovered, following the path of his suits through the air. The ships fired on them, but their weapons were too slow to trace the paths of the smaller crafts. One by one, they flattened themselves on the largest ship, holding on like magnets.
"Detonate," Tony said.
A fireball engulfed the sky.
"Bring out Cobra for good measure. I want to send a message."
He waited, watching the show, while the main ship fell from the sky.
Cobra soared past him.
It was his missile – sleek, with red fins and rings of blue indicating where the reactor technology was hiding.
"Right in the middle," Tony said. "Fill the gap where the big ship was."
Cobra soared amongst the donuts and detonated in the center.
Tony underestimated the power of the blast.
He was blown out of the sky, toppling head-over-heels to the ground. His emergency rockets deployed and slowed his impact, but he still hit the ground like a dropped piano.
"Oww. Jarvis, make a note to rework the impact system."
"You already have three notes of that nature, sir."
"Well, harp on it a little more."
Tony popped his facemask off, gulping fresh air.
Natasha appeared over him, eyes narrowed. "How do I know you're not still crazy?"
"I don't know, maybe because I'm not trying to kill you." Tony opened his suit, taking the hand she offered. "And without my suit you can kick my ass, so take that as insurance."
Chunks were still falling from the sky.
"You really have contingencies for everything, huh?"
I really do.
Tony let the last of his volatile emotions drain away. He felt empty inside. It was going to take time to fill back up again, to get back to normal.
Now that the threat was gone, there was nothing left but the consequences.
"I did this," Tony breathed.
Natasha put her hand on his shoulder.
"I guess I know what I look like inside now – what the real me looks like."
"Not the real you – the worst possible version of you. Can you imagine what would have happened if that thing had come after me? Or Banner?"
Tony felt marginally better. "We would all be dead."
"Exactly."
"Thanks, by the way. For taking the shot to save Cap. I don't know what I would've done…"
"Me neither. And I'll shoot you anytime you want, you just have to ask."
"You really care about him, don't you?"
She shrugged. "He's my friend."
"Gross, do you have a crush on him?"
"Would it make you uncomfortable if I said yes?"
"Yes it would. Profoundly."
She smiled to herself. "Hard to love someone who keeps trying to get himself killed."
"Seems like something we all need to work on."
"I'm not hugging you, just so you know," Nat said.
Before he could respond, Thor appeared and wrapped him in a tight bear hug, lifting him off the ground. Tony groaned.
"I knew you were not insane. Maybe a little misunderstood, but not insane."
"Thanks, Thor. Nat was just saying she doesn't care enough about my emotional well-being to hug me."
"So glad the snark is back," Natasha said, turning to go back into the house. "Maybe you should bonk him on the head, make sure everything is out of his system."
Tony struggled away from Thor, following her. "God, you're just so funny. I can't believe you're wasting your talents trying to save the world."