saudade ⇒ n. romanoff ✓

XLIV

"We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now," Steve moved back on topic, "Deep space scans... and satellites, and we got nothing.

Steve sighed.

"Tony, you fought him."

"Who told you that?" Tony furrowed his eyebrows, "I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleeker Street magician gave away the store. That's what happened. There was no fight, 'cause he's not beatable."

"Okay, okay," Steve said as Tony spoke, "Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?"

"Uh," he spluttered, taking his hand and gesturing that he knew nothing.

Natasha rolled her eyes.

"I saw this a few years back," Tony said, "I had a vision. I didn't wanna believe it. Thought I was dreaming.

"Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus," Steve tried.

"And I needed you," Tony scoffed, "As in, past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late, buddy. Sorry," the billionaire then got frustrated, knocking everything over, "You know what I need? I need a shave."

He stood up and started to rip the IV out his arm.

"A-and I believe I remember telling all youse..."

"Tony, Tony!" Rhodey came over to him.

"...alive and otherwise, that what we needed was a suit of armor around the world," Tony looked back at them, "Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not? That's what we needed."

"Well, that didn't work out, did it?" Steve replied.

"I said we'd lose. You said, 'We'll do that together, too.' And guess what, Cap? We lost. And you weren't there. But that's what we do, right? Our best work after the fact?" he started to lose his balance, causing Rhodey to try to get him to stop, "We're the 'Avengers.' We're the 'Avengers,' not the 'Pre-vengers."

"Okay," Rhodey nodded as he looked up at Tony.

"Right?"

"You made your point. Just sit down, okay?"

"Okay. No, no, here's my point. You know what?" he got eye of Captain Marvel, "She's great by the way."

Carol tilted her head.

"Tony you're sick," Rhodey kept trying, "Sit down."

"We need you," Tony continued talking to Carol, "You're new blood."

He got out of Rhodey's grip.

"Bunch of tired old mules," he walked up to Steve, "I got nothing for you, Cap. I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust, liar."

Steve looked at him in the eyes, clear remorse in his eyes.

Tony ripped out his reactor, took out Steve's hand and placed it on there.

"Here, take this. You find him, you put that on... you hide," his breath shook tremendously as he fell to his knees.

"Tony!" Steve called out, reaching out to him as everyone else did as well.