𝗴𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵 ✧ avengers

16 ✧ I got nothin'

Tony bent down, pressing the button inside of his helmet before sitting back against one of the chairs at the front of the ship. He watched and tapped the side of the armor, waiting for the humming and glitching to stop so he could film his last words to the love of his life, and possibly the entire world. 
"This thing on?" He asked himself, finally resting his back against the chair.

"Hey, Miss Potts. Pep." He muttered, "If you find this recording, don't post it on social media. It's gonna be a real tearjerker." For some reason, in any position he placed himself, his limbs still ached unbearably. He'd do anything to stop the pain at this point but he knew that he wasn't too far away from being pain-free forever. He just had to push through it a little longer until the pain-- the haunting memories-- went away. 
"Today's day 21? No, uh, 22." He corrected himself, "I could say I'm feeling a little better today but uh, I don't know... So the fuel cells were cracked during battle and we figured out a way to reverse the ion charge and bought ourselves about 48 hours of flight time." 

He slowly turned his head to look out the window next to him, his eyes darting from one bright star to the next before looking back down at his hands and up at the helmet placed in front of him. "Oxygen will run out tomorrow morning... and that'll be it." Suddenly, Tony felt a tear roll down his pale cheek, the reality of things started to settle and he didn't like that feeling very much. Knowing that once he closes his eyes tonight... he won't ever open them again.
"Pep, I know I said no more surprises but, I gotta say, I was really hoping to pull off one last one." He admitted softly, his head dropping. "Don't feel bad about this... I mean, actually if you grovel for a couple weeks... and then, move on with enormous guilt..."

He rested his head in his hand, letting out slow and shaky breaths as everything that happened before, started to come back to him. The feeling of Alex's arms slowly weakening by the second, seeing Peter's eyes lose their color as he turned to dust absolutely crushed Tony. 
Every day, every night, Tony went to sleep with that tremendous guilt lingering inside of his head. The thought of what he could have done to save their lives haunted him. 
"Please know... when I drift off it'll be like every night lately..." He muttered, "I'm fine. I'm totally fine. I dream about you." He tapped the helmet with his finger.

"Because it's always been you." He whispered quietly as his hands wrapped around the helmet, ending the recording. 
Slowly, Tony shuffled to the front of the chair, slowly lying his head back on the cold floor. His eyes lifted one last time to get a final look at the void from in front of him. He felt his heart sink into his chest as his eyes fluttered shut... this is it.

The hours went by and Nebula had walked over to sit him up in the chair instead of leaving him on the uncomfortable floors. She had pulled his coat over him as some sort of blanket and nodded to herself once realizing that everything was over. No more fighting, no more anger... everything was over. 

As time went on, Tony's mind traveled from memory to memory. Whether if it was with Happy, Pepper, his parents, or the two kids he cared so deeply about.
He thought of the first times he had ever met Pepper, or the times he'd scared her half to death with his stupid surprises. The amounts of times Happy had had his back throughout the years. When he met Natasha, or Steve, or Banner, Clint, Wanda, Fury, or when he created Vision. When he met Thor and T'Challa, Loki, Quill and all of his buddies. 

When he knocked at Peter's door, asking for him to come to Berlin to help out. Seeing the excitement in the boy's eyes as he went on and on about fighting Captain freaking America. 
When he practically followed Alex around until she finally said yes to helping him out too. 

These memories kept playing in his head like some sort of movie and he never wanted it to end. 
If this was how he was gonna live his final moments... he didn't mind at all.