Dawn of the End ||6||

27. Goodbye, Tony Stark

  Explaining those we lost to Gracie was one of the hardest things Steve and I had ever had to do. And we had had our fair shares of impossible odds against serious villains.

While there were a few that I wanted to give proper funerals for, not all who showed up in the final battle knew them. The rest of the Avengers agreed that we would do separate services for Natasha and Todd in the near future, for those who truly knew them.

They missed out on the biggest fight of our lives. They should've been there right along with us. They should've been somberly celebrating with us.

In the days following Tony's passing, Pepper took the time in mourning and to arrange a private service for him at their cabin. While his body wasn't to be sent off into the lake, she had an arrangement made with a special reminder of Tony that would sail onto the water.

When the dreaded day had come, heroes who had never crossed social circles before became acquainted with each other. It was a sad circumstance that people who we could work with down the line had to come together for.

Those in attendance for the service were gathered outside of the cabin. A select few of us remained inside, called on by Pepper. She'd apparently found a message recorded on Tony's helmet and she felt that a few had the right to see it for themselves.

In addition to the two Starks, Steve, myself, Gracie, Rhodey, and a man named Happy Hogan gathered in the living room of the cabin to watch this play out.

Seeing Tony pre-Snap had certainly been a shock to the system. Hologram or not, it sent a fresh wave of pain. He'd recorded the beginning half sitting down, the way the projection showed.

"Everybody wants a happy ending, right? But it doesn't always roll that way. Maybe this time. I'm hoping if you play this back, it's in celebration. I hope families are reunited, I hope we get it back, and something like a normal version of the planet has been restored. If there ever was such a thing. God, what a world. Universe, now.

"If you told me ten years ago that we weren't alone, let alone, you know, to this extent, I mean, I wouldn't have been surprised. But come on, you know? The epic forces of darkness and light that have come into play. And, for better or worse, that's the reality Morgan's gonna have to find a way to grow up in.

"So I thought I'd probably better record a little greeting...in the case of an untimely death on my part. I mean, not that, death at any time isn't untimely. This time travel thing that we're gonna try and pull of tomorrow, it's—it's got me scratching my head about the survivability of it all. That's the thing. Then again, that's the hero gig. Part of the journey is the end."

Hologram Tony rose from his chair perch, seemingly walking towards the camera. "What am I even trippin' for? Everything's gonna work out exactly the way it's supposed to." He leaned down, almost as though he was looking right at Morgan, who was curled into her mother's side, an uneasy look in her eyes. "I love you three-thousand."