I Will Follow You Into The Dark~ On Hold

Chapter 28

Tony stood in the infirmary, his mind still reeling from his trip into Lilja's thoughts. He had hoped to hug her, to talk to her. Hell, even if he just got to see her. But no, apparently there was someone already there, helping her see- now how did the monk say it- the consequences of her death? How was that going to help? The others were all swarming him, asking what had happened, but he had no words, no voice to say what he wanted it. It was as if he was mute, as if he had lost his voice.

Leaving the group, he walked away finding a quiet spot in the corner of the room where he could still see Lilja and the exists. Sitting down, he looked down to the papers he had taken from Strange. They had all of the Avengers' names plus a few of their friends. Reading his own page first, he was shocked to read that his parents had lived for almost another decade; only passing away after he took over the company. Everything else was the same, he had met Rhodey while at college; and he had gone on to be in the Air Force. The death of his parents being a decade later was the only thing that was different.

According to the papers he held, Rhodey died shortly after training camp, something about a parachute accident gone wrong. The idea of him not having his best friend by his side, it tore him apart. He remembered the day that Lilja had first met James. The man had made the mistake of flirting with her, only to then find out that she was Tony's godmother. The look of shock on Rhodey's face was something that Tony would never forget.

Shaking his head, freeing himself from his memories; he read on. The next part of the research stated that he himself was dead. What? He had apparently died in the caves during the whole Ten Rings debacle. He hadn't created the arch reactor, and his body was still out there somewhere, either fertilizing the land or collecting dust and sand. He feared what that meant for Lilja and Pepper, if he was dead then there would never had been anyone to protect them from Obadiah. His fear was justified, as he continued to read, he found articles about the deaths of Obadiah Stane who was the cause of the death of Virgina 'Pepper' Potts. Tears ran down his face as he read the words 'deceased' underneath a photograph of her. Dropping the papers, he curled up and hung his head between his knees.

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Unknown to Tony, Natasha had approached him and picked up the fallen papers. She gasped softly when she saw all their names stamped by a deceased seal. She flipped through them till she found hers and Clint's, handing the others to Steve. Looking down, she almost fainted when she read that her death was at the hands of another inmate at Federal Penitentiary Service after the KGB threw her to the Soviet Union. Meanwhile Clint hadn't lived past his teenage years, dying in a fire that spread like wildfire at the circus one night, the flames licking at every angel and exit of the tent. She remembered how he had been lucky to escape the collapsing big top, leaving others who were less fortunate. That night had been his breaking point, he left the circus life, and the events that happened afterwards, were what caused him to join S.H.I.E.L.D.

She ran out of the room, running to the sparing grounds. Sif, one of the warriors had shown her the day after the attack. Her tears ran down her cheeks. Sure, she hadn't been the nicest to Lilja, but then again, she hadn't the time to get to know her; but to know that her nightmares consisted around a life where all of them, the Avengers, her friends through Thor and Tony, and by extension, Loki, were dead. That choked Natasha up. Lilja, or Sigyn, whichever name was correct, barely knew them yet the thought of them no longer alive in the world was the cause of her nightmares.

Natasha had no idea how long she was sitting there for but after an undetermined amount of time, Clint joined her. He sat down next to her; his brows furrowed. "I cannot believe that our "deaths" were the cause of her nightmares. What the hell was the toxin?"