The Mimic

173

"You knew. You fucking knew." Y/n repeated. Her voice was hushed and shaky, but that just seemed to convey her anger and grief even more than if she raised her voice.

The whole room had fallen silent at the sound of y/n's voice, even Clint's sniffling had stilled to a stop. They lifted their heads up, looking at her with confused eyes as they tried to figure out who she was talking to, and what she was talking about.

Steve was the first to connect the dots, following y/n's grief-stricken gaze all the way to Tony. He let out a sad sigh, beginning to make his way toward her. "Y/n. Come on. Not right now." He murmured in a hushed tone. You see, like the rest of the team, he had assumed that y/n was looking for someone to blame. The relationship between Tony and y/n was practically non-existent, of course it was going to easy to spark an argument. "I know it hurts, but none of us knew that was-"

"No, Steve. No." Y/n snapped in a venomous tone as he begun to walk toward her. She held out her bloody hands as if to warn him not to step any closer, taking a few steps back and away from the super soldier. "Don't treat me like a child. Stop trying to assume what's going through my head. I'm not stupid when it comes to death. I understand every stage of grief. This isn't in my head. It's fact." Y/n said in a serious tone, tears continuing to stream.

She wasn't surprised that Steve was assuming. She understood that she had been a pretty angry and aggressive person lately, and the blood splattered across her body definitely wasn't helping her case. But being babied like she wasn't aware of the effects of grief simply seemed to fuel her frustration. Now wasn't the time to diffuse a situation or take her into a different room, it was time for y/n to confront Tony - especially after she'd read his mind to make sure that her suspicions were correct.

Before Steve could respond, y/n teleported away from him, now standing a few feet away from Tony. Bruce, Thor, Clint, and Scott all lunged forward to stop her from attacking Tony, all either holding onto her arms or her shoulders - but, y/n made no effort to attack. She didn't lunge at him, she didn't have any flames or orbs of energy forming in her palms, and she didn't have any weapons in her hands. She simply stood there. Not close enough to throw a punch, but enough to see the betrayed rage in y/n's eyes.

It wasn't a surprise to be betrayed by Tony. He was an asshole. But losing someone close to her was where she drew the line.

"You knew what the soul stone was. You knew because you were there when Quill found out that Thanos had murdered Gamora. He threw Gamora off of the same cliff that you sent Clint and Natasha to." Y/n spat, getting straight to the point. "You sat there and didn't say a word-" Y/n paused, swallowing hard to try and stop her voice from shaking so much. She had wriggled one of her arms out of the grasp of the team holding her back, now pointing angrily at Tony. "You didn't say a word when Clint and Natasha were told that they were going to Vormir. Hell, you probably chose them on purpose! You let Natasha and Clint go on a mission, knowing full well what was going to happen. Knowing full well that one of them wasn't coming back." Y/n's eyebrows were knitted into a deep scowl, her bottom lip continuing to wobble as she glared at him. "You're-"

"What did you want me to do, y/n?" Tony interrupted, not breaking eye contact with the furious woman in front of him. "To get the soul stone, you have to lose the person you love the most. Clint and Natasha were the only people on the team that fit that bill." He snapped, matching y/n's fury-filled tone. "If you knew that you were going to die on a mission, would you still go?" He asked, not even giving y/n any time to respond. "No, you wouldn't. That was why I couldn't tell them - or anyone - what was going to happen. We would've wasted precious time trying to figure out another way to get the soul stone. Hell, we probably would've given up. This was the only way."