What If Tony Stark Was The Villain

Part 25 - Too Much

"Daddy!" the little girl's voice brings a huge smile on Tony's lips.

He listens to her voice and turns to look at her, his heart jumping in his chest.

"Come here, baby" he says with excitement and sits on his tiptoes to be closer to his daughter's height.

She starts running towards him and he welcomes her in his open arms warmly. Her little giggles as she feels all the love from her father are filling his heart with joy. He kisses the top of her head and then gets back up on his feet with her wrapped around his body.

"There you are" Pepper sees them and also smiles naturally.

She approaches them and firstly places a soft kiss on their daughter's cheek before looking at her husband. She leans closer to him and they share a beautiful slow kiss before she leans her head on his shoulder. She nicely caresses his back with her hand and all three of them feel the love surrounding them.

He can't express with words how much he loves them both. His beautiful wife, always being there and supporting him. And of course his daughter, who is also his biggest motivation to be a better person everyday. He's not letting her go through the same traumatic childhood that he did, he owes her that at least.

"I love you" Tony says with a cute grin, staring into Pepper's beautiful eyes.

"I love you more" she giggles.

"Impossible" he disagrees and shakes his head.

"I love you" their daughter says to them both and makes them glow in happiness.

Tony hugs her tighter, enjoying the feeling as much as he can. He locks eyes with Pepper, who seems to be feeling just as great as he is right now. This all feels like a dream come true, the most relaxing and beautiful moments he could ever imagine living.

"What's wrong?" he asks when her smile suddenly starts fading away.

"I-I'm not sure" she stutters and takes a couple of steps backwards.

"Pep?" he asks, worried and scared.

She's turned completely serious now, her eyes are killing him with their look. It's like they're attacking him straight at his deepest guilts and regrets.

"We could've had a perfect life, why did you ruin it?" she asks him, making his heart skip a few beats.

"I-I'm sorry" he gulps sharply.

The awful memories come back to him. The scenes of her death replaying over and over in front of his eyes. This was too good to be true for as long as it lasted.

"Look at what you did to me" she continues, with blood coming out of her abdomen.

"I didn't-I-I wasn't" he starts panicking.

"Why did you have to go fight that battle? Now you lost both of us" blood starts leaking through her mouth as well and she starts looking awfully a lot like a walking corpse.

"I'm-I'm so-I'm so sorry" he cries.

As if that wasn't enough, both his wife and child start vanishing slowly. He hugs his daughter as tightly as she can but that doesn't stop the fact that she's gone and he's left only hugging the air. He falls on his knees on the ground, tears rolling down his cheeks and his heart feeling like it's about to burst.

"No, no, no, no, no" he repeats loudly and looks around, hoping that this is all a bad dream and that his family is still somewhere around him.

"They're gone. They're gone because of you" a voice comes from behind him. A voice that he recognises very well.

"You!" Tony hisses through his teeth to the sight of Loki.

He only sees Loki smile deviously, like he's enjoying what happened just now. No matter how fast he runs towards Loki, he can't reach him. And that's because he's trapped in his mind and his deepest thoughts, guilt killing him slowly. Loki, his wife and his daughter were never there, they were made up by his conscience.

"You can't reach me, Stark. You already killed me, remember?" Loki asks, reminding Tony very well that this is all made up.

"But you still carry all the guilt. This wasn't helpful at all, wasn't it? You know what happened is completely on you" Loki plays with his feelings even more.

"It should've been me. She deserved to be alive, both of them did" Tony falls on the ground again, experiencing what feels like one of his good old friends, panic attacks.

His lying body on the other hand, the one that's being treated in Asgard, is experiencing another one of his seizures. He's been like this ever since the battle against Thor and Loki, he put himself through too much for a human.

"My queen, he's seizing again" one of the doctors informs Hela.

"Come on, Stark" she says through her teeth and touches his unconscious body.

"There's not much more we can do to help him. Are you sure you want to keep using our resources?" the doctor asks again.

"Of course we are" Hela replies sternly.

"He helped me get my throne, we're not giving up on him" she insists.

"Okay, my queen" she nods at Hela.

"Wake up, Stark. You finally got what you wanted" she taps his chest, right on top of the arc reactor.

"At least he's getting some rest. His body seemed to be in a terrible form" the doctor rests her hand on his shoulder.

"He really is neglecting himself lately. How are his vitals?" the queen asks.

"He's better today, we're positive that he'll be waking up very soon" she gets some positive news.

"Good, take care of him. I have an Empire to rule" she says and looks at Tony for a few seconds before she walks away.