Whumptober 2023 ~ Marvel Edition

'It's Broken.' - Tony

Day 5:

"You better pray I don't get up this time around."
Debris | Pinned Down |  "It's broken."

~~~

As Steve's body slammed between the two pillars and then to the ground, his vision blurred, his chest ached something fierce, and his ears started ringing a bit. Tony stared down at the fallen supersoldier through his mask of iron and kept his voice clear and low as he spoke.

"Stay down. Final warning," he said.

Despite everything in his body telling him otherwise, Steve slowly, but steadily, rose to his knees, and then used one of the pillars to help get himself up onto his feet. Once he was relatively stable, Steve got into a weakened fighting stance and took a moment to catch his breath. "I could do this all day."

Taking that as an open invitation to keep going, Tony raised his arm up and aimed his blaster at Steve, the white circle in his hand roaring to life, but before he could get a shot off, he felt something hit his ankle and he heard the clanging of metal on metal and heard electricity spark from below him. Looking down, he saw Barnes laying at his feet with his metal arm crushing part of his boot, so Tony took that opportunity to kick him straight in the jaw with his free leg, causing the Winter Soldier to let out a pained groan.

Tony's foot had barely left Barnes' face when he felt something grab his armored shoulders and lift him up into the air. With Tony up over his head, Steve was going to attempt to throw him to the ground, but knowing what was going to happen, on instinct Tony turned on his foot blasters in an attempt to fly away. The moment he did so, he heard a sound that he immediately knew meant something was horribly wrong, but before he had a chance to see what that was, he heard a small explosion and suddenly, Tony was sent flying across the room, straight out of Steve's grasp and into the concrete wall.

Steve and Bucky shielded their faces to keep any debris from getting into their eyes, and when the dust finally settled, they looked back in the direction Tony had gone and what they saw horrified them. There was a giant hole in the wall - one bigger than Tony's suit - and on the ground below was a bunch of chunks of concrete spread throughout a small area. Underneath those were bits of Tony's red and gold suit sticking out, along with small bits of bloodied skin here and there exposed to the surface.

"Tony," Steve muttered wide-eyed. Finally finding his feet, he rushed to Tony's side and started eyeing the large chunk of concrete directly on top of Tony to try and figure out what the best way to get it off of him would be.

When he finally gauged what would be the optimal way, he wrapped the length of his arms as far around the concrete as his body would allow him to, and with a deep breath in, Steve lifted from his knees. Of course even Steve would normally strain to pick up this heavy of a piece - though he knew he definitely could - but it was proving more difficult than normal with the amount of pain radiating through his body in protest of the strain he was putting on himself.

Finally, after grunting a few times and possibly popping one or more blood vessels in his face, Steve was able to lift the concrete up enough to side-step over to the side and drop it in a spot that would clear Tony.

Ignoring the warning signs his own body was giving him to tell him to stop, Steve quickly moved next to Tony and stopped in his tracks when he saw the pained glare he was being given. While Steve normally wouldn't have hesitated to kneel down, but because he knew how angry Tony was, and because he was still processing his own shock and what he had just done to his friend, he just couldn't find it in him to try it. He obviously felt horrible about what happened, but he did what he had to do to keep him from killing Bucky.

"I'm so sorry, Tony, "I-I didn't mean..." Steve trailed off when he noticed the arc reactor in his chest wasn't glowing like it usually did. "...it's broken."

"You better pray I don't get up this time around," Tony grunted out through gritted teeth, and if looks could kill, Steve would surely be dead by now. It was obvious to him that he'd broken at least one rib, maybe two, and was in an excruciating amount of pain.

By the look on Tony's face, Steve knew that it was over. Years of friendship - ruined. There was no more trust in Tony's eyes, only hate and betrayal. It was his own grave he'd dug, but that didn't make Steve feel any less awful inside. And no matter how much he wanted to stay behind and help, Zemo was still out on the loose, and they needed to get to him before he found a way to disappear.

With the arc reactor powering his suit down, he knew that Tony had no way of calling for help, so he would do that for him, but that was just about all he could do at that point. Or, at least, all that Tony would allow him to help with.

Steve looked to Bucky, signaling that it was time to go, and took a few steps back before pausing in his tracks to look back at Tony once again.

"...I hope one day you'll look back and understand what I did, but I'll understand why if you can't," Steve said solemnly. "I just hope you know that I really am sorry. For everything."

"Screw you," Tony spat, looking up to the ceiling.

Steve let out a sigh, then nodded at Bucky. "Let's go."

With that, Steve and Bucky walked out of the old building, leaving Tony behind to wait for rescue. As much as he hated Steve at that moment, he also found himself...oddly sad. And that only made him angrier.

As he continued staring up at the ceiling, a single tear of many emotions left Tony's eye and slid down his cheek. He then let out a frustrated scream, which fairly quickly turned into labored breathing as he got a painful reminder from his ribs as to why he was still lying there in the first place.

Tony had never felt so betrayed in his life. He had been friends with Steve for so many years, and to have him throw that all away for a guy he hadn't known in 70 years...it was gut-wrenching to say the least.

All he knew was that he was never going back. Maybe one day he'd have a better viewpoint on the whole situation, but that day was not today, nor tomorrow, nor any day in the near future. Tony was just done, and that was that.

Steve had crossed a line he could never uncross, and that meant things would never be the same. Even if deep down he really wished they would.