Age of Darkness | Pietro Maximoff

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Death Smiles At Us All

Music is 1. "Elysium / Honor Him/ Now We Are Free - Score Suite" by Hans Zimmer from the Gladiator OST.

2. "Ghosts" by Really Slow Motion.

Picture is my edit of Steve Rogers and Glory Northern.

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"I knew a man who once said, 'Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back.'"

- Gladiator

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Recommendation from the author: "Simple & Clean" by Tadashi-Targaryen (an oldie but a goodie, I started re-reading it!)

Recommendation from the audience: None.

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A/N: ALL YOU LUCKY DOGS WHO GET TO SEE CIVIL WAR, I DON'T WANNA SEE ANY SPOILERS ON THIS BOOK ALRIGHT? NONE. I DON'T SEE IT UNTIL MONDAY SO KEEP YA MOUTHS SHUT, ALRIGHT? ALRIGHT! ON WITH THE CHAPTER :) Better get some tissues!

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CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Natasha comes quickly to find Steve laying on the ground, me cradling his head still. "Magneto?" she asks, trying to conceal her worry with a question.

I nod, not able to speak for a few moments as she checks his pulse and listens for his breathing. "I-I..."

"I know what you did," she whispers. "He told me he wanted an out. I didn't think he'd actually go through with it." She turns to shout over her shoulder, "Bucky! Prep the Quinjet!"

"Why-?" His voice cuts off, seeing his best friend lying on the ground, dying. "Steve," he mouths. He then nods to Natasha, tears filling his eyes as he runs to the Quinjet at Quicksilver speed. I know he'd rather be here, in my place, but he knows that the best thing he can do for Steve is prepare an escape so he can get out of this mess... alive.

Hopefully.

"His pulse is 46 BPM and dropping. Eyes are unresponsive. Breathing is erratic. He has blood gushing from his chest. I think the metal severed an artery. Glory, we have to get him to Stark Tower. Helen Cho is there. She's the only one who could even remotely save him. He's already in shock and it looks like the metal pierced his heart, lungs, and stomach. I can't tell about the spinal column, but it's bad." She meets my eyes, hers showing fear and dread of losing one of the closest friends she's ever had. "Stay here with Pietro. Finish the job. I'll take him to DC. I know this wasn't what was supposed to happen, but if he's got a chance at all..."

I nod, hands trembling as the Quinjet flies over to us. Bucky lands sloppily, rushing out of the cargo bay with a stretcher. Between Nat, Bucky, and I, we are able to load Steve onto it, hopefully without doing much more damage.

Bucky calls in Sam for more backup, and without even second guessing him, the Falcon is flying over to us, looking at Cap as if he's seen a ghost. "You patriotic idiot," he whispers to him as Bucky hurries to the pilot's seat. "Just couldn't die an old and ordinary man, now could you?"

"Take care of him," I whimper, shaking hands covering my mouth as Steve starts to seize.

"He's going into cardiac arrest!" Nat shouts. "His left lung has just collapsed and I can't find a pulse!" Nat turns to the pilot and screams in a voice I've never seen her use. "Bucky, go!"

Bucky closes the doors, taking off before they're sealed. Nat straps Steve in and starts giving him CPR, twenty compressions then two breaths.

The last time I see Steve Rogers, he's dying on the stretcher.