CONTAINS MATURE CONTENT
He wasn't hurt. Not physically. His scars were roots that ran deep into his soul, and the sight of Toni's ruined body had fractured it. Shattered it.
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"I'm sorry, Toni. But he's my friend."
"So was I."
The shield keeps coming down, harder and harder. It's denting the arc reactor. Damaging it. Even though Steve knows it'll kill her if it breaks.
"You had one last golden egg to give."
Steve rips off her helmet. He wants to see my face, Toni thinks. He wants to see my face when he kills me.
"Take off the suit, and what are you?"
Nothing, she wants to say now. I'm nothing. You were right, Steve. You're always right.
Steve lifts his shield. He doesn't hesitate—he never does, the diligent soldier—before he brings it down with all his insurmountable strength. Right into Tony's chest.
The vibranium cuts through her armour like it's nothing but air, and something within Toni breaks.
Steve stops when she screams. Finally, he stops. He's breathing hard. But Toni... She's barely even breathing at all. Everything is heavy—everything hurts. She coughs, and blood spurts from her mouth, dribbling down her chin.
Steve gets up. He turns. He doesn't... He doesn't even look back.
"Finish it," Toni wants to say. Tries to say. But her mouth fills with blood every time she opens it. Don't leave me here like this. Don't let me die alone.
It's her greatest and most terrible fear, and Toni doesn't know if Steve remembers that, or if he just doesn't care anymore.
Steve doesn't turn. Doesn't look back. He hoists Bucky up, and, together, they leave her. They leave Toni on the frigid ground, choking on her own blood. His figure morphs into Obie first, sauntering away from her almost lifeless body, her arc reactor dangling from his traitorous fingers, then her father, gripping her mother's hand as they get in that damned car.
Howard—
And then he's gone.
Steve leaves her.
Toni's blood fills the cracks within her suit—from one or multiple wounds, she doesn't know. She's numb, and it has nothing to do with the frigid Siberian winds.
A hand, shaking and bloodied and bruised, travels to where the shield still sticks out of her chest. She pulls on it with what little strength she has left, and it hits the ground with an echoing thud that Toni can feel in her bones.
The arc reactor blinks up at her, damaged beyond repair by the man she thought she had loved. The man she thought had loved her. The notion almost makes her laugh, desensitized and hysterical. All that comes out is a broken wheeze.
She hopes maybe Steve will come back for her.
Maybe he'd warm her frost-bitten cheeks with the palms of his hands. Maybe he'd look at her, and she'd look back at him and say she loves the little bit of green in the blue of his eyes. He'd smile at her in that way of his that was wholly genuine. Wholly Steve.
