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chapter five

BLEEKER STREET MAGICIAN

   THE AVENGERS COMPOUND was quiet. Everyone was scattered around the facility and had kept to themselves for the majority of the day, only interacting about two hours prior when Natasha had insisted on eating dinner (which consisted of sandwiches and soda) together. No one opposed since they didn't want to upset her.

   It was well after the sun had set and the majority of the group had dispersed to separate rooms; some retreated to offices and others went to one of the laboratories within the facility.

   Only when the compound walls started to shake and a low rumbling sound filled the air did they all make their way outside. Few words were exchanged as they all gathered on the lawn, staring into the sky at the bright light slowly descending to the ground.

   It had been a few days since Carol Danvers had left to find Tony Stark, and within that time Natasha contacted his fiancée to tell the woman what they were doing.

   Pepper Potts caught up with the others, her jaw slacked as she watched Carol slowly lower the large spacecraft she was carrying to the ground. The woman couldn't breath correctly for a moment as she feared the worst. She imagined the door opening and Tony's body to be laying lifeless inside. A frown etched its way onto her face.

Pepper swallowed thickly and forced the negative thoughts from her mind.

The landing gears deployed and the entry hatch to the ship opened, revealing a blue-skinned individual supporting the weight of Tony. The two were clearly tired and their faces seemed to be sunken in due to lack of food and water.

Raven's arms fell to her sides as she watched Steve rush forward to support Tony's body weight. It was surreal to see the two together again and she could feel a sliver of nervousness emerge in her gut at the scene before her. It had been years since she saw them in the same vicinity and it made for a bittersweet moment. She felt the sudden urge to go to them, but she stalled the muscles in her legs from moving an inch. The woman wanted to approach them, she wanted to help, she wanted to apologize. But she clenched her jaw and kept her feet planted in the grass, holding herself back for now.

   Tony gripped Steve's arm for support as he slowly looked up to him. In that moment, Steve could see the grief and distress that clouded over Tony's eyes. It hurt to see someone that was once so strong be so broken.

   "Couldn't stop him," he said in a choked voice.

   "Neither could I."

   Tony's chest tightened as memories of what happened resurfaced. Flashes of Peter and Valerie fighting alongside him came to mind and it took everything in him to not let his eyes well up with tears. "I lost the kids."

   Steve's mouth formed into a frown. He knew that Tony had took the two under his wing after the events of Germany. He just never realized how much they had meant to the man.

   "Tony, we lost."

[STILL ALIVE]

Raven was still having a hard time believing that it was Tony Stark sitting at the table just feet away from her. She didn't know what to say. From the moment she had met the man, she had seen him as a hardheaded genius that never knew when to cut his seemingly endless stream of sarcastic comments off. But now, a soft look of confusion had settled into her features as she nonchalantly looked at him. He was tired, weak, and quiet; a combination that Raven never knew him capable of possessing.