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Chapter Text

Third Strike

The dust behind his body and the hard floor hurt his spine, the blood in his mouth and the blood that came out of his chest was accumulating on the floor as dark scarlet pools behind the armor.

Taking off his mask, Tony observed the ceiling as if it was the most interesting thing in the world.

He closed his eyes remembering the pasts events, Steve Rogers Kissing him, Steve Rogers inside him, thrusting with all his might while Tony moaned of the pleasure, Steve Rogers and his shield piercing his skin… Then, it came.

“Did you know?”

“Yes”

The Third Strike.

With his eyes still closed, he remembered the first meeting, the obvious friction and antagonism with the captain.

“Take that off what are you?” oh, the First Strike.

The Sokovia Accords were the second, the fucking Sokovia Accords that Rogers refused to sign, the accords that eventually leaded to the destruction of the Avengers and the destruction of their relationship, those motherfuckers.

“ if we signed this we surrender our right to choose”

And Finally, the third Strike came.

Oh glorious third strike… his parents’ death.

The worst error that Honorable Rogers could have done. Tony knows it, he admits that if we talk about strikes he doesn’t have anything to say in the matter, after all he was the merchant of death, the one with more blood on his hands, the biggest weapon manufacturer, the one who created Ultron, oh, he knows it, he has more fucking strikes that any of his team…. Ex-team will ever have.

And still... Betray someone? Never. Tony knows he can be a piece of shit, a selfish man and a self-centered asshole, but when it comes to loyalty, he could never betray a friend, he have never betrayed a friend in his 40 years of living.

Stark opened his honey brown eyes and sat up with difficulty, with a long and painful breathing Iron man stood up once again.

A wide smile took over all his features, the shine that his eyes once had, went out and gave way to the darkness.

This time Tony Stark no longer existed.

Edward Stark took his surrounding with cold indifferent eyes, his gaze went to the puddle of blood that his shape left when he was on the floor, Edward knew that this time there was no space for emotions, Tony was a weak emotional being, Edward was the brains and the indifference. With the betrayal of all the Avengers Tony needed someone stronger than him, someone who could support all the shit that was going to come because of the mess that they left behind.

Because hate and revenge was key to the existence of Edward Stark.

“Stop” said the voice in his head, Tony.

“Oh Tony, if you only had done a good job, I wouldn’t be here taking charge ” Edward felt a shiver run through his bones and all his body causing a little tremble in his legs that almost made him fall if it weren’t because Edward was still in the armor. He needed to return to New York before he died.

“If you only were stronger… first Afghanistan and then this? You disappoint me, how many times will you let people step on you?”

“We need him... we need them” Tony said “we both know they are close… they are coming”

The white pearls of his teeth stained in red were shown when his pink lips stretched in a wicked smile.

“Of course I know”

And Inside of the being that was created in Siberia Tony and Edwar Stark smiled in unison.

Chapter Text

He opened his eyes.

The ceiling was pure white and the odor of antiseptic was all around the room filling it up, the comforting softness underneath his back instantly told him that he wasn’t in the Siberian bunker anymore.

With a difficult painful sigh, he tried to sit up to see his surroundings. His arms were shaking and his chest felt like something was burning him from the inside out. His trembling hands touched his chest and he let scape a hiss of pain.

Edward Tried again, this time more gently, only his fingertips touching the bandage, he felt a sharp edge, he followed it feeling the form of a circle, his fingers moved to the center touching the familiar form, the arc reactor was back in his chest.

Holy fuck

Panic shocked trough his body, the fear drowning his bones. The beep of the machine next to him began making frantic noises. However, the only sound that he could hear was his bones breaking as the shield pierced his chest.

This is not happening, not again, Oh my god why —

“Ugh ” was the only thing he could say before he gave up trying to sit down and just lay down on the mattress waiting for someone to come and explain  why the fuck the arc reactor was back in his chest.

Inhaling long deep breaths Edward tried to calm down; his hands fisted the sheets with force, his eyes shut tightly, he tried not to think of Afghanistan, Siberia. Ultron…Howard.

The squeak of the door made him tilt his head to see better the person entering the room.

“Tony!” Of course, it was pepper. “How do you feel?”

Edward ignored the question “what happened? Where am I?”

“You were in a coma, Tony. For a month. Your chest cavity was almost destroyed.  They had to operate you and to put the arc reactor back in your chest so you could live”

With a fake smile, Edward saw pepper approaching the bed; her beautiful features darkened by the frown on her face, her eyebrows were knitted together in a worrisome face. 

“Pepper” said Edward with a nonchalant gesture “my beautiful pepper, pepperony, love of my life, can you please tell me why am I here? I am busy man you see, I really need to get the fuck out of here”

Pepper sat on the mattress watching Edward intensely; he arched an eyebrow in response.

“What?”

“Tony” oh no, that was the tone she used when she was mad; he was so fucked up “What happened?”

 “Betrayal. Loooots of betrayal, Pepper, captain ass and his Emo-BFF beat the shit out of me”

“What?”

“The winter soldier, have you read the comics? His sidekick, the nail of his finger, the shoes of his feet, the ass in the hole…”

“Tony you almost died, you came stumbling into the mansion, if it weren’t for Friday you would be death by now”  her slim hands took the calloused ones of Edward stroking them with gentleness, her expressive eyes taking every cut in Edward’s face, her lips were drawn together in a line.

  “There was a lot of blood, all your face and your chest were covered in blood; I was scared I thought I had lost you”  

“But I’m alive, aren’t I?” the honey eyes of Edward looked away to a point on the wall, his face inexpressive.

“Tony, are you really ok?  You look… different”

“Ha, the understatement of the year” Edward caressed pepper’s hands with his thumb in little circles. “I am already different” Edward looked at Pepper with the same inexpressive expression upon his face “but his for the better… Everything will be better now”

A shiver went through pepper’s column, suddenly the room felt colder, much colder.

Stop, you are scaring her

A snort left Edward’s lips; he stopped touching Pepper’s hand and instead brought it to touch his jaw and his cheeks.

“I need to shave”

With a startle at the suddenly cold grave tone of Edward’s voice Pepper nodded

“Yeah, of course I could bring you your electric razor but it will be difficult for you to use it in this state. I could help you”

“Nah, it’s ok, I am not an invalid I can do it”

“Tony you can’t overextend yourself, you’re in progress of recuperation, the doctor told me that you had to stay in the hospital for a few months”

“I can’t stay in this boring ass room, I will go crazy”

We already are Tony said making Edward smirk.

“I will bring you your cell phone but just that, I can’t have you working, you need to rest, to eat and to sleep, got it? ”

“Yes mom”

“Just… take care of yourself” Pepper kissed him on the cheek and left the room. The door closed and Edward spoke.

“Of course… that’s why I am here”

Don’t give too much credit to yourself you ass

Edward was bored all the time, the fucking room was all white: white sheets, white walls, white floor, the hospital gown he was wearing was fucking white.

He didn’t eve could entertain himself watching television,  all that was in that shitty (Non-stark) device was news about the rogue Avengers whereabouts, the civil war and fans’ cringey videos about Captain Assmerica.

Of course because humanity had nothing better to do than fuck with everything, if it weren’t news about the rogues then it was news about him; titles like “Where is Tony Stark?” “Did Stark took the side of the Avengers?” “Is this the end of Stark Industries?” where in every.fucking. channel.

So yep Television was full of shit nowadays.

Days went by, Edward make the most of his rest to recover his strength and his peace, some days he chatted with Tony, others he just waste time looking at the white wall…  and  others… the most stressful but hopeful ones where when he imagined what could have happened if only that day he just had  used all the power of his suit… one accurate but firm shot from the gauntlet to Steve’s head was all he would have required to kill him.

Pity he wasn’t there when the fight occurred, oh it would have been perfect, with Barnes without his arm lying on the floor, unconscious while Edward took charge of the situation, hitting Steve until blood came out of his now broken nose, with glassy eyes and broken bones, he would have fell down to the floor, he would have crawled and begged for mercy.

And Edward.

Edward only would have laughed his ass off while blasting Steve’s head off.

Stop, we are not killing him

Edward clicked his tongue in annoyance.

“You aren’t funny”

You are fucking psychotic

“Sweetheart, we are the same person if I am psychotic then you are psychotic too besides this way is more fun”

Your concept of fun is sick

“Oh yeah and as I said before if I am sick guess what mister rightness? You are fucking sick too”

I hate you

“well I have to differ on that I mean I love myself I really do, but if you hate yourself is understandable I mean you are so fucking stupid, aren’t we supposed to be a genius? You make us look bad dude, how could a bunch of pathetic useless bastards deceive you?”

They did not deceive me

“Oh right, my bad, how you call that then? Pretty friendship with a pass for a unicorn’s party, the only difference is that instead of friendship you almost got killed by no other than captain tight ass and instead of a pass for a party you got a very lovely ticket to the land of the death”

Can you just­ —

“And I forgot the best part, you fell in love with Rogers, you two actually had sex, who would have thought that the star spangled man had it in him um?”

Fuck you, you fucking asshole

“No, no. Do me the honor, fuck you, after all you were the one who felt his junior –but not so junior- inside”

I—

“Tony? Who are you talking to?” Pepper asked from the doorframe, she was wearing a blue tube skirt with a white buttoned blouse, her stilettos making soft clicking noises as she walked.

“I am a narcissist; I was talking to myself because I am a great company”

Pepper smiled and shook her head.

“I have good news”

Edward arched a brow and made a gesture to continue, his hands were rubbing each other in a nervous manner.

“Any bad news?”

Pepper shook her head and sat down on the mattress next to Edward.

“Fucking finally”

“Well I talked to the doctor and he told me that you will be discharged today”

“Oh fuck yeah! When can I go? I swear if I keep seeing more white I’ll have the nurses paint my room red and gold”

“The doctor will come in a couple of minutes, until then behave Tony”

“Yeah whatever, tell him to hurry the fuck up”

In that minute the door opened letting the doctor walk into the room, he was an old man almost bald with little circular lenses and a gray moustache under his nose.

Edward and Tony remembered Yisen and a flash of a memory came

“Don’t waste your life”

“Mister Stark”

Edward looked at him with a strange expression on his face.

“Yeah?”

“The surgery was difficult; your chest is still tender. You will not have to do any kind of exercises or strenuous activities at least in the next six months”

“No problem Doc, Can I go?”

“Tony” Pepper looked at him with a murderous glare.

“Yes, Mister Stark you can go, we have to do some checks up at least every two or three months but apart from that you can go”

“I brought your clothes” pepper put a bag on the bed.

“Thanks pep”

“I will leave you to change”

The mansion felt so right.The familiar place brought him comfort, he couldn’t wait to go to the workshop to greet DUMM-E, BUTTERFINGERS AND U, to build again and put his music the volume he wanted.Now that the Avengers wasn’t around anymore everything was calmer, it was the first time that he felt so good being alone.

Pepper had left a while ago to take care of the company, and Edward used his surgery as an excuse to be lazy and do nothing.

“Hello Boss”

Edward stopped his steps his eyes move to the ceiling.

“Boos?” Friday sounded uncertain; her boss never looked at the ceiling when he talked to her, he was used to her, he knew that FRIDAY wasn’t actually in the ceiling.

“Hello baby girl”

Even the tone of his master was different, somehow… colder? Monotonous?                                           

FRIDAY discreetly scanned her boss, maybe it was Doppelgänger.

The scan lasted only seconds, the results didn’t change, his boss was there and was the real one.

“I am glad to see you Boss”

“So am I”

Edward laid down on the couch, running his fingers through his now much longer chocolate locks of  hair.

“FRIDAY call my stylist; tell him I need him now”

The fuck are you doing? We don’t have time for this

Edward smiled.

“Maybe you don’t, but I do, I am doing you a favor, you have had the same style for years, we need a change, we need the world to know that Tony Stark is not more in charge”

I am in fucking charge this is my body

“Oh no. sweetheart. I look like Tony stark” Edward got up a walked to the mirror. His reflection looked right back at him “But we both now that I am not you”

His honey brown eyes didn’t have bags any more, he had slept an awfully lot in the hospital after all, his hair reached down to his ears and his beard covered all his cheeks and jawline.

With a disgusted frown, Edward touched his face.

Don’t you dare

“So… Tony. I think we will look good”

Don’t—

“Without a beard”

Chapter Text

Thanos was dead, now for good and forever, the infinity stones where in Strange’s capable hands and the heroes that had disappear that time now were alive… very much alive.

The fight was an epic one, with gore, blood and violence, the hate that emited from the pores of the heroes that were left alive was palpable through the air, Captain Marvel, Rocket and Tony Stark did a great job making a plan to beat the shit out of Thanos, Meanwhile,
Steve, Natasha, Bruce, Rhodey, Thor and Shuri were trying to bring together other heroes from all over the world to fight alongside.

It was exhausting, exasperating, but at the end, it worked.

When Tony took the infinity Gauntlet Steve instantly knew that that was it, they have won, but what they didn’t know, any of them, was that the soul gem needed another sacrifice to bring back to life all the heroes that lost it while fighthing, and of course, Tony as the self sacrifing idiot that he was, accepted without much of a think.
And with a scream from Steve’s lips, Captain America saw the last moments of The invincible Iron man, it wasn’t painful, he had just disappeared.

Tears were accumulating in Steve’s eyes as he knelt down and touched with his bloody fingers the place where Tony had been.
-Oh god- he said with grief and sorrow while touching the infinity gauntlet that just a moment ago, was in Tony’s hands. –Oh god- he repeated trembling.
-Steve- Natasha knelt next to him; Steve brought his blue gaze to her, seeing tears falling down her cheeks making a clear path between the dust and blood from her fairy skin.
-T-Tony…He… I didn’t even, I didn’t told him that I-I l-love him- Natasha bit her lip, trying not to scream from frustration.
-Where is Tony?- Rhodey got close limping. Besides him, Peter Parker followed close with a dreadful face.

Steve couldn’t look at Rhodey’s face, he just kept crying.
And just with that, the victory that humanity had that day, was obscured with the death of the best man that had ever touched earth.

It was an understanding that the funeral was all wrong, from the silence surrounding it to the opaque colors, there wasn’t even red and gold. Tony Stark was such a great and bright man that a funeral didn’t make any sense, a party would be the most logical option.
Tony would have liked that… a party instead of a funeral, but his dead was national news, it was televised it despite all the disagreement in the hero community.

A year passed by, and Steve and the original Avengers couldn’t keep it together.

Steve went traveling with Bucky, Clint decided to retire and pass more time with his family, Rhodey was still in the military but he Couldn’t touch anymore war machine, Natasha just disappeared, Bruce focused all his time in science and Thor was doing the best to fix his relationship with Loki.

Five years passed, Steve settled in an apartment, Bucky decided to live apart from him, Clint divorced, Natasha reappeared now with his red hair back and a few new wrinkles around her eyes and mouth, Bruce won a nobel for his studies in magic and science, Rhodey was still in the military and Thor was the King of Asgard with Loki as his strategist and sometimes adviser.

Ten years passed, Steve still looked pretty young despite being the oldest among all his friends, sure he had more wrinkles but nothing compared with the others, that was when he realized that he was getting older much slower than an average human being and for the first time in years he thought in suicide, Bucky moved to live with Steve to make sure that he was keeping himself alive, Natasha and Clint decided to live together just as friends, Bruce became a famous scientist and made Peter his assistant, Rhodey was getting tired of being a soldier and Thor sometimes went traveling with The Guardians of the galaxy when they needed help, sometimes with Loki sometimes alone.

And then, the 13th year happened, after Thanos, earth was going to face again a potential menace, Loki and Thor arrived to earth on October, Black panther, Wanda and Vision entered the room at the same time and Steve, Clint, Natasha, Bruce, Spider Man and Rhodey weren’t that far from the tower so they arrived pretty early.

The tower now was property of Pepper, the will of Tony said that everything went to pepper, Rhodes and Peter. Pepper owned Stark Industries and the buildings and houses, Rhodey owned all the intellectual property of all the projects of Tony and to Peter went all the money for his education, research and maintenance.

The meeting took place at now Peppe’s Tower, with her being the host to all the heroes that were going to reunite. Everyone was sitting in the large couch in the middle of the room, an uncomfortable atmosphere could be felt around all the house as heroes arrived.
That was the Stark tower after all, the first place where The Avengers become a family, the first home they had… where Tony used to live.

-Why are we here?- Clint was the first to ask. Everyone’s gaze fell on him. Almost all his hair was gray now, the humor that used to reflect on his face was gone and was replaced with tiredness.

Thor looked at Loki –Lady Death- he said –She is coming here, I don’t know why, but that can’t be good-

Natasha pursed her lips with a scowl on her face, since Tony’s death she was becoming more expressive, Steve thought. –How do we know you are telling the truth?-

Thor crossed his arms in front of his chest and took a step forward – has he not demonstrated to you is worthiness? He fought alongside us against Thanos, do I have to remind you his braveness when he stopped him for killing you that time?-
All the room felt in silence while Natasha and Thor were looking eye to eye, both of them with a fierce determination on their features.
-How did you know Lady dead is coming here?- Steve asked to cut the tension.

Loki looked at him with a boring face –I have informants, they told me- Clint snorted with sarcasm, the Scowl on Thor’s face deepened and was about to say something when Loki interrupted him.

-There are rumors, in the underworld- Everyone in the room pay attention to Loki- that a knight, the right hand of lady dead will be the first to touch earth, I don’t know why but I know that when the dead itself is involved is not for a good cause-

-What do we do?- T’challa asked.
-I have a hypothesis, I don’t know if it’s going to work, for I have never tested it myself, and I know you all are not going to like it-
-Let us be the judges of that- Wanda said touching in reassurance Vision’s arm –What is your hypothesis?-
-well, we aren’t match for any being if the underworld, they have lived more, they are stronger and surely more intelligent, we need undeads on our side if we want earth to still existing –
-Did you just said we need undeads?- Clint asked with an eyebrow arched.
-indeed I did, we need to know what is the purpose of lady dead in earth, to know that, we need beings of the underworld on our side-
-How do you expect us to do that?-

Loki smiled and walked until he was in the middle of the room –this is the part that you are not going to like-

-Just fucking say it- Rhodes said with venom on his voice.
-We are going to have to call an undead-
-We are going to have to call a fucking zombie?- Clint crossed his arms, Bruce moved uncomfortably in his seat- I am not getting it-

Loki sighed and began massaging his temples –the undead in the underworld are called like that because even though their physical body have died their souls are strong enough to conserve the essence of their existence, more or less they are what you humans call, the angels of the death-

-Holy fuck-
-let’s began- Steve got up from the couch –We don’t know when are Lady Death and her Knight going to arrive right? I don’t want to commit the same mistake I did with Thanos, this time… we are going to be prepared, this time we… we are not going to lose anyone-
The image of Tony passed in front of everyone eyes and a dull feeling settled in the pit of every hero in the room.
Pepper cleared her throat before speaking –What do you need?-

-I just need to draw a symbol in the middle of the room, with my blood, after that I need at least five people to just put a drop of blood in the middle of the symbol-
-This suddenly began to turn pretty creepy- Peter commented, Bruce just nodded with his head.
-Why blood?- Steve asked while Loki made appear out of thin air a dagger, he used it to cut in the middle of his palm and knelt to draw a strange symbol.
-They are undead, we need something pretty physical to attract their attention, and that is blood-
-How do we know this is not going to backfire?- Natasha asked- what if the undead we attract decide to attack us?-
-Very unlikely, is for that reason that we need the drop of blood of five of you, we are going to call for a being with the same beliefs or at least with a connection with some of you-
-What do you mean with connection?-
-It’s ready- Loki ignored Steve’s question and got up from the floor still with the dagger in his hands –who will be the first?-

Thor got close, eyeing everyone in the room –That’s going to be me- Loki just nodded and poked Thor’s finger with the tip of his dagger, a little drop of blood came out of his finger, Loki let it fall in the middle of the symbol and this began to shine.

-Woah- Peter looked with amazed eyes the scarlet light that surrounded the limits of every curve of the drawing.
-next one-

Steve got close to Loki and this one did the same, after Steve was Natasha, after Natasha was Clint and after Clint and to the amazement of all, Bruce was the last one.

The symbol now was brighter that any light in the house, the windows glasses and floor began to shake, an explosion sent everyone flying to the floor and the smell of burned wood began to flood the room.

The symbol was opaque almost, black, the red of the blood was gone.

-Did it worked? - Steve asked from the other side of the couch. Loki knelt next to the burned wood inspecting it.
-I don’t think so, it was just a hypothesis after all-
-oh well- Bruce got up from the floor- what now?-
-Well I—

And the floor opened, a slim humanoid figure came out of the hole with force, jumping and almost touching the ceiling and then doing a backflip and landing with one knee on the floor the other leg was bent, it’s hair was short and brown, it looked smooth falling on side to side the tips touching the cheeks that were hidden behind a gold mask—

*Gold mask?* Steve thought his heart beating frantically with the familiarity that the mask brought to him. He was the one who composed himself faster, with a gun in one hand he got closer to the figure.

-Who are you?-

The man, now that Steve took a look closer, was slim, short, wearing a kind of a cat suit that embraced his body, leashes with all kind of weapons were wrapping his hips, arms and thighs.

The creature –man?- laughed and raised his gloved hand startling everyone in the room who pointed their guns, daggers and knives to it- him?-.

-why cap I thought you were more respectful- and just like that everyone froze.
-oh my god- Pepper said at the same time that Rhodey let his gun fall from his grip.

The man took off his mask, blue eyes with dots of red geeted him, a wicked smile with pearly teeth adorned his features, his goatee was gone as well as his wrinkles, the dark circles under his eyes and the grey of his hair. With a youth that nobody knew on him when he was alive the beautiful face scanned his surroundings, long dark eyelashes carefully planted around his eyes, his profile perfect as always exuded a kind of security and playfulness proper of a king.

-Tony-