The attack hits Tony square in the chest a strange magic sending lightning through his skin and arching out connecting to each Avenger. Tony passes out instantly, and the others freeze the caster making their escape.
Steve suddenly finds himself shorter, feeling a horrible pain in his chest glancing up at his own face.
âI know men with none of that worth ten of you.â He sees himself sneer, voice harsh and a familiar voice one he recognizes as Howardâs echoes in his mind âworthlessâ. He continues to watch himself and he looks mad, a harshness heâd never thought himself capable of in his eyes. Then the scene changes and he feels relief the animosity died down after that first day, right?
âWeâre glad youâre okay.â He says, and his face is softer now as he dusts the dirt off Tony and helps him to the paramedic. The nuke is gone New York is saved and a thought echoes in his mind. ânot so worthless after app huh Cap.â
âWe need you for team building.â He sees himself demand, voice hard posture firm. All he feels is a bone deep exhaustion, and his chest is on fire.
âI have work to do.â He hears Tony say and his thumb jerks towards the monitors. âIâm so tiredâ he hears Tony think, âplease let me restâ.
âI donât care.â He hears himself say, and then thereâs rough hands shoving him out the door. Bully, Steve thinks staring at himself.
âIâm coming, Iâm coming.â Tony says, trying to pry his hands off. Thereâs anxiety bubbling in Steveâs gut a desperate need not to be touched. The hand doesnât let go. Heâs expecting another positive vision after that, instead thereâs a flood of demands, manhandling, blaming, scolding, and yelling. The whole time all he can feel is despair and he keeps hearing the echoing voice of Howard Stark calling him a âworthless dissapointmentâ.
In his entire life he has never seen a bigger bully than the Steve Rogers who chose a strange Hydra woman over a teammate.
Clint finds himself doubled over with a burning sensation in his chest when thereâs a knock on the door. He looks up to see himself, and a friendly greeting comes out of his mouth. He remembers this the first day he met Tony, the banter the fun. What happened to them? The scene shifts after that.
âWhere is my new Sonic arrow?â He hears himself ask, and feels the body he is in jolt in surprise heart racing in panic.
âDonât sneak up on me like that.â Tony says and he can feel his heartbeat pounding against the arc, it aches. He watches himself snicker harshly and the fight goes out of Tony. âSorry, Iâm trying to get the arrows to workâŠâ formulas are swimming through Clintâs mind so far beyond his understanding itâs laughable, thereâs a schematic for his arrow, a helicarrier schematic, and some financial charts and graphs. Clintâs overwhelmed already.
âTry harder asshole.â He sees himself demand. âI need those.â Tony blinks at him slowly and then nods.
âIâll get right on it.â He says, anxiety flooding his system. âPepper will be pissed if I donât get the financial reports done, but Fury threatened to shoot me if I didnât finish the Helicarrier schematic by Tuesday and itâs nowhere close to done.â the panic is building and he looks up to find absolutely no sympathy on his own face. In the next few minutes it becomes a familiar look, often accompanied with derisive words and a horrible sneer.
âWatch out for this one, he just might break your back.â He sees himself say with all the cruelty he could muster, and for the first time he feels something snap in Tony. âI donât deserve this, Rhodey doesnât deserve this.â finally some small part of Tony is crying out at the indignity.
He has watched hours of himself being horrible felt every moment of Tonyâs surprised, hurt, acceptance. This is the first time Tony has even considered that he didnât deserve the disrespect. He feels Tonyâs relief when he finds out the rogues are in Wakanda and his fear that theyâre coming back.
He sees himself standing alongside the others, remembers making the decision to be a United front against Tony. Feels the hollow anger that Tony felt upon their return, and then resigned acceptance. âyouâre a hero Stark, and if you want to protect people this is what you have to deal with.â
âWelcome back.â He says, and he sounds like he means it, but Clint can feel that he doesnât.
âYou better have something damn good for us to apologize for what you put us through.â Clint says, landing a hard slap on Tonyâs back, the spike of pain from the arc is excruciating but Tonyâs eyes donât even water. Clint knows now that theyâre the ones who should apologize.
Sam had always thought of himself as an independent thinker. Yet here he is seeing himself standing at Captain Americaâs right hand side and nodding along like a bobble head while a grown man gets berated.
âHi, youâre Sam Wilson right? You had my wings.â Tony says, smiling brightly at him. Thereâs a wariness about him that Sam never noticed when this first played out.
âTheyâre his wings.â Steve cuts in harshly, and Tony stands proud despite wanting to curl in on himself.
âOf course.â Tony says, even though they arenât theyâre government property and Sam knows it. Sam doesnât correct Steve though, doesnât even consider doing it, instead he looks down his nose at Tony the same way Steve is.
He never thought he was the type to stand by and watch someone get bullied, but here he is watching as he repeatedly does nothing as Tony gets treated like an outsider in his own home. He watches himself behaving like the classic mean girl side kick with little quips to support Steveâs harsh comments. Heâd thought Tony deserved it, and based on the thoughts he can hear Tony did to. Tony thought he Sam was a good man, a moral one. He had read Samâs file, trusted him with the wings before they ever met, and Sam could feel how desperate he was for that not to be a mistake.
Natasha had never known how quickly Tony had clocked her, she had no idea that he had files on The Black widow months before she ever entered Stark Industries. She also never knew how wrong she was about him.
âTextbook Narcissism.â Nick says, quoting her report, but sheâs been inside his head now, and knows that he is anything but. He plays his role well, better than her.
âYeah.â He agrees, and sheâs surprised to find he believes it. After that itâs betrayal after betrayal, and she watches the way he reads her, predicts every single one and letâs it happen.
âRoss is after you.â He warns her, despite everything he desperately wants her safe. Wants all of them to be safe.
âI can take care of myself.â She wonât look at him, leaving a last sharp comment about his ego she disappears. All this time as an Avenger she thought she was making up for the red in her ledger, but here she is hurting her own teammate.
Wanda had always painted Tony as a villain in her mind, a cartoonish evil man pulling the strings and making everything go wrong in her life.
Here she is snarling threats, red magic twirling around her fingers as she places all of the blame at his feet.
âIâm sorry.â He says, and she remembers not believing him, but she can feel how much he means it. Feels the overwhelming regret he feels for every single weapon he ever built. Still he built them.
She watches a slideshow of scenes and every time she sees her own face she feels Tonyâs guilt about her parents deaths, but all she sees is an evil woman doing cruel things to a terrified and exhausted person. She doesnât see the hero she thought she was, but a villain both more cruel and less caring then she ever considered Tony to be. Â
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