Avengers One Shot — Post Endgame
(English is not my first language, so I apologize if there's any spelling mistakes.)
ONE SHOT #1: Saying goodbye
After Iron Man snapped their fingers, Thanos’ army and the villain himself disappeared into the air, just like our heroes did five years ago on a devastating battle.
Black Panther looked up, confused by the flying aliens turning into dust in the air, followed by a Star Lord walking next to him, being as puzzled as the King.
Cap breathed heavily, watching their enemies fall down and disintegrate,a smile on his face.
Tony leaned into a fallen wall of rocks, his breath staggered as he tried to sit down. — though he ended up falling on his butt on the floor, his right arm limp.
The man was trying to breathe normally, although with the immense pain he was in it was practically impossible.
He looked up, noticing War Machine land in front of him, taking off his helmet — an unhappy expression being present on his face.
Rhodey bent down by Tony, placing his mental hand on the side of the man’s head, — receiving a small smile from his best friend, but he frowned, knowing that’s probably the last time he’ll see him alive.
A while later, Spider-Man came down a little away from Rhodey and Tony, his nose bleeding from being blast away with one of the explosions of Thanos’ ships and his face bruised from the battle.
War Machine shook his head, and let the young superhero have his last moment with his mentor. — Which happened only seconds later because Peter already knelt down in front of Tony, a hurt and concerned expression on his features.
The boy let out a worried, “Mr.Stark.”, placing his hands on top of his idol’s, who keeps them on his chest, on top of his arc reactor.
“We won, Mr. Stark” Peter spoke softly, his eyes having a glassy look on them as the teen tried to keep back his tears.
Unfortunately, Tony didn’t respond, he didn’t even move, he was too exhausted and hurt to do so. He would’ve got up, hugged the kid, and told him he was too blind to see that he was the son he never knew he wanted, how much he wished he’d been a better mentor and- “We won, Mr. Stark.” the boy continued, trying to make the older man at least look at him, — which he managed, a bit, but continued to ramble, repeating the same words a couple more times.
“We won, you did it sir, you did it…” Peter muttered, his voice shaky as small tears formed in the corner of his eyes.
He was being pulled away by iron arms, not Tony’s, Pepper’s. She was starting to pull him away from him, but he managed to say his last words to him, — “I'm sorry, Tony…” before his head fell down to stare at the ground as the kid started to sob silently. He couldn’t lose another important person in his life, not the one who had become a father figure after his own dad and uncle were killed.
Once he was up, War Machine placed a hand on his shoulder as he sobbed, his teeth gritted. He was being pulled gently behind to give Pepper her time and space to say her goodbyes, silently looking at the couple before walking away with Rhodey.
Pepper crouched down in front of her husband, who smiled a bit and looked at her, mumbling her name quietly.
“Friday?” The woman asked, fear in her voice. “Life functions critical.” The I.A voice in Iron Man’s suit replied, making her worry more.
Tony used all his strength to give Pepper a soft smile, but it being quickly interrupted by his head having to lean on the rock as his heart beat started slowing down.
“Tony. Tony, look at me.” She spoke, holding back her own tears as she forcefully placed a smile on her face as Tony turned his head to her slowly. — “We’re gonna be okay…” And as soon as she said those words, the man’s head leaned once more against the wall, an expressionless look on his face. “You can rest now…” His wife continued, before breaking down and sobbing as the glowing light on Tony’s arc reactor faded away.
From away, Steve and Thor stared with heartbroken looks on their faces. - The captain felt terrible, breathing heavily from the battle, his eyes watery as he looked at his f̶r̶i̶e̶n̶d̶, no, best friend or even lover,
Meanwhile, Thor just stared at his teammate, looking at him silently, seeming unfaced by this tragic moment, but inside, inside he is absolutely loosing it about another one of the people he loved dying.
Pepper stopped crying to give her husband a gentle kiss on his cheek, then going back to sobbing.
A few days later from Tony’s passing, a funeral for the hero was arranged, organized by Pepper, who wanted to invite everyone who helped the world go back to what it was in one way or another.
Happy was the one who made sure to text everyone that they were invited to pay their respects to the late hero.
All of them answered, even the guardians and nick furry himself. But one of them hadn’t answered, just left the man to seen — Parker.
For some reason, the teen, one of the closest persons to Tony after his family and best friend — didn’t even answer Happy, whom did the same back when Peter kept texting him to impress Mr. Stark.
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Pepper walked out of their — her lakeside residence, flowers in one hand and holding Morgan’s with the other.
Being followed behind by Happy, Rhodey and Steve.
As they walked past some guests, she smiled at them, but it was more of a forced one, one of politeness.
On the lake water stood a bouquet of flowers with one of Tony’s old reactor with “proof that Tony Stark has a heart” around it.
Pepper was looking down at the bouquet, a serious expression plastered across her face, trying to keep it together for her daughter, Morgan — whom she was holding next to her, trying to comfort the child.
Behind them stood Happy Hogan and James Rhodes, who side hugged each other to give some support.
Steve was looking over their shoulders, having a somewhat angry but in the same time, devastated look in his eyes.
Next to the man stood a smaller man — a teen — whose face showed no emotion or whatsoever, with his aunt gently rubbing his shoulder to help him as best as she could. But Peter remained there, not moving, not even caring he was standing between his childhood heroes and idols — he lost another father.
Thor and Bruce were next, which one couldn’t stop moving, forcing himself to not break down, because he had lost — almost — everything, and his heart couldn’t handle it much more.
And on the other hand, the taller man appeared heartbroken, he lost his best friend, colleague, his science buddy, a man who started out as a narcissistic person and ended up stealing the hearts of all of them.
Doctor Strange was up next — Wong by his side — his gaze was fixed on nothing, as if he was avoiding looking at the people, to face what he caused — because this was his fault, he knew Tony would end up dead, he knew that Steve would return old and there would be a new Captain America, he knew everything.
Scott Lang looked with pained eyes at the flowers on the lake, being accompanied by Hank Pin, Janet, and Hope — who were there merely by respect towards the late superhero.
The Guardians of the Galaxy were up next, some of them — Groot, Peter Quill, Drax and Mantis — were merely paying their respects, but others like Nebula and Rocket felt distressing, having known Tony a little more.
Even the king of Wakanda, T’Challa, one of the Dora Millaje and his sister, Shuri were also attending the funeral.
Clint’s family was there too, his wife and three children, Nathaniel being too young to understand what was going on.
On their right side stood Wanda, Bucky, and Sam.
The ex Winter Soldier was devastated, feeling guilty about everything he had done to Tony Stark. Fortunately, Sam noticed this and placed a hand on the man’s shoulder, telling him in a subtle way that it was not his fault.
Behind them was Harley Keener, the young boy Tony teamed up back in 2013, he looked sad, feeling guilty for not reaching out to Tony sooner.
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