Chapter 18
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The air was still thick with the stink of smoke and charred stone as the three of them moved through the wreckage. No more gunfire, no more screams, only the moans of the wounded and the muted shuffling of boots as survivors tried to piece themselves back together.
Tony's repulsors hummed low as he used them to lift debris off trapped civilians, his armor caked in ash and streaks of blood that wasn't his. Natasha worked with calm precision, tending to the injured with the ease of someone who'd seen too much of this before, while Clint wordlessly pulled bodies from the rubble, face drawn tight.
The silence was heavier than the fight had been.
Tony's eyes caught on a collapsed storefront, its roof half-buried in concrete and twisted rebar. He stepped closer, sensors pinging faint life, but it wasn't life he found. A small body, still half-crushed beneath stone. A child. Her tiny severed arm still clutched a teddy bear, the fur darkened, sticky with blood.
The sight hit him like a gut punch. His arc reactor seemed to falter in his chest. The edges of his vision pulsed and blurred as his breathing stuttered, sharp and uneven. Alarms rang in his head louder than JARVIS's calm voice, louder than anything else.
You should've gotten here faster. You should've stopped it. You should've—
"Sir." JARVIS's voice slipped through the spiral, gentle in his ear. "Steady. Breathe. You are not alone."
He barely registered Natasha's hand on his shoulder until she leaned closer, her voice low, concerned. "Tony… you okay?"
His head snapped slightly, the old mask sliding back into place with effort. He forced a shaky smirk. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Just… dirt in the eyes. Don't tell anyone."
She didn't believe him—he could see it in her eyes—but she let it go, for now.
Minutes stretched until the heavy rumble of engines broke the quiet. Black SUVs and armored carriers rolled in, floodlights cutting through the smoke. Dozens of SHIELD agents spilled out, moving with grim efficiency. At the front of them, Fury stepped into the chaos, his one eye scanning the destruction with a weight that pulled at the ground.
He didn't speak at first. Didn't need to. His face was all sharp edges and silence as he took in the bodies lined on stretchers, the ruins of homes, the civilians wrapped in shock and bandages. His shoulders were square, but his jaw was tight.
When he finally made his way to where Tony and Natasha stood, Tony tried—God help him, he tried—to lighten the crushing air. He let out a small, crooked grin. "Gotta say, Fury, this might be the worst housewarming party I've ever been to. And that's not even mentioning the glare bouncing off your bald—"
"Not now, Stark."
The words cut cold, final. Fury's tone had no room for Tony's armor of humor.
Tony's grin died in his throat. He swallowed hard, eyes darting away. For once, he didn't have a comeback.
Fury stood in silence for a long moment, then his voice dropped, calm but edged like steel. "Tell me what happened. All of it. What. How. Why. And spare me the jokes."
Tony didn't answer. Couldn't. The weight of those words pressed down, heavier than the rubble he'd just lifted.
Fury exhaled through his nose, sharp, then shifted his eye toward Natasha and Clint. "You two. With me."
Natasha gave Tony a long look, hesitant, but Fury's tone left no room for hesitation. She followed, Clint close behind, the three of them moving toward the makeshift command post SHIELD agents had set up among the wreckage.
Tony stayed where he was.
He watched them go, then slowly let himself sink down onto a piece of fallen concrete. His armor hissed as it adjusted to the weight, the glow of his reactor casting a faint blue halo over the dust at his feet.
In the distance, Fury's voice carried, sharp commands mixing with the noise of radios and the distant wail of sirens. Natasha and Clint stood straight, answering his clipped questions as he pieced together what had happened.
Tony just sat there.
"Sir," JARVIS murmured again, softer this time. "You did what you could. That is all anyone can ask of you."
Tony stared at the child's teddy bear still lying in the rubble, blood-stained and broken. He wanted to believe JARVIS. God, he wanted to. But right now, the weight on his chest made it hard to breathe, harder still to believe he hadn't already failed.
So he sat in silence, reactor humming in the dark, while Fury and the others planned their next move.
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Sorry if I haven't been posting any chapter for a while, I was busy to say the least but I'm somewhat free to post again from time to time so yeah that's all