OUT OF THIS WORLD [2] ✓ (AVENGERS FF)

34. Stormy clouds

STORMY CLOUDS
(NOTE: some angst)

The room falls silent as the words sink in, heavy like a rock sinking low into the deep.

We take back what we lost.

There is a long pause, but the attention turns to the girl when Tony looks at her.

"Did you know?" He asks, eyes moist as he looks at her, the girl avoiding his gaze. "Let me ask you again kid. Did you know?"

"Y-yes," She finally says, eyes red as she looks at him, hurt in both their expressions as Tony sighs.

"Then why?" He says taking in a shaky breath. "Why didn't you say anything about it?"

"Because," she begins, "Dr. Strange told me not to intervene."

"Oh, Strange came to see you." He says raising his brows, throwing himself back on his chair as he gestures with his hands. "Of course he did." He adds in a bitter tone.

"You have every right to be mad." She begins but is interrupted.

"Damn right I am." Tony says.

"But what happened had to happen Tony. There was no stopping it."

"Oh really? Would you mind explaining it to me then?" He adds standing up. "Can you explain it to us? Because it's not really making sense."

"We can't win every single time Tony, that's not how the world works." 

"Don't talk to me about how the world works. We've been doing this for a good while now. And we had never lost to an enemy like this."

"Some enemies are strong, maybe too strong and much more powerful. There is something we can learn from our loss in the fight with Thanos."

"You know, if you didn't want to get directly involved, you could've at least told us how to defeat him."

"You don't think I tried? It's not the same knowing what's going to happen and seeing it happen right in front of your eyes Stark!" She says.

"Did you really? Did you really try?"

"Tony, out of 14,000,605 outcomes, Dr. Strange said we only win one. Don't you think he factored in the possibility of me helping out? Of me somehow trying to change the outcome? It changed nothing. The outcome is still the same. For all I know, I could be making things worse."

"Or better. But we won't know because you didn't tell us."

"Everything I'm doing is to prevent a bigger mess in the future. There are worse threats than Thanos out there."

"Don't you think we should about those threats as well?" Tony argues, the girl closing her eyes.

There is a brief pause in their argument, but no one dares to intervene, afraid they will make matters worse if they do.

"That was him," Tony says out of the blue. "The thing you didn't want us to see that day, it was him wasn't it?"

"Yes," She confirms looking at him in the eye, "That was him."

Tony's face shifts as he takes in a deep breath, trying to calm himself before he continues.

"Why didn't you say something?"

"Because it wasn't time yet."

"Kid, Thanos has been in my head all this time. Ever since the battle of New York, that's all I could think about!" Tony says slightly raising his voice at the end, letting out an exasperated sigh as he tries to regain his composure.