Infinite ★ Steve Rogers [6] ✓

Twenty Five

Ashley was in the middle of disarming an alien when he disappeared into dust in front of her. She frowned in confusion at what had just happened and began to look around the area, which allowed her to watch as the rest of Thanos' army was also dusted away, including his ship.

"Ash." Rhodey landed next to her.

"What's going on?" She asked him, and he too looked around.

"I have no idea." He said, then his eyes set upon Thanos just before he dusted away too. Ashley followed his gaze but instead of seeing Thanos, she immediately saw Tony struggling to stay standing with half of his suit burnt, as well as half of his face. She gasped, and dropped the alien weapon to the ground before sprinting over to him to put her arm around him.

"I've got you, Tony. You're alright." She told him, helping him to sit on the floor and rest against a mountain of rubble. She fell to her knees in front of him and caressed his hair as she looked over his face. Tears began to cloud her eyesight when it dawned on her that he had used the stones and clicked his fingers, dusting away Thanos and the threat he imposed. "Oh, Tony." She whispered as a tear ran down her cheek. Rhodey came over in that moment, and just from looking at him, Rhodey knew what was to come for his best friend.

"Mr Stark?" Peter flew in and noticed the state that Tony was in. "Hey!" His breathing became shaky upon seeing him and he knelt down in front of him. "Mr Stark. Can you hear me? It's Peter. We won, Mr Stark. We won, Mr Stark. We won! You did it, sir, you did it." He then began to cry, whilst Pepper came from behind and put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry. Tony." She helped him up and gave him to Rhodey before kneeling in front of Tony herself. The rest of the team had also come over to see what was going on, and they all saw Tony and knew what he had done. He had made the ultimate sacrifice so they could win. Steve was in disbelief and kept an eye on Ashley for when the inevitable moment was to come.

"Hey." Pepper said to her husband making him look to her, whist she placed her hand over the bright light of his arc reactor part of his suit.

"Hey, Pep." He said so softly it was only just audible, as he just managed to put his hand over hers.

"Friday?"

"Life functions critical." The AI replied, making more tears come to Ashley's eyes.

"Tony? Look at me." Pepper told him, and he slowly did. "We're gonna be okay. You can rest now." She reassured as she caressed his head, not being able to keep her tears away any more. She was losing her husband, and her daughter was losing her father. This was the way he did not want it to go, but he did anyway. She looked down at her hand on top of the bright arc reactor just in time to see the light fade out, and then his hand fall down to the floor, limp and lifeless. Pepper leaned forward to kiss his cheek before she sobbed into his chest. He was gone, and nothing could be done. Through her tears and her own pain, Ashley put her arm around Pepper's shoulders and kissed her on her head, making Pepper put her arm around Ashley's body. They then turned to embrace each other, sobbing into each other's shoulders from the loss that had broken both of their hearts.

The rest of the team stood back to allow those most important to Tony to mourn together. But Clint took the initiative to take a knee out of respect for Tony. One by one, the other members copied him which included Steve and Thor.

After about a minute, Ashley and Pepper helped each other to stand and noticed everyone kneeling. They nodded to all of them, then turned to Rhodey and Peter. Pepper stepped foreword and embraced Rhodey, allowing him to cry into her shoulder whilst Ashley stepped up to Peter. She wiped his tears away from his cheeks before wrapping her arms around him. She could hear him crying his eyes out into her body and it broke her to hear a kid cry so hard he started to hiccup. She caressed his head and held him tight, allowing him to cry as much as he wanted to.