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“I’m sorry, Tony. I wish there was another way.”
Rogers is close, too close, when did he sneak up on Tony like that?
Tony looks up to face the other man. “What are you talking about?”
Rogers leans even closer, his eyes glittering in the half light. This place is creepy enough as it is, an alien bog with fumes of god knows what billowing upwards.
Cap is fast, Tony has always known that but it still surprises him how incredibly fast he moves to clap his large hand around Tony’s nape. Tony barely manages to let a half scream that turns into a cry of pain as he feels a strong jab at the base of his skull.
Rogers was wearing a ring, he remembers it now, Wakandan in style but Tony never asked about it. It’s not like he had had much chance to be alone with him, he actively avoided it. Yet now here they were, he let Rogers pair up with him to explore the Eastern part of the planet while Rhodey and Nebula went West. It was done subtly, not that Rogers is truly capable of much subtlety but Tony thought he just wanted to apologize again, or something, not attack him.
It hurts so much he can barely think, a sharp pain that seems to travel down his spine and then warmth, just a sweet floaty feeling. I should deploy my suit, he thinks confusedly wondering why he hasn’t done it yet… I should…
He should get away somehow but he just slumps against Steve’s broad chest and the other man cradles his head gently, holding him close.
“What are you doing? What was this thing you dosed me with?” Tony slurs.
“It’s Wakandan. I hope it doesn’t hurt. Shuri said it wouldn’t.”
Shuri? Tony liked the girl genius and thought the feelings were mutual. Why would she give Steve something to attack Tony with?
Tony can still talk, he thinks, but he stays silent, trying to breathe, crushed as he is against the other man’s body.
“You need to understand. This isn’t easy for me but it’s the only way to get it. The Stone requires a sacrifice. The Red Skull explained it to me.”
The Red…, Steve, have you lost it completely?” Tony whispers in horror.
Rogers lets out a giggle. “I know, I couldn’t believe it either at first. Yesterday when we camped, that’s why I left. I saw him.”
Tony had been too busy running through quantum calculations with Nebula and Rhodey to see how long they could keep the time rip open. And Rogers went out to establish a perimeter or whatever the hell he called it.
“The stone will only surrender itself if I sacrifice something I love.” His voice trembles.
“You love?”
“I wish there was another way, Tony,” Rogers repeats brokenly. “All this time I never managed to stop loving you.”
“Stop? I had no idea you even started, what the hell?” Tony’s screaming in his mind but the warmth has spread even further and all he manages is a garbled whisper. The other man squeezes him even more against him, Tony’s weakened lungs straining.
Steve is openly sobbing now. “I’ll make it quick.” He puts Tony in a headlock and presses his broad palm on the side of his face priming to break his neck.
Well, here it is. That’s how I’ll go. The big plan for me is to be Rogers’ sacrifice. Fucking Strange. At least if any of this magic crap is true they’ll get the soul stone. I can rest.
He swears he hears a repulsor blast, then silence.
The afterlife hurts. His head is pounding, his neck feels like it’s on fire and every single muscle in his body has seized. And he’s looking into the very worried and stubbled face of one James Rupert Rhodes.
“What the hell happened?” he tries to say but it comes out all vowels.
“Shhh, it’s ok, whatever he dozed you with is finally wearing off,” Rhodey puts his hand on Tony’s chest to keep him down then just leaves it there.
“Where’s Rogers?”
“Unconscious,” Nebula replies. “I had to stop your friend here from killing him, it would have been such a senseless waste.” She crouches next to Tony. “I hope you’re feeling better, Stark. Sorry to rush you two but we don’t have much time. We have at best 15 minutes before the rip seals itself. So just get on with it.”
“With what?”
She sighs loudly. “These are the rules of this place. To get the stone you must sacrifice someone you love.”
Tony manages to sit up. “Again with this bullshit. Am I in a fantasy novel? You can’t be serious!”
Rhodey helps him to his feet. “Tony, it’s true. All of it. And soon we’ll be out of time. So, here he is. I know you act like you’re over him and he hurt you so much but if you still have feelings for him, I won’t judge.”
“Rhodey, what the hell? We were never together. I don’t love him. I don’t even like him. I considered him a friend before he fucked me over with the Accords bullshit and his lies. Now, I just… there’s nothing.”
Rhodes curses. “Are you sure?”
“Positive. What the hell, don’t you think I would know? So unless he kills me or… or you kill me, I guess we’re fucked.” Tony passes his hand over his face, letting out a hysterical laugh.
“No, forget that.”
“Rhodey…”
“You’re the key, the chosen one, remember?” Rhodey smiles a terrible smile. He sheds his armor. “You know there’s only one way now.”
Tony takes a step back on still unsteady feet. “No.”
Nebula takes Tony’s arm. “Time is running out. It needs to be you,” she says, her mechanical voice impossibly gentle. “I think James is a nice person and a formidable fighter but we’re not quite there yet.”
Rhodey had asked for a holster in his leg braces because of course he was being Rhodey and Tony obliged. He even made him his own prototype, the first Stark handgun in 10 years, the very same gun that his friend has raised against his temple. “Tony, either you do it or I do anyway and it will have been for nothing. One life for half the Universe. It’s a fair trade. The needs of the many outweigh and all that…”
“Don’t quote Star Trek to me, you prick.” Tony forces past the rock in his throat.
Nebula takes over. She takes the gun from Rhodey and puts it in Tony’s hand. He knows he’s brought it down to 36 ounces loaded but it weighs a ton and his hand is shaking so badly that Nebula grabs the gun steady it. She takes her hand away. He’s still shaking, tears streaming down his face but he can’t miss, not at point blank range.
Afterwards it’s very quiet. The stone just appears, glimmering innocently in the dirt. “Only you can touch the stone now”, Nebula tells him and he does as told, careful not to look at Rhodey beyond his fallen legs, still in his braces.
She hefts the still unconscious Rogers and turns back to Tony with a quizzical look.
“Just leave him here,” he hears himself say.
There are no objections, she just lets Rogers drop unceremoniously to the ground.
Tony’s suit takes over and he flies them back to the time rip, barely making it through as it seals itself back up.
After everything has been restored he decides to keep it, figure’s he’s paid enough for it. Nobody objects to him being one of the Stonekeepers.
And one night, barely a week after the Return, Tony and Pepper are awakened by voices from the living room.
“Authorisation ‘War Machine Rox’.”
Then FRIDAY, who’s sounding frustrated. “Well, voice authorization is on point, Colonel but your biometrics just… aren’t there.”
Rhodey is standing in the middle of the room, trying to catch his reflection in a mirror. He has a bluish cast and is almost transparent. He also seems to have gone back in time a bit, it’s Rhodey just as he was in his late thirties, or so, all sharp angles, suave in a dark suit, no braces on his legs.
“Oh, well, that’s it,” Tony murmurs. “Sanity was nice while it lasted.”
“I see him too, Tony,” Pepper hisses.
“I perceive him too, Boss”.
“And I’m just hallucinating all of you, good times.”
Pepper pinches his arm hard making Tony yelp in pain. There is still a Rhodey ghost in his living room.
“I guess I am a Force ghost,” Rhodey’s apparition says. “Or rather, I guess Soul Stone ghost might be more accurate”
Tony just stares at him.
“What, you dumbass, you thought I’d ever leave you? I’ll be haunting you forever!”
Tony allows himself to believe it at last, his eyes filling with tears. Rhodey can’t hug him but he joins a group hug with Pepper who is laughing and crying at the same time. He feels a bit like static and it’s not altogether pleasant but they hold on as much as they can.
Ghost Rhodey eventually learns how to pilot the War Machine suit without a body and they have no choice but to accept him back into the Avengers. He’s New York bound, can’t get too far from the Stone and he tortures Tony and Pepper with I love Jeannie references.
Bucky Barnes never asks about Rogers.
Shuri realizes she’d gotten one of her more questionable weapons stolen right after she explained to Steve what it does. She puts together a theory of what must have happened. When she asks Tony about it he tells her when and where Rogers was left and she starts staging a rescue operation with Doctor Strange. Tony helps them, some guilt having kicked in over how he stranded the idiot four years in the past.
The Steve Rogers they recover two years later rants about how he’s been chosen, that he would have made all sacrifices and was meant to yield the gauntlet. He’s very biblical, all skin and bones, with wild hair and beard reaching down to his chest.
Barnes and Wilson who moved together after the Return and were briefly stars of the reality show the Wolf and the Falcon, take Rogers in to try and rehabilitate him. He’s obsessed with gathering the stones again and fixing the Universe and doesn’t seem to be able to accept that it has been fixed.
They underestimate him and he escapes. When he resurfaces again he has started a cult. Tony and the rest of the Avengers keep an eye on him but being a leader makes Rogers happy and he’s mostly harmless. He preaches the superiority of the Enhanced and their divine mission to protect regular people. What’s ridiculous is that many of his followers hardly fit the definition of Enhanced with cobbled together, mostly ineffective tech, effectively LARPing their badass characters.
Tony won’t underestimate him, though. The legend of Captain America is holding strong as he’s hailed as the key that allowed the Avengers to save the Universe, the mythical lost hero who sacrificed so much. And eventually he regains his imposing physique, all muscles, clean shaven with his ever youthful good looks, his blond hair and honest baby blues.