Chapter Text
Tony Stark has always had a weak heart, ever since the time he firts became Iron Man and had the arc reactor device embedded into his chest to fight off the shrapnel moving into his heart. He had the device removed long ago, but even with the drugs and Extremis serum in his system, his heart never quite recovered. The space in his chest that was once a hole for the device is now filled in with a fake sternum too fragile despite the special technology used to create it.
That same space on Tony's chest was Captain America's final target for his frisbee-style shield before he went and became rouge.
Tony remembered the fear and sheer terror he felt when Cap had straddled him on the floor, shield high up in the air before slamming straight into the arc reactor on his Iron Man suit, disabling it immediately. The Supersoldier had left him then, in an abandoned bunker in freezing Siberia with a dead suit and a C line crack over the chest plate of said suit.
One quick Doctor's visit (that he reluctantly went to) later confirmed what he'd always feared: his heart once again is failing after sustaining the damage from the blow.
Of course, knowing him, he kept the secret of his dying heart from the remaining of his team/friends, pretending like everything was okay. He took his medicines regularly and generously funded medical researches in field that might help his case, but he never kept high hopes.
After all, everybody has their expiration date. Fifty years is a couple decades over the borrowed time a person like Tony Stark could possibly have. He'd had a wild life when he was younger, abusing alcohol and drugs and destroying his young liver. He'd escaped death one too many times. He wouldn't be too surprised to see his time was up.
After all, he's escaped his time one too many times now.
Now around six months later, the Rogue Avengers have been pardoned and are now back in the country. Tony, determined to make up for the mistakes of his past, allows them to return to the Avengers Compound despite their betrayal. Life at the compound is filled with terse silence and awkward encounters, but one that Tony could still deal with.
Until the day the Rogues decide they haven't punished Tony enough and starts throwing their in-pressed anger and insults since being fugitives.
Tony doesn't really know what started it. He just went to the communal kitchen to get some coffee since he ran out of them in his own sacred workshop. He's been too out of it in exhaustion and sleepiness that one or two remarks he didn't really mean any harm might have escaped from his mouth.
Then Clint--Hawkeye--was suddenly firing up insults his way, while the Black Widow stood by on watch with her arms crossed. The Scarlett Witch watched with a frown, fists clenched to restrain the red energy that had begun to sparkle. Tony hadn't gulped enough caffeine to really filter his own supressed thoughts over the months, and suddenly a loud screaming match erupted in the kitchen.
Steve--Cap--tried to break out the argument but Tony, too fired up and hurt at the accusations, only balked at him. Steve retaliated in more accusations and all hope was lost then.
They'd had a lot of words restrained ever since Tony welcomed them back into the compound. They blamed Tony for getting them locked up in the raft. They blamed him for making them become fugitives when they were the ones who decide to escape the facility. They blamed him for the tainted images The Rogue Avengers now have after the battle that broke out--one that caused the War Machine to become paralyzed and later causing Tony with an irreparable, though unseen, injury that's permanently affected his lifestyle.
And now all of those words are free of their previous restraints, and they're all hurling them at Tony. A rogue team against one defenseless person.
It was Bucky--the Winter Soldier--that first noticed something was off. Tony had gotten a little quieter since Steve's loud booming voice started to join in the conversation and his eyes had turned glassy as his fists clenched by his sides. Bucky stepped up to put a hand on Steve so he would back off, but Steve ignored him.
Bucky became more concerned when Tony suddenly stumbled out of nowhere, now clucthing the edge of the counter to just stand up while nobody noticed. The genius' breaths had gotten quicker and shallower and his right hand is now tightly clutching his own upper left arm in pain, and just as Bucky decided to yell out for them all to stop, Tony's whole body crumpled onto the floor.
"Oh, come on, Stark. Enough with these games!" Clint yelled, thinking Tony was just being dramatic.
"Shut up!" Bucky screamed as he ran forward. "Call 911!"
Everyone was stunned and it was as if they only realized what was happening once Bucky arrived at Tony's crumpled form, face down on the floor, whole body rigid in pain. Bucky moved their bodies around and the rest of the Rogues can clearly see what was going on.
As Bucky lifted Tony's upper body to turn him on his back, the other man's body snapped rigid, his head thrown back over Bucky's metal arm, his neck straining and his mouth gaping wide open. His whole body arched in tight spasm as a massive sudden cardiac arrest consumed the genius' body. His arms were rigid, snapping forward and beginning to cross in front of his chest, the fists curling inwards. The same went for his taut legs. After a while, his whole body trembles in tiny convulsive spasms.
Natasha sobered up and her face paled. "He's having a heart attack. Wanda, call the ambulance!"
Clint only stood in shock, while Steve ran to get the AED from the infirmary.
Tony's eyes were half open in slits, somehow staring accusingly at the rest of the Rogue Avengers as he shook in spasms. In matter of seconds, his whole complexion had turned pale and sickly, a tint of blue over his nails and lips. His mouth was gaping open and closed like a fish, taking aborted breaths that never really went in. Saliva bubbled at the corners of his darkened mouth, looking like white foam. His chest jerked up and down but it was only from the back muscles spasms, not an indication of breaths.
In Bucky's arms, Tony's spasms stopped but his body was still rigid on the floor. His blue mouth moved slow and opened wide, tongue lolling out as his neck slowly snapped backwards. A snorting sound escaped his throat at the same time while muscles in his chest twitches, but Bucky couldn't feel any air moving in and out of his mouth even as a loud gurgling noise released and his mouth closed. It happened again and again, in weird intervals, the muscles moving unconsciously.
"He's agonal gasping," Natasha commented in a forced calmness. "Bucky, release him and lay him on the floor. I need you to blow breaths for him while I compress his chest. Your metal arm might be too strong."
Bucky nodded and straightened Tony's body, although it was hard as he was still twitching once in a while. He pried open the other man's jaw and tilted his head before giving him rescue breaths. His chest moved, accepting the oxygen, but the muscles on his face were still trying to take fake gasps. Even as Bucky's mouth sealed Tony's, he could feel him gasp under his mouth, feel the growl from the downed man's throat.
"Bucky, those are not true breaths," Natasha warned when Bucky paused to stare curiously at the fish-out-of-water movements of Tony's mouth. "It's just his muscles' last attempt to get air but he's not really getting any. Keep breathing for him."
Tony's body was still seized up and a little arched off the floor when Natasha locked her clasped hands on top of Tony's sternum and begin to pump rhythmically. Tony's arms were still crossed in front of his chest from the spasm, and Bucky helped move them to help the compressions.
"Shit, he's really locked up. Come on, Tony, work with me."
Bucky blew in breath and pulled away. Tony's empty eyes stared accusingly at him as his head jerked from the force of the compressions.
Even as Natasha pumped his chest, Tony never stopped making the loud gurgling noises. Bucky wiped down the saliva from the corner of those blue lips.
They all knew they screwed up.
Natasha paused to rub her knuckles a few times on Tony's sternum. "Tony, hey, please. Don't do this. Take a deep breath for me. Please."
Tony ignored them all, only staring sightlessly at the ceiling, mouth still moving open and close unconsciously.
"Breathe for him," Natasha instructed and Bucky obeyed.
Natasha resumed compressions, the force making Tony's whole body convulse. Slowly, the rigidity eases off and the man dropped back on the floor from his arched position and he stopped gurgling. His head flopped to the side but Bucky secured it, straightening it back up to keep his airway open.
Steve returned with the AED, and Clint helped set it up while Wanda kept talking to the dispatcher, informing them what was going on.
Steve ripped Tony's dress shirt open and barely held in a gasp. The lifetime's worth of scarring all over his chest was terrifying. He could make out the circle-shaped scar over the center of his chest, the space where the arc reactor was placed--both the old, implated one and the detached one on the suit, and Steve paled in horror.
"Oh no..."
It was the space where he'd hit the older man with is Vibranium-made shield. Viciously, unforgivingly, disabling his suit instantly. Steve was no idiot. Even he could guess what that particular blow would cause on an already damaged chest.
"It's my fault," he whispered in pain as Clint placed the pads on Tony's chest and the AED machine began to whine. "I did this..."
They all cleared to let the AED analyze Tony's rhythm. "No pulse..."
No pulse. All because of them.
They killed him...
Natasha had begun to lose her fake calm and a tear slipped from her eye as she resumed compressions again. "Come on, Tony, I'm sorry. I'm sorry..."
Tony remained still. His skin was gradually losing color. Now he was gray and starting to grow cold. They all kept trying anyway.
Bucky held the genius' face in his hands and blew in another breath. Tony's chest passively lifted up in response.
The AED analyzed again and informed that a shock was advised.
"Everybody clear," Natasha barked.
The machine whined and Natasha pressed the red blinking button. Immediately, Tony's whole body twitched and curled in response, a grunt escaping his mouth. He fell lifeless once more.
"Analyzing rhythm. Stand clear... Shock adviced. Push the red--"
Tony's chest convulsed and his limbs jerked before falling still.
"Analyzing............ No pulse, begin CPR..."
Natasha pushed at Tony's cold chest. His lips are completely dark blue, eyes staring off a distance. A soft hu hu hu sound escaped his slack mouth in sync of the compressions.
Steve was openly crying, realizing what had been going on.
Natasha stopped compressions and defeatedly pressed two fingers on Tony's jaw. She shook her head.
Bucky wiped his face before looking down into Tony's lifeless, open eyes. Carefully, he closed those eyes with his fingers gently. He took a deep, shaky breath and looked up at the rest of the team, deep anguish in his gray eyes.
They killed him.
The Rogue Avengers stood in silence even as paramedics jumped out from the elevator and rush toward the hero's still body.