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Tony watched as Captain America, someone he would've called a friend (maybe even family) at one point, raised his shield high in the air. It dawned on him that he was about to die here, getting decapitated by a shield his own father made. How poetic.
He would die cold and alone, his soulmates had never responded to him when he had been trying for his early life, he hadn't even received the slightest of nudge on his soulbond the kind you'd feel if your soulmate was on the other side of the planet from you. It was always just silence, eventually he had given up.
He had built walls around his connection, if they didn't want him for 24 years then what would ever change their minds? He had made damn sure nothing could ever get through to him over that lifeline they held.
Afghanistan was the last time he had tried, in vain to reach them.
The light reflected off Captains shield in a frankly beautiful way and then he brought it down with all the force his enhanced muscles were capable of.
Tony had braced for his life to end there, instead the shield came down on his chest, right over the struggling arc reactor of his suit.
Huh, so they want the death to be slow and drawn out. Awesome.
With the shield painfully digging in as Steve wrenched it in further in an attempt to get the reactor completely trashed Tony considerd his soulmates again.
They had never wanted him, that much was clear; but he was about to die slow and drawn out in some stupid HYDRA bunker in Siberia, maybe they'd at least realise their soulmate was on his last legs and allow him some sense of comfort through their soulbond?
Wishful thinking is what it was. But what did Tony have to lose? Consciousness wouldn't last for long now with all his injuries and the exhaustion from the fight, FRIDAY was dark and couldn't keep him company. Hypothermia would set in quite fast especially in an unpowered metal suit, he would give himself maybe... 48 hours of meaningful survival in theese conditions. Rhodey would send a search party in 12 hours but it was unlikely he would be found and recovered before he died.
The Captain and Winter soldier were walking away from him now, his only hope of survival would've been to appeal to them but even he wasn't that desperate. No, he would just open the walls around his soulbond and throw a hail Mary into the void that surrounded his end and hope by some miracle that he would get any comfort back. He wasn't dumb enough to think this would save him obviously, he just wanted to feel like his soulmates cared.
Which was stupid because they didn't but he was fairly certain his death would finally stick this time and maybe that could be felt in some way through the soulbond and maybe if he was lucky his soulmates would show some level of mercy on him and allow him some comfort in his last moments.
Yeah. It was completely delusional.
Still he opened his walls just slightly so he could reach out, for some reason the void around his soulbond wasn't as thick and impassable as he remembered. Then again it had been years so it's possible he had been misremembering.
He could actually feel out the connection, it gave him some amount of hope that he could feel at least some comfort in his final moments.
There was no tethers connecting his end of the soulbond to the two others but he could feel a frayed, hesitant connection between his soulmates, like they were trying to carefully rebuild after something awful.
So maybe they could sympathise.
Tony felt his consciousness slipping, this was kind of his last chance if he wanted to be able to feel wether his connection got buffeted away or not, so with the last of his strenght he sent out a desperate plea to his soulmates, not asking for help, not asking for strength to pull him through, he had already given up on his life by now, he was just asking for comfort.
It turns out he had been too late. He heard as both super soldiers suddenly stopped in their tracks for some reason and then none of it mattered because he slipped into unconsciousness.
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Steve knew there was no coming back from what he had done this time, he had burned all possible bridges so throughly he knew he'd spent the rest of his life trying to atone but never being able to.
At least he had his soulmate back by his side.
At the cost of his family.
He wasn't happy, he wasn't even angry he was just... sad.
Bucky pressed close to his side, using the excuse of his missing limb and needing Steve to keep him steady to provide both of them some modicum of physical comfort.
It really wasn't enough.
Steve just sighed and turned to his soulbond, reaching for the small hesitant connection he had with Bucky. He knew they both would benefit from sending eachother comfort through it, Bucky probably realised that too because the waves of comfort they were sending eachother met in the middle.
For a moment Steve thought they might actually be okay, that they might get through this.
As soon as that feeling had come it was washed away when a plea pierced into the soulbond, broken and begging, it didn't ask for strength to make it through, it didn't ask for them to come help, it just asked for comfort, comfort so whoever was on the other end could die with some sense of safety in their heart.
It was devastating. Their third soulmate, someone Steve had desperately been trying to reach since he came out of the ice only to be met by an impenetrable wall around the connection had given up on their life and was only asking to not feel alone and scared in their final moments.
Bucky had felt it too, they both were frozen in place as the plea grew weaker in a way that signalled their third was losing consciousness. And Steve tried to send as much comfort and strength as he could back through the connection but he was too late. Their third was unresponsive again.
They had to find them. The connection was weak but Steve held onto it with all the stubbornness he posessed and tugged on it to find a direction they could run, blindly he turned around to face where he was being led.
What a sick joke the universe was throwing at them. Their third soulmate was somehow in a perfect position somewhere in the world that the path to them went straight through Tony. Only...
Soulbonds weren't this strong and clearly defined at a distance like that.
Horrible realisation clawed up Steves spine and he fell to his knees as he desperately tried to rearrange the pieces to paint any other possible conclusion than the one staring him in the face.
Tony Stark was their third soulmate.
Bucky had ran to be on Tonys side, he was shaking, angry, devastated.
Steve felt a sob escape him, an anquished cry to the universe begging for this to not be their reality, the universe only laughed back at them.
Bucky suddenly looked up with an enraged glare at him, deeply hurt and devastated as he demanded, "Did you know?"
It was so similar with the tone of hurt and anger to when Tony had asked that same question not even an hour ago that Steve thought he might get whiplash from how fast his brain was working.
This time he was able to truthfully answer the way he wished he could've the first time. Steady and with no doubt in his mind "No." Of course I didn't was left unsaid, but they both heard it echoed around the walls anyways.
Bucky turned and punched the ground in anger, leaving an impressive crater behind. He breathed in harshly and turned back around "Help me get him out." It was an order, not a request.
Steve would've helped regardless, he crawled over and helped Bucky wrench the ruined remains of the Iron man suit off Tonys body. Tonys completely human body. No enhancements, no powers, just a squishy, vulnerable human. He felt sick to his stomach.
He tried to move, to help but Bucky honest to god growled and snarled at him in a demand to stay back as he lifted Tony against him, quite cumbersomely considering he only had one arm, and arranged the smaller man so he could be cradled against the larger mans chest securely while they made their way back to their quinjet.
It was tense and uncomfortable, Bucky didn't allow him to come close to the two, he had even closed their soulbond connection so he couldn't reach out that way. It wasn't as impenetrable as Tonys had been and was clearly only temporary but it got the message of back the fuck off across quite clearly.
Once they were in the quinjet Bucky retrieved supplies and then holed up with Tony in a corner, trying to apply first aid and get the smaller man warmed up. Steve tried to help but Bucky would just snap and snarl at him with a look in his eyes like he was a wounded animal trying to hold together for the sake of an even more wounded pack mate. Maybe that was true.
So instead he walked around the quinjet both inside and outside to ensure nothing was amiss and then finally sat down in the pilots seat, trying to figure out what he was supposed to do now.
He took a deep breath and reached for his soulbond, Buckys walls were flimsy but they were being stubbornly held up when he tentatively tried to reach him, it was clear Bucky didn't want him there right now so he would respect it.
Tonys end however... was a warzone. It was surrounded by a void of hurt and then walls like the shutters that the genius could deploy around the glass walls of his workshop if he thought he needed to survive a nuke for whatever reason, they were slightly open at the bottom, only enough that he was able to send that desperate message through and no more than that. Steve still tried to send through what comfort and strength he could, even if Tony was unconscious and unable to fully receive it right now.
Closer to Buckys side he could feel fractures in the wall, rough claw marks and gashes like Bucky was desperately ripping through the defences, trying to ensure he couldn't be locked out again. Steve considered doing the same but he assumed that it would be received as hostility and anger instead of the desperate attempt to ensure Tony couldn't block him out this throughly again that it would've been.
It was still and quiet in the way soulbonds only were when one party was unconscious, it was scary. He wasn't sure of Tonys current condition, the plea was very clear in conveying that Tony knew he would die and was okay with that fact, it made Steve feel ill and he couldn't even check in to make sure Tony pulled through and was going to be alright because Bucky was blocking him from doing so.
It was nerve-wracking.
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Tony came to feeling... something... he wasn't sure what it was, it was completely forgein to him, somehow over the course of his life there managed to be a feeling he had never felt before and that was something he was currently experiencing.
So he focused on it and found himself somewhere he hadn't thought of in years, at his soulbond.
It was odd, something was different. He investigated and found his defences were open and he immediately panicked and forced them back down, one side went with little to no difficulty but the other...
He went over, trying to figure out why it wasn't closing only to find... It had to be his soulmate, there was no one else who would've been able to be here.
His soulmate was tearing through his walls with a desperation and hurt that stunned Tony for a long while, they were so strong and so clear in their emotions that they were tearing through in an attempt to ensure Tony couldn't lock them out ever again that for a moment Tony froze...
His soulmate wanted him?
And then the years of memories, of being ignored and thrown aside by his soulmates caught up with him and anger bubbled up as he tried to force the wall back into being again.
How dare they pretend to care now.
Something tightened around him and the violence against his walls got more frantic and desperate and that's when he realised something.
In order for his soulmate to be able to trash around and tear at his walls this effectively they had to be in close proximity to him.
His soulmate had come for him?
He didn't understand, why after so many years had his soulmate pulled through and come to help? It didn't make any sense.
He forced the limited amount of awareness he had out from the soulbond and back to his physical body. He was... wrapped up in a hug so tight he was surprised he could breathe normally.
His soulmate (because it literally couldn't be anyone else with the way his soulbond was thrumming) was wrapped around him, he was being propped up, half sitting on the ground, half draped around his soulmates shaking body. Their head was pressed against his shoulder, only one of their arms was around him which was... weird considering how desperately his soulmate seemed to be attempting to merge into his skin.
Tony blinked his eyes open, why were theese surroundings familiar? It took his brain longer than normal to connect the dots in his brain to what this place was. One of the quinjets. Why was he in one of the quinjets?
He tried to move, his soulmate held him in place with an amount of strength he wasn't exactly certain an unenhanced individual would be capable of...
Wait...
He suddenly remembered the events that led him here, the fight, how he had reached out into the void in a desperate attempt to feel comfort.
His soulmate only had one arm wrapped around him...
He reached over to pat around his soulmates side.
His soulmate only had one arm.
With a sudden clarity he inhaled sharply and turned his attention to who exactly was wrapped around him so fiercely.
James Buchanan Barnes.
The winter soldier was wrapped around him in a vice grip.
His soulmate was Bucky Barnes.
But that made no sense because Steve had said Bucky was his-
He was part of a triad bond.
Which likely meant-
He reached back inward for his soulbond and slightly opened the walls that he had managed to fully shut earlier, he was immediately hit with the presence of his other soulmate standing guard outside his walls with a familiar stubbornness that quickly melted to naked relief at being allowed contact no matter how small.
Tony reached for that connection with a hesitancy, conveying the message of 'are you there?' Across and the response of 'Yes. And I'm not leaving.' Was so familiar he felt an incredulous laugh escape him as he tugged on the connection, asking for his soulmate to come to him.
Bucky immediately tensed up, a snarl already pointed to where Steve appeared by the time he made it there, Tony just sent a reassurance through the bond to him, hoping that the soldier wouldn't block Steve from coming to them when he fully opened his walls for the first time in years and asked for both his soulmates to please be here.
It took a few tense moments but eventually Bucky loosened his hold and shuffled over slightly so Steve had room to join.
As Tony was wrapped up in the comfort of his soulmates and as their bond hummed and solidified between them, bringing a strong sense of comfort, happiness, peace and wholeness he finally understood. His soulmates hadn't been purposefully ignoring him. They hadn't been able to respond to him.
And that realisation and the feeling of his soulmates wrapped around him, desperately conveying how much they wanted to stay and be here quieted his insecurities down enough that he could believe it for the time being. They would come back, of course but Tony had faith for the first time ever that his soulmates would help him through. He had faith that somehow, someway things would end up okay. Not today. Not tomorrow, maybe not even for months or years. But eventually they would all be okay.
It didn't feel that impossible to get past what happened in the bunker in Siberia when he had both soulmates wrapped around him, ready and fully willing to help him through it.