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We were born to break the doors down,
Fight until the end.
It’s something that’s inside of us,
It’s how we’ve always been (yeah)
Warrior-rior-rior, warrior-rior.
Warrior-rior-rior, warrior-rior.
Toni pushed herself up, metal sharp against her hands. The suit was worn, breaking down around her. There was no way around it: she was going to lose; they were going to lose. Thanos stood at the height of his power, a new found army at his beck and call. New York barely stood around them, the city-goers long gone.
The collapse had come slowly and harshly; from the inside out. Someone had swayed to his side, letting him in the front door. Just wait until she got her hands on that dumbfuck.
If only that was her only problem. But Thanos knew how to get under her skin: he saw into her soul. Every dream, every fear, every memory that plagued her mind were laid out before him. Thanos knew how to make Toni scream, down to her knees as she split at the seams. It was like Obi all over again -- only worse.
This time she wouldn't be the only one fall.
She closed her eyes as her father walked toward her: scowl in place, stale whiskey in the air and cigar in the hand.
“Look at you, Natasha.” He snapped, “fucking failure, always a fucking failure. If only I had a son. He wouldn't have let this happen.” Howard swept open his arm, “instead, look at this! Look what you did--”
“Iron Woman, report!” Steve’s voice bit into her, crackling through the static of the speakers in the helmet. “Toni! He’s got some…”
He broke off completely and was replaced, momentary by Coulson, “they’re feeding on fear, causing them to manifest into nightmares, bad memories -- real and not.”
“--left the company to you. You’re a disgrace to the Stark name. Are you listening to me? Natasha! I’m speaking to y--”
“Shut up!” She screamed, lunging to her feet. Around her, pieces of the scattered suits rolled on the ground. Toni felt the surge. “Shut up, dad! Because I did amazing things with the company, I made more money than you ever did. Stark is the biggest name worldwide. I might have helped make this mess,” she flung her hand out; a gauntlet came speeding toward and slammed onto the broken one that still clung to her arm, “but you better believe I’m going to help clean it up.”
Howard flickered, revealing one of the gray demons that followed Thanos’. His face contorted, fangs bared between his lips, “how dare you speak to your father that way. I've done so much for this world, for you ...and you spat on it all.”
Toni stepped forward, more pieces of the different suits coming to meddle with the damaged metal already encasing her. “You might have given this world a lot of things, dad, but I gave them something else. I gave them a warrior.”
She held up her hand as the holograms in the helmet came back up and JARVIS came back online: “Suit is at 59%, madame.”
“Perfect.” Toni’s lips curled as Howard’s form folded into the demon and fell back.