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Maria looked at her son after he had been cleaned up by the nurses, stars speckled across his face as small as freckles. "Should we notify your husband of the birth Mrs Stark?" She couldn't take her eyes of her son, his dark hair making the little white stars sprinkled across his face even more prominent. She shook her head, a small pang in her heart that Howard wasn’t there to see his new son, "No he's in the arctic at the moment, you won't be able to reach him, just leave him a voicemail. Has his mark been registered?" The nurse quickly nodded and Maria spoke softly into her son's ear, as she ran her fingers through her son’s hair "You have been gifted to me from the universe, my cosmic child". One of the younger nurses who seemingly didn’t care that it wasn’t polite to comment on other people’s soul marks, gestured to Tony’s soul mark and said softly so not to wake the baby “You have a gift from the universe there, Mrs Stark.” Maria Stark gazed down at the baby that was cradled in her arms, the universe painted across his cheeks and just nodded, tears filling her eyes.Maria took the first picture of her son, when he was 3 months old and Howard was still in the Arctic, he had filled the nursery with everything needed for a baby over the phone, and had said to Maria “I’m proud of you Mar, I love you but I have to go, congratulations on our son.” 3 months had passed when Maria had finally decided that Howard at least needed to see his son before he came home, So Maria gave Tony a little photoshoot, putting him in little suits and T-shirts that said ‘My little star’ and sent them express to Howard. What Maria didn’t expect however, was the phone call from Howard two days later and Howard was panicked “Maria, I’m sending you make-up supplies, you need to start covering up Tony’s soul mark, I know who his soulmate is.”Maria was stunned and then near enough screamed down the phone in excitement down the phone, maybe Tony could have one of those childhood soulmates where they grow up and fall in love through ages “Who?!” and there was a silence at the other end of the phone and Howards voice would echo in Maria’s ears for years after “Bucky Barnes.” Maria turned her head and saw her little boy playing with a rocket and suddenly she saw a boy, who’s soulmate was dead, and tears filled her eyes. From then on, space wasn’t mentioned, the galaxy room that Maria had lovingly got painted when she saw her son’s soul mark, had been painted over and costume makeup was painted on Tony’s face because the media would have a field day if they saw that the Stark heir was marked to a dead man who would only meet his soulmate in the afterlife.It started to rip and shred at Maria that her son was fated to a dead man, she couldn’t sleep she couldn’t eat, she almost wasn’t living and only was able to make basic choices for Tony until Howard called one day and said “Maria, I love you and when I find Steve it will all be better I swear, go to the doctor see what they say, I’ll be home soon I swear.”Tony was five when Maria began to take pills with her dinner, constantly scratching at the gears that littered her arms which matched Howard’s. She’d smile at Tony but it would never reach her eyes, seeing a smudge of makeup which would peak through the makeup smeared across Tony’s cheeks. She’d take two or three at dinner, just her and Tony on a table that could fit at least 30 on, the empty chair at the other end of the table constantly, both her and Tony had lost their soulmates in their own way, Tony’s had died and her soulmate loved a dead man. So her doctor prescribed her with pills to let her sleep and she began to paint the gears on her arm with the same makeup that she painted Tony’s face with. Tony would giggle, “We match now mom!” and Maria would paint a smile on her face that was as fake as clear skin she pretended Tony had on his face “We sure do Anthony.”Tony was 16 and in MIT surrounded by pizza boxes and beer cans when he received a phone call from his father saying Maria had overdosed again for the third time “Anthony, I can’t get back until next week will you go to the house and see if she needs anything” and even though Tony hadn’t even said anything Howard then raised his voice and growled “and for god’s sake try and cover your face from the media we don’t need this shit coming out as well.” Howard hung up, the dial tone echoing in Tony’s ear and Tony walked up to the mirror; the universe still scattered amongst his cheeks and picked up the paint and threw it against the wall. “So what if I’m fated to a dead man Dummy?” Tony said to the robot that was charging in the corner of his room “Why should I have to cover myself up? cover my soul up for the sake of other people, it’s so fucking unfair.” As he mumbled he picked up the makeup, plastered it all over his face and went over to the house.He opened the door and turned into the main front room, used for guests, and Tony had never been allowed in there as a child ‘To much in there for you to break Anthony’ Maria would say and had a huge portrait of Maria and Howard on their wedding day, the gears on both of their arms out proud, Maria’s smile beaming through the picture her stomach barely showing, only slightly bulging from the baby that was inside of her. Beneath the floor length portrait sat Maria, fully made up, her hair tied up in a tight bun and her eyes glazed over, looking at her arm, the gears faded from years of being scratched and painted over. “Mom?” Tony whispered and knelt next to Maria when he got no response and lightly touched her shoulder which seemed to jolt her out of a dream, but from the glaze in her eyes and the genuine smile on her face, Tony knew she was still very out of it. “Hello my cosmic boy, my universe, why have you got that stuff on your face for? You know you should be proud.” Maria licked her thumb and began to rub away at Tony’s face “You see Anthony, your soulmate is gone, but it doesn’t mean you can’t find love, I mean I am your father’s soulmate” Maria gestured to herself wildly “and your father has been in love with a dead man ever since I met him.” Tears began to fill her eyes, her hands shaking and Tony could do nothing and so he pulled his mom into his arms and couldn’t think of anything to say other than “I love you mom. I’m sorry Dad is like this, I’m sorry.” They sat in that cold living room until Maria fell asleep and Tony half-carried half dragged her to her room, and took the pills that were littered on her desk next to a portrait of Tony looking into a telescope, and flushed them down the toilet. Tony tucked Maria in, flicked off the light and stared into the dark room and whispered “Goodnight, mom.”
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Tony left Howard a voicemail in the morning “Howard” Tony started as he looked at the whiteboard which had different equations for different projects scribbled on it with permanent marker, which was pinned to the wall, Tony absentmindedly corrected one of the equations whilst continuing, “I put mom to bed last night, took all the pills from her bedroom and told Jarvis to check in on her in the morning and before you ask, yes I covered myself up, don’t worry no one knows about your son’s dirty secret. Check in on her Howard, she knows she doesn’t mean anything to you and before you try and lie, you and I both know that’s true but the least you could do is call her occasionally. Bye”. Tony looked at his schedule that was slightly scrunched up and coffee stained and saw he had two lectures today in the morning, and he sighed and grabbed the make-up to cover up his bared soul and begun his day. He rolled down the blinds, drew the curtains and had a shower, scrubbing every part of his body that had touched his mom the night before. He dressed, and sat in front of the mirror, and grabbed his brushes and began painting over his soul once more.Tony met Rhodey that day in advanced aero engineering “Hi, I’m James and you have a smudge of oil right across your nose” after James had gestured at Tony’s face, Tony had quickly ran to the bathroom and came back with his face fully cleaned and then painted on once more, Tony said “What’s your surname James?” Rhodey answered confusedly “Rhodes?” “Okay, well I’m going to call you Rhodey, I like the name Rhodey, better than James, James is too boring, Too many James’s I think -----“Tony kept talking, his hand gestures getting more and more wild as he continued and Rhodey’s eyes widened and a little smile appeared on his face. Rhodey interrupted Tony by blurting out “Did you make that robot?” Rhodey gestured to the robot which trailed after tony, four little wheels attached to a slab of metal, that had a large claw attached. A coffee held tightly in the robots claw and at the second Rhodey pointed at the robot, the robot dropped the coffee, and waved the claw, almost as if the robot was excited Rhodey noted, but that was impossible, because that level of artificial intelligence hadn’t even begun to be made yet. “Dummy, am I really going to give you lessons on when to keep a hold of things again? I thought we had got past that in your coding” Tony pouted as he went into his bag, ripped a few pages which had scribbled maths sums all over them and began to mop up the coffee all over the floor. The man looked up at Rhodey “But yeah he’s mine, he’s like my baby, I worked out his coding after I’d been awake for 3 days, and had nothing but coffee and energy drinks in me, so if you want to create a mess like him, who drops coffee everywhere then that’s the recipe” Tony smiled, the coffee leaving the paper and Tony’s hands brown. “Anyway” Tony wiped his hands on his jeans “Pleased to meet you Rhodey” and Rhodey couldn’t help but smile back “Pleased to meet you Tony”.They were inseparable ever since, one couldn’t be seen without the other and so when the news began to speculate that the trainee air force pilot and the next CEO of a weapons empire were soulmates, everyone believed it. Tony had to make a statement on CNN after they had tracked down Rhodey’s parents and it had been aired consistently around the world. “James Rhodes is not my soulmate, so I would hope that the media and public would give him and his family the respect that they deserve by letting them live the private life that they deserve, thank you.” The quote had been printed in every newspaper article and Rhodey and Tony would eat their dinner of speculative magazines claiming Tony was lying. Tony would apologise everytime they found Rhodey's family and plastered their faces all over the news, but Rhodey didn't care in the slightest. He had explained how much Tony meant, to his family and they were so smitten with him, that they didn't care The house grew more tidy and Rhodey became a permanent fixture in the apartment. He would chase after dummy, clean up after an all-nighter, and listen to Tony’s theories late into the night. So it made sense that the first person to see Tony’s mark was Rhodey, and when he saw the mark he couldn’t help but stare because it was all over Tony’s face, the darkness of space and the brightness of the solar system was mapped on Tony’s cheeks and the bridge of his nose, was so accurate that Rhodey felt as if he was looking at a map of the stars. “Tony” Rhodey whispered “Your soul mark…” and Tony who had grown so comfortable around Rhodey hadn’t even thought about covering up around him, froze and looked in Rhodey’s eyes, noticing the gears scattered down Rhodey’s neck, and fear struck once more in Tony’s heart. ‘What if Rhodey was all this time, part of the press and are going to expose me? Dad is going to kill me’ Tony thought. “Tony it’s incredible, its matches our solar system exactly, that’s incredible” Rhodey said with his eyes lit with wonder “you are so lucky Tony, that’s a beautiful mark to have.” Tony coughed and smiled at him, “Well I’m not as cool as the android you are going to fall in love with” Rhodey snorted and that was that. They didn’t discuss who they had as soulmates until years later, when the heat of the desert baked on their backs as they hugged for the first time after months of torture.
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When Tony announced he was iron man to the world, he had almost bared his entire soul. Who he was now, in his mind was the solid metal armour. He didn’t want to hide more than he already had to from the media. He was already petrified that his desert torturers would spill the secret which he has concealed for so long, they called him galaxy boy as they dunked his head in the ice-cold water again, the laughs echoing in his ears as he was forcibly dunked into the abyss again. When Rhodey saw Tony almost delirious from heat exhaustion and the galaxies smeared over his face, Tony buried his face in Rhodey’s shoulder and Rhodey kept him there until he could be moved into a car with tinted windows.“I am Iron man” Tony said, the words echoing all around the hall and there was a brief silence where mouths were dropped and then the clicking and the flashing started and later Tony would swear he could see those flashes in the back of his eyes for weeks afterwards. However, he wouldn’t complain because the lights of the media drew away from what had happened in Afghanistan. For a moment, he could forget what had happened, his face was plastered all over the news as a hero, as someone who didn’t just manufacture weapons but a saviour of lives.“Breaking news! Iron Man has been revealed! the masked hero who has been putting a severe dent in the ten rings group, who are a leading terrorist group stationed in Afghanistan from decimating civilians who are trying to flee from war. Tony Stark announced in his press conference marking his return from the war-torn country, that he in fact is the hero saving millions now to Carl with the sport…”“@starkkill: He could be the president of the universe, he’s still a merchant of death idec”“@JenHam: if anyone could save the world should it really be a man who doesn’t even have a soulmate to ground him just saying :/”“@Walhuji: wow Tony Stark using his money for the greater good who’d have thought”Within the first couple of days, Tony couldn’t escape the media buzz and he enjoyed it, it kept him busy it kept his hands steady and his smile only half fake. Him, dashing around in his fast cars trying to avoid the media became his escape and alcohol became his night nurse. Before Ten rings, it was a glass before bed and now it was at least 8. Rhodey would call, and Tony had only answered the once, he had woken up in darkness, his hands shaking and his heart pumping faster and faster every second and on the light up display he had seen Rhodey calling and before the rational side of his brain could stop him, he answered and almost in tears said “Hey, honey bear” and Rhodey had booked Tony in for some group sessions with this guy called Sam. “He’s good Tony, he’s lost and fought so he’s get it.”Tony never went. Rhodey only found out when when Tony took a piss in his iron man suit on his birthday and had a bottle of brandy in his arms, and Rhodey kindly said “Shall I call Sam?” and Tony started laughing his hand rubbing at the makeup on his face smudges of blue and purple beginning to seep through. “You really think” Tony hiccupped “That if I was in therapy I would look like this?” Some blue Tetris-like lines peeking through on Tony’s neck and the glazed look in his eyes, triggered Rhodey to do something his Mama told him never to do. He stole. He stole the chrome suit and flew away, because how was he supposed to fix something which was shattered and seemingly beyond repair?
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Steve couldn’t stop looking at Tony, the battle was over and they were sitting in a restaurant eating shawarma and he could not stop looking. Tony was slumped over the table and his hair was a birds nest but what had made Steve so fixated was Tony’s face and it was not the bruises or the cuts but the slowly flaking makeup and the blue hues that began to peak through. Most soul marks were subtle, scattered across the body that if people did not look closely could be mistaken as normal tattoos but Tony’s soul mark reminded him of someone who had been dead for so long.
Tony knew the look and he knew that Steve was starting to put the pieces together as grief began to drape over Steve’s face and Tony could almost feel the memories that were being dragged from the deepest ebs of Steve’s consciousness.
“Tony… your soul mark?”
Tony sighed and began to slowly rub at his face and more and more of the nebula scattered across his cheeks and nose began to appear and the other avengers who had their eyes elsewhere all turned towards him.
“I already know Steve, I accepted my fate.
I know he’s dead”
Steve winced as the last word cut him but there was no time for Tony to care about Steve’s feelings as the realization hit that he needed to check on Maria, with Tony wiggling his hands in his pocket to get his phone out and quickly excusing himself from the table.
The phone’s dial tone lasted for all too long before the soft voice of his mother almost serenaded him.
“Anthony, My universe. You are alive”
A smile began to creep across Tony’s face before the realisation came that her voice was slightly slurred.
The pills.
“Maria, Did you use today?”
“How many times Anthony? Do not call me Maria, I am your mother for heaven's sake.”
Tony sighed and quickly left the restaurant before any of the super hearing heroes could eavesdrop on Tony’s life, he could already see Steve’s eyebrows start to lift.
“Mother do not avoid the question”
“Anthony, it was the end of the world. I just wanted to be happy.”
Tony looked up at the sky and didn’t bother to respond and just hung up and switched off his phone. The echo of the cold and dark of space still loomed all around him, the nebula had looked so much prettier on his skin. In reality space was cold and unaccepting and the nebula that he and Bucky shared was much more inviting.
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Space was cold, Tony thought it would be warmer thinking that his mark would make the universe sing alongside him and welcome him amongst the stars instead it was the opposite. The cold and the silence was deafening, and this echoed throughout his mind and seeped through every thought, every invention, and every meeting that was held. Tony began to fear the conversations that came from everyone every day.“What was it like in space?”“Was it cold?”“Did you see the alien ship, Mr. Stark?”The shaking of his hands became first persistent and then an everyday occurrence, his welding became shoddier and his coffee intake increased and he couldn’t sleep. Looking at his face became another nightmare - and the space scattered across his face became a constant reminder of what he was desperately trying to avoid. The grief of Bucky and the catalytic fear was building more and more every day and so Tony started to build. “Protection Rhodes, the world needs saving”Tony spoke his voice audibly trembling, as his hands picked up the welder and the sparks were flying. The suits would do so well at what would ever come next, the aliens or the wars they would help - Tony would help.“Tony… you aren’t the only hero now. Have you spoken to Steve?” Tony laughed putting the welding equipment down and lifting his helmet to scratch at his beard.“Steve can’t look at me Rhodes, all he sees is his dead best friend and he can’t stop staring at my fucking face” In theory Tony could understand, Steve had looked at his marks for most of his life and had seen his best friend, his whole support system wrapped up in one person but in practice, it pissed Tony off his face was not an album of the past, Tony’s face was a reminder to himself and everyone around him that his soulmate his person was dead and every soulful look that Steve sent his way was more and more of a reminder of this. “Tony” Rhodey said irately and Tony’s eyes began to roll the lecture at this point was so unwelcoming that before Rhodey could continue he waved at Jarvis to disconnect the call. Tony looked toward the glass door and his faint reflection, the smudges of oil making the mark even more prominent his hands reaching for the mark subconsciously, wondering what life would have been like if Bucky was here if he’d made it through the war, would he have taken the man for walks waiting for him to shuffle on a walking stick as he would have been so old? Would Tony have even been happy with that being his life? Tony glanced down at the metal suit that had just begun to take shape and the notification that the sun was beginning to rise and decided to try and sleep.Without wiping his face he walked to the sofa and grabbed the blanket that had been discarded to the floor last night and curled up as tightly as possible, squeezing his eyes shut and praying for a dreamless sleep, tossing and turning only a little before his brain granted his wish for him.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------It was quiet in Tony’s dreamscape and for once it was the comforting kind. Tony was sitting in Jarvis’s arm chair, feet resting by the fire with an engineering book in his lap and a grin on his face. This was a blessing and Tony’s eyes glanced over the room, softening as he looked over the books and the glow of the fire began to warm every part of his being but all of this warm fuzziness startled and came to a quick and sharp stop when in the corner of the room was a man cloaked in black hunched over and slightly rocking. With a tilt of his head and the weird absence of fear which had begun to impact every part of his life, he got out of his chair walking over to the man and without hesitation he lightly touched the man’s face and moved the man’s face towards the light, a smile quickly spreading at what he saw, stars, colours, a whole nebula.The man’s face was blank and he was not seeing Tony, it was as if the man’s mind was a blank canvas, the man was not processing anything and he had no idea where he was but Tony in this dreamland was the most at peace he had ever been, Tony’s hands tracing the matching mark on the mans face and the crescendo of fear which had been racing through his blood stream had dissipated filled with colour light and the heat of the stars.
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Tony awoke from his sleep more rested than he had ever been, there were no cravings for the bottle of whiskey on the tableside, no urge to slip into the next stranger's bed, just a blanket of peace and it wasn’t even the most restful dream.
Tony had a soulmate dream, it was noted that when your soulmate was arriving even into the very far reaches of your life that a dream would appear of the person's soulmate, an almost whisper saying, they were here and everything was about to get so much better but it didn't make sense. Bucky was dead.
Throughout the day the dream plagued him and Tony on more than one occasion found himself lost, fixated on the dream from the night before, it was the most peaceful he had felt and Tony had almost felt his soul searching for that feeling again - the almost bliss.
The dream never came back and new ones never came. It was almost as if in that moment someone had broken through the darkness to send a fraction of light into his world and the space which had become slightly comforting due to the marks on Bucky’s face had slowly gotten colder and darker once more.
Maria died on a cold Tuesday morning and Tony could feel the darkness at the edges of his mind, he donated every gift and every food parcel as quickly as he received. The law office was more of the same and the lawyer shook Tony’s hand and mentioned that he had known his father for many years and it was a pleasure for him to help his son through this difficult time. There was no mention of his mother apart from her funeral wishes and the lawyer wanted to seem to only talk about his father with a clench of his fists and a second of teeth clenching he made his farewells and could only think he would be happy to never hear his fathers name again.
The darkness truly crept in at Maria’s funeral and the almost forced grief that took over and was almost swallowing him up. Tony felt disgusted as he was supposed to mourn and sit by his mother's coffin with tears in his eyes, surrounded by the mourning masses but instead all he could do was focus on his dream.
Maria’s funeral was an open casket, it had to be she had written it in her will she had wanted to be the centre of attention at least once in her life. Maria had requested her sleeves rolled up all signs of soul marks of the gears that littered both of her arms were visible to the world as Tony knew that she felt even in the afterlife she had to prove her dedication to the man that was dedicated to the man buried in the ice, that told her to take her pills and shut up on more than one occasion. The flowers sprayed gold almost blending in with the gold of the gears.
A vision of decadence
- Tony had ensured that at least one of his mother’s wishes came true.
The droning of the priest was dulled by promises the universe seemed unwilling to give. Bucky’s silhouette was all he could picture and his mother and her death, her
overdose
, as cruel as it seemed had been pushed to the sidelines and Tony said as much when he was tinkering in the garage to the A. I built into the walls.
“Jarv, I buried my mother today, I shook the hands of diplomats and businessmen who pretended to care about the woman they had met once who remained silent hanging off Howard’s arm and thanked them for coming. I was meant to play a role of a grieving son but all I could think of was my dream and I know hes dead before you say anything but this dream, this one fucking dream I had will not leave me.”
Tony picked up his sledgehammer and eyed the metal which would become his new punching bag and before he could select his next victim Jarvis responded.
“Mr Stark, soulmates are unpredictable and science does not and can argue that science will never understand them but perhaps you could argue that the dream was sent to you to help you cope with your mother’s death. Who’s to say the soulmates of the afterlife cannot send dream’s if needed? Maria would simply say non
preoccuparti and have a drink so Mr Stark who’s to say you cannot follow her advice.”
Tony placed his sledgehammer down and with a muttered thanks left the workshop, walking towards the bar, a whole floor dedicated to the 80’s band posters littered the walls and Tony hated this room, Maria had sketched it out and had scrunched it up and chucked it at Tony when he said for the tenth time that he had flushed her pills.
Unfurling it after she had left to pick up more pills he thought maybe just maybe if he designed her the place of her dreams she could begin to heal and now looking at this room Tony wanted to rip it all down, another one of his failings was plainly visible. Grabbing the first bottle and glass he could he began to pour and at glass number four he checked his phone. The messages of grief he started to scroll past quickly stopped at a message from Steve.
Steve: I am sorry about your mother Tony. At least she is with Howard now.
Tony’s hands began to shake and the darkness settled all around. What the fuck was all this soulmate shit? Tony thought his soulmate was dead and Maria’s heaven was now shared with the person who had arguably killed her; he swiped Steve's message away, he was not even going to acknowledge the man Howard had been obsessed with all that time.
Tony took another drink
Then another,
And another,
Until the darkness embraced him.
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Tony awoke in a pool of his own vomit and regret, his hair was sticking around his face; a mess plain and simple. This was not the first time that he had looked like this, almost matching his mother in action but it was the first time he was purely alone.
Rhodey would often be there, wiping Tony’s face with a cold flannel and running his hands through Tony’s unruly hair. Rhodey was on the other side of the world and had tried to come back to support Tony with the funeral but Tony had declined with a simple “It’s a waste of time Rhodes”.
Tony scooted his way to one of the cabinets to haul himself up and turned back to look at the vomit with disdain and he could almost hear the tuts of his mother from beyond the grave
“Tony think about the hardwood floors” she had said on Tony’s past issues akin to the current one he was facing, gesturing to the puddle with his voice croaking said “Jarv, get Dummy to take care of this would you?” and with a long judging pause later there was a response of “Of course sir”.
The walk to the shower was difficult, the world constantly shook around him but Tony could not deal with the sick feeling that surrounded him and as he walked into the bathroom the shower was turned on automatically and he sat on the floor letting the thundering water wash over him. Tony leant his face on the cool wall and he was slowly dragged back to reality and the shame began to set in, as he had promised he would never do that again.
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College.
The engineering room was quiet and even the MIT students who did not have a life had began to trickle out and by 4am, Tony was left alone to sip at his flask and fiddle with the plan of creating a robot that could help people who couldn’t mobilize as well, it would pick things up for them, clean for them.
Rhodey had heard the plans multiple times and everytime the plan made more and more sense his grin got wider and wider, this would help so many soldiers and air force personnel and Tony was a miracle worker; Rhodey knew he would be able to get this done.
Tony could not get this done, he was going to disappoint everyone because he couldn’t even get this robot to work and the frustration overwhelmed him, gulping the flask instead of sipping and a warm burning sensation overtook him. There was nothing to think about once the drink settled in, he didn’t need to worry about his mother, the fact the robot was failing and his soulmate was gone. The alcohol embraced him.
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A notification appeared as Tony was sitting on the sofa considering whether or not he would allow the spiral to continue and his eyebrows raised as he saw from his phone that shield had fallen and Steve was involved. Shield had been all powerful, all knowing and for it to fall and for it to fall so publicly at the hands of the golden child was unpredictable to say the least. It all made sense a few moments later when the info dump appeared and showed all the hydra documents and the corruption within shield had become very apparent. Deaths of powerful people, alien experiments all exposed for the world to see. Tony tried to reach Steve to see what the hell had happened but it was impossible to get through, his phone was turned off and GPS disabled. Steve had vanished and it looked like he had made half the avengers vanish alongside him.
Tony’s phone rung and as soon as he saw the face of Rhodes appear on screen he answered.
“Tones, have you seen it?”
“Rhodey it would be pretty hard not to have seen it?”
Rhodey let out a deep sigh before responding.
“Nothing is safe anymore man. Did you see the notes on experimental super soldiers? All those poor veterans man, pulled apart at the seams to make the perfect warrior and half of them were from world war two -”
Tony’s hands began to shake, he knew the withdrawals were kicking in so focussed more on the sound of Rhodey’s voice.
“Do you think that’s why Steve did that then? Did he really think he would be there?”
Tony shook his head and sat up from his slouch quick enough that he became dizzy/
“He who Rhodes?”
There was a long pause on the other end of the phone before a response that was almost a whisper.
“Sergeant Barnes Tony.”
Tony’s heart began to race, this was surely all a coincidence, it had to be, there was an incredible amount of studies which disproved the old wives tale that you dreamt of your soulmate and it meant they were on their way to meet you. Bucky was dead, it had been drilled into him by everyone he knew, by the pity in their eyes and their smiles and when Tony’s makeup began to fade and the purple began to seep through everyone’s eyes were drawn to his face like a magnet. A dead soulmate made the soul rot and die, so when a person was born with a soul mate who had already passed, it was as if they had already died. As the words left Rhodey;s mouth it made more and more sense, it was the only reason Steve would do this, but why would he not tell Tony?