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She never wanted to participate in a war, let alone die in it, but she realized what she had to when Doctor Strange looked at her with his index finger raised. They had talked about it before, how there was only one outcome where they won in the fourteen million he had seen. She had to take that opportunity, she had to. After all, dying to save the whole world was a good way to go, right? Dying to save her whole world was a good way to go. Tony would move on without her eventually. The rest of the Avengers would be there for him. And she wouldn’t be alone in the afterlife, Nat was already there, waiting for her. The two best friends would finally be reunited again. But her plans were spoiled by no other than the love of her life, Tony Stark.
Thanos already had the gauntlet on his hand, the power of the stones flowing through his body. She knew what she had to do, she knew her time had come. Running up to the titan, she grabbed the gauntlet and tried to take it off, however, it was an impossible mission. She used her fire powers, burning his upper arm, but Thanos didn’t even budge. When she realized she couldn’t take the gauntlet off, another idea came up on her mind – if she couldn’t take the glove, she was gonna take the stones. While burning him with her right hand, she used the other one to smoothly remove the stones. She knew she couldn’t handle the power of all the stones together, after all, she was just a human being that happened to have fire powers due to her parents manipulating her DNA when she was younger, but that was it. In her own words, she was “nothing special”, and a “lighter could do the same thing as her”. Thanos punched her in the gut, making her hit her head in a rock a few feet away, knocking her out.
Tony came flying to her, and that was when he noticed the stones hidden in her close hand. In a matter of seconds, he made the biggest decision of his life.
“I love you… I will always love you…” he whispered on her ear while he grabbed the stones from her and kissed her lips.
She woke up in time to see Thanos’ army disappearing, much like what happened to her five years ago. She was happy, they had won, and everyone was alive, including her. Maybe Doctor Strange made a mistake and she didn’t have to die to save the world after all.
Getting up to hug Tony, she noticed him sitting with his back against a pile of rubble. The right side of his body was burned. Rhodey was crouching down in front of him, the hand of his iron suit caressing Tony’s head.
“What’s happening?” she asked Steve, who was standing right beside her, tears filling his eyes, “WHAT’S HAPPENING?!”
“I’m sorry…” Cap mumbled, his hand patting her shoulders.
She ran up to where Tony was, only to see him smiling at her, even though his body was minutes away of shutting down forever.
“Tony… Tony…” she put her hands on his cheeks, “it was my turn to play the hero and save the whole world…”
“You know me, I couldn’t let you get the credit” he joked as he coughed, trying to catch his breath. “I love you, I love you…”
“I love you too, Tony.”
She got closer to him and softly kissed his lips one last time before he took his final breath. Hanging to his body, she didn’t want to let go. She couldn’t let him go, she had just got back from being gone after almost five years. Steve was the only one who had enough courage to pull her off Tony’s body. Him and Rhodey tried to soothe her with words, but she couldn’t stop sobbing. She had just lost the love of her life.