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This was Arthur's unbreakable principle.
He could justify to Bucky, "You killed Howard because you were brainwashed."
But he could never, ever say that to Tony.
No matter the reason, for Tony, that man murdered his father, that cold, undeniable fact stood between them all.
Arthur could understand the crushing agony on both sides, but he couldn't take anyone's place. He didn't have the right to intercede for either man. He couldn't die in Bucky's stead because it was Bucky who killed Howard, not Arthur.
When you act, you must bear the consequences. To Tony, that was a natural law… and Bucky, in his own tormented way, had already prepared himself for that reality.
So, the choice lay entirely in Tony's hands.
There wasn't much left for Arthur to do. He had helped Bucky reclaim his true self, and now he intended to step away for a while, to see the world. It felt like the only decent thing to do. Whatever happened next would depend on the decision Bucky made when he returned.
Of course, before that, Tony's inner struggle would be long and bitter. In that war of emotions, Arthur knew he couldn't offer any help.
Still, even as Tony left, he paused at the door and said softly to Arthur:
"Thank you. Hearing you say that… it actually helped a little."
Arthur didn't reply. The sight of Tony's utterly exhausted figure made his heart ache.
"If Howard could see how much pain Tony's going through right now," Arthur murmured to the empty room, "he'd probably want to crawl out of his grave just to punch me in the face, wouldn't he?"
Arthur sighed, lifting his gaze to the ceiling. "But what could I possibly have done differently?"
The true limit of power isn't measured only by what one can accomplish, but by how complete things can be made. And in this impossible matter, Arthur had finally done all he could.
After leaving Arthur, Tony went straight to the lab. The experimental data that had recently energized him now felt utterly meaningless.
He suited up in his armor without a word to Banner and vanished from the Camp Lehigh facility via the teleportation array.
A flash of light, and he was standing in his familiar home workshop.
Stepping onto the circular platform, mechanical arms silently reached out, removing the armor piece by piece until his weary figure was exposed.
He walked to the liquor cabinet, took out a bottle, uncorked it, and poured a glass, but didn't drink.
Holding the cold glass, he stared blankly, his mind racing through countless disjointed images.
The rebellious youth he'd been. His father's deep-seated disappointment. His mother's gentle love that never quite healed the resentment bubbling inside him.
And then, his father's body. Lying right there before him.
He'd stared at it, too young and arrogant to understand the magnitude of what he'd lost. Only years, decades later, did the finality of it crash down: he had lost his father forever.
It wasn't just the death of a man. There was something deeper, a betrayal that had cut into his soul.
That pain… what was it that had truly sustained him through it all?
Tony looked at his reflection in the mirror, silently questioning the man staring back. In the end, he just tugged at the corner of his mouth, offering a helpless, wry smile.
From upstairs, the sound of a door opening. Tony tilted his head and glanced at the security feed, Pepper was back.
No matter how many times he saw her, Tony still thought this woman was absolutely stunning. She looked tired, though. Well, who isn't? Everyone on this planet carried their own share of confusion and pain.
Even someone as strong as Arthur was constantly frowning, weighed down by problems involving two different women.
"Damn old man," Tony thought suddenly, the bizarre idea flashing through his mind. "Could he have done this on purpose? Saw that I was finally in a good mood, so he decided to mess it up by dumping this bad news on me?"
The uncertainty in his eyes deepened. To him, Arthur was an anomaly. He looked younger than Tony, yet possessed a silent, undeniable charisma that drew people in. And that charisma hadn't been there from the start, it was something you discovered slowly, the longer you were around him.
Look at the Superhero Alliance. It began as a joke, with everyone agreeing there'd be no leader. But somehow, everyone ended up just following Arthur's commands.
"Maybe it's because… he's never been wrong?" Tony mused.
He thought about the recent Ego incident. Something happening light-years away in the universe, yet it still managed to get tangled up with Earth. Even when Arthur was out in deep space, he had gathered every bit of intel about it. After his return, Steve and Sharon brought back files that matched Arthur's predictions exactly.
Strange, unexplainable things had happened there. S.H.I.E.L.D. was said to have intervened, but apparently, they hadn't found anything significant. Or perhaps, even if they had, they had no reason to share it with the Superhero Alliance.
"It's still one big mess," Tony muttered, worry creeping in. "The old man's condition isn't good, and S.H.I.E.L.D. still insists we take action? They know we exist. Maybe this is their plan… to push us completely into the open. But then, what should we even do?"
"When did you get back?"
Pepper's voice, quiet and warm, suddenly pulled him out of his spiraling thoughts.
Tony blinked, snapping back to himself, and then, almost instinctively, slapped his own cheek. Your father's killer, that's what this is about! How could he have drifted off into thinking about Arthur's problems again? The man himself wasn't even worried!
He looked at Pepper and asked suddenly, his voice hollow.
"Tell me… what does he, what does Arthur, mean to me?"
Pepper looked at him in surprise. "What kind of question is that all of a sudden? Did something happen?"
"Just answer me, please," Tony said quietly, his face full of confusion.
"Father figure, friend, teacher, brother?" Pepper replied simply. "It's complicated between you two. But I think… he's probably the person you trust most in this world."
Tony fell silent.
"Did you two have some kind of misunderstanding?" Pepper asked softly. "No matter what it is, I think you should believe in him. Even if his actions don't always make sense to you, at the very least, he's the one who cares about you the most."
"Nonsense," Tony interrupted suddenly. "The person I trust most is you. And the one who treats me best… is also you."
Then he pulled Pepper into a tight embrace, so tight that she couldn't see the glimmer of tears gathering at the corners of his eyes.
(End of chapter)