Author's Notes: This is the last chapter! Check out my profile for more Avengers stories (they're complete): "Wires," "Lab Rats," and "Salvage."

Your reviews are very much appreciated! Keep them coming!

The Hydra Games

PenPatronus

Chapter 24

The SHIELD Games

Five times that Tony woke up, and the time he finally stayed awake:

1.

Tony's body was numb – so numb that he wasn't quite convinced that he was in it. His brain told his fingers to move but nothing could prove or disprove that they did. The Helicarrier infirmary was so crowded that they didn't bother to put up partitions between the beds. When Tony woke from his medically induced coma he saw Bruce asleep in the bed on his left and Steve on his right. Clint and Natasha were there, and Thor, also lying unconscious, completed the circle.

Tony tried to take a deep breath but it felt like his lungs had been skewered by porcupine quills. His panic multiplied when he felt his heart pounding. Nearby alarms suddenly wailed. Red lights blinked and the overhead lights flickered to life. Every other pair of eyes in the room opened just as Tony's closed.

2.

The second time he woke up he found a strawberry-blonde head face down on the blanket and five petite fingers clutching his hand. Except for that hand, his body was still numb. The world was in that hand – all of its warmth and reassurance and love. Pepper was somehow even more beautiful when she was asleep. Tony loved seeing her without makeup. The mask gone, stress lines showing her wisdom… The real Pepper. The Pepper only he had the privilege to see. And a true privilege it was.

Tony squeezed her hand with all of his strength. Literally all of it, because he passed out a moment later, right before Pepper's blonde eyelashes fluttered open.

3.

A distant voice said his name. Bruce. Tony swam towards him. Tried to push the darkness behind. Another voice – a rumble of one. Thor. Tony knew that he was safe with those voices. He just had to get to them.

"I do not understand," Thor was saying near Tony's right ear. "Taking a heart from one man's chest and putting it into another's… What magic do you use?"

Bruce was near his left ear. "It wasn't a complete heart transplant," the doctor said. "They transferred some muscle tissue and a couple valves. Think of Tony's heart as a leaky pipe. The leaks needed plugged, but the whole pipe didn't need replaced."

"Incredible." Tony felt fabric against his right shoulder as Thor shifted. "The heart they culled… It was a dead man's?"

"A healthy dead man's heart," said Bruce. "The same man who nearly killed you on that roof. Clint and Tasha overpowered him in the Quinjet and it turns out that he and Stark are a good match." A beat of silence. "Not a match match," Bruce clarified, sort of. "I mean their blood types, the diameter of their heart valves, those sorts of things."

Tony imagined the look on Thor's face and he chuckled. That chuckle turned into a gasp, and then a cough. Tony's eyes flew wide open and he was briefly blinded by the light in the room. He tried to summon the word "water" but only got out the first syllable. It was enough, though. Bruce put a tiny ice cube between his lip and his front teeth. "Shhhh, Tony, you're ok," he whispered, body and voice trembling. Stark only saw the underside of Bruce's neck and chin for a full minute as the doctor examined the screens above his head. "Get a doctor," Bruce hissed at Thor. "Tell them his blood pressure is spiking."

Thor stampeded away. Bruce held up a second ice cube and Tony nodded. His mind started to clear. Questions in his head began to become coherent and after a few moments he croaked, "It worked." Bruce cocked his eyebrows – the muscles at least. The hair was singed away. "Killed the hydra…"

"Yes, you killed the hydra." Bruce didn't even pretend to be grateful for it. "And you killed yourself."

"Had to," Tony whispered. He reached up and hooked a finger on Bruce's collar. "Damn thing ate my best friend."

Movement. Strangers hovered around him. Buttons and needles were pushed and he fell asleep again.

4.

The Helicarrier was the size of a small island, but Tony could still feel the ocean waves through it. They were on the water, and there was all-natural sunlight coming through a nearby window, and three men sitting in chairs around his bed. "He was the most egotistical, self-centered, narcissistic son of a bitch I ever met," Rhodes was saying. "After my first meeting with him as a liaison I begged my superiors to transfer me someplace, anyplace else."

Steve's bare chest was bandaged and his right leg was in a cast. He folded his hands in his lap and cocked his head at Rhodey. "They wouldn't let you leave?" he guessed.

"He wouldn't let me leave," Rhodes said, pointing at Stark. "Told my boss he wouldn't work with anyone else."

Clint crossed his boots on top of the bed. Half of his head was bandaged and his left eye was swollen shut. "So he liked you but you hated him?"

"No, we hated each other. Tony said he was sick of "yes" men. Said I was the only one who called him on his bullshit, didn't put up with that god complex he had."

"Had?" Clint snorted. He held up his palms as if in surrender. "Not that I'm complaining."

Rhodes smiled. "He was worse back then. And then he went into that cave… Came out a new man. A man I respect. A man I'm proud of."

"Thanks, pal." Stark wasn't sure if it was a thought or actual speech.

5.

Some part of him was thrashing but he didn't know if it was his body or his mind. Static in his head. Fever behind his eyes. Thunderous. There was no other description for it. It was loud, but soothing, tempting. It promised peace if he would only give himself to it. One voice finally broke through, steady and strong. "This is the tipping point, Tony. This is the part where you fight." A calloused hand touched his cheek and a cool washcloth was draped across his forehead. "I know it hurts. I've been there. I know, I know."

"What—" Tony whispered. What hurt made itself known then. Shards of glass in his chest. His heart was a snow globe of sharp debris and the whole world was shaking it. His eyes flew open and searched, wildly, for help. "Hurts," he gasped. His own fingers clawed at his chest before strong hands grabbed them. "Too much…"

Natasha's almond eyes hovered inches from his. "You just have to get through this night," she told him. "I've seen nights like this destroy a man but you're strong, Tony. And we're with you. We'll be with you through all of this."

Natasha stepped back. Tony saw that he was surrounded. Natasha, Bruce, Steve, Clint, Rhodey, Thor, and Fury stood vigilantly around his bed. Tony sensed this chapter of his story building towards a climax. Building towards life or death. Either way, his family was there.

6.

He woke up someplace else. Some place new. A bedroom that smelled like freshly mown grass and had birds chirping at dawn. A tall dark-haired man in a white lab coat stood over him with his face blocked by a transparent clipboard. At first he thought it was Bruce but the body shape was all wrong. Stark cleared his throat and the clipboard swung like a window on a hinge. "Ah, there you are, Dr. Stark," the man said with a gravelly voice. "Your teammates will be relieved to know you're awake."

The world had more color, somehow. Or perhaps he was just lucid enough to see it again. Tony was able to sit up without thinking about it. Without fighting for it. "Who are you?"

"Neuroscientist. Here to make sure your nerve endings aren't permanently damaged by your recent adventures."

"Interesting surname. Polish?"

The doctor smiled patiently. "Sarcasm is a good sign, Dr. Stark. Captain Rogers will be pleased." As the man moved to the wooden door, Tony asked again for his name. "Stephen," he said. "Call me Stephen. Or Doctor Strange."

A bleary, sleep-eyed Rogers ran into the room less than a minute later. Steve knelt beside the twin bed so that he could see up into Tony's eyes. "You look better," he said. "I thought… I wasn't sure if you'd…" Emotion made his face twitch and his eyes fill.

Tony smiled. "Did you miss me, Cap?"

Steve returned the smile. "I was awake this time." He continued when Tony raised his eyebrows. "I was awake this time you saved my life. Banner mentioned that you saved me a couple times during the Hydra Games but I was always unconscious." Steve swallowed and whispered. "This time I was awake." He took Tony's pale hand in both of his and flattened it against his chest. "I'm glad," he admitted. "So glad you're ok."

Tony had to undercut the drama with a snort. "The team would've been just fine without me."

"Maybe we would've continued," said Steve. "But if we lost you, Tony, we wouldn't be fine." Steve hesitated, then whispered, "I wouldn't be."

Tony's bottom lip trembled for half a moment. "We have a good team, Steve. I'm proud of us." Rogers nodded in agreement. "But," said Tony, "let's never ever do those games again."

Three Months Later

"Here we go again," Tony sighed.

"Oh my god," Clint gasped. "Shit, Fury, you really are trying to kill us this time."

"This is not what I signed up for," said Sam Wilson.

"I'm too old for this," said Rhodes.

"Is it the shield games or the S.H.I.E.L.D. games?" Natasha wondered.

"Yes," Nick Fury said with a hint of a smirk.

It was a sunny day in upstate New York. Fury, Hill, Coulson, and The Avengers stood together on the grassy green plateau above a round valley. From their bird's eye view, the obstacle course below did sort of resemble Cap's shield. There were three concentric circles. The ground on the outer layer was dyed red, the next white, and then red again. The central blue circle had a white star in it and at the center of the star was a bell. First one to the bell, wins. Of course, that first one had to go through three layers of obstacles, each one harder than the previous.

Thor leaned down to Romanoff. "I do not understand," he whispered. "Are the red and yellow spheres in that first ditch dangerous? Incendiary, perhaps?"

Natasha squinted. Her spy's eyes took in every angle, every shortcut, every safe passage through the game. "It's not the ball pit that worries me," she said with a frown. "Lassoing the antlers on that Loki statue with a hula-hoop… That'll slow me down."

"Are the big rubber tires meant to be thrown?"

"Nah. Just crawl through them. If you can fit."

"Is that a watermelon in the pool?" Steve blocked the sun from his eyes. "What do we have to do – just get it through that basketball hoop on the other side?"

"It's harder than it looks," Hill warned. "The watermelon is greased with lard. Makes it impossibly slippery. Didn't you play that game when you were a kid?"

"Might be able to skewer it with those candy canes from the life-size Candyland game," said Bruce.

"That's cheating," said Phil.

"So I can't take the pillowcase with me after the sack race?" asked Steve.

"Can we at least use the pool noodles after we hurdle them?" Bruce wondered. "Not because I need to float. I just want to use them to hit Tony in the pool."

"I'm first in line," said Stark, muscling his way to the starting point. He gently tapped his chest. "Still healing, here. I get a handicap." When everyone shared smiles, and no one argued, Tony adjusted his swimming trunks, bent his knees, and took a sprinter's stance. "One two three – go!" he shouted. Tony ran ten steps, leapt forward, landed on his belly, and sped, laughing, down a slip n' slide.

The End