The battle was over. Doombots lay strewn about, their severed wires shorting and sparking before dying permanently. The skirmish had been a fierce one, but in the end the Avengers had out victorious.

"Is everyone alright?" Steve questioned as the other five came together in the midst of the carnage.

Slowly, affirmatives came from everyone- except Stark.

Steve scowled at the place where the Iron Man suit hovered a few feet off the ground and to the left of the rest of them. "Tony, stop talking to Pepper and report."

It wasn't a common occurrence for him to call her in the middle of a fight, especially not one this close, but when else did Tony ever not make a smart remark for over half-an-hour? He hadn't spoken since the first half of the fight.

"Tony!" Steve snapped again, all of them growing annoyed.

Suddenly, the suit landed on the ground with a thud and folded itself back, releasing its occupant. Only Tony didn't stride out arrogantly with a retort- he fell flat on his face without even a token resistance to break the fall.

Immediately they all rushed forward, Steve rolling him over and Natasha checking for life signs. She looked up at him wearily while Banner stood off to the side, trying not to Hulk out again.

"He's dead."

"He has been for approximately thirty-seven minutes," Jarvis suddenly supplied, speaking from the suit.

Steve's head jerked up, stunned. "What? But-"

"Sir had a protocol built into both I and his suit that if he should be mortally injured or die during battle, the suit would continue to fight and assist you."

They all just stared, stunned.

"But why didn't you call medical?" Clint demanded. "Maybe-"

"He overrode my normal emergency protocols," Jarvis said softly. "His exact words were-" the robotic voice was exchanged for Tony's recorded one, "'Too late for me now, J. Make sure the rest of them survive this.'"

Steve swallowed hard. "I. . . suppose we should get his body back to the Tower."

"He left a recording for you all, if you would like me to play it," Jarvis suddenly supplied.

Steve looked up at the empty suit automatically and then nodded. "Yes, thank you."

There was a rush of static, and then Tony's voice, sounding wrong through the suit, started talking. "Hey everyone. If you're hearing this, then I suppose I'm already dead." There was a pause. "Yeah, okay, I couldn't help myself." A sigh. "I suck at this," he muttered. "Okay, uh, well. . . yeah. I'm dead. About time too, really, if you think about it. I have a very detailed will made out, all notarized and everything. Jarvis can tell you where to find it. The company, of course, is Pepper's, but I left the Tower to you, Steve. I want it to stay the Avengers', if that's what the rest of you want.

"I have a little villa on an island that shall remained unnamed and is not specified in my will. I changed the deed so that it now belongs to Bruce months ago. Jarvis can fill you in the details, buddy. It's completely off Shield's radar, and he'll make sure it stays that way. Jarvis himself is there, but he can remove himself if you don't want the company. Uh. . . speaking of Jarvis, I'd appreciate it if the rest of you left him alone. He's taken care of me for most of my life, and I think he could do the same for the rest of you, if you let him. Also, he's authorised to fly my suits, so you don't have to compensate for me in battle. He'll probably be smarter about it than I was, honestly.

"Um. . . what else? Nothing much I guess. There are a few projects in my lab for an upgraded version of Clint's bow, but I've no idea when this is gonna kick into place, so I might be finished with it before any of you ever hear this. Most of the details for everything are in my will.

"So that takes care of the practical then." There was a rather long pause. "Listen, I. . . . I never had much of a family growing up. Never had anyone who gave a shit about me. So. . . thank you.

"Oh, and one more thing- don't tell Pepper about this message. Or about the fact that I overrode Jarvis' emergency medical protocols. She'll be pissed at me, and I wouldn't put it past her to haul my ass back from the dead to give me a talking to.

"I think that's it. Hey, Jarvis, buddy? Cut the recording, and hook it to my Avalon Protocol."

The recording stopped.

A/N: I posted this on tumblr a while back for something that knightinironarmor said that popped up on my dash, and I figured I would move it over here.

You can find me on tumblr at- .com

Thanks for reading!