Tony Stark never expected to want to sacrifice himself for anyone, but that was before he found himself standing in front of Death, offering up his own being if only she could promise that Pepper would never be hurt again.

"I want you to take my soul in exchange for Pepper's safety."

She smiled, a cold, thin-lipped curve of her mouth. "Your soul is nothing to me, Tony Stark."

"It's a soul," Tony frowned. "What more do you want?"

"It is black, blacker than the pitch soaked night. Such a stained soul would never do for my collection. There would be no benefit in it for me."

"Bullshit."

Death raised an eyebrow.

"Oh?"

"Yeah."

"Pray, tell me why."

"Your job isn't to differentiate," Tony snapped. "Your job is to harvest, to take what you're given and be grateful for it."

The pale woman shook her head, her lips still curved. "It seems you have adopted a misconception that is quite popular amongst your culture. I do not reap just any soul. The darkest souls, the most tainted, I leave."

"That doesn't make any sense—"

"I leave them trapped on Earth, in wandering torment, to haunt what they can never change."

Tony stared, unsettled. Death took a step toward him and moved neatly to one side so that they stood shoulder to shoulder, facing in opposite directions. "It is your fate to forever mourn your mistakes, Tony Stark. Including the woman you love, the woman you seek to save."

His mouth went dry, his words turned to ash. Tony swallowed. "What do you mean?"

The pale woman leaned in close, her lips brushing against the shell of his ear. "Pepper Potts will die tonight, and I shall be there to bring her soul across the divide and into what comes after. But you, Tony…" She leaned in and pressed her nose into the hair behind his ear, breathing deep. "You will never see her again."

"No."

"Yes." Her fingers trailed down the inside of his arm and twined with his own, but Tony was too shell-shocked to move. "She will move on, but you will stay. You were always meant to stay."

With a breath of air, she was gone.