Oh, Justice. :-( I should have realized that people, Avengers and other characters we know, would have to die in a fic that's about a war, but it hadn't really registered, so I was still kind of hit between the eyes...which is just how a scene like that should go. It makes me wonder who else might potentially be on the chopping block...though I can make some guesses at "safe" folks. :-)

Your guesses are probably right; we hate to have to kill off any character that people might care about because we're wusses like that, but it seemed like in this story, someone was going to have to buy it eventually, and Justice was a minor enough character that we felt we could justify killing him without needing to put in an entire plotline dedicated to the main characters dealing with it.

And Tony! With his tendency to take responsibility for anything even remotely, peripherally related to him or his work or his company, he's going to be tearing himself apart with guilt. Heck, he already is. Steve's going to have a hell of a mess to take care of when he can finally manage some hands on care for that man. He needs it so much.

That may or may not be one of the secret reasons for this fic existing.

And Clint! This seems to be the chapter for exclamation point responses. *g* But Clint! He must live. He must. *pets Clint* Weirdly, I almost hope that Hank has to come up with an antidote to save Clint, because Hank really needs to do something a little more tangibly productive; his self-esteem is pretty terrible at the moment.

Poor Clint; he's so incredibly endearing when feverish and sullen. He's almost as in need of a hug as Tony, by this point.