Everything Left Unsaid

“The test results have finished, sir.”

“Volume, J,” Tony said, wincing at the sound. Maybe things were a lot worse than he realised if listening to JARVIS was going to exacerbate his headache.

“My apologies, sir,” JARVIS said softly, “You appear to be suffering from an unintended side effect of the Power Cosmic. I cannot isolate the virus but it seems to be attacking your circulatory system, sir.”

Tony groaned. The news wasn’t entirely unexpected; given his symptoms it made perfect sense that whatever it was, was going to attack his weakest point. If you thought about it, it was the perfect bookend to his tenure as Iron Man. The heart condition he suffered post-Afghanistan made him Iron Man and being Iron Man ultimately gave him a lovely new heart condition he wasn’t sure he could cure. He leaned forward, suddenly overwhelmed with the weight of it all, and dropped his head into his hands.

“At its current rate your heart will be unable to survive longer than six months."