Chapter 6
“So… that happened.” Hope mumbles as the Earth is slowly disappearing in the distance.
Space was beautiful, they could see Mars and The Moon, but Tony didn’t appreciate the beauty of it.
In his mind, he was back in the wormhole above New York and all he could think about, was that he can’t breath. He started to fall to his knees, only for Carol to catch him and slowly sit him down, while also exchange worried looks with Hope and Friday.
“Tony…Tony! Listen to me!” Carol yells, gently holding his head between her hands “You are not there. You are not alone.”
Carol’s voice managed to bring him back to reality. He saw immense worry on their face and took a deep calming breath, letting his helmet to retract.
“I’m good... I’m good.” Tony said slowly, trying to calm his bearing heart.
He tries to stand up, but suddenly stumbles back down and his eyes flicker blue. Friday also takes a few steps back and lifts her hand to touch her head, grimacing in discomfort.
“What’s wrong?” Carol asks, looking at them both with alarmed and worried expression.
Hope narrows her eyes in confusion, inspecting them both closely. There has to be an perfectly logical explanation…
Her eyes suddenly widen in realization. “We are to far from Earth… they were disconnected from the net. Roughly.”
Friday blinked a few times, letting her eyes to turn back to their natural brown. Her gaze still seems little unfocused, but it’s getting better.
“It’s a little setback from Extremis. Maybe with a bit of training, next time we can get into deep space without…" She starts, but Tony harshly cuts her off.
"Yeah, no. There's not gonna be a next time. Ever. Once we're done here, we're going back to Earth, and you're not gonna set foot on any spaceship, portal or anything else like that ever again!”
“But…” She tries, but Tony holds his finger up, silencing her.
He narrows his eyes and gives her “the look” that Clint calls “Dad look” it makes Friday’s jaw drop a little.
“This isn’t negotiable young lady!”
Friday drops her head down with an adorable pout, crossing her arms before her chest. If Carol didn’t fully support Tony’s decision, she would be crying out of laughter. Hope’s lips actually twitch upwards a little.
Tony let out an exhasperated breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Are you feeling alright, Fri?”
"Well, it's a little weird, not being connected to anything on Earth, but I'm okay," she says, looking at him with reassuring smile.
"Good. We have to search this ship and save that annoying Wizard’s ass. Weapons ready, we're behind enemy lines now," Tony says as his helmet forms around his head.
Back on Earth, The Rogues, Rhodey, Vision and Bruce all regroup in mostly intact War Room. The atmosphere in the room was deadly serious. Nobody really knew what to say or do…
They were all covered in bruises and little cuts, Vision was at it the worst. He was holding the gaping wound on his side with his hand, his face scrunched in pain.
Steve is sure that if Vision was a normal human, he would be dead right now.
Natasha’s Widow Bites were completely destroyed and Sam’s wings were damaged. Bruce can’t turn into The Hulk and Vision can’t use the power of The Mind Stone or phase. Rhodey’s suit also suffered some damage, but mostly just scratches.
Most of The Iron Legion was also damaged or destroyed in the fight. That’s not good. The Iron Legion is pretty much the only reason they are all still alive. God.. Steve just wishes he could turn back time and listen when Tony tried to warn them.
Tony…
Iron Man along with Spider-Man, Rescue, Wasp and Captain Marvel went on board of the enemy ship to retrieve Dr. Strange and The Time Stone, but the ship suddenly took off and they have no way of tracking them.
Earth just lost her best Defender…
Those Aliens, Children of Thanos as they called themselves. Beat them without much effort, only Tony managed to keep with one of them up, barely. And according to Bruce, Thanos himself, is even more powerful then his “Children”
The Sorcerer, Wong, suddenly stands up and starts circling with his hand, creating a portal before him.
“Where you going?” Bruce questions with panicked eyes.
“The Time Stone’s been taken. The Sanctum remains unguarded. If you… find something about your missing colleges and Strange, please, let me know.” Wong says in apologizing manner and with a sad look before he leaves.
"This is bad," Bruce said while frantically shaking his head.
"Thanos already has two Stones, and soon he's going to get a third one from Strange, if his minions haven't already secured it..."
"So there's only one Stone left on Earth, and we need to protect it at all costs." Natasha points out, while looking at Vision.
Vision looked down "No, we need to destroy it..."
"Vision, are you kidding? What do you mean?" Rhodey asked while looking at Vision with narrowed eyes.
“I've been giving a good deal of thought to this entity in my head. About it's nature, but also its... composition.” Vision starts to explain as he turns towards Wanda with sad look.
“…I think if it were exposed to a sufficiently powerful energy source, then perhaps... its molecular integrity could fail.”
“And you with it. We are not having this conversation.” Wanda refuses shaking her head
“Eliminating the stone is the only way to be certain that Thanos can’t get it.”
“That’s too high a price.” Wanda argues
“It’s a price I’m willing to pay.” Vision says and Steve has sudden flashback to when he said similar thing during SHIELD’s collapse.
"Vision, no!” Jocasta’s worried and distressed voice says through the speakers.
“Jocasta…”
“Dad is gone, Friday to. Karen is downloaded directly into Peter’s suit that is also gone. They can all be already dead… You and the bots are all I have left…”
It still surprises some of them, how emotional Tony’s robotic children can actually be. Some of them even feel a bit of shame as they always treated The Bots, Friday and Jarvis before her, as simple machines.
But listening to Jocasta now…
Everybody had small tears in their eyes just by listening to her pained voice. Every single one of them is pretty sure, that if she had physical body, she would be crying right now.
“It’s the only way…” Vision whispers sadly
“Maybe it’s not…” Bruce suddenly says with a thoughtful look on his face, his former panicked look all gone.
“What do you mean” Rhodey asks
“Vision’s mind is made up of a complex construct of overlays. Jarvis, Ultron, Tony, me, the Stone. All of them mixed together. All of them learning from one another.”
“You’re saying Vision isn’t just the stone?” Wanda asks with hopeful expression
“I’m saying that… If we take out the stone, there’s still a whole lot of Vision left. Perhaps the best parts.” Bruce answers while looking at Vision with a small smile
“Can we do that?” Natasha asks
Bruce grimaces and shakes his head “Not me. Not here.”
“Perhaps Mom could?” Vision asks, looking at Rhodey who hesitantly nods, picking his phone and leaving the room.
“I might also know someone who could help” Steve says with hesitant voice.
“Give me the Stone, Sorcerer and I might keep you as my little pet.” Supergiant says while circling Strange with small smirk on her face.
“Sorry, but I must politely refuse” Strange says while carefully watching her every move.
Supergiant chuckles “You have spirit, I admire that. But you will give in eventually, even If I have to tear your mind apart.”
“You have had a lot of practice in that line of work?” Strange asks with disgusted look.
Supergiant nods with proud smile “In all the time I’ve served Thanos, I’ve never failed him. I even broke The God of Mischief himself, for Thanos to enslave”
Strange’s eyes go wide with this information as Supergiant smirks and leans closer to him, whispering “I broke a God, what chance do you have?”
From above, Tony, Friday, Carol and Hope are watching this exchange with worried looks. None of them is really sure what to do.
Friday is nervously bitting her lip when suddenly, something taps her on the shoulder, making her yelp in surprise. Everybody turns to her, ready for a fight, only to find Strange’s Cloak, awkwardly waving at them.
“Wow, you’re a seriously loyal piece of outerwear, aren’t you?” Tony asks, still in disbelief.
A Magical Sentient Cloak… God what has his life become…
“Yeah, uh, speaking of loyalty…”
Peter suddenly appears behind them, making them all jump in surprise. Carol, Hope and Friday actually aren’t surprised that he is somehow, still onboard. Peter, like Tony can be really stubborn.
Sometimes too stubborn for his own good.
“What the hell-“ Tony starts.
“I know what you’re gonna say.” Peter cuts in
“You should not be here.”
“I was gonna go home-“ Peter tries, but it is clearly a lie and it makes all of the girls role their eyes.
“I don’t wanna hear it.” Tony says, looking as if he is officially done with life.
“But it was such a long way down and I just thought about you on the way-“
Tony signs, looking on the ground while also speaking to himself “And now I gotta hear it...”
“…And I kinda stuck to the side of the ship. And this suit is ridiculously intuitive, by the way. So if anything, it’s kinda your fault that I’m here.”
Everyone’s head snaps towards Peter and even The Cloak, turns to look at him, silently telling him “You just messed up, buddy”
Tony’s eye twitches “What did you just say?”
Peter nervously gulps “I take that back. And now I’m here in space.”
“Yeah. Right where I don’t want you to be. This isn’t Coney Island. This isn’t a field trip. It’s one-way ticket. You hear me? Don’t pretend like you thought this through. You could not have possibly thought this through.”
“No. I did think this through.” Peter tries to defend himself, but Tony is having none of it.
“You could not have possibly thought this through.”
Peter shrugs, scratching the back of his head “It’s just- You can’t be a friendly neighborhood Spider – Man when there’s no neighborhood.”
They all exchange a confused looks and even Peter himself, looks suddenly confused. He clearly didn’t think this one through…
“Okay. That didn’t really make any sense, but you know what I’m trying to say.”
For some reason, Tony really does see the point Peter was trying to make and it’s not like he can’t send him back home, so he might as well be useful.
Tony points a finger at Peter with judgmental look “You are grounded.” He then turns towards Friday “You and Karen too.”
All three of them want to argue, but Peter and Friday bite their tongues as Carol sends them her “Mom Look” even Karen shuts up.
Tony pulls Peter and Friday before him, holding them both by shoulders. “We got a situation. See him down there? He’s in trouble. What’s your plan? Go.”
Peter and Friday exchange a look and Friday shrugs. Peter roles his eyes and for s few seconds just observes the situation.
“Um. Okay. Okay…uh…did you ever see that really old movie, Aliens?” Peter asks while all the grownups just blink at them.
For some reason, Tony has a bad feeling about this…
“You left.” Ebony Maw growls as he steps thought the portal and onboard the ship.
Supergiant shrugs while looking at her nails, behind her Stephen Strange is screaming from pain. “My mission was to receive the Time Stone only.”
“We could have gained both Time and Mind”
“Or neither. Don’t underestimate those Earthlings, Maw.”
“Please… they are weak. We bested their heroes and we didn’t even had to use Outriders.”
“Except our forces all died, did they not?”
Ebony Maw just glares at her and she stands up and walks directly before him. “This is what’s your problem Maw, you are always trying to hard to please him.”
“Sounds like he has Daddy issues.”
Both Maw and Supergiant turned to see Tony aiming his nano-canons at them. Supergiant smiled to herself and went to sit back down on her chair. Or throne would describe it better.
“Welcome Iron Man, I was wondering when you would finally came out and join us.”
“You knew I was here?” Tony asks, surprised and little alarmed.
“Of course. I can see inside your mind, nice armor by the way.”
"It's nanotech, you like it?" Tony asks, creeped out by the fact that she is reading his mind.
She smirks “I do, it suits you.”
Is she seriously flirting with me? Tony asks himself feeling weird about it. Her smirk only widens and Tony mentally slaps himself, as he reminds himself, that she is reading his mind…
“Thanos is in control of one of the biggest fleet in galaxy. Tell me… What will happen, if he focuses his whole attention upon your world?” Supergiant asks.
That makes Tony freeze and think over her words. Ebony Maw still isn’t so sure about why Supergiant is so interested in this human, he doesn’t care about her games.
He steps forward breaking Tony out of his trance “Surrender and your friend my live to see another day”
Tony shrugs “I gotta tell you, he’s not really my friend. Saving his life is more a professional courtesy.”
“You’ve saved nothing. Your powers are inconsequential compared to mine.”
“Yeah, but the kid’s seen more movies.” Tony says and Maw looks confused.
Suddenly, Hope regrows next Tony and fires her stinger at the wall, which pierces the side of the ship and begins to suck everything out.
Strange begins to be sucked out, but his cape wraps around his arm. Unfortunately, his arm slips from it and he keeps going. Spider-Man shoots a web strand at Strange with one hand and holds onto a piece of the ship with the other. It breaks, sending them both towards space when his Iron-Spider suit’s metal arms brace him to keep him from being sucked out.
Carol tackles Supergiant out off her Throne, but Supergiant just flicks her hand, sending Carol towards the other side of the room. Her eyes glow purple as she makes eye contact with Maw and they both vanish through a portal.
Peter manages to pull Strange back inside the ship and Friday quickly rushes towards the hole, spaying it nanites, sealing it off.
Strange pulls himself back up as his Cloak lands at his shoulders. “We’ve gotta turn this ship around.”
“This ship is self-correcting its course. Thing’s on autopilot.” Tony says as he inspects the controls.
“Can we control it? Fly us home?” Hope asks, looking at Tony who doesn’t say anything.
Inside his mind, he is thinking about what Supergiant said. Thanos may already have Reality and Soul Stone in his possession. If both Mind and Time are on Earth he will come for them, and if they fight…
Thanos will decimate Earth..
His vision will become reality…
“You could’ve saved us…”
“Stark?” Strange questions, brining Tony out of his thoughts.
“Yeah?”
“Can you get us home?”
“Yeah I heard you. I’m thinking…I’m not so sure we should.” Tony says, not meeting anyones eyes.
“Under no circumstance can we bring the Time Stone to Thanos. I don’t think you quite understand what’s at stake here.”
“No! It’s you who don’t understand!” Tony snaps.
“I had a vision few years back… I saw the end of the world. I saw this “War” happening. If we go back to Earth, Thanos will follow with everything that he’s got. We will lose and you will all die. So I’m not so sure if it’s a better plan but, at least on his turf, he’s not expecting it. So I say we take the fight to him.”
Tony’s confession surprises them all, he never told them about this, he didn’t tell anyone. All of them are looking at him sadly as he slowly sits on the ground.
“Alright , Stark. We go to him. But you have to understand….if it comes to saving you or your family or the Time Stone… I will not hesitate to let either of you die. I can’t, because the fate of the universe depends on it.” Strange says with emotionless voice.
“Nice moral compass.” Hope mumbles sarcastically making him annoyingly roll his eyes.
Carol sits beside Tony and takes his hand in his, giving it supporting squeeze, making him smile at her softly.
Please, let this work…