“How many did we win?” Tony asked tensely, hoping for a number in the high thousands. He waited for an answer on baited breath.
“Two,” Strange said stiffly, “though one is far preferable than the other.”
“Let’s do that one then,” Tony clasped his hand and helped the other man to his feet to conduct their quick strategy session.
“Everybody huddle up! We got a battle to plan!”
~~
Strange opened the final portal above Thanos and dropped Mantis onto his shoulders. She brought him under control quickly as Iron-Man and Spider-Man pulled the gauntlet to fully extend Thanos’ arm in an attempt to remove it. Drax restrained his other arm and Nebula ‘kept watch.’
Strange had been deliberately vague about her role to the team but he had spoken to her alone for a brief moment after which she’d needed time to herself.
Tony wondered what that had been about but Strange was adamant about ‘no one knowing more than they needed to lest the wrong future come to pass.’
Whatever. This was a fight he’d been preparing for over the course of eleven years. They had to win or Earth was doomed. To find out the stakes were a million times higher than that? Well. Losing wasn’t an option and Strange was their ace in the hole.
It wasn’t until Nebula was restraining Quill as his eyes filled with tears and he ranted and raved at the Titan, demanding him to tell the truth that Tony understood.
He remembered watching Pepper fall into a wall of flames, thinking he’d been moments too late to save her. The horror that had filled him still haunted him to this day.
He remembered trying to hold ‘his team’ together against all odds only to be shown a video of the brutal murder of his parents. There was no preparing for a violation like that and he had no room to judge the other man’s violent reaction.
But Nebula did her job and held him back as Mantis’ hold began to fade and Strange moved in and open handed slapped the Titan in the sternum.
His body went slack like a puppet with its strings cut and he fell to the ground with a heavy thud. Apparently he was consciously controlling at least one of the stones to keep it on his hand (Tony was betting on reality) because Peter was able to slip it off without difficulty as he fell.
He was still on edge as Strange watched the air around them with narrowed eyes like he could see something they couldn’t. He felt goosebumps prickle up his arms as Peter and Mantis did the same.
Drax looked them over with a frown. “What are you all look-”
Suddenly there came a deafening crack of noise and a blinding light that signaled a bi-frost landing. “Bring me Thanos!” Thor roared, lightening flaring from his body and whiting out his eyes as the sky darkened in a summoned storm.
“Thor!”
“Rocket!”
“Groot!” a sudden cacophony of sound interrupted the eerie silence that had fallen with the Titan down.
Thor leapt into the air and landed with a Thud next to the body of the fallen Titan. “Is he dead?” he demanded sharply.
Dr. Strange shook his head, “No. I knocked his astral form out of his body and will not allow it to reenter.”
Thor nodded like that made perfect sense. “Can he hear me?”
“Yes. He’s standing just there watching us,” Strange gestured past Peter who was cradling the gauntlet to his chest and glaring up into thin air as though looking at a far larger opponent.
Tony moved instinctively to stand just in front of the young man. He had no idea what an astral form was or what it could do but he wasn’t taking any risks with Peter’s safety.
Thor sneered at the air or maybe he could see something Tony couldn’t as he hefted a massive war ax with both hands. “I told you you’d die for that,” he growled and took Thanos’ head off with one swing.
Silence fell over the assembled heroes as they took in the decapitated Titan.
“Did we win?” Quill asked, voice cracked and broken.
“Yeah. I think we did,” Peter said softly, shifting the gauntlet to one arm so he could put a comforting hand on Quill’s shoulder.
“What do we do now?”
“Thanos sent the remaining Black Order to Earth to claim the Mind Stone. They will be invading now.” Nebula said stiffly, still looking at her fathers body.
Tony felt his blood run cold at the thought of the havoc being wreaked on Earth while they were half a galaxy away. “How soon can we get back to Earth?”
Strange held up his hands with a grim look, “Immediately.”
“Instantly,” Thor said at the same time, hefting his new ax as it sparked with lightening.
“Can either of those take a ship?” the raccoon asked skeptically.
“I’ll portal you in.” Strange said with a nod.
“Get ready. The Black Order won’t give up easily even with Thanos Dead. They may even try to revive him if they can complete the gauntlet.” Nebula said grimly.
“We can’t let that happen,” Dr. Strange agreed with a nod. “Not under any circumstances.”
Tony snapped his faceplate down and mentally geared up for another fight. "Let's end this."
~~
By the time they arrived on Earth through the portal Strange conjured it was too late to save Wakanda or most of the heroes who died trying to defend it including Steve, T’Challa, Black Widow, and Bucky. The city was overrun by alien beasts. The palace and mountain had been breached as well killing most of the civilians of the small, isolated nation.
War Machine, and Bruce were relatively unharmed by staying in the air doing raids and being protected by the Iron-Man armor.
Corvus Glaive had harvested the Mind Stone, killing Vision.
Wanda lost it at that point and took out one of the enemy ships in an explosion that killed easily as many friends as foes including herself, Sam, and Corvus Glaive.
With Thor and the Guardians on their side, Iron-Man, Spider-Man, Dr. Strange and the Sorcerers of Khamar Taj were able to provide a necessary assist and destroy the rest of Thanos’ landed forces.
With the battle won and the war over, the remaining heroes focused on helping the Wakandan survivors and the citizens of the other planets Thanos had attacked on his road to conquest. The Guardians were almost impossibly helpful in that respect, though they did have a mission of their own to complete.
Earth became a player on the intergalactic stage. And one day in to not too distant future, the Guardians returned heavier one green assassin and less one soul stone. They signed the Accords and agreed to help protect Earth-for a reasonable fee.
Then the day finally came when Tony was ready to revive Vision using the Mind Stone and the data he and Shuri had acquired on the android. His color remained a faded gray but Rocket had been invaluable in helping to fix the gaping wound in his head so it was no longer noticeable.
“It’s okay if this doesn’t work, you know?” Pepper asked softly from his side. “You’ll figure it out either way.”
He smiled up at his wife, looping his arm around her waist and pulling her in for a quick kiss. “I know, babe. But I have a good feeling about this.”
“As do I Sir,” came the all too familiar voice of the android as he sat up from the work table he’d been resting on. “Though I would prefer to be known once again as JARVIS.”