Everything I Promised
It took them only moments to assemble, Rhodey and Tony activating their nanoparticles, triggering the suits but leaving their helmets off, Thor suiting up with his traditional lightning-induced flare, and Steve and Natasha dashing off to change. Bruce and Nebula, having not needed any adjustments, beat the others to the briefing room, calling up those abroad so that Rocket, Carol, and Wong were pulled up when the rest arrived, as well a Dora Milaje that Tony didn’t recognize.
“Hey, whatcha sendin’ out an emergency contac – “ Rocket started, sounding irritated at having been disturbed, but Natasha cut him off.
“Thanos is here.” Carol and Rocket looked shocked and dismayed, but the Dora Milaje and Wong only nodded.
“We know,” Wong said, his voice grave – though that was always the case with Wong, in Tony’s experience. “I am assembling the other sorcerers at the Sanctum.”
“Any chance you can pick up the Dora Milaje?” Natasha requested briskly.
“Not a problem.”
“Good. Do that now.” Wong nodded, and he and the Dora Milaje vanished from sight. Natasha turned to Carol and Rocket. “How quickly can you be back here?”
“Optimistically? Three days, princess,” Rocket responded, voice tight.
“I’m at least a week out,” Carol said, looking as though she wanted nothing more than to be able to jump through the hologram to join them. Natasha blew out a long breath.
“I was afraid of that,” she muttered, shoulders slumping just the slightest before she straightened, eyes determined. “Okay, we’ll just have to win without you.” She hesitated, then glanced back and forth between the two. “Maybe head this way though…in case we don’t.”
“Roger,” Rocket said, terminating the call.
“Will do, Nat,” Carol said, voice subdued. “Please be careful.” Then she was gone, too. Natasha turned to face the rest of the Avengers.
“Thor, if you can assemble any Asgardians who would be willing to fight, that would be helpful,” Natasha commanded.
“Aye, Lady Natasha. I will go at once, and we shall meet you on the field of battle.” And Thor left, a dangerous glint in his eye.
“Bruce, we’re going to need the Hulk for this.”
“I kinda figured,” Bruce said wryly, leaning against the wall, arms folded. “I’ll follow the rest of you out and suit up when we get there.”
“Good. Nebula – “
“Are we not going to talk about why he’s calling Tony out specifically?” Steve interrupted, tension visible in every line of his body. Natasha turned to him, expression unreadable.
“What good would it do?” she asked simply, and Tony understood immediately.
“What do you mean, what good would it do?” Steve demanded, and Natasha just shook her head at him.
“Is it going to change anything that we do? Thanos brought an army. We need as many fighters as we can get, so we need Iron Man on the field. I’d say the only major strategic change is that we need to keep as much distance between Tony and Thanos as possible, but I’m guessing Tony already thought of that,” she said, turning a raised eyebrow on Tony, who shrugged.
“Yeah, pretty much,” he admitted, but that didn’t seem to settle Steve any.
“Nebula said Thanos doesn’t do anything without reason, so there has to be a reason he needs Tony! If we could figure out what it is, maybe it’s key to bringing him down!” Steve argued.
Natasha only eyed him, slightly exasperatedly. “Steve, think about it. We just talked about not knowing what Thanos is up to yesterday. I doubt anything in the last 24 hours has suddenly given anyone any insight to his plan. All this development really tells us is we need to not only take out Thanos and his forces, but we also need to make damn well sure that he doesn’t get anywhere near Tony.”
Tony’s dream pricked at his mind, and he shoved down the guilt of not ‘fessing up to his teammates – this world’s Avengers had never gone back in time; what were the chances they’d believe he’d lived this all before, except a little differently? And his dreams were too cryptic to give him anything concrete to tell them besides ‘something bad is happening and apparently I asked for it.’
“Tasha’s right, Steve,” Tony said lowly, touching Steve’s arm to offer the semblance of comfort. Steve turned to him, and Tony was struck by how terrified the super soldier looked. But he plowed forward anyway. “None of us knows why Thanos would be here for me, and there’s not really anything we can do about it at the moment. He’s killing people – we have to stop him.”
“But it might be playing right into his hands, for you to go and fight,” Steve argued fiercely. “It’s like – it’s like bringing the lamb to slaughter! You should stay out of it, so he doesn’t even have a chance to do whatever it is he’s planning!”
Tony smiled gently at him, touching his face lightly. “He’ll find me one way or another. I’d rather have the opportunity to keep people from getting hurt by his army and maybe take him down when he does. Besides, aren’t you the one who wanted me fighting beside you yesterday?” he teased, and Steve’s expression dropped.
“Not like this – not when he’s specifically targeting you, coming after you. I can’t – I can’t lose you, not ever, and right after I – after we – “ Steve broke off, eyes agonized, and Tony’s heart clenched. Before he could second guess himself, he reached up and tugged Steve’s face down to his, kissing him forcefully.
“I can’t say you’re not gonna lose me,” Tony said firmly when he pulled back, shaking his head at Steve’s immediate protest. “I can’t, because none of us can make that promise, as much as we all want to. But what I can say is that I’ll do my best to come back to you. I’ve told my children this, and I’ll tell you – I don’t let go of what’s mine, and that means I’ll do everything I can to keep you safe and keep us together at the end of the day.” As long as it doesn’t destroy everyone and everything else, Tony added silently in his head, knowing that sentiment wasn’t what Steve needed to hear right now.
Steve’s eyes were searching, and Tony held his gaze until he found what he was looking for, giving a hesitant nod. “Okay,” he whispered, and Tony smiled, though it was nearly as sad as dream-Natasha’s. But Steve appeared bolstered. “Okay,” he said again, more firmly, turning back to the rest of the room but intertwining his hand with Tony’s. “So what’s next?”
“We need to – “
“Dad!”
All five heads turned to face the doorway, where Harley and Peter had burst into the room, eyes wild.
“Dad, did you see the news? - ”
“Thanos is here – “
“He’s back, he’s calling for you – “
“He wants you, what are we going to do? – “
“What’s the plan?”
And both of them looked at him expectantly, trustingly.
“First of all, there’s no we - you two are staying right here,” Tony started, knowing there would be protests but ready to counter them.
“Uh, I don’t fucking think so,” Harley said, crossing his arms.
“Yeah, I’m with Harley,” Peter said, crossing his, too, both of them trying to stare Tony down. Well. Three could play this game.
“I fucking know so,” Tony said staunchly, crossing his arms, and as the two started to voice their protests, he held up a hand. “No no no no no – this is where you zip it. I’m the adult here, and you’ve both been saying you’re my sons. Well, that means I get to make the dad decision – you two are staying here, where you’re safe, because you’re my kids.”
“I’m 18,” Peter said immediately, his voice quiet. “Dad or not, I get to make my own decisions because I’m legally an adult.” And Tony blinked at him, thrown. He’d never seen his original Peter – or his original Harley and Morgan – reach legal adult age, had never have to deal with this particular thorny part of being a parent. And now? Now he was terrified in a way that even seeing Thanos hadn’t accomplished.
“Kid – “ Tony said, voice pained, with no idea how he was going to finish that sentence.
“I’m going,” Peter said firmly, and what really killed Tony was that Peter wasn’t being defiant or petulant – he was calm but resolved, confident in both his decision and his ability to enact it.
“And if you think I’m not going to follow you as soon as you leave here, you really are going senile,” Harley said, his voice the same level of firm and assured.
“I can have FRIDAY lock you out of your suit,” Tony threatened, and Harley scoffed at him.
“Like I haven’t built a million things of my own I can take to shoot down some aliens. The suit would just protect me while I do it,” he retorted, and Tony couldn’t hide his flinch.
“Low blow, kid.” To his credit, Harley looked at least marginally chagrined, but his jaw was still set in stubborn lines.
“I’m gonna fight with you guys,” he said resolutely. “Whether you help me or not.”
Tony felt like his heart was being stomped on, strangled, and run through a meat grinder all at the same time. It was worse, even, than when he’d found Peter stowed away on the alien spaceship, knowing they’d be flying into danger, because at least then there’d been a chance they could come up with a plan that would keep Peter mostly out of harm’s way. With this, though, there was no way to keep his boys out of the line of fire, and there was very little chance he’d be able to shadow their movements the whole time and make sure they were safe.
But there was no talking them out of it. He didn’t technically have the right to keep Peter out, and Harley was too stubborn to be left behind.
“Fine,” he said hoarsely, his heart already hurting as the boys exchanged triumphant looks. “Fine. But you have to promise me that you’ll leave the moment you’re injured enough to matter. And I know you know what I mean. No muscling through it, no pretending like you aren’t hurt as badly as you are.”
“I’m not going to leave the fight!”
“Like hell! You never do!”
“Please.” The word burst out of Tony more violently than any of them were used to, but Tony refused to take back his vehemence. Harley and Peter stared at him, and Tony wondered what they saw. He wondered if they could see how much it was killing him to let them go, to let them join this fight that had nearly killed many of his friends, that had killed him, if they could see his anguish at the thought of them entering this fray. Clearly, though, they could see something, because without another word of protest they were nodded silently.
“Okay, Dad,” Harley said cautiously. “Okay, we’ll leave if we get too hurt to fight.”
Tony nodded, swallowing. “Right. Okay,” he said, his voice raspy, the words hard to get out. “Go. Go suit up then.”
And the boys left quickly, as though afraid Tony would rescind his permission if they tarried too long. Tony stared after them, unable to look away until Rhodey gripped his shoulder. He turned to look at his best friend.
“I don’t know what I’ll do if they get hurt, if they – “ Tony choked on the last, worst word, unable to utter it, and Rhodey squeezed his shoulder, eyes understanding.
“You had to know they were gonna come with us, Tones,” he said softly, a small smile on his face. “You’re practically their dad, and they’re too much like you. They were never gonna sit this one out. You did the right thing, giving them the okay.”
Tony just nodded wordlessly, taking a second to pull himself together before turning back to the group, who were looking at him with identical expressions of sympathy. “Right, so. The plan,” he prompted, his voice as pointedly even as possible. Blessedly, they didn’t push the point, didn’t offer empty reassurances.
“Steve, Bruce, Nebula, Peter, and I take the quinjet, you, Rhodey, and Harley fly, and we all go kick Thanos’s ass. Thought that was clear,” Natasha said, adding a note of humor to her voice in an effort to lighten the mood. Tony smiled humorlessly back. This was going to be even worse than the first time around.
The flight to Thanos was both blessedly and terribly short. Tony called Happy on the way, asking if he could get to the Compound as quickly as possible to watch after Morgan. FRIDAY was keeping an eye on her in the meantime, but he wanted someone with physical hands to look after his little girl. Saying goodbye to her had been awful. She’d been so quiet, watching him with her too-intelligent eyes, drinking him in like she thought this was the last time she’d ever see him as he’d pressed a kiss to her forehead, told her to be good for FRIDAY, and that he’d do his best to be back in time for supper.
He didn’t think either of them really believed he’d be back.
They flew into utter chaos. Manhattan was on fire, both literally and figuratively. Chitauri were everywhere, the giant ships raining ammo from the skies as the ones on speeders caused havoc closer to the ground. The city looked closer to a scene out of a post-apocalyptic horror movie than like the Manhattan he’d known growing up. The sorcerers had already arrived and brought with them the Dora Milaje
“Okay, everybody, go crazy. Take out whatever you can and call for backup if you need it,” Natasha ordered over the coms. “Tony – stay away from Thanos.”
“You got it, Itsy Bitsy,” Tony responded, barrel rolling away to distract the Chitauri who were currently terrorizing a group of civilians. “Hey uglies, can I have this dance?”
They turned as one, and Tony blasted one in the face, then another, knocking them back. He aimed two more repulsor blasts at the remaining two, but they dodged.
“Tony Stark,” one of them growled, one hand (claw?) reaching to press a button on its other wrist. Welp, that probably didn’t bode well for him. He took advantage of the momentary distraction to blast that one, then turned his repulsors on the last one, only to find that that one had already run off.
“You all okay?” he asked the civilians, who looked shell-shocked and petrified but nodded. “Good, try to get out of here or find somewhere to hide, yeah?” They nodded again.
“Thanks, Iron Man!” piped up a boy who didn’t look any older than 12 or 13.
“Anytime, kid. Just do me a favor and stay safe,” he responded, saluting. They skedaddled off quickly, and he turned – just to be greeted with a familiar face.
“Tony Stark,” Ebony Maw drawled, hands clasped behind his back. “You have the privilege of your presence being requested by the great Thanos. There is no greater hono – “
“Yeah, no thanks, Squidward,” Tony called back glibly, cutting the repulsors to his boots so that he was standing a few feet away from the alien, mentally signaling FRIDAY to fire up the cannons he’d used the first time around. They hummed, warm and at the ready.
Maw scowled. “It is not an offer you can refuse, insignificant animal.”
Tony scoffed. “Please, I refused Stan Lee’s offer to go out to lunch one time, and that guy’s more of a god than Thanos will ever be.”
“Your race is so…bothersome,” Maw snarled, appearing steadily more incensed, and Tony grinned viciously behind the faceplate.
“Aw, you say the sweetest things, snookums,” he goaded, and Maw lashed out, sending a few cars hurtling in his direction. Tony blasted them out of the way, then fired the big cannons, blasting Maw off his feet. Tony followed, not waiting for Maw to get up before he blasted him again. Maw threw out a hand, and Tony went flying, catching himself with his repulsors before he could crash into a building. The alien seemed to have anticipated that, though, because a car flew his way, knocking him out of the sky even as he caught himself.
Tony hit the ground hard but pushed himself to his feet quickly, readying his repulsors but knowing he wouldn’t be up fast enough and preparing himself to take another hit – only for Maw to suddenly go flying off his feet in a flash of blue light and crash into a building.
“That assclown really couldn’t come up with a better insult than bothersome?” Harley asked incredulously, helmet retracting momentarily to show a cheeky smile as he hovered a few feet away from Tony, who sighed.
“I really need to block all the old videos of me so you’ll stop stealing all my insults,” he said wearily, though his lips quirked up in a small grin. “Seriously, kid, 2010 me is not someone you want to imitate.”
Harley shrugged. “I dunno, 2010 you kicked a lot of ass, and considering I just had to save yours…” He gave Tony a smug look, while Tony let out an indignant noise.
“Hey, I totally had that!”
“Sure you did.”
“I did!”
“Boys, if you could focus on the task at hand,” Natasha called dryly over the coms.
“Sorry, Tash.”
“On it, Aunt Nat!”
And with that, the two flew off.
The rest of the battle passed much the same way for Tony – getting recognized by Chitauri and one of Thanos’s children coming a few moments later. He caught glimpses of the others periodically, though they were generally spread fairly thin and mostly ran into each other when someone called for backup. So far, no one had made it to Thanos, and Tony wasn’t sure whether that was a good sign or a bad one. The battle, while not necessarily in their favor due to the sheer size of Thanos’s forces, was at least not taking a turn for the worse; the Avengers, sorcerers, and Dora Milaje were holding their own, and, once the Asgardians joined, they only got better.
And then Steve had to triumphantly call over the coms, “I found him!”
“Wait for backup,” Natasha ordered tersely, knowing as well as Tony did that such an order would only hold Steve back for so long. “Who’s closest?”
“I’ve got eyes on Cap,” Rhodey called. “Looks like Thor and Valkyrie are close, and Nebula’s not too far off either.”
“Alright, you four get to Captain Rogers as soon as possible. Steve, wait for Colonel Rhodes and the others to join you before engaging, clear?”
“Clear,” Steve responded reluctantly.
Tony’s heart clenched, speeding up anxiously as he forcibly talked himself down from joining them so he could make sure his Steve, Rhodey, and Nebula, his family, stayed safe. It wouldn’t help, he told himself. He’d be playing right into Thanos’s hands, and, worse, he’d probably be a distraction and could end up getting the others hurt. He tried to focus on his own fights instead but couldn’t resist having FRIDAY patch him through to Rhodey’s suit camera so he could see how they were doing.
They weren’t doing well.
They were attacking as one, coordinating in the way that only a group of people who’d lived together and worked together as long as they had really could, even if the past two years hadn’t seen many battles. Nebula was the main wild card, but she knew her father inside and out and compensated for her lack of experience with the others fighting alongside her with an intimate knowledge of how Thanos was going to attack and how best to counter him.
But even with all that, Thanos appeared more vaguely amused than anything; it was clear he was just toying with them, likely bored while waiting on his cronies to bring Tony to him and seeking out a way to entertain himself. He could destroy the Avengers facing him with the stones in a heartbeat if he really wanted to, but he was fighting lazily, countering every attack with unerring precision.
Tony had a sick feeling in his stomach, watching the footage. This was not going to end well, he could feel it.
He pinged Natasha on a private line. “Natasha, I think they need more help,” he said brusquely. “Thanos is…he’s too much.”
“You are not to engage, Tony,” she said, voice hard.
“I know. But you have to send someone, they’re - Rhodey!”
“Tony? Tony? Stark, you better not be going anywhere near Thanos!”
But Tony was already shooting towards where FRIDAY told him Rhodey’s suit had gone down, heedless of her warnings, mind focused on making sure Rhodey, his Rhodey, was still breathing, was still alive, hadn’t been incinerated by Thanos’s blast, the last thing Tony had seen racing towards the suit’s camera before the feed had gone black.
He hurtled across the battlefield, spotting his best friend’s suit lying smoking in a crater and completely ignoring Thanos and the others to drop down beside him. Natasha was still calling his name over the coms, but he didn’t respond, retracting his helmet.
“Rhodes is down, Nat,” he heard Steve say quietly over the coms, and then Natasha’s voice cut off abruptly.
“Tell Tony to be careful,” she said finally, voice tight. Steve gave a murmur of affirmation, and then Tony completely tuned them out.
“Rhodey?” he asked, voice breaking. “Buddy, are you okay?” There was no response. “FRIDAY, run scans,” he ordered curtly.
“Running,” she said in his ear. A moment passed, one heart-stopping moment in which Tony would swear every second he’d ever spent with his best friend in any world flicked through his mind in a terror-filled haze. “Colonel Rhodes shows prominent brain activity. He appears to be unconscious but otherwise unharmed.”
“Oh thank god,” Tony breathed, shoulders slumping in relief, a tear slipping down his face.
“He’s okay?” Steve’s voice sounded behind Tony, and he half-turned, nodding.
“Just out for the moment,” he responded.
“That’s what you think, Tin Man,” Rhodey said weakly, and Tony’s head whipped back around in time to see Rhodey’s helmet retract, the man smiling woozily at him. Tony couldn’t help the broad grin he gave in return.
“You scared the shit out of me, Platypus,” he scolded, and Rhodey gave him a weary smirk.
“Shoe’s on the other foot, eh? Now you know how I feel watching you pull all the dangerous shit you do,” he countered, and Tony had to fight the urge to just say ‘fuck it’ and hug the everliving shit out him. “Now help me up, dumbass. We have a purple ass to kick.”
Rolling his eyes, Tony stood, offering a hand out and tugging Rhodes to his feet.
“You’re welcome to start that ass kicking any time, now,” Valkyrie called, and Tony turned in time to see her get knocked off her feet by the Power stone. Thor and Nebula charged, coordinating an attack from behind, but Thanos swatted them away without so much as turning to look.
“Tony Stark. At last,” Thanos intoned, the smile on his face made entirely creepy by the emptiness in his eyes. Steve and Rhodey drew closer, flanking him on either side, none of them taking so much as a step forward, allowing a rubble-strewn expanse to stretch between them and Thanos.
“You know me?” Tony asked as he had before, almost on autopilot. He was feeling the strangest tugging sensation in his gut, as though Thanos was somehow trying to reel him in like a fish on a hook. He planted his feet stubbornly, unwilling to move any closer.
“I do,” Thanos responded, eyes glittering as he stepped closer. Steve and Rhodey tensed, and Steve tapped him on the arm as though urging him to back up. Tony didn’t move, eyes locked on the armored purple monster and having the strangest thought that the most dangerous being in the universe looked strangely…unwell. His skin was paler, greyer than it had been in his memories, the wrinkles more prominently engraved in his face. He looked…worn was the best way Tony could think of to describe it, as though the worlds were beating him down. And yet the glint of madness in his eyes was as present as ever – more so, if Tony’s memory could be relied upon, murderous for the sake of murder instead of simply because he felt it necessary. It was a fine sort of difference, but the former option leant itself to a heavier descent into insanity, in Tony’s mind.
“I’d say I’m honored, Purple People Eater, but I’m really not,” Tony drawled, and Rhodey let out a quiet pained groan beside him. The tugging sensation was becoming steadily more insistent, but Tony willfully ignored it.
Thanos only eyed him like a predator staking out the most satisfying way of catching his prey. “The stones have spoken of nothing else but you since I finally restored balance to the universe,” he said, and his voice was low and slightly unhinged.
What? He could feel Rhodey and Steve jolt in surprise beside him. Behind Thanos, the other three looked equally startled as they slowly recovered, pushing themselves back to their feet. Hiding his own shock, Tony quipped, “Well, I hope they were saying nice things. I get sensitive when people talk behind my back.”
Thanos ignored him, starting to pace. “Do you know what it is like to have them whispering in your mind every moment of every day of some insignificant mortal? To be unable to rest, unable to focus on anything else as they constantly direct your thoughts back to one person? It’s maddening.”
“Seems like the simple solution would be to just take it off. Or destroy it. Seriously, Angry Grape, you can’t have come all this way just for the simplest pieces of advice in the universe,” Tony scoffed, raising an unimpressed eyebrow. Thanos halted his pacing to glare at Tony before resuming, his pace becoming more frenzied.
“You think I didn’t try that? I couldn’t destroy the stones – it was as though something was interfering, the energies turning away from each other and unable to be redirected. They did much the same thing when I tried to use them to will you out of existence,” he snarled, and Tony blinked.
“Well, how about that,” he murmured to himself, uncertain of what to do with this new information. His mind was buzzing, the sensation of needing to step forward, of having to get closer to Thanos starting to make it difficult to think.
Thanos continued, voice steadily more and more deranged, “I can’t take it off, either – it won’t come off. Just keeps whispering your name, pulling at me, tugging at me, until it feels like it’s tearing my mind apart. So I came. I’m here, and I’m going to kill you so that the damned thing will be silent once and for all.”
And with that, Thanos lunged, but Tony was prepared, throwing up an energy shield quickly. The gauntlet struck the shield, and the impact threw Steve and Rhodey off their feet and away from Tony and Thanos. Thor, Valkyrie, and Nebula let out battle cries and attacked, trying to draw Thanos’s attention away, but Thanos had eyes only for Tony. He turned the gauntlet towards them and sent a blast of energy their way, but Tony took advantage of his maneuver to blast him with an energy beam, knocking him off his feet.
Thanos recovered quickly, though, snarling and pushing himself back towards Tony as Tony rushed towards him. The two met in the middle, Thanos throwing a punch with his gauntlet-covered hand towards Tony and Tony reaching an armor-covered hand out to catch the fist.
Later, he wouldn’t be able to say exactly what happened or even how long he and Thanos were paused; it felt like an eon to him, but he was certain it must have been mere milliseconds to the rest of the team. When Tony’s hand touched the gauntlet, it felt as though an arc of energy raced up his arm, jolting him – but not painfully, more like he was an energizer bunny being charged to full capacity, invigorating and fulfilling. Thanos, on the other hand, let out a cry of pain, falling to his knees. Mind clearer than it had been since the tugging sensation had started, Tony saw the opportunity for what it was. Putting both hands on the gauntlet, he steeled himself and tugged.
The gauntlet slid off easily, so easily Tony stumbled back a few steps, nearly ending up on his ass. And then he was holding it, staring at it in awe, a strange sensation settling in his chest – a feeling of rightness, of being steady when he hadn’t even realized he was adrift.
A sense of peace swept through him, the sensation of knowing exactly what he needed to do draining the urgency of the battlefield. He knew, now, what his purpose here was.
“Tony?” Steve’s voice called to him, cutting through the certainty, and Tony turned his head. The rest of their rag-tag six-person team was standing, looking at him with various expressions of triumph, elation, uncertainty, and worry.
Tony smiled at him, that same sad smile that he’d given earlier, the same one Natasha’d had in his dreams that made so much sense now. “I love you, Steve. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier, and I’m sorry we didn’t get more time together.”
“Tony, no, you can’t – “
He turned to Rhodey, knowing if he spent any longer looking into Steve’s anguished eyes, he would lose his nerve. “Take care of my kids, okay?”
“Tony, what’re you doing?” Rhodey asked, eyes wide and panicked. Tony shook his head, hoping to dispel his friend’s concern as best he could.
“It’s necessary, Rhodey. Please, Platypus. I love you. Promise me you’ll take care of my kids?”
“Tones, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but – “
“Promise me.”
Rhodey stared at him, looking scared, but Tony knew his best friend could see how much this meant to him. “I promise.”
Tony nodded. “Thank you.” He activated his coms. “Peter, Harley,” he said calmly. “I love you both to the end of the worlds, and I always will. Tell Morgan – tell her I love her 3000, okay?”
“Dad?” Peter’s voice was scared. “Dad, what are you saying?”
“No – you can’t do this, Tony! You can’t – you can’t leave us! You’re my Mechanic, you’re – you can’t leave me!” Harley called, and god that was almost enough to kill his resolve.
But he couldn’t. He could feel it, the inevitability of him wielding the stones, so firmly written into him that it felt as though it had always been there and he just hadn’t noticed until now. “I’m sorry,” he said, eyes locking onto Thanos as the alien pushed himself back to his feet. “I’m sorry, I have to do this. But you won’t be alone, I promise you. I love you both so much.”
And with that, he slid on the gauntlet.
He expected the burning sensation this time, the stones’ power sliding like liquid fire through his veins – but it still hurt like hell. Gritting his teeth, he focused, mentally pushing forward the same thought, wish, prayer he’d had the last time he’d done this, but adding one more piece: Protect them all, keep the universe safe from Thanos and his army, and bring back the ones Thanos took before their time.
He poured himself into it, every last drop, and he snapped his fingers – and the world went white.
The smoky light this time was multicolored, yellows, reds, blues, purples, greens, and golds intertwined in a mesmerizing dance, thicker than the golden hue from before had ever been. And then it was clearing, slowly fading away, and Tony was standing not in the place he usually met Natasha nor the battlefield he’d just left – but rather in the ruins of the last battle he’d had in his previous life.
He glanced around, wondering at the location – and wondering at the emptiness. There wasn’t a soul in sight, none of the Chitauri, none of his friends, not even any bodies left behind. It was empty, and it should’ve been eerie, but mostly it was just quiet.
And then he saw them. He didn’t think they’d appeared from nowhere; rather, it was like they’d always been there, but he’d only just now noticed them. Six figures silhouetted at the top of a hill, glowing the colors of the stones he knew with some strange intuitive certainty that they represented. And so he approached, and they watched him come, not moving closer but not moving further away, until he stood in front of him. He was both surprised and not surprised that he recognized them: Steve, glowing with the gold of the Soul stone; Peter, the bright yellow of the Mind stone; Morgan, the calm green of the Time stone; Pepper, radiating the red of the Reality stone; Nebula, stoic in the blue of the Space stone; and Harley, the blaring purple of the Power stone.
“You look like my family,” he observed, curious but not particularly concerned. He felt almost…removed, but not in a way that meant nothing mattered to him. More just that he felt a bit other, a bit like he wasn’t quite here anymore. He wondered if that meant he was dead.
“We thought assuming forms familiar to you would make you more comfortable for our conversation,” Peter said, and Tony tilted his head.
“Do you have your own forms?” he asked curiously, and Pepper’s lips quirked into a smile, so like the real Pepper that Tony felt a pang of longing.
“Not ones that you would understand,” she responded, and that only made Tony more curious. “But this is not why you are here.”
Tony looked at them. “Why am I here?” he asked.
“You’re here because of your wish, Tony Stark,” Steve said, his voice soft, caressing his name. And when Tony met his gaze, he could feel Soul looking back, racing through him with the kind of warm flare that felt somehow approving as it measured his worth. Tony returned to himself, looking at Steve with wide eyes. Steve smiled, so full of warmth and acceptance. “You asked us to protect everyone, to keep the universe safe from Thanos and his armies, and we are granting your wish.”
“I know, you did that already – twice now,” Tony said, unable to suppress his confusion. The stones only looked amused, and Tony got the feeling he was missing something.
“There is more than one universe, Tony Stark,” Nebula said, and Tony blinked at her. As the words registered, so too did a dawning comprehension.
“You are beginning to understand,” Harley said approvingly. “We, all of us, have no desire to be wielded for the destruction Thanos has wrought – and yet, he is doing so in all of the universes, bringing death to uncountable numbers. We cannot stop him on our own; we must have a wielder. When your Dr. Banner put on the gauntlet, we were hopeful we would be able to right this wrong, but he only wished for us to bring back those they’d lost. But your wish – your wish was for us to help you protect everyone in the universe from Thanos. And so we have given you that ability, to right the wrongs Thanos is committing in our names.”
Tony was silent, eyes wide as he absorbed this information. “In all the universes,” he clarified. “I’m supposed to stop Thanos in all the universes.”
“All 14,000,605,” Morgan confirmed.
“Oh my god,” Tony whispered, mind blank with shock. “I – that really wasn’t what I’d meant.”
The stones exchanged a look. “Would you like to alter your wish? You can do that. We will not stop you,” Nebula said.
Tony swallowed, the lives he’d seen in his dreams flashing before his eyes. “And what would happen, if I did?” he asked hoarsely.
“It is as your Doctor Strange told you – there was only one of those 14,000,605 timelines in which we came out victorious, and you have lived it. The other 14,000,604 were unable to fix what Thanos did. You have fixed one of those already, but the others would remain as they are,” Morgan responded.
And in the end, there was only one answer he could give them knowing that. “No. No, I don’t want to change my wish.”
The stones collectively looked relieved, and they smiled at him. “Thank you, Tony Stark,” Steve said, eyes twinkling with golden light.
Tony exhaled, feeling simultaneously tired and determined. “So what happens next?” he asked, wondering which world he’d end up in. God, he hoped with all his heart it wasn’t one of the ones where Morgan and Pepper were both dead. Or Peter. Or Harley. Or Steve, or Rhodey, or Nebula. It was starting to truly hit him just how awful this might be.
But he was reminded of all the bright moments he’d gotten with Peter and Harley this time, the connection he’d formed with Nebula, the chance to make up with Steve and become something more. He couldn’t regret the time he’d stolen with them, the moments he’d get to remember forever now that he hadn’t had before.
But then again, that also meant that that Peter and Harley and Steve and Morgan would be missing him now, would feel his loss. Perhaps it would be better in future timelines if he didn’t make those connections, if he just sought out Thanos from the start and ended it as quickly as possible. Perhaps that was less cruel; but it did leave him feeling empty inside, the bleakness of a future of hunting down 14,000,603 Thanoses with none of Peter’s smile, none of Morgan’s curious questions, none of Harley’s sass tugging at him.
“You are sad,” Steve said quizzically instead of answering his question, peering at him. “Why?”
Tony gave him a half-smile. “Just…just thinking about the people I’ll be leaving behind in each timeline. It’s going to be strange, making any sort of connection when I know my life has a pretty quick expiration date in their universe.”
And now the stones were staring at him, identical expressions of confusion written across their faces. “You do not die after wielding us, Tony Stark,” Harley said, brow furrowed as he looked at Tony, and Tony jerked.
“What?”
“You do not die,” Harley repeated. “Because you are the Tony who made the wish, you must be the Tony who fixes the timelines – but once you leave, the Tony who was originally present resumes his place.”
Tony blinked, mind boggled. “That’s…got to be confusing for that Tony,” he finally settled on saying.
“We gave your counterpart in the universe you just left the memories of everything from the last two years and imparted a brief explanation in his mind as to what happened – your sacrifice on your original timeline and your role in the other universes as a result. As you in all the timelines are familiar with the multiverse theory, it was not difficult to explain in a way you could make sense of,” Morgan reassured him.
“Jesus Christ,” Tony muttered to himself. Then another problem occurred to him. “Uh, what if I’m making a whole bunch of decisions that my, uh, counterpart wouldn’t agree with? I mean, I got into a relationship with someone! I adopted three kids! What if that Tony Stark wouldn’t want that?”
“We would not allow that to happen,” Pepper reassured him. “We gave you some of your counterpart’s memories so that you could be guided into doing as he would do until you were able to reunite with us. Fear not, Tony Stark, we will not leave any version of you to an unfortunate fate.” At that, Tony was mollified but still…overwhelmed? Overwhelmed seemed like as good a word as any.
“We are sorry, we assumed you understood that we would resolve any issues your traipse through the multiverse might cause. We have chosen you for your wish, and, as such, it is our prerogative to protect you and honor your sacrifice,” Peter said apologetically.
Pepper eyed him contemplatively. “As you did not know this, perhaps there is one more thing we should tell you,” she said thoughtfully. “When we state that you do not die while wielding us, that includes your original timeline.”
And at that, Tony’s heart dropped. “What?” he croaked, not letting himself get his hopes up until he had confirmation that they were saying what he thought they were saying.
And Pepper smiled. “Yes, Tony Stark. When we have fulfilled your wish, we will send you back to your original timeline at the exact moment you left it.”
Tony felt like his brain shorted out, the implications astounding him. He was going to get to go home to his family. Oh God, he’d be able to raise Morgan. He could see Pepper again to tell her how much he loved her. He could be there for Peter and Harley. He could re-adopt Nebula, since he hadn’t done as much as he’d wanted to in his original timeline – if he could tear her away from the Guardians, that was. If not, weekly space calls could be a thing. They would work it out.
And Steve…oh, that…that might be painful. But then again, he and Steve in his original timeline had never ended up the way they had in this last timeline. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt, maybe it would be okay.
Quite by accident, he made eye contact with the Soul stone, the one bearing Steve’s face, which was currently smiling strangely at him. “You are thinking of him, aren’t you?” Steve asked softly, gesturing slightly at himself. “Wondering how everything will work out when you are back in your own timeline?” Tony only nodded, and Steve looked at him gently. “Well then, I feel I should tell you that we will offer you one more wish when you finish fulfilling this one, on the condition that it be a bit more…selfish.”
“Selfish?” Tony asked, puzzled. The stones smiled at him, wearing identical expressions of fondness and amusement.
“You have made the selfless wish and taken upon yourself more than any one being should have to,” Morgan said, her voice sweet and serene. “We think it only fair that you ask something of us intended for your benefit and yours alone.”
Tony faltered, chest hurting from a painful happiness and wondering what on earth he was supposed to ask for. “You – you’re too generous,” he protested. “I’m getting enough by just getting to go back home to my family.”
“We will not take no for an answer,” Harley said, eyes twinkling with something akin to mischief. “Think on it – you will have the time.”
“But for now, we must send you to your next universe,” Pepper said. “Prepare yourself, Tony Stark, and be safe. We will watch over you.”
And as one, the six stones raised their hands – and the world faded.