Chapter 1
This was the final battle. Tony knew this. He’d reversed the effects of the snap, but he knew that Thanos would keep trying, no matter what.
Tony glanced at everyone fighting Thanos- Steve kept charging him, Strange was sending magical attacks at him, Clint was shooting explosive arrows, Nat was attacking him from behind, and a few others. Carol and the Guardians were in space, destroying the last of Thanos’s forces with some backup from what remained of the Nova Corps. Others were scattered around the world, keeping the citizens calm and explaining what had happened. Tony made sure Peter was doing that, since there was no way he’d be allowed to fight Thanos again.
Still, with all the power that was attacking Thanos, even without his gauntlet, they were slowly being overwhelmed.
“Hey Stark, could you hurry up with that surprise plan of yours?” Clint called into the comms as he moved positions once again to keep Thanos from getting near him.
“Yeah, almost ready!” Tony replied, trying to keep the anxiousness from reaching his voice.
Tony was ready. He knew that it was a high chance the stones would kill him if he wielded them, but he had thought this through, and had been thinking of it for months. He needed to protect his family. So he did what anyone else would do.
He put on the suit with a built in gauntlet, and then he used the tongs he had designed exactly for this purpose to wield the Infinity Stones.
Tony put the stones in as quickly as he could, and then for a few seconds he felt... powerful. Ecstatic. He could do anything. He could use this to make a real suit of armor around the world.
He looked at the stones, smiling, and examined them from each side and then-
Tony was snapped back into reality when pain started radiating from the arm wielding the gauntlet.
He knelt down, clutching his right arm with his left hand, and remembered a conversation he had had with Carol a couple months after the snap.
——————————————————————
“Tony... what is this?”
Tony turned from his workbench and looked over to where Carol was admiring his armors.
She was looking at one at the end of the row, and he stood up as he realized that she was looking at the armor he had been working on. The one he had dubbed “The Gauntlet Armor.”
“Please tell me you won’t use this.”
“Carol, I need to beat him. And the only way to do that is to use his own weapons against him.”
“I get it, but normal humans can’t wield the Infinity Stones without dying!”
“I’ll have my armor,” Tony protested.
“Your armor may not be enough. I doubt I would be able to wield the stones without getting seriously injured.”
“I need to do this. It’s the only way to beat him.”
“It’s not, and you know it. Promise me you won’t use this.”
Tony stayed silent.
“Promise me.”
“Okay.”
——————————————————————
The world slowly came back into focus for Tony, and as he listened over the comms he realized that Carol must have returned from destroying Thanos’s armies with the Guardians.
“-rol can help us try and keep Thanos in one place until we can get help from whatever it is that Tony has been planning,” Steve instructed.
“Wait, what’s Tony been planning?” Carol asked.
“No clue, he kept saying that it was a surprise and it would defeat Thanos,” Clint snorted.
Tony stood up, wincing as the pain slowly spread.
“Here goes...” he muttered, activating the boot thrusters and flying out from behind the rocky outcropping and heading towards the battlefield.
As he approached, he noticed that His Highness Kitty Cat must’ve joined the battle too; either that, or Shuri had stolen the Black Panther suit. He hoped it was T’Challa, since T’Challa had much more experience in fighting than his younger sister.
Tony also saw Carol, but he knew that she was definitely holding back on her powers, probably because she was worrying about destroying the continent or something.
“Hey, Stark’s coming back!” Clint cheered.
“Welcome back to the battle, we’ve been waiting for your help,” Strange added, struggling to try and keep Thanos still.
“Yes, it is I! Your savior is here!” Tony did his best to sound like his normal self.
“Whooo!” The Avengers cheered over the comms.
Tony smiled sadly, and for a second he thought that maybe they could defeat Thanos without the stones.
Then Thanos threw Carol a couple hundred yards away, knocked down Strange and Steve, and swatted Scott off his shoulder, who landed next to a tree and didn’t get back up. Hope started to fly towards him, but then had to turn around and fight Thanos, since he had tried to grab her.
Tony closed his eyes. He had to do this. For
Steve, Thor, Nat, Bruce, Clint, Sam, Quill and the Guardians and for everyone else. And for Happy and Peter and Rhodey. And especially for Pepper.. and for his daughter to grow up in a world not shaken by the horrible loss of half the universe.
He opened his eyes, and sped up his thrusters. He could hear people talking, yelling over the comms.
“Shit! Tony, you promised you wouldn’t use them!” Carol was yelling as she stood up.
“Stark, humans can’t take the power of the gauntlet!” Strange shouted.
“Tony! You can’t do this! We don’t trade lives!” Steve begged.
He did his best to ignore it all, not noticing the tears streaming down his face as he flew at Thanos.
Tony clenched his fist, black spots threatening his vision as the pain increased, activating the stones one by one.
Thanos turned just in time to see a marvelous red and gold fist bejeweled in Infinity Stones hurtling at his face.
A white light blinded all of the onlookers.
And the last thing Tony thought before the world went black hoping that an afterlife was real, so he could see Pepper one last time.