i can't help myself
It had been three days since everyone had died. Tony had to repeat that word often, to keep from drifting off in a feverish haze of denial. Died. Died. Died. Just because there were no bodies didn't mean anything- he still remembered the smell of burning flesh, shreds of army uniform, splattered fluid that was too thick to be just blood. A corpse was not a prerequisite for death.
He looked up blearily as Nebula stalked over. She had disappeared right after the deaths, and hadn't returned until now. "I found it. Get up."
He blinked at her. "Found what?"
"The Milano. The ship. Quill was smart enough to keep it out of the wreck, and it's still pilotable. Get the fuck up." He didn't respond, too busy staring at his grimy hands. He didn't dare touch anything, for fear of disturbing the dust sunken into the creases. He was carrying what was left of Peter.
"Get up!" Nebula said, and this time, her voice cracked with fear. Tony looked up, and caught the tail end of her expression. Young, scared, lost. Orphaned by a genocidal maniac who had succeeded in killing her sister, before killing the rest of the universe. A child who never had the chance to stay young, a child with body parts torn off and replaced, a child with no tear ducts because she was engineered that way. She was grieving too, but she had gotten up and trekked three days round to find a way off Titan. He would help her accomplish that, if nothing else.
Tony struggled to a sitting position, breath rattling. The nanites had done their best, but they only managed the superficial. Ironic that Nebula had come back with a plan in time to watch Tony die. A wound from his own tech, no less.
Nebula seemed to sense his thoughts. "You're not dying on this godforsaken planet. What do you have left of your suit?" Tony pointed at the cylinder of nanites that weren't sealing his wound shut. The mini arc reactors were peppered throughout. Nebula plucked one out, cracking the casing like it wasn't specially engineered to resist blunt force (and sharp shields). Her jaw dropped.
Tony watched distantly. He had seen that reaction to his tech often enough, though he did admit the lack of greed in her eyes was reassuring. Still, he knew his reactors inside and out. There was no shrapnel to extract this time, so shoving that into his wound would just be a faster death. Maybe she could power the ship with them after he died? It was funny. Tony-before-Titan would've worried about her misusing the reactors, causing explosions, bringing it back to Earth. Tony-after-Titan hoped the explosion would look good from hell.
"Stark, do you know what you have here?" Nebula crouched beside him. "I didn't think dimensional channels existed anymore, yet you manage to have dozens of them on your suit and not even use them. How did you find th- never mind. We have more pressing matters."
"Dimensional channels? No, they-"
"Have they ever done anything unexplained? Something Terra would call magic, I suppose." Tony thought of Loki's mad eyes, glinting blue behind the scepter, the anticlimactic 'tink' of magic dissipating. Maybe.
She opened a panel in her arm, drawing out a scalpel-like blade that was so fine the point disappeared from sight, yet still reflected light. "I'll use the atomic blade to divide them, but the absorption process won't be as easy."
"Absorption?" His head was still spinning from the effort of remaining upright, let alone processing that his arc reactors were some mystical force.
Nebula was carving away at the reactor. Pieces of crystal-like shards fell onto the ground and stopped glowing. "You'll insert the sharp ends of these under the skin at your body's natural anchor points. They'll absorb the necessary energy from alternate dimensions and heal you."
"Alternate dimensions," he said flatly. She didn't look up from the carving.
A few minutes later, she held a set of what looked like crystal needles, still glowing. When she looked pointedly at him, he nodded. Not like his life could get worse at this point. She helped him struggle to a standing position, before tapping the shards in around his wound. It felt like acupuncture needles, but he had never seen needles sink through the skin and disappear. It reminded him faintly of Ebony Maw impaling Strange, and he had to look away from his own body for fear of screaming.
The difference was so sudden he didn't have a chance to recognize the shift. He was suddenly standing all the way up, not hunched over, and the myriad bruises and probable concussion were gone. Nebula looked awed.
"Do you... want one?" Tony offered awkwardly as the nanites encapsulated his body once more. He held out one of the reactors, trying not to be freaked out by how good he felt physically. Maybe he had actually died and this was his brain's last hurrah?
"You can't offer things like that casually," Nebula said, although it was hoarse and she kept darting looks at his seamless torso.
"I promise you, whatever this offer is, it isn't casual."
"Stark, you don't know what you hold in your hand or what damage it could do, especially in my hands." She held up her arms to make an emphasis- one blue, one metal.
Tony didn't have a response to that. He was too busy looking over her shoulder, at the Milano. There was a figure stumbling down the steps of the ship.
"Get behind me," he hissed, before the helmet rushed over his head. He looked at the display and saw- nothing. No heat signatures, no air disturbances. The external camera couldn't even capture an image. Whoever it was, they were good.
"What are you looking at?" Nebula asked. Tony let the helmet fold back in, before looking back at the ship. The figure had reached the bottom of the disembarking steps and had stopped there, gesturing wildly in their direction. It was a poorly designed trap.
"Who are you?" Tony said, letting the sound reverb a bit through the suit. A tinny yell from the ship. He strode forward angrily. He was in no mood to deal with this. The only other people on Titan he had considered allies were gone. Whoever it was had to be an enemy.
That is, until Tony got within viewing distance. He slowed to a stop. "What the fuck." He turned to Nebula: she was looking at the ship, but gave no indication of seeing what Tony saw. "What the fuck."
"Iron suit dude! You can see me, right? I can't go any further but you need to listen right now."
"I guess I did die," Tony said, ignoring Nebula's worried looks. "Or maybe I've been poisoned. If I was going to hallucinate anybody, I did not expect it would be Missouri Lord."