in every corner
"I'm telling you, it's the channels! You don't understand them!"
"Yeah, well I'm pretty sure even dimensional whatever's can't bring back the dead!" Tony exclaimed. They were a good distance from the Milano, at his insistence. The thing that looked like Peter Quill seemed unable to step off of the ship, due to "spiritual connections or whatever, I don't know, that's what Strange said! Dude, stop walking away- dude!".
"I can't explain that either," Nebula agreed, "but dimensional channels have never been fully understood or documented. Whatever Thanos did with the Stones, there's a chance that the channels reacted with the power and can do things now that weren't possible before."
"What was possible before? I mean, why did you act so surprised when you saw these things?"
Nebula sighed. She deflated a little, the conviction in her voice fading into something pained. "They were essentially artificial Infinity Stones, created by The Other to aid Thanos in his search for the real ones. They resonate with the Stones, and he just followed the vibrations."
"So you're saying I have, what, Infinity Stones Lite embedded in my stomach? That Thanos can track with the Gauntlet?"
"No, they're powerful enough to repel that. But that's not the point. I'm saying that whatever you saw back there might be the real Quill. The channels have enough power, even cut up like the one you've absorbed, to do things you can't even imagine."
Tony looked back consideringly. Quill- if it was Quill- had stopped his jumping up and down and was sitting dejectedly on the steps. Would it hurt to go back and listen? After all, if this Peter had found a way back to the land of the living, maybe the other- No. It was safer not to go down that route.
"Stark. You are in the midst of something you don't understand. I was Thanos's daughter, and no matter how ashamed of that I am, it is something I will say again if it will make you listen. These channels can help us, if you let them. Go back there and figure out if it's really Quill. We can go from there."
Tony sighed, before nodding sharply and heading back towards the Milano. Quill was tapping his foot anxiously, so Tony sat down next to him, subtly brushing against a leg. There was an echo of resistance, but his gauntlet still went through the suit. Strike one against the back to life theory.
"I know, very ghostly and noncorporeal."
"You know the word corporeal?" Tony asked sarcastically.
"Uh, yeah, totally. Helped that your sorcerer friend went over the pronunciation a few times, I guess, but I totally knew it before." Quill looked less harried now and more expectant.
"So, what's your opening pitch? Ghost? Zombie? Extremely well-extrapolated hallucination?"
"No, no, and definitely no. I'm one of a kind, hallucination or not. Your sorcerer friend gave me a big speech to memorize and tell you but, one, it sounded boring and also sort of panic inducing, and two, I forgot a lot of it. So, here's my take. Thanos didn't kill us, just trapped us in a limbo dimension. Sorcerer thinks that it's a pocket dimension created by the Gauntlet's power, but no one else really cares. When you were healed with the channels, it created a connection between the Gauntlet dimensions and your body, hence why I'm here harassing you."
Tony said "fuck it" and went all in. If this was a hallucination, it was doing a great job of giving false hope. "There are other people in there with you? Why are you the only one here?"
"I'm getting to that! Anyways, it seems to be location based? And by location, I mean where we got dusted. I'm in here with the sorcerer, Drax and Mantis, and your spider kid. He's worried about you, by the way."
Tony choked back a sob. Quill gallantly pretended not to notice and kept going. "We haven't seen anyone else, but sorcerer dude guesses that there are millions or even billions of small pocket dimensions floating around, each holding some people. As to the whole me being the messenger deal, definitely not my choice, trust me. I'm not the greatest at this, as you can probably tell. Apparently it has something to do with astral connection and spiritual attachment to the Milano? Fuck if I know, but I sure do love my baby." He patted the stairs.
Nebula approached cautiously. "Everything okay, Stark?" She managed to look everywhere but directly at Quill.
"Peachy," Tony managed, trying not to let hope overwhelm him.
"Look, I can prove it to you," Quill insisted. "You don't know Nebula at all, right? So I'll tell you that she hates Tralfadorian meat, which is something you have no way of knowing. So, mental hallucination theory? Disproved. You can check with her, and then we can get this show on the road."
Tony repeated the statement to Nebula, who nodded consideringly towards a spot a few inches to Quill's right. "Didn't think you would pick up on that, but Gamora always said there was something inside that head other than a vacuum. Guess she wasn't entirely wrong." Both of them looked sad for a moment, before shaking it off in an eerily similar manner. Tony held back an inappropriate smile. Maybe they had a chance.