“There was no other way.” Dr Strange said, his eyes trained on Tony, before giving one last sigh and dissolved into ash.
“Mr Stark-“ Tony turned abruptly from the remains of the Sorcerer as they were blown across Titan to face h-the kid. “I don’t feel so good.” There was a desperate and panicked edge in Peter’s voice. No, not Peter too.
“You’re alright.” Tony replied worry colouring his voice as he faced th-no. Peter was his kid. He was the reason that Peter was on this desolate planet. May had trusted him since she found out about her nephew was Spider-Man. He’d sworn to her to keep Peter safe and he knew he’d failed.
“I-I don’t know what’s happening.” Peter said, his voice breaking as he tried his best to fight off the panic, stumbling towards Tony. “I don’t understand.”
Tony held on to Peter as his kid crashed against the Billionaire’s frame. “I don’t wanna go. I don’t wanna go.” Tony and Peter gripped onto each other, Tony gripping on desperately to the back of Peter’s suit and Peter grasped at Tony’s under armour. “Please, please I don’t wanna go. I don’t wanna go.”
Both of them suddenly stumbled and fell as Peter’s legs have way. The younger’s back hit the rocks with a crash and it knocked some of the air from his lungs.
Two pairs of brown eyes, eerily similar, locked with each other. Each pair trying frantically to memorise the features of the other’s face in the short few seconds they had to do so, both knowing this was the end.
“I’m sorry...Dad.” Peter whispered as his bright and intelligent eyes dimmed and his body also dissolved into ash, leaving Tony with nothing but a broken heart and ash stained hands.
Tony had to rip his eyes away from where he watched Peter die and cradled what was left of Peter Parker, his son, to his lips and then rested his ash stained hands against his chest. “Peter? Peter! Don’t leave me buddy, I need you.” Tony called out across the desolate landscape of Titan, Tony’s voice shook with the effort it took to hold back tears. His mind temporarily flashing to Tennessee when he’d said similar things to J.A.R.V.I.S after Killian had attacked his Malibu home.
The genius struggled to breath as he thought about his old AI, leading him to think about Harley Keener, the kid that had helped him out during the time he was away from home. Tony had secretly been keeping an eye on him and helping him fund his college education from afar. Was Harley even alive? What about Rhodey? Happy? Pepper? The ex-Avengers? How many of them were left to fight? What was he going to tell May? He’d promised to keep her nephew safe.
“Why didn’t you take me?” Tony shouted at the Universe. “Why did you have to take him? He was just a kid! He had his whole life ahead of him! He didn’t deserve to die, my son didn’t deserve to die!” With this, any self control that Tony had managed to maintain shattered as harsh sobs wracked his body, echoing across the planet, and tears streamed down his face uncontrollably. “It should have been me, I should have been the one to die. Not him, not Peter. Answer me! Why did you have to take him?”
“The Universe will not answer.” A voice from behind Tony made him jump as he looked to see the blue skinned alien from before. Her expression was blank but it didn’t take a lot for Tony to see that she was grieving just as much as he was. “The Universe will never answer, even if you most desperately want it to.”
With this, Tony frantically wiped the tears from his eyes using the sleeves of his under armour and took a long shuddering breath. He’d completely forgotten about the woman from earlier, his attention had been more on the rest of the Guardians, Strange and Peter as they all faded into nothing. Tony stood, looking once more to the place where Peter had called him ‘Dad’ for the first and last time. He’d hoped to carry whatever remained of Peter back with him to Earth but it had all been blown away when Peter died, the only remaining pieces of ash were those that stained Tony’s hands.
“We need to go to Earth.” Tony told the woman, “there are others that have been fighting Thanos’ forces there. We’ll need them if we’re to defeat him.” With that the woman nodded and stalked off towards the Milano? Is that what Quill had called it? As Tony followed her, he tried to wipe Peter’s ashes off of his hands but he was unable to. So his hands became Tony’s newest reminder that he’d have to carry around, proof that he’d failed another loved one and family member.
***
Once Tony and Nebula, he’d finally managed to find out her name but other than that she refused to tell him any more information about herself, had returned to Earth, landing in Wakanda when they’d figured out where the worst of the assault had occurred, he was shocked to find his old teammates alive but was just as surprised to find Wakanda in mourning after the loss of their King. Tony had thought of T’Challa one of the strongest men he knew, but even that wasn’t enough to prevent the power of the Infinity Gauntlet.
He’d talked to his old team, collapsed into the arms of Rhodey when he saw him standing in the War Machine armour and sobbed as he grieved not only for Peter and May, but for Pepper whom Happy had discovered as a pile of ash in her home after she was late to a date with Happy as well as the people he had been fighting with on Titan to try and stop Thanos from getting any more of the stones. Tony had seen Rhodey mourn over Sam, Steve mourn over Bucky, Okoye, Shuri and Nakia mourn over T’Challa, Natasha mourn for Wanda and Vision, but he also saw Bruce look over the old team and see nothing but sadness and self loathing in his eyes, and no matter how many times everyone tried to convince him none of this was Bruce’s fault, the scientist would brush it off.
It was only after everyone’s wounds had been healed did they start to plan, relying on the information that Steven Strange had provided in order to help carry out the only possibility he had seen of defeating Thanos. With that plan in place, they were ready.
It was time to bring the fight to Thanos.
***
They’d done it. It took time travel, blood, sweat and a hell of a lot of tears to defeat Thanos, but they’d done it. Now everyone that had been wiped out by the Infinity Gauntlet had returned.
It had been a shock to see everyone back, it had been so empty with half of Earth’s population gone, becoming dust in the wind. Nebula and Rocket had not taken the news well that they were the only two Guardians left after Tony had come back from Titan, but it had been weirder for Tony to find out from Thor, that Loki had not only faked his death twice, but had given up his life to save Thor’s.
The old team of Avengers had managed to reconnect through their grief of losing those they loved. They’d been shocked that Nick Fury and Maria Hill had been turned to dust but also grateful that Nick Fury had sent a beacon out to Captain Marvel who had been a great help in the final battle with Thanos.
One thing that had helped Tony through the fight was finding out that Harley Keener had survived. He’d travelled to see him as soon as he found out about the news, tightly hugging the kid and sobbing into his neck, grateful that at least one of the young adults he was looking out for had made it; and when he found out that Harley’s mother and sister had fallen victim to the Infinity Gauntlet he asked the teenager to move in with him until he got his life settled and his college courses had started back up again after being cancelled because of what had happened.
The ash stained hands that Tony possessed haunted him every day, until it got to the point where he could no longer bare to look at them unless he absolutely had to, every time he looked at them, all he could see was Peter’s face looking up at him and the light fading from his eyes, his child’s final words ringing through his mind. I’m sorry Dad.
But now it was over, Strange’s plan had worked and there were reunions and celebrations throughout all of the galaxies as it rejoiced knowing that their loved ones had been returned to them as they had been before they were atomised.
Tony scanned the group that was crowding around the Avengers, he’s spotted Sam and Rhodey hugging, Natasha talking to Vision who stood next to Wanda and many others including Pepper meeting with her family and Tony has the fortune to meet Pepper’s Uncle Morgan. But the most emotional reunion he had seen so far had to have been May and Peter’s because both of them had clung to each other and that is how they had remained until the crowd shifted and blocked the two of them from Tony’s sight.
Tony constantly scanned and searched for the one person he had yet to be reunited with amongst the countless tear stained faces and smiles of joy. It didn’t take him long to spot Steve, tears streaked his face and ran into his beard as he stayed plastered to Bucky’s side, who was also sporting a small, but genuine smile. It was the first time that Tony had seen Bucky truly smile and he was glad that the ex-assassin had recovered. Despite that he still couldn’t find the person that he was desperately looking for, that was until Tony heard a familiar voice, one that had haunted his dreams for over a year.
“Dad!”
Tony’s head snapped towards the direction of that voice and pulled the figure into a hug. “Peter.” Tony whispered, turning his face into his kids neck, unable to stop the tears of joy that escaped his eyes as he held his child again.
“It’s okay. I’m here, I’m not going anywhere.”
“I lost you once Peter. Don’t ever let me go through that again.” Tony begged “I can’t lose my son again.”
A wide grin broke out on Peter’s face at that, and he leant his head on Tony’s, with this he made a solemn vow, one he never intended to break. “You won’t lose me Dad. I promise.” He gripped his Father as tight as he could without breaking or damaging Tony.
Ash stained hands clasped Peter’s shoulders and pushed him gently away until he was standing an arm’s width away from Tony. The hands shifted to cup his face, and the teenager took comfort in the calluses and scars that dotted the long fingers.
“Let’s go home. There’s someone I’d like you to meet.”