Chapter Text
Tony Stark did not fear death. He should’ve been dead several times over - every minute since that cave in Afghanistan was stolen. He cheated death, and it came back to haunt him.
He had been here before; lived in the echo of his trauma. The shadows followed him back into the real world. Tony had accepted that the darkness would follow him for the rest of his life. He could manage that. But this - this was carnage. And the darkness swallowed him whole.
The pain was raw and fresh and burned in the core of his chest. It bubbled up into his throat. It caught in his stomach. It oozed through the gash in his side. The pain held him still against the dust and the dirt.
Tony screamed. He smashed his fist into the ground. He pulled back the armour and drove his fist against the rock again. And again, and again, until his knuckles were bloodied and his bones ached. The throbbing sting pulled away from the grief.
It was his fault. He cheated death, again. And it cost the life of his team.
“Get up,” someone said. Tony felt a hand wrap around his arm.
“It should’ve been me,” he whispered.
“Yes, it should’ve.”
Tony turned. The words didn’t cut him as deeply as the stranger - as Nebula - meant them to. “They’re all gone.”
“We need to move,” Nebula hissed and pulled Tony up again. “We have to go now or we stand no chance.”
“What part of this don’t you get? We lost. It’s over.” Tony pushed her away and sat in the dirt. Ash clung to him, to his face, to his hands. Little black half-moons under his fingernails. His team. His kid.
“As long as Thanos is still breathing it is not over,” Nebula stared at Tony. “I will follow him to the ends of the universe because this is not over.”
Tony stared back. “They’re gone.”
Nebula hauled Tony to his feet. “Quill’s ship is here still. It’s the only way you’re ever getting off of Titan. And you’re not staying here. Your life cost half the universe, and you’ll be onboard the Milano when it takes off.”
Tony opened his mouth to protest, to tell her off, to beg to be left to die. He deserved that fate.
Nebula cut him off. “This is not your choice. This is your duty.”
Tony nodded, numb. He followed her across the ruined planet, over the hunks of moon and metal wreckage. The world was chaos - primordial disorder.
Tony had been four years old when the first men landed on the moon. He recalled it, vaguely, never sure if it was a true memory or dreams that he remembered as true. But he had never doubted that anything was possible, if you had brains and the right tools. He had always known that the realm of reality was defined by the powerful.
And now, for the first time, he wished it wasn’t. He wished there were still things in the universe that just weren’t possible , no matter how much power someone had. He would take being dead in a cave, with his chest full of shrapnel over this life.
Quill’s ship sat in the rubble. The damage was minimal; only cosmetic.
“You’re lucky,” Nebula said.
Tony laughed. “I really don’t think that’s quite how I would put it.”
“The magician thought your life was worth an infinity stone. You’re the only one to walk away from Titan. You really think that’s not luck?”
Tony paused. “You’re here too.”
“That’s not luck. Thanos killed half of all life. I’m not alive.” She sat in the pilot’s seat and worked the controls. Tony didn’t protest.
“We go to earth.”
Nebula stared at him. “There’s nothing left there. Thanos will have moved on by now.” She punched in coordinates. “We need to be ahead of Thanos, not behind him.”
Tony put his hand on her arm. Nebula glared at him. “No,” he said. “We go to earth, or I’m not going at all, okay Smurfette? We can’t get ahead of Thanos if we don’t know how it played out on earth.”
Nebula’s eyes narrowed. “They lost. That’s how it plays out.”
“I need to tell his aunt.” Tony’s voice broke. “She deserves to know. And I have to be the one to tell her.”
Nebula’s face softened. She didn’t speak.
“Not just for the kid. Everyone who fought, everyone who died deserves to know what happened on Titan. We can’t let them be forgotten.”
Her breath was short. “No. No, we can’t.”