Chapter Text
They were the only ones left on Titan, the ashes of their friends and those who had fought with them laid to waste on the ground in the air. The planet itself was a wasteland, pieces of its former glory standing tall around them, while crumpled pieces of their moon was spread around them.
They were unlikely allies, and they knew it, both of them had lost so much. One of them not knowing the fate of his home planet, the other losing the only family she had ever really cared for.
Tony was in pain, the stab wound could only heal so much with what he had used, but he couldn’t get the image of Peter crumbling away in his hands out of his mind. The boy’s last words etched into his brain, and the knowledge that he had known that it was coming. He remembered Peter telling him about this growing power he had, a spidey sense he had called it, the fact that he can tell when danger was coming. It was a developing power and still only right half the time, but the one-time Tony had wished that Peter had been wrong about that power. Just one time, he had wished it, because the kid died in his hands and his ashes were under his fingernails, in his lungs clinging to him.
I don't want to go.. please, Sir... I don't want to go. Mr. Stark... I'm sorry
The words were ringing in his ears, everyone around them had turned to ash, everyone was gone because Strange was stupid enough to give the stone to Thanos. Now Tony wasn’t sure about anything. He looked around to see what was left, they needed to get off that hellish wasteland, they needed to get back to Earth because he needed to know who lived.
“We need to get off this god forsaken rock,” he said looking at the blue and purple woman standing in front of him. She was the one who had crash landed an alien craft on that purple mother fucker, so maybe she could help him.
“And where do you think we should go?” she looked at him as she slowly picked her fingernails. Tony could tell that it was a nervous habit, she was trying to distract herself from what had just happened. “We have nowhere to go, he left us here to die regardless of whether or not we survived.”
“Listen, I don’t care what you think, you can die here alone for all I care, but I need to see if my friends, my family, I need to know who lived, or at least what’s left of them,” he said looking back to where Peter had faded away.
The heaviness in his chest reminded him of the time he had his arc reactor imbedded in his chest, even the one that had housed his new armor wasn’t what it had once was. He could feel the tightness around his lungs as the casing had pushed aside enough just to make sure that it could fit. The memory of Yinsen push forward reminding him not to waste his life. Looking around at the wasteland around them, of a planet that had once been home to a madman he started to think that there had to be a way to change it all. The armor was in pieces around him, shattered around on the ground, and he didn’t care, he could build a new one, a better one. He needed the strongest medal he could find, because once he was done he was going to send that purple fucking grape into oblivion.
“We are getting off this rock,” he said standing up and looking her in the eye. He was going to go back to Earth and he was going to do what Avengers do, he was going to avenge those who had lost their lives.
Looking around he saw the ship that had been left behind by the guardians, he didn’t know how to fly it, he wasn’t sure if what he was doing was the right thing to do, but people sacrificed themselves to try and save the universe and he wasn’t going to let them die in vain. He didn’t look back to see if she had followed him, he didn’t care if she had, all he knew was that he needed to get home and he needed his suit.
Just as he made it to the back of the ship he felt his knees give out under him, his body was shaking and the pain from the stab wound had gotten worse. “Well shit,” he said before passing out on the ground.
Memories came forth in his sleep, his parents the last day he saw them, their funeral, Obie holding onto him. Obie’s betrayal, Yinsen dying, Afghanistan, the ten rings, every memory flashed through his mind and faded quickly. New York, the portal, the first time he saw the army, waking up with Ste—Rogers standing over him.
I’ll miss you Tony
All of a sudden, the memories from the accords, the war, and Rogers once again standing over him, the shield cracking into his armor. The truth of his parents’ deaths. His eyes snapped open, over his head was that blue and purple woman once again.
“You’re an idiot,” she said to him the moment his eyes had opened.
They were in a room somewhere on the ship, he knew that for sure because he was on a bed and not the cold hard floor. The ship wasn’t moving, they were still on that hell of a planet that took so much from him and left him stranded.
“Stop scowling, we’ll move when you’re not bleeding all over the place,” she said to him and he realized he didn’t even know who she was. If someone had said her name at some point when they had been fighting he didn’t register it over everything else that was happening.
“My name is Tony Stark,” he said to her hoping to at least get her name. They were going to be stuck together for a while because he knew that they both had the same goal.
“Nebula,” she said before turning away from him.
“What’s your beef with the purple grape?” he asked genuinely curious, they had all had something to fight for when this had started. He now had a bigger purpose now that it was over, he wanted those stones, he wanted everything back to the way it was supposed to be.
“He’s my father, and he killed the only real family I had just to get one of those stones,” she said not turning back. Tony couldn’t believe what he was hearing, how on Earth was she related to someone as crazy as Thanos. Could he truly trust her? He knew, at that moment, that he had no other choice but to put his trust in her, Thanos killed someone she cared about in the same way he had gone after those that Tony had cared for.
“Well everyone has a crazy relative they can’t stand,” he said as he sat up and moved his legs to touch the cold metal flood. “My father had more love for a soldier friend of his over his own kid, and my Uncle tried to kill me. But we’re in this together, and honestly we need to reverse everything Thanos has done just so that we can get our friends and family back.”
Nebula turned to look at him as if he had grown a third head, Tony knew that she was wondering why he hadn’t lashed out at him but honestly, he was tired of all of the drama in his life. If he could use the time stone himself he would change everything including the whole fight with Ste—Rogers. Hell, he would try and got back and fix the whole Ultron thing, but he didn’t have the stone, all he had was a space ship in the middle of the universe and a woman alien machine who he needed help from.
“Don’t worry too much, I’m guessing he’s an asshole dad, only loved one of you while they others suffered,” he said standing up. “But if we’re going to have any chance of fixing this, we need to get moving. I don’t know what he did, or what has happened after he left to make everyone turn to dust, but I’m sure as hell not going to allow him to get away with it.”
Looking around he saw that the ship was still intact even though a whole moon had been thrown at the planet, there were all kinds of things lying around the room from toys to clothes. Grabbing his shoes, he walked away and went towards the open hatch in the back and went looking for the pieces of his armor that had been shattered during the fight. He needed to get it working and hoped that there were tools he could use to fix it.
“So, you’re just going to get on some ship and travel the universe just to find out who lived?” she asked him once he had come back with pieces of the broken suit.
“Yes, because that’s what Avengers do, we avenge when some asshole decides to fuck with us,” he said before walking off and picking up more pieces of the suit.
“That’s stupid, if we have any chance of defeating my father we should go after him directly,” she yelled out.
Tony turned towards her, dropping everything he just picked up, “Listen, we went after him, do you see anyone else who survived, do you know how many of us it took to just get that glove off of him and we didn’t succeed because Quill freaked out on him. If we’re going to do this we need to do it together.”
The words reminded him of a long-lost conversation with Rogers just after Ultron had busted into their party, after years of taking down Hydra cells all over the world.
Does anybody remember when I put a missile through a portal, in New York City? We were standing right under it. We're the Avengers, we can bust weapons dealers the whole doo-da-day, but how do we cope with something like that?
That portal had started it all, Loki had started them on the path they were on, because if Thor had never come to Earth everything would have been different. But he can’t fault anyone for that, everything that happened had happened because of those damn stones.
Together. Steve…Rogers had said to him.
We'll lose.
We do that together too.
He tried his best to keep them together, because that’s how they were going to keep the world safe, but in the end the secrets that had been held back by Steve, because there was no way he could stop calling him that, the accords, the rift that had developed from him creating Ultron, had all but ripped it all apart. If Strange was right and out of fourteen million possible outcomes the only one where they win needed Tony alive, he was damn well going to make sure he didn’t mess it up.
“You can come with me, or you can stay here I don’t really give a damn, but I’m going to get to my team and I’m going to find a way to fix this hell that your father created,” he said trying to keep his voice steady, he knew it wasn’t her fault, it wasn’t his fault, it was no one’s fault, it was only the fault of those who had wished this hell on them.
Nebula stood there for a moment before nodding and turning towards where he had dropped the bits of his armor. She picked up what she could before walking off towards the ship without another word. Tony stood there and took a deep breath before turning towards where Peter had died, where the guardians had had their final moments, where Strange had sacrificed everything just to save him. He walked to the ship and grabbed the first set of empty containers he could find before walking out and began putting as much of their ashes into them before walking back to the ship and placing them near his armor. He wanted to remember their lives, even though he hadn’t known some of them for very long.
“I’m going to fix this,” he said to their ashes before turning towards the cockpit and sitting down. “Do you know how to fly one of these?”
“Yes,” was all she said before the ship took off.
Tony was tired, the fight with Thanos, the flight to save Peter, to save Strange, the battle on the streets of New York, it had all taken a toll on him. His body was exhausted, but he couldn’t sleep just yet. He watched as the sky changed color, as the deep darkness of space expanded around them. Memories of the battle of New York, the nuke floating in his head, everything he feared had come to life in front of him. He wondered if Bruce had found Steve, if they were all together when the inevitable had happened. Were they with family, had they found a way to save Vision, who had survived.
“Get some sleep, we’re going to be flying for some time,” Nebula said without looking back at him. He had a million questions for her, about her mechanical parts, about her father, her family, why she looked as broken as he felt.
Nothing was said aloud, instead Tony stood and walked away looking for a change of clothes and a way to take a shower, to take away the grime and the ashes of those he couldn’t protect. He found clothes that were a little too big on him, it reminded him of that time he had to wear SHIELD issued pants that were two sizes too big for him after a battle had gone on too long and his clothes had been soaked in some foreign substance. All around him were signs that these people had lived a different type of life than he had, there was an old Zune player on one of the shelves, it made him laugh it was such a long time ago when they had come out. On another was an old game from the 80s, a troll doll, all kinds of things that he hadn’t seen in years. It was eerie to see them, but Quill was from Earth so it could have been that he hadn’t been back for a long time.
He laid down on the bed and stared at the metal ceiling, the ship was flying somewhere in space, somewhere he never thought he would be. He wondered if this is how Thor felt when he had first come to Earth, the eerie feeling that you’re far from home, that the stars are not your own, and you didn’t know if you would see them again. Closing his eyes, he let himself think of a better time, no battles, no wars, when his family was still around and not separated.
Tony found himself dreaming of movie nights with the team, leaning against Steve as he took the popcorn from him. Thor asking about the things he saw in Star Wars, wondering if those creatures existed. Natasha bored out of her mind, painting his toe nails just because it was better than watching Star Wars for the fourth time because one of them hadn’t seen it yet. Clint on his phone texting someone, who Tony now knew was his wife and kids, while Bruce read some papers that someone had sent him on gamma rays.
The dream changed all of a sudden, he was back on Titan, the planet in ruins, except instead of the ashes of those who had died, he saw his team dying in front of him. The vision that Wanda had shown him so long ago playing out in his mind again. Ultron standing over him, taunting him before pushing him aside and killing his family.
“You could have saved them Stark,” he said before the world blew up around them.
He screamed out as he woke up in a foreign place, Ultron didn’t exist but it didn’t stop the panic attack that was fresh in his mind, in his heart, in the sweaty palms of his hands. His body shook as he tried to control the feeling of watching everyone die in front of him. He regretted not making that phone call, he had held onto that phone for two years, always keeping it charged, never letting it out of his sight. There had been a message on the phone before the attack on New York had happened, but he would never know what it had said.
“You scream in your sleep,” Nebula said scaring him even more, he hadn’t seen her come into the room let alone notice that she had been standing right over him the entire time.
“Don’t do that,” he said his voice hoarse. “I have a heart condition.”
Nebula sighed before sitting down next to him, he put her hand on his shoulder and squeeze a little. She was trying to comfort him, and he knew it but he noticed how stiff she was, which meant she had never received comfort from anyone before. He realized that not everyone had a mother like his, but even his mother had her faults, but he loved her anyway.
“When I was little,” he said looking at the far end of the room. “My mother used to sing to me in Italian,” when Nebula looked at him funny he realized that not everyone had dialects like those on Earth. “It’s a language where I’m from, anyway, she always used to sing to me when she was putting me to bed. This was before my father told her to stop coddling me, that I’m a boy and one day I was going to be the head of the company. When she stopped, I started wondering what I had done wrong, it took me a long time to realize that none of it had been my fault.”
“Why are you telling me this?” she asked him before taking her hand back and placing it on her lap.
“Because someone out there loved you once and you lost them to a father who didn’t care so much about you. Maybe you hated that person at one point but in the end, they were your anchor to the world.”
Nebula nodded and stared out at the same space he had been staring at. “My sister Gamora,” she said, her voice heavy with emotions that she may not have been used to. “She sacrificed herself for me, Quill was her lover and that could be the reason why he had reacted as he had. We all gave up so much growing up, we have no, what is it that you call it.”
“Humanity is probably what you’re looking for,” he said to her.
“I used to fight her as a child, every time she won, my father would replace a part of my body with something mechanical, until all that was left of who I was… gone. But all I wanted was for her to be my sister, she kept fighting me no matter what, I had been with him the longest out of all of his children. The Black Order were his disciples but to him they were also his children, but I sometimes wonder, if I was the only one of all of them that was truly his child. I may never know, I don’t even remember my mother.”
They sat there for a long time, the room quiet, a soft hum vibrated through the ship, they didn’t know what to say to one another. They had been thrown into whatever this was by chance and by the will of one mad man hell bent on destroying the universe.
“Who’s flying the ship,” he said after he couldn’t stand the silence any longer.
“It’s on autopilot, we’re too far from any habitable planet, the closest one is half a day’s journey, well it was when you had left me, but I not sure if I would be welcomed there.”
“What did you try to blow it up or something,” he said, meaning for it to be a joke but when she said nothing he knew it was true. “Really, your tried to blow it up.”
“I wanted revenge, on my father, on my sister, on everyone who had forsaken me, and at the time only one being was helping me.”
“You sound like an angry teenager when you put it that way,” he said thinking back to Peter before shaking his head and pushing the thought away. He didn’t have time to mourn, he needed to get home and find a way to defeat Thanos. “Let’s think of a game plan, we may not have to stop there, we’ll know when we get close enough.”
Nebula stood up and walked off towards the front of the ship, he followed her knowing that sleep was too far off from him. He needed his workshop, his bots, his toys, he needed to create something to fix all of this and he wasn’t sure of where to start. Tony didn’t have time to think about anything before a distress signal came through the communications array near the driver’s seat.
“What is that?” he asked walking over and listening in. “What’s happening?”
“We’re near Xandar, and it seems as if they weren’t spared from Thanos’ wrath,” she said as the planet came into view.
Even from thousands of miles away Tony could tell that something was wrong, he didn’t have to think twice about going down there.
“We have to help them,” he said turning his attention towards Nebula who was ready to fly away from the planet.
“You’re hurt, you’re in no condition to help them, they had a stone on that planet, it’s the only reason it’s like that now, we can’t help them,” she said to him ready to fly away as quickly as possible.
“We are going to help them,” he said saying each word carefully, he wasn’t going to abandon a planet just because it would be safer. He didn’t give a damn, all he knew was that they were attacked by the same monster that had attacked him and his own.
“Fine, do what you want, but the moment they attempt to arrest me I will take this ship and leave you there, I don’t give a damn who you are,” she said as she steered the ship towards what seemed to be the area with the most damage.
“How about you start making amends with who you once were,” he said to her as he sat down in the seat next to hers. “Wipe some of the red off your ledger and try to make yourself into a better person.”
“Because people will use you and betray you just to get what they want,” she answered him automatically. “I’m done with others using me.”
“I said the same thing, and you know what I did, I made a suit of armor and worked on helping those I wronged.”
“And look where you are now,” she turned to him anger in her eyes. “Trillions of miles from home and no way back, a madman wiping out half the universe, and those who worked with you are dead.”
“Yeah well, at least I want to try and fix it all because I damn well sure am not going to sit back and let them all die in vain.”
She was silent for the rest of the decent down into what she had called Xandar, he wondered what the planet would have looked like if not for the smoke billowing around them. Everything was on fire, and they were still miles from the surface.