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[I shouldn’t be alive…]
He looks to Strange.
Thanos is one second away from snapping his fingers. He’s a second away from undoing everything they’ve worked tirelessly doing.
He’s a second away from winning.
Tony can’t have that.
[Unless it was for a reason.]
So, he looks to Strange. What can Tony do in that instance to stop Thanos?
He feels it in his bones, what he has to do. But he needs direction from the person who actually knows how this ends.
[I’m not crazy, Pepper.]
Strange is already looking at him when their eyes meet.
The look in his eye is pained and troubled. At Tony, he nods carefully, slowly, and raises one finger.
One.
One chance of undoing everything Thanos has done and ever will do.
One.
And this was it.
[I just finally know what I have to do.]
Tony knew what he had to do.
He stomped up to Thanos with his slowly dying suit of armor and attacks him.
He knows it's a lost cause.
But defeating Thanos is not what he's going for, right now.
He grabs the Infinity Stones. Without thinking logically (he is thinking, but it’s more along the lines of MorganMorganMorganPeterOhMyGodMorganPleaseForMorganMorganMorga--), he places the Infinity Stones upon his own gauntlet and prepares to welcome the excruciating pain he saw Bruce and Thanos become overwhelmed by.
He’s used to pain. He can handle this. He can take anything the world throws at him because that’s what he’s been doing his whole life he can do this he can--
But… it didn’t happen.
He feels the stones thrum with energy on top of his hand. It doesn't hurt. It’s warm. The stones seemed to welcome him. They caressed power into his slowly dying being, not wanting to hurt him, only wanting to embolden him. Reinvigorate him with the power he was born to have. They whisper, He’s here. He has come home!
Home.
Yes, his insides were slowly melting into nothing, and he knows he’s going to die in a few seconds, but this as close to home as he’s gonna get right now. This feeling inside him, the raw energy and power coursing through him isn’t anything like he’s ever felt before. But, it’s so familiar, and so welcoming.
He misses Morgan.
His real home.
But the fight isn’t over. The stones guide him into what he has to do. He isn’t walking alone. They instruct him to think of ridding Thanos and his army of this earth, and bringing justice to his family. They instruct him to think so vividly and clearly, so as to not wish for something else.
He does. He thinks clearly of what he wants the stones to do, of what he wants to do to save his universe. He thinks of Thanos’ army disappearing, he thinks of their weapons fading away into nothingness, he thinks of Thanos, dusting away for eternity, he thinks of Morgan’s smile and hugs--.
He backtracks, he doesn’t think of that.
But the stones have already heard.
And he’s running out of time.
So he mimics Thanos’, “I am inevitable,” bullshit, to something more… Tony.
“I… am… Iron Man.”
He snaps his fingers.
-
He wakes for a brief moment, and spots Thanos being carried away by the wind.
He smiles.
Thank you, he whispers to the stones. Thank you for allowing me to wield your power for just a moment.
The stones giggle. My dear, it isn’t your time just yet. You have a daughter to see to, and a world to save, remember?
He smiles. He knows he’s going to die, and Pepper knows he’s going to die, and Peter--
...Knows that he is going to die.
The stones are wrong. He isn’t going to see his daughter again. The sheer and utter pain that he feels in the pit of his stomach and his right hand are enough proof of that fact.
His stomach drops and he suddenly can't breath (not only because of the reality stone making a home of his body), as he realizes two things.
Morgan is going to grow up fatherless.
Morgan is going to resent him.
But Morgan is alive.
And that’s all that matters.
Morgan.
Morgan.
Morgan...
-
He wakes up.
[And I know in my heart that it’s right.]