Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

In the beginning, there was only one form of life. The being was lost in the black of the empty until slowly the universe formed around them; worlds took up the darkness, bright balls of gas filled the furthest corners of the universe. The biggest, brightest and hottest of them, the being called the Sun.

But, before the universe came into existence; the being was gifted a name, bestowed power and decided a gender. Infinity; that was the name that the primordial being heard whispered into non-existent ears. The soundless voice dubbed them Infinity and six stones shimmered into being. Infinity chose a male form, but he was of no race and he was one of a kind. None were like him and none would be. The rings encircled Infinity, glowing as they became a part of him; wrapped in golden barriers, the gems fit into gold rings that appeared on the pinkies, the middle fingers and the thumbs that existed yet didn’t.

——LINE BREAK——

Centuries upon centuries passed and only when planets and populations grew rapidly that Time spoke up; the stone foretold future threats that headed Infinity’s way. With each burst of life, the myth of Infinity and his Stones spread from creature to creature until someone mad enough would search for them. The being was unsure what to do with this information; he was not naive nor arrogant enough to believe that he was invincible. He turned to the other stones for their ideas.

“Flee to the other side of the universe where there is nothing to threaten us,” was Space’s suggestion as the blue stone shone brightly on his hand,

“Only cowards flee,” proclaimed Power, the purple hue of the gem overshadowing Space, “we have the ability to wipe out the fools that seek us; the power to destroy planets if we so desire!”

“We could manipulate the minds of those who know of us; make them forget,” murmured Mind as yellow shone in Infinity’s face,

“Perhaps we could reshape the reality of our existence; like Mind’s suggestion, manipulate their belief of us,” Reality recommended, red hiding the yellow,

“Infinity… ignore ideas of manipulation and death. The best solution would be to separate from us; send each of us to different corners of the universe in the hopes of keeping seeker’s at bay for a long time and fall, my friend. Fall and be reborn; lead countless lives,” Soul sang into his mind, for the stone’s did not have outgoing voices and could only speak inside his head; the orange stone glowed gently unlike the others. Time, who had not spoken a suggestion, glowed in agreement, the green gem stood out amongst the rest.

“Soul’s idea is the only future I see that doesn’t end the universe as we know it; I can not and will not share the fate with you, Infinity. I will not break my vow and our deal; but I can tell you that you will lead many lives on various planets. Some lives will be good, some bad, some happy and some sad; some short and some long. When we next reunite, all of us, you will be amongst others who will help you stop the maddest of beings who will seek and collect us. But, until such a time, I fear the best solution is to part ways.”

——LINE BREAK——

Infinity thought it over and agreed with Soul and Time. The day they separated, they bid farewell before Infinity cast his arms out and threw the stones far into the darkness of the lively universe. He was sad, but he knew it was something he had to do. For the sake of the universe he was in love with, he would do whatever it took to save it.

Once the stones were gone, Infinity shut his eyes, a tear fell from his eyes; it shimmered and shined down his cheek leaving a line of stardust. Then it seemed to happen all too quickly; he fell backwards with his arms open wide. Plummeting further and further into the dark abyss. He felt nothing and then everything changed and he was gone, blinking out of existence; with each life he lived, he was unsure of his true identity and would never know until the time came for him to need to know.

Chapter Text

It was 2018 and Tony Stark found himself on a dead and deserted planet in space; he wasn’t sure what to think, he still had nightmares about space from when he went through the wormhole in 2012. Yet there he was. In space. Waiting for a madman… the fittingly named Mad Titan, Thanos, with a magical doctor, the spidering kid and three strange seemingly idiotic heroes of the galaxy. Tony knew there was a good possibility that he’d die… and that he may end up killing the three Guardians of the Galaxy…

Soon enough, Thanos arrived in all of his tall and purple glory. Tony felt a strange tingling in his spine at the four stones attached to his large golden gauntlet; it was the same sensation he had felt each time he had been in the presence of an infinity stone, only this time, it was far stronger; to the point that he could feel his limbs tremble ever so slightly. What confused Tony was the fact that no one else was reacting the same way. More so, the genius had no clue why he felt so strange nor did he understand exactly what he was feeling.

Then the fighting started and they subdued Thanos until Quill interfered; next thing Tony knew, he was trying to avoid the moon that Thanos had thrown at him and once he had, he learned that the alien apparently knew him by name. And that was a shock to the system.

It didn’t even register to the genius that whilst his body was littered in cuts and bruises, none of them were from direct hits by the stones. In fact, the stones themselves hadn’t done any damage to him; his injuries were from being thrown and tossed about. Then when he was fighting one on one with Thanos, the Titan’s use of the stones still did nothing. Still, the genius didn’t notice; he was busier fighting the madman than investigating the oddity. Thanos did more damage as he hit Tony in the face repeatedly than the power stone punch to the gut did, yet the genius had held up well considering the difference between them. He even made Thanos bleed.

But, as with all fights, there could only be one victor and as the pace between them picked up and their dance became less synchronised and more erratic as Tony took more and more damage. It was almost over in a blink; Tony had been pushing against Thanos, the nanoparticles forming a sword only for Thanos to break it off and stab Tony with his own weaponry. It was a clean stab; it went straight through Tony’s left abdominal quadrant and the genius found himself in pain instantly as blood trickled out of his mouth.

The titan uttered some words that Tony could barely hear over the white noise of agony he found himself hearing before the stones glowed and Thanos went to deliver the final blow. Yet, at that moment, for some reason, Tony was not scared. He did not fear what would happen when the stones hit; so he kept eye contact, breathing heavily as he did. Then Dr Strange spoke up and handed the stone over.

All seemed to be lost then.

——LINE BREAK——

Tony outstretched an arm in a poor attempt to stop Thanos as the titan used the space stone to vanish; once gone, he clumsily stopped the bleeding of his wound with his nanotech before jerking his head towards Strange, ignoring Quill.

“Why would you do that?” He asked, eyes watery at the concept of them failing the universe because the doctor gave the stone away because of him.

“We’re in the endgame now,” was Dr Strange’s reply as he looked at Tony with something deep in his eyes that the genius didn’t understand.

——LINE BREAK——

“Dude, what are you?”

“Excuse me?” Tony exclaimed exhaustedly at Quill,

“No seriously, you can’t be a human. I’ve held the power stone and had help from my pals with it; we’ve seen what it does to someone. Yet the only damage you have was made by everything but the stones. Your cuts, bruises and shit, they’re from having a moon land on you, but even that didn’t kill or seriously injure you. Then that stab wound; that was caused by your own weaponry. The fuckin’ stones didn’t do jackshit to you, so seriously, what are you? Some kind of Celestial maybe? That being said, we’ve dealt with one of those before, so I hope you aren’t.”

“Umm… as far as I am aware, I am your run of the mill male human,” Tony looked over to Dr Strange as if to get him to agree, but the sorcerer looked away. Then Peter landed in front of him looking confused and battered in a way that made the surprisingly existent fatherly feelings in Tony rear its head, “you alright, kid?”

“Mr Stark… your hands…”

“What?” Tony asked as he looked down at his hands and froze; he had his palms facing up at him as he had moved them to investigate what the teenager was on about and found blue glowing orbs in the centres of his palms. He turned his hands around so that his palms were facing the ground but the orbs merely rolled around his hand; flicking them back so the palms were up, the orbs formed once more.

“You ain’t a human, mate,” Quill announced as they all stared,

“What the fuck,” was Tony’s ever so eloquent response.

“Tony,” called Dr Strange causing the genius to look over (because that was the first time the doctor had said his first name and the man had said it in a kind and gentle tone, which was odd), “where will he go? Thanos. Where has he gone now?” Tony stared at him confused before answering,

“Wakanda, why-“ before he could finish his question, the orbs seemed to glow brighter and moved in front of him, shaping a doorway of blue that once finished showed the beautiful greens of the African country. Tony quickly looked at Strange, who shrugged.

“I can’t tell you what I saw in the future because it could ruin everything; that does not mean I cannot give subtle hints,”

“Fucking wizards and their riddles,” he muttered under his breath with a sigh before struggling to his feet; just because he’d patched up his wound as best he could, did not mean he wasn’t in immense pain. Peter quickly moved to help him, lending his mentor and father-like figure an arm to support him, “thanks, kid.”

“Are we going through the blue swirly portal?” Asked the strange-looking alien,

“It would appear so, Mantis,” Quill answered as he looked at Tony, who shrugged and limped forward.

“You coming, Blue Meanie?” Tony called over his shoulder as he spied Nebula loitering around in the background a bit lost; she looked at him, face emotionless save for the slightest and smallest twitch of her lip before she strode forward, passing him and coming out the other side of the portal. The others set to follow her and quickly found themselves in a forest in Wakanda staring at the battle before them.

——LINE BREAK——

They watched as Thanos dealt quickly with the other Avengers that ran at him; it was only when they had been subdued that Tony found himself walking closer to where Wanda stood with her magic aimed at Thanos and Vision. No one was following him; Peter went to, but Dr Strange held an arm out and shook his head.

The second the mind stone was destroyed, Tony froze, falling to his knees and clutching his heart, not even aware that his armour had crawled back into the arc reactor leaving him in his tracksuit. Those who had been knocked down by Thanos slowly joined the Guardians, Strange and Peter where they stood; Steve wanted to move towards Tony, but Dr Strange stopped him as he had with Peter.

“He’s going to kill himself,” Rhodey stated as he too went to go after his best friend but Dr Strange just shook his head,

“No. This is the only way.”

Thanos used the time stone to reverse Vision’s death and the destruction of the stone; Wanda moved to attack and then the titan had all the stones on his gauntlet and Tony… there was an unexplainable feeling that was rushing through the genius’ body as he straightened and stood before Thanos, who finally noticed Tony.

“Back for more, Stark? You should’ve left the armour on if you wanted to provide a little bit of a challenge.” Tony said nothing as he stood there, eyes on the gauntlet as they seemed to hum to him. Thanos looked at everyone who stood poised to charge at him and smirked, “behold what true power looks like,” he exclaimed as he pointed his fist towards Tony, the gems glowed in response as Thanos sent a combination of the stones’ power his way.

Everyone shouted for Tony to move but the genius felt compelled to stand where he was; part of him screamed for his legs to work but that side was quickly overcome by the sheer calm that he felt. His eyes closed and he tilted his head skywards with his arms relaxed at his side, the palms facing Thanos as an array of colours washed over him. The tendrils of the stones curled around his body, touching his face, his arms, torso and legs as they faded into him whilst being surrounded by a mist of the galaxy; no one could see in and he could not see out (though, he kept his eyes closed).

——LINE BREAK——

Thor, who had been in the air, posed to throw Stormbreaker at Thanos, saw what was happening and landed beside the group of onlookers.

“Beer wizard, what is happening? Why are you allowing Thanos to kill Stark?” He asked his fingers trembling ever so slightly as he stared at the galaxy that seemed to surround and block Tony from view,

“It’s the only way,” Dr Strange murmured again, “he is awakening.”

“He?” Thor asked his eyes flicking from the sorcerer and back to the scene at hand before realisation dawned on his face, “oh. I had always wondered if there was any truth to the myths.”

“Myths? What myths?” Natasha asked,

“Screw that, I’m standing here watching my best friend getting killed and you’re stopping me from helping him!” Rhodey shouted angrily,

“My friend, believe me when I say he will be fine. More than fine.” Thor answered gently as he watched with a look of awe.

——LINE BREAK——

The galaxy around Tony shrunk inwardly, getting smaller and smaller as Tony became more visible; it seemed to sink into the man until it vanished completely under his skin. Tony’s back was to the group, but even they could tell that something was different; around him, there seemed to be a glow of sorts and when they caught a glance of the backs of his hands, they spied golden rings on his thumbs, pinkies and middle fingers, each ring held one of the six stones, which they noticed were no longer on Thanos’ gauntlet. Something about Tony screamed ethereal as they watched the genius.

“Honestly, Time, this is the being that led to you suggesting we all part? It took millenniums for him to even get close to you all.” Tony spoke, yet his voice was softer and quieter than normal, it washed over them in a serene way that had the others feeling calm and relaxed instantly, “by chance did you just want to leave me?”

“Do not be foolish, Infinity, we have all missed you dearly,” Soul answered instead, although only infinity could hear the voice as it sang out in his head,

“You cannot hold me at fault, I foresaw many enemies and battles in your future. Battles that would wear you down and make you tired beyond imagination,” Time replied,

“Has he finally lost it?” Bruce asked from where he stood in the more than battered and broken suit that he had borrowed from Tony,

“Nay, my friend, he is merely reuniting with old friends,” Thor answered with a small smile, despite talking quietly, the pair had caught Tony’s attention and caused the short genius to turn to them with a gentle smile; that was all the acknowledgement they got before Thanos decided to snap (no pun intended) out of his shock. The Mad Titan stared at his empty gauntlet and looked at Tony’s ring covered fingers.

“How?” He growled,

“Surely you, who has been searching for the stones for years, know the history behind them,” Tony stated with a slight tilt of his head as he looked up at the Titan.

“The Infinity Stones never had an original master. They were of their own being until I came and collected them.”

“When stories get passed down generations and generations, certain details tend to be… forgotten. The tale did not start as ‘The Infinity Stones’, it began and it ends as ‘Infinity and the Stones’. You, Thanos, cannot be arrogant enough to see yourself as the victor here.” The titan growled once more and threw a punch that sent Tony flying, only the genius landed on his feet.

“So you have chosen,” is all Tony whispered before the stones began to glow around him and he sent a rainbow of colours towards Thanos, the stones’ powers were bright and engulfed the titan before vanishing completely. Thanos was nowhere to be seen and as a resounding snap of the fingers followed the titan’s disappearance, the rest of his army turned into dust. 

Chapter Text

Tony turned to the Avengers and other superheroes with a sigh, he knew he had a lot of explaining to do. He heard a slight sniffle and turned to where Wanda had moved back to Vision’s corpse, tears down her cheeks as she clutched him. He walked over, feet moving quietly on the forest floor. He crouched down and lay a gentle hand on Vision’s forehead; closing his eyes as the mind stone shined.

“Mind, will you rejoin him or am I to keep you apart?” He asked and Wanda looked at him confused,

“I wish not to part with you, Infinity. It has been too long.”

“Very well… I don’t suppose any of you have a suggestion for what I should do?”

“Use Time and I shall willingly and gently part from Vision; I can do it without causing damage.”

“Thank you, Mind.” Tony murmured; he stood up, the time stone glowing as he twisted his hand and reversed the damage done to Vision as the mind stone was reattached. The android gasped, eyeing Tony with confusion especially when Tony held his hand out and the mind stone seemed to fall from Vision’s forehead and flew back to its place on Tony’s hand.

“Mr Stark?”

“No need to worry, Vision, you’ll be alright,” Tony paused momentarily before rolling his eyes, “Mind has just informed me that a little part of the stone’s power will stay with you. Apparently Mind has grown fond of you.”

“What-"

“I will explain shortly,” was all Tony said as he calmly interrupted before turning away from the pair and wandering over to where the others stood almost frozen in their spots.

——LINE BREAK——

“Tones?”

“Don’t worry, Honey Bear. I’m still me… mostly. I’ll explain soon, I have a few other things to do first and then we can all go sit down and chat. Maybe in the king’s palace?” T’Challa nodded, he dared not say a word.

The genius, who was both Tony Stark and Infinity, came to a stop in front of a sorrow-faced Thor. It was not an expression that the god should ever wear, Tony thought.

“Space and I wish to apologise for the demise of your people at the hands of Thanos when he arrived for the stone,” Tony spoke softly to Thor, placing a hand on the god’s arm; the short-haired god seemed to slump even more as though Tony’s touch had drained him of all his strength and he wished for nothing more than to cry in the shorter man’s arms.

“You should’ve let me at him,” Thor all but whimpered,

“Revenge would not have brought you comfort, Point Break,”

“Still."

“Thor, I cannot bring your people back; it is too heavy a task and too rich a price. Many of your people have passed through the gates of Helheim, the few soldiers you had on your ship have been welcomed into Valhalla,” Thor fell to his knees and Tony knelt down in front of him as the god mourned more, the genius let go of his arm and instead took Thor’s hands in his own, “however, there is one soul, shall we say, who is particularly stubborn about passing on. Space and I talked and thought it was quite… impressive how he sacrificed the stone for you, his brother,” that caught Thor’s attention and Tony kept his eyes locked on Thor’s,

“Loki, as Space and I have come to the conclusion, is possibly one of our… favourites. He’s proven himself… to be interesting. And, you may not know this, but your brother did not attack Earth on his own free will. He was tortured into compliance and when that failed, Thanos used the sceptre on him. Loki was not himself, Thor, and we believe that he should be given another chance.” A snap of Tony’s fingers and there was Loki. He stood wide-eyed and confused as he took in his surroundings -or tried to as Thor was running up and snatching him into a hug seconds after he appeared.

He turned from them to give the reunited siblings some semblance of privacy before walking over to Quill and leading him over to where Nebula stood.

“Thanos sacrificed Gamora for the soul stone; I had hoped my fail-safes would forever protect the stone, but I suppose I am partly at fault for her death. I left the stone at Vormir, to retrieve it, a soul must be given for the soul. No one should have ever been able to get the stone let alone die because the sacrificed had to be the one being you love most, which in itself is a bit of a trick. Surely one cannot and would not sacrifice that which they love most in exchange for a stone. No offence,” Tony added looking down at the stones that had sent out a sharp glow, “however, Thanos’ twisted mind allowed himself to think that he loved Gamora. It wasn’t love, what he had, but it worked. Somehow, it worked. I believe it’s because the power behind the fail-safes had begun to wither and weaken.

“What no one knows about the soul stone,” Tony said plucking it from his finger and twirling the ring around, “is that the soul given goes into the stone to rest. And as such, it can be returned if done by the correct being,” he looked at their hopeful faces, “me.”

The ring swiftly changed into just the Soul Stone and Tony blew on it; seconds later a green-skinned woman appeared looking shocked and confused before her team threw their arms around her. Hesitantly, Nebula walked over and was pulled into the group hug.

With that done, Tony looked to the others with a smile.

——LINE BREAK——

It was an hour or two before the Avengers, new, old and rogue, the Guardians and T’Challa were settled in a large living area; they had spent the time before informing the others that the battle was over, they had won and Thanos was gone. They had also taken the time to get out of their armour and into some cleaner clothing.

“Where should I start?” Tony asked,

“Are you still my Tony?” Rhodey asked even though Tony had confirmed it before, yet the genius smiled,

“I am Platypus. All that’s different is me realising my true identity and reuniting with the stones. A consistency in each life I’ve lived has always been my personality; what you’ve had from my behaviour and such as Tony Stark is more or less the same as my original personality as Infinity.”

“Did you just say you’ve lived numerous lives?” Natasha questioned,

“That I have. I have been possibly every race, every gender and every age. In fact,” he said looking to Loki and Thor, “I was once one of the Valkyries who sought to lock your sister, Hela, away. I believe I died jumping in front of Brunhilde, she was one of the best of us.”

“She’s still alive,” Thor inserted,

“I know,” Tony murmured gently, “but this was a long time ago for her Thor, I will never reveal who I once was to her for the pain it may cause her.”

“So… how and why did you stop being… you?” Sam wondered,

“Time told me of a threat towards my existence and the stones,” he explained, “as civilisations grew, more became away of my tale. Of course, most of them believed me to be a bedtime story. Except for some. The maddest sought me for my power and as strong as I am, I left because I knew a day would come when the fight was too costly and I was too exhausted to continue. The stones suggested ideas, but Soul’s was the best. I spread the stones out across the universe and fell.”

“Fell?” Bucky repeated quietly, not quite confident enough to look Tony in the eye,

“Yes,” the genius murmured with a gentle smile, “I fell and that was it. I became someone else over and over again never knowing who I was. Until now.”

There was a silence over the room as everyone soaked in the information.

“It’s scary to think that the myths are true,” Loki found himself saying to Thor,

“Aye,” the god replied from where he sat right beside his brother, refusing to let Loki out of his sight,

“So you all knew about him?” Natasha asked looking towards the alien superheroes,

“Well, ‘knew’ implies that we knew he existed,” Gamora stated, “we didn’t. He was a bedtime story for my people and once Thanos took me, he dispelled all thoughts I had regarding Infinity,” she turned to Tony, “he claimed you didn’t exist.”

“It was the same for me,” was Nebula’s response,

“I think Yondu might’ve mentioned something, but he spoke bullshit for the majority of my childhood, so I filed it under the whole ‘eating me’ thing he always went on about.” People turned to Quill with a mixture of confusion, annoyance and amusement at his answer,

“Ego had no thoughts on Infinity, but he claimed to be the first in existence,” Mantis answered,

“I am Groot,”

“You did?” Rocket exclaimed, “who told you?”

“I am Groot,"

“Someone had to have told you,"

“I am Groot,"

“I might’ve told him as a bedtime story,” Gamora spoke up, “when he was little.”

“You can’t go around claiming you have this universal knowledge when you were told as a plantling!” Rocket shouted with his arms up at the teenager before turning to the others, “I heard it in passing, but never paid much attention to it.”

“I used to tell my daughter the tale of Infinity and the Stones before she slept,” Drax stated,

“Our mother did the same; she told us before we slept,” Thor answered gesturing between himself and Loki,

“I, unlike my ignorant brother, actually took an interest in the tale and spent some years searching for more information; I couldn’t find much, of course, but I understand why now,” Loki added looking incredibly fascinated as he stared at Tony,

“I take it Terrans didn’t know about Infinity?” Gamora asked turning to Natasha,

“Terrans?”

“She means humans,” Tony murmured, “and to answer your question, no they didn’t. Outside of this group, no one else on this planet knows. You see until 2012, humans were under this arrogant and small-minded belief that they were the only things alive in the galaxy.”

“Tony!” Steve exclaimed clearly insulted,

“Is it not true? And I can say this because I was one of those humans until 2012 when the Chitauri came knocking on our door.”

“Really? No one else knew?” Loki asked,

“Well I wouldn’t be surprised if Fury knew about Infinity; I mean the dude is like a fucking know-it-all,” Tony answered with a shrug, “and now that I think about it, dear old dad said some bullshit on a video about me being his ‘greatest creation’, which was probably a big fat lie, but maybe he suspected something…” Tony paused, head tilted to the side as he listened to one of the stones, “Space apparently was near me a lot when I was little because Howard was working on the Tesseract and apparently I reacted weirdly to the stone,” Tony stated with a shrug.

——LINE BREAK——

“Now what will you do?” Loki asked after a long moment of silence, Tony shrugged once more,

“Continue life as it is; get married, maybe have a kid, live, die and return to my life as Infinity.”

“Really? Just like that,” T’Challa asked speaking up for the first time,

“Yeah. I mean, nothing for me has really changed.”

“You’re kidding right?” Natasha stated somewhat sarcastically,

“No. I mean I need to tell Pep about all this and, you know, hope she doesn’t cancel our engagement, but I’ve got what another couple of decades to live; I accept that I probably won’t reach mid-70s, so why change anything? Life doesn’t need to be difficult because suddenly I and others are aware that I am not just Tony Stark, I’m also a primordial being known as Infinity and I have immense power.”

“You say that like it’s nothing,” Steve muttered,

“To me, it isn’t really.”

“You are one strange man,” someone murmured and Tony nodded,

“I accept that,” Tony looked around and stood up, “anywho, I should probably get back. Pepper probably thinks I’m still in space and my joints won’t be happy if I am relegated to the couch tonight, so… kid, Honey Bear, you guys coming or staying? Bruce, you’re welcome too.”

“Yes, sure, please, thank you Mr Infinity Stark sir!"

“Breathe, kid,” Rhodey chuckled, “yeah I’ll come with you,”

“Me too, if that’s okay,” Bruce murmured,

“Tony, can’t we talk first?”

“No Steve.”

“You can’t still be angry,”

“And why can’t I? I forgive Barnes, he had no choice. You... you, I don’t forgive; Steve, you didn’t tell me how my parents died and when I found out, I was understandably mad at you. Your response to my attacking was not to calm me down, but instead, it was to beat the shit out of me and leave me in an unresponsive, broken suit to freeze to death.” Tony turned away from Steve and looked at the others, “right I’m leaving so…”

——LINE BREAK——

“Oh my,”

“What is it?” Thor asked at Loki’s quiet exclamation,

“I defenestrated Infinity,” Thor’s eyes widened at his remark,

“I held him by his throat.” They both stared at each other wide-eyed and horrified at their actions.

——LINE BREAK——

Pepper, bless her, took Tony’s news in stride and simply sighed with a remark that nothing was ever simple when it came to Tony. Their wedding date remained the same and it didn’t take long before they had a little girl on the way. Things were good and the stone’s were safe.

When the time came and Tony died a natural death at 82, which came to a surprise because he didn’t expect to live that long, the man was happy. Bygones were bygones and the Avengers, new, old and rogue, gradually became friends again; Tony never trusted them (being the rogues) completely, but they were friends. They went to his funeral as he was the first of them all to die and things were sad, but they all looked up at the sky as if in search of Infinity, who had regained his form and life once Tony had died. Of course, they never saw the being, but he saw them and smiled from where he was reunited with the universe.

Infinity was happy. He was reunited with the galaxy, it washed over his non-existent form and held him close as the stones whispered into his ears telling tales of their experiences during their separation.