Chapter Text
"I'm sorry"
Those words, those last damn words echo through Tony's head. Those exact words will probably haunt him for years. Words that will never leave his mind, because those words were the last ones Peter spoke.
Tony blamed himself. He should not have let Peter join him, neither let him go to space. He should have sent him home when he found him on the space ship, he should never have recruited him two years ago in the first place.
He looked around, seeing no one. Was he the only one left?
"There was no other way" "Something's happening" "Quill?" "Aw man"
They all flashed through his mind at once.
Everything hurts. His wound, his mind, his thoughts, everything. But mostly his wound.
"Get up," The voice was from a woman, but she didn't sound anywhere near human. It was quite robotic.
Tony looked up and the blue woman-Is she even a woman? Yea, it's a woman, Tony decided- and she looked at him with coldness.
"Why? Last I checked we're stuck, and we will die here. I have already started to grow insane," The woman looked at him like if he just had cracked a joke she didn't find funny.
"We're not stuck, The Benatar should be here somewhere," Tony was too tired and injured to question what she meant by that.
"I'm not leaving him," Tony still had his hand on the ground where Peter was just a couple of minutes ago.
"There's Nothing you can do Stark, he's gone," And that is when it truly hit him. Peter is dead.
"No..." He mumbles, closing his fist, tears of anger burns in his eyes.
"Accept it and let go, because we need to go. Earth was the place the last Infinity Stone was correct?" Tony nods slowly, trying not to think of Vision, "Then let's go," She managed to get him on his feet, but he needed help to walk at all.
There was a silence between the two of them as they walked to the ship that was oddly named The Benatar
It was silent when she started the ship as well, and silent when they flew off.
"Was he your son?" The woman breaks the silence without even looking at him.
"No, but the nearest one I will ever have" Tony mumbles. And then there's more silence. Tony doesn't like silence.
"Who was Gamora that Quill yelled about?" Tony could see that the woman flinched a little, but she quickly composes herself before speaking.
"When I was young Thanos attacked my planet and killed half the population," She said, her eyes cold, "He must have seen something in me, because he brought me back with him, adopted me as his own daughter," She paused, as if thinking of what to say, "He had many children from different worlds, but one of his favorites was Gamora. He used to make us fight, and every time I lost he would replace a limb with technology. Gamora always won, and I wanted to hate her for it, but indifference from the other children, she hated Thanos just as I did" The woman let out a laugh, which sounded odd with her robotic voice, "She became my favorite sister, the only person that I have ever liked" The woman's smile disappeared from her face "A time ago I went to kill Thanos, but I failed. He captured me, took me apart and tortured me. Then he came to me with Gamora, demanding her to tell him the location of the soul stone, or he would have killed me. She was stupid enough to spare my life, for billions of lives, including her own."
Tony had no idea what to say. Things had happened in his life, yes, but nothing compared to that.
"I'm sorry for your loss" He mumbles.
"Same" She still hadn't met his eyes, which was almost a relief because Tony don't think he could take that right now, but he did see one small single tear roll down her cheek.
"Oh God" Steve mumbled. Vision's corpse was in front of him, his empty eyes staring out at nothing, with what was left of Wanda beside him.
"What just happened?" Rhodey looked around at the people who were left, and it wasn't many who was.
"I think...I think we lost" Steve mumbled. He couldn't believe it. No one could. They have never lost before, ever, and now they were here, thinking about the people that were suddenly gone.
"Steve?" Steve turns around and looks at Bucky, who has a strange and confused expression. He holds up his hand, that has disappeared. It spreads over his body, and Bucky drops his gun and falls to the ground. But he never reaches it. And Steve had to witness everything, he had to see his best friend and the only thing left from his past vanish.
Tears started forming in Steve's eyes, but he blinked them away and stood up, looking at the rest of the team. He couldn't read their minds, but considering their body language he could understand that they were as happy about it all as he was.
Thor's grip of his ax was tight, and his eyes stared at the exact point Thanos had snapped his fingers. His fingers sparked of lightning, and his eyes were filled with rage, guilt, and pain.
Natasha was on the place Bucky had vanished. One hand was on the ash, and she looked at the other with tears in her eyes. Steve rarely saw her cry, and to see her do it now was something that broke him even more.
Rhodey was out of his suit and tapped rapidly on his phone, mumbling words Steve could not decipher, but he managed to make out Tony's name.
And Steve, he was just standing there, thinking. He wanted to contact Tony, he wanted to make sure he's okay, he... Steve sighed. There was nothing that he could do about that right now, and even if it was, he'd lost his chance many years ago.
"What do we do Steve?" Bruce was out of the Hulk Buster, fidgeting his sleeves and biting his lip, a clear sign of nervousness. Steve made a mental note of getting him a stress ball later.
"Just as Tony said all those years ago. If we can't protect the earth you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it"