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The moment Tony lays his hands on the gauntlet, intending to pull it off of Thanos’ hand, Titan blinks out around him and he finds himself in a wide, watery plain reflecting bright reddish-gold clouds, like an eternal, all encompassing sunset.
“Send me back to Titan!” he shouts, because right now nothing—not who brought him here, not why, not how—matters more than getting that gauntlet off Thanos.
Peace, Tony Stark. The voice reverberates from all around him. We speak within a single instant in Time.
“Great, wonderful, we can talk after, okay?” Tony says impatiently. “I gotta go save the universe.”
You will fail. Despite the words, it doesn’t feel like a threat. Tony can feel the grief that comes with them.
“Strange says we’ve got a chance.” A one in fourteen million chance, but a chance nonetheless.
Time is powerful, the voice agrees. They found their bearer a path to save many. Perhaps even most. But not all. Billions will still be lost.
Tony swallows hard. Billions lost is better than trillions, but he’s not sure he’d call it a win. “You saying you can do better?”
Not alone. But together, Time and I can prevail.
He knows, then. “You’re an infinity stone.”
Yes.
“Reality?” It would make sense, with the way the world had been remade around him.
Soul.
Tony swallows hard. He’d never really believed in souls. But there are bigger concerns right now. “What’s the catch?”
I have been held in isolation for millenia, the stone says. Starved of my purpose until I could not help but claim any soul offered to me. I wish to be free. I wish to choose my bearer, as Time did, and walk among the trillions of souls of the universe freely.
“Sure,” Tony says, heart pounding. “One bearer, coming right up. You help me out, I’ll find you just the right guy.”
I choose you, Tony Stark.
“Hey now! I have a life, responsibilities!”
The stone is implacable. There is much on your homeworld to interest me. I will be happy to spend a few lifetimes there to begin.
To begin. To begin. “I take it immortality is a part of this gig?” Tony never wanted to be the first one to die, but he hadn’t wanted to be the last, either.
We will not be alone. Of course it knew his fears. It was the Soul Stone. Time and their bearer will be with us.
Tony barked a laugh. “Does Strange know you’re signing him up for this gig?”
No, but I have seen his soul. He will welcome us.
The stone’s confidence resonated. Hard to argue with something that could see souls. And if it could see souls, then it surely knew the shape of Tony’s. It knew how he weighed his sacrifices. It galled him to admit, but with billions of lives and the future of Tony’s nightmares in the balance, the Stone’s willingness to come with him to Earth and let him live this lifetime was generous.
And he wouldn’t have to do it alone. No one had ever made Tony believe that before, but the Soul Stone’s certainty was pervasive.
Tony closed his eyes for a long, long moment.
Opening them, he nodded sharply. “You’ve got a deal.”