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They’re all a little shocked when Thanos finally goes down. According to the Soul Stone, he’s not just dead, but completely eliminated right down to the soul. There will be no resurrections here. After a minute, just absorbing the fact that Thanos was down and not getting up again, everyone looks at Strange.
This isn’t the timeline that Strange saw. Tony knows that. But the wizard’s expression is calm, even reassuring. “We won,” he promises them. “Thanos is no more.”
Star-Man—or whatever—and his crew drift off into a little knot, talking among themselves. Maybe about what comes next. Maybe about the one Tony gathers they lost. Tony’s not sure he cares, because Strange has said something to Peter, and although he glances at Tony in concern, he nods and moves off to give them some privacy.
Tony sits down on a chunk of rock and sighs. He’s not sure he’s ready for this conversation. The Soul Stone is silent. Who knows what that means. Maybe it just understand that he needs some time.
Strange sits down next to him. “I’m sorry,” he says quietly.
Tony shoots him a surprised glance. “What for?”
“I know how we won.” Strange taps the pendant that houses the Time Stone. “That’s not a sacrifice anyone should be forced into.”
Tony snorts. “Better me than billions of others.”
Strange laughs at that. It’s not a hard laugh, a laugh because otherwise you’ll cry. No, it actually sounds happy. “And that’s why I’m also not sorry,” he says. “In the timeline I saw, the one where we ‘won’,” Tony can hear the quotes, “you gave your life to save the rest of us. Selfishly, I think this is better.”
Selfishly, huh? Tony thinks. His apparent future death didn’t feel real to him. It wasn’t much different than any other time his friends had worried an Iron Man mission would be the end of him. But Strange looked haunted to speak of it. It was real to him. It was real, and it mattered.
The Soul Stone had said Strange would welcome him.
He looks at Strange and manages a smile. “Call me Tony.”
Strange smiles back. “Stephen,” he says.