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Stephen abruptly looks past Tony and yells, “Stop!”
Tony twists, one gauntlet coming up defensively, and sees that the Guardians have broken away from their discussion and are now standing over Thanos and the gauntlet that still adorns the corpse. The guy, Star-Lord maybe, is bending down. He doesn’t stop when Stephen yells, either, instead pulling the gauntlet off of Thanos’s hand and straightening up with it.
Stephen launches himself up off the rock he’d been sharing with Tony and strides over to them. “Trying to use that could kill us all,” he snaps sharply. “Even with the gauntlet, we’re not made to contain that kind of power.”
“Look, I’ve held an Infinity Stone before,” Star-Lord retorts. “I’m not all human, okay? All I want to do is get Gamora back, I’m not going to try to change half the universe.”
“There’s more than one stone on that gauntlet,” Stephen says. “Even if you knew how each of them worked, which I highly doubt, you know nothing about making them work together.”
Star-Lord takes an aggressive step towards Stephen. “For Gamora, I’m willing to take the risk!”
Stephen looks like he’s winding up for a fight, but then the lady with the antennae gasps. “Peter! The Soul Stone!”
“What?” Star-Lord—Peter, Tony guesses—looks down at the gauntlet and then swears, clutching it in both hands. The Soul Stone is gone. “Where the hell could it have gone?” He demands. “Gamora died for that thing, we can’t just lose it!”
Tony knows where the stone is, of course, but he’s not about to volunteer that without more information. Stephen knows, too, as the bearer of the Time Stone, but he keeps quiet as well.
You want to fill me in? Tony asks silently.
Gamora was one of those offered to me as I starved, the Soul Stone replies. It doesn’t sound remorseful, only matter of fact.
Are they right? Can you bring back the dead? The thought sends a chill through Tony. As much as he would love to get back people he’d lost, there was no one he trusted with that kind of power, and he had no illusions about the lengths people would go to to get a hold of it.
No, the stone says, thank God. But Gamora is not dead in the usual sense. She was sacrificed to me, and I hold all the souls so given.
Tony hasn’t decided yet, but he figures he ought to have all the information before he does. Could you give this one back?
Yes. But Reality would need to make her a new body. The old one is no longer serviceable.
Does Reality need a bearer for that? Tony isn’t thrilled at the idea of any of this group—now shouting at each other and Stephen while Star-Lord digs around in the dirt as if the Stone might have just fallen out of the gauntlet—the Reality Stone.
No. I could ask. They would probably agree. Moreso, if Time asks as well.
Tony blows out a breath and then drags Stephen away from the argument. They let him go, fortunately. Tony lowers his voice. “The Soul Stone says it can bring her back, since it was the one that killed her,” he says. “But it needs Reality to do it. It says it would help if Time asked, too. What do you think?”
Stephen casts a wary glance at the other group. “I think we have two more or less cooperative Infinity Stones, and they have three Infinity Stones, plus the gauntlet,” he murmurs. “That’s a fight I’d rather avoid. And… it would be nice to get someone back from this whole mess.”
“Yeah,” Tony says. For a moment, all he can feel is exhausted. “Yeah, it would.”
Turning, Tony eyes the arguing group. Maybe it would be better to just… take care of things, rather than jump into that. You need me to be hands-on with Reality? he asks the Soul Stone.
No, it replies. You wish me to return Gamora to this world?
Yes. Tony remembers the Soul Stone talked about being free. Please. This won’t hurt you? You mentioned being starved of purpose.
I do not need to consume souls, it reassures him. Thank fuck, because Tony hadn’t even thought to ask about that before. Merely be among them. Touch them, sometimes. Returning this one will have great impact on their souls.
Let’s do it, then.
Tony’s right gauntlet, where the Soul Stone is hidden, lights up with an orange glow. Then Stephen’s amulet does the same, in green. Just as Star-Lord and his group notice, Thanos’s gauntlet lights up red. He shouts and drops it. Red light beams out of Thanos’s gauntlet and collides mid-air with orange beams shooting out of Tony’s . They twine together, so brightly they make Tony squint, and then abruptly disappear, leaving a green skinned woman in their wake.
Is she supposed to be green? Tony asks silently. The Soul Stone sends him a wordless affirmation; everything is as it should be.
Star-Lord and the rest shout and mob the green woman. A happy reunion, it looks like.
Peter—not Star-Lord, Peter Parker—quietly sidles up between Tony and Stephen while the others are still celebrating. “I’m really glad they got their friend back,” he says. “But does anyone know how we’re supposed to get home? Because I’m pretty sure all the ships we brought, you know,” he makes an illustrative hand gesture, “crashed.”