บท 74: qw
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"CONTACT! CONTACT!"
The moment they enter the Terran System, alerts begin to sound across the bridge of his flagship. Thanos leans forward on his throne, eyes narrowing and lips curling back.
"Report!"
"Lord Thanos! Multiple reports of weapons platforms all across the system! The fleets are being bombarded from every direction!"
As if to punctuate those words, the Sanctuary II itself suddenly rocks from some sort of attack. Not that it does much. The ship continues moving forward, the internal gravity stabilizing in a handful of seconds. Still…
"Send orders to every fleet, to every ship… full speed ahead. Destroy everything in our path but continue converging on Terra. Nothing else matters."
"Yes Lord Thanos!"
As they surge forward, burning copious amounts of fuel in their rush for Terra, Thanos rises from his throne and takes up his double-edged blade in one hand while curling the fingers of his other into a fist… a gauntleted fist.
Looking down at the golden Infinity Gauntlet, beautifully crafted out of Uru Metal and barely finished in time for this blitz, the corner of the Titan Warlord's mouth twitches upwards in an abortive smile. At the moment, the gauntlet is unadorned with the gemstones that it was made to hold… but by the end of the day, he would either have achieved total victory, or he would be dead. There was no middle ground to be had here… Tony Stark, King of Terra, had ensured that.
All this time, Thanos had known there were people moving against him. He'd thought his true enemy was the All-Father, but as it turned out, Odin was little more than a puppet for the man who truly sought to challenge him. At long last, the truth had come out… and all thanks to one of his treacherous daughters returning at long last.
Nebula wasn't the daughter Thanos would have preferred return to him after years of estrangement, if he were being honest. But he also wasn't surprised that she was the one to come back. Gamora was always the more certain and self-assured of the two. Nebula, by comparison, had required so much more coddling growing up.
That said, his prodigal daughter had returned at long last… and hadn't even lasted a day before she'd tried to kill him. He'd assumed that was the plan at first, but a download of her memory banks and some time spent in a torture chamber had revealed that no… his Luphomoid daughter was just as much of a failure as ever. This time though, her failure was to his benefit.
Nebula, as it turned out, had been sent back to him by Tony Stark. Not to try and kill him, but rather to spy on him and transmit his location, and thus the location of the Dwarf King Eitri, back to Stark for a rescue operation.
That alone was rather… quaint and if it were just that, Thanos would have been content to wait and welcome Stark and his allies into a carefully prepared trap with open arms. Unfortunately, it wasn't just that.
Somehow, the King of Terra had done what Thanos had been striving to do for decades. Tony Stark had the Infinity Stones… and worst of all, he was planning to destroy one of them to stop Thanos from ever accomplishing his goals. The very idea seemed ludicrous, but Nebula's memories had been quite clear. Stark fully believed that the stones could be used to destroy the stones.
More than that, he was planning to destroy the one stone that would make Thanos' goal truly impossible. He was planning to destroy the Time Stone. If he was able to do that, then there would be no coming back. Any other stone, one could simply acquire the Time Stone and reverse its sibling's destruction. But if the Time Stone were to be broken, then there would be no recourse.
This had led Thanos to the here and now. All of his fleets, all of his armies, gathered in mere days and thrown at the Terran System before Stark could complete his ghastly ritual. Stark had forced the Titan Warlord's hand, pushed him to act somewhat recklessly.
Obviously, it might all be a trap… but that mattered little in the end. He would either win or die… there was no more in between.
"My Lord! A portion of the third fleet has just disappeared from view! Our last communications with them are just screams about… fire?!"
Of course, it seemed that Tony Stark had not left his world or star system undefended. It had been a long time since he'd encountered a race this militaristic, let alone a single man. Unable to help it this time, Thanos finds his lips curling upwards… into a smirk.
"A worthy opponent… for one final battle."
"Sir, what should we do?!"
Snapping his gaze to the one who asked, Thanos snarls.
"Keep moving! We must make it to Terra!"
Nebula's memories had revealed that the ritual to destroy the Time Stone would not be easy. That it would take days to complete. Hopefully, they'd arrived with time to spare, but every moment was precious. That's why Thanos wastes no more time on the bridge, instead moving out. As the Sanctuary II reaches the planet of Terra, otherwise known as 'Earth' by its denizens, Thanos meets his Black Order in the teleportation room. They, along with all of his armies, are beamed down to the world below mere moments later.
There, arrayed before them, are the defenders of Earth. Millions of soldiers, all armed to the teeth. Terrans alongside Asgardians, and several of Asgard's protectorate species besides. Thanos is unsurprised as he points his double-edged blade at the opposing army and sends his army forth to destroy them and clear the way for him.
"Sire! I have located Stark!"
"Show me."
Thanos isn't surprised that Ebony Maw already found their target. After all, what was the point of positioning an army here if you didn't have something to protect. On the tablet that his adoptive son hands to him, the Titan Warlord gets his first look at his true enemy, his jaw clenching and his heart racing in excitement and disbelief alike.
There, on the screen, he sees Tony Stark in a suit of armor… the center of which has five glowing gems stuck to it. Red, Blue, Purple, and Yellow on the corners… and Orange in the center.
In front of the armored Terran is a floating green gem, the Time Stone. Power pours off of Tony Stark's hands as he says something that the tablet can't pick up, shouting over the outpouring of energy he's shooting at the Time Stone.
… The ritual is still ongoing. They still have time. Good.
"Listen closely, my Black Order, my chosen children. THAT is our goal. The Stones above all else. We move as one and destroy any enemy who stands in our way. Am I clear?"
"Yes Sire!"
"As you say, Lord Thanos!"
"Your will be done, my Lord."
It is truly depressing how few of his children remain at his side. He'd started with three pairs of two, and at this point he was down to one and a half pair. Nebula was back on the Sanctuary II in a cell, Gamora was off galivanting across the galaxy with criminal reprobates, and Cull Obsidian had given his life for the cause.
… But no matter. Cull's sacrifice would be worth it after today. It would all be worth it.
His forces are already overwhelming Terra's defenders as Thanos and his remaining three children move forward. Outriders, Chitari, and Leviathans alike rush ahead, clearing the way just as their Master had ordered. The scent of spilled blood and charred flesh fills the air.
Some truly brave few try to stand directly in the way of Thanos and his children. One is a big green monster that Maw catches in his telekinetic grip and Corvus and Proxima team up to cut down. Another are fleets of armored suits that turn out to be autonomous, remotely piloted by some artificial intelligence.
But Thanos had dealt with societies that have developed AI before. A simple call to his fleets up above, and EMPs begin dropping on the field around them, striking large swathes of the automated suits of armor and rendering them inert.
After that come the magic wielders. Sorcerers, he believes they're called. Their magic is nothing in the end though. Portals, shields, blades… but all of it breaks before his and his children's might.
Others try their hand. Brave fools, one and all. They blur past, one after the other, with Thanos barely paying most of them any mind. Quite a few are dealt with by his children without any input from him anyways, after all.
As he and the Black Order close in on Stark himself, however, they find themselves up against the real challenge. Odin, King of Asgard, bars their path… along with THREE Royal Children. Thanos stops for a moment as the one-eyed All-Father stares him down.
"This is as far as you go, Mad Titan."
The Titan Warlord sweeps his gaze across Odin's three children. Thor. Loki. Hela. He focuses on the latter two.
"I am surprised you would stand with the All-Father after everything he's done to you."
Neither Loki nor Hela respond, simply staring him down. In the end, Thanos shrugs.
"No matter. Fitting, in a way…"
He and his children against Odin and his spawn. Yes, there was a certain poetic symmetry to it, wasn't there?
The battle starts without warning and is as brutal as it is short… and one-sided. At the end of the day, Odin was just as pathetic and weak in his old age as Thanos had always thought. Not even his spear is enough to allow him to go toe to toe with the Titan Warlord. In mere moments, the King of Asgard is slain. His death prompts a reaction of grief and rage from his heir, the Crown Prince Thor… who charges forward only to find himself impaled on Thanos' double-edged blade for his troubles.
Loki and Hela don't last much longer, and in short order the Asgardian Royal Family is no more. A shame, but Thanos is not in a position to grant mercy, even if he were inclined to offer clemency. The ritual could end at any moment, and the Time Stone could be reduced to nothing but ash.
Rushing up onto the glowing ringed platform where Stark is pouring the energy of five Infinity Stones into the effort of destroying just one, Thanos and his children fan out.
"Thanos… no! I'm so close! I won't let you win!"
Stark's anguish is poignant and personal. Part of him wonders how he'd created such enmity inside of the Terran King. He barely even knew the other man existed before now. And it wasn't like his plan to conquer the man's world had come to fruition. Loki's attempt had been completely and utterly foiled, and barely a fraction of the Chitauri Fleet had gotten through.
So then why… no, it didn't matter. Nothing mattered except for the Stones. He could not allow himself to be distracted at this critical juncture.
Stark roars and the power pouring out of his hands redoubles, slamming into the Time Stone without abating. At the same time, Thanos calls out.
"Maw!"
A brief instant later, and the beam of energy, the combined power of the five Infinity Stones slotted into Stark's chest seems to finally break through the barrier and strike the Time Stone itself. Seems to, at least.
As Stark collapses to his knees, believing it to be done, Thanos looks down… and smiles at the green glowing gemstone set into the Infinity Gauntlet on his right hand. In the last possible second, Ebony Maw's telekinesis had drawn the Time Stone out of the gravity field that Stark had it floating in and flung it over in Thanos' direction where the Infinity Stone had found its home, at long last, in the gauntlet.
He sees the moment Stark's eyes widen in dismay and disbelief when he notices this.
"No-!"
But Thanos is already acting. He only has one shot, because the Terran King is still incredibly dangerous with five stones under his control. He can't attack Tony Stark himself, because he's no doubt using the stones to protect himself. Instead… he uses the Time Stone.
Specifically, he uses the Time Stone on the part of the chestplate holding the stones in place. Pouring all of his desires and NEED into one simple command, he watches the Time Stone glow all the more brightly… and get to work.
The chestplate of Stark's armor doesn't just age and rust… it positively disintegrates as the Time Stone causes millions of years to pass in a second for that small sliver of reality. For the stones themselves, this is nothing. They've existed since the dawn of time after all.
And so they drop from their casing, falling onto the platform one by one. Stark tries to make a mad scramble for them of course, but Ebony Maw, ever-reliable and eternally dependable, scoops them up with his mind and floats them over to Thanos before the Terran King can recover.
"No!"
Of course without the stones to protect him, Proxima and Corvus are able to rush forward and pin Stark to the ground with their weapons, pushing him back as the Infinity Stones slot into the Infinity Gauntlet one by one. Reality. Power. Mind. Space. Soul.
They join their brother on Thanos' hand and as he finishes collecting all six, power surges up his arm, coursing through his body. A roar of pain pulses from his clenched jaw, ruining his throat… and yet, after a moment he feels the Gauntlet compensating, feels the power stabilizing.
"No… no, no, no…"
Admiring the stones for a moment, each of them glittering and glowing on his gauntlet, Thanos lets out a brief chuckle, prompting Stark to stop his muttering and look at him with wide, horrified eyes.
"… Fun isn't something one often considers when balancing the universe, Stark. But I have to admit… this does put a smile on my face."
He doesn't waste any time beyond that with gloating though. As his children watch on, joyful and exultant, while the pinned Stark King watches in horror… Thanos brings the Infinity Gauntlet up… and snaps his fingers with the intent of removing half of all life in the entire universe.
SNAP!
…
There's a brief pause, before Thanos begins to frown. He looks at the Infinity Gauntlet, covered in the Infinity Stones. He feels the power coursing through his veins. He… snaps his fingers again.
SNAP!
At seeing this, Maw slowly floats forward.
"My Lord? Is something the matter?"
"I… don't know. It doesn't… it doesn't feel like it's working."
Turning around, Thanos looks out over the battlefield. If either of the snaps worked, half of the combatants on BOTH sides would be dust by now, but he sees no sign of that anywhere in his field of vision.
"Heh. You know what? Glad I was able to put a smile on your face before the end you big purple thumb. Makes it all the more satisfying that I get to wipe it off."
Thanos whips around at the sound of Tony Stark's voice, confident, unrestrained, and smug… and receives a fist to the face for his troubles.
Instead of throwing him back though, the punch is like a wakeup call. Thanos finds himself on his knees, restrained on either side, with Tony Stark looming over him. The Infinity Gauntlet has been removed from Thanos' right hand, he belatedly realizes, and Stark… Stark is holding it up. Just as the Titan Warlord is realizing he's been tricked somehow… it begins to dissolve, disintegrating before his eyes.
"No… no! Impossible…"
"Yeah… I guess from your perspective, it does seem like it, doesn't it?"
Stark's eyes glow purple as he destroys the Infinity Gauntlet without hesitation. His armor looks different as well… fully intact for one, but also, there's no spots in the middle of the chestplate to house Infinity Stones like there were before.
It's then that Thanos realizes the difference in their surroundings as well. The world around them has been dramatically altered. This… this was not Terra. This was no Earth. What…
"I can see you're a little confused. Did you really think I'd send you your daughter all nice and gift wrapped with an invitation to party at my actual house? I'm not that stupid. Welcome to Proxima b. It's an Earth-sized planet in the Alpha Centauri System. If you were looking for 'Terra', it's about four and a half light years that way."
As Stark points off into the distance, Thanos finally begins to struggle against his restraints… but to no avail.
"Bit bright here compared to our Solar System. Three suns instead of one. In fact, a portion of one of your fleets flew into one of those suns early on in this little push of yours. You were too narrowminded to notice though. That was kind of the point, in the end."
Thanos clenches his jaw when he finally notes Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight, and Corvus Glaive all laid out around him, their bodies unmoving, cold and lifeless. They'd been completely fooled. This was a trap, just as he'd feared… and he'd stepped right into it. He refused to accept defeat, however. He refused to give up, to surrender. So long as there was breath in his lungs, he would keep fighting.
As he struggles, Stark peers at him.
"Still raring to go at it, huh? Well, I suppose we should wrap this up. Fortunately for me, you brought your executioner with you."
What? Thanos pauses for a moment, before the familiar sound of his ship's transport beam causes him to twist his head and look back behind him. His eyes narrow as Nebula carefully moves up onto the platform, looking around at the one-sided destruction and at the corpses of her siblings.
Finally, her black eyes focus on him… but her words are for Stark.
"You lied to me. Used me."
Strangely enough, Stark looks guilty over that. Thanos can't imagine why, the Terran King barely even interacted with Nebula before sending her after him.
"Yeah. Sorry about that, but I needed to get him right where I wanted him. Needed him in a rush and off-balance… so that was where you came in."
Nebula's presence, the fact that she'd been beamed down from his flagship… it means they've well and truly lost. The battlefield is silent, his armies destroyed. And up in space, his fleets have somehow fallen under Stark's control. There is nothing and no one left, save one.
"Still, figured I could make it up to you… here."
Thanos watches as Stark suddenly picks up his own double-edged blade and tosses it to Nebula. His adoptive daughter catches it with both hands, looking it over and then looking down at Thanos' kneeling form.
"He's all yours."
It is not in his nature to beg or plead… not for his own life anyways. However, as Nebula slowly moves to stand in front of him, the last son of Titan does beg. Not for himself, but for the universe.
"Nebula… we are so close. The cause… it cannot end here. Strike me down if you must, but do not give up. Do not give in to complacency. What I did, I did for an ungrateful universe. You are the only one I can entrust to carry on my legacy."
Lifting his blade up, Nebula puts it under Thanos' chin, forcing his head upwards to avoid the sharpened cutting edge. Then, she leans in and sneers at him. Abruptly, she spits in his eye, forcing him to close it shut in response.
"Fuck. You."
Thanos pauses for a moment, before letting out a sigh.
"A disappointment to the end, daughter. If only Gamora-!"
With an enraged scream, Nebula yanks the blade back, cutting off his words by slashing open his throat. Then, she brings the blade back down. It's the last thing Thanos sees before it splits right through his skull.
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Plug: An Iron Resolve is FINISHED over on my Patreon, coming in at 125 chapters long. If you want to sign up to read the rest of the chapters feel free, but know that we're officially in the territory of diminishing returns.
A/N: Did I have you guys in the first half? When did you start to realize something was up? :p
One final plot twist, heh. Thanos might have thought he was entitled to some epic final battle... but that was never Tony's plan.
Two chapters remain. Tomorrow, Tony's POV and explanation of his actions here and elsewhere. Day after that, epilogue. Been a hell of a ride!x-X-x-
It's over. Somewhat anti-climatically at that, though Tony supposed from Thanos' perspective it must have been nail-bitingly close. As he stares down at the genocidal maniac's corpse, Nebula still looming over Thanos holding onto the double-edged blade buried in his thick bald head, Tony finds himself considering how they got here.
Obviously, he was never going to fight fair. It was just a matter of how much bullshit he could manage to slip past the giant purple thumb before it all came crumbling down around him. As a matter of fact, the answer to that question was… quite a lot.
Nebula was the lynchpin, of course. And it was why he'd been so leery to go through with this plan for so damn long. He'd waited until it was almost too late, mostly because he knew if he did this, he would be risking Nebula's life. And yet… for all that he owed the Nebula from his timeline quite a lot, the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the one. More than that, Tony knew deep down inside he would sacrifice this Nebula a million times over to guarantee the safety of his family.
Fortunately, it hadn't quite come to that. Everything had worked out in the end, mostly because despite his immense personal power, despite his armies and fleets, despite all of the tools at his disposal… Thanos was so very, very easy to manipulate. Dangle an Infinity Stone in front of him and you might get a visit from his Black Order, or a backdoor funded invasion of your world. Dangle ALL of the Infinity Stones in front of him, with the caveat that the most important one was going to be destroyed in the process, and you were sure to get his FULL attention.
Tony had never had any intentions of destroying the Time Stone, truth be told. He didn't need to, not when he'd already destroyed the only known method of getting Soul. Between leaving Earth after his talk with the Ancient One and landing on the Milano to pick up Nebula, Tony had made a pitstop over the planet of Vormir and blasted it out of existence.
The power of three Infinity Stones had been enough to blow up the planet of Vormir and in the process, completely erase the only known location of the Soul Stone. Tony didn't think the Infinity Stone was actually destroyed, of course. Perhaps it would spawn on another planet somewhere in the universe, showing up again and again like a bad penny.
It didn't really matter though, because he had no intention of ever trying to obtain it in the first place. There was no world in which he would sacrifice even a single one of his loved ones for the Soul Stone. Full stop.
Regardless, with Vormir destroyed, Tony had continued on to pick up Nebula, where he'd fed the Luphomoid a whole laundry list of lies. Telling her that he needed her to spy on her father for him was just the first and probably least of those lies. The rest was predicated on his understanding of Nebula's character… and knowing she was completely unable to control her bloodlust for longer than five minutes once she was back in Thanos' presence.
And so he'd told Nebula all about his scheme to 'destroy the Time Stone'. He'd also told her all about his defenses, about the fortress he'd turned the Terran System into and how once they'd destroyed the Time Stone, they would turn all of those weapons of war towards the task of taking the fight to Thanos and ending the threat he posed to the galaxy once and for all.
All Nebula had to do, or so Tony told her, was keep her cool, stay undercover, and broadcast her location until they were ready to go on the offensive. Tony had said this to Nebula knowing full well that she wouldn't be able to hold herself back and that the exact opposite would happen, resulting in Thanos rushing to invade the Terran System and stop Tony before his 'ritual' to destroy the Time Stone could come to fruition.
Oh, and there was one more lie, albeit it was more a lie of omission than an outright verbal deception. Tony had planted JARVIS on Nebula, both in her systems and on a packet of nanites that had transferred from her body to Thanos' ship the moment that she'd arrived back on board the Sanctuary II.
JARVIS had in turn infiltrated the systems of Thanos' flagship from there. He hadn't done much… mostly because Tony didn't want to just kill Thanos, he wanted to wipe out everyone who followed and served the big purple thumb all in one fell swoop. And so all JARVIS had done was go into the Sanctuary II's navigation system and change one single, measly set of coordinates, before propagating the alteration through every ship in every fleet Thanos had at his beck and call.
One minor change that would assure that when Thanos gave the orders for all of his armies and fleets to pack up and converge on the Terran System… they would wind up here instead. In Alpha Centauri.
Alpha Centauri was physically the closest star system to their own. Even then, it was pretty far away by conventional means. Fortunately, he and JARVIS didn't have to rely on conventional means anymore. They hadn't for a long time.
Of course, it also looked nothing like the Solar System. For one, Alpha Centauri had three suns. For two, it had a whole lot less in the way of planets. However, there was one world which was in what was considered the 'habitable zone', that nice thin line of not too close and not too far from the sun where a world much like Earth might develop life.
Fortunately there was no intelligent life on Proxima b, so Tony didn't feel all that bad about making it the target for Thanos' ire. Giving him the long, drawn out final battle that the genocidal alien thought he deserved had thoroughly pulled the wool over his eyes, right until the very end.
How had Tony done it, one might ask? How else? He'd drawn upon the power of Infinity, of course. Specifically, he'd drawn upon Reality to place a paper thin illusion of the Solar System over Alpha Centauri. He'd used Space to propagate that illusion all across the star system, while concentrating the more realistic parts in Thanos' path, throwing the sorts of heroes and warriors and gods that the Mad Titan thought he should be facing against him and his children to 'defeat' and 'destroy'.
With the Power Stone backing it all, it was… well, he wouldn't call it easy, but it also was well within his means. And with JARVIS supporting him every step of the way, it was all that much more imminently doable.
The weapons platforms were real, after all. So were the ships. While some of Thanos' fleets had in fact flown straight into one of Alpha Centauri's three stars because their sensors didn't even register the building heat, much of his armies and forces had to be destroyed by JARVIS directly.
All of it had gone far too well. That said…
"J? Status report on the prison break?"
"Sir. I can report a complete success. The replica Nidavellir that Thanos created has fallen into the hands of the Asgardians. King Eitri and those of his captured subjects who still draw breath have been recovered."
Good.
"However, King Odin and Prince Thor have begun to question the absence of both you and the Mad Titan, Sir. I believe they're beginning to grow suspicious."
Tony blinks at that, before snorting derisively.
"No reason to lie to them any longer, J. Tell them the truth. Tell them Thanos is dealt with, permanently."
As JARVIS relays the message, Nebula finally looks up at him, her black eyes narrowing. She leaves Thanos' double-edged blade buried in his skull and straightens up as she turns to face him properly.
"… You lie a lot, don't you Stark?"
Tony smiles a bit sadly, knowing he hasn't exactly left the best impression on the bald blue alien. In the end, he shrugs and answers honestly.
"Only when I have to. Just a heads up, but we probably have Asgardians showing up any second now. You want to still be here when they arrive, or…?"
He trails off, gesturing vaguely with one hand. She's seen what he can do with portals, and she's not stupid. Nebula understands immediately that he's offering to send her anywhere in the galaxy. For a long moment, the Luphomoid hesitates… before letting out a disgruntled growl.
"My sister. I will return to my sister."
Tony nods, before smirking slightly.
"Understood. But first, you want me to fix what Thanos did to you?"
A flicker of confusion spreads across Nebula's alien face as she tilts her head to the side.
"Nobody can fix everything my so-called 'father' did to me."
A rueful smile spreads across Tony's face, tinged slightly with a hint of melancholy.
"Right. Can't change the past, can we? But… that body of yours… I do have the Reality and Power Stones right here, just yearning to be used some more. What do you say? Shall we undo a bit more of Thanos' work before you're on your way?"
Nebula hesitates for a moment… before finally nodding. A couple minutes later and a completely flesh and blood Luphomoid is stepping through a portal that he opens for her; one final solid nod sent his way before she departs back to the Milano. Tony, meanwhile, nods back a bit absently, trying not to stare too hard. Who the fuck knew that Nebula's natural hair color was BLONDE of all things?
It's mere moments after she's gone that the Bifrost beam reaches Proxima b, landing a few dozen yards away from where Tony is standing. Odin and Thor step out alone, only to stop dead in their tracks at what they see around them. Their eyes land upon the desolated battlefield where every last one of Thanos' slave soldiers has been laid to rest. Eventually, they note the fallen bodies of the last three members of the Black Order… and then Thanos himself, slain by his own weapon.
"Shield-Brother! What… what have you done?!"
Tony knows that Thor's dismay is not over the mass killing that Tony himself has just performed, but rather over the fact that they didn't get to do it together. Huffing softly, Tony shakes his head in wry amusement.
"Finished the job, Thor. Sorry for the deception, but I had to deal with Thanos my own way. It was the only way to minimize casualties."
Thor pouts mightily, but before he can respond, Odin steps forward and places a hand on his son's shoulder. Peering at Tony with his one working eye, the All-Father frowns.
"Thanos had armies and fleets, Stark. I struggle to understand how facing him and all of his forces alone could be the best way."
Tony smiles as he steps over towards Thanos' body. One more thing to be done.
"Thanos had armies and fleets, yes. But I had JARVIS. Frankly… it was no contest."
As Tony stands over the purple thumb's corpse, Thor asks what's probably on both Asgardian's minds at this point.
"… How? How did you and JARVIS manage this, Tony?"
Stretching out his arms, Tony unfurls the Aether from within his body. Tendrils of red liquid extend out from his hands, tinged with purple electricity throughout their lengths.
"I can give you both a proper rundown of everything later, but suffice to say… I gave Thanos everything he wanted. And I made him choke on all of it."
As the tendrils touch Thanos' body, Odin speaks up again, his tone slightly wary.
"King Eitri told us he could not hold out forever, not while Thanos and his men tortured his subjects. He told us he made what Thanos wanted from him… the Infinity Gauntlet that you were so concerned about."
Tony hums and nods.
"I destroyed it already. It's gone."
He's glad to hear Odin sigh in relief, though the King of Asgard isn't done questioning him.
"… And what are you doing now, Stark?"
"Finishing the job."
Thanos' corpse jerks as tendrils of Power-laced Reality make contact with it. Covering the Titan's immense body in the liquid red of Reality, Tony focuses… and does to Thanos what he did to the Infinity Gauntlet. He erases him.
This isn't just breaking down the body. This isn't just reducing Thanos to dust and ash. This is deeper than that. Tony isn't so foolish as to try and make it so Thanos had never existed at all. Not only would that probably require Time alongside Reality to make happen, but it would also alter the very fabric of the universe and change the trajectories of millions upon millions of lives.
Perhaps for the better, but in the end, Tony wasn't going to make that call. However… he refused to have his hard work undone. Ever. He'd gone back in time for this shit, and he never wanted to see Thanos' scrotum-shaped head ever again.
Thanos will still have existed… but with the Power Stone and Reality Stone acting in conjunction with one another, he will never be able to exist again. The universe is a big place filled with all sorts of insanity. Magic and technology that maybe even Tony himself doesn't fully understand. But he'd used Reality to bring back Fenris for Hela. So he could damn well use it to make sure nobody could ever bring Thanos back in any way, shape, or form.
Once he's done, nothing of the Mad Titan remains. Not even the double-edged blade used to kill him. Letting out an explosive sigh, Tony turns to Odin and Thor and nods.
"It's done. With this, he can never come back."
Their eyes widen in understanding, with Thor still looking rather put-out that he'd missed the fighting. Odin though, simply looks ready to go home, a feeling Tony can very much share. And yet, the King of Asgard makes no move to leave. Instead…
"What now, King Stark?"
It's a sign of respect, Tony realizes. More so than ever before. But god… he's just too tired to care as much as he probably should. Smiling slightly, Tony looks around at the destroyed battlefield one final time. Additional bonus of holding the final battle here instead of on Earth… no real cleanup necessary.
"Now? Now we go home, All-Father. We hug our women and children, and we rest easy knowing that there's one less mad man in the universe after today."
Odin considers this for a moment before answering Tony's slight smile with one of his own.
"In that we are in agreement, King Stark."
"Yes! I shall go to Lady Jane and see if there are any strange new culinary concoctions she craves in the midst of her pregnancy! Heimdall! Send me back to my Lady, please!"
The Bifrost takes Thor away a moment later, leaving just Tony and Odin. For a split second Tony wonders if Odin will use the opportunity to have some sort of heart-to-heart, King-to-King talk with him. But instead, the All-Father's smile only grows.
"And to think, you told me they would tire of one another if I let Thor have his mortal fling."
Tony's smile grows as well and he shrugs in a 'what can you do?' gesture.
"That's not quite accurate. I believe I said they MIGHT tire of one another. In the end, what can you do in the face of true love?"
Odin just hums… and a moment later the Bifrost takes him away as well, the All-Father not even having to call for it out loud to be whisked off back to Asgard. Tony sighs and then steps back through a portal of his own, arriving on the top floor of Stark Towers.
"Tony!"
By the time Pepper has reached him, bounding across the room in half a second, he's already let his armor melt off of him, meaning she impacts his real body as they cling to one another, holding each other tightly.
Besides JARVIS, Pepper was the only one who had known pretty much the entire plan from top to bottom. He'd left everyone else in the dark, but he'd told her everything and given her the most important task of all… holding down the fort.
And of course, if it all went to shit and somehow he died, Pepper was in charge of getting together all of their rather unusual family, both the children and the women and all of their closest friends and getting the fuck out of dodge. Much in the same way that JARVIS and Friday were tasked with taking as many Infinity Stones besides Time and Mind as they could get from Tony's cooling corpse before Thanos did and running to the ends of the universe with them.
… Luckily it hadn't come to that, but even thinking about the possibility makes Tony all the more tired.
"It's over, Pep. He's dead and gone. It's over."
Pepper lets out a shuddering laugh of relief as she clings to Tony with all of her considerable strength.
"Good. You did good, Tony. You can rest now. We're all going to be okay."
He didn't know how badly he needed to hear those words. He hadn't realized how long he'd been going at full throttle, ignoring all signs of exhaustion and fatigue. He lets Pepper take him to the couch and he lets her pull his head into her lap as he lays down… and he lets himself nod off as she cards her fingers through his hair and whispers sweet nothings to him.
Because she's right. He can rest now. Everything is going to be okay.
-x-X-x-
Plug: An Iron Resolve is FINISHED over on my Patreon, coming in at 125 chapters long. It ends TOMORROW! Don't bother going to the Patreon for one more chapter, just wait for tomorrow lol.
A/N: And thus now we know Tony's true sacrifice to defeat Thanos... he and his original Nebula might have been thick as thieves after what they went through together, but in using this Nebula like he did, they'll never have that same relationship. Alas~
Just the Epilogue left to go everyone, see you all tomorrow!x-X-x-
May 3rd, 2028. Twenty years to the day since he'd come back in time.
Standing there staring out the window of a private space station currently orbiting the planet Earth, Tony Stark finds himself in a strange mood. Contemplative and introspective are the two words he would use to describe how he's currently feeling right now.
It's been a little over a decade since Thanos' death, but just because they'd put down the Mad Titan like the dog he was didn't mean everything had been sunshine and roses from that point on. The world had kept on turning, the galaxy had kept on spinning, and the universe had kept on churning out threats.
He'd dealt with them, of course… well, they'd dealt with them. Him and JARVIS had handled each and every problem as it arose, in the manner that they saw fit. Some might call that tyrannical. Some might say it wasn't fair. Some might say he was a dictator ruling over things with an iron fist cloaked in velvet.
… Alright, so maybe he should spend a little less time reading Michelle Jones' blog. That woman had far too much free time on her hands, but to be fair, she definitely got way closer to the truth than most did. Even with humanity rising to meet the challenge of a broader galaxy, even with the human race taking to the stars, so few people realized who was in charge after all this time.
Not that Tony would have it any other way. Sure, the whole 'King of Earth' thing was definitely more out in the open these days than it had been in the past. Especially now that enough humans were interacting with aliens to hear what the rest of the universe thought was happening on 'Terra'.
However, most humans took it in good humor, treating it like it was one big inside joke for their entire species more than anything to be offended by. Oh yes, of course Tony Stark is the King of Earth 'wink wink'. Meanwhile, most of the population didn't understand that the joke, as it were, was multi-layered.
Either that or they just didn't care. While Tony Stark held no official political office, even having resigned his World Security Council post at this point, he was still widely regarded as one of the most popular individuals in the entire human race.
Honestly, Tony was surprised that he wasn't more of a polarizing figure by this point. Though to be fair, most of the existential threats that came after him, JARVIS, and Friday because of their Infinity Stones were caught long before they could truly reveal themselves in force, and certainly long before they could show up on Earth to do any visible damage.
Frankly, these days it felt like Peter Parker was the trouble magnet more than Tony. The Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man wasn't so 'neighborhood' anymore, having been drawn into more than a few galactic kerfuffles. Sometimes on his own merits, and sometimes because of one of his girls.
The young man, no longer quite so young, had just as many lovers as Tony at this point, with some more interesting characters crawling out of the woodworks even beyond the original group. Felicia Hardy, for instance, wasn't someone that Tony remembered from the original timeline, but she certainly existed in this timeline, and she and Peter had quite the… interesting dynamic, given that she was also the internationally wanted cat burglar 'Black Cat' and he was Spider-Man.
And she was just one of many. Honestly sometimes it felt like Peter was-
Tony is cut off mid-thought by a portal suddenly opening behind him. Turning, he can't help the smile that comes to his face when he sees his daughter walking out of the portal and into the room. All thoughts of Peter and his chaotic life are pushed from Tony's mind, as he moves to meet Morgan Stark halfway.
"Morgan!"
"Hey dad."
They hug for a moment before Tony pulls back and gives her a look.
"Weren't you supposed to be with your sisters, baby girl?"
His eldest but still teenage daughter rolls her eyes at that.
"I'm taking a break. JARVIS was happy to take over for me."
Tony gives Morgan a slightly longer look, until she huffs and crosses her arms over her chest.
"Friday too."
At that, he finally relents. While he had no doubt that JARVIS could watch over any number of his children, and indeed knew for a fact that the nigh omniscient AI always was, Tony still preferred that there always be a physical entity of some sort with his girls, preferably flesh and blood. Though Friday was an excellent substitute.
Her and JARVIS had also developed a rather… close rapport over the years. Tony didn't quite know what was going on between those two, and he suspected it was because they preferred it that way.
For all his power, Tony didn't know everything, nor could he always be everywhere all at once. Once in a while, he might use the Aether to cheat a little bit though, especially where his girls were concerned. He was by no means perfect, not as a man or as a father, but he did his level best all the same. If that meant splitting himself so he could be at a dance recital and a softball game at the same time, so be it.
"Besides, I wanted to check on you. You shouldn't be alone, not on a day like this."
Tony tilts his head to the side at his eldest daughter's words. Morgan Stark, for all that she wasn't quite yet an adult, had an intelligence that not only rivaled, but probably surpassed his own. Or, if it didn't surpass his intellect now, it would in a few more years, Tony was certain of it.
She was the best of him, as well as the best of Pepper. She was the product of two truly amazing people, along with being the first human being born from two genetically enhanced individuals. Morgan hadn't needed an injection of the Extremis Super Soldier Serum or any of its different versions… she had Tony and Pepper's blood flowing through her veins. She came out already super.
Tony had known from the very beginning that Morgan was special. Her earliest years had prepared him for all of his other daughters to be just as special, in the end. At this point, there wasn't a single 'normal' kid among the bunch… and Tony wouldn't have it any other way. That wasn't to say he would have treated a 'normal' child of his any lesser… but, well, he certainly enjoyed the intelligence all of his baby girls had shown so far.
None more so than Morgan, who on top of being a certified genius, had grown up more emotionally mature and rounded than Tony ever could have hoped for.
Tony smiles slightly and shakes his head as he finally responds to Morgan's words.
"It was twenty years ago, Morgan. I'm over it."
Looking at him intensely, Morgan shakes her head.
"It was an inflection point, dad. You don't just get over those sorts of things."
Hm. Well, given he was up here all alone staring down at the Earth, Tony supposed his very bright, incredibly brilliant daughter had a point. Sighing, he gives her a grin.
"Alright then. Join me."
Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, letting her lean her head against him, they move back to the window together, gazing out at the planet below together. For a time, they just share in one another's presence, talking about minor things. Such as Morgan's latest series of experiments with Shuri, and Tony and JARVIS' latest terraforming efforts.
Finally, a comfortable silence falls between father and daughter for a long moment… until Morgan breaks it.
"Do you ever think you'll tell mom the truth, dad?"
Tony blinks, a little caught off guard by the question. It's not often that he finds himself truly surprised these days, but if anyone is capable of startling him, it's certainly Morgan. Brow furrowing, he gives his daughter the side-eye.
"The truth about what, Morgan?"
In comparison, Morgan keeps staring forward, down at the Earth. She doesn't look him in the eye, even as she speaks clearly and concisely.
"The truth about your circumstances, dad. About it being time travel, and not visions."
One could hear a pin drop as silence falls between them. Tony goes completely still for a long moment, his mind racing a million miles an hour. His first instinct is to blame JARVIS and to wonder why he would have told her… but no. Even before Morgan is finally turning to him, Tony knows that's not the case.
"No one told me, daddy. I figured it out myself. I put all of the pieces together on my own, okay? It wasn't JARVIS or the Ancient One or anyone. Only me."
Letting out a shuddering breath, Tony reaches for his firstborn's hands and takes them in his own.
"I believe you, Morgan. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. You're far, far too inquisitive for your own good. You get that from me, of course."
Morgan hesitates for a moment, before biting the bullet.
"Will… will you tell me? How bad it was?"
He wants nothing less, truth be told. However, at the same time… he remembers his own early life, so very long ago now. He remembers a father who didn't encourage his ingenuity and curiosity nearly as much as he should have, and a mother who didn't really have time for him. He remembers an upbringing that, while in no way abusive, also wasn't what he would have wanted for himself, let alone his own children.
With that in mind, he nods slightly.
"We failed, Morgan. Me and… others. People who stood both against me and alongside me at different points. We tried to come together to fight Thanos, and we failed. He collected the Infinity Stones. He wiped out half of all life in the universe. He… the original Pepper was on a plane when he did it. A plane that suddenly had no pilots. And she was pregnant… with a sister you'll never get to know."
Tony swallows thickly, a tear running down his cheek. Morgan looks stricken and as his head drops, hers falls forward, their foreheads connecting to one another as she squeezes his hands with her own, holding onto them with all her considerable might. Neither of them says anything for a long while, until Morgan finally breaks the silence once more.
"You should tell her, dad. Mom deserves to know."
Here, Tony can't help it… a smile spreads across his face as he looks into his daughter's eyes and sees his own iron resolve reflected back in her gaze. She knows this hurts, but she's so convinced that she's right, so confident that she's figured it all out… he laughs a little bit, causing her determination to falter, her lips tugging downward into a frown.
They pull apart as Tony finally grins.
"And what makes you think that she doesn't already know, Morgan?"
The look of baffled stupefaction on his teenage daughter's face is something to behold. He watches as she goes through denial and disbelief quite rapidly, before settling on pure incredulity. She knows better than to call him a liar, but at the same time…
Tony just shrugs, still grinning.
"I told her a little over a decade ago Morgan, shortly after I killed Thanos. You were right of course, she did deserve to know. And frankly, even eight years was far too long for me to keep the truth from her. She wasn't happy about it, but in the end, she understood. I truly am the luckiest man in the world, to have a woman like your mother by my side."
"But… she… you…!"
Shaking his head, Tony chuckles. Over the years, as Morgan's intelligence had steadily reached incredible heights capable of rivaling Tony himself, it was undeniable that she'd surpassed her mother. Pepper had taken this with grace, not at all bothered by the fact that her own daughter was almost certainly smarter than her by a couple of magnitudes. She'd never cared how much smarter Tony was after all, so why would she mind all that much?
And yet, it was obvious that Morgan's immense intellect had, no pun intended, gone to her head just a little bit. She loved her mother immensely, that much Tony knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, but it seemed she'd started to subconsciously infantize Pepper in her mind, seeing her as someone to be protected and looked after, rather than a capable woman in her own right.
Sighing, Tony places a hand on his daughter's shoulder.
"Morgan… you are very, very smart. But you still have a ways to go, young whippersnapper."
As his teenage daughter's nose wrinkles at the incredibly outdated parlance, Tony just grins.
"And even once you finally surpass me, daughter dear, you must always remember that your mother is a shark among humans and always will be. Understood?"
A little crestfallen, but quick to rally, Morgan hangs her head while also smiling slightly as she sighs.
"… Yes dad."
"Good! Now, I think you're right… there's no reason for me to spend a day like today all alone!"
With a snap of his fingers (mostly just for show), Tony creates a portal off to the side. Morgan looks at it curiously.
"… Where are you going? Can I come?"
Shaking his head, Tony steps away from his daughter.
"No, I think you have some bratty, inquisitive sisters to get back to babysitting, Morgan Stark. As for where I'm going, I'm going to see your mother."
Morgan blanches at that, her eyes widening in sudden terror.
"Wait! Please don't tell her about what I said! It's embarrassing!"
Yes, Tony imagines it would be a little embarrassing, being caught white knighting for your own mother when she didn't need your help. Which was precisely why Pepper already knew about it. But Tony doesn't tell Morgan that. Just like he doesn't let his rebellious teenage daughter know that he and Pepper already know about her going out at night sometimes to sidekick for a certain Spider Duo.
Instead, he just gives his teenage daughter a wicked grin.
"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that sweetheart. Your mother and I aren't going to be doing much talking."
Morgan's eyes widen again, this time in a whole new manner of terror as she turns a little green in the gills.
"DAAAAAAD!"
Tony just laughs as he steps through the portal having partook in that most ancient of traditions… grossing out your kids by reminding them that yes, you and their mother DID in fact bone in order to bring them into this world in the first place.
He reaches the other side a moment later, where Pepper is already waiting for him in bed, wearing a set of gorgeous lingerie. Fortunately the portal Tony used to get here was the opaque Space Stone variety, or else Morgan might have seen something truly upsetting for her.
Regardless, Tony's own clothing flickers away as he climbs onto the bed and joins his beautiful, wonderful wife there in a lover's embrace. And as he slides into Pepper and she wraps her legs around his waist, he knows, for all the uncertainty that the future will hold, that everything is going to be okay.
He'll make sure of it.
-x-X-x-
A/N: The end. What a wild ride guys. Gonna do a little Afterword here I think.
First things first, thank you all so very much for your support. This story has proven to be the most popular thing I've ever written on pretty much every website I posted it to.
Frankly, it still boggles my mind that I can top my previous fics. Two years ago, Maidenless No Longer was the most popular thing I had written and felt like my magnum opus. Even to this day, I know some consider it my best work, despite other stories like A Savage Nature managing to surpass it in popularity.
But this one definitely has all of those beat. I'm not sure if I would call it my best work ever, but I feel pretty damn good about it for how long it got, all things considered.
On the subject of length, I know some people wanted this story to continue for another hundred chapters. I get it. But honestly, given that there were multiple points where I was already feeling burnt out in the latter half of the 125 chapters we did get here, I'm just glad I managed to reach a (hopefully) satisfying conclusion in the first place.
Ultimately, I think things need to be able to end. If there's one thing that MCU post-endgame has shown us, it's that a good thing can very much be ran into the ground until the things that made it good are barely visible anymore amidst all of the dirt.
I've had my fair share of stories that I let go way longer than they needed to over the years. Stories that I ran into the ground and can only look back on with regret, if I can bring myself to look back at them at all.
But I'm happy saying that this story is not one of them. Even though it's now my longest free write ever by a wide margin, I'm satisfied with what I made here.
I hope you all enjoyed the journey with me as much as I did. Thank you again for reading.
...
Also you guys on QQ get a little bit more at the end here. A request, an offer, permission, whatever you want to call it. I know a lot of people have voiced they wished they could have seen this scene or that scene, this moment or that moment throughout the story.
Well, while I'm done writing this story and not intending to come back to it any time soon, I am officially opening the floor to OMAKES. Most of the time, my works don't get omakes for whatever reason. This story has been no different. And maybe soliciting them on the final chapter is too little too late and nobody will bite, but I figured I'd put the idea out there just in case.
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