Iron Titan

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Absolute devastation. That was the only way to describe it.

It was utterly senseless, yet coldly methodical. The Madonna Inn, the inescapable steadfast, had become utterly trifling in how easily it was torn asunder. The barrier separating it from each residents' home had been obliterated. A gauntletted hand through tissue.

The bitterly cruel irony was that few residents still lived to witness this come to pass.

"Your kingdom, Odinson. Your people." The Titan wrenched Thor up from the ground, fingers circling his skull. "False idols. Comfortable lies for an uneasy head."

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[st_ormbreaker]

The same cold, hard feeling that rose up inside of him the last time he encountered Thanos takes hold of him again. He can hear Annie sobbing behind him -- Annie, who gladly let him braid her hair whenever he liked.

He's pretty sure that Quill is dead or close to it, along with so many others. He may have not seen the bodies, but their absence said everything that need to be said. If they were alive, they'd be here and fighting now.

If Tony were alive, he'd be here and fighting now.

Thor clenches his jaw.

"There is no one to stop but you."

Thor extends his arm, his hand outstretched. Stormbreaker easily pulls itself from the earth where it had been lodged and snaps into Thor's hand. Then, with one strong, fluid motion, he slams the blade of the hammer-axe towards the space presently occupied by Thanos' head.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Stormbreaker, with its enormous strength, struck true. Thanos collapsed into dust, leaving nothing--not even the Infinity Gauntlet and the stones embedded within--behind. The hammer-axe pierced the remains and spread them to the wind.

The fires raged on, the devastation remained.

When the last molecule of dust had finally drifted away, a distinct whirring could be heard over the flames. Iron Man, wholly untouched by the assault, descended before the scene. He observed, silent. His attention was drawn to the sound of Annie's cries, and he took slow, measured steps to where Peter lied crumpled against the fragmented wall.

[st_arkintern]

It takes two earnest attempts from Peter before he's able to push his torso up off the ground. Peter's face is a bloodied mess; three of his front teeth have shattered outright, and when he begins to cough to clear his throat of blood, he feels another two teeth shift effortlessly from within their sockets.

He can feel his body mending itself, but it's not mending fast enough. Thor's in trouble -- Annie's in trouble -- Quill's in trouble, and he needs to help them, but he can't unless he can get off the ground. It's as if every cell in his body is so fixated on mending the broken bones and pierced skin that they can't respond to the simple commands like focus and move and speak.

Somehow, though, Peter forces his body to respond to him, and he pushes his torso up off the ground. "Annie," he manages. "Everything -- Everything --"

But before Peter can assure her that things are going to be okay, Peter's gaze is attracted to sudden movement in the sky and down to the earth below.

"Mr...." he begins, and it takes another considerable effort for him to push through the next syllable forward. "...Stark."

Peter was sure now that everything was going to be okay.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony's steps slowed even further as he neared Peter and Annie. With his armored hand, he gently coaxed the small, red-headed girl away from Peter to get a good look at him. Kneeling before his protege, his helmet vanished.

His expression was hard, his jaw was set, holding back all the words that he wanted to say to the boy. Seeing him, physically broken with his eyes alight, it struck deep in the heart of him. He put a hand to the crown of his head in the most tender gesture he could express with Peter's body in such a state.

"You did well, Peter. I'm proud of you."

[st_arkintern]

Relief swells within Peter's chest at Tony's words, but he doesn't allow himself to dwell on them for very long. "Mr. Star-Lord -- he's hurt, and --"

Peter stops and swallows the blood that's accumulated in his throat.

"-- he can't, he can't heal the way that I can, so we got --"

Peter attempts to push himself up and onto his knees, but his first leg buckles before he even puts any weight on it. "-- we gotta help him."

He tenses and tries again; this time, his knee finds the earth.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"I will." Tony caught Peter against himself, bringing his other hand around to support his back. Whatever strength the boy had left, every ounce of it was going to assure that others would live. His fingers tightened the barest amount over Peter's head, and he held the boy against him. Even through his suit, he could feel his warmth and how it was leaving him.

"I'm sorry, kid." His helmet reformed as the repulsors pressed against Peter's head and back began glowing to life. The next words to leave his mouth were so quiet they barely escaped the prison of his armor. "We'll be together soon."

A coldly measured jolt of electricity left his hands, stopping the heart of the body against him. Tony kept his eyes fixed forward as the body went limp in his arms. He slid it back to earth.

[st_ayedhidden]

Annie's face was hot with tears, but when she saw Iron Man she thought they would be okay much like her father. She stepped back to let Iron Man help her dad. However, as she stood there, she felt the hair on her arms and at the back of her neck lift. Suddenly there was a flash and she saw Iron Man and Peter as Iron Man lifted Peter up and killed him.

The vision was over quickly and she heard herself screaming.

"No don't!" She shouted, voice cracking.

She hadn't been able to save her dad. Again. Fresh tears were in here eyes.

"Why? Why would you? Why did you?" She stammered.

Her fingers tightened in a ball the same stubborn way her dad's did when he was resolved. The hurt and furry in her tiny little body swelled up inside of her.

"I won't let you." She said. "I won't let you."

With her lips in a thin line, Annie propelled herself off the ground toward Iron Man to kick him in the face. She didn't have her web-shooters and she knew Iron Man's suit was hard to beat. She was going to try anyways. She was going try for her dad.

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor turns at the sound of Tony descending and watches, half-confused, half-relieved as the man lands on a patch of Earth near Peter. Thor was so utterly convinced of Tony's death, but it did not occur him to question the immaculate sheen of his armor. He just watches as Tony lowers himself down to Peter's height, then holds him and speaks to him tenderly, the way a father might to their own child.

It feels intrusive, somehow, for him to continue watching the scene. Thor isn't entirely convinced that Thanos is gone (could he ever be as long as the man had the Reality Stone?), but he was thoroughly convinced that both Peter and Annie are safe in his care. He doesn't watch any further; instead, he walks towards Quill's form and is relieved to find it moving slightly with breath.

Thor is on the verge of crouching down just as Tony had done for Peter a few moments before when he hears the familiar sound of Tony's repulsors starting up. When he turns what he sees is not Tony directing an armored hand at a newly-returned Thanos, but Tony holding the limp body of Peter Parker.

Thor's shout comes out a few seconds after Annie's.

"No!"

Thor drops Stormbreaker. Quill is completely forgotten. Thor launches himself to his feet and at Tony, no longer certain if the man before him is truly Tony Stark or simply Thanos in disguise.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

From the moment Peter became a corpse, Tony knew he had only seconds to finish the tasks remaining. Despite that, he had hesitated just long enough for Annie to process the scene in front of her. He should have spared her that much.

No matter. It was time for her to return to her true family.

He didn't allow himself to look, to hesitate even a microsecond longer. The two survivors who could still move were closing in. He raised his hand in one precise motion and the nano-machines formed into a weapon that hit the girl with a spark of lightning. Her tiny body hit his armored one on pure inertia, and he caught her before she could fall to the earth.

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor grabs Tony by the wrists.

"Tony," he says, looking the man dead in the face. Their faces are close enough that he can feel Tony's breath warm on his face. "What are you doing?!"

Thor's mind is trying to grasp for some explanation for this. The Reality Stone -- no, maybe the Mind Stone. Maybe he was being controlled as Barton and Selvig were being controlled by Loki.

He decides it has to be that, because what other reason could there be? Thor's grasp on the man tightens as he attempts to hold him in place.

"Tony, you must break free of its control!"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony was silent. He was a void, down to his focused glare--they were nothing like the eyes of the feisty researcher that had emerged during his stay at the Madonna Inn. They were black holes that swallowed everything, not even leaving the barest traces of light. There was something beyond contempt in the way he looked at the man in front him.

"I'm gonna let you in on a secret." The arc reactor in his chest burst to life, and the air itself shuddered. "Thanos didn't kill a single one of them tonight."

A fraction of a second was the duration of the charged unibeam blast that Tony hit Thor with, but that was all he needed. The god went soaring, leaving his path to Quill open, and he took it.

Activating his foot thrusters, Iron Man was looming over Quill's vulnerable form in a heartbeat. "I'll help you. I promised the kid." Rapidly, his arm re-formed into a cluster cannon, taking aim at the man's head.

[st_arlord]

Quill's body ached all over to the point where he almost didn't feel the pain. It had been bad before, but never this bad. A part of him already knew that this 'was it', but Quill was nothing if not stubborn.

He couldn't see what was happening, but he could hear it. He heard Annie cry and and assumed Peter had died. The second blast, he assumed, was the little girl. Somehow things fell into place when Stark came into view.

It was this douchebag all along

He couldn't sit up. He was too broken. His breathing was labored and he knew he'd have one hell of a time coming back from these injuries. With this knowledge, Quill did what he had to.

He glared daggers at Stark.

"Go to hell, Stark," He managed to spit out.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

A blast. A wave of heat. Dust.

The body had been so thoroughly obliterated, there wasn't even blood left. The particles that had once composed Peter Quill had been violently torn apart. They would never come back together--at least not in this universe.

Tony stood in the wake of his own attack, testing the grip of his reformed hand.

[st_ormbreaker]

Quill.

Thor can not possibly comprehend the magnitude of his loss right now. The second he does, the second he's unable to keep standing. He can't let that happen. He has to pull Tony out of it. He has no other choice.

Thor struggles to his feet, pain coursing through his body. It's been years since he's taken one of Iron Man's blasts head-on, and even when augmented by Thor's own lightning powers, it had still not come close to the force of one of Tony's blasts. Tony had made improvements, but none that could possibly account for this sort of power.

The Power Stone, he tells himself as he staggers forward. Thanos is using the Mind Stone to control Tony and Tony is using the Power Stone. It's the only rational explanation.

He swings his hands out to catch Tony's arms again; this time, his body is braced for another blast to the chest. He has to get through to Tony. He has to. Even if he killed everyone here, it was no different than Barnes killing his parents. Tony wasn't a person now -- he was Thanos tool. He couldn't let him be that tool any longer. He could not allow Tony to escape all of this and suffer the same way Barnes suffers now.

Suffered. Thor is sure he survived to see Barnes die again.

"I know you're in there, Tony," he says, voice pleading. "I know you're in there, and you need to fight against it. Just as we did before."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"There is no 'we.'" If Thor insisted on continually getting as close as possible, let him. He was no longer any sort of threat. His grip, strong as it was, made no dent in his armor.

"There's only me. The man who'll hunt Thanos down and finish the job you failed."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor blinks, uncomprehendingly at Tony; for a fraction of a second, he feels his grip on the other man loosen.

"What?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"I told you. Thanos didn't kill a single person here." Tony looked towards the sky. The portal above, the one that ripped through the barrier, shone dimly. The sky itself was burnt, not unlike the glow of twilight.

Home. There was no doubt that's where it lead. And only one individual could pass through. Tony turned his eyes back on Thor.

"All he did was reveal the truth."

[st_ormbreaker]

"The truth?"

Thor shakes his head, hoping against hope that what he thinks is happening isn't happening. He doesn't want this to be true. None of it. Not the annihilation of all the people here, not Thanos' return, not the portal in the sky that brought him here, not the possibility that Tony might know that he failed to kill Thanos -- and why he failed at it.

But all of this is real. Tony's armored arms are real. The earth beneath him is real. And the sense of despair that threatens to swallow him whole is perhaps realest of them all.

"What are you talking about? This isn't like you. Tony."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"I didn't kill anyone. I freed them."

Tony turned his fingers over in Thor's grip. He took his turn at grasping Thor's wrists, though far more tenderly than Thor had his own. The gesture could have been mistaken for romantic, as if the two were the only ones who existed. The type of moment they had shared so often in the recent past.

Except now, they were both truly alone.

"I put aside every ounce of myself to do what had to be done. That's what I've always done. And you...you couldn't even let go for two seconds. And they're gone. To their graves. All on your head."

Tony didn't give Thor any time. His armor receded--and he lifted Thor's hands to his bared neck.

"If you have an issue with my methods--if you really think you have what it takes to protect what's left of your world--then do it. For real, this time."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor remembers with absolute clarity how it felt when Thanos had the Power Stone pressed against the side of his head. The pain had been excruciating and though he wanted desperately to live, if only to see the Titan taste his vengeance, there had been one moment where death felt like it might be a blessing.

The very air itself feels like its tightly constricting around him, sucking the air and the life straight out of his body. And in that instant, when he feels his hands on Tony's neck and the other man offers his instruction, he feels exactly as he did in that moment.

"I'm not going to kill you," he says, trying to pull his hands away from Tony. "This isn't you. I know you're in there, Tony. I know you're in there."

Thor needs to believe that this isn't his Tony. That it's a Tony controlled and manipulated by Thanos. A Tony who would never, ever hurt innocents.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

A flicker of something in Tony's eyes--disappointment, almost. He summoned a wry, tired smile as he maintained his grip on Thor's wrists.

"I spared you having to watch anyone die a second time. I gave you that much." The implication was enough. Lowering Thor's hands, his armor covered his entire being. "I'm going."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor reaches out to grab Tony's arms again.

"I'm not going to let you go."

There is no anger there. Not at Tony, and not that registers on his face or in his voice.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Iron Man allowed his grasp, futile as it was.

"And then what?"

[st_ormbreaker]

"I'm not going to stop until you break free of it," he says, his grip tightening around his metal arms. "I don't care what it takes. I'm not going to give up on you."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony's body sagged forward, centimeters away from touching Thor's. His helmet receded, revealing his solemn expression.

"Point Break..."