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."

Comments

[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..."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor says nothing. He just looks at Tony with pleading desperation.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony lifted his gaze up to meet the larger man's. It was no longer hateful, or even dark. There was a clarity--a serenity, almost.

"Alright. Because I haven't forgotten our partnership."

[st_ormbreaker]

Relief pools inside of Thor and collects on his face. For the first time since Thanos (because no matter what Tony says, it wasn't Tony -- Thanos made him do this) attacked, he feels one small flicker of hope.

"Tony..."

Thor reaches up to the side of Tony's face, and runs his fingers along the back of his head down to the small of his neck.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Returning the gesture, Tony's metallic touch cupped the back of Thor's neck and brought him down until their foreheads met. The people, the carnage, it all faded into a dull roar of colors and meaningless noise.

"I'm going. I want you to come with me."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor's brows furrow and he lifts his head so he can look at Tony.

"Where -- Where are you going?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Without answer or a sign, Tony's yet unaccounted-for hand was rapidly embedding through Thor's chest--having formed a blade of energy.

"If only you didn't lack the will."

[st_ormbreaker]

Pain suddenly shoots up Thor's spine. Thor lets out a strange, guttural sound as Tony's blade pierces further and further into him, until he can hear the tip of it penetrate through the flesh of his back.

In that moment, Thor is overcome with an overwhelming sense of deja vu. Rationally, he knows should be reacting -- holding his hand out for Stormbreaker or pushing Tony away, but instead, he's straining to pinpoint why all this feels so familiar.

Thor looks at Tony uncomprehendingly. All of this doesn't feel real, but it is. Even now, he's desperately clinging to a narrative where this wasn't Tony because he doesn't want to believe that Tony is capable of such a thing. Even now, with Tony's blade lodged through his chest, he still wants to believe that this isn't Tony. It's Thanos, using the Mind Stone.

"You just need to tell me where he is," Thor says, pleading. "I'll kill him. I'll kill him and I'll end this."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Make this easy for yourself." Tony didn't avert his gaze the way he did when he finished off all the others. He met Thor's desperate stare head-on, watching the life in them waver and fight--the feeble kicking of a frightened animal. "You'll return. All this--just a fading memory."

He withdrew his blade with a sickening gnashing of flesh and bone.

"A bad dream. That's all."