It was about as close to fire and brimstone as Tony decided he could ever get. Granted, he wasn't on Earth, so it wasn't the most absurd thing to happen to him. But being on destroyed planet Titan fighting an actual Titan amidst the burning remains of the home that inspired his recent killing spree felt almost like a mockery.
Sure, he was glad to be where Pepper, and a flaccid Banner, Rhody, and yes, even Cap, couldn't get hurt. But he still had the kid to worry about—the damn stowaway who he would make sure May grounded when they got home. Tony had just decided to install new security software in Peter's backpack and phone this time around when Thanos managed to land a punch straight to his sternum.
If it weren't for the suit, his ribs would have buckled. But he still felt they strain against their cartilage as he momentarily had to grapple to find purchase on breathing again. He prided himself on putting up a good fight, but he was getting wearier by the second.
And he had no idea where Star Lord and his gang had gone, but he could hear what he hoped was Peter's voice in the distance stringing them up.
'Good, kid,' he thought after dodging what could have been a particularly devastating jab to his kidney. 'Stay busy over there.'
"You don't know what you're messing with, Stark," Thanos ground between his teeth. "Don't you see you're on the wrong side?"
Tony charged the blaster in his right palm, feigned a kick and let it rip. It glanced off Thanos' shoulder like a mosquito bite, but it did earn him a growl and a swat. Perhaps he could just tire him out.
"Yeah, killing the Universe in the name of saving if?" He blasted himself over a kick aimed at his kneecap. "No thanks, marshmallow."
"If you won't choose to see," Thanos spoke deathly low, "I'll make you see."
Tony had charged another two blasters and was taking aim when his foot nearly yanked from its socket. Thanos pulled him down and slammed him against a boulder.
His vision went white for a moment and he groaned.
He could just make out the rumble of Thanos trying to convince him as his ears slowly unbuzzed. "-you're too weak to understand-to know what I know." Another fist to his chest, but this time it locked around his nano-armor.
"Aauh!" Tony cried out, feeling something inside him shift. Was that blood on his tongue? That was never good.
"It's just one big circle." Thanos' voice was much louder now, as Tony had been elevated close to his mouth.
In a last ditch effort to free himself, Tony locked and loaded his arc reactor, hoping to sear Thanos' grip right off him so he'd let him go.
"Ah, ah, ah," Thanos scolded, squeezing his fist around his chest so the nano-tech flickered at the pressure. "None of that."
Tony couldn't breathe. He needed to act. "F.R.I.D.-" he tried to summon the offline version of his A.I. helper, but all was quiet in his suit.
Suddenly Thanos was speaking lowly again. "It's all just one big circle," he repeated himself. "If I want to get to you," he rumbled, "I go after what you love."
Tony's heart spiked.
"And to go after what you love," Thanos continued. "I just need to go after you."
Cold dread spawned under his breastplate. Thanos was going to take another father figure from the kid. And it would be on him for leaving—for abandoning Peter. Dammit.
Tony was flung to the ground, his vision darkening, the blood on his tongue thicker now. He needed to get up. He needed to move.
And he tried. But his muscles quivered helplessly.
"You'll feel what I feel-and then you'll finally see what I see."
Enough adrenaline coursed through him to open his eyes just in time to see
Thanos brandishing a long scepter that seemingly lengthened out of the air.
The last thing he saw was Thanos rearing back to skewer him right into the
Titan dust. Tony wanted to close his eyes. I'm sorry, Peter.
But the blow never came. But the noise did. A sickening crunch that had Tony's blood turning to ice. Peter had suddenly materialized in front of him, standing protectively over his body just in time for Thanos to plunge the blade straight through Peter's chest and out his back.
"N-o," Tony choked almost quietly. His wits were cruelly returning to him. Now he understood what Thanos had meant to do.
"NO!"
"Run, Mr. Sta-auhh!" Peter garbled.
Thanos had lifted the blade so Peter dangled off the ground.
Tony opened his mouth, and he could feel the scream abusing his trachea, but he couldn't hear it over the blood rushing to his ears. With all systems charged, Tony lit himself up and barreled right into Thanos' broad chest.
The purple Titan went flying, dropping the scepter with Peter still impaled on it into the dust.
All rockets detonated in his suit, Tony calling upon the last stores of energy to finish Thanos. His suit would be dead after this-he'd be trapped on the ground and unable to get them back. But he wasn't sure he'd want to go home without the kid.
The power from his suit coalesced into a final beam and straight into Thanos' head. The titan went slack and flopped to the ground, eyes closed. Tony was unsure of whether or not he was dead, but he couldn't bring himself to care.
Star Lord and his crew had just started waking up from their web slings that Peter had stowed them in, and were finding ways to get down and finish off the titan. But Tony had other priorities.
"Peter!" Tony screamed. He almost forgot his rocket launchers had no juice left in them when he tried to fly back to where Peter lay. Instead he had to run. So he sprinted.
A dark pool of blood was staining the dirt around the kid, all spreading from the blade still lodged in his chest.
"Peter-no, no, no-Peter!" Tony collapsed beside him, hands shaking as he figured out what to do first. Peter's mouth hinged open in small, painful gasps and his eyelids fluttered.
When Tony collected his small frame into his lap, Peter's eyes screwed up in pain. "I know, kid," Tony rushed, "I know, I'm sorry. We gotta get this-we gotta-out of you-this thing!" He growled in frustration, pulling on the handle.
"'M sorry," he slurred.
"Why did you do that, Peter?" Tony was almost scolding him, but it turned into a plea. "You never leave it alone-Thanos was never your fight—this was not your blade."
"'D do it again,"' he garbled, "save you, ev'ry time-'d do it again-'M sorry."
"Don't say that," Tony hissed. "Don't be sorry. Be alive-stay alive, Peter!"
"Wu'you tell Aun'May, that?"
"No," Tony's hands were too warm, but his eyes were burning more hotly. "No, you're okay," he mostly assured himself. "You're okay. You have to be okay. It was my job to make sure you-of all people-that you didn't get hurt, Peter. And-and I failed. So, now you're gonna be okay. I'm going to make sure of it."
A thin line of blood traced down from Peter's lips and Tony had to fight off the shock that was making him shake. Red gurgled in his throat.
"No, Peter," Tony choked, "Stay with me, Peter, open your eyes, dammit! No, please—God, no!"
An idea occurred to him just then. The arc reactor.
He'd installed a fail safe in case he ran out of nano-energy. All he had to do was push the reactor back into his chest cavity where it used to once sit and give him life and steal some of that life back.
Without a second thought, he slammed the heel of his hand into the arc reactor and almost yelped at the pain of it puncturing his blood supply, tapping back into his heart. Except this time, the heart beat for the reactor, not the other way around.
Almost immediately, Tony felt himself grow lightheaded as the arc reactor siphoned off power from his chest. But at the sight of the reactor glowing again was all the hope he needed.
"You're going to be okay, Peter," Tony promised him. Before the kid could object, Tony gave a final yank and the scepter slid out, pulling Peter's thoracic cavity up with it in pain. The kid didn't make as much noise as Tony was hoping.
"Hold on," Tony pressed into his wounds as blood flowed out of them more freely in vain attempts to staunch them. "Hold on, almost there." His voice was still shaking. Just a few more seconds and his wound sewer could power itself.
"There!" He panted, but decided he'd better not turn off the siphoning yet-not until Peter's wounds were closed.
He'd have to work carefully. The scepter most likely caused some internal bleeding, so the only way for Peter to not die of hemorrhaging would be to start from the inside and work out.
"I'm so sorry," he whispered, full knowing Peter was past the point of hearing him. He hoisted the kid's torso up and leant him against his chest so his head lulled over his shoulder. He needed access to his back, but he had to try to forget the blood that was warming the front of his chest.
Tony grit his teeth and shoved his hand inside the wound, wincing when Peter's eyes snapped open. "Shh," he hushed his confused thrashing and worked more quickly, letting the web of fake coagulant and tissue spew from his wound sewer and begin to genetically analyze the surrounding site to take on the properties of the area.
"It'll be over soon, kid," he grimaced when his hand caught on something. "Promise."
"Stark!" It was Strange. Finally coming around as well, he saw.
"'M a little busy at the moment!" Tony spoke as loud as he dared, saving all his concentration for the boy in front of him.
"Well unbusy yourself-we have a situation!"
"Not! Now!"
He was just nearly finished with the kid's back, stitching together the last sinews before Strange came crashing into them.
Stark reacted immediately, pulling Peter close and taking his weight from the crash. They skidded hideously into a nearby boulder where bits of a ship were scattered.
"Buy me time, Strange!" Tony ordered the Doctor.
"You cannot buy time!" Drax shouted from his left, "it has no monetary value!"
Tony ignored him.
"Mr. Stark?" Peter's consciousness was returning. "What're you still doin' h're?" He coughed, blood droplets dotting his chin. "Get out-"
"Not a chance, Peter." He shut that up as soon as he saw where it was going and got to work on the kid's front where the scepter had entered.
"N-o," he shoved at him feebly.
"Don't make me knock you out, kid," Tony warned. "I'll do it. Now lie still so I can get the reactor to physiologically match me again."
That did it. Peter's face tightened as his breathing nearly arrested. His eyes shot open and he grappled with Tony's arm. "You're not allowed to do that, Mr. Stark!" Peter spoke with more clarity than he had this whole time. "Stop! You'll kill yourself! Stop it!"
"That's my choice, Peter!" Tony restrained him and continued to work, but it was difficult with his patient squirming. And as Peter grew stronger, Tony grew weaker. He knew the kid's weird spidey defense system would kick-in soon, and then he'd be overpowered.
The muscle layer had just sealed over and Tony was about to get started on the final skin tears and blood vessels when Peter reached out in grabbed Tony's arc reactor around the rim and pulled. Tony nearly gasped when he felt it dislodge.
"Not okay, kid," he sputtered, "that's off limits, you know that."
"Yeah? Well..." Peter faltered, "so is siphoning off your life to power your reactor so you can heal me."
"Nope," Tony wheezed, "not the same. You don't get to one-side this. You jumped in front of my blade, so I get to do whatever I need to fix it."
"Stark!" Star Lord yelled from where the fight was still raging.
Before he answered, he launched forward and pulled the kid into the tightest hug he could muster in this moment. "If you ever do that again, I'll tell Aunt May to ground you for life. She'll send you to community college so you can still live at home, you got that?"
Weak arms wrapped around him in response. But they grew stronger the longer he held the kid. "Okay, Mr. Stark." He nodded into his shoulder. "Okay."
He was letting go when Peter tightened his grip. "This...isn't just you getting the door, right?"
Tony chuckled. "No, kid." He held on a little longer. "It's not."