A gauntlet, forged in the heart of a dying star by Carol.
The stones, painstakingly recollected after being scattered throughout the universe.
The soul stone, claimed by him after losing the only person in the universe he'd come to think of as his son.
All of it came together with more effort, blood and agony than Tony had ever been through in his life. He'd offered it up to one of the others, anyone else but him who wanted to be the one to bring them all back. They'd refused, insisted it had to be him. And for one of the few times in his life he was surprised but then came the anniversary of the culling. The day Tony slipped his hand into the gauntlet and repeated the snap that had taken everything from them.
At first he'd been sure it hadn't worked, that there was no fixing what they'd all lost but then the war torn, damaged faces of the people he knew were gone. Everything was gone and for a brief moment he knew utter darkness. The kind that sends a kid running from his bed and into a parent's at night. Then. Slowly but surely light returned to his senses, bringing him to a familar place and time that was long since gone.
Edwin and Anna Jarvis' home off the larger Stark estate and it even smelled right. One look confirmed the gauntlet was gone from his hand but he couldn't feel the emotions that should've been spilling out of him from realizing that. In fact Tony couldn't feel anything at all save the sun beating down on him and a cool breeze drifting through the trees and tickling the grass at his feet.
"Sir."
That voice… He should've been surprised to see Edwin Jarvis in the flesh, sitting properly in a deck chair reading the paper. But the scene was so heartbreakingly home he just walked in a dreamlike state to join him in an adjacent chair in front of the immaculate home that was gathering dust in the present.
"You're sure this is what you want?" Jarvis looked him in the eyes and Tony couldn't seem to look away.
"I've done everything because of this. Of course it is. I want them back. All of them, J." He bit his tongue, trying to keep ahold of himself, trying to keep the peaceful feeling within himself but he wanted to know so much more than he did right there.
Had he done all the right things? Did this count for anything? Could he ever be any better than his father had been to him for Peter?
"If you make this choice you will die. Are you prepared to give up your life for the sake of half a universe?" His butler- his first and last father figure's voice softened as if he wasn't a projection of the stones at all but the real deal.
"I am." Tony didn't hesitate. He hadn't expected it to come to this really but what human gets to wield the six infinity stones and live? Not him. His time was up here.
Jarvis set his paper down and made Tony stand. He looked him over with a reserved smile full of love and impending sadness.
"You've grown so much and come far… Fought so many battles and brought as much good as your heart could give into the world. But now I believe it's time to rest, sir. You've done very well." Each word was laced with love and a gentleness as if Edwin was tucking him into bed. As if he was a child again and it was going to be another weekend without his parents home to care for him.
Tony wrapped his arms around Jarvis and the world dripped into nothing around them. He came back to the open jungle of Wakanda and the faces of people he once thought of as family. Steve with his haggard face and Rhodey, starting forward like he was going to stop whatever Tony couldn't see happening. Okoye with a look of shock as T'Challa materialized next to her. He couldn't feel the pain but he knew he was dying. Everyone around him had terrible poker faces.
His legs gave out and the gauntlet was vaguely burning his hand. He couldn't seem to get a grasp on his thoughts and feelings. Everything was just going away now. There were voices, yes but he couldn't hear what they were saying. The gauntlet was leading a trail of heat up his arm, consuming him along with the power of the stones to complete the task Tony had set it.
Bring them back.
Bring them all back, let me die, just bring them back.
Tony turned his head to look at his arm only to see the more than brilliant light emanating from the gemstones and the jagged blackened lines racing up his arm and covering every inch of him. Someone was yanking on it now, trying to rip it off before it killed him but it wasn't budging. He didn't think it would. The pain rippled through him like acid with a numbed after effect. It wouldn't stop until he was dead and gone and the rest of them were saved.
"It's okay… I'm okay." He could hear himself saying and the tugging on his arm came to a stuttered stop.
The burning power consumed him, enveloped him until he crumbled to ash and the cracked gauntlet lay half blanketed by it, the six stones shining dully through.
In the span of a few minutes the universe was alive again and Tony Stark was dead. Across the universe people celebrated all that had been restored to them and those who knew the sacrifice made mourned.