Tony Stark and the Infinity Gauntlet
As our heroes were fighting on Earth for the sake of Vision and, in a little more slightly larger sense, for the sake of half the Universe, a heterogeneous band had assembled itself on the red, devastated Titan to fight the cruel Thanos, he who was at the origin of this sorry prospect. They had tried to take the Infinity Gauntlet off of Thanos' hand, but this plan, too, had failed, as Peter Quill, also known as Starlord, couldn't remain calm after learning that his girlfriend was killed by the man standing right in front of him. Anger prevailed in him and he started to punch Thanos without thinking twice - it goes without saying that this was perfectly useless, for Thanos was far more stronger than him, even without the Gauntlet that he had manage to keep, by the way. This plan couldn't be tried again and the Avengers, along with the Guardians, proceeded to attack their enemy with all their strength and power and whatever they were capable of, in a desperate attempt to save the Universe - and their lives. But Thanos was no easy man to take down and soon, they all lost to him. Dr. Strange was almost knocked unconscious, the Guardians were lying on the ground without even being able to get up and Stark's armour was repairing itself each time more slowly and with more difficulties. Finally, even the Spider ended up in the grasp of Evil. Peter started to choke: his movements were no more rational but submitted to his growing fear.
"No!" screamed Stark, when he saw his ward on the brink of death.
Stark rose up as he attempted to reach Thanos.
"No!" he repeated. Please, leave him alone!
Thanos looked at him then looked at Strange breathing heavily. Stark also turned his attention to the sorcerer. They both stared at each other. Stark silently begged him but Strange looked down. The two of them knew what was going on. Strange saw alternatives futures, millions of them and only in one of them did he see them winning. Only one. They couldn't risk their chance, they couldn't risk anything. Not for anything else. Not for anyone else.
"Thanos," said Stark, "why are you doing this?"
Thanos was still holding Peter within his big purple grasp, but he wasn't strangling him anymore. The Spider was trying to get free of him - in vain of course.
"You know why," replied the giant. The Universe is at the end of its resources. No planet can continue this way. I'm offering us all a solution.
"By killing everyone?" said Peter with sass - the only thing left when you're about to die on a foreign planet. "Excuse me sir, but I don't see how it's supposed to help anyone."
Thanos looked down on him, his smile getting bigger - and somewhat grimmer.
"You fool, I'm not trying to kill everyone, I'm trying to kill half of everyone."
His eyes met again with Stark's.
"You see, by erasing half of the Universe's population, I offer it a fresh new start, the possibility to finally make the good choices. On every planet I have saved so far, not one child have lacked proper, abundant food since then."
"But at what cost?" asked Strange who was trying to get on his feet, his hand on his stomach as he was wounded. "At what amount of pain and suffering?"
For a second, it was as if Thanos looked sad. But it was only a second and, the moment afterwards, his face returned to its natural state - a cold, heartless one.
"That's why I need all the Infinity Stones. With them, I will be able to accomplish my mission."
"Oh, is it a mission? I thought it was just cruelty!"
This time, the one who had spoken was Quill. His team was standing by his side and they had all their weapons out. In a blink of an eye, they rushed to Thanos and attacked him all at once. It seemed that it had worked, for Thanos grunted and knelt down, but he was still holding firmly Peter and Quill didn't cease fire.
"Stop it!" screamed Stark for the second time.
A fire nearly blew Peter's head and Stark felt his heart betting faster than ever.
"Stop it, moron, you're going to kill the kid too!"
Finally, Thanos got rid of the Guardians with a single - and more powerful than anyone else's due to the Infinity Stones - punch. He grabbed Peter and started to strangle him with both of his hands above his head so that everyone could see it.
"It's over!" he shouted. "Give me the Time Stone!"
Stark turned to Strange.
"Please..."
But the sorcerer gave him a hard look.
"I told you in the ship..."
"Strange, please."
Thanos could tell what was going on inside Stark's head. He turned to him, once again.
"Listen to me. I want to save the Universe as much as you do."
Suddenly, Stark got impatient.
"Yeah? Then why don't you use you power for good? Why don't you, I don't know, create the resources that we're lacking so much!"
Thanos laughed.
"Create? I thought that you, of anyone, would know how impossible is it to create something out of nothing. I can't create resources when there're no more. Think about it. All the destructions, the wars because of the lack of resources. But if you hand over me the Time Stone, we can build a new world. You can build a new world for your planet. Now, with a lower population, you can finally distribute fairly its resources and start again their exploitation, but wisely this time."
"But the cost," said Strange again, "the cost is too heavy."
Thanos looked at him before answering.
"It's a fair cost after all these millennia of destruction. And with all the Infinity Stones, there will be no pain, no agony. People will just cease to exist."
"Thanos, said Iron Man - he had remained silent for all this time but now he had made up his mind, I want you to promise me something in exchange of the Stone."
"What?"
"Leave the kid alone."
When he heard this, Peter, although now really weakened, tried anyway to break out of the deadly embrace while shouting.
"Sir! Don't do it, sir, please! Please, I'm not worth it!"
Stark turned to Dr. Strange.
"Give him the Stone, he said."
Strange shook his head.
"No, I said..."
"The Stone!"
Stark shouted with anger. Strange stared at him for a few seconds. Then he closed his eyes briefly and his fingers looked as if they were reaching for something out a space - and time. He got the Stone back from where he had hide it before the fight. Thanos released Spider-Man et seized the Time Stone with an obvious satisfaction. Stark ran to Peter.
"Sir, why would you do that?" Peter asked him.
He did not answer. He helped him getting back on his feet then he turned to Thanos.
"Are we clear Thanos? No more deaths until it's all done."
"We are clear, said Thanos leisurely."
The almost-master of the Infinity Stones opened up a portal, straight to Earth.
The Avengers, along with their allies saw a portal opening in front of their eyes. Vision was already badly wounded, Dr. Banner had his suit amputated of one arm and despite Thor's as bright as sudden showing up in the middle of the fight, the whole team were getting exhausted by the incessant stream of monsters that Thanos' servants were releasing at every moment. Few of them had joined Vision in the forest, in order to protect him and it was in the forest that the portal opened. Although they were unsure of what would come out of it, they were ready to attack. However, it was Tony Stark who stepped outside the portal. Peter Parker was closely following him. They all sighed with relief. But then, Thanos came out of the portal. Instantly, Captain America charged him, but Stark had him stop immediately.
"No! Everybody, don't do a single thing!"
They all stood, puzzled. Then Steve Rogers asked the question they had all in mind.
"What are you doing? We have to stop Thanos now!"
Suddenly, it was as if he realized it.
"Are you... Are you on his side? Did you betray us?!"
Stark made a gesture to calm him down.
"No Steve, it's not what you think."
Then he said the only thing nobody expected him to say and as a matter of fact, nobody wanted him to say:
"Thanos is right."
While he was still shocked, Captain America managed to say:
"So it's right, you're on his side."
"No," said Stark again, "I'm not on his side. I'm on the Earth's side."
Thanos looked around before saying:
"This is a waste of time. Where's the Spirit Stone?"
Stark turned to him.
"It's on Vision's head."
Again, Captain America stood before them, his shield up and all his friends behind him.
"Tony, if he takes the Stone from Vision, Vision is going to die, you know that!"
"Fine," said Thanos, "I'll remove it without killing him."
Vision wasn't far away from their position. Wanda did try to destroy the Stone before Thanos could reach them, but with already five Infinity Stones in his possession, she couldn't make it on time. So, Thanos got Vision's Stone but in the process, he respected his promise and kept Vision alive. Finally, he was ready. But then Stark spoke up:
"No," he said.
Thanos frowned. Was Iron Man going to attack him, after all?
"Let me do it," said Stark.
Thanos let a smile went out.
"You won't be able to."
"Let me do it," said Stark again.
"Why?" asked Thanos.
Everyone were surrounding them, unsure of what to do at this moment.
"Thanos, you're nowhere near being good. I won't stand you wiping out half the Universe and enjoying it. I'm the one who's going to do it."
Thanos shrugged. He opened a portal and they went thought it, both of them. Peter, uncomfortable, looked at the others. But no one would move. So he followed his protector at the last second and the portal closed right behind him.
Stark was back at the last floor of the Stark Tower which, in fact, no longer belonged to him nor had his name on it, that place where, a lifetime ago, they defeated Loki, while he was trying to get a hand on the Tesseract and, more precisely, on an Infinity Stone. That place where the Avengers had risen and already once fallen, was to be where it all should end. Now, here they were and there wasn't only one stone here, but all of them. All the Infinity Stones, all on the Infinity Gauntlet, right in the hand of the former owner of the Stark Tower. Right in the hand of Tony.
"Sir, please, don't do it," said Peter.
Near the large window opening to the balcony, the three of them were standing, Iron man in front of the two others. Peter wasn't trying to do anything but whatever he would have been thinking of doing, Thanos stood near him, ready to crush his neck. But even if it weren't for these words, Stark was nonetheless reluctant, so Thanos raised his voice:
"Do it, Stark. Just do it. All will be over soon. They will feel neither pain nor agony."
"I know," said Stark.
"Mercy," Thanos uttered.
But Stark shook his head.
"It's not mercy. It's bad."
"Then don't do it!" screamed Peter who thought he'd almost convinced his protector.
As he'd just done with Thanos, Stark marked his disapprobation.
"No, no, it has to be done."
He was thinking about all those lives he was going to shatter. But what was life, anyway? The simplest combination of flesh and bones. Nothing that really mattered. But the souls, that what he will save. They will be reborn. The son will one day be his uncle's father and the daughter will give birth to her grandmother. The best friend will become the child and the arch enemy, the nephew. No, they won't be for a long time, but one day, they surely will return. Because they would be souls in waiting, expecting to fit again in a bunch of flesh and bones. Not only will he erase half the beings in the whole Universe to free the other half, but also he will save their souls - that was what the Soul and the Time Stone would be for. No pain nor agony and neither mercy. But salvation.
Stark proceeded to fit his hand inside the Gauntlet. It was too big for him, obviously, but the nanotech that made his armour took care of keeping the Gauntlet fixed to his wrist. He looked down to it. So big, powerful, sad. He was sure of it, now, that he would die in the process. Thanos had him convinced by saying that he, owner of Stark Industries, one of the wealthiest man on Earth, would be able to lead the world to a new era, to limit the badness of the consequences and to increase the goodness of these same consequences. Make a better world. It wasn't that Stark didn't believe it, in the moment, but now, ready to make the ultimate sacrifice, he felt that he would count among the dead of this fateful day. It was only fair, after all. Thanos and him, killers of so many people, would be in that number of people. They simply could not survive when so many others would not. Moreover, by their own death, their own sacrifice, they would save two people. Nothing regarding the vastness of the Universe, but still. It was a little victory. Their victory. The only one they could have won.
Stark took a deep breath and his eyes met Peter's. He smiled at him.
"Don't worry kid. Everything will be alright."
And so, raising his hand in front of his face, Tony Stark, alias Iron Man, did it; he wiped out half the Universe with a snap of his fingers.
Everything went suddenly blank - or black because he couldn't see a thing as he had been momentarily blinded. But then, he opened an eye and found himself lying on a wet surface. He rose to his feet. Te floor was solid but with a few centimetres of water as if it was drowned. There was nothing else. As far as his eyes could see, the horizon was blank - or pinky blank as there was still a floor and a sky. He took a few steps, unsure of what had happened. He turned around to see more and blinked as he finally noticed something. It was an arch, the kind of sober arch you could have seen in front of Death's entry. Below that arch stood a person that he immediately recognised. It was Pepper. His first intention was to run towards her, but he stopped himself and approached the figure cautiously.
"Hi," he said.
"Hi," said Pepper.
She was just like how she was when he left her to meet with Dr. Strange. Kind face, soft hair tied in a ponytail. She was smiling. But sadly smiling. In a soft voice, she asked :
"Will it be worth it?"
And Tony answered:
"It will, I promise you."
Her smile went a little bigger, but her eyes, nothing like less sad. Tony raised his hand in an attempt to reach her, but then again, everything blurred. When he opened his eyes again, he was standing in the tower, near Thanos and Peter. He looked at the Gauntlet; it was obvious that it was of no more use.
"Did you do it?" asked Thanos.
Stark did not answer to him but rather moved to the window. He opened it and went to the balcony, where Thanos joined him and where they could see the entire city. Little by little, one by one, half the universe was disappearing, being turned to dust.
The Avengers were still in the forest, outside Wakanda. Wanda was taking care of Vision and the others were just sitting, waiting, resting.
"How will we know that he did it?" said Captain America.
At that moment, he heard Bucky who was standing a few feet away, still holding his weapon, in case another attack would strike, calling for him.
"Steve?"
Steve Rogers could barely turn in his direction as he watched his friend slowly, almost softly, hitting the ground while disappearing. As he couldn't figure out what was happening, Steve did not move immediately. He rose up and when he reached Bucky, the only thing left was his weapon. The ground was covered with ashes.
A short moment afterwards, Vision had to see Wanda wither away, too, leaving nothing but the last echo of her voice and a bit of a soiled ground. All around the Universe, people saw their neighbours just turning to ashes. A man disappeared while saying "this is no place to die," another just said "oh man," but with no regret as the love of his life had just been taken away from him. Almost all of the Guardians of the Galaxy were erased, considering that a group so heterogeneous had only a ridiculously low percentage of chance of surviving, because not only was half the Universe being erased from existence, but half of any groups of beings, the smallest part of a race, of an ethnic group. Stephen Strange vanished away too and so no one, eventually, remained on the dead planet of Titan.
Back on Earth, Stark and Thanos watched helicopters and cars crash as their drivers were no more.
"You truly did it," said Thanos.
Stark looked at him: the purple skinned giant was slowly being turned to ashes. His face was nor happy or sad. If anything, it was in peace. Soon, he was gone and even the wind took his remains away. Finally, Stark let the Gauntlet fall on the ground. He was ready to leave, too. He closed his eyes, offered his open chest to the city below him, in his famous last gesture.
But then, he heard a feeble voice, behind his back.
"Mr. Stark? I don't... I don't feel so good..."
Tony immediately turned around to meet Peter's horrified eyes. The boy couldn't stand on his feet any more. Tony ran to him, just in time to catch him and prevent him from hitting the ground.
"I don't want to go, Mr. Stark, I don't want to go," cried Peter.
His spider senses had alerted him of what was happening and now, they were trying to heal him as a result of which, it did nothing but making his agony slower.
"I don't want to go, please, I don't want to go," the poor boy kept repeating.
Tony was holding him tight in his arms, so shocked that he couldn't say anything but one word:
"No, no, no..."
And finally, with a last, sad and pitiful word - "sorry" - Peter Parker, along with half of the Universe, departed from this life. And Tony Stark was for his part, left with nothing in his arms. He only had one blackened hand, blackened from being soiled by ashes. That was not how it was supposed to happen, but here it was, it had happened and Tony Stark, the murderer of half the Universe was alive, when so many good people were not - not anymore. The saddest being alive in the whole Universe, grieving for it and so much more besides it. Incapable of moving, even of crying, Stark just curled up as he gently raised his hand to his lips and let out silent tears.
In the end, there had been, indeed, no mercy. No mercy at all.