Titan
Silence. It envelops the air, carried in the wind on an almost empty planet. The world is barely disturbed, light slowly fading on the orange hues of the desolate land. Debri floats, barely pulled in by gravity, making it the only continuous movement that can be seen. The dead planet is so still that the lands could almost forget that it saw life disappear just moments before.
The unforgiving land of Titan could forget, but Tony couldn't. Ash is now settled onto his sweaty skin, slightly masking the slick sheen and exhaustion. They lost. They lost. Peter is gone. The thought brings a heaviness and hopelessness over his body. It hurt too much to move and it hurt too much to feel. He couldn't bring himself to think of Earth, of home, and how his failure affected those he loved.
Pepper.
Too much. Imaging her face was too much. The odds were against the universe, failure was imminent. Why didn't he just go to dinner?
"Just did it like that, huh? And to think he didn't invite us to see the grandeur." Tony's voice broke the stillness that had ensued. In his preriferol he could still see Nebula, unmoved.
"He always wins."
It was not a lament, but a fact.
"So he wins, okay. Now what? What do we do when a madman destroys half the life in the universe?" His words did not drip with the usual wit. Posed as a rhetorical was Tony's desperation.
"There is nothing we can do."
"That's it? Nothing? I have the ashy remains of-" too much. The thought was still too much. Tears began to sting the corner of Tony's eyes. "All of life as we know it still needs our help. I refuse to believe this is it. We aren't done until everything that purple bastard has done is reversed."
"He has all of the infinity stones now. He will be near impossible to beat."
Nebula now began to move, her mechanical body beginning to create a distance between her and the beaten Avenger. Tony instinctively shifted to use his suit, but a sudden surge of anxiety and guilt hit him in waves. "Where do you think you're going? Didn't you hear me? We aren't done. Aren't you a part of Quill's band of... interesting individuals? You know that we have to do more."
At his response Nebula pivoted, facing him. "I don't know where I am going, or what to do. I have always fallen short when it has come to my father and his conquests."
Tony blanched at this information. "Excuse me, do you want to repeat that? You are this psychopath's daughter?"
"I was. There was a time that I followed him, and there was a time where I opposed him and Gamora. I hated my father so much that I was willing to destroy anything and anyone if it meant Thanos would meet his end."
Tony plopped backwards onto the ground, pain radiating in his abdomen. He completely forgot that he had been close to death. Running his fingers through his hair, he deeply inhaled, trying to gain focus.
"Okay Daddy Issues, this information is startling and quite frankly very alarming, but you're all I got to work with right now. I need your help. I need to get back to Earth. We need to get back to Earth. I have a team of my own, a team I need to get back to. I don't know who is left, but hopefully there is at least someone that is still there after this... snap. Bring me to Earth and we can go from there."
She stood, staring Tony down. If she was capable of feeling emotion, he wasn't able to read it. She had a steeliness and a rigidness that he found himself slightly admiring. "When you were down, almost defeated, Thanos said that you were cursed with knowledge. You believe you can reverse this. Do you think you can bring back Gamora?"
The question hung in the air.
"The Avengers- whoever is left of them- are going to do their best. That's all I can guarantee."