Chapter XXI

"Time stands still"

Tony was facing Thanos, his repulsors pointed at the ugly alien. He was observing him warily, waiting for his first move. However, Thanos was just standing, eyeing each of them with a stoic look. Stark focused his eyes on the gauntlet on his left hand. Three gems were shining on the golden item. Three. The bastard found the soul stone.

"Where's Gamora?" Star-Lord shouts out to him. "What did you do to her?!"

"My precious daughter helped me gain the stone I needed," he replied, moving his eyes onto Strange. "My, you've brought the time stone to me. Give it up, mortal. You know nothing about the power it possesses."

"Your friend didn't manage to take it from us, and you won't either," Peter replied to him and attacked him with his webs. A purple ray of power hit Parker, sending him miles away from Stark.

"Children, your play is useless," Thanos informed them. "Give the stone and I may consider leaving you alive."

"Yeah?" Stark opened his mouth. "I'm Iron Man and I'm not bending for you, Thanos."

"Iron Man," Thanos hummed. "I've heard about you. You've been seeing the future as well, haven't you?"

"Yeah, your little tricks plagued into my mind."

Tony shot a uni-beam at him, which Thanos dismissed with his fancy glove. Something hit Tony then. He'd have to take off the glove from him and fly off. It seemed that without the gauntlet, Thanos was pretty much harmless. A bit buff, but Tony had an experience with such creatures. He just needed to take it off. Thankfully, in that very moment, Star-Lord marched at him with his guns, Nebula and Drax hot on his heels. When their quarrel began, Tony quickly looked for Peter. The kid already back on his feet, made his way back to Stark.

"Pete, I need your help, kid," he spoke to him through the earbuds. "I'll attack him, distract him and you try to take off the gauntlet."

"I can help too," suddenly Mantis was next to him, clamping a hand over his damaged arm. "I can make him numb to anything. I can put him into sleep."

"Wow…" Peter and Tony looked at her in awe. "Can you really do it?"

"I can. I've been doing such things for Peter's father ever since he had found me," Tony raised an eyebrow in a question. "Star-Lord. His father was Ego, the Celestial. A powerful being. It should work on Thanos too. You just distract him so I can get my hands on his head."

"You got it, lady."

Ok, so they had a plan. A bit rusty, but Tony has to work with what he had here. He didn't know those people. Hell, he only knows how the kid fights, and he'd seen how Strange does his weird green and orange circles. The rest seemed to rely much on muscles and alien guns. Thanos was a bit distracted at last. That was his cue.

Tony charged at him with his repulsors, making him fall to the ground for a second. But it was all that Mantis needed. When Thanos got up and grunted slightly, the female alien jumped on his back. Before Thanos could even try to shake her off, she put her hands upon his temples and did her magic. Her antennae bent to the front and began to glow. Thanos sat on his butt with legs opened and his eyes started to become distant.

"Now," Mantis instructed them.

"Ok, guys," Tony turned to everyone. "We need to take the glove off and I fly away with it and try to destroy it. Capish? We need to work together. Just don't fucking blow it, ok? Let's do this, guys."

Maybe Tony had some leadership knack in himself after all. Guardians of the Galaxy seemed to follow his lead. All of them plus Peter were trying to take off the gauntlet. But, it wasn't as easy as it seemed to look like at the beginning. There was some weird force holding it on his hand. Peter and Drax were trying to pull it off. Parker even tried with his web, but nothing was working. They needed something more. Something stronger. Tony looked around, but there was nothing here that he could use to his advantage.

"Oh…" Mantis suddenly expressed, only to be beaten by Star-Lord.

"Where's Gamora, you bastard?!"

"My daughter was very helpful…"

"He's mourning…" Mantis explained, pressing her hands harder to Thanos's skull. "His heart is broken. He lost someone he loved dearly."

"Gamora…" Nebula whispered, but everyone heard her. "He loved my sister the most, more than he loved lady Death. If he's mourning…"

"I almost got it, Mr. Stark!" Peter screamed at them, but no one seemed to hear him.

Tony took a quick look at Star-Lord. For a brief moment, his face was blank of any emotion only to change into fury and breakdown in another moment. Tony knew that look. When he thought that Loki was dead, he wore the same expression. And he knew how that felt and what was happening in his head at that moment. There was nothing but revenge floating in his mind and firing from his eyes.

"Star-Lord…" Tony addressed him with a warning but to no avail. The man punched Thanos in the face, sending him to the ground. Mantis lost her balance on his back and fell to the ground as well. Her magic was broken this instant and the titan regained his focus.

"Fools," Thanos said in a dangerously low voice.

With the power stone connected to the gauntlet, he threw Drax and Star-Lord as far as it was possible for him. They hit some stone hard and seemed to lose their consciousness. Great, now their team was minus two idiots. Tony stopped paying attention to them and turned back to Thanos. The titan was holding Peter in the air, choking him with the purple ray of the power stone. Peter was struggling against him as hard as he could, but his beyond average powers could not compete with the power stone. So, Tony did the only thing he could.

After all, it was better him dead than the kid.

He charged all his nanobots on Thanos and fired. The titan let go of Peter. Tony quickly flew towards the alien and grabbed him by the front of his armor. He flew with him a bit away from the rest of the group. They weren't much of a help for him anyway. But Thanos wasn't having it. Once he regained a bit of stability, he punched Stark under his chin. Tony let go of him, as he was sent flying backward. Thanks to his suit, he managed to fall on his feet easily.

Thanos grinned viciously moment before he grabbed a moon of the planet with the power stone and hit Tony with it. It was a hard blow, that's for sure. He felt the damage of the suit before the readings popped up before his eyes. For a brief moment, Tony was excluded from the battle, as the moon was blocking him. With the little power he had left, he punched through the moon repeatedly, until it crumbled under his gauntlet and flew in the air.

Strange was fighting with Thanos with some weird sword. Where the hell did he get if from? Peter was attacking him with his webs again until Thanos got truly mad. The titan grabbed Parker by his neck and ripped the web-shooters from his suit. Then he threw him on the nearest stonewall.

Thanos broke Strange's sword, but the wizard charged again. He attacked him with his magic. Orange lines circled his body and hands like Peter's webs, holding him in place. Tony flew towards them and changed one of his gauntlets into a heavy claim. However, before he could use it on the alien, Thanos broke free of Strange's magic and attacked the wizard. He broke the eye of the Agamotto and took the stone out of it. He placed it in his gauntlet and waited.

"You wretched mortal!" he addressed Strange. "Do not make your trickery on me, wizard. Give me the stone."

"Never." Strange replied and made clones of himself, similar to how Loki was making them. It only pissed the alien more. He used the consolidated power of the three stones and ripped all of Strange's clones apart until the real Strange was left alone.

He pointed his gauntlet at the wizard and fired its power. Thanks to his magic, Strange opened a small portal underneath his feet and flee. He reappeared behind Thanos, ready to attack, but the titan was faster. He turned around and fired even more power on the mortal, making him twirl in the air, as he struggled against the power.

It was Stark's cue.

He charged at the titan again and grabbed Thanos's right hand into a claim. Stark surprised Thanos with such a move. He turned to face Iron Man, letting Strange go. Holding one of his hands in a tight grip, Tony started to pummel Thanos's ugly face with his other hand. It was satisfactory in a small bit. At least for what he had done to Loki in the past. Stark had no idea, how long he was punching the titan, but with every next punch, he had less and less strength to fight.

But he couldn't give up. Not now. He has to beat this bastard and get back to Loki.

Tony's moves faltered and Thanos used it to his advantage. He hit the claim with his gauntlet, breaking it into pieces. He raised his now free palm to his lips and wiped off a single drop of blood.

"All this for a single drop of blood?" He laughed for a moment before he charged at Tony again.

Out of nowhere, there was some sword in his right hand. Thanos pushed the sword through Tony's midsection, making him fall to his knees. The titan grabbed Tony by his neck and dragged him to the nearest stone. He helped him sit on it and grabbed his neck stronger.

"You have my respect, Stark. When I'll be done with my quest, I hope that those who survive will remember you, Stark."

Tony had no way to answer. Thanos retracted the sword from his stomach and now pointed it at Stark's heart. That was it. He was going to die on this godforsaken planet. Away from home. Away from Loki.

Loki.

How Tony wanted to see him again, just for the last time. He wanted to feel his cool lips on his. To hear Loki's whisper and the adoration when he proclaimed his love for the engineer. He yearned to look for the last time into those beautiful green, piercing eyes and see the soul of his mage. He wished to say apologize for not being strong enough. He wished to tell Loki he loves him eternally. He wished he had taken the necklace he had gotten from Loki to communicate with him.

Thankfully, his mind seemed to cooperate with Tony. It brought the image of smiling Loki behind his closed eyes.

"I love you, Reindeer Games," he whispered in his head.

"I love you too, elskan minn."

"I'm so sorry, babe. I tried… I'm sorry."

Tony opened his eyes when he felt the tip of the sword pushing through the damaged armor of his.

"Wait!" they heard Strange's voice.

Thanos turned towards Strange and Tony did so too, ignoring the pain in his bleeding stomach. Stephen was holding out an opened palm and whispered something. A green light danced around his hand only to reveal the stone in the next moment. He let it levitate in the air and fly towards Thanos.

"No! What the hell are you doing, Strange?!" Tony yelled as loud as he could, despite the searing pain in his body. "No! Don't do this!"

"Appreciate this, Stark," Thanos spoke to him, as the stone landed in the middle of his palm. "Your friend value your life more than the stone. He cannot comprehend the power of this stone. None of you can. Maybe you will live to see the aftermath of their power."

He placed the stone into the gauntlet and let its power run through his body. When it settled, he smiled at dying Tony and his battered team.

"Thank you, for your… cooperation," Thanos tsk-ed at Tony, who tried to hit him once more with his repulsor. "I shall go to Earth now. I am certain, Loki will be delighted to see me. I will take the rest of the stones from him and then, I will tell him of your little bravery, Stark. Or maybe I should let you tell him yourself? I truly hope you will survive. You are cursed with the knowledge as well."

"You're my only curse," he spat at him and shot him with a uni-beam. Thanos only laughed and walked away. No one tried to stop him.

Tony healed himself with the last of his nanobots and moved towards Strange.

"Why did you do it?"

"It was the only way, Stark."

"Well, your way sucks, Strange…"

The wizard sat on the rock and began to meditate again. Star-Lord, Drax, Mantis, and Nebula stumbled toward Tony with Peter by their side.

"So, what now?" Mantis asked.

"Now?" Stark looked from Strange to them. "I have no idea. We have to get to Earth, somehow. Is your ship ok to fly?"

"I believe…"

"Stark…" Strange called out to him. Tony looked at him with a silent question in his eye. "Remember… just one…"

And then… Strange's body turned into ashes before his eyes. Like in a fucking horror movie. The next was Drax, Mantis, and Star-Lord.

"Mr. Stark…" Tony's eyes crossed with Peter's. He crawled towards the stumbling boy and put his arms around the boy. He pressed him hard to his chest. "Mr. Stark… I don't feel so good…"

"Don't leave me, kid…"

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Stark…"

"Peter…" Slowly, slower than the others Peter's body turned into ashes in Stark's hold. Tears were streaking Tony's cheeks when he suddenly was gripping the air. "No…"

Peter's last words were echoing in his mind, as he was crying at this failure. Left on the doomed planet with Nebula, Tony knew they will die. Sooner or later. He whispered the last apology in the air and closed his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Lokes. I failed you."