Tony was sitting on the floor, his legs stretched, one shoulder pressed against the huge windshield. Ana was resting her head on the other one. He didn't ask her what the hell had happened to the Earth. She would tell him everything when she was ready. For now, he just wanted her to know she was still his daughter, that he would never blame her for this. He didn't know what Thanos might have told her, what ideas he might have put into her head to alienate her from him. Tony was afraid to say anything that might prove the bastard right.

"Your hand's healed," he observed.

"Thanos did it. With the Time Stone."

He was both relieved by the fact that Thanos had chosen to heal her instead of hurting her, and frustrated at his own incompetence. He took the hand and pressed it against his lips, wondering why he had to be born as a feeble human, while there were so many big, strong, scary, and advanced species out there.

"Why is he interested in you like this?"

"I murdered billions. He thinks that's cute." She chuckled bitterly.

That sick bastard…

"I did as you said, " she started. Something in her voice gave Tony the impression that he was right to be afraid. Thanos had led her to believe that Tony would hate her for this. "I returned to Earth. I went to the Compound. Vision had been attacked, so they were already there. I asked Wanda to restore my memories. She did. Turned out I'd indeed met the Ancient One, Strange's teacher, in Hell. She'd confirmed my theory about the Nexus."

"Is that all?" he asked, surprised. He had expected a more complicated story, after all that fuss.

"Yeah. SHIELD and the Ghost Rider decided to wipe my memories because they were afraid I'd use the Darkhold to create the Nexus. Anyway, after that, I left to meet SHIELD. The coordinates Daisy sent me, they were of a HYDRA facility."

"What?"

"At first, I thought I was lured into a trap, but I was wrong. There was this General Hale. She was an undercover HYDRA operative in Air Force."

"Shit…"

"Yeah, but she knew about Thanos. It's a long story. But she and Coulson had been working together for months. There was an Infusion Chamber, designed by one of the HYDRA scientists. They called the whole thing Project Destroyer of Worlds. And they had the gravitonium. It was meant for Hale's daughter, but from what I gathered, she was already a bit unstable, and even 8% of the gravitonium was enough to drive her crazy. Fitz-Simmons had had to put her under. But Daisy thought she could handle it. We were discussing the option when it happened."

"What happened?"

"Hale had made a deal with the Confederacy. An intergalactic organization formed by 6 different races. They were hoping to take over whatever was left of Earth once Thanos was done with it, so I had to take care of them, arrange a quick and bloody coup. And Fitz was holding JARVIS hostage, so…"

"Wait, what?"

"He wasn't really himself. He'd developed an alter ego during his time in the Framework. And JARVIS was in the Framework, too. Fitz had salvaged the codes. He wanted me to take over the Confederacy and use it against Thanos. He was going to give them to me if I succeeded. Next thing I know, I was cutting off heads and ripping out spines…"

"Oh, kid…" Damn, he should have just let her come to Titan with him.

"It actually worked. But when I returned, there was another me and Daisy. From the future. They told us to go to Wakanda. And my future self gave me 10 grams of gravitonium before we left. Just enough for one trip back in time."

She didn't have to say anything else. Tony understood. "You created a time loop…"

"After we lost, after Thanos killed everyone except me, Daisy, and Shuri, and ripped the Mind Stone from Vision's head, I surrendered. I gave him the gravitonium, asked him to destroy it. He did. It was the surest way to break the loop."

"Good thinking."

She looked at him, puzzled. "Are you sure?"

"At least you broke the loop. We're free."

"So, yeah, this is how I screwed the pooch… What happened to you?"

He told her everything, too. How they had saved the wizard, met the Guardians of the Galaxy, how Strange looked into the possible outcomes and seen only one in which they won in 14,600,005 different ones, how they all fought Thanos, how he stabbed Tony, and Strange gave up the Time Stone to save him, and then how everyone just got dusted one by one, except for him and Nebula. How Peter died in his arms, begging him for help.

"Let me see that wound," she said once he was finished. Without a word, he unzipped the sweatshirt. The wound was still sealed, but it didn't look good. It was swelling, the redness around it was spreading, and pus was leaking from it.

"Dad, you need antibiotics…"

Well, at least Ana had returned to her old self.

"Or, we can cauterize it," he suggested. He wasn't looking forward to that, but he couldn't risk dying of infection either. Together, or not at all.

"I'll take a look around. You try not to move too much."

He nodded, and she went to find something they could use for the cauterization.

Looking into the literally infinite void stretching before him, he tried not to think about what he could have done differently to stop this from happening. That was useless now. Instead, he had to come up with a plan for the future. He was a futurist, right?

Step 1: Don't let the infection kill you.

Step 2: Don't let the guilt kill Ana.

Step 3: ?

There was no Step 3. They would be lucky if these Skrulls let them take refuge in their world. Which would be a huge risk on their part, because Thanos would be looking for them. Why would they take such a risk for two humans they barely knew? So, yeah, if they were lucky, they would spend the rest of their lives hiding from Thanos, trying to make themselves useful for the Skrulls. If not, they would have to find another place to hide.

Ana returned with two metal sticks, a bunch of wires, and a bottle of clear liquid.

"Is that water?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Maybe we should save it for drinking, kid. Just in case we take a wrong turn or something."

"Do you realize how lucky we are to find a sealed bottle of water here? It's sterile liquid; we should use it to clean the wound. And we won't take a wrong turn. I know what I'm doing."

"That's the spirit…"

"I'm going to have to remove the seal," she said apologetically. "I'll try to make it as painless as possible."

"No problem."

Taking pain was the one thing he could do right. He shifted to press his back against the glass, and braced himself. Ana used some of the water to clean her hands, and got to work. Tony managed to keep his face impassive by pursing his lips, but eventually a hiss escaped. She stopped immediately.

"I'm sorry, Dad… Damn, I should've got that medical degree."

"You're doing good. At least it's better than getting stabbed." He shivered when he remembered the feeling of the blade inside his body. Getting impaled sucked.

"I hate that purple bastard… It's done." She had pulled off the last bit of the seal.

She washed the wound with water. This part actually felt soothing on the tender skin. But he wasn't going to enjoy what was next. Ana covered the ends of the sticks with small pieces of cloth she had cut from her own sweatshirt, and attached the wires to them. "I'm going to need your Arc Reactor."

He had figured that much. He removed the Reactor so that she could connect the wires to it. The DIY electrocauter looked a bit scary, to be honest. At least it was in his daughter's hands.

"Do you think he can find us?" he asked once the searing pain started, mainly to distract himself.

"He has the Infinity Stones, Dad. I'm pretty sure he can do whatever he the hell he wants."

"What do you know about these Skrulls?"

"I know they're shapeshifters. They're ancient enemies with the Kree. Which is good, because the Kree probably want my head on a spike by now. Taking over the Confederacy was messy."

"Ana? What did you do?"

"What I had to do. I played some mind games to determine who was the most powerful member. It turned out to be Taryan Kasius. A Kree aristocrat, sort of. The Kasius family is one of the most ancient and respected families in Kree history."

"Hmm. And what did you… Oww!" He had to groan when Ana's trembling fingers pressed the sticks a bit harder.

She immediately withdrew her hand. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay. Go on. And tell me what happened to this Taryan Kasius. I need the whole picture here, kid. You know you can tell me anything, right? I won't judge."

She took a deep breath to steady her hand, then continued. It hurt when the scorching metal touched the skin again, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. "I chopped his head off," she said lightly.

"Okay."

"When his guards attacked me to avenge him, I killed them, too. I ripped out the last one's spine. I had to make an example of them."

"Yeah, of course." God, I left her alone for, like, 5 hours… No, he shouldn't judge her. That was what Thanos wanted him to do.

"I sent their forces to Titan, to help you. But I guess they never came?"

"No, but Thanos didn't exactly linger."

"I enjoyed it, Dad. I made them kneel before me. I told them to call me Death. And I loved it. Am I a monster?"

"No… Ouch!"

"Sorry." She continued working with one hand while stroking his damp hair with the other. "Hang in there, Dad. Almost done."

Yeah, nothing in the universe could convince him that she was a monster. She had too much compassion for that, even if it was reserved only for him. He took a few deep breaths, and after that, it was done, indeed.

"Thanks, kid."

She gave him the Arc Reactor back, and pushed everything else aside. "There's one more thing you have to know, Dad."

"Tell me."

"Pepper, she… I don't know how to say this…"

"Just say it, kid. It's just us now."

"She was pregnant."

Tony froze. He knew Ana wouldn't lie to him, but… He couldn't believe his ears either. "But she said…"

"She didn't know either. Thanos told me."

"Ana, he's not the most reliable source of information."

"He's not a liar either."

It was true. They had known him for less than a day, yes, but this had been a very, very long day, the longest day ever, and he had never lied to them. He didn't know how to feel. Losing Pepper was enough to crush his soul, he didn't know how he was supposed to live without her, but he was remaining strong because he was a dad to a brilliant, beautiful, but unfortunate and misunderstood young lady, and this was what dads did. They remained strong for their kids.

But losing a pregnant Pepper? Yeah, that was a bit too much.

"It was a girl. He showed me." Ana broke into sobs. So did he. Their stolen ship flew across the stars, taking them to that Jump Point, and they just cried in each other's arms, for who knew how long.

When they stilled, he asked, "What did she look like?"

"She was beautiful. She looked like us. Dark hair, brown eyes… But she looked like Pepper, too, I guess. And she was happy. We all were. You were… You were like Thanos, and we were happy. He said it was my deepest, darkest desire. Gosh, I deserve to rot in hell."

"No, don't say that!"

"Dad, I killed billions, my unborn sister among them!"

"And I created Ultron! I was lucky to have a team to clean up my mess. You were on your own. And you didn't kill anybody. We're going to fix this."

He had an idea. It was insane, but doable. Funny, he didn't know anything about that little girl who would be his Morgan, but there wasn't anything he wouldn't do for her. He already loved her as much as he loved Ana.

She was losing it again, so he cupped her face in his hands, and made her look him in the eye. "The EPR Paradox, Ana! We're going to use that to bring everyone back! We can't reverse time, but we can push it through things, right? Even a planet. So, yeah, that's exactly what we're going to do. We're going build a giant Quantum Tunnel, and pull this shit off!"

A look of understanding crossed her face—she understood quantum mechanics better than he did, after all—but she remained silent.

"Honey? Talk to me. What's on your mind?"

"Nothing… Just all those spatial paradoxes we're going to cause."

"Well, it can't be worse than this," he said, and when he saw the look on her face, he quickly added, "Which is, of course, not your fault."

"How are we going to do it? Look around you, Dad. We're not rich anymore! We can't just build whatever we want in our basement! We don't even have a basement!"

"We have this ship. We're capitalists, this is going to be our capital. We'll find a place to settle, invest, invent, make another fortune. That's what we do."

"It's Thanos' ship; no one in their right mind would buy it."

"Then we salvage it into parts. Sell them separately."

"Yeah, that might work."

"Do you know how to get into the alien black market?"

"No."

"Leave that to me, then. I'll figure something out."

"Can it really work, Dad?" she asked, half-hopeful, half-skeptical.

"It will work. I'll make it work, I swear. But I need you, kid, now more than ever. I can't do this without you. We're a great team. There's nothing we can't do if we stick together."

"I'm here, Dad. And I'd do anything to get Pepper and Morgan back, but… I'm so tired right now."

"That's okay. Come here." He pulled her to his chest. She nestled into him, like she used to do when she was a little girl, but careful not to touch the newly cauterized area. "Get some sleep. I got you."

"I don't want to sleep."

He knew. He didn't want to sleep either. They had a solid plan now, a direction, but they didn't know if Thanos was still out there. If he was, he would find them. And kill them. They didn't want to sleep because a part of them didn't want to lose any of this borrowed time.

"Dad?"

"Mm?"

"Do you think there's an afterlife?"

"24 hours ago, I'd say no, because afterlife required soul, and I didn't believe in souls, but now there's a Soul Stone, so…"

His thought process made her chuckle, which was a relief, but he decided to add a serious answer, just in case.

"Look, if things don't go as planned, and there is an afterlife… Just don't be scared if you end up in a weird place by yourself. I'll come find you. I'll always find you, wherever you are."

"Maybe I'll find you first."

"Yeah, that's more likely."

He was smoothing her hair to help her relax when he saw the familiar blue ripple in the air, and cursed. He cursed with every swear word there was. Thanos appeared right in front of them.

He heard Ana wince. "No… No, no, no…"

Tony knew he didn't stand a chance against Thanos. The guy had wiped his face with a moon, even when Tony had a fully functioning suit. So, he decided to use his hands to comfort his daughter instead. Everybody died alone, true, but he wanted to ease her passage as much as he could. He pressed her head against his chest, so that she wouldn't see Thanos' face. He held her as tightly as he could without hurting her. And Ana held onto him, just like Peter had not very long ago.

"It's okay, baby girl. I'm right here."

There was still a million more things he wanted to tell her, but no time. He didn't speak to Thanos. If he were alone, he would. He would make some witty comeback, or at least give a dirty, defiant glance before going down. But Ana was here, too, so he swallowed his damn pride and kept his head down, lest he pissed the Mad Titan off and ruined their chances of getting a quick, merciful death.

But instead of killing them, Thanos simply tore her away from Tony's arms. Then he teleported them back to his ship.