Twenty-Three - 3000 and Beyond

The Soul Realm, the Soul Stone - Location Unknown

2023

When Tony opened his eyes, all he saw was orange. He was in the middle of an endless orange landscape, unfamiliar. He'd never seen a place such as this before.

And he wasn't alone.

A dark-haired teenaged girl stood behind him. He didn't know how he knew, but he knew who she was. He just somehow knew. "Morgan?"

She smiled. "Hey Dad."

They stepped forward, taking hands, taking a good, long look at each other, a father who never got to meet his daughter, a daughter who never got to meet her father.

"Morgan Stark, huh. So Kass and I have a daughter."

Said daughter grinned. "You sure do."

Before his eyes, the scene around them slowly began to change, from barren nothingness to some trees and grass, the rippling surface of the lake beyond the docks, and he realized this was the front yard of their house in Georgia - their family home.

"So it worked then, what I did?"

"Yeah. For me I get to live and grow up, but for you I can't answer."

"That's okay, you don't have to." He began pacing. "I'm sorry - it's uhm, I think I may have made a bad decision. I'm scared I made a big mistake."

His daughter smiled sadly but warmly. "I know. And I know it's going to be hard for you to let go. But someone had to do that so that the rest of us could..." She trailed off. He knew. "I'm proud of you. And sad. But I'm strong, like Mom. And I'm happy. I know you were there for us until you couldn't be.

"You're happy?"

"Yeah."

"And your mom?"

"Yeah, she's happy too."

"If you're happy, then I'm happy."

"I love you."

They drew each other close in a tight hug. Tony pressed a kiss to her head and whispered, "I love you three-thousand."


Avengers Facility Ruins, Upstate New York - Earth

2023

Back to reality.

Before their eyes, the whole of the enemy army was fading, disintegrating away into dust, just as they had those years ago. They had won, Thanos was defeated, and for good this time.

Once every other member of his army had faded, the Mad Titan too turned to dust. Adonia looked away.

They had gathered all the Stones, succeeded in bringing everyone back, and Thanos was defeated.

"TONY!"

But there was no time to relish in their victory. Not now.

"TONY!" Kass raced to where he had fallen, having crumbled to the ground as soon as the Snap was over. She cradled him in her lap, her hand over the dimming glow of his Arc Reactor.

"Mr. Stark?" Peter landed next to them, his mask falling away to reveal his panicked expression, "Mr. Stark? Hey, hey, can you hear me?" Tony said nothing, his eyes set wide, his gaze distant. "It's Peter." Still, nothing. "We won, Mr. Stark. We won-"

"Peter's right, Tony. We won, we won." She took his hand in her own, placing it on the Arc Reactor too, holding it tight, not about to let go.

"You did it, you did it, Mr. Stark - I'm sorry..." Peter was in tears.

Kass was fighting her own. "F.R.I.D.A.Y.?"

"Life functions critical."

She reached down and cupped his face, so that he was looking up at her. His gaze was so distant she wasn't even sure if he saw her, but she stared right into his eyes. "Tony, we're going to be okay. We're going to be okay. You can rest now."

His lips appeared to turn upwards in a small smile, but it was so small a movement it was impossible to really tell. The Arc Reactor faded completely.

"F-FRIDAY..."

"He's gone, Ms. Konstantin."

Pepper and Rhodey landed at Kass's sides as her sobs took over and her wails carried across the battlefield. He was gone. Tony was gone.

It began with Adonia. Lady Infinity dropped to one knee to kneel before the fallen mortal hero. Clint, T'Challa, Carol, Quill, Nebula, Valkyrie, Scott, Cap, Stephen, the ladies of the Infinity Gauntlet. Shuri, Bucky, Sam, Wanda, Okoye, Drax, Mantis... Everyone knelt and bowed their heads before their fallen teammate, friend, leader, a true hero.


Fairburn, Georgia - Earth

2023

"Everybody wants a happy ending, right? But it doesn't always roll that way. Maybe this time. I'm hoping if you play this back, it's in celebration. Know what? You'd better throw a party, a big one! With music and dancing and all that. Just celebrate! Throw a big victory party! If all works out and all goes well, we're gonna need it.

I hope families and friends are reunited. I hope we get it all back and something like a normal version of the planet has been restored. If there ever was such a thing. God, what a world. Universe now. If you'd told me ten years ago that we weren't alone let not alone to this extent, I mean, I wouldn't have been surprised, but come on, who knew? I certainly didn't. I think few of us did. The epic forces of darkness and light that have come into play, and for better or worse, that's the reality Morgan's going to have to find a way to grow up in. So I thought I'd better record a little greeting in the case of an untimely death. On my part. Not that death at any time isn't untimely. This time travel thing that we're going to try and pull off tomorrow it's got me scratching my head about the survivability of it all. That's the thing. Then again, that's the hero gig, right? Part of the journey is the end. Ah, what am I even tripping for? Everything's going to work out exactly the way it's supposed to. I love you three-thousand."

At the Stark house, Rhodey, Happy, Pepper, and Steve had gathered with Kass in the living room to watch the recording on Tony's helmet before going to join the others outside for the rest of the ceremony.

Proof that Tony Stark Has a Heart. The treasured item Pepper had given him was placed in a wreath of flowers and then set to float across the lake.

Everyone had gathered at Kass and Tony's lodge in Georgia to honour Tony Stark's life and his sacrifice. Pepper, Happy, and Rhodey, Steve and Bruce; Thor, Sigyn and Loki; Peter and Aunt May. Stephen, Kat, and Wong; Scott, Hope, and her parents Hank and Janet; Lady Infinity and the Guardians, minus Gamora. T'challa, Kalyna, Shuri and Okoye, Clint and his whole family. Sascha, Wanda, Sam, Karen, Bucky, Carol and Nora. Even Harley Keener and Secretary Ross came to pay their respects. And, of course, Nick Fury and Maria Hill.

"Thank you so much for being here," Kass told them.

"Of course, Sweetheart." Pepper pulled her into another hug.

Later, after everyone had left, Kass sat inside, cradling Tony's helmet. As she stood, she stumbled, and the helmet slipped from her grasp before crashing to the floor.

"No!"

But something must have flicked on when she dropped it, for another hologram message of Tony appeared before her.

He looked thin, beaten, and unhealthy, and she realized that this was from when they had been stranded in space after battling Thanos on Titan.

"This thing on? Hey Ms. Konstantin. When you find this recording, don't post in on any social media. It's going to be a real tear-jerker. Don't feel bad about this, please. And please don't feel guilty - this is in no way your fault. I probably should have listened to you and not gotten on that donut ship all those weeks ago. If I hadn't been my usual stubborn self, maybe then we wouldn't be in this mess. But then who knows what kind of mess we'd be in?

I don't even know if you're okay - God I hope so. You seem okay, better than I am, that's for sure. Not sure how, but bottom line is, you're doing okay, that's what matters.

Today is day twenty-one - no, twenty-two. You know, if it wasn't for the terror of staring into the literal void of space, I'd say I'm doing better today. But, oxygen is running out - not sure how much longer it will last. And we're still about a thousand lightyears from, well, anything it seems.

I know I said no more surprises, but I gotta say, I was really hoping to pull off one last one. But now it looks like - well, you know what it looks like.

Please know that I'm fine, I'm totally fine. I'm going to go lie down, and when I drift off, I will be dreaming about you. It's always you. I love you."

"Three-thousand," she finished.

Ugh, it hurts... :.( Sorry for the sad chapter.

The scene with Morgan and the kneeling Avengers were taken from the deleted scenes from the movie - which I wished they had kept!

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)