"Tony, stop, we can't!"
"Face it, Stephan, we have to."
The doctor stood still. "You called me Stephan."
"Why wouldn't I?"
Doctor Strange felt his neck twist painfully. He was positive the time stone was not happy. This was timeline… Six thousand two hundred twenty four. And it was the best run so far. Three years, without dusting.
"Dread it."
But nothing lasts. Nothing.
"Run from it."
Strange cut the timeline short. Six thousand two hundred twenty five.
Twenty two thousand, exactly. They did five years this time.
Tony was distressed when he found Pepper Potts dead. Strange couldn't help but feel like everything was hell for him. And deep down, Strange felt heartbreak too. He had relieved all of these lives with Tony. He knew who Pepper was just as well as Tony himself
In a fraction of a second, the Space Stone brought a titan into existence, leaning over the weeping Tony Stark and even Stephen Strange.
Twenty two thousand and one.
No, no , no, no , n o …
Strange was on fourteen million… Six hundred… and five? Yeah, fourteen million six hundred and five.
"I… am… inevitable."
"And… I… am… Iron Man." Tony snapped, and as Thanos's army dissolved to dust, Tony staggered back, and he...
"Strange, snap out of it!"
Doctor Strange was sprawled four ways. Was that…
Every other safe ending was risky. And in all of them, Tony never got five years. This was longest Tony could live. Five more years. Timelines where he dies today, timelines where he dies five years from now. They could win today though. He could tell them where Thanos brought Star-Lord's girlfriend — Vormir. No outrage. The fight ends today.
"What were you doing?"
All the moments they shared.
"I-I, was looking in the future, to see all the possible outcomes of the coming conflict."
Tony was like a brother to him. Closer.
"How many did you see?
"Fourteen million six hundred and five." Fourteen million six hundred and five timelines where me and Stark can be happy.
"And how many do we win?" Define win. Strange thought it the blink of an eye. For me, it's that I give Tony every second I can give him.
"One." One where he can happy. That's the one where we win.