Note: Even though Tony is Infinity, I continue to refer to him as Tony; others may use his Infinity name though, but I wrote it like "Tony turned to face them" and "Tony murmured".
Tony turned to the Avengers and other superheroes with a sigh, he knew he had a lot of explaining to do. He heard a slight sniffle and turned to where Wanda had moved back to Vision's corpse, tears down her cheeks as she clutched him. He walked over, feet moving quietly on the forest floor. He crouched down and lay a gentle hand on Vision's forehead; closing his eyes as the mind stone shined.
"Mind, will you rejoin him or am I to keep you apart?" He asked and Wanda looked at him confused,
"I wish not to part with you, Infinity. It has been too long."
"Very well… I don't suppose any of you have a suggestion for what I should do?"
"Use Time and I shall willingly and gently part from Vision; I can do it without causing damage."
"Thank you, Mind." Tony murmured; he stood up, the time stone glowing as he twisted his hand and reversed the damage done to Vision as the mind stone was reattached. The android gasped, eyeing Tony with confusion especially when Tony held his hand out and the mind stone seemed to fall from Vision's forehead and flew back to its place on Tony's hand.
"Mr Stark?"
"No need to worry, Vision, you'll be alright," Tony paused momentarily before rolling his eyes, "Mind has just informed me that a little part of the stone's power will stay with you. Apparently Mind has grown fond of you."
"What-"
"I will explain shortly," was all Tony said as he calmly interrupted before turning away from the pair and wandering over to where the others stood almost frozen in their spots.
—LINE BREAK—
"Tones?"
"Don't worry, Honey Bear. I'm still me… mostly. I'll explain soon, I have a few other things to do first and then we can all go sit down and chat. Maybe in the king's palace?" T'Challa nodded, he dared not say a word.
The genius, who was both Tony Stark and Infinity, came to a stop in front of a sorrow-faced Thor. It was not an expression that the god should ever wear, Tony thought.
"Space and I wish to apologise for the demise of your people at the hands of Thanos when he arrived for the stone," Tony spoke softly to Thor, placing a hand on the god's arm; the short-haired god seemed to slump even more as though Tony's touch had drained him of all his strength and he wished for nothing more than to cry in the shorter man's arms.
"You should've let me at him," Thor all but whimpered,
"Revenge would not have brought you comfort, Point Break,"
"Still."
"Thor, I cannot bring your people back; it is too heavy a task and too rich a price. Many of your people have passed through the gates of Helheim, the few soldiers you had on your ship have been welcomed into Valhalla," Thor fell to his knees and Tony knelt down in front of him as the god mourned more, the genius let go of his arm and instead took Thor's hands in his own, "however, there is one soul, shall we say, who is particularly stubborn about passing on. Space and I talked and thought it was quite… impressive how he sacrificed the stone for you, his brother," that caught Thor's attention and Tony kept his eyes locked on Thor's,
"Loki, as Space and I have come to the conclusion, is possibly one of our… favourites. He's proven himself… to be interesting. And, you may not know this, but your brother did not attack Earth on his own free will. He was tortured into compliance and when that failed, Thanos used the sceptre on him. Loki was not himself, Thor, and we believe that he should be given another chance." A snap of Tony's fingers and there was Loki. He stood wide-eyed and confused as he took in his surroundings -or tried to as Thor was running up and snatching him into a hug seconds after he appeared.
He turned from them to give the reunited siblings some semblance of privacy before walking over to Quill and leading him over to where Nebula stood.
"Thanos sacrificed Gamora for the soul stone; I had hoped my fail-safes would forever protect the stone, but I suppose I am partly at fault for her death. I left the stone at Vormir, to retrieve it, a soul must be given for the soul. No one should have ever been able to get the stone let alone die because the sacrificed had to be the one being you love most, which in itself is a bit of a trick. Surely one cannot and would not sacrifice that which they love most in exchange for a stone. No offence," Tony added looking down at the stones that had sent out a sharp glow, "however, Thanos' twisted mind allowed himself to think that he loved Gamora. It wasn't love, what he had, but it worked. Somehow, it worked. I believe it's because the power behind the fail-safes had begun to wither and weaken.
"What no one knows about the soul stone," Tony said plucking it from his finger and twirling the ring around, "is that the soul given goes into the stone to rest. And as such, it can be returned if done by the correct being," he looked at their hopeful faces, "me."
The ring swiftly changed into just the Soul Stone and Tony blew on it; seconds later a green-skinned woman appeared looking shocked and confused before her team threw their arms around her. Hesitantly, Nebula walked over and was pulled into the group hug.
With that done, Tony looked to the others with a smile.
—LINE BREAK—
It was an hour or two before the Avengers, new, old and rogue, the Guardians and T'Challa were settled in a large living area; they had spent the time before informing the others that the battle was over, they had won and Thanos was gone. They had also taken the time to get out of their armour and into some cleaner clothing.
"Where should I start?" Tony asked,
"Are you still my Tony?" Rhodey asked even though Tony had confirmed it before, yet the genius smiled,
"I am Platypus. All that's different is me realising my true identity and reuniting with the stones. A consistency in each life I've lived has always been my personality; what you've had from my behaviour and such as Tony Stark is more or less the same as my original personality as Infinity."
"Did you just say you've lived numerous lives?" Natasha questioned,
"That I have. I have been possibly every race, every gender and every age. In fact," he said looking to Loki and Thor, "I was once one of the Valkyries who sought to lock your sister, Hela, away. I believe I died jumping in front of Brunhilde, she was one of the best of us."
"She's still alive," Thor inserted,
"I know," Tony murmured gently, "but this was a long time ago for her Thor, I will never reveal who I once was to her for the pain it may cause her."
"So… how and why did you stop being… you?" Sam wondered,
"Time told me of a threat towards my existence and the stones," he explained, "as civilisations grew, more became away of my tale. Of course, most of them believed me to be a bedtime story. Except for some. The maddest sought me for my power and as strong as I am, I left because I knew a day would come when the fight was too costly and I was too exhausted to continue. The stones suggested ideas, but Soul's was the best. I spread the stones out across the universe and fell."
"Fell?" Bucky repeated quietly, not quite confident enough to look Tony in the eye,
"Yes," the genius murmured with a gentle smile, "I fell and that was it. I became someone else over and over again never knowing who I was. Until now."
There was a silence over the room as everyone soaked in the information.
"It's scary to think that the myths are true," Loki found himself saying to Thor,
"Aye," the god replied from where he sat right beside his brother, refusing to let Loki out of his sight,
"So you all knew about him?" Natasha asked looking towards the alien superheroes,
"Well, 'knew' implies that we knew he existed," Gamora stated, "we didn't. He was a bedtime story for my people and once Thanos took me, he dispelled all thoughts I had regarding Infinity," she turned to Tony, "he claimed you didn't exist."
"It was the same for me," was Nebula's response,
"I think Yondu might've mentioned something, but he spoke bullshit for the majority of my childhood, so I filed it under the whole 'eating me' thing he always went on about." People turned to Quill with a mixture of confusion, annoyance and amusement at his answer,
"Ego had no thoughts on Infinity, but he claimed to be the first in existence," Mantis answered,
"I am Groot,"
"You did?" Rocket exclaimed, "who told you?"
"I am Groot,"
"Someone had to have told you,"
"I am Groot,"
"I might've told him as a bedtime story," Gamora spoke up, "when he was little."
"You can't go around claiming you have this universal knowledge when you were told as a plantling!" Rocket shouted with his arms up at the teenager before turning to the others, "I heard it in passing, but never paid much attention to it."
"I used to tell my daughter the tale of Infinity and the Stones before she slept," Drax stated,
"Our mother did the same; she told us before we slept," Thor answered gesturing between himself and Loki,
"I, unlike my ignorant brother, actually took an interest in the tale and spent some years searching for more information; I couldn't find much, of course, but I understand why now," Loki added looking incredibly fascinated as he stared at Tony,
"I take it Terrans didn't know about Infinity?" Gamora asked turning to Natasha,
"Terrans?"
"She means humans," Tony murmured, "and to answer your question, no they didn't. Outside of this group, no one else on this planet knows. You see until 2012, humans were under this arrogant and small-minded belief that they were the only things alive in the galaxy."
"Tony!" Steve exclaimed clearly insulted,
"Is it not true? And I can say this because I was one of those humans until 2012 when the Chitauri came knocking on our door."
"Really? No one else knew?" Loki asked,
"Well I wouldn't be surprised if Fury knew about Infinity; I mean the dude is like a fucking know-it-all," Tony answered with a shrug, "and now that I think about it, dear old dad said some bullshit on a video about me being his 'greatest creation', which was probably a big fat lie, but maybe he suspected something…" Tony paused, head tilted to the side as he listened to one of the stones, "Space apparently was near me a lot when I was little because Howard was working on the Tesseract and apparently I reacted weirdly to the stone," Tony stated with a shrug.
—LINE BREAK—
"Now what will you do?" Loki asked after a long moment of silence, Tony shrugged once more,
"Continue life as it is; get married, maybe have a kid, live, die and return to my life as Infinity."
"Really? Just like that," T'Challa asked speaking up for the first time,
"Yeah. I mean, nothing for me has really changed."
"You're kidding right?" Natasha stated somewhat sarcastically,
"No. I mean I need to tell Pep about all this and, you know, hope she doesn't cancel our engagement, but I've got what another couple of decades to live; I accept that I probably won't reach mid-70s, so why change anything? Life doesn't need to be difficult because suddenly I and others are aware that I am not just Tony Stark, I'm also a primordial being known as Infinity and I have immense power."
"You say that like it's nothing," Steve muttered,
"To me, it isn't really."
"You are one strange man," someone murmured and Tony nodded,
"I accept that," Tony looked around and stood up, "anywho, I should probably get back. Pepper probably thinks I'm still in space and my joints won't be happy if I am relegated to the couch tonight, so… kid, Honey Bear, you guys coming or staying? Bruce, you're welcome too."
"Yes, sure, please, thank you Mr Infinity Stark sir!"
"Breathe, kid," Rhodey chuckled, "yeah I'll come with you,"
"Me too, if that's okay," Bruce murmured,
"Tony, can't we talk first?"
"No Steve."
"You can't still be angry,"
"And why can't I? I forgive Barnes, he had no choice. You... you, I don't forgive; Steve, you didn't tell me how my parents died and when I found out, I was understandably mad at you. Your response to my attacking was not to calm me down, but instead, it was to beat the shit out of me and leave me in an unresponsive, broken suit to freeze to death." Tony turned away from Steve and looked at the others, "right I'm leaving so…"
—LINE BREAK—
"Oh my,"
"What is it?" Thor asked at Loki's quiet exclamation,
"I defenestrated Infinity," Thor's eyes widened at his remark,
"I held him by his throat." They both stared at each other wide-eyed and horrified at their actions.
—LINE BREAK—
Pepper, bless her, took Tony's news in stride and simply sighed with a remark that nothing was ever simple when it came to Tony. Their wedding date remained the same and it didn't take long before they had a little girl on the way. Things were good and the stone's were safe.
When the time came and Tony died a natural death at 82, which came to a surprise because he didn't expect to live that long, the man was happy. Bygones were bygones and the Avengers, new, old and rogue, gradually became friends again; Tony never trusted them (being the rogues) completely, but they were friends. They went to his funeral as he was the first of them all to die and things were sad, but they all looked up at the sky as if in search of Infinity, who had regained his form and life once Tony had died. Of course, they never saw the being, but he saw them and smiled from where he was reunited with the universe.
Infinity was happy. He was reunited with the galaxy, it washed over his non-existent form and held him close as the stones whispered into his ears telling tales of their experiences during their separation.
Here's my Tumblr if you're interested, it also has the story collages: anxious- - -soul (no spaces between the dashes, this site sucks and wouldn't allow them without spaces).
Anyway,
Thank you for reading,
Hope you enjoyed this,
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No hate -don't like, don't read
Bye~