Chapter Text
“Dragons and legends…It would have been difficult for any man not to want to fight beside a dragon.”
-Patricia Briggs, Dragon Blood
Months.
Months of desperation and despair, of mourning and attempting to hold the world together while they search for a way to defeat Thanos and reverse the apocalypse. It all comes down to this. To an empty planet where a group of heroes and their allies battle Thanos and what remnants of his army he has managed to summon since their appearance.
They need get that ruined glove. They need the Stones.
They need to kill Thanos.
Lightning strikes the field; Tony’s suit protects his vision from the blinding flare and he notices immediately when the Time and Soul Stones glow as their wielder prepares to retaliate. Tony’s breath hitches. That is a particularly bad combination to his mind, one that hasn’t yet been attempted, and he really doesn’t want to see what will result.
He hastily activates the mocked-up Time and Soul energies to cancel out whatever Thanos is attempting. All that time spent traveling alternate timelines with the assistance of Wong, Lang, and a number of scientists and heroes have paid off. They’ve managed to mimic and store the energy harnessed by the Infinity Stones. Not nearly powerful enough to undo what happened, but enough to cancel out the powers Thanos attempts to summon in the middle of a fight.
They’re lucky the Stones glow before use. It’s the necessary split second they need to cancel out the attack rather than simply reducing damage. And it has the added bonus of frustrating Thanos, although that’s really a mixed blessing.
This time, however, something different happens. A storm of something…of ash erupts from nowhere, swirling and condensing within the small knot of heroes around him. A large lump on the ground remains still as it solidifies, while a standing figure just behind it is a far more identifiable shape. As the last flakes coalesce and gain color, it is already in motion. For a moment, Tony is too shocked to move. Wong is already mid-cast.
Stephe – Strange’s hands slam down to the ground, Wong redirects his magic to the air above them, and the spells from the two sorcerers merge to form a sphere around the group. A soundless explosion of energy clears away the Outriders around them and blows Thanos back. It gives them a moment to breathe, a moment for Tony’s brain to reboot. He should be more concerned with Loki, still disoriented and crumpled on the ground at Strange’s feet. But he can’t take his eyes off Strange. And not necessarily for the obvious reasons, for this further proof that the former doctor had seen the future – this future – and reacted accordingly.
He had done his research on Dr. Stephen Strange, in between struggling to figure out how to save the world. All this time there had been this community of monk sorcerers and potential threats right beneath his nose, and he’d been completely ignorant. But newspaper and journal articles hadn’t been enough. He had reached out to Wong, and the more he’d managed to extract from the taciturn man, the more his focus had begun to shift from the professional to the personal.
Tony had wanted to know everything about the man who had given up the Time Stone to save his life. Talking with Wong wasn’t enough.
And now, unexpectedly, he was back. Here, in the middle of battle, with Loki.
And so changed. Tony concedes that there are more obvious reasons for his staring as well.
“Strange?” Wong says. You can’t tell from his tone of voice, but Tony catches the look of shock in his peripheral vision.
Strange is just beginning to notice the unusual attention. He glances down at himself with a frown, and then stills, raising a hand to eye-level. His eyes blink rapidly. And yes, that might be a sign of disorientation brought about by his reappearance, milder than Loki seems to be suffering. But Tony suspects it has more to do with his slit pupils and the slight glow of his irises. His vision has to have noticeably changed; he must be adjusting. Strange studies the sharp, black claws at the end of his fingers, and then runs one hand over the back of the other where scales are peeking out beyond his wrappings. He is so covered, such little skin showing that it’s impossible to say to what extent those scales have appeared on him.
Strange claps a hand to his neck to feel the evidence of scales present there, streaked along his vulnerable throat. But he misses the swirls of small pebbled scales along his brow and extending from the corners of his eyes. They’re beautiful, a dark, midnight blue near the center, shading gradually lighter near the edges.
Tony can’t look away. He shouldn’t find those inhuman features so alluring. Shouldn’t have even found the man so alluring to begin with.
Strange’s only response is a thoughtful hum, and how the hell is he so calm about it? Tony would be freaking out if it were him. The only reason he isn’t freaking out now is because they’re technically in the middle of fighting for the fate of the universe.
And he would really like an explanation for Loki.
“I will kill you,” said god rasps, at last getting to his feet and putting a bit of distance between himself and the sorcerer. “Slowly and painfully, when this is over.”
Strange just rolls his eyes. “Are you still holding a grudge? Even if I hadn’t bested you the first time, you seem to think I’m not petty enough to get myself killed by someone else, just to spite you.”
Tony might have found this funnier, if the man hadn’t basically given up his life for him. He can’t speak up, though, because that sharp gaze has found his and his throat is abruptly too dry to attempt talking. Strange comes across as a cold man, with eyes like shards of ice. Except now those pale eyes are reminiscent of a flame so hot it shines blue, and Tony can see his core of fire, passion strong enough to break that slender man in two.
Those eyes look away and he feels he can breathe again. A part of him regrets it.
“As if some second-rate sorcerer could truly best me. You were lucky once, mortal, but don't expect to be so lucky again. You didn't even notice when I used you to escape the Soul Stone.”
“Oh, I noticed. I could have shoved you off, I just chose not to, against my better judgment. We do need a master of the Space Stone.”
“Please,” Loki sneers. “Your incompetence is written all over your body.”
Strange rolls his eyes, hard. “You're even more ignorant than I thought if you believe this is the result of any spell I cast. Or any spell that's been cast on me.”
For one insane moment, Tony's resentment towards Loki has nothing to do with any past grievances, and everything to do with how he holds Ste – Stra – oh, alright, Stephen's complete attention. In a post-apocalyptic world, battling an all-powerful warlord, and this further complication...well, there's a reason he and Pepper decided to call off the wedding. He does a mental double-take at that thought, because, yes, after the disasters that faced the world and how busy the both of them were in the aftermath, they barely had time to interact much less be together. But he's never phrased it quite like that before, in his head or out loud, and there's something about it –
“Strange!” Wong bellows, snapping them out of their distraction. Tony is relieved, and can't quite articulate why. Not yet. “If you could overcome your own ego, at least until we're done here?!”
“Good to see you too, Wong,” Stephen says, and flings shards of deadly magic that rip into the oncoming horde.
The battle passes in a blur, only brief snapshots of time coming into focus in his memory. Most are to do with Stephen. They seem to end up fighting together or near each other more often than not. Once, the sorcerer had been in a position where he'd been forced to slash out at Thanos with his claws, his magic otherwise preoccupied with defense. He'd aimed for a hamstring, but whether Thanos' skin was too thick, or Stephen's hand strength too weak, he had barely seemed to scratch him. A vibranium shield to the back of Thanos' head had allowed him to scramble away and gain some distance.
At the very end, Tony sees him exhale fire directly into the purple asshole's face. He'd seen him doing this before to some of the troops with surprising effect – the flame was much more powerful than he would have assumed – but this time it is the timing of the distraction that makes it most memorable. Thanos reels away, attempting to activate Space which Tony immediately cancels out. Thor is in the perfect position to take his head with Stormbreaker, while at the same time Tony flies forward, low to the ground, and slices off the hand wearing the battered gauntlet.
For what seems like a long time all Tony can do is stare as the large body hits the ground. He feels numb...disbelieving. The alien that has haunted him for years is finally gone. His pulse pounds in his ears, and the world seems to go silent.
“-ony. Tony.”
He jerks, wondering when he had removed his helmet.
“Quickly,” Stephen says, a shaking hand on his shoulder, and he mourns that the armor prevents him from feeling the touch. “It's not over yet.” Around them, the fighting is beginning to die down.
“Right,” he says faintly. “The Stones. We need to...to reverse...”
“No,” says his companion. “Not just reverse what Thanos did. We need to undo it.”
“How?” he wonders, lets himself be led to where Loki is crouched by the gauntlet. He should feel extremely concerned by that, but mostly he just feels numb as he stares blankly at the Stones set in ruined metal. Thor had told them what had happened to the gauntlet once Thanos had snapped his fingers, but Tony had hoped that it would be able to hold together for one more use. Now that he sees it up close, this...doesn't seem to be the case. He leans heavily against the sorcerer, realizing for the first time just how warm Stephen is. He should probably worry about that, but it seems only natural when taking into account the other physical changes.
Maybe he should worry after all.
Stephen calls Carol over, and Tony doesn't even realize at first that Jane Foster has somehow appeared. Magically.
“We can still undo it,” Stephen says. “Thanos never truly mastered any of the Stones, which gives us an advantage. They've chosen or been more or less mastered by others, and their allegiance hasn't changed yet. All of us in agreement can direct them to undo what Thanos has done.”
It works. Hell if Tony knows how, or even how he knows it has, considering they're still on some empty planet in space. Loki with Space, Foster with Reality, Stephen on Time, Carol directing Power, and Tony and Gamora, working together from without and within the Soul Stone, direct the energies. They should be missing Mind, it shouldn't work, but everything that Vision is...was, the blueprint of his existence was birthed from Mind and is now embedded within it. Almost as if he is here in spirit. It works, and that's all that matters.
They are exhausted, all of them. Avengers and allies. For the time being they just sit or lay on this planet, this little pocket universe, and breathe. Once they leave, this will disappear and they'll return to their time and place before all of this happened. Before half of the universe was wiped from existence. Thanos is dead, and the battle is won at last.
They're so tired.