Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Something wasn’t right.

Something other than the obvious fact that half of the entire population of the fucking universe had been halved, of course.

Being unable to make contact with anyone as the Benatar landed on Earth made some modicum of sense, Tony supposed. Space tech was, in so far, not compatible with Earth technology, Tony had tried several times as they had started their descent. As much as it pained him to admit it, attempting to contact Earth from the Benatar was like trying to use wireless earphones to try and listen to music from a cd player.

It was just not going to happen.

What wasn’t right, was that the Benatar managed to land in front of the Compound and they had done so without being attacked once.

Tony didn’t want to be attacked, but, to be honest? He had sort of expected it. The Avengers were not really known for asking questions first and shooting after.

And considering that, according to his calculations, only twelve days had passed since that day...

Something was off.

When they landed in front of the Compound and were not immediately surrounded by panicked Avengers or other people trying to kill them, Tony’s concern only grew. He had been unsure that his heart could feel anything other than the grief he had felt, watching Peter disappear in front of him, or the fear that only grew the longer he went without contact with Darcy, but now it was clear that it could feel anxiety and nerves still.

Because where was everyone?

It wasn’t like Tony was in any rush to see any of his old teammates. He had refused to think about who had survived and who could have died for that very same reason. But surely not everyone in the Avengers could have died, right? Not every single one of them could have disappeared, right?

He wasn’t alone, right?

(“I watched my friends die. You’d think that’d be as bad as it gets, right? Nope. Wasn’t the worst part.” 

“The worst part is that you didn’t.”)

Nebula side eyed him as the Benatar came to a complete stop in front of the Compound, but Tony ignored her, keeping his eyes focused outside, watching and hoping...

Thanos had said half the population, after all. The ratio had seemingly been different on Titan, where only two of them had survived, but on Hulla (the planet they had stopped on their way back) Nebula and the few people they had spoken to, had agreed that it was half of their population that was now gone.

So it should make sense that the same happened on Earth. And yet-

“Oh thank god,” suddenly said Tony, as a glare of light caught his attention.

Nebula looked at him in confusion as he rushed outside, but she did not stop him, hands holding onto her weapons as she followed him out.

He didn’t mind having her behind him. She could have ditched him on Titan from the beginning, or left him to die about a dozen times after that. Sure she was grumpy, starved for love and generally prickly, but she wasn’t bad.

Tony liked her, and even though she had yet to admit it, considering her own actions so far, she liked him too.

Or maybe she just didn’t want to be completely alone, no matter how used to it she seemed to be.

He didn’t ponder about it too much (or about why Nebula was now alone, why they were both alone). Instead, he focused on the light glare again, feeling his heart grow heavier in his chest at the way FRIDAY expressed her relief at seeing him alive once more.

Even before master spies and assassins and supersoldiers and enemies were surrounding him on a day to day basis, Tony had made sure that the first things his AIs learnt from him was how to communicate with him without anyone else knowing that they were communicating or what they were saying. They had a language made of code, lights, static and secrets that only they and Tony were familiar with, a language not many even knew existed.

(Rhodey knew; he didn’t know the language itself, but he had been around them from the beginning, had seen JARVIS since he was basically an infant)

(God, Tony hoped Rhodey had survived)

It was that same language that FRIDAY was currently employing to tell him that,

“There are intruders inside the Compound,” he repeated for Nebula’s sake, growing a little stiffer. “There are other people inside too, but the intruders - two of them - have managed to subdue them. Assassins.”

Nebula did not ask him where he was getting his information from, or if he was certain of his words. She only became a touch tenser, holding her swords a little tighter, and moving in front of him.

Unfortunately for Tony, he had not been able to find the materials necessary in space to fix up his nanosuit, so he did not really have a choice other than allowing her to do that. He’d have maybe enough to form a gauntlet or something, which was better than nothing.

(part of him could not help but take note of the fact that either she did not consider him a threat at all, or she trusted him as much as he did her, letting him have her back like this)

“They have noted our arrival,” said Tony, keeping his voice low as they moved towards the main door of the Compound. He wondered if he should be more nervous about assassins inside the Compound most likely waiting for him, but at this point? He was fresh out of fucks to give. “They are not in the foyer, but are approaching it stealthily so that they can try and incapacitate us as soon as we get there.”

FRIDAY opened the door as noiselessly as possible when they got close enough to it. Nebula paused for a second, and glanced at him. When Tony nodded, choosing to forego words now that they were inside, Nebula turned back around and walked inside.

The lights inside the foyer were turned off, but that wasn’t particularly bothersome with the light still spilling from outside the building. Tony’s internal clock was all over the place, but he was going to assume it was sometime after noon.

Nebula paused when they walked in, pushing Tony a little farther away from her without turning to look at him, and Tony took it for the cue it was meant to be. Even if FRIDAY was compromised (she wasn’t, and she never would be – no one could hurt her, no SHIELD, no Stane, no ULTRON, never again), with where he was standing he’d be able to at least see the assassin duo in the Compound coming. Though...

He touched his arc reactor, tapping it four times and then twice. 

Mark 42.

FRIDAY made the fourth line after the big 2 on the classic clock light up for a moment.

Fourteen seconds.

Then the lamp on the missing receptionist’s desk lit up in quick intervals, as did the one near the balcony.

Incoming.

Tony did not even have time to try and find a way to warn Nebula before the alien was moving.

Whether she also saw FRIDAY’s message or she simply saw something he didn’t, the Blue Meanie jumped at the same time as two figures dropped into the room, one more loudly than the second.

Then Nebula yelled, throwing herself against them, and Tony ducked, moving towards the receptionist desk.

He had seen Nebula on Hulla and even fighting on Titan, so he wasn’t particularly worried about his Neytiri’s chances in fighting against two human - ... they were human, right? Damn it, Tony really hoped they were human - assassins. Still, he did not like sitting out of things and-

His eyes narrowed as the blonde woman Nebula was fighting threw herself at her in a move that was incredibly familiar.

Now, Tony wouldn’t go around and pretend himself particularly good at understanding how people fought or at recognising fighting patterns or anything like that. But he had seen that move before, had even wondered if the woman performing it would teach him it. He knew that move.

He did not doubt that the two assassins had seen him too, but Nebula was keeping them both engaged pretty well. The shorter of the two had tried to run in his direction already, and Nebula had-

Jesus Christ, was that a child, he couldn’t help but wonder in slight horror as she was thrown against the wall and he managed to make out her face from the distance. She looked maybe fifteen, what the hell?

The armour crashed through the ground just then, startling Nebula and the other assassins both, but not Tony. He threw himself inside it as soon as it opened beside, feeling his body relax even as his lungs constricted inside of him.

The last time he had been wearing the suit, the last time he had been fighting inside it...

“Hello, Boss. Good to have you back on Earth. Please do not leave the planet without me again,” said FRIDAY, and Tony would have smiled at the familiar voice, had he not been trying hard to keep his feelings and emotions at bay.

Because the last time he had looked at things through a HUD screen, the last time he had been in his armour, the last time...

His abdomen wound throbbed even though Tony knew it was by now mostly healed, and he could have sworn for a second he could taste dust (Peter, Strange, and the peanut gallery) in his mouth.

FRIDAY made the visual of the fighters appear in the HUD, and Tony focused on that. And fuck, that was a kid, and the woman beside her was a Black Widow. No shadow of doubt regarding either.

“FRIDAY, project me,” he said, taking flight as the two kept trying and failing to take down Nebula. They were clearly trained and good at fighting, but neither stood a chance, Nebula was too good, and she was going to kill them if they kept this up much longer.

“Alright, enough!” he called out, voice coming from all of the speakers in the room at once. 

Nebula fell back immediately at that, kicking both women back at the same time.

She had been toying with them, he noted, and wasn’t quite sure if he should feel proud that she had remembered his ‘don’t kill unless they are active threats’ rule or disturbed that she had fought a Black Widow with half of her attention focused on someone else and that still had not been anything more than a quick workout for her.

He was very glad that she was on his side.

The two women did not attack as soon as Nebula stepped back, standing back up but staying where they were, eyes wary.

The blonde was scowling at Nebula with quite a bit of annoyance, but the kid beside her was watching Tony and his suit instead. He wasn’t sure what she was thinking, but for now it did not appear too threatening.

Not that it improved his mood by much.

“I just watched half of my team disintegrate in front of me, got stabbed in the gut with my own weapon, fought with a genocidal grape, trekked across space with an infection, nearly died again on a different planet and just managed to get to Earth. I’m fucking exhausted and tired and I still don’t know if some very important people are still alive, so what the fuck do you want?”

Uh. The delivery could have been smoother, he thought, wincing a little inside of his suit. 

The blonde straightened up. “I’m Yelena Belova,” she said, in a thick Russian accent, and Tony’s eyes widened slightly. “She’s Xu Xialing.”

“You’re Romanoff’s sister,” said Tony, not relaxing in the slightest at the revelation.

Black Widow the blonde did relax, nodding. “You are Tony Stark. You are the one who does the fixing. I need my sister to not be dust anymore.”

“Oh, is that all?” said Tony, unsure if he should feel pressured, annoyed or proud at her words.

“No,” said possible Black Widow in training, completely missing the sarcasm. “I need my brother back too. His name is Shang-Chi. He goes by Shaun.”

“Look,” said Tony, when it became apparent that they weren’t messing around. What sort of reputation did he have around their parts? Very few would have said he was ‘the one who fixed things’; after all the blame for ULTRON rested on his shoulders, according to the majority of the world, didn’t it? “Look, I don’t know what you’ve heard about me or what you think I can or cannot do. But it’s not that simple. I can’t just bring them back with the force of my mind or whatever you think I can do. I couldn’t even save... I can’t do anything for you.”

“But you have to,” said Xialing, frowning at him. “That’s what they said on the news. You’re Iron Man, and Iron Man can save us. You always do, and-”

“Well not this time,” said Tony, deciding on feeling pressured after all. “Not this time. I couldn’t even save Pe- I couldn’t even save the people I went off world with. You’re insane if you think I can fix this. I can’t.” And he still didn’t know if Darcy... if Rhodey... “I can’t.”

“Yes, you can,” said Yelena, just as decided as earlier, a stubborn expression on her face. “Natasha always said-”

“Natasha doesn’t know as much as she thinks she knows,” snapped Tony, shaking her head. “Natasha is-”

“My sister,” said Yelena, a warning in her voice. Nebula came to stand closer to where Tony was, eyes trained on her. “And I know that you and her have a ‘complicated relationship’ because she lies to you all the time and you know how to spot the majority of her lies, and she doesn’t like that.” Tony was a little startled at those words, and Yelena rolled her eyes. “We kept in contact. She has a lot of stories about you and everyone else. You were the one she liked the least on the team.”

Tony pretended it did not still sting, two years later. “The feeling’s mutual.”

“But you were also the one she respected the most,” continued Yelena, which did make Tony pause. “She did not like you, but she did think you were the best and most powerful of the Avengers. That you could win where everyone else before you had already failed. That you were the hero the team and the world needed.”

“Those other ones were all waiting for you,” said Xialing, jumping in. “They said that maybe you knew how to fix it. That you would know what to do because you were Earth’s greatest defender.”

Tony scoffed. “Who the fuck said that?”

“The American one.”

The vast majority of the Avengers was American, but Tony had a feeling he knew who she was talking about. He wasn’t sure if he should feel proud that Rogers had referred to him like that, or if he should simply feel annoyed that once more the Captain expected Tony to fix everything that was wrong with the world.

“They were all being very uncooperative when we showed up,” continued Yelena. “But they all seemed in general agreement with this.” She glanced over at Nebula. “I didn’t know anything about a blue assassin though. Are you an alien?”

“Everyone’s an alien to someone,” said Nebula, weapons still unsheathed.

Xialing nodded. “That is true.”

“Back to the Avengers being uncooperative,” said Tony, snapping his fingers together. “Did you... what did you do to them?”

“I didn’t kill them,” said Yelena, rolling her eyes. “Natasha said that sometimes you could be very petty and vengeful, I wasn’t going to risk that.”

“We just knocked them all out,” said Xialing, a hint of a smile on her face. “It was very satisfying. Also, they are all very bad fighters.”

“How old even are you, Yori?”

The girl frowned. “My name is Xialing.”

“He uses nicknames with people he is fond of,” explained Yelena, and just how much had Natasha told about him to his little sister? “I think Yori is that little girl from Kim Possible. Have you ever seen Kim Possible?”

“I’m eighteen,” said Xialing, still looking confused. “I don’t know who Kim Possible is. Dad only let Shang-Chi learn English. I learnt by watching him watch the television and the movies.” She turned to look at Tony again. “Dad is also gone, but you don’t have to bring him back if you don’t want to. I just need Shang-Chi to come back, so that I can kill him myself for abandoning me.”

“Are all of the Black Widows this fucked up?” wondered Tony, which made both women appear offended.

“First of all, no we are not ‘fucked up’. We are just survivors.”

“Second, the Black Widows could never get me,” continued Xialing. “They tried, and they failed. My dad is much more powerful than they are, and trains better soldiers.”

Tony wanted to ask who her father was, but Yelena spoke up again. “It’s because they didn’t send me. I would have brought you in.” Then she turned to Tony again, eyes narrowing. “Enough American polite small talk. Are you going to fix it or not?”

Now even Nebula was looking at him, clearly wondering the same.

Tony wondered if that was why she had decided to save him. Did she also think he could ‘fix’ it?

Thanos had known his name. Claimed that he too was 'burdened by knowledge'.

“I don’t even know where to start,” he admitted, trying to not think about dust, about stones, about Titan and the Titan. “I...”

“But you’re going to try,” said Xialing, and when she looked at him now, he no longer saw the confused assassin from before who had claimed she wanted to kill her brother. 

Instead he saw an almost afraid little girl, looking at him with firm belief in her eyes, looking at him like Peter used to look at him, like Darcy used to look at him when she was younger.

(god, he hoped Darcy was alive, he needed Darcy to be alive)

All Tony had ever done since New York was try and save people. Try to keep everyone safe. The suits, ULTRON, the Accords... it had been all to keep the world safe from Thanos, safe from what he had seen on the other side of the wormhole.

He had failed each time, which was why they had lost.

Nanakorobi, yaoki.

Fall down seven times, stand up eight.

Tony had been filled with anger and grief the entire time they had been flying back towards Earth, ever since that dumbass Strange had given Thanos that stupid rock.

Anger, and fury, and rage.

And one single certainty that he hadn’t been sure of how to achieve: that he was going to do anything in his power to undo whatever the fuck Thanos had done.

That he was going to do whatever it took to bring Peter and everyone else back.

So he let the helmet lift from his face and met the three women’s eyes with as much hope and certainty as he could.

“I’m going to die trying.”

Chapter Text

The only good thing that came from Tony willingly speaking to the Avengers was that he found out that Rhodey was alive. 

That was it.

Xialing and Nebula had stood back as Tony and Yelena had freed the rest of the Avengers (Tony hoped FRIDAY had screenshots and pictures of the mighty Avengers all tied up and partly knocked out all over the conference room, for a rainy day), and then the entire thing had become a mess.

Rhodey was alive. So were Rogers, Banner, Barton, Wilson, Hill, and two new women called Valkyrie and Carol Danvers.

Of the original Avengers, both Thor and Romanoff had been snapped.

Tony was not sure how to feel about that detail, so he had simply ignored it.

He had not really spoken much, really, not even to defend the assassin duo Rogers had verbally attacked as soon as he had been freed of the tape over his mouth and the whatever they had injected him with had run its course.

And once he was done with them - or rather, once he had realised his words were not at all registering in their minds - Rogers and Barton had, just as Yelena had previously implied, immediately expected Tony to offer a solution as soon as he recounted what had happened on Titan.

Tony might have snapped at that, he wasn’t sure.

What he knew was that he had metaphorically thrown command of the Avengers at Rogers, and then left.

Rhodey had remained at the Compound, which Tony both understood and felt hurt by, but the assassin trio had been trailing behind him as soon as he had stood up.

Tony had tried exactly once to get them to stay with the Avengers instead, but when all three had simply stared at him without blinking - was that an assassin thing? Because it was freaky - he had simply shaken his head and unlocked the doors of his car for them.

Yelena shouted “Shotgun!”, and slid into the seat beside him before Nebula could, all the while smirking at her.

Nebula stared at her. “Move.”

Yelena looked very unconcerned for her life for a woman who had gotten her ass handed to her by Nebula mere minutes before. “I said shotgun.”

“I don’t care what you said, move.”

“Please don’t fight,” said Tony, watching Xialing sitting in the backseat. “Nebs, just sit in the back, Yelena did say shotgun first. Next time we are in a car together, you’ll just say it before her.” Nebula kept glaring, and Tony sighed, looking away. “Xialing, seatbelt.”

“What if I have to shoot someone coming after us? How will I be able to do that if I’m wearing a seatbelt?” she questioned, staring at him through the mirror.

“Somehow I doubt that someone is going to shoot at us right now,” pointed out Tony, as Nebula finally slipped backseat too. “Meanwhile there is a real chance of me hitting the brakes suddenly because of traffic and your tiny body flying and smashing against the windshield.”

“I can take it- hey!” complained Xialing, glaring as Nebula pulled the seat belt on for her.

Nebula scowled. “Don’t be ridiculous. If your body smashes against the windshield, how are you going to be of any help? You can take this off after they start shooting at us, you can’t put it on after you smash against this wind shield.”

“Thank you, Smurfette,” said Tony, finally starting the car. He wasn't sure either of them understood what he was saying, but they were wearing seatbelts, which was a clear improvement. “And Yelena, please put the seat belt on too.”

“Ugh,” complained the blonde, even as she did so. “In Russia we don’t put seatbelts on. You Americans are so childish.”

“I have been to Russia before, and yes, you do.” 

“Really? What part of Russia?”

“Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Volgograd and Sochi,” listed Tony.

“Москва, Санкт-Петербург, Волгоград  и Сочи,” corrected Yelena, rolling her eyes. “Why do you Americans always change the names of places?”

“It’s not a uniquely American attitude,” pointed out Tony, shrugging. “Most countries do this. It’s because some names are harder to pronounce in other languages, so they change them or attempt to translate them in their languages. Almost every country in this world does it.”

“China does it too,” offered Xialing, putting her head between their seats. “In Mandarin, we call Russia ‘俄羅斯’ (Èluósī), and Moscow is ‘莫斯科’ (Mòsīkē).”

“In Italian, Russia is written the same but pronounced Rus-si-a, but Moscow is 'Mosca'. Which is weird, cause mosca also means fly.”

“Weird.”

Tony supposed he could have done as Nebula had, and remained quiet for the remainder of the drive to the safe house. He didn’t have to answer their inane questions, and he was pretty sure they wouldn’t have begrudged him if he had started ignoring them.

But if he stopped talking and bantering with them, then he’d have to think.

And if he started thinking, he’d start wondering.

And if he started wondering, he’d start freaking out.

He could have asked Rhodey or FRIDAY, he knew. They would have had the answers he needed. But the idea of asking and them telling him that she was gone or worse, that they didn’t know where she was? No, Tony did not think he’d have been able to handle that too well.

He couldn’t lose Darcy. He couldn’t be the only one in his actual family to be alive, he really would not be able to handle that.

He had already lost one child, please if there was a power in the Universe, please don’t let Thanos take his daughter too.

He needed her to be safe, he needed her to be alive.

Otherwise, faith or no faith, assassin trio or not, he was not sure what he would do.

“What about France? I heard somewhere that you speak French too.”

“Yeah,” said Tony, keeping his eyes to the front. “In France-”

The drive to the safe house both took too long and not enough time at all, and only a few minutes later, in the middle of a discussion on whether tomato was really a fruit or not, Tony was parking in front of the safe house.

It was a little out of New York, more so than the Compound, and under Howard’s name rather than Tony’s. Howard had had it built during the Cold War, and Tony had put it down as a safe house to use in the case of ‘Protocol: doomsday’ (instituted a few days after the New York Invasion).

It was where she would have gone, had she been alive, and Tony’s heart thumped in his chest even as he turned off the engine and prepared to step out.

God, he really hoped that-

The door of the mansion burst open and Tony was running before he could even make eye contact with her, heart beating way too rapidly in his chest.

“Dad!” shouted Darcy, smacking into him very painfully, but Tony did not care, as his own arms wrapped around her. “Oh my god, dad-”

He couldn’t even speak as his face fell in the crown of her hair. He wanted to calm her down, to shush her, to make a quip, to tell her that he was fine, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t talk, he could barely breathe, he couldn’t say anything.

Even when he felt the wet of her tears sinking in his shirt and neck, he had nothing to say.

He didn’t think there was anything he could say, that there was anything he could do but hold her as tightly as possible.

Which is what he did. 

He kept his arms tight around her frame and his face in her hair, and just held her as tightly as he could.

When Darcy was younger, Tony used to hold her in his arms all the time. He would hold her and promise her that as long as she was in his arms, as long as she was with him, nothing bad could ever happen to either of them.

He still believed that, despite everything that had happened. Now that Darcy was in his arms, now that his daughter was here and safe and he could see her (long brown hair tied in a low ponytail, looking tired and heartbroken but alive), and he could smell her (and her fancy little French soap that always made Tony sneeze), and he could hear her (sobbing and crying might she be), and he could feel her (and her tears), nothing was going to go wrong anymore.

Darcy was safe.

+++

It took a few more minutes for her to disengage from him, and even then she did not go far.

“Dad,” she said, wiping her red eyes and allowing him to continue holding her hand. “I came here first, when Jane, when she...” Darcy sniffed, forcefully trying to stop the tears from falling. “But then... then FRIDAY said that you had gone off world and... then she said that she was at the Tower, so I went and picked her up because she could help because she was a genius as well-”

Tony frowned, not even bothering to wipe his own wet face. “You went and got who?”

“Me,” said a voice, and Tony glanced back to the door of the mansion.

The door of the mansion where Princess Shuri of Wakanda was standing, wearing one of Darcy’s old shirts and holding tightly onto herself.

Tony stared at her for a couple of seconds, circling through all of the rational reactions he should have regarding having a child, a Royal child of a country he was pretty sure hated him and his father and everything he stood for, standing in his house.

He turned around to find that the other three had also stepped out of the car and were just standing a little awkwardly and silently beside his car. All three were also staring unabashedly at him and the now slightly confused Darcy.

He sighed.

“All right,” he said, shaking his head. “Everyone, let’s get inside. We need some water and maybe something to eat, and then explanations. Let’s go.”

Shuri returned inside the room, and Tony kept a hold of Darcy’s hand - not that she was letting go either - as they walked inside, the badass trio immediately following after him.

However, they had only just walked inside the room when all three immediately stiffened behind him.

“There is someone in here,” said Nebula, quickly striding in front of him, Darcy and Shuri. “Someone else.”

Shuri frowned. “Uh, no? It was just me and Darcy these past few days.”

“No, she’s right,” said Yelena, voice low. “Someone’s in here. They're... watching us. And not like at the Compound.”

“My dad built this place,” said Tony, pulling Darcy behind him and deciding to trust the badass killers. “So there are no AIs.”

“Like at the Tower-”

“Would it help if I said I came in peace?” came a voice, and two daggers and a sword flew at him at the same time.

All three of them froze before they could hit the target, standing still and covered in green magic.

Ah, damn it.

Loki gave them a sharp smile from where he stood behind the green barrier, waving his fingers at them in greeting. “Is this the Midgardian way of greeting someone?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be dead?” complained Tony, more annoyed than actively wary or angry.

He had not really listened to Bruce’s story, too busy worrying about the Thanos information, but he had heard enough. Enough to know that Loki was supposed to be dead, and enough to not consider Loki an enemy - and to be honest, Tony had never truly considered Loki the enemy of the story. 

“Many have tried to kill me before, few have managed it,” said Loki, eyes fixed on Nebula beside him. “Nebula.”

“Loki,” she answered, in the same tone.

Tony did not need anyone to tell him what the history was there.

Daughter of Thanos and general of Thanos.

Neither of them so by choice.

Yeah.

Surprisingly, neither seemed to be in the mood to attack one another. They just stared at each other for a couple of seconds in a way that Tony felt was rather intense. 

Nebula looked away first.

Loki inclined his head before his eyes fixed on Tony again.

“I didn’t know you knew my sister,” he said, watching him carefully.

Tony frowned at him. “I don’t know your sister. I didn’t even know you had a sister.”

“Well, she knows you,” said Loki, sending the weapons back to those who had thrown them at him. The assassins did not even flinch, catching them with ease.

Tony felt that it was showing off, but he did not say so, shrugging. “A lot of people know me.”

Though, if this was the same sister that Bruce had claimed had destroyed Asgard, he was a little confused. Then again even the grape had known his name, so maybe he shouldn’t be surprised.

“I suppose that is true,” said Loki. “Are you going to invite us in?”

“You are already in my house,” pointed out Tony, flatly. 

“To be fair, I was sent here. My sister,” he clarified. “She made me appear here, she did not really give me a choice.”

“Why did she apparate you in my living room?” 

Loki’s eyes darkened slightly, a scowl appearing on his face. “Only she and I are allowed to kill Thor.”

Tony snorted, shaking his head when Loki looked at him with narrowed eyes. “Not making fun, Rudolph. I just heard this one before. Alright, everyone, kitchen, come on.”

He only let go of Darcy’s hand once they were in the kitchen - which appeared fully stocked, thank you FRIDAY - and then, for a moment, watched the people in there with him.

Darcy had immediately sat down at the large kitchen table, eyes still puffy and red, and knees drawn against her chest, chin resting on top of them. 

Princess Shuri was sitting close to her, but with her back straight. Her hands were hidden from sight, and she was watching the people around her with some wariness and nerves. She wasn’t crying, but it was clear she had been, not too long ago.

Yelena had perched herself on the counter closest to the door, and was watching Loki and Nebula in particular, expression hard to read. She did not look tense, but considering her profession, that meant very little.

Xialing was standing closest to the door, also observing everyone around her, even Yelena. She kept glancing at Shuri, and he estimated them to be around the same age, though he suspected Shuri to be older.

Nebula was standing closest to Tony, her attention on everyone except Loki. Tony couldn’t have told you what she was thinking or if she thought any of the rest was a threat or not.

Loki was on the other side of the room from Nebula, also perched on the counter, but appearing far less tense than anyone else in the room. Again, Tony wasn’t sure if this was trust or confidence.

An odd bunch of badasses and smartasses, from what he knew of them so far.

They all looked tired, though. And as well as they hid it, he could see some of the grief he himself felt reflected in their eyes, in the lines of their shoulders.

“I hope you like pasta,” he finally said, moving to bring out everything he needed. “Loki, do you eat like Thor does?”

“Do not insult me when I came here for an allyship,” said Loki, sounding irritated.

“Amount wise, jackass,” said Tony, pulling out the Costco sized bag of fusilli. “Thor eats like three times a normal adult’s size.”

“And comparing you to Thor is not rude,” said Darcy, scowling at him. “Thor is awesome, and Thor did not break Puente Antiguo and then New York.”

“I did not personally break New York,” pointed out Loki, frowning. “And wherever this Puente Antiguo is, I did not do that either.”

“You sent the Destroyer.”

“I sent that thing after the Idiots Four,” said Loki, rolling his eyes. “What it did to do that is not my fault.”

“Eh,” said Yelena, making a face. “It kind of is. You bring a weapon, you start a weapon... what the weapon does is on you. Dreykov... Dreykov used to say that all of our failures reflected on him.”

“My dad did as well,” said Xialing, nodding. “You represent your family with your every action.”

“That’s a heavy burden,” said Darcy. “You are your own person, at the end of the day.”

“That’s nice,” agreed Tony, with a big and fake smile. “But it does not help me decide how much pasta to make.”

“What is pasta?” questioned Nebula, watching the thing in his hand with confusion.

“You don’t have pasta in space?” asked Shuri, frowning. “Wait, of course you don’t, it’s space. But wait, how are you understanding us? How are we understanding you? Why are you speaking English? You shouldn’t be speaking English, neither of you should be!”

“Why do you need to know how I work?” questioned Nebula, watching her with clear suspicion as Shuri sat up.

“I have the All-Speak, and she has a Universal translator. I don’t normally eat as much as Thor does, but I do eat much more than Midgardians do,” said Loki.

“Finally,” muttered Tony, while Shuri frowned at the other alien.

“What the hell is the All-Speak?”

“A spell that makes them able to speak like every language in all of the worlds,” said Darcy, and Shuri made a face.

“Magic?”

“Are you one of those people who doesn’t believe in magic?” asked Xialing, voice a little mocking. “Because magic is real. My mother used to do magic, back when she still lived in Ta-Lo. Everyone there practices magic given to them by the Great Protector.”

“What the hell is-”

“Your mother is from Ta-Lo?” asked Loki, appearing surprised. “It’s been a while since I have been there. Why’d she leave?”

“She got married to my dad,” explained Xialing. “And the people of Ta-Lo did not think he was worthy of them.”

“Yeah, the Vanir are very picky when it comes to who they will and will not allow inside their Realm,” agreed Loki, which had Darcy staring at him in sudden surprised.

“Hold on, what? This Ta-Lo is in Vanaheim? You are an alien as well?”

“Not exactly,” said Loki. “It’s a pocket planet that lives in a dimension between Vanaheim and Midgard. I consider them more Vanir because everyone on Vanaheim knows of Ta-Lo, while very few people on Midgard know of that hidden mid dimension. Who’s your father?”

“Xu Wenwu,” said Xialing, which had Yelena gasping behind her.

Even Tony turned around, to find Yelena staring at Xialing in shock. “Holy shit, your father is the leader of the Ten Rings?!”

Tony nearly dropped the kettle, Darcy paling too. “Say what.”

“Oh, Master Khan,” said Loki, grimacing slightly. “I’ve met him before and yes, Ta-Lo would have never accepted that man. No offense, but your father and those rings of his were a real piece of work.” Then he looked between Xialing, Darcy and Tony. “Are the Ten Rings not that organisation that the hawk said took you, and that you killed?”

“My father kidnapped you?” said Xialing, appearing surprised. “Oh, I’m sorry. Wait. If it was the Mandarin guy, then he had nothing to do with my dad. He was faking it, he wasn’t really with the Ten Rings.”

Tony stared at her for a few seconds, trying to decide how he felt about having the daughter of leader of the organisation he was sold to almost ten years ago sitting at his kitchen waiting for him to make pasta for her.

“How would you feel if I killed your dad?” he asked, pouring the hot water from the kettle and into the pot. 

Xialing shrugged. “I wouldn't mind, but you can’t. Dad is immortal with the Ten Rings. The only person who ever managed to take them from him was mom, and mom is dead.”

“Eh,” said Tony, shrugging and turning to the pot. “He was never there anyway, and I somehow doubt Stane liaised with him, back then.”

“No wonder you were so confident,” said Yelena, grimacing. “Your father was one of the few people Dreykov feared.”

Darcy glanced at her in confusion. “The Russian accent has been throwing me since you showed up, who are you? What’s your deal?”

“I’m a Black Widow,” said Yelena, voice slightly flat. “Yes, like Natasha Romanoff. Natasha is actually my sister, we were both part of the Red Room program. She got out and thought she burned it to the ground - spoiler alert, she didn’t. Dreykov and the Red Room continued to set and alter the course of history from the shadows for years after she defected.”

“That’s my dad was doing,” said Xialing, slightly confusing. “Whenever he gave his big speeches, he spoke of how he was setting and altering the course of history from the shadows.”

“Funny, that’s the same thing HYDRA always said too,” said Tony, only a bit amused. “So did they have time sheet and period of times in which they decided who was gonna alter what?”

Just how many secret terrorist organisations were busy altering the course of history without anyone knowing? It was starting to get ridiculous.

“All Midgardians ever do is wage war and battle against each other, so I am not surprised,” said Loki, rolling his eyes.

Both Shuri and Darcy glared at him. “New York and Puente Antiguo.”

“Neither was completely my fault.”

“I still want to know what pasta is,” said Nebula, looking a bit irritated at his side.

Tony sighed again.

Chapter Text

“So, General Okoye wants to talk to you later,” said Tony, as soon as he finished eating.

Shuri looked up, appearing surprised and hurt. “You called her? When did you call her?”

“When I went to the ‘bathroom’, and of course I called her. You are a minor I have no real affiliation to that is suddenly in my house, I am not going to jail for kidnapping.” After all, last time Tony had allowed a teenager to help him out in a dangerous situation, he had gotten shouted at from nearly everyone he knew for a number of minutes. It had been a very loud and annoying affair that he was in no mood of replicating.

Part of Tony wondered if May Parker had survived.

The other part of him knew that if she had, he would have definitely known.

“So whenever you can,” he continued, forcefully refusing to think about any of the Parkers, “Give her a call.”

She hadn’t sounded particularly surprised or angry to hear that her princess was in the US. A little surprised about hearing she was with Tony, but still she hadn’t appeared as angry as Tony had expected her to be, nor had she attempted to blame him for the girl’s actions.

Shuri made a face, but she did not protest.

He looked at where Nebula was still eyeing the almost empty bowl of pasta, and almost smiled. “You can take some more, if you want.”

Nebula glanced at him, almost appearing nervous for a moment. “Are you sure? You have not eaten much.”

“I have eaten enough,” he told her. “Go ahead; worse comes to worst, I’ll make myself a sandwich.”

“And you insist on taking no price for it?”

He snorted. “No price.”

Nebula, Yelena and Xialing have all three appeared very confused at this concept when Tony had told them to dig in and that there was payment required for it.

Shuri and Loki had not had the same problem, and he wondered if it was because they were raised Royalty or because they knew how rich he was and thus that this wouldn’t be a problem for him.

Nebula did not ask anyone else if they wanted some, simply pulling the bowl towards herself and helping herself to a sizeable portion of pasta.

Tony would hazard to say she had eaten even more than Loki, who had polished off his second portion but was making no move of serving himself a third. For someone who had never heard of the dish before today, she seemed to already be half in love with it.

Shuri was watching her from her own plate - not completely empty - seeming to be torn between deep confusion and a slight sense of satisfaction. Yelena and Darcy were done too, with Xialing still working on her first plate.

“That was a very good meal, Tony Stark,” said Yelena, drowning the glass of water she had poured herself. “Thank you. I was not aware pasta could taste so good.”

It was pasta and pasta sauce from Costco, but Tony doubted that’d mean much to this crowd. And, he supposed, when you were standing on the other side of the end of the world, even the shittiest food in existence could taste very good.

“Indeed it was passable,” agreed Loki. “But now let’s talk about more important matters.”

Yelena nodded, sitting up. “What we know as of now is that someone called Mad Titan found all six of something called ‘Infinity Stones’, and then wished for half of the population to... be gone. Correct?”

She did not sound completely certain of her words.

“That is correct,” said Loki, with certainty. “I do not know the exact terminology he used, but what he failed to do was to wish for half of the population to die. Or perhaps he did, and the Infinity Stones did not listen to him.”

“You’re saying that the people snapped are not dead?” asked Darcy, looking hopeful at his side. “They are not gone?”

“They are gone,” corrected Loki. “From this plane of existence. But they are also not in the Realm of the Dead where they should belong.”

“How do you know this?” asked Nebula, swallowing her food and watching him more thoughtfully.

Loki tapped his fingers on the table when all of the other six kept watching him in curiosity and hope, and then sighed. “The creature was correct when he said that I died on the Statesman. Thanos did indeed snap my neck and kill me.

“Only, when I died, I ended up in Helheim. The Realm of the Dead governed by dearest sister, Hela Odinsdottir.”

“You ended up in Hell?” asked Darcy, sounding vaguely surprised. “Uh. I should start going to church again.”

“You were never Christian to begin with,” said Tony, earning a pout from his daughter.

“Maybe so, but since the afterlife is real, I’m thinking we should both listen to Grandma Stark and get baptized again. Or become Norse god believers.”

Loki rolled his eyes. “We spoke of things that are not pertinent right now. Hela can see through the veil of the living, however, so she did see the moment when Thanos snapped his fingers and halved the entire population of the Universe. The Mad Titan’s actions have never been much popular among Mistress Death’s governesses or the Mistress herself-”

“Death is a she?”

“But this particular plan of his more so than normal. Because while his quick overpopulation of the Realms was already annoying, the fact that not a single soul from those snapped ended up in their Realms was much more worrying.”

Tony frowned, feeling a hint of hope in his heart. “And no souls in the Realm of the Dead means...” 

Loki met his eyes steadily. “It means that they are not dead.”

Tony was not sure of who the sigh of relief came from, but he squeezed Darcy’s hand when he felt it in his.

Peter was not dead. Gone, for now, that was true; but he was not dead.

Which meant Tony could still get him back. And Darcy could get Jane, and Shuri could get T’Challa and everyone could get their compatriots back.

They were not dead. Just... displaced.

“But if they aren’t in the Realm of the Dead, where are they?” questioned Shuri, voice slightly choked up.

“No one truly knows,” said Loki, and that did sober everyone pretty quickly. “Hela certainly did not know. The best way to find out would be to gather the Infinity Stones and undo Thanos’ snap. However, that is impossible.”

“You don’t know where he is,” said Nebula, tone of voice slightly disappointed. 

“No, I do know where the Titan is,” said Loki, hand scratching at his neck. “But that does not matter, as he has destroyed the Stones.”

Shuri blinked. “He destroyed... the Infinity Stones?”

“Yes.”

“But how?” asked Tony, genuinely confused. “Aren’t they the pillars of the Universe? Older than the Big Bang? Shouldn’t the entire Universe collapse, now that the Stones are gone?”

“Theoretically,” agreed Loki. “But it is impossible to destroy the Infinity Stones.”

Yelena stared at him in confusion. “But you have just said-”

“I know what I said,” said Loki, the slightest bit irritated. “From what I gathered from Hela, Thanos snapped a second time and ordered the Infinity Stones to destroy themselves. But while there are things capable of destroying Infinity, the Stones themselves cannot permanently destroy each other.”

“Permanently,” repeated Tony, starting to understand.

“Infinity doesn’t end,” said Darcy, when Loki nodded. “No ending, no beginning. And yet, the beginning is the end, and the end is the beginning. An eternal present, a constant state of is.”

“A paradox.”

“What?” asked Yelena, frowning in confusion.

“Re-birth,” explained Shuri, looking thoughtful.

“I don’t get it,” said Xialing, looking around. 

“Re-birth,” repeated Tony. “Reincarnation. If there is no end, there is no beginning, which means that the end is the beginning. The Infinity Stones existed before the Big Bang. Then the Big Bang happened and they were scattered. Since there was no Universe before the Big Bang according to our science, where the hell did the Stones come from?”

“Where?” asked Yelena, looking at him in curiosity.

“The same place they would have gone after they were ‘destroyed’,” said Shuri, glancing back at a rather impressed Loki. “The place where they are created, or where they create themselves, whichever it is.”

“How is the Universe holding itself up in the meanwhile, though?” questioned Tony, still a little confused on that point.

“Latent energy,” said Darcy, snapping her fingers together. “The stars we are seeing died decades, centuries or millennia ago. Some went supernova, but they are so far away that we are still seeing their light and their energy as if they were still alive.”

Tony arched an eyebrow. “Giving up political science?”

She shrugged. “Astrophysics is interesting.”

“The magic from the implosion slash explosion of the Infinity Stones is what is still keeping the Universe from collapsing,” explained Shuri, looking at the confused trio of assassins.

“I still don’t know what you are saying,” declared Yelena, turning to Loki again. “But I also don’t care. How do we find the new Infinity Stones, then, and do the snap?”

“Hela didn’t know this either,” admitted Loki. “And all I know are legends. The only way to know more would be for us to go to Vanaheim, and see what we can find out there. They have the biggest and most comprehensive library in all of the Nine Realms.”

“How do we get there?” asked Tony. “Through the Ta-Lo place? We take the Benatar?”

“Any ship would take far too long,” said Loki, shaking his head. “And Ta-Lo is hard to teleport in. Do you know the way there without teleportation?”

Xialing shook her head. “Dad would have known the door, but...”

Yeah. Even if the man hadn’t been snapped, Tony wouldn’t have gone and asked him anything. Plus, they did have another option.

“That’s alright,” he said, nodding to himself. “I think I know who we can ask."

“Can’t sleep?”

Shuri startled from where she had been sitting on the window still, watching the starry sky over her head, hissing an imprecation in what he assumed was Wakandan.

“Sorry,” he said, putting one hand up. “I thought you heard me come in.”

“I didn’t,” she said, wrapping her arms around himself. “What are you doing up?”

“Can’t sleep,” he explained, shrugging. 

Shuri nodded, biting her lower lip. “Neither can I.”

Tony did not need to ask her why. Instead, “What do you usually do when you can’t sleep? Do you want some hot chocolate or something? Darcy used to like milk with honey, but...”

“Usually I tinker around in my lab,” explained the girl, and Tony almost smiled. “I didn’t know you had a daughter.”

“Mh,” said Tony, beckoning her forward. “That’s how I like to keep it. Come on, come with me.”

Shuri did not hesitate in following him. Tony wondered if he should feel flattered or worried about that, but then again she was in his house and eating his food with little worry.

He made sure to be quiet when he passed by his room, to not wake up Darcy.

The last time she had slept in his room or in his bed like this had been Siberia. The time before that, after the Mandarin.

It made something hurt in his heart, looking at her.

Everyone had been assigned a room - well, Shuri and Xialing were supposed to share, while Yelena, Nebula and Loki were supposed to pick the other rooms by themselves. Considering the lack of screaming, fighting or blood, he believed the thing had gone well, though he doubted that many other than Darcy were actually asleep.

He would have checked in on them, but other than Darcy and Shuri, he was pretty sure everyone else would pull a knife on him.

“Mind the steps,” said Tony, turning the lights on as they descended to a lower level.

“Where are we going?”

“You’re not the only one who busies themselves by building things when they can’t fall asleep,” he answered. This workshop only had retinal scan and passcode pin, but it wasn’t like Tony could spend much time here outfitting it like he would have done for his other more used workshops. It was meant to be a lowkey place, after all, somewhere people wouldn’t know to look for him.

The only people who knew of it were Tony, Darcy, Harley, Peter and Happy. Not even Pepper or Rhodey knew about it.

Tony breathed deeply as the door opened. He still had to check in with Rhodey regarding who had survived and who hadn’t. But Happy would have found his way here by now, had he survived, and FRIDAY and Darcy would have known if Pepper was alright and would have brought her over.

The fact that they weren't spoke for itself.

It was just him and a bunch of young adults plus Loki. 

Speaking of, how old was Loki? ... How old was Nebula? They looked around Yelena or Darcy’s age, but they were also aliens. Thor was more than a thousand years old and yet would have passed for early thirties.

“Sorry for the mess,” he said, as he unlocked the workshop and the lights flickered to life. “FRI, you up?”

The workshop was the only part of the house that he had actually changed. Howard had also built a workshop in the safe house, but it had been outdated by the time Tony had decided to use it, so he had changed it around.

The silence persisted, but one of the cameras did flicker twice.

“Ah,” said Tony, realizing his mistake. “I never linked you to the workshop itself, did I? Just gave you general access.”

He had not really come to this place after ULTRON and JARVIS and Vision.

Another two flickers.

... fuck, Vision’s dead body was still in Wakanda, wasn’t it? 

“Alright,” he said, forcing himself to remain calm and collected. He turned to Shuri who was watching the workshop with a very judging expression on her face. “Don’t start a fire or kill us all. Otherwise, free reign on anything that isn’t my software.”

“I doubt there is anything inside of your software that I will be interested in,” she said, one raised eyebrow, and fair enough, supposed Tony.

He didn’t know much about Shuri or Wakanda, but what he knew spoke about a girl genius raised in a very technologically advanced country with access to resources the rest of the world couldn’t get their hands on.

He doubted she found this at all impressive.

“Do you have holo screens?”

“Yeah, but you’re gonna have to access them manually until I hook FRI up,” he said, pointing at the middle of the table. “They are less interactive, but well...”

“Why didn’t you make them touch sensitive?”

“Mostly because this is a safe house and not a permanent residence,” he pointed out. “Also, my AIs are normally everywhere I am.”

“Relying on AIs seems lazy.”

“Relying on Vibranium seems lazier,” said Tony, shrugging with one shoulder. “But you built a country out of it.”

“But we work with it. We don’t completely rely on it.”

“And here I am telling you how to do things without FRI. So, not relying either.”

“Still...”

“Look, princess,” said Tony, not irritated but also a bit... annoyed. “We gotta do with what we have. Maybe in Wakanda things are easier and simpler for you, but you decided to leave Wakanda, for whatever reason, and hole up with my daughter in the hopes that I showed up back on Earth. If you wanted something fancy and perfectly tailored to your wants and needs, you should have just stayed in Wakanda.”

Shuri appeared surprised at his tone, and immediately looked down at the desk.

Despite his love for Darcy, Tony had never been called nurturing, but still he found himself sighing. If she started crying... “Okay, that might have been-”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “You were absolutely right. I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that, it was a bit rude. Arrogance is a personal flaw of mine, I’m working on it since it has now become clear I don’t actually have all the answers.”

“Don’t beat yourself too hard, kid,” said Tony, continuing his work. “It’s the personal flaw of almost every genius, me in particular.”

“I believe that it’s called confidence, when you can back it out with proof of your genius,” she pointed out. Tony scoffed, opening his mouth to argue, but she cut him off again. “The reason I came to you is that element you built.”

Tony paused for a second, slightly confused. “Starkanium?” 

“I read your book,” she said, nodding. “You were dying of palladium poisoning and you created an element to save yourself.”

“I re-discovered an element my father left for me,” he corrected.

“You were kidnapped by terrorists, and you created a suit of armour with scrap metals to save yourself.”

“I had help.”

“The Mandarin bombed your house and you saved the President and your girlfriend, and took down an army of enhanced fire-breathing beings while you were at it.”

“Again, I had help. A lot of help, that time.”

Was Harley even alive?

“Maybe. But the point is, every time you find yourself backed in a corner, every time you are about to be killed or anything of the sort, you manage to find a way of saving yourself and the people you care about. You always come out on top. You never give up.”

“I gave up a lot of times, kid,” he said, huffing. 

“And yet, you still did it all,” said Shuri, stubbornly. “And yet, here you still are. You were stranded on an alien planet, and here you are now. You made your way back to Earth and are alive.”

“Nebula did most of the work on that.”

“Maybe you had help for everything you have ever done,” agreed Shuri. “Maybe you would have never achieved anything without the help you were given.”

“Well-”

“But that’s fine, you have help now too,” she continued, ignoring him. “You have my help, and Darcy’s, and Xialing’s, and Yelena’s, and Nebula’s and even Loki’s.”

Tony supposed that was true.

“Nanakorobi yaoki,” she said, flashing him a hopeful smile.

Tony snorted. “Fall down seven times, get up eight.”

“You know, it’s more ‘seven falls, eight getting ups’, because-”

“Alright, smartass,” he said, rolling his eyes. But he couldn’t help smiling too when Shuri laughed for the first time since he showed up, at those words.

And when she started crying a few moments later, he put an arm around her shoulder, simply nodding when she said, “My brother used to call me that.”

Yeah. He got it.

Chapter Text

“Why did your sister send you to me?” 

Tony and Loki were disguised by magic (though Tony was also disguised by a cap over his head: he believed in magic just fine - especially after Thanos - but it didn’t change that he did not feel very disguised if he wasn’t actually wearing something over his face) as they walked the streets of New York, in direction of the New York Sanctum.

Loki had tried to teleport them directly to the Sanctum, but for some reason it had not worked. 

He had muttered something about annoying sorcerers, and then teleported himself and Tony about a mile away from where the Sanctum actually was. As Tony understood it, Strange’s cult was very thorough about keeping the Death Eaters magically away from their Hogwarts.

Loki turned to look at him, expression almost impassive. “I am surprised it took you this long to brave the question.”

“I was otherwise preoccupied.”

He would have probably been happy waiting even longer to ask his question, but then they had teleported near Greenwich Village, and Tony had had to do something to stop his mind from focusing on what he was seeing all around him.

The aftermath of the New York Invasion had been terrible. Rubble, destruction, obstructed roads for days. People were on the streets all the time, looking for survivors, trying to help in any way they could.

Today New York looked like a ghost town. Tony had so far seen one other person on the streets, and he couldn’t be sure he had not imagined it. Cars were abandoned on the streets, and a couple of shops and buildings appeared to be broken into but otherwise?

It was quiet.

Empty.

Eerie.

Tony would have given right about anything for some looting, for some in fighting, for some proof of life.

But the city remained quiet and still and unnatural and broken, and it made everything inside Tony cold.

This wasn’t what New York was supposed to look like.

“Hm,” said Loki, thankfully speaking up. “I suppose. And, as I said, she knows you. She believes that you are the one person she can trust to help me undo this, and also the one who wouldn’t immediately try to harm me upon meeting me. Of the people she likes, of course.”

“But why?” wondered Tony, more confused than before. “She doesn’t even know me.”

“On the contrary, she claimed to know you very well.” Tony opened his mouth to explain to him that he could count on two hands the number of aliens he had so far met, but Loki continued. “She spoke very fondly of you, and quite a lot. I did not think my sister could be fond of anything before she started talking about you. She said you were one of the few souls that she wished she would have been able to keep.”

“I wish I could keep you, I truly do.”

Tony stopped mid step, a shocked expression appearing on his face. 

Because he did remember those words, and now that he thought about it... the green motifs, the dark hair...

“Holy shit,” he said, looking at Loki in surprise. How had he missed it before, how had he not realised? “The Queen of Hel is your sister?!”

Loki looked pleased. “I see now you remember.”

“Yeah,” he said, shaking his head, trying to clear it.

Of course he remembered.

How could he forget?

The first time Tony had met the Queen, he had been four years old. He wasn’t sure what had happened to send him to the Realm of the Dead, but he remembered her.

She had been so much taller than he was, and he supposed she might have been scary, with the horn and the blades and the all black. 

Four years old Tony had thought she was beautiful and cool.

And when she had recovered enough from the shock of being addressed directly by a child and started answering his questions, he had found her even more fascinating.

To the point that he had been very put upon when she had informed him that it was not his time yet, that he did not belong with her just yet. She had laughed at his annoyance, and told him that they’d see each other again, soon enough, and sent him back.

But even after aliens, and murder robots, and Norse deities, and Titans, and everything else, he had never truly believed that she was real. He had just thought her a figment of his imagination, something his brain kept conjuring in those moments where he was particularly close to death.

In all of his life, he had seen her five times: when he was four years old; when he was 17, and nearly died of DUI; when he was kidnapped in Afghanistan; during the New York Invasion; and a few days ago.

It had been right before they had made it to the planet Hulla and he had been succumbing to the infection, despite Nebula’s best attempts at helping him.

Usually Tony appeared inside of her castle, when he ‘was dying’. She’d find him wandering around, and quickly force him to return home, no matter how much Tony protested and claimed to be done with life.

This time, however, the Queen of Hel had appeared at his bedside while he was lying half delirious on one of the beds inside the Benatar. Nebula had been in the cockpit, and Tony had not even been aware of who it was until he had felt her familiar fingers trailing through his hair.

He remembered her telling him to be strong for Darcy, and to hold on just a little longer. Just to fight a little harder. Then she had given him something to drink, kissed his forehead and disappeared right as Nebula returned.

Tony had thought he had hallucinated again.

“Wow,” he said, looking over at Loki once more. “The Queen of Hel is... Hela. Your sister. Goddess of Death, and the reason you don’t have a planet anymore.”

Loki made a face. “On paper, yes. But things are a bit more complicated than that. I shall tell you all about it if you wish to know; but after we have gotten a hold of that sling ring from the sorcerers.”

“We will,” said Tony, more confidently than he actually felt. “Just this way.”

“How do you plan to incapacitate them in order to take the artefact?”

Tony frowned at him. “Uh... I was thinking we should just... ask?”

“And give them a chance to say no?” questioned Loki, looking surprised. “I disagree. You need to take it with force and without giving them a choice. You are the Man of Iron: surely that means something, here on Midgard?”

Tony snorted. “From the majority of the population, sure. From them? Not so much.”

“But what are you planning to do if they say no?” pressed Loki, almost glaring at him now. “Our plan to get to Vanaheim hinges on getting that ring, as I cannot teleport the both of us there without it. Hela has been clear on the fact that to get Thor back, I need you, which means that you cannot not come.”

Oh, realised Tony as they kept walking.

Despite his nonchalant attitude, despite his sarcastic quips and everything else, underneath the rude words... Loki was scared.

Darcy made no attempt at hiding it. She had cried, the night before, talking about calling Harley’s house and getting nothing, talking about Erik and Jane being gone.

Shuri had not hidden it either, how afraid she was. They had spoken a lot in the quiet of the workshop, much more than Tony had expected her to open up about.

Yelena did not advertise her fear, but her unhappiness was clear. No tears from that one, but the upset look that crossed her face when she wasn’t putting on a front was unmissable.

Xialing was harder to read, but Tony had heard the sound of the shower being turned on last night just for her to come out completely dry.

Nebula was harder to read than Loki, but even she was unhappy with the situation.

“I’m gonna do my best,” said Tony, looking back ahead as they got closer to the Sanctum. “I’m gonna do anything in my power to bring everyone back, including your adopted brother. Me and Thor might have our issues, but he didn’t deserve it, and you didn’t deserve it either. You didn’t deserve anything Thanos did to you.”

Loki did not answer for a few seconds, green eyes pinning him down and studying for a moment. Then,

“Brother,” he corrected. Tony glanced at him, pausing where he had been about to knock at the door. Loki met his eyes, looking a little awkward. “You do not need to say adopted. He is my brother.”

Thor had gotten his lifelong dream after all. Tony did not smile at that, just nodded and then turned around to knock at the door again.

Just to find the door already open, and Wong standing in the doorway, staring blankly at them both. 

“Uh-”

“What are the disguises for?” questioned Wong, looking very unbothered to see Loki for a member of a group Loki claimed had kidnapped him the last time he was on Earth.

“So that the Midgardians do not stop Anthony and demand that he solve their problems for them right now.”

That was a privilege only those other four got, apparently.

Tony wasn’t as mad about it as he should have been.

Wong hummed, looking at Tony again. His gaze felt heavy. “You went after Strange on that spaceship. You have returned alone. Thanos had the Time Stone. What happened?”

Tony considered asking to be invited in. Then he decided that he did not have the social battery necessary for that, and that Loki looked like he was going to attempt to sneak past Wong and get the ring one way or another, if he did not hurry it up.

“He promised that if it was between me and the kid and the Stone, he’d pick the Stone. And then, later, after looking into ‘possible futures’, he gave Thanos the Stone himself, and told me that ‘it was the only way’.”

Part of Tony had hoped that Wong’s expression would change at his words. That he would light up, as if Strange had given him some secret code word that Tony had not previously realised but the sorcerer recognised.

But instead Wong just frowned at him, confused, and Tony found himself shrugging too. “I’m as confused as you are.”

“How did he give Thanos the stone? Why?”

Tony tried to keep the bitterness at bay when he spoke up again. “Thanos was about to kill me,” he admitted. He hadn’t told the Avengers this, so no one other than Nebula and now Wong and Loki knew. He wasn’t sure if he was protecting Strange or himself with that, really. “Strange asked him to spare my life for the stone.”

Again Wong just stared at Tony like he was a very confusing piece of art in front of him that he did not understand.

Tony was familiar with the expression.

After a few more seconds of silent staring, Wong’s gaze turned considering. “What do you want, then?”

“A portal ring thing,” said Tony, not hesitating. “We want to go to Vanaheim, we think we might get some answers there.”

Wong’s eyes finally showed the hint of... something. “You are going to try and fix it?”

“Try,” stressed Tony. “We don’t know what we’ll get, we’re just trying and grasping for str-”

“Here,” said Wong, pulling off the ring from his fingers without hesitation. He stretched out his hand to Loki rather than to Tony, and he wondered if it was because he knew Loki could do magic and Tony didn’t, or because he knew about his peeve.

Loki appeared as surprised about him offering as Tony himself was, and Wong did not miss it. “I trust that Iron Man wouldn’t be walking around with the god of Mischief without reason. And if Strange trusted you, Stark, it’s good enough for me.”

“I wouldn’t say trust,” protested Tony. “He didn’t even know me.”

Wong hummed. “Perhaps,” he said, and then closed the door to their faces.

Tony was pretty sure that was as good as they were going to get.

Tony wished that he hadn’t gone back with Loki to the safehouse before they had opened the portal to Vanaheim. But he had needed to retrieve a new suit before they left, and get in contact with Rhodey, so they hadn’t had much of a choice.

“This is amazing,” said Darcy, looking around her with awe. “I can’t believe I’m on another planet.”

“I can’t believe you’re on another planet either,” muttered Tony, making sure to keep her to his left at all times.

If Tony had had his way, only he and Loki would have gone to Vanaheim. Maybe Yelena or Nebula too, with one of them tagging along and the other staying behind and keeping an eye on Darcy, Xialing and Shuri.

But unfortunately for him, they might trust him and respect him enough to come find him so that he ‘fixed’ things, but also not enough to listen to him. 

Yelena had laughed out loud when he had told her just he and Loki were going, Nebula had rolled her eyes like she thought him an idiot, and Darcy and Shuri had vehemently disagreed. Xialing hadn’t said anything, but her stare had said enough.

The last time Tony had gone off world with someone, he had come back without them. He had gone with a boy he had considered his kid, and lost him.

He did not think it was wise tempting fate by bringing his actual daughter.

He had even tried to call Okoye so that she would tell Shuri to stay behind, but apparently Wakandans and Asgardians were closer in way of thinking than Tony had first realised, because after Shuri had explained how she was trying to help Tony and a team to ‘fix’ things, Okoye had simply allowed it.

Did they not have safeguarding rules in Wakanda or was this because Shuri was a princess?

“Well, you best believe it, Mademoiselle Donatella,” said Yelena, in a rather horrible French accent.

Darcy smiled, hooking their arms together. “I am just glad I managed to experience this with you, Signorina Yvette,” she said, in an Italian accent.

“Ee-vet.”

“Eeve-ette. Pardon me, my Italian accent makes it very hard to pronounce your name. Or perhaps it’s the mouth injury I received at age four, when my papà dropped me as he tried to stop the pizza from falling off the table.”

“That has never happened,” stated Tony, frowning at her. “What are you doing?”

“We are on an alien planet,” pointed out Yelena, rolling her eyes. “So we have to have secret identities, just like Loki does.”

“That’s different,” said Tony. “People know who Loki is, but they don’t know who...”

“Lorelei,” said Loki, now shapeshifted in the form of a woman. Tony assumed this was something like a genderswap, but at the same time she looked very much like Hela did, now. “I’m half Midgardian and half Vanr.”

“I am Mademoiselle Yvette Baudin,” said Yelena, offering her a curtsy. “I was raised in Russia by French speaking parents. They went there because of the war.”

“... How does that make any sense?”

“It makes perfect sense. And I’m Donatella Luisa Stefani,” said Darcy, also giving Yelena a bow. “Which of course you already know, Antonio Edoardo Stefani, as you are my dad, a rich Italian personality with a fondness for formaggi piemontesi.”

“I am not that,” flatly informed her Tony. “Also the lack of effort you have made for my name... a direct translation? Really? Where is the creativity in that? And I would have never dropped you for pizza, not even when you were a kid.”

“And I’m Suraya Uutoni,” said Shuri, offering Xialing her hand. “I am Somali. With my father dead and no one to care for me, I moved to Italy under the care of sayyid Antonio.”

“Wait-”

“As did I,” said Xialing, accepting the hand pretty easily. When exactly had those two bonded? “I’m Li Xifeng, and I’m Taiwanese.” She turned to Nebula, ignoring Tony completely. “And what about you?”

As if Nebula was going to play these silly little-

“I am Nia,” said Nebula, expression impassive and serious. “I am Lumpsher. I crash landed on Terra years ago, and I am now protecting... Antonio and his adopted children from harm.”

“Why?” complained Tony, watching Darcy shake Nebula’s hand. “Why can’t you all be normal? You-” 

He stopped talking abruptly when the first person since they had arrived appeared in front of them. 

Loki had portalled them directly inside the castle to avoid the streets that would most likely look like New York’s (he hadn’t wanted to risk appearing in the library in case there were alarms), and so far they had not seen anyone.

The woman in front of them paused when she saw them, a look of wary confusion appearing on her face until her eyes fixed on Loki, who had taken a step forward.

“Princess Aurelia,” she greeted, putting a hand on her chest and bowing.

The supposed princess, startled, and then she chuckled.

It wasn’t a happy sound.

“It is Queen Aurelia, now, dearest Lorelei.”

The meaning of her words was clear, and once more Tony shuffled a little closer to Darcy.

Loki did not blink. “For the time being.”

Her words sort of registered as a threat to Tony’s ears, but the Princess appeared surprised. Then she considered the people behind her. “You seek the Library, don’t you?”

“Indeed.”

“And you have brought...”

“My adopted father, Principe Antonio,” said Loki, very nonchalantly. Tony’s eye might have twitched. “And my siblings: Nia, Yvette, Donatella, Suraya and Xifeng. Or better, the siblings that survived.”

Aurelia looked vaguely amused - as amused as one could be at the end of the world, he supposed. “Mh. They are here to help you?”

“If it isn’t any trouble for you.”

“Well, they are already here,” pointed out Aurelia, but without malice. “Very well, Lorelei. You know the way. And no, please. Don’t ask after anyone.”

Loki closed her mouth, inclining her head slightly. 

Aurelia looked at Tony again. “Good luck with your many children, Prince Antonio.”

Tony kept his smile on. “Thank you, uh, Queen Aurelia.”

The title made her expression twist, but she shook her head. She gave them all another nod before walking away from them, and Tony, Loki, Darcy, Shuri and Xialing bowed back.

“See?” said Yelena, as soon as she was gone. “The fake identities worked. Up top!”

Tony just sighed very loudly.

Then he accepted the high five.

He wasn’t a monster.

Chapter Text

The Vanir library was bigger than any library Tony had ever seen before in his life.

He didn’t normally hang around libraries to begin with; but still he did not think the ones on Earth were this big. Their shelves were over 10 feet tall, with large gaps between them to walk through, and the ceilings were arched and painted in beautiful frescos. 

It gave him the feeling of a very large church turned farmer's market, rather than that of a library.

Tony had wondered how they were supposed to spend less than their entire lifetimes three times over finding the books they’d need and reading them, but Loki had done another one of her fancy spells, and the books had come to them.

And he meant that literally, half of the group had almost immediately attacked the books when they had come flying their way, himself included.

Now they were all spread around the same area of the library, each of them with a large pile of books at their side. Despite them being on an alien planet, all of the books automatically translated to their preferred language as soon as they opened them, because the Vanir clearly had no time to waste on dictionaries and translations.

The genius part of Tony that wasn’t obsessively worrying over Darcy Peter everything, itched to figure out how it worked.

The rest of him had no time for that.

“Dad,” called Darcy, moving closer to him. “Is this relevant?”

Tony glanced away from his book to the one in her hands, quickly speed reading the passage she was showing him. “... No, I don’t think so,” he said after a moment, shaking his head. “We are looking for the origins of the Stones, or legends of what happens after they are destroyed. Not psychological essays on what they are.”

“Ugh,” she complained, sitting back down with the book.

Tony did not immediately go back to his own books, instead watching his daughter for a couple of moments. With all of these news strays that had tagged along and invited themselves in his house, Tony had not really had the chance to have time to speak to her, one on one.

Last night had been a tearful word vomit on her part, but not really a chance to talk.

If there was one thing Tony prided himself in, it was not having screwed up Darcy as much as Howard had screwed him up. Darcy’s mom might have done most of the raising, but it wasn’t as if Tony had stayed away from her.

He had thought he would, at the beginning. He had planned to. After all, he had been very young when Melanie had gotten pregnant with Darcy, and his parents had just died. He had considered just paying the woman the amount of money he owed her and otherwise staying away.

But it had taken him taking the woman to one appointment and hearing the baby’s heartbeat for his resolve to crumble completely.

Since then he had stuck around, had made time for her whenever he could without dragging her in the limelight, and had done a particular job of keeping anyone who wasn’t inner family from knowing of their relationship to one another, until Thor’s arrival on Earth. 

Then, it had taken Thor seconds of meeting him on the Helicarrier for him to ask about how ‘his delightful daughter’ was doing, but at least the other Avengers (Romanoff) had not known who he was talking about until they had seen Tony and Darcy around each other for the first time (which had been annoying, but the fact that Romanoff had not found out about it during her infiltration of SI was something she had been very sore about, and that Tony had revelled in for a very long time).

Unlike him, Darcy had no problems showcasing her emotions, letting her hurt and pain show. But other than crying that very first night, telling him about Jane, Erik and Harley, and spending the night in his bed when he had gotten back, he had not had a chance to speak to her, and Tony worried about her.

She was a grown woman, as she had reminded him when he had tried to bench her and ask her to stay on Earth. But still, she was his baby.

He’d always worry about her.

“What about this?” questioned Xialing, stopping beside him. She put the open book down on the floor instead of handing it to him, which Tony definitely noticed. 

It was so easy to forget that despite their ages, he was currently surrounded by geniuses and assassins.

Part of Tony wondered why everyone was bothering showing him the books instead of asking Loki, but he still took it, reading what Xialing had for him.

“Celestials are beings that have occupied the Universe since the dawn of Time. They are the oldest race in the Universe, entities with vast matter and energy manipulation abilities who were responsible for the galaxies and for bringing planets and lifeforms into existence throughout the cosmos.” Tony had questions about this, but he kept reading for now. 

“Skip ahead, the part that starts with-” and here Xialing said something in Mandarin that Tony didn’t catch, but thankfully pointing on the page itself too.

“The Gardener is renowned for her ability to grow and farm everything in the Universe. The Infinity Stones are grown by her, and they support the fabric of the Universe- Oh!” Tony’s gasp caught everyone’s attention, but Tony’s attention was between the book itself and Xialing. “I think this is exactly what we were looking for, good job Xialing! Hey, Loki!”

“Give it here,” ordered the mage, immediately beside him.

Tony allowed it, turning his attention to Xialing and smiling at her. “You’re a rockstar, well done, Xi,” he said, offering his hand up for a high five.

She stared at him in confusion for a moment. “A rockstar?”

“Yeah,” said Tony, keeping his hand up. “It means that you’re awesome. You found what we were all looking for first. So, good job, you’re great, high five. Don't leave me hanging.”

She blinked, as if the words were somehow foreign to her. Then, a small smile appeared on her face.

When she did high five him, Tony let out a little cheer, and Xialing’s smile grew, cheeks growing a little pink.

Considering Tony did not recall having seen her smile or laugh since she had attempted to take down Nebula, he considered this a clear success.

Despite the breakthrough of Xialing finding the information they needed inside the book, they ran into another roadblock soon after.

While Loki claimed to be a little familiar with the existence of this ‘Gardener’ person, the being did not, unfortunately, have an easily accessible address printed out on the Vanir yellow pages.

The way to get to them was through a - surprise, surprise - magic spell.

The good news: Loki knew what the magic spell was, and how to perform it.

The bad news: Loki had never performed the spell before.

The worse news: it had now been an hour since Loki had started attempting the spell and, while no one was saying anything outright, it was not going particularly well. 

Unless the way of getting to the Gardener was by starting small fires and Loki growling in frustration, which was what was happening now, Tony was going to go out on a limb and say that things weren’t going so well.

The spell (or whatever the hell Loki was doing) burst into green flames again in front of her, and Loki let out an aggravated sound, sounding even more frustrated than before. 

Shuri looked a little irritated, as did Nebula, and Tony quickly spoke as Loki stiffened further where she was sat. “All right, how about you take five?”

Nebula glanced at him, confused. “Five what.”

“It’s a saying,” said Darcy, thankfully taking the hint and standing up. “For a break.”

“We don’t have time for a break,” said Loki, teeth gritted together. “Wherever the other half of the Universe is, we need to hurry and bring them back already. The magic of the Universe is unbalanced, and it only grows more so the more they are away.”

“And the more you try right now, the more frustrated you become, and the more likely you are to end up stuck in your own head,” informed her Tony, not flinching at the trickster's glare. 

“I’m not a Midgardian,” spat Loki. “I don’t need-”

“Thanos attacked your people, killed you, you ended up in the Underworld, your brother was snapped, you were returned to the land of the living, forced to band with people that you didn’t really know, spent like three hours reading random books on Infinity Stones, and are now supposed to figure out by yourself a spell that will bring us closer to fixing this shit up but that you have never performed before,” he rattled off. Loki kept scowling at him, but Tony felt it lacked the emotional backing. He put a hand on Loki’s shoulder, vaguely surprised when she didn’t immediately push him off. “That’s a lot of pressure to put on one guy. Girl. Person. Alien, or whatever. Especially a person like you, who’s not the paragon of mental stability on a good day.”

“Dad?!”

“What,” complained Tony. “I’m being honest.”

Darcy rolled her eyes, but Loki seemed almost amused as she glanced at Tony. Her shoulders were no longer as tense as before, which Tony counted as a win. “I have killed people for saying less.”

“But you need me, which means you won’t,” answered Tony, which he wasn’t even sure was actually true. Hopeful? “Now come on. Let’s get out of this room, let’s get some air, maybe some water. Let’s go!”

+++

“I’m almost worried about Nebula,” said Tony, sitting down beside Darcy. In front of them, on what Loki had called the training grounds, Nebula and Loki were busy trying to kill one another and, for once, Nebula was having to fight with more intent than before. “I thought Yelena was here with you?”

It was easy to forget, sometimes, that Loki had kept up with Thor for years, and Thor was a beast. Only Hulk could ever actually hurt Thor, and even that wasn’t permanent. Loki had been smashed by the Hulk and then walked away in one piece minutes later.

“Yvette went... somewhere,” corrected Darcy, eyes fixed on Nebula and Loki’s dance. “And they both look fine.”

Tony side eyed her a little as he settled beside her. “Sometimes people look fine even when they aren’t.”

She smiled, only a tiny bit bitter. “Sometimes they don’t have any other choice.”

Tony took her hand in his, squeezing. “There is always a choice,” he reminded her, gently. “And what’s more important? You don’t have to be always fine. It’s fine if you are-” 

He let out a startled breath when Darcy suddenly turned around, letting go of his hand so that she could wrap them around his neck. Then he wrapped his own arms around her, pressing a kiss on her forehead. “I got you, babygirl.”

“I miss her,” confessed Darcy, voice a little tremulous. “I miss Jane so much.”

“I know.”

“I’m on another planet. Every time I notice something that is very much not Earth like, I think about her. I think about how much she’d love all of this. I keep taking out my phone, wanting to take some pictures of stuff for her, or text her about what I’ve found and then I remember...” her voice cracked, and she sniffed. “Then I remember that she’s gone.”

Tony hummed soothingly, running a hand through her hair.

“A-and not even just her. All of those people, all of my friends, our family... Mom, Pepper, Happy, Harley, Peter...” Tony held her a little tighter. “It’s not fair. Why would anyone do that? How could anyone do that?!”

“I don’t know, honey,” he admitted, rocking her in his embrace as she tried to not cry. “I don’t know.”

“I thought I lost you,” she continued. “I thought you were gone, that you-”

Tony wanted to say ‘never’. He wanted to promise her she was never going to lose him, that he was never leaving her without at least saying goodbye, that he would always be at her side.

But Tony Stark was Iron Man, and he was not even sure of how safe this venture they were on was.

And he didn’t like lying to Darcy.

So he just held her in his arms, and didn’t say anything else.

She didn't need him to, and she held him just a little tighter.

“Where did you get that?” asked Tony, staring with some confusion at the bottle in her hands. “Is that Belvedere?”

“Yes,” said Yelena, taking a sip directly from the mouth of the bottle. “I stole it from your home before we left.”

“It’s sad how not surprised I am,” he muttered, sitting down beside her. Yelena did not deign that with an answer, so he pressed forward. “You okay?”

At this she did turn around, giving an impolite snort. “Tony Stark, I can see that you have taken the ‘dad’ part of our fake identity very seriously, and that is charming. But I’m not about to start crying in your arms, so you can just leave.”

“I was just checking on the elusive parties of my group,” he said, rolling his eyes. “I’m not taking the ‘dad’ part of our identities seriously or whatever.”

Again Yelena made a sound of derision. “You got Lorelei out of the room and made her and Nia fight so that they’d both calm down, hugged your daughter until she calmed down, praised Xifeng like a dad would, and spent last night in your science lair with Suraya,” she informed him. “You are dad-ying them.”

“Just call them by their real names, and how do you even know all that?”

“I’m a Black Widow,” she reminded him with an almost condescending tone of voice, as if that explained everything. “It’s what I do.”

It did, in fact, explain everything, and Tony huffed. “You remind me of Romanoff. I don’t like that. You got another one of those?”

Yelena produced another drink - another one that she must have stolen from the mansion before they had left - from inside her bag, putting it between the two of them without comment.

Freaking spies.

But then, just as Tony was about to take his first sip, she spoke. “What do you mean I remind you of Natasha?”

“Back in the day,” he said, shaking his head. “Me and her were never friends, even when we were on the same team. We mostly tolerated each other, and there was a lot of attempts at manipulation from both sides. Barton and Rogers sort of hated that a lot. They would stage ‘interventions’, so that the two of us got along.”

Yelena was looking at him now, curious. “And what would you do?”

Now it was Tony's turn to make a sound of derision. “Fake it. We would talk shit about the Avengers as a whole and the two of them in particular in a mad mix of Italian, Russian and English, and pretended like we were bonding. We would say enough in English to make them curious, but not enough for them to understand what we were actually saying, it was hilarious.

“And when they broke and asked us what we had been talking about, we told them that we had shared secrets by bonding that we were not comfortable telling everyone else. They hated it so much.”

Tony did not miss much about the original Avengers line up and, as previously stated, he and Romanoff had not been friends, they had never trusted one another. But in an odd way, that was one of the things he missed the most.

Talking shit about the other members of the team while still insulting one another.

... The Avengers had never been a team, and they had certainly never been a healthy one.

“We had a complicated relationship, from the beginning. We didn’t like each other, and we didn’t trust each other. But... we respected each other, and we were on the same team. For a while, we lived in the same building.

“We’d find each other awake in the middle of the night - you know, nightmares - and we didn’t talk about it. We’d simply head down to the gun range together and start shooting random stuff and trying to destroy it. The entire time we’d be taking verbal shots at each other, things that were very true and that hurt very much said out loud. She’d go on and on about my ego and all of my defects, and I’d go in on her inability to feel anything and her inability to ever commit to one side.

“Anyone else had said those things to me, I’d have had them out of the building immediately. I don’t know why I never threatened to kick her out. I don’t know why I took on board some of her criticisms. I don’t know why she took on board some of my criticisms and didn't kill me in my sleep for the things I said about her.”

He shook his head, taking another sip of his drink. “I think we saw ourselves in each other. We saw seas of blood in every footstep the other took. And we hated that. Dealing with your own shit alone is hard; dealing with them and seeing someone who you feel is as guilty as you are?” He shook his head. “Not cute.

“When she sided with me on the Accords... I think part of me knew that that would either make us or break us. That we’d either finally go past our differences and prove one another wrong, or we’d break apart even more than we had already done. 

“And we broke apart,” he finished, taking a sip of his drink. “Maybe for the best.”

The silence continued for a while longer, as they drank from their respective bottles.

“She said she needed to get her other family back together,” said Yelena, after a few seconds. “Did she come and find you?”

Tony snorted. “Did I not just get done telling you how we didn’t like each other? She meant her other family, Rogers and his camp.”

“No way that in two years you haven’t spoken to her once,” she said, looking at him shrewdly. “She must have made contact with you.”

Tony sighed, and then nodded. “Yeah, she did. She sent me dirt on Ross whenever she got her hands on it. She never signed them, but I knew it was her. Who else?”

“Yeah,” said Yelena, clearing her throat a couple of times. “That sounds like Natasha. To Natasha?”

“I’d rather toast to virtually anything else.”

Yelena chuckled again, and Tony pretended that her eyes were not as wet as he could see they were. “I can see why she didn’t like you so much, Tony Stark.”

Tony clicked their bottles together. “And it was mutual.”

Chapter Text

“This place reminds me of Ferrazze,” said Darcy, out of nowhere. “Remember?”

“Uh,” said Tony, glancing around himself. Watching the wild grass and trees around them and the quiet river at their left, he could almost see the small town he and Darcy had visited several years ago, when they had gone on holiday in Italy. “Yeah, a little bit.”

It was not a particularly fond memory. Darcy had twisted her ankle over a root during their walk, and Tony had had to carry her all the way back to the car. Considering she had been sixteen at the time, it had not been a particularly comfortable experience for either of them.

Nowadays, Tony longed for the times where carrying his teenage daughter on his back had been the hardest part of his life.

According to Loki, the Garden wasn’t so much one Garden as a collection of Gardens. The Gardener could ‘grow anything that could be grown’, which meant that there were a number of different garden types, for any type of flora in the universe.

After he and Yelena had finished drinking in companionable silence, Tony had gone to retrieve Nebula and Loki from the training grounds. Xialing had actually traded places with Loki and was sparring with Nebula (it was freaky how talented and good she was), and Tony had let them go on for a while before he had gotten everyone back to the library.

There, Loki had procured them something to eat that she said was edible ‘even for weak Midgardians’, and Tony had had to stave off Yelena’s attempts at proving to her that she had a Russian stomach and nothing was ‘too strong for her’. 

Loki had relented first, promising to give her something stronger next time, before stating that she was now ready to attempt the spell once more.

And just as Tony had predicted, with a full stomach and a calmer and less anxious mind, it had taken her only one magic spell before she ‘knew’ where the Garden was.

Part of Tony had considered telling everyone to at least rest for one more day before they did anything more; but he was as impatient as the rest of them to get this entire thing done with.

So he had not protested, and just double checked on his cargo of stubborn ladies and lady presenting aliens before they had all stepped through the new portal Loki had made using Wong’s sling ring.

And now here they were, walking through fields filled with wild plants and trees and all sorts of different soils.

“Oh!” said Shuri, tripping over her feet suddenly. Tony caught her arm before she could faceplant, and she gave him an embarrassed look when she caught her balance again. “Sorry. I can barely see where I’m going.”

“It’s fine, come on,” said Tony, slowing down slightly and keeping her hand on his arm. Loki was at the front of the proceedings, knowing where they were supposed to go, while Nebula was right at the end of it. “Careful.”

Yelena was in front of him, and Tony ignored the smug look she gave him when she turned around. This was not acting like a dad, he was simply helping someone who was in need of some help.

He also did not make eye contact with her when Xialing, who had been walking beside him earlier too, slowed down until she was walking on his other side. 

Yelena whispered something to Darcy, and Tony only glared when she turned around and smirked at him, a little bit mocking.

“Xialing, Shuri, I’m exchanging you two for my daughter,” he informed them, as Darcy stuck her tongue out at him. “She’s annoying.”

“I like Darcy,” protested Xialing. “She’s funny.”

“She gets it from me.”

“You are not as funny as her,” told him Shuri, snorting at the offended look he shot at her. “What? Her references are not old and she understands me when I quote vines.”

“One, my references are not old. Two, Vines?” He could have sworn he had heard that term before, but-

“Yeah, look. Hey, Darcy! What are those?”

Darcy turned around with an exaggerated pout. “These are my crocks,” she said, with emphasis, even though she was wearing boots, and both Xialing and Shuri burst into giggles.

“What is happening?” questioned Tony, looking at Yelena perplexed.

The assassin shrugged. “Don’t ask me. It’s your weird daughter and equally weird newly adopted daughters.”

“We are here,” interrupted Loki before Tony could vehemently protest the second part of the statement. 

Immediately the mood changed, everyone once more paying attention to their surroundings.

He could still see the field they had come from in the background, but the garden at the front was very much different from the one they had come from.

It was clearly much more curated, and with the cut grass and gorgeous flowers, it could have passed for a rich person’s carefully curated patio. 

Almost, though.

There were oddities, all around. Flowers that looked like they didn’t quite belong in the same ecosystem. Mismatched plants. Food plants sitting beside flower bushes. 

And in the middle of it all was a woman.

An alien woman-presenting person. Who had green skin the colour of fresh lime, eyes the same hue, and white hair long enough that it dragged behind her and mostly covered her modesty. Because she was also not wearing clothes, of course.

She was giving some real ‘daughter of nature’ vibes, and Tony did not need anyone else to tell him that this was most likely the famed Gardener.

She watched them with her unnaturally green eyes, olive coloured lips tilted in a curious smile as Tony moved to stand beside Loki. Xialing and Shuri thankfully did not follow him, and Yelena and Darcy stepped back so that they were both behind Tony and Loki, but also keeping Xialing and Shuri away from possible harm.

“Gardener,” greeted Loki, inclining her head forward a little bit.

“Mh,” said the Gardener. “I prefer Gaia, nowadays.” Gaia, like Gaia and Uranus from Greek mythology? If the Greeks had been onto something after all, Tony was going to demand a refund.

“Gaia,” corrected Loki, and she smiled, pleased.

“Loki of Asgard, daughter of Frigga,” she then continued, which caught everyone but Loki by surprise. “Anthony Stark, son of Maria Stark. Yelena Belova, daughter of Melina Vostokoff. Darcy Stark, daughter of Melanie Lewis. Xu Xialing, daughter of Ying Li. Princess Shuri Udaku, daughter of Queen Ramonda Udaku. Nebula, daughter of Mira.” Her smile grew. “Welcome to my Garden.”

Tony did not even pretend to not be unnerved. “You know who we are?” 

“There is little I do not know,” she answered, sitting down on the grass. “You are made from me. Mother Earth is your true mother, no matter what Realm or planet you hail from, and I am Mother Earth. Please, take a seat.”

Tony glanced at Loki, who just shrugged, and proceeded to sit down, quickly imitated by the others. 

When Loki did not say anything for a few seconds after they sat down, Tony gave himself a moment to imagine shaking the sorcerer over and over, before he cleared his throat. “So,” he started, sitting a little straighter. “You know who we are. I’m assuming you also know why we are here?”

“Indeed, I do,” agreed Gaia, nodding. “But please: go ahead and ask what it is you wish for.”

Great, because that sounded so comforting and hopeful. “I don’t know what the reception is like in this Garden and you get news, but there is this Titan by the name of Thanos. A real piece of work, let me tell you. He had this weird dream of halving the population of the Universe in a bid to stop overpopulation and fight back against scarcity of resources. I know, very stupid, I'm thinking he failed Titan economy or something, I don’t know how he came up with that.” Seriously, why not just give more resources to the areas that needed them or something? Why straight to universal genocide? “But anyway, he got his hands on all six of the Infinity Stones, and he managed to do just that. He snapped his fingers,” Tony demonstrated, forcing down the rage and grief from manifesting as he recalled the devastation that followed the Titan’s action, “And his dream came true. Then, because he of course wasn’t happy with everything he had already done, he destroyed the Infinity Stones to make sure no one could undo what he had done.

“However, seen as the fabric of Reality did not unravel and we are not living in a post apocalyptic paradox, it’s clear that the Stones are not completely gone . We gathered enough clues and information, and those brought us here. To your... very lovely gardens. Where we believe you are... storing or keeping or farming the Infinity Stones? We didn't have details.”

“Indeed,” agreed Gaia, looking pleased. “I have re-planted the Infinity Stones.”

Tony did not sigh in relief at the news, despite part of him really wanting to. He knew better than to think it’d be that easy, and Gaia proved it with her next words.

“So what you want is for me to give you the Infinity Stones I have just grown? So that you can undo what the Mad Titan has done and save the Universe and the Realms of the Living and of the Dead?”

“Yes,” started Tony, carefully. “We-”

“Or rather,” continued Gaia, still smiling. “Because the Mad Titan took important people from you, and you want them back.”

She said very easily and it was clear that it was not a question. Tony wasn’t sure if she was omniscient or if she could read their minds or some shit, but she clearly knew what she was talking about.

He considered his answer for a second before deciding there was not a real choice, there.

After all, being caught in a lie by a being capable of... fucking farming Infinity Stones looked significantly worse than admitting that human beings were generally very selfish people.

“Yes,” he finally said. “We want the Universe to be balanced, of course. And we do want everyone else to be back too. But it’s true: the main reason we are here is that Thanos took important people from us, and we want them back.”

Gaia’s smile softened at the admittance, though it did little to make Tony feel at all comfortable. “I can see that,” she said, gently. “You are clearly full of love, full of passion. Full of heart and soul.” She put her chin in the palm of her hand, studying him in particular. “But you must know, Anthony, that nothing comes free. Everything in this Universe comes at a price. What are you willing to sacrifice for the Stones?”

Anything, said something inside of him. Everything.

Because the Stones meant Peter, and Harley, and Pepper, and Happy, and May (and Thor, and T’Challa, and Jane, and Shang-Chi, and even fucking Romanoff), and countless of people he cared and didn’t about, and Tony would do anything to bring them back.

He needed them back.

But Tony was not stupid enough to say that to a being capable of doing magic bullshit. He had heard enough fae stories from Ana Jarvis growing up to know better than to let himself be caught in a binding oath of any kind, even without the way Loki’s hand was holding his arm.

“As much as we can bear to give,” he said instead, squeezing Loki’s hand back.

Loki relaxed a fraction beside him while Gaia looked further amused by them.

“Mh,” she said, nodding to herself. “I thought as much.”

She plucked a flower from the ground, and Tony watched mystified as two immediately replaced it.

“Thankfully, I do have a very easy and simple price for you all,” she continued, after a few seconds of watching the red flower between her fingers. “I will give you the Infinity Stones. In exchange, I’m asking for a soul to freely remain with me.” Tony felt his insides freeze as she smoothly stood back up. She dropped the flower in Loki’s palm, and smiled. “You have until this flower perishes to decide who you shall leave with me. Come find me when you have come to an agreement.”

And with that, she walked away.

“It should be me,” said Nebula, in the silence that followed Gaia’s departure.

No one had seemingly known what to say after the woman had walked away leaving that bomb and the flower behind. Loki had spoken enough to tell them that the flower was from Alfheim and would die in three days, before she too had retreated in her own mind and thoughts.

What are you willing to sacrifice for the Stones, had asked Gaia.

The answer? Quite honestly, anything.

But there was a problem with that when his daughter was on this alien planet with him. Darcy was sitting very close to him right now, and Tony knew he wouldn’t be able to even suit up before she was on him, refusing to let him go or choosing to go with him.

For once, he couldn’t actually do his whole ‘for the good of the world’ thing (and part of him wasn’t completely upset by that).

“No,” immediately said Tony, shooting her glare. “I’m not leaving you behind. I’m not leaving any of you behind.”

“It won’t be bad if you leave me behind,” said Xialing, almost timidly. “My dad won’t even notice I’m gone, and Shang-Chi has already forgotten about me. There is no one back there who’d miss me. Gaia seems... sweet.”

Jesus.

"I'd miss you," said Yelena, frowning at her.

“Me too,” said Tony. “And you too, Nebula. You can’t.”

“It makes the most sense,” said the alien, shrugging. “All of you have someone to go back to. You have someone you are doing this for. Tony, for his son. Loki, for her brother. Yelena, for her sister. Darcy, for her sister. Shuri, for her brother. Xialing, for her brother.” She glanced at the tree near her. “I don’t have a sister anymore. She was killed by Thanos, not by the snap. Even if we undo the snap, I won’t get her back.”

"That's stupid logic," said Yelena, now glaring at Nebula. "Don't be stupid. I know people who deserve to die, I know many people who should die. You are not one of them."

“Your life isn't expendable,” added Darcy, also glaring at her. “Your soul is just as-” she paused.

Nebula stared at him. “As what?”

“Dad,” said Darcy, turning to look at Tony with a glimmer in her eyes. “What is a soul?”

Tony frowned at her. “What do you mean what’s a-”

He paused. 

Oh!

“Loki,” he asked, turning to the mage. “What is a soul?”

She blinked at him. “What are you asking for?”

“A non Earth definition for the word ‘soul’. Because all she asked was for a freely given soul, she didn’t ask for one of our souls. So what exactly does soul mean, out here in space?”

“We could quickly go on Earth and pick up someone bad and give it to her,” realised Xialing, looking hopeful. “That way none of us would stay behind. I know a lot of bad people.”

“Me too, I know some real fucked up people that the world won’t miss,” offered Yelena.

“This is a psychological moral exercise that I’d fail,” muttered Shuri. “But don’t forget the fact that she said ‘freely given’. Not coerced or forced.”

That was a valid point, but if Tony and Darcy were right...

“It depends from Realm to Realm,” finally said Loki, frowning at Tony. “But the general consensus is that if a life form is capable of a form of speech that Universal translators can translate and capable of sentient thought, then it carries a soul.”

“Wait,” said Shuri, glancing at Tony. “Wouldn’t this mean...?”

“Exactly what I’m thinking too,” agreed Tony. 

“Oh,” said Shuri, eyes widening. “Less morally reprehensible. But not-”

“No,” said Tony. “Not her. A new one. All I need-”

“Are we allowed to leave here?” asked Darcy. “She didn’t specify, did she?”

“Her only terms were ‘freely given’ and ‘before the flower dies’,” reminded them Shuri. “Three days. Can you, in three-?”

“Please speak clearly,” complained Yelena, looking vaguely irritated at them. “What are you talking about?”

Tony smirked.

“I still think grabbing someone off the street and giving them to Miss Gaia would have been far easier than this,” said Yelena watching as Nebula and Loki walked through the portal. "But I am a fan of anything that keeps my adopted sisters and the kind Mr Antonio alive."

“Perhaps it would have been,” agreed Tony, checking the readings with Shuri and choosing to ignore the rest of that sentence. “But you know some of us have consciences.”

“Very useless,” sighed Xialing, watching over Shuri's shoulder. "Consciences don't keep you alive."

"You are an assassin," reminded her Darcy.

"A still alive assassin."

"Touché."

“Okay, close the portal,” said Shuri, looking apprehensive and giddy in equal parts as Loki and Nebula put down their charge. “Signal from Earth cutting off in t minus five, four, three, two and one.”

“We are cutting it close,” said Yelena, who had been put in charge of keeping an eye on the flower.

One of the things Shuri and Tony had been working on that first night, had been a way of bringing FRIDAY with him in the case he ever had to go off world again. They had not found a way of storing all of her inside a suit, as her servers had become very big already, but they had figured out something else.

“Connection remains stable,” said Shuri, and Tony let out a breath.

He had known it would work, of course. He and Shuri had worked on the mainframe and software, and Loki and Nebula had helped with their own knowledge of how things out there worked in space, space materials and magic.

It was another thing, however, to see it actually working.

“Good,” he said, relaxing. “Now we find Gaia and-”

“Or she finds you,” offered Gaia, making them all jump at her sudden appearance right behind them.

She did not appear to notice their surprise, instead looking at the being with them with a curious look on her face. “What is this?” 

There was no rage or anything of the sort on her face, so Tony allowed himself to feel hopeful.

“You asked for a soul to be left with you freely in exchange for the Infinity Stones,” said Tony, slowly. “So we built you a soul.”

Gaia frowned. “You... built a soul?”

“This is an android,” explained Tony, patting the humanoid figure sitting beside them. “An artificial intelligence. I have built many rudimentary and complex AIs in my life, and this is one of them. I, Shuri, Loki and Nebula collaborated in making them. They have a rudimentary understanding of how things on Earth work, and they are equipped with an Universal translator, which means they have the ability of speaking any language in the Universe that the translator supports at the moment. They have a soul, and are sentient beings, but they are also very bare at the moment. No name, no gender, no nothing. A blank soul that you can grow at your side, that you can mould into whatever you want them to be.”

Gaia observed the android with an expression that Tony wasn’t quite sure of how to read. “This isn’t what I meant when I asked for a soul.”

“You never clarified,” pointed out Tony, giving a half shrug. “You know who my mom is. I’m the king of small print.”

Should he have said that? That sounded a little like taunting, maybe he shouldn't have said that.

But instead of smiting him on principle for his cheek, Gaia smiled. “Indeed. I suppose I should have tried a little harder in getting you to stay, Tony Stark.”

“Nebula was the one who tried to stay,” said Tony, and Gaia gave him an indulgent smile.

“You and I both know that if one of you was truly going to stay, it would have been you.”

Tony did not answer because, once again, he did not want to lie to Mother Nature herself.

Instead they all watched as Gaia studied the AI, not touching it but simply observing it for a few more moments. 

She did not ask for how it worked. Instead, she made a movement with her hand, and the android promptly disappeared from where it had been standing between Tony and Nebula.

“Thank you,” said Gaia, tilting her head. “Your gift was accepted. Infinity is now at your fingertips. I hope I’ll see you again, in this lifetime.”

“I hope we don’t-” started Tony, just for a flash of light to momentarily blind him.

He had a few moments to wonder if she had finally gotten annoyed at his continued sass and sarcasm and decided to kill him after all, before the light disappeared.

When he could open his eyes again without them burning, he found all seven of them back in the library on Vanaheim that they had been at three days ago. The books were scattered around the room as they had left them, and they were sat in a circle, with Tony sat in the center of said circle.

And each of them except Tony had one of the Infinity Stones directly in front of them, all of them glowing a little brighter than the last time Tony had seen them.

Space was sitting in front of Loki, Power in front of Nebula, Soul in front of Yelena, Reality in front of Darcy, Mind in front of Shuri, and Time in front of Xialing.

Innocently twinkling in front of him as if they weren’t able to shatter and change the entire fabric of reality and the Universe as a whole through nothing but a snap of a finger.

It was astonishing and horrifying the power these six space rocks could have.

The last time Tony had seen them, they had destroyed everything in their path easily. No one had been able to stop Thanos, while he had been wielding them.

So small, and yet so destructive.

But this wasn’t the time to marvel at their powers, or to ponder about the meaning of life or whatever.

They had needed the Infinity Stones because without them, they could not undo Thanos’ snap.

So they had gone and got them.

When he looked back at the other six, he found all of them staring at him.

“I think I speak for everyone,” said Shuri, “When I ask: now what?”

Chapter Text

“Do you think there is a reason why certain Infinity Stones appeared in front of certain people?” asked Yelena, watching the orange stone in front of her warily.

Loki was watching the one in front of herself just as uneasily, but she shrugged. “The stone in front of us is that which we have most affinity with? I had contact with the Space, Mind and Reality Stone in my life, before the snap. And the Power Stone too, I suppose, during the Mad Titan's attack.” She tilted her head to the side. “And, if it counts, I was in the same room as the Time Stone before.”

“I was trying to get the Mind Stone from Vision’s head,” offered Shuri, shooting Tony a quick look as she said those words.

Tony was doing a very good job at pretending that he was not aware of the fact that Vision was dead. It was a reasonable assumption, considering he had not been in the Compound when Tony and Nebula had landed, and Thanos had gotten his hand on the Mind Stone to enact the snap: if Shuri hadn’t managed to take the stone out of him, the only way for Evil Barney to get a hold of the stone would have been for Vision to die.

But he had yet to process it. 

Even if they managed to bring everyone back from the snap, there was a very high possibility that Vision wasn’t coming back, just like Nebula’s sister. They had been murdered, not snapped.

Tony chose to continue living in ignorance and refuse to acknowledge this for a while longer.

“Jane had the Reality Stone,” added Darcy, slowly. “It went inside of her, and I was there when it did. Not in the same room, to be fair. But I was waiting for her outside. Same zip code and all.”

“Gamora and her idiot friends handled the Power Stone while we were on Xandar,” said Nebula, after a moment of hesitation. “They all held onto each other to stop it from destroying the planet.”

Yelena hummed. “Well, that sounds all good and well. But I didn’t know what an Infinity Stone was, before this entire thing started and people turned into ash.”

“I heard stories,” said Xialing. “My mom told me stories about the Eye of Agamotto and the power to peer into the future. It was a legend of her people, she said.”

“Well, it’s called Eye of Agamotto because Agamotto fashioned the Eye to keep it in,” explained Loki. “And Agamotto was from Vanaheim.” 

“What about me? Process of elimination?” asked Yelena, huffing slightly.

Loki shook her head. “The Soul Stone has a certain wisdom,” she ended up saying. “It’s different from the other stones. I don’t understand how it truly works, but I’m gonna assume it chose you, somehow.”

"I am the chosen one?" asked Yelena, frowning as she looked down at the orange stone in front of her. “Why me and not Tony Stark? He’s the hero. I just kill evil people to save the not so evil people. Like an assassin Robin Hood.”

"I love your mind, Yvette," told her Darcy, which made Yelena smile.

"Thank you, Donatella."

Tony rolled his eyes at their insistence on keeping up with those names, while Loki spoke up. “I don’t make a habit of questioning the Infinity Stones.”

“Well, questioning space rocks of infinite powers would make you look like a crazy person,” pointed out Shuri.

“Not just a rock,” reminded Tony. He glanced over at Loki. “Not only are they artefacts capable of magic that we can’t even begin to understand, but they’re sentient too, aren't they?”

Loki’s lips pursed together. Then, she nodded. “I am not sure if they are sentient in the way we are or in any other way we understand. But they have a level of sentience, a level of will.”

Darcy shuddered. “Well, that isn’t creepy at all.”

“Let’s see, then,” said Yelena, reaching out to grab the stone.

“Don’t,” warned her Loki, voice serious enough that Yelena stopped in her tracks. Loki's eyes were fixed on the Stones. “It is dangerous to grab an Infinity Stone like that. Few are the races capable of handling an Infinity Stone without risking some serious harm to their persons.”

“Of course,” said Shuri, inching back a little. "Why should think be easy, after all?"

"Can you?” asked Xialing, focusing on Loki and Nebula.

Nebula shook her head, while Loki nodded. “I can hold one Stone in the palm of my hand without collapsing, as can the majority of Jotnar sorcerers.”

Xialing frowned. “What’s a Jotnar?”

“It’s the name of the inhabitant of Jotunheim, a race of aliens that was at war for Earth with the Aesir for centuries,” said Darcy. When everyone turned to look at her, she shrugged defensively. “What? A Norse god fell out of the sky. Of course I was going to pick a book on mythology.”

Tony could see Loki gearing herself up for what she most likely assumed was the reasonable next question, but nobody asked. Instead everyone’s attention returned to the Stones in front of them, and any other day, Tony would have chuckled at the utter confusion on Loki’s face.

Be it as it was, though...

“So if we can’t pick them up or hold them, how are we supposed to use them to fix everything?” asked Nebula, glancing around.

Shuri turned to Tony. “I guess we could try to make something that can withstand the strength of an Infinity Stone,” she started, hesitantly.

Tony understood her hesitation. How long would something like that take, considering their lack of scientific and mathematical knowledge of what the Infinity Stones were like? All they had gotten from Loki so far was about their power and the magic inside of it. Hardly something to build scientific data and conclusions from.

Vision had been able to handle one Infinity Stone, but one, he had never understood how, and two, Vision had been an accident.

“Or,” then said Tony, a thought occurred to him. “What happened to Thanos’ gauntlet? Maybe we can use that to undo what he has done?”

There was a poetic irony in thinking to use the thing that destroyed them, the thing that took his family away, to bring everyone back.

But, at the same time, the idea of himself or any of them holding said gauntlet and wearing it... it made him very much sick. 

“It’s too big for any of us,” said Nebula, pragmatically. “And it’s broken anyway, wasn’t it? From what your friend Rhodey said.”

“Do we know who made it?” asked Xialing, glancing around. “If we do, we can just ask him to make a new one. Or threaten them to, if necessary. I'm good at threatening.”

"Me too," said Nebula and Yelena at the same time.

“We know who made it,” said Loki, and Tony felt his hope raise for a second. But then they dashed again, as he glanced at Loki’s expression. “Two problems with that, however: for one, he was snapped. For another one, Thanos melted his hands to stumps so that he would never be able to build anything ever again, for fear that he would use it against him.”

Dear god. Any time Tony thought he couldn’t hate that purple raisin anymore, he turned around and did something like this. 

“So we’re back to trying to find a way to create something able to harness the power of Infinity like the sentence in itself isn’t a paradox?” questioned Darcy, just a tad of bitterness in her tone. “Unless Loki you can use them one by one and slowly bring everything back to-”

Loki was already shaking her head before she could finish her sentence. “I can hold the Infinity Stones,” she explained. “One by one. But I cannot harness their powers.”

“Of course,” said Shuri, with a sigh. “That'd be too easy, after all."

"What about asking Miss Gaia for her help?” 

“What about asking the Stones themselves for their help?” questioned Yelena, looking down at them with a slight glare.

Loki, who had been rhythmically tapping her finger against the ground in thought since they had started jumping ideas off one another, stilled. Everyone looked over at her, but she was looking at Yelena, eyes wide. “We can,” she said, slowly. “But of course.” She smiled, eyes gleaming as she looked over at Tony. “Yes. I know what to do.”

Meditation was not Tony’s force.

JARVIS, Pepper and Bruce had all tried to get him to meditate because he would ‘benefit’ from it. Something about helping with his mental health, or whatever.

Tony had not listened. 

Well, he had. He had listened, and he had tried. But each time, he had failed. He simply wasn’t the meditation type, and that was clear every time he attempted it. He just couldn’t shut down his brain, and hadn’t been interested in trying more than a couple of times.

Apparently, ‘the only way for you to get Peter and the rest of your family back from being 'gone' is meditation’ worked well enough to motivate him to try and concentrate.

“Focus on your breathing,” came Loki’s voice, and Tony forced himself to not break concentration at that. He couldn’t figure out where Loki's voice was coming from, and that was annoying. Earlier she had been on Tony’s left, but her voice hadn’t come from the left and-

“Focus on your breathing,” repeated Loki, and okay. Peter.

For Peter.

He inhaled. Exhaled. Focused all of his attention on the feeling of the air going in and out. Not on the urge to scratch his arm. Not on the wind on his skin. Not on the ring of red from behind his closed eyelids.

Breathing. Human function that he did everyday. Breathing. 

In. Out.

Inhale. Exhale.

In. Out.

Inhale. Exhale.

In-

“You shouldn’t feel anything,” said Loki, voice barely audible over the sound of Tony’s breathing. “But if you do, it is nothing more than the transportation of our souls to the astral plane. No harm shall come to either of your forms. You are safe. Focus on your breathing.”

In. Out.

Inhale. Exhale.

In. Out.

Inhale. Exha-

Tony definitely felt something, as whatever transportation happened. It felt very weird all over his body, but he did not pay attention to it.

Just continued to breathe.

In. Out.

Inhale. Exhale.

In. Out.

Maybe it was naïve of him, or maybe it was mature, but so long as they were in this mission together, Tony trusted Loki. She wasn’t going to hurt him or any of them, especially when she still needed their help in getting her brother back.

Maybe, after, things would change. But for now, they were all safe.

Inhale. Exhale.

In. Out.

Inhale. Exhale.

In. Out.

Inhale. Exhale.

“Open your eyes.”

This time Loki’s voice came from beside him once more, louder than Tony’s breathing. It was a little startling, and Tony’s eyes opened automatically at the sound.

They weren’t where they had been before, he quickly noticed.

They were on what looked like a hill, all seven of them sat in a straight line instead of the circle they had been in earlier.

On Tony’s right, Nebula, Darcy and Shuri. On Tony’s left, Xialing, Yelena and Loki.

And in front of them, right above the precipice, floated all six of the Infinity Stones, frozen before them in the shape of a diamond.

Seekers of Infinity, came from the Stones. It sounded like a chorus of voices, six voices, but it seemed to come from all around them. Multiple voices mixed in one creepy voice that was one and six at the same time.

Very creepy.

Welcome.

“Hey,” said Yelena, waving. “Nice to meet you.”

Tony posited that, had he met her in better circumstances and without knowing that she was Natasha’s sister, they would have become instant friends.

Not that they weren’t friends now. At least he thought they were friends now. It was hard to say, what with the ‘you’re the person I need to achieve my goals’ thing they had going on.

Yelena, said the stones. The Soul of this group of seekers. The drive that they needed when they were down.

Yelena made a face. “Uh, that was actually Tony Stark.”

No, said the stones. Tony Stark is the leader of this team. But he is not the Soul. You are the Soul. 

“Uh...” said Yelena, glancing at him. Tony shrugged, because really, he quite liked it when he wasn’t the Chosen One, and whatnot. He was a bit apprehensive about Darcy being one of the so called chosens, but not that he himself had been snubbed. “Thank you...?”

What do you seek, seekers of Infinity? then asked the Stones. What are you willing to give up for what you want most in your life?

“We wish to undo what Thanos did,” said Tony, finally speaking up. He might not be the chosen one, but according to the Stones themselves, he was the leader. And it didn't look like anyone else had any intention of speaking up anyway. “We want to bring everything back to how it was on the day of Thanos’ first snap.”

Tony had been thinking about what he wanted since the day of the snap. Because the longer time passed since the snap, the more things needed fixing. He didn’t know if the Infinity Stones were inherently malicious, but he had read stories about genies and their apparent delight in tricking people by purposefully misreading their requests. 

So he had thought, plotted, and now he was prepared.

“Each of you controls an aspect of the Universe,” he continued. “Each of you had a particular role in the snap. I want each of you to change the aspect of the Universe you control in order for everything to go back to the way it was the day of Thanos' first snap, Earth time April 26th 2018, but altered, so that no life - or sentient being's existence - will be destroyed by their sudden return to the land of the living. I want this reversion to happen throughout the entire Universe, but in a way that allows everyone and everything that was snapped - and everyone who wasn't - to know and remember what has happened and who caused it." He paused, thinking carefully about his words. "Please."

Being kind couldn't hurt, could it?

An ambitious Wish, Leader, said the Infinity Stones, in that same creepy voice. There was no hint of a reaction in their tones, nothing to show if they found him funny, or too bold, or stupid, and Tony kinda hated it a bit. And what do you wish to sacrifice for that?

“What do you want from me in exchange?”

You.

Tony was not as surprised as he should have been.

“No!” immediately said Darcy. “What? No.”

“He can’t,” said Shuri, shaking her head while Xialing’s iron fist was suddenly on his arm. “You can’t take him.”

We will not, said the Infinity Stones. The price for the wish is for him to come to us willingly.

"Why?" demanded Nebula, watching the Stones impassibly. "What do you want from him?"

Anthony Edward Stark is a remarkable being, said the Stones, cryptically. He would find his place, among us.

"Dad already has a place," said Darcy, glaring. "With us."

“What if we changed our wish?” asked Loki, hesitantly. “What if we break it down so that each of can pay for a piece of the wish?”

Then each of you shall give a piece of themselves. 

“What is the price?” asked Yelena, eyes narrowed. "If we share?"

For the price of Soul, Yelena shall give us her drive and hope.

For the price of Mind, Shuri shall give us her intelligence.

For the price of Power, Nebula shall give us her strength.

For the price of Reality, Darcy shall give us her imagination and creativity.

For the prince of Space, Loki shall give us his skywalking and magic.

For the price of Time, Xialing shall give us her memory.

Xialing’s iron grip left his arm, and Tony did not need to turn around to know they were all as shocked and suddenly cold as he was.

For the price of bringing everyone back, the Infinity Stones asked the others to give what made them who they were. What made them special and different.

What made them them.

Or him.

They would be literally giving a piece of their soul.

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “No, I’ll go, take me-”

“I’ll do it,” said Yelena, standing up. “I’ll give up my drive and hope and whatever. Don't need it.”

“No,” said Tony, standing up and facing her. “Yelena, you don’t-”

“I do not mind that you have managed to start dad-dying me too,” said Yelena, smiling thinly at him. “But you cannot make my choices for me, Tony Stark. I am a big girl, and I will not let you live an eternity in a limbo. I was religious for a bit, when I lived in Ohio. Limbo is not good.

“I want Natasha back,” she continued. “And you want your family back. How do you think I’d feel if they asked us where you were and I had to tell them what happened to you? If I had to tell them I was given a choice between your life and my drive and I chose my drive? I think your friends would kill me, and that's not good.”

“But-”

Loki put a hand on his shoulder. “I am sorry, Anthony Stark,” she told him.

Tony looked away from Yelena and to her. “Sorry for what? Don’t feel sorry for choosing yourself, I agree with you-”

“No,” said Loki, giving her an almost amused smile. “I am sorry for this.”

And with that, green suddenly flashed from her hands. Tony did not even have time to blink, before he found himself frozen on the spot. The only reason he did not drop to the ground was that Loki caught him, and then gently deposited him to the ground.

“Loki,” he started, heart going into overdrive as soon as he realised he couldn’t fucking move. He could breathe, and his mouth was moving, but he couldn’t move a single muscle. “Damn it, Loki, don’t you-”

“When I become a robot, I’ll come stay with you,” said Yelena, patting his hair gently. “I think you can make sure I become a good robot. You do good with robots.”

“I’ll come stay with you too,” said Xialing, her face appearing in his line of vision. She looked sadder than Tony had seen her. “I guess it’s sad that I’m gonna forget all of this, but I don’t mind. I have a lot of bad memories. And I think you can help me make good memories again.”

“Xi,” he forced out. “Don’t do this.”

“I have to,” she said, smiling at him. “We have to. We can’t let you die. That'd be stupid.”

Shuri’s face appeared, and even though she wasn’t crying, there was a sheen of tears in her eyes. “Congratulations: you are back to being the smartest man on Earth.”

“I don’t have to be.”

Shuri shrugged, forcing a tremulous smile on her face too. “It’s a price that I’m willing to pay for T’Challa. And some people argue that smarts is not born, it’s taught. Maybe I could come by too, every now and then. And you can teach me how to be smart again.”

“Shuri...”

“Maybe you can even teach me how to make AIs,” she pressed, lips shaking now. “Yeah?”

Fuck. “Yeah,” he said, his own voice shaky. “I’ll teach you.”

She smiled brightly, a heart-breaking sight, before she disappeared and Nebula took her place in front of him. Her eyes were a little wary. “I have enemies,” she admitted. “So I don’t know if I can stay with you. Maybe I’d bring you and the others danger, and if I don't have my strength I can't protect me or you.”

“You can still stop this,” he told her. “Stop them.”

Nebula shook her head. “I promised myself I’d protect you. Because you were the one that could help us solve all of this. To hurt you, that’d make me my own enemy. I can’t do that.”

“Our doors are always open to you anyway,” said Darcy. She did not appear in his line of vision, and Tony pressed his eyes together.

His creative, smart as a whip, think outside of the box daughter was about to give up all that made her different and interesting.

For him.

He had never thought he could hate something more than Thanos, but by Tesla he hated that more.

“You know what I would have hated? Watching as my father killed himself,” told him Darcy, from somewhere over his head. She still refused to appear in his line of vision and Tony wasn't sure if he was glad or even angrier at that. He could hear her tears. “I’d have hated the fuck out of that. And I don’t want to hate you, dad.”

“Don’t make me hate you, then.”

She laughed. “You could never hate me,” she said, and when she kissed his cheek, he wondered if it was his or her tears rolling down his cheeks.

When Tony opened his eyes again, they were all gone from his line of sight and he made a sound that was half a sob half a scream, trying to push himself on his feet again. Damn competent magicians, damn aliens, damn Loki, damn stupid fucking kids.

He was stuck and he couldn't move, and now he was forced to watch them sacrifice themselves when they could have just let him do his usual sacrifice play.

He was almost fifty. He was going to die soon anyway, and he could have saved them. He could have-

Are you willing to pay the price for the spell? asked six voices.

“Yes,” answered six other voices, and Tony wished he could have yelled. He wished he could have screamed.

But nothing came out of his throat, and he could do nothing,  as the world around them was suddenly swallowed by the six colours of the rainbow.

Chapter Text

When the flashing lights finally extinguished themselves and Tony’s eyesight returned, they were once more in the Vanr library. He was sitting in the middle of the circle like before, when Loki had been trying to make them meditate and cast the spell.

And the other six had also been brought back with him, confused and groggy eyes looking around him as they took their surroundings back in.

Tony did not even wait. Loki's magic seemed to have disappeared with the change in scenery, so as soon as his eyes fixed on the various figures around him, he was moving, throwing himself at whoever he managed to reach first (Nebula, Yelena and Shuri) and wrapping his arms around them in a weird three way hug that might be on the wrong side of 'slightly too tight'.

Both Yelena and Nebula stiffened at the surprise (but hopefully not unwelcome) contact, but Tony did not let go. Shuri did not even attempt to free herself, immediately hugging him back.

“You idiots,” he said, eyes tightly shut as he held them in the embrace. “You stupid, stupid, stupid people. Of all of the idiotic things you could have done... Why would you do this? I could have, I could have-”

“You’re a hero, Doctor Stark,” said Shuri, hugging him back. Despite how tight he was holding them, she managed to lift her head so that she was looking him in the eyes. Her eyes were once more filled with tears, but she was smiling. “We all know you're a hero. But that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice everything all the time. That you always have to be the one to lose something or someone. We came to you. We are the ones who chased you down so that you could help us. We made you come, it wasn't fair that we made you pay either. You aren't the only one who has to pay, you aren't the only one who can pay the price for the Universe."

“It wasn't fair that we ask. Your life is as important as anyone else’s,” said Yelena, after a moment. She appeared awkward, as she put an arm around his shoulders, but she didn’t let go. “If it’s not fair for us to risk ours - which you made very clear in that Garden when Miss Mother Nature wanted our souls - then it’s not fair for you to lose yours either. Sometimes, communism works.”

"This is not communism."

"Shut up, Shuri. Who's the Russian, here?"

“We would never go and risk our lives for nothing,” said Darcy, already ready when Tony heard her voice and freed the trio so that he could hug the other three. She and Xialing hugged back as fiercely, and even Loki did not refuse the touch.

Darcy pressed a kiss on his forehead, and smiled brightly at him. “But, unfortunately for you, you taught me that sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. And there? That was what I had to do to save the world and keep my father.”

“Yeah,” said Xialing, smiling. Then she blinked, a hint of a blush on her cheeks. “Not that you are my father. You are Darcy's dad. But you... you helped me. And I didn’t want you to die. It wouldn't have been fair.”

“And my sister would have been upset if you ended up somewhere that meant you’d never go to her Realm after you died,” finished Loki, awkwardly patting his back. 

Tony wasn’t listening to Loki, though. Instead, he was frowning at Xialing, who looked confused by his sudden focus.

“What?”

“What happened?” asked Tony, looking around him. “I thought you were going to lose your memory?”

Xialing also appeared surprised, as if she had forgotten about her part of the deal. She frowned. “I remember everything just fine,” she said, after a moment. “Would I remember if I forgot something? Or would I not realise?”

“No,” said Loki, making her hand green with a flourish of her fingers. Her eyes lit up at the sight of her magic, though she still looked confused. “The Stones did not take what they said they would take.”

“They... didn’t?” questioned Tony, once more looking around himself. The Infinity Stones had been sitting in front of them, earlier, when they had been in the circle. But now, he could not see them anywhere. “But why?”

Had they failed, after all? Had the Stones decided they wouldn’t help them because their original payment had not been met? Had they-

We have no use for your powers. The Infinity Stones chose that moment to appear in the air over their heads between the blink of an eye and the next. They shone just like they had on that hill, several feet above the ground. Sacrifices, we have no need for. It is your humanity, rather, that we sought.

Yelena frowned. “What are you talking about? You want to kill us? Are we dead?”

Darcy put a finger on Yelena's neck, clearly trying to find the girl's heartbeat. "You sound alive to me."

"Maybe the dead feel alive to the other dead people?" mused Xialing, while Shuri stared at them like she wanted to open their brains and study them for errors.

Your lives mean nothing to us, interrupted the Stones. Your sacrifices, the deaths you give us in the name of being able to hold us in your hands once more, they mean nothing to us.

But the willingness to sacrifice yourselves to stop a worse thing from happening? Your willingness to lose what makes you special to save another soul?

That is what we want. That is what we need.

That is your humanity.

For eons, civilisation after civilisation have sought the Infinity Stones - though none as bloodily as Thanos the Mad Titan. Each of them fell prey to greed, to envy, to strife, to treachery, to evil.

We no longer wish to facilitate this. We no longer want to be used as instruments of destruction.

We want to know that they who would wield us, have pure intentions in their hearts.

“A test,” realised Shuri, crossing her arms. “You’re saying this was all a test.”

The Stones did not answer, and they really did not need to.

"Сукин сын," said Yelena, glaring at the stones. "You were playing games with us? Made this babies cry for nothing?"

"I am not a baby!" 

Nebula gave Darcy a look. "If you are not a baby, then why did you cry?"

"Because fuck you, that's why."

Shuri high fived her, all the while glaring at the Infinity Stones.

Tony considered, for a while, lashing out too. Cussing the stones out like Yelena, or plot their downfall like Loki was clearly doing. 

But he didn't.

Because, unfortunately, he understood.

He understood a little too well.

“Does this mean the snap has been reversed?” he asked instead. “Have you returned the people that Thanos snapped away?”

Can you not feel the magic in the air? Can you not hear the joy from outside? questioned the Infinity Stones. Everything has been returned to the state Anthony Stark first asked for it to be returned to. 

It really was testament of how weird their lives had gotten, collectively, that none of them flinched when the blue portal appeared before them. Go forth and witness.

“Where will you go?” asked Loki, looking away from the portal as the Stones started to levitate more.

The Stones did not answer.

And, just as they had appeared, Tony and the other six watched them disappear - possibly, for the rest of their lives at least.

Hopefully, for the rest of their lives.

“That was anticlimactic,” said Darcy, staring at the spot the Stones had disappeared to.

“Eh, I get it,” said Yelena, shrugging. “They are going into hiding as best as they can because they do not think the rest of the Universe can handle them. It is smart. No more Thanos if no one knows where they are.”

“Enough chit chat,” said Nebula, eyeing the portal with a lot of mistrust. “We need to go.”

They really needed to, Tony agreed. They needed to get through the portal and see what was on the other side. They could, of course, first go outside the sound proof library and see if the people of Vanaheim had returned. Look outside the windows, to see what was going on outside.

But...

“I’m scared,” confessed Xialing, out of nowhere. Tony turned to look at her, once more standing beside him, but staring at the portal. “I know I shouldn’t be, that I’m supposed to be-”

“I’m scared too,” admitted Tony, offering her his hand. Xialing kept her eyes on the portal, even as she accepted it. “I am terrified of going through and find out that my spell was in any way wrong or that it didn’t work.”

“I dare anyone in this room to not be about to pass out from nerves,” said Shuri, appearing on his other side.

“Let’s go together, then,” said Darcy, taking Loki’s hand in hers.

Loki did not push her off. 

“We did this together,” she continued, turning to smile at Tony. “Let’s watch our success together too.”

Loki made a face as Shuri took her other hand, but, tellingly, she did not tell her to get off or otherwise imply that they should let go of her hand if they wanted to live.

Nor did Yelena and Nebula argue either, Yelena positioning herself between Xialing and Nebula behind Tony, who found himself directly in the middle of this very weird human centipede.

Darcy, standing at the front of their odd procession, turned to look at them. Out of all of them, Tony would hazard to say she looked the least afraid, and he felt a swell of pride for his daughter.

She had terrified him, earlier, when she had been ready to give up part of herself for him.

But now that the danger was gone? He still wanted to shout at her, but really, the majority of him was filled with nothing but pride.

She was incredible, and he was lucky to have her in his life.

He was lucky to have all of them.

“Let’s go,” said Darcy, nodding at him and then Nebula.

They nodded back.

Then, together, they stepped through the portal.

+++

They stepped through the portal and re-appeared back on Earth, in front of Tony's Compound.

There were people outside the Compound.

A lot of people.

Some of them were armed - the majority, really - but not all.

The armed ones had their weapons trained towards on them and the portals, but their weapons quickly went back down as soon as they recognised Darcy and Tony among the strangers coming out.

“I knew it!” said Rhodey, one of the ones closest to the portal. His helmet disappeared to show a grin on his face as he moved towards Tony. “I knew you were the one who undid the snap, I knew you-”

“JANE!” shouted Darcy, suddenly breaking from Loki to run at the scientist the second her eyes found her. “JANE!”

“DARCY!” Shouted back Jane, running towards her too from where she had been standing next to-

“You,” snarled Loki, her power walking looked very close to a jog as she approached her brother. “How dare you-”

“How dare you!” called back her brother, doing nothing to hide his mad dash towards his sibling, love, heartbreak and hope mixed together. “I thought you dead!”

“I thought you dead!”

Tony melted in the hug with Rhodey - safe, solid, familiar Rhodey - and the others also broke off to move towards their siblings.

“Shuri!”

“Brother!” Shuri was half crying even as she ran at T’Challa. “Brother!”

Natasha simply walked past the crowd and towards Yelena, aiming a quick confused look at Tony, before she started whistling to herself.

Yelena’s eyes were the closest to wet Tony had seen since meeting her, as she whistled an answering tune and walked just as calmly towards her sister.

“Xialing?” came a shocked voice, and Tony watched a boy not much older than the girl breaking through the crowd. “Xialing? Oh my god! Xialing, it’s really you! What happened, how did-”

Xialing had approached him as he spoke. But instead of hugging like the others (even Loki was allowing a hug from Thor), she kicked him straight in the nuts as soon as they were close enough to each other.

The guy, who Tony assumed was Shang-Chi, fell to his knees with a pained wheeze, and Xialing grinned at him, looking smug. “That’s what you get for abandoning me, jackass,” she told him, patting him in the shoulder as he whimpered on the ground.

Tony only broke off from the hug with Rhodey when he saw the orange portal forming in the middle of the Compound. He was aware that Rogers, Barnes and many others were there, Rogers in particular trying to get his attention, but honestly? He did not need the hassle.

Instead he ignored how rapidly his heart was beating as he pushed Rhodey back a little, making him drop his weapon because-

“Mr Stark!” called his favourite webslinger as soon as the portal fully formed and he jumped through it. “Mr Stark, there you are! You will never-”

Tony did not care what anyone thought of him as he barely waited for Peter to speak before he was pouncing on him, holding him as tight as he could, head pressed between his shoulder and his neck.

Peter was alive, Peter was back and there had been many reasons Tony had undone the snap, but this was one of the biggest. This boy in his arms, this familiar weight he had never actually had the chance to feel before?

This had been his reason.

“Oh,” said Peter, reflexively hugging him back but taking a second or two to relax. “This is nice.”

“Yeah,” agreed Tony, breathing deeply with his head down. "It's nice.”

He really had no intention of moving, not really, until he felt Darcy’s presence beside him. Then he did move back a little, deciding not to mention how red her eyes appeared right now.

“Hey, web-head,” she said, wrapping her arms around both of them at once. “Good to have you back.”

“H-hey, Darcy,” answered Peter, and Tony chuckled at the blush he was aware the boy was sporting under his mask. He always got shy around Darcy, which both Tony and her found hilarious and Peter found mortifying. “Did you save the world with Mr Stark?”

She snorted, and shrugged. “Something like that.”

Tony looked over their shoulders. He pointedly ignored Strange for the time being (he had words for that man), watching all of the reunions taking place. Rogers’ team had all re-appeared at his Compound - yeah, that was changing as soon as Tony was done explaining himself - but so had Happy, and he could see May and what looked like Harley talking to Pepper.

Nebula was close to them, talking to a green lady with purple hair who was half hugging a sobbing Star Lord but mostly paying attention to the Blue Meanie.

The Stones might have more conscience than Tony had first thought.

Something like that indeed.

Eventually, things went back to normal.

Or... a degree of normal.

Tony and the other six told the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and affiliated family and friends what happened as soon as the majority of people around were done crying.

Predictably, Rogers had a problem about Tony not calling him or the rest of his team for this, for trusting Loki, and for ‘dragging children in his battle’.

Tony would have argued back, but it was just as satisfying to watch his vicious not-children (shut up, Rhodey) do it for him. Watching and listening as they detailed in harrowing detail all of the reasons why they had chosen to take Tony with them and why they would have rather died or snapped themselves into oblivion than ally themselves with him and the rest of the Rogues definitely brought a smile to his face.

Especially when the other siblings of the not-children went to Tony’s defence just as readily. It was particularly disconcerting to hear Romanoff speak positively on his behalf (though Tony refused to show it, immediately scowling at Yelena when he spotted her smug expression beside her sister), or to hear Thor praise him so much in one breath. It wasn’t like he and Thor had much bad blood between them other than the Ultron thing and subsequent choking - which the man did apologise for, after everything was said and done - but they weren’t exactly friends either. They drank together, yes, but usually Thor was with Rogers.

Yet hearing from him, you’d have thought him and Tony were secret best friends or something. Tony seriously wondered how much of it was him and how much of it was Loki’s influence (and why Loki would bother).

By the end, Rogers had no arguments and had only managed to make himself look bad in front of his actual allies, which Tony considered a win all around.

After that, it had been a matter of dealing with the media and the rest of the world, which had been much more complicated. After all, Xialing and Shuri were technically minors, with Xialing being in hiding from her father. Yelena was a Black Widow, Loki would be recognised as a war criminal by the people in charge (and maybe the people in Germany, if they had connected him to the New York Invasion), and Nebula and Darcy straight up refused.

Tony worded it to make sure it was clear he had had six other people helping him undo the snap and all, but by the end of the week everyone was talking about how he had saved their lives and the world all over again singlehandedly.

It was deeply annoying, and yet all the girls could do was laugh at his plight, finding joy in his suffering like the secret and not so secret evil people they were. 

Shuri had gone back to Wakanda after a week or so, as Queen Ramonda had been snapped and was missing both her children deeply. T’Challa had been surprisingly nice to Tony the entire time - Tony was struggling to understand if it was a ‘you kept my sister safe’ sort of kindness, an ‘I misdjudged you’ kindness or a ‘want to see my Nala eyes’ kindness - which Tony was glad for.

She called every other day, to show him inventions and ideas she had, or simply to talk to him and vent. It was nice.

Xialing, Nebula and Loki all moved in with him, which Tony was still not sure he understood how or why it had happened.

Xialing and her brother had told him their story - horrifying, honestly - and while he seemed ready to return to his life in LA, she had admitted that she did not really have anywhere to stay. She had never gone to school in her life, and her current plan was to start a fighting ring in China.

What was he supposed to do but offer her to stay?

Nebula also stayed, despite her sister’s return from the dead. Gamora, her sister, had wanted her to join the Guardians, but Nebula apparently did not like them that much. She had informed her that Tony needed a bodyguard without consulting anyone else, least of all Tony or Happy - much to the latter’s indignation - and Tony had just shaken his head before giving her the keys to her room and floor (Gamora seemed to think that this spoke of his character and made them friends. Since she had given him a bunch of her and her crews' space tech in thanks, he was happy to indulge her).

Tony had just woken up one day and found Loki in his kitchen, eating his food and ranting about how they wished Thor would die again.

And then they had just... stayed.

Tony was not even sure what floor they had occupied.

Yelena had returned to whatever it was that she did before the snap. She wandered, but she always made sure to call and check in twice a week. She did return every now and then, to start arguments with Loki or train with Nebula and Xialing or bother him with her attempts at making him and Romanoff friends.

It was never going to work, but they both indulged her attempts because they were fond of her.

Darcy was still staying home with him, for the moment, using her free time to hang with the other three or hanging out with Peter and Harley (who's family was staying in New York for a while longer), but Tony knew that soon enough she would be going back to Foster.

He was not looking forward to that; he had missed having his girl home.

All in all, it was a good three months before Tony finally managed to go to the cemetery his parents were buried in.

“Are you stalking me?” asked Tony, as soon as he sensed her presence behind him.

She chuckled. “How is it stalking if you came here with the specific idea of finding me?”

Tony raised an eyebrow at her as Hela dropped beside him on the chair. She was dressed in almost normal clothes, all black, nothing like what Tony was used to seeing her dressed in when she was in her little Underworld castle.

“To know I was looking for you, you would have had to be looking and observing me,” he pointed out, after a second. “Which implies stalking.”

Hela shrugged, looking unfazed. He doubted much fazed her anymore. “You were looking for me. You found me. Are you going to waste both of our times with useless questions?”

“No,” said Tony, shaking his head. “I do have questions for you, though.”

Hela turned to look at him, blue eyes boring into his. They were blue, but Tony failed to see her resemblance to her baby brother Thor. With the all gloomy thing she had going on and the long black hair, she’d have more luck passing for a shapeshifted Loki wearing a pair of contacts.

“I look like Odin, Thor looks like Frigga,” said Hela, correctly interpreting his thoughts. “But that is not your question.”

It wasn’t.

“Why me?” he finally asked, after a moment or two. He turned to stare in front of him, at his mother's tomb. “Why send Loki to my place? I am obviously very happy that we managed to do what we wanted to do in the end. We saved the world. Undid the snap. Yay for us.

“But I really wasn’t needed. I didn’t even do anything, to be honest. Loki didn’t need me to do... anything, really. They just needed the other five, and they would have managed it anyway.”

Hela scoffed. “You are a fool if you think that group of six would have formed, had you been absent from it.” Tony frowned, and Hela rolled her eyes. “You were the glue that held the ground together, Tony.”

“The Stones made it clear that that was Yelena, not me,” he pointed out, and Hela sighed.

“For a man so clever...” she muttered, before shaking her head. “What you don’t seem to realise is that while, singularly, they have the same strengths and powers they had when they weren’t in a group, they would have never become a group, had you not been there. Nebula would have never come to Earth, had you not been there. Yelena and Xialing would have never gone to the Compound. Darcy and Shuri wouldn’t have met. And my sibling most certainly would not have given any of the other Avengers a quarter of the mind they’d have given you. They certainly would have not been able to complete the mission by themselves, without you.

“You might see it as if you weren’t needed,” she continued. “As if, for the first time ever, you were irrelevant to the endgame. But you weren’t Tony. You brought them together. You brought them out of their shells. You helped them when they needed help. You were at their side when no one else was, when they had nothing. 

“You were a leader, and I don’t know what the connotations are here on Midgard, but back where I come from, it is an honour to have leadership skills. They might not be an army in the literal sense of the word, but you were still their general.

“That’s why I chose you,” she said, turning his head so that he was looking at her in the eyes. “I knew you could lead them into greatness. I knew you could do what no one else could.”

“Make Loki listen to reason?” he quipped, and Hela smiled.

“Remember what I told you, the first time you asked me if I could keep you with me?”

The night after his parents died, yes, Tony was vaguely familiar with the memory.

Hela continued. “I told you that I couldn’t take you. Because there were people out there depending on you, people who needed you at their sides.”

And then, months later, Darcy had been born. Tony had thought that that was what Hela had meant, but...

“Are you about to tell me that was a prophecy for this group?” he asked her, a little bit dubiously.

She scoffed once more. “Please. I can’t see into the future, that’s not how things works.”

“Then what-”

“I could see it in your soul,” she said, smiling. “I knew you were destined for great things. I couldn’t take a soul like that so soon, and the Mistress agreed with that.”

“Oh, so looking into the future is crazy but ‘soul reading’ and talking to the physical manifestation of death is perfectly normal and reasonable?” he asked, a little suspiciously. Considering she was Loki’s supposed older sister - adopted or not, they shared too many similarities already - it was completely likely that she was yanking his chain a little bit.

“Indeed,” she said, standing up again. 

“Are you leaving?” he asked, a little surprised. “Already?”

“Yes,” said Hela, regrettably. “The two snaps had some unpleasant effects on the Realm of the Dead. Nothing we cannot deal with, but it’d be preferred by everyone around if I stuck to Helheim, for a while.”

“Don’t you want to say goodbye to your brothers, or something?”

She laughed. “Norns, no. The next time I see either of them - especially Thor - it will still be too soon.”

Tony did not get their relationship.

Then again, he also did not get whatever attachment the other five (... six if you counted Darcy) had formed with him in what had been less than a week.

But he did not question it.

Sometimes, a family was a genius, three smartasses and three badasses.

It worked for them.