A little too tired of just hanging on

Chapter 13

Thanos had just thrown Rogers away like a rag doll, unconcerned. Tony didn't have time to think or help anyone. He had to act. The genius attacked the Mad Titan straight away. It was a time as any to try the new features on his new armor. Everything was working pretty well, putting Iron Man on the same level as Thanos. The Mad Titan seemed to enjoy the fight a lot more now, just a little bit too much.

Tony had announced his arrival. "I am Iron Man" wasn't just an ego boost. He deserved one really and that simple phrase gave him a little bit of courage. What he wanted really was to grab the titan's attention. The Avengers and other heroes were either dead or in bad shape. Peter was visibly injured. Tony was not injured or tired yet and he had a plan. Steve didn't seem to understand that. After all, Captain America could do this all day. Apparently, Thanos didn't agree with that sentiment. The purple guy threw the Captain away once again, not deserving a minute more of his attention. Tony didn't look at his old teammate. The genius didn't have time for Rogers and quite frankly he simply didn't care about him all that much.

Time was of the essence. The Mad Titan would not give him a second chance. Surprise was on his side. Tony had already destroyed part of the Chitauri's forces in the past. Thanos was a quick learner. His armor was formidable but that didn't mean that Iron Man was indestructible, far from that. Tony was more than prepared to die. Thanos would need to be taken down whether Tony made it alive or not.

His beam made the Mad Titan go down one one knee. This was it. The moment Tony had been waiting for since New York. He quickly took off all the while his new energy sword appeared at the end of his hand. The genius would go for the head. He doubted the titan had a heart in the first place or even if he had one, it might not be situated in the torso. Tony didn't know all that much about alien biology. He just thought that a body couldn't work without its head. Friday cut the power in the thruster out and he fell back heavily, cutting Thanos' head right off. The body dropped like a sack of potatoes on one side when the head went rolling on the other, stopping quite a few meters away. It was over.

That battle was kind of anti-climactic. Tony had spent so many moments in his life worrying about what was to come. The task had seemed so formidable, impossible. The fight itself lasted maybe two minutes and Tony had won almost easily. Everything was surreal, maybe just a dream. Steve was calling after him. Somehow, it made it real. Wanda's vision had shown all the people not in shape for shouting or dead. His nightmare rarely showed him something else but that terrible image. Those dreams had been hunting his dreams so often, he knew them by heart. Rogers was always the last alive. Guess that little point became true in the end.

Now, Tony needed to reverse the snap while he still could and hopefully, he would be able to bring back everyone and everything. A lot of people had died recently but the Mad Titan had been killing for a long time. Too long. Tony was going to formulate a pretty broad wish, trying to undo as much as he could think of. The entire galaxy was mourning someone after Thanos had passed.

Steve was calling after him and just by the tone of the Captain's voice, Tony knew what the man wanted to say. Despite everything, Tony still wasn't good enough in Steve's books. During his months away, the genius had come to terms with that. Steve Rogers would never change his mind about him whatever Tony would do, whoever he would save. Actually, Tony never needed anyone's approval. He was human, he made mistakes but he owned them and then thrived to be better, to do better. And really, that was all they could ask of anybody.

Tony took the gauntlet off of Thano's hand. It was weirdly light considering the power it held. The scientist in him would have loved analysing it further. Tony quickly put it on his own hand. Steve was most probably making his own way toward him, to stop him and that just couldn't happen.