~Broken Family~

Inevitable

Tony watched his only living son, the one who had been dead for five years, the one he had just gotten back, as he killed himself with the Stone.

Well, nearly.

"Peter!" he screamed as Peter stumbled backwards and tumbled to the ground. Thanos, who was much bigger than Peter and clearly withstood more of Peter's attack, stayed on his feet. Just barely. 

Tony felt Gwen pull on his arm. "We have to wait," she whispered, voice breaking as she clutched Tony's other son close. A possessive aura overtook him for a second, wanting to snatch his precious boy away from Gwen's dumbly painted nails. He had loved Harley more than her, right? But he took a shuddering breath and calmed, reminding himself that wasn't true. No doubt Gwen thought she should have been in Harley's place even more than Tony did.

"I can't lose another son today." He rubbed a hand across his face, the pain of it not seeming real, seeming like it belonged to someone else. "Oh jeez, I hope Morgan's okay. This would just be..."

"Morgan's fine," Gwen said as she rocked back and forth, squeezing her eyes closed as Harley's armored arm fell to the ground from where it had been resting on his stomach with a muted clang. "I'm sure of it. Harley got her to safety... said she seemed pretty content in there. It's a really strong bomb shelter, too."

"Yeah, not built to withstand attacks like this."

He crouched, waiting and watching as Captain Marvel kept trying to go at Thanos. Peter's attack had left Thanos weakened, clearly, and smoke seemed to be coming from the Titan's ears. Tony couldn't help but feel a twinge of pride.

Then his gaze fell on Peter's collapsed, smoldering body and all pride vanished again.

"I can't wait anymore," he hissed at Gwen. "I know they're fighting right over him, but I can't---"

With a shrieking yell, Captain Marvel was thrown backwards. Thanos hefted the gauntlet into the air dramatically.

"No," Tony whispered. He tried to scramble to his feet. He was the only one who could stop Thanos now. But a pair of strong arms latched around his shoulders and held him down. It was Gwen, who'd dropped her fiancé back to the ground to protect Tony.

"Oh my word," Gwen murmured, gripping his shoulders. The sight of the second most powerful being in the universe defeated brought a shiver of fear down their aching, exhausted spines.

"You see?" Thanos boomed. "Even with your silly little magic, you cannot defeat me. I am inevitable."

With a dulled aluminum-like thump, Thanos snapped.

But nothing happened.

Tony's jaw dropped as he watched Captain Marvel, golden aura seeming to grow stronger, hover in the air directly in front of Thanos' fat rake-face.

"And I'm Carol," she declared loudly. "Carol Danvers, you son of a---"

Then, she snapped her fingers. Just like that.

***

Thanos crumbled to dust, casting a mournful gaze at the pale sky. The creep that they'd been clawing to get away from, the enemy that had slaughtered half the universe, the monster that had murdered Harley, gone in an instant. It didn't seem fair.

His army followed suit.

It's over, Tony realized. Harley's gone and Peter's hurt and we've lost so much and it seemed a little too fast to be realistic... and quite anticlimactic... but it's over.

Captain Marvel collapsed to her knees, arm sizzling a bit and eyes pained, but looking otherwise unharmed. Tony shrugged off Gwen's arms and ran through the rapidly rising ash and dust to Carol's side. He bent down, put a hand on her shoulder. She felt warm even through his suit and hers.

"Carol," he breathed. "That was..."

She looked up at him, a smirk tugging at her dirt-smeared face. "Cool?" She sighed, running her good hand through her hair. "I know."

"Do you..." Tony swallowed, thinking of how much Peter needed his help, but not wanting to abandon her. The hero of not just the Avengers, not just the world, but the entire universe as they knew it.

Seeming to understand his urgency, Carol gave an exhausted nod. "Yeah. I'm fine. I just need a minute." She sank lower, onto her hands and knees. Leaving Harley's side again, Gwen rushed forward to support her fellow comrade. Tony nervously sucked in a breath and approached Peter almost as quickly as Gwen had appeared.

His son was flat on his back, chest heaving up and down but no visible breaths entering his throat. Like he was choking, like he was dying right here on this ashy ground, just like Harley.

Peter's gonna die.

"No, Peter! Please! Oh, not again... Not for the third time, I know you said you wanted to break a Guinness world record but you can't break THIS one..." Tony clamped his hands down on Peter's shoulders, and his son's head immediately rolled to the side of his arm, as if seeking comfort. Withdrawing the armor on his arms to do so was Tony's first mistake.

Tony gave a shout as fire clawed its way up his arms. He scrambled backwards, holding his screaming hands close.

"Boss, you've just received second degree burns," FRIDAY said nervously. After recovering himself he covered his aching, trembling hands with his armor, which immediately dispensed a coolant.

Peter's gonna die.

"Peter, what have you done?" Tony whispered. Peter gave no sound that he understood. Patches of his suit and skin seemed to be gruesomely burning off as Tony watched, and though unconscious, Peter's face still twisted in pain. Tony had imagined seeing some of the symptoms Peter had experienced after using his powers all those years ago, like the darkening of his veins and eyes, but all otherworldly colors were gone. Besides the shiny red burns and the white foam frothing at the corners of his mouth.

It's all my fault.

The damage ran deep, that much was obvious.

Peter's gonna die and it's all my fault.

"Help," he pleaded softly as soon as he found his voice. "Someone, help me! HELP!"

A Batman-like figure was over his shoulder almost instantly, the king of Wakanda.

T'Challa bent down, and despite Tony's warning, rested a gloved hand on Peter's forehead. The king carefully lifting Peter's eyelid, revealing them to be their normal brown color, though extremely constricted.

"H' needs to be put on ice," T'Challa said in his thick, rolling accent. "There's some kind of pois'n coursing through his veins. Burning him up from the inside out."

"How do we fix it?" Tony asked, brow creasing with worry, but he already knew. They didn't have close to the amount of medical tech the Wakandans did.

"The boy should come with us." T'Challa's dark brown eyes fixed themselves onto Tony's and he clapped him on the arm with a strong, heavy hand. "That's his best chance."

Tony nodded. "Of course." They made sure their suit's gloves were secure before lifting him into the air. "Won't be the first time he'll come away unscathed from a near-death experience... I'm sure of it."

But a small seedling of doubt still tugged at the back of his brain.