I couldn't rest until I fixed it.

Don't Go

Thanos was gone. He'd gotten the time stone and he was gone and Tony hadn't been able to stop him. He wanted to scream…preferably at Stephen Strange who had given up the time stone to save him...after he'd sworn he'd protect the stupid thing and let both Tony and Peter die. Groaning, Tony sealed the cut in his side with the special setting on his repulsor, knowing it wasn't a permanent fix, but that it would do until he could get somewhere with a medical facility. Or a first aid kit. They needed to get back to Earth. He hated space, hated this horrible, ugly planet where everything looked dead. He needed to get himself and his...and the kid back to Earth. Peter...he shouldn't even have been there. The kid was seventeen years old.

There was a noise behind him...a startled cry, and he turned to find the alien woman with the antenna...Mantis, maybe, looking back at him with her huge, frightened black eyes. "Something's happening." She cried. And then...and then she was disintegrating. It was the only way he knew how to put it. He'd never seen anything like it in his life...and he'd seen some weird shit. But her body was falling away into dust...until she was gone. Just...gone. Then, it was the one without a shirt, his startled eyes watching his arm, then his shoulder, then the rest of him...fading away.

Tony's brain seemed to short out. This was...insane. Impossible. Why...what was happening? Did this kind of thing happen to aliens regularly? No...they seemed surprised. Afraid. Something was wrong. Was this Thanos? What was he doing? What...it didn't make sense. This wasn't science. He knew science. Chemistry. Physics. But this...it didn't make sense. It was...magic? He hated magic. Hated it. Hated that there were wizards who did shit he couldn't explain and hated that Dr. Stephen Strange could do the Macarena and suddenly glowing golden disks appeared that he could use as weapons.

Not Peter, though. Peter loved it. He remembered the kid's delight...remembered how he had been going on about magic when he'd been jumping through Strange's portals. He thought it was the coolest thing in the world. "But how do they work!?" He'd cried, and Tony had rolled his eyes when Dr. Strange had simply told him it was magic. The kid had turned to Tony with wide, incredulous eyes.

"Magic?" He'd whispered, as though asking Tony's permission for it to be true. Tony had just rolled his eyes, fighting the smile tugging at his lips. It was like he'd just told the kid he could go to Hogwarts or something.

He turned to Star Lord...Quill, they called him sometimes. The usually annoying man met his eyes with a frightened look as he too dissolved, his body breaking apart. Why? He was looking at Tony like he might be able to answer that, but he didn't. He didn't have any answers. They'd almost had the damn thing...almost had that stupid ugly glove with the stupid stones and then...something about Gamora. Whoever the hell that was. Star Lord's lover. And the blue one's sister. Maybe. He felt like he'd fallen right in the middle of The Young and the Restless: Alien Edition. He felt like he needed to give them all nametags. But not anymore...they were all gone. Quill or Star Lord or Mr. Lord or whatever his name was, the one from Earth, was gone. Three piles of grey and black dust. Three people. Aliens. Gone. He didn't understand. How? How were they gone? Just...it didn't make sense. The science didn't make sense. Was it an alien thing?

"I'm sorry Tony." He jerked around, facing Dr. Strange. Doctor Stephen Strange. Renowned neuroscientist, that is, until he took off and joined a cult or something. Got magic powers. Traitor. Whatever. He didn't understand. Because Strange had said that he'd protect that rock. Let Tony and Peter both die before he gave it up. "There was no other way." It didn't make sense. Tony was on a planet he'd never heard of with a wizard, a seventeen-year-old, a blue alien woman who looked like she was 95% metal, and several piles of dust that used to be people. Aliens. People.

But before he could demand an explanation...before he could demand Doctor Stephen Strange explain this, actually sit down and give him an explanation that made sense, the side of his face started to turn to dust. His stomach lurched as he watched the man disappear. Not an alien thing, then, his brain supplied in an odd, detached way. That meant…

He heard a noise behind him, and he looked over his shoulder, heart stuttering as he saw the boy he'd brought into this mess. "If you think about it, it's kind of your fault I'm here." The kid had been joking, but it had still hurt...still made him give the kid a look his own father had given him once or twice. As a kid, Tony had been able to ignore it more and more as he'd gotten older. Peter, however, had gone pale, immediately backtracking and shaking his head. It would have been funny had they not been on a giant metal donut hurtling through space toward a planet where, apparently, people disintegrated.

Peter was pale, eyes wide as he stared at the piles of ash...eyes going from the pile that used to be Doctor Strange to the one that was Star Lord, mouth opening and closing, lips trembling. He was seventeen. He'd just fought a giant purple alien that could have easily killed him and they were on a strange planet neither of them had heard of and his hands shook, one going around his middle and clutching his side.

"Mr. Stark...I don't feel so good." The boy whimpered, voice breaking as he met Tony's eyes. No. No. Not him. Not Peter. No. That was his kid. No. He managed to turn to face him, but he couldn't move.

"You're alright." He assured him, amazed that he could sound so calm. If he panicked, Peter would panic. Peter thought he was infallible. So he had to be infallible. He had to be calm. Peter was alright. He had to be. Nothing else in this godforsaken place made any sense, but he had to be calm.

"Mr. Stark…" The kid said his name again, stumbling towards the man, and Tony lunged, finally forcing his body to work as he caught him, feeling the boy's arms go around him, the kid's fingers clutching him more desperately than Tony thought possible.

This isn't a hug...that's what he'd told the poor kid after taking him home from Germany. Just getting the door. And Peter had gone kind of red, jerking away as if burned, and Tony had felt a little bad. Mostly amused, somewhat surprised from the boy's arms that had wrapped around him, and just a little bad that he hadn't just patted him on the back and sent him on his way. Now the boy was clinging to him, whimpering a little.

"Where...where did they go?" He sounded like a toddler...like a broken little child begging for his parents to make it okay. "Mr. Stark...where did they go. I don't want to go...Mr. Stark, please…" He was crying, gasping for breath between desperate pleas, and Tony clutched him to what remained of his armor. The boy was shaking so hard his teeth chattered, but he was reassuringly solid under his hands. He just had to calm down. Peter was okay. "Sir, please."

"It's okay. Pete. It's okay. Breathe, buddy. It's okay." He kept his arms tight around the boy, rocking them back and forth. He'd brought this kid into this. It was his fault the boy was here. And the kid had just watched four people dissolve into thin air. After fighting an insanely powerful alien with a weird glove that could kill people. The kid had been on a field trip! The boy hyperventilated into Tony's shoulder. "You're okay. You're alright." He knew he should let the boy go, but he couldn't make himself release the kid. What if he disappeared too? Of course, him holding the boy wouldn't change that. Logically, he knew that. But that didn't matter. He couldn't let go.

"Are you...are you going to...why did they...why...Mr. Stark…"

"Breathe. You've got to breathe, okay?" He murmured, running a hand through the boy's hair.

"I can't…"

"You've got to, kiddo. You aren't leaving me alone with that weird blue alien lady, okay? She's scary." Peter sobbed out a laugh. "I'm not going to disappear." He didn't know that, but it seemed like a safe bet. Surely he would have by now. "I'm right here, buddy. Not going to disappear."

"Why did they...Mr. Stark?" He was still gasping, and Tony lowered them to the ground, kneeling and holding the boy.

"I don't know. I...shit, Pete. I don't know."

"Do you think...did other people…"

"I don't know." He admitted softly, glad to see the boy was having less trouble breathing. Tony was also glad to see that his own panic attack had been averted. Apparently, the cure was taking care of someone else having a panic attack.

Suddenly the boy beside him lurched, and Tony choked on his own breath. No...he couldn't...not the kid. He couldn't lose him. "Pete? Kiddo?" But then, the kid clamped his hand over his mouth and Tony caught his shoulders, helping him stay upright as he bent over and threw up. He couldn't help the sigh of relief. He was okay. Peter was okay. He wasn't going to disappear. He was just in shock. Tony pulled the kid tight against his chest again as soon as he was done, holding the boy's head and carding his fingers through his hair. It was what his mom had always done to make him feel better.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Stark. I'm sorry…"

"Nope. No need to be sorry. I'm scared shitless, you hear me? This is...I'll be honest. It looks bad. But it'll be okay. You'll be okay. I've got you, buddy."

"How...how are we going to get home, Mr. Stark?" He whimpered, and Tony finally made himself pull away a little. If he was going to disintegrate, surely he would have already. Right? He kept a hand on Peter's arm, sighing softly. "Are we...we're not going to die here...right?"

"We're not going to die here." He told him firmly, meeting the boy's eyes and patting him on the shoulder. Peter opened his mouth to answer, but seemed to catch sight of something over Tony's shoulder and swallowing hard, wiping at his eyes and sniffling a little.

"Hi." He murmured, and Tony looked up, meeting the blue woman's eyes. She was staring down at Peter with...something. Confusion. Disdain? He couldn't tell, but he gave him a nod anyway.

"Hello." She told him reluctantly, turning to Tony. Her voice was...metallic. Like his own when it was filtered through his Iron Man mask.

The boy wiped his eyes again, pulling himself to his feet and holding out a hand to Tony who took it after a second. He wanted to keep an arm around the boy...make sure he didn't dissolve into a pile of ash. Because Tony didn't think he could take it. But he just stared at the woman standing across from them, her eyes taking them in.

There was a long, tense silence, then the boy held out a hand, eyes still red from crying. May sure had drilled those manners into her kid. Into his kid. "I'm Peter. It's nice to meet you, Miss…." He trailed off hopefully while the blue woman stared at his hand. Tony was about to try and explain the concept of a handshake to her, but she finally sighed, reaching out and clasping the boy's hand with her own.

"Nebula." She answered. "And you?" She asked when she'd dropped the boy's hand.

"Tony Stark."

"Maybe you can explain…" He trailed off, looking around.

"My father." She told him simply, lips turned down in a grimace.

"Thanos is...your father?" Peter asked, eyes wide as he looked between Tony and Nebula. Tony put a hand on the boy's shoulder, not sure if the kid would panic again. He'd had a long day...they both had. Tony wouldn't blame him. The boy stayed upright though, looking more...sad than scared.

"Mine, Gamora's...along with everyone else he stole from their own families."

"Who...who was Gamora?" Peter asked, and Tony had to second that question.

"She was...she was my sister. And that idiot Quill's lover. Girlfriend…" She trailed off, rolling her eyes. "He killed her. To get the soul stone. She was the only one of us he actually…" She shook her head. "It doesn't matter. She's dead. He has all of the infinity stones, so now he can wipe out half the universe with a snap of his fingers. And that's what he did."

"Half…" Peter stuttered a little, looking over at Tony, wide-eyed. "Mr. Stark…"

"Will that ship get us back to Earth?" He asked, pointing. "Do you have any idea where Earth is?"

She glared, looking vaguely offended. "I know where it is." She told him. "The same planet that Quill came from."

"Can you take us back?" Peter asked, looking both hopeful and afraid. "Please?" She started at the word a little, then sighed, nodding.

"I can take you back."

"Hear that, Spider-Kid?" Tony asked, ruffling his hair. "We're going home. How's that sound?"

"It sounds...really good, Mr. Stark." Gripping him tightly to his side, Tony pulled the boy toward the ship that Nebula was already walking toward.