Tony smiled and Sue's eyes lowered into a blink, before her irises moved to stare behind him. Her chest rose one last time before the sparkle in her eyes diminished. Blood trickled down the corner of her lips, the pool in her mouth overflowing. The veins that stained her face were the last cracks of colour on her skin before Susan Storm faded from the battlefield.
Tony's watched as his worst fear came to light and Johnny's hands shook as he held up his sister's head. Sobs left the Storm's mouth and Wanda, who gave up healing Sue's wound, fell back onto her hands with the painfully familiar hole in her chest. Clint lowered his head and Pepper let out a sniffle, the thought of Booker and Morgan without their mother ruining her. Bruce had to step away to resist throwing something, the man overcome with grief at seeing his long-time friend lifeless. Thor and Steve had come to from their moment of unconsciousness and let out shaky breaths, Thor shedding godly tears without shame.
Susan Storm had made an impact on everyone. She was known as the level-headed other half to Tony and was always kind. She protected others before she protected herself, her forcefields saving the Avengers' lives more than once. The woman always laughed and wasn't afraid to joke, her tendency to appear out of nowhere and scare her teammates a common occurrence.
Wanda always viewed her as a role model, and Johnny found it difficult to fight without knowing if she was safe. Pepper admired her resilience to Tony's backchat and Steve wondered how she could be so powerful, yet so modest. Thor wasn't the friendliest to Sue at first, but he had warmed to her and saw her as an unsuspecting human who had strength beyond his comprehension. Bruce always thought she was intelligent and when Tony needed some grounding, he knew who to get into the lab to prevent any nationwide disasters. Clint saw Sue's influence on Lila, his daughter growing to be a respectable young woman, just like the Storm was. The Avengers had lost their greatest armour and they would never find a stronger shield.
While Carol was thrown aside by Thanos, a whizz of silver shot across the battlefield. The silver surfer powered its fist from its board and collided it with Thanos' face. He stumbled, the gauntlet securely over his hand but still unused. As the surfer circled around, Thanos regained his posture and seethed.
'You will go against me? I was your ruler! You'll do this for some... human?!' Thanos growled and the surfer stopped in the air, the cluster of people around Susan Storm sat in its peripheral. Her colourless eyes and parted lips that leaked blood arose a force inside the surfer. Her face was too similar to the one who waited on its return. The way Tony hunched over Susan's body with his forehead against her chest made the surfer think of what he lost and what he could lose.
'We all have a choice,' the surfer's voice boomed. 'She made me realise this.'
'Then you will die as she did,' Thanos took the Power Stone from the gauntlet and shot its red beam up at the surfer. The surfer swung to the left, its legs powering the board and dived towards its old master.
The Power Stone's crimson stream was whipped around carelessly by Thanos. He grew irritated as the surfer dodged and turned its board skilfully, the singeing beam never once touching its perfect, reflective skin. The surfer knew it wouldn't be able to take on Thanos, but it would be able to create a long enough distraction.
Tony raised his head from Sue's chest, his glassy eyes trained on Thanos. He watched as the purple alien threw around the Stone's power to try and knock the surfer out of the sky. The sword that Thanos used to kill Susan sat with one edge embedded into the floor, its tip stained with her blood. Tony could see the gauntlet on Thanos' wrist and felt his aching chest rise. It swelled with strength and the decision in his head was made. He turned to Stephen Strange, who held up one finger, to signify that the near impossible odds were somehow in Tony's favour. Sue always said that he was brash and impulsive with his actions, but this time, he knew that what he had to do would end in his demise. If it was the old Tony, it would be out of the question to make such a sacrifice. But with Sue lying under him, cold and grey, Tony had to do what was right.
The Stark rose to his feet, the team turning their attention from Thanos and the surfer. They saw his broad shoulders that were armoured by his suit and his stare could have made puppies wail and babies cry. While Thanos finally landed a hit on the surfer and sent it falling off its board, Tony stepped forward. Thanos placed the Power Stone back into its allocated groove of the gauntlet, and the surge of energy electrified his body. The gamma radiation that nearly killed Bruce was now coursing through him and he had the power to obliterate the universe and start fresh.
Thanos anticipated Tony's attack, the human tugging on the gauntlet in one last attempt. It was pitiful to the titan, and he planted his purple fist into the side of Tony's head. With now nothing in his way, Thanos raised his fingers to perform the final snap.
'I am â inevitable...' he hummed. His finger and thumb made a metallic 'clink' as they snapped. But there was no wave of energy that flashed through the universe. Everything remained as it was, and Thanos opened his eyes that he closed in pure bliss. Confused, he looked at the gauntlet before turning it over. The grooves were empty and all six Infinity Stones were gone.
Thanos and everyone in the crater turned to Tony, who sat up from his place on the floor. His head leaked with blood and his eyes swam with the tears of his lost love. The Stones sunk into his armoured hand that reconfigured into its own gauntlet. With the gamma radiation running from the Stones and into Tony's body, he let out a choke and his body twisted. His head snapped upwards at the pain and thought about one thing: bringing Sue back. But he couldn't. It was against what was right. There was only one goal, and that was to send the purple grape and his army back to where they came from.
'And I-' Tony gasped, but looked to Thanos with clenched teeth. '- am â Iron Man.'
With a snap of his own fingers, Tony's gauntlet produced a wash of white energy that expanded out of the crater. It rushed through the forest and over the seas, spreading out from the Earth and through the universe. Every planet and living soul saw the white light, the actions of Tony Stark on Earth being known by trillions. But the only effects of the light occurred within the crater of the Avengers Headquarters, Upstate New York.
Thanos' army disintegrated into masses of black dust. The Chitauri couldn't roar before their remains scattered into the air and Sakaarans diminished with their comrades. Outriders let out a pathetic whimper before they were gone, and the ships that brought the fight to Earth in 2023 crumbled.
As he watched his defences disappear, Thanos caught Steve's gaze. They stared at each other, the leaders of armies injuried, but one victorious. Thanos spent years searching for the Stones and he thought of a beautiful world where the ungrateful became thankful for his deeds. But he was only known as the monster.
Thanos was bitterly erased from existence, his atoms twisting and twirling before vanishing completely. Not even the air wanted to hold his remains.
The power of the Stones was brutal. As he lowered his burnt arm, Tony fell forward and landed with a thud. His entire right side was mangled, the hair on his scalp falling out and his ear fell to pieces. Rhodey was the first to make it to Tony, the mask of his War Machine suit open to see his friend's dying face. The gamma dosage was fatal and Tony's falling eyelids was evident of the amount in his veins.
Rhodey propped Tony up against a pile of debris, allowing the rest of the team to gather around. Everyone sucked in a breath at the state of Tony's burnt and bleeding skin. The gauntlet fell of his hand and smoked, the Stones still glowing. But the Avengers didn't care. Their mission was complete, and Thanos was gone, along with everything he had done. Well, nearly everything.
'Mr Stark?' Peter appeared in front of his mentor, his mask off and eyes swimming with tears. 'Heyâ Mr. Stark? Can you hear me? It's Peter. Hey. We won, Mr. Starkâ We won, Mr. Stark. We won. You did it, sir. You did it.'
Tony didn't answer. His eyes moved, but words were too much for him. Peter whimpered, two of his mentors dying within minutes of each other. He had lost both his parents already, now he was losing two more. Peter looked up to Tony and he had given him everything he had ever needed.
'I'm sorry â Tony -,' Peter spoke his first name for the first time. Pepper was the one to lead the Parker aside and console him, her own tears falling on top of his muddy brown hair. While Peter's place was left absent, Johnny slipped into it almost instantly. Steve, who stood beside his friend with a grave look, stepped aside to allow the Storm to carry through the body of his sister.
Tony's eyes managed to inch up to look at the man he used to feud with. Johnny sniffled, the dried tears making the dirt on his face crack and smudge. It hurt to see Tony like this, even if he never saw eye-to-eye with him. He respected Tony and he was technically his brother-in-law. He saw how happy he made Sue, despite his many mistakes and selfish acts. But he always pulled through in the end. Johnny knew that Tony loved Booker and Morgan with all his being, and in all honesty, he couldn't have asked for a better man for his younger sister.
Johnny bent down and wordlessly lowered Sue to the floor. He propped her gently upright against the pile of debris, her shoulder brushing against Tony's burnt one. Johnny's hands shook as he pulled them away, never thinking he would have to put his own sister's corpse down next to a dying Tony. He then stood up straight and Steve put a hand on his shoulder, looking down at the two who deserved the world.
Tony used the remaining strength he had to turn his head, the movement taking a few seconds of forcing his neck to rotate. But once it faced Sue, his eyes lit up for the last time. Even though Sue stared ahead with no direction nor life life in her dirt and blood covered body, she was still as beautiful as when he first met her.
'Tony,' Steve spoke up, his voice strong but struggling. 'You can rest now.'
The arc reactor in Tony's suit flickered, before it dimmed completely. While staring at Sue, Tony left his team. They lost the Earth's best defender and the woman who proved herself to be one of their most powerful. Even through time and space, everyone will know about Susan Storm and Tony Stark. Their impact will be remembered, and their children will be proud to say that their parents were heroes.
The team cried on each other's shoulders. It hurt to see them go, but at least they were together. Wanda wiped her tears with her fist before catching sight of movement in the corner of her eye. She turned her head and looked up to the silver surfer that stopped behind them. Its bare feet sunk into the dirt of the crater and its board was hovering nearby, awaiting its master. At Wanda's strained attention, Clint turned around to see the approaching alien. A domino effect ensued and soon, everyone was looking at the surfer who waited to be let through.
Johnny was the last to turn to face the alien. His stare that once held bitterness was now full of hopelessness and pain. Johnny never wanted to be alone in this world, and although he had Pepper, the bond he had with Sue could never be matched.
Steve nudged Johnny out the way and the Storm did so without resistance. The surfer stepped through, its reflective body showing the team just how miserable they all looked. They watched as the surfer stopped in front of Sue and Tony. It lowered itself into a crouch, its stare sliding between the two without a natural shift. At the blank eyes that still somehow yearned for each other, the surfer was reminded of what was waiting back home.
It lifted its hand and bent its fingers into a claw-shape. It moved its hand over the two bodies, the sound of two magnetics rejecting each other filling everyone's ears. The surfer's expression contorted as if in anguish, but it continued to hover its clawed hand over Tony and Sue. Johnny saw the shiny skin on the alien's back begin to rust, an unpolished grey revealed from underneath. All over the surfer's body, patches of silver were replaced by the rough grey. Its power drained from its appearance and flourished through its fingertips, the team in awe and confusion of the surfer's intent.
It then stood upright and rolled its shoulder back as if once uncomfortable. The team glanced down at Sue and Tony, their bodies still unmoving. But the surfer turned to them, its expression back to its blank slate. It looked at the group that gathered as the Earth's mightiest heroes, before it said its last words.
'Treasure your world, Avengers. The universe will know of your battle. Everyone will hear about your power and the peace you have brought, and all that threaten it will quiver at the sound of the Earth's defenders. Protect all and The man of iron and the Earth's Storm will be infamous.'