An Iron Resolve Ch. 123 (Marvel)(Time Travel) (Patreon)

A/N: Thanos has arrived. Time for the epic final showdown between good and evil...

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“CONTACT! CONTACT!”

The moment they enter the Terran System, alerts begin to sound across the bridge of his flagship. Thanos leans forward on his throne, eyes narrowing and lips curling back.

“Report!”

“Lord Thanos! Multiple reports of weapons platforms all across the system! The fleets are being bombarded from every direction!”

As if to punctuate those words, the Sanctuary II itself suddenly rocks from some sort of attack. Not that it does much. The ship continues moving forward, the internal gravity stabilizing in a handful of seconds. Still…

“Send orders to every fleet, to every ship… full speed ahead. Destroy everything in our path but continue converging on Terra. Nothing else matters.”

“Yes Lord Thanos!”

As they surge forward, burning copious amounts of fuel in their rush for Terra, Thanos rises from his throne and takes up his double-edged blade in one hand while curling the fingers of his other into a fist… a gauntleted fist.

Looking down at the golden Infinity Gauntlet, beautifully crafted out of Uru Metal and barely finished in time for this blitz, the corner of the Titan Warlord’s mouth twitches upwards in an abortive smile. At the moment, the gauntlet is unadorned with the gemstones that it was made to hold… but by the end of the day, he would either have achieved total victory, or he would be dead. There was no middle ground to be had here… Tony Stark, King of Terra, had ensured that.

All this time, Thanos had known there were people moving against him. He’d thought his true enemy was the All-Father, but as it turned out, Odin was little more than a puppet for the man who truly sought to challenge him. At long last, the truth had come out… and all thanks to one of his treacherous daughters returning at long last.

Nebula wasn’t the daughter Thanos would have preferred return to him after years of estrangement, if he were being honest. But he also wasn’t surprised that she was the one to come back. Gamora was always the more certain and self-assured of the two. Nebula, by comparison, had required so much more coddling growing up.

That said, his prodigal daughter had returned at long last… and hadn’t even lasted a day before she’d tried to kill him. He’d assumed that was the plan at first, but a download of her memory banks and some time spent in a torture chamber had revealed that no… his Luphomoid daughter was just as much of a failure as ever. This time though, her failure was to his benefit.

Nebula, as it turned out, had been sent back to him by Tony Stark. Not to try and kill him, but rather to spy on him and transmit his location, and thus the location of the Dwarf King Eitri, back to Stark for a rescue operation.

That alone was rather… quaint and if it were just that, Thanos would have been content to wait and welcome Stark and his allies into a carefully prepared trap with open arms. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just that.

Somehow, the King of Terra had done what Thanos had been striving to do for decades. Tony Stark had the Infinity Stones… and worst of all, he was planning to destroy one of them to stop Thanos from ever accomplishing his goals. The very idea seemed ludicrous, but Nebula’s memories had been quite clear. Stark fully believed that the stones could be used to destroy the stones.

More than that, he was planning to destroy the one stone that would make Thanos’ goal truly impossible. He was planning to destroy the Time Stone. If he was able to do that, then there would be no coming back. Any other stone, one could simply acquire the Time Stone and reverse its sibling’s destruction. But if the Time Stone were to be broken, then there would be no recourse.

This had led Thanos to the here and now. All of his fleets, all of his armies, gathered in mere days and thrown at the Terran System before Stark could complete his ghastly ritual. Stark had forced the Titan Warlord’s hand, pushed him to act somewhat recklessly.

Obviously, it might all be a trap… but that mattered little in the end. He would either win or die… there was no more in between.

“My Lord! A portion of the third fleet has just disappeared from view! Our last communications with them are just screams about… fire?!”

Of course, it seemed that Tony Stark had not left his world or star system undefended. It had been a long time since he’d encountered a race this militaristic, let alone a single man. Unable to help it this time, Thanos finds his lips curling upwards… into a smirk.

“A worthy opponent… for one final battle.”

“Sir, what should we do?!”

Snapping his gaze to the one who asked, Thanos snarls.

“Keep moving! We must make it to Terra!”

Nebula’s memories had revealed that the ritual to destroy the Time Stone would not be easy. That it would take days to complete. Hopefully, they’d arrived with time to spare, but every moment was precious. That’s why Thanos wastes no more time on the bridge, instead moving out. As the Sanctuary II reaches the planet of Terra, otherwise known as ‘Earth’ by its denizens, Thanos meets his Black Order in the teleportation room. They, along with all of his armies, are beamed down to the world below mere moments later.

There, arrayed before them, are the defenders of Earth. Millions of soldiers, all armed to the teeth. Terrans alongside Asgardians, and several of Asgard’s protectorate species besides. Thanos is unsurprised as he points his double-edged blade at the opposing army and sends his army forth to destroy them and clear the way for him.

“Sire! I have located Stark!”

“Show me.”

Thanos isn’t surprised that Ebony Maw already found their target. After all, what was the point of positioning an army here if you didn’t have something to protect. On the tablet that his adoptive son hands to him, the Titan Warlord gets his first look at his true enemy, his jaw clenching and his heart racing in excitement and disbelief alike.

There, on the screen, he sees Tony Stark in a suit of armor… the center of which has five glowing gems stuck to it. Red, Blue, Purple, and Yellow on the corners… and Orange in the center.

In front of the armored Terran is a floating green gem, the Time Stone. Power pours off of Tony Stark’s hands as he says something that the tablet can’t pick up, shouting over the outpouring of energy he’s shooting at the Time Stone.

… The ritual is still ongoing. They still have time. Good.

“Listen closely, my Black Order, my chosen children. THAT is our goal. The Stones above all else. We move as one and destroy any enemy who stands in our way. Am I clear?”

“Yes Sire!”

“As you say, Lord Thanos!”

“Your will be done, my Lord.”

It is truly depressing how few of his children remain at his side. He’d started with three pairs of two, and at this point he was down to one and a half pair. Nebula was back on the Sanctuary II in a cell, Gamora was off galivanting across the galaxy with criminal reprobates, and Cull Obsidian had given his life for the cause.

… But no matter. Cull’s sacrifice would be worth it after today. It would all be worth it.

His forces are already overwhelming Terra’s defenders as Thanos and his remaining three children move forward. Outriders, Chitari, and Leviathans alike rush ahead, clearing the way just as their Master had ordered. The scent of spilled blood and charred flesh fills the air.

Some truly brave few try to stand directly in the way of Thanos and his children. One is a big green monster that Maw catches in his telekinetic grip and Corvus and Proxima team up to cut down. Another are fleets of armored suits that turn out to be autonomous, remotely piloted by some artificial intelligence.

But Thanos had dealt with societies that have developed AI before. A simple call to his fleets up above, and EMPs begin dropping on the field around them, striking large swathes of the automated suits of armor and rendering them inert.

After that come the magic wielders. Sorcerers, he believes they’re called. Their magic is nothing in the end though. Portals, shields, blades… but all of it breaks before his and his children’s might.

Others try their hand. Brave fools, one and all. They blur past, one after the other, with Thanos barely paying most of them any mind. Quite a few are dealt with by his children without any input from him anyways, after all.

As he and the Black Order close in on Stark himself, however, they find themselves up against the real challenge. Odin, King of Asgard, bars their path… along with THREE Royal Children. Thanos stops for a moment as the one-eyed All-Father stares him down.

“This is as far as you go, Mad Titan.”

The Titan Warlord sweeps his gaze across Odin’s three children. Thor. Loki. Hela. He focuses on the latter two.

“I am surprised you would stand with the All-Father after everything he’s done to you.”

Neither Loki nor Hela respond, simply staring him down. In the end, Thanos shrugs.

“No matter. Fitting, in a way…”

He and his children against Odin and his spawn. Yes, there was a certain poetic symmetry to it, wasn’t there?

The battle starts without warning and is as brutal as it is short… and one-sided. At the end of the day, Odin was just as pathetic and weak in his old age as Thanos had always thought. Not even his spear is enough to allow him to go toe to toe with the Titan Warlord. In mere moments, the King of Asgard is slain. His death prompts a reaction of grief and rage from his heir, the Crown Prince Thor… who charges forward only to find himself impaled on Thanos’ double-edged blade for his troubles.

Loki and Hela don’t last much longer, and in short order the Asgardian Royal Family is no more. A shame, but Thanos is not in a position to grant mercy, even if he were inclined to offer clemency. The ritual could end at any moment, and the Time Stone could be reduced to nothing but ash.

Rushing up onto the glowing ringed platform where Stark is pouring the energy of five Infinity Stones into the effort of destroying just one, Thanos and his children fan out.

“Thanos… no! I’m so close! I won’t let you win!”

Stark’s anguish is poignant and personal. Part of him wonders how he’d created such enmity inside of the Terran King. He barely even knew the other man existed before now. And it wasn’t like his plan to conquer the man’s world had come to fruition. Loki’s attempt had been completely and utterly foiled, and barely a fraction of the Chitauri Fleet had gotten through.

So then why… no, it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except for the Stones. He could not allow himself to be distracted at this critical juncture.

Stark roars and the power pouring out of his hands redoubles, slamming into the Time Stone without abating. At the same time, Thanos calls out.

“Maw!”

A brief instant later, and the beam of energy, the combined power of the five Infinity Stones slotted into Stark’s chest seems to finally break through the barrier and strike the Time Stone itself. Seems to, at least.

As Stark collapses to his knees, believing it to be done, Thanos looks down… and smiles at the green glowing gemstone set into the Infinity Gauntlet on his right hand. In the last possible second, Ebony Maw’s telekinesis had drawn the Time Stone out of the gravity field that Stark had it floating in and flung it over in Thanos’ direction where the Infinity Stone had found its home, at long last, in the gauntlet.

He sees the moment Stark’s eyes widen in dismay and disbelief when he notices this.

“No-!”

But Thanos is already acting. He only has one shot, because the Terran King is still incredibly dangerous with five stones under his control. He can’t attack Tony Stark himself, because he’s no doubt using the stones to protect himself. Instead… he uses the Time Stone.

Specifically, he uses the Time Stone on the part of the chestplate holding the stones in place. Pouring all of his desires and NEED into one simple command, he watches the Time Stone glow all the more brightly… and get to work.

The chestplate of Stark’s armor doesn’t just age and rust… it positively disintegrates as the Time Stone causes millions of years to pass in a second for that small sliver of reality. For the stones themselves, this is nothing. They’ve existed since the dawn of time after all.

And so they drop from their casing, falling onto the platform one by one. Stark tries to make a mad scramble for them of course, but Ebony Maw, ever-reliable and eternally dependable, scoops them up with his mind and floats them over to Thanos before the Terran King can recover.

“No!”

Of course without the stones to protect him, Proxima and Corvus are able to rush forward and pin Stark to the ground with their weapons, pushing him back as the Infinity Stones slot into the Infinity Gauntlet one by one. Reality. Power. Mind. Space. Soul.

They join their brother on Thanos’ hand and as he finishes collecting all six, power surges up his arm, coursing through his body. A roar of pain pulses from his clenched jaw, ruining his throat… and yet, after a moment he feels the Gauntlet compensating, feels the power stabilizing.

“No… no, no, no…”

Admiring the stones for a moment, each of them glittering and glowing on his gauntlet, Thanos lets out a brief chuckle, prompting Stark to stop his muttering and look at him with wide, horrified eyes.

“… Fun isn’t something one often considers when balancing the universe, Stark. But I have to admit… this does put a smile on my face.”

He doesn’t waste any time beyond that with gloating though. As his children watch on, joyful and exultant, while the pinned Stark King watches in horror… Thanos brings the Infinity Gauntlet up… and snaps his fingers with the intent of removing half of all life in the entire universe.

SNAP!

…

There’s a brief pause, before Thanos begins to frown. He looks at the Infinity Gauntlet, covered in the Infinity Stones. He feels the power coursing through his veins. He… snaps his fingers again.

SNAP!

At seeing this, Maw slowly floats forward.

“My Lord? Is something the matter?”

“I… don’t know. It doesn’t… it doesn’t feel like it’s working.”

Turning around, Thanos looks out over the battlefield. If either of the snaps worked, half of the combatants on BOTH sides would be dust by now, but he sees no sign of that anywhere in his field of vision.

“Heh. You know what? Glad I was able to put a smile on your face before the end you big purple thumb. Makes it all the more satisfying that I get to wipe it off.”

Thanos whips around at the sound of Tony Stark’s voice, confident, unrestrained, and smug… and receives a fist to the face for his troubles.

Instead of throwing him back though, the punch is like a wakeup call. Thanos finds himself on his knees, restrained on either side, with Tony Stark looming over him. The Infinity Gauntlet has been removed from Thanos’ right hand, he belatedly realizes, and Stark… Stark is holding it up. Just as the Titan Warlord is realizing he’s been tricked somehow… it begins to dissolve, disintegrating before his eyes.

“No… no! Impossible…”

“Yeah… I guess from your perspective, it does seem like it, doesn’t it?”

Stark’s eyes glow purple as he destroys the Infinity Gauntlet without hesitation. His armor looks different as well… fully intact for one, but also, there’s no spots in the middle of the chestplate to house Infinity Stones like there were before.

It’s then that Thanos realizes the difference in their surroundings as well. The world around them has been dramatically altered. This… this was not Terra. This was no Earth. What…

“I can see you’re a little confused. Did you really think I’d send you your daughter all nice and gift wrapped with an invitation to party at my actual house? I’m not that stupid. Welcome to Proxima b. It’s an Earth-sized planet in the Alpha Centauri System. If you were looking for ‘Terra’, it’s about four and a half light years that way.”

As Stark points off into the distance, Thanos finally begins to struggle against his restraints… but to no avail.

“Bit bright here compared to our Solar System. Three suns instead of one. In fact, a portion of one of your fleets flew into one of those suns early on in this little push of yours. You were too narrowminded to notice though. That was kind of the point, in the end.”

Thanos clenches his jaw when he finally notes Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight, and Corvus Glaive all laid out around him, their bodies unmoving, cold and lifeless. They’d been completely fooled. This was a trap, just as he’d feared… and he’d stepped right into it. He refused to accept defeat, however. He refused to give up, to surrender. So long as there was breath in his lungs, he would keep fighting.

As he struggles, Stark peers at him.

“Still raring to go at it, huh? Well, I suppose we should wrap this up. Fortunately for me, you brought your executioner with you.”

What? Thanos pauses for a moment, before the familiar sound of his ship’s transport beam causes him to twist his head and look back behind him. His eyes narrow as Nebula carefully moves up onto the platform, looking around at the one-sided destruction and at the corpses of her siblings.

Finally, her black eyes focus on him… but her words are for Stark.

“You lied to me. Used me.”

Strangely enough, Stark looks guilty over that. Thanos can’t imagine why, the Terran King barely even interacted with Nebula before sending her after him.

“Yeah. Sorry about that, but I needed to get him right where I wanted him. Needed him in a rush and off-balance… so that was where you came in.”

Nebula’s presence, the fact that she’d been beamed down from his flagship… it means they’ve well and truly lost. The battlefield is silent, his armies destroyed. And up in space, his fleets have somehow fallen under Stark’s control. There is nothing and no one left, save one.

“Still, figured I could make it up to you… here.”

Thanos watches as Stark suddenly picks up his own double-edged blade and tosses it to Nebula. His adoptive daughter catches it with both hands, looking it over and then looking down at Thanos’ kneeling form.

“He’s all yours.”

It is not in his nature to beg or plead… not for his own life anyways. However, as Nebula slowly moves to stand in front of him, the last son of Titan does beg. Not for himself, but for the universe.

“Nebula… we are so close. The cause… it cannot end here. Strike me down if you must, but do not give up. Do not give in to complacency. What I did, I did for an ungrateful universe. You are the only one I can entrust to carry on my legacy.”

Lifting his blade up, Nebula puts it under Thanos’ chin, forcing his head upwards to avoid the sharpened cutting edge. Then, she leans in and sneers at him. Abruptly, she spits in his eye, forcing him to close it shut in response.

“Fuck. You.”

Thanos pauses for a moment, before letting out a sigh.

“A disappointment to the end, daughter. If only Gamora-!”

With an enraged scream, Nebula yanks the blade back, cutting off his words by slashing open his throat. Then, she brings the blade back down. It’s the last thing Thanos sees before it splits right through his skull.

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A/N: Did I have you guys in the first half? When did you start to realize something was up? :P

One final plot twist, heh. Thanos might have thought he was entitled to some epic final battle... but that was never Tony's plan.

Two chapters remain. Tomorrow, Tony's POV and explanation of his actions here and elsewhere. Day after that, epilogue. Been a hell of a ride.