"Please...please..." Tony grabs onto the child, his child, praying for an answer. "...I don't wanna go..." He is crying, and Tony tries to keep it together.

"Dad?" His voice a pitch too high, he is hyperventilating. He can feel it in his bones, literally.

"You're alright..." Tony assures him. Come on, think!

The muscles give out, they are no more. Tony drops to the ground with him, hand propping his son's head up.

"Peter? Please...I love you..."

"...I'm sorry." His eyes are cold and distant. Then he fades away...as if he were never there.

Tony falls over, barely able to catch a glimpse of his son disappearing into the wind. He looks to his hands.

"Oh..." Tony stares at the remains of his son, or what used to be his son, on his hands.

"Tony..."

He looks up, seeing Doctor Stephen Strange, shaking his head sadly. "There was no other way."

He disappears as well.

Tony looks around, alone...his heart is aching. He just lost his son. His worst nightmare had come true. If only...

"He did it..." Well, he was not alone after all. "...he killed half of the universe." Nebula stated solemnly.

Anger suddenly swallowed Tony, for just a moment. "He killed him." He turned to Nebula, who hardly acknowledged him. He jumped up, pointing to his arc reactor. "He killed my son."

It had only been a couple years...when he officially became part of the family. It seemed like yesterday. And then the nasty divorce...with devastating repercussions. That was the longest six months of Tony and Peter's lives.

Why did Steve leave?

Steve.

"Oh God..." Tony's chest tightened, tears running down his cheeks. "How do I tell him?"

"Come on...my ship is finally working." Nebula looked tired and put out, like she had to do a mundane task for the past several hours.

Tony's mind tried to catch up on the lost time he sat there thinking about Steve and...Peter...he lost track of time.

Time.

"Why'd you do it?" Tony asks Strange again...why save him to kill everyone else? His son is dead now...

If only he had the Time Stone.

Tony would fix everything...everything.

The flight back to Earth was silent, save for a few moments of hysterical sobbing and mumbling from Tony. Nebula just let him be. There was nothing she could say from the bottom of her artificial heart that could make him feel better. She was kinda surprised to see a father whose adopted son was killed and he did not seem like the type to torture him nor turn into a giant planet god out for universal annihilation. Had she have known this man, she almost would have wished he was her father, not this tyrant who destroys everything in his path...and every part of her.

Once they breached the atmosphere, Tony took a deep breath.

"Welcome back, Sir."

"Thanks, Friday..." Tony laughed. "It's good to hear your voice again...um..." Tony never thought he would be asking this question under these circumstances, but nothing else mattered to him.

"Where is he?"

"Calculating Captain Rogers' coordinates..." Friday pulled up a screen in Tony's glasses of a map. "...Whereabouts located. Outside of the hidden country of Wakanda in Africa."

What was he doing way over...oh no...

Tony's eyes widened at the sight underneath them as the ship flew over the jungles on the outskirts of Wakanda. So many dead soldiers and monsters Tony could only imagine from sci-fi movies he and Peter used to love to watch and...

"Prepare for a rough landing...I couldn't get the stabilizers to ugh..." Nebula groaned as her ship crashed into a tree. Immediately, they were greeted by none other than Bruce Banner.

"Tony?! Oh, thank God!" Bruce ran to the side of the ship as Tony managed to struggle out of his seat. He was scared. Bruce looked bad...

"Bruce?" Tony looked around, grabbing his friend's shoulder to make sure he did not turn to dust at his touch. "What happened here?"

"Thanos sent an army...Tony...he got to Vision...I'm so sorry...we tried..." Tony realized suddenly he was standing before his old team.

Natasha, her blonde hair a surprise, but what scared Tony was the terrified and confused look on her face.

Rhodey, worn out and defeated.

Thor, hair gone, eye discolored, and no hammer? He must have been through a lot.

And...

Everyone noticeably gave them space, not sure what to expect...especially after what happened in Siberia...

Tony did not know what to say. Everything he thought about on the ride home disappeared, because there he was...

There was Steve. He looked tired, and confused. But he was here...in the flesh, holding his rib cage...

Steve's eyes shot to Tony's abdomen, the blood stain on his jacket dark and dominant. Tony's fingers were shaking, covered in dust.

He walked slowly up to Tony, who looked scared, like he had done something wrong. But he wanted to put all of that aside. He wanted Tony to call him. He wanted to make up. He wanted to apologize. He wanted to kiss him. He wanted to protect him and...

Where is Peter?!

Tony saw Steve's eyes searching, and he started crying. "Steve..." He held his hands, palms up to show his innocence. "...I...I'm so sorry..." His breathing was shaky, the wedding ring shining in the afternoon sun. "Steve?"

Steve grabbed his hands, briefly glanced at them, and pulled his husband in close.

"Tony? Are you ok?" He whispered into his ear.

Tony shook his head. "Steve..."

"Shhh...it's ok. I am so sorry..." There was a pause, and Tony felt his shoulder become damp with more tears...again. "Tony, I love you so much. I was such an idiot, I-"

"It's Peter." Tony buried his head into the nape of Steve's neck. Then he pulled himself up straight, and stared Steve in the face. "He...he killed Peter." Tears flooded down from Tony's hurt eyes.

Steve shook his head. "No...no...please..." Tony bowed his head, his whole body shaking. Steve sunk to his knees, Tony following suit. "Oh, God, Peter...but...why? Tony, he...what happened?"

"I don't know, babe." Tony shook his head. "He was hurting...he felt it coming...I don't know what it was, but it was hurting him. He was so scared. I couldn't stop it...I couldn't fix it, I couldn't-"

"This was not your fault..." Steve's hands gently held his face. "Tony, you did nothing wrong. I am sure you did all you could..."

"He just disappeared from my hands..." Tony showed Steve his hands, this time Steve is able to see the dust of their son. "I held him...and he...he died in my arms."

Steve hugged Tony tight, stroking soothing circles on his back, wincing at the huge gash on his back. Tony winced at the sharp pain from the stab that had happened only hours ago...

"Bruce!" Steve looked to Tony again, who was starting to drift out of consciousness. "Somebody get Shuri! Tony's been stabbed! Please!"

They helped Tony back to the palace, where he was immediately treated with what little of the kingdom of Wakanda remained. Steve let out a sigh of relief, knowing he was in good hands. But then his mind wandered back to what he had just learned.

Peter.

His son.

Dead.

And he could not stop him. Steve had fought many foes...never one this big, and so strong. He held his own for a split second, the gauntlet he remembered pressing into his head. Steve tried and pushed as hard as his already winded body could do.

With one punch, he was out.

How pathetic...

Steve excused himself, once Tony was fully bandaged up and given the medicine and proper treatment needed to recover. He looked out on the balcony at the aftermath of their great battle that had abruptly ended. They fought so hard, so many lives lost, but it was all for nothing.

In the end, he had won.

Steve vowed right then and there that Thanos would pay for what he did to his friends, his fellow soldiers.

But Steve would kill him himself with his bare hands for touching his husband...

...and killing his son...