A/N: SPOILERS FOR ENDGAME. DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED AVENGERS ENDGAME

Prologue:

"You can rest now, Tony."

Against all of his expectations and calculations, Tony Stark opened his eyes once more. The last thing he remembered was Pepper crouching in front of him, wearing the suit he'd painstakingly made for her.

Well, that was one good thing that came out from all this, he supposed. Pepper had finally worn the suit.

If only she hadn't been crying.

It didn't matter. He was alive, and he could see her again.

He furrowed his brows as he thought about it.

That should've been impossible. He'd crunched the numbers dozens of times. The sheer amount of radiation released during a Snap would poison a normal human being and kill them within minutes.

Which was why he hadn't bothered volunteering to do it in the first place. Thor and Banner were far more suitable candidates, and the last he'd seen, the Invincible Hulk had basically lost the use of his arm afterwards.

Outside of his suit and the Arc Reactor stuck on his chest, Tony Stark was an ordinary man.

He should not have survived, period.

But here he was.

Where the hell was here, anyway?

A grunt escaped his lips as he stood up in the narrow and nondescript alleyway he'd woken up in. He was getting old, alright. No more hero work after this. He brought a hand in front of his face. There were no signs of the stones. That was a good thing...he hoped.

He grimaced at the mere thought of it. In that fraction of a second where he had snapped his fingers, Tony Stark had been God. The secrets to the universe and all the power in the world had been concentrated into his right fist. Erasing Thanos and his army from existence had been easier than breathing.

In that moment, he could have wished for anything and everything.

And he kind of had. Now, he understood why Thanos had called them a forbidden temptation and destroyed them after getting a taste of their power.

Tony Stark also distinctly remembered wishing for one more miracle. Something that would let him see Morgan and Pepper one more time.

Well, here he was.

That was easier than he'd thought.

For a moment, Tony Stark basked in the air he was breathing. He missed the sound of a city. The honking of cars. The chattering seas of people as the sounds of their footsteps filled the air. Even the once-annoying clanking noises of construction sites building new skyscrapers was music to his ears.

He hadn't heard this in a long time, and Tony Stark relished in the sound of victory.

He'd won.

They'd won.

Earth-no, the whole universe-was saved.

That was enough charity for a lifetime, wasn't it?

He stuck his hand into his pockets.

Where the hell was his phone? And his wallet?

Goddamn it, someone had freaking robbed Iron Man while he was passed out in an alley.

Alright. That was new. But it wasn't anything that he couldn't solve. He still had his suit, after all.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y.,call Pepper."

"Yes, Mister Stark." The sound of his A.I. replying caused Tony Stark to feel a tad impatient, and he tapped his feet as he waited for the sound of a ringtone to start playing in his earpiece.

Still though, how'd he end up from the rubble of the Avengers Base to...he looked at an old newspaper on the floor...

Japan? He recognized the oriental language and the squiggly patterns. Not that it actually gave him any of the answers he was really looking for.

Never mind, Pepper could answer them, hopefully. You know, if F.R.I.D.A.Y. would actually call her already.

This was taking too long.

"Did you forget Pepper's number? If you need it I have it memorized, since I'm such an amazing husband and father," he remarked to the A.I. after a few more seconds of silence.

"Apologies, Mister Stark. I seem to be unable to connect to the call. The telecommunication frequencies here seem to be...incompatible with the suit."

Tony Stark blinked. "I built you to be able to hack into military satellites."

"I am unable to access any of them either."

Well, wasn't that just inconvenient? The suit couldn't have been that badly damaged. Unless...oh, right. The Infinity Stones. If there was anything that even his self-repairing and self-upgrading nanotechnology couldn't keep up with, it would be those six shiny pop rocks.

Okay. Still not unsalvageable.

He could always fly home.

But that would take hours.

Borrowing a phone to call Pepper seemed like a far better idea. Sure, it would rack up overseas charges, but hell, there had to be someone willing to pay that in exchange for a chance to take a selfie with Iron Man.

It was a good plan.

Too bad the building next to him exploded.

Instead of tearing flesh and breaking bone, concrete chunks and debris harmlessly bounced off iron skin as Tony Stark felt the cold metal envelope his body. His vision became tinted and artificial as the suit's Heads-Up-Display activated. A glance to the corner of the HUD indicated that the suit was operating at 100% functionality. So his suit was working fine. Odd. Everything seemed to be in order, so why couldn't he get reception to make a simple phone call?

The figure towering over him made Tony Stark reconsider his priorities for the moment.

That wasn't Ant Man.

But there was no way a human could get this big without Pym Particles being involved. This guy had to be at least 10 stories tall.

Tony Stark flew up.

"Hey, Gulliver!" he shouted, the suit's built-in amplification system magnifying his voice.

The man turned around to face him, an ugly sneer on his face.

Tony Stark wasn't exactly sure how the Pym Particle functioned, given that he hadn't exactly had a lot of time to play around with what few samples Scott Lang had with him. But he was quite certain that the whole shrinking and gigantification thing couldn't be done without a specialized suit.

The guy in front of him was clearly wearing jeans and a torn vest big enough that they could protect the modesty of a low-rise building.

"I didn't know Uniqlo stocked clothes larger than 'XXL'. Just how many 'X's did you ask for?"

The man only looked confused, and Tony Stark reminded himself that he was in Japan. English didn't quite cut it here.

Without any instruction, F.R.I.D.A.Y. played back whatever he had said in Japanese. AIs were useful like that.

In response, the giant picked up a parked car from the street and hurled it at him.

He activated his lasers, cutting the car in half near-instantly. As both halves sailed past him, Tony Stark reassessed his judgement of the man.

Just because he had the same ability as Ant Man didn't make this guy a hero too. In fact, the crowds of people running away while screaming pointed to the fact that Tony Stark had unknowingly confronted a bad guy.

Well, there went his retirement plan.

"Who the hell are you, flying metal man?" He didn't initially understand the man's garbled-sounding words, but F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s translation software quickly displayed the meaning on his HUD.

Tony Stark was surprised. Well, he was halfway across the globe. Maybe the Avengers weren't that famous over here.

The words still felt fresh in his mouth.

"I am Iron Man."

A/N: I just really needed to write this after watching Endgame. Heroes never die. Marvel might have you killed you off Tony Stank, but you'll always live on in our thoughts and hearts.