Tony stumbled back and fell into a huge piece of concrete rubble. As his body bounced around in the armor, the wind was knocked from his lungs. He wheezed, feeling completely empty. Moments before, he was the most powerful man in the galaxy. Now, it was tearing his body apart, and he was almost certainly dying. FRIDAY chimed something about vitals in his ear, but he couldn't hear her.

He blinked, and was more confused when his eyes opened. He was looking at himself from above as the power of the stones slowly destroyed him.

The stones still glowed, almost evil just in their nature, on his knuckles. The power spread up his arm like a poison, growing fast and destroying him in the process. He looked up, and saw Strange looking right at him. Not him, laying on the ground--him, floating above his own body. His vision faded rapidly, everything around him turning to black. He reached out for Peter as the kid lunged forward, landing beside his body and already crying. He blinked again, and it was all gone.

A pool. A serene lake. Nothing like the dirty, bloody, desolate battlefield he'd just occupied. He was barefoot, wearing his favorite sweatpants and that old "I arc reactor Iron Man" t-shirt that Pepper was always stealing. It looked better on her, anyway.

There was a redhead with him, there, but it wasn't his redhead. It was Natasha, sitting in the pool, but not wet. As he approached, she was trailing her fingers through the water and watching the ripples.

"What is this?" Tony asked. His voice echoed, and at the same time, it didn't go far enough for the vast emptiness that surrounded them.

Natasha looked up, and smiled. She patted the water beside her, which sent ripples out, but didn't splash.

Tony sat. Peace filled his body like he'd never before felt. His heart, for the first time since Afghanistan, didn't hurt. The ache in his chest, where his plastic sternum kept his ribcage from collapsing, was just...gone. He took a deep breath through his nose. His chest expand like a balloon--a fully functional balloon with no prosthetic pieces, no holes, and no scar tissue. It didn't hurt, and like a helium balloon, he felt like he was floating.

"It's nice, isn't it?" Natasha asked quietly. She was still smiling. It showed just barely at the corners of her lips, but deeply in her eyes. He had known Natasha for years--longer than any Avenger beside Clint--and he had never seen her so deeply content.

He nodded. "Am I hallucinating?"

She leaned back, tossing her hair over her shoulder. It was loose, completely red down to her waist, and naturally wavy. He'd never seen it like that, and he had to guess she hadn't seen it like that in a long time, too.

"I don't know what this place is," she admitted. "I thought death would come with some kind of innate knowledge of everything, I thought I would have answers, but...that's not what this is."

"We aren't dead?"

"Oh, I am. Lying somewhere at the base of a cliff, lightyears away." She turned to him. "Was it worth it?"

He stared back, then shook his head. "There had to have been another way, Widow."

That smile again. "And let my namesake go without his dad? There was no other way for me, or for you. Strange only saw one possibility, remember?"

Tony looked down. "You're right."

"Was it worth it, then? Did we win?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I turned them all to dust, Bruce brought back the others. Morgan…" he faltered.

Morgan what? Morgan would grow up remembering her dad's broken promise to be home in a few days? Morgan would grow up with a single mother? Morgan would grow up hating him like he had hated his dad? Morgan would cry herself to sleep, curled up in his spot in bed beside Pepper, for God knows how long?

"You know you can't stay here," Natasha said softly.

Tony stood, sending ripples in every direction. "I'm not done. I don't want to be done."

She stood too, and hugged him. "You never will be, Tony. Tell them I'm at peace, okay? Tell them all how much I love them."

Tony squeezed Natasha tightly, and closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, it was to blinding pain.