(MCU) Arcs Collide: Chapter 43 - Soul against a Soul

Chapter 43 - Soul against a Soul

Summary: The fight between Thanos and Tony comes to an end—but at what cost?

Carol looked confused as Stephen used the same odd motion he always did when he opened his necklace, the glowing green stone appeared and began floating out of its place.

Loki stopped fighting. Arm stretched out and palm facing upward, a green glow later and the god of mischief was holding the glowing cube of the Tesseract in his hand.

Carol was shocked all over again when Loki closed his fist, destroying the cube. When he opened his hand again, in his palm sat a blue glowing stone which began floating out of his hand slowly.

On the other side of the field Vision opened up a secret compartment in his belt allowing a yellow light to escape. Once the compartment was fully opened the mind stone came floating slowly in the air as well.

Carol turned to Stephen and asked in urgency, "What the hell are you doing?"

Stephen looked her in the eyes and said, "I have seen millions of possible futures and outcomes to this war."

Carol looked at him with wide eyes and asked a question she was afraid to know the answer to, "How many of those do we win in?"

Stephen raised a shaking finger to her face and said in an even tone, "With current circumstances... One."

Carol began to feel dread filling her heart, but Stephen was quick to add, "Right now we are waiting for the moment that will signal us if the future I saw has a chance to come true. If it does, the moment you see the stones flying over you have to follow them."

Carol frowned, "Why?"

Stephen spoke in a serious tone she rarely ever heard from him before, "You have an important part to play in the case of Tony Stark's life."

Carol's eyes narrowed, "What are you talking about? What are you planning Strange?"

The floating sorcerer looked away toward the smaller island and replied, "It will be obvious soon enough. But even if Thanos is defeated the only true victory we can achieve will be if you, Thor and Hulk are there to help Tony in the right moment."

Carol wanted to question him further, but she could notice the finality of his words. Considering his order was to go help Tony she elected to go ahead and do just that anyway.

She looked toward the fight between two titans and waited for the moment she should act.

---

Tony had only one plan left, a desperate, dangerous, and if he was honest with himself, suicidal plan.

But with his army falling back and without his armor Tony knew now would be his best chance for that.

Tony spun the hammer, allowing him to collect momentum before letting go of the handle, launching the hammer at top speed at the titan.

Thanos growled, closing his fist and powering up the power stone, using it to punch the hammer out of his way.

He followed the hammer with his eyes, making sure it was no longer a threat, but when he looked back Tony was suddenly in front of him, both hands grasping his gauntlet.

Tony began to pull on the gauntlet until Thanos let out a roar and with his bare fist punched Tony in the chest.

His helmet and left boot melted away, nanites rushed to the chest area and thickened the armor just before the fist made contact.

His armor still broke almost completely away, leaving just a small layer of metal over his arc reactor.

Tony was flung back and somehow managed to land on his feet, his back supported by the boulder behind him. Tony still had a hard time breathing. He could feel warm liquid filling up his lungs, the sharp pain of broken bones and pierced tissues.

Friday spoke at the same time Tony began feeling the warmth of Extremis healing him slowly, "Boss, both your lungs have been punctured and you have a lot of internal bleeding. Extremis is already on the case, and it looks like you will make a full recovery in a couple of minutes." Her voice then turned much more somber, "Unfortunately, you have no nanites left, Boss."

Tony frowned. That's bad, it means he will most likely be out of the fight soon enough, but with what he achieved with his last move the fight will be much easier once Thor and Hulk join forces.

Thanos glared at Tony before he seemed to notice his state. The titan smiled a little and said calmly, "This battle is over for you Stark; you have reached your limit. I must admit you have been much more formidable than I had anticipated, able to stand on equal ground with me while I was wielding two stones, you never seemed to stop amazing me Stark. Alas, with all your intelligence you should have realized the simple truth..."

Thanos aimed his fist at Tony with a smug smirk and said with such bravado and self-importance, "I am inevitable!"

That was the moment the titan noticed. His smile slipped off into a worried look as he saw the empty places on his gauntlet that once held the two infinity stones.

His head snapped toward Tony; his eyes wide. Tony in return raised his own right fist, the nanites left there reforming themselves to reveal a gauntlet with two infinity stones in it. Power and Reality.

Thanos's wide eyes narrowed quickly, and he began charging at Tony with a shout of pure fury.

Tony was already having a hard time facing the pain he was experiencing from wielding two stones; the only reason Tony was even alive right now was the Extremis combined with his arc reactor.

The combination of the two of them allows the Extremis to negate the effects of the infinity stones in his armor.

Tony was about to close his eyes and prepare for the fist he was about to receive, but before that could happen an orange glow separated the two of them.

Thanos jumped back, and Tony would have too if he could move, or if he even had anywhere to. With a boulder supporting his back it would be hard to jump back.

Tony tried to block the blinding light with his left arm and asked, "What the hell?!"

What he heard was Thanos gasp and say with awe, "The Soul stone."

Tony frowned. How could it be, from what Gamora told them the soul stone was supposed to be on a whole different planet and with quite severe conditions attached.

When the glow faded enough to see clearly there was a glowing orange stone floating high above both him and Thanos. Straight beneath it was floating a figure with a red face, no nose and hidden behind black robes and hood.

Before any of them could speak Rogers reminded everyone of his presence by shouting, "Red Skull! Hydra is back and I will defeat them once again!"

The floating guy turned toward Rogers and scoffed. Rogers roared and ran with all his force and weight, headfirst at the misty guy. The mysterious figure didn't even move, and Rogers ran straight through it. His head hitting the side of the boulder, cracking both the stone and his helmet. A moment later the man fell to the ground, once again knocked out.

Tony focused back on the floating man Rogers referred to as the legendary villain Red Skull and had to ask, "Was the idiot right? Are you the infamous Red Skull?"

The face of the figure didn't change as he answered calmly, "I once was Johann Schmidt. I was not defeated by anyone other than the space stone. Instead of allowing me to wield its power the space stone chose to send me to my eternal punishment. I am now a guide to all those who seek the power of the soul stone."

Thanos looked excited and Tony began to worry about the situation, the titan was the first to speak, "Guide, it is me you seek. I who claim the power of the infinity stones in the name of balance."

Schmidt turned to Thanos and said as calm as before, "Thanos son of A'lars..." Thanos flinched at the name drop but Schmidt just went on, "Your motives are corrupted and your actions atrocious. You are not worthy of the power of the infinity stones."

Thanos looked shocked that someone dared to say it, and before he could recover Schmidt turned toward Tony and said, "Anthony Stark, son of Howard. Your soul has been judged and found worthy of the power of the soul stone."

Tony was quite shocked himself all he could do was ask without even thinking, "I was told that the only way to get the stone was to sacrifice a soul of a loved one."

Schmidt nodded and suddenly pictures of people were pushed into Tony's mind. It was Howard, his mom, the original Jarvis and his wife Ana, Yinsen and finally Aunt Peggy. After the images finished flashing in his mind the guide of the stone spoke again, "You already sacrificed more than enough Anthony Stark. If you so desire the power of the soul stone is yours."

Tony didn't even have to consider it, his body was already in pain from the two stones he was holding, he wasn't sure if a third would be too much and honestly, he didn't care to test it. With a determined voice he answered immediately, "No. All I want is to keep it away from that guy. As long as he can't have it, I'm good."

Schmidt nodded, and was it a smile? Before his body seemed to turn into dust and disappeared. Before Tony could even understand what that was the orange stone flew from where it was floating and settled itself in the middle of his own gauntlet. Sending another surge of power into Tony's body for Extremis to contend with. So far so good.

That was until Tony noticed three more stones rocketing their way toward him, and were they followed by Carol?! What the hell was going on?!

A moment later the blue, green and yellow stones settled themselves along the other three on his hand. This time Tony felt the Extremis give up, the power of all six stones too much for it to match.

Tony could feel his body tear apart from the inside, the armor from his arm to his shoulder down to his chest was glowing in the rainbow colors and melting. Tony heard screaming, was it him? Yes, it was him, the pain was getting worse every second.

Until the pain began to lessen. Extremis kicking back in to battle the energy of the stones. Tony blinked to see two familiar arms hugging him from behind. Another hand was laying on his shoulder, and soon enough his under shoulder was under the weight of a large green palm. The rainbow lights spread across all of them.

Hulk grunted out, "Tin-man snap."

Thor was the next to speak, trying to keep his bravado under his own grunts, "My friend now is the time to reveal your might."

Then Carol's sweet voice filled his mind calling, "Do it Tony, finish it!"

Tony's mind focused and his eyes narrowed at the shocked titan across from him. What was it that he said Tony thought to himself before deciding to reply in kind, "And we are the Shield."

Tony considered what he wanted. He wanted Thanos and his army gone, for the planets that suffered because of Thanos to be able to rebuild easily, for the nightmares that haunted his nights for so long to disappear and most of all for everyone to be safe. With those thoughts in mind Tony snapped his fingers.

Everything turned white.

When the light faded Tony looked down to see his flesh, no armor, no stones, just his bare hand, undamaged. Actually, his entire body was lacking any pain.

He looked around and saw he was in some empty space with what looked like an orange sun for light. He took a step forward and heard a familiar wet sound. Looking down he saw a thin layer of water as the ground.

Before he could consider it any further a familiar voice said from behind him, "I'm proud of you Tony. You really didn't waste them."

Tony spun around and looked in stunned silence at the man in front of him. Ho Yinsen was standing there with a large smile on his face.

Tony could only think of one thing that could allow something like that without realizing he was saying it out loud he breathed, "The Soul stone."

Yinsen chuckled, "You were always the smartest man in the room."

Tony had so many emotions circling inside of him right now. Sadness, happiness, anxiety and so many more so he went to his default setting. Jokes. With a smile and spread arms he asked dramatically, "How did you like this as one final act of defiance from the great Tony Stark?"

Yinsen's smile softened even further and he shook his head, "You call it defiance. I call it heroic. You knew the odds; knew the cost and you didn't hesitate. What have you asked the stones for? Safety for everyone in the universe so the likes of Thanos could never hurt them again. Even if you never admit it, you became the hero you always meant to be Tony Stark."

Tony laughed with a small amount of self-loathing as he retorted, "You thought I always meant to be a hero? When we met, I was an asshole with no redeeming qualities."

Yinsen raised an unimpressed eyebrow and spoke evenly, "Was it a selfish man who endured torture by terrorists because he refused building them weapons, knowing they would use them to hurt others, even though it would have made your life easier? Was it a selfish man who was willing to act as a shield to me so I could see my family again?"

Tony had no answer for that, so Yinsen declared with a smile, "You were always a hero Tony. You were burdened by your pain and hidden it behind many masks, but I saw under them, I saw the real Tony Stark. Do you think I would give my life to any asshole I ended up in a cell with?"

Tony could feel the tears stinging his eyes, but he wiped them off and instead asked, "What happens now?"

Yinsen shrugged with a smile, "You can choose."

Tony frowned, "Choose? I'm not dead?"

Yinsen chuckled, "No, Tony. You have some powerful friends that helped you carry the power of the stones and with the Extremis in your body you will make a full recovery in a few days. So, you can choose."

Tony tilted his head so Yinsen elaborated, "You can choose to rest. Stop fighting and join me in the great next adventure." He paused dramatically for Tony to have time to consider the option before finishing, "Or go back to those who are waiting for you and fight another day."

Tony knew what the right choice was. As much as the offer to simply rest, maybe seeing his mother, Jarvis, Ana and Peggy again was tempting, but they were the past and he was futuristic.

Tony smiled at Yinsen, "Once a long time ago you chose to leave and see your family, now I will take a page from your book and do the same."

Yinsen smiled and offered his hand, "Until we meet again, a long time from now, stay safe Tony."

Tony smirked and grabbed the offered hand responding with a cheeky, "Can't make any promises. See you then, my old friend."

With that his entire world became white again.