Infinity War x Modern! Reader ~ The Infinity Stones' Protector

Chapter Twenty-Two: He Went for the Head

Steve runs up to us and puts his arm around Tony's shoulders, helping me carry him. I let Steve take him off my back and follow them to the compound. Tony's face is full of sorrow and relief at the same time. "I couldn't stop him."

"Neither could I." Steve puts one hand on Tony's chest to stabilize his walk, and to also see if he can feel a heartbeat. His own heart almost stops when he feels how faint Tony's is.

"I... I lost the kid." Tony stops walking and turns to me. "I didn't want to tell you, but I thought you should know."

I feel my chest tighten, and some weird feeling wells up inside of me. I don't understand why I feel this, but then I get it. Hatred. I could have stopped Thanos but Strange held me back, bound me with his magic. I know this is supposedly the only way, but I can't help but feel this burning hatred toward the sorcerer. It takes me a hot second, but I finally shake my head and clear the negative emotions.

Turning back to the reunion, I see Tony hugging Pepper. Thank goodness she survived, or else Tony would have lost his last ray of sanity.

Inside the main room of the compound, the remaining Avengers get Tony hooked up to an IV machine to try and restore some of his nutrients. There are many screens up, showing the Avengers that have fallen victim to the snap.

I watch the screens flicker from one face to another. T'Challa, Shuri, Scott Lang, Hope Van-Dyne, Hank Pym, Sam Wilson, Wanda Maximoff, Bucky Barnes, Stephen Strange, Peter Parker, Maria Hill, Nick Fury, and surprisingly Erik Selvig are the ones my eyes catch.

"The governments of the world took a census, and it looks about right. Thanos did exactly what he said he was going to do." Natasha explains to Tony and Nebula. "He wiped out fifty percent of all life."

"(Y/n), if I may ask a serious question," Steve Rogers locks eyes with me. He walks up to my sitting form slowly, crossing his arms. "Why did you wait so long to rescue Tony?"

His eyes aren't angry or hurt, but I still look away. I squeeze my hands in my lap to help myself deal with my immense guilt. "I... am so sorry. Usually, i-in stories like this, the main character is left stranded for a reason. I-I thought Tony was going to be able to find something to defeat Thanos with, or come up with something on his own. I didn't want to remove him from his environment and miss the potential clue left there for him. If that makes sense..."

There is a long silence. It seems like everyone is waiting for Tony or Nebula to say that they had indeed found something to destroy Thanos with. However, I can sense that they found squat while they were stranded on Titan.

"Nothing, eh?" Rocket breaks the silence. "And here I thought there was potential in reversing this whole snap ordeal."

At the mention of the snap, Tony seems to break. "Where is he? Where?!"

"We don't know. After he snapped, he opened a portal and just walked through." Steve leans on a table next to me as he explains the end of the fight.

Tony sighs in defeat, knowing they won't be able to find the Mad Titan. He looks over at a glass wall and sees Thor sitting behind it. "What's wrong with him?"

"He thinks he failed, but there's a lot of that going around so who can blame him?" Rocket nods over to Thor who hasn't moved an inch despite his name being mentioned.

"Tony, you fought him." Steve brings the topic back to Thanos.

"No I didn't. Who told you that? Was it the Stones Girl?" Tony flicks his hand toward me. "If she's so smart, if she is such a big fan of us, then why doesn't she know where he would go after his mission was complete?!"