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𝑺𝑼𝑹𝑽𝑰𝑽𝑶𝑹
-𝒔𝒆𝒃𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏
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one.
aftermath
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❝I'M      A     SURVIVOR.
I'M  GONNA  MAKE IT.
I'M WILL SURVIVE.
KEEP ON SURVIVING.❞

⋆

          "STOP,"

By the voice alone, the Titan loosened his fist that dawned a gold gauntlet. The purple villain turned his head slightly, watching the Doctor grunt in pain as he leaned against a boulder. Blood leaked from his lip, cheek and from his hairline. "Spare his life..." there was a pause of regret. "and I will give you the Stone."

The Titan narrowed his eyes, challenging him on it. "No tricks."

Stephen slowly shook his head. The Titan turned his fist, now focusing it's power on him incase anything go wrong.

"Don't," Tony choked on his own blood, holding his breath to bare the pain of being stabbed with the large blade that came from his suit. Blood dripped off his lip.

Ignoring the billionaire, Stephen raised his arm slowly, bringing his index and thumb close together before the Time Stone magically appeared in thin-air. He offered it to the Mad Titan, his shaky fingers spreading out as the Time Stone slowly floated over to him.

Once Thanos got it, he placed it in the socket on his thumb. Tony and Stephen watched as Thanos stared down at his gauntlet. "One to go."

A few random sparks made Thanos look up, to watch Peter Quill fly in, in a fit of rage. Holding up his left hand, Thanos activated the Stones and left swiftly in a portal. Peter crash-landed into the ground, waving one of his guns around blindly as he mask slowly peeled away from his face. "Where is he?!"

Tony grunted in pain as he used one of his good repulsers to repair himself with Helen Cho's tech on synthetic skin. After he was finished the task, he slumped back on the rock his was propped against.

Meeting eyes with Peter, Tony's frown deepened. Peter panted, tears almost threatening his eyes. He sighed harshly. "Did we just lose?"

Tony slowly looked over his shoulder at Stephen. "Why would you do that?" His voice dripped with both disappointment and regret.

Stephen slowly met Tony's sorrowed gaze. Behind Peter, Lucy, Mantis, Peter Parker, Drax and Amber emerged over a small hill, all their faces long with sadness.

"We're in the Endgame now."

          LEXI'S eyes slowly fluttered open, the dream happening yet again for the umpteenth time. She lost count. A frown instantly took its place on her lips; something that showed up everyday and it never seemed to go away. Sitting up in her once shared bed, she felt the covers slide off her torso, revealing her thinning figure. As Lexi turned her attention to the window to look out at the galaxies around her, she forced herself to ignore the growling of her hungered stomach.

It had been a long time since Lexi's eaten. Two days, to be exact. If it wasn't for Tony almost forcing Lexi to eat, she was sure she would be dead by now. The thought made Lexi almost laugh, a short burst of air coming out her nose.

Glancing down, Lexi looked at her bony wrists. Lifting her white tank top, she saw her hip bones, getting pointer by the passing day. She wanted to eat most days, but the pain and guilt of what happened to Peter was too much for her to bare, and it quickly made her lose her appetite; sometimes by throwing up. This only made her feel worse, since Nebula and Tony were the ones to deal with her sickness; even though they insisted every time they didn't mind.

Making her way from Peter's room, she made her way slowly to the main room of the ship where the Guardians usually met. As she grew near, the song Dear Mr. Fantasy by Traffic was heard. It was another song on Peter's Zune device. She assumed Tony picked the song.

Lexi rounded the corner, finding Nebula and Tony squatted behind the table, each on either side playing flick football. Tony was teaching her. Tony flicked the triangular piece of aluminum they used as a 'football' towards Nebula. Nebula grunted, sticking out her bionic hand to try and catch it.

Tony flinched back before pointing at her. "You see, you don't need to do that..." he positioned his hands to replicate the football goal. "Because uh...you just hold it in this position."

Lexi smiled as she watched Nebula flick the football piece again and again at Tony before she got a goal. When she did Tony nodded at her. "That's a goal and now we are one a piece."

Nebula stared at him with her black eyes. "I'd like to try again."

Tony tossed her another piece before setting up his hands. Nebula flicked it again before Tony did his turn. "Tied up. Feel the tension? This is fun." he flicked it and it banked left, away from Nebula's hands. "And that was terrible. You have a chance to win."

Nebula flicked her piece, soaring over Tony's hands. "And you won. Congratulations. Fair game." Tony reached out his hand and Nebula slowly placed her hand in his, shaking it. "Good sport, you're fun."

"It was fun." Nebula replied in her husky voice.

Tony looked over and saw Lexi in the doorway. "Well good morning, Risky Business. Up for a game of football?" Tony help up a shiny piece. Lexi only smiled again, shaking her head.

"No, no. Just came to stretch my legs." Lexi slowly reached her arms over her head, joining her hands to stretch out her limbs. Tony could see how thin her arms were getting, and how pointy her shoulders were. He frowned but the other two didn't notice.

Lexi turned, slowly stalking away to another area of the ship.

Tony then left the table, bidding Nebula a small 'goodbye'. He shuffled his way to the front of the ship where his half-destroyed helmet sat. Reaching for it, he turned on the record button. He groaned as the eye sockets in the helmet glowed brightly. Tapping on the metal, he sighed. "This thing on?"

He leaned back. "Hey Ms. Potts." his back hit one of the pilot chairs and he sighed again. "If you find this recording, don't post it on social media, it's going to be a real tear-jerker. I don't even know if you're going to see this. I don't even know if you're still..." his words trailed off and Tony found himself not being able to finish the sentence. "God, I hope so."

"Today's day twenty...one? No, twenty-two. You know, if it wasn't for the existential terror of staring into the literal void of space, I'd say I'm feeling a little better today." Memories of the past few weeks started shuffling through his mind.

Like, Nebula and Lexi working together to remove Tony's Arc reactor and repair his chest.

"Infection's run it's coarse, thanks to Blue Meanie and Thing 2. You'd love them. Very practical. The blue one's only a tiny bit sadistic."

Tony, Nebula and Lexi all scrambled around the deck. Tony welded two pipes together and Nebula worked on twisting two pieces of metal together for Tony. Lexi gave direction of what parts of the ship were broken. As Tony welded the two pipes shut, Lexi jumped in the open floor, grabbing hold of the pipes to lift them. She strained, clenching her teeth.

"So the fuel cells were cracked during battle and we figured out a way to reverse the ion charge, thanks to Lexi. Bought ourselves about forty-eight hours of flight time. Uh, but it's now dead in water. Thousand light years from the nearest 7/11. Oxygen will run out tomorrow morning, and that will be it."

The three sat on a small set of stairs, snacking together on a single pouch of food. Tony offered it to Nebula, who slowly shook her head and gently pushed towards himself again. He turned and offered it to Lexi next, who also refused the food. The billionaire nodded before eating the rest off the last bag of food. Lexi sighed, placing her head on his shoulder tiredly.

"And Pep, I know I said no more surprises... but I gotta say, I was really hoping to full off one last one. But it looks like... well, you know what it looks like." Tony placed a hand to his face, resting his head on it.

"Don't feel bad about this. Well, actually, if you grovel for a couple weeks, and then move on with enormous guilt..." Tony said the words dryly, even though he was trying to lighten the mood with humour. He sighed, rubbing his eyes. "I should probably lie down. Gonna rest my eyes."

He paused.

"Please know, that when I drift off, it'll be like everything lately; I'm fine. We're fine." he touched his fingers to the helmet and his voice reduced to a whisper. "I'll dream about you. It's always you."

Tony switched off the recording for slowly lying down on his side, using a coat as a blanket. Tony closed his eyes, quickly falling asleep due to malnutrition. After a few minutes, Nebula walked over with Lexi. The two bent down, examining Tony.

Lexi met eyes with Nebula, and nodded silently under the gentle roar of space. The two propped Tony up against the seat before lifting him in the pilot chair. Covering Tony with a larger coat this time, Lexi bent down and pressed a platonic kiss to his temple.

The two left, hoping Tony would feel better when he woke up. Lexi was very much in the same condition as Tony, but refused to put herself first at all and made sure Tony was taken care of first.

Tony awoke a while later to a lightly that slowly got brighter and brighter. When his eyes slowly opened, his hand lifted to block out the light. Were they passing a star? The Sun perhaps?

When he managed to see what the light source was, it was a woman dressed in a red, blue, and gold bodysuit. Tony's blood-shot eyes stared at the blonde woman in astonishment, and she smiled back.

❝ GAME OF SURVIVAL ❞
❛ by -sebstan ❜

author's comments ↴

sooooo.... this one's gonna hurt
like a mofo....

also, just wanna give a huge shoutout
to animositi for sending me a link to
the movie. it helps a lot :)
love ya hon !