Chapter Text
Tony and Nebula were drifting in space.
That in itself wasn’t new, they’ve gotten more than used to it during the last weeks. Three weeks now since the Benatar’s fuel ran out. Three weeks however, marked the end of their food supply too.
They could stretch the oxygen to a couple more days when they kept all activity as low as possible, but they had just shared the last ratio of water. A human could survive up to 2 months without food, but no water shrank that estimate to a week. At most.
Tony found himself in the Cupola, knew Nebula would be in Gamora’s seat. They were both trying to find solace where they could and become at peace with their fate, struggling to accept their imminent demise. After everything they’ve been through, after all the battles and hardships they’ve overcome.
They’d die because of dehydration. Tony had calculated it, of course he did. The way their bodies would shut down, before the oxygen tanks could even fully deplete.
Tony was staring out into the deep abyss of space. He had said goodbye to Nebula an hour ago. Both had agreed they didn’t want - couldn’t - see the other deteriorate like that. He would stay here, she would stick to the other stay on the other side of the ship.
Maybe if he imagined hard enough, he could see the sun and the earth. All the people Tony had thought he’d talk to again. If they were even still alive - he didn’t know.
He was thinking about Ryland, as so often these days. The One he never got to say goodbye too.
It’s not that he ever stopped thinking about Ryland, technically. His boyfriend - former boyfriend? - that was sacrificed to save earth. He could’ve never imagined both of them meeting the same cruel fate.
Well, dying in space just like him brought out a certain melancholic feeling and memories. The good times and the bad, their late nights in the lab and the quiet early mornings when Ryland had started teaching. Most of all though, Tony thought of the Horror he’d felt when Ryland didn’t come back one day. Tony wondered if anyone would feel the same about him.
It was now twelve years ago, but Tony still felt the horror and panic like the first time. The familiar cold dread seeping into every fiber of being, the blind panic when his mind had connected the dots and the shock that followed when Tony realized he’d never get to see him again.
He remembered the scorching hot fury that had consumed him when Stratt announced the official story. Something polished about a brave sacrifice for all humanity. The blind rage he’d felt when he strode into her office and confronted her for her lies.
He knew Ryland would’ve never volunteered. He hated space, he got motion sickness in an elevator, he never wanted anything else than his Middle School Kids and Tony. Most importantly, he had Tony promised it.
He had promised.
The grief only hit afterward, when Tony had curled up in their bed at night. Couldn’t bear to watch the launch on earth or the launch from the ISS. Couldn’t bear to do anything for a long time.
Over time the rage and grief had both dimmed to something manageable, something Tiny could harbor in his chest without destroying him. Tony wished he had kept the fire alive, let it consume him a long time ago.
Anything was better than fading away slowly.
Tony had always thought he’d die young. From drugs or grief or later on, fighting as Iron Man.
A part of him was relieved that it would finally happen.
Tony Stark wasn’t a religious person, but he’d like to think that there was something on the other side. Maybe he’d listened to one too many of Thor’s stories or maybe he was foolish enough to hope he’d get to see them again. It didn’t matter.
He wanted it to end as soon as the hallucinations started. It was horrible and cruel and all the worst things Tony’s mind could come up with.
The stars started moving and Tony realized quickly he was trapped in his own personal hell when a star turned into the Hail Mary and another started changing the color like a funky disco ball.
Nebula coming back and seeing him in this awful state. Hearing Grace’s voice. Seeing shadows move around him. His Iron Man helmet turned into Thanos’ head. Someone touching him, although nobody was there. A sharp knocking that turned into crying.
—
Next thing he felt was a cold liquid on his face. Tony opened his mouth instinctively, his throat burning and desperate to relieve it with whatever means necessary.
He didn’t dare open his eyes, for he couldn’t find the strength, only a distant thought that whatever he’d see wasn’t real anyways.
Tony gulped down the few precious drops of liquid that hit his mouth. It was like water drops on a hot stove top, he didn’t think any even reached his Adam’s apple. Whoever or whatever it was though, gave him more.
It burned, on his cracked lips, his dry mouth and down his tight esophagus.
Tony wanted - no, needed more. He could drink an entire lake empty, like the Camels he’d seen in that one documentary a long time ago. Who’d he seen it with? Rhodey? The brown haired teen whose name was so out of reach Tony didn’t even try finding it?
No matter how hard he tried, opening his mouth, sucking or gulping, Tony didn’t get more than that steady stream of small sips of water. Somebody whined and he realized a second too late that the noise came out of his own mouth.
—
Tony felt better.
Nebula is with him when he opens his eyes to the familiar Cupola, but there’s two versions of her that he logically knows, shouldn’t be there.
“You shouldn’t be here.”, he tells both of them because at least one of them had promised him. The one sitting in the chair over at the other end of the room flickered as the one crouching next to him shook her head.
“I promised to not see you die but we got help.”, she replied curtly and Tony deducted that she’s probably the real Nebula or at least a better hallucination of her. The other one was turning more purple by the second.
He decided to focus his attention on her and ignore the glittery version as much as possible.
“Who-“, he asked confused because there hadn’t been any indication that anything except a few rocks was remotely close to them.
“I don’t know, I haven’t talked to them yet.’, she said and the tone reminded Tony of his mother right after scolding him. “I asked nothing but water. It was sent over in those.”, she said and held up an intricate metal bottle.
“They used a similar script to the shirt you wear, you might be able to communicate with them.”, she told him casually. “The ship has stopped next to ours. It has not left.”, she added.
Tony’s eyes shot open. That couldn’t be good, probably. Anyone they knew would’ve initiated contact by now and he’d consider everyone else an enemy until proven otherwise.
“No, you will not inspect it now!”, Nebula exclaimed immediately and lightly slapped him. “Foolish, you cannot even move right now.”
Tony groaned.
—
“Wait, is the ship still there?”, Tony asked in a moment of clarity. Nebula looked happy about the development.
“Yes, look.”, she said and pointedly turned her head to the large glass panels Tony was sitting next to. It was massive, was Tony’s first thought. He clearly only saw a small part of it, but the fuel tank easily dwarfed the entire Benatar.
It also looked like it had went through hell and could use some (or more) repair.
Tony would’ve said it looked strangely familiar if it wasn’t for the second Nebula that had suddenly appeared again in her chair - now a bright orangey yellow.
She followed his sight and sighed, tired.
“You need to drink some more, Tony.”
—
“I need to take a look at the ship.”, Tony announced and stood up. Or tried to, anyway.
Luckily Nebula was still right next to him and hadn’t lost her sharp reflexes yet. She caught him as soon as everything in front of his eyes turned black.
“I’m an expert.”, Tony said protesting and tried again as soon as possible. “Sure you are.”, Nebula replied easily and carefully let go of him. “You only discovered aliens seven years ago, though.”, she reminded him, not unkindly… just Nebula.
“No, I study space ships.”, Tony tired to explain. “It looks humanoid too!”, he exclaimed in defense. And it really did.
Tony had studied a ton of earths’ spaceships. Mostly to compare previous models to the Hail Mary and calculate a success rate for the mission. One desperate time, he calculated whether the Hail Mary could make the return to earth. He didn’t like to think about that.
There were a few details that separated spaceships from various established intergalactic powers and earth. Mostly, in terms of materials and fuel.
“And how do you want to look at it?”, Nebula asked him sharply. “My suit should be space proof.”, Tony said. “Absolutely not.”, Nebula said immediately.
—
Tony stood in the airlock, suited up and ready to go.
Nebula had put him in a harness that would keep him connected to the ship at all times. She herself wore one of the oxygen masks. Ready to pull Tony back in if needed.
“Don’t do anything’s stupid.”, Nebula repeated for what must be the tenth time in the past minute. “Yeah, I promise.”, Tony replied. He wouldn’t - couldn’t disappoint her too.
Nebula pulled him into one more slightly hesitant hug before quickly pressing the OPEN button.
Tony was drifting through space again, but this time filled with a flicker of hope. Someone had cared enough to give them water, maybe they could help them too. If only Tony could figure out what they were dealing with.
If Tony would’ve been slightly less delirious, he probably would’ve noticed why the spaceship looked so familiar. But in his current state, he was mostly busy with don’t pass out, don’t pass out, don’t pass out.
The larger than life green Nebula that stood on the other spaceship was also slightly distracting.
Tony looked at the fuel tanks, some panels missing and only thought that it was surely an unusual fuel they used for it looked very different to the normal liquid hydrogen tanks.
He was getting closer and closer to what looked like the airlock of the ship, but couldn’t stop. His thrusters were still broken and Nebula must’ve slightly overestimated the length of rope he needed.
Tony idly thought how it was funny that the airlock would’ve fit on the ISS ones before slamming unceremoniously into the door.
The impact didn’t help with his already pounding headache.
Sprawled out on someone else’s spaceship, Tony thought that this was surely a new low in his life. But then again, nothing could compare to failing half the universe.
It took a while until Tony’s head stopped spinning and he saw anything clear again. He was moving, at least compared to the space ship. The airlock was still underneath him though.
Oh, someone opened the door, he realized embarrassingly late.
By the time Tony was able to turn his head around to see if anything was coming or what would be expected of him, a red space suit was already next to him.
A familiar, red space suit. With a NASA emblem and over it, the Project Hail Mary mission patch. Great, he was still hallucinating.
But even Tony couldn’t explain himself how else he was moved from the door into the airlock if the spacesuit wasn’t real. He certainly hadn’t moved any muscles, nor was he able to.
He was so thirsty still.
Whoever was hiding behind his hallucinations closed the airlock behind them once they had dragged Tony inside and pulled him free from the harness. At least it had half a mind to connect the carabiner to the outside of the airlock.
So Tony wasn’t stranded on yet another space ship. He could still go back to his original stranded space ship. Great.
He probably would’ve laughed if that wouldn’t hurt his head so badly. And that hallucination still stood in front of him, still wearing that damned space suit. Tony couldn’t bear to look at it.
His mind was cruel, showing him this.
Clearly, it was about as unsure about this interaction as Tony was.
Tony realized with a shock that there must’ve been an actual human underneath the suit, when he threw up his hand in a universal ‘wait, I need something’ sign and turned around to grab something he’d stuck to the inner side of the airlock.
A metal… something.
A model?
An atomic model, of… oxygen?
Yeah, Tony nodded. He got a happy thumbs up back.
A strange hallucination, Tony thought. It was much longer than the colorful Nebula’s held on. It also looked a lot more realistic and alive than they did. But then… it was a hallucination, there were no rules.
Someone knocked on the airlock from the outside. The space suit jumped, not even pretending to not be shocked. It walked over, heavy steps and giving very much ‘I don’t want to be here’ vibes.
It was Nebula, who’d used the rope to make her way over. She only wore her oxygen mask and a few pieces of her mostly broken and frozen armor.
The space suit stumbled back, terrified. Then remembered his Oxygen model and pulled it out. She nodded after inspecting it, pulled her oxygen tank off her back and showed it to the space suit.
The space suit nodded and pushed the button to fill the airlock with air. Then started to unzip methodically, starting with the gloves. Tony just laid there, watching.
Tony’s heart stopped, when a familiar blond head appeared underneath, shaking his hair out. He turned around-
Tony passed out.
—
He came back to a heated argument in… English?
Tony groaned when he tried open his eyes, bright light coming in through his masks’ eye slits. Why was he still in his suit? Where even was he?
Spaceship, right. The Red Space Suit, Nebula-
Fuck.
“Well, I didn’t even know there was a human under all that metal!”, he heard someone shout. A familiar voice, one he’d never expected to hear again. Ryland.
“You claim to be terran and you never heard about Iron Man?”, Nebula asked him, absolutely ridiculed by the idea. “I left earth twelve years ago, I don’t know who Iron Man is!”
And what twelve years it was.
Tony groaned again when he tried to move and it must’ve been loud enough to get their attention this time, because both heads snapped over.
“You’re awake again!”, Nebula exclaimed, uncharacteristically happy and moved to his side again. “Foolish, absolutely stupid-“, she muttered. “How are you feeling?”, she asked him. Grace still kept his distance, but watched with a frown.
“Thirsty.”, Tony rasped out. “Is this real?”, he couldn’t help but ask immediately. “What? You still hallucinate?”, she asked him worried. “Who’s that?”, Tony asked, voice barely more than a whisper. “That is Grace. He’s human like you.”, she told him.
Tony’s head fell back and hit the wall with a defeated klonk.
“So he’s real?”, Tony asked. Nebula picked it up anyway. “Yes, why?”, she replied confused.
“Fuck.”, Tony mumbled. Fuck indeed.
“I can’t- I need-“, Tony started but didn’t really know what to say. His brain was going two hundred miles an hour, all thoughts jumbled. Equally divided into Ryland and Thirst.
Nebula pushed the straw of a new water bag through a gap into his mouth. It was NASA branded, because of course it was.
Tony emptied the entire thing in seconds and only felt slightly better afterwards.
“I need to get out of this suit-“, Tony suddenly started panicking. He needed to get out, he needed to get to Grace, he needed air-
Great, already had a panic attack before even speaking to him. Fuck-
“Yes, I help you.”, Nebula agreed. Grace stepped back further, through the opened airlock and into the spaceship. The Hail Mary.
It really wasn’t needed though, Tony’s suit was still mostly Nanotechnology, even with all the repairs they’d done with scraps before they realized it was useless anyway. That neither them or the suit would ever see the light of day again.
Tony tapped his suit and everything except his helmet disappeared into the Arc Reactor extension. Grace stepped closer again when he realized the space wasn’t needed, all hesitant and stopped in the doorway.
When he hesitated, Nebula took matters into her own hands and pulled it off as gently as possible.
Grace gasped, stumbled back-
Tony tried to stand up-
And suddenly Grace slammed into him and both of them into the wall. Tony let out an ‘oomph’ sound when all air got squeezed from his lungs as his arms shot up and wrapped around Ryland.
The first tears came before either realized.
It felt so surreal, seeing him after over a decade- touching him, holding him. He’d never thought he got to see Grace, his Ry, ever again. He went to his funeral, goddamnit!
Tony would’ve probably thanked every god out there if it wasn’t for the… circumstances of their meeting.
Didn’t matter though - nothing else mattered. He got Grace back. God, he got Grace back.
He wrapped his arms tighter around Grace and got a chocked sob in return. He was holding Grace like he was afraid to loose him again, but Ryland held onto him like he was afraid of being ripped away again.
And fuck-
Tony never wanted to let go, ever again. He wouldn’t, he couldn’t-
“So you do know him, Grace.”, Nebula said accusingly. Tony all but choked at the unexpected laugh that forced its way out. Grace chuckled weakly, but that familiar sound was enough to put more tears in Tony’s eyes.
“I wasn’t aware he’s uh- Iron Man?”, Ryland replied quietly, the confusion clear in his voice. “Tony?”, he asked. “Ry.”, Tony whispered as if he only realized now it was truly him.
Grace didn’t seem to feel any different, if the way he gripped Tony’s shirt and tried to pull him even closer was anything to go by. Tony’s hand shot up, carefully cradling Grace’s head, fingers tangled in the familiar mob of blond hair.
“What are you doing here?”, Grace asked, sounding almost afraid of the answer. “I-“, Tony started before he realized he really had no good answer to that question. “What are you doing here?”, he asked instead. “This isn’t Tau Ceti.”
“You remember?”, Ryland asked a little breathlessly. “Of course, I remember.”, Tony assured immediately and his heart broke a little at Grace thinking that he could ever forget.
“I need to save Rocky, I need to find him, the taumoeba is eating his astrophage.”, Grace said, suddenly in panic. “I really need to get going again or I’ll miss him actually-“
“Yes, we will come with you.”, Nebula cut him off.
“You will?”, Ryland asked, a little breathless and so full of hope. Tony could only nod, already chocked up again.
And that’s how the three of them found themselves in the cockpit of the Hail Mary a few minutes later.
Grace kept glancing over as if he was afraid Tony would disappear again, Tony couldn’t even admire the marvel of technology in front of him with how busy he was inspecting Ryland. He looked good, healthy even.
There’d been a hesitant trade of information. Who’s Rocky, where’s the rest of the crew, what’s the last time he saw him - a hesitant question asked by Nebula because what if they all did this trip to find him blipped? Tony hadn’t even thought about that, but Grace had seen him last exactly nineteen days ago. Rocky was still here.
He hadn’t thought much of anything except the warm body he was pressed against.
By some sort of mutual agreement neither one brought up Tony’s reason for being in space, Iron Man and whatever happened in the time Grace had been gone. They’d simply started the Mary again, watched the numbers flicker over the screen until they were sure to reach Rocky again.
Grace had shown him the little Rocky figurine left behind. Tony was endlessly grateful for that little Stoney alien he’d never even met.
His traces were still everywhere on the ship, and that alone showed Tony how much Ryland cared. That’s in itself was enough to like him in Tony’s opinion, even without the fact that he probably saved most of whatever was left of the universe.