<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'"><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff">New York had been bad, really bad. Segovia had taken what was already bad and heaved a whole new standard of bad on top of it. The ranks had fallen apart, divided, some had gone rogue. Tony had been a mess of neurosis and sleeplessness, ratcheting it up one notch at a time as each event, one more catastrophic than the last, unfolded. <br/>
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It seemed nothing could get worse, though he had to admit, there were a few solid things and people in his life. He could always count on work. It was the friend he always turned to. He could always count on Pepper, even if it took a lot of groveling and apologies to bring her back around to the fact that underneath it all he was just vulnerable and impulsive and desperately needed her love and understanding to bring him back to grounding in a world that couldn't fathom the depths of the danger it was always in. And there was always Peter Parker; that tireless force of sunshine and naive optimism that tagged at his heels like a puppy outwardly irritating him, inwardly reminding him that once hope was lost, the battle was lost too.</span><br/>
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Up until Thanos, all those things had been tenuously held together by Tony in an exhausting juggling act that could have won him a starring role in the circus of life. But Thanos ended that, like he ended so many things. Like he ended security, sanity, hope, and so many lives. So many people just gone, just like that. Six stones, half the population, cruel math. So many of his friends. All of his balance. He was broken. No security. No hope. Nothing that felt like sanity.<br/>
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<span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff">Six months later and he still hadn't left home. He couldn't. He was stuck. Paralyzed. He hadn't taken calls; not that he'd received any. Anyone who would have called was dead, or driven away by his intensity and madness. Even Pepper. She'd found the last straw, and Tony watched it break the camel's back. She wouldn't be back this time; he knew it. He saw her put the last brick in the wall that would forever separate her from him. His head was glad for it. She deserved so much more. Someone good. Anyone not him. But his heart hurt for her loss; one more piece of emptiness in a heavy void.<br/>
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He laid in his bed. He spent most of his time there even though so little of it was spent sleeping. A sweet digital voice chimed out so pleasantly to tell him what the date, time and weather was. Lovely. Very helpful. It then reminded him he had no appointments. Already known. Not helpful. Then it chimed out cheerfully, "It is Peter Parker's eighteenth birthday. Send gift. Would you like me to access the database of gift ideas for Peter Parker?"<br/>
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Tony stared at the little silver ball of unoffensive sleek design like it had betrayed him to the highest degree. <br/>
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"Mr. Stark, would you like me to order a suitable gift for Peter Parker's eighteenth birthday?"<br/>
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He blinked and rolled over in groaning huff. "I'd like you to shut the hell up! No wait," he rolled back over and gave the device a nasty scowl. "Why don't you order him a life so he can actually <i>be</i> eighteen years old!" The stinging sarcasm was followed by an inoffensively sleek designed lamp being hurled at the wireless assistant and the whole table subsequently toppling over.<br/>
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He sprung from the bed feeling the most feelings he'd felt in months, rage mostly, searing rage spiced with guilt and pain. He paced, back and forth, angry at his rage, angry at his guilt, torn to shreds that for all his genius and resources there was nothing, absolutely <i>nothing</i>, he could do for Peter.<br/>
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"Mr. Stark," the muffled sound of the assistant chimed cheerfully and muffled from under the bed. "I have not been able to locate a 'life' for purchase. Would you like me to search for something else?"<br/>
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Tony roared, tore up the bed, flipped the tables, punched the wall and stormed out of the room. He had been able to rationalize losing Pepper. He could accept the loss of his brave team mates, but no matter how hard he tried or what he tried, he could not make sense or peace with losing the little twerp. For all he tried to do to mentor the kid, he'd ultimately been the reason the kid was gone. Peter was <i>his</i> responsibility and he had failed miserably, tragically, unforgivably. Just when he thought he'd found the spike of energy to do something about it, he collapsed back onto the bed. There was nothing to be done. Parker was dead.<br/>
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Thor too had keenly felt the loss doled out by Thanos' relentless purge, only he had seen it early on and so viscerally.  Loki was dead, not vaporized, but dead and for all his strength and power he could not avenge his brother. It sat hard in the pit of his stomach. His brother and so many other lives gone to the whim of the titan because they had failed. Failure wasn't something Thor accepted easily, and for the six months that followed Thanos' attack, he scoured all the realms for any artifact or way that would undo what had been done. <br/>
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He was was largely unsuccessful until his search took him back to the New York Sanctum and to Wong. Doctor Strange was gone, like the rest, but Wong was a practiced man of the same arts. Thor was certain he would know something. He had to. It took a great deal of convincing on his part with some help of the others, to get Wong to stretch his duties beyond protecting the sanctum into researching deeply into the matter, but once that had been done, and a possible way to reach the others had been found, Thor was ecstatic to let the others know. <br/>
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The consensus had been unanimous, everyone felt they should try, but not everyone should be involved. There was still so much to be done on earth, so many people to protect, and at the conclusion of their discussion, Thor had decided the Captain and Tony Stark should be the ones to aid him in his quest with Wong.  The Captain had been there at the discussion, but Stark never showed. No one had seen him and Heimdall wasn't around anymore to tell him where Stark could be found. He had to rely on the Captain for that.<br/>
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"Captain, please, I know you and Stark have no love between you, but I don't have a phone. You must call him for me." Thor stated as though all the crazy problems between the two earth heroes amounted to nothing more than playground antics.<br/>
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