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｡･:*:･ﾟCHAPTER FIVE ｡･:*:･ﾟ
"legacies"
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THE FACT THAT Tony actually thought that would work would never be anything but hilarious to Gray. 

 Seconds after he left, the boy rose to his feet. He rotated his shoulder, wincing and swallowing any noise that would indicate he was in pain as he stared down at the ashen terrain of a once prosperous planet. He heard the sound of shit blowing up left and right, and his head was pounding from all of the commotion. He spotted the shape of Peter Parker as he stragically kept various people from falling down to the ground and being impaled by a rock or some shit, and rose his voice. "Hey!" 

 His words were raspy and weak, so he tried again. "Hey, Parker!" 

He thought his efforts were fruitless, until the boy's now-familiar face popped into his line of eyesight, swinging down and landing gracefully on his feet. The sudden motion made Gray jump, and accept his hand as it was oustretched toward him. "Hey, dude, you should probably chill for a minute," Peter said, nervously eyeing Grayson as if he were going to pass out at any second. "You almost got the magic mitten, but that looked like it really hurt." 

 "Yeah, whatever." Gray put a hand on Peter's shoulder, before turning back to point to where the ensuing chaos was only increasing. "I need you to get me down there." 

 Peter winced, "I dunno-" he sang, awkwardly ruffling his hair, "I don't want Mister Stark to get mad at me. And you say Thanos, he's like-" He gestured vaguely with his hands. "Insane." 

 Gray squinted at him, blinking away the black dots at the corner of his vision. "Okay, you're adorable, but I think that Tony will be more mad at you if he explodes or gets smoked by some sort of small planet." 

 Peter stared at Gray for a moment, mulling over his words. he evidentally decided that Tony Stark getting hit by a planet was not a very ideal situation, and smiled sheepishly. "How do I get you down there?" 

 Gray held out his arms, "you have super-strength right? Carry me." 

Peter pulled a face, so Gray rolled his eyes, "don't make this weird. I need to get to Tony before he gets sniped, remember? Also, where did you leave the weird alien people?" 

 "Oh, they're over there-" Peter jerked his head in the opposite direction, brushing some hair from his forehead as Gray took a step forward, making the Parker boy blush as he wrapped his arms around his shoulders, pulling him close and closing his eyes. "Please don't drop me." 

 Peter shrugged, "no promises." He wrapped an arm around Gray's waist, firing a web and muttering a, "hold on tight," before leaping from the structure and into the air. 

Gray cursed, his grip tightening as he shoved his face into the crook of Peter's neck. He hated the falling sensation that came with swinging downwards, and didn't understand how Peter did it every single day without fail. Prehaps it was a feeling you grew accostumed to, but Gray didn't understand how someone could comfortably hurl themselves off of a building and not even bat an eye. 

 They landed roughly on the ground, Gray detaching himself from Peter as he whipped his head around. His ribs hurt when he run, but he tried to ignore it as he spotted Tony slumped on the ground, his hand pressed to his chest. 

 Peter followed close behind, yelling out a concerned "mister Stark!" As Gray dropped to his knees, his hand reaching forward to press against the wound blooming through his broken suit. His hand came back coated red, and he felt his stomach twist into a knot. "Oh shit, what happened? Are you okay?"

 "I just got stabbed." The man shot back, his voice tight with pain as he closed his eyes, breathing heavily. Gray blanched.  

 "Well, yeah, but-" he looked around, the terrain seeming suspiciously calm. All that loomed around them was the wreckage of the fight that had since passed. Dust swirled into the air, so intermixed that every breath he took, Gray almost had an asthma attack. His eyes passed over Strange, who had risen to his feet with slight difficulty, breathing heavily and looking towards Tony as he filled his wound. 

 "What happened?" He asked, "where's Thanos?" 

 It was a weird thing to think; but Gray would have been more uncomfortable if the Titan was still trying to kill them. At least that means he doesn't have the stone. Gray's dark eyes zeroed in on Strange's necklace, his mouth going dry. "Oh, no." 

 Quill and his gang approached, all of them looking like they were experiencing varying levels of physical and emotional pain. Quill had a sense of despondancy toiling behind his eyes as he wrapped an arm around Mantis' shoulder, his eyes downcast and his eyebrows pinched together like he was trying to keep from breaking. It made Gray wonder what had happened when he was so focused on getting the gauntlet off. 

 "Esto no está ocurriendo-" he mumbled, his mask disappearing as he put a hand to his cheek. he felt like he got hit by a truck, but the reality that Thanos had gotten away was a million times more painful. He had just wanted to do something good with his abilities, and all he had ended up succeeding was failing getting the gaunlet and fucking up his body. That wasn't exactly what Gray would consider a thing a hero would do. 

 And now Thanos only had one more stone to go. He wondered how long it would take to acquire. 

 His question was soon answered, as the ends of Mantis's antennae lit up, glowing a light color as her eyes rose. Her voice held a concerned tint as she looked over everyone in the group individually, before speaking. "Something's happening." 

 And then something did. 

 She disappeared. Gray thought that his eyes were deceiving him: that maybe he was having a stress-induced hallucination. He soon saw that wasn't the case, as everyone else reacted to the girl's disappearance as he did. 

Seconds later, it happened again. Drax cleared his throat, making a barely audible noise of distress as his arms began to crumble to dust, scattering in the winds. He lifted his eyes, his voice making out one word before he completely disappeared, drifting off like he was nothing more than the remnants of a war. "Quill." 

 Gray could feel panic hammering in his chest as he reached out, one hand clamping around Tony's arm, the other around Peter's, as if making sure they were still there. Tony stared at Quill as if he could will him to stay present, holding out his free arm. "Steady, Quill." 

 The man grimaced, a crestfallen expression fully making itself visible on his face. "Oh, man." He said, before any other words were prevented by his body disintigrating to ash. Gray felt like he was going to pass out as he whirled around to look at Strange, only to find that the wizard was already looking at them. "Tony." He spoke, his voice low and sad, as if he could sense that these may be his last words. "There was no other way." 

 And then there were three. 

 "Oh my god," Gray backed away, raising his fists to his eyes and sucking in a shaky breath of air. His mind was too frazzled to function, so he reverted to his first language, tears brimming his eyes at the witness of four whole-ass people just... vanishing. "Esto no es real, esto no puede ser real."

"Grayson, get over here." Tony demanded, holding out his hand and grabbing the boy's arms, pulling him to his chest and wrapping his arms protectively around his body as he shook. "It's okay, you're alright, you're here." 

 "Mr. Stark?"

 Gray turned around, the heavy feeling in his gut doubling at the gaunt look on Peter's face. He staggered forward, holding his arm around his ribs as if it would keep him in one place. "I don't feel so good..." 

 He pitched forward, so Gray lunged forward to catch him. His body screamed in protest, pain shooting up his limbs as he gently lowered Peter to the ground. The other boy clung to him as if it could keep him in place, and Tony knelt to his knees, putting a hand on the Parker boy's cheek. There were tears in his eyes when he spoke, "I don't wanna go, sir." He said, choking on his words as he repeated the same phrase over and over again, "I don't wanna go, I don't wanna go-" 

 Gray felt completely and utterly helpless. He felt a tear fall from his eyes as he held onto Peter's head. The pressure disappeared as the boy did, and his gasped, Tony reaching forward to grab at the ground as if he couldn't believe he was gone. 

 Gray just sat there for a second, on his hands and knees. He felt his heartbeat quicken as he looked down at his hands, only to see that they were slowly disappearing. The dust crept up his arms, and Gray sat up, looking to Tony with wide eyes. "Tony-" 

 "No, no, no-" Tony reached forward, grabbing onto either side of Gray's face and staring directly into his eyes. "You're not going, okay? You're fine. You're fine, just stay here, we'll get out of-" 

 Gray's throat felt dry as he coughed, more and more dust falling from his body. He turned to look at his mentor; the man who gave him a real life, and found that he didn't know what to say. "I'm sorry I couldn't be better." He said, a tear tracing down his face as he realized he had lost feeling in his legs. "I'm sorry." 

 And then everything went black, and he simply ceased to exist.