For all his capacity for word vomit and causing a mechanical racket, Tony was unnaturally quiet. An internal battle was being waged and even his unwavering stare looked like his brain was firing thoughts off on all cylinders.
Rationally, Tony knew that Nebula's suggestion made sense. Yet for as much as he strutted around like he didn't have a care in the world, there were people that he deeply cared about...and clung onto like a limpet. If faced with the choice to let anyone go - particularly Pepper or Peter Parker - there would be way too much hesitation involved. Everything in him was waging a full blown revolt at the thought.
If it was himself? He would immediately tell everyone else where they could stick it (including Strange), raise his hand, and step right up. Sure, he wouldn't go down without a fight? Just to be a pain in everyone's collective ass.
Then again, half of the lives in the universe were at stake. That collective ass had a whole lot of real estate.
"I know it'd be shitty if you had to watch Gamora bite it," he finally managed to say, once he regained his capacity for speech, "but you're not wrong. The guy's prepared to give everyone a ginormous amount of emotional kicks in the junk to get what he wants. We'd have to be ready to do the same back at him. That'd kinda be something to pre-warn the loved ones about? You know, hey, don't hold a grudge if I kinda stand there with a thumb up my ass while I watch you die. Needs of the many, outweighing the needs of the many or the one. Blah blah blah."
His natural urge was to roll his eyes, to brush it off in his usual sarcastic way. He couldn't quite manage doing that.
What he could do, was start grasping at straws and brainstorming alternate routes out loud.
"Let's call that the last ditch plan. Can we hit him anywhere that'd slow him down first? Anywhere. Like, where would he go next before coordinating hitting us here? I nuked his battleship last time. Maybe we could go back to Titan. Take the fight to him again. But this time, with a more coordinated balls to the wall attack. Lure him in when we have more people, better gear, and traps laid down? If he brings buddies...maybe Fury knows where to get some nukes. Just get Hope and Scott to shrinky dink them, put 'em in our pockets, and hop Quill's ship to Titan."