Peter stood in the wreckage and his heart was hammering so hard in his chest that he was sure everyone around him could hear it too. There was a silence in the air, but it was the kind that was deafening. Peppers body was shaking but no sound seemed to be escaping her, her grief was too great.
Peter's eyes wandered back to Tony despite himself. His body was completely still and his eyes stared on unseeingly. The all too familiar feeling of grief ripped through Peter's body and knocked him to his knees. Suddenly he felt child like and small, as he experienced the first few moments of his life in a Tony Stark free world. No one could fill Tony's shoes, and even though Thanos had floated away in the wind he suddenly felt as though they had lost.
"Kid… come on…" a voice said quietly touching his shoulder but he shrugged it off and placed his head in his hands. He wasn't ready to see Mr. Stark lying there again.
He heard commotion around him as people slowly moved to stand with their friends and family. Some gathered to try and find anyone who may have been trapped in the wreckage of the battle still. He could hear people talking softly now. Someone was tending to Pepper, he was pretty sure it was Mr. Rhodes voice guiding her towards a different location.
"We've got to move him…" Steve Roger's voice said, it broke but he had the air of authority in his voice again. Always trying to keep everyone moving along, always leading.
Peter caught the smallest utterings from someone else nearby him, talking in a voice full of emotion. "His daughter…"
"What?" Peter demanded unearthing his head from his hands and looking in the direction the voice had spoken from. "Tony… Mr. Stark, he had a daughter?"
Steve Rogers looked down at him and nodded slowly, he looked thoughtful before speaking again.
"You know it's been some time since Thanos snapped his fingers and wiped everyone out… it's been five years. Tony and Pepper had a daughter, her name is Morgan." He explained a look of pity in his eyes that only made Peter feel smaller.
He didn't know what to think of this new found information. He'd been gone five years? Tony Stark had brought a daughter into his world in that time? He suddenly had so many things he wished to ask, but he only wished to ask them of Mr. Stark.
"Hey Queens, you need to see a medic, you look rough. Let me help you." Steve said reaching out a hand to him. Peter took it and stood to his feet, the world around him spinning for a moment before he steadied himself.
"Someone help him, I'm going to help move Tony out of the battlefield." He said ushering for someone to help him. "And hey, Carol, can you take care of gauntlet, I'll need to explain to you how we got the stones and how crucial it is to get them back to where they had come from."
The Stones. The gauntlet. If the remaining Avengers had managed to bring back half the population why couldn't they do it again for Tony? This new world Peter had found himself in wasn't simple or ordinary, extraordinary things happened all the time. Why couldn't they pull off one last thing for Tony to go home to his daughter.
"The Stones.. Use the stones to bring back Mr. Stark." Peter said quickly looking up at Steve Rogers and then to the woman named Carol who seemed to be the strongest of them all. She now held the glove in her arms.
"Kid… I'm not sure it works like you may think it does. We didn't bring you back using the stones, it's been a long road. I'd be happy to tell you about it once we get outta here." Steve said slowly looking at him with the pity in his eyes again. Suddenly Peter understood the frustrations Tony Stark had experienced with Captain America over the years.
"Thanos did it though, he did it with Vision. I broke the stone and killed Vision to try and prevent Thanos from getting the last stone. He used the time stone and it all rewound back." A new voice said and a girl stepped forward. Peter recognized her from the airport fight back in the beginning when he had met them all. Tony had called her the Scarlet Witch, or Wanda.
She looked like a person of war. Someone who had seen far too much, far too fast. It almost hurt to look into her eyes, he could practically feel her grief as she spoke of Vision. She looked into Peter's eyes and there was an expression on her face that Peter couldn't quite put his finger on.
"Wanda. It's far too much of a risk, to rewind would to put the opportunity into Thanos's hands to get the stones and to kill us all." Stevie said slowly, Peter could tell he didn't want to say this, but he believed in his truth of it.
"I've been like Tony's daughter. I've lost my parents to war. If I could prevent a child from feeling the way I did, I would." She said fiercely.
"He's right. Tony knew what he was doing, we must honor his choice." Stephen Strange said joining them from behind and standing beside Steve as if in solidarity.
"You knew he was going to die!" Peter cried out furiously, a new understanding hitting him. "You said you knew the outcome! I saw you look at Tony and hold up your finger right before he did it!"
"Look kid you're not the only one here who cared about Tony Stark." Strange said not breaking eye contact with him as he spoke.
"All that had to happen differently was someone else put that glove on and snap their fingers." Peter said not breaking eye contact either.
"We don't trade lives kid. You're grieving, that okay, let's get you inside somewhere to call your family." Steve said standing between them.
"I would never mean it like that. Thanos did it and survived because he was more powerful. Tony was human under that suit, he never would have been able to survive it! What about the hulk, or that girl who flew down from space and broke Thanos's ship with her body!" Peter cried out in frustration. It all seemed so avoidable to him, such a simple fix.
"Tony summoned the stones to his own armor, the tech of this glove was made by him. It was a fail safe on his part I'm sure of it." Bruce Banner said as he joined the group around them. "In that moment nobody else had the tech in their suit to pull off what Tony did."
"I'm done. I'm done with all of this, I'm out." Peter said in frustration he turned from them and went to storm away but as he turned once again his eyes met Tony's body. Rhodey had a stretcher and Tony laid upon it, someone had closed his eyes.
"Queens, come on, let call your parents." Steve argued placing a hand on his shoulder from behind him as Peter stood their frozen.
"I don't have any parents to call Captain!" Peter yelled ripping his shoulder away and facing the group behind them. Stephen Strange, Wanda, Bruce, Falcon, Carol, and a few others all stared back at him with a variety of expressions on their faces. Carol looked solemn, almost lost in thought.
"I don't want anything to do with the Avengers anymore. I'm done." Peter said throwing his hands up in a mock surrender. "Some team."
"Then go kid, people die, that's part of the job. If you can't handle it then you should really rethink this whole thing and give the suit back." Falcon said in an angry voice.
"Sam don't." Steve said his voice angry too but Peter was done. He looked for the nearest high point and webbed up to it. He used the momentum to keep swinging until he was out of the scene of the wreckage.
He stopped in a nearby area once he was sure he was far enough away and collapsed back onto his knees and slumped his back up against a tree. He was exhausted both mentally and physically. His body ached but his mind was worse, it buzzed with painful images.
Sam had a point, people did die. Peter knew that of course, because his parents were dead along with uncle Ben after them. They were human though, Tony had always seemed like more. Peter realized he had been attached to him for more than just the fact that he had been his hero, someone he'd admired since childhood.
No, it was because some part of him had imagined Tony Stark to be invincible. He never expected Tony to die, not even on Titan when they were fighting Thanos. He wasn't ready for this, he needed more time with Tony. The world needed more time with Tony.
"That kid is out of his mind, making this about him. Acting like we didn't give a damn about Tony too." Sam said aggressively.
"He is mourning, and you never did much care for Tony." Wanda said pointedly.
"Yeah but did he even know Tony? Besides hero worshiping the guy?" Sam asked calming down but still critical. Nobody blamed him, the adrenaline still was coursing through them all in different ways.
"Yeah he did. I know Tony felt the same about Parker too. That kid was the main reason Tony agreed to help us, to risk his new life." Rhodey said, joining them now.
"When he got off that ship he was stranded on the first words out of his mouth were "I lost the kid." Steve added, his eyes glistening as well.
Everyone was silent for a moment. Even Sam as he kicked at the rocks near his feet uncomfortably.
"Why does the kid have to be wrong though? We couldn't save Natasha with the stones, now we can't save Stark either?" Thor demanded emerging from the wreckage near them, his axe still in his hands.
"After everything that went wrong. After everything we did it right it. You really wanna take another gamble?" Sam questioned them exasperatedly, giving them all imploring looks.
"Your wizard friend is doing his weird time trip thing again." Peter quill muttered pointing at Stephen Strange. Everyone turned to see that he was in some sort of trance, twitching wildly.
"What in the damn hell is happening right now?" Rhodey asked stepping back from the man's unsettling jerky movements.
"No it's fine, I've seen him do it before. Yeah don't get me wrong it's freaky as hell but he's looking through time or something I don't really understand." Quill said in response as Carol looked down at the gauntlet in her arms.
"He summoned the time stone to his necklace." She said holding it up to show them a missing stone.
"You can have it back now. Sorry about that." Stephen said steadying himself and moving to place the stone back in the gauntlet with his powers.
"What was that?" Steve demanded.
"I was looking through time. I looked only to see the outcome of Thanos. I didn't look to see afterwards what would unfurl."
"Okay, and?" Sam asked impatiently.
"I think we should bring back Tony." Strange said leaving everyone momentarily speechless.
"How? Why now?" Steve asked something brewing in his voice that sounded a lot like hopefulness.
"The kid. The kid is important. The world needs him and he needed more time with Tony to mentor him. In the future we need Spiderman at his best." Stephen said firmly.
"I could wield the stones. It wouldn't kill me, only cause some momentary pain." Carol said stepping forward.
"You're supporting this?" Sam asked in surprise.
"I have a lot of work to do on other planets. In the five years since the origin snap resources will have dwindled, and the influx of people is going to cause trouble for awhile. I want to leave this planet in the best hands. If he says it's the kid, and the kid needs Stark, I'll help." She explained in a business like manner.
"So how does it this work though? We need to be sure." Thor questioned looking around the group.
"The best shot is carol wears the gauntlet using Rhodey's suit. She can rewind time to that moment and knock the gauntlet out of Tony's hands and snap her fingers herself before using the time stone again to rewind to this moment, and you bring an intact Tony back with you." Bruce explained slowly, looking slightly anxious.
"You don't sound to sure of that plan, mastermind." Sam said skeptically.
"Time Travel is tricky. It sounds insane, but I also don't understand why it can't work. There will be two Tony's in the moment but the other one is already dead. So I don't see how that could harm anything. I trust Wanda if she says she's seen it before" Bruce finished and once again they were silent as Rhodey exited his suit and showed Carol how to enter it instead.
"Should someone find the kid?" Wanda asked looking to Steve.
"No… let's wait until this pans out either way." He answered watching on as everyone backed up as Carol stepped forward next to Tony's body. She placed the Gauntlet on her arm and suddenly she was glowing with the colors of the infinity stones.
It all happened so fast and he was already so weak from battle that Tony was left feeling completely disorientated. The scene around them had changed, it was quieter now. Thanos and his army were gone. Looking over wildly he saw Carol Danver's, her face appearing out of Rhodey's suit. Her hand was gripped tightly around him upper arm.
He watched as she ripped the Gauntlet off her arm and placed it at her feet. She was in pain and the more he looked the more he noticed how damaged Rhodey's suit really was. She excited it and sat on the ground taking deep breaths.
"Someone get Pepper back down here, now!" Steve called and Tony finally turned his attention to everyone else still left on the battlefield. They all looked down at him in disbelief and he knew his face wore a similar look of incredulity. He noticed something just past them though and a gasp escaped his lips. A body lay upon the ground, and he tilted his head to the side, feeling as if he was truly losing it now because the body was his own.
"What the hell just happened?" Tony managed to choke out, focusing on Steve for answers.
"The Stone's. We used the Stone's one last time to bring you back. Wanda saw Thanos single out the time stone to rewind time in a concentrated location back during the original battle on Wakanda. Carol could wield the stones without dying because, well she's practically invincible. So we put her in Rhodey's suit and tried it. It worked." Steve explained his eyes bright.
"TONY!" Pepper screamed and Tony turned to see her running back with Rhodey at her side. Her face was streaked with tears but her eyes were full of happiness and she collided with him and held onto him as if her life depended on it.
He held onto her and breathed out a sigh of relief. He'd been ready to die to save everyone but he knew the price it would come at. Tonight he would see Morgan and she would still have her dad. Pepper would still have her husband.
"You looked sexy in the suit you know." He whispered in her ear and she burst out laughing and pulled back, taking his face in her hands and staring at him like he was the center of her universe.
Once she pulled away Tony turned his attention to everyone else standing in the group. Some of them were crying.
"Thank you." He said sincerely looking to Carol and then to Wanda. "I don't take what you did for me lightly. I'll get to see my daughter tonight because of you."
Looking around though he realized something wasn't right, someone was missing from this crowd who should most definitely be here.
"Where's the kid? Why's he not here celebrating my magical return from the dead? Too much space magic and it's not exciting enough anymore?" He asked and suddenly Sam looked uncomfortable.
"There was an incident.." Steve started to say but Tony cut him off, all joking tone aside.
"Tell me nothing happened to my kid again…" He demanded of Steve, panic setting in now. There was no way he could have lost Parker again.
"No, Peter is alive, he's back along with everyone else. He ran off though after he got in a fight with us." Steve explained quickly with an apologetic look.
"That kid is who you should really thank. He's the one who had the idea." Wanda said "And someone needs to find him, he's upset and he's hurt."
"He's injured?" How severe?" Tony asked quickly, looking down at his suit and judging the specs on it. He figured it could probably make a short flight depending on how far the kid had gotten to.
"He looked pretty beat. Tony he thinks you're dead still, I'm ashamed to say that we didn't want to even consider his plan at first. After everything." Steve explained but Tony waved him off because it really didn't matter now.
"I'm going to go find him, Friday can still track his suit. Let's meet back up at my place. I've got a shop there with the tech to start planning on how we will get the stones back." Tony said curtly. "Plus Morgan has been dying to meet the Spider kid in the youtube videos."
"I called Happy before to get quinjet over here. It should be arriving any minute now anyways. We'll assemble there. You find the kid." Pepper said gripping his shoulder before reluctantly letting go.
"I'll see you soon." He promised her and she smiled at him with a nod.
"Friday track the kid, find me him asap." He said and took flight, flying above the wreckage of the battle.
"You got it boss."
Peter sat against the tree still, trying to decide what to do next. Part of him knew he should get up and try and get to Aunt May. She was still out there somewhere, and probably worried sick too.
MJ too. When Liz left Peter realized that she had always been just a crush, but MJ had become more to him. She was smart and sarcastic, and Peter's heart warmed momentarily at the thought of her face. He wondered if she would have been apart of the snap or if she would now be 5 years older than him. He didn't want to think about that yet, it was ruining the moment of happiness he was granted thinking of seeing her again.
His best friend Ned would be waiting for him too, but that hurt to think about. Ned would want to know everything about what had happened. If Peter was up to talking about it, he had to admit it would make a thrilling story. But he knew how that story ended, and it made him sick to think about telling it and having to relive it.
Panic was coursing through him, he stood up quickly but the world spun as he did so and he caught himself from falling by throwing out a hand against the tree. He doubled over trying to breathe as the exhaustion hit him. He wouldn't be able to web sling home, he'd used the last of his adrenaline to get here.
He closed his eyes tightly trying to fight back the tears he felt coming on. He didn't want to call the Avengers for help, he didn't want to see any of them. But just as he thought it a rush of wind and a thud sounded behind him but he didn't turn to see who it was. It was probably Rhodey or Thor and even though he wasn't as angry with them he still felt to vulnerable to face them.
"Kid you okay?" a voice asked and a metal clanking sounded along with it. Peter couldn't believe his ears and he turned slowly to see none other than Tony Stark exciting his suit. Surely his eyes were failing him, or perhaps he got hit harder than he had thought.
"Mr. Stark?" He choked out questioningly, as tears escaped him.
"Yeah it's me, you did a better job convincing them to try and save me than you thought." He said hurrying over to him and hugging him tightly. Peter leaned into the hug without hesitation as sobs began to rack his body.
"It's okay kid, it's done now. We made it." Tony said thumping his back. "I've got a jet headed over here to pick us up. It'll be here in a few minutes.
"I thought you were dead. I thought you died." Peter said pulling back and looking at Tony. He looked better, still beat from the fight but not charred on half of his body. They must have done it, gone back just enough to pull him out.
"Yeah but I'm here now. So are you. You don't know the hell I've been in these five years since I watched you float away on that godforsaken planet." Tony said his eyes full of tears in his eyes. "I was too hard on you, and I didn't tell you how much you meant to me. I just did my sarcastic snarky bit because I was cocky and I always assumed I had so much more time with you. And more than anything how thankful I was for that shitty lesson when my daughter came. I'm a better man and father because of you Peter." Tony said quickly as it all poured out of him, as if he'd been holding it in for a long time. Five years long.
Peter was left speechless. He always saw Tony as his hero, a father figure, and to hear that it was reciprocated mended a part of him that had felt broken only moments ago.
"I'm so happy for you and Pepper. I knew you'd be a great dad but it's so wild to think about" Peter choked out as he found his voice again and Tony nodded with a small smile.
"Her name is Morgan. She's gonna be so happy to meet you. She's seen all your work on Youtube. Big fan of yours. Think's she pretty cool since her dad knows Spiderman and all that." Tony said tears in his eyes too.
The Jet landed in the field next to them and Tony pulled one of Peter's arms around his shoulder and helped guide him towards it.
"Let's get you out of here. Let's go home. I've got so much I wanna tell you."
