Where Do I Go Now That He's Gone- Chapter 1:
ENDGAME SPOILERS!
AN: I tried to write another Super Family fic and I only got a couple of chapters in, but this one is just a 5 part fic. It was originally a oneshot but it got long enough that I decided to break it up. This follows Peter- and in the last part Morgan- in the immediate and less immediate aftermath of Tony's death, going through Spiderman Far From Home and beyond, I edited it a little to add in some of the lines from the trailer!
Salty tears stung in his eyes, but Peter restrained them as he watched the last piece of his mentor float away. Just in front of him, Pepper's long hair blew in the breeze, so loud it was almost like he could hear Tony whispering to him. His aunt pulled him back as Tony's wife and daughter turned away and passed by them, Pepper briefly gripping his hand as she did. He dipped his head in respect, but when they had moved on he opened his palm and found a tiny flashdrive there. A gulp caught in his throat, but he slid it into his pocket and said something to excuse himself from May, not even really sure what was coming out of his mouth. He wasn't focussed on the words, but on a little girl sitting cross-legged in the grass under a tree away from the rest of the group, who were gathering to share memories of their leader and pick at finger food. Her mother tickled her under the chin with a sad smile before heading over to join the others. The nod she gave was almost imperceptible, but Peter caught it and knew what she wanted him to do.
He plopped down in front of the tiny girl, next to her feeling like a Hulk rather than the skinny gangly kid he was. She glanced across to him from the daisy chain she'd just started, and observed "you're my brother, right?" Peter started, his eyes flying open, even though the girl was paying little attention to him, now eyes back on her work. "My dad hid the photo behind one of Grandpa, but I found it ages ago when I was searching for the cookie jar." She moved her hands away from the daisies for a moment to thread a lock of hair behind her ear, those eyes focussing on him again in the way only kids could look at you. With the Avengers he always felt like a baby; at school too with everyone else trying to show off how mature they were. He'd never felt someone looking up to him like this, and it made him shift to try to appear taller. "He looked at you the same way he looked at me. You're his son, right?"
"I-uh" He remembered the way he'd collapsed on Tony as he'd been drifting to dust; the tightness with which the older man had gripped him upon his return. "In a way, I guess, yeah- I am."
She smiled, and pointed at the house. "Plus I know I live here, but there's internet connection everywhere in 2023! You're The Spider-Man from YouTube, right?"
He scoffed. "They still call me that?"
"They call me Morgan," she said, holding out a hand to shake with her father's confidence, even if the voice was a lot more babyish.
Gladly, he took it. "And me Peter- y'know, when they're not calling me the made up name." Having finished crafting the floral piece of headgear, Morgan placed it on Peter's head and smirked, with a satisfied nod. "Suits you."
When they got back home the apartment felt somehow a lot more empty than the last time he had been here, even though it had only been the two of them for some time. He certainly could have just put headphones on, but Peter had been caught in several acts ranging from wearing his suit to other more mundane teenage activities, so he waited for May to leave to play the hard-drive. Unfortunately that took quite a while because she wasn't jumping at the idea of being separated from him for another five years in her time if they were caught in different areas. She wanted to play on the Xbox together for hours as she told him a point by point breakdown of her thesis, from the political landscape of the current globe to the Broadcasting & Media college course she'd picked up while he was snapped. While he was certainly glad she hadn't wallowed in her despair- although of course she hadn't, this was Aunt May, who picked up the very un-her pastime of knitting and made him five scarves each significantly increasing in quality in the month after Uncle Ben died- he needed a way to get her out of the house. So after she won the sixth game in a row, even with the distraction of explaining every point made in her paper, he clutched his stomach. "Y'know, I'm really craving one of Delmar's subs. It's been so long." Even though to him, it had actually been just over three days since he'd tasted one, Aunt May didn't fully understand the logistics of it, so she nodded eagerly.
"Let's go grab some then!" She got up from the couch to grab her purse.
Forcing a yawn, Peter stretched out his arms, spreading out to take up the space she'd just vacated. "Can I take a 'lil nap? Just a 'lil one. All that dimension hopping is kinda draining." May pulled her purse up on her shoulder and cocked her hip. Maybe she wasn't as easily fooled by his guilt tripping as he'd hoped she'd be. "I'll be refreshed for another round of CoD when you get back."
At the promise she briefly pursed her lips but nodded, not needing to take his order. He always got the same thing and she'd known it for years, even before he'd come to live with her. He shut his eyes and waited for the door to shut before leaping up, vaulting across the length of the room and slamming his own door shut as he jumped from the doorway into the chair in front of his desk; pulling open the lid of the computer that still sat there, although he had to dust some cobwebs off of it, apologising profusely as he relocated a spider that had made his desk its home at some point in the past five years. Then he jammed the hard-drive into its opening, crossing his fingers for it to work. He was worried it would be some type of StarkTech, too advanced for his laptop that hadn't exactly been advanced even in 2018. But luck prevailed and a message popped up on the screen. He clicked on the option to view the files and found only one; a video format. He wasn't sure why he hadn't been expecting it, but the sight of his mentor spinning on a chair like his own evoked a short gasp, and Peter immediately stopped doing the same, focussing all his attention instead on the screen.
"Hey Parker," said Tony; it was weird that he thought of him as Tony now, but he undeniably did. Maybe it was the softness in his voice as he said Peter's name. "If you're seeing this it's, uh, it means you made it back but I didn't." He broke off the serious tone with a short laugh. "Don't think anyone else saw that precise trade coming, but I didn't get the genius label from nowhere." He ran a hand through his hair, a lot more grey than it used to be. Peter hadn't noticed it when he'd been going, he'd stayed focused on the scars on his mentor's face; the life draining out of him. This Tony wasn't physically gone yet, but the emotion on his face showed he was prepared for the possibility. "Don't get me wrong, kid, I want to be there, so bad. Not just to show you this, but for my own kid. Morgan. Look, I- I don't want her dragged into this like I did to you." Tony looked straight through the camera into his eyes. "That was wrong of me, even though you stepped up. I will not have Morgan stepping up anytime soon, no matter how much she might want to." He held up the hard drive. "As well as watching the video on this, you can use it to take my finger print to get inside a lab in New York. Call Happy; he'll take you there. If I could, I would explain all this to you by your side, but you're just gonna have to make do with my voice." He stood up, pausing close to the camera and looking into it again. "I'm trusting you to keep Morgan's safe until you think she's of the right age. I'm trusting you to use yours to protect yourself so you'll be around to help her." He cocked an eyebrow. "And because I don't want you gone either. Especially not if I give my life in exchange." His hand hovered over the button to stop the recording, but first he added. "I know you'll do good Pete. Better than me, I hope. For a long time I only ever did well. I love you three thousand too. Just don't tell anyone."
Then the screen went black. "Mine? My what?"
"Peter, I've got your Cuban!... I swear to God if you got me out of the house to wrack up your score I will know and end you! I memorised it!" He pulled the hard-drive out of his computer and slid it back into his pocket. Much as he ached to find out what Tony had been hiding from him, it seemed he would have to wait at least another few rounds of CoD.
The next day Peter decided he had given May enough aunt-nephew time, waking up before her for once. Sitting at the breakfast table alone at five am, his finger hovered over Happy's contact information for a good minute, unsure why he was hesitating. Then his stomach let out a low, loud growl, so he got up to pour himself a bowl of lucky charms, thankful for the reprieve. Somehow it was the largest and smallest breakfast he had ever eaten as his mind whirled, wondering what Tony had to show him, what he had to keep hidden from Morgan. On the last spoonful he kept the spoon in his mouth, sucking up the milk as slowly as he could to drag out the time. A loud creak signalled the opening of May's door- which Uncle Ben had been meaning oil for a month before he died. He was gone, but at least Peter had his suitcase to take on field trips. Maybe whatever was waiting for him where Happy was taking him was some piece of Tony that could keep him alive, at least in Peter's heart. Tapping at Gen-Z teenage superpowered speed, he sent the text then flipped his phone over to hide it from May, smiling up at her as she beelined to the coffee machine.
The drive was... interesting? Happy was far more talkative than usual; not to say that he was anywhere near as chatty as his old boss, but he did ask several questions. First it was about Peter's favourite food, which he explained was cherry pie; specifically the one made by Aunt May. "What about cheeseburgers?" The bodyguard/driver interrupted.
Peter shrugged. "Yeah, I'll take one. Who doesn't like cheeseburgers?"
"Vegetarians, vegans-"
"Okay I get it, I get it!" In the mirror in front of him he saw the corner of Happy's mouth quirk upwards, and Peter let out a short laugh, before cutting himself off when the man in the front of the car jerked his head around, face back to it's resting state, but he didn't raise the screen between them, which made Peter laugh even more, so he had to cover his mouth with his hand. Happy just threw his suit back at him, telling him to get changed.
"Mr Stark asked me to leave you here," said Happy, but he didn't sound too sure about doing that. The office looking building was strangely mundane for Tony: no big A or his last name hanging up; the building wasn't shaped in any interesting way but just as a rectangle; the brick wasn't metallic or silvery but a faded browny orange. Happy flipped up the pad outside the door and put his hands in his pockets. "I'll pick you up in an hour to go through the drive-thru," he said casually, then ducked back into the car and pulled away, leaving Peter in the shade of the other buildings all around, which looked the same as the one he was about to enter. He looked around, anxious about being seen even though he was supposed to be here, but then he pulled the thumbprint he'd made using a Wiki-how article out of his backpack and pressed it to the pad. He didn't know how unsure he'd been that it'd work until it clicked green and he let out a relieved breath, pushing open the door.
The lights clicked on slowly across the room as it all powered on, and yes, in here it looked much more sleek and StarkTech. "Welcome Sir-" announces a woman's Irish voice.
Holding up his hands, Peter looked around the room trying to determine where the voice had come from. "Oh no. I'm not- I'm not him."
"I know who you are Master Parker."
He raised his eyebrows. "Uh... right. Great! And who are you?"
"This lab. Mr Stark built it in his last few months for an express purpose." Peter did a full 360 degree turn, searching the room for anything Tony could have left him, but there were only tools and raw materials scattered around on the tables, unless there was nanotech in amongst it! Getting excited, Peter squinted, using his spidey senses to try to search for some. "I see you are impatient."
"You have eyes?"
"No," she said simply, pausing for a moment so he was left in silence. Abruptly she announced "let me show you what you are here to see." Even as she spoke the words what he'd thought was a wall on the other side of the room opened and spun around, revealing two cylindrical cases. One held an Iron-Man suit, but in green and silver. It was just as tall as his own suit, which he supposed was meant to give him a hint as to when he should give it to Morgan. The other case didn't hold a suit, but a stool with another drive on it. Peter couldn't hide the disappointment, even though he knew that was really entitled. To him, Tony had given him a new suit only a few days ago, but it had been five years for his mentor; if Morgan had a suit; he'd been hoping for an up to date one too. "Peter," said the voice. "Insert it into the hip of your suit." His hand snapped to his hips, and he pressed in, confused, feeling a small indentation he hadn't noticed in space. To be fair, things had been quite intense what with meeting that guy obsessed with Footloose and his crew, even before getting Snapped.
Now he stepped forwards to take the drive and pressed it into the space as he'd been told to. Immediately the suit seemed to glow from bottom to top until Tony's voice announced 'update complete'. Peter leapt our of his skin because that voice wasn't robotic, it was as casual as ever. He could almost see him spinning on that chair again. "Tony?" He muttered.
"Hey Pete." The teenager clutched his head, sinking to a crouch. "I've got some stuff to show you. Wanna do a test run?" He glanced across to Morgan's suit, spinning back into the wall, then above it to the clock that emerged on the other side of the wall.
"I should have time for that."
It was even more difficult than usual taking off the suit and going back to the mundane half of his life. Even though he now knew he could go back to Tony soon, it still hurt losing the voice that had just been introducing him to all the new things he could do; that had been even better than when Tony had left him to figure it out himself. Luckily this version of Tony couldn't leave him, right? Even if he had to take a break for his Peter Parker life, soon he could get back to him.
Reviews will be gladly accepted ;)