"I don't want to go, sir, please, I don't want to go - " Peter was speaking desperately, terrified, and Tony could do nothing, nothing, except offer meaningless words and watch as Peter crumbled to dust before his eyes.
Tony sat back, heart pounding, a million thoughts running through his mind.
Peter couldn't be dead. He just couldn't. He's dead, oh god, he can't be dead, please god, not Peter, he's a kid, a kid who has an entire life ahead of him, I was supposed to keep him safe, what am I going to tell May?
Tony raised a trembling hand to cover his face, rocking back and forth and swallowing down his sobs.
Tony remembered. He remembered the boy who went out and fought crime in the streets in his PJ's. He remembered the boy who willingly went out into space, knowing he might die.
More than anything, he remembered Peter. He remembered a smart-aleck teen with a heart too big for his body, who'd continued crime fighting when Tony took the suit, who was so damn awkward, who would get so excited when he helped someone and got a free churro, and god, why Peter?
A part of Tony wanted to scream and cry and hold Peter but Peter wasn't there to hold. He was just…gone.
A smaller part of Tony was still in denial. Because if Peter, Peter who was so full of life, if Peter could die, then…could any of them survive?
"I can't be a friendly neighborhood Spiderman if there's no neighborhood to protect."
Pretty soon, there would be no neighborhood.
And no Spiderman to protect it.