The next time Peter awoke from his dreamless sleep, he knew he wasn't alone. He could hear something - no... someone - tinkering about with something he couldn't see elsewhere in the room. He tried to sit up to see what was happening and found himself frustrated once more with the reality he was faced with. Tears stung the young man's eyes as the weight of it all sunk in.
"Kid? You awake over there?"
The familiar voice cut through him like a knife and Peter tried his best not to cry harder, this time because he was relieved. Mr. Stark was there with him. Surely Mr. Stark would be able to fix this.
"Mr. Stark?" Peter rasped, trying his best to get his voice above a whisper.
Tony came into view by his side, looking the same as he ever did.
"Mr. Stark, how'd we get off the planet? D-Did we beat Thanos?" Peter desperately asked him, much to Tony's confusion.
"You remembered all that?" Tony asked him.
Peter gave as much of a nod as he could muster. "Did we?"
"Kid, there's something you need to know," Tony began. "You've been in a coma for a while. You had some nasty spider bite and it was unlike anyone had ever seen before. By all accounts, it shouldn't have affected you as much as it did. Pepper - you remember her right?" He paused and when he got the slightest hint of an affirmative nod, he continued. "Well, she heard about your case and thought we could help. So I've modified this BARF tech, I know. I know, gotta work on that name. Anyway, it's let me link up with you to try to stimulate brain activity in order to bring you out of the coma. All that Spider-Man stuff, all of that was part of the simulation to help bring you out of it. It worked, obviously."
Peter's whole world was crashing down on him. It wasn't real. None of it had been real. "But... You're Iron Man? The Avengers?"
"Oh, all of that is very real," Tony assured him. "I put you in some modified scenarios that I've dealt with. You seemed to respond best to the stimulus that required a mix of physical and mental challenges with a heaping dose of stress. Don't worry, Kid. We got Thanos," He promised him.
Peter still looked distraught. "So I'm not... I don't have powers?" He weakly asked him.
"Maybe not, but who knows at this point? Some of your labs have come back with abnormalities. Look, we'll get to the bottom of it. Right now, you've just gotta focus on getting better. We'll deal with all the rest later," Tony assured him.