Peter was sitting in his wheelchair with the IV hooked into his arm, pumping nutrients into his very malnourished body as he watched everyone sit around the conference room in tense silence.

Mary Jane and Nat were sitting right next to him, keeping him company while the others were spread out around the room.

Tony and Rhodey were near the back wall, leaning against it and watching as all the holograms were showing the decrease in the population, Steve was standing at the head of the table with Sharon right next to him, Bruce was in the middle looking over some new data, Gwen and Ana were on the right side of the table.

One was looking at her brother in concern and the other was trying to not so subtly look up every few seconds to make sure he was still there.

She still didn't know how Peter would react to her if she did say something...

Nebula and Rocket were actually in the room too. They were closer to Steve at the front of the table with Rocket sitting down on the edge of a crate with Nebula a few feet away from him.

He still had no idea if Rocket was real or just a figment of his imagination...

That just left glowing lady and Thor.

Peter could see Thor at the opposite side of the room in the corner, eating some bread and drinking a beer at a little side table. Even if he was at the opposite side of the room, he could still see the loss in the god's eyes. He could see the anguish, the heartbreak, the sadness. He could see everything.

Whatever Thor went through, it wasn't pleasant and Peter would defiantly not be asking the god what or who he had lost.

All you had to do was look in his eyes and you'd understand...

Carol Danvers, AKA Captain Marvel, was also towards the middle of the room with Banner. She was looking at the screen in sadness, not quite believing that this was happening, that it had already happened...

"It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth." Rhodey started off, starting to walk over towards the table with Tony hot on his heels.

"World governments are in pieces. The parts that are still working are trying to take a census. And it looks like he did... he did exactly what he said he was gonna do. Thanos wiped out fifty percent, of all living creatures." Natasha said sadly from her place at Peter's left.

Peter glared at the holograms, tormenting him with the decreasing number by the second. All those trillions of lives, gone with the snap of a finger. Plus the many more out there in the universe.

Peter hated Thanos with every fiber of his being...

"Where is he now? Where?" Peter asked. Some of them looked at him in surprise since it was the first time he was speaking since waking up in the Medbay and being rolled off into the conference room.

Or maybe it was just because how terrible his voice sounded...

"We don't know. He just opened a portal and left." Steve said with a cold look behind his eyes.

At least he wasn't the only one there wanting to rip Thanos apart...

Peter looked around the room and observed everyone there for a few seconds. Everyone looked so tired, like they were all ready to just fall down and pass out from exhaustion. Thor especially looked like complete shit if Peter was being honest, being all moody and broody in the corner of the room. Not like he'd call the god out on it, Peter wasn't doing that well either.

Peter sighed before looking back at the screen with a glare. If looks could kill, the whole screen would have exploded from the amount of heat his glare was radiating.

"Well don't you just looked pissed."

Peter turned to look at Rocket who was still sitting on a crate near the corner. The whole room then turns to look at Peter and realized they could see the anger coming off of the young man in waves.

"Yeah I am pissed. I'm pissed, because some asshole alien came out of nowhere and fucking destroyed half the universe. So I think I have a reason to be angry." Peter said, glaring at the raccoon now.

"Yeah, well we're all pissed man, get in line." Rocket said. Nebula glared at him and smacked him across the back of his head.

"Get in line he says...Newsflash furball, I was the first line of defense against the genocidal maniac, so if anyone's in the front of the line, it's me. Maybe Thor or Banner since they lost to him first."

"Well if you were our first line of defense you did a pretty shitty job at keeping that stone away from him. He fucking won because he had that fucking time stone."

"Ohh, fucking sorry the asshole chopped my goddamn hand off and then stabbed me through my fucking abdomen you prick. I couldn't do much about that!"

"Alright, enough, both of you." Natasha said sternly. Peter and Rocket glared at each other for a couple more seconds before Rocket broke eye contact with him first.

"Whatever." The raccoon grumbled, not looking up at anyone anymore.

Peter blew out some air through his nose before turning around and completely ignoring the walking talking raccoon so he could deal with bigger problems. Steve, wanting to make sure a fight didn't break out, wisely changed the subject.

"We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now." Steve sighed heavily. "Deep space scans, and satellites, and we got nothing. Peter," the young man looked up into the other's eyes. "You fought him."

"Yeah, I did...you wanna know what I got in return? I got my hand chopped off." Peter said, gesturing to his missing hand with his left. He could feel how Mary Jane and Nat both stiffened at his sides with the mention of his hand, but at the moment Peter couldn't care. It was just some more bad luck thrown at him, he'd deal with it, no big deal.

It may not be in a healthy way...but he'll deal with it...

"Can you please not joke around about that yet? Maybe wait at least a couple months." Ana asked with a small smile, causing Peter to smile too.

"Ehh, where's the fun in that sis?" He smirked.

"At least the three weeks you spent in space didn't effect your amazing personality." Ana smirked back at him, causing him to softly chuckle.

"Fuck off, will yah." He said before sobering up. He looked at Steve and saw that the man wanted to say something more, so he nodded at him for him to continue.

"Did he give you any clues? Any coordinates? Anything?" Steve pleaded towards the younger man. Peter looked at Steve for a second. He could tell the man was desperate. That's why he was questioning him. He hates how much information he doesn't have, he's been a spy and an assassin for all of his life, he was supposed to be good at this shit but here he was, with only one piece of information to go off of.

"The only thing that monster said in his monologue was that he'd watch the sun set on a grateful universe after he was done. He didn't really say anything else before I dropped a chunk of metal on top of him." Peter said. Steve looked saddened that Peter didn't know much else but the soldier knew it wasn't his fault.

"I think I know where he's going."

Everyone turned to look at Nebula, "Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. And when he worked, he talked about his great plan. Even disassembled, I wanted to please him. I'd ask "where would we go once his plan was complete?". His answer was always the same, To the Garden." She said.

"Cute, Thanos has a retirement plan." Rhodey sarcastically said while rolling his eyes. Peter snorted at that comment, gaining a smirk from the Colonel.

Rocket suddenly got up from his crate and made his way into the middle of the table, "When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions. No one's ever seen anything like it... Until two days ago, On this planet." A hologram of a planet appears in the middle of the table and everyone could see a shockwave traversing across the surface of the planet.

"He used the stones...That's where he is." Peter said with determination. Apparently everyone else could hear it too because Nat looked over to her right and glared at the young man, "You're not going."

"What?! Why, that asshole needs to pay for what he did." Peter glared right back at her.

"What you need, is to heal up. You are gonna be staying here with your sisters, Sharon, Mary Jane and Pepper because I know those women can actually keep you in line." Natasha replied.

"None of you could hurt him last time, I did. I'm going." Peter said like he was done with this conversation.

"You are not moving from this compound Peter, you are hurt and barely have any energy to begin with...Why are you so hell bent on coming along." Natasha asked suspiciously. She knew her son after years of spending time with him, she knew when there was more to a story with him.

Peter sighed and rubbed a hand down his face. Ana narrowed her eyes at her brother, trying to figure out why he wanted to come along. Something was defiantly troubling him, she wished she knew what it was though.

Gwen bit her lip. She had a bad feeling about this. Whatever he was about to say was defiantly not gonna be good if the look in his eyes was anything to go by.

He looked up into Natasha's eyes before responding, "Because it takes a monster to kill another monster."

At that, everyone in the room grew quiet and they all looked at the man in sadness. Natasha shook her head and no one but Peter could see the wet sheen in her eyes. He knew that she hated it when he talked down about himself, but he couldn't help it sometimes.

Especially if it was true...

"Peter, you are not a monster. Do you know how many people you save as Spider-Man? New York needs you, everyone in this room, needs you." Mary Jane said with a frown, turning his head to look her in the eyes.

Peter shook his head, "He knew my name." He said, causing everyone to pause for a second. They didn't expect Peter would say that.

"He knew my real name. I've only told you guys, Fury, Hill and a couple Vigilantes my real, full name. But he knew it, my last name, Parker."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Rocket asked.

Peter glared, "Thanos knew me for one reason, he knew I was dangerous, he knew that I could do some damage to him. If he was the psycho, genocidal madman that we all call him, and he was afraid of me...what does that make me?"

"It makes you a damn good fucking hero, that's what it makes you. If he was afraid of you, good...I'm glad someone could scare that fucker." Tony said crossing his arms against his chest

"I'm no hero, I'm a killer, and I'll always be one."

Gwen looked down at the ground. She knew that this was all her fault. Peter was doing so well. He had a family, a girlfriend and he's made a life for himself finally out of the Red Room's shadow. No longer was he one of their puppets to be controlled. And after all these years of fighting his demons, he was doing pretty well.

Until she came back along and brought back all of those insecurities to him...

This was all her fault, she should have never been that hard on him. He wasn't doing anything wrong, he was just doing what he's been doing his whole life.

She'd be lucky if he even talked to her again...

Ana saw that her girlfriend was having trouble with this and blaming herself so she set her hand down on her shoulder, gently squeezing it to try and offer her some sort of comfort. Gwen looked up and smiled affectionately at her, but Ana wasn't fooled, she could still see the sadness behind her eyes.

Natasha had to stop herself from crying in front of everyone. Even if Peter wasn't biologically hers, it didn't matter, he acted so much like her sometimes it physically hurt to watch.

For her to watch as he was going through all his insecurities like that, being a monster, a blood thirsty killer, it made her want to rush towards him and pull him against her side and keep him there forever, even if he was almost 19.

It took her so long to get past her own problems by herself. She didn't want her son to go through the exact same shit she did, so when she finally admitted it to herself that he was her son, she told herself she'd be there every step of the way if he needed her.

And now, was no exception...

She gently put her hands on his face to she could turn it towards her, so they were both staring at each other in the eyes.

"Listen to me right now, everyone in this building has done horrible things before. Stark, Rogers, me, your sisters, everyone. It doesn't matter what you used to do with your powers, your skills. What matters is how you use them now, in the present. I believe it was you that said the past was the past, best not dwell on it. I know you know I'm right. And I'm gonna keep on saying it until you believe me, because you are my son, and I hate it when you go around and belittle yourself."

Peter and Natasha stared at each other for a few seconds while the others just averted their eyes, not wanting to intrude on the moment between mother and son.

After a few minutes Peter sighed, "Alright, fine, you win. I'll work on it."

She raised her eyebrow at him, "And?"

Peter rolled his eyes, "And I'll stay here on earth to heal." He said. Nat smiled at him before she leaned over and placed a kiss on his forehead before leaning her forehead on his. The two of them closed their eyes and were content with just staying there for the rest of the day, soaking up the comfort offered by the other.

But they both knew they couldn't do that.

They pulled apart and Peter slumped down into his seat in defeat. There was nothing he could do now except wait for news when they got back.

He decided to stick around for the rest of the meeting though.

"Listen I know we all want this to work, but we'd be going in short handed you know that, right?" Bruce said bringing everyone's attention back to the matter at hand.

"Look, he's still got the stones, so..." Rhodey said.

"So let's get them... Use them to bring everyone back." Carol said, looking at the screens with more determination than a few minutes prior.

"Just like that?"

"Yeah, just like that." Steve replied with the same determination that everyone in the room was feeling. Steve and Carol shared a knowing look with each other, in complete agreement.

They were gonna fix this mess...

"Even if there's a small chance that we can undo this... I mean we owe it to everyone who's not in this room to try." Sharon said looking around at everyone.

Bruce still looked skeptical though, "If we do this, how do we know it's gonna end any differently than it did before?"

"Because before, you didn't have me."

"Hey, new girl, everyone here is about that superhero life. And if you don't mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time?" Rhodey demanded, staring at Carol with a raised eyebrow. Peter smirked though, already loving Carol and her attitude towards things.

He wasn't gonna lie, she was a badass.

"There are a lot of other planets in the universe. And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys." She admitted, staring at the Colonel.

Suddenly Thor, who has been eating his bread and drinking his beer, stood up and walked over to Carol. She looked behind her and stared directly at him. He held his hand up, and caught Stormbreaker as it flew over to him, which missed Carol by mere inches. But Carol didn't even flinch, instead she smiled at the God.

"I like this one." Thor smiled at Carol, causing her to smile back just a little bit wider.

Steve stared at the screen of the planet before nodding his head, "Let's go get this son of a bitch."

Everyone then got up and started to head for the exit of the conference room. Nat leaned over and placed one last kiss on Peter's head before she too followed the rest over towards the door.

The Avengers were about to leave the room when Peter tuned around from his place next to Mary Jane.

"Hey Thor!"

Thor turned around to face the young man, actually everyone turned to see what Peter wanted.

The young man looked the God of Thunder in the eyes, "When you find Thanos, cut off his hand for me will yah? Tell him it's a gift from Parker. I want him to know that I survived."

Thor smirked at Peter and nodded his head before they all left to go get the stones from Thanos. As soon as they left, the only ones remaining in the room were Sharon, Gwen, Ana, Mary Jane and Peter.

Peter sighed, rubbing his left hand through his hair. He didn't like how his family was going to fight Thanos, without him. He barley made it out of there alive last time and he was stronger than 99% of them, minus probably Carol and Thor.

Mary Jane saw he was in distress so she laid her head on his shoulder and placed a kiss on his neck, "It's gonna be ok Tiger, they'll come back."

"I know."

"You don't have to worry about them."

"But I still will." He said, staring at the door that they had all just exited from.

Sharon decided that it was the moment to intervene, "Ok Pete, I think it's time you rest a bit. By the time you wake up, they'll be back." Sharon said gently to the young man, walking over to the teen to offer some help.

Mary Jane and Sharon helped Peter sit up in his wheelchair before Sharon started to wheel him back to his room in the MedBay with Mary Jane and his sisters not far behind.

Gwen didn't fail to notice though he didn't look at her once...

———————

Thanos sat in his cabin and tried to relax. He sighed before picking up the spoon and mixing his food up. Finally, everything was as it should be, he could rest easy knowing the universe is saved.

Suddenly, Carol flew through the roof of his cabin, knocked him down, and grabbed his neck. Bruce in the Hulkbuster suit bursted from the ground and grabbed Thanos' arm that held the Infinity Gauntlet.

Thor then flew in and sliced off the Infinity Gauntlet, causing the mad Titan to groan in pain. The god glared at the Titan, making sure he had direct eye contact with the madman, "That was for Parker." He said. Just then though, Rhodey flew down with Rocket and aimed his guns at Thanos' head.

Steve then walked into the cabin with his Outfit on, with Natasha right behind him who was staring murderously at Thanos for what he did to her son. Rocket then moved over to the sliced off Infinity Gauntlet and kicked it over. What shocked them all was there were no stones in it.

"Oh no."

Steve looked Thanos in the eye, glaring at him, "Where are they?"

When Thanos didn't answer right away, Carol tightened her grip around his throat, "Answer the damn question!"

"The universe required correction. After that, the stones served no purpose, beyond temptation." He admitted.

"You murdered trillions!" Bruce exclaimed as he pushed the madman to the ground with his suit.

"You should be grateful." Thanos said, which only earned him another punch to the face by Bruce.

"Where are the Stones?" Natasha basically spat at him. She didn't have a good feeling about this anymore. But she didn't want to admit that out loud.

"Gone. Reduced to atoms."

"You used them two days ago!"

"I used the stones to destroy the stones. It nearly killed me. But the work is done. It always will be..." Thanos straightened himself up and held himself a little bit taller, "I am... inevitable."

"We have to tear this place apart, he-he-he has to be lying."

Nebula shook her head, "My father is many things. A liar is not one of them."

"Ah, thank you, daughter. Perhaps I treated you too harshly...Also, If you're here, that means Parker is still alive." Thanos said, which caused a burst of anger to surge through all of them remembering all the wounds that this alien had inflicted onto the young man.

"Yeah, no thanks to you. He barely made it back alive. And trust me when I say this, if he would've died, I would've enjoyed inflicting all the pain right back at you." Natasha glared at him.

"It was never personal, he simply got in my way. I respect him, I really do." Thanos admitted. Natasha was about to snap and go all mama spider on his ass but she didn't need to.

Because Thor's face suddenly filled with rage and he raised StormBreaker, and before anyone could stop him, he sliced Thanos' head clean off his shoulders. Thanos' limp body fell to the floor and Nebula wiped off some of the blood that had splattered onto her.

"What... What did you do?" Rocket asked in shock.

Thor just continued to stare at the dead body of the Titan for a couple seconds before coming back to reality. And to be honest, Natasha was kind of glad that the God shut him up.

"I went for the head."

Thor slowly started to walk out of the shed with no real purpose in his steps anymore. All the Avengers silently walked out of the hut too, but not before Nebula crouched down next to her fathers head and shut her eyes for a second, thinking about what he had said.

That was the only time that her father has ever questioned what he had done to her...

But now, he's gone...

And she's not sure how to feel about it...

———————

"Hey..."

Peter looked up and came face to face with his sister, Gwen. Peter, without any second delay, looked back down at the book he was reading in his hospital bed. He really didn't feel up to listening to another rant about how much of a monster he was.

When Gwen saw his reaction to her she internally winced. She probably deserved the cold shoulder treatment from him but it doesn't mean it still didn't hurt. She walked over to his bed and sat down at the end of it.

"I know...you probably don't want to see me, and probably the last person on earth you want to talk to at the moment, but I just wanted to say a few things...I-if you'll let me, that is." She asked, looking anywhere but his eyes. Peter thought it over for a second in his head before signing in his head. He could never say no to Gwen...

"Five minutes." He stated through gritted teeth, still not looking up at his sister.

"Ok, umm...look I'm really sorry for what I said. I was angry and mad and sad and every other adjective that you can think of. But not at you, I was mad at our situation...your situation...you never asked for any of this, and I'm sorry that if I made it out like I was blaming you for everything. I'm sorry I brought up all your inner demons, and...a-and I'm sorry how I just can't seem to l-look away from the past. You're not a monster...your a vigilante, a hero in so many people's minds and I didn't mean to make you feel worse about yourself...I understand if you don't want to talk to me for a while but, I just wanted to let you know that I am sorry...I'll, Uhh...I'll leave you alone now." Gwen exhaled a shaky breath before standing up and walking over towards the door. Before she got there though Peter called out to her.

"I still love you Gwen, but I can't forget what you said, I'm sorry. Maybe with time I can forgive you, and maybe we can have a better relationship than these past few months...but I can't promise that'll be like it was when we were kids." He said, still not looking up from his book. Gwen nodded her head, knowing that Peter saw her before she walked out of the room and quietly shut the door behind herself.

As soon as Peter couldn't hear her footsteps anymore, he sighed and placed his book down onto the bedside table. God, emotions were so fucking hard to comprehend he was pretty sure that he was starting to get a headache.

Peter shook his head before lying down onto his bed. He probably should try to sleep before all the ladies come back to find him sitting up with his book. That probably wouldn't go all that well with them. Especially with Mary Jane.

Peter must have fell asleep because when he woke up, the person he saw next to him was Tasha.

She smiled down at the young man, "Hey, how're you feeling?"

"Honestly? Like shit."

"Yeah, I know. I wish I could make it better for you some how." She admitted, running her hands through his hair.

"I know, but there's nothing you can do right now."

"I can be here for you."

"Ok, well except that, there's nothing you can do."

The day in silence for a couple minutes before she broke it with the news, "He destroyed the Stones, we can't bring everyone back."

"Yeah, I kinda figured that. If I was a villain I wouldn't just leave them lying around for people to undo my work either."

Neither of them knew what to say, they lost, they couldn't save the people who were dusted. They were supposed to be the heroes and they failed the world.

Man doesn't that hurt...

"Hey, there, umm, there's been something I've been meaning to ask you for awhile now. When we got that message, and you called me mom...I-I realized that I kinda like that. I know people have been already calling you my son for a couple years now but if you-" she didn't even get to finish before Peter leaned up from his spot on the end and brought her in for a hug.

"I'd be honored to be your son."

Natasha smiled and melted into his embrace, "You already are. We just have to make it official so you are, legally."

"I fucking hate laws and shit like that, they suck."

Natasha laughed, "Yeah, I hear you. I'm not much into all that legal and political bullshit either...but for you, I'd do it a thousand times over."

"Thanks mom.."

Natasha teared up a little bit in happiness but hugged him even tighter against her, "I love you son."

They knew that it would be hard moving forward from now on, but they'd all get through it, together.

As a family...