Thanks to the amazing Alia275 for beta :*
I decided to delete the last sentence of the previous chapter, where Wanda stopped intruding Pete's mind. I wanted to put more memories. I hope that you all don't mind it :D
Wanda was still connected to Peter by her magic when Tony wanted to verify something.
"JARVIS..." Tony said, not even saying to make a scan of Peter's vitals, that was obvious.
"My name is EDITH. It's good to see you alive, boss," EDITH answered with her emotionless AI tone.
Tony furrowed his brow, confused.
"Wha... who... what the hell are you?" Tony yelled. He felt almost... in danger, now that he knew JARVIS didn't have his back. Vulnerable. A female synthetic voice made him nervous, but he didn't want to show that.
"My name is EDITH. E.D.I.T.H. is an acronym for "Even Dead, I'm The Hero.' One last AI created by Tony Stark in my timeline. My purpose was to protect Earth and Tony's family after his passing. When Ms. Maximoff used her abilities on Peter, I was automatically set to combat mode and have taken control of all tech in the area," EDITH answered.
She had made a mistake once, when Peter gave all access to Quentin, and her mistake had put him in danger. She hadn't accomplished the task given by her creator. She won't make that mistake the second time. She adapted to the situation.
"Whoa, whoa..." a few Avengers were set in combat mode too when they heard that A.I had her (figurative) hands on all tech in the area.
"Do not worry. I am not going to attack. From my data, breaking into the magical bond between Ms. Maximoff and Peter would bring more harm than good to Peter," a female voice said from behind them.
They all spun to see a pale bluish hologram of a young woman with a bob hairstyle, clothed in a two-piece woman dress suit. Sadly, this was not the first time when Wanda had used her magic on Peter, and EDITH knew the consequences of trying to stop it.
"You are EDITH?" Steve asked, just to make sure.
"I am a holographic representation of the AI. Peter Parker created this hologram after Mrs. Stark's suggestion that somebody has to 'bark on idiots who would waste your time'", EDITH answered with a smile.
A few Avengers chuckled, and Pepper blushed.
Wait... it was second or even third time that EDITH had called her 'Mrs. Stark', Pepper finally noticed. She looked at Tony, who hadn't caught it yet. He was too focused on some future AI hacking into his house. Well, it had seemed kind of obvious that the older he got, the better (more complex and fascinating) his tech would become, but HACKING INTO HIS TOWER WAS AN INSULT! From his future self!
"EDITH, can you explain to us what we just saw?" Banner asked.
"No. I cannot explain it to you. I can only assure you that what you saw was real, and that each and every vision was a memory belonging to Peter Parker," Edith answered. Tony knew the answer before it left her cyber lips. He would program her that way.
"Somehow, we have time traveler here, who is the future pupil of Stark, who turned into the ash and returned from this somehow. Sometime after that, Tony died and his pupil inherited Stark Industries. Somehow, Rogers will be capable of holding Thor's Hammer. I don't know what that 'being late on date means'," Natasha said, presenting the facts in an emotionless tone.
Rogers sighed upon hearing that. He could guess what his future self meant, but it was impossible, right? Just... but... this boy was from the future, right? So... there was a possibility that he returned to Peggy. He cleared his throat.
"Yhm... Peggy told me, before I crashed Valkyrie, to not be late on our first date," Captain America answered.
"Sooo, the future you can be even at this time as well?" Clint asked.
"No. It is not how time travel would work. I STILL BELIEVE IT IS IMPOSSIBLE. But, if we are talking about this... you can't change the past," Tony murmured and shook his head. Nobody seemed to care that he was going to die, because Steve's love life was a better subject to talk about! Some kind of friends. Maybe it was better... he didn't want to think about his death, but he saw it. The kid saw it and now they saw it.
"When you travel back in time, their future is already your past. When you change something during time travel, you create an alternative reality," Bruce added and smiled sadly. "There is nothing we can do to save Tony in Peter's timeline because he is already dead... but maybe, using his knowledge, we can save our Tony," Banner added and looked at Stark.
"'Our Tony' is here, you know," Stark rolled his eyes. "We... don't know enough to do anything. We just know that I died in his future... somehow. And... and... maybe it will be better this way! Who the hell knows," Tony raised his hands in angrily gesture. Then Pepper slapped his face. When he looked at her, she had tears in her beautiful eyes.
"Don't ever, ever talk like that," she hissed furiously.
"I'm sorry," he murmured and hugged her. He wasn't sorry for talking like that, just for making her angry and upset. He knew how she always felt when he was in danger, and now it had to be worse for her since she saw that his superhero lifestyle would lead him to death.
It triggered another memory from Peter's mind.
Everything around was dark, Spiderman was in his first, homemade suit. He was so lost...
"You are just a scared little kid in a sweatsuit!" a voice said.
Then, Spiderman was on the ground. He looked at tombstone...
Anthony Edward Stark, it read.
"If you were good enough, maybe Tony would still be alive." Again, the mysterious voice spoke.
Everything around looked like a nightmare. Suddenly, an Iron Man suit flew out of the grave, revealing a broken mask and rotting skull behind it. The empty eye socket was staring straight at Peter.
"Deep down, you know I'm right," the voice added
"Jesus Christ, kid," Tony said, horrified by what he had just seen. "What the hell was that?!"
"That was illusion cage created by a villain called Mysterio, who was Peter's opponent sometime after Boss's passing. Peter never told anybody what really happened during his time inside Mysterio's illusions," Edith said, looking sad.
AIs could be sad? Well, she seemed to be. Maybe guilty? But again... could an AI feel anything?
"You said that it was Peter's opponent... where were we? Why were we unable to help the kid?" Clint asked. Ok, Tony gave Peter his company and believed the kid to be his successor. Tony probably did that sometime before his death; he didn't know when he is going to die and all of this crap just fell on Peter. At least that what Clint thought at the moment. But all of them should be there to support the kid.
"I will tell you the same thing I told Fury. I will support NA. You have my tech, my bow, and my axe... but you don't have me. I'm happy as technical advisor to New Avengers, I will be nothing more," Peter said. He was quite older than in the previous memory. He entered his office in Stark Industries, followed by some people. He wore a black suit, t-shirt with some meme and pair of black converse.
"We need you in the field. Superheroes support each other," Sam Wilson aka the new Captain America said. Next to him was standing some woman, unknown to the past Avengers. In the background, there were some people, but they were blurred.
And it was it...
"Superheroes support each other," Peter repeated after him... once, twice... and then he exploded. "WHERE THE HELL WHERE YOU WHEN I WAS FIGHTING WITH MYSTERIO? OR WHEN I WAS FRAMED FOR DESTROYING LONDON? WHEN I WAS HUMILIATED AND HUNTED?" Peter yelled angrily.
Sam wanted to say something, but Peter didn't allow him.
"I will tell you where you have been. You and your lovebird were somewhere. Barton was around the world, being assassin all over. Rogers went back on his date. Wanda and Strange were... somewhere. The same with Danvers. Thor went somewhere in space to "find himself"... You wanna me keep going? I can do it all day. Anyway..." Peter was speaking, but then he was interrupted by the phone call.
"Incoming Call, Morgan Stark," EDITH said.
"Morgan Stark?" Tony asked with a raised brow.
"Maybe your kid," Clint guessed. Then Tony gave him a glare. "Hey, don't look at me like that! This guy is your ex-pupil from the future after all!" Barton explained himself. It was strange to the Avengers that Tony of all people would have a kid in the future, but they already know that in some way he had.
Peter answered the call and put her on speaker.
"Butterfly, 'sup?" he asked.
"Hi Petee! Listen. I hacked into my mom phone, so she won't answer the call. Then, the principal is going to call you to pick me up from the school, will you do that to meee? Please, please. You will be king of the garage! I promise!" Morgan rushed with explanations.
"What happened?"- Peter chuckled.
"I maybee...maybe got into a fight? Well, it was not a fight. I just kicked some guy... well you know where," Morgan said. Peter almost could imagine that she rolled her eyes.
"Why?" Peter asked in a calm voice.
"You told me once that I shouldn't apologize for being the smartest person in the room... and I definitely won't be bullied because of it. I just wanted to show to them," she answered.
"Them? Ok... never mind. I got you. I will be there ASAP; I don't have anything important to do anyway," he said it, looking at Sam's face.
"Love you 2000, bro. See ya!" she said before hanging up.
"See, that's the person who really needs my help. She said 'please' and I know I can trust her," Peter pointed out as he passed Sam and went away from his office. "Edith, activate 'boh' protocol," he murmured.
"So, you have your answer... everybody left," Natasha murmured to Clint. "Wait a sec. Assassin?" she realized and looked at Clint. If he became an assassin after her death, he would disgrace her memory. She would be rolling in her grave at the speed of light.
"I wouldn't," Clint denied. Some Avengers looked at Edith for confirmation.
"In our timeline, Clint is no longer an active assassin, but he was the one for a long period," EDITH confirmed.
"Why?" Barton asked.
"That is a complicated question," Edith answered ominously. Her understanding of human's behavior was still limited. She was definitely not the best person to answer Barton's question.
Tony looked at Edith, he wanted to ask THIS one question, but... it couldn't leave his lips. Daughter. Being a fatherly mentor to Peter was already freaking him out, but the realization that he was going to have a daughter was almost unbearable.
"Yes, Boss. Morgan Helena Stark is the daughter of Tony Stark from my timeline," Edith answered. She knew her creator well enough to know what he thought. Peter was not much different anyway.
"Why are you always saying 'from my timeline'?" Steve asked.
Banner and Tony rolled their eyes at the same time; it was obvious for them.
"Because our time travel was detected and it already affected this reality. Many things can happen because you know about them. Even if this Virginia Potts and Anthony Stark will marry and will have a kid, she can be a completely different person than Morgan from my time. This kid can become a boy, maybe twins, or be never born. At the moment that you caught Peter, you created an alternative timeline of events. It can be similar to ours, but it doesn't have to be," Edith explained as well as she could.
Tony looked at Pepper, then he looked at Peter.
Damn.
He was so scared of that.
But he wanted it so badly at the same time.
Peter was swinging around the city. He landed through the sunroof into the driver's seat of his expensive car.
"Nice," Tony complimented with a smile. Well, he couldn't do that with his Iron Man suit, but that was epic!
He drove away and seconds after that he received a call from the principal, asking him to show up at Morgan's school. He answered with the smile that he will be there in the seconds. Everything after that was blurred, and in the next memory, Morgan was already in the car. She had long, dark hair pulled into high bun on her head... and her face, God. She was Tony all over.
Tony and Pepper were looking at the memory without even blinking. That girl is something that they CAN have. Their little girl.
"Why didn't you just swing over here?" Morgan asked.
"I'm not taking passengers anymore," Peter rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I don't think you would like it," he answered.
"Why?" she asked again.
"Well... there is this moment of free fall. When you don't have any repulsors to coordinate as you fly. Only you and gravity," Peter explained as he drove.
"My father would hate it," Morgan chuckled.
Peter looked at her briefly with a raised brow.
"I can't talk to my father directly, but I can talk to his tech, to his schemes. Every next Iron Man suit was more and more advanced about that. He hated to have no control over his body in the air," Morgan deduced.
Peter smiled sadly.
This was so wrong that his daughter had to learn things about him from his technology, from things that he left behind. But... he couldn't say that she was wrong. She was damn right.
He parked his car on the field before the house next to the lake, left the car, and looked at the lake.
He had flashbacks from Tony's funeral.
A lot of people dressed in black. Pepper holding a funeral bunch with Tony's first arc reactor in the middle of it.
Proof that Tony Stark has a heart, it said.
Pepper sobbed; she couldn't hold her tears. They were getting some distracting memories, she almost managed to forget that Tony was going to die... but it hit her right now with doubled force. Seeing herself holding a funeral bunch...
The Avengers recognized this place as the place where Peter and Steve were talking before.
Tony Stark was fighting some of Chitauri, but then Cull Obsidian punched him to the ground. Something... giant kicked him away and Peter ran to Tony.
"Hey! Holy cow. You will not believe what's been going on. Do you remember when we were in space? And I got all dusty? I must've passed out, 'cause I woke up, and you were gone. But Doctor Strange was there, right? He was like, "It's been five years. Come on, they need us!" And then he started doing the yellow sparkly thing that he does all the time..." Peter started to babbling, as he always did.
Tony just hugged him. Peter was shocked!
"What are you doing? ...This is nice," he decided after second of awkwardness.
Peter sighed, looking at the lake.
"Pete, are you going?" Morgan asked.
"Yeah," he snapped out of his memories and went to the garage with Morgan.
Everybody noticed the change between young Peter and adult Peter. Teen Peter seemed to be so... talkative, full of life. They all could deduce that life after Tony's death was not easy for him.
The question needed to ask...
How the life of Peter Parker will look like in this timeline after the other one will leave...
Archangel Writings - well, it won't be any of it truly. It is only kinda "watch the movie" because they see only Peter's memories, and Pete trip to the past will definitely change the timeline, but will it fix it?
paintingrosesblack - yeah, those 'watch the movie' fics. have always something catching. A read a lot of them too :P
NinjaDevil2000 - It was my fav part of first chapter, I'm kinda proud of that conversation between them :D
Phoenixhp5 - I thought it will be explained in this chapter what Peter is doing in the past, but well... This chapter was getting longer and longer and I decided to cut it. I HOPE in the next one that will be explained xD
As always, I hope you enjoyed reading my fic and see ya in the next!