Like always, thanks to the amazing Alia275 for beta :*
Tony didn't know what to say; what to think. This was so messed up. Everything suggested that this boy really was from the future, really was his future intern. But he wasn't taking any interns! Well, Stark Industries had an interns program, but he was not part of it. That was mostly Pepper's business. But this man had become like a son of some kind for his future self. How... how could this... other Tony create that kind of bond? Would he be able to do that as well? Even now, when he knew the version of events?
"Space may be the final frontier, but it's made in a Hollywood basement," Morgan and Peter sang while they waited for the holographic visualization of her project. They were standing in her dad's garage. It seemed to be all wooden, but it was only a cover for a pro-workplace. Morgan was pretending some device was a microphone. Peter started to laugh when he saw her doing that.
Then, Pepper arrived.
"Mom! Don't turn down my music!" Morgan said unhappily.
Pepper looked at her with a little smile.
They all knew why future Pepper looked at her like that. Tony only gulped.
"I was planning to cook something, but I thought that the two of you would prefer pizza and cheeseburgers," Pepper smiled gently.
"Is this some kind of holiday? Bro, tell me that I didn't forget about my birthday again. No. No... it's not this month. So, what happened?" Morgan laughed and looked at her mom.
Pepper rolled her eyes.
Tony looked at future Pepper with amazement. She truly was beautiful. Motherhood suited her well.
"Maybe I decided that sometimes it is kinda pointless to fight with you two about health food," Pepper answered with a smile.
Peter and Morgan looked at each other, wondering if whether to buy this answer. After second of staring at each other, they nodded simultaneously and looked at Pepper again. She left telling them to come soon while it was still warm.
"How do you do that?" Morgan asked with a sad sigh.
"What?" Peter looked at her, surprised.
"Deal with that 'you did something Tony-like' look," Morgan sighed.
Peter realized what she meant after a moment, but he needed a second to think about his answer
"I guess I'm used to it now. He was my mentor; I wanted to be like him; I picked up a lot of his habits...but I'm not Tony Stark. And I never will be. It was hard to be my own person when people saw me as Stark's Legacy. Some times, even after all these years, people come to me and tell me things that they wanted to say to Tony, but they can't... it's hard, but sometimes people need that, need to see something that they miss in somebody else. Even when you do the same things your father used to do... you're not him, and you never will be. You are your own, separate person, and you need to remember that," Peter answered honestly.
She was silent for a moment.
"Come on, I want a cheeseburger now," Morgan responded, and they left the garage.
"She is very much like you," Steve admitted, and glancing at Tony with a small smile.
Tony didn't say anything. Rogers still didn't understand it, didn't know what it was like to grow up in the shadow. He didn't want to put his kids in that mess... Wait. His kids? Where the hell had that came from? Peter was not his intern; Morgan was not his daughter. Not yet, maybe never.
"It seems that Peter had... difficult life," Natasha said with a sad voice. "I wonder why he has such a hard time relating with the other Avengers...Wilson seems to be okay."
"Wait, you know this guy?" Tony asked Natasha. .
"Yeah... he's the Falcon," Steve answered.
"Huh, you have a new friend still didn't introduce him to your family? Rude," Clint teased.
Peter was standing in his office at Stark Industries and looking through the window with a beer in his hand. He sighed, then heard the voice of Edith informing him that Happy Hogan was arriving. He didn't say anything to this information.
Happy entered without knocking and looked at Peter.
"Be my guest; you know where to find a beer," Peter shrugged.
"What's on your mind, kid?" Happy asked, sighing. "Wilson was here again?"
Peter didn't answer, so Happy took that as a yes.
"I know it's a stupid question; it is your decision to make, but why? You'd never told me why you didn't want to join the New Avengers Program."
Peter chuckled at the question.
Some different memories interrupted this one.
Tony tapped Peter's shoulder like he was knighting him with a sword. The situation seemed pretty shitty.
"You are Avenger now," he told Peter.
Then, a different memory-
Nick Fury was glaring at Peter.
"Stark gave you a multi-billion dollar AI tactical intelligence system. I told him that it's clear to me you were not ready for this," Fury said.
"Stark chose you. He made you an Avenger. I need that. The world needs that. But maybe Stark was wrong. Was he?" Fury challenged in a different memory.
"Tony was my best friend, but he was a mess. He second-guessed everything he did. He was all over the place. The one thing that he did that he didn't second-guess was picking you," Happy's voice was heard.
"I'm sorry," Tony murmured under his breath, but it didn't escape Pepper's attention or Steve's hearing.
"Why are you apologizing?" Steve asked.
"Because he has to live in my shadow as I was living in yours," Tony snapped angrily. He thought he had buried that anger a long time ago, because as he had to work with Steve, he realized that he could work with this man. But as soon as the words left Stark's mouth, he regretted them.
Steve looked shocked to the core.
The other Avengers not so much; for them everything was pretty obvious.
"And I don't second-guess everything!" Tony yelled, trying to change the subject.
"Yes, you do," Natasha, Clint, and Pepper said at the same time.
Steve just looked at Tony and sighed.
Big stage. Cameras. Drones. A lot of people... really. One giant crowd. Peter Parker entered the scene. He was no longer the young, shy, bullied boy from Queens... that boy died a long time ago.
He was giving a speech.
"When I was in school, half of my class wanted to be like Tony Stark. Come on... Who of us didn't want to be like Tony, huh?" Peter asked the crowd, who responded noisily, shouting, 'I did', 'we all did', and so on.
"He was a damn genius, the handsome one, had an amazing suit, was rich, was an Avenger, was the Hero of the Universe... everybody wanted to be like him," Peter chuckled, but there was a lot of bitterness in that though he hid it well. Now that he was in Tony's place, it was not as freaking amazing as he thought it would be.
"Ten years ago, he sacrificed his life for the Universe's sake in this very spot. Many people fought against me when I decided to build this Science Center here. Sacrilege, they shouted, saying that I'm disgracing his memory. Well... I knew Tony quite well. He would want to be remembered as the human he was. Cheap trick and cheesy one liner kinda guy." When Peter said that, the crowd laughed.
"Because that's what he was. Human. A brilliant one, granted, but still human. He was not super-soldier, he was not supernaturally gifted. He didn't have any training. All he was was a human who made mistakes, who was not flawless, but in the end, who did the right thing. People of Universe remember him as a Hero of the Universe, Thanos's Slayer, the man who made the Mad Titan bleed. And of course, he was all of this, but first of all... he was an engineer. Man of science. It was his genius that allowed the time heist to be possible, to reverse the decimation, and it was his science that made Thanos bleed," Peter continued his speech.
Avengers (plus Pepper) just gaped at that memory. The speech that Peter was giving was... sublime, at least. But, then it came to them that of all of them, Tony had the least experience as a warrior; that Peter was telling truth. He was no supersoldier, no superspy, no god, no hulk. He was an engineer with his work of life.
"The Titans are dead," Thor said with a gulp. The possibility that there were still Titans was... concerning.
"Not all... one of them survived. The Mad Titan, Thanos," EDITH corrected. The people in the room had almost forgot about her presence.
Tony was about to say something, but Peter's speech continued.
"I talk too much, right? Let me just say this... THE TONY STARK CENTER OF SCIENCE IS FINALLY OPEN," Peter announced and there were fireworks, screams, applause, and other crap.
Then, he announced Morgan Stark, who was dealing with the artistic part of the opening, and left the stage. He looked at the Morgan, who was entering the scene with a smile.
"Good work," Morgan said.
"Good luck," he responded with a smile.
"When this is going to end?" Tony asked, trying to hide every emotion that was running through him right now. He didn't know how to deal with all of this crap; he kinda shut it out; he didn't want to know what or who Thanos was, that he is Thanos's slayer... no-no-no. No more of this crap. He wanted to pull Wanda away from Peter.
"I don't know. When Miss. Maximoff regains control of her magic, I suppose. She seems to be lost inside Peter's mind," EDITH answered.
"We need to pull her away somehow!" Tony shouted.
"No... please. I saw that happen once. It would do more harm than good," EDITH said with a sigh. "She needs to leave his mind on her own," she added.
"You sound... very emotional about this," Tony said suspiciously.
"I am last AI of Tony Stark, which he created to keep his loved ones safe. Would you program such an AI to be cold and calculated?" Edith challenged.
"Ouch... burn," Clint teased.
He created functional AI with feelings.
"Boss... There is... little problem," some young man came and pointed at the scaffolding behind the scene. There was a barely visible figure in the dark.
"I will handle this; no need to inform anybody more. Good job," Peter patted man's arm and swung onto the scaffolding above him. He came closer to the hooded figure in the dark. From a closer look, the past-Avengers could see that this figure had a sword strapped to his back.
"Oh my god," Natasha covered her mouth.
"What?" Clint asked.
Peter was not in the position to attack, but he was not relaxed, either.
"Did you come here as Hawkeye or as Ronin? Because I don't know if I should tease you or arrest you," Peter said, coming closer. The hooded man took away his hood, revealing his identity. It was Clint Barton. And he looked a hell a lot of different than in present.
"How did you...?" Steve asked, looking at Natasha, realizing that she had recognized Barton before anybody else. She said nothing. She... just knew. The way that this man was standing, his figure... she couldn't explain this, she just knew.
"Dude, what with that hairstyle... you become edgy," Stark teased.
"Will it please you if I come as Clint Barton, mini-Stark?" the man chuckled.
"Well... I will take my chances," Peter came closer, leaning on the barrier.
"We have had the time of our lives and I will not forget the faces left behind." They heard Morgan singing in the background.
Clint looked like his heart was about to crack with all the emotions, but he was stood still.
"So... what are you doing here?" Peter asked.
"Well. I can't be with Thor and Banner down there; I don't wanna ruin your party, kid," Clint chuckled.
"There are a limited number of people who know that you are Ronin," Peter shrugged it off.
"I'm here for Tasha and Tony. After the opening and anniversary celebration, I'm going out with Thor and Banner," Hawkeye answered honestly.
"It's hard to walk away from the best of days, but if it has to end, I'm glad you have been my friend in the time of our lives." Morgan's song reached their ears.
"Reunion party?" Peter asked with a smile.
"Yeah... We are going to get drunk and remember some of our friends. Make some theories about what happened to Steve," Clint shrugged.
"You don't know?" Peter asked with surprise.
Clint looked at him with a raised brow, like he wanted to say 'and you do?'.
"I guess...Steve wanted to tell Tony, but couldn't, so he told me at the funeral. People do that a lot," Peter answered, looking at the stage below him. Barton was watching him, wondering if he should press the subject for more information...
"I don't envy you, kid," Clint said finally with a sigh. "Tony was a real diva, but even he wouldn't live up to his name right now..."
"And yet, people expect me to do it," Peter laughed bitterly. "You know that there are places in the universe where they worship him? Like Jesus?" Peter sighed.
Barton was silent for a moment.
"No, I didn't... but this is not surprising. People need to believe in something," Clint shrugged.
Peter gulped, remembering the time when Mysterio had told him the exact same thing.
"I better be going... It was good to see you, kid," Clint said with a smile.
"There is your private ventrence," Peter smiled, showing him a way to the vents. Barton smiled; Peter looked away, and when he looked back at the same spot, Barton was already gone. Peter looked at his hand, which covered with one of his suits, which disappeared. There was a small drop of blood on his finger, but then his healing abilities kicked in and it was quickly gone.
Parker put the glasses on.
BLOOD TOXICITY: 11%
Songs: Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Californication and Tyrone Wells - Time of our lives.
Here we go, another chapter! I hope you enjoyed it!
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See ya in the next :*