Beta Reader: Alia275
He had a gift for creating family the pieces left behind by others? Him?! Edith and Bruce, they had to be joking. He barely knew family values. They were just kidding him with that. Then that whole mess with... BARF glasses? Now he recognized them. He had started to use that technology in the future again, huh. Still, the kid was dying in those fucking visions, but that made him calm down a little. Since it was that bad in his memories... it couldn't still be a thing now. He fought well against them, not like a guy who was going to die any second. But still... the way that kid was handling stuff.
God, kid... you really need a better role model, Tony thought.
He had called him the "next Tony Stark". His future self saw Peter as his successor. And Harley was the new pilot of Iron Man suit? What was going to happen with this world now that he knew what was going to pass?
Well... it seemed like it would be in good hands.
"That blue woman before, she was using an arm made with materials similar to the ones Tony uses for his suits," Bruce pointed out, like now was the time for that.
"That arm was made from one of the Iron Man suits. It was Nebula's way of honoring Tony's memory," Edith answered.
Some of the Avengers and Pepper stared at him. Now is not the time for this, he thought.
A young Peter was sitting with Ned and they were building something with Legos; they were laughing, but there was no sound in this memory.
"What is that?" Thor asked.
Little Morgan was running away from him, but he caught her. Peter started to giggling at her, and they laughed.
"Life is flashing before his eyes," Tony murmured.
He and Harley were eating some Chinese food in the lab, working on something. They started throwing stuff at each other, laughing.
- "Parker? Parker! Shit! Damn it!" a voice yelled. -
"Someone found him," Natasha said, guessing that this voice was not part of the flashback, that it was something from his reality.
He and May were somewhere outside, talking and eating.
"Who is she?" Pepper asked.
"Maybe that aunt he mentioned," Clint suggested and looked at Edith, who nodded for confirmation.
There was some kind of party. Rhodey, Pepper, Happy, May, Morgan, Harley, Nebula, and of course, Peter, were there. He saw Nebula playing paper football with Morgan, before he and Harley made bets on solving the Rubik's cube. They looked at cubes and started to solving it behind their backs. Everybody else was cheering on one or the other. They were all a big, happy family.
- "Edith! What should I do?!" the voice from before hissed. -
Tony looked at this memory with awe, now understanding what Edith meant... he brought all of them together... and they stuck with each other even after his death.
"Someone is going to save him," Pepper assured, holding Tony's hand.
"Yeah... for now," he whispered and closed his eyes. "Even if he was saved from whatever health issue there was, he will be still dying from something bigger. We don't know what, but I guess that this is no longer a thing," Tony added.
"How do you know that?" Steve asked.
'Cuz he's here, you moron, Tony thought, but he managed to hold his tongue.
"Because otherwise, he would already be dead. No one would send him on a mission here. Didn't you notice that? He's here on some kind of mission in the past, Edith said, that he has maybe a week of living. Dying part is no longer an issue for this guy, I can assure you," Tony sighed.
Everybody looked at Edith, searching for confirmation.
"I can't say anything about Peter's health status," Edith answered. "But I can say that Peter likes to say 'Tony was always right.'" Edith smiled slightly.
"Cheater," Tony smirked, looking at his AI. He had programmed her after all, in the future. She was using a loophole in Peter's order. Smart.
"What can I say? Peter is as stubborn as you are and as my creator was. Things are not easy with him; I needed to adapt," Edith answered and sighed.
Yeah. Tony was going to die. At least, he died in Peter's future. The little reminder they needed. They were clouded by Peter's dying that they forgot about that.
- Blood was dripping from Peter's lips. Everything was so light. -
Peter looked at Tony. They were sitting on the sofa. Peter had a bowl of popcorn, which was almost empty. They were arguing over something, but arguing with a smile. Tony ruffled Peter's hair and smiled again. That was one hell of a smile. An honest one. Tony's eyes were bright, happy. His lips smiled widely, showing his white teeth.
"I've never seen you smile like that," Pepper said, smiling herself.
"I don't smile like that," he answered.
Edith smiled a little bit, too. This Tony Stark didn't have a reason to smile like that... yet. That was his "family smile", as Mrs. Stark liked to call it.
- "Hey! Wake up, Parker!" the voice yelled. -
"Who the hell is that? I know that voice," Steve said, but he couldn't remember to whom that voice had belonged. It was a little changed, warped because of Peter's semi-conscious state, but he knew that voice. He was certain of it.
- "You want me to do WHAT?!" the voice yelled. -
Peter, Harley, Morgan, and two other girls unknown to the Avengers were dancing to "Echame la culpa". It seemed to be spontaneous thing. Morgan was wearing pyjamas with unicorns, Harley and Peter looked like they rolled out of the bed, and the other two girls didn't look any better.
Clint looked at the two other girls. Wait. One of them seemed to be familiar.
Avengers smiled; it was nice to see that kid had some good memories.
Then Peter woke up. He opened his eyes, looking at bright ceiling, before narrowing his eyes. God, he felt like absolute shit.
"You should rest," Edith said in a calm, synthetic voice.
Not that Peter listened to her. He sat down and looked around to see... James 'Bucky' Barnes himself, sitting in the chair next to Peter's lab desk.
"Bucky," Steve said in awe.
"How is that possible?" Tony looked at Steve.
"Sergeant Barnes was saved by HYDRA and they made him brainwashed assassin called the Winter Soldier," Natasha explained, watching Steve, who was staring at the Bucky in the vision.
"You're shitting me. Barnes is the Winter Soldier? THIS WINTER SOLDIER?" Clint looked at Natasha like she had three heads.
"Yeah," Natasha answered, still watching Steve.
Peter wasn't so enthusiastic to see Barnes.
"What the hell are you doing here?" he hissed.
"I guess my kid doesn't like your buddy," Tony said, not realizing even then that he had called Peter his kid. Pepper and a few others noticed, and smiled a bit to this.
"Fury sent me. 'When his ol' man was pulling off stunts like this, he was dying. I want to know that is inside that kid's head! Go, now,' he told me," James answered and looked at Peter.
"And of all of the people in the world, he sent you," Peter rolled his eyes.
"It was me or Sam," Bucky replied.
Peter only stared at him for a second, deciding that out of bad or worse, he preferred James over Sam.
"Was it Fury or his reptile twin?" Peter laughed bitterly, but regretted it. God, the pain. He touched his chest, noticing that there were bandages over it.
"Careful, I'm no doctor. But lucky for you, I have steady hands and Edith is a good instructor." Bucky didn't answer Peter's question.
"Reptile twin?" Natasha raised her brow.
"I can't say," Edith answered.
"O. My. God. Reptilians are a real thing," Clint said sarcastically, but then he looked at Edith who looked like she was trying to say "you're not entirely wrong there". She was just kidding, right?
"It's all for nothing... only delaying inevitable," Peter sighed and rose from the table he was lying on and walked slowly to the place where he had a few extra t-shirts in his lab.
"What's wrong with you?" Bucky asked simply. Peter didn't answer. Bucky just shook his head and looked at the kid. "Parker. We are worried," he sighed.
"We? Who? You and your buddy Sammy?" Peter snorted.
"All of us," Bucky answered, trying to keep eye contact with Parker, but he was avoiding it.
"If you are here to try to pull me into New Avengers Team, as you can see... I'm not in the state to pull off that shit," Peter smiled sarcastically.
Bucky decided that he needs to change the tactic if he wants to know anything form Parker.
"I'd never understood that, you know? You took Tony's place in his company, in the world, but not in the Avengers," Bucky said, looking at Peter.
"Why is he changing the subject? He should pressure about Peter's health," Thor frowned.
"If he kept pressure, Peter would shut up. Keeping him talking about something else may bring the answers that Barnes needs," Natasha explained quickly. She knew these kind of games.
Steve was still staring. Bucky would be okay. He would come back from that dark state of mind.
"The team is great, but... everybody knows that it won't be a team without you in it," Bucky added. "Sam is doing his best in his Captain America role, but... well." Barnes didn't know how to put this.
"Stark was always a counter to Steve, that's why the first Avengers team worked," James said, looking at Parker.
The Avengers needed a second to think about that. Steve looked at Tony; Tony looked at Steve. The others just looked at them. There was some truth in it. Cap was the leader, but without Tony to have a second opinion, it would be... they couldn't find the right word to describe it. Steve just needed Tony in this team in some way. The person who wouldn't be afraid to the question his decisions, who could say to his face that he didn't agree with him. Not that others would be afraid to do so, but... it wouldn't be in the way that Tony could do it. They didn't have time to talk about it...
Peter snorted.
"And where did that position lead him, huh?" Peter chuckled darkly. "I didn't take Tony's place in Avengers because it is the shittiest place in the world to be," he added after a moment, pulling on a shirt.
Tony frowned.
Bucky wanted to say something, but Peter talked over him.
"When the Avengers were victorious, they were all taking credit... but when they screwed up, it was Tony's mess to deal with. Do you even know what SRF is?" Peter asked, looking at Barnes.
Barnes raised his brow. "Sam calls them when there's a mess to clean after the fight."
"Do you know what the letters stand for?" Peter pressed.
Barnes looked at him, waiting for information... because honestly, he didn't know.
Tony raised his brow again. He was not sure if he was right, but it would be...
"Stark Relief Foundation," Peter snorted, taking his tablet to see his health results now after... whatever Barnes did to him. "It's funny, ironic. You calling my Foundation to clean your mess, and you don't even know it's me who pays the bills."
"And it was similar in the previous Avengers Team. It was Tony who was cleaning up the mess, it was Tony who had to face angry politicians after every fight, it was Tony who was getting all the complaints. And what he got in exchange?" Peter snorted again.
Barnes was shocked... but he saw also that it was weighing down the kid's heart.
"So, you don't want to..." Barnes began, but Peter interrupted.
"I don't wanna end up dying in Siberia, killed by someone I thought was my friend," Peter snapped.
Flashback -
Vision rushed to Tony, who lying on the ground. There was snow surrounding them, and Tony looked dead, frozen. There was blood bubbling up around his broken reactor. Captain America's shield was next to him...and there was blood on it. And the arc reactor's dent was shaped exactly like the edge of the shield.
"Peter! We need to move him...Peter!" Vision was trying to get to the kid, but he was standing there, paralyzed.
- Return.
"What the hell!" Steve yelled, horrified by that sight. That... he wouldn't... no. He refused to believe in that. Tony turned pale at seeing himself in that shape. Pepper squeezed his hand like she needed to make sure that he was still here.
Clint wanted to point out language, but this was too damn serious.
"I... I've never known that Peter was there," Edith said, shocked.
"THERE? Where?!" Steve asked.
"I can't answer that... but I think that the memory will," Edith answered, clearly troubled.
Barnes paled visibly. It looked like guilt was eating him alive. He gulped.
"I... thought that Stark didn't tell anybody about what happened in Siberia," James said to Peter.
"He didn't have to. I always knew."
They sat in silence for a moment.
"Sooo... are you going to kill me?" Tony asked Steve.
"No! How you can think that?!" Steve seemed to be horrified that Tony could even think that way. But then he looked at the memory... how else he could interpret that memory? There was his shield, dripping with Tony's blood.
Tony sighed and looked away. He was not a person who trusted easily, but he thought that he could trust Rogers at least with guarding his back... it seemed that he was going to be betrayed again.
"If my brain was not Swiss cheese, I would solve it differently," Barnes sighed hard.
"What do you think about changing the team? Well. I can welcome you on Team Iron Man. That arm is Stark Tech, so you fulfill the conditions." Peter put down his tablet. The results were blurred, and the past-Avengers couldn't read it.
"Right now I'm on Team "this shit could be solved without a fight". I wish I could have just tied both of them down and made them talk this shit out," Bucky sighed.
"Well... I guess that is the healthiest team to be," Peter nodded.
He went to the carafe with the "whiskey" and poured it into one glass, then he took another one and poured some into the other glass.
"Team Iron Man? So... I guess the other team was Team Captain America?" Clint guessed and looked at Edith, but she didn't react.
"You shouldn't be drinking..." James said softly.
"It's tea," Peter shrugged as he took a sip and gave the other glass to James. "This is whiskey."
James didn't need to check; he could smell it. When he took the glass and pushed it away, he could smell that in the other glass there was only tea.
"Tony taught me that trick. Do you know how hard a boozing and womanizing reputation is to keep?" Peter chuckled and took another sip of his tea.
Avengers looked at Tony, shocked. Natasha rushed to the table where was the whiskey was and checked their contents. One was whiskey...another was tea. She raised the tea one and looked at the team.
"Tea?" Clint asked.
Tasha nodded. They all looked at Stark, but he didn't have time to answer.
"So... Stark didn't have a drinking problem at all?" James raised his brow.
"Nah. It's a public thing. Surprisingly, it is easier to pull off this job when people think that you are drunk. Not that Tony didn't like to have a drink sometimes, but well... it was occasional," Peter shrugged.
Barnes took a sip of his whiskey and looked at Peter's desk, which he was sitting next to. It seemed to be empty; he knew that everything here would be holographic, so he was not surprised. There was only a framed picture on the desk.
"Is it that the legendary photo?" Barnes asked, looking at a picture of Tony and Peter. They had seen that picture before. The one with Peter holding the certificate wrong way. Peter chuckled.
"Yeah, it is. Mobius strip reversed one," Peter smiled sadly.
"What?" Tony raised his brow and looked at Edith, for the moment forgetting about dying in Siberia. It was kinda easy to forget when he knew that he was going to die another way, and... there was so much information at once that even his brain couldn't follow them all at once.
"My creator created a time traveling machine inspired by that picture. Reversed diploma, reversed Mobius strip," Edith answered.
Barnes sighed and looked at Peter.
"Do you think that they won't put things together when you die a few days after you made everybody turn away from you?" James asked and looked at Peter with a serious voice. It was time to talk about the elephant in this room.
"Oh... I know they will. They will be angry, they will feel guilty that they didn't notice this sooner, but they won't be there when I will die, drowning in my own blood," Peter shrugged.
"What's wrong, Parker?" he asked softly.
"I'm dying," Peter chuckled bitterly. "My mutation is turning against me. My own body is killing me. There is nothing that can be done. So if you would be so good as to make yourself leave so the last thing I see wouldn't be your face..." Peter answered.
"I saved you," Barnes pressed the subject.
"Just for now. My kidneys, my lungs, my heart, my brain... sooner or later they will give up. It's a lottery about which one will do that first. You wanna bet?" Peter smiled, but Barnes didn't have a sense of humor... or that was shit was too serious to be laughed off in Stark's way.
"Let me say this for once and for all. I won't join the Avengers team. I was already Avenger once. If I join a new team... it will lead to another Civil War. Sam is idealist like Rogers was. I'm rationalist, like Tony. You said it yourself. We are what our mentors made us be... and I won't repeat their mistakes. I can see it, you know? You would be team Captain America again, probably so would be Wanda and Jennifer. Robbie, Kamala, and Lila would be team Spider-Man. Can't you see it?" Peter asked and looked at Barnes, who was shocked to hear such reason. Before Barnes could say something, Peter continued
"I don't believe in the Avengers as a team against all odds. Everybody tells me that Natasha and Clint were such great friends... you know when I saw them for the first time? When they were fighting against each other... because she was team Iron Man, he was Team Captain America."
Natasha and Clint looked at each other.
"It seems that we will have some issues in the future," Thor said.
"Not we... It's between me and Tony." Steve said what he already knew. "Peter said that you were Team Iron Man, and you were Team Captain America," Steve said, looking at Tasha, then at Clint.
"And the rest of the Avengers needed to pick a side," Tony said, looking at Steve.
It was strange... Like they could predict that this was possible, but there was no anger about that because it didn't happen yet. But both of the men looked at each other with some... respect. Even if they were just told that they would want to hurt each other.
"This is not about Avengers. It's about you. Do you really think that there is nothing that can be done?" Barnes asked.
For the first time in this conversation, Peter's face softened a little bit.
"No. I checked all possible ways," Peter sighed. "Do you think that I wanna die? No, I don't. But I know a pointless fight when I see one." Peter turned tense and defensive again.
"From what Fury told me, Tony saw his fight as lost cause too... but he didn't give up in the end. Will you?" Bucky challenged.
"You don't understand. There is no new element to create. There is no secret message from the grave. There is nothing. The spider that bit me is dead. Data about it is burned. There is nothing, and then there is me. My mutation that I can do nothing about. So shut up and don't compare me to Tony, because I'm not him, and I will never be half as good as he was," Peter yelled, but then he felt a little bit worse. He needed to sit down; he put a hand on his heart. Damn, that hurt.
"It seems that Miss Maximoff is getting more control," Edith answered.
Avengers looked at her like she was speaking in an alien language now. They all thought about Civil War, Peter's dying from mutation, and she was talking about Wanda. Ah... right. Wanda was still hooked up to Peter's brain.
"How you can know that?" Bruce asked.
"Memories are less misplaced that they were before. In the beginning, we were seeing snatches of it. This is a concrete, long memory," Edith explained.
"So... Wanda will stop this soon?" Steve asked.
"That I don't know. I do know that now she has control," Edith answered.
Barnes left.
Peter sat alone in his lab, looking at the legendary picture that changed the universe.
Hi! I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Gosh... Sony and Disney drama. It's like brexit. x.X Am I the only one that still have hopes for Spidey in MCU?
NinjaDevil2000 - But I'm very grateful that you are reading this! :* I promise you, Peter's life will have some light at some point!
Belbelanne - Nope. I don't think that Peter would risk creating alternative universe for saving himself. He is far to selfless for that.
WeirdAtHeart - I'm glad that you enjoy my fic!
See ya in the next! :*