Beta Reader: Alia275
They didn't even know where to start talking. There was too much information at one time. A civil war. Steve leaving Tony to die, and whatever the hell was going to happen between them. Their relationship was not always wonderful, but it was much better than in the beginning.
"EDITH... do you know why?" Tony asked, glancing at the hologram and then at Steve, who was pale.
"I can't say. I can't say anything that could be considered as historical knowledge... So I can't say the reasons for the Civil War. But Siberia... it was not because of the same reasons that the Civil War happened. It was personal. Boss could handle a lot of things... but betrayal was never one of them," EDITH answered, watching Steve.
"Are you suggesting that I...betrayed Tony? How?" Steve asked. He still couldn't wrap his mind around this. He wouldn't betray Stark.
Holo-Edith looked at Steve. She just looked. And he knew, she knew, and Tony would know. That was this betrayal. He was planning to tell him, he had tried a few times, but it just wouldn't leave his lips. He guessed that he would never find the courage to tell Tony, but he would still learn the truth, if not from him.
"Are you planning to share with the class?" Clint asked.
"I..." Steve looked down. How did he say this? "I don't know how to say this." He snorted bitterly and looked at Edith, who returned his gaze gently.
"You tried to hide this from Tony to spare him in my Universe. You saw how it ended. You have a chance to do better now," she shrugged and glanced at Tony.
"So. Steve already is doing something, that I will later consider as a betrayal." Stark felt like he had just been punched in the face.
"Tony... we need to talk. Alone. Now," Steve decided.
Steve didn't know what exactly happened in the Siberia; he couldn't find a reason why he would leave Tony to die. But Edith had confirmed that this was about Bucky...and he didn't want it to happen. The memory of Peter seeing barely alive, Tony, and his own shield, made by Tony's father and streaked with Tony's blood, shook him enough.
Tony didn't know how to react. Did he want to talk alone with the man that was going to try to kill him? He knew that if Wanda was not abusing Peter's mind, they wouldn't have learned about it and Steve would continue doing... whatever he was doing. He looked at Pepper, who was holding his hand. She let him go and nodded. Hoping that they could talk about it and stop it from happening.
"Well... if I don't come back, you know who is to blame," Tony tried to joke. Then, he and Steve left the room.
Edith sighed.
"It was that bad?" Thor asked Edith.
"Mr. Barnes in memory was correct. This could be talked off. But... it was the wrong place and definitely the wrong time," Edith answered. Ultron, Peggy's death... it was a hard time for both of them.
They stood in silence for a few seconds. Surprisingly, none of Peter's memories were showing up. Maybe Wanda was close to leaving Peter's mind?
"Tea? Really? Fucking tea?" Natasha looked at what should be whiskey.
Edith smiled.
"Are you angry that you didn't see through him? With all your abilities to manipulate people, to read people..." Edith mocked. She was well aware of the SHIELD report, made by Romanoff.
Natasha didn't know what to say. Did the AI just... mock her? Before she could say anything, Pepper sighed.
"Not many people know that. I believed in it for a long time too," she shrugged.
She knew Tony well enough to know about this kind of stuff. Sometimes it was her who made this bloody tea. They've never talked about it; she could guess the reasons behind it. They always saw a drunk jerk. Tony's too-good cover destroyed the man.
"Why?" Clint asked, but Pepper didn't have time to answer, because Peter's memories showed up again.
Peter was sitting still, looking at the picture of him and Tony, when everything started to shake and there were some terrible noises outside. Peter murmured something about dying in peace and he went to the window. He saw signs of hell of a fight in the city center. The nano-spider suit showed up on his skin. The window opened and Peter jumped through and swing away.
"No! Shit. Whatever happens, he shouldn't go there. He is freaking dying," Clint yelled at the memory.
"Not that it stopped Tony before," Natasha sighed to Pepper, who grimaced.
Peter landed at the roof of some building close to the fight. He saw the Avengers. Wilson was in the skies, looking down to attack. Bucky, Lila, and Kamala were saving civilians, while Robbie and Jennifer were fighting against some people clothed in black.
The past-Avengers were shocked to see the new team in combat. Of course, the biggest surprises to them were Ms. Marvel, Ghost Rider, and She-Hulk.
"Did... she just change into a trampoline?" Pepper asked. She had seen some strange things, but that was... weird.
"That's Hulk... but female?" Bruce raised his eyebrows.
"I was not aware of Ghost Rider's presence on Midgard," Thor commented.
Edith just hid her face in her holo-hands, then she looked at the living beings in this room.
"Yes, Ms. Marvel changed into a trampoline. That's She-Hulk. And Mr. Odinson, history of the Ghost Riders on Earth is quite long," the AI answered with a sigh. She wasn't happy with the information that was revealed in the memories. This was getting worse and worse with every memory. Creating a screw-up alternate universe was not their point in this time travel.
"Captain, what the hell is going on?" Peter asked and swung closer to the fight.
"Spider? You shouldn't be here," Barnes answered, clearly confused and worried.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Wilson yelled at Barnes, before addressing Peter. "Nothing good, Parker, as always. Want a piece of it?" Sam replied.
"Ohhh... you kept a piece for me? So nice of you!" Peter taunted and joined the fight against six people, all dressed completely in black. How they could see anything in those black masks, that's unknown!
Peter felt like shit, but it was not the time for his weakness. Captain threw his shield into one of the black figures. When it was about to hit his target, the villain just... phased, Vision-style and the shield went through hi, without doing him any harm, but when shield was still in the air, Peter caught it in his webs and spun it hard, covering it with a lot of webs, then threw at the same figure.
"Scorpion!" Peter yelled, calling Robbie to help him and add something to their combo. (A/N: Scorpion is a reference to the Mortal Kombat games; I'm not talking about Scorpion from Marvel)
"GET OVER HERE!" Robbie yelled back, using his 'Ghost Rider voice' and using his chains, he set hellfire to the webs on the shield, making it one, big fireball. It hit this time, sending him into a building that collapsed under the figure in black.
"Wow! That's a combo!" Clint said, impressed. "I should be worried about this skull guy, but damn. He looks cool!" he added.
"What are these guys' problems?" Peter asked as he was pulled into close combat with another one masked figure.
"We don't know. We call them the Sinister Six. They don't speak, just attack," Lila explained. "Shit! We need backup; their big guy joined our party. We have a lot of civilians!" she yelled.
"She-Hulk will smash them!" Jennifer answered and went to help Lila, Bucky, and Kamala. Robbie, Wilson, and Peter stayed, engaging and distracting the other two of the Six. Peter was fighting with the one, Robbie and Wilson were keeping the other one, who was much, much bigger, occupied, when Peter began to feel weaker and weaker with every movement he made.
At that moment, Steve and Tony came back from wherever they were. Steve had a fresh bruise on his cheek. They were dead serious when they returned at their spots, looking at the memory that was shown.
"What did we miss?" Tony asked, voice cool.
The rest looked at each other, then at Tony and Steve.
"Are you two are cool?" Clint asked.
"No," they both answered at the same time. "But maybe we will be... one day," Tony added and Steve looked at him with hope.
"Well... your son went to fight while he's dying, and we saw this New Avengers team," Thor answered the previous question.
Tony wanted to say that this is not his son, but he bit his tongue, so he talked about something else.
"We leave for a few minutes and we miss so much?!" he grumbled.
"Are you going to tell us what happened?" Bruce asked, looking at Steve.
Cap sighed.
"We'll talk later," Steve answered. He had talked it off with Tony, that was enough for now. If Peter's memory faded, they would talk about it, but Tony knew now. He had learned it from him, even if that was pressed on him.
"Fighting with us is pointless. We are inevitable," Peter's opponent spoke. And he had thought that Lila said that they didn't speak!
"Well, we'll see when you end up like your friend," Peter answered, talking about the dude who was under the building. The dark figure laughed and then he pushed Peter away forcefully, using purple energy.
"That man was forged in the hottest place on his planet and hardened where it's the coldest. The building won't stop him," the figure answered with a mocking tone. These words seemed to be familiar, but Peter was not in the right state to think about it. He barely could put himself together after that blow.
"Shit. This is right after this talk with Bucky, right?" Tony asked. "He shouldn't be fighting," Stark murmured.
Then, like on a wish, the other black figure blew out from under the collapsed building and flew into the sky before landing next to their teammate and nodding a little, murmuring something under their breath. The other answered, but Peter had difficulty understanding. He just saw two guys, standing before him.
"What is this, 'Tasha?" Steve asked the redhead.
"I dunno... It seems familiar," she answered. "Like, I saw something similar before."
"When?" Bruce asked.
She just shrugged in response.
There was some noise, but he couldn't focus on anything. He had passed out, just before it. He felt somebody was picking him up from the ground.
"No, no, no. God. Kid gets himself kidnapped. Why didn't he stay in the safe, when he was dying..." Tony muttered angrily. Pepper and Natasha looked at him with a raised eyebrows. "Yeah, I know. I'm a hypocrite," he waved his hand.
"Well... Yeah, you are. But you're right. The kid should stay away from the fight," Natasha agreed.
"Maybe he was abducted and sent here?" Thor suggested.
"No, he was not," Edith contradicted.
"You know the reason; you know his purpose here," Steve said with accusing tone.
Edith crossed her arms and stared at Captain America.
"Pff. Of course I know. I'm his AI, after all. Not that I can tell you this, but seeing that Miss Maximoff is not going to stop 'till she finds the answers, you will learn soon enough," Edith said arrogantly.
Everybody looked at Wanda at this point. Some of them totally had forgotten that she was showing this all to them. It was so messed up, that they had literally forgotten that she was connected to Peter's mind. Her face had become more relaxed than it was in the beginning; she was in the control now.
"Wanda, stop this," Tony said, trying to keep his voice strong like he was ordering, but it sounded more like begging.
"No! We can learn more about what's going to happen," Clint answered.
"And what, screw up more?" Tony hissed angrily.
"No! Provide your pupil over here better future!" Clint answered.
Tony sighed heavily and looked at Edith, then at Clint.
"You can't change his past, Legolas. He is the product of his timeline. Even if we change everything, it won't change a damn thing to this Peter," Stark answered bitterly. No matter how much he would like to change Peter's past, he couldn't. That was impossible.
"What about this timeline's Peter, huh? Because he is somewhere out there," Clint pressed the subject.
"Well, maybe he won't meet me at all; that would be the best for him," Tony snapped.
He was tired of this. Tired of seeing Peter trying to live up to this lie that he had left behind after his death in Pete's timeline. He was no such great superhero, he was not new-born-Jesus. Geez. He wasn't somebody that you would want to live up to.
"He already did," Edith shrugged.
Then, as if on command, a memory showed up. The truth was that Wanda just searched Peter's mind the right memory.
Peter was a little kid; he was standing in some kind of yard, wearing an Iron Man mask on his face. Then, Hammer's bot landed before him. He raised his hand, palm he raised, mimicking Iron Man.
"Hammer's bot," Tony's eyes widened in recognition. He remembered.
"The kid was your fan since the beginning, right?" Clint chuckled.
Iron Man landed behind Peter and blasted the bot.
"Good job, kid," he said and flew away.
"You saved his life," Pepper said with a little smile.
- No surprise that he would look up to you as his superhero mentor. - Natasha added.
Great. Just great. Like he needed a kid who would look up to him. He was a mess; he didn't want this kind of life for anybody else. At yet, it seemed like somebody must pull off this shit after he was gone; it was bad luck that it fell on Peter. He didn't know much about the kid (duh, they shouldn't call him kid, because he was adult, but because of these memories, they just couldn't stop themselves in thinking that way about him). But from what he could tell, he was a good kid, he shouldn't have been pulled into this mess.
Everything was so damn white... why everything was so damn white?
There were some noises in the background, but he couldn't identify them. He was lying on something. Then, he passed out again.
Next time he opened his eyes, he looked at his left arm and discovered that he was hooked up to some kind tech. There were a lot of wires. He looked right and he saw some figure dressed in black. He looked at its face. It seemed to be human. White male with dark hair...but it was blurred. Somebody else was there too; they talked. Then he felt cloth on his face and passed out again.
"Damn," Steve murmured.
"Language," Tony, Clint, and Natasha said at the same time, but without any humor in it. Like it was an automatic response. They were too focused on the kid.
"How do we know that you're not some kind of spy?" Bruce asked Edith. They could have done anything to Peter then and he could change his AI coding. They could have been sent by this so-called Sinister Six.
"You don't. But you can look for more intel in Pete's memories," Edith answered honestly. "They didn't harm him," she added.
"What? So what did they do?" Pepper asked.
"You'll see," Edith answered.
Peter woke up in the middle of nowhere. He rose slowly then looked around, only to see fields and nothing more.
"Edith? EDITH?! Shit." He realized that he had no tech with him and the glasses were still at Harley's office.
He felt... fine. He was not so pale and he felt fine. He touched his neck: the damaged tissue around the spider bite was gone.
"What the hell..."
"What the hell," Tony mirrored Peter's question.
Peter started walking, looking for some civilization. He was trying to remember something. There was a fight against Six people in black. Lila called them the Sinister Six. Poetic as fuck if you asked him. That guy talked to him...and then the other guy flew out from the collapsed building. The first guy used some purple energy to push him and he... what happened next? Damn!
He walked through the field and smiled, remembering the Netherlands. When as a young kid, he was walking toward Stark Jet and Happy was waiting for him. He was so scared back then; he had hugged Happy for comfort when he was sure that it was truly Happy. He would give up everything for such person again; but he couldn't pull Happy into shit like this again.
He found a road, yay!
"He seems to be close to Happy," Tony stated.
Edith sighed.
"Boss made Happy a 'nanny' to Peter. Happy was not exactly happy about it...but Peter has the incredible talent to grow on people," Edith answered, getting little emotional about this. She remembered when Peter had trusted Beck with her. She should have overridden Beck's orders, but she was so... less of herself back then. She was too damn simple back then.
Peter was walking the road, no signs, just road in the middle of nowhere.
Tony had a little bit of flashback from Tennessee.
Then, he heard a car behind him, and he waved for it to stop. The driver stopped and Peter went closer.
"That's Peter Parker!" the kid from the backseat said in awe.
"Hello... Could you give me a lift closer to civilization?" he asked with a charming smile.
"The Man of Spiders seems to be recognizable, like you Friend Tony," Thor commented.
"Duh. You heard Edith. He's the CEO of the biggest company in the universe. Of course he's recognizable," Clint answered and looked at Tony. "Probably he has a bigger fanbase than his ol' man," Barton teased.
Tony only huffed.
Peter was standing in an empty marketplace in some small city, waiting for somebody and pacing nervously. Then, he saw an Iron Man suit in the air. Its coloring was a little bit different from Tony's, being grey with golden elements. When he landed, the nano-technology started to disappear, revealing none other than Harley Keener. He had tears in his eyes. Peter tried to say something, but then Harley just hugged him tightly.
The Avengers looked at this private scene with mixed emotions. Relieved and worried. Peter didn't seem to be dying, but... what happened to him back there?
Then Harley punched him in the face. Hard.
"That's for not telling me that you were dying. Fuck you! Do you know how I fucking felt, when the Avengers told me that you were MIA? And you left me the glasses! And Bucky told me that you were dying! And you still went fighting! FUCK YOU MAN!" Harley yelled angrily. Don't get him wrong, he was happy that Pete was fine, but damn this fucking idiot!
"Wait... are you still dying?" Harley asked when Peter was silent.
"... I don't know," he answered after a while.
Then they saw a jet in the air.
The next memory was in Avengers' Mansion, down in the lab. Peter was hooked up to some scanners.
"I'm touched;, A-Force and the Avengers joined forces to find me, really... I'm touched. Well. I'm not, but let's pretend that I'm, you know. For good effect," Peter was talking to Cap Marvel. "Good thing you grew your hair long; it suits you better," he said and she only rolled her eyes.
In the room were Wilson, Barnes, Harley, Kamala, Robbie, Lila, Jennifer, Carol, and T'Challa.
"Peter... be serious. You were held by the Sinister Six for over a week," Wilson murmured.
Avengers gasped at hearing that.
"Sam... be serious," Peter mimicked. "Do you know what I need after that week that I don't remember? I need a shower. I need to shave." Peter just couldn't stand being with Wilson in the same room. They could fight together; they could be quite awesome with that... but when the fight was over, god. He hated that man because of everything that he represented within himself.
"No, really Peter. We need to know if you're okay," Lila said with a sigh.
"I'm fine," Peter murmured.
"We don't know what they did to you. You were dying," Bucky said.
"Yeah... I should be dead right now. EDITH, scan results, please?" Peter sighed and looked at his side, where holo-Edith showed up, holding holo-tablet. She totally didn't need to keep doing that. She didn't need to read results, but it made her look more humanish.
"Blood Toxicity: 50%," Edith answered. "Your body adapted to the poison created by your mutation. It's floating through your veins now and your body is accepting it fully... but it was not natural. Your body mutated in order to do so..." she added.
Peter raised his brow.
"But that wouldn't be possible without the DNA of the spider," Peter answered.
"Yes, you're correct, Peter," Edith sighed.
"Wait. Let me get this straight. You were dying because of your mutation," T'Challa, who was standing next to Captain Marvel, started. "And the Sinister Six healed you from something that you couldn't cure yourself. With data that nobody has. Right?" he asked Peter, who nodded again.
"That's a good summary," Peter shrugged.
"What happened with the data about the spider that bit you?" Kamala asked.
"Oscorp literally torched it," Harley answered for Peter. They were both looking for data about the spider even before all of this mess had happened.
"Yeah. Did you hear that the guy who inherited SI is Spider-Man? His name is Peter Parker. Like the Peter Parker who was on that trip where one of our radioactive spiders ran away? And he says that his powers come from radiation? Let's destroy everything that we have on it." Peter rolled his eyes and took a glass and poured himself some "whiskey". Barnes noticed that it was from the glass that held tea.
"He was bitten by a radioactive spider?" Banner raised his eyebrows and looked at Edith. The Hulk was created by radiation, too. Edith only nodded, but she didn't say anything about Peter's powers.
"So, the Sinister Six is connected to Oscorp?" Robbie suggested.
"I doubt it. Oscorp has problems on its own," Harley sighed. "So what, Sinister Six knows more about Pete's problems that we do." He was not happy about it; he was still damn angry at Peter.
"Did you tell anybody about what was happening to you? Except me?" Barnes asked, looking at Peter.
"Did you know?" Harley snapped.
"He learned about it the day that I was taken because he found me drowning in my own blood." That was strange, Peter defending Bucky. "And I didn't tell anybody. That was the point, you know? Close things, push people away, die alone." Peter rolled his eyes.
Harley's face softened a little bit.
"Why did you visit me at all that day?" Pete asked, looking at Barnes.
"To get your help with the Sinister Six," James shrugged. Peter only chuckled.
"So, you don't know what was happening with you?" Wilson asked him.
"No, I told you, I don't remember. The last thing I remember was talking with the one of Sinister Six on the battlefield. He blasted me with that purple energy. Then I was in some kind of lab? There were two people... but nothing more. I was knocked out." Peter sighed; he was already tired with that conversation.
"You actually talked with them?" Carol raised her eyebrows.
"Not really, just the typical villain crap. "Fighting us is pointless." Peter rolled his eyes and took a sip of his "drink". "Edith, do you have any information about that energy?" he asked, looking at holo-Edith.
"Yes, I'm analyzing it now... Oh... crap." If she was not only a hologram, everybody would say that her face paled.
Everybody looked at Edith, who didn't react. They would see it again soon.
"What?" almost everybody in the room asked at the same time.
"The energy that was used in the fight... it is very, very...very similar to a type of energy with which we are familiar: Infinity Stones Energy," Edith answered, watching everybody in the room.
Carol cursed alongside T'Challa and Barnes. Wilson paled and rubbed his eyes after a few seconds.
"Infinity Stones?" Tony asked.
Edith only hummed in reply.
A short flashback of Tony Stark, holding the Infinity Gauntlet, energy running through his body from Peter's view.
"Ah... That. I almost forgot," Tony grimaced.
"But the Infinity Stones were destroyed," Jennifer answered and looked at the rest.
"In our universe, yes," Wanda said, entering the room. She was very different. Older, and looked a lot... wiser. She was wearing a scarlet tiara and a lot of jewelry in the same color.
Wanda smiled a little bit, seeing herself in the future, but that was her only reaction, because she was still too much consumed with abusing Peter's mind to react more about it.
Barton whistled.
"The kids grew up so quickly," Clint smiled.
"Scarlet Witch." Peter became weary around her.
"Spider-Man," she answered. "Strange and I noticed the flow of inter-universe energy. Our Sinister Six are probably dimension's jumpers," . - Wanda explained to the team.
Peter chuckled.
"It's hilarious. No matter how far we go, how much time passes...it is still about Infinity Stones," Peter pointed out it. Nobody wanted to admit that, but it was damn ironic. From the first assemble it was about the Infinity Stones. Even destroyed in their universe, it was still about them. "So, the one who knocked me down has the powers of Power Stone?" Peter guessed.
"That would be correct, but they don't have the full power of it. They are not wielding it in any way. It's just similar. Like Ms. Danvers's powers," Edith explained.
"So, they were exposed to the pure energy coming from the Stones. We can assume that all of them have power from stones. The archer can teleport himself. Space Stone. I don't know about the others," Danvers said.
"The one we blasted into the building, the flying one, could phase himself like Vision did," Wilson added.
Archer.
Flying one.
Big one.
Six.
Forged in the hottest place on his planet and hardened where it's the coldest.
Peter paled.
"The kid realized something," Natasha murmured.
"Only what?" Steve sighed.
"Oh... fuck me," Peter said, looking at the rest. He took a tablet quickly, starting to analyze data from the battle by himself. He threw down the tablet after second, which fell through Holo-Edith, then sat near his main computer, opening all holographic screens.
"Parker, what?" Wilson asked.
"He was taunting me. TAUNTING ME RIGHT IN MY FACE AND I DIDN'T UNDERSTAND IT!" Peter yelled angrily.
"What? Who?" Robbie asked.
"The guy in the battle. The one with purple power," Peter babbled, running through data. "He said to me that the other one is 'forged in the hottest place on his planet and hardened where it's the coldest,'" he added.
The superheroes in the room raised their eyebrows in askance, except for Harley, who paled as well.
"No way," Keener answered.
"What?" T'Challa asked.
"The most popular biography of Tony Stark. First-line. 'Anthony Edward Stark, a man forged in the Afghan sun and hardened in Siberian snow," Peter murmured.
Flashback -
The one masked villain landed next to the other one during the fight, after he had blasted his way from the ruined building.
"Stark," the first one said.
"Cap," the other one answered.
- Return.
Natasha, Steve, and Tony paled and opened their mouths with shock.
"What?" Banner asked.
Flashback -
"Father won't be pleased," Natasha said, looking at Tony in the lab, who was standing next to Peter.
"I'm doing my job," Tony answered and knocked Peter out again.
- Return.
Now it was time for the rest to join in the shock.
"The Sinister Six are the Original Avenger Six." Peter said what he had on mind finally. They didn't notice that Holo-Edith vanished.
But before anybody could react, the Avengers, the original squad. entered the room. Their armor was black, but they didn't look exactly different. Just like the guys all of them had remembered.
"Talking about us behind our backs? That's rude. I thought we taught you better," Natasha smirked.
Then... something exploded.
Here we go! Another chapter. I hope that you are enjoying it. Almost 5k words in this chapter, I guess this is a new record for me xD Originally I planned to end this with Peter's escape from SinSix, but I and my fantastic Beta Reader decided that it will better to do this chapter little longer :D
Spidey is back in MCU (yeah, I know. Old news, but I didn't update since that drama xD) yay!
I was some strange news about somebody not wanting Renner to play Hawkeye, I didn't read much, anybody knows what is going on?
I know, I know. I only borrowed the name "Sinister Six" they don't have much in common with Sinister Six from Marvel Comics. I just thought about the name for evil original six and... you know. xD It happened. xD
Like always, see ya at the next! :D