We've made it to the end of Part 2! Woohoo!

If you've been following the MCU timeline, then you know we have some exciting things ahead. For now, I'll just say that Part 3 holds the answers to some of your most often asked questions. And I hope, I truly hope you will be surprised at what you discover. Part 3 is where some things settle into inevitability, and other things really take on a life of their own.

Song for this chapter is "Fight Song" by Rachel Platten. Because everybody needs a triumphant fade-to-black every now and again!

Check out the end notes for a preview for next week.

Enjoy!

Chapter 25: Into Motion

May probably should have taken a little less joy in Tony's consternation about Peter sneaking out of bed to go make friends with the Asgardians, but after the week they'd been through, she would embrace whatever happiness she got. Even if it came by giggling at a surprise pancake feast.

It wasn't that she blindly trusted Loki, either. And, yes, Peter should have actually been resting instead of cooking brunch with the Asgardians and newly-created Vision. But she couldn't say she was exactly surprised, either.

Peter was a good kid — kind and intelligent and helpful and funny — but he always did things his own way. He kept his feelings close when he didn't want to burden others with them, or he didn't let her know he was having trouble with bullies, or he found clever ways to make presents for others even if it meant violating some rules. It wasn't the kind of rebellion all the parenting books talked about when it came to teenagers; Peter didn't sneak out or lie about his friends or shut her out of his secrets.

But he had an unshakeable internal compass, and he followed it always, no matter what anybody said about it.

So the fact that Peter had opted to ignore the instruction to nap and instead went seeking the most dangerous people in the Compound all on his own wasn't a shock to May the way it was to Tony. If she hadn't been so tired herself, she might even have guessed he would do just that the first opportunity he got. Because Peter would want to thank those who helped him, even if they were villains. He would show them the kindness he'd shown the Hulk, or JARVIS and the bots. Peter never seemed to put a person's acts ahead of their humanity. Or, in Loki's case, Asgardian-ness.

May squeezed Tony's hand under the table while they sat around eating pancakes and hoped he would understand. May wanted to protect Peter from everything, too, and would gladly throw herself between him and every danger, but she also knew that Peter would never see some things as dangerous when he could see them as deserving of kindness instead. Apparently he had mentally assigned Loki to that role now.

And, if she was fair, the Loki who sat at the table snarking at Thor was not at all the same Loki she had seen in 2012 raining terror across the world. Rhodey and Clint had explained what they'd learned about Loki being under the control of some awful alien, and Sam had spent one afternoon while May washed Peter's hair decompressing about the fact that Loki was probably suffering a classic case of PTSD after being imprisoned and tortured, and that he was really only a kid. Her heart went out to him, at least in theory.

May found it hard to be angry at anyone who had helped save Peter, and even harder when that same person went out of his way to make Peter laugh at the table.

But, because Tony was jittery and uncomfortable, May intervened as soon as Peter finished eating.

"If you don't want to nap," she said, "how about you come take a walk with Tony and Pepper and me for a bit?"

Tony shot her raised eyebrows, but May ignored him.

"Besides." May met Peter's eyes. "You kind of missed an important day and I brought something from home for you, just in case."

Peter's whole face lit up. "You did? Aunt May, you're the best!" Just as quickly, his expression fell and he turned to Tony. "Did I really miss your birthday, Mister Stark?"

Most of the table chuckled and Tony very obviously scrambled to cheer Peter up. "To be fair, it wasn't like you could help it, Underoos. Don't sweat it."

"We'll handle clean-up," Clint said, winking at May. "You all go get some sunshine."

In a matter of minutes, the four of them were outside, walking around the Compound and down to the bluff where they could sit with a nice view of the river. May had grabbed a blanket just in case, and Pepper helped her spread it on the manicured lawn before shoving Tony onto it.

"Starks don't sit on blankets on the ground," he objected, even though he was smiling.

"Good for you," May said. "Parkers do. Now sit."

Peter snorted. But he turned his big puppy-dog look on Tony. "Please, Mister Stark? It'll be fun."

Tony folded like a wet house of cards.

May and Pepper exchanged smiles while watching the multi-billionaire attempt to get comfortable. May could tell he was fussing and being weird just to get a laugh out of Peter, and it was working beautifully.

"So." May looked around at the other three. "Peter's got something to give you," she said to Tony, "and then I think we ought to tell him about the other thing."

"The other thing?" Peter asked.

"You first," Pepper said, smiling.

"Oh. Okay."

When May had grabbed the blanket, she had also grabbed the paper bag for Peter that he'd been hiding in her room since spring break, just in case Tony found it in one of their leaving-stuff-for-the-other-to-find games. Peter's hands were folded over the top of the bag nervously.

"I didn't get to wrap it," he said, "but...um. It's not as good as last year. I mean...you said I had to go bigger, and I was going to, really, but…"

"Aw, kiddo." Tony reached over and ruffled Peter's hair. "You did go big this year. You came back. Honestly, that was enough of a present for me."

Peter wrinkled up his whole face in disgust. "That does not count. Especially because you did all the work!"

"Just give him the gift," May said. "He'll like it, I promise."

Tony saved Peter the trouble by swiping the crumpled bag out of his hands. "Okay, let's see here…"

He unceremoniously upended the bag over the center of the blanket. A flattish, square shape taped up in an Italian newspaper fell out. That by itself arrested Tony's attention.

"When did you get this?" he asked.

Peter fidgeted. "The last trip into town before we came back from Italy. From that one little shop. I...I wanted you to have something from there."

May understood what Peter meant, that he wanted to give Tony something from his homeland, something from a place that meant so much. And now a place that Peter loved because Tony loved it.

Tony unwrapped the bundle carefully, preserving as much of the paper as possible. May didn't know what it said, but she thought maybe it didn't matter. It was a local newspaper from the place where Tony's heart found its home, and that made it precious, too.

May and Pepper both leaned over to see what Tony revealed.

There was a little silver medallion with a figure on it. Beneath it was a frame containing a beautifully scripted and illustrated poem May felt sure she should recognize:

"At Tara to-day, in this fateful hour,
I place all heaven with its power,
And the sun with its brightness,
And the snow with its whiteness,
And fire with all the strength it hath,
And lightning with its rapid wrath,
And the winds with their swiftness along their path,
And the sea with its deepness,
And the rocks with their steepness,
And the earth with its starkness,
All these I place,
By God's almighty help and grace,
Between myself and the powers of darkness."

"It's Saint Patrick," Peter explained. "He's the patron saint of engineering, and I guess he also fought monsters to protect Ireland. He has a whole big prayer thing called the Breastplate about calling down angels and stuff to help him fight and protect. And this part of the verse is in one of my books and I always liked it, so..."

May was smiling and Pepper was smiling, but Tony's face was oddly still.

Peter, apparently discomfited by Tony's silence, started filling it up, talking faster and faster with every word.

"It's not, I mean, it's not as cool as the cufflinks because I made those, but I was thinking that something from near the villa would be good, and I know you aren't really Catholic, or maybe you're not Catholic at all, but I...I thought if it was kind of like a cultural thing. My friend Estrella's family is Catholic and she kind of isn't but she still has one of these medals and she told me that it makes her feel protected even if she doesn't do the rest of it. And since Saint Patrick is about engineering but also fighting evil it was really appropriate. Plus having one is supposed to keep you safe and it's small enough to fit under your armor so that's a bonus. And the verse thing is in my book about saving the world from evil by bringing people together and that's kind of what you're doing with the Avengers, so that everybody can, you know, be the best version of themselves and…"

Tony saved Peter from his nervous babbling by reaching over and hauling him into a forcible hug.

"Thank you, Peter. It's perfect."

May could hear Peter let out a sigh of relief as he hugged Tony back. "It's okay if you don't want to wear it," he said quietly, "but I think I'll feel better if I can pretend like something else is protecting you when you're fighting." And he was trying not to sound worried, but May knew better and she could tell Tony and Pepper did, too.

"Well, I certainly appreciate it," Pepper said. "Iron Man and the Avengers could use all the help they can get."

May thought about all they'd learned — an alien seeking other stones as powerful as the Mind Stone who was strong enough to brainwash Loki and had an expendable army to throw at the Earth — and very much agreed.

And belatedly remembered how many of those discussions had actually taken place around Peter or over his very head, and now she knew that he'd heard all of it. No wonder the poor kid was apprehensive of possible battles to come.

"You don't have to worry about me, figlio," Tony said quietly as Peter eased out of the hug and returned to his spot on the blanket. "I always make it back in more-or-less one piece."

"It's true," Pepper said, smiling. "Even when no sane person would think he'd find a way, he does." She shot Tony a fond look. "And good thing too, or I'd have to go kill him myself."

"Besides." May decided to fully distract Peter before he could fret himself into a freak-out. "Tony has a whole new reason to make sure the Avengers always win."

Peter blinked at her. "What?"

May glanced at Tony, but he nodded to her.

"While you were out of it, we made a decision." May wasn't exactly nervous about it, but she hoped Peter would agree with them. She could imagine a scenario in which he wasn't comfortable with what she was about to say. "Keep in mind," she pinned him with a glare, "that this is a just-in-case kind of thing. Not because there's anything wrong."

"Yeah, that's not worrying or anything," Peter said.

"Look, kid," Tony spoke up. "I've heard about this Parker luck of yours. And I don't...I can't take any kind of risks about you. Okay?"

Peter looked more confused than ever. "O...kay?"

"We filed some legal paperwork," May said, holding Peter's eyes. "So that if anything ever happened to me, Tony would become your official guardian. And in a month or so, we're going to go to the court to tell them that we are a family so that he can share legal guardianship over you now, too."

Peter's eyes went huge and wide.

"You…" He looked between May and Tony. "You want to…"

May saw hope in him, but uncertainty, too. Peter had lost so much already. As brave as he was, as well as he had adapted to all the change and grief in his life, she knew perfectly well that the kid was well within his rights to have developed abandonment issues bigger than Avengers Tower. That was how people responded to tragedy when there was no blame or explanation otherwise.

Her heart broke a little bit that his first response wasn't joy, but fear.

"Peter," May said firmly, "did you believe us when you woke up? That we are family?"

"Y-es," he said, but it didn't sound like a yes.

"Is it," Pepper spoke up, "that you are having trouble believing it, or is it that you don't want Tony? Or me? It's okay if you don't."

But Peter was already shaking his head. "No, no, it's not that. It's just...I…"

"Okay, that's it." Tony leaned right into Peter's space. "Let's walk through this step by step. First, do you believe me when I call you figlio? When I tell you I love you like you were my own flesh and blood kid?"

"Um." Peter's face went red, but he nodded. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Guess so." Tony scoffed. "Fine. Second," Tony pointed at Peter's face. "Here's the big one. Do you trust me?"

"I...yeah, of course I do!" And now Peter's face was open and free of doubt.

"Okay. Then trust me, Peter Benjamin Parker, that I do love you very much and I want to be your family in whatever official legal way is necessary to ensure you are as safe as I can possibly make you."

Peter gulped. May could see his mind working, and from his expression, possibly not in the direction she wanted.

"I mean...I guess that's fine. It's just...legal guardianship or wherever, right?" He looked up at Tony and Pepper. "If you ever...I mean, if someday you wanted to have a real kid with somebody, Mister Stark, this wouldn't keep you from doing that, right?"

May almost buried her face in her hands. Peter was so smart about some things, but so timid about others.

On the plus side, Tony was perfectly happy to drive the truth into his head by any means necessary.

"Okay, that's a phrase we're eliminating. Make a note, Pep. Never again shall anybody talk about having a 'real kid' someday." He leaned forward and caught Peter's shoulder. "Get this straight, mini me. You are my real kid. If, I dunno, someday another one happened to come along, regardless of its genetic ancestry, they would not be any more my kid than you. You'd just be a big brother. Got that?"

Peter gulped and his eyes slid to Pepper — and May shook her head. Leave it to her nephew not to take what was being offered when it might hurt somebody else.

"I don't technically get a say in this," Pepper said, catching his apprehension, "but I assure you, I completely agree with Tony. In the hypothetical future where Tony and I had a child together, you would still be ours first."

"Peter." May lowered her voice. "I know it's hard for you because you have trouble putting yourself first. But can you try to believe that we all love you? That every one of us would choose you for our kid if we had any choice in the world?"

And maybe it was unfair to spring this on Peter when he was so recently through a difficult situation. Maybe his reluctance would have been different were he not barely just recovered after being trapped in his head by the Mind Stone. Maybe this was too much too soon.

Maybe.

But May thought that this was maybe the most honest response she could hope to get out of Peter. His defenses were down, and he was still so tired in many ways. Another day, he might have accepted the guardianship without a fuss and kept all these doubts inside. So it might not be fair that they were doing it now, but May was glad nonetheless.

Catching Peter now meant he couldn't help but be honest, and that meant they could help him face his fears and put them to rest right away.

Peter rubbed at his face and May could clearly see he was trying so hard not to cry.

"I...I didn't expect...I mean, May you had Uncle Ben and so...and we talk about family but it's not really the same and now…"

"I told you a year ago," Tony said, his tone soft. "You're stuck with me for life, kid. This just makes that official."

"I...okay." Peter gulped and looked up, his eyes too bright and his face flushed. "Because...because I would choose you out of anybody in the world, too. All of you. There's...there's no other family I want. I can't...I don't...it's hard to think I deserve to be lucky enough, but...even if I'm not...I can be selfish too, right? I can want this, even if I don't...if somebody else deserves it more than me?"

May threw her arms around Peter. "Nobody on this planet deserves to be happy or loved more than you, Peter. Nobody."

And Tony and Pepper closed in around them, not holding them like before, but close enough that Peter could feel them there. Tony put a hand on Peter's back.

"We can work on that other stuff. The thing that matters is that you are mine now and forever, figlio. Mine and May's. And we will never let you go."

And May knew Peter's barely-suppressed tears were tears of joy.

-==OOO==-

Steve was more than a little relieved when Loki decided to leave the Earth the following day, even if Peter appeared to be disappointed. Of course the kid had befriended the alien who had tried to take over the world, and now wanted to hang out with him. Of course he had. Honestly, at this point, Steve thought maybe Hydra were literally the only people in the universe immune to Peter's Peter-ness.

But, also, it was past time for the Avengers to get back to Avenging — after doing a whole lot of debriefing with Fury and SHIELD.

Debriefing that needed to start with Peter.

An hour of arguing later, May and Tony agreed that Peter could talk to Fury about what he'd experienced, knowing that the kid would probably not hold much back (or even know what might have been helpful to hold back). However, literally the entire team agreed that this discussion should be held far away from the Compound and Loki.

Nobody wanted to find out if Fury and Loki could irritate each other into a new round of bloodshed. To say nothing of Fury and Odin being in the same room.

So May and Peter set out from the Compound in the morning with most of the Avengers back to the Tower to meet Fury, leaving only Steve, Tony, Thor, and Bruce to say goodbye to Odin and Loki.

And if it was no accident that the three Avengers — not counting Thor — with the best chance of subduing Loki if a fight broke out were the ones left behind and Peter and May were absolutely nowhere nearby to get caught in the crossfire, well, Steve wasn't a tactician for nothing.

Odin was, apparently, intending to stay on Earth.

"So, do you need anything?" Tony asked him, definitely more flippantly than a king of Asgard probably deserved, but that was Tony all over and Steve knew a losing battle when he saw one. "New digs? A master mason to fix the big hole in your wall at Shady Acres?"

"No. I prefer to remain anonymous still, so I shall find a new home and a new name and I ask that you not seek me out unless I summon you." Odin appeared nonplussed by Tony's attitude, which Steve considered the best case scenario.

"How long are you planning to remain?" Steve asked, aiming for more politeness. "Just in case we…" He cleared his throat. "I wouldn't presume to disturb you, but I would appreciate knowing where things stand with Asgard in case something comes up."

"My contract with Loki is not yet over, and so he shall continue to sit upon Asgard's throne. I shall remain upon Midgard until our agreement ends, one way or another."

Steve had barely finished absorbing that slightly-ominous statement, and then Odin was just...gone.

"I hate magic," Tony said softly.

"I think it hates you, too," Bruce said.

Thor and Loki had been speaking quietly across the lawn, but when Thor leaned in to give Loki a hug, Steve figured they were about done and made his way to them, Tony and Bruce in his wake.

"I shall...see you soon, my brother," Thor was saying.

"There's no rush," Loki said, and yet he smiled. "Finish cleansing your enormous head of its cobwebs so that we might have a more intelligent discussion next time."

"Loki," Steve said, "I just want to thank you. You came and you helped us, and you didn't have to. We...we appreciate it."

Loki gave him a look that held a measurable amount of disdain. "I did not come for your sake, Captain."

"No," Tony said, softly, "you came for my kid."

At that, Loki's expression thawed and he nodded. "Indeed."

"We might not have been able to save him if not for you," Bruce said. "So, yeah. Thanks. And." He rubbed the back of his neck. "For what it's worth, I'm glad the Hulk could knock some sense into you in New York, and I'm sorry that's what it took to free you."

"I appreciate the sentiment as it is intended," Loki said.

"I'll be honest," Steve said. "I'm not sure the Earth will ever really trust you. We've talked to SHIELD about everything, and maybe someday we'll be able to get them to see that they can't hold you responsible for what you did. But…"

"It is of no matter," Loki said. "I do not seek the approval of your species."

Be that as it may, the whole thing still bothered Steve. He wanted people to understand that someone being mind-controlled, acting against their will, should not, could not be blamed for their actions. He needed the world to forgive Loki because he needed the world to forgive Bucky someday. When he found him.

And as with every time his thoughts turned to Bucky, and to people forgiving him, he found himself looking at Tony.

Someday...someday he would have to face that battle.

But not today.

"You saved my kid," Tony said. "So, yeah. Maybe you won't be the number one hero around here any time soon. But...well. If you need something, you ask us." He dropped his eyes. "I owe you more than I can pay back."

Loki made a smile and Steve just could not tell anymore if it was plotting or sarcastic or honest. "I shall not forget, Craftsman. Guard that child, Stark. He is worth more than the rest of you."

"No arguments here," Tony said. "Happy trails, Spock."

Loki looked into the sky and raised a hand. "Heimdall!" he called. "Open the Bifrost!"

And prismatic light shot down to the grass, surrounding Loki. A moment later, it was gone, and so was he, leaving only a circular imprint of a complicated pattern burned into the grass.

"That man has no regard for lawn maintenance," Tony said. But he was clearly distracted and his heart wasn't in the joke.

Bruce spoke up before Steve could. "Tony? You okay?"

"Yeah, no." Tony shook his head and put his sunglasses back on. "Not like it hasn't been a couple of stressful weeks."

"I don't think that's it," Steve said.

Tony looked at the three of them and Steve could see his throat working as he swallowed.

"We almost got beat," he said. And Steve could hear Tony's attempt to keep his voice from shaking. "That alien rock by itself could have killed Peter, and we couldn't exactly fight it the one time we tried. And when it was brain-whammying Loki and all, it showed up with an army. A big one."

"We beat them," Bruce said.

"Loki and my father spoke of Thanos," Thor said. "The threat of the Infinity Stones cannot be underestimated. And if Thanos wishes to gather them, his madness may lead to death on every planet in every realm. The Chitauri are his slaves, and he has many more."

"See, that's what I'm saying." Tony shook his head. "A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers or Hydra all the livelong day, but, that up there? That's...that's the endgame. How can we possibly beat something like that?"

And at that moment Tony didn't sound like the cocky engineer Steve trusted. He sounded like a man who had nearly lost his child and who feared a future that might turn out to be far worse.

So he gave the only answer he could. "Together."

Tony whipped off his sunglasses and stared at Steve with eyes that were wild; Steve was reminded of the vision Tony had experienced in Sokovia, even though he never got any details about it. Just that something had caused him to hallucinate Peter dead.

"We'll lose," Tony told him.

Steve stepped to his side and put a hand on his shoulder. "Then we'll do that together, too."

Tony didn't look comforted. Neither did Bruce or Thor, actually. If Steve was honest with himself, he didn't feel particularly comforted, either.

But Tony shook himself. He looked off into the distance and spoke to himself more than to them. "I became a hero to serve you and all that is like you."

"The Last Unicorn," Bruce said. At Tony's surprise, he shrugged. "I had JARVIS look it up for me after Peter talked to the Hulk about the Red Bull. I didn't expect it to help as much as it did."

"What about it?" Steve asked, making a mental note to borrow the book sometime if Tony and Bruce and Peter all liked it.

"Just...I guess it doesn't matter if we can win or not. We have something worth protecting right here. So even if the biggest bad in the universe sets up camp on our doorstep, we have to fight. And we have to win even if it's impossible. We have to make it possible for everything worth protecting."

Thor nodded. "United, I believe there is no battle we cannot win, no enemy we cannot vanquish."

"Not sure I'd go that far," Bruce said honestly, "but...I'm willing to try. I'm not going to let somebody destroy the world." He smirked at Tony. "All my stuff is here and I just got my new lab set up."

"Tony," Steve said, "I know...you didn't really want to be an Avenger again. Hydra aside, you did this for Peter more than us."

"Well, you're not wrong," Tony said. He shrugged. "But it turns out that going home to the people I care about is really hard when there's evildoers doing evil all over the place."

"And I...the guy who wanted the simple life, the family, he went into the ice and I think a different guy came out," Steve admitted.

"We know," Bruce teased. "You have absolutely no sense of downtime, Steve. Something you should probably work on at some point."

"Thank you. I've been made aware of that." But he smiled. "Anyway. My point is...I believe...I have to believe that we, all of us, the Avengers, we can do this. But if you tap out…"

"We would be sorely lacking if you were not to stand beside us, Tony," Thor said.

"I get it." Tony faced them. "You need more than people lined up. You need a team. A real one. Willing to go as far as it takes, to fight to the end."

"Past the end," Steve said. "You get killed, I need you to walk it off."

"Right." Tony shut his eyes and Steve could see the weight on his back. The weight of the world that he had carried for so long.

Long before Steve woke up in New York again, Iron Man had been the one and only force keeping chaos at bay the world over. Tony had been the one to carry the nuke in the Battle of New York. He had given up his Tower, his time with Peter, every part of himself to reinvent the Avengers to make them equal to the task of rooting out Hydra.

This was so much more than that. This was committing not just to defeating Hydra, but to defending the planet against an untold alien threat that they had barely defeated in the smallest of skirmishes.

This was the vow to fight a war that might not end, and that might not be won.

And yet, Tony took a deep breath, lifted his head, squared his shoulders, and opened his eyes.

"I crawled out of a cave with a hole in my chest. I reinvented science from the ground up to keep the palladium from killing me. I have fought terrorists and now aliens to the point that I should have been dead a hundred times over. In all fairness, I should be done."

"Tony…" Steve said.

"But." Tony's gaze went dark, electric, deeper than the darkest night. "That was all when I had a hell of a lot less worth fighting for. Now I have every reason to keep this world safe, and the biggest one of those is back at my Tower right now fending off a nosy one-eyed spy."

Steve found himself smiling.

"So, yeah." Tony smiled back, and it was still a promise of a war to come, but with the hope for victory at the end of it. "I've learned that you can't stop bad things before they happen. You have to stop them when they happen, and fix them afterwards."

"And fixing things is kind of your thing," Bruce said.

"So, when such battles find their way to us," Thor offered, making it almost a question.

"We'll fight. Together." Steve nodded.

"I said this to Loki in 2012, but now I really mean it. If we can't protect the Earth," Tony said, dark and true, "you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it."

Steve knew, he knew he was being baited, but he found himself saying it anyway.

"Tony, language."

And Tony just laughed.

Next time, in Part 3 of The Meaning of Inevitable...

After an international incident in the battle against Hydra, a plurality of nations demand accountability from the Avengers. As the team navigates an expanding political nightmare, secrets kept for too long come home to roost, putting their trust in one another to the ultimate test. At the same time, Peter starts to stretch the boundaries of his growing independence on a (possibly reckless) sprint towards his own future. Amidst so many heightened emotions, when conflict erupts between Peter and Tony, it turns vicious.

Tony's bond with Peter has proven unshakeable against outside forces – but how much pressure can it withstand from within?