Chapter 7

Peter stared at where Beck's body laid, as Toni Stark-Rogers placed a hand on his shoulder.

"He's really dead," Peter said, as he looked down at the man. He felt a whirlwind of emotions. The guy had pretended to be a hero when he'd been the one harming everyone in the first place. Then he'd gone and tried to have Peter's best friends killed.

He'd tried to kill Peter and his mother.

He hated him.

But he also pitied him.

Beck was so desperate to be a hero that he'd become the villain. And all he had to do in order to be the former was to genuinely try to protect the very people he sought to hurt.

"It's not on you," his mother told him gently, before pulling him into a tight hug. He held onto her tightly, unable to help the sobs escaping from him, as she rubbed his back gently. "I know human life is important. And death is never a favourable outcome. However, he made his own bed. He hurt so many people. And he would have killed more to meet his goals. Quentin Beck only ever thought about the bottom line; not how many people he could help or how many lives he could save with the advantages he had. He only ever wanted power and status."

"I didn't want this, though," Peter said, shaking his head. "I didn't want to him to die."

"Neither did I," Toni told him gently, "After everything he put you through, I wanted to make him pay, with the full force of the law. He ran you over with a train, Peter. He made you doubt your place in our family. And that was unforgivable. I wanted to make sure he was properly punished for that. But instead, he escaped the punishment of his crimes."

"Peter?" he heard someone cry out then, and he looked up to see MJ running towards him, as Harley followed closely behind.

"I think you might need this," Toni whispered as she handed back the pouch she'd been carrying for him, and he took it gratefully.

It had been a bit damaged after he'd been hit by that train, and he'd felt a sense of disappointment at that. He had wanted the moment to be perfect, when he'd given it to her. But instead, this was the moment he'd get.

"MJ?" he asked her, as he saw her drop a weapon she'd been holding and run to wrap her arms around him tightly. He must have looked like a mess, with his suit torn from the fighting, and blood on his face.

"Peter!" she said, as she held onto him tightly. He noticed his mother step away from them to head towards Harley in an effort to give them more space. "Are you okay?"

"I'm okay," he reassured her quickly, as she refused to let go. Not that he minded. He was glad that nothing had happened to her. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she told him, as she squeezed him a bit tighter.

"Is everyone else okay?" he asked, as he looked over to try and see if Harley looked injured. Ned wasn't with them, so he assumed he was off with Betty.

"Yeah, everyone's okay," she told him, knowing what he was worried about.

"What happened?" he asked. He'd only gotten the gist of what was up from Harley, as he'd been busy trying to make sure that Beck was taken care of.

"There were just the drones, and they were following us, and then, then they just stopped," she said, before pausing, "Was that you?"

"With Mom's help," he admitted, "But yeah. We stopped the drone attack. And took away control from Beck once and for all."

"So you got him?" she asked, and he nodded.

"We got him," he told her. Because Beck was gone, and he'd never be able to hurt his friends ever again.

"Good," she said, shaking, before pointing over at where the morning star she'd dropped was, "I brought that, you know, in case you needed some help. Harley saved us. I don't know what would have happened if he wasn't able to take out the drones that came for us."

"I'm glad," he said, relieved that they hadn't been hurt, "I-uh-have something for you. I wanted to give this to you in Paris, on top of the Eiffel Tower. I had an entire plan and everything, and now it's a bit damaged because of everything, but I got this for you," he finished, ears turning a bit red.

He handed her the pouch and she pulled out the flower necklace.

"Peter, this is-" she started, before cutting herself off in wonder.

"I wish this could have been a perfect moment," he sighed. "Not after I nearly got you killed. I'm so sorry, all of this was my fault. If I'd never told him about you and Ned you wouldn't even have been in danger. This was all because of me-"

She cut him off as she pressed her lips against his quickly, before pulling away, and he looked up at her in shock.

"And you kissed me," Peter said, ignoring the remarks he could hear Harley making despite their distance. "What?"

He was at a loss for words.

"I don't really have much luck when it comes to getting close to people," MJ told him, as she looked nervous, "And then you wanted to know why I was watching you, and I got scared. I didn't know if you felt the same way, and I wasn't ready to talk about my feelings, so I lied. I told you it was because of Spider-Man. But I wasn't just watching you cause I thought you were Spider-Man. It was because of you, Peter."

He felt his heart begin to swell in his chest. "That's great," he said, grinning like an idiot.

"Black Dahlia," she said, examining the necklace, "Like the murder."

"Like the murder," he finished at the same time as her, as they smiled at each other.

"I'm sorry it's broken," Peter told her, feeling a sense of sadness over it. He'd worked so hard to make everything go right, but nothing ever did go according to plan.

"I actually like it better broken," she told him with a smile.

"I really like you," he said, and she gave an awkward half shrug.

"I really like you too," she admitted, as she stepped forward for a small peck, before he pulled her back in for a far deeper one. He felt his heart in his chest, and he wanted nothing more than to hold her in his arms like this forever.

"I should probably go," MJ said, "Given we have an audience. The teachers probably are worried that we all just up and left."

"Right," Peter nodded.

"Leaving so soon?" Harley asked, with a wide grin as he and Toni made their way over to the group. "But you guys were just getting to the good part."

"Harley," Toni scolded him lightly.

"Hi Mrs Stark-Rogers," MJ greeted his mother awkwardly, realizing she'd witnessed the two of them kiss.

"Toni," his mother corrected. "You've been over enough that I think you earned that right. And now that you and Peter are together, I'm assuming that means you'll be over more often."

"Mom," Peter said, blushing slightly.

"I'm happy for the two of you," his mother said simply with a grin. "Always knew that you'd make it work."

He knew that voice. That was the one she made whenever she was getting emotional about her children. The one she made whenever Morgan used a new word or Meg and Jamie ate a new food. Or whenever the two of them spent time together in the lab.

"Are you getting emotional?" Harley teased her, "Oh my God are you pregnant again? Is this hormones from emotions? Didn't you like just have Meg and Jamie?"

"I'm not pregnant," she glowered. "I'm allowed to be emotional about my son getting a girlfriend when he's been planning for this all month long."

"Mom," Peter sighed, feeling embarrassed, while MJ just grinned and intertwined her fingers through his.

"I should go," MJ said, as she pressed a final kiss to Peter's cheek, before picking up the morning star and heading back.

"I like her," Toni chuckled as Harley grinned widely. Toni stepped backwards then, "Let me go call your father. He's gonna wanna know that everything's okay."

"Saved the day and got the girl," Harley teased, "You're a true superhero now, Parker Stark-Rogers."

"I guess I am," Peter said, unable to stop the smile from reaching his eyes.

Toni landed at the makeshift SHIELD headquarters. The team had done pretty well for themselves, setting up a new base in London, as well as cities across the world, after the fall of Thanos.

But that wasn't why she was here now. She had a score to settle.

"Stark," Fury said, as he and Hill came onto the roof to greet her, "Make whatever you wanted to talk about quick. We have a lot to do to cover up Beck's tracks."

"First of all," Toni shook her head, "You won't be doing that. Beck stole proprietary Stark Industries technology and we intend to pursue his co-conspirators with lawsuits. No way the man did this himself. He had others who knew Stark Tech on his side, and I am certain NDAs were breached. So this thing isn't going away."

"No chance you'll consider dropping it?" Fury sighed as he looked at her, and she wanted to laugh.

"He hit my kid with a train," she said to him simply, "I don't even want to know how he got EDITH away from Peter. He emotionally manipulated my son, but he wouldn't have been able to do so without you planting seeds of doubt in my kid's head. If you'd just realized that Beck was blocking your communications to the other Avengers like Harry and Natasha, Strange, and even Loki who would have come if it truly was a world threatening event, then none of this would have happened. Didn't you think it was strange that a new villain appeared and a new hero who could save the day, but no one else was there? You dragged my son into this, and you made him so unsure of himself that it put Beck higher up on a pedestal that you created for him."

"So you're saying this is on me?" Fury raised a brow, while Hill looked unimpressed.

"I'm saying that if you really were Nick Fury and Maria Hill, you would have seen through his deceptions a mile away," Toni Stark-Rogers gave them a terse smile. "But you're not really them, are you? And that's why my son got into this mess in the first place."

"I don't know what you're insinuating-" Fury started, but she raised a hand to stop him.

"Save it, Not-Fury," she told him, "I've known the real Fury and Hill for years. And despite how secretive they may appear to be, I know when someone is pretending to be them. Besides, I've had FRIDAY running scans on you from the moment we landed, and she just confirmed Skrull DNA. So, wanna try this again? Where are the real Hill and Fury?"

"Vacation," Not-Fury sighed, as he transformed back into the Skrull figure. "We were supposed to cover for him for a few weeks. None of this was supposed to happen. And it got out of control very quickly."

"I can see that," she laughed mirthlessly, gesturing to the burning city behind her. The cleanup effort was going to run for weeks, just trying to recover from the damage of the fight. And not to mention the damage to every other city Beck had planned an attack in.

"So what are you going to do about this?" Not-Hill asked her, and she shook her head.

"I'm retired. I'm not going to do anything. But you are going to go to Fury and tell him what happened. And you are going to tell him that Captain America and I are not pleased with what happened with our son while he left you guys in charge. And you're going to tell him that if he ever gaslights my son again into missions, I will bring down SHIELD with everything I have, regardless of our past affiliations. You hear me? We are going to make the truth of what happened today and every other attack known to the public. So. Do. Not. Stand. In. Our. Way. Did I make myself clear?"

"Crystal," The Not-Fury Skrull nodded at her.

She gave them once last glance before she took off flying. She wanted to go check on her son one last time before she left.

"I can't believe someone was pretending to be a hero using illusions and the entire time Nat and I were off in Brazil because of suspicious activity," Harry said over the phone as she saw New York city in the skyline.

She was flying back home with Harley in tow, deciding to let Peter have the last few hours of his trip at least, without external interference. He hadn't gotten the trip he'd wanted, and he deserved to at least be able to enjoy the plane ride back. Besides, the ticket had already been paid for, and she knew Peter wanted to sit next to MJ now that they were together.

"All the while, Fury wasn't even Fury," Harry sighed, "I feel like I should have noticed this. We're a spy organization and none of us could tell the difference?"

"You had no reason to suspect that anything was amiss," she reassured her cousin. "Plus you weren't even seeing him face to face. And the call was something the real Fury would have made anyways. To not place all his eggs in one basket. What if whatever you were investigating turned into something more? Then he'd have pulled all his resources towards Beck when there were other threats."

She landed the plane carefully on the landing pad of her Tower, as Harley exited the plane first.

"I'm glad Peter's okay," Harry said, as he nodded at her, "If anything happened to my nephew cause of that guy, I would have torn him to pieces."

"You and me both," she agreed, knowing she was just as unhappy about how her son had been treated by the man. "Pepper's ready to tear anyone she links to Beck a new one. She has all the lawsuits ready and she's already started discussions with the Feds about what happened."

"Talk to you later, Toni," Harry said, "Nat's calling me. I think our man here's on the move."

"Good luck," she told her cousin, as she ended the call, and stepped out of the plane, before making her way back inside.

"Hi Sweetheart," Steve greeted her, as she went into the kitchen, "Meg and Jamie are down for their nap, and Morgan's watching some Paw Patrol."

"So you're telling me the two of us are all alone?" she grinned as he put down the knife he'd been using to chop up an onion and came to the other side of the counter.

"That's exactly what I'm telling you," Steve grinned, as he wrapped both his arms around her waist and pulled her in for a kiss.

She relaxed into her husband, as her arms slid around his neck and her fingers threaded his hair.

"I missed you," she said softly when they finally pulled away from one another. "And the kids."

"They missed you too," he told her, "Morgan's excited Peter's going to be home soon. Has been asking me every few hours if he was back yet."

"It's adorable how much she loves her big brother," Toni grinned as she stayed in her husband's arms.

"Well this is probably the longest time Peter's been away from us since we adopted him," Steve agreed, "I don't know what I'm going to do if he decides to go to college somewhere far away come fall."

"I know," she sighed. Her son hadn't made a decision yet, and she knew it would have been harder for him if he wasn't her son. But thankfully, the colleges were willing to leave their offers open for him until the beginning of the semester for him to decide where he wanted to go. And after everything that had happened in the past year, she knew her son needed time to make the decision. "But well, if it's what he wants, we need to respect it."

"At least if he chooses MIT, Harley's already there. And we can fly him home on weekends to visit," Steve agreed, as he played with her hair.

"So what are you making for dinner?" she asked him curiously, as he grinned.

"Spaghetti Bolognese," he told her, as he added the onions to the pot with a bit of oil, and began to sauté them. "Morgan asked for spaghetti, so I figured I'd make it for her. She loves playing with the noodles."

"That she does," she agreed, as she began cutting up the tomatoes for the sauce. Her mother had always made the sauce fresh for her, growing up, and it was something she'd brough with her into adulthood. Steve may have been the cook of the family, but she knew Italian food.

"How's Peter doing?" Steve asked. He'd talked to their son by video call after everything was said and done, wanting to see firsthand that their son was okay. He'd been less than pleased as well about what had happened to their son, and if it weren't for the fact that they had three kids at home, he'd have been by her side taking Beck down.

It had been hard to decided which parent would go save their son and whom would stay at home with their other son and daughters. But in the end, Toni was the one who knew the tech, and so she went.

"He's over the moon that MJ likes him back," Toni grinned. Things hadn't gone well for Peter's first crush with Liz, given that her father had tried to kill him and all. But MJ was a sweet girl. A bit jaded. But sweet, nonetheless. And she genuinely cared for her son. "I think the two of them are gonna be one for the books."

Steve grinned as he added ground beef in with the onions, as she worked on the base of the sauce separately.

"Mama!" Morgan said gleefully as she came into the room running, and Toni stepped away from the pot as she quickly picked up her daughter.

"Hi, Baby," Toni said, and Morgan giggled, "I missed you, Darling."

"I missed you, Mama," Morgan grinned, as Toni peppered kisses on her face.

Almost a year after Thanos, and Toni was still grateful anytime she saw her children after extended periods of time apart.

"Well I think dinner is almost ready," Steve said, as he added the meat and onion mixture to the sauce. What's say we get you all washed up and start eating?"

"Yeah," Morgan clapped, and Toni grinned.

"I'll wash her up," Toni said, "How about you and Harls set the table?"

"Works for me, Darling," Steve kissed her lightly, and she moved to carry her daughter to the bathroom.

She was grateful for the moments of domesticness in her life. Even though she was still CEO of Stark-Industries and Iron Woman in certain scenarios, her home life was something she wouldn't trade for the world. A loving husband, wonderful kids, AIs and bots.

Her life was just perfect.

Peter Parker Stark-Rogers felt like he was on top of the world.

He swung out from his bedroom, attaching himself to the nearest building. It had been about a week since he'd gotten back to New York City after everything that had happened in Europe, and honestly, he was relieved to be home.

It had been a lot, and even with Toni's assurances that SI was taking care of everything and all the loose ends were going to be tied up, he couldn't shake the nightmares that he'd had from his fight with Beck in Berlin. The things he'd seen had been truly awful, and he was glad everything was over.

"Woo hoo!" he cheered as he took a quick selfie.

He checked his phone and sent a message to MJ.

"Almost there, promise! Two mins away!" he typed.

A few seconds later she responded, "Don't text and swing!"

He smiled down at his phone, with his heart racing. They'd sat together the entire plane ride back, and while it had been everything he'd dreamed of for the way there, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't excited about going on a date with her that wasn't confined to an aircraft flying thousands of feet above the ground.

He spotted MJ in front of Grand Central Station, and he spun around on a street pole before slowing himself down and landing on his feet.

"Hey," he greeted, suddenly feeling a bit nervous, "Sorry I'm late."

"It's fine," she said quickly, trying not to sound flustered.

"You ready?" he grinned. And she nodded. He wrapped an arm around her waist and she her arms around his neck, as he shot a web straight into the air and pulled them both up.

She let out an initial scream, as she buried her head into his neck, as they flew through the city.

Maybe he should have checked if she had a fear of heights before deciding this was a good idea. But he'd be lying if he said he didn't like the feeling of her in his arms as he held her close.

"I'm just not gonna watch. I'm not gonna watch. I'm not gonna watch," she started saying and he moved them towards their date location. "I should stop looking. I'm gonna stop looking!"

Somehow he doubted that.

"Okay, you can put me down now! You can put me down now!" she said, as they approached Madison Square Garden.

"What'd you think?" he grinned, despite knowing she couldn't quite see him with mask on. Despite it being a busy place, they didn't draw much attention to themselves.

"I'm okay," she stumbled, "I just. Never, never doing that again. I'm never doing that again."

"Mm hm," he nodded, despite knowing she'd push herself until she was no longer scared of it. Because she hated not being able to do something.

"So I'm guessing you don't wanna sit on the roof and eat these sandwiches I made?" he teased.

"You made or your dad made?" MJ grinned back.

"I helped," he defended himself, as he moved to wrap his arms around her waist.

"This is breaking news," a screen behind them lit up, as Pat Kiernan, a news anchor spoke, "We come to you now with revelations about last week's attack in London. An anonymous source provided this video, it shows Quentin Beck, AKA, Mysterio, moments before his death. A warning, you may find this video disturbing."

He felt his heart race, as he saw Beck show up on the screen, "I managed to send the Elemental back into the dimensional rift, but I don't think I'm gonna make it off this bridge alive. Spider-Man attacked me for some reason. He has an army of weaponized drones, Stark technology. He's saying he's the only one who's gonna be the new Iron Woman now that she's retired, no one else. That it's his legacy."

Holy shit.

What was happening?

The footage switched then, to him standing over Beck.

"Are you sure you want to commence the drone attack? There will be significant casualties," EDITH appeared to be saying.

That wasn't what happened! That wasn't what he said!

"Do it! Execute them all!" he heard himself say.

No! He had wanted all the protocols executed! Not people.

He felt his stomach drop. The footage looked so real.

"This shocking video was released earlier today on the controversial news website, ," the anchor said, before J. Jonah Jameson came on the screen.

"There you have it, folks: conclusive proof that Spider-Man was responsible for the brutal murder of Mysterio! An interdimensional warrior who gave his life to protect our planet, and who will no doubt go down in history as the greatest superhero of all time. But that's not all, folks. Here's the real blockbuster. Brace yourselves, you might wanna sit down," Jonah said.

The footage shifted back to the battle.

"Spider-Man's real...Spider-Man's real name is... Spider-Man's name is Peter Parker Stark-Rogers!" Beck struggled out, and Peter felt the wind being knocked out of his chest.

"You need to get out of here now," MJ told him loudly, as he saw people around him begin to film. They were angrily approaching him, and he knew he'd be in trouble if he were caught.

He needed to get out of here.

Oh God.

Was this real? Did Beck really just out him after everything that had happened?

"Go, Peter," MJ said, and he gave her a terse nod before shooting a web up into the air.

"Incoming call from Toni Stark-Rogers," Karen told him, and he immediately picked up.

"Peter, where are you?" his mom asked him urgently. "You need to get home now."

"I'm on my way. I should be two minutes out. Mom, I don't know what to do, did you see the footage? That wasn't what happened! You know that wasn't what happened! You were there! The way people were looking at me though, I think they believe it!" he said, feeling like he was going to burst from anxiety.

"Come home," Toni told him in a soft voice, "Take a deep breathe for me, Darling. Just focus on getting yourself home, okay? We are going to fix this. I promise. Beck isn't going to get away with this, even if he's dead. Just come home. We're going to handle it."

"Okay," he said, because despite her reassuring tone, he didn't feel very confident. The footage had looked so real. Beck was right. People would believe what they wanted to believe. And they just saw him order a drone strike.

And now the world knew the truth about who he was.

If he had thought he'd have an ordinary life, despite his parents, any hope of that was now long gone.

The world knew his secret.

Peter Parker Stark-Rogers was fucked.