Here we are, at the end of Hold on a Second Longer. You have made the experience of posting this story a joy. I am so grateful for the patience you've shown with this difficult plot. I know some of you were eager for Peter to show his BAMF side and really explore his power. That is coming, I promise. If that's what you've been waiting for, I think you're really going to love Story III.
Thank you so much to all of you that got in touch with question ideas with the last update. You gave me so many that I was spoilt for choice when I wrote that chapter. Also, thank you so much Prongs100 for pre-reading.
Chapter Fifteen
Tony placed his hands on Peter's shoulders, feeling the tremors working through him that transferred into his own hands and made his anxiety spike. "Are you sure you're ready for this?"
Peter took a deep breath, held it for a beat, and then nodded. "I am."
Tony hugged him, cradling the back of his head as Peter hid in his face in his shoulder, and then released him. Peter blinked at him, his eyes worried.
Tony kissed his temple and said, "If you want to stop it at any moment, just take off the glasses. It will pull you out of the illusion at once."
"I know. We've been over this, Tony; I know what I have to do. I'm prepared. The system will focus on the memory I need, the one I'm scared of, and it'll come."
"It will," Tony said. He looked back over his shoulder to where the others were gathered on the opposite side of the cleared workshop. "You sure you want everyone here? They'll be able to see what's happening. It can just be me if that's easier."
Peter didn't hesitate. "No. If the words trigger me, you'll all need to be here to hold me down while Bruce sedates me."
"That's not going to happen," Tony growled.
Peter's lips quirked into a smile. "I know you want to believe that, but Steve and Bucky have promised to hold me down, and Bruce promised to give me the drugs." When Tony opened his mouth to argue, Peter placed a trembling hand on his chest and said, "It's what I need to feel safe."
Tony sighed. "I know. I just hate it." He gave his head a brisk shake. "You're not going to be triggered, so none of that is going to happen. You can handle this."
"I can," Peter agreed.
Tony stared at him a moment, seeing the bravery and determination in his eyes, and said, "Okay, Pete."
He moved back to stand by the wall with Rhodey and Bucky either side of him and watched as Peter put on the glasses and took a deep breath.
They'd talked over what he needed to do, and Tony waited for the dank room on the Raft to appear when Peter put on the glasses, but it was a busy New York street that coalesced around Peter and a man at his side.
"What's this?" Steve asked.
Tony had no answer at once, and then he focused on the figure beside Peter, a man wearing a heavy brown jacket and his hands stuffed in his pockets, and Tony got a good look at his face.
"No, Pete," he groaned.
"What?" Rhodey asked. "Tony, talk!"
"It's his Uncle Ben. He was shot by a mugger a year before the Snap. Peter never talked about him, but I know he was there. I'm guessing this is what we're about to see."
Bucky cursed. "I thought it was just going to be Thuri!"
"It was supposed to be, but the system is able to tap into the mind. I guess it saw what Peter needed to see, too. That or he's choosing this."
"You think he can change it?" Rhodey asked.
"He's going to try," Sam stated. "Which makes perfect sense. I should have seen this coming. He's being given the option to face the things that scare him and make a difference. Peter being who he is, we're going to see more."
Peter and his uncle walked along the street, Peter bouncing at his uncle's side and chattering about something he'd done in school and his uncle nodding along and smiling fondly. Tony watched, a heavy feeling of dread in his stomach as he waited for the horror to start.
He saw the moment Peter recognized what was happening, that he remembered the simulation, as he stiffened and said, "Ben, we should probably head home," anxiously.
"We will," Ben replied. "But you know May will pitch a fit if we don't pick up her pint of Ben and Jerry's first."
Peter's eyes darted around, and he nodded quickly. "Yeah, but let's get it from Mr. Delmar. He doesn't hike up the prices like Bennetts' does."
"That means turning around and going back five blocks, Pete," Ben said, ruffling his hair. "I know what's going on; you want a sandwich. I know the spaghetti was a little hard, and the sauce could have done with a little longer on the stove, but we can't buy a Delmar's every time May makes dinner. She'll develop a complex."
"I know," Peter said tersely, eyes still darting around. "Just wait here a minute. There's something I've got to—" He stopped suddenly as a man appeared ahead of them. He was wearing a ratty leather jacket, and he had a pockmarked face and jerky steps as he approached them. One hand was stuffed in his jacket, and the other was clenching and relaxing at his side.
"Oh God," Tony murmured. "Pete…."
He was terrified that Peter wouldn't be able to change the memory and that he would suffer that trauma again.
Peter ran towards the man and dropped into a skid, knocking the man's legs out from under him. The man sprawled to the ground, hands coming out to catch him, and the gun falling beside him.
"Peter, what are you doing!" Ben shouted.
Peter didn't answer, but his foot stamped down on the man's hand as he reached for the gun. The man writhed, and Peter knelt on his back with a knee digging between his shoulders.
"Peter!" Ben panted, coming to a stop beside him. "What's going on."
"Get the gun!" Peter ordered, then called over his shoulder to a couple that had come to a stop to stare at them. "Call the cops!"
Ben picked up the gun and ejected the clip. "Peter, talk to me," he said.
"He's called Dennis Carradine," Peter said. "He's got an arrest warrant out for him for burglary and assault."
"How do you know?" Ben asked weakly.
Peter looked up at him, something shifting in his eyes and his voice strong as he replied. "Because I am Spider-Man."
Tony blew out a long breath. He'd done it. Peter had faced and changed the memory.
"So that man killed his uncle before?" Steve asked.
"He did," Tony said. "He technically still did, but I guess Peter was hanging onto guilt for not stopping it. He took control of the experience this time." He huffed a laugh. "He did good."
"You do realize he could change things in this world, too, don't you?" Bruce said. "According to Strange, he's not limited with the Time Stone the way he was."
Rhodey sucked in a breath. "Damn, I didn't even think."
"Would he?" Steve asked, eyes fixed on Tony.
Tony shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know. He might."
"What do we do if he does?" Sam asked.
Tony had no answer to give. He didn't know if he would encourage Peter to save the people he loved or tell him to let time remain as it had passed with fate. He would want Peter to have those people back in his life, but it was a large amount of power for him to attempt to harness and a huge twist of fate to do it.
The scene shifted, and Tony gasped. "No, not this."
"What is it?" Rhodey asked. "Tony?"
Tony saw himself in the suit facing Peter, who looked small and defeated on the top of the building, police helicopters flying towards the ferry in the background.
He heard his voice coming from behind the mask, the scathing and anger that he'd never wanted to hear directed to Peter and yet had allowed as he'd been so angry.
"Previously on Peter Screws the Pooch… I tell you to stay away from this. Instead, you hacked a multimillion-dollar suit so you could sneak around behind my back doing the one thing I told you not to do."
Peter looked up at him, and Tony saw the wretchedness that he'd not allowed to soften him before. "Is everyone okay?"
"No thanks to you."
"Tony, what is this?" Rhodey asked again, grabbing his shoulder and turning him away from the scene Peter was reexperiencing. "What's going on?"
"He messed up," Tony said. "Went after these alien weapons dealers, and the fight caused a ferry to be split in two. A hundred people could have died." He ducked his head. "I was angry."
"No shit," Bucky muttered.
Tony forced his eyes back to the scene and saw Peter had taken control of it. He no longer looked broken as Tony raged at him. He stared back, his face ashamed but not wretched.
"What if somebody had died tonight? Different story, right? 'Cause that's on you. And if you died, I feel like that's on me. I don't need that on my conscience."
Peter nodded. "I'm sorry. I know I was wrong. I thought I had no choice because you weren't listening." He took a deep breath. "I know you're here to take the suit back."
"You took his suit!" Rhodey shouted.
Tony nodded. "Yeah, and he saved the day in a onesie anyway. Saved a lot of lives by stopping Toomes from getting the weapons off my plane. How it didn't kill him, I'll never know. I messed up big, I know that. I let him down, and he saved our asses anyway. The kid was a hero.
"I am taking the suit," he heard his voice say in the memory, sounding surprised that the kid had known what was coming."
Peter looked up at him, his eyes blazing. "You can take it. I understand why. But it's not going to stop me. The suit isn't what makes me Spider-Man. I am Spider-Man."
In the memory, Tony looked stunned and a little annoyed, but Peter was calm. He stared at him and said, "Thank you, Mr. Stark."
"That's not what happened before," Steve said.
"No," Tony said as the memory froze and faded. "He was devastated, and I was a dick. Sent him home dressed in… It doesn't matter."
"I think it does," Bucky said.
"Later," Steve muttered. "Look."
It was a new scene. Peter was wearing his onesie suit again, and he was standing frozen in a warehouse as the rumble of falling concrete sounded around him. They couldn't see his face, but Tony was sure he had to be terrified under the mask. The roof fell, and the ground shook as the building came down, crushing his kid beneath tons of concrete and steel.
"What the hell is this?" Bucky asked.
"I don't know," Tony said weakly. "He never told me about any of this. I don't know what's happening." He felt sick with fear, even though he knew Peter was technically safe.
Peter was perfectly still under the rubble, and Tony's heart racing in his chest, and then there was a groan, and a weak hand came up to pull the mask from Peter's face. He was ashen and bloody, and Tony felt his stomach twist at the sight of it.
"Hello!" Peter said, voice choked. "Hello! Please. Hey, hey, please. I'm down here. I'm down here. I'm stuck. I'm stuck. I can't move. I can't..." He gave his head a brisk shake and said, "No, Peter. You know this. You're strong enough. You're Peter Parker. You're Spider-Man. You can get out."
He gritted his teeth, and a look of steely determination came into his eyes as he propped his hands at his sides and forced himself up and out of the rubble.
"Holy shit," Bucky breathed. "I didn't realize he was that strong."
Tony didn't know if he meant physically or mentally, but Tony knew. His son was the best of all of them; he always had been. Tony hadn't seen it in time, he'd underestimated Peter until he put on that gauntlet, but he knew now that Peter held an inner strength that was beyond anything Tony had touched or seen or ever would.
The scene rearranged itself, and Wanda gave a broken cry.
Tony saw what was upsetting her at once. It was his own workshop but markedly different. Instead of tables strewn with scraps and paper, projects in various states on progress, the tables were bare, and there was another in the center of the scene around which seven people sat. Vision was one of them, and that was who had drawn the quiet sobs from Wanda, which were muffled in Bruce's shirt as he embraced her.
Some of the others were familiar—Peter Quill, Loki, Strange, and there was one that had to be Thor's Jane and the small girl that had to be Gamora.
Peter was seated with them, and his voice was weak as he said, "Can I die?"
Tony's heart skipped as he heard the hopefulness. He knew Peter didn't want to die then, but the fact he wanted an end was painful, though, as Rhodey said, it was understandable.
The small girl gave him a strange look. "You don't want to."
Peter shook his head. "No, obviously, well, not now—but one day. But you said mortal years don't matter, that reality is over." He bit his lip. "Does that mean I'll never die?"
Vision stared at him and said, "The reality of death is over in the technical sense, yes."
Peter's breath rushed out of him, and he squeezed his eyes closed. "No," he moaned.
"It's not so bad," Quill said easily. "We don't die either, you know. We're endless, and we're happy enough."
Peter opened his eyes, and they were filled with tears. He looked horrified for a long moment, and then he gave his head a brisk shake and said, "I know. I can do this."
Quill raised an eyebrow. "You're accepting it?"
Peter held his head high, and he said, "I am. I didn't want this power or to be endless, but I can do good with it. If not dying is what it takes to do that good, I'm willing to accept it for the price it is. If I'm alive, I can protect people."
The faces around him, the Stones' faces, looked impressed, and Vision gave him a small nod and said, "We will speak again."
The room froze and reformed into the one Tony had been both waiting for and dreading. Peter was strapped to a stainless-steel table, his face not gaunt as it had been when they'd found him; this was in the early days of his captivity. On his head was a plastic headset with metal discs attached that pressed against his forehead. Tony realized what he was seeing at once, and bile rose up his throat. They were going to electrocute his kid.
The man Bucky had killed was standing beside Peter, fiddling with the ECT machine, and Ross was on his other side, his malicious face alight with glee as he picked up a bucket of water and poured it over Peter.
"Water!" Tony gasped, understanding at last. "They used water as well!"
Rhodey nodded. "They did. He told me. They had to power up the shocks because of his endurance."
"You didn't tell me?" Tony snapped.
"Did you need those nightmares?" he countered. "I know I didn't."
When Peter was dripping went and shivering, Ross said, "That will do. Prepare yourself, Little Spider. You are going to learn to comply."
The other man took a rubber wedge from the table, yanked open Peter's mouth, and stuffed it between his teeth, making Peter gag.
Ross moved back at the man turned the dial slowly on the machine, seeming to take pleasure in the moment. Blue light moved over Peter's body as the shocks spread along the water. His head strained back, and the cords of his neck stood out. His teeth clamped down on the rubber wedge, and his lips curled back.
After far too long, an eternity that tore Tony apart, "Ross said, Enough," and power died.
Peter's bloodshot eyes blinked up at the man standing over him and said, "Hear these words, Little Spider, and comply. "Ukulangazelela… Amandla… Amanzi… Iglasi… Amandla seRoss… Isixhobo seRoss… Thobela… Isigcawu… Amatye… Khusela seRoss…"
"Fight it, Peter!" Bucky growled. "Break free!"
"It's taking too long," Steve muttered. "They're working on him."
Tony could see what he meant. Peter's eyes were blank and drifting to Ross. They were reaching him. He was torn between breaking into the illusion, freeing Peter before it was too late, and letting him face this.
He took a step forward unthinkingly, and Rhodey caught his arm and said, "No! Watch!"
Tony fixed his eyes on Peter and saw that Rhodey had seen. Peter's eyes were narrowed and alert now, and his arms were straining against the restraints.
"Yes!" Bucky hissed. "You're Peter Parker. You're Spider-Man. You can do this!"
Peter struggled, and then with a creaking and tearing sound, he yanked his hands up. He ripped the rubber wedge from his mouth, threw it onto the ground, and then tore away the remaining restraints that held him and jumped off on the table. Ross and Thuri backed away, eyes wide with fear, and Peter stalked towards them.
!Ukulangazelela," Peter spat, pushing his wet hair back from his face. "No. "Amandla. No. Amanzi. No."
"He's got it," Bucky said breathlessly. "He's beating it."
"He is," Tony said weakly, his heart pounding and eyes pricking with proud tears as he saw his son breaking himself free of the programming that terrified him.
"Iglasi. No. Amandla seRoss. No. Isixhobo seRoss." His voice rose to a shout. "No! You don't control me. I control myself. I am Peter Parker. I am Spider-Man. I have the Infinity Stones, and you cannot control me. I am the Stones!"
Ross tried to duck behind Thuri, but the man was already running for the door. Before he could reach it, it flew open, and an image of Bucky walked through it. Peter's eyes fixed on him, and he gave a small nod. Bucky smiled at him, grabbed Thuri's neck with his prosthetic hand, and snapped it to the right, breaking the man's neck.
"I can't believe what I'm seeing," Steve said weakly. "He's taken complete control."
"He has," Bucky said with evident satisfaction.
Peter advanced on Ross, who had backed away until he was pressed against the wall. Peter stared at him a moment and said, "I am not going to kill you, and neither is he. You will not be the person that makes me take a life. But I am coming for you." He crossed his arms over his chest. "I will take it all away."
Tony rubbed a hand over his chest, where his heart was slamming against his ribs in an agitating way. He waited for it to end. Peter had done it. He'd beaten the programming. He wanted him back so he could wrap him in his arms and tell him how proud he was, how much he loved him, and how he would never let anything like this happen again.
The Bucky and Ross in the illusion disappeared, but Peter standing in that room, his eyes strangely distant.
"Why isn't it stopping?" Rhodey asked. "It's done. He's not going to stay in there, is he? Shut down again or hide?"
"No," Steve said confidently. "Queens still has something he needs to do."
"What?" Wanda asked, her tears from seeing that version of Vision still in her voice.
"I don't know," Steve said. "But we have to wait."
Peter continued to gaze around the room, and then he gave a small nod and said, "You can come."
Six pillars of light appeared, and they dimmed, and the shapes of the Stones in their human and alien approximations formed out of them.
"Uh… what's this about?" Sam said.
"Just watch," Bucky advised.
Tony did and saw Vision approach Peter, a pensive look in his eyes. He could hear soft gasps coming from Wanda, and he knew this had to be impossible for her. She was seeing the man she loved, but it wasn't him. This was Mind.
"You don't feel you need to die anymore," Vision said. "You don't want it?"
"I don't," Peter agreed.
Vision nodded. "You've accepted your fate as our wielder, even though it means eternity and loss?"
Peter swallowed hard and nodded. "I am because it means I can protect the people that are left."
"Are you willing to truly embrace us?" Vision asked. "Knowing that it means a change from everything you've ever known and been and it will unlock our full power? You will never tire from us, but you will never just be Peter Parker again."
Tony shifted anxiously. He wasn't sure he wanted this, but he knew it wasn't his place to step in and stop it.
Peter was silent a long moment, and then he said. "I have not been just Peter Parker in a long time. I am ready."
Tony sucked in a breath as the people became pillars of light again and then streamed into Peter. For a moment, it looked as though he was the center of a rainbow supernova, and then the glow faded, leaving his face bathed in a halo of light, which then disappeared, too.
Peter looked at his hands as if never having seen them before, and a flicker of light spread up his fingers in a similar way to Wanda's own power. He gave a small nod and then took off the glasses, and the room around him disappeared.
He looked at them all where they were lined against the wall and his lips curved into a tentative smile. "Uh, I guess it's done," he said.
Bucky huffed a laugh. "Yeah, I'd call that done. You beat the programming."
"And accepted a massive amount of power," Rhodey added.
Peter smiled. "It was time."
Tony strode towards him and wrapped him in a hug that knocked the breath out of them both. Tony clung to him and then held him at arms' length and said, "How do you feel?"
Peter didn't answer at once, seeming to be considering the question, and then he said, "I feel like me, but more, like I really am what I'm supposed to be at last. I feel like I'm in control finally." The colors in his eyes seemed to glow with even more intensity. "I feel powerful. I feel like the Stones really belong to me now."
"They do, bud," Bucky said, coming to them and placing a hand on Peter's shoulder. "But what does that mean?"
Peter tilted his head to the side, and his eyes became distant; Tony guessed he was listening to the Stones. "It means I still have a lot to learn and explore, but it means I can make a difference." He gave a small nod. "Yes. It means things are going to change."
Tony stared at him a moment, disconcerted by the ominous statement and what it might mean for his family, his son, but dismissed the thought. Whatever was coming would come, nothing he could do was going to change or halt it.
Right now, he was just happy to have his son with him, free of the programming and apparently accepting of his fate with the Stones.
So… There we are. That's the end of Part II of the To Be Worthy Verse. Peter has accepted the Stones' power, finally harnessed it fully, and that leads us into Part III in which I have huge plans for him to use them. I hope you'll follow me there to see what he does.
Until next time…
Clowns or Midgets xxx