Sins of the Fathers

by geekymoviemom

Tony Stark would never describe his relationship with his father as anything other than difficult. So what would possess him to agree to become the guardian of some random kid from Queens? Peter Parker lost his parents when he was barely old enough to remember them. But when tragedy strikes again during the Stark Expo, it's none other than Iron Man, his hero, who rescues him.

26. Chapter 26

Whew! Here it is, the longest chapter I've ever written for anything. ;)

An extra-big thank you to stjohn27, my incredible prereader and sounding board. I don't know what I would do without you! :)

---

"You know, we really should start exercising more often," Pepper said to Tony as she pulled back the blankets on their bed, sliding underneath the soft covers. "If we really are going to be honeymooning in Wakanda—"

"I thought that'd been decided," Tony interrupted. "Isn't that like one of the few things that's pretty much been etched in stone for this whole shindig?"

"Yes, one of the few," agreed Pepper. "But as I was saying, I think we should start working out more, before the wedding. We have about eight weeks still, so that's plenty of time for us to—"

"Hold on," Tony said as he crawled into the bed next to her. "What exactly are you trying to say here?" He pulled up the bottom of his tank top, examining his abdomen with a critical eye. "I mean, I know my battle scars aren't the sexiest things in the world, but I've always thought—"

"Just because you're still relatively slim doesn't mean that you're in good shape, Tony," Pepper said.

"Still?" protested Tony. "I'll have you know that I've been pretty much the same weight since I was twenty, which I think is pretty damn good for an old geezer like me."

Pepper quirked an eyebrow, her slender fingers trailing across Tony's skin, raising goosebumps in their wake. "And most of that is probably genetics, and the fact that you regularly try to live on only coffee and adrenaline for days at a time."

Tony shivered at her gentle touch, even as his eyebrows knitted together. "I haven't done that in—"

"Three days," Pepper noted. "Ever since you finished Peter's new suit you've actually been coming to bed with me. And that'll last until you get the next new idea into your head, and then I won't see you again for a couple of weeks until you finish that one. And then—"

"Yeah, yeah, I get the picture," grumbled Tony as he flopped back onto the pillows and asked FRIDAY to dim the lights. "So what exactly are you suggesting?"

Propping herself up onto her elbow, Pepper smiled a rather maniacal grin. "I've taken tomorrow morning off of work," she said. "And I want you to go jogging with me."

"What?" Tony yelped. "Honey, no, I hate jogging! Why don't you ask Steve if he'll go with you, I'm sure—"

"I don't want to go jogging with Steve," Pepper stated. "Besides, he probably runs too fast for me anyway—"

"Okay, then you can ask Sam. He likes to run, I'm sure he'd—"

"I want you to join me, Tony. That's kinda the entire point of this."

"Aahh," Tony muttered. "But Pep, why does it have to be jogging? I mean, this is why my suits can fly, so I don't have to run my ass off out there."

"Because it's good for you. And it's something we can do together," Pepper said firmly. "And I've already bought you a new pair of running shoes, so you can't use that as an excuse."

Tony brought his arms up over his head, rolling his eyes. "You know if you took tomorrow morning off, you should've volunteered to go with Pete on that field trip of his instead of trying to drag me out and torture me. They're going to some big, fancy art museum."

"I did think about it, actually," Pepper said. She leaned down, pressing a gentle kiss to his forehead. "But I'd rather go running with you."

"Mmm," Tony mumbled, shuddering slightly as she trailed her fingers softly along his beard. "Fine. I'll go with you tomorrow. But only if you promise not to laugh at me."

"No promises," murmured Pepper. She tucked her head down next to Tony's shoulder, curling her lithe body around him. "But I'll at least try to not laugh too hard."

"Well, I guess that's better than nothing. So how early are you gonna be dragging me out of bed?"

"I figured it'd be easiest to come with you when you drop Peter off at school," she replied. "I thought we could head over to Central Park from there."

Tony groaned. He wasn't the biggest fan of Central Park either, it was way too touristy for his taste. "Why there?"

"'Cause it's got miles and miles of running trails, and the scenery is pretty this time of year," answered Pepper. "I know it's not exactly Wakanda, but it's still nice."

"Nice for New York City," agreed Tony. "All right. But if I collapse after a half a mile and have to call Rhodey to come and drag my sorry ass home, I'm gonna blame you."

Pepper laughed, a sound that never failed to make Tony smile. "Deal."

---

"You're both bringing me to school this morning?" Peter asked, his eyes flicking between Dad and Pepper as he shouldered his backpack. "Why?"

"Because—" Pepper started.

"Because Pepper decided that she wants to get into better shape before the wedding," Dad interrupted. "And I said that I'd keep her company."

Peter snorted, quickly hiding it behind his hand when Dad's eyes widened. "Yeah, okay, Dad. Who do you think helped Pepper buy your running shoes?"

Dad tilted his head, quirking an eyebrow as he glanced over at Pepper. "Oh really? So this whole thing was just one big gang-up on me, then?"

"Well… you are getting older," Peter said sheepishly. "And you do have a history of heart problems, so we just thought—"

"Who says I'm getting older?" Dad protested. "I think you're the only one getting any older in this house, Pete. You know what, maybe that's what I'll start working on once we're done with this today. A time machine. Then I don't have to worry about aging, and you won't have to grow up and leave us, and—"

"Nice try, Tony," said Pepper as she shot Peter a wink. "C'mon, we don't want Peter to be late for school."

"He's not even going to school," grumbled Dad as he finished tying his new shoes. "He's going to gawk at a bunch of painting and sculptures 'cause his high-tech science school decided that they needed some more diversity in their curriculum."

"Dad," Peter said warily. "If this is because we're taking the school bus, then—"

"No, it's not, but since you mentioned it," Dad interrupted. "This is the last time that you'll be riding on one of those contraptions, Peter. I'll rent one of those big-ass vans and drive you and your classmates to whatever university or art museum you feel the need to visit myself if I have to, do you understand? There's just no good reason—"

"Tony!" Pepper cut in. "This has nothing to do with Peter's field trip! Why are you bringing that up?"

But Dad only shook his head, clapping his hand on Peter's shoulder and squeezing as they stepped into the elevator. "Don't mind me, bud," he whispered. "Just a bit… antsy today is all. Not your fault."

"It's okay, Dad," Peter said, trying to sound reassuring. "I promise I won't get bit by anything today, okay? I'll be extra careful."

"Not sure if you really can promise that, buddy, but I do appreciate the sentiment."

"Then, what—?"

"I don't know, Pete," said Dad, his brow furrowed in concern. "I didn't sleep all that well last night, maybe that's part of it. Lots of weird dreams, and—"

"Well, maybe your run will help with that," Peter suggested. "Sam always says he sleeps like a baby after a hard run."

"That's what I tried to tell him, Peter," Pepper said as the elevator doors opened into the garage. "So maybe between the two of us we can actually convince him."

The car was quiet during the ten-minute drive to the school, with Dad lost in his own thoughts and Peter stealing concerned glances at him every few seconds through his sunglasses. Pepper was on her tablet the whole time, probably catching up on emails, but Peter could tell by the tightness in her shoulders that even she was concerned. Ever since the day that he and Steve had gone and talked to the wizard dude, Dad had been a bit more on edge than usual, which was one of the reasons why Pepper had suggested they start jogging together. She wanted to see if it would help decrease Dad's stress levels a bit.

"Have fun on your run, I'll see you guys tonight," Peter said once they arrived at the school. He grabbed his backpack and slid out of the car, heading for the school building when he heard the driver's side door close.

"Peter," Dad said as he crossed the short distance between them. "I'm not upset with you. You know that, right?"

Peter's throat tightened. He hated when Dad got like this, all twitchy and anxious. It never failed to make him twitchy as well. "Yeah, Dad, I know."

Opening his arms, Dad drew Peter in for a hug, burying his nose into Peter's hair. "You're such a good kid, Pete, I don't deserve you. None of us do."

"Dad," Peter said slowly, his voice muffled against his father's shoulder. "You're scaring me a little. What's wrong?"

"Nothing, buddy," Dad insisted. He pulled back, brushing Peter's hair off his forehead. "Absolutely nothing. Don't mind me, I'm just getting a bit more sentimental in my old age I guess. You have fun today, okay?"

"O-kay," Peter stammered. "Are you sure? 'Cause if it's weirding you out that much, I don't have to go. I can just—"

"No, no, you go on with your friends," said Dad. He gave Peter a quick smile as he tightened his arms around him again. "I love you, bud. I'll see ya tonight."

"Love you too, Dad," answered Peter. With a final wave to Pepper still in the car, Peter stepped inside the school, finding Ned waiting for him at his locker.

"What's going on?" Ned asked as Peter unpacked his books.

"Nothing," Peter said with a shrug. "Why?"

"'Cause you got that look on your face that you always get when you're in one of your angsty moods. What're you angsty about today?"

"I'm not being angsty, Ned," Peter grumbled, slamming his locker closed a little harder than he intended, causing him to jump.

"Okay, then you're acting all jumpy about something," said Ned. "What's going on? Worried about the wedding?"

"Good grief, no!" Peter protested. "You know how excited I am for the wedding, I've been waiting for it to happen for just about ever!"

"Then… what?"

"I dunno," Peter said with a heavy sigh. "My dad's being kinda weird again. Like he always gets before he starts staying up all night building stuff."

"Mmm," Ned replied. "Well, maybe you'll get another new suit out of it?"

"I'd rather have my Dad not be twitchy, Ned," said Peter. "When he freaks out, I freak out, and freaking out is just too exhausting."

"Even for a superhero? I would think—"

"I think especially for a superhero," muttered Peter. "Or at least especially for Iron Man. My dad, he just can't let things go sometimes. I'm not sure what he would do if he didn't have something to be anxious about."

"Well, maybe he'll be better after the wedding," offered Ned. "It must be hard trying to plan something like that when you're as famous as he is."

"Yeah, probably," Peter said as they arrived in their homeroom classroom. Peter took his usual seat, surprised when Flash Thompson plopped down into the seat behind him a couple minutes later.

"Morning, Parker," Flash said.

"Morning, Flash." Peter had given up trying to remind Flash that his last name was in fact, Stark.

"Is your dad coming on the field trip with us today?" Flash asked, trying and failing to sound casual.

Peter's eyebrows knitted together, and he turned in his chair to look at Flash. "No, why?"

"Just curious," Flash said with a shrug, huffing out a sharp breath. Peter could've sworn he looked relieved.

"Okay," answered Peter. He turned back to face the front, meeting Ned's curious gaze and shaking his head.

Why the hell is everyone acting so weird today?

---

While Tony was still no big fan of running, he did have to admit that it was at least a nice day. Fall days in New York were always a crapshoot, and today Pepper had rolled well. The skies were fairly clear with just a few puffy clouds overhead, and the air was crisp and clean, or at least as clean as New York City air could get. Even the water in the Jacqueline Onassis Reservoir looked cleaner than usual.

"So, you gonna tell me what your weird dreams were about last night?" Pepper asked as they finally came to a stop, still huffing and puffing. "Or are you gonna make me guess?"

"Huh?" gasped Tony, bent over with his hands braced on his knees. "What're you talking about?"

"You told Peter you had a bunch of weird dreams last night," Pepper said. "What were they? And you should keep walking or your legs will cramp up."

"Hey, this was all your idea, so if my legs cramp up you'll be the one carrying me back to the car," Tony shot back, even as he reluctantly stood back up. Pepper let out a heavy sigh as she threaded her hand through his arm.

"C'mon, Tony," she said gently. "Don't try and keep secrets from me, you know that's what I hate the most."

Tony pursed his lips, his brow furrowing as they started to walk. "Do you really think I'm getting old?"

Pepper jerked her head back, her eyes narrowing. "Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what it sounds like, Pep," Tony said. "Do you think I'm getting old?"

"Um… well…" Pepper stammered. "We're all getting older, Tony, you know that. I'm definitely not as young as I was when I first started working for you."

"That's not what I meant," grumbled Tony. He shook his head, trying to put his jumbled thoughts into words. "When I was younger, I never used to understand how people could say that having kids helped you stay young. I mean, it would seem like it would be just the opposite, ya know? It would seem like nothing would age you faster than having a kid. But then once Pete came along, I kinda understood what that meant, Pep. Having a child, and seeing the world through their innocent eyes, it really does help you stay young. Or at least until they start the teenage years. After that, all bets are off."

"Tony," Pepper said, gently tugging on his arm, pulling him to a stop under a large oak tree. "What're you trying to say?"

"I thought if we stopped walking my legs would cramp up?"

"Just… forget about your non-existent leg cramps for a second," retorted Pepper. "And tell me what's on your mind."

Tony inhaled a shaky breath as he looked into Pepper's beautiful blue eyes. He felt more nervous now than he was when he proposed to her. "Last night, I dreamt that we had a kid. It was so real, Pep. We even named him after your eccentric uncle…what was his name?" He snapped his fingers, trying to remember the damn name. "Morgan, that was his name! We named him Morgan."

"Tony," Pepper said slowly. "You already have a kid."

"We," Tony corrected. "We have a kid. So why can't we have another? It was so real, honey. Like one of those dreams when you think you have to pee, and then you wake up really having to pee? It was like that."

Pepper bit her lip, apparently trying to hide her smile. "And so you woke up from this dream… and thought we were… what? Expecting?"

"Well… yeah," admitted Tony. The layer of sweat coating his body was starting to dry, causing him to shiver. "Would that be so horrible?"

"No, I didn't say that," Pepper said. "But it's not something we should just decide on a whim either, Tony. Having a child is a huge undertaking, and—"

"It wasn't like that when I got Peter," Tony protested. "I just did it!"

"Oh a whim, Tony!" exclaimed Pepper. "You just took him in on a whim, with barely a second thought! And while things have definitely worked out okay, I mean, Peter's the sweetest kid ever, so I'm not sure how they couldn't've worked out okay, but having a baby? That's not really something that should be decided just on a whim. We need to talk about this."

"But it was so real, Pep! And why couldn't we have another one? I don't think I've managed to screw Peter up all that bad, so why not?"

"We need to talk about this, Tony," Pepper said firmly. She stepped back, untying the jacket Tony had tied around his shoulders and tapping her finger against the nanoparticle storage unit attached to his chest. "Because if you really wanted to have another kid, I still don't think you would've done that."

"This is just a storage unit for nanoparticles, Pep," Tony said, bringing his palm up to cover the device. "This is nothing, and doesn't have any bearing on whether we—"

"Tony, you know that's not true! You told me yourself that you needed it because you were left defenseless, and—"

"Which means I'm just trying to protect us!" Tony cried. "All of us. You and Peter, and any future us-es that come along. You can't fault a man for wanting to protect his family, can you?"

"I can when it gets to the point of being an obsession, Tony," Pepper said.

"This is detachable, honey," Tony insisted. "It's not technically a part of me, not like the last one."

"Yeah, except that's not really helping your case when you still sleep with it on," retorted Pepper. "It may as well be implanted since you hardly ever take it off."

"Well, you never know when there might be a monster in the closet," muttered Tony. "I'm just trying—"

"There are only shirts in your closet, Tony," Pepper said. "Not monsters. The monsters are only in your head."

"There's been monsters in the Tower before," Tony stated. "Those Extremis soldiers that broke in and took Peter that one time, and—"

"That was one time, Tony," said Pepper, placing her fingers over his lips to silence him. "And it's been years now and nothing since then. You've made sure of that."

"That doesn't mean that something couldn't happen," said Tony. He grabbed her hand, kissing her fingers. "C'mon, I don't wanna argue about this, Pep. I made dinner reservations for tonight, Steve said he could keep an eye on Peter, so I thought we could go over the rest of the wedding plans, and then—"

But Tony was cut off by the buzzing of his phone in his pocket, his shoulders sagging at the interruption. "What's going on, FRIDAY?"

"Colonel Rhodes is on the line from the Compound, boss," answered FRIDAY. "He says it's urgent."

"Yeah, go ahead," said Tony, his heart already starting to thud. He shot Pepper a concerned glance, earning a shrug in return.

"Tony!" Rhodes exclaimed, his drawn face filling the screen. "Vision's stone is acting up again, and this time he says it's even worse than before."

"How much worse, Rhodey?" asked Tony. "Can he move? Can he talk?"

"Yes, but it's very painful for him," Rhodes answered. "It's not constant at least, but it's strong enough to be pretty much debilitating when it happens."

Tony sucked in a sharp breath, nervously tapping his leg with his palm. "Okay. Call Steve and have him get ahold of T'Challa and Shuri, I wanna see if we can get Vision down there as soon as possible. I'm gonna call Pete's school and arrange to pick him up, and then I'll join you guys."

"Sounds good, Tony," Rhodes said with a nod. "I'll keep ya updated."

"'Kay," Tony said as he pocketed his phone, glancing sheepishly at Pepper. "Well, I guess our dinner reservations might have to be put on hold—"

The sudden appearance of what appeared to be a golden circle of light startled Tony, and he jumped back in surprise, his eyes widening in shock. It was rotating counterclockwise, throwing off massive sparks as it grew wider to reveal Doctor Stephen Strange.

"Tony Stark," Strange stated as he stepped through the sparkling circle. "I need you to come with me right now."

"What the hell?" Tony mumbled, his belly swooping in fear as he instinctively stepped in front of Pepper. "Why? We're kinda in the middle of a developing crisis here, and—"

"You have no idea how much of a crisis this is, Mr. Stark," interrupted Strange. "It's not overselling it to say that the fate of the universe is at stake, and we need your help."

"Oh yeah?" barked Tony. God, I sounded just like Peter just now! "And who's 'we'?"

Strange pursed his lips, stepping to the side to reveal another man standing behind him, nearly causing Tony's jaw to drop to the ground.

"Hey, Tony, hey Pepper," said the shaky voice of Bruce Banner, his pale face and grey streaks in his hair making him look far older and more bedraggled than Tony had ever seen him, as well as more terrified than Tony ever thought was possible. Bruce had spent years on the run in some of the most dangerous places on the planet, so he had a pretty high tolerance for fear. And as far as Tony knew, the Hulk wasn't scared of anything.

"Bruce!" Tony exclaimed. "What—?"

"Hi," Pepper whispered, still clinging to Tony's arm.

"Are you—, are you okay?" Tony asked, his breath hitching as Bruce stepped forward, practically falling into his arms. Tony immediately glared at Strange. "What the hell did you do to him?"

"I've done absolutely nothing to him, Mr. Stark," Strange replied. "But I must insist that you come with us right now."

"Please, Tony," Bruce begged. "This is serious!"

"Yeah, okay," Tony muttered, awkwardly patting Bruce's shoulder. He quickly turned to Pepper. "Call the school and tell Principal Morita to keep Pete there so you can pick him up, I want him brought back to the Tower ASAP. And make sure Peter glues himself to Steve's side until we figure this out. Please?"

"Of course, Tony," Pepper said, her voice laced with partially-hidden fear. "Yeah, I will. You just go and take care of Bruce."

Tony leaned in, pressing a quick kiss to Pepper's lips. "Thank you." Then he threw his arm across Bruce's shoulders and guided him through the glowing circle, directly into the New York Sanctum where Wong was waiting for them. The Sanctum looked like it had just been attacked by something, as there was a huge gaping hole in the ceiling and the grand staircase in front of the door was in shambles, littered with broken and twisted pieces of wood and stone.

"Okay, so what's so important that you have to—" he started.

"Thanos is coming, Tony," Bruce interrupted, his voice practically squeaking in fear. "He's been out there, searching for the Infinity Stones over the past few years, and now he's coming here!"

"Who?" Tony sputtered. "Who's… Thanos?"

"He's a plague, Tony," Bruce continued. "He invades planets, he takes what he wants, and he wipes out half their population. He sent Loki, the attack on New York? That was him."

Oh my God. The space army. It was him.

Breathing in a shaky breath, Tony swallowed hard as he pressed his fist to his chest. Panicking right now wouldn't do anyone any good. "Okay," he choked past the knot in his throat. "Why don't—, why don't you just start at the beginning, big guy, yeah? I mean, you just kinda showed up here out of the blue after how many years, spouting a bunch of nonsense, and—"

"This isn't nonsense, Stark," Strange retorted. "This creature is after the Infinity Stones, and according to our mutual friend here, he already has two of them."

Holy shit! Tony thought, his heart swooping as it started to thud. "Which ones?"

"He's already got the Power Stone, Tony," Bruce said. "And then he got the Space Stone from Loki, it was hidden inside the Tesseract. And he killed—". Bruce's voice broke off as he rubbed at his eyes with his fingers. "Thanos killed half of the Asgardians, Tony. Their planet, it was destroyed, and we were trying to escape back here when Thanos' ship found us."

"Asgard was destroyed?" Tony asked. For some reason he hadn't even thought that was possible. "How?"

"It doesn't really matter now," Bruce said, shaking his head. "Right now the only thing that matters is stopping Thanos. Tony, Thor is gone. I got sent here right before the ship broke apart, so… we're gonna need all the help we can get. You need to call the rest of the team right now and get going on this."

"Yeah," whispered Tony. He squeezed his eyes closed, willing himself to try and stay calm. "Yeah," he repeated, a bit louder this time. "So, what's our timeline?"

"There's no telling, Tony," said Bruce. "Right now he already has the Power and Space stones, and that makes him the strongest creature in the whole universe. If he gets his hands on all six stones, there's—"

"He could destroy life on a scale hitherto undreamt of," finished Strange.

Tony scoffed, leaning on the fake cauldron as he tried to stretch out a mild cramp in his thigh. "Did you seriously just say 'hitherto undreamt of'?"

"And are you seriously leaning on the Cauldron of the Cosmos?" retorted Strange as the maroon cloak he was wearing literally slapped Tony's hand away, nearly causing him to pitch forward onto the hard wooden floor.

"Um…" Tony stammered. What the hell is with this guy? "Okay. First I gotta make sure that Pete makes it back to the Tower, I don't want him out and about in the city with all this junk going on. And we should call Barton, get him up here with the twins, and once Pete's safe Steve can get Vision down to Wakanda so they can—"

"Why Wakanda?" asked Wong. "What's in Wakanda that's so important?"

"I want that goddamn stone out of Vision's head!" Tony snapped. "Shuri has assured me that she can remove it, and when she does, I'm gonna have Wanda try and blast it to hell!"

"Who's Shuri?" asked Bruce.

"Peter's girlfriend," answered Tony. He turned to Bruce, tilting his head at Bruce's wide-eyed look. "What?"

"I'm just trying to wrap my brain around the fact that Peter has a girlfriend," Bruce said, shaking his head. "Isn't he still just like, twelve?"

"Don't I wish," Tony mumbled. "But yeah, we haven't caught up in quite awhile, have we? Shuri is T'Challa's younger sister, and T'Challa is the King of Wakanda. We've gotten to be pretty good friends with them in the past couple of years."

"Sounds like it," said Bruce.

"And Shuri's a genius. Like even smarter than you are, big guy," continued Tony. "She's been studying this Mind Stone for almost two years now, and she's said without a doubt that she can get it out of Vision's head if that's what we want."

Strange and Wong exchanged loaded glances, causing Tony to scowl. "What?" he demanded. "You disagree there, Mr. Wizard?"

"Not exactly," answered Strange. "But I will admit that I'm a bit reluctant to place the fate of the universe in the hands of a sixteen-year-old girl. We should still come up with an alternative plan."

"I'm pretty sure she's already seventeen," Tony corrected. "But regardless of that, I've seen her work, and she can do it. We just gotta get Vision down there, and preferably right away. And Bruce should probably go down there too, he might be able to assist her since he helped me build Vision in the first place."

"Okay, Tony," Bruce said. "But having a backup plan isn't a bad idea either. Isn't that what Cap always said?"

"Yeah, and he still says it. But—"

"But destroying the Mind Stone by itself won't stop Thanos," said Wong. "From what Bruce has told us, Thanos will destroy half of all life on Earth even without all of the Infinity Stones. The Stones will only make it easier and faster for him."

"Okay… so…" Tony stammered. "Then maybe we should stick the Time Stone down a garbage disposal or something and get that one outta commission too."

"No can do," said Strange. He brought his shaking, scarred hands to his chest, covering the pendant that housed the Time Stone. "This Time Stone may be our best chance at stopping Thanos. I will not destroy it."

"See, and I think our best chance at stopping Thanos is to make sure that none of these stones are here when he gets here," Tony said sharply. "And if he manages to get his hands on the Time Stone, there's no telling what he could do. He could even rewind things to the Battle of New York, couldn't he? Change things so that the missile hits the city instead of his fleet, for example?"

"We have sworn an oath to protect the Time Stone with our lives," said Wong. "Stephen and I would not allow that to happen."

"Yeah, until he kills the both of you and takes the stone anyway," retorted Tony. "Or didn't you wizarding people think of that?"

"I've become rather adept at using this stone, Stark," Strange said, rather arrogantly. "I highly doubt that would happen."

"Well, pardon me if I don't feel like taking your word for it," muttered Tony, just as his phone buzzed in his pocket.

"Captain Rogers is on the line, boss," said FRIDAY.

"What's up, old man?" Tony asked as soon as Steve's face appeared on the screen. "Is Pete there yet?"

"Not yet, Tony," Steve answered, the deep wrinkle between his eyebrows belying his calm voice. "The school told Pepper that Peter was already on the bus when she called, so she's heading over to the museum to pick him up there as soon as the bus arrives. But Rhodes and Vision just got here, and—, Bruce? Is that you?"

"Yeah," Bruce said, stepping up next to Tony. "Hey, Steve. Long time, no see."

"Aahh, yeah," Steve stuttered, blinking rapidly. "Um… so I was thinking I could send Nat and Sam down to Wakanda with Rhodes and Vision in one of the jets, and then I can follow them once Peter gets here."

"I'd like you to bring Pete and Pepper with you, old man," Tony said. "And Bruce too, I think he and Pete could help Shuri with removing Vision's stone."

"Copy that," replied Steve. He tilted his head, as if he was trying to look past Bruce. "Is Thor there with you guys too?"

"No, Steve," Bruce said in a low voice. "Thor's… Thor's gone. The Asgardians used the last of their magic to transport me here, but the rest of them… they're all gone. Even Thor."

Steve was silent for a moment, his already pale face draining of color. "Oh my God," he finally whispered. "Bruce, I'm so sorry."

"Me too, Steve," answered Bruce. "Me too."

"Okay, so…" Tony said, trying to not sound as impatient as he felt. "Cap, as soon as Pete gets back you guys should swing by here, grab Bruce, and then get down to Wakanda as soon as you can."

"I can transport Dr. Banner over to your Tower," offered Strange.

"Oh yeah, your little glowy circle thingy," Tony said. "Cool, that'll save us some time. Ya hear that, old man?"

"I copy, Tony," Steve said. "I'll keep you updated."

Biting his lip as Steve clicked off, Tony pocketed his phone. Of all the days for that goddamn school to actually leave on time for something. He would feel a lot more at ease once he knew that Peter was safely back with Pepper and Steve.

Tony had just turned back to face the others when the wind seemed to suddenly pick up, blowing in the exact opposite direction it had been just a second ago and accompanied by flying papers and leaves and a loud, groaning noise, not too unlike that of a submarine submerging into the ocean. Tony glanced up at Strange, distracted by the lone piece of his hair that was blowing back and forth in the breeze coming through the large hole in the building's ceiling.

"Say, doc, you wouldn't happen to be moving your hair on your own right about how, would ya?" Tony asked, already dreading the answer.

Strange's eyes rolled up to look at his hair. "Not at the moment, no."

Almost immediately Tony's belly swooped in fear, and he turned to face the door. He could already hear the screams and shouts of the terrified people on the street, already hear the sounds of the cars crashing into lampposts and into each other.

Earth was being invaded.

---

"What's going on?" Ned asked from his seat in front of Peter. "Who just called you?"

"Pepper," Peter replied as he pocketed his phone. "She said Dad was called away to talk to someone and she wants to pick me up at the museum once we get there."

"Why?" asked Ned. "Does the someone need to talk to you too or something?"

Peter shrugged, his brow furrowing as he replayed Pepper's call in his mind. She had sounded frantic, even though she'd tried to hide it, and unlike his father, Pepper didn't usually get frantic unless something was very, very wrong.

"You know, you're lucky you didn't get into trouble," Ned added. "We're technically not supposed to answer our phones during school hours."

"Yeah, well, most people's phones don't have FRIDAY," said Peter. "And I highly doubt our bus driver would've even noticed. He hasn't taken his eyes off the road once since we've started driving."

"Mmm," Ned mumbled as he replaced the earbud in his ear. Peter sat back against the window, his mind already racing with what could possibly be wrong.

Maybe Dad's just freaked out because of the whole school bus thing again, he thought. Maybe that's all it is.

But only a few seconds later Peter felt that odd sensation of ice cubes being dumped down his shirt and he turned, looking through his window to see what appeared to be a massive round spaceship hovering in the air over some buildings, about twenty or so blocks away.

"Oh my God," he whispered, his mouth going dry at the unbelievable sight. "What the hell is that?"

Quickly glancing around at the rest of the students, Peter reached over the back of Ned's seat, tapping him on the head. "Ned!" he hissed. "I need you to cause a distraction!"

Ned turned his head in a huff, his eyes going so wide at the sight of the spaceship that they nearly popped out of his head. "Holy shit!" he exclaimed as he leapt to his feet, faster than Peter had ever seen him move before. "We're all gonna die! There's a spaceship!"

Chaos erupted on the bus, with all of the students scrambling from their seats to crowd in the back, clamoring to get a better look at the spaceship. Peter immediately seized the opportunity, attaching his web shooter and opening the emergency exit window across the aisle, slipping out to cling to the side of the bus as he pulled his mask down over his head. He had just so happened to put his Spider Suit on under his clothes that morning just in case, thinking it would help alleviate some of his anxiety by proxy of going on the field trip.

"Dad's gonna be so mad at me," he muttered as he pushed off from the bus, shooting his web towards the top of a passing bridge, his feet brushing through the water as he swung towards the spinning ship.

"Hey, Karen?" he asked as he swung towards the next building.

"Yes, Peter?" answered Karen.

"Can you please call Pepper and tell her I won't be at the museum? Tell her I went to find Dad."

"Are you sure you should be doing that, Peter?" Karen asked.

"He's gonna need my help, Karen," Peter insisted, grunting as he shot another web, the thwipping noise it made as it shot out making him smile despite the circumstances. He'd always loved the sound of his webs as they deployed. "I'm pretty sure this is an all-hands-on-deck type of situation."

"Very well," answered Karen. "But please be careful."

"I'm always careful!" Or at least I try to be.

As he swung closer to the ship, which was hovering over a street littered with destroyed cars and small fires, the HUD in Peter's mask started to focus in on what appeared to be two aliens facing off against Peter's father and three other men, two of which were holding something that looked like glowing golden shields in their hands.

"Who are those people down there with Dad, Karen? The ones holding the glowy thingies?"

"I'm not sure, Peter," she answered. "I've never seen anything like this before."

"Oh my God! Karen, is that Bruce?" Peter exclaimed as he swung even closer, his eyes squinting as he focused in on the street. He was only about three blocks away now. "What's he doing here?"

"Facial recognition does confirm it to be Bruce Banner," said Karen.

"I wonder why he's not hulking out," muttered Peter. "Oh my God, Karen, that one alien down there carrying the pickaxe thingy is huge!"

"He is indeed very large, Peter. Please be careful!"

"Karen, patch me into the Avengers comms!" Peter cried as he saw Dad get launched across the destroyed street towards a circular road surrounded by trees over a block away. The massive alien then grabbed Dad with his hammer, hurling him back across the circle right at Bruce, who was able to leap out of the way just in time. Dad flew back up, hitting the alien repeatedly with his repulsor blasts, which seemed to have little to no effect as the alien swung his gigantic hammer again, hitting Dad square in the back and knocking him to the ground.

"Dad!" Peter yelled as he landed in front of his father, managing to catch the alien's hammer just as he was about to pummel Dad into the grass. Peter poked his head around the hammer, his eyes narrowing as he glared at the alien. "Leave him alone, ya big bully!"

"Peter!" Dad shrieked as the alien's clawed hand curled around Peter's body, sending him flying across the street towards a fountain. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Thought you could use a hand!" Peter yelled as he swung back across the street. "What's this guy's problem, Dad?"

"Ah, he's from space," Dad sputtered. "He came here to steal a necklace from a wizard."

"Is it that Ravenclaw wizard you told me about?" Peter asked, grunting as the alien's hammer closed around him. Peter wiggled his arms down to his sides and pushed outwards, breaking the hammer's hold just in time to web onto half of a taxi cab and send it hurtling down on top of the alien.

"Yeah, that's the one, Pete," answered Dad, just as a dark-haired man wearing a maroon cloak flew by, strapped to a large hunk of asphalt that had been ripped up from the street. "And there he goes!"

"I'll get him!" yelled Peter, taking off towards the second alien, who was flying through the air completely vertical. "That's such a not cool way to fly," Peter muttered under his breath, veering to dodge a billboard that came careening directly towards him. "The aerodynamics have to be horrible!"

As the wizard passed underneath the spinning, circular ship, Peter shot another web, managed to latch it onto his back just as a wide, bright blue beam shot down from the ship, pulling the unconscious wizard up towards it.

"Um… Dad?" Peter said, grabbing onto a crooked lamppost as he strained to hold onto the web, swearing when the lamppost tore away from the ground, carrying Peter towards the blue light. "I'm being beamed up, Dad!"

"Hold on, Peter!" cried Dad as the beam deposited Peter onto the side of the ship, with the alien and the wizard both disappearing inside as it took off towards the sky.

Peter climbed up the side of the spinning ship, desperately searching for another door to get inside. He could already feel hypoxia starting to set in from the rapidly thinning air.

"Pete, you gotta let go!" Dad's panicked voice cried into his ear. "I'm gonna catch you, but you gotta let go!"

Does Dad's new suit really have a rocket booster? That's so awesome!

"But you said to save the wizard!" Peter wheezed, blinking as the ship flew through a huge puffy cloud. His lungs felt like two blocks of ice in his chest, his throat so tight he could barely speak. "I can't—, I can't—, Dad, I can't breathe!"

"FRIDAY, unlock 17-A!" he heard Dad say. Why does his voice sound like he's under water?

"What's 17-A?" Peter muttered, his frozen fingers still clinging to the outside of the ship even as his arms started to shake. Slowly raising one hand, he ripped the mask from his head, trying to draw in a deep breath but only managing to choke.

"You're too high up, buddy! You're running out of air!

"Yeah, that makes sense," Peter whispered. "I'm… too… high… so… there's… not… enough… air…"

"Peter!" Dad screamed as Peter felt his eyes roll back into his head, his frozen hands slipping from their hold on the ship as all the remaining air in his lungs dissipated in one fell swoop, and everything else went dark.

"Ow!" Peter yelped as he came to, bouncing hard onto the edge of the ship and trying to decipher the strange sensation flooding his body, as if he was being immersed in warm water.

"Goddamnit, you're not supposed to be here, buddy!" Dad exclaimed as he flew up next to Peter. "You just scared the hell outta me!"

"Um… Dad?" Peter said as he looked down, examining the new suit covering his body that was the same color red as Dad's new nanotech armor. "It kinda smells like a new car in here! Can this suit do all those cool things that yours—?"

"Yeah, we can talk more about that later, Pete," Dad interrupted. "FRIDAY, get him home!"

"Yep," answered FRIDAY.

"Huh?" Peter stammered, just as the parachute deployed from his back, yanking him from the ship. "Oh, come on! Dad?" Throwing out his arm, Peter blindly shot out his web, barely managing to catch the very edge of the spaceship.

"Gotcha!" Peter said, grunting as he pulled himself up to the ship, managing to find what appeared to be a panel that led into an inner level. Dad was gone, probably already inside the ship.

"Oh my God," he said as the panel closed behind him. "Maybe I should've stayed on the bus."

---

"Incoming call from Miss Potts, boss," said FRIDAY.

"Go ahead, FRI," Tony said, sighing as his helmet disappeared.

"Tony!" Pepper shrieked. "I can't find Peter! The bus got to the museum but he wasn't on it, and then Karen called and said—"

"He's okay, Pep," interrupted Tony. "He snuck off the bus and came to find me when the ship arrived, and—"

"He did what?"

"I got him turned around, honey!" Tony barked. "He should be getting back to the Tower any minute now, so as soon as he gets there you guys make a beeline for Wakanda, okay?"

"And what about you?" Pepper cried, her voice already starting to waver and skip. The ship must be getting close to the atmosphere. "Where are you? Please tell me you're not on that ship! You're not on that ship, are you?"

"Honey—"

"Oh my God, Tony! You need to get back here! Get back here right now! I need—"

"B—, boss," FRIDAY cut in. "I—, I'm losing her!"

"Pepper!" Tony yelped, his blood running cold at the sound of static in his ears. "Honey?"

But there was nothing. He was now out of range of FRIDAY's communications, including any further communications with Steve or the rest of the team.

He was now completely alone, on an alien spaceship.

Holy shit!

The ship was massive, and as Tony crept along, trying to keep his feet from clanking too loudly against the metal floor, he couldn't help but admire the design. The spinning inner circle generated the artificial gravity, and presumably the atmosphere which allowed him to breathe. The interior could've used a little work; Tony wasn't a huge fan of the charcoal grey color as he'd always thought it rather bland and industrial-looking, but other than that, the ship was rather impressive. He had half a mind to have FRIDAY try and catalogue some of it so he could study it in further detail later on, until he remembered that FRIDAY was now offline.

"All right, Mr. Strange Wizard," Tony muttered under his breath. "Where the hell are you?"

As he continued his search, Tony's mind continued to buzz with details, details he desperately wished he could pass along to Steve. He assumed that Steve would head down to Wakanda as soon as Peter arrived at the Tower, since that was the last thing they'd decided on before all hell had broken loose. He was also assuming that as long as they could prevent this Thanos guy from getting his hands on the Time Stone, that they should be relatively fine. For some reason, the Time Stone seemed like an especially important stone to try and protect. The Power and Reality Stones might be nice to have, but since the Time Stone could literally turn back time—there's that goddamn Cher song again!—pretty much anything could be undone if Thanos got his hands on it.

Damn wizard, Tony thought as he approached what appeared to be a platform about two stories up from the bowels of the ship. He could see Strange suspended in mid-air one story down, surrounded by long silvery spikes, the Squidward alien standing in front of him, taunting him. He should've just… done something else with it!

Peeking over the edge of the platform, Tony was startled when something tapped him rather hard on the shoulder. He turned abruptly, his repulsor aimed and ready to fire, and was startled to see the wizard's flowing maroon cloak, standing there in midair as if it were sentient.

Holy shit! Is that thing really sentient?

"Wow," Tony muttered, lowering his repulsor. "You're one seriously loyal piece of outerwear, aren't you?"

"Yeah," an eerily familiar voice suddenly said from off to the side, causing Tony's heart to leap into his throat as he saw Peter, dangling upside-down from the top of the ship. "And speaking of loyalty…"

"What the—?" Tony croaked as Peter flipped off the web rope, landing perfectly on his feet.

"I know what you're gonna say," Peter started, his nanotech helmet disappearing to reveal his messy mop of curls.

"You should not be here, Peter!" snapped Tony. "I sent you home! Pepper and Steve are gonna be worried sick, didn't you think about that?"

"Well, I was gonna go home—"

"You know what? I don't wanna hear it!" Tony cried, his hands clenching into tight fists. "This is the last time you're gonna disobey me, mister, I swear it! This is the last time!"

"Dad!" Peter cried. "I just thought about you, and then I just kinda stuck to the side of the ship! I'm sorry, okay? I just didn't—, I just didn't want to leave you alone! I'm sure—, I'm sure Pepper and Steve will figure out what happened, they're both smart people. And Bruce'll be with them too, won't he?"

"Oh my God, Peter," Tony whispered, his eyes filling with tears. He stepped forward, placing both hands on Peter's shoulders, only vaguely aware that the cloak was still following them around like a lost puppy. "Buddy, this isn't gonna be like Coney Island or some goddamn field trip. This might be a one-way ticket, do you understand me? I didn't want this for you!"

Peter gulped, his brown eyes widening. "Well… then we'll have to make sure that doesn't happen. Won't we?"

"There should be no 'we' in this equation, Pete!" Tony said firmly, his fingers tightening on Peter's shoulders. "I was trying to send you home, to keep you safe, and now—"

But Tony was cut off by a blood-curdling, anguished scream coming from below, and he squeezed his eyes closed, burying his face briefly into Peter's hair. He knew the sounds of torture all too well.

"Okay," Tony said as he inhaled a deep, shaky breath. "We've got a situation down there. Can you think of a plan?"

Peter pursed his lips, nodding once as peeked over the edge of the platform, with the cloak imitating his every movement. "Okay, okay, um…" he muttered. "Um… um…, do you remember that old movie that we watched a while ago with Sam? Aliens?"

"Huh?" Tony asked. "Peter, you watch so many damn movies I can't keep them all straight! Which one was that?"

"The one where they blast a hole in the side of the ship and the huge, mean alien thingy gets blown out into space," answered Peter.

"Oh, that one. Well, that's actually not such a bad idea," admitted Tony. "You think you can catch Strange before he gets blown out along with the bad guy?"

"Yeah," said Peter. "This suit is crazy intuitive, Dad, I really like it!"

"Yeah, well, don't get too used to it, buddy," grumbled Tony. "'Cause you won't be wearing it again for a long, long time after this."

Peter shot Tony a scowl as his helmet closed over his face. "C'mon, Dad. Let's go save the wizard."

It's like some stupid rule that the bad guys always have to start monologuing before they try and kill you, Tony thought as he and Peter snuck down to the lower level. Why the hell is that a thing?

Tony cringed as he tiptoed closer to where Strange was suspended, the long, silvery spikes sticking out of his head and body. The alien had his back to Tony, still speaking in that skin-crawling, soft-ass voice when Tony noticed Strange's eyes flick up, locking onto his.

"Any of these could end your friend's life in an instant," said the alien as he turned to look at Tony, his Voldemort-like face screwing in anger as Tony armed his repulsors.

"I gotta tell ya, he's not really my friend," Tony said. "Saving his life is more of a professional courtesy."

The alien scowled as he raised his arms, causing two large hunks of metal to detach from the sides of the ship. "You've saved nothing," he taunted. "Your powers are inconsequential compared to mine."

"Yeah, maybe," replied Tony. "But my kid's seen more movies." Arming one of his shoulder missiles, Tony shot it through the ship's hull, the resulting vacuum quickly drawing both the alien and the hunks of metal out into space. A second later Strange was yanked from his suspension, and Peter leaped forward, grabbing onto Strange's back with his web to keep him from exiting the ship. Tony flew towards them, ready to block the hole as the iron spider legs he'd built into Peter's suit activated, bracing him against the ship's hull so he could pull Strange back inside.

"Yes!" Peter cried triumphantly. "Wait! What are those?"

"Just get him inside, Pete!" Tony yelled as Peter jumped backwards, landing hard onto the floor with Strange still in tow. Tony immediately sealed the hole closed, collapsing onto the floor once it was done, his helmet disappearing as he sucked in a huge breath. "Goddamnit, Pete! That was way too close!"

"Yeah, but it worked," Peter said as he pushed himself back up to his feet. "Dad, you really gave me spider legs? They're so cool!"

"I'm glad you think so," Tony mumbled.

"We need to turn the ship around," Strange said as he picked himself up off the metal floor.

"Oh, sure," Tony grumbled. He tapped the storage unit attached to his chest, watching as the nanoparticles composing his suit began flowing back inside. "Now you wanna run? And you're welcome, by the way."

"I didn't ask you to save me," Strange said. "Neither you nor this circus clown that you brought along."

Tony turned on his heel, glaring bullets at Strange. "How dare you!" he cried. "How dare you call my son—"

"Dad!" Peter called. "It's okay, really!" He held out his hand, stepping towards Strange. "I'm Peter, by the way."

"Doctor Strange," Strange replied curtly.

"Oh, you're using your made-up name?" Peter said. "Then I am Spider-Man."

"Peter!" Tony exclaimed. "You don't need to—"

"Hold on, this is your son?" asked Strange, turning to scowl at Tony. "What the hell is he doing here?"

"That seems to be the big question of the day, doesn't it?" muttered Tony. So much for a secret identity. "But as he did just save your magical ass, I'd say you better damn well offer him a bit more courtesy, don't you think?"

But Strange only glared at him as he paced back and forth, the cloak hanging possessively from his shoulders. "Can you turn the ship around?" he finally asked.

"Why do you think that's such—"

"Can you, Stark?" Strange repeated. "Can you turn the ship around? I need to protect the stone!"

"The ship is self-correcting its course, it's on autopilot," said Tony. "And why're you so eager to bring the stone back to Earth, anyway? Don't you think it'd be best to keep them all separated?"

"Stark, under no circumstance can we bring the Time Stone to Thanos," Strange said in a low voice. "I don't think you quite understand what's at stake here."

"No!" snapped Tony. "It's you who doesn't quite understand that Thanos has been inside my head ever since the Battle of New York, and now he's back! And I don't know what to do, so I'm not so sure if it's a better plan to fight him on our turf or his. But you saw what they did, what they can do. At least on his turf he won't be expecting it. So I say we take the fight to him. The rest of my team's still on Earth, and they are more than capable of taking care of the Mind Stone."

Strange hesitated, his eyes flicking between Tony and Peter. "You trust your team?"

"With my life," Tony said. "No, even more than that, I trust them with my son's life. Steve Rogers and the team will get it done, there's no question in my mind."

"Get what done?" asked Peter.

"They're gonna take Vision down to Wakanda and take the Mind Stone out of his head," Tony answered. "Shuri said she can do it, so—"

"Of course she can," Peter stated. "She's brilliant."

"Yeah, well, she likes you, so—"

"Stark?" Strange interrupted. "I'm thinking we don't have a lot of time here."

"And that's kinda funny, considering that rock you're wearing around your neck, don't you think?" Tony said.

"Was that supposed to be a joke?" asked Strange.

"He likes to joke around when he's nervous, Doctor," Peter piped up. "Try not to take it personally."

"Not now, Peter," Tony said, shooting Peter a side-eye. "So, Doctor, do you concur?"

Strange stepped forward, almost nose to nose with Tony, with his brown eyes practically boring into Tony's skull. "All right, Stark," he finally said. "We'll do it your way. But you have to understand, that if it comes down to saving you, or the kid, or the Time Stone, then I will not hesitate to let either of you die. I can't, because the fate of the universe depends on it."

Tony's upper lip curled into a sneer, and he clenched his fists at his sides. "Well, it's a good thing that Peter's my responsibility then, and not yours."

---

Space was cold.

Peter was sitting on the floor towards the back of the donut ship's cockpit, his knees pulled up to his chest and his arms wrapped tightly around them. The heater in his suit was already going at full blast, but it was still taking a good amount of his strength to keep himself from shivering, and sitting on the ship's freezing metal floor wasn't helping at all.

Dad was up near the front, pacing back and forth, pausing for a few seconds to check the window, then resuming his pacing. He'd been pretty much silent ever since Doctor Strange had announced his willingness to let himself or Peter die to save the Time Stone, and Peter knew he was probably blaming himself for the fact that Peter was even there on the ship in the first place. Dad always ended up blaming himself, even though it had been one hundred percent Peter's choice to stay on the ship.

At least the rest of the team was safe, or as safe as they could be with who knows how many more of those alien things combing the Earth, trying to find Vision so they could get the stone from his head. It was smart of Dad to recommend that Steve get Vision down to Wakanda. Peter had helped Shuri go over some of the Mind Stone data the last time they were down there, and he was absolutely confident that she'd be able to remove it from Vision. Dad had told Steve that he wanted Wanda to try and destroy the stone once it was removed, and while Peter wasn't sure if that was even possible—it was an Infinity Stone, after all—if anyone could do it, it would be Wanda. She was so powerful it was almost scary.

As Dad paused to check the window again, Peter let out a hard shiver, accompanied by an involuntary whimper. Dad immediately looked over at him, his shoulders falling as he noticed that Peter's teeth were chattering.

"Cold, buddy?" Dad said as he sat down in front of Peter. At Peter's nod, he wrapped his hands around Peter's arms and began to rub up and down, trying to warm him.

"I—, I'm s—, sorry, Dad," Peter stammered, trying to keep from biting his lip. "I—, I did—, didn't mean to c—, cause anymore t—, trouble."

"You didn't, Pete," Dad murmured. "In fact, your plan to get rid of Voldemort back there worked pretty well. I just—, I don't know what I would do if anything happened to you, bud, and we're kinda on our own out here, and—"

"It's gonna be okay, Dad," Peter said. He inhaled a shaky breath, rubbing his freezing nose on his sleeve. "We're the Avengers, right? We don't lose."

"Yeah," Dad said sarcastically. "At least we haven't yet."

"Dad—"

"Nevermind, Pete," Dad muttered. "As long as we can keep this damn green rock out of Thanos' hands, I think we'll be okay."

The ship suddenly gave a giant shudder and veered sharply to the right, nearly causing them both to tip over. Dad shot Peter a concerned look, clapping him on the shoulder as they both got to their feet.

"What's going on?" asked Peter.

"I think we're here," answered Strange.

"Yeah, looks that way," agreed Dad as he hurried towards the steering assembly. "And I don't think this rig has a self-park function. Pete, get up here."

"'Kay," said Peter.

Sliding his arm into the right side steering gimbal, Dad nodded towards the opposite side. "Get your hand in there and close the top around it. This was meant for one big guy, so we gotta move at the same time."

"Yeah," Peter stated as he slid his arm into the contraption up to his elbow. "Okay, okay. I'm ready."

The ship was still shimmying and swaying as it approached what Peter assumed to be Titan, and he braced his feet against the floor, trying to keep his gimbal as steady as possible. "Dad, we gotta turn! Turn! Turn!"

"I'm trying, Pete!" Dad shouted as his helmet closed over his head. Peter yelped as they crashed through the remains of a star-shaped building, his own helmet reappearing as Doctor Strange stepped forward, generating some kind of huge golden shield that encased the cockpit like a dome. The ship bounced hard onto the face of the planet, the top portion of the circle breaking off completely as they headed directly for another ruined building. With the shield intact Peter gave up on his gimbal, launching a web towards the ceiling and curling himself into a tight ball as the ship touched down again, still shedding pieces of itself as it finally skidded to a halt with a massive groan, leaning slightly sideways.

"Whew!" Peter said a few seconds later as he slowly lowered himself from the ceiling. "That was close!"

"Way too close," grumbled Dad from the floor by his gimbal. Doctor Strange held out his hand, helping Dad back to his feet. "Thanks, Doc. We owe you one."

"Okay, so…" Peter said sheepishly as that eerie, ice-cold shiver ran down the length of his spine. "I just wanna say, that if aliens wind up implanting eggs in my chest or something and I eat one of you, I'm sorry."

Dad shot a harsh scowl in Peter's direction as Doctor Strange turned, a rather curious look on his face. "Pete, now's not really the time—"

"I'm trying to say that something is coming—!" Peter cried, just as a circular metal ball rolled onto the ship, generating a blast that launched him backwards, directly into one of the metal support beams of the ship. Shaking his head to try and clear it, Peter pushed himself up on his hands, his eyes landing on what appeared to be a woman with a set of antennae poking out of the top of her forehead.

"Whoa!" Peter exclaimed, crab-walking backwards on the metal floor as the woman's antennae began to glow. "No, no, no! Please don't put your eggs in me!"

Firing his webs, Peter managed to get the woman immobilized just as he was kicked off to the side, the sound of Dad's repulsors firing filling his ears. Who the hell are these people?

"Die, blanket of death!" someone yelled from a few feet away as Peter jumped up, the spider legs in his suit activating as he aimed for the mask-wearing dude who had kicked him. Peter was still in the air as the dude tossed some sort of electrical rope at him, coiling itself tightly around his body and causing him to hit the floor. The masked man immediately grabbed for Peter, hauling him up and pointing his blaster right at the side of Peter's head, his strong arm pressing against Peter's windpipe even through his suit. Peter's belly swooped in fear, his heart starting to race.

"All right!" the man called. "Everybody stay where you are, chill the eff out!" He quickly pressed a button on the side of his head, causing his helmet to disintegrate as he pointed his blaster at Dad for a few seconds before returning it to Peter. "I'm gonna ask you this one time. Where is Gamora?"

"Peter!" Dad cried, his face the same horrible ashen color that it'd been back on the Raft, the last time Peter had had a gun held to his head. Peter's knees were shaking so badly he was surprised he was still upright, and his arms were firmly pinned to his sides, so even if he could have tried to flip out of the guy's hold, he still wouldn't be able to get the blaster out of the way first. And while he had full confidence in his father's ability to build a suit that was as top-of-the-line as it could get, these… people seemed to have some pretty advanced weaponry themselves, and Peter wasn't quite sure if his helmet would be able to withstand a direct shot from this guy's blaster, especially at point-blank range.

And judging from the panicked look on Dad's face, he was thinking the exact same thing. "Good God, please, don't hurt him!"

"How the hell do you know my name?" asked the guy with the blaster. "What're you, a psychic or something?"

"Huh?" Dad croaked, his eyes flicking rapidly between Peter and Blaster Guy. "I never said—"

"Nevermind that!" Blaster Guy said, his arm tightening around Peter's neck. This dude is really strong! "Where the hell is Gamora?"

"Okay, I'll do you one better, you son of a bitch!" cried Dad. He pressed his armored foot harder into the bald, tattooed guy's chest. "Who's Gamora?"

"Oh yeah?" said the bald guy, his skin the color of those silver pokey things the alien had been using earlier on Doctor Strange. "I'll do you one better! Why is Gamora?"

Blaster Guy paused, his grip on Peter's neck wavering ever so slightly until he seemed to regain his composure, pressing the tip of the blaster even harder into Peter's temple. "Tell me where the girl is, or I swear to God I'm gonna French fry this little freak!"

"Peter!" Dad yelped again, once again causing the guy holding Peter to pause. Dad held up one hand, his eyes as wide as pie tins as a huge weapon formed at the end of his other hand, pointing directly at Tattooed Guy's face. "Please, stop! He's just a kid, don't hurt him!"

"How in the hell do you know my name, asshole?" Blaster Guy demanded. "And if you're not gonna tell me where my girl is, then I guess I'll just have to kill all of you and beat it outta Thanos myself!"

"Wait!" Peter choked out, his voice trembling. "Does that mean you're not with Thanos?"

"What?" Blaster Guy sputtered. "With Thanos? Who the hell are you guys?"

"Okay, let me ask you this one time," Doctor Strange said, his golden shield thingy held firmly in his right hand, which was shaking slightly. "What master do you serve?"

"What… master?" scoffed Blaster Guy. "What am I supposed to say, Jesus?"

Dad grimaced as though he was in pain. "You're from Earth?"

"I'm not from Earth, I'm from Missouri," retorted Blaster Guy.

"Yeah, that's on Earth, dipshit!" Dad snapped "So what're you hassling us for?"

"And is your name, Peter?" Peter asked.

"Huh?" Blaster Guy shrieked, right into Peter's ear. "How the hell do you know that? Who the hell are you guys?"

"We're the Avengers, man!" Peter exclaimed. "And my name is Peter too, so can you please take your blaster thingy away from my head now? You're gonna give my dad a heart attack!"

"You're… the Avengers?"

"You're the ones Thor told us about!" cried Antennae Lady, still struggling against her web cage.

"You know Thor?" asked Dad.

"Yeah," said Blaster Guy. "Tall guy, not that good-looking, needed saving."

Um… are we talking about the same Thor? "Does that mean he's okay?" asked Peter.

"Where is he now?" asked Doctor Strange.

"He said he was going to Nidavellir to get a new hammer," answered Blaster Guy, who was apparently also named Peter, as he finally released his hold on Peter's neck. Dad immediately lurched forward, wrapping his arms around Peter's shoulders, his eyes shooting bullets towards Blaster Peter.

"A new hammer?" asked Peter, his voice muffled against his father's chest, his heart rate finally starting to return to normal. "What happened to his old one?"

"I dunno," answered the other Peter, shrugging. "I didn't ask. He took two of our guys with him."

"You mean there's more of you?" Dad asked, and Peter couldn't tell if he was more pleased or afraid.

"Yep," answered Blaster Peter. "We're the Guardians of the Galaxy."

"Oh," Dad said slowly. He shot a pointed look at Peter, his hands still resting on Peter's shoulders. "So, ah, you got a name there, Mr. Guardian?"

"I thought you already knew my name," Blaster Peter replied, his brow furrowing in confusion. "You kept saying it during our little standoff back there."

"Maybe tell us your last name, sir?" asked Peter. "'Cause it's gonna get kinda confusing with us both having the same name here."

"My last name's Quill," he said, puffing out his chest. "I'm also known as Star-Lord, as you've probably heard. And I'm half-god, as you might also have heard."

"No, can't say that I have," said Dad. Peter could see he was trying desperately to not roll his eyes. "Did Thor happen to say when he might be done with this new hammer of his?"

"Nope," said Quill. "He just took off in our pod with two of my guys and like most of our food. Said he was going to get his new hammer and would meet up with us afterwards."

"Is he planning on coming here?" Strange demanded.

Quill shrugged as he walked towards the damaged hull of the ship, pulling a yellow device from his pocket as he headed outside. "Dunno. But the bigger question should be what the hell happened to this planet? It's eight degrees off its axis, and the gravitational pull is all over the place."

Stepping outside the ship, Peter squinted against the harsh, orangish light of the desolate planet. It looked like something out of one of those futuristic, post-apocalyptic novels, with the ground completely devoid of anything resembling plant life, the buildings either destroyed piles of rubble or completely gutted, and a haze that hung in the air that immediately made someone want to take a deep breath, but at the same time scared to do so.

"What the hell…" Dad muttered under his breath as Antennae Lady started jumping up and down in the lower gravity, a childish smile lighting on her face. "I sure hope Thor hurries his ass up, we could definitely use the help."

"These guys seem to have some pretty advanced stuff though, Dad," Peter said. "Maybe they'll be able to help us."

"An idiot with a gun is a pretty dangerous idiot, Pete," Dad grumbled. But we do have one advantage; Thanos is coming to us." Clapping his hand on Peter's shoulder, Dad turned, jerking his head in Quill's direction. "All right, I think I've got a plan."

---

Tony's stomach was churning so violently as he approached Quill that he was surprised he could still stand. First, the fact that Peter was even there with him on the barren rock of a planet in the first place was enough to make him want to commandeer Quill's ship and fly them all the hell off of Titan, Thanos and the Time Stone be damned. And then… to have to see yet another madman holding a gun to Peter's head, bringing all of Tony's beaten down nightmares from the Raft right back up to the surface… as if he wasn't already anxious enough…

He was just never going to allow Peter to leave the Tower ever again, once they got home. It really was that simple.

"So… um… Mr. Quill," Tony started. "Would you mind filling me in on exactly who this Gamora person actually is?"

Quill's eyes immediately clouded over, his brow furrowing. "She's my girl," he said softly. "And Thanos took her. He tricked us, we were on Knowhere, and then he took her. And I don't know where he took her."

"You were… nowhere?" asked Tony. "Is that a place?"

"Knowhere," said Quill. "And yeah, it is. Or at least it was. It's nothing but a destroyed pile of nothing now. Kinda like this planet. It's where Thanos found the Reality Stone."

"Oh, shit," Tony muttered. "So you actually saw this Thanos guy with the Infinity Stones?"

"Yeah," Quill said, sniffing. "He's got three of 'em now. Power, Space, and Reality, and he's wearing 'em in a big, fancy glove on his hand, like they're his trophies or something. And he took Gamora because she knows the location of the Soul Stone."

Tony raised his eyebrows. "Can he get it out of her? The location?"

To Tony's shock, a single tear rolled down Quill's face, that he quickly brushed away. "She thought so, which is why she asked me to kill her, so he wouldn't be able to get it from her. And I tried—, but he already had the Reality Stone, so he just—, and then he just disappeared with her… I don't know where they went."

"Hey, hey," Tony said gently. "It's okay. I'm sorry for the twenty questions, I'm just trying to get as much info as possible before this dude gets here."

"Gamora is his adopted daughter," Quill continued. "Thanos took her from her home when she was tiny. And she hates him, she'd do anything to try and stop him. I just don't know where she is, where he took her, so—"

"Okay, well, on that note, I've got a plan," Tony said. "Or at least the beginnings of one. You wanna gather your people around?"

"My people," said Quill with a slight chuckle. "Yeah, we're not usually too big on plans, not winging isn't what they really do, so…"

"Well, this one's simple," Tony insisted. "We draw him in, pin him down, and get what we want. We definitely don't wanna dance with this guy, we just want the gauntlet. I figure if we can get it off of him, then our wizard friend can portal it off into space or something."

Quill was silent for a moment. Tony had Peter at an arm's length behind him, and Strange had wandered off on his own once the group had gotten outside and was now sitting in the om position, hovering over a pile of rocks about twenty yards away.

"Okay, I like your plan, except I think it sucks," said Quill. "So why don't you let me do the plan, and that way it might be really good."

"Wow," Tony said under his breath. Half-god my ass! More like one hundred percent moron! "And what exactly did you have in mind then, Mr. Lord?"

"You should tell him about the dance-off to save the universe, Quill," said the bald guy who bore a striking resemblance to Mr. Clean.

"What dance-off?" asked Tony, bracing himself for the answer.

"It's not—, it's not really a thing," said Quill, and he almost looked embarrassed.

"You mean, like in Footloose? The movie?" asked Peter.

"Exactly like Footloose!" exclaimed Quill. "Is it still the greatest movie in history?"

Peter wrinkled his nose. "It never was."

"Okay, we don't need to encourage this, Pete," Tony said. "As I said, we only want to get the gauntlet off. Now, I think between all of us we should be able to—"

"I don't think you understand just how powerful Thanos is," said Quill. "You think we can just wrestle him down and take off the gauntlet? I don't care how strong you think you might be, there's no way we can do it without Mantis' help."

"Man—, Mantis?" Tony stammered. He and Peter both turned to look at the woman with the antennae, still bouncing around like Peter used to do on his trampoline back at the Malibu house. When he was seven. "You think she can help us?"

"Mantis has powers," said Mr. Clean. "She can put very powerful beings to sleep."

"Yeah, she used to put my father to sleep all the time," said Quill, his moustached upper lip curling into a smirk. "He was a planet. A really evil planet. I killed him."

"Hey, Quill, I helped too," protested Mr. Clean. "You can't take all the credit for yourself, it was a group effort."

"Your father was… a planet?" Peter asked, confused. "Um… how exactly did that work?"

"He made himself a penis," said Mr. Clean.

"Nevermind that now, Pete," Tony said impatiently. He huffed out a sharp breath, swallowing hard against the rising bile in the back of his throat. "Okay, Quill. You think Mantis can help us, then let's fill her in, yeah?"

"Oh, yeah, sure," said Quill. "Hey, Mantis? You wanna come on over here for a sec?"

"Um, I will in a moment!" replied Mantis. She pointed to where Strange was sitting, and Tony gasped as he saw the tendrils of green light emanating from the pendant around his neck and wrapping around both wrists, with Strange's head twitching side to side like he was having a very violent seizure. "Does your friend often… do that?"

Uhh, what the hell? "Strange!" Tony called as he started walking towards Strange, keeping Peter close behind him. "We all right?"

But Strange's twitching only grew more violent, and just as Tony reached him he cried out, falling back to the ground and pitching forward onto his shaking hands. Tony crouched down, looking up at him. "You're back now, you're all right."

"Yeah," whispered Strange, obviously shaken by what he had just seen.

"Hey, what was that?" asked Peter. "Are you okay?"

Inhaling deeply, Strange locked eyes with Tony. "I went forward in time, to view alternative futures, to see all the possible outcomes of the coming conflict."

"How many did you see?" asked Quill.

"Fourteen million, six hundred and five," answered Strange, still huffing like he'd just ran a marathon.

Holy shit.

"Okay, so… how many do we win?" Tony asked, dreading the answer.

Strange swallowed hard, his eyes narrowing as he looked at Tony, and Tony could have sworn that he almost looked sympathetic.

"Two," he answered.

---

Oh my God! Peter thought, his mind rapidly calculating the odds of their success given Doctor Strange's prediction. 0.00001429%.

Holy shit!

Dad's face, already pale and drawn, paled even more at the Doctor's words, and he gulped, reaching behind him for Peter.

"I'm right here, Dad," Peter said softly.

"You stay close to me, you understand?" Dad said. "I wanna be able to see you at all times, no matter what else is going on."

"Dad, I'm gonna be fine!" insisted Peter. "Let's just worry about getting this stupid glove off of this monster guy." He glanced over at Doctor Strange, who seemed to be finally regaining his composure. "When do you think Thanos is gonna show up?"

"Not long," answered Doctor Strange, in a much kinder voice than he'd previously used with Peter. "We should prepare."

"Okay," Peter said. "How?"

Doctor Strange glanced over at Dad. "This plan relies on the element of surprise, does it not?"

"Yeah, I'd say so," agreed Dad.

"Very well. Then I would suggest we spread out—hide—so that when Thanos arrives I am the only one he sees at first. The rest of you should be placed at strategic points so as to be able launch the attack simultaneously."

"Okay," said Dad. "Sounds good so far."

"Then once we are able to immobilize him," Doctor Strange continued. "I will teleport Mantis down so she can… put him to sleep, as she says. It will then be up to all of us to try and remove the gauntlet. Once it is removed, I will teleport it into space."

"Okay," said Peter. "But then what about Thanos? He's still dangerous without the gauntlet, isn't he?"

"Yes," answered Doctor Strange, tapping his bearded chin. His facial hair was a lot like Dad's, and Peter had to stifle a smile. "The rest of your team is on Earth, is it not?"

"Yeah, they're in Wakanda," Dad said. "And with any luck they've gotten the Mind Stone outta Vision's head and blasted it to hell already."

"Mmm," said Doctor Strange. "I'm not sure I would call that luck. It only means that Thanos' resolve to get the Time Stone will be stronger than ever. We should not underestimate him. He is going to be the most formidable enemy you have yet encountered, I fear. Much worse than even the technomage who brought us here."

"Eh, I've held an Infinity Stone in my hand already," scoffed Quill, causing Peter's eyes to widen and his jaw to drop. "We can take him!"

"You have?" Peter asked excitedly. "When?"

"Oh, it's kinda a long story," said Quill. "I can tell ya about it when this is over, okay kid?"

"Sure," said Peter. "Thanks."

"Peter has to stay close to me," Dad said firmly. "We work well together, and I wanna keep an eye on him."

"Why?" asked Quill, confused. "I don't need you to keep any eyes on me. I'm still not sure I even like you."

"Not you, Flash Gordon," snapped Dad, shooting Quill a harsh glare. He clapped his hand on Peter's shoulder. "I meant this Peter."

"It's okay, Dad," Peter said, trying to hide his impatience. "I'm gonna be fine."

"Both Starks can take elevated positions," Doctor Strange cut in. "Then the rest can spread out along the ground. I'll be the only one in plain sight, as Thanos will be drawn towards the stone."

"That sounds reasonable," said Dad, still gripping Peter's shoulder. "We can all converge on your signal."

"Hey, this is my plan!" protested Quill. "I should be making the final decisions!" He tilted his head, looking quizzically at Doctor Strange. "Okay, I like it."

Dad rolled his eyes. "Well, then I guess it's settled. So why don't we take our positions?"

"Good idea," said Peter, just as Quill leaned over to him.

"So," Quill said in a loud whisper. "That dude in the red suit who keeps trying to give me orders, that's your dad?"

"Yeah," Peter whispered back. "He's Iron Man, and I'm Spider-Man."

"Spider-Man? Why'd he name you Spider-Man? Does he not like you or something?"

"Huh?" Peter asked, confused. "No, I named me Spider-Man, it's my superhero name. My real name is Peter."

"Oh, really?" said Quill. "So's mine!"

Peter winced. "Yeah, I gathered that."

"C'mon, Pete!" Dad called as he took off towards the top of a destroyed building. "Let's get ready!"

"'Kay," Peter answered, his helmet closing over his head. He quickly shot out a web, swinging up into position almost directly above Doctor Strange. "I'm ready, Dad."

"Keep your eyes open, bud," Dad said. "You'll probably be the first to see Thanos when he arrives."

"Copy that."

It wasn't long before Peter felt the wind suddenly pick up near the surface, throwing huge clouds of red dust into the already stale air. The red dust soon gave way to a bluish-black portal, out of which stepped a giant purple being, easily as big and strong as the Hulk. Peter's heart started to thud; he remembered all too well what it'd been like watching his father battle a mind-controlled Hulk during the Ultron crisis, and he wasn't much looking forward to having to repeat that process.

Thanos was bald, his chin covered in deep horizontal creases or wrinkles, and his cheeks criss-crossed with either scars or age lines. He was dressed in a metal and leather chestplate and boots that reminded Peter of the armor worn by horsemen during medieval times, and on his left arm he wore the gauntlet, golden in color, with four colored stones imbedded into it. Purple for the Power Stone, blue for the Space Stone, red for the Reality Stone, and orange for the Soul Stone.

Oh my God, Peter thought. He found the Soul Stone! That Gamora person must've shown him where it was!

As his eyes swept over the ruins of the planet, Thanos breathed in a deep breath, then let out a growl, his already angry-looking face scowling even deeper as his fist encased in the gauntlet closed even tighter.

"Oh, yeah," said Doctor Strange, sitting about twenty feet away at the top of a stone staircase. "You're much more of a Thanos."

Peter inched closer to the edge of his perch, careful to not disturb any loose debris. "Stand by, Pete," Dad whispered.

"I'm fine," answered Peter.

Stepping closer to Doctor Strange, Thanos smiled slightly. "I take it the Maw is dead?"

Doctor Strange nodded.

"Hmm," said Thanos as he started walking towards Doctor Strange. "This day extracts a heavy toll. Still, he accomplished his mission."

"You may regret that," said Doctor Strange, his voice laced with arrogance. "He's brought you face-to-face with a Master of the Mystic Arts."

"Hmph," Thanos scoffed. "And where do you think he brought you?"

"Let me guess. Your home?" replied Doctor Strange.

Pausing, Thanos let out a smile, one so full of irony and sarcasm that it made Peter gulp. "Yes," he said, raising his arm, the red stone encased in the gauntlet glowing brightly. Peter gasped as the landscape suddenly changed to show a thriving, beautiful planet, rich with plants and wildlife, the sky a beautiful blue to match the water of the nearby lake. "Titan was like most planets; too many mouths, not enough to go around. And when we faced extinction I offered a solution."

"Genocide," said Doctor Strange.

"If that's what you call it," replied Thanos. "But random. Dispassionate, so no one could buy or bribe their way out of it. Fair to rich and poor alike. And they called me a madman. And then, what I predicted came to pass." He lowered his arm, the vision of a beautiful Titan disappearing to reveal the ruins where they now hid.

"Congratulations," Doctor Strange said in a biting tone. "You're a prophet. Who wants to murder trillions."

"With all six stones I could simply snap my fingers, and they would all cease to exist," said Thanos. "I call that… mercy."

"Dad," Peter whispered. "This guy… he's really—"

"He's loony, Pete," Dad interrupted. "Completely and certifiably."

"Yeah. I mean… I can't… how can you—, how can anyone—?"

"Don't worry about that now, Pete," Dad warned. "Just concentrate on what we need to do."

"And then what?" Doctor Strange asked Thanos as he got to his feet.

"And then, I rest," answered Thanos, and Peter could have sworn he looked almost sad. "Watch the sun rise on a grateful universe. The hardest choices require the strongest wills."

Pursing his lips, Peter watched as Doctor Strange clapped his forearms together, generating his sparking golden shields. "I think you'll find our will equal to yours!"

"Our?" said Thanos as he looked up towards the sky, just in time to watch Dad slam several stories of a destroyed building right on top of him.

"Piece of cake, Quill!" Dad called as he took off.

"Yeah, if your goal was to piss him off!" cried Quill as he activated his helmet. He too took off, aiming for Thanos just as the building covering him exploded into a huge, purple fireball. Thanos' roar echoed across the desolate plain, causing Peter to cringe in pain before his helmet was able to modify itself to help block out the sound. As he freed himself from the rubble, Thanos raised his left arm, the stones changing from purple to red as he launched pieces of the building—that almost seemed like they'd turned into evil, giant bats—towards Dad at the speed of a rocket.

"No!" cried Peter, swooping down from his perch as he launched webs at Thanos' face. The webs stuck to Thanos' eyes, disorientating him enough to allow Peter to kick him hard in the head as he swung across. Tattooed Guy slid in from his hiding place, striking Thanos in the legs just as Doctor Strange conjured some kind of mystical sword.

"Peter!" Dad cried as he flew back into range. "Stay back! Use your webs only!"

"Dad, that won't be enough!" Peter yelled as Quill bounced towards Thanos on floating portal steps thrown by Doctor Strange and landing one of his magnetic explosive devices onto Thanos' back.

"Boom, asshole!" Quill said, disappearing into a portal just as the device exploded. Peter immediately took advantage of Thanos' brief period of disorientation to jump through one of Doctor Strange's portals, landing both of his feet right onto Thanos' head.

"Magic!" Peter said as he disappeared into another portal, the maroon cloak wrapping around Thanos' hand so he couldn't close his fist. "More magic!" This portal-jumping thing is kinda fun! "Magic with a kick!"

But on his next pass, Thanos had managed to rip the cloak from his hand and grabbed Peter around the neck, slamming him to the ground.

"Insect!" Thanos snarled, pushing Peter into the thick clay covering the ground. Peter kicked his legs, managing to wiggle himself enough to loosen Thanos' grip on his windpipe so he could breathe again.

"I'm not!" Peter gasped as Thanos' picked him up by the shoulders, tossing him directly at Doctor Strange, knocking them both into various pieces of rubble.

"Ow!" muttered Peter, rubbing at his head as a huge wall of fire engulfed Thanos. Peter looked up, relief flooding his veins as he saw Dad flying in, rapid-firing missiles from the back of his suit. But only a second later his relief turned to shock as he watched Thanos absorb the fireball into the gauntlet and shoot it right back towards his father.

"Dad!" Peter screamed. Pushing himself up to his feet, Peter took off running, jumping towards Thanos and capturing his left hand with a web, pulling against the gauntlet with all of his strength. "Leave him alone!"

Enraged, Thanos jerked his hand down, yanking Peter from his feet and sending him careening across the landscape just as a ship crashed down to the ground right on top of Thanos, skidding to a halt about thirty yards away.

Please! Peter thought desperately. He had no idea who could possibly be on that ship, but whoever it was seemed to have aimed directly for Thanos, so they had to be a friend. Please let that be it!

"Peter!" Dad cried. "Are you all right? I can't see you!"

"Yeah!" Peter answered, watching as a blue-skinned… android jumped out of the wrecked ship, immediately pulling a knife on Thanos. "Dad, can you see this?"

"Well, well!" Thanos barked.

"You should've killed me!" cried the android. "Where is Gamora!"

"It would've been a waste of parts!" retorted Thanos with a swing of his massive fist, sending her flying backwards just as Doctor Strange conjured a set of long, red ropes, which quickly wrapped themselves around Thanos' hand, trying to get him to open his fist.

"Stark!" grunted Doctor Strange. "Now would be good!"

"Coming!" answered Peter.

"He meant me, Pete!" Dad yelped. "You stay back!"

"No, Dad!" Peter yelled. "You need my help!" Launching one of his splitter webs at Thanos' chest, Peter jumped behind him, trying to keep him immobilized long enough for Doctor Strange to get his fist open, his way-cool spider legs deploying to help him keep his footing. Quill suddenly flew in out of nowhere, attaching one of his electrical devices to Thanos' other hand just as Dad landed next to Thanos, with Mantis falling from the sky to land on the mad Titan's shoulders, with Thanos letting out a hair-raising howl.

"Hurry!" cried Mantis, the tips of her antennae glowing a bright white. "He is very strong!"

"Is he under?" asked Dad, already pulling on the gauntlet. "Don't let up!"

"Okay, Pete, I need your help here!" Dad commanded. "He's too strong for me and she can't hold him much longer."

"We need to get his fist open, Dad," Peter said, grunting as he pulled on Thanos' fingers, trying to get them to uncurl.

"I know, Pete," Dad muttered. "Keep going, you're doing great."

"For the record, this was my plan," Quill said, clanking to a landing next to Thanos, a triumphant grin on his face. "Not so strong now are ya, asshole? Where is Gamora?"

Peter shuddered as Thanos let out another anguished howl, the hair on the back of his neck standing straight up as he continued to pull on the gauntlet. "Dad, something else is happening."

"He's—, he's in pain!" cried Mantis, still struggling to keep her hands on Thanos' head. "He—, he mourns!"

"What can this monster possibly have to mourn?" Tattooed Guy demanded.

"Gamora," said the android in a soft voice. "He took her to Vormir, and came back with the Soul Stone. She didn't."

"What?" squeaked Quill, a deep crease forming between his eyebrows. "Tell me she's lying, asshole! Tell me you didn't do it!"

"Dad," grunted Peter. "This isn't good, this is not good!"

"Okay, Quill," Dad said as his helmet disappeared. "You gotta cool it right now, you understand? Stand down, don't engage!"

"Dad!" Peter cried. "Stop him!"

"We almost got this off, Quill!" Dad yelled. "Stand down!"

"I had to!" Thanos choked out, and Peter's heart immediately dropped to his knees.

"No you didn't!" roared Quill, slamming his blaster into the side of Thanos' head. "No! You! Didn't!"

"Dad, I almost got it!" Peter exclaimed as Dad released the gauntlet to grab Quill's arm, trying to drag him away. The gauntlet was sliding off Thanos' arm, the end of it nearly at his fingers. "It's coming off, I almost got it, I almost got it!"

"Too late!" growled Thanos as he managed to catch onto the very end of the gauntlet. Throwing Mantis off of his shoulders, Thanos ripped off Doctor Strange's ropes and launched himself at Peter, grabbing him around the neck and raising him up into the air. Peter flailed his legs, his hands clutching at Thanos' fingers as his spider legs deployed, trying to help wrestle him out of Thanos' grip. "You're bugging me a little too much today, insect!"

"Spiders… aren't… insects!" Peter sputtered, his hands still scrabbling against the ironclad grip of Thanos' fingers. "They're… arachnids!"

"Peter!" shrieked Dad as he flew towards them, only to be launched backwards by the Power Stone along with Doctor Strange and Tattooed Guy.

"Peter!" Dad cried again, this time launching more missiles from the back of his suit. "Hang on, buddy!"

"Dad!" croaked Peter, his vision already transforming into the honeycomb-like state that it did when he was too exhausted to keep his focus, his enhanced hearing dulled by the sound of blood rushing past his ears. He hadn't had a full-out asthma attack in a couple of years now, not since the spider bite, but his lungs felt as though they were about to burst, unable to breathe any air out, drudging back painful memories of those loathsome breathing treatments that he'd always hated. "Help me! I don't wanna go!"

"Strange, you gotta do something!" Dad screamed as he was again repelled by the glowing purple stone, sounding more panicked than Peter had ever heard him. "Please! He's gonna kill my boy!"

"Your boy, huh?" Thanos sneered, his huge purple nose only inches away from Peter's. He raised his left arm, aiming the gauntlet to the sky, triggering something that sounded like a mountain collapsing onto the planet. "Well, let him see what it's like to lose a child!"

"Stop!" shouted Doctor Strange. He stepped over to Thanos, his face a mixture of defeat and determination, pieces of the moon Thanos had literally pulled from the sky still falling to the ground with a loud rumble. Peter was barely still conscious, his fingers still wrapped tightly around Thanos' wrist. "Spare his life, and I will give you the stone."

Thanos paused, loosening his grip ever so slightly as he contemplated Doctor Strange's offer. "No tricks, wizard."

Doctor Strange shook his head as Dad landed next to him, his body shaking in his armor, his arms reaching for Peter.

"No tricks," said Doctor Strange. Peter watched as the wizard turned, reaching his scarred, shaking right hand up towards the sky, his fingers closing around an invisible barrier surrounding the stone that he'd hidden among the stars. The stone began to glow bright green as it moved, and Strange quickly glanced over at Dad before releasing it towards Thanos.

With a triumphant huff, Thanos released Peter, who immediately collapsed into a heap on the ground, his legs as weak as a newborn baby's, the stale air he was drawing into his starved lungs so painful it felt like his chest was on fire. Dad was at his side a second later, pulling Peter into his lap like he used to when Peter was little, after one of his nightmares.

"I've got you, buddy," Dad said over and over. "I've got you, I've got you. Oh God, I thought I was gonna lose you!"

"Dad," Peter whimpered as his helmet disappeared. "Doctor Strange, he just gave Thanos the Time Stone!"

"It's okay, Peter," Dad murmured, his armored fingers combing through Peter's messy hair. "It's okay, we'll figure it out."

As the green stone floated towards Thanos, holding his hand out for it greedily, a sudden flash of lighting streaked across the darkening sky that caused both Peter and Dad to look up. Peter's heart immediately started to pound, his chest still heaving with the effort it took to breathe. "Dad!" he rasped. "Do you think—?"

But Peter was cut off by the appearance of a beam of multicolored light so bright it was nearly blinding, causing Peter's helmet to close around his head. As the eyes on the helmet adjusted, Peter blinked as what appeared to be an huge axe flew out of the beam of light, aiming directly for Thanos' legs, knocking him flat onto his back just as the Time Stone settled into the gauntlet.

"It's Thor!" Peter cried, scrambling to his feet, his legs still shaky but with a newfound strength coursing through him as he watched the long-lost god of thunder land gracefully onto the planet next to a tree, with a giant raccoon carrying a gun riding on his shoulders. "Dad, it's Thor!"

"You're goddamn right it is," Dad said in a low voice. He immediately took off towards Thanos, still on his back, momentarily stunned by the hit from Thor's axe. "Peter, you stay put! The rest of us can handle this!"

"Like hell you can!" cried Peter as he took off running after Dad.

"I told you I'd be back for my revenge!" Thor shouted as he ran towards Thanos, his axe flying back into his hand. Peter and Dad arrived at his side just as Thanos managed to get back to his feet.

"I said no tricks!" he roared, blasting the Power Stone towards Thor and Dad, which Dad barely managed to block with a nanotech shield, getting pushed further and further back until he disappeared under a giant pile of rubble. The tree immediately went for Thanos' legs, trying to trip him up while the raccoon grabbed for Thanos' right hand.

"Dad!" Peter screamed, launching his web at Thanos' hand and halting the blast from the Power Stone. He immediately grabbed for the gauntlet. "Thor, help me! We gotta get this thing off of him!"

"Very well, Kevin Bacon," said Thor, grabbing for the gauntlet just as Thanos raised his hand, trying to open one of his portals to escape. "I will enjoy watching this wretched creature suffer before he dies! Rabbit, Tree, stay back! The sheer force of the portal will cause you to be ripped apart!"

"Kevin Bacon?" muttered Peter. What's with all the Footloose references today? "I'm not Kevin Bacon! Thor, it's me! Peter!"

Thor's eyes narrowed as they flicked towards Peter, and Peter noticed that one of them was a different color than the other. "Peter?" he said, his thick Asgardian accent coming out in full force. "Young Starkson?"

"Yeah!" answered Peter. "It's me!"

"But you were still but a tiny child when last I saw you!" exclaimed Thor. "And you were not dressed as an… arachnid!"

"Yeah, well, a few things have changed since you've been gone!" Peter said with a grunt, his arms screaming for relief from the extra-human effort of trying to keep Thanos from escaping Titan. He definitely was not at his full strength. "We've missed you, dude!"

"There are more than a few things that have changed, young Starkson," Thor answered, his voice strained. "I'm afraid it will take many chess games to fill you in on them all."

"I can't wait!" Peter shouted, his spider legs deploying as he leaned back, the gauntlet starting to slide off millimeter by millimeter as Thanos let out a loud roar. "Keep going, keep going! It's coming off!"

"Peter!" Dad suddenly shrieked from somewhere behind them. "Peter, be careful!"

"I got it! It's coming off!" Peter called as Thanos pitched forward, the portal disappearing behind him as Thor aimed a kick to his right leg, knocking him slightly to the side.

"Dad, I got it!" Peter yelled as the gauntlet finally came loose from Thanos' arm. He fell back against the spider legs, his chest heaving as he let out a loud whoop of victory, cradling the stone-studded metal glove in both hands.

"Peter, be careful with that thing!" Dad commanded. "Just wait till I get there!"

But Peter barely heard him, so enamoured that he'd actually managed to get the gauntlet off. He held it up, admiring how the metal seemed to shine even in the rapidly dimming light on Titan. He was so engrossed that he barely noticed Thor summoning his axe and burying its blade directly into Thanos' chest, fulfilling his promise to make the mad Titan suffer.

"I did it," Peter said quietly, his throat raw from all the screaming and being nearly choked to death. "I really did it."

Impulsively, Peter slipped his hand inside the armband of the glove. Being so much smaller than Thanos, the glove slid over his arm easily, reminding him of when he used to sometimes play with Uncle Ben's work gloves when he was little.

"Peter!" Dad said carefully as he landed a few feet away from Peter, his eyes flicking briefly over to Thanos, still with Thor's axe buried into his chest and gasping for breath.

"Dad, look at how big this thing is!" Peter said as he raised his arm, causing the gauntlet to slide all the way on. His fingers instinctively curled into his palm as soon as the glove had settled on his arm.

"Starkson!" Peter heard Thor exclaim, just as his limbs started to tingle, his vision going completely white. "Starkson, do not—!"

---

Tony stood there, his feet so leaden they felt as if they were rooted to the cracked, dusty ground. He looked down at Thanos, drawing in his last ragged breath with Thor still clutching the handle to his axe as he looked over at Tony, his eyes wide and shocked.

"Thor," Tony said in a wobbly voice. "Where's Peter?"

"Whoa!" called Quill from somewhere behind Tony, he wasn't quite sure where. "Did that guy really just up and disappear? Was I the only one who saw that?"

"No, Quill, you weren't," another, sharper voice hissed from somewhere else. "But keep your trap shut, yeah? I'm pretty sure that wasn't supposed to happen!"

"Thor!" Tony repeated, a little louder this time. "Where is Peter?"

But Thor only shook his head as he yanked the axe free from the now-dead Titan with a sickening squelching noise, his eyes filled with an almost overwhelming sadness. "I—, I do not know, Stark. He was right here, and then he just… vanished!"

His lower lip starting to shake, Tony turned to Strange, who was walking slowly towards them, with Mantis closely behind. "Strange?" he said. "Where's Peter? Where is my son?"

Just like Thor, Strange shook his head, the cut on his face and his shaking hands making him seem much older all of a sudden. "I don't know, Tony," he said softly. "I cannot be certain exactly when or where the Time Stone has sent him."

"What?" squawked Tony, his hands clenching into fists even as his blood turned to ice in his veins. "What do you mean, you don't know? You were the goddamn guardian of the Time Stone! How can you not know?"

"When I looked into the future, I saw two possible victorious outcomes," Strange continued. "One of those outcomes saw the death of young Peter following his second attempt to remove the Infinity Gauntlet. The other saw him taken by the Time Stone after the successful removal. It appears that the second outcome has now come to pass."

"Has now come to pass?" sputtered Tony. "What the hell is this, the Lord of the Rings?" He lunged forward just as Thor grabbed him from behind, preventing him from wrapping his fingers around the arrogant wizard's scrawny neck. "Where is he, Strange? Where the hell is my son?"

"Stark," Thor said into Tony's ear. "It is not his fault. The Infinity Gauntlet was never meant to be wielded by a mere mortal, much less only a boy."

"But that's the entire problem!" Tony screamed, pointing at Strange. "He knew that the boy would wield it, and now the fucking wizard doesn't know where Peter is or what happened to him! You sacrificed my son, you goddamn son of a bitch! You sacrificed an innocent, sixteen-year-old boy without a single second thought!"

"He's not dead, Tony!" Strange insisted as he held up his scarred hands. "I swear to you, he's not dead. He's simply… no longer in this time."

"And what the hell does that mean?" Tony bellowed, still struggling against Thor's fierce grip. "Not in this time, what the fuck does that mean? When will he come back?"

Strange's shoulders sagged, his chin dropping down to his chest. "I don't know, Tony. Time is fickle, dependent on many variables. I could make educated guesses, but they would be only that. Guesses."

Tony squeezed his eyes closed as his limbs went entirely numb, and he collapsed back against Thor. "You don't know where he is, or when he'll be back?"

"No," answered Strange. "The only thing of which I can be certain, is that he is still alive. And that he will remain alive until he returns."

But Tony was so far gone by that point that he barely processed what Strange had said, barely could tolerate him even speaking the words when he'd known all along that this could happen. That Peter would save them all from a possibly gruesome death, only to be lost himself.

He could barely move, so numb with shock and devastation that Thor had to practically carry him through the portal Strange opened to Wakanda, depositing them—minus the so-called Guardians of the Galaxy, who immediately took off in their hastily repaired ship towards Vormir—back on Earth.

And the rest of the team were all there when they arrived, all dusty and dirty and scuffed from the no-doubt intense battle they'd waged in order to protect the Mind Stone from falling into the hands of Thanos' minions. Steve, Rhodey, Bruce, Sam, Natasha, Barton, even the twins and Bucky Barnes, they were all there. Pepper and Shuri stood behind them, with Vision standing next to Shuri, the Mind Stone missing from his forehead, the gaping hole it likely left behind already filled in.

"Tony," Steve said once he'd enveloped Thor into a hug, a huge smile on his sooty, sweaty face. "Where's Peter?"

No, was Tony's immediate thought, and he shook his head, still unable to move his lips to even form words. The victorious smile fell from Steve's face, the crinkle forming between his eyebrows that always meant he was upset or worried.

"Tony," he said again, his voice lower and more firm this time. "Where is Peter?"

No! Tony thought again, his chest heaving with the effort it took to breathe as he bit his bottom lip hard enough to draw blood. No! If I say it out loud, it means that it's true!

"Tony?" Pepper said as she stepped forward to stand next to Steve. "Where is he? Where is Peter?"

Something about her voice; the pitch, the tone, the slight wobble, like she just knew that something had to be horribly wrong, that Tony would never return to Wakanda without Peter in tow, unless—

"He's—" Tony croaked, tears immediately filling his eyes and spilling down his cheeks just as his knees gave way and he pitched forward, collapsing into Steve's arms.

"Oh, God!" Tony cried, the words tearing through his throat as if they were coated in jagged bits of glass. "Peter… he's… he's gone!"

---

There are two chapters remaining in the story. I can't wait to see what you think!

For those who celebrate, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! :)