Disclaimer: If you recognise it, it came from the films or the comics, even if I flatter myself that I've put my own spin on things.

Feedback: All constructive comments or appreciative observations are welcome

The First and the Last

It had been almost a week since the final confrontation with Thanos, and Peter still wasn't sure what he was going to do with himself from this point onwards.

Once the Avengers got back to the compound and confirmed that they couldn't undo the Snap, Ms Potts had been quick to offer Peter financial support to maintain his independence. The apartment was in May's name, but with the legal paperwork establishing Peter as an intern at Stark Enterprises, it wasn't hard to adjust the documentation to confirm that the internship was a paid one to give Peter some form of income. Ms Potts had even pointed out that as the sole beneficiary of May's life insurance, he could use some of that money to help purchase the flat outright rather than worry about rent for the immediate future. On top of that, she had also offered to look into options for getting Peter legally emancipated so that he wouldn't have to worry about dealing with a new guardian or moving away from the city.

He supposed that other people would think of him as lucky in that he still had some support from Stark Enterprises even with Mr Stark one of the victims of the Snap, but just having his stuff and a place to live didn't make up for the emotional losses. He wasn't sure if it was more or less overwhelming when Ms Potts revealed that Mr Stark had apparently already signed him up for a scholarship that would cover his future education, particularly when Peter wasn't entirely sure if he was ready to take advantage of any of those opportunities.

If nothing else, Ms Potts was simultaneously doing her best to offer support to those Stark Enterprise employees families affected by the Snap, so at least Peter knew he wasn't getting uniquely special treatment, but the company only had so much money available, particularly now that Mr Stark's… fate… meant that the company had basically lost its main source of revenue. The company might employ various other experts, but Tony Stark's expertise was the main reason so many people had invested in the company in the first place. Stocks had already taken a knock, and while Ms Potts had issued statements explaining that she was doing her best to help those affected by the Snap who most needed immediate help but would be able to cope long-term once given a chance, Peter wasn't sure if he should be included in that category. The scholarship was pleasant in its own way, but the emancipation suggestion just felt more than a bit intimidating right now. The idea of taking that much responsibility for himself on top of the possibility of continuing to be Spider-Man…

Besides, even if he wanted to do more for the world after everything they'd lost in the Snap, was it worth keeping up any kind of secret identity when he'd lost everyone important to Peter Parker? Wouldn't it be easier if he just found some way to be Spider-Man full-time so he didn't need to worry about covering his education or things like that? The world was pretty much reeling after losing so many people in the Snap, the remaining Avengers were already having to do their best to fill in, and everyone who really cared about him outside of Spider-Man was dead…

OK, so he liked to think that the surviving Avengers liked him well enough, but they didn't really know him outside of the webs, so the idea still applied. Pretty much everyone who'd known him first and foremost as Peter Parker was gone, and anyone left didn't have any reason to see him as anything more than one of the group.

If Ned or Michelle were still here, Peter had a feeling that they'd be commenting on the irony of that attitude; after so long wanting to be an Avenger, he was now in a position where basically that was the only part of his life that really mattered. Considering how the world was going to need the Avengers right now, maybe he should just accept the obvious and move on…

"Peter?"

The knock on his door was a surprise on its own, but the fact that someone was asking for him was the real shock. He'd had a few people call by in the initial chaos after he returned to the apartment, but basically every guest had assumed that May had returned. Schools were essentially still reeling from the chaos as they tried to work out how to reorganise after so many of the current students had vanished and others had lost their families, so even Midtown High hadn't gotten around to sending anyone to check on him yet.

Peter moved to the door basically on automatic, only fully registering that he'd even moved when he opened the door and found an unexpected but welcome guest.

"Carol?" Peter smiled at the older woman who had saved his life. "What are you doing here?"

"I've been… well, it's been a while since I've been on Earth," Carol said, waving an awkward hand as she walked into the apartment. "The other Avengers and I were going over a few things, and…"

She shrugged slightly as she looked at him with a cautious smile. "Well, I wanted to get away for a while, and I thought I should see how you were doing."

"…Thanks," Peter said, unsure what else to say to the idea that this powerful hero had chosen to come to see himover anyone else.

Was it wrong if he found it a little flattering that a woman this hot chose to come to him over spending time with the older Avengers?

"So," he said, smiling cautiously at his visitor, "everything OK back at the compound?"

"Just… a bit tense," Carol shrugged as she walked into the apartment, looking around before she turned to Peter with a warmer smile. "Nice place; your parents?"

"My aunt," Peter said. "Mom and Dad died in a plane crash when I was little, and my uncle…"

"Oh," Carol's expression shifted as she looked at him, clearly understanding what he wasn't saying. "Good people?"

"The best," Peter smiled, even as he knew he was only giving a weak pretence that the memory wasn't hurting him. "I mean, I was too young to really remember Mom and Dad, but I've always been told they were good parents, and Ben and May… they did their best even if I wasn't always good at getting along with the other kids, and even after Ben died, May did everything she could to give me a good shot…"

"Did she know?" Carol asked.

"Huh?"

"About… well, your thing with the webs."

"Uh… she found out about a year after I started when she walked in on me wearing the suit," Peter said, now able to smile at the memory even if it had been embarrassing at the time. "There were a few rough days at first, with her blaming Mr Stark for everything and me trying to convince her I would have been doing all this on my own… we worked it out in the end."

"Always good to have someone in your corner," Carol nodded at him in understanding. "I spent so long thinking I had that before it turned out I was being manipulated…"

"Manipulated?"

"It ties in to how I ended up like this, actually," Carol explained, raising her hand and generating a brief glow of golden energy. "I was born on Earth, but after I got my powers, I was left with near-total amnesia- I'm still not sure if that was a natural side-effect of me getting my powers in the first place or something they forced on me-"

"They?"

"I was abducted by aliens."

"Seriously?" Peter began to grin before he reminded himself that he was talking about something that had actually happened to a victim of that same experience and quickly schooled his expression. "Uh… that… must have been rough?"

"My abductors actually weren't that bad to me, but when I learned the truth… well, it wasn't an easy thing to deal with," Carol observed, looking away from Peter for a moment with a grim expression. "Learning that everyone I thought I could trust had been lying to me… thinking I was part of a race of warrior heroes when they were all just brutal conquerors…"

"…Well, you got away from them, right?" Peter said, already feeling inadequate as he reached over to give Carol's arm what he hoped was a comforting squeeze. "Sometimes all we can do is focus on how we're not dead yet…"

He felt like kicking himself as soon as the words had passed his lips, but to his relief Carol just gave him a slightly teasing smile in response. The two of them might have been 'lucky' enough to survive Thanos's Snap, but there was no way anyone would be joking about that experience any time soon.

"Uh…" Peter said after the silence stopped being comfortable and began to feel awkward, "if you're from Earth, how did you get your powers?"

"That's an… interesting story, in its way." Carol gave him a brief smile. "Have you heard of the Tesseract?"

"What-?" Peter began, before he clicked his fingers in recollection. "That was the cube-thing that held one of the Infinity Stones, right?"

"Yeah," Carol nodded. "Long story short, I was part of a secret government program using the Tesseract's energy to power a faster-than-light prototype engine, but I was attacked by an alien commander, the engine was destroyed, and I… well, I ended up absorbing the energy into myself."

"Whoa…" Peter said, simultaneously impressed at Carol having been involved in secret government stuff and at how she had apparently managed to absorb some kind of freaky alien energy. "So that's… how you got everything?"

"Flight, strength, and energy blasts," Carol grinned. "I'm still working on my top speed, and it's easier when I have a ship if I'm going to be flying for a long time, but I can still cover a good distance if I'm pushing myself before I need to stop to eat or anything, and obviously I can take a lot of punishment in a fight." Her grin shifted to a curious expression as she looked more directly at Peter. "How about you? How did you get your abilities?"

"I was… on a school trip to a science museum and ended up being bitten by one of these spiders they'd conducted some kind of genetics experiment on," Peter replied, shrugging awkwardly at the older woman. "I felt a bit off for the next few hours until I got home, and when I woke up the next morning… well, I'd gained a few abs and I didn't need my glasses any more."

"You wore glasses?"

"Yeah… believe me, I looked like the classic high school nerd," Peter shook his head with a wry grin. "I think getting my powers was the equivalent of laser eye surgery; everything got fixed up and I ended up with even better vision than average. I'm still not sure what May thought about what happened before she learned about my other activities, but…"

He trailed off, lost in memories of his lost aunt all over again, before he was started out of his internal reflection by a hand on his shoulder. Looking over, he allowed himself a cautious smile as he realised that it was just Carol sitting next to him.

It was a small moment, but after spending the last couple of weeks on a spaceship, he appreciated even that small moment of support.

"Hey, I'm sorry," he said, shaking his head and giving Carol a regretful smile. "I just realised that I've been going on about who I lost in the Snap and I never got around to asking who you lost."

"Who I…" Carol began, her voice trailing off as she looked at him with a thoughtful expression. "That… I mean, obviously there was Fury…"

"But isn't there… someone else?" Peter looked at her, suddenly cautious that he might be crossing a line he hadn't been aware of. "I mean, if you're from Earth, maybe your family-"

"My parents sucked."

"Uh…"

"I mean, they weren't abusive, but my dad… the most charitable way to describe him is that he just didn't get me, but he kept trying to tell me I couldn't do things and my mom basically stayed out of it because she never got me either," Carol elaborated. "My brother… he wasn't bad, and it wasn't likely they blatantly favoured him over me, but he didn't really get involved in the situation either. You can probably say that we just tolerated each other until we could… make our own lives."

"Huh." Peter wished he could say something more, but he was unsure what was the appropriate response to something like that apart from some tasteless Friends comparison that he only knew about because May liked the show. If Carol's parents had been outright abusive it would have been easier to know what to say (even if he hated the idea of her having any kind of rough life), but the idea that they just hadn't cared about her… and she'd clearly been out in space for long enough that it didn't particularly bother her any more…

"But…" Carol finished, looking suddenly thoughtful as she turned to face Peter more directly. "If you wouldn't mind… it's been a while since I was on this planet, so could you help me look someone up?"