Mercy
The woman threw both bodies and Tony flew into action, his mind racing with regrets. He should have stopped this. He shouldn’t have freezed up, his actions were gonna kill one of his kids. It felt like the bodies flew in slow motion as Tony darted towards Morgan as if drawn to her by a magnet. She was small, not protected by the same genetic mutations that allowed Peter to have increased durability. That didn’t stop the guilt from bubbling up as he clutched her to his chest as Peter’s body flew stiffly to towards the ground.
Peter’s body hits the ground with a sickening thud as he lay motionless in a small hole created from the throw. Shakily Tony walked over and set Morgan down, his senses somehow blocking out all of his surroundings as he saw Peter’s lifeless body.
“ Peter. Kid wake up.” he said, speaking with urgency as he gently shook the kid's lifeless body. Nothing happened as he lay limply. “ I’m not messing around if you don’t get up right now I’m taking away suit privileges for life.” Tony yelled this time. He shook the kid with more force as he continued to lie there. He tried to think of anything he could do, to help the situation, to help Peter.
Placing a hand on the back of Peter's head Tony quickly retracted it as his metal hand dripped with blood. Peter’s blood.
Tony didn't think twice using the nanotech from his suit to expose a nozzle for the metal in his left arm. He then aimed it at the back of Peter's head, spraying a blue sticky substance all over covering the large profusely bleeding gash.
Tony prayed this would help Peter, after all the same stuff he just sprayed on Peter was the same stuff he used to heal his abdominal wound when he got stabbed by Thanos. The blue substance now covering the back of Peter's head turned a tint red as it absorbed the blood to create a blood clot on the gash to help it from bleeding so much. His heart clenched painfully as he felt his breathing labor, trying to think of what more he could do to save the kid. This wasn’t happening...not again.
“ Daddy?” Morgan whimpered softly.
“ Not right now your Dad is very stressed.” Tony snapped guilty as he pulled Peter’s body into his lap. He vaguely heard Liv say something but he blocked it out, he couldn’t focus even if he tried. With a shaky breath he placed his fingers on the base of Peter’s neck.
“ Friday vitals.” he asked, ignoring the slight voice crack.
The AI was silent for a second before responding. “ No vital signs detected sir.”
“ Check again.” Tony ordered as he fought back the panic in his voice.
“ No vital signs detected sir.” the AI repeated.
“ CHECK AGAIN!”
“ Sir your blood pressure and breathing rate has spiked significantly, you might want to-”
“ No, just read. The. Vitals.” Tony spat.
“ No vital signs detected sir.” as the AI confirmed it’s readings for the fourth time. Peter’s lifeless and haunted face stared at Tony’s as he pulled his body up so that his neck was resting in Tony’s elbow comfortably. He knew he needed to deal with Liv but it hurt to even think about letting go of Peter's body as he choked in another meager breath.
“ I-I am so so sorry kid.” the man whispered as if he was begging the kid to come back to life as he held the kid by his chest. He felt like he wanted to throw up as the kid’s skin paled slightly. Holding the dead body somehow felt worse than not having one, at least when he turned to dust he didn’t have to feel his lifeless eyes piercing his face.
“ Daddy, whats wrong?” Morgan whimpered as she crawled closer to Tony.
“ Peter is hurt.” he mumbled, unable to say ‘dead’ aloud.
Behind Tony, Liv had walked over to Leslie, she used Tony's breakdown to help bring medical attention to Leslie.
Only being able to see faint shadows through her blurry vision Leslie looked up at Liv,who was walking in her direction.
“ Liv?”
" Yes it's me Leslie. How bad are you hurt? Can you tell me on a scale of 1 to 10?" Livs whole persona had changed as she looked down at her injured ally.
"I-I'm f-f-fine….it's just m-my left side" Lesile whimpered out, biting her lip hard. She fought back tears in her eyes, determined not to let a single one slip out. She wouldn't admit it but she was in the worst pain she had ever felt, her left leg was definitely broken, and it hurt to breathe like her entire chest was bruised.
Liv sighed. Leslie had taken the brunt of the fall on the left side of her body, and it was obvious. Leslie was bleeding from many different spots from all over her body but the biggest one was from a tire in her left pant leg right above her knee, exposing the burnt, bleeding, very deep, massive gash on her leg. Liv needed to tourniquet that leg before Leslie bleed out. So she tore off part of the fabric from Leslies pant leg to expose the wound.
" Good job on getting that little pipsqueak of Tony's daughter. She certainly gave me a lot of leverage in the battle. But I could have done without her if you would have stayed out at HQ where you belonged," While saying this Liv gently lifted Leslies left leg to wrap the tore off pants fabric around it, but didn't pull tight yet.
Lesiles didn't really know what Liv was doing but only grimaced in pain at the slight movement of her leg. Still only focusing on Livs face, Leslie began, " Y-you know I suck at f-following…. directions. You sh-should..have expected…" Leslie lost her words as she felt her leg almost tear in two as the tourniquet tightened, the shock wearing off. She let out a muted yell as it was fixed on her leg.
“ This is why I asked you not to come.” Liv hissed. “ You could easily have died. If it wasn't for me you would have easily bleed out here. And don't mess with this you need to leave this tourniquet on until someone can give you full medical attention.”
“ Shu’ up ol’ wom’n.” Leslie said, slurring her words through her agony.
Annoyance filled Liv’s expression as she quickly pulled the tourniquet tighter causing Leslie to roll on her side and groan again. “ We are gonna get out of here.” Liv snapped as she picked up Leslie gently with one of her metal arms cradling her.
Tony heard Liv talking to Leslie. Talking. The ass hat was alive and talking to the other woman. Who was alive and breathing and could live and have a future. It hurt more than anything to hear them speaking to each other and to feel the overwhelming grief of never being able to do that again. He had just gotten him back, the kid had been making progress. And then she came back, this scum of the earth sociopathic woman came and stole him. Took his personality and then took his life. She wasn’t leaving here alive. Painfully he set the kids body gently on the ground and whispered to Morgan to go and hide in her tent until it was safe. The scarred and scared four year old nodded and ran off. Now it was show time, he didn’t have to worry about making sure the kid’s survived.
“ What the hell do you think you are doing?!” Tony roared as he flew and landed hard on the ground in front of Liv who had Leslie in one of her arms, preparing to make their escape.
“ Havin’ a party old man,” spoke the injured woman sarcastically.
Tony could barely control himself as she spoke. It wasn’t fair.
“ Speak again, I dare you,” Tony growled as grief and anger tore up an emotional storm inside of him. “ You aren’t leaving here. Not alive. Not after what you did to my- the kid.”
“ Oh, he’s your kid now, is he? ” Liv laughed unimpressed. Leslie snorted painfully.
“ He’s under my protection.”
“ Well great job, dad of the year.” teased Liv as she began to leave.
A boil of grief and anger spilled over as Tony used the nanotech from his suit to make a giant hammer around his fist swinging it with full force at Liv. It collided with her square in the chest, pushing her onto the ground and tossing Leslie from her grip onto the ground.
Leslie grimaced in pain but was determined to get payback. Grabbing another pistol from her belt she took a quick shot at Tonys head.
In seeing this action Tony quickly tried to form his helmet back over his head. The bullet grazed his ear and blood spilled out. Once the helmet was fully formed around his head the bullet had gotten caught up in it as it hit the back of the inside of his helmet. The hot bullet was stuck inside his helmet burning the back of his neck. He stumbled a bit, grinding his teeth in pain, taking aim with a small missile at Leslie, to distract her long enough so he could safely retract his helmet again to get the blazing bullet out from the inside of his helmet. He could feel the warm blood dripping down his burnt neck and head. He tried not to focus on his own injuries and focused on the battle, he fired the missile, Liv jumped up and deflected it with one of her metal arms. Severely damaging it in the process, the force of the blast sent her stumbling around a bit.
“ Why are you so difficult?!” Liv yelled as she shot one of her arms at Tony.
Tony used his metal shield to brace for the impact that sent him flying into the side of his garage. Hitting the garage hard he felt the wind get knocked out of himself. His chest began to hurt a lot making it harder to breathe, it felt like he definitely broke a few ribs. The back of head hit hard against the garage from the force he felt his head wound open wider, blood now impairing his vision. Tony sat pinned against his garage as his suit charged up it's power for a powerful blast from his Arc reactor. He needed to buy sometime before it could blast Liv.
Tony grunted in pain as he began to speak, " So, how's it like to be a villain who always loses?" His reactor was almost fully charged, he just needed a few more seconds before it could blast this woman to hell.
" Ha! Oh please Stark I'm not the one who failed to save half of the universe." Liv spat back, throwing another arm into Tony's shield.
“ Actually we did end up winning.” Tony growled.
With a loud grunt Tony pulled all the power from his suit and focused it into his Arc reactor. He dropped his shield and sent a blinding beam of pure energy from his chest.
The beam hit straight into Livs already damaged arm and melted it into two. One half flying off into the air straight towards Lesile who braces for impact but it hits her straight into the forehead. Sending a spew of blood from her head as she was knocked out cold on the ground.
Liv looked down at her severed metal arm, with a yell of pure frustration she shot her remaining three arms at Tony.
The three metal arms bulleted at Tony from all directions, they grabbed him then threw him to the ground painfully. The blood was now gushing out of the left side of his head and he was ninety percent sure he had a concussion. Again he broke out but felt himself stumble and he fell down, his vision growing spotty as he sent out the last of his tiny missiles from his suit. They hit Liv from all directions making her flail her metal arms around to block them. With Liv distracted Tony hit ground once more before feeling the darkness start to take him.
--- ------ ------ ----- ---- ------- ----
Once Peter had lost consciousness and was on the brink of death he awoke in a strange dark place and he found himself floating freely inside a dark void.
He didn't know where he was or what was going on but it was quiet and dark. A pit of dark nothingness with no end in sight, it felt calming to him as he floated, not caring what happened next. He sat floating for not knowing how long before he started to hear faint sounds break through the silence. At first he tried to ignore the voice, to try and return to the quiet black void, but the strange voice proved to be stubborn and continued to yell.
Peter reluctantly decided to investigate the voice, as he drew close to it's source he could hear the frantic calling of the voice's words.
" Peter! Peter! Come on kid! Peter wake up! Please kid." The voice shouted loudly down into the dark void.
Peter felt drawn to the voice, he wanted to know where it was coming from, who it was coming from. The voice continued to get louder and louder through the dark void and started to echo.
Peter felt a sudden rush of emotions flow through himself as his body started to tingle all over and the void started to produce a faint light in front of him. He didn't know what to do, or what would happen next as he sat floating in the void slowly illuminating around him. 'This is it,' Peter thought to himself, ' this is where it all ends for good, no more dusting, just the relief of death," Peter almost came to terms with his own demise. He could do nothing in his power to stop it so he just embrassed it, waiting to see what awaited him on the other side.
The void was now bright as day, making Peter close his eyes, all the while the strange voice still yelled his name from down below. Peter felt a sudden jolt in his body, and a force began pulling him back down in the opposite direction of the light. Peter opened his eyes and reached up to grab it. Not wanting to let go, or lose sight of it he didn't want to go, not like this. He was pulled down into the darkness of the void in the direction of the yelling voice. He felt himself losing his breath as he gasped for air in the void of nothingness. Still being pulled into the darkness, Peter closed his eyes for one final time. Accepting the fate the universe was deciding for him, ready for anything.
--- ------ ------ ----- ---- ------- ----
Peter’s heart slowly began to beat again as he felt himself regain consciousness.
His eyelids felt heavy as he pried them open, blood returning to his limbs finally and his face flushed with more color. His limbs felt painfully stiff as he lay still for a second regaining his strength. After a minute he slowly opened his eyes to see a flood light casting his shadow as he stared at a starry dark sky. His head pounded painfully as he heard a loud thud and a man’s voice carried across the yard.
“ Yeah well he’s under my protection.”
Peter’s heart ached as he heard the pain in the man’s voice. His name surfaced up, Tony. His head was still pounding as he tried to figure out where he was, and why he was here. He looked to be on the ground in a small hole by a nice house. Tony’s house. Slowly he propped himself up on one arm as his head spun. A woman with a knot of brown and purple hair on her head slammed Tony into the ground and he struggled to get up, stumbling around before falling down briefly. Even though he had gotten a few good hits on the woman he was losing. Liv used one of her now five mechanical arms to hoist a woman on the ground up as she growled, about to leave. Tony stood up with his blaster but he was obviously injured as he blasted Liv again and what appeared to be a laser at her and stumbled again. If Peter didn’t interfere soon the Liv would get away or possibly kill Tony. Even though he could barely tell you who that is he couldn’t bare to have him die. Also Liv had really pissed him off. Gathering all of his superhuman strength he crouched behind thIe wall to the house. He waited until her attention was directed at Tony and ran before summersaulting into the air and kicking her down with a powerful kick.
“ What’s up?” he quiped as he rolled back up.
“ Peter?” whipping his head around Tony had removed his helmet, his eyes glistening with emotion as blood ran down half of his face.
Peter smiled softly at the man and nodded to show he was okay, even though his head hurt and he barely knew what was going on. But that could wait. Adrenaline ran through his veins as he dodged another arm from Liv before jumping up and loudly ripping off one of her arms, leaving it wiggling on the ground. She stumbled a bit as her arms tried to make up for half of the original. She smiled sickly.
“ You really are durable.” she snarked. A wave of overwhelming sadness and guilt came over him as she spoke, almost removing any thoughts in his brain.
“ Thanks. That means a lot.” he snarked. Liv raised he eyebrows a bit.
“ Huh. While your body revived you it must have removed the neuro blockers I put in there. You have your personality… but not your memories.”
“ What?” he snapped. “ You took everything I used to have asshole.”
“ Well, my bad.” she smiled. Peter growled as revenge blocked his sight. Brief images of fighting and killing without control, of Tony’s sad and tired face, of May’s weak smile filled his vision. Maybe his old self was different, he had no way of knowing, but all he wanted to do right now was watch the life slowly drain out of her.
“ Yeah I don’t think you are gonna walk out of here.” Tony spoke with more calmness in his voice, although the grief remained there laced within it.
“ No. This is my fight.”
Tony faltered as Peter turned to face him. The blood was still seeping out although it had mostly clotted but he felt weak. Still he couldn’t leave the kid alone, couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t pass out and leave him. Again. The feeling still in his system.
“ Please, you look terrible, no offense, and she took it. I can take her.” Tony smiled softly at the return of the kids quips as his vision slowly left. He nodded and fell down, leaning against a tree, determined to stay awake. If the kid needed help he would be there. Even if it killed him.
“ Normally I don’t wait for people to figure this out but I feel it’s best to say your last goodbyes now.” she said smiling. “ I can’t reimplant the chips without killing you, and you know too much so-”
She was interrupted mid rant with a swift kick to the face as he knocked her to the ground. He scurried up as the arms raced around but he felt the most alert he had ever been as he expertly dodged them. As she got up he knocked her to the ground again as she skidded across the yard.
“ Why the hell did you take me?” Peter roared as he jumped up again and slammed her down, the power source in the back of her arms sputtering out. Rage like had never felt before coarsed through him as he fought to remember who he was, who he used to be. He had no idea. All he knew in the shambled pieces in his mind right now was that Tony was trustworthy, he wanted May, and somehow Liv took it. Took his life and shredded it to pieces. Made him an unwilling pawn.
“ You were durable and young.” Liv said without any regret laced in her words. No remorse or a single feeling of empathy. After everything she took from Peter she had no regrets, and it hurt worse than anything. She let out a loud maniacal laugh as he punched her nose breaking it, the blood on his hands doing little to help the now monumental loss of his past self. He punched again hoping for something, anything to give him back his life. His knuckles turned red as ripped out the arms left in the back and slammed her against a tree. She was helpless now but her grin remained.
“ You wanna know something? I know you could kill me. Easily. But you won’t.” she hissed. Peter felt his skin boil, he could kill her-no scratch that he would.
“ You don’t kn-know me. No-not at all.”
“ Actually, I do know you. Better than you do at least. “ she said as a high pitched laugh erupted out of her. He gripped her shirt and slammed her against the tree
again, begging for any sort of apology, any remorse. Anything.
“ PETER!”
“ What.” the kid snapped as he didn’t bother to glance at Tony who was leaning against a tree as he stood up. His face looked torn as his eyes took in the situation.
“ I would kill her, I would-”
“ Cool.”
“ - but you wouldn’t. You wouldn’t.” the man said his voice raspy. “ When you get your memories back, which you will I promise you I will get them back, you will regret this.”
“ I don’t think I will when she took it.” Peter snarled as he tightened his grip and pulled her neck into his hand, holding it above his head and strangling her.
“ Damn it kid I don’t blame you but it will hurt you more than her.” Tony begged as he stumbled towards the kid, his visions blurring slightly. Peter trembled slightly as she coughed and grasped for air, but she didn’t seem scared. He could snap her neck and end it. He could. But something in him begged him not too, some old innocent part of him didn’t want to kill her. It told him to let her live with the guilt of what she’s done. She didn’t have guilt though. He felt his fingers loosen and almost involuntarily he let her go. She lay on the floor gasping for breath before laughing crazily.
“ You were too soft before and you’re too soft now.” she stared at him, a small smile on her lips. “ I simply made you stronger.”
Peter looked down at her in disgust. He wasn’t stronger, he simply was under the control of people with no mercy. Maybe he had some mercy. Maybe the old version of himself Tony told him about was coming back, the part of him that couldn’t end Liv’s life right now no matter how much he wanted too. She stole his life. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
Thought’s echoing around his head, he felt a sudden burst in his shoulder. Peter almost didn't notice it with the amount of adrenaline he had flowing through his body as he looked down at his left shoulder to see a bullet cleanly ejecting itself from the flesh of his shoulder. Peter grabbed his shoulder now exploding in pain, looking around to find the source of where the bullet came from, spotting a barely conscious Leslie propped up on one elbow behind herself, with the other hand holding a pistol still smoking from the bullet that just left it's barrel.
Peter lost sight of Leslie with his vision going blurry as he grimaced in pain engulfing his body. He felt his adrenaline start to wear off, now feeling the full effect of
the pain his body had endured. Peter's legs gave beneath himself, collapsing beside Liv on the ground. He was on the verge of passing out, but not before he heard faint yelling in the background as strangers arrived at the scene. He fought to stay awake to see what would happen next, but the overwhelming pain in his body became too much for his mind to handle. The pain in his head became quite apparent as he collapsed on the ground.