Remember Me

After agreeing that it was worth risking everything – even the fabric of the universe, in this case – to get everyone’s memories back (including MJ, Ned, and people he knew outside of this cabin), Strange returned. Even if he was being moody with Tony, he was happy to do this for Peter. He’d do anything at this point because he was yet another person that fell for the charisma of Peter Parker. Although right now he felt so entirely alone, Peter had no idea that once memories were returned, he’d have a plethora of moms, dads, and ‘siblings’ ready to love him once again. Although Tony was starting to realise that they already did – even without any memories to back it up.

Tony is smug that he was the first one that remembered Peter. Not that he’d say it yet. He’d wait until everything was back to normal first. Of course.

Peter was standing in the middle of the room talking to Rhodey. To see Peter speaking with their family again caused Tony to choke up. He turned to his side to see Pepper standing there staring at Peter with a lost look on her face.

“Pep?” Tony asked. He ignored the way his voice betrayed him. She didn’t seem to notice either. “What’s up?” he said. He put his hand on her arm and pulled her outside away from the hubbub inside. She sighed as they came into the open air.

“I – I guess I just -,” she tried to speak but it was like she didn’t know what words to use. “I’m scared, Tony. I know you said that we all loved this boy but to risk absolutely everything we know? To risk every single person in the world when you fought so hard to get them back,” she made a point to look at his arm – where he now wore his prosthetic again. “I’m not sure if it’s wort-“

“Please don’t,” Tony said. “I know. It sounds so selfish. But he’s my boy, Pep. Yours too. Once you remember him, you will understand why I had to do this,” he said. He looked behind him and watched Peter smile like he hadn’t in a while. Rhodey had his arm wrapped around his shoulder and was showing him something on his phone – probably a photo of Tony or a funny video of Happy. “He’s such a lovely kid and he deserves someone to fight for him.”

“I’m not saying that he doesn’t, Tony. But what about Morgan?”

“What about her?” Tony said. “Pep, I’m doing this for her too. She loved Peter. She does love him, you’ve seen it. I know it’s a lot to ask for to risk the world for one kid. But he’s more than that. He’s everything. I love him like I love Morgan and I know for sure that you wouldn’t hesitate to do something like this for her.” 

Pepper sighed as she looked her aside, down to where Morgan would play most days. Tony followed her line of sight and in his head, he saw Peter chasing Morgan around back when they first met. This was not a choice only for Peter to remember. The people he loved had their treasured memories taken too. It is his job to make everything normal again.

“Strange knows what he is doing. I’m sure that everything will be fine,” Tony said.

If he said it enough times... he could convince himself.

Pepper nodded once and took his hand in hers. “I trust you. I’m sure that when I remember him, I’ll see why it’s so important for you to do this,” she said. She pressed a kiss to his knuckles and looked back to the door they had just exited. “I really hope we don’t regret it."

“We won’t,” he said.

Back inside, Strange had cleared the room and it was just him and Peter sitting in the middle of Tony’s living room. Pepper went upstairs to give them some privacy and to think this through. Tony wouldn’t be surprised if she was upstairs pulling the hair off her head as she did whatever she could to distract herself from thinking about what was happening.

It felt a bit odd thinking about it. By now this kind of thing was normal to him. He’d survived an alien invasion, were co-workers with the God of Thunder who he once thought was a myth and had been to space and back to fight an alien who halved the population of the universe by half. Regaining memories was the last thing on his list of weird things that would sound crazy to a normal person.

Yet, to him, it was the most important thing he had ever faced.

Strange got Peter to close his eyes and he followed as he did the same thing. Under his breath, he muttered some words that Tony couldn’t identify. Light began to pour out from both of them and soon all three of them were transferred into a world of magic and Tony couldn’t tell how far they had gone.

Images of people Peter loved hovered around them. Tony went out to reach one of them, but his hand simply slipped through it like it wasn’t there. He looked over and saw loads of familiar days but from a different perspective. Tony treasured those moments with Peter and to see them from his eyes made his heart flutter.

Peter looked up at them like he was stargazing. His mouth was slightly agape, and it looked as if he were seeing the most wonderful. Think of the most beautiful sunset you have ever seen or a beautiful waterfall that cascades down a mountain side as the sun reflects off it, and it would be even more beautiful than that. He knew he couldn’t stay here forever – like he had tried in his mind (and it looked like Strange was trying a different approach to make sure that exact thing didn’t repeat itself) – but to look up and see his life was a chance he’d never get again.

For one, this could be the first time he saw his parents and had the mind to remember them. It must be bittersweet. Seeing them for the first time as an adult to never see them again... sometimes knowing how it feels is worse than never feeling it at all. Because to go back to normality is like a stab to the chest which could never heal.

“Peter,” Strange said. He spoke like he didn’t care Tony was there. He spoke only to Peter and watched him intensely like he was prey. Tony knew he was doing a job here – but the gaze scared even him. He wasn’t trying to be intimidating but to hold a spell this large must take concentration that Tony would never know. “I just need to tell you – if this fails, it’s back to stage one. If I see people coming through the multiverse, then I have to stop it. It’s my job.  Tony would never know you – and even our encounters since we met again would be gone. I want you to know these consequences before we move on.”

“I understand,” Peter nods.

Tony hates that it can’t just be simple. He hates that it’s not a simple click and the memories come back. He hates that he can’t guarantee Peter that it’s going to work out. But he believes in them, and he knows that it has to work. Surely the universe cannot be so cruel as to keep beating down Peter over and over. There’s not one ounce of pain that he hasn’t felt.

The light takes the shape of a heart, and it falls over Peter. It looks like it takes control of him as his eyes flash the same colour. They look golden much like his heart. Peter is on his knees as the magic shines so bright that it obscures him. Neither Strange nor Tony can see him. Tony fixes his gaze on Strange instead as he waits for the moment of clarity – he waits for the moment he remembers him.

It takes a while.

And more...

Then Tony is somewhere else.

Next to Peter, he stands in a room that looks like it goes on forever. The light is a golden red and the floor splashes underneath his feet. It looks like water, but his shoes are not wet. Peter’s looking around. Tony notices how exhausted he looks.

“Where are we?” he asks. He looks around to try and finds something familiar. He finds nothing. He shrugs at Peter who sighs in frustration. He kicks his feet at the ‘not water’ water. It doesn’t move. “Why can’t things just work out?!” he snaps.

Tony goes to speak but he’s cut off.

A voice from nowhere speaks up. It sounds ethereal and far away. If Tony looks up it’s like he can make out a pair of eyes from the clouds. “Peter Parker... who are you to defy the order of things?” they say. “You almost destroy the multiverse trying to get your friends into college and you think that you’re allowed to go back to normal? You risk the multiverse once more because you are sad?”

Tony has never fought a random voice in the sky before. But today’s events look like that might change.

“Tony Stark – the man that defied death,” the voice says. Tony looks up, confused. Sure, he had the arc reactor for a while that stopped the shrapnel from killing him, but he wouldn’t say that ‘defied’ death. Peter looks over at him with an equally as confused look. “Did you know that in almost all universes those stones killed you? Sure, there are a few where Thanos never came. But in those that he did, you died in pretty much all of them.”

Tony did not know that. But – give him a break – he’s not exactly versed on all his other counterparts out there. In fact, before Peter told him about his brush with the multiverse, he wasn’t that sure if it was real or not. Sure, he had his theories but there wasn’t exactly any evidence to back them up.

And what did this voice want him to say to that? No? Tony thinks that it must already know the answer to that.

“As you sat in the coma and Shuri healed you – your heart rate began to drop. Your family watched as you faded away. I watched it too. I watch most things, you see. I expected your outcome to be the same as all the others. But then Peter Parker touched your hand. You might not have seen it – either of you – but that touch caused a spark. In all universes, Tony Stark and Peter Parker will eventually meet. Maybe it’s when they’re older. Sometimes they might be the same age. On a few occasions, Peter is Tony Stark’s biological son. Then we have all those Peter’s that had a Stark internship – and those who visit him on a school trip – now there’s a lot of them,” the voice goes on.

Tony’s not sure what he’s getting at here, so he goes to say something. But his mouth shuts like someone have a string wrapped around it and pulled it as soon as his mouth moved an inch.

It continues. “What I am saying is that I always see Peter Parker and Tony Stark, or whatever their names are in that universe, together. You two are soulmates. So, when Peter touched your arm on that day – it gave you more strength than the other Tony’s that succumbed to their injuries. He quite literally saved your life that day in a moment that seemed so small. Now, I see you are trying to do the same.”

They both hear a sigh. The cloud’s part like a puff of breath set them apart. The sky looks – human? Tony, as he mentioned before, has seen a lot of weird things in his life. But a humanoid sky that is talking to them is in a different league.

“You seek to know who I am,” the sky says. “I am what is known as the Watcher. Rarely do I intervene with matters throughout the universe. In fact, I have only stepped in once or twice throughout my entire existence. You seek to risk the multiverse to set something right – something so small and inconsequential compared to other matters the multiverse faces. But for you, it is everything and more. It’s endearing. But when you risk the multiverse, it’s tough. Strange’s spell will not work.”

“You do not know-“

“I do. I know everything that has happened, and I have the knowledge to predict what is coming,” the watcher interrupts. “Dr Strange cannot give everyone’s memories back without damaging the multiverse. He would fail the spell, and everything would be set right back to the beginning. But I imagine that even if Peter tried his best to stay away – this whole thing would repeat. That’s if Strange could even stop the infinite amount of people making their way over to your universe. The spell will not work,” the watcher says.

Tony feels frustrated like he never had before. Every step they took it was like they were thrown all the way back. “...But – he can’t live like this,” Tony tried to argue.

“Tony Stark, do you think that in the grand scheme of the universe that one young boy feeling ... upset .... is worth risking everything and more? Do you think he is worth the same as another his age that is equally as adored by their family? He might be the world to you but you fail to see that the choices you make affect everybody else and what they hold dear to their hearts,” the watcher explains. “Yes, the fact that you try and help him because of how dear your love grows is kind and endearing but is also so incredibly selfish. All of you superheroes expect to be praised to the ends of the world when you fix things that you break.”

Tony doesn’t know how to react to that. He has heard similar rants from people on earth. But it means more when it comes out of the mouth of an ethereal being which is the same age as the universe when compared to Karen, 45, on Twitter. He could have listened but then that would be an admission to the problem, and he has always been too stubborn to say that Iron Man – at times - was nothing more than an output for all the pain built up within him.

“I’m sure that is not what you set out to do when you put on the suit – or the mask – or whatever any of you wear. That’s it if you wear a suit at all,” the watcher continues.

Tony looks to his side. Peter watches with an intense gaze. His chest is tight and Tony wonders when the last time was that he took a single breath. It looks like he was about to blow.

“But it happens eventually. Nobody is completely good. There always are flaws in human beings – it’s what makes you all so feeble in God’s eye. However, they fail to see that, they too, are flawed. Humans know they are not perfect – they seek to better themselves, but they know it can never be completely achieved. I have watched you all for many years. That awareness is what makes you all so l willing to risk everything for each other. I am incapable of understanding why humans will destroy worlds for loved ones... But here I want to prevent that from happening. But if I do not intervene I prophesied that you, Tony Stark, will never give up if I was to turn you both away ‘empty-handed’ tonight. You’d never give up even if you were to lose those memories yet again.”

“He’s the closest thing to the word good that I know,” Tony finally said. His voice felt like it had returned. “I just want him to be okay.”

The ground moved. To Tony, he felt like that was the Watcher’s way of nodding. “I will step in,” they said. “I shall set everything right for the two of you. But I ask that you please keep the world the right way around this time.”

Before Tony could thank the ‘watcher’ with all he had, a bright pang of light flashed and suddenly he was back in his living room.

...

With no memory of what just happened.

“Peter?” Strange said. Both were still sitting on the floor. He looked at him with wide eyes. “...I remember you! But how? I didn’t finish the spell. I was about to do it and the next thing I know – we’re here and I remember everything,” he said. His wide eyes softened, and he frowned at the floor as the impact of what he did came to him. “I’m so sorry, Peter. I should’ve searched for something else.”

“There wasn’t any time,” Peter said. Tony could see the hope building in his eyes and the realisation that Strange knew him and was talking about memory in the ‘before’. He looked over at Tony with wide eyes. His entire being screamed ‘in disbelief. Tony knew he never thought he'd get here.

Pepper, Morgan, and Happy ran down the stairs. Morgan climbed onto his lap and Pepper grabbed his face and gave him a massive kiss on the cheek. Happy ruffled his hair and smiled sadly – so happy to remember who he was but sad to know that he wasn’t just the kid at the graveyard. It was bittersweet in a lot of ways. Tony knew Happy had wished to have someone else who loved May as much as he did to honour her. Now he had her son back in his life.

Morgan was crying and Pepper was there too. Tony himself was on the edge as he watched his family come back together when he started to doubt if it would ever happen. Everyone was crowding Peter and asking him questions on ‘why’, ‘how’, and ‘when’’... etc. He thought Peter might be overwhelmed... but he looked happy enough to answer everything he was asked.

Peter’s phone then began to buzz in his pocket.

He managed to pry Morgan off him in time to answer it. Tony heard Ned and MJ’s voices on the other line. They must have known his number off by heart before – and now that those memories returned, they would’ve wondered where that year had gone and got on the phone as soon as possible.

He heard MJ shouting. In fact, her voice was louder than Peter’s. She said something like ‘you promised that you would find me’. He heard a lot of crying too. He tried not to eavesdrop too much, but it was hard not to. Ned might have been the loudest crier that he knew, and Tony had always been naturally curious. It was nice to know that things didn’t change.

Tony was already booking tickets for them to get here ASAP – Friday was proficient enough that he could do it without even taking an eye off all the commotion. He knew that nothing else would be more important than them reuniting with their best friend and it was so simple to do that it was a no-brainer.

“...Just to double check... the whole world doesn’t know my identity... right?” Peter said, wondering just how far these memories were returned. Tony was the first to check online and sure enough, there was no mention of it. Whoever had granted them this miracle – as they had now determined Strange could not have done it – had gone as far as to make everything good again.

In short, it was like a ‘happily ever after.’

A week later, nothing catastrophic had happened which for their family was out of the ordinary. Peter hadn’t stopped smiling which felt a bit like an alternate universe, but Tony would take it. They visited May together and a bit of Tony felt like it allowed Peter the space he had to take to ‘move on’ although there was always a bit of him that died alongside May that night.

Morgan was over the moon to get her brother back and hadn’t left him alone. Peter only had his free time when she was in bed, or the bath, or focused too much on pulling Happy’s nonexistent pigtails. Poor Happy – he always got the brunt of everyone’s jokes. But that just showed how much they loved him.

Pepper apologised to Peter personally for ever doubting the spell. But she did not need to – because Peter was probably the one person that doubted it the most. She held him when he was upset at night. Peter wasn’t an idiot. He could distinguish Pepper and May but at times when she held him, it was like he was back in their old apartment watching the sun go down together as rain dripped through their ceiling. Sure, it wasn’t the most ideal life – but they were together and that’s all he ever needed.

MJ and Ned were on their way from the airport currently. Peter was pacing in the lab. He could see it in his face – there was something there that wasn’t right. Those were the eyes of a kid that wanted nothing more than to flee the country.

“Relax, kid,” Tony smiled. “Plus, I’ve got a surprise for you tonight. Okay? So... make sure MJ doesn’t murder you because I’d quite like for you to see it.”

“She is going to kill me as soon as she walks in,” Peter said. He tugged at his collar and groaned when it didn’t look smart enough. Tony went up to correct it. As Tony tucked it back in and patted it down gently to soften out the creases, he heard a dramatic sigh in his ear. “Is it stupid to say that I’m more nervous to see them again than I’ve ever been in my life? I promised them, Tony... I said to their faces that I’d come back for them, but I didn’t.”

“I don’t know how they’re going to feel,” Tony told him. He sat him down on the sofa in the lab to stop him from pacing back and forth. He was confusing butterfingers at this point. Tony sat beside him. It took a lot of restraint not to ruffle his hair – but Peter had been agonising over it looking exactly right for their guests and he wasn’t that cruel. “But if they were so angry, they wouldn’t have come, right?”

“Right,” Peter nodded. “Yeah, you’re right.”

“I always am.”

They arrive an hour later. Peter is staring at the door without moving. It’s like he’s been turned into a stone statue of himself. When the door handle moves, he perks up like he’s a dog watching the postman walk to the door. He moves closer to Tony – and Tony’s unsure if it’s subconscious movement or not – and gulps and it starts to open.

When they walk in, it’s like watching a movie. Peter walks slowly up to them as all three of them look around without exchanging any words. Ned’s the first to move, grabbing Peter and pulling him into a bear hug. When they eventually come apart, they do their secret handshake. Ned now remembers every move. To think he ever forgot it crushes him but it’s in the past now. Which is something he never thought they’d get to. Peter chokes on his own breath as it’s over and he’s suddenly crying into Ned’s shoulder.

MJ stands on watching them as she fiddles with the necklace around her neck. Tony recognises the black Dahlia necklace - the one which was damaged when Peter fought the elementals. To think she never removed it, even if she was unaware of its meaning... to Tony that meant they were meant to be.

When Ned finally let go of him, sniffing and wiping away his tears, Peter looked up at MJ. Tony felt like he shouldn’t be watching. But like most people in the room, he couldn’t tear his eyes away.

“You didn’t – you didn’t tell me,” MJ said softly. She looked down at Peter’s hands as he reached out and held hers. “You promised. You – I – I knew that something was wrong, and I kept seeing you, but I had no idea- I didn’t know where you were.”

“I’m sorry.”

She shook her head. A single tear fell. “Why –“

“I did. I came to the coffee shop, but your wound had healed and ... and then I realised if I just left you behind that you’d be safe and I thought you’d never know,” he explained. Tony knew his feelings – they had talked about it – but to hear the vulnerability in his voice as he explained it to the girl that he loved felt horrible.

Tony suddenly wanted to hop back in his time machine and fix all of this. But he knew he shouldn’t. For some reason, he wasn’t thinking of doing much that might affect the flow of time right now.

Tony decided he’d give them some privacy.

Tony went to bed that night feeling like his entire world was healed as much as it could be. His surprise he had planned for tonight could be postponed for an evening. It looked like he had better things to do right now. 

As Tony closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep – he noticed something.

It was a figure much like how Peter had looked. But this wasn’t Peter. It looked directly at him and felt too powerful to be human. It was like he was right there standing behind Tony and staring at him as he slept.

But it wasn’t scary.

All it did was say – as if they were familiar with each other –

....

“Look after him, Tony.”