EDITH
Peter tried to avoid the thoughts of Beck that tried to flood his head when he took the glasses out. He didn’t want to take them. Not at all.
He still took them. Mister Stark had given them to him-and he had left them with Happy. He was supposed to have it.
Just because Mister Stark wanted to
EDITH. It was just EDITH. Just…just loveable, wearable EDITH. The same EDITH he foolishly gave up to Beck-and let almost kill him-the same EDITH that didn’t rightly care whether he lived or died.
That EDITH. Well…it looked like her. It-it really did, and he doubted anyone could make a fake EDITH.
There were a lot of things throwing him for a loop when he looked at those glasses. For starters-Beck knew about EDITH-he knew a bit too much-and that Peter would be receiving it-but he wouldn’t know that Happy was the deliver-er would he? That didn’t really make sense, did it? Happy-stupid passwords and all was the head of security-and no one ever mentioned, or really thought about all the Stark Labs stuff he really had.It planted that little seed of doubt back in his head.
No, you just want it to be Mister Stark. No matter how impossible that is.
They were a pair of glasses. He could feel them-could touch them up, and they felt like glasses. They weren’t going to trick him-he wasn’t wearing his suit, so he could differentiate between what kind of ‘solid’ things were. At the worst they weren’t EDITH-and he needs to jump head first out of the car. He can just hold it a few inches in front of his face.
If he got lucky, and ‘Mister Stark’ didn’t take the time to attack. Or the glasses weren’t mind-controlling.
How would they be mind controlling? That didn’t even make sense.
Trusting the first person who so happens to show up looking like Mister Stark doesn't make sense either.
He just needed to be a bit cautious. That’s all. Maybe reality was splitting again?
There could be another Peter, with a living Tony-and he’s confused.
Peter would have a different face, if that was it.
Peter held the glasses in front of his eyes-well aware of the awkward stare he was receiving.
“Kid, I know you know how glasses work, but I’m pretty sure that’s not it.” Hah. Ha. Ha. That wasn’t funny. Not really-Peter’s hands were shaking just considering putting them on-regardless of how badly he wanted to put them on or-for this to be exactly what it looked like.
He’d just have to trust it. Somehow he would have to believe that EDITH wouldn’t hurt him-
Even though she’s done it before-
-And that his Spidey-Sense was working.
Was it? He got hit in the face with a frisbee the other day.
Peter tingle’s were not for frisbee’s-that enveloping screaming little buzz he got around danger was for dangerous people.
Like Beck?
No, like Norman Osborne.
His Peter tingle was late on that one too-too late to save May, and too late to save him from his broken ribs, and nose.
That was on Peter for not being able to listen in time. It wasn’t his power’s fault-it was his own. As always.
Peter left his finger’s on the rims of the glasses-so he had a hope to yank them off if it did in fact turn sour. He was still staring at him-and he wasn’t sure he could handle it much longer if he continued to do so.
Then EDITH lit up-and it was indeed EDITH. She greeted him by Peter-the same way Karen had for almost three years now. A.I. didn’t seem to be able to forget-and it was relieving if he was honest-but that still didn’t soothe his worries completely.
There was always the chance it’s a fake.
A fake EDITH?
Just because Karen didn’t forget you didn’t mean that EDITH would-EDITH could be faked.
That was unbelievably unlikely. How likely is it that someone would go through all this work just to trick him?
Peter has enemies!
All of them would have already hurt him already. It’s not a hard task-sure he could be planning to wait until Peter believe’s him, but how likely is that? He has him alone already. He could do whatever he wanted-and he bought him donuts.
Maybe they’re drugged. It wouldn’t be the first time someone tried to poison him.
Peter never said he was going to eat the donuts.
He might not have common sense, but he had experience.
Besides, it would be a lot worse right now if it actually was Tony. Sure-he might be in a vehicle with someone planning to attack him, but Peter can stop a bus with his bare hands. He can pick up ant man in any form he arrives in-and he can catch crumbling buildings-occasionally without getting crushed. He wouldn’t loose a fight against someone who needed thirty minutes to get up and text him after a little punch.
He preferred the idea that Tony was dead to the idea that he had abandoned him like he feared he would. Sure, he hadn’t been in Tony’s life long, and he did disappear for five years-but he wouldn’t just leave him to go through all of….that when he could have at least shown support right? Right. If he was alive, Peter would have known. Mister Stark wouldn’t have just…just left him right? Not unless he hated him.
That was worse than thinking he was in a car with a stranger. That meant that one of the people in his life who he was devastated at the loss of didn’t care enough to send him a text to at least tell him to leave him alone.
He got it-he had a family, and it would have never been the same when he came back-even if he didn’t die, but the idea that he abandoned him completely wasn’t exactly putting him at ease.
If it was really Tony, and he just…just left him like that, then what did he want now?
It doesn’t matter, because he’s going to wear EDITH (if he can call her that) and she’s not going to be able to tell him anything verifying, and he’s going to have to fight for his life.
At least he knew how to do that.
“Kid, you got to ask her something.” He didn’t want to ask her something. He wanted to slip between this being real, and being fake, and never have to feel the problems that came with both.
“EDITH. How do I know this is real?” Without warning EDITH started listing off her licensing, both confusing, and alarming Peter. That wasn’t very helpful at all-he didn’t know what her licensing said before-and he still didn’t know-how was that supposed to make him anymore confident in his questions?
He’d probably have to ask something else then, wouldn’t he?
Like what? ‘Bring down suped up drones, and show me what’s really happening?’ He doubted that would even work. Even if it did, what happens next? Does he become the flying Spider? No. No he doesn’t.
Peter was starting to feel sick-sicker than he had earlier. If it was true, it was bad, if it wasn’t, it was also bad. There’s not a win-win here. There’s not even a win.
“EDITH, can you show me Anthony Stark’s death certificate?”
============================================
Tony wasn’t sure how he felt at this point. His kid looked like him-not just Morgan-Peter? In those glasses? Looked like him. Okay-he didn’t look like him, they were two very different people, but Peter reminded him of himself.
It was utterly terrifying.
He was almost sure that they were making progress. They had to be. Peter took the glasses out of his hands-he took EDITH despite his apparent distrust of Tony. He was sitting there staring right into them-and if Tony hadn’t seen it, he wouldn’t have thought Peter had asked EDITH anything at all.
There were times when he wished he had super-hearing, and this was one of them. Watching Peter stare blankly through EDITH-likely at something Tony couldn’t see or hear after asking her something he also couldn’t hear was able to do that to him. Tony watched Peter-who was seemingly done with movement altogether.
He wouldn’t be lying if he said he was worried about the kid. First everyone dies on him-and now the whole willing-Atlas and ‘It has to be me’ thing he’s got going on-it’s not what he was expecting from him. Now with the distrust-and genuine fear that he’s a man named Beck-Tony’s not so sure how quickly he’ll believe any proof EDITH can provide for him-and that was a cause for worry.
Tony was good with people. Peter did not often fall into the category of people he could rationalize, or incentivize into agreeing-or at least listening to what he had to say. Most of the time before it had been because he was a noble-teenager, with little to no real life experience, no common sense-a knack for investigating, and a good heart-all of which seemed to be wrapped up in a ‘why not?’ bow. Now Tony’s not too sure-but it’s almost the same kid under there-even if he’s pushed himself past ‘noble’ and far into ‘on the verge of going off the edge’-but right now that’s not who he’s talking to. He’s talking to a kid who’s afraid that he’s some stranger wearing a mask-and that’s a hard person to talk to.
Tony’s just got to see how far EDITH get’s with him. If EDITH can get his foot in the door, he can keep it from closing-at least for a little while.
“That’s not real. Right? That’s not-” Peter shook his head-taking a shaky breath. “You-you wouldn’t just. No. I-I saw it-I heard the Arc Reactor shut down-and-and you wouldn’t. You wouldn’t.” Peter didn’t move to take EDITH off before running the heels of his hands up his face, into his eyes. Shoving EDITH unceremoniously towards his forehead.
“I wouldn’t what Pete?”
“You wouldn’t-you wouldn’t just leave me.” Of course he wouldn’t. If Tony had the choice he would have woken up sooner-found Peter as soon as he could. He would have come and found him sooner if he could have remembered him. “You would have found me-”
“I did find you kid.” He found him, and it certainly wasn’t easy. But it happened. They were in the same car. Three long, stupid years, (two of which Tony was awake for) without so much as the faintest memory of one of his kids, and now they were in the same car.
Peter didn’t seem nearly as happy about that as Tony was.
“Why? If you-if you were alive-and you wanted to find me-why would you wait so long? If-If you knew who I was-and where I was, why didn’t you find me?”