When Peter woke up, he immediately cursed under his breath.
His head was pounding, he felt like shit, and when he tried to open his eyes, his vision blurred around the edges.
That’s why it took him a couple of seconds to realize where he was. When he did realize it wasn’t his room at Avengers Tower, or his apartment, he leapt to his feet, the action causing his head to swim momentarily.
Both the walls and ceiling were a bright white, the floor the same, but with a square pattern. The room was barren, at first glance, except when he turned around…
Another person was inside the room. Peter could recognize him anywhere, despite the body facing the floor.
“Mr. Stark,” he called, cautiously, walking towards the Billionaire. He knelt down and tapped him on the shoulder.
“Mr. Stark, you alright?”
The Billionaire shot up, a look of terror on his face as he tried to punch Peter. The spider-ling grabbed his fists easily enough, his Spidey-sense warning him.
“Hey, same side. Guess who? Hi. It’s me,” he said, repeating the same thing his father figure said to him while fighting in Liepzig.
Tony sat up, a smirk on his face.
“Are you making fun of me, Mr. Parker?”
“Me? Please!”
“Where did you learn such sass?”
“From you, sir.”
Tony looked around, perplexed.
“Where are we?”
“You are in a chronicom mind prison.”
Before Peter could answer, a female voice interrupted their conversation. Standing behind them was a dark skinned woman with huge, curly hair and a neat black robe.
“Who are you? Why are we here?”
“My name is Altarah. I am a sentient chronicom from a planet revolving the star you know as Cygnus – Chronyca 2. You are here to provide a solution for my planet.”
“But, why are we here?” Tony asked.
“You two are the smartest people in the SHIELD database, both of you have IQ’s over 160. You are here to develop a solution for Chronyca 2’s crisis.”
“Nothing lives on Chronyca 2 anymore,” She waved her hand, a hologram of a gray, desolate planet appeared, “the planet was set ablaze, heated to the melting point. The magma turned to stone,” she waved her hand again, removing the image.
“It is too late to save my planet. Which is why I must now intervene at an earlier date.”
“Time travel?” Tony muttered.
“If you co-operate, there would be no reason to detain you further. “
“Sorry, madam,” Peter said, stepping forward, “But unfortunately it’s against the laws… of physics. You’re a chronicom, I don’t need to explain causality to you, its impossible to go backwards in time.”
“Jemma Simmons, and the rest of SHIELD claims otherwise.”
“You will have at your disposal, the most advanced Chronicom technology. Any tool you can imagine will be produced,” a table similar to the one in Tony’s workshop appeared, as well as a whiteboard, full of equations. Peter recognized it as one he had when he was little, “All your knowledge, all your memories will be instantly accessible, shareable.”
That made Peter’s heart stop.
“A-all our memories?” He asked, his voice shaky, “That seems a bit intrusive, doesn’t it? A-and some aren’t safe.”
“Not always. But a problem is difficult as a tight ship requires powerful tools. Like this prison.”
“Know this, Peter Parker. There is no escape. Any attempt would only lead to madness. But your minds are the key to unlock it. The only solution for you is to find a solution for us.”
And with that, she disappeared.
Tony and Peter looked at each other.
“Oh god,” The Mechanic said, burying his hands into his eyes.
Peter sighed. “My sentiments exactly.”
Peter’s head was running a mile a minute. He trusted Tony, a lot, but there were some memories he was better off not knowing.
“Okay, Pete. You read the file on time travel. Where do we start?”
“Um, I don’t.. I mean… I don’t know.”
Tony narrowed his eyes.
“You do know, Peter. Tell me.”
Tony was a big fan of nicknames, he only used Peter’s real name if he was in trouble.
It wasn’t that Peter couldn’t tell him; his mind was just going in circles, and his anxiety was crushing his chest and he couldn’t think straight and-
“I don’t know!”
“You do! I don’t get why you won’t just tell me!”
“I don’t want to tell you!”
Tony turned around to face Peter. Except, in his place, was a little boy, with an adorable face (although he was wearing a frown) and bouncy curls. His skinny arms were crossed in front of his chest, and his big, bambi eyes were narrowed slightly.
The Billionaire made a very manly squeak of surprise.
“Peter?”
“I don’t want to tell you, and you can’t make me!”
The kid (literally) ran to the desk, crawling under it.
“Peter? Peter Benjamin Parker!” Tony said, running after him. When he knelt down, he saw under the desk. There was a small hole, big enough for someone to crawl through though, with two little legs poking out.
Tony tried to grab little Peter’s legs, but he was too slow, or little Peter was too quick, but in any case, the Billionaire ended up following the child through the ‘rabbit hole’.
He found himself in a small room, with blueish-grey walls that were plastered in posters; some were lego, some were iron man, some were star wars. Some picture frames hung too, two people Tony didn’t recognize, baby Peter with May and, who he assumed was, Ben. Little trinkets decorated shelves and dressers, and books covered the windowsills. Behind him was a single bed, with a star wars duvet, which was suspiciously moving around.
“This… is madness!”
“Okay, little Peter. Don’t be afraid,” he said cautiously, walking to the right side of the bed.
“I’m not afraid. I’m observing. From a distance.”
Tony laughed. “Well, you’re just destined for the sciences aren’t you?”
“I’m going to be a biologist.”
He wrinkled his nose. “Really? Kid, I would’ve thought you’d like engineering more.”
Tony sat on the floor. “Do you know who I am?”
Little Peter sat up and nodded.
Tony smiled. “You know, Pete. We really need to have a discussion about these curls. You always gel your hair.”
“I know.”
Tony turned around, and big Peter was behind him.
“Peter!”
“I don’t like my curls.”
“I do.”
Little Peter started to cry.
“Why are you doing that?”
“We’re reliving our memories. I guess I’m sad.”
“You guess, or you know?”
“I guess know.”
“It’s time to go,” Tony said, pulling Peter out of the room. They were instantly back in the white room.
“Okay Parker, spill it. You’ve been on edge since we got here. What are you so afraid of?”
Peter took in a shuddering breath, and suddenly-
“Hey Einstein.”
Tony turned around, and was greeted with a teenager. He looked about 16, and had platinum blonde hair.
“Hey Skip!” Little Peter yelled, “Can we play Avengers today?”
Skip smirked. “I have a better game. Why don’t we go into your room?”
The two walked through a door together.
“Please not this memory.”
Tony took a few steps towards the door, it was stopped by Peter.
“No, wait. I don’t want you to see. Just let me explain first.”
The Mechanic walked to the door anyway, Peter following.
The room was exactly the same as it was before, except with the two children, who were sat on the bed.
“You like experiments, right Einstein?”
Little Peter nodded.
“Well, why don’t we conduct an experiment of our own?”
The grin on little Peter’s face grew bigger, if that was even possible, and he nodded, as Skip opened his backpack and rummaged around. He pulled out a magazine, and showed Peter what was inside. Tony couldn’t see what was inside, but he watched as little Peter’s face slowly contorted into horror.
“Why don’t we try and do what the people in the magazine are doing?”
“No Skip! I… I don’t want to-“
“Do you want me to tell your aunt and uncle you were bad?” Skips kind voice and smile was gone, leaving his demeanor much more harsh.
Little Peter shook his head.
“So, are you gonna do it?”
Little Peter nodded his head begrudgingly.
“I didn’t want you to see this part,” Teenage Peter said from behind him, which made Tony turn around. His cheeks were wet with tears and his voice was scratchy with emotion.
Tony turned back around. The boy was standing now, Skip was kneeling in front of him, smirking.
He watched in horror as the teenager unbuttoned his trousers.
“I can’t watch this,” he said, turning around to face his Peter.
“I don’t like talking about it, and i- there’s too many memories.”
Peter took Tony’s hand and ran out the room.
Instead of arriving at the white room, they ended up somewhere different.
The warehouse.
“Why is it only my memories?”
“HEY!”
Tony whipped around, and saw Peter in his homemade onesie. The Vulture – Adrian Toomes was to the right of them.
“Surprised?!”
“Oh, hey Pete. I didn’t hear you come in.”
“Its over, I got you!”
“Y’know, I gotta tell ya Pete. I really, really admire your grit. I see why Liz likes you, I do. When you came round my house, I thought ‘Really?’ but I get it now.”
“How could you do this to her?”
“To her? I’m not doing anything to her Pete, I’m doing this for her.”
“Huh. Yeah,” Peter laughed sarcastically, webbing his hand to the desk.
Toomes sighed. “Peter. You’re young. You don’t understand how the world works-“
“Yeah, but I understand that selling weapons to criminals is wrong.”
“How do you think your buddy Stark payed for his Tower? Or any of his little toys?” Tony winced, “Those people, Pete, those people up there, the rich and the powerful, they don’t care about us. They do whatever they want. Guys like us, like you and me, they don’t care about us. We build their roads, and fight all their wars and everything, but they don’t care about us. We have to pick up after them, eat their table scraps. That’s how it is. I know you know what I’m talking about, Peter.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I want you to understand.”
“And, I needed a little time to get her airborne.”
Tony watched in horror as his wingsuit crashed into the room, Peter flipping and dodging.
“I’m sorry, Peter.”
“What are you talking about? That thing hasn’t even touched me yet!”
“True. Then again, it wasn’t really trying to.”
Tony spent a good couple of seconds wondering what he meant.
Oh.
The support beams.
Crash.
“Peter, oh my god. A building fell on top of you.”
Peter nodded sadly.
Toomes ran away, and Peter was left struggling under the rubble.
“Why were you not wearing the suit I gave you?”
The boy looked at his shoes.
And then it dawned on Tony.
“Because I took it away.”
“I’m such a dick, why would i-“
He was cut of by Peter’s screams.
Tony cried. Hearing the kids screams as he tried to lift the rubble, so raw and pain-filled…
He couldn’t explain the guilt and sadness he felt.
“Please, Please, A-Any, I’m down here, I’m down-“
“I’m stuck, I’m stuck down here, I can’t, I cant move, i-“
“You sound so panicked. So hurt.”
“I was in a lot of pain. I thought I was going to die.”
“I’m sorry-“
“Don’t. Why this memory? Why would it show us this memory?”
Peter answers himself, or Past Peter.
“If your nothing without this suit, then you shouldn’t have it.” Present Peter said, as Past Peter whispered it.
Tony’s stomach rolled.
“Come on Peter.
Come on Spiderman.
Come on Spiderman.
COME ON SPIDERMAN!”
The kid lifted the building off of him, slowly, as he yelled in pain, and ran off to stop the vulture.
Before Tony could say anything, a huge chunk of rubble fell on top of them, and they were watching the next memory.
They were in Peter’s bedroom again, the room that Tony recruited Peter in for Germany. Except, it was different.
Peter was in red, plaid pajama bottoms, and a simple grey shirt. He was curled in a ball on the floor. Tears were sliding down his face. His right hand was over his mouth, silencing his crying, his other was on his stomach.
“What’s happening to me?” He gasped.
“What is happening?”
“This was the day after I got bitten. I felt horrible. My senses were dialed to eleven, and suddenly I could hear everything, see everything… it was just too much.”
“Let’s go.”
They walked through the door.
The room they were in was the white room again, and Altarah was standing in front of him.
“Why are you showing him only my memories?”
“Because, he loves you as a son. Love is such a vicious motivator.”
“Okay, sorry, terminator, but get us out of here!”
“I cannot do that until-“
She was cut off by a choking sound, and her neck snapping at a painful angle.
The next moment, Peter and Tony were sitting up from a machine.
“What happened?”
“Heard you guys needed some backup?”
Peter turned, and standing being them was Daisy and Rhodey.
“Hey Tones.”
“Mr. Stark-“
His sentence was cut off by his mentor encasing him in a Hug.
“Let’s go home, huh kiddie?”