In the Afterglow

Cause I know that I will love you
And I'm not letting go
If the sky darkens above you
I'll stay by your side in the afterglow

- FINNEAS, “die alone” 

—— 

Tony had just fired his repulsors at one of the creatures heading towards him when glowing colours caught the corner of his eye. He flicked his eyes towards the colours he had seen glinting and saw the gauntlet flying towards a lithe, red-and-blue figure. The billionaire's heart pounded in his chest at the sight of the figure swinging webs around like it was second nature. Could it be Peter? Could he allow himself that hope?

Not a day had gone by that Tony hadn’t brushed his fingers over the small, framed photo of him awarding Peter the real internship they had begun, vowing that he would bring the teen back.

Against all reason, he allowed himself the small fragment of hope blossoming; he had repressed it for five years, after all.

He activated the thrusters and flew after the figure as it flipped and swung. Hoards of Thanos’ creatures swarmed around the small figure holding the reimagined version of the infinity gauntlet, and Tony didn’t hesitate before firing at them, killing them before they could so much as touch the lithe frame.

The figure froze and followed the repulsor beam all the way up to the Iron Man suit to see who had saved them.

Tony’s breath caught and he landed heavily as he stumbled towards the teen- towards Peter.

“Peter,” he breathed, the name spoken as a prayer, a promise, an apology. 

“Mr Stark!” the boy exclaimed, closing the distance between them. “I have no idea what’s going on! Doctor Strange woke me up on Titan and said we’d been there for five years but all I could remember was being there with you and then I got all dusty and you weren’t there-“

He was cut off by Tony pulling him into a tight hug, the older man’s arms wrapping around his back like he’d never let him go. The thought of never breaking the hug had certainly crossed the mechanic’s mind.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Peter, I promised you and I … I’m so damn sorry, kid,” the billionaire whispered into the teen’s shoulder: a broken litany of everything he had been wishing he could say for the last five years. 

“Everything’s ok now, Mr Stark,” the boy murmured, like it was as simple as that. “You’ve done nothing to apologise for but I forgive you. Please don’t be sorry.”

Peter heard suspicious sounding sniffles coming from his mentor, but wisely chose not to comment on it. Instead, he clutched the mechanic even more tightly. He sensed that Tony needed this closeness more deeply than Peter could understand.

“God I missed you, underoos,” the older man exhaled.

Their reunion was broken up by the sounds of approaching enemies, and the pair broke apart, Tony stepping in front of Peter- who was still clutching the infinity gauntlet tightly- and firing before the creature could get in close range. He continued firing as more creatures swarmed towards them, but froze in fear when he heard a strangled shout coming from behind him. 

Peter. Peter. I have to get to Peter.

He twisted round and his stomach flipped when he saw his kid laying on the ground, arms up to cover his face, gauntlet balancing precariously on his stomach, as multiple hound-like creatures jumped on top of him. Brilliant red light filled the air as Tony raced towards the boy with his heart pounding; he turned briefly and saw Wanda, eyes a luminous crimson, push both her hands into the air and then swiftly rotate them. At the same time as her movements, the creatures were lifted into the air and then thrown harshly to the side. They hit the ground and stayed down.

The billionaire had just reached Peter when he looked up and saw blinding ivory light surging towards them. He lifted a repulsor, ready to fire, but dropped it when he recognised Carol Danvers as the source of the light. She landed next to Wanda and the pair made their way over to Peter and the gauntlet. 

A sudden scrabbling weight landed on Tony’s suit, but before he could turn to kill it, a spear came out of nowhere and was driven straight through where its heart was assumed to be before flinging it away. 

Okoye twirled her spear like it was as easy as breathing and looked at Tony with waiting eyes. The mechanic wasn’t sure what she was waiting for, but met her gaze silently. A small huff of laughter escaped the teen’s mouth from beside him.

“Thank you for helping him,” Peter said, politely. Okoye smiled and inclined her head towards him, before joining Captain Marvel and the Scarlet Witch. Tony rolled his eyes.

Gamora and Mantis joined the steadily growing group, defending them from the sides. Overhead, Valkyrie circled them on her pegasus, occasionally flying down to fend off creatures before they could reach the gauntlet.

“Who is to take the gauntlet?” Okoye asked the women, as Tony helped Peter back to his feet. The five women shared looks, an unspoken conversation taking place. The heroes were caught off guard when another woman appeared out of nowhere, just the top half of her face visible from under her helmet. Tony recognised her as Scott’s partner in crime, Hope.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Hope said, despite sounding mostly unapologetic. “But Thanos has more reinforcements coming. We need to get the gauntlet away from his ships.”

“His ugly purple ass will not be getting near the gauntlet,” a confident but youthful voice called from behind them. The group turned to see Shuri, dressed in all black with a glowing device attached to each hand, striding towards them across the battlefield. Every so often, and without breaking stride, she would shoot what looked to be a bolt of electricity towards an alien bold enough to confront her.

When Shuri reached them- immediately taking place to help defend the gauntlet- Carol glanced to the heroes for approval (which was received in the form of nods from each person) and then held a hand out to Peter. The spiderling didn’t hesitate before giving her the gauntlet.

“I-I’m Peter,” he stammered, ineloquently. “P-Peter Parker.”

“Hi Peter Parker,” Captain Marvel said with a smile. “I will protect the gauntlet with my life- I know what it means to everyone on this planet.” 

The teen blinked in surprise. “Th-thank you,” he stammered. “It was s-super cool to meet you, ma’am.”

Tony couldn’t stifle his laugh, but pulled the boy into a side hug as he ruffled the kid’s hair with his free hand. Captain Marvel saluted the heroes, before the ivory light returned and she shot into the sky. Peter stared after her, entranced by her powers.

“She’s so cool!” Peter exclaimed.

“She sure is, kid,” the mechanic replied with a fond smile. “She saved me and the Smurf robot when we got stuck in space.”

Peter turned to face him with wide eyes. “You got what?”

“Incoming!” Wanda yelled, raising her arms as red light swirled dangerously around her closed fists. 

The heroes steeled themselves before running towards the incoming pack of Thanos’ creatures. Wanda, Okoye, Shuri, Mantis and Gamora -shadowed by Valkyrie and her pegasus- wielded their weapons and powers. Tony hugged Peter again, tightly but briefly, and then they readied themselves for the imminent fight.

***

They’d been holding their own for about twenty minutes. Thanos’ army was thinning, slowly but surely, although just barely. Peter and Tony had been fighting back-to-back, reassured by the fact their they were watching each other’s sixes rather than being separated and unable to ensure the other was safe.

The women that had congregated around them earlier had largely remained where they were- except for Wanda who was using her powers to keep her in the air so she could fight with a bird’s-eye view.

Tony glanced upwards when Captain Marvel’s glowing form shot into the sky then dropped back to the ground, and he instructed F.R.I.D.A.Y to zoom in when he realised something was amiss.

“Has she still got the gauntlet, Fri?” He asked the AI.

“Negative, Boss. My scans do not detect the gauntlet to be with her.”

“Engage thrusters, and when I get high enough scan everywhere to find the gauntlet. I need to know who she gave it to.” 

“Yes, Boss,” the AI responded. 

“Pete,” the billionaire said, unable to look at the teen as they both continued fighting off creatures. “I’ve just got to find out where the gauntlet is- Cap 2.0 doesn’t have it so we need to know who does. I’ll fly up for a second and have F.R.I.D.A.Y scan the area and then I’ll be straight back down, ok?”

“Yeah, of course Mr Stark. Is Miss Carol ok?” The teen asked, worried about others even while fighting for his life. Tony also couldn’t help but feel a little envy for how much energy the kid still had when he knew full well that his own voice sounded a little laboured from the exertion.

“How does she get ‘Miss Carol’ and I’m still ‘Mr Stark’? I’ve known you for nearly six years, kid!”

“I mean … technically it’s only been one. Me being all dusty for five years doesn’t count.”

It counted for me. Not a day went by in those five years that I didn’t mourn you, little one.

Tony went with his usual tactic when it came to his sensitive subjects: ignorance.

“Not helping your case, kid. You’ve still known me way longer; can you promote me to just Tony yet?”

“Sure thing, just Tony,” the teen said, voice smug and teasing as he flipped a new cartridge of web fluid into his shooters.

“Wow, that was so funny and original, underoos. That must have taken you, what? A whole one second of idiocy to come up with?” 

Peter laughed, and Tony decided that no sound would ever beat it. He’d missed that laugh more than he’d realised.

“Anyway, I’ve got to find where the gauntlet is. I’ll be back in just a sec, kiddo.”

He engaged the thrusters and took off into the sky, once again caught off guard by how vast and bloody the battlefield was. It seemed to stretch on as far as he could see and even the sky was filled with airborne fighters battling. 

Upon his instruction, F.R.I.D.A.Y scanned the area and detected that Thanos and Captain Marvel were currently fighting over the gauntlet a few hundred meters to his left. Carol was holding her own but it was obvious that she was injured from where she had presumably been sent flying into the air before crashing into the ground hard.

He ran some calculations through his mind in the hope of finding a solution. The women fighting below him were strong- there was no denying that- but none of them except Wanda had a realistic chance of defeating Thanos. Sending Peter was absolutely off the table; just the thought of his kid fighting that ugly purple grape was enough to send him a little dizzy with fear. The comms were shot to hell, so he had no way of contacting Thor, Cap or Bruce.

That just left himself. 

The decision was harder than he thought it would be: he usually ran into danger without a second thought, but he realised now that he had more to live for than he ever had before. 

Morgan. Peter. Pepper. My family.

He thought of Morgan with her blue plastic Iron Man helmet on, squealing with excitement when Tony had built her the treehouse by their lake and inviting him for a tea party up there. He thought of Peter wearing his first Stark Spider-man suit, telling Tony that he had saved as many people as he could because he wanted to be like him.

He realised that as much as going to fight Thanos alone may be a one-way trip, as it very well nearly had been up on Titan, and as much as he loved his two kids, he couldn’t let that overshadow the needs of the entire universe. 

If Thanos got the gauntlet back he would cause another snap and Tony couldn’t allow that to happen. Potentially losing Pepper, Morgan and Peter? He wouldn’t survive it. He knew he wouldn’t. Stark men may be made of iron but those three were his vibranium- without them he was as malleable and breakable as tinfoil.

Deep down, he knew the decision had already been made but that didn’t make having to tell Peter what he was going to do any easier. 

“Fri,” the mechanic said, voice cracking. “Activate the Safety Net protocol in all Stark suits.”

“Safety Net protocol successfully initiated, Boss.”

If the worse were to happen, he was glad he had at least prepared this protocol for those he left behind. It did little to comfort him currently, however.

He fired out his repulsor beams in a circle around Peter, clearing the creatures to buy them a few moments to speak face-to-face. He knew the women around them would also jump to their aid if it seemed they would be caught off guard by advancing aliens.

He landed softly and Peter turned to face him, tugging his mask off as Tony lifted his faceplate.

“Did you find the gauntlet?” Peter asked him, cheeks tinged slightly red from the exertion of fighting but not sounding breathless.

“Yeah, kid, I did,” Tony said, conscious of keeping his voice even so that Peter didn’t detect his panic. In the year where the pair had been working closely, he’d noticed Peter’s tendency to echo his emotions. The kid’s blind trust meant that if Tony was panicked  Peter would panic too, even if he didn’t know the cause. It was endearing yet terrifying to have someone trust you so inherently. “I know where it is but I need to go and help Cap 2.0 get it back. She’s fighting Thanos alone right now, but she’s injured.”

“Oh,” the teen said, sounding like he was missing something. “Let’s go help her, then, Mr Stark. I’ll come too!”

The billionaire internally winced. 

“Thanos is too dangerous for me to let you try and fight him yourself, Pete,” Tony said gently. “I’d spend the whole time worrying about you rather than on beating him- I need you to stay here and keep helping Gamora, Okoye, Shuri and Mantis, ok kid?”

“You can’t go and fight him alone!” Peter exclaimed, his eyes wide and seeming to fill with tears at the thought. “Tony you can’t ! Please let me help, I-I’ll do exactly what you t-tell me, I promise.”

Peter’s pleading tone and use of his first name honestly nearly convinced him, but the guilt from the kid’s dusting on Titan would be nothing compared to if he was killed by Thanos’ hand directly. Maybe it was selfish but the thought of watching his kid die, again, nearly brought him to his knees.

“I know you would, kiddo, but I can’t let him hurt y-“

He was cut off by Peter throwing himself into Tony’s arms and burrowing his head into the crook of the older man’s neck. The metal of the suit may have been cold and unforgiving, but he knew how tactile Peter was- if hugging his Iron Man suit comforted him who was Tony to argue?

“Please be safe, Tony, please,” Peter murmured, and it was so quiet that the mechanic wasn’t sure if he was meant to have heard. 

He hugged the boy tightly and whispered back, “I’ll try my best, Pete.”

Stark men always kept their word. 

When Peter has collected himself, he pulled back to look Tony in the eye. The billionaire was caught off guard by the determination in the kid’s eyes, especially when there were clear tear tracks running down his cheeks that hadn’t been there when he’d initially taken his mask off.

“If you need backup, you have to let me know, ok? You didn’t give me this awesome suit just because it looks nice- you gave it to me so I can help people. I know it’s never been one of your strengths but you have to ask for help if you need it, sir.”

Tony had never heard such authority from the boy and pride surged through him at the sound of it. He ruffled the kid’s hair, knowing physical affection was something Peter needed but never asked for; he also did it for himself because he’d gone five years without seeing those chocolate brown curls. 

The teen leaned into the touch, eyes slipping closed for a second before he realised what he was doing and reopened them with a slow blink. Tony smiled fondly.

“Rhodey’s my first backup option, but if it makes you feel better I’ll let you know if me and Rhodey can’t handle it between the two of us, how does that sound, underoos?”

Peter nodded with a small sniffle, he looked down at the ground but not fast enough for Tony to miss the tear slip down his cheek. Futilely, he hugged the kid again before releasing him.

“It’ll all be ok, Pete. All we need to do is protect the world.”

A shaky laugh escaped the teen.

“Then we can stop fighting?” the boy asked, and although he kept his voice light, Tony knew what he was really asking: Promise me you won’t leave me. Promise me I won’t lose you too.

But the mechanic couldn’t promise that. So he didn’t.

“Yeah, kiddo, then you can go home.”

With a final squeeze of Spider-man’s shoulder and a quick ruffle of those chocolate curls he’d missed so much, Iron Man shot into the sky to save the universe.