Hello darkness my old friend.
Peter flipped the piece of metal over in his hand for what felt like the hundredth time.
He had no idea how long he and Nebula had been floating aimlessly in space for. It could have been days, months, year, or even just a few hours. There was no way to keep track of time, and no real reason too. So instead he focused his attention towards the endless expanse of stars that sat outside of the ships windows.
Titan felt like centuries ago, when he had stood there hopelessly and watched his mentor and childhood hero turn to dust right before his eyes. When he had ran forward hoping to embrace the man one last time before he disappeared entirely, only for him to fade away is his arms and his dust to be left on his hands.
It felt like an eternity ago when he had watched Thanos rip an entire chuck of Tony's armor off with his bare hands. It felt like a lifetime ago, when through his tears, he picked up the only remaining piece of metal that had once been the mighty Iron Man, and boarded the damaged ship with Nebula.
He could faintly remember her telling him that they were starting to run low on food and water, but he just couldn't find the will to care. What was the point of getting back home when there was no real promise that anyone would even still be waiting for him. Had Ned gotten dusted? Had Mj? Had May...
He couldn't even bring himself to think of that. Instead he continued to flip the triangular piece of metal over in his hands, for the hundredth and first time in a row.
With only this thoughts, and the stars, for company.
I've come to talk to you again.
Space was... quiet.
Growing up in New York City, that was something Peter wasn't particularly accustomed to.
There was always something going on, and with his super hearing Peter was able to catch it all. Every train, every car, every drunken fight down on the street, and every time his lower leveled neighbors decided vacuum their floors. New York was constantly moving, no matter the day, no matter the hour, no matter the circumstance.
But on the ship, besides for the few sounds him and Nebula would make, there was almost nothing. The engine had broken down almost immediately after take off, leaving them to float around into nothingness, and from what they could tell none of the radios or communications devices worked either. There was a old cassette tape sitting on one of the ships counters, but they had nothing to play it with.
No matter how hard Peter strained, and no matter how long he sat there on the ground, unmoving and unable to even try to get the ship working again, there was nothing. No rumble of engines as cars drove underneath his window. No loud arguments in Spanish that his upstairs neighbors insisted on having at three am. No sounds of Tony's screwdriver as they tinkered together in his lab.
Nothing.
They were completely, and utterly, alone.
Because a vision softly creeping.
It was on the second day without water that Peter started hallucinating
They always told stories, about how travelers in the deserts would see large pools of water from far away, only to then get there and realize it was only a trick of the eye. Or how people who had gone to long without basic necessities like sleep, food, or water, would start to see and hear stuff that wasn't actually there.
Peter was a smart kid, so when he opened his eyes after dozing off for a few hours and saw Mr. Stark sitting on the floor across from him, he knew it wasn't real.
But just because he wasn't real, didn't mean that it didn't hurt like hell to see him.
The man looked like he always did, jeans, some obscure band tshrit, and his hair a fluffy mess on top of his head. He was smiling, and all Peter could do was tighten his grip on the piece of metal that hadn't left his hand since Titan and try to stop the burning in his eyes.
"I'm sorry", he cried, turning his gaze away form the imaginary man. "I'm so sorry I couldn't save you"
"It's not your fault Peter", the nonexistent Tony told him, as tears started to stream down Peter's face. "I promise you it's not your fault"
Peter was full on sobbing now, which was something he had been doing a lot of since boarding the ship. He knew he shouldn't be wasting his energy and water like that, but the sight of his deceased mentor was enough to send him over the edge.
"It should have been me", Peter told him, the tears still glistening in his eyes. "Earth doesn't need some stupid teenager from Queen, they need Iron Man"
Tony gaze on him never broken, and he just continued to smile at him with a deep sadness behind his eyes. "Maybe so, but you have people who are still counting on you", he whispered. "People who still want you to come home"
Peter looked back down at the piece of metal for a second, the words mark 50 almost completely faded away from his constant fiddling with it. Fifty suits, fifty variations of the same man who only wanted to make the world a better place. Fifty different inventions since Tony Stark had managed to fight his way out of a terrorist camp with nothing but a box of scraps.
Fifty chances to try and be better than the last.
When Peter finally found the strength to look up again, he was greeted with an empty room and a familiar silence which signified that Tony was really gone.
And all he could do was cry.
Left it's seed while I was sleeping.
Tony never appeared to Peter again, but his words stayed with him for the rest of the trip.
Maybe so, but you have people who are still counting on you. People who still want you to come home.
Despite his lack of food and water, and to Nebula's great surprise, Peter got to work. He knew that it wasn't actually his mentor who had spoken to him, but it didn't matter because he was right, people were counting on him. May, Ned, Mj, Tony... No matter if they were alive or not they needed him to make it back home. To figure out how to bring everyone back.
Maybe he couldn't get the Infinity Gauntlet off Thanos's hand, and maybe he couldn't save the only father figure he had in his life right now, but he could fix a stupid ship god dammit.
He was the boy, who at fourteen years old had not only made his own web fluids, but had also figured out a way to fire them at a speed that would allow them to stick to buildings over fifty feet away. He was the boy who would find old TV's, stereos, and even DVD player in the trash and create his own new gadgets out of them. To him, this ship was no more than an old computer he had bought at goodwill for four dollars, and with enough determination he knew he could make it work again.
One of the ships wings along with the engine had been terribly damaged in the fight with Thanos. They had barely enough power to even lift them off Titan long enough to be able to stay afloat. So of course those were their first two problems to deal with.
Unsurprisingly, Nebula was actually pretty decent with mechanics and basic engineering. So while Peter worked on a way to reboot the engines battery, she figured out the most efficient way to fix the wing while also not wasting too many of their resources. The pair worked almost flawlessly together, handing the other one tools when they needed it, and giving their own input when the other was stuck on a particularly hard problem.
It was almost exactly like when he would work in the lab with Mr. Stark.
"The nearest jump point back to C-53 isn't that far from out current position", Nebula had told him on their last day with oxygen. "The left wing is steady enough for one last flight, so if we can get enough thrust into the engine I think we just might be able to make it"
"Then what happens after we get through the jump point", Peter asked, every bone in his body aching from the lack of food, water, and sleep. "We'll loose all power and end up falling aimlessly to earth; especially if we lose the left wing in the process"
"I think if we set our coordinates to this compound you've been talking about, and conserve just a little of our power until the last moment, we might be able to make it. It won't be pretty, and it definitely won't be safe, but if there's even a chance of survival I think we need to take it", she told him.
Peter's hand drifted to the small piece of metal he had stored in his pocket while he worked, and remember that giving up was no longer an option. "It beats dying up here", he told her, feeling more determined than he ever had in his entire life. "Enter the coordinated, and I'll get the engine ready"
And the vision that was planted in my brain.
Nebula was right, after converting every once of energy that remain on the ship into the engine, they had just enough push to send them through the jump point.
One second they were surrounded by dark nothingness, and next they were back into the Milky Way Galaxy. And even if they were hurtling towards it at a deadly speed, in a ship that could potentially fall apart at any second, Peter had never been so happy to see his home plant. He briefly recalled how as a kid he always dreamed of being an astronaut and going to space one day; but now however, there was no place he would rather not be.
He would have loved to marvel at how beautiful earth looked from space, but all of his and Nebula's attention was focused on trying to keep the ship from collapsing in on itself as they continued downward towards the state of New York. If they had put in the coordinate correctly, they should crash directly in the compounds backyard, and Peter could only pray that there would still be people alive to greet them there.
Every one thousand miles or so closer they got to the earth, they would quickly switch back on the power supply so that the ship would stay a float for one second, before then proceeding to once again start dropping. They continued that same pattern for what seemed like forever, before finally the ever so familiar compound distantly came into view from their front window.
"We're completely out of power", Nebula informed his as the ship continued to fall. "Our only option now is to just ride it out and hope for the best. If I were you I would probably brace for impact"
Even if he'd never admit it out loud, Peter was beyond terrified. If he was being honestly, he had never stopped being scared since the minute he jumped out of the school bus and joined Mr. Stark in his battle against Thanos's kids. He had been petrified when he realized that he was stuck on the donut with no way of escaping, and nothing would ever be able to compare to the horror of watching his mentor disappear into dust in front of his own eyes.
But falling towards earth with little chance of survival was a new kind of fear. It held that same feeling of helplessness that had accompanied watching Tony fade into nothingness; knowing that no matter what he did, there was nothing that could change what was about to happen. So all Peter could do was tighten his seats buckle and cover his face with his arms as they descended the last hundred miles towards earth.
Still remains.
Peter must have blacked out for the remainder of the crash, because the next thing he knew the ship had stopped moving.
There was a soft ringing in his ear, and he could faintly make out the sound of panicked voices all around him as his senses slowly stared coming back to him. Somewhere between the last few miles towards earth and the inevitable crash, parts of the ship had ended up caving in on themselves; successfully trapping Peter underneath chunks of the wreckage. One piece of metal in particular had landed directly onto Peters left arm, keeping him from moving and hurting every time he tried to pull it out.
That same panic from the time when the Vulture had dropped a building on him resurfaced, and god, that truly felt like a lifetime ago. Back when Peter wanted nothing more than to be an Avenger and was willing to do anything to prove to Tony that he was capable enough. He never had told Tony the full story of what had gone down that night, only that he had crashed the plane and was able to prevent anything from being stolen.
The voices only continued to get louder, and Peter vaguely realized when the piece of metal that was pinning him down got lifted off him arm, and a very familiar voice started talking to him and whoever else had come to investigate the crash.
"I found one", Steve Rodgers called to the others helping clear the wreckage sight. "Son? Are you ok?', he asked Peter as he delicately lifted him from the remains of the ruined ship.
As Steve held him in his arms and continued to try and talk to him, Peter was able to watch as a blonde lady helped Nebula get her legs unstuck from under the ship and as Rhodey offered her a hand up. Probably due to the fact that she was mostly made of metal, Nebula came out mostly unscathed, expect from maybe a few extra dents on her arms and legs. Peter on the other hand, was a completely different story, and he knew if it wasn't for is super strength and fast healing ability, there was no way he would have been able to survive that crash.
"Is he ok?", Natasha asked, and Peter was now only realizing that her and Bruce Banner had also made their way over to the ruined ship.
"He's unresponsive", Steve said, as Peters eyes wandered back over to the blonde girl as he tried to figure out who she was. "We need to get him inside now"
"Pepper", he mumbled, trying to get his tongue to work. "Wheres' Pepper? I need to see her"
He knew his words probably weren't making a lot of sense, but his mind could only focus on the small piece of metal he still had stored in his pocket and the earth shattering news he knew he had to deliver. Pepper deserved to know first, not Steve Rodgers, not the Black Widow, and not even his best friend Rhodey. This was her fiance they were talking about, and if anyone deserved the last piece of Tony Stark Peter had managed to rescue from Titan, it was her.
Steve and the rest of the group took him inside, where he was greeted by even more people. However at this point Peter was so out of it he didn't even bother to try and figure out who they were. He swore he saw Nebula speaking with a talking Raccoon, but his mind was already such a garbled mess that he decided he must have just imagined the whole thing.
"Pepper", he hummed against Steve's chest, starting to get desperate for a familiar. "I need Pepper"
"What is he saying?", he heard Natasha ask, as they walked down the hall to what Peter assumed was the Med Bay.
"I think he's asking for Pepper", Steve replied, as Peter tried to nod into his head to tell him he was right. "But I'm not sure if he even know's what he's saying right now"
"He's so small", the voice of the unfamiliar lady said. "I can't believe he would be able to survive a crash like that"
They must have made it to the Medical Bay, because Steve gently laid Peter onto on of the many bed that filled the large room, and Bruce immediately got to work hooking him up multiple machines and putting IV's into his arms. Peter was finding it exceedingly hard to stay awake at this point, and right before the blacked edges around his vision fully took over his eyes, he was able to watch as a panicked Pepper Potts ran into the room and straight to his bedside.
Within the sound of silence.
All Peter saw in his dreams was his remaining family and friends slowly turn to dust; always starting with May, and always ending with Pepper.
Somewhere along the way, Pepper had become almost a second mom to Peter. He supposed, hanging out with Tony Stark would eventually also lead to meeting Pepper Potts, but after their first official meeting the two had become almost inseparable. Pepper would often cook the three of them dinner on nights when Peter would be allowed to stay at the compound overnight, and the few times they had decided to have movie nights she always joined in. She was also always the first to yell at them when they stayed down in the lab to long, and would often come into his bedroom at the compound to calm him down after he woke up from a nightmare.
Other than Rhodey, who Peter had never really gotten the opportunity to get to know, Pepper was usually the only other person at the compound. Before he went MIA, Vision would also occasionally float by and give Peter a friendly hello, and sometime there would be the rare janitorial staff walking around. But other than that the place would usually be shockingly empty.
Peppers mom like attitude towards Peter always made him feel welcomed and loved, especially when May started working night shifts and he starting staying over at the compound more often. Together they had created their own pseudo family of sorts, and Peter often couldn't help but wonder if this it what it would have felt like if his parents had never died.
That's why he wasn't too shocked to wake up and find Pepper sitting in a chair next to his bed and slowly rubbing circles on his outstretched hand. When he turned to face her he couldn't help but think that she looked different from the last time he had seen her. She looked older, more tired and almost like she'd been crying. Peter could sort of recall that it had been night time when he and Nebula had arrived, but now strips of dim light shone through the Med Bay windows showing that time had passed since their crash.
"Hey Pete", Pepper whispered when she realized he was awake. "How are you feeling?"
He groaned slightly, the dryness in his throat becoming more evident than it had been before. Realizing this, Pepper quickly handed him a glass of water that had been sitting on his bedside table and helped him drink the whole thing. It had probably been three or so days since Peter had last drunken anything, so it was no challenge for him to down the entire glass in one sitting.
Once Pepper had helped him wipe the excess water from him chin and carefully placed the glass cup back onto the nightstand table, Peter choose his first words carefully as he tried to talk to her.
"I'm sorry", he told her, his scratchy voicing coming out no more than a whisper. "I couldn't save him"
He was glad they hadn't tried to change him out of the clothes he had been wearing, only cutting off the sleeve from his injured arm, because he silently reached into his pocket and pulled out the small piece of metal that had somehow made it all the way from Titan and then back to earth. Pepper said nothing as she accepted the object from Peters out stretched arm, and her eyes grew soft as she gently rubbed her thumb over the faded mark 50.
The pair stayed quiet as Pepper tenderly wrapped her slims arms around Peter's small body as he cried into her shoulder. Neither of them dared to say it out loud, to acknowledge what Pepper had known the second Peter had been recovered from that crash site without him. Because right now they were alive and they had each other. Thanos may have wiped half of the universe, but as long as Pepper and Peter were together, they would stop at nothing to get Tony back home safe and sound.
And that was all that mattered.