“Dad… I don’t feel so good.” Tony’s stomach dropped. Not his kid. Anyone but his son. Peter looked up with red, watery eyes. His fear was almost palpable and Tony felt it along with with own. Peter stumbled into him and the billionaire held on as tight as he could.
“I don’t want to go. Please Dad I don’t want to go.” Tony held back his sobs as he pressed kisses to his child’s hair.
“Shh. It’s okay baby. You’re okay. We’ll go home and watch movies with May and Pepper. It’ll be okay.”
Tony was convincing himself as well as the seventeen year old in his arms. Tony clutched the boy tighter as he slowly started to fade away. Soon all that was left of his beautiful son was the ash on the ground and in his hands.
God, he’s gone. Peter, sweet Peter; the boy who was too good for the world and only suffered because of it. All these years of protecting him, keeping him a secret and having him stay with his aunt to avoid press, making that damned suit, only for him to fail when it truly counted.
The events after It were a blur. Tony remembers placing Peter’s-the ashes in one of his gauntlets then a blue woman leading him somewhere, giving her coordinates, then darkness.
When Tony opened his eyes it was to a colourful room, he sat up and looked around. He was in a lab of some sort. Before he could stand a young girl was in front of him.
“Ah so the colonizer has awoken.” She smiled, her accent was similar to T’Challa’s. He must be in Wakanda then, the girl looked to be around Peters age. Jesus-Peter. Part of Tony wished he hadn’t been saved. Before he could continue the Wakandan began speaking again. “I’m Shuri the Princess of Wakanda. Your friends wish to speak with you.” Tony simply nodded, not in the mood to speak.
Shuri led him to where what’s left of the Avengers sat. The atmosphere was heavy almost heavier than it was during their fight over the accords. The deaths of their comrades and millions of other citizens weighed heavily on their heads.
“Tony. It’s nice to see you up.” Steve stood to greet his old teammate. Tony brushed past him and sat next to the blue woman, who he vaguely remembers introducing herself as Nebula.
The meeting continued in a similar way, everyone talking as Tony stared. His reverie was broken by Bruce asking for his opinion on their current topic. “Is Spiderman still available to help?”
And like that the dam broke. Tony felt tears well in his eyes and stood abruptly ready to make his exit. Steve and Natasha blocked his exit.
“Move.” Tony hated how his voice shook with that one word.
“Tony. We need help. Where is Spiderman? You were gone the whole battle then you show up injured from Lord knows what and refuse to talk to us! Now you’re leaving when we need you again! What is your problem?” Everyone fell silent as Steve ranted.
“Spiderman is gone he can’t help. Now move.”
Steve stood firm. “Tony I understand that losing him must have been hard, even though we don’t know how you knew him. But we all lost somebody. You can’t just shut down because a vigilante you know died. I lost Bucky, but here I am.”
Rhodey stood to intervene, knowing very well who Spiderman was in regards to Tony. But Steve had pushed the wrong buttons.
“Yeah we all lost someone! We lost half the fucking universe. But don’t even think for a minute you understand how I feel! Spiderman wasn’t just some vigilante off the streets I picked up. He was a child, he wanted to graduate and go to MIT to become an engineer, he loved photography and Star Wars. He liked the weirdest things like pineapple on pizza and those vine things his generation is obsessed with. He was just seventeen. You may have lost Bucky but you didn’t have to hold him as he begged you to help him and to not let him die. You lost your best friend but I lost my son. And now I have to live knowing that he won’t get to grow up and live his life and that I have to live without him. I’m the one who has to go and tell his Aunt that the child we raised won’t be coming back home. So excuse me if I seem out of it.” With that Tony stormed out of the room, the door slamming shut with a sense of finality. Rhodey stared sadly at the door where his best friend had exited.
“Spiderman was born out of a one night stand Tony had with a Harvard Law student. She told him right after Spidey was born. Tony adored him with everything in his being. I can’t imagine what losing him must be like for Tones.”
“I-I didn’t know.” Steve looked genuinely remorseful, Bruce placed a comforting hand on Steve’s shoulder.
“None of us did.”