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“You know under different circumstances,” Peter says as they step off the spaceship, “this would actually be kind of cool.”
Tony sighs, the suit clanging against the metal of the ship as he follows after him, “Of course you would think that.”
Peter doesn’t respond, too distracted now by the varying shades of purple the skies were colored, walking forward with an awed expression on his face.
Space - objectively - was fascinating, something that he and Ned used to spend hours and hours daydreaming about. Peter swallows down the lump in his throat at the thought of him, a reminder of what had brought them to the farthest reaches of the galaxy washing over him as Tony walks up beside him.
Peter turns to look at him, the gray in his hair and the wrinkles around his eyes making him look so much older than he’d been when Peter first met him. It’d been years since that day, five years since the end of everything - catching as Tony turns to him with a sad smile on his face.
“You ready for this?” He asks, Peter shrugging as he turns towards the mountain in front of them.
“Ready as I’ll ever be. Nebula never said what we’d end up having to do but I doubt it’s gonna be easy.”
“Nothing ever is, kid,” Tony sighs, Peter smirking to himself before looking back to Tony once more, “You good?”
“Yeah,” Tony says, “let’s go.”
They walk up the mountain in relative silence, the cold sending a shiver down Peter’s spine.
“Should’ve made sure there was better insulation in these suits,” Tony says to himself, glancing back to Peter as Peter laughs.
“Okay mom ,” Peter rolls his eyes, “I’m fine. You’re the old man, you sure your knees are doing okay?”
“Yeah okay, you little shit. Come back to me when you’re my age and have spent a decade rolling around in that little spandex suit of yours.”
“First of all it’s not spandex,” Peter said with a smirk, “And second, you were the one who technically designed it so--”
“Yeah whatever,” Tony waves him off, Peter catching his eye roll as he walks beside him, “come on, let’s get this stupid stone so we can go home.”
They fall back into a comfortable silence, Peter letting his mind wander to what everyone else was doing - and what kind of home they’d come back to if all of their missions were successful.
Five years since Thanos, five years since the snap - five years since the two of them had been in space the first time around - nearly dying of starvation before Carol had found them drifting off into nowhere.
There’s an ache in his chest at the memory of those first few days, how Peter had drifted in and out of consciousness in an empty compound - wondering to himself why May hadn’t shown up, unable to face the truth until Tony had confirmed it.
May - like Ned, like MJ - were gone, Peter still remembering the grief in Tony’s eyes at the realization that Pepper was gone too.
It’d been brutal, the first year after the snap feeling like he was in a fog - the two of them lost in an endless maze of grief as they tried to make sense of a universe that didn’t anymore.
Tony had been an inventor for longer than Peter had ever known him, throwing all his efforts into developing technology at a rate that Peter had never seen him do before - knowing that he wasn’t in any place to call him out since he did the same thing in a different way, spending more time in the Spider-Man suit than out of it.
By the time Scott Lang had been thrust out of the quantum realm, Peter thinks it couldn’t have come at a more opportune time - a sense of purpose that they both had sorely needed, despite each of their efforts to try and mend the world around them as best they could.
This was the fight of their lives, as Steve had said - the truce between them feeling tenuous at best - Peter thinking that despite whatever had happened to them in that dark and cold bunker that what had happened in the universe was infinitely greater.
The whole world - the whole universe - felt like it was in shambles still, Peter’s guilt that he hadn’t been able to snatch the gauntlet out of Thanos’ hands weighing on him in the same way that he knew it weighed on Tony.
This was their chance to make it right, to fix what they’d messed up - Peter knowing he’d do anything he could to bring back all the people they’d lost.
He hears Tony’s groan again as they walk forward before he says, “Bet that fucking raccoon didn’t have to climb a mountain.”
Peter snorts before walking ahead of him and saying, “Technically, he’s not a raccoon you know.”
“Whatever, he eats garbage,” Tony quips back only for Peter’s senses to flare as a voice rings out from the darkness.
“Welcome Anthony, son of Maria and Peter, son of Richard.”
“Who the hell are you?” Tony asks, his hand outstretched as the whine of the pulsar in it rings out, Peter instinctively moving to the side of him with his hand back - ready to fight.
“Consider me a guide to you and to all who seek the soul stone.”
“Oh great, good to know,” Tony says sarcastically, “tell us where it is and we’ll be on our way.”
The looming figure in front of them flows in from the darkness, Peter’s senses dialing down as he glances to the two of them.
It looks like a man, shrouded in darkness with the wind whipping his coat about. But what catches Peter’s attention is the dark red of his skin - eyes boring into theirs as he says, “If only it were that simple.”
He nods once to the two of them before turning, using his hand to beckon them to follow after him.
“Come.”
Peter glances to Tony out of the corner of his eye before nodding imperceptibly, the two of them slowly walking forward.
He leads them towards the edge of a cliff, Peter noticing the markings of some alien language sketched into the ground underneath him.
The man turns to them, a grim expression on his face as he says, “What you seek lies in front of you, as does what you fear.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tony asks, Peter feeling his senses start to flare as the man speaks once again, “In order to take the stone, you may lose that which you love. An everlasting exchange.
Peter can hear Tony’s heart skip a beat, feeling his own start to hammer in his chest as the man speaks once more.
“A soul for a soul.”
“So do you always look like a dementor or is this just for us?” Peter asks, Tony’s leg bouncing up and down while sitting on a rock a few feet away.
The man doesn’t answer, Peter shaking his head as he walks over to Tony.
“You think he’s for real?” Peter asks, already knowing the answer from the flex of Tony’s fingers - the steady rhythm of Tony’s heart working in overtime as he nods.
“I do.”
“Told you it wasn’t gonna be easy,” Peter tries to joke, catching Tony’s glare before he shakes his head furiously and stands.
“Forget it, let’s go.”
“Tony—“
“No,” Tony’s voice is sharp - almost menacing as he looks at Peter, “I don’t care about whatever bullshit he’s saying, we’re figuring out another way.”
“There isn’t any other way, Tony,” Peter says, Tony staring at him with a hard expression on his face, “You heard Nebula. This is the only way we can get the soul stone.”
The realization hits Peter then, remembering their fight on Titan when Quill had gone ballistic on Thanos - wondering now why none of them had put the pieces together before.
Thanos had taken his daughter to Vormir but had left alone - soul stone embedded into the gauntlet that had wrecked the universe.
“This is it,” Peter whispers, watching Tony grind his teeth, “this is how we bring everyone back.”
A thousand emotions run through Tony’s face before it slips into an unnatural calm.
“Whatever it takes,” Tony says, Peter nodding.
“Whatever it takes,” he replies, only for his senses to flare when Tony takes a step toward him.
“If we don’t get that stone, then this was all for nothing,” Peter says, eyeing Tony carefully.
“Then I guess we both know who it has to be.”
“Yeah, I guess we do,” Peter replies, Tony’s eyes narrowing.
Peter feels a chill run down his spine, his senses screaming at him for a split second as Tony throws out a hand - sending an electric pulse to Peter that he barely dodges.
“What the hell—“
“Stay down, kid,” Tony says, the faceplate of the Iron Man suit encasing around him, “this isn’t your fight.”
Tony sends off another pulsar blast to throw Peter off as he launches himself into the air, but he isn’t quick enough - Peter immediately sending out a web that lands on Tony’s leg.
He yanks him back, hard - using all of his strength as Tony groans - sending out rapid fire webs to pin him to the ground.
“Kid—“
“I’m not letting you do this, Tony. The world needs Iron Man,” he says, watching as his mentor struggles under the power of his webs.
“Dammit Peter, don't be a pain in my ass,” he yells out, another blast shooting through his hand as it cuts at the webbing - Peter already backing away towards the edge, “Stay down!”
“I’m sorry, Tony. Tell May I love her.” Peter says, turning around and running towards the edge.
Tony must have upgraded his suit without Peter knowing, hearing the familiar whine of the pulsars go off again as he sends off another electric blast that Peter barely dodges and yells, “Tell her yourself.”
For as strong as Tony is - Peter is that much stronger, turning around in midair to see Tony flying towards him, sending out more webs that land on its intended target, Tony’s body getting thrown back just under the edge of the cliff.
But Tony is just fast enough to grab him - the sudden stop from the webs swinging them in place as Tony desperately claws at Peter’s hand.
Peter glances up at Tony, the skies of Vormir a muted purple - a place so beautiful that Peter couldn’t have picked a better place to die - as he whispers, “Let me go.”
“Like hell, you’re not doing this.”
But Tony must see something in his eyes, Peter’s hand hanging limply around Tony’s iron grip - his face mask dematerializing.
It reminds him of an old joke that they’d had - back before the end of everything - of who could take each other in a fight, bantering back and forth with the kind of lightheartedness neither of them had felt in years.
Tony must remember that moment too, his eyes widening as Peter smiles at him.
“Peter—“
“I’m sorry,” Peter whispers, summoning up all the courage he has as he kicks.
It’s not enough, it would never be enough to tell him exactly what he feels - how much the man in front of him had meant to him all these years.
But it’s all he gets the chance to say, hoping he understands as he watches Tony’s eyes widen in horror as the force of it jerks Peter’s hand out of his.
“PETER!” Tony yells out, hand still extended as the familiar whine of the pulsar rings out - one last ditch effort to save him, just as he had so many times before.
But Peter’s already falling, closing his eyes in peaceful surrender - letting the wind carry him to a place he’s never been.