Chapter Text
Prologue
He has no idea what went wrong.
He’d done everything right. He’d tested it all five times over and then another three times, just to be sure.
How could he have hurt her?
Unlocking the door to the warehouse, he makes his way inside, his feet dragging as he traverses towards his makeshift lab, flicking on the overheads and bathing the room in light. He shields his eyes, exhaustion and emotion making him even more sensitive than usual. As he finally nears his desk, tools and containers still scattered across it, a newfound anger overtakes him.
He’s a scientist. He has more experience than half of the scientists he’s met, and yet, he’d almost gotten his daughter killed.
He’s lucky she’s still alive.
How could he have messed this up?
Angrily, he grasps the nearest tool and chucks it at the wall. The resounding clank does little to satisfy him, and he grabs another, and another, chucking tool after tool, vial after vial, tray after tray, against the wall, creating a cacophony of bangs, clashes, and thunks in the process. It isn’t until he picks up a small vial that he hesitates, realizing the shape is unfamiliar to him. He brings it closer, studying it, turning it over in his hand.
And that’s when he sees it.
A name, written ever-so-carefully on a faded piece of tape, stuck to the bottom of the vial.
Peter Parker
And then he remembers.
It was him.
This kid was the one who caused his daughter’s current state.
He himself hadn’t made any errors. How could he have?
He’d calculated for everything...except this vial.
Peter Parker is the reason his daughter might never wake up.
And he’s going to make him pay for that.
“This is your doing, Peter Parker,” he whispers to the open air. “And I’ll make sure you fix it, if it’s the last thing I do.”