Archive of Our Own

“Okay–Peter 1, Peter 2–”

“Peter 2,” The oldest Spiderman confirmed.

“Peter 3–”

“Peter 3!” The taller man shook his head in exasperated agreement.

“Alright, let’s do this. Ready–”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Peter 3 caught their arms, his eyes intense. “I love you guys.”

Peter 1 faltered. “Thanks.”

Peter 3 nodded, looking satisfied. 

“Ready–let’s do this,” Peter 1 affirmed. 

They all got ready to swing off back into the fight, but before they could get far, they all suddenly disappeared in a brief, bright flash of light.

/*/*/*/*/

2017

Peter crawled across the warehouse ceiling rapidly, his spidersense the only thing allowing him to evade Toomes’ gunshots.

“You know, Peter,” Toomes called. “The Chitauri were a very advanced race of beings, and the authorities can only recover so much of it–I’m a busy man, and haven’t been able to try out all of them yet. Wanna help me solve that?”

“I don’t, actually,” Peter muttered, shooting a narrowly missing web at Toomes. “But I get the feeling you weren’t really looking for an answer.”

Letting his wings take over attacking Peter for now, Toomes pulled something out of his pocket. It wasn’t very big, but Peter wasn’t going to judge it based off its size. 

Grinning, Toomes pushed the button on the side of the rectangular device–and nothing happened.

Peter, who’d been bracing for some sort of hit from a laser or something, relaxed as nothing shot out of the device. There was no bright flash of light or concussive burst of thunder–Peter realized with a start that his spidersense hadn’t even been going off.

It was now, though . . . not in the usual danger! way, but in a new way. There was something about to happen, but he couldn’t tell what.

He didn’t let his confusion show, though, instead laughing at the surprised look on Toomes’ face.

“Sorry, man–maybe it needs new batteries.”

Toomes growled in frustration, tossing the device aside. “I wouldn’t worry too much. Now it’s just time for Plan B.”

Why did supervillains always have to have a Plan B?

Toomes’ wings once again detached from his back, and started flying back around the warehouse. Peter yelped as they came close to the pillar he was clinging to, jumping away at the last second. 

Thanks to his spidersense, the wings didn’t hit him once, he was happy to find. As the wings returned to their master’s back he dropped in a crouch on the ground, triumphantly ignoring the fact that his sixth sense was still tingling urgently.

“Ha! You missed!”

“True. But then again–I wasn’t really aiming for you.”

The tingling at the back of Peter’s neck spiked painfully as the pillars the wings had crashed through crumbled, the roof coming down with it. In the split second before he was hit with literal tons of rubble, he looked to the exit–but the Vulture was already gone.

Leaving Peter alone to be crushed under the weight. He couldn’t even try to hold any of it up before it had fully pinned him down on his back and legs–and then a particularly large piece hit his head, and he wasn’t awake to panic anymore.

/*/*/*/*/

Peter 1 looked around. So, this was not the Statue of Liberty.

“Uh, where are we?” Peter 3 asked, looking around.

“Anyone else’s tingle at full volume right now?” Peter 2 said. “I don’t like this.”

Peter 1’s heart was beating way too hard, and not just because of the battle he’d just left. He knew this area. He knew this place.

“Do you think we got taken to another another universe?” Peter 3 gasped. “Hopefully there’s a wizard here too that can send us back.”

“Guys, quiet,” Peter 1 cut them off, straining his ears. “I think I know this place.” A horrible sense of deja vu came over him and he pushed his interdimensional doubles back, putting a finger to his lips.

They all flinched as there was a horrible rumbling and tearing of metal; a second later they watched a nearby warehouse building collapse in on itself.

The pit in Peter 1’s stomach only intensified as he watched. No, no, no.

As the building fell, a single figure could be seen flying away from the wreckage. A man, with mechanical bird wings.

“Whoa,” Peter 3 muttered. “What was that ?”

Peter 1 didn’t bother answering, now that he had his confirmation of where–of when –they were. Remembering his own horrible panic in this moment he shot forward, running faster than he previously knew he could over to the collapsed building. 

The two older Peters, though confused, followed after their other self.

They were halfway there when they heard the screaming.

“Help! Help–somebody! Someone, please, I-I’m stuck, I can’t get out– please .”

Peters 2 and 3 almost faltered at the voice–it was younger, for sure, but sounded far too much like their newfound friend for comfort.

“It’s okay,” Peter 1 tried to shout to his younger self, but it came out more of a choked sob. “I’m coming, you’re going to be okay.”

The voice may have been quiet, but the youngest Peter still picked up on it. He paused for a second in his struggles, hoping he hadn’t imagined it. “H-hello?”

“Just hang in there!” That was a different voice. Were there two people coming to help him? The young superhero could practically sob at the thought.

Still unsure if he was imagining it he kept struggling, fighting to get himself out from under the rubble with little success so far.

He didn’t have to try for long, though. A second later three forms came running in and, when his spidersense didn’t alert him of any danger, Peter allowed himself to relax slightly under the rubble.

When the three of them kneeled by him, though, even though there wasn’t any danger, the boy’s spidersense did go off, in a different way than normal.

He glanced up as much as he could from under the rubble, squinting a bit. “You . . . you’re like me.”

Two of the men gasped as he raised his head.

“Peter 1?” The two asked at once.

Had the boy not had a literal building fall on top of him, he might be more panicked about 

the fact that these strangers that he still couldn’t really see in the darkness knew his name–and more confused that they called him by a number too.

The third form wasn’t in view anymore, but Peter could start to feel the rubble surrounding him shift.

“Ask questions later guys,” The unseen third figure said, “I promise I’ll explain, but help me get these off of him now.”

The two considerably more confused of his rescuers sprung back into action after that, brought back into the reality that a fifteen year old kid was currently stuck under tons of pounds of rubble.

Once enough was off of him, Peter scrambled out back to his feet, panting and nearly crying in relief. The smallest of the three was by his side to steady him, handing him back his mask should he want it.

“Th-thank you.” Peter took it, though didn’t put it on–these people had already seen his face, and he wasn’t quite ready to go back to breathing through the fabric again yet.

“I have so many questions,” One of the others muttered. “How is this possible?”

Peter felt once again that different tingle of his spidersense. The only people nearby were his rescuers, but this wasn’t a danger sense, it was more of a–connection.

“Who are you people?” Peter asked. He was starting to realize that not just anyone would have been able to lift that concrete off of him. “Are you . . . are you like me?”

“We are,” The one with their hand on him said, his voice tired. “More than you know.”

With that vague statement the man retracted his mask, revealing–Peter.

It wasn’t an exact double. This Peter was older, harder. His muscles were more pronounced and his face more mature, but it was definitely him.

“Whoa.” Peter backed up, looking between the three of them and taking a closer look. All three of the men were tall, lithe and corded with muscle, but there was far more similarity beyond that–all three of them had a suit emblazoned with a spider.

“Who . . . who are you?”

“It’s okay,” Older-him said. “You’re okay now. We’re like you, you’re right. Um, this is going to sound kind of crazy, but I’m you from about seven years in the future. These guys–well, they’re also Peter Parker and Spiderman, but from two other universes. This is Peter 2 and Peter 3.” He pointed to them in turn. “I’m Peter 1, to avoid confusion.”

Peter stared, starting to wonder if he’d gotten a concussion when all the rubble had fallen on him. Was this just a vivid hallucination?

The man that had been pointed out as Peter 3 gaped at him. “Did this building just fall on you?”

“Um, technically it was dropped on me by a guy in a vulture suit, but potato potahto I guess.” Peter shrugged.

“Are you okay?” Peter 2’s eyes were wide. 

“I’ve, uh, been better, but I’m okay.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa–” Peter 3 held up his hands in a rewind motion. “Can we go back to the ‘seven years in the future’ bit? Because there’s no way that that’s true, you guys are not seven years apart.”

Peter 1 blushed. “Well, depending on who you ask it’s really two years, but that’s not important right now. What’s important is that we can help you now. You still need to go after the Vulture and save Mr. Stark’s stuff.”

“Um, yeah,” Peter said, still feeling like he was way behind in this conversation. “Wait–oh my gosh, I’m so lost. Other universes? There’s a multiverse now?”

“Yeah, it was new to us too,” Peter 2 admitted. “I’ve seen a lot of weird stuff in the last few hours.”

“And if you’re me from the future, does that make me Peter 0?”

Peter 1 shrugged. “Sure, that works.”

Peter 0 nodded. “Yeah . . .” He finally caught up to what Peter 1 had said before. “Right! The Vulture! Yeah, we-we need to stop him. Wait–you’re me from the future. You’ve done this before, can you help me?”

Older-him smiled with a mix of fondness and sadness. “I have done this before. But you can too. We’re here to help you, but we’re following your lead. You’ve got this, Spiderman.”

“Agreed.” Peter 3 gave him a thumbs up. “We might not completely understand what’s going on here, but we’re here for whatever you need.”

“Wait a second–” Peter 2 seemed to realize something, and pointed to Peter 1. “You’re him, so . . . you’ve been crushed under a building too?”

“Oh, yeah. Guess I forgot to mention that.” He scratched the back of his neck. “But that’s not important now. Peter 0–lead the way.”

/*/*/*/*/

In another circumstance, Peter 0 would have been the worst candidate to lead a mission like this, Peter 1 knew. He was objectively the youngest of them, and the Spiderman with the least experience, not to mention the least protective suit.

But the younger boy needed this. Peter 1 himself had needed this challenge, this experience to prove to himself that he truly was a hero deserving of Mr. Stark’s attention and technology. That even though he was young, he could still be a hero.

Still, he wasn’t about to let his younger self go through what he had alone. He’d never forgive himself if he didn’t help Peter 0 now, timeline be darned.

He let Peter 0 lead them to the plane, where they found the Vulture trying to take control. 

This night encompassed some of Peter 1’s worst nightmares, but somehow it was easier now with Peters 0, 2 and 3 by him. They were able to look out for each other, and Peter could tell that this night wouldn’t progress for Peter 0 the same way it had for him. 

“What is this?” The Vulture growled as he stood on the hull. “Who are you?”

“Can’t you guess? I’m Peter Parker!” Peter 3 flipped forward, shooting a web at the Vulture.

“What a coincidence, I’m Peter Parker, too!” Peter 2 shot another web, this one that the Vulture dodged at the last second. “And by the way, dropping buildings on high schoolers is really not cool!”

One of the Vultures blasts went sideways as Peter 1 flipped away from it, hitting the left engine instead. 

“Whoa!” Peter 2 shouted. “That’s not good. This thing’s going to go down if we don’t do something.”

Peter 0 nodded, looking panicked. “Right–Peter 2, get in and try to stabilize the plane as much as possible. Fix our course somewhere clear of civilians. Peter 1, handle the Vulture; Peter 3–follow me!”

Peter 2 jumped into the cockpit as Peter 1 started firing web after web at Toomes, fighting to keep him under control. He aimed for his blasters first, determined to keep any more of the plane from being damaged. 

 He just hoped Peters 2, 0 and 3 could keep the plane from crashing as badly as it had the last time he’d done this. 

He wondered if Peter 0 was as scared as he’d been back in this moment all those years ago. Peter 1 could still see that night in his head, though the flashbacks were lessening with every minute that this fight differed from his own. 

With a final spray of webbing, he made certain that the Vulture wouldn’t be getting back up again, before meeting Peter 2 in the cockpit.

“How’s it going?”

“Is it too late to say that I don’t know how to fly a plane?” The older hero gave him a shaky smile. “I’m doing my best. Peters 3 and 0 have formed a sort of steering systems with their momentum. I’ve been able to stabilize our systems, but it’s hard to tell where they’re trying to lead me.”

“Here, I’ll be right back.” Peter 1 already had an idea as to where his younger self was taking them, but wanted to make sure. A quick look at their direction was all the confirmation he needed.

“We’re headed for Coney Island. I’m not surprised, it’s where I crashed the plane when I did this too.”

Peter 2 glanced at him. “I’m still not able to wrap my head around you doing this whole thing by yourself.”

“Yeah, well, at least this other me doesn’t have to. Try and keep us stable still, I don’t want there to be as much fire as when I did this. It really complicates things.”

“ Fire?”

“Eyes on the sky, Peter 2!”

Peter 1 ducked back out, checked that Toomes was still down, and then called down to the others.

“How are we looking? I know where we’re headed–will we get there okay?”

Peter 0 nodded before remembering that his older self couldn’t see the action from his vantage point. “We should be okay. It won’t be pretty, but it won’t be too big of a crash.”

Peter 1 thought back to how it’d gone for him. “And the things inside?”

“Can’t be sure, but I hope they’ll survive. Toomes?”

“Down for the count. I’ll make sure he stays that way.”

They were getting too close to the ground to continue the conversation, and Peter 1 braced himself against the surface for impact, keeping a hand on Toomes.

Before they got too close, Peters 0 and 3 swung to the ground and grabbed hold of the nose of the plane with another web, straining to keep it from crashing too hard.

It wasn’t graceful, by any means, but it wasn’t nearly as extreme as Peter 1’s original crash, either. Peter 1 was jarred off the plane as it skidded across the sand, landing in a roll on the ground.

Before he could get up, Peter 0 was there, offering his hand. “Are you okay?”

Peter 1 could have cried. This night had been his worst nightmare for months–the phantom sting of sand in burned palms had scarred him far longer than the physical pain. His first panic attack had been when a box had fallen onto him as he was cleaning out his closet and he’d collapsed to the floor, covering his head and whimpering as he waited for the rest of the building to crumble around him, too.

And now there was no fight. Toomes was still trapped under an ungodly amount of webbing, Mr. Stark’s plane was mostly–kind of–still intact, and true to Peter 2’s word, there were minimal fires around them, which were being extinguished by Peters 2 and 3. 

He looked over at his younger self, still in that homemade suit, still covered in dust from the warehouse, but okay. He’d have nightmares for sure, and wouldn’t forget this night, but maybe he’d be free from some of the other traumas Peter 1 had suffered from his own experience with the Vulture on Homecoming night.

Sweeping forward, he grabbed the younger hero into a hug, pulling him close.

“Oh.” Peter 0 stiffened slightly before melting into the hug, his head against Peter 1’s shoulder. “This is nice.”

Peter 1 chuckled at the parallel to his hug with Mr. Stark– Mr. Stark!

“I need to call Mr. Stark!” He pulled away.

“Who’s that?” Peters 2 and 3 came over.

“He’s Iron Man–I mean, wait, you guys don’t know who that is. Um, he’s one of the Avengers I mentioned earlier. Earth’s Mightest Heroes.”

“Oh, yeah, those guys you worked with,” Peter 3 nodded.

Peter 0 nearly choked. “Wait, do we work with the Avengers again?”

Peter 1 winced at the innocent hope in the young boy’s eyes; Peter 0’s next encounter with the Avengers wouldn’t be nearly as exciting as he clearly expected it to be.

“Well, yes. But anyway, I can call Mr. Stark, he can come here to help.”

“Help with what?” Peter 2 asked. “I’d say we did a pretty good job here. Peter 0, you were a great leader.”

The youngest Spiderman groaned. “I’m starting to regret picking that title–the zero part just makes me sound lame.”

“Whoa, whoa–” Peter 2 furrowed his brows. “Where did that come from? Because you are not lame. You are incredible, do you hear me?” He turned to Peter 1. “What is with Spidermen and having low self esteem? Wait–you’re the same person as him–do you think you’re lame, too?”

Well, lame wasn’t the right word for how Peter 1 thought about himself, but he also didn’t exactly think of himself positively, so he just shrugged.

Excusing himself from more of the oldest hero’s affirmations, nice as they were to hear, Peter 1 started to call Mr. Stark.

“He won’t answer,” Peter 0 said. “He’s mad at us, remember?”

“He made us this suit, it can override a call to him.” Sure enough, Peter 1 was able to use Karen to force the call through, and Mr. Stark picked up a second later, annoyed.

“Peter, I’d like an explanation as to why Karen is calling me right now, when you don’t have your suit with you?”

Peter 1 couldn’t answer for a long minute. He’ll admit that most of his motivation to call Mr. Stark came not out of a desire for his help, but just to hear his voice again, possibly even see the man. It had been so long since he’d heard the man’s voice in person, and wouldn’t forgive himself if he didn’t take advantage of the chance while they were here.

“I asked you a question, Peter–how do you have access to Karen right now?”

“Mr. Stark.” Peter 1 cleared his throat. “It’s, um, that’s a really long story. But have you–I mean, your plane crashed.”

“What? How could you possibly know that?”

“Long story short, four versions of myself just crashed it to stop the Vulture from stealing it and the weapons inside of it.”

There was a pause. “I think I’m going to need the long version of that story. I’m tracking your location now.”

Good. Peter 1 had hoped he would want to come and talk to them in person, had been counting on it in fact. He just wanted to see him again.

“He’s coming,” He told the others. “Iron Man, he’s . . . a billionaire scientist who invented the Iron Man suit to escape terrorists, and later refined it to help others. He’s the one who initially invited me–us–whatever–to do work with some of the Avengers. He gave us this really advanced suit.”

“That doesn’t look all that advanced to me,” Peter 3 looked dubiously at Peter 0’s tattered homemade suit.

“Not this,” Peter 0 blushed. “I made some mistakes and he took the suit away. Though by the look of Peter 1’s suit, he must forgive me at some point.”

“He does,” Peter 1 assured him. “Pretty much right after this incident. He saw how much we went through to keep his stuff safe and out of Toomes’ hands and realized that he was wrong to take away the suit.”

He saw Peter 0 hesitate, frown.

“What’s wrong?”

“He let you keep the suit,” The boy countered. “You saved his plane by yourself. You got yourself out from under the building by yourself, you didn’t need other versions of yorself to help you–I did. What if he doesn’t think I should have it back?”

Peter 1 exchanged a meaningful glance with Peters 2 and 3.

“Peter,” He told his younger self seriously. “I hope you know that you could have done all of that stuff, too. But I–we–are so, so glad you didn’t have to. Getting help and being able to work as part of a team does not make you weaker than if you’d done it yourself. And it makes it better for everyone else, too–I was injured for weeks after stopping Toomes, even with my enhanced healing. Not to mention all the public damage, and the fact that most of Mr. Stark’s stuff got destroyed in the crash. Doing it with all four of us, though, we managed to avoid all of that.”

“Peter 1’s right,” Peter 2 agreed. “We all know you would have been able to handle this on your own, but we hope you realize that it’s okay that you didn’t have to. We’re all glad we were brought here to help you.”

Peter 1 could tell that his younger self saw using his other selves to help him stop Toomes as a cheat-out, and thought somehow that he was missing out on a vital part of being a hero, but Peter 1 didn’t care. Heaven knows the younger hero will have plenty of opportunities in the future to accumulate trauma.

“Speaking of us being brought here to help you, though,” Peter 3 chimed in, “how did that happen? One minute we were in the middle of our own fight, and then there was this flash of light and we reappeared outside the warehouse you and the bird guy were fighting in.”

“Before he dropped the roof on me, Toomes had this Chitauri device he tried to use to kill me or something. We thought it didn’t do anything, but apparently it brought you all from the future. Maybe we can use it to send you all back to your own time.”

“Chitauri?” Peter 3 asked. “Is that some sort of tech company, like Oscorp?”

“Oh, no,” Peter 0 corrected, “The Chitauri were a race of aliens that invaded in 2012 and nearly destroyed New York. The Avengers stopped them.”

Peter 2 nodded with understanding, and turned to Peter 1. “Were these the same aliens you were telling us about? Did you help fight them?”

Peter 1 started to deny it, right as Peter 0 exclaimed, “we fight aliens? Is there another invasion in the future?”

“Um, sort of . . . it’s complicated, though, and I’m not sure I should tell you too much about it. I’m pretty sure we’ve already screwed up the timeline enough.”

No way was he telling this young, still partway innocent version of himself that in less than a year he’d dust away on a foreign planet before blipping back into existence and watching his latest father figure die.

Luckily, he was spared from answering any more questions as the familiar sound of repulsors sounded from above them. Peters 0, 2 and 3 looked a mix of wary and awestruck, but Peter 1 just felt like he could fall to his knees. He was right there.

“Holy crap, there really are four of you.” The hero’s faceplate retracted as he touched down, and he stepped out of the suit. “To think, just the one was giving me enough gray hairs.”

Before he could get anything else out, Peter 1 had surged forward, pulling the billionaire into a hug, just a bit of super strength seeping through as he squeezed, murmuring lamentations about how “the last one wasn’t long enough.”

Even Tony himself could feel that he wasn’t getting out of this embrace before Peter let him out, and resignedly accepted it. Exasperated as he was, though, not even he could stay completely stern when the boy pulled back with tears coursing down his cheeks.

“Okay.” Tony looked between the four Spidermen, his head trying to wrap itself around the sight. “Explanations–now.” He paused as they all heard the sirens on the way to the site, the story of a plane crashing into Coney Island surely making the news by now. “On second thought–Peter–I mean,” He sighed, rubbing his temples, “whichever of you Peters know the way to Stark Industries, lead the way for the others. I’ll meet you there, and we can talk in private. I’ll leave a window open.” 

With a final look at the four Spiders, he stepped back into his suit, letting it close around him before taking back off into the night.

Slinging an arm around Peter 0, Peter 1 nodded to the others.

“Follow us.”

/*/*/*/*/

Tony Stark had seen a lot in his life, and he liked to think of himself as pretty open minded, especially when it came to scientific discoveries.

Time travel and the multiverse, however, were not any of the things he’d expected to be talking about today.

Once he’d checked out all four Spidermen medically–and gotten Peter 0 into some better clothes than his dirt-streaked suit–he sat them all down in the living room of his penthouse, unable to stop staring at them all.

They weren’t identical, even the two that they’d said were from the same universe. But they were all muscle-bound, with brown hair and brown eyes–and a battle hardened look to themselves.

First, the one called Peter 1 gave the incredibly vague version of what had been going on in his time, before letting Peter 0 take over the narrative, explaining everything else that had happened over the night.

Tony felt his heart drop as they recounted the building collapse. If these other Spidermen hadn’t showed up, Peter 0 would have had no way of contacting Tony or anyone else for help. The boy had been being reckless going after the Vulture, yes, but Tony should have considered other options before just taking away his suit and leaving him without the necessary protection to accompany his reckless nature.

“And then Peter 1 called you so that you could come help. We brought this–” Peter 0 pulled out the device they’d taken from Toomes that had brought the three other Peters there. “We were hoping you could help us figure out how to send the three of them back to their own time.”

Tony took it, examining its surface. Even at a glance he could tell that it wasn’t Earth tech, and knew it would take a bit of time to figure out. “I promise I’ll get you three back where you belong. I can’t promise how long it’ll take to figure out, but I can at least assure you it’ll be done.”

“We can help,” Peter 2 offered. “We may have never dealt with alien tech before, but we do have a lot of scientific experience.”

Four Peter Parkers, all firmly on the chaotic good alignment, with a penchant for advanced science. As helpful as he hoped they would be, Tony could already feel the chaos that would come from it.

Keeping a tight hold on security, he invited the four Peters down to his lab, where they all studied the schematics of the device and deciding how to alter it so that it would get Peters 1-3 back to where they’d come from.

“I still can’t believe time travel is possible,” Tony muttered as he typed in some more code. “It shouldn’t be, by all known properties of physics.”

Peter 3 shrugged beside him. “Well, we just found out today that the multiverse and literal magic is real, so time travel doesn’t seem that spectacular at this point.”

Peter 2, Tony had noticed, had been oddly quiet for a lot of the time, seeming to study Tony even more than the mostly-dismantled device. Once, Tony had even caught him using FRIDAY to google information on Tony.

“You know, if you want, I’d be happy to gift you my biography before you go.”

The oldest Spiderman chuckled and shook his head. “Can I ask you a question? You’re a charismatic, powerful, genius man with a lot of power and technology at your disposal as the head of a large, influential tech conglomerate.”

“Guilty as charged.”

“No offense, but would you say there is any chance of you becoming, say, a deranged supervillain?”

Tony narrowed his eyes at the suspiciously specific question. “I’ve got plenty of my own issues, but no, I’d say that isn’t a huge possibility. Why? Is the Tony Stark in your universe a supervillain?”

“No, but someone else with those qualifications was.” His eyes shift over to Peter 1, and he shakes his head. “I don’t want to talk about it too much. Just wanted to make sure it wouldn’t happen with you. Peters 0 and 1 look up to you a lot, you know.”

Tony winced–after tonight’s story, he wasn’t sure either versions of the boy had any reason to look up to him, let alone that he deserved the desperate hug Peter 1 had pulled him into. 

“I know,” He finally murmured. “I made a mistake–lots of them, when it came to Peter. I’m . . . trying to do better.”

Peter 2 smiled and patted him on the shoulder, before returning to the work in front of him.

Remembering the older hero’s words, Tony did make sure to apologize to both Peter 1 and 0 for the way he handled the situation with Toomes and the Peters. He apologized for ever having put them in so much danger, and for putting them in a situation where they weren’t able to contact him for help.

“You’re a good kid,” He told Peter 0. “I’ll admit that you getting hurt because I brought you to that fight in Germany . . . it terrified me. Turns out you were just put in more danger by my distancing myself from you.”

He expected he’d never forget the look on the young boy’s face when he invited him to come up to the tower a few times a week to do some training or work on updating his suit with Tony in the lab.

“As for you,” He turned to Peter 1, “I expect you and I have a lot to talk about.”

“I think we’re almost finished with the modifications,” Peter 3 called. 

“Feel free to take your time,” Tony responded, before steering Peter 1 over to the couch for  a bit of privacy–well, as much as they could get with there being three other people in the room with super hearing.

“I’m sorry about hugging you,” The boy apologized first. “I, uh, I know that you’re not big on physical touch, and I shouldn’t have hugged you without your permission.”

Tony may not have been ready for the embrace at all, but he could recognize that the boy had needed it, and wasn’t about to reprimand him for it.

“Don’t worry about it. We can talk more about that after, but I also wanted to ask about your suit. I had that ready to offer to your other self–well, later.” He didn’t want Peter 0’s super hearing to ruin the surprise of Tony wanting to offer him a place in the Avengers, and Peter 1 likely already knew what he was referring to. “Does this mean that in the future you . . . accept?”

Peter smiled. “I think I’ll leave that for you to see.” The smile faded, leaving Peter 1 looking much older than he should. “A lot happens in the future. Like, a lot. I don’t know about a lot of what you do for a certain period of time, but a lot of it is–not good.”

“Story of my life, kid,” Tony tried to joke, but the serious look stayed on Peter’s face.

“In my time, it’s been . . . a long time since I’ve seen you. And I . . . I really miss you.”

Tony Stark was no stranger to the effects of mourning on a person. Based off of the tightness in Peter’s voice and the slight shine to his eyes, him missing Tony wasn’t just because the billionaire had spontaneously moved to Scotland.

Peter 1 wasn’t much older than his younger counterpart–physically, at least. Tony wouldn’t put them more than three years apart.

Which meant that sometime before Peter’s eighteenth birthday, Tony would most likely die.

He wondered if it would be worth it.

“I’m sorry, kid–Peter.” Pushing past the awkwardness, he put a hand over the kid’s. “I’m not going to pretend I know exactly how time travel works, but I’m going to to try and fix this. I’m going to do better by Peter 0. I’m sorry . . . I’m sorry I can’t be there for you anymore.” With a sudden idea, he reached for a nearby scrap of paper and a pen, scrawling out a quick note. “Here. Give this to Pepper in your time–wait, please tell me she’s still alive . . .”

“She is,” Peter confirmed, pointedly not mentioning the couple’s daughter.

“Thank goodness. Well, give this to her. Even if I can’t be there, I want you two to keep in touch. I think you would really get along.”

Peter took the paper gratefully, subconsciously leaning further into Tony’s side. “Thank you, Mr. Stark.”

“Something tells me you can call me Tony, Pete. I think we’re there.”

Peter just shook his head, offering no explanation–one of the only times he’d called the billionaire by his first name was when the man was dying in front of him.

“Do–do you think we’re there enough for me to hug you again?”

As soon as Tony nodded his consent, he had his arms full of exhausted, emotionally drained Spider-teen again, the boy shaking slightly against his chest.

With the knowledge that someday–sooner rather than later–he would lose the chance to do this again, he closed Peter Parker into his arms, placing his head onto Peter’s, and rubbing a hand up and down the boy’s back.

After a couple minutes Peter 1 pulled back, surreptitiously wiping at his eyes again. “Okay. I’m, um, I’m ready. Once the device is done, I’m–I’m okay to go back.”

“Are you sure?”

Sure about going back to a future where Tony was dead, May was dead, the remaining Avengers were scattered? Where the multiverse was breaking, and it was all Peter’s fault, and he was about to go right back into a battle to fight interdimensional, should-be-dead villains from Peter 2 and 3’s universes, one of which had killed May?

No, he wasn’t. But then again, he suspected he never really would be.

So he nodded, walking with Tony back to the table where the other three Peters were making the final touches to the modified Chitauri device.

“We ready?” Tony asked, examining the device once more and nodding to himself.

Peter 3 nodded in confirmation. “I gotta say, I really hope these alien things never invade my world, because their technology is seriously off the charts. My Earth would probably just die.”

“Rip, man,” Peter 0 shook his head; Tony furrowed his brow, reminding himself to keep Peter away from too many more of those nihilistic millennial memes.

“It’s set to take us back to the moment right after we left,” Peter 2 said. “I mean, I hope–it could also make a smoothie of our insides. It is mostly alien technology after all.”

“Love the confidence.” Tony turned the dial, starting the countdown from ten seconds. “Well–Peter, Peter, Peter–it was surreal meeting you. And nice too, I guess. Look out for each other, will you?”

“Bye Mr. Stark!”

“Don’t turn into a supervillain!”

/*/*/*/*/

The contrast of going from Tony Stark’s private lab back to a battle scene complete with flying sand and the constant crackle of electricity was a jarring one.

“Whoa.” Peter 3 blinked. “So, just to check–that really happened, right? It wasn’t some weird hallucination as a side effect of multidimensional travel?”

“No.” Peter 1 shook his head, still trying to go from emotional-discussion mode back to battle mode. “That was real.”

He got to see Mr. Stark again. That was enough–not to mention the letter for Ms. Pepper still burning in his pocket. Perhaps he’d put that to good use someday.

“Back to the present, though.” Peter gave them his best confident smile before donning his mask again, cueing them to do the same. “Everyone ready? Then let’s do this.”

And they swung out together.