Archive of Our Own

It was no mystery to anyone that Peter spent a lot of his spare time in the lab tinkering with things. Most of the time he was writing up new formulas for his webbing or helping Tony with upgrades to their suits. Sometimes he would be down there doing homework or projects, or just keeping Tony and Bruce company.

Currently Peter was sitting at a table with a blender, an old toaster, and several pieces of junk from an electronics store that were going to be trashed because they didn’t work. He figured he could savage whatever was in them even if they were pretty much dust.

He started with the toaster; unscrewing what could be unscrewed, taking out the wires and bits of metal, writing down every little detail about everything— wire length, screw size, how much of everything there was, and the date of when he got it. After the toaster, he moved on to the blender, then the scrap electronics. He was down there for a few hours before anyone checked on him.

“School project?” Tony asked from over the boy’s shoulder.

“No.” Peter replied. “Just a… to be honest I don’t really know what I’m doing but I figured I could use the parts for something.”

“You do know that I can supply you with anything you need right?”

“Yeah but that’s no fun. The point of doing this is I don’t know what the outcome’s gonna be. I have no expectations so I can’t be disappointed if whatever I’m doing doesn’t turn out right.”

Tony snorted. “Can’t say that’s a good mindset to have but I think I understand where you’re coming from. But anyways, you’ve been down here for hours and I’m pretty sure you haven’t eaten in that time and I know your hot aunt will kill me if she finds out I’m not feeding you.”

Peter set down the electronic device he was fiddling with and looked at his watch. He didn’t realize how many hours had actually passed while he was working and only started to realize how hungry he actually was. He then looked to the table in front of him and was surprised at how many little piles of things he had.

“Huh, I didn’t know I got this much done. But you’re totally right about food right now.”

“Yeah I’m right about a lot of things.” Peter rolled his eyes at the comment. “Let’s go get something. I think Tweety said he was gonna make chili dogs.”

It was like that for the next few days. Peter would enter the tower with his arms full of, what Tony described as junk, and headed straight for the lab. It concerned Bruce when he saw Peter enter and not come out for the whole day. He was a workaholic like Tony was when he got an idea in his head and that often meant skipping meals. While it was concerning when Tony did it, it was outright dangerous for Peter because of his metabolism, though when asked to see footage of what he was doing FRIDAY pulled up the video feed to show empty soda cans and snack bags littering the floor around him. Not exactly what he should’ve been eating but it was better than nothing.

One thing they figured out when they’d gone to check on him was that he got very snappy.

Clint had ventured down out of pure boredom in hopes of maybe going out for a little while. When he questioned Peter about it, he declined.

“Thanks but no thanks Mr. Barton.”

“Come on kid. We could go for a drive, maybe stop at an arcade, all you can eat buffet—”

“Yeah, sure because I totally want to drop everything I’m doing to go do stuff with you.”

Tony, Bruce, Steve, and Bucky— who had all been watching the exchange on one of the monitors in the living room— let out some form of laughter. Bucky outright cackled at the look of surprise and alarm on Clint’s face as he made no attempt to say anything else and left the room.

Natasha was the next one to attempt to make contact with the boy. After she had discovered the five men watching a feed of him in the lab and making bets on what he was making, she decided she wanted in and seeing as she was determined to win, she merely walked in to get an answer.

“Whatcha up to kid?”

“Something.” He answered as he soldered two wires together.

“Yeah I can see that.” She replied bluntly. “Do you want to maybe elaborate a little bit?”

“Nope.”

Natasha crossed her arms and was about to ask another question but Peter cut her off.

“No offense Ms. Romanoff but I’m busy. Can I ignore you at another time?”

Natasha’s eyes widened and her mouth opened slightly. No one talked to her that way, least of all Peter. Nonetheless, she gave him props for actually saying it rather than being intimidated and left the lab.

When she arrived back in the living room she heard Clint roaring with laughter and watched as Steve took a twenty out of his wallet and handed it to Tony.

“I thought we made bets on what he was making.” She raised an eyebrow at the scene.

“Yeah but seeing as he snapped at Tweety, we wanted to see if it was just a one time thing. Apparently not.” Tony answered as he shoved the money into his wallet.

They had all taken turns checking on him throughout the day and all had similar experiences. Steve barely got five feet into the room before Peter gave him anything.

“Good to see you Cap, really liked the approach. I’m sure the departure is just as good.”

Bucky’s was lackluster, a simple No before the door had a chance to close behind him.

Bruce had opted out of the whole thing. If Peter didn’t want to be disturbed while he was working then he would leave him be. Tony was expecting him to break when he went to see him though.

“Okay kid. Out with it, what are you doing? You’ve all but locked yourself down here for the past few days. We’re kinda worried.”

“Nothing’s exploded so I don’t think you need to worry.” Peter didn’t even look up from what he was doing.

“Come on Pete. Seriously, what’s up?”

“You’re a genius, figure it out.”

A frown crossed Tony’s face. “Kid either you tell me what you’re making or I’m taking your suit.”

That got Peter to look at him. It was Peter’s turn to frown, not a hard one but a frown nonetheless. He placed the goggles that were on his eyes on his forehead and got up, walking towards Tony before actually walking past him to a chair with his backpack on it. He opened it up, pulled his suit out and all but shoved it into Tony’s grasp before returning to his work station.

“Just so you know, I need another parachute.”

Tony was lost. He stared at the suit in his hands then at the boy who had just willingly given up said suit. It was all very— not Peter like. He huffed knowing that his plan had backfired and turned to leave, dropping the suit back on Peter’s bag before he left.

“FRIDAY do you have any idea what he’s doing in there?” He asked the AI as he went from the lab to the elevator. “Has he said anything or asked you about what to do?”

“No sir. He has been quiet besides the occasional music in the background. If I may add, he also asked me to be completely silent and not try to interact with him unless he had addressed me first.”

He let out a sigh as he exited the elevator and joined the others in the living room, paying no attention to the smirks they had on their faces. There had to be something they could do to figure out what Peter had been working on the past few days, maybe someone they could call…

Tony pulled out his phone, dialed a number, and put it on speaker for the others to listen. It was only a few seconds before they picked up.

“Hello?”

“Ned! How you doing kid?”

“M—Mr. Stark?!” Ned practically yelled. “How do you know my number?!”

“Hey I keep tabs on everyone of value and seeing as you hacked into my tech, you got your name on the list.” Tony rubbed his eyes. “Listen, has the kid said anything to you about a project or something?”

“Peter? Uh, yeah actually. He said he found some cool retro things and was gonna try to make something out of them. Is something wrong?”

“Yeah, the kid’s been snapping at us whenever we ask him about what he’s doing.” Clint called in a somewhat annoyed tone.

“That was— wait, am I on speaker?”

“You are son.” Steve answered. “You got everyone here except Thor.”

The line was silent for a few seconds. ”Whoa. I’m actually talking to the Avengers. This. Is. Amazing.”

“Ned please, we need answers.” Tony said. “Do you have any idea on what he’s making? He’s spending all of his time shut up in the lab whenever he’s here.”

“Sorry Mr. Stark but your guess would be as good as mine. You just kinda need to wait for him to be done with it. And try not to mind him snapping, he kinda goes into a sort of trance when he’s working on something super important and gets pissed at anyone who bugs him; his brain goes to autopilot and just kinda goes off. He’ll apologize for it when he finishes.”

“So you’re saying there’s no real thing to do except wait.” Natasha confirmed.

“I mean he should be almost done right? He told me he was working on something on Tuesday and it’s already Saturday. Whenever he starts something like this, it never goes past a week at most. He’ll either finish it or give up because the idea didn’t plan out. But yeah, you can really only wait.”

“All right, thanks kid.” Tony said before quickly hanging up, knowing that Ned would definitely try something to make the call longer. “You guys think we should lure him out with food?”

“Didn’t his friend just say we have to wait?” Bucky raised an eyebrow. “Let the kid be; three more days sitting down there should be fine.”

Tony rolled his eyes but left it at that. Peter was stubborn and everyone knew they wouldn’t get anything until he was done with whatever he was working on. So they did what Ned told them to and left him be.

Well, almost all of them, though it wasn’t Bruce’s intention to disturb Peter at all. He just needed a few papers for his own project.

When he entered the lab, he barely gave the boy a glance. He was still sitting at the table and fiddling with things like he had been the first day and every other time he saw him from the living room. He had no intention to interact with him and merely went to the other end of the lab to collect his papers.

He was doing his best to be quick and fast about the whole thing because frankly he didn’t want to see how Peter would snap at him. He gathered the papers he needed and was going to head back out when a few loose ones fell to the floor. It sounded almost deafening with how quiet the lab was.

Bruce knelt down to collect the papers and when he looked up Peter had turned in his chair and was staring at him.

“Ah, sorry Pete. I didn’t mean to disturb you. I just needed some research.”

“Oh, no Dr. Banner. You just startled me. I didn’t hear you— come... in?” A confused look appeared on Peter’s face. Did he really just say that?

“Uh huh… I’m sure; boy with super hearing didn’t hear me enter.” Bruce rolled his eyes. “I’ll leave you to your project.”

“Actually I’m pretty much done with it; just need to make it look good now.” He took off his goggles and set them on the table.

Bruce walked to the table and had no idea what he was looking at. The base of it was most likely a toaster oven and he was pretty sure he saw old gaming cartridges but other than that, it just sort of looked like junk.

“Is it— is it okay to ask what it is exactly or—?”

Peter smirked at his confusion and asked a question “Dr. Banner, have you ever seen Back to the Future?”

Bruce blinked in surprise. “Not recently but yeah. I know it.”

“But you know the whole premise of it?” Bruce nodded. “Okay so I was thinking, why not try it?”

“Try it?” Bruce gave him a questioning look before frowning slightly. “Pete are you trying to tell me you’ve been working on making a time machine out of a toaster?”

Peter blinked at him. “Well when you say it like that it sounds stupid.”

“I mean— come on Pete. Really? Do you expect this thing to actually work in some way? It really just seems a bit impossible.”

“Have a little faith Dr. Banner. I know it doesn’t look pretty but once I finish finish it, something is bound to happen. Besides it’s not like time travel is impossible; I’m sure Dr. Strange has done it a few times.”

“The only thing I can see happening when you’re done with this is some sort of explosion.” Bruce huffed. “And Strange has a magic time rock. Pretty sure that’s not the same thing as a microwave and a toaster welded together.”

Peter crossed his arms and frowned slightly. “Doc Brown made a time machine out of a car…”

“Time travel is nigh impossible and I hate to tell you but it’s a fictional movie that took place in like the eighties. The second movie took place in 2015 and were way past that.”

“Maybe I just need some uranium…”

“No.” Bruce stated. “You even think about getting any sort of radioactive isotopes and I swear I’ll be worse than your aunt finding out you were Spider-man.”

Peter held his hands up in defeat. “Fine, no radioactive isotopes but I will get this working somehow.”

“Course you will; maybe it’ll send the bread back in time to become dough, or unpop popcorn.” Bruce teased and smirked at the frown on Peter’s face. “Sorry Pete but I won’t believe it until I see it with my own eyes.”

“Guess I just need to make you a believer then.”

Bruce rolled his eyes. “I’m sure you will. Now what do you say to seeing the light of day for more than ten minutes?”

***

“Come on Bruce. Spill. What’s the kid making?” Tony asked. “You’re the only one that’s talked to him about it. I can’t even get FRIDAY to tell me. She only says he working on Project Delorean and I have no goddamn clue what that means.”

Bruce resisted the urge to outright laugh in Tony’s face. It had been two days since he’d talked to Peter about his project and everyone had been hounding him to tell them what he found out. He wasn’t going to tell them of course. That was all Peter, and quite frankly it was very funny and entertaining to see all the different was Peter came up with to tell them to leave him alone.

“Sorry Tony, it’s not my call to make. Peter will tell you what he’s working on when he’s finished. Maybe if you guys wouldn’t pester him then he’d tell you.”

“He’s been down there for day, way longer than his friend said he would take. I don’t even think he’s gone out on patrol for a week.”

Bruce just shrugged. “Projects like that takes time.”

“Project like what?” Tony huffed. “No, you know what? I don’t care anymore. Kid wants to do his own thing and keep it a secret? That’s fine. We’re all entitled to our secrets. So let’s not be nosy and respect his privacy. He’ll tell us when he’s ready.”

An audible laugh was heard from another room.

It was a few minutes later that Peter actually appeared, coming as a surprise to everyone. The sun hasn’t even set and no one had gotten him.

“Well look who decided to show his face.” Clint teased. “I was starting to think you might have made your own spider nest in that lab.”

“I considered it but May would get lonely.” Peter said. “Um, sorry about what I said whenever you came in. It’s a really bad force of habit that I can’t seem to ever break from.”

Clint snorted a laugh. “Don’t sweat it kid. We had our share of laughs about it. Does this mean you’re done with it?”

“Yeah actually. I haven’t tested it yet but it’s all done.” Peter heard footsteps and suddenly all the others were in the room. “Um…?”

“We forgive you.” Natasha said. “Now spill.”

Peter raised a brow, looking to Bruce who hadn’t moved from his spot. “Dr. Banner didn’t tell you?”

“He didn’t, no matter how much he was pestered.”

“Uh, okay— um, to be honest I thought he would’ve told to at least lessen the whole shock value thing. Sorry Dr. Banner.”

“Don’t worry about it. I almost did because of Tony’s constant whining.” Bruce said.

“I was not whining.” Tony defended.

“You were, like a dog.” Bucky chimed in.

“It’s all okay though.” Steve said. “Pete, were all curious about what’s had your attention for the past week and a half, so do us a favor and please just tell us.”

Peter blinked at them. “Can you wait like five more minutes? I had a whole demonstration set up and now I need to change it slightly because Dr. Banner is a good secret keeper.” They all groaned as Peter went back towards the elevator. “Six minutes tops. I’ll have FRIDAY tell you when to come down.”

They were all silent for a moment before Clint spoke. “You guys know how when you haven’t eaten for a while and you get dressed up and go to a fancy restaurant  and you see a waiter coming with food and completely bypass your table? That’s what this moment just felt like.”

***

Peter hurried into the lab. There was no set up or demonstration. He had just thought Bruce would’ve told them and it would help with the weird embarrassment he was feeling. It did seem rather silly if he really thought about it. Even with all the technology they had, they couldn’t travel through time. Strange of course was an exception because he used a magic rock.

He picked up his device, checking it one more time to see if he missed anything. It did honestly just look like a really bad toaster oven. He was sure everyone would be able to identify everything that was used to make it, mainly the toaster, microwave, and blender parts. There was nothing he could do about it now.

He did feel like he should test it though. Even though he had the plan of testing it with everyone else, he felt like he would get teased less if it worked at least once even if no one was watching.

So he set the dial forward ten minutes, pressed a few buttons and waited. He didn’t know what he was expecting to happen but knew it wasn’t good when the thing started to smoke. When he attempted to stop it, it caught fire and sort of exploded, leaving a scorch mark in the middle of the table. So much for a trial run.

“Uh FRIDAY, you can tell everyone they can come down now.” Peter sighed, slightly defeated. The pieces were everywhere, scattered among the surprisingly clean floor. Had Tony cleaned the prior day and he just didn’t notice?

“The boss will be down momentarily.”

And since when had FRIDAY’s voice sounded like that? Is that what happens when he ignores people for extended periods of time?

He went around picking up the scraps of the machine. He would make it work somehow. He knew the concept, or at least a very, very broad version of the concept. One day he would make it work.

It wasn’t long before the lab door opened.

“Okay, before you ask what happened, let me say that I—” The words caught in Peter’s throat as he saw the man in front of him.

It was Tony, out of breath in a pair of faded jeans and AC/DC T-shirt, but he was aged. His hair was all gray and there were very fine wrinkles on his face.

“Peter?”

His voice was a bit husky and worn but the single word was barely above a whisper.

Peter took a moment to process what he was seeing before piecing it together. “Oh no.”

***

Peter’s eyes fluttered open. He sat up and stretched. He didn’t remember how he got In his bed. He must have just been that tired from the night before. He was also really sore. Did he have a rough time patrolling? Possibly, though he didn’t remember going out that night.

He did remember his project exploded in his face. He didn’t even get a chance to show everyone what it was. He was sure he would be in for some teasing for it though. Honestly, who would actually try to build a working time machine and succeed? Maybe he could ask Dr. Strange for some pointers.

His legs sung over the side of the bed and Peter went to the curtains to open them, only to be met with the dark of night instead of morning. He thought he had woken up a bit earlier than usual and the sun just hadn’t risen, but this clock was telling him it was 9:37pm. How long had he been sleeping?

“You there FRI?” He asked.

“I’m at your service.” FRIDAY answered back, her tone still slightly off. Maybe there was a bug.

“How long have I been asleep?”

“The boss brought you into your room at approximately 11:23pm last night and you’ve been sleeping peacefully ever since.”

Almost a full day? What happened that he forgot about?

“The boss is currently on his way up to see you. He wishes to know your wellbeing.”

Where they in some sort of battle? What would’ve caused him to sleep for an entire day? He didn’t remember anything after his machine blowing up. He had a weird dream about his machine actually working and sending him into the future but beyond that everything was blank.

It wasn’t long before there were two knocks on his door. It opened and Peter was sure he was still dreaming, because there was Tony, gray hair and all. The two of them stared at each other for a moment before Tony strode over and enveloped the boy in a hug.

“Uh— good morning Mr. Stark. Um, is something wrong or…?”

“It’s something like that.” Tony’s voice had a gruff state to it. It sounded as aged as he look.

“What is it? What happened yesterday? Does it have something to do with— that?” He gestured to Tony’s hair. “I don’t remember anything after telling you to wait so I could prepare a demonstration to show you my project. I know I probably made a mess in the lab so I’m sorry if that happened. I’ll clean it up if you didn’t already.”

“Pete.” Tony released him from the hug and sat him on the bed. His mouth opened several times trying to find the right wording. “Pete, you disappeared, for ten years.”

Peter blinked at him. “I’m sorry, what?”

“You heard it right. Yesterday for you has been ten years for everyone else.” He inhaled and sat on the bed. “That day, when you asked everyone to wait upstairs while you put finishing touches or whatever on your machine was the day you disappeared. When FRI gave us the go ahead to head down, when we got there, there was nothing except a scorch mark on the table. You were just— gone.”

“I— I… I don’t understand Mr. Stark. Are you telling me that my machine worked and I transported myself ten years into the future?” Tony merely nodded at his question. “Oh my god, this so isn’t as cool as it was in the movie.”

“Tell me about it. When you weren’t down there, Bruce told us you were trying to build a time machine. We all had a good laugh and poked fun but no one thought you’d actually succeed. We contacted Strange to see if he could find and bring you back, but he had nothing to go on; no references or clue to point out where you could’ve possibly been teleported to. We all thought you would’ve gone to the past but we’re proven wrong yesterday when you showed up out of thin air in the lab.”

Peter sat in silence trying to fully comprehend everything; actually making a working time machine from a toaster and microwave soldered together. “What… happened?”

“Ten years is a long time Pete. A lot of things happened. Gotta be more specific.”

“What happened with May?”

Tony rubbed the back of his neck. “Might as well get this out of the way… when you disappeared, we contacted May telling her we needed you for a week of extensive team training because we thought we’d have you back by then. When the week was up, we had to explain that you’d vanished, and she sort of lost it.”

Peter’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean she lost it?”

“I mean what I said. She lost it, had a complete breakdown. She watched the footage just like we had and it was like things just stopped for her. It was almost like she’d gone braindead. Helen said it was caused by mass depression where she just stopped caring anymore. She stopped eating and going to work, stopped taking care of herself because she couldn’t live not knowing what happened to you.

“She’s alive though. I had her transferred to our best care facility and she’s been well taken care of , but she hasn’t said a word since it happened.”

“Oh my god… I can’t believe— May…” He gulped. “What about Spider-man?”

“Pete—”

“Please.”

Tony sighed. “People started asking questions after a few weeks. We put out an official statement saying you were missing, kidnapped by some crazed madman in order to get to us. After six months of nothing, we made another statement, that you had been killed.” There was silence for a moment. “That’s when May broke. She requested we have a small funeral but all of New York seemed to turn up to honor its fallen hero.”

“People— know I’m Spider-man…?”

“They know you were Spider-man. Once the crime rate started to pick up, there was another that donned the suit, kid named Miles. He’s been keeping the city right since.”

“Okay. Okay uh, what about the others? Cap and Dr. Banner?”

“Pete you should rest.”

“Mr. Stark—”

“No. In case you don’t remember, you collapsed yesterday after traveling through time and slept for nearly a day. Strange said the action in and of itself is extremely stress inducing and taxing. You shouldn’t even have the strength to walk right now. If I feed you too much information at once I could send you into a stress induced coma. Just— sleep. We’ll try to figure everything out in the morning okay?”

“Yeah… okay. That sounds right.” Peter nodded slightly.

Tony stood up and went to the door. “Do you need anything? I can get late night pizza if you’re hungry.”

“No, I’m fine.  I’ll see you in the morning.” Peter’s eyes sought the floor. There was so much racing through his mind.

“Peter.” He glanced up to see a small smile on Tony’s face. “It’s really good to see you again.” With that he shut the door and walk away.

Peter smiled slightly. Ten years into the future… May living in a care facility, a new Spider-man swinging around New York. It was all so much to take in, and it was his fault. He should have never tried to make that machine. An sense of guilt snuck up on him. It was his fault that May was in that facility and it was his fault there was another Spider-man

His fault, his fault, his fault—

“Peter.” FRIDAY’s voice startled him. “Your heart rate and breathing has sped up. You’re most likely going into shock over all that has happened. Would you like me to help you calm yourself?”

“Please.” Peter’s voice was barely above a whisper. Not even ten seconds after he answered did a stream of soft music hit his ears.

He sat in the edge of the bed until midnight. He could breathe easy by then and the exhaustion on everything set in. He was sore all over and had a massive headache. The only thing he could do was crawl in bed and listen to the music as he drifted off into a restless sleep.

***

“How’s he doing FRI?” Tony asked as he look at the scraps in front of him.

“He’s just now fallen asleep. I believe he had a panic attack shortly after you left.”

Tony rubbed his hand down his face. “There’s nothing wrong with him though? No— side effects or injuries from it somehow?”

“No. The only slightly concerning thing is his elevated heart rate though the undo stress of everything is most likely the cause. Even now as he’s sleeping, it’s as if he were running. If it persists through the next few days, you should seek medical attention.”

“If he’s even here that long. Were you able to contact the others?”

“Yes. They will all be arriving first thing tomorrow. None of them seemed happy to receiving your cryptic He’s back, tower tomorrow message though.”

“How about Strange? Any word from him?”

“No. I’m still unable to get in contact with him or Wong.”

“Figures.” Tony snorted. “Keep trying. They’re probably the two best people to deal with it… you kept all the video and audio files from when the kid started working on this right?”

“Yes.”

“I want you to do anything and everything to find out all the things he brought in with him, every day he worked on it. Make a list and then see if you can find what you need online or shops that carry them. We need to get him back to his own time.”

***

The next morning seemed extensively different than the previous. Peter was woken up by the sunlight creeping in through the curtains in his room, and boy was he sore. Everything on him ached. It was like the few days after he fought the Vulture; having the building dropped on him and crashing a plane into the beach wasn’t something he could easily compare to but traveling ten years to the future was right on par with it. The amount of stress and strain on his body had been coming out and man was it uncomfortable

He sat up in bed and stretched, sleep still heavily weighing on his mind. His joints popped in various places and he debated just lying back down and going back to sleep. He wanted to wake up again and have everything back to normal, be back in his own time and break his machine.

Nonetheless he got out of bed and opened his curtains, letting light from the morning sun fill his room. If he didn’t know any better he would’ve thought he was still in his own time; his room looked exactly the same as he left it.

“Hey FRI?”

“Yes, Peter?”

“Has my room just been sitting since I disappeared?”

“For the most part. Boss wanted it how you left it incase you ever showed back up. There were some incidents with attacks over the years but he always made sure it was put back together. He often came in here when he needed to think or get away from people for a while. It seemed to calm him. He missed you very much.”

An odd sense of guilt flared in Peter’s chest. Mr. Stark had kept everything the same since the day he disappeared. The clock on his wall was still ticking, this laptop was still sitting on his desk with homework assignments, even the half finished water bottle was there. And what kind of incidents? Did the tower get blown up and his room destroyed? How did Mr. Stark get it back exactly how it was?

“Am I allowed any intel about what’s been happening with everyone else?”

“Not at the moment. The others should all be arriving in the hour though so they can tell you themselves. The boss would like to keep your knowledge about the future to a minimum though, for safety reasons.”

“It’s not like I can go to an old comic shop and buy a sports almanac and bet on the winners.” Peter sighed out with a small smile. “I get it though; could change the future for the worse… do you think I’d be able to see May? Like in person?”

“I don’t know Peter. I don’t think it would be a good idea with how her current mental state is, but I will inform the boss you asked.”

Peter huffed a thanks before flopping back in the bed. He had a headache. What good is time travel if he can’t do anything?

So he waited. He sat in his room lying across his bed until FRIDAY informed him that the others had begun to arrive. A dull ache encased his body as he got up and made his way through the hall towards the lounge. He heard raised voices greeting one another. He knew the people in the next room, so why did he get a sudden surge of fear and anxiety? It wasn’t like he was scared of them, a little nervous for how they would react maybe but fear? It was ridiculous.

“Come on in kid.” Tony’s voice called. “I think we’ve kept them waiting long enough.”

Peter gulped as he opened the door. The small chatter had stopped immediately as all sets of eyes were on him.

He noticed Bruce first; the man looked tired. He didn’t look nearly as aged as Peter would’ve thought but he equated it to the radiation. Then there was Natasha. Her hair was longer and dyed black. He could see the very fine lines by her eyes and forehead but other than that nothing really changed. The same couldn’t be said for Clint though. He looked rugged; hair shaved to a buzz, bags under his eyes, clear signs of being stressed. But he had three kids so it was expected. Steve and Bucky didn’t look like they’d aged at all. In fact they almost looked younger. He didn’t even put thought into Thor or Loki, whom Peter had to do a double take with because last he knew no one was on good terms with him; they were literal gods who were thousands of years old and he probably would’ve considered it insulting to them to even think he’d notice them age ten years.

“Uh, hey guys. Um— long time no see?”

“Peter?” Bruce took a few steps until he was in front of him. “Is it actually you?”

Peter gave a small smile. “I told you I could do it without radioactive isotopes.”

It took a moment but a large smile appeared on Bruce’s face as he wrapped Peter in a hug. “It’s really good to see you again kid.”

It was like that for everyone. They all took turns giving Peter hugs, telling him they couldn’t believe he was actually there, but Peter just kept smiling and assuring them that what was happening was real and he was the skinny sixteen year old kid from Queens that could stand on the ceiling. Loki had stayed out of it, watching in mock annoyance from his spot. He never actually interacted with him prior to the incident and, quite frankly, didn’t know why he had to be there in the first place. But seeing Peter with his own eyes intrigued him.

“It’s not that I’m not happy to see you alive and well, but why are you here?” Steve asked.

“I’ve been asking myself that same question every second I found out I went forward this far.” Peter said. “I tried to go only ten minutes, and it looks like my miscalculations caused— damage...”

“Peter I assure you that I speak for everyone here when I say we’re glad you’re here and not dead somewhere like we’ve forced ourselves to believe.”

“Thanks Cap.” He smiled slightly. “So, what now?”

“I’ve been having FRIDAY look over the tapes from when you were first building the machine and scouring the web to find the exact things you had.” Tony said. “You need to build another one to get back to your time.”

“Not that we don’t like having you here to make up for lost time, but the less you know about the future the better.” Clint added.  “I’m sure you know how the movies turned out.”

“Yeah I know; don’t wanna screw up the timeline more than I already have.” Peter turned to Tony. “I can just give you a list of the things I brought back every day instead.”

“Right, because it was like yesterday for you… okay kid. Get me a list and I’ll track everything down for you.”

***

Peter had been laying back in his room. He’d written up a list of all the broken down appliances and old game systems he rummaged and given it to Tony. He argued that Tony should search for broken ones that pretty much served as scrap at that point because those were the kinds Peter had used in the first place. Tony had argued that he should work with ones that were in working condition so it wouldn’t blow up in his face and send him to the wrong time again. They’d compromised for the most part; look through junk and salvage sites and if they weren’t there then they were bought in a basic new condition.

It was all nerve wracking. Peter didn’t remember every little thing he did to it because he was on autopilot when he made it. He did make notes of almost everything though. Hopefully Tony has put them in a safe place somewhere.

Then there was the ache. Peter thought it was just a general side effect because of the whole ten year leap, which was still a possibility, but he was really sore. His head hurt to the point where he thought he was going into sensory overload but it never really seemed to go beyond that and he was stuck at the peak before it actually happened. He felt ill, almost nauseous. Was it possible to get motion sick from time travel?

“You are the spider child.” Peter nearly had a heart attack at Loki’s sudden presence in the room.

“Spider-man actually.” He shot back.

“Oh, but not anymore you’re not, not in this future at least. You don’t exist in this future.”

“Can I help you with something or did you come to torment me?”

“If I had come to torment you then you would know.” Loki smirked at Peter’s eye roll. “You’re dying.”

Peter blinked at him. “Excuse me, what?”

“You can feel it can’t you? There’s something wrong with you on a cellular level; you’re not regenerating as fast as you should be and it’s causing— problems.”

“How do you know that?”

“I can see it. You human have a saying— eyes are the window to the soul— or some nonsense like that; your eyes are telling me all I need to know that you will not last a fortnight in this time.”

***

Two weeks.

Loki had told Peter he wouldn’t last two weeks in that time, and he was starting to believe him.

He had been there three days and the ache never seemed to go away. It was there, a constant sensation of discomfort that seemed to flare at random intervals for no apparent reason. Then there was the sickness, as if he was going to puke at any and all quick movements he did. He didn’t even feel hungry at all but for the sake of the others, more than himself, he ate larger portions to maintain his façade.

It was day four when Peter found it difficult to find the motivation to even get out of bed. He didn’t know if it was actually because of his body slowly shutting down or time travel jet lag but it had taken him an hour to merely brush his teeth and get dressed.

He offered everyone a morning greeting when he had gone downstairs, grabbed some granola bars and a few cans of soda before heading to the lab to fix the mess he’d made. They spent hours the previous night looking through all of Tony’s archives to find the notes Peter had made for the machine. He also had the previous machine to look to even with how broken it was; some guidance was better than no guidance.

That’s where he’d been sitting for the last four hours. The table had been covered in scraps of the machines, sorting them into piles of what they were then separating the old from new. That’s where he stopped. He was just staring at all the pieces in front of him in a sort of stupor, his body urging him to lay back down for a while. His arms felt heavy from the menial work and his head hurt. Maybe he was hungry…? No, he’d barely finished one granola bar and had to fight to keep it down.

Was he actually dying?

Loki said two week.

Loki said he wouldn’t last two weeks. That didn’t mean ten or eleven days tops, it meant any time less than fourteen days. It was only day four. He could die that day; that hour, maybe in the next ten minutes. The realization hit him like a brick. His time there was limited. Whether he got the machine up and working again or not.

“Hey FRI? Who’s here right now?” Peter’s voice was ever so shaky. “Is Dr. Banner here or Mr. Loki?”

“The boss is here, along with Sargent Barnes, Captain Rodgers and Dr. Banner. The others are currently out but should be back in a few hours.”

“Can you ask Dr. Banner to come down here please?”

“Of course.”

He would’ve preferred to talk to Loki since he was the one who brought it up, but Bruce knew more about him than most people. He was probably one of the only people who knew and sort of understood gene and DNA splicing for cross species. At least he was ten years ago. Who knew what the scientific world had done.

Peter sighed deeply. He stretched his arms and legs, turning to stand when his legs collapsed underneath him, sending him tumbling to the floor. He laid there for a few seconds, terrified because no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t get his body to obey. His arms couldn’t push up from the floor and his legs wouldn’t move no matter how hard he tried. He couldn’t even bring himself to blink.

When the moment had passed, Peter scrambled to push himself upright, breathing deeply as he did.

“Pete? FRIDAY said you wanted to see me?” Bruce’s voice echoed through the lab, a very welcomed sound from the silence. “Are you okay?”

Peter slowly looked up to him, his tone that of a terrified child. “I think, uh— we have a problem.”

***

“Come on Stark, be honest. You don’t want the kid to go do you?”

Tony stared at the TV; news about Spider-man webbing up a few robbers was being shown. “No, I don’t.”

“Why make him build another machine then?”

“Buck— ease off okay?” Steve said, a hand in Bucky’s shoulder.

“He can’t stay Barnes. This isn’t his future, not the right one anyways.” He sighed. “He’s been gone, assumed dead for ten years. He can’t just pop back in and try to resume where he left off.”

“Tony’s right.” Bruce agreed. “I’d love nothing more than to sit down with him and discuss everything that’s happened since he’s been gone but, it’s not right. The things that happened, the things that didn’t— this isn’t his future, not one he’d enjoy, especially if he knew just how bad his aunt really is,”

“What if he can’t leave though?” Bucky said. “What if he can’t recreate his machine and is stuck here? Or if it malfunctions again and sends him further into the future or so far back that he hasn’t met any of us yet?”

“We just have to believe that Peter knows what he’s doing and will be able to get himself back.” Steve said.

Tony was conflicted. He wanted Peter to stay. He wanted to sit and chat, tell him about every single thing he made in the years he was gone. He was his kid, and it felt like Tony has to make up for lost time. But then there was the negative aspect of it. He was ultimately blamed for his disappearance in the first place and shunned for bringing someone so young into the hero spotlight.

Peter’s disappeared had broke him.

He shut himself away in the lab working days on end, trying to replicate the machine in hopes of somehow bringing the  boy back but every attempt ended in failure, and when Strange had told him there was nothing he could do, Tony broke.

And then there was May. When Tony broke the news that Peter was missing, she blamed him. When he told her there was no evidence or way to track where he’d gone, she blamed him. When he told her they would be making an announcement that Spider-man had been kidnapped and killed, she didn’t blame him. She stopped caring; about the hate, sorrow, anger, confusion. When Tony announced that Peter was dead, May died that day too.

That wasn’t a future he wanted, for himself or May. That’s why Peter couldn’t stay.

“Dr. Banner, Peter has requested you’re assistance in the lab.” FRIDAY’s voice chimed in.

Bucky snorted. “What are we then?”

“People who don’t have seven PhDs.” Bruce teased before leaving the room.

Tony rolled his eyes. “Any luck with Strange yet FRI?”

“No, although I’m lead to believe he might be ignoring my calls now. The most recent call didn’t even go to voicemail, it just stopped ringing.”

“Keep trying. Give him all the information we have on Peter being here.”

“Why do you want to get in contact with him so bad?” Steve asked.

“He’s an asset and team member whether he likes it or not and should be available on a moments notice.” Tony halfway shrugged. “Let’s just say that the kid can’t recreate his machine; Strange has a rock that can control time. He should be able to just zap the kid back and fix all of this.”

“Didn’t he say he couldn’t? When Peter first disappeared, He said even if he had the correct information he wouldn’t be able to do it because of the difference methods of transport.”

“Magic verses science.” Bucky added.

“Oh please, he doesn’t even believe what he’s doing is magic. He’s said it himself that it’s just science down to the most critical detail.”

“Which it is, though I wouldn’t expect you to understand it seeing as you’re not versed in the mystic arts like I am.” The three men in the room turned to see an orange portal close as Stephen walked through it.

“Sir I was able to get a hold of Dr. Strange.”

“Yeah thanks FRI. I can see that.” Tony rolled his eyes. “Where’ve you been?”

“There was an urgent matter that needed to be attended to. Now tell me, where is Peter?”

“He’s down in the lab with Bruce. Apparently we’re not cool enough to learn his secrets.” Tony gestured to the elevator. “Might as well tell them that Strange is here FRI so we can sort everything out.”

“Very well.”

“How long has he been here?” Stephen asked.

“Today’s day four I think; appeared in the lab late in the afternoon with his machine all busted up.”

“That’s already too long. He’s already disrupted the timeline to get here. What have you told him?”

Tony shrugged. “What I had to; that he disappeared ten years ago and is presumed dead by the entire world. I wasn’t going to keep his aunt a secret because I know he would try to sneak out to see her and that would’ve definitely caused problems. Other than that I don’t think anyone’s told him anything. He hasn’t gone out of the tower either so no one but us and the others know he’s even alive right now.”

“That’s good at least. The less he knows about the future the better.”

“You’ll be able to get him back to his time then?” Bucky asked.

“Frankly I don’t know. It’s the same as what I said when he first disappeared. The technology he used and the Time Stones power are two extremely different means for being able to travel through time. Even if I knew I was able to send him back with the stone I might not because of unforeseen consequences that would most likely befall him.”

“So you’re saying unless he can recreate him machine, he’s stuck indefinitely?” Steve asked.

Stephen nodded. “I’m already concerned about what he’s going through at the moment because of the first journey.”

“What do you mean what he’s going through?” Tony’s brow furrowed.

“Time travel isn’t like it is in the movies. There’s no one—two—zap and you’re there without repercussions. It puts a massive amount of stress on the body and mind if you’re not prepared for it. Even those who have undergone training for it have troubles when actually doing it.”

“He did collapse and sleep for nearly a day when he got here if that’s what you mean, but other than that he seems just fine, and I’m sure it’s because of his abilities.”

“That’s not any better. If anything that’s worse.” Stephen frowned. “Peter’s abilities help him in many ways but also leads him vulnerable in certain situations. The amount of stress put on his body from going ten years is most likely causing his body to go into overtime in trying to heal and repair itself.”

“I’m not following.” Bucky said. “Why would his body need to repair itself? He wasn’t injured at all when Stark checked him over.”

“I’m talking on a cellular level. It might have been too soon to even check for it when he first arrived.”

The doors behind them swung open. No one expected to see Bruce walk in with an arm around Peter’s waist and Peter’s arm around his shoulder for support.

“I take it this is what you were talking about.” Steve said as they went to help.

“More or less.” Stephen said. He knelt in front of Peter as Bruce lowered him into a chair. “Hello Peter.”

“Hey Mr. Strange. It’s good to see you.” Peter said. He sounded tired but not in pain.

“Care to explain what happened?”

“Uh— I don’t really know. I was just down in the lab sorting through some things when I decided to take a break and stretch my legs. When I tried to stand it was like everything just stopped working and I fell. I couldn’t even get myself to blink.”

“How long have you had the headache that you currently have?” Peter raised a brow at the question. “I am an actual doctor Peter. I can see when people are trying to hide things from me.”

Peter huffed. “Since I got here. It hasn’t really gone away.”

“What else?”

“I’m not hungry at all. I could barely finish one granola bar I brought with me to the lab. I’m really tired and sore, like after training or a fight and there’s a tingle sort of throughout my body. It doesn’t hurt at all but it doesn’t feel— right…”

Stephen’s brow creased. “I can make a very brief assumption based on what I’ve learned; you were frozen.”

“I think you might be getting your origin stories mixed up a bit there.” Bucky said with a half snort.

“It goes along with the theory of negative speed; in short, Peter both moved exceedingly fast and tremendously slow. The second of time for him was ten years for us. His body is trying to fix the damage but it’s leaving a sort of backlash. I won’t know for sure until we do some tests— but I’m aiming to believe Peter’s cells are deteriorating faster than his healing can repair them.”

“But what would be the actual cause of it?” Bruce asked. “Even if his cells are jumbled right now, his healing well exceeds Steve’s. There should be no reason for mass deterioration.”

“Why don’t we run the tests before we come to any conclusions, hmm?” Tony said, obvious discomfort in his tone. “You good to go Pete?”

“As good as I’ll ever be Mr. Stark.” Peter smiles back.

The group traveled to medical, Tony shooing the doctors away while they worked. They pulled out Peter’s old medical files to compare. They took blood, performed several different kinds of scans looking for different types of problems, had Peter walk and run on a treadmill, do some math problems and listen to music to see if anything had some sort of physical affect on him. It wasn’t until the results from the physical tests were compared that Stephen saw something.

“It’s the radiation.” Stephen said. “The initial jolt must have caused some sort of reaction to cause it to grow stronger. It’s attacking his cells at an alarming rate. Comparing the statistics from today and the last time, his cells should be nearly indestructible but they seem to be working in reverse.”

“I’m not really following.” Steve said. “Since the radiation gave him his powers in the first place, shouldn’t they be enhancing them even more?”

“In a normal situation yes, but… the theory of negative speed still isn’t truly understood. I don’t even have a good example to give you so you can try to understand.”

“Blink.” Tony said. “Imagine that partial second was ten years, or in reverse, you’re just an extremely slow blinker. For us, Peter blinked and it took ten years, for him it was that partial second but they theoretically both took the same amount of time.”

“I still don’t understand how the radiation fits into all of this” Bucky said.

“That’s the thing though; it doesn’t. It shouldn’t have had any affect on him but something triggered an extra mutation to make it work against him.”

“You said he was frozen.” Bruce chimed in. “What if in that one second it took him to blink, his cells all seized and that one second got mixed with the ten years and now his body is trying catch up with it? Ten years of aging, of healing, of— of wounds to heal and sicknesses to fight?”

“Not quite the explanation I was going for but the effect of it is the same.” Stephen said. “His body is trying to do what it should of in ten years over a few days.”

“So if we get him back then it should stop right? His cells will stop trying to catch up because he’ll be back in his proper time.”

“Theoretically, but I’m worried about the trip back, if we’re able to do it at all.”

Peter was silent during the whole discussion. He was trying to wrap his head around everything but didn’t understand it at all. He knew about negative speed and the radiation but as to how they were working together and opposing each other at the same time was a complete mystery. Then again he wasn’t even sure if he was understanding it right in the first place.

And he was tired, so tired. Exhaustion seemed to be his permanent state of being.

Then there was something about his powers; if his cells were currently doing— whatever, shouldn’t he be experiencing some sort of sensory overload? Or would it be the opposite and be sensory deprivation? He could still hear and see just fine and he was certain he could still taste like normal. The tests showed he could still life tons with ease and stick to whatever he wanted to. He was at a loss of what to think.

It was times like that where he hated the science world. Everything should work, in theory. Theoretically everything should have a simple answer, but at the same time everything was extremely complicated and nothing made sense.

Peter laughed slightly at the thought. His current situation was both a scientist’s dream and nightmare.

“Something you wanna share with the class Pete?” Tony asked.

“No, sorry. It’s just, I’m dying and I can’t seem to wrap my head around as to why, but i can and it’s just going in a loop.”

The room was silent for a moment. “No one said anything about you dying.”

“Not in those words. Come on Mr. Stark, my cells are deteriorating faster than they can repair themselves or make new ones. That’s just a fancy way of saying dying. Mine just seem to be going extra fast because of my mutation. Besides, Mr. Loki told me earlier.”

“When?”

“When I was in the lab. He popped in and said there was something wrong with me on the cellular level and that I wouldn’t last two weeks.”

“You shouldn’t believe what he says.” Steve said.

“And I didn’t, not completely anyways, not until right now. All the tests prove something’s wrong with me. I felt weird when I first got here and I understand that the weird tingly feeling is actually me feeling my cells dying.”

No one knew what to say after that. No one knew what it felt like and had never thought that would be possible.

“It just means that I need to work quick right? We all know how I work under pressure and this is probably the best kind since my life is literally on the line.” Peter smiled sadly and stood from where he was sitting. “Since we can’t stop it, I’m not gonna stop either. I’m gonna keep working on it under I finish. I’ll have FRIDAY notify someone if something happens.”

The five men watched as Peter left the room, all at a loss for words. Peter was dying, he could feel himself dying, but he kept going. It was such a him thing to do.

“Is there anything you can do to slow the deterioration down?” Tony asked, turning to Stephen. “Wave your hand and perform some mumbo jumbo to make it stop for a while?”

“I honestly don’t know Tony.” Stephen answered in a soft tone. “He wasn’t brought here by the mystic arts so I’m worried about what will happen if I try to solve the problem with it. I’ll consult Wong about it. He has more knowledge about it than I do.” They all watched as a portal opened and Stephen step through before it closed abruptly.

“I’ll keep running tests with his blood and see if I can’t find something to even it out.” Bruce offered.

Tony’s shoulders sagged and he let out a sigh. He was going to do whatever it took to fix Peter and get him back to his proper time. He thought he lost the boy once, and he wasn’t going to let it happen again.

***

Time seemed like such a fickle thing, Peter thought. It was a manmade concept that seemed to rule over everyone. Animals and plants didn’t follow its rules and lived their lives accordingly. To them, the concept of time doesn’t exist. There was no need to be in a rush for anything or worry about being late. That was where Peter was slightly jealous of their ignorance; to not understand time was something he wished he knew.

But there he was, sitting in the lab trying his damnedest to put together a machine that bent the very fabric of time to get him back to where he belonged. It was nearing the end of the fifth day. Peter hadn’t had another one of his episodes, which was both relieving and nerve wracking. They had a very slight handle of what was happening with his body and had expected it to happen again the following days but if nothing happened and it made it difficult to get more information to go on to try to stop the degeneration, or at least slow it down a bit.

The thing that Peter noticed between sleeping on the forth day and waking the fifth was the tingle; it had diminished, greatly. It was thought as of a good thing, no tingle meant no deterioration— right?

Apparently it was the opposite. Peter’s cells had deteriorated so fast that his body stopped trying to fix the ones that were being attacked and was focusing on just creating new ones. At least that’s what he understood from Bruce and Stephen’s analysis. He was told there was a staggering amount of dead and quickly dying cells in his system, and there was still no way to stop or slow it down.

He hated it.

The feeling of not knowing when it would all end, that his time was running out. He hated that his little science project had turned out wrong and because of that, he made a future of hurt amongst his friends, the people he would call family. And May. He didn’t want to think about what he had put her through when Tony had told her he was most likely dead. He didn’t want that future for her, for them, for himself. That’s why despite the hatred, he worked.

Peter wracked his brain to remember every little detail, every screw tightened, every bend in every wire, to make it like it was before, to make it back to his own time so no one would have that future. He had to admit it was a lot easier to do the second time, especially with his notes.

The currently problem though was how tired he was. He still had no appetite and thinking about any sort of food made him sick. His metabolism slowed down when he got there but he should’ve still been able to eat a whole pizza at least. He could barely manage two slices without wanting to vomit. Tony had opted to bringing him smoothies and protein shakes which he managed to keep down, but it wasn’t enough for him. He needed to keep taking breaks nearly every hour and that cut into work time drastically.

That was what Peter was currently doing. He was lying on the floor in the lab, flexing his hands in an attempt to keep them from cramping. The exhaustion was— exhausting. It wasn’t even that he was tired, or more that he was so tired that he was wide awake and it was complete torture. He didn’t even know how to describe the feeling; being so tired he was wide awake.

“What’s everyone doing right now, FRI?” Peter asked as he rolled on his side.

“Everyone here appears to be eating. Ms. Romanoff, Captain Rogers, Sargent Barnes, and Dr. Banner are all currently out and Dr. Strange has yet to return.” She answered. “You haven’t eaten any solid food today, Peter. I’m sure it would put everyone at ease if you are something.”

“I don’t know if I can. I can barely keep the smoothies down. What are they eating anyways?”

“It appears to be lasagna.”

“No thanks.” Peter groaned. “Do you have footage of where I was at this point in originally making it? There’s a part I’m stuck on and I didn’t make any notes for it but I know there’s something missing.”

“I can look through the footage but I uncertain of where it would currently be because of how much you’ve gotten done in comparison.”

“That’s fine. Can you put it on the monitors at like one and a quarter speed?” The monitors flashed alive with the footage.

Peter didn’t know what else to do. He was forgetting a critical part and couldn’t advance without it. More so, he wouldn’t advance without it because it could have been the thing, the piece that made everything work or fail. He didn’t want to take a chance.

“I suppose this is part of what you would call your work.” Once again, Peter jumped at Loki’s sudden voice in the room. “Or is it merely the fact that you’ve accepted your imminent demise and would spend your time doing other such things?”

“Mr. Loki, are the doors on Asgard different from the ones on earth? Because if they are, I can show you how to use the earth ones seeing as you apparently don’t know how to use them.”

Loki’s brow raised slightly, not at all expecting Peter to speak to him like that. “If you were not already dying a slow death, I would kill you myself.”

Peter rolled his eyes. “I am actually doing work right now despite what you think. I’m missing a part and I don’t remember what I did so I’m hoping I can find it in the footage.”

“I will not disturb you then.” A book suddenly appeared in his hand.

“Are you down here for a reason or…?”

“It is quiet down here, an ideal place to read in peace.”

Peter left it at that.

***

Having Loki in the room was— interesting. While Peter had been just about two hours into the tapes, Loki had been sitting in one of the chairs reading something by Hemingway, apparently not paying him any mind. Peter could’ve sworn he saw Loki glance in his direction at least once.

It was after another half hour that Peter got to the part in the tape he needed and saw that he had actually taken something out of the machine rather than put it in.

“Okay I got it. Can you mark that spot just In case, FRI? Might need to watch it some more.”

“Of course.”

Peter got up from his place on the floor and stretched, noticing Loki was still deep into the book. “Mr. Loki, have you ever seen Back to the Future?”

“No. I tend not to watch your movies and try to keep myself from any form of, what you humans call entertainment.” He didn’t look up from the book.

“You say that but you haven’t looked away from that book since you came in here. Reading is a source of entertainment you know.”

“The majority of your planet does not think so, nor do I believe they could understand what the author truly intended.”

“No offense but even though Hemingway is a well known author, most people don’t read his books unless it’s for a school project.”

“Pity.”

Peter rolled his eyes. He sat at the table and began to fiddle with the machine. He needed to take two bars out to make it work before he could progress. It took a few moments but he was able to get them out.

“How fair along with that are you?” Loki asked with a somewhat glare.

“If I keep working on it nonstop then I probably would’ve been done with it by now, but I’ve been taking breaks nearly every hour… I can probably finish it tomorrow. Why do you ask?”

Peter watched as Loki put his book down and stood, his eyes trained on him. “The decomposition of your cells has increased tremendously from the first time we encountered each other. Even just now, their speed has again increased. It is— intriguing.”

“I’m glad to know my trouble gives you so much joy.” Peter turned from him to go back to working on the machine but noticed the tingle that had been nearly absent the whole day was suddenly overwhelming. He tried to flex his hands but couldn’t move. His body refused to move once again.

An extreme sense of dizziness and exhaustion swept over him. His eyes fell shut and he felt himself falling back, waiting for the impact of the floor but it never came.

Loki had watched Peter’s moves. He’d been watching him the whole time they were in the room together. When Thor has first told him of a human boy with god—like strength, it interested him. He had met Peter on a few separate occasions prior to him disappearing and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t bring himself to hate the boy.

He wouldn’t admit it but he was actually worried. He was a literal god but even he lacked the skill to traverse time. The others left him alone to work because according to them, they would offer to help and that would get on Peter’s nerves and make the process longer. Loki had no interest in helping. He just wanted a place to read without someone interrupting him every few minutes. That’s why he was in the lab with Peter. He could sit and watch under the guise of reading.

It had worked too. Loki had watched as Peter messed with his machine and saw a change in his character when he found what needed to be taken out. It was like a shift in his being when the pieces had been removed. Loki watched as Peter tried to move but it was as he locked up. He was being him in a moment, holding him on his chair as he seemingly passed out.

Loki’s brow raised in somewhat surprised realization. “Interesting…”

***

Peter felt a slight pressure on his wrist as he eased his way back into consciousness. He felt a bed under him just like the first time he woke up. What made that episode significantly worse than the first? He let out an exhausted groan. His head was killing him.

“Peter? Are you awake?” That was Stephen’s voice. Apparently he’d come back.

“Define awake.” He moaned.

“You’re coherent and responsive for one. How do you feel?”

“Tired, and sore.” He opened his eyes. “When did you get back?”

“A little while after you collapsed. You were out for three hour. Do you remember what happened? Tony wasn’t able to get any information from his AI or Loki.”

He shook his head slightly. “There’s nothing really to tell; I was working on the machine in the lab, Mr. Loki was down there reading and I just kinda got numb and passed out. How did I get up here anyways?”

“I don’t know. I can only assume someone brought you up.” Stephen was silent for a moment. “I’m going to be perfectly frank with you Peter, Wong and I couldn’t find any sort of information about your condition. We scoured the Sanctum and called upon various contacts but none of them had anything for us to use. From a medical standpoint, you’re healthy; radiation and spider powers aside, there’s nothing physically wrong with you. You don’t feel any actual pain, do you?”

“No, it’s just the soreness right now. The tingle isn’t even noticeable, except for yesterday before I passed out. It was like it— grew? I didn’t feel it at all since the first time.”

“What about eating? Does it still make you nauseous?”

“Yeah but I’ve been able to keep down granola bars and smoothies if I don’t eat them too quick.”

“At least it’s something.” Stephen lightly sighed. “I’m sorry, Peter. Even with all our training and research, and advancements in technology, there’s really nothing I’m able to do about this situation. I’ve talked with Wong about perhaps using the time stone to send you back but the consequences of science verses magic in the situation is too great. Even if we manage to send you back with the stone, there’s no guarantee that it would help; it might actually make it all worse.”

Peter was staring at his hands as Strange spoke. It all made sense to him, at least he thought. The main message he got from the bluntness was he made a mess and he had to clean it up. If a microwave time machine was what caused the problem then a microwave time machine was going to fix it. His cheeked twitches upwards as he thought about it; the thought of a microwave zapping the radiation he had and making it all so much worse. It was like a TV dinner.

“It’s not your fault, Mr. Strange, I just seem to have a knack for finding trouble. Only this time it’s more difficult to get out of… the only thing I can keep doing is working on the machine, right; hope I can make it back and everything will be fixed…?”

“Ultimately, yes. But rest for now. If not for yourself then for everyone else. They’re more worried about you locking yourself in that lab now than they were before you disappeared.”

“Can do, Mr. Strange.”

Peter’s tone ultimately housed defeat. Stephen wanted to offer some sort of support— relief, a fallback plan of some sort— but there was nothing. He had no power over the situation, no magic Ah Ha moment to fix everything and get him back safely, and it was a difficult thing to wrap his head around. No matter the situation he usually always had some sort of leeway to make it bend to his will, but with what was currently happening, he was useless.

He left Peter’s room, letting the door shut with an almost inaudible click and headed to the lounge. The others were expecting answers he didn’t have and doubted he ever would. As the lounge door opened, everyone stopped whatever they were doing.

“How’s he doing?” Natasha asked.

“He’s awake.” Stephen answered. “He’s coherent. His vitals are fine; there’s no—extra damage to his being.”

“Still no idea why he collapsed this time?” Clint asked.

“No. He told me the tingling sensation was absent until he collapsed and he’s overall sore but aside from that, that was it.”

“There hasn’t been any change in the deterioration of his cells either.” Bruce added. “No increase or decrease in speed.”

“Really hit a wall with this one didn’t we?” Bucky murmured.

Tony had been silent. He was sitting on the love seat watching the footage from earlier, trying to find anything that would indicate a change to help them figure anything out. There was nothing. The only difference between that footage and the footage from ten years ago was Loki was present in the lab. They’d all already confront Loki when he brought Peter up but he gave them nothing to go on; merely saying Peter had completed his objective in finding what he needed from the tapes them collapsing. There was no evidence that he was lying and FRIDAY had confirmed no fowl play.

So Tony watched the tapes, all of them, to try to find anything that would help but there was nothing. They were stuck and would have to live with it—

Live watching the boy he just got back, die before his eyes. And there was nothing he could do about it.

It was the reality that Tony was beginning to accept and he hated himself for it.

 “What about taking him to Asgard?” Thor suggested. “I’m certain someone there would have an answer to what’s happening and a way to fix it.”

“Not a good idea. Going through the bifrost or any magic portal could make the situation worse.” Stephen said.

“Is there anything we can do?” Tony barely whispered.

The room was silent for a moment before Stephen spoke.

“No. I’m sorry Tony.”

***

It was the very early morning of the sixth day when Peter was back in the lab. He was up before the sun and more or less snuck into it because he knew the others would throw a fit. He didn’t see the appeal in resting, if there was any in the first place. He was on a one way train that didn’t seem like it was slowing down at all and he wasn’t going to squander that time.

So he snuck to the lab, telling FRIDAY to keep things quiet until the majority of people were up and wondering about him, and even then only to tell them he was in the lab— not telling them that he was in there since before the sun was up. He was a bit surprised to see Loki was sitting in the same spot, still reading his book.

“Do you sleep Mr. Loki?” He asked.

“On certain occasions.” Loki answered. “Isn’t that what you should be doing at this moment?”

“I don’t really see a point right now. If I’m dying and the only way to stop it is to work on this then I’d rather work on this.” He sat down at his table. “Thank you for yesterday. No one told me but you’re the only one who could’ve done that.”

The two of them sat in a comfortable silence, metal pings and page turning the only things that broke the silence. Peter stopped every two hours to take a short break, munching on a granola bar he brought with him.

It was like that the whole day. Tony and Steve had paid a visit at some point, asking Peter how he was feeling and bringing him sandwiches but he paid them no mind and only gave one or two word answers, and when they asked why Loki was allowed in there, he merely answered Annoyance. Steve has to lead Tony from the lab, trying not to smirk as he did so. At least Peter was well enough to give them attitude.

A few hours into the night, the mood changed completely.

Peter huffed and stood from where he was sitting, a smile plastered on his face as he looked at the machine in front of him.

“It’s done.” Those two words made Loki look up from his book. “I can’t believe I finished it in less than a week when it took so long before.”

Loki put his book down and strode over to the table. “This is— your completed machine?”

“Yes! Good! That’s exactly what Dr. Banner did the first time he saw it too. Okay, okay let’s— uh, let’s go tell everyone so I can finally get back to normal.” Peter started his way towards the door but only made it three steps before collapsing in a dead heap on the floor.

Loki calmly went over to him. He expected as much, but he didn’t expect to turn Peter over to see blood trickling out of his mouth. That was definitely a new thing that shouldn’t have happened.

“You are a most troublesome child.” His tone was tense as he picked Peter up and went to the elevator. He felt Peter shaking, jerking every few seconds like he was being shocked. His face was scrunched in pain and his breathing labored.

Walking into the lounge was certainly an experience. Everyone rushed the two of them, someone yelling commands to the others about what to do. It wasn’t like the other two times he collapsed, it was much worse.

Peter was laid on the couch; Bruce and Stephen telling everyone to back off so they could assess what happened and find where he was bleeding from. Peter’s temperature was elevated slightly and his heartbeat rapid.

“What happened?” Tony practically shouted at Loki.

“He was working and then he collapsed.” Loki answered, withholding the fact that Peter had completed his project. “There was nothing different in comparison to the other days.”

“His cells just decide it’s time?” Clint mumbled.

“Shut up Barton.” Tony snapped. It wasn’t time. He wasn’t ready to accept it.

“Stark—” Bucky started. “Getting angry isn’t going to solve anything.”

“What am I supposed to do!? My kid is dying and there’s nothing we can do about it so excuse me if I get angry about it!”

No one blamed him. Of course they wouldn’t. Tony was saying what they were all thinking. Before Peter has just disappeared, this time he was actually dying right in front of them.

“Mr. Stark…”

Tony’s rage was gone in an instant and replaced with sorrow. He went to the couch and knelt I front of Peter. “Sorry kid. Guess I woke you up.”

“I’ve always been a light sleeper.” Peter’s voice was— garbled. His eyes were shut and a constant stream of blood was coming out of his mouth. He was bleeding internally from somewhere. How was a completely other question. “I guess it’s time.”

“Pete…”

“I’m sorry. To all of you; for making you worry— all those years ago. And for showing up suddenly and making you… have to go through this.”

“It’s not your fault. You don’t need to apologize, son.” Steve said.

“It is though; I made the machine— and I disappeared. This whole thing is entirely my fault.” A chorus of ragged, wet coughs filled the lounge and he violently twitched a few times.

Unbeknownst to everyone else, Loki had slipped out of the room and went back to the lab. He stood in front of the table that held Peter’s machine, staring curiously. While he didn’t have a great understanding of science, he knew enough to get by, but he absolutely no idea how Peter managed to create the machine.

“Children are extremely troublesome.”

He turned a dial back ten notches then pressed a lever, and waited.

***

Peter was getting tired of passing out and waking up in different places. It was disorienting, although that time it was welcomed.

He was laying on the floor in the lab which confused him greatly because it seemed like a few seconds earlier, he was literally dying in his room upstairs with everyone leaning over him, trying to make everything more comfortable. He severely doubted they would put him back in the lab in his condition.

He noticed something, the lab was filthy. There were scraps laying around everywhere; his soda cans and granola wrappers littered the ground. His backpack was still sitting on the chair he’d left it on even though he was certain it shouldn’t have been there.

And then there was his machine, or at least what was left of it. It was in pieces on the table, sparks flying off of it in some places and a big scorch mark engulfed most of the table.

Peter blinked several times. He was— back…? How was that possible? He was certain he died in his room. He felt his cells stop— everything. He coughed up blood and his hearing and sight went. He stopped breathing. He distinctly remembered everyone’s faces looming over him before he shut his eyes.

Everyone… except—

The lab door opened and Peter turned his head to see everyone walk in, younger everyone. Most noticeable being Clint and Tony; Clint’s hair wasn’t buzzed and Tony’s wasn’t gray. They all stopped when they saw him on the ground.

“Is this part of the oh so great demonstration you’re supposed to be doing—?” Bucky said with a raised brow.

“Looks like it busted.” Tony said matter-of-factly. “What gives?”

“You okay, Pete?” Bruce asked. “Look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Peter blinked a few more times before letting a small smile creep onto his face. “I tried to set it up but, uh, it didn’t work.”

**

No one truly understood what had happened. One moment Peter was lying in bed, barely breathing and shivering, and the next he was gone. Poof, out of existence.

“What the hell just happened…?” Steve  asked, staring at the now empty bed. “Where did he just—”

“He died.” Loki’s voice echoed from the doorframe.

“What the fuck do you mean he died?” Tony bit out. “Under what circumstances does that equate to his body disappearing?”

“These ones precisely. Honestly Stark, I’m surprised you didn’t realize what was happening. I would have guessed at least one of you would.”

“Loki, what matter are you speaking of?” Thor asked.

Loki rolled his eyes. “The child died but not in the sense of the word. More so, his time ran out so he left.”

“But I thought he needed the machine to leave.” Bruce said. “How did he leave if it wasn’t complete?”

“Who says it wasn’t?”

“Why do you have to be so cryptic? Spit it out already.” Bucky demanded.

Loki shook his head. “When he first arrived, Stark said he collapsed and slept for nearly a day. That was the start of the deterioration process. He had no trouble with anything until he started work on the machine. The— feelings he got, the sickness he felt, it was connected to the work.”

“You’re saying that building the machine again was what was making him sick?” Natasha asked.

“In a sense, yes.”

“You know that and didn’t tell anyone? You let him continue to work knowing he was killing himself?”

“I already told you, he was not killing himself.” He huffed. “Think of it as how your toasters work; you set the gauge, press the lever, and wait. That is exactly what was happening to Peter.”

“He was cooking himself?” Bucky raised a brow.

“The next person to interrupt me will be silenced.” Loki frowned. “The radiation in his body somehow reacted with the journey through time and set them on some sort of timer. From that point when he first arrived here, his cells started deteriorating because his time was ticking. The machine was destroyed in the journey though, so there was no limit on how long he would stay.

“But then he started his work on the machine and it acted as some sort of catalyst. With every completed part of the machine, the deterioration was sped up to match the time it took to finish the machine. When he collapsed, it was because the work he completed was much greater than his cells could take and it overworked him. Upon completing the machine, it was the greatest force and he couldn’t handle it and his body acted as though it was ready to die. All that was needed was for the machine to be activated for his journey to find to an end.”

Everyone’s faces mirrored confusion. It was a little while before anyone spoke.

“So let me see if I have this right,” Clint started. “Essentially, Peter originally built a galactic toaster, and he was the toast. Once he tried it out, the toaster burnt out and he was stuck until someone fixed it, and he was able to pop back up, all perfect, in his own time.”

Loki sideways nodded. “In simpler terms, yes.”

“How do we know it worked?” Tony asked. “How do we know that he was actually able to get back to his own time and isn’t somewhere else?”

“We don’t.”

***

The next morning when Tony woke up, something felt off. It wasn’t the normal off feelings that he got sometimes, most of them equating to general sickness or a feeling of uneasiness.

That morning he was alone in the tower, the others having things that needed tending to, so Tony ate breakfast alone— the news playing softly in the background. He was going over papers and contracts, making sure he signed all the ones that needed signing  and throwing out the ones he didn’t want to deal with. He felt like he had forgotten something.

Time seemed to drag on into the afternoon, minutes passed like hours. The day just seemed to be going so slow. He didn’t realize he’d been down in the lab all day until FRIDAY informed him it was nearly dinner time.

Then there was a click, literally and figuratively, as the door to the lab opened and Peter walked in carrying takeout.

“Pepper told me to keep you fed while she was away.”

How, in all the years they spent together, had Tony forgotten Peter would be visiting? “You’re a life saver, you know that?”

“I’ve been told that on a few occasions. Really though Mr. Stark, FRIDAY told me you’ve only had breakfast. If you die on my watch, Pepper will kill me.” Peter handed Tony a takeout box.

“Come on, She’s Pepper but I’m still Mr. Stark? Pete, you’re twenty—six. I think you’ve earned the right.” Tony dug into his good.

“I know it’s only happened on a few occasions but you can think wrong.” He set the remaining food on the table, rubbing his hand on the surface. “Still haven’t figured out a way to get this up?”

Tony glances at where Peter’s hand was; a scorch mark underneath it. “Haven’t and won’t. I like to think about it and remember how ridiculous it sounded when you first told us that you tried to build a time machine and brilliantly failed. You stopped building things for a while after that. Was the embarrassment too much to handle?”

Peter snorted slightly and rubbed the back of his neck. “Actually, Tony, here’s the thing—”