Chapter Text
As Peter stepped through the yellow sparkling portal the wizard, Doctor Strange had conjured, his mind raced with a dozen thoughts.
'I got all dusty. It's been five years. They need us. It's been five years. I died. It's been five years. They need us. It's been five years.'
It was completely disorientating, being on a deserted planet one moment and then an active war ground the next. He was still in the Iron Spider suit, the taste of ash in his mouth. He rushed over when he spotted Mr. Stark, "Hey, oh, holy cow. You will not believe what's been going on. Do you remember when we were in space and I got all dusty? A-And I must have passed out because I woke up and you were gone. But Dr Strange was there, right, and he was like, "It's been five years. Come on. They need us." and then he started doing the yellow sparkly thing that he does all the time," Peter gestured the action as he rambled and Mr Stark approached him, "What are you doing?" And suddenly they were hugging, "Oh, this is nice."
And then they were fighting again.
But something was wrong. Tony had hooked up as many people to the comms as he could, Peter included. When the words "What do you mean it's not there?" came out of his mentor's mouth, the spiderling knew that something was very, very wrong.
"I'm saying that the gauntlet isn't there. He doesn't have it." That was Captain America's voice.
'Holyshitholyshitdon'tfreakoutyou'reinthemiddleofafightholyshitthat'scaptainamerica.'
"Um, guys," War Machine said hesitantly, "I think I may be looking at it. One problem though."
"What is it Honeybear?" Peter could feel the tension over the comms as everyone held their breath.
"It's not a gauntlet this time."
"It's not a- What do you mean 'It's not a gauntlet'? Rhodey, please you gotta start making some sense here."
"I'm trying Tones but I'm currently staring at a teenage girl who's glowing and I'm pretty sure the stones are sticking out of her spine."
"Uh- What?"
"Damn it," a new voice spoke up, one that Peter didn't recognise but would later learn was this totally awesome but kinda scary blue android lady named Nebula. "He must have looked through my hard drive and decided that the gauntlet was too risky this time around." The voice explained.
"And what exactly does this have to do with the glowing teenager?" Mr. Stark's voice was sarcastic, but Peter could tell he was just as tense as the other must be. Peter was struggling with splitting his attention between the conversation and the weird alien-dog-things he was fighting, getting dogpiled by a bunch of them before using the extra legs of his suit to throw them off of him.
"There was a Plan B, should the gauntlet prove either unstable or unreliable, Raven would be the next option."
"Who the hell is Raven?"
"My sister."
Peter continued to fight, despite feeling so confused about what was going on and just wanting to go home to his soulmate, he just went on and on. His mind drifted as his body went on autopilot, trusting in his senses. He was still vaguely aware of what was being discussed but he was barely paying any attention anymore. He was a little curious about the girl for some reason, a slight tingle ran through the soulmark around his left bicep, but he ignored it.
"Raven was an experiment Thanos created a few years after taking Gamora and me from our homes. She's a synthetic being, much like your Vision, only that she was never allowed her own personality, thoughts, or opinions. Long before Thanos sent Loki to take over Earth with the mind stone, he used it to brainwash her as a child, to ensure she would follow his orders compliantly, even more so than my sister and I." Nebula's voice was stiff, but it was easy to tell that she felt sad at her little sister's fate. "Plan B was to use her in place of the gauntlet, the perfect soldier with the power of the infinity stones at his beck and call. It seems the transfer was successful."
"Guys she's bailing! Damn it, I lost her!" Colonel Rhodes said but Peter was a little preoccupied with the girl suddenly standing in front of him, stepping out of a blue, cloud-like portal. She was wearing armor similar to the Chitauri soldiers around them and Peter could see the multi-coloured glow emitting from her back. Her long hair floated around her head as if she were submerged in water, the long strands shining an almost blinding white light. They made eye contact for a split second and Peter felt his left arm burn. Suddenly the girl, Raven(?), clutched at her head and began screaming.
The sound echoed over the battlefield. Everyone froze in place. Then it stopped as suddenly as it began. Peter watched stunned where he stood as the girl straightened up, but there was something different about her now. She stood differently than she had just a moment before. And then, she was gone. Leaving Peter to clutch at his left bicep in both wonder and confusion.
On the other side, where Thanos stood defending against an enraged Scarlet Witch, another portal opened up and the girl stepped through. "Raven!" Thanos barked furiously, "What are you doing here?! You should be killing them like I ordered you to!"
"Thanos of Titan," the girl spoke, but her voice was...strange. It was loud and quiet. Young and old. Male and female. It sounded as if it were made of all the voices in the universe, and yet none at all. This was not the girl's voice, someone or something was speaking through her. "You have defied the laws of this world and you have abused the power we gave you. We thank you for our Holder, but we will not allow this farce to continue. You have served your purpose, but it ends now." The girl lifted her hand and softly snapped her fingers. "NO!" shouted Thanos as he and his army began to turn to dust, never to be heard from again.
Tony Stark, who had been observing the entire interaction, quickly rushed forward to catch the collapsing girl. He watched, slightly in awe as her hair turned from white to a dark inky black from root to tips, only the very ends of her hair retaining the pale hue, although not glowing any longer. He turned her slightly in his arms to get a good look at her back. With her armour on, Tony couldn't tell if the infinity stones were simply embedded in the armour or the girl's actual spine, but he was praying for the first option. It wasn't going to be easy, if not impossible, to remove them if they had really been fused with her.
He turned to the sound of a thud beside him to see Peter, sans mask still, staring at the girl with a complicated look in his eyes. "Kid? What is it?" Tony still couldn't believe his kid the kid was really here. He had spent five years mourning him and even invented time travel just to get him back, but it was still setting in that Peter was back.
"I think she's my soulmate, Mr. Stark. The circlet." Peter said with a soft voice, stunning Tony.
Of course, Tony knew about the Kid's two soulmarks, the toolkit on his right side, and the circlet holding six stones that wrapped around his left bicep. Tony knew the toolkit was for Harley Keener, who Tony had introduced to him just a few months before...well you know what happened. Imagine Tony's surprise when he tried to introduce his two Kids to each other only for them to stare dumbstruck at each other. Tony was completely confused at the weirdness of their first meeting. That is, until Harley ripped off his shirt to reveal a large spider spanning the centre of his chest, just like the one on Peter's suits. He also had a matching circlet on his right bicep. The two boys had instantly rushed to embrace one another once the reality of the situation set in, both marks flaring brightly before revealing the changes that signified a completed connection. Harley's spider was now outlined in red and blue, whereas Peter's grey toolbox on his right turned a bright red with a small 'HJK' engraved in silver on the side.
Tony had been devasted to hear that both kids had been lost to the snap, but he at least made sure to tell Morgan all about her older brothers.
"That's..." Tony didn't even know how he was supposed to respond. I mean, how does one even react to finding out their kid is soulbonded to an alien, synthetically created girl who just so happened to have the six manifestations of the universe stuck to her back? "That's great Kid. How about we get her to Medical and get her checked out to make sure she's okay. What d'ya say?" The spiderling quickly nodded and stood aside worriedly as Tony scooped the girl into his arms. "Friday, contact Dr. Cho to let her know we're on our way." "Already done, Sir," came Friday's Irish lilt. Making sure not to jostle the girl too much, Tony activated his thrusters and flew over to what had once been the Avengers Compound. Helen was already there, having heard the news, and set up an emergency med centre to take care of the injured once the battle was over (She had every faith that Earth's mightiest heroes would come out victorious). She waved Tony over to a stretcher where he placed the girl down. Instantly, Helen was shouting out orders to the other doctors and nurses who made up her team.
Tony wrapped an arm around his son the kid's shoulders and walked them both over to the side so that they'd be out of the way. "Come on Kid, let's call your aunt and boyfriend to let them know you're okay." Peter's eyes widened at the mention of May and Harley, instantly shoving his mask back on so that he could get Karen to call his aunt first.
"Aunt May?"
"...Peter? Is that really you?" Peter could tell there were already tears in his aunt's eyes if her wobbly voice was any indication.
"Yeah, it's me. I'm here."
"Oh, Peter!" She was properly sobbing now, rambling about him being gone and how it had been five years and how she thought he was dead, and how she was so so glad that he was alive and back. Peter spent the next fifteen minutes softly muttering soothing words to his aunt as she cried in relief. He promised that he'd be returning to New York soon, getting a nod of confirmation from Mr. Stark when he glanced over at the older man questioningly, before hanging up. He'd tell her about the fight and meeting his last soulmate once he saw her in person and got to give her a big hug first.
Peter hesitated before asking Karen to call his boyfriend. 'What if he wasn't dusted and now he's six years older than me instead of one and has already moved on by now because why would he wait for a boy he thought was dead?' The thoughts span around in his head, nearly sending him into an anxiety attack if not for Mr. Stark's steady hand on his shoulder. 'No, he's my soulmate. He won't give up on me so easily.' "Karen, please call Harley for me," he said, deciding to just get it over with. It was a tense few seconds before Harley's soothing Southern drawl sounded through Peter's ears.
"Darlin'? Do you have any idea what the fuck is going on?" Harley's voice was bordering on hysteric and Peter was now sure that he must have been dusted as well. The mechanic was rambling into the phone before Peter could get a single word in, "'Cause I just woke up in my garage but all my shit is covered in dust which is fucking irritating 'cause now I'm gonna have to clean all this shit up except that one section I left out for Abby and she's here too but she's older and she told me it's been five years since something called 'The Blip' or whatever the fuck that is and why the fuck is my little sister older than me now?!" Peter couldn't help but laugh at his boyfriend's rant, relaxing into the familiar soothing drawl he had desperately needed in the craziness that was this whole situation.
"It's a long story Harls, but I kind of have another bomb to drop on you." Peter couldn't keep the excitement that had been bubbling inside of him since he realised even if he tried. "What is it?" Harley asked cautiously. "I found her."
"Her? Her who?" Peter would usually laugh at his boyfriend's adorably confused voice but now wasn't the time.
"I found our other soulmate. Our princess." The nickname had been used to refer to their other soulmate once they figured out that circlets were somewhat like crowns, and both had a feeling their third would be a girl. They just knew. It was a soulmate thing.
Peter knew exactly when the information clicked in Harley's brain when the southerner shouted a loud "HOLY SHIT!" and instantly began asking about her. Peter tried his best to explain the situation, but he knew this was something they should be talking about in person. "Tell the Old Man he better have a plane on the way to me pick Ma, Abby, and me up in the next hour or so help me God, I will drive all 14 hours it takes to get from Rose Hill to New York," Harley demanded over the call, which Peter quickly reiterated to Mr. Stark who nodded and stepped to the side to call Happy and have him sort it out.
Peter heard Dr. Cho walk over to Tony and mention the girl so quickly said goodbye to Harley getting a "Love ya, Darlin'. See you soon." in return.
"It's unlike anything I've ever seen," Dr. Cho was saying, "Physically she's almost a 70% match for a human except for the cybernetic modifications, alien components, and the infinity stones. Tony, they've fused with her vertebral column. I cannot remove them without compromising her ability to move from the neck down." Tony frowned at the information as Dr. Cho continued, Peter listening in nervously, "There's also the markings on her back. They're not soulmarks as far as I can tell, but they seem to be unique to each stone, extending horizontally from where the stone is embedded. Other than that, she seems remarkably unharmed, although I can't do a full diagnostic while she's still unconscious."
"Can I see her?" Peter asked, hands fiddling in front of him nervously.
Helen eyed the Spider-themed hero as she thought over the question. The girl was stable but...oh right! Her eyes widened as she thought of the large spider that sat over the girl's chest. She must be his soulmate, it made so much sense now. She okayed the visit and wandered off to help out another injured hero as Peter rushed over to the sectioned-off area where Dr Cho had said his soulmate was.
Her inky black hair fell over her shoulders down to her waist in dark streams. She had high cheekbones and pale pink lips. She was absolutely stunning. Peter wondered what her eyes looked like. He had only gotten a glimpse when they locked eyes on the battlefield, but he had a feeling they looked different now that the infinity stones had gone dormant. Or at least Peter assumed they had gone dormant since they had stopped glowing that otherworldly light he remembered from seeing them do on Titan.
The thought of the planet sent shivers down his spine and the taste of ash was still on his tongue. He was so going to be brushing his teeth at least 4 times once he was back home. For now, he simply sat at his soulmate's bedside and tentatively reached out to hold her hand. He watched her soulmark glow under the hospital gown she had been changed into. He knew it would now match with the one on Harley's chest, just as he knew she would have one that matched the toolbox on his side.
"I'm so glad I found you Princess."
O^O <- This is Bam, he's a line break. Say Hi Bam :)
Raven woke up to darkness.
Well, not quite.
In front of her, floating in the void she found herself in, were the infinity stones. The same ones she could vividly remember being implanted in her spine. Thanos hadn't allowed her to be put under for the surgery. 'What kind of weapon couldn't handle a bit of pain?' and all that drivel. She remembered wishing to kick and scream and shout at him about how much she hated him and his holier-than-thou attitude and his stupid apathetic shrivelled prune of a face, but she was still heavily under the influence of the Mind stone at the time.
'We apologize for that. It took some time to fully forge a strong enough connection that We'd be able to act without an outside influence. You being Our destined Holder assisted Us greatly in this, but We were still too late to save you some of your suffering.'
"What?" Raven looked around for the source of the voice, one that sounded like an amalgamation of both everything and nothing at all. It was strangely familiar.
'The boy helped immensely in allowing her soul to be strong enough to take the toll of breaking out of Thanos' control. He is good, We have seen his Mind and Soul, he and the other one shall help you on your journey from here.'
"I don't- I don't understand. Who are you? Who is this 'boy'? What do you mean his mind and soul?" Raven could feel a headache building as more and more questions filled her mind.
'We are the Infinity Stones, manifestations of the different parts that make up the known universe. Power , Space , Time, Reality , Mind and Soul . You are our Holder, the single existence that will ever exist that can contain and use our power for the Ultimate Purpose without being corrupted. The boy We speak of is one of your Soulmates, Peter Benjamin Parker, the hero of Earth known as Spiderman. By encountering him and forming a partial soulbond, We were able to undo what Thanos had used Mind to do to you. We were also able to use some time to work through you to eliminate Thanos and undo his Decimation, as well as return those who were lost too soon due to his actions.'
Images of a boy with fluffy brown curls, a shy smile, and warm chocolate eyes entered Raven's mind and then one after another more came. A taller boy with windswept blonde hair, a mischievous smirk, and grease stains on his shirt and jeans. Gamora. A woman with red hair in a braid, the tips platinum blonde, and wearing a black leather combat suit. A man with shoulder-length black hair, green eyes, and a crafty spark in his eyes. More and more. Dozens. Hundreds. Millions. Trillions.
Raven was quickly getting overwhelmed by the rapid influx of information before it suddenly stopped, and she was back with the infinity stones.
She took a few deep breaths, despite no air actually entering her lungs in this weird dreamscape, she could feel herself calming down slightly.
'They have returned to where they belonged. We must leave this discussion here; you will be waking up soon.'
"Wait," she reached out as the stones began fading, "I still have more questions! There's still so much I don't understand!"
'In due time, Holder. Until next time.'
And then there was light.
Peter jolted awake when he felt the hand in his squeeze slightly. She was waking up! He lightly rubbed his thumb over her knuckles as her eyes fluttered open. He was amazed by her eyes, now that he was finally able to get a good look at them. Pools of icy blue with tiny flecks of white, like snow drifting on a frozen lake. They were mesmerising. Peter already felt as though he could drown in them if he stared too long, just as he did with Harley's sky-blue ones.
He sensed how she stiffened before her eyes darted over to him. Peter tried to smile reassuringly at his soulmate but was startled when she murmured in a hoarse voice as if it had been the first time she had spoken in years, "Peter?" He stared at her wide-eyed. How did she know his name? Shaking off the strangeness he smiled at her, "Hi Raven, it's good to see you awake." He squeezed her hand. She startled and looked down at their joined hands with a look of wonder on her face. He tilted his head questioningly at the odd expression. "Is there something wrong?" He asked softly.
Raven stared at where the boy, Peter, her soulmate, held her hand. "This is the first time contact hasn't hurt," she murmured as she revelled in the feeling of how his thumb softly rubbed at her knuckles.
Peter desperately tried to keep his tears at bay as he heard his soulmate's devastating words. "I promise," he told her solemnly, "It won't ever hurt again. Not from me. Not from us." He pushed as much genuineness into his voice as he could, hoping that she would believe him despite the life he assumed she grew up in.
'He tells the truth. You may trust him.' Raven startled at the sound of the infinity stones' 'voice' in her head. She ignored Peter's questioning look as she tried to communicate back with the stones, but no amount of effort for her thoughts to reach the stones worked. She sighed and leaned back onto what she assumed was a healing bed. "Thank you," she whispered, her underused voice scratching at her dry throat.
"Oh right! I'll get you some water!" Peter instantly leapt from his chair, giving Raven's hand one last squeeze before ducking behind the privacy curtains that had been set up around her.
Meanwhile, Tony was kind of freaking out. Why, you may ask? Because standing in front of him was a very bloody but also very much alive Natasha Romanoff. Who was supposed to be dead. Bruce had said he tried, that he couldn't bring everyone back. Yet there she was, in all her scary I-know-how-to-kill-you-with-a-single-paperclip-17-different-ways glory. "Nat?" Tony turned to see Clint standing frozen a few feet away. "Nat!" The archer suddenly rushed over to grab Natasha in a desperate hug, so sure that he had lost his best friend forever because he wasn't quick enough. The ex-assassin stood there stiffly for a second before hugging him back just as fiercely. Tony observed them for a second, happy that his friend wouldn't need to grieve the other's death. He noticed others as well. Thor was standing in a crowd of who Tony assumed were the other Asgardians that had been killed by Thanos, hugging and lifting a reluctant Loki in the air who appeared to want to be quite literally anywhere else right now. Tony snorted in amusement at the sight. Wanda was desperately holding onto Vision, the gem on his forehead now dull and grey, yet alive all the same. Tony wasn't quite sure how that worked considering he no longer had the Mind stone in his head since it was, ya know, currently attached to a girl's spinal column. Yeah, Tony wasn't going to be getting over that little tidbit of information any time soon.
He turned to notice Peter slip out from the area where the glowing girl was kept and made his way over to his kid who seemed to be hurriedly grabbing a glass of water. "Hey kid. Is Supernova awake yet?" Now that the battle was over and mostly everyone had been treated, Tony was ready to go home to cuddle with his kids and wonderful soulmate. He had already managed to divert Fury from attempting to interrogate the girl by saying that he'd be taking supervision of her on account of her being Spiderman's soulmate, who had been under Tony's jurisdiction before the Snap.
"Oh, Mr Stark!" The teen was startled when he heard his mentor's voice, "Um, yeah. I'm just, uh, getting her some water I guess." He awkwardly lifted the half-full glass in his hands as if Tony hadn't noticed it in the first place. "Great, Helen left some clothes for her to change into on the chair there by the curtains so if you could give those to her then we can get onto a quinjet and back to New York in an hour. We should be able to make it back to the Lake House before Menace #1 gets there with his family."
Peter was a little confused about what the Lake House was but snickered at Tony's way of referring to Harley. He then began quickly making his way back to his soulmate, snatching the pile of clothes up on the way in.
"Here you go," he said as he handed Raven the items, "You can change into these and then we can go." Raven gave him a small but thankful smile before he left to stand outside the curtains while she changed (He's not a pervert after all, doesn't matter that she's his soulmate, he will respect her privacy).
A few minutes later Raven stepped out wearing a spare SHIELD agent uniform that had somehow survived the wreckage. Peter smiled at her and held out a hand for her to hold if she wanted to. His smile widened when she held on cautiously before tightening her grip. He could feel that she was stronger than he first expected from her, but she wasn't hurting him, so he let it be. He could feel how she stiffened before shifting so that he could block the curious stares of everyone else with his slightly larger frame. She was an inch or two shorter than him which he internally pouted at since he knew Harley would tease him about his short stature again once he saw them. He smiled back at her before pulling over to where Mr Stark stood talking to Miss Pepper and Colonel Rhodes next to an empty quinjet.
Peter introduced Raven to the others, thankful that he was still wearing his mask so that the others couldn't see his blush when he mentioned her being his soulmate. Soon enough they were all seated and in the air, Tony connecting Friday to the controls so that he could sit next to Pepper while still keeping an eye on his kid. He smiled when he saw how Peter had fallen asleep on Raven's shoulder, the dark-haired girl watching in a confused sort of awe at her soulmate. Tony was sure that they would be good for each other. Add in the mischievous hurricane that was one Harley Keener and Tony was sure they'd be wreaking havoc soon enough.
Taking a page out of his kid's book, Tony wrapped an arm comfortably around Pepper and allowed himself to fall into the best sleep he's had in five years.