Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Reentry
"And when I’m back in Chicago, I feel it. Another version of me, I was in it. I wave goodbye to the end of beginning"
The large building of SI loomed ahead of him. My god, Peter really hoped he wouldn’t see anyone from his past. If you had asked him four years ago this would’ve been his biggest dream. But then again, he was different now. Stark hadn’t died. Or come back to life. The spell had never been cast. He had never been blipped. Hydra hadn’t come for him. But now… The last time he had been here was 2018. It felt like ages ago. It was ages ago. He couldn’t help but wonder if he would see Tony but he brushed that thought off quickly.
He kept telling himself it was nothing.
Just a job.
Just a building.
But his body didn’t fully agree.
His fingers flexed slightly at his sides, like they were remembering something his mind refused to name properly.
Peter put one foot in front of the other, his hands fiddling at his side. Just before he walks through the entrance he stops. If MJ were here she would tell him to shut up and get over it.
The thought came with a faint echo of her voice, clear enough that for half a second he almost expected to hear it out loud. He could practically see the look she’d give him too—half annoyed, half amused.
The space beside him remained empty.
But she wasn’t. He was alone. Ned, May, Mj, Tony were gone, and it was his fault. Peter inhaled sharply, the air catching slightly on the way in, and forced himself to breathe out slower. Don’t. Don’t think about it.
He lingered there for a second longer than he meant to, staring at his own reflection in the glass doors. It didn’t quite look like him. Or maybe it did, and that was the problem. Same face. Same posture. But something about it felt distant, like he was looking at a version of himself that didn’t belong here anymore. His hand twitched at his side again before he finally forced himself to move.
With that Peter breathed in deeply and took the last step inside. He made it. Yay! Wether it was muscle memory or him just subconsciously wanting to go up there, see his sister, see Tony again he didn’t question it as he started moving. His feet carried him forward before he could really think about it, heading straight for the first elevator he saw. The resident elevator. Of course it was. The world really did have a fucked up sense of humor.
The lobby felt open. Light, almost like it was taunting him. His footsteps echoed loudly over the marble floors, a bit too loud. He felt like he could hear, feel everything that was happening. He heard people conversing, elevators moving, a soft ding at the reception desk, he felt how the air vibrated as he strode past it. He resisted the urge to slow down. Stopping felt worse.
Before he could process a large man stepped in front of him. Happy. His body reacted before his mind did, muscles tightening, shoulders pulling back slightly, weight shifting instinctively like he was bracing for something. He secretly hoped Happy would recognise him, but he knew that wasn’t how the world worked. Not for Peter. But with his Parker luck he couldn’t expect better.
So even though he expected it, it hurt when Happy looked him straight in the eye and asked
"who are you? "
Peter felt like collapsing. That right there, those words, were probably the worst he had heard in a long time
It wasn’t the question itself. It was how easy it came to him. No hesitation, no confusion, not even a flicker of familiarity. Just a stranger doing his job. Just Peter being no one. Not that he thought he actually was anything more than that.
Peter opened his mouth. Closed it again. For a second, he genuinely didn’t know what to say. His name felt stuck somewhere in his throat, like it didn’t belong there anymore. Like saying it out loud wouldn’t fix anything, wouldn’t make it real. Because it didn’t.
"I- Uh-"
Great. Smooth. He felt like banging his head against the clean marvel floors of the lobby
"Sorry, sir. I’m new. Just… got a bit turned around. "
The lie came easier than it should have. Maybe he was getting used to it. That part didn’t sit right either. Happy didn’t move immediately. He looked him over once, slow and assessing, like he was trying to decide if Peter was worth the trouble.
"Residents only. "
The words were firm, final.
Peter nodded quickly. "Right. Yeah. Sorry."
You used to be one of those a voice in his head whispered. He didn’t bother to listen to it. Not now.
He stepped back a little too fast, heel scraping slightly against the polished floor. He caught himself before he could actually stumble, forcing his posture back into something that resembled normal. His hands curled slightly at his sides, fingers pressing into his palms just enough to ground himself.Happy gestured vaguely to the side. ‘ Staff elevators are that way. ‘Peter followed the direction not having it in him to react.
He could feel it, though. The absence. The fact that Happy had already looked away, already moved on like the interaction had meant nothing. Like Peter had meant nothing.
He doesn’t care about you. No one does.
He walked faster than he needed to. The elevator was already there. Waiting. He stopped in front of it. For a second, he just stood there. The silence felt louder here. Or maybe it was just that there was nothing else to focus on. No voices, no movement, no distraction. Just him, and the quiet hum of the building around him.
The silence was cut off by a loud ding, signaling the elevator was here. The doors slid open and Peter stepped inside quickly, almost before they were fully open, and turned to face forward. The doors closed behind him with a soft click.
For a moment, nothing happened.
"Good afternoon. Please state your destination."
Peter froze. That voice— FRIDAY.
He kind of missed her to be honest. Maybe it was pathetic to miss an AI but Peter didn’t think about it like that. Then he thought about Karen. He hadn’t worn the suit since the spell. It felt weird wearing him. It reminded him too much of what once was.
It hit him like something half-remembered. Familiar in a way that made his chest tighten, but distant enough that he couldn’t grab onto it properly. He stared straight ahead, jaw tightening slightly before he forced himself to speak."Floor 73, please. Higher labs. " His voice cracked halfway through the sentence.
There was a brief pause. Too brief to mean anything. Long enough to feel like it did.‘ Access granted. Welcome to Stark Industries, Mr. Parker. ‘ Peter’s breath hitched. Recognition. Not from a person. Not real. But still—something. You’re pathetic.
The elevator began to move.
And Peter stared straight ahead, trying very hard not to think about why that hurt too.
━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✦ ━━━━━━━━━━━━
The elevator ride was long and quiet. Its walls were made of glass and you could see the entirety of the city from it. A few people got on and off but paid him no heed. Peter stood slightly to the side, hands loosely at his sides, trying to look like someone who belonged in a place like this. He didn’t. He could feel it in the way people didn’t look at him twice—like he was already invisible. Or worse, like he was already categorized and dismissed.
When the doors finally opened after what felt like ages he was greeted by a tall blonde woman with icy blue eyes and a strong demeanor. She was wearing a long lab coat and had a lanyard around her neck ‘ Gwen Stacy, head intern, entry level 3. ‘ The woman followed his glance before looking back up at him.
"Oh hi! My name is Gwen- uh. Mrs. Stacy, and I'm the head intern here at Stark industries. You must be… "
She looked down on a sheet of paper.
"Peter Parker? Senior scientist?"
She didn’t wait for a reaction and continued rambling.
"How in the world does a 22 year old get a senior job here. You must really be something"
She shot him a kind smile which he relished in. It wasn’t often people complimented him. He didn’t immediately respond. Compliments weren’t something his brain processed quickly anymore. They usually came with a catch, or a follow-up task, or an expectation. He found himself studying her expression instead of her words, like he was trying to determine the correct way to respond without triggering anything. At HYDRA ‘compliments’ were against protocols. It insinuated he cared for them which would mean he had emotions, which he didn’t. If he did well in training he would get well… More training. He didn’t like to think of those years but occasionally something did remind him of it. Of the handlers he had over the years. When he thought of those it didn’t seem all that bad.
The thought came and went quickly, like his mind had learned how to open those doors only slightly before shutting them again. Not enough to feel, just enough to recognize.
"Yeah. Nice to meet you Gwen. Can I call you Gwen? My name is Peter, but I guess you already knew that."
He sounded like fucking idiot.
' control is everything ‘ he could hear Madame B’s voice in the back of his mind and his shoulders straightened almost instantly, subtle but precise, like a switch had been flipped. His expression smoothed out a fraction too, not warm, but controlled. Observant. Present in a way that felt practiced rather than natural.
"You can call me Mr. Parker. I think this is enough talk for now and you probably need to get to work." He said in an ever so slightly accusatory tone.
He didn’t mean for it to sound sharp but it came out that way anyway. Like he had stepped one inch too far into authority without meaning to. Gwen’s smile faltered just slightly, confusion flickering across her face before she masked it again.Without giving her a second to process his change of tone he stepped over the wooden floor past a little kitchen that must’ve been installed after when he was here. He kept in mind that he could get his much needed dose of coffee there instead of spending money on one of those overpriced cafeteria coffees. It was a small, almost normal thought. It sat strangely in his head, like it didn’t belong in the same space as everything else.
He kept walking till he found himself in front of 2 large clear doors that had a sign on them ‘ Higher level labs - senior employees only. ‘ He grabbed for the door handle but the door of the lab swung open automatically and a FRIDAYS soft voice came down from the ceiling. The glass doors reflected him for a fraction of a second before reacting, catching his movement slightly too late, like even the building needed permission to acknowledge him. The space between him and the threshold felt smaller than it should have, like the air itself had thickened in hesitation.
"Hello Peter! It has been long and according to the baby spider protocol- " Peter was perplexed by what he just heard. His weight shifted slightly back on his heels, and his hand froze mid-motion near the doorframe. Something in that phrase hit wrong, not dangerous exactly, but familiar in a way he couldn’t place fast enough to feel comfortable with. He noticed his muscles had gone tense. How had FRIDAY recognised him if even Karen didn’t? What the actual fuck. Did he imagine hearing that? Did he finally go crazy? He was long due for that. However the voice stopped before she finished what she was saying and began her monologue anew.
"Good morning Mr. Parker. I am glad to welcome you to Stark Industries. I am FRIDAY, an artificial intelligence assistant created by Mr. Stark to help his employees any way I can."
"I know, "he thought. But even as he thought it, the earlier sentence didn’t fully disappear. It lingered somewhere in the back of his mind like a misfiled memory. 'Baby spider protocol.' It didn’t mean anything. And yet his brain kept circling it anyway, like it almost did.
He tilted his head up and looked around the lab. Not much had changed here. At the beginning of his internship he spent a lot of time here, till Mr. Stark invited him to his personal lab of course. It gave a calming feeling to know at least one thing hadn’t changed.
But not everything was the same. The only scientists he recognised were Mrs. Yurio and Ned. Wait. Ned? The Hawaiian boy was sitting at one of the smaller desks and working on an ancient looking laptop.
Peter stopped walking without realizing he had done it. His brain didn’t immediately process the sight correctly, like it was trying to reconcile two incompatible timelines at once. Ned was here. That shouldn’t have been surprising—but it was. Because his presence here implied continuity. And Peter’s life didn’t feel like it had continuity anymore.
His body remained still even after his thoughts caught up, like movement had been temporarily disabled. He didn’t blink for a second longer than normal, just staring as if continued observation might correct the contradiction. It didn’t. Parker luck really had it out for him today.
He was taken out of the trance by a very worried Gwen tapping his back. "Sir? Are you alright?"
At that point the whole lab was staring at him. He looked around confused for a moment, but then let his muscles relax.
"I'm fine." he said, not believing the lie himself.
"Mind showing me to my desk, Miss Stacy? ‘ She slowly nodded, not believing him at all (as she should), but not wanting to make her boss hate her on the first day.
"Yea, just, yea, follow me."
She let out a sigh and walks him to a huge glass desk. It was decorated with a few lab and on the right was one of those holographic tables he’d used in the plane years ago. He thought back at the memory. His mental health wasn’t great at the time but he wasn’t alone even though he felt like it. He wished he’d cherished that moment more. He would give anything to go back to that moment.
He sat down on the lavish chair situated in front of the desk and naturally started reorganising it (read: making it a fucking mess). After everything was just where he liked it he spotted a brand new stark ipad lying there. At home he still had one of those, one that Mr. Stark gave him for his fifteenth birthday. It had been the newest model back then, but these days it was barely functioning.
He opened the clear case and the Stark industries logo appeared on the screen. It must’ve been unused for a long time, seeing as how long it took to actually go on. He wondered why it hadn’t been borrowed to Ned or someone else before he arrived. He shrugged the thought off and opened the ‘ StarkEmp.’ He remembered how he had helped Mr. Stark program the application and navigated it without hesitation. The first due project he saw was labeled ‘ NANO-link. ‘ Wow. A device made out of nano bots? He certainly liked that idea.
Peter rolled his chair over to the holo table and without hesitation he started modelling it. It wasn’t long before several interns had crowded up behind him, revelling at the fact that he could use it without so much a look at the manual. Gwen was the first to speak up.
"How do you do that? It takes most people ages to learn how to use it and you’ve been here for… Barely and hour."
Peter didn’t look away from the holo-table when Gwen spoke, like the question barely registered. His fingers were already moving through the air, dragging glowing blue schematics apart and rebuilding them again.
“Force of habit,"he said simply.
That wasn’t really an answer, and everyone there seemed to know it. One of the interns let out a quiet laugh, like they didn’t believe him but didn’t dare question it further. Gwen however did. She stepped a little closer, arms folded.
“That’s not an answer.” Peter finally glanced up. For a second he looked like he was going to joke, but it didn’t land. His expression flickered, something tired underneath the calm.
“I’ve used similar systems before,” he added.
“Different interface. Same logic.” That was technically true. It also wasn’t something you were supposed to say like it was normal. The holo-table responded to his movements almost too smoothly now, as if it had already adjusted itself to him. The 'NANO-link' file expanded into a rotating 3D structure, clusters of microscopic nodes forming a web-like lattice that shifted and reconfigured every time he thought about it.
He gestured for the interns to get back to work signaling he was done answering questions, and got back to work without another word.
━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✦ ━━━━━━━━━━━━
Tony was having a bad day. A really bad day. Morgan kept him up all night, damn is she loud for a nine year old. Then came Pepper with her stupid dietary restrictions, throwing away coffee should be illegal. Then she locked him out of the lab and forced him to go to a board meeting. Didn’t he have a CEO for those? They were three hours into the board meeting when he got a security alert for an employee trying to enter the resident elevator, oh well, at least it was an excuse to leave the meeting. After stealing some coffee from the avengers floor he started making his way to the higher lab floors where said employee should be working as of now. It’s always a pain going down to the labs and encountering some intern ecstatic to meet him or all these employees with questions, but anything is better than sitting another minute in that meeting.
The coffee was still too hot, which meant he had exactly two options: drink it anyway and burn his tongue or wait and suffer. He chose suffering quietly while walking, because multitasking was apparently the theme of his entire existence. The hallway lights flickered slightly as he passed—nothing serious, just building maintenance—but he still shot them a look like they personally offended him.
‘ You have arrived at the requested floor Mr. Stark. ‘ FRIDAY said.
Tony strode out of the elevator to H lab A3. Upon entering the lab he took a look around, observing every person, but one person really caught his eye. A boy with curly brown hair and emerald eyes sat at one of the desks, but what really surprised him is the look in his eyes. He had only seen that look on a few people; Natasha, Bucky and himself. A look radiating sadness and waryness. It pained him to see it on a man so young. Nobody should look like that let alone a young adult.
"Is Peter Parker here?" The boy's head darted up and looked… scared?
Not the jumpy kind of scared. Not the startled 'oh I got caught doing something wrong' scared. This was sharper. Controlled. Like his body reacted before he had time to decide what expression to show. Tony noticed that immediately, filed it away, keeping his face neutral.
"Peter Parker please follow me to my office." The boy got up and followed him to a large office with floor to ceiling glass and large round doors. Tony pushed open the doors and took a seat at a large black chair.
"Please Mr. Parker, take a seat. " He pointed to one of the oak wooden chairs in front of the desk. Peter warily sat down at the chair, his eyes not leaving Tony.
The chair creaked slightly under him, and Peter adjusted his posture instantly after sitting, like he had been trained to notice discomfort before it fully registered. Tony caught that too. Again—filed it away. Too precise for someone who looked that exhausted.
"I hear you tried to get into the resident elevator?"
"No sir, I was just trying to find my way to the labs. May I be excused? I was just getting started on a project I would really like to finish tonight." Tony was surprised to say the least. People that met him were usually perplexed, wanting to spend more time, or at least ask a few questions.
There was not even hesitation in the answer. No stumble, no nervous filler words, no attempt to impress or defend. Just direct information, delivered cleanly and immediately followed by a request to leave. Efficient. Almost too efficient for someone his age.
Tony leaned back slightly in his chair, studying him more openly now. “Right,” he said slowly. “You don’t seem very interested in arguing your case.”
Peter’s fingers flexed once against the edge of the chair, subtle enough that most people wouldn’t notice. But Tony did. It wasn’t anxiety exactly—it was restraint. Like holding something in place.
Without waiting for an answer, the boy, Peter, walked out of the office without a second thought. "Thank you Mr. Stark." Tony tried to call for him but Peter was already gone. Weird kid. He would have to look into him more.
The door shut behind him with a soft mechanical click that felt too final for such a short conversation. Tony stayed seated for a moment longer than necessary, eyes still on the door, replaying the interaction in his head. There was nothing obviously wrong with it. That was the problem.
He took a sip of coffee, finally noticing it had cooled down just enough to be drinkable, and frowned slightly at the taste. Still bitter. Still necessary. His gaze drifted to the glass wall of his office, where the lab floor was visible below. Movement everywhere people working, talking, existing in ways that looked normal from a distance. But his attention kept snapping back to the direction Peter had gone.
“FRIDAY,” he said.
"Yes, Boss?"
“Run a basic background check on Peter Parker. Internal employee file. Full history.”
There was a brief pause—not hesitation, just processing. Tony didn’t love when FRIDAY paused. It usually meant there was more than expected. "Of course, Mr. Stark. Would you like me to prioritize anomalies or full archival reconstruction?" Tony exhaled through his nose.
“Just give me everything that looks like it doesn’t belong.”
He leaned forward slightly in his chair again, elbows resting on the desk now, fingers loosely interlaced. His eyes stayed fixed on nothing in particular, but his attention was already elsewhere. Down in the lab, life continued as if nothing had happened. Which was exactly what bothered him.
People didn’t usually walk into Stark Industries and feel off after a thirty-second conversation. Either they were impressed, intimidated, or trying too hard. This kid hadn’t done any of that. He had just… existed. Like he was trying not to take up space.Tony’s fingers tapped once against the desk. Then stopped.“Yeah,” he muttered under his breath. “Weird kid.”
━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✦ ━━━━━━━━━━━━
Peter was having a bad day. A really bad day. His first day at work and 3 people from his past, that he hadn’t seen in years suddenly popped up. He didn’t know what to think of it. Parker luck he supposed. And now he was in Tony fucking Stark’s office. He was on the brink of a panic attack and couldn’t get out of there quicker.
It felt like the room had shrunk around him the longer he sat there, even though nothing had physically changed. The air was too clean, too controlled, like it had nowhere to escape to. His skin felt too aware of itself, like every inch of him had suddenly become noticeable.
"May I be excused" is what he had said and before giving Tony a chance to react he ran out of the office towards the toilets and collapsed when he reached a stall.
He didn’t even fully register leaving the room properly. One moment he was standing in front of Tony Stark, and the next he was moving through hallways too fast for his own thoughts to keep up. His footsteps were uneven, almost silent on the polished floor, until he reached the bathroom and the sound of the door shutting behind him finally caught up with him like a delayed impact.
He’s back.
Cold metal.
Water.
Hands holding him down.
He can’t breathe.
The memory didn’t arrive in a straight line. It came in fragments first pressure, sound, temperature then snapped into something sharper. His hands gripped the edge of the sink so tightly his knuckles went pale, but it didn’t help. Nothing in the room felt real enough to anchor him. He tried to inhale, but the breath didn’t complete properly, like his body had forgotten the correct sequence. His chest tightened in a way that wasn’t entirely physical anymore, it was older than that, stored deeper, somewhere he didn’t have full control over.
For a moment, he wasn’t in Stark Industries anymore. Or maybe he was, but it didn’t matter, because his mind refused to stay there. The present kept slipping away at the edges, replaced by something colder, louder, and far less survivable.
"Hey Mr. Parker? It’s Ned here, you’ve been in there for a while, are you alright?" Peter didn't answer for a while, still trying to figure out what Ned had even asked him.
The voice outside the stall sounded distant, like it was coming through water. He blinked hard once, trying to reattach himself to the present moment, but it didn’t fully take. Words took effort now more than they should have. More than he wanted them to.
"Мне нужна помощь," Peter said.
"I need help"
"Shit, sorry, no I’m fine. Yea, I- I’ll come out in a second."
The Russian slipped out before he could stop it, automatic and misplaced, like a reflex from a version of himself that didn’t belong in this building. The second it left his mouth, he regretted it—not because it was wrong, but because it revealed too much without meaning to.
Silence followed immediately outside the stall. Not judgmental silence. Just confused silence. That somehow felt worse.
“…yeah,” Ned said after a beat, voice softer now. “Okay. Take your time.”
Peter stayed there a moment longer, forehead resting lightly against the cool surface of the stall wall. His breathing slowly began to even out, not fully calm, but no longer spiraling. In. Out. Controlled, forced, then gradually less forced. The cold metal feeling in his memory didn’t disappear, but it stopped feeling like it was physically happening again. He swallowed once, hard, and straightened slightly.
His fingers loosened their grip on the sink, one at a time, like releasing tension had to be done in stages or it would come back all at once. From outside, he could still hear movement—people passing, the faint hum of the building, life continuing like nothing had happened.
That normality didn’t comfort him as much as it should have. It just reminded him how easily everything kept moving even when he didn’t. “Yeah,” Ned said again, more uncertain this time.
“Just… let me know if you need anything, okay?”
Peter exhaled slowly, forcing his voice to stabilize before he answered. “Yeah,” he said.
“I’m fine. I’ll come out in a second.”
End chapter
━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✦ ━━━━━━━━━━━━
"And when I’m back in Chicago, I feel it. Another version of me, I was in it. I wave goodbye to the end of beginning."