Chapter Text
November 22, 2028
Peter’s life was almost perfect again. Ned remembered. And MJ had broken up with her boyfriend and started spending time with the two of them and then he and MJ were kissing like they had when they were still high-schoolers and then MJ had remembered too.
If only May was there. If only Tony was there. If only. If only. If only.
But for Peter, it wasn’t a grand idea to dwell on what he didn’t have, when he had gained so much from what he’d had the past four years.
Peter was truly the happiest he’d been since… he couldn’t even remember. All that mattered was he was sitting in his apartment. No, not only his. His, MJ’s, and Ned’s apartment, and Ned was chatting to him like old times and MJ was sitting there drawing him and it was good. So, so good.
“Hey, Peter.” Ned interrupted Peter’s train of thought, snapping him out of his brain spiral.
“Yeah?”
Ned frowned at him. “You good, bro? You just zoned out there for a sec.”
“Oh yeah I’m great, man. Just thinking,” Peter responded truthfully.
“Yeah, okay loser,” MJ teased playfully. “I’ve got work soon, so I’m headed out. See you two later?”
“Yeah,” Peter and Ned answered in unison, grinning at each other.
“‘K, bye losers!”
And MJ was out the door, and Peter was left laughing with his best friend in the living room of their apartment, and he knew there was nowhere at that moment he would rather be.
A few months earlier
Tony wasn’t supposed to be alive. He had snapped. He knew he’d done that. And Thanos had died and he’d saved the world and the cost of that was his life… except he wasn’t dead. He didn’t even know how that was possible. He also didn’t know where he was.
It was clearly an apartment, but it was… unusual. It was pretty standard, except for the desk in the corner with a couple of monitors and a laptop, as well as some other high-tech looking stuff. The most unusual thing, though, was that everything was covered in… webs. Spider webs.
Peter, his brain supplied, but that wasn’t possible. These weren’t the webs Spider-Man used, they were real spider webs, in a rather numerous quantity.
Suddenly, the door to the apartment Tony was in made a noise, and Tony scrambled out of the way. He hid behind a shelf, and he couldn’t see who was entering, but heard them making their way over to the monitor setup.
“One hundred and fifty one new alerts,” a female voice said, and Tony presumed it came from the setup.
The person, a man based on their gasp and groan, stumbled around a bit, and Tony heard them picking things up and tearing through webs, and eventually climbing out the window.
Stumped, Tony left his hiding space and moved over to where the setup was. He was going to just examine it, maybe find the AI that was there, but then he caught sight of the date on the bottom of the monitor screen. The day and month didn’t matter to him, all that mattered was the year. It was 2028.
2028.
He’d ‘died’ in 2023.
It had been five years.
What the hell had happened?
With a gasp and a stumble, Tony raced out the door of the apartment, finding an elevator to take him to the first floor and running out onto the streets. He managed to find a side-alley, and made sure he was out of sight of everyone before starting to hyperventilate.
He needed to call someone… but he didn’t have a phone. He only had… clothes. The clothes he’d died in. That was it. No phone. No suit. No nothing.
He had to ask someone for a phone. He was dead, right? So no one would recognise him? He sure hoped so.
Running back out of the alley, Tony walked straight up to a younger man with dark brown hair and tanned skin, who was texting someone at that moment.
“Hey, sir. Can I use your phone quickly?” he asked.
The younger man looked up at him, and then his eyes widened. “Dude, you look exactly like Tony Stark!”
Tony just chuckled, trying not to go into a full-on panic attack.
“I get that a lot. Please can I use your phone?” he reiterated.
“Sure, be quick though, dude.”
The young man handed Tony his phone, and Tony sighed in relief as he navigated to the phone app and typed in Happy’s number — or at least what had been Happy’s number five years ago. Oh god what if he’s changed it.
Tony forced the thought out of his mind as the phone rang, and then…
“Who’s this?” Happy’s voice came through the receiver and Tony almost cried with relief. He turned away from the owner of the phone in order to keep his conversation private.
“Happy, it’s Tony–”
“This isn’t funny–”
“No, Hap, it’s really me. I’m alive and I have no idea how and I really need you to come get me and–”
Happy let out a mix between a groan and a growl. “Look, I don’t know who you are, but this isn’t a joke. Stop messing around.”
“You had my engagement ring in your pocket for years before I proposed to Pepper it’s me Happy, please.” Tony pleaded, leaving no space between his words for breath or a break.
A soft gasp sounded on the other end of the line.
“Tony?”
Tony wilted a little, glad that Happy had finally come to his senses.
“Yeah, Hap, it’s me. Now can you come get me?” Tony really needed out.
“Where are you?”
Tony realised he had no idea where he was.
“Uh, hey!” Tony caught the attention of the man he’d borrowed the phone from. “Where am I?”
“Manhattan,” the man replied. “You’re about a ten minute walk from Times Square.”
“Thanks,” Tony said. “Okay, Hap, you can pick me up at Times Square.”
“Okay. You’re lucky I’m in New York, Tony.” And Tony realised if Happy hadn’t been nearby he’d have been royally screwed.
“Thanks, Hap.”
“No problem.” Tony hung up after Happy responded, and handed the phone back to the man he’d borrowed it from.
“Which direction is Times Square?” Tony asked.
“That-a-way.” The man pointed down the street. There was a shit-tonne of people and Tony realised he’d been lucky when he’d been able to isolate himself at the Tower or the Compound, or just fly above it all.
“Thanks again.” He nodded at the man, who smiled at him and began to walk away. With nothing left to do, Tony walked down to Times Square, where he would hopefully meet Happy and figure out what the fuck had happened since he’d been gone.
Tony was finally out of the chaos of the New-York streets, and in the front passenger of Happy’s car. Happy had cried a bit when he’d seen Tony, but Tony had struggled to get him to admit it and ended up just giving up completely.
“Where’s Pep?” Tony asked. Time to get his priorities straight.
“She’s at the cabin with Morgan.” Morgan. Oh Morgan, his kid. And Peter! Of course.
“Morgan must be… what, nine years old?” Tony asked, and Happy responded with a positive-sounding grunt. “Oh god I’ve missed so much of her life I’m barely even her dad.”
At that, Happy turned toward Tony a bit, looking like he found his words incredulous. “She is literally your biological child. And you love her. You raised her for four years. That makes her your child in my opinion.”
Tony frowned a bit. He still didn’t like the idea of missing some of the most important years of his daughter’s life. Peter had already gone through those years with May. He would be… twenty-two, if you removed five years for the snap. Speaking of…
“So where’s Peter? Did he go to MIT? He would’ve graduated by now, righ–”
“Who?” Happy responded, and Tony raised an eyebrow.
“Peter. My other kid… what do you mean, who?” Happy now looked extremely confused, which worried Tony quite a bit.
“Since when did you have another kid?” Happy asked, and Tony felt something uncertain bubble inside him.
“You know him. You know Peter. He’s Spider-Man… we… we took him to Germany.” If Happy didn’t know who Spider-Man was, then… Tony didn’t know what he’d do.
“I know Spider-Man, but I didn’t know his name was Peter. No one knows his identity. He keeps it a secret.” But Happy knew, didn’t he? Or had Tony somehow woken up in some alternate universe where Tony had never figured out Peter’s identity and no one ever knew it.
“Look, I don’t know why you don’t know him, but I know him, and I’m going to find him,” Tony said with determination. He had to find out what had happened to his kid. Five years was a long time.
“Well, if he’s Spider-Man, you can pretty easily track him,” Happy said helpfully, still sounding confused.
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. Someone made this app. I haven’t used it but I’ve heard of it. It tracks sightings of Spider-Man throughout the whole city.” Tony looked over at Happy, who was focused on the road ahead.
“The whole city? I thought Pete only patrolled in Queens.” Though, he was an adult now. It would make sense if he’d branched out a little.
“No, the whole city. He’s taken down every threat to New York over the last years. Crime rates are lower than ever.” Tony felt a swell of pride for his kid.
“Wait, if you don’t know who he is, who does?” Tony asked.
“I have no idea. No one I know, for sure,” Happy answered, and then Tony came to a sickening realisation.
“So… Pepper doesn’t know?” Tony dreaded the answer, and he looked over at Happy so he could see his face as he answered.
“No. Well, not as far as I know.” Tony felt a bit like vomiting, and a bit like he was going to have a panic attack.
“It’s okay. He has Ned and MJ, they’ll remember. And May!” Of course. May. Peter would be fine because he had May.
“May? May Parker?” Happy asked, and at his tone of voice Tony felt a bit more nauseous.
“Yeah… she’s his aunt. His caretaker,” Tony said and Happy looked over at Tony sadly. Tony felt a deep pit of dread open up in his stomach as Happy opened his mouth, clearly about to deliver some news that Tony knew he would definitely not like.
“May… she’s dead.” And Tony’s breath sped up and he started panting and there was not enough oxygen in the world because no one else seemed to remember Pete and if May was dead then he had no one and–
“Tony?” A concerned voice interrupted his spiralling thoughts. “Tony, you need to calm down. You need to breathe. Tony, breathe for me.”
And Tony took a singular breath but no air seemed to come in because May was dead and Peter was alone and even if he had his friends they were only young like him and… maybe May had died only recently? A small thread of hope ran through Tony and he croaked out the only question that mattered:
“When?”
Happy seemed to immediately pick up on his meaning, and looked at him sadly. “May… she died four years ago Tony.”
There was no air left in the world. There couldn’t be. Four years ago Peter would’ve only been eighteen. Eighteen was far too young for him to have lost his parents, his uncle, his aunt, and Tony. How… how had even–
“Tony!” Tony sucked in a deep breath at Happy’s panicked tone. “Tony he’s fine. Spider-Man’s out every day. If he is Spider-Man, then he’s fine. Breathe.”
Tony gradually calmed down, but fear and worry was still running through his veins.
“We need to find him.”
“What?”
Tony groaned a bit in frustration.
“You heard me. He can’t be out there alone. I need to find him.” And Tony meant that. No matter how old his kid was, he was still reckless. Being alone wasn’t good for him. And as much as Tony tried to reason this was for his kid, it was for him, too. Because he needed to see his kid alive and well. He loved his kid, and if anyone tried to interfere with that, he’d blow them up before they could say ‘Avengers’.
But for now, he needed to get back to Pepper. To Morgan. To the people he could find easily. To the people who could help him in his search for Peter.
It was going to be a long ride.
But for his kid, it would always be worth it.