Chapter Text
The air around him is thick with dust and debris and each new explosion sends up another spray. The blasts are near deafening. Even without the literal impediments to his senses, his Spidey-Sense is alternating between screaming and yelling at him.
Peter, for all his experience as a hero and vigilante, has never fought such a large number of enemies before. He’s also never had so many allies, so he alternates a little between joy and terror. Peter swings a devastating kick into an Outrider, launching it into a crowd that tumbles like bowling pins.
He’s trying to make his way to where he can see Thanos. And more importantly, Mr. Stark.
“Come on, come on,” he mumbles. Something else explodes behind him and the force sends his swing another few feet forward. Another Outrider tries to attack from the side but he webs it to a broken piece of a spaceship. So cool. The legs of his suit take care of the rest.
Peter lands in the clearing with just enough time to see Captain Marvel launched to the other side of the battlefield. It’s an altogether disconcerting image to see before throwing himself into combat. But Peter is Spider-man, and he will never back down from a fight.
He is preparing to jump down into the action when his senses scream at him as they never have before.
His eye catches on Dr. Strange raising one shaking finger at Mr. Stark.
One chance in fourteen million to save the entire universe. Peter has the distinct feeling that Mr. Stark isn’t meant to survive this plan. He can’t let that happen. He can see the path he can take. The path that keeps Mr. Stark from dying when Peter has the ability to stop it.
Mr. Stark is pulling himself off the ground.
Peter dives.
He reaches Thanos a millisecond before Mr. Stark does.
“Kid-,” Peter can’t quite read the emotion in his mentor’s voice, but it’s far from happy as he throws his body onto the gauntlet.
Strange yells at him too. “Peter don’t!”
Both are too late to stop him. Stick, he thinks, please just stick.
Stark tries to hit Thanos but is knocked brutally away with a knee to the chest. He swats Peter away like an especially annoying bug.
Gauntlet firmly in place, Thanos raises his arm. He smiles as he speaks. “I am Inevitable.”
He snaps his fingers. The metal makes a dull thud as the fingers touch. Nothing happens.
Thanos startles and turns to Mr. Stark in fear. Fear that quickly turns to confusion and anger as he realizes the man is empty handed.
All eyes turn to Peter.
He wills his suit to reform to fit the stones.
Immediately the power of the stones burns into him. He can feel the flames tracing their way across his body. They seem to be whispering to him, speaking directly into his mind. Help me, he hears, use them.
He holds up his own hand. “Guess not.”
For a second he composes himself and Thanos takes a half step towards him. “Come on Spider-man.”
He snaps.
For a moment after he snaps, Peter thinks he’s died. His vision whites out, his hearing stops, and for a brief moment, he feels nothing. Then pain like he has never known rips across his body. His arm screams for mercy and relief but all he can feel is burning as his skin chars into ash. The fire climbs through his veins, arching across his chest and neck, shooting throughout his body. Peter is unaware of anything but the pain. The radiation of the stones fills his cells one by one and he closes his eyes, ready for the end.
His head explodes with sensation. All at once he can hear the heartbeats of everyone in the field. Some beat steadily; others quietly stop as the stones’ power reaches them. He can see sharper than he ever has, watching each piece of ash float away as Thanos dissolves in front of him. The smell would be the worst, his own burning flesh and the blood of the injured, if not for what he can feel.
His cells are dying, rapidly decaying and flaking away from the raw power of infinity coursing through him. At the same time, his body is fighting to replace each one and only succeeding by half. The ground cracks beneath the hand he catches himself on.
This must be what dying feels like. One last moment of total clarity. Peter hates it.
Mr. Stark is racing towards him and each footfall hits his ears like a clap of thunder. He falls to his knees in front of Peter. His hands hover in front of him like he isn’t sure where to put them. Peter guesses it’s because half of him is charred and glowing. Mr. Stark makes eye contact with him and his breath hitches. He probably looks like he’s dying too.
“Hey, hey. Kid-, what-,” he cuts himself off. “You did good kid.”
Mr. Stark’s voice sounds choked up and Peter is desperate to fix it. He smiles and Mr. Stark lets out a sob. “We won, Mr. Stark. We did it”
“You did.” Mr. Stark is crying in earnest. Peter tries not to pay attention, but he can see all the little lines in Mr. Stark’s face that are catching his tears.
His mentor finally figures out what to do with his hands and pulls Peter in by the back of his neck. Peter becomes aware of the fact that he is no longer supporting his own weight.
“Peter, look at me,” he also becomes aware that his eyes are closed. He pries them open. “I love you kid.”
That shocks a little bit of awareness back into him. Peter pulls his good arm up, careful to rest it gently against his mentor’s back. “I love you too.”
He rests his forehead on Mr. Stark’s shoulder.
“No, you have to stay awake, kid.” Peter nods. It’s getting much harder to keep his eyes open.
The pain hasn’t receded any, nor have any of his senses. He’s doing his best to focus on Mr. Stark, but his head is splitting and his body burns. His breath catches coming in and out. Mr. Stark is still murmuring to him, but it’s getting harder and harder to make out the words.
Peter turns his head to look at his hero one more time. “I’m okay.”
He loses consciousness after that.