Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Peter coughed, choking on his own blood. He began seeing double yet he continued to push forward on the wet grass. His suit was practically ripped to shreds, blood seeping out of him.
The highway screamed above him as he dragged himself under the bridge.
“Karen, assess my injuries.” He choked out. After fighting off a mob of robbers, he knew there was something seriously wrong. It hurt to breathe, it hurt to walk, it hurt to hear. The cars above him weren’t helping at all with his terrible headache.
Karen’s smooth voice dinged back at him, making the pounding in his head worse. “You currently are suffering from two broken ribs, a gunshot wound to the thigh, a concussion, and a dislocated shoulder. Help is recommended. Shall I call-”
“Shit. No. Don’t call anyone.” He groaned as he pressed his forehead and arm to the cold, damp concrete. The vibrations felt oddly nice on his arm but not so much on his head.
He huffed a broken sigh before straightening himself out. He glanced at a nearby building before shooting a web towards it and began shakily swinging back to the tower.
As soon as he lifted his left arm, he cried out in pain as his ribs pressed against his lungs, causing a searing pain. Peter crashed hard onto the top of the building, skidding to a stop with his good arm.
Karen’s voice rang out, “Due to the severity of your injuries, an automatic c-call will be transferred to the tower.” Oddly, her voice glitched while speaking, that only happens when something is damaged within the suit.
“Karen. What part of you is damaged? I thought they didn’t damage you too badly.” Peter grunts as he stands, trying to catch his breath.
“E-Error. Cannot-” Her choppy voice cut out.
“Karen?” Peter says while shooting another web out. ‘This is odd, she usually never gets this badly damaged.’ Instead of answering, another string of words is spat out at him. “The-The damaged suit is not f-from the robbers-ers.”
‘The damaged suit is not from the robbers? What else could it be from?’ His mind raced back to the fight from earlier. They had an odd weapon with them. He made sure not to touch it but it seemed to not do anything. At least at the time it didn’t.
‘Have they figured out a weapon to counteract my suit?’ Peter groaned as his left side tensed on his swing. The pain increased more than before. Probably from the swinging yet he had no other way.
He cleared his throat, “Karen? What was that weapon?”
He waited, and waited, and waited some more yet the usual voice in his mask had disappeared. Peter began thinking back to Tony. “If he’d been alive, he’d know how to fix this.” He mumbled in between gasps of pain.
Finally, his feet landed on the Stark tower roof. Usually, this would be the time when the Stark tower had sensed him, the owner, and unlocked the gate yet it hadn’t. It wasn’t recognizing Peter.
Even weirder, there were many people inside running about. People who he didn’t recognize. Lights were on in places that were considered off limits now and Peter’s entire set up has been changed.
This wasn’t his tower. No, worse. It was the tower from before. Before the Blip. Before Tony died. Before Peter lost everything.
At first, he thought the people were robbers and he stiffened in preparation to fight yet as he looked closer, they weren’t stealing anything. Instead, they were sitting down typing on desks he didn’t own, moving papers around that he didn’t know about, and using devices that shouldn’t exist anymore.
An unsettling familiarity shot down his spine. It was just like when Tony owned the tower. When he was still alive. When everyone was still alive.
The hair on the back of his neck raised in fear and confusion. Could someone truly pull off something as hurtful as this? To pretend Tony and the Avengers were still alive?
He felt himself take a step back yet as soon as he did, a booming voice he recognized echoed out the door.
“Man of Spiders! What are you doing? Come quickly, a meeting is in place!” The door swung open and out walked Thor. Yet.. not Thor. It was a younger version of him. A different version of him.
That wasn’t his Thor. Just like how this isn’t his tower.
He flinched as Thor stomped up to him and placed his hands on his blood soaked shoulder.
Thor glanced down at his own hand and made a humming sound. “What has happened? Was the mission unsuccessful?” His confused face mirrored his own under the mask.
He and Thor hadn’t really spoken much before. Only during meetings and fights. ‘Why is Thor being so friendly all of a sudden? We were never friends to begin with.’ Peter opened his mouth to ask what he was talking about but was cut off before anything else happened.
“No matter! You will be patched up soon enough! Let us head in. Tony awaits.” Thor spoke those last words casually while dragging him inside yet Peter felt his heart thud to the floor.
“...Is this some kind of prank?” Peter’s harsh voice growled back at Thor. He felt his hands curl into fists, ready to beat the shit out of Thor for even daring to mention that name yet Thor seemed unfazed.
Actually, he seemed more confused as he glanced back at him. “What is wrong? Have you injured your head as well? This is no prank!”
He yelled over to a woman dressed in white who walked out of the medbay. Or the old medbay. “Alert Tony that the man of spiders has returned injured!”
This time, Peter visibly recoiled at the name. ‘Is he insane?’ Fury bolted up his body. As soon as the woman ran off, he flung a punch towards Thor, landing it on his chin. Thor’s head whipped in the opposite direction, causing him to stumble back a few steps.
Before Thor could react, Peter shot up out of the seat he had been placed in and ran out to follow the woman.
“Alert Tony? Are you serious? I’d like to see this Tony.” He slammed his body past the glass door the woman walked through and skidded to a stop in front of a long table.
The woman screamed in fear, dropping her papers and tensing but he lost all interest in that woman.
In front of him sat the avengers. All of them. Not dead, alive. His breath caught in his throat as he scanned his eyes from Nat who sat beside Clint all the way to Captain America who sat near the other end of the table. Yet the head seat where Tony usually sat was empty.
As soon as he was about to sigh, maybe in relief or disappointment, a voice he recognized too easily spoke in front of him across the table. Peter felt his breath stop completely as he shot his eyes up to the voice. A voice that shouldn’t exist anymore. “Peter? What’s wrong?”
He felt himself take multiple steps back, bumping against the glass wall behind him and smearing his blood all over it.
Was he finally hallucinating? Had his depression gotten so bad to the point where he was seeing dead people? Maybe he was dreaming.. but the injuries told him he was not. He still pinched himself secretly just to check.
Somebody was breathing too loudly. Maybe it was himself. It was echoing in his ears, shooting down his veins. His chest rattled in pain more ferociously than before yet nothing was registering to him.
He felt wetness drip down his cheeks, probably blood. Hopefully.
“This has to be some sort of cruel joke.” He spat out, a mix of fury and pain echoing in his words.
He thought back to that weapon from earlier. ‘That has to be the cause.’ He felt his own voice booming too loudly in his head. Peter’s legs began shaking, he wouldn’t be able to stand for much longer but he knew he had to get them out.
‘Out where? The tower? My mind?’ He tried moving his blurry eyes to someone else. Anyone else. Yet he couldn’t. His head pounded. All he had to do was get them out.. so why was that so hard to do? Peter’s fist tightened once again, intent on finishing this quickly.
“...d! Kid! What’s going on? Why are you so hurt? You can tell me on the way to medbay okay? You need to get stitched up, you’re bleeding too much. Wh..” Tony continued to talk yet nothing was registering in Peter’s mind.
As Tony rounded the table with his hand up in an attempt to reach him, he felt his muscles constrict. He crouched low into a fight stance, ready to pummel this fake. As soon as he crouched, Tony stopped dead in his tracks. Everyone in the room grappled for a weapon or their ability and shot out of their seats.
Peter prayed that this would go quickly, he didn’t have much energy left. Or much fight left in him. Maybe he’d let them kill him after he got them out of the building.
Tony put his hand up for his team to stand down. “Peter. What’s happening? Are you in danger?” His voice was low and soothing just like how it’d been when he was alive. That thought placed Peter in an odd situation.
He half-believed these people were just lunatics that somehow barged in his home but he also held hope that this was, somehow, real. That they were real. Yet he knew they weren’t. They were dead and have been dead for years.
His feet flexed against the ground and he aimed for Tony’s throat, intending to knock him out quickly but before he could even get off the ground, Mjölnir burst in, shattering the glass behind Peter.
He felt the hard metal smash against his broken ribs, sending him flying out the other side of the room.
Peter let out a cry and clutched his side as the hammer flung backwards towards the owner. Thor was extremely pissed.
His vision blurred and the pounding in his head screamed at him. The lights were too bright, everything was too loud. That thumping needs to be stopped. Someone stop the thumping in his chest. Make it all end.
Peter choked out a sob and curled in on himself. The floor now stained a crimson red. He couldn’t breathe. Something was wrong. Something was bursting free and Peter didn’t know how to stop it. These emotions were killing him.
‘Why does this have to happen to me? Somebody make it stop.’ He felt his body crack the more he tried to breathe. Somebody was yelling but he couldn’t understand who or where it was coming from.
‘Why are they yelling?’
A blur ran up to him and crouched down. Hands brushing over his wounded body and all Peter could hope for was a quick death.
Black spots danced over his vision and the last image he saw was Tony. His face was twisted up in fear.
‘That wasn’t right. Shouldn’t they be celebrating now? Finally having a chance to kill me once and for all.’ He thought. ‘Maybe now I can finally see everyone again. Maybe I can finally rest.’
Everything went black. Peter’s body went limp in Tony’s arms. The arms that were now soaked in his blood.