Chapter Text
Pepper pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it. It wasn’t like Tony to answer and not say anything, before hanging up. A cold feeling settled in her stomach but before she could think too hard on it, Coulson drew her attention.
“Did Sisyphus see this?” Pepper blinked and looked over at him, where he was steering the car around a turn.
“Who?”
His eyes flicked to her face before returning to the road. “The man that you were standing with at the press conference.”
Pepper frowned and tried to think back to what he meant. A crooked smile and smoothed back brown hair popped into her mind.
“Do you mean Peter?” she asked.
“Right, Peter, my apologies.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Peter isn’t psyche,” Pepper said, narrowing her eyes at the agent. She liked the man, but she barely knew him, she wasn’t going to say anything about Peter. But, she wasn’t above needling the man to see what he knows.
“Why did you call him Sisyphus? You called him that before too. Isn’t that the name of some ancient greek guy?” she inquired, trying to put as much disbelief into her voice as possible.
Coulson shot her a look.
“There’s no need for that. We’ve known about your friend since the 40s. There are records of a being with his face and powers dating back millennia, but we had nothing concrete until the 1700s. There was a painting found of him in a church, calling him a saint after he saved a town from demons.”
Pepper stared at him, blinking rapidly. It was one thing to hear from Peter himself what he’d been getting up to in the past but it was another thing entirely to listen to someone list facts about her best friend that were centuries old.
Unbothered by her silence or encouraged, Coulson continued. “There are a couple of other records, drawings and pictures of him throughout time—the most prominent of a man in ancient Greek who cheated death multiple times, going by the name Sisyphus. The few paintings that made it to this day match ‘Peter’s’ description, hence the name.”
It had never crossed Pepper’s mind that Peter might not be his real name, but now she was kicking herself for not thinking of it before. He’s older than the earth, of course he’d had other names before Peter. His first name was probably something she couldn’t even pronounce. She wasn’t even upset that he’d never mentioned it, more at herself for not even realizing it.
“Throughout history he’s been documented as a helper, a savior, but he never stays in one place for long, popping up in one year then vanishing the next. He’s been in and out of history but during the last world war ‘Peter’ enlisted as a private and somehow became part of the Howling Commandos.”
“The Howling Commandos?” Pepper sputtered, unable to help herself. “But there’s no records of him!” Unless Peter had been going by a different name, which is 100% she could see him doing.
Coulson nodded. “There isn’t. Nothing written. Any information that we have on him is from people that remembered and later wrote things down, but only from the people who’d actually talked with him. They say that every picture, every document that referenced him for that time-period was altered, as if shifting reality, so he no longer existed. We could see no signs of physical tampering, but nothing was left, even in pictures where he was in front of things.”
The last part was the least surprising to her. She knew that Peter had powers, after admitting to mind manipulation being able to alter things so that it looked like he hadn’t even been there wasn’t a shock. Nor was the fact that he’d fought in the war, her friend couldn’t leave a conflict alone, specifically when it put earth in jeopardy. Peter having met Captain America was, and he’d never told her. She felt cheated.
Tabling that thought for later, she refocused on Coulson when he continued. “What little we know of him, is that ‘Peter’ can see the future, or has some kind of forewarning for large events. So, he must have seen this, did he tell you anything?”
“Why do you think he did?” she asked shrewdly, uncertain.
“You’re his friend.”
Pepper stared at him. She wished it could be that simple. The look Peter gave her earlier flickers in her mind, the guarded expression but with eyes that actually looked his age. Hooded and so very tired.
Don’t rely one me.
It had shocked her at the time and betrayal stung her heart, but now that she was calmer, she understood. He wouldn’t always be there for her, so she needed to stand up for herself. She was probably just a blink for him, a fraction of a moment in time that would soon pass by. She couldn’t fault him for doing what he was, distancing himself so it wouldn’t hurt as much.
Finally she shook her head. “No. Peter doesn’t tell us what’s going to happen. He wants us to figure out things for ourselves.”
Coulson nodded slowly, like he expected that answer, but a disappointed frown still twisted his lips.
“Anyway,” Pepper looked at her phone again, going through the contacts, “Tony didn’t answer me. I need to call Rhodey so he can check on him while we go after Stane.”
***
Unbothered by the cold wind blowing over the gravel roof he was standing on, Peter watched as the government cars pulled up to Stark Industries and about a dozen agents filed out, Coulson and Pepper in the lead. His eyes sharpened and twisted with the light of the Space Stone as he followed their progress into the building. Observing them, he really felt like a spider on the wall as they made it to sector 16 and encountered the locked door.
He was so absorbed in watching the events play out that when his senses screamed a warning at him, he was already lashing out with a kick to the person's gut before he knew what he was doing or who was around him.
Whoever snuck up on him let out an oof as they were flung back a couple of feet then started to laugh as she rolled with the throw, popping up with a cheeky grin on her face.
“Wow, you are distracted,” Eris commented, a smirk twisting her lips. She looked different from the last time he saw her. Despite her ability to change what she looked like at will, her face was still the same and her hair was still long and black but pulled back into a high ponytail. She wore a dark blue body suit that was eerily similar to one he wore a long, long time ago.
Peter groaned and pulled a hand down his face. “What—nevermind, I know what you want. You want to see the world burn.”
She tutted at him. “I don’t want to see it burn exactly, but a little chaos never hurt anyone.”
He didn’t dignify that with a verbal response, instead leveling her with a glare that said it all. She knew his opinion, they didn’t need to hash it out again.
She waved a hand at him, brushing away his disapproval. “We’re ignoring the falling of the Zelimek System.”
“No, we’re not!” Peter shot back, thoughts of not arguing going out the window. “You allowed the Power Stone to fall into the hands of a madman! He wiped out more than a couple solar systems! I had to step in and revoke his right to use it!”
“And that’s why you’re the Guardian of the Stones and I’m not,” she said, shrugging, completely unrepentant, but he didn’t really expect her to be. There was a reason why the Greeks named their goddess of discord after her. Or herself after the goddess. Having future knowledge was confusing.
“No, you’re not. You’re the Avatar of Desolation.” Peter sighed, suddenly feeling so tired. It felt like it would never end, this dance between them. The longest game of keep away in the history of the universe.
Shifting her weight onto one leg and resting her hand on her hip, she wrinkled her nose. “They weren’t really creative when they named us.”
Peter shook his head, a rueful smile tugging on his lips. However it fell just as quickly as it came as Pepper ran out of the building, only to be cut off when a gigantic metal suit broke through the concrete and climbed out of the ground. Peter felt the instinctive need to jump in, get her out of there, but held himself back till a light flashed across the sky and Iron Man smashed into Stane’s suit, knocking them through a building and into traffic.
Peter and Eris fell silent as the battle went on, both of them observing the events destined to pass. Peter was content to leave it at that, just observation but the longer he watched, he noticed that Stane's movements were a little faster and more powerful than they should be. Peter’s eyes narrow and he focused more on him and could see the faintest hint of purple energy crackling around Stane’s suit.
“Eris!” he snapped, lashing out at her, looking to cut off her concentration. Eris evaded him easily, leaping away with a laugh on her lips, the sound too joyful for someone who was enabling Stane. Her eyes were bright violet as she danced away from him.
“What?” she asked, twisting her fingers in a way that mimicked a puppeteer, powerful energy crackling around her hands. “Did you really expect anything different? Why aren’t you helping your own chosen?”
“This isn’t a game!” he roared.
“Of course it is,” she objected easily, like they were chatting about something unimportant. “Games of death and daring have been played for a long time, just look at the Romans, even if that’s recent history,” she added with a dismissive flick of her fingers, the indigo power flaring.
Down below them, Stane reacted to the power boost, easily filing Iron Man across the street.
That’s it, Peter needed to cut off her connection to him. Without warning, he shot forwards and kicked Eris off the roof of the building, using the Reality Stone to move faster than she could see. When she fell off, he followed her over the edge and through the portal that he’d made below her.
He landed on barren stone, with a starry sky, a vast expanse hanging over them. The air was non-existent, lacking any atmosphere. But that didn’t matter, not to them.
Eris wasted no time rolling to her feet, glancing around to see where he’d brought them. When recognition dawned in her eyes, she snorted and shot him a wry grin.
“Really Peter? You brought us here? To the beginning?”
He didn’t look away from her, noting that her eyes were back to the kaleidoscope of colours that it normally appeared as when she wasn’t using the stones. Good, they were far enough away that her connection was cut.
“Why not?” he shot back, not willing to admit that it was the first place that he could think of, and not for any particular reason. Actually, if he’d been thinking, this would be the last place he wanted to go.
She snorted and shrugged. “You are aware that I could just travel back there myself, right?”
“And you know how easy it would be for me to follow. Come off it, Eris, we’re equal when it comes to power. Mutually assured destruction, remember?”
She hummed. “True, but for who? Neither of us can die. Just look at that,” she added, turning to the one difference from the first time that they stood there. Across the flat plane of stone was the large shadow on a pyramid, narrow and tall. At the top was a circular structure, one he knew had six circular designs on it, equally placed around its surface.
He knew that it was there, he’d stood on it when it was new, the people that made it still milling around its base, looking up at him. He knew what was up there, but he still followed when Eris stepped through a portal to the top, not bothering to look back to see if he would.
The stone that made up the pyramid was smooth under his feet, unbothered by weathering and time due to the lack of atmosphere. But that wasn’t what marked the structure as billions of years old. It was the stone ring towering over them, the symbols etched on it from a language long dead.
Eris ignored the writing and walked through it, looking out at the other side of the pyramid. Peter didn’t want to follow her, all too aware of what lay beyond it.
“Come on, Peter. Are you really going to turn away from this?” Eris asked, not looking back at him as she spoke, her voice empty of any emotion. There was no judgment or taunt, just...nothing. Somehow that was worse.
Straightening, he came up beside her and looked down, looking at the wasteland that was beneath them, a large expanse of rubble and broken buildings that suddenly ended at the edge of the plateau, falling away into nothingness. Little mounts littered the ground, and he didn’t want to think of what lay there.
“This is what happens when we fight,” Eris reminded him quietly. “Mutually ensured destruction, but for everyone around us. Do you remember them? You better, they worshiped you.”
“I never wanted that,” he reminded her as gazed down at the desiccation around them. At the beginning, this level of death and hanging despair would have weighed down on him, had weighed down on him, feeling like heavy shackles. Now, it just felt like a large chasm within his heart, one that would never fill.
She shrugged. “We’re basically primordial gods, of course people are going to worship us. They built you the temples because you’re the kind one. Avatar of Desolation, remember?” she asked, pointing to herself.
“You’ve never hated or acted against the title, besides, you’ve had your fair share of followers.”
She barked a laugh. “True. That's what caused all this,” she waved a hand out at the land in front of them. “My people argued with yours and you defended them. I jumped in just to enjoy the chaos. By the time we were both too injured to continue, and realized the destruction we caused, they were gone.” She paused and finally looked at him, her eyes unreadable.
“Are you really going to fight me again?” Eris asked, her voice a complicated mix of soft and apathetic.
Peter shook his head. “I don’t want to, you know that. I’ve never wanted to.”
She snorted. “Too bad, that’s what you get. We’re the two ends of the comic power balance, we were made to fight. Or I was at least,” she added as an afterthought. She was right, and the guilt of that squeezed his heart, a feeling as familiar as breathing. She would never have existed if he hadn’t acted the way that he did.
He pushed it down, just like he did each time the remorse and pain bubbled to the surface.
Ignoring his inner conflict, Eris continued, her eyes shifting to a molten orange. “But you and all your morals and care, never wanted to repeat this—” she jerked her chin to the graveyard below them, “—so we fight differently. Through chosen wielders and heroes. We’ve fought this way for eons, why are you backing out now?” she asked lowly, cocking her head at him like a wolf on the hunt.
Peter stiffened, no longer at ease standing next to her. “I can’t with them, Eris. They’re not playthings. They never have been.”
“Powerful pieces are moving, Peter,” she said. “What caused your end and your beginning has already begun and you’re refusing to act? After all this time?”
He gritted his teeth in frustration. She wouldn’t understand, she couldn’t. She never knew a time before this. He did, he knew what it was like to live a life without the heavy weight of the stones pressing down on his back. He didn’t want the people that he’d done all this for to feel the same pressure.
He doesn't say any of that.
“The stones don’t come into play until the Avengers assemble,” he hedged.
“Thanos already has the Mind Stone,” she commented airily.
He really didn’t need the reminder.
“It’s where it’s supposed to be,” he ground out.
She shrugged again, unbothered. “Your choice.”
They stared silently out at the gray plateau and the vast expanse above them for a moment before Eris broke the silence. “You’re going to get involved yourself, aren't you?”
Peter held her gaze when it flicked back to him.
She snorted, amused and condescending at the same time. “Of course you are, just remember, that when the devastation comes, you’re the one that refused to stay out of it.”
“That was always the plan,” he told her. “I chose this path to fix things. He wipes out half the universe. Of every planet, of every system. Can you truly tell me that you want that? That’s far too much death, even for you.”
Her face was blank as she stared back. “Are you willing to bet on that?”
“I don’t bet on lives, Eris,” he snapped.
“Of course you don’t,” she said back, teasingling. “You’re the good one.”
He opened his mouth to argue with her, or something, he didn’t know, but before he could they both froze. Eris’s eyes flashed green as a shockwave of power rippled through the stones, another important moment in time locking in place. They both turned towards earth, blue energy crackling as they looked through space to see the archreactor explode. Tony had won, Stane was gone.
“Well,” she said after a moment, undoing her hair so the straight black strands fell around her face, “looks like you won this round.”
“Not a game,” he told her tersely.
“If you say so,” she said mildly then threw him a smile. “Until next time Peter, go enjoy yourself.” A shadowy blue gate opened in front of them and she stepped through it, still smiling as it closed behind her, leaving him alone on the desolate pyramid.
***
Pepper rushed to the roof of the building, scrambling to get to Tony and see if he was okay, Coulson not far behind her. The structure was half destroyed and there were still small fires burning below them. When her heels hit the roof, she saw him laying next to the gigantic hole, inches from falling off the grate supporting his weight. The suit of armour was scratched and he was missing the face plate pulse one gauntlet.
“Tony!” she called to him, hoping that he would answer. Her heart lurched into her throat when he didn’t. She started towards him, but a hand on her arm stopped him.
“It’s too dangerous,” Coulson told her quietly. “If we’re not careful, he could fall.”
She nodded shakily. “Do you have people that can get him?”
He nodded and touched a finger to his ear, speaking into the communication device no doubt there. She swallowed heavily and looked at Tony again. He had bleeding cuts on his face and he looked so still. With the armour, she couldn’t tell if he was breathing. She bit her lip and wrung her hands together, doing everything in her power to stop herself from rushing over and checking his pulse.
A moment, or minutes passed before someone gently touched her shoulder. She jumped and jerked her head towards Coulson and he gave her a gentle look. “There are medics on the way. He’s going to be okay.”
She swallowed heavily and bobbed her head in a nod, unable to speak. Medics would do nothing if he was already dead. But she backed off and stood at the side of the roof while people appeared to retrieve Tony. She hugged herself, arms tight around her torso as she watched them work, carefully getting him onto a stretcher so they could lift him away from the edge.
Suddenly, something compelled her to look up and at a neighboring building. On a roof, looking down at them, was a figure. They were short and mostly shadowed but she didn’t need to see their features to know who was watching them. Peter looked back at her, raising a hand in greeting. Overcome with relief, she mirrored the action, knowing that he’d be jumping in if Tony was truly in danger.
A noise from beside her drew her attention and she saw that the medics had managed to carry Tony over to the stable part of the roof and were cutting through the armour. When she was sure that they were okay, she glanced back at the building, and blinked when there was nothing there.
Peter had disappeared.