Chapter Text
"-and if you're nothing without this suit, you shouldn't have it." Tony finished saying. He was mad - Peter had nearly gotten himself and all the people on the ferry killed. It was reckless and stupid.
Peter tensed - not in the way that Tony would have expected him to. He started to grip the ledge, feeling the concrete underneath his hands. An illusion can't create that, right? He let out a labored breath he didn't realize he was keeping in. His eyes started tearing up.
"Tell me something only you would know about me."
Tony stared at Peter, confused. "What?" He asked. What was up with the sudden change of attitude?
"Just do it," Peter said, on the verge of sobbing. "Oh god, if this isn't real," he whispered to himself, "then I underestimated how cruel Mysterio could be." He thought Tony wouldn't hear, but he did.
"Peter, who is Mysterio?" He asked.
Peter looked up sharply. "Just answer my question, please."
Tony frowned. "Ok…" he started. "On the day I met you, you told me that when you can do the things that you can, but you don't, then the bad things happen because of you. Very deep and meaningful. Can you tell me what's going on now?"
Peter lets out a sob, and launches himself into an uneasy Tony's arms. Tony, confused, asks "What's… all this about, kid?"
Peter hugs him tight, not wanting to let go, but he knew must. At this point in time, they didn't have too good of a relationship. It wasn't like in the final battle against Thanos, where Tony had hugged Peter desperately. Here, he was confused, and needed an explanation.
"Well, if all of this is real," explained Peter, "Then I think… I think I time traveled."
Tony blinked. Then he blinked again. Then he laughed. "Time travel?" He laughs like a maniac. "Kid, are you trying to get out of this? Because I'm taking your suit either way."
Peter's face turned white. "Well, if I have to stick to this timeline like it was before - which Dr. Strange would probably advise if he were here -" Tony looked confused. "- oh yeah, since I'm here I might as well contact him. Oh, and a lot of bad things happen in the future." He looks at his feet, and whispers "You die."
Oh. Oh. If Peter was telling the truth… Tony now knew why Peter had hugged him so tightly.
"That's not the only bad thing that happens, though. I don't really want to talk about most of it right now," Peter says, "but in the near future is the least traumatizing stuff I've been through. You take my suit, I try to live normally, until I find out my Homecoming date's dad is the Vulture. He then threatens me at gunpoint in their car, and I ditch my date at Homecoming to chase after him. He tricks me, traps me under a building. I lift it off myself." Tony is staring, wide-eyed. "Oh yeah, this happens on moving day. He hijacks your plane and I crash it on the outside on Coney Island. His suit explodes and I save him and web him up. Then I leave." He shrugged. "Pleasant memories. I would give anything to to back…" Peter blinked, realizing where he was. "Oh wait… I am back…"
Tony is weirded out by all of this. If this is the least traumatic thing Peter has been through, then Tony is scared to hear the rest. He asks anyway. "Peter, what's the most traumatic thing that has happened to you?"
Peter, who has been playing with his hands, freezes. Slowly, he murmurs "Your death."
Tony nodded slowly. Explain.
"It was a giant battle - against this guy, Thanos. You'd killed him before, but apparently be you invented time travel -" Tony was surprised. Sure, he was a genius, but time travel? "-and apparently that's how you saved everyone. Before, Thanos killed half the universe. I would say that's the second most traumatic thing I've been through…" he sighed, his eyes getting wetter. "We were on an alien planet, with some friendly aliens and Dr. Strange, this wizard guy I mentioned earlier."
"Wizard guy?"
"Yeah, you called him a wizard, despite his objections." Peter laughed sadly. "God, I feel like I'm talking to a ghost."
He continued. "We lost. You were stabbed. Thanos got what he wanted, and left. 10 minutes later, everyone started turning to dust, except you and this blue alien." He looked at his hands, to ensure they weren't there, weren't turning to dust anymore. "I died in your arms." He sobbed, bringing his hands up to his face.
Tony, not quite sure what to do, brings Peter into a hug. The hug is returned. This Peter is much more mature than the Peter he was talking to a few minutes ago - he's been through a lot more.
"5 years," Peter whispered. "That's how long it took you to bring us back. Straight to battle again for me. Then… at the end… you died. Sacrificed yourself. You saved us all." Peter sobbed into Tony's shirt, "but it didn't matter much to me, because you were gone, but you're her now, unless Mysterio knows, oh god," he pulled away from the hug, a Panic attack starting. "What if he knows things about me? What if this isn't real? Just to find my weaknesses like he used it to get information out of me -" he gasped.
"Peter," Tony said, "breathe in. Count to 3. 1, 2, 3." Peter repeated numbly. "5 things you can see?"
"If doesn't matter what I see, it could all be an illusion," he mumbled.
"Ok, 3 things you can feel."
"The ground… my suit…" Peter paused. "You." His breathing started to even. "Does EDITH exist yet?"
Tony nodded slowly. This was confirmation that Peter was from the future - EDITH was a top secret project he was working on in case something happened to him. Nobody knew about it - not even Pepper.
"Peter," Tony spoke slowly, "Who is Mysterio?"
Peter paled. "He used to work for you. Helped create BARF. And seriously? BARF?" Peter cringed, and Tony laughed. "He has these drones that used that technology. Made these things called elementals, and made it look like he took them down." Peter sat down, sighing, and slumped. "I messed up, Tony. So much worse than the ferry. My friends nearly died, a ton of people in London nearly died, I nearly died -" he choked out a sob. "I'm such an idiot," he whispered.
Tony sighed, and sat down next to Peter. "Ok, what happened?" Peter looked up, his eyes red. "What did you do? Come on, it can't be that bad."
"It's worse than bad," Peter managed to get out. "I'm just - I'm scared you'll be disappointed in me."
Tony took a second to think. "Did you fix the problem?"
Peter nodded. "Yeah. Everything is fine now, but it shouldn't have been bad in the first place. I'm such an idiot -" he facepalmed, but was interrupted by Tony.
"Just tell me. I won't be disappointed in you, ok?"
Peter sighed. "Ok," he said. "So you left this note with EDITH. I thought you wanted me to pick the next Iron Man - I could never live up to you -" Tony cringed, "- and I was fooled by Mysterio. At first, he reminded me of you, in a way, so I sort of gave her to Mysterio?"
Tony sighed. "Don't trust everyone you meet, kid."
Peter frowned. "Nick Fury trusted him! He's, like, the most suspicious person on the planet!"
Tony laughed, but he was concerned. Nick Fury trusted this guy? He must have been quite the illusionist.
"Well, I went to Germany to tell Nick Fury about Mysterio after I found out about him. I'm not even sure if he was real or not - but it turned out the HQ there was all an illusion. Mysterio put me through hell, and I got run over by a train."
Tony gasped - he couldn't help it. Peter got run over by a train? "I got into the train and passed out. Winded up in the Netherlands. I called Happy, be picked me up. I created a new suit." Peter smiled sadly, and Tony put an arm around Peter. Peter leaned into Tony. "I created a new suit," he mumbled. "Went to London. Had a big fight. Took down the drones. Oh, and I have this sense - May and Happy keep referring to it as my 'Peter tingle' -" Tony laughed, "- and it tells me where danger is. I used it to take down the drones creating the illisions, and Mysterio. Then… he died…"
Peter looked sad. Why did Peter look sad? He took down someone who was causing a lot of trouble. They wouldn't be causing any more - oh. Oh. "Your first kill?"
Peter nodded sadly. "After that, everything was fine. For a week."
Tony frowned. "I went on a date with my MJ…" Tony smiled, "but it turned out that Mysterio had leaked an edited video out to the public. He framed me, and.. and…"
Peter sniffled. "He revealed my identity."
Tony gasped. "Now that is something we will avoid. For sure. This Mysterio will be taken care of before he can do any of this, right?"
Peter nodded. "Well that's it. Here I am."
Tony stood up. Peter looked at him. "Well, what do you say we go to the Avengers Compound?"
Peter was wide-eyed and confused. "The Avengers Compound? But…" Realization passed through him. "Oh yeah, it's 2017! It's not destroyed yet."
Destroyed? "I'm, Peter, when did it get destroyed?"
Peter took a second to think. "2023," he answered. Tony sighed in relief - that would be a while.
"Do you think I'm stuck here?" Peter whispered. "I mean, I'm really glad to see you - it's just, all that happened… I don't want to go through it again."
Tony thought back to Afghanistan. He would love to see Yinsen again, sure - but he would not want to spend 3 months trapped in that cave again. What Peter went through must be 10 times worse…
"Can you stick to the outside of my suit?" Tony asked.
Peter laughed. "Are you kidding? I stuck to the outside of a plane while Happy flew straight up, then fell off on purpose."
Tony just gaped. "Ok, Peter… hold on." He got in the suit, and Peter held on. He flew them to the Compound. Peter was glad to have Tony back.