Chapter Text
And Peter opened his eyes. All around him was a collage of orange, like a never ending sunset; but instead of the usual warm feeling he got from the color, it felt like a sentence - something he could never escape from. At the thought his mouth tried, turning almost ashen, and his stomach turned over. The last thing he could remember was Thanos leaving the planet, Tony covered in blood, and the feeling of defeat. Now, he was laying on his back.
Wanting to learn more about what had happened, Peter sat up and rocked forward onto the ball of his feet. He felt lighter than usual, almost as if he could fly or float away. The first thing he noticed, now that he could see farther than the sky, was that the planet was totally empty but for the rubble of the ruins that Thanos had called his home. Even the ship they had taken there was gone. The quiet around him was unnerving to his sense and Peter instinctively knew that he was alone. Something within told his that even if he went searching around the whole planet, he wouldn’t be able to find anyone. Peter had been left behind.
Though he tried to tell himself that it couldn’t be, the feeling of betrayal was sinking into his chest towards his gut. Was he really that forgettable? Did they not love him? He tried to tell himself that they must have had a good reason, but knew he was just lying to himself. What kind of reason could they have?
The second thing Peter noticed was that he was not in his Spider-suit. He was instead wearing more casual attire, like the clothing he could be found in at school: jeans, t-shirt, pullover sweater. It didn’t quite make sense. There was no way his suit could have just disappeared. If he got back, without his suit (where had it gone?) Mr. Stark would probably be so mad! That is, if Mr. Stark even cared.
At a loss for what to do, Peter wandered around the rubble aimlessly, hopelessly. He only wanted two things. He wanted to understand why everyone had left without him and he wanted to go home.
Peter wanted to go home with more fervor than he had wanted anything before. Even though he wasn’t too hot or too cold, and he wasn’t in pain, the loneliness was almost overwhelming.
“I’m going to die here, and no one will even care,” Peter muttered to himself, the thought kept spinning in his head. After all, he had no suit, no way of communication, no supplies, and no hope. This time, he was done for. There was no way he could just pull a solution out from some crazy belief that he could persevere. He was stuck. Without basic means of survival -like water- there was no way he could even make it three days. And that wasn’t counting how long he’d been passed out for. Just because he wasn’t thirsty now, didn’t mean that couldn’t change.
However, just when Peter thought he was doomed, a voice called out.
It rose from the ground and vibrated through the sky. The voice resonated throughout his chest and through his bones and ignited the dying embers of his hope. It pulled him to believe in something farther than what he could see, “I can get you home, but you have to listen to my exact instructions.”
Peter looked around himself, despite knowing there was no one else he could turn to for help. He felt his back straighten at the prospect of being saved, but, “Who are you?” He asked to the wind, shouted at the rubble, and screamed for the empty feeling in his chest.
There was silence until a breeze whispered at his ear, brushing his brown locks to the side, “I am Gamora,” this must be the woman Peter Quill was talking about, “will you follow my lead?”
“I will.”
Tony felt at peace, his mind was quiet, his body was relaxed, and his kid was at his side. He looked down at his work, it was Peter’s suit. He knew that, if all else failed, he could count on the suit to keep the teen safe. Right?
“Hey Peter, while I’m working on your suit, is there anything you want me to add?” Tony looked across the table and Peter’s head shot up, curious.
“What are you already adding?” The teen inquired, he got up from his own stool -abandoning his project- and walked over.
Tony moved to the side so Peter could see the suit in its entirety, “I’m just adding a few more precautions, like defense protocols, more sensors. Just trying to make sure you’ll never get hurt,” at this, Peter turned red and Tony ruffled his hair.
The teen looked up at his suddenly, a sincere look on his face, “But you can’t get too sure of yourself Mr. Stark,” Peter’s face was now filled with such a sadness that Tony had never seen, “Not even this suit can protect me from everything. “
Peter placed a hand on the red material of the suit and Tony’s hard work disintegrated. Peter stayed still, however, and made no reaction. He closed his eyes and a tear rolled down his cheek. When he opened them again, to look at Tony, the younger boy’s hand was turning transparent. When the engineer looked down he saw a pile of dust beneath him. He wanted to do something, stop it from happening, grab hold and keep him safe, but he couldn’t move. It went further than just fear, there was something keeping him back. Peter fell back slowly but continued to speak, “After all, you couldn’t even save me from Thanos,” and with that, his body hit the concrete floor and he separated into tiny grains of dust, ensuring that not even Tony could put him back together again.
He was gone.
Tony had failed Peter.
The engineer woke up with a start, sweat was dripping down his back and wet his forehead. He looked around to take note of his surroundings: his disheveled bed, from a night of terror rather than passion; the advanced technology that had been put in place for protection, it was hidden in the wall and tucked into crevices but Tony could spot the craftsmanship from a mile away, no matter how seamless it seemed; and pieces of his demolished suit, they were strewn around the room and never meant to be used again. Tony was in Wakanda.
After the snap -he hated how such a simple gesture could hold so much power over everyone he loved- only Tony and the blue cyborg had been left on Titan. Her name was Nebula and she could easily put the ship into flight. They scrounged up the remaining materials they could find and loaded them on before heading to Earth, more specifically, the country of the Black Panther. It took a while and there was clearly still a lot about space that Tony didn’t know.
Once they got there, a young girl -no- a young queen had given them rooms with a sad smile and eyes rimmed with red. She told them of the fight against Thanos; Thanos who had torn his way through every remaining Avenger till he had reached Vision only to cruelty, savagely rip away the last Infinity Stone and take it for himself. She listed the names of those they’d lost, told them of Wakanda’s sacrifice, of T’Challa’s sacrifice.
Now, weeks later, only Natasha, Clint, Bruce, Rhodey, and Steve remained. Nebula left soon after their arrival, unable to stay still while the titan was still at large. Today, they were going to do a regroup before the Avengers departed back to New York.