22

Chapter 22: the inevitable truthNotes:

1) Okay, pray for me because I'm not prepared enough for these exams. Lord have mercy and let's hope I pass lol

2) If I see any Multiverse of Madness spoilers I will delete them. I'm seeing it on Thursday but spoilers will ruin my week so don't be the asshole who ruins it for others. Twitter is filled with spoilers so I won't be on there for a few days.

3) Enjoy the chapter and leave a kudos and comment!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

His foot tapped against the cold metal legs of the stool he was sitting on as he glanced at the clock, anxiety swirling in his chest as 2 o'clock approached. He and Stephen had agreed that lab day would be the best day to tell Tony since they would both be in the Compound and Stephen would have enough time to explain everything.

He didn't know how Stephen would persuade Tony to contact Vision and Wanda to get them to go to Wakanda in just under a week.

It wasn't an obscene idea to think that Stephen would do something like tell Tony what happened in the previous timeline as an idea of the consequences that would occur if they failed but it would be a violent reminder for both of them. If they failed then they would have undone all of their progress from before.

Internally shivering at the idea of being turned to dust again, he turned to his work, glancing at the clock only to see a minute had passed. Stephen wouldn't portal into the Compound for another five minutes anyway.

His English teacher had set them a summer project on future possibilities even though every subject had set revision for holiday homework.

He, Ned and Michelle all had joked around and said they would work on theories connecting to the multiverse but working on time travel theories was a close second and the more likely topic that they would focus on outside of school. Whatever they chose to do in school was still a debate and they had a month to complete it.

Realistically, they couldn't show their time travel theories to anyone because time travel actually had worked in the past -it had literally brought them to where they were now- and there were so many risks with showing people that any notes they made would remain secret. He couldn't imagine how badly things would go if someone managed to get their hands on it and go back in time.

But…would they go to a different timeline or go back in the timeline they were already in and create an alternate set of outcomes? Either one sounded plausible but Peter hadn't worked out which one he was in. He hoped it was the latter. No significant events had changed since he last checked but it was nice to know if there were minor changes in case something like the Butterfly Effect would happen.

Then again, they had probably created the catalyst of the Butterfly Effect in this timeline and it would come back to bite them. He hoped the after-effects wouldn't show up until after they dealt with Thanos.

There were two known methods of time travel currently: the Quantum Realm and Pym Particles, and magic. Using magic was a very vague topic area so they would struggle going down that route unless they went to Stephen and asked for a lot of information on magic uses and things Ned probably feel a lot more comfortable knowing.

He knew more about the time travel the Avengers used and how they used Pym Particles to go back to 2012 to get the Space, Time and Mind stones. Happy had told him what he knew before he went to FRIDAY and asked her if he could access any footage and information in her database.

He trusted Stephen and knew the sorcerer was doing all that he could but leaving Tony a hint about time travel in case something went wrong and Thanos still managed to decimate half the universe settled his anxiety slightly. Not that it would happen…but contingency plans made him feel slightly better.

Tony wouldn't have access to the time travel notes unless something went horribly wrong with Thanos and he was dusted. There were emergency plans swirling in his head and he would get Karen to set them all up later on.

He hadn't told Michelle and Ned about his plans but he would tell them after the Mind Stone had been safely removed from Vision's head. Maybe his contingency plans wouldn't be needed at all and he could keep them locked up. He wasn't sure but he would work it out.

"How are you doing with your essay?" Tony asked as he strolled over from the other side of the workshop, peering over his shoulder as he moved to the side to make it easier for Tony to read the basic plan he had.

"I'm still working on my theories. What do you think?" He asked, looking at his watch and tensing slightly when he realised there was less than a minute left.

"Hm…altering the density to reduce how much of the liquid is needed could work but-"

His Spidey-sense hummed dully as the familiar crackle of Stephen's portal sounded a few metres away from the workshop door. He slid off his chair as he and Tony watched as the portal widened and he slowly reached towards his webshooters even though he knew who was on the other side of the portal.

Acting would be crucial if he wanted to pretend he didn't know what the hell was happening even though he'd had a hand in organising Tony and Stephen meeting. Glancing at Tony, he realised how he had put himself between Peter and the portal and he internally smiled at his protectiveness.

Looking back at the portal, he watched as Stephen walked through it and met Tony's unimpressed gaze.

"Who are you?" Tony asked, wariness edging his tone as Stephen closed the portal by snapping his fingers. The sparks fizzled out and silence remained until Stephen replied.

"Doctor Strange," Stephen replied calmly. "And I have urgent news that concerns you."

"So you're not a knock-off magician here to disturb my Saturday afternoon?"

He repressed a smile, remembering a similar conversation from the other timeline after he had met a few of the villains from the multiverse.

(Doctor Octavius stared at him and Stephen with utter contempt and slight bewilderment. "'Spell?' As in magic? What is this, a birthday party?"

Then, after Stephen had taken one of his webshooters and used it to teleport him into one of the cells in the Sanctum's basement, Doctor Octavius had asked how Stephen had teleported him from one place to another.

"Lots of birthday parties," Stephen replied dryly.)

Stephen huffed. "I have many other demands and disturbing your Saturday afternoon was not on the list until a few days ago. I have an urgent request."

"I don't think you're supposed to make demands considering you invaded my property."

Stephen ignored the statement. "I'm assuming you remember the Chitauri invasion quite well?" He nodded before Stephen walked further into the living room, prompting them both to follow even though waves of irritation rolled off of Tony.

He made sure to stay behind Tony, playing well into the role of a wary but curious teenager who technically should have nothing to do with magic and Thanos. Surprisingly enough, Tony hadn't sent him away. Maybe he had figured out Stephen didn't have a motive to hurt him.

Wondering how Stephen was going to play this out, he watched as the sorcerer placed a slightly shaking hand out in front of him as amber symbols hovered above his hand before he placed his hand down on the table.

As he lifted it up, a projection of the Chitauri with glowing violet weapons charged outside of the Sanctum, sprinting down the street as chaos reigned.

"The Chitauri were sent by Thanos the Mad Titan, an alien who wishes to turn half the universe to dust to ensure future generations survive with the resources they had. He wishes to cull without discrimination to save the universe in lieu of failing to save his home planet," Stephen explained as he moved two of his fingers to show Thanos.

He grimaced at the sight of the purple alien who, despite his disturbingly logical want to kill, had destroyed many people's lives including his own. He couldn't imagine winning a fight against him without the most powerful Avengers. Thor, Wanda and Stephen had the best chances of killing him if they ever came down to a battle.

"And how will he do that?" Tony asked as he stared pensively at the projection.

Stephen waved his hand to display the 6 glowing Infinity Stones, each one of their colours pulsing from the core to the edges.

"He would use the Infinity Stones, all of which have limitless power over a certain aspect of the multiverse. The Power, Space, Reality, Soul, Time and Mind stones can be used to grant whatever a person wills if the user's will is strong enough."

"And how does this involve me?"

The projection changed to reveal the Space, Mind and Time stones placed in the knuckles of the large gauntlet Thanos had used, all of them pulsating. "You have been exposed to these Infinity Stones either by direct influence or proximity. I have the Time stone-" Stephen gestured to the weird eye necklace he wore, "-and the Space stone is in the Tesseract. The Mind stone is what Wanda derives her telekinetic power from and what Vision has in his head. When Thanos comes to Earth to take the stones, he will kill Vision for it."

Tony raised an eyebrow at Stephen. "You want me to extract the Mind stone from Vision's head?"

"Yes."

"I'm not sure what make you think I can do what you want when the situation is much more complicated than simply plucking it out of his forehead."

"It's not what I want," Stephen cut in sharply. "The fate of the universe is at stake. I have seen 14,000,605 futures and we only win one of them." His stomach plummeted at the bleak odds before he reminded himself that they were changing the odds to go in their favour and more realities would show them winning instead of losing in this timeline.

He waved his hand to show the destroyed Compound with the shadows of Tony, Thor and Captain America in the air, all of them fighting Thanos. It changed to the distorted shadow of a person kneeling on the ground, Thanos a few metres away from them, their hand in the air with the Infinity Stones powered up and streaking across their figure.

He swallowed the lump in his throat as he remembered seeing Tony sacrifice himself for the rest of the universe, pained eyes with steely resolve staring at Thanos as he snapped his fingers and turned his army to dust.

He refused to see Tony do that again.

"The fate of the cosmos relies upon keeping the Infinity Stones safe and it is my responsibility to ensure he cannot reach them. Most of the other stones are on other planets and it will take Thanos time to gather them."

"How long?"

"Roughly ten months from now. The Tesseract is on Asgard and I believe one of your fellow Avengers is there currently." Tony nodded. "I am guarding the Time Stone and am keeping tabs on the others. However, you have the most influence over what happens to the Mind stone."

Tony pursed his lips together as he stared at the distorted figure with the Infinity stones, conflict in his eyes but Peter could see the gears turning in his head. All he could do was hope Stephen had persuaded him enough to deal with the Mind stone.

"How severe are the consequences if we fail?" He asked, frowning as Stephen stared at him.

"Catastrophic."

The projection changed to a wrecked landscape filled with destroyed ships and dust. The sunbeams filtered through the clouds showing the swirls of kicked up dust from a fight as the forms of Drax, Mantis, Nebula and Quill appeared. Their hands crumbled to dust until their remains collapsed around Nebula, her stoic expression tainted by fear and disbelief.

His blood chilled as he realised they were watching Stephen's point of view after Thanos had turned half the universe to dust. The wind blew the Guardian's ashes around Nebula's feet as the viewpoint turned to where he and Tony were standing.

Paling as he realised he was watching his death, he fought the urge to turn away as the version of him in the projection collapsed and Tony caught him, soundless shock emanating from the projection as he said something to Tony before turning away and crumbled to ashes.

Swallowing the bile in his throat, he ignored the flash of concern in Stephen's eyes as goosebumps erupted across his arms at the memory of his entire being resisted being torn apart whilst his healing factor desperately made him cling to existence. Internal conflict reigned until the will of the Infinity Stones destroyed the atoms he was made of, his nerves screaming out as he fell towards the ground.

He didn't want to live through that again.

He couldn't.

Ned and Michelle had said their Blip was painless. One minute they were standing on the concrete outside of wherever their fieldtrip had been to, the next they were standing outside of Midtown. It had been as if no time had passed for them and suddenly they had teleported.

He flinched as Tony gently placed his hand on his shoulder, using the weight to ground him against the incoming anxiety attack he was about to have. His fingernails dug into his palms and he stuffed his hands inside of his hoodie pockets, forcing himself to take in his surroundings so he didn't show how badly the projection had affected him.

How had Stephen even managed to project his death? He had turned to dust before Peter had! Unless…the Time stone must have shown him the reality where they had lost again. There was no other way he could have seen his last moments.

"That is why we can't lose," Stephen said softly as he placed his hand on top of the glowing symbols and taking down the projection.

Tony paused before replying. "Give me some time. I'll find a way to deal with the Mind stone."

He hadn't seen Tony since Stephen had gone to the Compound and shown them the projections of the future they had lived through. Seeing his death had shaken him and Tony but neither of them acknowledged it yet. He hoped they wouldn't address it for a while, still reeling from the disturbing sight.

"Peter?" May asked, shaking him out of his daze as they arrived at the Compound. She had insisted on seeing him off to Wakanda before going to work and he hadn't had it in him to disagree, so there they were at 9 AM on a Friday, double-checking everything he had to make sure he wouldn't forget anything. He would only be going for a few days but it felt like he had packed too much.

His suitcase held mostly clothes and a book Michelle had persuaded him to read over the past few weeks. His suit was packed but he doubted he would use it – the most he would do was make a few modifications on his laptop and upload them to Karen.

"Yeah?" He replied, turning towards her as Happy parked the car.

"Make sure to enjoy yourself, okay? New York can go without Spider-Man for a few days."

He repressed the retort he was about to say, simply smiling and nodding instead of repeating his doubts from a few days ago. He didn't want to leave New York in fear of more people being hurt but missing the opportunity to go to Wakanda would haunt him for the rest of his life. New York had dealt with life without him for 5 years and he had to trust that New York would be fine without him for a few days.

"I will, don't worry," he replied before getting out of the car, thanking Happy for getting his suitcase out of the trunk. He dragged it beside him as they made their way to the tarmac where the private jet was waiting, the white paint gleaming under the warm July sun.

His heart skipped a beat when he realised Wanda and Vision were on the tarmac as well; both of them were talking but Wanda smiled kindly when she saw him, giving him a small wave as Vision nodded at him.

Tony must have persuaded them to come to Wakanda and have the Mind stone removed from Vision's head. Maybe the stone would be kept somewhere safe in Wakanda since it was fairly isolated from the world and had the most advanced protections in the world.

He hadn't talked to Vision that often in the previous timeline outside of the few training sessions he'd watched when he had trained with Wanda but he was sure he would get to know him much more over the trip. Wanda wore a white t-shirt and jeans and Vision's shirt sleeves were rolled up to his elbows but they both seemed fairly relaxed.

The only way he could see Wanda's worry was through the way she fidgeted with the golden ring on her fourth finger - holy shit, had she and Vision gotten engaged?!

"Hi Wanda!" He said as he jogged up to her and Vision after thanking Happy for taking his bag to the jet. "How've things been in Europe?"

She smiled gently. "They've been good. We went to Paris for a few weeks before going to Scotland."

"Was Paris good? Did it have the bakeries that have really nice baguettes?" He asked. His trip to Europe had been an absolute disaster but he planned to make things much better this time.

"Yes, they did." She laughed slightly. "We visited the Eifel Tower and a few other tourist attractions. I think the macarons are much better than the baguettes though, even if we had them with cheese."

"I have to agree with Wanda." He turned around to see Tony, smiling when he realised he was wearing the EDITH glasses again. They definitely suited Tony more than when he wore them. "Pistachio macarons win over cheese and baguettes."

"I prefer the vanilla ones," Vision said, smiling when Wanda agreed.

"Right." Tony clapped his hands together. "Everything's on the plane and everyone's here. Let's go."

He turned to May, accepting her hug and embracing her before saying goodbye and jogging up the plane ramp. The inside of the plane was the same as when he went onboard to go to Germany with the cream leather seats and the window covers were down to reveal the tarmac.

Wanda and Vision had sat opposite each other on the other side of the aisle as Tony sat opposite him, a smirk on his face when he read what was on his t-shirt.

"'Think like a proton and stay positive'? Must be a good day for you then," Tony stated as the engine hummed and the plane jolted before it started moving forwards, his stomach swooping when the plane lifted up and they ascended.

"We're going to Wakanda!" He exclaimed, practically vibrating in his seat as he logged onto the jet's Wi-Fi so he could finish his essay on his phone. "I still can't believe it."

"Will you believe it when you see it?"

"Maybe."