Chapter 112: Peter Parker

A/N: There are reasons Tony didn't learn about this change to the timeline earlier. Mostly cuz trauma.

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Tony's reasons for avoiding all contact with his protégé from the previous timeline were as selfish as they were selfless truth be told. Even now, thinking about Peter hurt too damn much. He'd failed the young man in pretty much every way that mattered and there was no justifying the way he'd treated Peter even before taking into account getting him killed so far from home.

It had started with him deciding he needed backup against his old teammates in the form of a fifteen year old teenager with spider powers and only spiraled from there. He never should have so much as contacted Peter in the first place, let alone bringing him to Germany to fight the rogue Avengers.

And after that, after dragging Peter halfway across the world for an embarrassing fucking 'super fight', what had he done? Oh yeah, he'd tossed him at Happy and forced his Head of Security to handle all things 'Peter Parker', effectively using the kid for a single battle and then hanging him out to dry without a second thought.

It wasn't fair to either Happy or Peter, what he'd done then. Happy was Tony's Head of Security, and regardless of Tony being Iron Man, that wasn't some made up role. The man had responsibilities and duties far beyond babysitting a teenage superhero. Peter, meanwhile, had deserved better from Tony than to just be passed off like that. And then yelled at when he didn't 'meet Tony's expectations'.

… Yeah, all of that bullshit with Toomes and his goons should never have happened. Peter should never have been in those fights, should never have had to shoulder all of that responsibility. Tony had basically thrown a suit Peter's way, thrown Peter Happy's way, and then acted like it wasn't his job to deal with any of it, when it undoubtedly was the moment that he'd decided to show up in Peter and his Aunt's apartment and reveal he knew Peter's secret.

Maybe if it was only all of that, Tony would have been happy to approach Peter in this timeline at some point. To get to know him in another way, to improve the young boy's life as he grew up in some fashion and ultimately fix the mistakes of the past. He'd done that a lot since arriving in this timeline after all. He'd changed things immensely for tons of people, mostly for the better, so why not Peter as well?

… Titan was why. Because it hadn't just ended with Tony's fuck ups regarding Toomes and Peter and Happy. No, two years later, when the Black Order had shown up and kidnapped Strange, the suit that Tony had made Peter had allowed New York's Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man to hitch a ride on an alien spaceship and travel across the galaxy alongside Tony and the Sorcerer fucking Supreme.

Was it possible Peter would have been snapped away even if he'd been back on Earth? Sure, maybe. But at least he would have died at home. At least he wouldn't have died in Tony's arms, telling him how scared and cold he was. As well, while Tony had no proof one way or another… he had his suspicions.

Thanos had made such a big deal about his plans to be fair and equal and random. Half of the universe would be wiped away with a snap of his fingers, but he'd claimed he wasn't going to choose. And yet… was it a coincidence that the only two people from the Titan Ambush who survived Thanos' Snap were Tony and Nebula? The man Thanos had sworn on his honor to Strange to spare in exchange for the Time Stone… and his wayward 'daughter'.

Everyone else on Titan had died. Everyone else who had been part of the closest attempt to defeating the big purple thumb before Peter fucking Quill had to go and screw everything up… had been snapped away. Thanos would probably say he held no grudge, that it was just luck of the draw. Tony wasn't entirely sure he believed that.

So yeah, he couldn't bring himself to personally check in on Peter at any point in the last eight years. He'd avoided everything to do with the boy, even as he would have grown into a young man. To assuage his guilty conscience, he'd set JARVIS onto the task of keeping an eye on Peter and protecting him. And most importantly of all, JARVIS was never supposed to tell Tony how the young man was doing.

… That apparently might have been a mistake. Because Tony hadn't ever really gone into detail about who Peter Parker was to him, or what his personal timeline was supposed to be like. So even back when they realized that this timeline wasn't entirely accurate to the one Tony came from, what with Loki being a woman and Captain Carter's existence, JARVIS hadn't even known to point out this oddity, it seemed.

"J… show me everything you have on Peter Parker, right now."

Tony's voice is a little hoarse, even as his AI wordlessly complies. Peter's digital file in JARVIS' database is rather large, as expected from eight years of watching the young man. As expected, it didn't start at age seven like Tony had thought, but rather at age ten. Because for some reason, this Peter was three years older than the Peter that Tony had known.

He still went to Midtown of course, but he was in his Senior Year instead of his Freshman year. He was also…

"Hang on, seriously? He's still Spider-Man right J?"

Tony doesn't truly have to ask; the information is right there. But JARVIS doesn't comment on that, simply responding in an even tone.

"Indeed, Sir."

"… So he's selling pictures of HIMSELF to this Jonah Jameson guy?!"

"The name is actually J. Jonah Jameson… but essentially, yes."

Tony had to marvel at the audacity. And laugh a little bit too because… hell yeah Peter. You go man. This J. Jonah Jameson fellow was a Grade A asshole from what Tony could see, though all of it was through the lens of how he kept writing about how much of a public menace Spider-Man and Spider-Woman were… hold on a second.

"Peter has a Spider-Partner? Who the fuck is Gwen Stacey…"

JARVIS' response is curious when it comes.

"I take it she did not exist in the previous timeline, Sir?"

A little baffled now, Tony shakes his head as he delves deeper into the information packet, really soaking it all in now.

"Nope. Not as far as I was aware."

A couple minutes later and he's assimilated everything. And… wow. Just wow.

"What the hell is this? The harem universe or something?"

Because Peter didn't just have a Spider-Woman… he basically had an entire gaggle of girls vying for his attention. There were the young women that Tony recognized from his previous timeline of course. Elizabeth Allan and Michelle Jones. Liz Allan had been his Peter's original love interest, and he'd even tried to take the girl to homecoming.

But in the end, Liz's father Adrian Toomes had turned out to be a super villain of all things… one of Tony's own making, however tangentially. Another way in which he'd inadvertently failed Peter. Back in 2012 in the old timeline, when the Chitauri Invasion had lasted a lot longer and spread a lot more than it did in this timeline, the aftermath had NOT been pretty. New York had been covered in battle damage, as well alien corpses and technology.

Repairing New York was one thing but cleaning up the Chitauri and their tech so that every Tom, Dick, and Harry with an inkling of trying to fuck around with space weapons was another bag of cats entirely. Initially, the local city government had acted uncharacteristically swiftly and granted contracts to a whole lot of different companies to assist in New York's clean up.

One of these companies had been Bestman Salvage, which just so happened to be owned by Adrian Toomes. The man, smelling an opportunity that he felt couldn't be passed up, had gone all in on that contract he'd secured, basically putting everything his company had on the job. All of his eggs in one basket, so to speak. But to be fair, it had probably looked like a very nice basket.

And then Tony had happened. Well, Tony and Damage Control. The Federal Government had swooped in about a week after the city had given Toomes his contract, forming an entire new department called "Damage Control" for the sole purpose of cleaning up the Avengers' messes and of course keeping dangerous technology out of the hands of the average joe.

Tony, in the wake of New York, the portal, and his undiagnosed PTSD, had gone all in on Damage Control, putting his support, his money, and his name behind it. When Damage Control had shut down Toomes' operation, kicking him and his workers off of their site and basically forcing Bestman Salvage into insolvency and ultimately bankruptcy as a result, the man hadn't taken it well.

Toomes had gone villain, and by the time Peter wound up fighting him five years later, the man had gone SUPER villain, complete with a fucking suit and wings made from stolen Chitauri Tech.

That hadn't happened this time around. The Chitauri Invasion hadn't lasted long enough or spread enough away from the portal and Tony's Tower for the city to feel the need to hire Bestman Salvage or anyone else to clean up the damage. And Damage Control hadn't needed to exist because the Avengers weren't a thing in this universe. In the end, Tony had fixed the damage done by the Chitauri himself with his own people.

As a result, Toomes and Bestman Salvage were still going strong with smaller contracts. The man maybe wasn't as rich as becoming a villain had made him in the old timeline, but he was still well off enough to send his daughter to Midtown… where she was apparently in a four-way contest to try and nab Peter Parker.

Alongside the girls that Tony did recognize, namely Michelle and Liz, there was also Gwen Stacy, who was moonlighting as Spider-Woman, Spider-Man's partner in crime… and a red head named Mary Jane Watson as well. As far as Tony was aware, neither of the two young women had existed in Peter's life in the old timeline.

A little bit of digging shows that they aren't plants or traps or anything like that though. Everything is on the up and up. Both of them are seemingly native to this timeline and universe. And none of the four girls have any nefarious intentions where Peter is concerned either. Their affection and care for him, which seems to be rapidly burgeoning into love, is as genuine as it is unnoticed by the dense young man.

"Based on all available data, Sir, I would not go so far as to call this 'the harem universe'. Yours and Mrs. Stark's proclivities aside, Mr. Parker's predicament seems to be abnormal in the extreme."

Uh-huh. Tony noticed JARVIS wasn't actually trying to argue that Peter wasn't in some sort of 'harem protagonist' situation though.

For a long moment, Tony sits back in his chair, just… soaking it all in. And to his surprise, something loosens in his chest. A metaphysical tightness that he hadn't even known was there. His Peter… was gone. There was no bringing him back. He couldn't even be replaced, Tony now knew. This timeline's Peter was older and while he likely shared plenty of the same DNA as Tony's Peter, he was also almost certainly different in so many ways.

For instance, Tony didn't think his Peter would have ever thought of tricking some media magnate into buying pictures of Spider-Man… from Spider-Man.

It made it easier for Tony to let go of the past. He could never make things right with his Peter. But… he would do better in this timeline. He would stop Thanos in his memory, and the memory of everyone else they'd lost.

Meanwhile…

"What do you think, J?"

There's a pause as JARVIS considers Tony's unspoken idea. They're talking but also 'talking' at the same time, basically half-communicating through actual speech and half-communicating through technopathy. Finally…

"I think it should work wonderfully, Sir. Princess Shuri is intelligent enough to suss out Peter and Gwen's true nature relatively quickly. However, given her own experiences, she is not likely to hold this against either of them. In the end, while there will certainly be something of a culture clash… I see more long term benefits than issues with this plan."

Tony nods, before flashing a crooked grin at the ceiling.

"And hey, if the Princess ends up as part of Peter's burgeoning harem, T'Challa certainly can't claim that Pepper and I have any ulterior motives anymore."

"… Yes sir, I suppose that's true."

JARVIS sounds exasperated but also amused, even as they both get to work making it happen. First things first is expanding Shuri's new laboratory so that it's no longer just enough space for her but can also fit in quite a lot of other people. She'll still be in charge of course, but she'll also have numerous interns… and what better place to draw those interns from than the best and brightest of Midtown School of Science and Technology?

Tony's crooked smile only grows as he plays matchmaker, just a little bit. Whether sparks actually fly or not, Shuri needs friends and Peter needs to broaden his horizons a little bit. And hey, maybe Shuri's presence is the catalyst necessary to break the other four girls orbiting Peter out of their current ruts. Maybe her presence will even cause Peter to finally realize the others are interested in him.

Just as Tony is mentally patting himself on the back for a job well done, the door to his office slams open and an irate visitor comes barging in. Tony raises his brow as Loki walks forward, her vibrant green eyes narrowed and her long black locks whipping behind her with how fast she's moving.

Stomping up to his desk with purpose, she slams her hands palm down on the surface, which would almost certainly have buckled under her Frost Giant strength if it wasn't made of Vibranium like most of Tony's things these days.

"Stark."

Raising an eyebrow, Tony quirks the side of his mouth up in amusement. He actually has no idea why she's here… but he's not worried. In fact, it's interesting not knowing why she's upset.

"Loki. You seem upset. What can I do for you?"

Despite literally being the Goddess of Mischief, Loki doesn't bother with any gambits, schemes or clever wordplay. The woman known among the Nine Realms as 'The Silvertongue' cuts straight to the point.

"You and Pepper only slept with Hela ONE time so far, and she's already pregnant. You ask what you can do for me? You can stop holding back and knock me up already!"

Ah.

-x-X-x-

A/N: Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

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