38. Illuminati group

"Well mister magic here," Spidey responds, and Stephen gives him a look that says he is not fond of the quip, "was waiting for me and Steve to finish up cleaning my placenta and I said it would have gone faster if he helped."

Stephen walks past the web-slinger in silence, obviously done having this conversation, and takes his seat.

Spider-Man looks to the other person in the room, "Hey Reed. It's been a minute."

Everyone becomes a bit surprised when Reed hugs Spider-Man with some tears leaking out.

The webhead himself is too, evident by his slightly wide eyes, "I guess Ben told you the good news."

Reed nods and lets him go but keeps his hands on his shoulders, "When Ben told us what happened, Sue and I were devastated. It became worse when we discovered that Franklin and Val were listening in."

"Oh god," Spider-Man says in dismay.

He loves those kids and they love him. Hell Franklin says that Spider-Man is his favorite all-time hero. The kid practically worships him. To hear that his favorite hero and surrogate uncle was killed, well it's not all that different from what he's been through.

"I'll come by to show them I'm okay as soon as I can," he tells Reed.

Richards smile in gratitude, "Thank you. In all honesty, we were very worried when they started to devise doomsday weapons to use against the X-Men."

"Ooh that does not bode well for the X-Men," the young hero winces at the possibilities, "I've seen what those two can do when they try to help. I can only imagine what'll happen when they want to hurt someone."

Reed smiles in morbid amusement.

Meanwhile, the three men who are not part of the conversation merely watch on in silence. Steve and Stephen are slightly amused by this, but Tony isn't all that amused. He's more hurt than anything.

From what he can tell, he's the only person in this room that doesn't have Spider-Man's trust. Granted he understands why, but it still hurts him on a certain level. Especially with those incomplete memories he has that he kind of misses.

"Well," Tony says, grabbing everyone's attention, "as touching as this is, can we get to the reason you wanted to talk to us webhead."

He wants to roll his eyes at the tired looks he gets from the remaining members of his secret order but doesn't since he's kind of used to that. He's kind of surprised when the youngest one in the room doesn't give him a tired look but instead, it almost looks like he's amused.

"Sure thing Tony," Spider-Man says to him with a light tone, "But before that, I need to do something."

He walks over to stand in front of the billionaire genius and does something that shocks everyone in the room.

Spider-Man removes his web mask, smiles at Tony, and sticks his hand out, "My name is Peter Parker. Nice to meet you again Tony."

Tony is stunned silent at this. Not only because he can suddenly put a face on all the resurfaced forgotten memories, but also because he has the trust of Peter again. Yes, Peter Parker. Wisecracking genius goofball hero.

Not sure what to say, he just shakes the younger man's hand and tries not to choke when he says, "Nice to meet you again too kid."

Peter just smiles a happy smile.

The other three men in the room are just shocked at this. For as long as they have known the young hero, he has always been so reluctant in trusting others with his identity. Hell, when his identity was known worldwide he asked Strange to cast a spell for a mass mindwipe. And the only way someone can know who he is, was if Spider-Man willingly revealed his identity.

And he did not do that easily, even when they were fellow heroes, because he felt that that would put his loved ones in danger. And they did agree on some level, they had to deal with such things themselves, they still believed it would be better if he trusted his fellow heroes more.

And seeing him do that with Tony Stark, who while a great hero was also semi-responsible for the mass mindwipe, makes them wonder why he's suddenly so willing to trust the genius inventor again.

And they are not alone in this as Tony clears his throat and regains his bearings he asks, "So, not to say I don't appreciate this Pete," 'it feels weird to say his name again', "but what brought this on."

Peter's face becomes somber as he walks over to the front of the table and says, "Well there are some things that I need to tell you guys that I wouldn't be able to without trusting you and vice versa."

"What do you mean Peter?" Reed asks with a hint of worry.

Peter leans on the tables with his fists and takes a breath, "Me dying," he starts, "It was planned."

The Illuminati group members are surprised at this, "What?"

He lifts his head and looks at them with a stony expression, "The Phoenix was told to kill me by the Living Tribunal."