30

Chapter 30: when you get what you want but not what you need

Notes:

1) It'll be a miracle if I can get a chapter out for Tuesday so assume this won't be updated until at least after 27/6 because I'm going on holiday!

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

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

Chapter Text

A few weeks had passed and winter finally started to loosen its tight grip on New York as temperatures rose slightly, April rapidly approaching.

He could finally walk to school without needing to wear gloves and two hats (he borrowed one of Michelle's beanies and wore it whenever he could) and there was no more forecasted snow, so they could finally sit on the roof.

The change in weather made him slightly more optimistic as he figured out a way to tell his half-baked plan to Ned and Michelle. He wasn't sure if they would react half as well as Stephen did even if that was a low bar to compare them to.

The end of March sun let through rays of warmth as he flopped against the wall, using his backpack as a cushion. His Spidey-sense tingled dully in the back of his head and he checked over his shoulder in case there were any threats in the area but there was nothing he could see or hear.

It had started tingling a couple of days ago but it wasn't at a high enough intensity that he knew there was a significant threat in the area, at least not yet.

There had to be something lurking on the horizon that would happen and affect him. Maybe he had become paranoid enough that his Spidey-sense was picking up everything.

Shaking his head to distract himself from his Spidey-sense, he wondered how he was going to bring up his idea to his friends. It wasn't as if he could randomly say 'do you guys want to steal an Infinity Stone?' out of the blue.

"Dude, you look completely spaced out," Ned said as he sat down opposite him. "You good?"

"Hmm?" He blinked before realising this was his chance to ask them, Michelle's cold hand grounding him as she sat next to him. "I have an idea for...something but I wanna know what you guys think."

"Go ahead then," Michelle said, leaning against him for warmth even though they both ran like fridges.

He took in a deep breath to calm down his racing heart before he started.

"If you were to steal an Infinity Stone, how would you do it?"

"What?" Ned's eyebrow furrowed as he processed the question. "I mean...I'd probably use a portal to get to the Infinity Stone. Which one are we talking about? Hypothetically, of course."

"The Reality and Space stones. That's only if Stephen's plan doesn't work though."

"He has a plan?" Michelle asked, slightly startled.

"Well, he said he would steal it when it was 'morally sound' to."

Michelle huffed. "How come he's the one who gets to judge when it's 'morally sound' to? Imagine you telling that to a criminal." She huffed amusedly at her suggestion.

"That's what I said!" He exclaimed. "Either way, I wouldn't dare try this until a few days before Thanos is meant to come to Earth."

"He came when we were on the MoMA trip, right?" Ned asked. "You asked for me to cover for you on the bus."

"Yeah." He nodded. "Still, hypothetically if we stole the Space stone first to stop Thanos from getting to places quickly, it would buy us some time."

"Technically yes," Michelle replied. "It would also make Earth a massive target though. There would be like three Infinity Stones on Earth for him to get. Where are the others?"

"The Reality stone is with some guy called the Collector and the Power stone is on Xandar. The Soul stone is on Vormir but...you need to sacrifice someone to get it." They all grimaced at that.

"You're not thinking of...?" Ned's question hung heavily in the air.

"What? No way!" The image of him at the bottom of a cliff flashed in his mind and he frowned. "Definitely not. Thanos sacrificed someone called Gamora – she had to mean something important to him because when we fought him on Titan, Mantis found out he was grieving. It's why..." He trailed off.

Gamora being sacrificed had pushed Quill into a rage so bad it made him punch Thanos, waking the titan up and causing their plan to fail. He was grieving as well but it was one of the reasons they lost. If they wanted to stop Quill from doing that and, in turn, stop Thanos from getting the Soul stone, they needed to find Gamora and Quill and warn them.

He would need to ask Stephen about most of his ideas in case it screwed up a plan Stephen already had. Plus their first miscommunication in the Sanctum had led them all here in the first place. If only he had known to specify who he wanted to remember his identity…where would all of them be now?

He wasn't stupid. He needed to stop thinking about the 'what if's and focus on the future.

…but it wouldn't hurt to think about it later.

He swallowed. "It's partially why we lost the first time. Anyway," he said, brushing past the slightly sullen atmosphere that had washed over them. "All of this is hypothetical. If we stole the Space stone first then we would have some more time. Stephen said it would be on Asgard."

"Wouldn't Asgard have some sort of security system in case someone tried to steal it?" Michelle asked, her lips pursed as she probably imagined what kind of extra-terrestrial security there could be.

"Maybe for outside of wherever they keep the Space stone but I think the inside wouldn't have much security."

They spent the rest of lunch debating how they would get the Space stone before he realised this had turned from a hypothetical situation to a realistic one. All they needed to do was get Ned or Stephen to open a portal to the Space stone, take it and keep it safe on Earth for however long it took Thanos to realise Earth had all of the remaining Infinity stones.

The key aspect of the plan would be timing. Stealing the Space stone too early would probably cause Thanos to come to Earth earlier which would leave them with less time to prepare any last minute precautions.

"Hypothetically though, could you open a portal to the Space stone?" He asked, more out of curiosity than anything. Stephen had opened a portal to the Compound for the final battle and the mirror dimension so it wasn't out of the question to think Ned could open a portal Asgard.

"Uh…maybe? I've never been to Asgard so I'm not sure if it would work. I'd have a better chance of opening a portal to the exact location of the Space stone."

"I mean, yeah, considering we wouldn't know where it was in the first place," Michelle pointed out.

Ned frowned. "I haven't actually seen the Space stone though. I wouldn't be able to portal to it because to portal to it, I'd have need to have seen it."

Shit. That was one obstacle they hadn't thought of. Ned's magic was powerful and under Stephen's tutelage he had improved even more but they couldn't do anything if he hadn't seen it. Unless…

His eyes widened. "Wait, I have a way you can see it." Michelle raised an eyebrow as Ned gave him a questioning look. "Stephen gave me an orb that could project memories – I could show you it through that!"

They had completely surpassed hypotheticals at this point and actually decided to do this. Frankly, it was all a bit insane but he supposed the fate of the universe was at stake so it couldn't be too bad.

Okay, maybe it was a bit worse than he had thought.

Bringing up Loki to Stephen had been one crazy idea. Bringing up stealing the Space stone to Stephen was another based off of his disbelieving and slightly exasperated expression.

"You want to what?" He asked as he paused in the middle of the hallway they were walking down before cutting in before Peter could answer. "And don't answer that, I heard you the first time. The point is you don't know the timings for any of this."

"That's why I came to you before we decided to do it."

"'We'?"

"Ned, MJ and me. I suggested it and before you cut me off-" he raised his hands placatingly, "-stealing the Space stone would buy us more time before Thanos would come to Earth for the Mind stone."

"That part may seem simple but what will happen when Thanos comes? He will destroy Earth if necessary to reach his goal."

"He would do that anywhere else! He literally threw moons at Tony on Titan. Besides, getting the Space stone will stop him from getting to other planets as quickly and half the reason we lost was because Quill lost his cool."

Stephen paused, a thoughtful look on his face. "He lost his composure because someone called Gamora had died because of Thanos, didn't he?"

"Mantis said Gamora was sacrificed for the Soul stone. If we get the Space stone, we can stop Thanos from getting to Vormir and maybe even ambush him if we don't warn the Guardians before he takes the first few stones. When is he meant to come to Earth?"

"A few days after Thor and Loki come here to look for Odin…so a couple of weeks from now." A stone plummeted to the bottom of his stomach. They were that close to the final fight?!

He still had a few things to do like making a couple of upgrades to his suit, making protocols for his contingency plans…

"So can we steal the Space stone without if wreaking havoc on the universe?" He asked, causing Stephen to sigh.

"Hypothetically, yes, you could. However, it would make Earth a prime target for Thanos since there would be three Infinity Stones for him to get and if you made a mistake with the timing then you could make events exponentially worse."

"How much worse?"

"If you take it too early then you will probably have some angry Asgardians chasing after you. Too late and Thanos will already have it and Asgard will be destroyed."

"By taking the Space stone?"

"No, by Hela, the Goddess of Death." His blood chilled at her title. In a few weeks she was going to level Asgard to nothing but a void in space…

"Why can't we warn them?" Stephen raised an eyebrow. "If we told the Asgardians our plans then they could help with the final battle and keep their kingdom. They will lose practically everything if we don't tell them!"

"Remember when I told you 'in the grand calculus of the multiverse, their sacrifice ultimately means more than their death'? It's a similar sentiment here."

Frustration boiled in his chest. Who were they to choose what happened to other people when everything they knew would be in a matter of days? He understood what that felt like; the fear, the devastation and overwhelming sense of loss that left a hollowness in his chest that he couldn't ignore.

It had been particularly prominent after May had died in his arms. He had fled Happy's destroyed apartment building, the dust and blood clinging to his face and torn suit. He had functioned on autopilot, staring at JJJ's damning news report as his life had collapsed in front of him.

Going to the school rooftop to find the last place he would consider normal had been his subconscious trying to seek comfort but making everything ten times worse.

He had made the choice to help the villains after hearing they all died because of Spider-Man, whether it was him or Peter 2 and 3. He had known his problems would end if he let Stephen keep the magic box but had wanted to help anyway because it was the right thing to do.

It would be hypocritical of him to stop helping now, the consequences of the multiverse damned considering there were bigger threats edging the horizon.

He didn't know who Hela was nor did he know the extent of her strength. If he was to base his judgement on her fearsome title, he would guess she could kill him in a couple of seconds. However, she would probably be the ultimate opponent to Thanos.

"But aren't we condemning people to die?"

"Peter," Stephen said as he looked at him pointedly. "There are some events which we have no business interfering with. We are already altering the timeline to a point where events may be out of our control and you should be thankful I'm even entertaining the insane idea of letting you steal the Space stone."

"Right, sure, but you can keep the idea of stealing the Reality stone from the Collector?" He snarked back, internally panicking slightly when he realised what he had just said.

Stephen huffed, pursing his lips before replying. "I tried and quickly realised that the Collector is fairly smart. He has runes around his vault which prevented me from opening a portal in there. I'm not sure how the Guardians managed to get near the Reality stone to begin with considering the ones we met were idiots."

Oh.

Well, there went one of their plans. The Reality stone was so powerful that it could bring the Mind stone back into reality after Wanda had destroyed it and there was a high chance Thanos could break into the vibranium vaults in Wakanda if he had the other stones amplifying its power.

"Then that's even more of a reason to steal the Space stone!"

Stephen's jaw tensed before he pinched the bridge of his nose and replied. "Fine, assuming this is going to happen, how would you do it?"

"Ned would open a portal to the Space stone, I would steal it and if I time it right, tell Thor or Loki that Thanos is coming and they need to come back to Earth."

"Have you considered how everyone else will react to the God of Mischief, the God who invaded Earth with his army and destroyed New York, coming back to Earth and fighting on our side claiming he's a changed person?"

He opened his mouth before promptly shutting it. He doubted anyone would have a good reaction to it, especially Tony.

"We'd have to adapt to the circumstances," he replied weakly.

Silence reigned for a few minutes as Stephen dealt with what he had just heard, the tension becoming palpable as the seconds ticked by. Would he say no? Would he tell Peter that he needed to leave it alone and that he would do it?

"I know I'm going to regret this," he murmured before looking at him. "Fine, you can steal the Space stone. I will supervise you, Ned and Michelle and will shut it down if anything goes wrong, understood?"

He nodded, a grin tugging at the corners of his lips as relief washed over him.

"I'll text you a day after Thor and Loki come to Earth and we'll steal the Space stone then. You can't be hasty and take it any earlier than that since Asgard will be in a state of peace and their defences will still be strong then."

His eyebrow furrowed. "Wait, so we'll be taking it while Asgard is under attack?" Stephen nodded. "No wonder you called my suggestion 'insane'."

"Update complete," Karen announced as he checked his phone for messages from Ned about when he could show him the memory projection. He wanted to get it done as soon as possible since the deadline for Thanos's arrival was rapidly approaching.

His updates had mainly been his contingency protocols in case Thanos did manage to get all of the stones and turn half of the universe to dust.

A lot of them included messages to Tony about how to time travel to get the Infinity Stones from other universes -every day he internally thanked past-Pepper for telling him how the Avengers did everything- and he also had a few messages for Aaron in case crime rose again.

He wasn't stupid though; he knew that if they did manage to win then the messages wouldn't be needed and he didn't want them sent out automatically or by mistake, so he would have to manually activate them.

All he could do was hope he wouldn't need to. Still, the tension in his stomach relaxed slightly, his anxiety calming to ripples instead of overwhelming waves as he had control over something.

"Hey, Underoos, come check this out," Tony said, gesturing for him to come to the other side of the lab where he was working on some sort of weapon.

He hopped off of his chair and strolled over to Tony's workstation, examining what Tony had made. It looked fairly simple – it was a thin vibranium ring with a button on its side.

"What is it?" He asked, stepping backwards when Tony picked it up by the grip.

"Watch," Tony replied as he pressed the button on the grip and a blue energy shield emerged from the vibranium ring, completely covering the area in front of him. "I listened to you about making an actual shield instead of using one formed from nanobots since it would deplete the ones I had available to use."

"Woah, cool!" He murmured as Tony handed it to him. It was fairly lightweight and its small design would make it easy to carry in battle and activate at a moments noticed. "How much can it withstand?"

"100 tonnes when pushed to the absolute limit. You can thank Shuri for helping me develop this."

"I can definitely see you and her making some strong defensive technology. Maybe you would be able to make that 'shield around the world'," he said offhandedly.

In his peripheral vision he noticed Tony's expression darken for a couple of seconds before it turned contemplative.

"Maybe we could." He shrugged, turning the shield off and placing it on the desk. "For now though, we need to focus on all the small improvements before Thanos arrives."

"Yeah."

His Spidey-sense buzzed like his head had been hit with a gong and he flinched, his heart speeding up as adrenaline flooded his system. Looking around, he saw no obvious danger and FRIDAY hadn't said anything was wrong with the Compound.

What the hell had triggered his Spidey-sense to go off so badly?

Tony seemed oblivious to Peter's strange reaction to his Spidey-sense and carried on doing whatever he was doing, so he walked back to his workbench and checked his phone, trying to play off his harsh breathing as casually as he could.

Guy in the Chair

No problem dude, I'm fine

meeting up after school tomorrow.

Me

Cool, I'll cya at school.

His finger hovered over Stephen's contact as his heart rate returned to something normal even though his Spidey-sense kept humming. He couldn't think of what had made it spike.

Me

Has anything happened?

Magic Man

Bad news.

His heart skipped a beat as his blood chilled. What could have happened that Stephen would know immediately and his Spidey-sense picked it up.

Jolting as his phone started buzzing, he excused himself from the lab as Stephen's contact number showed up on the screen. Tony barely noticed, lazily waving him off as he strolled into the living room and made his way to somewhere more private before picking up the phone.

"What's happened?" He asked, panic seeping into his tone before he took in a deep breath and tried to calm down.

"Thanos has the Power stone."

Notes:

We're on the edge of IW! 100k+ words later and I'm finally getting to the main thing I've been meaning to rewrite for about 6 months!

I'm so thankful for all the comments and kudos I've received on this and hope you enjoy whatever happens in future chapters!

Random question - if Peter could wield any Infinity Stone, which one would it be and why?