Peter Parker was dead. It has been two years since Quentin Beck took him, hurt him, killed him in front of Tony’s eyes.
Tony hadn’t ever recovered from that.
The avengers kept going without him, enacted a “no kill” rule in Spider-Man’s honour but it wasn’t enough. It was never enough. Pepper left after a year. He handed the details of his company over to some random CEO and locked himself in his lab.
And then, two years after his downward spiral began, Steve called him into a meeting room.
“We didn’t want to bring you in, Tony, we promise. We don’t have another option here,” he said. Tony didn’t care. He didn’t care about saving the world, saving his team, saving himself.
“He asked for you specifically,” Wanda says, whispered. Something about the way she admits it, like it’s a secret, makes Tony at least look up.
“What do you mean he asked for me?”
“There’s a new vigilante running around,” Steve explains. “No title yet, but he’s killing people. We sent Clint and Natasha to talk to him, possibly bring him in, but…” he trails off, looking to them.
“He knew my fighting style. Too perfectly. And without even looking he caught an arrow from Clint.” Natasha speaks in facts only. Tony sits up.
“After he got away, we sent me and Bucky in,” Steve continues.
“And?” Tony asks. Steve looks at him for a moment, sighing before continuing.
“He somehow disabled Bucky’s whole arm and bent the edge of my shield,” he spits out.
“I went in last,” Wanda says, softly. “He apologised to me, in his head. He knew I was reading his thoughts and-“ she takes a breath. “He apologised, before he thought about Pietro.”
People didn’t really know about Pietro. Wanda kept him private. This guy knows us, Tony thinks.
“He thought of you. He was trying not to, but he kept thinking about you.”
“I don’t want to get involved in this stuff anymore,” Tony pushes.
“Would it change your mind to know that this guy is specifically targeting Spider-Man’s villains?” Natasha says.
And yes. Yes, that did change things. Tarnishing the kids legacy? Tony was gonna kill this son of a bitch.
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