On The Other Side

Mourning Period

The funeral was a haze, empty wishes, fake smiles, looks of pity from strangers and his aunt may trying to shield him from all of that but it didn't matter because all he felt was denial. How could it be true, just a few days ago they were working on his new suit and now it laid untouched and incomplete in a lab far away. 'its ok peter, its ok you can cry' his aunt had whispered clutching him close to her chest, stroking his hair but he just couldn't cry, why should he? Mr. Stark wasn't dead, he couldn't be. He always comes back, he had to! yet the casket in front of him had whispered otherwise, Mr. Strak's cold hands felt foreign, the light in his eyes long gone and worst of all the nasty scars that took his life were visible. All this evidence yet all peter felt was nothing but denial.

It was after peter had arrived home that he realized none of the avengers had attended the funeral, the past year had been a shit storm because of the accords but still they were a team of spies and were masters of disguise yet he only had a few people to mourn with. It burned a different kind of rage in his heart, Mr. Stark was always there for others, for the team even when it hurt him but now when it was his funeral none of them came? A nagging voice in the back of his head knew he wouldn't feel the same after some time that it would be a security threat for all the runaway avengers to be there but the child in him wanted the world to stop and mourn.

So as two months after the funeral peter laid in his bed, twisting and turning he felt a twinge of regret, he never got to say goodbye. Tell tony he loved him, tell him his killer was yet to be found but he was trying his best, that he will take revenge and to finally let him go as his therapist had said to let him rest in peace.

'I'll find a way, I promise' he whispered in the dark to no one but himself.

Dr.Strange was one of Mr. Stark's superhero friends and while their interactions had been brief he had shown him that anything and everything was possible, including the multiverse. A guy strange was after was apparently from another universe and he needed tony's help in finding him, there were never any leads but it built an idea in his mind that there were other universes out there like his own with different him's living different lives. This led to him and tony trying to build a machine that would allow them to travel the multiverse but after a month or so tony had abruptly stopped and deemed the project too dangerous. 'oh come on! Mr. Stark we don't have to travel but we should atleast build a hypothesis an idea of how we can do it.' 'peter no.' that reply had been strange since Mr. Stark always relented to his puppy eyes but this time he had been pretty clear and would not budge so peter let it go.

So while they could never figure out how to travel the Multiverse they did theoretically make a device that could make contact with one. You could in theory talk to people from another universe if they had the correct devices for it and Peter was desperate, he wanted to talk just one last time see the light in tony's eyes because these were the thoughts that plagued his mind at night. It had been so long since he could sleep peacefully, hell even being spiderman was difficult since he was so desperate to just talk to tony. His therapist had advised him to visit tony's cemetery but that only led to him getting even more desperate.

Peter still had the card tony had given him that gave him entry inside the tower and after that he had almost total clearance to go anywhere he wanted. Clutching it tightly he entered the building from a back gate that not many people knew about, it assured that nobody stopped to question him.

As he entered the elevator a voice chimed in 'Hello peter, it's nice to have you back' 'Friday you are still operating?' 'of course peter though I have to say the past two months had been pretty lonely. Its nice to see you again' Friday said kindly, is an AI even supposed to sound kind? He didn't know but Mr. Stark was a genius so anything was possible.
The elevator opened to an, as expected empty penthouse, since Pepper or anyone didn't live here anymore dust was starting to set on the couches, and the place already looked like it hadn't been lived in for a long time. It made his heart ache. This was the place where he had spend countless weekends with tony eating Pizza or watching a movie after a day tinkering in the lab but now it was nothing but a source of pain for him. Maybe one day he will be able to spend time here without his heart aching so much but for now he just made his way towards the lab.

'Friday you remember project Hope Universe'
'yes peter'
'can you open those files for me?'
'I can only give you files that Mr. Stark had allowed you access for and part of the file remains under no access area.'
'it's ok just give me as much as I have access to'
A file opened in front of the desk he was standing on. Thankfully it contained the information on the hypothetical device they had created, they never tested it but now was as good of a time as any.
'Friday you see that device on the file?'
'yes peter'
'do we have enough materials to make it?'
'we do, but it will take three to four hours and there is no guarantee of if it will work'
'that's ok we just have to hope right'
'yes we do, would you like to name this device peter? Afterall you helped make it.' It felt wrong to name a device mostly Mr. Stark had made peter did not contribute that much so he said, 'Lets not name it officially but its weird to call it device all the time so lets just call it walkie talkie for now.' 'Ok peter'

Since peter didn't have much work after that he just looked around the lab but then he felt tired so he just went to sleep on a familiar couch.

Mr. Stark was looking at him smiling, but he wasn't saying anything he just stood there and for some reason peter wasn't able to move either. Suddenly there was a huge gash on the side of his face and an even bigger one on his stomach there was some blood coming out of his mouth his eyes were red and glassy and his ironman suite was chipped away at different areas 'Find me Peter, Find me! Don't you want to say Goodbye?' Peter was trying to get away but Mr. Stark suddenly held his shoulders and pulled him closer and looked him in the eyes and whispered 'Find me'

Peter woke up Gasping for Air, Friday's voice in the background trying to help him calm down but he felt terrified. His face was wet from tears and his throat hurt from trying to breathe. These Nightmares had been plaguing him every single night since Mr. Stark's death, he could never sleep and would feel terrible for hours after, unable to even think about going back to bed. This is why he grew Desperate why he just knew that doing this was the only way of getting better hell even in his dreams tony himself talked about the Multiverse and their time in the lab.
This device was the answer, his one chance of finally letting go and after that he can go back to being spiderman go back to trying to find the culprit responsible for tony's death.

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All the characters here are owned by marvel, obviously, the story is my own. you can read the entire work on Ao3 with the same name, on the other side.