Set Your Soul (A Peter Parker/MCU Fanfiction)

Chapter Seven: For Her

"Hello, Deere." Tony greeted, as we walked up to the vintage blue tractor. "Tell me everything. What ails you?" 

"Do me a favor," I stood up straight, a ball of fire forming in my palm at the sound of an unfamiliar voice, "Try not to bring it to life." 

Standing at the other end of the barn was a black man in an eye patch.

"Why Mrs. Barton, you little minx," Tony mumbled, holding a hand out to me, "Relax, Sparky, extinguish, please and thank you." 

I rolled my eyes, putting my hand out. 

"I get it, Maria Hill called you, right?" Tony asked. "Was she ever not working for you?"

"Artificial Intelligence," The man said, his hands in his pants pockets, "You never even hesitated." 

"Look, its been a really long day, like Eugene O'Neill long, so how's about we skip to the part where you're useful." 

"Look me in the eye and tell me you're going to shut him down." 

"You're not the director of me." Tony said. 

"I'm not the director of anybody," The man, who I now recognized as Nick Fury, sat down on a hay bale, "I'm just an old man who cares very much about you."

"And I'm the man who killed the Avengers." 

I furrowed my eyebrows at this. 

"I saw it," Tony continued, "I didn't tell the team. How could I? I saw them all dead, Nick, I felt it. The whole world too. Because of me. I wasn't ready. I didn't do all I could." 

My eyes went wide as I thought back to Wanda's plan...the plan she never got around to telling me about. The plan that involved her having Stark cornered, and then just letting him go. 

"You didn't see it," I spoke up, causing them to look at me, "Not really. That's part of Wanda's power, its what she does. Not only can she see your worst fears and show them to you, she...she saw who you are. She looked into your mind and knew that if she could scare you enough or make you desperate enough, you would destroy yourself trying to save everyone else." 

"Thank you for that valuable insight, Ms. Maximoff," Nick Fury spoke up, "I take it that means your allegiance has changed." 

"Jury's still out." I said with a one-shoulder shrug. 

"I wasn't tricked, I was shown," Tony pressed, "It wasn't a nightmare, it was my legacy...the end of the path I started us on."

"You come up with some pretty impressive inventions, Tony," Fury said, standing up, "War isn't one of them." 

Tony walked away from him picking up a rag and a screw driver, beginning to wash the grease off of it. 

"I watched my friends die," He said, "You'd think that'd be as bad as it gets, right? Nope. It wasn't the worst part." 

"The worst part was that you lived." I guessed, causing both men to look at me again. I shrugged. "Not only did you get them killed, but now you have to live with the consequences."

~~~

After Dinner, we all gathered in the kitchen with the exception of Thor to discuss a plan. I was sitting at the kitchen table with Cap's shield on a tray, attempting to superheat the metal and mold it back into its original shape. 

"Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself some time." Fury said. I looked up as Hawkeye's daughter ran up to me with a drawing in her hands. I paused, dunking mine in a pitcher of ice water and toweling them off before taking the drawing from her. It was a, frankly impressive drawing of me sitting at the table working on Cap's shield. I smiled, ruffling her hair and she giggled running back into the living room.