Endgame 2.0 (A Peter Parker and Avengers fanfiction)

Chapter 6

Hello again! With the completion of this chapter we will officially be halfway through the book (provided things go as I've planned).

Also, I sincerely apologize for abandoning this book for, wow, almost a whole half a year now (at least by the time I get this chapter out, because at the moment, I know I have a test tomorrow to study for and midterms in a week.) But thanks for sticking around, and, if you follow my oneshot book, you'll know that I hope to be able to update much more regularly, now that I've sorted some personal issues out. Regardless, enjoy!

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Yeah by the time I'll have published this it'll be... January 18th. And I'm right in the middle of midterms but whatever. Inspiration struck me.

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Tony's steps echoed loudly in the empty hallways. Before today, he would've thought nothing of it; perhaps he'd even find the silence welcoming. Yet after hearing about Thanos and his plan- and more so, how he succeeded, everything became dangerous. Sounds were too loud, heartbeats sped up, and monsters lurked, sneering, in shadowy corners.

Tony turned around a sharp corner and found the elevator doors open and ready to slide shut behind him. Logically, he knew that FRIDAY had opened them and that she was waiting for him to step in so the elevator could take him up to Peter. Yet in the irrational, superstitious part of his mind- the part he tried so desperately to push back, because he was a man of science, not of monsters and magic- he felt like the elevator would swallow him whole. That the doors would clamp shut with a hollow, metallic bang and that he'd be trapped here forever.

However, when he actually stepped into the elevator, the doors slid shut smoothly and without a sound- similar to the ascent of the machine. Tony watched the red numerals signifying the floors flick up, up, up. He found solace in the fact that they were going up, not down, because if they were going down all he'd be able to think of was a ticking clock, a time bomb, glowing numerals counting the hours, minutes, seconds to his death.

He shook himself of these thoughts as he stepped out of the elevator again, this time on Peter's floor. Why did he keep thinking of death? It wasn't like he was a stranger to it.

Yet every small motion, every movement, triggered something in Tony's mind, a sense that was screaming 'danger' at him. It hadn't shut up since he'd heard of Thanos, hadn't disappeared when he watched the videos with the team, and hadn't disappeared when he watched the videos by himself.

Every couple of moments he'd shiver involuntarily, an inexplicable horror climbing up his spine and resting at the base of his neck.

A hand came to rest on Peter's doorknob, and, just like he did before he went downstairs to watch the videos, Tony cracked the door open and peered in.

He was met with a much different scene.

Before, there had been a teen, tucked under too many blankets, sleeping lightly yet blissfully.

Now, blankets and pillows and sheets were thrown asunder, some of them torn completely in half. Scraps of fabric littered the room. Tony's eyes scanned the wreckage of the once-organized room and his gaze quickly found the center of the chaos: a writhing, struggling- yet still asleep- Peter.

A nightmare.

Tony froze at the realization, remembering all the times he'd had a nightmare and had lashed out at Pepper or Rhodey when they tried to wake him up. He didn't know how Peter would react; whether he was someone who lashed out in his dreams or tried to hide himself away. Tony decided to take the risk; he couldn't just stand here and watch Peter suffer.

If he got flung across the room in the process of trying to wake the kid up, well then... he'd get flung across the room.

"Hey!" he tried calling out, nearing the thrashing form of the teenager. "Hey, Peter. Kid. Spider-Man." At the sound of his superhero name, Peter's fist shot out and Tony narrowly missed being sucker-punched in the stomach.