Rigel: The Secret Soldier [MARVEL] Peter Parker

thirty-four

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
THE BE ALL END ALL

[ AVENGERS: END GAME ]

FUCK THANOS, fuck the stones, fuck humanity and fuck him. Rigel had been left at the compound alongside Tony and his foster family while the remaining... Avengers? (yeah that'll do)... went to find and fight Thanos to take back the stones. Take back the snap. Take back Peter's death.

Life wasn't fair, when had it ever been? When the remaining Avengers and Co. Came back from their attempt at regaining the stones, Rigel could tell by the silence, the tears, the hard faces... they didn't win. Later he had overheard Nat and Loki talking, her informing the later that Thor had kill Thanos when they found out the stones had been destroyed.

Thanos was dead and Peter wasn't coming back.

His sister wasn't coming back.

He wasn't alone, but he really did feel like it.

The days following, everyone was lost, no one knew where to go, what to do. They couldn't be seen by the public, they didn't want to be seen. They had let down the community, the earth, the galaxy. All of time and space were missing people they loved and cared about. There wasn't a single person who wasn't affected by the snap.

The only time Rigel had managed to get out of his room from the compound was when he went into Queens with Kendal and Renaé. He took the stairs alone as he walked up to Peter's floor. He had no idea what he was to do -to say- if May had survived the snap. He wished so very badly that she didn't. The last thing a women her age needs to be is alone. Peter was all she had left.

He knocked on the door, once. Twice. Three times. His call was unsuccessful. No one answered the door. Rigel picked the lock and walked into the home, calling to May as he did so, he didn't want to startle her. The television was playing free-to-air while the gas stove was boiling pasta, but there was no water left to boil, the pasta well and truly fucked.

She isn't here.

Rigel sighed, turned off the gas stove before walking towards the couch and falling down into the soft worn cushions that engulfed him. He relaxed smelling the familiar sent of the Parker residence. For a second he didn't feel alone, he expected to hear May reprimanding Peter for leaving his friend waiting for so long, or for Peter to laugh, to call his name as red dusted the tips of his ears while he jumped over the arm of the couch and joined him by his side, a movie playing on the tevelision.

But that wasn't the case.

It was so quiet. So utterly quiet. Not even the neighbours who were normally loud, stomping across the floor above them. Nothing. Rigel took the wooden photo frame from the coffee stand that held a picture of them all from the academic decathlon the prior school year, though Flash was half cut out, it made him chuckle.

Rigel rose, walking towards Peter's bedroom, stopping at the open door, was it really okay for him to rummage a dead boys room? This was peters space, his private space. Rigel walked in anyways. His hands ran along the top of the wooden desk before a small camcorder caught his eye, he picked it up. Next he went straight for the boys wardrobe, digging out a vintage Star Wars jumper that Peter owned and was a size too big on him but fit Rigel's larger frame nicely.

With the jumper warming Rigel and the camcorder in hand, Rigel walked back towards the couch and sat down, turning on the small camera and going to the memory file. There were thousands of pictures of the compound, of Rigel and there were videos of before and after the events in Berlin the year before.

Rigel smiled as the boy held the camera in front of him with Tony behind him, the awkwardness of the two radiating through the camera and making Rigel feel second hand embarrassment for the boy. But he could laugh or smile, all he could do was cry.

Renaé and Kendal followed the boy towards the Parker's residence as they received no call to say he was okay nor did he come back down. It had been over an hour now. What they had found was a tear stained face on an asleep boy. Wearing one of Peter's larger hoodies he had stolen from the boys closet and wrapped around his body.

Over time, some went back to their normal lives, some fell into a pit of depression, some found ways to cope with their grief and others didn't make it. After the snap the amount of suicide rates increased, the amount of orphans increased, the amount of trash to be collected increased, stocks plummeted and everything lost value. Sports stopped, no one was paid to clean up the mess that happened after the snap, after planes crashed.

Billions of people died, and that's not just including those affected by the snap. There were thousands of people who died in car crashes as there was no one behind the wheel, trains never ending, planes falling, robberies, stabbings, suicides, and many more.

Renaé and Kendal were two people who continued going about their day to day lives, Renaé wanting to complete her schooling while Rigel completely dropped out and moved out of the Miller household and followed Tony and a pregnant Pepper out to the woods to live in a cabin to just drop off the face of the earth.

In case you couldn't guess it, Rigel fell into the depression side of things, his grief and regret filing him. Out of everyone who had to be snapped away, why wasn't it him? Peter deserved to live, Antares deserved to live. Why couldn't they be here with him?

Rigel was already living on borrowed time. He should have died back in Sokovia. It wasn't fair that he lived and Peter died. Wanda lost her twin and Antares thought she lost her brother. But he lived and he ended up being the one that was left alone. Too young to help the other avengers with anything.

Even Ethan and Tiana had been snapped away. Renaé was alone at school, but she powered through life, she wanted to graduate and become an amazing S.H.I.E.L.D agent like her mother and father. She was sure that they would find a way to save everyone and Fury would come back to his daughter who was one of the best agents out there.

He'd be proud. She said. He'd love to see it.

And he truly would.

Rigel spent magority of his days sitting cross legged on a small wooden doc that lead into the lake beside the Stark residence, the sound of cooing and "Say Ma!" Then bitten in with, "Say Pa."

If there was one good thing about the stark residence, it would be the 6 month old baby, Morgan Stark. She was adorable and a quick learner, she had already started talking but unfortunately, despite the married couple playfully competing against one another for Morgan to say mom or dad first, she had already taking a liking to Rigel and spoke to him through a babble that sounded like 'EiEi'.

That meant absolutly nothing to Rigel, however the couple was convinced that he had been trying to get the child to speak his name behind their back. He thought it didn't even sound like his name, she couldn't even pronounce the 'R'.

"Say, Ma." Pepper cooed, the baby babbled a laugh in her face, she scowled looking to Tony who pushed her aside gently, placing his hands above the child.

"Pa. P-aaa" he sounded the word out.

"Eiei!" Morgan shouted.

Pepper took to giving the boy a playful glare as he turned around to the two. Pepper and Tony were sitting on a picnick rug after a failed attempt at brightening the spirits of Rigel.

The only thing that brought Rigel any joy anymore was Morgan. When Tony had gently handed the new born to him, Rigel had cried. He was so happy that Tony got what he had always dreamed, a family. He was so happy to see something that had come from the snap that was good.

Pepper had watched with tears in her eyes as Tony then broke down crying straight after, embracing the boy he thought of as a son and his biological daughter, giving her Peppers uncles's name just like in his dream. It just seemed too perfect.

But nothing stayed perfect forever.