I Am Soul - Spider-Man / Peter Parker [2]

Chapter Two - A Message Of Hope

Earth

Steve, Natasha and Scott had left Tony on his porch with understanding glances. The entire situation had left Tony speechless. Morgan and Pepper had noticed Tony's silence at dinner but Morgan didn't see the distress that Pepper did. She knew that Tony had to deal with whatever was going on himself. So, she left him to it. Once they had finished their meal, Tony had silently grabbed their dishes and began to wash them all the while Pepper was getting Morgan ready for bed.

Tony was stood at the sink looking out of the window, that was situated just above the bowl of dirty dishes, his gaze locked on the cold, dark river that ran beside their house. His mind was completely elsewhere, his hands absentmindedly working upon the dishes, splashing water everywhere even into his face. As the water droplets hit his face, he was pulled out of his thoughts. He sighed heavily as he finally noticed the mess he had made.

Grabbing a towel, Tony dried up his mess and his hands whilst his eyes scanned the area around the sink including the shelves where a selection of pictures were held. One in particular held his gaze. Lifting his now dry hand up, Tony grasped the picture and pulled it into the light. It was a picture of himself and Peter holding up the certificate he had made for Peter's 'internship', Peter had such a proud smile on his face as he placed bunny fingers up behind Tony's head whilst Tony did it to him. He had failed Peter all those years again, he had lost him. It was another one of his failures that haunted him, that he couldn't fix. As the thought passed his mind, Tony could practically feel the burning hole that the pen drove was making in his pocket.

Placing the picture down, Tony buried his hand into his trouser's pocket and pulled out the pen drive. He held the plain black pen drive between his fingers. It was so small a device yet held potentially the way to save the world in its mind. Maria's plan could bring Peter back, could fix the mistake Tony had made, a thought that fuelled the hope that had formed in his chest. He knew he had to view the message, he owed it to Peter and Maria.

~8~

Tony sat in front of his computer table; the holograph screen clear to him. The flash drive was plugged into the system with one file on it that contained dozens of other files. They each had a name, 'The Chronicles of Thanos', 'The Infinity Stones', 'Outriders', 'The Black Order', 'Stories', 'Quantum Realm GPS', but one document was not in a file it was left on its on with the title 'PLEASE WATCH I'M SORRY'. Tony had clicked on the video file and immediately a video opened frozen on a pixelated image of his smiling daughter. She looked so happy yet there was a guilty look in her eyes that made him frown. He had a feeling he was not going to like what was going to be said. Reaching forward, Tony grabbed his scotch glass, pressed the hologram to start playing the video before he sat back stiffly with his arms crossed.

He remembered not so long ago watching a video very similar to this one. He remembered seeing Maria for the first time. The cruel irony of it all; first words from her came in a video and her last. Suddenly, the video began to play, the image of Maria moving.

"I'm sorry, I'll start by saying that. I lied ... to you all. I have known about this war for months, I have known Thanos was coming and I knew what he was doing but we were never going to stop him."

Tony felt his heart drop as his head hit the back of his chair. She knew. He felt betrayal wash over him. His own daughter had known and said nothing.

"And I know it makes no sense but if you read the highlighted paragraph from in the file called Chronicles of the Great Titan you will realise why I say that. Thanos was always going to get the stones no matter what, no matter how hard you fought or what you did in the end he was always going to get the stones."