Chapter Text
He was in a boys room…
“You ever been to Germany?”
He was talking to someone…
“I can’t go to Germany!”
“Why?”
“I’ve got…homework…”
It was a kid…
“Underoos!”
“Nice job, kid.”
It felt familiar…
“What are you doing? A little video diary?”
“Yeah…”
“We should make an alibi video for your aunt anyway, you ready?”
He felt familiar…
“Don’t do anything I would do, and definitely don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. There’s a little grey area in there, that’s where you operate.”
Like he should know who this is…
“Ready for the picture, kid?”
“Yeah, and don’t do bunny ears, alright?”
“Never dreamed of it, who do you take me for?”
Like he did know who this was…
“What’cha making there, Peter?”
“I’m just adjusting my web-shooters.”
Peter…
“If you really cared, you’d actually be here.”
He knew that name…
“What’s up, Mr. Stark!”
“Kid, where’d you come from?”
“From a field trip to Moma!”
He knew who this Peter was…
“I don’t want to hear another, single, pop-culture reference from you for the rest of the trip.”
Peter Parker…
“Is it still the greatest movie?”
“It never was.”
“Don’t encourage this…”
Smart, funny, ever so kind Peter…
“Mr. Stark…?”
His kid…
“You’re all right…”
His first kid…
“I don’t know what’s happening…”
His son, in everything but blood…
“I don’t want to go…!”
His pride and joy…
“I don’t want to go sir…please!”
One of the best things in his life…
“I’m sorry…”
He remembers…
“I lost the kid, Pep. I lost him.”
“I know, Tony. I know…”
He remembers how cruelly he was taken away…
“I sometimes feel I should put it in a locked box and drop it at the bottom of a lake and go to bed.”
“But would you be able to rest?”
How he managed to bring him back.
“Hey! Do you remember when we were in space? And I got all dusty?”
He did it for him.
“What-wha—what are you doing?”
“Hold me.”
“Oh, oh. This is nice.”
So how could he have forgotten?!
“It’s Peter…we won. Mr. Stark, we won…we won, we did it sir. You did it…”
“Tony…”
How could he have forgotten such an important piece of him?!
“Tony, it’s okay, everythings okay…”
“Where’s Peter?”
Where is he?
“Tony, he’s not doing so good…”
“What do you mean?”
Where is Peter?
“Oh my god, Tony…”
“He’s not responding, neither is Happy.”
Where. Is. Peter?!
“You’re going to forget who I am…”
WHERE IS PETER?!
“I’m sorry…”
No.
No.
NO!
“Peter!” Tony screamed, flailing around in the bed as he tumbled. His chest felt constricted, his eyes watered, he felt panicked. He remembers. He remembers everything. Peter’s recruitment, their lab days, taking his suit, his voicemails, everything.
He breathed heavily, trying to take in his surroundings. It was daylight out, the sun peaking through the curtains of his and Peppers bedroom. He was on the floor near said bed with the covers and sheets everywhere.
He was shaking, dosed in a cold sweat and with a headache on the way. He looked around the room as if some sort of clue was going to show up for him.
When he became more in tune with his surroundings, he heard crying coming from downstairs.
He panicked once more and in a fit of parental anxiety, jumped up from the floor and raced downstairs to see what was wrong.
When he came downstairs, he saw Morgan, frantic and crying as she looked into the kitchen. In the kitchen was Pepper, slouched on the counter with a broken glass cup shattered on the floor.
She too, was in a state of disarray, her eyes looking panicked and her face drenched in cold sweat. That was when Tony knew…knew that she too remembered the kid.
“Pepper?” Tony asked, his voice shaking as he slowly went up to her and helped her up. Her breath hitched as she looked at his face, her eyes tearing up and mouth almost quivering.
“Tony…oh god, Peter…” Pepper tried speaking, though her voice broke trying to usher the name.
“I know, I know…” Tony reassured her, rubbing his arms up and down hers in a comforting gesture.
“How…how could I…”
“I did too…I just…don’t understand how,” Tony spoke softly, mind already trying to find solutions to how this came to be.
“Mommy…” a timid, high voice murmured. They both turned to see Morgan looking at them, no longer crying in distress and instead looking at them in confusion.
“Is mommy alright?”
“Yes…yes dear, I’ll be alright,” Pepper shushed.
Tony was about to speak up when his phone started ringing. Both of the adults gave each other a look as Stark showed who the caller ID was.
Happy Hogan.
Tony answered immediately.
“TONY!” A distressed voice cried out, muffled by what Tony thought might be car noises. “Oh god, please tell me you remember! Please tell me!” he pleaded frantically.
“Yeah…yes I remember,” Tony replied, getting emotional once more.
“God, Tony…” Happy said, his voice wavering as if he was trying to keep it together. “Peter, I don’t know how– How could I just forget him?!” Happy yelled, the phone picking up a banging noise that must’ve been the man slamming the steering wheel.
“He was right there!” Happy yelled once more, a honking noise coming from the phone as well.
“You saw him?” Pepper pitched in as she came to stand beside Tony.
“I was with him!” Happy announced, voice angry. “It was me and his friends! A-And May! Oh god…May, Fuck!” Happy sputtered.
“We’ll figure it out, we’ll find a way to get back to him,” Pepper said.
“It was so bad,” Happy said sullenly. “Everything was going to shit, the Kid looked so defeated and…shit. I don’t know where he is, or where he could be! Then these assholes…I don’t know who they were but…they…fuck…” Happy continued.
“They fucked him up, I didn’t see him since.”
Tony tried to not let that statement get to him as much.
“Well, we’ll find him,” Tony repeated, voice shaking. His arm shaking.
“I’m on my way…” Happy rushed out before ending the call. Tony and Pepper looked at each other with worry before sighing.
He then got an alert from his workbench.
“It appears you have multiple incoming messages and calls from: Captain Handsome, Lady Leader, Honey bear, and several others.”
Tony perked his head up, his heart hammering in his chest and eyes wide.
It seems they're not the only ones who remember Peter again.
He hurries to his workbench, with Pepper carrying Moran in tow. He opens up the call which shows Steve Rogers and Natasha on the other end.
“Tony, we–”
“Set up a meeting, everyone that remembers Peter, at the avengers complex,” Tony interrupted.
“It seems we’re getting the bang back together.”
“Is this everyone?” Tony questioned, looking around at the group gathered in the room.
There stood Tony, along with Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy. Steve stood with Natasha, Sam, and Bucky.
“Apparently…we tried to contact Bruce but he wasn’t responding,” Steve replied.
“You can’t contact Bruce?” Tony questioned, “Wasn’t he teaching at ESU?”
“He was, though on the news it showed he ‘hulked’ out somehow,” Sam explained, arms crossed.
“So we’ll need to find a way to contact him, what about Wanda?” Stark asked.
“Don’t know where she is either,” Natasha replied, “She’s been off the radar for a while now, no contact after her magic field thing that happened.”
“Right…” Stark huffed, swallowing nothing in his throat.
“Anything on Barton?” Steve asked Natasha, who nodded her head.
“He remembers, though he’s not going to join in on this since he wasn’t as close to Peter, that and he has his family,” Natasha explained.
It was silent for a moment before Bucky cleared his throat.
“Right, so…how are we going to find him?”
“Well, we don’t exactly have the whole story, even Happy doesn’t have the full story as to why we forgot everything about him,” Stark informed.
“Is there anyone else that might remember him besides the avengers? He had his aunt,” Natasha commented before asking.
Tony and Pepper looked towards Happy, as he was dating the woman after the blip. However, Happy looked down sullenly, tears welling up in his eyes as he sat down.
“May…died. She died during an attack on her and Peter during his whole legal battle,” Happy explained, voice full of emotion.
Tony’s heart plummeted. Peter’s alone. His only living family was gone and he wasn’t there to help in any sort of way. Sure, he was in a coma and then recovering mentally and physically from said coma, but he should’ve done something!
“Wait…” Stark paused. “Legal battle?”
“During his trip to Europe, his identity got revealed,” Pepper explained to him softly, “he was being framed for murder of a man named ‘Mysterio’ and they had to hide in Happy’s apartment during the whole thing.”
“I’m sorry, his identity got revealed? Framed for murder? And nobody thought to tell me while I was awake what was going on?” Stark snarked, fully annoyed that he knows nothing of his kid’s life for the past few years.
“We thought if we told you, you would get stressed and your condition would get worse, Tony, you just got out of your coma during this…” Pepper said.
“And with Pepper taking care of you and Morgan, I told her I’d handle it for her,” Happy added. “Though, it seems I didn’t do a good job,” Happy said, frowning.
“May’s dead…” Tony muttered to himself, not believing the statement. “It’s been four years since then…god he’s been alone for four damn years.”
“What about his friends?” Natasha then asked, taking Tony out of his spiraling mind. A light bulb would’ve appeared above his head if it was possible.
“Right! MJ and Ted! They totally remember, they were the closest to him besides May! I’ll find out how to find them and contact them!” Stark stated as he pulled up his A.I database.
“Try to find Peter while you can,” Steve noted.
“Right, FRI? Search possibilities for Peter Parker,” Tony asked it. It was loading in the possibilities before…
“There is no database or information regarding ‘Peter Parker’.” FRI stated, making everyone confused.
“What? No…there should be. Peter Parker? The kid? Underoos? Our intern?” Stark kept asking, however nothing seemed to jog FRIDAY’s memory.
“There is no information or date under those names.”
“But…what about Spider-Man?” Tony then asked, thoroughly confused at why his A.I was being so difficult.
“I have several things regarding Spider-Man, including blueprints for potential web fluid and video footage of recent sightings or fan media.”
“But…FRI, Peter Parker is Spider-Man?” Tony told it, confused.
“Could it be that your A.I also doesn’t remember Peter?” Sam asked.
“But, how? Peter doesn’t have access to change her code, and she doesn’t have memory like a person, she has a database,” Stark tried explaining.
“Unless,” Natasha started, “whatever made us forget him did more than just wipe our memories.”
Tony’s face paled and everyone shifted. The sudden weight in that comment made him feel nauseous.
“FRI?” Stark alerted, “Is there any person under the name of Peter Parker in the U.S?”
It took a while for FRIDAY to calculate everything and in those moments they all stood silent, tense and with a deep pit in their stomach.
“There is nobody with the name Peter Parker.”
“What about May Parker?”
“There are two people with the name May Parker, one named ‘Maybelline Parker,’ age 71 and living in Wisconsin. Another named ‘May Parker,’ deceased and lived in New York.”
“I think Nat might be right about that,” Stark hated to say.
“It did more than just wipe our memory like ‘Men in Black.’”
“So we’ll have to just locate his friends and see if they might know, or…find him rigorously,” Natasha concluded.
“I’m guessing if he has no documentation, then it’ll be a lot harder to find him without recognition on cameras,” Bucky commented.
“That is if he doesn’t avoid cameras,” Sam snarked back. Bucky and him gave each other death glares.
“Okay, so it won’t be so easy finding him,” Steve stated calmly, “but, we can track Spider-Man, which makes this slightly easier. We track Spider-Man, we get closer to Peter,” he reassured.
“Well, let's get started…”
“Let’s find Spider-Man.”