"Who lives who dies who tells your story?"
Peter was back at the Avengers compound, determined to put the whole of the Hydra incidents behind him. He actually agreed with Tony and Steve to lay off Spiderman for a few weeks at least while the rest of the Avengers investigated, and spent his time doing normal teenager things on his summer break.
Going to the pool with MJ and Ned for example.
"You've been doing what?" MJ asked incredulously as they dangled their feet in the pool water. Other people made quite the commotion, but it was easy enough to tune them out. "I've been working on a project with Tony Stark. Super secret." Peter explained poorly, MJ had been insistent that he'd vanished off the face of the earth and she deserved to know why.
She didn't look wholly satisfied with his explanation.
It was late at night by the time Peter got back to the compound, and he found Steve, Tony, Natasha and Clint waiting up for him - though Clint had fallen asleep ungracefully across the chair.
"I was just out with MJ and Ned!" Peter defended when he walked in and was greeted with glares. "You should still be coming home at a reasonable time!" Steve grumbled, standing and stretching. Peter sighed, shouldering his bag and shuffling to his room.
With the Avengers it was like having 10 parents with super powers!
oOo
It was dark, and there was a strange smell. A metallic smell, but not of silver or titanium. This was an iron smell, the tang of blood. A smell you never forget.
A color leaked into the dark scene; red. The blood was thick and slimey and everywhere, it was all over his hands, staining the blue parts of his suit red and the red parts of his suit redder.
He was kneeling in it, swimming in it, drowning in it.
Peter fought in a panic to scrub the blood off of him, stumbling through the thick liquid sticking to his knees. Where was it coming from? Whose blood was it?!
"Why didn't you save us?"
No. No, no, no...!
Peter spun around to the unwelcome, but not wholly unfamiliar faces that had been plaguing his dreams for days. The faces were hollow, their eyes empty, their skin slack. They barely looked human anymore.
"I can't save everyone." Peter growled under his breath, looking at his shaking bloody hands. He repeated the mantra Tony taught him, but he didn't believe it. He didn't have an excuse for letting these people die. It was his fault.
He should've saved them.
"You let us die."
Their voices all merged together into one, different tones and different pitches making his ears ring.
He didn't let them die, but he should've died trying to save them. That was what being a hero was about; saving others, not yourself. He failed them.
"Are you going to let us die, too?"
He couldn't turn. He wouldn't turn. Oh stars, no.
YOU ARE READING
Believer
Fanfiction*Sequel to Survivor* It's summer time, and Peter couldn't be happier for school to be over! Except his life is about to get a whole lot more chaotic since he's staying at the compound while his Aunt is away (no she doesn't know, be quiet Bucky) and...
