Epilogue
Hope you guys enjoy this short final chapter, we're finally here :)
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A few weeks later...
The wind whipped their hair, and MJ pulled her coat tighter around her as they gazed at the New York skyline. Some time had passed, in an attempt to settle everything down and acclimate Peter back into their lives. He didn't want to come back to Midtown, said there wasn't much left in the year anyways and it would raise more questions than was worth. His goal was to study to get his GED this year, and apply to MIT the next decisions cycle, the year after Ned and MJ. They'd selected to break the news to a few other people- namely just Pepper and Rhodey. Both knew Peter to less degree than the rest of the group had, but he'd deemed that they deserved to know. They obviously had a reaction, but after knowing Tony for so long and dealing with Avengers shit for years, it truly wasn't the strangest thing that had ever happened to them. Peter wanted to stop worrying about the future and the spell, for the moment, though, so they put a pause on the discussion, instead reveling in the miracle of being alive and together.
Now, they were back at the Statue of Liberty, gathered in the same way they were on that fateful night a few months ago. The night that marked an end, and a beginning. They stood in silence, for a little while, just soaking in each others' presence and allowing themselves a moment of peace for the first time in months. Ned was the first to break it.
"I'm sorry we can't truly reverse it and remember you, Peter." he said, softly, words almost drowned out by the wind. MJ tried to imagine what it would be like, for him. She got lucky- while she remembered that Ned's constant barging in on their every moment was rather inconvenient at the time (such as when they were laying on the roof)- it became useful to have another person in the memory when trying to push herself to remember. Ned didn't really have that. Before she came along it was just Ned and Peter, and her heart ached at the countless hours of friendship and memories that the two of them had together, that only Peter could remember, now.
But if anything, Peter didn't look upset. Instead, he smiled back at his oldest friend fondly. "Ned, it's okay. Believe me, I don't need you guys to remember everything about me. Just having you guys in my life again, and having another chance, means the world to me. I never thought I'd have you guys back again- both of you." He wrapped an arm around MJ as he spoke, and she leaned into his shoulder as he continued. "While I still don't like that you guys could be in danger, you kind of figured it out before I could even make the decision on whether to tell you or not."
"I'm still pissed about that." MJ murmured. "Taking away my right to choose on such matters is basically an insult to my intelligence, if you don't think I have the brains to weigh the positives and negatives and make an educated choice of my own free will."
Peter didn't respond to that verbally- he knew there was no response, no real justification he could give- just like in the discussion at the cemetery. MJ knew he regretted taking away their freedom of choice, but she also knew he would never regret doing it to keep them safe. It kept her up, sometimes, at night, knowing that Peter very well would have made the stupid decision to stay away from her and Ned forever, to 'protect them,' and they'd have been none the wiser.
She shook those thoughts off as the sky started to turn orange, the sun throwing vibrant colors into the air in the same way it had after the Statue of Liberty battle. MJ breathed in the cool, crisp, air, seeing Ned and Peter do the same out of the corner of her eye.
"Since we can't rely on our old memories, you best bet we'll be making a hell of a lot of new ones, Parker." MJ said, breaking the quiet as the sun broke the horizon.
"Yeah, we'll keep making memories for the next however many years until you have so many memories you won't know what to do with them." Ned teased.
Peter smiled at them softly, warmly. "I'd like that." he said truthfully.
And thus, an era ended. One marked with pain and grief and forgetting and the feeling that something was missing. A sense that something was off- a letter misplaced, something not arranged properly, the unnerving feeling that something was not quite right but not being able to put your finger on it. MJ looked to either side of her, at her best friend and her boyfriend, and it wasn't perfect- far from it, in fact- but they were together again, foggy memories and all. And she'd be damned if she allowed the opportunity to slip through her fingers again. So she closed her eyes and breathed the cool air, letting the light bathe her face and body in a welcoming warmth.
The sun rose, and with it, a new beginning.
THE END
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BONUS SCENE: I could not for the life of me figure out where to put this little snippet but I wanted to put it in. Sometime after the cemetery talk.
Ned suddenly spoke, a tinge of disappointment coloring his voice. "Aw, darn. I forgot to ask Dr. Strange if I could keep the chair."
MJ snorted a laugh while Peter looked hopelessly confused. "Seriously, Ned? The chair?"
"Hey, I had a checklist." Ned defended himself. "Find Peter, get the chair. I completed the 'find Peter' step. Now I've gotta go back for the chair."
BONUS SCENE 2:
Someone asked for the list of what Tony left for Peter, but I'd already written the whole story by that point and couldn't really find a place to put it in, but if I had to take a stab at it, here's what I'd say he'd leave him: college tuition, EDITH, any webshooter/Spider-Man things he worked on or had plans for, etc, during the Blip, lab equipment (I assume some saved for Morgan if she wanted it, but since she's so young I'd assume Peter would get free reign first and then he could help teach Morgan later on since Tony wouldn't have been able to as much, and it wasn't Pepper's or Rhodey's or Happy's thing), Peter's and May's stuff from the Blip, probably a certain amount of his money (I've been thinking about that in terms of the MCU, and I do think it would line up with his actions. He obviously cared a lot about Peter in the movies, and I'd say the money would probably go to Pepper by default because she was the spouse, so Peter/Morgan/Happy/Rhodey wouldn't get any of it until probably after Pepper dies, that's usual for married couples I think. It's how my parents have their will set up. Though I'm sure if Peter ever needed, Tony probably had some failsafe or way to get funds if necessary- whether with or without Pepper's approval, probably with at least until he turned 18. Let me know what y'all think about this topic, it's interesting and I doubt it'll be touched on in the MCU, especially now with the forgetting spell).
In addition to that stuff, I imagine Stark industries, once again, turned over to Pepper, especially since she's already CEO, but when she's ready to retire I'd be willing to bet some of it is bound to go to Peter- at the very least, a job offer if he wants it (sans forgetting spell, of course). Other than that, probably Peter would have gotten some photos of him and Tony, since they obviously existed to some extent in canon, plus I find it hard to imagine that Peter wouldn't have also gotten a hologram message like at the end of Endgame. The only reason I can think of why he wouldn't be in the group that got to watch it is because Tony wouldn't want to risk being wrong, and at the point he recorded those, he didn't know whether he'd be successful in bringing Peter back- or himself alive. But knowing Tony's character, he probably thought of the worst case scenario- if it didn't work and he died, but they didn't bring anyone back, he would probably think ahead and wouldn't want his last message to his family be tainted by the reminder that he died for nothing or something along those lines.
I dunno, maybe he wouldn't think like that, but that's how I'd think so. I'd say probably a separate hologram message was recorded for him. And really everything else is up to your imagination, whatever you want to think he left him, maybe some Iron Man stuff too, though I imagine the majority would probably go to Rhodey? Because War Machine is similar? Maybe not in case he was required to report that to the government or something, I don't know the rules of that. Anyways, that's that. Hopefully you guys enjoyed the little bonus additions and the story itself!
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And that's a wrap! Hopefully you guys enjoyed this and my take on the forgetting spell- and that I didn't have them magically remember Peter at the end, because I don't think the spell would work that way, but who knows. None of us will know till the MCU decides for us, but it's fun to speculate.
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