What can I say except sorry. Shit things happened (see last chapter notes, I guess) but then really good things happened and I was busy with them (there were also exams *sighs*) and just so many things happened that I had no motivation for this story as I hadn't written in so long (argh!)
Anyway, it's now the summer, I have no uni, and I have no job because I'm using this time to work on my writing (mostly my original work so I get money hopefully) but also fanfic as I've missed writing it! So, updates will occur At Least every fortnight.

So, what has happened (because even I had forgotten until I read my story again):
- Tony and Stephen (alive for to-be-explained reasons) have come back in time to the middle of the Avengers. Tony has told SHIELD/the Avengers about Thanos.
- The Avengers (plus Loki) are trying to come up with a solution, but they're arguing too much to get anywhere
- Dr Strange was trying to alert the Ancient One to Thanos.
- In doing so he met Kaecilius (who is working at the New York Sanctum) and thinks he might have accidentally sent him down the path of evil sooner than in the last timeline.
- Peter Parker (11 years old) has had the best birthday ever, meeting Mr Stark on a school trip round Stark Tower.
- Tony opens up to Pepper about time-travelling. She needs time to think things through.
- Stephen tells the Ancient One about what happened with Kaecilius and with Thanos.
- Aunt May gets hit by a drunk driver and is in a coma (sorry! I swear she'll be fine!) Tony comforts Peter
- Tony gets granted emergency guardianship of Peter.

Idk if I've said this before but Peter doesn't have an uncle in this timeline. I know very little about Uncle Ben and I didn't really want to have to kill him off and give Peter more grief.

I've done background reading into Kaecilius's arc from the tie-in comics so I hope you guys enjoy his bits!

Thank you all so much for all the support this story has received so far! I sincerely hope I've managed to reply to all reviews, if not, I'm really really sorry!

12/08/19

Chapter Six - Betrayal

"Hey Aunt May," Peter said, curling up in a ball on the chair at her bedside and biting his lip, doing his best not to cry. "The nurse said I only have five minutes because you're technically not meant to have visitors at the moment, especially because it's not visiting hours, which sucks because I have a lot to tell you, so, I guess I'll have to be quick and tell you all the important stuff first. I don't know if you can hear me, but Mr Stark said that sometimes people in comas can hear what's going on around them, so I hope you can. If you can hear me you gotta make sure you wake up soon, because I'm really happy that I get to play with all of Mr Stark's robots, but I need you Aunt May, I really miss you."

Peter stopped to sniffle and rub his eyes with his sleeve.

"They took me into foster care for a few days, it wasn't very nice. The grown-ups looking after us were alright, but they weren't you, and this kid smashed up all my legos which made me really unhappy. I'd made you a really cool model for when you woke up. I'm sad you won't get to see it, but I'll make you something even more awesome with Tony, he's promised to help.

"Anyways, I need to tell you about the most awesome thing that happened today! You know how I met Mr Stark on that tour of Stark Tower and he was really really nice to me? He swooped down an Iron Man to make sure I was okay after the accident and now he's taken me into emergency guardianship! It's so awesome! I'm gonna meet all his robots and he's gonna show me how his repulsors work!"

Peter bit his lip.

"I know you don't like Mr Stark as much as I do, because you think he can be silly and irresponsible, but I really like him. He's super kind to me and in court he said he was doing his best to become a good and responsible person and he'd made a lot of progress. People in the court were actually really mean to him...They said some horrible things..." He slumped and looked towards the door that Tony promised he would be waiting behind. "But you don't have to worry about me, May, I promise, because Mr Stark and Ms Potts are going to take the best care of me until you get better.

"You will get better, won't you? Because we need to get Thai food again, and you haven't showed me how to wear a tie properly yet.

"Please wake up," Peter begged, then promptly collapsed into tears

-AC-

Tony had been waiting outside the door, idly listening to Peter's conversation. He hadn't been eavesdropping purposefully, but there wasn't really much else to listen to in the area so the one-sided conversation just flowed into his ears as he flicked through his Stark Phone, sorting through the emails Pepper had forwarded on as important. His heart ached at the anguish in Peter's voice and all the kid had been through in the past few days.

As soon as Peter began to sob in earnest he rushed into the room and swept the eleven year-old up into his arms.

"Hey, kid, it's okay, its okay," he muttered, doing his best not to remember the last time he had held the kid like this and forcefully not shedding a tear himself.

"But what if she never wakes up?" Peter hiccoughed through his tears.

"She will, kid, she will, she's got all the best doctors here, and they said her prognosis looked good."

"But what if she doesn't?"

"Then we'll deal with that when we get to it, but I don't think you have to worry about that."

"Okay," Peter sniffed. "I should probably stop crying, shouldn't I?"

"Not if you don't want to."

"I think I want to."

"Well, okay then." Tony said, proud of the determination in Peter's voice, and helped the kid get unsteadily to his feet.

"Do you want to say anything else before we go?" Tony asked.

Peter shook his head, wiping his face with his sleeve.

"Is it okay if I say a few things to your aunt?"

Peter nodded.

"Um, hey May," Tony said. "I know you think I'm probably not the best person to be looking after a kid, especially not your kid. But, I've grown up a lot these past few years, a lot of stuff happened, and I think I'm mature enough to look after Peter. He's a really smart kid, he'll learn a lot about science and I think he'll really benefit from this. Don't worry, I won't push him to work hard and do things he doesn't want to do, I'm not my father. I won't let him near a weapon and he definitely won't be building any. I'll also keep him away from the paparazzi as Peter doesn't deserve them hounding him. So, that's it really, I'm just gonna take Peter to get a cheeseburger complete with lots of healthy salad that he said you'd appreciate, please wake up soon."

"Bye Aunt May," Peter said, his voice slightly croaky from the tears.

And with that, Tony and Peter went to get their cheeseburgers.

-AC-

"So," the Ancient One said slowly. "Now we have a list of approximate dates and times for all major future events we should decide on our priorities. Thanos obviously is a priority, but so is stopping Kaecilius from going down the same path this time round, we have to avoid the unnecessary death, chaos and threat to this dimension."

"We have to protect the Book of Cagliostro, without the spell inside it he will find it a lot harder to contact Dormammu. Perhaps we should remove it from the library and hide it somewhere else?"

The Ancient One frowned. "Where would be safer though..."

"Anywhere that has something better than a single librarian who can easily be beheaded."

"It was a shame what happened to him. We will need to forewarn him and put the library under better protection." She turned to Stephen. "I think you are right about that though, would you be able to keep the book hidden. I feel you are one of the only people who would not use the book's contents for their own gain."

"I would be able to, however-"

At that moment their surroundings rippled and and became jagged like glass. Kaecilius forced open the mirror dimension they had been talking privately in, his whole body trembling with rage, entire focus on the Ancient One.

"How could you do this? How could you betray me like this?" he demanded.

The Ancient One regarded him, her calm demeanor tinged with a hint of sadness. "Kaecilius, if you would just let me ex..."

"No! What is there to explain? You lied to me. After my wife and child died you said that studying the mystic arts would help me find peace. Help me find meaning to their deaths. Well it hasn't. Death is pointless, futile, a stumbling block in evolution. And after all your empty words you knew that, didn't you?"

"You're wrong."

"Am I? After he-" Kaecilius gestured to Stephen- "told me about your connection to the dark dimension I did some research in the library, and all my research led me to one conclusion. I know why you do not age, do not die, you are siphoning power from the dark dimension for your own use. You are selfish and a hypocrite. You say there is point in death but you cannot give me a proper reason why. Now I know why, you yourself fear it. But you will not share your power, you will not help others do the same, you will not let us evolve!"

"I did not hide it for my own gain," the Ancient One exclaimed as an icy pit opened in Stephen's stomach. He had done it, he had set Kaecilius down the wrong path earlier than before. "Once I had done the ritual there was no going back. I stay alive to protect others from the same fate. The dark dimension is not safe, what is in there would destroy humanity, not let it evolve!"

"Safe? Safe? No one's safe here! We're constantly threatened by our own mortality."

"Do you want to know who rules over the dark dimension?" Stephen cut in before either of the others could say anything else. "Dormammu. And he only grants you eternal life so you can be his puppet. It seems like losing your own mind and drifting on into eternity as a part of him is rather a devolution. It's better to live a short life in control of your own volition than to stretch on into eternity as something else."

"She doesn't seem to be under the control of anyone." Kaecilius pointed out. "I will find out how to do it. And I will find out how to do it safely. I will free humanity from its cursed short existence."

The Ancient One began muttering a spell but before she could do anything Kaecilius had disappeared.

They stood there in stunned silence for a couple of seconds.

"I will warn the others," the Ancient One said. "Guard the book and I will give it to you once I am assured the sanctuaries are protected."

"On it," Stephen said, and rushed off in the direction of the library. Hopefully he would be able to pick up a sling ring and acquire his cloak at some point in the future.

I hope you guys enjoyed that!

Please review if you did! I've left this six months now so basically your continued interest is going to be one of the things that ensures I keep working on this regularly over the holiday as it will let me know that people haven't given up.

Will baby Morgan be appearing in this story a way down the line? Absolutely! Do I care that, logically, a different egg would be fertilised so she would be a different Morgan than in Endgame? Nope. This is my story and I do what I want.