I don't own anything except any original character and/or any original plot.

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Chapter Seventeen: It's My Choice

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On the plane, primed and ready for battle, I asked Misty to contact Peter as a news report about the attack on London was playing in the background.

"(Y/n), oh thank god you're okay! Happy told me that you were alive but that didn't mean that you weren't hurt or-"

"Peter, I'm okay I promise," I laughed lightly, checking my arrival time. I would wait to tell him about almost drowning and my vibranium bone replacements, "Where are you now?"

"Oh um, I'm in the middle of the illusion trying to take it down. Are you on your way?"

"I see the city," I announced, pressing the button that would begin the landing in the closest secure area, "Do you have the illusion under control? What do you need me to do?"

"He's after MJ, Ned, Harry, and Betty. Happy said that he would take care of them, but I just want to make sure that nothing happens to them and that they get away safe."

"Got it. Misty start a track on the group. I'll get them to safety and then I'll join you and we can take Beck down, okay? I love you."

"See you there. I love you too."

The jet landed in an alley just outside of the danger zone. I enabled cloaking so there wasn't any chance of Beck finding it, and followed Misty's directions to my friends, doing my best to ignore the vast damage that was happening around me.

"They've entered the royal vault. I detect four drones surrounding them, armed and extremely dangerous. Tony's drones."

"Shit," I hissed to myself, stepping around broken glass and displaced exhibits.

Stopping just before the entrance to the vault room, I listened for any signs of the drones. There was a faint whirring and hissing. When I peeked out, I saw that they were lasering through the vault door.

"Okay, okay. Peter's going against an army of these things. I got this. Misty, activate Instant Kill Mode."

"Instant Kill Mode activated."

The precision blades popped up on my arms, sharper than before. Close range and long range, I see you Tony. Pushing down my nerves and the knowledge that one shot from them would equal death, I pushed myself off the wall and ran into the room.

The drones stopped their lasering and turned to me. Before they could even prime their chargers, my masks' screen had a target locked onto them and I was shooting. Once, twice, three times, until the drones were nothing but smoking piles of metal.

Panting, I knocked on the door, "Happy, it's me Riptide. You're safe."

"Tell us something only Riptide would know!" MJ yelled back. Smart, that was why we were friends.

"Okay, um... Happy you have this thing going on with Spider-Man's aunt, MJ I saved your cat once, um, you picked Spider-Man up in the Netherlands- I got it! Happy you used to hate Spider-Man but you've grown to love him and now you see him as your responsibility!"

The door swung open. Happy's face was red, either from embarrassment or rage, I didn't have time to find out. MJ, Ned, and Betty were panicked as they should have been, Harry was frowning, and Flash was there too, live streaming. Douchebag.

"Oh good," I sighed in relief, "Happy I have a jet but I don't think it's safe yet. I need to help Spider-Man, so stay here out of sight, close the door again if you have to. Flash, I swear if keep live streaming I will track you down."

"Riptide knows my name," Flash completely disregarded my threat.

Rolling my eyes, I stated "I'll let you know when it's safe to leave. Be. Careful. I don't need you getting hurt because I left."

Trusting the group to handle themselves now that they were out of immediate danger, I also made sure to check the perimeter as I was leaving. All the drones in the area were down for the count because of the guards in the area. If Peter and I dealt with Beck fast enough, then they'd be safe no matter what.

Boom!

That was Peter. Following the source of the explosion led me to a bridge, and on it was Peter. Around him was the remains of a platoon of drones.

"Bug-Boy," I ran to him, "I want this to be a really cute reunion but Beck will probably kill us if we do that."

"You're right," Peter nodded, looking at the overpass above.

"I got this."

Using water from the river on either side of us, I wrapped us in it and propelled us into the air so quickly that we slammed through the glass flooring in front of Beck and each of us delivered a punch before he could react. It felt good to finally punch him.

"You're lies are over Beck," Peter picked him up by the front of his suit and held him in the air.

"Well, this certainly isn't ideal, but I have contingencies. EDITH?"

A sonic blast hit both of us and blew us across the overpass. Groaning in pain, Peter and I quickly recovered.

"Just give us the glasses," Peter sighed, hand over his ribs.

"You want this?" Beck held up the glasses, "Come and get 'em."

At least ten drones flooded the hallway. Peter looked to me, "I have my Peter Tingle, but you-"

"Thanos tricked my mind, and Beck did the same thing. I don't have your senses, but I know an illusion. Especially now that I've seen Beck's."

That was enough for him. The entire hallway went dark, and we were left to our own instincts to survive. Closing my eyes, I listened, and felt. A swoosh of air behind me, and I swung out and used my precision blades to stab one of the drones straight through. Vibranium, who knew? The next one came from the side, and the charge of its blaster was my cue. I shot it with an ice dart. The third and fourth ones were in front and behind simultaneously. Throwing my hands out, their systems were flooded with water.

The last one hit me with a sonic boom, and I hit the metal siding of the overpass. Swinging my hands up I formed a little ice bubble that blocked the first shot. When it went in for the second, it was on the ground, imploding from ice in its gun.

The darkness disappeared, and Peter was right next to me, alive and unharmed just like I was. In front of us, was Beck. On his back, shot, and dying. Peter and I rushed to him.

"You lied to us. We trusted you."

"I know, and that's the most... disappointing part. Such a weakness. Stark was right, you do deserve them-"

Peter's hand shot out and redirected Beck's before he could shoot him in the head. It was Beck's final illusion, because from what I could tell, the drones really did do some damage to him in the chaos.

"You can't trick me anymore," Peter grunted, twisting his wrist until the gun fell from his grasp.

"Still naive!"

"No!"

Beck's body tensed, and the second gun he'd been concealing behind his back fell to the floor. Peter dropped Beck's hand and looked at me with wide eyes. I myself, was shocked at my actions, but I wasn't the snivelling mess I thought I'd be.

"Monster," Beck grit out as I lowered his body to the floor.

"I'm only a monster if I want to be," I hissed back, releasing my hold on his body, "And that is a choice I'll never make."

Snatching the glasses off of Beck's face, Peter shoved them onto his, "EDITH cancel the drones! Yes, execute them all!"

The army of drones outside retreated back into the sky. Sighing in relief, I turned to Beck. Dying just like his illusion was.

"How could you do this?" I questioned.

"People need to believe. Nowadays they'll believe anything..." Beck trailed off, his eyes glassy and empty.

"Is he- is this for real?" Peter asked EDITH. I assumed she said yes because he took his glasses off and sighed, "We need to meet Fury."

Nodding mutely, I lifted us down with some water. Both of us winced when we landed on the bridge, our fresh injuries flaring up. Although Peter's leg injury seemed to be a bit older than that.

"I can't believe it," I mumbled, turning to Peter.

We met in the middle and hugged like we hadn't seen each other in a lifetime. My mask pulled back and he tugged his off. Hugging again, Peter fished a small tin out of a hidden suit pocket. Both of us had gotten upgrades, now that I was finally focusing on the finer details and not just staying alive and beating Beck.

"I uh, I wanted to give this to you in Paris, but we never ended up going... and then I got hit by a train-"

"Wait, you got hit by the train you were on?"

"Oh, yeah. I ended up in the Netherlands and Happy picked me up. You ended up in Wakanda?"

"Yeah, I fell out of a building and almost drowned in a lake. What were you saying?"

"Right! I need to get this out before the universe stops me again," Peter pulled the top off the tin and got down on one knee-

"Peter-"

"I'm not proposing. But I am making a promise. If we didn't age back, I would have proposed as soon as possible. I know I want to spend my life with you. So, I promise to love you, to be your partner on and off the battlefield, and to marry you... what do you say?"

"Well saying yes wouldn't make sense," I laughed, running a hand under my eyes, "I love you, and I promise to hold you to your promises."

Handing me the ring so I could put it on when we weren't as bloody and when I didn't have partial gloves on, my suit formed another pocket on my belt with more emphasis on the security of it, just like it did with my phone.

"I love you," I pulled him in for a long kiss, "We did it."

"We did it."

~*~

By the time we arrived in Jersey to get picked up from the airport by our parents, Peter had gotten a temporary brace for his leg, we'd delat with all the major details with Fury, and we were just ready to be home and have some peace.

"This was a crazy trip," I chuckled along with Ned and Betty.

"Maybe we should go on a double date sometime," Peter suggested conversationally.

"Oh, we broke up," Betty and Ned announced in unison.

I wasn't surprised, but still feigned it. Whether Peter was actually surprised or not I would have to ask later.

"What? Why?"

"Well Peter, sometimes in life, people grow apart. They may have learned from each other, but it wasn't meant to be," Ned stated like he knew the meaning of life.

"You are so wise," Betty put a hand on Ned's cheek and left it at that.

"My parents are here, so I guess I'll see you later this summer. Let me know if you're going to Wakanda again, that was cool," MJ nudged my shoulder.

"I will, and good luck at your new internship."

After the Blip, MJ found that she was better suited to investigative work than to directing, so she took up an internship at the NYPD instead. She said it was both because she figured out Peter and I were heroes before anyone else, and because it would be cool to be that one cop with all the information.

"I'm glad you're okay," Harry said quietly from behind me after MJ left. I turned to him with a smile.

"You know me, I'm a survivor. I'm looking forward to just relax for the rest of the summer."

With a furrowed brow, Harry asked "What did Beck do wrong?"

"What do you mean?" I asked in confusion.

"What went wrong with his plan?"

"Oh, um, a lot of things I guess. He couldn't beat my hero instincts and MJ's snooping and Peter's determination. Sometimes villains are just destined to fail," sensing the shift in Harry's mood I hugged him, "I'll see you later, okay?"

"Yeah, see you later, (Y/n)."

I left him at that, and worked my way through the crowd of parents to see if I could find my own. To my embarrassment, they found me.

"(Y/n)!"

"(Y/n)! Move bitch, I want to hug my daughter!"

Guess who said what. It wouldn't be very hard. I was tackled by two strong forces and had the life squeezed out of me. It wasn't until I complained that they were irritating my bruises that they stopped and allowed me to breath as they walked me out to the car.

"We'll take you shopping so you can buy new stuff," My mom motioned to my basically empty hands, minus the new watch I was sporting in honor of Tony, "Since it was destroyed."

'Thanks."

"You kicked ass (Y/n)! That was so cool, and you're new uniform, love it! I'm so proud," my dad teared up, "When your mom and I had you we were so worried about how you would be treated, but you carved your own path."

"No crying while driving, honey."

"Sorry Clara, I'll hold them back till we get home."

Laughing, I sighed happily. It was good to be back.

~*~

A week after London, Peter and I were due for a nice date. Instead of going to one of our normal spots, we thought it'd be fun to take a swing around New York and learn more about our new uniforms.

He picked me up on my fire escape and we set off. The city was just as we left it, if not more vibrant seeming since we were still pumped to be back. I cheered with joy as Peter performed stunts in midair, with me just along for the ride.

After around ten minutes of air time, we stopped in front of one of the food stands that offered us free service and were about to get something to drink when the video screens around us cut off.

"This is breaking news."

"We come to you now with revelations about last week's attack in London. An anonymous source provided this video. It shows Quentin Beck AKA Mysterio moments before his death. A warning: you may find this video disturbing."

Sure enough, Beck appeared on the screen. He was frantic, and stated "I managed to send the Elemental back through the dimensional rift but I don't think I'll get off this bridge alive. Spider-Man has attacked me for some reason. He has an army of weaponized drones, Stark technology. He's saying he's the only one who can be the new Iron Man. Riptide isn't here, I don't think she knows what's happening."

It cut to the end of our battle, where Peter ended the drone strike, only EDITH asked if he wanted to commence a drone attack, and I wasn't there. Peter said "Do it, execute them all."

"This shocking video was released earlier today o the controversial news website TheDailyBudgle.net."

"It is irrefutable that Spider-Man was responsible for the brutal murder of Mysterio an interdimensional warrior who gave his life to protect our planet and who will no doubt go down in history as the greatest superhero of all time. But that's not all, folks, brace yourselves, you might want to sit down."

"I can't say Riptides for fear that she'll be in danger by Spider-Man, but Spider-Man's real name is P- Spider-Man's name is Peter Parker!"

Whispers, shouts, and jeers erupted from the streets around us as civilians took in their former hero turned villain. I knew I should have been worried for Peter, hell, I should have been screaming along with the civilians. But as Peter picked me up to swing us away to a safe place where we could talk about what was going on, there was only one thought going through my head.

Why only Peter?