For The Greater Good

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/26918365.

Rating: General Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: Gen
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Relationship: Peter Parker & Tony Stark, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker,
May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Character: Peter Parker, May Parker (Spider-Man), Tony Stark
Additional Tags: Ritual Sacrifice, Human Sacrifice, Blacksmith Tony, Blacksmithing,
prison break - Freeform, Guilty Peter Parker, Sad Peter Parker,
Sacrifice Tony, attempted self sacrifice, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Hurt
Peter Parker, Protective Peter Parker, Peter Parker Whump, BAMF
Peter Parker, Middle Ages, ish, Honestly I didn't really figure out when
this is set, Not Modern Times, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark
Has A Heart, Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Acting as Peter
Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Feels, Protective May Parker (Spider-
Man), May Parker (Spider-Man) & Tony Stark Coparenting Peter
Parker, Awesome May Parker (Spider-Man), May Parker and Tony
Stark Friendship, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Series: Part 9 of Whumptober 2020
Collections: Whumptober 2020
Stats: Published: 2020-10-09 Words: 1,608 Chapters: 1/1

For The Greater Good

by Summerwolf

Summary

Whumptober day 9 - Ritual Sacrifice, "Take Me Instead", "Run!"

---

Peter watched in mounting horror as the townsfolk marched into Tony's blacksmiths,
chanting about fae folk and children of the devil. They needed a sacrifice for the upcoming
sun ritual - where they sacrificed a villager in return for the sun to continue rising in the
morning and setting at night - and this year they had chosen Tony.

Notes

See the end of the work for notes

Peter watched in mounting horror as the townsfolk marched into Tony's blacksmiths, chanting
about fae folk and children of the devil. They needed a sacrifice for the upcoming sun ritual -
where they sacrificed a villager in return for the sun to continue rising in the morning and setting at
night - and this year they had chosen Tony.

They didn't like him in the first place, he was different and that was a threat from their point of
view. They ignored him unless they needed something to be fixed, and even though he was the best
blacksmith in the country, they had reached their limit.

Tony was clever. Tony could make things out of metal which moved - which did not involve
witchcraft, no matter what the villagers said. He was caring, and practically adopted Peter when
his parents died and his aunt struggled to raise him while being the village doctor. Tony was a
better man than anyone else around, and he didn't need to be a fae to do it. There was no trick, he
was just like that, and now he was going to pay for it.

"Ah, my time has come," Tony sighed when he opened the door and found the mod. Peter was at
the back, May gripping his arm tight enough that he couldn't run forward - she didn't like any of
this either, but she refused to let Peter risk himself - and could only just hear Tony's words, but he
didn't sound surprised or scared. He sounded like he'd been waiting for this day to come for years.

Peter listened as everyone's mutterings got louder and louder, the hatred everyone felt forming an
almost physical haze above the mob. It hurt Peter. Tony was like a dad to him, and the amount of
distaste in the air left a pain stabbing at his heart.

"Can I stay here until the day of the festival? Or do I have to live the rest of my days in the prison?"
He didn't sound like he cared at all, it was like this was a conversation he had every day, and
somehow that was worse for Peter to hear than the hatred he'd been surrounded by just moments
before.

"You'll come with us." The chief spat, his tone hard as he glared up at Tony. "We don't trust you
not to run."

"Oh please, I do have some class you know," Tony sighed, reaching behind him to grab what Peter
realised with dawning horror was an overnight bag. He knew they were coming from him, and he
didn't do anything. Was Tony really that ready to die?

Peter glanced up, seeing the years glazing May's eyes as she watched the man who had helped her
raise Peter get ready to go. They were friends of some sort, probably closer than Peter knew with
the amount they saw each other trying to make sure Peter didn't die, and although she didn't say it
often, Peter knew she cared about Tony just as much as Peter did.
He knew that May was going to kill him if he did this… actually now he thought about it, Tony
would probably kill him too, but he couldn’t just sit back and watch his world collapse around him.
Tony had promised to always be there for him, but more importantly, Peter had promised the same
in return.

“Take me instead.” His voice was loud enough to be heard even over the base noise of a muttering
mob, everything going silent as his words echoed around. It must have only been seconds, but it felt
like hours later that May and Tony managed to shake off their shock, twin yells of “NO!” as Mays
hand tightened painfully around Peter’s arm and Tony looked scared for the first time since the
mob had shown up.

“I appreciate the sentiment kid - I really do - but if you think there is any chance of me letting you
sacrifice yourself for me, you are sorely mistaken.” Tony’s voice was little more a growl, anger
and protectiveness warring for most prominent emotion. He turned to the chief, his head held high
as he said, “well come on, we don’t have all day. Are you going to arrest me or not.” Peter could
tell that Tony was only trying to hurry it along to stop Peter from doing any more stupid things, and
he felt pretty bad about it… but he had to give it a shot.

“We are going home right now,” May hissed, “don’t you even dare try to pull that stunt again.”

Peter sighed, walking back to their cabin slowly, dragging his feet as he tried to catch a final
glimpse of Tony over his shoulder. He couldn't just let Tony die, and he couldn’t understand why
May seemed so annoyed. Sure, he shouldn’t have done that, but surely she could at least partially
understand?

“How do you think Tony would have felt if you had managed?” May asked, answering Peter’s
question without him even having to voice it. “If you had managed to take his place and it was you
scheduled to die in a few days?”

Peter’s eyes went wide, realising what she meant. Tony would have felt awful, worse than Peter felt
now. Maybe it was just as well he had failed… that didn’t mean he was going to give up just yet.

---

Three days later and Peter had done it. He had planned out a foolproof escape, a simple way to get
Tony out of that prison and on the back of a horse, sent as far into the distance as possible until the
villagers had no chance of finding him ever again.
He had gathered supplies from Tony’s cottage, grabbed everything he could possibly want or need,
and had even found a way to pack some of his smaller inventions, in the hopes Tony would be able
to use them to get himself established in a new town. So many places needed blacksmiths, it
wouldn’t be hard for him to find somewhere new.

The plan had just one, tiny weeny, flaw.

Peter would have to go with him. Everyone would figure out that it was him who saved Tony, so as
soon as he was gone Peter would be in danger.

Which left flaw one, subsection B.

May would have to come too.

If she stayed then the villagers would punish her for Peter’s crimes, and Peter couldn’t just let that
happen.

“Please May! I can’t leave you here!”

“The villagers need a doctor Peter,” May sighed, running her hands through her hair, “my entire
life is here, Ben is here, I’ve lived here forever and I can’t just up and leave.”

“And I can’t leave you,” Peter replies, panic making his words escape him faster normal, “I can’t
leave Tony to die, but if I save him and leave you then they will kill you instead, so I can’t go
unless you come with us, but I can’t not go, but if you won’t come I can’t fgo and-” Peter
detachedly realised that he was rambling, his breaths coming too fast and too shallow, his room
spinning around him.

Everything was going wrong and he didn’t know what to do.

“Peter! Peter breathe,” May said, her grounding hand appearing on Peter’s shoulder as she pressed
a hand to his chest, trying to coax him back into a regular breathing pattern. “It’s okay, we will
figure something out. I promise you won’t have to choose between me or Tony.”
---

May was true to her word, and two days after that they had arranged for a doctor from a nearby
town to come and help train someone new the day after they left, and they were ready to go.

They waited until the moon was high in the sky, the entire village plunged into enough darkness
that they wouldn’t see before they snuck out, May heading towards the stables to grab and load the
horses they had chosen, while Peter silently headed towards what counted as the village prison,
hoping that no one would be there so he could grab Tony and get out of there.

“Tony?” He made sure to keep his whisper almost silent, knowing that if anyone heard them their
entire plan would be over. “Tony are you there?”

“Peter? What are you doing here?” Tony appeared at the bars of the furthers cell and Peter was
unable to hold back his relieved smile. Tony was still okay.

He hurried over, picking the lock as quickly as he could.

“I’m here to save you,” Peter grinned, his heart in his throat as he tried to get the lock open before
anyone had the chance to walk in. “We are getting out of here, going as far away as we can.”

“What about May? They’ll kill her!”

“Who did you think was grabbing the horses?” May grinned, appearing at the entrance, “come on,
we need to disappear.”

Half a moment later the lock clicked and Tony was free, all of them running to the nearest horse
and hopping onto its back. Peter whispered thanks to his horse as they started galloping away, the
sounds of angry villagers following them as people were woken up by the galloping hooves.

It didn’t matter, they would be long gone before anyone figured out exactly what was going on.
 Peter couldn’t stop his relieved smile when he looked to the side, watching his aunt and his father
figure gallop along on their own horses. They were free, and unless everything went wrong, none
of them would be in danger of being sacrificed ever again.

End Notes

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