Chapter Text
“When you said you knew a guy, I thought you meant a legitimate connection, not some walk-up in Queens.”
Tony Stark, Wanda Maximoff, and Vision stood out front of an apartment building in Forest Hills. The three heroes had picked their way across New York expertly avoiding the many HYDRA agents that were scouring the city for the missing witch. Tony didn’t know if they were hunting him as well, but he figured he was now considered to be an honorary Rogue Avenger. That was something else that he had never imagined would happen. Especially after Siberia.
However, he didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. Wanda was still sick. The dose of medicine he had given her back at the Compound was fading fast and so was she. Wanda leaned heavily on the android as they walked through the streets, but managed to stay on her feet. The power dampener cuffs were still going but without her magic, she couldn’t fight off the infection. However, if they were to remove the cuffs and she had a power surge, it could be deadly for all of them.
They were in a no-win situation.
One that Tony was determined to solve. But first, they had to get somewhere safe. He hadn’t planned to involve the kid, but they were out of options. “It’s this or nothing,” Tony said, answering Vision’s clear complaint.
“You said he had a curfew,” Wanda said, her eyes barely open. Tony could see a few orange strands peeking out from under her hood along with the dark circles beneath her eyes. “That was a joke, right?”
“Not exactly,” Tony grimaced.
“Stark, who is this?” Wanda asked.
“Come on,” Tony said as he pulled them towards the apartment. The early morning made the hallways silent and empty, but they were still careful not to make a sound in case a neighbor became nosy. Though, Tony figured that the residences of the building were used to all sorts of strange things considering who lived upstairs.
Tony took them to an apartment on the top floor. Leaning against the wall next to the door was an old VCR player, most likely a neighbor feeding the kid’s dumpster-diving habits. Tony frowned at the door and then lifted his fist and knocked quietly, knowing the sound would be heard clearly. Wanda shifted nervously on her feet behind him, but she kept her weapons sheathed. Whether that was because she trusted that Stark was leading them somewhere safe or she was too exhausted to fight, Tony couldn’t be sure.
A few moments later and Tony heard the chain on the door slide open, but then it was silent. “Kid, it’s me, open up,” Tony whispered.
“I don’t think they heard you,” Vision said.
“Trust me, he did,” Tony whispered and then the door swung open and they were met with a very tired Peter Parker. His hair was disheveled and his eyes were half open as if he had only had a few hours of sleep. Knowing how late Peter stayed out on patrol, that was very likely the case. Tony snapped in front of his face. “Pete, wakey wakey.”
“What’s wrong?” Peter mumbled and then yawned.
“Kid, I need you to be way more alert right now,” pleaded Tony. Peter nodded and then rubbed at this eyes. When he looked back to Tony, his senses woke up and he noticed the people behind him. His eyes fell on Vision with confusion. Peter had met the android plenty of times while he was Upstate, but he had never seen him in his human disguise. He then focused on the woman at his side and his mouth fell open.
“That’s‒” Tony rushed forward, clamping a hand over his mouth and pushing the teenager back into the apartment, gesturing to the others to follow. Peter mumbled behind Tony’s hand.
“Quiet, Parker,” Tony urged. “Shut the door,” Tony ordered behind him and Vision closed the door and locked it. As soon as Tony took inventory that all the curtains were closed, he pulled off his sunglasses and gestured to the others. Peter gaped as Vision phased back into his usual self and then his eyes grew wider as Wanda pulled her hood down. “You must have questions.”
“A few,” Peter remarked. “Tony, what’s going on? They’re saying on the police scanner that the Compound was attacked and I tried calling you, but then I sort of fell asleep and Happy isn’t even texting me back and he always does. Are you okay? Are you injured?” Peter grabbed Tony’s shoulders and tried to look him over, but Stark swatted his hands away.
“Pete, I need you to calm down,” Tony said sternly. “Vision get Wanda to the couch.” Vision nodded and led her to the living room. Wanda collapsed into the sofa, her shoulders heavy.
“What’s wrong with her?” Peter asked, completely distracted by the witch in his house. Tony snapped in front of his face again.
“Pete, focus. Is May here?” Tony asked.
“No, she had a really early shift at the hospital. Won’t be home till the evening,” Peter explained, looking back at Stark. “What happened Upstate?”
“Do you want the short story or the long one?” Tony asked, leaning against the wall. The top of the nanotech casing was peeking out from under his jacket and the man looked even more exhausted than usual.
“Wait,” Wanda said as she leaned forward onto her elbows. “You can’t just tell some kid everything that’s going on. Isn’t this your intern you told me about?”
“Yes,” Tony said easily.
“You told Wanda Maximoff about me?” Peter asked, once again distracted. Tony rolled his eyes. “Wait, why is Wanda Maximoff even here? Aren’t you supposed to be with Captain America? How did you guys get out of jail? They were in jail, right?” Peter asked Tony.
“I told you Cap broke them out. You literally asked me about it last week.”
“Did I?” Peter looked off into the distance as if trying to remember.
“You told him about that?” Wanda asked, her brows raised. “Viz, you see that this is insane, right? Coming to a fourteen-year-old for help.”
“I’m sixteen,” Peter argued, crossing his arms while trying to look tough, but it made him look more like a child trying to prove they were tall enough to ride the rollercoaster.
“Wanda, trust me,” Tony said. “Peter isn’t just some kid. He’s one of us. Remember the webslinger I brought to Leipzig?” Tony threw his arm out and gestured to Peter who whirled on his mentor.
“Dude!” Peter yelled and then remembered the time and lowered his volume. “You can’t just go around telling criminals my secret identity! She’s on the other side. ” Tony rolled his eyes again which has become his go-to response to most things Peter said.
“No more sides, Pete. Wanda’s a friendly. As for your secret identity...well it was bound to come out eventually.” Peter groaned and fell over the back of the armchair. Tony walked over and took the one adjacent to him.
“So, she’s okay, what about the others?” Peter asked.
“As of right now? Undecided,” Tony said. Peter sat up and looked at Tony for a moment, searching his face. The two of them were pretty intuned with one another by now. They could guess each other’s moods simply by the set of their shoulders and tone of voice. Tony was very much on edge and Peter knew it.
“What’s the short story?” Peter asked, knowing he wouldn’t be able to sit still long enough for the long version.
“HYDRA is after Wanda and they shot her with a device that is making her really sick and affecting her magic. They’ve been trying to get her in their crosshairs for weeks now,” Tony explained.
“Like before Sokovia?” Peter asked.
“But this time they have a new regime,” Vision explained. Peter swiveled around to face him. Vision was now supporting Wanda’s weight fully as she slumped over into his side. His hand rubbed circles on her back. “Different officers have control and are aware that Wanda is not willing to work alongside them.”
“So they’re what? Trying to kill her now?” Peter asked.
“Not exactly,” Wanda said and then narrowed her eyes at him. “Do your parents know you’re a superhero?” Tony went rigid in his seat as he monitored Peter for his response, but Parker was at ease.
“No, they’re dead,” Peter divulged. The room went silent and even Vision looked awkward for a moment. Wanda watched the younger hero for a moment before dipping her chin slightly.
“Mine too,” Wanda said. “My brother as well.” It bothered Tony slightly that when Wanda spoke of Pietro her voice was so even. The past couple of times her twin had come up, the emotion had been quite clear on her face and in the tone of her voice, but now there was nothing. He only hoped that it wasn’t because she was thinking she was going to be seeing him again anytime soon.
“Well, my uncle’s dead so I guess we’re both down three family members,” Peter said nonchalantly and Tony nearly threw something at him until he noticed a small smirk on Wanda’s face. They liked each other. Great, just what he needed. “So,” Peter continued on as if the “dead parents club” didn’t just gain a new member, “if they’re not trying to kill you, what are they doing? Isn’t killing HYDRA’s whole deal?”
“Their ‘deal’ as you so colorfully put it,” Tony said, “is the possession of power and powerful things. Wanda’s abilities are a major weapon that their arsenal lost. Albeit she was being coerced and manipulated into all of it, but nonetheless, HYDRA doesn’t have her on their side.”
“And now they want her back?”
“Exactly.”
“For what though?” Peter asked. “I mean, there has to be a reason why they want her now right? It’s been two years since Sokovia.”
“Peter’s right,” Vision said. “Perhaps we should be looking at the bigger picture.”
“I thought we already did that when we realized why they infected her in the first place,” said Tony.
“That was only a partial look,” Vision went on. “It was always very public where Wanda went after we defeated Ultron. HYDRA knew she was in New York, but they never came for her.”
“Because she was surrounded by the team,” Tony pointed out.
“No,” Vision shook his head. “It’s something else. There were plenty of moments that they could have taken her when she was out on missions with Captain Rogers. They didn’t. I am going to presume that there is a larger threat they are facing that they need her to be their biggest defense.”
“Who could be a bigger threat than HYDRA?” Peter asked. “Don’t they have their hands in every cookie jar?”
“Pretty much,” Tony agreed. “Which makes this more confusing.”
“Stark,” Wanda began, “you and Rhodes mentioned something about ranks. That there are tiers within HYDRA. What if it’s not some other force, but HYDRA itself?”
“You think they’re having a civil war of their own?”
“It would make sense, wouldn’t it?” Wanda proposed. “Barnes once mentioned that the officers he worked under were told very different information at times. Steve said they did it to keep information secret, but perhaps there was something else going on.”
“Such as a coup?” Vision offered. Peter pointed at Vision in agreement.
“Did Barnes say anything else?” Tony asked. Wanda and Peter glanced to one another. Wanda had been careful not to mention Bucky around Tony for many reasons and she didn’t know how much Peter knew. However, she figured that since Tony already knew where Bucky was and wasn’t sending a drone to kill him, she could bring up his name once in a while. Peter gave her a slight shrug as Tony waited patiently for her to go on.
“Not much,” Wanda finally said. “We didn’t get to talk to him much before Steve took him to Wakanda.”
“We’ll have to figure something else out then,” decided Tony. “I only have so many files on HYDRA. It would be good to talk to someone who has inside knowledge. Do you remember much from your time with them?” Wanda shook her head.
“Pietro and I were kept secluded. Even with the quick bursts of speed that Pietro did to gather information, it wasn’t much. Besides, at the time, we trusted them.”
“I’ll have F.R.I.D.A.Y. sift through J’s old mainframe and see what she finds. For now,” Tony turned to Peter, “what kind of tech do you have in that disaster of a bedroom? We have to establish a secure line.”
“My room is clean...ish, thank you very much,” Peter defended. “And I have some old transponders and a mainframe chip that we could hardwire to connect to the satellite.” Wanda blinked at the teenager.
“Where did you acquire transponders that would work with the Stark Satellite?” Tony asked him, his brows raised.
“Do you really want to know?”
“You know what? No, I don’t. Come on, let’s get to work. You,” Tony pointed at Wanda, “get some sleep. Vision, watch over her?” Vision nodded and Tony gestured for Peter to follow him into the kid’s room.
Peter was right, he had actually cleaned up for once. Tony fell into the desk chair, placing his hand over his eyes as Peter shuffled around his many cardboard boxes of discarded tech. His head was killing him. He should have taken a break over the past couple of days. He couldn’t think of the last time he had a decent night’s sleep. Hopefully, he could find that soon. Peter suddenly sighed and Tony parted his fingers to look over at the teen.
“What?” Tony asked.
“You should have told me what was going on,” Peter told him, placing down a box of discarded technology and leaning against the desk.
“Kid, it was complicated.”
“When you came to see me at Midtown, you should have told me something then. Even if it wasn’t the whole story.”
“We couldn’t tell anybody,” Tony explained. “It happened way to fast and then Wanda was sick and I had to help her.”
“I’m not just anybody,” Peter pointed out and Tony’s face fell slightly. “We’re a team, Tony. I know that you may not think that, but I do. I could have helped you with this.”
“It’s complicated and dangerous, Pete,” Tony said.
“I didn’t mean as Spider-man,” said Peter, pushing off the desk and going into the closet. Tony watched after him as Peter’s words sank in. Peter didn’t want to go swinging towards the problem, he wanted to use his intellect to help solve Tony’s problem. Even after everything the two of them had been through, Tony was still incredibly protective of Peter. However, he knew that a lot of times he underestimated the young genius. Especially at times like these.
“You’re right,” Tony said and Peter looked over his shoulder at him. “I should have filled you in. To be honest, Pete, I trust you more than I trust most people. I should have never kept this from you and it was unfair of me to show up this morning.”
“Tony, I don’t care that you came here. I’m glad you did and that I can help. I just need you to trust that I’m not going to go all masked crusader every time you have a villain coming after you.” Tony gave him a look. “Okay, maybe I’ll try, but that’s all situational. For this, I am not going to. I just need to you understand that I’m always going to try to help you. Especially when you don’t want it.” The two geniuses stared at one another for a moment before Tony dipped his chin.
“Fine. You got a deal, Parker. Unless the information is too dire for you to know, I will tell you,” Tony conceded.
“That’s all I ask,” Peter said and then held up two different pieces of tech. “Now, who are we calling?”
“Okay, nobody move,” Tony said as he finished placing the final wire in their makeshift communicator. “You work with me and you don’t have a nicer laptop?” Tony said, glancing over at Peter.
“Uh, not a billionaire, remember?” Peter said.
“I’ll buy you a new one,” Tony decided and then connected his phone. The secure line bounced off the satellite and the connection was made. It took a few minutes, but eventually, Pepper’s face lit up on the screen.
“Tony, thank god,” Pepper said. “Are you okay?”
“We’re fine, honey,” Tony assured her. Peter gave an awkward wave to Pepper.
“Really, Tony? You involved the kid?” Pepper said.
“We can talk about that later,” Tony said. “Are you safe?” Pepper nodded.
“We were followed for a while, but I guess they figured you weren’t on the jet and peeled off. Rhodey is taking us to a secure location to lay low for a while. How’s Wanda?” Tony looked over his shoulder to the couch where Wanda was fast asleep, her head resting in Vision’s lap.
“Not doing too well. The medicine I gave her Upstate is wearing off. I gotta get that tech out of her,” Tony said.
“You can’t let her fever spike again, Tony. Peter go get ice and make sure Vision keeps it on the back of her neck,” Pepper said and Peter headed to the kitchen. “What’s your plan?”
“Don’t have one right now,” Tony admitted. “I’m improvising.”
“Not really the team’s style,” Pepper pointed out.
“No, but it’s my style and I’m the one who has to make the decisions right now. Maybe we can head to another SI site.”
“Those were initiated through S.H.I.E.L.D., HYDRA has to know about them.”
“Well, we can’t stay in Parker’s apartment,” Tony said, running his hands over his stubbled chin.
“You’ve been in tighter spots than this one, Tony,” Pepper told him. “You’ll get out of it.” Tony knew she was right. There were moments such as Afghanistan, New York, even Tennesee that he didn't know what to do, but he managed. He always figured it out. It’s what he was good at. There were too many outcomes to predict for this particular problem. Wanda was a time bomb. He didn’t know if the dampeners would even work long haul and they had to stop running. He wasn’t Steve Rogers, he couldn’t be an outlaw.
For a whole year, he had been trying to rebuild what Cap and the others had broken. What they had all broken. While public opinion was always changing, the negativity to the Avengers was at a constant uphill these days. Even with moments where Tony stepped in or Spider-Man saved a few lives, the damage the Sokovia Accords caused was too great. And Tony knew that the only way that the world would see the Avengers as a team again was when they started to see themselves as one unit once more. Not as easy as it sounded.
“You’re right,” Tony said. “I’ll get her somewhere safe and call you when we get there.”
“Take care of yourself and Wanda,” Pepper said. “I love you.”
“I love you too, honey.” Tony ended the call, careful not to make the calls too long. He turned around in the chair he sat in at the kitchen table and saw Peter pressing a bag of frozen peas to Wanda’s neck. She jerked slightly but then relaxed. Vision quietly thanked Peter and then the kid made his way back over to Tony.
“What about Clint’s farm?” Peter said as he slid into the seat across from Tony. In the other room, Vision gently got up and lay Wanda back down. He made no sound as he joined the others. “You told me that nobody knew of the location. Just the team and Fury.”
“That’s where you went after Johannesburg, right?” Vision asked and Tony nodded.
“Clint is under house arrest,” Tony reminded them.
“In a remote location,” said Peter. “And I am sure you can ‘tweak’ the GPS on his monitor.”
“If Barton hasn’t already done it,” Vision said.
“You can’t stay in the city,” Peter told Tony. “It’s not safe and you can’t keep a fugitive in my house.”
“Why not?” Tony asked.
“Aunt May won’t like it…” Peter said and Vision half smiled behind the teenager.
“Don’t worry, kid, we’ll be out of your hair soon enough,” Tony assured him. “However, there’s something else.”
“What?”
“We have to find Steve.”