Chapter Text
The day of Tony Stark’s funeral
“Keep it together, Parker…”
Peter Parker had largely done that most of the funeral. But there was only so much more he could do. So many reminders of him and everyone mourning him. So much mourning from the last five years he’d missed.
All because…
“Just keep it together, please…”
Asking himself nicely may or may not help. Finding a quiet, secluded part of the lake near Mr. Stark’s...former house…would probably help more. A minute to himself, and he’d be ready to put on a regular face again.
Not one…nobody really needed to see.
Everyone else was so sad already, they didn’t need him to burden them more. May didn’t need to put up with that, on top of everything else. Neither did Mr. Hogan, Ms. Stark-Potts or little Miss Morgan.
If he had to lose it, he would do it alone, when he got home and May couldn’t hear him. He didn’t have a right to do it out here. For too many reasons. So he wouldn’t.
He sniffled a couple times, to get it out of his system. Then he would go back and act normal instead of hysterical. He could be perfectly normal this once.
Though normal people…probably didn’t hallucinate sniffling noises behind them. Sniffles that sounded almost…feminine. If sniffles had a gender.
“Oh, I…”
That was certainly a woman’s voice. Not one too familiar to Peter, though. If he was imagining things and noises, wouldn’t it be of someone he knew?
He dared to turn around and hope he hadn’t finally lost it. Indeed, he now saw a woman, and it wasn’t someone he recognized.
Or maybe he did…
Put a red jacket and red eyes over her, and that could totally be…
“Oh! Wanda, right? I mean, Wanda Maximoff. I mean, Ms. Maximoff! Was it Mrs. before, or…”
Great. So Peter wasn’t hallucinating, but he was babbling and making a fool of himself in front of an actual superwoman. Albeit one who had only thrown cars at him, and somewhat fought alongside him with a bunch of other women, before this.
“Wanda’s fine,” she mercifully stopped him. “And you’re…”
“Oh, right! Hi, I’m…”
“Peter Parker,” Wanda finished for him. “I remember now. You’re the spider-man. Or boy, I guess. And…you were Stark’s pupil.”
“That’s…as good a word as any,” Peter figured. At least one that didn’t make him choke up again.
“And technically…you were teammates with Vision. At the airport.”
“Oh, yeah! I mean, I didn’t really talk to him. I mean, you’d think of all the bucket list things I did that day, talking to a synthezoid would be one of them. I mean, not that it was a bucket list kinda day for everyone! I’m sorry it wasn’t for you! I mean…and I’m gonna stop talking now.”
“No, it’s okay,” Wanda had the very littlest smile on her face. Which was gigantic, under the circumstances. “I got some of what you mean.”
“Oh, okay. I mean, technically, that was my first ramble in five years. If you knew me, you’d never think that was possible! I mean…technically, it was my first new ramble to someone that wasn’t Mr. Stark. Guess that means you’re pretty special already!”
“Maybe…” her little smile turned wistful before disappearing.
“I just came here to get myself together. Is that why you’re here too?” Peter found himself asking before he could stop. “Should I go?”
“No. You were here first,” Wanda brushed off. “I did need a minute, but…” she looked away, getting in a quick sniffle while her head was turned.
“I’m really sorry. About Vision,” Peter said, making Wanda turn right back. “I’m still catching up on everything. But from what I know so far about…Wakanda…I’m really sorry about him. And what you had to do.”
“I…” Wanda was almost at a loss. Largely unfamiliar, and unprompted, sentiments would do that. Especially today.
“You might be the first person who said that to me. Other than Clint,” she revealed. “Today, everyone’s going on about how Tony Stark’s death saved the world. But if Thanos hadn’t cheated…they’d have been saying that about Vision. For five years.”
Peter went over the timeline he’d put together. It all seemed to fit. He and Wanda would have been the heroes of the universe, if not for…
And then if not for….
“It’s my fault…”
With that, the thought he’d tried to push deep down in public came roaring out. Albeit in a brand new and even more horrible way than he’d imagined.
“I was on Titan. With Mr. Stark, Mr. Dr. Strange and this alien/human hybrid team. We almost got Thanos’s glove off! Then this other Peter guy beat him up cause he killed his girlfriend, but it’s not on him! I was this close to getting it off, I swear! This close!”
“I didn’t get it, and then he got the Time Stone, and then he killed Vision…then us, and then Mr. Stark when we got back…because I didn’t get that stupid glove!”
Peter fell to his knees, lost completely in the memory of five years ago and the guilt of today. Exactly what he didn’t want to do in front of other people, because they had enough to deal with. Because his pain had nothing on theirs. Because he was one of the major reasons they had it.
“I’m sorry, he’s dead because of me, they’re both dead because of me, I’m sorry…I didn’t know back then, I promise, I’m sorry…”
“Look at me…come on, look at me, okay?” Peter vaguely and faintly heard over all his mind’s commotion.
“Look at me and do what I do. Look at me, and when you’re ready, breathe like I’m breathing. Okay?”
Eventually, Peter could see past the memories and death, to the living woman kneeling in front of him and looking him right in the eye. He eventually noticed her breathing steadily, up and down, in and out, and eventually heard her call to copy her.
After several moments of just copying her breathing, Peter felt ready to breathe his own way. By then, he’d stopped rambling and apologizing, and he was fully aware of where and when he was again. After a few more calm moments, Wanda smiled and started to tear up again – but not like before.
“I can’t believe that worked. I believed it when Vision did that after my nightmares, but I never thought it’d work from me. I never thought I’d have to try…”
“Vision came up with that?” Peter felt stable enough to ask.
“He always thought asking me to breathe with him was funny, since he couldn’t really breathe. Actually, that always took the edge off at first,” Wanda went down her own memory lane, yet still looked stable.
“But yeah…take all the romantic angles and aftermath out of it, and that’s exactly how Vis talked me down. Without complaint, no matter how many times…”
“Wow. You asked me to copy you, while you were copying Vision. So…in a roundabout way, it’s almost like I got to talk to him after all. Thanks for that. And…everything else.”
“You’re…you’re welcome…” Wanda teared up in a new way.
“But I am really sorry. Let me just say that in a regular way, okay?” Peter had to reinforce. “I could have kept you from killing him and losing him, and I didn’t.”
“Everyone failed that day. I blame a few more people than others. But not you,” Wanda assured. “I don’t know you, but I promise I know it’s not your fault. For Vis or Stark. If you’ve been thinking that all day, then I’m sorry.”
“I promise you, Vis would never ever hold what you did, or didn’t do, against you. As for Stark…I never knew him at his best. I’m guessing you did. But I’m guessing the Stark you knew would never, ever blame you too. I want to believe that much about him.”
“I…I guess I know he wouldn’t,” Peter admitted. “I guess…I was too scared someone would tell me different. I know people here wouldn’t, but…they’re sad enough without having to deal with me too.”
“I’m starting to see that,” Wanda noted a bit too bitterly. Not just when it came to Peter.
“But…I guess if I don’t want to hear someone out, I’m one to talk, right?” Peter reasoned.
“I mean, everyone wants to talk about Mr. Stark. But not Vision, right? You said that. So…if I shouldn’t bottle things up, you shouldn’t have to either, right?”
“So let’s uncork it, or something! If we were at Vision’s funeral, and everyone was worshiping him for saving the world, like they should have, what would you wanna say?”
“Peter, I…”
“Come on. You already gave me his panic attack tricks. What else should I have known about him? What else should the world have celebrated about him today, huh?”
There was too much to choose from. Yet this was the first time someone actually wanted her to choose. Maybe the first time someone actually wanted to remember Vision at all so far. And from Stark’s pupil, of all people…
Yet he in no way looked capable of faking sincerity, or interest, like Stark. He really wanted to know about Vis. Whether it was for real, or he was only trying to forget his own loss…maybe it didn’t matter.
Maybe it was just as much of a lifeline to Wanda either way.
“He could do anything to save his life, and save others. Except cook paprika.”
“Oh my God! My Aunt May’s like that exactly! But with chicken larb!”
*************************************************
About a half-hour later, May Parker figured it was time her and Peter got on the road. She looked around outside, figuring he found some secluded place to be alone and prove he wasn’t a burden. After five years away, she really had to get back in the habit of proving him wrong.
She did find him in some tucked away corner of the lake. And yet she didn’t just find him.
There was also some older, but not that older, woman sitting with him. It looked like Peter was talking her ear off, but she looked like she was smiling from it. Not one of those pretend smiles way too many people made around Peter when he babbled. This looked like she was really glad to hear him talk so much.
Whoever this was, May liked her already.
“Oh! That’s her, that’s May!” Peter got up and ran over. “May, this is Wanda! She’s a hero like me! Her boyfriend Vision would have kept us from dying if Thanos hadn’t cheated!”
“Yes. That’s the only reason he died instead. I’m glad you see that now,” Wanda followed.
“I’m getting there…” he seemed to share a private little smile with her, then turned to May. “Can Wanda come over for dinner? I mean, not tonight, but some night when we’re all settled back in?”
“I don’t know. Did you already ask her?”
“This is the first I’m hearing of it,” Wanda admitted.
“Come on, it’s not like you’d get stuck in traffic coming over,” Peter pointed out, then suddenly got out his phone. “Wait, do you have a new phone?”
“It’s my first phone that isn’t a burner in…wow, seven years,” Wanda reflected, before getting out her new modern phone. Before she knew it, Peter got his number into her largely bare phone rolodex.
“There. Whenever you’d like to come over, if it’s tomorrow or a year from now, you can text me and I’ll set it up. If I can bring Ned over too, I promise he’ll only ask 10 questions about how your powers work! Seven might be as low as he’s willing to go!”
Despite the warning, Wanda bit back a smile, which didn’t get past May. “Okay. If I’m brave enough for that, I will let you know.”
“Deal! Thank you!” Peter cheered, offering his hand for Wanda. When she shook it, he added, “Really. Thank you. And I’m sorry this is how we met for real.”
“I am too. For more than the obvious. But thank you too.”
Once their hands broke and they shared a few more seconds of smiling, Peter was finally ready to leave. But May didn’t follow him right away.
“I was expecting him to be a shell of himself at this point. He had that look all day. For obvious reasons,” she told Wanda. “That’s the first time I’ve seen that Peter Parker in…five years, I suppose. I really missed him…”
“If that’s your doing, and if it really didn’t put you out…then thank you so much, Ms. Maximoff.”
“It’s Wanda…” she said, with an awed voice at actually being thanked for doing something good. “And he was no trouble. He…he actually made me feel like my Vis was still alive. Somehow.”
“He makes me feel like that every day. When it comes to my Ben. Or at least he did back then…” she reflected, then got into protective aunt mode.
“If he’s counting on you to make him feel like that again? When not much else has so far? Please keep that in mind for your future plans.”
*************************************************
Wanda tried to do just that. But it was one of the many things that seemed too hard, as the days without Vis started piling up. That and getting up in the morning, leaving her new apartment, facing a world where Vis was never remembered, etc.
She thought about reaching out to Clint again, but he had a family to reconnect with. A family he earned the right to have again after every deadly thing he’d ever done. Including failing to save Natasha – though the world hardly remembered her enough to hold it against him too.
So maybe for that reason and many others, she shouldn’t bother Clint right now. Between that, Steve apparently about to die of old age without saying goodbye to her, Sam being his apparent successor, and everyone else leaving town now that they’d finished mourning Stark and forgetting any other dead…
Yet Peter Parker still sent a text a day like clockwork.
Some days it was a simple hello. Other days it was this meme stuff that caught on while she was on the run. Other days it was a simple picture of him on some roof. On one day or two, he even sent a picture of him holding newspaper headlines of Spider-Man’s return.
But whatever the content was, it didn’t matter what it was or if Wanda understood it. Someone took time out of their day, every day, to send her something because they were thinking of her. Because it was their way of checking up on her.
The things you don’t miss until there’s nobody else left to provide them. And this someone wasn’t her love, or her former teammates. Just a teenager who should have been in his early 20’s by now, if the world was fair.
But if this was the only fairness it had to spare for her right now…
With that, Wanda finally texted back and set a date to come for dinner.
***************************************
The next day, after a mere five-minute flight over, Wanda arrived at May Parker’s doorstep with paprika. Albeit paprika that needed to be reheated after her flight.
Nevertheless, Peter and May eagerly welcomed her over. The boy sitting at their table probably would have too, if he seemed capable of moving a muscle.
“Peter got me down to only eight questions about your powers,” the boy who was obviously Ned finally got out. “So I won’t waste one about if you can make food appear. Or if you could have made enough that Thanos would have scrapped his own…solving hunger plan.”
“Well…I don’t know how to answer that one,” Wanda admitted. “But any other topic should be fine. No matter how many questions it takes.”
“Really? Great! Then I’m putting my ‘Can you read animals’ thoughts too?’ questions back on the table, thank God!”
He really did have a lot of those. But those questions, and all the other ones, were the first ones Wanda ever got about her powers that weren’t suspicious, clinical, or outright hostile. They were actually questions someone asked her because they were a fan.
Wanda barely knew what to do with that. Or with May explaining her plans for a neighborhood outreach program called F.E.A.S.T. she just got off the ground. Except wish there were people like her in Sokovia – at least ones with actual resources who weren’t HYDRA plants – all those years ago.
On top of that, there was Peter bringing her back into the dinner conversation, whenever she got too quiet. Instead of letting her eat in silence, only asking her things if they were mission related, or leaving her to only talk with one person in their own little world.
It might have been the closest thing to a family dinner Wanda had been part of – at least with more than one person – since right before that last family sitcom night.
If she didn’t know how to take that in…or take in having any experience like that with Vis gone…
No one could hold that against her. Even if Peter probably wouldn’t either way.
*******************************************
Eventually, having family dinners again wouldn’t feel so emotional that Peter had to sit on the roof afterwards. But this was a rare night where he didn’t have the costume on, in case he needed an impromptu patrol to take the edge off.
And it got even rarer when someone came to sit beside him.
“I haven’t had a meal like that since…” Wanda started, then seemed to think her next words over. “On the run…it’s too risky to have nights out that are actually…out. Vis and I made due in spare rooms. But date nights and fancy dinners out on the town, any town, just…never came to be.”
“If that makes us fancy by comparison, I really am sorry,” Peter tried to joke.
“Don’t apologize. I know by now you do that a lot, no matter what. But this is one of those times I insist on thanking you anyway.”
“Well, I know by now you do that a lot.”
“Not usually.”
“If it was too overwhelming, you can tell me. Still, there are lots more overwhelming things…” Peter let hang over.
“By example?” Wanda tentatively asked, waiting patiently whether Peter could or would answer or not. Finally, he settled on could.
“Now that all the mourning stuff for Mr. Stark is over…or at least not as huge…they’re already asking who the next Iron Man will be. I already heard some people say it should be me. Or rather, Spider-Man me. But there’s this really angry guy, Jameson, from this really crazy website, who got really upset about Spider-Man me being anything near Iron Man.”
“…does this website have contact information?”
“Um…for the sake of plausible deniability, I’m gonna say no…”
“Fair enough. So is that the only issue?”
“…when I first met Mr. Stark, I wanted nothing more than to be him. Now that it might happen, I…I don’t know. I’m nowhere near being over it, and now this…I don’t know what I should feel. Let alone do. I mean, being Spider-Man again is as good a distraction as any, but it…isn’t the foolproof distraction from rotten, everyday life it used to be.”
“I mean, when I think about it? The closest thing to a real, perfect distraction I’ve had since I’ve been back? It’s been talking to you. And to…”
Wanda went from being flattered and moved, to curious and confused, as Peter left that little mystery hanging.
“Peter? If you don’t want to tell me, I understand. But if you do, I’ll need more to go on soon.”
“I, I haven’t even told Ned yet. Once I do, then it’ll be real, you know? I don’t even know for sure if I feel like that yet! But the fact it’s a possibility, even now, that’s gotta mean something? Right?”
Peter knew this was a little more to go on, but barely enough to make sense. He was barely making sense to himself as it was. He knew what that was like already with Liz, but this felt somewhat…beyond that.
Not that he’d gotten far enough yet to share that with Wanda. If he ever could. Yet as he saw Wanda thinking, and then growing an uneasily wide smile that suggested she put some pieces together, he figured it was out of his hands now.
“Does Spider-Man have a crush?” she asked in a pitch no one would have suspected her capable of. One she hadn’t really used since Pietro’s various crush phases long ago.
“Sssh! Not so loud!” Peter said instinctively, despite how no one else could hear. But he brought it on himself…so he might as well get out his phone and show her the text chain messages with MJ.
“Her name’s Michelle. I only just got to call her MJ. You can call her MJ if you want, just don’t let her know you started now. If it ever comes up! Not that there’s any chance it could, but if it does! Just try not to forget – not that there’s any need to remember right now! If ever! Okay?”
Peter sighed at his own rambling idiocy about this stuff. Even if he showed less of it than usual this time. Yet Wanda took some pity on him.
“I have to say, you used more words in that ramble than she did in all her texts combined. Even the ones she does use are more…snarky.”
“I know it comes across that way. Most people see her as closed off, anti-social and like a robot when she talks in real life too. But…you just have to be there and look closer to see a whole lot more.”
“I…I see what you mean,” Wanda understood and remembered exactly what that was like. Whether Peter meant to make it blatant with the robot line or not.
“I know I started feeling that way right before…Titan. I know talking with her that little bit since I’ve been back…it’s done more good than Spider-Man so far. But I also know it might be because I need something else to think about, and that’s not fair to her!”
“I also know real well that being Spider-Man and liking a girl…ended really bad before. And that was before this next Iron Man stuff! So how can it be an option now?”
“Are you actually asking me now?” Wanda broke the lingering pause.
“You and Vision were heroes and in love, and you made it work. Take out the stuff about being on the run, and Infinity Stones, and magic and robotics…is that enough to make being a superhero and liking someone work?”
“Wow. I don’t even know where to begin with that,” Wanda said very honestly.
“Then just tell me, is it worth it?” Peter had to really know. “Knowing how it all ended for you…was it still worth trying?”
Peter cringed at being that direct, if not outright insensitive. But Wanda didn’t yell at him, break down or look visibly traumatized.
“Life is horrible without him,” Wanda confessed. “But…it also means life was so beautiful with him. And I miss it so much…how could I ever wish it never happened? So yes…if there’s even a chance you could have something like that, superhero crap be damned…I’d recommend it. With some very big warnings.”
“I see what you mean,” Peter answered. “But even in my wildest, way too soon to think about dreams…I could never see myself having what you had. I mean, after I lost my parents, my uncle, five years of my life and Mr. Stark...how could I suddenly get that lucky?”
“I lost my parents, my brother, my soul more than once, and the only man I’ll ever love. Before losing five years of my life. Yet for a little while, I was that lucky. Of course, that means I’ll never be that lucky again. But you haven’t hit that quota yet. I know that much. People like you…”
At that, Wanda was the one to flinch and cringe. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”
“I understand. Or I would if I knew what ‘that’ means.”
“You’re Spider-Man! People like you! People want you to be the next Stark! For all you’ve lost, you keep going up! But when I lose…I hurt innocent people, I lose the man I love and it means nothing, and most people wish I was back on the Raft. With the shock collar.”
“People like me don’t lose upwards. Not like people like you. That’s what I meant before I…remembered its more nuanced than that. At least with you.”
“No. No, most of that is…really fair,” Peter realized.
“If I was in your shoes growing up, and you were in mine? If I had powers like yours and you had mine? Believe me, I’ve thought about that a lot lately.”
“I’d like to think it’s why I keep reaching out to you. I’d really like to think it’s why I’m telling you things…I don’t feel ready to tell May. Or Ned, or anyone I know better. I mean, if I’m doing it because it’s easier to tell someone I don’t know? Because you’re someone I don’t care about enough to spare from worrying? That doesn’t sound good! Or new Iron Man like!”
“Maybe it is a little…” Wanda couldn’t help but dig.
“But I don’t want that! I want you to be someone I care that much about!”
“Enough to not ‘burden’ me with real stuff?”
“See, I told you it doesn’t sound good! I don’t know, it’s just…I’ve never had someone like…”
“Like what?”
“A real superhero friend.”
Both Peter and Wanda let that wash over them, and let themselves realize…he wasn’t that far off.
“I mean, Mr. Stark was more mentor and hero than friend,” Peter spoke his reasoning out loud. “I told you I never talked to the rest of Team Iron Man. Or Dr. Strange and the Guardians outside of battle planning.”
“I’ve never been real friends with a hero. And I don’t know if the Avengers, or the other Rogues, were more teammates than friends to you. I guess if none of them are reaching out to you now…”
Indeed…
“But leaving that aside! Maybe…as different as our lives are right now…we could both use the same thing. Even if we never had much of it till now.”
“I…” Wanda searched through the various reasons why that was a bad idea, until she settled on one technicality. “I’m not a hero, Peter. Not like you.”
“Mr. Stark sold weapons that killed your parents. Mr. Captain America almost killed Mr. Stark. Mr. Thor didn’t aim for Thanos’ head. Ms. Natasha and Mr. Bucky were brainwashed killers. I overheard Mr. Barton talking about killing people for five years at the funeral. So why should you be the only one of them who still doesn’t get to be a hero?”
It sounded…very logical coming from him. More than it might sound to most if she said it.
“Look, we still don’t know each other that well. Maybe we’re not actual friends yet. But…I’d like to get there. For the right reasons. So far, it’s been one of the only things that’s made…being back…bearable for me. If it’s like that for you too…or if it’s not, I can leave you alone, no problem…”
“No!”
Wanda’s instant objection took her and Peter aback. When they both accepted how much she meant it, they felt much more at ease. Especially when Wanda offered her hand.
“I’d like that too, Peter. I...really would.”
And she did. At the time, she meant it. As much as Peter hoped she did when he took her hand, it was nothing compared to how much Wanda hoped she could follow through.
But maybe that hope doomed her.
**********************************************
The more Wanda thought about it, the more it hurt so much more. If that was possible.
Vision should have been here to encourage Wanda as she actually made a friend. He should have been here to be proud of her on her night out. He would have absolutely adored Peter, and Peter would have absolutely worshipped him, if they got to talk this time.
But they never would.
Having a friend was one thing. But it was still a consolation for not having him. As long as it felt that way, what kind of a friend could Wanda be? Certainly not the kind Peter deserved.
Certainly not the kind she could burden all that with. Maybe that was a sign he was becoming important to her after all.
But the fact was, the last important person to her was dead. And she couldn’t even burden a gravestone with it now. She hadn’t even seen his body since…
Maybe that was it. Maybe that had to be done before…anything else was possible.
She certainly knew every day without seeing Vision, in any form, was getting worse and worse. She didn’t want to see any living person, even Peter, more than she wanted to see Vision – dead or not.
In that case…there was no other way forward.
She had to get him back. Say a real goodbye. Bury him and have a grave she could always visit. Maybe it would do her enough good, she could visit with a friend one day. Maybe by then she could be a fully complete one of her own.
But not until she had closure with Vis. Closure she had to get, face and come back from on her own. Only then would she be ready to face Peter, or anyone else, with whatever was left of her.
Without that…
She didn’t know what she might do.
**************************************************
The day the Westview Hex ended
This was a terrible idea. On so many levels.
It was by sheer luck S.W.O.R.D., or some other agency Monica had no influence over, hadn’t tracked Wanda here already. Plus it was one thing to avoid detection in New Jersey, but over New York…
Or Queens.
Another reason this would likely be the last time she came anywhere near here. Which was the exact reason she had to do this.
She didn’t know how much anyone outside of New Jersey knew what happened by now. For all she knew, Peter knew nothing about what she’d done. What she was now…
So maybe it was better not to tell him. Or maybe he’d understand it better if it came from her. Or maybe it would take too long justifying…everything, and she’d get caught that way. Maybe…
Maybe if she’d talked to Peter before Westview. Before going to S.W.O.R.D. Before even starting to look for Vision’s body. Then…
She’d never have so much. For a time. And she’d never have lost so much. Forever. And she’d never be…whatever she was now.
She certainly wouldn’t be even more the villain than usual. Despite only being one of three in this whole mess. If she gave Peter that context, then…
Whatever she did or said, she had to do it now.
She was right at Peter’s front door. She could knock on it right now. She could face whatever questions or accusations Peter had, tell him what she could without incriminating him, promise him she’d understand this power so this would never happen again…and then leave and probably never see him again.
She owed him that much. She owed him for giving her hope she just wasn’t strong enough to keep. She owed him for trying to be her friend, when she…just wasn’t capable of having them. She owed him explanations, apologies, thank yous, and everything else she’d never have another chance to give after this.
She raised her hand to knock. She steeled herself, in ways she didn’t even have to do while facing Agatha. Maybe even in ways she didn’t have to do when she let Vision go.
She made contact with the door. Twice.
And then froze in memories.
“Heroes don’t torture people.”
“Don’t let him make you the villain!”
“Maybe I already am.”
“It’s your destiny to destroy the world!”
“Harbinger of chaos…”
“Oh God…you don’t know what you’ve done…”
“If you won’t let us leave…just let us die!”
“You have no idea what you’ve unleashed!”
“Maybe I already am.”
“Just let us die!”
“Heroes don’t torture people!”
No they didn’t.
Peter Parker didn’t.
Spider-Man – more importantly, Peter Parker – was a hero. And heroes didn’t deserve to be dragged down by…whatever Wanda was now. Had always been.
Maybe that was why she didn’t ask his help with Vision. Maybe that’s why she didn’t ask him to come with her to S.W.O.R.D., which he would have done so easily. Maybe that saved him from Westview. From her. From him realizing what she was, and regretting ever trying to be friends with her.
Wanda was no hero. Anymore, if ever.
But if she could keep saving Peter from that…it was all the heroism she needed to give.
And so there was only one thing to do now.
For a brief moment, Wanda thought she heard some dark voice say she had better things to do anyway. She shook it off, as she had just one last thing to do here.
“Goodbye, Peter…”
*********************************************
When Peter heard the knocking, he groaned. Normally having guests wouldn’t bother him, except in Spider-Man emergencies. But this was close enough to one.
Nonetheless, he got up and headed for the door, hoping to get this done quickly so he could get back to it. And yet something made him freeze.
It was a tingle, but not like a dangerous one. Not entirely. It signaled something…between danger and hope. Such a strange combination made him approach the door more carefully.
He wasn’t sure if it was wise or foolish to want to open it. If he should. But there were only so many things it could be. Or people.
Or maybe…
No. She was gone by now.
Right?
Peter froze right at his side of the door, unaware someone else was doing the same on the other side. There they stayed, until a noise was made.
A whisper so quiet, Peter was the only one capable of hearing it.
“Goodbye, Peter…”
It hit him only too late.
“…Wanda?”
By then, Peter swinging the door open and running into the halls didn’t matter. By then, the merest glimpse of a red cape around the corner didn’t matter. It was long gone by the time Peter got there.
And so was its owner. Whoever it was.
Peter had no choice but to return inside. Return to his desktop as Ned kept reading and uploading everything about Westview – official and otherwise – on the computer. Return with no answers for Ned’s questions.
With no answers about much of anything.
All Peter could do after that was take out his phone. Bring up his text messages with Wanda, although none of his had been answered for two weeks straight. Not the various panicked, emoji filled ones during the last week, or the calmer ones before that.
But for this last one, he would use words only.
I hope you’ll be okay now.
Peter sent it, not even pretending to hope anymore that she’d answer. Not even pretending to tell himself he’d send a message tomorrow and she’d answer, unlike the last 14 days. There was no need to pretend anymore.
He’d just have to be sad for a little while that he’d…lost someone again. Though at least it seemed she was still alive. And at least that Hayward d-weed wasn’t free now, unlike her.
Other than that…it seemed Wanda was gone from Peter’s life, just as quickly and suddenly as she appeared. Whether she’d suddenly appear again…wasn’t up to him.
Peter sighed, reluctantly accepting the inevitable.
God, vacation could not come soon enough.