the spell
“No,” MJ tightly held Peter’s arm. “I’m not letting you do this. There must be another way.” Her gaze searched for Dr. Strange, floating in the air. He was looking at the three of them, clearly unhappy with how things turned out. He also wanted to find another way. And she was not about to ignore that. “Strange!” she shouted, motioning for him to come closer.
“MJ…”
“Don’t, Peter. I don’t want to forget you. Or anything we’ve been through. Please,” turning to face Stephen, she bit her lower lip in hope. “There is something else we can do, isn’t it?”
There was. Although Strange cared a lot about that kid and felt a bit responsible for him after the death of Tony Stark (which he felt deeply guilty for, even if there was nothing he could do), he had a bigger duty to the universe. It burnt to think about Peter being all alone in this cruel and hard world, but saving him would be risky. At what cost was he willing to save those who he cared about before saving the universe? Flashes of Stark snapping his fingers, bright light everywhere and his final state. Dead. Just for people to be selfish and ruin the brand new saved world. No, he was not about to put this kid through hell for something that could not even happen.
“There… You’re going to have to trust me on this,” Strange could swear MJ’s face lightened up. “I’m going to make things go back to normal… Whatever normal can mean. It might work”
“And it might not,” Peter completed, his hand finding its way into MJ’s. “Are you sure?”
“You’re going to have to trust me on this,” he said one more time, before levitating into the falling sky painted in several different colors. It would be beautiful if it wasn’t chaotically apocalyptic.
Magic surrounded the tower, the clouds, the cracks in the blue parts of the original sky, the people, the villains they’d “fixed”, everything. It was all bubbled with sparkling red circles, the air almost dripping magic given the amount of it on display. When Dr. Strange said it was risky, he meant it. For worrying minutes, nothing happened. Just red burning light flashed everywhere, blinding whatever it was to be seen.
A second passed. Then another. And yet, nothing happened. Deafening silence. Blurring stillness.
Nothing.
Until the red sparkling clouds began to dissipate. The sky no more colored in different shades, just a light blue with tiny bits of white breaking through it. The buildings were still there. The cars were still driving. The people were still walking. And Peter was there.]
Peter was there. And they could remember him.
Relief filled Stephen’s chest, as he saw MJ throw her arms around the boy, as the villains they fixed started disappearing one by one. Reality was returning to how it was supposed to be, life was going back to whatever normal could be when you were a superhero. It worked, everything was fine.
“You remember me,” he could hear Peter saying while holding his girlfriend, as if she might vanish if he let go. “You didn’t forget. You didn’t forget me”
“There was no way forgetting you was an option,” Ned joined in the hug, turning them into a ball of arms and heads and sniffing crying. Teenagers, Strange held back a smile.
It felt good to save the day – modestly speaking.
“Uh… Mister Wizard?” a voice called from down the tower. A pair of red and blue suits, next to each other. “Why are we still here while everyone else just disappeared?”
Holy fucking shit. That was definitely not supposed to happen.