Wanda Maximoff
Back when Thanos had been defeated, Wanda had come to check up on him when everybody had been lining up for all the sorcerers to send them back home. Pepper had left Rhodey in charge of supervising him, but the man had soon been called elsewhere. Peter had been left alone to grieve the loss of Mr. Stark, whose body had been hastily covered by a sheet and left to rot in that small cavern. That’s what he decided to believe, even if Doctor Strange had assured him that Mr. Stark would be brought back home for a proper funeral. Everything hurt so much, he didn’t want to go back home, who knew if May was still home, or if Ned had moved away, unless he’d been blipped too? For all he knew, he’d come back to a world that had moved on without him.
“You’re in shock,” said a voice behind him, startling him out of his self-deprecation.
He turned around to see Wanda, her red hair was full of debris and her coat was torn in a few places. Peter stared at her without actually registering her presence, everything around him felt so far away. He felt her sitting down next to him. The woman stayed silent as she watched the crowd reunite and rejoice in their victory.
Peter could hear her fidgeting with the many rings on her fingers before she spoke up. “You know, when I was younger, I lost my parents to a Stark Industry bomb, I spent the next ten years blaming Tony Stark for everything bad that ever happened to me. My rage led me to volunteer for human experimentation, where I got this… power.” As she finished her sentence, she let a small penny-sized orb twirl around her fingers before making it disappear. “It took me a while, but I realized that Tony wasn’t all bad. He was arrogant and too cocky for his own good, yes, but I admire his sacrifice. He saved us all.”
“He’s gone,” he said, his tone devoid of all emotion. “We hugged and we got separated, and then he was gone.”
“Sometimes that’s how it goes,” she replied without looking at him. “I lost my brother like that too.”
That information made him frown, not once had he heard about Wanda having a brother. As far as he was concerned, she had joined the Avengers after the battle of Sokovia and had been on the run ever since her refusal to sign the Sokovia Accords. Tony never really mentioned her so Wanda was mostly a mystery to him.
“You had a brother?”
She pressed her lips tightly together. “A twin, actually. He sacrificed himself to save Clint; I don’t like talking about it.”
“Oh,” he answered, unsure about what else he could say. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, it was a long time ago,” she replied, but Peter could sense that she was far from being over it. They stayed in silence for a few more seconds before Wanda spoke again. “Did you get to say goodbye?”
‘Mr. Stark. Hey, Mr. Stark?’
He’d been so happy when he saw Thanos’ army crumble into dust, he hadn’t even thought about how it had even been possible.
‘Can you hear me? It's Peter.’
Mr. Stark looked like death itself, his face was half burned off and his right arm was charred from the stones’ powers. And thanks to his enhanced hearing, he could pinpoint the exact moment his heart started giving out. He wanted all this to be a dream, he wanted to wake up and realize that it was only a nightmare. Of course Mr. Stark wasn’t dying, he was way too stubborn to die. But Peter had to face the fact that these were his last moments with his mentor, no matter if he liked it or not. He had to make these last seconds count for something.
‘We won, Mr. Stark. We won, you did it, sir, you did it.’
His face twisted in pain at the memory but he nodded nonetheless. “Yeah, I did.”
‘I'm sorry, Tony.’
Wanda squeezed his shoulder lightly. “I’m happy you did.”
The redhead then materialized a pen and paper and scribbled on it before handing it to him. He took it with a frown.
“What’s that?”
The woman gave him a small smile. “My phone number. The Avengers are losing members rapidly, we should all stick together. Use it if you ever need my help.”
***
“You think this Wanda person will help us?”
Peter was holding the crumpled piece of paper he had kept a secret from everyone for nearly two years now. He had briefly explained who Wanda was and how she could help them, but Peter Two wasn’t convinced.
“I understand we need magic, but just searching her name on the internet got me results I would have preferred not to find.”
His older counterpart was of course referring to Westview. It had made the headlines for weeks, and many people were using it to justify their hatred for both enhanced people and non-Americans. Though Peter was fairly sure there was more to the story than Wanda taking an entire town hostage and puppeteering them through the decades. From what he’d been able to find from witnesses, there had been another witch, whom they claimed helped them get rid of Wanda and had paid the price. There were mentions of the Vision being brought back to life and even Wanda having children. Though any further research resulted in classified documents he couldn’t hack, so he had let the subject drop. Perhaps he’d be able to get the truth directly from her.
He quickly typed in the number and listened to the ring. It rang once, twice and he started to lose hope that she’d answer by the fifth ring. However, at the last second, he heard noises on the other end of the receiver.
“Hello?”
“Wanda!” He exclaimed in relief. “It’s Pe— Spider-Man; you gave me this number in case I’d ever need help?”
He wasn’t exactly sure how far the spell would affect people’s memories, but if one person was to be less affected, it had to be her. Thankfully, he was right.
“Yes, I remember that,” answered the woman. “How can I help?”
“Actually I’d need you here with me, I ran into some magic stuff and I figured you were the best person to tell.”
There was a moment of silence on the line, maybe she was considering if he was worth her time.
“And you didn’t go to the Sorcerer Supreme because..?”
“Uh, because…” Peter glanced up at Peter Two. “Because it’s something that he probably wouldn’t approve of.”
There was another beat of silence before she answered. “A bit of rule bending?”
Thankfully, she sounded willing to help, he couldn’t stop a relieved chuckle from leaving his throat. It felt nice to talk to someone from his past. “Yeah. More like a lot of rule bending.”
“Can I come over now? Who else is there with you?”
Peter sent a look to his counterpart, who gave him an unsure look. The older man didn’t think that this multiverse situation should be spoken about on the phone and he had to agree. Then again, he didn’t really want to lie to Wanda…
Double meaning sentence it was.
“No one,” he answered. “It’s just me.”
He saw Peter Two press his lips in a tight smile and roll his eyes at his remark, but otherwise didn’t say anything else.
“Okay, I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“Thanks, Wanda,” he said before hanging up. He turned to his older counterpart. “She’ll be there soon.”
Peter Two raised an eyebrow at him. “Just you, uh?”
He threw his hands up in defense. “How else would you go about explaining our situation over the phone with someone that literally doesn’t remember you as anything else than a coworker? Plus, I wasn’t lying!”
“Fair enough,” he answered with a shrug.
Silence fell over them and the small apartment they called home. It wasn’t the first time they’d been just the two of them, but they always had known that Peter Three was either one patrol or one work shift away. Right now there was no promise that they would ever see him again.
“I hope Three is okay,” sighed Peter Two as his eyes scanned the room. “Wherever he is.”
Peter played with a loose thread on their old beat-up couch they had found on the street. “Me too, it’s too silent.”
At that moment, a golden portal opened in the corner of the room and Wanda stepped through. She was wearing casual clothes, far from the red coat she had worn during battles or the black clothes she wore during Tony’s funeral. Peter swiftly got up from the couch to greet his friend that didn’t quite remember him, closely followed by Peter Two who took a more hesitant approach.
“Hey,” he greeted her, “it’s been a while.”
Her eyes widened in surprise when she spotted him. “Wow… I never saw you without your mask on, I never realized you were so… young.”
Peter chuckled at the irony. “You have actually, but that’s a complicated story starting with…” He gestured to his counterpart.
The older man waved at the redhead. “Hi, I’m Peter.”
Wanda's eyes locked onto Peter Two and she observed him for a moment before turning back to him and narrowing her eyes. She repeated this back and forth between the two of them before grinning.
“Ah, I see.”