Something is Coming
“Parker”, Stephen Strange spoke firmly.
Peter turned to face him, clearly on edge. Strange had expected him to soften when he realized it was just him but he seemed to tense up even more instead.
“Shit” Peter breathed out.
This made Strange falter a bit. He hadn’t expected exactly what he was seeing now, although it had been about a year or so since they last saw each other face to face. And somehow Peter looked worse off.
Still fumbling for something to say, he took in the scene before him.
Peter had gotten taller. Not by much, but enough to notice the change when he straightened to attention.
His hair was slightly longer. Untamed curls that used to be slicked with gel hung in front of his eye and swirled down the nape of his neck.
Bruising colors framed his brown eyes that used to look so bright, he clearly hadn’t slept well in a very long time.
And the muscles in his jaw that would tense whenever he was frustrated barely relaxed now.
Peter broke the awkward silence for him.
“So, what, you just decided to pop into my room with your magic sparkly thing?”, He waved his hands around. “You know I have a door right?”
“Uh, yes, right”, Strange stuttered. “I’m, um, I’m sorry about that. It’s...”
He trailed off, not sure how to continue.
“What are you doing in my apartment, Strange.”
It barely sounded like a question, and Peter still hadn’t relaxed one bit.
“If it were for a casual reason you probably would have warned me beforehand. If you need...Spider-Man, you know I- I haven’t done that for a while.”
“Yes, I’m aware. You’re right, I would have warned you beforehand, which is why it’s crucial that you listen to what I have to tell you.”,
Strange finally gathered his thoughts enough to do what he came here to do.
“I know how to bring them back.”
——
Somewhere else, beyond what any of them ever knew, an orange sky traveled endlessly, and nine souls wandered through the glass-like ground.
“I just lost the connection, it was here and then it was gone. Was it even real? It couldn’t have been a dream, we haven’t even slept ” Wanda’s frustrated ramble was loud against the silence as she sat down hard on a nearby rock.
It had been an emotionally charged few minutes when Wanda attempted to use her powers and was thrust into a blurred vision of somewhere on earth.
“What's happening to her?” Steve’s panicked voice called as Wanda clutched her head and gasped in pain.
“I don’t know!” Rhodey yelled from where he kneeled next to her, hands hovering.
Everyone had stood and gathered around the source of the sudden commotion, eyes wide and confused.
For Wanda, an image cleared slightly in her mind, outlined in fiery red.
Peter. It looked like Peter, but slightly different, older maybe. He looked exhausted even as he slept.
“Peter, it’s Peter, I see him!” Wanda gritted out between clenched teeth.
A series of “what’s” and “Peter?” traveled around the circle of hero’s. A quiet “who?”coming from an even more confused Bruce, and an equally confused look from Thor.
“Maybe I can-”, She groaned, “- reach out to him.”
They all nodded and leaned in closer as Wanda pushed through her blurry mind barrier. The image of Peter got clearer.
“Peter”, She called out.
“Kid”, Tony murmured beside her.
In Wanda's mind, Peter’s face tensed as his head turned-
Then she was pushed out without warning. The force knocked her physical body back onto her forearms, the world around her finally coming back into focus.
Not a trace of what she saw before was left except the pounding in her head.
The silence around them all was deafening.
“What matters is that we got through to Peter.”, Rhodey stated in an attempt to calm the atmosphere.
“How do we even know that, what if it’s a hallucination because there’s nothing else around this place and we’ve been here too long.”, Sam argued.
“How long do you think it’s been.” Wanda asked quietly.
“Not sure.”, Sam answered. “Feels like hours.”
“Feels like days, to me.” Rhodey said grimly, crossing his arms.
“Well considering none of us lads have grown any beards, I think it’s safe to say there’s no time passing at all. I mean look at this place, it’s not on earth, we would’ve found something by now.”, Tony spoke up now, trying to lighten the mood slightly, he’d been quiet ever since Wanda mentioned that she saw the kid.
They had all spent god-knows-how-long of their time here walking in every direction until they gave up. There was no definite way out.
Steve and Nat sat five feet apart, the same concentration on both of their faces, lost in thought.
Bruce and Bucky were the most quiet of all of them, observing and only making comments when addressed or necessary. Bruce fiddled with his sleeve and Bucky’s eyes drifted around to the others.
Thor was more worrying. He hadn’t said much since they arrived wherever they were, only pleasantries with no more than three words. He looked impossibly tired, he believed he failed them all, and wouldn’t listen to anyone that said otherwise.
It was an odd place. They knew it had been a while since they appeared here, but none of them ever got the urge to eat or sleep or really anything else. It was like they were distant, minds floating suspended outside their bodies. Sensations of touch were dulled to almost nothing, yet they could function normally.
Wherever they were, it sure as hell was a long ways away from home.
Sam spoke up again.
“What do we do now?”
He was met with more silence.
Nat finally stood, purpose burning in her eyes, and everyone turned to look at her.
“We keep trying.”
——
Peter looked about ready to slap Stephen in the face.
“So, what you're telling me is after three years, three years, you finally decide you wanna go through with this elaborate plan to get the stones from god knows where and bring everyone back.”
“Yes”, Strange sounded pained as he pressed lips into a thin line, before inhaling.
“We need them, to protect the earth against something bigger.”
Peter huffed out a frustrated breath and stood up abruptly from where he had been sitting on the edge of his bed. He walked over to the window, keeping his back to Strange as if he couldn’t bear to look at him any longer.
Strange sighed, knowing Peter wouldn't speak next.
“Peter, something is coming.”
Peters' back went rigid.
“Something is coming.”
The nightmare. The one dream this morning bed any of this shit happened. Like an omen.
A vision.
There were a few minutes of silence while Peter thought about everything Strange had put down, the voices from the dream, what was at stake,
And how he knew he couldn’t go on living like this when something could be done about it.
He swallowed, turned, and looked Stephen Strange right in the eye.
“What do we have to do.”