Written in the Scars

Danny was in Clockwork’s workshop, bent over his desk. He was unravelling a paradox with careful, precise fingers. It wasn’t technically the paradox itself, it was a visual display of the paradox created by Clockwork’s instruments, but same difference. The problem was, as per usual, the red thread. Well, more accurately, the problem was being represented by a red thread that seemed to be pulsing, almost alive, moving and changing just when Danny thought he had it fixed. It was tangled in the other threads, which were in varying colors, many of which Danny hadn’t even known existed before he became a ghost. He looked around hazily, selecting a small metal tool akin to tweezers, and carefully manipulated a purple cord out of the tangle. 

It looped around when he released it, but was no longer part of the problem. Finally. He had been trying to undo that one for way too long. Once, he thought he’d gotten it, but then a green cord had appeared to take its place and made everything worse. Then, he had to undo the green cord to even get back to the purple cord, and well, it was a lot of work was all.

He set the metal tool down in favor of a magnifying glass, spinning the three dimensional knot to figure out what to work on next. That blue thread there seemed suspicious, he decided, and went for the tweezer things again. A gentle hand on his wrist stopped him.

“You’ve been at this for a while,” Clockwork said, and his voice was gentle, fond, a little amused.

Danny looked around, finding the green clock at the front of his desk that kept time with Amity Park. He had been working on this paradox the whole day, apparently. It was a little past nine at night, which wasn’t terribly late, but considering he’d arrived at Long Now a little after seven that morning…

“You should sleep,” Clockwork added, gently taking the magnifying glass from Danny’s hand and setting it on the table.

Danny yawned, rubbing at his eyes. He didn’t think he’d been tired a few minutes ago, but now that Clockwork mentioned it, he could hardly stay awake.

“Good idea,” he mumbled, leaning against Clockwork.

Clockwork ruffled his hair and drifted down, smiling softly as Danny wrapped his arms around him like an octopus.

“‘M sleepy,” Danny reiterated, fisting his hands in Clockwork’s robes. His legs had turned into his tail at some point, and that now joined his arms in wrapping around Clockwork.

Clockwork chuckled softly. “I can see that. Let’s get you to bed, then. We have a big day tomorrow,” he answered, wrapping his arms around Danny and lifting him gently.

“‘Mkay,” Danny mumbled, burying his face in Clockwork’s robes as they moved through Long Now.

They arrived at Danny’s room, and Clockwork had no illusions Danny would actually sleep unless he stayed. Which wasn’t the worst fate. He smiled as he pulled the covers back and laid down with Danny on top of him, making a soft purring noise, already asleep. Not a bad way to spend the night at all.

Danny woke up slowly, the gentle blue and green lights of Long Now swirling behind his closed eyelids. He was curled up on top of Clockwork, his limbs tangled in Clockwork’s robes. Danny didn’t move, comfortably tucked into a cocoon of blankets and robes and safety.

“There’s something I want you to do today,” Clockwork said, stroking his hand through Danny’s hair. How he even found Danny’s head in the mess of blankets would remain forever a mystery.

“What is it?” Danny asked.

“Do you remember our trip to Wakanda?”

“Of course,” Danny answered, wondering where Clockwork was going with this.

“The Ancients have been conducting negotiations with Wakanda regarding a closer relationship between us. Things are rapidly changing around us, and it would benefit all of us to help each other.”

“That makes sense,” Danny offered, cautiously.

Clockwork nodded. “It does. The Ancients have decided to extend an olive branch of sorts. Wakandan scientists have, for many years, wanted to study ectoplasm. We’ve decided to let them. Princess Shuri, specifically. And we would like you to help her.”

“Help her,” Danny repeated, skeptically.

“Indeed. You are the closest thing we have to an expert in the subject, scientifically speaking,” Clockwork said, undeterred. 

Danny huffed under his blanket nest, then he sighed. “Alright. When are we leaving?”

“As soon as you’re ready,” Clockwork answered, unfairly pleased with himself.

Danny getting ready took more time than he necessarily needed. He wasn’t scared or anything just...a little nervous maybe. And he was comfortable when Clockwork started that conversation, so if he dozed a little longer before he even started getting ready, that was his business. Now, he was staring into the mirror in his room in Long Now, holding a cloak up in each hand.

He had a lot of cloaks. Some of them were patterned, others were plain. A few were protective, others more mundane. They had all been gifts from someone at some point or another. Right now, he was holding up the cloak that had started the whole cloak gift thing. Nocturne had started it, of course, with a cloak that honestly looked like a piece of the night sky contained in a piece of fabric. There were stars and lazily swirling galaxies and a myriad of colors. It was amazing, but Danny wasn’t sure if it would be too much. The other one he was considering was one Clockwork had given him, a solid color cloak the same deep purple as Clockwork’s own robes. It was less fancy, but also less exciting.

He weighed them in his hands. They both had protective properties that were about equal, but the one Clockwork had given him was more...sentient, almost? Apparently it was the ghostly sister of some magic sorcerer cloak that Danny forgot the name of. So that was cool. And it made him feel better to have a friend with him, even if the friend was a sort of sentient ghost cloak. He put that one one and hung the other one back up. He took a deep breath and floated down the stairs to meet Clockwork.

When Shuri had been told a ghost expert on ectoplasm was going to come help her with her study of the substance, she wasn’t sure what to expect. An older ghost, maybe, some sort of dead scientist. Someone wise and exceptionally boring, probably, she decided. That was who she was ready for when T’Challa called her to tell her the ghost she would be working with had arrived with the ectoplasm.

So she was pleasantly surprised to see one of the two ghosts she had met before. The boy with shock white hair and toxic green eyes and a jumpsuit and now a deep purple cloak wrapped around his shoulders. He was holding a navy blue box that was bigger than his head. T’Challa had left as soon as Shuri had walked in, probably because of his weird anti-ghost powers that he didn’t seem to have good control over. The boy noticed her and floated down from where he had been looking out a window, letting his feet hover just above the ground. He offered her a smile and a nod.

“Princess Shuri, it’s nice to see you again. I’m Phantom, Clockwork’s apprentice.” 

His voice wasn’t really high or low, but it was clear and lilting in an accent she didn’t quite recognize, and it seemed to carry and fill the room and then echo back to her a moment later. It sent involuntary shivers up her spine, but she smiled at him anyway. At least he seemed like he could be fun, even if she doubted he was an expert on ectoplasm. 

“Welcome to Wakanda, Phantom. How about I show you to my lab and we can get started on the ectoplasm?” Shuri asked, nodding at the box in his hands.

“Sounds good,” Phantom agreed. “Lead the way.”

When he saw the lab, Danny whistled, impressed. “Nice lab,” he complimented.

“Thanks,” Shuri answered, bouncing with excitement and waving at a clear workspace. “We can work here.”

Danny set the box he was carrying down on the indicated table. His cloak tightened around his shoulders protectively. It was comforting, in the weird way that a sentient piece of clothing could be comforting.

“There are six major types of ectoplasm we’ve been able to categorize, and there are some sub groups within that, so I just brought some of everything. Clockwork wasn’t sure what exactly you would want to do with it,” Danny offered, opening the lid of the chest.

“It’s all labeled,” he continued, pulling out racks of vials. “We use a color coding system normally, but we labelled them in writing, too.”

“I thought you were the apprentice of the master of time?” Shuri asked, and Danny could hear the skepticism in her voice. He refused to let it bother him.

“I’m many things, Princess Shuri. Clockwork’s apprentice is just one of them. Though that has given me a significant amount of time to master other skills,” he answered, diplomatically, as he set out the test tubes of ectoplasm.

“I see,” Shuri answered. She clapped her hands together. “So, where should we start? What should I know before I start running tests?”

“I have a chart. All ectoplasm is energized or non-energized, and sentient or non-sentient. Energized ectoplasm varies in energy level, so we albel those on a scale from one to ten, one being the least energized and ten being the most energized. Likewise, there are varying levels of sentience in the sentient ectoplasm. Since there’s a lot of ectoplasm that’s both energized and sentient, for sentience we use roman numerals instead of the arabic number system. It’s the same otherwise though, one is the least sentient and ten is the most sentient,” Danny explained, having already put them in order according to the chart he handed Shuri.

She studied it, studied the ectoplasm, and smiled at him. “We have a lot of work to do, then.”

“Wait, so what’s the difference between lair ectoplasm and basic ectoplasm? Shouldn’t they be the same thing?” Shuri asked, a few hours later. She had wildly underestimated both Phantom’s knowledge and his ability to keep up with her intelligence.

“Basic ectoplasm isn't energized, that’s the difference. It’s the only type of ectoplasm that’s non-energized and non-sentient. It’s usually found mostly in the atmosphere of the Realms, but sometimes after a large group of ghosts have been in the material world they leave behind basic ectoplasm. Like after the ghost battle in New York, there was a lot of basic ectoplasm left there, because the ghosts keeping it energized left,” Phantom answered, waving his hands wildly.

“I get it, because Lair ectoplasm is energized because of the ghost’s energy in the lair, but it’s not sentient because it was basic ectoplasm that a ghost asserted their will over,” Shuri answered, typing notes.

Phantom grinned at her. “Exactly.”

Peter was swinging through New York. Because wasn’t that how this always started? A portal opened. It was small, big enough for a person to fit through but not a horde of ghosts. That was...somewhat reassuring? Peter landed on the roof nearest to it and waited. A moment later, a ghost girl flew out of the portal. She looked like Phantom, Peter thought. Same features, same outfit type, same general build, she was just...a she. And she was looking right at him. She flew down and landed on the roof across from Peter, actually landed, instead of the weird hover that Phantom always does.

“I’m Ellie, Phantom’s sister. Well, one of them,” she introduced, sticking her gloved hand out.

Peter shook it. “I’m Spider-Man,” he answered, a little unsure how to respond.

Ellie laughed. “I figured. The superhero suit sort of gave it away. Plus, Phantom talks about you,” she said.

“He does?” Peter asked, blushing under the mask. “He never told us about you.”

And oh, he probably shouldn’t have said that, but Ellie just laughed and waved him off.

“Phantom has a lot of sisters, I’m not surprised he doesn’t talk about every single one of us. But I came here looking for you, actually.”

“You did?” Peter asked, startled. “Why?”

Ellie sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “I met this ghost, right? And he seems sort of familiar somehow, but I don’t really keep up with the news like Phantom does, so I’m not sure if he’s just like a recently dead politician or something like that. But he’s young, for a ghost, and he’s fast. Like, really fast. But he runs, instead of flying, which is just weird. And then he says his name is Pietro, and that sounds super familiar, so I looked him up, and I’m pretty sure it’s Pietro Maximoff, like Wanda’s brother Pietro Maximoff. And I was going to harass Phantom about it, or maybe Scarlett, but they’re both off on some super-secret missions and Clockwork is stuck in a meeting for like a million years, so I thought, who else do I know that knows Wanda? And, well, you. Which, I guess I don’t technically know you, but from what Phantom’s said you seemed like you’d probably help me anyway.”

“So let me get this straight,” Peter began. “You found Pietro Maximoff’s ghost, and everyone else was busy, so you thought you’d see if I would help you since I know Wanda, even though you and I have never met?”

Ellie nodded. “Yeah, that about sums it up,” she agreed.

Peter nodded. “Alright. Um. Cool, cool. What can I do to help, though? I thought dead ghosts don’t remember their lives?”

“Usually they don’t, but there are exceptions to that. It’s kind of like...amnesia victims, I guess,” Ellie began, waving her arms enthusiastically. “Sometimes they can remember, if they’re around familiar people and places and the people helping them have a whole lot of patience. I wasn’t really thinking of introducing Wanda and Pietro right now or anything, because I was going to try taking Pietro to some familiar places before he’s with anyone who knew him when he was alive. But I just wanted Wanda to know, I guess, so she has time to try and process and wrap her head around it before she sees him, so that when she sees him, she’ll know what to expect.”

Peter nodded along. “That makes sense. Do you think Wanda would be able to help him with her powers? She can manipulate people’s thoughts, but I don’t know if she could do it on a ghost.”

Ellie “hmmed” thoughtfully. “I’d say if he wanted her to she could, but let’s maybe save that for after the processing and the gradual introduction back to places Pietro knows, fair enough?”

“Yeah yeah, that makes sense. I can call Mister Stark and ask if Wanda’s around, if that works?”

“Works for me,” Ellie agreed.

Peter nodded and wandered away a few steps so he would at least have the illusion of privacy. “Karen, call Mister Stark.”

He answered on the second ring. “What’s up, kid?”

“So I just met another one of Phantom’s sisters. Not Scarlett, her name is Ellie, and she’s eerily similar to Phantom. Like, she could seriously be his female clone or something,” Peter reported.

“Okay,” Tony agreed, probably wondering why this was important right now.

“And she came to find me, because I guess Phantom talks about me, and get this, she met Pietro Maximoff’s ghost. Wanda’s brother.”

“Oh wow.”

“I know, right? And she wants to tell Wanda, so she can process, so at some point she can introduce them and Wanda won’t like flip out because Pietro only sort of remembers her since he’s a dead ghost and Ellie is trying to help him get his memories back but it could take a long time and Wanda should know,” Peter rambled, waving his hands excitedly.

“She should,” Tony agreed, softly. “She’s at the Tower,” he said, after a pause. “You can bring Ellie here to talk to her. Just be careful, okay? Wanda can be unpredictable sometimes, and she doesn't have the best control of her powers.”

“We will be. Thanks, Mister Stark!” Peter chirped.

“You’re welcome, kid. I’ll see you later for lab time, right?”

“Of course,” Peter agreed, because it was Saturday, and that meant lab days with Tony. 

“Alright. See you then, Pete.”

“See you then!”

Peter turned back to Ellie. “He said Wanda’s at the tower and we can go there and talk to her,” he reported.

Ellie bounced up into the air a few feet. “Alright, lead the way!”

Peter grinned and whooped as he flipped backwards off the building, catching himself with a web at the last second and swinging towards the tower. Ellie flew above him, weaving through buildings and making loops and random flips in the air. Peter smiled watching her. He’d never really gotten to do this with Phantom, him swinging through the city while Phantom flies, but after doing it with Ellie he thinks it would be fun. As much as Ellie seemed like Phantom, she also seemed inexplicably younger, more carefree. She laughed to herself as the wind whipped her hair back, and she screamed as she dodged out of the way of buildings. Peter guessed that she must be the younger of the two, though he’s not sure quite how that works with ghosts. Maybe that’s not fair, since he’s really only ever interacted with Phantom in battles and meetings, but his gut feeling is that he’s right.

The tower came into view, looming over Manhattan, and Peter yelled up to Ellie and waved at it. She gave him a thumbs up in return and did another flip. There weren’t any buildings quite as tall as the Tower right around it, so Peter had to work more to get up high before he got too close. He was still missing a bit of height, but he’d gotten good at the swing jump off his last web and the drop in his stomach as he barely made it to the roof. He landed in a crouch and turned around to see Ellie grinning at him, her hair somehow the exact same as it was before, despite the wind blowing violently around them.

He waved her over to the door and pressed his thumb against the scanner. Even with his glove on, it clicked and opened for him. Once they were inside and he could hear again, he turned to Ellie.

“That was fun,” she said, bouncing on her toes but otherwise with both feet on the ground.

Peter smiled at her, even though she couldn’t see it. “Yeah, it was,” he agreed, starting down the hallway.

Ellie kept pace with him, still grinning wildly.

“Friday, where’s Wanda?” Peter asked.

“Wanda Maximoff is in the common room,” Friday answered.

“Thanks,” Peter chirped.

“Of course,” Friday answered.

“Who, is that AI tech?” Ellie asked, as they stepped into the elevator.

“Yeah, that’s Friday, Mister Stark’s AI.”

“Phantom said there was an actually intelligent AI in the Tower, but everyone else is just so far off from AI tech that I thought he was messing with me, but that is so cool!” Ellie exclaimed, as the elevator started moving down.

Peter laughed. “Yeah, I think it’s awesome too. I mean, no one else is even close to good AI tech, and Mister Stark just has it installed in every room.”

“Power move much?” Ellie joked.

Peter chuckled. “I know, right!”

The elevator doors opened and Peter led Ellie out onto the common floor. Natasha was sitting on the couch next to Clint, reading a book. Clint had his feet in her lap, watching something on a tablet. Steve was humming as he made something on the stove, and Wanda was sitting at the table working on something on a tablet.

“Hi everyone!” Peter greeted with a wave.

Everyone turned to them. Clint was the first to react. “What is it with you and ghosts, kid?”

Peter shrugged. “Dunno. Guess I’m just more fun than the rest of you.”

Natasha chuckled and Clint rolled his eyes. Ellie guffawed, and all attention turned to her. She waved.

“Hi, I’m Ellie, Phantom’s sister. Well, one of them, at any rate. If you think Spidey collects ghost friends fast, you should see how fast Phantom collects new siblings.”

Steve laughed. “I’m Steve. It’s nice to meet you, Ellie,” he offered, waving, still stirring whatever it was he was cooking.

“Nice to meet you, Steve,” Ellie returned.

“We were actually hoping to talk to Wanda about something,” Peter announced.

Wanda, who had been mostly ignoring the conversation, looked up. “What about?” she asked.

“You had a twin brother that died, right? Pietro? Really fast, terrible sense of humor, hated pineapple?” Ellie asked, with a surprisingly lack of tact.

Wanda just seemed perplexed, thankfully, not angry. “Yes, I did. Why?”

“Well I met his ghost the other day-”

“You what?” Steve demanded, dropping his spoon. He cursed under his breath as he fished it out of the hot pan.

“Yeah, it took me a while to realize who it was, since y’know how dead ghosts don’t remember their lives usually, but he seemed really familiar and when he said he thought his name was Pietro I looked him up and it’s definitely him,” Ellie finished.

Wanda was quiet. “Wanda?” Steve asked, softly. “You okay?”

“He’s..” Wanda trailed off. “He’s a ghost?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Ellie answered, softly. “He doesn’t remember much, but he remembers a little bit, and I think if I work with him for a bit he’ll remember everything.”

“That can happen?” Clint asked.

Ellie nodded. “I told Spidey, some dead ghosts can never regain their memories, but some have a few memories from their lives but they’re sort of jumbled and out of order. They’re similar to amnesia victims, in that case. If you’re gentle and you work with them they can usually regain almost all, if not all, of their memories from when they were alive. But it takes time and patience.”

“He...I could have him back?” Wanda asked, teary, eyed.

Ellie softened, smiled at her, walked over to sit next to her at the table. 

“Yeah,” she said, softly. “You can. You’ve gotta trust me, though, and be patient, okay? We don’t want to overwhelm him with expectations.”

Wanda nodded, determined, scrubbed at her eyes. “I understand. What can I do?”

“Anything you can tell me about him, places he liked to go, things he liked, things he didn’t, people he knew, anything like that will help when I’m working with him,” Ellie said.

Peter, sensing this was going to take a while, sat down on Nat’s other side on the couch. She tucked her arm around his shoulders and he rested his head on her shoulder.

“Everything alright, little spider?” she asked him, as Wanda’s soft voice washed over them in the background.

Peter nodded against her shoulder. “Yeah, just a lot, with Pietro. I mean I never knew him, but…”

“I think you’d get along well, though I didn’t know him long either,” Nat reassured.

Peter hummed against her shoulder. “I think I’m going to fall asleep on you,” he admitted, yawning.

Natasha chuckled gently, pulled a blanket off the couch to tuck around him.

“That’s alright, little spiders need their rest.”

Peter huffed against her shoulder, but he was already falling asleep.