Chapter 8
"Not bad, Маленький павучок."
"Right back at ya, маленька відьма" The look on Wanda's face was priceless as Peter laughed. "Yeah, I know some Sokovian. It's very similar to Romanian, Russian and Ukrainian and I'm fluent in two of them, still leaning Russian." He slammed another robot into the wall before turning back to her. "I'm also taller than you so you can't call me littl-" He didn't finish what he was saying his spider sense was going crazy, it was so intense it brought Peter down to one knee.
"Peter?" He heard Wanda ask. "What's up?" She knelt down in front of him to check if he was okay.
"Spider....sense... going crazy." He groaned made his way back to his feet with Wanda's help, "Behind you..." Wanda turned and blasted the oncoming robots away. Peter looked around for the cause but he couldn't see anything new that would made him react like this, he then tilted his head upward to see the QuinJet flying and shooting the area. "Its Ultron..." Wanda followed his eyeline to see what he was looking at. "Stay here. Protect the core!" Peter told her before rushing out, swing and jumping from debris to follow the Quinjet. His Spider-Sense didn't just go off because of Ultron's presence, it was far too intense. He's firing on everyone and everything meaning he's going to kill someone. Peter could hear Hulks roar from a distance before it swung around in a different direction. Peter did his best to catch up but the destroyed city was very out of his element he got to the edge of the city where the lifeboats were and where the Quinjet just arrived. It started laying down fire and he saw Barton directly in its line of fire as he saved grabbed a kid. "
Clint!" Peter yelled shooting a web in his direction but he knew he would be too short and far too slow, just like it was with Gwen. Everything felt like it was in slow-motion for Peter as the gun fire grew closer to Barton, Peter's spider-sense was going crazy and within a blink of an eye Barton and the kid were gone. Moved from the spot Peter had been staring at in a blur, a silver blur. He scanned the area for any signs of them and that's when he saw Pietro's body drop to the ground. "No..." Barton checked for signs of life but he shook his head no to Steve. Peter looked back towards the church and saw a large amount of red energy dissipating, Wanda must've sensed his death and his her grief let out a large amount of energy. At the corner of his eye he saw a large green blur jumping to the carrier and when he turned his vision towards it he saw the Hulk jumping back from the Hellicarrier and into the Quinjet that was making an attempt to escape and Peter watched as Ultron's body was thrown from the Quinjet into the middle of the city, right by the church. Peter's eye grew wide and he rushed back to get to Wanda.
"Peter, you and Wanda need to get off the city now. I'm sending Thor to the church and this floating rock is going to blow."
"Yeah... I'm... working on it!" Peter told Tony out of breath as he tried to get to Wanda as quick as possible. "Just blow it... when you're ready."
"Get off now, Kid! I mean-" Peter switched off his comms, tired of listening to Tony and tired in general. He arrived at the church and saw Wanda wasn't inside, he turned to look for her and saw he inside the a nearby tram that had a very large Ultron sized hole in it, she was dealing over the body of Ultron and Peter watched as they spoke
"Wanda, if you stay here, you'll die."
"I just did." Peter heard Wanda say as he got closer, "Do you know how it felt?" She used her powers to rip out Ultron's core from his chest . "It felt like that." Peter's spider sense went off again, he shot a web at Wanda and yanked her to him. As soon as she hit his chest and he wrapped his arms around her the city dropped and they were sent hurtling towards the earth.
"Need a hand!" Peter yelled over the comms but no one replied. He looked down at Wanda, he head pressed against his chest as he tried to keep her safe from any floating debris that was falling with them. "I'm sorry Wanda..." He whispered to her. He wasn't entirely sure what he was apologising for, it might've been for her brother or that he couldn't get her to safety in time all he knows is that he was sorry for certain.
"Spider-Man," Peter heard over the comms, it was Vision, "I'm coming to you now, hold tight." Peter took that quite literally as he held tighter onto Wanda. Vision flew in dodging debris and picked up Peter and Wanda and flies off with as the city is being destroyed. As they flew off the rock it exploded into millions of pieces scattering far and wide but the earth was safe, for now.
"Nice save Viz," Peter whispered as his eyes became heavy, "Imma take a nap..." He slowly passed out but his grip around Wanda stayed just as tight, trying to keep her as safe as possible.
"Ah!" Peter yelled as he shot up from his bed, literally shooting out of the bed and onto the ceiling. He looked around the room, it was very similar to his one in Avengers tower but slightly different, there was no kitchen or gym this time but he still had a small lab. He hopped back down and realised he wasn't in his suit but in a red top and some grey jogging bottoms, someone changed him in his sleep and he really didn't know how he felt about that. He saw his suit laying over a chair at a near by desk and Peter didn't hesitate to put it on before leaving the room. The opaque door slide open to a more emptier space, he turned around to look at the door as it slide shut and it had his spider emblem etched into it and his name. He looked to the room to the left of him and it had Captain America's shield etched into it with his name too, so Peter now at least knew this place was possibly friendly. "Hello?" He yelled out to the open space as he walked past another room next to his that had no name on it but then he walked further down and found another and it had Natasha's emblem on it, where ever he was this must've been the living quarters. He continued his further investigation and looked at each of the doors some didn't have anything on them, maybe just spares, some had heroes names like 'Falcon' and 'War Machine' but no emblems.
"Pete." Peter turned around and saw Tony walking to him.
"Tony, where are we? Did we win? What happened to Ultron? And Vision? And Wanda?" Peter started rattling off question, Tony lifted his hand to say 'quiet'.
"Slow down kid. Yeah we... won, if you can call this a true win. Ultron is down, destroyed. Vision and Wanda are fine, they're here."
"And where is here?"
"Glad you asked. This," Tony walked towards the stairs and Peter followed him down where they looked out a window to show a very large compound, "is the new Avengers Facility, Upstate New York." Peter looked in awe as they took the tour of the place. "This is where the Avengers will work out of now." This statement stopped Peter in his tracks.
"Tony... I told you that I had to keep patrolling Manhattan. I can't travel everyday from here-"
"I know kid, I didn't expect you to. Avengers Tower is still around don't worry. You have a room here so you can rest after missions with the Avengers," Tony took a small pause looking at Peter carefully, "that's if you still want to be an Avenger."
"Of course I-" But Tony cut him off before he could finish.
"Because I understand if you didn't. An evil A.I. tried to destroy the world on your first day as an official Avenger, that's enough to put anyone off-"
"Tony. Of course I'm staying. I'll work out a system. I can spend half my time there and half my time here, it's fine I'm not the hero in New York you know."
"Good, good. Because this team, they are going to need you." Tony told him as he patted Peter on the shoulder.
"'They are'? You mean 'we' are right?"
"Pete, I'm taking a step back from the team, from being Iron Man."
"What? Why?-"
"Kid, I caused this and because of that I need to take a step back. I went too far this time..." Peter went to say something but Tony lifted his hand again to stop him before he continued, "I wouldn't be leaving the team if I didn't think that you were the perfect replacement, which you are," Peter smiled at Tony but Tony had to ruin it, "Well... not replacement. More like a slightly discounted version of me." Peter laughed and shoved him away. "Besides, it not the last you'll see of me. You understand I'm still your teacher and you live in both my buildings right?"
"Ugh, so I guess I'm not done with you then." Peter replied as they continued to tour.
"Ha ha, enough sass before I double your work load. For now you're gonna take a break, three weeks then we'll get back to your studies." They ended up back as the living area. "So bit of downgrade here, you have to share a workout room and kitchen but other than that state of the art, hooked up to your servers back at the tower."
"Awesome."
"Now get some rest, I gotta sort some things before I leave. Thor will be leaving soon too, Banner is still missing and Barton has retired... for now. We will see if that sticks. So-"
"So it's only me, Nat and Steve?" Peter asked.
"What? No of course not. Not much of a team is it? No some others are joining, we're calling them the team B for now. They're good individually, but they are not team, yet. They're going to need your help Pete."
"Me? I'm just as new as them."
"You still have years of experience on all of them, a lot. You fit into our team like it was nothing, they're going to need your help working together." Peter gave Tony a nod and was about to go into his room when Tony said something else, "So... you got a thing for Miss Maximoff huh?"
"W-what? N-no!"
"Wow, 21 years old and still get embarrassed being teased about a crush," Tony muttered to himself. "Look kid, you can't lie to me. I had to pry you off each other when Vision got you to the Hellicarrier. And kid, you talk in your sleep." Peter blushed in embarrassment and got all flustered.
"Look, man, w-we sorta bonded okay?! I was just being protective and- and. Oh shut up!" Peter yelled as Tony started laughing at him.
"Kid, cool your jets. I'm only messing," Tony turned to leave but looked back to Peter to say one last thing. "She's your next door neighbour, FYI." Then he left like he didn't just drop that bomb on Peter. Peters eyes darted between the door that had no name or emblem on it and his own before rushing into his room.
Peter walked up to the door for the firth time in an hour, he had changed into some normal clothes not needing to be in his suit. He raised hi arm, moving it to knock on the door but his arm wouldn't move. He couldn't bring himself to knock on her door, he would go to knock but then his fist would stop millimetres from the glass. He paced back and forth to build up the courage to knock on the door. "Come on Pete, come on..." He muttered to himself as he paced on the ceiling, "Nothing to be afraid of just knock on the door." He hopped down and landed in front of her door and raised his fist to knock again. He made the movement and before his hand could his the glass it open and his fist stopped a centimetre away from Wanda's nose.
"Hello Peter." She gave him a soft smile.
"H-hi Wanda. Can I come in?"
"Of course." She told him softly and he followed her in where she sat down on her bed. Her eyes were a faint red where she had been crying most likely, but not for some time. Peter joined her on the bed and wasn't sure whether to comfort her. He was about to speak but she beat him to it. "How do you deal with it?" She asked looking up to him, "I saw your memories. How do you deal with all that lost."
"Do you remember what I told you at the lab? That I keep moving in memory of those I lost, it would be a waste not to." He told her wiping away a tear, "it will get easier with time. But it's going to hurt like a bitch for a very long time and you'll feel like you don't deserve to live and that you don't deserve anything good. But know you are wrong, you deserve the good things, you deserve to be here and it's awful you lost your twin brother."
"Its like losing-
"A limb?" She nodded at his statement. "Yeah, I thought so. But now you have to live for the both of you. You have to fight twice as hard and laugh twice as hard and... love twice as hard," they started into each others eye longingly, "You need to live your life to the fullest because that is what Pietro would want for you. You use this pain and you hold it tight and use it to make sure no one else feels like you do right now. Alone and guilty... you pass on your experience and help them through it."
"Like you're doing for me? "
"Like I want to do for you. And I'll try my best to be there for you. If you'll let me."
"I'd like that a lot." They finally broke eye contact as Wanda leaned into his chest, he wrapped an arm around her and rubbed her back softly and slowly to comfort her.
"My Aunt May use to say something to me," Wanda looked up at Peter again, "she used to tell me stories of what her grandmother and she would always tell my aunt 'those we lost never really leave us, they'll always live on in our hearts and in our memories. Because that is all we are in the end, memories.'" They continued to stare at each other, faces growing ever so closer. "It was always a nice saying you know? A little bit of light my aunt would shine when we lost those we loved."
"She sounds very kind and sweet." Wanda whispered.
"She was, she would've loved you. She would've fussed over you and treated you like family the moment she saw you," they both let out a small chuckle, "because she would've seen the good in you like I did the moment I laid my eyes on you." And with those final words said their lips met. They kissed for what felt like an eternity but when they stopped to take a breath it didn't feel like long enough for Peter. He kissed her again with more confidence this time and held her closely never wanting to let her go. They kept each other company the rest of the day and night. Peter made sure she knew that he was there for her, always.