Chapter Text
Wanda's room was filled with pink smoke as she teleported back, sitting atop her bed, looking at the book. She really should just seal the book away and stop invading Peter's privacy… but Mephisto wanted to make a deal with him specifically, and she needed to find out why… it wasn't like she wanted to read further to see what Peter's life should be like, and she especially didn't want to see if it included her. She placed the book back in her lap, opening it up back to the page she'd left off on. 'Timeline fractures, do you want to read unaltered or altered?'
"Unaltered/" That would be the best way to figure out what Mephisto wanted. She turned the page.
'The Complete and Unaltered Future of Peter Parker.' The page read. She pushed down the guilt she was feeling and began to read. May Parker was unable to recover, but Peter would be able to pull through the grief thanks to the many friends he had made in his life and eventually Mary Jane Watson and Peter Parker would be married, living life together while Peter continues being Spider-Man. It wouldn't be long before Mary Jane was with child, a daughter named May, nicknamed Mayday, in honor of his aunt. It wouldn't be long after his daughter was born that his nemesis would came for him once more, and after a grueling fight, the Green Goblin would end up dead and Peter lost his leg, having to give up on being Spider-Man, he was offered state of the art prosthetics by several people, Tony, Reed, even T'challa had sent him a message, but he wouldn't accept any of them, instead deciding to retire with his beloved wife and daughter and he'd live a normal life for some time, until Mayday turned 15 and she would start going out in secret as Spider-Girl, Peter would notice right away, with her exhibiting the same actions and attitudes as he had when he was young. So he'd stop her one night, revealing the truth of his past, of how he was Spider-Man, and give her his webshooters, which he'd fix up to fit her wrists and a suit, an actual suit. He'd train her, ensure she wouldn't go off halfcocked.
Wanda closed the book, she was starting to figure out what Mephisto was trying to prevent, but she didn't know the why. She stood up from her bed, she would just ask him. She makes her way to the rooftop of the Emporium, the cold wind whipping at her cloak. "Mephisto! I call upon you!" She calls out, and almost immediately the smell of sulfur fills the magical plane as in a plume of darkness Mephisto steps out.
"Now, what could you be possibly calling me for after that trouncing you gave me?" His eyes gleam dangerously. "Could it be? You want to make a deal for the Spider's love?"
"Quiet, demon." She commands. "I have called you forth because I have questions." She levels him with a glare. "You have already made a deal with Peter Parker, haven't you?" Mephisto grinned.
"Indeed I have." He purrs.
"To save his aunt, and you asked for his marriage to Mary Jane Watson, didn't you?"
"Look at you, Wanda, sleuthing me out, yes. Because of Tony Stark's idiocy in forcing Peter to reveal himself, his beloved May was caught in the crossfire, and somehow, not a single hero could help her. So I helped the spider out."
"And you wanted his marriage to prevent Mayday Parker from being born." It wasn't a question, she said it as if it were fact, which she was certain it was by the way the his sleazy grin fell.
"Now how do you know that?" He upturned his nose, sniffing the air. "Oh, naughty, naughty Wanda… That book is dangerous for humans." She ignored his warnings.
"Why? Why do you need to prevent a girl's birth?"
"If you want me to answer that, then we'll need to make a deal." She narrowed her eyes. "Relax, I just want you to answer a question before I answer yours."
"Very well, ask, demon."
"How do you remember Peter Parker's name?" He asks, genuine curiosity in his voice. "I was sure I'd removed the memory of his secret identity from everyone."
"Over the years many people have attempted to control me, some have succeeded, others have gotten close, so as a precaution I placed a spell on my mind that nullifies anything that attempts to influence me against my will." He raised his brows before chuckling.
"Where could you have found a spell that powerful, Maximoff?" She smirked.
"You said a question, now answer mine. Why are you so determined to prevent the birth of Peter Parker and Mary Jane's child?"
"I really ought to watch how I word my deals…" He mutters before sighing. "If I prevent the birth of Mayday Parker, then that means I only have one spider to worry about." She narrowed her eyes.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Sorry, question for a question, Maximoff, and I'm afraid I don't feel much like talking anymore." In another plume of darkness he disappeared, leaving her alone. Her mind reeling with the information she just learned. She wasn't going to sleep tonight, now she needed to read the altered timeline, read what has and will happen to Peter Parker, now. She hurriedly makes her way back to her room, opening the book.
"Show me the altered timeline." She says as she flips to the page that warned her of the timeline split before advancing through the book.
Peter swung through New York, continuing his patrol as his mind raced. Somehow Wanda knew who he was, but, last he knew nobody should, that info should just be a void unless he personally told them, like the Fantastic Four. "Maybe she used some sort of magic to learn it?" He muttered as he leaped from a webline, landing on a wall before pacing up and down. "But why would she even want to? We don't really know each other…" He pondered aloud. "Maybe she's stalking me." He laughs. "Yeah right… who'd wanna stalk me…? Besides Jameson." He pulled himself up on the rooftop, perching on the ledge. "'Gee, Peter, why don't you just go ask her?'" He asks himself, his voice high pitched and using his hand like a puppet before he stands up and begins pacing again. "Maybe because she's single-handedly one of the strongest sorcerers I've ever seen and I'd rather not be turned into a frog or newt. Or how about the last time she lost her mind she trapped me in a hell world where I got everything I wanted only to have it all torn away from me?" He hung his head and groaned. "This is going nowhere…" He perked up as he heard sirens, squad cars racing by. "Finally, something to do!" He took off, jumping from the rooftop and firing a webline, following the squad cars. He wasn't good at relationship stuff, but he could fight crime. He landed on a gargoyle across from a bank. "Oooh, a classic bank robbery, I haven't had one of those in a while." The bank rumbled, dust and debris falling. "Is that Shocker? Oh, Herman, you've picked a bad day today." He grinned under his mask, shooting a webline, diving through a broken window and landing with a roll. "Hey Herman, long time no see!" He dived out of the way of a shockwave.
"You couldn't just let me steal this money, could you, Spider-Man!?" Shocker shouted, firing more shockwaves, which Peter dodged easily, laughing.
"What? And let you get away without getting your ass beat? Why would I do that?" He called back, leaping over a shockwave, grabbing a chunk of the bank before lobbing the chunk at Shocker, who pulverized it with a shockwave, a cloud of dust where the chunk was, which Peter used to his advantage, tagging Shocker with a webline, pulling himself through the cloud of dust, delivering a kick to Shocker's side, knocking him to the ground. "You fall for that one all the time, Herman." He chided, stepping up to him, and just a few seconds too late his Spider Sense went off as Shocker raised his gauntlet, blasting Peter in the chest, sending him flying head over heels through the air, crashing through the bank doors, his head slamming into a police cruiser before he landed on the ground. "That… that hurt…" He groaned, his vision blurry and his ears ringing as he tried to push himself to his feet, he could only watch as Shocker escaped, his laughter the only thing he could hear through the ringing. "Damn it!" He punched the ground as he slipped. "Mental note, don't get hit by Shocker's gauntlets on three or less hours of sleep…" He grumbled. He was finally able to push himself up enough to fire a webline and try to chase after Shocker, pulling himself into the air. "Get back here, Shocker!" He shouted. The ringing in his ears was now just a dull tone and he could at least see the vague shapes of where he was going now. He was for sure concussed. As he chased after the vague red and yellow shape of what he was sure was Shocker he made a wrong turn, slamming into the side of a building, the sudden jolt combined with his exhaustion and the possibly serious concussion forcing his body to give out as he let go of his webline, falling through the air toward the ground.
Wanda couldn't believe what she was reading, if Peter kept on the path he was right now, he'd face tragedy after tragedy, despair after despair. "Paul!? @%&#ing Paul!?" She shouted. She'd reached the part of his life where Peter and Mary Jane had gotten back together, only for them to be separated by dimensions, and when he finally reached her, after getting into a fight with the Fantastic Four, who were supposed to be like family, she was with this random guy, who then aided his father in committing dimensional genocide, and then she still stayed with him!? She closed the book, rubbing her temples, someone out there had it out for Peter, and it wasn't just Mephisto. She couldn't let this come to pass, she may have liked Peter and this was the perfect chance to make her move… but no, he was supposed to be with Mary Jane, and he would have if Mephisto hadn't butted his head in. "If forces are determined to interfere with Peter's true path, then I'll help put it right." She'd help him out, direct him toward his true timeline so he wouldn't be so miserable, even if she were making herself miserable in the process, after all, she had the power to intervene, so she had a responsibility to do so. The universe was playing games with him, so she'd be his cheat code.
Peter eyes fluttered open and the first thing he saw was the blue and white room, a room that was pretty familiar to him. The next thing was a head with a bearded face hovering over him, and only the head. "Reed?" He groaned.
"Relax, Peter." The older man's voice was attempting to be gentle, but that was never Reed's forte. His head retreated back to his body, where he was looking at some charts. "You're not looking too good, your body's healing factor is barely keeping up with the strain and right now it's working overtime to fix that concussion of yours." He says, turning to look at him. "You sleeping alright, Peter?"
"
Just as good as everybody in their late-twenties living a double life, trying to keep a job and be a hero." He grumbles. "How long was I out?" He asked as he pushed himself up from the medical cot he was lying on. "And how did I get here?"
"Johnny had a feeling in his gut he needed to go out flying and found you free falling, and as for your other question, almost a whole day." Peter's eyes widened as he stood up, if that was true then… "Your work left a voicemail, you've been fired." Peter sat back down, hanging his head. "Also, your landlord called, you're getting evicted."
"Oh, great…" He laid back down, torn between screaming, crying, or laughing. The door to the examination room slid open.
"Reed." Peter looked over to see Sue, her hands on her hips, exasperatedly looking at her husband. "You're doing it again."
"Hm?" He looked up from his chart, before seemingly realizing what he had been doing. "Oh! My apologies, Peter, I probably should have lead with the fact that I've already sent Ben and Johnny to get your stuff and bring it back." He told the wallcrawler, who raised an eyebrow. "You're living with us until you get back on your feet." Peter opened his mouth to argue, to tell them he couldn't mooch off of them like that, but Sue stopped him.
"Don't." She says firmly. "You aren't a bother, or a nuisance, or any other self-depreciative word you were going to use. You're family Peter, and we'll treat you as such." She finished her statement with such finality that Peter wasn't even going to attempt to argue, he'd just sneak out late at night. "And we've set up H.E.R.B.I.E to monitor the building at night to make sure you actually come back and don't sneak out."
"I'm not a child, Sue-"
"Then quit acting like one and ask for help, Peter!" She snapped. "Do you know how we felt learning you'd rather be homeless then to ask us for help?" Peter hung his head.
"If you were struggling with rent, Peter, all you needed to do was ask." Reed told him, standing up. "We would have gladly paid it, it's the least we could do from all the help you've given us over the years, especially when you took Johnny's place on the team." Peter looked up as Reed placed his hand on his shoulder. "Also, I did make a chemical strong enough to knock you out even with your enhanced metabolism, so, make the smart choice." Peter laughed, actually laughed, the first real one he'd had in a while.
"Fine, I guess I'm staying…" He muttered. "But I still need to patrol every night." Sue shook her head.
"Don't worry about that, we'll be taking over your patrol until you're feeling better." This time he was actually able to protest.
"
I'll accept staying here, but I need to go out there!" Reed sighed.
"Right now? No, you don't, Peter." He said firmly. "Not only did I find your healing factor was taking longer than it should, but pretty much all of your powers are failing, we saw the news broadcast of you taking a full force blast from Shocker, one your Spider Senses should have warned you of, and I've seen you walk off hits like you ricocheting off that squad car, so your durability's failing too." He crossed his arms. "I want to run some tests on you later." Peter sighed.
"No need." He takes a deep breath. "I know what's happening, it's happened before. My powers are affected by my mental state, so when I'm extremely stressed, they start acting up." The two older heroes listened, absorbing the new info.
"Any idea what's causing the stress this time?" Reed asked after a second.
"Yep." Sue raised an eyebrow.
"Want to tell us?" She prodded.
"Nope." He said it with just as much finality as Sue used earlier. Sue let out a short breath.
"Alright, well, we're willing to listen if you want to talk." She tells him.
"Your room's easy to find, Peter." Reed explains. "Now I want you to go get some rest, doctor's orders." He orders. With a resigned sigh Peter walks past the two of them, feeling like he'd been sent to bed by May when he was a kid. He wandered the halls of the Fantastic Four's penthouse, finally finding what he was pretty sure was his room, judging by the spider emblem on the door. He was about to open the door when it opened by itself, revealing H.E.R.B.I.E.
"Oh, greetings, Mr. Parker." The robot greeted him. "I have just finished tidying your room."
"Just Peter's fine." He tells the robot. "That didn't take you too long, did it? I don't want you to spend too much time on my stuff." The robot shook his head.
"Not at all, Mr. Parker, after all, your room is included on the usual chores, Drs. Richards and Storm wanted to ensure you could use it whenever needed." With that extra helping of guilt on his conscience, the robot left him to his new room for the time being.
Locating Peter was easy, her Life360 spell as Peter put it, would not only warn her when Mephisto was near, but also if he was in danger, and watching him take chase after Shocker, he very clearly was, he was unsteady on his feet and he made far too many close-calls while swinging through the city. He was going to need help, but it couldn't be from her, he didn't trust her, not that she blamed him, she'd done so much to the superhero community, both willingly and unwillingly. So she cast a small spell, to sway the thoughts of somebody close to Peter to take a flight over where Peter was headed. Not even half a minute later a streak of fire shot through the sky and a small smile formed on her face, if something happened to Peter, then his best friend could catch him. She closed her eyes, letting her sense reach out, locating Shocker, he was slowing down, perhaps he thought he'd escaped. A smirk appeared on her face, not this time. In a puff of pink mist, she disappeared, reappearing in an alleyway, Shocker backing up, watching the entryway before turning to run, stopping when he spotted her. "You're…!"
"Yes, I'm the Scarlet Witch and I believe that money doesn't belong to you… Herman Schultz, was it?" He raised his gauntlets at her, ready to blast her, but with a wave of her hand, sparks erupted from them as they shorted out. "Now, would you like to surrender peacefully, or do you want me to teleport you to the police station, bound and gagged?" She could see the crook weighing his options before he sighed, raising his hands in surrender.
"I almost got away with it…" He grumbled as red chains appeared, wrapping around his arms, holding his arms behind his back. Wanda pulled her phone out, dialing 911.
"Hello, this is the Scarlet Witch and I believe I've caught someone you were looking for." She gave them her location and it didn't take long for the police to show up, taking Shocker away. Once again she was left alone, and it didn't take long for the scent of sulfur to fill the air once more. "What do you want, demon?"
"I just wanted to meet my opponent in this game myself." He purred. "It is odd for you to be the one doing this, normally Strange is the one who plays these types of games."
"I'm not playing a game." She growled, glaring at the demon. "You and many other forces have made Peter's life a living hell and sent him spiraling further and further, but that ends now, I'm going to even the field." Mephisto stared at her, studying her.
"Once he finds out you read his timeline, he'll hate you, you know?" He asked coldly. "Even more than he does after your little 'No more mutants' thing." Wanda's breath hitched, before she took a deep breath to calm herself.
"I know." She answers. "I'm prepared for that, if that means he gets to live the life he's supposed to." Mephisto sighed.
"You heroes, always making the sacrificial play, it truly makes me sick." He snarled before disappearing in a plume of darkness. She clenched her fist, she needed to stay calm, she wouldn't be any help if she let him rile her up.