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Peter Parker's New Groove Ch. 14 (Marvel)
🕑 Added 2021-03-02 18:55:16 +0000 UTCA/N: They did a switcheroo on me, so this is technically no longer spoilers for WandaVision :P
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Slowly, Wanda pulls herself free of Peter’s embrace. Honestly, in the moments after Vision spoke up, seemingly suddenly back to life, he’d forgotten for a short time that he was even holding the older woman. He’s certainly not going to keep holding her, so she easily moves away from him, reaching out to Vision, only to falter at the look on the Android’s face.
“V-Vis… Vis, I b-brought you back. I did it, Vis…”
“No, Wanda.”
Peter swallows thickly as Wanda’s breath catches and she lets out an honest to god whimper in the face of Vision’s seeming rejection. Of course, the moment he notices that, that the synthetic man softens considerably, almost seeming to prove that he is indeed The Vision that Peter barely knew before his death. Letting out a sigh, Vision reaches forward and gathers Wanda into his arms, holding her and running his hands up and down her back.
“This isn’t me, Wanda. This is you. It’s all you.”
Peter blinks owlishly at that, while Wanda jerks in Vision’s grasp as if struck, pulling back just enough to look up into his face.
“W-What?”
Gesturing around them at the maelstrom of red energy that Wanda has surrounded, nay, encased them in, Vision smiles sadly.
“Do you not see what you’re doing, Wanda? You’re rewriting reality itself around us. You’re making something new here… but is it good? Is it right? I am a product of your powers, Wanda Maximoff. To survive, I will have to remain within this new world you are creating. But just who will you displace to make that world? Will you take over the city and bring governments and heroes alike down upon our heads?”
Wanda’s breath hitches and she stares around at what she’s created wildly, tear tracks down her cheeks. It’s clear that Vision is finally making her see what her momentary bout of madness has caused her to do.
“We don’t… w-we don’t have to bother anyone, Vis. I can… I can take us away from the city. We can be together, f-forever…”
“Wanda… would you truly be happy with that? Isolated? Alone?”
“… M-Maybe just a small town?”
“Wanda…”
The disappointment in Vision’s voice is audible, and Wanda flinches back from it. And yet, Peter can tell that she’s considering it all the same. This woman… is powerful. He’s always been tangentially aware of that much, but he’s just your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. It’s only now dawning on Peter what sort of forces, what sort of people his mentor regularly dealt with, for all that he himself HAD technically dealt with Thanos. Toni Stark hadn’t managed to keep Peter away from THAT fight, but she’d kept him away from most other things. She’d kept him away from this.
Wanda was desperate and feeling alone, deeply alone. She had the power to back up her desires too, if Vision was any indication. If she could bring Vision back, what else might her powers be capable of? This small town she spoke of… what would Wanda do to it just by being there, just by making it hospitable for her recreation of Vision to live in? Who’s to say what would happen to the people?
Most weren’t built to live alone. Humans were sociable creatures after all. It was obvious Wanda couldn’t make do with just her and Vision, regardless of how much she loved the synthezoid. She needed more, and Vision was calling her out on it. Even then however, she was STILL thinking about it, still considering going for it.
Honestly, as much as he loved Toni, he could also feel a smidgen of resentment towards her in this moment, because he really didn’t know how to DEAL with a crazed, desperate Wanda Maximoff. Sure, he’d somehow pushed through her energy barrier, and her attempt to push him away had, for some reason, not worked one bit… but Peter wasn’t sure what the hell he was supposed to even say.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t get the liberty of fading quietly into the background while Vision tried, and potentially failed to talk his love down. Instead, perhaps sensing that he’s not convincing Wanda of what needs to be done, this… facsimile of Vision that her power has created looks up to Peter, making eye contact with him.
“… And what of poor Peter here then? Will you silence him to keep Toni from finding out where we go? Will we take him with us, kidnapping him away from his home?”
Jolting, as if just remembering Peter’s presence, Wanda looks over at him too. Peter winces and tries for a half-hearted smile and a wave as she stares at him, wide and wild-eyed.
“I don’t… he’s not… I can’t touch him.”
The wounded admission sounds like it’s difficult for Wanda to admit. She winces, even as Peter puzzles over what she means for a moment before understanding dawns. She’s saying that she can’t touch him with her powers for some reason. Because she’d been more than capable of physically touching him when she was sobbing into his chest. And why can’t her powers affect him? He’s not anyone special…
“Perhaps it’s a sign, Wanda. Sometimes… sometimes things end. Sometimes you have to move on.”
As Vision speaks, he’s directing a pleading look over Wanda’s shoulder to Peter, as if the Vibranium Synthezoid thinks that Peter can somehow come up with the right words to placate Wanda Maximoff.
“H-Haven’t I moved on enough, Vis? My parents… my brother. I have to give you up as well? He didn’t even know me! When I fought Thanos during the final battle, he didn’t even know who I WAS?! He didn’t even comprehend what he’d taken from me, and I STILL wasn’t strong enough to avenge you properly!”
Oof. Peter licks his lips as he tries to think of what he should say in this situation. In the end, he just kind of starts and hopes he finds the proper words before he stops.
“Ah, um… Ms. Maximoff. I… kind of know what you’re going through. My parents died when I was pretty young too, and then… then I lost my Uncle Ben shortly after I got my powers. It hurt. It hurt a lot and I think about him every day. But Uncle Ben always said, ‘With great power, comes great responsibility’. I try to live up to that every single day.”
Wanda stares at him searchingly with wide teary eyes, as if trying to find something in him to be mad at, to hate. Peter shifts uneasily, but Vision just smiles at him over the top of Wanda’s head, before leaning down and murmuring in her ear. Peter is pretty sure he’s not supposed to hear the synthetic man, but they might have forgotten about his enhanced senses.
“From the mouth of babes, my dear Wanda. Perhaps this is why you can’t touch young Peter. You and he are more alike then you could have known. There is wisdom in what he says.”
Wanda’s face scrunches up in grief and pain and agony, and she lets out a choked sob as she grits her teeth. She glares at Peter then, but rather impotently, like she knows she can’t deny his words, nor can she find anything to hate about him, but she wants to anyways.
“Why… why are you even DOWN here? S-Shouldn’t you be out swinging from webs or something?”
Swallowing thickly, Peter straightens up, a line that he’d once told Toni coming back to him in that moment.
“Because… because when you can do the things I can do, but you don’t and then the bad things happen, they happen because of you.”
And then, because that doesn’t feel like nearly enough, Peter offers a wavering smile.
“And… because you needed my help. So I came to help you, Ms. Maximoff.”
The glare washes away, once again replaced by wide-eyed shock as a tear-tracked Wanda Maximoff just shakes her head in something akin to disbelief. Vision, meanwhile, chuckles before nodding to Peter and speaking in that posh British accent of his.
“Well said, young Peter Parker. Toni spoke of you often, in my short time on this Earth. I see now that her faith in you was not misplaced. And so, I hope you do not mind me asking a favor of you.”
Blinking, Peter stares at The Vision. He called it a facsimile earlier in his own head, but it’s a little hard to see him as that when he seems to be so full of life. Vision had said what Wanda was doing was reality rewriting, so as much as he’d also said he was a product of Wanda’s power, did that really make him any less real? Still, it was obvious this wasn’t what the man wanted… and so, Peter would listen to his mentor’s creation’s request.
“S-Sure, name it!”
Gently turning Wanda’s head with a hand on her cheek so she’s looking up at him, Vision cradles her in his arms, smiling down at her in turn while speaking to Peter, though he rapidly switches to talking to Wanda about one sentence in.
“I would ask you to allow me to put my faith in you as well. I would ask you to look after the love of my short life for me. Wanda Maximoff… know that the real Vision loved you with all of his Vibranium heart. And know that he would want you to grow, to move past his death and continue on as the force for good in this world that he knew you to be.”
Peter swallows as Wanda looks up at Vision searchingly for a moment, before finally her shoulders slump and her head bows. She presses her forehead into her dead lover’s chest, and Vision hugs her close. Then, the power she’s using begins to abate. It’s a gradual thing, but the life leaves Vision’s eyes as she finally stops reanimating the synthezoid’s body. Peter bites his lower lip, feeling a deep pang of sadness for Wanda.
If he could bring back Uncle Ben, would he? The answer seemed obvious. Yes, in a heartbeat. But what if it came with strings attached? What if it led to the suffering of others? Things became murkier then, but even with that, Peter knew it would be so, so hard. He can’t help but feel like he’s dodged something of a bullet here for Wanda and Vision and whoever would have been affected by Wanda’s reality rewriting, for all that he apparently wasn’t.
As Vision’s weight becomes too much for Wanda to handle, Peter leans forward, helping to carry the load so that the dead android’s remains don’t just… drop back to the slab with a weighty thunk. They lay him down carefully together, and as Wanda leans back, Peter carefully places the sheet back over Vision’s body, covering him once more.
And then it’s just Peter and Wanda in the basement level of Stark Tower. Biting his lower lip, Peter shifts from foot to foot for a moment.
“Uh, Ms. Maximoff? We should probably head back up now. We should…”
He trails off as Wanda turns her eyes to him again, her tear tracks dried by now but her gaze no less intense and piercing.
“Peter Parker… you’re a lot like Vis, you know. So… unquestionably good. It’s more than that though…”
She steps up to him, and Peter swallows thickly as she presses a hand into his chest, staring at him in something approaching wonder.
“You FEEL like him too. I… have you had much contact with the Mind Stone?”
Rapidly blinking, Peter begins to shake his head violently ‘no’, before having to stop himself dead in his tracks with a wince.
“Ah… a little bit?”
Wanda gives him a questioning, but surprisingly not accusatory look at that, and Peter lets out a sheepish laugh as he rubs the back of his head.
“I sort of had to use the gauntlet, during that final battle with Thanos. It’s, um… it’s how we won.”
He wasn’t sure whether Wanda knew about that yet or not, but it’s clear she somehow didn’t. Whether because she’d been incapacitated at the time or what, she looks at him with fresh, new eyes, wide and surprised.
“You’re touched by the stones…”
Peter makes a confused noise in the back of his throat at that, his brow furrowing curiously. Touched by the stones? What does that even mean? Wanda, meanwhile, leans in even closer… and honest to god SNIFFS him right on the spot.
“M-Ms. Maximoff?!”
As she breathes in his scent, a strange little smile spreads across her lips. She looks at him with eyes that Peter is beginning to recognize, but that he did NOT expect to see on Wanda down in this place.
“Vis told you to look after me, didn’t he?”
And then she’s kissing him. Just like that, they’re making out. Peter is ashamed to admit it, but he kisses her back at first. He’s become almost conditioned to do so, the events of the last few weeks leaving him something of an experienced kisser, as well as… ‘well-learned’ when it came to reciprocating a woman’s affections.
Their tongues work together in twain as all of Peter’s experiences this last while allow him to easily kiss Wanda back, his strong arms wrapping around her body instinctively. He’s soon holding her in a lover’s embrace and she’s kissing him so desperately, so eagerly. There’s no end to it.
Except, he really shouldn’t be here, right? Wanda was getting more and more insistent too, her tongue halfway down the back of his throat as she kisses him insistently, heatedly. This… this is a woman who’s trying to drown out her pain with sex, surely. But is Peter really in a position where he can afford to say no? If he rejects Wanda here, does she go off of her rocker again and rewrite reality to resurrect Vision once more? What’s he supposed to do if she does, at that point?
Maybe… maybe she just needs a firm hand? Peter winces at that thought, but still gives it the consideration it deserves. It’s an option, if nothing else. Gentle and sweet, firm and hard… or out and out rejection, at least for now.
He’s gotta decide fast one way or the other, because the longer he waits, the more handsy Ms. Maximoff is getting…
Comments
MacZeuss
Honestly, I was hoping more of Peter helping Wanda bring back Vision, the safer way.
Alun Lewis
I have to admit to being torn about what option is best...this Wanda is definitely on the edge of aping her main MCU counterpart and creating The Hex so she can have a sense of control and stability back. She needs someone to help her grieve correctly and Peter has a lot in common with her, plus The Vision himself tasked Peter with helping Wanda.... BUT Even with this being an AU for the end of Phase 3 and the start of Phase 4 of the MCU, Wanda is still 12 years Peter's senior if the canon birth years from "Spider-man: Far From Home" and "WandaVision" are still correct (MCU Peter Parker was born in 2001 and 17 when he was Blipped, Wanda was born in 1989, and is 29)...this will be Peter's first adult lover and Wanda's not fully in her right mind due to grief. Peter should be pumping the brakes on Wanda's efforts HARD because there's dubious consent issues all around. However, we come back to the issue of Wanda having the juice and the "don't give a fuck" mentality to turn Manhattan Island into a pocket reality that makes Westview look like an innocuous snow globe...stoking her grief and self-hatred (though she's got less than I imagine MCU Wanda has as of the end of WandaVision S01E08, due to Agatha explaining Wanda was the reason why she and Pietro survived the "faulty" Stark Industries bomb...that she's always had natural abilities to "fix" things) through rejecting her carries a much bigger set of consequences than letting Wanda technically commit statutory rape. So yeah...had to pick "Peter takes a firm hand" because that's the best option available of the three. Peter needs to help Wanda work through her grief, but he has to remain in control of the situation to prevent Wanda from getting any ideas about running from her pain any more than she already has.
SpectralTime
Poor Cam... also, pleasantly surprised with voters this time! Maybe it's just that different voting stories attract different audiences? I dunno.
