A red sun rose on the horizon, casting its light on a field of spooky-looking dead trees. And in the middle of that field stood two figures. One was Doctor Stephen Strange, who had a stern look on his face as he looked at the figure across from him. And that second figure was none other than Wanda.
She walked right up to Strange and said, "Return to Kamar Taj and prepare to hand over America Chavez by sundown.......peacefully. After that......you'll never see me again." the she started to walk away from Strange.
"And if we don't?" Strange asked. Wanda let out a sigh as she did not want this to happen. Never the less, she turned and looked at Strange once more to answer his question.
"Then it won't be Wanda that comes for her. It will be the Scarlet Witch." she said.
Then the image changed once more. Wanda was now hovering above the Kamar Taj right in front of Strange, full of fury. A bunch of warriors and sorcerers were right behind him, with their weapons drawn, and aimed right at her.
"Sending those creatures after her instead of myself was mercy. And in spite your hypocrisies and insults, I have begged you to safely get out of my way. You have exhausted my patience." Wanda said. Then she sighed as she went on. "But I do hope you understand. That even now, what's about to happen.....this is me......being.........reasonable."
Then multiple images appeared in the blink of an eye. Wanda attacking Strange, her destroying the Illuminati, her torturing the remaining students at Kamar Taj, her throwing Wong off the mountain, her trying to take America's powers, and the look of fear on her son's faces.
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Wanda's eyes snapped open and she sat up. The nightmare she just had was one of the worst that she had ever experienced. The reason being is because that wasn't just an ordinary nightmare. That was a reminder of what she had actually done while being corrupted by the Darkhold.
She put her face in her hands and shook her head at her own actions. It's been weeks since those events occurred and still it bugs Wanda to this day.
'Why shouldn't it?' she thought to herself. 'This is the price of the actions that I had committed.'
She then looked down at her still black fingers. The blackness may be fading away at long last, but it's still present. And as long as it stays there, it is a constant reminder to Wanda of her past. She sighed as she got out of the covers of the bed.
It was quite nice of Peter to offer her his bed last night. But where was he sleeping now?
She went out of the bedroom to find out that Peter was not sleeping. In fact he was on the couch, holding her guitar in his hands. He slowly but surely was starting to play a song that she had already played for him. It was apparent that he was trying to not break anymore strings, which she deeply appreciated.
She just leaned on the doorway and watched as he played his song. A smile emerged on her face the longer he went on. He messed up a couple of times and re-did the song. But once he finally played the song entirely without any mistakes, she applauded him.
Peter's head snapped up at the sudden noise. "Um.......how long exactly have you been standing there?"
Wanda chuckled at his surprised and embarrassed expression. "About twenty minutes." she said, causing Peter to dip his head a little bit. "You're really improving. I'm impressed." she added.
Peter blushed at her compliment. "Well........I had a great teacher." he replied. Now it was Wanda's turn to blush.
"You know, when you're playing, your hand seems to be in an awkward position. You're gonna strain it if you keep doing it like that." Wanda observed.
"Ah......that actually makes a lot of sense." Peter said, shaking his wrist.
"Here, I'll show you." Wanda said as Peter put his hand back on the neck of the guitar. "Hold the neck like this. That way, you can maneuver your hand around a lot easier to play different notes."
She took Peter's hand and changed his hand posture. Peter fought the urge to blush at the action.
"Oh, okay." Peter said, nodding his head. And as they both looked up, they just realized that their faces were only three inches from each other. Peter observed every single inch of Wanda's face, for he had never been this close to her. Sure they have hugged from time to time, but he never got the opportunity to look at her face from close up. She was even more beautiful from this distance. And what's more is that he noticed that she had yet to let go of his hand.
Wanda was also taking the time to observe Peter's face as well. The way his chocolate orbs stared straight at her, his boyish grin, and his light blush on his cheeks. He was absolutely adorable! Wanda automatically looked down towards his lips as she got lost in her inner temptations and nearly found herself leaning forward.
'Wanda you idiot, stop it!' she told herself. She snapped out of her trance and looked down with a sigh. She then removed her hand from Peter's and got up to go to the kitchen. 'You are not developing feelings for Peter! You're still mourning Vision!' she said to herself.
To a certain degree, that was true. But based off how her feelings have been around him, the strange butterflies that keep occurring in her stomach when she thinks of him.......she wasn't sure that she wasn't catching feelings for him. And the little episode that just now occurred had pretty much confirmed those thoughts to be true.
She may actually be developing feelings for Peter Parker.
But she knows that this isn't right. She shouldn't have feelings for him. This is all wrong. Isn't it?
Peter meanwhile was just watching in shock and disappointment as Wanda got up and walked away from him after they almost kissed. He then sighed as he looked down. 'Maybe she doesn't have feelings for me.' he thought. 'But she looked like she wanted to kiss me for a moment. So what's going on?'
"Okay......." Peter said, breaking the silence that occurred after they almost kissed. "So......how did you sleep at night?" he asked, trying to act like what happened never occurred to begin with.
"Fine." Wanda answered immediately. She knew what Peter was trying to do and was all on board. "Just uh......fine."
"Then why were you screaming?" Peter asked, with a quirked brow.
"Screaming?" Wanda asked.
"Yes. You were going like, "No! Billy, Tommy! What have you done?! I'm not a monster! I'm a mom!" Come on now." Peter elaborated. "I wanted to come and wake you up but......I didn't know if that would be right or not. Or if you would have accidentally flung me all the way to the other side of New York in fright."
Wanda only blinked at Peter's words. Apparently she talks in her sleep as well. And she clearly cannot keep a secret from Peter.
"Well, okay.....I just had a nightmare about what I did when I had the Darkhold." she admitted.
"The past can't be changed but the most important thing is that you're not doing those things anymore. You made mistakes, and you are learning from them." Peter said.
"I know." Wanda said. "I guess it's still hard for me to forgive and forget what I did. Just wish I can make it all go away."
"One step at a time Wanda." Peter said. "That's all that you can do."
"Thanks Pete." Wanda said. Peter rubbed his hands together, put the guitar back into the corner and started to head off to his room, when Wanda winced and looked down in shame at herself. She had the power to manipulate reality to her will, but she cannot have the power to manipulate her emotions and her feelings.
She had to get her feelings figured out, and soon. Because she knows she's giving out mixed signals. She's been having mixed signals withing herself about her feelings. And now those are starting to fall on Peter himself, and she didn't want that. So she had to get to the bottom of this. For Peter's sake......and for her own.
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Scarlet Witch and Spider-Man were once again on crime patrol. Normally they would be talking up a storm with each other about anything and everything. But tonight it was rather awkward after they almost kissed earlier in the day. And now neither of them know what to say to each other.
'She has been eying your new suit with disdain for ten minutes now.' the voice in his head said. Spider-Man looked and sure enough, Scarlet Witch was looking at the suit discretely. And she had on a bit of a judgemental expression as she did.
'Don't even know why you're even attracted to her!' the voice continued.
'Wanda is a great lady!' Spider-Man said in his mind. 'She's fun, smart, funny, gentle and all-around loving! Do not talk about her like that!'
'To each his own.' the voice said, causing Spider-Man to get even angrier. But he was suddenly calmed down when Scarlet Witch finally broke the silence.
"So......did anything exciting happen last night on patrol?" she asked.
Oh yeah. That.
"Something massive happened last night for sure." Spider-Man said. "I had another encounter with the giant lizard."
"What?!" Scarlet Witch said, turning to Spider-Man. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?!" she asked.
"My bad. It just never came to my mind." Spider-Man said. Scarlet Witch sighed in response. "Besides, you didn't miss much. I failed to cure him again."
"The cure got destroyed again Peter?" Scarlet Witch asked.
"No. Actually, I had the lizard beaten. But I was distracted. Courtesy of Eddie Brock." Spider-Man said.
"Eddie Brock?" Scarlet Witch asked. "Why does that name sound familiar?"
"Because he was the one I competed with for the Bugile job. He was gonna turn Connors into the police with the pictures he took." Spider-Man explained. "I couldn't let him ruin Connors' life like that. He didn't choose to be the lizard. So why should he pay for the lizard's crimes?"
"I agree." Scarlet Witch said.
"So after we.......talked, I went back to cure Connors. But he was already gone." Spider-Man said. Scarlet Witch groaned in frustration and put her face in her hands.
"Had I been there the, lizard would probably have been history by now." she commented. "Instead we gotta wait for him to appear, again."
Spider-Man was about to respond when something else caught his attention. "Speaking of reappearances...." he said looking out to the city.
Scarlet Witch looked in the direction he was currently focused on to see what he was talking about. She was expecting to see the lizard once more. Instead she saw a small black and white figure running on top of buildings. A feminine one to be exact.
"Who is that?" Scarlet Witch asked.
"That is Black Cat. A jewel thief. She was the one I was trying to stop the night that you found me saying that you wanted to be friends. But she got away." Spider-Man explained.
"It seems you have a habit of letting criminals get away." Scarlet Witch smirked.
"Well that hurts." Spider-Man said.
"I'm just teasing." she said. "Now let's go stop her."
"I'm with you there." Spider-Man said.