---
It didn't take us very long to change, Peter took longer than I did but still; to him, putting on his suit was like putting on a second skin. And before we knew it we were crawling out the window and traveling down the canel in a small boat Fury was driving. The city looked different at night, still beautiful though just very different.
"Stark left these for you, Peter." Fury said making my head snap towards him.
"Really?" Peter muttered. Fury then pulled a small case out of his jacket pocket and slowly held them up for Peter to take. Hesitantly Peter reached out and took them, breathing heavily as he prepared to open them. I quickly went up onto my tippy toes so I could see over his shoulder and see what Tony left for him. Lifting up the lid Peter revealed a pair of very classic Tony Stark glasses. I couldn't help but smile at the fond memories that entered my mind.
"Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. Stark said you wouldn't get that because it's not a Star Wars reference." Fury said, a small chortle coming out of his mouth at the end of his sentence. My smile grew as I leaned forwards and rested my chin on Peter's shoulder, wrapping my arms around his waist from behind.
---
Another 15 minutes went by of us standing in the boat silently before we had reached our final destination. Fury had lead us into what appeared to be a sewer system, if I don't know Fury I'd say he was trying to murder us.
"You can lose the masks." Fury directed over his shoulder. "Everyone here has seen you both without them. You'd be feigning anonymity and breathing through fabric for no good reason." He explained before he continued walking down the path he was leading us.
I glanced to Peter, not seeing the hesitation I thought I'd see from him before he yanked his mask off over his head with a puff. I sighed dejectedly, pulling my face mask down off my nose and pulling it off my face all together. To make sure I didn't lose it down in the sewers I wrapped the two ear loops around my wrist.
"Come on." Fury waved us over with a nod of his head. That's when I finally took in where Fury had brought us. My lips parted slightly at the sight of the underground base they'd set up, very recently by the looks of it.
"Yeah." Peter muttered before following after Fury, I slowly started to follow after him. Although I did so hesitantly, I don't know what was wrong but something was.
"Over there, we have Maria Hill." Fury motioned to Maria who I knew from way back in the day, more recently though she attended Tony's funeral. She peeled her eyes away from what she was typing for a split second to give us her normal stone cold expression. "That is Dimitri." Fury said motioning his hand towards the man sitting on the desk next to Maria. He glanced at us, staring at us intently as he cocked the gun in his lap. "And this is Mr. Beck." Fury stopped near the centre of the room as he introduced us to the man stood with his back to us, leaning on the central table. His cape shifted as he looked over his shoulder at us.
"Mysterio?" Peter asked as I cocked my head to the side, frowning my brows at the man in front of us.
"What?" He asked, turning to face us properly.
"Doesn't matter. It's just what my friends have been calling you." Peter waved off, the nerves clear in his voice. Mysterio slowly started to make his way towards us, extending his hand towards Peter. I narrowed my eyes at the man, I already didn't like him and he'd said one word.
"Well, you can just call me Quentin." He introduced himself before clapping his hand against Peters in a polite handshake. "You two handled yourself well out there today." Quentin said glancing towards me as he dropped Peter's hand. "I saw what you did with the tower. We could use people like you guys on my world." He said turning back towards the central table he was at before we were introduced to him.
"Thanks." Peter said glancing over his shoulder at me, a bright smile crossing his face. But that smile soon fell into a frown, causing him to whip back around and face Beck. "I'm sorry. Your world?"
"Mr. Beck is from Earth. Just not yours." Fury said making me cock a brow at him now. Fury seemed a little off too...
"Don't you mean ours, Fury." I smirked crossing my arms over my chest. I watched his eyes narrow on me for a split second before he cleared his throat and moved past us, motioning to Beck for him to speak.
"There are multiple realities. This is Earth dimension 616. I'm from Earth 833." Beck explained making me subtly roll my eyes at his words.
"I'm sorry, you're saying that there's a multiverse?" Peter asked eagerly stepping forwards to come closer to Beck. "I thought that was just theoretical. That changes how we understand the initial singularity. We're talking about an eternal inflation system. Cause how does that even work with all the quantum..? It's insane..." He trailed off, I couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt pluck at my heart strings hearing how excited this made him and I kept it all from him. Peter then look towards Fury and Maria seeing the confusion evident all over their faces. "Sorry. It's really cool." He mumbled turning back to Beck.
"Don't ever apologise for being the smartest one in the room." Beck grinned, causing Peter to grin back at him.
"Mr. Beck, may I ask you a question?" I but in before anything else could be said about why the hell we were here. He nodded, silently telling me to continue. "How did you get here? Multiversal travel is very difficult from what I know. I can't even do that, I know one person who can and that's it. So, how?" I asked narrowing my eyes at him, watching as he shrunk under my intense gaze. I could see Peter's gaze suddenly flick to me out of the corner of my eye making me gulp.
"Don't mind her, she's just got major trust issues." Peter chuckled, although I let out a huff of air, my heart cracking slightly in my chest. I'm sure he didn't mean to hurt my feelings and yet...
"The how doesn't matter. What matters is what's here now." Fury cut in, nodding towards Maria. My lips parted at Fury's words, that wasn't the Fury I knew. The Fury I knew would want to know the answer to my question. Maria pressed a few keys on her keyboard causing a holographic image of a black hole appear above the central table. Beck cleared his throat before speaking.
"They were born in stable orbits within black holes. Creatures formed from the primary elements: Air, water, fire, earth." Beck explained as the water monster formed on the hologram, alongside a tornado looking one, one made out of melted gold and lastly one made of pure fire. "The Science Division had a technical name. We just called them Elementals."
"Versions of them exist across our mythologies." Maria added, as the monsters turned into the pictures that were from our mythologies.
"Turns out, the myths are real."
"Like Thor." Peter added, making me nod my head to the side, he wasn't wrong. "Thor was a myth, now I study him in my physics class."
"These myths are threats." Fury told us, wandering around the table until he was behind Beck.
"They first materialised on my Earth many years ago." The hologram changed at Beck's words, turning into a representation of Beck's version of Earth. "We mobilised and fought them, but with each battle, they grew, got stronger." Curtain points on the map were highlighted, I'm assuming where the Elementals showed up. "I was part of the last battalion left trying to stop them." As he continued speaking a wave of fire engulfed the earth, covering it in the orange fiery substance. "All we did was delay the inevitable."
"The Elementals are here now, attacking the same coordinates. Our satellites confirm it." Maria nodded from the opposite side of the table from me.
"So thank Mr. Beck for destroying the other three. There's only one left: fire." Fury added from the chair he had sat himself down on behind Beck.
"The strongest of them all. The one that destroyed my Earth." Beck said as the hologram of the now completely red Earth started to crumple away until there was nothing left looming over the table. "It's the one that took my family."
"I'm sorry." Peter whispered, my eyes gravitated down to Beck's ring finger watching carefully as he spun a wedding ring around his finger. I must admit his story was rather believable but there wasn't a chance in hell that I was going to fall for it.
"And it will be in Prague in approximately 48 hours." Maria said, staring down at the table where the hologram was.
"We have one mission: kill it. And you two are coming with us." Fury said, glancing up to me and Peter. My eyes went slightly wide as I glanced between Maria and Fury, shocked at what they were asking of us.
"I'm sorry, did you say Prague?" Peter asked, just as speechless as I was, glancing between the two. "Ueh... Mr. Fury, this all seems like bigtime, you know, huge superhero kind of stuff. And... I mean, I'm just a friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, sir."
"Bitch, please. You've been to space." Fury huffed out. I quickly stepped in trying to persuade our case.
"I'm tired, Fury. I'm so God damn tired, I need this break. We need this break. There's got to be someone else you can use." I explained, dropping my arms down to my side.
"Yeah, what about Thor?" Peter agreed, walking around the table to stand opposite Fury.
"Off-world." Fury answered plainly.
"Okay, um, Doctor Strange."
"Unavailable." Maria answered just as plainly.
"Captain Marvel."
"Don't invoke her name." Fury shook his head, intently staring up at Peter.
"Sir, look, I really want to help. I do. But if my aunt finds out I left my class trip, she's gonna kill me." Peter sighed before looking and motioning towards me. "And if we're seen like this in Europe after the Washington Monument, our class is gonna figure out who we are, then, and then the whole world will figure out who we are, and then we're done." Peter spoke on my behalf, though this time I didn't mind, this time it was sweet.
"Okay." Fury said, after a moment of silence, his voice and eyes giving off nothing but tense vibes making me uncomfortably shift the weight on my feet. "I understand."
"I'm sorry, what?" Peter asked in disbelief, glancing my way for a split second before looking back to Fury for confirmation.
"Why don't you get back before your teachers miss you and become suspicious." Fury said before tilting his head to the side and smiling up at Peter, then quickly flicking his gaze over to me. "Dimitri." Fury called, dropping the phoney smile. "Take them back to the hotel, please."
"Yes." Dimitri said with a nod of his head, turning on his heels beginning to walk towards the boat we arrived on.
"Thank you, Fury." I politely bowed my head in Fury's direction before turning on my heels and following after Dimitri.
"Thank you, Mr. Fury. And, uh, good luck." Peter said from behind me, his shuffling feet getting closer.
"See you, kid." Came Beck's voice, making me roll my eyes.
"Yeah, see you." Peter mumbled before continuing to move. "Bye, ma'am."
"Yeah."
Suddenly Peter's footsteps quickened, approaching me from behind. Once he was next to me he sent me a smile, lacing his hand within mine. I just sent him a forced smile in return, averting my gaze down to the floor beneath my moving feet. His words from earlier playing over again in my head.
"Don't mind her, she's just got major trust issues."
---
It didn't take us very long until we were both climbing back into the run down hotel through the window. The second my feet touched the old wooden floor I glanced to where Ned was passed out before we left. He was still there letting out the occasional loud snore. I sighed waiting for Peter to follow me inside, taking a seat down on the edge of his bed as I waited. I heard his feet quietly land on the floor but I kept my gaze averted to the wooden slats, my mind running a thousand miles an hour. Anger beginning to pulse through my veins like hot lava.
"Hey, you okay?" Peter whispered, given that it's still late at night. The amount of concern evident in his voice made me soften a little but then those God damned words he mindlessly uttered ran back through my brain.
"Did you mean it?" I whispered, airily quietly.
"What?" He asked making my gaze snap up to meet his, my eyes already beginning to twitch in irritation.
"Did you mean what you said?" I asked, slowly pushing myself up off the bed to become eye level with him. I watched him shrink a little under my intense gaze. He remained silent so I decided to remind him of what he uttered down in the sewers. "'Don't mind her, she's just got major trust issues.' Did, you, mean, it?"
"Of course I didn't mean it. I'm sorry, okay?" He lightheartedly chuckled, brushing off the issue like it didn't matter. "Can we just forget about and go to bed, please? I'm tired, your tired, this is not the right time to have this conversation."
I didn't respond in words, instead I tilted my head, narrowing in on his brain, his thoughts. My brows frowned in concentration as Peter frowned his in confusion.
"What're you doing?" He asked. Yet again no words made it out of my mouth, I just made my eyes flash, the bright purple light shining on the walls before it faded. "Stop it. You told me you'd never do this. Y/n, stop!" He began whisper-yelling at me.
"No." I muttered between gritted teeth, standing my ground. But my whole face relaxed as I found what I was looking for. The words he seemed to think and sometimes say all the time...
"She's just... So, untrusting... She's got some serious trust issues that get in the way." Peter groaned to Ned in the memory I was accessing.
"You think it all the time." I spat, my eyes starting to sting indicating tears were going to form soon . I let out a choking breath as I severed the connection between us and looked off at the wall.
"Baby..." He tried to ease my bullet train of thoughts but I just scoffed, not wanting to hear it.
"Don't!" I whisper-yelled at him, dramatically turning to face him. "Just... Don't. I need to leave. Go for a walk." I whispered, turning to face the door as a stray tear leaked out of my eye. I quickly swiped it away, ignoring it's existence entirely.
"You're not innocent in this either." Peter spoke up from behind me, making me raise my head, waiting for him to go on. "You never told me you knew about the Multiverse. How could you not tell me something like that!" He was starting to get mad now, the guilt had been replaced. I quickly spun around advancing on him, semi threateningly.
"Do you want to know why I don't tell you things like that? It's cause it scares me. The things I read aren't nice, the things I read in the Darkhold tell me I'm supposed to kill you." The tears were dripping down my face freely now. "I'm supposed to kill everyone. So I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the Multiverse, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about anything I read out of that damned book!" I was left puffing as I finished my rant, fists clenched at my side, fingers digging into my palm so hard that it could draw blood.
"I-"
"I'm leaving." I announced before he could continue. Without another word I hastily made my way to the door, and outside the hotel as a whole. I needed freash air, clear my head.
With a roll of my shoulders a hoodie appeared over my torso. Yanking the hood over my head I began walking down the canal.
---
After a good half an hour I decided to head back and go to bed, my bed, not Peter's. Even though I was no longer angry at him, I still didn't want to see him. So, as quietly as I could I popped open the door to mine and MJ's shared room, turning to slip it closed. With a tired sigh I leant my forehead on the door, I think I could just sleep here to be honest.
"Peter dropped by." MJ's sudden voice piping up made me jump, whipping around to face her. She was sat in her bed, book in hand, looking over to me sadly. "He asked if you were here. Told me that you guys had a fight... I told him you probably went for walk to clear your head but I'd tell you he dropped by. I think you should go and talk to him." I didn't know what to say, no words were forming in my mouth. So I just lightly nodded at her and left the room again.
Walking down the hall I stopped in front of Peter's door. I let out a sigh, shaking out my body before I raised my fist to knock. With a final breath I lightly knocked on the wooden door. I only managed that one knock before the door in front of me was ripped open revealing a disheveled Peter. His eyes were red and puffy like he'd cried the entire time I was out. And his hair was all over the place, most likely from him yanking at it. He didn't waste another second before he leapt forwards and wrapped his arms super tightly around me. I hesitated for a second but melted into him, wrapping my own arms around his neck and bringing him closer.
"I'm so sorry." He hoarsely whispered out, bringing his lips to my temple. He then continued to litter small affectionate kisses all over the side of my face. I pulled back from the hug, though both of us left our arms around the other.
"I'm sorry too. I should've told you. I don't know why..." I words died on my tongue as more tears started to form.
"It's okay." Peter soothed, peppering more kisses across my cheeks, nose and forehead. "I understand. You've got a lot on your plate, you've been through so much." He mumbled against my forehead, leaving his lips stationary as we just held onto each other for dear life. "You're not gonna leave me, are you?" Peter's voice cracked as he spoke back up.
"What? No." I pulled back, cupping his cheeks so he'd look me dead in the eye. "I..." Just say it, nows a perfect time to tell him I love him, right? "I would never leave you, okay?" Now it was my turn for my voice to crack, sealing my eyes shut in defeat that I couldn't just say those simple words.
"Okay." He mumbled, before I felt him gently place his lips on mine. But he gave me no time to reciprocate by pulling back, so I chased after him slamming my lips back into his. My fingers threading into his hair as I pulled him closer to me. Slowly I pulled back, my eyes pealing open only to find he was already looking at me.
"I'll be right back okay." I told him in a soft whisper, giving him another quick peak before trying to pull away but his arms just tightened around my waist refusing to let me leave. I couldn't help but chuckle at his anxiousness to let me go like I'd disappear if he did. "I'm just going to go and get changed, I'll be right back. It's alright, Беба."
*Baby.*
Peter sighed at the pet name in my native tongue of Sokovian, he always seemed to love when I spoke it. Giving him one final peak on the cheek I wiggled out of his iron tight grip and made my way back down the hall to my shared room with MJ. I swiftly got changed, MJ not saying anything being to enthralled by her book.
"I'll see you tomorrow morning." I whispered to MJ, receiving a playful eye roll from her to which I chuckled at. Once again I made my way back to Ned and Peter's shared room now in my PJ's.
Slowly I creaked their door open, hearing Ned's loud snoring already. Chuckling to myself I edged myself through the crack in the door, glancing to Peter's bed as I clicked the door closed. He was now curled up in the sheets, eyes having drifted closed from the long ass day we've had. Quietly I made my way over to him bobbing down next to the bed.
"Room for me?" I whispered, gently bringing my hand up and combing my fingers through his hair. His eyes sleepily pealed open, a lazy grin taking over most of his face. He nodded, sighing in relaxation making my smile grow as I brushed a few hairs out of his eyes. He began to shuffle over, making room for me but causing my hand to slip out of his hair, a soft pout crossing my lips. Shaking it off I slid under the covers next to him, lying down on my side to face him whilst bringing my leg up to cross over his hips. He sighed contently, eyes drifting closed as I started to run my fingers through his hair again, trying to get him to fall back asleep.
"Can I ask you a question?" He asked, his eyes still shut.
"Sure." I muttered, absentmindedly placing a sweet kiss along his jawline.
"Do you think your parents would've liked me?" He asked, causing a fond smile to form. Does that mean he's actually thought about that before, I'd be lying if I said I hadn't.
"Yeah." I chimed. "My Mum would've loved you. She loved everyone. Despite what the world was like around us, she always had hope in people." I softly smiled, pressing my nose into Peter's cheek to try and stop myself from breaking down in tears.
"And your Dad?"
"He would've been harder to crack but I think you would've done it." I told him, staring at his relaxed, closed eyes as I got lost in the thought. "He would've done the whole tough guy act though..."
"Do you think you brother would've liked me?" I started to quietly chuckle at his question making him open his eyes and turn his head to face me. "What?" He asked, a cheery smile crossing his face.
"He would've hated you." I chuckled, bring my hand up to cup his cheek, gently running my thumb along his cheekbone.
"What? Why?" He asked, shock lacing his tone. Brows frowning as his eyes flicked between mine.
"You're the guy sleeping with his little sister, you tell me." I chuckled, glancing between his eyes like he had just done.
"Okay, you have a good point."
---