Author's Note: I own nothing.

9 Maybes

Wanda stared up at her ceiling a frown on her face. She didn't look up as the door opened but she did glance to the side as someone flopped down on the bed next to her. Pietro was frowning at her.

"You're thinking again." He stated as if that was a bad thing. She rolled her eyes, but she knew what he meant. She took a deep breath and there was a soft thunk as the items floating around her room settled back into their places. When she overthought things her powers could get a touch out of hand.

Pietro didn't need to be a telepath to know what his sister was thinking about. He'd been thinking himself for a while now, since Tony had announced that he was selling Stark Tower and moving the Avengers upstate. Tony claimed that it was because there just wasn't enough room in the tower anymore. But no one believed him. After all there was an empty floor that almost no one ever visited. No one was even sure he was really selling the tower. But the move upstate had gone ahead. Pietro would admit that the Compound was definitely more spacious than the tower with more room to run and that was nice but those that weren't there left a noticeable hole.

Thor had left to only he knew where, no one had seen the Hulk, or Dr. Banner since Sokovia but it was the missing teens that left the Compound echoing in silence where there had been laughter. He couldn't help the comparison, he'd gotten used to the teens over the last five months.

It had started when Spidergirl introduced herself as Piper Parker-Stark, adopted daughter of Tony Stark. It had confused the shit out of him at first because he had no idea why she would have saved him, she hadn't been there when he and Wanda had turned against Ultron. When he'd asked her about it she'd just shrugged. But she'd been a voice of reason for the Avengers, intervening when Tony spent too long in the lab or when Steve stayed up late nights training.

"It is weird without them." Pietro said into the silence of the room. Wanda reached over and took his hand.

"It is." Tony had been seen around the compound less and less since the move. None of them were sure where he was going, Pepper had retreated as well, dealing with her grief in her own way. Her friends had scattered and even Natasha had been down these days. Pietro sighed sitting up and poking Wanda in the side until she sat up too.

"We knew that situations like this were gonna be possible. We know it better than most." Pietro pointed out and Wanda nodded scrubbing at her face. They'd lived in wars since they were children, the threat of death had hung over them for years. They'd known people younger than them, friends, who had died before; in much more bloody and violent drawn out ways than a quick vaporization. It was likely that neither Piper nor the Goblin had felt anything and she took some comfort in that. She hugged her brother and nodded.

"Come on, let's find something for dinner." She said fixing a smile into place. Pietro nodded.

"As long as Vision isn't cooking anymore. I am firmly of the opinion that you needs to be able to eat your own cooking to make other people eat it and he can't eat." Wanda laughed and the twins headed out of her room towards the compound's communal kitchen.

Hobie intercepted Piper as she lunged at the Goblin.

"What the fuck is going on!" He demanded. Piper pulled them both off the wall as a fire hydrant the Goblin had just ripped out of the ground came sailing their way.

"We both got hit with lightning from a miniaturized super collider. Somehow that threw us here. But physical contact is energizing the lightning we got hit with. If I'm right it could slingshot us home." She said as they swung to the ground. Hobie stared at her, shaking his head, the spikes on his mask gleaming in the light from the few working streetlights.

"And if you're wrong?" He asked and Piper shrugged.

"At this point what do I have to lose? It was nice to meet you Spiderpunk." With that she leapt onto the Goblin's back. Lightning crackled and crashed around them as the Goblin began to panic. Hobie stumbled backwards and a moment later a bright flash of light nearly blinded him. When he regained some semblance of vision Time Square was dark and empty save for himself. The Spidergirl and the Goblin were gone. He shook his head, he hoped she'd ended up back home but if he knew anything about the multiverse it was never quite that easy.

Mary Jane Watson was not a fool. She had planned for years to become an investigative reporter. She prided herself on being observant. She knew that Piper wasn't telling her something, she'd known for a while but she hadn't ever been able to wheedle the truth out of her oldest friend. When Tony Stark called her up she was a bit confused. She liked Tony, he was a good father to Piper but MJ hadn't ever really spoken to him one on one before. He also didn't have her come to the tower. Instead they met at a high rise apartment, the penthouse of course. He was waiting there sitting at the kitchen island nursing a glass of whiskey. She frowned.

"Mr. Stark?" She asked and he nodded.

"Hello, Miss Watson. I… I honestly have no idea how to tell you this." MJ's heart dropped.

"Something's happened to Piper hasn't it?" It was the only feasible reason for this. Tony nodded staring into his glass like it could somehow solve his problem. He didn't take another sip however.

"Yeah. She. She wanted me to tell you but I have no idea how to put it into words. So I called someone here who might be able to phrase it better." The elevator dinged again as Tony continued to contemplate the whiskey in his cup, seemingly trying to decide if he was going to drink it or not. Harry Osborn stepped out of the elevator. He'd been spending a lot of his time bouncing from Berkley to the office at Oscorp. He stepped over to MJ and pulled her into a quick hug before leading her over to the couch.

"Harry what happened?" She demanded as she allowed herself to be sat down. He sighed.

"MJ, remember how we both thought Piper was hiding something from us?" MJ nodded praying it wasn't something terrible. "Well she was. MJ there really isn't any easy way to say this so I'm just going to do it. Piper was Spidergirl." Silence rang through the room as Tony, still at the kitchen island, decided that yes he did want to drink his whiskey after all. MJ felt like the rug had just been yanked out from under her feet. If she hadn't already been sitting she was sure she would have fallen.

"But… that means she…" The memory of watching that horrible video of Spidergirl vanishing as she battled the Goblin in real time flashed across her mind. She'd sat down and sobbed even as she was bombarded with emails from Jamison to make sure that she sent him every angle of the video she could find for the report the Bugle was putting together. Harry nodded.

"Yes, that's what it means." Harry said tears in his eyes.

"That explains the statue." MJ said with a laugh as she burst into tears. Harry sat down next to her and pulled her into his arms. She felt tears dripping onto her shoulder and realized that they were both crying. She was almost certain she heard Tony sniffling from the kitchen too.