Reinhard van Astrea was not supposed to be on duty today.

The explosion in the slums still seemed like it was something that he ought to look into and though it was a bit of a jog from where he was for a normal person it took him almost no time to reach the run down location. As he stood outside of the shack it looked like—well it looked like he had unleashed one of his smaller attacks inside. There was ice jutting through the walls and the air was frigid around the building even as he approached.

The door was gone off the hinges when he stepped through and he surveyed the room—damage was pretty much irreparable. It might not even be safe to occupy it right now, though he couldn't be sure.

A silver haired woman at the far side of the room with a young girl and an older Demi-human was the only familiar person here: Emilia.

There were two others men, a younger man in strange clothes and a man dressed in a blue suit that covered him head to toe. Reinhard glanced to them as he passed and stopped to speak with them.

"Reinhard van Astrea, it would seem that you got into a scuffle here?" He said in an affable manner.

If there was any worry over him at all the two didn't show it, though they didn't exactly show recognition of his name either.

"Peter Parker."

"Steve Rogers."

They shook hands in turn. "It is nice to meet you both—were you helping Lady Emilia out?"

"Someone stole her, um, badge thingy," Peter made a little triangle with his hands as if to indicate the shape of the item that had been taken, "and they were going to sell it to this Elsa lady, but we tried to buy it back and she just went crazy—" he stopped himself there.

Reinhard ran a pale hand through his bright red hair. "If you've protected Lady Emilia you have my humble thanks, from the bottom of my heart and from the Knights of Lugunica."

"Whoa, you're a knight? That's so cool!" Peter said.

Reinhard glanced to Emilia, judging when the right time to intervene and speak to her would be as he rubbed his chin. "I don't know what the temperature of anything has to do with me being a knight, but I must be going."

"It was good to meet you," Steve said.

"Nice meeting you, sir," Peter stammered.

Reinhard left the two men to their own devices and walked over to where Emilia sat with the other two people he didn't know. He waited, his hands folded behind his back until she approached him.

"Lady Emilia," he said with a reverent bow that bought him down to one knee. "Due to my shortcomings I have caused you a great deal of stress," said Reinhard.

He pulled his sword, still in the scabbard and laid it out on the floor in front of him. "I am ready to accept whatever punishment it is that you wish to dole out."

"For what? You were nowhere nearby," said Emilia.

"It is exactly because I was not present that things escalated to the point that you and these other citizens were injured," said Reinhard.

Emilia folded her arms, disgruntled. "I will never get why you are like this."

"I do not understand?" Reinhard asked.

"You were not here. Besides, Mister Rogers and Peter here helped me to force this woman back," Emilia said.

Lady Emilia had an odd refined beauty about her, the silver hair, which may have to some marked her as untrustworthy also seemed to be a sign of regality. He was sure, as he looked down into her purple and blue eyes that she was one of the chosen ones.

"How is it that you found us here?" Asked Emilia.

"I saw the commotion from a distance away and rushed to see what it was," Reinhard said. "It would seem I was too late."

"I'll have no more of that," Emilia said, holding up a hand. Her eyes went narrow as she stared at him.

His eyes drifted toward Felt and Rom. "Who was it that stole your badge?" Reinhard asked.

Emilia gasped, her eyes went wide as she stared at Reinhard. "How—"

Reinhard waved his hand at her nonchalantly. "Don't worry, I'm not able to read minds or anything like that," he said. "Peter, over there, told me what happened."

"Oh," Emilia said. "It was the girl. She's called Felt—and while I recognize your authority here, I will have to ask you not to intervene in this matter."

"I will refrain from prying, Lady Emilia, but given the state of this building and what I can only assume happened here I will ask that you allow me to send a group of knights to accompany you back to the margravate," Reinhard said.

Emilia sighed. "Under normally circumstances I would reuse, but I'll accept. Begrudgingly." Though she wore a serious expression for quite some time, Emilia cracked a slight smile.

"What?" Reinhard asked.

"It's just funny to see the illustrious Sword Saint so flustered over something."

"No one really calls me that," he said rubbing the back of his head and getting back to his feet.

"I assure you that they do," Emilia glanced over her shoulder to Felt and Rom. "If you'll excuse me."

As Emilia came nearer, Felt looked up, her red eyes catching the glow from the light reflecting off of all the ice still in the room. There was a hint of fear that passed over Felt's face, but she quickly sought to compose herself.

"If you're going to turn me in, just—"

"I'm not turning you in," Emilia said. "I'd just like my property back."

Felt fished it out of the pocket of her clothing and rolled the small item over in her hand several times before holding it up. The gem at its center glowed red. It may have been a trick of the light if she hadn't been moving, but the area where her hand was outstretched was almost entirely in shadow.

"You should take better care of keeping your valuables safe," Felt chided her.

"A little strange coming from you, but I would hope that I could convince you to stop robbing people," Emilia said taking the badge from her hands.

"Not going to happen. It might not be that hard for someone like you to eat and live day to day—but I've got to do something so I don't starve!"

Old Man Rom had passed out now, despite the modest healing that Emilia had performed he would still need substantial rest. "Is Rom your family?"

Felt nodded. "Closest thing anyway," she said rubbing the back of her head and averting her eyes. "Hey look, I just wanted to say thanks for helping heal him back there."

"You're welcome."

In a flash, Reinhard was there, holding Felt by the arm and looking at the fingers that had just held the badge.

"Hey, let me go—it hurts," Felt said.

Emilia was in a state of utter shock and even Peter and Steve were staring in their direction. Reinhard did loosen his grip on the girl at her request, but didn't release her.

"I just told her that I was not turning her in. After all, she had no idea of the items value or what it was even for," Emilia explained.

"It is not that crime that has me worried, but the greater one of letting what I just witnessed go untested," Reinhard said. "Miss Felt, what is your family name?"

"I'm an orphan, I don't have one!" Felt said, still tugging and struggling to get away.

"How old are you?"

"Fifteen—let me go!"

Reinhard turned to Emilia, though he shot a solemn glance to Peter and Steve he looked ready to pounce. "Lady Emilia, I am afraid that I will be unable to fulfill your earlier request."

"What's this about?" Emilia asked.

Steve walked over, both hands out in front of him in the most nonthreatening pose he could muster. "Why don't we put the girl down and talk things out," he said.

Felt was struggling, kicked and batting at Reinhard though it didn't weaken his resolve. "I assure you that no harm will come to her, she is not under arrest," Reinhard explained. "I can not say more."

Emilia looked to Peter and Steve. "I trust him—he must have some very good reason," she said looking to them.

"You brute! I'll kick your ass...just…you—" as Felt spoke her body became sluggish and she finally went limp. Reinhard scooped her up under one arm, carrying her with ease.

"You just promised you would be kind to her and then you do this—you could permanently damage her gate," said Emilia.

"I have a fair bit of life experience with this," Reinhard said. "I was careful—I have a feeling that you and I will be seeing each other again very soon," he said.

Emilia glances to Steve and Peter, her expression wavering. The look on her face said that she was considering what he could have meant or been doing with this girl, but she also couldn't see Reinhard doing anything that would actually be bad.

"That not ominous," Peter said. He hoped that they had sarcasm in this world

Reinhard smiled wistfully in his direction. "I'd ask that you two keep an eye on her—it seems like you're both adept at handling yourselves?"

Steve stared on like he wanted to say something but settled for a slight nod of the head instead.

Reinhard bid them farewell with Felt carried in his arms. Without the threat of her kicking and fighting he could gaze upon her face now and see that she would indeed clean up well. He stopped a short distance from the old Loot House to admire the moon in the sky. By some twist of fate he had been brought here on this night and spotted the girl. It was his duty to see that her birthright, if she was who he suspected, was fulfilled.

They had stayed behind to explain to Old Man Rom what had happened and see to it that he was going to be okay with the Loot House decimated in the fight with that assassin, by the time they left it was well into the night. Some of the Knights brought a carriage out to the slums and they were ferried back through city to the nearest gate. Before long they were out on the countryside with the walls of the city in the distance behind them.

Outside of the carriage a contingent of knights flanked the vehicle, riding along on the backs of what Emilia had explained were called Ground Dragons. The revelation that this is what they were excited Peter because it meant that there were actually dragons here and it implied the possibility of sky dragons. Inside of the carriage Peter and Steve sat to one side facing Emilia and her knight escort: a Demi-Human cat woman with a rather perky demeanor who seemed to be chatting away with Emilia.

She had given her name as Ferris, though she didn't seem to be too interested in Steven and Peter for now. Ferris wore a slip like dress and had bistre hair that was styled into a neat bob. Now and then her ears would twitch as she listened to Emilia. There was nothing about her that conveyed what Peter saw as a knight's demeanor. Then again, he didn't know this world's culture since he had only been here a hand full of hours.

Steve leaned closer to Peter. "When you got here what was happening?"

"What was happening—right. So I climbed into a space ship to help Mister Stark chase after these, like, crazy alien guys—then we were in space and we met this other Peter and there was like some other people with him. And we went to a red planet. Not Mars. Another red planet, that's where we fought the purple guy with the glove. We almost had it off of him and then he escaped through a portal and a few moments later I was here."

Steve nodded. "Okay, that was a very long explanation. I meant immediately before."

"Sorry, right-right. What about with you?"

"Same purple guy came out of a portal and we were fighting. He got the last stone and snapped."

"But he wanted to wipe out half of all life—so why are we alive somewhere else?" Asked Peter.

Steve shrugged. "Maybe there was some limitation with something or maybe there's something else going on here."

Peter took a deep breath, resting his hands on his knees. "Right, right. I should say it now just to get it out of the way."

"Say what?" Asked Steve.

"When we got out side and were waiting for the carriages I looked at the sky and thought—that's how we can find out where we are. So, I had Karen, she's the lady in my suit—I mean the AI, to look at the stars and try to piece together a star map and compare it to the ones on Earth. Even accounting for the different angles that the stars could be viewed from to some degree she doesn't recognize a single thing up there," Peter explained, moving one hand around the other to demonstrate angles.

"Tony put all that in your suit?" Steve asked.

"It's not perfect. I mean, without the Stark satellites it will be limited in what I can do. But I can charge the suit in the sun through solar power—assuming their sun works like ours—and charge my phone off the suit…not that I can actually call anyone."

Steve Rogers leaned back against the side wall of the carriage and peeled back the little frilly curtain that covered the window to gaze up at the sky. "So we're too far from home to have any chance of traveling back—which is already impossible unless Tony put a whole rocket in that thing."

"I don't think that even he planned that far ahead," said Peter finally.

Steve hung his head, but a small grin worked its way over his face. "The last time that we tried to do the impossible we got our asses handed to us," Steve said.

Emilia and Ferris had stopped talking and both were staring across at the two would-be Avengers. Emilia pressed her hands down into her lap, wrinkling the pleated white skirt she wore.

Ferris started, making a little cat-like noise. "Miss Emilia speaks quite highly of you two—that Bowel Hunter woman is a nasty piece of work. She's even killed knights in the past. So you show up in the capital without a hint of pomp or circumstance and fend her off. I'd say pretty impressive indeed." She finished her statement with a little hiss.

Steve nodded. "We've had a fair share of fights in the past."

No point being vague, Peter thought. What did he have to gain by concealing the truth? "The thing is we're not from here—like even from this world, you could say."

"You're from another of the Kingdoms then? Vollachia? Or maybe Gusteko? Or-or Kararagi..."

"Further away, really," Peter said. "We're from a place called Earth."

Emilia and Ferris looked at each other blinking so hard in confusion that it was practically audible.

"Earth is—the land and the Kingdom is called America," Steve explained smiling. "We're both from an area called New York—Brooklyn and Queens respectively," Steve added.

"Brook Land—huh, must be a place with a lot of water," Ferris guessed.

Peter chuckled. "You're not technically wrong."

Emilia, nodded as she still took this all in. "How did you get here?"

"We don't know—we kind of appeared. Maybe it was some sort of—TELEPORTATION MAGIC!" Peter said excitedly.

"You call yourself a Captain, were you a knight of some kind in your homeland?" Emilia asked.

"Kind of," Peter answered pointing at Steve. "He was like one of our greatest warriors as part of something called the Avengers and, well I was kind of an Avenger too."

Ferris's ears twitched up and down. "Oh, Miss Emilia haven't you been looking for some strapping young knight to back you?"

Emilia waved her hands back and forth in front of herself, her face reddening by the second. "Th-that's a little forward for me to ask don't you think."

There was something intoxicating about Emilia. Peter had noted this before but now in the dull light of the moon filtering through the carriage windows. It must have been the whole elf thing, but he believed that she must have been one of the most beautiful women he'd ever laid eyes on. She even looked captivating when frantically trying to deny whatever it was that Ferris was suggesting.

"Um, uh Miss—Lady Ferris," Peter said.

Ferris looked to him, closed eyes and then said. "Oh, I'm not a girl. I'm a boy."

"Oh, sorry about that," Peter said.

"It's nothing."

"What did you mean about Emilia is looking for someone to back her?" Said Peter.

Ferris sighed. "It's a complicated issue, but I'd rather let Lady Emilia explain it herself in her own time."

As the carriage wobbled along the dirt road Emilia said nothing. A silence fell over the carriage and they stayed liked that for a long stretch. The air took on a slight chill, either from the night wearing on or them getting distance from the stone works of the city. The rolling hills of the countryside gave way to even larger rolling hills. Out the window Peter spotted something in the distance—a massive tree. It's base was several city blocks around and the height of the thing rivaled even some sky scrapers. The thing dominated the landscape.

"Dude, what's with that tree?" Peter asked.

Steve followed his eye line to see the monstrous tree. His mouth fell open and he leaned toward toward the window to get a better look.

"That's Flugel's Tree—someone planted it along the side of the Lifau Highway forever ago," Ferris said.

"I guess someone named Flugel was the one who planted it?" Peter chanced a guess.

"Meo, yeah, probably so," Ferris said.

Peter continued to watch the tree. "It must be ancient for it to have gotten so big. I wonder why where aren't any other trees around."

"I've seen some pretty weird stuff in my time, but it's going to be hard to top the last 24 hours," Steve said.

The chatter died down as the novelty of the huge tree wore down and all that was left was to look at it. Steve Rogers's breathing became shallow and even and Peter looked over to find him sleep, his hands clasped in front of him. Maybe one of the benefits of being a solider was having the ability to get comfortable anywhere.

Peter was too wired to think of attempting sleep. Plus he had so many questions, one of which he had never gotten a proper answer for.

"Who was Satella," Peter asked finally.

The air around him suddenly grew dense, like there was someone hovering over him just out of reach. He could feel air brush past his neck and ear though he knew where was no time or space for anyone to have gotten behind him.

It was Ferris that answered. "She was the Witch of Envy that caused the catastrophe centuries ago—where did you hear the name?"

Peter glanced to Emilia, but answered. "Around town."

"Well, meow it's not the best name to go mentioning. Talking about the Witch of Envy is a bit of a taboo most of the world over because of the havoc she caused," Ferris continued.

When Peter met Emilia's glance this time she wore an expression that could have been shock, fear, or embarrassment. It was probably closer to being some approximation to the three.

While Ferris seemed friendly enough the only other knight that they had encountered and spoken to this closely had taken that Felt girl after promising not to. He didn't really know the relation between Ferris and Emilia. Depending on how taboo the name was saying more could even land Emilia in some sort of trouble and although he was curious about why she would call herself that he didn't want to risk her facing consequences for it.

Plus Peter had very real problems to face if he and Steve were going to be stuck here for any amount of time: while his powers would work and had worked to great effect, he had spent a lot of webbing today. From the fighting on Earth to till now he had nearly expended a full cartridge and he only carried at most ten extras and one extra web-shooter. Typically it was no problem to produce more web fluid, but the materials to make it might not be refined enough or even available.

Hopefully he could get off using webs sparingly until he worked something out. At the very least buildings here were much shorter and most he could clear in a leap, so he wasn't going to waste nearly as much webbing traveling as he had back in New York.

"You have some kind of manor you live in?" Peter asked.

Emilia looked up. "Huh—oh yes, excuse me. It's not mine though, it belongs to Margrave Roswaal, though I think that he told me he would be out by the time I returned."

The comment about Satella had left some lingering anxiety hanging in the room. Peter decided to steer things back to silence with a flat. "I see."

And it worked.

Margrave Roswaal's Manor was massive, from the front gate the massive house stood against the backdrop of a moonlit forest. The manor was at the end of a long cobblestone path with branching out path of white brick lining either side of it. There were gas lanterns lit all down the entry driveway. The house itself was alabaster with several steeples jutting up into the starry night sky. It had an open based trapezoidal shape, though there was no telling how deep the building went back and there were gardens and gazebos in several areas in the front of the grounds alone.

When the carriage got closer to the house it became even more apparent the scale of the place. The carriage rounded the circular part of the drive and pulled to a spot. A short time later there was a small commotion outside, one of the knights must have been readying the carriage steps for them to get out.

Steve awoke on his own, and though they were closer to the door that opened, Peter and Steve let the Emilia and Ferris out first.

"I insist," Emilia said. "Lord Roswaal would hate to find that you traveled all this way back too, I assure you."

"Nya, it's a nice mew-offer, but I really should be getting back to the capital," Ferris said, he was holding his hand up awkwardly in front of himself with his wrists just limp enough to make him seem cat-like and sort of unassuming.

Emilia smiled softly. "Very well then. You have my deepest gratitude for seeing us back to the manor safely."

"You're leaving already?" Peter asked.

"Haha, that's right," Ferris moved closer to him and tugged playfully at Peter's ear, all the while Ferris's tail flicked back and forth. "But I'm sure you'll be seeing me again real soon if what I predicted happens."

Steve walked over to shake Ferris's hand. "Thanks again for the ride," he said. And then Ferris used this chance to leave Peter and pull Steve in for a hug. He rubbed his head against Steve's chest and let out a little purr.

"You're welcome."

Steve chuckled. "Never had a cat person hug me before."

Ferris motioned to the knights with him as he walked back to the carriage. "Well you had better get used to it Captain Steve, I'm a hugger." And with that Ferris stepped up into the carriage and pulled the door shut behind himself.

The trio of them stood on the front steps of the man watching the carriage as it moved into the distance. Steve finally said something when it was almost out of sight. "I might actually get lost in this place."

"It is rather large, it seems like the maid twins didn't wait up for us to get back, but I can show you to a room you can use," Emilia explained.

The inside of the house was spectacular ornate with polished tile and stained wood trim running along the bannisters of a staircase almost as wide as Peter's living room back in Queens. They ascended it and Emilia put them in rooms a little ways apart, but still close enough that they could move from one room to the other. It was Steve that she helped get settled in first and then she walked with Peter.

As he was about to enter the room Steve popped back out. "Is there somewhere I can take a bath—things got a little hectic."

"Oh right, I'm not used to this—you should see this too, Peter." She closed Peter's door and directed them to where the bath was and how there would even be a change of clothes in the next room if Steve could find something that might fit him. When that was done, she turned to Peter. "I know you might want to get a bath too, but before you did I just wanted to formally apologize," Emilia said bowing stiffly in front of him.

"Why did you give me that name?" He asked. "Like, I'm not mad, I just want to know?"

Emilia ran her hands along her braid. "I'm a silver haired half elf. When I said that name I had thought you would be frightened away as you should be," she shook her head and averted her as a nervous laugh escaped her. "You just said 'nice to meet you'. That was weird."

Peter scratched the back of his head. "The only witches I know are green ladies who fly around on brooms—or they're really pretty."

"You mean you've met a witch?"

"Now that you mention it, one of the Avengers is kind of named Scarlet Witch, but she's not a witch like the ones you mean…maybe."

"I don't think I understand," Emilia said.

"Yeah, me either. Like there was a point not too long ago in my world where it seemed like there weren't any people who could do the kinds of things I can, and poof there were so many," Peter explained.

"Poof," Emilia giggled.

"But I can't hate you just because people say you're a witch or you've got silver hair or are part elf or whatever," Peter said letting his arms hang down at his sides.

"Like not trusting someone because of what they are is wrong. Plus you're, like, the first of any kind of elf I've ever!" He paused and began to count the things off that she had done on his fingers. "So far in my experience silver-haired half elves help little girls find their way back to their parents even when it isn't convenient for them, heal someone who helped steal from them, and let the thief go because they didn't know better. That's the kind of experience that tells me you're a good person, Emilia," he said.

For a moment it looked like Emilia was tearing up, but she must have fought to keep her composure. Also, she could have just been tired.

"I think you're a good person too, Peter Parker," she paused. "Although there is one thing I want to know: what kind of magic was that where you fired those ropes and clung to walls?"

With little effort or preparation Peter sprung up into the air and stuck himself to the ceiling, looking down at her. "This? It's not magic at all—my body was changed when I was bitten by a spider."

"Regular spiders in Queens do this?" Emilia asked.

He shook his head and dropped back to the floor. "It was this kind of experimental spider it was made more powerful."

"Oh, and the the ropes you shoot our are…webs?"

Peter pulled up his sleeve to reveal the web shooter.

"What is it?"

"It's a machine that fires a pressurized fluid out and makes it into strings," he said. For a moment he thought of how he had just been fretting over running out, but one shot wouldn't be the end of the world. "Want to try it?"

Emilia held out her arm and nodded as Peter undid the web shooter and slid it around her wrist and tightened it to her hand.

"How does it work?" She asked.

"Aim your arm straight up and press your middle two fingers to your palm while bending your wrist."

Emilia took hold of her arm with the other hand and aimed up. She did as intruded and let out a small laugh when a burst of web erupted from the device and stuck itself to the ceiling.

"It can hold a lot of weight, watch," Peter said as he jumped back to the ceiling. "Hold on tight, are you ready?"

"Ready!"

He hoisted her a few feet into the air. Emilia laughed as she dangled there for a bit and then he lowered her back down. Before jumping down himself he tore the webbing away.

Emilia hurriedly took the web shooter off. "That's amazing. I don't think I've ever seen a machine like it."

"Maybe if we find somewhere tall enough I can take you for a swing around it and get a birds eye view," Peter said.

"That sounds like fun," Emilia said. "But I really ought to let you get some rest and get some rest myself. We both had a pretty eventful day."

She didn't know the half of it.

Peter headed back toward his door, waving good night to Emilia as he went. "Good night."

"Good night, Peter Parker."

For a moment he watcher her back down the hall as she watched him and then when she turned he turned the knob to his room and stepped through the door. It would be good to lay down in a bed, just any bed, Peter figured. It felt like he had been on his feet for days at this point.

But instead of his bedroom, the one Emilia had just shown him seconds ago he was staring across the checker tiled floor of a massive library with a second floor balcony overlooking columns of shelves lined with books. And in the middle of it all sitting atop a stop was a young girl with her hair done up in immaculately curled blonde pigtails that almost reached to her ankles and a big frilly red dress.

The girl looked up at him, slammed her book shut with a thumb inside to mark her place and furrowed her brow. Meeting her eyes Peter could see the most peculiar thing: they were blue but instead of the dark part at the center of her eye there was a pink butterfly.

"I—I must have had the wrong room, I swear Emilia just told me this door," Peter said jerking his thumb back at the door.

The girl scowled at him and Peter quickly went for the door. He opened it. "I'm sorry—really, really sorry to disturb you." And with that he stepped back out into the hall and shut the door.

To satisfy his own morbid curiosity when the door had been shut he quickly reopened it to find—a normal bedroom, like the one Emilia had shown him before.

"Oh man, I'm now I'm seeing things too?" Peter said as he darted into his room and closed the door.