A/N: Thanks for the ideas about how to bring Pete and Tony together in his reality and feel free to keep them coming, because I haven't decided, yet. I am always willing to take suggestions! I'm planning on having that scene written out at the end of the story, after all, so I want it to seem plausible.

OOOOOOOO

"How do you feel?" Natasha asked Peter as they walked back toward the lounge.

He shrugged, watching as Pete and Pepper walked ahead of them. They were carrying Nutmeg and Ironpig, and the plan was to meet in the lounge to try and find something to do to keep everyone's minds off Tony and Stephen now that they'd vanished and left the others standing around, unable to assist.

"I'm not worried."

"Because your stomach is telling you everything is alright?" she asked. "Or the mind stone?"

The boy smiled, cheerfully.

"Because I made a wish," he reminded her.

She smiled, too. Not that she'd really forgotten – how could she forget something so profound? But because he looked so happy.

"And if it doesn't work for magician missions…?" she asked, and he noticed she didn't use the word wizard since Stephen wasn't there to annoy.

"It'll work. It has to, right? Pete is someone Tony likes, now, and Tony wouldn't be happy if Pete's sad, so Pete has to go home."

"If that's the case," she countered, slowing down to keep their conversation just between the two of them. "Then why is he still here? Something should have already sent him back where he belongs."

"Not until he has a chance to get to know us," Peter told her. "Alec thinks that Pete needs to know Tony and Pepper – and you guys – so that he has a better chance to being friends with the Avengers in his reality. So he has to be here to do that – but he won't be here much longer, I think."

"Or maybe Tony would be happy to have two Peter Parkers? Or five? What's to stop every Peter Parker out there from ending up here, with him?"

"Because they wouldn't be happy. He wants me happy before he ever worries about himself. You know that. So if other Peter Parkers came here, they'd be upset, and Tony – and Stephen and the rest of you guys – would be spending all your time and energy trying to get them back where they belong. So chances are Pete is going to be the only Peter Parker we ever meet."

"Huh…"

He grinned to see her contemplating what he told her.

"It's pretty neat," he said. "The wish, I mean."

"It's incredible," Romanoff agreed.

"We still need to figure out a good way for him to approach Tony and the Avengers," he added. "Even Spider-man wouldn't be allowed to just walk up to him and say hi."

"Probably not." Natasha shrugged. "Maybe he could try to engage with the Avengers first and have one of them introduce him to Tony…"

"Maybe."

They'd see what Pepper thought. She was the one who knew him, best, after all.

OOOOOOOOOO

They materialized in the same spot Strange had the first time he'd arrived. And with good reason, since they wanted to make their search as careful as possible, and that meant having a defined starting point.

Tony immediately checked the readout in his heads-up display.

"There's air?"

"Yes." Stephen raised his hand. "Keep your helmet on for a minute, though."

The billionaire didn't argue, although he was curious. He looked around, immediately verifying that the suit was recording everything that he was seeing. And there was plenty to see. The entire area around them – and as far as he could see – was a cluttered mess of items – large and small and all sizes in between. It was difficult to gauge just how large the are was without any known items (like trees or houses) to use as a frame of reference.

"This place is ridiculous…"

Strange smirked.

"That's an interesting observation coming from you. I've seen your workroom."

Tony rolled his eyes, even though Stephen couldn't see it.

"Why am I keeping my helmet-"

There was a sudden screech and a huge flying… thing… was on them, fangs and gaping mouth pouncing before he could finish his sentence. Tony brought his hand up, blaster already forming, but Strange was faster – and had been expecting the attack. A bolt of yellow energy struck the creature on the nose, bringing it up short with a howl, and it vanished in a puff of smoke.

"What the fuck…"

The sorcerer supreme feigned shock at the expletive.

"Your wife wouldn't approve…"

Tony allowed the helmet to disengage, the nanotech seeping away from his face.

"She's not here, is she?"

"You're recording this, though…"

He snorted, amused now that the shock was gone.

"I'll have Friday edit it. Is it going to come back?"

"It didn't when I ran it off, last time, but I wasn't here very long. Prudence would be advised if we're here for any length of time."

Stark nodded, looking around.

"Where do we start?"

"We start by me reminding you that anything in here could – potentially – be dangerous and you should be careful."

"Yeah." He didn't even argue as he looked around. "Makes your collection at the sanctum look less impressive, doesn't it?"

"That it does. I don't know that there won't be other creatures here, either," he added. "My guess is the one that we just saw is the top predator and anything else that is potentially edible has already been dealt with. That doesn't mean there might not be animate objects that aren't on its menu."

"Something like your cloak?" Tony hazarded. "Definitely sentient, but not something that could go on the barbeque…"

"Right."

"Huh." Tony was more interested when he looked around, now. "We should definitely keep Peter away from here, then."

Stephen understood, immediately.

"It isn't all magical," he said. "I assume that the majority isn't, as a matter of fact." He pointed at a sword that was laying close at hand in a pile of other metal objects that looked like various odd weaponry. "This could be what's left of someone who went Flerkin hunting and found out the hard way that they're more dangerous than they look. Nothing magical, just all that couldn't be eaten."

"Could you imagine someone hunting Nutmeg?"

Strange smirked.

"I could imagine someone finding out that they were very much mistaken when they assumed that fuzzy little guy of Peter's was too cute and helpless to be dangerous."

"Yeah." He shook his head. "So you have this spell to help find what we're looking for?"

"Yes." He hesitated, though, looking around. "It won't summon the figurine to us," he added. "But it will make it glow, so we should be able to spot it a little easier."

"Sounds like a plan." They hadn't expected easy, after all. Otherwise Tony would have let Stephen come on his own. "I'm ready when you are."

He watched, always interested (and impressed, although he didn't like to tell Stephen that) when the man cast any kind of magic. This particular spell wasn't all that complicated, apparently, because Strange simply allowed his hands to glow a gentle blue for a moment, and then he waved his right hand and wiggled his left and made an odd gesture.

The blue extended outward from Stephen's hand, and spread away from them, looking a lot like the light that Peter and the infinity stones had created as it drifted all directions and eventually dissipated.

"Now what?" Tony asked.

"Now we go looking for it."

They'd already decided that they weren't going to split up. Crazy flying fog creatures aside, it was hard to have something sneak up on you when someone was watching your back.

"Let's see if I can make it any easier," Stark said, closing his helmet, once more, and activating the heads up. Sure enough, the sensors worked just fine – although he had to sift through the information himself – and there was a lot of it with everything cluttered around them. A faint differing in the light spectrum drew his attention, and he pointed toward their left. "That way."

"Sound good."

It was still a needle in a haystack, but not quite as impossible as before.