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Thanks a lot to Brainstorm Sorcerer for his help with this chapter.

Chapter 5- The talk

Peter was in his normal clothes now, the ones he used while going outside anyway. He was right outside Willow's apartment. He checked the address in his hand once more, and confirmed that yes, he was at the right place for sure.

'Okay then', he psyched himself up and took a deep breath before letting out. And then he knocked.

"Coming."

The door opened to reveal Willow, not in her nightclothes but not in her work clothes either, what she wore was something in between you could say.

"Uh, hi."

"Hello Peter", Willow opened the door of her apartment wide, and stepped to the side, allowing the young boy to step in. He looked around at the place. It wasn't too big, but it was spacious enough for one person, and comfortable too.

Willow closed the door and walked ahead of Peter, sitting down at her table, and gestured at the empty chair nearby, which was an extra one.

Getting the hint, Peter walked towards that chair and pulling it out, sat down on it. For a minute, neither the Witch nor the teenage super-powered boy spoke a word.

Finally, Peter broke the ice. "So, you know about me."

"Yeah I do", Willow confirmed with a nod. "Like I said before, saw you at the train, then at the basketball court, and then reports of a vigilante in a costume who can do the same thing, so it was not hard at all for me to put the pieces together."

"Oh, right", Peter nodded with a nervous twitch. "Yeah, guess you'd have figured it all out by now. You're really smart."

"That, and right places at all the right times, there you go", Willow shrugged.

"Yep, seems like it", Peter nodded.

"So, how did you get these powers?" Willow then asked. "I'm guessing you have superhuman strength and speed, and can stick to surfaces. Plus, some kind of instinct too. And, can you shoot those string thingies out of you?"

"Those are like spider-webs", Peter explained to Willow. "And no, I can't shoot them out of me. I make all of that and fire them from mechanical devices on my wrists. They are called web-shooters."

"Ah, you made it all by yourself?" Peter gave a nod. "Wow, that's genius. I don't think the government could come up with that either."

"Well, the biocable itself is generated by OsCorp, but I did modify it enough", Peter shrugged, looking a little cocky about how much of a genius he was, something which Willow noted.

And she could get it. Using intelligence (or magic, especially magic) to impress others was something she used to do a lot back in Sunnydale, and she loved it too, since people paid attention to her because of it.

Because of which she had let it get to her head and use the magic in wrong ways, not realizing it until too late.

But back to the matter at hand, she decided to herself. "So, how did you get those powers?"

"Yeah, you see, my dad used to work at OsCorp, and I found an old briefcase of his from there", Peter explained what he could. "It had a picture of a partner of his called Dr. Curt Connors. I wanted to talk to Dr. Connors to know more about my dad and snuck into the place, stealing an intern's ID card."

Willow shook her head at that. "Don't think the actual intern would have appreciated that."

"Nope, not at all, considering he was dragged out", Peter winced at the memory, feeling bad he had cost the guy an opportunity for his own selfish desire to know more about his dad. "Sucks I did that. But anyways, I ended up in a lab which had genetically modified spiders, then freed a few of them by accident. One of them bit me on the back of the neck, and after that, I fell asleep in the subway where you saw me taking on that rowdy little crowd."

Willow absorbed all that Peter had told her, and put two and two together again. "So a genetically modified spider. Meaning you got all of a spider's abilities enhanced to superhuman levels, since you're a human."

"That's right, that's why I can stick on surfaces and crawl on them like a spider", Peter did a little crawling motion in the air to give Willow an idea and got a nod. "And the instinct too, its basically a spider-sense, so I can tell when I'm being attacked even when its not in front of me, and dodge it on instinct. My body can dodge it on instinct."

"Wow!" Willow said. Buffy had told Willow of a Slayer-sense once upon a time where she could sense danger, but Buffy had said it was very inconsistent, plus Willow was sure it did not warn Buffy of attacks she did not see coming, considering just how many hits she took in fights.

But Peter's sense, wow, there was a good chance he could go through most fights unscathed if he could harness the spider-sense he had now got perfectly, and based on how much he knew of his new powers already, it seemed like it was just a matter of time.

"Anyways, enough about me, you wanna tell me anything about you? Considering you said you've done some illegal stuff too", Peter reminded Willow and she sighed, deciding it was time to show Peter what she could do now.

"The illegal stuff is a story for another time, but since you told me your secret, I'll tell you mine, here", Willow took out a pencil, and put it on the table.

"What? You use it to murder people?" Peter joked and snickered but Willow shushed him.

And as she focused on the pencil, to the surprise of Peter, it started floating up in the air and moving around in circles.

Peter's jaw was dropped as the pencil stopped in midair, then floated back down onto the table, lying there.

"So, you can make-"

"I can do magic", Willow smirked, running a hand through her hair. "And yes, magic is real. Its not science you can't understand, it is all real magic. I started learning it when I was around 17, and have grown better at it recently."

Peter's disbelief turned to awe now. Magic was real, and his Teaching Assistant seemed to be really, really good at it.

Willow was expecting some more scoffing and disbelief from the boy, since magic was much harder to believe than getting superpowers from a genetically modified spider, as that was something sci-fi that could be expected to happen in real life.

Needless to say, what did come out of his mouth had her really shocked, as it was not what she had expected him to ask.

"Can you make fire?" Peter asked very excitedly, taking Willow aback at this point, and then he pointed at the couch nearby. "Can you make this couch disappear?"

Before Willow could respond, Peter walked to the couch, picking up a pillow that was on it. "Can you turn this pillow into...a bunch of smaller pillows?" Willow shot Peter a strange look as he thought about something, and then his eyes widened as he snapped his fingers, something clearly clicking in the super-powered teen's brain. He looked at Willow and asked the big question that he had gotten in his mind clearly. "Wait, does the mass of your focus need to be identical into what you change it into?"

In spite of having a lot of scientific knowledge herself, Willow was a bit confused. "Huh?" Regarding science, Peter might as well be smarter than anyone she knew, at least regarding science and any topics related to science. Yes, even Fred wasn't as smart as he was, considering the quick deductions and questions he had gotten after hearing of magic and also seeing it in action for the first time in his entire life.

Before she could respond to any question of Peter, he asked his next big question, one she cursed herself for not seeing coming before he had asked it. "Can you pull a rabbit out of a hat?" And then Peter thought about it again before asking. "Where would the rabbit come from though? Oh! Does the hat come from another dimension? Does that mean string theory-"

Willow finally managed to get all of the gears in her brain working again and finally spoke to Peter, cutting him off this time. "You are taking this much better than I thought you would."

Peter shrugged with what was clearly the smile of a fascinated child. "Magic's cool."

Seeing Peter's expression, how enthusiastic he seemed of the idea of magic, it made Willow think of herself back when she had first started dabbling in it. Science nerds usually disregarded the existence of magic, but like she was at first, Peter was utterly fascinated, and it would really hurt her to break the happy expression he currently had plastered on his face.

Honestly, it was the most emotion (of the good kind) that she had seen from him since his beloved Uncle Ben had died.

Willow stared at him for a moment, and then broke into a grin of her own that matched that of the super-powered teenage boy. "Its really cool."

Both of them broke into excited nerdy grins as Peter asked. "So, what else is real?"

"Well, the town I'm from, it's a very supernatural town", Willow told Peter who sat down in front of her again. "Like-"

"Is it like that Mystic Falls from the CW show about Vampires?" Peter asked, not remembering the name as he'd never seen it.

"The Vampire Diaries?" Willow inquired. She watched and read little bits of all Vampire related media to see which fictional Vampires were the closest to real ones.

"Yeah, that one, that's it, so-"

"Well, kind of like that, first of all, Vampires are real", Willow revealed, shocking Peter again at the revelation. "I'm not kidding, they're all real. But not the kind you see in fiction. They can be killed by a wooden stake through the heart, decapitation and of course fire and sunlight too. They look human enough but can take a fang-face."

"Oh damn!" Peter was quite shocked to hear all of that, a little taken aback too. "So magic and Vampires are all real. I remember hearing of some Witch in Vampire Diaries too, so its like Sunnydale is Mystic Falls and you are-"

"Bonnie, I know, or Bonnie is me, since I was doing my thing before the show came out, though the books came out long ago but I never read them or knew of them before the show, or whatever", Willow rolled her eyes. "And a girl is chosen in every generation to battle Vampires. She is given gifts and all that."

"So, you're telling me you're that girl?"

"No I'm not!" Willow told him immediately. "I'm a Witch who learnt magic on her own from scratch, since no one else thought to help me learn it in a safer environment", she added the last part in a bitter voice, Peter noting it as he wondered what that was about. "The girl who is chosen is called the Slayer. She is chosen and random and gifted with superhuman strength, speed, agility and martial arts skills, and a Council is there to guide her. But the Council is full of idiots and only the Watcher, that's what her guide is called, that was teaching her was decent at his job. And the girl is called a Slayer, she must battle Vampires and all forces of darkness."

"This is starting to sound like a fantasy tale now", Peter noted, but considering he'd seen magic, it wasn't like he could dismiss all that he was hearing.

"I know, I thought the same when I first heard it. Anyways, when one dies another is called. The current one is….was my friend, and I and some other friends used to help her with the slaying, but now I've moved here for…reasons."

Peter could get from her voice that there was something about these reasons of hers, but chose to respect her privacy and not to pry.

"Vamps and Slayers are not the only ones to exist, there are many kinds of Demons too, even in big cities like this one."

"Really?"

"Really. I even met a Vampire here. But in big cities they hide and gather at secret places, while in towns like Sunnydale they're almost out in the open."

"Sucks to live there", Peter commented.

"I know", Willow nodded sadly, but then reminded herself of why she had wanted to talk to Peter. "Anyway, back to the matter at hand. I'm really sorry about your uncle."

Peter's face turned into a frown again, Willow's heart breaking as he said in a monotone voice. "Thank you."

"And, I guess you're going out there because-"

"Look, if you're gonna tell me not to go out there, then don't."

"But its dangerous Peter."

"You've seen my powers, right?"

"I and the Slayer have powers too, doesn't mean its not dangerous at all. Powers give you an edge, they don't make you invincible."

"I know that", Peter hissed, trying to defend himself. "But I don't want bad people to hurt good ones if I can do anything to stop it!"

Willow sighed and asked. "What's it really about?"

Peter had tears in his eyes now. "I was supposed to pick up Aunt May that day from work, but I went to Dr. Connors and while working with him, forgot about it. When I returned home, Uncle Ben was angry, and while lecturing me, brought up dad, which made me angry so I stormed off. Then I was trying to buy chocolate milk from a store, but I didn't have enough money." Willow listened, not judging, just taking it all in. "The store owner then mocked and taunted me over not being able to pay. Then a guy came in and stole some money, and tossed some chocolate milk to me. I walked off and the thief ran out. The store owner asked my help in trying to catch him, but I…I wanted to make him feel bad too, and I didn't help him."

The tears were flowing freely now as Willow listened, a lump in her throat. "Uncle Ben was looking for me. He heard the store owner shouting, and the thief dropped a gun in front of him. Uncle Ben tried to stop him and the guy….." Peter stopped, wiping his tears now, Willow feeling a tear roll down her own cheek at the poor boy's story.

"It was my fault."

"No Peter, you couldn't have-"

"I shouldn't have let him go!" Peter snapped. "I shouldn't have ignored Aunt May in the first place!"

"I get how you feel, there's someone I love too", Willow confessed to Peter, sympathizing with his situation. "And well, someone hurt her badly, I'd almost lost her, so I got angry and went after that person to hurt her badly too. Unfortunately, she was a Hell Goddess so while I did the most damage out of us all, it wasn't enough."

"Wait what? Hell Goddess?" Willow nodded. "Wow, the world is crazier than I thought. And you hurt her for hurting your….girlfriend, right?"

"Ex-girlfriend", Willow said sadly, Peter noting her tone and realizing something bad had happened.

"Right", Peter sighed, then asked her. "Then you know why I'm doing this. I'm looking for who did it, and I'm not going to stop until I find him. And you can't make me either."

"I don't want to", Willow admitted emotionally. She didn't want to force anyone to do anything anymore, not after what she had done to Tara and Dawnie and everyone else in Sunnydale. "But tell me, how will your activities affect your aunt? She lost her husband too, you know? You're all she has left."

Peter's eyes suddenly widened as he realized something. "Oh my God! She asked me to get some eggs and I…damn it! I'm an idiot!"

Willow got up and walking to her fridge, opened it, taking out an unopened carton of eggs, then closing it, walked to Peter, holding the carton out to him.

"What? You're-"

"Yeah."

"But they're yours, right? Why would yo-"

"I can get more. I don't have an aunt who'll get mad at me for forgetting. Please take it."

Peter hesitated a little, but then held out his hand and took the carton from Willow. Looking at Willow's kind eyes, he said. "Thank you." And it was very heartfelt too. "For….you know….just…talking…and listening. And the eggs."

"You're welcome", Willow assured him with a smile and tap on the shoulder. "And if you ever wanna talk more, I'm always available for you."

Peter smiled again, and nodded. "Thanks a lot." He then walked out of the apartment and soon swung away.

Willow closed the door and went back to her usual work, satisfied by the talk she had with Peter, as she'd gotten him to open up to her. And this was the longest informal conversation she had with anyone since leaving Sunnydale.

But talking about it also made her think of unhealed wounds and she sighed sadly, going to sleep after finished up everything.


Well, the big talk is done, now we can go a little faster to cover the rest of the film. Hope all enjoyed and see you all next time with another chapter.