Loki
Several days after the victorious arsenal mission, we were allowed one day of leave.
But Colonel Phillips warned us not to become accustomed to frequent days-off.
We spent the evening in a flat that was being used as quarters for the army.
Because we were still at war, I was assisting Peter 3 with blackout curtains in case of air raids.
A toasty fire in a small iron stove provided the only heat source in the room. Strange was using it to make tea.
Everyone except me dressed down and removed their blazers and jackets. Every now and then, the other five would complain about how the ties were choking them, but I didn't mind suits.
Peter 2 and 1 were fiddling with a gas lantern that was considered old-fashioned even for this era.
Wanda lounged back on the couch, barefoot, calling out clues on a crossword puzzle in the newspaper.
"An unintended coincidence that's happy and beneficial for everyone." Wanda read.
Peter 3 climbed up the wall to tighten the blackout curtain. It still disturbed me how casually the Spider-Men would climb up and down the walls like actual spiders.
"Is this across or down?" he asked.
"Down."
I examined his work. There was a patch of window that was left uncovered.
"You missed a spot." I said.
"How about irony?" Peter 1 suggested, not looking up from the lantern.
"No, it's eleven letters."
"Irony wouldn't work anyway." he said to himself.
The kettle whistled and Strange removed it from the stove.
"You said eleven?" he asked, pouring tea into cups on the coffee table.
"Yeah. Pious intersects it."
"Serendipity."
Wanda counted the squares. She nodded approvingly.
"You've got it, Strange. I think you're on your third word so far."
She handed him the paper to show his work.
"Hey, I got pious." Peter 2 reminded her. "And ambiguous."
"How many do I have?" I inquired.
"One."
I cocked my head. "Just one?"
"Yeah, sorry."
"And I'm reigning champ with negative two." Peter 1 said proudly. "Counting the two wrong guesses."
"Yeah, you're really bad at this." Peter 2 teased.
"Well, unlike the rest of you, I choose to live in the future where nobody uses newspapers."
Strange scoffed.
"Okay, zoomer. You're the one trying to fix a lamp from 1880."
The two Peters, in fact, were very close to igniting it.
Wanda smirked.
"Wait, hold up. Zoomer?" Peter 1 repeated.
"Yeah. Generation Z. I've been wanting to use that for awhile now."
I had an impressive list of comebacks to that statement. Starting with, 'I'm over a thousand years old. I'll undoubtedly outlive all of you for years.'
But I had ensured that Peter would outlive his parents by decades, so I withheld.
"You did good." Wanda said, patting him on the back.
Peter 3 came down from the wall.
"I'm a proud millennial. And my Hogwarts house is Hufflepuff, in case anybody's curious."
Peter 1's grin widened.
"Wait, Strange, what generation are you in again?"
"I'd rather not think about it." he said, stroking his temples.
I pulled up a seat next to the couch. "You strike me as a later baby boomer." I said.
"Okay. Ow. I'm Generation X."
"I thought you said you didn't want to think about it." Peter 1 said.
"I don't. And considering that I had to battle Dormamu for an undocumented amount of time, I'm probably a lot older than I look."
He took a sip of tea.
"Ain't we all?" Peter 3 said, looking at his aging wrist watch.
Our watches said we had hit the five-day mark for aging. It felt strange not having to shave for several months.
"How long were you actually there?" Wanda asked, her playful expression now becoming more serious.
Strange shook his head.
"It's hard to tell. I trapped us in a time-loop while he kept finding different ways to kill me."
Wanda grimaced. "Sounds peachy."
Strange smiled.
"But Earth and most of its people got to survive for another ten years, so it was worth it."
To me, that didn't sound like a very worthy sacrifice. But Doctor Strange could control the threat of Dormammu, whereas the multiversal storm was beyond any of our control.
It was Doctor Strange's own interpretation of the Spider-Men's motto, 'With great power comes great responsibility'.
The Peters had all found their way to the other couch.
"But still," Peter 2 picked up his mug. "Did you ever wonder if he would stay stubborn and just let you annoy him forever?"
Strange shrugged.
"I figured he'd crack eventually. I'm not the type of person that people want to spend eternity with."
I glanced at Peter 1, who seemed to be lost in thought.
After all I'd done to his planet, I certainly wasn't the person he wanted to spend eternity with. The past three months were torture enough.
"Well, even with the best of people, I'd doubt anyone would want to spend an eternity with them." Wanda said. "You have to set boundaries, have some change."
"You weren't worried that you would never see home again?" Peter 1 asked.
"It was a sacrifice I was willing to take." Strange said.
Sacrifice seemed to be a recurring theme in Strange's life.
"But you, Peter, on the other hand, you gave up everyone's memory of you." Wanda said.
"Well, there are a lot worse things." Peter said, taking a cup of chamomile tea.
"I was still in New York. I knew Ned and MJ were safe. I could've been like Red Skull, for instance. To top off no friends or family, he has no nose and he's trying to take over the world."
"And he's leaving humanity behind." Peter 2 muttered.
"What?"
"Something Red Skull told us when we were escaping." Peter 3 explained.
Wanda nodded. "Steve told me about that when I joined the Avengers. I'm sure it was just for him."
"No, he was including us." Peter 1 said. "He said that as much as we pretend to be simple soldiers, we're leaving humanity behind."
"He was just trying to tip you over the edge;" I said. "Give you a superiority complex or something. It seems to me it's just made you paranoid."
It was the largest sentence I'd said to the younger Peter since the day he confronted me. A flash of recognition in Peter's eyes said he knew it too.
"You guys are sorcerers and witches and what not." Peter 3 said. "When you got your powers, were you ever worried that you'd become….too powerful?"
"Like you were leaving humanity behind?" Peter 2 asked.
"I'm not exactly human." I said. "I'm a frost giant, who was adopted by Asgardians, who takes on a human form."
Peter 2 choked on tea.
"You're a- what?"
I nodded. "Yes. It was a shock for me when I found out."
"We're always progressing." Strange said. "Even for humans with non-powers."
"Wanda, back us up." Peter 3 said. "When you created the hexagon-"
"It's just called a hex." Peter 1 corrected him.
"That was the biggest display of your powers, right?"
She nodded.
"Turns out, I fulfill some kind of prophecy. I didn't want to believe it at the time, but I am the Scarlet Witch."
I recalled hearing stories from Mother about Midgard's Scarlet Witch. She was a sorceress who had no need for spells and could just summon the power from her own being.
"Why the sudden concern anyway?" Strange asked.
Peter 1 and 2 both glanced at Peter 3.
"You have the report, don't you?"
Peter fished out a piece of paper from his pocket. He unfolded it and set it on the table.
"We found this in the arsenal. Translated it ourselves."
"But you told Phillips you didn't find anything." I said.
"Yeah, well, that's what it says on the report, but we withheld some intel."
"That's illegal." Strange said, staring at the German report.
"Was it Loki's idea?" Wanda asked.
Even if I was trying to fix myself, I still had a reputation for chaotic mayhem that I needed to maintain. I grinned.
"It seems as if I'm spreading a good influence."
Wanda shot me a scolding look.
My first reaction to the report was well-concealed fury. But Hydra addressing humans as mere test subjects was to be expected.
However, it was the bottom lines that were concerning.
"A superior race, even."
These words were just evidence of the radical racial ideologies of the Nazis and they should've been dismissed as such.
But the term 'superior race' reverberated in my mind.
As if there was a greater meaning beyond what Zola actually meant.
In my youth, a pregnant woman came to Mother complaining of strange sensations in her womb.
Mother, being a witch and also a self-trained physician, examined her.
She discovered that the woman had been cursed by a very powerful witch, who had been executed by Asgardian guards weeks prior.
I can still remember the woman's face.
She did her best to maintain her composure, but in her eyes was fear and a plea to be given instruction on what to do.
I found that same expression on the faces of all the Peters.
"If you have any books, information, or myths that could explain this," Peter 3 said anxiously.
Like a fool, I laughed nervously.
"I thought you were men of science."
Peter 1's jaw tightened.
It must've been humiliating for him to come to me for help.
Wanda sighed. "Remember, this is the man who tortured you for days. You have every right to be traumatized by him, but if this-"
Peter 1 cut her off.
"I'm sorry, but it's not just Zola, it's the dreams."
Ever since our universes were destroyed, we all had the dreams. But we never talked about them.
"They match up with the vision that you showed me, Strange."
"Is it possible for someone with an enhanced body to go over the edge?" Peter 3 asked.
Strange struggled to find words.
"Well, there's-"
"If someone like us kept advancing, would they lose their humanity?"
"Because that's not why I became Spider-Man." Peter 1 said. His eyes darted over to his doppelgangers. "It's not why any of us became Spider-Man."
"It's getting late." Wanda said quickly. "There's a meeting at headquarters tomorrow at 7:00 a.m."
As much as she tried to hide it, Wanda was scared. I was as well. But none of us had an answer.
As I laid down on my pillow, I could feel the fear emanating from the three Peters.
And it was that fear that followed me into my dreams.
It was as if I could see myself sleeping.
Beads of sweat slid down my face.
My throat twisted and tightened until I could barely breathe.
Loki, the god of mischief, towered over the boy and his family with a menacing smile.
He raised his scepter to fire at the father.
But no. This time, I would stop him.
I lunged forward with enough power to knock the crazed maniac off his glider.
I pinned him against the pavement.
"You end this now!" I roared.
My past self cocked his head with an intrigued expression.
"That's odd…I didn't expect to be seeing you here." He shrugged. "No matter."
With sudden force, he shoved me off of him.
I stepped in front of Peter's family and brandished two daggers.
"You will not kill them." I commanded.
Suddenly, thin strings restrained me. Spider webs.
I was slammed onto the ground. I became completely disoriented.
Suddenly, someone grabbed me by the neck.
I expected it to be my own self, but to my horror, it was Peter 1.
I gasped for breath.
"How….how could you do this?" I rasped.
He gave a disappointed smile.
"Isn't it obvious? You killed my parents."
"But I…"
I glanced over at the Parker family. They were still alive and staring at us in shock.
"I'm trying to save them."
Peter rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, well, you didn't try to save them the last time."
His fist tightened around my throat.
"What do you want from me?" I croaked. "Is it revenge?"
Before he could answer, he was tackled by a figure.
It was the same Spider-Man in a mask, fighting his doppelganger.
"Go! I'll hold him off!"
I was ripped from the dream by something wet and slimy.
Peter 3 had stuck a spider web on my forehead.
I tore it off.
"What was that for?" I snapped.
It was still pitch-black outside. I dreaded the agonizing hours of darkness until daylight arrived and I could forget the dream.
He shrugged.
"We're trying different techniques of pulling each other out of nightmares." He explained casually. "The spider web thing seems to be working."
I sat up. "Were you already awake?"
Peter 1 answered with brutal honesty.
"Nah, we kept hearing you screaming about saving somebody. Which is a shame because this has been one of the few nights I don't have the end of the world visions. So if you don't mind,"
He turned over and was back asleep within a second.
Peter 3 returned to his own bed.
"So what do you think about the web trick?"
I shook my head.
"It's disgusting."
"But it worked."
"Oh, by the way," Peter 2 said. "If any of us spider guys are having nightmares, don't try to grab us or shake us. With super strength, it makes it kind of dangerous if you know what I mean."
I nodded. But I realized that Strange was still in slumber.
He laid so still that you would've thought he was dead if it wasn't for the slight twitch of his muscles and the fast spurts of breath that came out.
I glanced at Peter 2 and 3.
"Yeah. That can't be healthy breathing." Peter 2 said. Then he jested, "We're thinking about getting him a CPAP."
"Hasn't been invented yet, pal." Peter 3 said as he crawled into bed.
Eventually, I was able to find sleep, but Peter from my dream echoed in my mind. I saw two different Peter Parkers. One who was vengeful and unforgiving and another who was trying to save my life. I stared at Peter 1, sleeping soundly, trying to conclude which version he would become.
Thanks for reading, guys! I feel like this chapter basically sums up what Strange, Wanda, Loki, and Spider-Men do in the whole story where they have bonding moments and suddenly have to focus on saving the multiverse again.
Summer vacation is coming up soon, so I'll have more time to update.
