Howdy. I guess i was just in a mood this week. Please leave comments lol, I need them.

IDon'tOwnMarvel

"What's Pepper doing?" I asked, furrowing my brow and squinting at the case Tony set in front of me.

"Ah, something, something, something." He waved a hand vaguely, "She's been talking to our so-called 'fearless leader' about a vacation with the team, but I really don't think it'll leave the planning stage."

"Huh," I stood upright again when he turned the case around to click it open. "Where are they going?"

"They think it's a 'we' trip." He shook his head, turning the opened box back around to show me then. "And I don't know. This is your gift. Happy belated birthday."

"I turned nineteen last June." I muttered, reaching out to touch the fabric in the box with its light up display. "Woah."

The suit was a steel blue fabric with a brass color for small highlights here and there. It looked very official in comparison to the goodwill mash-up suit that I created in Mississippi. Since I didn't really ever have a superhero suit of my own before, this was turning into a very weird moment.

"Like it?" Tony interrupted my perplexed silence, reaching over to slide aside the hologram screen above it. "Pepper might've helped with the colors, so if you don't like it, you can take it up with her. You're being horribly quiet right now."

"No, it's really nice." I looked back up at him fast. "I'm just…trying to process having a suit of my own."

In my defense, it was a really weird moment. I never have felt like I belonged anywhere around here, so suddenly having a super suit just like the rest of the Avengers was best described as bizarre. It pushed me into having a role in a world I never belonged in in the first place. And that role was still questionable in my eyes even though I knew that I would one day inevitably join them in a fight against Thanos and his army. The suit made that position even more real in my eyes.

"So, you hate it."

I shook my head quickly again, "No, no, really I don't. I just feel weird getting it."

Tony closed the case back up and looked away, clearly skeptical of my reaction. "Why weird?"

"I don't belong here." I leaned forwards on the table between us, also avoiding looking at him. "I never did. So…it's weird being some kind of multiversal mistake and then…getting a suit like I'm like one of you."

"You are-" Tony waved a hand absently, "'One of us'. In a sense at least."

"Not really."

"Not really?" He scoffed with a small smile. "Yeah, there's just nothing sooo unique about you that you are deemed 'inhuman' and pushed to save lives in impossible ways. Come on. That's what we do. That's what you do."

"It's…" I huffed a sigh, grasping for an argument. "But I'm not like you. I don't have comic books and movies or inspire probably trillions of people across the multiverse. There's just one of me. There's no other Lincoln's wandering around the Marvel Cinematic Universe or somewhere with Transformers. It's a nice gift, Tony. It's just weird when you put me in this superhero box by giving me a suit."

"Well, existential crisis aside." He picked up another box. "I need to keep an eye on you, okay? I got you the suit for that. Not to welcome you into some weird family that Cap thinks he made with his massive bare hands."

"Thanks."

He put another gray case on top of the other one and paused to take a breath. "You belong with us. Really. I can't convince you because I'm not good at the 'feelings' thing, but I'm sure Steve is always around to chat. So what? Maybe I did spend millions of dollars on suits so you could feel more included in your own home. That's not what matters. What matters is that you're gonna say 'thank you' and take it and leave. And then in the next few days I'm going to get a notification from Tadashi that tells me you tried the suit on and it worked. Got it?"

I nodded, smiling a little to myself as I reached out to take them. "Thank you."

"Good," He waved me off. "Go bitch to the Golden Boy about your crisis. All he knows how to do is be an empathetic wet blanket these days."

"That was pretty good." I took both cases in one hand and smiled back. "Thank you."

He shook his head, clenching his jaw and turning to find something else to do. "Okay, get out."

I didn't need to be told twice and just took my smile and two suits with me to the elevator. They were both set down in my room and I followed the sticky note instructions on the inside of the Nano-tech case in order to set it up on the roof. I noticed the empty station in a line of these pods and set my pod down into the stand. It hummed a little after I heard a securing click, making me smile again before I turned to look over the others.

The only one that had a very clear owner was Steve's since it had a star on the front. I found that a little funny since none of the other suits had defining features outside of maybe some familiar color schemes. I could make a guess for the others, but it was pretty clear that Tony was messing with Steve here.

Back inside, I left my suit in my room before taking off to do some studying in Kamar Taj with the Ancient One.

"So, forgive me for asking," I started carefully after our most recent session in the mirror dimension. "But when exactly should I be prepared for Kaecilius?"

My mentor paused and didn't look back at me. "What is your real question, Lincoln?"

I paced around to where I could look at her face again. "When should I be prepared to say goodbye to you?"

She picked up the other cup of tea, handing it to me with a passing look. "I'm hesitant to share this with you. You must know why."

"You don't want me to obsess over it." I nodded, sighing a little. "I know. I just need to know when to expect action because I might be too busy in the moment to process losing you."

"Death is supposed to be unexpected," She looked back at me finally, "Sometimes mourning a loss before it happens can be far more painful than the actual event. I need you to focus on yourself and your responsibilities. When the time is near, you'll know. I'll make sure of it. For now, you should be putting your attention towards Peter and that computer class of yours."

"Ah, they're so funny." I smiled, shaking my head, "We're still in our virus unit."

"Do you like teaching?"

"I don't have the correct credentials for it." I admitted with a laugh, "And I hate the planning, but the kids are really funny."

She nodded at that, "You should consider staying with it even after Peter's adventures end."

"Maybe," I shrugged it off. "If Kaecilius is taking his time, I might actually have nothing else to do while I wait."

"I don't really want to talk about it, Ned." Peter muttered, watching his previous prime suspect walk across the cafeteria to go get the soda she bought almost every day now. "Just let it go."

He didn't like all the deadends that he kept hitting the day before Mr. Stark took the suit back. Miss Rogers kept coming back as some dead girl who couldn't be older than eleven. It was a nightmare, especially since he had taken another hour to hook the suit up to his computer and try to look more into it.

"Maybe she works for the government?" Ned pushed anyway, nudging his friend. "Come on. You have to stop moping about this."

"Dude, I literally had my whole fate stripped from me." Peter shot back. "I was supposed to chase the guy and then Mr, Stark took the suit away. What if the Vulture guy hurts people and I screwed up the timeline because of this?"

"You still have superpowers."

"Yeah," Peter scoffed, resting his head on the table again. "And no leads or ways to get them. Miss Rogers is a dead end anyways. If she worked for the government, there'd be files on her on their servers. I already looked."

Ned frowned a little watching with Peter as the lady walked back out of the cafeteria. "You really tried to tell Mr. Stark?"

"He didn't want to listen." Peter hid his face in his arms on the table.

"Okay, well, I'm done listening to you be upset about having super powers." Ned huffed too. "Maybe I'll get to the bottom of who Miss Roger's is. I'm still curious."

Peter picked his head up again to give his friend a tired look. Ned stared back before smiling innocently and making Peter sigh.

"Fine." Peter groaned lightly, "I guess we can try and think of some things."

"Good."

"Good."

"Fine." Ned nodded at his friend.

Peter nodded too, reaching to get his laptop. "Fine."

"In a way, you are listening to Mr. Stark too." Ned mentioned casually, "We're not chasing the vulture guy. We're looking into a suspicious teacher."

"Yeah," Peter agreed, growing a small smile. "Let's see if there's anything about her from before Lincoln died."

"Welcome to Cybersecurity." I held out a hand for the two boys. "We've got some seats. What did you use to have during your third period?"

"Study." Both boys answered at the same time, making me nod back.

"Okay, find a seat." I pointed between them for the other two kids who showed up so far. "We have some new students."

The other kids trickled in before the final bell and I let the kids work on their projects so I could get Peter and Ned their packets. They seemed to understand what I was saying to them when I explained what we'd been doing so far. I had to have them pass the computer basics test, which they happily took that same day. Both boys did really well on it too which was nice.

I attached them to two other groups for the project too before the end of the class. It wasn't exactly easy fitting them in, but if they wanted credit for the computer course, they were going to have to work a bit harder at the start to catch up with the other kids. I never minded more students either, especially since I knew these two pretty well already from the Decathlon team. Not to mention, the Homecoming dance was on Friday, so I might get to see Peter after his adventure too now that he was in my class.

The two did approach me at the end of the period too while the other students were filing out to go to their next class.

"Hi," I smiled at them. "What can I do for you?"

"Um, do you know if anyone is capable of actually disappearing and creating a new identity?" Peter asked, "Like, for good?"

"Possibly." I nodded, "The CIA is pretty good at doing things like that for their undercover agents."

"Only the CIA?" Ned pressed, "What about if a regular person wanted to do that?"

"They'd have to be pretty good with computers." I raised an eyebrow at them. "Why? You trying to fake your own deaths?"

"No," Peter shook his head with his friend. "No, we were just wondering if there was any way to actually uncover someones past if we think they are lying about who they are?"

I wondered for a moment here if Peter had already met Liz's dad and was trying to learn more about his enemy, only for my own awkward silence to catch me off guard. "Uh, you know, it depends on who you're trying to dig up and how badly they wanted to hide in the first place."

The both released a dejected sigh at that.

"But," I held up a finger. "It's a lot harder to bury physical documents these days. People often forget them now if they're busy trying to delete their digital footprint. And, technically, if you have the original computer that the person used to disappear themselves, you might be able to pull information out of that. Nothing is ever fully deleted off a computer. Some digital forensics teams can even pull information out of computers or phones they find in rivers or smashed to pieces. That's why it's important to be wary of what you post and say on the internet. It might always be there."

They were good kids and it was nice to see that they might actually be interested in the outside application of my class. I didn't get tons of questions about how to be investigators on the internet, so that was a new one. Generally the kids had questions more about the Dark Web. They were disappointed to learn that it was really just a name for the collection of websites that you needed a specific URL to visit. I think they were expecting things more along the lines of hitmen and serial killers. Honestly, it was just a lot of drugs.

The next day, Peter and Ned visited during my office hours to talk about how to catch up with the rest of the class.

"Unrelated question," Ned started tilting his head curiously. "Where should I keep my laptop if I want to keep it safe when I'm not using it?"

"I keep mine in this back pouch on my backpack." I explained, pointed back at my back. "That way pickpockets on the subway don't catch me off guard. If I have it in the secret side pouch, so that if someone does try to take it, if they could even find it in the first place, I'd be able to feel it. Alternatively, I'd just keep it hidden while you walk around. Don't make yourself a target and don't buy those obvious computer cases. I'm sure you know that from living around her your whole life though. The city's crazy."

Ironically enough, I opened my bag at the sanctum later that night to see that my laptop wasn't there. It was a little bit of a nuisance to have that taken. Luckily, there are spells for lost things here.

"Lesson plan, lesson plan," Peter scrolled with a frown. "Come on."

"Look at her texts."

Peter looked back at his friend with an appalled look. "That's, like, a huge invasion of privacy."

Ned blinked at him at the same time that Peter caved.

"Yeah, okay," He opened up the texting app on the laptop, scrolling through names and stopping with the mouse hovering over 'Tony'.

Tony- 'Can't you just magic up some cure for the cat? Pete's been beside himself over it and I hate it when people are upset.'

Computer- 'I can see if they have anything in the library here, but I'm also really busy with the spiderman thing.'

"Tony…" Peter looked at Ned. "Stark?"

"She does work for him," Ned pointed at another name. "Maybe she does PR or something? Who's this?"

Computer- 'I really don't think I have time for movie nights right now.'

Cap- 'It's a team building activity. Please?'

Computer- 'Are you inviting Scott?'

Cap- 'I can, but he might not be able to handle that sort of thing.'

Computer- 'tell him to bring Cassie.'

"Okay, so she obviously knows the Avengers personally." Peter breathed, closing it out after skimming the other names that had clear affiliations with an Avenger. "What do you think she does with them?"

"Maybe that's why she's got a buried past." Ned gasped suddenly, "Because she works right up alongside superheroes. I bet she's a secret SHIELD Agent. Probably in charge of public relations for them because she mentioned 'dealing with' Spiderman."

"Yeah," Peter agreed, sitting back and relaxing a little. "This wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be. All it does is say that there's a SHIELD Agent watching me all the time and waiting for me to mess up."

"How do you know she's watching you?"

"I don't know." Peter fell back on the bed, abandoning the laptop aside for Ned to pick up. "Why else would the government put a Special Agent in a high school? Why else would she say she's busy 'dealing' with Spiderman too?"

"Uh, dude," Ned turned the computer to show him the screen again. "Look at this from Captain America- 'Can you please call me back, Lincoln?'. He knows her real name."

Peter sat up. "So her name actually is 'Lincoln'?"

"I think so." Ned nodded, opening up her photos then and smiling. "She's got more with them. That's so cool. She's so lucky."

"How can she be eleven though?" Peter wondered out loud. "Do you think maybe they changed the dates on the article so that people couldn't track her down by age?"

"Maybe." Ned let Peter take the computer back to open up her email. "I guess it's good to know that she's not a criminal. She just works for the government."

"Yeah," Peter narrowed his eyes at the familiar email username before clicking on a folder labeled with his first and last name. "She is watching me."

He clicked open the folder and as he looked on at the string of familiar emails from him, his heart sank through the floor. He hadn't been sending his mission reports to a secret superhero at all. Instead, he had been emailing the equivalent of diary entries at this point to some lady in SHIELD.

"Are those-?"

"My mission reports." Peter whispered, feeling a twinge of anger churn up in his stomach at that.

The issue was not that he was sending emails to a secret undercover agent in SHIELD. The issue was that Tony Stark, a man that Peter had previously trusted, had blatantly lied to him about it and let him believe that he was important enough to talk to her on his own. Hell, if Peter hadn't seen this woman with his own eyes, he might start to question if she was even real.

He huffed a sigh to himself before opening up the photos again and starting to scroll up. Unfortunately, he didn't make it very far before a golden light sparked above the laptop, making him freeze with Ned.

"What is that?" Ned asked, wide-eyed and then screaming when a hand reached down and snatched up the laptop.

Peter just stared for a moment before breathing again when the portal disappeared. "That's the Psychic."

"Guess she didn't want you to have that." Ned whispered, his voice cracking a little.

"Guess not." Peter agreed, watching the last of the gold sparkles disappear from his lap. "Maybe it's another hint."

"I have another question." Stephen said, sitting down across from me in the cafeteria while I was trying to spread my jam on toast.

"Oh god." I groaned dramatically, "What?"

"You said you're from another universe." He started, "How do you know that this is the universe where everything you know will come true? What if there's a deviation from what you expect?"

I shrugged, "Then there's a deviation."

"That's it?" He knitted his brows together. "Just…whatever?"

"What do you want me to do?" I waved my toast back at him. "If I don't know what's going to happen and can't predict it in any way…then I'm just as blind to the future as everyone else."

"When will that happen?"

"That's two questions." I replied, my mouth full of bread and jam now, "And it'll be a few years from now."

"So then it's just…whatever?" He dropped his voice to a whisper. "Do you know anything about me?"

I wavered my hand. "Ask me at dinner. I'm too tired and I have to start grading projects because there's a homecoming dance tonight and a lot is happening."

He smiled curiously. "Is that a prediction? Something's really going to happen at some high school homecoming dance?"

"You're incredibly annoying." I reached for my water. "And that's crazy because normally that's something that people say to me."

"I'm flattered," He smiled right back insincerely. "The sorcerer supreme put us together for a class with her on saturday. I'll see you then."

Stephen was still a little entitled and pushy for information, but from him, it was very on-brand. I'd expect nothing less than a man who could be compared to a leech when it came to hoards of new information. He took a special interest in the time stone and my role in this universe. And, don't get me wrong- I wasn't opposed to befriending him. I was simply exhausted a lot and he seemed to never run out of energy or questions around here.

I made it to school half an hour early like always too and sat down to wait for my first class. The day seemed to pass by pretty quickly too, even though I had another question from Peter when he returned to my office at the end of the day.

He shut the door behind him too and looked towards Haley's desk before sitting down with me at the table in the middle of the room.

"Hi," I looked up from my work on my recently retrieved computer and got a skeptical look from him. Upon noticing the look, I narrowed my eyes right back. "What's up, Parker? Questions from class today?"

"Ah, actually, it's more personal." He winced a little, "Are you close with the avengers?"

I shook my head. "Not really."

"Are you sure?" He pressed further, "Like, you don't hang out with them or anything?"

"They don't really have time for 'hanging out'." I replied, feeling the off-ness of this conversation already. "What are you getting at?"

"I know that your real name isn't Jackie Rogers." He looked between my eyes, gauging my reaction. "And I know that you've been getting the emails that I was supposed to send to someone else."

I opened and shut my mouth at that, unsure of where this was going since he clearly was still missing a piece. "Ah, alright. What do you think my name is?"

"Lincoln Patel."

I couldn't help the small smile that reached my face. "Oh, you're so close, Peter. I want to help you, but you should really get going to the homecoming dance. I heard you're taking Liz and from what I know, her dad doesn't like bad impressions."

"I have time." He sat up in his seat, feigning confidence. "And I know everything I need to know about you. I know you've been watching me for SHIELD or for Mr. Stark and that a reliable source has marked you as dead five years ago. When you were 'seven'."

"Did you steal my computer with Ned?"

He cleared his throat at the accusation and looked away briefly. "Uh, no."

"You did." I nodded in confirmation, "Don't do that. It's rude."

"I'm sorry." He shook his head, "But technically, you said it was the best way to figure out if someone was hiding their past, so…it's kind of on you for telling us how to get it."

"Yeah," I huffed a small laugh at that and looked away, scratching the back of my head. "Look, Pete, now's really not the time to be delving into my past. You have a big night ahead of you-"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that you need to go home and get ready to take Liz to the dance." I stared back at him intently until I could see the gears turning in his head. "Then you're gonna remember the question I asked after you almost drowned in the river."

His mouth fell open a little before he repeated my name. "Lincoln."

"Yes." I nodded, "So close, buddy."

"You said I could call you that." He whispered then, looking away. "At the river. How could I forget that?"

"Doesn't matter." I got up then and tried to usher him up too. "You should be heading home. You have work to do. I have work to do-"

"You've just been here this whole time?" His voice broke when he asked that, surprising me more. "I thought you were too busy for me."

"I'm never too busy for a kid." I patted his shoulder when he stood up too.

"And you're still here," He ran his hand through his hair nervously, looking around. "But Mr. Stark took the suit. What are you still doing around here if I don't have the suit to be Spiderman?"

"I can't tell you everything." I smoothed down the sleeves on his arms, standing at almost exactly his height. "You're gonna have a moment. Trust me, you'll know when it happens and you're going to have to make a choice. Do me a favor and make the choice that Spiderman would make."

"What's the choice that Spider-man would make?"

"Doesn't matter." I shook my head again, keeping eye contact. "All you need to worry about right now is taking Liz to the dance. Don't keep her waiting."

"Right," He grabbed his bag up off the floor again and smiled, "I'm gonna take Liz to the homecoming dance. I got it."

"Good." I almost turned to go back to my computer, only for Peter to grab me and wrap a tight hug around my middle. I grimaced from the contact, patting his shoulder blades back stiffly. "Okay, buddy. This is fine."

"Thanks for sticking around." He smiled wider at that, letting go finally. "And thanks for reading my emails. I really thought they weren't going anywhere."

"It's no problem." I reached for my back pocket and pulled out my sling ring. "Okay, bye, Peter."

I motioned a circle below him, dropping the kid very unceremoniously into his bedroom so I didn't have to worry about him trying to hug me again on his way out. It was just easier dropping him off before I sat down again with a heavy sigh. This night was not going to be easy at all and I still didn't know what I was going to do about the collapsed building. It was one of those things that I was going to have to just decide on the spot. The moment for him was very significant, so just taking it away might cause problems. However, I didn't want to just leave some poor kid trapped under concrete.

I went back to the compound with my stuff and then picked up my suit from my bedroom, still on the fence about using it. Eventually, I decided against it and just went back to the sanctum for a moment of meditation in my bed.

A commotion got my attention though and I was up again, wandering down the hall and then across the courtyard to the room with the Time Stone. There, Dr. Strange stood with Wong and Mordo lecturing him quietly.

I approached, shaking the rain out of my hair and stopping near the doorway.

"Come," Wong turned and walked towards me with Strange and Mordo following. "I need to show you something."

I held out a hand to stop Wong at the door with the two other men stopping behind him. "Was he looking at the time stone?"

Wong nodded, "He's being dealt with."

I created a portal and dropped my book into my hand, nodding him along before flipping it open. He and Mordo stayed put though, watching my reaction to Strange's choice.

"What?" Strange looked between us. "I couldn't have changed anything that bad. I was just reading that page."

"You didn't change anything." I stopped on his page, skimming my lines of writing before stopping on one.

'Mordo and Wong are in the room with the doors to other sanctums when Kaecilius blows through. Strange ends up in New York and uses the metal straight jacket on Kaecilius after some fighting there.'

I clenched my jaw at that. "Alright. You should be fine."

Now I had a much harder decision to make as my watch notified me of Peter's leave from the dance.

Wong continued them along and Mordo stopped in front of me.

"What is it?" He demanded quietly, making me shake my head.

"I have to go check on Peter." I looked back up at him with a small sigh. "Watch your head, alright? Kaecilius is going to come from London. Fast."

He nodded in understanding. "Thank you. I'll handle that too."

"You will." I confirmed with a small forced smile, opening a new portal to New York. "I'll be right back. I'm watching a kid."

My heart was heavy as I worried about the sanctum on my way down the road. I was sure there were going to be deaths at the sanctums because of Kaecilius. Unfortunately, there was never anything I could do about it. And now there was even less. Peter needed me more than a bunch of powerful sorcerers who could hold their own. However, I begged the universe that the sorcerers wouldn't be too pissed off about my lack of fair warning.

At least Mordo wouldn't be too pissed off since I did tell him.

As I was lost in my head over this already heavy topic, I neglected to walk fast enough to the warehouse. I looked up from my feet at the heavy sound of crumbling concrete. It fell with a loud rumble, making me pick myself up to run as I jumped through a portal to land on top of the stilled concrete.

I tossed my journal over my shoulder into another portal to go back to the sanctum as I scanned the dusty and dark area with my eyes.

"Peter!" I called out, feeling my heart lodge in my throat from the fear.

"Hello?"

I turned quickly towards the voice and breathed a sigh of half-relief before pacing a few steps closer.

"I can't- I need help." He took shaky breaths under the concrete and I raised a hand to let him out. "I'm sorry I wasn't looking, ma'am. You did warn me. That was a little stupid, huh?"

I hesitated with my arm raised then and stopped myself, holding back tears.

"Can you help?" He looked up at me worriedly, "I'm really sorry I didn't remember what you told me. I made the Spider-man choice though. Like you said."

"I-" I choked on the words and lowered my arm again before dropping from weak knees to sit on my legs.

"Miss Rogers?" He pushed on the concrete again, trying to get out on his own. "Help, please? I can't- I can't breathe."

I shook my head, biting back the sobs that threatened to break me right now. "I don't think I'm allowed to."

"What do you mean?" He gave me a worried look then, "You gotta have a spell or something, right? Like the portals?"

"I can't, Peter." I shook my head again. "I need you to get out on your own."

"I can't." He insisted back quickly, "It's- It's too heavy. Please?"

"I don't… I don't have any power left." I lied then, feeling like the worst piece of shit alive right now. "I know you can do it. I've seen you do it."

"I don't-" He strained against the weight again before releasing another breath. "I really can't."

"You can." I persisted with a gentle voice, "You need to, Pete. If you don't, Tony's going to lose all sorts of dangerous technology to that guy."

Peter looked between himself and me then before nodding. "No, I got it. You said I did it before."

"You did it before." I confirmed, trying and failing to keep back most of the tears. "You don't need any suit. You just need yourself."

I sat back and ended up hiding my tears from him while I listened to him push on the concrete. It was devastating knowing that being crushed like that was not an experience you could shake overnight. Not to mention the fact that his next job was to fight a man with metal wings high up in the air. That didn't end well either.

All I could do while Peter pushed and strained against the concrete and then finally started to lift it was watch on and not leave him on his own. Eventually, he dropped the weight aside with heavy breaths, looking on at what he did before turning back to me and coming closer.

"Hey," He held out a hand to help me up, "Are you okay?"

I reluctantly took his hand and looked away before raising a hand to make a different portal. His high-tech spider suit dropped down to the ground and I couldn't look at him.

He gave me a hesitant look before picking it up and clutching it close to his chest. "Uh, so you do have magic?"

"I'm sorry." I whispered back, "Really, Peter, I am. Just…be safe when you're up there now."

"You couldn't help?"

I shook my head, grasping for an excuse, "Well, I- I can't do everything for you."

"That's okay." He nodded confidently, making me want to fall right back into tears as his words hit me right in the chest.

"It's not."

"No, it is okay." He looked behind him briefly. "I get it. I know the timeline is fragile and such. I was thinking about it before and it gets really complicated the more you change things. And you were right anyhow. I could lift it."

I looked between his eyes carefully before nodding him away. "You should go put that on before I start crying and ruin your chance at getting him."

"Got it." Peter turned to look around then. "I gotta go."

I opened a new portal to try and leave now that I had some reading to do. Peter was halfway through saying 'thank you' when I closed the portal on him and stopped in Kamar Taj to take a deep breath. A deep breath, mind you, that almost immediately turned into full on shaking sobs. Peter didn't deserve any of what he was going through and I personally understood that fear a little too well.

My tears soaked the pillow on my bed as I cried then for the Ancient One too. She wasn't going to be around for long and I understood better now why she was so hesitant to tell me about the due date for Dr. Strange's adventure. It had already started.

Now I had a traumatized kid and a soon-to-be-dead mentor on my mind. I really wanted to pick myself up to help too…but the bed was really hard to get back out of.