Alya's feet swung back and forth from her place on the examination table.

Today was the day that she was finally going to get her cast taken off. She was so excited that she was practically vibrating. So many weeks of lugging this thing around on her arm while her parents scolded her about not messing it up were almost long gone.

She didn't even have to go to the hospital to get it off. Dr. Helen Cho was in town and she had time to see her. All they had to do, was stop by the Tower.

Stark Industries was under investigation because of the drone situation, but Tony had enough money to keep things up and running.

Everything was going so well. Alya didn't think that anything could possibly happen to ruin it.

"Natasha." Helen smiled once she entered the room they were waiting in. "How are you?"

"I'm good. It's nice to see you again." Natasha returned the gesture as they hugged.

The two women hadn't seen each other in quite some time, but that didn't mean that they couldn't pick up exactly where they left off.

"Heard you got married." Helen smirked.

"Sure did. This is my husband, James." Natasha introduced the two adults to each other.

"Pleasure to meet you, Sergeant Barnes." Helen shook the man's hand. "I'm glad you could make it."

"Nice meeting you, too." Bucky smiled.

"And look at you! You're so big!" Helen turned her attention to Alya. "I can't believe it!"

Alya, having not seen the woman in a while, just waved politely. "Hi."

"I heard you broke your arm." She pouted. "I'm sure you're happy to get that cast off of your wrist."

Happy was an understatement. Alya was so thrilled to be getting that cast off her arm, that she suggested skipping the trip to the doctor and just running it under the water so it could just break apart.

That idea didn't go over too well.

"Uh huh." Alya nodded, sliding off of the table to sit on her mother's lap, tired of sitting by herself. "Is it gonna hurt?"

She was no stranger to pain, but she didn't like to be surprised by it.

"No, you won't feel a thing." Helen assured her, taking out a device that was specifically made to take the cast off in order to show Alya exactly what she'd be working with. "Feel the blade."

Alya hesitated before she reached out and touched the blade, which, to her shock, wasn't even sharp. It wasn't even as sharp as a pizza cutter. "That doesn't hurt."

"See? Now, it's going to make a loud sound, but you don't have to worry, I know exactly what I'm doing. Ready?"

"Let's do it!"

"Alya, you got a few questions wrong." Bucky told the girl as he looked over some of her homework.

It was becoming sort of a routine now. If Alya had homework that she felt like she was struggling with, she'd complete it to the best of her ability and then hand it over to him so that he could look it over.

"Which questions?" She asked, pushing off of the coffee table to make her way over to the armchair and look over his shoulder.

"The last three."

"I used to be good at history." The brunette pouted, taking the paper from him.

"And you're still good at history." He assured her. "You only got three wrong."

"Yeah, but I never got that many wrong before."

"That's because you weren't being challenged. The work you're doing now is harder and you're doing very well. Don't be so hard on yourself."

Alya mulled his words over before heaving a sigh. "Okay...I guess I'll try again. Mama? Can I have ice cream, please?"

"Finish your homework and we'll talk." Natasha winked from her place in the kitchen.

Alya nodded, kneeling back down to make use of the coffee table. Now that she had a bit of an incentive, she could do this work. Though she was complaining a little, high school wasn't the worst thing ever. Everything was new and exciting. The kids were bigger and they talked about different things. The teachers were a mixed bag. Some were really nice, while others were obviously there because they were getting paid. And the workload was heavier.

But, little by little, Alya began to enjoy some of it.

"Mom! Dad!" Wanda came bounding into the house with two envelopes, slightly startling her sister.

She checked the mailbox every single day ever since she sent her college applications in. Today was finally the day that she was going to receive word about them. She couldn't wait until she got inside to open them, so once they were in her hands, she tore the packaging open and read what was inside.

"What is it, Wanda?" Natasha smiled at her excitement as Bucky muted the television to listen to what she had to say.

"I got my letters back!" Wanda hopped up and down. "From NYU and Columbia!"

Ever since Wanda brought up the subject of college, those were the only two schools she would talk about. She didn't want to go too far away, in fact, she wanted to stay close to home. Her life had so many ups and downs so far, that she really wanted to remain in the first stable environment she had in years.

Bucky and Natasha fully supported her decisions and helped her out with the application process. Alya joked about she wouldn't be able to turn Wanda's room into a playroom, but, secretly, she was glad her sister wasn't going anywhere.

"What did they say?" Natasha took one envelope and Wanda handed Bucky the other while Alya got up and knelt down on the couch in anticipation.

"You got in!" Both adults pulled the older girl in for a hug as a way to celebrate.

"Yay!" Alya jumped up and down on the couch, something she was clearly not supposed to do. "You did it! You did it!"

Now all she had to do, was wait for Peter to get his results. She really did hope that he got in, but, selfishly, some part of her didn't want him to. MIT was all the way in Boston and that was four hours away. He was going to meet new people and make new friends.

She was just afraid that after a while, he would forget about her.

"Is that tight?" MJ asked Alya as she braided the younger girl's hair, pulling the strands away from each other as gently as possible.

"Nuh uh." Alya tried to shake her head, but remembered to keep still.

After finding out that Alya didn't really know how to properly maintain her hair, MJ took it upon herself to teach her and her parents a thing or two.

"See, you can put her hair in some cornrows, which uses the same technique as those two braids she likes to wear." The teen spoke to Natasha and Bucky. "Or you can fix it up in a bunch of plaits and leave it."

Alya cringed when MJ hit a snag, but she didn't say anything. MJ noticed the change in her body language and sprayed her hair with water, using a spray bottle to dampen it.

The younger girl enjoyed the feeling of the cold liquid in her head as it ran down her scalp.

"Water makes it easier to manipulate. No rubber bands."

Peter just looked on at the two and smiled at how they got along. MJ prided herself in not being a people person, but she immediately clicked with Alya. He guessed that was another gift that his sister had, anyone who met her, fell in love with her within minutes of meeting her.

"And there you go!" MJ secured the last braid with a tiny hair tie. "I left the back out because I know you like to let it be free, but the front can stay braided until you're ready to wash it again next week."

"Thank you, MJ." Natasha smiled at her.

"Yeah, we really appreciate this." Bucky shook her hand. "Would you like to stay for dinner?"

"We'd love to, but we're meeting Ned at the coffee shop." Peter explained. "We all got our letters from MIT and we want to open them together before MJ has to get back to work."

"Awww." Alya slumped.

It was really nice having them around. Since Stark Industries was still under investigation, Pepper and Tony kind of had their hands full, so Morgan was staying with them temporarily. Of course, she was sleeping in the spare room, so Alya had a chance to get away from her when she needed to, but she and Morgan still didn't get along.

"Hey, don't pout." Peter tapped her bottom lip. "We'll hang out soon."

"With MJ?" She smiled hopefully.

"I think we can work something out."

"Okay." She nodded, clearly satisfied. "I hope you get in." She crossed her fingers.

"Thanks, Alya." Peter gave her a big hug before allowing MJ to give the girl a fist bump.

"Thanks for doing my hair."

"It was fun." Mj shrugged. "Next time we'll try twists."

Peter took her hand and waved at everyone one last time before they both left the house, shutting the door behind them.

"C'mere, you." Natasha lifted her up onto her hip. "You're gonna help me make dinner."

In their effort to keep Alya on a shorter leash, Bucky and Natasha have been giving her little odd jobs here and there while spending some quality time with her. They didn't want to make it seem like she was in trouble. They just wanted to keep a close eye on her.

"Okay, but no carrots." The twelve year old suggested, pinching her mother's cheeks.

"I don't think we'll need carrots for what we're making." The redhead winked.

"Pelmeni?"

"Yes."

"Is Wanda gonna help?" Alya lit up at the thought of having her favorite food.

"She sure is. Why don't you go get her?"

"Okay." Alya giggled as her mother set her down, running over to the stairs. "Wanda! Come downstairs and make dinner!"

"Alyona Cassidy, I could've done that myself. Go upstairs and speak to her, Morgan is taking a nap."

"Why? She heard me." Alya blinked innocently, completely disregarding the part about Morgan.

She didn't really care if she woke the girl up or not. The house was always loud and she would just have to get used it it.

"Your mother just told you to do something, Scamp." Bucky took her arm and turned her to face the steps before sending her off with a pat. "Get to it."

"Okay, but I still think it's dumb."

It looked like Alya was getting what she wanted. The very next day, Peter texted her to tell her that he and his friends didn't get into MIT. She felt bad for even thinking that she wanted him to stay in New York where he would be close. He was so sad and hurt now.

They were all rejected from the school because of the recent controversy with Mysterio, but Alya didn't see why it was a problem. Peter was innocent and his friends had nothing to do with it.

But Peter told her that he had a plan to fix things and he needed her help to do it.

"I'm sorry you didn't get in, Peter." Alya pouted, holding onto Peter's hand as they stood outside of the Sanctum Sanctorum, their breaths vaporizing in the cold. "Did you tell Uncle Tony yet?"

The whole reason they took the train to Greenwich Village, was because Peter believed that Doctor Strange could help the situation. Alya was there because Peter was sure that Doctor Strange wouldn't be able to say no to that face.

"No and you better not either."

"How come?" She titled her head in confusion. "He could help."

But Alya thought that it was a better idea to go see Tony so that he could help. After all, he graduated from MIT and he probably had some pull.

In fact, he even told her that when she started thinking about colleges, she should look into MIT. Alya wasn't there yet, but when the time came, she'd think about it.

"Alyona, I said no."

But Peter refused to go that route.

It wasn't very often that he took on such a stern tone with her, so whenever he did, she listened. If he was getting this irritable over the subject, it was best to drop it.

"Are you gonna call Mr. Stark?" He asked.

"Uh uh."

"Do you promise?"

"Yes….I promise." She didn't feel right about promising something like that, but she didn't have much of a choice.

Just as Peter raised a hand to knock on the door, it opened, allowing the both of them inside. Alya was glad to be out of the snow, but her bubble burst once she realized that there was snow inside, too.

"Um…hi." Peter waved at the two people shoveling the snow. "I'm—"

He was cut off when a portal opened and a man stepped out of it, wearing a heavy winter coat. "—The most famous person in the world, I know." The man spoke before introducing himself. "Wong. Try not to slip. We don't have liability insurance."

"Is this all for a holiday party?" Peter asked, his hand still tightly gripping Alya's so she wouldn't wander off.

"No." Wong closed the portal. "One of the rotunda gateways connects to Siberia. Blizzard blasted through."

Alya tried to pull her hand away from Peter's. The longer she stood here staring at the snow, the more she wanted to play in it. That wasn't the goal here, but the snow just looked so pretty and fluffy.

She got distracted when Doctor Strange floated down the stairs in a sweatshirt, sweatpants, and a pair of snow boots. She'd never seen him so casual, so his wardrobe really caught her eye.

"Because someone forgot to cast a maintenance spell to keep the seals tight."

"That's right, he did. Because he forgot I now have higher duties." Wong rolled his eyes.

"Higher duties?" Peter questioned.

"The Sorcerer Supreme has high duties, yes."

"Wait, I thought you were the Sorcerer Supreme?"

"No." Strange shook his head. "He got it on a technicality 'cause I blipped for five years."

"Oh….well, congratulations."

"If I'd been here, then I'd—"

"—Burn the place down."

"So, Peter. Alya." Strange led them over to the fireplace before igniting it, completely ignoring Wong. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Right. Um…I'm really sorry to bother you, sir, but—"

"—Please. We saved half the universe together. I think we're beyond you calling me 'sir'."

"Okay…uh….Stephen?"

"That feels weird, but I'll allow it." Strange tilted his head to look at Alya to see what she would come up with. "And you?"

"U-Uncle Strange?" Alya hesitated.

She didn't like calling adults by their first names. In fact, it took a while for Rebecca to get her to call her Rebbie. She just thought it was a little disrespectful given that she was only twelve. She already had an Uncle Steve and she didn't want to call Strange anything close to that, so she decided to use his last name instead.

"You're cute, I'll allow it." He accepted the moniker, albeit a bit gruffly to maintain his reputation.

But Alya just gave him a winning smile, which he had to turn away from before he melted right there and then.

"When Mysterio revealed my identity, my entire life got screwed up, and….I was wondering….I mean, I don't even know if this would actually work, but I was wondering if maybe you could go back in time and make it so that he never did?"

"Peter, we tampered with the stability of space-time to resurrect countless live. You wanna do it again now just because yours got a little messy?" Strange quirked a brow.

"This isn't— it's not about me. I mean, this is really hurting a lot of people. My…my Aunt May, Happy, my best friend, my girlfriend, Alya….their futures are ruined just because they know me, and they've done nothing wrong."

Alya didn't really feel like her future was ruined. High school was still a little difficult because people were still asking her about him, but she could handle that. It wasn't really a big deal to her anymore.

"I am so sorry, but even if I wanted to, I don't have the Time Stone anymore."

"That's right." Peter realized. "I'm really sorry if I wasted your time."

He totally forgot about that small detail, but it was worth a shot.

"You didn't."

"Just forget about it."

"Oh, he will." Wong came back in carrying some packages, Alya didn't even notice when he left the room. "He's really good at forgetting things."

"Wong, You've actually generated a good idea." Strange's eyes widened in realization.

"What?" Peter was confused.

"Just a standardized spell of forgetting. Won't turn back time, but at least people will forget that you were ever Spider-Man."

Alya didn't like the sound of that. She felt like she may have been overreacting, but she was a victim of someone tampering with memories. She knew that Peter was different from Dreykov, but she couldn't get on board with erasing someone's memories to make life easier.

It made her uneasy.

There was so much stuff she hadn't known about herself and there were still gaps that were missing in her mind because of Dreykov's experiments.

She didn't want anyone else to have to go through that.

"Seriously? Thank—"

"—No. Not seriously." Wong snapped. "That spell travels the dark borders between known and unknown reality. It's too dangerous."

All the more reason not to do it.

"We've used it for a lot less. Do you remember the full moon party in Kamar-Taj?" Strange asked him.

"No."

"Exactly. Come on, Wong, hasn't he been through enough?"

"Just leave me out of this."

Alya wished she could say the very same thing.

"So, what is this place?"

Once it was decided that Strange would do what he could to help Peter and his friends out, the older man took the kids down into what looked like the basement of the Sanctum.

"The Sanctum's built at the intersection of cosmic energy currents. We were the first to seek them out. Some of these walls are thousands of years old. And they filmed an episode of 'Equalizer' here in the eighties."

"Well, I, uh, really appreciate you doing this for me, sir."

"Don't mention it and don't call me 'sir'."

"Right. Sorry."

Alya slowly walked around the room to look at everything and thought it odd that there was a pilates machine leaning up against the wall.

"You ready?" Strange asked Peter.

"I'm ready."

"Nice knowing you, Spider-Man." Strange began to move his hands, beginning the spell.

Alya's jaw dropped as she watched him get to work. An orangey glow surrounded all of them and she was just amazed by what was happening.

She wondered if she could get her powers to do the same thing. And by 'the same', she meant, she wondered if she could get them to actually work.

It seemed like no amount of practice with Wanda was helping her. Wanda kept telling her that one day she would have a lightbulb moment, but she had these powers for way too long to not know how to use them.

"Wait, excuse me?" Peter realized he had forgotten something.

"The entire world is about to forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Including me."

Alya's eyes widened at Strange's words.

The whole world?

She wasn't really sure why she was surprised. That's what Peter wanted, right? For the world to forget about Spider-Man so that he and his friends could get into college.

"Everyone?" Peter panicked. "Can't some people still know?"

He didn't want everyone to forget. He went through enough when each one of the people closest to him found out.

"That's not how the spell works and it's very difficult and dangerous to change it mid-casting." Strange warned.

"So my girlfriend is just gonna forget about everything we've been through? I mean, is she even gonna be my girlfriend?"

Alya could feel that things were starting to go wrong and nervously bit her lip. She knew this was a bad idea. Nothing good ever came of messing with people's minds and she didn't know why Strange was even entertaining this.

"That depends." Strange struggled to keep his focus. "Was she your girlfriend just because you're Spider-Man?"

"I mean, I don't know. I hope not."

That wouldn't be good.

"Alright. Fine." Strange waved his hand, changing the spell. "Everyone in the world is gonna forget you're Spider-Man, except your girlfriend."

"Thank you so much." Peter breathed a sigh of relief before he thought of something else. "Oh my— Ned!"

The room was beginning to shake and Alya started to feel very, very worried. She didn't know much about Strange's craft, in fact, she didn't know anything about his craft, but she was pretty sure that there weren't supposed to be this many interruptions.

"What is a Ned?"

"He's my best friend, so it's really important to me that Ned knows…and Alya."

Strange nodded and changed the spell once again. "Okay. Let's not change the parameters of the spell anymore while I'm casting it."

"Okay, I'm done. I swear I'm done….but my Aunt May should really know."

"Peter, stop." Alya warned as things got more and more hectic.

"Stop tampering with the spell."

"Once she found out that I was Spider-Man, it was really messy, and I don't think I can go through that again. So, my Aunt May?"

"Yes!"

"Oh, thank you….Happy?"

"No. I am annoyed." Strange grit his teeth.

What part of, 'stop tampering with the spell', didn't this kid understand?

"No, it's a nickname. Harold 'Happy' Hogan. He works for Tony Stark."

Why would Peter need Happy of all people to remember he was Spider-Man? The whole point of a secret identity, was to have people not know!

"Could you…..just stop talking?"

The spell's orange rings began to spin faster before they violently shook, and the wind picked up in the room, making Alya's hair whip around her hat. The sounds the wind made were very loud and it was hard to hear anything else, so Alya slapped her hands over her ears and did her best to remain calm.

"Basically, everyone who knew that I was Spider-Man before should still know!" Peter yelled over the noise.

Alya closed her eyes and kept her ears covered as everything got louder and louder. Her ears were sensitive and the sounds were a little piercing.

When she asked her parents if she could hang out with Peter, she had no idea what she was going to be in for.

She thought they were going to go to Happy's place, or maybe hang out in Midtown or something.

She had no idea that she was going to be dragged to Doctor Strange's residence so that he could wipe everyone's memories!

She was going to get in so much trouble!

Alya's eyes only opened when the wind stopped and things died down. Doctor Strange managed to get control of it all, but he had to contain it in some sort of relic.

"Did it work?" Peter had the audacity to ask.

"No! You changed my spell six times!" Strange growled.

"…Five times."

"You changed my spell! You don't do that!" He pointed a stern finger at the teen, before looking at the contained spell. "I told you and this is why! That spell was completely out of control! If I hadn't shut it down, something catastrophic could've happened!"

"Stephen, listen, I am so sorry—"

"—Call me, 'sir'!" Strange snapped.

"Sorry, sir."

"You know, after everything we've been through together, somehow, I always forget….You're just a kid. Look, Parker, the problem, it's not Mysterio. It's you." Strange spoke bluntly. "You're trying to live two different lives….and the longer you do that, the more dangerous it becomes. Believe me. I'm so sorry about you and your friends not getting into college, but if they rejected you, and….you tried to convince them to reconsider, there is nothing else you can do."

"When you say, 'convince them', you mean, like, I could've called them?"

Alya's hand flew up to her face in shock. Peter hadn't thought of calling the school to clear this up? But then again, it's not like she should've been surprised, he didn't even want to call Tony for help.

What was going on with him?

"Yeah." Strange gave him a look.

"I can do that?"

"You haven't called?"

"Well, I mean….I got their letter, and I assumed that—"

"—I'm sorry, but are you telling me, that you didn't even think to plead your case with them first, before you asked me to brainwash the entire world?"

"I mean, when you put it like that…."

All of a sudden, Peter was no longer in the room. Alya tilted her head in confusion, but hesitated to say anything at first. She didn't know where Peter was and if he was in some kind of dungeon, she didn't want to open up her mouth and end up there, too.

"He's outside." Strange explained before she could freak out. "You may leave on your own. Come back any time."

"Uncle Strange?" Alya lightly tugged on the man's cloak to get his full attention, gasping when it tapped her hand. "Whoa."

She immediately took a step back to look at it, but didn't make another move to touch it.

"Yeah, he does that."

"Sorry. I didn't know he was….alive."

"What's on your mind, kid?" Strange's problem wasn't with Alya, but he had just about enough today.

"Um….I just wanted to know if you could tell me where these come from." Alya wiggled her fingers to reveal her wisps. "Wanda says they're from the Mind Stone, because when we do it together, we make purple…..and when I got dusted….I was awake while everyone else was asleep."

"Let me see." Strange waved a hand over her arms to analyze the situation before nodding his head. "Yup. Wanda's right about that. These powers do come from the Mind Stone. Is anyone teaching you how to control them? They seem…..erratic."

"Wanda's trying, but I just can't get it."

"You need to try harder. This gift you have….it's powerful, but it can be dangerous if it's not contained." He warned. "And it isn't being contained."

"But it's hard."

"You've had these powers for quite some time now and you still can't control them. There's only one problem here and it's you."

He didn't mean to be so harsh, but he was sure that Wanda was coddling her, which made it harder to learn. Alya needed someone to tell her the truth. She needed to know how dangerous it was to be so relaxed about not knowing how to control her powers.

"You don't want to accept them, so it makes it difficult to control. Break the barrier, Alya. You'll be better off when you do."