InsaneJournal

Peter had never given up hope. He hadn’t given up hope that someday, they’d beat Interitus. He’d never given up hope that someday, Wanda would be freed from his control. And he’d never given up hope that someday, he’d get to introduce Wanda to Siyah.

Even still, now that it had finally happened, Peter wasn’t entirely sure if he could believe it. They’d fought for so long. It had been so hard. And now, now it was over.

He’d waited until the time travellers had left and said good-bye. Wanda hadn’t seen Billy in more than five years, and he knew that she’d want to have as much time with him as possible. But it wasn’t long after Billy had said good-bye and gone back to 2023 that Peter showed up at the cottage. He had managed to convince Siyah, through bribing her with a strawberry popsicle, to stand outside the door.

He knocked, and then came inside. “Hey, Wanda. You up for visitors? I have someone I want you to meet.”

Wanda had missed three years. She remembered very little of it – and she could not get the time back.

She remembered Toph. She remembered following her, which was a fool’s errand, she knew. It wasn’t long after Peter and Kamala’s wedding, and then it was three years later. She regained consciousness on the battlefield. Billy was there. Wanda was elated, and confused, and worried she’d hurt people (she had, that she knew without anyone telling her).

Interitus was defeated. They had won, and now they had to pick up the pieces. Billy was gone, and so were Tommy and Teddy – but Toph was still here, and Peter.

It may be a safe assumption to make that she was having an emotional moment in her kitchen, things floating and shifting as she waffled back and forth in organization. Her magic was surfacing, and she felt its warm ripple under her skin and in her blood. Soon, she’d have it all back to her control. She had time.

They all did now.

“Always up for visitors,” she greeted with a watery smile, wiping beneath her eyes as she fixed herself up for company. “Come in, come in.”

“Great,” Peter said, and then he stepped back outside to grab Siyah. There was a popsicle lying on the ground where he’d left her, already set upon by ants, and for a second, a horrible sense of dread filled him.

It didn’t last long. He spotted her nearly immediately, toddling off into the woods without a single care in the world. Still standing in the open doorway, he fwipped at her, the new web formula he’d made – like bungie cords – sticking to her back, and then he pulled. She screamed with delight as she flew through the air and into his arms.

He shot Wanda a grin. “Meet Siyah May Parker-Khan,” he said, stepping the rest of the way into the cabin and closing the door behind him

A baby.

Not an infant, god no, but a baby nonetheless – this small, giggling little person made up of the best parts of Kamala and Peter. Hadn’t she poked at Carol about this during the night of their wedding? Dancing on the floor barefoot, talking about these two adults that weren’t really their kids but also were, in a way.

Wanda knew she had missed a lot, but Siyah May was the embodiment of it – the time, the moments. “Hi there, beautiful,” she greeted, hesitant to reach out, so she did the habitual thing of fiddling with her fingers to expel some nervous energy. “Peter, she’s… perfect.”

Perfect was the word that most people used to describe her when they saw her, and Peter couldn’t disagree. She really was perfection personified, at least to his eyes.

He noticed Wanda’s nervous fingers and smiled. “Siyah, this is Wanda. Yep, the same Wanda daddy always talks about. She’s practically your grandma.” He held the toddler out to her. “Do you want to hold her?”

Practically your grandma. Wanda laughed, doing her best to keep the sound genuine and less choked. Chaos magic kept her body frozen young. She still didn’t look old enough to be a young adult’s mother, especially not grandma, but she felt the age in her soul – tired and weary. The title fit.

“The answer to the question must be obvious,” she said, and held her hands out as an offer. “Hi, little one.” Her voice was softer when she addressed Siyah with a little bit of cooing. “I’m so glad I finally got to meet you. What’s your favorite animal?”

Siyah could have been shy and timid. The Outpost was pretty small, at least compared to the worlds that Peter had known: New York with it’s bustling streets and Vallo City, a little smaller, much cleaner, but nearly as busy. But the people who Siyah had met so far had all been kind to her. Peter and Kamala had worked hard to shield her from the worst of the world the last few years, and as a result, Siyah May was a smiling, cheerful toddler who looked at Wanda with open, wide-eyed curiosity.

She thought about it for a moment. “Chocobos!”

“Chocobos?” Peter asked, surprised. “I thought your favourite animals were unicorns?”

Siyah shook her head. “No, Daddy, I like chocobos now.”

Since Siyah seemed receptive, Wanda mustered the courage to bring her into her arms, and - gods, those cheeks. That face. Being toddler-sized meant she was light so it was a one-arm hold, which let her other hand be free. “Good choice,” she chuckled, and moved her hand and fingers in that way, tapping into that well of growing magic.

Chocobo silhouettes came to be, tiny ones that looked like red smoke and spun around them like a carousel. “You should know since I’m ‘practically her grandma’ that I’m going to spoil her rotten - that must have been a given.” Wanda shot Peter a knowing grin, nose scrunched up at him. “Toys and sugar forever. She deserves it.”

Siyah gasped in delight and watched the silhouettes with wide eyes. It occurred to Peter that this was likely the first time she’d ever seen magic, let alone magic like this: beautiful and playful and innocent. It felt strange to know that Siyah had spent her entire life in Vallo, had been born here, and yet hadn’t had magic as an everyday part of her life growing up.

“You’re going to have to be careful with that sugar. She hasn’t had much of it yet,” he said. Sugar was one of those very limited resources in Interitus’ Vallo. “But I want that for her.” If Peter could have given her the world on a silver platter, he wouldn’t have hesitated to hand it over. Siyah deserved every good thing in the world. “I want that for you too,” he added.

Sugar would be around soon. With everything coming back up – people’s magics, the city freed – she knew it wouldn’t take long for buildings to come back up, for people to pool their resources and bring Vallo back to what it used to be. Wanda looked forward to that future despite how scarred their present had left them.

“I will be okay,” she promised him, offering her fingers for Siyah to grab while they glowed. The magic was harmless, but it would tickle her skin a little. “I had Billy briefly, and–” Wanda couldn’t help the way her lips wobbled at his name. God, she missed him. She missed her twins. She missed Tommy zooming around and chattering at the speed of light, missed Billy’s spazzing about getting ready for a D&D session. She missed Sam. Thor. Bo. “We had a good talk. You’re alive. Steve and Natasha and Carol are alive. Toph is alive.”

Wanda was sure she had blood on her hands. She had vague memories of Freya, of Freyr – trying to trick them, to hurt them. But they were alive and well, and maybe it was a little dark to think that she at least didn’t kill someone close to her. It was a silver lining she had to hold onto, though.

“Maybe with Interitus gone, all those people he blipped… maybe they’ll come back too.”

Peter didn’t know for sure. He couldn’t know for sure, and no one really could. But he didn’t think it was outside of the realm of possibility. People didn’t always come back to Vallo, but they knew that Interitus had somehow gained the ability to send people away. Without Interitus here, there was a chance.

“But even if if they don’t, all of us, we love you.” He smiled, and it was tinged a little with sadness. “It was nice to see Billy again though, wasn’t it? I wish Tommy could’ve come too.”

That maybe was a nice thought. Before she became a victim of the thrall she had hope that the future would set itself right – and it did. But to have those sent home come back because Interitus was put down for good was a step above what she dared to do.

Wanda would give everything for that chance.

She let Siyah continue to marvel at the magic spinning around them, swaying their bodies into a gentle rock. “I love you too,” she laughed, the smile coming back so she could follow that up with, “and you” to the toddler in her arms. “The person I was ten years ago would have hated the thought of Billy coming here, but I’m–I’m selfish. I missed him. I would have preferred both but at least had one, just for a little bit.”

Peter thought he understood that. In retrospect, it was easy for him to be glad that Billy had come back, had been easy to wish Tommy had come to. He hadn’t been so sure that The Plan had been a good one when Billy had first arrived. But with the taste of victory still fresh, he wished he could have shared it with everyone.

“I don’t think it’s selfish to want to see the people you love. I think that’s part of loving someone. And I know that even knowing everything that he knows now, Billy would come back for you every time. Besides, we won. I’m glad you got a chancel to celebrate with him, even if it wasn’t for long.”

“We won,” Wanda echoed, the words reaffirming the fact. They won. She felt the change in the air, in the magic coming back. It was proof. Things would be okay. Things would be better. They needed to be, especially for the little one she held in her arms.

She bumped her forehead gently into Siyah’s temple. “Your dad owes me stories,” she said to the little girl before setting her back to her feet. Her cottage was – fairly childproof? Wanda couldn’t remember. “I found loose tea leaves while I was going through my inventory. Sit with me? I want to know everything I missed with you.”

Peter watch fondly as Siyah toddled off. He wasn’t worried: he and Siyah had both spent a lot of time in the cottage over the last few years. It was where Peter had taught the kids, and sometimes where he came at night when he couldn’t sleep and didn’t want to disturb his wife and daughter. There was nothing here that was likely to hurt her.

“I’ll tell you more stories than you can handle,” he promised, grinning. The good ones. The stories about Siyah May and Kamala, and his students, and their friends. Wanda had been through enough. For today, at least, she deserved only the good things.