It would have been a lot easier if she'd died beneath the rubble of Wundagore Mountain like she'd intended.

She wouldn't have had to claw her way through ice and rock and snow.

She wouldn't have had to trek across the world with nothing but the clothes on her back and the guilt in her soul.

And she wouldn't be here, walking the streets of New York, heart pounding as she nears the New York Sanctum.

She still doesn't know what she's going to say to him.

"I'm sorry"?

"I made a mistake"?

What good does that do? After what she did – what she tried to do – what good is an apology now?

She stands on the sidewalk opposite the Sanctum, only the busy road separating herself from this confrontation she's not ready to have. This is it. There's no turning back now.

She takes a deep breath, preparing herself for the worst, and...

Wait.

There's already someone there.

She cocks her head to the side, furrowing her brows. Who is this? Is he here to see Strange, too? Shouldn't the door be opening? Strange isn't usually one to make people wait.

The man raises his fist, hovering just before it touches the door. A few seconds pass, and slowly, he lowers his hand back to his side. He glances over his shoulder, and, hidden beneath the hood of his sweatshirt, Wanda can just barely make out his face.

Is that...?

He turns back to the Sanctum, oblivious to her presence, but she can't take her eyes off of him. What is he doing here? And why does he seem as wary as she feels?

She crosses the street, levitating above the oncoming cars and landing only once she reaches the Sanctum stairs. He's oblivious to her presence, muttering under his breath words she can't make out.

"Peter?" she says cautiously. Is this him?

Peter whips around to face her, and all the color seems to drain from his face. She deserves that, she's sure – especially if he knows what she tried to do to America. If he's still in contact with Strange, he probably does. She can't fault him for being wary around her.

"Here to talk to Stephen too?" She tries to be conversational about it. She tries to be friendly about it. She never knew Peter all too well, but she did know him enough to know that he's a good kid. She doesn't want to scare him.

Peter just stares at her for a few moments – a few very long moments, she feels – and she offers him a somewhat hesitant smile. If this is how he feels about her, entirely removed from everything she's done, then she's not sure she's ready to see how Stephen reacts.

Finally, Peter says, a bit hesitantly, "You remember me?"

Wanda furrows her brows. "Of course I remember you," she says. "We fought each other; we fought Thanos together." She gives him a small shrug. "It's kind of hard to forget."

"No, I mean..." he frowns, eyeing her uncertainly. "You remember me."

Wanda cocks her head to the side. "Why do you sound so surprised?" Perhaps surprised is the wrong word for it. He definitely is surprised, but there's more to it than that. He sounds... wary. Uncomfortable. And not because of her, not because of what she did; he's wary just because she remembers him.

There's something going on here that she's not going to want to find out, isn't there?

"Um..." Peter clasps his hands behind his back awkwardly. "You know, it's a long story," he says. "If you want to talk to Doctor Strange, though, I'll give you two your space, and I'll just come back another day."

Wanda shakes her head. "You don't have to do that, Peter."

"No, no, it's totally fine," Peter says quickly. "I don't have anything important to talk about, anyway. I was just, y'know, coming to be a nuisance." He takes a step back and gestures to the door. "So you can go ahead, and I'm gonna go home, and if you just wanna, you know, not mention to Doctor Strange that I was here, that'd be great." He gives her two awkward thumbs up.

Wanda puts her hands on her hips, inadvertently putting on her Mom Voice as she asks, "Peter, what's going on?"

Peter grimaces. "It's... complicated."

"Trust me," Wanda says, "'complicated' is nothing new to me."

Still, Peter hesitates, but Wanda just looks at him, silent, expectant, until he breaks.

Peter sighs, slumping his shoulders. "Okay," he concedes. "Long story short, I asked Doctor Strange to help me with something, but I kinda sorta messed up his spell and broke the multiverse, and then the entire universe almost fell apart and he had to cast a spell so that nobody could remember me — Peter Parker me, not Spider-Man me – and now the fact that you do know who I am is kinda creeping me out a little bit."

Wanda just looks at him for a few moments.

What the fuck has Strange been up to lately?

"So nobody else remembers that you're Spider-Man?" Wanda asks.

"Nobody else remembers me at all," Peter says.

"Not even your family?"

Peter's gaze falls to the ground before him. "My only family was my aunt," he says, "and she, um..." He swallows hard. "She didn't make it."

Wanda sighs. "I'm sorry," she says quietly.

Peter nods. "I am, too."

It's quiet for a few moments. Neither of them are quite sure where to go from there. At least it gives them one thing in common, she supposes: they're both completely, utterly alone.

"Does Stephen know who you are?" Wanda asks. Is that why he's here? To talk to the only person he can talk to?

But Peter shakes his head. "I keep thinking, you know, maybe it's time to tell him. Maybe he deserves to know what he did – what we did. But, I don't know..." He sighs. "Maybe it's better if I just let things lie."

Wanda frowns. He just looks so... defeated. And of course he does; he's just lost everything. She knows the feeling all too well, and she wouldn't wish it on anyone.

She sighs and rests a hand on his back. "Let's go talk to Stephen."

Peter swallows hard and nods.

So Wanda turns to the door of the Sanctum, raises her fist, and, after taking a deep breath, she knocks on the door.

Within seconds, the door opens, and for the first time, Wanda gets to see the inside of the New York Sanctum. It's pretty, really. It's a nice place. She likes the dramatic aesthetic.

And then Stephen appears atop the stairs. Wanda tenses as their eyes meet. She's gotten so wrapped up in Peter's plight that she'd nearly forgotten about her own. Maybe she should have thought this out better.

"You're alive," Stephen remarks.

"Not by choice," Wanda answers.

Stephen just looks at her for a moment, a solemn glint in his eye, before he turns his attention to Peter by her side. "I see you found a new child."

Wanda ignores the implications of that. "He was your child first, it seems."

Stephen cocks his head to the side, and for a moment, he just looks at the kid. Peter clasps his hands together uncertainly, and Wanda watches the sorcerer carefully, searching for any sign that he recognizes him, but there's no familiarity in his gaze.

"Should I know you?" Stephen asks finally.

Peter looks over at Wanda, who gestures encouragingly. He can do this. He just has to tell Stephen what happened, and then they can fix this. They can figure out what happened, and together, they can fix this.

"Um..." Peter clears his throat. "Hi. I'm Peter. Parker." He smiles awkwardly. "Peter Parker."

Stephen nods slowly. "Okay, Peter Parker," he says, "what are you doing here?"

"Uh..." Peter looks down at his hands, picking at his fingers uncomfortably. "You know, I've done this, like, a hundred times in my head, but now that it's actually happening, I have no idea what to say."

Stephen raises a brow, and his gaze shifts to the resident witch for answers. "Wanda?"

She's probably not in a position to answer any Peter-related questions. She hardly knows the kid, and all she knows about the situation itself is what he said briefly outside the door. But she can see so clearly how uncomfortable he is, and if that means she has to be the one to get the ball rolling, she'll do that.

"You do know him," she begins. "Or, you did. He was a friend of Tony's."

Stephen's expression softens at that, and Peter swallows hard at the mention of the name. It's impossible to miss the grief in his eyes.

"I didn't know many of Tony's friends," Stephen says, uncharacteristically apologetic in his tone.

"But you knew him," Wanda says.

Peter takes that opportunity to chime in. "I, uh..." He cringes at his awkwardness. "I'm Spider-Man."

Stephen pauses at that. "You're..." He looks him up and down. "You're Spider-Man."

Peter nods.

"He is," Wanda says. "And you knew that once, but something happened, and you had to cast a spell that made you forget."

"That made everyone forget," Peter says. "It was the only way to set the multiverse right – because we broke it workin on a spell earlier, and a bunch of guys from other universes–"

"Yeah, yeah, I remember that part," Stephen interrupts. He's quiet for a few moments, thinking about this. "I do know Spider-Man," he says slowly, "but I never knew who..."

"But you did," Peter says. "We were on a first-name basis and everything – for a little while, at least, until I messed up your spell and then you got mad at me."

"And you left me dangling over the Grand Canyon for hours," Stephen deadpans.

Peter grimaces at the reminder, and Wanda cracks a smile. She wants to hear that story.

"So I used to know you," Stephen says slowly. "Not just as Spider-Man, but as... Peter." He makes a face at the name.

Peter nods. "Mm-hmm."

Stephen takes a few moments to process that. "Okay," he says, "so why does Wanda remember you?"

"I don't know," Peter admits. "She shouldn't."

That question has been in the back of Wanda's mind since she learned of this situation, but it's only now that she's beginning to form a theory. "When was this?" she asks.

"November," Peter answers.

That would explain it. "The spell didn't work on me," she says. "It couldn't work on me. I was in a cabin warded by powerful sigils. The only one who could perform magic in that space was me."

Stephen cocks a brow. "Sigils that you learned from the Darkhold." The judgment – the distrust – is clear in his voice.

Wanda narrows her eyes. She's not going to answer that. That's not important right now. They're here to help Peter. That's their priority at the moment.

Peter looks between the two of them, his brows furrowed. "What's the Darkhold?"

"Nothing," Wanda says immediately, shooting Stephen a look.

"It's a spellbook," Stephen says. "A powerful, dangerous spellbook." He shoots Wanda a look right back.

"Stephen..." Wanda shakes her head. Now isn't the time. "Let's deal with Peter first. We can talk about that later."

Peter looks between the two of them uncertainly. Wanda pretends she doesn't notice. He's been through a lot already. If she can protect him from the horrors that she's responsible for, she's going to.

Stephen looks at Wanda for a few moments, then nods once. He turns his attention back to the kid. "Well, Peter," he says, "how can I help you?'

Peter hesitates. "I don't know."

Stephen pauses. "You don't know what you want?"

Peter shrugs sheepishly. "I guess I just... wanted to introduce myself," he says. "Because we worked together, and because we both live in New York, and I just thought..." He shoves his hands in his pockets. "So, yeah. My name's Peter Parker. I'm Spider-Man. I live in the area, so if you ever need me..." He shrugs again, even more awkwardly this time. "None of my friends remember me and my whole family's dead, so I'm always free." He plasters on a smile.

Stephen lowers his head solemnly.

Wanda rests a hand on Peter's shoulder. "So you have nobody," she says quietly. "For months, you've had... nobody."

Peter shakes his head. "Not anymore."

"And you haven't told anybody," Stephen surmises.

Again, he shakes his head. "No, I haven't."

"Why not?"

"Because I can't," Peter says. "Because they're happy now. They're safe. I can't drag them back into my mess now that they've finally gotten out. I can't risk letting them get hurt because I don't want to do this without them."

Stephe and Wanda share a look, and if there'd been any doubt in her mind that Peter is a good kid, this dispels it. He cares about his friends so much. He cares about his friends more than he cares about himself. That's a level of selflessness that very few people ever meet.

"Do you have somewhere to stay?" Stephen asks him.

Peter nods. "I have an apartment," he says. "It's not much, but, I mean, rent is cheap and I don't have to pay for heating, so I can't complain."

"Hmm..." Stephen hums thoughtfully. He glances around the room, most pointedly behind himself where he came from, before he looks back at Peter. "We could always use another set of hands at the Sanctum," he says. "You wouldn't have to pay rent, but you would have to give us a hand every now and then."

Peter's brows shoot up. "Really?"

Stephen shrugs. "Sure, why not?" he says flippantly. "It's starting to feel like a hotel these days anyway."

Peter gives him a weird look. "What...?"

As if on cue, another figure emerges then. She's looking at Stephen, paying no mind to the other two in the room. "Hey, Wong's thinking of getting pizza. What do you want?"

Wanda finds herself frozen where she stands. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Stephen grimace as he turns to face this newcomer, but Wanda can't tear her gaze away long enough to see his reaction.

Of all the ways Wanda feared that this could go wrong, she'd never imagined this. She came here to see Strange. She knew she might see Wong. But she'd never, not in a million years, suspected that she would find America Chavez here.

America looks down at the two guests, and the moment her gaze meets Wanda's, all the color drains from her face. Wanda suspects she looks rather similar.

Wanda takes a step back, and another, and another. No, no, no, no, no. She wasn't ready for this. She will never be ready for this. After what she did to this poor girl...

"What's she doing here?" America asks, her voice barely a whisper.

Stephen puts a hand on her shoulder, a comforting movement that doesn't seem to be bringing any actual comfort. "She's not here for you."

"But why is she here?" Her voice is shaky, fearful, angry. Wanda deserves every bit of it.

Wanda swallows hard. "I'm sorry," she whispers. "America, I am so sorry. I don't know what got into me. I don't know why–"

"Stop it," America interrupts. "Stop it. I don't want to hear it."

Wanda just shakes her head helplessly. She can't stop. She has to apologize. She has to make her see–

"America, it's okay," Stephen says. "She's not staying long."

Peter looks over at Wanda, confused. She doesn't blame him. He doesn't know what she did. He doesn't know what kind of monster he's dealing with.

"Tell Wong I'll have a pepperoni pizza," Stephen tells America. "And our new friend Peter will have...?"

Peter blinks at that. "Me?"

"Is there another Peter here?" Stephen asks sarcastically. "Yes, you. What kind of pizza do you want?"

"Uh..." He shrugs awkwardly, and, after thinking for a few moments, he says, "Pepperoni, too, I guess?"

"Great," Stephen says. "America, we'll split a pepperoni. Get it delivered; I'll pay – but don't tell Wong, 'cause he'll order more food if he knows I'm paying."

America nods once and hurriedly slips away.

And then it's quiet.

Stephen claps his hands together. "Well. Dinner plans are sorted out."

"Who was that?" Peter asks.

"America Chavez," Stephen replies. "She's been perusing the multiverse since she was young, but she's taking a little break here for a while."

"Oh." Peter takes a moment to process that. "Okay."

Wanda glances around uncomfortably. "I should go," she says. To Stephen, she adds, "I just wanted you to know that I'm back and that I'm sorry." She doesn't want to cause any more problems – and she doesn't want him to think she's going to cause any more problems. She's not here to hurt anyone. She's just here, whether she wants to be or not.

Stephen looks at her, and then at Peter. "Come on, you can head that way." He gestures toward the rest of the Sanctum. "America's somewhere down the hall if you want to go find her. She could use a friend her age."

Peter seems a little hesitant, but, upon Stephen's insistence and Wanda's assurance that it's okay and that she'll see him again, he climbs up the stairs and heads off after America. Wanda doesn't move from where she stands. She suspects that the real conversation is about to start.

Stephen descends the stairs, meeting Wanda on the ground. She lets her gaze fall to the floor. This is the part she'd been hoping to avoid when she realized Peter was coming, too. She'd hoped he'd be a distraction for them all. She should have known that wouldn't be the case. She should have known she wasn't going to get out of the hard conversations that easily.

Stephen is the first to speak. "I'd wondered if you were going to come back."

Wanda shrugs uncomfortably. "Well, you know, I didn't think you'd let me start wandering the globe without talking to you first."

"I don't think I have to 'let' you do anything," Stephen remarks. "I think we've established that the only person who can stop you from doing something is you."

Wanda nods solemnly. He's certainly not wrong. A part of her finds comfort in that. A part of her finds it worrying. She understands now that she can't always trust herself. Her judgment isn't always sound; she isn't immune to manipulation. She would love to have a fail safe in case she loses herself again, but unfortunately, it seems such a thing doesn't exist.

"You know that what you did was wrong," Stephen says. It's a question, but it's also a statement. He knows the answer she's going to give before she gives it.

"I do."

"And you're done tearing the multiverse apart to find your kids?" Stephen asks.

"I am," she says. She has to be. Her kids were real. She knows that. But they're gone. She will never have them back. And she can't just steal them from someone else, either; she learned that the hard way. She can't hurt them to make herself feel better.

Stephen offers her a small smile. "Then it's good to have you back."

Wanda gives him a small smile in return. "Thank you," she says. That means a lot, actually. After everything she did, it means a lot that he's not furious with her; that he doesn't wish she'd died beneath the rubble of Wundagore Mountain. She doesn't know if that forgiveness is warranted, but she appreciates it nonetheless.

"Are you okay?" Stephen asks her. "That mountain came down hard on you."

"I'm okay," Wanda says. She shouldn't be, but she is. Whether it's a minor miracle or a horrid curse, she suspects she'll find out soon. She wouldn't be surprised to learn that it's the latter.

"I'm not surprised," Stephen says. "You almost took out Thanos all by yourself. I'd be shocked if all it took was a mountain to knock you down." He says it with a playful smile, and she huffs at the remark.

More sincerely, she says, "Again, I'm sorry."

Stephen shakes his head. "Wanda..."

"That's really why I came," she says. "I'm sorry – for everything. And thank you for taking Peter in. I never knew him very well, but I know that he's a good kid. He deserves this. He needs this."

"Of course," Stephen says. "We'll take care of him. He'll fit in just fine.

Wanda just nods once. Right now, that's what matters to her. Her family is gone, but there are still good people out here. Stephen, Wong, Peter, America... She just wants to know that they're all going to be okay.

"Do you have anywhere to go?" Stephen asks her.

"I'll figure something out," Wanda says. She always does.

"I can send you to one of the other Sanctums," Stephen offers. "Or I can ask Peter if you can stay at his place until we can get something sorted out for you, just to make sure you have a roof over your head." With a sympathetic smile, he adds, "I'd offer you a place here, but I don't think America would appreciate that."

"I wouldn't ask you to do that for me anyway," Wanda assures him, though it means a lot that he'd even think of it. "I'll be okay." Maybe she'll go back to Sokovia – or what's left of it, divided up between the neighboring countries. It will hurt, seeing what's left of her country, and it will hurt even more to do it without her brother, but it may be for the best. Maybe what she needs right now is just to get out of America for a little while.

"You know that you can call me any time," Stephen says. "If you need anything, just let me know." He raises his hand and taps his sling ring. "I could be there in two minutes."

Wanda offers him a small smile. "I appreciate that," she says. She doesn't plan to take him up on that offer, but she appreciates it nonetheless. "But I should probably go. You guys enjoy your dinner – and give Peter my number, just in case."

Stephen nods once. "I'll do that."

Wanda nods, too, and then she turns away. With her back to him, she takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly as she walks away. This went better than she expected. They had a nice, civil conversation. They're parting on good terms. They're parting as allies – dare she say, as friends, even.

She wasn't sure about this when she made the decision to seek him out, but she's glad she did it. She'll be able to rest much easier now that they've dealt with this.

"Wanda."

She looks over her shoulder at him, brows furrowed. What...?

"Let's go out and get a bite to eat," he says. "My treat."

Wanda frowns. "You don't have to–"

"I want to," Stephen interrupts. "I think it will be good for both of us. We can talk about what comes next."

Wanda hesitates. "In what sense?" she asks warily.

"In the sense that I'm not comfortable leaving you to your own devices again," Stephen says bluntly. "So let's go get something to eat, and let's figure out how I'm going to keep both you and America around where neither of you will get hurt."

She'd been nervous, she'll admit, when he'd begun, but that last little bit puts a small smile on her lips. He's not necessarily worried that she's going to do something stupid, or that she's going to put other people at risk again. He's worried about her. He has no reason to, but he is. That means a lot to her – enough that maybe, just maybe, she'll be willing to stay in the area.

But still, she hesitates, until finally, she points out, "You just ordered pizza."

Stephen waves that off. "I'll eat the leftovers tomorrow," he says. "I'd rather have sushi, anyway."

Wanda raises her brows. "Sushi?" That sounds nice. She could go for some sushi right now.

"There's a great place a few blocks down," Stephen says. "C'mon, I'll show you."

Wanda cracks a smile, and she nods once. "Lead the way."