╭-°—✞—˚✧ ψ ✧˚—✞—°-╮
CHAPTER TWENTY!
𝖘𝖕𝖆𝖈𝖊 𝖎𝖓𝖛𝖆𝖉𝖊𝖗𝖘
╰-°—✞—˚✧ ψ ✧˚—✞—°-╯

────── 〔ψ〕──────

THE WHITE WALLS brought out the gold frames of the paintings before Salene. The eyes of the man in The Scream bore into her own. She found herself admiring the strokes of the blue and how the colors blended together. She knew she was on borrowed time but she could help but constantly come back to this painting, maybe it's the fact that she knows what Edward Munch was expressing in his work. She knew what he was feeling in the haunting expression of the man on the dock.

"I'm surprised you were reluctant to come to this trip," Peter spoke up next to her, making her jump a bit, she had been too lost in her thoughts to even hear him come up behind her.

"I didn't want to mess up my painting style, plagiarism is..." she didn't have to finish her sentence, Peter knew what she meant.

That's the thing, it had been roughly two years since they took down the vulture and Salene had only gotten more powerful, and closer to Peter. Something happened that night that changed their relationship, Salene wasn't sure if it was because it was the first time Peter had been in the apartment or if it was her whole family throwing salt at the two of them for showing up while looking like a hot mess.

Kyril saved them from the yelling when he said he found Peter defending Salene and being beaten up. Which would explain why they looked so beaten up. Her father even kissed Peter's cheek as a sign of acceptance and thankfulness. Peter went on about it for the following weeks to come.

Now, they're at the point where one is always crashing at the others apartment, most of the time its Salene crashing at Peters after a rough night of patrol. Since May found out about Peter, she seemed okay enough for Salene to reveal herself to the woman who always made her feel welcome in her home.

"Ms. Carlyle is gonna kill us if we don't get back," Peter spoke, Salene was still zoned out, staring into the eyes of The Scream, it brought something out in her as she reflected on it.

"Yeah we should probably go," she muttered and spun around. There was a crowd of people in MoMA today, a lot of schools thought it was the perfect day to take a field trip to an art museum.

Peter noticed her panic with such a large crowd and Salene felt him take her hand and pull her behind him; he let her grip onto his sweater, using his taller frame to make a path for her and get to the entrance of the building. Salene felt the heat rise in her cheeks and ears at the connection, her heart raced when he took her hand again to go inside the bus.

The first time Salene remembers them holding hands was a few days after they got their suits back, they were still cleaning up the mess Adrian made with all the weapons they sold and Salene had a close call. Peter hugged her tight and wouldn't stop holding her hand any chance he got.

The two sat together, Salene was closer to the window but still leaning against Peter as they shared headphones to listen to a playlist they made together to listen to on patrols. Salene has full access to her suit now that Tony has removed the Training Wheels protocol.

You're head over heels, huh, Lucifer whispered, why don't you do something already?

And risk losing him? Salene questioned, absolutely not, I'm good with this right now. She could feel his discontent with her response but it's not like he could do anything.

Something doesn't feel right, Lucifer spoke, his unease was pushing onto her, she looked out the window as the bus made its way off 60th street and onto the Queensborough bridge path to Queens. She could understand, the clouds were making weird formations.

Salene had looked away for a couple of minutes to see what Peter wanted to show her as they leaned against each other when she saw the hair on his arms stand up straight with goosebumps. She looked back to the cloud formation to see a giant ring floating over the buildings of New York. Salene gasped as Peter spun around to look too.

"Ned, hey. I need you to cause a distraction," Peter spoke. Salene couldn't take her eyes off the ship, they were beginning to water, one of her reactions to fear, her heart was racing.

"Holy shit!" Ned whispered, she could sense him leaving his seat as he caught the attention of the other students, "We're all gonna die! There's a spaceship!"

Salene has found better ways of controlling her body heat, one of them was directing it to her gut, this made her nauseous most of the time though. Then again, the ominous O-Ring made Salene's head spin with a panic rise in her chest. A panic attack would ensue if she stared any longer, her attention was taken by Peter who took her hands and slapped her newest set of gauntlets on.

Next, he's pulling her to the other side of the bus and punching her mask on her face.

"Focus on me, we need to get to that ship," Peter spoke, she wasn't sure if it was her feelings for him or Lucifer, but his voice and his words kept ringing in her head.

Peter climbed out of the window, grabbing his bag and pulling it on, and jumping off, Salene pulled hers on and jumped out after him. She felt her hair set aflame as she saw him swing out from under the bridge as she flew over. Salene swooped down and caught him, carrying them both to land so they could find a private alleyway to change.

When they found an empty place with no pedestrians, she hid behind a dumpster and practically ripped her clothes off to jump into her suit. She had to quickly make sure that her shirt wasn't singed considering the flame almost did that for her. Peter came around as she was tightening her suit when he got their bags and jumped up, using his webs to web their backpacks to the wall, but this time closer to the roof.

They were on 50th avenue. Salene caught Peter and flew up, her suits AI, Megan, was scanning local news to see if they could find Tony, knowing he would be the first at the fight. Her arms were getting tired and she had to heave him up, her arms wrapping tighter around him, their faces side by side.

"Sorry Pete," she yelled over the howl of the wind as she cut through the air.

Articles were coming up about Washington Square Park, she veered right and went north of the ship, she let go of Peter and caught him by his hands, from what she saw, Tony had just been thrown into a tree, a man who liked a lot like Bruce Banner had run up to him, Salene was still too far, the giant alien was bounding to them at full speed, she did a few revolutions with Peter in her hands and threw him at the alien at full speed.

Salene was doing everything she could to get to them but the wind was fighting her and her arms were weak from carrying Peter. She watched as he got flung to the concrete next to the fountain, a spike of anger hitting her that made her send a blast of energy to the alien. It got his attention and distracted him long enough for Tony to get back on his feet. As Salene drew near, the man that looked like Banner, was Banner. She dropped down, her mask pulling away to reveal her face to him in awe.

"Dr. Banner, big fan," she greeted, "Hulk or no?"

"No."

"Alright, let's go," She responded, wrapping her arms around him and flying off, he was a bit heavier than Peter, but nothing she couldn't handle, she got him out of the action but close enough to the fight just in case the hulk came back, "I'm Salene by the way, Lightbringer if you  want to google me, be right back."

Salene flew off again, coming back to see Peter throwing half of a taxi cab down onto the alien with his webs. She joined in, blasting him down as best as she could with her energy, two white-hot streams left her as she landed on the ground, wanting to use as much of her energy as she could on him. It only pissed him off as he threw his giant metal claw at her. Peter used his webs to yank her out of the way and swing her around. She flew around, using the momentum to land on the alien's shoulders, heating her hands and shoving a fist in his eye.

The monster screamed out and grabbed her, throwing her off of him. As he did, a man in a cape flew by, another alien after him.

"Kids, that's the wizard get on it," Tony yelled. Salene wasn't sure when a wizard came into play, but she followed the alien and the caped man with Peter, leaving Tony with the other alien. She was worried that he wouldn't be able to handle it but she figured if Tony needed both of them to get the wizard then there was something with him that was a high priority.

He's not a wizard, he's something else, I can't remember the name just yet, Lucifer was in her mind, she could feel him watching what she was watching.

I don't think the name quiet matters right now, Salene responded as she rounded a corner where she immediately saw Peter get hit by a giant Rocket Mortgage billboard. Salene flew up when she saw Peter get up. She did her best to fly after him, but she wasn't getting there fast enough. The bald alien threw a car at her and she did her best to avoid it but it still hit her hip, making her spiral down to the ground. She watched as a cluster of street lamps closed in on the Wizard, it caught his cape but his momentum sent him to the ground.

Salene flew up to catch him, flashbacks of Rhodey appearing in her vision, but Peter caught him, she could hear him saying that too. A giant blue stream of light stopped the wizard, pulling him up to the ship that Salene didn't even notice was now above them. Her hip was throbbing and she saw that Peter was now being beamed up as well.

She thought she could be able to fight the beam and get them out but when she flew into it, she was unable to leave it. She wondered if that's how the cows felt.

"Uh, Mr. Stark?" She heard Peter in her comm, "we're being beamed up."

"Hang on!" She heard Tony's familiar voice, she watched as the Wizard and the Alien went inside the intake for the ship and she watched in horror as it cut Peters web, the beam that held them was gone.

A small sense of relief came to her when she saw Peter's web to the side of the ship and manage to stick to it. Salene did her best to get to him but the lack of oxygen was getting to her. Her mask was doing its best but it was still not enough.

Salene you're losing air, you need to stop, Lucifer's voice was as loud as her thoughts. Salene put more energy into flying up, when she blinked, she didn't even notice that she didn't open her eyes back up.

"Sal!" She could hear Peter's voice in her ear, probably from the comm. She was struggling to breathe. Salene was awoken a bit when something slammed against her back, she felt it spread over her body and connect to her mask.

Air-filled her lungs as she gasped for it, looking down at her body, she realized it was the suit that Tony showed two years ago when he offered her a spot with the avengers. She used a new burst of energy in her to fly up to the ship, standing next to Peter who caught himself at the bottom of the ship, dangerously close to what looks like the ship's repulsers.

"Mr. Stark, it smells like a new car in here!" Peter announced, Salene couldn't agree, the suit seemed to meld with her mask, the feeling of two suits wasn't fun though.

"Happy trails, kids. F.R.I.D.A.Y, send them home," Salene heard, she looked to Peter as their chutes went off, sending them flying back.

"Oh come on!" Peter protested as they were thrown around a corner.

It was like deja-vu when the chutes tangled up again, making Salene spin around Peter before the chute caught onto the ship, the force of the wind behind them made the chutes rip off the suits. Peter wrapped an arm around Salene and webbed onto the back of the ship, she used a bit of her energy to get them into a pocket of the ship that was closing up the farther up they went.

The two made it into the pocket just as the doors were about to close, Salene turned around at the earth below them that started to get smaller and smaller.

"We should've stayed on the bus," Peter pointed out.

"No shit, Sherlock."

────── 〔ψ〕──────

NAVIGATING THROUGH THE ship was easier said than done, Salene had no idea where she was going and it was hard to understand where the echoing voices were coming from. Turning every corner left her on edge, she didn't feel any shame in keeping Peter close to her side by holding his hand. They're on a foreign spaceship going God knows where at an incredibly fast speed, Salene could feel the lurch just when the doors had closed earlier.

The two found themselves high up on a wall, looking down on Tony who was looking down on the Wizard and the Alien. The cape that the Wizard wore was flying on its own and it was making its way to Tony, Salene couldn't comprehend it. She watched as it drew close to Tony and she released Peter's hand, flying up and quietly descending onto the platform Tony occupied so as to not startle the alien below.

"You are one loyal piece of outerwear," Tony spoke, Salene winced as she quietly landed, he was not going to like the sight of them.

"Yeah- uh speaking of loyalty," Peter spoke up quietly from beside her, Tony spun around, disbelief in his eyes at the sight of them.

"What the-"

"Okay this looks bad but-" Salene cut him off only for him to point at them.

"You should not be here," Tony interrupted, not interested in her explaining herself.

"We were gonna go home" Peter tried

"I don't wanna hear it," Tony turned his head

"But the chutes malfunctioned," Salene pushed further, she was desperate to get him to understand.

"And now I gotta hear it." Tony sighed, Salene furrowed her brows in frustration at the fact that he would listen to them.

"And we kinda stuck to the side of the ship. And this suit is ridiculously intuitive, by the way. So if anything, it's kinda your fault that we're here." Peter went on.

Salenes jaw dropped at those words, glancing back and forth between Tony and Peter, shaking her head, her hand doing a slicing motion in front of her neck to symbolize the fact that she does not stand by that statement.

"I take that back," Peter quickly added in, "And now we're here in space."

"Yeah," Tony stepped closer to the two of them, "Right where I don't want you to be. This isn't Coney Island. This isn't a field trip. It's a one-way ticket. You two hear me? Don't pretend like you guys thought this through. You could not have possibly thought this through."

"No. I did think this through." Peter protested, glancing at Salene and back at Tony.

"You could not have possibly thought this through," Tony argued,

"It's just...you can't be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man if there's no neighborhood," Peter spoke, Salene watched Tony's face for his reaction but was only met with a blank stare.

"Okay. That didn't really make any sense, but you know what I'm trying to say." Peter pleaded, it's not like Tony could do much now, they had to be light years away from their solar system.

It seemed Tony realized the same thing with Peter's logic and he spun to have them on either side of him, he guided them to the edge he was staring down. Below, Salene had a beautiful view of a man suspended in the air with clear, crystal-like needles poking into him at all angles, he looked up to make eye contact with Salene.

"See him down there? He's in trouble. What's your plan? Go." Tony commanded.

Salene observed the surroundings of the ship and she studied the players around her, as far as she knows, the Alien only has the power of levitation. She was still formulating a plan when Peter stood back up and faced the two.

"Okay. Did you ever see this really old movie, Aliens?"

• • •

THE WAY THE Alien talked made Salenes skin crawl in irritation. She was fighting the urge to blow her position and just take out the alien himself, she knew though that if she did she would jeopardize the whole plan. She couldn't risk it, so she forced herself to listen.

"Painful aren't they? They were originally designed for microsurgery. And any one of them," A thump of metal on metal, signaling that Tony announced his presence on the O - Ring of death, "Could end your friend's life in an instant."

"I gotta tell you, he's not really my friend," Tony responded casually, "Saving his life is more a professional courtesy."

"You've saved nothing," the Alien smirked as he levitated things to be parallel to him, "Your powers are inconsequential compared to mine."

Salene knew her queue was coming soon, she just had to wait for the sight of a rocket.

And soon it came.

"Yeah, but the kid's seen more movies," Tony remarked, the rocket flying straight into the side of the ship to his left.

The Alien was sucked out of the ship as Salene flew up, ripping up a piece of the floor with her as she flew after him, ready to seal up the hole before anyone important flew out. The Wizard had gotten loose from whatever suspended him in the air along with the needles that were used to torture him. He also happened to be heading straight for the hole in the wall, the cape tethered onto an anchor and wrapped around his wrist but the Wizard still got loose.

Salene flew for the hole in the wall but the Wizard and a web string flew past her head, Peter soon after that. Salene dropped the floor piece and grabbed onto Peter from behind, her arms around his torso as her hair glowed a little brighter with the strain of her flying back with not just Peter, but the Wizard as she did her best to get them both back in the ship.

As soon as they were all back in, Tony sprayed nanites into the hole. Salene felt the drop in the gravity as she heard the Wizard drop to the floor along with Peter's feet. She gently pushed him to his balance as she landed on the ground herself. Peter spun around, his arms wrapping around Salene in a hug that had her taken aback.

"We are not built for space," Peter mumbled.

"Science class could've told you that," Salene chuckled in response as they pulled away and looked to the red cloak that was hovering a foot away from them.

Salene circled it, it didn't have a visible energy field holding it up like she does when she hovers. She could feel an energy coming off of it though, she reached out, stroking it softly as she tried to understand it.

It flinched away and she held her hands up.

"So sorry, just trying to understand how you work," Salene spoke gently and it seemed to relax.

"Hey, we haven't officially met," Peter spoke, holding his hand out for the Cloak to shake, the cloak ignored him and flew past the two teens, heading for the wizard, "cool."

Salene left Peter's side, heading over to Tony and the Wizard, wanting some clarity on the situation they were in. The Wizard was reunited with the red cloak as Tony walked to the front of the ship where the controls were, Salene took the time to look around. If all alien spaceships look like this, it sucks.

"We've gotta turn this ship around." The Wizard spoke up, Tony scoffed in response, looking to Wizard.

Salene felt Peter's presence next to her as the two watched Tony and the Wizard argue.

"Yeah. Now he wants to run," The Wizard rolled his eyes at Tony's words, his back now facing Peter and Salene to face Tony, "Great plan."

"No, I want to protect the stone." The Wizard stepped forward, the cloak billowing behind him, Salene wants one.

Tony was walking towards the expansive front view-port, showing a hyper-speed effect. He furrowed his eyebrows and looked to the Wizard, stopped between two giant arms that came out of the floor, Salene had a feeling that is how the ship is controlled.

"And I want you to thank me now." Salene could tell when Tony was getting irritated, she could hear it in his voice, "Go ahead, I'm listening."

"For what? Nearly blasting me into space?"

"Who just saved your magical ass? Me." Salene wanted to interject and put in that Peter came up with the plan, and Salene pulled him out of space with the help of Peter and the help of his web.

"I seriously don't know how you fit your head into that helmet." The Wizard was blunt and quite frankly, rude, but he made a point, Tony had a way of being arrogant when he wanted to, and sometimes it doesn't help the situation.

I do, Lucifer chimed in, Salene smirked as she watched her mentor argue with the man with the magical cloak.

"Admit it. You should have ducked out when I told you to." Tony was talking about an earlier point in time before Salene and Peter came in to help. "I tried to bench you. You refused."

"Unlike everyone else in your life, I don't work for you."

"And due to that fact, we're now in a flying doughnut billions of miles away from Earth with no backup."

Salene opened her mouth to speak, but Peter beat her to it.

"We're back-up," he spoke up, his hand was raised.

"No. You're stowaways," Tony shut him down, Peter put his hand down as Tony pointed to himself and the Wizard, "The adults are talking."

"I'm sorry, I'm confused as to the relationship here. Wh- what are they, your wards?" The Wizard asked, Salene realized that she never introduced herself properly to the man. 

"No. I'm Peter, by the way." Peter had the same idea, she held her hand out for The Wizard to shake.

"I'm Salene," She introduced herself, he glanced down at her hand and reluctantly shook it, glancing back up at her.

"Dr. Strange." He responded. His name sounded familiar but Salene couldn't place where she remembered it from.

"Oh, we're using our made-up names. Um... I'm Spider-Man, then." Salene looked to Peter and then to Strange.

"I don't think that his made-up name," Salene whispered to Peter as she leaned over to him so he could hear.

"This ship is self-correcting its course." Tony thought out loud, "Things on autopilot."

"Can we control it? Fly us home?" Dr. Strange asked, Salene could tell b the look on Tony's face that he didn't hear the question, "Stark?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you get us home?" Dr. Strange repeated his question

"Yeah, I heard you. I'm thinking..." Salene stepped a bit closer with Peter, she wanted t know how badly her mother was going to kill her when she finally gets home, she's not sure how she could even explain away her disappearance, or if Kyrils able to do anything on her behalf, surely he knows that she's on the ship, hopefully, some news channel got footage of her being beamed up with Spider-Man, "I'm not so sure we should."

Salenes heart dropped into her stomach as it twisted up, how the hell will they get back?

"Under no circumstance can we bring the Time Stone to Thanos." Strange warned, Salene wondered if anyone would explain to her who Thanos is and why they hated him, if he even is a dude, "I don't think you quite understand what's at stake here."

"No. It's you who doesn't understand, that Thanos has been inside my head for six years since he sent an army to New York and now he's back!" The blood drained from her face as she heard those words, Peter instantly knew to check on her, she felt his hand rest against the small of her back, a small gesture that let her know that he was there, she remembered how the aliens killed people right in front of her, how she would've been next if Black Widow wasn't there to interfere, if she wasn't on that street at the right time, Salene would've been dead six years ago, all that death, all that destruction, that was him, people had speculated that Loki wasn't working alone, she now wondered how much more was put into that attack, "And I don't know what to do. So I'm not so sure if it's a better plan to fight him on our turf or his but you saw what they did, what they can do. At least on his turf, he's not expecting it. So I say we take the fight to him. Doctor. Do you concur?"

There was a moment of silence as Salene watched the gears turn behind Strange's head.

"Alright, Stark. We go to him. But you have to understand... if it comes to saving you or the kids or the Time Stone... I will not hesitate to let any of you die." Salene rolled her eyes, which was comforting, "I can't because the fate of the universe depends on it."

"Nice. Good. Moral compass. We're straight." Tony patted Dr. Strange's arm and turned to her and Peter, approaching them with a grim look on his face, he held out a straight and stiff hand, tapped Peter's left shoulder, his right shoulder, her left shoulder, and her right shoulder "Alright, kids. You're an Avenger now."

Salene stood there, her eyes now wide as the words slowly seeped into her brain. Holy. Shit. Lucifer was stunned, Salene could feel what he was feeling. The words for her were on replay thanks to him. She was an avenger. Salene couldn't help but think back to that day at the compound when he first showed the suit she now wore. The suit that he would have had her put on and flaunt to the world and announce who she was.

"Does this mean I have to sign the Accords now?"

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4.6k words

AHHHHHH

ITS FINALLY HERE!!!!!

I've been waiting TOO LONG to get to this movie it's literally my favorite to write for if you couldn't tell with my Peter fics I have like, three different endgames lol.

But I'm SO EXCITED for you guys to read this and I can't wait for you to see Salene again and in much better control of her powers!!

Comment what you're hoping to see in that next few chapters!!

—greta