The Spider and The Flame (Peter Parker)

Part 21- Lessons

A/N

Hey everybodyyy! I'm so happy by how active Tom is on social media rn. Like can he please have snapchat? I need mo'. Anyways, I love reading the comments everyone is writing on this book, it makes me smile. Please comment more if you wanna make my day, haha. Also, your votes are dOPE SO THANKS Y'ALL!! This story has a while to go, as it overlaps with the homecoming story arc. Obviously I'm adding in extra story line and characters, but most events with Peter will unfold in the same order as the film. Enjoy!

Ash's POV

I take a deep breath in, and knock three solid times on the door. Even though it's my room that I share with her, I like to be polite.

"Wanda?" I ask, moving my hand toward the knob. I turn it lightly and start to open the door. "You in here?"

"Over here, come in, Ash." She welcomes me into our room. "It's your room too, you know. Don't feel like you're intruding."

"Thanks..." I mumble, making my way over to my single bed. Mine is the bed closer to the window, not that it matters, because it's completely covered up by shades. Sometimes at night I like to look through the slits in the sides and see the city.

"Hey, Wanda?" I sit down on the edge of my bed and shift my weight, facing her.

"Yes?"

"Y-you didn't always have your powers..." I begin to say, but pause in between. I know that she doesn't like to think back to everything she went through.

"No, I did not." She answers simply. Her eyebrows slide upwards as if she'd like me to continue. Good sign.

"How did you, I don't know, learn to like, control it or whatever..." I mumble my words, kind of embarrassed about needing to ask for help. I've had my powers for a long time, and yet I've never really explored them. I don't know what the extent of my powers are, or how to control them. When my emotions get the best of me, that's when all hell breaks loose.

"It was not easy, but after some time I found an outlet to focus my energy. I still have trouble sometimes..." She smiles.

"Would you be willing to help me find mine?"

"Of course. You need to answer a few questions for me first."

"Shoot." I smile, stretching my arm out and pushing my weight onto it.

"To start, I want you to conjure a flame. Right now" She instructs. I do as she says and summon a fireball in my hand. "How much energy does this take to contain?"

"If I use my powers enough, sure, I get tired. Doesn't everyone?" I ask, holding the fireball in my hand firmly. I can feel my energy draining into the fire.

"It happens to people who don't use their powers the right way." She sighs, "how did you get your powers?" She asks, and my breath hitches. Only Pete knows the real story of how my powers came to be. But I know, if I want to get better, better for him, I need to learn to open up.

-

"What we're going to do is try and find you a new energy source to draw from. Up until now you've only relied on the anger and fear inside of you to fuel your fire. The moment you broke out of that cage, you allowed your fear and anger to consume you, and since then it's been the only way for you to conjure your flame, hasn't it?" Wanda therapeutically remarks. Come to think of it, she's right. All of my best fights have been fuelled by fear or anger, like what happened in Berlin. I knew that Stark and his team was trying to take us down, and it made me defensive and angry.

Sitting crosslegged on the floor, Wanda walks circles around me. I close my eyes and exhale, trying to listen to her instructions.

"Put your hands on your knees, palms up." She instructs and I comply. This kind of feels like meditating.

"Wanda I don't get how meditation is going to help me..." I complain.

"Shush!" She blurts out, bringing about a laugh from me. She's pretty funny when she's trying to be serious. "Okay, Ash. I want you to try and relax for me."

"Relaxed." I huff, hunching over.

"No, you're not." She simply replies, and her footsteps around me stop. "Let everything you feel drift away. Your mind needs to be blank."

I take a deep breath in and out and try my very best to relax. After a minute or so, Wanda continues.

"Now I want you to think about your power. Not the fire, but the power inside of you. The magic radiating from your heart. What colour is it? What does it smell like?" Her words become images in my mind as quickly as she says them.
"Let it take you to its home, what do you see?" The image of a small campfire in the woods appears in my mind. The cackling of the fire and the sound of crickets fills the empty air. Everything feels so alive, with a breeze lightly blowing and a full moon overhead. I make my way towards the fire and see the beautiful array of crimson ashes float off into the sky. The smell of pine trees wafts through the air and mixes with the scent of charcoal and fire.
"What brings it to life?" I hear Wanda whisper. I scan my surroundings and find that I am for the most part alone, other than a figure off in the distance. The figure approaches and I grow weary, but everything changes as the person comes into view. Peter nonchalantly walks up to me, smiling like the idiot I know he is. I feel a tear of joy slide down my cheek as I watch him smile. In my mind's eye, I know that he truly loves me and I know that I love him. He holds his hands out to me, as if asking me to dance, and I stare down at his outstretched palms. Without thinking twice, I place my hands in his.
"Ash! Ash you've done it!" Wanda shrieks, ripping me away from my sleeping state. My eyes open quickly to find both of my hands glowing in flames. While these flames are much like those that I know how to make on my own, I feel no strain of my energy to produce these. These flames feel like they're simply a part of me, and not a weapon for me to wield.

"W-what is this?" I ask, my heart beating faster and faster. The light in my palms dances around my fingers and grows hotter, larger, stronger.

"This is the true form of your power, Ash. The burning crimson flames you're so used to conjuring stem from the anger and the rage you've been bottling up all this time. This is a completely new source of power for you. What caused this?"

"I-I think these are from Peter... F-from how much I-I love him..." I stutter, staring at the flames in awe. I never realized how much my emotions could affect my mutation.
"How do I know I won't lose control of these flames just like the last ones?"

"Love doesn't act out in the way anger does. If you're drawing your power from your heart, it will always know what to do." I can tell that she speaks from experience. I wonder if her power comes from love for her late brother...

"How did you know that my feelings were the problem?"

"Everyone in this world has the same set of problems. Almost all of them can be solved by leaving anger behind." She smiles, reaching her arm out towards my flame.

"No! I'll burn you!" I yell, closing my fist and extinguishing the fire. I knit my eyebrows together. "What are you doing?"

"I think there's more to your powers than even you know, Ash. I think you can do much more than just act as a match." She simply states, walking towards the door of the room. She turns the knob to open the door and turns to meet my gaze one more time. She runs her hand through her hair and holds it in her hand for a moment, then turns on a swivel, closing the door behind her.

I reach for my hair in the same place and look down. I see that a few strands of my hair have actually changed colour... What I hold in my hands is a mix of my natural brown locks, and some bright crimson strands. My hair is turning red. Dear god.