UNCERTAIN FUTURE

"Damn! Eight months?!" I wanted to say it loud but couldn't. Well, I spoke in my mind as usual. "What about my family?" I asked.

"As far as the world knows, Spiderman is dead. He stopped Green Goblin and died a hero. As for your family, I'm sorry, but we couldn't expose ourselves and put them in danger. For all they know, you got into an accident and are recovering under Fantastic Four's care. We have been able to keep it that way for quite a while now. Your relationship with Susan Storm made it easier for us to maintain the story," Ancient One answered as she began to check on the bandaged left arm.

"Well, that's good to know. Oh, by the way, who rescued me? The last thing I remember was crawling toward a canal and that's it," I asked as countless thoughts ran into my mind about what changed in these eight months. To me, it feels like just yesterday... I guess, drinking those serums in one go was a pretty bad idea. But on the bright side, I survived and met the Ancient One.

I wonder what May and the others are doing. Are they alright? Fuck! Eight fucking months. Gwen already knows my identity as Spiderman, so, she either believes that I'm dead or the story of me being under Fantastic Four's care. I hope it's the latter.

"You should thank Wanda," She answered.

"Oh..."

"She was tracking you to thank you for saving her and her brother during the OsCorp incident, and you happened to be floating in a canal with a broken body and scales," She added as she looked into the wound on my arm.

"I see. Well, we are even now, I guess. So, what now? I can barely move my right arm and head. The rest of my body is practically useless. So, use your magic and fix me, yeah?" I said as I smiled with my unmovable lips.

"Ah! I'm afraid that's impossible. I've already tried, but it didn't work. Even Strange's magic wasn't of much use, unfortunately. I'm guessing that's your unique ability. Immunity against foreign power. So, the only one who can fix you is you," Ancient One replied and stood up after checking the wounds.

"Me? How? You want me to learn magic with a barely moving arm?" I asked in disbelief, although not even I could see the expression on my own face, but the meaning got across. Let's pretend to be clueless like this for now. Once I get a grasp of magic, my plan will be completed. Slowly, I'll gain their trust and gain access to all those forbidden magic. I'm pretty sure there's something that will help me travel between realities. But that's a long way to go. For now, I need to get out of bed.

"Learning magic has nothing to do with the arms. With or without hands, you can still cast magic," Ancient One replied, taking my statement literally. "As long as you have focus and willpower, you will eventually learn it. And once you reach a certain level of mastery, you should be able to heal yourself."

"And just like that you are going to teach me magic? Even though you couldn't see my future or my memories. Heck, you barely know me, so, if you don't mind me asking, why?" I asked while hoping for a reasonable excuse.

"Many reasons. But you aren't yet ready to know the answers. All you need to know right now is you need to get back to your feet as soon as possible and lessen the worry of your family. That should be a good reason, right? Then let's start. There's no time like the present. And just so you know, when you are in the Sanctum Sanctorum, you follow our rules," Ancient One replied and stood up as Wanda walked back and entered the room.

"I thought you would be curious to find out what I'm hiding. Were you always this trusting? Did you have a vision from a deity of some kind? Perhaps in your future visions, there is no Spiderman, yet, Spiderman is alive and kicking, right before your eyes. You can not explain this situation, right? If I were to guess further, all the future visions you saw, they are slowly started to become useless. To be more specific, wherever I'm involved, the outcome you predicted and acted upon... in reality, the result completely changed. Like ripples of water in a pond. At first, there are no changes, but as time passes by the ripples get bigger and bigger. Causing an outcome you could have never predicted," I said in my mind.

Ancient One looked at me with a smile, "You are correct. That's why you must get stronger to prevent that one future that still remains unchanged even with you involved. The faster you get back on your feet, the faster I'll show you what exactly happened in that future. We will begin tomorrow, for now, rest up." She left, leaving Wanda alone with me.

"You can read mind too, right?" I asked telepathically.

"Huh! Yeah, sort of," Wanda replied and moved closer to the chair that the Ancient one was sitting on a few minutes ago.

"Thanks for saving me. How have you and your brother been?" I asked.

"Ah, Thanks to you... everything's okay. My brother is staying in the Mutant Academy and I'm here, learning more and more about my abilities," She said happily.

"Good. So," I slowly turned my head toward her, "How handsome am I looking right now? Ten out of ten? A hundred out of one hundred?"

"Huh! You can still manage to make jokes at this time... Who would've thought," She smiled as she conjured a mirror before my face with a simple swish of her finger, "Take a look yourself and tell me, a handsome prince has fallen right before your eyes. How lovely."

I was greeted by my scale-filled face. Ah! That's a freak face. Any sane human would run away at this sight. Now, I know how bad of a life The Thing is going through daily. His is rock and mine is freaking scale armor.

"Now that's a face you can't forget. Girls will die of heart attack at a mere glance. A face that will haunt any sane person's dream. Fuck! That's bad," I thought to myself while maintaining a calm mind. I look like a freak.

"Yep! Pretty messed up. I wanted to use my unique magic to heal you, but she stopped me saying, 'Reality manipulation is a hard and dangerous thing, you shouldn't use it recklessly. It can break the very fabric of reality if you lose control.' I mean, come on, I can do it. But, you know the rules. She's the boss," Wanda shook her head helplessly and sighed.

"She's right though. It's dangerous, isn't it?" I asked with a slight smile. I don't know if she saw it. Oh, well...

"Yeah, it's dangerous. I know. I just wish to use all this new magic on the field, but I'm not allowed to use it because 'It can cause irreparable damage.' 'Magic should not be used like that,' 'Reality warping and reality manipulation can put you in danger if not used under a master's supervision' and blah blah blah," She imitated an old lady's voice and added, "You know what she sounded like? Always cool and calm and cryptic."

We talked for a few minutes... Maybe hours...

Wanda kept on telling me about her life here. She gave me a brief layout of this place and the routine everyone follows. She hates the food. So she sneaked out a couple of times and was caught by Dr. Strange, but she blackmailed him into buying her food. They have a deal of some sort. Well, Wanda caught Strange using memory manipulation on Wong for fun on multiple occasions and used that as leverage.

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[3rd Person POV]

[Master Hall]

Ancient One entered the room and noticed Dr. Strange already waiting for her.

"So...?" Dr. Strange raised his eyebrow questionably. He has been having dreams for a while and he saw his mentor getting stabbed by the dark wizard and then the arrival of a purple Titan on Earth, followed by endless chaos. That is going to happen in the future. But, recently something changed. The vision kept changing randomly and in each of these new visions, Spiderman is involved. These visions are so random, that even someone of his caliber was confused and lost. "Got anything out of him?"

"I couldn't see through him. But surprisingly he possesses great potential. It may even exceed you and Wanda, Strange," Ancient One replied. She tested his magic aptitude when she was examining his arms and it came out the strongest she had seen in a human.

"Are you serious?" Dr. Strange narrowed his eyes.

"Not only that, he has somehow awakened Chi in his body alongside magic. He's the key to stopping the upcoming doom," She added as she took her usual seat.

"But you do know the alternate future, right? The future where Spiderman becomes the biggest threat the entire universe or should I say the entire multiverse had ever encountered, right?" Dr. Strange said as he sat on the other side of the table and poured two cups of tea.

"That's why, it's our duty to guide him. Just like how I guided you and Wanda, we must not let his destiny walk that dark path, and bring forth a brighter future," Ancient One replied with a smile.

"But how are you planning to prevent her death? We can not act according to our visions. You know the rules. We can't destabilize the timeline. But... If we don't act..." Strange asked while analyzing her actions.

Ancient One replied calmly, "There's a thin line between revealing the truth and ignorance. At the end of the day, the outcome that we've foreseen is what is going to happen, albeit changed due to our interference or not. Time isn't static, Strange. We have our responsibilities in the grand scheme of things, but in the end, we are just actors playing our roles in the predetermined scenario. If we overstep our boundaries, the cost we would pay would be tremendous and unmeasurable."

"You are just going to let her die then?" Strange slightly raised his voice, before calming down, shaking his head with a sigh, noticing Ancient One's stoic face, "Do whatever you wish." He stood up and opened a portal. "I just hope you are right this time too..." He walked into the portal.

"So do I... So do I... Stephen," Ancient One silently looked into the cloudy New York skyline through her vision as destruction ravaged the city. "So do I."

*****

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Next, Ch: 108: Astral Plane

Ch: 109: Peter & Wanda

Ch: 110: Spidey & Scarlet Witch

Ch: 111: Wanda's weird confession

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