Chapter Text
This was a battle unlike Pietro had ever seen before. Down on the ground, there were shields zipping through the air like bullets, rays of lasers, arrows and bullets, and even stranger than Cap’s shield, lightning and earthquakes. In the sky, there were tens of thousand robots, all of them trying to kill him and his team. The worst part was how many innocent civilians were caught amongst it all, trapped with nowhere to go.
Pietro never imagined that he would ever fight with Tony Stark, the man responsible for the bombs that killed his parents and countless others in his home country. Pietro never imagined fighting a sentient robot who wished to destroy humanity either, so this was all kind of new to him. But at least he was doing some good for once, away from HYDRA. He was making a difference and he was saving people. He was good for a change.
Which made the decision that ended his life easy for him.
As he was zipping through the battlefield, getting civilians to safety and breaking apart robots, he saw two things happen in succession and time slowed to a stop.
First, he saw Ultron’s ship bearing down on those damn guns, trying to take out everything in the ship’s path. Then, he saw Hawkeye lifting a child up into his arms, then turning to shield the kid.
Pietro knew he wasn’t an easy person to like. He was a freak, too fast in all senses of the word. He was annoying, always talking, always snarking off when he shouldn’t. He had difficulties with authority. He couldn’t slow down, couldn’t just stop .
Clint Barton never treated him like he was a freak. He was kind to him and his sister. He was annoyed by Pietro a lot, but he never treated them like monsters. He had comforted Wanda when she had panic attacks. He had stayed awake when Pietro couldn’t sleep. He was kind.
Pietro knew that either way, he would die. He could either get Clint and the child to safety, and sacrifice himself. Or he could turn the other way, focus on everything else, and let Clint die. He knew he couldn’t survive with that guilt. He wanted to be a hero, save people. So he chose to save Clint. Besides, Clint saved him. So Pietro could return the favor.
As he ran, he thought to his twin sister. Would she be safe with the Avengers? They’d better protect her once he was gone. A pang of guilt hit him as he pushed Clint and the child out of the way of the bullets raining down. In his act of heroism, he was hurting his sister. He was abandoning her the same way their parents did. Not by choice, but he was leaving her all the same.
Thousands of bullets ripped into him. It was like rain, only it hurt. But he couldn’t think about that. He didn’t care about the pain. He knew it would only last a few minutes before he was gone. All he could think of was a silent plea to anyone in the universe who might listen and take pity: “Take care of my sister.”
Time sped up again, back to normal. Clint faced him in horror, and sadness. In the same way Pietro would have looked at him if the roles were reversed. He hated seeing that look of utter heartbreak and sadness. It was worse than being pitied. It made acknowledging the void his death was creating hurt that much more. So as his body was shutting down, as he heard his heartbeat stop, he threw out one last quip.
“Didn’t see that coming?”
And then everything went to black as his body slammed to the ground.
-
Pietro’s eyes snapped open, a bright red light immediately blinding him. But wait, wasn’t he dead? He thought he was, at least. He vividly remembered dying, the bullets piercing his skin. He felt his chest, and sure enough, his heartbeat was beating faster than a hummingbird’s. When the red light faded, he could slowly start to see again.
The first thing that was clear in his vision was a little house. He stood in front of a townhouse, the kind you see in those 90’s family sitcoms. The entire neighborhood seemed like that, actually. Perfect, but a lie. He stared at the glass door, trying to get his thoughts in order until they started to scramble. And then there was nothing. His mind quieted, and he felt his mind being pulled.
Then his body started to move too, by itself, like he was a mindless puppet controlled by strings. He knocked on the door.
Nothing happened for a few minutes, and then the door opened. His sister, Wanda, stood staring at him. He wanted to reach out and hug her, but then his mind was tugged again. When he spoke, his voice sounded foreign to him.
“Long lost bro get to hug his stinkin’ sister to death or what?” Okay, that sounded weird. He’d never say something like that, and why did his voice sound American ? Those were his last thoughts before his mind went blank .
-
Pietro stayed like that for, well, he didn’t really know how long. It was like he was trapped in his own body, his own mind, forced to watch Not-Pietro live out this strange reality. He had no control over the way he moved, the way he talked, he didn’t have any control.
The worst part, though, was that he wasn’t even in his own body . He was smaller, and his face was wrong. Scratch that, everything about this was wrong. He wondered if this was supposed to be his hell. It certainly felt like that. He just wanted to hug Wanda, and escape this nightmare. He wanted to wake up, or go back to sleep. He wanted to be himself again.
Finally, he was released from the strange curse. But not after he met someone named Monica, who he took hostage ( what the fuck? ) and there was something about witches - his sister, and this weird purple witch who looked like the evil mother in the Tangled movie Clint made him watch. There was a big fight, and it was all in a blur to him. Then finally, finally , he was released. He was himself again. Except for, you know, being in the wrong body.
What was the next step after that?. He was supposed to be dead, he had been dead, until the witch controlling him grabbed him. So what did he do now?
-
He found Clint Barton, that’s what he did.
First step was finding someone who knew him and knew where he lived. The world had changed a lot since he died. Someone named Darcy was happy to help him out, though her team wanted to question him and take him into holding for a while. Turns out other people were concerned that a dead guy came back.
And as soon as Pietro was released from SWORD, he took off to Iowa.
It was sundown when Pietro came to Clint’s house. The farm was quiet, undisturbed. Everything looked peaceful. He nearly felt guilty for barging in and causing more chaos for the archer to deal with, but he needed help . Holding his breath, he knocked on the door.
When the door opened, Clint was talking over his shoulder to one of his kids, laughing at something they were saying. But the laugh died, as did the smile upon his face, when he registered the Not-Quite-Pietro in the doorway. “You-” Clint didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence when the speedster ran forward, hugging him tight.
“I didn’t know where else to go, they said the Avengers weren’t together anymore, some of them gone , I didn’t know what to do, was so scared,” Pietro was speaking as fast as he ran, his body trembling. He clung onto Clint, his head buried in his chest. He clung onto him like one of his kids did after a nightmare, and Clint felt a sudden surge of protectiveness.
“Slow down, Pietro,” he spoke gently, but firmly, pushing Pietro’s head up to meet his eyes. “Take a deep, slow breath.” When the speedster complied, he repeated the order. After a few minutes, Pietro was a little bit calmer. “Now start again. What happened? The last time I saw you, you were-”
“Dead. I know. That’s the thing, I’m
supposed to be dead.
But I’m not, somehow. I don’t really understand it either, a witch brought me back, and my sister was - doing
something
- I didn’t have control over my own mind.”
Pietro recounted the story, starting from when he was suddenly not-dead-anymore. After he was finished, Clint pinched the bridge of his nose. “I can’t ever get five minutes of retirement, can I?” he grumbled. Then, seeing Pietro’s face fall, he backtracked. “I’m not mad at you, kid. I’m mad at the witch who did this to you. Mad at your sister for taking a whole town hostage. Really mad at the organization who made this whole shit worse. But not mad at you. Let’s get you inside, clean you up, and get some food into you.”
Clint led Pietro inside, closing and locking the front door behind him. “Hey honey?” he called out to his wife. “I’m taking in a stray.”
“Another?”
-
Pietro stayed behind Clint as he walked into the house. The two stood in the living room of the house, and Pietro felt vulnerable with everyone staring at him. Clint was busy explaining Pietro’s situation to Laura, meanwhile three kids were staring at him. He wrapped his arms around himself, trying to remind himself that they weren’t necessarily looking at him like he was wrong . Like he was some kind of freak. But because he was a strange person.
Clint’s daughter slowly approached him. “You’re one of Dad’s friends.” Pietro nodded, and she examined him for a second before hugging him. “I’m Lila! Welcome home. We’re about to have dinner, but I’m sure Mom’s made enough for everyone. She always makes extra in case of an emergency like this. Do you like fried chicken?”
Pietro hesitated a moment before nodding. He offered a small smile to the girl. “I think. I haven’t had food in a very long time. Not since before I died.”
Clint’s head whipped to face Pietro at that, his eyes wide. “They didn’t even feed you?”
Pietro smiled sheepishly and shrugged his shoulders. “The witch figured I didn’t need to eat. It was a hypnotic television land. Nobody else ate, so why should she let me?” he swore he saw Clint’s eyes turn almost murderous at that.
Clint’s wife gently laid a hand on his shoulder to calm him down a little, and smiled nicely at Pietro. “We’ll take care of you. You’re safe now. You can eat as much as you like. Lila, Cooper, go set the table.” The children ran off and Pietro was suddenly alone with Clint.
“Everything’s going to be okay,” Clint was talking gently now, his hands on Pietro’s shoulders. “It might not be for a long time, but it’ll get better. You’ve got a home now, and I’ll make damn sure no witches or evil organizations or robots take you away again. You’re safe. ”
And for a while, he was. He had a family again, people who cared about him. It wasn’t like when he was alive, with Wanda by his side. But Lila and Nathaniel and Cooper were great younger siblings too. Pietro learned how to live on a farm. Pietro learned what it was like to wake up to someone cooking breakfast.
-
The person in the family who loved him the most was Lucky the Pizza Dog, much to Clint’s heartbreak.
It was the third day after Pietro had moved in with Clint. He was laying on the couch, reading a book to Nathaniel. The other kids were at school, and Laura was in the kitchen making lunch. It was a peaceful afternoon.
The front door opened, and in walked Clint who was carrying in firewood. Beside him was a golden retriever with a bandana around his neck. “I know we said we’d keep him away from the house until we made sure Piet wasn’t allergic, but he wouldn’t stop following me,” Pietro heard Clint distantly apologize to Laura. The next thing he knew, the golden retriever had jumped up on the couch and into Pietro’s lap.
“Lucky, no!” Clint and Laura both called out, but Lucky decided that Lucky yes. Pietro froze as Lucky settled himself in his lap. Then, Pietro felt the very strange (yet somehow very joy-inducing) feeling of Lucky licking his face. Clint and Laura stood frozen, holding their breath, until they heard a very soft laugh from Pietro. He seemed relaxed . More relaxed than he’d been since - well, since Clint had ever known him.
Satisfied, Lucky laid down. He remained in Pietro’s lap for the rest of the day, ignoring Clint’s attempts to pull him away. When the kids came home from school, Lucky just looked up and wagged his tail. Lucky had a new traumatized kid to take care of, and he needed his attention.
And Lucky made sure that from then on, wherever Pietro went, so did he. Pietro was never seen without Lucky somewhere close to him, if not right by his side or in his lap. And Pietro always seemed calmer when he was close by.
-
Pietro’s love for his new family wasn’t one-sided. In fact, apparently Nathaniel was named after him. He found this out one night, six months after he moved in.
He was telling a bedtime story to the kids. It didn’t matter that Cooper was seventeen, and Lila was a little bit younger. It had started with Pietro telling bedtime stories to Nathaniel and eventually, Cooper and Lila joined in. Pietro was on the bed with Nathaniel curled into his side, Lila was sitting on the edge of the bed, and Cooper was sitting on a beanbag chair.
The bedtime story was one his mama used to tell him, about the Baba Yaga. He had initially been worried that it would be too scary for little Nathaniel, but he seemed to enjoy it the most. When the story was done, he stood up and tucked Nathaniel into bed.
“Just one more story?” the five year old pleaded, eyes big and wide. Pietro could barely say no, but the other kids had school in the morning.
“We already told three stories tonight, Солнце,” Pietro shook his head with a soft laugh. “I don’t think your mama would want me to keep you up so late.”
“Then I’ll tell you one! About the silver hero my dad named me after!” Pietro’s head tilted, confused. A silver hero?
“Nate, that’s not a good idea,” Cooper and Lila warned, shaking their heads. But Pietro was curious, so he sat back down. And Nathaniel decided to ignore his siblings.
“Once upon a time, there was a team called the Avengers. It was a really cool team of superheroes who were all best friends. There was my dad, Hawkeye, the Black Widow, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and the Hulk! Hawkeye had really goodvision and could shoot arrows, Black Widow could flip around and punch bad guys really well, Iron Man had a super cool flying suit, Captain America had a shield, Thor could fly and had a hammer that controlled lightning, and the Hulk could hit things really hard and could jump super high!”
Pietro smiled a little. He knew the Avengers. He fought with the Avengers, but that would be a story for another time. Nathaniel continued his story.
“The Avengers liked to keep people safe. But it was hard sometimes. So Iron Man and Hulk made a robot to try and help them, but the robot was evil! So the Avengers had to get rid of them. Luckily, they had two new friends: Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch!”
Oh. Pietro knew this story. He was part of this story.
“The Avengers and their new friends went to fight Ultron, the bad robot. But the robot had many other friends who wanted to hurt people. And Ultron, the mean robot, tried to hurt my dad and a little kid! But the Quicksilver saved them and went to sleep for a really long time.”
Pietro’s heart clenched. Even though it was innocent, it hurt to hear about the story of his death. Especially because Nathaniel thought he was a hero. He wiped his eyes. He couldn’t cry in front of the kid.
“The Avengers had real people names too, like Black Widow was my Auntie Nat, and Thor was Uncle Thor.. Quicksilver’s name was Pietro. And he was Dad’s friend, and almost my brother. Dad loved him a lot, just like he loved me and Lila and Cooper. So when I was born, Dad decided to name me Nathaniel Pietro, after the two bravest and most selfless people he knew.”
Okay, Pietro was crying. How could he not? It was silent tears, he couldn’t cry in front of the kids. Especially not Nathaniel. So he hugged him and tucked him into bed and Cooper and Lila went to their own rooms.
Pietro ran into the living room. He needed Clint. Once he found him, he hugged onto him tight. Clint blinked. One moment he was watching television with Laura, and the other moment he was being hugged on and cried on.
“Piet, what’s wrong?” He asked, very concerned. Pietro sniffled, shaking his head. “Hey. Hey, look at me. Deep breaths. Deep breaths. ” Pietro ignored him, choosing to hug him tighter.
Laura stood up and hugged Pietro, rubbing his back. “Honey, what’s wrong? What happened?”
Pietro took a breath and looked up. “You named Nathaniel after me ? Nathaniel Pietro?” Laura and Clint shared a look and simply hugged him closer.
“After the two bravest people I know,” Clint whispered. He ran his hand through Pietro’s hair, trying his best to comfort him. Pietro sniffled and nodded. The three of them stayed like that for what felt like hours, but it was really only twenty minutes until Pietro fell asleep. Clint got him to his new room (Laura refused to make him sleep on the living room couch, so the guest room was turned into his room) and into bed. Within minutes, Lucky was at the end of the bed.
-
So, yeah. Pietro’s life was happy for a little while. A whole year even. There were no witches, no HYDRA, no anything . He was safe, in peace, happy. Not even Wanda tried to go after him, which he felt guilty about being happy with, but the whole Westview thing affected him badly. Here, he had a new family.
And then it all fell apart.
The Barton family went camping for Clint’s birthday. They got a cabin in the mountains, in the middle of a forest. Pietro had never gone camping before. He had never had a lot of things before he moved in with Clint and Laura.
On Clint’s birthday, Pietro and Nathaniel (and Lucky) were out picking flowers for Clint. They were on the other side of the river near the cabin, but the cabin was still in view.
“And then Uncle Thor dropped the glass to the floor really hard and yelled for another. Dad said it was an Asgardian thing.” Nathaniel was in the middle of a story when they appeared.
Several yellow shimmery ‘doors’ appeared, and soldier after soldier after soldier came through them. They had two things in common. One, their uniforms said they were from something called a TVA. Two, they were all pointing weapons at Pietro. “Pietro Django Maximoff, you are under arrest for crimes against the Sacred Timeline!”
He didn’t know what the TVA was. He didn’t even know what the Sacred Timeline was. What he knew was that this was going to be a fight, and he needed Lucky and Nathaniel safely away from this.
“Nathaniel,” Pietro said as calmly as he possibly could. “I need you to go get Dad. Now !” He knew Clint wouldn’t be able to get there in time. Because the fastest man alive had time on his hands except for when it really mattered. But, he couldn’t risk letting Nathaniel get hurt. Nathaniel ran off.
“I don’t know what a Sacred Timeline is, but I promise you I don’t care.”
Give Pietro credit where credit was due, he fought. He fought hard, but every time one of the soldiers went down, another one went through a portal. And unlike Steve Rogers, he couldn’t do this all day.
“Fuck it! He’s meant to be dead anyways, just prune him!” One of the soldiers groaned.
Pietro barely had time to question it before he heard Clint’s voice. “Get the fuck away from my kid.” Pietro could have cried from the relief, except he knew they were still outnumbered.
“Your kid?” Pietro echoed. If that was going to be the last thing he ever heard, he could die happily. “Didn’t see that-”
What felt like a laser sword ripped through him. Everything else went by too quickly for even his brain to interpret. All he heard was the screams of Nathaniel, and Lucky’s barking. And then, for the second time, Pietro was gone.