To Deal With A Devil (July 2015)

Doom appeared early the next day. The Avengers were waiting for him. He arrived the same way he had before and the air ‘warped’ around him. “So, it appears you’ve decided to take me up on my offer? Good choice,” Victor said. “There’s no need to gloat Victor, you’re getting what you asked for, nothing more,” Peter said. The others nodded but Logan stared bloody murder at Dr. Doom and Natalya reached up and touched his arm to distract him away from doing anything...stupid like attcking him.

“Since time is of the essence I will take you for your word Peter Parker. I will bring her back,” he said. “And you will give me the Arcbots,” Victor said. He raised up his hand.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Serena sat at the breakfast table with her family. Isabella was making waffles, something that the children loved and there were all kinds of fixings for them. CHocolate chips, blueberries, strawberries, caramel and whipped cream. WIllow smiled as she took a bit of her waffle loaded up with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup. “Mmmmm, nana! So gooooddd!!!” She exclaimed. Peter just had a regular waffle with butter and syrup and he helped Ben cut his, he wasn’t all that coordinated yet with a knife and fork. Isabella smiled as she set down Serena’s on her plate. Tony only had a cup of coffee.

Suddenly, Serena felt a ‘pulling’ WIllow was right next to her and looked over at her. “Mama?” She asked and her eyes grew wide as Serena began to be pulled away from this timeline and back to where she had come from. “Mama!” Was the last thing she heard as all went dark.

Serena missed the life she knew in her timeline, but she felt that if she had to be stuck anywhere that this was a good place to be. She was essentially with people she knew and loved. She and Peter had discussed it late last night that if she could not be returned to her timeline that she would remain with them and help raise Ben and Willow. She felt sad that she would have missed wonderful memories of them as babies, but she would be able to make new memories with them as well.

She sat at breakfast the next morning as her mother made waffles. Willow had loaded hers with ice cream and chocolate syrup and she had chocolate sauce on her face. Serena had topped hers with fresh fruit and some honey. She smiled at Peter as he helped Ben cut up his waffle. It was a memory that she was happy to be able to have.

Suddenly, she felt a strange pulling. It felt as if she was being pulled by her insides. She heard Willow become upset and she looked up and saw Peter and her parents. She saw them all start to rush towards her and then everything went dark.

Serena just seemed to suddenly appear and Isabella watched as Peter rushed forward to grab her. She was unconscious and Isabella quickly went over to check on her. "Is she alright?" she asked Peter.

The air in the room felt like it suddenly contracted. Serena appeared very near Peter and with a quick shift off of his chair he caught her as she fell. Both Kate and Isabella were there and the others moved up to them.

“I...I can feel a pulse but she’s unconscious.” He said in an urgent tone. “I want 300 Arcbots Peter Parker. I expect delivery in 30 days,” he said then the air warped around him and he disappeared. Peter lifted up Serena and took her down to the medbay with a very concerned Isabela close in his heels.

Technically there was nothing wrong with Serena besides that she was unconscious. Peter decided to put her into their bed in hopes she wouls awaken soon.

Several hours passed before Serena began to stir. Her head moved slightly on their bed and then she sighed as she slowly began to awaken. Her eyes gently fluttered open and she blinked against the lights above her. The first thing she saw was Peter's worried eyes. She knew in an instant that she was back in her timeline. She felt Peter pull her up into his arms and embrace her tightly. Serena's head was still spinning and it took her a moment to right herself.

"How did I get back here?"

Peter couldn’t help it he hugged her to him once she saw her eyes open and kissed her face over and over. “Dr. Doom, don’t you remember?” He asked. Her confusion spoke volumes though. “Oh, you didn’t know,” he said as he stole another kiss from her. And then he explained what has been going on.

“And now I’ve...ive made a deal with him to get you back,” he said.

Serena was quite shocked to hear that it was Dr. Doom that had transported her here. However, at the same time she also wasn't that surprised. Doom had that kind of power. What she didn't know though, was how Peter had gotten her back. So when he confessed that he had made a deal with him her eyes widened.

"A deal? A deal for what?"

“I’m giving him 300 Arcbots. And if he asked for 3000 of them I still would have made that deal,” he said as he looked into her beautiful dark eyes. “You are my wife, my responsibility. And I needed to get you back. I love you Serena,” he said as he used his hand to smooth back her hair. “I never will let you go Serena unless it’s a choice you make. You and no one else,” he said.

Serena was astounded by what Peter told her he had done. He was giving Doom arcbots? Her face paled as she considered what he could do with them. She knew Peter loved her, but was she really worth all of this?

"Peter, think of what Doom could do with those arcbots? He could destroy the world. Am I really worth all of this?"

“Serena you are my world. And I will uphold my end of the deal. I’ll deliver 300 Working Arcbots,” he said but he said it in an odd way. As if he knew something the others did not. In fact he did know. He would honor the agreement but Victor would not like ‘how’ Peter honored the agreement. What Victor didn’t know was that the permanent imprinting was not set. Whatever he intended on imprinting into them, Peter would change and what he changed the program into Victor would most definitely not like. In fact he might seek revenge but Peter had to deal with one problem at a time. For now he got Serena back.

“We all saw you...with the children..for a moment. Willow and Ben,” he said as he smiled down at her.

Serena noticed the odd inflection in Peter's voice. Something told her that he had a plan in mind. That put her a little more at ease, although she would not be able to fully relax until she knew Doom wasn't going to be able to use the arcbots for whatever his intended purpose was.

"It was strange knowing that they were, in a way, my children. They were both so sweet and it was obvious how much you loved them."

"I was...worried that I'd never see you again Serena, we all were!" He finally said letting go of all that emotion inside of him that had been bottled up until now. "So you're certain you're alright?" He asked again.

Serena nodded a little when Peter asked her if she was certain she was alright. "Yes, I'm fine. Just a little shaken up is all." She was quiet for a long while before finally speaking again. "Do you think the other Serena ever returned?"

"I'd like to think so and maybe what Doom did had a side effect of something good. Removing NYX from her," He said. "But there really isn't any way to really tell," Peter said as he sat up. "When you're feeling up to it, meet me in the lab tomorrow. I'm going to need your help on what we need to do to get Doom his Arcbots," Peter said.

Serena hoped that Peter was right and that the other Serena did return. She felt sad thinking of those children growing up without their mother and never knowing what happened to her. However, there was little she could do about it other than hope. She was tired and slept through the night. The following morning she rose and showered and dressed and then met Peter in the lab. She glanced down at her left hand and saw just the engagement ring there. She smiled a little at the thought of what the future possibly held for them.

"Alright. So what can I do to help?"

Peter leaned in so he could whisper, incase Doom was monitoring them. "I need you to complete your work on the hard coding system for the Arcbots. When Doom gets these he'll reprogram them. He's intelligent but not experienced with this technology. We're going to change the programming by broadcast signal. I intend for the bots to make his soldiers extremely violent so they murder one another and maybe him," Peter said. Doing something that cruel was not like Peter at all but she could tell he was angry and upset with Victor with what he did.

Serena was shocked and surprised by Peter's plan. Peter was not normally a violent person, however, this was Doom they were dealing with. She thought his plan would work and she nodded and walked over to her laptop and pulled back up her work on the hard coding system. She immediately got back to work on it.