| sparks + butterflies | a peter parker fanfiction |

-21-

 1685 words :)

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Zola had all the power. Just the way he liked it. This was his game. And he was winning.

"WE NEED BACK UP- THEA AND HER DAD ARE HERE," WANDA SAID THROUGH THE COMMS AS HER EYES DARTED BETWEEN THE PAIR, TRYING TO MAKE SENSE OF THE SITUATION.

"Thea?" Bucky shot back through the comms almost before Wanda had finished her sentence. "What's she doing he-"

Sam cut him off. "On our way"

Shit, shit, shit. This was not good. Really, really not good.

'Thea? What are you doing here?' Peter asked, his eyes wide and voice hurt.

'I-' Zola pressed the knife harder against Thea's neck, cutting her off as blood bubbled over the silver metal.

'Any funny business, she gets it,' Zola stated, glaring at Wanda and Peter. 'I just want to talk. You hurt me, I hurt you. It gets messy. Understand?'

Wanda looked between Thea's frightened eyes and the knife and Zola's smug face before nodding slightly, the red mist dissipating from her fingertips. 'I'm listening,'

'Good. You too, Peter Parker,' Zola gestured for Peter to raise his hands in the air.

'Wh-how- Peter Parker?' Peter stumbled over his words. That boy was not a good liar. 'Who-who's that? I'm Spiderman,'

Zola raised an eyebrow. 'Peter Parker is Spiderman, is he not? And they both are you. You do not wish for the world to know this.'

His English was flawed, but his message was clear. 'H-how did you know that?' Peter asked, the eyes on his mask wide with fear.

'I have my ways, Peter Parker. I want some things from you. And I always get what I want.'

'Wha-no! I'm not giving you anything! Let Theo go and then-and then you are under arrest by the Avengers,'

'Theo, huh?' Zola tugged Thea closer to him, his fingers painfully yanking at her hair. 'You have an attachment,' It was not a question, it was a statement. He already knew. 'This will be fun.'

Peter looked at Thea, pinned against her father by a knife in her throat, her eyes wide and fingertips flameless. His identity, his love, his freedom. Which did he protect?

'What do you want?' Wanda asked for him, her eyes locked in on Zola with a terrifying amount of hatred. The only reason she hadn't torn him to pieces was Thea's precarious position.

'The Avengers. Step down and quit messing with my business,' Zola started. 'The new codes to Russia's nuclear arsenal.' He paused. 'And the location of my wife,'

'You want to find my mother?' Thea asked, incredulous. 'You killed her! Right in front of me!'

'I wasn't talking to you, Kleine Zola. And you know very little of what happened that day,'

Thea grit her teeth and slid the knife out of her sleeve, holding it against her side and out of Zola's view. The movement caused the knife to dig a little deeper, and she winced.

'We can't do that,' Wanda replied, holding Peter back with one hand as she twisted a ball of magic into reality. 'So let Thea go. Now.' Peter met Thea's eyes, his eyes darting between the tiny knife she held and her face. He shook his head. Don't do it.

Thea wanted to roll her eyes. She wasn't just going to stand there and let her father slit her throat and threaten her friends. Whether it was fortune, fate, or bad luck before Thea could attempt to stab her father, Bucky and Sam burst into the room, their weapons immediately trained on Zola.