[POV: Gwen Stacy]
"Again!" Sam shouted.
I clenched my teeth, breathing through my mouth. My leg trembled from the effort, and my palms burned. It wasn't from the hit. It was from the frustration.
Turn, roll, dodge, redirect the force. It sounded easy when they explained it. But there, in motion, everything blurred together. Every muscle pulled in a different direction. As if my body and my mind weren't quite speaking the same language yet.
I straightened up, shaking out my hands and clicking my tongue. I wasn't doing that badly. For a girl who had gotten her powers only a few months ago, training with the Avengers now was, let's say quite the upgrade.
But I didn't like when things didn't come out right.
That's when I felt it. A gaze.
Up above, a few meters away, leaning on the railing, he stood with his arms crossed like some kind of space kung-fu master who refuses to participate but silently judges everything. The boy with the lightsaber.
Anakin Skywalker.
Was that really his name? Because it sounded like something straight out of a science fiction saga. Just like everything about him, actually.
I had seen him in action. Up close. The way he defeated the Lizard with insulting ease. And how, thanks to him, my mistake hadn't cost any lives.
And not just me. It had been on the news. On YouTube, even on TikTok. His: "Do you want to escalate this into an interplanetary conflict!?" became a meme in less than twelve hours.
I'll admit I watched it more than once. Damn it, I should've stayed a little longer just to see it up close, and to see the look on my dad's face when he called him uncivilized.
"Hey, does he always stay up there watching without saying anything?" I asked as I got back up after another fall worthy of a blooper reel.
Steve looked up for a second, then returned his gaze forward.
"Anakin… is reserved. Though since he arrived, he hasn't caused any trouble," he said in his classic experienced-Captain tone.
"He's blunt. But polite. In his own way," Wanda added, arms crossed with a faint smile.
"Does he always have that 'I hate being here but I'm too noble to leave' face?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"More or less," Sam said with a slight grin. "He has his moments. And from what we understand, he's lived through a lot for someone his age."
"Well, who hasn't gone through weird stuff lately? A week ago I fought that mutant reptile, and a few months ago I got bitten by a radioactive spider that gave me powers," I said, shrugging.
"All the Avengers have been through crazy things… Steve frozen since World War II. Iron Man surviving in a desert and building his armor. Hulk turning into a giant monster he can't control. And Wanda has powers that look like they came out of a bugged video game. Natasha being a spy with elite training and probably violating human rights," I continued, trying to make my point, direct and without sugarcoating it.
No one argued.
I expected a laugh. At least a smile. Instead, I got silence.
Natasha was the one who spoke, with that voice that doesn't leave much room for jokes.
"It's one thing to have lived through strange things, things straight out of movies. But his case is a little different. I'd even say sadder than average."
I looked at her. "What do you mean?"
"The Jedi," Natasha replied. "He's been training since he was nine. But it's not just combat. It's a way of life. Since childhood he's lived under a strict code. No personal bonds, no family. No possessions. No emotional attachments. Only service and duty."
That left me quiet. I swallowed.
"And he chooses that?"
"He accepts it," Steve intervened. "Because he never knew anything else."
"All for the peace and balance of the galaxy," Sam said, with a mix of pity and irony in his voice.
"Wow," I blurted out without thinking.
I looked up at him again.
And before thinking twice, I did it. I stepped closer beneath him, pulled my hand back, and shouted upward, projecting my voice clearly.
"Hey, Skywalker! Do you want to train with us, or are you going to stay in contemplative statue mode all day?"
I felt everyone look at me immediately. Sam's eyes widened like he hadn't expected that. Steve glanced at me from the side. Natasha didn't say anything, but out of the corner of my eye I saw her give a slight nod. Wanda smiled.
I kept looking up without lowering my gaze.
"I mean, if you're going to criticize from the high ground, at least come down and do it to my face. I don't bite," I added.
Silence. The wind blew between us.
I didn't know if he was going to come down. If he was going to ignore me. If he'd respond with some philosophical line nobody asked for.
But I had already spoken to him and I didn't regret it.
…
[POV: Anakin Skywalker]
The spider girl's footsteps echoed across the lower platform, slowly approaching the exact point beneath me.
I knew she had seen me. Her gaze had risen before everyone else's.
But I hadn't expected what she did next. I saw her raise a hand to her neck and, with a quick motion, remove her mask.
It was the first time I saw her face.
Blonde hair tied back carelessly, as if she had neither the time nor the desire to worry about it. Well-defined brows, a clear gaze, large bright eyes, an icy blue, yet alive. Sharp cheekbones, a firm jaw. There was strength in her features, but also something fragile.
She was beautiful. If I'm not mistaken, her name was Gwen, from what I had heard Steve and the others say.
Not the "Alderaanian noble" kind of beauty, nor like the smiling girls from the Republic holofilms. Hers was a more real, imperfect kind of beauty.
And then she spoke.
"Hey, Skywalker! Do you want to train with us, or are you going to stay in contemplative statue mode all day!?"
Her tone was direct, almost mocking. She said it without thinking too much about it. She spoke to me like I was some strange guy.
I don't know what expression I made, but it must have been a mixture of annoyance, discomfort, and surprise.
I looked at her in silence while she held that same relaxed, challenging expression, as if she had thrown a symbolic stone just to see if I would react.
"I mean, if you're going to criticize from the high ground, at least come down and do it to my face. I don't bite," she added.
I couldn't walk away. Not after that provocation, and with Steve and the others now watching me.
And even less after that girl, with her sweaty face, her defiant voice, and that expression of I don't care what you think, had spoken to me as if I weren't a Jedi.
I adjusted my cloak at my belt with a simple motion. I stepped back from the railing.
And I jumped, more than twenty meters straight down.
The Force wrapped around me instantly, cushioning the fall, guiding my center of gravity as if gravity itself bent to my will. I landed silently in the middle of the field, my cloak flowing behind me.
Gwen looked at me with raised eyebrows, as if she wasn't sure whether she should say "welcome" or "wow."
I crossed my arms.
"Let's see if you've improved those clumsy moves from last week."
She blinked. The expression on her face tightened, just slightly. She didn't like that.
Of course she didn't.
"Clumsy?" she repeated, as if deciding whether to answer with a joke, a threat, or simply roll her eyes.
She held back. I noticed it. She placed her hands on her hips, took a deep breath, and instead of returning the sarcasm, she said:
"Yeah. Well… thanks for not letting the Lizard turn me into this week's disaster."
She didn't say it with flowery words. Nor with tenderness. But she was sincere.
And that deserved respect, knowing how to thank someone when they saved you from a mistake.
I gave a slight nod, no words needed.
Gwen stretched her neck with a soft crack. She took a few steps toward the center of the training area and turned toward me with the same expression someone has when they challenge you to a competition, knowing they'll probably lose, but jumping in anyway.
"So then, Padawan, are we fighting or what?" she said with a half-defiant smile.
I raised an eyebrow.
"Are you so sure?" I replied calmly. "The Lizard gave you trouble. And I defeated him without difficulty."
She didn't flinch.
"Yeah, well… this won't be the same," she replied. "You're not crushing a four-meter reptile. We're sparring."
As we positioned ourselves facing each other, I heard Sam whisper quietly, more to Gwen than to me.
"Just remember that guy has been training since he was nine. He's not an amateur."
"I know, I know…" Gwen murmured, though her tone wasn't quite as carefree now.
Steve stepped closer to her discreetly, as if he were just adjusting her stance, but he leaned in slightly to add, "Even though you have superhuman strength and reflexes, he has them too, and maybe even more than you. It won't be easy to hold out if he gets serious."
"Yeah, he has the Force, or whatever he calls it," Sam nodded.
Gwen frowned for a second, then tilted her head and asked, "What kind of force are we talking about? Super strength? Or just Jedi training strength with a fancy name?"
"No," Sam replied, crossing his arms. "Literally. The Force. It's… what he uses. According to him, it flows through everything. People, objects, even the air. And he controls it."
"Like some kind of mystical energy?" Gwen asked.
Even though they didn't think so, I could hear them. They weren't very far away, and my hearing is better than average, not just because of training, but because of the Force.
"Something like that," Steve said. "That's what he used to crush the Lizard. Like an invisible mountain was pushing it."
I saw Gwen's expression shift slightly. It was no longer pure confidence. There was focus now.
She turned her head back toward me. "So, are there rules? Or are lightsabers included?"
"You said it yourself, it's a friendly sparring match. No lightsabers, and no injuries," I said, rolling my shoulders slightly as I took my stance.
"No serious injuries," Gwen corrected with a wider smile.
At her comment, I couldn't help but smile. Just a small gesture, but genuine.
At the Jedi Temple, training was ceremonial, meticulous, full of rules. Bows, repeated phrases, trust in the Force, release your ego, be like water, respect, balance, humility.
This sparring felt more exciting. There was more spark to it.
I saw Gwen's expression stiffen slightly. Not with anger, with surprise. As if that slight curve at the corner of my mouth had caught her off guard.
She wasn't the only one.
Sam tilted his head, one eyebrow raised, as if trying to confirm whether he had really seen it.
Steve crossed his arms with a faint smile, as if mentally noting: He smiles.
Wanda looked at me with mild surprise, as if she had thought I might not be capable of smiling genuinely at all.
Natasha simply nodded to herself. Like someone observing a crack in a piece of armor.
But I didn't dwell on it.
I simply adjusted my stance.
'Let's do it.'