"Maximoff. What the hell where you thinking?" Captain Rogers asked, voice hard. His arms where crossed, and he was standing a little too close for Pietro to be comfortable.
However, Pietro didn't seem to mind. In fact, he seemed a little out of it.
"Um," he said after a second, startled. Tony watched him, boiling with anger but somehow keeping his calm. He was surprised. Pietro's reactions were slow. "I-uh, I wasn't, sir, I'm sorry, sir."
"You're damn right you're sorry," Cap growled. "Tell me again what he said. I need to know if we could somehow fix what you've broken."
So Pietro stammered- stammered? Tony thought. Pietro doesn't stammer- out what Peter had said. Even watered down so the Captain wouldn't kill him, it was pretty bad.
Steve took a step back and ran his hand over his face. "So. You created a mortal enemy out of one of the few people who can physically beat you, and then he promised if he ever saw you again, he would beat you." He looked over and made eye contact with Tony, and Tony nodded to him.
"Hey, Pietro," Tony said. "Catch."
While Pietro's attention was on Tony, ready to catch whatever it was, Steve came from the side and tackled him. Pietro, since his first time reciving his powers over speed, was too slow. Cap had him pinned and was barking out orders to the rest of the people in the kitchen. "Sam! Restrain Widow! Rhodes, the Witch!"
Sam was a good fighter, but few forces in the world can restrain the Black Widow. Before he had even gotten close enough to touch her, she kicked him hard in the face, taking him down. She jumped out of a nearby window, disappearing.
"Falcon!"
Sam scrambled up to his feet and jumped out the window after Natasha. "In pursuit."
Rhody was more successful, as he had been standing behind Scarlet Which when Cap gave the order, able to take her by surprise and knock her unconscious. When she slumped, Pietro's body stopped thrashing.
Steve nodded at him, and from on top of Pietro, commanded, "War Machine, find Black Widow and aid Falcon in bringing her back. Subdue, do not kill, she's not herself."
Rhody nodded back and followed out the window.
"What the hell? Steve what areyoudoing on top of me?" Pietro asked, saying the words so fast they could barely understand him, as if he was having a sudden flow of speed and was unable to regulate his speach.
"Quicksilver? What do you remember of the past hour?" Tony asked.
He cursed in Slovakian. "Wanda isn't Wanda right now," he said when he was done.
"Yeah. We noticed," Captain said. "Niether is Widow. What do you remember from Parker's house until now?"
Pietro's face turned funny, like he'd eaten something sour. "Everything was going smoothly until we were about to go, and then I was suddenly not in control of myself, like I was in the passanger seat of my own car. Wanda had taken control, and hasn't let go until the connection was broken by Rhodes knocking her out." He was mad that they had hurt his sister, but also angry that he had let something happen to her that they had to. His anger dissolved in a heart beat, replaced by concern. "Oh shit, oh shit, Wanda, what's wrong with Wanda..."
"That's exactly what I'm going to find out," Tony said, walking over to Wanda's unconscious body, taking a needle out of his pocket, and injecting it into her bloodstream. "There," he said, satisfied. "She should be asleep for the next few hours, nice and convinient way to keep her from taking over our minds while we try to figure out what's got her."
"She can't take complete control over you, only influence decision making, but resisting is damn near impossible. Can you get off me now?"
Captain nodded and stood up, helping Pietro on his feet along with him.
"What are we going to do?" Pietro asked as the others moved to preform their duties.
"We're going to find Natasha, and then fix what happened. Go suit up."
"I just can't believe you never told me," Aunt May exclaimed, the second Peter walked in the door from yelling at Pietro. She was pacing in the living room, I'm the same spot that he had been invited (forced) to take a (fake) job at Stark Industries.
Peter was on shock. Two, three days had passed, and all this utter crap had happened. He'd been interrogated, forced to live his worst nightmare, kidnapped, exposed, had his privacy trespassed on, forced to lie even more to his aunt, ridiculed, attacked, and betrayed. Now a secret he had been trying to keep since he was fifteen was out of the bag, and his aunt hated him now. Below the surface of his numbness, true anger boiled. "I'm sorry, Aunt May. I wanted to tell you," Peter replied, how voice a drained kind of sad.
"Well then why didn't you! You made me worry and fret about what you were doing that had you coming home covered in all those injuries every day, but I wasn't even near worried enough!" she screamed.
Peter fell onto the couch and burried his head in his hands. After a couple moments of his aunt's angry silence, waiting for his awnser, he replied, looking up and stating miserably, "Ignorance is bliss." He rubbed his face with his hands. "Not knowing kept you safe. If anyone ever found out who I was... you would be protected. You didn't know anything."
"So you kept me in the dark so I could stumble around like an idiot?"
"You would've just scared you."
"I'm stronger than you paint me to be, Peter," she said, still angry but less shrill, standing over where he sat.
"I'm not."
Her face softend. She sat down next to him and put an arm around his shoulders and held him tight. "It's okay, Peter. Although I'm not okay with you lying to me, I understand why."
At this, Peter broke. Tears flew down his cheeks, hot and fast, and he hugged his aunt like a lifeline. She was the only person he had left in the world.
What was left of the Parker family sat on that couch for hours, crying and holding each other. The whole story had been told, including the part about Peter's role in Uncle Ben's death. This had brought on a new round of tears. By noon, the Parker family had never felt closer, yet still so far apart. Barriers that were in place for years don't fall in a day. But there was progress. It wasn't until nightfall that another ripple appeared in their lives.
At 7:26 on a Tuesday night, the doorbell rang and May Parker awnsered it. Peter was in his room, unpacking.
"Hi," Natasha Romanoff smiled. "I'm-"
"Oh, I know who you are," May replied. "And I know what you've done to my boy. Get out of my house!"
Natasha sighed. "I know what Peter must have told you, but he misunderstood. I am not his enemy. I never authorized-I never even thought about doing to what happened to him. I came to explain, but we don't have much time."
"I don't believe you."
"Please, I just need to speak to Peter."
"He doesn't want to see you."
"I don't think that's your decision to make."
May Parker's eyes narrowed. "My house, I make the decisions. Leave."
Natasha put her hands up, a taunting smile on her face. "Fine. But don't be so sure of that. Have a nice night, Ms Parker." She backed away and was gone.
There was a knock on Peter's window. He sat up, looked to see who it was, and closed the blinds.
Another tap on the window. "Peter, don't be silly."
"I think this is the first time I've ever delt with any of you "Avengers" and not been silly. I'm not speaking to you."
"Fine, Peter. Just-"
"Don't say my name. My friends know my name. People who know me, know my name. You are not my friend and you don't know me. Don't call me Peter."
"Fine. Spider-Man. You don't have to speak to me. Just listen."
Peter didn't respond, so she went on.
"The man you know as Steve Rogers is not who you think he is. He-"
"Okay, hold on, hold on. I know I said I wasn't speaking to you, but if you're going to try and get me on your side, you're going to have to try harder than that. Captain America? Come on. He's the only one of your ragtag team of physcos and liars that has actually been decent to me. If you were gonna throw it all on anyone, I would've just blamed Pietro. He's the only one who's done worse than you."
"I'm not trying to get you on my side, Pe-Spider-Man. I'm trying to tell you the truth, because to be honest, you haven't gotten a lick of it since you walked into Stark Tower. Captain Rogers has been hijacked.
"I don't know when it happened, and I don't know why, but He's been giving us some shady orders, one of them involving you. He forced me to do the things I did and then demanded that I tell no one. He has everyone on his side. He's been making me carry out any orders that would put him in a bad light.
"Peter..." she said. He didn't correct her. "He's been threatening me, Peter. I was so stupid. At first I did everything he's told me to without thinking twice. I thought he was my friend. He was the first person to be nice, to feel real. And now I've lost what credibility I have in our world. If he said the word, I would be hunted. He's got everyone believing that I'm the bad guy. Please, Peter. He's asked me to do something tonight, and that's what's made me realize how corrupt he is.
"Peter... He's asked me to kill you."
"What? Kill me? That's ridiculous. He-he wants me on his team. I-I, that can't be true."
"At first, he wanted you to be a part of the Avengers, so he could have you side with him for when he... for when he takes over. But when you nearly beat him-"
"Take over!"
"Yes. And he wants you dead, because he knows you're the only one with a chance of stopping him. Together, we can stop him from hurting anyone."
Peter sat in silence. After a moment, he said, "Okay. I believe you. What do you need me to do?"
From behind the window blinds, the enemy smiled.
"Tony."
"Steve. What are you doing here? Have you found Natasha?"
"No. I stationed War Machine on Peter's block, in case she goes there, but Quicksilver and Falcon are still out there looking. Haven't found a trace. You said you have news on Wanda's condition?"
"Yeah," Tony said excitedly. "We found out what's wrong."
"Can you cure it?"
"No, not yet. But I know how," Tony sucked in a breath. "Steve, it's mind control."
"Well? Who's controlling them?"
