More of them were racing out from the shadow of the tree line with their teeth barred and glowing red eyes. They didn't even bother with Peter, passing him by on the way to where Rem was tearing into them like a storm. The chain of her weapon whipped and snaked in the air as she swung the ball in wide arcs only to retract it back towards herself. Then she would kick or throw the ball out, giving it renewed momentum to rip into the mabeasts encircling her.

"This has to be fake—like that white girl from the woods," Peter said. In the millisecond after the words left his lips he realized how off that sounded. Only Karen was listening to him at this point.

"As I said before, that girl was real and this, too, is really happening," Karen replied.

There was little Peter could do but watch, Rem moved under the moonlight surrounded by the things, but they hadn't overtaken her yet. She was screaming the word mabeast, yelling it as her silhouette danced across the grass manipulating the chains.

"Well, I can't leave her like this," Peter said.

"You could try carrying her," Karen suggested.

Peter shook his head. "Something tells me she wouldn't like that too much," Peter said. "How much webbing is left?"

"About one hundred feet," Karen said.

Rem flipped into the air, grabbing the spiked ball and using its momentum to redirect her own movement. She landed on the back of one wolgarm, locking her legs tight around its body and twisting to bring it down to the ground.

"I'm going to try something stupid," Peter said.

"How stupid?" Karen asked.

"Very," he said as he got down into a squatting position to run. Then he felt the ground shift beneath his feet at almost the exact moment that is spider tingle triggered. He jumped to the side and rolled as another geyser of fire erupted from the spot where he had been standing.

The little puppy with the bald spot was standing and barking happily, while wagging its tail and looking at him. Peter climbed to his feet and checked on the girl on his back.

"It's you, isn't it?" Peter asked as he eyed the dog.

It barked twice as its reply.

"I don't think it's going to let us leave," Peter said. "New plan: incapacitate that puppy then we choke Rem out so she goes down and get her out of here."

"What makes you think that will work?" Karen asked.

"She has to breathe, doesn't she?" Peter asked as he charged the puppy.

"I don't know."

He jumped into the air avoiding two more of the explosions that seemed to be timed to catch him if he dodged the wrong way. His movements were limited with someone his back, but it was better that he avoided all of the fire since she was there. Peter landed and rolled into a crouch with one left stretched out to his side.

"One hundred feet, gotta make it count!" He sent a blast of web out like a small net that trapped the puppy to the ground. "Yeah!" Peter shouted as the puppy struggled against the web restraining it. "Kind of sad that it's still pretty cute."

Peter turned to look at Rem who was mostly mopping up the last of the mabeasts that she had called over. Some of the smarter ones had started to hang back as if they had judged her maximum range. Before he could go to her aid or to try and take her down, the web on the ground that held the puppy began to glow and finally it burst as the dog climbed to its feet and grew at an exponential rate until it was over a story tall. Its dot like black eyes became red, glowing and monstrous. The stubby tail it had once had was like a spiked club.

"Whoa, not cute anymore!" Peter said.

He was too close and it was too big for him to dodge so he caught it by the jaws as it slammed its maw down on him.

"I…won't…let…you…hurt…them…" Peter struggled to get the words out as he held back the massive mouth full of jagged teeth.

DONK!

Something metallic and hard rung out and the gargantuan wolgarm whipped its head back reeling from an impact.

"Heads up, Pete." It was Steve on the radio.

Peter didn't even have time to search for where he was as the air grew cold around him in an instant. A curving ice path formed right behind him that Emilia slid down a second later.

"Emilia!" Peter said, knowing that his dopey smile was apparent in his voice. "I don't know how to stop Rem…and you shouldn't be out here, I'm supposed to protect you."

Emilia pressed her finger to his mask where the mouth should be. "Give me the girl, I'll get her out of here."

"Right," Peter turned around and had the spider legs release the girl into Emilia's care. She took the child and cleared a path for herself by firing a few spikes of ice into the mabeasts blocking her.

"Make the big one bleed and I'll do the rest," she called back.

"Make it bleed? Right."

Steve had already engaged the big creature, but it was taking an excessive amount of punishment. It would go in to bite him and he would bat the mouth away with the shield. He was giving it as good as he got, but even for him it was too much monster to easily fight. The sheer size of the thing made it hard to block an attack from it.

Peter watched Emilia slide across the field, she was pretty good at moving like that. He hadn't ever witnesses her in a real fight out in the open like this or one without Puck's aid.

"She's amazing."

"Peter, make it bleed," Karen said.

"Right!"

Leaping to the nearby tree, Peter grabbed up the downed trunk and lifted into the air. He caught a glimpse of someone with pink hair trying to engage Rem. Ram had come too. It only made sense if Emilia was here, they were supposed to be watching her.

Steve was on the back of the creature slamming his shield into it and hacking at it with the edge.

"Cap! She said make it bleed!" Peter said.

"Gee, thanks Pete. I was there when she made up the damn plan," Steve said.

Peter muttered to himself. "Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" He moved as fast as he could back to the creature and slammed the torn edge of the trunk down into its side digging into it as far as he could manage.

Steve flipped back. "We need to get away from it, Princess's orders," Steve said.

"We can't leave Rem and Ram." Steve said.

Ram was dodging Rem's attacks, but couldn't seem to bring herself to actually attack.

"You want to do something stupid?" Asked Steve.

"Let's go."

They rushed Rem, Peter used the last of his webbing to tie her down as Cap batted the last few mabeasts away. Of course she shredded through the web soon there after but it was too late.

"We got her Miss Ram, get back!" Peter yelled.

Steve jumped on Rem from behind after he circled around behind her, usually he would have expected his weight to topple her, but she dragged him around with his legs flailing around behind him.

"Sun's getting real low, little girl," Steve said as he struggled put her in a submission hold.

"I need you all out of there!" Emilia yelled.

The large mabeast that had been the puppy was stumbling around but regaining its legging now.

"Just hit her horn!" Ram shouted.

Sliding his arm through the handles of the shield, Steve swiped her forehead and horn from the side with a hard THUNK! Ram dropped her chain, her eyes went immediately lifeless and she toppled to the ground.

Steve and Peter wasted no time getting her clear of the area. The mabeast let out a huge growl that rattled the ground and shook the nearby trees. Peter looked back as the raced for the tree line. It was as if the king wolgarm meant to run, but suddenly couldn't. There was a sound like large pieces of ice rubbing together and cracking. Then a huge, ornate ice spike that had an almost floral shape erupted from the side of the mabeast where Peter had rounded it. There was another on its head and where Steve had been hitting it.

As the ice's growth slowed, red veins of blood could be seen forking up through the massive flower of ice.

"The Witch of Glaciation…" Peter said under his breath.

It wasn't just the leader that she had caught. All over the field where the mabeasts had been wounded ice flowers stratified with blood bloomed, bringing their victims down to a slow and seemingly painful death.

The night air was still as the whimpering of the mabeasts was stopped all at once. Peter, Ram, and Steve carrying an unconscious Rem made their way over to where Emilia waited.

Her purple and blue eyes were locked on Peter, searching for something in his face. What exactly he didn't know. She lowered her head just a bit, hiding her eyes behind the curtain of her bangs.

"Peter, I…" Emilia started.

He wasted no time rushing up to her and hugging her tight so that he could pick her up and spin her around in the air. "You were unstoppable!" Peter yelled. "You were-were, like, a force of nature!"

Emilia shrieked in surprise and then let out a nervous laugh. "Please put me down, you're covered in something."

Carefully, Peter placed her back on the ground next to here she had laid the little girl down. "Sorry, that's mostly…mabeast blood."

"I-it's fine," Emilia said. "None of you are—you're all alright, right?"

"Thanks to you, Miss Emilia," said Steve. He glanced to Ram. "Is she going to be okay?" He turned so that Rem's face was pointed in Ram's direction.

Ram brushed her sister's sky blue bangs out of the way to get a better look at her forehead. "She'll be a little sore and need some rest," said Ram. "But she heals fast."

"Let's get this girl back to town," Emilia said as she went to pick the young girl up again.

"I've got her," Peter offered.

Emilia waved a hand at him. "You're covered in mabeast gunk!"

"Let's not say it like that, please?" Peter said.

For all of the fear they had shown to the two maids earlier, the townspeople seemed completely at ease around Beatrice. When they arrived back at the village they found her working to heal some of the kids while enjoying a hunk of sweetbread. The moment that she noticed the group walk into the home where she was working she spoke without even bothering to look toward them.

"It was you, I suppose," she said in a low tone.

It was Ram that replied. "What was us?"

"Betty was in the middle of removing the curses and then there were no more," she said. "You must have killed most of the mabeasts in the forest, I suppose."

Steve placed Rem on a nearby bed, stopping to take off her shoes and then cover her up. As he was making sure she was nestled into the spot nicely she opened her blue eyes and stared at him as if she were dreaming.

"Captain Rogers?" Rem asked, her voice shaking.

"I'm right here," Steve said.

Rem lifted her hand from under the blankets. "I'm sorry for all of the trouble that I caused you."

Steve reached up and brushed back at her bangs, rubbing his hand across the top of her head. "No trouble at all, you saved that girl's life," he said.

"I'm just glad that you're okay, Rem," Peter said.

She smiled and rolled her head over to the side to close her eyes.

"I'll sit with her until she's better," Steve said.

Beatrice walked over. "Then you're going to have to keep quiet, I suppose," she said.

Steve laughed. "Don't act like you're not happy we're all in one piece, Beatrice, I can hear it in your voice."

Redness over took Beatrice's cheeks and ears, turning her to almost the color of her dress. She clenched her fists, squeezing her hands tight as if she were a kettle that was about to boil over. "I'm only excited because an end to all of this means I get to go back to my books. You did drag me away from my library," she said.

Pulling a chair up next to Rem, Steve took a seat and removed the silvery new shield from his hack. He placed it on the ground next to his chair to rest against his leg. "Like I said, you won't have to worry about making too much noise. Wake me when we're ready to go." Steve shut his eyes and leaned his head back until it was tilted over the backrest of the chair.

Peter looked around, hoping to see Emilia waiting with the blue haired girl. The girl was laying on one of the beds resting and the silver haired half-elf was nowhere to be found. He walked out of the small house into the village square and there was still no sign of her. Turning slowly and looking across the visible part of the town he spotted a flash of whitish silver, Emilia's hair had caught the light of the moon even from a distance like this.

She was standing alongside a rickety wooden fence with the sleeves of her dress and hair spread out on the billowing wind. Peter rushed over to meet up with her, calling out as he approached.

"Would you mind if I joined you, Emilia?" Peter asked.

Emilia shook her head. "Um-uh," she hummed.

For a moment Peter stood back from her admiring the field of plants swaying in the wind, following in time to the whim of an invisible force that pushed them and Emilia's clothes and hair in sync. He sighed, thinking back to Liz and everything that had happened with her father, the man who had come to be known as the Vulture.

Peter Parker, the Spider-Man who had to hide his identity from everyone wasn't the kind of person who could really have it all, could he? He had to worry about the lives of those around him and worry about himself trusting the wrong people. The Vulture incident was just a microcosm of his future, wasn't it?

Then again, Peter Parker was stranded in a world where no one could see him on YouTube and no one knew who he was. Since being here he had already been in danger multiple times over. That was on top of the strange stuff that just happened—the girl in white in the forest, the clone of Emilia from his dreams—

The real Emilia stood in front of him though, she was beautiful and serene and somehow she looked sad, worried, confused. He could only imagine the pressure on her to become the ruler and bring her kingdom out of the depths that it was surely falling into. That was something that even he as Spider-Man couldn't relate to.

Then, Peter, being Peter and standing near a beautiful girl that he was worried he was falling for said a stupid thing. "When I looked out across here earlier and all the flowers were out, I thought this would be a nice place to bring Emilia."

"Bring me?" Emilia asked.

"Uh, I mean. If you're interested in that kind of thing, like a date. Wait, not a date-date, but—"

Emilia cut him off. "What's a date?"

"You know, like a day of the week or as in 'what's the date today?'," Peter said rubbing the back of his head.

Emilia glared at him. "Come on, Peter, you're a terrible liar remember."

"If you only knew," he muttered. "A date is when you go out and spend time with a person special to you." Still the truth, but keep it vague.

The sadness overtook Emilia's eyes again. "I don't know if you could really believe that I am someone special to you," she said. "You don't have to stick around just because of what Roswaal said."

"Is that what you think?" Asked Peter.

"Look, Peter, I'm a silver haired half-elf who people will always associate with the Witch of Envy," she started. "Maybe that didn't mean anything from the Peter a few days ago who appeared in the marketplace, but you've seen how people look at me. You saw what I just did back there to those mabeasts."

Peter was playing with his fingers as he spoke again, his voice smaller now. "I refuse to be afraid of you."

"Hm"

"I said, I refuse to be afraid of you. You can call yourself Satella or-or the Witch of Glaciation—it doesn't change who you are," Peter said.

Emilia didn't really seem to have an answer for that, so she pretended to look off into the distance as the dancing grass on the crest of the next hill. After the tension of the moment died down, she asked. "Are we on a date now?"

"Only one way to tell," Peter said. "Most of my dates end in disaster."

"I'm performing that badly, am I?"

"That was a poor choice of words, but cute—I mean really…regal?"

Emilia laughed at him. "So what else do we do on one of these dates."

"Well, we've already done plenty: you came and picked me up from a mabeast slaughter appointment, we went on a moonlit walk through the forest, and now we're watching the moonset."

"Pretty good for my first time doing a date, wouldn't you say?"

Peter walked forward and rested his back against the fence so that he was facing Emilia, he tested his weight against it first just to make sure that it didn't go collapsing. "I would say, probably my best first date ever."

The door to Crusch's room was flung open with such force that it bumped the wall behind it and caused it to rattle. Wade Wilson stood in the doorway, dressed in his full Deadpool regalia with the mask concealing his face and his boots scuffing across the floor as he moved.

By this time Crusch was used to his little outbursts, his strange jokes, and his outlandish antics. She could hardly be bothered to react anymore. She worked, brushing her hair out and watching him in the mirror as he moved against the wall to lean with one elbow propped up, trying to make himself look calm and collected.

"Lady Crusch, I just wanted to see how you were doing," he said. "That looks like a lot of work, why don't we take a load off and go somewhere. We could play some skee-ball at the boardwalk or maybe I can give you a foot massage." He brought his hands up in front of himself to wiggle his fingers as if he were tickling the air.

Crusch continued to brush her long dark green hair out. "You must have planned all that before you knew what I was going to be doing when you burst in here," she said.

"It was a pretty safe bet, you're usually working too late," Wade said.

"Not tonight," she replied. "Though I am wondering why you're out and about?"

Wade sighed. "Just couldn't sleep, decided that I better check Ferris's litter box and thought I would drop by here."

"You lie almost constantly," she said. Even without feeling the wind or looking at him she could tell. "It's like you don't know that I can tell. It's almost funny—I think I would start being worried if you were truthful."

Wade spun in place, his boots squeaking at the flood as he did. "Oh, I'm not the only one lying. Or at the very least covering for something," Wade said.

Crusch stopped brushing her hair, her gaze finding Wade. "What is that supposed to mean?" she asked.

"Don't think it's hard to notice. You've had more people in here than Natalie Suleman. There was some bills of sale for ground up daggers, a lot of them. I don't know what kind of sick shit you're going to do with those, but I want in."

Wade paused and began to speak again. "On top of all this you've got me paired up with the Ambiguously Gay Duo chasing down leads about this Witch Cult.."

Crusch had started to laugh which caused him to trail off. "You're still having trouble reading, the bills of sale were for Ground Dragons."

"Oh, well, that does make more sense," Wade said.

"Just when I had been talking about how much of a liar you are, you go and do something like this," she said. "This is probably the most truthful you've ever been with me."

Wade held one finger up. "When someone's up to the shenanigans I want to know, I want to be in on it."

Crusch got out of her chair and sat her brush down to walk over to Wade, he was clearly staring at her chest as she moved and he rarely made a secret of doing this. She had stopped trying to reprimand him because he was only going to lie about it if called out.

"Let me ask you this, Wade, what do you think it is I'm doing?" She asked.

Wade put his hands on his hips and relaxed his stance a little. He continued to stare at her breasts, but it wasn't as obvious now. "A lot of weapons being stocked up, some mounts and transportation, in general just a lot of people coming through here—rough types and not as charming as yours truly."

"You picked up on more than I thought."

"It's elementary, my dear Watson, actually," Wade said.

"Who is Watson?" Asked Crusch.

Wade sighed. "It doesn't matter, Sherlock Holmes never actually says that."

"Wade, focus."

"Right, the answer is you plan to attack the capital and take the throne by force. It's the kind of move someone with giant honking lady balls like you would do and it will garner respect and be a real show of force, like punching one of those door to door solicitors!"

Crusch stared at him, actually stunned after months of being around the man. "You're not lying, you thought that I was going to attack the capital?"

"It's what I would do," Wade said.

She sucked her teeth. "Attacking the capital might actually be easier than what it is I want to partake in," she walked back to her desk. "I plan to lead the subjugation of the beast that has terrorized this world for the past four hundred years," she said.

"Pat Sajak?"

"The White Whale." Crusch had become adept at ignoring anything that he said that didn't make sense to her.

Wade stared off out the large window on the side of her room. "Oh, so we're doing a Moby Dick? Those always end so well."