Epilogue

'Everything has gone exactly as you said, sir,' the assistant says, handing him the report.

'Of course, it has. I leave nothing to chance,' he responds, placing the file on his desk without reading it.

'I would never doubt you, sir,' the assistant replies, and he can't help the smile at the drops of sweat he sees gathering at the young man's hairline. Good, if even his most loyal workers are worried about upsetting him then it will be nothing compared to what his enemies will soon feel. 'What are your next orders, sir? Shall I speak to the scientist or to our associates in the East?'

He sits and thinks for a moment, opening the one report on his desk that shows Spider-Man and Deadpool taking on Beck. Now, apparently, affectionately known to the public as Mysterio. He chuckles. The public do like their superheroes to have appropriate names, and their villains. He wonders what they will call him when they learn of his true existence.

'Neither,' he responds to his assistant. 'Ajax can continue with his studies for now, he has already done well to bring an additional ally or two from alternate realities, despite this latest setback; I'm hoping he will provide us with better results if we allow him some time and space. By the end of this next stage of our plan, he will need to produce better results, or else I shall be visiting him personally.'

'Yes, sir,' the assistant swallows, 'shall I inform Ajax of that sir?'

He taps a finger on the report as he thinks. 'Why not? Inform him I am pleased with his work so far, and warn him what will happen if his improvements do not continue.'

'Of course, sir,' the assistant makes sure to note down his exact words. 'And our friends in the East? Shall I send them any message?'

'Have they sent any further reports?'

'Not yet, sir.'

'Then get one.'

'Yes sir.'

'As for our next step,' he stares at the picture of Spider-Man, holding the bridge sign as a shield and spinning the fallen droid like he's swinging Thor's hammer, 'I'd like you to contact our friend in the US. Tell him to move back to the east coast and that he needs to play his trump card. Get close to the boy that is linked to the team, get the information we need. Spider-Man is becoming a nuisance, he was key in bringing down Ajax's latest mission, although he did well in finding a way to bring it around and get under Deadpool's skin. From what all our sources can tell us, that boy is a key factor in keeping that team together. Tell our friend he has to find a way to break that boy's trust in the team and bring him to us, or he's to find a way to take him out. I don't care who or what he has to sacrifice to do it, I'll make it worth it.'

'Of course, sir, you are generous to a fault with our allies,' the assistant finishes writing. 'Will that be all sir?'

'That's all for now,' he nods, dismissing the man. He's learnt from Zemo that the best way to destroy the Avengers is from the inside, but the man made the mistake of allowing them the opportunity to rebuild afterwards. He will not make that same mistake.


A/N: Hi everyone! I am so sorry again for the delay in posting this week. I hope the end of the story has made up for it though, and it's been worth the journey getting here.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on who the enemy is and where you think the series is heading next. As always let me know if you have any requests. The next instalment is done, so I'll start posting that in a couple of weeks but I think the next thing to be posted after that will be something different. I'm struggling to get the writing flowing for this series again, so like before I'm going to work on one or two short projects to get the creativity flowing again before coming back. Hopefully I'll manage to do it all before I finish posting the next instalment so it won't even be that big of a gap for you. Let me know if there's any requests for different projects! I'm thinking of another fairytale so if there's any preferences let me know - I'm contemplating a WinterIron one this time for a bit of a change.

Thank you so much to everyone who has stuck with this story, and for all your support!

Love always,

L x