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Scarlet Witch and the Three Spiders

If she was looking back on this situation in hindsight, Wanda had a feeling that she would probably find something amusing about the irony of it. She had just spent the last few months being corrupted by a magic book, and now she was trying to find a former teammate to stop him suffering a similar corruption because of what was essentially his own costume.

Right now, her state of being invisible and inaudible to the rest of the world was a mixed blessing in its own strange way. On the one hand, she was unable to simply ask other people to help her keep track of Spider-Man's activities, which meant that she had to rely on occasional news broadcasts and hope for the best, but at least she didn't have to worry about other people seeing her flying through the air in pursuit of the vigilante.

As it was, the more she heard about the young Avenger's current patrol, the more Wanda worried about what the black suit was apparently doing to him. So far there was no report of him doing more than delivering more brutal beatings than usual, but without the level of access she'd had as part of the Avengers she couldn't be sure that they weren't concealing certain details from the public. The Daily Bugle in particular seemed to be enjoying the opportunity to rant about how Spider-Man was showing his 'true colours', but Wanda had to promise herself to focus on the more immediate goal and deal with that particular pain in the neck later.

Wanda wasn't sure how long she had been searching, but she finally caught sight of the black-clad figure of her fellow Avenger as she travelled through Times Square for the third time that day, only to see him swinging down 7th Avenue. She adjusted her current flight pattern to follow the young figure in black, turning mid-air as he went down a street to the left, only to halt as her target dived down towards a car in the middle of the street.

A quick glance confirmed that the car was being pursued by a couple of police cars, so at least Peter hadn't started attacking random vehicles, but the way he'd basically crushed the front of that vehicle when he landed made it clear to Wanda that he was becoming more brutal in his actions. He might have basically attacked a car when she first saw him in that suit, but there was a difference between denting the roof to make it stop and essentially crushing the engine to make the car practically vault upwards like that. Wanda had to use her abilities to halt the car before it flew up too high and potentially endangered the people inside it, followed by her diving down to make sure the car returned to ground with a more gentle presence.

"What the- you?" Spider-Man turned to look at her, sounding even more aggressive than their last meeting. "I thought I made it clear that I didn't want you here!"

"And I thought that you were concerned about the consequences of your actions," Wanda countered, taking care to keep herself at a suitable distance from the ground; she wanted to be able to hear Spider-Man speak, but she didn't want to put herself in a position where someone on the ground might try and make contact with her when she was still unsure of the rules for her unusual situation. "That is not protecting the innocent; that is just hurting people."

"I was stopping criminals; what right do you have to-?"

"I have the right as your… teammate… to be concerned about you," Wanda said, keeping her gaze fixed on Spider-Man. "I know that we did not interact very often, but we are both Avengers-"

"And I already told you that I don't want to talk about that-" Spider-Man began as he leapt off the car and back into the air, only for Wanda to hold out a hand and 'grab' the web-slinger in a new burst of red energy.

"We are going to talk," she said, giving the other enhanced a firm glare before she hauled him upwards, taking care to move his arms to give onlookers the impression that he was just swinging on his own rather than being pulled away. Once they were up high enough she turned her attention to finding a suitable rooftop, bringing them to a halt within visual range of the original Avengers Tower. It was probably a weak hope when Wanda was sure neither of them had ever lived in the tower themselves, but hopefully the sight of it would help her get through to the man behind the suit.

"Now," she said, releasing her grip so that Peter fell to the ground and turned to face her as she descended down herself, "it's time for us to have that conversation."

"Too bad, because I already told you that I didn't want to talk with you," Spider-Man glared at her, the black suit still covering his body. "Keep trying to trap me here with your freaky shit if you want, but this whole invisibility thing you're dealing with isn't my problem-"

"I'm working with Peter-Two and Peter-Three right now."

"…Excuse me?"

Wanda was relieved to see that his hostility seemed to have at least lessened as his arms fell to his side and he looked at her with a new sense of curiosity.

"I'm still not sure how it happened, but as far as we can tell, I've been split into three… I do not know what the best term for it would be, but there are now two other versions of me in the same worlds as your other selves," Wanda explained, relieved when Peter didn't just try to dismiss her claim. "The three of us have been able to communicate in our dreams and confirmed that we all share the same memory and history until the moment just before I appeared above the city and you caught me."

"And… those other two… the other mes caught the other yous?"

"Yes," Wanda nodded, before she narrowed her eyes as she looked at him. "And Peter Two told us about the alien made of black goo that posed as his suit."

"So?" Peter countered, before he looked down at himself and then back at Wanda. "Hold on; you seriously think-?"

"I can accept that you have had bad experiences with magic lately and want to get back to helping the man on the street, but can you honestly say that you would have dismissed me on your own once you knew you were the only person I have found who can see and hear me?" Wanda looked more earnestly at Peter, hoping she could break through whatever influence the suit had on him. "I am asking you to help me-"

"And I don't want to help you-!"

"When I did nothing to you?" Wanda countered. "You previously acted to save the villains from other worlds who had actively attempted to attack you, and now you say that I am not worth helping because you cannot be bothered? I know that we were not close, but I am not asking for anything more than help; does that sound like you are yourself?"

"I… I've got a lot to deal with right now-!"

"You are dealing with standard street crime; I am sure that there is a lot of work involved, but you can spare time to help me find out how this happened to me," Wanda said, again hoping that she wasn't pushing her luck even as she continued to look earnestly at the web-wearing hero. "You must see that you are not yourself; that suit is dangerous-"

"I need it!" Peter yelled, lashing out at her with a strange tendril-thing that Wanda only just managed to deflect before it could strike her directly. "I lost so much- my best friends don't remember- my aunt is dead- I hurt them so much- it's just- I don't want to feel any more!"

"You cannot hide away-"

"You don't know what I've lost-!"

"I lost my children."

Wanda hadn't known she was going to say that until the words had passed her lips, but when Peter paused mid-rant and his body language shifted to a more tentative manner, Wanda knew that she had to continue.

"I… after the funeral, I departed to find Vision's body so that I could bury him properly, but was informed by those who had custody of him that they were dismantling him for analysis," she continued. She still hated to relive those memories, but if she was right about what was happening to Peter, she had to make him realise that she understood what he meant. "I did not realise it at the time, but when I went to visit a property that he had purchased for us before Thanos attacked… I unleashed a large burst of magic that trapped the entire town in a false reality of my own creation."

"…False reality?" Peter repeated, his tone cautious but curious.

"I essentially put everyone in the town in a world based on old American sitcoms, and each new day represented a new decade," Wanda explained, shaking her head wistfully at the innocence of those early days when she had tried to pretend that she was just in a pleasant dream rather than acknowledging the scope of what she had inadvertently done to the people around her. "I told myself that I'd just created those people as I had also created Vision-"

"Created Vision?" Peter interrupted, his eyes wide in shock. "You mean… you brought him back to life?"

"What I created… I manifested a version of Vision based on my memories of him, but I cannot explain how I was able to create a full body for him using only my power," Wanda said. She still wondered if the proximity of Agatha and the Darkhold had even indirectly boosted her strength to achieve that feat, or if she'd been 'helped' by the level of despair she'd felt and the sheer need for Vision to return. "While we were in that reality, I even used my powers to make myself pregnant and gave birth to twin boys in a matter of days."

"You had kids that quickly?" Peter was clearly surprised to hear this, even if he seemed to be holding himself together to keep listening.

"Billy and Tommy," Wanda smiled, fighting down the pain she felt at the memory of what had happened the last time she saw a version of her sons. "I believe I was inspired by seeing them in my dreams of other realities… they grew so fast… I loved them so much… but when I realised what I was doing, I had to break the hex to free the people…"

"And that meant you lost the kids?"

"I lost Vision and the children to save a town that condemned me as the villain for something I had never intended to do," Wanda affirmed, unable to keep the bitterness from her voice. She might have accepted that what she had done was wrong, but just because she was an Avenger didn't mean that she didn't resent what she had been forced to give up to release everyone who'd been caught up in her spell. "I know that it is not the same to lose children I created when you lost the aunt who raised you-"

"You love them," Peter said, looking at her with new sympathy as he pulled his mask off to look at her with a sad smile. "They were your kids; it doesn't matter how they were created, but you only had to love them…"

His head bent as he stared at the mask in his hands, his fingers clenching around it. "The alien made of black goo… the thing that nearly destroyed Peter-Two…"

Wanda just stood in silence as Peter held the mask in front of his face, looking down at himself and then turning to her with a new sense of fear in his eyes. "I… I remember… just after I caught you the first time… there was this guy…"

"Yes?"

"He was… he was in an alley…" Peter said, dropping the mask and holding up his hands to study the black-clad fingers, Wanda cautiously moving forwards to stand closer to him. "I'd just left you… I thought he was drunk… I went down to ask him if I could help… something leapt from him onto me…"

"And that something… the black suit?" Wanda looked curiously at Peter, even as she appreciated what he was sharing with her; if he was able to recall how this had started, he couldn't be so far gone that he couldn't be helped.

"It got me…" Peter said, still looking anxiously at his black-clad hands. "The suit… it jumped from that guy to me… it knew me… it wanted to be with me… because a part of it knew a part of me in another world…"

"Another world?" Wanda repeated. "It was brought here because of Strange's spell?"

"I… didn't face it directly, but I think its main host was drawn in during the spell… there's this sense that it was missing something…" Peter began, before he suddenly staggered back as though he'd been punched.

"Peter?" Wanda looked anxiously at him, only to jump back herself when he stood back up to look at her with his mask suddenly covering his face once again.

"He needs me," Peter's body said, even as the mask seemed to have suddenly developed a mouth of its own. "I protect him."

"From what?" Wanda countered, trying to ignore the thought that she was talking to a sentient costume being worn by her former fellow Avenger and focus on the fact that she was dealing with a potential threat. "From feeling? I understand that he suffered a loss, but he must-"

"Move on?" the suit 'said' with a dismissive snort. "Like you have 'moved on'? You merely lost false children; he has lost his entire life-!"

"I have already been forced to face that we cannot hide from what we are because it hurts," Wanda retorted, surprised at what she was saying even as she felt the truth of her words. "You cannot force Peter to hide from his pain; that will help nobody-"

"I can help him-!"

"By taking away his free will?" the witch cut the alien off with a cold glare. "Peter Parker is an Avenger who chose to be a hero because he wanted to help people; I will not allow you to control him-"

It was only Wanda's past training with Natasha that allowed her to evade the suit's subsequent attempt to attack her. That same instinct prompted her to launch a burst of red energy in retaliation, and it was only after she had acted that she realised that she had just forced the person she was trying to talk to away from her.

"Idiot," she muttered to herself, as Spider-Man launched a web and began to swing away down the street. She could only hope that whatever part of Peter had been aware of that conversation was also aware that she hadn't done that to get rid of him, but that left her with the challenge of having to find him all over again.

And now the suit knows I'm aware of it, which means it will take more care not to give me that chance…

For a moment, Wanda wished that she could just pass this whole mess on to one of the other Avengers, but swiftly pushed that idea aside. Even without the fact that she was fairly sure Stark was the only other member of the team Peter had spent any serious time with before everything went wrong, or her current invisibility, what would it say about Wanda if she gave up on trying to help someone else at the first attempt simply because it was easier that way?

Just like when she had first fought Ultron and found herself with Clint in that church, she had a choice to make that would define if she was an Avenger or a civilian, but unlike the Battle of Sokovia, right now she was the only Avenger available to stop it. Dealing with an alien costume essentially infecting her temporary teammate was a small-scale problem compared to what she'd faced previously, but after what she'd tried to do for her own benefit, she wasn't going to abandon Spider-Man when he needed her help.

I must save my teammate from his own suit… no matter how weird that sounds.

"It is time to be an Avenger," she said, feeling a need to say her next step out loud as though to make it more official.