Previously, on The Defenders of Remnant...

Tarantula glanced at Penny for a second before turning to Peter. "You… you're him. Spider-Man."

"And you are…?" Peter asked.

Tarantula was hesitant to answer at first, but this was the reason he left, after all. "Black Tarantula."

"'Black Tarantula'?" Weiss repeated.

"It's the only name they ever gave me," Tarantula replied.

Looks like his genetic strands have less of my mutations from the spider bite. Pull up the scan of his brain." Penny does as asked and momentarily an image of his brain scan appears on the screen. "His brain waves are different from mine, that of a normal person. He doesn't have a Spider-Sense…"

"Well, again, cloning is a very flawed science. One could try to clone a human, and accidentally make a faunus," Penny said.

The damage seems to only be present in the temporal lobe."

Weiss questioned. "We know Taskmaster is working with someone, someone from our world. So who is it?"

"I… can't remember…"

"The scan picked up a miniscule electronic device that was attached to his brain stem. Unfortunately, it's unidentifiable, because it short circuited and was destroyed in the electrical attack. The short circuit also caused damage to his brain."

"That device in your head didn't short circuit, it did exactly what was needed of it, then destroyed itself," Peter deduced. "I think they figured there was a possibility you might turn rogue on them, so they installed a safety measure in your head to make you forget the most important parts of their operation."

"I've been informed that so far you've refused to cooperate with the authorities."

"I know this might be hard to believe, General, but I'm not the biggest fan of local law enforcement," Torchwick replied.

"I'm going to give you one chance," Ironwood threatened, "Who's really behind all this?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Torchwick chuckled. "You're looking at him!"

Ironwood chuckled and put his hands behind his back. "Very well then." Ironwood turned on his heel and continued down the hall.

"What's the matter, General? I thought you wanted to talk!"

"The council has given me custody over you for as long as I see fit. So you can make yourself comfortable. I can assure you we'll have plenty of time to… talk."

Strange started to feel the pressure, the weight that looking into the Multiverse has on a single living being. It felt like his skull could be crushed under the weight of an infinite amount of information flowing through him at once.

It felt as if Strange's head would split open, as if his skull could burst at any moment. The pain started to spread through the rest of his body, as if he was just set on fire and it was burning through his skin as he searched and searched.

Strange looked around frantically until he looked back downwards to where he was standing on the ground before, and carved into the massive landscape in black charred soil was a single symbol, one he knew as the symbol for Omega.

It is at the moment of death that humanity has any value.

Before long, the symbol burned itself into Strange's retinas; he couldn't look away from it. Soon his vision was filled with blackness, besides the burning symbol in his vision. Then in a flash of white light, even that disappeared.

"Strange!" Tony exclaimed before rushing to the Sorcerer Supreme's side, helping him back up to his feet. "What the hell happened?!"

Strange breathed heavily, sweat drenching his face as he tried to catch his lungs and heart up with the rest of his body. "I… I know where they are…"

The Defenders of Remnant

Chapter 31: The Fateful Warning

Luke sat next to the unconscious and bedridden Jessica, his focus on her and her alone. So much so he didn't even notice when Danny entered the room behind him. "How's she doing?" Danny asked. His voice startled Luke, causing him to take a moment to recollect himself. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."

"You're fine, Danny," Luke sighed, not even turning around to look at the martial artist hero. "I'm not all here right now."

"Understandably," Danny replied before pulling a chair up next to him. "So?"

"The doctors said she should recover, but it'll be a week or two before they can even consider discharging her," Luke answered. "Please tell me we have a lead on that guy."

"None. A cold trail from the club. But I feel like we should expect that now. Taskmaster has been taking this very seriously. Atlas has already ceased the on-site investigation, but Junior has men sweeping every shady part of the city. If he comes across something, we'll be the first to know."

"Junior… helluva guy," Luke chuckled.

"Careful there, Luke," Matt's voice echoed in the room as he also entered. His fellow Defenders turned to face him. "We might have to make a swear jar for you here in Pops' honor."

"Yeah, being in another world doesn't give you a pass," Danny added with a playful smile. "C'mon, pay up." Luke also smirked.

"Yeah, make a swear jar to pay the successful lawyer/teacher and the billionaire owner of a major enterprise. Shit," He chuckled.

"That's two!" Matt smiled.

"Y'all bankrupt me, I might have to go back to work at Junior's."

"Yeah," A familiar voice groaned from her bed, catching all the men's attention, "Then who will I have to wake me up with dumb arguments?"

"Jess!" Luke exclaimed, starting to reach for her, but she held her head and waved him off.

"Hey, hey, hangover rules; no yelling and no hugging…" She groaned in pain. "My head feels like it's gonna split open…"

"That's what happens when you get your ass kicked,' Danny said.

"Ok, now that's one in the jar for you," Luke said.

"What jar?" Danny questioned with a straight face before smirking.

"Jessica, what was the last thing you remember?" Matt asked their teammate.

"It's… kinda hazy. I was fighting Taskmaster, I told Prowler to run and get the information to you. Did you get it?" Jessica asked.

"We did, and we've kept the coordinates secret from both Ozpin and General Ironwood to prevent them from sending in teams of soldiers or huntsmen. We don't need them causing a scene," Matt replied.

"And Prowler?"

The other three didn't answer right away, which in reality was an answer in of itself. "Shit…"

"He died getting the information in our hands. Peter said he found him hurt pretty bad on the side of the road, but was able to get his scroll from him before he passed," Danny said. "I was the first one he found, so he gave the information to me, and I got it to Matt and Luke."

"And Spector?" Jessica asked.

"We let him know, but he said he was busy running his own angle," Matt answered. "He might be trying to find that enhanced faunus that escaped the train, Sabretooth."

"How original," Jessica sarcastically noted.

"This is probably for the better. If Spector and Cardin can run a street angle to find any trails on the Taskmaster side, that leaves us three with the chance to investigate the coordinates of Fisk's supposed new collider," Danny said.

"What about Peter?"

"Peter needs to rest as much as you do," Matt said. "His injuries might not be as recent, but he needs time to recoup before he's ready to go back out into the city."

"And the other thing?" Jessica questioned. The reminder of Peter's wishes to stay on Remnant was still a sore spot for all of them, that only grew worse the more they thought about it. "I talked to him the other day, you know, and he seems so hellbent on staying here. He wouldn't budge even a little."

"As concerned as I am for Peter, his crisis of home versus heart isn't our top concern. If Fisk really is alive and really has been constructing a new collider, it could malfunction just as easily as last time and make Remnant just as shattered as its moon," Matt warned. "We will talk to him, but now is not the time."

"And if the time is too late?" Luke questioned. "What if we wait, and it's too late to change his mind?"

"Then his decision is made. We can't force him back home. If he truly believes this is the place he needs to be, and chooses to stay when this is all over, then there is nothing we can do."

"You can't seriously believe that, Matt," Jessica said.

"No, not really, but we don't have a choice. He does. It's up to him."

"Matt's right. Peter's path is his own, it's not our right to push him off of it because we don't like it," Danny agreed.

"You're not serious, right?" Luke stared at Danny.

"He's had so much taken from him," Matt said. "He didn't ask to get bitten by a spider, he didn't ask to lose any chance at a normal life, and he sure as hell didn't ask to lose his entire family. But if he asks now to be left on Remnant to start a new life, it is not our right to deny him the only thing he asks for."

"You're unbelievable, Matt, y'know that?" Jessica said.

"We can talk about this later. Take it easy, and with luck, you could be out of here soon."

"Just get out. Both of you," Jessica said in an annoyed tone towards Matt and Danny. The two took the hint and left the hospital room, leaving Jessica and Luke back alone. "So, what else did I miss while I was out?"

Torchwick laid himself out on what passed as a bed aboard the Atlesian flagship, resting his eyes and putting his hands behind his head, one leg folded over the other and a smirk on his face. Anyone else would feel the pressure, the anxiety, the authority when being imprisoned by the most powerful military in the entire world. Torchwick, though? He was as calm as could be, still his usual confident self. According to Cinder, everything would go according to plan, and considering the rest of her plan seemed to be going off without a hitch, he had no reason to doubt that right now.

His relaxation was interrupted when the door to his cell slid open, the almost blinding light from the well lit interior of the ship flooding in, forming a silhouette out of General Ironwood's broad, stiff figure. At first, Torchwick frowned at the sudden surge of light entering his small cell, using his hand to shield his eyes, but once the shock of the light faded, his devious smirk grew once more, and he slid his legs off the bed and looked up at Ironwood.

"General, General. What a surprise! You wouldn't happen to be here to politely ask me more questions, would you?" Torchwick asked sarcastically.

Ironwood's face wore a neutral frown before he shook his head and let out a firm, "No." The general stepped further into the cell, with only a couple steps putting him directly before the career criminal due to the very limited space. "All I've done is ask, and give you a chance to cooperate. Well, I'm done asking. You will tell us what is being planned, and who is really behind all this."

"I've answered this before, General, you want the mastermind you're looking for? You're looking right at him," Torchwick replied.

"If that were true, this Taskmaster wouldn't be picking off targets in the city streets. Don't try and act like you two weren't both involved in the attack on Vale."

"We weren't exactly peas in a pod. Whatever Taskmaster's doing now is his business, not mine. To put it simply, I have absolutely no control over what goes on out there."

"And to put it simply, Torchwick, I don't believe you. And clearly, this route will just lead to more lies. So we will have to try a different approach," Ironwood said before stepping out of the cell and gesturing to someone unseen. After a moment, Frank stood next to him in the doorway, arms crossed. "This is Specialist Castle. Perhaps his methods will convince you to tell the truth."

"Ah, yes, the so-called Punisher. I've heard about you. Gotta say, based on looks alone… not impressed. Maybe it's the Atlesian colors, but it just clashes with that skull of yours. But that is quite a pair, you two. You even look alike!" Torchwick kept egging the two military men on, much to their chagrin, but deep down he knew very well what this Punisher was capable of, as told by Taskmaster. "But surely, General, you wouldn't sic someone of his… reputation on me, would you? I mean, you do need me alive to tell you anything you might want to know, right?"

"Yes, I need you alive. That doesn't mean in one piece. And I trust Specialist Castle to know how to keep you that way, no matter what," Ironwood spoke with an icy tone.

"You… you can't be serious," Torchwick stammered, his smirk starting to fade away.

"I will do anything to protect not just my kingdom, but my world." Ironwood leaned forward and looked Torchwick right into his eyes, showing how serious he really was. "Anything." For the first time aboard this ship, Torchwick felt genuine, real, fear.

Ironwood stepped all the way out and let Castle step into the cell. "He's all yours, Specialist."

"Appreciated, General," Frank replied. Torchwick looked to Ironwood with a questioning look, as if wondering one last time if he was truly serious. Ironwood met his eyes without another spoken word, but the question was answered when the cell door closed again between them. Ironwood firmly turned and walked back down the hall from once he came.

When Peter and Blake returned to the lab, they had expected to find Weiss at odds with Tarantula, given her ability to hold anyone responsible for anything, her almost chronic need to hold grudges. Instead, the lab was quiet, even peaceful in a way. The heiress and the machine girl had simply talked with the clone the entire time. Weiss had her sympathetic side, but neither Blake nor Peter expected her to show it to someone who had only recently ceased being an enemy.

"Hey, uh, got some grub, guys!" Peter said with a smile, drawing the other three's attention away.

"Food actually sounds pretty good about now…" Tarantula said.

"Same. I haven't eaten since last night," Weiss agreed.

"Well, we just got breakfast sandwiches for everybody, something simple," Peter replied before tossing wrapped sandwiches to both Weiss and Tarantula. He grabs another one and primes to toss it to Penny. "Here's yours, Penny."

"I appreciate the offer, Peter, but I'm afraid I have to go. General Ironwood will be expecting a check in, and after that I will need my own time to rest," Penny said. "But I thank you for the hospitality."

"Anytime. A friend of Ruby's is a friend of mine," Peter nodded, giving Penny a friendly smile.

Penny giggled happily before then facing Tarantula. "And it was nice talking to you as well, Tarantula. I hope this situation resolves itself so that you may be normal."

"Th-Thanks," Tarantula stuttered. "Me too. I-I mean, it was nice talking to you too." Penny giggled again before skipping towards the exit to the lab.

"I'm available to help should you ever need me."

"We'll keep that in mind," Peter replied. Penny then took her leave, and Blake noticed Tarantula still momentarily gazing after her before he looked at the wrapped food in his hands and began to unwrap it.

"So what did we miss?" Blake asked.

"Not much," Weiss said before taking a bite of her own food, only continuing when she swallowed that first bite. "We started off just watching him, and then we talked."

"And…?" Blake raised an eyebrow.

"And I believe him," Weiss said, which seemed to come to even Tarantula's surprise. "I believe he really was just confused and afraid. He didn't have a choice but to fall in line and do as he was told. I believe him because, while not to that extreme, I know what it's like to have no say in your life, to be forced to keep your mouth shut less you risk harm."

"Me too…" Blake glanced away, uncomfortably crossing her arms. "We'll help you any way we can, Tarantula."

"Has anything come back to you?" Peter asked.

Tarantula shook his head in a defeated way. "I tried, I really did, but… but anything I knew is either just gone or it's a blur that won't focus."

"That's alright," Peter said while giving him a friendly smile. "Eat up, and try to take it easy. Maybe tonight we can move you to a dorm."

"About that, I think he should be in our dorm," Weiss said.

"What?" Peter questioned.

"Classes won't be in session as often during the tournament, and when Yang and Ruby return, there'll be four of us to watch over him. If he's left in your dorm, he'll be left alone whenever you do superhero work."

"She's right," Blake agreed. "Even if it's just one of us, someone has to be with him at all times. If we're all four needed in class, one of us can get notes or whatever from the other three while we watch him. It's our safest bet."

"Well, that's more up to him than me," Peter said. "So?" The three turned on Tarantula, who was immediately caught off guard at the sudden weight of decision on his shoulders.

"W-Wait, what? Y-You… You're asking m-me?" He stammered.

"Well, yeah. You should decide where you're staying," Weiss said.

"I-I get to make the choice?"

"Well, yeah. We can't force you to sleep somewhere you don't want to," Weiss said.

"Unless it's, y'know, somewhere Taskmaster could easily find you," Peter added.

"I mean… I-I guess your dorm is alright, Weiss, if it's what you think is the best option," Tarantula said.

"Well then, we'll move you there tonight," Weiss nodded with a smile.

Peter countered the suggestion, however. "Yeah about that, you should go ahead and bring him there now. After thinking a bit, most students will be either in class or just waking up, and Taskmaster won't make a move in broad daylight. It's best we do it while we don't have to worry about watching the shadows."

"Sounds good to me," Blake said. "Finish your food, and we'll move you." Peter went to his scroll and began working on something out of sight. While Weiss and Tarantula finished their food, Blake took his side. "What is it?"

"Well, I'm finally running the coordinates to get an idea of where we need to go, and I feel stupid for not thinking of it sooner." Peter cast the imaging of his scroll onto the screen table in front of them and a hologram of the ruins at Mountain Glenn appeared.

"Wait, Mountain Glenn? But that's where Taskmaster and the White Fang were when we rescued you," Weiss said. "How could Kingpin be there?"

"He didn't have to be, because Tinkerer was. He needed a laboratory to work at, a proper one. I remember a mention that he had one in the train tunnels, rudimentary but good enough. But he would need something better to clone me, and something even more sophisticated to rebuild his collider, and if he's been working in Glenn since at least the harbor robbery, he's had plenty of time to make headway. And the only place that might have the stuff necessary…" Peter used the controls to zoom in on the hologram image, centering on a sky-high building on the edge of the abandoned city, reaching far above the other aged constructs.

"The abandoned Merlot Industries building!" Weiss exclaimed.

"What's Merlot Industries?" Blake asked.

Weiss stood up and approached the hologram. "Merlot Industries used to be the most advanced scientific labs on the continent. That is, until Mountain Glenn was abandoned. Most of their staff were among the countless casualties of the Grimm attacks that forced the rest of the population underground."

"Which means they wouldn't have packed any of their technology," Blake concluded.

"Everything in there would be like an ice cream shop for the Tinkerer. And if Merlot Industries was just as advanced as you say, Weiss? I have no doubt he could put together a makeshift collider to bring them home."

"Wait, r-rewind a bit," Tarantula cut in, setting his food aside and taking his own place at the table, gazing at the holographic skyscraper before him. "This Merlot Industries… it could be where I was made?"

"In terms of the initial creation process, maybe. Later stages of development might have been held in or around the train tunnels to avoid suspicion, but the labs at Merlot should be the only place in Vale with the proper facilities," Peter answered.

"Do you remember it? You did say before you remembered when they put the memory chip inside your head," Blake said.

"I wouldn't remember anything outside of my pod. The first time I left it was when I was brought to Taskmaster and was forced to become… become what I am," Tarantula replied.

"But not what you have to be," Peter said before turning off the hologram. "I'm gonna get this to Matt and the guys. You two take him straight to the dorms, and I'll meet up with you when I'm done."

Strange sat alone in the Sanctum Sanctorum that night, not meditating as he normally did. He had seen into the massive multiverse, an action he should not have done, but his reasoning was good enough. If they were to bring their stranded allies home, he needed to know the exact universe they were in. As for why he chose to gaze in again, he couldn't guess. His curiosity getting the best of him? Hoping to see any sign reality isn't being destroyed by interference on their end? Or perhaps the allure of the infinite unknown preyed on even him.

His physical body was yet again simply floating above the floor, but his consciousness was peering into the Multiverse, an immense red void peppered with specks of light before him. Universes, each and every one of them. There was no point in looking anymore, they knew the world the Defenders were stranded on. But still, Strange continued. His astral vision and conscious mind filtered through universes, moments in time to glance at, to study.

Those who do not know the danger of wielding power will, before long, be ruled by it.

Good men mean well… they just don't always end up doing well.

I have witnessed their capacity for courage, and though we are worlds apart, like us, there's more to them… than meets the eye.

It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.

Don't make a girl a promise... if you know you can't keep it.

A wizard is never late, nor is he early… he arrives precisely when he means to.

To defeat an enemy, you must know them. Not simply their battle tactics, but their history. Philosophy. Art.

Sometimes, you even sound like her. Do you remember this place? Do you have any of her memories? We were right here, over five-thousand years ago…

We work in the dark to serve the light. We are assassins.

People have scars. Some you can't see.

You've taken your first steps into a larger world.

Then flashes started to come to Strange. Flames. Death. Ashes. Worlds razed to the ground. People fading away, some butchered, some disintegrated, some turning to Dust. It started to become painful, just like it did last time he began to try and search the multiverse. He tried to pull himself out of it, but it was like he was being pulled in, as if reality itself was binding his spirit into the folds of space and time, condemning him to as much suffering as possible. He didn't even realize he'd begun screaming.

The flashing images continued.

More people turning to dust.

A green blast of energy turning a planet into nothing but rock.

A red waterfall pouring from a circular tear in reality, filling the streets of a flaming city.

Rip and tear, until it is done.

A large horned creature sweeping its arms over a city.

A circular construct in the middle of space.

The Omega Symbol he'd seen before.

Perfectly balanced…

Six gems. Stones.

A shattered moon.

… as all things should be.

"Doctor Strange," A voice said, a real voice. Suddenly, he was no longer trapped. Strange's astral projection was now inside a single, solitary black void. No more specks, no more universes.

"Who said that? Where am I?" Strange questioned.

"Your astral form is currently in a pocket dimension. I saved you from being consumed by the exposure to the raw energy between realities, but do not expect to receive the same kindness again."

"Who are you?" Strange asked.

"Answering that question could put reality in more danger than it is already in," The voice replied.

"What are you talking about?"

"You have already theorized as such, but if you do not recover your friends soon, they could alter the reality they preside in. If they disrupt the proper flow of events in that universe unnaturally, it could shatter the barriers between individual multiverses as we know it."

"What do you mean? Individual multiverses? And what 'unnatural changes'?"

"If a foreign entity redirects a universe's path, creating a new chain of events that should not have otherwise occurred, that path breaks the barrier separating untouched, contained multiverses. And if one barrier breaks, that opens the line for more to break. When two Multiverses become linked, an infinite amount of universes form from the mesh. That mass of created worlds will break another barrier, then another, then another, until only a single web remains, a multiverse of madness that breeds only chaos. If we are to keep order, your friends must not be allowed to change the flow of fate."

"And why should I heed this warning? How do I know if you're telling me the truth?" Strange countered.

"Take my words as you will. But be warned, Stephen Strange; Ignore my warnings, treat this as some cosmic joke, and the lives of countless beings will be lost, their blood staining not just your hands, but theirs."

"Say I believe you, that I rush to bring them home before they change anything. What if by trying to restore a perfect normal world on that side, people die?"

"In the grand calculus of the multiverse, their sacrifices will mean infinitely more than their lives," The voice coldly replied.

At first, Strange was put off by the coldness of the idea, but then he understood. The danger of leaving the Defenders on that world far outweighed the danger by taking them away. "I understand."

"Good. Then take care of it, Doctor Strange, if you want your world and your people to be safe." The voice's presence fades, and before he knew it, Strange was sprawled out on the floor of the Sanctum, his head pulsing as if his skull was trying to tear through the rest of his head. He had no clue how much time had passed, or how long it took him to actually get up off the floor. He was dizzy and disoriented, his balance nonexistent. When he finally had his bearings, he finally understood the urgency of bringing the Defenders back to Earth.