"Where were you last night?"

Alya's eyes widened as she crawled through her window, finding Wanda sitting on her bed with a very upset look on her face.

She had been so careful! She made sure that no one saw her leave and she made sure she didn't make any noise when she snuck back in!

"I can't tell you that." Sh finally answered.

It wasn't like she didn't want to tell Wanda what was going on. She just couldn't.

Things were getting way too crazy and Alya was at such a loss for what to do. They literally had criminals from different universes here in New York!

"Fine." Wanda narrowed her eyes. "Then I'm telling Mom and Dad that you snuck out."

She was no snitch, but Alya was getting worse. If she needed to tell their parents what was going on in order to keep her safe, then she'd do it in a heartbeat.

"No!" Alya reached for her arm to stop her. "Please, you'll get me in trouble."

She knew that their parents were losing patience with her. If Wanda told them that she snuck out of the house, then she was going to be in so much trouble.

She already wasn't supposed to see Peter, if Bucky and Natasha found out about her more recent antics, she wouldn't be able to help him fix all of this.

"Well, I guess you'd better start talking."

"Wanda..."

"Mom!" The older girl called out, backing her way to the door.

Alya's heart began to race. She knew that Natasha would be here in a matter of seconds. She was supposed to be in her bed, but here she was, in a pair of jeans, all bundled up for the harsh autumn weather.

"Don't call Mama?" She whispered. "Please? She's gonna get mad!"

"Wanda?" The redhead called, both girls could hear her very light footsteps as they grew closer and closer.

"Please don't tell?" Alya pleaded.

"I guess you'd better tell me."

"Okay! I'll tell!"

"Is everything alright in here?" Natasha knocked on the door.

"Never mind, Mom." Wanda maintained direct eye contact with her sister. "I found what I was looking for."

"Alright, well, breakfast will be ready in a few minutes. Can you wake Alya up?"

"I will."

"Thank you."

Alya only breathed a sigh of relief when she heard their mother make her way downstairs and out of earshot.

"Don't look so relieved." Wanda warned. "I'll call her back up here if you don't tell me the truth."

Alya didn't doubt her.

If there was one thing Wanda wouldn't take lightly, it was her safety. After Europe, she became even more vigilant in keeping an eye on her to make sure she didn't get hurt.

She'd never forgive herself if something happened to Alya. She already lost Pietro and she wasn't going to go through something like that again.

And Alya had no choice but to spill her guts.

"Guys, this is Mr. Osborn." Peter introduced.

Alya didn't exactly tell Wanda the whole truth. She told her just enough to satisfy her intrigue and get herself out of trouble.

It was funny, because she had experience in lying without feeling any kind of remorse. But she felt horrible today.

It felt like she wasn't doing the right thing.

But there was nowhere else to turn!

After breakfast, she told her parents that she wanted to go back to Bleecker Street. She didn't tell them why and she definitely didn't tell them that Peter was going to be there. For all they knew, she was just going to go see Doctor Strange so that they could talk about what was going on with her powers.

Lying was supposed to come easy to her, but now she just felt lost.

"Hey, it's Doctor." Osborn corrected.

"Sorry, um, Dr. Osborn, these are my friends, Ned and MJ, and that's my little sister, Alya."

"Mary Jane?" Osborn questioned, looking at MJ.

"It's Michelle Jones, actually." MJ shrugged.

"Fascinating…..I know you." He turned his attention to Alya.

"How?" Alya was getting really weirded out by this. "I don't know you."

She didn't even know why she asked that. The answer was so obvious.

"There's more than one you running around in the multiverse." Ned explained. "This is so cool."

Alya didn't think it was cool at all, for one thing, Osborn gave her the creeps, so much so, that she didn't take her eyes off of him for even a second.

There was a strange look in his eyes.

Alya would dare to say it was unhinged. That Osborn guy was a mixed bag, she just knew it. He was going to be the one to stir up trouble and he should've been in a cell with the rest of them.

Peter was entirely too trusting of people he didn't know and not trusting enough of the ones he did know.

"Do you think there are other Ned Leeds?" Ned asked before he moved back over to his laptop to go search for his answer.

"Octavius?" Osborn's eyes widened.

"Osborn?" The other man looked as if he had seen a ghost.

"What happened to you?"

"You're the walking corpse."

"What do you mean?"

"You died, Norman. Years ago." Octavius deadpanned.

"You're insane."

"Man, I love it here." Max smiled.

"What're you talking about?" Peter asked. "He's standing right there. He's not—"

"—Dead." Marko interrupted, clearing up the confusion. "They both died fighting Spider-Man. It was all over the news. Green Goblin, impaled by the glider he flew around on. And a couple of years later, you, Doc Ock, drowned in the river with your machine."

"That's nonsense!" Octavius snapped. "Spider-Man was trying to stop my fusion reactor. So, I stopped him. I had him by the throat!" He squeezed his fist. "And then….I….and then I was here."

"Oh, please." Max rolled his eyes. "Let me tell you something. I was whoopin' Spider-Man's behind. He'll tell ya. Then he caused an overload. I was stuck in the grid, absorbing data. I was about to turn into pure energy, and then….I was about to die."

"Max, do you know? Do I die?" Conners asked.

Before he could get a proper answer, Doctor Strange barged in, ending the conversation. To Alya, he looked no different from Bucky whenever he caught her doing something she shouldn't have been doing. "Oh, great. You caught another one."

"No, wait, Strange. He's not dangerous." Peter tried to tell him and Alya nearly rolled her eyes at his naivety.

But, thankfully, Strange didn't listen, he just teleported Osborn right into the remaining cell.

"It's okay." Peter tried to calm everyone down, before noticing something in Strange's hand. "What is that?"

"It's an ancient relic. The Machine de Kadavus. I trapped your corrupted spell inside, once you've finished the proper steps, it will reverse the spell and send these guys back to their universe."

"And then what?" Octavius asked. "We perish?"

"Nah." Max shook his head. "No, thanks. I'll pass on that."

"Let me out of here, Peter!"

"Strange, we can't send them back. Not yet." Peter didn't believe that was the only way to go about this.

He couldn't send these people to their deaths.

"Why?" Strange arched a brow.

"Some of these guys are gonna die."

"Parker, it's their fate."

"Come on, Strange. Have a heart."

"In the grand calculus of the multiverse, their sacrifice means infinitely more than their lives. I'm sorry, kid. If they die, they die."

Alya hated to admit it, but she agreed with him. It made no sense to keep these people here. They didn't belong here and they were bad people. She wasn't sure why Peter was so adamant about them staying, but she chalked it up to it being one of their many differences.

But before Strange could finish what he started, Peter shot a web out at the Machina de Kadavus and pulled it towards himself, trapping the man inside of the Sandman's cell.

"Dude, what're you doing?" Ned bristled.

He prided himself in being Peter's 'Guy in the Chair', but this was going too far. This was headed in the wrong direction.

Fast.

"Peter, remember when we were talking about dumb decisions?" Alya looked around very nervously. Strange looked very, very upset and she knew he could get out of that cell in no time. "This is one of them. Almost as dumb as giving the glasses to Mysterio, but not quite…..though, only time will tell."

For all she knew, this could end up being worse than giving Mysterio the glasses. At least with Mysterio, it was only a global event. With these guys, it was a multiverses event.

This wasn't going to end well. A nagging feeling pulled at her stomach and she had to close her eyes momentarily to calm her nerves.

If she freaked out, her powers would go haywire and she didn't know how to make them stop. They didn't need another problem to fix, right now, they needed to focus on the one they already had.

"Peter, you gotta go! Go!" MJ pushed the teen towards the exit before Strange could catch up with him.

"This is why I never had kids." Strange growled in annoyance, stepping out of the cell with no issue.

As he headed for the door, he did notice that there were a few items floating in the air. It couldn't have been coming from anyone else but Alya.

Right then and there, he decided that one this was all over, he would need to have a serious conversation with Wanda about those powers of hers before she hurt herself or someone else.

"Okay, breathe in." MJ coached.

Alya nodded and took a deep breathe, holding it in as her heart hammered inside her ears.

She didn't know how long Peter had been gone for, but it was long enough for MJ and Ned to realize that she was panicking internally.

"Let it out."

Alya's chest sunk as she let the air out before she shook her hands. The action made the vase across the room tip over and it shattered once it hit the ground, startling her.

"It's okay, it's okay." MJ told her. "Look at me. Everything is okay."

"Everything is not okay." Alya felt like an elephant was sitting on her chest and she was doing her best to get it off, but nothing was working. A light sparked in the corner and she jumped. It did nothing but make her feel worse.

"Okay, maybe you're right." MJ admitted. "But it's not gonna do you or any of us any good if you panic. Just keep breathing."

It was times like these where Alya wished that her mother was with her. Natasha knew just how to stop the elephants from jumping up and down on her and she made them go away. She would sit down and pull her in as close as possible, placing her hand on her head while she kissed her forehead. And she never once let go until Alya was ready.

Her dad was good at it, too.

He would put his hand on her chest and his metal one on her back, allowing her to feel her chest rising and falling as she slowed her breathing down to stop hyperventilating. He would talk to her about the silliest things, too. Things like, how the Yankees were doing or what kind of sugary toppings they would put on their ice cream sundaes.

Little things that distracted her.

Why did she get herself involved in all of this? Why didn't she just stay home like she was supposed to?

And it wasn't like she could go home even if she wanted to.

She told her father she hated him. How was she supposed to go to him for help now?

Why did she tell him she hated him? She didn't even mean it!

"Dude, what happened?" Ned asked after Peter reentered the room looking a little frazzled.

Alya didn't even realize he was in the room until she felt him bump into her, successfully snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Where's Doctor Strange?" She inquired.

"I just had a fight with him and I totally won!"

"What?"

His flippant attitude wasn't doing her any favors. She knew that nonchalance and overconfidence was where problems began.

"Look, I stole his ring thing." Peter handed the item to Ned. "I was swinging through the city, and then I went through this….massive mirror thing, and then I was back—"

"—Where is he?" MJ and Alya both interrupted.

"He's trapped, but I'm not sure for how long."

Trapped?

The only adult capable of helping them out of this was trapped?

"You could've just left us to die." Octavius quirked a brow. "Why didn't you?"

"Because that's not who he is." MJ spoke firmly.

"I think I can help you guys. If I can fix what happened to you, then when you go back, things will be different and you might not die fighting Spider-Man." Peter offered.

"What do you mean, 'fix us'?" Max gave him a look.

"Look, our technology is advanced."

"I can help you." Osborn smiled in such a way that made Alya's skin crawl while the hair on the back of her neck stood up straight. "I'm something of a scientist myself. Octavius knows what I can do."

"Fix?" Octavius was still hung up on that detail. "You mean, like a dog? I refuse."

"I'm with him." Alya nodded. "Send 'em all back."

"I can't promise you guys anything, but at least this way, you actually get to go home and have a chance. A second chance. I mean, come on, isn't that worth trying?"

"Peter, you can't save everyone." Alya warned, her nerves were getting worse by the minute. "This isn't going to work."

"Trust me, Peter. When you try to fix people, there are always consequences."

"See?" Alya pointed to Conners. "He gets it!"

"Alya, we can help these guys. If they go back, then they die." Peter was trying to get her to understand. "We can't just let that happen."

"We don't have to do anything." Alya stressed. "They made their choices. You want to put everyone in danger to fix people that don't even belong here."

"The Avengers wouldn't let them die, Alya."

"That's funny. I don't remember us trying to rehabilitate Thanos!" She narrowed her eyes.

"Please." Peter ran a hand over his face. "I know this is gonna work."

But at what cost?

"I didn't say I was going to walk out on you." Alya muttered. As much as she disagreed with Peter, she wasn't just going to leave him to do this without her. "I just wanted you to hear that."

"Uhh, I don't think so." Conners was still against it.

"I mean, you don't have to come, but if you stay here, you're gonna have to deal with the wizard."

"Ah, so, we go along or die. Not much of a choice, is it?"

"I just want to go home." Marko sighed.

"Well, I myself don't wanna be killed, especially by a guy dressed like 'Dungeons and Dragons', so…what's your plan?"

"I have it all under control." Peter huddled a few feet away with his friends. "What are we gonna do about this thing?" He held up the relic.

Alya eyed it carefully, knowing that was the key to sending them all home. She knew that Peter wasn't going to let her hold onto it, because if he did, she'd press that button without a second thought.

"Well, we need to find somewhere safe for it, right?"

"You've gotta take it." He held it out to MJ, proving Alya's point.

"Wait, what?"

"If something bad happens, I'll text you, and then you just push this and then it's all over, and they'll all be gone."

Alya didn't think there were any 'ifs' about it. Something bad was going to happen. They were inviting trouble right into their backyard.

"We're going with you. We're not gonna leave you."

"You can't come with me. It's too dangerous. You guys have already done enough."

"Peter, we're in this together." Ned reminded him.

"I know we're in this together, Ned, but I can't do this if I know you're in danger, okay? So, for me, MJ, please just take this. Please."

"Fine." MJ allowed him to give the relic to her.

"Thank you."

"But, Peter, I swear, if I don't hear from you, I'm pressing the button." She warned.

Alya didn't believe her for a second. As noble as that statement was, she didn't think MJ had it in her. She had a tough exterior, but she couldn't send these people to their demise.

Alya, on the other hand, had no problem doing it. So there was no way she would even be allowed near that relic.

She would just have to ride the waves as they came.

"Sure."

"And I will do it!" MJ warned everyone.

Alya watched as Peter said his goodbyes to Ned and MJ. She felt a sinking feeling in her gut that was becoming all too familiar for her. So, when Peter walked over to her, she had to tell him how ridiculous this was all over again.

"Peter, where are you taking them?" She asked.

They were in cells for a reason and if Peter was thinking of taking them around civilians, that was a huge mistake. Someone was going to get hurt.

Or worse.

"Back to the apartment. Happy has some stuff hidden away for Mr. Stark."

"This is a bad idea." She glanced over at the cells. "This is a really bad idea."

"Alya, I have to try. Do you believe me? I have to try. If I send them back, they're gonna die and I can't live with that on my conscience."

"Peter, why don't you just call for help? We can't do this alone."

"Alya, I know what I'm doing. Everything is gonna be fine."