Billy Kaplan was very cognizant of the fact he shouldn't exist. Rio was right. He was an abomination. A soul crafted ex-nihilo and now inhabiting the body of a boy who should still be alive today. In his darkest moments, Billy wondered if he had something to do with William's death, if his subconscious desperation for a body had caused the accident which had left William's mortal shell unoccupied. Even when he wasn't spiraling deeply from guilt and grief and emotions he couldn't even identify, Billy knew instinctively he was an aberration. He should have been destroyed when the Hex fell. He was just a toy Wanda had been playing with and she should have put him back in his box.

None of this to say that Billy was suicidal or anything maudlin like that. Indeed, quite the opposite; he appreciated deeply his second chance at life. Even if he'd been squandering it through desperation and grandiose displays of magic rivaling Wanda's. In a way, Billy was just like the billions of people who had returned to life, given a second chance where no one else had before. But Billy stood apart from them, because he'd used his second chance to create an elaborate and deadly illusion and he…well, sometimes he thought he didn't deserve it.

Billy felt adrift, like he didn't quite fit in anywhere. He wasn't enough of a Kaplan to really feel like he deserved his parents' love. He definitely wasn't a Maximoff and even if he was, he never would have taken up that name. There were no more Maximoffs left. He didn't know how his…mother – how Wanda had died. He didn't even know if she was dead. (Rio had been frustratingly vague on that. According to her, if "Kevin" wants her back, then she'll be back and if he doesn't, then she won't. Billy didn't know who Kevin was and he didn't want to ask.) He certainly wasn't a mutant and he'd never fit in with the other X-Men at the Academy. And he'd never, ever, ever be a normal kid either.

The only time he'd ever felt like he was a part of something was back on the Road and that had been an epic fiasco. Lilia, Sharon, Alice, and Agatha had all died because of his hubris and Jen wasn't returning any of his phone calls. Even with Agatha a ghost and still a part of his life, Billy couldn't quite figure out what their relationship was. Friend, enemy, mother and child, student? It seemed to be all of those things sometimes and sometimes none of them.

All of this uncertainty made Billy latch onto the one thing he could be certain about: Tommy. Professor Frost was helping him regain his memories of Westview, but it was a slow, laborious process, and they were all very fuzzy even now. She said that was normal and might improve in time. Billy hoped she was wrong. Either way, his most vivid and happy memories of his childhood, such as it was, were all of Tommy. The two of them knew deep down something was wrong, that their presence was a mistake, but they'd also known whatever was going on, the two of them would face it together. If Tommy was in his life again, everything would be fine. He'd stop being so adrift. He'd become the person he was meant to be.

Finding Tommy, however, was easier said than done. It shouldn't have been that hard, in theory. Billy was looking for a boy of about his age (hopefully; they were supposed to be twins, after all) who'd had a near death experience (actually, an actual death experience, but no one would have known that) and who was hopefully in the area. He'd of course asked Rio, but the conniving anthropomorphic personification wouldn't even give him a hint. So he was reduced to posting on Reddit and trying to convince the various X-Men to help him without giving too much away about his powers. It wasn't very successful. They'd mostly rejected him with platitudes or in Deadpool's case "No way I'm going to play second fiddle to some teenager. If the Sentient Duck wants me in a fanfic, I'm starring and he'd better get off his prudish ass and start writing smut." Whatever that meant.

In the meantime, he'd been trying his best to keep his secrets from the people who didn't know. It was hard, especially since Eddie had been one of them. His boyfriend was truly the salt of the earth, understanding and compassionate. He knew very well Billy was holding secrets and instead of freaking out about it like most boys would, very calmly told Billy he was perfectly fine with waiting until Billy was comfortable. What a mensch. Billy would be a mess without him.

So he was left to train in his powers with Agatha, endure his parents' awkward but well meaning questions, and panic over all the terrible things that could be happening with his brother. Agatha kept pushing him to be more creative and inventive with his powers, the exact opposite of the X-Men, who valued control and only using one's powers as necessary. Privately, Billy suspected Agatha wanted him to cast some sort of spell to bring her back to life so she could continue her reign of terror. Like that would ever happen.

But despite her ulterior motives, Agatha's training worked and Billy was able to conduct a scrying spell. And after so long searching, casting his mind, his soul into the endless void that was the universe, the indescribable miasma which some called dark matter…he finally found him. And it was worse than he had thought. Far, far worse.

"Mom!" Billy screamed and Rebecca ran into the room so quickly she tripped and would have cracked her head on the hardwood floors if Billy hadn't magically stopped her. "They have him. The Albedic Order. They…they're preparing him now for sacrifice."

Rebecca opened her mouth in shock, her face a rictus of horror. Billy couldn't blame her. It was some of the worst news possible. The Albedic Order was a terrorist group which had formed after the end of the Blip. They believed the Returned were not real, instead being demons inhabiting their bodies. As such, they had made it their holy mission to destroy as many of these "demons" as possible. Mass murders, ritual sacrifices, all in the name of "securing the judgment God had laid on the wicked." Children, in particular, were a priority of theirs. They were reviled by most of the population. Even other hate groups despised them. Everyone had people in their lives who had Returned. No segment of the population was left untouched. But this contempt hadn't stopped the Order from returning no matter how many of their cells were destroyed, like some demented game of whack a mole.

All of this would have been bad enough. But now they had gotten their hands on the one person which, from a certain point of view, their twisted views were right about. Tommy was of course not a demon. Not in the classical sense – not a member of Mephisto's legion. But he was a soul who was in the wrong body and if the Order could prove this, then there was a possibility they could stop being a despised fringe group and get the numbers to be a legitimate and terrifying threat. This was, of course, the worse case scenario but the fact it was even on the table at all was chilling.

"Billy, I know this is scary, but I need you to take a few deep breaths and focus," Mom said quietly. She was terrified of his power and it made Billy hate himself. But, and this was important, she still loved him. She was not terrified of Billy, only the things he could do. There was a very important distinction there. "How long does he have?"

"Hours," Billy said. He felt numb from shock and terror. Most of the Order's murders were done as ritual sacrifices. There were numerous prayers and rituals and ceremonies which had to be done before the sacrifice. It meant he had time. If he could find their lair.

The door opened and Dad walked in. "What happened?" he asked, getting to the point with admirable swiftness.

"Billy found Tommy. And he's in grave danger. The Albedic Order has him."

Dad swore loudly and long. Rebecca glared at him. Billy didn't really mind. There were times he admired his adoptive father's lack of restraint. Whatever else he was, Dad was extremely comfortable with the man he was. And that was something Billy felt he could use more of. "Where?"

"Still working on finding identifying elements."

"We should call the police," Mom suggested.

Dad looked at her askance. "Really?"

"Look, I know we promised we wouldn't bring in the authorities into any of…this," Rebecca said, gesturing vaguely to encompass everything magical about Billy. "But they don't need to know about this. We're just concerned citizens and a child has been kidnapped by a terrorist organization."

"We don't have anything to tell them," Billy reminded them. "We don't know who he is or where he is. And we won't do any of that unless you be quiet!"

Billy felt guilty about yelling at his parents, but only a little bit. His brother's welfare was more important than any amount of rudeness. Billy cast his mind into the void again. He saw Tommy clearly. He was horrified. He didn't know why he was there. But there was…betrayal in his eyes. Billy didn't know if it was his magic telling him or just simple deduction, but he suddenly realized Tommy's own parents had handed him over to the Order. What else…he was in a basement. A dingy basement. There was an altar. It looked like a miniature church down there. All standard issue for the Order, none of which told him anything. The acolytes were all wearing robes; he couldn't see many of their faces clearly. One of them was writing names on a list and with a shiver, Billy realized that most of the names on that list had been crossed out. Killed. But the one at the top was…

"Tommy Shepherd," Billy breathed. "That's his name. Tommy Shepherd."

"On it," Mom said immediately and pulled out her phone. A few minutes of searching and she'd found what she was looking for. As a lawyer, research was sort of Mom's thing. "Tommy Shepherd, 16. Recently hospitalized for a near drowning at a pool. The police said it was a dare gone wrong. 1444 Maple Street, Eastview. That's less than a mile from here."

Agatha suddenly materialized. Billy's parents let out screams. Billy just rolled his eyes. He'd gotten used to Agatha popping up at inconvenient times. At least she never popped up again when he was having alone time with Eddie, not after last time. "Well, looks like the monsters are due on Maple Street then. The parents will tell us more…whether they like it or not."

"We can still call the police," Mom said, but now she sounded more uncertain than before.

"What about the X-Men?" Dad asked. "Can't they help?"

Billy shook his head. "Captain Marvel showed up at the Academy yesterday – they're busy helping her with some threat off-world."

"If you want to have cops crawling around here, be my guest," Agatha sneered. "But take it from someone who spent most of the sixties as a lab experiment – the government and magical practitioners go together like oil and water. There's no end to the things they'd do to get their hands on the boy wonder here. And if you think your precious law will save you, think again, hot stuff."

"There's no need to be so confrontational, Agatha," Dad said chidingly. Agatha just stuck her tongue out at him. "Her rudeness notwithstanding, I think Agatha is right." Agatha plastered a mock flabbergasted look on her face. She was such a troll. Billy loved that about her. "We need to handle this ourselves."

Dad stepped out of the room for a few minutes and the doorbell rang. Billy instinctively tensed, even though he knew there was no way the Order could have tracked him down. He made his way to the door, peered through the window, and then breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it was just Eddie.

"Hey, beautiful," Billy said as he gave his boyfriend a peck on the lips. Eddie raised an eyebrow at the ivy he'd manifested onto the walls. "Uh, we're thinking about going back to nature? Look, now isn't a good time?"

"But we had a date scheduled," Eddie whined so alluringly. It wasn't fair how his boyfriend could be so alluring and yet so frustrating.

"Sorry, I'm gonna have to take a rain check."

"Yeah, I don't think anyone wants to see that," Agatha snarked.

Eddie turned to glare at her and then did a double take. Oh, yeah, that was right. Eddie hadn't been clued into…much of anything yet, much less the existence of ghosts. "Eddie, meet Agatha Harkness." He pointed at Agatha. "And Eddie…meet Billy Maximoff." He manifested his blue crown. Eddie actually looked like he was drooling a little at seeing that. He was so cute.

Eddie sat down on the couch. "Uh…wow. That is…that is a big deal."

Billy sat next to him and tentatively put his arm around Eddie's shoulders. Eddie leaned into it and Billy abruptly felt a sense of relief and contentment flowing through him. He knew Eddie would stand with him no matter what crazy things he said. He'd never abandon him. Eddie was there for the long run.

So Billy explained everything, every last detail. Even the Witches' Road. Even that William was dead and Billy had taken over his body. Even some things he hadn't even told his parents yet. "I'm so sorry I kept all this from you. I understand if…if this is too much for you." He peered at Eddie, expecting to see hatred, disgust, or scorn on his face. Heck, even surprise might be expected. But he just looked resigned. "Why aren't you upset?"

"I guess…it'd be a little hypocritical of me to get on your case about hiding secrets," Eddie admitted. Wait, what did that mean? Eddie had secrets? Oh my God, was there another boy?!

Eddie breathed in and then a second later there was…some sort of…Hulkling sitting on the couch. At least that was the best way Billy could describe him. Eddie was now green and highly ripped and…had scales which looked like armor. And wings. Can't forget the wings. Billy was pretty sure those wings would feature in his dreams tonight, and they certainly wouldn't be bad ones.

"Are you a Hulk?!" Dad screamed, looking atypically freaked out by this revelation. Dad was normally the person who kept his cool in any situation so this was a lot to say the least.

"No, but I kind of look like him, don't I?" Eddie, if that was his real name, said with a laugh. "I'm a Skrull."

"I don't know what that is," Billy admitted. The name sounded vaguely familiar, like he'd heard it on the news at some point, but he couldn't quite place it.

"God, course you don't," Eddie said affectionately. "I'm an alien, Billy. An alien prince, no less. Captain Marvel brought me to Earth a few years ago. I guess you could say I'm sort of in an intergalactic Witness Protection Program. My family are targets of the Kree and I'm the heir to the throne. I've also got some enhanced durability and strength. Nothing too huge compared to, like, even human bodybuilders, but still more than kids my age have."

Billy blinked several times as his mind tried his best to adjust to what the heck he'd just heard. His boyfriend was an alien prince. Like Thor. Except both cooler and hotter. "So you and I…"

"We're real," Eddie promised earnestly. "I swear everything's been real. I wish I'd have told you. The captain will probably be pissed with me for telling you but…I couldn't leave it anymore. Not after you told me all this. So I know how you feel. I know what it's like to hide such a secret."

"This is so…" Eddie flinched. "AWESOME! You've got superpowers too!"

Eddie chuckled. "Technically, they're not superpowers, since every Skrull can do it…but I appreciate it, Billy."

There was an ostentatious yawn from behind them coming from, of course, Agatha. "This is all very touching and all, but it's time to get moving. We're on the clock, remember?"

Right. Billy had gotten so distracted by this shocking revelation he'd forgotten about all that for a second. To say nothing of how cool his boyfriend looked in his true form, and how muscular and how – right, he was doing it again. "What's the plan?"

"Beat them up until they tell us where Tommy is and then do it some more for the heck of it?" Eddie guessed.

"I think I can live with that," Dad said, walking into the room and rolling a large suitcase behind him. By the look on his face, or at least the fact he was not freaking out over the sudden change to Eddie, he had been listening to the whole conversation. He placed the suitcase on the coffee table and opened it. There were guns in there, at least a dozen.

"Jeffrey!" Mom said, scandalized.

Dad shrugged. "Look, Rebecca, my son has superpowers. If there's one thing I've learned over the last few years, superheroes attract supervillains. I just wanted to be prepared, that's all."

"Are these licensed?"

"If I answered that question, you'd have a legal obligation to report me, now wouldn't you?"

Mom snarled at her husband and picked up a pistol. Despite her protests, she still loaded the gun with practiced ease. "Let me make one thing clear. We're not killing anyone unless we have to. Yes, these pieces of shit deserve it. I'm not disputing that. But killing takes a toll, doesn't it, Agatha?"

"No idea what you're talking about," Agatha said breezily. "I've killed thousands of people and I'm the most well adjusted person I know."

"Case in point. This isn't for their sake. It's for ours."

"I'll do my best," Billy promised.

Jeff grabbed a double-barreled shotgun which Billy was pretty sure was sawed to an illegal length. "Time is money. Eddie, you stay here and guard the house. If we're not back in two hours, call the cops."

Eddie burst out laughing. "Good one, Mr. K! I…wait, that wasn't a joke, was it?"

"He goes or I don't," Billy said firmly. This could either be the best or worst day of his unusual life and either way, he wanted his boyfriend by his side. The new revelations about Eddie's true nature hadn't changed anything. If Billy hadn't been hiding such a massive secret of his own, it probably would have, but this way, the two of them were even.

"Given that we want you to go even less, you might want to come up with a better ultimatum, sweetie," Mom said gently.

"It's idiotic to not bring the super massively powerful witch and his probably bulletproof boytoy," Agatha said, looking incredibly bored.

There was some more arguing after that, but Billy wouldn't give in and in the end, the time crunch they were working under meant his parents eventually gave in. They drove to Maple Street. Billy was shocked to see his parents seemed just as furious and enraged at the Shepherds as he was. He didn't understand why. Tommy wasn't their child, at least not yet. Sure, they'd talked about adopting him, but still…Billy couldn't understand how people could have so much compassion for people they didn't even know yet. Or how his parents could have so much compassion for a boy who'd stolen their son's body. Either way, he knew how lucky he was.

Eddie shapeshifted into an adult male human wearing a police uniform, but Billy shook his head and he turned back to his default human form. "They see cops, they'll run. I have a better idea."

With the mere flick of his fingers, Billy threw his power at the door and knocked it off its hinges, sending it flying down the hall with as much effort as he'd take to throw a piece of paper in the trashcan. Eddie let out a salacious growl. "Nice."

"Ugh, teenagers," Agatha complained.

Everyone got out of the car and charged straight into the house, his parents with their guns straight ahead of them, and Billy with his hands thrumming with power. Eddie didn't appear to be armed, but he still had his superpowers.

The Shepherds were just…in the living room. Watching TV as if nothing was wrong, as if they hadn't handed over their son to a goddamned terrorist group. Billy hated them. He hated them more than anyone else in his life, more than he'd ever hated Agatha, more than he'd ever hated Rio, more than Wanda. They had no clue what an opportunity they'd given, how they squandered it. And most of all, they hurt his brother.

The windows of the room disappeared. They didn't close, they just vanished, replaced with more wall. Billy knew subconsciously he didn't want anyone to see what he was going to do. The pain he was willing to inflict. "Where. Is. My. Brother?"

"I don't know!" Mr. Shepherd stammered. "I don't even know who you are!"

"Your son, you bastards!" Billy screamed. "Where is Tommy Shepherd?"

Mrs. Shepherd sneered. "That thing? I gave it to the holy warriors, the way I should have the instant it supposedly Returned. It couldn't fool me forever. When it started slipping, I knew the Albedic Order was right all along. That only through their purification could Tommy's soul be returned to heaven where it rightfully belong." Billy felt like he was going to be sick. The real Tommy Shepherd had been living with these…these lunatics. Maybe death had been a mercy for him. No. He deserved to live.

But sometimes, as Agatha said, boys just died.

Billy was brought out of his spiraling thoughts by a gunshot. Mom had shot Mrs. Shepherd in the knee. "You have no idea what you've done, do you?" she hissed, her voice almost eerily calm. "My son – my firstborn son is dead." Billy felt a spasm of guilt deep within him. He wondered if that guilt would ever go away one day. Probably not. "I'd give anything – I'd sacrifice the whole world – just to have one more day with him! You were given so much more time and you wasted it, you fuckers!" Agatha and Billy gasped, the former more theatrically and the latter genuinely. Mom hated the use of strong profanity.

"Tell us where he is," Dad said and pointed his shotgun at Mr. Shepherd's head. "Or he dies here and now. And if anything happens to that boy, well, we have connections. Death won't be the end of your torment." That was a bluff; they couldn't convince Rio to make special arrangements, but the Shepherds didn't know that.

"2124 Topeka Boulevard!" Mrs. Shepherd shouted. "But you'll never defeat them! They have strength of numbers and a holy cause!"

Mr. Shepherd tried to make a run for the door, but Eddie grabbed him by the throat and held him effortlessly into the air with just one hand. Billy was definitely going to have to experiment with that superstrength another time. "We're going to waste them?"

"Let me handle this," Agatha said. After a few seconds, Billy gave her a nod. He knew there was a decent chance she would kill them. He didn't care anymore, as long as he could have just a soupçon of plausible deniability.

Agatha jumped into Mr. Shepherd. Billy had been alarmed when he'd learned Agatha's abilities had included possession. But Agatha had never possessed him or anyone he cared about. In fact, she didn't use it very often, because prolonged use of the power run the risk of the possesser becoming more and more like the possessed until the two were one. But for a few minutes, it should be safe. Agatha held out her hand for Mom's gun. Billy gave a firm nod and Mom handed the gun over, looking like she'd rather be doing anything else.

"You thought you were so good at figuring out true evil, weren't you, honey?" Agatha purred as she strode sinuously towards Mrs. Shepherd. "Shame you didn't look in the mirror. I've killed thousands of people in my time, but never children. That was one line I could never cross. Because I knew the pain of losing a child."

"What a pinnacle of virtue you are, Agatha," Dad muttered.

"You think I'm going to kill you, don't you?" Agatha said. "I'm not. Death would be too easy for you. You think you're pillars of the community, and I'm going to send all that crashing down on your heads." She raised the gun and shot Mrs. Shepherd in the shoulder. Then she pulled out Mr. Shepherd's cell phone and made her voice, Mr. Shepherd's voice, sound tremulous and panicked. "Police? I…I just shot my wife!"

Agatha hung up the phone and then got out of Mr. Shepherd's body. "Well, that was gross," she said with a shudder. "Now you could tell them the truth. In fact, you really should! They'll just think you're crazy. Or you could lie, say the two of you got into a quarrel. But it'll come out what happened to that kid of yours. And, hey, you two are rich! You can probably get a good lawyer, come out of this without jail time. But everyone around you will know the truth. Your precious reputation…it's done." She snapped her fingers at Billy. "Teen, clean up."

Billy restored the window and used a spell to clean Mom's fingerprints from the gun. Billy had thought Agatha was paranoid for making him learn that spell just in case he needed to hide a body. Shows what he knew.

"That was awesome!" Eddie said.

"Aw, shucks," Agatha said with her usual mocking tone, but underneath it all, Billy could tell Agatha was actually flattered. With her being the boogeyman of witches, it must have been a long time since someone had genuinely praised her knowledge of the craft.

Mr. Shepherd let out an animalistic shout and pointed the gun at Billy and pulled the trigger. Billy didn't even flinch as he opened his hand to reveal the bullets he'd magically removed from the gun. "Looking for these?" he said sweetly and then punched Mr. Shepherd in the face. "Let's move."

They moved. 2124 Topeka Boulevard turned out to be a storage complex. Not exactly a dark edifice of horrifying power. Billy could sense maybe about ten people inside, not including a terrified Tommy. He shuddered. Tommy's fear was so intense he could feel it from blocks away. It was so intense Billy wondered if his entirely nonmagical parents could feel it. "This is going to be ugly, isn't it?" Eddie realized.

"It's not too late to call the police and let them deal with it," Mom pointed out. "There's no particular reason we should put ourselves at risk, not now that he can't go back to those so-called parents of his."

Billy cracked his knuckles. "He's my brother. He's my family. He's my responsibility."

"Can't argue with that," Dad said with a proud grin.

With a flick of his power, Billy unlocked the gate. A man – no, not a man, really just a boy of maybe eighteen or so – stepped out from the box for the security guard and went for a pistol. "Hey, you're not supposed to be here." Billy took a look into the guard's mind and saw he was an Order member, not some random security guard, and nodded at Dad, who shot the guard in the arm.

The boy let out an ear-piercing scream as he fell to the ground, clutching his ruined arm and wriggled back and forth. Billy put him to sleep just to shut him up. "One down, nine more to go. I could make this easy, but…where's the fun in that?" He shared a vicious grin with Agatha. Oddly, none of his family seemed willing to judge him for what must have been a pretty disturbing statement.

Billy summoned forth his crown and suffused himself with blinding sapphire light from head to toe. He must have looked like an avenging angel, come to bring justice and punish the guilty. In fact, he liked the idea so much he manifested wings for himself as well, though he was pretty sure he couldn't use them to fly.

"Whoa," Eddie breathed. "What else can you do?"

"I'm the Wiccan, baby," Billy boasted. "I can do anything."

As his parents, cranky ghost mentor, and boyfriend followed him, Billy ripped door after door of each storage container, not caring about the damage he inflicted. Okay, technically, it was possible he was inflicting property damage upon innocent people. Sure, with great power came great responsibility as Rabbi Lee often said. But there was a life at stake here. He'd reimburse them later if he had to. Tommy was only getting more and more scared. It was possible he only had mere minutes left.

"You know, these are really some low budget villains," Dad complained. "What happened to bad guys having mountain fortresses or whatever?"

"I had a mountain fortress once," Agatha recalled.

"See, Agatha gets it!"

"They're here!" Billy shouted.

He stopped in front of the largest storage unit in the complex. He could feel them inside. The Albedic Order members' minds were practically filled with hatred, spite, and a toxic cocktail of various other emotions. Except for their leader. His mind was just radiating cool certainty. That probably made him more dangerous than the rest of them combined.

"Are we ready?"

"It's clobbering time!" Eddie shouted and then frowned. "That didn't sound right." Still, Eddie punched a hole right through the door and then threw it off his hinges. Billy wondered what he'd done to deserve a boyfriend with such cool powers.

An awkward silence descended upon the room. The cultists had all been chanting something in a circle, their robes and hoods obscuring their features. The leader was an old man with leathery skin. Billy's heart skipped a beat as he saw Tommy strapped to an altar. He wasn't struggling and he looked like he'd been drugged. "So we have intruders, then," the leader said. "Kill them all."

The cultists pulled guns out of their robes and opened fire. Billy didn't even consciously think before creating a translucent blue shield covering his parents and boyfriend. Agatha was incorporeal and thus could take care of herself. The cultists didn't seem to get that their gunfire was worse than useless, not until ricochets ended up felling all of them. Billy didn't know how many of them were dead. He didn't care either.

When the cultists were down, the leader pulled out what looked like a garage door opener and hefted into the air. "I've rigged this to a pound of C4. I push this button and we all go up in flames. So why don't you humans put down your guns and you, creature, well, we'll have a long chat." Mom and Dad both dropped their guns slowly and carefully on the ground.

"Let my brother go," Billy said, his voice arctic.

"I've killed dozens of demons in my time, but I've never seen one of them attract a rescue party. The infernal powers must value him very highly, don't they?"

"I value him highly," Billy shot back. "So highly that I might just let you live if you let him go."

The leader waved the remote around, his expression not wavering. He wasn't afraid. That would be his last mistake. "I don't think so. I hold all the cards."

Billy tilted his head and smiled and then plunged himself into the leader's mind. Unlike the other lunatics involved with the Order, the leader truly believed in their cause. He genuinely believed the Returned were demons and his demented acts of murder were no different than just exterminating an invasive species. It was sad, in a sense. But in a much larger sense, it was just an irritation. Billy went all around his brain and, metaphorically speaking, started pressing off switches, basically simulating the effects of a massive stroke. It would be a deep surprise if the leader was able to move again. But he made sure to leave his conscious thoughts intact. Death was too good for this son of a bitch. He needed to suffer something far, far worse.

"Well, that was anticlimactic," Eddie complained.

Billy quickly released Tommy, who looked at him blearily. Billy plunged into Tommy's mind as well, much, much more gently, and did the exact opposite of what happened to the leader, turning functions back on instead of off. "Billy!" Tommy shouted. "You're here! You're alive!"

"Hey, Tommy," Billy said, unable to keep the smugness out of his voice. "Billy Kaplan, at your service. These are my parents and my great boyfriend Eddie and the world's most annoying ghost."

"Hey!" Agatha shouted, then furrowed her brow. "No, hang on, that's right."

Mom walked over to Tommy and helped pull him up. Other than a few cuts and bruises, Tommy looked unharmed. "Your so-called parents have been dealt with. We'd like you to come live with us, but if you have other family…"

"Are you kidding me? The Maximoff twins together again! Sounds perfect to me." Mom cringed a little, but her smile remained intact.

Billy swept Tommy in a hug. "Welcome home, Tommy."