Disclaimer: I own nothing that you recognise (and I'm borrowing a couple of things you may not recognise from sources you simply may not be familiar with); be assured I'll identify anything relevant when it comes up.

Feedback: Always appreciated

AN: Back to the main MCU, as Peter offers some theories about Wanda's situation before a couple of new faces show up in this universe.

In advance, one scene is based on a key storyline from the original Marvel comics, so if anything seems familiar, I acknowledge my sources.

Scarlet Witch and the Three Spiders

"So… you're split into three people across three different parallel universes and you're invisible to everyone but me in this universe?" Peter stared at Wanda in surprise.

"That… would appear to be the case," Wanda nodded, shifting slightly to try and find a more comfortable area of wall in the clock-tower. The two of them had been fortunate enough that this wasn't a day of worship and the bells weren't in regular use, but Wanda knew they would have to move on eventually. "My other selves are apparently fully visible in their worlds, but I… we have already seen the results."

"OK…" Peter nodded, before his expression shifted to a more curious one. "And… you've seen the other mes? Or they saw the other mes… I don't-"

"It is fine," Wanda smiled at him. "I have not… I do not have the memories of my other selves, but I trust what they have told me. That is even how I learned about your black suit; the me who is with the one you called 'Peter Two' told her about that particular… problem."

"Right…" Peter nodded in tentative understanding, before he gave her a slight smile. "This is a very weird situation, huh?"

"Is it any stranger than spending five years turned to dust because of an insane alien?"

"We have very weird lives," Peter conceded with a cautious grin.

"That is an understatement," Wanda said, turning her head to look at the sky outside the tower, along with the other surrounding buildings. "And I still do not understand why I am invisible to everyone else when the other mes are not…"

"Maybe you pulled a Willow?"

"A what?" Wanda looked at Peter in confusion.

"It's… uh, did you ever see this old show Buffy the Vampire Slayer?"

"I have heard of it, but not seen it."

"Well… OK, quick refresher course; one of the main characters was this witch, Willow, and one of the later storylines had Willow basically absorb a whole bunch of dark magic after this low-level bad guy killed Willow's girlfriend when he was trying to shoot someone else," Peter began to explain. "She had this dark period where she nearly destroyed the world because she was high on dark magic and had to spend the gap between two seasons of the show training with this coven on how to control her new powers."

"I… see," Wanda said, suddenly wondering if she should watch this show for the potential insight into public views on magic or avoid it because of the unpleasant memories it might invoke. "And… how does this relate to my situation?"

"In the episode where Willow went back to her friends after that training, she found herself in this weird situation where she couldn't see her closest friends and they couldn't see her, but she could still see and be seen by other people," Peter continued, apparently warming to his topic. "People thought it was a curse of some sort, but Willow later realised she'd done it to herself; it was something about… she was still afraid on some subconscious level that her old friends wouldn't accept her back, so she made herself invisible to them and them invisible to her so she wouldn't have to face it."

"I see," Wanda repeated, even as she nodded thoughtfully at the younger Avenger. The concept still seemed like a strange solution to her problem, but now that the idea had been put out there… after what she had done to Westview and Kamar-Taj, on top of any old fears from her actions before the Snap…

"How did… Willow… get over this fear in the show?" she looked curiously at Peter.

"Uh… I think it was some thing about how one person who could still see Willow and the rest helped them get in the same room and start talking about how they all still wanted to be friends…" Peter shrugged awkwardly. "Sorry; that was never my favourite episode, so I didn't really watch it that much…"

"Never mind," Wanda smiled reassuringly at him. "It is… something to consider, anyway."

The idea that she had done this to herself on some subconscious level made as much sense as anything else she had experienced since she fell under the Darkhold's influence, but that didn't help her actually solve this problem. Even if she could accept that she had done this to herself, how could she just… get over these issues and end the 'spell' when she couldn't even bring herself to think about facing her Stephen Strange? The version of her on Peter Two's world had been able to talk to a variant of Strange that didn't look like her one, but that didn't help her get over her issues…

Later, she thought to herself, looking over at Peter with a thoughtful smile.

She would deal with that later; right now, at least one friend still needed her…

Swinging through the city that afternoon, Peter supposed that this was at least another advantage of not having a public identity any more; even if some people actually cared what he had done while under the influence of that black suit, nobody could do anything more than complain about what he had done in a more abstract sense. Mr Stark might have done some stupid stuff back when he was starting out as Iron Man in particular- those rumours Peter had read about exactly how Colonel Rhodes had ended up becoming War Machine were pretty messed up, even if he recognised that Mr Stark had been in a bad place until he developed that new element- but that was only because everybody knew he was also Iron Man; people just didn't seem as interested talking about what Spider-Man had apparently done wrong when they didn't know who he was under the mask.

Still, for the moment he wasn't going to worry about his own reputation; his main concern at the moment was finding some way to help Wanda get her life back in some kind of order. Whatever she said about the bad things she'd done in the last few months, Peter couldn't find it in himself to blame her for that even before his own experience with the black suit, but that left him with no idea what he could do apart from show his support. Even if he was right about the reason for Wanda's invisibility, that didn't explain why he could see her… and then there was that 'Madame Web' woman she'd mentioned and that ominous warning…

"Why couldn't I just get the chance to learn something cool and leave it as something cool?" he wondered out loud, as he did a quick mid-air spin. "Aliens are real and some psycho wants to kill half the universe, the multiverse is real and I'm under attack by my other selves' enemies, and now-"

He was cut off when he heard and something explode further into the city, the sound drawing his attention to some kind of blazing fire a short distance away. His attention drawn away from his thoughts, he turned his attention back to the present, swinging towards the explosion as quickly as possible. As he approached, he noticed that a few cars had been blown aside as though some kind of bomb had gone off in the middle of the street, but he would worry about how this could have happened once he'd gotten everyone to safety.

Once he reached the site of the explosion, a quick glance around assured Peter that nobody appeared to have been seriously hurt by whatever had caused this explosion, even if there had been some damage to some of the cars in the street. Peter wasn't sure if he was dealing with some kind of wannabe terrorist (and there wasn't anything worth attacking in this street as far as he knew) or some kind of amateur supervillain, but either way someone who'd blow up a street like this-

His assessment was interrupted when something suddenly struck him in the side, sending Peter flying back with such force that he briefly wondered if he'd just had a run-in with the Hulk while Doctor Banner was having one of those rumoured bad days where he let his more savage side out to play. His sudden flight back was only halted when he found himself lying in a shattered car, and that just left him with a new set of aches even before he registered the sound of the impact.

"Ow," he said, after taking a moment to try and cope with the scale of his body's pain before he raised his head. "That was… was…"

His voice trailed off as he found himself looking at a pale-skinned man with long dark hair, standing on top of a badly-damaged car, wearing an elaborate black suit that made Peter immediately think of something a traditional Count Dracula might wear if he was going out on the town. The fact that it was still sunny at least suggested this man wasn't an actual vampire (unless this was one of those vampires where sunlight wasn't a problem), but the way he was looking at Peter did leave him concerned…

"Spider," the man said, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards as he studied Peter.

"I prefer 'Spider-Man', if we're getting technical," Peter said, holding up a hand for a moment as he carefully got back to his feet. "And… you are?"

"You may call me Morlun," the man said, that same small smirk on his face as he walked down from the car, his gaze remaining fixed on Peter. "Here is what will happen now."

"Oh?" Peter said, tensing in anticipation of something unpleasant; the man was being strangely formal right now, but Thanos had been polite enough before he started throwing moons at Mr Stark back on Titan.

"I have no special desire for your death, but it is quite necessary."

"…Yeah, I'm gonna have to disagree with you on that." Peter shifted into a more explicit combat stance; this at least made a change from facing strangers who already knew his name, but somehow the indifference was more disturbing.

"You may fight if you wish," Morlun said with a cool shrug. "It is expected. They have all fought in the past, and then they have attempted to run."

"They?" Peter repeated.

"It may take hours," Morlun observed, still almost sickeningly casual even as he still spoke about killing Peter, not even bothering to acknowledge the question. "It may take days. The longest was a week. You may get ahead for a while, but now that I have found you, I will always be able to find you, wherever you may hide. However, I give you my solemn word… it's nothing personal."

"Nothing personal," Peter repeated, staring at the man in the suit with quietly growing rage. "You are here to kill me and it's nothing personal?"

"You cannot hope to win," Morlun said, his none as cool as if he was making some observation about the weather. "It would be best to make it simple-"

It was the way he never raised his voice that really got to Peter all of a sudden. Without really thinking about it (beyond that he'd already trashed this car so he might as well go all-out), he grabbed the car he'd landed on earlier, lifted it up with a strength that surprised even him in the part of his mind that wasn't immediately blinded by rage, and slammed it down on this other man's head.

The subsequent explosion sparked off a warning in his spider-sense that prompted him to jump backwards before he could get caught in the blast, but as it was he was still sent flying further than he had intended. Peter barely managed to adjust his flight so that he landed on the wall feet-first rather than striking it in a more dangerous manner, and as it was he was still left dazed at the shock. Looking up as Morlun approached, Peter shifted his webbing to the taser setting and fired a few electrically-charged web-blasts at his enemy, but Morlun didn't even seem to notice the electrical charges beyond looking at his now-singed suit in irritation.

Lost for any better ideas, Peter grabbed some of the fragments left behind from the damaged car and threw them at his opponent, only for Morlun to toss them aside before they could hit him. Spotting a fallen pipe, Peter grabbed the long metal rod and swung it at Morlun in increased desperation, only for the pipe to bend around the man in the suit without any sign that Morlun actually noticed the attack. Lost for better ideas, Peter swung the pipe at Morlun a few more times, but when Morlun grabbed the pipe and tossed it away Peter had to jump backwards before the vampire-like man could grab him.

Lost for any better ideas, Peter decided to change tactics and leapt for a position a few storeys up the nearest wall. He had hoped that taking himself out of range would buy him time away from Morlun, but he had barely paused to get his breath back before he looked down and saw his attacker literally digging his fingers into the stone wall to climb up after Peter.

"You've got to be kidding me…" Peter groaned, resting his head on the wall for a moment before he turned around to fire off a web-line. He couldn't stop this guy in a straight fight, but if he had some time to put some distance between them both he might be able to work out a clearer plan…

He felt a surge of warning from his spider-sense as he leapt away from the building, focused on his leg, but that moment was interrupted when a figure in red dived past Peter and seemed to throw Morlun back to the ground. Peter just managed to adjust his initial swing away that allowed him to turn back around and focus on what was happening down on the street, which at least confirmed that his first guess was correct.

"Wanda?" he said in surprise as he touched down beside his friend. "What are you-?"

"We are Avengers," Wanda observed with a smile as she stared at the pale-skinned man who was already getting back to his feet. "This is what we do for each other, right?"

"…Right," Peter said, smiling in relief as he turned back to face Morlun.

It was a small thing, but when he'd always been the one offering help in the past and never receiving it directly (Mr Stark hadn't even let Peter know he was helping out during that stuff with Liz's dad), having someone come all this way to help him out felt really good…

"Interesting," Morlun said, wiping the corner of his mouth as he looked at the woman in red. "Your friend here was certainly… unexpected-"

"You can see me?" Wanda looked at the figure in surprise, even as she kept her hands raised to defend herself.

"You can see her?" Peter said, suddenly reminded that Wanda was still meant to be invisible to everyone else but him.

"Naturally," Morlun grinned at her. "A simple perspective shift like that may fool the common masses, but it will not be enough to-"

"Then how about this?"

Peter was only relieved that Wanda was just as confused as he was when another figure appeared, this one throwing some kind of discs at Morlun that knocked him into the wall behind him. For a moment all Peter could see was a black blur as the figure moved through the air, but when the new arrival landed Peter could see that it was a young woman, apparently around Wanda's age, wearing a mostly black outfit with a white chest and some white marks along the arms and legs. The outfit included a thin mask that covered the woman's jawline while leaving her dark hair free, as well as large goggles over her eyes, but what drew Peter's attention was the large spider on her chest.

"You can call me Araña," the young woman said, giving Peter a warm smile. "Cassie sent me to help."

"Cassie-?" Wanda began, before she saw Morlun start to stand up behind the new arrival. Lashing out on instinct, Wanda fired a burst of red energy at Morlun's head, only for something in the blast to turn back towards Wanda herself-

AN 2: To avoid questions, that is Anya Corazan of Madame Web, now with the spider-powers she would have received in the future of that film; I'll explain what she's doing there later, but we're back to Peter-2 next chapter.