"There's something important that I need to tell you two," Tony's voice sounded, removing Wanda and Marlena from their thoughts.

Their heads snapped over simultaneously, their eyes meeting Tony's very regretful ones. They had been waiting on him to finish up his evaluation on Pietro for the last half hour, and now that he was present, the two were actually quite terrified to hear what he had to say about it. His facial expression only contributed to that terror.

"What is it, Stark?" Wanda asked, her voice dry.

Tony glanced at Bucky and Steve, both of whom had been waiting with the girls, and cleared his throat. "I'd prefer to speak with you about this alone."

"Whatever you have to say, you can say it in front of them too," Marlena spoke through the burning pain in her throat, her gaze fixated on the floor below.

"Wow, you sound horrible. Maybe you shouldn't speak," Tony remarked.

Marlena gave him a warning look. "Maybe you should."

Tony let out a sigh and ran a hand through his hair. "Y'know what? Maybe you two should stay just in case they decide to jump me."

"What are you talking about, Stark?" Steve asked. "What's going on with Pietro?"

"Well. . .um. . .I don't really know how to say this," Tony took a pause as he tried to find the necessary words to use in order to explain to the two girls that Pietro wasn't exactly the Pietro they knew; he wasn't the Pietro they had grown up with, nor was he the Pietro in Sokovia that had lost his life at the hands of Ultron.

Marlena's and Wanda's expressions changed as Tony's increasingly loud thoughts made their way into their minds.

"What the hell do you mean by that, Tony?" Marlena forced out, her throat slightly constricted. Bucky watched her with narrowed eyes as he tried to understand where her question had come from. Sometimes he despised the fact that he could not do what she or Wanda could do; he hated feeling so out of the loop.

Tony's expression grew puzzled at the sound of her words. "What do I mean by what?"

"Pietro—he's not the Pietro we grew up with or the Pietro we lost in Sokovia," Wanda spoke to keep Marlena from doing so. "What do you mean by that?"

"Fuck, I forgot you two are telepaths," Tony murmured.

"Tell us," Wanda instructed him, her tone sharp.

"Okay, okay," Tony sighed, "There's this new technology that I was working on around the time I created Ultron; it was similar in mechanism to Doctor Cho's regeneration cradle, but it worked differently. To make a very complex explanation comprehensible, it was a cloning chamber of sorts, I guess, and it cost a shit ton of money. It required the DNA of a patient in order to work to its designated potential.

"Thor was my first test subject; I chose him, because who the hell doesn't love Thor Odinson? The more the merrier. I took a small snippet of his hair while he slept one night and stayed up all night trying to get everything to work smoothly—it didn't.

"After my failed experiment, I decided to take a break from bettering the technology and continue my work with Ultron. Then Wanda and Pietro came along, both of whom we were very surprised to find out were of relation to Marlena. Then Pietro was killed, and it was my fault, and I felt like shit, especially after watching you two completely break in half because of it. I decided then that I would use my tech to try to make things right, so I took Pietro back to the tower with me and began working on a way to bring him back for you two.

"It took six months to actually succeed in bringing him back, even if he was just a clone. There were still issues with him, however, so I kept him locked away in cryostasis until I could correct the problem. I let him out a few months ago, though, so he could help during the fight. I was so consumed with everything that I had forgotten about the dangers of actually letting him out."

The four in the room remained silent as they contemplated Tony's words. Wanda and Marlena couldn't seem to grasp the fact that their beloved Pietro wasn't even Pietro—he was a clone. This upset them more than they thought it would, but in their eyes, all they could seem to gather was that Pietro was actually dead, and the Pietro now was simply a carbon copy.

"Somebody say something before I throw up," Tony gulped, scratching the back of his head.

"A clone?" Wanda finally spoke, looking up at Tony with glistening eyes. "He's a clone—he's not my brother?"

Tony frowned and nodded. "I'm sorry, Wanda. I just thought for once I was doing the right thing."

"You seem to think that quite a lot," Marlena spoke quietly, her gaze on the floor. "First there was a time when you kept me in the tower drugged on suppressors for three months; there was Ultron, who, by the way, kidnapped me from your party; then there was the time you decided to keep me and Wanda prisoner inside the compound because of her lack of control and my apparent fluctuating insanity; then there was the accords; and let's not forget your attempt at trying to murder Steve so you could do the same to Bucky. I don't want to be angry with you, Tony, but you just make it so damn hard."

"Marlena," Tony started, only for her to cut him off again.

"Your little clone almost killed me, Tony," she exclaimed, tears welling in her eyes. "Had he succeeded, he would've done the same to Wanda, because I guarantee Bucky wouldn't have been able to stop him. How would that have made you feel?"

Tony simply frowned, unable to formulate a proper answer.

"I knew something was different about him," Wanda said.

"What do you mean, Wan?" Steve asked her.

"His mind—it was still him, but at times it was dark. In his mind, things that should have been deemed as right were wrong, while things that were wrong were right," Wanda explained.

Marlena let out a sigh and brought her hand to rub at her neck. "He said you and I didn't deserve to live; he said the world was better off without us, that it was safer without us."

"He's half right, though," Wanda choked out.

Bucky snapped his head to look over at Wanda. "If I ever hear those words come out of your mouth again, Wanda Maximoff. . ."

"But he is right," Marlena spoke hoarsely, attracting Bucky's attention. "I know you three remember how much of a threat I was when my abilities first began to develop. I believe Tony used the word catastrophic to describe them—to describe me. I lacked control and could demolish an entire building with a simple hand movement. Wanda was much the same, but even now that we have more control over ourselves, we're still just as much of a threat as we used to be, not just to ourselves, but the people around us, too."

"Alone we are catastrophic; together we are cataclysmic," Wanda followed, looking over at Tony as a thought crossed her mind. "Tell me, Tony, who else was in 'hiding' these past few months? I want the truth."

Tony let out a nervous breath. "No one was really in hiding, Wanda. After we captured Zemo and brought him into custody, things started settling down but not to the point of things being okay again. Ross did stop being a raging dick long enough to let me explain everything, though. He had his doubts about things, but they were more along the lines of letting you two—and Barnes—roam free. Ross thinks you two belong in some lonely, high-security asylum drugged on suppressors and wrapped in straight jackets. I couldn't let him do that to either of you, so I had to come up with some way to protect you, and sending you here to Clint's seemed to be the only thing I could think of."

"But why wouldn't you just let us stay in Washington with Greyson and Mason? Why would you send us away to live with Clint and his family, huh?" Wanda asked, her tone growing angrier.

"I needed to leave you with someone I knew I could trust to deal with you if things got out of hand," Tony answered her, averting his attention to the wall.

"What?" Marlena strained, her eyes wide.

Steve and Bucky were silent, both unsure of what they were supposed to stay. They were just as shocked as the two girls, though their shock didn't reach the emotional extent in which Wanda's and Marlena's did.

"Marlena, I'm sorry," Tony said to her. "But you said it yourself—you're a catastrophe."

"You act as if I asked to be made into one," Marlena exclaimed loudly, her irises glowing a deep blue color as they loved to do whenever she became upset or angry.

Tony cleared his throat as he watched her eyes, slight fear barreling into his body. "Your eyes are blue, Marlena. . ."

"Yeah, well, they do that sometimes, Tony," she muttered as the color finally began to fade. "But I can feel your fear; I'm not gonna hurt you."

"I don't mean to be, but it's just a natural response to be afraid of you," Tony said quietly, feeling slightly ashamed of his words.

"All this. . .needs to stop," Wanda spoke as she clasped her hands together. "Marlena and I can't control your fear—we can't control anyone's; we can only control our own. It isn't your job, Ross's, or anyone else's to do it for us. You have to let us do it ourselves or you'll only make things worse, not only for us, but for everyone around us."

"I know, and I'm sorry," Tony apologized.

"I've had enough apologies to last me a lifetime," Marlena said. "Just tell us what the hell we're going to do about Pietro. . .or whatever he is."

"Well, he's caught between right and wrong; he doesn't understand which is which, and that's probably why he attacked you and Wanda in the first place," Tony explained as he leaned up against the wall. "This is exactly what happened with Thor's clone. Pietro, however, is a more improved version, meaning that I have more time to help fix him before he completely spirals out of control."

Wanda nearly choked on her spit. "What does that entail exactly?"

Tony shrugged. "Citywide destruction, innocent lives lost, the stealing of left shoes. Y'know, the usual that comes with being a part of all this."

"Did you really just incorporate Stitch Has A Glitch into this?" Marlena asked, disbelief in her tone.

Tony shrugged. "That's basically what it is."

"What's Stitch Has A Glitch?" Bucky asked, a curious expression on his face.

Marlena pursed her lips and turned to look at him, unsure of how to explain it without triggering something inside him. "Um, it's this Disney movie where this, uh, cute little creature that was built to be bad meets this girl and turns good, but then something happens and he ends up turning bad again because of some issues and stuff. . ."

Bucky furrowed his eyebrows, a frown pulling onto his face. "I take it that's why you've never showed it to me?"

Marlena nodded and hugged his side. "I didn't want you to feel bad because of a children's movie."

"You two are cute," Wanda cooed as she looked at them. "But what are we supposed to do if you can't fix Pietro, Stark?" she asked.

"Destroy him," Tony sighed, "And because I can be a paranoid idiot sometimes, I programmed him to where he could only be destroyed by you two."

"Ironic, considering you see us both as catastrophes," Marlena said with a sarcastic smile.

Tony gave her a look. "Marlena, please—"

"Nope," she said as she got up from her seat. "I have a headache, my throat hurts, and I'm going to take a nap. If any of you need me, I suggest you don't."

"You know tomorrow you start working on trying to help Barnes, right?" Tony called as she made her way out of the room. "T'Challa's orders."

"Yay, more stress," she called back. "But whatever."

"Someone's in a bad mood," Tony grumbled as he turned to look at the three still inside the room.

"I wonder why, Stark," Bucky breathed out.

"Why don't you go cheer her up?"

"I don't feel like getting punched in the face, so I think I'll stay right here if that's okay with you," Bucky retorted.

Tony rolled his eyes and started out of the room. "Well, I'm gonna go ahead and head off with our little clone bundle here. I'll be in New York at the compound working on a way to fix him if any of you need me," Tony informed them before finally heading out the door.