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chapter thirteen
GANG'S ALL HERE
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WHAT DO YOU DO when you feel like the world is falling apart beneath you? Graham and Lena emerge from the shadows beside her bed, whole and intact, but they may as well have never landed on solid ground. Lena feels like she's falling. It's as if someone had shoved her off the top of the old Avengers Tower, but instead of smacking onto the pavement below, she remains weightless forever. She's never felt so aware of her heart thudding in her chest and the blood roaring in her veins like gasoline and yet still feeling like she's not even inside of her own body.

Graham's head instantly turns upon hearing her labored breaths. Though his own face is stricken with shock at what they'd just seen on the bridge, his expression morphs into one of worry as soon as he notices the rapid rising and falling of her chest.

"Hey—" he tries to tell her, but Lena swallows, holding up a hand to stop him.

"I'm fine," she chokes out, all but forcing herself to measure out her breaths and prevent the tide of panic she can feel rushing toward her, ready to crash into the shore and send her spiraling. This is the second one today. Has it only been a mere few hours since Beck had helped her through her last attack?

Five things you can see. It had worked, but now she can't even process three before she feels a bomb of emotions explode inside of her. How could he do this? What does this mean for their mission? Was everything a lie?

Lena allows herself to acknowledge these questions before envisioning a safe in her mind. Then she shoves all of them away and locks the door with a key, storing them away for a time when she can adequately process them. For now, she needs her head on straight so she can think logically.

Graham's eyes trail over her face as her attack subsides. A moment later, she expels a deep breath from her mouth and looks up at him.

"We have to tell Fury," she says.

He nods, a trillion things swimming in his own eyes as he replies, "I know. He's on his way to Berlin right now."

It's beyond late. Lena knows that running on no sleep is dangerous for her health and especially her powers, but they don't have time to rest. Not when Fury is bringing a fraud to the Berlin Europol office.

Acting on a whim, Lena pulls out her phone and goes to her missed calls. The one from Nick Fury's unknown number seems to jump out at her. She presses it, but by the time she brings it to her ear, an automated voice informs her, "The number you have dialed has not been recognized."

She sighs and hangs up, wondering why she even thought that would work. Fury is the most secretive person on the planet; of course he would change his number.

Graham, guessing by her dejected expression that it didn't work, gets them rolling into action. "I'll get my suit and then come back for you. We'll meet in Peter's room."

He vanishes. Lena doesn't give herself time to think before she forces herself to move. Her hotel room is too silent, the quiet sounding like ringing in her ears as she quickly takes her overalls off and presses the button to activate her suit. She grabs her hairnet and shoves the silver wig onto her head. It doesn't conform perfectly to her skull like Tony's does, but she can deal with it. After all, her old one had been eighteen dollars at Party City.

Moments later, Graham pops back into her room, fully suited up in his "Night Terror" costume. He whisks them away into Peter's suite with a brief assertion that he'd warned the boy of their arrival via text. However, It becomes apparent as soon as they arrive that Peter had not seen said message, because Graham and Lena rise from the shadows to see him half-dressed, still pulling the stealth suit over his top half, and MJ standing in a corner with her eyes firmly squeezed shut.

"Oh my God," Graham says as both of them cover their faces in perfect synch. Peter nearly topples over in surprise, causing a rattling sound when he manages to catch himself before he can land on his backside.

"Guys!" he exclaims in a high-pitched voice. Lena doesn't have to see him to know that his cheeks are blazing— as a matter of fact, hers are, too. They hadn't seen anything because only his torso was bare, but the invasion of privacy is enough to make her want to melt away again.

"I warned you we were coming!" Graham retorts.

Peter doesn't respond, the tension between the two boys mounting high again. Now that Graham was right to be wary of Beck, what will happen between them? Lena isn't sure she wants to be there when they sort it out.

After several zips and rustles, Peter tells them they can open their eyes. Sure enough, his entire face and neck are flushed ruby red in embarrassment, likely both from being intruded on while changing and from the fact that he'd been adamant about Beck's innocence.

His eyes drift to Lena. She clears her throat and looks away, trying not to think about the clearly-defined abs she'd seen the second before she'd covered her eyes. Peter then drifts his stare to Graham. For an excruciatingly long moment, both of them stare at each other. Graham waits for Peter to speak first— maybe offer an explanation or an apology, but nothing comes. Lena supposes that Peter hasn't yet processed everything. Or maybe he's just too ashamed to admit that he was wrong.

Graham accepts that he's not getting anything out of Peter and looks away first. It feels like a sign of defeat.

Lena turns around once she feels a stare on her. She locks eyes with MJ, whose mouth is practically hanging open, brown eyes wide as she takes in the sight of the two heroes. Even though Lena's mask is on, Peter's revealed identity and them all being in the same room won't make it hard for MJ to connect the dots.

"Surprise?" she offers meekly, halfheartedly raising her arms to do jazz hands.

MJ blinks, reining in her shock. Then she returns to her usual state of nonchalance, admitting, "Okay, I was pretty sure about Peter being Spider-Man, and I had a hunch that you were Havoc, but that was only after Specter's debut."

Graham's brow furrows. "How'd you know that was me?"

"One time you were walking down the hallway at school and half of your arm disappeared in a shadow."

"Shit."

The door opens. Ned stands in the doorway, his jaw falling slack at the sight of the three of them standing in a room with MJ.

"Th-The costumes look great!" he exclaims in a wavering voice, forcing a bright smile onto his face as he scrambles to come up with an excuse. "For the... costume party at the... prince's castle..."

"She knows," Peter explains. "We told her."

MJ shrugs. "I figured it out. Like, a long time ago."

The smile stays frozen on Ned's face. "Great! But, uh..."

"Oh. My. God."

Lena's stomach drops when Cindy pokes her head out from behind Ned. The girl's face is full of shock, shoving him aside so she can properly assess what she's seeing. The situation tanks even further when Abe, Max, and Owen also make their presence known. Graham, Lena, and Peter stay frozen in their spots like deer in headlights, any explanations they may have dying in their throats.

Ned, still with that uncomfortable grin plastered on his face, wisely shuts the door so nobody else can come inside.

"Badass!" Cindy exclaims, taking Lena's hands and bouncing up and down. Her eyes shine with excitement like the light of a thousand suns. "You have to tell me everything."

"So every time Flash talked about Spider-Man or Havoc..." Abe says, amusement lighting up his face. "Now that is ironic."

Graham's gaze stays on his brothers. Out of everyone in the room, they're the calmest, the situation not even seeming to faze them.

"We've known this whole time," Owen deadpans.

Graham's eyes widen to the size of saucers. "What?"

"We didn't tell Mom and Dad," Max assures him. "We kept it to ourselves for blackmail."

Not knowing how to respond, the oldest Seager sibling sputters incoherently.

"I'm so sorry," Ned rambles, his face now pinched with regret. "I saw you leave and wanted to grab one of your video games for us to play — I didn't think you'd be in here — I had one of your room keys —"

"Ned, believe me, this is the last thing we're worried about right now," Peter says. "Look, Mysterio is a fraud."

Every single one of them looks like they've been simultaneously punched in the gut. Cindy stammers, "B-But, he saved us in Venice—"

"No, he's been faking the entire thing with illusion tech," MJ informs them.

Peter nods. "Yeah, he's using these hologram projectors. Ned, I need you to call May. Get her to call Mr. Harrington and tell him that she wanted me to stay with family in Berlin until this whole thing is over."

"And us?" Lena questions. "Graham wouldn't just leave his brothers behind."

"You really think Mr. Harrington would notice if a student's missing?" Owen asks with an incredulous raise of his eyebrows. He scoffs, waving his hand. "We'll just say that Lena is with Peter and convince Mr. Harrington that Graham is still here. Dude's already lost his marbles and Mr. Dell won't stop talking about witches long enough to care."

"'Oh, where's our brother?'" Max pretends to question an invisible Mr. Harrington. "'You didn't see him? He just went to the bathroom.'"

Lena winces. This is going to end horribly.

"That sounds like a terrible plan, but we really don't have time to come up with a better one," Graham sighs.

"Okay, we really have to go," Peter says, pulling his mask onto his face. "Don't tell anyone else about this, okay? Enough people already know now as it is, and we can't risk anyone else being in danger."

"Got it," Abe confirms with a salute.

Cindy throws her arms around Lena in a hug, squeezing her as tightly as her small frame will allow. "Please be careful."

"I will," she assures her. "Promise."

Then, before they know it, they're climbing out the window and heading toward the train station. To keep them moving quickly, Lena forms force fields around the two boys and helps them fly with the use of her energy. Peter's enhanced eyesight allows him to easily see in the pitch-black darkness of the sky and land them on the correct train.

Lena's force field keeps them from flying off the top of the monorail. She doesn't know if she can keep them secured for the entire ride to Berlin, but she has no choice but to try.

The ride is long. An hour passes, then two, then she stops keeping track as her mind slips into the void of her unanswered questions. She's so overwhelmed she feels like she could burst. Cindy, Abe, Max, Owen, and MJ knowing their identities puts them all at serious risk. She would hate for her friends to be injured because they got themselves wrapped up in this mess. And, to be honest, she doesn't want to explain herself to more people. She'd enjoyed the anonymity of only three people knowing her identity. Now it's more people than she can count on both hands if you include all of the Avengers and SHIELD.

Mysterio is a fraud. Though a part of her hadn't agreed with Peter handing over EDITH, she didn't think it would end this badly. Beck was a bit sketchy. Graham had brought up some excellent points about the holes in his story — how had Beck defeated all the Elementals so easily this time around after they'd destroyed his planet? Well, now they know the answer. Because the Elementals never even existed.

It explains so much. Why her powers had never worked on them. When the fire Elemental had briefly stuttered tonight, she must have melted one of the projectors within. All this time, she's been fighting a losing battle without even knowing it.

And how much of Beck's story had been a lie? Was any of it real? Is there a multiverse?

Reality comes crashing down on her so harshly she feels like her ribs might splinter under the weight of it. The story he'd told her on the rooftop earlier. Her brother, Keanu, having survived past infancy somewhere and grown up to be a famous hero who'd died trying to save the planet... He'd told her that just to get her on his side. And because she was so desperate to believe that there was a universe where she'd gotten to meet Keanu, she'd accepted that. She'd clung to that shred of hope which is now unraveling in her hands.

"Your brother would be proud," he'd said to her. What a load of absolute horseshit.

And that story of Graham being a supervillain in a group called the Sinister Six? He'd lied to them in an attempt to pull their friend group apart. He'd looked Lena in the eyes and told her that her best friend had tried to kill her in another universe. Without remorse, without guilt, and hoping that he'd do some damage.

Since Graham and Peter still haven't talked things out, it seems he'd succeeded in that aspect.

Her blood boils with rage. She feels like she could scream at Beck for hours until her throat turns raw, wondering how he could do this to them. To the world. How he could craft a lie so complex and cruel in a time when humanity is struggling to rebuild from the snap. She hadn't liked Vulture, but the hatred she feels for Beck is deeper. At least Vulture had tried to get it over with right away by dropping them into the lake. He had shown his true colors from the start instead of playing with them like dolls.

Peter allows Lena to take a break by holding them down with his strength. If they lie on their backs, it isn't so bad, but she has to close her eyes so the passing scenery doesn't make her nauseous.

By the time they arrive in Berlin, the sky is bright blue. Lena is so tired her eyes ache. However, her body is still wide awake from adrenaline, which keeps her going as they dismount the train and land on the cement outside the station. It occurs to them that they have no idea where to go.

Peter approaches a woman, saying, "Excuse me, could you tell me where—?"

The woman bolts away with a scream of, "Night Monkey!"

They give up trying to talk to anybody; everyone stares at them in complete awe or fear. Lena doesn't know what to do from here until a black car pulls up to the curb beside them. The tinted passenger-side window rolls down, revealing Nick Fury at the wheel. "Get in."

Peter climbs in the front. Graham and Lena take the back, with Fury hardly giving Graham enough time to close the door before he starts driving. Each of them pulls off their masks in relief. Lena has no idea how he'd found them, but she's glad he did.

"Mr. Fury!" Peter exclaims.

"You three have a lot of explaining to do," he tells them in a flat tone.

"No, no, no, listen—"

The man holds up a finger to silence him. "Wait until we're secure."

"But—" Lena tries to interject, only for his eye to glare at her in the rearview mirror and silence her.

"I said wait, Miss Santos."

Lena reluctantly shuts her mouth, tapping her fingers restlessly on her thighs. Peter fidgets in the front seat. He practically buzzes with as much energy as Lena does, looking like he's going to explode if he holds the information in any longer. Only Graham appears somewhat calm, but it looks forced. He's too rigid to actually be comfortable. His muscled arms are tense beneath his suit, hands folded stiffly in his lap.

The car begins beeping, signaling the fact that Peter is not wearing his seat belt. Fury gives him a side-eye and motions for him to buckle up. It's almost laughable that this man is so concerned about car safety, but Lena is in no mood to chuckle.

"Right," Peter mutters. He reaches over and grabs the belt, but repeatedly yanks it so hard it keeps locking in place. Then he gives one final tug that causes the entire thing to break off. He fearfully turns toward Fury in preparation for a reprimand, only for Fury to face the road again in exasperation.

Eventually, they reach what must be the offices. Fury parks in a garage beneath the huge building and leads them up several flights of stairs. Lena doesn't take much in aside from the sleek designs and blinding white interior, every surface so glossy she can see her reflection as she moves.

Fury leads them to a room with a minimalist interior — white like everything else, causing a sharp contrast compared to their all-black attire. The former SHIELD Director walks to the other end of a long table and meets Maria Hill on the opposite end of it.

"So," he drawls, "is there anything you'd like to tell us about your girlfriend?"

"He's talking about EDITH," Maria clarifies at all of their confused expressions.

"Look, I know I made a mistake, and I'm sorry, but he is not who you think he is," Peter says.

Fury's brow wrinkles. "What are you saying, Parker?"

"It's fake," Lena replies breathlessly, trying to keep her voice level and somewhat failing because of her thundering heartbeat. "All of it. Mysterio and the Elementals. Beck is using projectors to make everything look real."

Peter takes the missing projector and slides it along the table. "See? I pulled it off the fire monster from Prague."

"So all that death and destruction we witnessed was created by... this?" Fury wonders, motioning vaguely toward the object. Maria crinkles her brow in confusion as well.

"No, not just this. I think he's using drones."

Maria rubs the back of her neck, taking a step back toward the wall of windows to their right. Fury watches her as he says, "Well, if this is true, then Beck is very dangerous and we have to be smart. Who else did you tell about this?"

Lena opens her mouth to answer, but Peter reaches over and snatches her hand before she can make a sound. She looks at him in confusion, only for her to see him completely tense and glancing over his shoulder. Fury calls his name several times, but it falls on deaf ears as he looks at something past where Graham stands at his right.

"What's wrong?" Maria questions.

"It's Beck," Peter says, releasing Lena's hand to snap the Spider-Man goggles over his eyes. "He's here."

Just then, blue pixels fill the room, running over the floor and walls. The sleek interior of the room vanishes into half-collapsed concrete and metal frames. To Lena's horror, Maria fades away as well.

"What?" Fury questions, watching his colleague disappear in alarm. He immediately pulls out his gun and stares at the place where she had just been standing. "Hill?"

The walls are gone. The once-magnificent, modern building is now nothing but a barely-finished construction site— one that looks like it was abandoned years ago. Cobwebs and dust coat the unfinished floor. With only a few steel bars where the walls are supposed to be, Lena can see that they're standing in one of the only solid rooms in the entire building. It's a skeletal structure of what it had been only a few seconds ago.

"No, it's just an illu—"

Peter is cut off by a drone materializing out of thin air, crashing into the room from behind them, and Lena doesn't have time to react before it shoots Graham in the chest.

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a/n:

graham, peter, and lena: we have to go to berlin and tell fury!!
graham, peter, and lena when they actually go to berlin and tell fury, only to be trapped by mysterio:

them when the projections disappear and reveal the true state of the building:

wattpad has been pretty dead lately so i hope that people see this notification and that you're doing well. university has been super stressful for me and i know it isn't easy for anyone. please know that i love you all and wish you the utmost happiness!

i hope you guys liked this chapter! i was so excited to bring cindy, abe, max, and owen into the mix. i've always planned for it to be like that because i love them all so much. also, i'm sorry if things were a little choppy since ffh literally described NOTHING about what was going on at this part. anyways, now it's time for the magical mysterio tour and i'm pumped :)

please let me know your thoughts or what you think will happen in the next chapter!

—kristyn