Pietro's POV

Jason and I were sent out to do some reconnaissance on the Scarlet Witch's team, and unfortunately, we had to take a senior Shadow with us. So of course, we chose Chesire because she is the best of the best and also Tigress' sister.

"Did I tell you two that I am a mother? I have a daughter with a rogue 'hero', a clone of Roy Harper. Her name is Lian." Cheshire mused mostly to herself on the helicopter flight over to Mount Justice. "This one time, Artemis' boyfriend Wally was babysitting Lian-she loves him, don't ask me why- anyways, Lian is two right? So she is at the stage where everything is her friend. At this point, a watermelon Roy bought was her bestfriend so anything she did, the watermelon had to do."

"I thought you normally didn't talk?" Jason raised a brow under his red and black mask, his voice muffled.

"Shut it before I slit your throat, I am telling a story. Anyways, Wally and I were at my apartment with Lian when my father attacked with a dud smoke bomb, lighting my sink on fire and scaring the crap out of my daughter. I go into mama bear mode and attack my father while Wally is holding Lian and her watermelon, on the phone with Artemis trying to pretend nothing is going on so that she wouldn't come over to see what a disaster everything was."

I stared blankly at the female assassin. "You are kind of a wreck of a mother."

She snorted, shaking her head and slipping her mask on as we reached the drop zone. "I'm the worst."

The three of us jumped out of the helicopter, gliding down to the bushes below and sticking the landing silently. We immediately checked our comm units, splitting up and going to our designated positions around the mountain.

I pulled out my x-ray vision goggles, nestling in to watch the young heroes train. It looked like they were doing some form of ambush training, and my target was training right now. I watched as the red haired woman in the black jumpsuit taunted her verbally, the blonde woman going at her with blitz attacks and Batman being held back by Scarlet Witch's powers.

"Cheshire, can you get audio?"

"On it, gimme one minute."

I heard some static before my ears were bombarded with the taunts of the woman inside the mountain, hearing her call the Scarlet Witch a monster. Interesting way to train, I'll give them that.

What really struck me was when she revealed that the Witch had murdered a world leader under Hydra orders. That was intriguing, I thought she was a goody goody, yet here she was working for Hydra.

Suddenly, I was thrown back by a wave of red energy, toppling down the mountain and hitting my head on a few rocks on the way. When I stood up, I was dizzy and disoriented. I immediately took to the comms, contacting Jason and Cheshire. "Are you two still alive? Did you feel that?"

"All good. Go to the rendezvous point."

"Roger that."

"Copy." I started to run to the rendezvous point but I was met with a metal wall instead. Looking up, I saw a gold and red metal man looking down at me. The face lifted up to reveal a human man who looked like he had seen a ghost.

"I can't believe it. Pietro?" He whispered with disbelief.

I growled, zipping around the suit and hitting at all the weak points I could see, disabling it quickly. The man fell to the ground, stuck. I stood above him, glowering. "Then don't believe it." I stomped on his head, knocking him out cold before continuing en route to Cheshire and Jason. When I finally reached them, they asked me what took me so long. Something told me I shouldn't tell them about the man in the forrest, so I didn't. "I took the scenic route, sue me."

Cheshire rolled her eyes, signaling to the pilot to take off. "You're the worst."

Wanda's POV

"You okay, Wanda?" Natasha approached me, a concerned look covering her face. My team had come down from the observation room, surrounding me along with the few Leaguers that were there. Nat put a hand on my shoulder, making eye contact with my bloodshot eyes. "Little one, you know I don't believe you are a monster or a demon right? It was just part of the training."

I nodded, wiping at my eyes. "I know, Natasha, I am sorry I failed."

Dinah came forward shaking her head, a small smile fighting its way out. "You didn't fail, Wanda. Well, I mean you didn't pass either but you showed much better control over your powers and, dare I say, you seem to be getting stronger."

Batman nodded in agreement with a thoughtful expression. "You seem to be showing a new power set as well, commanding others to your will simply by speaking it. Impressive." I grinned, glad that I wasn't a complete disappointment tonight. "That seems to be enough training for you tonight, Wanda, you can head back to the manor and rest. I'll see you in the morning."

I nodded again, turning towards the zeta tubes. I was almost to the doorway when a clanking sounded out making me stop in my tracks. I looked back towards where I came to see the heroes running towards me with looks of concern, staring past me at something. I turned to see what they were staring at, my eyes widening when I saw a disheveled Iron Man heading our way. "Stark? What are you doing here?"

The billionaire paused in front of us to catch his breath, his nose bleeding and a black eye covering the left side of his face. Iron Man looked at me with pity filled eyes before he spoke. "Wanda, we need to talk. It's about your brother."

I instantly tensed, my eyes narrowing at the mention of Pietro. "What do we need to discuss? The fact that you created a murder bot that gunned down my brother?" I growled, my eyes glowing.

Stark gulped, shaking his head. "No, that's not it. Pietro is alive, I saw him tonight. He did this to me and my suit on my way over here."

"Liar! I would know if Pietro is alive, I would feel it." I shot a hex bolt at Stark, sending him flying backwards. "Haven't you hurt me enough, Stark? Why do you feel the need to do this?"

Stark put his hand over his heart, staggering to his feet. "I swear on Pepper's life, Wanda. You can read my mind."

So I did, I entered Stark's mind and went back thirty minutes. I watched, stunned, as a flash of black and silver ran into him at impossible speeds. I listened with tears streaming down my face as Tony asked if it was really Pietro, only for the teenager to attack him, disabling his suit. And when the flashes stopped, Pietro's face filled my vision, eyes hard and cold as he told Stark not to believe before stomping on his face.

I pulled out of Stark's memories with a gasp, my hands over my mouth as more tears fell from my eyes. "Pietro...is alive? H-how? Why would he not find me?" I looked up to Stark for answers. "Why did he attack you?"

"I don't know kid, he didn't seem to recognize me. He was also dressed like one of the Shadows, so maybe he was resurrected by the Lazarus Pit?" Stark sighed, pity flooding his expression yet again.

I ignored him, turning to Batman with determination. "We must rescue him. We have to."

Dick looked to me with sorrow. "Wanda, when someone is brought back using the Lazarus Pit they aren't the same. They don't remember much of their past life unless they are reminded of it, their minds are malleable. Pietro is working for Ra's Al Ghul, he could be far gone by now."

I roared, waves of scarlet energy flowing out of my body and pushing the group back a few yards. "No! My Pietro is never too far gone! We were with Hydra since we were five and we became freaking Avengers! I will save my brother, with or without help. So are you with me or not?" I seethed, my body pulsing with energy as I stared down my team. Dick was the first one to join me, followed by M'gann and then the rest trickled over, staring at Batman and the Leaguers defiantly. "You can either make this an official mission or have us go rogue like they did with Superboy. Up to you."

Batman sighed, looking over at his colleagues who nodded in approval. "Fine, but this is a joint task force between all three teams. I want minimal involvement on your team's part except for recon, got it? Otherwise you will be put on house arrest. All of you." We all nodded, making Batman gain a ghost of a smirk. He turned to his distant cousin and Natasha, signaling them closer. "Call the rest of the Avengers, we are going to need all hands on deck for this one. Breaking someone from Al Ghul's grip won't be easy, especially if he was the first one to have contact with him after being brought back to life."

"On it." Nat nodded, walking away from the group with her phone out. She shot me a small smile over her shoulder, flashing me a thumbs up before turning back to her phone.

M'gann, Artemis, and Zatanna came over to me with mischievous grins, M'gann taking my hand in hers and pulling me along with the older two girls. When I asked where we were going they would just giggle and shush me, pulling me further in the mountain and closer towards M'gann's room. When we finally got there, they opened the door and shoved me in onto the bed, locking the door behind them. All three turned to me and smirked, making me a little scared for my life.

"What are we doing here?" I asked nervously, fiddling with my hands.

"Well, now seems like a weird time to do this but we have been planning this for awhile..." I gestured for Zatanna to continue, which she did in an overly dramatic fashion. "We are having a girls' night!"

Artemis sat down next to, taking my hair out of its ponytail. "I know you are preoccupied by your brother right now, but there is nothing we can do until we get the go ahead from the higher ups, so tonight we are going to do some facials, braid each others hair, paint our nails, and have some girl talk."

"Sounds...fun?" I sighed contently as Artemis finger combed my hair, looking up at M'gann and Zatanna when Artemis abruptly stopped. "What?"

"Wanda...when did you get a tattoo?" M'gann asked, leaning over my shoulder to look at the back of my neck.

"Huh? I don't have any tattoos." I gestured for a hand mirror, having Zatanna hold my hair back so I could look at the back of my neck. Sure enough, there was a small tattoo of three blue circles in a pyramid at the nape of my neck. I gasped, looking at the three girls before me. "When did that get there?"

"How should we know? Its your body." Artemis snorted. "Besides, you always wear your hair down so we never see your neck. Tonight was the first night you wore it in a pony tail."

"Did Hydra give you a tattoo? Like as a code thing?" Zatanna asked, throwing herself on the bed behind Artemis and me.

I shrugged, still staring in the mirror at my tattoo. "I don't think so, if they did I don't remember it...I'm going to get rid of it." I closed my eyes and focused on making the tattoo disappear. After a few moments I opened my eyes and checked my neck, groaning when I saw that it was still there. "What the hell? Why didn't it work?"

"Here, let me try." Zatanna sat up, placing her hands on the back of neck and muttering one of her backwards spells. My neck felt hot and Zatanna let out a scream, flying backwards and hitting the headboard.

"Zatanna! Are you okay?" M'gann and Artemis were by the magician's side in a flash while I crumpled to the floor off the bed in tears, my neck feeling like it was on fire.

"Yeah...just shaken up. What about Wanda?" Zatanna came over to me, rolling me onto my side to check the tattoo. "Holy crap, it is still there. What is it made of?"

I groaned, shrugging as everything faded to black.