Arc Seven. Chapter One Hundred Ninety-Four. Homecoming

The beam of light struck the top of the warehouse and as everyone inside grabbed hold of something they heard the thump of an impact.

Felicia and Laura both slid into their armour and as they vaulted their way up to the top of the warehouse they saw the burned and tattered remains of a woman.

"Help. me." was all she said as she fell unconscious,

Looking at her, Huntress tilted her head, "Shit, Carol" and she ran, "Laura, grab the first aid gel, bring as much up here. If Liv is, no, grab Liv, wake her if you need to. It's an emergency." Huntress cursed. While they had all shared their symbiotes she still couldn't make any of the fancy chemicals that Poison could, even the simple cooling liquids were beyond her, and right now she needed one. All she could do was watch, make sure Carol was still breathing and wait until someone with more medical expertise arrived.

As Octave came up through the hatch she swore, ''oh you poor poor thing," and began to spray the colling webs onto Carol. "Go downstairs and fill a tub with gel, we need to get the burnt parts off," and Liv silently hoped it wasn't Ravage. "I can make more but we really need Gwen for this as well."

Sadly Gwen was with MJ and the pair had gone out for the night, MJ feeling amorous and Gwen wanting to destress the pair had taken time off before Gwen started working for Peter, and MJ took a role requiring her to travel to Canada for filming. It was a fantasy series about a male demon hunter, and she was playing his love interest.

Covering her in a numbing agent Liv nodded to Felicia and they created a soft web cradle between them, lifting Carol gently onto it and slowly moving her downstairs.

In the shower room, they lay her onto the tub filled with gel and Liv began her examination.

"Carol, I'm sorry but this will hurt, feel free to scream though, I know I would." and Liv let Octave cover her hand. As she gently touched it to Carol's arm the symbiote spread, dissolving and discarding the burnt uniform, thank god, Liv thought, it isn't Ravage. It was a thick smock of some kind, but even that confused her.

As the clothing came free and the extent of Carol's burns were revealed they gently coated her in a layer of the biogel they had.

"I have no idea what could do something like this to Carol of all people. I was under the impression she was invulnerable to, well, everything."

As Liv looked over the now cleaner but badly burned Carol she felt a small connection,

Ravage? And she felt the symbiote stir. Shit, she thought. "Wanda!" she yelled.

As the redhead came in, dressed in her pyjamas she stared at the woman in the tub, and swearing in Sokovian, Liv looked at her,

"Quite, but," and she muttered under her breath, "dammit. Wanda, I have a huge favour to ask of you, and I'm sorry, but there is no one else." and Wanda came over and rubbed a hand on Liv shoulder,

"What?"

"I need you to host Octave while I tend to Ravage." As she pointed at the gel-covered woman, her clothing occasionally twitched. "They are both seriously hurt and saving them both means separating them so they can both heal, but we are all hosts, except you." and Wanda lifted her hand from Livs shoulder and stepped back,

"I," and as she looked apprehensively at Liv,

Liv shook her head, "it's fine, it's fine,"

"No, that is not why. I have things I do not wish to share. I am willing to help, but can we keep this between you and me?" and she bit her lip, she wasn't about to admit what happened in the dreamscape and certainly not that she had been thinking about Peter while doing things,

"Wanda dear, I would keep anything you want secret if it meant saving Ravage and Carol, You have my word." and Wanda nodded.

"Hand," and as Wanda held out her hand the symbiote slipped from Liv and covered her. Wanda wrapped her arms around herself and fell to her knees, "oh my god," and she shook as the sensation of the bonding took her over. "I had no idea, no idea,"

"Shh, it's okay," and Liv placed her hand on Carol, "Come now, it's safe, you're safe," and a small tendril reached out and touched her, flowing from Carol onto her. As the pain branched from Ravage and into Liv, she screamed and Huntress rushed into the shower room,

Seeing Wanda curled up on the floor, holding herself, giggling while the returned Ravage coated Liv, its symbskin burned and torn in places she didn't need an explanation. Lifting a jar she dumped it over Livs head and then another into the tub with Carol who stirred slightly.

"Wanda, you okay there?" Huntress asked and Wanda held up a hand and gave her a thumbs-up,

"You are all dirty girls, dirty dirty girls." and she giggled to herself, "I want to be a dirty dirty girl too," and Huntress laughed,

"Yup, we get that, damn fucking horndog he is. Come on, Liv, going to get Wanda settled and then be back for you okay," and the huddled Liv made no sound but she could tell that she was busy with Ravage.

As Wanda giggled and touched over Felicia she just kept whispering, "dirty dirty," over and over, and while Felicia didn't mind that Wanda was a bit handsy for her liking she knew exactly what being bonded was like, and with Livs attitude, she would be lucky to get Wanda calmed without incident. Not that Felicia minded, she had given everyone a good look when they shared the bathhouse, and she was positive that ruddy glow to her cheeks was excitement and not embarrassment but as she was still new and Gwen had done her usual and embarrassed her, Felicia wasn't about to interrogate her further.

Sitting her down she handed over a blanket Peter used, and Wanda sniffed it and curled up under it, huffing in his scent, oh yeah, give it a day, and she figured that if Peter was back from Genosha before they separated Octave from her, he would be coming back to a party.

As she hunted out pastries and other small snacks, she tipped a pack of cheese puffs into a bowl, opened a bottle of soda and set them on the table. Wanda however ignored them in favour of the blanket and as Felicia ran a hand over her hair she looked up and smiled,

"I never knew, there is so much, and you do so many dirty dirty things," and Felicia laughed,

"Yup, but we love him" and seeing the snacks Wanda took the bowl of puffs and careful not to get the bright orange power over it, began to eat them,

"How, can you tell me, I can feel Octave and I know about the cream, and the smell, and the rescuing, but how?" and Felicia ran her hands over Wanda's hair and sat down in her own chair,

"He makes us feel loved. It's easy, he is just there. I mean, if I want to spend four days out, hunting or busy he just nods and then once I'm home it's like I never left, he doesn't coddle or get angry when we need our own space, he just, is Peter."

"And he does dirty things," and Felicia chuckled,

"But we can do that without him, he lets us decide what we do, and has no judgement. I mean, sure he's my first boyfriend, and Gwen's" but she shook her head, "I watch Matt and Elektra and they seem tense. As if being together was a chore. I dunno, Pete just does Pete things. It's not easy and sure, we get moody, but he's just Pete.

"I think I want to do more than just be his friend," Wanda admitted, taking a handful of puffs. "We did you know, I never said but in the dreamscape we did, but he thinks it was a trap, but it wasn't. I, I was under the control of the mind stone, the one Peter has, and I was to do anything to get information, after a lot of failed attempts he finally overpowered me and my mind took me somewhere safe, to here, and he did it, you know, it" and Felicia laughed,

"Yeah, need a thick skin around here, I mean, you'll smell just how excited women is when Pete's around, the symbiotes do that,"

Wanda nodded and sniffed at the blanket, "is that what I smelling? Peter?" and Felicia nodded,

"Me too probably, we all give off a pheromone," and as Wanda sniffed she smiled,

"But, uh, in the dream it wasn't his dream it was mine, to have a nice handsome man rescue me, stupid right?"

Felicia shook her head and leant forwards taking a few puffs, "why? He rescued Liv and you know exactly what she did for him, saved Gwen, punched Tony and Flash for MJ, who cares," and she took a breath, "if you repeat this, I fucking swear though," and Wanda nodded, pulling the blanket up and curling her legs up on the chair.

"He still lacks self-confidence. He thinks we're all stupid or under some mind mojo to want him, but we just love him so much. Just take your top off, sit on his lap and tell him what you want, he'll never touch you unless you tell him you want him to."

Wanda nodded, and now she had a plan. While Octave had bonded with her, she had done her best to keep out of Wanda's mind, and the naturally telepathic Wanda had helped her, she was hungry and sleepy, but that was it. After stuffing her face, Octave and Wanda curled up under the blanket and Felicia sighed in relief as they fell asleep. She remembered her own bonding, and the turmoil it brought, maybe an older symbiote having gone through multiple hosts could calm themselves. Shrugging she left that for someone smarter, and who cared to figure out. Now she wanted to find out how Liv, and more importantly, how Carol was doing.

As she walked back into the bathhouse Liv had crawled into a tub next to carols and had filled it with water. Felicia dipped a hand in and it was cold.

"You okay?" and Liv opened her eyes,

"Ravage and Carol are both in a bad way. She was attacked by her own people and then some idiot fired a missile at her, a cyborg squirrel of all things."

Felicia frowned and raised an eyebrow, "really?" and Liv nodded,

"Ravage is hurt, it might have been a raccoon, I didn't ask, only made sure to use as much gel as I could." and Liv pointed to the three empty jars by the tub, "Carol got two and I've used one. She's sleeping," and she sighed. "If Peter were here he could use his cells to heal her faster, but with Genosha, she just has to rest. What's strange though, if Ravage is right, she's been floating in space, hurt like this for months, this happened a few weeks after she left, and that was last year."

"Maybe she's concussed," Felicia left the science to the scientists, knowing there were aliens was bad enough, knowing that time travel existed just hurt her head.

"I don't know, can you get me something to eat though, lots of sugar, and more gel, it's in the storehouse," Felicia nodded, gently placing a hand on Livs shoulder before heading out.

As Liv looked over at Carol she knew the gel would be enough, but it would take time. Carol had bad burns over at least a quarter of her body. Her hair had been completely burned away on one side, and her eye was a mess of swollen bruises. Whatever had done this had been powerful, as they had learned from Huntress that Carol, like Peter, was empowered by one of the Infinity Stones.

As Felicia came back, ladened with homemade chocolate bars and sweet tea, plus two more jars, Liv smiled, "One last thing, Now that they are both stable, Huntress, can you bond with Carol and help heal her? Without Peter here you are the oldest and probably the strongest. She needs help, and I didn't want to risk Octave's naivety hurting her further."

As Huntress slipped out and slid down Felicia's arm, she coated Carol like a blanket and almost immediately her eyes snapped open, "oh thank god, thank god," she wept as the blood and burns began to recede under Huntress.

As she leaned back, the grey symbiote covered her fully and she sighed in relief,

"Warn Peter. Asgard has fallen."