As Talia ran, she felt her heart pounding in her chest, her eyes flickering towards the sky as she moved, searching for any glimpse of Peter. He had moved faster than she had expected, swinging away into the night and barely leaving a trace of himself to follow.

Luckily Peter was also clearly new at this, and it wasn't long until Talia heard a string of dogs barking down a nearby street, giving away Peter's trail. Rolling her eyes, Talia picked up the pace of her running as she followed the sound. Despite only finding out about Peter's alter ego literally few moments ago, she was surprised at how unsurprised she actually was. It all made sense now and after searching for an Avenger to help her for so long, it was almost a relief knowing there had been one nearby all along. The next step was to ask Peter for help with her search for her brother. Surely as an Avenger he had to have some kind of connection. He had to. He was her best hope.

But that meant opening up to Peter. Finding Spider-Man had been her goal for so long but she hadn't actually considered that it could be someone she already knew, someone she already liked and cared about. Someone that she'd come to trust, and who had trusted her enough to actually be honest. Telling an Avenger her true identity wasn't daunting because she had a feeling they would understand, and they'd be able to help her. But for some reason Peter was different. When he'd lied to her, it had cut her deeper than she expected. She couldn't let him experience that too.

As selfish as it was, Talia couldn't bear to think of how Peter would react if he found out the truth. He might not be as easily accepting as she was, especially if he found out how long she'd been lying and how deep her river of lies ran.

Pushing those fears aside, Talia focused on following Peter's trail, cutting a few corners until she caught sight of the strange blue light again, light exploding into the dark night. It had to be a sign. It was too strange, too inhuman. It had to be him.

Within seconds Talia was up at the bridge, her eyes scanning the area quickly. She could hear men talking quietly, and she glanced around, her heart racing. Before she could get a closer look, there was a quiet rustling beside her in the bushes and she glanced over to find Peter half hidden amongst the leaves as he peeked out at her, his mask still managing to show his expression as he stared at her in surprise.

"Talia? Wow, you really are fast," Peter hissed at her, his mask's eyes widening a little as she moved to hide beside him.

Talia didn't reply, just shrugging her shoulders with a quick wink as she let her gaze slide back to where a group of men were huddled around the strange technology inside a van below the bridge. Definitely shady. Whatever the technology was that had created the blue light, it definitely didn't look man-made. But it didn't look familiar either, which means her hopes of home had been shot down yet again.

"You okay?" Peter asked, his voice suddenly soft and very close to Talia as he did his best to speak under his breath to stay hidden.

She could feel his breath tickling on her ear and held in a shiver as she nodded quickly, eyes narrowed in on the men in front of them. Now was not the time to get distracted. Now was the time of focus on what the hell was going on, whatever shady business was happening.

"I think this is where the ATM robbers got their weapons the other day," Peter whispered, nodding his head towards the men as they spoke in hushed tones,

Before Peter could speak again, a loud yodel suddenly burst into the quiet of the night, the sound blaring so loud it sounded like it was right beside Talia. She jumped, cursing under her breath as she stared around herself, her jaw clenching as she noticed Peter pulling his cellphone out. Ned's face was lighting up the screen as he rang and Talia rolled her eyes as Peter hurriedly canceled the call.

Talia was about to tease Peter, because of course he would forget to put his phone on silent when he was in the middle of staking out potential bad guys, but it seemed that the bad guys had heard the obscenely loud ringtone too.

"What the hell was that?" one of them asked loudly and Talia's eyes widened as she watched him pick up a very dangerous looking gun, pointing it at the man who had been trying to buy the weapons. "Did you set us up?" he pushed, turning the gun sideways as he jabbed it toward the man. He definitely looked prepared to shoot and suddenly Talia wished she'd thought this whole 'follow Peter into danger' plan through a little more.

"Hey! Hey, come on," Peter said suddenly, before Talia could stop him. He had swung down from the top of the bridge and landed easily on his feet as he held his hands up to the bad guy. "You gonna shoot at somebody, shoot at me."

"You idiot," Talia hissed under her breath, cringing slightly as the man with the gun turned to point the weapon straight at Peter. But Peter was prepared, quickly shooting a web at the gun, letting it stick on before he tugged hard, pulling the gun out of the man's hand.

As he lunged forward, Talia noticed one of the other men lifting up one of the high tech weapons, hoisting it up as he charged it up. It looked like some kind of large gauntlet, silver metal wrapping around the man's fist as he slid it on. Small blue dots lit up on the side of the weapon as he pointed it at where Peter and the first man were currently throwing fists. With a bad feeling that these men probably didn't care who they hit, Talia leaped down from the bridge, landing with a small thud, loud enough to catch the attention of both men.

"Hey dudes! Fun toys! Anything in pink for the girls?" Talia quipped, ignoring the exasperated look on Peter's face. As if he hadn't been the one to charge into the dangerous situation, giving her no choice but to follow him. Sure, Peter had no idea of what she was capable of and he didn't know she'd been in far more dangerous situations before. But surely he knew her well enough by now to know that she didn't run from a challenge.

Unfortunately the men didn't seem amused either. The potential buyer was already fleeing the scene, smart, but the two dealers seemed more than happy to fight someone smaller than them.

The man wrestling with Peter hesitated just a moment before throwing his fist back at Peter, even though Peter easily deflected, throwing in a kick to the man's shins as he shot another web out to latch onto his arm, pulling the man down and throwing him off balance.

Talia glanced at them briefly, biting her lip anxiously as she tried to figure out how much help Peter needed here. He seemed to be holding his own though, which meant she was free to turn to the man with the now fully-charged weapon. He seemed to have the same thought, and before Talia could lunge towards him, he was pointing the weapon at her, eyes wide with a mixture of panic and glee as if he'd been waiting all night to use this weapon on someone.

Before Talia could blink, he clenched his fist inside gauntlet tightly, triggering a hot blast of energy directly at her chest. Talia let out a grunt, incredibly unladylike but incredibly valid right now, as she was pushed back by the force of it. It threw her to the ground, temporarily winding her as she felt her head hit the hard mud below her.

"What was that? Tee?" Peter turned to Talia, a curse falling from his lips as he glanced over to where she was now stuck lying on the ground, her eyes only half open as she tried to clear her head. "Did they hurt you? Don't worry, I'm gonna get them," he said firmly, apparently now determined to catch them now. He seemed to be forgetting that these men had dangerous weapons, or maybe he didn't care.

Before Talia could cough up an excuse to keep Peter with her, he shot his web out from his wrist, letting it catch onto the van's door before it disappeared around the corner, dragging him along with it.

"Bye," Talia said sarcastically into the dark, mustering up enough energy to throw out a feeble wave to Peter. She rolled her eyes, letting out a groan as she pulled herself up to sit, dusting off the dirt that had flown up around her as she landed on the ground. Luckily she couldn't see too many cuts or bruises on herself and she was able to get up to stand fairly easily, wincing as she rubbed her collarbone where the blast had made its brutal impact.

Glancing up at the night sky, she let out a sigh. If it had been daylight at least she had a better chance of making a quicker recovery. Everything was always harder at night, especially lately. It didn't help that this technology was more advanced than she'd expected, causing more damage than it should have been able to, to her at least. Whatever technology it was, it definitely wasn't from Earth. Interesting.

Brushing off the dirt and dust from her clothes, and wishing she hadn't worn jeans that were so tight, Talia pushed her shoulders back firmly. She didn't have time to mull things over now. She needed to find Peter and make sure he survived the night. After all, he couldn't help her find her brother if he was dead. And of course more importantly this was Peter, and she couldn't lose him. Not now.

It wasn't hard to track down Peter and the van, mostly because they were far from conspicuous. Talia would have liked to claim she found them with her own skills but really it was because Peter was still being dragged behind the van by several thin strands of his web. Talia felt a groan escape her lips as she watched from a distance, wincing as Peter was tossed around the streets, doing his best to stay with the van. The men were relentless though and within seconds of Talia spotting them, another bright blue blast of light shot out from the back of the van. It hit Peter, causing him to lose his grip of the web and forcing him to tumble away into the side of the street, disappearing from Talia's view momentarily.

Talia paused for a moment, wondering whether to follow the van or find Peter. But she knew what he would want, and sure enough she could see him now amongst a pile of garbage cans, already looking up to the skies for a path to follow from above. Well that worked for Talia. She could cover the ground for now. He glanced over, spotting her as she began to run and they made brief eye contact, a silent agreement as they both launched forward into action.

Barely hesitating, Talia took off after the van, relishing in the way her feet pounded on the hard concrete, one step at a time. She hadn't really pushed herself while running for a while since she was usually running with other students and she didn't want to cause suspicion. But now she had a mission and a target, and that made all the difference. She took a few shortcuts, already anticipating the route of the van and although she lost it once or twice, she could hear Peter in the distance, not too far behind her. He was leaping from tree to tree, rooftop to rooftop, moving almost effortlessly, although she didn't miss the sound of a few crashes as he stumbled once or twice. Well he was only human after all.

She lost sight of the van for a moment, so busy on glancing up to spot Peter, and upon realising, Talia gave a huff of annoyance, slowing down slightly to listen for the sound of the van roaring by. Sure enough, the sound of an engine running faster than necessary didn't sound too far off now, only a street across from where she had ended up. Cutting through someone's backyard, Talia moved quickly and quietly. She was completely unnoticed as she slinked past two young girls sitting in front of a large tent, both crying hysterically to their parents and completely oblivious to Talia slipping past and scaling their fence before they could spot her.

The van was coming up the street now, and Talia took a moment to catch her breath as she watched it round the corner, tilting slightly unsteady with one door completely torn off. She guessed that was Peter's doing. As Talia prepared to leap forward, ready to slide into the van and surprise the men, she heard a cry from up above.

And there he was, in all of his Spider-Man glory. She watched almost as if in slow motion, as Peter leaped down from the roof across the road, heading straight for the roof of the van, ready to attack. But he wasn't the only one who had taken the sky's route tonight.

Talia gasped in horror as she watched the vulture-like creature with two large wings spanned out in flight, obviously a man in some kind of suit, ripping Peter from the roof of the van before he could even fully land. Before Talia could even try and react, to yell or cry out, the man was pulling Peter up into the sky, flying higher and higher.

"Okay, show time," Talia said under her breath, squaring her jaw as she stared up, closing her eyes for a moment before opening them wide, exhaling as she straightened up, tilting her head to crack her neck twice before straightening up. After a beat, she nodded to herself, a quiet affirmation that she could do this, before running straight ahead, heading out of the suburban street and into the open road until she felt ready, whipping her headband off her head and leaping upwards.

And then she landed right back down. Barely a foot away. She'd barely even jumped. Her feet had barely left the ground.

That wasn't right. She tried again, this time slightly more desperate.

But nothing was happening. No movement. No sign of light.

Nothing.

Talia stared up at the sky with her headband clutched tightly in one hand, her eyes staring intently upwards, desperately searching for any sign of the vulture and Peter. And then she spotted them. But it was too late. The vulture was releasing Peter, flying away into the night, alone. As Peter fell.

"Peter!" Talia felt his name ripping from her throat, practically screaming in desperation as she watched his small body fall through the air, headed straight for the centre of a lake away in the distance.

As the sound tore through her body, she caught sight of a nearby street lamp shining brightly, lighting up the way for the few stray cars driving past. The light caught her eye as she reached out with her free hand, arm outstretched before her mind even fully had a plan. Before she could even blink the huge lamp exploded, seemingly of its own accord to anyone else watching, swaying on its tall post as glass shattered everywhere. A passing car swerved at the sudden explosion, riding over the line with a screech as it headed straight for another car.

Talia barely had time to let out a cry of fear as the cars collided.

She stared in horror as the two cars were pushed in together. It was almost like they were moving in slow motion. She could just make out the bodies of the drivers being thrust forwards in their seats as a few other cars approaching all laid on their horns, a symphony of warnings and cries of concern as people began to spill out of their own cars, all rushing forward to help the unexpected victims.

With her heart pounding, Talia felt herself slinking backwards into the shadows, shaking her head involuntarily as her grip on her headband tightened. She hadn't meant to hurt anyone. She hadn't meant to cause such a big scene. She hadn't even really thought about it at all. It had been pure instinct that made her throw her hand out. But she was out of practice and out of her element in this environment.

As soon as it was clear that no one in the cars had died in the collision, Talia ducked away, pulling her focus back to the lake where she'd seen Peter fall. "Damnit," she cursed under her breath, flexing her finger tips lightly as she started making her way down the dirt terrain down beside the road, weaving through bushes and trees as she looked for any sign of Peter in the lake.

"Coming up on your six."

Talia's eyes shot up at the voice, and she panicked for a second as she caught sight of someone in a high tech suit flying above her, swooping low over her head, with none other than her Spider-Man, her Peter, tucked firmly under one arm as the suit flew by. At a first glance Talia assumed it was the vulture man, but as they got closer, she noticed a lack of weird wings and a much more familiar suit. It was Iron Man. Tony Stark. Great.

Before Talia could yell back, Tony swooped a little lower, scooping her up with his free arm, carrying her through the air with ease. As Talia shifted in his grip, she managed to look beside her to Peter. He was seemingly unconscious and looked absolutely drenched. He must have ended up in the lake somehow before Tony saved him. But as Talia craned her neck sideways to get a better look, she took in the way his chest still managed to move. He was breathing. He was okay. He was alive.

Tony carried Talia and Peter to an empty playground not too far from the lake again, apparently having made a detour to collect Talia. She felt a little bit like a child caught in the act of misbehaving, which was ridiculous but Tony's cool silence had the same effect on her as her father. She hadn't felt like this since the day she had left home, and it wasn't a pleasant feeling.

Once they were closer to the ground, Tony released Talia from his grip, keeping Peter close to him as he landed gently on the grass. Talia watched quietly as he eased Peter into a sitting position near the edge of the lake, letting the water trickle off him as he examined Peter, checking his vitals. Peter was slowly starting to come to, and while she waited for him to fully wake, Talia strode over to the jungle gym structure, stubbornly ignoring Tony's gaze as she sat down.

"Talia? You're okay?" Peter asked as he finally awoke, his gaze immediately darting around to find her. His voice was slightly higher than normal, full of concern as he scrambled over to the jungle gym to Talia. She was sitting tightly cross-legged with her headband clutched in her hands as she tucked them in her lap, practically sitting on the headband in an attempt to hide it from view.

"Yes, you're both alive. You're welcome," Tony Stark said from up where he was now hovering in his suit just above the two of them, sarcastic and irritated as he stared down at them both figuratively and literally.

Peter barely took a moment to register Tony's dry remark as he began to wring out his mask and suit, immediately launching into an excited explanation about the night's events. Talia tuned him out, already well aware of what had happened and more focused on her headband and the dull ache in her chest from the blast, the energy still pulsing through her body.

"And then he just, he just, like, swooped down like a monster and he picked me up and, uh, he took me up, like, a thousand feet and just dropped me. How'd you find me? Did you put a tracker in my suit or something?" Peter was rambling up at Tony now, his hands flying around with wild gestures as he talked.

Talia sat silently, staring at her hands with a small frown, hating the vague tingle tickling though her fingertips and the way her pulse was stuck at a higher pace than usual, the excess energy fighting to escape as much as she tried to push it down.

"I put everything in your suit, including this heater." Tony, or rather his suit, indicated towards Peter and as if on cue, the spider-suit began to glow slightly. Even from where Talia was sitting a few feet from Peter, she could feel the warmth suddenly radiating towards her and she bit back a smile as Peter let out a sigh of relief. He wasn't shivering anymore, thankfully.

As Tony and Peter began to bicker, Talia felt herself sinking slightly out of focus of the other two, her eyes wandering back up to the streets in the distance, her eyes narrowing as she spotted a few police cars driving by. They were probably going to the scene of the crash, the crash she'd caused.

Part of Talia was annoyed at herself, guilt and frustration all mixing together. She was so rusty with her own abilities that she'd been absolutely useless tonight. All she'd done is create more damage. Thank goodness Peter too busy focusing on Tony and his own failures to notice Talia's mess, although she didn't miss the way Tony's suit kept turning towards her, as if he was staring right through her.

"Anyway, Mr. Stark, you didn't have to come all the way out here. I had that. I was fine. I had Talia!" Peter said, gesturing to where Talia sat, apparently already forgetting how helpless she'd actually been in the moment of crisis.

"Oh, I'm not here," Tony said bluntly as his helmet opened to reveal an empty space where his face should have been. "Thank God this place has Wi-Fi or you would be toast right now. Thank Ganesh while you're at it," he added casually.

Talia pursed her lips, feeling a scowl slipping onto her face as she glanced up at Peter. He had an odd expression on his face, a mixture of anger and betrayal at the knowledge that his mentor hadn't even bothered to make a real appearance after all. He looked hurt. She could only imagine how hurt he would have been if he'd had to find out about her betrayal too, about how much she was keeping from him. He'd almost found out tonight, and Talia couldn't decide if she would have been relieved or terrified. Probably both. Especially if he'd found out only to see her fail.

Talia fiddled with the headband in her hands, biting down a growl of frustration at herself. She should have known better, should have realised she'd be out of practice after so long. Not to mention everything was always harder at night, especially when she wasn't prepared. All she'd wanted to do was help Peter, and instead she'd caused chaos and injured innocent people.

"But I'm ready for more than that now. I'm ready to be an Avenger."

Talia frowned as she tuned back into the conversation as Peter argued with Tony, climbing off the jungle gym to plead his case.

Tony was adamant though, shaking his head. Or rather, the suit shook its head slightly which looked a little odd without a face to show his actual disapproval. "No, you are not," he said firmly.

Peter was stubborn, standing up to argue back. "That is not what you thought when I took on Captain America."

Tony didn't yield, barely even acknowledging Peter's argument as he held up one hand to stop him from continuing. "Trust me, kid. If Cap wanted to lay you out, he would've. Listen to me. If you come across these weapons again, call Happy. That goes for both of you," he added, pointing a finger at Talia too, as if reminding her that he hadn't forgotten she was there, as quiet as she was right now.

Talia and Peter both frowned, almost in sync, as the distinct sound of a car engine revving came from the suit as Tony turned to nod at whoever he could see right now.

"Are you driving?" Peter asked, his fists starting to clench slightly at his sides. He was getting more aggravated by the minute and Talia just wanted to calm him down but her mind was too overwhelmed and full of guilt to intervene.

Tony ignored the question. The suit's hands were moving now and they seemed to be replicating his own movements in the car, clutching at invisible gears and lifting up to hold onto the steering wheel of his car. "You know, it's never too early to start thinking about college. I got some pull at MIT. Bye kids," Tony said bluntly, the suit lifting an arm to give a small wave of goodbye.

He'd barely even addressed Talia's incident, which was surprising. Maybe that was just because Peter had been so aggravated and ready to argue that it had allowed Tony to forget all about it. Or maybe she was facing a lecture at a later time. Either way, Talia was grateful to be off the hook, even if only temporarily. It would give her time to breathe, to collect her thoughts and process what had happened, or rather what should have happened, and why she had failed.

Peter was still in denial though, still fired up and ready to continue arguing with Tony. He stepped forward again, his hands both raised up in defence, or desperation. "No, I don't need to go to col- Mr. Stark-please-"

"Mr. Stark is no longer connected," the voice from the suit switched to a more robotic tone as Tony's helmet moved to lock back onto the blank face, the lights around the helmet switching off as Tony disconnected the suit from wherever he was right now, leaving Peter and Talia in the darkness, both staring in frustration.

"Perfect," Peter grumbled, not even bothering to wait for the Iron Man suit to fly off as he turned on his heels and stalked away. He didn't bother waiting for Talia, clearly too wrapped up in his own thoughts as he disappeared back into the dark.

Talia watched as Peter disappeared, her heart sinking at the way he didn't even bother to glance back at her, his head heavy with defeat. She had only wanted to help him but somehow she'd made it all worse. Sure, Peter had rushed to help first, but Talia had gotten herself involved too. She'd caused just as much chaos. If not more. Staring after him, Talia let out a long sigh of defeat.

"Talia."

Great. Apparently Tony hadn't completely disappeared then. Talia could hear Tony clicking his tongue behind her and after a reluctant pause she finally twisted on her heels to look up at the suit, frowning as she saw the way it was lit up again, active and ready to talk. She hadn't escaped after all. "Alright, well I'm off too," she said with false cheeriness, clasping her hands together.

"Not so fast," Tony said sternly. "I told you I'd help you but you never said anything about getting involved in this mess too."

"Peter needed my help," Talia shot back, eyes narrowing. "Since you clearly weren't around to be there for him. He's still figuring all of this out."

"And so are you, apparently. Don't think I didn't notice your little stunt back there. With the cars? Does Peter know who you really are? What kind of power you have?" There was a dull sense of taunting in Tony's tone, mixed in with a hint of caution. But she wasn't an idiot. Even though Peter had revealed his secret, admittedly by accident, Talia wasn't about to spill her life story on him just yet, not when it could put him in potential danger. Plus if things worked out and she found her brother, she wouldn't be around for long anyway.

"He'll find out if he has to," Talia said, jaw tightening. "Sure, I'm a little rusty but I was just trying to help. I just wanted to keep Peter was safe while he was running headfirst into danger."

"He shouldn't have been running towards danger in the first place. You should have stopped him or told me so I didn't have to ruin my holiday trying to save him," Tony argued back, one hand pinching his nose in frustration. "I'm sure you could have found a way to do that."

Talia frowned, her arms folded tightly across her chest as she bit back a string of annoyed remarks. "I found out he was Spider-Man literally less than an hour ago," she said, eyes flashing. "Forgive me if I didn't have time to contact you about it sooner. And I didn't know you and I were that close."

"What are you talking about?" Tony asked as Talia started pacing back and forth, fighting the urge to just march off after Peter.

"I mean that you promised you'd help me," she said, emphasising the 'you' as she turned on her heels to look up at Tony, betrayal and bitterness slipping out all at once. "You said you could get in contact with my brother for me but it's been months and I've barely heard from you."

Tony waved his hands up in defence, his suit hovering higher in the air for a moment. "How is that on me? You didn't have a cell phone for the first few months."

"So?" Talia glared at Tony, not caring about his rational line of thinking. "You're Iron Man. Find a way or stop making false promises." She threw him another look of irritation before turning away, her chest heaving with frustration as she went to follow in Peter's path.

"Talia, wait - I did find someone who might be able to help you," Tony said, causing Talia to stop in her tracks, her breath hitching as hope seeped into her lungs for the first time in weeks.

Tony was quiet for a moment but Talia could hear his breath even though the suit, slow and steady as he waited for her to move. When she didn't walk away, he continued, "It took a while to track her down and I can't guarantee that she'll know any more than me," he said as Talia turned around to face him finally, "But she's the closest link I've found. The closest I think you're going to find, anyway."

Talia straightened up, ignoring the way her heart pounded in her chest, "Who is it?" she asked, desperation creeping into her tone as she stared at Tony.

"She's the last person I found known to have contact with your brother." Tony's voice was steady as if he wasn't about to give her information that could change everything, as if this wasn't the moment she'd been waiting for, the moment she'd spent years waiting for.

"Her name is Doctor Jane Foster."

A/N: Wooooo here we are friends! Secrets are being revealed! I know some of you worked out Talia's secret for a while and there is plenty more to be explained don't worry. Please feel free to ramble away and tell me all your feelings/reactions/thoughts to this chapter! No review is too short and I love hearing what you all think about each chapter. Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed the last chapter and I hope you enjoyed this one :)