It was the Night Before Christmas and all was quiet throughout New York. Not a creature was stirring, not even a street rat. It felt like the city was alert, aware that a battle for the ages was on the horizon. It wasn't surprising. Jameson and the Daily Bugle had dubbed the recent days' event, the Spider-Gang War. Caty appreciated the hyphenation, but she started to wonder just who Jameson thought was under the masks. They unfortunately didn't know that these new and different spider people were clones, but one dissolving in the Mall clued them into something strange going on. While the actual newspaper was telling it from a more educated angle, Jameson's podcast called the whole thing a hoax to boost their publicity after the events of the Bloody Halloween. Even with Liz or her clone back Caty still couldn't seem to escape her past. But she didn't care as long as it kept people safe.

Spider-Woman and Spider-Liz swung and flew through the night skies respectively. Liz didn't have a costume of her own since her creator never intended for her to be a hero. He only gave her powers to both make sure that Gwen's friend wasn't lost again and that she'd have the power to help take down the Spider-Twins. She wore a dark hoodie and outfit to keep herself hidden in the night. She didn't want to alert anyone that might've still been out tonight.

Caty had Danny and Dani stay home to protect their mom. She didn't need to be worried about her safety and if Danny got attacked as well at least he'd have backup. But she was sure that they'd be fine. Her clones seemed to only be interested in her and with the first one on the winning team it was time for her enemy's trump card to enter the fray. She still didn't even know who her enemy behind the scenes was. All Liz knew was that he was some green hairy freak with a lab full of cloning technology. They didn't know more than that or what their purposes were beyond revenge. It seemed like he didn't trust them and for good reason. They all turned on him. 

[color=99d6ff]"So is your plan to swing around all night hoping you'd find her? How do you know she'll attack tonight?"[/color] Liz asked getting tired of flying around all night.

[color=E137E3]"My plan is for her to find us. My spidey-sense doesn't work against her and vice versa. She knows that. She's likely tracking us right now and waiting until we get tired. Plus it's close to midnight. Christmas. My villains don't let me know holiday peace."[/color] Spider-Woman responded confident in her intuition.

[color=99d6ff]"If she catches us when we're tired she'll kill us."[/color]

[color=E137E3]"That's why I've been slowing down and having her think we're tired."[/color]

As if on cue a web attached to Spider-Liz's heel dragging her down in a swift motion to a nearby rooftop slamming her hard into it.

[color=E137E3]"Liz!"[/color] Spider-Woman yelled before a shadow jumped her and they tumbled to the ground below. They crash landed onto the roof of a car crushing it in the process. To say the least, that hurt. Spider-Woman opened her eyes to see Death in front of her.

[img]https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/809277831456620566/1176882601840083065/20231122_085025.jpg?ex=660d5ed5&is=65fae9d5&hm=c0156d809da2253e79224a8770db43d374d951050c82c5a7d8e9da0d852aa9ab&[/img]

Her silent clone seemed to extend razor sharp nails and prepared to swipe at her jugular ending her right there. Spider-Woman wasn't going to down that easily. She kicked her clone off of her and into the air where she was then blasted in the back by a bioblast from a recovered Spider-Liz.

The clone landed on all fours and crawled into the darkness of an alley to recover the advantage. Spider-Woman walked slowly into the alley trying to focus on her other senses. As she moved further inside she felt something strange. Strange as in she shouldn't have been feeling it in the first place. It was her Spidey-Sense and it was going crazy. Before she could fully think about what was triggering this a swarm of spiders crawled out of the darkness and inundated both Spider-Woman and Spider-Liz in a wave of spiders. This was the worst thing imaginable. Something straight out of a horror movie.

Spider-Liz blasted away as many spiders as she could with her bioblasts, but more would come to replace them. Spider-Liz did all that she could to prevent any from entering any holes in her mouth when she realized it seemed impossible to otherwise resist her fate.

Spider-Woman felt the pain the spiders were going through as Liz killed them off, but she had her own pain to worry about. This was it. She couldn't stop them. She was telling them, asking them to please stop, but they wouldn't. For the first time in her life Caty felt true fear and utter despair. What she felt when she saw Liz falling felt like nothing compared to this. She was going to die. She was going to lose Liz again. Her clone was going to kill her mom, Danny, Camilla, Dani, and likely anyone else she cared about. She couldn't take it anymore. Why her? What did she do? All she wanted to do was protect people. Why did it seem like the entire universe was conspiring against her? She was so overwhelmed that she started to cry, loudly.

The unexpected tears caused the clone to step back and turn her head in puzzlement. This girl? The one that defeated and turned her sister? A killer? A monster? Monsters don't cry.

The spiders also seemed to react to Caty's tears. They stopped responding to the clone's commands and stopped trying to eat and burrow into Spider-Woman and Spider-Liz. In fact they started crawling off of them and kneeling before Spider-Woman waiting for her command.

Caty couldn't feel the spiders crawling on her anymore. For a second she seemed to black out. She didn't know what was happening. When she came to she noticed snow falling from the sky, but that wasn't the strangest part. She looked up from the floor where she had fallen from the onslaught of spiders and saw the spiders just looking at her.

[color=99d6ff]"What did you do?"[/color] Spider-Liz finally asked.

It was clear that the clone was wondering the same. She may not have been able to speak and her face was hidden, but her expression was clear.

[color=E137E3]"I... I don't know."[/color] She said finally standing up. [color=E137E3]"But I'm tired."[/color] She said, this time speaking directly to her clone. [color=E137E3]"We could fight, but it'd be tiresome and I rather not do to you what you just did to me. I just want to go home and spend Christmas with my family. You can go out and be a Spider-Assassin going around killing whoever you feel like, but if you do I'm stopping you here and now. Or you can come and be a person and live with people who care about you. It's your choice. I'm already inviting Camilla."[/color]

"Camilla?" The silent cloned signed towards Caty.

Caty was surprised to see she knew sign language. Well, she wasn't all that surprised. She knew it herself.

[color=E137E3]"The other, other me. I named her after I beat her. I'm guessing you don't have a name either. How about Cassie? It's short for Cassandra. We can be the 3 C's."[/color]

[color=99d6ff]"Now I feel left out,"[/color] Liz said, her name being the only one not starting with a C or D. At least Gwen and Harry were still the odd ones out.

The clone stared silently for a moment and signed. "I like Cassie."

[color=E137E3]"Cassie it is. Now, how am I going to explain this to my mom?"[/color]