Jan was fighting to hold onto her composure as she asked William, “What did you just say?”

“I asked, ‘What’s the Skrull?’” William said.  “You saw me change ages just now.  I can do that for a little while, when I want to bad enough.  Some cat-people said it was because of my Mama being the Tigra, and some said it was because of the Skrull.  But I don’t know what the Skrull is.  So, what’s the Skrull?”

Jan fumbled for the cell phone she had stashed in her jeans pocket.  She held up an index finger.  “William, that’s a very important question, and I’d like to have your Papa’s help answering it.  Let me just see if I can get him here, OK?”

“OK,” William said.  He plopped down on the bed, smelling it.  Jan realized as she dialed he was smelling the mix of Tigra’s scent with his.

“Pym,” Hank said on the other end of the call.

“Hank, it’s Jan.  What are you doing?”

“Finishing my class,” he said.  “Why?”

“William just asked me what ‘the Skrull’ is.”

“’The Skrull?” repeated Hank.  “That’s an odd way to phrase it.”

“There’s more,” Jan said.  “He had morphed older before I walked in, then switched back.”

“We’re about done here,” Hank said.  “I’ll be there in just a few minutes.”

Hank was true to his word, and still in his Giant-Man uniform when he arrived.  “Hi, Papa!” said William, running over and jumping into his arms.  “I like your red suit.”

“Thank you, William,” Hank said.  “I do, too.  It’s from a design Mama Jan made for me.”

William, still hugging Hank, turned to face Jan.  “You make good clothes,” he said.

Jan smiled.  “Thanks, Will,” she said.

Jan told Hank exactly what she had seen when she walked in, and William repeated his story.  “Other cat-people can’t change ages,” he said.  Even Mama couldn’t.  That’s why I don’t think this is a Tigra power.  Sometimes I can see things that will happen, and that’s a Tigra power, but not this.  I think this is from the Skrull.  So, what’s the Skrull?”

Hank and Jan looked at each other.  With all their years together, they each knew instantly what the other was thinking, and that theyw ere on the same page.

The adults sat down on the bed, William functionally now on Hank’s lap.

“William,” Hank said, “there’s a race of alien shape-shifters called Skrulls.  They can look like any living thing, and some have learned how to copy beings down to the smallest level, what are called genetics.”

“Oh,” said William, looking confused.  “What’s that got to do with me?”

Hank sighed.  Jan patted his thigh to show support.

“William, the Skrulls have attacked Earth several times,” Hank said.  “One of their favorite tricks is to kidnap people and make themselves into doubles of those people.  A few years ago, they … did that with me.”

William looked aghast.  “With you, Papa?” he said.

Hank nodded.  “Everyone on Earth was fooled, including your Mama and your Mama Jan.”

Hank took a deep breath.  “William, as a cat-person, you know where babies come from,” he said.

“Yeah, silly,” said William, “from sex!”

Hank closed his eyes for a second before continuing.  “William, I never had sex with your mother until after you were born.  The Skrull, who copied me to the genetic level, had sex with your Mama and put you in her belly.  Genetically, you’re my son, but it was the Skrull who actually fathered you.”

William looked mortified.  His lower lip was quivering.

Hank put his hands on William’s shoulders.  “But that doesn’t change anything for me,” Hank said.  “You are my son, William, and I am proud to be your Papa.”

William tearfully hugged Hank, then realized that Jan was sitting beside them, sobbing.  He climbed over onto her lap.  “Mama Jan, what’s wrong?” he asked.

Jan looked to Hank, afraid to answer the question.  Hank nodded.  “He’ll need to know eventually, and he’s asking now,” Giant-Man said.

Jan grabbed the boy and hugged him, then sat back to look him in the eye.  “William, the Skrull who pretended to be your Papa … is the one who poisoned me.  He’s the one who killed me, who murdered me.”

Now the cat-boy started to cry.  Jan gathered him into a colossal embrace.  “Mama Jan, if I ever find him, I’ll kill him.”

“He’s already dead, Will,” Hank said.  “He died within minutes of killing your Mama Jan.”

Jan looked William in the eye.  Suddenly, for the first time, she saw nothing but the little boy, and not the Skrull of her nightmares.

“Now, you listen to me, William Nelson,“ Jan said.  “You are who you choose to be.  That’s the whole point of a school like Avengers Academy.  You can choose to be good or bad, a hero or a villain.  You aren’t the son of a Skrull.  You, William Nelson, are the son of Greet Grant Nelson, the Tigra, and you’re the son of Henry Pym, the Giant-Man … and, if you’ll have me, you’re my son, too, because, if you’ll have me, I choose to be your Mama Jan, now and for always.”

William hugged her hard.  “I choose you, too, Mama Jan,” he said.

Hank patted the boy’s shoulder.  “And I choose to be your Papa, William, for as long as I live.”

Sill holding Jan with one arm, William grabbed Hank with the other.  “I choose you, too , Papa!”  he said.

There were a few minutes of tears.  Then Jan, now holding the boy by herself, said, “Oh, William, I love you.”

“I know that, silly,” said William.  “I can smell it.  And I love you, too.  But … Mama Jan, your love smells different now.”

Jan stroked the boys’ mane.  “How so?” she asked.

“It’s … purer now,” William said.  “Before, there was just a little bit of something mixed in it … fear, I think.  That’s gone now.”

Jan hugged him again.  “Yes, Will,” she said.  “Before I was still afraid of the Skrull in you, but that’s gone now.”

“Good.  I’m glad,” William said.  He turned to Hank, “And I’m glad it’s gone in you, too, Papa.”

Jan was momentarily surprised, the smiled.  Of course, Hank, who buried his feelings until they tied him up in knots, had shared her fears about William, but hadn’t admitted them until now -- even to himself.  And now, even he was feeling better.

Hank looked at Jan.  “Have you got time for some lunch before your class?” Giant-Man asked.

“Just,” Jan answered.

“I’ll whip something up in the apartment,” Hank said.  “C’mon, son.”

“I want seconds on the meat!” William said, darting down the hall.

Hank slipped his arm around Jan’s waist as the Pym family made their way down the hall to the apartment.

That night, Jan had a radically transformed dream, one she would later tell both Hank and William about.  In it, Critti Noll was reaching for the fateful button, but he looked like a Skrull, as he had in real life.  But then Hank, dressed as he was when he used Critti Noll’s own device to help rescue Jan from Ultron in Underspace, stripped the device away from him and smashed it.  Then Hank and William, the latter looking like the teen version Jan had briefly seen, attacked the Skrull, driving him off.  Afterward, the three of them embraced.  It was at that moment Jan woke up and saw the real Hank dozing next to her.  Smiling, she went back to sleep.