A/N I'm putting this up at the same time as chapter 2 because I had some major inspiration and had to roll with it. Be grateful. Just kidding. I'm trying to get chapters up faster. I'm progressing with chapter 4 now but it will be at least two days before its up. I forgot to say in my last note that I recently got a comment about how some of my lines from the show were wrong. I just want to reassure everyone that I checked it and it was right. If you ever think you find something wrong with my info, grammar, or spelling, please let me know. I want this story to be the best it can possibly be. Anyway, R&R!

Disclaimer: I don't own Ultimate Spider Man. Only the character Katherine.

CHAPTER3:

They stayed like that for a very long time, locked in an embrace that nothing could penetrate.

Danny's inner voice was screaming at him. It was furious with him. He was always a rational person but he has taken a leap that only a brave person would. Danny always did what he knew what was right. Never what might be right, but most likely isn't. That's what is going on now. They kissed and Danny knew they shouldn't but it was perfect. There was nothing that could ruin that very moment.

Ava couldn't believe this was happening. It was surreal, unbelievable. This felt right to her. This is what she has needed. Someone who could and would always be there for her. Her sister and her family were there but this was different.

Danny pulled away first. His rational voice, which for some strange reason sounded just like his old Kung-Fu master Lei Kung, finally broke through the clouded expanse his mind had become in the last few moments. Both Danny and Ava were blushing furiously and had matching goofy smiles.

The wheels in his mind finally began to turn again and Danny saw everything that could go wrong. The images from what he saw on the rooftop earlier that night were replaying in his head vividly.

Katherine was in New York and, knowing her history, bad things will happen. He could not let Ava get hurt by her.

Ava watched Danny's smile fade slowly as he began to think again. It was not a good sign. He was thinking about something serious and she would bet anything it was about what just happened. She did not want him to mess this up, whatever this was.

"Danny?" she asked tentatively.

He abruptly turned his head to look at Ava in the eyes. Her eyes were a beautiful shade of brown. They matched her long hair, with hints of gold, Danny observed.

He took a deep breath in and then let it out in a sigh. He dropped his head and focused on his bare feet.

"Danny, is something wrong?"

"No… err… yes… uh I don't know," Danny finally responded with. He dropped his head into his hands.

"Will you please tell me what's wrong? I don't understand," Ava said honestly.

"I can't see you get hurt. I've seen enough of people I care about getting hurt because of me. I don't want anything to happen to you."

"Who would hurt me? I can hold my own against pretty much anything thrown at me," she reasoned.

"Everybody has skeletons hidden in a closet but, eventually, those skeletons always come back to haunt people. One of my own has come tumbling out and it's lethal."

"What happened that could be so bad?" Ava normally found Danny's metaphors and quotes interesting but in this moment she was just annoyed by his cryptic response.

The internal battle in Danny's head began again. He needs to tell her. She deserves to know why he just kissed her and is now telling her he cannot be with her. Even thinking it makes him sound terrible.

So, he did the only thing he could. He was honest.

"Back in K'un-Lun I wasn't the only person with powers. Mine were earned through hard work and defeating Shao Lao the Undying. There was one other person that had… unnatural abilities. When I first came to K'un-Lun after both of my parents died a girl named Katherine came to clean my wounds. There was something different about her. It was like she knew how I felt. I was Lei Kung's, my Kung-Fu master, student privately. But, when he started training me he was training Katherine at the same time. What I soon found out is that she was born with amazing powers and her own inner chi. She didn't have a source like all of the immortal weapons of the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven," Danny explained. He couldn't believe he was finally opening up about his past. It somehow made him feel better.

"What kind of powers?" Ava asked. She was very interested. She had never really thought about Danny ever being around someone like him. Someone who could understand how he was.

"Katherine is an empath. She could feel the emotions of others when she summoned her chi and concentrated. That's not all though. She is abnormally fast. When she meant to she was barely a blur. She could translate that power into knives."

"Knives?"

"Yeah. She was trained to know how to fight with all types of weapons just like I was. I've always preferred strength and hand-to-hand combat. Katherine isn't a big person. She isn't able to hold her own without some sort of weapon. But, what she lacks in strength she makes up greatly in speed and intelligence. She liked throwing knives specifically. She never missed. If she didn't kill you then she didn't mean to. She could put some of her chi into the knives she threw so they would be as fast as her but, still, always accurate. Katherine would be a perfect killer. She would always hit her mark. But, she wasn't bad. She was like me. She hated the idea of death and hurting other people, but she was brutal when it came to training," at that Danny started to laugh at a memory.

They were thirteen years old and had just begun their relationship. Katherine and Danny always trained together, every day. They started with deep meditation, practiced their spiritual skills as in dream walking and things like it, weapons training, hand-to-hand combat, then the fun part. Sparring.

Danny always chose to go weaponless. Katherine always went with her wide array of customized knives.

She strapped holders on her waist, forearms, and calf muscles. The ones on her arms and legs could shoot knives when she hit various buttons on her gloves and shoes. She knew which ones did what and she always hit the right one. The eject holders were harder to use and you almost always end up hurting someone if you don't know what you're doing. Katherine most definitely knew what she was doing.

She was intimidating when she was in her full out costume, mask included. She had gotten the gear when she was eleven. Her skills were highly advanced and, in a few years, she will go in front of the council of the immortals to fight for her spot as the first immortal woman in K'un-Lun history. She was bent on proving everyone wrong. She wanted it known a woman was not inferior to a man. Danny certainly knew it.

He isn't afraid of Katherine. He knows she will never actually harm him. And vice versa, he wouldn't hurt her for anything. Not that he could. Katherine is untouchable.

They go to separate sides of the room and turn to each. They bow to each other respectfully like they were taught, and then Katherine takes a small rock out of her pocket and shows it to Danny. He nods his head and she throws it with incredible speed at the gong and a loud boom echoes throughout the room. In that same moment Katherine focused her chi in an instant and ran head on at Danny. He did not have time to make his first move before he was on his butt. She did a graceful flip and landed with one leg extended out and a hand on the floor to help keep her balance.

Katherine looked up at Danny with a wicked grin. She was fierce, a force to be reckoned with. He was amazed every time about how well she fights. She fascinates him.

She stands up and runs at Danny again. Katherine jumps up into a kick that he just barely ducks under so he wouldn't end up on the floor again.

She lands in the same manor. Danny stands seeing streaks of black and purple.

When Katherine used her chi for speed there is a shade of black from her costume and deep purple from her chi that follows. It takes a practiced eye to see it. They had been training together since they were eight. His eyes were most definitely practiced by now.

He was disoriented for a moment still seeing unnatural streaks across his vision, so he wasn't expecting the two cruel knives flying toward him. He regains his eyesight just in time to see the two, almost invisible streaks coming at him. Danny was too slow. He could not move fast enough to get out of their parallel paths. The next thing he knew they were each embedded in his sleeves and pulling him back to pin him against the wall behind him at a terrifying pace.

"Oh, come on Daniel. Are you seriously losing a sparring match to your girlfriend?" Katherine asked with a joking snicker.

Danny got the knives unstuck and cast them aside. He then looked Katherine directly in the eyes. She felt what he was feeling. She told him years ago about her powers as an empath. He knows when he is having extreme emotions and looks her in the eye she can feel it herself. Now he was feeling passionate. And, after looking her in the eyes, so did she.

Katherine is only caught off guard for a moment, but that was enough time for Danny to run at her and catch her arms. Then, he lightly kissed her. In that single moment when she kissed him back Danny unstrapped her knives with a practiced hand and quickly turned her pinning her arms behind her. She had never been a large person and Danny almost always overpowers Katherine. This time she didn't mind.

"I win," he whispered in her ear. Then Danny let her go and she narrowed her eyes at him as he began to walk away.

She kicked out her leg and snapped her foot just perfectly to send six knives a him going at lightning speed. They all hit their exact targets, the clothing on his four limbs.

Before he knew what had happened, Danny was pinned face first against a wall with six knives. He didn't expect them. He has also learned over the years that when Katherine wants to win badly enough she can make the knives go faster than lightning can crack through the sky.

"Almost, but not quite Daniel," Katherine said while laughing and walking out of the room. Leaving Danny suspended off the ground.

Danny returned to reality a matter of seconds later, still laughing from the memory.

"You were talking about her in present tense a minute ago, but now, you're acting like that's how she was, not is. Did something happen?" Ava asked. Danny's smile disappeared.

"Katherine was one of the kindest people I have ever met. She cared about everyone. She was my best and only friend in K'un-Lun. I knew her for nine years, but, for the last four years of our friendship we were… uh… um…" He didn't know what he was supposed to say to her. Danny felt awkward saying girlfriend to Ava.

"She was your girlfriend, wasn't she?" She asked. She didn't sound angry or anything. "I assumed you had at least one relationship before you came to New York. I mean we're seventeen."

"Yeah, she was my girlfriend," Danny admitted. Ava raised her eyebrows to prompt him to elaborate. Danny sighed. "Katherine meant everything to me. She stood by my side through everything. She cried when she found out I was going to challenge Shao Lao the Undying. She couldn't watch. We went through a lot together. After I gained the power of the Iron Fist when I was sixteen we were K'un-Lun's protectors together. Not that K'un-Lun needed much protection.

"That was until a masked murderer was killing the people of the city. We tracked her down and, in this process, Katherine was almost killed. Finally we caught the murderer and locked her up until the next year when the other immortal weapons and I were to cast her into the Eighth city. That's where all of the beings, monsters, and murderers of the seven Capital Cities of Heaven are sent."

"Wow, I always assumed K'un-Lun never had anything go wrong," Ava said. She couldn't believe this. It was overwhelming.

"Not always," he said with small grin, "but most of the time."

"What happened to Katherine then?"

"After we put the criminal in isolation there was a shift in her mood. She wasn't right. Katherine turned sour and rude. It wasn't just a phase either, though. She was completely different. Six months ago, the gruesome murders began again. I didn't tell Katherine though. She seemed… unstable. I didn't know if she could take it so I went looking for the murderer myself. After a month I was able to track them down. I decided to go after them but, what I found has haunted me every day since I witnessed it."