Chapter 14

[Author's note: As you read on, keep in mind that the Spiderman and his villains are from the original Spiderman movies, so it's Tobey Maguire]

There were stars dancing in front of my eyes. When the glass shattered, I tumbled out backwards, and hit my head on the wall. It was a miracle I was able to grab the windowsill on the floor below.

Loki leaned out of the new window and shouted, "Hold on!" He reached his hand out and created a rope with his magic.

I grabbed it, and he started to pull me up. That's when I saw something black move from around the corner of the building. It was in the shadows, but I could tell it was moving towards me, and fast. I reached out with one hand as it came into view and created a bubble of magic around it. I pulled it up with me as Loki pulled me into the building, and I screamed when I realized what it was. At first I thought I had a concussion, but when the Avengers ran in behind us, they confirmed it.

"How the hell is that possible?" I heard Tony ask, and I pulled the bubble closer to me.

"Venom?" I asked the thing, and it flicked its long tongue at me and hissed.

"Why sso ssurprised, preciouss?" He smiled, and I felt everyone staring at me, but I wasn't going to take my concentration away from Venom.

"Ashley," I heard Tony ask, "How do you know what he is?"

"Are you seriously asking me that?" I shouted at him. "Movies, remember?"

Venom made a hissing sound that sounded like laughter, and I said, "You're supposed to be dead!"

He laughed again, and I raised my eyebrow and made the bubble smaller, so he couldn't sit up straight. He hissed, and said, "You ssaw me die in their movie, ssweet. It wass a classic 'hero beatss the villain' trick."

"So, what about all the other villains that are supposed to be dead?" I asked, and flicked my gaze to the side momentarily to the Avengers, noticing Natasha was gone.

"All alive. And waiting," he added slyly.

"Waiting for what?" I asked.

"Him," Venom turned to Loki, who looked just as confused as I felt.

I turned to the Avengers, bringing the bubble around with me so Venom stayed in front of me. Natasha walked back in the room with Nick Fury, and I laughed.

"More people that are supposed to be dead! Actually, Fury, aren't you supposed to in Europe creating a new identity for yourself?" I asked as my brother trailed into the room.

"Loki coming back was a bit more important," he said, and then looked at Venom. "Wow, that's something. What are you doing here? You belong to Parker."

Venom hissed at the mention of Spider-Man. "We belong to no one in particular. You heroess think you're sso clever, but guesss what? The villainss aren't putting up with it anymore. You think you're the only oness who can team up? We've made an alliancce, as well," he smiled evilly, "and we want him to join."

"That's adorable," Steve chided, "but you're not leaving, so how do you expect him to?"

"Well, he'ss going to break me out, and we will leave."

"Funny," Steve said, "Bring him this way, Ashley."

I followed Steve and Tony down the hall a little ways, and we stuck Venom in a cell. Then we walked back down to Loki's and I heard Natasha swearing.

"... Just put him in a new damn cell, and now we have to repair this one too!" She screamed. I walked around the corner and saw Hill was in the room now and had a gun pointed at Loki.

"Okay, stop," I said, walking in front of her and pushing the gun away. I turned to Loki as she walked away and said, "You've got your thinking look on. Please tell me you're not considering joining Venom."

"Ashley..." He whispered, and was definitely lost in thought. "It very well could be the only way we will get out of here."

"Loki, please, no," I begged. "You can't. You're not like them!"

"How am I not?" He asked, grabbing my shoulders. "Am I not just as bad as them? You say you are 'obsessed' with the motion pictures, you know! Villains are villains, my dear. We may as well work together."

"You have a heart, Loki. I know; I've seen it."

He looked sad and depressed. He leaned forward and kissed me, and then Steve jerked me away from him.

"Not today," he said. "How lucky are you, three different cells in two days," he said to Loki as Natasha and Clint led him out into the hallway and to another cell.

I was both upset and pissed off, and I just wanted to be alone, so I turned around and ran up the hallway. Nobody tried to stop me as I past, and if they did, I wouldn't let them. Instead of taking the elevator, I climbed the 16 flights of stairs to the top floor, and then ran out onto the huge deck overlooking the city. I sat down close to the edge and looked around, thinking about Loki standing here, trying to take over the world. I lay on my back on the hard cement and watched the clouds rolling by, deep in my thoughts. So deep in my thoughts, in fact, that I didn't hear someone walk up behind me until the person was sitting on the ground next to me. I looked over to see Jeremy, who was scooting away from the edge; he was afraid of heights.

"What?" I asked, not sitting up.

"What's wrong?" He asked, obviously oblivious to the fact that I didn't want to talk.

"Well, let's see: I almost fell out of a 76-story-high prison cell; was attacked by Venom; and now possibly face the threat of my husband joining the Allegiance of Villains," I sat up and stared at him, and he cowered away from me.

"Would he really leave you?" Jeremy asked, and I looked away from him.

"No, Jeremy, he wants me to go with him."

I could feel Jeremy trying to bore holes into the back of my head, but I refused to look at him.

"You're not going to do it though, right?" He asked, and I glanced sideways at him, but didn't say anything. "Right?" He asked again, more demanding this time.

"I don't know!" I screamed, and he jumped a little. "I don't know what I'm going to do. If Loki does leave, I can't stay here; because they're going to blame his escape on me and probably lock me up again. And I can't let him go alone."

"He's a God, Ashley," my brother said, "He can do stuff on his own."

"Thanks Jeremy. There are such encouraging words coming from you," I said, too stressed to even care about what I was saying.

I got up and went back inside, Jeremy following close behind me, and went to the elevator. It was only eight, but I was exhausted and figured if I went to sleep, maybe Loki would do that dream thing he did the night before.

I curled up in bed and tried to fall asleep, but my mind was reeling so much it took two hours before I dozed off. Sure enough, I drifted right into another dream meeting.

"We're in the palace," I said, looking around at the golden walls.

"Yes," Loki whispered with his back to me.

"Loki..."

"No, let me speak first. I have been thinking. Perhaps, going with this Venom character would not be such a bad idea," I opened my mouth to protest, but he turned around swiftly and pulled me into him. "We could go with him, and then come back to Asgard and never bother with Midgard again." He started running his fingers through my hair.

"I don't see it being that easy," I said, pulling my head back to look at him. "The villains are relentless. They don't give up... Well, I don't need to tell you, do I?"

He laughed, and said, "They will not have a say in the matter. Trust me, sweetheart, we will come home."

"I know, but is this really the way to do it?"

His finger got caught in a tangled clump of my hair, and I giggled a little and reached up to pull his hand out. "I do not see another way to do it," he sighed.

I opened my mouth to say something, but was cut off by a loud bang. "What the hell was that?" I asked, looking around wildly.

"What was what?" He asked, clearly confused.

"That noise!" I exclaimed, as I heard something that sounded like glass shattering.

"It must be on your floor, I do not hear anything."

"How do you not..." I started to ask him, but suddenly I was thrown to the ground by some invisible force behind me.

"What happened?" Loki exclaimed, but I barely heard him.

I realized I was hearing the banging inside my head, because it was happening in the real world. I shut my eyes and saw the window of my room had been busted out, and someone was standing next to me shaking me, trying to wake me up. It was so dark I couldn't tell who it was, but he shoved me hard again, and I fell onto my back in the dream world, trying not to get pulled back into my body. I had a feeling whoever it was, he wasn't trying to wake me up for a good reason.

"Ashley, what's going on?" Loki shouted at me, kneeling down and helping me sit up.

"Someone broke into my room, and they're trying to wake me up," I screamed over the noise in my ears- the sound of my head repeatedly slamming into a pillow.

"I will be there in five minutes, just hold him off," Loki said.

"What? How do you plan...?" I shouted at him, but the palace dissolved around me, and I woke up just in time to stop my head from slamming into the nightstand as I was thrown off the bed. I jumped up and my sword materialized in my hands, which I held out in front of me. It was so dark that the only thing I could see was the light-up clock on the other side of the bed, which said it was one o'clock in the morning.

"Who's there?" I waved my sword in front of me. "I warn you, I'm armed!"

"You ssleep with a ssword?" The person hissed at me, and my stomach did a flip. "Crazzy."

"How did you get out of your cell?"

"If I can break into the glass, why didn't you think I could break out?" He laughed. "Now, down to bussinessss," I heard him take a step closer to me, and backed right into the nightstand. "Don't make thiss difficult. Come with me, and no harm will come to you."

"I doubt that," I said as I climbed onto my bed. I felt it sink in on the other side, and swung my sword, feeling it make contact. When I went to pull it back, though, Venom yanked it from my grasp.

"What the..." I smiled as he growled because the sword disappeared.

"Magic," I said, and I felt him move toward me on the bed. I jumped down the other side and ran to the door, but it would budge.

OH gods, I am stupid! I thought, and spun around as I heard Venom moving toward me. I created a ball of blue flame in my hands. Venom hissed and recoiled back, and I laughed. I made the fire grow from my hands and circle Venom, and he crouched down to the floor to avoid touching it. At least, that's what I thought, until he sprang straight up through the circle and pinned me into the door.