A/N: Quick thing before the chapter. A thank you goes out to reader and reviewer nataku2709. While it's not about the reviews, but seeing them, and knowing someone enjoys (or reads) your work. More notes toward the bottom!

[THE DARK SPIDER]

As a maw filled with dangerously sharp teeth came flying at him, Scott did what he did best, he stared. Oh, and by staring, he sent a beam of highly concentrated concussive forced into the mouth that crashed back into the body it came from, which then crash into the wall at the end of the hall. Which seemed to finally go limp.

The brown haired mutant seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, feeling like his life was no longer in danger.

The ooze creature began to squirm before standing to its full height and letting out a feral roar, Scott bit back swear. His head was pounding and he was at his limits as far as he blast were concerned. Leaving him with running or fisticuffs. And to be frank, both options seriously sucked. He grabbed the arm of his glasses, ready to give it one more shot before running like a baby.

But suddenly the thing stopped and started clutching its head. A roar came from its maw as it threw its head back and screamed. The longer tongue dangling from his mouth retreated, and his fang filled jaw clamped shut, and vanished from his face. His bulging body shrank to that of one of an Olympic gymnast, large and mostly ovular white eyes appeared on its head, and a white spider insignia spread across its chest.

It silently stood there, taking everything in. Slowly it made its way forward, non menacing as it may have been, Scott still stood and started limping away, until their newest mutant, Jean Grey, came onto the scene. She rushed passed him and right toward the black clad berserker beast. She stood right before it, staring intently into the white pools it used for eyes, before huffing and wrapping her arms around it.

"I'm so sorry, I let that happen…" She cried loudly into his chest.

Scott grunted, looking at the scene, "Shouldn't I be getting the apology? He nearly killed me!"

"My apologize Scott. My drawn out talk with the voice in Mr. Parker's head had more 'adverse' consequences than I had first considered." The aging mutant in a wheelchair known to many as Professor Xavier.

Scott was about to ask what he meant by that, when he suddenly felt a warm hand on his shoulder. He turned his head slowly to find the abyss like eyes of his attacker staring at him. For whatever reason the words from that movie about dinosaurs returned to him, vision based on movement or something, so he remained deathly still.

Jean walked up behind him, "He can't talk. Peter is currently...knocked out."

"What? But then, how is he moving!?"

"Venom has taken manual control until Peter wakes back up...I can translate what he's thinking to you...he says we need to have a talk."

[THE DARK SPIDER]

A head of brown hair slowly moved side to side, in his hand a piece of ragged cloth. It was an inky black color, and the world around him was full of muted colors. His head felt fuzzy, and beyond waking up face down in the dirt back their, he couldn't recall anything. Almost like...he'd lost his memory. But he pushed that thought aside, finding it stupid and silly. How many people lost their memories, it was one of those statistics you heard and promptly disregarded. But even as he walked down the empty sidewalk, getting further and further away from the park he had woken up in he couldn't shake some odd feeling. Like he had to be somewhere for something.

"Hey...can you help me?"

A soft voice spoke up, and with tired eyes he scanned all around him, until he saw it, more accurately him. A tiny boy with a yellow cap in a blue t-shirt, and white shorts. His feet were bare and looked scuffed. He slowly trudged over to the boy, his legs felt like he was trying to run through quicksand. Though, he felt himself like the kind of person to not give up, so he kept moving until he reached the boy. Suddenly everything looked to bright.

"I'm sorry to bother you...but I lost my mommy...I can't find her anywhere…" The tiny boy sniffled.

A soothing sound rushed by his ear, and he felt dim. Hollow, like someone calling over a vast desert. He shook away the feeling and crouched down to place a hand on the kids shoulder.

"I have some time," He said before realizing he didn't think he did, "What's your name kid?"

"Benjamin...but mommy calls me Ben...what about you mister?"

Ben huh...why did that make his chest ache so much? More to the point, what was his name, he felt like it had a P and maybe somewhere in the middle there was a T...Parker? He tasted the name, it felt familiar enough on his tongue.

"I'm Parker, c'mon Ben, let's go find your mom," Parker disinterestedly said, walking further and further away from the park.

The two walked in a muted tandem. Their foot falls mirrored one another, and each one swayed the their hands in perfect sync. Like they were one and the same. Benjamin and Parker...Ben...Parker…

Parker stopped, they were nearing the end of the street now, there was a stop sign next to him, he used it to keep himself upright.

"Parker? A-are you alright? Why are you crying!?"

The taller, and older, of the two...being Parker...clutched his chest, a once distant pain that had become numb throbbed with new life. It pounded in a way that could be likened to a beating heart, but fiercer. And from Parkers clenched eyes came a stream of tears, his lips were parted but no sounds could escape the blockade in his throat. Tiny hands clutched the fabric of his pants, they clung to him, they shook, they called to him. But he couldn't move. He was paralyzed in himself. He began to felt the earth beneath his feet shift. Cracks formed and tore apart the ground around him, bits of rebar poked through the concrete like deadly spires. Parker looked down, tears still pouring from his eyes, he picked up Ben and ran. Back toward the park was his first choice, but then they heard it.

"Ben! Peter!" A shrill cry from a woman, she sounded old to parker, like someones great, great aunt kind of old.

Ben stopped, Suddenly Parker felt weightless. He looked around, everything was still falling apart, but he was no longer carrying the young Ben, instead, he was now a tiny child in the arms of an older man. The old man had a blue t-shirt and white golf shorts, with a pair of loafers. His face was one of pure terror as he looked around, he kept muttering something.

"May!"

Parker grabbed the loose fabric of the mans shirt and mumbled to himself. He was scared, so very scared. He needed someone to say something. Anyone to say anything!

A large hands rubbed his head. His eyes, that he hadn't realized he shut, were open again. He was staring into Ben's brown eyes, he was trying to sooth him. Reassure him...but the words...they weren't coming out of his mouth, like someone had muted him.

"Ben! Peter!" The old woman called again and this time both of them snapped their heads to the side, she was just across the street, in the opposite direction from the park!

Ben began to run to her. But a building collapsed and hundreds of steel beams kept them apart. The word RaZoR carved jaggedly into all of them. May stared at them, the ground beneath her cracking and breaking apart. Ben reached through the beams for her, Parker still held close to his chest. But it already too late, she was gone, stolen by the dark depths, kept away from them by Razor...Parker could feel his chest ache, his head pounding.

The cracking earth caught up to them, and just as both Ben and Parker were about to fall into the abyss, Ben threw Parker to safety to more stable ground. The last words Parker from from Ben were...run!

So he did. He stood and looked toward the park. And ran. He ran as fast as he could, as hard as he could. But he didn't make it. The earth ripped open right underneath him. And so he fell. Fell into the cold nothingness below.

He didn't know at what point it stop feeling like falling, but it happened. He wasn't moving, he was simply stuck there in the nothingness. He couldn't move, couldn't feel, taste, hear, smell, see, anything! It was gone, things he'd once thought so...trivial, were now gone, and he missed them. He missed them dearly.

Suddenly. The cold shrank away, and he felt it. Sunshine. Golden, radiant, alluring. It was there, calling to him, begging for him. He wanted to reach out, but his arms wouldn't budge. He wanted to mutter words of reassurance...but he couldn't. He just wanted it to stay...but it didn't. Seemingly as quickly as it came, it vanished. With it left the warmth, and in its absence the cold rushed back in. It was choking him, a kind of cold that was all consuming, suffocating! He couldn't breath! Until he felt it all vanish. A fiery red ball of comfort appeared. Were the yellow shine had been alluring and warm, it had been distant, too far away to ever truly be there. But the orange, the red, it was there. Holding his hand, giving him reassuring squeezes. Staying with him for countless ours...true that in its absence the cold would return...but its warming touch lingered and remained with him for so long after, that he only suffered moments until they were reunited.

His throat tightened. It was back, the sensation of falling was around him again, with a renewed vigor he plummeted toward...nothing.

Until he slammed against it so hard, he thought he'd become a pancake. Water, cool, refreshing, life giving, water. It washed against his hot flesh, and rolled off his skin, taking it with it all the agony from before. He realized then, he could taste, he could touch, he could smell...but hearing, and sight still eluded him. Happily he splashed around. Until he saw it again. Distant rays of golden yellow, piercing the veil of darkness. But still too far, as if they weren't really there. But then, it came back, it had been absent for longer than before, but the orange was there again, the red was there again. Happily he would close his hands around that feeling. The feeling of comfort, of security that latched around his hands, that laced between his fingers.

But it wouldn't last. The water spun inwardly around him, it created a whirlpool. It swallowed him whole. And when he crashed hard on his back...he thought that it was finally over. That it would finally end. But as he hoped for it, for it all to end, he recalled the warm glows. The orange, the red. He missed them. He longed for them. But he didn't have the strength to hold out for them. To fight against the pain for them. Not like they had for him.

But they had never asked him to, they never expected him to, right? Even if they did, how could he have known, he had no hearing with which to speak of. The thought brought a frown to his face. He was excusing himself. Giving it away. Ignoring the sacrifices of others. Their hard work, their patience. He would throw it all away, for some relief. No damn it! He couldn't do that! He had to be strong!

But he couldn't do it alone...he couldn't find the strength to move!

'I can help you...'

'Wait...what?

'I can help...if you let me, if you accept.'

This was it, something had heard him, and was giving him an answer, was offering its help! He had to take it!

A warm feeling enveloped his whole body, his muscles no longer ached, and his senses returned to him a hundred times better than he could have ever hoped to have felt them! He was reborn, he could finally do something, he could go back to those he'd left behind….

Who had he left behind…?

He was slowly sinking into the ground. Being consumed by the warmth he'd longed for...but now that he had it, and so much more...what was he supposed to do. He slowly sunk through the ground and after he was completely consumed he free fell, like a being lowered by a rope. Until he was suddenly jerked. White threads came at him faster than he could ever possibly perceive. They wrapped around his wrist, ankle and head and held him stout in a stiff crucifixion. Blinding white spotlights cut swaths through the pitch black darkness to reveal...him?

Multiples of himself even. Dozens, but most of them were asleep, lying on their sides with nothing but softly rising chest to confirm their breathing. But then the others were different, lively. One of them was a shivering mess, with frizzled hair, and covered with bloody scratches, another a scowling, frothing at the mouth rage-a-holic. Farther from them was one prostrated, muttering without end, begging for something. And then, right before him, a perfect copy of him, seemingly exact, except for one difference. He seemed confident. Unmovable. The world could come crashing down around him but he would remain this perfect shield, the unbreakable pillar...it filled him with envy.

He looked around again, and realized how easily he could have become anyone of these, how he like was a bit of all of them, but he wanted to know how be like that one. How to be stronger than he was now. So that he would never be pushed backwards into that...hell.

The lights, except his, cut off. He closed the gap between them. Their eyes met and they stared indifferently into one another. Well, that wasn't true, the personified confidence stared indifferently into him, but he was staring with a way that bled envy, envy and jealous.

"Get a clue." The confidence apparently wasn't for show, his voice boomed like thunder and demanded attention, "You want to be strong? Work for it! Stop waiting for people to hand it to you!"

He wanted to shrink back, but the webbing holding him stiff wouldn't budge.

The light that was around began to shrink in.

"Grow up. Move on. Stop thinking your the only one whose felt it. Whose lost from it. Become better to become strong!"

The light vanished, and with it the confidence. Parker sobbed into the abyss...for now, he was truly alone.

[THE DARK SPIDER]

A/N:

I wrote this in the span of two to three hours. Maybe less. The reason it's going up so soon is because I left for so long, and after getting back waited for so long to post anything. Also, I'm thinking of changing the genre from Tragedy, humor to Angst,Humor. Any thoughts on that?

Review Replies

nataku2709: It's good to be back, and thanks man. Always appreciated.