Author's Note: Hello! I decided to keep you guys waiting after the last chapter- isn't it fun to agonize?

Thanks to the wonderful suggestion of shelleymnm, I used Hero Machine 3 to create some visual images of Autumn. I know some of my readers have been wanting more visual descriptions of her for a while, and a picture's worth a thousand words!

You can check out the pictures here: argeiphontes-the-second . tumblr [dotcom] /post/88403524018/i-know-that-some-of-my-readers-wanted-a-better

Also, I've been wanting to change the 384-character summary for "Acatalepsy", but I'm having a really difficult time coming up with something. If you have a good idea for a summary, PM me! You will have my eternal gratitude and thanks :)

The Ceremony of Innocence

Peter Parker

"Who is she, Peter?" Gwen asks, closing the window behind Autumn.

I hesitate, unwilling to reveal her identity. "Um, she's, you know, uh, we're-"

Gwen puts her hand up, cutting my stammering short. "Just say it. You're seeing her."

"Seeing" feels like an understatement, but I nod. "Well, yeah."

I glance back at the window. There's nothing I want less than to be here without Autumn; just her presence stilled the quaking anger in my hands. Unfortunately, this is my one shot to find a way into OsCorp, and I'm not about to blow it.

An unfamiliar look crosses her face, the look of liquidated and frozen rock. "So, it's not too dangerous to see her?"

Blood drains from all of the veins in my body. "She's like me," I say, matching Gwen's tone.

Unflinchingly, we meet each other's gaze, each of us refusing to concede.

But finally, Gwen looks down, staring at her hands clasped in her lap. "I know what she is," she says dryly. "She's an escaped experiment, a test gone rogue. Some sort of hybrid. She's a danger to you, Peter!"

The corners of my mouth turn downwards, and a cold grip overcomes me inside. "That's bullshit," I say through clenched teeth. "Is that what they told you?"

"They had dozens of security guards after her," she hisses. "You should've seen what she did to the Genetics head- broken bones, bruises, could've killed him…"

I recall Autumn mentioning that she knocked the scientist out in order to make her escape. I don't condemn her for it; she had no other choice. "They experimented on her against her will. Of course she tried to escape," I say, clenching my hands into fists. "They abducted her in the middle of the night and killed her mother. That's what you're working for, Gwen."

My words must hit their desired mark, because she averts her eyes and expels a long, slow breath. "I missed you, Peter."

Well, there it goes- she might as well have stuck the knife further into my gut and twisted it like a corkscrew.

"That's bullshit, too," I growl, trying in vain to keep my voice level. "How long was it- a month?"

A fog spreads over her eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"You know what I'm talking about, Gwen!"

"Actually," she says, eyes narrowing, "I don't know. Would you be so kind as to enlighten me?"

I decide just to yank the splinter out all at once. "You were fucking other guys!"

Her face turns as white as her curtains, before morphing to the color of my mask. "You… saw that?"

I nod, too moved to fury, too rigid for words.

"It was once, one guy," she says, staring hard at the floor.

"Didn't we mean anything to you?" My words are razors.

Gwen suddenly jerks her head up, her eyes glistening with tears. "You broke up with me, Peter!"

My teeth grind together- how does she not understand? "I had to protect you!"

"My father had died," she lowers her voice, her words quivering. "And you broke up with me- I was left with two gaping, bleeding holes in my heart. And at least I could do something about one of them."

"By sleeping with him?"

"You led me on!" She blurts, slamming her hand against the ground. " 'Don't make promises you can't keep- but those are the best kind'". Chuckling bitterly, she continues. "And then, you disappeared off the face of the planet. I texted, emailed, called- they said you were in New Jersey- where the hell were you?"

There's a huge, sharp ball of discomfort in my chest, tearing open these old, scarred-over wounds. I'm desperate to dislodge it, and I can't do that by hiding. "OsCorp put a note on my window, threatening Aunt May- and you- if I didn't leave."

I watch as her face screws up into a confounded bunch of lines. "What?"

"Yeah."

Gwen inhales, shaking. "Why?"

I suppose I haven't really pondered that; I shrug. "Not sure. Um, maybe they wanted to make me more vulnerable, which I would be without a home."

She shakes her head vehemently. "I can't believe it," she mutters. "These people aren't evil- I mean, Connors was banana balls, but-"

"He's not the only one," I interject. "We think- my agency thinks- the whole thing's corrupt."

The room falls silent as that sinks in, a noxious gas suffocating her pores.

"You know," she muses long after the silence grows uneasy, "It doesn't matter what I do."

My brow furrows. "Huh?"

"I try and I try, but I can't fill that hole in my chest," she elaborates.

Then.

It happens too quickly for me to stop it.

Her hand is on my shoulder, hot to the touch. My eyes widen as hers close, and her lips meet mine; her tongue pushes through my closed mouth and curls around my own.

A single word echoes uncontrollably through my head:

Autumn.

I yearn to struggle, to twist away-

But one wrong move, and I could hurt her, shatter a bone, hurl her across the room through no volition of my own.

So, instead, I turn my heaving chest to stone, to steel, willing myself not to retaliate, not to feel.

The kiss lasts centuries, seemingly, and by its end, my racing mind has long since degraded to dust.

A twinge of an unrecognizable feeling strikes my gut, potent and dull all at once. "What the fuck, Gwen?"

A smile, more sickening than sweet, graces her lips. "I missed that," she murmurs. "Doesn't matter, though. You seem pretty happy with her…" She gestures at the window.

That is what it takes to stir the pot of water, raised to a boil over a long-burning fire. My hands just about shake with indignation, my heartbeat quickening. "No, we're miserable and I came here for relationship advice," I snarl.

But inside me, anxiety grows unfettered. Perhaps it's irrational; Autumn's out getting coffee, anyway. She doesn't have to know about Gwen's actions unless I tell her. I can't imagine she'd care that much, but we still need something from Gwen. The more enmity that exists between them, the less likely I am to get that something.

"Look," I say, standing up and grabbing my mask. "If anything worth knowing happens at OsCorp, tell me."

She bobs her head up and down. "Yeah."

I reach for a pen and a scrap of paper on her desk and scrawl down my new phone number. "You can text, you can call, whatever."

Without another word from her, I reposition the mask, lift open the window, and slide out onto the fire escape.

"Autumn?" I call softly.

No reply.

I scowl. Realistically, how long does it take to get a cup of coffee, especially at this hour? I decide to text her.

Finished w/ Gwen. Where r u?

I wait a minute, two, five, ten.

No reply.

Now, I try to call her.

But I'm directed straight to her voicemail. "Hi, you've reached me," her recording says. "Whoever I am. Obviously, I can't come to the phone right now, so leave a message, and I'll get back to you. Eventually."

My pulse speeds up. This isn't like Autumn at all.

Every possible disaster hits my mind at once: OsCorp caught up with her; she went looking for trouble that she couldn't handle; she was hit by a car.

With unimaginable urgency, I shoot a web into the skyline and race back to Headquarters.

The instant my feet hit the ground of the 96th Street subway station, I take off running, shoving my way through crowds of people and hurtling gates. Lights flash around me as people take pictures, which will doubtlessly show up everywhere by the time the sun rises. I reach the "janitor closet" that serves as an entrance to the SHIELD base, and flash the SHIELD badge app on my phone at the disguised scanner.

The door clicks open, and I'm running through the terminal, aware only of the panic pounding in my ears, my chest.

It's my fault, my fault, if something happened. I insisted on that worthless meeting with Gwen, and if Autumn got injured, or worse-

I will never, ever forgive myself.

I arrive at Fury's door, panting not from physical exertion, but from mental fatigue. Frantically, I knock, praying he's there to receive me.

The door is pulled open from the inside, and I'm met with Fury's iron gaze. "Parker," he says, surprised and perplexed all at once.

I rip off my mask, and my words tumble out of my mouth, tripping over each other. "It's Autumn, sir… I can't find her! She's gone, she's…"

"Whoa, slow the hell down," he says calmly, raising his hand so that the palm is flat and level with my face. "What's the problem with Autumn?"

As I open my mouth to speak, I hear an unfamiliar female voice call, "Is everything alright, Director?"

He sighs and steps aside from the doorframe. "Why don't you come in and sit down?"

I oblige, entering the office.

Much to my shock, there's a group of people sitting in the set of black leather lounge chairs in the corner.

And their attention is entirely fixated on me.

Fury retakes his seat and motions for me to sit next to him. "This is Peter Parker," he says, addressing the group. "Better known by his… other identity."

It hits me then, like a rock covered in neon paint pelted at the back of my head.

"Uh…" I hesitate, convinced that no matter how I try to introduce myself to the Avengers, it'll just come across completely lame. "Hi."

"I would like you to meet Natasha Romanov," Fury continues, nodding at a red-haired, expressionless woman to my right. "Steve Rogers," who is very blond and very muscular. "Dr. Bruce Banner," a salt-and-pepper haired man who offers a small smile. "Pepper Potts," who smiles warmly, pushing aside a strand of strawberry-blonde hair. "And Tony Stark."

Tony Stark reclines in his chair, sipping a cup of coffee. "This better be good if you're interrupting our coffee meeting for it."

"Let me handle this, Stark," Fury grumbles, then turns to me. "So, you can't find Legler. We're going to handle this the way you handle losing your phone. Did you see someone forcibly attack or seize her?"

Dimly, I wonder exactly how Fury tends to lose his phone. "No, sir."

"Then where did you last see her?"

"We went to see a contact I know. She works as an intern at OsCorp," I explain.

Steve Rogers frowns. "This is the OsCorp that released the lizards on New York in September, right?"

I nod and continue. "She didn't feel comfortable talking around Autumn, so she asked for privacy. Autumn said she was going to Starbucks, but she didn't come back, and she wasn't returning any of my texts or calls!"

"Excuse me," the red-haired woman, Natasha, cuts in. "What exactly was your relation to this contact?"

I glance down, feeling a twinge in my stomach. "My ex-girlfriend."

She nods, pursing her lips. "And you are currently romantically involved with this Autumn, correct?"

"Uh… yeah," I say sheepishly, somehow burning up and freezing solid at the same time.

"Is it at all possible that she was jealous?"

I hesitate; was Autumn's hostility actually envy?

Natasha leans forward. "Did anything happen at this meeting that might have set Autumn off?"

A tremor wracks my spine. "Um, I- uh, she, you know, um-"

"Spit it out, kid," Stark mutters.

"My ex kissed me," I choke out, "But that was after Autumn left."

My words are met with silence. Then, the woman next to Stark, Pepper, shakes her head, slowly. "Oh, honey."

"Is there any way Autumn saw that kiss?" Natasha asks, continuing with her interrogation.

Initially, I didn't think it was possible, but she has planted the seed of doubt. "I don't know," I shrug. "Um, Gwen- my ex- asked Autumn to leave, so she did."

She tilts her head to the side. "And is it possible that Autumn, in fact, lied and stayed behind to watch?"

The seed unfurls its roots, curling around my ribcage and crushing it inwards. I open my mouth to speak, and then close it.

A satisfied smile curls Natasha's lips. "I mean, that's what I would have done."

"No, you would've put a bullet in the other girl's head," Tony retorts, which earns him a deathly glare from her.

"The curtains weren't drawn…" I trail off. My stomach plunges downwards. "Oh, shit."

"So, she ran off," concludes the doctor, Bruce. Something about his voice suggests he is fairly quiet, soft-spoken at the very least. "Do you have any idea where she went?"

I violently shake my head. "She could be anywhere!"

Beside me, Fury is a statue. "Did you think to use the tracking device on the phone?"

I pause, the fire in my face consuming the rest of me. "No," I mumble.

Fury immediately takes out his phone and begins pressing buttons.

"Glad to know my app's getting so much use," Stark says, and I could die right there, in my chair. Despite being a famed asshole, Tony Stark was one of my childhood idols. I was an engineering geek, and he turned "nerdy" into something vaguely cool, mostly through his various shenanigans that were chronicled by the media.

And I've completely humiliated myself in the five minutes I've spent in front of him.

Banner gives Stark a look. "It's not your app, some twenty-something college intern made it."

Stark just takes another sip of his coffee, and Fury sighs.

"She's on top of the Belmont apartment building on 46th Street," he says, looking up from his phone.

"That was her apartment," I say. "Before."

I leap to my feet, anxious to confront Autumn, as well as to leave before I can further embarrass myself. "Not so fast," Fury thunders at me. "Sit down, Parker."

"But I need to check-" I start, but a one-eyed glare from Fury silences me.

"You really are hopeless, kid," says Stark, looking straight at me for the first time. My cheeks burn in response.

"Tony," Pepper scolds, crossing her arms. "Give him a break."

"Rogers," barks the Director. "I'm sending you after Legler. You'll find her location on the tracking app."

"Yes, sir," he says, rising from his chair. He stands straighter than any pole I've ever seen as he takes Fury's commands.

"She may be aggressive. Be prepared for an assault, but try to reason with her first. We don't know what sort of emotional state she's in. You may need to calm her down before you take her back to Headquarters."

"Should I avoid using force, sir?" he asks, sending a wave of nausea coursing through me.

Before I can protest, Fury answers. "Only use it as a last resort. As I said, she is aggressive, and her claws are pretty damn sharp."

Rogers nods and leaves the room, the door clicking shut behind him. Pepper stands up, stretching her arms out in front of her. "We should probably head back to the Tower now," she says. "Goodnight. We'll be over in the morning."

She, Banner, and Stark file out the door, and Fury turns to Natasha. "You're staying at Headquarters, correct?"

She nods. "I should try and get some rest."

As she walks away, she glances back at me, and I can't tell if it's a look of contempt or a look of pity.

I sigh, dropping my head into my palms, content to never walk beyond the office doors ever again.