Here's...the final chapter!
Read the notes at the end ;)
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Chapter 15 :
Peter Parker woke up with a start, realizing instantly that he was in a rather familiar place: the Avengers' infirmary.
Moaning, he thumped back on the bed and briefly glanced over the half-open window of the room.
The rain came down fast, strong, constant and there was something blue in the light that filtered weakly through the purple clouds. It seemed to be trapped in a secret world under a dome of water, an autumnal place where time and space did not exist.
The hissing between the pine branches seemed an electrostatic noise.
The boy stood there breathing the sweet scent of the trees and the water beating on the flower beds, trying to understand how the hell he ended up on that bed.
Then, the memories of the previous night all came to him at once, forcing him to put a hand on his head to curb the resulting migraine. It was then that he realized the plaster that covered his left arm, connected to the shoulder with some bandages.
"I must have broken it by fighting Carnage", he realized.
The sound of the door opening attracted his attention.
Carol Danvers, dressed in her Captain Marvel suit, hesitantly entered the room and began to peer at the teenager.
Peter stared at her in turn, starting a competition of glances that lasted for almost a good minute.
"... We should really stop meeting like this", he said with an impertinent smile, using the exact same words that she had addressed to him after their battle with Electro, almost a year earlier.
The woman wrinkled her face in a discontented frown.
"How can he continue to joke even in such a situation?" she thought irritably.
Taking a deep breath, she walked over to the boy's bed and sat down next to him.
"How do you feel?" she asked in a visibly worried tone.
Peter let out a tired sigh.
"As if I had been run over by a Chitauri ship", he admitted. Then, he meet the warm brown eyes of the blonde. "And you?"
"I think I'll have nightmares for a few weeks", the woman muttered, shivering because of everything she had seen when she was under Carnage's control.
Beside her, the vigilante peered at her uneasily. God, he didn't even want to think about how it could have been to enter the mind of a psychopath like Cletus Kasady.
He placed a hand on Carol's, in an attempt to comfort her, but the Avenger's expression didn't change.
They remained silent for a while longer, accompanied only by the low, rhythmic noise of the only clock attached to the clinic wall.
"I'm about to leave Earth", Carol said suddenly.
Peter's heart skipped a beat.
Unconsciously, he tightened his grip on the woman's hand, which certainly didn't go unnoticed by her.
The vigilante looked down, unsure of how to answer to that unexpected statement.
"Is it… is it because of me?" he asked, after a few moments of hesitation.
Carol smiled sadly at him.
"No, it's not your fault", she said, giving him a comforting pat on the good shoulder. "It's just that I've been away from space for several months. And as you know, Earth is not the only planet that needs constant help."
She sighed, turning her gaze towards the window and observing the panorama that stood out beyond that thin glass plate.
"Also ... it'll give me time to think. The meeting with Kasady brought back memories that I hoped to have buried forever", she continued reluctantly.
Peter stared at her sadly, but spoke no word.
Silence reigned in the room. Neither of them seemed willing to resume the discussion, and it started to make Carol uncomfortable.
"Pepper knows", she spat in one breath.
Peter's eyes widened like plates.
"... Oh", was all he managed to say.
Despite her best judgment, the woman found herself chuckling.
"Yes, with all that happened I almost forgot to tell you", she muttered with a slight blush.
"Anyone else?" he asked wearily.
"Bucky", Carol replied, smiling ironically.
Peter nodded to himself. "It doesn't surprise me, they have always been perceptive. How did they take it?"
The woman shrugged. "Bucky took it quite well. Considering all that he and Steve went through, it wasn't a big deal for him."
The boy smiled relieved.
"I'm glad to hear it. What about Pepper?" he asked hesitantly.
The woman began to scratch her head, her face adorned with a puzzled expression.
"We've come to an ... understanding, I think", she replied after a moment of silence.
Peter stared at her dryly. "... I'll talk to her."
"Yes, I think you should", the woman said quickly. After all, the last thing she wanted was to find an entire Iron Legion on her heels once she returned to Earth.
"But ... do I really want to come back?" was the treacherous thought that crossed the heroine's mind, making her jump.
Peter noticed, and looked at her worried. In that moment, the blonde found herself mirrored in the teenager's eyes, so similar to hers ... yet so different at the same time. So full of life.
"I'm sorry", she snapped suddenly, firmly grasping the boy's hand.
Initially surprised by the small outburst, the teenager sent her a gentle smile. "You don't have to apologize to me."
"Actually yes. Yes I have to", Carol retorted, before taking a deep breath. "For what I did ... and what I said. For everything."
Then, slowly, almost hesitantly, she raised her other hand and placed it on the vigilante's cheek.
"Especially ... for what I have to do now", she whispered with a low voice.
Peter's smile remained unchanged. "Okay."
"No, it's not okay", the woman sighed. However, the expression on the boy's face remained the same.
"Yes, it is", he said with a shrug of his good shoulder.
Carol closed her eyes, feeling an unpleasant grasp grip her heart.
"Peter, I ... I'm trying to break up with you."
"I know."
"?!"
Time seemed to stop.
The woman opened her eyes, meeting those of the teenager. He continued to smile and put his right hand on her cheek.
"It's all right", he said with greater emphasis.
Carol opened her mouth wide.
"How can it be all right?" she asked incredulously.
Peter shrugged a second time. "Because I can wait."
The blonde's heart skipped a beat.
She took a deep breath and stared intently at the wall-climber. "I can't ask you to wait, I don't want you to do it."
"There's no need", Peter retorted, maintaining a completely calm tone of voice. "We'll be together in the end."
This time, despite her best efforts to avoid it, the woman broke into a choked laugh. All under the cordial gaze of the arachnid.
After calming down, she took the boy's hand, gently moved it away from her face and said: "I don't believe in fate."
"And until ten years ago I didn't believe in aliens", Peter replied, continuing to smile.
Then, he leaned forward and, before Carol could react, put his lips on hers.
It was a sweet kiss, devoid of malice or resentment. A simple gesture of affection, a greeting and a promise mixed together, something that only she would have been able to interpret.
Initially, the woman was tempted to withdraw. She knew that, if they continued, their separation would be even more difficult. But she didn't come off. She remained motionless, letting the boy deepen the contact. At least she owed him this.
When he broke away, she could barely sustain the bright expression that formed on the teenager's face.
"I want to be many things for you, Carol Danvers. What I don't want to be ... is the kind of man who keeps you on the ground", he said with a de facto tone.
Mentally, the woman let out a resigned sigh.
"God, why does he have to be so damned romantic?" she thought with an ironic smile.
She got out of the bed with a prominent flush and placed a quick kiss on the boy's forehead.
"Take care of yourself, Peter. I'm serious", she ordered with a firm voice.
In response, the wall-climber sent her an impertinent grin.
"I'll do my best", he said with a flirtatious voice.
The woman rolled her eyes and proceeded to leave the room. Not before, however, taking one last look at the vigilante.
When she closed the door, Peter collapsed once more on the mattress of the bed.
"Yes, I can definitely wait", he muttered to himself.
He had so many questions that still ran through his head. How did Cletus get his powers? How did he know so many things about him? What the hell was going on in this city?
Yes, many questions and no answers. But they too could wait.
He turned his gaze towards the ceiling.
It was all quiet. He felt completely at peace.
He didn't know what would happen the next day, and he honestly didn't care. He had fought too much.
He closed his eyes, preparing to sleep. Because ... after all, yes: tomorrow would have been another day.
He barely had time to process that thought. Just a second later, a visibly angry May Parker threw open the infirmary door and entered the room like a fury.
"You have A LOT of explanations to give me, young man", she said coldly.
Peter swallowed in fear.
"Damn..."
XXXX
When someone interesting died, Kyle Aldler, security guard at the New York General Hospital for almost five years, always photographed him.
There had recently been a local news reporter, a beautiful thirty-two year old woman with black hair and light green eyes, who had been pierced through with a sharp object.
Kyle had gone to the morgue at one in the morning, pulled her out of the drawer and sat her down. He had put his arm around her and, while pulling out his cell phone to take a picture of her, he had bent down to simulate a kiss.
Then, just two days earlier, it had been Judge Vernon Claridge's turn.
Kyle had pulled him out of the drawer, put a wig with ringlets on his head, folded his fingers in the shape of a crown, and took a picture of the two of them together.
He would have liked to get a photo of Mayor James Erbert as well, but his body had proved virtually unrecognizable due to the burns.
It was his girlfriend, Amanda, who told him that the body of Cletus Kasady, aka Carnage, who had become the most prolific serial killer in the history of the United States of America, would soon arrive at the morgue.
The news had been talking about him for two days. How the monster who had terrorized New York back in 2011 had emerged as a vengeful fury from the hole in which he had been imprisoned, armed with superpowers and ready to unleash his murderous madness on the poor and helpless citizens of New York. How Spiderman and Captain Marvel managed to stop him before he could turn the whole city into a cemetery.
A definitely compelling story, worthy of a Hollywood film, so much so that in a few hours it had already travelled around the whole world.
And this is why Amanda had asked him to get her a picture of Kasady.
She was a nurse two floors upstairs in the senior ward and had always been a fan of his pictures of famous dead people. Precisely for this reason, she was always the first to which he sent them.
The girl found Kyle funny, and often told him that he should go on television. He too was very fond of her. After all, she was one of the few people in the hospital who had the key to the medicine cabinet, and on Saturday nights she always stole something good for both.
Initially, Kyle had felt rather uncomfortable with the idea of finding himself alone in a room with the body of a monster like Kasady, although he was dead.
When he asked Amanda why the hell she wanted a picture of the killer, she replied: "Serial killers are sexy. They remind me of everything I would be willing to do in order not to be take a picture of him and send it to me by e-mail. Then tell me what you will do to me if I don't undress for you."
Kyle saw no reason to contradict his logic.
In any case, he still had his patrol to do. And then, Cletus Kasady had become a real celebrity, it was certainly worth taking a picture to add to the collection.
Kyle already had bizarre ones, but it seemed right to add one with a serial killer, to show his darker and more serious side. Especially if that serial killer had fucking superpowers!
He went to the lower part of the building that evening, where patients were not allowed to enter.
Kyle thought Kasady was in the morgue, instead he found out that one of the doctors had already started working on him in the autopsy room. However, he had abandoned him to resume the next day.
The guard turned on the lights above the tables, leaving the rest of the room in the dark.
Whoever was working on the killer had covered the body with the sheet before leaving. It was the only body in the room that evening.
The man took a deep breath and lowered the white cloth to his ankles to give him a good look. The chest had been opened, then stitched up with a rough black thread. The incision went down to the pelvic bone.
The dead man had slightly serrated and badly serrated upper teeth. The eyes were closed. He had a strange scar on his forehead.
Kyle grimaced, looked away and started fumbling with the cell phone camera.
Not that the dead made an impression on him. He wasn't even afraid of the dark. If anything about his mother, or when Amanda got angry with him, or, as happened in some of his nightmares, to turn into dust as had happened to his father about seven years ago, during the Snap.
As he mulled over this, his gaze rested once more on the serial killer's face ... and froze.
For a moment, Kyle thought he was hallucinating. Because that corpse ... now had his eyes open.
The guard's heart skipped a beat.
He had seen quite a few dead, but they all had their eyes closed. And when they were open, they had a frothy feel, as if something had curled inside. But these eyes seemed bright and awake.
They were alive, not dead. With a strange cat curiosity.
They closed after a couple of seconds. And then, the chest of the corpse begins to rise and fall, followed by a low and rhythmic hiss.
It was then that Kyle Aldler came to an inevitable conclusion. Cletus Kasady... was not dead at all.
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BOOM!
So, guys, this is the end of THIS story. But don't worry! Because I'm writing...a SEQUEL!
First, however, I want to finish writing Avengers: The King Of Terror, an Avengers and Godzilla crossover in which the Avengers find themselves fighting King Ghidorah. Peter and Carol are a couple in that story too, if you want to check it out ;)
When I'll start the new story, I'll write note here to let you know. It will be also a crossover with other fandoms.
I hope you liked this story, let me know!