Chapter 18
At the Institute...
"What has transpired here?" Sage asks as she enters the infirmary to find Beast laid out, Wolverine with his claws drawn and Storm standing, lightning crackling over her form.
"Check on Hank," Wolverine orders and while the dark-haired woman does that he turns to Storm. "Y'alright darlin?"
Storm nods, her emotions calming but her mind still churning over what Scott/Zod said. Her hands unconsciously cover her stomach. "Yes. I am fine," she manages to say in reply. "But Scott..." she begins to say, her voice sad.
Logan shakes his head. "Ain't Scott any more," he has to sadly say.
"Zod," Storm states firmly.
"Yeah," Logan says, regret in his voice.
"And Clark?" the weather mutant queries after.
"Fortune Cookie had a vision. Said Space Boy was in that Phantom Zone place he told us about and that if he can get out he's on his own about it."
Storm's face pinches with emotion. How on Earth is she telling Martha about this one?
Logan turns to the Institute's resident Doctor. "How ya doin, Hairy?"
"I do not believe anything is broken," Beast replies as Sage aids him to his feet. He had barely registered the fact he wasn't alone before he was taken out. It was that swift. "But I do believe several aspirin for my head would be my recommended prescription," he says, rubbing his pounding head.
"Ain't got time for that," Wolverine has to tell him.
Storm steps forward and taps a few keys on the laptop. Nothing. "Zod was doing something with this laptop," she relays.
"What?"
Storm shakes her head. "Don't know but it seemed important."
"You two get on it," Wolverine orders Beast and Sage. "Meanwhile darlin I need you up top," he says to Storm. "Frosty had her students attacking us and we need to stop it."
"Yes. I don't know why...distraction," the white-haired mutant realises. "It was all a distraction so Zod could..." she points at that laptop. "But why?" she asks, not understanding.
"That's what the geek-duo back there are for. Right now I have got to stop this fight. Like ya said it's a distraction when we need to be tracking down Zod."
Storm nods. Her possibly imminent parenthood can wait. Save the world first. Deal with that later.
New York...
All Spider-Man wanted was to get to the girl he loves but his 6 villainous foes weren't allowing him and because all he wanted was to get to Kitty he was leaving himself too open and it was allowing them to kick his ass all over the place.
As for Kitty, she lies there, a pool of her own blood forming around her, looking very much lifeless...but that would be a misjudgement. She is still alive.
At least inside her mind…
And there stands the cage only it looks ancient. Rusted. As if it will fall apart any second, reflecting just how close 'she' is to being free again.
"So finally come to beg me," the representative of the symbiote, Kitty's spitting image, says to her other half.
On the other side of the cage stands Kitty, her face starkly serious. It is unusual to see such a look on her face. "No," she says simply.
"No?"
The answer clearly confuses Kitty's Other.
"No," Kitty repeats.
"What is wrong with you?! Do you wants us to die?! Because we are. Right now. We're dying. Only by releasing me will we live. Together, at our full strength, we can heal that injury."
"If my only option of stopping myself becoming that monster again is to die you know I would."
The Other rolls her eyes. "Ok, first off that's dumb. We're not a monster. We simply are what we are. Second off, what about lover-boy? Will you let those 6 just kill him?"
Kitty doesn't answer that directly because she doesn't need to. The answer is obvious. "You see I remember all those times you kept claiming I would come and beg you for us to be together again but I realised something."
"Oh really? What?"
"I wasn't the one doing the begging. You were."
"You flatter yourself," the Other growls, showing that Kitty has hit a nerve.
Kitty smirks. "Oh, no, you seem to have somehow forgotten that I really am rather smart. I don't boast about it...much. I do take pride in getting good grades but I like to think I don't rub it in other people's faces."
"You should."
"That's one opinion from a side of me I try and keep in check but back to my point. You were begging because you need me. I do not need you."
"Lies."
Kitty chuckles. "You're the liar," she accuses. "You're a symbiotic lifeform. You can't exist by yourself. You need another living being to bond to and in your case it can't just be anyone. You were made from my blood. It has to be me."
"Yes! Exactly! It does have to be you, why? Because I am you! We're two halves shorn apart. And you think you can live without me Katherine? Remove me and the damage to you would be fatal. Your...our body can no longer survive if we are physically separated."
Kitty nods. "I know," she says with acceptance. Her Other is correct. Her body and the symbiote are now so intertwined that to pull them apart will almost certainly means Kitty's death. And she doesn't want that...and she doesn't just mean to die. "The truth is I didn't want to accept the truth but you were right. I cannot run away from you...and in all honesty I'm not sure I want to."
The Other's eyes light up in intrigue. Is Kitty meaning what she thinks she's meaning?
Kitty rubs her face. It started off as a single thought this. To save Peter she needs the strength that only comes from her other half. That it was time to do what Illyana had been trying to teach her about taking control...but a funny thing happened.
As she lay here on the verge of death her mind began to fill with other thoughts. The ones she has been wrestling with for months. The ones her Other continually confronts her with. Who is she? Who are they? Are they two separate beings? Or one simply torn in half? That being the case are all those dark thoughts and impulses really just the symbiote or it is just a medium for a side of Kitty no-one, including herself, had wanted to admit exists? Are Kitty's temptations to embrace the symbiote really just a desire for herself to be whole again? For her to accept the truth that she and the symbiote really do belong together? For her to accept that she has a darkness that rather than run away from what she really wants is to run towards it.
But what about what Illyana was trying to teach her?
Kitty appreciates everything Illyana tried to do. Really. It all made sense. If the symbiote couldn't be removed, control it but that was based on a lie. A lie Kitty was telling herself over and over in the hope, somehow, it would come true. That somehow everything could go back to the way it was before because that is what everyone wanted and expected of her.
But here's the truth. Nothing can go back to the way it was. Kitty's Other has opened her mind to truths Kitty refused to embrace before.
The first of these truths is that Kitty's Other is not some foreign invading entity. They are not two separate beings. They are One Being. Kitty's Other is the other half of her soul. Her Other had been right along and Kitty had been foolish to be in denial for so long.
It's time. Time to stop fighting the truth...and if there is ever a time to face the truth of yourself surely its when you stand on the threshold of death. It's time to give those questions she was asking their answers...and they will not be the ones most people would think they would be.
But always remember this when you hear those answers. Kitty has had to live with her Other every day for months. Every day having to hear her seductions. Every day having her gnaw away little by little at truths Kitty had held for so long and had believed to be true and replaced with other truths just as valid...or at least they seem to be. Every day weaving her way deeper and deeper into Kitty's body and soul. You don't think those things slowly changed Kitty from within even if it seemed on the surface they hadn't?
With a look of determination Kitty strides forward, grips the bars of the cage door and rips it away. It's an action that surprises her Other. "You were right," she says. "I was in denial. I did want you. I have wanted us to be together again for longer than I care to admit but I was also afraid. Surely you know why."
The Other eyes the doorway before stepping out. Almost. Almost there. "We're not a monster Katherine," she addresses what Kitty is afraid of. "We are what We are. When We're together we simply drop any facade of trying to fit into this world. Of trying to obey its rules, its self-determined morals and ethics.When We are together We are simply true to ourselves."
"I know. I know you're right but I couldn't accept it until now. I could make a lame joke right now about Denial being a river in Egypt."
"You could."
The two actually share a smile with each other at how alike they are sounding.
"In retrospect that whole who is begging who is dumb. It isn't about that."
The Other grins as she can hear what Kitty is thinking. So, so close. "It's about accepting who you are."
"Yes." Kitty looks her Other dead in the eye. "I do want you. I want you so much that it feels wrong on some level."
"But so right on another."
"Because We are One. Fighting you...denying you has been denying myself...and the damning thing is that right now I think I don't even care that some would call us a monster. I want you. I need you. I need to be whole again. Without you I have felt empty...incomplete," Kitty confesses what she has been in denial about. She's felt hollow inside for months and tried to deny why. Tried to come up with any excuse she could think of not to accept the truth and the truth is it was because she and her Other were apart. She can see that so clearly now.
"As have I Katherine. You understand now, don't you. That we belong..."
"Together. That we are two..."
"Halves of one soul."
They gaze longingly into each other's identical faces.
"I'm sorry," Kitty apologises. "Sorry for locking you up. For denying you. For...for freaking out. For trying to live up to everyone's else's expectations of how I was suppose to react. I can only offer a lame excuse that the revelations you brought about what my...our true nature was were a bit of a shock I wasn't ready for."
Her Other grins lopsidedly. "Well I think I get that. Being your other half and all," she drawls.
Kitty laughs. "God it is so absurd that it takes me here, on the verge of death, to accept the simple truth of you and I."
The Other laughs too. It is truly absurd. "Karma can be a bitch but it can also deliver what you didn't know you needed."
"I know what I need. You and only you...and well Peter," she just about manages to remember the boy she loves, which shows how strong her love for him is in in all reality that it can penetrate this fog, this overwhelming pull between the two figures.
Kitty supposes that if people could see her right now they would be shocked at what she is about to do. Everyone looks at her and thinks she so good, sweet and innocent but the truth is she's not. She knows exactly what her Other is, what drives her, what dark impulses guide her heart and right now she doesn't care. All she cares about is filling that hollow space within. Perhaps this is the moment she follows Illyana's example and damns her soul. If this is her Last Temptation then she is about to embrace it willingly with all her heart.
Kitty looks her doppelgänger in the eye. "It's time to be whole again," she decides, the longing for that pouring out desperately.
"Yes," the Other says with the same desperate longing. It's been too long. Far, far too long they've been apart.
Kitty's right hand rises up and her Other raises her left and their palms touch and both shudder in pleasure as the two soul halves begin to reconnect.
Their fingers lock together and both throw their heads back, letting out an almost orgasmic cry. They're almost there.
"Oh God!" Kitty cries. "It's so...so..."
"Good!" the Other roars in pleasure.
"We had been trying to forget."
"But We can never forget."
"We had tried to deny the truth."
"But the truth always prevails in the end."
"Yes," Kitty says in a deep moan as she raises her left hand. Her Other takes it and they lock fingers, both crying out in rapture as their soul stitches back together. "We have missed you…"
"So much!"
"Love!"
"You!"
"So much!"
The two are shaking with desperate need. The need to be together again. To be One again. They pull each other into their embrace, pressing their bodies up against each other as closely as possible as the separation fades piece by piece. Their thoughts turn to the one other thing...the only other thing that can penetrate the fog of their embrace. The only other person who has a grip on their heart.
"Love!"
"Peter!"
"Save!
"Peter!"
"OH! OH GODDD!" Kitty cries out in pure unadulterated bliss as the outline of the two begins to disappear, the two merging into one.
"YES! OH YES!" the Other cries out, caught in the same bliss.
"Together," Kitty gasps, struggling to get words out because 'Kitty' is almost gone now and something...someone else is about to be reborn. "Only together..."
"Are We strong. Only together..."
"Are We whole. Only together..."
"ARE..."
"WE..."
"CARNAGE!"
And standing there in that space no longer are two people but only one. One whole and complete being, her eyes closed, lost in the utter rapture of reuniting her soul. Her eyes snap open, blood red in colour and she laughs. She laughs loud and large and while this may look like Katherine Anne Pryde it's not.
Katherine Anne Pryde is gone. Kitty is gone. Shadowcat is gone. The 'Other' is gone.
There is only One. Both and neither. New and Old. Light and Dark. Contradictions that have only found peace by merging.
And now it's time for the whole world to see what has been reborn…
So to put it mildly this day sucks. For Spider-Man he finds him suspended in mid-air, each limb in a vice-like grip courtesy of Doc Ock's tentacles. Held in the perfect position to be able to see the girl he loves bleed to death. Unsurprisingly he's finally out of jokes.
"Now where were we, Arachnid?" Dr Octopus asks. "Ah, yes I remember. We were about to allow Kraven to finish his Great Hunt."
Nothing. Zip. Zero. Silence. After having to listen to Spider-Man's jokes for years it is almost unnerving not to hear his voice.
Kraven draws a knife(seriously how many of these things does he keep on his person?). "Do not worry about your beloved, Spider-Man," he addresses his foe. "You'll be seeing her again soon enough," he promises.
Then words one would never expect to come from the hero's mouth are spoken. "I am going to kill you," he vows, anger, rage, grief pouring out of every overly calm spoken word.
Kraven actually chuckles. "I know that rage well, Spider-Man. I understand what madness grief can drive you to but I am afraid that is one promise you cannot keep," he informs his prey.
"Just get it over with already," Vulture says impatiently. This has gone on long enough.
Kraven prepares to do just that, drawing the knife back, ready to strike...only to be unable to when his wrist is grabbed by a tendril. A red and black tendril made of a tar-like material.
All eyes shoot to the source...and it is the blood. The pool of Kitty's blood that is now alive, bubbling, churning and standing, yes standing, in the middle of it is said teenage girl, blade still stuck right through her chest.
More red and black tendrils erupt from the pool and strike out at the villains, smashing each one hard and freeing Spider-Man from Doc Ock's grip before they return and start to wrap around the girl, embracing her. One wraps around the handle of the blade in her back and pulls it out.
What one could call pleasurable moans and gasps escape from Kitty's mouth. "Ooh, that felt good," she moans with a large smile, her eyelids fluttering, lost in the moment. "This will feel better," she then goes on to say and then from the practically gaping wound in her chest comes not blood but a torrent of red and black goop which spreads over her body, forming a second skin...and as it spreads she laughs. That horrible, twisted one. It's a laugh of joy, almost orgasmic in its quality.
None of the six villains present have actually had the pleasure of even meeting Venom so are all stunned inert by witnessing this, something none of them have ever seen before.
Eventually the goop settles down and the figure literally pops her joints, bending them at almost unnatural angles. Sharp, talon like fingers, white bug-like eyes reminiscent of Spider-Man's and sharp pointed teeth in the mouth top off the appearance. She cracks her neck. "Now then where were We?" she asks aloud, tapping a talon on her chin as she thinks before snapping her fingers. "Oh yes. We remember."
Her whole demeanour then becomes incredibly dark. "Get the fuck away from our boyfriend!" she snarls.
"What is it?" Electro asks, dumbstruck.
She chortles. "Oh you wish to know Our name? You wish to know whose name you will be screaming as We peel the flesh from your bones and make balloon animals out of your lower intestines?"
'Don't say it. Please don't say it,' Peter silently prays in his head even if he knows that's a hopeless prayer.
"We are that feeling that crawls up your spine just before We tear it out. We are every nightmare you have ever had given form. We are Chaos made flesh." Her arms rise out to her side, her hands clenched into triumphant fists and then she roars her identity to a world that she wants to know that she is coming. "WE ARE CARNAGE!"
…
...
And watching the whole thing is that Entity that is always there. That personification of Life and Death known as Dee Dee to her friends. The dark-haired Goth woman who bears witness when every living thing in the universe is born and when it dies...and honestly this is a unique moment when both things are happening at the same time. What was two has died and been reborn as one. She really must note this down in her diary. Even for her this is something rare and special.
And watch is all she can do. It's not her job to interfere...though there are days when even she wishes she could. Like when that day comes when her sister Fifi...nope. No. She's not going there. It will be horrendous enough as is when it happens but alas happen it must. Her sister needs a reality check. She has already made that choice when she refused to stop it years ago(as humans measure linear time). There are just some days when being an Omnipotent Cosmic Entity is not all one might think it is cracked up to be.
Author's Note: Carnage was always going to return. The choices were did the symbiote simply overwhelm a resisting Kitty or did she give in to the temptations. I went with the latter. In the end you have to remember that the symbiote has been within Kitty for months by this point, gnawing away at her psyche, tempting, taunting, seducing and it's not like Kitty could just walk away and not listen. And if they are two halves of the same soul(I emphasise the IF here because that is something that will have to be settled once and for all at a later date) then inevitably their rejoining would be an extremely pleasurable experience. In either case for right now Kitty and the symbiote and one and the same once again. And ooh, a Death cameo. Missed her lots. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Graduation part 8.
AN1: Hope y'all are still keeping safe and well.