Snuggles The Symbiote

Ashley was pacing back and forth in the Wards HQ mumbling and grumbling and muttering in impotent anger.

She'd tried some breathing exercises, but they hadn't worked and she'd given up after an hour of trying to calm down.

After Spider-Man crashed into the meeting, which had obviously been rescheduled, there was sort of a whirlwind of events as we relocated, talked to some people—She-Hulk, or rather, Ms. Walters, called in Captain America since he has a history with HYDRA and these specific assholes in particular.

The entire time Ashley had been fuming mad, but...

The man, Captain America, had set Ashley down and explained that she did not want to see what the Lazarus formula did to someone who'd been dead for a while, that he'd seen it done to a friend of his, and that she did not need to see her mother like that. He promised that he'd handle it, and he'd talk to Doctor Strange who knew spells that could put someone in that state back to rest, but...

Ashley hadn't calmed down. She'd only quieted down until we got home.

I was hoping she'd calm down enough that I could talk to her, but it was looking like I'd have to make the first move.

The first stumbling block was when she didn't notice me getting in front of her and ran right into me. The bad news is she stumbled back and fell on her butt. The good news was that she wasn't mumbling anymore.

"Sorry," she said while pushing herself up. I kneeled down to her.

"Ashley, are you okay?" ...Not the best way to start this... Are there classes for parenting? Or handling children?

At first, Ashley glared at me like I'd asked the most stupid question imaginable. she opened her mouth, looking like she was about to shout, but choked on whatever she was about to say. She closed her mouth and her face seemed to deflate. Her eyes widened and watered and she hiccupped out a drawn-out "N-no~o~o!"

It was like a dam burst. She was crying worse than... I don't think I've ever seen her cry this badly. I'd seen her cry a little when she was really upset. On Krakoa or in the graveyard, but this was, this was...

You know like in cartoons where someone is just wailing, opened mouth, while rivers of tears stream down their faces and sometimes mixed with drool or mucus? While shaking like a leaf in a hurricane and periodically gasping for air?

I didn't know what else to do so I just held her. For ten minutes I held her while she let it all out crying into my shoulder. When she started to ease off, I rubbed her back and patted her a few times. "It's gonna be okay."

Ashley, face still buried in my shoulder, sniffed. "No, it's not..." She said in the weakest and most pathetic voice I'd ever heard from her. "It's never gonna be okay... "

"Ashley, they're gonna take care of it, it's... Not..." I sighed. "No, I don't believe that either. But... You heard what... Ashley, you don't... You don't want to see your mother like that."

"Taylor, Captain America donated his codices to, to the bait," Ashley explained. "I have some of his memories, I know exactly what... I need to do... Something. I need to be there.

"Be there?"

"When they find her, when they do the thing to... Put her back the way she's supposed to be." Ashley sounded like she was in physical pain saying that. "...This is, this is super... Super messed up, but... Captain America's friend could talk when she was brought back with the Lazarus formula. She was in horrible pain but she could remember everything... I feel so terrible and selfish and evil and I kind of hate myself for saying this, but I need to be there because this might be my only chance to say goodbye. My only chance since it's... It's kind of my fault she..." She gulped.

"...I'm a bad person. Mommy's gotta be in horrible pain and all I can think about is talking to her one last time and... That's why I can't lift Mjolnir, that's why I suck as a superhero, that's—"

"Ashley," I said sternly. "You are not a bad person." I took a deep breath. "My mom died in a car accident. Texting while driving, apparently she was trying to text me." I sighed. "Some people tried to make me feel that meant it was my fault. Took me some time to... I'm lying, I'm still not to terms with it. If I was in your shoes."

If I could have one last conversation with my mom...

"I'd feel the same way you do."

"Yeah, I personally have some questions I need answers for from someone who isn't here anymore," came a voice from behind us which almost made me jump. "I imagine most people would feel the way you do."

I turned around to see Tattletale... Sorry, Lisa, just sort of standing there in her civilian clothes.

"How long have you been there?" I asked.

"The entire time," the blonde deadpanned. "I sort of live here now, part of being a probationary Ward with no legal guardians... Even though I'm legally emancipated and have my GED... When the tiny Lovecraftian abomination is pacing back and forth grumbling angrily in the place where I live I think that makes it my business."

"...Sorry," Ashley mumbled.

"So... what are we gonna do?"

"What?" Ashley and I said simultaneously.

"We've got a very rare opportunity here," she explained, "to get the kid some much-needed closure that most people never get, and the only thing stopping you is some grown-ups telling you 'no' and that they've got it handled. You," she pointed to me, "have issues with authority and have already decided that you're willing to kill if it means the kid gets what she needs, and you," she pointed to Ashley, "respect the law and authority only insofar as it can be a tool to help people and honestly don't give a fuck about it other than that..."

She cracked his neck. "I, meanwhile, have an incredibly lax probation because I turned over a ridiculous amount of dirt on my former employer and because I have enough evidence combined in three separate off-site backups to not only get Ms. Piggy fired but probably arrested, which she doesn't know about but the Pagan Trickster God that's been screwing over the PRT on Wards contracts for the last few months does."

"...I knew he was Loki," Ashley grumbled. Well, that's something to deal with later.

"So, between that and the kind of bullshit that you two can get away with because of the aforementioned contracts... Are you gonna let that opportunity pass, or...?"

...She was right about something. I was a little concerned about her choice of wording, but I'd made my decisions regarding how to take care of Ashley, which meant...

"Give me a minute to change my shirt, then we'll get going."