A/N: Everyone say 'Thank you, Taylor Swift for getting Ally emotionally unstable enough to finish up this chapter.' But... yeah. Red (Taylor's Version), folklore, and Reputation are now the driving motivations for me.

Chapter Song: 4 Morant by Doja Cat

Headcanon of the Chapter: Jack would be a Doja Cat stan.


Death wasn't accustomed to many, but Danielle sometimes felt as though He might've grown a bit too fond of her by now.

Though, if His idea of a suitable afterlife was to seat her at a small table and place a chess board in front of her surrounded by darkness, He might've had a very construed idea of who she was as a person and what she would've liked to see in Death. Not that she was complaining, death was Death, but a little bit less critical thinking would've been preferred. She didn't want to think too hard on things anymore. It was one of the things she was actually looking forward to when she died; not having to worry.

Now, here she was, in whatever twisted afterlife this was playing chess against... no one.

"I don't know how to play chess," she said to no one in particular as her fingers idly tapped the cross atop the King.

There was a breathy giggle from far away in the darkness that sent chills running down Danielle's spine.

She jumped, spinning around in her seat to try and get a glimpse at who that might've been to no avail. All she saw was darkness.

"Who's there?"


If Peter's shoe tapped against the tile any more, he was sure his duct-taped sole would chisel a hole into the hallway floor.

He couldn't help that he was worried out of his mind. He'd been sitting outside Danielle's hospital room for almost thirteen and a half hours. It would've been fourteen consecutive hours if he hadn't left around seven in the morning to go change from his suit to his regular clothes to actually go inside the hospital after lurking around outside all night.

Karen had called Mr. Stark moments after she'd alerted the paramedics and it was only a few minutes after Peter had arrived at the hospital that the billionaire had called him.

Tony had panicked a bit since he was away on another one of his business trips, but had assured him that Happy would be en route to the hospital Danielle was being treated at. They couldn't exactly transfer Danielle to the Compound where Cho and the rest of the team were at. It would've raised suspicions as to who Danielle was if a quinjet abruptly showed up on the roof of some hospital in Southwest Brooklyn.

Statix was still recovering from his mission in Sokovia, but arrived in record time to the hospital with Happy not far behind him.

Peter had been hugging his knees crouched on the ground when Happy turned to him. "Kid, what happened?" Peter frowned, but didn't answer at first. "Kid," the Head of Security pressed.

"I don't know. I... Everything was on fire and he- he took her. I tried to stop him, but..." he trailed off. All the memories of the night before still fresh in his mind.

The heat of the fire around them on the football field, a strong arm wrapped around his throat as his vision and powers faded away. The feeling of the gun's barrel pressing hard against his temple masking the blinding pain he felt from the asthma kicking in among the plumes of flames and smoke. But even those feelings of pain couldn't top the helplessness he felt while clinging to Danielle's cold and unconscious body in his arms on the docks.

He should've never let Danielle give herself up to save him.

Statix came back down the hallway with a panicked look on his face. "Where's the doctor at anyway? Is she still in surgery?" He asked to no one in particular. "How long has she been here? Do you even know?" That last one was directed at Peter.

"The paramedics brought her here at 10:42 last night. She's been in surgery for over eight hours now," he answered flatly, sniffling a bit.

Happy frowned. "How long have you been here, Pete?"

Peter shrugged. "Since I followed the ambulance here. I left a few hours ago to change," he explained. "They wouldn't let me go in the room and they don't really give me updates since I only said I was a friend from school."

Statix turned to happen then. "You think they'd give updates to family?"

"They're required to, but... Jack," Happy sighed. "She's checked in here as Danielle West. If you ask for an update as Jack Harper-"

"Her identity would be outed- yes, Happy, I know." Statix- Jack ran a hand through his hair, spinning around as though the hallway walls around them would give him an answer. "Where the Hell is Rae?"

Happy shook his head. "Pepper's tried calling her, she's not picking up. Tony traced one of her burner's and it's last signal was pinged somewhere outside Berlin. Clearly, she's got better things to do than be here right now-"

"I don't care what your policies are, you're going to tell me what the Hell is going on with my niece!" A loud shout from a woman down the hall near the nurse's station had all the men turning their heads.

"Ma'am, please, I need to verify identification of your relations to Miss West-" the nurse tried to explain, but the tall, lean woman wasn't having it.

"No," she shut her down. "You're going to tell me where she is and what her status is right now-"

Peter lifted his head from off his knees to get a better look at the nurse's reaction. He could practically sense the fear rolling off the poor woman... Peter actually kinda felt it himself.

"Rae!" Jack shouted out to her.

The woman spun around, her eyes glistening in recognition and relief before she abandoned the nurse at the station and made her way towards them.

"You made it," Happy remarked.

"Caught the Red Eye," she explained with a vague undertone that had Peter wondering whether she stole some kind of rocket to make it all the way from Europe to New York in less than eight hours.

Thinking of it now, she probably might've.

"What the Hell happened?" Miss Sable asked no one in particular. "I was gone for less than a day and a half and then I get an alert that Danielle's school's football field exploded? And now Danielle is in surgery? For what?"

"He shot her," Peter answered from his place on the floor. Miss Sable must not have noticed him crouched down at first, she seemed fairly surprised to see him there. "Arson. He ambushed us at the football game. He took her and then by the time I found her... she'd already lost so much blood."

Peter couldn't even look Danielle's brother or her guardian in the eye as he explained why she was in the room across from them getting poked, prodded and cut open. Why he'd let his partner face Arson in his stead.

"I'm... She gave herself up to save me," Peter admitted, his voice growing hoarse as his eyes remained glued to the tile floors. "I shouldn't have let her go. I shouldn't have let them get away. I shouldn't have ever taken her to that game- I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Hey, hey- Pete," Happy knelt down, blocking his view of Miss Sable and Jack as he tried to get Peter to his feet. "Come on, let's go get some food in your system. Alright?"

Peter nodded, rising to his feet with a slight shake. His legs felt numb as he walked beside Happy down to the food court, partially because he hadn't moved from that spot in hours but he also couldn't really place what he was feeling now as he moved through the halls. His consciousness eventually came back to him when Happy tried to get his attention from across the table they were sitting at.

"Kid, hey, you alright?" He pressed, his eyebrows knit together in worry. Peter went through the motion of nodding. "This isn't your fault."

Peter wanted to roll his eyes. "I was the one who invited her to that stupid game," he explained. "I was the one who let my guard down and let myself get caught by him... then she just offered herself up to him in exchange for me. I don't even know- Why? Why would she do that?"

Happy frowned. "If she hadn't, you'd probably be the one on that operating table," he answered, his eyes trailing along Peter's throat where there were small spots of bruising from where Arson had held him in place.

Peter roughly yanked at the neckline of his shirt to try and cover what Happy had already seen. "It should've been me. I'm her partner, I'm supposed to have her back and I couldn't even defend myself against him-"

"Pete," Happy pressed. "I don't know a whole lot about this vigilante life you and Dani lead. I mean, I... I do the paperwork, I keep track of the sightings, I keep note of who you save and what damages you two cause, but I don't really know what goes on in those streets at night.

"But I do know Danielle," he continued. "I know she can be reckless at times. Stupid, even. She doesn't think through all of her decisions and she's far too selfless for her own good at certain times, but I know she wouldn't have just given herself up to Noah for the Hell of it. She was probably thinking the same thing you are now."

Peter raised an eyebrow, prompting him for the answer.

"That she was being your partner and having your back."

The teenager realized then that Happy was right. Elle wouldn't have just traded herself up for just anyone, she did it for him. But it still didn't change the fact that if given the chance, Peter would switch places with her in a heartbeat.


"Who's there?" Danielle called out to the darkness.

No answer.

The chill in the air didn't leave. Danielle ran a hand over her exposed arm and felt the goosebumps prickled across her skin. Someone or something was there in this void with her and she was determined to figure out what it was because if this really was death, she wanted to know if there was a way out.

Discarding the table and the chess set, she pushed herself to her feet and started walking out into the infinite nothing. She was hoping her eyes would adjust and she'd begin to see better, but after some time, she couldn't even see the small lit up area where the table had been.

"Hello?"

Nothing.

Then there was a small bit of light far off in her peripheral vision. Danielle, not hesitating, started towards it until eventually she found herself walking into three cement walls lit up by a grey unseen light. This was ominous. And weird.

There was another chill down her spine and she spun back to face the darkness only to find a fourth cement wall had appeared. She was blocked into this room.

She tried to see if there was a way she could climb out seeing as when she'd first walked over she'd noticed this room as only a few walls in the darkness. There was a chance she could still use her powers maybe?

But when she looked up, she only saw herself. Or at least a reflection of herself. It looked as though there was a mirror on the roof she hadn't noticed before. Or maybe it, like the wall, hadn't been there before.

What was this?

Danielle took a step to see if the mirrored image followed her action. It did. She took another diagonal step, so did her reflection. Then she stepped back into the center of the room and heard a small splash.

Her eyes darted from the mirror back down to where she'd just stepped in a small puddle. That definitely hadn't been there before.

Danielle's eyes narrowed when she followed the small trail of trickling water coming from the floor. The small trail of water turned into more, turned into suddenly the entire floor being covered in a layer of water... What was happening? What dream was this?

There was a sudden shift in the room and suddenly the water began to rise as it pummeled through unseen holes in the cement walls.

Danielle felt her blood pressure rise with the water as she rushed over to a corner and attempted to climb to no avail. Her arms weren't strong enough to pull herself up the corners and her legs weren't long enough to even allow her to reach.

She pressed her wall against the corner of the room and watched the water continue to rise until it was already up to her mid-thigh. She tired to push herself up using both the walls at her sides, take a page out of Peter's book and pray she could stick, but even then she found herself falling back into the water now at her waist.

Panic bloomed in her chest. Danielle spun back around to the walls corner and attempted to climb once more. Her fingernails catching onto nothing but cement as she made feeble attempts to claw her way out. Eventually, she fell back into the water with a splash with only bloody palms as a result.

Her blood began to stain the water red and flashes of a memory far away sprang to mind, but she brushed it away when she had to begin to kick and push in order to keep her head above the water.

Seeing this as a chance to escape, Danielle swam up against one of the walls and tried to use the water to push her up. Eventually, her bleeding hands were able to touch the mirror above the walls.

The water was already rising up to the top when Danielle began to bang her bloody palms against the glass. The vibrations created a loud pounding sound that echoed across the expanse of the water quickly filling up the room in it's entirety.

The girl whimpered when the glass wouldn't budge and the water was coming up to her throat again.

In a desperate act, Danielle pushed her head underwater and angled her body upside down in the water. One hand steadied her against the wall as she began to kick. Using all her might, she kicked and kicked through the water, but still...

She was running out of options.

She pulled herself back above the water and realize there was only so much room between the water and the mirror. She could see her reflection as she practically pressed herself against the ceiling just to get a few more gasps of air. The last thing she saw before everything was completely submerged was the faintest flicker of gold in her eye as her reflection smiled at her.

Danielle sank back under water, her blood creating the illusion of red fire around her as her tendrils of hair hung above her head like smoke. She held her breath as best she could beneath all the pressure of the water as she tried to look for a way out, only finding walls, mirrors, and blood.

Slowly, she could feel her lungs giving in as her air slipped through her lips and out of the water to nowhere in particular.

In one last hopeless attempt to get out of this, Danielle swam back up to the mirror and began to punch. She punched and punched and punched, the glass vibrating beneath her fist growing bloodier and bloodier with every throw.

She was giving it her all because despite the fact she already knew she was dead, her will to live was just a little bit stronger than her acceptance of her fate.

As Danielle was drawing her arm back for one last punch, she realized then she'd been neglecting her most powerful weapon of all. Her hand froze mid-punch and instead of throwing a punch at the glass, Danielle placed her two bleeding palms against the glass. Carefully, she took a deep breath in and focused on the night in the conference room back at the Compound the night her fears came true. The night she found out she really had killed Rumlow in cold blood. The night she found out her mother's killer was alive and still out in the world.

But she didn't focus on those memories, she focused on the feeling she felt before she'd broken the table later in the evening. She remembered feeling frustrated. Like all that frustration and fear and suspicion and anger and desperation had all just pushed it's way into her chest and in one concentrated blow had just been released through her hands.

Danielle focused on that. She focused on her hands and the way they stung in the water from how raw her skin felt. The pain was distracting, so instead, she just focused on her power. She could feel it building in her chest as the last of her breath left her lips.

And with one push, the water in the room rippled as the glass split.

Everything came crashing down. It was as though Danielle's concept of up and down had been flipped upside down as her and the water suddenly fell through the broken glass from the cement room. Danielle found herself falling through an infinite darkness before her blistered hands caught her on her hands and knees against a bed of hard branches with a harsh crunch.

Danielle breaths were rapid and short as she gasped for the air she'd been deprived of. Her wet hair was suddenly dry as it created a curtain around her face blocking her view of her surroundings and as Danielle slowly became aware of this new environment, she heard that same breathy giggle echo in the dark forest around her.

Give up, the voice taunted her from the far away tree trunks and branches up above her that blocked her view of the sun.

"Who's there?" Danielle replied to the voice as she pushed herself up to her feet on wobbly knees.

The chill that ran down her spine this time didn't dispel her, but whoever the Hell was doing this sure was starting to piss her off.


"Peter!"

The teen hadn't realized he'd been napping for some time until the sound of his Aunt May broke him from his rest. He was up on his feet pushing away from the chair he'd been slumped in the blink of an eye.

May came rushing forward, her arms coming up to wrap around him pulling him in for a tight hug. She'd done the same thing after he'd gotten off the bus following what had happened in DC. He could feel all her worry dissipate into the hug and Peter couldn't help but feel guilty for not calling her earlier to let her know he'd made it out of the game unharmed... at least for the most part.

"Are you okay?" She asked, pulling him away, but keeping him at arm's length with her hands on his biceps gripping him as though if she let go he'd disappear again. "I- I was at work and I saw the news and you didn't come home. The school called and said you were one of the few students who were still counted as missing when they did a headcount."

"I'm sorry. I should've called," Peter admitted. "I thought maybe Ned would tell you, but I... I should've been the one to tell you I made it out."

"I could barely sleep last night, Peter. I was up at that field all night looking for... for any sign of you or the... the suit-" her voice cracked and this time Peter was the one to initiate the hug as he held onto his poor Aunt. "I thought I'd lost you, too."

Her words struck a chord with the teenage boy. He couldn't imagine leaving May all alone. First his parents, then Uncle Ben, then she'd lose him, too...

"I should've called," Peter hiccupped into her shoulder as he fought the urge to cry with her. "I'm sorry for not calling."

"It's okay," she eventually sniffled as she pulled away once more. Peter held still as his Aunt ran her hands along his face and wiped under his eyes. "I'm okay if you're okay."

Standing in May's embrace with her hands on his face, he replayed her words in his head and thought maybe that was what Danielle had felt when she gave herself in exchange for him. He still remembered what she'd said to Arson back at the building fire when they'd first discovered his identity.

"Leave him out of this," Danielle had told Arson as Peter laid on the floor, disgruntled from his loss of abilities. "I'll tell you everything that happened that day in Lagos if you let him go."

Peter remembered the way he'd offered to let her go if she left him there to die... and she'd said no. No, she hadn't said no. She'd said, "Never."

I'm okay if you're okay.

Peter wasn't feeling okay right now with his partner half-dead in the operating room across the hall.

"Any updates?" Peter turned his head slightly to see Danielle's brother jumping to his feet as Miss Sable approached.

The woman frowned and Peter immediately knew that couldn't be a good sign. "The nurse could only give me so much. She said Danielle's status is fluctuating. They know that the bullet went straight through and didn't hit anything vital- which is a miracle in itself considering the area the bastard aimed in," she explained.

"Wait, if nothing's wrong then why is it taking so long?" Peter couldn't help but ask from where he stood further away at his Aunt's side.

"Because there's nothing wrong with her, but she's..." she trailed off for a second. "She keeps flat-lining and they can't explain why. I had to bribe the nurse to give me details and apparently the kid just stopped breathing earlier." Everyone in the hallway collectively frowned in confusion at this new detail.

"On her own accord?" May uttered in disbelief. "She just made herself stop breathing even though nothing is wrong with her?"

Happy frowned. "I hate to say this, but we may have to consider what this means for her-"

"No," Jack interrupted him with a harsh glare. "No."

"Harper," Miss Sable tried, but he wasn't having it.

"No. This has nothing to do with... with Her, okay? Danielle told me that she'd killed that thing inside of her after what happened at the Raft. There's no way it could've come back," Jack shook his head. "No. There's no way."

That thing. Why did this all sound so familiar to Peter?

I have a monster inside of me. I don't know who She is or what She is, but... She's powerful, and She's uncontrollable, and She wants to take over my mind and destroy... everything.

Those were the words Danielle had used to describe whatever Jack, Happy, and Miss Sable were referring to.

I had to kill myself in order to keep Her at bay, and as a result... I lost a piece of myself. A piece of my powers. A piece of my control. A piece of my mind...

"We have to consider the possibility as a worse case scenario-" Miss Sable tried to reason with the Avenger.

"Absolutely not!" Statix snapped, Peter putting himself between his Aunt and Danielle's brother upon noticing the lights in the hallway beginning to flicker as his anger and frustration grew. "You said so yourself, she's fine. The bullet went through and right now she's just... her body is working through some kinks, but other than that, Danielle is fine."

Happy reached out to the Avenger, but he only flinched away. "Jack-"

"My sister is fine," he practically growled. "She has to be fine. She has to be fine."

Peter watched as Jack then stormed off down the way Miss Sable had come, Danielle's guardian peeling away from the group to rush after Danielle's brother.

It was weird seeing these people in Danielle's life falling apart without her... All because she traded her life for his.

Peter couldn't help but wondering if he was really worth it.


"Who's there?!" Danielle raised her voice as she steadied herself against the bed of branch at the bottom of a towering tree. One minute she was breaking the mirror trapping her in a water-filled room made of cement and now... now she was in some weird, foggy forest.

Still, there was no answer from whatever ominous presence was giggling up in the tree branches looking down on her.

Danielle felt her frustration growing. She didn't appreciate being drowned and then dropped into this... this Purgatory. "Who's-" Danielle opened her mouth to confront whoever was out there once more, but when she'd taken a step forward, her ankle was pulled back.

The brunette glanced down at her feet and realized what had pulled her back... a branch.

When Danielle tried to yank her ankle out of the grip the branch had on her ankle, it didn't budge. She tried again and still nothing... Then it yanked back.

"What the- gah!" A sharp pain erupted in her leg as the branch tightened it's grip on her ankle, the root even beginning to grow as it twisted up from ankle around her calf.

Panicking, Danielle reached down and physically ripped the branch from off her leg and stumbled away only to fall on her ass.

When she tried to push herself away, more branches shot out and yanked at her ankles once more, this time gripping her tight and yanking her back towards the tree. Danielle screamed, when she tried to rip at the branches, more shot out to grab at her wrists and wrap up her arms.

The teenage girl tried to writhe and wriggle out of the grasp of the branches, but the immobilized her, wounding her up in a tight wooden cocoon to the point where it was getting harder and harder for her to move or even get out a breath.

Focus.

She told herself.

Just breathe. Focus.

Danielle closed her eyes and focused. Just like she had under the water in that room with the mirror and just like she had to do to make it out of this now.

She focused all of that pint of rage, frustration and energy. She could feel it rolling off her skin as it crawled through her fingers, her feet, her arms, legs, following up and down where the branches are up until it reached her chest.

Then it exploded.

The branches flew off of her body as the force of Danielle burst, the sound of it echoing through the rest of the forest as if it were a warning.

Danielle fell to her knees to catch her breath when she heard it again. That fucking laugh.

"Who are you?!" Danielle screamed as she pushed herself back to her feet, whipping around at whoever was out there. "What do you want?! What do you- oomph!"

The wind was knocked out of Danielle when she was suddenly struck in the chest and thrown against the trunk of a tree. But when she fell from the tree trunk, she found herself back at the table in a chair.

"What I want?" the voice from the forest was there then, right across from her and that stupid chess board.

Danielle narrowed her eyes, but she couldn't make a figure out in the darkness... until She made herself known.

A blonde woman wearing her face leaned forward. Danielle's blood ran cold and her eyes widened upon realization of who this Twin was. What She was.

Carefully, the Entity plucked the King piece from off the board and held it up between her fingers. "I just want to talk," she answered smugly with a smile that sent those chills down Danielle's spine.


"It was supposed to be a date," Peter muttered into his clasped hands as he stayed seated in the chair across the hall from where Danielle was.

May turned to her nephew from where she sat beside him. "What?"

Peter cleared his throat. "I... I asked her on a date... sorta," he clarified, his eyes still glued to the doors to her room. "She was just so sad after what happened with... with him and so I asked her to go to the game with me to take her mind off things. She should've never been there, May. This is all my fault."

"Peter," May reached out and took his hand in hers, squeezing it firmly. "This isn't anyone's fault but that fire... guy, okay? You did a good thing by trying to cheer Danielle up, I'm sure she appreciates everything you do for her."

Peter shook his head. "No, no, you don't understand. He had me," he tried to explain. "Noah- Arson- he had me. I was so worried he'd get to Danielle so I thought I'd try to take him out before he could get to her, but I underestimated him. He- he got me and then Danielle... She said she'd give herself up if he let me go. She gave herself up so he'd let me go and I... Why would she do that, May? After all the trouble I went through to keep her safe and have her back, why would she just give herself up like that? Now, she's here."

"Honey," he felt his Aunt tug on his hand, squeezing just a little tighter. "I know that's what you're thinking, but what happened to Danielle was not your fault. You did your best to keep her safe, maybe she was doing what she thought was best to keep you safe."

Peter bowed his head between his knees, May's free hand raking through his hair. He wanted to cry, but he only held his Aunt's hand tighter.

"For Danielle West?"

Peter's head snapped up to attention at the sound of the doctor approaching in scrubs with a clipboard in his hands. Happy and Miss Sable moved in, Jack must've still been out, though Peter imagined he was making himself scarce. It would've been a little hard to explain why an Avenger was worrying over a random teenage girl who washed up at the ports with a gunshot wound.

"Yes," Miss Sable answered. "How is she?"

Peter rose to his feet, anticipating the answer with his hand clutched in his Aunt's grip. He worried he might've crushed her hand if he wasn't so aware of her touch keeping him anchored to reality as he held his breath.

"She's stable," the doctor answered. "We have her on fluids and her body is recovering from whatever trauma occurred following the gunshot and the fall in the Hudson. But... she'll make a full recovery and could probably be walking out of here in a day or two at her rate."

Peter let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding since he first let go of Danielle so the paramedics could take her.

She was going to be okay. Danielle was going to be okay.

"Which one of you is her guardian?" The doctor pressed.

"Me," Miss Sable stepped forward.

"We're gonna have you fill out some paperwork for her discharge and Miss West is allowed a few visitors at a time, but I advise she be left alone for the most part. She needs her rest." The last comment was directed to everyone in the hallway, but May took it upon herself to target it towards her nephew.

"And so do you," May squeezed Peter's hand and nudged his arm. "When was the last time you got sleep, huh? Look at your eyes-"

"May, I'm fine," Peter had to swat away his Aunt's free hand as it came up to try and wipe the bottom of his eyes where he was sure he had dark bags. "I wanna see Elle-"

"She's not going anywhere. You, however, are dead on your feet," May pressed. "We're going home and you're getting rest."

Peter opened his mouth to try and argue, but all that came out was a yawn that nearly knocked him off his feet. Maybe he hadn't realized just how exhausted he was now that all that pent up anxiety was set aside knowing Danielle was safe. "Okay," the teen finally relented.


Danielle sat back, staring intently at the nearly identical woman sitting across from her. Her fingers clenching and unclenching as she tried to gauge what to do next, what she could do next.

Clearly, this wasn't reality. This was just like before where it was all in her head. It was almost exactly like last time where the Entity had everything in Her control. The environment, the scene, the props, the rules... her mind.

Danielle was able to get out last time with pure will and a knife... but she doubted she would be able to kill herself with any of the chess pieces laid out for her. Maybe she could break off a piece of wood from the chair she was sitting on. Or she could bang her head really hard on the corner of the table. Had anyone ever killed themselves by banging their head too hard on a table edge-?

"I can practically hear you trying to figure out a way out of this," the Entity interrupted her thought process.

Danielle's eyes snapped back to meet her striking glare. She was caught, and stuck in whatever this little mind-prison was. "...What do you want from me?"

"Like I said before, I just want to talk," She explained, slowly adjusting herself in her seat to get her closer to the table, Danielle immediately recoiling in response. "I'm not going to hurt you... At least, that's not my intention with you, Danielle."

"You say that like it holds any weight," the teenager shot back. "You really think I'd trust anything you say?"

The Entity didn't seem all too affected by Danielle's harsh words. The girl watched as She merely sat back and shrugged. "When have I ever lied to you?"

"I..." Danielle's words were lost on her. Suddenly, all her incidents with the Entity were at the forefront of her mind, all Her outbursts, all Her chaos, all Her anger and vengeance... but none Danielle could recall of Her ever lying.

Across from her, the Entity smirked, knowing She had the girl backed into a corner like trapping prey. She had Danielle exactly where She wanted her. "Let's talk, Danielle."

"About?"

"Our living arrangements," the Entity answered, crossing her arms over her chest. Without lifting a finger, a pawn near the right side of the board moved forward towards Danielle's side.

Danielle glanced between the board and the Entity, confused. She hadn't played chess in months, and she certainly wasn't any good at it. "I'm not giving you control of my mind," Danielle replied, surprisingly calm as she took a pawn on the left side of her board to move forward with her fingers.

"You will have to... eventually," the Entity retorted ominously, the second pawn across the board moving forward a spot without being touched.

Danielle furrowed her eyebrows, her hand pausing just before it reached one of the pawns. "'Eventually?'"

The Entity smirked slightly, but no ounce of humor was hidden behind those glistening eyes. "You didn't think you actually had a choice, did you?" Danielle felt her skin pinprick with the hundreds of thousands goosebumps that rose across her arms at the Entity's choice of words and the tone of which she said them. "Danielle, you are apart of something so much greater than what you can possibly comprehend. You can barely perceive me, what makes you think you're ready to grasp the reality of the situation being presented before your eyes?"

Danielle shifted back into her seat, her eyes wide as they stayed glued to the unmoved pieces on the chess board. Two moves in and she was already beat, she could feel it. "...Why are you talking to me about this?"

"Because I want your mind and you want..." the Entity trailed off, her fingers reaching out to pluck the King from off of Danielle's side of the board, pinching it between her index and thumb fingers. "...His safety."

"His...?" Danielle trailed off, unsure of what the King in their chess game had to do with-

"Him," the Entity reiterated as she glared at the piece. "The little twerp who swings from webs like an insect that you so... pathetically enjoy the company of."

Then, it all fell into place.

Danielle's hand shot out and her powers latched around the King piece in the Entity's fingers before she drew it back into her palm ferociously, holding it as though she were gripping Peter himself.

"Leave him out of this," Danielle seethed.

The Entity rolled her eyes. "I don't see why you've become so attached to the teenage boy. With our power, we could bring cosmic entities to their knees before us and you choose... Peter Parker?"

Danielle's teeth grit at the suggestive tone of which the Entity held when discussing Peter. Danielle hated that She knew who he was. She hated that the one person Danielle wanted to protect the most in her life from the demon inside her skull was now the prime target.

Sensing the affect Her words had on the teenager, the Entity's smirk was now a full-blown grin as she leaned forward against the chess board, her eyes twinkling with anticipation. "You know, I could very easily destroy every little part of your life. Blow up your school by accident. Lose control, kill half your little Avenging buddies... But something tells me nothing would hurt quite like peeling like the flesh off of Peter Parker's bones with your bare hands while I make you watch."

Danielle abruptly stood from her seat, her eyes glowing a bright gold as her anger burned to the surface. "If you think for one second I'd ever let you have so much as a chance at making us snap-"

"Oh, but it's almost guaranteed with us, isn't it? Our powers are fluid, transparent... fluctuating at a rate not even I can control at times. And don't think I haven't noticed you so subtly holding back from what you're truly capable of," the Entity quipped, rising to Her feet in a similar fashion before raising a hand and watching the King piece clutched in Danielle's hand slither from her grip and float back into the palm of her hand as though it was delivered. "The girl who could lift a meteor dwindled down to the girl who can barely keep a single boy safe..."

Danielle glared at the Entity, watching as she dragged a nail down the length of the King piece. Danielle could hear the projections of Peter's screams of gut-wrenching pain echoing through the dark cataclysm around them. She flinched.

"Whenever you're back out in the world, I want you to remember what you chose here today," the Entity told the girl as she slowly pinched the top of the King's piece. Peter's screams growing louder and louder. Danielle wanted to cover her ears. She knew it wasn't real, that it was all in her head. A manipulation created by the Entity to get her to cooperate. But... it sounded real... His pain could be real. "I'm not going to particularly enjoy killing Mr. Parker, but I already told you... I can't let anyone or anything stand in the way of my mission. Even love-"

"No!" Danielle gasped through her ragged breaths and constricting chest as it grew harder and harder to maintain her composure as she stood against a Goddess. "Don't touch him. What... what do you want? We can deal with this without you reverting to killing people."

"We already talked about this and clearly you're not interested on what I have to say-"

"I am!" She abruptly interjected, surprising herself and even the Entity. "Whatever you want, we can come to an agreement."

In that moment, standing across from the consciousness of the vessel She was currently residing in, the Entity realized She recognized what She was manipulating. What that fiery feeling She felt while tucked away in the nooks and crannies of Danielle Harper's mind. The ecstatic rush in her veins, the quiver in her heart, the flutter in her chest, and the wind that brushed her skin... It was love.

Danielle Harper was hopelessly, unequivocally, and boundlessly in love with Peter Parker... and the Entity knew it would be the poor girl's demise.

"Alright..." the Entity replied simply. "Let's negotiate then, shall we?"


"Do we have a deal?"

...

"I need to hear you say the word, Danielle."

...

"...Yes."

Danielle awoke with a strangled gasp, shooting up from lying down and coughing on how quick and sharp that ragged breath had felt going down her throat so suddenly. She was still heaving and gasping for air when two bodies came bursting into the room at the sound of commotion.

The first person Danielle recognized was her brother... the other was a pale-haired woman Danielle couldn't quite place just yet as she struggled to put reality back together right before her eyes after being displaced for so long.

"Woah, woah, woah, woah-" Jack rushed to her side and was immediately patting her back to get her breathing back down to normal. "Take it easy. Breathe in and out, deep breaths. Don't panic, just focus on getting your breathing back to normal."

Danielle coughed, but did as he said. She had so many questions, but she knew she couldn't ask any of them if she was too busy coughing up a lung.

"Rae- get her some water!" Jack snapped at the woman over his shoulder. Before Danielle could protest, a cup of water was placed in front of her face and lowered to graze her lips. Tentatively, the girl took the cup and pushed her face up to drink. It hurt going down her throat and she couldn't help but wince in pain before retracting away from the cup. "Sorry. Your throat's going to hurt for a while."

"'s what happens when you nearly drown," the woman behind her brother- Rae- muttered almost bitterly. Danielle spared her a glance from over her brother's shoulder and could see how pissed she looked.

Jack barely turned his head in her direction. "Cool it." Rae seemed to take the hint and turned her withering glare in the direction of the window, her arms crossed over her chest. Danielle could see her nails biting into her arms as if they were holding her to reality so not to completely bite Danielle's head off.

The teen girl sat back a little so not to further antagonize the woman on the other side of the room.

Probably sensing she was making things tense in the room, Rae abruptly pushed herself off the wall and stormed out of the room. "I'll call Tony and update him on her status," she called over her shoulder just before the door shut behind her.

After Rae was gone, Danielle felt herself physically deflate. Danielle wanted to disappear into the sheets of her hospital bed. She hates me.

As if he'd been reading her thoughts, Jack turned back to his sister. "She's not mad at you," he assured her. "She's just pissed she wasn't there to stop it. All of us are."

Danielle shook her head, wanting to tell him that it wasn't his fault, it wasn't anyone's fault. She couldn't even be bothered to blame Noah, no matter how much she knew she should've.

"How are you feeling?" Jack pressed as he shifted his weight against the edge of her bed. "You were in and out of surgery for the past day and a half... You've been passed out for another day on top of that, but the doctors say you're making a full recovery. I think your healing finally kicked in at the last second to save your ass."

For some reason Danielle couldn't really pinpoint, she felt a wave of vertigo wash over her as there was something significant about her healing she should've remembered but just... couldn't put her finger on.

"Where-" Danielle tried to speak, but the burning sensation in her throat caught on her words which launched her into a small coughing frenzy. Jack was quick on his feet and grabbed the cup of water on the nightstand and held it up for her again. After calming down from the coughing, Danielle was able to continue what she was trying to say before. "Where's Peter? Is he..." she coughed. "Is he okay?"

Jack looked like he wanted to roll his eyes, but ultimately decided to humor his sister. "He's fine. He left back home with his Aunt yesterday, but he visited earlier this morning."

Danielle furrowed her eyebrows. "He... he stayed here all this time?"

"Dani, he was the one who found you. He also didn't leave until his Aunt and Happy had to practically drag him out," Jack said, a tone of disdain laced in there for good measure just in case it wasn't clear enough from his facial expressions just how much he clearly wasn't Peter's biggest fan. "But other than that, yes, the kid's fine."

Danielle smirked slightly, amused by Jack's antics. "Thank you," she said in her little hoarse voice. "So... when can I leave?"

Jack's frowned deepened. "You just got shot and left for dead in the Hudson and you think you're ready to leave already?"

"You said my healing kicked in-"

"Doesn't mean you're ready to leave the hospital after a day-"

"And what happens if we stay longer and the nurses start to notice the bullet hole in my stomach has somehow magically vanished after a few days?" she prompted her brother with an innocent little grin. Jack stammered for a witty retort, but from the look on his face she knew he had nothing. "So... are you signing my discharge papers?"

Jack slumped back in his chair with a soft chuckle. "Or we could always pull straws to see who has to go ask your... technical legal guardian out there," he said with a suggestive little wiggle of his eyebrows, gesturing towards the door Rae had just left through.

Danielle's grin immediately fell. "Maybe we could just stay here for... for a few days," she practically whimpered as she pressed herself back against her bed, pulling at the sheets to get more comfortable and wincing in pain at the movement.

Jack actually managed to laugh full-heartedly at that one and for a moment in time, the Harper Siblings were able to sit back and relish in the four walls of some hospital in Southern New York City.

Jack's flight plans hidden from his sister. Danielle's feelings for Peter hidden from her brother. And the unspoken memories of a deal struck lingering in the back of Danielle's mind in a place she'd never be able to reach again until the time was right.

For a moment in time...