answers to reviewers questions or statements:
Omni-Creator Kami of Anime: Some stories I've made chapters in advance, others I just make the chapter the same day it's posted. It varies.
Adtr509: Not as long as you think.
RubixJr: This early on, who can say? Maybe all those years as an assassin, the murder, torture, and experimentation on his body, it's all catching up to him and his mind is breaking apart at the seams because of it.
Harbinger of Kaos: Yeah, Talia's in for a big surprise when she and Peter get back to the house.
DxD-Supreme: It's not the Void. It's something more simple.
Reverse's Archive: Won't be too long before Peter's mental health fractures even further.
pokeriks18: Yes the GoT story is still ongoing, just haven't found time to update it is all.
Reverse: We'll be seeing hints of what it is that's affecting poor Peter.
I am vegito: Oh yeah.
darthwolf: Yeah Peter should have gotten help a long time ago but even that may not habe been be enough to stop what's to come.
Devilboy101: He's long since gone insane, it's just getting progressively worse.
CRUDEN: At this point, who can say? But we'll be finding out what has led to Peter's decline in mental stability.
Kai: Peter's apparent mutations will play a roll in his slow descent into insanity.
Guest:Well seeing how Talia is like in the comics and in various other media, she never struck me as someone that's well loved by Ra's men given how on several occasions she'll outright turn on Ra's to aid Batman. that's bound to leave her in a bad light for a good majority of the League's men. And comics Nyssa always struck me as someone that seems to follow Ra's more closely in terms of world views so they'd naturally flock to him while the rest would either join up with another faction, like they would with Cain, or go rogue like Bane and Deathstroke have, leaving Talia with maybe the men that Ra's has assigned her personally. Yeah, Peter's reaction to Damian will be... interesting.
Nomad98: Copperhead from the Arkham verse is someone I've been considering for a bit.
superpirece: And it'll only get worse.
jtcookie96: The reason behind Peter's mental degradation will slowly revealed as the story goes on.
Disclaimer: I don't own any Marvel or DC characters seen, mentioned or used.
When Talia first saw Laura Kinney, she knew the woman was a force of nature that was not to be trifled with.
She had the same air of lethality around her as Shiva did, but it also possessed something more akin to a wolf where's Shiva was like a deadly serpent. Her arms were lean with muscle as were legs and the mentioning of 'claws' by Peter had peeked her interest and caused her to keep a wary eye on the woman's hands.
"How'd you meet Peter?" Talia asked as she sat in the front of Laura's truck while Peter sat in the back, apparently asleep after Laura gave him something when he started to complain about a headache.
"Through my dad" Laura answered as she carefully drove the three of them out of town and on to the road that would lead her to Peter's house "He met my dad when he operated in South America and I guess he impressed the man enough to take him on with his... crew... squad... group... thing"
"Your father was a mercenary?" Talia guessed.
"Something like that" Laura nodded.
"He ever take you with him?" Talia questioned as Laura drove them over the same bridge she and Peter walked across earlier.
"A few" Laura admitted with a nod as a annoyed look crossed her face "But 'daddy dearest' thought I was too young to be involved in the shit he dealt with and kept me home or back at whatever base we were using at the time"
"That must've been frustrating" Talia stated.
"It was..." Laura nodded before a coy grin grew on her face "Luckily Pete back there helped make the wait... fun"
"Fun?" Talia said as an edge entered her voice and she gave Laura a sharp look "What sort of fun are you referring to young lady?"
"What kind do you think?" Laura asked with an eye roll "The kind that involves me riding him and he finishes either inside me, on my face, or on my ass"
Talia gaped at the crude remark while Laura broke into a fit of laughter as she came up on the trail that would take them up to Peter's house. Said man was still blissfully asleep in the back, not that Laura was surprised, she slipped him enough concentrated tranquilizer to keep him down for the next two days while she made a few calls about Peter's... altered sense of reality.
"You and Peter..." Talia said with shock as her eyes flickered back and forth between Laura and Peter.
She shouldn't be surprised, realistically Peter was bound to come into contact and engage in a inmate relation with a woman eventually. But the idea of Peter being with another woman was... it was hard for her to connect that fact to the man passed out behind her. To her knowledge he never showed any interest in any of the women that she and Peter fought and trained with when he was still with the Shadows. To find out that he's engaged in sexual acts after leaving the Shadows, from the woman he's committed them with no less... it was a surprisingly bitter pill for her to swallow.
"We're both adults" Laura answered with a shrug before she gave Talia a brief side glance "Why, was he yours?"
"He's... he was- is my best friend" Talia answered after a brief pause as she turned to staring out the window at the passing trees "He saved my life"
Laura hummed as she pulled the truck into the small clearing that Peter's house was and slowly brought it to a stop a few meters from the front door. Peter seemed to be about to wake up when the engine was shut off before he settled back down, much to Talia and Laura's relief. In both of their opinion, the man needed a few hours rest. As the two climbed out of the chair, Talia sent a discreet hand signal towards her guards to stand down and remain hidden and on alert. While Laura didn't strike her as a threat despite the woman struck her as very capable,and Peter seemed to trust her and she in turn seemed to care for his well being... well this little trip wasn't exactly turning out how she hoped to begin with.
'Who am I kidding?' Talia thought dryly as she and Laura struggled to lift Peter's deceptively heavy body 'With Peter, things are never simple'
She forgot how... turbulent, his luck and those around him, could be.
"Hey" Laura said as she stopped moving and glanced at the tree line with narrowed eyes.
"Hmm?" Talia said, almost stumbling at the sudden pause from Laura.
"You have people here with you?" Laura said in a curt tone as she kept staring at the tree line.
Talia frowned in confusion before she noticed the slight nose twitch on Laura's face and how the woman's head seemed to move slightly at the sound of a bird chirping before taking flight. It took a second for Talia to realize that Laura was aware of her guard's presence, a rather remarkable feat considering that even her beloved could never truly detect them all, even with his fancy little gadgets.
"Their my guards" Talia answered as she adjusted Peter's arm on her shoulder and shifted his weight slightly more on her shoulders "They won't attack unless you give them reason to"
Laura's gaze flickered to Talia for a moment before the woman seemed to relax and she let out a small sigh "Could've warned me there was more than you two up here. I was about to drop this lug and deal with them"
"I'd appreciate it if you don't drop him, he's heavier than he looks" Talia remarked dryly as the two resumed their trek into the house.
"What, your not used to his weight being on top of you?" Laura said with a snort as they carefully made their way up the small stair case to the front door.
"...No, can't say that I ever experienced such a thing" Talia said as the two reached the door and Laura pulled out a key from her pocket and slipped it into the lock and unlocked the door before she gave it a small kick open.
"Well... your really missing out" Laura said as she and Talia carried Peter inside.
After a few minutes, Peter was up in his room asleep on his bed until likely the next morning while Laura and Talia were sitting down in the kitchen with a glass of water in each of their hands.
"So... why do you need to use my 'phone'?" Laura asked as she took a sip of her drink and gave Talia a weighted look "From what I hear, you have a whole army of little yes men to do your dirty work"
"Things have changed" Talia answered as she stared into the contents of her glass "The League of Shadows have split after my father's death. Some flocked to me, more to either my half sister or a man by the name of David C-"
"Cain" Laura finished with a growl "Yeah, him I've heard of. He's the man that gave Peter his... powers"
"Than you have an idea of what I'm up against" Talia said as she pushed her glass away and leaned on the countertop "Do you know anyone that could be helpful against him?"
"Well, that depends" Laura asked with a frown "You want things done clean? Messy? Quiet? Loud? There's not many but each of them are good at what they do... and what they do isn't very nice"
"I don't know... all of them if possible?" Talia asked with a shrug.
Laura adopted a thoughtful look on her face as she mentally ran through the various people that she and Peter knew from their days in South America. Most of them were... questionable at best, not so much in skill so much as morality. While Laura herself was no saint, even she had a strict code that she abided by. But the men that Talia would want, they had no code of honor and will likely turn on Talia in a heartbeat if they feel that working for her will no longer be in their best interest.
Loyalty was a rare commodity in assassins now a days.
"I can try my brother" Laura said after a few moments as she downed the last of her water "He's almost as good as our father was in his prime. Even I could never beat him in a straight up fight. Got close a few times, but I think he may have been humoring me"
"If you have a file for me to review, I just might" Talia said.
Laura nodded as she set her glass aside before her look turned to something... darker.
Talia noted the change and the sudden shift in the atmosphere as Laura's stance took on something more aggressive looking in nature.
"You came here for Peter, didn't you?" Laura asked with a hiss.
Talia's face remained perfectly calm as she stared at the young woman before her "What makes you say that?"
"You claim to be Peter's best friend yes?" Laura asked as she took a step towards Talia "If that's the case, why are you just now showing up? After more than ten years?"
"Peter's a hard man to track down" Talia responded calmly as she fought down the anger that was beginning to build at the gull this woman had top speak to her in such a way "I myself didn't even realize he was excommunicated from the League of Shadows until weeks after. My father had sent me away for further training and when I did return and learn of what happened, he blocked any and all attempts to find him"
Laura scoffed at this "You expect me to believe that?"
"It's the truth" Talia said with a glare as she pushed herself off the counter and jabbed a finger at the younger woman's chest "For months I tried to find him. Using every resource I had available to me to locate the man that sacrificed practically everything for me! For months I traveled all over Europe and Asia trying to find him"
"Well I guess you didn't look very hard!" Laura snapped as she pushed Talia back "In case you haven't noticed Miss al Ghul, but Peter isn't exactly discreet! That man's luck has rendered him as discreet as a fucking bull in a glass house"
"It's hard to find someone when your own father, a man with a empire spanning across the globe, with a information network to match, is being used to block and deceive you every step of the way" Talia growled "I did everything I could to find him, but my father eventually caught me and offered me a choice! Either I forget Peter or he'll have him killed and or worse!"
Laura's eyes narrowed at this "And what exactly would be worse?"
"He'd have Cain remove Peter's powers... somehow. Afterwards, he'd throw him back into the Pit that he and I were confined to for years" Talia hissed as tears gathered in her eyes but she refused to let them fall "So I forced myself to stop my search for him. Forced myself to forget about him. Forced myself to forget all the nights that he'd lull me to sleep with his mindless chatter on whatever came to his mind. Forced to myself to forget how he could make me laugh with his poor jokes and ill timed quips. Forced myself to forget my first real friend that I ever had so that he wouldn't be condemned back t the hell we fought so hard to escape!"
Laura said nothing as she glared back at the older woman and a tense silence flowed into the room. Unknown to the two women, Talia's guards had silently slipped closer to the window that was in the kitchen and the patio door and listened to the two women's conversation. Their presence was masked thanks to Honor's field of silence and Psylocke sending out waves of psionic energy meant to distract the women from noticing their presence. They stood silent and motionless as Laura and Talia waged some sort of private war between wills with their eyes alone.
Eventually some sort of stalemate was reached and both women avoid their gazes and stepped back from one another.
"And now that you've finally found him again, and your father unable to touch him, your gonna drag him back in to the hell your family has created" Laura whispered bitterly.
"I'm not dragging him back into it!" Talia snapped with anger "Yes I originally came here to speak with him about possibly helping me but I've seen that he's far from the same man that I used to know. So rather than risk his life, I'm looking into alternatives and he's been happy to point me in your direction"
"He should've pointed you back to whatever hell you came from" Laura said as she turned to leave "I'll be back tomorrow to check up on him. Don't event think about trying to steal him away"
"Like you could stop me if you tried" Talia scoffed before suddenly Laura was in front of her and she felt two sharp metal points at her throat.
Talia risked a brief glance down and saw two metal claws had merged from the knuckles between Laura's index and middle finger and pinky and ring finger.
"Don't push me! I'm good at what I do bitch... and what I do isn't very nice" Laura hissed.
Talia's response was a dark glare while the bartender stepped back and retracted her claws. Without anther word, Laura turned and headed for the door, not even bothering to acknowledge the four heavily armed women that had appeared when Laura first unsheathed her claws.
"Mistress are you hurt?" Jade asked while Honor, Widow and Psylocke moved to surround and cut off Laura from the front door before Talia waved the women off.
"I'm fine, let her leave" Talia bit out.
Laura stopped for a moment to glare at Talia over her shoulder before she turned and continued on her way, leaving Talia and her guards alone in the kitchen. The daughter of the Demon remained perfectly still until she heard the sound of Laura's truck turn on followed by the sound of it driving away from the house. When the sound of the truck's engine was barely a whisper, Talia dismissed here guards back to their posts while she retreated to her room.
Today had been... taxing to say the least.
…
"NONONONONO-AHHHH!"
"How can you look her in the eye and lie to her like that..."
"PRETTY RED! PRETTY RED! PRETTY RED! PRETTY BLOODY RED!"
"WE NEED TO GO, WE NEED TO GO RIGHT NOW-"
"Hope is like a cancer, infecting you at you very core and slowly killing you with each passing day... you must expel it entirely"
"Isn't this just wonderful? You'll be absolutely amazing-"
Peter's eyes shot open and he was up and standing in the middle of his room within a single heartbeat. His eyes darted all over the walls as the sound of his heart beating echoed through his ears like drums. It took a second for him to realize that the lights were off and that it was dark outside. Frowning, Peter glancing at the clock by his bed and saw that it was just an hour past midnight.
"What the hell...?" he muttered in confusion as he tried to remember when he fell asleep, let alone how he got back to his bed.
He remembered taking Talia down to the Kuekuatsu to meet with Laura and help her set up a few meetings with some of Laura's father's old associates before...
"UGH, what'd I do!?" Peter said as he slapped his head several times as he tried to remember what happened after they got to the bar.
He thought Laura and Talia met, and he thought they were getting along... or were they at each other's throats? the harder he tried to remember, the more his head began to hurt.
"I need a drink..." Peter said with a shake of his head as he silently made his way to the door before he stopped.
It was barely noticeable, but he could just make out the sound of someone moving around on his patio deck. A part of him wanted o chalk it up to either Talia or one of her guards or even Laura if she was here before he remembered something rather important...
They were never that loud when they moved.
'So it's something else...' Peter thought as he silently made his way downstairs, being mindful to keep his steps quiet.
When he made it to the bottom of the stairs, Peter glanced around the corner and saw that someone was moving on his patio. Their build identified them as a male, their entire body was covered in dark clothing from head to toe. They didn't seem armed but Peter knew there was at least a dozen places that someone could hide a small weapon like a knife or a small pistol in a way that made the person seemed unarmed.
'Well... they aren't one of Talia's people, she mentioned all of her guards were women... I think' Peter thought with a frown as he watched the man wander on his patio for a moment before he made his way to the stairs and silently descended them.
'Maybe it's one of Talia's people just coming to drop something off for her' Peter thought as he quietly approached the patio door and silently slid it open and stepped on to the deck 'I mean, her guards wouldn't just let anyone on to my property I think'
Thana again, maybe Talia's guards were no longer in position to stop him.
'Maybe I should ask her before I start jumping to conclusions' Peter thought as he slipped back into his house and made his way to Talia's room.
He saw the door was left partially opened and Peter risked a glance inside to make sure it was okay for him to enter. The lights were off and he could hear Talia's faint breathing, signifying she was asleep. Peter froze at this, if the man he saw outside was with Talia, she'd be awake to receive whatever it was he was here to deliver. Than again, it was entirely possible this was an unexpected arrival that she had no knowledge of.
'So do I wake up her up and ask or deal with it myself?' Peter thought as he stepped away from the door and leaned against the wall as he thought of what he was going to do before a thought came to him.
Talia wouldn't have told anyone, even her own people, where she was going and she'd make damn sure it'd be next to impossible to find her if someone did try to follow her.
'So that means whoever I just saw is either really, really, freakin good or he's not with Talia' Peter thought with growing worry as the possibilities began to rush through his head 'He could be one of Nyssa's people, or even Cain's!'
But that left the question as to why they didn't try to kill Talia if they were with one of the splinter Shadow factions.
'You know what? I'll go ask him myself!' Peter thought with a nod as he quickly made his way back to the patio.
Within seconds he was crossing his yard and entering the tree line. He could still hear whoever the man was, he was still surprisingly close to the house, and seemed to be muttering to either himself or someone else.
'Maybe he's just lost... and he's calling for directions... yeah that has to be the reason' Peter thought dryly as he silently weaved his way through the trees, hopping up into the branches and using them to travel over the forest floor and avoid being possibly ambushed.
He didn't have to travel far as the man he was tracking came to a stop only a mile and a half away from the house. Peter watched as the man ran across the clearing to another man and seemed to bow before him before he began to mutter something too low for Peter to hear. Taking a deep breath Peter leaped out of the trees and landed at the edge of the clearing in a crouch, the sudden movement and the rustling of the tree branches drew the men's attention briefly up to Peter's original location before they noticed him slowly standing up.
"W-who are you?" the man that was receiving the report from he man that Peter was following.
"Peter Parker, Alaska's resident hermit..." the thirty something year old responded as he slowly stepped farther into the clearing, his spider-sense tingling at the base of his skull in warning as he could hear movement ahead of him "You mind telling me who you are? Your trespassing on my land!"
Neither man said anything as several more shadows appeared at the edge of the clearing before they stepped out from under the trees. They were dressed similarly to the men that Peter had standing in front of him. Peter didn't recognize the uniforms they were sporting, all black with what looked to be bits of brown or grey mixed in. He also saw no possible signs of ranking or what each man might specialize in.
"What's it matter to you who we are?" one of the men asked.
"Well, your not with Talia, I can tell that much" Peter said as he watched more and more men emerge from the brush, slowly surrounding him.
He counted ten in all.
"What gives you that idea?" the man Peter thinks he was following asked with a growl.
"Well, your here in the middle of the night..." Peter said with a shrug as he watched several men slowly move off to the side, just out of his field of vision "Sneaking around in the woods... oh and she never mentioned any of you stopping by"
"Because she tells you everything?" one of the unknown men scoffed "Are you privy to her private counsel now? You, an outsider?"
"No, more of common sense and the fact I like to think she'd let me know if you all were gonna stop by" Peter remarked with a frown "Now, who sent you?"
"Why would we tell you, exile?" another man said from somewhere to Peter's left scoffed.
"Because depending on your answer, it might what convinces me to only break your limbs instead of ripping them off entirely" Peter hissed as his eyes darted from man to man.
None of them were armed, he noticed with some confusion, but they were all fairly large which hinted that they were at the very least, muscular to some degree. It was entirely possible that these men were augmented like Peter was and thus didn't need weapons but it was also possible that these men were just concealing. Several of the men laughed at Peter's remark as they continued to stare at him, some slowly moving to possibly flank him while the leader continued to stare at Peter with a hidden expression under his mask.
"You think you can keep her safe from what she deserves?" the man challenged as he took a step forward, causing Peter's 'spider-sense' to flare slightly "Do you think she's above retribution for her crimes? She's had this a long time coming!"
"She's more than paid" Peter replied quietly, anger teetering on the edge of his voice "Last chance, tell me who sent you"
"So you can go report to your whore?!" one of the men shouted before he charged towards Peter with a yell.
Peter watched the man charge towards him before he suddenly reached out and grabbed the man by the throat and held him in the air. The man let out a series of surprised sounds as he tried to break free of Peter's grip like an animal before Peter suddenly lunged forward with his mouth open and sank his teeth into the man's throat, causing him to let out an almost inhuman squeal of pain as his teeth tore into the man's flesh. The man's body twitched and spasmed as he made a series of chocked gargles before it went limp and Peter tore his mouth free and let it drop to the ground while his comrades let out surprised noises and gasps and a few even stumbled back in shock.
Peter said nothing as he stared at the remaining shadowed men with dark eyes, his mouth dripping with blood while bits of the man's throat were still caught in between his teeth. He let out a hiss while the various dark garbed men began to slowly circle him before they lunged.
...
Talia stood motionless as she watched the scene unfold from her vantage point behind a small pine tree.
She didn't believe Jade and Elizabeth's story, even after she saw the room for herself once Laura had departed. The idea that Peter, the man with a witty remark or a poor joke always on the tip of his tongue could be capable of such mindless savagery was ridiculous. Even at his worse she's never seen him descend into such barbarism, even when he was desperately fighting off a horde of heartless men that had long since became animals during Talia's final minutes in the Pit and wanted her body in all manner of monstrous ways.
'This... this isn't right' Talia thought with growing horror as she watched her beloved friend tear through a pack of wolves that had seemed to stumble near his home.
Talia had 'sensed' Peter was outside her door when she was laying in her room earlier and easily feigned sleep, curious to see what he'd do. A small part of her thought he'd crawl into the bed with her and fall asleep like they used to do when they were children growing up in the pit and the first few months after his liberation from that hell by her father. But as the minutes ticked by, Talia felt that wasn't Peter's intentions and was troubled when he suddenly left her door and all but ran tot he patio. She quickly threw on a pair of shoes and tied her robe more securely around her figure and followed the man into the woods, keeping far enough back that he won't notice her trailing him but not far enough to risk losing him in these unfamiliar woods. For a time she thought she'd lost him before she heard him shouting, arguing with someone.
Fearing the worse Talia rushed towards the sound of her friend's voice before she came to a stop at the sounds of growling and snarls and a few short howls.
Peter hadn't come across some small band of assassins sent by either Nyssa or Cain or whoever else wanted Talia dead, just a pack of wolves that had wandered too close to his home. She was almost about to let out a sigh of relief and ask Peter to come back to the house before she realized that Peter was still arguing, yelling and threatening the wolves as if they could understand him. He told them to leave, to stay away from Talia and go back to their masters or he'd rip them apart.
The wolves, unable to understand what Peter was saying or the very real threat he posed to them, saw his aggressive posturing and noises as a challenge and reacted accordingly and attacked, forcing Peter to respond in kind.
To say it was a one sided slaughter would be an understatement.
While Peter was outnumbered ten to one, and the wolves were clearly using effective if basic primal tactics such as flanking and attacking from front and behind, Peter was still superhuman. Numbers and a bite force of around four hundred pounds wasn't much against a man that can rip steel apart with his bare hands and had a sixth sense that alerted him to danger and the speed to dodge each wolf's attempted attack.
The 'fight' was over in less than a minute with many of the wolves being literally ripped apart by Peter while a few he simply sent flying into a tree or the ground to shatter bones and rupture organs. One wolf did manage to knock Peter down, the alpha Talia suspected, and it was close to digging it's teeth into Peter's neck when her friend grabbed it by the upper and lower jaws and pulled in opposite directions until the animal's head had all but split in two, dousing Peter's face and upper body in blood and bits of gore. With a grunt, Peter threw the now dead wolf off himself and simply laid there, staring up at the sky as he brought his breathing back under control.
Hours seemed to pass as Talia stood in the shadows and watched as Peter finally seemed to come back to himself, and the world, and began to notice that whoever he was fighting were now being replaced by wolves...
"What the hell?" Peter muttered loud enough for Talia to hear as he shot to his feet and looked around in shock.
It was obvious to Talia that Peter was trying to understand what just happened, how the men he just fought had vanished only to be replaced with the bodies of animals. He panicked, understandably, and unknown to himself began to speak out loud, trying to figure out what just happened. He swore up and down he was fighting actual men not animals. Eventually Peter stopped talking all together and simply just stood there, looking down at the mutilated corpse of the alpha he killed not too long ago. Never before had Peter been so unrecognizable as he appeared to be now, never had her friend seemed unreadable.
Finally something seem to click in Peter's mind and he came back to himself and he began to quickly gather the bodies of the various wolves he slaughtered. Talia thought he might try to take them back to that room he had hidden under his house before she reasoned that he reasoned he'd be seen by Talia's guards and he'll likely be unable to clean up the evidence of this... thing, before Talia herself awoke.
"Can't just leave them out here, the smell will reach the house and it'll draw more predators..." Peter said, to who or what Talia had no idea "Could bury bodies but that'll take too long, Talia's people will notice. Crap, crap, crap, crap..."
Peter stopped moving the bodies and ran a hand over his face, smearing it with more blood and a bit of wolf fur as he tried to think of a way to get rid of the pack before he sat on the small pile and rubbed his temples in thought.
"Burn them? No, that'll draw too much attention and I'll risk a forest fire, can't do that again" Peter said with a shake of his head as he began to hit his head "Come on, think, think, think- Wait!"
Peter suddenly stood up and quickly gathered the last of the bodies in a large piled before he began to push them into each other, breaking bones and splitting skin open as he used his inhuman strength to force them together. Talia winced at the spectacle though her curiosity was piqued as Peter did his best to more or less crush the wolf bodies together until the pile was smaller looking.
'What's he planning to-' Talia thought before she saw Peter open his mouth and use his index fingers and thumbs to grip the gums around his central and lateral incisors on his upper jaw before he took a deep breath and leaned forward.
To her confusion she watched as Peter began to squeeze as hard as he could, causing him to emit a series of pained sounds. At first she thought she saw blood leaking from his mouth before he lowered his hands and began to spit the liquid draining from his mouth on to the wolf pile. With morbid fascination, Talia watched as Peter spent the next several minutes spitting on the wolves before he stood back and began to puke while the bodies started to actually break down as if acid was poured on to it.
"Yaaaaay… spider biology for the win!" Peter groaned as he leaned forward and continued to spit out the liquid draining from his mouth until it seemed to finally stop. He made a few gagging sounds before spitting out a glob of saliva and god knows what else before he turned his attention back to the pile and saw that it was now half as big as it used to be and was getting smaller and smaller.
'Spider biology? What the hell is he talking about?' Talia thought with confusion and she and Peter watched the bodies continued to rapidly break down before all that was left was a much smaller pile of melted looking flesh, fur and bone.
Once the pile seemed small enough, Peter turned and began to dig what Talia assumed was a hole and carefully pushed the pile of wolf into it before he quickly re-buried it. Once the dirt was packed enough and he spread a few rocks and some more dirt on it, Peter turned and quickly departed the clearing, back to the house. Talia prepared to follow when she heard a faint 'thud' behind her and turned to see someone had dropped from the tree behind her.
Talia froze as her eyes struggled to identify the unknown individual before she saw their figure marked them as a woman and she could just make out the color of red on their head.
'Natalia' Talia thought as the lone red head of Talia's guard stepped forward and bowed.
She was dressed in a skin tight black body suit with two pistols strapped to her thighs, a pair of escrima sticks in a 'X' formation on her back and a pair of gauntlets on her wrists that Natalia has affectionally named 'Widow Bites'. Her scarlet red hair was tied into a bun rather than the usual pony tail or free fall she normally preferred and her face mask was pulled down to hang around her neck. Talia also noted that Natalia had pulled down the zipper of her body suit to expose a generous amount of her cleavage.
"Mistress..." she whispered quietly, her Russian accent just barely audible in the still night.
"Widow" Talia responded in a equally quiet tone "How much did you see?"
Natalia's pause was telling even if her face was perfectly blank "Enough..."
Talia nodded as she glanced in the direction that Peter had traveled before turning back to the red head and nodded towards the clearing "Make sure the area is clean. He may have gotten rid of the bodies, but there's still the blood he spilt and the trees and branches he damaged when he threw several of the animals. Do your best to cover it"
"Of course mistress" Natalia bowed before she pulled her mask back up over her nose and silently retreated into the shadows to begin her work.
Talia waited a moment before she too slipped into the darkness and silently followed Peter back to the house.
...
Half an hour later Talia stood silently before a sleeping Peter.
If she hadn't seen what he just did in the woods not even half an hour ago, she could almost believe that he's been resting peacefully since Laura left him here.
'Well... the blood would've tipped me off' Talia thought as she sat down on the edge of the bed, beside Peter, and slowly reached out to up Peter's bloodied face.
Her thumb traced a small scratch from one of the wolves that had jumped on Peter and tried to tear his throat out before he ripped it's head in two.
It was... it was terrifying to see Peter act the way he did, to see him use the powers he was given to inflict such monstrous brutality on anything sort of living thing when the man himself has in the past hesitated to hurt even a fly. Even when he was with the League of Shadows he always went out of his way to avoid unnecessary bloodshed and if he couldn't, make it as painless as possible.
But what was the most horrifying thing to Talia about this whole thing wasn't that her beloved friend had seemingly lost his mind in the past decade, or that he's turning into something akin to a rabid animal it was that Peter as he was now was...
He was exactly what she needed to take on Nyssa and Cain.
"I'm so sorry my friend..." Talia aid in a sad voice as she leaned forward and planted a small kiss on the side of Peter's face, ignoring the taste of blood, sweat, dirt and the smell of death that surrounded him.
Peter made some sort of sound as he stirred slightly before he relaxed, still in a deep sleep, his face the very definition of peace. Talia's eyes watered at the sight before she closed them and silently took a deep breath before she slowly exhaled through her nose and stood up and headed for the door.
She needed to speak to Honor, Jade, Natalia and Elizabeth. Their brief period of peace, was about to come to an end...
Possibly the last any of them will ever experience.
...
And done.
Next chapter, Calm before the storm...