I do not own Spider Man or any of the characters.
Not Over
I can't sleep. Not after the nightmare. I've been lying awake for more than two hours now, and yet I don't even feel tired. Every time I blink I see Lexi, burning to death, terror and agony on her face as I fail to save her. I see Jess covered in blood as grief and desperation fill her features. I can hear both of their screams, one begging me to save her and the other begging the love of her life not to kill her.
Lexi and Jess are both pretending to be asleep, but I know they're both awake. Every time I start to tremble from the aftermath of the dream, I feel them hold me tighter, calming me. I swallow hard, feeling their arms tighten around me yet again, and I do the same. Finally, Lexi raises her head, resting her chin on my chest as she looks up at me sadly.
"You have to rest," she says. "You need it."
"I can't," I say. "I'm not even tired."
"Try," Jess says, also looking up at me. "Hiding from these nightmares aren't going to make them go away. You have to accept that they're only dreams, and that they can't hurt you, or anyone else."
"I know that," I say. "But...I can't."
Jess sets her head back down, and Lexi reaches up, kissing me for a moment before settling back down with her chin on my chest, watching me.
"We'll stop by our universe to get your medicine whenever the scan is finished for this one," Lexi promises.
I nod just as a beep sounds from the bedside table behind her. She rolls, picking up the scanner and rolls back over, holding it so we can all see it. It flashes green twice, then red, a single coordinate appearing on an image of the globe. Venice. The location is reading as a black hole having been opened, twice. So he was here. But not anymore.
"We missed him," Jess says miserably.
"Not for good," I say. "We'll find him again. It's only a matter of time."
Jess nods. "I hope so. So, we're leaving?"
I open my mouth to respond just as someone begins to pound frantically on the door, which is frozen closed. "Just a minute!"
Lexi and Jess both get up, Lexi forming herself a loose pair of silky pants and a loose, buttoned shirt, while Jess pulls on a similar outfit, both girls foregoing underwear. I thaw the door and open it, then immediately step out of the way of Peter, who's wearing his black suit, MJ, and Ned. As soon as I close the door, he yanks the mask off.
"I assume you told her everything?" I ask.
"Actually, she guessed I was Spiderman," Peter says. "I was going to throw you under the bus, but then something came up. Beck's a liar!"
"I'm aware of that," I say. "He's not really from an alternate dimension."
"No!" Peter says. "Not just that! Everything! It was all fake! The Elementals, the powers, him being a nice guy! All of it!"
"Well, something definitely hit us with a fuck-ton of water in Venice, and beat my ice while melting metal here," I say.
"Drones!" Peter says. "He was using drones! they have some kind of illusion tech to create fake Elementals and a fake Beck flying around fighting them, all the while using high-tech weapons to simulate the damage! They used flamethrowers for the Fire Elemental, and I'd guess probably some kind of seismic or sonic cannon for the water one to throw the water without actually hurting many people!"
I remain silent as the gears in my head churn. "So...a bunch of stupid machines beat my ice?"
"Apparently," Peter nods.
"Well that's depressing," I grumble. "Okay, so...let's go stop Beck."
"It won't be that easy," Peter says. "I...I thought he was a good guy...so...I gave him EDITH."
"You what!?" I snap, Peter flinching. I grown, running my hands down my face before inhaling deeply. "We need to go. Now."
"Right," Peter nods. "Ned, you remember the cover story?"
"Yeah," Ned nods. "Call May, have her call Mr. Harrington and tell him you're staying with family in Berlin."
"Good," Peter nods, heading for our window.
I turn to Jess and Lexi and both shake their heads. "I was actually going to ask for my suit, but I suppose we can go in pajamas if you want."
"Oh, a suit I can do," Lexi says as both girls shift into their true forms, Jess's pajamas dropping to the ground and Lexi enveloping me for a moment, then releases me, leaving me in my newest suit.
"Whoa!" MJ and Ned both say.
"What are you?" MJ asks.
"We're called symbiotes," Jess says. "Both of us, along with Ben, are from a parallel universe."
"Oh," MJ says. "And, is Ben a..."
"Human," I say. "Infected by some weird kind of spider that basically gave me magic ice powers."
"Ben," Peter says.
"Right," I nod. "We're coming."
"No, not that," Peter says. "I...I want you to stay with them. All three of you. Beck might come after them."
I pause for a moment before nodding. "Alright. We'll take care of the class. You go warn Fury. But Peter, if Beck's got illusion tech that can fake an Elemental so convincingly that none of us realized what was happening, including Fury, there's no way faking a conversation would be hard. Don't trust your eyes."
Peter nods and jumps out the window. I nod to Lexi and she envelops me again, reclaiming the suit before reforming as her human form again, wearing the same pajamas as before. Jess drops into a the puddle-like form Symbiotes normally take without a host, then regrows as her human form inside of her pajamas, allowing her to keep herself covered as she gets dressed again.
"Wait, is Lexi actually naked, and just uses her body to form clothes?" MJ asks.
"Basically," I nod. "They're not really that good with the whole, personal boundaries thing."
"Oh because you're so upset that I don't actually wear clothes," Lexi snorts.
"When did I complain?" I ask.
"Can we focus on the important matters now?" MJ asks. "We could be in danger."
"Trust me, you have no idea," I say. "Ned, Betty can't know any of this, understand?"
"Yeah," Ned nods.
"She's going to be a target anyway, though," I say. "Each of you is going to get assigned one of us three to protect...oh shit."
"What?" Lexi asks.
"Beck overheard me yelling at Fury about having you near a fire Elemental," I say. "The drones definitely have flamethrowers."
"We'll be okay," Lexi smiles. "Have a little faith in us. We're the most powerful Symbiotes for a reason."
"Carnage would argue that point, but alright," I nod, turning back to MJ and Ned. "Anyway, you two need to keep Betty with you, and also stay with us. We'll keep you safe."
The others nod. I sit on the bed and take a slow breath, then exhale just as slowly. After another slow breath, I pull out the inter-dimensional communicator we brought and dial Peni. It rings for a solid minute before her face appears. The feed is grainy and her voice is distorted, but it's good enough.
"Peni, he was in this universe but he moved on," I say. "Has anyone else found anything?"
"Yeah," she says. "They all...ported...thing. He...through a bunch...places." The video cuts out for a moment before returning. "...done there?"
"Not yet," I say. "There's something we have to finish here, but then we'll be heading back to our universe before heading to our next one."
She nods. "There...omething...with...nection. I can't..."
The video goes to static before switching off. I sigh, putting the communicator away. "Well, at least we're not the only ones who were close. Maybe we're closing in on him."
Jess nods. "I hope so."
"So, what do we do about Beck?" Ned asks.
"You three go to sleep, and lock your windows," I say. "In the morning, we'll see."
They both nod and leave. I sigh as Lexi wraps her arms around be from behind again. She gently kisses the back of my neck before resting her head on my shoulder. After a few minutes, I get up and climb back into bed, Jess and Lexi both joining me. They wrap their arms around me and Lexi reaches up, beginning to comb her fingers through my hair, quickly making me start to drift off. I tighten my hold on the two of them and brace myself for the nightmares as best I can, though it doesn't help.
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