A Different Path, A Different Life

Chapter 1

A New Ally

Hi guys! Sorry about the long wait. I had some writer's block on this chapter. Please send me a review and tell me how my story is and if it needs any editing.

I do not own Spiderman, so please don't sue!

"Help…"

Leslie was stunned. She may have been thinking just that, but the tiny, scared, reptilian sounding voice in her head was NOT her. "Who are you? WHAT are you? Get off me! Get out of my head!" she screamed. "Please, I need your help. I'm sorry I scared you, I'm so, so sorry, but please, my host is somewhere, he's hurt, I don't know where he is. I have to find him, I have to rejoin him. Please, help me find him!" the voice pleaded.

The voice sounded so scared, like a lost child crying for help, that it touched Leslie's heart. She calmed and sat down while she processed this information. "Look, I can't help you until I know what you are and what exactly is going on. Slow down and tell me everything." she told the creature. This may be crazy, but she couldn't ignore a cry for help like this. Not after what happened to her little brother…

"Sorry. In your world, what I am is called a symbiote. We bond with a host, giving them powers while we receive needed nutrients.. This does not harm the host." the symbiote quickly added, feeling Leslie's nervousness. "We share a special bond with our hosts, feeling their every emotion. Their joys are our joys, their sadness, our sadness. In many cases, our host will become our life companion, though we can form temporary bonds with other hosts. And my host, my life companion, has been separated from me! " Leslie was quiet for a few minutes, then replied. "So, what is it you want from me? And what happened to your host?"

"We had a fight with my former host, Spiderman, and he forcibly separated us. The reason we were fighting him is that he tried to kill me, and ruined my host's life. I will show you the memories.." The images flashed through Leslie's mind. The symbiote, coming to Earth in a space shuttle, accidentally causing the shuttle to crash while trying to bond with one of the astronauts(something the symbiote regretted deeply); it bonding with Spiderman/Peter Parker and helping him with crime-fighting, saving his life on numerous occasions, trying to prevent the villains from hurting him ever again the only way it could and Spiderman stopping it; Spiderman feeling that the suit was turning him evil(it wasn't, it really wasn't, it only wanted to protect him and the anger he felt was their combined anger, not it trying to increase his own anger); The fight with Electro, where the symbiote tried to kill Electro to protect his host,(Didn't Spiderman understand that Electro was trying to kill him? Why wouldn't he let the symbiote stop him permanently?), Spiderman ripping the symbiote off his body, using the horrible sound of the bells, ignoring the symbiote's cries of pain; bonding with Eddie Brock and the beginning of a far deeper love and friendship then the symbiote had ever had with Spiderman; their shared anger at Spiderman and desire for revenge.

Leslie was beginning to feel overwhelmed, so the symbiote paused to give her a break. Once Leslie had processed all the information the symbiote had given her, she asked, "I understand what happened to you to make you hate Spiderman, but what happened with Eddie Brock? What made him hate Spiderman as well and caused you two to get into a fight with him? Was your bond only about getting revenge?" "NO!" the symbiote vehemently replied. Noticing it had scared Leslie a little with its outburst, it softened its tone. "No. I really care about him. He was the only one to see me as a friend rather than simply a source of power. We also have a lot of similarities. It's why I'm so worried about him."

"What do you mean?" Leslie asked in concern. "I'm not going to show you his memories, because that would be something he would want to be kept between me and him. But I'm really scared for him so I need to tell you what happened. A few months ago, he worked as a reporter for the Daily Bugle. He found out that a scientist named Curt Connors had used a genetic enhancer to mutate himself into a giant lizard." "Only in New York…" Leslie mumbled. "May I finish?" the symbiote asked, slightly irritated. "Sorry." Leslie said. "Thank you. Eddie found out and was going to report it when Spiderman tied him up. He got loose a few hours later and reported it to his boss, J. Jonah Jameson. By that time, Spiderman managed to cure the Lizard and gave the pictures of his fight with the Lizard to the paper as Peter Parker. When Eddie and J. Jonah Jameson got to the Connor's residence, Dr. Connors was back to normal. Eddie was fired."

"The…things… that call themselves his family, well they weren't too happy about that. They said some pretty harsh things to him that I don't want to repeat. It was devastating for Eddie. All he ever wanted to do was please them! And they treated him like…" The symbiote paused again, and when it was at a reasonable level of calm, it continued the story. "When the space shuttle that brought me here crashed, its contents were robbed. Eddie tried to get his job back by reporting who the robber was. He thought it was Spiderman. It wasn't. It turned out to be a supervillian called the Rhino, and Eddie was fired again. It was the last straw for Eddie. He went to the church to pray for forgiveness because he was going to… going to.." The symbiote couldn't finish the sentence. Leslie could feel it trembling against her, and its fear for its host flooded her mind. "Oh no." she murmured.

Leslie was glad she was already sitting down, knowing she would have fallen if she would have been standing. The symbiote's host had been suicidal, and the symbiote feared he still might be. This was more serious then she thought. "What happened after he got to the church?" she asked, fearing the answer. "Spiderman and I were battling Electro there when Eddie arrived. In a fit of anger, Eddie tackled Spiderman and I, and in the heat of the battle, we webbed him to a support beam to get him out of our way." The symbiote's "voice" was filled with regret at this statement. "I already told you what happened next. When Spiderman ripped me off of him, Eddie was still there, and I bonded to him. I hate to say it, but I'm almost glad we tied Eddie to that support beam or he would have gone home and…" The symbiote still couldn't say those dreaded words. "And I don't know what would have happened to me. He was so scared at first when we bonded. But as we talked and shared memories, we realized we both had a lot in common. We had both been betrayed and abandoned, and we both desired companionship. We filled the void in each other's lives. When I found out what he was going to do, I begged him to reconsider, told him how much I cared for him. He told me that the simple fact that I cared for him had changed his mind, and I made him promise to never try to hurt himself or try to commit suicide again. Please, Leslie, tell me he'll keep his promise!" "He'll keep his promise." Leslie told the symbiote firmly. "Now that he knows he has someone who loves him, he won't break his promise." This calmed the symbiote somewhat, and it continued the story.

"At one point in the night, we started to talk about Spiderman. We both were extremely angry with him and not thinking clearly. We wanted revenge, felt that if he were in our lives, we would never live in peace. I don't think we really wanted to kill him, just make him feel how we had felt. We trained for a few weeks to get up to our maximum strength to beat him. We fought him, nearly defeating him, but a rocket was about to be launched, and he lured us to that area. Using the sound and vibrations of the rocket, he tore us apart like he had torn me from him. Once I recovered, I managed to jump from the rocket to a nearby asteroid heading in the direction of Earth. And you know the rest."

Leslie stood up, stretching her cramped legs. "Alright. I'll help you get back to your host. And I think I know just where to go to find the information we need."

If you read my deleted story, Coming For You, you'll notice I made a serious mess-up. I accidentally called the Daily Bugle the Daily Prophet, which is the name of a paper another superhero works for. Embarassingly enough, I think it was the Crimson Chin from the Fairly Oddparents. Oops…

You may have noticed that Leslie did not take much convincing to help the Venom symbiote. The reason will be explained more fully in a few chapters.

Please leave a review and tell me what you think. Let me know if there is any changes I need to make to this story or if there's anything you'd like to see added.