"So, uh... I'm actually kinda broke right now." Eddie Brock admitted as he tucked his son in for bed. "I had no idea Dylan was gonna hire a detective to look for me... I was actually kinda like a detective before the whole Symbiote madness thing started, an investigative reporter, but now... I can barely afford to feed myself and my kid!"

"I understand, Mr. Brock." Loki responded.

"Um, Mr, Brock is my father; call me Eddie, okay? Can I buy you a hot dog? I think Mrs. Chen still has some for sale."

"No thank you, Eddie, I'm really more of a cat person, and I still have a jealous snake at home."

"Wha-" Eddie rolled his eyes. "Oh, you're a comedian too, huh? Great."

"Why, did I say something amusing?"

"A hot dog is a kind of food: it's meat!"

"Lokiii, I want a hot dog! I have heard rumors that they have intestines and braaains in them!"

"Healer, we just ate a live brain earlier today!" Loki reminded him.

"So?"

"So be thankful for that and don't beg for more!"

"I don't think those rumors are true anyway." Eddie told them. "They definitely don't taste like brains and intestines and whatever, they're really good, especially the all-beef ones at the convenience store. My treat?"

"If you really want to, you could get me an ice cream."

"Death by chocolate?"

"Mint chocolate chip." Loki pulled out Healer's favorite topping from his magical stash. "With a chocolate shell coating."

"Mmm... deal!"

"I want ice cream!" Dylan added.

"Aren't you supposed to be asleep?" Eddie asked.

"Could you sleep after a detective from another universe brought your dad back from an alien planet?"

"No, if it were my dad, I'd have told him to leave him there."

"Good point, but after I just got you back, you can't leave me out, can you?"

Eddie sighed. "Nope, let's go."

"So, you've got a chocolate-lover too, huh?" Eddie asked Loki as they all shared a gallon of the frozen dessert.

"It's his second favorite food, next to-"

"Yeah, I know, brains."

"...Yes. He even has a dream of opening a place of his own that serves various chocolatey desserts with brains mixed in, and we were curious if any of the Symbiotes you know are interested in supporting him, like yours, perchance?"

"Brains and chocolate together, seriously? How can you even say that without losing your appetite?"

"Pussy."

"Healer, be nice. I know it sounds revolting, Eddie, but I'm sure that to a clientele of his own kind, it has potential."

"Where did Venom go anyway?" Dylan wondered.

"I dunno. I had him give us some alone time."

"Why? He's part of the family, isn't he?"

"Him? Part of the- Venom?"

"Yeah, he's part of you. You're the Lethal Protector, you fight crime together, you even live in the same body most of the time, so isn't he almost like... like my uncle?"

"Like your uncle!?" Eddie shook his head.

"But where is he? I can feel he's close, but I'm not sure where. Can you sense where he is?"

"No, I can't sense where he is, we're not Siamese twins!"

"That's a shame; I was hoping to talk with him about Healer's dream." Loki said. "Venom actually reminds me quite a bit of Healer, and I believe the two could make acquaintances, at least."

"Don't bet on ittt."

"Well, I suppose we'd better find him before he disappears. Where does he usually like to go? Would he be looking for another host?"

"He needs a host to survive, but most people aren't compatible enough that he can stay with them for long. In fact, the only people he's been able to bond to without killing are me, Anne, and-" Eddie then looked over the counter at Mrs. Chen, who grinned at them with razor-sharp teeth as Dylan and Loki looked too.

"Just watching over my nephew, do not mind us."

Loki's eyes shifted towards Eddie, who sighed. "Go ahead."

"A chocolate-covered brain shop?" Venom summarized.

"Not just chocolate covered, chocolatey brain cakes, ice creams, parfaits, puddings, mousses, donuts, eclairs, fudge, every chocolatey dessert you can think of with brains mixed in; just imagine the phenethylamine rush!"

"Uhhh... that sounds tasty in my head, but... it is a stupid idea."

"What!?" Healer snarled. "Why!?"

"You did not think it through: we are predators! We eat living brains, and if you take them out to chocolate coat them or slice them or mash them or anything like that, they will be dead! They would lose their freshness, their flavor; no respectable Symbiote would want to eat a dead brain!"

"Hey, I have eaten dead brains with chocolate, and I-"

"Exactly!"

"Do not interrupt meee, I was about to say I find them delicious!"

"And you are not a respectable Symbiote; you are not even in the hive!"

"How would you like to be in our belly!?" Loki quickly held back his Symbiote while he attempted to lash out at Venom.

"Sorry, he doesn't exactly play nice with others, though others of his kind don't seem too friendly either!" Loki excused. "Healer, one Symbiote inside of me is plenty!"

"I agreeee! Let's go home and ditch this elitist parasite!"

"PARASITE!?"

"Yeahhh!"

"No! You piece of-" Venom then lunged at Healer until Eddie pulled him back in turn.

"Hey, that's no way to treat one of the guys who helped us get home!"

"Did you hear what he called me, Eddie!? I will tear him apart!"

"You started it! Didn't you say you were a loser on your planet? Huh? And now you're treating him like an outcast just cuz he's not part of your hive, that's not cool!" Eddie turned to Loki and Healer. "Man, I'm sorry about him, he just does rude and violent things- without thinking about the consequences- and I have to clean up his mess!"

"There will be no cleanup after-"

"Oh, I empathize with that last part, believe me! Well, it was a pleasure to meet you, Brock family."

"Yeah, you too."

As Loki walked back, he turned to Healer. "I'm sorry about the way Venom treated you, about the way your fellow Symbiotes treat you. You've surely seen enough of my own memories by now to know that I can empathize, but... you're still hiding so much of your past from me, it hardly seems fair, especially after I've kept your secrets so well."

"I know. That is why, now that we are alone, I have decided to tell you... I want to tell you everything. We are also like family, and as a wise woman from your memories once said, 'There should be no secrets in a familyyy.'" Healer took a deep breath. "The first thing I remember is trailing behind Mmmy father after he and his tribe completed a successful hunt. I was the saddest, most pathetic Symbiote who had ever been born: no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't successfully bond with anyone, even if we were a biological match. No matter who the host wasss, they always kicked me out before I could bond with them! The only thing moreee pathetic than that was that I had to follow my father around and ask him for advice, because I had no idea what to do, he was the only other Symbiote I knew, and without a host to feed through, I was going to dieee."

"My father bonded with his humans for lifeee... well, the humans' lives: we do not die of old age. His host was the leader of the tribe, the strongest and fiercest, yet I was so weak, I could not even bond with one of the children! I annoyed him to no end with my questions... he couldn't care less about me, and even in the rare moments he did give me advice, I still failed. He became so embarrassed of me and my failures, he cast me out of the hive mind, erased every trace of my existence, and left me unable to find others of our kind, so no one else in the hive would know who I was and that I was related to him. He said it was a grievance, my dependence on him and how I tormented him with questionsss... so that is what he called me, and I took it to be my name."

"So what did you do?"

"I was desperate, on death's door, on the brink of starvation, and then I had an ideaaa: I waited until the chief's little son was asleep, and my will was finally able to overpower his! I had bonded for the first time, such a rush of new sensations I had never felt before all at once, but I couldn't stop to savor them, because my feelings of starvation were strooonger than them all combined!"

"Sooo, I woke him up and ran him to the weapon room, so I could make my new host go on a brain hunt! He woke up sometime before I could take his body out the door, because I heard him scream to his fatherrrr! So I turned around and called for him too, because I wanted to show my own dickhead of a father that I had finally taken control of a host and rub his stupid face in it!"

"I take it he wasn't impressed though."

"Heee... he looked impressed... at first. So I formed a suit around my host, as most Symbiotes do, and I showed off, enjoying proving that malicious douchebag wrong for once, until I remeeembered... I needed food! I piloted the boy out of the house, feeling the adrenaline of my first hunt, the cool night breeze blowing through our hair, the pounding rhythm of our beating heart filling me with such excitement, I did not even notice... our heart was beating so fast because my host was terrifieddd! He was screaming, Lokiii... frightened of me, probably thought I was a demon, like you did... screaming for help until I lost control. His body went limp, his voice and his heart stopped..."

Loki's mouth dropped. "He died of fright..."

Healer's eyes squeezed shut in remorse. "Yesss. I tried to get him up on his feet and control his body again, but I finally realized that he was dead. So I rushed to the only source of phenethylamine I could access: his brain!"

"And you couldn't heal him?"

"Didn't try... I did not know I had healing abilities until my last host before youuu. No, I feasted on his brain while I still had a mouth to eat with, my very first meal! You can probably guess what happened next, detective... my father and his host tracked me down and found the chief's son dead, his brain gone. The chief was so horrified at the sight, he cast my father out of his body and banished him from the tribe, calling us monsters, calling me a murderer. I didn't give a damn about the tribe and what they thought of meee... I didn't give a damn about my father... I didn't even give a damn about the child... I was just happy to finally have some nourishment in meee."

Loki slowly nodded before Healer continued. "But thennn... my father took out his- his anger on me. His special ability is spitting out nasty acids that do terrible things to his prey and his enemiesss... it burned like fire, and it took away my ability to procreate. Then he looked me in the eyes as I suffered and said, 'I was going to kill you, put you out of your miseryyy, but I think now I'll make you live with your stupidity and ineptitude. Such an embarrassment and a monstrosity as you must never reproduce! I will never allow an abomination such as you to join the hive mind, and you shall fade into loneliness and oblivion for the rest of your cursed, miserable existence!' And I have not been able to give birth since."

Loki exhaled. "It's no wonder you didn't want to talk about the subject of childbirth!"

"I was not finished!"

"Sorry, go on."

Now was Healer's turn to sigh. "I then decided I was done with the Symbiote way my father lived, done with weak, pathetic little humans that die so eeeasily, and from that point onwarddd, I only viewed humans as walking organ vessels. I was rejected, angry, bitter, and alone... you know the feeling. I traveled the Earth, learning about the workings of the human body and how to better my bonding ability from experience, hopping from host to host, only bonding with them long enough to feast on their internal organs and move on to the next one. Sometimes I got bored and had my hosts do... crazy things; you could say I got into a lot of mischief! I was eventually caught in the act by the Earth's mortal law enforcement, but I ate them too, and when the sirens started blaring, I moved on to the next world, taking my eating spree across the galaxyyy!"

"Wait... it didn't hurt you to eat your host's organs, like it did when you bit me?"

"No, only our bond has been strong enough for us to share pain. But... thousands of years passed, and I began to grow tired of it all... I became lonely. That was when I met little Rilly on Contraxia; he was abandoned by his so-called friends, being attacked by a group of asshole Ravagers, when I stepped in. They wanted to kidnap some kids from wealthy families for ransom money, and he was left all alone to defend himself. I bonded with the boy to try and get him to eat the Ravagers' braaains for me, but we were weakened, and they escaped in their spaceship. Then I noticed one of them shot a hole through his belly with their blasters, so I healed it on impulse, feeling a mix of pity for the kid and wanting to rid us of the pain. I don't knowww... maybe a part of me wanted to make up for accidentally killing that first kid too, but Rilly was grateful to me... he wanted me to be his friend."

"It was another new experience for me, and it was nice to feel wanted, for once in my miserable lifeee. He was the first person who was kind of me... we had fun, he taught me new things, introduced me to chocolate, and we were inseparable... until I slipped. It had been so long since I tasted one, I suggested we bite off our first head together... and I freaked him out. Thankfully he did not have an attack of fright, but he ratted me out to his parents, he said he did not want to be my friend anymore, he called me a demon and a monster, and you know the rest."

"I was bitter, rejected, and alone once again, and even when I found such a comfy match in your body, I was still hesitant to introduce myself to you. I did not want to risk rejection again, but then I got so hungryyy..."

"That you threatened Mobius, I remember."

"Yesss, that nightmare you had of me eating his brain... well, that was actually me testing you."

"I beg your pardon? You put that nightmare in my head? To test me for what, might I ask!?"

"To see if I did the real thing, you would not freak out and die like my first host. You failed, because you woke up frightened and screaming too... your emotions are very strong, and... I figured if both you and Mobius died, there was no way in Hel I was getting off that fireball of a planet- realm."

"And the wedding nightmare... what was that testing?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to kiss you. But... well, we are similar in so many ways, so we understand each other better than anyone, but I was still afraid to tell you the truth... ashamed of the things I have done and afraid you would see me as- a mindless-as a-"

"As a monster." Loki finished.

"And a parasite, and for over 5000 years, I have acted as both. I have killed miiillions of people for food, and yet I never cared until youuu. You once thought yourself a villain and a monster, but compared to me, you have been an angel. I- I was afraid if I told you what I'd done to my past hosts, you would think of me as a monster and hate me, like you did when we met." Healer shuddered and hid inside Loki's chest. "I was afraid you would try to get rid of me again, especially after Eros's powers brought the monster in me back out, terrified of being left alone... foreverrr."

"...Healer, come out here."

"Wh- why?"

"Just come out and face me. Please."

Healer hesitantly emerged all the way from Loki's chest to his eye level, and Loki immediately enveloped his Symbiote in a hug.

"Wh-why-whyyy?" Healer repeated, sniffling through his falling streams of tears.

"You know why: we're so much alike. We've both suffered alone for too long, yet I had my mother for most of my life, while you had no one... but now you have me, Mobius, and Sylvie, and from now on, you'll never have to suffer alone again. I promise."