Webber's POV

We knew what we would see even before we opened our eyes. We debated not opening them at all, just letting the nightmare pass without a second thought or acknowledgment.

However, we knew very well it wasn't going to be like that.

We sighed, rolling onto our stomach and opening our eyes a crack.

"What do you want?" I growled. "To lecture me again?"

"I wouldn't call my advice a lecture," the spider pouted. "You'd think after so long of being together you would realize that I do care about you. Some."

"You only care for me when it concerns you."

"Which, in case you haven't noticed, is all the time. Come on, Tyler, walk with me."

I growled, but dragged my body into a standing position nonetheless.

We were in a place that I was unfamiliar with. The ground beneath my feet was smooth and golden, and there were high walls that reached far above my head completely surrounding the both of us. The walls and ceiling were plastered in jewels and gold, but the most noteworthy thing was the gilded throne towards the back. I reached a hand up and ran my fingers through my hair, relishing in the atypical but nostalgic feeling.

"We have been through a lot recently," the spider mused. "Haven't we?"

"I have," I snapped. "The last time I checked, you weren't the one getting mauled by your own teammate."

"No, but you weren't the one that had your mind and body stolen from you."

I threw my hands in the air in frustration. "It wasn't like I chose to be like this! I just woke up like this weeks after you ate me! In case you forgot this was entirely your fault!"

"We do things without thinking when we're starving," he snapped, his front legs rising as if preparing to attack. "It is basic survival. I would've thought you of all people would understand that."

I bit my lip, but I couldn't argue with that.

The spider seemed to relax a bit. He lowered his legs and continued walking. "Tyler, I think it's time we had a talk."

"A talk?" I scowled. "What could we possibly have to talk about?"

"Many things. I can think of a hundred topics at the top of my head. Why haven't you murdered the scientist? What do you think of this woman breaking up your group dynamic?" He paused for a moment. "Why haven't you told them to call you by your real name?" He twittered for a moment, a strange spidery sound that I wasn't even entirely certain I could recreate. "But... the thing I really wanted to speak to you about was us. Our relationship."

"I want nothing to do with you. It would make me happy to see you gone forever."

"Well, that's not going to happen, is it?" Webber snapped. "And I think we should begin to make peace with that. Tyler, I believe we should have a... a truce."

I startled, suddenly so confused I struggled to figure out how to respond. The spider crawled effortlessly into the throne and turned to examine my expression. He laid his body against it, holding his two front legs out and tapping them to a silent beat.

"A truce?" I sputtered. "What kind of truce could I possibly want with you?"

"Let me regain control. It doesn't have to be all the time... or even most of the time. But I can help you." The spider's claws tapped faster and ever so slightly harder. His eyes were searching my own as if looking for the answer he wanted in them.

"Why would I ever do that?" I spat. "You are a cruel and vicious predator at heart, and that's all you'll ever be. You would kill my family in a heartbeat."

"Family!?" The spider let out a howl of laughter. "Oh, you are kidding me! Is that still how you view them!?" He leaned forward, his white eyes glittering with cruelty. "Wilson tried twice to murder you. He forever crippled you, and what did he do afterward? Apologize? As if that could possibly make up for how he hurt you! He sliced your eye in half, he slit your throat, he pinned you against a machine with a knife through the palm and crushed that same hand, rendering it forever useless."

I clenched my fists, suddenly acutely aware of both of my functioning hands, something I no longer had in the real world.

"And WX," the spider continued. "He's even worse. He is a machine, Tyler. He can't feel love. He can't feel friendship. He can't feel anything except for hate. Because that is what he was built to do. He is not your friend. He knows that you are his only chance for survival, and because of that, he stays around. The moment he feels he can be safer elsewhere, he will leave without a second thought."

"You're wrong," I whispered. "Wilson... it wasn't him who did it. It was something else. Something that... that wanted me dead. And WX-" I swallowed back the emotions that were threatening to choke me. "WX cares for me. He saved me from Wilson. Without him, I would've died. He... he found the spiders in order to help heal me. He sang me to sleep when I was injured." I took a deep breath, then rose my voice defiantly. "You say these things about them because you've never known a home, or a family, or friends. You've never been loved before. You're just a spider."

"Tyler," the spider murmured. "You don't understand, do you? Let me help you. Let me come out every once in awhile, just to help. My instincts are stronger than yours. My mind is sharper and my claws are faster. If they mean that much to you... then I will leave them alone. And the day they abandon you... the day you get yourself in trouble that will end with either your life or theirs... I will be the only one there for you."

"That's never going to happen."

"Really?" He folded one of his front legs under his body, but his other one remained stretched out in front of him, tapping the solid gold of the throne beneath him. "Do you believe they would risk their lives for you? Do you believe that you are just so important that they would die for you? Do you, Tyler? Do you really believe that?" He let out a spit. "Are you that much of a moron? You're just a foul... disgusting hybrid creature. A child who has already cheated death a million times too many. They are repulsed by you. They are disgusted by you."
I took a step back.

Wilson's: No self-respecting creature would dare call you their own, human and spider alike.

But... WX's: I SUPPOSE IT IS A GOOD THING I AM NEITHER HUMAN NOR SPIDER.

"You are wrong," I repeated, enunciating every syllable harshly. "I don't need you. I don't need you to survive, and I don't need you to act like you'll be there to catch me if I fall." I straightened my back, glaring at the spider on the throne. "Because I won't fall. And if I do, they will catch me. And I will catch them. I will never let you have any control."

A moment later, a yelp exploded from my throat as the spider lunged at me, knocking me over with ease and holding two claws over my neck, each one pressed against an artery. I bared my teeth at him, but realized a moment too late that there was nothing intimidating about a small human child doing that.

"You are blind," he growled. "I am the only individual you can rely on. And if you won't give me control, then I will take it by force."

"Just try it!" I spat in his face. I tucked my legs against my torso and kicked him away, scrabbling to a standing position and preparing for a fight. "You never have succeeded, and you never will. I will always be stronger than you. And if I feel like you are somehow winning-"

"Oh? What could you do to stop me?" He grinned as if catching a bluff.

"I'll kill us both," I hissed. "I wouldn't hesitate. The moment I feel you taking control, I will spend my last moments of consciousness putting a spear through my neck."

This actually caught the spider. He took a step back, then another one. There was a flash of fear in his white eyes.

"You lie," he accused, but I could hear the hesitation in his voice.

"I value control over my life. If you think you're catching a bluff, just try it and see what happens. If I go down, I will drag you kicking and screaming into Hell with me."

"And if you don't notice?" He leaned forward, that all-knowing grin settling back onto his face. "If you just wake up one day... unable to move. Unable to think. Screaming to be let out, but thoroughly ignored. What would you do? Would you beg? Would you cry?"

"WX already made me agree to kill him if he was being controlled by something and tried to hurt me." I tipped my chin up. "I will force him to make the same decision."

"Do you think he would be able to go through with it? If he supposedly cares for you oh so much, what makes you think he would do it?"

"Because he cares about me. Because he knows that it would be best for me. Because he knows that it wouldn't be me anymore, just a black-hearted monster posing as a child."

"What have I done to be called a monster?" The spider spat. "Spiders are predators, Tyler. We hunt to survive. You seem to believe that me attacking you was some sort of... personal vendetta. But what is so different from me eating you and you eating a rabbit you plucked from its home? A goat that does nothing but stand uselessly in the middle of a dessert? Face it, Tyler. You are just as much of a monster as I."

I ground my teeth, refusing to admit the truth in his words.

"You killed the Dragonfly, Tyler, and the Moose. Did you forget how both died under your hand? But only after you embraced me for just... a moment?"

I shuddered, forced to remember a feeling I didn't want to remember.

The Moose's massive body shuddering in agony beneath me as I clung to her like a burr. Blood pouring out of a gaping wound in her throat, bathing us in its metallic stench. Our vision swimming, the salty tang clouding his senses and driving me further back, shoving my consciousness deeper and deeper, the urge... no, the craving to keep stabbing her, to soak our bristling fur in crimson liquid and to feed... our stomach or this intense, petrifying bloodlust, we couldn't tell.

"Stop, stop," I cried hoarsely. "That... that wasn't me. That was- that was-"

"That was me," the spider purred. "And just like that, the first Giant was killed! Isn't that exactly what you wanted?"

"I didn't want that feeling. That... oh God..." Just the memory of it was bringing bile to the back of my throat. I held one hand over my neck and the other curled around my stomach.

"But without it, you would have died. And then the Dragonfly..."

This time, it was me. No otherworldly force was driving me into the throes of insanity, it was entirely my mind, my hand, gutting the massive beast like it was nothing more than a fish. I had been overcome with such a sense of rage... and so... so much pain.

"Tyler, without me, you will die in this next battle," the spider said bluntly. "I know you will."

"The next battle," I echoed.

"You're going to fight the Ancient Guardian, yes?"

"...the Deerclops is the next seasonal Giant."

"But your plans lay elsewhere," Webber finished. He twittered again, that same strange clicking spider-y sound that was so strange to me. "Because this time, you want your sister beside you. The others agree?"

I stared at the ground.

"Oh, I forgot, you haven't asked them yet. Because you're afraid they'll make you wait until the winter. Because face it, Tyler, you want the bloodshed. You feel empty without having some grand creature to fight. The Bearger went down without trouble, and now you just can't get rid of that itch."

He was right. Again. I absently ran a hand through my hair, frowning deeply.

"But that itch will kill you. I have seen it. And... I worry for you."

"Why aren't you just a normal spider?" I exploded. The words came out faster than I intended, but the thought bit at me. "You're not! Spiders don't see things like that! Spiders can't give others visions!"

"Because unlike you, I have embraced Them!" The spider spat back. "And I use Them to defend you as I can. Without me, without my influence, you would have died every time you encountered a giant. WX-78? The tree guard? Wilson? You would have died every single time. But I can't stop this, not unless you let me. You forget that you are a child. Fragile, small, incapable of holding up against these elements without help... without my help."

I said nothing, silently lamenting in my own memories.

"You are going to die," the spider said again, but this time, his voice was weary, tired.

"No... no, I can't. If you can't understand that... then you can't understand anything about me."

He sighed. "No, I do understand you. I understand you far too much. And that is why I feel so bad hurting you like this."

"Hurting me?"

The question went unanswered, because next, I was being shaken awake. I blinked several times, pushing the person away from me. Some part, deep inside of my head, wanted to lash out. To cry and scream and attack anyone who tried to get close to me. I had been close to getting answers, I felt it! I didn't know what kind of answers but... anything more than I knew would be enough.

Luckily, my humanity beat that part down so that when I finally made eye contact with the person who woke me up, I was only glaring.

And much to my surprise... it was Winona who had woken me up. She had withdrawn her hands to her chest as if concerned that I would lash out, and her eyes were alight with worry.

I immediately felt my resolve crumble. This person... this person who knew absolutely nothing about me was worried about me. Had I cried out in my sleep? Was I thrashing about?

Maybe I was just snoring and she wanted me to stop?

"I'm sorry," she blurted, holding her hands together. "I didn't want to- I just- you were-" she paused for a moment, then cleared her throat and tried again. "You looked like you were having a nasty nightmare."

"A nightmare," I echoed, then found myself laughing. Why was I laughing? Maybe because it had been so long since someone woke me up because I was having a nightmare? Wilson had for awhile when we first met, but he had quickly grown to understand that my sleep was always riddled with nightmares, and that I would get more sleep sleeping through them than I would being woken up every time I started to whimper.

I looked up, meeting her brown gaze as steadily as I could. Even the times that the spider and I had spoken on good terms (a rare occurrence completely) I would still wake up in a pool of cold sweat. There was a part of me that was terrified of him, had always been terrified of him. While interacting with him, or while awake, I was good at shoving that part back.

"Thank you," I said after a long, long moment of silence. "I... I was having a nightmare. It's pretty normal for me, though... it's something you get used to living here."

"Is there something you need to talk about?"

With her? No. I shook my head. "It's fine. Nothing you should bother yourself about."

Winona sighed, then sat on the ground with her legs crossed. "If I'm going to stay here with you three, then I want to help in any way I can. Even emotionally." The last part was said with a teasing note. When I still said nothing, she added: " But-! I understand if you don't trust me enough to tell me anything yet! I just want you to know I'm all ears if you do need to talk."

I nodded gratefully. This was a nice change of pace... letting me talk only if I wanted to. And I really didn't want to right now. I turned my gaze towards the trees curiously. It was still nighttime, but the full moon was out, allowing for me to see through the dark.

I sensed the spider's presence in the back of my mind, peacefully observing. We sighed, rubbing our eyes. "We're going to go on a walk... if you want to join us."

Winona perked up. She stretched her arms out until they popped, grinning wildly. "Great! I could go for a bit of a muscle workout."

"WEBBER."

We flinched so hard at WX's voice that we nearly fell over. The robot didn't need to sleep, but somehow, we had forgotten this fact. He had probably silently listened to all of that.

"I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT IS SAFE."

We turned to face the robot, who was sitting beside the fire as he normally did at night. His expression was still distant, dazed, suggesting he had been staring, enamored, at the flames again. But now, he was looking up at us, a critical glint in his 'eyes'.

"Don't worry, WX, I'll be with him."

"THAT'S WX-78 TO YOU," the robot snapped. His shoulders had risen defensively. "YOU ARE NOT FAMILIAR ENOUGH WITH ME TO CALL ME A NICKNAME."

Winona winced. "Sorry, WX-78, I didn't know that counted as a nickname to you." She shrugged. "If you want to come, too, you can. I have something cool to show you guys anyway."

"WX," I said, letting a hint of warning enter our voice. "It's okay. We'll be okay."

"I AM NOT LETTING YOU BE ALONE WITH A PERFECT STRANGER SO SOON AFTER FINALLY HEALING FROM YOUR LAST ORDEAL." The robot stood, taking a moment to brush away a scattering of dirt from his legs.

"He makes a good point," Winona said approvingly, nodding at the robot. WX scowled back at her. "I wouldn't have trusted anyone with Charlie when she was your age. Then again, I barely trusted myself." She let out a small peal of quiet laughter. "The amount of times she nearly poked her eye out trying to play with my tools! I guess that's what happens when you're fifteen years old with a love of wrenches and have a mischievous four year old running around." She grinned at us, then beckoned for us to follow her. "Come on, I think you two are gonna find this as cool as I did."