Jessica

Acceptance Part Three

Just as the President of the United States signed a truce with Kitty Pryde specifically, Colossus' mother land did the same for him. The Blackbird flew overnight from Utopia to Moscow where Piotr met a man that had been in power for, perhaps, a little too long.

It was obviously a desperate attempt at getting the leader of a new nation by their side by using the love for his home to their advantage but the bureaucrats couldn't predict that Piotr didn't have many good memories of that place nor any reason to like it above all else. He just played along, he acted nice but he didn't really care about the handshake, it was just an excuse to go somewhere else.

After the meeting ended, it took him a couple more hours to reach the countryside. He still, somehow, remembered the path to home but before knocking on the door he looked at the far away barn and it caused him to feel fear and regret. That was definitely a place he wanted to forget but he thought that coming there was worth it, if only to see the little ones.

Once he knocked on the door, it was opened by a little boy he hadn't seen in a long time. "Mikhail! You're even taller now!" he exclaimed in his own language as he hugged his little brother who was still shocked by his presence.

"Piotr?! Are you back for good?"

"I don't think so but I still wanted to see you."

A grey haired woman walked in from another room, confused by the commotion until she saw the young man at the doorstep. "Piotr!"

"Hi, mum!"

She joined in the hug and the two of them crushed the little black haired boy between them. While they were too distracted to notice, a man with a white beard walked in the room, he stared but didn't say a word until Piotr looked in his direction.

"I didn't know you were coming..."

"I didn't know either. I just realised that I wouldn't have gotten another chance..." Piotr answered to his dad, though he realised there was something wrong with his voice. Maybe it was a remaining bit of resentment.

His mum tried to cross a bridge before even coming to it and broke them up by saying: "How about we all have some nice, warm stew?"

"But what about Illyana? I haven't seen her in a long time."

"Oh! Illyana is..." but instead of finishing the sentence, Piotr's mother seemed at a loss for words.

"She's with her friends." said the grumpy old man.

"I see... so let's wait for her."

"But it will take a long time for her to come back."

"I can wait. She can see her friends any day, I'm only here today."

A chilling silence ensued as the two men stared each other down. The older one had to accept that the one standing in front of him was no longer a little boy he could push around when he wished. "So be it... you can go in your room while we wait for her."

Piotr quietly agreed and he left the room while trying to ignore his brother's concerned look. Upstairs, he found his old room, the same one where, long ago, his father caught him in the most embarrassing moment of his life.

He was no longer mortified about that, not after his friends helped him come to terms with that part of him. He was just wondering how it took his dad so long to figure it out even with that poster of soviet propaganda hanging on the wall. The blond with his hand on the wrench was the last man he would see before going to sleep until he turned twelve, the truth was pretty on the nose.

He sat on his old bed, too small for him now but he still thought about Illyana and wondered what friends she could have possibly been with. They kept in touch and she never told him anything about that. He was sure that she would never lie to him.

Suddenly, he heard a loud noise coming from downstairs, like someone had just dropped a heavy object. He promptly left the room and returned to the last place in which he saw his family.

"Is everything—" but then he halted as he saw his father next to the door with an old cheap suitcase next to his foot. "What's going on?"

The rest of Piotr's family got closer to him while his father coughed out a frightful response: "I was... I was going to pick up my little princess."

The son stared at him for a few moments and said: "You don't mind if I come with you?"

"Oh! Don't— don't worry! I can do this on my own..."

"...what did you do, you old devil?"

Mikhail hid his face from his older brother and their mother hugged him.

"Why... Why do you hate your children?!"

"Get away, Piotr! I'm still your fa—ahh!" but that wasn't the frail boy he threw away years ago. That man could stop a train in its tracks and he could lift him up with no effort.

"Where is she?!"

—————————————————————

"Where is she?!"

Lana confronted the guard at the prison's entrance head first and although she was small and not that imposing he struggled to keep her back.

"I already told you! We don't know!"

"God damn it! People don't just disappear overnight, you useless idiots!"

"Well, she did! She escaped. She left you!

"No!" she shouted. Her mum may have been reckless, irresponsible and even a bit crazy but she kept her word. She would never break out, knowing what it meant for her. Something was wrong and she wouldn't leave that place like that.

"Back off, girl! Before I make you!" he shouted back, spreading his arms apart.

"Since you're not going to do your job... maybe I shouldn't hold my end of the deal!" she exclaimed as her eyes shined a light orange and at that sight the guard backed off, fearing for his life.

"Let her through." they both heard so she calmed down and he stepped away. They watched as three women approached them, two were Ms Chang and Jessica, who Lana already knew, the third one was an unknown blonde wearing a weird blue and purple suit.

"They already let you go around?" asked Lana as she remembered how badly Jess looked last time she saw her.

"I heal fast. Don't worry about me, let's talk about your mum." and after hearing that Lana felt relief. Finally someone spoke her language.

"You gotta believe me. She wouldn't run away like this."

"We know. I found the proof." said the blonde, before she even introduced herself.

"And you are...?"

The lady smiled, not just for the pleasure of introducing herself but also because it was the first time in years she had to do it. "I'm Sue Storm. It's a pleasure!"

"Are you some kind of detective?"

The three looked at each other, Sue's smile was especially noticeable and Jess then said: "Susan's the smartest woman on earth.", making her blush even more but this time for embarassment.

Lana stared at Sue equally embarassed but she didn't mind, she just explained what she found: "There's a particle inside the cell that only appears after the opening of a portal."

"And I think you remember meeting a teleporter— other than Cloak."

She answered when it downed on her: "At FEAST! Roxxon kidnapped my mum!"

"Bingo." Jess replied as she put her hands in the pockets of her red jacket.

"I— I'll make their heads explode wide open! But... but I need to find them first..."

"Don't worry. I placed a Black Widow on Taskmaster." but after Jess said that Lana expressed confusion so she clarified: "My trackers."

"She named it after me." Monica pointed out, "Isn't that cute?"

"So, we know where that asshole is. And wherever he is, we find everyone! Let's go!"

Jessica raised her arms, then she told everyone else: "Right, let's. But I need to do something before we leave."

"Seriously?" Lana frowned as she crossed her arms.

"I know but it's important. Believe me, I have to do this as soon as possible." After she said that everyone else looked at her but it didn't upset her in the least, they would have never been able to stop her from doing what had to be done.

But it couldn't be done with any of them by her side. She only had one person in mind.

—————————————————————

She thought of inviting Miles but although he technically was her oldest friend and he always proved himself supporting, she feared that even he wouldn't understand this. So she called someone who she believed would have been more than happy to help.

"So, Jess... what are we doing here?" asked Kitty as they approached a seemingly random burn barrel on top of a roof.

"We're here for a funeral, Kitty." she replied, carrying a brown bag in her hand.

"...you know I don't really like that word. What do you even mean by that? Whose 'funeral'?"

Jess opened the bag and showed the inside to Kitty. She stared wide eyed when she saw the scarlet uniform. Jessica just said: "Spider-Woman's."

Kitty kept staring for a while and Jessica understood that she felt a little perplexed. She rubbed her own neck and she said: "I think I understand... but I don't want to jump to conclusions, so..."

Jessica took the suit out and held it away from her chest, she then proclaimed: "This suit was made by the people that created me. They saw me as just a clone, so they made a suit that resembled that. As Spider-Woman I am just a copy of Spider-Man but I can't allow that. I can't prove my makers right. I must prove that I'm not Peter."

"Jess..." Kitty said as she placed her hands on her friend's shoulder, "Jess, I already know that. I know you're not him. There's no need to prove that again."

"I know that this cremation may seem a little over the top at first but I'm not just doing this for me. It's also for him." a long, unbearable silence ensued in which Kitty seemed a little conflicted but Jess wasn't in the least. "Peter died long ago. I genuinely believed that a part of him lived through me but that never was the case. It took me a very long time to accept that. I never was him and now I must let him go. It's the only way for me to move on."

Kitty's right hand rested on Jessica's left shoulder. They promptly lost themselves into each other's eyes but eventually snapped back to reality and walked closer to the fire. Now both were convinced to do this.

Kitty had just another question: "What will you be now? For me, you'll always be Jess but, if not Spider-Woman, what will everyone else call you?"

Jess looked up at the black sky, devoid of any stars and pondered for only an instant before answering: "I thought about it for a long time. I could be Black Widow, just because of Monica. I also, technically, have the strongest claim to being Captain America, if you think about it..."

Kitty finally smiled, looked at her and said: "Yeah... no, that wouldn't suit you."

"I know. So then I... I thought about you." and after she said that, they stared at each other's features once again. "You had the courage to stop using costumes and made up names and showed everyone who you really were. I want to be like you, Kitty. I want to be myself."

Kitty was left honoured, perhaps more than she thought she deserved but she still had to tell Jess: "Being yourself is hard. It means not being able to run away no matter how much you want to. Are you willing to do that?"

"I am." she answered and Kitty placed her hands on her cheeks.

Jess turned once again to the fire, she raised the suit made by the people she hated in front of her, the thing used to label her as nothing more than a copy, and then it was as simple as letting go.

That pretty scarlet cloth turned black and incinerated while the lenses that Kitty despised so much slowly turned to scrap. Her whole life, Jessica believed that if she ever dared to do this, she would hear the screams of Peter's ghost but that wasn't the case. Peter was quiet, he was at peace and proud.

There was another scream, that of Otto Octavius. Burning along with the suit, he was proven wrong.