Acceptance

Fluff/Filler Chapter

A/N This chapter is meant to allow me to tie up some loose ends and add detail to characters (Mainly explain some of Venom's reactions in the last chapter.) I expect it to be short, but I hope you enjoy it none the less. A bit of POV switching in this, you have been warned.

Bruce Banner POV

Bruce watched Spider-Man -no, Peter- stomp out of the room in a daze. He felt he had just royally screwed up. What had he done to so thoroughly scare the creature? The only time he had even seen it before was in the lab... where he had nearly killed it! Peter had called himself it's host, that meant that it needed another being in order to survive. They had locked it in a tank and deprived it of that need. That explained why it was untrusting towards him, but why did Peter collapse in the middle of the conversation? He had said something about a panic attack. Surely he was exaggerating. Bruce had to be sure though and he knew nothing about panic attacks, (When he panicked he went green) but he did know someone who know something, Tony. The Stark practically lived in his tower after the Malabo incident so it seemed likely that J.A.R.V.I.S. would know the symptoms.

After making sure none of the equipment in the room was going to explode he enabled the A.I. "J.A.R.V.I.S, what are the visable symptoms of one of Tony's panic attacks?"

"Typically shortness of breath ranging from minor to moderate hyperventilation, inability to stay standing and attempting to enter an armoured suit." He loved A.Is, they don't ask questions.

Peter displayed numbers one and two,  but the third was strictly Tony. He found thought if his armor as safety. He'd think that Spider-Man would have thought of a wall or ceiling as a safe space, but from what he'd seen the kid could slip off of a wall when he lost focus so that probably wasn't an option. Besides he said it wasn't him having the panic attack... Bruce paled, he knew how emotions from another consciousness were dulled, (the Hulk would get out alot more if they weren't) if Peter was showing signs, what had he done to the creature.

That Night

Peter/Venom POV

"Get off!" The words were followed by another agonizing clang.

"Stop, Please!" He pleaded. Why were they doing this? He hadn't done anything wrong.

"Why should I listen to something like you!? You don't have a body so you're trying to steal mine!" Every other word sounded a new wave of pain as the bell wrung and fingers pulled at him. He couldn't let go, couldn't survive without them.

"We aren't trying to steal anything! We are trying to help! Please, let us stay! We won't do anything more just let us stay!" He was growing weak from the pain. He couldn't hold on much longer.

"Never! Just! Get! Off!" That was it, his grip faltered and he was thrown onto the floor in a heap before sliding off the side of bell tower.

Peter bolted upright in his bed, breathing heavily. That was different from his usual nightmares. It took a few more moments of panting before he realized that Venom had completely covered him and was shaking. Then it clicked, it wasn't his dream!

Venom, I would never do that to you. You know this.

We know, but we did not think our last host would either. They were not as accepting as you are, but we thought it would work out. We tried to take their boundaries away, their limitations. They got mad. We now know that what they did because of us are beyond human ethics. We did not know then. They threw us away over one mistake.

Peter hugged... himself? It was hard to embrace something that didn't have a shape of its own. I can not promise that I wouldn't be mad if you did something like that, but I can say that I will try to understand why you did it.

Venom's shudders died down and they sat there for a while. I'm no psychiatrist, but I believe I've heard that talking about something like this helps. Do you want to tell me what happened after that?

After a long pause Venom answered. Yes. We managed to get to an ally to rest, we could barely move after the bell's effects. We didn't get much stronger, we would continue to grow weaker without a host. When a suitable host walked by we were... over eager and lept for them. Instead we met a cold metal disk. We could barely focus after that. We can vaguely remember being forced into a container and moved. We tried to escape but were too weak. We continued growing weaker there until you freed us.

Then that was probably the best day in both of our lives.

A/N Man, didn't realize that was going to get so dark. I was going to do a third segment on Tony, in fact I had a half finished version of it but decided I could fit it into the next chapter. Anyway, in case you can't tell the dream/flashback is this universe's version of the belltower scene. Venom's old host is not any kind of Spider-Man, in fact, I won't say who it is as they are unimportant in this. (By that I mean I can't be bothered to dig up a character use.) I may confirm one of your theories if you like it though. Next chapter will be a return to the light side of things, see you there!

Side note: why am I always writing these at 3 in the morning? I do get most inspired then but it makes my spelling plummet. Going back through to edit these is gonna be a nightmare... pun not intended.