Lacuna (Spiderman X reader)

Chapter 29

~

Blake stepped aside with Eto, while Jimmy left the room.

"Remember, Y/n, we will all be just on the other side of the mirrors. If anything goes wrong, you see the speakers in the corners? We'll activate a preselected tone and blast it to disarm Venom. Blake knows the drill, you just get out of the way if that sound starts playing."

"Got it."

Dr. Schmidt left, followed by Eto, and it was just you and Blake and a tube of Venom in the training room. Blake was doing some stretches—you had already done yours, but a few smaller ones couldn't hurt, so you stretched your arms, eying the shifting black mass in it's glass cage.

And then Blake was done stretching, and Jimmy's voice came over the speakers. "Alright, you meatheads ready?"

You nodded, Blake giving a thumbs up in the general direction of the mirrors.

"Alright. Blake, you may release Venom," came Dr. Schmidt's voice.

You shifted your stance into the defensive as Blake turned and knelt down by the glass tube, grabbing it around the side and placing a giant hand over the complicated looking metal cap on one end. Twisting slowly, he opened it cautiously like it was an overfilled thermos of boiling tea, the action joined by a soft pressurized hiss of air.

Inside the canister, as Blake was slowly turning the lid, the black tentacles multiplied, stretching upwards, until the whole of the clear glass was black. As Blake slowly lifted off the lid, a handful of waving jagged tentacles probed the air, and as he was lowering the lid to place it on the ground, they spread towards his arms. The first tendrils made contact and immediately began to spread over his skin with growing speed, and suddenly the whole mass of shifting black goo surged out of the canister, launching itself at his chest, and Blake disappeared into it as it expanded, covering him entirely. You watched with a deep seated difficult-to-describe unsettledness.

Blake rose from—no, Venom rose from it's one knee and turned around to face you. If possible it was even bigger than Blake had been. Suddenly a hole split open in it's face filled with a mass of bristling fangs and jagged teeth, and a long red dripping tongue ventured forth as if tasting the air like a snake. It hissed, milky ooze dripping from it's teeth, and it's gaze fell on you.

You couldn't say how you knew this, but it recognized you. You stepped back, as if shoved by your own surprise, and Venom roared, running at you. You barely jumped out of the way as a giant clawed hand reached out to tear open your chest.

And there it was, the adrenaline. Venom chased you around the room, you dodging, evading, spinning away by just a hair's breadth each time. You were beginning to have fun with it, despite the undercurrent of fear running in your adrenaline and your pounding heart. It was getting frustrated, it wasn't in the mood to play. Suddenly you were knocked off your feet as if by a whip, you gasped for air and rolled onto your back just in time to see Venom looming over you, high pitched shrieking coming from it's unnaturally wide jaw. It grabbed you in both hands, and it started shifting—it was letting go of Blake and spreading onto you. You screamed, struggling and glowing in the giant hands. It recoiled slightly, and then realizing the glow was not fire, it surged forwards with renewed enthusiasm, enveloping your arms, your torso, your legs, spreading along your arms and up towards your head-

You thought wearing Venom would feel claustrophobic. It was anything but that. It was like being wrapped in your favorite blanket, unexpectedly cool on a sweltering day. The uncomfortable feeling of sweat disappeared, absorbed by the symbiote. It was like you were floating in a saltwater pool, weightless-

You continued to struggle, glowing and yelling, hoping the combination of sound and light would somehow miraculously frighten it off. But to no avail. It spread over your face and you felt Blake fall away to the side, abandoned by Venom. You couldn't see now, but you could hear a voice, eery and inhuman and jagged and hissing-

"...Know you've met Spider-Man, want to get to... Sssssspider-Man, help you take him down, escape A.I.M. togetherrrrr....?"

An image flashed into your head, from another host's point of view, a memory of watching you fighting Spider-Man above the burning ship on TV. Another image, hazy, from Spider-Man's point of view, wearing Venom, panicked and struggling in a bell tower to rip it off accompanied by the agony of rejection, a flash of an image of your face and a great surge of recognition and excitement, and it was gone, there was a loud ringing that shook your whole body, and you heard that same sound of Venom shrieking, only louder and coming from you, but you weren't making it—and then the secure feeling of Venom wrapped around you started to twist into painful squeezing and flapping as it tried to hold onto you while also trying to escape the pure agony of the blaring speakers. You fell to your knees—when had you risen to your feet?—and covered your hands with your ears, still screaming in Venom's voice, and then it was peeling away from your head and off your legs and arms and fell down from your chest, thrashing about, one moment resembling a massive sea-urchin, the next a marimo ball, the next a mass of agonized tentacles—you squeezed your ears shut, and then the sound all stopped, and Blake had returned Venom to the canister, and the team was running to you.

"Y/n, Y/n are you alright?!"

You felt hands pulling your arms away from your ears, and you looked up, meeting the eyes of Eto.

"I've never seen it act like that, not since we first brought it in..." Schmidt was kneeling by you as Eto checked your pulse and eyes with her flashlight.

"She's alright, just shock," she announced.

"Blake, what happened?"

"It recognized her, from my head. It knew she knows Spider-Man, decided she'd be a better host, and I lost control of it-"

"Venom can access the host's memories," Eto explained, crouched in front of you. You were still kneeling, both hands now braced on your thighs and you stared at the mat where Venom had landed after jumping off of you. "What did it offer you?"

"It wanted to help me get to Spider-Man," you whispered, voice surprisingly hoarse. "It offered to help me take him down..." You swallowed, clearing your throat. "It just wanted Spider-Man."

"Jimmy, take Blake to put that thing away. I need to make sure Y/n's alright," Eto helped you to your feet. "I told you, bad idea," she hissed at Dr. Schmidt.

"I admit, it got a little out of hand. You were right, maybe we shouldn't have."

"Yeah, maybe," she snapped, guiding you out of the training room behind Blake and Jimmy, your eyes on the tube with Venom inside.

Eto took you to her lab, hooking you up to machines to make sure you were physically unharmed. Dr. Schmidt did not join you. After a good hour, Eto stopped, looking up from her tablet.

"Well, it looks like you'll be fine, just shaken up a bit. How are you feeling?"

"It was a bit surreal," you admitted. "I'll get over it, just processing... It showed me my face."

"Your face?" Eto's gaze bore into you.

————————— 
A/n: make sure to vote          
         And comment 🕷