Talons of the Bird || Spiderman Fan Fiction

Chapter 16

The next day rolled around, and Peter and Emily both had a long lay-in due to their late night last night. Even though it was a Saturday, they had work to do. Peter and Emily agreed to go to Tony Stark's office that afternoon to come up with a plan on catching Martin Li, while in Emily's head, she had a plan to reveal her gifts to Mr. Stark and hopefully work closer with the avengers than was originally planned. They both woke up with massive bed hair to the sound of May pounding on the door. "Come on, you two! It's nearly 11!" She yelled through the door. It took them both a minute to gather their bearings, before laughing at each other's good-sleep appearance. "You can shower first," He said, climbing out of bed. "You telling me I stink, Pete?" She giggled, taking a towel out from one of the boxes she had stacked up. "Yeah, I can smell you from here," He joked back, rummaging through his chest of draws for some clothes. She scoffed before whacking the towel around the back of his head, then leaving the room for a shower. He laughed to himself before sitting down at his desk, pulling his laptop toward him. He received a notification of an email from Yuri. It read:

'𝚂𝚙𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚗,

𝙼𝚢 𝚝𝚎𝚌𝚑 𝚐𝚞𝚢𝚜 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚐𝚘𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚗 𝚊𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚍𝚘𝚠𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚊𝚞𝚍𝚒𝚘 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙲𝙲𝚃𝚅 𝚏𝚘𝚘𝚝𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚊𝚗𝚔. 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚒𝚜𝚘𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚜𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚜 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚖𝚎, 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚗, 𝚝𝚘𝚘. 𝚂𝚎𝚎 𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚊𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚍 𝚋𝚎𝚕𝚘𝚠 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚒𝚙𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗.

𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚔𝚜,

𝚈𝚞𝚛𝚒 𝚆𝚊𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚊𝚋𝚎, 𝙲𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝙽𝚈𝙿𝙳'

Peter clicked on the file attached and it opened the video program. He hit play and the tape began.

"Good to see you, Elizabeth," The same tape from before played, Emily's mom and dad were sat on the bench together. "What do you want, Martin?" Elizabeth folded her arms, refusing to look at him.

"I just want to know where my beloved daughter is. You've kept her a secret from me long enough," Martin interrogated. "She's not your daughter, go to hell," Her words sounded like venom, filled with hatred. Their voices were still hushed as to not draw any attention. "That's not what my sources have told me," He replied calmly.

"Even if she was, she would never help you," Her posture remained stiff and uninviting. Peter respected how tough she was standing her ground. "Well, of course, she wouldn't, but maybe I can 'persuade' her to help. Just the same way I can persuade you to tell me where she is," He held his arm up, allowing Elizabeth to see it grow darker, his natural colour changing and inverting to the one Peter had seen all too much of. "Tough shit. I know what your game is. I know you're after Norman Osborn when you're done with Fisk. She's stronger than you think. She's stronger than you." She rebelled, her voice growing slightly louder. "I can make her stronger. I wonder if she's anything like you..." He argued back, before reaching for Elizabeth's arm. Peter watched the scene unfold again in front of him. The darkness rippling up her arm, travelling towards the rest of the body. However, it didn't travel fast enough as by the point it reached her shoulder, she had already had the gun against her head. "Go to hell, Martin," She cried before pulling the trigger.

Peter closed the lid of his laptop and sunk back in his chair. "Pete? Was that my mom?" Emily could be heard behind him. He spun around to see her standing in the doorway, all dressed with her hair still dripping wet. She had a sad but brave expression on her face. He sighed, nodding his head. "How much did you see?" He asked, standing up. "I didn't see any of it, but I heard the last sentence and a gunshot," She replied, patting down her hair with the towel in her hand, looking at the ground. Peter walked up to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I don't know how to tell you this... Your mom gave up her life to protect you, even without you being in the room. Your dad nearly got the information from her, but she made sure he never could," He looked her in the eyes, but she refused to meet them, keeping her gaze to the floor. She nodded, "She shot herself, didn't she?" A small break could be heard in her voice. Peter pulled her in for a hug. "Your mom is fucking awesome," He said quietly, trying to make her feel even slightly okay about the situation. "I should show you something before we go to the office," He said, pulling away from her.

After they were dressed and said goodbye to May for the day, Peter and Emily left the block and started walking. "Pete, isn't the tower in the other direction?" Emily asked, catching up to him with a confused look on her face. "What I want to show you is this way," he walked onwards. Soon enough, they were at the local gravesite. Emily knew what Peter wanted to show her, without having to say a word. The carried on walking until they got to the far end, to see a large bold headstone in front of them. 𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙮 𝙇𝙞, 𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙈𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙃𝙚𝙧𝙤 was written in bold. Peter had a confused expression on his face now. He thought back to the CCTV footage. 'Martin called her Elizabeth..?' He thought to himself. Emily meanwhile was blown away by the number of flowers left by the grave. Despite the fact, her mother was always against the idea of having many friends, people wanted to pay their respects to the woman who gave her life to save countless loved ones in the bank that day. Emily felt touched. "I wonder who paid for such a large gravestone," Peter asked himself out loud. Emily felt another wave of a headache come over her, as she crumpled to the ground in pain. "Em!" Peter rushed to her side.

"Peter! I remember!" She cried out. As if the headache never came, she slowly climbed back to her feet. "I thought I had some sort of deja vu, but I remember now! Martin brought me here for the funeral. I remember seeing your faces around the grave, the small turnout, everything!" She yelled. "Woah, slow down! What do you mean?" He asked, still holding her by the arm to keep her upright. "I was over there," She pointed to a large tree at the top of a bank in the graveyard. "Martin paid for her funeral, I remember him telling me," She had now recovered her strength to stand on her own. They both seemed so confused. This man would happily use and betray anyone to get his own way, and yet when Mary died, he paid for a big headstone and planned the date, keeping his identity anonymous to all the guests. "Em, when I listened to the audio, Martin called your mom Elizabeth..?" He asked with confusion. "Elizabeth? That's not right, that's not her name," Emily correct him. "That doesn't make any sense, she's never told anyone her name was Elizabeth, everyone knows her as Mary..." He spoke to herself. "Are you sure you heard the name right?" She turned back to Peter. "I'm positive, the two names don't exactly sound alike," Peter assured her. He looked at the time on his phone. "Shit, we're gonna be late," He exclaimed, motioning Emily with his head to make a move.