Bug Bites

Chapter | Twenty-Three

"Marinette is safe, she's with my sister Yelena right now safe and sound."

This sentence brought a wave of relief to everyone, especially Peter. After all this time of wondering and worrying she was hurting, it was nice to have the peace of mind that she was okay. She was somewhere with someone that was indeed trust worthy, but even then there was this look on Natasha's face that didn't bring reassurance.

"She isn't coming back to New York, is she." Tony didn't ask, he stated it knowing the look that the red head had. It was a look that everything wasn't okay yet.

"No." Natasha says, her shoulders slumping slightly as she looked at the other teens quickly and refocused on Tony. "She's been through it, from what I understand and she wants to see things through before she comes back."

"See things through?" Alya asks, unsure what that was supposed to mean for her former friend.

Natasha nodded, looking back at the young heroes that she hadn't filled in completely. When her eyes met Peter's though, she could see he was waiting for her to say the truth of what was going on. She knew he deserved to know the truth of what happened, as well as the other teens. They weren't children, this world they were now in proved that they had grown up a bit too fast and as unfair as that was to them, the deserved to know the truth about their friend. 

"She was taken by Lucas, and from what I could gather she was tortured for a while until she broke mentally. He had a technology the size of a chip implanted into her neck and gained full control over Marinette." Natasha pulled up the news articles on the technology Tony had around the tower. She pulled up the unknown cause of disaster sites, "Marinette was the cause of all of these. The chip was created to shock her mind, but it cracked and she regained the awareness to run. By pure luck she ran into Yelena, who has been helping her."

It dawned on Chloe first, "She wants to kill him, doesn't she?"

Natasha's long pause was enough for the rest of the room to get the general answer. For Chloe, this didn't seem like Marinette at all. The Marinette she knew would never hurt someone else, let alone want to take the life of another human being. This wasn't settling well with Chloe, but it wasn't settling well with anyone else either. Yet Natasha stood there like she understood why, and Chloe so desperately wanted to understand as well.

"You need to stop her. Talk to her Nat." Steve says, not agreeing with this either. "She's still a kid, and if she does this- if she sees this through, there isn't any way of coming back from that."

"I tried, but you haven't gone through that before either. Lucas's family was part of the Red Room, and he is making something like it in it's place." Natasha shook her head, "I spent my life running and thinking I destroyed that place only to find out my sister had been stuck chemically subjected to listen for years, along with thousands of others. Lucas can't be allowed to do that again."

"She's a kid!" Steve argued, standing up from his seat. "She shouldn't have to do this."

"He killed her parents." Natasha revealed, and Steve grew silent. "She has this anger, this hate in her heart that she doesn't want anyone else to see. I know how that feels. She would rather stay away than let anyone here see that. She knows what she's doing, she understands what will happen and she's accepted it. I couldn't change her mind."

"Did you even try?" Peter asks, "Marinette isn't a killer. Not even four months ago she was having panic attacks and was grieving. She hasn't had time to process everything to make a rational choice."

"She isn't coming back." Natasha tells him, "Not yet."

"Call her." Peter says, but there is an underlying plea in his voice. Natasha knew he needed to see her himself, she could see that in his eyes that he needed to see her and see she was okay. They boy cared deeply, and a part of Natasha pitied that the girl he loved had changed deep down in a way he probably couldn't understand. In a way none of her team could understand.