"Peter? Peter, hey!" Peter was roughly shaken awake the next morning. "Where is she? Where'd Athena go?"
Once he'd come out of his sleepy daze, Peter realized the hospital chair in front of him was empty. Monitors were off and cords lay on the blanketed chair. Steve looked very concerned.
Bruce came in behind him and looked equally as concerned.
Peter shot up to his feet. "U-uhm I-I don't know," He stuttered. "I didn't even hear her leave!"
"She's violent without you, Peter. I don't understand why she'd just up and leave."
"I don't know. But I'll go tell everyone else. We lost her again and we've all gotta start looking. If she hurts someone, it'll look horrible."
Peter immediately left the tower on a web after pulling his mask over his face.
–Athena's POV–
I don't know how I got up here. And I'm terrified. I'm stuck at the top of a skyscraper. A literal skyscraper.
It was like a fog came over my mind. My thoughts weren't my own. But I think when I consciously realized I'm seconds from death, right on the edge (quite literally) of falling to my death, the fog cleared.
I don't have a suit like Tony. I don't have my father's superhuman strength. I'm just- me. I can't protect myself like the others can. And I'm trapped on top of a skyscraper.
My grip was slipping as my hands sweat. It doesn't help that it's one of the hottest days Queens has ever had. The metal of this railing is painful to touch let alone hold onto for dear life.
I'm so high up that even if I tried calling for help, no one would hear me. I was growing hopeless until I saw a red figure swinging around the buildings surrounding the skyscraper I'm trapped on.
I began crying, hard. Panic set in the hardest it could and that's when I really began slipping. "Athena?!"
"Peter! Please!" I turned to see him in the near distance but the second he got close enough, I slipped and started plummeting. Fast.
"I got you! C'mere, I got you," I sobbed into Peter's chest when he caught me. His strong arm tightly wrapped around my torso. "I got you. You're okay."
We landed on a parking garage roof next to the skyscraper. Peter set me down but ended up sitting on the ground with me as my knees weakened. I held onto him for dear life.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," I choked out through heavy tears. "I'm sorry. Peter, I'm so sorry."
"It's okay. You're okay. I'm right here," Peter huffed in relief and buried his face into my shoulder. "I got you. You're safe now."
I don't think I had to tell him what happened. He's smart. He's probably put all the pieces together in his head already.
"It w... it wasn't m-me..."
"I know. It was that weird venom stuff," Peter whispered, still tightly holding onto me. "But you're okay. You're okay now. We'll... we'll figure this out."
"Pete, I- I'm scared..." I whimpered quietly. "I'm g- I'm gonna hurt someone... I'm gonna hurt me... the- the baby..."
"Hey, no you're not," Peter looked me in the eyes and cupped my face in his hands, the material of his suit feeling comfortably familiar on my skin. "You're not gonna hurt anyone. Listen, we'll get you back to Bruce and Mr. Stark and we'll figure something out. Okay?"
"I can't, Peter," I shook my head and sniffled. "I hurt them. I hurt my dad, Peter."
"He was the first one to notice you were gone," Peter admitted. "But you're not gonna hurt anyone. Everyone's out looking for you. We all care about you and we're gonna fix it okay? C'mon. We need to get back so everyone stops panicking."
He and I made it back to the tower rather quickly. He must be healing quicker than most from that fight he had with Diamondback and his snakes. The second we landed in the window, Bruce stood from his desk in the med bay and approached us cautiously.
"Athena? You okay?"
I tightly grabbed onto Peter's arm out of instinct, but didn't feel that violent rage anymore when Bruce got close.
"I-I'm sorry," I muttered sheepishly. "I-I didn't mean to scare or... hurt... anyone."
"She said it wasn't her. Like that venom stuff kinda took over."
"Yeah, yeah, I figured," Bruce led us to the medic room. "Do- do you mind if I take blood? I wanna look a little harder at this stuff and the last sample I took went bad super quick."
I leaned on Peter's shoulder as Bruce took blood from my arm. His thumb traced over my hand to provide extra support.
"We'll figure this out, okay?" Peter sighed. "Maybe Tony has ideas."
"Heard my name," Tony walked in and crossed his arms proudly across his chest. His face was reddened. He must've been out looking for me. "Kid, your dad and I did some tinkering last night and think we've got something for you that'll help."
Peter softly smiled and nodded. "Told ya."
–
"A suit?!" My eyes widened and I couldn't help but crack a smile. I marveled at the gorgeous suit in front of me, sitting in a gorgeous glass case.
It's black with red and blue accents on the sides like Peter's, but it has the shoulder and waist stripes like my father's. It looks to be a similar fit to Natasha's as well.
But what really got to me was the patch on the chest. The image of my dad and I's matching tattoo is embroidered into the fabric. It looked so cool in contrast to the black fabric.
"What the hell, guys," I traced my hand along the fabric. It's the exact same fabric as Peter's. Tears gathered in my eyes. "Did- did you all do this?"
"Yep, well, except Peter. Can't tell him anything without him spoiling the secret too early," My dad nudged Peter with a smirk, making Peter smile bashfully. "But we included lots from his suit design into yours."
"I love it," I turned back and looked at them. "Even... after everything I did."
"No, no, no emotional sappy stuff. I don't do that well. That's more your dad's strong suit," Tony waved me off, making everyone laugh. "But it's more than just design."
"As expected from you, Tony," I teased him, yet again making everyone in the room chuckle. "What are the goodies I get?"
"Basics. I pretty much copied and pasted the programming from Peter's to yours and then added extras to it. Stretchy, accommodating fabric. Fully automatic control of things like weapons and stuff. It'll track your vitals and alert when things go wrong. Keep an eye on mini spider."
Peter blushed at Tony's last comment and hugged me tighter to his chest from behind. He placed his chin on the top of my head. "Good."
"And," Bruce added to the description. "Whenever that venom acts up, it'll recognize you're not in control. Recognize the change in vitals. And it'll disable the use of weapons and alert all of us when you have another one of those... episode things."
"Really?" I scoffed, letting a couple tears fall. "So- so I won't be able to hurt anyone anymore?"
"Exactly. And it'll be simple to remove that programming once we figure out what's going on."
"But, we're prepared if- things go south and we can't find a cure. Thankfully..." Bruce motioned to Natasha.
"The suit's got gun holsters. You've been signed up with me for training. We're gonna see if we can't control that stuff in your veins," Nat grinned. "What do you think?"
"I think I freaking adore you guys," I scoffed again. "I don't even know what to say."
"Figured it was time you got a suit. Go try it on," My dad rubbed my shoulder and encouraged me to the bathroom.
–
I stood in the mirror in the bathroom and took a moment to look at myself in the suit. I got all choked up again and trailed my finger along the patch of my tattoo over my chest.
"Are you okay in there, beautiful?" Peter knocked on the door. "Been in there for a while."
"It's gorgeous, Pete," I sniffled with a smile. "I love it so much. I don't even know what to say."
"Well, let's see it!" He was growing quickly impatient. "I wanna see it!"
"Okay, okay, jeez!" I opened the door with a laugh. Peter's eyes scanned up and down, marveling at the suit just like I had when I saw it for the first time.
"Whoah," He grinned. "You look-"
"Is it too much?" I grew slightly embarrassed.
"I was gonna say hot," Peter finished. "How does it feel? Is it comfortable? Do you have enough room?"
"Yes, yes, it's perfect," I smiled when he took my hips into his hands and pulled me close to him. I looked up into his gorgeous, chocolate brown eyes. "You're a gorgeous man. I don't tell you enough."
Peter blushed furiously. "Saying a lot coming from you, beautiful."
"Don't even start on that," I scoffed. "The self belittling. I won't tolerate it, mister Parker."
"Fine, fine," Peter smiled. "Regardless. You're still way out of my league. I don't even understand how-"
I pushed my lips onto his to quiet his rambling. "Shut up."
"If that's how you're gonna shut me up, do it more, please," He snickered and kissed me again.
"Hey, hey, no shenanigans you two. You're just kids," Natasha came down the hallway. I laid my head on Peter's chest. "I love the suit though. Fits exactly like mine. You're smokin'."
"That's what I said," Peter nodded. "You look like a real Avenger now."
"Now, let's go run through your training," Natasha smiled. "We've got some work to do."
I grew nervous at the realization. How the hell am I gonna train if I can't control the venom's effects.
Nat sensed my hesitation and encouraged me. "We'll do the basics. And if anything happens, we'll stop. I just wanna test the waters. Just you and me, no pressure."
"You got this," Peter added. "I've... got a lot to update May on. I'll be here though."
"Okay," I sighed softly and kissed his cheek. "I love you, Peter."
"I love you more," He smirked. I rolled my eyes. "Let me win this one, please?"
"Just this once, Parker," We both laughed and I took Natasha's arm as we walked off to the training gym.
Peter shook his head. "God, she's hot. Seriously out of my league."