[Now.]
“This –“
Venom’s mind begins to open as soon as Toxin slowly and carefully begins to pry it open for him, both of them being careful not to let any of it overwhelm either of their hosts.
”– is who you really are.”
Eddie sees flashes, knows Toxin is sweetly trying not to overload either her or Patrick. Though, she sees the blank look suddenly wash over Venom’s face and is slightly worried. She ignores the flashes of his memories popping up into her own mind like windows popping up on her laptop screen, is more concerned over her other half.
What if he hates her for keeping it all a secret?
Eddie can’t bare to think about that right now. She just needs to know that he will be OK.
Toxin sees her expression and is quick to reassure her. “He is fine. Just... processing.” His little noodle-head shoots her a reassuring smile to go with as he adds, “Almost there.”
Patrick watches as Eddie can only nod. He just hopes they’ll both be OK after... whatever this is. He’ll ask Tox for the details later, when they’re alone. Mainly because he doesn’t want to intrude on Eddie and Venom’s own private talk. Which he’s sure they’ll be having later after... all of this.
“It’s done.” Toxin tells her, both Eddie and he and Pac all glancing warily at the eldest symbiote. “Venom?” He asks, voice soft as he floats over to the larger “noodle-head” – as Eddie sweetly dubs them.
Eddie frowns, a slight panic rising in her. “V?” She turns to stand in front of him, and the moment she calls out to him, he snaps out of it, eyes instantly locking with hers.
Venom smiles when he sees her, a real smile. “Eddie.”
Eddie lets out a sigh of relief, shoots him a curious, yet, still slightly concerned look. “Are you OK?”
“I’m OK, Eddie.”
Eddie scowls when he pretty much ignores her in favour of floating over to Toxin. She glances at Patrick, who shrugs, as the two symbiotes just seem to stare silently at one another. Eddie scowls harder as she quickly realises they’re probably talking. “Excuse me, but it’s rude to whisper!” She snaps, folds her arms over her chest and shoots them an expectant look as they finally turn their floating heads to look at her. “What’s goin’ on? No secrets! We’re supposed to be a family!”
“Yeah!” Patrick chips in, now, too, scowling at the symbiotes – well, mainly at Toxin, because Venom still kind of terrifies him a little. Which is ridiculous, when he thinks about it.
Venom rolls his eyes at the Detective, turns to Eddie and shoots her a slightly grave look that she really doesn’t like.
“V, what’s goin’ on?” She asks again, voice slightly wavering with dread of her own.
Toxin feels Venom’s internal struggle and quickly comes to his rescue. Floats over to Eddie as he tells her, “Knull. He is free. And he is on his way here... I’m sorry, Eddie.” He adds the last part when he sees her eyes widen and her mouth drop.
“Um... what??” Eddie mumbles.
“What?!” Patrick yelps in a not so manly way.
“Calm, Pac.” Toxin soothes, tries to reassure his host as he floats back over to him. “The cosmos is vast beyond comprehension. He will not arrive for at least a decade and a half.”
“Oh, well, that makes it less terrible!” Patrick snaps back at his symbiote, at his other half, who is so annoyingly calm for what he has just unloaded onto them right now.
Venom notices Eddie is oddly silent, and he tries to calm her loudly racing heart and quietly racing thoughts. She doesn’t seem to notice, or maybe it just doesn’t seem to work this time. He briefly wonders, completely terrified if he’s finally broken her.
“It gives us time to prepare for his arrival, at least.” Toxin says, always the voice of reason.
That annoys Patrick, too. He thought he had always been that voice. Looks like he was deluded all along.
“Two symbiotes against a god?! The same god that Venom almost killed once already, and is probably really pissed about that fact?!” Patrick tries not let the panic control him... too much, anyway. But he still thinks his concerns are pretty valid.
“Will you leave us... please?” Venom turns to Patrick and Toxin, shoots them both a look somewhere in between hinting at Eddie and pleading. “Eddie and I will call you in the morning. Promise.”
Patrick glances towards Eddie, then, glances towards Tox, who simply nods at him. Patrick sighs, glances back to Venom and nods. “Yeah, of course. We’ll bring coffee and chocolate donuts.”
Toxin gives Venom a nod before seeping back into Patrick. Venom nods curtly at the Detective, watches him close the front door quietly behind him before turning back to Eddie. Venom is surprised to see her now looking directly back at him when he turns to her, blinks as he stares nervously back at her.
“Eddie –“
“I’m sorry.”
Venom blinks, surprised again.
Eddie elaborates when she sees his look of confusion that follows. “For keepin’ your past a secret. We didn’t know how to tell you... I didn’t wanna hurt you.”
Venom doesn’t know how it’s possible, but he thinks he loves her even more than he already does in this moment. “You could never hurt me, Eddie.”
He really means that, but he also really knows that the only thing she could possibly ever hurt is his heart. Y’know... if he physically had one for himself. Thankfully, he also really knows that it’s Eddie he’s talking about, knows that she would never do such a cruel thing to him... on purpose.
The point is, he trusts her, like no other.
And now that Toxin has given him his memories back, he remembers there are a lot of others. But none of them matter now, either way.
It’s Eddie’s turn to look surprised now as she blinks up at him. “You’re not mad at me?”
“No.” Venom says, sprouts two tiny arms and holds up both tiny hands, like that’s that. He bites back a grin when it gets her to smile, still wants to erase that fear he feels quietly simmering in the pool of her gut (her pretty pink guts – pretty just like every other inch of her, outside and inside.)
Eddie’s fears are coming true, her nightmares making so much fucking sense to her now. Still, what scares her most is that she’s been having those nightmares for nearly two weeks now and Venom hasn’t said a goddamn thing about it to her. It’s weird. He goddamn loves hearing himself talk as much as he is nosey.
So, what gives?
In that moment, Eddie finally finds the courage out of the ashes of her annoyance as she finally asks him, “Why haven’t you asked me about that nightmare I keep havin’ about Knull yet?” She can’t think of any reason why he wouldn’t. Out of interest, if anything... and because she cannot bring herself to mention the other thing yet...
Venom is just as curious of a creature as Eddie herself has always been. It’s literally what got her into this particular life – both her writing and symbiotic life.
Again, to her surprise, Venom only looks confused, then immediately concerned. “I have no memory of this.”
“What? How’s that even possible? I mean, I know I can block you out now, but I can’t do it when I’m sleepin’.” Eddie believes him, feels his own confusion meld with her own as she tries to think of just how it could be possible.
“Maybe you can now.” Venom shoots her a small, but proud grin. “You learn fast, Eddie... for a human.” He adds that last part with a slight teasing to his tone, grins cheekily when she merely scoffs loudly in response. He sighs, tone more serious as he says, “Tell me about the nightmares, Eddie.”
And now, Eddie is even more nervous than before, and Venom is looking at her with confusion written on his inky face again, because she knows he can sense those nerves when she feels him trying to soothe them away for her. And it almost works, at least.
Eddie starts with the part about Knull, starts with the simplest part of her dream/nightmare. “It’s always the same. No montage, or anything like that. Just flashes of images, loud echoes of violence and horror. I see you and Toxin fightin’ with Knull. We’re not alone, I don’t think. I can never see anyone else, except for you and Toxin, but I can feel them there, fightin’ with us... And every time, we almost win... but then, Knull swallows us whole... then, swallows the entire world whole...”
And that’s just the easy part of telling Venom, Eddie thinks, manages to keep that thought alone hidden from him. Either that, or he simply chooses not to say anything about it.
Venom is obviously concerned, but he can still feel that this is not what she worries over. He shoots her a softly curious look, floats slowly closer to her, tone just as soft as he asks her, “What else?” He smiles slightly when she shoots him another surprised look. “I know you, Eddie. The end of the world sounds too much like a stupid comic book for you to really be afraid of it.”
Eddie laughs at that – and will probably never be able to comprehend just how wonderful that sound makes her other half feel, even if he tried to help her understand. “Well, what I’m about to tell you doesn’t come off in a better light where comic books are concerned...”
She jokes, but Venom can sense her nerves rising again, and again, he tries to soothe them away for her. “It’s OK, Eddie. You can tell me anything.”
He simply encourages her, mainly because he doesn’t know what else to do in this moment. These nerves in particular feel odd to him, strange and new, but not entirely unpleasant, now that he pays more attention to them, instead of just trying to wipe them away.
“Heh, yeah, I know.” Eddie does know that, still – “OK, so it’s just a dream, right? Dreams aren’t real. Not visions of the future, or anything like that, right?”
Venom frowns, now completely baffled, though, always endeared over her adorable rambling. “Not for humans... normally.”
“Oh, my God.” Eddie mutters under her breath, takes a deep breath to calm herself. She then just blurts it out before she can chicken out instead. “OK, so, I’ve been havin’ dreams of a kid who has power that outmatches even Knull’s... our kid... our son, V...”