As Peter continued his walk through Venoms mind he came to a intersection where tons of other hallways infected with each other. In the middle of the room was Eddie pinning down Flash Thompson. It made since that they were here too but it did catch peter by surprise. Looking down peter noticed that he was still in costume. So peter charged head long into the fight and tackled Eddie. This sent them tumbling. During the tumble peter put distance between him and Eddie.
"Of course! Your here too. How perfect!" Eddie growler angrily.
"What are you talking about? Your the one that brought us here!" Peter yelled.
"Why would I bring you here!?" Eddie yelled. Eddie then leapt at peter. Peter tried to move but found his legs were stuck in something on the floor. He looked down to see the floor had swallowed his feet. Peter then did the only thing he could do and braced for Eddie to hit him. Eddie was then on top of peter punching Him as hard as he could. Peter was blocking however. Flash slowly got up. Seeing Eddie punching Spider-Man he got angry.
"I have to help Spider-Man." He thought to himself.
"Spider-Man! Help! Help! Spider-Man!" Something whispered to flash. Flash looked around confused.
"Who's there!?" Eddie said. He then saw that he was no longer in the intersection but the end of a hall. Flash looked around.
"Help...." a voice called. Flash turned to the sound and began to walk towards the voice. "Help...." it called again.
"Someone there?" Flash asked as he walked.
Back at peter and Eddie. The pair were still in the same positions from before with Eddie hitting peter with everything he had. Peter kicked Eddie off him sending him crashing into some of the lockers in a hall. Peter turned to flash.
"Flash run!" Peter said but he was already gone. Eddie got back up as did peter. The pair then started to charge. But as they did they suddenly felt something pull them back.
All at once peter, Eddie and flash were shot back into the gym crashing to the ground. In the middle of the gym where they had been was the venom symbiote without a host just being a gelatinous blob of symbiote. It began to make its way to flash when peter sat up and saw it. Peter glared in rage at it. He got up and started for the symbiote. Readying a sort equipment peter had made just for the occasion. But Eddie acted quickly by shooting a web catching it then pulling it back to him where it returned Eddie to his monstrous form. Peter looked at venom and noticed Felicia behind him. Using his flash step he tried to make it to her and get her. He was moving as fast as he could. Venom noticed what he was doing and went for Felicia as well. While peter was faster then Venom, he had a greater distance to cover them Venom did. As peter almost reached her venom grabbed her leg. He then yanked Felicia to her. This woke her up and she found herself in venoms claws. As Eddie held Felicia by the throat choking her. She began to claw at his hand. But that did nothing. Eddie laughed.
"You are pitiful. In a few moments you be nothing more then one of my victims." Venom said as he squeezed her throat.
"No!" Peter yelled before using another flash step to try and tackle venom, but he was hit mid dash by a tentacle. Venom began to pound away on peter with tentacles he had made. Felicia however wasn't pay attention to peter or Venom. When Felicia had heard Venom call her a victim it caused Felicia to became stressed and her body began to tighten. She was now hearing voices.
"As the victim we need your cooperation...."
"What happened to her was terrible...."
"Need any help?"
"I'm feel sorry for her...." more and more voices joined in the chorus. Felicia struggled against the hand that held her but she wasn't trying to get out. She was trying to stop the voices.
"No! Stop it! I'm not a victim!" Felicia's mind screamed. "I'm not a victim." Felicia struggles to say as venom choked.
"What was that?" Venom asked. Felicia's eyes opened revealing them to be glowing a brilliant Green.
"I'm not a victim!!!!" She screamed. Suddenly Lights we're surrounded by a green aura and began short circuiting, creating sparks that fell down from above. The sparks were harmless however. The microphone and amplifiers were also surrounded in the aura before suddenly they began to do something weird as they began to make a sound like feedback. The sound got louder and louder. As this happened Venom started to scream out in pain as the sound was getting too loud for him. He dropped Felicia and grabbed his head like someone who was trying to cover their ears. The venom symbiote seemed to be on the fritz as was shaking violently. Finally it retreated into Eddies body, the sounds were still painful for him though. Peter then shot a web that grabbed flash then ran to Felicia. Once he had them both he ran out of the building. When he was outside. He turned to Felicia.
"Stay here!" Peter said. He then ran back inside. But what he found was an empty gym with some destroyed amplifiers. Sighing he went back outside. When he did he found that Felicia wasn't where he left her. Looking around he saw her some white hair climb the school building. Worried she might have saw Eddie and is going after him, peter ran after her. Wen he reached the roof she wasn't in sight. But he could hear someone talking to themself. Following the sounds he found Felicia curled into a ball. She seemed scared half to death. She kept saying the same thing.
"I'm not a victim. I'm not a victim." Over and over repeatedly. This worried peter a lot more then if she was going after venom. What happened to her. Peter walked to her slowly then bent down she didn't react to him.
"Felicia?" Peter called as he put a hand on her. When his hand made contact with her shoulder she seemed to jump from her skin as she quickly shot away from where she had been sitting. She stared at peter wide eyed. Peter looked into her eyes and saw that she was scared. "Felicia? Are you ok?" Peter asked.
"Yes.... no..... i don't know." Felicia said as she started to cry. She pulled off her goggles and rubbed her eyes.
"What's wrong?" Peter asked.
"I-I don't know. I just.... feel so helpless, so powerless, and.... and...." Felicia then moved to peter and hugged him. Then the dam broke as she began to cry like a child. Peter was shocked by this. He looked down at Felicia as she cried then hugged her back. As she continued to cry peter only thought about how he needed to help her however he could. Right now it seemed she needed a shoulder to cry on. So right now... his job wasn't to be Spider-Man even though he wore his mask. His job now was to be peter Parker.
"I'm here Felicia. I'm here." He said. Then he just listened to her wail while tears streamed down her face like a river.
Time skip
Several weeks
Peter was sitting with Felicia in a lobby. Felicia's expression said that she was tired and unhappy. Peter was simply waiting for them to be called. Peter had brought Felicia to a psychiatrist against her wishes. She didn't want to go even though she clearly needed to. She claimed that there was nothing wrong with her. It wasn't until after the last few weeks of no sleep from nightmares did she finally agree to see a psychiatrist. Peter had an idea of what might be wrong with her but he though he needed a professionals opinion. The door opened and a lady stepped into the doorway.
"Come on in ms. Hardy." The women said. Peter looked at her. "You can come to. It's probably best for you to hear this as well." She said. Then both peter and Felicia got up. They walked through the door into another room where there was a couch with a chair in front of it. "Have a seat." The lady said. Peter and Felicia sat down beside each other. Then it was quiet for a moment.
"So what's your opinion?" Peter asked as it seemed Felicia was unwilling to ask herself. The psychiatrist sighed.
"It is my opinion that ms. Hardy here has.... PTSD." The psychiatrist said. Felicia looked at her and glared.
"PTSD? There's no way I have PTSD. To have PTSD I would have had to have been severally traumatized. Nothing in my life has traumatized me enough to cause PTSD!" Felicia said adamantly. She got up and started moving around the room. Obviously she wasn't going to listen anymore. The psychiatrist turned to peter.
"It seems to me that she has a need to not be a victim. She just can't except it for some reason." The psychiatrist continued.
"Because I have never been a victim!" Felicia said defensively.
"What made you think she has PTSD?" Peter asked.
"When describing what happened before her breakdown there were several things that could be symptoms of PTSD." the psychiatrist explained. She faced Felicia and followed her as she paced. "It says here you've been having nightmares. Another sign of PTSD. Tell me what event in your life are these nightmares related to?" The psychiatrist asked.
"Nothing." Felicia said angrily. She stopped behind the couch and crossed her arms.
"Felicia.... please." Peter said asking for Felicia's cooperation. Felicia sighed before coming back around the couch and sitting back beside peter.
"There is an event related to the nightmares, but...." Felicia shook her head as if not wanting to tell. "I don't like to talk about it. It makes others look at me.... differently. They feel sad for me but I don't want their pity!" Felicia said getting a little agitated.
"Pity is a show of empathy. It is people trying to show that they care for others. If anyone shows you pity it is because they care for you." The psychiatrist explained. Peter put a hand on Felicia.
"My opinion of you will not change Felicia." Peter said. Felicia looked down but didn't say anything for a while. After a bit of inner debating she gathered the courage to talk again.
"A couple of years ago when I was. I think 21. I was in my third year of college. One day I was invited to a party. At first I was having fun with my friends. But then one of my friends was too drunk. Luckily the party was at his fraternity house. So I volunteered to take him up to his room. But when we got there....." Felicia paused. Deciding wether or not to continue. Felicia felt herself get stressed and angry at the same time. "He asked me to get him a new shirt. He puked over the one he had been wearing. When I went to his closet he got up and locked the door. I asked him what he was doing." Felicia said. Suddenly she had a flashback to the scene. "He started to take his clothes off. Saying we were going to have a little fun. He pushed me into a corner. Then..." Felicia pulled herself back to the president by squeezing Peters hand.
"Then what?" The psychiatrist said. Felicia blew up at the question.
"Then he raped me! Is that what you wanted me to say!! One of my friends raped me!" Felicia said. After she said that pulled herself to the end of the couch. "I trusted him. Thought he was my friend. But he was just someone who was after people for their looks." Felicia said. Peter looked at her before putting his hand on her shoulder. She looked at him to see him smiling at her.
"It's ok. Like I said before. That won't change my view of you." Peter said.
"I'm sorry. I just thought you needed to say it yourself. Now. After that event did you start having any nightmares?" The psychiatrist asked. Felicia shook her head. "Flashbacks?" Again Felicia shook her head. "Did you start avoiding anything after it?" Slowly Felicia nodded. "Did these things cause you to feel sick, nauseous, or make you feel like your heart was going to explode?" Felicia continued to nod growing more and more bashful. "What did you start to avoid?"
"Anything involving beer and... my old college. I finished up my education through online courses." Felicia said.
"So you haven't been around beer or your old college campus?" The psychiatrist asked. Felicia nodded her head. "Those are signs of PTSD. It really does sound like what we're looking for. That dramatic event put you through more stress then you think." The psychiatrist said. Felicia took that as in She was calling Felicia a victim. She looked at the psychiatrist with a glare.
"I'm not a victim." Felicia said. The psychiatrist was about to say she didn't say that. But then Felicia's eyes glowed green. A lamp was covered in the aura like the microphone and amplifiers from weeks ago suddenly the lamps light bulb exploded. This made the psychiatrist jump and turned around to look at the lamp. Peter looked at Felicia. He put a hand on her leg. Felicia looked at him to see peter shake his head. Realizing what she did she calmed down causing the glowing in her eyes to die down.
"That's odd." The psychiatrist said.
"Your telling me." Peter said. The psychiatrist then looked back at Felicia.
"Ugh.... I'm sorry if you thought I was calling you a victim. It was not my intention." The psychiatrist apologized. Felicia looked at peter.
"It's ok." She said grumbled. She then thought of another argument. "If I have PTSD. Then why is it showing up now instead of after the... incident." Felicia said.
"I would say that this is a case of Delayed-onset PTSD. Another rare occurrence but it happens. Delayed-Onset PTSD is when someone has displayed symptoms of PTSD but they were so small and insignificant that any psychiatrist who you would have seen after the event would have thought it was something else."Felicia then sighed.
"Ok. Let's say for the sake of the conversation I do have PTSD, Which I don't, But let's say I do. What do I do about it?" Felicia asked.
"Regular therapy is my suggestion. Prescriptions could also be applied if a psychiatrist believes they are needed." The psychiatrist replied. Peter nodded his head.
"Thank dr. Patel." Peter said before he got up Felicia got up to and they walked out together. They walked together through Manhattan until they got to Peters place. Once there Felicia flopped onto the bed. She thought about the doctor. How the doctor believed she had PTSD.
"Well shows what she knows. There's no way I have PTSD. Nothing happened to me." Felicia said. Still not wanting to believe the psychiatrist.
"Felicia." Peter started. Felicia sat up.
"I don't have PTSD. Yes. I was raped. Yes that can be traumatizing. But it didn't traumatize me enough for me to get PTSD." Felicia said. Peter sat down by Felicia.
"Please Felicia. Listen to me." Peter said. He put his hands on her shoulders. "I think she's right. I think that you just don't want to accept that you have it because that would mean admitting you were a victim. I'm not asking you to admit you were a victim. I'm not even asking you to go to a psychiatrist to try and treat this problem, I think you should but I won't force you to go.... right now I'm just asking you to try and put yourself back together. Your having these.... breakdowns and nightmares. You lost your apartment and now your here with me. Not complaining about you living with me but it's not the best situation. So right now I am asking you is...." peter paused for a moment. "I'm asking you to stop being the black cat." Peter said.
"What?!" Felicia asked hurt.
"Hold on. Hold on. Listen. Just stop for a while. Not forever but I think it'd be better for you to try and get your life together again. Take a break. Go and look for a job to help get yourself back on your feet. Relax and release your stress. I would hope you'd go an see a psychiatrist. I just think that with how your life is right now you shouldn't be out there protecting the city when Venom can strike anytime and who knows how many triggers you could have." Peter said carefully picking his words at the end. Felicia sighed then looked at peter who was pleading. She looked away.
"Fine." She said. Conceding to peter.
"Thank you. Remember it's only temporary. Just until your all together and ready." Peter said. He then brought Felicia into a hug. After a bit she hugged him back. "I love you felicia." Peter said.
"I love you too." She said.