Arachnophobia ⇒ Peter Parker

thirty six: pistol and barrel

     "What do I want? I want a compromise, Rose. I would take it up with your superiors but it appears as though both of them aren't available," Isaac said as he gestured over to Steve and Tony, "for consultation. I want Steve and Tony dead and you and Peter alive. All of the other Avengers can leave and no one else has to die."

    Peter walked forward until he was beside me. I scoffed and said, "How is that compromise?"

     "In that case scenario, you only have two casualties. If you decline my offer, I ignite all of my headquarters. It all ends."

     I requested time to talk the decision over with Peter. Isaac left the room. The decision that we would make in the following minutes would change the course of history. If Steve and Tony were killed, the blame would be on Peter and I. All of the Avengers and Stark Industries would collapse. The world would come to a screeching halt. The two most powerful leaders would be gone forever. The people would have no one to turn to. They would be lost. Without Stark and Rogers, there were no superheroes. They wouldn't survive. The villains would come to power and rise above.

     If we allowed Isaac to detonate all of the headquarters, we would all be gone. The concept of superheroes and villains would be forever erased from history. There would be no Avengers, but there would also be no earthly villains to stop them. The world would cope, and in time it would heal. Would no superheroes at all be better than an uncertain, possibly grim, fate for the universe?

     The weight of the world was on both of our shoulders. I looked over at Peter and saw the pain in his eyes. No teenager deserved this. He reached his hand forward and took mine. Through everything, we had each other.

     "I don't want to go. I don't want them to die. Why does it have to be this way?" He said softly. I thought about what he said. Why does it have to be this way? Why did we have to funnel into his two decisions? Was it because Isaac was in a position of power?

     I thought about every moment that Isaac and I had spent together. I thought about all the threats and all the lies. I thought about the waiting and I thought about all the regret. Most of all, though the thought terrified me, I thought about all the things that had made them the way he was. I thought about the fact that he had never shown any weakness.

     "A week ago, the night before he took you, Isaac was drunk and he told me that his dad murdered his mom when he was our age. He was the reason that she was killed. Do you think that that's the moment that he decided to never love again?" I asked Peter. I stared into his soft hazel eyes. My heart ached to think that I may have never seen him again.

     He shook his head, "He did find love again. The way he looks at you. He loves you, Rose."

     The answer struck me. It was overwhelming at first. I stood up and walked over to Isaac's desk. I sat down and laughed. To think that I had overlooked an answer that was so clear. I yelled at him to come in from outside. The second Isaac walked in he stared at me. Both him and Peter wore confused expressions. I wouldn't dare tell Peter my plan. He would have never allowed me to go through with it.

     The moment he came in I took the gun off his desk. I raised it. However, I wasn't going to administer blind threats. I was going to take advantage of his one weakness.

     "We pick the first choice. Kill Steve and Tony." I raised the gun to my head. "But first, kill me."

     At this statement, both of their faces dropped. I knew that Isaac would give in. There was a loophole in his two offers. Either we both stayed alive or we both died. He wasn't willing to stay alive without me. He needed me. His murder of the Avengers was him living out some lifelong dream. He didn't really want it. He wasn't meant to kill. His actions concealed the fact that inside, he never deserved this life. I, on the other hand, was the one thing in his life that made it worth living. The scientist had fallen in love with his monster.

     "You wouldn't," He said firmly. Isaac tried to keep his stoic tone as he watched, but his words came out strained and his movements were cautious. I couldn't control myself. Tears began to stream out of my eyes. My eyes became redder. They stung. My heart hurt with a pain so intense I wondered if it was still beating. I lost feeling in both of my hands. I choked my gun.

     I strained out, "Will you hug me? I just... I don't want to die alone."

Isaac seemed to understand.

The first day that he took me into his clutches I was innocent and terrified beyond belief. I sat alone in a chair as he told me threats, and I clutched onto my fleeting past life. I was ignorant to the fact that I would be forever changed. He released me into New York. That first night I entered my apartment and had never felt so alone. It was the beginning and end of everything. At what point in time do we lose our ignorance? When do we lose our past selves?

He began to walk over to me.

I remembered the first morning that I entered Midtown High School. I received a text from him. It was cold and emotionless. That's the way he always was. His men slit my throat. He was always striving for intimidation. Through it all, however, there was always only one person who understood me. There was only one person who read past my fake smiles and emotionless laughter and actually took the time to gaze deeply into my eyes. There was only one person who truly understood my sadness. There was only one person who had ever felt it. It was him. Is it worth it to allow someone to hurt you if they're the only one that understands you?

Tears started to collect in his eyes. It was the first time I had ever seen him cry.

But had I been so foolish as to miss a whole other side of him? His touches were always so tender. His words were always chosen so carefully. His clever responses always brought a smile to my face. He never wanted to bring pain upon me. Pain was the only thing he knew. Smiles were always wicked grins and laughter was always a cackle. The only time he found solace were in the moments that he was familiar with. Murder, threats, betrayal, pain. That was all he ever knew. That was his way of showing love. He never knew that he was the villain to anyone's story. He had only ever lived his own. What is a hero and a villain?

He took me tightly in his arms. It was the first time that he had ever unconditionally expressed his love for another person. He grasped me tenderly in his arms.

His mother had been murdered by his father. Isaac's own father realized her blatant betrayal and shot her in the head. How dare she disobey him? After all, everything he had ever done was for her. They were in love. Sometimes life squelches dreams and sometimes true love is only something found in the books. So, the man that he knew as a father raised a bullet to her head and took her life ruthlessly. His wrath was not for the righteousness of his own cause, but for anger at her foolishness. She knew what she was doing by contradicting him. She had ended them. Is betrayal better when done blindly?

My shaking hands moved the gun from my head to his. I pulled the trigger.

Isaac collapsed into my arms. His motionless body fell onto mine. He engulfed me. He wasn't intimidating anymore. He was just a person. As I stood free, I realized something. It was in that moment that for the first time I understood him fully. He was never the villain. All Isaac had ever wanted was love.