Chap. 7

The next few days, Rachael spent most of our time planning her mother's funeral with her mother's fellow officers. As much as I had wanted to, I couldn't bring myself to manipulate her brain to ease her pain. The day of the funeral, Rachael went up to give her mother's eulogy before we laid her to rest with her father.

"I don't know anyone who could say a bad word about my mother. Everyone she met became her friend, and in the case of my father, they became more than friends. After he died, my mom was always there for me, protecting me, supporting me, and just loving me as any mother can love their daughter. The only thing that made it even better was the fact that she was an amazing cop. And I'm sure everyone here can agree that my mother did her very best, even better, to make sure that New York was safer for all the good people that call this city home.

"I will never forget the time I told her that I wanted to be a hero just like her and my father. She looked me in the eye and said that being a hero is great, but nothing is more rewarding than just being a good mother and having an amazing child with a good, kind heart. She said that's what really made her feel like she had truly done good in this world. This world is too full of people who think only of themselves. We need more people with a heart of compassion and minds that think how we can make this world better.

"That's how I hope everyone can remember her, someone who could see what this world could become with good people thinking of and helping others. That's how I will always remember her, and I will always think of her as perhaps one of the most kind hearted people this world will ever know. I love you, Mom, and not a day will go by where I don't miss you."

By the end of her eulogy, she was sobbing hard and was choking out her final words. One of the officers in attendance escorted her down and then the priest went up to say a final farewell as her mother's casket was lowered into the grave. The officers handed her the flag that had been on top of the casket, along with her mother's badge. Once the casket was lowered, Rachael threw down a rose and a handful of dirt. After the burial, we were driven home by one of her mother's friends from the station.

She spent the rest of the day going through her mother's stuff, deciding what to get rid of and what to keep. At one point during the day, there was a knock at the door. When she opened it, she seemed surprised to see Eddie outside.

"Hey, I don't know if you noticed but I was at the funeral." He said as Rachael let him in. "I wanted to talk to you, but you left before I catch you. I just wanted figured you could use a friend."

"Thanks, Eddie." Rachael answered wiping a tear. "I appreciate the thought, I really do, but right now, I just really need to calm down and I have a lot of my mother's stuff to go through."

"Well, you know that we're here for you both." Eddie said implying all of us. "Anne also wanted me to tell you that she and I were going out for coffee tomorrow if you want to come, we'll be by that place on Fifth."

"I'll see you then." Rachael answered.

Eddie then left and Rachael was back looking at her mother's things.

"You're mad at him, aren't you?" I asked sensing her anger.

"No, I mean I do think it's his fault that Carnage exists, but I'll get over that." She answered. "The one I'm mad at is Carnage. He killed my mother, Plague, the only real family we had left. The only one who was willing to understand and help us. I have never felt this way about anyone before, I just want him to hurt, to suffer for what he did, not just to my mother but also for all those innocent lives he's destroyed."

"You hate him," I answered her. "That's what you're feeling."

"I know what it is, I just don't know what I should do." Rachael answered back. "I have never felt this way before and I know what I want to do to him, but I also know that that's not what my parents would want me to do."

"Well, who said we had to kill him?" I said appearing to her. "We can still find him and make him hurt for his crimes. Then once we have weakened him, we disable him and deliver him to the police."

I could feel Rachael swaying. I didn't want to control her decision, but she was so broken at this point she wasn't thinking clearly. I would just have to let her think that it was mostly her decision.

"We know he got away from San Quintin, we just have to track him down and show him why he can't spill innocent blood, especially the blood of those we care about, and expect to get away with it." I continued.

Rachael didn't say another word. She just walked over to the window and opened them up.

"Let's go kick that bastard's ass." She said as I formed around her.

Carnage didn't make it hard for us to find him hiding in a car repair warehouse, but what did catch us by surprise was the fact that he caught us off guard with a skewer from behind through our shoulder. Apparently, he knew we would be coming for him and was just waiting for us.

"We were wondering when you would decide to come find us." He laughed.

"You are going to pay for that," we hissed. "For that and for all the lives you've destroyed."

"For them, or for that cop you were so eager to save?" Carnage laughed. "Tell me, what made her so important?"

We roared in agitation to answer is questioning. "You don't have to answer that," he laughed harder. "It's written all over your face."

With that, we lunged at him grabbing him by the throat trying to pin him so we could tear him away from his host. But once again, he proved that he was stronger than we were by skewering us through the abdomen and taking a slash at us, taking a large piece of our left leg with it. We slumped to the ground in pain. Carnage then took hold of us by our head and pulled up to have us looking at him.

"Don't worry, you'll be back with your cop friend soon." He kept laughing.

Out of nowhere, the roof above us caved and Carnage was launched back with a swing from a broken rafter.

"We knew we would find you here." We heard from behind us.

Looking up, we saw Venom. "How did you know we would be here?" we asked.

"Because we would have been here too if we were in your place." He answered helping us up as we kept regenerating form our wounds. "We knew that you were going to go after Carnage for what he did, and we knew that you were going to need help because he's too strong. Not that we expected you to think about that with how much anger we could see you were trying to hold in."

Carnage came at us again, but now that Venom was here, it seemed our chances of surviving this encounter had increased. But Carnage didn't seem intent on letting either one of us coming out of this fight alive. But I could sense Rachael was coming up with an idea.

"Venom," we called to him. "Dump all the gasoline or any other flammable liquids on him you can find."

"What?" he called back confused.

"Just do it, we have an idea." We then found our own way out through a broken window and found a bunch of homeless people surrounding a barrel with a fire burning inside not far away.

"That'll do." I heard Rachael say.

Doing what I could to ignore the pain from the fire, we made it back to Venom just as he had opened the last of the oil cans in the place. Thankfully he saw us coming and cleared out just as we threw the flaming barrel in, setting fire to the place and leaving Carnage to burn inside. A short time later, the fire fighters arrived and tried to put the fire out. Once they got the flames under control, the men who went in came out with the host of Carnage, burned, but alive and unconscious.

"What now?" Venom asked us.

"To be honest, we're not sure." We answered turning to go home. "In the moment, all we wanted was for Carnage to suffer for what he had done to us, to my mom." Rachael answered when I allowed her to become visible to him. "But right now, I just feel so lost. I can't really think straight right now."

We took off a few buildings away with Venom close behind. When we came to a stop, I retreated as did Venom from Eddie. "I think I just need to go home, get some rest and maybe just take some time to wrap my head around everything that has happened."

"Well, you know, you don't have to be alone in this." Eddie said standing next to Rachael. "If you ever need help, or just need a friend, you know you can always come to us."

"I know." Rachael answered. "I appreciate everything you and Venom have done for us, really, I do, but I just can't think straight right now, and I just want to go home. I'll call you tomorrow after I've had time to calm down. I promise." She said as I formed around here.

"And you know we'll be here for you." I said turning to Eddie.

"I know." He answered as we took off for home.

When we finally made it home, Rachael asked me to help her fall sleep, and seeing as how her heart was still racing with adrenaline, I could understand why she would need help. After releasing a decent amount of calming hormones, she slowly got ready and climbed into bed. I could feel the tears forming in her eyes.

"I'm sorry." I said to her.

"What are you sorry for?" she asked between the tiny sobs.

"I just wasn't sure what else I could say. I've been trying like hell to think of the best thing to say to you to make you feel better about everything that has happened, but then I realize that in order for me to do that, I would have to empathize and, I'm afraid I haven't even felt anything close to what you're feeling now, I had hardly felt anything before I met you." I explained feeling the same awkwardness I had felt the whole I was trying to figure out what my feelings for Rachael really meant. "You taught me what it was like to really feel Rachael, I'm just sorry I can't fix what Carnage has broken. I wish I could give you what you need right now, I'm just not sure I can."

"What you told me just now was enough." Rachael answered with a broken smile. "Plague, I am really, really grateful that you and I met. If it weren't for you, I would have been more alone that I was growing up. My mom was always there for me, but she couldn't give me everything I needed. You have done more for me than any guy ever could."

I wiped away a small tear that was falling. "Well, now neither of us ever have to be alone again." I said appearing in front of her.

Rachael ran her hand down my face. She told me she wouldn't trade what we had for anything in the world. I responded with a kiss on her forehead, which she returned with a lip lock. I'm not sure how long we were at it, but when Rachael finally fell asleep, I heard her alarm go off and silenced it to let her sleep awhile. After everything that happened to us that previous day, we deserved good long rest.