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piedpiperart · 6 months

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You Could Know Me pt 3

Chapter 2

Peter comes to with a gasp, sweaty and panicking as he lurches to the side to cough out whatever he swallowed in that horrible sea of green. His breathing is ragged, feeling like electricity burning through his body and ringing in his ears. Peter barely feels the hand rubbing circles onto his back or the other holding him up gently, leaning him away from where he’d puked. He groans, gasping for breath as he tries to get his body to cooperate.

Blinking the spots away from his vision, Peter opens his eyes to see a room he’d never been in before. His ears stop ringing in time with his spidey sense enough for him to hear someone talking to him. Something like “It’s okay,”he catches and thinks he recognizes the deep voice.

“Strange?” Peter croaks, going along with the hands that push him to sit up in what feels like a bed. He hears a huff of air closer than he expected and blinks until he catches sight of black and white hair.

“Yeah kid, it’s pretty strange,”The guy says and… that’s not Dr. Strange, Peter thinks. He’s younger than Stephen. Not that Stephen is old, Peter amends, hoping the wizard isn’t reading his mind or anything. But both of them are definitely older than Peter. “You’re doing good, just take a moment to breathe, okay?”

Peter hums, closing his eyes and taking deep, slow breaths. He sort of felt like how he did the night he got bit by that spider. “What happ’ned?” Peter rasps, opening his eyes again to look at the guy with him. He feels a bit better, but for some reason the thoughts aren’t connecting. His spidey sense isn’t freaking out much anymore, and Peter feels like he’ll be safe with the stranger.

The guy pauses before saying,”What do you remember, kiddo?”

And Peter has to close his eyes again to think. He remembers Dr. Strange. Stephen. He was… there was the sand guy, the crocodile man, octopus iron man, and electricity guy. But… Aunt May. Peter makes a whimpered sound before he can stop it,”A’nt May,”He frowns, bringing his hand to his eyes as his face heats up with tears. His head hurts.

Peter feels the guy hold him close in what might be a hug, but Peter’s too out of it to think. His aunt is gone. She was… the last family member he had. Now he’s all alone. Is Dr. Strange gone too? Did Peter somehow cause him to leave like everyone else in his life? After his parents, uncle Ben, Mr. Stark, Mr. Beck, Aunt May…

But… Peter pulls away from the hug to look at the guy with him and he goes back easily. Peters on a mattress on the floor with a few blankets around him. They’re both sitting up against the wall, Jason bracketing him in to make sure he doesn’t fall off. “Who’re you?”

The guy sighs,”I’m Jason. Do you remember how you got here?” He asks hesitantly, and Peter remembers the last spell, only… The green. The green was everywhere. He doesn’t remember anything after that.

“Green,”Peter whispers, hugging himself tighter, careful not to dig too hard into his skin with his super strength. “I- there was green an- and I couldn’t breathe-”

“Hey, hey it’s okay, you’re okay now,”Jason soothes, but winces. “They put you in the Lazarus Pits.”

“What?”Peter looks over with wide eyes. He didn’t know what that meant. He was pretty sure Stephen’s spell went wrong somehow, but that didn’t explain the green water. Was Jason an alternate version of Strange? Peter squints, but no, Jason doesn’t seem familiar at all.

“I know,”Jason starts,”It’s not pleasant to remember. They uh, they put me in the pits before,”Jason gritted his teeth. He knew Ra’s had cameras everywhere, and would try to separate the two of them if he told Peter too much information. Jason was lucky enough to convince Ra’s to let him see the kid on the grounds of managing Lazarus' rage.“You seem to be handling it a lot better than I did though. I came out with a lot more anger issues.”

Peter looked at him bewildered, then looked to himself as if to see any signs of uncontrollable rage. Was he gonna turn into the Hulk, Peter wondered a bit hysterically. The only thing that felt different was the weird buzz of energy under his skin and the itchiness in his wrists. His teeth felt weird too, but he was trying not to think about it.

“Look, it’s gonna be a rough time here, but I promise I’ll protect you however I can,”Jason says seriously, a sturdy hand gripping Peter’s shoulder. He has to resist leaning towards it for the way it grounds him. “I can’t tell you everything, but you need to know a few things about where you are. Keep your head down, do everything I tell you and avoid Ra’s if you can, got it?’

“What- why?” Peter croaked. He was starting to get a headache, and the lights in the room seemed too bright. Jason wasn’t setting off his spider-sense, but Peter could barely wrap his braid around what he was saying. “Where am I?”

Jason frowned, looking at Peter with something akin to concern. “You’re in the League of Assassins base, in Nanda Parbat,”He said, oblivious to the look of unrecognition on Peter’s face. “Listen, you’re gonna be trained here. It’s going to be rough but it’ll be worse if you don’t cooperate, understand?”

“Why? What do they want with me?”Peter rasped. He figured something must have gone really wrong with the spell if it ended with him being kidnapped by assassins. Was it some sort of recruitment thing? Kidnapping kids to make assassins, Peter pondered. He didn’t know how he’d escape this place, but he’d play it safe for now and follow Jason’s lead.

“It’s not important,”Jason said, getting up. Peter squinted though the bright lights, looking over the man. Something was off, but he didn’t know what yet. “Come on, get dressed. It’s better to be prepared.”

Despite feeling overall like crap, Peter was glad to start moving, and had started feeling restless after just sitting for so long. Part of him wanted to climb the walls and hang out on the ceiling, but he shut those thoughts out. He wasn’t sure how safe it would be to reveal his powers in a place with assassins, and Jason might not take it well. He stood up easily enough, avoiding the puke from earlier with a wrinkle of his nose.

“Feeling okay?” Jason asked, hovering close by. “No uncontrollable rage?”

Peter snorted. “No, I’m okay. Just.. tingly?”

“Tingly?” Jason parrotted, resisting the urge to mother hen the kid.

“Like I have a lot of energy, I guess. It’s hard to focus or stand still,”Peter explained, taking to pacing around the room. It was kind of small for two people, but he could see that it was more like a fancy jail cell.

“Alright, well, if you feel any different let me know,”Jason added.

Peter nodded, choosing to trust Jason for now. He got up on shaky legs and Jason handed him a pile of black clothes. They looked similar to the ones Jason was wearing, and Peter was pretty sure it was some sort of assassin uniform. Looking around the room, he could see that it was pretty bare, nothing to use as a weapon either, he noted. Jason guided Peter and his shaky limbs to the adjoined bathroom to change, where he tried to stave back the panic attack.

Feeling the building headache, Peter turned the light off, seeing that there was still enough light for him to see in the dim room. He got dressed shakily, but as he got dressed he started feeling better. By the time he was done Peter felt as good as normal, not mentioning the building dread inside his chest at being kidnapped by assassins or the overwhelming grief of his friends and family.

Peter hoped that the spell had taken him to some Assassin base on earth, but he wasn’t so sure. He hadn’t recognized wherever Nanda Parbat was, and he’d never seen anything like the green Lazarus waters. His top theories were that he was transported to another planet or another dimension. Given Jason’s appearance and Jersey accent, he figured it might be another dimension, or he was still on his earth. Hopefully that meant Peter could find some way back to MJ and Ned.

Now dressed, Peter exited the bathroom feeling a bit better. He’d taken a drink in the sink and that helped the gross taste in his mouth. Peter turned to face Jason, who was pacing the room. He turned to Peter, shoulders relaxing in relief at the sight of him. “Ready?”

“Yeah,”Peter frowned,”What’s going on?”

“I don’t know yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Ra’s wants a meeting,”Jason drawled, running a hand through his hair.

“Why are you here?” Peter blurted. Jason looked at him in surprise, but he continued.”You have a Jersey accent.”

Jason huffed a laugh. “Yeah, I’m from Gotham. You and I are kind of in the same position here, kiddo. Only I’m supposed to be your mentor.”

“Mentor, for assassins?” Peter clarified. “I don’t want to kill anybody.”

“You might not have a choice,”Jason sighed,”I’ll do what I can, but we might not be able to escape for a while. There’s a rescue team on our trail though, so I wouldn’t worry too much.”

Peter’s eyes widened at the revelation. He didn’t know where Gotham was but he was glad Jason wasn’t an assassin. “Escape? I can help.”

“Don’t worry about it kid,”Jason said, putting a hand over Peter’s shoulder. “You just try to stay calm. This place can be a nightmare.”

Peter was about to ask more questions when there was a harsh knock on the door. “Speaking of,”Jason muttered, and he gestured for Peter to follow him. Swallowing his dread, Peter shuffled after him.

Turns out there was, in fact, a ninja on the other side of the door. They said something in a language Peter didn’t recognize, but Jason seemed to know and led them down the hall to the left. He couldn’t tell where they were going, but the place felt humid and hot despite the building air conditioning, like they were near a desert.

Peter could feel the dread building when they walked through these giant ornate doors and onto a ridiculously extravagant marble floor. He scanned the room, not surprised to see various ninjas milling about, but wary when he spotted the man atop a throne at the center of the room. He froze for a second, seeing similarities of the throned man to the Green Goblin, and quickly averted his eyes.

The Parker Luck really had it in for him now, Peter thought. Especially if the head of these assassins is anything like Norman Osborn’s alter ego was. He couldn’t get those green, manic eyes out of his head. When the man on the throne started talking, Peter could barely hear him over the panic in his chest.

Peter was brought out of his head by Jason’s hand on his shoulder, and he glanced over to the man next to him. The throne man was talking with Jason in that other language, but Peter felt himself drifting. He probably wouldn’t have understood what they were saying even if they were speaking english. Jason’s hand gripped his shoulder tighter, almost growling out a response.

A few moments later, Peter was happy to follow Jason out of the throne room. He was still in a fog, barely able to feel Jason’s hand on his shoulder or his feet as they touched the ground. All he could think about was the green. Green Goblin. Green water. He was drowning, and no one could help him because everyone he loved was gone.

Something blurred in front of his eyes, and Peter blinked a moment later. He felt his arms move and- oh, Jason was holding his hands. He wasn’t safe, he needed to get somewhere safe. He didn’t know where he was, or how he got here. Everything was blurry, everything green, and he wanted it to stop. His head was spinning and- was he sitting down?

Peter blinked and Jason was seated next to him on the bed. His hands- Jason was still holding his hands and talking. He was talking. Why couldn’t he hear what Jason was saying? He felt a tap tap tap on his hand and looked over to see Jason tapping his fingers, one by one. Why- Peter blinked. He could feel the warmth of Jason’s hands, and the rhythmic tapping helped.

“Can you take a deep breath for me kiddo?”Jason was saying and Peter realized he was on the brink of hyperventilating. He followed Jason’s exaggerated breathing as best he could, but he was still having trouble.

“You’re okay, I promise. Honestly, I expected you to have a bit more of a freak out than that,”Jason rambled. “Usually when my eyes turn green like that I go into a rage.”

“What?”Peter rasped. Were his eyes green? Why? Was it because of the water?”My eyes are brown,”He said, a little uncertainly.

“They’re green now,”Jason said softly. “Lazarus pits do that, make your eyes turn green. If you get angry or too emotional, sometimes they glow.”

“This sucks,”Peter breathed. He leaned over, putting his head in his hands. “Who was that guy? On the throne?”

“Ra’s? He’s the head of the assassins around here. Has control over the lazarus pits, and that makes him important,”Jason frowned. “If you can, avoid him. You spacing out during the meeting worked in your favor, and I was able to talk him into letting me stay with you for a few nights to adjust.”

“What does he want from me?” Peter groaned. If it was to recruit him as an assassin, he’d fight hard to get out of here. There was no way he’d kill someone, especially not on purpose. Which meant he had to hide his enhancements. If it got out, Ra’s would no doubt see it as an asset.

“Ra’s wants another soldier,”Jason grimaced. He looked over to Peter, who glanced up at him with big hazel-green eyes. “I won’t lie to you, training will be tough. I’ll help you however I can, but I won’t be your only mentor.”

Peter decided, then and there that he wasn’t going to reveal his powers to anyone here, not even Jason. If anyone knew, Ra’s might go to greater lengths to keep Peter under control. He knew what happened to Bucky, and he would do whatever he could to keep that from happening. Peter would do anything to keep himself from killing anyone.

Chapter 4 coming soon

#peter parker #peter parker dc #spider man #jason todd #lazarus pits

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