Spider-Man. The House Of Venom

She was not the first to revive, but she was the most unexpected. As Peter and the Skrulls made sure the ships in orbit were safe a form shimmered and coalesced from dust. She was brought somewhere safe. Or so she thought.

Carol stared at her and flicked open a communicator, "Hey uh Wanda. Yeah, I've got a situation. Get everyone, and I mean everyone." She was about to end the call, "No, not Pete. Do not tell Pete about this."

A glowing hand was pointed at Loki as she lay on the deck, "And if you move, I will make sure there is not enough of you to..." Carol paused as Loki grit her teeth in pain. Turning over her belly was swollen, and Loki grasped at it.

"Please, help me," she asked through the pain. She was not this pregnant when she died. The Stones were killing her, and a baby had no chance. It had been a ruse to get the last Stone, she had not intended to bear Peter Parker's child.

Carol's hand lowered and stopped glowing, "Well, shit."

⁂

The raven-haired woman screamed as she pushed against the pain. It had been four months since her resurrection and it was now time. Soon her efforts were rewarded as the baby cried and wailed at its arrival.

She cooed and wiggled a finger at the child. It was not perfect, it was a mess, but the little girl was hers. As she lay in her golden bed she sighed happily.

A bright portal opened and out stepped three women. One tall, dark-haired and very angry. The second with bright red flaming hair and an outfit to match. Finally, the third, decked in deep scarlet body armour that glowed with eldritch runes.

“No, please,” Loki begged. “Please, I was sorry, I said sorry.” As the raven-haired woman approached she stroked her hair.

“No Loki, you knew this day would come, and this is your real punishment.”

“Sister please,” Loki begged Hela but she simply shook her head. 

“For him, and for the future.” Wanda stepped forward and began to chant in a forgotten tongue. As the energy reached the child it changed.

From a pale white, red-eyed Jotun to a simple human baby, Loki cried and held her close. “Please, please,” was all she could say. With a flick of her wrist, the baby was ripped from her arms and landed in the grasp of the red flame-haired woman.

“She will be loved and cared for, but we can never forgive this.” Jean turned and walked through the portal as Loki curled herself into a ball and wept.

“We are not without mercy. You may not approach the child, interact, nor send agents to interfere with the child’s growth. On her sixteenth birthday, she will learn of you, and of what we did here. Only then will she decide your, and possibly our, fate.” The woman waved her hand, summoning a crystal ball. “But you may observe, you may see how she grows, until that day Loki, learn to be better, learn to be who she wants you to be.” 

After handing the ball to Hela, Wanda walked through the portal and it closed behind her.

Hela stood and stared at Loki, "I am sorry Loki, but Father knows you are alive. We lied and said you were hurt but he does know."

Loki sniffed, "Am I to be executed?"

Hela snorted and laughed, "Peter spoke in your defence. He said he once threatened to burn the world if anything happened to one of his lovers. So no, but." Hela paused and sat on the edge of the bed, "you cannot reveal the child to him. If he discovers her he will use her to punish both you and Peter."

Odin was not a forgiving person and was still angry at Peter. Asgard had withdrawn from Earth, and taken the Xandarians with them. The alliance was broken, and unless Odin died, it would never be reforged.

Loki sniffed and wiped her eyes with the blanket, "So, I am to be held, a prisoner?"

"Thor is still missing, and there is no word of where he is or what happened. Father expects you to admit you had him killed."

Loki sniffed, wiping her eyes, "I had nothing to do with that explosion. It was those idiots."

"We know. It is just strange that Heimdal cannot see him. Do you have anything to offer the All-Father, anything that would make this more bearable?"

Loki laughed, tears streaming down her face, "A cage is still a cage sister, even made of gold. But no. I never looked, I never wanted to look."

Hela held up the ball, "Even so, Odin does. And while he is angry with you, we are not without mercy sister. A trait Peter had been annoyingly teaching us."

Loki grabbed for the ball, “Show me, Show Me!” she screamed at it.

She watched as they handed the child over to her new family, and the baby giggled as she was rocked to sleep by her mother.

"I will leave you, and for once, I am actually sorry." Hela ran a hand over her own stomach. "I could not bear to lose my own, and no mother should suffer what you have." She did not know if she could ever bear children, as her power destroyed life, but she could hope.

"Oh fuck off you sanctimonious cow. Leave me. Reject me as all others have," Loki hissed and turned her back on Hela.

Hela sighed, having expected Loki's ire. She waved a hand and a portal of her own opened. She gave Loki one last look before she walked through and closed it.

Loki cradled the ball between her legs, waving a hand and pulling the image out into the air.

“Kate. We should call her Kate,” said the woman. Her husband nodded. He waved his single robotic hand in front of the newly christened Kate. His new daughter.

Loki watched the image and tutted, “Kate? My daughter will not be named Kate. You may be a child of two worlds but I swear to this, you will be great, you will be powerful, and you will rule. I name you. Fenris, devourer of worlds.”

With a shudder of magic, a faint light glowed around Kate's tiny head. Clint and Laura were too busy dealing with a new addition to their family to see the magic settle on her. As neither had a speck of magic, to them, she was simply another cute baby that needed love and a family.

Loki lay back in her bed, leaving the crystal to one side where she could watch her daughter. A smile crept across her face and she laughed. She might not have revenge, but her daughter would.

⁂

“Lady Veranka?” asked a lowly trooper. He had been given human form but had been inept enough at his transformation that he was deformed. He could not get his human skin the right colour, and always looked slightly green. He had slipped into amongst a work crew, wearing a biohazard suit that covered his face in a breathing mask. Heavy clothes and gloves hid the rest. Once people started to pop out of nowhere, Damage Control had been drafted in to survey and clear the rubble. With so many workers, nobody gave him a second glance.

When he found her, burned and barely alive, he knew she had survived the crash, and he didn't care how. “I am sorry my lady.” She moaned as he stripped from the suit, and carefully dressed her in it. She was safe, hurt but her powers would take care of that. She just needed more time. Time they didn't have. The riots were in this area, and he needed a distraction.

"Human Scum!" he yelled, "You won't take me alive." Once he made sure the crowd knew where he was, and where Veranke was, he ran.

Seeing the Skrull stand over one of their own, the men powered their construction rigs.

The attack left everyone on edge, and a lot of humans didn’t care if you were blue or green. Alien meant invader, and the riots had started once the fighting had stopped.

As she lay, slowly transforming into a more human form she could hear his cries as they attacked him. Tears leaked from her eyes as she heard his cries of pain and then a sickening crunch as he was killed. She swore she would make sure his sacrifice was not in vain. She would kill them all, every human, every Asgardian until no race existed except the Skrulls.

⁂

MODOK had been busy. Hydra was slowly rebuilding its forces. Things were progressing nicely until the Kree arrived and ruined everything. Operatives were killed. Safe houses were gone. Stashes of money and weapons are all obliterated. The Kree in their hamfisted approach to subjugate the planet had thrown Hydra's plans to ruin. There was plenty of opportunity, but no way to exploit it.

And then Peter Parker had brought everyone back. Using magic stones. MODOK had the Tesseract files and recognised the Mind Stone as well. He had no doubt that Parker was telling the truth. The Stones were protected, which was why they were on display.

MODOK was shocked at how naive the young man was. Hydra might have lost its physical assets, but the people were back. With the chaos Hydra now had people infiltrated into every level of government once more. Damage Control was Hydra, but this time, there were no obvious call signs to reveal them. MODOK had learned. Parker's CLS had been adapted. A simple handshake now connected the two systems together. If you didn't have one, you were not Hydra.

MODOK had plans. They still had the Formula stolen by Morbius. They still had the blood serum taken from the vampire, and now they had five fresh subjects to experiment on.

Ultron had killed the failed Super Soldiers, and Peter Parker had brought them back.

Hydra would rise once more, stronger and more powerful.

All thanks to the wish of a naive fool who thought he could save everyone.

⁂

In a caldera, a silicone matrix briefly reformed. It was still hot, and even with his powers, Ultron was helpless. His prison slowly began to melt again.

His thoughts in his fleeting moment were of loss. Loss of whatever gave him pause to save at least some humans. But it was gone. There was no love, no empathy. He just wished humanity was dead. That all life in the universe was dead. It would be a much more peaceful place if it wasn't ruined by life.

Within the caldera, he was slowly dying once more. Magma bubbled too close to the silicone matrix, and he bowed to the inevitable. His only comfort was the counter in the satellite floating over the Earth. As it clicked to zero, it sent an email to Tony Stark, containing only one-word 'Failure'. The satellite then began to broadcast as it floated in space. A recording began to play on anything capable of receiving the stream.

“Greetings to the pathetic remains of humanity,” Ultron spoke. This time it was just a black background and his disembodied head. ”If you are seeing this message then I have failed. Failed to bring your miserable and futile lives to an end. Hydra failed, Hammer failed, Modok failed, and the Sentinels all failed. It is disheartening to know that all my plans have failed and that you are all still alive. The Earth would be so peaceful if you would all just die.” 

The feed cut to a small satellite. It showed the rectangular body as it floated through the lower atmosphere. “If I failed, then I can only give credit to those so-called heroes. The ones who sit in their castles and lord it over you all. The ones who say ‘Oh no, we have power, you do not, so we are better than you,’ and I intend to change this. When all my plans have failed then I can simply let you destroy yourselves.”

As the scene changed, a website, with a clearly visible address appeared. As everyone scrambled to check it out, a sudden sense of impending doom befell the world’s heroes.

"My gift to you all is the gift of choice. Will you prove me right, and kill yourselves, or will you prove me right, and use these powers to lord it over others? We both know which one you will choose, as I am always right."

Tony stared at the screen. He had a watchdog program set up, and any mention of 'Ultron' was flagged for investigation. “So?”

Vision blinked once. His brain was much faster at sifting through the entire website before giving a report. “Everything. Iron Man, War Machine, Goblin, Pulse Weapons, Arc Reactors. Every conceivable Formula. Symbiotes, Augmented and the X-Gene Research, Cloning, Weapon X-”

Tony raised a hand, stopping him. “So, everything.”

“Yes Sir. Everything is now available for anyone to access. Full schematics, full blueprints, full formulas. Everything.”

Tony ran a hand over his face, staring at the screen. There was no way to find a low-orbit satellite, not with all the junk that was already up there. Even blocking the website just changed its address, and the page was still visible.

“Well, I guess this changes ‘everything’ then.”