A Discussion of Morals

[notrosesshadow]

Characters: Martha Jones and Eddie Brock
Rating: PG-13
Time Period: Modern
Location: Martha's room: The Loft
Relative Date: After the meeting with Dree, Elly, and Eddie in the Time Room
Status: Closed

Comments

[eddie_plus_1]

Eddie tilted his head to the side for a moment in a way that almost came with an audible 'click' as things fell into place. A sudden caution sub-lit his body language like a deer who thought perhaps it had indeed heard a sound.

"Well, we were perched atop the parapet of the castle reflecting when we saw a chopper coming in. It landed and out hopped Dree. And that's when we saw him trundling towards her gesturing, swaying. Drunk. Angry.

We leapt from the pillar to the ground below and we took off. As we came out of the woods and underbrush we were just in time to see him take a few swings with his sword and plant it into the ground. He was still slurring and angry so we tackled him. We had to remove him from the innocent. He dealt us a grievous blow to the shoulder when he couldn't reach his weapon and threw us well clear. We knew then that he was no normal man. That he was drunk, violent, and unnaturally powerful. And any man who would reach for a sword in an unarmed conflict, well, we knew he wanted our blood," Eddie explained calmly.

"We became Venom and we told him who we were and that the harming of innocents was forbidden here. That they were under our protection. He still wanted to fight. At that point it was obvious that he wanted to put us down so he could finish his work with Dree. We couldn't let him hurt her, Martha. So we hurt him. And we are not proud of it but we are very good at hurting things." Eddie scratched the back of his neck briefly. "Then Dree asked us to spare him and we complied. She wanted to help him which we warned her better of but she insisted. And he shunned her help. At which point she said quite clearly that she didn't care if he died. So we leapt upon him to finish the job... and she halted us again." There was obvious frustration in Eddie's voice. The sort of frustration parents often sounded when they wished their child would just make up their mind on which toy they should like with their 'Happy' meal.

"We relented, again. Agreed to spare him, mercifully, we might add, and he staggered back to the castle. He's not the only other we spared! We tangled with the Witch of the West earlier and we did so with minimal violence! We thought you'd be proud to know!" He beamed, very much like a puppy dog waiting its pat on the head. "One of her monkeys may have been caught in the crossfire but we saved a man named Gene Hunt from burning to death. But we suppose that is a different story."

Now that he'd explained it to her in a sensible fashion he was certain she'd understand. After all, they'd even spared the Witch if only by opting not to go hunting for her. Because sometimes heroes had to make the tough choices and do the right thing. But they'd find her eventually. And then they'd kill her. Twice. For good measure and all.

[notrosesshadow]

She listened carefully to his story, not interrupting until the he finished. The Witch peaked her interest and she smiled at him when she heard how he had dealt with her. Two things were niggling at the back of her head though. "When you reached the landing sight, you said he had driven the sword into the ground? So he wasn't using it to attack Dree? Couldn't you have pushed her out of the perceived harm's way rather than going straight for him?

"Secondly, when people are angry and frustrated as Dree probably was at that moment, they sometimes say things that they don't actually mean."

She stopped talking for a second as she continued to gather her thoughts.

"I understand how frustrating it is to ask questions first. I didn't understand the Doctor when he did it so many times. It seemed wrong, somehow. But then I realized, it is so easy to misunderstand the situation. Things happen." She still didn't think she was making sense.

"OK Hypothetically, say this Lou guy has been stuck here for a while. I can't imagine that every day is all party-like. Perhaps something bad happened at the party and he had a bottle or two too many and planned on taking his frustrations out on a tree... or the helicopter. Maybe he thought he could make an escape. I don't know. But then Dree was there. Maybe he was never going to harm her and was yelling to make his voice her over the chopper. If you had pushed her out of the way, or if you had even walked up and asked if everything was OK, perhaps people wouldn't have gotten hurt."

[eddie_plus_1]

"I said he took a few swings and then drove it into the ground," he corrected her. We couldn't possibly have gotten to her in time if we'd alerted him to our presence.

And being angry does not give him a right to threaten and harass a woman who's just been stolen from her own reality. I--" he paused, looking down then back up, looking her in the eyes.

"When did we become the villain here?" he asked gently. "And no. The chopper was gone by the time we arrived on the scene. He was still yelling. But hypothetically," he said, beginning to look frustrated, "what if you're wrong? What if we had asked questions and he had struck her? Her skull would have split like a melon a man of strength like that. We're certain death would have been immediate from that sort of trauma, we've been hit by trucks with less kick. She had her hands up and appeared to be under duress. We made a decision and we are not sorry," he said plainly, reigning in his frustration with a cool reserve of insistence.

"Maybe he wasn't gonna to hurt her. But you cannot tell us he was in the right. And maybe we should not have hurt him. But he proved willing to do battle with us. If he was innocent, he would have asked questions after we tackled him, wouldn't he? He'd have used reason?" He asked, leveling her logic against her without malice. It was an honest question. "He didn't. He reached for the blade and struck us when he couldn't find it. He had no words for us, Martha. Only a want to fight. We're sorry if we've disappointed you. But we know that Dree is alive and so is Lou Martin. And we saved Gene Hunt today. Its been a good day."

[notrosesshadow]

"You're not a villain Eddie... otherwise, you could have attacked me while I slept in the hall. It's just we now have to do some serious damage control."

She sighed and decided that it wasn't worth getting in a fight over it. Clearly, there were two sides to the story. She highly doubted that this Lou was completely in the wrong here, especially if Jack vouched for his character. Still, everyone was alive... though she wasn't so sure about Lou with the massive amount of blood in the time room. She felt guilty about the fact that she didn't go see if he was OK. Some doctor she was.

She turned to Eddie again. She had two questions for him. One was really quite easy, the other... was super uncomfortable. She mulled the two over and finally decided to go for the more difficult one: "Eddie, what does your other... um... Venom look like?"

[eddie_plus_1]

"We would never attack you, Martha. You're a good woman. We would take a bullet for you. Bullets do not hurt us but even if they did..." he insisted earnestly.

But then she asked the magic question. "Alien," he said. "Black. Wet. Beautiful." Eddie frowned. "Impossing. Dangerous. We strike fear into the hearts of the wicked with a face that is razors and night..." he said very softly. "Monstrous. If you saw our other, you would judge it poorly. It does not look human. But it is good," he went on. "Together we protect the helpless. Keep them safe from abuse, from manipulation, from the people who would take everything."

[notrosesshadow]

He spoke about Venom in such a loving way. It was... so alien.

Her phone beeped.

"It's Jack." she said pulling it out. "I'm going to hazard a guess he wants to know more about you. Mind if I listen and respond quickly?" She felt rude, but she needed to know that Jack wasn't going to attempt to kill Eddie right away.

She walked to the other side of the room for a little privacy and completed what was necessary. When she came back she had some more things to say.

"Right. Monstrous. Here's the problem. My friends, and I, are trained to fight aliens who are a danger to the human race. I don't believe you or your other are dangerous. But, I need to make sure my friends also believe that. Because I don't want anyone dead. We'll need to tell them about you and your symbiote... and you may need to show us so we don't do something stupid like shoot at you when you're changed."

She realized this was starting to sound like an interrogation. She walked over to Eddie and put a hand on his arm. "I really don't think your a villain," she said with a softer tone. "And on behalf of all the innocents of the castle, I thank you for whatever you did with the Witch. I'm sure that was unpleasant."

[eddie_plus_1]

Eddie shrugged his broad shoulders to indicate his indifference to her her. She had ignored his point entirely. Because she was no longer listening. And she'd made her decision. And it hurt. Friendship was a mistake the way it had always been a mistake. Connecting with people beyond the other was the surest route to disappointment and to pain. But it had been so good to dream, so good to hope, that this place was what the letter had said it was.

But this was how it started. Hushed discussions and clandestine meetings. Then it was just 'we need our torches for light when it gets dark' and soon they'd have their pitchforks and their Spider-man and their violence.

"Your Jack Harkness could have asked us," he told her when she returned, "but he won't. Because he isn't interested." There was a frustration brewing in Eddie's voice. "If the roles were reversed, Martha Jones. If you'd come to us. We'd have believed you. But you don't believe us one bit," he told her plainly. "I used to be a reporter. I know how it works. I know how to investigate. I know how to ask the right questions and maneuver people for the comment. And that's what you're doing.

You're not asking for our story. You're looking for holes. You do think we're the villain. That's exactly what you think. Its probably the same thing your friend thinks. You certainly don't think this crazy Lou guy is. Because you're not talking about him. Not even one bit." And the more Eddie got into it the more the pain and betrayal was obvious. Not anger. Just hurt. Rejection. The first cut was always the deepest. Eddie had hoped it would be different this time.

"And now all this Lou Martin has to do is lie about his intentions and you'll disown us at his word. Because you will, won't you? He'll tell you we're in the wrong, and as Jack's friend, that makes him your friend better than us. Tell us we're wrong," he asked gently. It wasn't begging, but almost.

[notrosesshadow]

Martha opened her mouth to speak, then just left it hanging. It was as though he slapped her across the face. Martha was smart, and she realized exactly what was happening. She was pushing him away, and she really didn't want to do that. She liked the guy. She put the phone away and sat down at the table.

"You're right Eddie. I wasn't there, so I don't know what happened." She was trying to figure out how to not sound patronizing. "I am sorry that I jumped to conclusions and made you the bad guy. That was not my intention, but I can see how that became the outcome. And I do believe everything you're telling me. I promise not to disown you at Lou's word."

She took a breath before continuing, "I am sorry for pushing you away. I reacted badly. I don't want to lose your friendship..."

[eddie_plus_1]

He looked surprised. Genuinely surprised. He hazarded a weak smile at the notion that perhaps she hadn't already thrown him to the wolves. "We really were protecting her..." he insisted gently. Because thats exactly what they'd been doing. They saw a threat. They got involved. The situation escalated quickly and the rest was just organic as far as Eddie was concerned. "We're sorry if we responded poorly. Where I come from that sort of talk and action leads to people dieing. That's just how it goes. We didn't want to see her hurt," he explained, now just repeating himself really.

"We don't mean to put you in a bad position, Martha. We know you're trying your best to do what's right. You're the first friend we've made in some time and we would never do anything intentionally to jeopardize that. What should we do?" he asked.

[notrosesshadow]

She understood protection. "The guy I'm dating back home... he died during the Year that Never Was," she responded. It seemed out of the blue, so she continued on. "The night before we defeated the Master, I was back in England, and this man Tom was helping me get around. The Master found me, and was going to kill everyone unless I gave myself up. So I did. And when the Master threatened my life, Tom ran out and was shot instead. And I couldn't even show that I was upset by the fact that someone died on account of me. I gave myself up to protect the world, and people still ended up dead. I think that may be one of the many reasons I called him when time reversed."

She wasn't entirely sure where she was going with the story. "We come from different worlds, Eddie. And I think that for this friendship to work out, we're going to have to work at it. Share our experiences, make compromises, work together to understand each other better. I think you would be an excellent friend, and I'm willing to work at it, but we're not always going to agree with each other."

She looked over at him and her eye caught his bandaged shoulder. "Did she hurt you aside from the cut? The Witch I mean?" she asked with concern in her voice.

[eddie_plus_1]

"He sounds like a very good man," Eddie smiled, similarly unsure the context of her tale at the initiation of its telling. It seemed far off base for the moment at hand, as touching as beautiful as it was. "We'd like to get you back to him if we can." He told her for what it was worth once she had finished the story.

"We would like this friendship to work too," he agreed, stroking his chin thoughtfully. He had a bedeviling question to ask, one he knew would likely make things worse. He held on to it.

"Some minor burns to the chest, nothing serious. She set Gene Hunt on fire and we smothered the flames with a tapestry, and also our body. He was much worse off. In the heat of the moment we didn't think to call you. He's a tough sort of fellow." But the question nagged at him and he had to ask it.

"Martha, when you say compromise, do you mean mutually? Or do you mean that we'll do things less our way and more your way?" It was an honest question. "You don't strike us as the type to start asking fewer questions and start breaking more bones, hypothetically assuming that the situation seemed to call for it."

As happy as Eddie was to have shifted the topic away from the rocky nature of their tenuous friendship he felt now was the time for questions. For answers. For honesty. "You're very New Testament, Martha. But us? we're Old Testament." There was a hint of apology in his voice as if he recognized the way he must be difficult for her. She stood on what she considered to be the higher moral ground. But she didn't understand that even a gracious and loving God still needed avenging angels. Champions in black prepared to stand in the night and visit the devil's own darkness upon him. There was no place at the Table for angels like that but they were no less righteous for it.

[notrosesshadow]

"Gene was set on fire!" She was ready to rush and find the man immediately to help him out, but Eddie continued talking. She frowned at his next question.

"Compromise does mean mutual... but you're right. I'm not the type to barrel in head first." She mulled the topic over a few moments. "And if I'm not going to change, I can't ask you to either." She continued thinking over it. "No you're right, either a mutual compromise or not a compromise at all..."

A shadow passed over her face as she then realized why she had told the story of Tom's death. Because innocents would die. No matter how much you tried to protect them, they would die... and it was her fault that so many did die. She couldn't see any other way around it... she followed the Doctor's orders, did what she was supposed to, and became a Saint for a year. And people died for her actions. And that made her a monster. And that was why she had called Tom... she needed to assuage some of that guilt.

[eddie_plus_1]

He nodded. This was the first nail in the coffin, really. It was how they would grow apart. He wouldn't change. She wouldn't change. And they'd come into conflict. But that was a matter for a moment later.

"Are you alright? We didn't mean to upset you..." he said, reaching out to put a hand on her arm. Her conflict seemed internal but he couldn't hazard as to why so it was easier to assume the blame and be later absolved than to take shots in the dark. "But now you see why we have no friends. We're not easy to be friends with. We're like a spider," he said, pained to even use such an analogy. "Frightening and strange, but better us than the flies. People love what we accomplish but they can't bare to see us do it."

[notrosesshadow]

"Hm... no... you're not at fault. Just... I suppose I'm a monster as well. Had to be to survive that year. So really, I have no business getting mad at you." She smiled a bitter smile as she looked at him, realizing as he did that this was the first nail in the coffin. And yet she didn't want to accept that. Maybe she could learn from him... maybe she couldn't. Mostly, she was just happy that he didn't know her during that Year.

[eddie_plus_1]

"Did you do your killing with your own hands?" He asked ger frankly. Eddie was sure she was being harder on herself than was necessary. Or perhaps he'd just become so used to taking life and passing judgement and sentence that what he considered definitive of a monster was skewed. "We know you're a good woman Martha. Thank you for being our friend. Do you still want to see our other face? It may change your mind."

[notrosesshadow]

"Have you heard of Niccolò Machiavelli's philosophy? The end justifies the means? That's how I lived that year. In the end, the world was saved, time was healed, and practically no one died due to the timey wimey stuff. I let a lot of people die though just for that perfect moment." Because in the end, the Master was supposed to live and suffer.

She smiled a grateful smile at his comments. Her gaze sharpened when he asked if she wanted to see his other. The prospect was frightening, but her curiosity was peaked. "If you would be willing. I'd prefer to meet him in a not life or death situation..." she replied.