To Make a Concubine

A/N: The fight scene is a recreation from Ultimate Volume Three, and the news report is also borrowed from said volume. This concludes book one, but there is still a lot more to come (again, see the codes I’ve yet to cover). I’m wondering if I should post book two as a separate section, or keep adding it as chapters over here. Reviews in regard to the subject would be appreciated. Enjoy.

XxX

Morning traffic woke her. Voices and horns in the street below. The storm had passed. She lay where she was for a long time, not opening her eyes. Nightmare. It must have been a horrific nightmare. She was cold because she'd fallen asleep with the window open. So very cold. She had stiffened as she slept, and she winced as she tried to uncurl. Then she bumped her hand and fierce pain spiked up her arm. Her eyes flew open and the first thing she saw was her destroyed sofa. It all came back, in unpleasant twitches and burns. She moaned, squeezing her eyes shut and curling in on herself. It didn't go away. Everything hurt, so much. So much pain. And not all of it physical. Something inside her was torn and deadened.

The morning dragged on. She was trying to hide from it, but her wrists and her intimate parts hurt so very bad. Eventually, they forced her out of her torpor. She had to get to a hospital. But he'd crushed her phone. She couldn't call 911. She'd have to ask a neighbor. One of the neighbors who hadn't heard her screams last night. Dully, she managed to get to her feet. Dried blood cracked on her thighs. She couldn't go out there like this. Shame was such a part of her life now, she couldn't stand more. It took her time to find a loose skirt, one she could put on without much use of her hands. She slipped her feet into a pair of clogs and shrugged on a bulky coat.

The door confronted her with a problem. She stood for a long time with the fingertips of her splinted hand on the knob, just shaking. He'd punish her for leaving, she knew it. But... She remembered he had told her to watch him. To be there in person. She... she had promised. She opened the door, moving out into the silent hallway. She would do that. Go and watch him. And then they'd be done. She wouldn't have to obey him anymore.

She took the elevator down, glad to not see anyone she knew. At the street, she caught a taxi and told him to take her to the Big Apple Pier. That's where the news station had said the press conference for Justin Hammer's project was going to be. She had seen the huge screen set up there. It was as close to in person as she could get. With her arm hidden inside the coat, the driver asked no questions of his pale, twitching passenger. She paid him with a fifty from her pocket and slipped into the crowd just as a tall, whip-thin man was introduced on the stage. Hammer.

After Otto had left her apartment, he'd made his way to the pier as quickly as possible. Quickly as possible had meant going through the rain, but he was too preoccupied with thoughts of how Hammer would pay for what he had done. Even though Otto wasn't exactly sure what it was, he knew, in his bones, that Hammer was responsible for this disfigurement. It was a disfigurement that he was about to turn back against the old man.
The docks had been busier than Otto expected, with news crews huddled around, complaining about the wet weather. There were also boats carrying some last minute people and equipment to the dome. Otto had throttled a security guard behind one of the buildings and stolen his rain coat. He didn't know if the body had been discovered or not, but he'd managed to smuggle himself and the arms over to the island. Once there, he'd found a skylight and located a place near the ceiling to settle in. Balancing on his bottom two tentacles, trying to make them look like part of the complex pipes and equipment, he waited for... something. Hammer had spent millions on this project, some under the table deals had been made with the Kingpin, to build this thing. Otto was going to destroy it. He listened to Hammer talk, every word out of the man's mouth making the rage within him grow. His attention switched to the two men at the monitor below him.

"... on?"

"Oprah."

"Good lord."

"Somebody please kill me."

Otto smirked at the irony of that statement. If only they knew that death waited above them. If only they knew what was going to happen to their precious project. Men like Hammer only spoke the language of money, after all...

"I'm not being paid enough to listen to this."

"Wait--"

Otto watched the man turn around and look straight at the tentacles.

"What is this?"

Well, he'd been discovered. Now was just as good a time as any, and he could only hope the screen had switched to a picture of the inside. He descended on the two men like a hawk on two mice.

In the crowd on the pier, Ginny was the first to see him. Her breath stopped as she watched the screen. All she could see was his shadow and two tentacles, mimicking pipes, but she'd recognize them anywhere. And then suddenly he was there, his presence filling the screen as he attacked the techs. Hammer kept speaking, but no one was listening to him now. The crowd was silent and still, watching the violence on the screen. Only a single reporter continued to ask questions, and she heard the name Dr. Otto Octavius. Her Doctor Octopus. She felt numb, standing there, watching him kill two men with the ferocious violence that had subdued her so easily.

Otto could smell the blood spilling from the shuddering men speared on his tentacles. There was chaos now, people running and screaming, trying to get out. He cut them down one by one with his claws, leaning into the camera as he did so to grin at Hammer from the huge screen behind the stage. "Let's see how you like having your life's work destroyed, old man." He whipped around and smashed a bank of computers. The tentacles tore out walls and smashed people into piles of rubble. He'd never felt anything quite so wonderful before, aside from when he'd raped Ginny with the tentacles.

She stood still while the crowd swirled around her, panicked even though the events were offshore. When he leaned into the screen, she felt pinned, trapped again. She knew he could see her. "I came..." she murmured, staring at him. "I promised...." And then she crumpled to the planks as her legs gave way. She couldn't see him any more, but she could still hear the crowd's reactions. There was screaming.

The mass thinned as people decided to get still farther away from the destruction, and she could see the screen again. He was destroying the place. She knew he wanted her to see it. A muffled explosion drew all eyes to the plant itself, on its small island in isolation. A thin stream of smoke rose from the dome, and a helicopter was closing on it, trailing something brightly colored and out of place.

Otto heard a window break behind him and whipped around. There was a figure in red and blue spandex lying on the ground in the remnants of a shattered sky light. This little turn of events would hardly do at all, but Otto was confident it wasn't anything he couldn't handle.

Spider-Man picked himself up from the rubble with a grunt. "Ta-daaahhh!" he said, followed by a muttered "Ow." He was a small guy, scrawny in his torn suit. He didn't see Otto just yet, but instead scurried over to a man he'd left alive. "Hold on!" he told him, checking him over quickly. But the man stared past him, directly at Otto, and yelped. "Run away!" The heroes head came up, but his back was still to Octavius.

With the same startling reaction time, though Otto was getting used to it now, two of his tentacles whipped forward. One smacked the scrawny man across the face with a blow that probably should have broken his jaw. At the same moment, another snatched the front of the ridiculous costume and held the specimen up for inspection. Otto grabbed the masked jaw and turned the head from side to side to get a better look. "And what is this ridiculousness?" Indeed, the costume and the entrance were more comical than anything else.

"Yohgn..." said the smaller man articulately. When asked for clarification, he seemed to rally. "I said -- ugh -- you should talk." And in the next instance, he brought his hands in on either side of Otto's head with brutal strength, using that to flip out of his grip, and kick him, hard, under the chin.

Otto's glasses flew off with the force of the kick. This insipid little creature was much stronger than he looked, but any pain from the kick to the chest was drowned out by the light searing into his damaged eyes. Otto screamed and tried to close his eyes against it. "My eyes!" He shrieked in agony and surprise. When he hit the floor he turned on his stomach, covering his face with an arm and fumbling around in the debris while his tentacles lashed out randomly, trying to keep his attacker at bay. A glob of something sticky, some kind of webbing caught his actuators, pinning two together briefly. And the man never once shut up.

Otto couldn't see what was going on but he yanked the two arms apart with ease. Whatever this curious little freak was trying to do, or whatever he was rambling about, didn't matter to Otto, though something about the word spider struck a chord somewhere. That didn't matter, though, because the doctor would smash him regardless. Otto did, too, beating him into the floor with the metallic snakes. "What are you?" Otto demanded. "Are you working for SHIELD? Did Hammer send you?" He fastened a claw around the smaller man's neck and dragged him to his feet. "Well?"

"...No, I'm the haircut police," he said, speaking in a strained, young voice. "There's a fifty dollar fine for bowlcuts in this city."

Otto growled, driven to new heights of anger by the insolent comments and refusal to show fear. "I like my hair." It was more a defiant statement than anything else. One tentacle grabbed each of the spider's wrists, pulling his arms out hard, stopping just short of ripping them from their sockets. The claws around the younger man's neck squeezed as another began to melt and morph into one of the upgrades Otto couldn't wait to try. "You're completely ruining my moment here."

"Nggg-- okay okay-- your hair is fabulous! Ahhh!" He fought against the arms, strong, inhumanely strong, but not strong enough.

The more the young man talked, the more frustrated Otto became. It had been so easy to slaughter SHIELD's doctors, it had been so easy to break Ginny, take out that guard, and do away with the techs. Now this slip of a freak in red and blue pajamas was back talking him at every turn and Otto couldn't shut him up. "What are you?!" Otto squeezed the scrawny neck harder, desiring nothing more than to strangle the life out of the insolent pest. "You little freak!"

The freak tried to fend off the actuators, contorting. "Well, if that ain't the pot calling the kettle... ow!" He started to choke. "Ggkkgk gonna get you-- you hurt these people... acck! What fghmgh jfghjf...."

Otto smirked darkly as the morphing tentacle crackled with electricity. He'd hurt those people? Yes, he'd hurt a lot of people, and he wasn't going to stop now. He rammed the crackling actuator right into the spider in the middle of pest's chest, watching the body twitch and jerk. Finally, he cast the limp, battered figure straight through the wall and watched it bounce down the board walk before turning to make a hasty retreat himself.

From a distance, all Ginny could see were the boats and helicopters converging on the island, and the smoke from the destruction. The camera had gone out. She was nearly the last person on the quay. She wanted to see him again. That surprised her, but she did. A final time. So she stayed, and she watched. And it began to get dark and cold and rain again. But she had to see him again.

A figure in a dripping brown rain coat and fedora walked up behind her and stopped, staring from behind dark glasses. He was shocked to see her standing there, especially in the rain. Otto kept thinking she should have gone to a hospital, and he was surprised she'd showed up at all. "You're still here," he finally said.

She looked up at him, rain making dark tracks of her hair over her face. "I promised," she said quietly, barely audible over the rain.

"Yes, but everyone else has dispersed." Otto's eyes flicked over her, confused, not sure how to feel. If he did feel anything, his voice didn't betray it, and his tentacles were hidden under the coat.

She was pathetic-looking inside the over-sized coat, her eyes glazed and half-focused. Fever-spots burned red on her cheekbones. Her shattered wrist was inside the coat, held tightly against her stomach. "Had to..." she started, but she had no idea how to explain herself.

"What you have to do," Otto stated, moving closer, "is get out of the rain and get to a hospital." He put an arm around her waist and led her towards the street. There was a question on his lips, and he didn't know why he had to know, but... "What did you think?" Popped out of his mouth in a low voice.

She went with him without question. "Did you... You killed them."

"I did," was Otto's flat response. He thought about carrying her with his tentacles, but he had to lay low for a while, and it was cold. "Do you have money?" He asked without looking at her.

She shook her head. He'd killed them, but not her. It was what she had to know. And one more thing. "What now?"

"You get a cab and get to the hospital. If you have money..." He looked at her, still waiting for her response to his question.

"I think.... I think you did what you wanted to do," was her response. "What you.... had to do. Were supposed to do."

Otto smiled inwardly but kept his face carefully straight. His hand squeezed her side, though. He raised his other hand to hail a taxi, a terrible nuisance in the city. A couple of the vehicles zipped by, gaudy splashes of yellow against the gray day.

She leaned against him slightly, shivering. "I don't have any more money."

Otto stopped and looked down at her. "How did you expect to get back, then?" She couldn't have counted on him showing up again after, could she?

She blinked blankly. She hadn't thought that far ahead, and it was obvious that she still wasn't thinking straight.

Otto rolled his eyes behind his glasses and kept walking. "There should be a subway station not far from here." Some part of him was glad, however, that he didn't have to get rid of her just yet. His grip tightened a bit possessively on the tiny, fragile creature beside him.

She huddled against his warmth. "Train 1109 goes to the hospital," she murmured. "Do you have fare?"

Otto smirked, staring straight ahead as he spoke. "We'll deal with that when we get there."

She nodded, waiting at the crosswalk. Only a few more blocks, but she was getting less steady on her feet.

Otto felt her wobble and frowned down at her. Her face looked flushed, and when he touched her forehead she felt warm. "Are you still bleeding?" He whispered.

She nodded slightly. "A little." Her stomach felt off too, and her chest felt tight.

Otto felt a tinge of worry flicker through his mind, and hated it. I shouldn't have asked her so many personal questions. He wasn't going to let himself start feeling guilt now, though, not for her. If he started feeling guilty for her condition, who knew what else he'd start feeling guilty for. "Why did you wait in the rain? Why didn't you bring more money?" He hissed, eager to blame something on her instead of having to face it himself.

"I just came to see you," she whispered, looking down. "I didn't know it would rain." She drew away slightly, afraid of his displeasure.

Otto hugged her back to him. "Don't worry. Come on." He kept walking, trying to move a little faster without jarring her wrists. Under other circumstances, he would have asked to borrow someone's cell phone, but... Well, under those conditions he would have had money and the resources to help her himself. The hand that wasn't on her waist searched the pockets of the coat again but turned up nothing. "Do you have any friends near here?" He asked, staring straight ahead as he walked.

She shook her head. "Not on this end of town." She leaned on him again. "I think... I think I need to sit down."

Otto glanced around and spotted a McDonald's not far from them. "Just a few more steps. You can do that, right?" She nodded mutely. They reached the restaurant with her still on her feet. The warmth of the place made her dizzy and she stopped just inside the door. They were the only people in the place except for a bored teenager at the register and someone clattering but invisible in the back. Otto caught her at the door and escorted her to a booth in a secluded corner, setting her down before sliding in across from her. If the bored teenager at the counter would just look away for ten or twenty minutes, Otto could open the cash register... He didn't want to get caught by the cops, not when he was so close to getting Hammer. Otto wasn't going to stick his neck that far out for this woman. "I am surprised you came out here. I expected you to go straight to the neighbors." Then again, it would be so simple to show the bored teenager behind the counter her wrists and leave the problem to him.

She studied the chipped tabletop. "I promised I'd watch.... I didn't want to make you angry," she said honestly. "I...." She didn't know how to say it. She looked up at him. "Did I do it right?"

Otto stared at her. She was that wrapped around his finger? As soon as he was out of the room he had been sure she would run to the neighbors and call the cops. He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. "Yes... that's..." Something pulled at the back of his mind and he pushed it back again. "Okay..." He steepled his hands under his chin and looked up at the ceiling as he thought. There was so much to think about, and he didn't have time. He didn't want to leave her yet, but keeping her with him would kill her. Otto finally reached a decision and stood up. "Come on." He took her arm and led her to the counter.

She followed without question. Yes, she was that much his. He'd broken her, and a broken mind always reaches out for the strongest point in its life. She looked up at the teen, who looked between them apathetically. "Can I get you anything?"

"Do you have a phone?" Otto asked flatly, barely giving the kid time to finish.

"There's a phone booth just around the corner," he replied, giving Octavius a look of irritation.

Otto returned the look with equal if not greater intensity. Almost everyone carried cell phones and the like now-a-days. He found it hard to believe there wasn't a single phone in the entire place. "This is an emergency. She can't walk that far."

He looked at her, his eyes widening. Ginny looked back down, letting her coat slip open so her wrist showed, and he swore under his breath. "Yeah, yeah... Hey, Dave," he called to the guy in the back. "We need your phone now! God, was she hit by a car?"
Dave, a manager in his mid-twenties came out, saw her, and dialed 911 himself.

Otto looked back at her, his mind working quickly to make up a lie that wouldn't twist back on him too quickly. "I don't know, I found her in an alley not far from here," he explained, guiding her back to the nearest booth. Otto guided her into the seat and sat down next to her, leaning into whisper in her ear. "When they ask what happened, tell them a stranger jumped you in the street, you blacked out, and you don't remember anything else. Can you stick to that story?"

She nodded, wetting her lips. Her mouth was dry. "Yes...." Her eyes sought his out. "Are we done? Will you leave?"

Otto chewed on his lips, drowning the twinge in his mind before it hit his heart. He had things to do, people to kill. Regret couldn't be a part of his life. It never had been and it never could be. "Yes," he answered simply, keeping his voice empty. What he didn't add was: If you want me to.

Ginny looked back at the floor, her hair swinging forward to hide her face. Too many emotions swarmed in her mind, making her feel ill. Elation that he wouldn't hurt her again. Fear that he would. Humiliation that he would do this to her and then leave her. You broke it, you bought it. If you broke something, you were supposed to fix it, right? Shame that she wasn't good enough even for a man such as this, even though she had obeyed him. A thousand other things she didn't think she had the right to feel. Before she knew it, she was crying again.

Otto shifted and started rubbing her back comfortingly in case the Dave and the teenager were watching. "What's wrong, now?" He whispered, trying to hide his frustration that she might call more attention than necessary to them. "You know I can't go with you," he added. "You're lucky I've come this far."

She nodded, and seemed to realize the need for discretion because she fought down the tears and straightened a bit. "I know...." She looked out the front windows as she began to hear a siren. "I.... You need to go."

"Yes, I do." He stood up and looked down at her from the shadow of his hat, memorizing her face. He wasn't sure why, exactly, but he didn't want to ever forget that face. "Good luck, Virginia."

She smiled shakily up at him, puppy-like. "Good luck.... Otto," she whispered.

Otto turned and swept out the front door, the rain coat flowing behind him. Once outside, even though it was still raining, he slipped around the side of the building and unbuttoned the coat. His tentacles snaked out and latched onto the building, rushing him up to the roof just as the ambulance turned on the street. He crouched on the roof, watching the scene like a dark guardian angel. He'd let himself watch her get in the ambulance, just to assure himself she was safe, and then he'd go re-contact Hammer. There was a new plan forming in the back of his mind, even through all of this.

Ginny was silent as the paramedics swarmed around her, persuading her onto the gurney and out of her coat. Her wrist got a lot of attention, but only until they found the blood staining her skirt. She didn't answer any of their questions; just lay there as they rolled her out to the ambulance, staring up at the sky and the rain and the rooftops. There was a silhouette above her.

Otto watched as the doors closed and the ambulance drove off, lights flashing and siren wailing. There was part of him that wanted to follow it to the hospital, in case it hit traffic or... No. No, she wasn't his business anymore. She'd ceased being his business as soon as he left her apartment. If her fragile little mind couldn't handle... Cutting off all trains of thought that pertained to her, except for the mental snapshot of her face he'd stored in the back of his mind, he swept away across the roof tops.

The hospital was a whirl of questions and people dressed in blue and green and white, two surgeries on her wrist, stitches in places she didn't want to think about. Eventually life settled again and she found herself in a small room alone, with a police-man outside her door. She plucked nervously at the sheets, un-nerved at being alone. The IV in her arm itched, but it was taped in, and she knew she needed the blood it was delivering to her. The silence itched too.

Otto couldn't believe he was doing this. He'd seen the cop cars around the place. He was sure there were more cops inside. There might even be one in her room right now... and he didn't even know if she was okay or not. She might have died, and he was out here risking his neck, looking in all the windows and trying to... He paused at one of the windows and peered thought the blinds. There she was, and she looked fine... small and defenseless, maybe, but other than that... There, she's okay. Now let's go... But he didn't go. If she saw him, she'd probably scream for help, now that she wasn't cornered in her apartment. Before Otto could think it through, though, one of his tentacles tapped on the glass. Great, so the stunningly fast reaction to his thoughts wasn't always a good thing.

Her head whipped over and she looked straight at him. But she didn't scream or call for help. She looked at the door to check that it was shut, and then back at him, her expression unreadable.

Otto tried the window with his human hands and was surprised to find it open. Her reaction hadn't been what he'd thought, but he still stayed hanging just outside the window. There could be cameras in the rooms. He tilted his head inquisitively and jerked it at the door, silently asking if anyone was out there.

She nodded. There'd been a guard out there since they decided that she was the victim of severe domestic violence. She had eventually told them the story he'd given her, but they hadn't believed her.

Otto hesitated for a moment, glancing around the room, before slipping in through the window and approaching her slowly. "How are you doing?" He whispered.

"Better," she said. Her eyes were clearer, certainly. "I had an... an infection. They treated it. And they set my wrists." She held up both arms, which were wrapped palm to elbow in green plaster.

"I see..." Otto looked around, feeling a bit awkward. Why had he done this again? "It's... good to know you're... You are okay, right?"

She nodded, smiling slightly. "Yeah.... I'm alright." She wasn't, though. Not by a long way. But physically, she would be fine.

Otto wanted to smack himself with his own tentacles for coming into the room. She very likely didn't even want him here. He thought about all the cops and a new question popped into his head. "What... what did you tell them?" Otto had thought she would stick to the story he gave her.

"I told them someone hit me in the alley," she said. "The way you told me. They didn't believe me."

Otto nodded. "I expected you would. Do you know what they think?"

"They think my...." She picked at the sheets again. "They think it was domestic abuse. They wanted me to tell them who my boyfriend is."

His tentacles twitched to show his surprise and he felt his ears turn hot. "I see..." He looked off to the side. "I knew the story wouldn't hold up for long, once they saw the apartment. And I suppose it's only a matter of time before they do a DNA test, if they haven't already..."

She nodded, not looking at him. "They took a rape kit. They're doing it now. I didn't want them to..." She let herself trail off. "I'm sorry."

"I'm sure you held your ground as long as you could. Doctors tend to be pushy." He smiled dryly at this last bit. Then the smile faded. "I'm going to do something, something that will get me put away for a long time," he began, testing her reaction.

She just stared at him. "Put away?" She knew what he meant. She didn't know what it meant for her. Again, that rush of anticipation. He wouldn't be able to hurt her from prison. She'd be safe. Safe to.... to disobey him. She took a deep breath, let it out. "Will you get out?"

Otto regarded her for a long time, trying to decide if he should lie to her or not. He was afraid the truth would hurt her mentally, but he... he wasn't sure what, but there was something in him that didn't want to lie. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I'm not going to lie to you. If I get a chance to escape, I will try. I just... I wanted to make sure you'd be all right... before I go..."

Her fingers twitched, and she chewed her lip, paling slightly. "I'll be fine." If you leave me alone. She was too afraid to tell him that. "I'll...." She swallowed and continued more firmly. "I'm all right. I'll be fine."

Otto nodded slowly. "I see..." He stopped, perfectly still, and just stared at her. Even his tentacles' movements slowed to bare twitches and vibrations. He opened his mouth like he was going to say something then shut it when he thought better of it. He didn't want to move yet, didn't want to leave her presence. He was obsessed...

She didn't look at him again, glancing at the door again. He could tell she was tense, her narrow shoulders set and rigid. "Is that the only reason you came?"

"I..." Otto's tentacles fidgeted around each other. It was obvious she was scared of him, but he wanted to grab her and kiss her again anyway. "I..." He cleared his throat and pulled back his shoulders. "Yes," he answered in an emotionless voice. "That's all." Tentacles hissing, he turned back to the window. He put one foot up on the ledge then stopped and almost looked back to see if she was watching him. He thought better of it. It was best to start putting it behind him now. Without another word, he jumped into space and was gone.

Ginny sighed in relief. He was gone, and she was still alive. She leaned back against her pillows and allowed herself a small smile of release. He was gone. He'd be caught. Maybe he'd even be killed. Her smile faded slightly. She'd never wished for anyone to die before in her life. Something about that unsettled her deeply. Maybe she didn't want him to die. But she never, ever wanted to see him again.

The next two days passed in a restless haze. Ginny wasn't sure why they weren't releasing her, though she caught her doctors conferring with men in black suits a few times. She avoided being alone after Octavius' visit, spending her time in the patient's lounge, with the other inhabitants of the wing. She wanted to read, retreat into books, but her impaired hands made it hard, so she generally just ended up watching the news. And so it was that she saw Octavius again. It was very late one night, and she was the only patient in there, accompanied only by a dozing off-duty resident. When his face appeared on the screen, she yelped in shock, waking him up.

Octavius was standing in front of what looked like a sea of reporters, spotlighted in front of a pair of doors. He looked powerful, and she cringed back from the screen, as if afraid he'd come through it to take her again. He stood there, publicly condemning that same man, Hammer. She could barely hear what he was saying, so loud was her heart in her ears. She flinched when he attacked a limousine, imagining that tentacle thrashing into her. But then Spider-Man was there. She was on her feet in an instant, directly in front of the tele, her wide eyes absorbing every detail of the fight. She barely breathed.
When he twisted his tentacles around the lithe little hero, she could feel them tightening around herself. She barked a short laugh when he broke free and pulled down the monster's pants, then covered her mouth and looked around, suddenly irrationally terrified that someone had heard, someone who would punish her.

Dr. Henry Pym was on his way back from Virginia's room with a clip board. She hadn't been there, she rarely was, and he had to talk to her alone. It was top secret business. No matter how many times she was questioned, though, she'd never even admit to being picked up by Octavius, much less what had happened between them. He heard a loud yelp from the lounge and looked at his watch. No one was in there this late at night, unless... Henry looked into the room and spotted Virginia watching the television, standing at attention. Doctor Octavius was on the screen, fighting Spider-Man. At one point Virginia burst out laughing and then stopped abruptly, glancing around terrified. Henry cleared his throat and stepped into the room.

She spun, stumbling backwards. Only when she saw who it was did she calm down, her breathing slowing down. "Ah, excuse me," she said diffidently, wrapping her hospital-provided shawl tightly around her shoulders. "I was just... leaving." She glanced over her shoulder at the screen just in time to see Spider-Man tear out a tentacle. She almost clapped, stopping just in time to save her wrists, forgetting again that Pym was there.

"I didn't mean to scare you Ms. Lancaster. Please, I'd... I'd like to speak with you..." Henry noted her reaction to the fight on screen but didn't say anything just yet.

Her eyes stayed fixed on the tele. "About what?"

"About..." Pym looked at the screen. "What are you watching?" He asked, deciding to broach the subject more indirectly.

"He beat him," she murmured breathlessly, grinning. "Tore him apart."

"Yes, I suppose he did." Pym looked back at her. "Do you know Octavius?"

"I...." She stared at him, prostrate and unconscious on the screen. The camera kept going over to Spider-Man, but she had eyes only for Octavius. "No."

Pym had seen the DNA results. They knew it was rape, and they knew Octavius had been at least one of the assailants. The damage to her throat, vagina, and bowels had been more severe than that of typical rape victims. Pym's eyes fell on the prone man on screen, on the tentacles, and he shivered. "The DNA results..." he began gently. "I'm sure you know what they found... inside you."

She didn't turn back to face him, but her shoulders slumped. "I don't know Octavius," she repeated.

"Did he threaten you to keep you quiet? We can and will protect you, but you have to tell us what you know."

"I don't know Octavius!" she repeated, louder. "Leave me alone!"

If she wouldn't tell them what she knew, they had to take her away. There was no telling what Octavius had told her. It was unlikely he said anything about his work, but no one on the upper levels was willing to risk it. "Please, Ms. Lancaster, calm down. This is an FBI matter, and..." Pym trailed off. There was no way this was going to be easy. As much as he didn't want to cart her off somewhere, he might not have any choice.

She spun on one foot and headed out of the room, past him. The news had lost its feed, and a studio reporter was talking rapidly about Octavius' arrest and Spider-Man's disappearance after the fight.

XxX

A/N: Don’t forget to hit the review button down there. *points*