"May I set the scene?"
Cindy Moon plopped down and against the wall. Grinning, smiling, and wanting to tell this story. There were no lies. He didn't feel them. His Spider-Sense wasn't going off either.
"From the very dawn of history, humans have been fascinated by the unknown. By the concept of gods and demigods walking among us. Well, not anymore. Not after June 1943 when Project Rebirth created the very first super soldier: Samantha Wilson. An individual with a perfect memory, perfect muscles. The only issue? The formula was lost and the soldier was too until 2011. But in between that time, what do you think happened? Hell, what do you think is still happening?"
"Ruthless experimentation," Spider-Man replied. "I am aware of Shadowcat and everyone else governments from all over the world experimented on."
"Oh? You really have done your research. You know almost everything—the successes and the failures. Mostly the failures. Ah, but do you know they've all moved here?" Spider-Man gave a curt nod. Cindy responded with a laugh. "Oh my, and you're not saving them!? Oh unheroic of you, Spider-Man."
"..."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I know why. Most of them were taken off the streets with nothing, experimented on as though they were nothing, and now tossed here like they're nothing. Their mental states are broken. Even if you wanted to rebuild them, you can't. They're fucking crazy. They were labelled failures for a reason. They'd bash their heads and then maybe kill a dozen people. Who knows?"
She laughed like it was amusing. Like it wasn't a tragedy.
"So…what do you think SHIELD has been doing with them?"
"..."
"What can they do is what I bet you're asking in your head. It's simple, my dear Stark, it's organ harvesting."
"...you…"
"Yes, and you know for who. You know why. All of this began because of the ambitions of the woman wanting immortality."
"....Peggy Carter," he said in a breath.
"Director Peggy Carter of SHIELD!" Cindy said giddily. "And how do you think our dear Director Carter managed to live so long? With drugs! With cutting-edge medicine! From researching them! From taking super soldier organs and putting them into her—or using those organs to make drugs for her to down everyday. Here's a fun fact: that old bitch got an eyepatch because of a stroke in 1988. And that wasn't the first, her first stroke had been in 1972 when she was in her fifties. She's been running on borrowed time for over half a century now."
Except Peggy Carter was dead now. She was no longer anything.
'But her legacy…'
This was her legacy. This prison. This woman. "This organ harvesting—"
"Was the prelude! Like I said, I'm setting the scene! Four years ago…" Her black hair fell into a larger, stickier mess as she flashed her fingers. "I was brought in. Not at all when this all technically started. I was put in the SHIELD facility after Gwen brought me in. Defeated me. Of course, at this point, I had perfected the spider. I could recreate it, and SHIELD knew it. So they blinded, took me downstairs, and pushed me to my knees. A gun pressed against my skull. They told me I could either die right then and there…or help them with keeping Peggy alive. You can guess what I chose."
Thus, Cindy Moon helped.
"So we got to work. I had already worked for SHIELD so there was some trust. Some, not a lot. Couldn't give her a spider-bite, unfortunately, even if I wanted to." She started turning her head from shoulder to shoulder. "That formula was MINE and I was not going to let anyone use it. Besides, Peggy Carter was too frail. For a young woman like Gwen, there was only a one-in-a-hundred of the bite giving her powers. For an old lady? Please. It would have been a suicide and her doctors and people knew it. So, with my help, they developed something they had never done before. Something, I believe…" Her forehead smacked against the wall, tilted all the back. She smiled, pupils rolling over to him, and pointed a finger at him. "You've seen on your way here."
"The prisons?"
"No, no, not that. The people."
"...?"
Cindy rolled her head, chuckling. Felix did not enjoy the look she was rolling up. He did not like this taunting, this wait, this laughter.
"It's the great secret of this facility, my friend! When I came, I changed everything! I changed their world! I made them evolve in a way they weren't supposed to! In a way that the rest of SHIELD couldn't know! So…" She gestured. "They made this! All this for the new science I ushered in! This place…it's not JUST a prison. Why do you think it's protected? Why do you think nobody knows about it? Why do you think it's here!?"
Spider-Man didn't seem to have the answer she was looking for. And that...that terrified him. His stomach was sinking slowly but surely.
"My friend, this place is to keep people in! The people that were born here. It's a cloning facility!"
"...!"
"Yes, that's right! Me and SHIELD—we developed cloning technology! And the failures—we've kept them here! Never to venture in the outside world! Never to be examined by the people!"
She had to giggle a little to emphasize.
Felix wasn't sure what he hated more: his stunned silence or the fact that he didn't think she was lying at all. Because Nick Fury…he wasn't there with Peggy from the start. He made his ways up the ranks and must have learned about the inhumane cloning technology they were conducting.
'He decided to build this. Out of sight, out of mind…!'
Cindy rambled on, "It was one thing to be a billionaire and have to develop new technology. It was another to have SHIELD's resources on top of a gun pointed to my head. I got creative and I managed to create clones of the failed super soldiers in a matter of months. I was able to accelerate their growth. One year equaled ten. It was amazing. I was a genius!"
Accelerated growth combined with cloning technology!? Felix couldn't fathom it. The evil within this woman was great, yet her genius easily surpassed it.
"Then we got a certain fresh specimen. You know the one."
"Gwen?"
"No, no, no, not Gwen. Not yet." She giggled. "We're not at THAT part of the story. You wanted to know about him, didn't you? About the Devil?"
His heart skipped a beat. Instantly, the white of his lenses narrowed. The alien tendrils slithered up and down his form.
"Well, that's how he was born. By ME in an underground prison. Locked up as our greatest and most treasured success. Can you guess what his greatest gift was?"
She didn't let him answer.
"It was high-speed regeneration. It was the ability to grow and regrow organs! It was the answer! Finally! Finally, Peggy Carter had a steady host from which she could replace her organs with and strengthen her systems. It was cellular memory but on steroids and with the greatest minds pumping her with other drugs."
"But it failed."
"It did. Heh, there was two biiiig issues. We underestimated her old age and the general gap in what they were. Our beautiful clone was a young, growing boy and he made waaay too much protein for her system. She started breaking down and SHIELD had to replace the organs I had given one-by-one. This wasn't what she wanted. Peggy Carter wasn't immortal like she wanted to be. They kept screaming at me about it. Immortality was the goal. Immortality! Immortality! She needed it! If I messed up again, I'd get send into solitary confinement forever! And then…like everything was conveniently forgotten, they brought someone in."
Dark eyes looked up. Her lips curled.
"Gwen Stacy. She was back."
"But how? How?" Felix pressed. This part of the story didn't make sense. She couldn't just...be back. Who could defeat her and render her in that state? "And you had had her before, what was different this time?"
"Everything! Everything was different! Last time she had been at the SHIELD facility, it had been through a public trial. We couldn't do anything unless we wanted the rest of SHIELD knowing. She was too high-profile. The whole world was watching Spider-Woman fill out her prison sentence. Hell, the ignorant part of SHIELD attempted to have Captain America recruit her. We did get her blood but it didn't matter. They had my blood after all. But that day...I remember that day vividly. Suddenly, I had Gwen Stacy on the table. In a coma. I have no idea what happened to her before she got on my table but…there she was."
"What did you do?" He glared down at her. "What did you do?"
Cindy breathed heavily. She was still managing a smile. "What do you think we did? We experimented on her. The world wasn't watching her anymore. We could do what we wanted. To her and her Symbiote."
"You didn't."
Rash growled with him. Their instincts collided and his teeth showed.
"I did. I had to. The super soldier angle wasn't working but this? This Symbiote she had? It could, especially with my help. We could create a living exosuit that could keep Peggy Carter alive forever. It was something only I could propose and I could do. I got back lots of goodwill from Mrs. Carter for it."
Cindy almost looked proud. Peggy Carter...that woman was a monster and a fool. Playing with sciences she did not understand for her own sake. Trusting Cindy Moon of all people...!
'Getting her to experiment on people like uuus....!'
"Creating a Symbiote is one thing, but manipulating it to our whims, to be able to symbiotically live with a frail old woman…we needed to experiment. We needed to understand. We had to strip it from her. And when we had it isolated, we festered it. Grew it."
"Youuuuuuu fed it—"
Felix slapped a hand to his mouth. That…that wasn't him. 'Rash, what are you doing? Don't speak when I'm speaking!'
"What did you feed it? When we saaaw her, we were afraid. Why…" What should have been webbing were thick, gooey arms that wrapped around her arms and legs and pulled her up. They were going to choke her if she did answer. "Why? Why were we inferior?"
Rash. Rashrashrash—!
The back of his skull felt hot. His throat lost its voice.
Felix Faeth felt like he was drowning.
"Why do you think? I MADE you Symbiotes! I can make more! More! So many more!! And I fed it with what I made." She grinned. "I fed Gwen Stacy's Symbiote with other Symbiotes!"
"No. No, no! They would have stopped! They would have seen the monster you were creating!"
"Which was I was doing it in secret! I wanted to break out, after all! I wasn't going to be Peggy Carter's dog forever! In the morning, I was working on this cute little Symbiote for Peggy Carter to be the host of. At night, when no one was looking and they were exhausted, I was able to work on my monster. I refused to be a dog and I needed the greatest monster I could to break my chains! But then…but then…that day…!"
Her eyes regained some of its sanity.
"My boy…he went against me…"
"Your boy? Your boy? You must mean....your clone son...the puppet master…!"
Hestillwasn'tspeakinghestillwasn'tspeaking—!
'Rash! RASH!'
It felt like a thousand years had passed. It felt like nothing was his own. His eyes were struggling to stay open.
Fear had consumed both of them. Felix and Rash, they had lost themselves in their fear. In this woman and what she knew.
"He was supposed to leave with me…but instead, he abandoned me. He used me…he destroyed Peggy's symbiote…all my efforts, all the trust I built, it was gone. And I was left to rot." Her eyes lost more and more colour. Her head hung there, pressed to the wall, while the rest of her became drowned in black. "I…why did you do that? Why did you do that, Harold?"
Harold.
Harold.
A name! Felix knew his name! Something snapped and he regained control. The black ink tightened around Cindy and shook her.
"Tell me MORE!"
The Symbiote. The human. They spoke together.
"Harold was…he was…like my son…and he…was our…no, my proudest achievement. There was nothing wrong with me. He wasn't like the other clones. He was real. He…he was born to be mighty. I taught him everything. I taught him about the multiverse. About the weapons I'd acquired. My stories. My triumphs. My future plans. My failures…everything…and he still…he still…"
There was sadness in her. He didn't care. He needed to know more. The end was there. The answers were there.
"Is it because I had to lock you away," Cindy whimpered.
"Why? Why was he so special?" he asked, no, he demanded. "You mentioned a perfect specimen arrived. But who? Who was it?"
"It was an exchange," Cindy mumbled. He tightened his hold. Tendrils were slowly seeping into her lips.
Speak! Speak!
Was he screaming? He didn't know. He didn't care.
"We were granted the specimen's blood and body and everything we could possibly want, in exchange for a cure. An agreement by his father and SHIELD when he was incarcerated…"
His liquid-like white lenses widened. "You're talking about—"
"Harry Osborn. I'm talking about the second Lizard. He was the template, except Harold…he had everything the Lizard had with none of the drawbacks. He was perfect." Cindy smiled faintly. "Too perfect. Too flawless. I didn't even see it coming and he escaped with that stupid Gwen Stacy…!"
"When!? When was this!?"
"I think...it was a week before that monster attacked New York." A weak laugh bubbled out of Cindy. "What a funny coincidence…"
That was why it slipped under the radar.
Dammit. Dammit.
Dammit!
"So that Devil and Gwen are together!? They want to change this world!?"
"He's not the Devil. He's…he's not. He's my little goblin." Another pathetic, agitating mockery of a laugh. "My Red Goblin…but those stupid doctors thought calling him the Devil was more appropriate…idiots…"
"Cindy! Hey! Are you listening!? How did the Symbiote get back to Gwen that day!?" She laughed in his face. He growled. "Is Gwen working with Harold!? Answer! ME!"
"My little goblin…my little, hehe, goblin…"
She kept laughing and smiling, haunted by an unfathomable memory. The genius supervillain known as Cindy Moon was gone. What remained was a hollow shell born from months of isolation. Of fear. Of failure. Of self-reflection.
This was all that was left. Nonsensical laughter until her throat dried out.