Eddie felt as if he were drifting across a vast, weightless void. He was flying. He was free. It was a sensation he hadn't savored in a long time, and he wanted to linger in that lightness forever. But fate had other plans. The weightlessness vanished, replaced by the sudden pull of gravity, and he opened his eyes to a familiar ceiling.
"Are you awake, Eddie?" Isabella's voice drifted from beside him.
"How are you feeling, my dear? Is there any discomfort? Does it still hurt?" she asked kindly. Her tone was a stark, soothing contrast to the raspy malice of Macnair.
"Where are they? Who were they?" Eddie's voice was a dry croak. The previous incident had only added more questions to an already growing pile.
"I am terribly sorry, my dear. I never thought they would come after me... damn that Macnair," Isabella said, her voice thick with self-reproach. "If I had kept my skills hidden, this wouldn't have happened. You wouldn't have been forced through such an ordeal."
She turned away, staring into the distance. "Those animals... showing amicable faces to the masses while torturing children behind closed doors. I should have known. I should have seen it coming."
Eddie, however, was focused on a different reality. He knew one thing for certain: Duncan Macnair was definitely no more.
"You there?" Eddie whispered under his breath.
Silence.
"Oh, for God's sake, answer me, will you?" Eddie muttered, his frustration peaking.
"That was tasty. We should have more," Venom's voice rumbled back with sudden gusto. The weakness that had plagued the symbiote earlier was gone, replaced by a dark, satisfied energy.
"You want to go through that again? Are you mad?" Eddie hissed internally.
"We just got our asses fried! And don't tell me you didn't feel that. That green light from the guy's wand-that 'Avada' thing- that was serious bad news." As far as Eddie was concerned, no "delicacy" was worth that level of agony.
"Don't move too much, Eddie," Isabella interrupted, turning back to a bubbling pot that filled the room with a bitter, herbal scent. "The effects of the Cruciatus Curse are grave if left untreated. Although you were only exposed for a few moments, it could have been dire. Luckily, your condition didn't worsen. I don't know what I would have done."
She moved toward the pot. "It's ready. Hold on, dear."
She poured a vibrant, turquoise liquid from the pot into a cup and brought it to the bedside. "Can you sit up, dear? Shall I help you?"
"No, I... I think I can manage." Eddie grasped the cup with shaking hands, staring at the glowing concoction.
"Go on, drink it all. It's a Strengthening Solution; it will help restore your vitality. I wish I could have taken you to St. Mungo's, but you aren't safe there- not with those people circling like hyenas."
Here goes nothing, Eddie thought. He swallowed the liquid in a single gulp. It was thick and syrupy, sliding down his throat like liquid heat. Almost instantly, he felt a surge of energy. The leaden weight in his limbs began to lift.
"Wait... I can move?" Eddie realized his coordination was returning- not just to where it was before, but better. Much better.
"How? Did you do this?" he whispered to the dark presence.
"Magic," Venom replied. "It fixed us. Not entirely... but it fixed us."
"How are you feeling, Eddie? Can you move?" Isabella asked, her expression turning serious. "I'm sure you have many questions, but I need to know a few things first."
"Yeah," Eddie replied, his voice still slightly raspy.
Isabella held up the wand Macnair had dropped. "I found this near you when I returned. Did you hear them say anything? Names, places... anything useful?"
"Macnair. And Malfoy," Eddie answered swiftly. "Those were the men who broke in. Macnair was the one in the room. The other one- pompous, sounded like he was in charge- stayed in the hallway. They were looking for a book for some 'Dark Lord.'"
The room seemed to turn cold at his words. Anger flashed across Isabella's aged face, followed by a wave of hopelessness.
"That rotten sod. I should have known," Isabella hissed. "I shouldn't have helped that cub of his with his illness. Ungrateful wretches... those Pure-blood maniacs. They are pure in nothing but malice."
"You know them?" Eddie asked, feeling the reinvigorating strength fully take hold.
"It's a long story, my child. But yes... I know them."
"Will they come back?"
The words seemed to stick in Isabella's throat. She looked away, unable to lie. She knew they would. And next time, they wouldn't just send two men.
Eddie saw the fear in her eyes and understood. His old reporter's instincts kicked in, pushing aside the immediate danger to focus on the biggest mystery of all. "Can you tell me where I am? Or when I am? Because I don't think I'm standing on familiar ground."
Isabella sighed, setting her worries aside for a moment. "You are near Hyde Park, in Sheffield, England. Today is November 21, 1978. I found you three weeks ago, on All Hallows' Eve, in the thickest part of the woods. You were unresponsive."
England? 1978? The confusion was so sharp it played across Eddie's face like a neon sign. "1978? As in... forty-some years ago?"
"Don't think too hard, dear. It isn't good for the recovery, everything will be fine, in time," Isabella said, beginning to bottle the rest of the glowing potion into glass vials.
"Time is the exact problem I'm facing," Eddie muttered to himself.
"How is this possible?"
"Nexus events and anomalies in space-time," came a reply from within. It was an answer Eddie never expected.
"Nexus? Anomaly? What are you talking about?"
"Listen closely, Eddie. Time is like a straight, flowing vein. A Nexus Event is just a 'wrong turn'- a moment where someone does something they weren't supposed to, causing the timeline to split and grow a new branch. That branch creates variants- copycat versions of people who don't belong here."
Venom's voice grew deeper, more ominous.
"When too many wrong turns happen, the air between worlds starts to rip. We call those Rifts. They're like holes in a ship, letting other histories leak into ours. If those holes get too big, you get an Incursion. That's the big one, Eddie. Two whole worlds are crashing into each other until both are nothing but scrap metal. No world, no people... no more snacks."
"So... us dying to Knull caused something like that?" Eddie asked.
"It seems so."
"You sound awfully bright all of a sudden, Professor!" Eddie joked.
He was met with a chilling silence.
"Why silent? What is it?" Eddie asked, his internal humor dying as he felt a cold shiver from the symbiote.
"I don't feel him," Venom replied, his voice sounding smaller than Eddie had ever heard it.
"The Hive... the others... I cannot feel them. We are alone, Eddie."