"So you have hatred towards me?" John, seeing the eyes of Eddie, could tell that he didn't exactly welcoming of him.
"Of course I do. So what now? Kill me? Intimidate me, like you did to all the citizens of Earth last time you came here?" Eddie asked with a sharp tone while he clenched his fist. Nobody liked their future being manipulated.
"You think by giving you Venom I controlled you?" John asked. Eddie was silent in this question but his silence was enough to tell him that he did.
"If I hadn't given you venom you would have followed that path no matter what. Even if I hadn't touched your destiny, you would have still gotten Venom, because that destiny was written. Maybe you would have been worse. Being in jail, hailed as a villain and fighting Peter on every corner. At least now you aren't seen in a bad light." John said in a calm tone. He didn't need to justify his actions to the people of this world, but since they would be acting together.
"Hahhaha.. Good joke.." Eddie laughed out loud hearing him say that.
"If you don't believe me I can take you to another universe and show you how your path would have been carried out." John said. Eddie hearing this shut his laughter at that moment. He had forgotten that the person he was talking to was literally a God and he didn't need to lie to him.
Eddie was silent for a second. He didn't know how to respond to this. All this he felt this person was controlling his destiny but now he was told that he would have followed the same path.
"Let me show you how you would have ended without me intervening." John said as before Eddie could reply his head was hit a white light. And in the next few moments he saw a world where he received Venom late.
It turned out to be more tragic than he had imagined. From villain to anti-hero. This was a long and stressful journey.
Eddie came back to his senses after some time. And this time Venom too came out from the side. It was exactly like in the movie. A ghostly face made of black viscous liquid. The face was tired to his body.
"You always knew what was going to happen?" Venom asked in his heavy and ghostly tone.
"I did. I think I mentioned before that Knull is going to arrive no matter what. So it was better that he comes on my own terms. A better team and more people was required to face him. It was one of the reasons why I was so cruel to the Avengers. I didn't want to see a broken team when he arrived."
Eddie and Venom were silent. They still hated John for what he had done to the Earth but he was right. For this they needed unity. John was adamant on this because in the comics when Knull attacked the Avengers, the X-men weren't exactly very keen to help them.
He didn't want this to happen when the attack arrived.
"Who is this Peter you mentioned before?" Eddie asked. He was a reporter so he had always paid deep attention to what John said. Whereas, John squinted his eyes when Eddie asked that.
"You don't know Peter? Peter Parker?" John asked, a little bit confused.
"Parker? My colleague.. Why would I fight him?" Eddie asked as he was confused.
"What? You never fought against Spiderman?" John asked.
"Oh Spiderman. We have fought once or twice..... Friendly matches... Wait.. You mean Peter Parker is Spiderman... Huh.. Parker? Our nerdy guy is Spiderman.. What the fuck? He never told me." Eddie was genuinely surprised when John said that. But it was more surprising for John because from what he knew Peter's identity was known to the Avengers. And Eddie had good contacts with the Avengers so Peter's identity shouldn't have been a secret.
"None of the Avengers spoke about the identity of Peter?" John asked
"Uhh no... None of the Avengers knows about his identity." Eddie asked. He was still shocked to know that Peter was Spiderman.
John closed his eyes for a second to see what was wrong with Peter. He needed to peer into the past with his omniscience and in a few moments he understood why Peter's identity was a secret to the Avengers.
In fact it was a secret to the whole world. It was because Peter of this world had done something that the Peter of John's own world would have done if there was no John.
Dr. Strange had wiped out the identity of Peter Parker, from the minds of all people who knew his identity. Basically Peter and Dr. Strange pulled a 'no way home' ending at Earth 616.
John didn't expect this. Though in comics the same scenario happened, he thought his influence would be able to change some outcome. Seems like it was not the case here.
---------
Read 240+ more chapters ahead at p@treon.com/thelightedghost. Thank you for the support.