Then, he joined others in their mural painting, watching as the jet-black paint flowed down the wall, spontaneously forming mysterious patterns he had never seen before. It was like a doorway leading to a timemachine.
He stepped through the door, time zipped past at astonishing speed. He delved slowly into his dream-like memories until the present moment, and then everything began to rewind sharply. Everything and everyone returned to their original places like a movie being played backwards, until he reached the place where a black sun rose. He heard a familiar voice saying, "Welcome to Gotham."
Venom watched as the Consciousness Space began to quiver. Intense light streamed from the cracks. He cursed under his breath and quickly started navigating through Bruce's emotions, trying to guide the scattered positive emotions together.
Gradually, beams of light rose and coalesced into a dazzling sphere of light.
The black tide counterattacked, more viciously than ever. Like a world soaked in black ink, a dark ocean started to extend in the Consciousness Space with overwhelming waves spreading everywhere.
Bruce, already detached from the Memory Space, floated above the surging tide of darkness. Through the mountainous black waves, he spotted at the very depths of this black ocean, a curled up little boy. It was him, it was Bruce Wayne.
Soon, Shiller saw that massive bat made of mucus plummeting to the ground. The mucus started to recede slowly and was entirely absorbed back into Bruce's body.
Shiller jumped off the rooftop, stood in front of Bruce, who climbed up from the ground, or more precisely, Venom who now controlled his body said.
"How did you manage to escape?"
"You should ask the woman who broke into your house and stole the canister."
The woman who stole the canister? Shiller thought. There's only one burglar in the whole Gotham capable of this. Could it be Catwoman?
"I shouldn't have believed Stark's crap," said Shiller, "He told me that his symbiote needed an abode worthy of a billionaire. So he created a diamond canister with his strange instruments, promising it was both beautiful and practical."
"Well, I should thank him."
In an instant, black sludge exploded but this time Venom has taken its original appearance, with a massive mouth full of sharp teeth and a bright red tongue.
"How did you manage to latch onto Batman?"
"Don't you find this human way of communicating too slow? Stop wasting my time," Venom said.
"Your tone reminds me of a very annoying fellow."
Venom extended a pseudopod made from the sludge, and the Gray Mist also emitted a cloud of mist. The moment the Symbiotic Factors made contact, they exchanged countless pieces of information.
The Gray Mist narrated inside Shiller's mind: "..a woman with cat ears... just like the car... the necessary process for human to propagation... not allowed to see... he was baffled too..."
"Enough, I got it..." Shiller rubbed his forehead, he now understood what happened, he said, "No need to go into details, Bruce deserved it."
Then, Venom grinned, showing off that massive mouth, saying, "You'll never be able to catch me again! Hahahahaha! I'm free! I am going to eat everyone's brains here!! I..."
"I've told you before, before considering meals, you might still have some troubles to deal with..."
Venom tried to respond, but he felt his consciousness being suppressed once again, he roared in resistance: "No! Damn humans! You damn people!!"
In the end, the sludge got absorbed back into the body. Bruce shook his head and said, "Did it work? What the hell happened?"
"You should ask the glutton inside you."
"That's not what I meant, he already told me who he is, what he wants to do, what I meant is..." Bruce clutched his head in pain, "Why did I lose control? What's going on with those dreadful negative emotions? Why....where does the darkness come from?"
"It seems like you've realized it." said Shiller. "The darkness buried deep inside your body is terrifying. Although it hasn't gone out of control before, once it does, it might destroy everything."
"What is it, really?"
"It's Batman, don't you know that?"
"Batman? Then who am I? No...No.....Impossible!" Bruce fell to his knees in agony, clutching his head, he said: "Impossible...I am Batman...I am Batman..."
"You thought you've become another you, but in reality, it's just a facade."
Shiller's thoughts started to drift, he began to recollect the Batman he knew from those comic books, his voice also started to sound more ethereal, "Batman? You're a bit different, indeed, he is not absolutely seeking darkness."
"He is the embodiment of extreme darkness and extreme light. He governs this hopeless city with extreme darkness and prevents the destruction that extreme darkness could cause with light."
All of this sounded more like sighs from Shiller. Bruce's voice was full of fatigue, "I always thought I didn't need those. I am the avenger in the night, I don't need any emotions that could possibly sway my conviction, I am not that ridiculous Bruce, or the powerless one, or the one who couldn't save or change anything, the Little Bruce..."