Plane to New York

30 minutes after LA Battle

"So, why are we headed to New York?" Faith asked.

"We need to see someone," Buffy said, downing a chocolate bar. "Multiple someones. You're coming along so we can keep you out of trouble."

"Hey, we can keep out of trouble!" Faith muttered sourly. Buffy just grinned.

"Yeah, uh-huh, sure. One block, remember?"

"Bitch," Faith muttered. "So, who're we seeing?"

"Well, for one, we need to get SHIELD off our backs, which means we need to report in to Herr Fury and make with the 'splainy," Buffy said. "Also, we need to assure the Spider we aren't going to make his life a living hell. And finally..." Buffy stopped a moment. "She wants to see Eddie one last time. Not necessarily all in that order."

"There's a couple of tall orders there, B," Faith said, snatching a chocolate bar off the tray in front of Buffy. "Mean, how're you gonna get close enough to ol' Web Head without him jumping to conclusions."

"Civilian," Buffy said. Faith raised an eyebrow. "Yes, we know who he is, no we are not telling you."

"Spoilsport."

"Yes, we are," Buffy said. "Now get some sleep. We're going to be majorly busy till we head back to LA."

"And then on to Sunnyhell?" Buffy nodded slowly.

"Yeah. On to Sunnyhell."

Roughly 6 hours later

New York

Peter Parker was so busy looking through the jewelry store window for an anniversary present for his wife he didn't see the person who ran into him. Nor did he notice the note that had been placed into his pocket until he reached for his wallet to pay for the new watch.

Meet me on the roof.

Ten minutes later, Spider-Man leapt onto the roof, looking around cautiously, not really knowing what to expect.

White noise clouding his Spider Sense was the first clue.

"Why today?" he complained. "All I wanted was to get my wife a present, maybe a little snuggle time. But nooooo, you just had to come back to town, didn't you, Venom?"

"We suppose saying 'we're not the same person' isn't going to help ease your concerns?" Venom rasped out from the roof fire exit.

"Not really," Spider-Man said, getting into a low crouch, ready to leap into action.

"Well, sorry to disappoint you, Spider, but it's true," the blended Slayer said. "Our Other isn't as full of anger or greed as our past selves. She's...like you. A hero. And now, so are we."

"And you expect me to believe that?"

"No," Venom admitted. "We expect to have to convince you. We expect that it will take a long time. Unfortunately, we don't have that long."

"Oh and why's that?"

"Because we have a Hellmouth to protect, a youngling to teach and we don't have time to deal with you and your fellow heroes taking out past mistakes on us," Venom snarled. Before Peter could say anything, the mask and costume turned into a long black coat, covering a white blouse and blue jeans. Peter looked at the blonde cautiously. "Sorry about that. She still has...rejection issues and things were about to get out of hand. Figured it was time to take over."

"And you are?" Spider-Man asked.

"Buffy," she said simply. He almost choked on the laughter that bubbled up. "Hey! Coming from a guy calling himself 'Spider-Man' that's a real laugh. I wonder where your powers come from?"

"Why the name?" he muttered. "It's always the name."

"Agreed," Buffy shot at him. Spider-Man glared at her.

"Alright, say I believe you. What do you want from me?"

"Nothing," Buffy said. "Just stay off our back and keep your buddy's out of Sunnydale and we'll be cool."

"What's a Sunnydale?"

"Boca del Inferno."

"You know I think New York has 'Mouth of Hell' sewed up," Spider-Man joked.

"Nah. Doesn't have an actual portal to hell. Well, unless you count the freeway to New Jersey," Buffy sent back just as smoothly.

"Oh you are good."

"Thanks."

"So...portal to hell, huh?"

"Yup," Buffy nodded. "Nasty too. Right under the high school."

"...Damn. You've probably used all the good 'school is hell' jokes, huh?"

"Yeah, think we've done 'em all."

"Well, you're a better conversationalist than most of Venom's Others."

"We like to think we've moved a step up from Gargan."

"What happened to him anyway?"

"Ran into a Volcax demon. Head crushed like a grape."

"Ow."

"Yeah, not a nice way to go. My Other still has nightmares about that."

"...Nightmares?"

"Hey, she has dreams too! Of course, when we first met most of those was your open head, but she's changed. She's better than she was."

"Say I do believe that. What's to say the next Venom isn't going to come after me?" Buffy glared at him, her 'coat' was almost vibrating.

"Look, we understand. You have trust issues with symbiotes. But she wants to leave that behind and we're sure as hell am NOT letting her go any time before we keel over, which we're not planning on being any time soon."

"Well, that's good to hear," Spider-Man said. "That doesn't mean I trust you yet."

"Yeah, we fig..." Buffy's sentence was cut off by roaring engines as a SHIELD transport flew above them. "Friends of yours?" she yelled.

"Not that I know of," Spider-Man answered.

'Venom, surrender immediately. You are under arrest for attacking and endangering SHIELD personal.'

"So much for changing!" Spider-Man said, stepping back.

"They attacked us first!" Buffy screamed defensively, then looked at the carrier. "IT WAS SELF DEFENCE YOU MORONS! YOU ATTACKED US FOR NO REASON!" Spider-Man had to give her points for guts. He didn't know anyone willing to scream at SHIELD. "So much for a nice, easy trip," Buffy said as the symbiote covered her body. "We hate our life."

Sunnydale

The Library

"Oh dear, you're serious, aren't you?" Giles grew dangerously pale as he fell into a chair. After all, he'd just been told that there was a second symbiote out there and both the new She-Venom and this new symbiote that identified herself as Wrath had Slayer hosts. Which could only mean one thing really.

"Question is, which one is Buffy?" Xander asked, having long since moved past the revelation and asking the real question. "Venom or Wrath?"

"I would think that's rather obvious," Johnny said. "Your friend Buffy has been missing for upwards of three months. The new Slayer from Boston, that was held captive by Kakistos, whom we know was slaughtered by the new She-Venom, has only been missing for a few weeks, maybe only a month or two. She-Venom appeared on our scopes roughly two and a half to three months ago. By that time frame, the Boston Slayer should have still been in Boston."

"So," Willow was on the verge of tears, even as she stated the facts, "Buffy is the new host of the Venom symbiote. And has been for several months now..."

"And she either captured, or rescued, the other Slayer from Kakistos and somehow gave her another symbiote," Black Cat summarised.

"And you brought the Hulk back with you!" Cordelia screamed, pointing at Banner, who was just sitting quietly in a corner drinking tea. He looked up, then shrugged when everyone stared at him and went back to his tea.

"What's wrong with that?" Johnny questioned.

"Hello!" Cordelia gestured erratically around the Library. "We're on the freaking Hellmouth! The Hulk might be mister invulnerable, but what about alter-ego wimp guy back there chugging on Giles's chamomile supply?! What if he gets turned or something else demonic happens to him? What happens to him, happens to the Hulk, right?"

They all stared, feeling like slapping themselves silly by this point.

"I hate it when Cordelia makes sense," Willow grumbled.

"I'm just passing through," Bruce Banner informed them.

"Yeah, people that just pass through usually are the first ones to go," Xander grudgingly admitted. "Any way of extracting this guy away from Sunnydale, or any place supernatural, come to think of it?"

"Sure, just send me on my way. I mean, it's not like I could help or anything," Bruce whined before sipping some more tea.

"Excuse me, Mr. Banner," Giles spoke to the rather unimpressive individual, "But might I inquire as to your field of expertise?"

"Bio-chemistry, specialising in gamma radiation exposure," was the instant reply.

"And what benefit might you have to offer in the field of the supernatural? Specifically, in combating vampires and demons atop an interdimensional rift identified solely as the Hellmouth?" the Watcher dropped the other foot.

"Ah... by getting as far away from here as humanly possible?" he offered.

Giles smiled and nodded, "Good man."

Same Time

New York City Rooftops

BOOM!

"What the heck did you do to piss them off so much?!" Spider-Man shouted at his black-clad counterpart as they dodged various missiles shot at them from the SHIELD aircraft hovering above.

"That was rhetorical, right?" Venom Slayer replied, shooting a webline to zip under some cover and then out again before it could be blown up.

"OK, here's a very much NOT rhetorical question," the red and blue clad hero snapped at the black and white anit-heroine. "How would you suggest we get out of this mess? Because I don't think they're going to stop shooting until one or both of us are put in SHIELD superhuman holding cells!"

"How about the sewers?" she offered, jumping off the roof and down into an alley, only to reappear on the other side of the roof after a few more rockets were launched down said alley.

"I hate the sewers," Spider-Man gumbled to himself.

"Yeah, well what's your bright idea?" Venom Slayer shouted back, having heard him despite being several meters away. Benefits of symbiote-enhanced slayer powers.

Spider-Man didn't respond.

"That's what we figured," she called back. "Nearest entrance?"

"Down the alley you keep trying to get into and they keep shooting missiles into," he dryly remarked, back-flipping to avoid some laser fire.

"Don't suppose you've got a superhero pall you can call a favor in from, huh?" she asked, cartwheeling out of the way of another missile.

"... Not on speed-dial, unfortunately," the wall-crawler grumbled.

"Then we have to do things our way," the symbiote-slayer growled.

"Your way?" Spider-Man repeated, surprised. "What happened to this supposed change from the old Venom? Huh?!"

"My way is we take them down, but not out. Only things that get an instant kill from us are monsters worse than what our Other used to be. Considering that she had to rip open peoples heads just to survive while bonded to a couple of psychopaths, that's saying something. You take the weapons ports, we'll take the engines."

"Why do I have to take the place where all the exploding stuff is coming from?" he whined.

Venom Slayer just pointed up at the SHIELD craft. Spider-Man looked up, and saw that it was a Valkyrie-Class Air-to-Land Support Cruiser. He couldn't so much as scratch the engines on that behemoth, even if he had a week and few missiles of his own to work with. This new She-Venom on the other hand...

"Uh, right. Weapons, got it," Spider-Man nodded and then set up a web-sling-shot to get him up to the airship before they shot at him again.

Venom Slayer just crouched down, aimed her trajectory, and then jumped. She landed on the rear engine-pod just as Spidey was within the maximum range for a webline to the underside of the ship's hull.

"Whoa," he couldn't help remarking to himself upon seeing the sheer physical prowess of the new Venom. "Oh yeah, weapons." He quickly got to work on clogging as many missile ports with web-fluid as fast as he could.

Meanwhile, Venom Slayer was going to town on all the engine-pods within reach. It really wasn't that hard to sharpen her fists into talons and apply a bit of Symbiote, Spider, and Slayer strength, and ripping out the control wires and fuel lines to each pod was child's play. She had over half of them disabled inside of thirty seconds. The ship finally started to go down after three quarters of them were permanently off line.

"Let's move it Spider!" she called from the top of the ship. "Don't want to have to deal with their reinforcements on top of this thing!"

"All right already!" he screamed back and both quickly shot out weblines and were swinging away from the crash, which the pilots were desperately trying to make happen in a non-populated area. "You know, we could have timed taking out the engines a little bit better."

"Puh-lease," the curvaceous crusader scoffed. "We left them two engines, that's more than enough to let them have a controlled crash. We may have a destructive streak a mile wide, but we're not stupid."

Right at that moment, the SHIELD airship crashed into the Hudson and amazingly enough did not explode.

"See?" Venom Slayer then stuck her foot-long tongue out between her fangs.

"You must be from the west-coast, because you certainly don't act like anyone on the east-coast would act. Well, except maybe people from Miami. But that's a whole other can of worms," Spider-Man commented.

"So," she asked while flipping around for another webline shot, "Interruption aside, what's your answer? We really don't want anything to do with you... anymore. We're going to be in town for a few more days. Taking care of... personal business. You just happened to be the first of it. Once we get this mess with SHIELD taken care of, we'll go and if my Other has her way, we'll never be back in yours or my lifetime."

"So, stay out of your way and you'll stay out of mine?" the wall-crawler clarified.

Venom Slayer nodded her head, then added, "Basically. Though we would add that even if you get in our way, we'll still stay out of yours. Petty revenge isn't all that interesting, and you're just not worth it anymore. There are more important things that we have to focus on right now."

Spider-Man was silent, just web-slinging alongside the black and white symbiote slayer for a few more blocks. Finally, he said, "OK, fine. Truce. On two conditions."

Venom stirred uncomfortably, but Buffy quieted her down with a thought. She wasn't so much a white hat anymore that she wouldn't tell a little white lie every once in a while. Just because they verbally agreed to whatever these conditions were, did not mean they had to stick to the letter of said agreement.

"What are they?" she requested.

…

This is as far as my collaboration with "Doc4" has gotten on this story. So until he replies back with his 'Turn', this story is going nowhere. So until that happens, I am marking it Complete. My apologies to any and all followers of this story. I liked it too, but what made it work was the back-and-forth. Thanks For Reading!