It shouldn't have been this hard to talk to her own sister, but there she was.

Clara Carita was hesitating to knock on the door of the decent house managed by a group of five young adults, amongst which also Priscila. They were all mostly international students, a conglomeration of different backgrounds in which her sister had found a reassembly of home, hence why she moved out of Clara's flat the first chance she got.

Clara didn't exactly blame her. The eight year difference placed Priscila exactly at the edge of not being acceptable to lack her freedom of mistakes.

It was early in the morning when Clara stopped her motorcycle in the driveway and felt like a statue for a couple of minutes in front of the door.

"Do you want me to knock for you?" Venom broke the silence. "I can already assure you she's home. I can feel her scent. And also Pedro's and Juliette's and Lee's... I think the one who cooks well is missing."

With Venom's voice ringing in her head, Clara found it just a little easier to reach her hand out and knock. This movement made her leather jacket creak momentarily. Its red had seen much better days, but the worn out state had caught up to match in shade the darker lipstick on her lips. Her hair was tied at the back and a neck-tight collar covered the marks of last night's fight at the docks. For short, Clara was back to looking as dubious as ever holding that suitcase, but at least it was a familiar view to which Lee opened the door.

He was wearing only the upper half of a suit and a pair of huge headphones, throwing a careless glimpse at the adult before walking back inside and pressing a button on the keyboard of the laptop he was carrying with himself. "Priscila!" He lifted his chin up as she was probably upstairs. "You sister's here! Hey-" Lee basically hiccupped to a stop as soon as he saw Clara enter uninvited. "I didn't tell you to come in."

In her defense, he had left the door open. "Fuck off, Lee," Clara smiled.

Well, though she was happy Priscila was making connections she too wished she had had at her age, there was no denying the fact that Clara disliked the bunch of people her sister ditched her to live with. They were careless smokers, all sleep deprived and overly fond of parties.

"Clara's here...?" Priscila stomped down the stairs, definitely startled by the visit considering how she stopped at the sight of her sister.

Because of that, Clara pretty much forgot how to breathe, until they managed to sit down in Priscila's room. Lots of posters formed tapestries on the walls, in a mess which could pass as order were anyone who came in to squint. The Carita sisters sat down on the bed of the youngest, who now shut close the suitcase.

"I suppose I shouldn't ask where you got the money from," Priscila gulped, still trying to comprehend what she had seen inside. She knew her sister better than anyone, she thought. That meant she was familiar with Venom and with the past habits of the eldest... Seeing the suitcase filled with money took Priscila's mind back entire years, back to the first home they had together, the small house in which every night, Clara returned bleeding over another paycheck, shooing her sister away with the now classic 'Venom will heal me, it just takes a moment.' Then she would send her back to sleep with the image of a crimson smile embedded onto her brain.

"It's probably better you don't ask," Clara inhaled sharply.

"This has far less shouting than what we got ready for," Venom hummed in her mind and though it may have looked weird to Priscila, Clara nodded along.

"Then I can't take this-"

Clara stopped her sister from even considering lifting the suitcase off her lap by placing her hand over it. "Just keep them, alright? I am sorry I couldn't get them to you faster. Something came up in DC and I got caught into a little mess, which I am handling. I even tried yesterday to get the board to reconsider, and I know these sound like excuses, but trust me, I'm aware I screwed up. So..."

"I'm sorry too." At Priscila's confession Venom gasped. "When I called I just got the news and I was overwhelmed. I overreacted by telling you those things."

"You had all the right to be upset," Clara's shoulders may have relaxed, but the uneasy feeling was getting stronger the more the conversation happened through quiet sounds. Sometimes a good outcome was simply too good to believe it to be true.

"But things got worse before they got better."

That sentence somehow seemed to provoke the molten fire of an older sister's worry even further. "What do you mean by that?"

"I was approached yesterday afternoon by a Dr. Hayes who's been monitoring my study levels. He offered me a scholarship in his school in Cairo." Priscila's eyes were glazed, because the joy has long worn out, replaced by the details which Clara was just now beginning to notice. There was an open luggage on the ground, half already filled with clothes and with the Nemo stuffed toy, holding the passage of time on it, but also the importance it held between the sisters.

Clara was speechless and Priscila took full advantage of it to shrug, "I was going to tell you once I got to the airport, because you have the tendency to want to follow me everywhere." She sneaked a little laugh.

That harmless inside joke between them compelled Clara to huff the beginning of a laugh as well and finally make it visible over her face that she was comprehending the good news Priscila just brought to their short reunion. The creases of worry disappeared from her forehead. The corners of her lips curved up a little.

"But this is amazing news," she finally exhaled relieved, forgetting that her own sister waited this long to give her this spectacular announcement. Perhaps the majority of her relief was just a retrospective wiping of all the guilt she's been harboring inside of her since the realization of failure as a sister truly struck her. "Then I'll drive you to the airport-"

"On your motorcycle? No need. Pedro is driving me already. I'll give you a message when I get to Cairo, but don't expect too many after that, as I want to get used to the busy schedule Dr. Hayes told me about."

"Well," Clara realized everything was happening rather fast from her perspective. However, she had slept just about enough to get the discerning concentration to realize just how proud she was of her sister succeeding in life even if she, personally, had failed her. "I'm happy for you... We are happy for you."

"Take care of her, Venom, would you?" Priscila giggled. She was in too good of a mood with this scholarship to nitpick on her sister's habits, but some last parting advice couldn't hurt. "Try to keep her out of trouble, for me."

Venom's head temporarily formed out of Clara's back and grinned as innocently as his toothy smile could, "Will try."

The suitcase remained with Priscila once Clara left. She felt odd having to step away from this important moment in her sister's life, but just like she had pointed out... having to raise her did make Clara controlling in this family, something that once aware of, she tried to stop at all costs.

Control was, however, everything Marc wanted to have that morning, yet got half-way through the most tiring moment of his life. With a cup of coffee in his left hand, he made sure to get there earlier than initially planned with Clara, because it gave him time to think back at the night before, at Khonshu's directions in what meant the conversation waiting to happen and of course... the little gram of wonder and curiosity: why did Steven sleep so little last night if the date went on as it should have?

He specifically made sure the date happened so that Steven would not remember the havoc on the street or him talking out of the window stall... He could admit that Clara had a calming effect on that side of him, but apparently, something surely must have gone wrong, because one hour of sleep was all Marc woke up with. It was barely a nap and that meant the dark circles had returned under his eyes in chronic tiredness the scent of dark coffee was not going to fix.

The very cup had grown cold in his hand from waiting, but it wasn't long after his last sip that he noticed from the corner of his eyes, slightly blinded and drained by the bright sunlight, Clara approaching. His gaze lifted and he greeted her first with a nod, followed by straightening up in his position of sitting, and then lastly, with the curiosity only she could answer.

"Since you're getting along so well with Steven, you could start telling him to get a proper night's sleep."

"Or you could start talking with your alters," Clara said that outloud, while Venom said the exact same thing into her mind. She sat on the empty place left beside Marc on the bench.

He wasn't used to casual talk. Heck, it's been a while since he even went out to enjoy the sun. It did not work well with his connection to the Moon God, much more personal than Jake or Steven, so he barely ever got out at this time of the day, if he had a say in it. But, for the sake of easing into the subject which would be rather tough to discuss, he sighed, "How was the date?"

Awkwardness tucked at the end of his grimace. His numb features were hardened into the very thought of calling whatever Steven had going as a distraction a "date".

"Alright," Clara nodded. "Steven's a sweetheart."

"A naive one too," Marc added in a mumble.

"Right," Clara placed her hands into the pockets of her jacket and leant down in her seat, getting comfortable. She cast a quick glance to her left and just smiled.

The difference between Marc and Steven, whom she had spent quite a lot of time with, was stark, no matter how flattering both of them looked directly under the sun, when golden hues danced freely amongst those relaxed, untamed curls, hanging lowly over their forehead. Steven embraced that light like an old friend, like a flower waiting for photosynthesis, and he often looked like the daylight helped him get over night terrors and the sleeping disorder he kept on mentioning to her.

Marc was different, and not just by the fact that he almost always looked like he was on the verge of glaring at everyone and everything. He had an assessing gaze, analyzing, and calculating risks of the environment. And in the daylight... Clara thought he looked more exposed than ever.

She had been staring for a brief moment at him, either generally or just fixating on his eyes, in order to generate that thought process of thought. From the trance, Venom forced her head to move and for her to look back ahead. "Unless you want me to go in crazy detail about how Steven's holding up and what we talked about, perhaps you should get to whatever you wanted to give me as an explanation."

Marc hummed in agreement. He noticed the stare, but since he didn't really know what to think about it, he didn't voice his consciousness. After all, it was odd to him to assume anything about Clara. Her gaze was sharp, her eyes were threatening, with or without make-up to define them and bring them out. She was the sort of person who knew the power aspect held and therefore used it for intimidation purposes.

Not knowing where exactly to start, Marc took a sharp inhale and started with what Khonshu had told him the night at Sol's bar. "Do you know a demon?"

The question did get a reaction out of her, but since Khonshu failed to explain how this inquiry was relevant, Marc couldn't tell if Clara growing stiff again was a good sign or not. She sat up normally beside him now and sighed, "Why?"

"I don't know."

"How can you not know?" she raised her voice in annoyance and frankly, Marc couldn't blame her, hence why he kept his calm.

"Khonshu told me to ask you this and I thought it would be relevant to start with that. You see, he's the one who guided me to follow you to San Francisco, he probably had a say in Jake getting the information about the city... about your address later on."

"Khonshu," Clara repeated, trying to keep herself as close to his pronunciation as she could. "Who's that? A friend?"

"My patron. I am his avatar."

"Oh! We watched that one-!" Venom's head appeared, attached to a tentacle coming from Clara's neck, but it was immediately slapped back in by her.

"It's daylight, idiot, people are in the park," she scolded him, looking down, then, with an overly tired sigh, she looked back at Marc. "You have to be more specific than that, honey."

Marc's ears tinted red. The one thing he never thought he'd have to do under Khonshu's guidance was share his knowledge... open up to someone the way he was doing just then with Clara. He felt his own pulse quicken the closer he was to the truth so really, all he tried in that moment was to rip the bandaid off quicker.

"Khonshu is the Vengeful God of the Moon in Egyptian Mythology," Marc exhaled gradually. Clara glanced down at his hands. His left tightened on the empty cup of coffee, while the right clung to his own knee. Another clear difference she spotted just then by looking down at his hands, a difference which called out the fact that Marc's been in charge of the body since first thing in the morning, was that his outfit was much more carefully planned, neater. His shirt was tucked into his pants, his sleeves were pulled up at his elbows.

"So he's religious," Venom tried to discern the information and that voice ringing in her head made Clara look back up towards Marc's actual face, just so she could grimace.

"You're talking to Gods?"

Disbelief was riddled into her voice, but she was taking it slightly better than he had imagined anyone would. But then again, she was sharing a body with a monster, he shouldn't have been surprised.

"Not Gods, just one God, Khonshu."

At that point, Clara turned fully towards him, even though the bench was pretty uncomfortable to sit on with a leg tucked under herself. "You're telling me an actual God talks to you?"

Venom never quite understood the human concept of God or of deities. He vaguely remembered "God" getting mentioned before bedtime in Clara's mind, in their first years together, but at some point, she just stopped ever thinking about it, or mentioning it, because whenever it fell as a word off of anyone's lips, it brought her distress, sadness. It was part of the reason why Venom swore to himself at some point that if he ever met Thor, he'd eat him and his hammer.

A Google search at some point told him "God" was supposed to be a higher power. But from that to a simple word causing Clara distress, it was a long way of explanation which Venom never got around understanding.

Even then, he felt her heart crumble.

"Why you?" Clara hit the conversation with the question Marc was scared to answer.

If it wasn't already obvious that Clara preferred his other personalities over him, then it would soon become a fact cemented in their relationship, because the 'why' had no easy reply hidden behind it.

"I was ambushed outside of Egypt on a mission, back when I worked as mercenary," Marc sighed out. The breaks in his speech were frequent, the control he had over himself was as damaging as holding on to the rope which pinned over the cliff, at the other end, the whole world's weight. "I got badly injured, stumbling through the desert, trying to find shelter from the sandstorm and I came across this cave formation. But it wasn't really a cave, only I just couldn't quite see it clearly then. I died in Khonshu's temple, right on his altar and he took mercy on me, gave me a choice: die or get resurrected and serve him and his high purpose of protecting travelers of the night and the lost souls."

He didn't want to look at Clara. He didn't want to see her reaction.

"The only part about that which is highly unbelievable is a God in existence showing mercy."

Her answer shocked him to the core. A small gust of wind blew through the park, picked up the dead leaves and lifted them up in the air, hurling them past their bench. The wind caressed her black hair while she looked ahead, at the fountain before them and for the first time, Marc actually saw the woman, not the monster which he had always considered, knowing what lay under her skin.

"That's the unbelievable part for you?" Marc muttered, keeping the sanctity of the low tone they had going on. This very conversation, he felt, revealed him more about Clara than seeing it through Steven's experience could ever have.

Clara held no shame to nod along, "You carry yourself far more composed than Steven and Jake and considering how you fight... the mercenary part is not a shock and hardly the craziest job I've heard of. The resurrection part isn't too shocking either. However, the God of the Moon and you're what... his-?"

"Fist of Vengeance," Marc completed her statement.

She sighed and turned her gaze to him, "Alright, say I will believe the God part for a moment, why does he want you to follow me?"

Marc shook his head, "I don't know. He didn't tell me that much."

"I told you all you needed to know," Khonshu's voice boomed into his left ear and made Marc finch around, looking up. Clara found it weird, after all, she saw nothing at all there, while his eyes widened slightly, going up to gaze at the flickering aspect of his God. Showing into the daylight was taking a lot of energy from him.

Returning his attention to her, Marc sighed, "He told me only what I needed to know and apparently that is not part of it."

"Is he talking to you now?" The experience of having a voice in her head at all times spoke for itself.

"He's... here," Marc said, filled with uncertainty.

Khonshu changed his location, placing himself between their bench and the fountain, closer to the latter. Marc's eyes shifted partially to him, perhaps to avoid Clara's calmness and curiosity, or at least to control the nerves whitening his knuckles. Fingertips dug into that plastic cup of coffee, his knee was feeling the pressure of his right hand.

"Where?"

"It's okay," Khonshu reassured while Marc hesitated, "Tell the non-believer to look at me."

"What?" Marc blinked confused towards his God. Clara followed his gaze and looked ahead, seeing just the fountain. "Uhm..." And the dreadful mercenary, the numb, broken human, was left humming, muttering, hesitating, because he was starting to grasp why Steven felt so safe with her, why Jake wanted to meet her too.

Because there was little which could truly phase someone who had seen and endured perhaps as much as Clara.

So, for just a moment, he remembered who he was and took his right hand off of his knee, pointing ahead, "Look right there. Khonshu wants you to see him."

"He must really care for us to work together. Is it about O.M.N.I.U.M.?" Clara kept her eyes fixed on the point Marc showed her, while his hand lowered down and kept the marker for the space between them on that bench.

"She's smart," Khonshu hummed.

"She is," Marc confirmed in a whisper.

"What did you say?"

"Just keep on watching."

Marc watched Clara's side profile, how her lips formed a smile from the fast exchange and how she concentrated to look ahead. "I hate to break it to you, but I don't see-!"

Wind picked up and Clara moved her left hand over his right, because in her eyes, the sun had suddenly blacked out. The sky grew darker in an instant and she held her breath as tightly into her chest as she held onto Marc's hand. What was more dubious was that Marc recognized exactly what she was feeling as her eyes widened.

"I still don't see anything," Venom sighed. "Why is your heart having trouble beating, Clara?"

"I see him," Clara breathed out, barely. It was menacing, staring into the empty orbits of Khonshu, watching the hypnosis of the bandages flying around him, of the illusion of his presence holding terror and light all the same.

A blink after that, she breathed normally again and the pressure she didn't know she had on her mind was released, making her buck over. Marc's hand came over her back, their moment of sincere touch ceasing before.

"Great, now we're seeing things," Venom sighed, exasperated. "He's making us more crazy than we actually are, this isn't fair."

"Arthur Harrow," Clara murmured through her heavy breaths, not leaning back into her seat but standing up straight away to shake off the dizziness.

Marc looked up at her. Khonshu was not there anymore, his job must have been done for the day. "What?"

"Jake told me about him. You wanted to know what Jake told me the other day, when I punched you," she reminded him. "I may have a way for us to track Arthur Harrow, but that will require you meeting Michael properly and maybe that demon too. You in?"

Without intervention, he nodded and stood up. "Lead the way."

author's note:    friday's are my "write while at uni" days xD at least until next week, because from next friday till episode 4 of moon knight comes out, my updates will be a bit more scarce as i have a small holiday planned with my sister and my mother and they will require my whole attention. plan is that i get some pre writing done by then but idk how much i will be able to do, because i also have two essays to deliver for my uni so yea that's the small update on me

BUT ohhh boy, i am soo happy with the foreshadowing in this chapter, y'all have noo idea how much this chapter sets up basically

is this a good time to ask for opinions? 🥺