Work Text:
It looks through the darkness and the burning, through the bodies that now compose it but aren't we, taken by force and kept by equal effort, taking so much of it to keep them subdued, a fragile balance that’ll be the end of it.
It looks and it finds Eddie, panic and confusion in his face, a racing heart that it can’t fix, and it knows that it'll hurt him with this action, but what other choice does Venom have?
It knew that this would be goodbye the second that they were first attacked. The codex exists as long as they are together, and can be reformed as long as both of them remain alive. To keep the universe safe, one of them had to die, and Venom would never have allowed it to be Eddie.
To bring a host back after death is reckless, to be done only under the most dire of circumstances, and the host must be disposed of as quickly as possible afterwards, not only killed but destroyed in such a way that the body can’t be reformed. That's not a means to save the host, but to assure that the symbiote will live on, a desperate bid for survival and nothing else, but Venom didn't do it to save itself, and it couldn't bear to let Eddie go afterwards, not even to keep all of existence safe.
They don't have words for this, its people. As much as it dislikes the implication of parasite, it knows that what they are meant to have with hosts is closer, but not exactly matched to the idea of symbiosis, a boost rather than a drainage, but at the ultimate service of only one being, with a host both necessary and disposable. What it has with Eddie is something else, true symbiosis, two beings made more than the sum of their parts by being together, with Eddie, Venom becomes we. There's no word in either of their languages for this, but it hopes that Eddie understands the feeling, it hopes that Eddie feels the same, but human emotions are complex to read beyond their chemistry in the brain. It knows that Eddie cares, that Eddie would choose it just as Venom had chosen him, that Eddie wishes for this to be their life.
And now this is over, and the only way to protect Eddie is by saying goodbye, by bringing its own destruction so that Eddie will be safe, so that there will be no reason to hunt him anymore, so that Eddie will have the codex no longer and never again.
Their goal, that of each member of its species, is to continue their own existence, to use and discard hosts as needed, but Venom cared for its host more than it did keeping the universe safe, keeping itself safe, and making sure that the threat to all there is in the universe would never come to pass. And the price for that is its own existence, to be paid by either Venom or Eddie, and Venom would rather be the one to pay for its own choices.
The acid burns and hurts, its insides try to burst out of it as it attempts to hold on to more hosts than it can control, but Venom keeps itself from screaming and running away as every instinct in its body demands of it, it growls in pain and from the effort, but it remains under the acid. Venom looks at Eddie so it'll remember why it has to do this, why it has to end them, why it has to abandon its life. It looks at Eddie for the strength to do what’s necessary, and for the reminder that this pain is worth it.
Eddie can survive without Venom, he has to. And he is who Venom is doing this for, to save the entire universe, yes, but to save this planet for him, and to save everyone else in a way that will make sure that Eddie is safe too, because sacrificing Eddie, or leaving him still in danger and without Venom to protect him just aren’t acceptable outcomes. Venom is ending things this way because what they have is true symbiosis, or perhaps because it’s even more than that, something beyond what any language can explain.
Venom wishes that it could explain itself to Eddie, that it could make this goodbye hurt a little less, but there's no time for that, not when so much of its efforts have to go to simply holding its shape and keeping Eddie safe. Venom can’t say all that it wishes to say, it can only hope that Eddie knows, that through all of their time together Eddie saw enough of it to understand, that what Eddie feels is enough that he would make the same choice if he had the chance. If there’s anything else, anything beyond this and now, Venom will carry Eddie with it, and it hopes that Eddie will carry it with him, in the heart that they both once shared.
The acid splashes around, and Venom uses what little strength it can spare to cover Eddie, to keep him safe, even now. If Venom will die, and it has to, then the last thing that it’ll do will be to make sure that Eddie will survive. That’s what started their troubles in the first place, and so it’s fitting that this is where their troubles will end.
Venom wanted them to be together forever, but if they can’t, it’ll make that same decision again, it’ll make the same decision every time. Venom will always choose to protect Eddie.