YELLOWJACKET

If Scott were a different man, he’d have begun punching Darren’s teeth in already at this point. It would be so satisfying, so needed, so well-deserved. People would cheer as another asshole businessman went down, and Hope would remember and love him again, and Cassie would come home, and Gwen would leave her own father and adopt him as one, and Maggie would say he was the world’s best dad, and Hank would pat him on the back, and this wasn’t a perfect world and none of those things were happening. And he wasn’t a violent person - even knowing how horrible Darren was, Scott still didn’t want to hurt the man. His death had weighed on his conscience, and just like so many people, Darren could read him like a book - could poke enough holes that Scott would tear like a sheet of wet paper.

“I wouldn’t change a thing if I had to do it all over again.” Scott said. Had killing - almost killing - Cross hurt him? Yes. But the man was threatening Cassie’s life, and Scott didn’t like violence any more on others than on himself. Especially against a kid. Especially against his kid. His heart dropped to the pit of his stomach as he thought of just how much more vulnerable his family would be now - Cassie was away at school, but Gwen was in the city. Gwen who considered Hope a mother. Gwen who didn’t even know Cross. He was thinking about trying to sneak a text to her, trying to warn her of the demon in their midst, when Darren spoke. 

“You what?” Scott asked. In all of Cross’s time with Hope, it hadn’t appeared that he’d even cared about him. “You know I’d never do anything to hurt her. You do realize she has no memories of you, of either of us? What kind of person that makes you, to manipulate her? You have no idea what she’s going through, and you just - !” Scott groaned, rubbing his hand across his face. There was no use in arguing with a psychopath, no way to try and reason with him. Cross’s humanity had been long gone even before the particles had begun affecting his brain. He was a madman, mad for power, mad for revenge, and apparently mad for Hope. “And how exactly did I do that? Better question, how do I put you back there?”

Darren gave Scott a once over again, truly looking him over and analyzing him. He tried to see how much really had changed in the man since Darren had last seen him. Darren had never actually gotten to see much of Scott back then. He hadn’t really cared about the man who, at first, seemed like nothing more than a small, pun intended, annoyance. He did enough research to know the basics about him, enough to shove it in their faces for thinking they had pulled one over on him. He’d always suspected Hank. Hank was obvious. Hope was better at it and had probably been the one thing holding him back from just killing the other two when he had the chance.

Gwen looked him over again, wondering what his game was. Maybe he didn’t have one – but it was hard for her to trust anyone after everything that had happened. Between her father trying to tear her away from Hope and her mother changing into someone completely new… it was difficult for her to be comfortable about anything in her life, especially a man who seemed to know her business, where she knew nothing about him. Was this how her life was going to be from here on out? Would people just know her because of her inheritance? Gwen’s stomach rolled at the thought. Being a Van Dyne was great until she realized it came with… with all of this. 

“Bingo – that would be me,” she said quietly. When Darren spoke again, Gwen’s shoulders finally relaxed. She hadn’t heard of him before but, if he was trusted enough to have been a business partner with Hope before? He couldn’t have been all bad. Reaching out, she shook his hand and offered a friendly-ish smile. “You think you can help?” Gwen asked as she took his card, flipping it over before glancing back up at him. “I—” Gwen stopped herself. This wasn’t the place for self-doubt no matter how much she felt it. “Where would you start?” 

Danny had never been the sort of businessman who went into the office regularly, but since the incident with the Reaper, he’d made himself even more scarce. Unfortunately, owning 51% of a company meant you had to show up to work every once in a while, and Ward was getting more and more frustrated by the day. His brother seemed more agitated as of late, and Danny knew it was because he’d been been avoiding him. Ward didn’t like to be left out of things.

 So he put on a suit and he went into the office and he pretended he wasn’t extraordinarily distracted. It probably wasn’t doing much good. He barely made it through the lobby doors before someone was talking in a way that was hard for him to keep up with, and Danny’s brow furrowed as he studied the man. “Uh, I’m sorry, I don’t…” He trailed off, glancing to the girl behind the desk, who shrugged. Businessman, she mouthed, and Danny bit back a sigh. “Is this… We don’t have an appointment, do we? You, uh, you’d probably be better off talking to Ward. He’s more into the business thing.” And extraordinarily hard to get a face-to-face with. Danny was still trying to learn how to embrace Ward’s habit of telling people no without caring if their feelings were hurt.

Stepping away as if Cross had burned him, Scott looked around. They’d caught the attention of a few people, but these were people crowded around for Fisk’s party - a little murder certainly didn’t phase them, and for once in his life, Scott was grateful that New York City was filled with criminals. Criminals like Darren Cross, apparently. “You know I didn’t kill Hope. You know better than anyone what it feels like to be a killer, and I’d never hurt her.” It was just their luck that now of all times, Cross was in the city. Now, when Hope - Nadia - was most vulnerable? 

A nagging voice in Scott’s head told him to punch Darren, but he pushed it back, knowing it was a mistake. Still… “Most of the people here are my friends.” Scott said. Tony Stark, Jessica Jones, Gwen Van Dyne - they were people who trusted him. “I like my odds on if someone sees me fighting you. I’m not a murderer.” Granted, many people didn’t know the things Cross did. His death was explained as an experiment gone wrong, and for the most part, that really was it - an experiment on if he could survive being essentially broken down into atoms. 

Apparently he could. “What the hell are you doing here, Cross?” He asked. “How are you alive?”

Not as many people as Darren had expected had turned to watch. It was kinda sad that they were so unconcerned for his well being, but people did still enjoy watching a fight. He could very clearly see that one of them had their camera out and was recording this. That was good. Plenty of these people might not have cared if Darren got hurt, but he could bribe that kid out of his recording and use that against Scott in a court of law if he wanted to later on. Scott cared about his daughter, and Darren could only imagine how awful Scott would feel if he ended up in jail and had to miss more years of his daughter’s life.

She thought that maybe that would make him go away. She was wearing a mask, so she figured he would’ve taken that as meaning she wasn’t the person he thought she was at all, but it didn’t deter him in the slightest. Nadia was usually good at reading people, and when she looked at him, she saw a lot. He was like her in a way. He looked like a snake ready to strike at a moment’s notice, a predator looking pleased with how he had her exactly where he wanted her, but … she didn’t know him. There were plenty of reasons why someone would look like that, and she wasn’t ready yet to decide which reason that might be.

She allowed him to kiss her hand. It was a ritual she was far too used to while being an assassin. She greeted people like this all the time, and then they talked, learned more about each other before she inevitably got what she wanted. Oddly enough, what he said sounded vaguely believable, at least more believable than what Scott had been telling her, and she half-wondered if maybe she really was this Hope person. She couldn’t see herself as being soft or lovable like Scott seemed to describe her as. She wasn’t the kind of person that could be a kind concerned mother like he seemed to think she was for Gwen. She was usually closed off. She built walls. Practically everything people saw of her was an act, but what this man said sounded like the truth. She was pulled in by his words and also by his arms. She was used to that behavior with a lot of men, but it was something she just dealt with most of the time. She was supposed to be enjoying herself tonight, not working like an assassin, but old habits died hard. She took his card, glancing at the name on it. Darren Cross. Cross Technologies CEO. “I know what you mean,” she agreed. She used to use that method a lot, sleeping with people to learn more about them or get things from them. She glanced over at Scott. “I do want to know more actually. What all do you know about her? Scott said that she loved him.”

It was slightly remarkable watching Hope now. The Red Room had clearly done a fantastic job in wiping her mind and making her think she was someone else. She was strong physically, he was sure, even if he’d never had to fight her himself. He’d seen how she’d tried to battle off those creatures in the Quantum Realm, even if she’d inevitably failed in the end. She had likely only failed because of the fact that she’d been blind. Otherwise, she could’ve beaten them. Darren had no desire to be on the other end of her fists, or her daggers, since he was fully aware of her suits new designs that she made in the Red Room. She didn’t realize how truly vulnerable she was right now, and Darren loved it. She was like putty in his hands. He could morph her however he wanted to, tell her anything that would sound believable to her. He could see it in her eyes. She wanted to believe him. She probably did believe him, but she was uncertain. He had to be careful with what he said since Scott could and probably would try to counter anything he tried to say. He just had to make himself more trustworthy than Scott.

Gwen had tried and failed (again) to get the bartender to slip her a drink — but he had passed her up (again) and now she was standing off to the side, looking at the bartender and glancing around the room in the hopes of spotting Miles or Kate — or any else that she knew who didn’t remind her about how much her life sucked right now. Well, things were looking up in a screwed up sort of way considering Hope/Nadia was at the party too. They had even gotten dressed up together. (In silence, but it was something.) 

Seeing someone approach her though, Gwen stood up a little straighter and then glanced up at the man’s masked face. He knew her name right away and something about that was a little unsettling… but at the same time, her dad was the Police Captain and she had just inherited the Van Dyne estate (which with Nadia home now, Gwen wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do because she’d rather just… give it back). “Guilty as charged,” Gwen said with a false smile. “Is there something I can help you with?” 

Darren had watched Gwen Stacy enough to see what she was doing, trying to get alcoholic beverages when she was almost certainly underage. It wasn’t the kind of thing you would want for one of Pym Tech’s biggest shareholders, but for Darren, he was pleased with it. It was something he could probably exploit if he wanted to, but only if it came down to it. It was lower than the things he planned to do to get what he wanted from her.

It turned out that most of the people that were in her universe were the same as this one. Of course, Jane didn’t know this universe’s versions. It was all odd. Time was a funny thing when you messed with it. Still, she couldn’t put her finger upon where she had seen this guy before, if ever. “Ah, turns out that these sort of parties are good for that. Good reunions, I’m hoping?” Jane asked curiously, not truly caring whether he decided to tell her or not. They swayed to the music and Jane’s lips pursed, but she replied, “Truthfully, they’re not really my thing, but here I am might as well make the most out of it.” After a moment, she realized, “I’m sorry, I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Jane Foster.” 

Darren nodded as they danced around the room, though they didn’t move around too far. It wasn’t an especially fast song to dance too. “Most of the reunions were fairly positive,” he allowed. He hadn’t just come here for Hope and Scott after all. He’d also met with some of his other contacts that had been and still were interested in his business. Cross Tech was already running smoothly, even if it wasn’t even big enough to make it in the papers yet. It certainly had a while to go before it could try to beat out competitors like Pym Tech or Stark Industries. “One of them . . . wasn’t as happy about my return.” He shrugged. He was glad about Scott’s reaction to him, but he didn’t show it. “Well, you’re good at acting like you’re enjoying yourself. I’m Darren Cross.”