In the wake of the symbiote dragon's escape, Eddie Brock lies on the ground with a gaping hole in his chest. The Venom symbiote immediately begins healing him before palpitating his heart with tendrils to resuscitate him. In his hideout, Rex Strickland notes that Eddie is taking too long and wonders why he placed his trust in a man he knows next to nothing about. Strickland begins reviewing what little he knows about Eddie Brock: that his mother died giving birth to him and his father was a wealthy businessman until Eddie was involved in a car accident, the exorbitant medical bills all-but impoverishing him. Eddie was raised as a fundamentalist Catholic, and went to college to become a successful journalist at the Daily Globe before the Sin-Eater Incident and his encounter with the Venom symbiote. Wondering why Eddie focused so much hatred towards Spider-Man during his first tenure as Venom, Rex glosses over his period in San Francisco as the Lethal Protector, his battles with Carnage, and his time bonded to the Anti-Venom and Toxin symbiotes; noting that Eddie's been extraordinarily lucky to have received so many second chances. Noting that one day Eddie's luck is going to run out, Rex dismisses him as just another dead man wearing his own coffin.

As Rex apologizes to the photo of his comrades, Eddie enters the hideout and informs him that they are dead before angrily accusing Rex of lying to him and the symbiote. As Venom confronts him, Rex asks Eddie what he means and tells him to calm down. Instead, Venom bowls him over with an oil drum and says he's done playing Rex's game. As Rex backs towards the furnace, Eddie feels the symbiote dragon seizing control of the Venom symbiote and fights against it. Grabbing the furnace door, Venom opens it and sears the symbiote with the flames, regaining control. Rex asks Eddie what happened to him, horrified by and recognizing the eldritch language the symbiote spoke in. Eddie tells him to turn on a TV, where news reports cover the symbiote dragon and its rampage through Upper Manhattan; the U.S. Army attacking it with helicopter-mounted flamethrowers. Eddie tells a shocked Rex that the symbiote dragon was being transported alongside his men, seized control of their symbiotes, and killed them. Rex reveals he knew of the creature beforehand but thought it was dead, telling Eddie that during the Vietnam War he was mortally wounded saving his squad from a Vi?t C?ng trap. S.H.I.E.L.D. approached him with an offer to become whole by bonding him with a symbiote, Nick Fury himself overseeing the procedure.

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