HOW DID ONE RECOVER FROM A TRAGEDY?

In some situations, it took weeks, months, sometimes even years. People would cling to whatever memories they had left of the one that left them and in turn, the thoughts would break them into pieces as each memory faded away into blurs and mumbles of sentences. They'd try to fix themselves, send themselves to therapy and talk to a stranger about how they felt - as if that would help them - and swallow pills to drown out the thousands of screams in their head asking what would have been different if they had just one more day. In the end, relief would come in the form of tears, flowing out of their eyes like waterfalls and freeing the pent-up guilt and anger possessing them.

In other situations, tears weren't the answer, and instead, they held it all in until they exploded with the fury at the news of the death. They would blame themselves for not doing anything about it and hurt not just themselves, but others, because of it. They would close up their heart and bottle it up where no one could touch it for fear of it shattering once more. The sadness would swallow them alive and create a small, shallow bubble around the guilty, leaving them in a world of their own, a world where they could think and see and feel nothing but the pain of losing the one they loved. They'd grow numb and they'd lose it all even when they thought they were saving themselves.

However, in Freya's situation, those feelings did not come into play, for the students of Midtown High would never learn the truth.

Peter discovered she was gone from Mr Warren, who sighed and rubbed his bulbous nose and told him, clapping a hand on his shoulder in a sort of comforting way, that Emily Newman had been told about a family emergency and had left Midtown High just as the semester came to a close. When he heard, it was in a state of shock, for while he had been angry and saddened by the girl's cruel play of his heartstrings, he had still adored her, and her presence had always comforted him. In his head, his reasoning was that at least he had one person who knew about his secret and wouldn't tell another soul. Her empty seats in classes and at lunch gnawed at him for a week, but he began to brush it away, and dwell on more important things than the girl who had broken his heart and ran away with half the pieces. He grew from it and began to work on the skills gifted to him from a mere arachnid, and would grow to become so much more than a simple crime-stopper. The broken heart grew and became whole again, just in time for another adventure for Spiderman.

The other students had a similar, if less extreme, reaction. Mary Jane and Gwen were startled, and at first worried, peppering the principal with questions he could not answer. They eventually gave up but swore to make a visit to Canada one day to meet her again. The three had never really been friends, not in Freya's mind, but to the pair, she had meant something and they would not forget her for a long while.

However, the rest of the school didn't care much and only gasped and shrugged and sighed when they heard the rumours. Some giggled and said how they would like to follow her footsteps and skip exams, while others speculated she had gotten pregnant and was escaping the embarrassment of admitting, while some said that it had been Peter Parker himself who scared her off - though that rumour had been solely started by Sally, who had taunted the boy with it whenever they crossed paths.

Overall, as the semester, then the school year died and summer officially began, Midtown High was fine without Emily Newman, and that was the way Freya Knight wanted it, even if a little part of her had told her otherwise. Peter learned more about his abilities and practised as much as he could, getting into a few bickers with Stark and his advancements into the Avengers, and the girl was more of a fond memory than anything - though he couldn't go back to that same pizza place, not after it happened. He didn't understand why 'Mr Stark' worried about him and made sure of extra security measures, nor would he ever; again, another wish of hers.

When Tony learned of it all, he hadn't believed it at first. He believed the letters to be the works of a dumb prank of a lovesick teen, probably off her rocker. But when he saw the next day that Peter didn't remember a thing she had told him, and instead thought he had stopped the guy single-handedly, he had worried and done more investigating. In the end, the letters and 'proof' had been correct, and he was able to send people after the strange organisation so eager in pulling the boy apart. While he had not been successful when the summer waned away, he was hot on a trail and hellbent on making things right. While he wouldn't admit it, the fear of seeing Peter treated like an animal or a lab experiment angered him. He wouldn't let it happen again and began to work to grow closer to the boy, even offering him an 'internship that would help him keep a better eye on him.

However, the villains of the story were also sneaky, and when news hit them of Stark Industries on their trail, they packed up and left the hollowed out buildings to burn while they stored themselves away. They escaped the threat of Tony and his immense power over the world and hid away to restart. Fear still stung each of their hearts with the worry of him finding them out, but that was a fight for another day; the focus then was repairing what was lost in the failure of capturing the boy and restarting their attempts.

The only person who cared about the tragedy, the true tragedy, was the woman who had led her there herself, the woman who had broken the young girl's spirit and tossed her in with the wolves, leaving her to die while she ran free. She was far from unscathed; she was punished, and those scars would forever stain her creamy flesh, but it wasn't the severe fate that Freya had to suffer, and she hated herself for it. Though she headed back to the Academy - mostly because it was all she knew and all she had, she tried harder to do what Freya had suggested; the right thing. She tried to protect the little girls who had been pushed around and slipped extra scraps and gifts to others to keep them alive. While she could never redeem herself for the murder of a girl who meant more to her than one would ever know, she had to try.

She would eventually go insane, with the thought of Freya's warm, saddened gaze tearing apart her mind and soul and the only thing that resonated in the void that began to eat her alive. In her last days, when they had to drag her away finally, she screamed and cried at them and declared them the 'murderers of her child', but no one believed her - or, at least, no one said they would. Inga Kuznetsova died a crazy woman, a broken woman, and just like her so-called 'daughter', no one would even care.

Freya Knight had lived a short life, not even reaching the age of eighteen before it was cut short. She was thrown away and taken to an orphanage, never knowing the loving hands of a parent, and given hell for being unwanted and worthless.  At five years old, along with twenty-eight other girls her age, she was taken and morphed into more of a soldier than a child, punching and bruising and bleeding her way through the years, growing more broken and bitter as the weeks rolled by. In the beginning, she almost fell into the hands of death twice, but walked out of the fire and grew stronger, working harder than anyone else to get where she wanted to be. She was a novel student and worked hard to prove her worth to the teachers and then to prove herself to the world. 

However, it was not her years at the Academy that she was shaped by, or the blood that stained her hands even in death, or the body count that hung above her head, impossible to forget. No, Freya Knight had died because she made a choice to be a good person, and she died protecting the one person who had accepted and loved her for just who she was. She had realised that there was still a possibility of good for her, and so she had climbed, rising out of the darkness and doing the one thing that would both save and destroy her forever. Though it had cost her her life, Freya's act of good had saved her and she had died with a small smile still lingering on her lips. She had died knowing that, even though her path was ending there, another would continue on and do the world some good, just like she had wanted. In the end, she walked towards death with no fear and held his hand and walked bravely into the darkness, knowing she had died a hero.

Freya Knight was not a name that would go down in history, nor was it a tragic tale to be repeated through tears and fond memories, but it was an important one nonetheless. Unknowingly, she had shaped the world in the best way possible, and she had given them the greatest gift possible; hope, in the form of Peter Parker. That was more than enough to sacrifice her life for.

This is the end, and where I bid you ado.

But wait, there's more! If you were not a fan of this ending, or if you want more of this story, or want to learn more about some of these characters - you're in luck! I've written three alternate endings, as well as a fluffy alternate Christmas one-shot and one for Inga and her beginning, so please don't remove this story from your libraries because those are equally as important. 

However, as this is technically the end, thank you for reading this far and I'm sorry for all this pain. My reasoning will be explained in the note [to be published after the alternate endings] but for now, I love each and every one of you for reading this and I hope you enjoyed reading this story just as much as I liked writing it. I know it's a sad ending, but it was what I had planned from the start and honestly, Freya got her hero arc and that's what matters most to me, in the end. Tragedy is a part of everyone's lives and sometimes it's how a fairytale story ends, instead of always ending in happiness.

Thank you for reading, my darlings.