Spider-Man: No Way Home (Peter Parker x Female!Reader)

Chapter 6: With Great Power, There Must Also Come Great Responsibility

Peter sits alone with the bag of destroyed cures next to him. Suddenly, Ned, MJ and (y/n) appear and run over to him and wrap him in a hug. Peter collapses into them and sobs.

"...I’m sorry." (y/n) whispers to him and she kisses the top of his head then she gently pulls back.

"Peter, there’s...there’s some people here." She said and Peter raises his head, almost like he was sensing something. "What?" He said then he leaps up and all of them look up towards the tower. The figures of the four variants of Peter and (y/n) stare down from the tower, silhouetted by the moon.

Peter takes a protective stance, guarding his friends, as Parker, Spider-Woman and Peter swing down while (y/n) Parker was hanging onto her husband, like he was giving her a piggyback ride.

"Hey, wait, wait-- whoa!" Peter said and the other Peters' and (y/n)s' stand up and hold up their hands. "Sorry...about May." Pete said. "Yeah, sorry. We've got some understanding of what it--" Parker said as he gestures between him and Spider-Woman but Peter interrupts him.

"No, no, no...please don’t tell me that you know what I’m going through." Peter said and Parker nods. "Okay." He mutters. "She’s gone. And it’s all my fault. She died for nothing." Peter said then he holds back tears then shakes his head. "So I’m gonna do what I should have done in the first place." He said and he reaches for the box in MJ's hand.

"Peter--" (y/n) Parker said, sympathetically, but Peter turns to her and the others, quickly. "Please, don’t! You don’t belong here, either of you. So I’m sending you home. Those other guys are from your worlds, right?" He asked and the four nod in response.

"So you deal with it. And if they die, if you kill them...that’s on you. It’s not my problem. I don’t care anymore. I’m done." Peter said. "I’m really sorry that I dragged you into this. But you have to go home now. Good luck." He said, sincerely. Peter reaches for The Box again, but MJ gently pulls it back.

"Peter, hear them out." (Y/n) whispers then Pete speaks up.

"My uncle Ben was killed. It was my fault." Pete said and Parker nods. "Same here. My Uncle Ben was killed by a robber I let go. I tried to find him but all I had to go by was a star tattoo. I went after every criminal that looked similar but none of them had the tattoo...I never found him." Parker said and Spider-Woman looks down at her feet then sighs, heavily. "I lost..." her voice catches and she swallows before she continues. "I lost Gwen. She was my twin sister. My other half. She was always looking out for me, but I failed to do the same.” she said then bites her lips and continues.

"Pete and I couldn’t save her. I’m never gonna be able to forgive myself for that." Spider-Woman said and Parker nods in agreement. "But I carried on, we tried to, um...tried to keep going, tried to keep being the uh...that Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Couple, ‘cause we knew that’s what she would have wanted." Spider-Woman said then she sighs. "But at some point, I just- I stopped pulling my punches. I got rageful. I got bitter." She said then she shakes her head as Parker places a hand on her shoulder and looks back at Peter. "I just don’t want you to end up like...like me." 

"The night Ben died, I hunted down the man who I thought did it. I wanted him dead. I got what I wanted. It didn’t make it better. It took me a long time to learn to get through that darkness." Pete said while Peter is reeling, struck by their losses, their regrets, their warning.

"I want to kill him. I want to tear him apart. I can still hear her voice in my head. Even after she was hurt, she said to me that we did the right thing. She told me that, With great power--” Peter started to say then Pete's eyes widen at this. "--Comes great responsibility.” he adds and they all look at each other. "Wait, what? How do you know that?" Peter asked them, confused.