Maya Stark

Chapter 136: Everyone is traumatized

I was the first one on the roof. I wasted no time in rushing towards Peter, wrapping my arms around him, and burying my head in his shoulder. He rests his forehead on my arm, his hand gripping the sleeve of Nat's sweater with a tight grasp. His body was shaking, and sobs racked through his body. Ned and MJ come over as well, joining in a tight hug. My heart absolutely breaks for him, and a tear rolls down my cheek. I can't believe I wasn't there for him. I can't believe I didn't help.

'Peter,' I say quietly, not letting go, 'there's—there's some people here... who...'

I trail off, not even knowing where to start. The three of us very slowly release him, but before I can wander too far his hand grips mine, tight. Like he's scared I'm going to leave him. I help him stand up and then he sees the other Peters They jump down to our level, and MJ and Ned stand slightly behind us.

'Hey,' my Peter says. 'Wait, wait, whoa.'

'Sorry...' non-suit Peter (Tobey) says, 'about May.'

'Yeah,' suit Peter (Andrew) says. 'Sorry. I got some understanding of what you're going through—'

'No, please don't tell me that you know what I'm going through,' my Peter says. I squeeze his hand.

'Okay,' suit Peter (Andrew) says.

'She's gone,' my Peter says. 'It's all my fault. She died for nothing. So, I'm gonna do what I should've done in the first place.'

He reaches for the spell box, but the non-suit Peter (Tobey) says his name. My Peter turns and shakes his head.

'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? So, you deal with it. If they die, if you kill them... that's on you. It's not my problem. I don't care anymore. I'm done. I'm really sorry that I dragged you into this. But you have to go home now. Good luck.'

He reached for the artifact again, which MJ had in her hand, but when she saw me shake my head, she moved it away from his grasp. Peter turns his head back to me, and I squeeze his hand once more.

'Just... hear them out,' I whisper to him.

He looks at me for a second and I motion with my head to the other Peters. He looks down towards the pavement, and I look back towards the other Peters, who seem hesitant to make any noise.

'My Uncle Ben was killed,' non-suit Peter (Tobey) says. 'It was my fault.'

'I lost...' the other Peter (Andrew) tears up. 'I lost Gwen. My... She was my Maya. I couldn't save her. I'm never gonna be able to forgive myself for that. But I carried on. Tried to— Tried to keep going. Tried to keep being the... that friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, because I know that's what she would have wanted. But... at some point, I just... I stopped pulling my punches. I got rageful. I got— I got bitter. I just don't want you, to end up like—like me.' A tear rolls from his cheek.

'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,' said non-suit Peter (Tobey).

'I wanna kill him. I wanna tear him apart. I can still hear her voice in my head—' Peter breaks down slightly and I rest my head on his shoulder. He looks down at me and manages to compose himself. 'Even after she was hurt, she said to me that we did the right thing. She told me that with great power—'

'—comes great responsibility,' said non-suit Peter (Tobey).

My Peter looks up, genuinely surprised. The other two Peters share a smile.

'Wait what?' My Peter says. 'How do you know that?'

'Uncle Ben said it,' suit Peter (Andrew) says.

'The day he died,' the other Peter adds on. 'Maybe she didn't die for nothing, Peter.'

I straighten up, and Peter locks eyes with me. 'What do you think?'

I try for a smile and put a hand on his cheek, wiping some of his tears away. 'You already know what you have to do. You can't blame yourself, Peter. You saw what that did to me. I lost myself. May wouldn't want you to do the same. I won't let you do the same. We have to do this. You have to do this. And we are going to do it together.'

He smiled sadly at me; eyes still wet with tears. 'We have to do this. Thanks for getting here so fast.'

'Always,' I say, nodding.