Home Is Where The Heart Is (Peter Parker)

[23] Three Yous

I find Peter on the roof of the school, alone, the bag of cures lay next to him. I knew it from the moment they said it on the news. May is gone. Ned, MJ, and I approach him. I reach him first and hug him and he collapses into my hug and begins sobbing. I kiss his head and lay mine on top of his as MJ and Ned surround us in the hug. Tears begin to sting my eyes as guilt fills my heart. Why didn't I just stay?

I pull away from him and whisper in his ear, "Peter, there's... there's some people here."

Peter leaps up and looks up at the tower where the two other Peters were hanging off the top, silhouetted by the moon. Peter takes a protective stance as they swing down to meet him.

"Hey, wait, wait-- whoa!" Peter says.

The other Peters' faces say it for him. Yes, we're you...

"Sorry... about May." Other Other Peter states.

"Yeah, sorry. I've got some understanding of what it's like." Other Peter says, coming into the light.

"No, no, no... please don't tell me that you know what I'm going through." Peter's voice is hoarse and rough, almost like he's about to burst into tears again.

Other Peter nods his head, "Okay."

"She's gone. And it's all my fault. She died for nothing. So I'm gonna do what I should have done in the first place." Peter says and reaches back for the box in MJ's hand.

"Peter-" Other Other Peter begins.

"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. 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. I'm really sorry that I dragged you into this. But you have to go home now. Good luck."

Peter reaches for the box again but I wave my fingers and the box glows purple and retracts to my hand. I look at Peter and give him a look that says "Hear them out."

"My uncle Ben was killed. It was my fault." Other Other Peter states.

"I lost... I lost Gwen. My, um... she was my Emma. I couldn't save her. I'm never gonna be able to forgive myself for that. But I carried on, tried to, um... try to keep going, try to keep being the uh... that "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man," 'cause I knew that's what she would have wanted. But at some point, I just-- I stopped pulling my punches. I got rageful. I got bitter. I just don't want you to end up like... like me." Other Peter states, now tearing up.

"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."

Peter pauses for a moment before speaking again, "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..."

"Comes great responsibility." Other Other Peter says, looking like he's heard that before.

"Wait, what? How do you know that?" Peter asks.

"Uncle Ben said it." Other Peter begins.

"The day he died." Other Other Peter finishes.

The three of them stare at each other.

"Maybe she didn't die for nothing, Peter." Other Other Peter says.

To repair the cures, we used the school lab. Peter pours the bag out on the lab tables as either Peter stand on each side of him. I stand across the table from them. Peter sorts the cures out.