|Towards the Endgame|

•Chapter 39• I Got Bitter

They sat in silence, listening to the sirens and cars on the roads. Both of their faces were still covered in cuts and blood. A dim light showed their faces. Peter did his best to contain his tears. Y/n's eyes were watery but nothing came out. She didn't even have to try to hold it in. She thought about what she should've done. She should've had her suit ready. Maybe then she could've protected May and Peter. She could've fought the Goblin. Maybe she shouldn't have said anything to Osborn about no darker half. Peter was just looking down at his lap. All he could think of was the woman he left behind. She was dead because of him. Her blood was still on his hands. Those words spoken by Jameson haunted his mind. Always haunting. Y/n looks at her boyfriend. That pain washed over him in some sort of time loop. Every time he thought it faded, it came back to him. "Hey, Parker?" She says quietly. Peter still didn't look at her. The corners of his mouth tugged on his lips as they started to tremble slightly. "I'm sorry we couldn't keep her safe." She whispers. Peter looks at her. He breaks down into tears. She gets closer to him. He wraps his arms around her, sobbing into her shoulder.

Behind them, Ned and MJ came into view. They joined in on their tight embrace. They knew May was gone. Peter didn't even think of asking how they knew. He just cried. "I'm sorry," MJ whispers to him. Ned sheds a few tears. Suddenly, Peter stopped crying. He sensed there was someone else here with them. MJ pulls away from him carefully. "Peter, there are some people here..." She started. Peter glances up and jumps to his feet. He stands in front of his friends. The two other Peter Parkers look down at him. When they come down, Peter holds out his hand. "Stop right there." He says, still with watery eyes. The two Peter Parkers both held up their hands in defense. Y/n looks up at them. "Oh, my god." She says. "Sorry, about May." The oldest Peter Parker said. "Yeah. Sorry. I got some understanding on what you're -" The other Peter started. "No, please don't tell me that you know what I'm going through. 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. Y/n looks at the other Peter Parker who was in his own Spidey suit. He looked sad. The oldest Peter called out to him again.

Peter glares at him. "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 not my problem. I'm done. I'm really sorry that I dragged you into this. But you have to go home now." Peter says coldly. It was as if the last bit of hope had been squeezed from his body. He turns to press the button on the box MJ held. Y/n pushed his hand away. "My Uncle Ben was killed. It was my fault." The oldest Peter Parker spoke up again. "I, uh... I lost Gwen, my, uh... she was my uh... I couldn't save her. I'm never gonna be able to forgive myself for that. But I carried on and tried to keep going. Tried to keep being the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. 'Cause I know that's what she would've wanted. But at some point, I just... I stopped holding my punches. I got rageful. I got bitter. I just don't want you to end up like... like me." The second Peter tells him. His eyes were filled with tears as he tried his best to hold them in. Y/n felt horrible for him. He had lost the girl he loved. She shoots a quick glance at her friends before looking back at Peter.

"The night Ben died... I hunted down the man 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." The first Peter says. Y/n keeps her eyes on her Peter. "I wanna kill him. I wanna tear him apart. But 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..." He hesitated. "Comes great responsibility." The oldest Peter continued. Peter frowns at him. "What? How do you know that?" He questions. "Uncle Ben said it. The day he died." The two Spider-Men filled in as they looked at each other. "Maybe she didn't die for nothing, Peter." The oldest added. Peter glances over his shoulder to look at his friends. Y/n gave him a little nod. "Seems like they know what they're talking about." She says. Peter turns back to the other two. A glimpse of hope in his eyes. "Alright." He said.