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PETER PARKER WAS somewhere else. He knew it was New York, but it wasn't home. Just yesterday, he was doing his Spider-Man duties and saving the world, but now he wasn't. He found himself in an alleyway, pacing back and forth, trying to make sense of where he was. By now, Peter had thought he would figure it out — how he ended up here — but it had only continued to irk him knowing that he was farther away from the last remnant of Jude.
Being a twenty-nine-year-old vigilante had taken a toll on his mental health as Peter Parker. He no longer had time for himself, instead choosing to prioritize being his alter-ego or to spend hours at his late boyfriend's tombstone. He knows he has a pathetic life, and he acknowledges it. Yet, he doesn't want to do anything about it. He's somehow content with how he spends his days, and ending up in this alternate universe ruined his rigorous routine.
He needed to find a way back home. He didn't have a purpose in this particular world. Well, that was what he thought at first. After a mysterious portal greeted him, Peter finally got a sense of meaning. It was like someone needed him, his help, and that was the very moment he realized that there were other Spider-Men.
So now, he was following a girl who went by 'MJ' and one of her friends — who he learned was named 'Ned' — to a place where their Peter goes to to get away from everything. He still couldn't wrap his head around the fact that there were two other versions of him, and they were much happier.
Watching from afar as they comforted the young teenager, Peter couldn't help but reminisce about his past relationship. He was always there when he needed him, no matter if Jude was angry or sad with him at the moment, he still offered to be a shoulder to cry on. After his death, he had no one else to go to. Sure, there was his Aunt May, but it wasn't the same, at least not to him.
As the two Peters swung down to finally reveal themselves, they were met with a confused and guarded boy. "Sorry, about May," the Peter to his left started. "Yeah, sorry. I've got some understanding of what it-"
"No, no, no... Please don't tell me that you know what I'm going through," his voice overlapped him, "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."
Reaching for the box MJ was holding that would change everything, they both attempted to stop him, but it was no use. He already made his decision through his grief and rage, "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?" Peter could only bring himself to nod, not knowing what to say to the poor boy. "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."
"My uncle Ben was killed. It was my fault," Peter impulsively confesses in an attempt to comfort the other version of him.
"I lost... I lost Lars. My, he was my MJ. I couldn't save him. I'm never gonna be able to forgive myself for that," a sense of familiarity rings through Peter and his friends. However, they let the older man continue to reflect on his past, "but I carried on, tried to, try to keep going, try to keep being the, that 'Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man,' 'cause I knew that's what he 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."
"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."
"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...'" He couldn't even get the words choked out, still reeling from his aunt's death. "Comes great responsibility."
"Wait, what? How do you know that?"
"Uncle Ben said it."
"The day he died."
The similarities and connections between their own universes were terrifyingly intriguing. It was like they were bound together, their lives as both Spider-Man and as Peter Parker. "Maybe she didn't die for nothing, Peter."
𖦹✶𓏲ּ꩜ .ᐟ ─── bea's thoughts . . . he misses his bf so much :'( also, i swear chapters won't be this short!
