The Amazing Story of Altered Fates

Chapter 4: Altered Fate Part I

Peter looked around the void he was standing in. Everything was so... white. Well, Peter said everything, but really it was more like nothing.

Peter began wondering what was going on when a very familiar voice called, "Hi there."

Peter... turned around? Can he turn around in a place that was basically a void? To come face to face with... himself?!

Peter took a quick step backward, or at least he tried.

The guy in front of him looked just like him. Same standing, brown hair, brown eyes, sharp chin, and superhero body-build.

But there were differences as well. He looked... happier. The lines under his eyes weren't half as deep or dark as Peter's. His eyes were brighter than Peter ever remembered seeing in the mirror. And his smile—it was the goofy smile that Gwen once said was one of the things that caused her to fall in love with him. Peter couldn't remember the last time he smiled like that. Probably on the bridge when he promised to follow Gwen to England.

That guy kept smiling at him with such an easy look that it annoyed Peter. All he could get out was a frustrated, "What the hell now? Who the damn are you?"

The guy just shrugged, still smiling, before replying, "I'm the you that lived in this timeline for the last 10 years."

Peter could believe it. Now, with a clear head, it was obvious to Peter that either the spell really changed his world so much, like Conners said, or that damn magic sent him to the wrong world. If this is the case, Peter could do nothing about it.

He looked at the white void again and asked, "Where are we?"

"Inside our mind," came the simple reply. And that guy said it so easily, as if it should be obvious.

Peter narrowed his eyes at the guy and asked flatly, "Our?"

The guy smiled on as he answered, "Yeah. We have to share it for a bit longer."

With his mind now free from the pain, he remembered what Conners said before. "Wasn't the serum they gave me supposed to fix it?"

The other Peter gave him a look that screamed "dumbass" before responding, "You are a man of science; you should know better than to expect an immediate solution without showing your way."

Peter had to concede that point. But still, it annoyed him how easygoing this guy was. He looked at him as blankly as he could before asking, "How are we doing it?"

The guy looked to the side as if he could see something that Peter couldn't as he answered, "I will show you some key memories. By the end, it should trigger the complete integration of the two of us."

Peter frowned, feeling like something was missing. But before he could ask, the guy said, "I have already seen your memories, painful as they are."

Peter snorted inside his mind. What would the guy with the perfect life know about his pain?

For the first time, the smile on the guy's face disappeared, replaced by a scowl as he commented dryly, "I got my fair share of pain, don't worry about it."

Peter's eyes flew open. Did he just...

The guy just rolled his eyes. "Yes, I can hear your thoughts. No, you can't hear mine because we're already in the portion of our mind that belongs to me."

Suddenly the pieces fell into place for Peter, and he accused angrily, "All those headaches were because of you!"

The other guy shrugged and nodded without shame.

"Why?" Peter hissed at him.

The guy's eyes softened as he answered softly, "You had so much pain in you I wanted to ease it slightly with happy memories." Then he added sadly, "But you fought so hard against the possibility of being happy..."