Prologue
“I promise.”
It’s the last thing he remembers saying. It’s on repeat — ‘I promise, I promise, I promise’. Over and over again, he hears himself like a broken record and he couldn’t stop the tears building in his eyes even if he tried.
Peter webs his way up the Statue of Liberty, vaulting himself higher to get the momentum he needs to catch the ferry drifting in the distance. He can barely even see where he’s going through the tears he’s holding back, barely hear over his own frantic pulse that beats in his ears, but his Spider-sense pulls him in the right direction. It's just enough to let himself escape in a leap of faith, arcing over the bay.
The Peter-tingle is going insane from the pure stress and adrenaline that only gets worse as the static feeling in the air builds. Dr. Strange preps the spell one last time somewhere behind him. Intense buzzing fills Peter's head, exacerbated by the hum of magic all around the island. It grows, swells, until the sensation feels like one giant, vibrating warning racing up and down every inch of him that nearly numbs him in both body and mind.
It’s a hard feeling to ignore as he free falls through the skies of the New York harbor.
Which is a problem.
It's a problem when Peter doesn’t notice that Doctor Strange has already finished the spell. He doesn’t realize that he isn’t far enough from the island yet to not get hit by the magical shock wave that rushes through the air. He certainly doesn’t catch the fact that a wave of the spell is currently heading straight for him where he still hangs in the sky, certain to hit him if he doesn’t twist out of the way.
But he doesn’t realize, so he doesn’t move.
So, naturally, it careens right into him.
When it hits Peter, he’s flung through the air and left with zero control. Left with no strength to reorient himself after a night of being beaten to hell and back, he tries to blindly shoot out a web in an attempt to catch something, anything. He holds his breath till he feels it catch, but when his wild twisting finally stops it’s too late. By the time Peter realizes that what it caught was something inside one of the purple cracks in the sky it’s already pulling him in.
Peter rushes to let go of the web but it doesn’t matter. Once again, Spider-Man isn’t the one in control of whatever the universe throws at him, a theme he’s growing to hate. He’s completely caught in the tug of the rift that hangs in the sky as the spell works to mend the tears in their universe. Peter can’t be sure if it’s the adrenaline kicking in (again) or a black hole effect, but as time seems to slow around him Peter is slammed by one last thought.
‘At least I got to say goodbye.’