Remember you
Alone was an understatement. Peter had no one, he had the other Parkers but they’re in another universe.
MJ and Ned knew him, sure, but it wasn’t the same. Ned didn’t know his secrets and struggled to keep them like in Midtown, and MJ didn’t have much of the snarky remarks that made him fall for her.
Everyone he loved either forgot him or is dead. But forgotten is better than endangering someone because of you.
Peter can feel himself slowly slipping away, with no one to ground him, no one to talk to, and no shoulder to cry on.
He thought he'd gone insane, when the familiar golden ring portal wasn’t helping his case. And in that familiar ring, stood three familiar figures.
He could’ve cried right then and there.
“Hello, Peter.” It was Stephen Strange himself with Peter-2 and Peter-3. Normally, Peter would run and hug them, but this felt wrong.
He shouldn’t even be able to remember him. He said so himself. So why was he here?
The youngest Spider-man could only look at them with eyes as big as the portal. “What? You’re not gonna greet your Spider brothers?” Peter-3 asked jokingly.
And the dam broke. He ran to them and hugged them as tight as he did when he was turning to ash in space.
“I told you he’d miss us.” Peter-2 said.
“But how?! I thought you guys were back in your own universes?” Questions were racing in his head like bees in a hive. “Well, Peter-2 did it and came to my place.” “And then we went to this world and found the wizard guy.”
As much as he loved seeing them again, he couldn’t help but think of what could happen now. Dr. Strange now knows he’s Spider-man, who Peter Parker is, and his universe counterparts.
“Don’t worry, the spell on me was broken when I saw those two. But, I’m here cuz these two found out how to get here and what happened to you and now they want to go back in time to help you.”
This raised even more questions. Is it gone for everyone? What about MJ and Ned? Happy? “But, why? Your world needs a Spider-man right now, so what are you gonna do when you’re not there?”
“Well, I didn’t tell the full story of how we got here.” Peter-2 hesitated with the next sentence. “You see, when Peter-2 made his own portal, it made similar rifts in his universe, you know, the whole ‘Everyone who knows Peter Parker is coming through.’ thing. And when he went to my universe, it happened there too.” Peter-3 explained
“So when we went here, I’m not sure what happened but I think it froze the universe momentarily so we can’t really go back there…”
This is all your fault.
They’re here because of you.
Their universe is gone because of you.
“Peter-1?”
You’re so weak.
Everything happened because of your selfish decisions.
“Peter-1, breathe!” Peter-3 held Peter-1’s hand gently, finally, someone to ground his thoughts.
“I-I’m sorry, I should never have asked him to do that spell. God, I’m an idiot.” The three of them looked at each other, trying to figure out how to calm him down. “Hey, hey, hey, it’s ok!”
It took some time to calm down, but tears were still falling down but his breathing was now leveled.
“So, what are you gonna do now?” He questions them. “Until our universe is back to normal, which is probably never gonna happen since we don’t have a Dr. Strange–” “And I can’t go there because I know nothing about what happened there.” He interrupted Peter-3.
“So we’re gonna stay in your universe as your brothers!” Peter-2 announced with excitement. He looked at Strange and he looked back with a sad smile.
“We had this idea where maybe you guys can go back in time to have the best outcome for the future. There’s a spell I can do but there can’t be any alterations and interruptions, are you up to it?” Dr. Strange asked.
The silence they were in was thick. They didn't think he’d have to think about this decision. After all, his life right now wasn’t the best situation at all. But that wasn’t what he was worried about.
What would happen to this timeline if he did go back? How would this affect time if the other came with him?
“This timeline will be eradicated immediately and the new timeline will be much more different than what you went through.” I said it out loud, didn’t I?
His worries didn’t end there, he wanted to know when this new timeline would take place in. Either way, he’d take it anyways. He just wanted everyone back in his life again.
MJ, Ned, Mr. Stark, and Aunt May…
“After you fought the Vulture and when May first found out about you being Spider-man.” Perfect timeline. “I’ll do it.”
The familiar runes surrounded them as Stephen casts the spell in silence.
There was a bright light, it was blinding. There was a chill up their spine, and there was a sense of Deja Vu.
They were gone, the three of them are finally getting the second chance they deserve.
The cracks of time got bigger as Stephen looked at where the three Peters was and smiled as the cracks destroyed the flawed timeline.
“Good luck, Peter.” And they were no more.
May saw the whole thing go down. She saw as Peter turned and saw her while he was wearing his suit, and she sure as hell saw when two men dressed similarly appeared out of nowhere.
The explanation was messy, the three of them interrupting each other and the utter confusion on May’s face was comedic but this made her question things more.
“Pete, I believe it when you say you’re Spider-man. But I think you hit your head one too many times during that fight with the Vulture if you think you time traveled.”
“I’m not kidding. I did it because the future I was in was the worst possible outcome, no one remembers me, I had no one, you were… gone.” May still had doubts but seeing the other boys go silent with her Peter’s explanation, she knew he was telling the truth.
Living his new/old life with the other two was easier said than done. Often getting confused with people calling names with them being named the same.
“So how are we calling ourselves?” Peter-2 asked while improving his own suit with scraps he found. “Since this is my universe, I’m keeping Peter.”
They both groaned at Peter, wanting to keep the name. “What about Parker for Peter 3 and Pete for me?”
“Nah, Mr. Stark calls me Pete sometimes and people sometimes call me Parker. Has to be a completely different name.” Peter puts on his suit. “What about Andrew for me and Tobey for Peter-2?” The two looked at him quizzically at the name choices.
“Kinda random?” “Exactly! So we don’t get confused with the names. Plus, you look like a guy named Tobey.”
“Ok then, if that’s settled. I’m gonna go patrolling and hang out at the tower.” He jumped down and swung away to the Avengers tower.
Tony saw Peter swing by the buildings and land on the roof as he met him there. Part of him just wanted to hang out with the kid but a nagging feeling made him think otherwise.
He saw Peter’s tired eyes, dark and sunken like he hasn’t slept in years. Maybe lab time would be the best for them.
“Hey kid, catch.” Tony threw the improved web-shooter at Peter who caught it with ease while he was working on something Tony knew nothing about. “Watcha working on there, Roos?”
It seemed like Peter didn’t hear him, which was odd since he had enhanced hearing. So either he was laser-focused on his work or he’s just blatantly ignoring his mentor, which seemed unlikely.
“Underoos?” Still nothing. “Peter.” “I heard you the first time, Mr. Stark.” So he was ignoring him.
“You ok there? You seem very preoccupied with whatever you’re doing there. What even are you working on?–” Peter quickly covered his things and turned to Tony feigning confusion which set alarm bells off in Tony’s mind.
“I’m just testing things out, I found a bunch of cool things Ned bought in after the Vulture incident and I wanted to test out how the technology thing worked.” After 2 years of Spider-man experience, the lie rolled off his tongue with ease like it was second nature.
Peter had already taken out his phone to text his pseudo brothers.
If Tony didn’t know better, he would’ve believed the kid easily which scared Tony. Peter was never that good at lying, hell, he took his suit away because he caught him lying about where he is.
So seeing Peter lie so casually and so well made him step back a bit, confusing Peter’s end.
Andrew’s phone lit up with a buzz as Peter’s message is displayed.
Peter: Mr. Stark’s on to me, pick me up or something
There was a location attached to it.
Andrew looked at the message and woke the other guy up. “We gotta get Peter. Looks like this Tony guy is smart.”
Tobey mumbled something, tiredly getting up and getting dressed.
Peter kept his cool surprisingly easily, even after Tony subtly interrogated him while working on the repulsors. What the hell is taking them so long?
“Boss, two people looking for Peter outside. Would you like to let them in?” FRIDAY announced. The mentor looked at the boy in question who had a big smile plastered on his face.
“Sure, let them in.”
The door opened showing Andrew and a tired Tobey. “Peter, it’s 12 in the fucking morning. Aunt May is gonna be looking for you once she gets back and I do NOT want to deal with an angry May.” Tobey shook Peter in annoyance for getting the middle child to wake him up to get him.
“Sorry! Lost track of time!” Peter was laughing through the sentence. “Kid, who are they?”
“We’re his brothers. Anyways, let’s go before May gets back from work and finds out that we’re not home. Bye, sir!” Andrew exclaimed as Tobey walked away while gripping Peter’s arm.
“So how’d you get here so fast?” “Oh you know,” Andrew mimicked their signature web-shooting hand and Peter freaked. “You WHAT?!”
Tony peaked at the door to see what was happening. “Listen! You just sent a cryptic message and thought you were in danger so we got here as soon as possible, idiot!” “Ugh, let’s just go home, I wanna sleep.”
Tony knew close to nothing about Peter.
But he was damn sure he never had brothers.
Tony tried listening in on the conversation but unluckily for him, he doesn't have enhanced hearing like Peter does. "Friday, can you play the three's current conversation?" A noise of acknowledgement was heard from Friday as it played out what they were saying.
Peter was a smart kid, everyone knew that. Combining three Peter Parkers would probably bring upon the end of the world or make it rise.
Why am I saying this? Because they all heard Tony's command and heard their footsteps echoing in the recording. They switched up their topic from Peter's weird universe to Peter complaining about Tony's 'unprompted' suspicion of him, unintentionally gaslighting him–without malicious intent, of course.
"I just don't get why he's so suspicious of me covering up a project! I mean, it's just out of reflex, you know? I just wanted to make something for Mr. Stark, and then he goes and interrogates me? Man, I thought he finally trusted me after the– internship incident." Peter almost complained–kinda–about the vulture and ferry incident. He almost slipped up too, but catching himself remembering that Tony doesn't know that there were 3 Peter Parkers and 3 Spider-men subsequently.
"Hey, don't be too hard on yourself. You've got us! Andrew and Tobey Parker and the youngest: Peter Tom B. Parker!" Andrew said while ruffling the youngest's hair. "And besides, we would know a thing or two about messing up in internships." Tobey commented, still very heavy-eyed and barely adding to the conversation. "Hey wait, why'd you say my full name like that while you guys' are just Andrew and Tobey with no middle and second name?" Or, 'Why do I have a second name and why is it Tom? And what are you guys' second names?'
Tony couldn't help the thoughts and questions circling around in his mind. Was he really lying? Am I reading too much into this? Who even are those two?
He wanted to know more. He really didn't think he'd care this much about the kid and the older two, but here he is, looking into Andrew Parker and Tobey Parker. Oddly enough, there were almost absolutely no records of them at all. No criminal records, bank accounts, school records. There was only a birth certificate with their names but with a different last name, which was legally changed to Parker years after and during an adoption.
"Because my middle name is Peter." Tobey says. "And my second name is also Peter, it's confusing."
Records–or lack thereof–seemed to line up as Tony checked. The birth certificate seemed dated too. Tobey's adoption was on April 30, 1988 by the name of Tobey P. [Last Name], and Andrew's on July 3, 1993 by the name of Andrew Peter G. [Last Name] and Peter being the only biological child was born on August 10, 2001.
Though, Tony didn't look closer. Couldn't blame him though, it's hard to see at first inspection but these adoption papers and birth certificates have been recently made and made available by the Peters with the help of Aunt May in case something like this happened.
Like I said, three Peter Parkers can bring the end of the world or make it rise.