The patrol
It was supposed to be an easy patrol.
Well, not exactly easy, but at least easier since he and his brothers had teamed up for this particular patrol. Peter Three had asked them for help to figure out some weird trail he had claimed to have never encountered in his world. He told them that he had first noticed something weird during one of his patrols when his spider-sense had gone off and he had noticed a pair of eyes following him. Though as soon as he saw the eyes, they had disappeared, and he had found himself alone. The other time happened when he had gone looking for the mysterious person and he had barely had time to register the silhouette coming toward him before he blinked, and he found himself three blocks further than where he had been just moments ago. At a loss for what to do next, he had come home and decided to ask Peter One and Two for help. He had figured that he would probably know more since it was his universe and sure enough, he was right.
“I think it’s a wizard,” theorized Peter. “Probably not as powerful as Doctor Strange, but still dangerous.”
It was a pretty wild claim, but he was fairly certain. There was a very specific energy that came with magic and Peter had learned to recognize it almost immediately to help him gauge the threat level. They went back to the alley and there was no doubt about it, they were dealing with some sort of magic user. Normally, Peter would have gone to Doctor Strange, but with the wizard having forgotten him, he wasn’t sure he would even bother opening the door.
So here they were, all three of them suited up and patrolling the general area where the magic user had been spotted. Two and Three weren’t exactly sure what to look for so they stuck to regular ‘sketchy people’ stuff. As for himself, Peter One focused his tingle on sensing any disturbance in the air that usually accompanied spells. He had first realized the change in the atmosphere when Mr. Stark had brought him to Germany and had encountered Wanda. He had thought that he was imagining things, but it happened again in space when he met Doctor Strange and again, almost to a disorienting degree, when they had fought one last time against Thanos.
“Why do you feel the same as the other one?” Cut a voice through the night.
Peter turned around sharply and his body seized in alert as he saw a cloaked figure leaning against a wall. The cape was a dark color and the hood covered the entirety of the individual’s face, but the voice had been distinctly female. She was playing, almost nonchalantly, with a blue orb of energy. She was hovering it over her fingers and making it turn around her hand in a similar way he had seen Clint and Natasha play with their own weapons.
“I asked you a question, boy,” said the figure with a tinge of impatience in her voice.
Peter managed to peel his eyes away from the glowing orb long enough to answer. “I don’t— I don’t remember the question.”
The woman chuckled to herself as she made the ball disappear. “Is that so?”
“Y—yes, ma’am,” he answered. He wasn’t even sure why he was stammering, she hadn’t even done anything yet.
“So polite,” remarked the woman before peeling away from the wall and walking towards him. “I want you to explain to me why you feel like the other one; the taller one. It shouldn’t be possible.”
She stared at him with her entrancing dark eyes and he found himself unable to lie. “He’s my brother.”
The witch narrowed her eyes at that. “Hm, I can see that you’re not lying, but it’s not that simple, is it?”
“No,” Peter blurted out before he could stop himself. “He’s me, from a different universe but we’re brothers. He’s family.”
While he seemed cooperative on the outside, he was screaming from the inside. They hadn’t told anyone about their predicament, why couldn’t he stop himself from revealing that?
The witch put two fingers on his forehead and hummed pensively. “Let’s see what happened.”
At her words, Peter’s eyes rolled back into his head and he felt himself being thrown down a painful memory line.
‘Spider-Man’s name— Spider-Man’s real name… is Peter Parker!’
The excitement of college applications, the fear of rejection.
‘In light of recent controversy, we are unable to consider your application.’
A desperate gesture, not for himself, but for others that didn’t deserve any of this.
‘Peter stop tampering with the spell!’
Unprecedented consequences.
‘You’re not Peter Parker.’
‘That little spell that you botched where you wanted everyone to forget that Peter Parker’s Spider-Man, it started pulling in everyone who knows Peter Parker’s Spider-Man -- from every universe -- into this one.
The multiverse is real?’
Kind eyes now malicious and a grin that sent his senses on high alert.
‘Gods don’t choose… we take.’
‘Strong enough to have it all… too weak to take it!’
Punches landed one after the other, stronger than any he ever used, only to be met by maniacal laughter.
‘You tried to fix me, now, I’m going to fix you.
May, run, please.’
‘You have a gift. You have power, and with great power, there must also come great responsibility.’
‘... May?’
Cold dead eyes that once held so much life stared blankly at him.
‘May, will you look at me, please?’
Freezing rain landed on him, a bag of cures he no longer wanted to use by his side, staring up an enormous screen.
‘Everything Spider-Man touches comes to ruins. And we, the innocents, are left to pick up the pieces.’
Crying on the rooftop, until he was joined by his friends and two people he didn’t know. They’re him, but they couldn’t possibly understand what he was going through right now.
They did.
‘My uncle Ben was killed, it was my fault.
I lost— I lost Gwen. She was my MJ’
They’re both older than him. They let him see into his own future, they let him see what he could become.
The wise man or the one lost to grief.
‘With great power…
… comes great responsibility.’
Recognition.
‘Maybe she didn’t die for nothing.’
They made cures, they bonded , and Peter felt at home. They’re brothers, they were meant to find each other.
Peter Three was meant to save MJ.
‘Cast a new spell, except this time, make everyone forget who Peter Parker is. Make everyone forget about… me.’
A final decision, final, but necessary.
‘I think that’s it, you’re about to go home.’
Happiness and love bloomed in his chest, he had to tell them just how much they helped him.
‘Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!’
Teary eyes and broken faces as he said his goodbyes to his last remaining link to his past.
‘I’ll come find you, okay?
You better’
The spell was done, and yet, not everything was resolved.
‘Guys? Why are you still here? You’re supposed to be gone.
We don’t know.
We’ll figure it out, alright? At least we’re together.’
Peter came back to reality with a gasp and a headache that would surely last for days. He wasn’t sure if it was whatever magic she had used on him or the force of his grief, but his limbs suddenly couldn’t support him anymore and he fell to the ground bonelessly.
“Don’t worry kiddo,” said the woman. “A spell like that is always a little hard on the body.”
“What— What did you do to me?” He asked between two breaths.
“Nothing permanent, you’ll be good after a nap.” She started tracing symbols around her, similar to what Doctor Strange had done back when he made people forget who he was. “It’s a shame your variants helped you so much, you would have been a great candidate.” She sighed dramatically. “Oh well, I suppose we can’t have it all, at least your brother will do the trick.”
Of course, it was at that moment that his brothers came back and spotted him laying on the ground with the witch towering over him.
“Peter One!”
While he normally would have been overjoyed to see them, he didn’t miss the way the sorceress’ eyes latched onto the pair and a grin cut through her features.
“Three, run!” He screamed as loud as he could. “It’s a trap, she wants you!”
The runes that had previously been floating around the woman now flew towards Peter Three, who did his best to dodge them. And he was nearly successful.
Nearly.
One landed squarely on his chest and the impact slammed him back against a wall before he grabbed at his suit with a groan of pain. Peter could see where the symbol had carved itself into his skin. Peter Three hissed in pain and the unmistakable smell of burnt flesh filled the air around them. The witch started cackling victoriously and didn’t even react when Peter Two webbed her arm to the wall.
“What did you do?!”
She seemed to take great satisfaction in his suffering. “Something even your little hero complex cannot solve.”
A blinding light started glowing, illuminating the night even brighter than if they were during daytime. Peter saw her hold Two’s gaze until the light was too bright for him to keep his eyes open. Then the light exploded into a flash that had him see spots even with his eyes closed. When he reopened them, there was no sign of the witch, or the spell, or Peter Three.
They were completely alone.
“What happened?” exhaled Peter Two. “Where’s Three?”
The alleyway was too silent for what had just transpired. Peter’s heart was pounding loudly in his chest and his breathing came in pants. “I don’t know.”
He slowly got to his feet, thankfully helped by his older brother and his eyes spotted one of the only things proving that the crazy face-off with the sorceress had actually happened. There, on the wall where Peter Three had been, was the same symbol that had been glowing on his chest.
Peter thought about his options, he could go to the sanctum Santorum and try to get either Strange or Wong to listen to him. Though both Peter Two and Three weren’t supposed to be in this universe and without everything they’d gone through together, maybe they wouldn’t be willing to help. Plus, going to see the Sorcerer Supreme asking to help him find an alternate version of himself that didn’t belong in his universe definitely wasn’t the best course of action. He probably wouldn’t even get a word in before Wong would send Peter Two back and Peter was not going to lose anyone else. He’d need someone who wasn’t so obsessed with rules and protocols. He needed someone who, like him, was ready to do anything to protect the people they loved, even going on the wrong side of history. And there was exactly one person he knew who would be willing to do that.
He had to find Wanda.