Alone

First he heard them.

" - to a hospital. I told you!"

"Calm down kid, It'll be fine. I've fallen before and I'm sure you have too, he'll be okay."

" Y-You didn't see what I saw. He went straight down. It was like he didn't even try to slow down."

Silence. Peter could hear the sounds of the city somewhere nearby. He didn't dare open his eyes - he feared he might be wrong about who he thought was with him.

"Get me your med kit. You have one, right? Help me get him out of the suit."

Out of the suit? Hm, no thank you, sir. He tried to open his eyes. A fine blurred line of bright light was all he could manage to see, his eyes wouldn't stay open. He tried to say something, but only a low moan came out of his lips - the vibration of the sound in his chest made his body ache.

"Is he awake? Shit, he's probably in so much pain-"

"Get me the scissors. I'm cutting the suit off, let's not startle him too much"

Hell no. No, no, no. He groaned again and flinched at the pain. He forced his eyes to flutter open and he saw two familiar faces. So this is what his personal afterlife hell would be like - agonizing in terrible pain while two other versions of his lame self were watching.

"Oh hey, buddy" Peter 2, the older one, kindly said. "You fell down real hard. You're gonna be okay. We're here for you now."

What. The. Hell.
Nobody was there for Peter Parker.
His concentration fluttered up and down - he was fighting to stay awake.

Kind hands were touching him but he couldn't distinguish the care from the pain. He felt weirdly exposed when a cold breeze caressed his chest, he assumed they'd removed the suit.

"Oh my God" the whisper was barely audible. Peter couldn't tell which one in the room had said it. "This… this can't be all from the fall."

Peter tried to move, but a steady hand to his chest stopped him.

"Try to stay still, Pete" said the younger one, and something about the way he heard his name, his nickname, come so kindly out of the mouth of another living being, made his eyes sting and a weird noise come out of his lips.

He threw his head back and his chest up, painful chills piercing through his bones, eyes shut close. He could feel warm tears streaming down from his eyes, into his sweaty hair. If this was some kind of cosmic joke on him, then he wouldn't have it. He'd rather just die and be done with it. Why couldn't he have a single minute of peace?

"We can't do much if you don't hold still, Peter" said Peter 2, he was now steadying him with one hand on each one of his shoulders. "He's not gonna heal like this, he has to sleep it off" said the man to the younger one, with a pleading look on his face.

"I'm so sorry, man" the kid whispered, and Peter felt a sharp pain on the side of his neck.

Darkness engulfed him again.

xxx

When he woke up again, it was dark.

He searched the room around - it was, apparently, his apartment. The traffic lights from the street below streamed in through the windows, casting shadows on the scattered clothing through the floor and on the table, covered with scientific experiments and empty soda cans and beer bottles.

He could feel the worn off fabric of his sofa underneath his bare skin and it felt really nice, even though his feet dangled out the edge a little (probably because he was so weirdly tall, at least in comparison to the other Peters).

Wait. Other Peters?

His mind raced with flashbacks of his last memories. He wasn't just waking up from another restless night.
Or was he? He was sure he'd seen one of his other selves at that final moment. Heard two of them trying to help him out. Was it just a desperate attempt of his subconscious to help him through the loneliness?

He rose to try and sit, an annoyed groan escaping through his lips - the pain was incredibly less intense now, but it was still there.

Something slid from his chest to his lap and he looked down - it was a blanket he didn't recognize. But something else caught his attention: his chest and arms were covered in bruises - some recent, dark purple, others nearly healed, yellowish. Bandages covered cuts he barely remembered getting, and smears of dried blood and dirt adorned his skin.

He stood up and stumbled across the room, tripping on shoes and empty takeout packages, heading towards the mirror in the bathroom.

Peter barely recognized himself, but not only because he hadn't seen his reflection in ages. Somehow, he looked thinner - hollow shadows creeped under his cheekbones. His eyes were sunken and the skin around them was tinted purple, turning into a sick shade of yellow at the level of his cheeks. A cut on the bridge of his nose was carefully patched with a tiny piece of bandage, as was another cut on his right eyebrow. He saw smears of dried blood running from his nose, from his lips, and from his ears, trailing down his jaw and neck. It looked like someone had tried to clean them up, without success.

"Dashing as always" he murmured.

Stepping into the shower, he let the warm stream caress through his wounds, watching as crystal clear water mixed with the blood and dirt in a swirl, down into the drain by his feet. His body nearly gave in under the pressure of the water, he had to steady himself with a hand against the wall. The cuts stung from the soap suds, but there was such a relief in getting rid of the remnants of that moment that Peter almost didn't feel it. For a brief moment, he was in a haze, enchanted by the fading pain and hot steam. He found himself to be very contemplative lately.

As his mind wandered, he came to face the inevitable thought of what had happened. Shame grew in his core by the second. How could he let it get so far?

That's when he heard keys to his apartment door, steps and quiet conversation following.

"Okay, Peter, that's either them or someone broke into your apartment", he thought. He took a deep breath. Time to put Spiderman back on.

He dressed himself with the first sweat pants and shirt he could find, noting somewhere in his head that they were weirdly small for him, and stepped out into the living room.

Peter 1 and Peter 2 were casually standing by his kitchen table (had that always been green, by the way?) setting down packages of Chinese food and what looked like drugstore bags.

"Hi guys!" He exclaimed, a smile so big forming on his face that he felt a healed cut on his lip open again, metallic taste leaking into his tongue. "What's up? How are you guys in my place?"

"Peter, oh my God, sit down" the younger one rushed towards him.

"Why? I'm totally fine, there's no need - " he was
carefully led to sit on a chair by the table. "Wait, this is actually good. I needed that. Totally not fine, thanks."

"Did you just wake up?" Peter 2 asked. "You took a shower. That's good. You're looking better" he had a relieved ring to his voice.

"What happened?" Peter 1 sat by his side, eyes wide like a puppy. "You appeared out of nowhere. I saw you fall, I-.. I tried to stop you, but I was too late, and it was all so fast, I might have made it worse, I'm so sorry, I-" he stumbled adorably through the words.

"Not your fault, man" Peter answered, laying a hand on the kid's knee.

"I took you straight home, didn't even catch the thug I was chasing. Peter 2 - man, we have to figure something better than numbers to distinguish us - well, he helped, we took care of you."

"You have the keys to my house?"

"What? No. This is my place" Peter 1 furrowed his eyebrows.

Well, that would explain the small clothes and slight changes in scenario.

Peter 1 raised a ragged piece of red and blue spandex. "We had to, uh... I'm sorry."

Peter took the torn suit in his hands. Shit.

"You were… Pretty messed up" said Peter 2.

"Well you don't look so great yourself, dude" he retorted, an automatic mechanism to change the subject from that red area that was that fall. It was true, though. Both Peters by his side looked like… a train had run over them. They had obviously not fallen from a building - at least not recently - and probably didn't get beaten up like Peter did in the last couple of months, but they too had deep dark circles around their eyes, a few pounds less and a general tired look to their figure. They didn't seem okay. "I-... Sorry."

"Don't worry. You look far worse" Peter 2 had a hint of that dorky smile he so fondly remembered on his face.

The three of them stared at each other for a second, maybe expecting an argument to begin, but instead fell into laughter. As easy as that, the tension faded away.
They laughed for what felt like a little too long, revelling in that cheerful moment like they hadn't seen one in quite a while.

"Let's eat, I'm starving" Peter 1 said, wiping the tears off of his eyes.

He wasn't sure if he was hungry at all, but the moment the food touched his lips, it was like he hadn't properly eaten in weeks. Which was probably true. He furiously attacked his meal, and the other two Peters shared a look between them that he couldn't quite place. He wondered for how long they'd been together, sharing each others company, and he couldn't help but feel a bit jealous.

"So, uh…" he cleared his throat. "How are we all in the same universe again and not totally freaking out?"

"I showed up here a couple of weeks ago" Peter 2 answered. "We've had the time to come up with a few ideas of what happened… But none of them quite fit, since you weren't here too".

"We've been… kind of expecting you." Peter 1 seemed very interested in his napkin on the table.

"And you showed up in great style. Almost thought we'd lost you, bud. " Peter looked absentmindedly away from the man. Probably not his best move.

"Anyways…" Peter 1 stepped in, to his relief. "Now that you're here, it pretty much confirms our main theory. How were things in your universe when you went back? Was it all the same?"

"Hm, yeah, pretty much the same…" he answered, fiddling with his chopsticks. Both Peters simultaneously raised an eyebrow at him. Gosh, did they need to be so similar? "Hm, well, okay, a couple of things changed but I don't see how they're related to the fucking multiverse-"

"They didn't know who you are, did they?" Peter 2 had those intense blue eyes on him. "They didn't remember you."

"N-No. How the hell…"

"They forgot us too. Everyone forgot." Peter 2's voice failed.

"In order for the wizard to fix the rips in the multiverse that I caused… I had to ask something of him" Peter 1 started, eyes focused on his hands, voice barely audible. " I, uh, asked him to make everyone forget… who Peter Parker is. I thought it would only affect me, not you guys, I didn't consider-" he paused and took a deep breath. " Every living thing that knew that Peter Parker is Spiderman, in every universe there is, was being transported to this universe. You guys saw the people in the sky. So I made everyone forget who I am completely, and they stopped coming, because if they don't know Peter Parker, then they can't know he's Spiderman… It was the only way. I'm so sorry. I guess… Since you guys still know Peter Parker is Spiderman, then that must've brought you back. I thought I was only sacrificing myself and I ruined your lives. I'm so, so sorry." His voice kept getting smaller and smaller until it was quiet.

The three of them fell into uncomfortable silence.
Peter didn't know how long it lasted. He was sure Peter 1 was expecting him to be mad, maybe even to hit him, but the first thing he felt was relief - so, he wasn't crazy after all. He wasn't imagining things, this was very much real.
A little selfishly, he was also glad that he wasn't the only one going through that - they knew what it was like. They'd been through it just like him (although, Peter admitted, they probably handled the situation much better than him).

He looked up at Peter 2. The man was absolutely still, staring out of the window, an unreadable expression on his face. Peter couldn't imagine what he felt like. He had a wife, probably had a good life back in his universe - and suddenly his loved ones don't know him? And then he's stuck again in a different universe with two younger and annoying versions of himself?

The other Peter was still fidgeting with his napkin on the table, but his breaths were erratic, eyes red and watery, lower lip trembling a little.
Peter's heart sank all the way to the ground floor at the sight. He looked so much older than when they'd first met. He'd just lost his aunt May at the time, and that was only a few months ago. Now he not only didn't have her, but he had nobody, he was all alone and he was just a kid -

"You did what you had to do" he stated. "We'll figure it out together from now on."