As Good as a Betrayal
The first thing Peter felt when he awoke was complete and utter shock that he was waking up at all. How come he wasn’t dead right now? He should have been dead. He peeled his eyes open with a great effort and found that he was in a warehouse of sorts- definitely an abandoned one.
It had the same sort of cells as the dungeon under the Sanctum did- three solid walls and one transparent force field closing him in, the same as the ones that had trapped the villains before. He climbed to his feet and stretching his aching limbs, wondering how long he had been out for. He was extremely hungry and really needed to take a leak.
Looking around into the other cells, he could make out MJ, Gwen, Peter 3 and Ned on the opposite side. He had to assume that Happy, Peter 2 and Tony were in the cells beside his own, the ones he couldn't see to.
Peter’s heart lurched as he remembered he’d heard MJ’s heart stop. He rushed to the very edge of the cell and pressed his face into the force field, staring at MJ. His knees nearly gave out when he saw the slow rise and fall of her chest. She was alive. After a moment of peering around at the others, he found that they alive too. Something in him loosened at the realization, they’d all survived, they’d all made it. Trapped in this cell was better than being dead.
Peter 3 was the next to wake up, which wasn’t surprising. His quickened healing would allow him to recover quicker than the others. Gwen was due to wake up at any moment. The fact that she weighed less than Peter was probably the only thing keeping her unconscious.
Peter 3 stirred and rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he got to his feet, examining his surroundings. When his eyes fell on Peter, he hurried to the front of his cell and said, “Peter? Are you alright? Where are we?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I think we’re in an abandoned warehouse, that’s what it looks like from the ceiling anyway.” Peter 3 glanced up and nodded. “Who is in the cells next to me?” Peter asked, indicating to the left and right of himself.
“Tony is on your left. Then Happy and Pete are on you right.” Peter 3 answered. “Are Gwen, Ned and MJ next to me?”
Peter nodded. “I just woke up a few minute ago. I haven’t seen Strange and I have no idea how long it’s been since we were taken from the apartment.”
“It has to have been a few days at least. I’m so thirsty.” Peter 3 replied, scratching at his throat idly. “My web shooters are gone.”
“Mine too.” Peter said, looking down at his wrists.
“Any idea why Strange spared us?” Peter 3 asked as he moved around the cell, looking for any weak spots.”
“I told him that I could find Christine, just before I passed out.”
“Can you? Find her?” Peter 3 asked skeptically.
“I think so.” Peter said thinking to EDITH. If any technology out there could locate her, it was EDITH.
“Well, well, well. Look who’s finally woken up.” Strange said as he strode into Peter’s line of sight. He crossed his arms and turned his back on Peter 3, glaring at Peter. “I was beginning to think you would never wake up. But, it’s a good thing you did. Otherwise I would have no reason to keep the rest of them alive.”
The fact that Strange spoke so casually about killing all of Peter’s friends made his gut churn uncomfortably. What had happened to the man who was so focused on protecting life, no matter the cost? He lost his heart. It was simple as that. Stephen Strange had lost his heart, his compassion, and now he was only focused on gaining more power, more dark magic to satiate his obsession with Christine Palmer.
“The whole world is looking for you now.” Strange said carelessly, drawing Peter out of his thoughts. “You’re trending again, or rather you never stopped trending. Listen to what the Daily Bugle just posted.”
Strange pulled out his phone and after a moment of fiddling with it, Jameson’s voice was blasting out of it.
“Senior at Midtown-High, Peter Parker has been declared missing as of seven thirty this morning. He was last seen in video footage on the elevator here at the Daily Bugle after being threatened by Doctor Stephen Strange, a sorcerer at the New York Sanctum Sanctorum. Classmates Michelle Jones-Watson and Ned Leeds are also missing. All three of them failed to show up to school this morning without being called in absent. Calls to their families revealed that they should have been in attendance today. The two were also present on the elevator at the time of Strange’s issued threats and he is the leading suspect in their disappearances. Another student- a transfer earlier this school year, Gwen Stacy has been declared missing as well, after also failing to appear for class. Classmates indicated that she was also close friends with Peter Parker and was likely also taken by Strange. CEO of Stark industries and widowed by the late Tony Stark, Pepper Potts reported Harold Hogan- that head of security at Stark Industries- as a missing person late in the afternoon yesterday. Ms. Potts stated on the record that Hogan had strong affiliations with Parker leading police to believe all five cases are related. If you have any information regarding any of these disappearances, please call the hotline on the screen.”
Strange tapped his phone and the audio spotted playing. Peter’s heart ached at the thought of how worried Ned and MJ’s families must be right now.” He hoped they would have enough sense to stay hidden and safe.
“You don’t need to keep them locked up.” Peter said pleadingly. “They don’t know anything and I’ll help you. You don’t need to keep them hostage.”
“Of course I do. Otherwise how can I ensure your cooperation?” Strange asked, his voice a poisonous lilt. Peter shuddered.
“I’ll find her, but not unless you let them all go.”
“Absolutely out of the question. I can just kill you now. I could kill them all now, if you refuse to assist me.”
“If you kill me then you’ll never see her again.” Peter snarled. “And you know it. You’ve tried everything and you’re running out of options.”
“I cannot simply let them all go, the moment I do you will cease to help me.”
Peter tilted his head to the side for a moment, annoyed. Strange was right, of course. If his friends were in the clear, he would not want to risk subjecting this poor girl to whatever Strange intended once he found her.
“Fine.” Peter spat. “Then let half of them go now and keep the others for insurance to release after you’ve gotten what you wanted.”
Strange said nothing for a long time, clearly thinking it over, looking for possible holes in Peter’s suggestion. Seeming to have found none, he said. “Fine. You can choose two of them to have freed.”
“No.” Peter shot back. “Four of them.”
“Three.” Strange said. “Or I kill you all.”
Peter hesitated, weighing it in his mind. “Alright.” He said the word begrudgingly, unsatisfied with only three of them being able to go free.
“Choose now.” Strange ordered. His voice was hard leaving no room for argument.
Alarm rocketed through Peter. Throughout this conversation, he had not stopped to consider who he would pick- that he would have to actually make choices.
Peter looked across to the slumbering forms of his friends in the adjacent cells. “MJ.” He said softly. “And Ned.”
Peter 3 met Peter’s eyes as he considered his last option. He was about to say Peter 3 when Peter 3 shook his head infinitesimally. He knew what Peter 3 wanted and he knew Peter 3 would never forgive him if he chose someone else. “Gwen.” The name was barely a whisper as it passed his chapped lips.
He hated himself for picking them. For leaving the others locked away. But the way all of the tension fled Peter 3’s body when he made the choice, Peter knew he had made the right call. Gwen could protect Ned and MJ, she could keep them safe until this was all over.
“As soon as they wake up we’re going.” Strange said. “And you had been keep your word. Otherwise the rest of them will never leave their cells alive.”
Behind Strange, Peter 3 rolled his eyes comically, content with his location now that Gwen would be getting out. “Hey bozo.” Peter 3 said, knocking against the force field with a fist. “How about some water and maybe even some food?”
Strange turned to look at Peter 3, his lip curling in distaste as he did. “From where you’re standing, I wouldn’t be one to make a lot of demands.”
Peter 3 rolled his eyes and groaned, slumping to the ground. Peter had to make a great effort to contain his laugh. “I’m not standing anymore. So how about that food? Come on water at the very least? Ooo and maybe a toilet. If you’re feeling extra generous you could even through in a couple seasons of criminal minds. I’ve been meaning to catch up on that. Or is Grey’s Anatomy more your speed?”
“What?” Strange deadpanned, his face expressionless, but Peter thought he caught a glint of amusement in Strange’s eyes.
Peter 3 gasped in mock horror, “Don’t tell me this reality doesn’t have Grey’s Anatomy! I think I would die on the spot if the legend that is Patrick Dempsey didn’t exist here. I mean have you seen that jawline? There is nothing like perfection but that man is pretty damn close.” He did a chef’s kiss motion and Strange’s shoulders shook with a little chuckle before he waved his hand lazily and a plate of steaming food appeared in front of Peter 3, alongside a glass of water topped with ice cubes and a lemon.
With another flick of his wrist the same appeared in each of their cells, aside from Gwen’s, MJ’s and Ned’s. Peter assumed it was because as soon as they awoke they would be leaving and they certainly would not want to stay for a quick meal before they went. Peter turned to his own plate, loaded with mashed potatoes, some meat that he thought must be ham and roasted peas.
He and Peter 3 did not even stop to consider that it might be poisoned and inhaled every bit of it within minutes. That’s what enhanced metabolism could do to a person, he thought with a silent laugh.
In the time it had taken for them to eat their food, Gwen had begun to stir. Peter 2 had awoken at some point when Strange had been playing the video for Peter and the three of them talked a little while they ate once Strange had left the room. Peter was a little embarrassed to know that Peter 2 had heard the deal he had made with Strange, since Peter had not chosen to save Peter 2, but Peter 2 didn’t seem to place any blame on Peter for his choices, in fact he said that he supported the decision Peter had made. It didn’t do anything to lessen his guilt though.
When Gwen opened her eyes Peter asked her, “How are you feeling?”
“Like I’ve been hit by a truck. Repeatedly.” She groaned, massaging her temples. “Where are we?”
“A warehouse of sorts, we think.” Peter answered as Peter 3 leapt to his feet at the sound of Gwen’s voice.
“Gwen?” He asked, moving to the edge of his cell so he could be closer to her. “You’re awake.”
“Unfortunately.” She replied. “I thought for sure Strange was going to kill us all.”
“Peter got us out of it.” Peter 3 explained, filling her in on everything Peter had told him and the deal he had made.
She turned to look at Peter when Peter 3 had finished. “Why would you save me? You shouldn’t have saved me.”
Peter looked back at her helplessly, at a loss for words.
“It’s my fault.” Peter 3 said, saving Peter from having to find the right thing to say. “I told him to.”
He hadn’t told him too, though, not really. He had simply looked at Peter and Peter had known what it meant. He thought it must have been something to do with them all being different versions of the same person- the way they could tell what the others were thinking without having to exchange any words.
Peter thought of how nice it was to be surrounded by likeminded people, people who he could trust without having known for very long. He thought back to the way they had immediately agreed with him on curing the villains rather than killing them. And the guilt he was feeling increased by tenfold. He had dragged them all into this mess and when he had been given the chance to save them he hadn’t done it.
They were all here because of him, all in this position, locked in these cells, in this fight because of him. Because he needed help, because he couldn’t handle any of this on his own. Tony had helped him with the vulture. Fury and Happy with mysterio. And when faced with a single problem, he ran straight to Strange, because he didn’t know how to fix things by himself.
Peter 3 must have read what he was thinking on his face because he said. “Don’t do that. Don’t let yourself into that spiral of guilt and blame. It won’t get you anywhere good.” Peter nodded but his thoughts continued to build into something dark and treacherous. “Hey.” Peter 3 said, snapping his fingers. “You made the right call.”
Peter sighed loudly and looked at the floor. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault you all are here. You’re in this mess because of me.”
“Last I checked we all sought you out. We all inserted ourselves into this. You didn’t drag us in. None of this is on you.” Gwen said, rising to her feet and looking at Peter with an intensity that left no room to question her.
It was several more hours of sitting around in their cells before Ned finally woke up. At that point Tony and Happy had already waken up and eaten their food. None of them had talked all that much in that time, except to bring everyone up to speed on what was happening.
After what felt like an eternity but must have been mere hours. MJ finally stirred. Peter’s eyes latched on to her and stayed on her over the several minutes that it took for her to fully wake up.
As soon as she did, Strange swept into the room and announced, “It’s time for you three to go.”
MJ’s eyes widened. “What?”
“Peter has bargained for your freedom. Along with Ned and Gwen.” Strange said dismissively. “You are being returned to the apartment. You are going now.”
“Wait, no.” MJ protested as the force field faded and Strange grabbed her, pulling her out of the cell. He opened a slingring portal in the middle of the room and began dragging her towards it. She fought him with every step, trying to get away and get to Peter. “I don’t understand what’s going on.” She whispered her voice thick with panic.
“I love you.” Peter said. In case he didn’t make it. Incase something went wrong and he never saw her again.
“Don’t say that.” She said and he thought she was going to start crying right then. “Don’t say that like you’re going to get yourself killed. Promise me you won’t die.”
Behind MJ Peter 3 tensed visibly. But Peter was too focused on MJ to notice it. Peter opened his mouth to promise her, but he couldn’t get the words out, so he merely nodded. “I love you.” He repeated and this time she said it back.
Before she was shoved through the portal and it closed behind her.
Ned’s cell opened next and he went quietly through the portal. Peter was glad for it. His heart could not handle watching another person he loved fighting in vain just to stay here in this dungeon. Before the portal closed Ned met Peter’s eyes and made him a silent promise. He would keep MJ from going after them, at least as best as he could. MJ was smart, Peter only hoped she would be too wrapped up in her emotions to pull off anything Ned couldn’t predict and intervene on.
Next to go was Gwen. Strange was a little more cautious with her, wrapping magical cuffs around her wrists and pinning her arms to her sides before he deactivated the force field around her cell. She went with a quick glance to Peter 3 and put up no fight as she stepped through the portal into the apartment beyond.
It closed quickly as the cuff vanished from each her wrists.
The force field shuttered and shimmered before completely disappearing from Peter’s cell.Though he couldn’t see it whatsoever, he felt it, curtesy of his spider-sense. “Time to go, Peter.” He stepped from the cell and went to stand by Strange, prepared to follow him out.
Strange swept down between the cells and Peter followed close behind, turning back at the end to take one last look at everyone he was leaving behind.
A fresh wave of guilt flooded through him at seeing them. Happy, Peter 3, Peter 2 and Tony all stood at the edges of their cells, watching him go. None of them appeared angry by what Peter had done, but he knew that was just the hero in them. They should have been pissed beyond measure. In Peter’s eyes what he had done was as good as a betrayal. He should have fought harder, bargained for all of their freedom, rather than settling on the first number that would have allowed for Ned and MJ’s freedom.
He had been so quick to get them out, he’d barely bothered to think of the rest of them.