Secret War

Peter is falling, falling.

Peter is floating.

His eyes are closed, but he sees the boundless universe and stars. In his field of vision, many lines of countless colored rays of light shone in all directions, like nerve endings.

The whole thing looks like a neural network.

Or a web.

He looks at the colorful net, his heart pounding. He felt an indescribable intimacy, and then it became an instinct, a desire. More normal than breathing, more thirsty than eating.

He waving his limbs, desperately trying to get closer to the huge net. But all he did was in vain. He couldn't get close to it, not even far from it.

Has he been rejected?

He was taken.

He was captured.

He was stripped.

No, no, no. I don't want to leave, I don't want to leave.
Desperately terrified, Peter reached out to the net for help.

Don’t let me go.

Then he heard a whisper.

The world has changed.

Peter opens his eyes and finds himself lying on a large bed. The sun is warm and the quilt is comfortable.
He turns over so that he could be more tightly wrapped in the quilt.
I didn't expect Tom to buy a bed that is twice the Queen size. Where did he learn it?
Wait, Tom?
He sits up suddenly and looked at this strange bedroom.

Peter's sluggish thoughts began to work.
I'm pretty sure I was in New York and my world was in big trouble.
I left without saying goodbye to Tom before that.
I talked to the magic left by Doctor Strange.
I got hit in the right arm, maybe it's broken.
Why am I not feeling pain?

Peter's right arm felt squeezed by his left.
He widened his eyes, bowed his head in surprise, and found that his right arm is well connected to his shoulder. It was intact, not even a single scar was left.
How is this possible? I even remember the pain of being hit by a ball of light.

Peter moves his right hands and found that they were working fine. He squeezes again, and it could feel pain.

Did someone heal my right arm?
He feels silent and hears the sound of a TV program playing outside the bedroom.
His eyes rested on the floor in front of the bedroom door, where there were apparently new clothes for him, a hoodie and jeans.
Peter put away his tattered Spider-Man suit, put on new clothes and reached out to open the door.

Sitting on the sofa in the living room is a strange man who wearing a yellow hoodie.
He presses the remote to pause the screen, eyes moves away from the TV screen and looks at the restrained boy.

"Hello, Peter Parker."

"Uh, Who are you? Do we meet before?"

"Lodor."

"Okay, uh… sir," Peter says. "Can you tell me where I am now?"

"Not in your universe, nor in any other universe."
"I know you have a lot of questions, but you must be hungry. I have prepared something for you. It's on the table. You're welcome and help yourself."

"Thanks sir, but I'm really not hungry——"

"You need to eat, otherwise how will you recover?" The man glances at Peter and continues watching TV.

"I don’t——,Ok, thanks sir."Peter doesn't really accept.
He turn his head and glanced at the dining
area, the table is piled with fried eggs, sandwiches, sausages, suckling pig, roast chicken, roast potatoes, steak, burgers, fries, green salad, some Thai food, desserts, coke, juice and milk. rich and tempting.

To be honest he is not hungry at all now, and he has no appetite. But out of courtesy he picks up a sandwich and a glass of milk.
Then the spider sense begins to tingle.

What is happening?

Peter put foods down immediately, and the spider sense goes quiet.
Then he picks up a hamburger, and the spider sense starting to sound the alarm again.
Peter frowns, put down the burger, and turns on the faucet in the kitchen. Clean water flows out without spider sense. Safe. He starts washing his hands and then drying them on his clothes.

He pretends he eats some.
"It's delicious—— thanks, sir. Now can you tell me what happened? I remember I got hurt, and then there was a lady... What's the meaning with you saying I'm not in any universe?"

"Yeah yes, see, you're dying, your spider senses becomes a mad alarm, and you pull out the fragment of worlds and try to escape. But apparently your boyfriend can't help you when you back, I mean your arm. So I brought you here."
The man on the sofa says casually.

"You mean Tom." Peter frowns again, a faint sense of unease rising in his chest. "How did you know."

"Just because I only appeared in front of you now, so I didn't exist before this?"

The corners of the man's mouth twitches, his eyes still on TV, but his vision clearly included the kitchen as well.

That man knows that he have eaten nothing.

Peter takes a step back, waiting for the spider-sensing sting, but it never sounded.

"So, sir, can you tell where am I?"

Maybe, maybe this person is not as bad as he thinks?

"…..." The man with black hair gets silent for a few seconds, then looks out the window. "In one of my houses."

"But you said it's not in the universe——" Peter turns his head to look at the window, which is a beautiful garden, lit by the sun, making it fully charming.

"We're really not in any universe right now. Trust me."

"Okay. fair." Peter nods suspiciously and moves on to the next topic. "I think it’s you cured me, thank you, sir. Can you send me back?"
Peter adds a "please."
"My earth is in danger and I have to help people."

The ravenette stops paying attention to the characters on the screen, he changes his posture, and both blue eyes were fixes on the teenager.
"You may not understand the situation, young Peter Parker."
"Because of the intervention of foreign objects, your earth is doomed. You will only leave one more corpse there when you go back, and Death is frantically looking for you everywhere." The man shacks his head regretfully.

"Death?"

"Yes, you've seen her. Luckily she can't come here, and she can't go outside the Marvel Universe,so you’re safe now."

"She? Is Death a codename? Like Iron Man and Captain America?"

"It's not like that, Death is death. The cessation of the activity of life, the end of life, The death."

Peter silent for a few minutes as he recalled the woman in black. He couldn't remember what she looked like, but he remembered——he shuddered violently.
It doesn't for kill, it doesn't scare people, it just has a clear intent. She is the object of the spider-sensing frantic alert.
"Why, why did she deliberately appear in front of me?"

"Because she wants you to die?"

"That's not what I meant! I meant her——" the boy paused. "She came to me after I was hurt," he thought. "She could have stood by and watched me get killed by those aliens. But she chose to do it herself! "

"I don't know why she's called death if she doesn't do what she's supposed to do." The man rolling his eyes.

"No! You don't get what I mean!!" Peter stands up and finally starts yelling. "She wants to kill me!! She wants me to die! I can feel her killing intent! It's not same thing for those aliens to want to kill me, it's totally different for death to kill me!"

"Uh." The black-haired man scratches his head in confusion and takes his eyes away from the boy's face. He groans again. "I have no idea."

Peter narrowing his eyes.
"Wha——”
“No, no. You know what happened."

"Right, more than that. Believe it or not." The man nods perfunctorily and pointed to the dining table. "Are you sure you won't eat any more?"

"...No, I'm fine. I'm not really hungry." There is anger in the boy's voice.

"All right."
The man turns his head and continue watching TV.

Peter hesitates, thinking about what to do.

Why does Death choose do it by herself? Do I have anything special? No, it doesn't matter now.
I'm going to ask the man the cause of the disaster and the remedy, he sure knows, he even knows about me and Tom—— I'll press him if necessary and I'll get out of here with or without his help. I can’t just stay here, I need to save my earth.

He surveys the room, and involuntarily planned different escape routes. He checks the web-shooter and everything is fine.
So he says cautiously, "Uh, sorry, sir?"

The man turns his attention to Peter.
"Well, I was wondering if you would stand there for an hour stupidly."

"Uh, oh! I, I'm sorry..."
Peter scratches the back of his neck. Looking at the floor with a look of embarrassment.

"You can sit on the sofa if you want. Even next to me." The man pointed to the sofa. "I don't bite, Peter."

Peter walking discreetly into the living room and sitting on a single sofa.
He inhales the air deeply into his lungs and releases it.

"Sir, I think, I need to ask you a few questions, they are very important, so please answer them seriously."

"Sure." The ravenettet nods and pauses the TV.

"What happening to my earth? What caused this catastrophe? How can I save my planet?"

"Ah, well, your first question." The man sits up straight. "First of all you have to know that this is only happening on your earth, it will not happen in the whole universe. Anyway your earth is collapsing and it is currently being covered by other earths, possibly with other dimensions. And the invasion of the universe. If you use Lego as an example, it's being replaced bit by bit with other bricks. It's like taking parts of the Millennium Falcon to fight the Death Star."

Peter listening silently, his face shattering with every word the man says.

"What amazes me is that there is no such thing as putting fairy castles on the Death Star. Nor does your earth become what the flat earth. But anyway, in the end it will be torn to pieces and eaten by other universes and dimensions, If you're lucky, you'll leave a little bit of scum."

The answer to the first question ends with a break in the armrest of the sofa.

"Thanks, sir. And sorry for breaking your sofa. I'm willing to pay, but can you continue to answer my other questions?" Peter glances at the broken sofa, he doesn’t have the energy to deal with it. He is talking almost through gritted teeth.

"No need compensation, I'll fix it, Peter." The man looks at him with worried eyes, snaps his fingers casually, and the sofa is restores immediately.
"And then the most important question, the solution."

Peter feels sick to his stomach, but he isn’t in the mood to care, and the other person starts answering another question while distracting him, usually it’s means something is wrong.

"You can't save your earth."

"——No way?"

"There is no way."

"What if you could help me? I'm willing to do anything, anything! Please help me! Even if only a few people can be saved! One person!"
The boy stands up, his tone full of pleading. His senses comes alive, examining every subtle change in that man's face, trying to find a [Yes] from those body movements.

"No, Peter Parker. You can't save your..."

"Why?! We can call for help on other planets! Like the Guardians of the Galaxy! We can move people on Earth!"

"It's too late."

The waving arm stops in the air, and the boy looked up at the man with difficulty, his brown eyes wide and full of fear. "No." He says. "You are lying."

"I won’t. It's too late, Peter. Your Earth is now..."

Those words that follow are no longer important. They become a string of bubbles in the water, meaningless syllables.
"No, no, no no no no no... no, no, no way. I don't——"

How? How his earth, his home? Just gone?

Peter falls on the sofa, grabbing his hair and closing his eyes in pain.

No no no no no.
No.
Fuck you fuck you fuck you! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

He yelling at himself, yelling at his earth.

Why, why the fuck did you suddenly get destroyed! ! ! It's like you suddenly decided to kill yourself! ! Why? Have you asked the beings that thrive on you! ! !

He covers his face in pain.

Ned, MJ, Happy, Morgan, Pepper, Strange, Bruce Banner, Betty, Cindy, even Flash. Those he loved and those who loved him, those he had seen and never met, his home, his New York, the world he knew, were gone.

He is floating on the endless sea, surrounded by darkness, and no islands could be seen.

I shouldn't be here.
Everyone on Earth is dead.
What should I do?
Has anyone managed to escape this disaster?

I should, I should die with them.
I should die with them!
I should……
I should……

What should I do?

Maybe some people survived. I should——

A burst of exaggerated sound effects broke Peter's thought, and the cartoon on the TV continues to play.

Peter stares blankly at the screen for a long time, realizing that it is a Spider-Man cartoon featuring a boy named Miles. Now that the boy is talking to several Spider-Mans from other universes. There's a Spider-Man ——is that a pig?

"You know what, you made the right choice by not eating those things."
The man's voice calling Peter back from the animation. He looks at the man suspiciously, and the blue eyes even not look at him.
"I guess spider sense warned you. You're lucky, Peter, because you'll never get out of here even if you take a sip, when you don't actually need to eat here. Hmm, should I tell you about this? "

Now the blue eyes finally looks at him, and Peter felt nothing but a biting chill.
"Ah, I don't think I should tell you, ——because I want to keep you forever."

Peter jumps up on the sofa and running as fast as he could to the window closest to him.

His body is pushed back, and he collapses on the carpet, his head buzzing from the impact.
Peter stands up and reaches for the window—— touching an invisible wall.

There is clearly air flowing in from the window, and sunlight coming in from the window, but no matter how much effort he put on his fist, the transparent wall still there, behind every window.

Five minutes later he walks back to the man lying on the sofa, trying not to show his emotions on his face.
"What did you do?" He stands close enough to make sure the man couldn't see the screen.

"Just a necessary measure to keep you from leaving." Blue eyes looks at him calmly.

"You can't do that. You can't imprison me!" Peter swallowed. "It's illegal!"

There is an incredible surprise in the blue eyes.
"I, I'll pretend you didn't say that sentence just now." The man covers his mouth and starts coughing desperately. Half a minute later the ravenette gives up, he laughing really loudly, and thumping the sofa with his hands.

Peter feels himself filled with chagrin, or anger. He grabbing that man by the collar and dragging him off the sofa, staring at him.
"Shut up! If you don't let me go I'll——"

"You don't have a home to go back to anyway, Peter, Spider-man."

Peter raising his left hand, which turns into a fist.

After a minute of inner struggle he throws that man back on sofa.
He walks back to the bedroom and slamming the door.

I still have a chance. Peter looks at his fist.
I can get out of here, his lips turned into a smile.
The left hand closes and opens.

Peter repeat his move.

He repeat it again.

There is nothing in his sweaty palm.

Fear seizes this opportunity and appears on his face.

No no no no no no no no.
Where is it? Where is it?!!!

Why is it gone? Why is it gone? ! Where did it go? Where did it go? Why did it disappear? Where has it been lost?

I need it to get out of here.
I have to get out of here.

No no no no no no.

Not this, Not this.

Why do you do this to me?
I just want to meet Tom.

I'm going to see Tom.

I can't stay here.
I can't go anywhere.

I have to get out of here.
I don't want to stay here.

I just want to see Tom.

I will never see Tom again.

And Ned and MJ.

A voice spoke to him.

You forsaken them, you forsaken the Avengers, you forsaken your earth, and now it's ruined, they're all dead.
You can't do anything, you can't go anywhere, you deserve to be locked up here for the rest of your life, and you're going to jail for the crimes you committed.

No.

Yes.

No.

Yes.

I didn't, it wasn't my fault!

It's all your fault. You shouldn't be going back, Peter. You just don't listen, you think you can help, you leave your lover and now you can't see anyone.

I can still see Tom, I want to see Tom.

You lost the crystal and you will never see him again.

No, no, no.

No no no no no no no no!!!!!!

Tom, Tom, Tom. Please.

He couldn't move, he is cold. There are so many dead people looking at him with cloudy eyes, dirty water squeezing the air out of his lungs.

Tom, Tom.

No.

Peter crouching on the ground in pain, his vision starting to darken.
He wants to vomit. No, this is not a vomiting reaction. His guts are messed up, his body is a mess inside.
He started coughing, but was stopped by his own body.

Fuck, fuck, not at a time like this!
Calm down, Peter Parker. calm down, calm down.

Help me, save me——

Then a strong, determined force grabbed his hands and pulls them away from his own neck——

A pair of brown eyes looked at him.

Tom.
It's Tom.

He cry out.
"——————"

Breathe.

He heard a distant voice.

Peter, breathe.

Breath in .
Breath out.

I am here.

“Confundantur qui…”

Breath in .
Breath out.
I am here.

"confundar ego..."

Breath in .
Breath out.
Swear to live together, this is what you said.

“paveam ego.”

Peter's body gradually stopping convulsing, his head comes out of the grey sea, and air filling his lungs like life filled his body.

He gasps, and his eyesight gradually returned. Blue eyes looked at him.
Peter looks at the person in front of him suspiciously, his panic attacks had never ended so quickly.

"You just had a panic attack." The man still holds his hand, but not as hard. "How do you feel now?"

"I……"
All he can think about now is Tom.

"Crystal..." he sobbed. "My crystal is gone. I'll never see him again..."
There were signs of turbulence in his breathing again.

Breathe, breathe.

Live together.

Live together.

Do not give up.

Breathe.

He's going back to him.

I’m going back to him.

He breathed chaotically.

"Relax, it's here with me. Don't worry about it. Just breathe now, Peter."
"I... um..."

Breathe.

Peter closes his eyes and notice that he is shaking. He keeps breathing in rhythm until he couldn't feel his tears. Then he opens his eyes and stares at the dark-haired man. "What did you just say?"

"……Nothing."

Peter jumps up and grabbing that man by the collar, pinning him to the ground.

"Give it back to me."

"No."

He punches the floor next to the man's head really hard.
"Give it back."

"Not to you. I won't give it back to you."

"That's not your thing!"

"You have no evidence."

Peter believes the look on his face is enough to frighten him, because his fist is hitting the man in the face steadily and consistently.
"Give it back to me!! Give me back!!"

"Give it back to me."

"Give me back."

"Give me back."

"Give."

"Me."

"Back."

Peter doesn’t know how long the beating lasted, but by the end the man's face couldn't look like a human being.
"——Please, give me back."

All the ravenette did is make a hum with his nose, and Peter couldn't tell if it is a sob or a sneer.
He kicks the man hard out of the bedroom.

When the sun rise again, Peter Parker continues to beat up the man who is intact. This time he break the man's skull.

Instead of fighting back, the man offers to help when he had a panic attack.

Peter says something else after the seventh beating.
"Sorry, sir. Can you tell me your name again?"

"I already told you." The man looks a little unhappy.

"Okay, sir. I appreciate your help. But I don't belong here, and I won't stay here. I'll go home. I won't give up."

This sentence seems to trigger a hidden switch, and the corner of the man's mouth rose to an exaggerated angle.

"Good."

Let me go back.
Won’t let you go back.

Let me go back.
Won’t let you go back.

Let me go back, I don't want to stay here.
Won’t let you go back. I planned for so long, I waited so long, just to keep you nowhere. So I can take you away.

Let me go back, someone who loves me is waiting for me.
Won’t let you go back.

Let me go back, the one I love is waiting for me.
Won’t let you go back.

Let me go back, I don't belong to you.
Don't let you go back. You will let go of your happiness again anyway.

Let me go back.
Won't let you go back. That world is darker and crueler than yours, the government will take you to do experiments, they will put every organ and every cell of yours under a microscope. They will stop at nothing to unearth all your secrets to strengthen their army. They will endanger the people you love, and then no one will be able to save you. Do you really think the government is kind? Did you know that the U.S. government even conducts biochemical experiments on its own people on its own land? If those super power of yours are discovered, you are doomed. Ah, actually even death becomes a kindness.

...let me go back.
Even if it means you'll never be Spider-Man again?

Yes, let me go back.
How are you going to live there? You are a non-existent person with no identification. You will never be in the public eye, you will be the princess in the tower, can you stand it? You have no identification, so your main source of income is Tom Holland. You and Tom can't even adopt a child! Because they can't keep your secrets! He would say to other kids in kindergarten, "My two dads look exactly alike! They are twins!" What would people think?

Peter winces.
He never thought about that. He remembered a report that Tom wanted a family. That man is right, he couldn't give him one.

So, stay here.
No.

No?
I want to go back. I want to see him. I'll talk to Tom about the kids and I won't stop him if he still wants to have kids.

and then?
Then I will...

Then you will give up your happiness. I know you will, Peter Parker. You do it all the time.
I do not.

But that doesn't mean you won't do it.
I will not.

"You will. Peter Parker."
The man's yellow hoodie and shorts turns into an elegant dark red suit, his blue eyes gleaming ominously.
The spider sense begins to chirp softly, and Peter immediately tenses up, paying careful attention to the man's every movement.

But the other one just stands up casually, leaning against the wall and speak.
"You blame you for the hurt that others have suffered. What do you think you are, savior?"

"I never thought of that!"

"Didn't you?" The dark-haired man gives a confused look, and Peter could tell it is fake. "But what you showed is no different from it. You see, Peter. Your friend got hurt, and you thought it was your fault. May Parker died, you thought it was your fault. People get hurt or died when you are not patrolling, you think it's your fault. ——Even Tony Stark's death, you think it's your fault."

Without giving Peter time to breathe, the man continue to spit out sharp words in a mocking tone.
"Seriously, Peter. If you think it's your fault, why don't you stop being Spider-Man?"

While the spider senses buzzed at the words, a long red sword pierced through Peter's abdomen. Let him kneel on the ground in pain.

It hurts, it hurts, it hurts. It is so painful.
Peter's eyes darkened as he propped himself up on trembling limbs.

He whimper in pain for a long time before he recovered. He checks the wound roughly and was surprised to find that it doesn’t interfere much with his activities, it doesn’t even bleeding.

But it still hurts.

Peter closes his eyes tightly, and a few tears escaped from their cage.

Why is it so painful?

Peter try to take a deep breath and forces himself to stand. After many attempts, he did it.

"W-Why?" he asks. "You stopped. You should keep attacking me."

"Ah." The man sighs helplessly. "See,Peter. I really, really don't want to hurt you, Peter, really. But that's not to say I won't hurt you."

Those blue eyes are no longer the calm sea, and the waves are rolling in turbulently. Peter understands that the man won't be beaten up obediently this time.
"I won't let you go back." The man says.

"I won't give up," Peter says firmly.

The man nodding with understandings. Then he takes a step forward.

"Peter Benjamin Parker.”The ravenette says.

"People don't have to suffer to be a hero."
"And you, Peter. Suffering all the time. And most of the suffering you inflicted on yourself."
"Even now, you're still blaming yourself for not getting better."

A red flake the size of a dagger pierces Peter's left calf and then plunge into the floor. Peter let out a cry and realized that his attack had failed.
He tries to pull the blade out, but it didn't move. So he grabs his feet and freed his shins from the red flakes.

Surprisingly, the black-haired man still didn't attack him during the process, and the wound on his calf isn’t bleed.

Peter breathing fast and hard, trying to endure the pain in his leg, his clothes wet with sweat.

"You don't want to go back, Peter Parker."
"Your misfortunes aren't Parker Luck. I mean, don't you get it? There's... their malice in the bad things that happened to you."
"Spider-Man’s writers and readers, I wouldn't say they are all, but they want to see you suffer. Peter. Their malice combined with Parker luck , brought tragedy to Spider-Man. "
"Ahhh! And they dislike you! They say you're not Spider-Man at all! Just because you got some tech suits from Tony Stark!!" The man laughing as if remembering a joke. "Can you believe this? They have to kill at least one of your relatives to admit that you are Spider-Man！！Hahahahahahahaha!!!!!"
"They are so incompetent that it takes a man to make a sacrifice before they can call him a hero!!"

A dozen red knives of different sizes pierced different parts of Peter's body along with those words: his arms, his thighs, his shoulders, his stomach, causing Peter to scream in pain again and again.

"You probably don't have a deep understanding of what your readers think about the character of Spider-Man, Peter? I guess because Tom Holland doesn't want you to know? Don’t worry, I’ll tell you now , for the so-called "intimacy", "resonance", for “To keep the story from being boring, to keep you from forgetting, to keep the toy captivating”, they want you to suffer forever. ——Would you be willing to call this love?”

The man looking at him sadly.
"If Tom Holland really loved you, then he wouldn't have made you an orphan."

"All they want is money."
The ravenette shows a big smile, raising his hand high, and the bright red color begins to gather.
"That's why you weren't put on the raft after your identity revealed."

A huge red epee pierced Peter's chest, holding the boy in an awkward position with the other blades.

"Stay here Peter, then those ugly malice will never get their hands on you."

Peter Parker grunts vaguely, his head tilts to the side.