Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Pete hated summers. Or grew to hate them, at least. School was off for break and limited hours thanks to students looking for work meant more time for Pete to stay home and more importantly, stuck in his head. He could patrol, sure, but being inside a sticky spandex suit in sweltering city heat made it feel he was swinging in a torture device. He cringed to think about all the sweat pouring out of his boot at the end of the day. It was either face the sun to meet with heat-charged anger-based confrontations or just hide away in his apartment with a barely functioning AC unit.

If things were how they used to be, Pete would be enjoying himself in the company of May who usually took the opportunity of his newly found free time to make trips and plan days out. Usually he would whine and say he wanted to stay inside so he could spend some needed time to himself. 

Hindsight is 20/20. 

Pete patted his cheek a few times to shake him out of his thoughts as he sat on his windowsill to stare out of his window and at the streets below. He couldn't continue reminiscing or else he'd start thinking about Ned and-

MJ…

Pete huffed a frustrated groan and tore himself away from the glass. There was something he had to do – something to recenter his mind and push away his thoughts. He could boot up a game, look at the news, or rot away watching cartoons. They were fruitless ideas because all he could think of doing was hiding away under his bed covers, away from the light, even in the battering heat.

He pulled his duvet over his head and curled his legs into his body, before using an arm to wrap around his waist. His abs tightened and he could feel tears start to well up in his eyes before he felt a cold, metallic sensation tapping his head.

“Hey, I know you're not sleeping. Get up.”

Pete lifted up the covers to see his long-haired, sour-faced counterpart holding a chilled energy drink right out of a convenience store fridge. Their favorite.

“Ben,” Pete spoke, relieved to see his own face staring back at him. “When did you come in?”

He sat upright as the other plopped down on the bed next to him. They both took their drinks and opened them to drink in tandem, their motions copying each other's perfectly. It was nice having another you around. Not like, an alternate old man version who was supposedly you, but actually you. Even if you couldn't stand yourself, Pete desired company more than ever now.

“Sorry for being a bother,” Pete uttered sheepishly, keeping his voice small to avoid setting off his ticking time bomb of a twin.

Ben took a few moments, leaning back and staring at the wall in front of the both of them. His eyes softened, gripping the tin can securely before finally opening his mouth to bridge the silence.

“I was you, once,” He began. “As much as you, fucking annoy me, I don't want you to fall down the same path I did. There's only room for one of us who's a full on loser.” 

Ben turned his head to look at his variant. Pete slowly made his saddened eyes over to lock in together. Two sides of the same coin. A reflection in the mirror. Yet, Ben’s side of the coin was worn and unpolished and the mirror was an image of what Pete’s future might've looked like. They weren't identical.

“We both know you have a chance. You've lost a lot. But not everything.”

“You sound like someone I know,” Pete laughed through a sniffly nose covered by his wrist. He thought of one of the men he crossed paths with that fateful night. Another version of him haunted by his past. 

Ben smirked. “I made a promise, after all.”

Chapter Text

“Dude, get your face off the glass,” Pete hissed as he pulled Ben away from the window to the coffee shop, looking like a scum sucker with his two hands arched over his eyes to scan the inside. “You look like a major creep.”

“I’m just trying to see if she's in there!” The counterpart stumbled back and made a frustrated gesture with his arms. 

“Look, this is between me and her. I'm not trying to rush her into anything crazy. She doesn't need that.”

“I just don't get why you can't go in there, tell her that her memories were erased and you guys were madly in love with each other…!”

Pete made a crooked face mixed with confusion and disgust. “That sounds like insane person behavior. Just stay here and lay low until I come back out.”

Ben tsked before shoving his hands in his pockets and turned away to kick a pebble on the sidewalk. “Guess I’ll just fuck off, then…” he pouted before turning a corner to sit on a nearby bench. 

Pete rolled his eyes before lifting an arm to push open the cafe door. He didn't stay to listen out for if Michelle was actually in there, and was kind of nervous about potentially coming in here to chat up her big, brawny boss. Surprisingly, no one was at the counter once his eyes adjusted to the artificial lighting. He stood around for a couple moments, crooking his neck to see if anyone was coming out from the kitchen. 

He sighed, defeated, and looked down before turning his back towards the counter and made his way to the door again.

“Peter?” Spoke a familiar voice.

Pete froze where he stood. He could feel a cold sweat beading on his forehead. Was that MJ? Did she remember? She knew his name. He snapped his body back to see her, standing there in her apron uniform. His hand twitched, wanting to reach out to her desperately.

“That's your name, right? Peter.”

Oh… of course. He had been in here a couple of times since they had first “met.” His hand slumped down to his side.

“Y-Yeah. That's me.” He took a seat at the bar area, resting his elbows on the light grey countertop as she pulled out her notepad to take his order. “I’ll do a black coffee and, uh… a bagel with cream cheese.”

Michelle nodded her head and after scribbling in the order, she ripped off the piece of paper and stuck it to the ticket slip. Pete folded his hands together awkwardly and tapped his foot against the metal stool as she began to prep his order. The smell of hot coffee brewing wafted through the air in such a rich, comforting aroma. It was no artisanal coffee shop, but still pleasant.

“Do you live nearby?” Michelle asked, making small talk between the two of them – closing the silence between the only people in the room, aside from the soft music playing on the speakers.

“Yeah, uh… just right down the block.” That was a lie. It took Pete a whole ten minutes to swing over here. He did it in an effort to try to stay away – to respect her privacy as well as maintain his own mental health – but what a fat load of good that did, huh?

On the television jacked onto the wall at the end of the counter, news footage began to play of Pete’s most recent encounter with a dangerous individual that seemed to be more than your average petty crook. The coverage seemed to be the same – witnesses giving their testimonies, victims shakingly saying ‘thank you, Spider-Man,’ and reporters questioning the moral validity of his work. It was all the same now, and it started to unphase him as time went on. It was the new norm for Spider-Man’s public perception.

As Michelle turned to check on her suddenly quiet customer, she noticed his eyes locked onto the screen. She bounced back and forth between him and the tv before taking the pitcher of hot coffee and a clean mug, placing it on the table and pouring out the drink. “You like him?”

Pete, suddenly caught off guard, flinched at the words. He chuckled sheepishly and rubbed at the back of his neck. “I wouldn't go as far to say I like him. Guy’s dangerous, right?”

Michelle placed a hand on her hip and used the other to tap at the counter surface with her nails. “I dunno,” she began. “It's weird, but… whenever I see him, I get this sense of… ease.”

“Really…?” Pete narrowed his eyes and stared at her fervently.

“Yeah, like… I'll see him outside my window sometimes. On the roof tops in my neighborhood, like he's on patrol. And whenever I look at him…” Her hand went for the broken glass necklace resting on her chest, and clutched it gently. “Something aches. But it's also warm.”

Pete gulped down a burning lump in his throat, clutching his fist as she gazed down, trapped in memories that just quite weren't there.

The toaster timer rang loudly, fanning away the heavy tension in the air. Michelle gasped and quickly stepped over to the oven and pulled out Pete’s bagel. His hand relaxed and he exhaled stiffly as if he were holding his breath this whole time.

“Here,” Michelle spoke as she pushed a plate with the bagel over to him and dropped a couple of small cream cheese cups next to it. “Sorry about that, kinda drifted off.”

“No worries,” Pete shook his head. She didn't need to apologize at all. Something was there. Something small was better than nothing at all.

“Um… do you attend Midtown High by chance?” She asked, curiously.

“Oh, no,” Pete hated having to say this any time the topic came up. “I’m a dropout.”

“Really? You don't seem the type. Uh, not like it's a bad thing.”

Pete chuckled, enjoying the small talk regardless of his status. “I'll take it as a compliment, then.”

The two continued to chat as Pete drank his coffee and ate his bagel, making sure he went slow enough to continue to stay. Michelle dropped little hints about her current life, her close friend Ned, and how graduation was looking for the both of them. When asked if she was going to continue out of state, she said she had a hard time deciding if she really wanted to leave, and the same for Ned. Something about something keeping them here in Queens. Before he knew it, his bagel was finished and his coffee was nearly gone.

“Need a refill?” Michelle asked, holding up the coffee pot.

Suddenly, it struck Pete that there was someone sitting outside, waiting for him probably longer than his little patience could handle.

“Uh, no, but I'll take the same order to go.”

Today was good progress.

Chapter Text

“Hey, Pete! I'm stealing your phone right now while you're in the bathroom.”

The visage of a familiar man, lively with nicely done hair and a light beard came into view on Pete’s smartphone screen in a very flattering angle. He adjusted the phone to film himself straight on while keeping a close distance.

“You're going into a big battle soon, and it might be the biggest one of your life. Hopefully it is. This is nuts. Anyways. I’m filming this because it's one part funny and three parts important, actually. I know you're going to get through this. We all do. So if you're ever feeling down, put this on, okay?” Peter smiled as he rested the phone against something standing upright.

“I’ve told you many times by now that it's not easy being Peter Parker. Not easy being Spider-Man. But don't let that put you down. Sacrifices will be made, you'll lose people close to you, and identity doesn't feel real. But don't linger in the past and definitely don't dwell in ‘what-ifs’ in the future. That’s one of my biggest regrets. Obviously I see myself in you, like duh. But there's a chance you can succeed much farther than I ever could. You're just seventeen, and you've fought in like, several wars which I think makes you a child soldier-”

“What are you doing?” Spoke another voice off camera. “Did you take his phone?” A wide smile spread across the first man’s face before he turned the video towards his counterpart in the green bomber jacket. “Aw, come on, you don't need to film me. Give him his phone back.”

“Don't you want to say something?”

“Say something?”

“Yeah, this is like a motivational video.”

The older man chuckled and moved away from the lab area to stand next to his variant now filming the video at himself again.

“Hey, kiddo. Like Peter said, this is big for all of us, but a turning point for you. We’re rooting for you, your friends are rooting for you – May is rooting for you. Her belief in you went beyond what she could do herself. Peter and I–” Parker looked up at his newfound companion and giggled bashfully. “--we want to impart our experiences to you, but we both know you're more than capable of making these choices yourself. It's your world, after all. It's so much more vibrant and alive than I could ever imagine.”

“We love you, Pete. We’re right here,” Peter said, placing his hand over his chest, and Parker followed, doing the same.

“What are you doing with my phone?” Said a voice belonging to the recipient in question. And with that, the video turned off.

The glow of the screen illuminated Pete’s face in his dark bedroom as a tear fell down his cheek from welled up eyes. 

He missed them so much. How much he would give for them to all be together, under the same roof. But no, it didn't work like that. They had their own universes and responsibilities – it would be selfish for Pete to want to tear them away from that. Still, he needed those two more than ever now. His two variants that treated him like a next of kin. His guardians.

He needed someone. Anyone.

Through the closed door, Pete could still hear an ominous noise coming from the front door to his apartment, like the doorknob jiggling and twisting. He leapt out of bed and grabbed one of his webshooters, wrapping it around his wrist.

He stealthily opened the door to his bedroom hallway and pressed his back against the wall, before looking up at the ceiling and beginning his ascent upwards. He crawled toward the entrance slowly and silently as the doorknob began to shake violently and with impatience. 

Pete considered thwipping the baseball bat in the corner of the room (for this particular purpose) to him, but before he could, the front door swung open, nearly broken off its hinges. A dark figure silhouetted by the apartment hallway light stood there with a glowing watch-like thing around his wrist. He breathed heavily and made his way inside with slow, methodical steps. Pete followed his path, twisting his shape so he could be behind the figure and jump him when he least expected it.

Pete used his back leg to kick the front door shut and simultaneously grab the intruder by his neck, but before he could realize, his arms were taken and an immense force threw him down onto the floor. Pete gasped as all the air in his lungs escaped through his choked throat. How did he know he was behind him?

The two people were now blanketed in moonlight, casting light over the two of them to see each other vividly. Pete could now get a better look at his intruder, although upside down.

He was wearing a black suit with eyes and a spider scheme very similar to his own, yet his suit seemed alive, almost organic. It was covered in veins and a thick membrane like black slime.

The figure leaned down to face Pete before ink-like tendrils cleared away so he could finally get a look at who was under the mask. 

It was him.

Pete’s eyebrows furrowed as his gaze locked in onto his direct copy. Sure, he had longer, dark hair, and a pissy expression, but this was him, completely. He thought his variants all looked different after meeting Peter and Parker.

“Hi. Mind if I crash your universe for a bit?” Spoke a supposed ‘Peter.’

“Wh-what?”

“I’ve got the Spider Society on my back and they're definitely going to fuck up my universe because of a certain spell, so I’m jumping ship.”

Pete had so many questions. “Spider Society…? What is that…? Wait, you're Pet-”

The variant pressed his foot onto Pete’s chest, making him wheeze out whatever air he could find. His expression turned into one of rage and anger as black veins protruded from his face.

“My name is Ben. Ben Reilly.” 

The two copies faced each other in a deadly stare down, battling each other for dominance over the other. 

“Memorize it.”

Chapter Text

“I gave you one request, just one,” Pete hissed as the two variants marched through the apartment door with heavy footsteps. He slammed the door as Ben faced away from him, stepping toward the balcony window.

“Yeah? What's that, Pete?” Ben teased as his expression soured further.

Pete clenched his fists, tightening them hard enough his knuckles began to turn white.

“Rooftop, now .”

Red and blue contrasted void-like black on the roof of the apartment. Since Ben’s arrival, the twins did this sometimes to let off steam but nothing more. Ben crossed a line, but he didn't care.

“I told you not to mess with civilians. It's my universe – my New York,” Pete raised his voice through the thick wind of the winter air. 

Ben stood still in place; white eyes stretching through black slime making it hard to determine what he was going to do next. He was being disciplined. Disciplined by some kid who had no idea what kind of torment he had to endure. A kid who just faced his demons while the former encountered them daily.

“You put a little bandaid on what you did, Pete-”

“What we did.”

“Shut up!” Ben shouted with rage scratching at his throat. “Shut the fuck up!”

Breath escaped Pete’s lungs and through his mask in a foggy cloud as it met with the cold air. He knew Ben was capable of such anger, but he never met it in person. He didn't even know someone could even hold so much contempt in his body.

“Don't talk down to me like I’m some kid. Even when they yelled at you, attacked you, hated you, you still gave up everything for them. You cured those freaks because of your goody-little-two-shoes mantra and kept trying to convince yourself that this was ‘Spider-Man’s ultimate sacrifice.’”

A disturbing amount of silence passed between them. A thick, burning feeling of fear and anger blanketed Pete’s entire body. He felt this way before. It was ugly. It was wrong. If Peter and Parker were here, they would tell him to back down – not let Ben get into his head.

“We both know you didn't do it out of the goodness of your heart. You wanted them all dead.”

Well, they were a whole multiverse apart, right?

Pete screamed with as much wrath as he could muster and charged his fist straight at his symbiote-infected variant. Ben dodged the lunge with ease, grabbing his arm as it passed his head. He turned Pete around and locked his neck with his arm while the other kept a grip on his wrist.

“I did it for May!” Pete choked out through wrought gasps. “I did it for Peter, Parker, Ned, MJ, I did it for everyone!”

“But that's not what you planned.”

“Did you forget what she said to you?!”

Pete swung his foot underneath Ben’s legs, swiping the both of them down to the ground. When Ben’s back hit the gravel on the roof, he let go of Pete with a pained yelp. Pete pinned Ben down with one hand on his shoulder while straddling his hips. He began to throw punches repeatedly at Ben’s face – the black mask unmoving.

“She told us- that great power, ugh! Comes great responsibility! We were both there!”

Ben roared in anger, the fleshy material in the symbiote splitting as a great toothy maw broke free of the mask. He took Pete’s head in both of his hands and smashed his skull with his. Dazed, Pete faltered backward as Ben took his entire neck within his grasp. He dragged him across the rough terrain and lifted him over the edge of the complex, ten stories high.

“Then do it!” Ben commanded through a thick, deeper voice, garbled in what sounded like rasps. “Canon Event ASM-259: Spider-Man encounters a host taken by the symbiote and uses its weakness to high frequencies to defeat them.”

Suddenly, Pete stopped struggling, staring at Ben as he dangled above a dangerous height. So that was what this was all about. Ben was never good at explaining his feelings.

“This isn’t about what happened back then, is it? This isn’t about me.”

Ben didn’t respond.

“Let me go, Ben.”

It took a few moments, and a couple more breathless gasps before Ben took his enlarged arm and moved away from the edge to put Pete back down on the ground. Once Pete’s feet touched the roof, he sank to his knees, gasping and wheezing. He finally lifted his head to peer at his variant, standing still and staring off endlessly.

“I was too weak,” Ben began. “Even though she sacrificed everything, I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I had been betrayed before and was barely healing from those scars. I couldn’t make Beck suffer as much as I wanted. So it had to be Osborn.”

Ben’s words sounded like they were trailing off, and so did the symbiote’s hold. 

“She must’ve been so disappointed in me.”

All at once, his legs collapsed under his own weight. Pete immediately rushed to his twin’s side, propping up his head with one arm.

“Ben!” He shouted. Ben’s suit began to recede back into his skin, revealing a pale complexion, tears in his eyes, and most concerningly, a mass of grey beginning to spread throughout his chest. Pete placed his hand over the epicenter, shaking, worrying something was seriously wrong with his companion. “What is this? How long has this been happening?”

“I always thought I was using it… but it’s been using me this whole time. It must be…” Ben lifted his hand to cover the light of the moon, veins thickening and turning darker as he spoke. 

“Karma.”

Chapter Text

When Pete decided he would let Ben stay with him, he thought it would be like having a roommate. He didn't think it would be like having a shadow manifested in a human form copying your every move. Especially at the beginning, it was like a real-life copy and paste on a document. 

Eight a.m. Wake up, turn over and check the phone for notifications. Sit up, stretch, scratch back, and stand up before fixing the covers back into place. The two of them would make their way over to the bathroom, bumping into each other's sides, grumble annoyedly, and spread their toothpaste at the perfect ratio onto the bristles. Each tooth was scrubbed at the same amount of time, pressure, and angle.

Pete spit out into the sink before Ben did and turned to him with foam messily spread around his mouth. 

“Stop copying me,” he barked. 

“ You stop copying me!” Ben hissed back.

The two of them, already fed up with the other only five minutes into their day, figured they would try to do something out of their routine so they wouldn't interact. Ben decided he would start with a shower, while Pete settled for having some nice yoga practice, recommended by Parker.

Once they were done with their respective tasks, however, they were slaves to habit and met each other in the kitchen, pouring the same bowl of cereal and brewing the same cup of coffee.

A loud, simultaneous groan of frustration could be heard throughout the hall of the apartment.

Chapter Text

It took some time for Ben to regenerate back into his normal self, or rather, a stable version of himself. With the symbiote in his body, it seemed every day that passed was less of a chance that he could ever separate from it. Pete knew it had adverse effects with use, but not to this extent. He wondered if this is what Parker meant when he told him to stay away from ‘a dangerous power.’

Ben was able to stand, now, and resume his daily activities while he remained in this universe. He kept his promise to Pete – not interfering or meddling with how things were or his world at large, but it always seemed like something was weighing on his mind. Something entirely different than the infection plaguing his body.

The two of them returned from patrol – Pete pulling off his mask and tossing it across the room before falling onto the couch with a heavy sigh of relief. Ben’s flowing locks dropped from his head once the symbiote cleared his head and he reached for a cold can of soda from the refrigerator. He hung by the kitchen, seemingly lost in his thoughts as he took a sip from the fizzy drink.

“You alright?” Pete asked softly from across the room. He was keeping a closer eye on his twin ever since the incident from a couple nights prior.

“I-”

Suddenly, a large, hexagonal portal opened up in front of the front door, emitting a blinding light in the small space. Pete immediately jumped up from his seat and webbed his mask to his hand as three people emerged from the entrance. They all wore suits similar to theirs – spider-like, red, and blue. However, the third member in the middle entered with authority, towering over the two young Spider-Men.

“Peter Parker, Ben Reilly.” The tall man with an all-blue suit with red embellishments announced.

“Wh-what’s going on? Who?-” He noticed Ben out of the corner of his eye, hanging his head as if he were ashamed of something. “Ben?”

“We’ll be a bit easier on you since this is our first meeting, Peter,” the Spider-Man in blue spoke. “But not so much for him.”

One of the other members gripped their hand on Ben’s shoulder and wrist, trying to guide him away with assertive force. It was only when the second one of them began to take Pete did the former decide to perk up.

“Hey, don’t touch him,” Ben demanded and tried to shake off the hands holding him down. “Don’t touch him!”

When they wouldn’t let go, Ben whipped his elbow into the head of his captor to rush towards Pete’s side, only to be grabbed and manhandled by the large man. Ben wriggled and writhed under his arm holding him by the neck.

“Let him go, don’t hurt him!” Pete shouted back as they all began to put up a fight against each other, slowly making their way to the portal albeit messily. They passed through the turning hexagon and into a grand hall filled with hundreds of people, or rather, spider people. Pete’s mouth opened agape as they all entered the space, now leaving the cramped apartment to be completely empty. He knew there were variants of him but, well… it didn’t seem like him at all. Just a collection of people that shared the same name. The same responsibility.

“Is this what you were talking about?” He called out to Ben. “The Spider Society?”

Ben did a small nod, seemingly very afraid and weary of this place. Why should he be? They were all allies, right?

Pete eyed each individual with wonder and intrigue. They all had something unique to them, but there was a clear theme of what all made them, them. Were they all Peter Parker? Wait, could Peter and Parker be here?! Pete frantically swung his head around to see if he could spot the two of them amongst the sea of red and blue. 

“Okay, we’re here now. You can let go of me, Miguel,” Ben huffed and squirmed his way out of the larger man’s grasp. He fanned the two other agents away and they subsequently let Pete go as well. Before they walked away, they strapped two wristbands on Pete and Ben, respectively.

“Helps with the whole multiversal incursion distortion that can sometimes happen to your body. Doesn’t feel too good,” Miguel explained as he stepped towards the twins.

Pete’s eyes darted around as he saw the other spider people stare at them, murmuring amongst each other. He noticed that even though they both were the source of the attention, a lot of the eyes seemed to be on Ben. Pete couldn’t help but admit he kinda stuck out like a sore thumb.

“You boys are quite the celebrities around here – with the whole spell and such.”

“Oh yeah,” spoke a small holographic girl that appeared on Miguel’s shoulder. “It’s not every day you’re able to conjure every single person that knows who Peter Parker is into one universe thanks to the former Sorcerer Supreme.”

“That- That was a mistake, we fixed it,” Pete tried to explain before remembering Ben next to him. He wasn’t so lucky. 

“Sure, you two respectively ‘fixed’ the anomaly,” Miguel folded his arms. “But the problem to begin with is tampering with the multiverse to begin with. I’m sure Stephen Strange already explained to both of you how dangerous that was.”

“Someone has to face the consequences, Peter.”

Pete noticed how Miguel wasn’t looking at him, but was instead looking straight at Ben, who seemed to know exactly what was happening and how this would turn.

“Him…?” He spoke shakily. “Why- Why Ben? If anything, it should be me. I send those guys home- I tampered with their timelines.”

“But you weren’t the first.”

What?

“Ben was the first one to cast the spell in his timeline, Earth-199999B. We believe because of this, a Nexus Event created a pocket in the main 199999 timeline subset, containing yours, which resulted in an endless duplication of the same spell between endless variants of yourselves.”

“However, it seems like your guys’ timelines are really a hotspot for these incursions and Nexus Events… Goodness,” Spoke the hologram girl.

“Lyla.”

“Sorry.”

The area around them went silent as Pete stared off, starting to wonder if any of his actions were his own. He looked down at his hands. Was he in control at all?

“Now he chooses to run away, infecting your universe more than he already has. Not only that, but he hasn’t shed the symbiote yet.”

“ASM-50! SW-8!” Ben shouted at Miguel’s face, finally unleashing his rage. Everyone knew he was feeling guilty, but he wasn’t going down without a fight to defend his new life.

“Spider-Man is supposed to hang up the mantle, then come back to it. We all have. Canon Event ASM-259.” Pete remembered that number from their last argument.

The two of them began to argue between the two of them, nitpicking semantics and morals, getting into each other’s faces in an almost animalistic way, bearing fangs. Meanwhile, Pete faded into the background, trapped in his thoughts. Was Ben really the fault of everything that’s happened to him? May’s death, the loss of everyone’s memories?

No, it couldn’t be only his. Pete knew he casted his whole heart into that spell, panicking for the normalcy of his life. Not only that, but didn’t Ben deserve to grieve his own way? If they still remembered him, what choice did he have but to go into hiding? It was unfair that he was being blamed for all of this! Ben couldn’t have been the first!

“Enough!” Pete shouted as Miguel’s massive claw wrapped around Ben’s face as the latter swung his fists. He stepped between them, separating the two butting heads and calming down the growing crowd surrounding Miguel in overwhelming support. 

“I’ve only met two other Spider-Men in my life and they would never fault Ben for trying to survive. Surviving in spite of it all is what they taught me! Shouldn’t that be the same for the rest of us?!” He announced to the crowd who began to back away in submission. “If Ben is here, regardless of his identity, shouldn’t that mean he’s Spider-Man too?!”

Pete turned to Miguel. “You said it yourself, Spider-Man hangs up the mantle and becomes bonded to the symbiote. Isn’t this all one big canon event for him?”

Miguel’s eye twitched as this seventeen-year-old decided to scold him.

“Just… Give him a chance,” Pete softly begged as he collected Ben off of the floor and hung his arm over his shoulder. “We know better now, don’t we? Life’s been hard as it is.”

Ben somberly nodded.

“Not only that, but there shouldn’t be a cop Spider-Man!” Yelled out a voice coming closer through the crowd. Two Spider-Men swung through the air, diving straight towards the twins. One of them kicked Miguel straight in the face, sending him falling to the floor before grabbing Ben, the other taking Pete.

“Let’s go, let’s go,” hurried a familiar voice in the middle of the chaos.

“Wait, guys?!” Pete perked up as they quickly thwipped away from the oncoming mob.

“Family reunion later, babe,” Spoke Peter. “Parker, the portal?”

“Oh, right!”

Parker, during the descent of his swing, pushed a couple buttons on the haphazardly built watch on his wrist as Pete clung to him tightly. Soon, a new portal was created, just as jumbled as the situation they were in. All four of them fell into the opening before it closed right behind them, cutting them off from the horde of angry spider people. They hit a body of water, cushioning their fall.

Peter rose above the surface, gasping for air. “God, did you have to bring us to the Hudson River?!”

“I don’t know how to work this thing!” Parker argued back, the two of them sounding like an old married couple. “If you’re the genius, you should’ve used it!”

They all scrambled to shore, coughing and hacking up the river mixed with saltwater in the process. Pete crawled on his hands and knees – his suit making the swim heavy on his body. He fell onto the sand, giggling. He felt like he was nearly about to die, but now everything was okay because Peter and Parker were here.

“We can’t relax yet, guys,” Parker panted. “They’ll be coming in a matter of time. We have to hide Ben.”

“Wait,” Pete raised his eyebrow. “Do you guys… know each other?”

“Long story,” Peter dutifully explained as he took off his boot, emptying the water in it onto the sand. “Hold on, did anyone see where Ben went?” The three of them looked around, panicked, searching for the missing variant.

“Wait…” Parker uttered, stopping in his tracks. He held up his wrist, now bare.

“He took the watch.”

Chapter Text

“Ben!” Pete cried out in winded desperation as he barely trudged his feet through the sand. Peter and Parker followed his footsteps and watched as their younger variant chased nothing down the shore. They were observing the same boy struggling, again and again. And although it was hard, teaching two twins the same lessons and seeing them subsequently fail, they wouldn't have it any other way.

They were their kids – nothing simpler than that.

Pete’s legs fell under his weight, crashing down onto the ground below. He was fully aware that Ben was gone, but called out to him if it was even possible to be heard.

“Don't go, Ben, I… I need you… Don't put this all on yourself...”

Peter and Parker picked up their pace, kneeling down at Pete’s side and holding him in both of their arms. Peter took his hand, placing it on top of his surrogate son’s head and pressing his nose to it. He closed his eyes to mourn with him, letting his body envelope the former’s and used as a safety blanket. Parker tilted his head up at the sky – the glow of the moon shining down on the three of them. He clenched his fist in determination. He was going to make this right.

“Let’s go home, guys,” he cooed, lifting up Pete while Peter was there to follow.

It was a long, silent walk back to the apartment. They were all too weak to web, so they stuck to the shadows, hiding from the lights of the city. Pete opened the unlocked door to his apartment and it was just as he left it. Ben’s soda can was still cold on the counter. The sound of river water squelching in their boots sounded through the apartment as they filed in.

“Here,” Parker spoke gently and webbed a blanket from off the couch to wrap Pete in. “Go take a shower. We’ll be right here.” The younger boy nodded meekly and headed over to the bathroom. Parker rested his hand on his hip and let out a long sigh, while Peter sucked in a shivering breath as he held his hands over the radiator on the wall. 

“He thinks he abandoned him,” Parker expressed once Pete closed the door behind him.

“Yeah, well,” Peter huffed. “Ben’s no stranger to universe hopping.”

“This is different, though.”

“How?”

“I don’t know, I just feel it in my gut. He’s too bonded to Pete to just… go.”

Pete stood under the showerhead, letting the hot water drip down his body. He looked down at himself, feeling an odd sense of omnipresence. Ben was him, and he was Ben. He had to understand how he was feeling, and what decisions he could make. He had heard Peter and Parker from beyond the walls, and it was true. Maybe it was his own self-doubt that convinced him that Ben truly did abandon him, but he would never leave someone who needed him. It was possible that he decided he wanted to take responsibility for his actions and return to his original universe.

Pete stared at his hand before closing it. It was also possible that Miguel and the rest of the Spider Society were still looking for Ben. He had to go after him, and he knew how. Once he was able to warm up, he stepped out of the steaming shower with a towel, leaving wet footprints across the floor. He opened up his closet and fished for something all the way in the back, before pulling it out and stretching it in front of him. His old suit.

Parker walked down the hallway before turning towards the boys’ room. He saw Pete – the spitting image of when they first met. Less blood, but still the same regardless. He stood frozen in the doorway as warm memories flooded his mind.

“I’m going.”

“It could be dangerous.”

“I know.”

Pete began to search the bedroom, trying to find the device Ben appeared with. He combed through drawers, under the bed, anything.

“Pete.”

“I have to do this. You both know he needs me. If you guys want to stop me, then-”

Parker grabbed Pete’s wrist, pulling him in to lock their eyes. His brows were furrowed before they softened. Instead, the much-experienced variant opened up his successor’s hand, placed the watch inside, then curled his fingers around it.

“These are the choices you make now, Peter,” Parker spoke with finality as if he had no more knowledge to impart to the younger Spider-Man. It had officially been a year since the events on the Statue of Liberty took place, and the real world hardened him more than he could fathom as just a high school kid. He thought about May, Tony, Happy, Peter, Parker, and now Ben. They were the ones reaching out their hands to lift him up – to make him into the man he could be today. A proud smile grew across Parker’s face as he glimpsed upon Pete’s eyes focusing on the watch in his hand, and understanding that there was nothing left to say. 

“Bring him home.”

When Peter rushed to the bedroom after wondering why it was so quiet, he was too late to follow Pete into the portal he created. Parker immediately held him back, knowing Peter’s tendencies to meddle due to his behavior indicative of a coddling mother. He whined, thrashed about, and reached out for his boy as he disappeared behind the closing gateway – Parker rolling his eyes in the process.

Pete’s hair blew in the much less frigid temperature of the world he stepped into. This wasn’t New York, he thought as he pulled his mask over his head. It wasn’t New York at all. Cities and buildings stuck together like glue, descending down rolling hills. He could sense the faint scent of the ocean as he climbed across duplex homes. It was only until he spotted a familiar landmark did Pete understand where he was. The Golden Gate Bridge. He was in San Francisco.

“So this is where you hid, Ben…” Pete whispered to himself, creating a timeline in his mind of what likely happened to his variant stricken with fear and tragedy in the past.

Pete spotted a vantage point about two and a half miles away – a skyscraper with a blinking needle on top. He made his way over, webbing cranes and other structures to propel him through the air as quickly as possible. He crawled up the glass windows before reaching his destination. He held onto the needle, hanging onto it as he leaned over to peer at the bustling city below.

He took a deep breath, centering his focus and letting his Spider-Sense do the work. He knew upon meeting his variants that it was possible to track their movement almost like a network connection. He never truly had a word for the sensation he felt when detecting something, but a sharp, pinging feeling was nagging him ever so slightly. It was to the left, ground level, approximately eight hundred seventy-six yards away from his current location.

Pete leaped from the height, tracing where he felt the frequency and following it. It lead him to an alleyway in between two bars in a less-than-favorable part of town. He dropped down to his feet, where he saw a shadowed figure wearing a black hoodie and facing a dead end.

“This is where I found it,” spoke a voice identical to Pete’s. “Where it… preyed on me. Devoured me.” A hand was placed on the brick wall, holding it like a source of recollections. Pete kept a healthy distance away but noticed a lack of thin black veins on Ben’s now seemingly fairer skin.

“We spoke to each other, in my mind. It told me it could heal me, give me the power to control whatever I desired.” Ben’s fingers curled against the grit before he took his arms and wrapped himself in them. “It felt like ecstasy.”

The darker variant finally pivoted to face himself. Pete held back as much as he could from horror appearing in his face as he saw the state Ben was in. His cheeks were sunken in, dark bags pulling down his eyes, and pale, cracked lips. Yet, it seemed the infection was completely absent from his body.

“You…” Pete stepped forward.

“I got rid of it.”

Ben opened his hoodie and lifted his shirt – the grey sickness once spread across his chest now completely gone. He dropped his hand to his side, like his body was hanging onto the last embers of life. Pete noticed his figure trembling and hurried over, letting him fall against his body. They slowly fell to the pavement, gripping each other as tightly as they could.

“I listened to what you said. That maybe this was one big canon event. It made me feel like there was something more than this. If there was one canon event, then there were many more to come. That there was a future.” Ben tucked his nose into the crook of Pete’s neck, letting himself become weak in the arms of his companion. 

“I want to see it.” Ben’s voice shook before bursting into a sob.

Pete squeezed his eyes shut as instead of holding Ben up for support, he enveloped him completely in an embrace. He grit his teeth as tears began to flow down his cheeks. The two of them were one with each other in a complete union. Suddenly, all their worries were gone. There were no concerns about the Spider-Society, about their current lives, about their identities. Right now, just in this moment, Pete had Ben and Ben had Pete.

The twins returned to Earth-199999C, reuniting with their predecessors. A frenzy of a multitude of emotions passed between all four Spider-Men, relieved, scared, and elated. It didn’t look like the Spider Society felt the need to intervene as they never turned up ever again. Perhaps it was a change of heart in Miguel or Ben’s resolve. What mattered now was that all of them were together again. A family. Eventually, they would have to return to their lives across the multiverse, but for now, Pete felt at peace while Ben felt May smiling down at him.

“Hey, do you guys want to get some coffee?” Pete asked one day while his variants were on the couch, filling the once lonely and empty apartment now in a distant memory. Ben approached his side, much healthier now with a distinct light in his eyes. He slung his arm over the other’s shoulder with an earnest smile.

“I’ll be right there beside you.”