Dear readers - so while you're waiting for the next issue of "Peter Parker: SpiderMan," I thought hey, after the big return at the end of Issue #165, why not give the big guy a backstory as to how he ended up in Peter's apartment and bringing back Mayday? This story takes place parallel to "The Face on the Milk Carton" story arc in that fan fiction, and fills in some of the gaps in that tale. It can also be considered a sequel of sorts to JM DeMatteis' excellent miniseries on Kaine and Ben Reilly, "Spider-Man: Redemption," which itself was a sequel to his earlier work about the two clones, "Spider-Man: The Lost Years."

Now that you've got the details, sit back, relax and enjoy the show as Kaine himself will tell us this tale!

Prologue

Bronx, NY

For the first time in quite some time, I found myself standing in front of a grave.

The rain poured down, but I wasn't particularly bothered by it. My companion, however, was another story.

I couldn't tell if tears were pouring down her cheek, or if the rain was just that bad, but she certainly looked upset. Her poncho was insulating her well against the barrage of pouring raindrops. As lightning flashed, followed by thunder, she looked at the headstone and stayed in the same position, slightly kneeling for the last ten minutes. She had said a brief prayer when we had first arrived, and then just sort of whispered quietly.

There was a time where I would have mocked this scene, and perhaps called it a pitiful display of weakness. I was the type of person who had once embraced death, knowing nothing but misery, hatred, callousness, and rejection from the cruel world. But the love that I saw on display before me now had been the very thing that had caused me to advance towards my redemption. It had given me hope, and inspired me to fight so no one else would have to suffer like me—the very opposite of how I had once felt.

This was the first time she had gotten the opportunity to pay her respects since the man in whose honor this monument had been made had passed. And what's more, it was because of me that she had gotten this opportunity in the first place. She served time in a Bronx jail cell these days, but tonight I had broken into the jail and snuck her out for just the evening, putting the guards to sleep with a few pinched-nerve maneuvers, tricking the cameras, and using a bunch of other spy-like techniques. I had placed a mannequin covered with sheets in her bed to throw anyone else off looking from a distance.

In my past life, instead of going through all that trouble to allow her to be here, I would have said "serves her right. Let her suffer and pay for her sins. She doesn't deserve this." I would have wallowed in self-pity and said that no one understood my pain. But now I knew how selfish that sounded. Indeed, it was the very person that she mourned that had taught me to forget the past and to think of others besides myself. Which is why I had brought her here, because I knew how much it meant to her.

Ben Reilly
Loving Brother, Cousin, and Uncle

My companion finally stood up and covered her radiant red hair, which was now soaked, with the hood of the poncho. I adjusted my sunglasses and fixed my ponytail, then straightened my trench coat. The disguise was holding up pretty well, although she was the only one so far who knew who I really was.

She turned around, nodded, and I took her arm in mine as we began walking away from the grave. "So Kaine," she asked softly. "How exactly did you manage to get back into the country?"

I gave a little bit of a smile. While it wasn't genuine, I wanted to practice it so it would throw off anyone who thought I was a wanted criminal refugee. Nobody knew me in my past life as being a smiley kind of guy. "Well Elizabeth, how do you think I got out in the first place? I've got my ways. And speaking of which…"

I stopped and turned to her, touching her cheek briefly. "…if you want, you know, I can get you out of your imprisonment. You deserve a better life. You've suffered long enough."

She looked down, her face darkening, then she looked back at me. She gave me a weak smile. "Thank you for the offer…but no," she said, and started moving ahead of me. I began walking behind her, as she spoke with her back to me. "I owe it to Ben to serve out my sentence completely. When he died…any motivation I might have had for trying to leave disappeared. And like I said all those years ago…I can't run anymore, Kaine. I've got to own up to my actions."

She then turned back around and looked at me suspiciously. "What about you?" she asked, pointing at me. "I thought you were going to do the same. What happened?"

If anyone else had done that, I would have become enraged and probably snapped their necks. Then I would have followed it up with sticking my hand in their face, and leaving my burning mark on them. But not in a million years would I do that to Elizabeth. So she could take me down a few notches, I had no problem with that. But perhaps she didn't know what I was after these days…so I told her.

"Ben died," I said. "And the Green Goblin must pay."

She narrowed her eyes. "And what are you going to do once you get your hands on him? Kill him? Then what? What happens to everything you learned from Ben? When is it going to end, Kaine? I thought you wanted peace."

I struggled with my thoughts as I pondered what she said. Could she be right? What would I gain out of killing him? And besides, wasn't it highly likely that he would probably survive anyway?

I nodded. "You have a point," I sheepishly offered. "But there's more. I left because someone…that I know…had their child taken away from them and given to some other family. Everyone thought it was a miscarriage, but I seem to be the only one in the world who knows the truth. The girl is alive."

She sighed. "Again, what are you going to do though? Are you going to take this child away from her new parents? Have you even talked with her biological folks to tell them what you know?"

I considered everything she said, and again I found myself for a loss at words. But in this case, I didn't tell her the biggest reason why on this point, I could not budge. The abducted was my brother's daughter, and as I was possibly the only one in the world who knew the truth about what had happened, I had to act. But I couldn't just waltz in and tell the girl's parents the situation. It was too…complicated.

"I don't know. I honestly don't know. But look," I said, as I grabbed her and we began swinging back towards the prison. "You have a few more years left before your parole hearing. They may let you out early for good behavior. When you get out, if you need anything…and I mean anything…just call me."

As we ended the brief jaunt from the graveyard to the prison and landed on the roof, hidden away from all the security cameras and guards, I handed her a card. It was the number for my hotel room, along with an email address.

Elizabeth smirked playfully. "You use email, huh?" She then looked at me and smiled. "Seriously though, that's very sweet of you to offer help like that. But just think about what I said, huh?"

I nodded, then, after making sure the cameras had rotated away from where I needed to jump to maneuver, I grabbed Elizabeth and crawled back down towards the window leading back into her cell, bent the bars open, and gently placed her back in, as she handed me the mannequin and the poncho. I then adjusted the bars again, and looked back at her from behind the bars.

She sat back down on her bed, the cellmate sound asleep, and looked back at me as she leaned against the wall. "So even if you do go after this missing kid…what are you going to do afterwards?"

I shrugged, realizing I truly didn't know.

She continued. "I have a suggestion for you, Kaine," she said. "Try opening your heart sometime. You've been hurt, and I can tell…but you'd be surprised what you might find, and who could help heal you…or better yet, who you might be able to heal."

She smiled mysteriously and lay down on the bed, closing her eyes. "Goodnight, Kaine, and thank you," she whispered.

"Goodnight, Elizabeth," I whispered back, and leapt off the wall and into the darkness.

I jumped around until I reached a nearby rooftop, landed onto it and lay down, letting the rain strike my twisted and repulsive form. I pondered over what Elizabeth had said, but I immediately realized that it was not fair. She had already savored the sweet taste of vengeance, and was now quite content with paying for it.

I had not yet had my vengeance, and I wanted it. Not even for me, but for Ben. Norman Osborn had to pay for his murder.

A voice inside me wondered if I the real reason I wanted to live was just so I could have this vengeance and an excuse to kill again, but I remembered why this was most assuredly not the case.

I also had another, nobler goal.

I wanted to be part of a family. I wanted to know my brother. I wanted compassion, caring, and common ground. And Ben had shown me that it was possible. Even though he had passed, I knew that the same sort of goodwill existed in my "other" brother.

But it wasn't going to be easy. Peter and I did not share the same sort of…history…that Ben and I did. I didn't know how he would react upon seeing me. I also didn't know if, even if nothing happened upon our meeting, he would believe me or even want to associate with me. I chided myself for having built up such a network of distrust in my past. I wasn't worthy of all this just yet.

But by saving his daughter…perhaps he would see that there was more to me than my monstrosity.

As the rain poured over me, I closed my eyes and recalled the events in Italy a few weeks ago that had led me down this path.