A Note From Lara: I was reviewing another fabulous Pemma oneshot from VooDoo Lily this morning and I mentioned something about holding up the fandom, which made me think of Atlas with the world on his shoulders, and that, of course, instantly brought me around to Peter. This is the result of that train of thought.
~Atlas~
When he first gained his powers, it was a release from the humdrum of everyday life. It was destiny, finally calling his name.
When he realized there was more going on here than his own liberation, he ran to save the cheerleader, gladly taking the weight of the world onto his shoulders.
When he learned that it was he who would cause the destruction he sought to prevent, that weight settled in for a permanent ride.
When he tried to hide in Primatech, he was trying to rid himself of the weight on his shoulders, but he had made too many mistakes and there was no casting it off now.
When his future self took him to see the world that was coming, it settled in still further. He was the only one with the power to change it, and so it was up to him alone.
When he lost his powers, the weight was still there; he just didn't have a way to hold it up, and he feared he would be crushed beneath it.
When he regained them, the weight seemed to weigh still more than ever, and to his horror, he realized that the power was bastardized, a cheap knock-off of what he once had been, and nowhere near enough to handle the things he felt compelled to fight.
And when he met Emma? Well, just for an instant, the weight was gone, and it was just the two of them in a halo of brilliant, flickering lights.
