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Chapter 13- Comfort
Willow, Tara, Dawn, Slayer Dawn, Spike, Xander, Anya, Felicia, Matt and Faith were in the apartment of Xander and Anya, Miss Kitty and Bear nearby, lying on the ground, both sensing the grief of everyone.
Slayer Dawn did not know this Giles, but he seemed just like her own.
Anya was sobbing loudly, Xander holding onto her while failing to control his own tears, with Dawn sitting on the bed, crying with Willow and Tara trying to comfort her and themselves.
Faith had tears rolling down her cheeks as Matt held her for comfort, with Spike, Felicia and Slayer Dawn standing sadly nearby, controlling themselves as well.
After a while of crying, Dawn asked with a lump in her throat. "Still nothing?"
Willow checked her phone and shook her head. "No."
Peter and Buffy had both left a while later, shaken up and broken from losing their remaining parental figures and mentors.
Tara whispered. "I just wish we could see her." Tara's gesticulating with the Sling Ring on her hand caused SMALL SPARKS to appear!
"Tara?"
"Yeah?"
"Do that again baby."
"Yeah", Tara gesticulated, larger this time. "I just wish we could see her." More sparks as a small portal opened, then closed!
All now stood, alert. Tara was decent with Eldritch but not as good as Willow, hence the little struggle.
"Okay..." Tara psyched herself up and tried again, even more forceful. "I just wish we could see Buffy!"
The PORTAL WIDENED!
And then from the other side leapt in a middle-aged blonde woman in a coat, having a sheathed sword on her waist, some stakes on her coat's inside.
Bear started barking at her as Miss Kitty did a strange 'meow'.
"That's not Buffy", Spike shook his head.
"What? No! I'm Buffy, the Vampire Slayer", this new blonde woman introduced herself, waving a hand.
"And we're just supposed to trust you?" Slayer Dawn folded her arms.
"Who are you all?" Buffy-2 inquired.
"This is not our Buffy, but she is Buffy", Matt finally said as all looked at him.
"You sure?" Anya asked.
"Yes", Matt nodded.
"Oh boy!" Faith realized as she picked up the barking Bear.
"Not your Buffy? What do you…..?" Buffy-2 was confused.
"You know of the Multiverse?" Willow asked her.
"No I don't…..wait…it was on that TV show!" Buffy-2 remembered, then her eyes widened. "Its all real? This another Earth?"
Xander nodded. "Yeah."
"Does explain how I got here all of a sudden", Buffy-2 commented.
Suddenly, she felt some sort of menstrual cramps and looked at Spike. "You're a Vampire!"
"How did you know, luv?" Spike asked.
"My PMS!" She revealed, making the girls share weird looks. "It can detect Vampires."
"Weird", Dawn muttered.
"Why do you all have a Vampire with you?" Buffy-2 inquired.
"He has a soul, it makes him a good guy", Tara revealed.
"Okay…..what? A soul?"
"Yeah. Having a soul makes Vampires good, if they were good people before."
"Oh! Don't have it at my place."
"So we got a different B with a PMS power, great", Faith scoffed as Buffy-2 looked at her. "Name's Faith, also a Slayer."
"And I'm Dawn, your sister from a different Earth, also a Slayer", Slayer Dawn waved.
"I'm Dawn of this Earth, not a Slayer though", Dawn shrugged.
"Where are your marks?" Buffy-2 inquired.
"What marks?" Faith was confused.
"So, the birthmark stuff is not a thing here, got it", Buffy-2 realized.
"Try it for our other friend", Matt told Tara who nodded.
"Yeah", she sighed, then gesticulated. "I want to see Peter Parker!"
With that, another portal opened. On the other side, a dark figure in an alley. ...Peter?!
Anya peeked and gasped as Dawn squinted into the portal. "Is that him?"
Willow shrugged. "Yeah, yeah, it has to be."
All of them started calling out except Buffy-2.
"Peter... Peter!"
"Hey, Peter!"
"Peter!"
The dark figure heard them, running for the portal, and- -jumped through, into the room, to reveal it was Spider-Man!
But he was wearing a different suit, darker, sleeker and athletic.
"Whoa!" Dawn and Felicia went as Anya screamed, Matt detecting a different heartbeat, with Bear barking again as Miss Kitty meowed.
"An!" Xander tried to calm her down.
"Who's the suit guy?" Buffy-2 asked.
All noted this guy was also almost 6 feet, taller than Peter.
The new Spider-Man waved. "Hi... hi!" Anya threw a pillow at Spider-Man, then hid.
"No, no, no... it's okay, it's okay, it's okay. I'm a nice guy." Spider-Man pulled his mask off to reveal a young and handsome man. "Okay..."
The eyes of the Scoobies widened as they recognized him.
Slayer Dawn asked. "Who the hell are you?"
"I'm Peter Parker."
Slayer Dawn shook her head. "That's not possible."
The previous experience had left her with a distrust of the newcomers.
"You're…..Richard Parker", Dawn managed to say, confusing the new Peter Parker.
"Richard….that's my dad", the new Peter said.
"Oh!" Willow came to a realization.
"I am Spider-Man... in my world. But then yesterday, I was—" He couldn't explain it. "I was just here."
Anya peeked around the corner, as Peter-3 turned and studied the portal, geeking out. "Wow... string theory, multidimensional reality, and matter displacement..." He turned to the rest. "All real?"
Except Buffy-2, all nodded. "Yeah..."
Tara spoke aside to Willow. "This has to be because of the spell of Apocalypse."
Peter-3 inquired. "The spell?" Like magic spell? Magic's real here too?"
"Yes it is", Matt nodded, getting his heartbeat and realizing he was genuine as well.
"So we got a really adult Peter", Faith noted.
"Looks like it", Dawn nodded.
Slayer Dawn suddenly said. "Prove it."
"Prove what?"
"That you're Peter Parker."
"I don't carry an I.D. with me. You know, it kind of defeats the whole "anonymous superhero" thing."
Slayer Dawn threw a yema roll at him. All were surprised as she took a defensive stance.
"...Why'd you do that?"
"I was trying to see if you have the tingle thing."
"I have the tingle thing, just not for bread."
And she picked up another yema roll—
Peter-3 raised a hand. "Can you not throw the bread again? You're a deeply mistrusting person... and I respect it."
He jumped up and stuck one hand on the ceiling. He was hanging there, feet off of the ground.
Slayer Dawn was still not impressed. "Crawl around."
Dawn started. "Lo-"
""Crawl around"?"
"Yes."
"Umm, no."
"Yes. Crawl around."
"Huh? He looks nice", Felicia said in a flirty tone at last as Peter-3 groaned at the antics.
"Why do I need to crawl around?"
Slayer Dawn responded. "'Cause this is not enough."
"This is plenty."
"No, it's not."
"Yes, it is."
"No, it's not."
"It is."
"Nuh-uh."
"How do I stick to the ceiling?!"
Slayer Dawn threw another yema roll at him. "Do it." She reloaded with another. Peter-3 shook his head and sighed, still hanging from the ceiling by one hand.
"Leave it Slayer Dawn", Matt told her.
"Uh, hey?" Anya called out as Peter-3 looked at her. "Can you get the cobweb", she pointed, "there. Since you're, like, up there?"
"Very much appreciated", Xander added.
"Yeah", Peter-3 put the mask in his mouth and crawled over and grabbed the cobweb.
"Thank you", Anya said as he then dropped back to the ground, dusting himself off.
"We good?"
Before Slayer Dawn could speak, Dawn nodded. "Yeah we are."
"Two of you? Doppelgangers again?" Peter-3 asked and got a nod. The portal closed behind Peter-3. He stood there, shrugging like - what now?
Buffy-2 was just confused as hell. "I thought I wasn't an airhead anymore."
Tara sighed. "So, I opened the wrong portals to the wrong Peter Parker and wrong Buffy Summers."
Willow nodded. "Yeah. I guess you just keeping doing it until we find the real ones."
"Ouch", Peter-3 and Buffy-2 said together.
"No offense."
"Okay.."
Willow assured Tara. "Okay, you got it."
Tara tried again - swinging her hand in wide circles. "Find Peter Parker."
Peter-3 inquired on seeing the Sling Ring. "What's the thing on her hand?"
Dawn and Willow shushed him. Tara continued to gesticulate. "Find Peter Parker. Find Peter Parker!"
Suddenly, a portal opened behind them as they whirled around, Matt sensing a different heartbeat again.
On the other side stood a figure in silhouette. The figure stepped through the portal to reveal a middle-aged man in civilian clothes.
The Scoobies' eyes were wide in recognition again, with Bear barking as Faith shushed him. Miss Kitty just did a 'meow'.
Felicia scoffed. "Great, it's just some random guy."
"No, its not a random guy….." Tara trailed off, all of them staring at the man who looked exactly like Ben Parker.
The new man gave a wave. "Hello. Um, I hope it's okay, I just came through this, uh—" The portal closed behind him. "Oh. It just closed."
Dawn asked. "You're Ben? I mean Peter?"
He nodded. "Yeah. Peter Parker. Ben Parker was my uncle. I... I've seen you all- on public news—" He spotted Xander and Anya, who waved as he kindly waved back.
"Hi."
"He's telling the truth", Matt told the others.
The Scoobies were shocked to realize that there was a Peter who looked like Richard and another who looked like Ben.
Peter-2 paused on noticing Peter-3 across the room. They eyed each other. Both sensing something. It was like two gunslingers sizing the other up. Peter-2 had seen this Earth's Spider-Man on public news too and knew he'd a different suit, plus was shorter. "Wait, he's- He's not your friend."
Then-
THWIP!
THWIP!
Peter-3 fired a web at Peter-2, who dodged it with super-human speed and fired a web back. Peter-3 dodged, equally fast.
They both flipped in mid-air and landed on the table.
Peter-2 quickly webbed Peter-3's web-shooters, proving he was faster on the draw. Peter-3 nodded, impressed as Peter-2 just smiled.
"Blimey!" Spike realized as he asked Peter-2. "Wait, so you're Spider-Man too. Why didn't you just say that?"
Peter-2 responded to him. "I generally don't go around advertising it. Kind of defeats the whole "anonymous superhero" thing."
Peter-3 added sotto. "I just said that."
Dawn said sotto about Peter-3. "It's what he just said."
"True that", Matt nodded sotto.
Anya then asked. "Could you all clean up the webs you just shot?"
"Yeah, you made a bigger mess than before", Buffy-2 chuckled.
Peter-3 apologized. "Oh, sorry, ma'am."
Peter-2 nodded. "Yes, of course."
Peter-3, Matt and Faith started cleaning up the kitchen, as Peter-2 approached the rest. "Uh, this might seem kinda weird, but... I've been trying to find your friend ever since I got here. I just have this sense that... that he needs my help."
Peter-3 added. "Our help." Peter-2 nodded in agreement.
Dawn sighed. "...He does."
Willow turned to Buffy-2. "Think our Buffy might need some help too."
"Why? What happened?"
"Her Watcher died", Xander had tears again as he sat on a chair, missing Giles.
"Oh! I'm sorry."
Tara told them. "We don't know where they are though."
Peter-2 then asked. "Well, uh, is there some place that he might go that has meaning to him? Like a place where he would go to just-"
Peter-3 added. "Get away from everything?" A glance of acknowledgment between the two.
Peter-2 explained. "For me, it was the top of the Chrysler building."
Peter-3 then spoke. "Empire State. It's just... it's a better view."
Peter-2 agreed. "That is a sweet view."
Dawn got a realization. "Yes. Yeah. I... I think I know exactly where that would be."
"I think I know where I would be if I wanted to be alone", Buffy-2 then said.
"Well then, let's go", Spike noted.
Buffy sat in the NY Cemetery, her back to a grave. She sometimes just liked sitting in a cemetery, all alone, to get away from everything. If a Vampire came she could just stake that one.
Here, even that wasn't the case as Demons did not come to New York much.
Giles was gone! He had been there with her for over seven years now. He wasn't just her Watcher, even if he'd started out like that.
Rupert Giles was her father, not Hank Summers. And she knew, she'd known it ever since she'd stopped him from going after Angelus over Jenny.
He made his mistakes, but he loved her like she wanted her father to, and after her mom was gone, Giles was the only parent she had left.
Now he was gone!
Then next moment Willow, Spike, Tara and Xander appeared, wrapping Buffy in a hug. Dawn was torn over who to go to, Peter or Buffy, but the four had assured her they'd got Buffy, she and the rest needed to go to Peter.
Buffy collapsed in their arms and sobbed, with Willow, Tara and Xander crying as well, Xander saying. "I'm sorry, Buff. I'm so sorry."
Buffy kissed his hand. "He was….."
"I know", Xander nodded.
"He was to us too", Willow whispered.
"Buffy", Tara then said as Buffy turned to her. "There's someone here to see you."
"Yeah, she wants to talk", Spike added.
"What?" Buffy turned around and stood up as a woman walked out of the shadows, revealing herself to be Buffy-2, staring Buffy down with sympathy and kindness in her eyes.
Buffy looked hesitant as she stepped between Buffy-2 and her friends. "Hey, wait, you are-"
"Yes Buffy", Buffy-2 gave her a nod. "I'm you." She added sadly. "I'm so sorry about Giles. I know-"
"You know? Really?" Buffy sounded harsher than she intended to. "I let him stay there with the imprisoned villains." Buffy had tears now. "I shouldn't have let him stay."
"I lost my Watcher. His name was Merrick", Buffy-2 revealed, shocking Buffy as her first Watcher too was Merrick. "He tried to protect me from Lothos, Lothos stabbed him with his own stake."
Buffy nodded, rubbing her face. "Lothos got to my Merrick too when I first started. Merrick shot at Lothos to buy me time to get away, then he shot himself to prevent Lothos from siring him and using him against me."
"He told me to do things my way, not by rules of others", Buffy-2 explained. "I stopped Slaying for a while, I was traumatized."
"So was I", Buffy muttered.
"But I had to protect the school from Lothos' cabal", Buffy-2 finished telling her. "So I took him down for Merrick."
"I did the same, burnt the school gym", Buffy whispered.
"And what do you want to do now?" Buffy-2 asked her doppelganger. "About the one who did it?"
"I...I want him to pay", Buffy said, running a hand through her hair. "I want to make sure he never hurts anyone ever again."
Both looked at each other, overwhelmed by the uncanny connections. These similar losses and experiences, bounding them over Universes.
Buffy-2 said. "I didn't know Giles, but I know he was a good man who cared about you, what would he want right now?"
Buffy knew exactly what he would want, and gave a nod to her doppelganger.
At the Empire State building rooftop, Peter sat alone. The bag of destroyed cures was next to him. Suddenly Dawn, Felicia, Matt and Faith appeared and wrapped him in a hug. Peter collapsed into them and sobbed.
Dawn whispered. "...I'm sorry." She gently pulled back.
"Peter", Peter turned to Matt. "There's some people here to see you."
"What?" Peter leapt up, sensing them, Peter-2 and Peter-3 stared down from a nearby tower, silhouetted by the moon. Peter took a protective stance, guarding his friends, as Peter-2 and Peter-3 swung down.
"Hey, wait, wait- whoa! Uncle Ben?" He looked at Peter-2 before turning to Peter-3. "Dad?"
"Yeah, the other Peters are doppelgangers of your uncle and dad, Spidey", Faith muttered to him as Peter looked between both.
The other Peters' faces said it all. Yes, we're... you, and look like your Uncle Ben and dad.
Peter-2 spoke first. "Sorry... about May."
Peter-3 added. "Yeah, sorry. I've got some understanding of what it—"
"No, no, no... please don't tell me that you know what I'm going through", Peter cut them off forlornly.
Peter-3 nodded. "Okay."
Peter blamed himself. "She's gone. And it's all my fault. She died for nothing." He looked up. "So I'm gonna do what I should have done in the first place. I'll put them all in prison and make sure they're sent back."
Peter-2 tried to talk him down. "Peter—"
"Please, don't! You don't belong here, either of you. So I think its best for all to go home. Some of those other guys are from your worlds, right?"
Peter-3 nodded. Peter then said. "So you deal with it. And if they die, if you kill them... that's on you. It's not my problem. I don't care anymore. I'm done." He looked at them for a bit, then added sincerely. "I'm really sorry that I dragged you into this. But you have to go home now. Good luck."
Peter turned to Dawn, but her face said it all- just hear them out.
"My uncle Ben was killed", Peter turned to Peter-2. "It was my fault."
"I lost..." Peter-3 tried to catch his losing voice. "I lost Gwen. My, um... she was my Dawn." Dawn looked at him sadly as he looked at for a moment before turning back to Peter. "I couldn't save her. I'm never gonna be able to forgive myself for that." Peter-3 continued his dark tale, sniffing every now and then. "But I carried on, tried to, um... try to keep going, try to keep being the uh... that "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man," 'cause I knew that's what she would have wanted. But at some point, I just- I stopped pulling my punches. I got rageful. I got bitter."
The others looked sympathetic as Peter-3 remembered his brutal beating of Harry for Gwen's death. He had only stopped at the last moment, and then Harry had killed himself with his own glider.
"I just don't want you to end up like... like me."
Peter-2 continued his tale at that point. "The night Ben died, I hunted down the man who I thought did it. I wanted him dead." He told Peter sadly, remembering confronting the man. "I got what I wanted." And then he added, remembering the man falling to his death. "It didn't make it better. It took me a long time to learn to get through that darkness."
Peter was reeling, struck by their losses. Their regrets. Their warning. Even the others were.
Peter confessed at that point. "I want to kill him. I want to tear him apart." He had tears. "I can still hear her voice in my head. Even after she was hurt, she said to me that we did the right thing." Dawn held his hand, Felicia putting her hand on his shoulder. "She reminded me of Ben and told me that, "With great power-"
"-Comes great responsibility", Peter-2 finished the quote.
The three of them looked at each other. How did they know?
"Wait, what?" Peter inquired in surprise. "How do you know that?"
Peter-3 informed him. "Uncle Ben said it."
"The day he died", Peter-2 nodded.
The three Peter Parkers stared at each other, overwhelmed by this uncanny connection. Bound together across Universes by those words.
Peter-2 advised his younger self, his alternate nephew. "Maybe she didn't die for nothing, Peter."
And a while later, all of them with the new doppelgangers were at the Avengers Compound. Betty and Cho were back too, having gone to give medical aid during the evacuations before.
The Compound had been rebuilt around the time Team Angel had taken over Wolfram and Hart. Now with the Tower gone, they were going to use it.
The three Peters, Fitz, Simmons, Cho, Tony, Tony-2, Fred, nerd Cordy, Bruce, Bruce-2, David and Betty looked over the broken cures.
The rest watched from nearby.
"Okay so, uh... Connors, Marko, Dillon, and um..." Peter hesitated. He set aside the cure for Goblin. "Uh, look, I think that I can repair the devices for Dillon and Marko, but the others—"
Peter-3 shrugged cockily. "Oh, I got Connors. I've already cured him once, so no big deal." He saw their looks. "What? It's no big deal."
"Please do cure him, he was a good man here", Dawn requested as he nodded.
Peter-2 nodded. "Great."
Peter agreed. "Yeah, that's great."
"Well, I think we got it", Tony commented, looking at Peter-3. "You know, I think you can run a place of your own."
"Probably yeah, not interested though", Peter-3 shrugged.
"You look exactly like my Peter", Tony-2 told Peter-2. "Everything's the same."
"Well, good to know", Peter-2 simply shrugged.
"You're Bruce, huh?" Betty looked Bruce-2 up and down.
"Yeah, and you're Betty", Bruce-2 commented. "You look different from mine, but you're exactly like her in everything else."
"Thank you", she smiled as he smiled, and she turned to David. "You're called David, then?"
"I know, its their dads here, but I'm Hulk at my place", David sighed.
Natasha, Clint, Sam and Bucky were back too, and staring at Johnny who was goofing off in a corner. Natasha said. "I still can't believe he is Steve's doppelganger."
"Yeah, I called Steve punk but it's this guy actually", Bucky muttered.
"Well, something tells me trying to flirt won't end well here though", Sam commented.
"Wanda told me he tried to and that Liam guy, Angel's doppelganger got him", Clint told the rest, all snickering at the image.
"You're married then?" Buffy asked, seeing the ring on Buffy-2's finger.
"Yeah", Buffy-2 smiled, looking at it. "His name's Pike."
"Pike…..he was here too", Buffy told her, then sighed. "Didn't work out though, our worlds were not meant to be joined."
"In ours they were", Buffy-2 told her fondly. "But anyways", she looked at Spike. "Weird he's a Vampire, but he's a good guy."
"He is", Buffy nodded.
"And you have a sister who was a ball of energy and turned human and had fake memories implanted into you", Buffy-2 commented, not believing that bit. "That is crazy even by my standards."
"Yeah, we were all surprised", Buffy told her doppelganger. "But she's our own, always has been, always will be."
"I wish I had a sister, ball of energy or not", Buffy-2 hoped. "At least if yours is anything to go by."
Buffy nodded, then asked. "So Watchers, they are pseudo-Immortals on your Earth?"
"Its just one, he is reborn after every death to guide us Slayers, it was Merrick for me", Buffy-2 sighed sadly. "While Slayers have birthmarks."
"None of that stuff here", Buffy muttered, fascinated by the similarities and differences both. And part of her wished the pseudo-Immortal thing was true on this Earth. Maybe that way she could see Giles again one day, years later.
In the corner, baby Connor, baby Morgan, Bear and Miss Kitty Fantastico the 2nd were playing with Mr. Gordo the pig, Liam having done a spell to prevent Buffy's beloved toy pig from being torn apart.
Faith-2 was with them, having fun with the babies and pets. "Yeah, come to mama, just like that." They all looked cheerful.
Angel, Cordelia, Matt, Faith (yeah, she didn't care about her doppelganger's antics much now), Darla, Pepper, Willow and Tara grinned at the scene before Xander arrived. "Uhh…Angel."
"Yes?" Angel turned to Xander, who gestured, so Angel followed him, the two walking to Spike.
"Spike."
"Yeah, what's the matter, mate?"
"Look, uhh, I know we have never been friends", Xander started.
"Understatement of the century", Spike quipped.
"Then, I saw me, Vampire-me", Xander sighed, looking at both of them. He had been struggling so long with his bigotry, his dislike of them, which stemmed from a reasonable place but had turned unreasonable overtime. "Seeing him, with half a soul, not of himself but of Willow, half-Vampire, half-human, struggling with both sides, trying to control his bloodlust…I realized you two are the same."
He looked apologetic now. "He's a good guy, who got the bad end of a deal, worse than you two actually. So, I'm sorry. I know you two are not bad. I hope we can be friends now."
Angel and Spike shared a look, then the former raised his hand, Xander shaking it. "I appreciate it, Xander."
Xander smiled as he shook hands with Spike next. "Yeah, much appreciated mate."
Xander felt a burden had now been lifted off his shoulders.
"This all is still so…." William trailed off as Liam decided to deal with it now.
"Look", Liam walked to William. "You swore to protect the innocent, right?"
"Yes."
"And to fight evil?"
"Yes."
"Then take these", Liam handed William a gun and stake. "And do it when the time comes." Liam pointed at Wesley then. "See him? Be like him, okay? Do what needs to be done, and stop acting like a scaredy cat."
William looked at Wesley, seeing his rugged look, he was truly a warrior who had been through a lot, and he'd heard them mentioning Wesley used to be like once before. If he could become like this, then perhaps William could be too.
Thinking about, William seemed a bit more confident now and nodded.
"How did you even become a sodding Watcher?" Spike asked his doppelganger.
"What? You don't know? Father was one", William revealed, and now Spike was thrown. "So he inducted me into it, and I became one too."
"Bloody hell, dad was a Watcher", Spike realized now, never having known that, as his own father had died when he was a baby, meaning the Watchers would have discarded the family, who wouldn't have been aware of it either way.
In William's world, his father had not died when he was a baby, and Liam had never become Angelus, so Drusilla had never been sired, and she'd never turned William into Spike either.
"Things have a funny way of working out", Spike muttered to himself.
Faith-2 started. "But really, fighting and killing and all that, I support the curing bit-"
Lilah walked to Faith, weirded out by Faith-2. "Remember those times you threatened me with death?"
"Yeah?"
"Please kill me now."
""It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence"", Tara quoted Gandhi to Faith-2, who looked at her strangely. "Think you should remember that."
Faith-2 stopped, considering.
Faith asked Faith-2. "Why do you hate violence so much?"
"Because of 'dad'", Faith-2 finally confessed with a sneer as Faith realized what was going on. "What he did to me...I am disgusted by violence, it irks me to see it happen, and its worse when I have to actually use it, so I don't want to."
Faith empathized with her situation. "My dad did the same, but well, it made me worse, until recently." She confessed to Faith-2, then told her. "Look, you don't have to go around hitting people, but when its necessary, sometimes, its needed."
Faith-2 sighed, thinking about it as Faith tapped her shoulder.
Peter-2 told the rest. "I think I can make an anti-serum for Dr. Osborn. Been thinking about it a long time." He noticed Peter's conflicted look. "We gotta cure all of 'em, right?"
Peter played it off. "Right."
"That's what we do", Peter-2 walked off, Fred walking with him.
"I'm helping out."
Ripper sat next to Buffy. "I'm sorry."
"Thank you."
"I…..didn't get along with him", Ripper confessed as he looked at her, still shaken. "But he seemed a good man."
"He was."
"Seeing he died for the right thing", Ripper looked firm and determined. "I'll try to be more like him now."
Buffy gave a grateful smile. "Thanks."
Peter noticed Dawn watching him. "What?"
"Just... three yous", she sighed. "And so many more of us."
Everyone was hard at work now. Xander rolled over to Peter-2. "So, do you have a best friend too?"
"I did."
"You did?"
"He died in my arms, after he tried to kill me but then redeemed himself to save me." A beat. "It was heartbreaking."
Peter-3 whispered to Xander. "Dude..." Xander looked concerned. Will he do that?
Peter worked on one of the cures. He turned to nerd Cordy. "Will you uh... run a diagnostic?"
"Yeah, right now", nerd Cordy started the diagnostic on Peter's laptop, then hurried off.
Dawn sidled up to Peter. "Hey, you okay?"
"Um, yeah, I'm fine. Are you okay?" She nodded.
Peter was forlorn now, blaming himself. "You don't deserve this. I've ruined your life, if I was never in Sunnydale, you wouldn't meet me, none of you would be here, and May and Giles—"
"Hey, no. No, no, no... no", Dawn held Peter's face in her hands. A pep talk, as much for her as it was for him. "Look at me, Peter. I'm here. I'm not going anywhere. We're gonna get through this, and we're going to get through it together. All of us. You, me, Buffy, Willow, Tara, Xander, Spike, Anya, Faith, Felicia, Matt, Cap, all of us. Okay?"
Peter nodded. "Okay."
"'Kay."
Dawn leaned her head against his. Peter relaxed into her.
"Thank you."
Peter-3 watched them with a tinge of longing. The kind of love he had... and lost. But they shouldn't, they were young. Innocent.
Madly in love. Not the puppy kind.
It was pure. Beautiful. Like he and Gwen.
They did not deserve the fate he and Gwen had. They didn't.
He would make sure of it.
"You have someone?"
Peter-2 had noticed him watching Peter and Dawn.
Peter-3 shook his head almost instantly, sending a stab of pain in Peter-2's heart for his doppelganger's loss. "No. I got no time for uh, Peter Parker stuff, you know?" A beat. "Do you?"
Peter-2 sighed. "Uh, that's a little complicated"
"No, I understand. I guess it's just not in the cards for guys like us."
Peter-2 assured Peter-3. "Well, I wouldn't give up. It took a while, but... we made it work."
"Yeah?"
Peter-2 confirmed. "Yeah. Me and…..MJ."
"Oh", Peter-3 realized.
Fitz called out. "Peter!"
All three Peters turned at once.
"Yeah? Oh, sorry. Did you mean—" All three pointed at each other. "Him?"
That brought some chuckles as Xander whispered to Willow. "Meme material."
She snickered too as Fitz continued. "Peter, Peter—"
"We're all called Peter—" They continued pointing.
Maximoff raised a hand. "I'm Peter too."
"Peter Parker?"
"Same again—"
Peter-3 shrugged. "We're all Peter Parker."
Fitz gave up. "It's uh... the computer!"
"Oh!" Peter moved to his laptop, spotting the diagnostic results. "Oh, I'm ready."
"Yeah. Me too", Peter-3 said, looking at his cure. "Okay, so now all we gotta do is lure these guys some place, right? Try to cure them while they try to kill us, and then send them home."
Peter-2 added. "Using magic." A look between them. This was crazy, but we're doing it.
Peter sighed. "Well, that's the plan."
"Great plan, at least the cures work now", Tony quipped.
"Yeah, now we got a real shot this time y'all", Lorne cheered.
"Hell yeah! Let's cheer 'em on!" Faith-2 suggested.
"What kind of dance now?" Harmony wondered.
"Stop, please", Wesley begged.
Peter-3 asked Peter-2. "So, wait, are you gonna go into battle dressed as a cool youth pastor, or... do you got your suit?" Peter-2 lowered his T-shirt collar to reveal he was wearing his Spider-Man suit underneath. "Good."
"Nice work wearing it there", Steve told Peter-2, impressed. "You never know when you might need it."
"Yeah, that's the job, save people", Peter-2 smiled.
"Yeah, just what we do", Steve nodded, the two bonding a bit.
"There's two of them now", Fred muttered to Natasha, Sam, Clint and Bucky. "And not Johnny."
"I know", all four said together.
"Well, we got the Avengers, cool superhero team by the way", Peter-3 rubbed his hands. "The Scoobies, good name again."
"Thanks, it was me who came up with the name", Xander raised a hand as Peter-3 gave him a thumbs-up.
"Team Angel, and everyone else, got it."
Simmons slid over cartridges of web fluid to Peter. "Here are your web cartridges. "
"Thank you."
Peter-2 was confused. "What's that for?"
Peter explained. "Uh, it's my web fluid, it's for my web shooters. Why?"
Peter-2 raised his hand and FIRED A WEB FROM HIS BARE WRIST! The others all reacted in shock or disgust.
"Bloody hell!" Spike gasped.
"Oh my….." Wesley trailed off.
"That was…" Lilah realized. "From his-"
"Wrist, yeah", Buffy nodded.
"How…." Willow was wondering.
"Yeah", Tara agreed.
"That's…..something", Xander muttered.
"Fascinating", Tony muttered too.
"Think it makes sense to me", Bruce told him.
"My Peter can do that too", Tony-2 added.
Peter and Peter-3 said together. "Whoa...!"
Fitz gasped. "That came out of you!"
"Yeah", Peter-2 turned to Peter with a smirk. "You can't do that, huh?"
"No!"
"Its cool but disgusting", Maximoff sighed.
"Cool I say", Oz shrugged.
"Didn't see that coming, should have though", Faith sighed.
"Guess some things are too different", Matt commented.
Peter-3 was amazed. "How on earth does that even...?"
"Anyway, we're getting sidetracked", Peter said. "We just need to draw them somewhere and do the job."
Xander suddenly said. "Peter, I promise you, I won't turn into a super villain and try to kill you."
Peter-3 patted Xander on the back, proud of him, and Peter-2 gave a nod too.
Peter was reeling. "Okay... thank you?" He shook it off. "Um, all right. Here goes nothing."
Dawn declared. "We're gonna kick some ass."
"Okay."
Peter-2 corrected. "Cure. Cure some ass."
Cordelia shrugged. "Cure that ass."
"More like 'kill some ass, cure other ass'", Frank said, cocking his gun.
"I think we should kill all", Frank-3 immediately said. "We tried curing before, look where that got us."
"So yeah, why don't we just shoot them all down?" Frank-2 asked too.
"No, we will save those who can be saved", Steve immediately raised a hand. "Those people deserve a second chance."
Frank-2 and Frank-3 tried to argue but Frank spoke up in Steve's defense, to everyone's shock. "Hey, there's no one else in this room who feels like you guys do. If I had it my way, I'd put a bullet through all of their skulls, but if Cap says we don't, we don't. I know how you guys think, I understand you guys better than anyone else could dream, I understand your loss, your pain, but let me tell you something: there is no one I'd rather take orders from than Steve Rogers."
Frank-2 and Frank-3 shared a look as Steve gave Frank a nod of appreciation, humbled by the respect the soldier showed him. The other 2 Franks realized if their Frank respected Cap this much, perhaps Cap was someone to listen to.
"Fine."
"Have it your way."
And then Thor landed outside, having done a lot of work to save people all over the world.
He opened the door, walking in, looking at Buffy and Peter. "I heard about Rupert and May, my apologies, they were kind and heroic people to the end."
They nodded in appreciation and sadness before Thor spotted Frank-3. "Volstagg?"
"Uhh, no", Frank-3 was confused.
"Thor, that's another Frank", Steve told him.
"Right", Thor spotted Johnny as well. "And we have another you too."
"Hi, I'm Johnny Storm, flame on", Johnny turned to flames, but Thor didn't care, making him groan at that.
David noted this Thor looked much better than his own in appearance, plus probably had greater power too.
"Anyways, we've figured out Apocalypse's plan", Steve started rallying everyone, as Tony opened a hologram to show the crumbled Avengers Tower. "We've figured out what Apocalypse is doing. Our Tower has been turned into a cyborg Demon factory by War."
Some cyborg Demons, clearly modified, were shown, as all looked horrified.
"England is being raided by zombie Knights", Steve added, Tony changing the hologram to show that.
"Well damn!" Spike gasped.
"Yeah…" Wesley trailed off. "We need to-"
"Protect it, yes", Ripper agreed.
"I got this", Wesley assured them.
"And, the army of the God Anubis has been summoned in Egypt", Steve continued, shocking them all as Tony showed a hologram of nine-foot tall muscular humanoids with heads of jackals.
"This world is so crazy", Maximoff commented.
"Yeah, mine was nothing", Old Man Logan agreed.
"And bits of both, good crazy and bad crazy", Peter-2 smirked.
"Then we got some kind of soul eaters in China", Steve finished, Tony showing the hologram of that, terrifying all.
That was when a portal opened and Strange appeared, sighing, while Carol too landed outside, walking in.
"Great job, you all", he said sarcastically. "With the curing thing-"
"Strange look, we're gonna do it, whether you like it or not, Giles and May lost their lives, the ones who can be helped, we help them, the rest go", Steve cut him off. Strange made to argue but then gave in.
"Fine. Anyways, I and Wong were trying to hold back Apocalypse's spell", some light entered Willow, Tara and Dawn, as they realized their Wiccan magic was back. "And we came across someone else who was trying to do the same thing."
"Who'd that be?" Buffy asked. In response, Strange opened a portal a man with golden skin and a staff appeared, all recognizing him.
"Magus?" Thor asked in shock, the heroes of the main Earth glaring at him, ready to battle.
"You….." Carol made to attack him, still angry over the mind control for good reason.
"STOP!" Strange commanded loudly.
"But why?" Willow asked.
Tara then saw the Soul Stone on his forehead and sensed something. "He's…..different."
"How are you still alive?" Matt asked Magus.
"I was reborn from the dust", Magus revealed to the whole stunned group, who were shocked at his return. "However, death….it changed me."
"Same old, same old", Angel muttered.
"When I came back, I became who I was supposed to be. My name is no longer Magus. I am Adam Warlock", he introduced the name he originally was going to have. "I have been trying to return magic to this world, counter Apocalypse."
"He's why you got your Wiccan powers back", Strange confirmed to them.
"How do you have the Soul Stone?" Steve pointed at his head.
"It was my destiny. I felt it calling to me. And it took my older life as sacrifice, the evil soul inside of me", Warlock finished his tale. "I shall aid you in this battle. I shall return all magic to this world, and draw Apocalypse to me, we shall fight him."
"So, bad guy becomes good", Gunn commented.
"We've seen that too", Spike shrugged.
"Yeah, we have", Lilah nodded.
"A few more hoppers I met", Strange revealed, opening a portal as out walked-
"Eddie Brock?" Peter asked in shock.
Peter-2 looked up at the name in surprise, prepared now.
"Oh hi, I'm not from this Universe", Eddie Brock waved at them.
'Spider-Men. 3 of them. We know of that one.'
Brock turned to Peter-2. "Anything the matter?"
"Uhh…I have a friend", Venom covered Eddie, horrifying all. "We are Venom."
"You….." Peter-2 was in shock now, seeing Eddie as Venom, but Strange raised a hand.
"No, he's a good guy, kind of", Strange assured him as Venom uncovered Brock.
"We fight criminals and eat their heads."
Disgusted looks as Peter-2 asked. "That supposed to make it better?"
"Not from your world", Brock pointed out. "And I'm helping here."
Peter-2 sighed and nodded, accepting. "I met a you in my world who was sadly, a jerk, and he tried to ruin my image, and kill my girlfriend, and succeeded in killing my best friend."
"I'm sorry to hear that", Brock said in sympathy, tapping Peter-2's shoulder. "Must have been hard. I'm not like him though."
"Thank you", Peter-2 nodded with a smile.
"Also, got another doppelganger", Strange opened a portal, a tall man in a jacket walking out, looking at them all weirdly.
"I heard there's an apocalypse, was asked if I wanted to help. I said- 'Hell yeah'!" The man told them all.
"And what can you do?" Tony inquired with folded arms.
"This", his face turned into a flaming skull, his jacket also having a burnt look now. He was Ghost Rider!
All those not from the main Earth gasped, with the babies and pets being turned the other way by their parents/owners. Ghost Rider shot Matt a curious look with a titled head, then turned back to normal as he introduced himself. "Name's Johnny Blaze. I'm the Ghost Rider on my world."
"Huh?" Matt muttered, confused. "How did you-"
"Mephisto", Blaze-2 shrugged. "Made a deal with me, I was trapped, but now I've embraced it."
"How can there be 2 Mephistos?" Angel wondered, since Blaze was from a different Earth.
"There are not 2 Mephistos", Strange said, all turning to him. "The Mephisto in our world, he is the main one, the real one, with all the power. The other Mephistos in other worlds, they are pieces of him, small parts, like his incarnations, doing the same thing as him in the other worlds, but at the end of the day, they are only a part of the essence of the true Mephisto, the one we know."
"Great, so he's even worse than I thought", Blaze-2 said sarcastically while the rest absorbed the info. "Anyways, I'm here to help out, whatever way you want me to, as long as evil's punished."
He added himself to the group of heroes.
"You have his power too?" Blaze-2 asked Matt.
"Yeah, I do", Matt confirmed.
"Sorry about whatever he did to you."
"Thank you, you too."
Blaze-2 nodded.
"And then, some people followed a crack in their world to look for their friend, I found them when they came here", Strange looked at Johnny with a smirk, then opened a portal as out walked a dark-haired man, a blonde woman, and a man made of ROCK!
"Guys..." Johnny trailed off happily, as the woman hugged him.
"Johnny, don't disappear off again!" She scolded him and smacked his chest.
"Ow! Sorry Sue, not my fault this time", Johnny told Susan Storm-Richards, the two sharing a kiss on the cheek.
"Good to see you, Johnny, and we've been briefed on the situation here", Susan's husband Reed Richards said, shaking hands with Johnny.
"Hey man", Ben Grimm waved as Johnny walked to him, both sharing a hug.
"Nice to see ya here, pal", Johnny smirked at him, the rest all watching the reunion between this family.
Reed then noticed Steve. "Whoa! You look like-"
"I know."
"People like him more than me though, can you believe it?" Johnny groaned as all shared a snicker.
"Well, I'm Susan Storm-Richards, his older sister, and you are-" Susan shook hands with Steve.
"Steve Rogers", Steve said, and then one by one the rest all told their names too
"Reed Richards, scientist", Reed raised his hand.
"Ben Grimm", Ben also gave his own introduction.
"We're all the Fantastic Four", Johnny said with a smirk and hands raised to either side.
"Well, the more we can get", Liam shrugged.
"What can you lot do?" Spike inquired, before looking at Reed and Sue specifically. "You two, I mean."
Susan turned invisible and Reed stretched his arm, grasping a cure and then putting it back. The others shared a look and nodded.
"So, another day at work then", Thor quipped, all chuckling.
"So now we got all we could", Steve noted.
"And we will need teams to deal with the Horsemen and their armies as well", Strange pointed out, then added. "Back at Camelot, there is a physical manifestation of Apocalypse's spell, it needs to go too."
"Done, I think", Tony said.
"No living person can survive there", Strange revealed to their shock as Stick appeared.
"Meaning dead people, nimrods", he added.
"I'll go", Angel immediately, sharing a look with Cordelia. "I'll do it."
"Not alone, mate", Spike assured him, sharing a look with Buffy too.
"All three of us", Stick smirked.
"Be careful Stick, please", Matt requested him.
"Oh Matty, not much you can do to a ghost", Stick assured him with a raised hand.
Angel and Cordelia shared a kiss, as did Spike and Buffy, their looks to each other saying it all.
"So Angel, Spike and Stick deal with the physical manifestation", Steve began. "Warlock shall counter Apocalypse, who I know is going to send the Universe-hoppers to deal with us."
"I can be bait", Warlock offered as Steve nodded, knowing he was powerful to handle it.
"When they come, they shall be dealt with, those who can be cured shall get cured, the rest taken out."
"You got it", the 3 Franks raised their guns.
"We have our heavy-hitters, Thor", Thor nodded. "Adam." Matt nodded. "Hulk. 3 of them." The Bruces and David nodded. "And Hercules."
"He has gone to ask his father for help", Thor added, shocking all again. "And I have a plan myself."
"So do we", Matt growled in 2 voices.
"That's Adam", Matt-2 realized, thrown completely.
"I have some stuff that could work", Strange added, getting a nod from Steve again.
"We may have lost before, twice, but not this time", Steve said, all of them having preparations in mind. "Apocalypse thinks we're weak for having humanity, trying to help. We will show him he's wrong. Kennedy, Vi, Daisy, Giles and May, they all died for a cause. A good cause."
Everyone turned to Steve reverently, Fred smiling with glowing eyes, revealing Illyria was present and listening as well.
"And we will not let it be in vain. They don't deserve this. They deserve to have meaning to their sacrifices. And we're going to give that meaning. We shall do this. We shall beat him. For the heroes who came before, and gave their lives to stop this son of a bitch. They may be gone, but together, all of us, we fight as one."
And then Steve looked at everyone in the room. "Some of the people in this room I've known a long time, a really long time," Steve shared a look with Bucky, a slight smile on their lips, "and some I'm looking forward to knowing better." He looked at Peter-2, Peter-3, Buffy-2, Brock, Fantastic Four and the rest of the doppelgangers. "It doesn't matter where you're from, or who you are, what matters is that the people in this room are Avengers. That title means nothing if not for those standing next to you. We've lost friends, family, up to this point. That kind of loss, it's hard to overcome."
Buffy, Peter, and the rest of the Scoobies thought about Giles and May, the Agents of SHIELD all remembered Daisy, as Amanda and Satsu thought of Vi and Kennedy, with the rest too remembering their losses, Peter-2 remembering Ben, Otto and Harry, and Peter-3 thinking of his parents, Ben and most importantly, Gwen, while Buffy-2 thought of Merrick.
"But, you go out that door, you not only fight for them, you fight for everyone. You fight for those who've fallen in trying to take down this son of a bitch. in their memory, we will succeed. No matter where you are, you are not alone."
All of them absorbed what Steve had said, feeling inspired now, with Johnny and his family completely thrown off now by how different Steve was from Johnny.
"You are all the Earths' Mightiest Heroes. Your Earths, our Earth, doesn't matter which one, but you are. The end of the Multiverse is here, and it's our job to stop it. You have your assignments, Apocalypse and his Horsemen must be stopped, no matter what. Do whatever it takes to cut his forces down to size, and then we take the fight to Apocalypse himself."
The crowd all nodded as Steve continued.
"This isn't a battle of good vs evil, it's a battle of survival. We fight to save the Multiverse itself. The world is counting on us. EVERY world is counting on us, and we will not fail. Each of you are heroes, but today, we are all Avengers."
All of them had hope in their eyes. They would fight with all of their courage and power, and they would win.
Susan told Johnny, awed by Steve. "You should be more like him." Johnny groaned as Ben laughed at him, while Steve just sighed.
"Johnny, I think you're good the way you are", Steve assured him, and now Johnny had a smile.
"Thanks Cap, much appreciated", he did a mock salute.
And with that, all were prepared for the final battle.
Apocalypse was prepared for his assault, his Horsemen leading the armies, while the Universe-hoppers were going to deal with the other nuisances. And he knew they would make a play for the manifestation of his spell.
He turned to 2 figures in the darkness. "You two shall protect it."
And they agreed.
This is done at last, YES!
So Kristy Swanson's Buffy from the 1992 film, as well as Tobey's and Andrew's Peters from Raimiverse and Webbverse are in at last. Swanson's Buffy is Buffy-2, Tobey's Peter is Peter-2 and Andrew's Peter is Peter-3.
Before No Way Home, my headcanon was MCU Peter's Uncle Ben looks like Tobey Maguire while his Richard and Mary Parker look like Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone respectively.
Plus I established that headcanon in this series too, so there you go.
This Eddie/Venom is from the Tom Hardy films, so now he's in too. And Venom knows of the Spider-Men the same way he did canonically in the post-credits scene of Let There Be Carnage.
Then this Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider is the Nicolas Cage version. I was originally not gonna involve him because it could break the lore due to Mephisto, but then I came up with this explanation, hope it makes sense.
Plus since most of the big feature length Marvel properties are involved, I'd feel bad if I left Cage's Ghost Rider out. My version of MCU has its own Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider played by Thomas Jane so Cage's version will be Blaze-2.
And we also got the rest of the crew from the 2005 Fantastic Four movie, all are here.
I only left out the younger X-Men but they'd number TOO many and involving all of them at the last minute would be weird, and we got one set of X-Men already. Anyways, Peter Maximoff is the best character amongst the younger X-Men either way so having him represent them is enough IMO.
Plus Magus is reborn as the heroic Adam Warlock, with the Soul Stone in too.
Thanks a lot to Brainstorm Sorcerer for his help here once more. And thank you to Sayman for William's backstory.
Also, now a review poll- Apocalypse has the Universe hopping villains attacking the heroes, and they will for their own personal gain, so if there's any villain from those other Marvel or Buffyverse properties you wanna see here to go mano-a-mano with the heroes, let me know in the reviews or PM.
Only exception is no one from the the FF films, I think the films are better than what people give them credit for, at least the first one, but the villains are a weak point in both movies. The Dr. Doom, I just find him insulting to the Dr. Doom in the comics, and let's not talk about a certain cloud. Silver Surfer was decent but he was not a full-on villain.
And also, neither version of the New Goblin, because its beyond my capabilities to use those characters at the last minute, considering the baggage Franco and DeHaan bring for Tobey and Andrew respectively.
Anyone else I'll consider for sure. So here we go.
Hope all enjoyed and see you all next time with another chapter.