Part Three
Peter Parker walked down a lonely road late at night. The fog that had settled in disturbed him; he could barely see what was ahead. He looked at his rear and saw an elderly woman waving at him.
He frowned, "Aunt May?" Peter took a step towards her, "Is that you?"
May grinned and took a step back into the fog. "You've always been such a good boy." She vanished, "Make me proud."
"Wait!" Peter yelled out desperately. He ran after her, into the depths of the fog, but he never strayed from the path. When he found her a sickening feeling swept over him. She was lying dead on the street. "Please no." He murmured, "Please." His eyes began to water.
"Hey, Peter, come on we're going to be late." Gwen Stacy called from up ahead. "Let's go." She said demandingly.
Peter took a step away from Aunt May's corpse and walked down the path again. He could see trees and wildlife just at the edge of the fog. "Stay on the path." He said, "Don't stray."
When he reached Gwen he found her leaning against a tree crying. "What's wrong?" He inquired.
"I've lost you." She said sadly, "You don't love me anymore. Why don't you love me?"
"That's not true." Peter replied, "Who told you that?"
Gwen looked hatefully at him, "You did." She stomped her feet angrily, "You don't love me. There's someone else, isn't there!" She pointed her finger at him accusingly, "Who is she? It's the redhead, I knew it, that slut."
"Hey!" Peter barked, "Don't talk about MJ like that!" He clenched his teeth, "Never talk about her like that."
"Forget about her." Gwen pleaded, "Stay with me. We're so much the same. We can be happy with each other; all you need to do is embrace me."
"Peter." Mary Jane whispered, appearing from the fog, "Stay on the path. Don't stray."
He frowned and looked at Gwen for a moment, "I can't forget her, I'm sorry."
"Why not?" She asked frustrated and grabbed his wrist tightly.
Peter looked at MJ, into her green emerald eyes and sighed, "I love her. God help me, but I love her so much."
MJ smiled, "Stay strong. Things are about to get tougher." She slowly vanished, like a ghost, leaving him alone.
"Don't stray." Peter said again. He turned to look back at Gwen and was shocked at what he found. A hideous black creature growled at him menacingly. "You're not Gwen."
The creature roared, "Follow us!" He gripped Peter's wrist even tighter and began to drag him towards the fog.
"No!" Peter screamed and pulled against the monster's hold on him. "Let go!"
The creature complied and Peter fell onto the floor. "You can't deny me!"
"What are you?" Peter asked as he stood back to his feet. He realized now how thin the path really was. The fog reached out for him from all directions.
"Come with me, now!" The monster demanded, "Forget Mary Jane! She is nothing! There is only Parker and Spider-Man!" His lip trembled with rage. "Forget them all!"
Peter stared into the monster's eyes, "Never." There was no sympathy in that abomination, no humanity. There was only fury and hatred.
The creature snarled menacingly, "You must. We are one."
"Listen, I appreciate the crush and all, but I'm taken." Peter said backing off with a smile.
Like an oil slick, the monster seeped across the floor and cut Peter off. "There is nothing on this path for you. Only misery." Aunt May briefly appeared in the distance and then vanished again. "Only loss. What happiness have you won?" He clenched his fist, "What joy has filled your heart?"
Peter was breathing deeply, as if the fog was threatening to suffocate him.
"Join!" The monster pleaded, "Embrace me and know an existence of freedom!"
"With you?" Peter asked.
The creature smiled, "With each other." Tendrils came from his sides and scraped against Peter's skin, "We are one. I can do Parker no harm no more than he could do Spider-Man harm." The monster gestured to the fog, "The path only offers pain. Come with me and know what it means to be complete."
"I can't." Peter said defiantly, "I won't."
The creature roared furiously and pounded the path with every bit of rage it could. His mightiest blows failed to even break the thin but durable material. "You think this will save you?" It laughed sadistically. Suddenly, the fog turned into a raging inferno. "We are already one, yet, you still deny us the glory that we deserve!" It snarled aggressively, "Stay on your path, for all the good it will do." He pointed towards the flames, "In the end when you find there is only agony at the end, you will come to me. You must. I know you too well." It leaped into the flames and vanished.
Peter stared down the path and at the flames trying to trap him in their deadly grasp. He took a deep breath and began to walk down the lonely road.
Uncle Ben hung down the phone. That had been Gwen Stacy, Peter's girlfriend. She had just wanted to let him know that MJ was staying over her house and to tell Peter if he showed up anytime soon. Her voice was full of false hope. But Ben wasn't ready to give up just yet.
Ben entered Peter's bedroom wearily. He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. His hands shook slightly as he began to feel everything he knew slipping through his fingers.
"It can't be." He stammered, "It can't be Peter." Ben wiped his eyes and sat on the edge of his nephew's bed. "He wouldn't do such a thing. He couldn't. I didn't raise him like that."
Ben stared into his own hands and vividly recalled pulling the trigger that sent the fatal bullet spiraling into May's killer.
He wept into his hands. "What have I done?" Ben wailed quietly, "I killed that man." Tears collected in his palms, "Dear God, what have I done."
"Stop crying, old man." A voice said from the shadows of the unlit room. "You're embarrassing us." Spider-Man emerged from the shadows, clad in an unholy black exterior. The eyes on his mask seemed almost demonic.
"Peter." Ben said, startled, "What are you doing here?"
Spider-Man grimaced, "We need to ask you a question."
Ben stared at his nephew; something was radically different in him. He seemed wrong, almost sinister. "What's happened? Why are you killing those people?"
"You have no right to question us!" Spider-Man roared. He advanced on Ben, picked him up by his neck and pinned him against the wall. He stared contemptuously at the old man and snickered. "We on the other hand expect answers to our query."
Ben raised his eyes in shock and struggled in vain against his nephew. "What's wrong with you?" He took notice of the fact that Peter seemed to have grown in terms of physique. Something looked as if it was trying to rip its way through the lower half of his mask. "Why are you doing this?"
"Where is she?" Spider-Man demanded.
"Who?" Ben asked.
Behind that black mask, for the first time, Ben realized was the face of a madman. "Mary Jane."
From outside the Parker home, with his claws entrenched against the side of the wall, the nefarious Lizard watched intently. He could hear the old man mutter the name of the Stacy household.
Spider-Man threw the man aside and smashed through a window. Lizard ducked and avoided being noticed by an unusually careless web-slinger.
The Lizard hissed contemplatively, "Interesssting."
Nick Fury smiled. The helicopters were all readied with the sonic guns. He rubbed his fingers together in anticipation. Standing on the roof of S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters, moments before the launch of a vital mission, was an exhilarating experience.
"Sir." Jan said coming out of the stairwell that led into the heavily guarded complex. "We have a transmission from the Lizard. He's in pursuit of Spider-Man. And sir, he estimated almost an twenty percent increase in body mass."
Fury nodded confidently, "How many helicopters have been refitted?"
"Four." Jan replied. "That is not a guarantee that they will be able to get a solid hit off of Spider-Man."
"Don't you think I know that?" Fury replied, "However, I have been planning for the future all my life. There is an amount of risk involved. We launch in thirty minutes. Until then, Lizard is not to lose Spider-Man!"
"Yes sir." Jan replied immediately and flawlessly.
Fury took a deep breath and exhaled. "Its about time we let that costumed goofball know just who he's messing with."
Harry heard the phone ringing. He took a cautious step towards it. That incessant ringing acted both as a warning and a lure.
"Pick that phone up!" Norman called from the depths of his study angrily. "Please, it's making far too much noise, and I need to go over the Trenton files!"
"I-I got it." Harry replied and reached out for the phone. He looked at it for a moment, terrified of the voice on the other side. "Hello?" He asked putting it against his ear.
A sinister voice greeted him, "How good it is to hear from you once again." It paused for a moment, "Are you ready for the truth?"
"Yes." Harry replied.
"Excellent." The voice whispered as if taking Harry into its confidence. "Head to the old, deserted, Gram steel mill. In the center of the complex you will find a locker. There is the truth you seek; I have also left the instrument of your release. Use it well. This will be, I'm afraid, our last communication."