Zoken: Well I do try but by now you know spelling is not my strong point.

spyder616: Yeah the others are going to be in for one hell of a surprise, as for Cain I wanted to show that he has a heart and he's changed in his time there, and that's how Sammy died in the comics. I don't know if any other students would, but it is Ben's first day.

Danrilor: Ah I see thanks for clearing that up. Well they got a lot of things to think about and technically he was using the Brotherhood and was going to betray them anyways.

Superstar Kid: So did I but I figured there had to be some kind of tragedy so I stuck with that. Yeah there will be quite a few changes now that the big secrets are coming out.

TheUnknown325: I never heard of that Creed thing either, and since the comic shop closed down I only get the X-Men and Uncanny here and not all of them either.

Lady Suneidesis: I know but actually FINDING a good beta reader is harder then you think.

qwerty: I thought about it, but she did once say she wasn't into white guys, don't know it that was a joke or not, I'll think about it though but I'm not sure.

Cjh: I have plans for Jean much later on, and no they won't be X-Men.

The Uncanny R-Man: Well those two may not be dead, you never know but I didn't like that either, as for the telepathic assault I figured that would have been a better way to have dealt with him.

Thanks to: Karakin, morring star, GothikStrawberry, Lady Suneidesis, Vegabond, Ldypebsaby, Silver Warrior, Jaguar, Teri

THE NEW TEACHER

CHAPTER 40: AFTER THE BATTLE

It took sometime to get everyone in Scott and Emma's office. First they had to make sure that everyone that was hurt had to be fixed up. Not only that but It took half an hour to get Cain out of the morgue. He had just sat there silently looking at Sammy's body just laying there. Cain had never been close to anyone before, at least not as close as he had felt to Sammy.

When the Brotherhood and called him up for their little plan he found that he had actually changed in his time here, mostly because of Sammy. He had planned to set them up for an attack but then Sammy had gotten involved and then…he didn't want to think about it. He just leaned against one of the walls in the far side not really caring about the Parker guy and his brother. At the moment he felt like someone was tarring up his insides, it just seemed like a dream like it wasn't happening…he knew he should be paying attention but it was his thoughts were on Sammy…What was he going to tell the kids mom?

Scott was behind his desk feeling like he aged after all of this, so far the security had to be tightened again, the school had been attacked again, there were at least one death and several of the kids were being treated again. Not he had to deal with the possibility that now it seemed that his two 'human' teachers might not have been human after all. Sure it would explain how they accepted teaching here so well but they had lied to him and the others for so long that he felt a little betrayed. He liked Peter, he and his wife were a nice welcome change to this place and he still remembered that talk with MJ during that dinner months ago.

But now he wanted answers and by the looks of Emma at his right so did she. He saw all the X-Men members were here, the actual X-Men team, Storm's XSE team and Dani Moonstar, Amara and Rahne as well, even Annie standing next to his brother Alex. Scott leaned forward on the desk. "It seems that you lied to us Peter, and have been ever since you got here, now I'm sure you think you got good reasons for not wanting this secret of yours out but you have to understand I don't like being lied to."

Peter knew that laying about himself had been just to protect himself but he also felt a little sting of regret from Scott's words. These people had become his friends and he always hated laying to them about things. It was also nice to have others like Logan, Kitty, Rogue and even the student Sophia to know his secret. "I know Scott and I'm sorry…but…I had to."

"Why?"

"I'm Spider-Man." There he said it, he just said his greatest secret and then the room was silent for a moment. Even Cain was roused from his dark thoughts from those words.

"No, seriously." Scott said to him and Peter and Ben looked at one anther. Peter had just said the truth and it looked like none of them believed him, if the moment hadn't been so tensed both of them would have burst out laughing.

"He's not kiddin' Shades." Logan said and everyone's attention was on him now, a few with smirks and others with astonished looks on their faces. "He really IS Spider-Man." The room was filled with dead silence at that moment.

"WHAT?" Everyone who hadn't known the truth shouted out and then there was the barrage of questions flying all over the place. No one could make sense of the mess until Emma sent a telepathic message to be quiet. She looked over to Scott to give him control of the questions.

"Okay…" Scott rubbed his brow trying to think of where to go first with this, this was just so…surreal, so he looked at Logan. "How long?"

"A few years, meet him in his civies up in Canada and he had the same scent as the bug." Logan said plainly and also smirked at Peter as he glared at the word 'bug', he knew Peter hated to be called that.

"And you didn't tell anyone because?"

Logan just shrugged. "Not my place to tell ya, Chuck or anyone else."

Emma noticed how almost everyone was surprised but there were a few other that seemed too calm. She looked at the TJ woman, Kitty and then at Rogue and didn't feel the surprise the others were projecting. "How many others here knew about this?" She said eyeing those three in particular.

The three woman noticed her looks and sheepishly the three raised her hands. Rachel's mouth fell open at that fact her roommate and best friend Kitty Pryde had known this and had managed to keep it from her.

"Chere!" Gambit said looking at his on again off again girlfriend of several years. "You knew?"

"Not at first but years ago ah absorbed Spider-Man and ah thought ah didn't retain anything but then ah had these dreams of Peter and spider and stuff and well…long story short ah remembered a few memories and confronted him about it along with…" Rogue trailed off before she could mention Wind Dancer's name.

"With…" Scott urged her.

She looked over to Peter who nodded so she might have tell them everything. "Sofia Mantega."

"Wind Dancer?" Dani shouted, she couldn't believe that one of her students knew about this. In fact she had to sit down at the thought of this. She remembered seeing her a little distracted some time ago after the whole Sinister Six thing, then something hit her. "The Sinister Six…they took the students because of you didn't they?"

Peter looked down unable to meet her eyes. "Yeah…the Green Goblin knows who I am and he's Norman Osborn."

"Wait I thought it was a Harry Osborn that was the Green Goblin?" asked Bobby, he remembered reading about that in the Daily Bugle when he died.

"His son," Peter said and sighed. "First it was Norman, then after I thought he was dead Harry took it up sometime after, then when he died Norman decided to come back into my life for revenge."

Scott remembered how MJ had told him about their lost child and something clicked in his head. "Peter…your child?"

Peter nodded his head. "He caused our baby to be born dead…" The room was silent at that moment, TJ placed a hand over her stomach thinking of her own child she lost in a miscarriage after a few weeks. Kurt noticed this, in her last time here she had told him a few things like that and he hugged her close to him, she didn't resist. "Because of Norman a young girl named Gwen Stacey was killed…she was the fist great love of my life, he kidnapped my family members, and pretty much made my life a living hell."

"He also killed me the prick," Ben said he could still feel the impact that glider had made into his chest. He then notice the looks around the room and he shrugged. "I got better, not like the X-Men have the patent on dying and coming back."

He looked up at them all. "When he kidnapped the kids he sent me a message that said to come along and I did." Kitty spoke up next telling them how she had gone to him and knew about it. Peter had made her swear not to tell anyone because then the kids might have been killed so while he had gone in alone she had gone to get the others to help out, that was how she really knew where the kids where.

"What about him?" Rahne asked pointing to Ben. "He smells exactly like you." She had just met Ben and so far her sensitive nose had noticed the matching scents. Even Logan had been at a loss for that and wanted to know what that was about.

"Well…the thing is, I'm really Peter's clone." Ben admitted rubbing the back of his head. "I'm also the Scarlet Spider."

"So is MJ, Spider-Woman or something?" Bobby joked although he wasn't sure at this point if it was a joke or not.

Peter smiled and shook his head. "No she's just your average supermodel/actress/broadway star." He couldn't help the smile on his face form the look on Bobby's face.

"So you and the Black Cat?" Bobby asked again thinking of the gorgeous white haired woman that came by not too long ago.

"My ex-girlfriend. She was more interested in Spider-Man then Peter Parker if you get my meaning."

"I think we need to take this from the top," Scott said with all this information. "Let's start by how exactly you all knew about Peter and take it from there." TJ explained how she had met several Peter Parker's in her trip and that's how she knew about him, but Ben Reilly was a new thing for her. Kitty explained how she had walked in on Peter while he was changing out of his uniform during that attack from the Church of Humanity. Rogue had already explained but did explain to everyone how Sofia knew.

There were a varied reactions, Angelo was just floored that his science teacher was a major hero, Jubilee kept giving Logan icy glares from keeping something like that from her. A few were amused like Hank, he liked his encounters with Spider-Man and he should have guest the two were the same, they both had keen scientific knowledge and the same type of humor. Emma was a bit on the boarder, being that she did see the value in Peter's teachings, in fact he was one of more popular teachers and his students listened to him and learned a lot. But then there was the fact that they had already gotten in the crossfire of his enemies had once already, but that wasn't new for them.

"So…now what?" Peter asked Scott. He was afraid that Scott might ask him to leave because of the trouble he could bring, hell the students already were kidnapped once already and to tell the truth he knew that trouble just seemed to come after him.

"That all depends on you," Scott said sitting back in his chair. "Honestly we still need you and your…'brother' here since we could use all the staff we can get."

"But how do we explain our powers?" Ben sighed sending a hand through his blond hair. "I mean I know you guys won't say anything to anyone if we asked and we are but what about all the students here? Not to mention the Brotherhood."

That took a moment to think on things. The Brotherhood were being detained while SHIELD was on their way to pick them up and Scott then turned to Emma. "You think you and the other telepaths could wipe their minds?"

Emma looked at Rachel and Betsy silently talking to each other. "Yes I think so but I'm not sure if we can get all the students, some of them are already telepaths and a few are resistors."

"Why not claim to be mutants?" Northstar offered them. "I mean they didn't see any spider powers like webs or hanging on the walls."

Peter and Ben looked at each other considering that. "I could work." Peter shrugged.

"Yeah but what do we say when they ask why didn't we say we were mutants?" His 'twin' asked.

Peter just grinned and Ben did too as they thought of the same thing. "They didn't ask." Both said at the same time.

"Great now there's two of them." Logan muttered under his breath.

"If we're done here then I need to leave," Cain said moving towards the door. "I…I have to call Sammy's mom…" He wasn't looking forward to that, but if anyone had to do it, it was him. Lord what was he going to say to her? How was he going to tell her? He didn't know…he just wanted this to all be a nightmare and wake up from this.

-Parker Apartment, Later that day-

Peter had gotten home and Ben was out looking at a new place so he decided to start up dinner for them all. He was getting things ready and while he waited he just sat down and thought about everything. His secret being exposed, the attack and that poor boy Sammy's death, that was the hardest thing. He had seen death too many times in his life, so many lives he had seen ended. He saw great potential in the boy and the fact he had died was just too tragic.

He sat there at the kitchen counter feeling like hell actually. He was slumped over the table just feeling that familiar aching pain in his chest. He knew Ben was feeling it too. So far with Jubilee and Angelo's help they had spread the rumor around that Peter and Ben were actually mutants also.

This had caused a few other rumors like they were secret members of the X-Men, or undercover SHIELD agents and his favorite had to be the one that he was really an alien. He had tried to go through the motions of class but word of one of the students dying hadn't been easy for a few of them.

He heard the door open in the apartment and then heard MJ's voice. He was so happy to hear that voice again. "Hey Tiger what's new? That smells great." She leaned down from behind and kissed his cheek and then noticed to the look in his eyes. "Peter…what's wrong?"

They sat down in the living room as he told her everything that had happened. She wrapped him up in his arms holding him close to her. She felt her soft skin against his, the smell of her red hair, her hands softly stroking the back of his head. He may have super strength, he may be able to be fast and agile, he had gone up against some pretty nasty people in his life, he had been shot, stabbed, and hurt in more ways then he could count.

But there were times he just felt like he was about to break from it all. That he would just shatter inside, he had a few times the worst had been when Carnage's freaky girlfriend Shriek had messed with him and he wasn't Peter anymore he had been The Spider…that had been a peek at just how dark he could go when life pushed him too far.

Right now though being in MJ's arms, the woman he loved more then life itself was the only thing at times that kept him together. She was his true strength at times like this, not the powers but their love for each other. To him that was more powerful then any of his abilities and just being in her arms like this was more powerful then that time he had those cosmic powers for that very brief period of time. She was the real reason he had lasted so long as he did.

After awhile he pulled back and placed his head on her shoulder. "I should get back to the dinner or it will get burned."

"I'll take care of it Peter." She said gently to him. She couldn't think what it's like to have gone through that. She knew how much a tragedy it was to lose a child and her heart went out to the boy's mother. She had remembered seeing him that time of the baseball game, he was hard to forget and she remembered how happy he looked. She placed a kiss on Peter's head and went back to the kitchen.

She just didn't know how Peter could keep going at times. All the death, pain, and suffering he's seen and had gone through…she tried to think of all the victims he saw as Spider-Man and at times she just couldn't picture it, he didn't want to picture it. She knew that Peter was a good man and he didn't deserve to have the things that had happen to him. Ever before he was Spider-Man it seemed Peter's life was one of the universe making it difficult. His parents dying, his lonely childhood, his uncle…and then the list went on after that.

She felt tears on her face thinking of all the pain her husband and the love of her life went through and it was just so unfair. She had seen how it ate away at him at times and it was just so…unfair.

-Italy, Rome-

A random guard of one of Rome's great museums was doing the graveyard shift just going about his business. So far he was taking a look in the antiquities section where there was a rare blood red jewel was one of the displays. It sat there in a glass case but it was an ugly thing, twisted and when you looked at it you felt cold inside. It was one of reasons it was called the 'Devil Stone', personally he hated the thing, it made his skin crawl.

He was about to go to the security room for his lunch break when the windows high up on the wall suddenly exploded. The shockwave sent him to his stomach and his ears were ringing from the blast. He shook his head and at first he heard nothing but then he heard the alarm he also felt a wetness on his head and touched it and saw blood on his finger tips, not much but he might have a concussion from debris that had hit him.

Slowly as his hearing cleared up he heard high pitched laughing that chilled him to the bones then a roaring sound and two gruesome figures, one green and other brown flew in on giant bats. "Oh il mio dio. ..demons è venuto!" 1 The guard whispered to himself dragging himself out of the way and out of sight.

The Green Goblin and the original Hobgoblin stopped at red stone and Norman went down and smashed opened the reinforced glass and took the gem and both flew out. As they made their way out into the night sky Roderick the Hobgoblin had to ask Norman why their ally said this was needed for the plan to work, not that he knew what exactly the plan fully was and he doubted Norman knew too.

"I have no idea, but this had better been worth the trip," He told his temporary ally. "Or else I'll rip that spider's throat out." He muttered to himself, referring to Shadow Spider. He wasn't sure what the bug had planned but it had better be good his patience was wearing thing as it was and he hoped that this was all going to pay off in some way.

NEXT UP CHAPTER 41: COMPLEX EMOTIONS

Kurt asks for relationship advice, the Paige/Warren/Betsy triangle comes to a close and maybe Ben finds a woman he could start a relationship with.

1 - Oh my god...demons have come!