Author's confession: This was supposed to be the last chapter, but one of you had asked for a supervillian to appear, so . . .

Chapter Five

Mary Jane was at a complete loss for words. The shock of seeing Peter's head atop Spider-Man's body had turned her whole world upside down and shattered whatever illusions she was harboring about marrying John Jameson. She just stared at Peter with a combination of elation, fascination, and shock. "I really don't know what to say," she whispered numbly as she gazed into his big blue eyes. "I mean . . . everything just sort of came together in my mind, but I only half-expected . . . I still can't believe it."

"Believe it, M.J." Peter urged softly as he reached out with his gloved hand to touch her cheek. "Now do you understand why I've been empty seat all these months?"

Tears began to well up again from behind her eyes. "Oh Peter, I can't believe I said those awful things about you . . . to you . . . forgive me, please." She leaned closer, lifting her lips toward his, intending to finish what she had started.

But Peter drew his face away from hers. He stroked her left hand, running his fingers lightly over her engagement ring. "You have to go back." he said, fighting to contain his own grief.

"What?" she gasped, dumbfounded, her mind refusing to accept what she had just heard.

"John told you to settle all your issues, didn't he? Well, now you know the truth about me, and you know why we can't be together. I guess that means those issues are settled."

"No they aren't settled!" Mary Jane shouted, more out of desperation than anger. "Can you really expect me to marry John, knowing what I know, knowing how I feel? You think I want a father-in-law who's always trashing the man who saved my life?" After a valiant effort to keep her composure, she lost it again, burying her face in her hands. "I can't survive without you, Peter," she wept. "I love you. And I know you love me."

Although Peter's demeanor was caring and compassionate, his convictions were unalterable. "Of course I love you, Mary Jane," he said gently, "And that's exactly why I have to let you go."

For the second time that evening, Mary Jane felt as if she was losing everything. But this time, it was far worse. "What about me?" she wailed. "Don't I get to have a say in this? I can't go through life only half-alive!"

Peter realized that he had his work cut out for him in trying to convince her that she would be better off without him. He wrapped his arm around her slender shoulders. "Look, M.J. The truth is, I'm struggling to support two households. I've been fired from seven jobs in six months. I can't pay my bills and I'm about an inch away from losing my scholarship. But on top of all that, I've still got my job to do." He quickly put his mask back on, so that Mary Jane would be spared the sight of his tears. "I'll always love you, M.J., but the bottom line is, I just can't be there for you. John can, and he will."

He looked into her beautiful, pleading eyes once more. "Believe me," he said, his voice a hairsbreadth away from breaking, "once you walk down that aisle in your beautiful white dress, you'll forget all about me . . . Now come on . . . he's waiting."

As he forced those words out of his mouth, Peter almost wished for a squadron of biplanes to appear out of the horizon and grant him a merciful ending. But he quickly stifled those horrible thoughts and turned to the business at hand, strapping M.J. to his back, this time with a lighter web mesh, to give her some more flexibility for the trip downward.

"Comfortable, M.J.?" he asked.

Mary Jane nodded, saying nothing. She just held onto him and shut her eyes tightly, bravely refusing to let another teardrop fall. But her grief at losing Peter was inconsolable.

Slowly, carefully, Peter began his descent from the summit of the Empire State building. He didn't even bother firing a webline. He just leaped from rooftop to rooftop in the general direction of Greenwich Village, taking his time, prolonging his last moments with the woman he loved as much as possible.

Just as they reached the outer edge of the Village, Peter's spider-sense went off. The reaction was so intense that everything around them appeared frozen. A deep angry bellow suddenly cut through the ominous silence, followed by an earsplitting crash.

From fifteen stories above Broadway, Peter and Mary Jane could clearly see the shattered remains of a black Lexus RX 330.

"Oh my God!" Mary Jane shrieked. "That's John's SUV!"

The driver's side of the vehicle had been torn away, as if struck by a very powerful projectile. Peter knew right away that this was an attack, not an accident. The modus operendi was unmistakable. "Alex," he growled, now in full battle mode.