This chapter does contain mention of the KKK, though none of the racial violence, slurs, or other tropes are going to appear here. There is a general idea of they're racist fucks, but we're not giving them much in terms of time of day here. Just spying and calling them names and a lot of death to them. Yay. There is two uses of an outdated term in that's actually in reference to an old Newspaper, but I have no use or desire to use slurs. The Negro World ran from 1918 to 1933, and the history of it is pretty interesting if you all want to give it a look~! Public bathhouses were placed due to a need for hygiene to increase, but they all went out of greater use after the AIDs epidemic. The history of the KKK in New York is kind of interesting in that they wound up being pretty much run out in the 20s.

Now that that's all written up, my guys, fair fucking warning... this bitch is 20339 words. It is a GIANT. Take your time, be kind to yourselves. If you notice anything wonky with my formatting, or a section repeats, please let me know! I've had some issues posting this chapter!

References:

ephemeralnewyork . wordpress tag/public-baths-new-york-city/ - public bathhouses
newyorkhistoryblog 2014/06/1920s-kkk-recruiting-efforts-in-northern-new-york/ - kkk and New York
en . wikipedia wiki / Negro_World - check out the references on this if you want to find out more in-depth information! Cool stuff can be found in the bottom of the wikipedia articles.


Jeff could think of nothing to say.

In the wake of such horror, what was there to say? Jeff needed to gather his thoughts, he needed to…

"Oniichan," Peni whispered, her voice so soft, so broken, tears streaming down her face, large, almost bubbled tears, so many, so many… "Oniichan, please…please, please…" the spider that was still perching in her hair began tapping against her scalp rhythmically with…whatever those front little legs were called. She wound up picking it up in her hands and almost cradling it, and while on one hand, Jeff very much thought that was weird, it was obviously trying to help.

"We need time," Jeff said, when it became apparent she wasn't going to stop anytime soon, her tears turning into hiccupping sobs, even as the spider kept up its tapping on her hands, and then on her face, being careful of her tears. "We need more time, just…give us a moment, please."

"You have ten minutes. I'll call you back then," Pete agreed, and hung up.

There was an immediate rush to hold or otherwise comfort Peni, shushing her gently, carefully avoiding her spider, that churred in a way that might have been comforting and might have been pleased.

"It's not fair, it's not fair, it's not fair," she whimpered. "He can't be alone; we can't leave him alone!"

"Pete…" Peter started, his voice quiet, "He's going to be on his own sometimes, Peni…"

"No! No, then it… then it will take him over, then it will hurt him, we can't, we can't…" Peni sobbed, the spider rocked back and forth, soothingly, rhythmically, and Jeff had a thought that if it could hum it would.

"Peni," Peter said, putting his hands on her face, brushing her tears out of the way with his thumbs, "Sometimes, Peni. Sometimes. He can't be around us every hour of every day. But I agree. We…we can't just leave him to that. We can't just…" He paused, his head bowing. "I can't. I can't force that decision onto you…"

"Nuh-uh!" Porker said, waving a finger. "You're right, we can't, as in I'm going to help you every step of the way. You're not alone anymore. It's about time that Pete realizes that, too, and we're going to be the ones to teach him."

"I'll help, too," Gwen said, her voice firm, her eyes flashing even past the tears. "He can't…I can't leave him to that. I can't."

"He's my oniichan," Peni whispered, wiping her eyes. "I can't…"

"Alright," Peter agreed, taking a breath, "But I can't ask either of you…"

"I'm in this," Jeff said, his voice holding a firmness to it that he hadn't expected, but as he said it…

Jeff had many regrets. The biggest regret was what had happened between him and his brother. Jeff had turned his back on him, disowned him in a way that had left his brother without the support and lifeline he had had. Jeff sometimes wondered if that was what had made him spiral so far down to the point where he eventually ended up in Kingpin's services. If Jeff had supported him more, if he had stood up for him no matter the difficulty, no matter the hardship…

Maybe Aaron would be alive today. Maybe things would have turned out different. Maybe his brother wouldn't have made those choices… And maybe he still would have. There wasn't much that had stopped him.

Not even Aaron's love of Miles had been enough.

Now that Jeff was given another opportunity, where the choice was turn his back, or stand with someone no matter the consequence, particularly when it might stave off the very thing that Pete was becoming… Particularly when they might literally be the difference between life and death, and ultimately…

Even if Pete did turn, even if the worst did occur… They would be able to rescue his body and give him a proper burial. They'd be able to save him from being an exhibit.

And Jeff would know he had done all he could.

"I'm in this, too," Rio said, putting her hand on his. "We can't…I can't walk away from this. Pete…he needs help. He needs help, not for us to turn our backs, and I can't…I can't do that to him. I…" Rio shook her head. "I don't think I could live with myself. Not when…I've seen people that have. People that have come to see an estranged family member that's sick or dying. In those moments…there's only regret. I can't live like that. I know…I know how much it hurts…" Rio's hand tightened her hold around his, and Jeff closed his eyes, bowing his head. "I don't…I don't know how I feel about Miles, but…"

"No!" Miles called out, his voice firm, his eyes flashing, even past the visible redness. "You can't shut me out! Not when…not after all this! You raised me with better values than that, you raised me with…I can't, I won't. He needs help and all the help he can get and…" Miles hesitated, rubbing his face, wiping away tears. "I had fun…I had fun with him, I liked him. I wanted to be friends, and I still…I still never showed him the photos I picked out for him, and we were going to work on colors, and…"

"Alright," Rio said, kissing his forehead gently, "Alright, Miles, you, too."

Jeff held him tightly, pressing his own kiss to his temple. "I'm proud of you," he whispered into his son's ear. Miles blinked, before pressing himself tighter to him.

"Alright," Peter said, a smile on his face. "I guess that's our answer then."

The spider began cheering. Jeff couldn't decide if that was cute or terrifying.

"I need to remake his goober," Peni whispered, her voice broken.

"What do you mean, Peni?" Porker asked.

"I was planning to…when we had contact with him," Peni answered, wiping her eyes. "His goober will stand out as it is, it needs to be remade, if only coated with external parts to disguise the interior."

"He asked for a do not disturb feature," Peter said.

"But what if he never comes back?" Peni shouted. "What if I give him that and he never comes back? It…it'll be my fault, and…"

"No, no, hush…" Peter said, petting her gently, pulling her close. "It won't be your fault, no one would blame you. Pete makes his own choices and we'd recognize that. It would never be your fault. But what if someone accidentally calls him and he's in the middle of a case, or facing one of those monsters? If that happens…then he could die, Peni. It's a very practical request, and it wouldn't be for running, it would just be for safety."

Peni wiped her eyes, sniffing, before finally nodding. "Okay," she said. "Okay, I'll make one…"

Porker pressed a swift kiss to her forehead, careful to avoid the Spider, making Peni blink, before throwing her arms around the pig and holding him tight. The sudden chime of Peter's watch made them separate, all of them doing their best to wipe their eyes and regain some composure before Peter answered.

"Well?" Pete asked, his voice almost toneless. It had the same amount of space, though, in the way it sounded, that made Jeff realize that Pete hadn't left the Freak Show. "What's your decision?"

"Sweetie," Rio started, clearing her throat as it cracked. "If you think for one second all that would scare us away…you've got another thing coming."

"Yeah!" Peni called out. "You're my oniichan," she sniffed. "I could never leave you. I love you."

"I have to show you more colors, I even looked up the history of television for you," Miles added. "I've got so much to show you, man!"

"I lost one best friend," Gwen said, her voice soft, but still clear. "I refuse to lose another."

"You're stuck with us," Peter said, shrugging even though Pete couldn't see it.

"We're with you until the end, bucko," Porker affirmed. "And if that means it ends like you fear…well…"

"We'll steal your body," Jeff said, his voice firm. "We'll steal you back and put you to rest. You won't end up like that."

There was silence for a very long moment.

"Copper wants to steal…" Pete finally hummed softly.

"If it means you're properly put to rest and treated with the respect and dignity you deserve…yes," Jeff insisted. "You shouldn't…you shouldn't fear that. It's sick and it's wrong, no matter what those people did, they…they were just wanting to help. It isn't their fault." Jeff paused, his head lowering. "It wouldn't be yours either."

There was a longer silence, before suddenly a portal opened up, and Pete tumbled out of it.

Everyone stood up at once, moving towards him, but he scuttled back and away from their press, right in the farthest corner of the room and perched there. He waited for a moment, making sure that they weren't going to come for him again, probably, and finally spoke.

"If you're really going to do this…if you really want me to stick around, then I have to show you how to find it." He looked out the window at the sun that was just starting to set. "Grab the Davis-Morales family, we have to swing. Get ready. I don't know who has to carry who, but you can decide."

"I need to get SP/dr!" Peni cried out, and opened her own portal, jumping through. Gwen, who was not at all dressed in appropriate wear for swinging immediately leapt through her own portal, Porker, and Peter both giving out quiet curses before also leaping through to get changed.

Soon, it was just them and Pete. For a moment there was silence, Pete still wedged into the corner. Jeff didn't know what to say, and then Rio gave a soft sniffle, wiping at her eyes. Pete's attention shot to her immediately, and then shot to Miles' and then…he slowly crawled down the wall, his expression hidden by that mask.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

What's wrong…? What's wrong…?

"I think, sweetie," Rio said softly. "What's wrong is…well…"

"Your world sucks," Miles interrupted, earning himself a hissed,

"Miles!" from both Jeff, and Rio.

"It's where I'm from," Pete said, his voice mild. Miles flinched at the statement. "You're not completely wrong," Pete finally finished quietly. "Your world…it's got something I never expected to see again."

"What's that?" Rio asked.

"Hope," Pete answered, in what would have been such a cheesy statement…if it wasn't for the fact that Jeff had been listening to Pete's world. Pete was right. His world lived without hope. Pete fighting day after day wasn't so much hope as it was its own brand of stubbornness, Jeff thought. One last 'fuck you' to the gods that preyed upon it, and ultimately Pete himself.

The others began jumping back through before he could respond, Peni's mech careful in how she arrived. Soon they were all there in full costume. In a way it was a bit intimidating, honestly, even though he knew all the people under the mask.

"Alright, who's carrying who?" Porker asked, "I volunteer for Miles!"

"Are you able to…well, to hold him securely?" Jeff asked, looking from the much shorter pig to his son. Porker rolled his eyes expansively, taking a few steps over to Miles.

"Sure!" he called out, reaching one arm out….and reaching, and reaching, and finally taking that expanse and wrapping it around Miles' carefully, literally tying it in a bow around him to hold him steady. "Ta-da!" he cried out.

Miles looked somewhere between amazed, amused, and mildly fearful. "Can someone else carry me?" he asked.

"I got it," Gwen said. "You're gonna have to piggyback, if that's alright?"

"What's a piggyback?" Porker asked, frowning, even as he literally untied his arm, which snapped back to his side. There was a moment of awkward silence before Gwen moved into position, and Miles clambered up, Gwen hopping him more securely into position as his arms wrapped around her shoulders. Porker took one long silent look while his ears drooped lower and lower and his head tilted back farther and farther, before finally. "That is…highly inappropriate."

"Wo~ah!" Miles shouted out, hopping off immediately, Gwen launching herself across the room to stick against the wall, their hands coming up.

"Why'd you have to say that?" Gwen yelled out.

Peter burst out laughing, which started Peni off in her own series of mechanical-sounding giggles, which was somewhere between odd and amusing to watch as the robot moved to reflect a little girl ducking and covering her mouth as she laughed. It made Jeff smile, and Rio finally laughed herself. Porker pouted, crossing his arms.

"Well it is!" he called out, stomping his hoof. "How would you feel if I called it a peopleback?"

Peter wheezed, covering his face with his hands.

"We don't have time for this," Pete said finally, voice sharp and pointed, a hiss building. "I don't have time for this. Pair up, I don't care with what or how." Pete moved to the window and threw it open. "Catch up," he said, and dove out.

"Shit!" Peter shouted, "Jeff with me, Rio with Peni, Miles with Gwen, Porker after him!" Jeff immediately moved over as Porker jumped out after Pete, and Peter moved towards the window, climbing out and sticking just outside of it. Jeff hesitated when Peter indicated that he climb onto his back, before shrugging mentally and grabbing on. How else was the man supposed to swing after the whirling dervish that was Pete with only one arm? After making sure that he was situated, Peter leapt from the window, Peni taking his place a second afterwards, Rio grabbing hold of some struts that appeared and locked her in place against the body of the mech. Gwen was once again carrying Miles.

Jeff decided he did not much like webslinging. While he was thankful Peter had used a bit of webbing to keep him locked in place, it was still not much fun to have the terrible stomach-dropping feeling of falling to his death, suddenly interposed with the stomach-rolling feeling of ascent. While Peter did his best to keep them mostly level and checked with him periodically to make sure he was still alright, it was still cold, it was still windy, and he wished he had grabbed a coat.

How the hell did Peter do this kind of thing in spandex?

Pete lead them to the middle of Times Square, which surprised him at first, particularly when he landed on one of the taller buildings and stood there still. Peter removed the webbing with a solvent he plucked from inside his glove and carefully made sure Jeff could stand on his own two feet before letting go of him, which was definitely something Jeff appreciated. Porker was already standing there with his hands on his hips.

"-and another thing," the pig was saying, looking up at Pete with his eye-lenses narrowed in a glare. "You can't just expect for people that have never web swung before to do it without a coat! It's cold and it's windy, they're not used to that! You wear one, how's it right for them to wear less?"

"You lot wear spandex," Pete answered, looking at the pig with an almost bemused glance, even with the goggles covering his eyes. "I didn't realize that was a Spider thing. I don't…carry people. I didn't know."

Porker visibly deflated, rubbing his face, and sighing. "That's fair, kid. I'm sorry for snapping. But now you know. First rule, make sure they get a coat."

Pete looked at Jeff, and then glanced over at Rio, whose hair was a disheveled mess, and Miles, who had the wind-swept look that Jeff figured he had as well. Jeff immediately went over to huddle with Rio and Miles, the wind racing across the building at this height almost cutting. Peni's SP/dr moved forward, positioning itself to block most of the wind, which was a big help.

For a moment Pete did nothing, and then he took three large and decisive steps over, swinging his own coat off of his shoulders and wrapping it around them, Jeff instinctively grasping the edges.

"Thank you," he said, almost missing his son's surprised gasp, and the way Rio took hold of it as well, her fingers almost reverent as they carefully ran along the inseam.

"I'm sorry," Pete said, actively looking in the other direction. "I didn't think about it."

"It's alright," Rio said, and Pete gave them a harsh jerk of a nod, before walking towards the edge. He stood there for a moment, his head tilted.

"Are you sure it's here?" Peni asked. "None of my sensors can pinpoint it," she said.

Pete turned to look at her in what seemed to be surprise, before asking, "How wide of a range do you have?"

"At the widest my SP/dr picks up anything in a 400-meter radius," Peni answered, her voice proud. "It helps to make sure no one can sneak up on us."

Pete frowned, looking over at a building less than a city-block away and then back to Peni. "I don't think your sensors can pick it up, Peni," he said.

Jeff felt his stomach drop.

Peni's sensors had been one of the things that had initially assured them that the thing had gone. If she couldn't pick it up, then how…?

"Regular humans can sense them," Pete said. "I've seen it before, so I know it can happen. I'm not sure how much easier it is with spidersense, though I will say I think the fact that we're constantly on the alert for something like this…we might have a bit of an advantage. I don't think that you have to be from my universe, but we'll test that theory regardless."

"Where is it?" Peni asked, her voice shaking.

Pete pointed to the side of the building in front of him, his other hand holding his hat to his head. "Right there," Pete said, his voice affecting a melodic, almost rhythmic tone. "You can't trust your eyes, they lie to you, and it hides, but you can feel it."

Jeff stared at where Pete was pointing, doing his best not to blink.

"I feel it in my gut, not with my spidersense. A subtle wrongness, a feeling like you're going to throw up, a…sickness, call it what you will. It doesn't belong here, and when you see it, when you know that it's there, your body rebels at the sight of it, at the feeling of it."

Jeff listened, and tried to reach out, tried to find what it was that Pete referred to. He tried to remember the feeling of standing in his kitchen a couple days before, staring up, up, up at something that he couldn't see, at the feeling of Pete trying to keep it away, trying to remember if he felt anything more than fear, than confusion.

And then he remembered.

A snaking dread that had welled up in him, right before Pete had drawn his attention to him completely by gripping his shirt, as he stared up at something and.

It.

Stared.

Back.

Jeff felt it then, knew he was looking at it, knew it was there. Could feel it in his very marrow, could feel it in his stomach, his skin breaking out in a cold sweat that made the wind that much more biting, his eyes widening impossibly as though that would allow him to see it. He wanted to run. He wanted to scream.

It was there. It was there. It was there.

Jeff clung to Miles and Rio, held them both tighter, felt the urge to run and hide, to drag them with him. He knew that Miles had seen it when he gave a sound like he had been punched, and pressed back into him, into Rio, his eyes wide, and so horrified, the whites of his eyes showing all the way around his iris. Rio was next, clinging to them both, but it seemed that the Spiders were slower.

Jeff wondered if the reason for that was because they were so used to relying on their extra sense that they had to force themselves beyond that.

Then they finally did see it and it visibly affected them more. Gwen clasped her hands to the back of her neck, taking a physical step back, even as she hunched in what had to be pain. Peter jerked back as though struck, his hands moving forward as though to ward it away or otherwise deny it. Porker literally threw up in a way Jeff hadn't expected, stepping away from the puddle of sick a moment later, and looking up at it with lenses that pinched in the middle, still hunched. Peni crouched low, a low moaning sound rattling through those speakers, hugging herself.

Jeff wanted to comfort them, but found himself physically unable to move, pinned under the weight of the awful thing pressed against that building.

"That's it," Pete said, his head tilting. "You can't see it, but you'll always know when it's close, just by the feel." Pete looked at them, then. "If you ever feel it when I'm not around, if you ever notice that creeping dread…you need to tell me immediately. It will have broken a blood-oath, and the consequences to that, even to that…thing, are dire."

Jeff held onto his family tightly, closing his eyes against it. It was too much. It was all too much.

"We can take them home now," Pete said. "If you need to take a moment to recover, look around you. There's enough grounding points that it shouldn't be hard to shake the feeling."

The sudden realization that Pete had brought them to Times Square because of the multitude of billboards and advertisements hit him then. Everywhere Jeff looked was another reminder of home, another reminder of what was tangible, what was… Jeff couldn't refer to the thing as unreal. As much as he couldn't see it…it was there, it was real. Jeff could feel it now, and he would always be able to feel it.

For Pete to see what caused that. To not just feel but actually see… The thought was enough to give him nightmares, and Jeff focused on an ad for Kola.

After a few minutes of staring around at all of the advertisements, at breathing the smell of the city and feeling the wind, at the feeling of his family in his arms, and the Spiders around him, Jeff no longer felt like throwing up.

He no longer felt as though he had stared into the Void and it had stared back.

The Spiders, however, looked much the same, and Jeff had to wonder if it was because his world wasn't as familiar, or if it was the fact that they were standing on their own. Pete hasn't moved to help them, goggles and mask as impassive as ever, but his coat was still around Jeff and his family.

"You still want to do this?" Pete asked over the wind, just as it suddenly changed direction. The sudden smell of rain washed over Jeff as it came from that building, cloying and thick, sending shudders down the length of his spine, and he felt his family press into him, huddling further down into the coat that was acting as a blanket. "This follows me wherever I go," Pete said. "It won't touch you, but it will be there. Are you sure you want to do this?"

Jeff clung to his family, felt them cling to him, and then Peter walked forward. The man's legs were shaky, and he looked visibly sick, but he still managed to walk directly up to Pete, and finally threw his arms around him.

"We ain't letting go, bud," Peter whispered, the wind carrying his voice back to them. "Not even that can make us let go."

Jeff forced his own legs to move then, and with him his family walked, too, collecting Porker with them, and then Gwen. Peni coming up behind them, until finally they were all able to press against Pete, holding him tightly. He was stiff in their midst, until finally he bowed his head, and quietly, so quietly,

"Okay…"

They parted finally, and Peter once again moved to carry Jeff back, before Peni's robot revealed two sets of struts. "I can't carry Miles, but I have enough for two people!"

"Why didn't you mention that before?" Peter griped.

"You all jumped out too fast!" Peni answered, her hands on her hips.

"I was going after Pete," Peter responded, Pete took that moment to dive off the building, all of them looking after him. "And there he goes again. After him!"

Porker jumped off of the building, followed by Gwen who pulled Miles back onto her back. Jeff threw the coat that he was still holding around Rio, and they both climbed into the harnesses, which locked them tight. Peni leapt off then, and Jeff had to admit this was a bit smoother than getting there had originally been, but not by much. The swing was still the same, and due to the position, the wind was actually much worse, as there was nothing to cut it in the same way Peter's body had done. Peni swung them in silence, which was fine. Plenty more time to think.

And there was so much to think about.

The wind smells like rain.

The Void stares back.

They finally arrived home, all of them carefully sneaking into the window of the living room, where Pete was once again pressed into the corner. Jeff got the idea that he really didn't want them to touch him, and he thought he could understand that. Rio removed the coat from her shoulders and held it up to him. After a moment, Pete climbed down and took it back from her.

"Thank you," he said stiffly.

"No, thank you," she responded, shaking her head. "I know how much that coat means to you…just… Thank you for entrusting us with it."

"It was my fault," Pete answered. There was a moment of silence.

"More hot cocoa?" Rio asked. Pete shook his head.

"Not for me, I have to go back."

"Wait!" Peni cried out, and the mech opened. Peni tumbled out then, her eyes still wet and red from crying, her face pale and drawn. "Wait, I…your goober… I need to remake it. I need the hardest steel you can find from your world, something that can be the basis for the covering of the goober, since…since your world is in black and white… As it is, the goober stands out." Peni took a deep breath. "I also…I also need to make a do not disturb feature," she said, wiping her face. "I need to make sure you don't get caught."

Pete paused for a moment, before giving her a nod. "I'll be back," he said, and a portal opened after he slid through the clicks to reach it and opened it with a careful double-tap.

Rio went into the kitchen with Miles and Gwen, the three of them moving to get the hot chocolate started. Porker walked over to Peni and tugged her down to his level, before wrapping his arms around her tightly.

"I'm proud of you, kiddo," he whispered. "I know that was hard, but it's important."

Peni nodded miserably, hugging onto him tightly. Peter ruffled her hair, stooping down and pressing a kiss to her forehead. "He'll be back."

After a moment, the portal once again opened, and Pete stood there holding a pale gray metal that reflected the light in the same odd way Pete did. It was a spike, he noticed, something that looked like it had been driven into concrete. "I couldn't bend it," Pete said in explanation, holding it out. "They use them to secure the cases. There's a bit of fear that they might actually get up and walk one of these days, so they make the cases just about indestructible. Most I could do is work it out of the concrete."

"That'll probably work perfectly," Peni said, taking it from him. She hesitated then, taking a breath. "You know…you'll either have to take it off now, or I'll have to take it from you in your own world."

"You can't go to my world," Pete commanded.

"But…" Peni started.

"No." Pete swiped his hand in front of his chest. "None of you are allowed to go to my world. Aside from the fact that there's an entire problem with poverty and crime and awful racism…I'm worried about the spiders… I haven't been able to kill them all, and I have a feeling that if it finds you… I think they might try and bite. You do not want my curse." There was a moment while he waited for their agreement or otherwise acknowledgement, before he finally took a breath. "I'll give it to you now…but how am I going to get back?"

"The goober has another feature," Peni said, wiping her eyes. "If you open the menu," she said, doing so. "You can go to this screen here," she shifted through the screens until one marked 'doorway' appeared, "and this will allow you to open a doorway into another's world, as in…basically bypass the falling through the void, bit. It will open it where programmed if you insert the formula here, or the last place a portal was opened if you just open it like usual."

"So, it's just like opening a doorway into another's world, and I won't have to worry about getting stuck between the dimensions without the goober, or accidentally heading somewhere else?" Pete asked.

"Exactly," Peni answered, nodding. "It will…it will make your world visible to us, but none of us will go through."

Pete hesitated for a moment, before giving a sharp nod. "Okay," he said. "Let's do it…"

"Wait!" Rio called out, Miles and Gwen both helping her carry out hot chocolate for everyone. "It was cold, and you never drank any," Rio said, and she held out the extra cup she had brought for him. "Take it, drink."

Pete hesitated, before finally rolling his mask up enough to reveal his mouth and taking it from her. "Thank you," he said.

Jeff took his own hot chocolate that Gwen handed to him, and idly wondered if the reason Pete wasn't taking his mask all the way off was because he didn't want to reveal that he had been crying, or how much everything was affecting him. Either way, Pete still stood against the wall, even as the rest of them moved to sit or stand around him, not touching, and giving him enough gaps to let him escape, but there.

Pete had been on his own for over a year. In the grand scheme of things, that wasn't much, but for a seventeen-year-old whose entire life was a series of isolating traumas… If it wasn't for the fact that the kid had basically had service to others drilled into his brain, Jeff wouldn't have been surprised if he had eventually started taking it out on the world around him. As it was, it seemed that most of that pain had been turned inward instead of outward.

Jeff's general takeaway, however, was the fact that Pete was not used to people that cared about him. Pete wasn't used to people that wanted to hug him, and he certainly wasn't used to people accepting him completely, curse or no curse. Jeff wasn't surprised that Pete was behaving like he was, he was honestly surprised that he wasn't acting worse.

Pete needed time to realize that he couldn't push them away, and even more patience.

Rio leaned into him, and Jeff leaned back, bringing Miles into their midst once again. The cocoa was nice, cutting into the chill and warming him back up from the swing, and also from the lingering dread that…thing had inflicted. Pete seemed startled after his initial sip, looking at the cocoa, his mouth pulling into a slightly surprised shape.

"Told you it was good," Rio said smugly. Pete hesitated, before raising the mug to her in something like a toast and taking another sip.

The silence that swept over them was calming, the cocoa and the company combining to make something of a shelter from the thing that waited in the night. He hoped that Pete was able to take in some of that comfort as well. Too soon, the cocoa was gone, and Pete was looking impatient again. Pete frowned slightly and pulled his mask on fully.

"Alright, who's going to open the portal for me?" he asked.

"I will," Peter answered, immediately opening the screen that Peni had shown them and clicking the icon. It blinked twice.

"Spin it six for Pete," Peni instructed, and Peter did so. "Press the button once."

There was a pause as Peter hit it, and then, like a doorway opening in air, the wall of Jeff's living room opened.

It made his eyes hurt.

Any attempts Jeff might have made at staring into Pete's world more closely were interrupted by Pete ripping the goober off. The glitch that passed through him was strong, and he fell to his knees, before keeling over in a graceless heap, black and white tearing him apart, and to Jeff's horror, it looked like he was glitching in the direction of his own world. Cries and shouts of alarm echoed around him, terror running through them at the sight. For a moment he wondered if it would literally tear him apart, that it would split him in half in its desire to bring him back when the door was right there, and then Pete solidified.

Pete pushed himself upright shakily, panting, and stood there with his arms wrapped over his torso. He held his goober out to Peni, who took it with trembling fingers. He gave them a nod, and then strode into his universe.

Pete turned to look at them one last time, and that was when Jeff finally got a good look at Pete's world…and the Freak Show Pete had brought them to.

Pete stood in the center of a ring of glass cases, each of them holding something that much more frightening than the last. The shadows were black, amorphous things that almost seemed to reach towards them, cast from some light source that Jeff couldn't see. There was the man that had been twisted and torn apart into something with multiple tentacles, all of them positioned in such a way to appear as though it was slamming them against the glass, large eyes the size of dinnerplates black as night staring out of a malformed head. There was the little girl who looked as though her back had been ripped apart, feathers and wings sprouting out of it, forcing her into a crouch, her beak catching the light and glinting cruelly.

There was the humanoid forms of the Goblin and the Vulture. The Goblin with its scales and its eyes, and the Vulture, whose large fanged mouth was pulled into a terrifying smile, claws held out beckoning them closer.

The other cases that surrounded them all held unimaginable horrors, twisted and malformed, their bodies rotten to the core.

Pete stood in the middle of this, as human-looking as Jeff, framed perfectly by a glass case just behind him.

In that one moment, Jeff swore to himself that this would never be Pete's fate, and then Peter closed the portal, and Pete was gone.


It took Peni three days before she was fully finished with the modifications to Pete's goober and the changing of the casing into something that would fit in his world. The first day…Peni had had the most terrible nightmares, and when she had reached out to Gwen and Miles, she found that they had much the same. The nightmares had calmed, but the anxiety had not.

The metal that Pete had brought her had been harder than she had first suspected and she needed to ask Pete what it was at some point, because it didn't read as properly…inorganic. If Peni didn't know any better she might have suspected it to be a type of bone, but that didn't make much sense. Or perhaps the metal was mixed with bone… It was possible that due to Pete's world being the way it was, people would have a great deal more…superstitions. Regardless, she had eventually crafted it into something that housed the internal structures securely and protected them completely to the point where it was on par with the rest of them.

And then she had to create the do not disturb feature, as well as make it so his alert tones could be felt by a soft vibration on his wrist, noiseless, but something he would be able to feel. The thing that had initially caused her so much grief had now become a priority to do right, though this took a great deal longer than she had initially anticipated.

Part of the issue had stemmed from making it so Pete's goober, when the do not disturb was activated, would block any portals from opening into his world. It took a while to modify the necessary jamming signal and make it so the only thing that could be done would be that doorway so when he could finally jump through, he could do so quicker.

Peni was certain now that Pete would mostly be using it when he was investigating something, or when he was under immediate threat. Giving him the ability to make a quick escape was necessary, so she had spent a long time making it so Pete's goober would connect to any doorway that was opened for it automatically, with special precedence going to the one who had opened it first.

When she was finally done with that, she spent time with one last feature that she thought would be wonderful for everyone.

The ability to take pictures and video. She had created a spot for the lens already, as well as the microphone, so when she finally finished crafting everything and setting up the internal storage, it slotted into place without a hitch.

Peni held the finished goober in her hands, looking it over one last time with a critical eye, before opening the camera option and taking a quick selfie with her Spider, smiling wide, her free hand giving a peace sign even as her Spider crossed his pedipalps and leaned back. It made her laugh. That would be the first thing he saw when he looked through the photos. She hoped he liked it. After a moment of hesitation, Peni began programming her goober to find Pete, dictating to a small machine that printed out a series of directions that she would tape to the back of the goober before she threw it to Pete.

Peni had learned her lesson the first time. She would never doubt Pete's capacity to understand and follow directions again. It would be best to open a portal like she had with Peter B and throw the watch through that way. That way she wasn't really in his universe and she could still make sure it got to him at the same time.

Peni took a breath when the page finally finished printing, and carefully folded it. It had taken a long time to find paper and a machine that still typed, but it was necessary given the people she was giving directions to. It was also easier than programming an entire tutorial for the goober. She found that she liked it, though, mainly because it gave her a chance to draw with the markers that Miles had given her on her last visit.

When Miles had learned that she had never colored on paper before he had spent most of the visit showing her how to. Peni found the texture weird, and the fact that the page had…almost a resistance to it, was very odd. But it was also very cool. Peni had had so much fun that Miles gave her a spare pack of markers, and she used that now to color Pete a picture. It wasn't anything too special, she thought, just a rendering of SP/dr and her giving twin peace-signs, but it would hopefully give Pete a spark of something colorful in his life. When she checked the directions, she noticed that the marker had…bled, she thought Miles had called it, through the page some, though not enough to obscure the instructions, which was the important bit.

Finally satisfied, Peni gave it a small smile and carefully attached it to the back of the goober. For a moment she held the goober that belonged to the one she had claimed as her older brother and just looked at it, examining the odd sheen that belonged to his world. Peni closed her eyes and bowed her head. It was time to give it back. It was time to bring Pete back to them. She hoped he missed them as much as she knew they missed him.

It was late now, but she figured that would be the best time to reach him. With any luck, Pete would be about to go to sleep and not running around trying to solve cases.

Peni finished the program that would locate Pete where he was, and opened a portal, throwing the goober into Pete's lap as he swung gently in the breeze in his web-hammock when he sat up to look at her. He tipped his hat to her in thanks, and she shut the portal after giving him an excited wave and a wide smile. Peni knew she couldn't linger.

It would be the last she saw of him for what felt like a very long time.


The first night after Pete had left had been…painful to say the least.

Miles had woken up with a terrible nightmare, a vision of himself growing eight limbs, just as many eyes, and wickedly terrible fangs that he had used to tear apart his parents, limb by limb as they screamed, and screamed, and screamed.

Miles had woken up in a cold sweat, trembling, a scream tearing its way from his own throat. His parents had been quick to come into his room, looking around for what had caused his panic. When they had found him trembling and sweating, eyes wide and wild, they had hugged him tightly, and apologized for being negligent, saying that they shouldn't have let him listen. Miles had insisted quietly that he was glad that he knew, it wasn't their fault, and it wasn't Pete's fault… It just was the way it was. Pete didn't get to trade in his world for a new one, Pete didn't get to escape that fear… It was only right that someone experienced it themselves.

His parents had stayed with him until he fell asleep again, and this time he slept without dreams.

That was a week ago. He hadn't seen Pete in a week, and while he knew that Peni had spent three days of that week fixing Pete's goober, he also knew that she had sent it back. Peni had visited in order to fix his parent's cellphones and give them the ability to talk with the other Spiders, as well as his own phone, due to the fact that Miles' goober had to remain a secret. Though Peni had also revealed she planned to do it with everyone's cellphone, so they could talk to each other without it being so obvious.

They were still in the business of negotiating to let Miles' have his own goober, as well as ones for his parents and potentially Peter B's MJ. As it was, Peni had appeared the day after she had given Pete his goober back to let them know that they would have communication with the whole gang, and then spent the night fixing their phones until they had perfect reception no matter where anyone called or texted from, as well as the ability to send and receive pictures or video.

It was wonderful.

The first thing Miles had done was go throughout the city, taking pictures of his favorite tags, and sending them to Pete.

Miles hadn't heard back, but the images were all left on Read, so he kept sending them. There was the possibility that Pete was busy, or that he was having trouble seeing them properly. He supposed that opening up colorful images in a world of black and white would be difficult to hide, and he had no cellphone he could use to blend in.

When he arrived home, he found his mother kneeling in the middle of the room, black blood-stained gauze in her hands, her eyes staring at nothing. Miles' heart stopped.

"Where's Pete?" Miles asked, looking around, hoping to see the black-and-white teen. "What happened?" he asked, moving towards her. His mom seemed to blink back into focus and turned around, pulling her gloves off she caught his hand and pulled him down, holding him tightly. His mom seemed to blink back into focus and turned around, pulling her gloves off, she caught his hand and pulled him down, holding him tightly. "What's wrong, mom?" he asked, putting up with the sudden hug, doing his best to hug her back. "What happened?"

His mom pressed a kiss to his forehead. "Pete's going to be okay," she said finally.

"What happened?" he repeated for what felt like the hundredth time, anxiety running through him.

"He was stabbed," his mom answered. "It was in an odd spot that he couldn't reach on his own. He came to get help."

Miles felt his heart skip a beat, looking around wildly as though that would make Pete materialize. "He got stabbed?" Miles exclaimed.

"Pete…" his mom took a breath, her head bowing. "He said it wasn't the first time it happened. He made the implication that he'd had it worse, he just…couldn't reach." She rubbed her face, her expression so sad. "I talked to Peter B afterwards, called him up. He wasn't able to tell me the number of times he's been stabbed. I suppose…I never really understood just how dangerous and just how much these vigilantes sacrifice, often without proper care. If he hadn't had me, Pete would have had to try and deal with a knife in his back on his own… Peter B never had someone like me. MJ, bless her heart, isn't a nurse and only has so much training…"

Miles didn't know what to say, his eyebrows pinching together, searching for something to say, when his mom blinked, and looked at him.

"Oh, mijo, I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to vent at you. My brain is just going a mile a minute." She rubbed her face. "Don't worry about me, and don't worry about them, I just…"

"They have you now," Miles said quietly, looking at his mom with wide and imploring eyes. "They have you now. You're going to be able to help them, and they're going to have better medical care than they know what to do with."

His mom blinked before laughing, smiling at him. "Gracias, Miles," she said with a wide grin on her face. Miles gave her an answering grin, nodding.

"You bet, mami. You're so good at this stuff, they're lucky to have you. And you were able to fix Pete up, I'm sure," Miles said, leaning back, an eyebrow rising, that grin turning smug.

"I was," his mom agreed, nodding.

"Then…where is he?" Miles asked, looking around as though he would appear. "Did you put him to bed somewhere to recover?"

"Pete…left already," his mom answered, standing, her mouth in a frown. "He wouldn't stay, though he insisted the reason was because something big was happening in his world."

"But he had a stab wound!" Miles waved his arms over his head. "What happens if he pulls the stitches?"

"…Well…" his mom said, sighing. "We'll just have to see, Miles." She gave him a kiss on his forehead and began cleaning up the gauze and the spools of thread.

"Were you able to feed him at least?" Miles asked, following her into the kitchen to see her throw away the gloves and bandages.

"I did," his mom answered with a nod of her head, the lines around her mouth and eyes softening slightly. "He ate well before he left, so at least one thing went right."

"Good," Miles said, nodding. "I just…I wish I had gotten to see him. He hasn't been answering my texts."

His mom looked at him with surprise on her face. "He won't answer your texts, mijo?"

"No," Miles answered, shaking his head. "From what I understand he won't answer anybody's."

His mom sighed. "I wouldn't take it personally, Miles," she finally said. "I think he's just…testing the water so to speak, and he's not quite sure how to feel about what's happening."

"I wish he'd figure it out, soon," Miles huffed. "I've got stuff to show him…" he paused, wondering how well admitting that he missed seeing him would go over when, according to his parents, he'd only known him for a couple days. Though, in the grand scheme of things, he supposed that he hadn't really known Pete for that much longer. He'd been seeing the other Spiders pretty much regularly, even if it had only been a week, and if not actually seeing them at least texting with them. Miles had been surprised at realizing just how close they had gotten, with how quick everything had moved, but he also thought that… They were like him. He was like them. They had fought together and bled together and…

It was odd, they were like family, it was the only way he could explain it.

And he was missing a brother.

Peni had been right to call him oniichan. The idea of Pete being on his own, of doing his best to push them away, of accepting help from his mom, but not staying around to chat, or acknowledge him in any way… It hurt more than he thought it would.

It felt like he had done something, but he knew he hadn't. Pete was probably still doing his thing where he thought he had to protect him, protect them, but didn't understand that by staying away… No one wanted him to stay away, no one but Pete himself. Miles sighed, rubbing his face.

"Why'd he have to be so stubborn, mami?" Miles asked, looking up at her with a frown on his face. "Why's he like that?"

"Well…" his mom sighed, rubbing her face. "For one, Miles, you really just…you have to remember that Pete's been on his own for so long… I don't think he realizes just how lonely he actually is." She sat at the kitchen table and motioned for him to sit as well. "For another…I think if he wasn't half as stubborn as he was, I think he'd be dead by now."

Miles blinked, his eyes widening, before he sagged bodily against the table, coming to realize it was true. Her hand found his and she smiled at him gently, rubbing a circle on the back of his knuckles.

"We just have to show him that together…we can be even more stubborn than he is, and I think he'll come running back to us," she smiled. "He'd learn that with other people he can be even more stubborn, and then we'd never get him to do anything." Miles laughed, grinning wide.

"Alright, mami, I can do that."

"We all can," his mom said, pressing a kiss to his forehead.

One week passed into two.

Still no sign of Pete.


Gwen's nightmares had been filled with blood.

Blood on her hands, blood on the floor, blood covering the walls, blood covering Peter, and blood covering Pete. They lay on the ground motionless, staring up at nothing, partially turned, one black-and-white that she had known for such a short time, the other as flesh toned as her, and one she had known for most of her life. In the end they were both dead, both dead to her hands, bodies strewn on the floor, black and red intermingling, and Gwen stood there screaming.

The screaming continued when she woke, her dad always there to hold her and comfort her, whispering her name, telling her it was okay.

Gwen couldn't look her neighbors in the eye, couldn't look at the Parkers when they gazed at her in worry as she left the house. Couldn't look at the ones whose nephew she had killed.

The nightmares had continued intermittently for two weeks. Her dad was getting worried, the Spiders that knew were worried…

Gwen didn't know what to do. She thought, quite a lot, of texting Pete, and trying to get him to answer her. Gwen thought of telling him what she dreamed of. But a part of her was scared that he wouldn't answer her, just like he hadn't answered everyone else. Gwen knew that Pete was still showing up to Rio when he was injured beyond even his capacity to either power-through or fix, but other than that he had no contact with them.

Gwen didn't want to send another text into the void only for it to never come back answered.

Gwen had done that at first. It was how she had started coping. Sending a text to Peter's old social media profiles, the ones that his aunt and uncle hadn't closed off yet… Gwen had sent him more messages than she cared to remember.

They'd never even be put on Read. Never answered. Never seen.

The idea of doing something like that with Pete, only for him to never look at them, never answer… It hurt too much. It felt too much like her dream.

Gwen had killed him. Killed them. Their friendship dead in the dirt, six feet under.

Gwen wished…a lot of things. She wished that people had seen just how wonderful Peter was, just how good of a friend, just how much potential… She wished they hadn't hurt him so badly.

Gwen wished that she had been a better friend.

Gwen wished that her career hadn't begun in tragedy, that she hadn't…

Peter B's had also begun with tragedy. The death of someone that they loved seemed to be an intrinsic part of their Spider career. Porker, if she really thought about it, had changed completely. He was no longer a spider and was now a pig. She wondered if he ever talked to his original family, if he even could. Peni's father had died and left her the SP/dr mech, a burden and a responsibility that no one else could take on. Miles had lost a potential mentor in his original Peter, something that he had talked to her and Peni about in one of their late-night texting sessions, withholding sleep as long as they could. Then he had lost his uncle.

Pete was losing his humanity, his control, and his soul.

Gwen wished, more than anything, that being a Spider wasn't associated so much with loss.

Gwen was startled when her dad sat next to her on the couch, holding out a mug of hot chocolate, topped with a swirl of whipped cream. She took it with a thank you.

"Quarter for your thoughts, Gwen?" her dad asked, blowing on his own drink before taking a careful sip. He flinched slightly and Gwen let out a bit of a chuckle. "It's hot," he said unnecessarily with a grin, and Gwen laughed harder.

"I…" Gwen hesitated, looking at the mug in her hands. "I miss him," Gwen finally whispered. Her dad hesitated, looking at her with pinched brows.

"Peter?" he asked, tilting his head, "or your new friend. The one that hasn't been talking to you."

"Both," Gwen answered, a laugh slipping out, this one wet. "I miss them both so much. It's…so hard to look at him sometimes, dad," she whispered. "I wish it wasn't, but he…it's like looking at a ghost."

Her dad tilted his head back thoughtfully, before sighing. "I'm sorry, kiddo," he said. "I…" he hesitated, tapping his leg thoughtfully. "It was hard to meet Peter B," he finally settled on, which Gwen thought was a bit of an understatement. After Gwen had begged her dad to keep from telling Peter B who their neighbors were, Peter B had come over to meet her dad in person.

Gwen had expected the hurt from her dad, she had expected there to be that lingering sadness, but she had not expected for the way that her dad had hugged Peter B, nor the way that Peter B had hugged back. Gwen had been thinking of her dad's relationship with her Peter as that nebulous 'one of Gwen's friends,' but she had failed to realize just how much her dad had cared for Peter.

Peter B had sat with them for a long time, talking, discussing the differences in their universes, and in a whispered and broken confession told her dad that they were both dead in his world. It explained the hug. It explained why he kept looking at them both with those lost brown eyes that were so much like her Peter's. It was probably why her dad had finally excused himself to the bathroom.

She wondered if he had cried. Either way, he had eventually come out to tell Peter B that he had to promise to take care of himself, that he had to get to old age, and to shake on it. Peter B had given him the saddest smile that Gwen had ever seen and told him that it was a promise that, in all probability, he couldn't keep, but he would do his best. Peter B also promised to help make sure that Gwen was the best Spider-Woman that she could be. Training included.

It had been something that her dad had been thrilled by, and Gwen, when she thought about it, was also happy about. Gwen needed to live. Gwen needed to make sure that nothing else was taken from them again.

"I can't imagine," her dad finally said, interrupting her train of thought and bringing her back, "just how hard it would be to see Pete."

"You don't think…" Gwen whispered, "you don't think I'm being…unfair to him? Unfair to Pete, by…by thinking of Peter?"

"No," her dad said firmly.

"And you don't think…" she started, opening up her heart of hearts, opening up the secret that had been kept between them that she had promised not to have, "you don't think that I'm being unfaithful to Peter's memory…by trying to be friends with Pete?"

"Oh, Gwen…" her dad said, his voice low and soft, and before she even knew what had happened, he had bundled her up in his lap, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Oh, kiddo, you could never be. Pete…he's an entirely different person. You're making a new friend, Gwen, not replacing an old one. You'd never replace Peter, and Pete wouldn't want to be a replacement. In making friends…you don't get rid of the old ones just by making new ones, and you don't get rid of their memories… They'll always be with you, Gwen, Peter will always be with you."

Gwen found herself crying, holding onto his shirt as she pressed her face into his shoulder. "Why does it have to hurt so much?" she asked. "Why can't I just…why can't I be happy? Why doesn't he answer?"

Her dad rubbed her back gently, humming softly. "It's a loss, Gwen," he said quietly. "Losses always hurt, particularly when this loss…you can't ever have him again, Gwen. He's gone, and to have someone so close…it's a reminder. Pete can't help it anymore than you can." He pressed another kiss to her forehead. "The difference is, sooner or later you're going to be looking at Pete and just seeing him for him. You'll recognize him as the one that…oh, likes pineapple on his pizza, has a bad habit of biting his fingernails, or…or burning matches…" he hesitated, his eyes closed, Gwen doing much the same. She had told him about the scars on his fingers, the burns, self-inflicted. The self-hatred. The truth, the fears that Pete had had, warning him of what her new friend could be.

"Eventually," he continued, "you'll know him well enough that these things will be the only things you think about when you see him. As for happiness…oh Gwen, happiness is fickle. Sooner or later happiness runs out, but the joy that you find in other people and in friendship and in fellowship…that lasts. Just keep moving, Gwen, just keep going. You've got so many people that care about you and that you care about. You've got so much love to give, so much that you're doing for others. Give yourself some time, give yourself some grace. Don't feel bad about where your mind goes, don't make yourself feel bad over feeling sad, particularly when you have every reason to be sad." He brushed the tears from her face with his thumbs, a soft smile on his face.

"As for why he won't answer…" her dad's expression changed then, looking into the middle-distance, thoughtful. "I think, given what you told me, that Pete has spent so much of his time hiding from others…I don't know that he knows what to do with himself now that there's people that want to be with him. He's no longer able to hide properly, and I think…in a way, that's the scariest thing for him. All these people that know his fears and his weaknesses and his story…" he sighed. "I don't blame him for being scared. He told it in a vague hope that it would push people away, and I have a thought that it might make people in his own world stay away, but here…" he chuckled under his breath. "I don't think he expected how hard it would backfire."

Gwen laughed, wiping her face, really thinking about it, and finally gave a nod. "Yeah," she agreed softly. "Yeah I think…I think he really is afraid."

"Wouldn't you be?" her dad asked, and after another moment of thought, Gwen gave a firm nod.

"I would be," she agreed. "I've spent my entire time being told that I'm a monster whose only inevitable end is in killing the people I love… I…ran away, or was…or was thrown out of the one home that had been mine, the one that had the only person I loved, and then… I meet a scientist and his wife who seem to care about me and love me, and for once I let my guard down, only to be betrayed?" Gwen shook her head, her eyes wet with tears. "And then I get this entire other group that are like and yet not like me, that love me, and I love them?" She waved her hands in the air. "What if I really do turn and kill them, or what if they are just using me, and pretending, and are secretly just as bad as the Connors? Isn't it better to stay away?"

"Isn't it?" her dad asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No!" Gwen protested immediately. "Because we love him, and because he…because he deserves kindness. Because he's not a monster. Because he's our friend." Gwen hesitated. "Because we can take care of ourselves. We're not as fragile as an ordinary human, and we'll be with him all the time, so if he…if he does…"

"You can stop him," her dad said. Gwen closed her eyes, her head bowing. "That's the root of it, isn't it?" he asked. "You're afraid you might have to stop him."

"It isn't fair," she whispered. "It isn't fair."

"You're right," he agreed softly. "It's not fair. But think of just how unfair it is for Pete. Think about being in the wrong place at the wrong time and just…being turned like that. Think about how awful that would be, when you just want to help…and think also, Gwen, of just how much he'd want you all to stop him. Remind yourself at all times, kiddo, that in the end, the worst thing you could do for Pete is promise yourself that if the time comes…you won't stop him. Pete would want you to, Gwen. Pete would need you to. And you have to be honest with yourself, Gwen. If you don't think you can do that…then you shouldn't be his friend."

Gwen froze for a moment, before closing her eyes, and pressing her face into her dad's chest.

"I'm Spider-Woman," she finally said softly. "It's my job to stop him." Her voice shook, and she felt her dad's hand rubbing against her back. "But that's…that's just assuming that it eventually does happen. It might not…"

"It might not," her dad agreed. "And if it doesn't, then you've spent all this time worrying…when you could have just spent all of this time focused on getting to know your friends, and on being with them." He hesitated. "And Gwen…even if it does happen…eventually, what you're going to be able to do is just remember all of the good things that happened, all of the things that you used to do together that you loved so much… It'll get here, Gwen. It'll get here."

Gwen nodded, hugging him tightly, and after a long moment they finally parted.

Gwen found herself in her room later that night staring at her goober, looking at the option for Pete. She watched the curser blink in and out of focus until her vision blurred, and finally:

'We love you enough to wait, Pete,' she texted, 'I miss you so much. Do you like pineapple on your pizza?' After a moment, she added 'you don't have to be afraid. We love you enough to stop you.'

Gwen sat there for a moment, staring at the message, before finally hitting send before she could think about it for too long. Gwen let out a deep sigh, rubbing her face with her hands, rolling over in her bed, when she saw the text indication jump.

For just a moment, Pete typed something…

And then he left her on Read.

Gwen gave a slow smile. She'd promised she'd wait.

Another week came and went, she practiced with Peter B, hung out with Miles and Peni, and Porker was in the process of teaching her how to knit. Still no sign of Pete.


Porker was rolling out dough for the sixth time in one day. This time it was an apple fritter, one that used his 'Aunt's recipe, and one that he knew would make him very popular at the office should he bring it in to the Daily Beagle. Porker couldn't decide if that was where he would bring it, however. There were a few other families that had become his top priority.

As a compulsive stress-baker, he'd started baking when he had gotten a text from Rio earlier that day, stating she had noticed bruises coming back on Pete's arms the last time she had seen him, and he hadn't stopped since. The apple fritter would be the next in a series of three pies – strawberry, blueberry, and cherry – two dozen chocolate chip cookies, and one positively massive chocolate cake.

Porker didn't know how he would eat all of them. While he was a pig, and also a Spider, which came with an increased metabolism, this was definitely a little much. Porker rolled out his dough that had already been filled with the lovely spiced apple chunks that would make it delicious, and pressed his biscuit cutter evenly through the dough until he ran out of room. After pulling away the scraps he carefully deposited the fritters onto a pan, trying to avoid spilling the apples unnecessarily, and rolled out the dough again to make more circles. Eventually he had them all in nice even rows and went to heat up the oil.

Porker knew that what he really wanted to do was invite Pete to share in this. He wanted to bundle the kid down with a bunch of food, look over his spinnerets again, and then teach him how to use them properly.

Porker had started talking to his family again, his real family, extended cousins and aunts and uncles, which…was always a bit painful. It reminded him of what was and what would never be again, and while they always…acted happy to see him, there was a sense of belonging that he would never have again.

Porker had found to his horror that he had forgotten how to tap some things, and he had spent a great deal of time reteaching himself long into the night. Regardless, Porker had spent a good deal of time discussing the mechanics of spinning, trying to figure out how it could have possibly formed itself into the spinnerets that were located on Pete's wrists and the likely muscles that would be in use. What they eventually decided was Pete wasn't using the spinnerets themselves in the way that they were meant for.

Due to the fact that they were so new, Pete hadn't been trusting in them and instead had been utilizing muscles in ways they weren't intended. What should have simply been a matter of one had turned into several that protested the movement.

Porker had texted the theory to Pete over the goober, telling him that he should put a little more trust in his body, that even though it was new it was still his and it was made for it… And then he hadn't gotten a response. Which had sent him into the spiral that saw him currently turning the fritters in the hot oil to make sure it was all a golden-brown. Because after Pete hadn't responded, Porker had gotten a little frustrated.

Porker had made the mistake of taking that little pocket of frustration and making a jab at the fact that not everyone had much of a choice when it came to trusting their new bodies, texting that to Pete in a fit of pique. And then he had immediately been overcome by a wave of guilt.

Porker hadn't been given a choice, but he had also been given almost unconditional support. While his Aunt May wasn't…really his aunt, she had taken him in without fuss, and done everything she could for him. Porker had been able to find a job without issue, immediately accepted as Peter Porker, a new ID had been made, a new life had practically been handed to him on a silver platter… While it had been difficult at first to adjust, two legs just weren't as stable as eight, there was no doubt that he had taken to it quickly.

Pete…had never had that opportunity, had never had that support…and more than likely, was completely unsure how to handle it now that it was being given. Pete came from a world where his changes, his new body, was something that was looked upon with nothing but fear and revulsion. How the hell could Pete be expected to trust himself when he'd been told in no uncertain terms that he was something to be reviled?

Talk about some serious self-image issues.

Porker sighed, looking at the goober, considering sending one more apology in his chain of three monstrous and equally rambling ones, and then just decided to do something else:

'I think you're pretty neat,' he typed, 'I think the fact that you can see in the dark is really cool, and the fact that you can spin your own webs? Dang kid, when I was first turned I would have killed for that! You can stick to walls and you can pick up a truck, and you're pretty dang durable. Not many people can say they've been thrown against a wall and got out of it with some minor fractures, a bruise the size of my entire body, and a hell of a lot of stitches. Most people would be a torn-open pancake! I know the changes are scary, and that they come with a whole lot of baggage, but you've already helped so many people with them, and you'll continue doing so for the rest of your life. That thing…it can't take that fact from you. No one can. Don't take it from yourself.'

With that final message, Porker signed, rubbing his face with his hands, and turned to making the glaze, having placed the last fritter on the cooling rack a minute ago. He'd said his piece. It was up to the kid now what he'd do with it, as it was, he had entirely too many fritters to glaze and a few families that would be getting a lot of treats.

The week bled into the next. Porker was just about ready to start a search party. Either way, he sent a group-text to the Spiders, Jeff, Rio, MJ, and George stating that if Pete didn't eat any of the treats he made, even if he broke into his damn house and stole them, he'd be really upset.

It started a sudden influx of people telling Pete to break into their houses and eat their food. It would have been funny if it wasn't so essential.


Peter B had begun noticing something…

It had been subtle at first, but as his apartment kept getting cleaner, he would notice when things were out of place. He also noticed that things were getting clean, things that he knew he hadn't washed. The other Spiders had been bemoaning the fact that they didn't think that Pete was taking them up on their offers to break into their house and steal their food, but considering what Peter owned, and just how messy his apartment could get to be, he noticed when things changed. And he definitely thought that Pete really was taking them up on it.

Peter had woken up in the middle of the night once or twice with a warm feeling tingling in his brain, something that spoke of home and familiarity and peace, and that's how he knew it was Pete. He'd never been able to catch Pete in the act, Peter suspected that his sleeping brain had been so lulled with that feeling that it was only the absence of it that woke him, but he couldn't think of anyone else that would both raid his pantry and wash his windows for him.

Peter rubbed his face quietly, a miserable sort of empathy washing over him. Peter had a thought that even if they had given Pete a direct invitation, he'd never take anything directly without giving something in return for it, regardless of the fact that it was freely given.

Peter would never take it. He couldn't imagine that Pete would either.

That was the problem, he thought, with being told that your responsibility was in serving others. The idea of taking something without paying for it in some way was almost reprehensible. Peter had noticed that Pete never took much from him, and had only really started after Peter had landed his job.

The Fantastic Four had owed him a favor, and now he was a part of their research team.

It was…nice, Peter found himself thinking in an idle sort of way when he was busy working on the latest in a series of inventions that would hopefully create marketable spider-silk for commercial use… But there was also that ugly feeling of being a charity case that came when he'd look at his other coworkers.

Peter hated taking favors from people, he always had. He hated the way that they looked at him and that almost worried pity that would spread when he mentioned that he was having troubles. He hated the implications that he couldn't take it, or that he was somehow a failure for having difficulties…

Peter had been living like this for years, he was used to it, he could handle it. Miles…well, that had been different. Miles didn't have the frame of reference necessary, so the fact that he was worried about Peter hadn't chafed as much, but the other adults, the ones that would look at him as though he couldn't handle it and try and offer him handouts?

No thanks.

Peter knew there had to be an amount of stubborn pride there, but he'd been doing it for so long he almost didn't know how to take things from others, not…big things at any rate. It was an odd sort of painful kinship to know that even in a different universe, Peter Parker seemed to have the same issue, to where he would do his best to offer whatever he could in exchange for what he took.

Peter still remembered the day he had gone to Johnny Storm to ask him about paying back that favor, telling him that he needed the job and that he would be more than happy to provide qualifications… Johnny had waved them off, telling him that Peter was one of the smartest people he knew and he didn't need to see them. When Peter had started to niggle at that, at the fact that it seemed Johnny was being dismissive of what he could give, of what he had actually done…

Johnny had put his hands on his shoulders and basically scolded him for being silly. He'd told him that he knew that Reed would be happy to have him on the team, that they'd been after Peter for years, so to finally have him accept would be perfect. Peter had looked away, mumbling something about not liking charity. Johnny had shook him.

"Don't be stupid," he had said, "this isn't about charity, this is cashing in a favor! This is exactly what you need! Reed knows your situation, my entire family does, we'd be able to give you the job with the flexibility you need to be a hero, and we'd keep your secret! There's no law that says that Peters have to be chronically out of a job, unlucky, and broke as hell."

Peter could only think of a version of him that was living on the streets, doing chores for food, and giving them all collective heart attacks, and laugh. "I think you might be surprised," was all Peter had said, having no desire to fill Johnny in on the whole situation. Either way, Johnny had shaken his head, laughing.

"Well, today we break that law. Come on, Pete, take the job, take what's owed. Cash in your favor."

Peter had. It was the steadiest his life had ever been. He had a paying job that was decent, gave him benefits, and understood that sometimes his life was really damn crazy. It…it was nice. When Peter had given the news to the others the happiness that had greeted him was unmatched.

When Peter had told MJ, she had given him that soft smile of hers, kissed his forehead, and whispered, "Finally."

So here Peter was, able to buy a decent meal for once, and the knowledge that, also for once… his talents were being put to good use. No boss to snarl at his pictures and drag his name, no boss to complain at his chronic lateness… For the first few weeks Peter wondered how he had lived without it, and then he thought again of Pete.

Pete…Pete had mentioned the fact that he was basically considered dead. There would likely be no favors that he could cash in, no people that he could go to in his own world for help when the world upended him, and he finally got tired of being chewed up. Pete was well and truly on his own, and if he was anything like Peter had been at his age, Peter rather suspected that Pete hadn't told Aunt May what had happened, and simply run away.

Peter had never been able to look his aunt in the eye to tell her what he was doing, could never stand to worry her when he knew just how much she cared for him, just what she had sacrificed… There were times when he felt like he was throwing that away by throwing himself in danger, but…he had a responsibility. Peter had been given a powerful gift and he had to use it.

Pete had been given a curse and he had chosen to use it.

Something that caused Pete no end of grief and pain was something that he was using to save people, and there was something so familiar about that, something so absolutely resonant in the fact that Peter had done the same. The thing that was meant to be a gift had absolutely felt like a curse. His responsibility had cost him more jobs than he could count, more grief, more loved ones…

Peter's body, his happiness, his marriage

Peter knew intimately the frustration there, the stubbornness, the idea of standing in front of an uncaring world and screaming that he existed, he was there, and he wouldn't be stomped out. Peter had never wanted to bundle someone else up into his arms more and tell them that it would be okay, that they'd get there…

Peter hadn't expected how much it would really be like looking at a younger version of himself. Peter hadn't expected for the desire to take Pete under his wing, so to speak, and try and keep him from repeating Peter's mistakes. To try and tell him that it was okay to accept charity sometimes, that sometimes…sometimes it wasn't about pity, and there was no reason not to take it.

Sometimes it wasn't pity at all, sometimes it wasn't even charity, sometimes it was payment for all the shit that they had been put through, and Pete had been put through a lot of shit. It was time to cash it in, dammit…

Peter wondered vaguely if the feeling was as parental as he was afraid it was, and then decided that he'd done weirder things in his life than trying to parent himself. Why not? In a lot of ways, they really weren't the same. It wasn't so much trying to grow Pete into Peter; it was helping Pete grow into himself.

Peter thought that was the biggest difference and he wanted nothing more than to be the one to help him do it. Until Pete let them in, though, he could only continually offer the training that he was offering Gwen, Miles, and Peni. They'd worked out a schedule, one that allowed them to practice after they all got out of school, be seen in Miles' world, and assure the Davis-Morales household that they had made good on their word to train that world's Spider-Man.

All of them missed the last black-and-white member of their team, though. It was lucky, however, that Pete missing was as big of a concern as it was, because the Davis-Morales family had been doing their best to persuade them to bring that Spider-Man into the fold. Miles had been horrified, and what they all eventually went with was simply informing them that while he appreciated their offer, he still wasn't quite sure yet on whether or not he wanted to take them up on it.

Secret identities were a big enough deal that they could all honestly say that it was that Spider-Man's decision as to whether or not they'd show their face, and the Davis-Morales family had been more than understanding. Particularly when they mentioned what happened to that Peter and the fear that was there still. Jeff still remembered that hug that Miles had given him in the heat of the moment, but there was a definite understanding that it was very much heat of the moment. After meeting the rest of the Spiders, after having seen the injuries that they could receive…

They were both a bit more understanding.

As it was, Miles had done his best to keep away and out of sight of his father in costume, and they'd done their best to train in places that they wouldn't be spotted or tracked. The less that was seen of New York's newest Spider-Man by his parents, the better.

Miles already had it rough trying to hide the fact that he was enhanced, his style was so obvious as Spider-Man that they'd been trying to help him hide it.

As it was, they were all mostly still waiting for the moment when Pete came back to them, and that had caused enough grief to be distracting. While Jeff and Rio had been worried about their universe's Spider-Man, after they had been assured of his safety, of the fact that his parents were greatly competent, and they had his back it was easy to slide back into worrying about the one that didn't have anyone.

And that was the thing. Peter had had so many people, he had had a favor he could call on because of the fact that Peter had helped so many, Pete…didn't have such a luxury. Pete was chased down and hunted for what he was, only thought worthwhile as something displayed in a case… Pete had known Luke Cage, but wasn't willing to talk to him or help him. Peter wondered how many other heroes that Pete was aware of in the grand scheme of things that he'd never be able to talk to.

They were all Pete had so far, and if he wouldn't even really take advantage of it, he didn't even have them.

That was the thing about an open hand, it was always there on offer, but it was up to the person whether or not they took it.

Peter had done his fair share of not taking it. He never thought it would be as agonizing as it was watching someone that refused to take it. He felt he owed people an apology.

But he also knew how hard it was.

'Hey,' Peter texted in the dark of his room, staring at the lighted hologram. 'I know how hard it is to accept help from people. Believe me, I've struggled with that for my entire life…but now that I've taken it… I realize just how silly I was to fight against it in some ways. You don't have to struggle. You don't have to fight against the offer, fight against us… We love you, kiddo, and nothing's going to change that. Not the fact that you might need a little help, and, while I'm at it, not the fact that you won't accept it. We're all there for you, Pete…just…reach out. We'll be waiting for when you finally can, alright? If you want, I've actually made a pretty decent stir-fry. It's in the fridge, and it's really nice if you add a bit of soy sauce, which is in the bottle on the second shelf of the fridge, with the green label. Don't use too much, it's pretty salty.'

Peter woke up the next morning to his floors scrubbed spotless, and a large section of the stir-fry missing. The bottle of soy sauce had one of his post-its stuck to it with a frowny face drawn on in blue pen. Peter laughed so hard he was almost sick, and promptly sent a picture out to the others, complete with a message that Pete was definitely taking stuff, they just had to be on the lookout for things that were cleaner than when they had left it.

The sudden onslaught of pleased messages that greeted him was well worth it.


Rio had had it.

Pete had been to her house several times at this point, each and every time with an injury he wouldn't explain, a refusal to see the others, and an almost feral energy coursing through him. He wouldn't explain what was happening, only that it was urgent and he had to get back as soon as possible.

He also refused to look her in the eye.

At first, Rio had thought that it was guilt due to the fact that he kept running, but the more she saw of him, the more he hid…the more she realized it was shame.

Miles got that look sometimes, most often when he was trying to lie. Pete wasn't even trying to lie, he just refused to say anything. There was no doubt that there was something that was going on, something that he wasn't willing to tell, and something that was obviously hurting him. Rio had decided that she was done with it. The next time he showed up, Rio was going to bring the rest, and he was going to have to explain what was going on, no excuses.

First, though, Pete had to show up, and he had been extremely elusive as of late. On one hand, Rio was glad, because when he showed up Pete was inevitably hurt, but on the other hand… It had gone on for weeks, and Pete was still missing. They knew that he was still taking food, he'd started leaving little notes after Peter directly called him on it, and if they told him to try something, he'd always leave a note that he had taken it, but they'd never actually see him. Scrubbed their floor? Sewed a curtain that had had a rip in it for the longest time that Rio had never gotten around to fixing? Cleaned the windows? Didn't matter, Pete would do it, somehow avoid all notice, and then vanish again into the night.

It was starting to become frustrating. Rio and Jeff had tried to stay up in order to see him, Jeff more often than Rio as the hospital was still understaffed, but all to no avail. Pete somehow knew when they were trying to spot him and would stay away. It was like having a friendly ghost that washed the dishes and took food as payment instead of scares. Rio wanted nothing more than to sweep him up in her arms and ask him why he was avoiding them. What was the cause of this? Why was he running?

They'd already done their best to impress upon him the fact that there was nothing that could happen that would push them away, and yet he was acting like there was.

Something was happening. Something that was causing Pete to need to use his spinnerets more frequently, something that was putting him in danger…

Rio was worried sick, and she was done with it. She had a feeling that something big was going to break and she hoped it wasn't Pete.

Rio sighed after coming home from her shift, rubbing her face tiredly, unlocking her door, and swinging it open. Jeff would be home shortly, and Miles after him. They had made him promise to finish his homework before he came home so they could spend the weekend doing stuff as a family. It was another of those rare instances where their schedules synced, and they wanted to use it.

Rio took a few steps into the room, and promptly dropped her keys. Pete was sitting in the middle of her living room with his legs crossed, pressing some towels to his side. His shirt had been removed and placed off to the side, revealing some absolutely ugly bruises, and he wasn't wearing his regular pants she came to realize. They almost looked like Miles', and immediately she wanted to ask what had happened, why he would have stripped.

As he almost reflexively removed his left hand from holding the towels to his side to wave at her, all thoughts of that came to halt as she came to realize that he was bleeding from a gunshot wound, as it gave a spurt of blood. His face was also a beaten-up mess. His right cheekbone looked broken, swollen and black, his eye squinting as he looked up at her. To her shock, Pete actually smiled at her, gray eyes squinting with it, a bead of blood welling up from his split lip, which seemed to have reopened his original scar, and sliding down his face.

"Hello," he said almost brightly, "I tried not to bleed on your carpet."

"Pete!" Rio shouted, slamming the door shut and immediately running over to him. "What happened?" she asked, falling to her knees before him. "Who did this? What…? Why didn't you go to Peter or someone else, why did you wait for me?"

Pete squinted at her for a moment, confusion evident on his face, before he gave a brief, "Oh…" he frowned slightly. "I didn't think of that." There was a longer pause. "I'm pretty sure I'm concussed," he said, giving a slight nod, and Rio could have absolutely told him that. This close one of his pupils was obviously bigger than the other, and he was swaying slightly as he sat there.

Rio went to grab her emergency kit and ran back over.

"If you want," Pete said, swallowing blood, "You can call the others over. I'm ready to tell you guys what's been happening."

Rio almost froze, before pulling her cellphone from her pocket and immediately making a group-chat, telling them all to get there ASAP, Pete was here, and he was talking.

It didn't take long for the first of them to arrive, which was Gwen. Gwen took one look at Pete, and clapped her hands to her mouth, stumbling back a step.

"Pete!" she cried out, worry and fear in her face. "What happened? Oh god, Pete…"

"Hi, Gwen," Pete said with a grin, more blood sliding down from his lip. Gwen stumbled and fell to her knees, still with her hands on her mouth. "Sorry," he said, his mouth falling into a frown. "I'm concussed," he explained with the tiniest of shrugs. Gwen gave the tiniest of hiccupping laughs, her eyes bright.

Peni was next, and she dropped to her knees next to Gwen almost immediately, letting out a terrible sounding moan.

"Hello, Peni," Pete said, smiling at her in the same way he had Gwen. "How are you?"

Peni couldn't muster a response, leaving Pete to frown at her slightly with his head tilted.

"I have to call my dad," Gwen said, interrupting whatever Pete was about to say, "he needs…he wanted to know what was happening. I'll put him on speaker, is that okay?"

"Go ahead," Rio agreed, nodding. Gwen held up her phone, looking at Pete with her eyebrows pinched.

"Hey, Pete, smile for me, please?" Gwen asked. Pete turned to her immediately and gave her a smile, a wide one that revealed he was missing two of his molars on the side where he'd been hit with what had to be a crowbar or something, and she snapped a picture. She sent it to her father and then immediately called him.

"What happened?" George Stacy's voice asked, horror evident. "Pete, can you hear me, are you alright?"

"Hello, voice," Pete said, frowning slightly. "You're Gwen's dad?"

"Yes, I…I'm sorry Peter, that's me. My name is George Stacy, you can call me George." George introduced.

"Oh, hello," Pete said. "I saw your invitation to take food from you, but I didn't know you. I didn't know if that was alright…"

"Oh, that's alright, Pete," George said. "I was wondering why I didn't have any of my windows washed, but…"

"I'm sorry," Pete said, looking absolutely miserably contrite. "I didn't think to wash them…"

"Pete, I'm…I'm kidding," George answered, his voice almost breaking. "You don't have to wash my windows. It was supposed to be a joke."

"I'm concussed," Pete said. "I don't think I have a sense of humor."

Rio had to hide a snort in her hand as she brought her first aid kit over, and Gwen and Peni were both biting their lips to keep from laughing.

"I need you to remove pressure, Pete," Rio said, interrupting the conversation, her eyes bright with worry, "I need to dress it properly." She began pulling the proper dressings from the kit.

"Alright," Pete answered, shrugging. "I didn't get any organs hit," Pete assured her. "I know what that feels like, and no organs." Pete shook his head, and Rio hated the fact that she was about to take his word for it, but she had a terrible feeling that he would know. She could see no signs of internal bleeding, and he seemed to be coherent enough…until she got better equipment there was nothing she could do, and there was nowhere she could take him.

Jeff threw the door open then and Pete flinched, making a soft sound of pain a moment later, almost reflexively curling away. Jeff froze in the doorway, taking a look at Pete and his current condition, before immediately beginning to strip off his uniform shirt to reveal the white one he wore underneath. He positively threw his hat across the room, and dropped his gun belt, stepping over it in order to walk over towards them.

"Pete," he said, his voice choked, but whatever he was going to say was interrupted by the sight of Porker tumbling through a portal, shortly followed by Peter, MJ's familiar voice on his goober asking what was happening. Gwen sent her the same picture she'd sent her dad. MJ's voice was heard gasping in horror a moment later. Miles barreled into the room then, the force of the door opening sending it rebounding closed behind him. He about tripped over the belt that had been left there, but caught himself, holding his schoolbag, his eyes wide and wild.

"Hi, Miles," Pete waved at him and Miles spread his hands out wide, dropping his bag, his eyes wide. "I stole a pair of your shorts…I'm sorry. I think it's bad that I can fit into them, though, don't you? Although you've got a very stretchy waistband, so maybe that's why." He pulled at it in demonstration, and it was true that while they were made to be a bit big on Miles, they were potentially a little snug on Pete, but not tight.

"What happened to you, man?" Miles asked. "What did you do? The…the shorts are fine, that's fine, but what happened?"

"That," Pete answered, and pointed over to their couch where…

Peter approached first before finally picking something up, holding a white…

"What the fuck?" Jeff asked quietly, all of their gazes focused on what was obviously…

"You joined a Klan?" Miles asked, his voice cracking, horror obvious as he stared at the hood. "What the fuck, man, I…?"

"I spied on a Klan," Pete corrected, shaking his head wildly, horror visible on his face. "They came to New York, Luke Cage cornered me in the…" he gave a little moan. "I hate them so much. I hate them so much and I…"

"Woah, woah," Rio said, pushing him down when he tried to stand up, still doing her best to bandage his gunshot wound. There was no exit wound, which meant the bullet was still inside, which made her turn to Peter. "Peter, what about…I can't pull the bullet out, but it's still there, will your body expel it naturally?"

"What?" Peter asked, looking up from where he was rubbing his hands against his legs as though he was trying to scrape the skin off them. "Oh, yeah, no, it always comes out."

"I can confirm that," MJ said. "Once, Peter was in an explosion, and later that night when we were getting ready for bed, an entire chunk of concrete came out of his a-"

"MJ!" Peter exclaimed, horror in his voice, and the tension cracked in the form of loud and long laughter.

"That's good," Rio finally said, sighing. "Not just that the concrete came out, but that the bullet will, too. But…you were spying on the Klan?" Rio asked, turning to Pete. "But…how did…?"

"I'm a very bad spy," Pete answered, giving a very solemn nod of his head.

They weren't sure whether to laugh or to cry, and what eventually wound up happening was they wound up sitting down around him, waiting and watching as Rio patched him up fully. When he was finally not in danger of bleeding out, and Rio had stitched the scar on his mouth, and what would likely be a new one over his cheekbone, they watched him, waiting patiently. Pete gave a soft hum, touching the stitches gently, Rio immediately swatting his hands away.

"Oh, Pete," Rio finally said, her voice so soft, "I think you're going to definitely get another scar out of this…" she said, her eyebrows pinching. "Maybe a few."

Pete shrugged, "My original ones were getting lonely anyway, might as well add a few more." More uncomfortable laughter. "I…never want to wear white again," Pete finally said, shaking his head.

"How did this all happen?" Jeff asked. "You mentioned Luke Cage…?"

"I got cornered in the bathhouse," Pete answered, looking betrayed. "Luke Cage and Matthew Murdock, the asshole…" He frowned. "This is the last time I help them with one of their cases, I don't care how much they beg me."

"You helped Daredevil?" Peter asked, his voice heavy with recognition and surprise.

"Course," Pete answered. "We run in similar enough circles that if there's overlap, I'll help him out some. But I don't…we don't really hang out. I'm…picky about who I give my soul for, and Daredevil… Well, until recently I thought he'd be more likely to turn on me than anything. Apparently, he'd just been tracking me the entire time and waiting until he could ruin my life. Or at least steal two months of it," Pete said, frowning. "I…am never going to get those months back. I'm betrayed. Now, I'm not going to give it out of spite."

There was an awkward laugh.

"He brought Luke Cage to you?" Peter asked to clarify.

"He did," Pete answered with a nod. "He's lucky I wasn't actually bathing, or I would have shot them both. I don't care if Cage is invulnerable, I'm not dealing with it."

"Bathhouses, were…were there public bathhouses in the 1930s?" Peter asked.

"Course," Pete answered. "I go there when I'm not feeling spiteful."

"Where do you go when you're feeling spiteful?" Jeff asked.

"I break into the houses of rich people," Pete answered with a shrug. "They can afford to miss a little shampoo, and I'm tired of them displaying things like me all the time. If they want to put me up there like that, I'm gonna make them pay me for it. That includes stealing all their hot water, if only temporarily."

Rio couldn't help the burst of laughter that left her, loud, and almost angry, something that was echoed by the others.

"I'm not usually a fan of breaking and entering," George said, laughter in his voice. "But in this case, I think I can safely say 'stick it to 'em."

"Oh, that's right, you're another cop, huh?" Pete asked, frowning slightly. There was a genuine amount of disgust in his voice, but he swallowed it down with a shrug, as well as more black blood that was coming from his missing teeth.

"Yeah," George agreed. "I am. I'm…sorry about what they did to your parents, Pete."

Pete made a noncommittal noise, swaying slightly.

"But why did they corner you?" Peter asked. "Why go to you?"

"Because Luke Cage knew I was white as a ghost…believe it or not, I'm pale for my own world. I think it's a part of the transformation? But I'm also just thinking I don't get enough sun," Pete shrugged. "Anyway, he thought that I'd be the perfect one to infiltrate between the options of a blind catholic, and a negro."

Jeff sucked his teeth harshly, a quiet uncomfortable murmur spreading. Pete almost automatically stiffened, his eyes widening.

"Did I slur at you?" Pete asked, looking genuinely horrified.

"You did, yes. We don't…well, we don't use that term anymore. It's been out of use for decades."

"I'm so sorry," Pete said, his eyes wide.

"Ah, Pete, it's fine, I know it's polite in your time, and widely used. We just…moved past that here." Jeff shrugged. "It's not as bad as…other things, but if you call people that here they're probably going to take some offence, or at least be very confused."

Pete made an upset noise. "Alright, I'll have to remember that. My best friend was a photographer for the Negro World," Pete said, rubbing his face, wincing at the pressure. "I'll do my best, please have patience with me."

"If you have trouble that's fine, Pete," Jeff insisted quietly. "You've got a concussion, if you don't remember after you recover, we'll absolutely remind you. You're not in trouble for using words that go out of fashion, particularly in your circumstances. If you really need to use a descriptor, the word you're going to be using is 'black.' Your friend…how'd that come to happen?"

Pete stared at him for a moment, mouthing the word 'black,' looking mildly confused, before shaking it off to answer. "I helped Robbie get pictures in places he otherwise wasn't supposed to be in," Pete explained. "They were trying to keep him out of a gala. I stood there and looked as white as possible and caused a big scene which allowed him to sneak in and take a bunch of pictures. They want to discriminate on the bases of shade then I'm gonna use my white self to be the best distraction I can and get him places they don't wanna let him be. They wanna be fucking stupid, I'm gonna make them fucking stupid."

"That's brilliant," Miles laughed. "Have you been friends ever since? I didn't know that you had any friends in…" Miles trailed off, watching his expression as gray eyes seemed to darken and Pete finally lowered his head.

"I don't want to talk about Robbie," Pete finally said quietly.

"Oh, Pete… Did Robbie stop being friends with you after you got cursed?" Jeff asked.

Pete laughed, blood bubbling up with the motion. He rubbed his eyes, wincing at the pressure he put on what had to be a busted cheekbone, Peter catching hold of his hand to stop him. "I wish he had," Pete finally said, taking his hand back. "If he wasn't my friend, maybe he would have been okay…" He looked at them with watering eyes, likely from pain, but Rio could think of so many more reasons. "Are you sure…" he started, "that you really want to be…friends with…"

"Yes!" came the immediate chorus.

Pete sighed, nodding his head before making a discomforted sound. Pete put his hands to his head with a soft hiss. "Ouch," he said. "My brain is soup."

"Aw, Pete…" Porker said so softly. "How'd you get so beat, buddy? What happened after Luke Cage found you?"

"Well," Pete started, frowning. "They both knew that I was…sympathetic to the cause, and while they had no idea that I was Jewish, they really didn't need to. All they needed to know was I was at least passing white, hated the Klan, and was known for getting myself into and out of very tight situations." Pete frowned. "Unfortunately, they were both very correct."

"So, you agreed?"

"I did," Pete answered with a nod. "It's not like they could go to Frank-Fucking-Castle," Pete hissed. "He's a fucking maniac and no one wants to deal with him. I don't even wanna talk about him. But they were pretty low on options, and I was the best one, so I agreed." Pete sighed. "Unfortunately, I…am not a good spy."

"You couldn't have gone to Natasha Romanov, or anyone like that?"

"Who?" Pete asked. "If there's other heroes in your world, we don't have many. There's Tony Stark, but he can't do much when it comes to this sort of thing. If he's seen associating with the Klan at all it's just bad news, so the most he can do is give money to people that are against the KKK. He does that a lot. There's this new guy, but no one knows him, and it takes a while to build up trust. I've at least got some clout, even though I am cursed…and even though they know that," Pete whispered. "So, basically, really limited options, I finally agreed. While I'm cursed, the Klan don't know what they're looking for, so it doesn't take much to fool them. Well…that was the plan, but it didn't always work out like that."

"What happened?" Peni asked, her eyebrows pinching together.

"I kept saying things that made them suspicious," Pete answered, looking to Peni. "Luckily they kept trying to attack me on their own, because they were like 'ha ha, you dumb fucking racial-slur sympathizer!' and they did it on their own because they wanted to parade my corpse around like 'look at me, you should absolutely promote me because I can find the spy in our midst, ha ha!' But they did it on their own and it's not that hard to overpower them." He frowned. "Unfortunately, my spidersense is…well, it was pretty much fucking useless. The entire time I was with them it was buzzing, because I looked around at everyone and the only thing I felt was danger. I couldn't have told you when they were going to attack, or even if they were, all I knew is my brain was trying to split in two and I just hurt. It made it hard to think. So, they'd get the drop on me, I'd get hurt, retaliate a lot harder, come here, and then I would go back and spin some story about how the corpse got there."

"Fuck, Pete, how the hell did you explain that?"

"Well, a few times we actually dragged the corpse over to Harlem?" Pete answered, a question in his voice. "And I pretended he was still alive and we had been drinking, because that's some illegal shit that's absolutely worth pretending, and then we staged this whole thing where he got killed in the crossfire of some crazy pretend uprising, and I'd run the fuck away like my life depended on it." He paused. "It technically didn't, they knew that I was on their side, and I've got free license to roam around Harlem again which is…" he hesitated, "actually pretty nice." He smiled. "Or at least I should. I don't know if I still do. It might have been temporary. I don't think they'll want anything to do with me now that they're done with me."

"Oh, Pete…" MJ said, her voice so quiet. "Not everyone is just going to use you."

"It's all about what you can give," Pete disagreed, shaking his head. "If you can't give anything, you're useless and I…" he sniffed, his hands going up to his nose which had begun to drip black.

Rio gave him a tissue, and he pressed it to his nose.

"That some bullshit 1930s logic?" Porker asked, his eyebrow raising.

"I thought you said you didn't look down on the people that went into your line?" Miles prompted with his own eyebrow raised.

Pete made a noncommittal noise, shrugging. "I don't look down on them," he finally said.

"Ah, it's some bullshit Pete logic," Porker said. "Well, that's alright. We'll knock it out of your head at some point."

"I don't think my head can take anymore knocks," Pete denied. "I just want my teeth to grow back at this point…"

There was silence.

"Pete…" Rio said softly. "You know…teeth don't grow back?"

"What?" Pete asked, blinking. "Sure, they do, I've grown back all of them at least twice at this point."

"…What?"

"Yeah," Pete answered, nodding. "I mean…I don't exactly have access to decent dental hygiene. I get a tooth that rots, all I gotta do is…" he reached into his mouth, gripping hold of one of his front teeth between his fingers and started to pull. There was a brief shriek of,

"NO," before he popped it right out with a bubbling of more blood and barely a flinch. He licked in the spot that was missing, looking vaguely disconcerted.

"I don't know why I did that," he finally said, looking at the tooth in his hand, before shrugging. "Eh, won't matter, they grow back." He dropped the tooth and they stared at him with wide-eyed looks of horror.

"He's right," Peter said finally, swallowing heavily. "I've regrown teeth before. It's the worst thing that your body does. It itches, and it's hot…"

"Yeah!" Pete said, pointing to Peter. "It's awful, but if they hurt, out they go…" he sniffed.

"I'm buying you a toothbrush," Jeff said, his voice soft. "You use that whenever you need it.

"Oh, okay, thank you!" Pete beamed at him, gap-toothed smile and all.

"You'll have a toothbrush in all of our houses," came the quiet refrain.

"Thank you," Pete said, looking genuinely surprised. "Anyway, like I was saying, they tap me for it, and I eventually agree. It didn't take much to persuade them that I had their fucking awful beliefs. I've had enough practice making a scene with Robbie, but…" he hesitated. "Being around it day after day, though, that's… I don't think I ever knew that hate like that could exist. I couldn't…I couldn't look at…at you." Pete said. "I don't know why. I just…something inside of me…"

"Pete, you didn't have to be ashamed," Rio said, so softly. "Oh, sweetie, you didn't have to be ashamed. You were doing what you were asked to do in order to chase out a terrible group of people, you had no reason to be ashamed."

"Shame?" Pete repeated, frowning. "Maybe. Maybe…all I knew is I couldn't think, I could barely breathe the entire time I was there, and I…well, I started having those…well, really bad nightmares again. The ones where I wind up…" He hesitated. "Either way, I went loopy for a bit. Your…your messages and the pictures… I don't think I could have lasted as long as I did if you didn't keep sending them to me, so…thank you. I wanted to reply but I couldn't get away, and eventually…eventually I just couldn't handle looking at them at all."

"Aw, Pete…" Porker said softly. "I'm so sorry."

"It's over. We managed to run them out…"

"What I want to know is why the KKK came into New York in the 1930s. From what I understand they started leaving in the 20s. They couldn't get enough support."

"Is that what it's like in your world?" Pete asked, staring at Jeff with wide eyes. "Oh, I wish it was like that in mine… In mine they try and blame the issue of the changes on the large population of…blacks, Jews, and other immigrants. They've got enough of a sway that they're able to come up and run rallies. I hate them. I hate them so much… But one of them turned at the end," Pete whispered. "One of them turned because we made him so afraid, he was gonna die, and he reached, and the entire foundation got a serious shaking. We fucked up their understanding and I've never been prouder to be in a meeting like that."

"But how did they hurt you so bad?"

"Well…that's partially my fault," Pete admitted, frowning. "Part of the reason it took so long is I couldn't figure out who all was a part of the organization. We knew it was a sudden uprising, but it wasn't all the people that had moved up north, and we couldn't go around busting up southerners all over the place, because a whole bunch of them moved to get away from what we hate. So, I had to stick around and try and get close enough to the core leadership that I could figure out what was happening, while at the same time sabotaging what I could. Eventually we decided to try and get them to lynch Luke Cage. Have you ever seen a bunch of idiots try and lynch someone who's basically invulnerable? It's actually kind of funny." Pete hesitated. "Unfortunately, it caused enough of a ruckus and enough of a stirring that they all retreated back into the circle. Which, hey, I found the rest of them… But they also knew I was the one who initially recommended they try Luke since I called him the biggest collaborator they had, and the one they rallied behind."

"Oh no," Peni whispered.

"Yeah," Pete nodded. "I probably would have been able to get out okay, but they got me with a crowbar right in the head, first thing. Like I said, my spidersense was already going crazy every single time, so I had no warning." He gestured at the spot on his cheekbone. "I went down and almost got beat to death, but I got my ass saved by Luke, Matt, and Jessica…"

"Jessica Jones?" Peter asked.

"Yeah! She's new, but she got in there pretty quick and made Luke keep her around. She's terrifying," Pete whispered, his eyes wide. "But by the time they came to save my ass, we'd found the whole hive of these assholes, and one of them turned and started killing everyone. I stuck around just long enough to make sure that they had a handle on the situation and then ran the fuck away. I came here, and I've been waiting ever since…I stole your shorts during that time, though," Pete said, frowning at Miles. "I'm really sorry, I just…I couldn't wear that thing anymore, and I didn't want to go back to get my clothes yet. I think they're probably hovering around them trying to wait for me to come back, and I refuse. I don't even have my mask now, and they never saw my face. Scarves and stuff helped when I left the actual Klan gatherings, but if I came back to it, they'd definitely know it was me. I'm going to wait for a bit, if that's okay."

"That's okay, man," Miles assured softly, his eyebrows pinching. "What are you going to do with it?"

"Burn it on the main road to get into New York," Pete answered without hesitation. "They wanna burn shit, I can do that, too. Giving a message that we don't accept that kinda shit might go very well, I think."

"I think so, too," Jeff agreed.

"Good, now…I'm never doing anything like that again. If they want me to act as a spy again, I won't do it. I'm the worst at it, I'm not of the right temperament to be a spy, so I say shit and get beat." Pete frowned. "My thing is blow it up and get it done, that was way too much waiting."

"You still did it, Pete," Peni said, touching his knee. "You guys chased them out of New York, and that's something to be proud of."

Pete hesitated, before giving her a grin. "Yeah, I guess it is…" Pete hesitated. "I…really need to sleep now, though, I think," he said. "I heal better and…"

"You don't have to explain," Rio said. "We'll put you on the couch. I want you to be close to the ground so I can help if anything goes wrong."

"But I'm gross," Pete protested. Jeff had already left, and when he came back, he threw some old towels across the couch. "Oh, okay," he said. He looked to Peter. "Can you…help me to the bathroom first, though?"

"Yeah, sure," Peter immediately responded, standing up and walking over to him. For a moment the two of them stared at each other, mentally figuring out how to help Pete up onto his feet, before finally Peter gently began to pick him up. Pete whimpered, grabbing hold of him with his arms, not letting go. Slowly they worked him upright and Peter carefully took him to the bathroom, supporting him as they went, Pete actively leaning on him.

Jeff brought a pillow over that he'd given an old pillowcase, as well as an older blanket. "Would he prefer his hammock?" he asked.

"I think…at the moment, I think he just wants to be around us."

"Well that's a damn good thing," Porker said with a frown, putting his hands on his hips. "I'm not letting him out of my sight for a week."

"Amen to that!"

Pete and Peter finally exited the bathroom, Pete allowing himself to be bundled onto the couch, where he fell asleep before his head hit the pillow.

Peni and Gwen looked at each other, before quietly, Gwen asked, "Is it okay if I stay here for the night?"

"Of course," Rio said.

"I don't mind," George said, "but you have to come home first to get your stuff. And a toothbrush. We're going to model good behaviors for Pete."

There was a laugh. Peter hesitated, looking at them, looking at Pete.

"You can stay, too," Jeff assured, looking at Peter and Peni, who began furiously texting her aunt and uncle, MJ giving a sound of agreement. "There's a guest bedroom that we've been keeping aired out now that we know that there will be people staying. You can all fight for it."

"Thank you," the Spiders chorused.

So began a vigil that Rio thought she would see continue, rotating through Spiders on the couch, potentially, but one thing would stay the same, she was sure.

They'd always have each other.

Though first they still had to convince Pete of that. There were things that he had said that caused her a great deal of worry, but they'd get to that when it came.