Chapter 5

"Oh my God, Peter!" a loud voice said, and Peter groaned as he struggled to sit up in his bed. Ned immediately pulled him into a hug, as he wore a flush bathrobe.

"Hey," Peter said, looking a little confused. Last he'd remembered, he'd been with Beck at the bar. How did he back here?

What had happened?

"We almost died," Ned said, looking distressed, and Peter immediately felt a wave of guilt wash over him. He'd been supposed to protect his friends. It was why he wanted them to go to the opera! Instead, Ned and Betty had nearly died. And what had he done afterward? He'd gone out with Beck. Instead of making sure his childhood friend was okay.

What kind of person did that make him?

"It's fine," Peter said, relieved that his friend was okay. He looked down, surprised that he was no longer wearing the dark Spider-Man outfit, and instead his opera clothes. Did someone change him?

"Why are you in bed?" Ned asked, a little confused.

"I…don't know," Peter said a bit unsure, "But the mission is finally over. Those monsters have been defeated. Once and for all."

"Good," Ned said in relief, "But dude, the trip's over."

His heart began to beat faster.

What? But he hadn't even given MJ the Black Dahlia yet! How could it be over when he'd barely had a chance to enjoy it?

"There's monsters coming out of the ground everywhere we go," Ned told him with a roll of his eyes, "Of course our parents would want us home."

"Right," Peter swallowed.

"Ned, is Peter back yet?" Mr Harrington knocked on the door, as Ned opened it, "Oh Peter! You're not dead! Oh my God! Yes, good! Stay here and don't die, okay? And Ned, put some clothes on. We're booking flights!"

He left the door wide open as Ned and Peter exchanged a look.

"We came for science, and we're leaving because of witches," Mr Dell walked by with a shake of his head, "Welcome to the new Dark Ages."

And Peter didn't blame him. All this Elemental stuff was pretty terrifying.

"What's going on?" he asked, a bit confused.

"We're going home in the morning," Ned said solemnly, and he felt himself panic.

"What why? All the elementals are gone now! We defeated them all!" Peter said quickly.

"Ned!" Betty called from down the hall, as Ned peered out of the room.

"Coming, Sweetie!" Ned responded.

"Hi, can you guys keep it down," Flash said as he opened the door across the hall, right before MJ opened her room door.

He felt his heart race in his chest. Had she enjoyed the opera next to Brad?

"Hey," she greeted.

"Yeah," he told Flash. "Hey, MJ."

"Where were you?" she asked him, crossing her arms.

"I got lost?" he asked, knowing there was no way she'd buy that.

"Right," she said, looking skeptical. "Lost. We were worried about you."

"Oh," he felt his heart in his chest. She was?

"Good thing you're back," she said, giving him a small smile.

"Yeah," he said, grinning brightly in response.

"So much for Paris, right?" she threw her arms up, and he sighed. All he'd wanted to do was tell her how he felt. And he hadn't been able to.

"Would've been fun," he said, a little put out.

"Yeah," she said, before quickly adding, "Night."

"You look ni-" he tried to add, but she'd already closed the door on him.

He let out a disappointed sigh.

This was not how he wanted this trip to go at all.

He had had a plan. He was going to take MJ to the top of the Eiffel tower and he was going to tell her how he felt. But with everything gone on, those plans had been quickly derailed.

He felt a sense of hopelessness. Was this how it was going to be for the rest of his life? He has plans to do things, then life gets in the way, and Spider-Man gets in the way, and he can't do those things?

Steve and Toni made it work. Even as superheroes. Even with a billion things going on in their lives, they made it work. They always made time for each other, even life was getting in their way.

He took a deep breath.

This trip was not going to end like this.

He moved to knock on MJ's door.

Only for her to open it right before he could do so.

His breath hitched in his throat.

"Oh!" she said, a bit surprised to see him there, and a part of him wanted to kick himself.

"Hey," he said, feeling like an idiot.

"Hey," she said, sounding unsure. Did she feel just as awkward about all of this as he clearly did?

"Look," he started, not really sure what he was doing. But it was too late to stop himself, "I'm not ready for this trip to be over yet. I feel like it'd barely begun, and I didn't get to do half the things I wanted to do. Do you want to do something that's fun, that's not on the itinerary, or planned out, or with Mr Harrington?"

He waited for her to respond, "Yes."

"Like you want to go?" he squeaked.

"Yes," she smiled, and he grinned widely.

"Okay, awesome," he smiled, "I'll meet you outside in 10."

"Five," she argued, and his heart fluttered.

"Five it is," he said, as he closed the door and quickly changed into a sweater and jeans. He attempted to brush his hair, before running down the stairs to meet MJ as she came.

She'd thrown a sweater over her dress, and her hair was still nicely done. He'd smiled to himself as he saw her, as he felt the glasswork burn in his back pocket.

"So where do you wanna go?" he asked, after greeting her.

"Who cares?" she asked, sounding a bit unsure. And MJ never sounded unsure.

"Awesome," he said, as the two of them exited the hotel together. They walked out onto a bridge, lit by lampposts, and he couldn't help but notice how beautiful the sight was. "I'm glad we're doing this."

"Yeah, me too," MJ said, glancing over at him.

"To see the city a little bit," he said as they walked beside each other.

"You know they used to execute people on this bridge. They would like put them in a basket and they would like drown them in water. Sorry," she said, catching herself, sounding a bit self-conscious.

"It's okay. I like listening to you talk. And to all the facts you know," he smiled, as their hands brushed before they both quickly pulled them away, "Uh, like, there's this thing I've been wanting to talk to you about for a while."

"Yeah?" she asked him, stopping to turn around so she could look at him.

"It's our last night in Europe and I had this plan that I wanted to tell you," he exhaled, pulling the flower out of his pocket. "You can ask Ned about that. Because I just wanted this to be perfect. But it feels like everything just kinda went wrong, you know? With the elementals and stuff? But I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna tell you. Uh, MJ I-"

"am Spider-Man," she interrupted him.

"What?" his brain froze, unable to comprehend anything else she was saying.

"That's what you were gonna say, right?" she said like it was obvious, "That you're Spider-Man."

"No," he said quickly. How did she know? "I'm not Spider-Man."

"I mean I've been watching you for like a while now it's kind of obvious," she said, and he wondered if he'd misread everything. He thought she was watching him because she'd had feelings for him. But the entire time she was figuring out his big secret.

"I'm not Spider-Man. I mean what would make you think that I was Spider-Man?" he asked quickly, wanting to dissuade her as quickly as possible.

"Peter, Washington," she said simply.

"Yeah?" he asked, hating that she'd caught onto that fact.

"The fact that you like disappear, out of nowhere, for no reason," she said again.

"No I was sick!" he cut in quickly, "Remember, I had my, the tummy-"

"Susan Yang thinks that you're a male escort," she told him, and he felt incredulous. That was what his classmates thought he was doing? Escorting? "Which is ridiculous because your parents are loaded so it's not like you need money. But she thinks you like doing it for the attention it gives you."

"What, no, of course I'm not a male escort!" he said quickly."

"Then you're Spider-Man," she said, sounding a bit pleased, like escorting or superheroing were the only two logical explanations for the current situation.

"No, I'm not Spider-Man!" he said again.

"What about tonight?" she crossed her arms, "I saw you sneak out, Peter. You fought that thing. I saw that too."

"You can't have seen me because I'm not Spider-Man and also on the news it was the Night Monkey!" he said, remembering what he'd seen on the news while waiting for MJ.

"The Night Monkey," she repeated, like it was ridiculous.

"That's what it said on the news!" he said, "And the news never lies."

Right. His mother and father would definitely disagree with him there

"Night Monkey," she laughed, "Okay."

She took off her backpack, "What are you doing?" he asked her.

"Well do the Night Monkey and Spider-Man use the same webs?" she asked as she pulled out an object from her bag.

"I mean, maybe? Maybe he's a spider monkey. Who knows," he said, before asking the question he was dreading, "Were you only watching me because you thought I was Spider-Man?"

"Yeah. Why else would I be watching you?" she questioned after a moment, and his heart dropped. Well, he guessed he had his answer then.

"Doesn't matter," he said quickly, "Just thought that maybe-"

She pressed a button then, dropping the device, as the Air Elemental appeared before them, before quickly disappearing again.

"What the hell was that?" he asked, heart racing.

"I don't know," MJ said, sounding just as startled.

He bent down, to pick up the device and look it over.

"What is that like some kind of projector or something?" she asked, and he looked at the tech. It was extremely advanced. Like the sort of thing his mother would have in her lab. So what was it doing out here?

"Yeah," he said, a bit confused.

"It looked so real," MJ said said.

"Yeah, really real," he said, mind racing. Because if it looked that real then did that mean-

"Wait a minute, does that mean that-" MJ said, reaching the same conclusion as him.

"The Elementals are fake?" he confirmed. "But that doesn't make any sense because we were there right? There was fire and destruction and… who would do something like that?"

The damage done to each sight after the Elementals attacked had been monumental. They'd destroyed historical sights. Countless cities. With millions if not billions, of dollars worth of damages.

The device activated again, showing the cyclone. But this time Mysterio was fighting with it.

"Mysterio?" MJ asked, surprised, and the pieces began to fit in Peter's head, one by one. Why Mysterio kept asking about his parents. His eagerness to bond with Peter. Why he'd woken up back at the hotel room of no idea how he'd gotten there.

What he hadn't checked was if he still had the glasses.

He needed to get back to the room right away.

But first, he knew he owed MJ an explanation.

He didn't like many people to know the truth about him. Ned found out but not by his own desire for his friend to know. And the more people who knew, the more danger they were in.

But he owed her this. Regardless of any unrequited feelings he may have for her, she was his friend. He trusted her. And she deserved to know.

"You're right," he said, turning to face her, "I am Spider-Man. And I think Mysterio has been playing me this entire time."

"Wait, you're being serious right now? MJ said a bit shocked, and he agreed, "You're not joking with me like you're a hundred percent serious cause it's not funny."

He shook his head, "No, I'm not joking. I promise this is the truth."

"Cause I was only like sixty seven percent sure," she rambled. "Why are you here? Why are you on this school trip? Were you there with your parents when Thanos attacked! Oh my God, Peter! Shouldn't you be doing hero things?"

"MJ!" he cut her rambling off, "I know you have a lot of questions. But if this is real. If Mysterio really isn't who he says he is, then we need to stop him. And I think he stole something very valuable from me. We need to get back to the hotel, okay?"

"Okay," she took a deep breath, "I can't believe I figured it out."

The two of them took off running back to the hotel, as Peter ran up the stairs to his hotel room.

"You are in way better shape than I thought you'd be," MJ remarked, as they cleared the stairs, "Though I guess that does make sense."

He made it to the room and he began rummaging around for the glasses in his bag. He checked the suit pockets, the bag pockets, his opera outfit pockets.

But it wasn't there.

Beck had taken it from him.

Shit.

His mother was going to be furious. He'd lost billion-dollar glasses. Glasses that were capable of great harm. And now they were in the hands of Quentin Beck.

"I need to get the glasses back before Beck does something with them!" he told her as he paced anxiously, "He's probably spying them on me or gonna send some sort of drone to come and kill me. Who knows what he's going to do with them!"

"You had access to killer drones?" she raised a brow at him.

"Yeah, I mean I didn't really want them though. Not after I nearly killed Brad," he rambled, before cutting himself off. He turned his laptop off the internet, and shut the blinds.

"You almost killed Brad?" she asked, voice rising.

"Look," he said picking up his phone. "I have to call Mr. Fury and tell him that Beck's a fraud, but, I think he tapped my phone."

"Okay, so what are you going to do?" she asked him carefully.

There was really only one thing he could do. He needed to do this face to face.

"I need to get my suit, and I have to go to Berlin to talk to Mr Fury in person," he said, knowing what needed to be done.

He dumped the contents of his bag onto the bed, and stripped out of his shirt before realizing what he'd done. He looked over at MJ, stopping to stare at her.

It took her a few seconds as she coughed awkwardly and turned around.

He breathed heavily as he pulled his pants off as well and tugged the stealth suit onto his body. Everyone already thought he was Night Monkey anyways. So might as well be Night Monkey.

He turned around then, as he saw Ned enter the room. He took off the eye visors, "Ned! Perfect!"

"The costume looks great!" Ned said quickly, "For the costume, at the Prince's castle."

He ended a bit lamely.

"She knows," Peter said, appreciating that Ned was doing his best to keep his secret. "I told her."

"He didn't tell me," MJ said smugly, "I figured it out."

"Oh, that's cool," Ned said, a bit put out.

"Like a long time ago," she added.

"Look," Peter cut them both off, "Mysterio is a fraud."

"But he saved mine and Betty's lives!" Ned said, a bit confused.

"He didn't," Peter told him. "He's using these, like, hologram projectors."

"Illusion tech," MJ supplied.

"Whoa," Ned's eyes widened, "That's crazy."

He shared a glance with MJ, and Ned looked a bit jealous.

"Were you guys like, working the case together, or what?" Ned said, put out.

"It's mostly been me," MJ shrugged.

"Look, Ned, can you call my Mom and Dad? Ask them to tell Mr Harrington that they wanted me to stay in a safe house in Berlin and that they wanted to come get me personally or something. And can you tell them what's happening? I need to turn all my technology off in case he tries to hack them. Including Karen since EDITH can access her."

"Got it," Ned nodded. "Easy. Just gotta call Iron Woman. No big deal. And Captain America."

"You met them like a hundred times," MJ deadpanned, "I can do it if it's too hard for you."

"No, he asked me to do it!" Ned cut her off.

She raised her hands in surrender.

"I gotta go," Peter said, raising the window to exit the building.

"Wait, wait wait!" MJ stopped him, and his heart began to race again. "The projector! You're gonna need it."

He let out a disappointed exhale. This was not how he wanted the night to go at all.

"Right. Thanks," he said, "Don't tell anyone about this, okay? Anyone who knows is in danger."

He jumped out of the window then, and began to make his way towards the train station. It was going to be a long ride, but it was the best way he could get there without anyone noticing him.

Peter swung a web over the crowd as the train he was hitching a ride on pulled into Berlin.

As he landed on the ground, he approached the nearest person, "Uh excuse me, do you know where-"

"Nacht Monkey!" she screamed as she took one look at him and took off running.

Great. People were apparently terrified of him here.

"No, wait, I didn't…aw, man!" he sighed, as he turned around before nearly getting hit by a black Audi. As the car windows were rolled down, Peter Parker Stark-Rogers was relieved to see none other than Nick Fury sitting in the driver's seat.

"Get in," Fury said simply, and Peter quickly obliged as the car took off, driving through Berlin.

He ripped his mask off, "Mr Fury!" he said in relief.

"You've got a lot of explaining to do," Fury told him simply.

"No, no, no, listen!" Peter said quickly, needing to tell the man why he'd come.

"Wait until we're secure," Fury cut him off.

"Okay," he sighed, as Fury indicated for Peter to put his seatbelt on, "Right."

He struggled to pull on the belt, realizing that it must have been stuck, and he pulled it harder before it broke off. He sheepishly looked at the man who glared at him.

"That's gonna come out of your Momma's pocket," Fury told him simply.

He nodded glumly, as he sat in silence for the rest of the car ride. When they'd finally entered the SHIELD building, he was a bit shocked to see that many people inside of it. He knew SHIELD had been slowly recovering since everything with HYDRA, but he'd gotten the impression that they still weren't operating at full capacity. Even with his mother and father helping the, get it back up running.

"So, is there anything you want to tell us about your girlfriend?" Fury asked, and Peter frowned. What did MJ have to do with this? Not that she was his girlfriend. Or that she even wanted to be his girlfriend.

"He's talking about EDITH," Hill clarified at his confused expression.

"I don't know what happened," Peter exhaled. "All I know is that I went to a bar with Mysterio after everything, and when I woke up, the glasses were gone. Beck isn't who he says he is. Mysterio, the Elementals, all of it. It's fake. He has some sort of illusion tech that he's been using and it's how he tricked you guys and probably has something to do with how he stole EDITH from me."

He pulled the projector out of his bag and placed it on the table.

"It's a projector. I pulled it off the fire monster in Prague," he told them.

Fury looked skeptical, "So all that death and destruction we witnessed was caused by this?"

"No," Peter shook his head, "Not just this. I think he's using drones too. He staged all of this."

"Well, if this is true, then Beck's very dangerous and we need to be smart. Who else did you tell about this?" Fury asked him, and Peter felt his spider senses activate then.

"Why?" he asked, eyes narrowing slightly. Because why did it matter who else knew?

"Parker?" Fury asked him, "Parker!"

"What's wrong?" Hill asked, and he looked around the room.

"It's Beck," Peter said, still not certain what was happening, "He's here."

The illusions began to crumble then. Hill disappeared. Then the fancy facility disappeared. Leaving nothing but a rundown building where they stood.

"It's just a illu-" he started, before getting cut off as Fury was shot backwards.

He looked up to see a drone. It moved to take another shot, and before he could react, he was pushed several floors down.

"Wow, Peter. Wow. I thought we were close. Fury always had to die. But not you," Beck's voice taunted, as he heard it call out around him.

"Stop hiding, Beck!" he screamed. The drones each aimed lasers at him, and he wasn't all that sure he'd be fast enough to dodge them all.

The drones activated then, and he was surrounded by darkness, as Beck appeared in front of him.

"I wanted you to walk away. I didn't want to hurt a kid. But you're too much like your mother. Too stubborn to take a step back. Always needing to prove how much better you are than me."

He looked down and saw himself wearing the suit Toni had made for him, as Mysterio approached him.

He tried to blast the man, only for him to disappear. Mysterio appeared behind him then, and as he punched his helmet, the illusion crumbled away.

"You told me you were just a kid. You told me that you became a hero because it was what was right. But when have you ever truly suffered?" Mysterio called out.

"Help me!" he heard MJ's voice, and he pushed through a door, only to nearly fall off the ledge. He looked over to see her standing there beside him. "Peter, what's going on?"

She sounded terrified, and she looked so realistic. But it couldn't be the truth. Not when she was heading back to London.

"I know this isn't real," Peter said, as Mysterio appeared from the moon that had been in the sky."

"Do you, though?" Mysterio said smugly, as he grabbed her by the neck and tossed her off the Eiffel Tower.

"MJ!" he screamed, as he jumped after her, only to crash on the ground.

"I don't think you know what's real, Peter," Mysterio said, voice sounding deeper and deeper. He was thrust through New York city, feeling like he was falling through air.

As the illusions faded, he saw himself on the ground outside the building, having landed on a car parked outside it.

He struggled to get away, as the illusions followed him, shards of glass landing all around him.

"I mean look at yourself," Beck said, and he reached forward to touch his reflection, as it grabbed onto him, and hundreds of 'Spider-Mans' began to pile on top of him. "You are just a scared little kid in a sweatsuit!"

And as he stood back up, he was back in that suit he'd made for himself in the beginning. The one Toni had locked up tightly for memory sake but refused to ever let him wear again.

"I created Mysterio to give the world someone to believe in," Beck said, as he stood beside a fallen monument of his father. "I control the truth! Mysterio is the truth."

And right in front of him, a giant monument of Mysterio stood tall.

Mysterio landed behind him then, shooting him with green lasers, and Peter jumped into the air, shooting webs at the man.

A giant boulder was brought down on him, and he braced himself to cover his body. And as it vanished, he looked up to see his mother in her wedding dress, and his father in his suit beside her.

"I bet your parents regret their decision to take you in," Mysterio taunted, and he looked up to see an image of his mother and father, with Steve's arms wrapped around Toni's waist.

"It's true," Toni told him. "I regretted it every day since I did. You are not my son. You are just some boy I took in off the streets."

"You aren't a real hero," Steve told him, in a disappointed Captain America tone. "You're just a kid in a suit, who can barely hold their own. You're nothing without us behind you."

"Deep down, you know I'm right," Beck said, as his parents turned to walk away, before vanishing in the distance, surrounded by Morgan, Meg, and Jamie.

Their real children.

Peter tried to run from the vision, only to hit his head on a glass wall. Buildings began to emerge from around him, of the New York Skyline, as he realized he was in a snow globe in Beck's hands.

"You made your choice," Beck said, "And all you had to do was step aside. And now, you ha-"

He was cut off by the sound of a shot, as the illusion crumbled around him.

Peter saw Beck fall, as Fury approached, with armed vehicles pulling up to the scene.

Peter let out a sigh of relief.

It was over.

It was really and truly over.

"Fury!" he cried out, as he crawled towards the man.

"Beck's people," Fury said, "We're trying to find everyone who could expose him. Who'd you tell?"

"Uh," Peter hesitated.

"Parker I know you. I know you told someone. So tell me who did you tell? Who else did you tell?!"

"Just MJ and Ned from my class!" Peter said quickly, "And maybe Ned told his girlfriend Betty? But that's it!"

Nick Fury laughed as he shook his head.

"You," Fury started, "Are so gullible."

And just like that, Peter knew he'd made a mistake.

"What?" Peter asked, panic filling him.

"I mean, you're smart as a whip. Just a-" Fury's voice suddenly changed in Beck's then, "-sucker."

And suddenly, Fury turned back into Beck.

"And now all your friends have to die," Beck said without sympathy.

"Oh my God," Peter stumbled backwards, as he was thrust back into the illusion, with building parts collapsing all around him.

"It's easy to fool people when they're already fooling themselves. But for what it's worth, Peter... I really am sorry," Beck said.

The illusion lifted then, and Peter looked at the man in confusion.

And before he could ask why, Peter Parker Stark-Rogers was hit by a train.