"PETER!"

MJ rushed towards her husband as he was struggling with his shadow doppelganger. But was stopped by an initially transparent wall surrounding the large sigil the two were standing in and covering them from the two spider-women's sight soon after .

Without losing a beat mary jane started beating on the dome of energy with both her hands and nanite claws as Rise also got close and tried to scan their impedment using Kuzeon.

Unfortunately... "what the ..? It's not there " the spider-girl said . " what do you mean it's not there ?" Iron-spider asked urgently as ske kept punching the barrier ineffectually.

"I mean that Kuzeon can't see it . For all she scans there is nothing there " the frustrated girl answered.

MJ wasted no time , her hand darting to the evoker but before she could grasp it a clapping of hands stopped her , the eerie silence around the two broken .

The woman turned expecting the sight in front of her now .

Rise had always been grateful for her persona's power. Up until now she could have never fought alongside her friends , but she still could help them in ways that saved them from pain and injury , her scanners gave her a full view of the tv world's battlefield , rarely being taken by surprise , assesing the shadow power and weaknesses at the speed of thought the more experienced she got.

It gave her confidence that even if she couldn.'t bash the shadows masks off , she could still save and protect the people around her .

That confidence shattered the instant clapping filled the air around her and her mother.

A presence appeared suddenly behind them, closer than it should have ever gotten unnoticed . And different .

Different from everything she had ever sensed , Different... and stronger than Izanami herself .

Alongside iron spider she turned , and as soon as she did, still clad in her visor , she saw . She saw Mephisto. And her spider-sense hummed .

The red clad figure would have looked downright silly in any other situation , but this wasn't one of them . The demon Lord stood unfazed hands behind his back, a condescending smirk on his face , yellow eyes expressing a disarmingly honest amusement. MJ's eyes darted to her daughter but the girl was still in a stunned silence , her expression unreadable under the mask .

" well hello there " mephisto's deep and otherworldly tone caught mary jane's attention once more "Do you need the help of our customer service ?" he said in a mockingly cordial tone that made mary jane's blood boil.

" I have to warn you though " the demon continued as his lips quirked upwards " no refunds allowed ".

The pain in peter's back , was a small part of what occupied his thougts at the moment , the doppelganger being a much more pressing issue . After the first hit the unfotunate dance of dodges , parrys and punches followed and it wasn't going in peter's favor . The Shadow was stronger, faster and with a full spider-sense unlike peter's crippled one . The maskless face of the shadow in a clear rictus of anger was also distracting since it reminded peter of some of the darker moments of his regained past .

"tsk , another one for the pile ,uh" shadow peter's distorted voice called out answering the original's thoughts.

"i guess you can tell what i'm thinking about, uh ? We should make a ment-" the attempt at a quip was interrupted by one of the shadow's vicious punches hitting it's mark , launching peter against the now darkened barrier surrounding them and before he could recover, being encased in a web coccon by it's doppelganger.

The entity's grimace slowly lowered into barely restrained fury as he got closer to spider-man and then started speaking in it's distorted, furious tone.

"not so funny anymore ? Is it ? Then again the last two years weren't funny, not by a longshot"

the two were now only a few centimeters apart , the shadow glaring and peter glaring back under his mask .Shadow Peter then took off said mask before resuming to speak " oh now you are angry.

Took you long enough . What ? Not feeling like mocking me anymore ?."

"so what is this about ?" peter answered not understanding .

" see ! that attitude is why we are here in the first place ! you are just ready to take the fall for anything. Oh the responsibility! " the shadow exclaimed mockingly " Aunt may is hurt so it's better to ignore everything and every one , her first of all , to save her even if it means suffering for all eternity and taking someone we love with us , AND KILLING OUR UNBORN DAUGHTER IN THE PROCESS ! But that's how it is isn't it , the responsibility just like uncle Ben taught us. All consuming and annihalating there is no-"

"Are you done ? "peter said calmly .

The shadow stopped talking , gaping at him.

"yeah , I was a complete desperate moron and an idiot and panicked , and hardheaded and whatever other insult you can cook up but the wonderful woman out of this dome doesn't care , she doesn't blame me. She believes in me , she always does despite everything . And so does everybody else I care about and that gives me strenght . " determination filled peter's eyes as he defiantly stared in his doppelganger's own " Strenght to do anything I can to both erase this deal and save Aunt May. No matter what . So i don't know about you but can we close this off and just get out there and help our wife and child against the literal demon lord ."

The shadow's face quiclky shifted from stupor to ... a calm smirk as he freed peter from his coocon.

" yeah, sure. I guess all that brooding is good for something after all . "

" You know it ." peter said grasping his shadow in a handshake as a surge of blue energy appeared around them "after all... you are me "

peter's vision was blinded by a bright white light and then darkness and silence .

A silence suddenly broken by a soft piano and a woman singing.

MJ panted heavily as she brought the evoker to her temple yet again . As Arachne leaped into the offensive aided by Kuzeon's funnels , she attempted to bypass the defenses that mephisto was stopping her Persona with by shotting one of the nanites claws at the demon . The claw headed for the barely fazed demon lord's arm . Until Mephisto dodged , unvoluntarily allowing arachne's attack to go through . The clash raising a lot of smoke .

"I really don't think it was enough but... did we get him ?" Rise asked , regainng her breath herself. The fight had been short and gruesome but they had managed to keep up somehow . Even Mary Jane had been able to do some crazy things with her persona despite lacking the experience .

With an answer not forthcoming she turned to look at her mother , fear overtaking the girl when she saw her suddenly struggling for air.

She summoned kuzeon again and slammed her at the center of the smoke filled roof at the top of her speed and strenght . Something giving barely way and the pain from the persona transferring to rise and leaving both women on their knees , at the limit of their stamina but arachne free of the demon's grasp.

"Well , " the girls turned to Mephisto as the smoke cleared . he didn't even have a scratch " that was quite the attempt for two simple mortals . I have to say , I am a little impressed . Altough this went on long enough "

Despair filled their hearts as Mephisto calmly approached them.

"delightful , you managed to put a scratch on me " the demon lord said in an amused tone " but we have wasted enough time haven't we ?"

He raised his hands but before attacking them a shattering sound filled the air as the barrier around the circle of power in the center of the area shattered like glass .

And standing at the center of it was Peter Himself , holding his mask and looking as determined as it gets.

Ready to fight.

AN: So we are only at minus 2 chapters from the end . I don't know if they are gonna be big but they are coming and the story is gonna come to a close . I will also make reference to a plot bunny I intend to present to anyone interested that has some connections to the ending state more than the story. If I talk about it I can say that it's not gonna be a crossover anymore but we will have a similar situation for Peter and MJ only the universe around them is gonna be very different

R&R

see ya