The Only Option

"No. No!" Peter shouted continuously, not even bothering to hear Natasha out.

"Listen, it's the only thing that could work at this point!" she retorted.

"No, it's the only thing you've come up with! You've had better ideas in the past, but this is not one of them - probably the craziest!"

"You don't think I wanted to find any other alternates either? I told you I didn't want to before. I said it was crazy myself, and I tried to think of other solutions, but this is the only way I can see it working now."

Peter shook his head, beyond disgust. He turned away and paced about the alley they were in. "You can't do this - you can't."

"I said I would get you out of this, now I'm doing my job."

"Yeah, but you didn't say you would throw my life away!"

"I'm not throwing your life away, I'm giving you another chance at life!"

"How do you know that? How do you know this will forever ensure that my Aunt May and I can live in peace and that there won't ever be anyone else to cross paths with us again?"

"Because I've seen it happen before. You're not the first person to benefit from something like this."

Peter fell silent. Mad silent. He glared at her.

"It could be much worse," Natasha insisted. "The two of you could be put under witness protection under SHIELD's behalf, would you want that instead?"

He said nothing.

"You don't have many other good options. Sure, you can stay out here in the city, while you and your aunt fight to stay alive against people much worse than some thugs or muggers on the street. You can continue to fight against these same people who we've dealt with this week, except without me, without anyone else knowing you need protection. And don't even say you don't because you do. You cannot fight this battle alone. No one can. Not even the Avengers.

"Peter, you have a whole life ahead of you still. Nothing's over yet. It's far from over. You have so much left to do. So much to experience still. I envy you. The option you have now is the one I would've loved to have taken years ago if I could. If I knew any better. This isn't the end. It's only the beginning."

Peter was mad. He was frustrated. But mad because she was right. He had no better options. But he wasn't up for it either.

"There'd be no more Spider-Man," he muttered.

Natasha wanted to tell him that he was wrong, but she wouldn't exactly be right by telling him so. It was true.

It was after that point that Peter then went over to the side and vomited.