"Did you see that?! It was so cool- the aliens were all like woosh, and then Iron Man was like blam blam- and then the God of Thunder cracked the whole street, and the Hulk was smashing everything to smithereens-and it hit the camera man-"

Peter blinked, rubbing his eyes roughly with the palms of his hands, trying to orient himself. He was sitting in some sort of puddle, in what looked like the middle of nowhere- there was no landscape he could make out, just an endless, orange horizon- and in front of him stood a little kid, with a cardboard Iron Man mask on. What the hell?

The events of everything that just happened slapped him like a brick and he scrambled up, slipping a bit in the water. "Where is everyone?"

The kid, who had still been ranting, paused. "Everyone?"

"Katya, Mr. Stark- " He was trying to remember exactly how he'd last seen them, but the memories were fuzzy. Seeing Mr. Stark, terrified, haggard, and exhausted, leaning over him- Katya's face melting to ash- but when had this happened? How long had he been here? It felt somehow like forever ago yet also not five minutes before, the details slipping through his hands like a particularly vivid dream after waking up.

"There's no one else here."

Peter buried his hands in his face, briefly. "Katya, where's Katya?" he took a deep, shuddering breath, trying to calm himself. "What's going on?"

The kid shrugged, and took off his cardboard Iron Man mask. Peter recognized that face- it was him, maybe ten, eleven- but it was beaming up at him. "You're Spiderman, silly, you know what's going on."

Out of nowhere, his brain turned to

-a flash of Aunt May and him sitting in the kitchen of their apartment, both of them with a mug of hot chocolate, though all he- maybe about thirteen, fourteen- could do was swirl his around in his cup. Something felt wrong, missing. Peter remembered this moment, he knew he did, but Uncle Ben wasn't there for some reason and he couldn't quite place it-

-He's maybe six, standing in the foyer of Aunt May and Uncle Ben's apartment, Uncle Ben crouched low trying to explain between the tears streaming down Peter's face that his parents were just going to be going away for a little while-

-Then suddenly he was in his bathroom, fourteen, a sudden stabbing sensation on the back of his neck- did he just get bit by something? -

-He made to grab the edge of the tile countertop by the sink, and it broke off in his hands-

-not being able to sleep that night, because the sounds of the city were suddenly so much louder than usual-

- stabbing his thumb accidentally as he tried to sew his red hoodie to his blue sweatpants-

-Laughing with Ned in the hallway of school-

-"Underoos!"-

"No," Peter stumbled in the water, not sure if he was speaking to the kid or himself- though technically they were both himself- "I don't-"

-spying Katya from across the gym for the first time as she stretched, before she'd noticed him, her hair glinting in the gym's lighting-

-"No, Ned, don't let it go through an x-ray!"-

-"You're just as sticky up there are you are four feet off the ground-"

-Kissing between the flames in the wreckage of a crashed plane-

-Helping Happy load Katya, as carefully as he could, into the helicopter-

-roaming through the halls of the Home Depot nursery, trying to pick what part of the myriad of colors he should bring back to her-

He grabbed at the sides of his head, the stimulation overwhelming him. "I'm Spiderman-" he repeated to himself, "I'm Spiderman- I can do this-"

-Hand squeezes-

"-I can do this-" he muttered again.

- Gathering Katya in his arms before they swung off through the city-

"- I can't do this-" his voice broke.

-"Did you mean it?" She asked, as they laid on the floor, their eye contact electric.

"Of course I did."

Of course he did.

"Of course you can!" Said little him, "Spiderman can do anything."

Peter shook his head, lowering himself into a crouching position. "Spiderman can't do everything-" He couldn't bring Katya back. He couldn't rewind time and keep Strange from giving up the stone. He couldn't stop Thanos-

What happened now? Where was he?

He'd never speak to Ned again. Never hug Aunt May again. Never get to tell Katya he loved her again. He'd-

Little Him had put back the cardboard Iron Mask on and ran past him, jostling him to the side when he stuck his hands out like airplane wings. "Spiderman's going to save the world!"