(A/N) This is an important one...trust me.
On the day of Gwen Stacy's funeral, more than a few tears were shed by everyone, especially Peter. A few of Gwen's friends showed up along with her parents and brothers, who all knew Peter. Peter got the report of her death, and it explains to him that he couldn't have done anything to save her. But that doesn't stop him from blaming himself.
After the funeral, the next day Peter had to break the news to his friends he was leaving. "You're leaving? What happened?" Ned asks Peter as he's emptying his locker.
"My uncle told me if things worked out, we'd be here a while longer, but things didn't work out. We're moving back to Washington." Peter tells him as he closes his locker. "But, hey, we can still be friends. We can skype, text, call anytime." Peter tells his best friend, and they do their handshake before Peter leaves.
When he was making his way outside, his senses went off to reveal to him that Michelle was there reading her book near the steps of the school. "Hey, Michelle," Peter greets her.
"Guess you're really leaving us," Michelle states seeing his bag has been filled.
"Yeah, I am," Peter tells her, sad to leave his friends.
"Gotta say, I was just getting to like you," Michelle tells him.
"Well, you never know. Maybe we'll meet again." Peter tells her, hoping it to be true. Michelle walks up to him, putting her book down.
"I just wanted to say, I'm sorry about Gwen," Michelle tells him and pulls him into a hug.
Peter automatically takes in the hug still not over her death.
"Just gotta say, this is the first time you've put your book down to talk." Peter quips and he couldn't be sure but he's sure he heard her chuckle at that.
"Take care of yourself, Peter," Michelle says to him, even when she's gonna secretly misses him herself. Coulson drives up to the school in Lola and sees them.
"Hey, uncle C," Peter says as he and Michelle break the hug off. "Hey, can you do me a favor? Ned's gonna need someone after all of this and-"
Michelle cuts him off knowing where it's going. "I'll have his back for you, Tiger," Michelle tells him and walks back into the school.
Peter watches her leave and looks at the slice of a normal life he once had and gets into Lola.
"You did well. On both ends, you know that?" Coulson states to him, knowing that Peter doesn't look at the bright side of his work often.
This was the first time that Peter failed to save a life, not knowing how it would crush him to learn how it feels to lose someone. Even though he lost his parents, he was too young to comprehend the emotions.
But now...he felt like he needed to do something. He needed answers. He needed to make things right.
Instead of returning to S.H.I.E.L.D. as his original timeline counterpart did, finding Gwen's message, determined to protect others and not make the same mistakes again, this one has made a very different choice.
Peter Parker-Coulson was currently searching the world, looking for answers for any way to bring her back. His guilt has caused him to question his moral compass. Questioned his mission.
Grief struck; he found his way...to Kamar-Taj.
Spending months learning of all of the mystical powers that lie just beyond his fingertips, Peter was a natural sorcerer. But for reasons beyond anything he could possibly imagine. When he was looking through the library, he came across a page regarding the Eye of Agamotto. A powerful weapon that could apparently conjure the being to see into the future, alter the past, and many other things.
Peter's mind was racing as all of the possibilities of what this could mean, starting with bringing Gwen back. As he was thinking it over, someone had appeared behind him.
"Trouble, Mr. Parker?" Ancient One asked, getting Peter to stop messing with the Eye and causing it to close.
"Oh, just you. Was worried it was Wong." Peter chuckled at his jump at her sudden arrival.
"What are you thinking about?" Ancient One asks him, seeing he was staring at the eye.
"Just thinking about the past. And the future." Peter sighed, wondering what he should do. "What exactly is it that you people do here? You never fully explained what these mystic powers are for."
Ancient One saw he wanted answers and was more than willing to show him. "Come with me."
She brought Peter to a room with several doors, an opening between the two doorways, and a giant globe in the center of the room.
"While other more well-known heroes like the Avengers protect the world from physical dangers, we sorcerers safeguard the universe from mystical threats." Ancient One explains the best that she could while three orbs show up around the globe. "We have three Sanctums around the world." She then gestured to one of the doors. "That one leads to Hong Kong." Then she gestured to another. "That one is for the New York Sanctum." Then she looked to the final door. "That one leads to the London Sanctum."
"And what's that?" Peter asked as he looked at the giant circular mirror on the wall, rippling as if it were a puddle.
"We call it the Shard." Ancient One explained as she strolled over, and Peter followed her towards it. "You might call it a singularity. A... doorway of sorts. To peer into the other worlds. Alternate dimensions."
"Other worlds? Dimensions?" Peter asked as he walked over to her side and watched as she waved her hand in front of the mirror.
"A way of looking through the Web of Life. See how things are turning out in our mirror worlds. Or Branches, they go by many names. Beyond the worlds familiar to you, there exists another."
"Look! It's Spider-Man!" They hear a voice cry within the mirror and reveal Peter Parker-Coulson, in a different life and path he could have chosen.
"Every decision you have ever made has caused a singularity, allowing the universe to split into two. A universe that reflects the real world it came from, but different. And at the center of them all, every world has a Mirror such as our own." Ancient One explains as he then sees the ripples form an image to show other realities.
A reality where he was fighting a giant, muscular Green Goblin in a forest, with...a Disney princess? Okay.
Another reality that looked like some sort of Noir movie with a darker and older Spider-Man in a dark trench coat and hat.
"I'm justice." This reality stated over two people he had cornered.
Then the ripples showed a new reality where dragons existed and were being ridden by Vikings and fighting off other villains. This one showed a Dragon King and a Snow Queen, fighting off a giant dragon.
"There are parallels, things that you can call Fixed Moments in history with all of them." Ancient One continued to explain. "Moments that are always going to happen. Moments that nobody can change."
Peter started to see why she was telling him this and was worried about his next words. "Gwen's death?"
"A fixed moment in time that resulted in many alternate realities." Ancient One said and showed the original timeline where he became a hero, met Ava, and everything afterward. "We protect our world and many others from threats that cannot get past us...darker threats."
She then waved her hand and showed off other worlds that were much...darker.
The more he saw, Peter watched as he saw what looked to be him, but in a world where he was sitting on a throne. His arms spread out and his chest glowing with all of the infinity stones spread across his chest, all the way to the back of his palm and elbows. And he had a giant smile on his face for it all.
One where one man in a giant trench coat, long combed black hair and fiery red eyes. He was standing over the body of another Spider-Man, feasting on his life force. He looked up towards the mirror and Ancient One immediately changed the channel.
"We are one of the many branches. We protect the main timeline and their universes from beings such as them." Ancient One finally finished explaining their mission.
"So... we're not even an important reality to protect?" Peter asks, making sure he has this clarified.
"No, the exact opposite. We're more important." Ancient One explains. "Without us, the main timeline would be in jeopardy of the destruction of worse begins. But if the main timeline were to die, our worlds would corrode and die. We cannot exist without the original timeline, and the timeline would be in jeopardy without us."
Peter was starting to understand it when his senses went off. "Something is wrong."
The Hong Kong doors opened and Kaecilius revealed himself and was creating a spell to destroy the Sanctum. Then he destroyed the Sanctum, sending Peter and Ancient One into the New York Sanctum.
Fast forwarding, Peter met and was chosen by a relic known as the Cloak of Levitation, which started to become attached to him. Fighting off Kaecilius and allowing him to get a strike to kill the Ancient One. She was killed, and Peter fought to defeat Kaecilius and protected the world from Dormammu of his world.
"Dormammu, we need to talk..." Peter declared, activating the Eye.
That was the day that the Agent of science and logic became...Spider Supreme. Protector of the Web of Life, the warrior for the Mirror of the BRANCHES, defender of the Eye of Agamotto.
One day, Peter couldn't keep his eyes off of the mirror as Wong joined him. "So... does every reality have a mirror, like this one?"
"No. Well, sort of." Wong did his best to explain to him. "This was created by a splinter in the universe, it only exists in our world. In the other universes, they would need to cause a singularity to create a doorway, but it would have no way of containing it to create a mirror. Not all the worlds out there have sorcerers like us. They have mystical users like us, but not to the same extent."
"But if they can't contain a singularity, it would destroy their world," Peter commented.
"Yes, it has happened many times," Wong was sorry to say. "But if there was one big enough, all of the worlds would be ripped open, connecting them all to one another."
"That sounds dangerous," Peter commented, thinking of all the realities of villains and how other heroes wouldn't be able to defend themselves from them if they were met with the darker forces.
"Yes, very dangerous," Wong confirmed and knew what he was looking for. "How is she?"
"Gwen? In some realities, I never meet her and she's still alive...in others, she gains powers like mine. In a few...we're married." Peter informed his friend, a tear falling at the thought of him and Gwen but began pushing the thoughts away as he knew his purpose now. What this version of him was meant to do. Protect the mirror. Defend reality from these darker threats. "That's enough living in the past for one evening."
Peter then took the Eye off and placed it on the stand before walking away. Wong was happy to see how grown up he had quickly became in his few months as Spider Supreme.
But that Mirror is always there, calling out to the darker universes, trying to pull them and others in. Calling out to the darker forces.
One mistake. One singularity is all it takes...