Chapter 0: From Bad to Worse
"But it would work, right?"
Dr. Strange face contorted as if he had been punched. Before slowly nodding, "Yeah, it would work. But you gotta understand that would mean that everyone who knows and loves you, we..."
He paused, seeming to choke slightly, unlike the Sorcerer that Peter knew.
"We'd have no memory of you. It would be as though you never existed."
Peter's heart clenched, Ned, Happy, everyone…. MJ, "...I know."
His aunt had already said it, "You have a gift. You have power, and with great power, there must
also come great responsibility."
"Do it."
Dr. Stange looked like he wanted to have heard anything else come from Peter's mouth, "You better go and say your goodbyes. You don't have long." He murmured quietly
"Thank you, sir." Peter turned about to web sling away.
Dr. Stange's next words caught him off guard, "Call me Stephen."
Peter stopped despite everything, feeling something light tingle in his chest. "Thank you, Stephen."
Dr. Stange gave him a pained smile, "Yeah... still feels weird."
Peter smiled back, his chest already sinking; he would never know this man this way again.
"I'll see you around." He shot a web to a broken piece of the statute, swinging off his enhanced hearing, unable to catch more than something muttered as he swung away.
New light began to shine through the sky as a new spell began to come into existence.
Peter hit the ground in front of Peter 2 and Peter 3, seeing Peter 3 holding Peter 2 on his feet.
"Hey! Uh... I think this is it. I think you're about to go home." The words came out clearly free of any dilemma that was occurring inside him"
"Okay," said Peter 2 a warm smile on his face.
"All right." Said Peter 3, a tremulous smile underneath red eyes, looking at him with a firm gaze.
"Um, look, I, uh... thank you! I just want to- I want you- I want to tell you that... I really don't know how to say this; I—" The words were coming out too fast, too disjointed.
"Peter..." Peter 3 was looking at him with the same smile firming on his face.
"I want you to know that I'm—" Peter tried to continue. The other two Peters smiled.
You know. It's what we do." Peter 2 said, mature features in a small grin.
Peter smiled, "Yeah. It's what we do. Um... Right, I gotta find Ned and MJ."
Peter turned to run, but he paused; he would never have this chance again; he gripped the both of them in a firm hug, and the words tumbled free from his lips, "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."
He pulled back, "I guess... I guess I'll see you."
Peter 2 replied, "Same."
A final smile was exchanged between them, and then Peter turned to run swinging to his friends, his friends who were about to forget everything about him.
He found them amongst the ruins, landing in front of MJ and Ned, who both sighed with relief at his appearance.
"You're okay!" MJ cried out. They both grabbed him, squeezing him tightly.
He wanted to stay here, but he couldn't. He was running out of time. He pulled back, the words coming to his lips before he could think them through, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, we're okay," MJ said, but Peter's eyes were drawn to a gash above one of her eyes.
"Oh my God, you're bleeding," Peter held MJ's face in his hands, staring at his heart caught somewhere in his throat.
MJ shook her head slightly smiling softly at him, "No, I'm fine. I'm okay."
"Are you sure?" Peter asked.
"I'm fine. I promise." MJ said smiling at him.
Peter nodded, feeling relief mixed with guilt flowing through him, the feelings at war with each other, "Okay. Okay..."
MJ looked at the sky, which was beginning to form back together, "Um... we should go, right?"
Peter struggled with himself. He had to say something. These were his last words with them. The sky echoed with thunder, and he finally said the words that would finish breaking his life apart, "You're gonna forget who I am," these were the last words that escaped Peter's lips before the magic circle in the sky firmed up and the cracks that were splitting it began to seal. Something was wrong though he could see Ned and MJ looking at him with panic in their gazes.
Something hot was trailing over him and he looked down at his hands and saw he was beginning to dissolve into golden light. This didn't make sense. The spell wasn't supposed to do this.
It was just like on Titan. Except instead of dust he was turning into light. He looked at his friends, and his last sight of them was as their eyes glazed over, looking past him.
The world came back into focus slowly and Peter found himself standing gazing at the Statute of Liberty. Except there was no shield broken or otherwise; in fact, the statute looked like it had when Peter was a kid.
He looked around to where he was. Everyone had just been here; was this the spell?
He had to leave. He couldn't be found here; New York had enough feelings about Spiderman already.
He engaged his mask swinging off, wishing somewhat wistfully he still had access to Karen, but his access to the AI no longer functioned since Mr. Stark had died.
He landed on a New York building, thankful it was still the wee hours of the day. He needed to get out of this suit, it would do no good for everyone to forget him only to show up now in a store as himself.
He had a couple of spots around the city where he stored clothes in case he needed a quick change; he quickly made his way to the closest spot, landing on top of the building and looking around for his spare backpack, which should be right next to the central water tower.
Nothing.
Huh. He didn't think it would have been found but he could always go to another one. Three more buildings. Three missing backpacks. The next nearest backpack should be by Avengers tower a place he had avoided for as long as possible but he needed the clothes.
Except as he swung there, he realized something that shouldn't be possible. There was no Avengers Tower.
What. The. Hell.
It was a tall tower, but it definitely wasn't the Avengers. It wasn't even Stark. Had the spell done something?
He shook it off he needed to be down on the streets he needed a newspaper.
A stop through his favorite thrift store dumpster he had gone through for parts many a time and some thread-worn clothes over his suit he was ready to be in public.
A newspaper from a box with some of the remaining money he had on him, and he was staring at a completely unfamiliar section of news. He should have been on the front page, he had been on the front page. Instead, it was some Stark philanthropy project, but for some reason, it was talking about him as if he was still alive.
He glanced at the date, May 27th, 2008.
That was wrong—so wrong. How could a newspaper this old be in a box used this much?
A mistake.
Except there was no Avengers tower.
Something was drastically wrong.
A New Yorker was walking by in the early morning; he called out, "Hey! Do you know what the date is?"
The man looked at him confused but then shrugged, "It's May 27th, Wednesday. What gives?"
Peter shook his head slowly, "What year?" he asked quietly.
"2008, man, have a crazy party last night or something?"
"Or something," Peter turned away his stomach tangling.
He needed help. He seriously needed help.
And that meant there was only one person he could talk to.
It hadn't gone well last time. But this was frankly way out of his depth.
Back into an alley and through the gradually waking New York skyline.
177A Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, New York City, looked about the same, thankfully, which was something he was incredibly thankful for in this very unfamiliar world.
Back in civilian clothes, he knocked on the door, which, to his surprise, swung open. He stepped in feeling very much like he had only a day or so ago. There was no snow this time, which was a plus, but everything looked empty like there was no one here.
"Uh, Hello, Steven, ah uh, Dr. Strange?" he called out.
The back of his neck tingled, and he turned to see an ageless-looking woman, completely bald, looking at him calmly. "You're about eight years too early, young man," she said.
Ah, crap.
"Oh um, my bad, uh I, I'll just-"
Peter turned to exit the building but the doors closed. He paused and then turned back around.
"There's no need to apologize, young man; I admit you have me at a loss, something that doesn't happen often for someone like me. Who are you?"
"I… um well, I'm Peter Parker?" Peter said hesitantly.
"Peter Parker, interesting. I don't know any Peter Parkers, how odd."
How to explain. How did Peter explain any of this?
"Uh, well," Peter tried to think, his head spinning before slowly his intellect began to function, "You said I was eight years too early. So you're saying it's actually 2008."
"It is young man."
He was going to puke. He stumbled back, and suddenly, he found himself falling into a chair, and the pair of them was now in a library with the woman pouring him a cup of tea on the table between them.
"Are you alright?" she asked him.
Peter took the teacup, staring at the liquid, "I- no. I don't know what happened. Do you know anything about time travel?"
Someone had mentioned that at Tony Starks funeral. About how they had fixed things that way and that was how they all come back.
"I've seen many things in my life, young man. It's not the strangest, but forgive me, I do not believe you have time traveled if that's what you're saying. The simple fact of the matter is I have no knowledge of you. I can only think of one possible explanation."
Peter licked suddenly dry lips, "That being?"
"I believe you, young man are from another dimension."
Oh. Well that was bad.
"Can you tell me anything about how you came here," the strange woman was asking as Peter stared down at the tea.
Peter shook himself, mental breakdowns later, he needed to fix this, "There was a spell Dr. Strange was casting. "The Runes of Kof-Kol., he had to make everyone forget me. I screwed up, and it was the only way, or else our universe was going to get invaded by all of S- all of my enemies."
He stopped himself from mentioning his alternate identity; there was no need to bring that up.
The woman nodded slowly, "Hmm, well then, I do have a theory, young man; if the border of your universe was breaking down, as reality was at its weakest, a spell to make everyone forget you could potentially have the effect of shunting your existence to the side. Specifically to a universe where no one would know you."
"You mean…" a horrible thought was dawning on Peter, "A universe where I never existed."
"Precisely," the woman nodded.
"Can you," Peter didn't want to deal with magic ever again at this point, but he had to ask, "Can you send me home?"
The woman hummed, waving a hand over him, orange light traveling over his being. She had no real expression at the moment, but something seemed to be more downcast as she spoke next.
"Young man, unfortunately, it seems your body has already found its home here. I cannot point to any universe of origin for it. There are some abilities which can traverse the dimensions but it is an inaccurate art at best. I believe you are unfortunately stuck here for the time being."
Oh.
Authors Note: Still working on Solo Hunting and my original story, The White Mage of the Fist, but this idea would not leave me alone. As usual, Chapter 0 is a little short, but we're just introducing things here. As Peters's path through the MCU progresses, we are going to see some serious changes.
As for the title, well we'll just have to see how we get there. Also the pairing for Peter hasn't been decided other than no MCU MJ because MJ in 2008 because she's now about 8. Theres a couple thoughts either introducing Black Cat (as this is a new universe) or potentially one of the Avengers. Any thoughts in the reviews are welcome, as they are in Solo Hunting.