"You're all set," Margo said softly as Peter stepped onto the teleportation pad. Normally she was rather cheerful when someone headed off, even if was a villain who was being shunted back to their reality. But at that moment she was quiet, her eyes lacking any sparkle. "You… sure you don't want to keep your wrist band?"

He shook his head. "Too much temptation."

"Right." She fell silent for several moments and Peter stood there, allowing the machines to begin constructing the… egg? Barrier?... around him. He'd never been on this end of it before and he found himself wondering what others must have thought when they used it. Of course that was foolish… almost no one 'used' the Go Home machine. It was used ON you. Not by you. The Spider Society got their wrist bands to go through different dimensions… it was those that didn't belong who had to use the Go Home Machine.

'Even the name isn't that sweet, when you think about it,' he thought to himself. 'Go Home… like a bad puppy who is sent off with their tail between their legs.'

He looked over at Margo and felt his heart ache. He wasn't the first person to head back home and he had a good feeling he wasn't going to be the last either. There had quite a line leading to the Go Home Machine when he'd arrived, after all. Worse, he knew that Margo could leave any time. It was a hard light avatar that was working the machine, not her. She was safe on her own earth and could at any moment just remove her headset and be done. Go do something else. But she stayed… because someone HAD to stay.

Someone had to watch everyone leave.

"Margo?" he called out suddenly and when she looked up he used his webshooter to snag his wrist band. "Just in case."

She smiled at that. A weak and watery one but a smile none the less. "Just in case." She cleared her throat before adding, "Okay, Earth-1048… 3… 2… 1…"

Peter felt himself shift. It was worse than doing a freefall from the Empire… the sensation that your organs wanted to go one way while your bones went another. And just like with a web swing it was over and he found himself standing…

…well, not at his place.

He shouldn't have been surprised.

"Peter?" Mary Jane said, slowly sitting up in bed. He knew that many people would have thought it to be sexy, what with him all dressed up in skintight clothing and Mary Jane in bed… but he stank of sweat, part of his suit was riding up his ass, and MJ had gunk in her eyes and was wearing a shirt with a bleach stain on it. Nothing about it was sexy or alluring.

Frankly… he wasn't in the mood for that anyway.

"Peter?" Mary Jane tried again. "What… what's going on… why are you here?"

He sighed. "Sorry… was supposed to just be sent back home but for some reason it dropped me off here." He moved towards the window. He knew she had most likely been up the night before, working on an article for the paper; even with it being bright and sunny out she looked dead tired. Honestly MJ was more of a night owl than he was! "I didn't mean to bug you-"

"Knock it off and sit down," she commanded him and at once Peter moved to a single wooden chair in the corner. MJ's workout pants were on it and Peter picked them up, looking about before he finally used a bit of webbing to stick them to a wall. "You know that isn't great on the fabric, right?"

"Its fine."

"Its going to stain."

"It will not." He took off his mask and stuck it beside her pants. "There, happy?"

"Not really. Now you're smelly mask is next to my pants."

"My smelly mask?"

Mary Jane smirked. "Think VERY hard about what you say next."

He snapped his jaw shut. "…fair."

"So…" Mary Jane said softly, shifting up a bit more, "what exactly happened that brought you here? Or got you sent here?"

Peter considered her for a long moment. His first instinct was to deny anything was wrong. To tell her that he was fine, everything was fine. Maybe crack a joke or try and egg her into fighting with him… that always helped when things got awkward and he wasn't for sure how to handle a situation. But as he looked at her and thought about all that had happened he found himself blurting out, "So I haven't actually been working at a lab in New Jersey."

Mary Jane just stared at him.

"I know I said I was, after Otto's lab got taken by the Feds. See… there is this society of Spider people… not actual spiders but I mean like me. Spider-Men. But also women and cats and a t-rex which should be a bigger deal than it is but… anyway, there are a whole bunch of us and we have been working together and just… I don't know. I don't know." He paused. "I don't know." He dropped his head to the ground. "But there are alternate versions of me and of people I know and a bunch of us were trying to… save the multiverse, I guess."

Mary Jane looked on.

"…and?" she finally said.

"And what?"

"What happened?"

Peter frowned. "You are taking this multiverse thing rather well."

"You fight a senior citizen who flies around on green wings. Your boss attached metal arms to his back and tried to kill you. The leading philanthropist in New York turned out to be a crime boss who looks like a photo negative. Multiple yous isn't that big of a deal."

"Well… when you put it like that." Peter shifted in his chair. "So today a new Spider arrived. Miles. Not… not our Miles but a different one. Younger-" Peter's eyes went wide at that, remembering how Miguel and Jessica had attacked him. "God, he was as young as I was when I started…"

"Peter… talk me me." MJ got out of bed and moved to crouch next to him. "Peter…"

He told her everything.

About how Miguel had discovered there were canon events and those harmed the multiverse if prevented. How trying to stop them could cause a universe to fall apart, just like the one Miguel had experienced. How Miles had reacted badly when he'd found out that his dad was going to die and Miguel had decided he was done talking to him and captured him. Miles escaping and the alert that sent them all running after him. The train and Miguel losing control and…

"I was at the back… I didn't see all of it but… I've been to enough disaster sites to know when things are bad and… and that was bad." He held his head in his hands. "God… it could have been me… I could have…"

"Peter," Mary Jane said softly, pressing her hands to his own. "But you didn't. Do you hear me?" She forced him to look up at her. "You didn't."

"…but I could have," he whispered.

"I don't believe that," Mary Jane told him. "I know you Peter. You would have done everything you could have to stop that kid without hurting him. Getting him injured… that's on this Miguel guy."

Peter though wasn't so sure. "We let him think he could do that. All of us. We supported him, made him our leader, followed his orders… and when he told us to capture Miles we just…" He dropped his head again, thinking about the blood he'd seen on the train. That was the worst part of it… how he had been so willing to go along with Miguel's command to get Miles. He wished he could have said that if Miguel had told him to hurt him he would have refused. But… it was like what Mr. Negative had done to people… corrupting them so they obeyed him. Peter had been forced to fight tooth and nail to overcome that brainwashing and yet…

Mary Jane was quiet for a long time and Peter knew that wasn't a good thing. When MJ was quiet it meant she was thinking and when it came to his screw ups usually that meant pain and suffering. She had a way of just finding the hole that he'd missed, the loose thread, and when she did she'd give it a tug or a poke and cause everything to unravel even worse.

"Say something," he finally pleaded.

"I don't think you're going to like it," she admitted after another long moment. "And I think its going to make you feel worse."

He laughed at that. "I can't feel worse than I do now. Miles…" his eyes went wide. "God… I have to tell Miles." He thought of HIS student and suddenly it wasn't that kid from another world that Miguel was telling him to attack… it was Miles. His Miles. His friend. His partner. It… it could have been him. Him on the train, trying to save his dad… and it could have been Peter slamming him out of the sky or slashing at him…

"Peter-"

"I can't not tell him," he said stubbornly, knowing what she was going to say. "First time I see him… he'll know. He'll know something is wrong and… god, he's going to hate me. He lost his dad and when he finds out another version of him has to die-"

MJ cut him off. "I want you to explain canon events to me again."

Peter blinked at the sudden change in topic but frankly he was glad for it. That… that was something easier to dwell on. "There are things every Spider-Man has to go through. They are known as Canon Events. If you stop a canon event from happening then it can destroy your universe. And a universe collapsing can threaten the entire multiverse."

"And what are those events?"

He'd asked the same thing himself when he'd been recruited and he'd memorized them all. It wasn't that hard when he kept hitting them himself. "An upside-down kiss." MJ smiled at that. "The death of a father figure." Her smile fell. "A captain close to the Spider dies. Then there is-"

"Peter… what captain died for you?"

"What?"

"What captain died for you?"

He blinked. "Miles' dad." He didn't understand-

"Officer Davis wasn't a captain," Mary Jane pointed out.

He… wasn't. He wasn't a captain. Peter remembered that now. He was just a cop. A lieutenant? He wasn't for sure but… not a captain.

He paused.

He stopped.

He thought.

"I… Yuri…" But no… Yuri wasn't dead. She had gone off the deep end and their relationship was over now that she was killing people but…

"Peter?" Mary Jane asked softly. "You're breathing hard."

"No captain died for me," he whispered. "And… Gwen."

"Gwen?"

"Gwen Stacy," Peter said. "Spider-Man and Gwen fall for each other but she dies… or he dies…"

"Peter… Gwen isn't dead."

He was breathing hard now. He was. He knew that. But he couldn't stop because it felt like if he slowed down for even a second he would die. "I never lost a friend."

"What?"

"A friend… in a battle. Maybe Officer Davis but… I met him once, he wasn't my friend. Miguel…" He shot up and began to pace.

"Peter… Peter talk to me."

"One missing canon event… that can be explained," he rambled. "Maybe two… but too many of them aren't fitting." His mind was racing. "We saw that one earth falling apart though… except the Spot had attacked it… maybe he did something and we…" He leapt onto the ceiling, walking back and forth, feeling the blood rush to his head, making it pound not just with thoughts anymore. "Why… why doesn't it add up?"

"Peter?" Mary Jane said, moving to stand in front of him, forcing him to look at her. "Peter… do you know what Canon Events sound like to me?" He shook his head. "Jet fuel can't melt steel beams. Every school shooting is a false flag."

"A… a conspiracy," Peter whispered. "A conspiracy theory."

"I did an article about conspiracy theorists. They are people who see tragic events happen or who can't deal with things bigger than them that feel like they are random so they have to create these theories that explain they didn't happen. Or if they did there was some group controlling things. Some outside force. Not random… but demanded."

"Because it makes them feel better," Peter whispered, dropping down. "Oh my god."

Miguel… had made a conspiracy theory cult.

"It all makes sense!" Peter cried out. "Its all a cult! He found us when we were really down, after something bad had happened, and made us feel better!" Miguel had reached out to him after May's death, when Peter had, despite her own assurances, blamed himself for not being able to save her. Peter had been miserable and Miguel had offered him a lifeline… and he'd taken it. And when he'd asked for Peter's help… well, Miguel had helped him! It was small things, things he was happy to assist with. Didn't think twice about. And as time went on and he asked for more and more help, to do things that Peter would have never considered in the past…

He let out a miserable groan.

"I can't believe I fell for it…"

"It happens," Mary Jane assured him. "The important thing is you realize now."

"I… I have to go back," Peter whispered, looking at the band he'd grabbed from Margo, thankful he'd changed his mind. "Make sure other people realize what is going on. Stop Miguel… god, he might still attack Miles-"

"Peter, you are in no shape to go back," Mary Jane said, gently but firmly taking the band from him. "What I want you to do is go get some sleep. See Miles and talk to him… even if he gets made you'll feel better. And then, when you are ready, you can think about going back."

"But…"

Mary Jane shook her head. "The world isn't on your shoulders, Peter."

He nodded and finally headed off, promising to talk with her after he'd gotten some sleep.

He just hoped his dreams weren't filled with Miles.

~MC~MC~MC~

Mary Jane waited till Peter was gone before walking over to her phone and dialing a particular number. It was a strange one… an area code that didn't exist.

"It's me… my Peter just came back… yea… yeah, its what we feared… oh… okay, beam me in."

There was a swirl of light and Mary Jane found herself no longer in her bedroom. Hell, she wasn't even on her Earth anymore. Instead she was in a rather gothic looking room, done up in deep reds and blacks. It had, the first time she'd been brought there, reminded her of an old English sitting room… from a horror movie. There were cobwebs all over and spiders skittering about but they didn't bug her at all. No, Mary Jane moved to the table that dominated the room, nodding to the others, other fears driving her.

"So," another Mary Jane, this one bonded with the Carnage Symbiote that she had tamed to become a loyal partner, said softly, "your Peter too?"

"Yeah." She looked at an older version of herself, wearing a red and white costume. "Spinneret? Were you there?"

"I was," the more mature Mary Jane said. "I did my best to try and distract Spiders and get them to think but too many of them leapt at Miguel's commands. I managed to get a few to go searching in the wrong places but…" She shook her head. "He has them eating out of his hand. They aren't thinking."

"Yeah," a short-haired Mary Jane wearing a Spider-Woman costume said, lips pressed together in a thin line. "They are so muddled up they would punch out an old woman if O'Hara said she was a threat."

"It is… most sad," Watson Mary-Jane said, taking the time to make sure she said the words correctly since English wasn't her first language. Though when one was a deadly ninja of the Spider-Clan one didn't need to always worry about getting their grammar correct.

"I knew things would go badly," another Mary Jane, this one wearing a yellow sweater, blue jeans… and a collar on her neck that kept her body, which was made entirely out of water, from falling apart. "They are too concerned with anomalies and the like…"

"And how bad is Miles?" Mary Jane asked. "Peter was really shaken up."

"Honestly?" Spinneret said. "I'm shaken up too. The doctors are hopeful but…"

"Then all we have feared has come to past," the eldest in the room stated. At once they all fell silent, respectful of the woman that had brought them together. No one knew her age; she appeared to be in her 60s to 70s but Mary Jane knew she could multiple that by 100 and probably still not be correct. She wore, as was the norm, a long black and red dress with a pair of red glasses covering her eyes. "Miguel O'Hara has allowed his trauma to turn to delusions, and those delusions to turn to destruction. Miles Morales is key to the Multiverse… his death must not come to pass. Miguel's actions have caused risks to the Web of Life. Something must be done."

With that Madame Web leaned forward.

"It is time for us to reveal ourselves to the Spider Society."

We can beat them
Forever and ever

~MC~MC~MC~

All right, let's do this one last time. My name is Mary Jane Watson. My... friend? Boyfriend?... Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider, and for eight years I've been helping him as he's been the one and only Spider-Man. I'm pretty sure you know the rest. I saved a bunch of people, fell in love, took down a crime ring, saved the city...

But now... things are different. Because Peter? He's in over his head. But that's okay. Because I'm Mary Jane Watson... only... I'm not the only one.