✧─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.✦ .* :★. ───✧

THE FRONT DOORS of the Sanctum closed behind the group as Stephen guided Ned and MJ inside the place, wearing jackets underneath their clothes because of the snow covered walls that was beginning to melt off already.

"I can't believe I'm in the Sanctum Sanctorum," Ned breathed out in awe as he looked around.

"Neither can I," Stephen muttered under his breath but (Y/N) managed to hear it, rolling her eyes at the comment.

(Y/N) still haven't gotten to speak to Stephen — much to her own pleasure — avoiding him at all costs. When Peter had explained to her with detail what had happened, (Y/N) had to breathe in and out to control her powers from breaking out. He had deeply apologized and blamed it all on himself, but then he realized that she wasn't angry at him and much rather frustrated.

"So, how did you know you were a man of magic?" Ned continued and followed after Stephen, who was beginning to walk up the stairs. "Because my nana says that we have it in our family, and sometimes I get these tingling in my hands — "

"You should talk to your physician," Stephen cut him off with an annoyed tone and walked off.

"(Y/N), Peter," MJ greeted and made her way towards (Y/N) to wrap her in a hug that she gladly returned. "Hey. Hey."

"I'm so sorry for dragging you into this. You just gotta help us find these guys," Peter ranted.

"You don't have to apologize, okay? You got us a second shot at MIT. It's fine," MJ nodded at him.

Ned joined his friends' side and took a tool out of his backpack. "So how did the bad guys get here?"

(Y/N) gave Peter a look that simply forced him to confess what had happened but Stephen interrupted from the stairs. "We screwed up a spell trying to get you into college."

"Wait, what?" MJ furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and looked back at Peter. "I thought it was the MIT lady you saved."

"You did it with magic?" Ned frowned too, looking back at (Y/N) with a questioning look. "And you helped with it?"

"No, I didn't," (Y/N) crossed her arms.

Peter swallowed at the questions and stuttered out his answer. "No, that was after. Let's just focus on the good news, okay?"

"No, let's just focus on the bad news," Stephen raised his voice. "As of now, you have detected zero multiversal trespassers, so get on your phones, scour the Internet, and. . .Scooby-Do this shit!"

(Y/N) rolled her eyes. "I swear, I hear one more snarky comment, and I will throw you off the window with a single flick of my wrist."

MJ laughed quietly before she cleared her throat, looking up at him. "You're telling us what to do, even though it was your spell that you screwed up, meaning that all this is kinda your mess. You know, I know a couple of magic words myself, starting with the word 'please'."

Ned and Peter watched anxiously, noticing how the two didn't dare to back down and Stephen seemed to consider their words.

"Please, Scooby-Doo this shit," Stephen began to walk away before he froze in spot to say one last thing. "Oh, and (Y/N). You're not helping them."

This made (Y/N) laugh boisterously and shake her head. "No, no. This is ridiculous. I'm not having this conversation right now."

"I am not allowing you to — "

"You don't have the authority to order or allow me to do anything," (Y/N) pinched the bridge of her nose. "You lost that privilege a long time ago. Peter needs my help and I will be with him."

"You don't understand," Stephen tried to reason, knowing what could happen if she didn't get her powers in control. "It's for your own protection."

"Well, too bad," (Y/N) tilted her head. "You won't make me change my mind."

Stephen stayed quiet for a minute, thinking what he was going to say. Peter, Ned and MJ eyed the two with worried looks, not knowing what he was going to say next.

He sighed. "You can work in the undercroft."

"The undercroft?" Ned repeated his words with a tone of shock.

The quartet walked down the staircase that led to the undercroft, which was filled with cobwebs in the roof and had dust all around. There was a washer machine and a dryer installed on the side, and clothes were racked on the sides.

"Badass," Ned commented and moved over to the closest table to remove his backpack when an old crossbow caught his eye.

"Guys, about this whole spell thing — "

"It's fine," (Y/N) cut him off.

"Really?"

"Peter, I already told you. I understand that you were trying to fix all this, and I think it would've been better if you could've told us instead," (Y/N) continued. "It could help for the next time you crack the universe so we can back you up."

"Deal." Peter stared at her with soft eyes before looking back at his best friend. "Ned?"

Ned looked back from inspecting the place. "Oh, dude, I don't care. It's seriously not a big deal."

"MJ?"

"I agree with (Y/N)," she said, leaning on the table. "Maybe just run it by us next time, you know?"

Ned's gasp of surprise cut the conversation short since his eyes trailed off to something else in the room. He ran towards it with the crossbow still in hand. "A torture rack."

"That is a Pilates machine," MJ pointed out, and moved to gesture behind her. "That is — "

"The crypt," Peter said.

"Okay, so we get the rest of the guys, you zap them, Doctor Magic will send them back, and when we get into MIT, round of stale doughnuts, my treat," MJ responded, standing on (Y/N)'s left side.

"Let's catch some multiverse men," Ned held the crossbow close to him and stood next to Peter.

The man with the mechanical arms was still stuck in his own place, the annoyance being evident. "Hey! Who the hell are these two?"

"These are my friends. This is MJ. And this is Ned," Peter gestured towards the two.

"Hey."

"So, what was your name again?" (Y/N) spoke up.

"Dr. Otto Octavius," he replied with a deadpanned look.

His serious tone made the four of them break into small laughs and chuckles amongst themselves, while Otto stared back without finding the situation funny.

"No, seriously, what's your actual name?" Peter asked.

"Oh, is that a dinosaur?" Ned gasped when he saw the giant lizard inside another cage.

(Y/N) and MJ got their phones out and began to search through social media to see if they could find anything referring to the other villains while Ned did the same in his laptop and Peter tried to wash the slime off his suit.

Throughout the search, (Y/N) came across many things around the place, and MJ had pointed out and showed to her a box for the goatee beard and searched the undercroft for more.

(Y/N) could feel Otto's and the lizard's eyes on her as she moved, eyeing her like a hawk watching its prey. She remembered that Otto knew her name back at the bridge, but she couldn't quite shake the feeling that it was strange.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" (Y/N) asked, frowning.

The lizard didn't answer but growled from his place, but Otto looked at her up and down. "You remind me of someone — "

"I got one. I got one," Ned loudly interrupted.

Peter dropped the soap covered suit and joined Ned's side while (Y/N) and MJ leaned on the table to get a better look at the laptop.

"I mean, you can take the guy out of the chair, but you can't take the chair out of the guy."

"What'd you find?"

"There's a. . ." Ned squinted his eyes to read the screen. "A disturbance near a military research facility outside the city, and witnesses say that they saw a monster flying through the air."

"It's gotta be the guy we saw on the bridge, right?" Peter said, referring to him and (Y/N).

"That's impossible," Otto spoke up, his back to the teens. The tentacles still being unable to move by his command.

(Y/N) looked up and began to take slow steps towards the crypt. "You know who he is, right? You said his name back in the bridge."

"Norman Osborn. Brilliant scientist. Military research. But he was greedy, misguided."

"What happened to him?" Peter added carefully.

"We tire of your questions, boy!" Otto snapped.

"Okay," Peter nodded and turned back to face Ned with the laptop. "We gotta go. Where are we going?"

"It can't be him," Otto continued.

"Why?" MJ frowned.

"Because Norman Osborn died years ago. So either we saw someone else. . .or you're flying out into the darkness to fight a ghost."

✧─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.✦ .* :★. ───✧

(Y/N) AND PETER flew through the middle of a line of transmission towers in the middle of a forest, the sun setting down behind them as Peter swung from side to side while (Y/N) had it easy, having two spheres of energy to be in the air.

"Keep an eye out on the trees. We don't know where this guy is," MJ spoke through the phone. Peter had his phone taped to his chest to allow Ned and MJ to see what he was seeing too. "I genuinely don't know how you do this without throwing up."

The dark had covered the forest completely and (Y/N) lowered down to the grass without making a sound, allowing Peter to join her side and take slow steps around to inspection the area. It was eerie quiet, birds cawing in the distance as the wind blew the leaves away.

"Did you guys see that?" Peter whispered.

"No."

"It's really dark."

(Y/N) reached out to grab Peter's hand to continue walking as he tried to calm his nerves down. "Okay, okay, okay."

Peter paused and (Y/N) did too, both oblivious to what was happening in the wires behind them.

Ned seemed to notice the tense atmosphere. "What's happening?"

"Guys, what is it?"

Peter didn't reply and an orange ring formed on his forearm, the artifact that Stephen had made being secure in his arm. (Y/N) prepared her hands and blue mist shimmered between her fingers, preparing for an attack.

"Are you getting the tingle thing? Is the tingle happening? Is your tingle tingling?" MJ panicked.

(Y/N) dared to look behind her to see how electricity buzzed and different, golden streaks began to form an electric blue body in the middle of the wires.

"Can you see this?" (Y/N) asked, the loud sound of the buzzing making it easy to cover her words.

"Yeah," MJ said.

"Osborn?" Ned leaned forward to the camera.

"No. He was green. This guy's blue," Peter muttered before he tried to catch this man's attention. "You wouldn't happen to be from another universe, would you?"

The man didn't reply and the streaks of electricity continued growing and it formed the skeleton of the body that hovered in midair.

"What is he doing?" (Y/N) mumbled.

"I don't know. Looks like he's charging," Peter answered her doubts.

"I don't like this. Just web and blast him," MJ advised.

Peter shot the artifact towards the forming body and instead of transporting him back to the crypt, the orange light went straight through him and into a tree. However, this seemed to alarm him and send two different electricity rays at (Y/N) and Peter, who dodged them with ease.

"Go left! Left, dude, left! Left! Go! Left! Yes!"

(Y/N) flew through the trees and avoided every shock directed at her while Peter had to swing through the branches, both finding it hard to take direction with Ned and MJ screaming in the background.

"What are you talking about? Right. Go to the right! Right! Right! He means right. Don't listen to him."

"This is not helping!" Peter yelled.

(Y/N) stopped in the air and formed a sphere of energy in her hands to hurl it at the man the moment she spotted him, but she didn't count on the fact that Peter was still swinging until the man came through his path and sent him backwards with an electric shock.

"Peter!" she cried and tried to attack the man but he was gone, so she flew in the direction where he had rolled on the grass.

(Y/N)'s feet touched the ground and she ran towards him, noticing how his suit was letting out smoke because of the electricity and the phone was black. Peter groaned and reached out for (Y/N)'s hand when he saw another electric ray coming it's way to them and pulled her behind him.

(Y/N) was about to produce a dome around herself and Peter when a wall of dirt and sand formed itself in front of them, blocking the ray instantly. A face popped out of the sand and so did the shape of a body, staring down at the two.

"Peter, it's me, Flint Marko. You remember?" he spoke out.

"I'm Peter, but I'm not your Peter," Peter told him.

"What do you mean, you're not my Peter?" Flint seemed to frown. "What the hell is going on?"

"We'll explain later, but first, can you help us with this guy?" (Y/N) intervened.

"Okay."

"You and (Y/N) try to surround him, and I'll pull the plug," Peter said. "All right, let's go!"

(Y/N) thrusted her hands to her sides and joined Flint as he made the cloud of sand bigger to block the rays of electricity that were fired at him. Peter jumped from tower to tower to aim different webs at them.

(Y/N) raised her hands and blue mist enveloped the tornado of sand that Flint was making, it blocked the electric shocks and rays that were aimed at her and she tried to prevent him from escaping.

"I can't hold him much longer," Flint grunted.

"I got it, I got it!" Peter reassured and shot different webs at the towers and tugged on them at the same time, grunting in the process.

(Y/N) held onto the dome she made around the sand tornado and it had completely drowned the man inside, but he still had that golden glow on him. Peter pulled the plugs and the power seemed to disappear from the man with every second as Flint dispersed the tornado and (Y/N) dropped her hands to join Peter's side.

"Different Peter. Weird," Flint said, forming back on Peter's side.

"Thanks," Peter panted and tried to slap his hand but it disintegrated as normal sand would do. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it."

A dark-skinned man stood up from the ground and scanned his hands, small rays of electricity still forming in his hands. He wasn't wearing any clothes, which was something (Y/N) didn't even want to notice. "I got my body back."

"Hey," Peter called his attention. "This is gonna sound really crazy, but this isn't your universe."

"Another universe?" he frowned.

"Yeah," (Y/N) nodded to confirm.

"What?" Flint questioned.

"That's what I was feeling," the man said. "The power, it's different. I like it." His eyes glowed gold for a small second.

"Easy, buddy," Flint raised his hands in defense.

"It's actually my fault that you're here."

"Like, the universe of the woods?" he commented. "I hate the woods."

"I meant, the universe, sir," Peter's voice barely cracked, nervous about the entire thing.

"So, what, y'all just gonna stand here and act like I ain't butt-ass naked?"

"I didn't wanna say anything," (Y/N) winced.

"I am," Flint cut in.

"No, no," Peter thought for a moment before using the artifact in his forearm, an orange rope wrapping around the man's body to take him back to the crypt safely.

Flint didn't seem to like this. "What was that? What did you just do to him?"

"No. It's okay. It's okay."

"Did you kill him?"

"I can explain everything. You just have to trust me. Please, just trust me."

"I don't trust you. I don't know you," Flint growled and began to grow in his spot, ready to aim a blow at the two before Peter used another orange rope for him, transporting him with the others.

(Y/N) sighed and reached to grab Peter's hand. "I just know this is going to be exhausting."

"I know," Peter groaned and dragged his words on. "We got a tiring day ahead of us."

A thought popped into (Y/N)'s head. "Do you think that. . .there's another versions of me in the universe?"

"I have my own, so it wouldn't be a surprise if you had too," Peter responded. "Didn't Otto know your name back at the bridge?"

"Yeah," (Y/N) nodded. "That's why I was asking. He was also eyeing me strangely back there."

"We'll figure it out," Peter reassured her, giving her gloved palm a kiss. "Besides, I would love to see the other versions of you too."

After calling MJ and Ned to confirm that they had arrived in the Sanctum, (Y/N) and Peter stayed through the rest of the night to repair the damage caused by the fight, some webs dangling on the sides of the transmission towers.

The sun was already rising and (Y/N) was tired to say the least, joining Peter's side as his phone buzzed and he took it out of his pocket with the speaker on.

"Hey, May," he greeted.

"Hey, Peter. I'm at work, and. . ." May spoke through the phone. "One of the guys you're looking for just walked in."

✧─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.✦ .* :★. ───✧

WITH DESPERATION, (Y/N) and Peter ran the fastest they could over to the FEAST building where May worked in. They rushed through the doors of the building and people were already giving them strange looks because of their frantic state.

"May? Where's May?" Peter took off his mask and looked around when a man pointed over to the kitchen. "Thank you."

(Y/N) followed after Peter through the doors of the kitchen and busted them open, running to see May talking peacefully with who they now know as Norman Osborn, two cups of coffee in the table.

"Hey, here they are," May exclaimed. "Norman, this is my nephew and his girlfriend."

"Norman Osborn? I thought that you were — " Peter frowned.

"I saw Spider-Man and his ally in an ad for this place," Norman spoke up. "And I thought he could help me. But you're not him."

"Wait, do you want Spider-Man's help?" Peter didn't seem to buy it, questioning it with a raised eyebrow.

"He just wandered in," May explained.

"I didn't know where else to go. Someone's living in my house. Oscorp doesn't exist. My son. . ." Norman's voice cracked in the end, staring ahead like he was deeply lost.

(Y/N) flicked her wrist to make her gown disappear and this caught Norman's eye, finally looking up at her for the first time and his mouth opened, like he didn't believe his eyes.

"You remind me of someone I knew well. . ." he said, and missed the way Peter and (Y/N) exchanged a look. "Sometimes I'm not myself. I'm. . .someone else. And every time he's in control, I can't remember."

"Who's in control?" (Y/N) tried to ask.

"And now I'm here — In this place. In this city. I don't know what's going on with me," Norman didn't answer and raised his hands to gesture to himself. "And I don't — Doesn't make sense."

"Okay, it's okay," May patted him in the shoulder before she stood up from her stool, walking towards Peter and (Y/N) by the door.

She lowered her voice. "He's lost. And so don't mean just in the cosmos. I mean, in his mind. Are they all like this?"

"Yeah," Peter and (Y/N) replied.

"Yeah?"

"They all have to deal with their mental or physical issues," (Y/N) responded.

"Oh, well, he needs help and maybe they all do."

"Wait, you don't mean — ?" Peter realized what she meant. "No, May, this isn't my problem."

"Peter, not your problem?"

"May, their chance of getting help is way better back where they came from," Peter told her. "Sending them home, that's the best thing that we can do for them."

"For them? Or for yourself?" May said. "Look around you. This is what we do. We help people."

"This is what's best for them. Trust me."