✧─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.✦ .* :★. ───✧

THE NUMB FEELING rushed through (Y/N)'s body like waves all over again, washing over her and nearly drowned her down. She distractingly made her way to the only place she could think of, and ended up in sitting in the kitchen of Ned's house with his Lola in the other room.

All the thoughts running through her head distracted her even more and she couldn't think straight, staring at the wall ahead. MJ was sitting next to her while Ned kept his eyes on his phone, waiting for any signs of Peter.

"Still nothing?" MJ asked, one hand soothingly passing down (Y/N)'s back.

"No," Ned sighed.

MJ looked at the box in the center of the table and glanced at it for a small second, leaning her forehead on her hand. "I'm gonna press it."

"What? No, he — " Ned protested.

"I know he told me to wait. . .but I'm gonna do it," MJ decided as she nodded, her eyes still fixed on it.

Ned looked back at (Y/N) to back him up in his own argument, but she pulled the sleeves of the spare sweater that was lended to her and cleared her throat. "Maybe we have to."

"I just wish — I just wish we could see him," Ned said, but right after the words came out of his mouth, a faint spark lit up in the air.

(Y/N) and MJ immediately looked up at the sound and frowned at it, but a new possibility came into their heads.

"Ned?"

"Yeah?"

"Do that again."

"Yeah." Ned closed his eyes and moved his head back, as if he was scared of what would happen but shook his hands in the air. "I just wish we could see him."

A longer and brighter light came out of thin air and this caused the trio to stand up from the table to wait for better results. (Y/N) exhaled a long breath and pressed a hand on Ned's shoulder to give him advice.

"Try moving your hand in a circle, that can help," she suggested, remembering all the times she'd watched the others do it.

"Okay," Ned nodded at her instructions and did as told, moving his arm in a circular manner. "I just wish we could see Peter."

An average sized portal opened in front of them, revealing a dark alley from somewhere in the city with a person wearing the Spider-Man full suit. Ned's Lola uttered a quiet gasp and peeked into the room, saying something to Ned in Tagalog.

"Lola, you're right. I am magic," Ned breathed out as he stared down at his hands in surprise.

"Is it him? " (Y/N) questioned, feeling a slight hint of hope as she saw how the faint figure was trying to approach them.

"Yeah, yeah, it has to be," Ned answered.

"Peter. Peter!" (Y/N) called out, and the figure seemed to perk up at the sound of her voice.

"Hey, Peter! Yeah," Ned yelled.

"Peter!" MJ clasped her hands over her mouth to provoke an echo and make him hear them.

The figure of Spider-Man jogged towards the portal, but the relieved look on (Y/N)'s face returned to her frown when she noticed a slight difference. This man was taller and his shoulders were broad, and they all watched how he jumped through the portal and into the house, causing Ned's Lola to cry out of fear.

"Hi. Hi," his voice was different too, a deeper tone in this. He raised his hands in surrender when Ned's Lola continued to panic. "No, no, no, it's okay. It's okay. I'm a nice guy."

He reached out to remove the mask and it was the face that (Y/N) wasn't expecting to see. His hair was longer and he had a scruff beard, panting for being able to breath properly after wearing the mask. "Okay," he said.

(Y/N) formed two spheres of energy in her hands and the faint light made his eyes flicked over to her, and it seemed like all the air had escaped from his lungs, his mouth opening in shock.

"Who the fuck are you?" (Y/N) asked, Ned and MJ on either sides of her in defensive stances too.

"I'm. . .Peter Parker," he cleared his throat and tried to regain his posture, but his gaze still changed from the other two to her every now and then.

"That's not possible," MJ told him.

"I am Spider-Man, in my world," this new version of Peter continued, gesturing to himself and only causing the trio's brows to furrow. "But then yesterday, I was — I was just here."

(Y/N) didn't let down her guard and neither did MJ and Ned, all moving slowly as 'Peter' walked from his spot and inspected the place.

"String theory, multidimensional reality. . .and matter displacement," he listed off. "All real?"

"Yeah," the trio answered at the same time.

"I knew it," a grin formed into his mouth.

Ned turned back at (Y/N) and MJ, lowering his voice to not make 'Peter' listen to them. "This has to be because of the spell."

"The spell? Like magic spell?" 'Peter' snapped his head in their direction, a curious glint in his eye.

(Y/N) shook her head. "Nope. No spell."

"There's no spell. No," Ned lied.

"No spell," MJ panicked.

'Peter' gestured all around him. "Magic's real here too?"

"I mean — "

"Shut up, Ned."

"No, it's not real."

"Ned, stop talking."

"There's magicians, but she's also a witch, but there's no — "

(Y/N) moved one hand towards her neck to motion Ned to stop talking and cut it out, all while MJ's glare was fixed now on him.

"Prove it," MJ blurted out.

"Prove what?"

"That you're Peter Parker."

"I don't carry an ID with me, you know?" he responded, holding his mask in one hand. "It kind of defeats the whole anonymous superhero thing."

MJ grabbed a piece of bread from the table and threw it at his chest, and all 'Peter' did was allow it to hit him and watch it fall to the ground.

"Why'd you do that?" he raised his shoulders.

"Trying to see if you have the tingle thing."

"I have the tingle thing, just not for bread," he explained.

This time, (Y/N) was the one to grab it with her powers, lifting one finger to keep it in the air. This seemed to catch his attention even more, interested in what she could do.

"Can you not throw the bread, (Y/N)?" he spoke too soon and didn't notice what he said, but his voice was slightly shaky when her name escaped his lips. "I know that you have trouble trusting people, and I respect that."

"How do you know my name?" (Y/N) muttered under breath and heard how MJ and Ned were frowning because of the same thing.

'Peter' jumped and extended one hand to the ceiling, using it to support his body on the roof of the house. MJ didn't seem to buy it, grabbing another piece of bread from the table just in case.

"Crawl around," she ordered.

"Crawl around?" 'Peter' repeated incredulously.

"Yes."

"No," he shook his head.

"Yes, crawl around," MJ insisted.

"Why do I need to crawl around?"

"Because we said so," (Y/N) intervened.

"And it's not enough," MJ added.

"This is plenty," he looked up and down.

"No, it's not."

"Yes, it is. It is."

"No, it's not. No."

"How do I stick to the ceiling?"

"I know you've done it before," (Y/N) threw her piece of bread directly at his chest. "Do it."

"Ned," Ned's Lola walked into the room and this made him remove his eyes from 'Peter' and look back to his grandma. She spoke a sentence in Tagalog and pointed towards the ceiling as she did so, and all Ned did was nod.

"My Lola's asking if you could just get the cobweb there," Ned said with a nervous tone. "Since you're, like, up there."

"Yeah," 'Peter' shook his head in disbelief and placed his mask in his lips to use his other hand.

He glued his other hand to the ceiling and pulled his legs up too, crawling through the side to reach towards the cobweb in the corner of the wall and tug it out before jumping down to the ground.

"Thank you," Ned's Lola said.

'Peter' dusted his gloved hands off, giving an awkward smile with the mask still in his lips before he pulled it off. "We — We good?"

"For now," MJ pointed an accusing finger at him before turning back to face her friends.

"So I opened the wrong portal to the wrong Peter Parker," Ned breathed out, still not believing it.

"That means you have to keep doing it until we find the real one," (Y/N) commented.

"Ouch," 'Peter' heard that and seemed offended by the sentence.

"Sorry, no offense," (Y/N) winced when she noticed how rude that might've sounded. She still heard the slight shakiness in his voice whenever he spoke to her, and pretended not to care about the weird glances he kept fixing at her form.

"Okay," Ned inhaled a sharp breath.

"Okay. You got it," MJ encouraged.

Ned did the circular motion with his hands. "Find Peter Parker."

"What's that thing on his hand?" 'Peter' pointed towards the gold ring on Ned's fingers.

"Shh," MJ shushed him down and he raised his hands in defense.

"Find Peter Parker," Ned closed his eyes for concentration. "Find Peter Parker!"

Another portal appeared behind him this time, and everyone's attention flickered back to the man that came out of it. He seemed much older than the first, wearing normal clothes and he acted pretty casually to the orange portal around him.

"Great, it's just some random guy," Ned said, disappointed.

The man awkwardly waved but when his eyes fixed on (Y/N)'s form, he waved twice and a nostalgic smile washed over his face. "Hello."

(Y/N) waved back with a frown and watched how he took a step forward to step into the house.

"I hope it's okay, I just came through this. . ." he turned back to look at the portal when it shut out and disappeared behind him. "It just closed."

"You're Peter?"

"Yeah. Peter Parker."

"I've seen you three — " he paused when he stopped to wave at Ned's Lola with a grin. The other Peter in the room kept his eyes on him with a suspicious look and the other pointed at him. "Wait. He's — He's not your friend."

They looked into each other's eyes from across the room with unreadable looks and (Y/N) looked between the two, not having time to react at how the oldest Peter shot a web at the other, both doing a backflip in the air before the first Peter landed on the table and saw how an identical web covered his web shooters.

The tallest jumped down from the table and walked back to join the others while the oldest Peter lowered his guard.

"Wait. So you're Spider-Man too? Why didn't you just say that?" Ned questioned.

"I generally don't go around advertising it," the oldest Peter answered. "Kind of defeats the whole anonymous superhero thing."

"I just said that."

"That's what he just said," MJ and (Y/N) mumbled.

Ned's Lola interfered and spoke again in Tagalog, a frustrated tone on her voice as she pointed towards the table and the moving lamp on the ceiling. Both Peter's formed their lips into a thin line because of this and heard the woman speak.

"My Lola's asking if you could clean up the webs you just shot," Ned translated.

"Oh, sorry, Lola."

"Yes, of course."

"I'm going to bed," the older woman announced and turned on her heel to go up the stairs.

"Night, Lola."

"Good night, Ned's Lola," (Y/N) and MJ called out for her as she walked away.

"Uh, this might seem kind of weird, but I've been trying to find your friend ever since I got here. I just have this sense. . .that he needs my help," the oldest Peter said, pointing at himself.

"Our help," the other Peter added.

"He does," (Y/N) swallowed the lump in her throat, the guilt washing all over again.

"We don't know where he is," Ned continued.

MJ looked between the two Peter's. "And, honestly, right now we're all he really has left."

"Well, is there some place that he might go that has meaning to him?" the oldest Peter inquired. "Like a place where he would go to just — ?"

"Get away from everything?" 'Peter' spoke up.

"For me, it was the top of the Chrysler Building," the oldest Peter confessed.

"Empire State," 'Peter' revealed. "It's just a — it's a better view."

"That is a sweet view."

(Y/N)'s head clicked and she immediately knew where, scolding herself for not thinking about it before. "Yes. I know exactly where he could be."

✧─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.✦ .* :★. ───✧

PETER STARED FORWARD into the night sky of the city that never sleeps from the top of the Midtown High building, the bag of cures in his hand while blood oozed down his cuts and injuries. He heard some shuffling in the side, and he didn't turn back to look since he already knew who it was.

(Y/N) knelt down beside him and wrapped her arms around his neck, carefully pulling him into her chest as she pressed a kiss to his temple. The moment he was wrapped in her arms, he broke down into tears and sobs again, clinging onto her like a lifeline.

"It's okay," she whispered. "Let it all out. I got you."

Peter sobbed into her shoulder and felt another pair of arms wrap around himself and (Y/N), recognizing Ned's jacket and MJ's sweater. The four huddled all together and tears fell down in silence.

"Peter, there's. . ." (Y/N) slightly pulled away to cradle his face to break the news. "There's some people here."

"What?" he croaked out and stood up as MJ and Ned stood up along with (Y/N), watching how Peter jumped into a defensive stance and placed himself in front of the group.

His eyes trailed up to see two figures jumping down from the top of the school building, lowering down at their level and noticed how one wore a familiar suit and symbol.

"Hey, wait, wait, whoa," Peter pointed at them. "What?"

The two raised their hands in surrender, silently saying that they were not there to cause any harm. Both had red eyes, since it was difficult to see the youngest like this.

"Sorry. . ." the oldest Peter spoke up. "about May."

"Yeah. Sorry," the young Peter came into view and his eyes had empathy in them. "I got some understanding of what it is you're — "

"No, no. Please don't tell me you know what I'm going through," her Peter cut them off. "She's gone. And it's all my fault. She died for nothing. So I'll do what I should have done in the first place."

Peter reached out for the box in MJ's hands but the other two intervened. "Peter — "

"Please don't. You don't belong here. Either of you. So I'm sending you home," Peter began. "Those other guys are from your worlds, right? So you deal with it. If they die, if you kill them. . .that's on you. It's not my problem. I don't care anymore. I'm done."

Silence filled the air and no one dared to say nothing as (Y/N)'s heart broke to watch him tear himself down like this, eyes welling up again.

"I'm really sorry that I dragged you into this. But you have to go home now," Peter said. "Good luck."

He reached out to grab the box but MJ pulled it back from his hands, gesturing for him to listen to what they had to say.

"My Uncle Ben was killed," the oldest Peter cut in, his voice growing raspy. "It was my fault."

"I lost. . ." young Peter's voice cracked and he avoided everyone's eyes, swallowing the hard lump in his throat. "I lost my (Y/N)."

(Y/N)'s eyes widened in both shock and horror but didn't get time to think anything else when she felt how her Peter immediately reached out for her hand when he heard that, as if that was his greatest fear and he needed to make sure it wasn't real to him.

"I couldn't save her. I'm never gonna be able to forgive myself for that," his bottom lip wobbled as he spoke. "But I carried on, tried to. . .tried to keep going, tried to keep being, the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man 'cause I know that's what she would've wanted. But at some point, I just stopped pulling my punches. I got ragefull.I got bitter. I just don't want you to end up like me."

"The night Ben died. . ." older Peter continued. "I hunted down the man who I thought did it. I wanted him dead. I got what I wanted. It didn't make it better. It took me a long time. . .to learn to get through that darkness."

"I wanna kill him," her Peter confessed. "I wanna tear him apart. I can still hear her voice in my head."

His eyes turned teary again and (Y/N) softly passed her thumb through their interlocked hands to calm him down as he continued.

"Even after she was hurt, she said to me that we did the right thing," Peter told them. "She told me that with great power — "

"Comes great responsibility," older Peter finished, recognizing the phrase.

"Wait, what? How do you know that?"

"Uncle Ben said it," the young Peter revealed.

"The day he died," the oldest completed, and a silent understanding passed through the three of them. "Maybe she didn't die for nothing, Peter."