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Peter bolted upright, wide-eyed and gasping in sharp breaths. Frantically, he ran his hands over his body, squeezing his arms and legs. Solid. No dust. He spun around wildly, trying to take in the unfamiliar surroundings all at the same time. “Wha… Where?”
A firm hand landed on his shoulder, Quill’s face filled his vision. “Woah, woah. Slow down, Spider-Dude.”
Peter grabbed a fistful of Quill’s shirt. Something to ground him, something familiar. He sucked in long, slow breaths, eventually calming down enough for his brain to engage properly. Looking around again did nothing to ease his nerves. Everything was orange, desolate. Beneath him lay a pool of water, a few inches deep. Over Quill’s shoulder he caught sight of Drax and Mantis sitting at its edge with their feet in the water, heads low and muttering quietly.
He found Quill’s eyes. “You disappeared.”
“I know.”
“We… We all-” He rubbed a hand over his throat, feeling it tighten as anxiety crawled up his spine. “I- I turned to dust…” The pain still lingered, his cells tearing themselves apart faster than his body could heal them. “Where are we?”
Quill shrugged. “Hell if I know.” He stood and nodded his head behind Peter. “He’s not said a word since we got here.”
Peter turned around, sending ripples across the water. Strange sat with his back to them, hunched over, the cloak splayed out behind him. There was only one person he wanted to see. “Mister Stark?” He called out. Rising to his feet, he shouted again. “Mister Stark?”
Drax and Mantis looked up, watching Peter as he splashed about in the pool searching for his mentor-come-father. Strange didn’t flinch.
“Mister Stark! Please,” he rounded on Quill, desperately clawing at his jacket. “Please, where’s Mister Stark? I just- I just need Mister Stark, okay? Please. Please!”
“Hey, hey.” Quill caught his arms, holding them gently. “He’s not here. He didn’t… Neither’s Nebula.” He sighed, hanging his head. “I thought you… I didn’t think you were coming either. You took your time.”
I don’t know what’s happening.
Please, sir. I don’t want to go.
I’m sorry.
“No-” he choked. “I- I can’t leave him, not like that. I didn’t- I never said-”
“Slow down,” Quill reminded, surprisingly patient.
Peter shoved him off and marched towards Strange, demanding answers as he went. “What happened to us? Where’s Mister Stark?”
Strange lifted his head slightly. “Titan.”
“So he’s not- Not coming? He’s… He didn’t turn to dust?” Strange didn’t reply. “Where are we? What happened? Are-” Peter swallowed hard. “Are we dead?”
Finally, Strange turned around, his jaw clenched and eyes burning. “Yes.”
Peter stumbled back, almost tripped over Quill’s foot. Drax and Mantis joined them.
“We’re… dead?” Mantis asked, eyes flooding with tears.
“That’s what I said isn’t it?” Strange snapped. He turned his back to them and stalked away.
“Hey!” Peter charged after him, grabbing his arm and forcing him to pay them attention. “Where are we?” he shouted.
Strange let out a long sigh, closing his eyes. “We’re in the Soul World. Everyone who turned to dust is here.”
Quill held his arms out, gesturing at the lack of people around them. “Clearly they aren’t.”
“We died on Titan. A dead planet halfway across the universe from Earth.” He said it as if it answered all their questions, but only got blank faces in return. “The Soul World is a reflection of our reality. Meaning we have a long walk ahead of us.” He shrugged out of Peter’s grip and started walking. “I suggest you follow me.”
Peter looked back at Quill, who only shrugged, before they all hurried to catch up to Strange. He forced the anger and anxiety out of his voice, hoping Strange would answer more of his endless questions. “What happened to all of us?”
“Thanos.”
It took a moment before Peter realised what he meant. “Thanos won? He got the stones?”
Strange jerked his chin up in a half nod.
Anger boiled up inside of Peter. “You! You gave him the Time Stone! The whole point of me and Mister Stark going to space was to stop that from happening.”
Drax turned on Quill. “We could have killed him. I could have avenged my wife and daughter,” he jabbed his finger at Quill’s chest, “Now, because of you, I’ll never get the chance.”
“He killed Gamora!” Quill yelled back. “You’d have done exactly the same thing. In fact, you already did? Remember when you gave away our position to Ronan?”
“Fourteen million,” Strange shouted over their argument. “Fourteen million, six hundred and five futures. We only won one.”
Peter swallowed, “This was the only way… We beat Thanos by dying?”
Strange visibly stiffened, faltering in his step. When he spoke, his voice was low. “We get to come back.”
“Wait, wait, wait.” Quill made a stopping motion with his arms. “I’ve seen movies about time travel, and you never tell someone what happens in the future.”
“Yeah,” Peter added. “It messes up the timeline.”
Strange pinched the bridge of his nose. “That’s just the movies. Besides, it doesn’t matter what I tell you about the future. You won’t remember any of it when you go back.”
“Oh… So, nothing that happens in here matters?”
“We’re dead. We can’t affect the future.”
“Wait, you said that we won’t remember anything. You will?”
Strange nodded. “I saw a lot of futures. This isn’t my first time here. The first few times I remembered nothing, like it never happened. The more futures I saw, the more stuck with me.”
Only then did Peter realise what Strange had been through. The number of times he must have died or seen everyone else die. He’d failed fourteen million, six hundred and four times. No wonder he was angry.
“Is this the one?” Mantis asked. “The won where we win?”
“I don’t know,” Strange replied. “I won’t know until we win. It’s up to the people who survived now.”
Peter spoke up again, still trying to wrap his head around their situation. “Who did survive?”
Strange hung his head. “Stark and Nebula, but apart from that I don’t know. I’ve seen hundreds of thousands of combinations. Some where I survive, some where you do. Some where nobody made it off of Titan, and some where we all did.”
They walked in silence for a few moments. The barren landscape passing by slowly. Peter still had more questions. “So we’re halfway across the universe right now?”
“Yes.”
“And we’re going to walk to Earth?”
“Yes.”
“Won’t that take a long time? I mean, will we even get there before they bring us back?”
Strange sighed. “Time works differently here. It doesn’t pass in a straight line like in our reality. Everything happens at once, and nothing ever happened all at the same time. But we always make it.”
Peter thought for a moment. “So it’s like Jeremy Bearimy?”
“Jeremy who?”
“Jeremy Bearimy. It’s how time passes in the afterlife in The Good Place. Events happen before the ones that happened before. And we’re in the dot of the ‘i’, where nothing never happens.”
Strange narrowed his eyes, brow furrowed. “That’s… actually a decent explanation.”
Drax raised his hand. “I’m still confused.
“Me too,” Quill added.
Mantis nodded. “And me.”
Strange shook his head.
“Hey, wizard,” Quill said. “Why are we going to Earth anyway? The universe is a big place full of people. Surely there’s someone out there who can just send us back now.”
“Because if we’re trapped here for eternity, I figured the kid might want to be with his aunt and friends.”
“E- Eternity?” Peter stammered. “We could be here forever? How many times did that happen.”
“I lost count somewhere over…” He trailed off as a distant rumbling quickly grew closer. On the horizon, a sandstorm blew closer at alarming speed. “Cover! Now!” Strange grabbed Peter’s arm and dragged him behind a rock, the Guardians followed just behind.
“What is it?” Peter squeaked.
“A Soul Storm.” Strange peered over the top of the rock, ducking back down quickly. “Thanos entered the Soul World twice, once when he sacrificed Gamora for the Stone -” he spared a sympathetic glance Quill’s way. “- and once when he snapped his fingers. The first time was in balance, a soul for a soul. One dead and one living person entered the Soul World.”
The storm grew in volume as it blew closer, forcing Strange to shout. “But the second time was unbalanced. Trillions of dead but still only one living person entered. It made the Soul World unstable, hence the storms.”
Now, the storm was almost upon them. Peter strained to hear Strange’s voice. “Its physical effects are minimal, but the mental strain is high. Prepare yourself.”
Peter didn’t know how he was supposed to prepare. He tucked his legs to his chest and put his arms over his head. The storm washed over top of them, sand billowing into his face and scouring his skin. But that wasn’t the worst part.
His mind flooded with voices. Mourning, grieving, crying out for their loved ones. Tears flooded down his face as he felt all of their emotions in one moment, too powerful for his brain to comprehend fully.
It passed within a matter of seconds, but Peter didn’t move. He stayed curled up in a ball, muscles tensed and shaking. He’d heard Mister Stark’s voice above all.
I lost the kid…
He pulled himself up. Saw Strange a few paces away as Drax and Quill helped Mantis to her feet. She’d been hit worst, of course she had. He couldn’t imagine how it must have felt with her empathetic abilities.
A minute later, they were walking again.
# #
There was no day and night in the Soul World. Only walking or not walking, most of it in silence. There wasn’t much to say once the questions were over. They’d passed countless groups of people, giving them a wide birth as they passed. Strange explained that they were from other planets, that Thanos had wiped out fifty percent of everyone.
The strangest part was, despite the near constant walking, Peter never once got hungry or thirsty. Which, it turned out, was a blessing in disguise as there was no food to be found. But he still missed the delicious flavours of May’s cooking.
Speaking of, he didn’t know if May had survived. If she was living in the real world without him, or if she’d died. He didn’t know which was better.
They scaled the side of a steep hill, Peter’s legs burning for rest.
“We’re close,” Strange said. “Once we’re over this hill we’ll be there.”
Peter licked his lips. He should be happy. Happy that he’d see some familiar faces, but that meant they were just as dead as he was. Still after… well, he had no idea how long doing nothing but walking, he was excited to have someone else to talk to.
From the top of the hill, people came into view. Real, human people. Millions of them spread far and wide in small groups. It seemed most of the people from Earth had stayed close, but each sat or stood with only a handful of people. Their families and friends, presumably.
The descent took half of the time the climb had. They weaved between small groups, ignoring the strange looks they gathered. Peter, by far the most famous of the group, put his mask up in the hopes people would take the hint and leave him alone. For the most part, they did. Others ran forward, asking if Spider-Man had come to save them. They pressed on.
Strange led the way, scanning the crowd. The further they went, the more whispers grew.
Something soared overhead. A large pair of wings, coming down to land just in front of them. Not far behind Sam was Wanda Maximoff.
Sam turned to Peter, the only face familiar to him. “I wondered if we’d seen you again. How was space?”
“Could have been better,” Peter shrugged. He dematerialised his mask and held out a hand. “I’m Peter Parker.”
“Sam Wilson.” Sam shook his hand. “I thought you’d be older.”
“I get that a lot.”
Strange stepped forward. “I need to know who’s here.”
Sam glanced at Peter. “This guy with you?”
“Um, I’m more with him. But yeah,” he pointed back to the Guardians. “These guys too.”
Looking between Drax and Mantis, Sam asked, “You don’t happen to know a tree, do you?”
“Groot’s here?” Quill pushed forward. “What about a raccoon?”
“Most of the animals scattered when we appeared here-”
“A talking one.”
“Oh,” Sam stepped back. “I’m going to go with ‘no’.” He turned back to Strange, “Follow me. There’s a guy who won’t shut up about you, goes by Wong.”
# #
Sam took them to the rest of the fallen Avengers. After a long conversion where Strange explained everything about their situation and what happened on Titan, followed by Sam explaining what happening in Wakanda, Peter now followed Sam away from the Avengers.
He spotted May from a mile away.
They collided into each other’s arms, clinging tightly to each other. “I missed you, May. So, so much.”
“Me too.” She kissed his forehead. “I love you.”
“Love you.”
Someone else joined the hug from behind. Peter laughed, the first time he’d laughed since arriving in the Soul World. “Ned! Oh my god am I happy to see you.”
“Dude,” they pulled apart, performing their handshake. “Nice suit.”
“Thanks,” he grinned, “It’s nanotech. Mister Stark made it.”
Ned’s smile disappeared. “Is he here…?”
Peter shook his head. “He’s going to save us. I know it. He’ll find a way.”
“Holy shit!” Came a voice from behind them. “It’s Spider-Man.”
Peter glanced at Ned, grinning as Strange’s words came back to him. You won’t remember any of it when you go back.
He turned around, beaming at Flash who ran towards them. “Hey.”
Flash froze in his tracks, mouth agape. “Parker? You’re- You’re Spider-Man? ”
Peter held his arms out, looking down at his suit. “It sure looks like it.”
Maybe the Soul World wasn’t quite so bad after all.