Chapter Text
Peter Parker Two spat out a mouthful of blood – right up into the tall, orange alien woman’s face. She growled, wiped the blood off with her gloved hands, and flicked her fingers so that it flew down to the deck of the space cruiser’s torture cell. The alien rotated the blade stuck between Peter’s seventh and eighth ribs, then yanked it out with the same speed and force with which she’d stabbed him. Peter couldn’t hold back a scream. He wrenched on the cuffs and chains holding his arms above his head, but they didn’t budge. His feet were on the floor, but he was too weak to stand on them. Blood oozed from dozens of slashes through his Spider-Man suit and constellations of bruises covered his pale skin. Far below the hovering cruiser, the United States military slowly rolled into New York City’s Central Park. Spotlights lit up the alien craft. Tanks aimed missiles. Generals shouted orders.
“I do not like to repeat myself,” said the black-eyed alien in a deep, eerie voice. Her black hair was long, and her teeth were razor sharp. She wore a large ring that housed a red gem. “Tell me where the Eternity Gem is.”
She stunk like diesel fuel. The smell made Peter Two’s eyes water. “How many times do I have to tell you,” he croaked around the blood in his swollen throat, “that I don’t know what an Eternity Gem is?”
She sneered at the dying spider man. “You’re lying. I can sense its energy,” she said. “It’s all over you. You’ve encountered the Mind Gem. We’ve been travelling all over the Multiverse trying to find it, and it’s here!”
Peter Two’s vision swam. His torturer appeared to swirl and bend. Blood poured from the knife wound in his chest. His legs and arms went numb. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he whispered. “I suggest you leave this planet before we blow up your ship and… And…” His chin dropped to his chest and his brilliant blue eyes rolled.
The orange woman chuckled. “Your threats mean nothing.” She lifted Peter’s chin up with her forefinger, forcing him to make eye contact. “I always get what I want. And until you decide to give me what I want, you can just hang here.” The alien ship suddenly rocked. Below, the military had opened fire. The orange woman left to fire back, closing the door behind her, leaving Peter Two in complete darkness.
Peter’s chin dropped again. Dizziness and pain clouded his sight and his mind. “P-Peter,” he whispered with the last of his strength, seconds before he passed out. “Help…”
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Peter Parker One was finally alone with his girlfriend. Ned and his family, whose house he’d moved into, were out of town on a summer vacation. He finally had the place to himself – the couch to himself. MJ came over, and they hadn’t left each other’s embrace since she’d walked through the door. She’d just left work, and still wore her uniform from the coffee shop. He’d just left work, and still smelled of French fries.
“Tell me again,” MJ said as she straddled Peter on the couch.
He grinned up at her, giddy. “I love you.”
She kissed him. “Again.”
He grew serious. “I love you.”
She squeezed him tighter with her thighs. “One more time.”
“I love…” His voice trailed off and he looked at something behind her, but actually at nothing at all. “Peter?”
MJ pulled back. “What?”
“I – No, I mean – I mean, I thought I heard – Did you hear that?”
MJ moved out of his lap. “Hear what?”
“I thought I…” Peter One shook his head. “For a second there I thought I heard Peter Two’s voice.”
MJ cocked an eyebrow. “Kinda weird to think of your double when there’s a cute girl in your arms,” she pointed out.
“I didn’t – what? I wasn’t thinking about him, I just thought I heard… Wait, let me try something. It never occurred to me that we could… But maybe…” Peter shut his eyes and took a deep breath.
“What?” MJ prompted.
“When we were together, we could sometimes sense –” Peter’s eyes flew open. “Oh my god, I CAN feel him! What the –” Peter froze, mouth agape, eyes wide. Then, to MJ’s horror, he suddenly grabbed at his chest, screamed, and fell to the floor, writhing like he was being electrocuted.
“Peter?” MJ knelt on the floor beside him and grabbed at his flailing hands. “Peter – PETER!”
Tears burst from his eyes. “He’s in pain,” he moaned. “He’s in so much pain!”
“Peter, stop sensing him – Break the connection - Stop it!” MJ felt pre-regret, but slapped him across the cheek anyway. “STOP!”
Peter went still. Twin tears flowed down his cheeks. “He’s dying. I have to help him,” he whispered. “I have to – I have to get to him right now!” Peter rolled out of MJ’s arms and raced to the guest bedroom. He returned in seconds, wearing his Spider-Man suit and holding two plastic bags. There were three containers inside each bag: two floating suns of Wanda’s spells, and a piece of bloody blue jeans. Peter held up the bags in front of his face and looked from one to the other, back and forth. He settled on the bag in his left hand, and put the other bag in a perfectly sized, zippered pocket he’d sewn into his suit months before. “Here, hold these,” he said, handing the remaining bag to MJ. He removed the bloody piece of fabric from it and stared.
MJ bit her bottom lip, then whispered, “Are you sure about this?”
“Wanda mixed them up,” Peter said, staring at the blood. “I don’t know which one is which.”
MJ swallowed and shook her head. “No, I mean, are you sure about… About trying to help him?” she asked carefully, measured. “You can’t cross universes every time they’re in trouble. Peter, I know you care about your doubles, but—”
“They’re my brothers!” he snapped at her. “And they’d do the same for me!”
MJ opened her mouth, closed it, and then opened it again. “Ok,” she said. There was an apology in her voice. “All right. Go. But just tear off a little piece.”
“Huh?”
“The fabric. The blood. Just take a little of it. Tear up the fabric.” She shrugged. “In case you need to go back and save him again.”
Peter grinned. He kissed her. “You’re brilliant.” Peter tore off the tiniest patch of blood he could, and put the rest of it back in the container. Then, he took out the container with the spell, opened it, and dropped the fabric inside. “Take me to Peter Parker,” he begged the spell, hoping it somehow understood him. “Take me right to him.”
The little sun floated out of the container and hovered in the center of the living room. It pulsed for five seconds, and then exploded in a shower of sparks. The portal opened wide. After sharing a last kiss with MJ, Peter stepped through. On the other side, he looked back through the portal at MJ, and that’s when something occurred to him. “Could you stay open for a minute?” he politely asked the portal, as if it had ears to hear him. “Until I tell you to close?” The portal didn’t respond, but it did remain open, even when Peter turned his back.
The room lit only by the portal’s light reminded Peter One of the meat locker at the restaurant when the sapphire witch kept him and his variants prisoner. It was narrow, but long, made of metal, and there was a single thick window in the door. And against one wall, hanging from shackles and apparently unable to stand on his feet, was a man that Peter recognized. His mouth dropped. The man was slashed to pieces. His Spider-Man suit hung off his body in rags. He was bruised, he was bleeding, and there was a large wound in his lower chest.
“Peter One?” the man croaked, squinting against the sudden light.
“Peter THREE?”
To Be Continued