Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Peter Parker seems like a regular high school boy—maybe a little smarter than most, sure, but nothing out of the ordinary. Yet not everything is as it seems.

Because who even is Peter Parker?

He isn’t in high school anymore, and he is anything but normal.

He’s the boy no one remembers. A hero who helped save the world, only to vanish from the memories of everyone he fought for.

He could tell someone his name, but their response would always be the same: “Peter Parker? Who’s that?” It always came down to that.

This isn’t to say he was hated—quite the opposite, in fact. Once, people knew him. Once, he mattered. But now?

Now Peter Parker is a stranger to the world he sacrificed everything for.

————————————————————————————————————

A few weeks ago, something happened.

Something so significant that a shockwave rippled through adjacent universes. Magical beings across those dimensions could sense its source and its purpose.

It was the day Peter Parker lost everyone he loved—and himself.

If a tree falls and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

If a boy exists and no one remembers, does he really exist?

No one else knew him anymore, and it was better that way, even if it was the hardest decision he had ever made.

No one mourned him—no one but himself. He cried for the future he could have had, a dream now impossible. He cried for the people he lost, those he failed to save.

And yet, no one cried with him. Who cares if a kind woman died in a villain attack? It happens every week. Who cares if the sky above the Statue of Liberty glowed strangely? It’s New York; it’s best not to question such things.

People were briefly confused by the strange symbols floating in the air, but after they vanished and the city remained standing, it was quickly forgotten. Except for one article in the Daily Bugle, once again blaming everything on Spider-Man.

This time, though, they were right. It was his fault. He trusted someone who betrayed him, and that trust led to disaster.

Still, the city’s faith in Spider-Man never wavered. People believed he would protect them. He would return to them… wouldn’t he?

His fans were worried, even desperate, vowing to search for him, saying they would help him, save him for a change.

But they couldn’t help the person behind the mask. They couldn’t save Peter Parker—not while they had forgotten he ever existed.

Telling anyone what had happened, or revealing who he truly was, wasn’t an option. He couldn’t endanger their safety again.

They had forgotten him, and it was for the best. He didn’t deserve their trust—not after how he had failed them.

Now, alone in his new apartment under the name Ben Lake, Peter was determined to start over. He enrolled in the closest college and planned to live a life where only he was at risk—not the people he cared about (well, and the criminals he continued to stop).

But before he had the chance to settle in or meet anyone at the college, something else happened.

This time, the disturbance was unlike anything before. Sorceresses and witches across the multiverse couldn’t discern the intent behind this new magic.

And they weren’t the only ones who noticed its potential consequences. The spell drew the attention of the rulers of the multiverse—beings who rarely involved themselves with mortal matters.

This time, they intervened. For the first time, they acted to alter the future of a single universe—this universe.

They sent a group of ancient beings to investigate the spell and avert the catastrophe it might unleash.

As fate intended, their intervention changed Peter Parker’s life forever.

But will it help him heal?

Chapter Text

Finally Peter’s shift at the cafe was done. There weren’t too many customers today and most of them were all really kind, but it was still exhausting talking to so many people, even if it was just taking their order or their money.

It is still a little early for patrol, it is at the moment 20:26 o’clock, so Peter sits down on the chair in front of his small table in the corner and gets his homework out.

As he first moved in this apartment, there were only a bed, a table beside it and a small bathroom with a shower next door.

Now there is also a cardboard for his clothes, this table to eat, do homework or something else and a box beside it, where he has his school stuff that need to be at home.

Before he starts with his homework, Peter calls his favorite pizzeria. “Hello, what can I get you?”, asks a voice from the other side of the phone.

Peter already knows what he wants, he eats there so often, he even knows who is on the phone right now. “Hey Luis, it’s Ben, just a pizza salami please”

“Hey Ben, how was your day, the pizza will be there soon.” Luis’s voice sounds interested now, not the boring, monotonous sound it was before.

“My day was good, nothing really happened, just had classes and work. How about you? How was your day?” Peter always likes talking with Luis, he is the best storyteller and he is friends with Mr. Lang so I can hear how he is.

“Today I had such a badass day man. Scotty man shows up at my home with Hope, you know daughter of Hank van Dyne and wasp, and they’re like “yo bro, we need your help” and I was like “cool dudes, what do you need, I always help my bestie” and then they said that they needed help by a super secret mission and I was like bamn here you have the information that you need and man I tell you, they were so impressed. Someday I’m gonna be one of the avengers bro”

Somebody is yelling in the background, something about McDonalds starting a war with them. “Yo dude, I need to go, I have to help fight Mcs in a war. I’m gonna call you later and tell you all the details. Oh and your pizza should be there in 5 minutes. Bye Benny.” With that the phone makes a clicking noise and Peter knows that Luis has hung up.

He puts away his phone and starts doing his math homework.

After a few minutes, the doorbell rings and he gets up. Opening the door, Peter sees Bruno there with his pizza.

“Hey Bruno, thanks for the pizza, how much do you need?”

“Hey Ben, I just need 2 dollar and that’s it. I would love to chat more but I have to bring those away.” Bruno shows him the other pizzas that still need to be handed out.

Peter gets his wallet out of his pants and gives Bruno 3 dollar. “The rest is for you.”

“Thanks Ben, see you around.”, with that Bruno takes the other pizzas in his arms and make his way to the next person. Poor guy has to go on foot. They have cars but they don’t need it in this area, the customers are often just living too close.

After eating his pizza, it was already 21:42, Peter decides to start patrol now.

As he puts on his suit, he lets his hands run over the blue parts. He changed them to the blue that is in Peter 3’s suit. He needed a reminder and it looks really cool.

He misses them, but he can still text with them over a multiversal phone that he got from Doctor Strange.

As he has the suit on, he checks for his web shooters and goes out of the window.

At first it was a quiet night, just a few robberies and fights to stop, nothing big. Peter makes a pause at a roof that has a good view of the sky and lies down, looks up at the sky, at those stars. He believes that one of those stars is Aunt May and one Mr. Stark.

Suddenly Karen speaks up.
„Peter, police are at the park, because of a woman calling about a magician making people disappear. Please look if that is true and help if you can.“

Peter is so glad that Karen still remembers him. Without her, he would be really lost and probably wouldn’t hve saved so many people. „Will do, Karen. Thanks.“

He made his way to the park. It is not a big park, just a little see and a few trees, but it is really peaceful there.

As he was nearly there, his spider senses started ringing. It was just an uncomfortable feeling, but it could be something serious.

As he finally arrived at the gates to the park, the ringing has gone worse. Something is going on.

He springs over the gates and makes his way to where the noises of magic clashing comes from. After a few minutes he finds the magician.

There is a man standing in a purple glowing circle.He has dark clothes on with purple an black as colors. He is a little bit taller then Peter and has dark brown curls. He is quite handsome, Peter has to say, if he weren’t a bad guy he would try his luck. Why not try to flirt anyway, maybe it’ll distract him.

In the circle are really weird symbol, some look like those symbol that satanist have on their arms, and also a few twisted letters.

The handsome man also has purple lassos in his hands, with which he tries to catch people with.

He is definitely doing some disappearing spell, probably to somewhere dangerous, if my spider senses have anything to say.

Peter starts talking with the guy, but gets ignored.

“Hey Handsome. Sorry to disturb you again, but I don’t think what you are doing is good, so I have to stop you and afterwards, maybe we can have dinner. And could you tell me where those other people disappeared to so someone can save them? That would be really helpful.”

The man didn’t say anything. „Sorry, but if you’re just gonna ignore me, I have to restrain you until sword gets here.“

Peter first webs his arms together and then his legs too. The man starts screaming at him and swearing that when he gets free, Peter will regret doing this.

Soon the mage realizes that this won’t get him free, so he shuts up.
„So now that you are sitting so good, who are you?” Peter asks.

„Hello, Spiderman. You should not have disturbed me at this spell. It is very dangerous to just let it be there, if no one breaks those symbol, the whole world can disappear. But you would know that after having to deal with so many magical people. I am Cedunscel, the best mage on this planet and now could you please let me go, we can play a bondage later, I have work to do.“

“No, I won’t, I can just break those symbols, I just need to smudge one, that should do it.”

Peter just wanted to go to in the circle to start on doing that, when Cedunscel starts speaking.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, you could activate something if you do it wrong, just let me go and I can break it.”

“Why should I trust you? It doesn’t matter anyway, It can’t be that bad and nothing will happen, I’m not gonna let you go for a maybe”

If Peter wouldn’t have been so tired and if his brain would function normally, he would know that this is a bad idea. Unfortunately, it is not like that.

The mage screamed at him to stop, but Peter ignored him. He steps in the circle and goes to a satan symbol. Before he can start smudging it, the whole world started growing purple.

Just before he blacked out, Peter hears the mage say “I hope I will see him again, he seems nice”. Maybe he can still have something with that mage.

                ⤜⤑⤑⋆ ✩❂✩ ⋆ ⬸⬸⤛

—————————————————————

Peter tries to open his eyes, but the light is too bright, he tries a few times, every time, he gets more used to the light, until he can finally open his eyes. He looks around himself.

He is sitting on a stone, around him are trees and he can hear the birds singing. There is a small river a few feet in front of him, the water glittering from the sun. In the sky is no cloud to see, the sun warm and bright. On the trees are green leaves and a few even have those pink flowers that will grow to an apple.It is quite beautiful and magical, it’s like something were you feel welcome and comfortable but also want to learn more.

He stands up and walks deeper in the forest, trying to find someone that can tell him where he is. “Is anyone here? Can somebody tell me where I am?” Peter calls, trying to find answers to his questions.

Suddenly there is a sound next to him. Peter turns around in a flash, but there is only a deer, looking at him with big brown eyes. “Oh man, you scared me.”

His head whips up, he heard his name. “Who is there?!” He hears his name again. He starts following the voice, even trough it is probably very stupid.

Finally he comes to another clearing, seeing six people standing or sitting there.
As he got closer to them, he thinks that those don’t look like human beings.

Maybe an alien or a god like Thor.

The one at the front has a aura that is glowing green, next to them is a one with a yellow aura and so on until we have every color of the pride flag.

Peter makes his way to them. “Who are you? Where am I?”

“Do not worry Peter, you are safe here, no one can hurt you. This is the Gap Junction, a nexus dimension, a place between worlds in the multiverse. My name is Soul, I am an infinity stone and these are my sibling.” The yellow glowing one, Soul, said. “The one in the red jumper is Reality, pronouns she/her. Next to me with a purple aura is power, pronouns they/them. Then we have Mind, in his orange dress, pronouns he/him. Next to him we have Space, he/they and the green one is Time, pronouns he/him. Also I don’t really care what pronouns you use but at the moment I prefer she/her. As you can see our clothes and our auras tell you which stone we are.”

“But if you are Infinity stones, why do you look like human? And shouldn’t you be with your holder or whatever?”

“We look like human so that we don’t scare you. We are still stones, but we have souls and in this world we can shape our souls how we want to be seen, we could also be animals if that is more comfortable with you. And most of us don’t have a holder or more then one. Our stones are still at the place that they were, just our souls traveled here. It was an accident that you got here, but we wanted to talk to you anyway. We need your help.” That was a lot of information from Reality.

“Yes, anyway, we have a mission for you. You saw how many bad things happened, they shouldn’t have, but someone played with the multiverse and made some changes. We need to erased those situations that happened. You are the one that needs to do it, no one remembers you, so it is no problem if you are away, also you are very strong and kind, you are a good human. We trust you with this.” Power explains and turns Peter’s whole world upside down.

“How can we stop those events? They happened already.” Peter asked.

“Exactly, which is why we need to send you back in time. There will be two Peter Parker’s in that universe, so make sure that nobody knows who you really are. Lives are at stake.” they replied.

Time sees the confusion in his body and knows that he needs more details. He starts explaining more. “We will emerge with your body, you can see us as stones on your body and hear us in your head, but don’t worry, we are still we’re we need to be and we won’t search through your memories, those are private. You will land in 2017, that is a year after the Civil War between Tony Stark and Steven Rogers. The time travel is a risk for the multiverse, but we found a sort of a spell which can make sure that no universe crumbles. For that a few parts of universe will melt together with this Earth 616, your home. You will emerge with a city from earth 66 and a part from earth 10005 will emerge with New York. You can use those to your advantage since they will be there forever and learn more about these.”

Space went on about what will happen. “There are are a few people that will know or at least have a suspicion about your appearance. One of them is Professor X. With him you can talk and train and plan, whatever you need, go to him. Your first task is seeking him out.”

Peter didn’t need to think long, like they said, there are life at stake.

But I finally started to get used to the pain, it can only get worse…. I can’t think like that, I shouldn’t be selfish, I need to save lives .

“Ok, I’ll do it. But promise you won’t invade my privacy. And please tell me more about how this works.”

“Okay thank you Peter. We will emerge with your body now, which will be painless. It will look like our stones emerge with you, so that every stone has their own place. Only you will be able to see this, since we are not actually there. Then we s-” Reality was interrupted by Peter raising his hand.

“Yes Peter?”

“But why will your stones emerge with my body when they are not here?”

“It helps us to make the connection with you, since we can see a part of us with you emerging, don’t worry, it won’t hurt. What will hurt or more like make you feel sick, is the time travel. Your body will tear itself apart and rebuild in 2017. You will pass out after the first few seconds of pain.”

Before Peter could progress that, all the souls of the infinity stones turned in their stone form and floated to him. Time reached him first and emerged with his right forearm. After that Soul makes herself space on his left forearm. One after the other starts emerging with a body part. Power with his right peck, over his heart, Mind on his left thigh and Soul on the other side. Reality went on his stomach.

We will start the time travel now .

Someone says in his head. It is hard to concentrate on who it is, since his head feels like it will explode any minute. If he couldn’t seen his body, he would think that his organs are inside out.

Just like Reality predicted, Peter passed out after a few seconds of this torture.

Chapter Text

Peter wakes up in 2017. He could see Stark Tower a few streets at his right.He is in a alley, still in his Spider-man suit. He can’t go out like this.

He looks around himself and sees a balcony with clothes on a wire a floor above him. Peter crawls fast up and grabs himself a pullover and pants.

Before he crawls down again, he sees a pair of shoes and steals them too. They are admittedly at least one size too small, but better then nothing.

After that he goes out of the alley and looks around. He is near his previous apartment. Maybe nobody moved in and Peter could live there.

But as he got there, he sees the lights on his floor on and hears music playing.

He’s going in the direction of the park around the corner. On the streets are too many people to find a place to stay without anyone seeing him. At the end he’ll get in a orphanage. There he can’t help anyone.

He passes a hot dog stand - his stomach grumbles loud. He hasn’t eaten since yesterday evening. A few people shoot him weird looks, but a second later they got distracted by something else.

Peter searches in his pockets for money and finds a five dollar bill. With that he buys himself a hot dog. He eats the food fast and makes himself an his way to the park.

I need to get money somehow. I don’t want to steal anymore. Peter sees a bank under a tree and sits on it

A few minutes later came a older man and sits down beside Peter.

”Hello young spider. Welcome back.” he says. Peter’s eyes widened and his chin fells open. “ How do you know who I am?” whispers Peter to the man.

”I am Stan. I know everything and everyone. If you need advice, I am here for you. Good luck on your adventure.”

A bush rustles near Peter. He was ready for a attack, but after nothing happened, he turns back to Mr. Stan. He was gone.

He looks around for Mr. Stan, but the man was nowhere to be found.

Peter let’s it go for now.He has so much to think about, he can worry about Mr. Stan later.

—————————————————————

Peter sits on the bank until it was evening. Then he makes himself on the way to find a new home. It would never be home, but he needs a roof above his head.

He goes around through the streets, but still no luck with shelter.

Finally he finds a abandoned house. It is very old and dirty, but better than nothing. He goes around the house, searching for a way in.

Peter just wanted to give up and go find some other place, when he finds a broken window. He crawls on the wall and up to it.

Peter tries to open it the normal way, but it wouldn’t move a bit. So option number 2. Peter makes a fist with his hand and smashes it through the glass.

It hurts and bleeds a little, but the moment he got the broken glass out, the wounds heal. Just a little scar.

He goes with his shoe over the broken glass and makes it flat. Only then goes he in and looks around.

There is a mattress in the corner beside the window, a small kitchen and a bathroom. Small but nice. There are a few burned parts, but in general it’s stable and mostly clean. There is just a little bit of dust on the surfaces.

It’s enough for now.

He stripped out of his stolen clothes and got out of his suit. Now just standing there in his boxers, he feels how cold the house really is. He’ll need blankets.

He puts his stolen clothes back on and goes to the kitchen. There is a small table at the side with two chairs and a few cabinets.

He opens the fridge and looks for food. Nothing is in there, which is probably good - it would be bad by now. 

Still need to find food.

Space makes himself known in his mind.I can help with that. I could make you a portal to the nearest supermarket and you can steal some from the stands there. I know you don’t want to steal, but we don’t have another option.

Space is right, Peter doesn’t feel well with stealing things. There are people, homeless people that need it more. But he is homeless now too. He hadn’t had a real home in his previous apartment, still. At least he had a house and warm clothes then.

”Okay, I’ll do it, but not right now.”

You have us now Power "says". They read my mind. He doesn’t know how he feels about that. On the one side, they probably don’t do it because they want to, but on the other hand, his mind is very private. Trough Peter is very grateful that He’s not alone anymore.

Peter goes to the sink and tries to turn the water on. Luckily someone still pays for it for some reason, then a few seconds later, clear water get out of the tap.

After Peter drank some water, he sits down on the mattress in the corner.

Suddenly the Infinity stones are standing before him in their human forms. Peter yelped. “How is that possible?”

”Do not worry Peter. We are still in your body. Reality just zipped your brain a little and now you see a illusion of us. Like this it is more personal.” Space’s mouth moves, but Peter hears his voice from his mind. It’s weird.

“For what?” Peter asks.

”We need to give you information and make sure you are ready for your first mission.” answers Soul.

”Okay. Tell me then.”

”So. First you will contact Professor X. He is the easiest to find, because he’s a telepath. Of course we will do this all tomorrow, it’s late and you need sleep. You should still know about your mission. To contact him you have to scream his name in your mind. His name is Charles Xavier. We need to be near him in the case that he can’t hear us and like this you can talk to him face to face. He’s actual already dead, but the time turned back there too.” As Time speaks he sits down before me. Or at least his illusion does.

The others sits themself around Peter in a half-circle, while Mind continues to explain. “We can trust him with the truth. He would sense our presence the moment that we are near him.”

”You can go as Peter Parker or as Spider-man, doesn’t matter. If you go as Spider-man he will find who you are. As Peter Parker too. Just do it at evening and don’t let the other X-men see you. They could think that you are a danger.”

”Hey!” Peter calls, offended by Mind’s statement. “I am dangerous.”

”But not to them. You have a big heart and you are too pure to hurt them. Because of that we choose you.” Everyone agrees with Soul. “So now back to the topic. After that is done, we will move to Gotham. We’ll wait a few weeks, but then we will move there. You should befriend yourself to the vigilantes there. Try not to meet Batman. He is a little… cold to people with powers, even trough he is in a relationship with Superman. He doesn’t want people with powers in Gotham.”

The part with Superman - which what is that for a name? Not really creative - was spoken so quiet, a normal person wouldn’t have heard it. Peter is not a normal person, so he heard.

”We also need to get you in the direction of Tony Stark. It will hurt to see him again, but we believe in you. You are strong.” Mind’s words reassured Peter a little bit.

”I have a idea for that. Mr. Stark and I had a cover for Spider-man things with a SI internship. I could try to get one for real this time.” Peter only wonders if he is smart enough to get in.

”Okay. We will do it like this.” Everyone agrees.

”Now go to sleep little spider. It is late.” Soul is such a mother-hen.

Suddenly Peter remembers something. “Who was that in the park? Mr.Stan?”

”He is something like a god. In a universe we are characters in comics and he wrote these. We don’t know how he managed it, but he knows everything and is always near someone if they need help or advice.” answers Space. “Now sleep.”

The illusions start to fade, Peter lays down on the mattress. The mattress is a little dusty, but mostly comfortable. In seconds Peter was asleep.

Chapter Text

He sees how the bomb flys past him. Suddenly everything is bright and he is falling to the ground. As he can finally hear right again, saw he, what the bomb did.Everywhere lies part of the building and it is likely that it will fall down completely soon.

Luckily nothing is on fire.Peter needs to cough, because of all the dust in the air.

I need to find aunt May.

He can barely see anything, but he finds her lying on the ground a few seconds later.

”Aunt May!” he calls.

Fast I’m at her side. There is blood on her stomach and on her head. 

“Everything is okay. Just you and me.” Her heartbeat is slowing down.

”Peter, with great power comes great responsibility.”

Suddenly he couldn’t hear him anymore. Her heartbeat. The one that helped him go to sleep. The one that made him feel safe. 

It’s like Mr. Stark all over again. Another family member is gone. No family anymore and all because of Norman. 

No, it wasn’t him. He wouldn’t have done this. This was the Green Goblin. 

He feels so empty that he doesn’t even notice the tears that are running down his cheeks. He also feels rage, but mostly sad and empty. 

I need to find him. Everyone that I care about gets hurt. I couldn’t save her, but I can make sure that he gets what he deserves. 

But he was already away. His knees gave out and Petter fell down on the ground. Loud sobs broke out of him. 

I should just die.

_________________________________

He wakes up with a gasp. His whole body is shacking and sweating. 

Just breath.

Soul ask if he can do anything to help me. “No, I just need a minute to catch my breath.”

He needs something to concentrate on. Something that will get him a hold on reality. 

It was always aunt May’s heartbeat. Maybe his own will do. 

He concentrates on the fast pounding of his heart. To help himself he lies to of his fingers on his pulse on the neck. (This helps me when I’m hyperventilating, so try it, maybe it will help you too)

May is still alive, Mr. Stark is still alive, I’m still alive and I will protect them. This time I won’t fail.

His pulse gets slower and his breathing more regular.

I can do this.

That you can. You are strong, we believe in you. If you need somebody to talk to, we are there for you. Even trough we are just stones, we can and like to listen to other people.

Soul says in his mind.

You are not alone anymore.

That is right. I’m not alone anymore. I can do this. I won’t fail this time.

”So now no more sad topic.” Peter mumbles to himself, while standing up. He goes to the kitchen and gets himself an apple. Space probably got it there.

He sits down on one of the chairs and eats the apple. Even if it is stolen, Space won’t bring it back now. Also Peter is really hungry.

After eating the apple, Peter goes on the toilette and chills there for a few minutes. 

For a abandoned house it is really clean here. The mirror is broken and the ground is a little bit brown-yellow, but the toilet is very clean.

A sink is in here not, so he goes to the kitchen and washes his hands there. He also washes his mouth out with water, in the hope that it will lessen his bad breath.

At least he doesn’t smell bad yet. Trough he should definitely get a deodorant somewhere, because it won’t be like this forever.

After that he puts on the stolen shoes and goes out of the window that he got in. 

Easily crawled down, Peter stands now in the alley. He sees a few mouses and even a black cat running around.

He will first look around a little bit. Hopefully Peter will find a Restaurant or something like this near his house.He could steal some of the leftovers in the bin. 

Because of the dark sky last night, Peter couldn’t identify where he is. Now he can. He is in Bronx. That’s not good. There are many hit man and bad people around here.

At least patrol won’t be boring so fast.