Castaway [Peter Parker]

23 - Meeting

Hailey knew where Peter was going to be. She knew where he tended to go to when he needed to get away from everything: the roof of Midtown High.

When they got there, Hailey, Chase, Ned and Anthony went up to the roof. 

Peter was sitting on the ground and Hannah was comforting him. They were both hurt/

"Peter..." Hailey said, softly.

Hannah looked up.

Hannah looked like she was crying.

Hailey over to him and kissed the side of his forehead. She hugged him. So did Chase and Ned.

"Peter..." Anthony said sadly as Peter began to cry.

Hannah bit her lip and looked away, blinking back tears.

"It's okay," Hailey assured Peter. "We got you."

Peter looked up, sensing something.

"Peter... Peter..." Hailey said as they let him go, "there are some people... some people..."

"What...?" Peter said.

They stood up.

Peter and Hannah quickly jumped to their feet to see two figures high up on the building.

"Who are...?" Hannah began.

The two figures jumped down so Peter and Hannah could see them better.

"Hey, wait, wait whoa!" peter said.

"What the fuck?" Hannah said, stunned, taking a step back. "Who the hell are you two?"

The Peter in the Spiderman suit stood up with his hands up as if he was surrendering.

"We're sorry," the oldest Peter said, "about May."

"Yeah," the middle Peter said, "sorry. I got some understanding of what-"

"No, no, please don't tell me you know what you're going through," the youngest of the three Peter's, Hailey's Peter, interrupted.

"Okay," the middle Peter said.

"She's gone," Peter said, "and it's all my fault. She died for nothing. I will do what I should've done in the first place."

"Peter," the oldest Peter said.

"Please don't. You don't belong. Neither do you. So I'm sending you home."

The middle Peter sighed.

"Those other guys are from your worlds, right?"

The middle Peter nodded in confirmation.

"So you deal with it," Peter said. "You're their guy. If you kill them, that's on you. That's not my problem. I don't care anymore. I'm done. I'm really sorry that I dragged you into this... but you have to go home now. Good luck."

Peter turned to take the cube, but Hailey moved it away from him.

Chase took it from her hand as if he read her mind. 

Hailey shook her head no. 

"My uncle Ben was killed," the oldest Peter said.

This caught her Peter's attention.

"It was my fault," the oldest Peter continued.

"I lost..." the middle Peter said, choking up, "I lost Gwen... my, um..." he was holding back tears, "she was my Hailey... I couldn't save her. I will never be able to forgive myself for that... but I carried on. I tried to... I tried to keep going, tried to keep being, the, uh... friendly neighborhood Spiderman, because I know that's what she wanted, but at some point, I just stopped pulling my punches.... I got rageful... I got bitter. I just don't want you to end up like me."

"The night Ben died," the oldest Peter said, "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... to get through that darkness."

Hearing their stories, Hailey realized that what happened to them would probably happen to her Peter. He would probably go down the same path the other two Peter's did when the oldest Peter lost his Ben and the middle Peter lost Gwen.

"I want to kill him," Peter said. "I want to tear him apart.... I can still hear his voice inside my head," he started choking up. 

Hailey took his hand and Hannah placed her hand on his shoulder.

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

"Comes great responsibility," the oldest Peter said.

He looked over at the middle Peter sharing a look.

"Wait, how do you know that?" Peter asked, looking at them confused.

"Uncle Ben said it," the middle Peter said.

"The day he died," the oldest finished.

Hailey bit her lip.

She never met Peter's uncle, but she knew that he took Peter after his parents died. She knew that Ben and May essentially were Peter's parental figures growing up and now they're both gone.

She can only imagine what he must be feeling right now.

"Maybe she didn't die for nothing, Peter," the oldest said.

"Pete - Peter," Chase said, "they can help us. They can - they can help us cure them and send them home. We can't just..."

"Everybody deserves second chances," Hannah said, "remember?"