Chasing a Memory ( Shoto x Oc )

Spiderverse Au part 3

"H-" Cassie's head swam and she let out a loud groan as she pushed her body upwards. Her eyes cracked open scanning the room she was in. " Jesucristo que lío, no puedo ni- Lyla do something about the kid. I don't have time for this I'm a hero not a babysitter." Cassie noted she wasn't in her lab and she certainly wasn't in her universe but where exactly was she and what had happened?

Her eyes land on a tall muscular man who appeared to be in his late twenties to early thirties, he had tousled brownish hair and narrowed sharp brown eyes that were tinted red. She didn't feel very welcomed wherever she was, because this man who she didn't even know the name of, was glaring at her like she were a mildly annoying mouse. Cassie pushed herself to her feet and glanced at the many screens in front of the man who was bathed in the yellowish glow of the projections, her eyes widened in recognition, these were live footage of different universes, she recognized a few from her travels.

This must have been the spider society! She had heard about it when one of her frequently visited worlds Spiderman had passed her talking on this weird watch thing to some buff dude in a spider costume, the very dude she was looking at right now. Her excitement washes away as she staggered, pain shooting through her body as she tried to step forward. " what happened to me?" The older man scoffed and turned away waving a large hand in her general direction dismissively. " Lyla do the explainey thing. "

A flickering projection of a woman no bigger than the size of her palm flitted over to Cassie's face. She wore a fur coat and heart sunglasses. In little to no time at all Cassie had been brought up to date on what had happened to her and where she was, and after some convincing Cassie had managed to secure a spot in the spider society.

" You caused a lot of problems that we have to clean up, so until you can prove you won't act recklessly I've contacted one of my best to keep an eye on you." The man who's name was Miguel O'Hara according to Cassie's new friend Lyla, told her and then just like that she was dismissed to explore the HQ. Cassie was led to the lobby by Lyla looking around at all of the different spiders going about their days.

Lyla floated ahead of Cassie looking back at her. " You're gonna like the Spiderman assigned to watch over you, he's super chill." The bubbly ai told her before coming to a stop causing Cassie to walk ahead of her slightly before realizing and doubling back to stand next to Lyla again. " Oh look he's already here!"

Cassie looked in the direction Lyla was pointing and her heart stopped, she could practically feel it shattering all over again. He wasn't facing her but it was undeniably him, or at least a version of him. His red and white hair was recognizable in itself but when he turned around it was his heterochromatic eyes and the scar adorning the left side of his face that just drove Cassie over the edge.

She felt her eyes welling with tears and her hands began to shake, just to be sure she turned to Lyla who was already knowingly looking at her with a face that conveyed concern and sympathy. When the Ai had reviewed Cassie's intended canon as well as her universes timeline, and found out she was dating a version of one of Miguel's top spider recruits, she figured she would get Miguel to match them up in order to make Cassie more comfortable, but in hindsight maybe that wasn't a good idea after all. " L-Lyla what's his name?" Cassie's voice cracked and she hated how weak she sounded. " I think you already know Cassie." The Ai mumbles glitching closer to her and patting her shoulder though the distressed woman obviously couldn't feel it.

Cassie wasn't happy with her new friend's response however. " I asked you a question Lyla... What is his name?" Her voice was steady now but held an air of hushed barely contained hysteria that practically threatened to spill over any minute. Lyla was silent for a second before finally replying " His name is Shoto Todorok, he's earth 2100's Spiderman..."

Hearing his name was what finally broke her, after months of sleepless nights, crying until she had no tears left to shed and the suffocating silence she endured at every waking moment, here he was, here was one of the reasons she had fought so long to fix her mistakes only for her efforts to be for nothing. He was alive and looking at her, approaching her, reaching out to hold her. But it wasn't him, he wasn't Todoroki, he was but he wasn't her's.

Tears rolled down her cheeks and suddenly gravity betrayed her as her knees buckled beneath her and she crumpled to the ground, loud anguished sobs wracking through her body causing several near by spider recruits to stop what they were doing and look at her in concern. And then in what felt like an instant strong, warm, familiar arms wrapped around her and she was being pulled against the body of a man she knew so well but at the same time didn't know at all, God he even smelled like her Todoroki.

" I heard about what happened to you, Cassie. " His voice, this other version of her boyfriends voice had the same instant calming effect on her that her Todoroki's did. It wasn't him though, she couldn't do this, couldn't find the comfort she longed for in someone who wasn't her Todoroki. It was wrong she tried to tell herself, a betrayal to the man she had loved for so many years. She wanted to push him away tell him that he didn't know her, that she didn't know him, that they were strangers, but she couldn't. Her body betrayed her as she instinctively buried her face against his toned chest and breathed in his familiar scent of mint with the slightest hint of smoke, her mind betrayed her by allowing her to feel safe in this strangers arms, but worst of all her voice betrayed her by whispering the words she'd held back for months. " Todoroki... please, please don't leave me ever again."