st_ayedhidden | Ghost of Christmas Not Your Past

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madonna inn

Ghost of Christmas Not Your Past | Peter & Not!Peter

Peter could not believe that his daughter somehow got sucked into another dimension. He was grateful that she was safe here and there was another version of him to look after her alongside the Avengers who used to be his friends. He did not know how to lighten the burden his daughter felt as him being captured. Peter didn't know if he could tell her the future in case it changed the outcome too much.

He walked the short distance to where Annie mentioned the other version of Peter Parker stayed. Maybe there should have been some preamble or he should have had Annie sent up the meeting, but what he had to talk to Peter about was something not for her ears.

Peter chose to walk right though the door and into the room. He searched immediately for someone who might go by the name Peter.

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Peter didn't hear Peter come in. He was sitting on the edge of his bed, eating a peanut butter & jelly sandwich, and watching a VHS copy of The Empire Strikes Back that had serendipitous surfaced in the library. After months of watching A New Hope, it was nice to watch a different Star Wars film for a change.

Peter could appreciate that the heroes weren't always going to win. That they were sometimes going to have to make hard choices.

Like he had to, with other-Liz's dad. And like he probably would have to again, many times in the future.

There were some differences of course, but the kid looked kind of like he did as a boy. This is so weird. He exhaled quietly and watched the movie for a minute. He liked Star Wars a lot. He was hoping to introduce Annie to it.

"This is my favorite part," He said as Yoda came onto the screen in the swamp.

Peter spun around at the sound of the unfamiliar (or was it familiar) voice behind them.

And when his eyes finally hit the other man, his mouth dropped ---

-- and then his sandwich.

"You're --"

Peter swallows, his Adam's apple bobbing visibly.

He rubbed the back of his neck and nodded.

"Uh, yeah... I'm you." he said. "Well, sort of."

He glanced back to the movie momentarily then to the younger version of Peter Parker before him.

"I'm Annie's dad," He explained. "Thank you, by the way, for keeping an eye on her since I'm not around."

"Uhhh..." That syllable hung in the air for a moment as Peter tried to both remember how to breathe and formulate sentences at the same time. "Yeah. I mean, you're welcome."

Peter presses his lips together. Star Wars continues to play in the background. Peter registers that his sandwich is no longer in his hand. He tries to remember what day it is and realizes that the 15th was the day Thor and Loki made all the snow. He doesn't remember anyone showing up that day, but it's possible he missed them.

"Did you get here on the 15th?"

"No, just now." He answered. "Well, a few hours ago. Not really sure why, exactly, except I feel like I was sent here for a purpose and my time is limited? Plus, I don't have my powers so... not sure I'm really here anyway."

As if to demonstrate, Peter held out his hand and shot his web fluid, but nothing came out of it. Even though this wasn't the first time, he still looked slightly annoyed by the lack of it all. He pulled the little cartridge out and held it up.

"Yet, still full." He said with a hint of frustration. "Basically I'm here on borrowed time."

Nothing like this has ever happened before, ever. Not even before he showed up at the inn.

"Have you seen Annie yet?" he asks. That somehow seems more important. "I know she's missed you a lot and if you don't have much time, I really think you should be with her."

"I've spent a few hours with her," He said, smiling warmly. "We talked a lot about what happened while she's been here. This place.... it's nice she can be herself here."

He knew that the world would change again back home. Regent could and would be defeated and Annie would be able to be herself again, but he also knew she'd lose some innocence that way.

"But it's you I need to talk to," He said, holding the other Peter's gaze.

Peter swallows. He's getting a case of nerves. No one ever told him this would happen when you met an alternate reality version of yourself.

"Yeah," he says, and there's a pause there. "Yeah. What about?"

He looked at what could have been a younger version of himself with somewhat sad eyes. He felt pity for the other Peter because he knew it was likely he'd grow up to have to make some tough choices like he had.

"Okay, well... this is sort of my first time meeting an alternate version of myself, so you'll have to bear with me." He said. "Let's get the basics out of the way. I'm assuming Ben is dead. Is May still alive? You're still in high school, right? Which villains have you fought yet."

"May's still alive. I'm still in high school. The only big bad guy I fought was the Vulture. Um, and the Shocker." Less of a big baddie than the first. "There were a few others, too -- people that worked with or for the Vulture." He never caught all of their names.

Peter nodded and ran a hand through his hair. He's still so young...

"You meet someone named Eddie Brock yet?" He asked carefully.

Peter thinks hard about it before he answers. "No."

He nodded a few times as he tried to internally work out what he wanted to say next.

"Okay, so... Listen, Peter." He said. Saying my own name like that is weird when it's to another version of yourself "I'm going to go out of a limb and say we probably have a lot of the same values."

Peter gestured between himself and the younger version.

"But..." He trailed off.

This was harder that he expected.

"You wanna go somewhere?" He said. "Temporarily."

Peter's trying to swallow back his nervousness but between the questions and meeting Annie's father who was also another version of himself, it's hard for him not to feel a little like a fish being shook in a fish tank.

"Um, yeah. Sure."

"Okay" He said, mostly to himself. "Okay."

He exhaled and turned to the door. He had no idea how he knew what to do, but he put his hands on the door and concentrated. After a moment, he reached for the door handle. When he opened the door, there was black on the other side.

"You're gong to have to trust me on this," He said. "A leap of faith, I guess."

Peter takes a breath, then looks over at Peter.

"Okay," he says finally. Then he takes his first step past the doorway and into the endless darkness.

When they emerged, they were in a small apartment. It looked cozy except that there was a huge hole where a walls should be. There were broken items strewn everywhere and a destroyed Hulk plush toy with its stuffing everywhere on the floor. Peter surveyed the scene with a grim expression and sighed.

"I was helping the Avengers and left them vulnerable," He said quietly.

Peter unconsciously gravitates closer to Peter as he surveys the scene, the two of them moving in near-perfect sync.

His head spins to face Peter when he finally speaks. "Annie? Her mom?"

"I came back in time when I realized Eddie got out of prison, but not before he had already had his hands on them." He explained. "We went out that way."

Peter nodded to the big hole in the wall.

"MJ was able to get away with Annie who was only a baby at the time," He said. "MJ's a strong woman and she knew what Eddie was capable of. So she ran while I tried to stop him."

Peter's brows furrow; thin, almost imperceptible lines draw themselves across his forehead.

"Who's Eddie? Why'd he attack you?"

Peter visibly paused.

"That's complicated," he said, but decided to try. "At one point I bonded with this alien symbiote. I realized it was changing who I was, so I separated myself from it and it didn't like it. Around the same time, I ended up getting involved with solving a crime that Eddie, a detective for the police department was working on. Things happened and he got fired. Lost his wife. He blamed Spider-Man. Somehow they both found each other and completely bonded. I couldn't separate Eddie from the symbiote and they became Venom. And their goal was to ruin my life and destroy everything in it."

Peter looks around the room as the other Peter explains who Eddie was and how he got to be the sort of person who'd do something like this. Complicated suddenly felt like an understatement.

"Why -- how'd you -- how'd you wind up bonded with the alien?"

"I lost my suit in a battle. Thor and Hulk told me to go to this room where there was a machine that could replace it." He explained. "...I picked the wrong machine."

He exhaled and walked to the gaping hole. Peter glanced back to the younger version.

"Come on," he said. "You've got more to see."

This time when he used his webshooters, they worked. In a moment, Annie's dad jumped out of the apartment and was swinging through New York City.

"Hey!" Peter jumps out after the other Peter and his web-shooters fire off, swinging him across the tall skyscrapers of Manhattan. "Where -- where are we going now?" he yells over the din of the air moving around them as they swing.

"You'll see!" He replied as he led the younger one around a corner.

Up ahead there were a lot of flashing lights from fire trucks and a building was ablaze. Also up ahead was the faint glimpse of something black and something else red crashing inside the building.

Peter didn't go in just yet. He landed beside one of the fire trucks. Inside was a red headed woman and a baby no older than 1. Peter's gaze on them was fond, but heavy.

"MJ knew one of Venom's only weaknesses is fire." He said when the younger Peter joined him.

Peter lands neatly beside Peter; he's been getting better at his landings. After Peter explains everything about MJ and the fire quickly registers that the redhead has to be MJ. And the baby?

That has to be Annie.

Peter's expression warms a little at the sight of her.

"Yeah?" Peter looks up at the other Peter and wonders if he'll reach his height.

His gaze lingered on his wife and child momentarily. He then turned to Peter and nodded.

"That's how I knew MJ was the one." He explained. "She might not have super powers, but she's a fighter and will fight for what's right."

Peter paused and then cocked his head toward the building on fire.

"Come on," he said. "The fire can't hurt us."

He headed for the building with a quietly grim expression.

Peter nods solemnly, his lips pressed together. Peter knows that something bad's about to happen. Maybe it's the spidey-sense or the way that Peter's talking. Wherever they're going through, they're not going to find anything good.

Peter follows close behind Peter.

The building they entered was on fire. They didn't need to go far to find Spider-Man and Venom fighting and neither of them were holding back their punches.

"Nice, Parker. Force us in here. You know how to hurt us," boomed Venom's voice. "Well, guess what, Peter? Now we know how to hurt you. Showed us your belly. That fragile little baby of yours makes you weak. Vulnerable."

Peter stopped and watched himself fight Venom with tight lips that formed a line.

"Oh, the things we're going to do to your horrid spawn," Venom threatened, than laughed evilly, Even if you beat us now, we'll never stop, Parker! We will get her. We will suck out her brains"

From somewhere back on the street, Mary-Jane's voice was yelling. Peter didn't look back, but Spider-Man did.

"It's empty!" MJ yelled. "You're the only ones in there! Do you understand?!"

"Gotta give you points, Parker," Venom continued, panting. "Never fought us like this before. Gotta do it again something."

Spider-Man went for a load-bearing column.

"N-No, Eddie..." Spider-Man said grimly. "Never again"

Venom looked surprised.

"What?" He said. "You can't do that. Spider-Man would never - "

The ceiling began to collapse and fire spread. Venom was crushed by debris. Only his hand stuck out and as the fire continued, the black on his arm slowly receded and what was left was Eddie Brock's arm.

Oh no.

Peter feels himself tense up as soon as they enter the building. He sticks close to Peter -- the Peter who brought him here -- as he watches. As he watches, what feels like a heavy ball-bearing has settled down at the pit of his stomach. It takes all of his self-control to stay standing and focused.

Peter knows what it's like to be afraid for someone else. He's sure that the other Peter -- the one fighting Venom -- felt exactly the same way he did when he was sitting in the back of Liz's dad's car. The only difference here is that he refused to kill the Vulture.

This Peter didn't hesitate to kill Venom.

Peter turns to look at his older counterpart, his brows furrowed. "Why did you --" Peter swallows and shakes his head. "Why did you show me this?"

Peter was quiet with the question, but beckoned the other Peter to follow him back out. Outside, Spider-Man joined MJ and a crying Annie.

"I did it for her," He said, meaning Annie. "When it was just MJ, somehow, I knew she could handle herself. She signed up for it. But Annie... she didn't ask for any of it."

Off in the distance there was an explosion on told of a building. Everyone's attention was drawn up to it, but Peter seemed to be expecting it.

"That was the day the Avenges died." He said "That every last hero died. Even Spider-Man. It just looked like him standing there, but that was just me. Peter Parker. A dad in a stupud red and blue suit. That was the day I learned what trumps great power... an even greater responsibility."

Peter's gaze turns from the explosion over to Peter. "What happened?" he asks. "Annie has so many questions, she doesn't understand. She's not even really sure if you're alive or not and --"

He takes a breath.

"-- it's really hard on her, you know? I just --"

Peter presses his lips together. He's not even sure where to go from here.

"If I tell her what happens, would it change the future?" he asked, sincerely. "I want to tell her, but I'm worried if she knows, things won't happen the way it did, and if they change...."

He shook his head and looked to the other Peter.

"This is for you, not her," He said. "I wanted you to see that sometimes I - we - need to make choices we never thought we would. That sometimes... being the hero is not the right choice."

It pained Peter to say so and it was in his face, but so was conviction.

"A man named Regent found a way to steal our powers." He explained. "He killed all the vigilantes that had no powers, like Daredevil and Luke Cage. But the others... He found a way to extract our powers and use them for himself. It's how the Avengers couldn't stop him. It's why he hunts anyone with powers down now."

Peter doesn't know if things will change or if they won't, but he knows that telling Annie isn't his call to make.

"I won't tell her," he promises. "But... I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to kill... anybody."

"I didn't think so either," He replied. "It's not something I think most people think they're capable of until they have to make that choice."

He looked to the other Peter.

"It's not like it doesn't stay with me, even to this day." He said. "Eddie might have been angry with me, but it was the symbiote that twisted his mind to the monster he became."

He straightened his back and looked up at the night sky like he was reading something in it.

"I don't regret it, though." He continued. "I kept my family safe. So, if you ever have to make that sort of call, do it when you know there's no other choice."

Peter can't imagine a scenario where he'd be willing or ready to kill someone. Maybe it was idealistic of him to believe that he could always save the day if he just tried hard enough, but he didn't want to be a superhero that kills people. Maybe some superheroes could do it, but he didn't think he could ever be one of them.

But Peter's also intelligent enough to know that in a world with infinite possibilities, there's a chance that some day, like this other Peter, he'll be forced to make the same choice this other Peter did.

"Okay," he says solemnly. "Thank you."

Peter nodded as a 'you're welcome' but it felt like a heavy one. Peter hoped this younger version would never have to experience the same sort of thing.

"I have to go soon." He said, but turned to Peter. "Promise me you'll look after her until she goes back home?"

"Yeah, I will," Peter says. That's a promise he can keep. One he would have fulfilled even if Peter didn't ask him to.

He nodded again.

"Come on," He said. "We need to get you back."

Instead of heading back to the apartment, Peter walked over to the nearest building. The door opened easily and it was black again.

"Follow you heart, Peter." He said. "It's always been good to us."

Peter doesn't immediately step through the door. Not yet. He feels that he needs to say something else, but he can't figure out what. All he wants to do is tell him thank you again, but he knows it's not thank you that he wants to say. There's so many conflicting, undefinable emotions inside of him that it's hard to know what to feel let alone know how to express it.

"I really hope that things work out for MJ and Annie. I really do."

He smiled.

"They're both strong, stubborn women." He said, as if answering some unknown question.

"And I really hope that someone's able to stop him."

Peter's not even sure if there's anybody left to stop him.

Peter didn't answer him this time. He already has the answers if he thinks hard enough about it

"Enjoy your time at the Madonna Inn, Peter," he said as a reply. "Take advantage of it."

"I will."

Peter steps through the doorway and when he does, he finds himself standing back in his room at the Madonna Inn. When he turns, he confirms what he knew even before he stepped through that portal:

The other Peter is gone.

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Ghost of Christmas Not Your Past | Peter & Not!Peter

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