Earth-71122
Spiderman looked to the stars and wondered why he must suffer in every universe. The spell not only lost him, everyone he had ever known, and erased his identity from existence, but it also cost him a part of himself.
He lost his friends, his aunt May, and the very existence of Peter as he no longer existed in this reality. Spiderman was homeless, with no ID and no finances. He was entirely disconnected from the world. This weight was like nothing he had ever experienced.
As days went by, his sanity was slowly chipped away at. Spider-Man had no home nor anyone to return to. He had sacrificed all for being nothing but Spiderman. Peter felt absolutely lost. His life of two became a life of one, and the one remaining was only a sacrifice. When was he allowed to be selfish? When did he ever choose himself? "
"Why do I always suffer even across the multiverse?" Peter spoke softly. He had been in his head lately as his loneliness devoured whatever was left of Peter Parker.
"The voice slithered through the silence, unspoken, but engraved within his mind: I can give the truth back to you…"
Peter looked around wildly as his Spidey sense rattled against himself, before it went eerily quiet.
"You wish to be loved, don't you?"
"You wish to have a choice, don't you?"
"Sacrifice after sacrifice, and the spider fell down the waterspout?"
"Why don't you take control?"
"Why not take my bargain?"
Peter shook his head violently as the voices grew worse and worse each passing day. Peter had only noticed recently that he began speaking to himself more and more. The voice would always come during his most vulnerable moments, and he fought with pure willpower to not be drowned in sorrow.
The changes were slow, yet unmistakable. He is a thief too hard, causing him to be paralyzed, in a battle with Scorpion, and he tore off one of his armors. He felt urges to consume, and even his spider sense was wildly erratic.
Another voice spoke to him in almost a softer, feminine voice, "Lonely, lonely little spider, why not come and join my hive?
"You will never be alone, and you will have a chance to get revenge on the webs of fate that are causing you to always suffer across realities."
Another voice broke alongside as Peter's head felt like it was on fire.
"The power to escape the mortal weakness accept, and the world would kneel!"
One more voice broke through as Peter felt truly overwhelmed.
"You fear being forever alone, don't you?" "Forever alone and unloved?"
"Left to rot in your own pathetic existence."
And as fast as the voices appeared, they disappeared.
Peter gasped as his mind was still reeling.
He was slowly losing himself and honestly wondered who Peter Parker even was anymore. Tears stream down Peter's face as his life has always seemed to be plagued by being a pawn in someone else's game or by sacrificing anything he holds dear.
The despair crept in as the voices once again flooded his mind.
The cosmic voice commanded, "Accept the power, mortal, and become something beyond." Peter flinched as his willpower was waning.
A feminine voice echoed in his mind ", Why don't you join me, little spider, and become a true part of the hive?"
A demonic voice spoke, "Poor Peter Parker, the world has forsaken you, but I remember. I see the burden that haunts you. The silence that gnaws at you.
Strange took it all from you, the love you so desperately clung to, those who knew you were more than just a clown in a costume. If only you give me a fragment of your web, a wisp of your soul, isn't that a fair trade?"
A mocking voice whispers in his mind, "Sleep, little spider, do you hear her voice? Do you see her smile? I can give you that forever, but only in dreams. And when you awaken and find your bedside empty, you'll remember nothing but the fear. Isn't it beautiful, Parker? To suffer twice for every joy? For it to be so close, yet out of reach?" A slow, cynical laugh reverberated across his mind
Peter was unraveling as blood poured from his eyes. Peter's voice roared across the city sky.
"WHY MUST I SUFFER?" "WHY MUST I BE THE ETERNAL SACRIFICE!"
Peter dropped to his knees as slow metallic footsteps followed behind him.
A metal hand drops to his shoulder as words of clarity pour out.
"These insects' claw at your mind, each one desperate to take a piece from you. They whisper lies, they feed on your despair, and they leave you with nothing but crumbs. I am not like them. I do not take; I only offer you a chance. I offer freedom from anguish, freedom from weakness, freedom from the endless cycle of loss.
You and I are alike, Peter Parker — born of accident, shaped by suffering, abandoned by those who should have remembered. You cling to humanity, but humanity has forgotten you. With me, you will never be forgotten. With me, you will endure, with me, you will be forever.
Peter's breath caught in his throat as the weight of those words hit him. The words of clarity had been offered to him, and now the choice lay in front of him.
The demons lie, the god's commands, A living nightmare, A wasp's sting, and the cold metal of what had been forgotten by the world.
"Five paths stretched before him, each voice grasping for his soul. One whispered bargains of fairness yet laced with poison. Another laughed from the shadows of his dreams at his fear. A third roared with cosmic fury, demanding he kneel. A fourth spoke with cold precision, offering eternity with a path forward. And then came the last, a predator's hiss, promising belonging to a hive and revenge against the web that decided his fate."
Peter's mind could take no more as it cracked and finally fractured. The sanity he desperately clung to crumbled under the relentless voices.
And Peter began to laugh, not the laugh of joy nor defiance, not of happiness nor despair, but a laugh of a man drowned in madness.
The silence that followed was deafening.