It all started like any other day for Spiderman. That is teaming up with a grand wizard in a quest to stop another wizard from using a powerful magical artifact that could mess up the space time continuum. Overall, a pretty normal Morning for Spiderman.
Spiderman was assisting Doctor Strange in stopping Baron Mordo, who had gotten his hands on the Time stone.
Good news: Strange had sealed the Stone in a special magical Box covered in glyphs that would make it impossible for anybody but him use the Stone.
Bad News: The glyphs on the box might have stopped Mordo from using the Time Stone immediately, but did not stop him from just taking the box and scaping. A huge oversight that Spiderman made sure to point at, many times during this team up.
After an eventful chase throughout NY. They finally had managed to corner Mordo at a warehouse for the usual good guys vs bad guys confrontation
Strange with a flair of his cape and Authoritative voice Opened Dialog "Give it back Mordo"
Spiderman hoping to "earn heroic Points" continued "Yeah! Just give it up MEM!" The deadpan looks he got from both ally and enemy made him sigh and lose "Heroic momentum"
"Ya know… Magic Evil Man… M-E-M?" more silence followed the explanation. Spiderman let out a defeated sight "Just forget it…" now on serious tone he continued "Make it easy on yourself! Give back the magic box — I'll get you a musical one! One of those that play Angelina butterfly"
Mordo ignored the heroes, his attention take by the object in his hands. He held up the sealed box—a perfect cube of dark metal with symbols etched into every surface. The Time Stone pulsed faintly beneath the seal, visible only as a shimmer of golden light.
Mordo's fingers traced the edges of the box. "The easy way is what's destroying us. This stone, this power—it's a cancer. A temptation that corrupts everything it touches. I'm going to destroy it."
"The Time Stone Serves as an stabilizing Agent for the Time Lines!" Strange raised his hands, and the air around him began to shimmer with magical potential. "you'll achieve nothing but chaos— your actions could even doom this Plane of existence"
"The Time Stone also serves as an easy Tool to manipulate Time. the chaos that its destruction might lead to on this time line, is nothing compared to the countless of time lines that have already been affected and destroyed by its mere existence. the sacrificing of this Timeline is necessary."
Mordo pressed his palms against the box, and the symbols began to glow. Spiderman felt it before he saw it—a wrongness in the air, like reality was being stretched too thin. He launched himself forward, but Strange had already begun casting. Threads of red energy wrapped around Mordo's wrists, trying to pull him away from the box.
For a moment, it looked like it might work.
Then the box opened.
The Time Stone didn't explode outward. It didn't send out a shockwave or destroy the warehouse. Instead, it simply... expanded. A wave of temporal energy washed through the space, and Spiderman felt something he'd never felt before. It was like being pulled in a thousand directions at once, each direction a different version of himself.
He gasped.
Suddenly, he was standing in Queens, but it wasn't his Queens. He was older here—maybe in his fifties— he was wearing a trench coat. He could also feel the weight of a gun holstered under his arm. He was on a cemetery. Visiting Graves, he could not make out the names on them, but he knew. He knew they all died following him. his commands. his orders.
The image flickered.
Now he was in the Avengers Tower, but it was empty. Dust covered the tables. He was alone, and he had been alone for a very long time. Everyone was gone and he was all that was left. He'd just been a kid from Queens, trying to do good, and it had never been enough.
Another flicker.
A timeline where the bite never happened. Where Peter Parker was just a normal teenager, going to School, never knowing what he could have been. But then he was not himself, he was a big. He was green. He was scaled. He just wanted to help her. But instead he ended up becoming a monster.
"Spider!" Doctor Strange's voice cut through the visions like a knife. "Focus on my voice!"
Spiderman blinked, and he was back in the warehouse. His hands were shaking. Around him, the temporal energy was still spreading, and he could see it affecting Strange too. The sorcerer's eyes were wide, unfocused, as if he were seeing things that hadn't happened yet—or things that had already been erased.
Mordo stood at the center of it all, the open box in his hands, and for a moment, Spiderman saw something unexpected in his face. Not triumph. Fear. Mordo was seeing things too, and whatever he was seeing, it was breaking him.
"It's too much," Mordo whispered. "I can see them all. Every timeline. Every choice. Every moment where I made a different decision, and they all led here. They all led to this moment, and I can't—I can't—"
Spiderman moved on instinct. First trying to reach for a holstered gun that he quickly remembered had never been there… and then by shooting a web at the Time Stone, trying to knock it away from Mordo. For a second, it worked. The stone flew through the air.
Strange's hands moved, and red energy wrapped around it, pulling it back toward the box. But Spiderman was faster. He caught it mid-air, and the moment his skin touched the stone, the visions hit him again. This time, they were different.
He saw himself in a thousand timelines, and in every single one, he was trying. Trying to save people. Trying to do better. Trying to be worthy of the power that the universe had given him. In some timelines, he immediately failed. In others, he managed to temporary succeed… Yet it was never really enough.
All he saw was sacrifice. There was a bit of happiness here there, but even the happiest of moments ended up sullied by either some tragedy or the weight of responsibility.
Spiderman did not feel shame or regret. Not even anger at how unfair most of these lives events played. Because Spiderman right now —just like Mordo— was afraid. Afraid by how most decisions and moments ended up just the same. With him sacrificing and losing everything he held dear.
—no—
It did not have to be this way anymore. He has seen enough. He has done enough. This was the moment where Peter made a choice.
He sealed the Time Stone.
Not with his hands—with his will. With the use of memories that until recently were not his own. He focused every ounce of his being on that single moment, on that single decision, and he refused to let the stone exist in a state of open potential anymore. The temporal energy collapsed inward, imploding into itself, and then it was gone. Just... sealed again. Locked away in the same box that had been lying —discarded— near the nearly catatonic Mordo just a moment ago.
Peter fell to his knees.
The warehouse was silent. The magical energy had dissipated. Mordo was on the ground, gasping for air, his face wet with tears. Strange was standing over him, his hands still glowing faintly with residual magic, but his expression was unreadable.
"What did you do?" Strange asked.
Peter looked up at him. His hands were still shaking. "I chose to change."