Peter Parker's New Groove Ch. 37 (Marvel) (Patreon)

A/N: The Truth comes out.

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Instinctively, Peter knows that he stands before the personifications of Infinity. These six women, each brightly glowing with the color that represents their aspect of the universe, are the very same Infinity Stones that Peter utilized when he snapped his fingers and destroyed Thanos and his armies, all those months ago.

However, they’re not just those fragments of Infinity. Each of them has taken on a… guise, of sorts. They’ve all taken on feminine bodies, and the likenesses of women who have interacted with them in some way in recent times. Specifically, within Peter’s lifetime. He doesn’t recognize all of them, these women. And yet, he knows them instinctively all the same.

For Soul, the likeness is of Natasha Romanoff. For Space, Carol Danvers. Mind, Wanda Maximoff. Reality, Jane Foster. Power, Gamora, Daughter of Thanos, and Time, the Ancient One… but that was just the final moniker she was known by. When she was still young, when she first touched the Time Stone hundreds of years before, the woman who would go on to become Sorcerer Supreme had been known as Boudicca the Celt, her red hair long, voluminous, and flowing.

Before him, Time constantly loops through Boudicca’s lifespan, her body constantly changing from young to old, though even old, she was still striking and wrinkle free.

All of them stand there, smiling at him. Peter wishes he could smile back, but it’s hard. Because in spite of Soul’s words… he can’t help but feel like this is all his fault. Smiling softly with Natasha’s beautiful lips, Soul shakes her head as she steps forward and places a hand on his shoulder.

“You are a heroic soul, Peter Parker. I should think I, of all beings, would know that. You are selfless to a fault and do everything in your power to help those around you.”

Peter swallows thickly and lowers his gaze, down and to the side so he’s not staring at Natasha Romanoff’s admittedly perfect breasts. All six of the personifications of Infinity are naked, after all. Clothing isn’t a concept they seem to care to mimic from the likenesses they’ve copied.

“… But I’ve failed, haven’t I? I’ve been selfish. I’ve been hiding from the truth.”

The moment he says it out loud, Peter feels crushed by his own actions. Because, all this time… he’d known, deep down inside, what he’d done. What he must have been doing. And he’d ignored it in favor of letting it all continue. Well, the chicken was home to roost. There was nothing left but to face the facts.

“You have been. But… Peter.”

Soul’s glowing orange hands come up and touch his face, resting on his cheeks and forcing him to look up into her swirling eyes as she smiles benevolently.

“Did you not hear me? You are not responsible for any of this.”

How could that be? How could he not have-?

“Let me guess.”

Another of the fragments of Infinity pipes up. Stepping forward, grinning crookedly, is the likeness of Wanda Maximoff, aka the Mind Stone. Eyes swirling golden, body alight with a yellow glow, Mind giggles at him.

“You think that this universe is you’re doing. You think your subconscious mind, in the moment you snapped your fingers and dusted Thanos and his ilk, brought about the world you now exist in. Is that it?”

Gulping down his nerves with limited success, Peter nods shakily. That’s exactly what he’d been unwilling to let himself recognize, the realization that he’d buried and ignored all these months. It was the only explanation… wasn’t it?

Chortling lightly, Reality is the next to step up, coming forward to the other side of him. Peter had never met Jane Foster in the flesh, but she’s certainly a beautiful, almost fae-like woman. Further, he somehow knows her in the way Reality itself knew her, as its host for a time when it was still in the form of the Aether. It very nearly killed her before it was extracted, but that was not by choice.

“Your truest flaw is also your greatest contradiction, Peter. You are self-deprecating to a fault… but also so unbelievably full of yourself that you think you could possibly alter all of reality with us.”

Peter flushes at the light admonishment. Well, when she put it that way…

“He could, if he chose to. I’d give him the Power.”

A jolt runs through him, as Power steps forward, the alien Gamora’s normally green skin awash with a purple glow instead as the fragment of Infinity gives him a raunchy grin.

“And I’d happily help bridge the gap to bring his changes all across space.”

Space pipes up as well, promising him her ‘sword’ in the same way Carol probably would have if she were actually here. Submissive. Eager to please. Peter swallows thickly yet again, as the two fragments both voice their desire to help him do… whatever the fuck he might want with the universe.

“But you would never agree, Peter.”

Time is the last to speak, Boudicca’s smile broad as she folds her hands in front of herself, her body still flowing through the lifespan of her last female bearer. Though somehow, it’s not as disconcerting as he might have thought it would be, but beautiful in its own way instead.

“Even if you had all the Time in the universe, you would never break, Peter. You would never change.”

As Peter processes all of this, reeling a fair bit, Soul steps back in. With her hands still on his face, she turns his gaze back to her once more.

“You fear that at your core, at the absolute depths of your being, you are a bad person, Peter Parker. But the truth is… you aren’t. You’re a hero, even in those darkest bits of you. You’re our hero.”

His mouth feels unbelievably dry, which is a little odd when one considers that they’re currently standing in his mindscape. So, his mouth shouldn’t be feeling anything, right? Doesn’t change facts though. Still…

“Then… explain. How?”

Because if it wasn’t him, then how were they to explain the disconnect? The world felt… off, to Peter. Like it had been changed to specifically cater to him. And sure, maybe Reality was right. Maybe he was full of himself. Maybe he was being self-centered and ignoring the facts. But if he was, Peter needed to know what those facts were. Desperately.

Luckily, they’re all happy to explain, with Soul taking the lead.

“Quite simple, really. The multiverse is real, Peter. There are an infinite number of universes out there, some very different and some only off by a hair. In many, but not all of them, there is a Thanos who seeks us out in order to wipe out some portion of the universe. Sometimes it’s half. Sometimes it’s all.”

Peter stiffens at the thought. Thanos had been horror enough. But if the Mad Titan had been bent on a Total Reset, they wouldn’t have gotten the second chance they did. The Avengers wouldn’t have even been around to collect a new set of the stones from across time and space, and Peter would never have been brought back. Terrifying, to say the least.

“In those universes where Thanos enacts his mad plan, there are many, many Peter Parkers. Not all of them put on the gauntlet and use us. Some of them pass us along to someone more capable, or simply more authoritative. But…”

Here, Soul pauses, looking actively distraught for the first time since they began talking. Peter blinks, even as Time takes mercy on her sister and steps up, a hand on Soul’s shoulder as she looks Peter directly in the eye and just says it.

“In any and all universes where you, Peter Parker, put on the gauntlet and snap your fingers to destroy Thanos and his armies… you die.”

Peter’s eyes widen, another jolt passing through his body as if he’s been hit by an unseen impact. Time’s words unlock something in him… a memory, fleeting and over before it could truly begin. But… there had been pain. Excruciating, unending pain and agony. He HAD died when he’d used the stones. He’d only survived long enough to snap his fingers and end the threat Thanos represented, but then… he died. He should have died. But then, why was he still here? Why was he still alive?

“That didn’t seem quite fair to us, you see. ANY of us.”

Now it’s Reality wearing the positively crooked smile, as she shrugs Jane Foster’s supple, bare shoulders. When she says ‘ANY of us’, Peter gets the impression that she’s talking about more than just the six of them. She’s talking about a multitude of different versions of the Infinity Stones.

Mind nods her head and hums consideringly for a moment.

“Not all of our kin were as… mindful as us. Special circumstances give us more agency then most of our kind. But there were enough moved by your heroism, by your purity. And so, a plan was hatched.”

Soul steps back in here, smiling a beatific smile with Natasha Romanoff’s plush lips.

“You died in every universe that you used us, it’s true. But that did not mean all of you was erased. There were fragments, tidbits here and there. You survived in snatches of your existence. And… each and every one of you was so very strong, Peter. Each and every Peter Parker was a hero at heart. We brought you together, to create the you that exists now, using the you from our universe as a base. You see, while our version of you was still destined to die, he had a slight advantage that the rest of you did not.”

Peter furrows his brow at that, only for Power to cackle from the back. The other throw her a look, and she just throws Gamora’s hands up, a shit-eating grin on her face.

“Oh, don’t mind me. One of you can explain this next bit.”

Rolling her eyes, Reality pipes up.

“You’re wondering what our Peter had that the rest of you did not. I don’t need to be Mind to know that much. It’s… simple, really. This version of the Universe runs on slightly different logic than all of the others. The rules are a lot looser. People, on average, are a fair bit hardier… because they tend to have increased libidos, and so have a need for stronger constitutions and greater volumes of stamina.”

She’s beating around the bush a little bit, so it takes Peter a second to process what she’s saying. When he does, however…

“Wait…”

Reality offers another shrug. Power is snickering in the background. Soul is fidgeting, almost as if she’s afraid of his reaction, though she should have known it wouldn’t be THAT explosive. Time is just smiling, as is Mind. Space, meanwhile, is also fidgeting, but in a very different way, a very Carol-like way.

“You’re telling me that the universe is some kind of… Porn-Universe that operates off of Porn Logic?”

Power pipes up at that.

“Always has been!”

With a sigh, Soul presses a hand to her forehead.

“Yes, Peter. The reason it’s felt off to you is simple. You are an amalgamation of all the Peters who would have died defeating Thanos, brought together so that YOU would survive. At your core, you are still who you are. Any Peter heroic enough to snap his fingers was a Peter worthy of our love and affection. However, most of the universes parts of you came from are not nearly as sexually free as Universe-6969. And… well…”

“Hold on. Seriously? Universe-6969?”

There’s a helpless round of shrugs from the personifications of Infinity in front of him.

“We didn’t name it, Peter.”

“There’s only so much we can do.”

Peter can’t help but raise his brow at that.

“You’re literally the Infinity Stones.”

Eyes twinkling, Time fields that one with a wry grin.

“We are fragments of Infinity, Peter. In the end, you’ll find that we are very finite, despite the name. After all… our best efforts allowed us to only partially save you.”

Right… he was… he was a collection of different Peters. It explained a lot, he supposed. How his world sometimes felt odd, but at other times right. How he had felt conflicted with himself, but only when it came to… well, sex. And why every woman he came across seemed to keep throwing themselves at him. If he really did live on… heh, ‘Earth-6969’, then was it any wonder?

Presumably, other men and women experienced the same thing on a regular basis. And certainly, enough of the girls he’d had fun with had been sexual creatures before they’d gotten with him… and had been all too happy to have sexual relations with other women besides.

“Of course, if you WANT to make the world actually revolve around you, just say the word.”

Peter blinks, as Power offhandedly offers him the keys to the kingdom.

“Yes. Not just the world, but the universe is at your fingertips any time you want it. All of Space is yours, beloved.”

And that’s Space, backing her up. Peter glances between the two of them, only to startle when Mind pipes in with a wicked grin.

“I’d be happy to alter some minds on your orders. Make them all call you Master, not just the submissive ones. It’s no less than you deserve for saving them all, right?”

There’s a pregnant pause, as Peter half-expects the other three to try and tempt him into reorganizing the universe on a whim as well. But the moment pauses, and Soul just scoffs and rolls her eyes. Time just continues to smile enigmatically. And Reality… Reality snickers, as he makes eye contact with her.

“There’s no version of reality in which you’d consciously make such a choice, Peter.”

She’s right, of course, and judging by the smirks on Power, Space, and Mind’s faces, they all know it too. They were teasing him, each in their own way. They WOULD do it in a heartbeat if he asked them to… but the fact that he would never ask them to was clearly why they all loved him so much.

It’s enough to take his breath away, the knowledge that he was loved not just by quite a few mortal women… but by the literal personifications of Infinity standing before him as well.

At the same time, it’s good to finally have answers. He had been growing increasingly afraid of what was happening, of this newfound power he seemed to have over the universe. He…

“Wait. I… I used you all to give Rogue an off-switch, right?”

They nod their heads in unison, broad smiles on their faces. Peter finds himself focusing on Soul’s face most of all… and on one of the few other times he’d felt something like what he felt when he did that for Rogue. He’d been repressing the feelings, not even acknowledging they were happening at the time… but they were. Some small part of him knew, at least in this mental space he was in, exactly when he’d used this power before.

“Did I…?”

Natasha Romanoff’s lips curl back into a wider grin than before as Soul nods her chosen likeness’ head.

“You did, Peter. Natasha is alive again, because of you.”

Space pipes up from the side.

“Don’t worry, we didn’t leave her trapped on Vormir either. Didn’t seem keeping in the spirit of your desire, so I made sure she had a portal back to Earth.”

Power grins, planting her hands on her hips.

“And I helped power it.”

That was… wow. Peter looks at the six women in front of him, knowing full well that they are both so much more than women… and also just like those back in his world. He doesn’t know what to say.

Time leans in at that, shaking her constantly changing head.

“You don’t have to say anything, Peter.”

Ah, right. Words were not what these fine ladies wanted right now, were they?

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A/N: Next two chapters will be smut with the Infinity Ladies, because trying to stuff six gals into one chapter is a bit much even for me.