(Spiderman) The Amazing Story of Altered Fates: Chapter 3 - Repairing the broken heart (Patreon)

Chapter 3 - Repairing the broken heart

The doorbell rang again, and Gwen threw a look at Peter that promised they weren’t done talking about that yet.

She went and opened the door with her sweet smile in place.

“Ah, Gwen, my dear, how are you?” A voice Peter recognized spoke.

“I’m fine, Curt, thank you. Come in, our patient is in the living room. Where is Max?” Gwen responded to the man.

“I’m afraid he was held back at the office, but he passed all the important information to me. Don’t worry, dear, we will have your husband up and running soon enough.” Into the living room came a thin man. His right sleeve was sewn at chest height, making it obvious the man lost that arm a long time ago. In his other hand was a suitcase with the same ‘PI’ logo George’s phone had.

The man was none other than Dr. Curt Conners. He looked exactly as Peter remembered him. Not that this was a surprise, considering he only fought the man last night.

Remembering what happened the last time the two older men were in the same place, Peter found the strength to jump to his feet and take a step forward. He was now standing between the two men, holding both his arms up, ready to web a reptilian if he had to.

But as soon as he was on his feet, he began swaying from side to side. Still too weak for any activity of the kind. Gwen looked at him with wide eyes. George grabbed his shoulders from behind. Peter wasn’t sure if it was to steady him or to hold him back.

Connorjust put down his case gently before raising his arm. His face was calm, as was his voice when he said, “It’s okay. It’s understandable. After all, for you, all of that went down last night, didn’t it?”

The headache kept growing and now was getting too hard to ignore. Peter flinched from the pain but still asked, “What… What are you talking about?”

Connorlooked unconcerned as he explained, “The battle. The other world. Two more Spider-men. You are our Peter Parker, in case you were wondering. There was no mistake in the spell—you are home.”

The thought that Strange’s spell dropped him in the wrong world seemed to be blocked in his mind. The more he was thinking about it, the more his head pounded.

Peter was forced to lean back toward George. His palms covered his face as if it would keep reality at bay.

Once it failed, Peter glanced from behind his fingers and saw Gwen preparing a needle while Connorhanded her a blue vial with the same ‘PI’ logo as before.

He managed to get his hands off his face and choke out through gritted teeth, “Why… hurt?”

While Gwen inserted the vial into the needle, Connorlooked at him and said simply, “You are our Peter but the Peter from before the spell.”

Peter looked nervously at the needle Gwen was holding. He would have taken a step back if his body wasn’t already pressed against George’s.

Connorseemed to notice Peter’s nerves. He gave him a reassuring smile and said, “You don’t have to worry, Peter. I can assure you this drug is safe to use.”

Peter eyed the man critically before biting out, “Not very reassuring coming from you.”

The man flinched at the accusation. Gwen glared at him and chided, “Peter, he is your friend, and your behavior is very rude.”

Connorshook his head and said to Gwen, “I assure you, dear, I understand him. From his point of view, just last night the Lizard tried to kill him and his friends. I cannot expect those actions to be forgiven so easily.”

Peter’s headache began burning him from the inside. An image of himself with Gwen and Connorat a strange office with the ‘PI’ logo on the wall flashed in front of him.

Peter shook his head, trying to push the pain away until Conners' firm voice broke through the haze of pain. “Peter, you need to stop thinking about your life right now. Think about passive things like food or your favorite movie.”

Peter tried to do as he was told. He focused on how hungry he was and imagined the pizza he wanted to eat right now. As he began imagining the melted cheese, the headache began to ebb away slightly.

He opened his eyes to look at the Doctor and asked weakly, “What the hell is going on with my mind?”

Connorsat on the sofa and motioned for Peter to join him.

With George’s help, Peter managed to gently sit down next to the older man. Connorlooked at him and asked softly, “Tell me, Peter, do you remember what you and the other Spider-men were trying to do?”

Peter nodded slowly, so as not to invoke his headache, before answering, “Yeah… We were trying to cure all of you so when we returned home, you would have a chance to live. Peter 1 fought a wizard for it.”

Connornodded, accepting the answer while, from the corner of his eye, Peter saw Gwen smiling proudly at him. “Do you remember how it ended?” asked the man.

Peter looked deep into the man’s eyes and could see the reflection of himself in his glasses. “That crazy flying guy blew up the cube thingy. We healed everyone, but the sky turned purple. Then Peter 1 came to say goodbye and said the spell that Strange guy was finishing would cause everyone in his world to forget about him and as a result would send us home.”

Connorseemed to be satisfied with his reply as he commented, “You see, home doesn’t mean what you think. When they said go back home, they meant the place and time you were taken from in the first place.” He then gave Peter a searching look before asking curiously, “Do you remember what you were doing before the spell took you away?”

Peter did. Everyone looked at him, and he began feeling uncomfortable. He didn’t want to say it out loud; he was afraid of Gwen and George’s reaction.

But as the people in the room kept looking at him, he knew he had no other choice. With a heavy sigh and lowered head, he admitted, “I was just about to go out to look for a criminal to beat on.”

Peter glanced up. He expected to see disgusted or disapproving looks, but what he received was more along the lines of pity and true sadness.

Peter lowered his head back down, not sure how to react to their expressions.

Suddenly Gwen was standing in front of him and raising his stare to meet hers. She gave him a hard look, but her voice was gentle. “We understand, Peter. You’ve been through a lot and did it alone. We will talk about it once you feel better. But until then, it’s important you know none of us think any less of you.”

Peter’s vision was clouded by the tears filling his eyes. It had been so long since he felt so completely accepted. Aunt May did her best to comfort him in the months after Gwen died. But she never knew about Spider-Man, so it always felt like she could help only half of him. He had to bear the burden of the masked hero all by himself.

The thoughts of Aunt May caused the headache to raise its painful head again.

Peter looked at the older man sitting next to him and asked through gritted teeth, “Why is it so painful?”

The doctor took off his glasses and set them on the table before staring off into the empty space of the living room while explaining, “As I said, the spell returned us all to the place and time we were taken from. I was taken just before I could activate the Ganali device or, more importantly, hurt the esteemed Commissioner here. When I returned to this world and timeline, I was already cured thanks to you and your friends’ efforts. Both you and the Commissioner were very confused about that turn of events. I assure you it took me quite a while to explain.”

He finished his explanation, looking straight at Peter’s face.

Peter tried to follow the man’s explanation, but each of his words caused his headache to flare. More images tried to push their way into his mind. But during his last sentence, the headaches stopped. As if there were no images to comply with the story the man was telling.

Peter looked up at Connorand asked, confused, “Why did the pain stop suddenly?”

The man smiled and nodded in satisfaction before replying, “Ah, I thought as much. You see, all of this goes back to the original problem you are having.”

While Peter felt slightly better than he had since he laid his eyes on George Stacy, he was still in a lot of pain from those headaches, and it was difficult for him to think clearly and focus on what Connorwas saying.

“Curt, you can’t talk to Pete like you usually do. Remember, he is not himself right now. Please just explain,” Gwen admonished slightly. He now noticed she sat next to him on the other side, the needle still in her hand as if just waiting for the right moment.

Connornodded sheepishly, “Of course, my dear, you are right. I apologize, Peter. Hard habits are difficult to overcome.”

He reached for his glasses and set them back on the bridge of his nose before speaking, “You see, Peter, as I said, my abrupt change upon my sudden return raised many questions. At first, I was disoriented myself, but in short order, I came back to my senses and began wondering why you didn’t seem to remember any of the events that led to my miraculous cure. It took me some time to put Max’s piece and yours in place. Once I did, it was easy to conclude I was the first among those who had been in the battle that night to return back to our timeline.”

The doctor sighed heavily before continuing, “But the changes were already done. The captain survived the night while still learning the identity of Spider-Man.”

Connorlooked at him for a short moment, clearly debating with himself if he should say something, but eventually, he shook his head and said, “Well, I will not bring you more pain by pointing out the changes that followed that event. But in the aftermath, I talked with the Commissioner. He demanded answers, and I didn’t see the benefit of holding anything back. So I told him everything. I told him about the yanking into a different world and the battle that followed. I told him how you and your friends refused to send us back just to die and cured us all, and that was the reason I reappeared on that building moments later, human again. Not that he believed me.”

Peter felt his head clear slightly in the past couple of minutes. Nowhere close to being okay, but enough to at least be in the frame of mind to turn toward the man standing behind the couch.

George just shrugged and commented, “Who would believe a story like that from a convicted criminal? It sounded like any other excuse for his crimes to me.”

Connorraised an amused eyebrow at him and retorted, “You mean the convict that turned himself into a giant lizard and then was magically cured in front of you.”

George seemed to blush just slightly and already had a response ready, “In my defense, I did take your words into consideration.”

If Peter had to guess, they had this conversation many times before as the doctor had a counter almost immediately, “After I gave you some harsh words about a certain superhero and his love for your daughter.”

Peter noticed he managed to follow this conversation without a single flare of headache. And the fact he could already notice that was an improvement in itself. He frowned and looked at Conners, asking, “Why is my head suddenly clearing?”

“Because you weren’t there for the conversation,” the doctor replied. But Peter didn’t seem to get the connection to his question. So the man kept talking, “For the next two years, I sat in prison. Deservingly so. Until Max returned. He was disoriented too and had most of your symptoms as well. When the Commissioner heard about it, he questioned Max as well and got the same story I told him two years before. At that point, I was believed and was released from prison to help treat Max’s symptoms. Fortunately, he only missed a couple of years, and many of the changes didn’t affect his own life, so soon enough, he recovered.”

Connorlooked to the side and muttered, probably to himself, “Except for the constant whining about losing his hot body.” Peter remembered Max in the alternate world and how he looked when he met him. Peter could understand why he would be upset.

Thinking about that caused another attack from his headaches.

From the corner of his eye, he could see Gwen was eager to stab him with the needle while Connorwas eyeing him with patience before speaking, “The return of Max, of course, caused a few more changes from before. First among them was my release from prison and the conversations between the three of us, which made us friends. Of course, not all changes are good. A prime example would be Ma…”

Connordidn’t just trail off; he practically choked on his words. His face was pale as he stared at something over Peter’s shoulder.

Peter’s headache flared like never before as an image Peter fought off tried to push harder than any before it.

He looked over his shoulder to see Gwen giving her former mentor a harsh glare.

Peter returned his painful stare to Connorwhen the man cleared his throat, “Umm yes, anyway, let’s get to the heart of your question, shall we?” Then his stare softened, and he said gently, “You see, while I arrived before any changes were made to the timeline and so didn’t suffer any symptoms, Max returned a couple of years later, but thanks to the fact not many changes in his own life, his symptoms were minor and healed by themselves quickly. Your case, I’m afraid, is much more complicated.”

The doctor reached his one arm toward his chin and rubbed it while talking, “You have returned almost a decade later with most of your life changed because of your actions in the other world. Your headaches are the result of two sets of memories fighting in your mind. One set is the memories from the world before the spell and another from after it. You see, usually, I would suggest sleeping the pain off until your mind integrates both of them naturally. Alas, that’s where your super healing factor comes into play. And for such, your lovely wife and I created the serum she is eager to get into you. Based on my research of combining my mind with the Lizard, we created this serum that will help you integrate both your memories…”

Peter saw the lips of the doctor kept moving. But the pain in his head grew far too strong to be able to do anything other than double over in pain and hide his head under his arms.

The world was spinning. All he heard was buzzing in his ears. Images kept flashing and disappearing. Some he recognized; most he didn’t.

“Damn it, Curt. I told you we should have given him the injection before. Help me get him in position.” He vaguely heard a female voice call. And if there were a response, it was drowned out by the buzzing in his ears.

Suddenly, Peter could feel three hands pushing him back onto the couch.

Another two soft hands grabbed his left arm and pulled it toward them, and a moment later, Peter felt a needle penetrating his skin.

For a few long moments, he didn’t feel any change. His head was still ringing in pain, his ears still buzzing, and his vision blurred.

Then he felt a calming effect sweep through his mind, as if someone dropped a bucket of ice water on the raging fire inside his head.

Although the pain and the buzzing began fading, so did his vision and train of thought.

By the time he understood what was happening, it was too late. He fainted.

The last thing he heard from the outside world, or at least he thought it was real, was a soft and sweet voice saying, “Sleep now, Pete. When you wake up, everything will be better, I promise.”