Felicia and Wanda helped me back into the mansion. My head was slowly stopping its spinning — the vertigo was finally wearing off.
The moment we stepped inside, Xavier and Ororo came rushing to meet us. "Peter, what happened?" Xavier asked quickly.
I groaned as Felicia lowered me onto the main staircase to rest. "Someone came in and stole the stone, Professor. I — I couldn't stop them."
Charles' eyes widened. "They took the stone? How? You said that was impossible!"
I groaned, rubbing my temples. "I don't know. But one of them looked like me — or an albino version of me. My best guess? A clone. Which would also explain why the other one looked like Jean."
"Someone cloned you and Red?" Wanda blinked. "Why? And more to the point — who?"
I growled. "Who do you think? Who else knows about the stone and might have the technology to pull off something like this?"
Ororo's eyes narrowed. "HYDRA?"
I nodded. "Seems that way."
"We need to get that stone back," Charles said firmly. "It's the only real tool we have toward your dream of a unified world. And if what you've said about its power is true...something like that cannot be left in HYDRA's hands."
I nodded. "Agreed. Just...give me a moment. I don't think I can move just yet."
"Take your time," Ororo said, resting a gentle hand on my shoulder before turning to Felicia and Wanda. "Felicia — get Scott and Rogue. We have a mission."
"Ah, yeah, about that..." Felicia shifted nervously. "Scott is...well, he's kind of out of it right now."
Ororo raised an eyebrow. "Out of it?"
"He's...ah...well..."
"He's drunk," Wanda cut in flatly.
Ororo's single raised eyebrow managed to convey a world of disapproval. Felicia gulped. "But I'm sure a few glasses of raw egg yolk will sort him right out!" She rushed off in the direction of Scott's room before anyone could respond.
Ororo sighed and turned to me. "Really?"
"I didn't exactly expect someone to clone me and use said clone to steal an Infinity Stone," I grumbled, rubbing my temples. "God, that girl can scream."
Ororo sighed. "Fine. Wanda — I understand this isn't your fight, but we could use your help. The situation is a delicate one—"
"I'm in," Wanda said.
I raised an eyebrow. "You are?"
She nodded. "I know how dangerous that stone is. It's the reason I have my powers in the first place. HYDRA having it would be very bad. Besides," she added with a curious frown, "I'm more interested in those three kids — and in how they managed to outsmart your security."
I sighed. I looked at the UMF suit still clutched in her arms. "Well, if you're serious about this, you'd better suit up. You'll want all the protection you can get."
Wanda looked down at the white suit and frowned. "It better stretch."
Twenty minutes later:
"You said it would stretch more," Wanda said, tugging at the fabric.
I sighed. "It will. There's a setting to increase the size — just think it and it'll adjust."
Wanda looked skeptical but closed her eyes. A moment later her UMF suit expanded to a looser, more comfortable fit. She smiled, satisfied. "Great. At least now I don't look like I wandered out of a burlesque."
"You say that like it's a problem," Felicia smirked from beside her, already suited up in her own version — the same design as before, minus the stitching and defects. Much more resistant, better energy absorption, a genuine upgrade all around. The only noticeable difference was the black choker around her neck with a tiny spider on it. Very subtle, Kitten.
Wanda had gone for a simple deep scarlet full-body suit with a red overcoat. Clean and efficient. I got the impression she cared far more about the protection than the aesthetics.
Ororo brought the invisible Blackbird down onto the football field, where the prom-bound X-Men had gathered. The landing ramp lowered before Logan, Kurt, Kathy, Evans and Jean, who quickly filed on board.
"What happened?" Jean asked, rushing straight to me the moment she was inside. I was sitting in the back, Wanda and Felicia on either side of me, the latter watching me with clear concern while Wanda just rolled her eyes.
"Someone took the stone," Wanda said plainly.
Jean's eyes went wide. "How?!"
"It's complicated," Felicia shrugged.
"You'd all better have a very good reason for ruining my night," Kathy said, crossing her arms, "because I was having a magical moment."
"Someone has removed an object of literal infinite power from my lab," I replied, leveling her with a look. "One that can control minds and turn people into slaves."
The Jewish mutant blinked. "Oh...well then. Where's my costume?"
"In the back." I got up and went to the storage locker at the rear, opening it to reveal five more UMF suits. "Get ready."
Kurt peered at his from a distance, looking uncertain. "I don't mean to complain, but white really isn't my colour."
Twenty minutes later:
As the jet banked over Manhattan, Kurt continued tugging at his new black, full-body suit. "Are you absolutely certain about this?"
I sighed. "Yes, Kurt. For the last time — you are now bulletproof." I checked the onboard monitor and groaned. "That can't be right. Why on Earth would they go there?"
"What's wrong?" Jean asked.
I tapped the screen, tracing the trail of muon particles streaming into the air. "They're heading straight into the heart of Manhattan. Right to the Baxter Building."
"They probably want something there," Felicia offered. "You always said that place had the best equipment. If HYDRA really wants the stone, they'd need serious technology to analyse it."
I nodded. "Maybe. This is going to be a long night." I stepped aside and pulled out my comms. "Sexy — call Sue." Jean and Felicia exchanged a glance behind me as the line began to ring.
"What happened?" Jean whispered. "I know Peter — he takes every precaution against this kind of thing. HYDRA couldn't have cracked his systems if he only finished building them a week ago."
Felicia glanced toward Wanda. "I...I have a theory."
Jean's eyes narrowed. "I don't think so."
"Did you read her mind?"
"Yes. She's not a spy."
"Are you sure?" Jean glared. Felicia raised her hands in defence. "Just making sure."
The call dropped to voicemail. I turned back to the group, jaw tight. "Sue's not answering. Something's wrong."
"Then we assume HYDRA has already moved on them," Logan said from his seat, arms crossed and fighting the urge to look ill.
"We've arrived," Ororo announced, bringing the cloaked jet down over the Baxter Building.
"This seems easier than I expected," Evans muttered as the landing ramp touched down on the roof.
"It shouldn't be," I replied, running a check on the building's systems. "Damn it. Someone's already hacked in and disabled the entire network. They've been here a while."
"Then let's not waste any more time," Logan growled, visibly relieved to be back on solid ground.
The ramp lowered. I was first out, sprinting to the roof access door with Felicia, Jean, Logan and the others close behind. Ororo remained outside — ready to provide support from the air if things went sideways.
We descended three flights of stairs before I brought us to the main building, accessible only through a security code known exclusively to Baxter Building members. The emergency exit hissed open. I looked inside.
The familiar corridor seemed to stretch further than I remembered. And it was quiet. Too quiet.
I inhaled. Logan did the same. We looked at each other.
"That's impossible, right?" I said.
Logan's growl was low and dangerous. "Something's off."
"What is it?" Kurt whispered.
"There's no scent on this floor," I said. "None. Not sanitizer on the tiles. Not the ghost of overcooked pizza from the kitchen. Nothing. Someone — or something — is blocking it deliberately."
SKIT!
Logan and I popped our claws in the same motion. "Which means they're already here," Logan said.
"Stay close and stay quiet," I murmured as we moved into the corridor. If HYDRA wanted the stone, they would need proper equipment to analyse it — and if they didn't find anything useful at the Xavier mansion, my lab here was the obvious next stop.
We crept down the hall. I halted and pointed to my lab door, which sat slightly ajar. I turned to Jean and tapped my helmet, dropping my mental shielding.
"What is it, Peter?" she asked.
"Can you link us all telepathically?"
Jean nodded. "One second." She closed her eyes, concentrating. "Done."
"Cool!" Kurt said, his eyes lighting up. "Are we all thinking alike now?!"
"You can all read my mind?!" Kathy gasped. "Don't think about sex, don't think about sex, don't think about—"
"Enough," Logan growled. "We have a job. Focus."
"Wait for my signal," I ordered, then tapped my belt buckle and slipped into stealth mode. I moved silently to the lab door, pushed it open a crack, and looked inside.
My eyes went wide.
Sue and Johnny were bound with rope in one corner, thick metal collars around their necks and gags over their mouths. Sue was glaring with enough force to cut glass at the three figures moving around my equipment.
The three children from before.
My silver-haired double sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry — I mean, Ms. Storm. Really. Just a little while longer and we'll be done."
"Make it a few more hours," the girl who looked like Jean replied flatly, pouring over calculations running across my monitors. She was striking — almost identical to Jean — except for the glasses perched on her nose. A genetic imperfection of some kind, most likely.
"I'm bored!" announced the youngest of the group, her dark hair swinging as she spun lazily in a chair like a bored child. "Do you think he has any games hidden in here?"
The Jean lookalike rolled her eyes. "This is — I mean, was — his lab. He wouldn't just leave video games lying—"
"Cool! A Game Boy!" the little girl cried out, pulling a silver handheld from the top right drawer of my desk. Johnny's Game Boy — the one I'd liberated from him a while back.
The Jean clone pinched the bridge of her nose. "Never mind."
"Mph!" Johnny bucked and kicked frantically against his restraints until my silver double leaned over and ungagged him.
"What?" the silver-haired boy asked.
"That's mine!" Johnny cried out. "Don't you dare touch that!"
"It's so retro," Steph — as the youngest had apparently been named — murmured, turning it over. "And so old." She switched it on and her eyes narrowed. "What? Only one save file?! That is so unfair!"
"Don't touch my save file, Shorty," Johnny warned.
Steph looked up slowly. "What did you just call me?"
Johnny swallowed. "P-please. I've been playing that thing since I was a kid."
The girl's expression softened almost immediately. "Oh...well, okay then. I won't touch it, Uncle Johnny."
The Human Torch sagged in relief. "Oh thank God — wait. Did you just call me uncle?"
I pulled back from the door and deactivated my stealth mode, relaying everything I'd seen through the shared mental link — enemy positions, the hostages, all of it.
"Should we move?" Jean asked.
I was about to say yes — when a faint yellow glow began to seep through the gap in the door. I looked back inside and felt the breath leave my body.
My deformed double had produced a glowing shard of some kind of stone. It pulsed with an eerie, humming energy that I immediately associated with the Mind Stone — and yet the Mind Stone was sealed in the box, intact and whole. So what was this?
"Peter — should we move?" Logan repeated.
I raised a hand. "Not yet. I need to see what they're doing." This was unknown territory entirely. I didn't understand what was happening. How did they have a second one? Had they destroyed the Mind Stone — or found something similar? Either scenario was impossible.
"Are you ready, Hope?" my silver double asked, setting the shard on the table.
The Jean lookalike — named Hope, apparently — glanced at the shard and sighed. "Yeah. Beginning the process now. Can you hold it steady, Ben?"
Ben — my double — snorted. "You know I can. Come on. The faster we alter the stone, the better."
The youngest girl — Steph — sat up straight, suddenly alert. Hope took out the vibranium lock box I had built. With a simple flick of her wrist, she opened it.
The room flooded with yellow light. That was truly impossible. The Mind Stone rose into the air, drawn closer by Hope's outstretched finger until it nearly touched the shard Ben was holding. The moment they aligned, a low, resonant tone rang out through the room.
Hope snapped her fingers. A large magical circle blazed to life, wreathed with flame-like patterns. The stone began to vibrate, louder and faster, and I realised with a jolt exactly what they were doing.
Were they trying to destroy an Infinity Stone?
"Move — now!" I pushed the command through the link and rushed inside, Felicia right at my back.
"What the—" Ben spun, eyes wide. "No! Not now! You'll ruin everything!"
CRASH!
"ARGH!" Logan came down from the ceiling, claws out. Evans drove his arms forward, launching a volley of bony spikes toward the kids.
"No!" Steph cried out — and the vibration in her voice hit like a physical force, blasting all three men backwards and shredding the projectiles in midair.
I shot a web line toward the Mind Stone. Ben stepped into the path and carved through it with a single swipe of his claws.
"Stay out of this!" he snarled. "We're doing this for your sake! You have no idea what you're throwing away!"
"I wouldn't be so sure," I said, smirking under my mask, just as Kathy phased through the wall and Jean threw her hands out, telekinetically wrenching the stone away from Hope.
"What?!" Hope spun, her eyes wide, as Jean seized the stone.
"Run!" I launched myself forward, stingers out, bearing down on my silver double.
"Got it!" Kathy grabbed Jean's arm and bolted through the nearest wall.
"No — Steph, stop them!" Hope cried out.
"Right!" Steph turned to give chase — and found Wanda standing directly in front of her. Red energy blazed to life as Wanda hurled several objects across the room. Steph's eyes went flat. "Steel up." Her skin shimmered and solidified into a layer of living metal, the objects bouncing off her harmlessly.
"How is any of this even real?" I muttered, distracted against my better judgment.
Jean was sprinting for the door. She almost made it — and then a red Vastha whip cracked around her arm. The other end was held by Hope, pulling with enough force to drag Jean back inside.
"You're not leaving with that," Hope said.
"We'll see." Jean sent a telekinetic burst straight at her double. Hope didn't even flinch.
"You'll have to do better than that," she growled, hauling on the whip. Jean cried out as her fingers opened on reflex, the stone dropping. Hope snapped her fingers and summoned it toward her.
The stone flew. She caught it, pressed it against the broken shard — and a shockwave tore outward.
BOOM!
My adhesive feet kept me rooted. Everyone else was thrown against the walls. Hope stood at the center of it all, clutching what appeared to be two versions of the Mind Stone, cracks slowly spreading through the intact one.
"ARGH!" She suddenly screamed in pain, her hand beginning to smoke.
"Hope!" Ben lunged toward her.
The energy radiating from the stones was burning through her. I had to stop this. I had to stop it now.
I pushed against the waves of force still rippling outward, step by grinding step, until I reached her. I raised my left hand and — with a single silent command — my suit exploded outward, wrapping itself around both stones and pulling them from Hope's palm.
And into mine.
My bare hand closed around both stones. Hope crumpled, her strength gone along with the pain. I squeezed my fist shut. The jagged edge of the second stone — the shard — bit into my palm. I felt blood well up and spread across the stones.
I instructed my suit to seal around them — to lock them in vibranium and contain the energy. But before I saw it happen, a blinding white light swallowed my world, and a searing pain ripped up my arm.
Void:
I floated in nothing. My body was warming from the inside out, a burning crawl up my left arm that slowly, gradually cooled. My limbs went numb.
Where am I?
I drifted in a sea of stars that extended forever in every direction. Before me hung two enormous structures — both shaped like great diamond crystals, both saturated in yellow light. But while one was whole and radiant, the other was fractured and broken, split down the middle and covered with burning red runes I couldn't begin to decipher.
I reached toward them. The colossal forms drifted closer. I felt my hand touch the surface of the intact structure.
And then something foreign entered my mind.
I fought it. I used every technique I'd learned from Earth 982's Doctor Strange, every trick I'd built on my own — but it didn't matter. Whatever this was, it had a backdoor to me. There was no resistance to offer, nowhere to push back.
Then I found myself looking at someone who appeared to be a dark and hardened reflection of myself.
He wore the same armour as mine, but altered — more elaborate, more worn, covered in modifications I couldn't quite make out. Everything below his chest blurred. But his face was mine — aged. Not the older Peter Parker I had once met on Earth 982. This man had aged differently. Harder. Colder. His eyes were a striking blue and ringed with experience, and a thick beard covered his jaw.
A long, jagged scar ran down the right side of his face — old and deep, seemingly there since forever. His chest bore my logo, slightly modified, the spider set inside a glowing red circle.
I blinked. So did he.
"Who are you?"
"Why ask questions you already know the answer to?" he said, with a faint smirk.
"No way."
"Yep. Exactly."
"Prove it," I said, my expression hardening.
He looked at me steadily. "What more proof do you need? We're here. Do you honestly think Doom or Thanos has the skill to manufacture something like this?" He sighed. "Fine. If you insist." He spoke my name — our name — in full.
I gasped. "No...our name..."
"I know," he said. "Believe me, this is strange for me too."
"How? Why?!" I demanded.
His eyes sharpened. "Because we needed to talk. I inscribed my mind into the shard of the Mind Stone from my time, in the event that this meeting would happen. And I knew it would — as brilliant as my kids are, they have always had a problem with sticking to the plan."
"Kids?!" I stopped. I thought of the three I had been fighting — the silver-haired boy with my face, the girl who looked like Jean, the small girl with the overly large coat. I felt the air leave my lungs. "They weren't clones. They were—"
"Yes," my future self said quietly. "And I'll let them explain the rest. Because right now, I don't have much time." He pointed to the shard, where the red runes were already starting to fade. "Ask the kids about their mission. They'll tell you. But I'm here for one reason and one reason only. To warn you."
"Warn me? Of what?"
"Of what's coming." He snapped his fingers. The image of the Infinity Gauntlet appeared in the air between us. "We never saw all the Phase Three films, did we?"
I paused. "No. We didn't."
His face tightened. "Thanos. We thought we could fight him with the skills we had. We were wrong. He was a plague, younger me. Unstoppable doesn't begin to cover it. He beat the Hulk bare-handed, without a single Stone. I was ill-prepared. Afraid of my own power. Afraid of being consumed by it. And no matter how much we thought we were ready...we weren't."
"What happens?"
He smiled faintly. "Don't worry — we won in the end. But the price was too high. For a decade I held Thanos back. Delayed him. Fought him and his armies across the universe with everything the heroes could bring. But then...destiny still arrived. He won. And while we eventually fought back, we lost so much in the process."
"How? How did you fight back? How do we win?" I stepped toward him. "You did all of this for a reason — so tell me."
He shook his head. "No."
I stared at him. "What do you mean, no? You just said you came to warn me — why the hell would you hold back the answer?!"
"Because I know you," he said, eyes hard. "I know exactly how your mind works. If I tell you how we won, you'll just try to replicate it and convince yourself that's enough. It won't be. Nothing is just enough. So instead, I'm going to do something very stupid and very dangerous."
"Which is?"
He smiled. "I'm going to show you a movie. Four movies, actually." He raised his hand, snapped his fingers — and the Mind Stone shard detonated into light, driving a stream of pure knowledge into my skull.
The films I had never seen since arriving in this world.
Thor: Ragnarok.
The images came in a flood. Thor facing a fire demon. Hela released upon Odin's death, Mjolnir shattering in her hand. Thor fighting the Hulk. Thor losing nearly everything he had ever known. And then, against all odds — Thor reclaiming the lightning, reclaiming himself. The film ended with him escaping from Asgard, letting it burn behind him, his people alive.
Then the second film began. Black Panther. I remembered Civil War, remembered T'Challa losing his father. This showed me Wakanda — the hidden city, the vibranium towers, the traditions and the ceremonies, T'Challa's ascension to the throne. His sister's love for him, his people's faith in him. And then Erik Killmonger — the bitterness and the grief and the terrible, understandable logic behind his rage. The fight between cousins. Killmonger choosing death over chains. Wakanda, revealed to the world at last.
The third. Ant-Man and the Wasp. Heartfelt, smaller in scale, laced through with warmth. And then the ending — Hank, Hope, Janet, all turned to dust in seconds. Scott alone in the Quantum Realm. I sat with the image of that dust and didn't know what to make of it.
And then the last film began. Avengers: Infinity War.
It was unlike anything I had been prepared for.
I watched Thanos beat the Hulk to the floor with his bare hands. I watched him snap Loki's neck and slaughter the remaining Asgardians. I watched him kill Gamora. I watched so many lives extinguished, one after another. I watched Tony Stark and Doctor Strange and every hero I knew give everything they had — and still watched Thanos stand victorious.
I listened to his reasoning. A cold, logical part of me recognised the internal logic of it. But the conclusion was still the product of a broken mind.
Hope surged in me when Thor arrived — Stormbreaker blazing, tearing through Thanos's armies as if they were nothing. When the axe buried itself in Thanos's chest, I felt something close to joy.
And then he snapped his fingers, and everything went white.
I watched half the universe die. I watched Peter Parker — that world's Spider-Man, a boy in a spider suit — die in Tony Stark's arms, whispering that he didn't want to go. I watched the film end on a single ember of hope in the form of a distress signal. But even that couldn't lift the weight that had settled over everything.
I snapped back. My eyes found my future self. I was panting.
"How?"
"After defeating Thanos, I found a way back to our home dimension," he said. "I retrieved those memories. It was a long and painful process — but necessary."
"What happens next?" I demanded. "After all of this?"
He shrugged. "Does it matter?"
"Of course it matters!" I cried. "I need to know how this ends — how to stop it!"
"Even if you knew," he said, "it wouldn't help you now. You've changed too much of this timeline already. It reflects nothing of the MCU we knew — it's been altered beyond recognition. The solution shown in those films is out of reach. And my own solution only came after we had already lost far too much."
"Then why show me any of it?" I asked. "If you're not going to give me a solution, what's the point?"
"To warn you," he said quietly. "To show you exactly what is coming, in the only way I knew you would truly believe."
I held his gaze for a long moment. "Then at least give me somewhere to start."
He was quiet. Then: "The Stones," he said. "They are the key. Try to understand how to use them. You know where all of them are right now — even taking just one from Thanos before the end will make a difference. The rest...I leave to you."
And without another word, he snapped his fingers.
I felt myself torn away from wherever I had been.
Reality:
My head was spinning. I opened my eyes.
Felicia was looking down at me, fear and worry rolling off her in waves.
"He's awake!" she said to someone nearby. I turned and saw the X-Men still struggling with my — not a clone. Not a clone at all.
My son.
My son.
"No," I breathed, pushing myself up.
"Peter, don't!" Felicia grabbed my arm. "You need to rest. We don't know what the stone did to you."
I watched the kids break away and head for the door, the X-Men in pursuit. "No — I have to stop them," I gasped, forcing myself to my feet.
"Peter, stop!" Felicia cried. "You're going to hurt yourself!"
"I'm sorry, Kitten," I said, "but please — trust me." Without waiting, I sprinted for the window and leapt through, the glass lifting aside automatically.
"Peter!" she called after me, but I was already in the air, suit thrusters firing as I climbed.
My mind was still reeling. It seemed impossible — and yet every piece fit. "Sexy — can you track them?"
"The three intruders are moving toward the roof with the stone. Ms. Grey is right behind them. Storm is waiting for them at the top."
Jean's lookalike. Named Hope. There was only one red-haired woman by that name in the comic books — Hope Summers. Daughter of Jean Grey and...
Oh God. How had I not seen it?
I soared to the rooftop just as the access door exploded off its hinges and three teenagers came sprinting out, the X-Men right behind them.
"Oh shit!" Hope skidded to a stop as Ororo stepped out of the jet, her eyes already blazing electric blue, the wind rising around her.
"You came to our home," Ororo said, her voice carrying the calm weight of a gathering storm. "You threatened and hurt my friends. We are not helpless children, and it is time you learned that the weather does not belong to you — it belongs to me."
KAKOOM!
Steph shrieked. "She's furious! She's going to fry us!"
I dropped between them, landing hard. "Stand down! All of you — stop!"
Ororo's eyes stayed bright. "Get out of my way, Peter!"
I turned to Jean. "They touched you. They took from you! Peter—"
"They can't be harmed," I said, stepping toward the three kids. Hope's eyes widened. Steph looked curious. The boy just growled and raised his claws.
"You can't hurt them," I said again, and I pulled back my mask.
"Because they're my children."
Felicia's voice, from somewhere behind me: "WHAT?!"
I walked toward them. All three of them went still. I turned to the redhead first.
"Hope," I said quietly. "Is your full name...Hope Parker?"
The tears came without warning. She crossed the distance between us in three steps and wrapped her arms around me, burying her face in my shoulder.
"Daddy," she whispered.
Slowly, my arms came up and closed around her.
"Hope," I murmured. "We named you Hope?"
She pulled back, smiling through tears. "Yes. You said that was what Mom always wanted, if I was born a girl." She turned to look at Jean, and her expression broke open.
"Peter..." Felicia's voice was barely a whisper now. "How is this...how are they..."
"Long story short — time travel," the boy muttered, retracting his claws with a dull click. "Damn it. We weren't supposed to let you figure it out. How did you do it, old man?"
I thought quickly. Future me hadn't told them — which meant there was a reason for that. I chose the nearest truth. "The only way any of you could have done what you did was if you knew me intimately. And the only person who could have opened that box was someone carrying my blood. Or half of it."
Steph beamed. "I told you he'd figure it out." Hope looked relieved. The boy just looked like he was personally offended by my continued existence.
Before I could say a word more, there was a thunderous crash from below, followed by a roaring pillar of flame as Johnny Storm came blasting through the roof access door and into the open air.
"Alright, you lot — round two!"
I pressed two fingers to my forehead and sighed deeply.
Johnny looked down. His expression faltered. "Why...why aren't we fighting right now?"