章 89: Fate
"Hah!" Eren Parker, the boy who was once known as Spider-Man, found himself lying in the middle of the street in a simple neighborhood. He felt as if he had just awoken from a bad dream. His body felt as if it were on fire, and he immediately noticed that he couldn't access Godspeed anymore.
He looked down at his body and saw that his costume was still on.
His memories of his last moments were foggy to him, but he could remember the last few seconds of his life. Saying goodbye to his friends and pushing the Green Goblin into the ocean were the last things that he could remember. He tried his best, but he couldn't remember an explosion ever happening in the end.
Leaning up off the ground, Eren began scanning the area around him, noticing that he was in what appeared to be a random neighborhood. Everything about it seemed normal, however, every single person that lived in these homes had vehicles from around two decades prior or older.
As he looked at the retro vehicles, his gaze stopped, and his eyes widened upon seeing one vehicle in particular that he remembered from his past. It was a red El Camino, a classic two-door muscle car with a flatbed in the back. His father loved classics and this one looked exactly like his, in fact, Eren was almost certain it was his.
Just as Eren was able to recognize the vehicle, a man wearing a lab coat opened the driver's door and began exiting the vehicle. As the man stepped out in full, Eren realized that the man was none other than his father, Richard Parker.
Eren was completely bewildered, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. He wondered if this was some sort of dream or perhaps it was the afterlife for people who were not followers of Bast.
As his father walked toward the front door, Eren reached out his hand and opened his mouth to speak.
"Daddy!" Eren's voice yelled out to his father, however, this voice was not the Eren on the street, nor was it an adult voice. It was a child's.
Eren looked over to see his former self, around five years old, sprint out of the house toward his father with his arms spread out.
Richard smiled, bending over and picking up his son with a smile on his face. "Hey, little man!"
Eren watched from the other side of the street as tears slowly fell down his face. He could see his mother leaning on the door frame with an oven mitt in her hand, waiting for the two look-alikes to finish their greeting.
With Little Eren still in his hands, Richard walked over to his wife, Mary Parker, and gave her a kiss. "Hey, babe. Smells like dinner is just about ready!"
Eren continued to watch as his family walked inside the house without him, shutting the door behind them.
Now on his feet, Eren began slowly walking up to the house until he reached the grass on the front lawn, allowing him to look inside the kitchen through the window. He could see his family all gathered around the dinner table, as his mother placed down a chicken pot pie, which used to be the Parker boys' favorite dish of hers.
Tears continued to fall down Eren's cheeks as he proceeded to wistfully gaze at his family through the window. He had relived memories before but this was different. This wasn't a memory, he was really there at that moment in time.
'Is this hell? Am I being punished?' He thought to himself, still unable to comprehend how he was even able to see this.
Then it hit him.
'I know why I can't remember the explosion. I wasn't even there for it. I must've somehow jumped through time or maybe even into an alternate dimension just before it happened. Neither of those two options is impossible.' Eren's thoughts paused for a second before he came up with another realization.
'If it's the past then… I can save him! I can save them both!' Immediately, Eren began to walk over toward the front door. He couldn't help but imagine what their reactions could be when they see their son, now an adult, standing at their front door. He thought about what his life would be like once he was able to live with his family once again.
'We can finally be a family again!'
'They can see me graduate!'
'They can meet Cindy!'
'And Harry!'
'Dad and I, we can make Parker Industries a reality as a family!'
'I wonder if I'd ever tell them about my secret?'
'Mom would go ballistic if she found out.'
Eren's thoughts were so loud at this point, that he couldn't even hear the voice trying to get his attention from behind him.
"Eren. Eren!" The foggy voice was ignored behind him as the hero continued stepping toward the door.
Just as Eren was about to knock on the door, a person grabbed his shoulder, interrupting his trance. He looked back to see a person wearing a black costume, similar to his but with slight alterations. His body looked as if it weren't truly there, almost like he was a spirit or a ghost. The costume was all black with a massive white spider symbol across the entire torso, there was also a hood attached to it, but the man wasn't wearing it over his head. The man's mask pulled itself back, as if it were alive, revealing the face underneath.
It was another Eren Parker. This one appeared to be just a year or two older than the present Eren. His eyes, however, showed the most age.
He had the eyes of a broken man.
"You're-" The current Eren tried to speak, but his future self was in a rush and cut him off.
"You, yeah. I said the same thing when this happened to me. Look, I'm on a timer here." The Future Eren told him quickly.
"What? What do you mean by that? Are you saying you came back to this moment too? Why do you look... clear?" Present Eren's brain felt as if it were about to explode. So many revelations all happening at once, he was barely able to process them.
"Not just me, many of us have gone back to this moment. I'm 'clear' because this isn't my main body. The main one is still fighting in my timeline and sadly I don't see myself winning. That's why I chose to send a piece of my consciousness back right now." Future Eren rubbed the back of his head awkwardly before continuing to speak.
"The original Eren Parker, the first one to come here, actually talked to his parents. He warned them about dad getting sick, causing him to frequently go to the doctor so they could find his sickness earlier. They were able to prevent the disease from becoming untreatable."
"So why did you stop me then!?" Present Eren interrupted, his angry expression contrasted with his future self's solemn eyes.
"Let me tell you the whole story, okay? As I said, we're on a timer so stop interrupting me, please." Future Eren spoke with sincerity, causing the Present Eren to calm down and allow him to speak.
"Changing this will not change your own timeline, it'll instead create a new one and leave your timeline unaffected. The original Eren just assumed you could not change the past, but we figured out the separate timeline things later.
In this new timeline, after dad was cured, your life completely changed. We stayed in this house, meaning you never met Cindy because you never moved and went to that elementary school. You never met Harry because you never went to his father's school. Mom never died because she never looked into Project V after your warning and most importantly… You never get bitten by that spider." Present Eren's eyebrows raised up in shock, realizing that changing this one thing would change the course of his entire life.
"So, after Eren number one changed the past and created a new timeline, Eren number two lived a normal and happy life with our parents, but without our best friends and our powers. He of course didn't know about any of this, so he was fine with it."
"Years passed, and Eren number two was about twenty-five years old when he started Parker Industries with dad. He was content with life at this point. No more being a hero. No more responsibility. No more curse. He got to go home every day to his wife and newborn daughter."
"We have a daughter?" Present Eren looked at his future self in surprise, shocked that he would be a father in such a short amount of time.
"Yes, but not with Cindy in this timeline. You've met Gwen Stacy. You actually meet her at the Oscorp internship, which you still ended up getting during college. You, or, us and Gwen end up married in that timeline, somehow. I don't get that part, she's not really my type personally.
Anyway, things were all great, however, that's when disaster struck. Have you heard of Project V or Venom? That stuff you saw when Harry snuck into that base? Well, take a look at this." Future Eren grabbed his younger self's hand, transporting them both to another time period. They didn't physically transport themselves, they were just reliving the memory of their alternate timeline self.
"Due to Godspeed, we think, every Eren Parker that has ever existed can access an older Eren's memories. You know those visions you get? Those are actually old memories of our other selves, not necessarily the future. That's why they feel similar to memories you actually remember. Since the timeline is unchanged before you fight Norman, it happens if the memory is before that day.
As you can see by this memory, our world becomes no more." The two of them walked side by side as they explored the future planet. It was unrecognizable. Everything was destroyed as if a natural disaster hit and everything was covered by a black substance, the alien symbiote that was once called Project V had claimed the world for itself.
"Once this happened, Eren number two created a time machine with Dad and Reed Richards to go back to this moment and stop the timeline from getting fractured. I have two theories on this: He either remembered seeing his past self or Godspeed transcended timelines and he received the memories of Eren-1. I'm thinking the former, but we really have no clue.
Anyway, he warned Eren number three and now we're here in a loop. Before we die, we come back and stop ourselves from dooming the next Eren Parker and pass down our memories so we can stop the world from ending in a different timeline.
What I do want to tell you is that Nick Fury is going to approach you about the Avengers when you get back and tell you about how they've been slowly recruiting heroes to deal with a threat off-world. He's going to ask you to join them. Do 𝘯𝘰𝘵 join the Avengers. It's part of the reason things got out of hand so quickly for me.
Since barely any heroes were here on Earth, the world became overrun before the Avengers could even get back in one of the older timelines. In my timeline, I told Nick Fury about it, and he agreed that we needed to keep some of the Avengers on Earth, however, this resulted in the Avengers losing to Thanos off-world, he's this big ugly purple dude, and he came to Earth early. As long as you let the Avengers complete their mission off-world, they'll deal with that guy on their own. You probably won't ever even meet him. That was my fatal mistake for my timeline."
"If your timeline is already doomed, why are you telling me this." Present Eren asked him.
"Because if I can't save my timeline, I can at least contribute to saving whatever infinite amount comes after me. We've tried so many different times to change one small aspect of our timelines in order to prevent it, but there is a way for us to win. We just don't know it yet. All I can do is give you my personal advice and my memories.
My direct future Eren told me to tell Nick Fury about what's going to happen and to not make contact with the symbiote until after Venom was loose, but I think this is wrong. Don't tell Nick Fury, just decline and say you prefer to ride solo nowadays. Then you need to find Venom, the symbiote, before Osborn is able to do whatever he wants with it."
"Norman or Harry!?" Present Eren was mortified, just praying that Harry wouldn't suddenly turn evil on him.
"Norman. He's alive." Future Eren saying this gave Eren a complicated feeling in his chest. He was afraid to have to fight Norman again, but he was thankful that Harry wasn't going to turn.
"Thank God... I thought Harry was gonna-"
"Well, there was this one timeline where Harry became Venom and made you choose between letting him kill Cindy Moon or Gwen Stacy, that timeline had a weird love triangle type of thing going on. Yeah... he killed the one you wanted to save so if he ever does do that... make sure to pick the one you don't want to keep, not the one you 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 love." Future Eren said this so plainly as if it weren't something completely horrifying.
This Eren had suffered so much, he was practically a broken man at that point, so this wasn't too outlandish for him at that point in his life.
Future Eren's afterimage flickered, reminding him that he didn't have much time. "Right, timer... You sent Norman to a certain point in time in the future, a point in time where he's going to collect Project V and become Venom himself. That's why when you go back, you need to find it with Harry and Cindy before he pops back into the timeline or he will grow far too powerful. But once you come in contact with the symbiote..." Future Eren looked as if he didn't want to say his next few words, knowing how his past self would react since he himself was also in those shoes.
"What? What!" Present Eren was growing impatient, the suspense nearly killed him.
Future Eren put a hand on his old self's shoulder before speaking. "It's a symbiotic relationship between you and the suit... You might lose yourself again, Eren. You'll lose everything again. But you have to-"
"Then I'm not doing it." Eren slapped his other self's hand from his shoulder.
"Eren, listen. This is the only way. You need to take the symbiote and keep it away from anyone who plans on doing anything bad with it. You'll learn to control it. Look, I'm wearing it right now and I'm fine. As long as you take on the responsibility of controlling it, it won't be able to take over the planet... I think."
"You think?" Present Eren scoffed as he looked to the ground, contemplating his choices. "How the hell are you my future self? You're an idiot!"
"Every Eren that tried to withstand what it does to you has failed but I believe in you." Future Eren said this as if suddenly, things would change with the Eren he was speaking to. However, Present Eren did not share that same sentiment.
"Listen, Eren. I know you want to hold on to those values that you've formed. That we've formed. But you need to understand that playing the hero like you've been doing is going to have to come to an end eventually. Norman was right... You're going to have to sacrifice your values and your mind for the sake of everyone else.
When you go back to the present, you'll end up around a year after you left. I'm out of time now, so this is the end for me, Eren. This is going to hurt, but I'm going to streamline every Eren's memory into your body and give you enough energy to get back to the present."
Present Eren, not having his questions answered yet, reached out to his other self. "Wait-" before he could say another word, Future Eren's afterimage dashed into Eren's body, immediately sending decades worth of knowledge into his brain. Rather than these memories coming and going as they did in the past, they were all readily available to him.
As his brain skimmed through the memories, Eren's eyes widened at the horrors that awaited him.
The loss.
The anguish.
The destruction.
All of it flipped through his brain like a short film as he watched countless versions of himself die a brutal death at the hands of a different foe each time, however, that foe had something in common each time. They all wore that same black costume, smiling at him with those same sharp teeth.
He could hear their voice, the voice he heard many times in his dreams. "We are Venom!" it said this time, revealing its name to him after the fact. That deep, monstrous voice that would call out to him over and over finally had a face in his brain. It had many faces, each being a different person beneath that black sludge. It horrified him, seeing that just one mistake could lead to Venom consuming either himself or someone else.
The memories began to jumble up, becoming far too much for the boy to handle. Over and over again he watched himself die. Until he got to the final memory...
He was able to see into the timeline of the Eren he just spoke with. It wasn't through that man's eyes, it was as if he was there spectating his death.
He watched as Thanos, covered in a black symbiote as he held the hero's body in the air, impaling him with his fist using a golden gauntlet with colorful stones inside of it. Thanos tossed his body to the ground. His lifeless corpse landed next to Cindy Moon's headless body, who was also wearing a symbiote. In the surrounding area, multiple heroes lay dead on the ground, including Moon Knight, Iron Man, Captain America, and many of the other Avengers members.
Thanos had won
He stood triumphant, knowing that no one could stop him, before raising his hand and snapping his finger.
This proved one thing to Eren and one thing only after searching through so many memories.
Eren Parker would always die at the hands of Venom.
After the memories ceased, Present Eren, stood by himself, shivering as he looked forward with wide eyes. No man should have ever been given as much knowledge as he'd just gained at that moment, it was almost too much for him to withstand.
He gazed at his family's home with a sad expression. Regardless, his future was dark, however, he considered maybe giving the next Eren in line that happy life that his other self told him about. He had the memories of that second Eren, the one who got to live with his family, and he knew that the memories of that life were the most pleasant out of all of the endless timelines he looked through.
Eren loved Harry and Cindy more than anything, but the child in his home didn't meet them yet, so he'd never know what he was missing until he randomly received a memory from the past.
Regardless, the fate of Eren Parker, no matter the timeline, was sealed. Either live a happy, slightly longer life or live a shorter, more dreadful life filled with agonizing losses.
However, he realized that he would be robbing his younger self of a choice if he made the choice for him. As of now, Eren has the choice to fight for his timeline, it was a gift given to him by the Eren Parkers that came from the many timelines before him. So he decided not to interfere with this timeline.
He walked over toward the window and took one last look at his family together. Little Eren, his five-year-old self, looked up at Present Eren as he talked to his father. The two boys stared at each other through the glass.
Present Eren looked at his younger self sadly, while the little one looked in confusion. The young one didn't know it yet but he would be the Eren that the current one would visit later on in life and the two would meet once again in the future to continue the cycle, but now was not the time.
The young one pointed to the window, causing his parents to turn around, however, the figure at the window was no longer there.
Richard Parker got up and walked over to the window, looking outside of it in an attempt to see who his son claimed to have seen. Figuring it was nothing more than his son's imagination, he sat back down in his seat and continued having dinner with his family.
Little did he know, his fate had just been finalized.
Present Eren, running at his fastest as he did when he pushed the Green Goblin away from his city, was ready to return home. However, the moment the boy began to transcend time, he found himself slipping, watching as time-space itself began to warp around him until he fell out of it and landed yet again in the middle of a street.
This time, however, he was in front of another place he recognized.
A hospital from his past.
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