[Queens. Peter Parker's New Apartment. December.]
The apartment was freezing. The heater rattled like a dying engine but produced no heat. The window was stuck halfway open, letting in the biting New York wind.
Peter Parker sat on a lumpy mattress on the floor. He was shivering.
A sewing machine (bought from a thrift store) whirred as he stitched red and blue spandex together. He was making a new suit. No Stark tech. No AI. No nanobots. Just fabric and thread.
On the radio, J. Jonah Jameson was ranting.
"Spider-Man! The menace! He's still out there, folks! Even if we don't know who he is, we know he's a threat! He destroyed the Statue of Liberty!"
Peter stopped sewing. He looked at the small box of possessions he had left. A Lego Palpatine. A GED study guide. A coffee cup from the donut shop where MJ worked—where she had looked right through him earlier that day.
"It's okay," Peter whispered to the empty room, his breath visible in the cold air. "It's better this way. They're safe."
He took a bite of a stale donut. It tasted like cardboard.
[The Knock]
Rap. Rap. Rap.
Three sharp, precise knocks on the door. Not the landlord's heavy pounding.
Peter froze. He threw a blanket over the sewing machine to hide the suit. He wasn't Spider-Man right now. He was just a ghost named Peter Parker.
"Who is it?" Peter called out.
"Room service," a smooth voice replied.
Peter frowned. He walked to the door and opened it a crack.
Standing in the hallway, shaking snow off a long black trench coat, was Sebastian Michaelis.
Peter's heart stopped.
The spell, Peter thought, panic rising. He shouldn't know me. He should just see a stranger.
"Can I... help you?" Peter asked, trying to keep his voice steady.
Sebastian looked at him. His red eyes scanned Peter's face, then the sad apartment behind him. He saw the blanket covering the sewing machine. He saw the lonely Lego figure.
Sebastian smiled. It wasn't a warm smile. It was the smile of someone who knew a secret.
"I believe you dropped this," Sebastian held up a small, silver object.
It was a Stark Industries micro-chip. The one Peter had used to cure Doc Ock.
"I found it on the Statue," Sebastian said. "I thought it might belong to... a friend of the Spider."
"I..." Peter stammered. "I don't know what that is. I think you have the wrong apartment."
"Do I?" Sebastian tilted his head.
He stepped closer. The hallway light flickered.
"The Wizard cast a very powerful spell, Mr. Parker," Sebastian whispered. "It rewrote the collective consciousness of the entire planet. It wiped servers. It erased photographs. It scrubbed the minds of gods and men."
Peter held his breath.
"However," Sebastian's eyes flashed fuchsia for a fraction of a second. "I am neither a god nor a man."
Peter's eyes went wide. "Seb?"
Sebastian held up a gloved finger to his lips. Shh.
"The spell is delicate," Sebastian said, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial murmur. "If I were to acknowledge your identity to the Wizard, it might fracture the reality he worked so hard to patch. So, for the record... I have never met you."
He placed the micro-chip in Peter's hand.
"But I do hate to see good technology go to waste."
He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a thermos.
"And I recall that the... Spider... has a very high metabolism. And a fondness for Earl Grey."
He handed the thermos to Peter. It was warm.
"Sebastian," Peter whispered, tears welling up in his eyes. "You remember."
"I remember everything, kid," Sebastian said, breaking character for just a heartbeat. "Demons are notoriously hard to edit."
He stepped back, buttoning his coat against the draft.
"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a Sanctum to clean. The Wizard is very messy when he saves reality."
He turned to leave.
"Wait!" Peter stepped into the hall. "Why? Why didn't you tell Strange? Why didn't you tell them?"
Sebastian stopped. He didn't look back.
"Because the Young Master Tony Stark trusted you to make the hard call," Sebastian said softly. "And you did. You chose to be forgotten to save them. It was... a very Butler thing to do."
He walked down the dark hallway, his footsteps silent.
"Do try to fix the window, Mr. Parker. Spiders are not fond of the cold."
[The Gift]
Peter stood in the doorway for a long time.
He looked at the thermos. He opened it. The smell of hot, high-quality tea—the same tea Sebastian used to serve at the Compound—filled the sad little apartment.
He looked at the micro-chip. It was a piece of Stark Tech. A piece of the past. A piece of hope.
He wasn't completely alone. The world had forgotten him, his friends had forgotten him... but the Demon remembered.
Peter wiped his eyes. He walked back inside. He took the blanket off the sewing machine.
He took a sip of the tea. It was perfect.
"Thanks, Seb," Peter whispered.
He pressed the foot pedal. The machine whirred to life.
He began to sew the red and blue suit.
[The Sanctum Sanctorum. The Library.]
Sebastian walked into the Sanctum. It was quiet. The snow was gone.
Doctor Strange was floating in a meditative pose, reading a book.
"You're late," Strange said without looking up.
"Traffic," Sebastian lied smoothly, hanging up his coat.
"Did you find the anomaly?" Strange asked. "I felt a flicker in the spell. A loose thread in Queens."
Sebastian paused. He picked up a feather duster.
"A loose thread?" Sebastian mused. "No, Doctor. I checked the area. It was just... the wind."
"Good," Strange turned the page. "We can't afford any more cracks in the Multiverse. If anyone remembers Peter Parker... the spell fails."
"Indeed," Sebastian dusted a relic. "It would be catastrophic."
He smiled to himself.
"But rest assured, Doctor. Your secret is safe with me."
Because, Sebastian thought as he looked out the window toward Queens, a secret tastes much sweeter when you are the only one eating it.
[End of Arc 10]
_________________________________________________________________________
🔥 Hey legends! Quick updates! 🔥
💥 Can't wait for the next chapter? Good news—ALL advance chapters are available on Patreon for just $5! No more waiting, just pure binge-reading goodness! 🚀
👉 patreon.com/cyci07
✨ Power Stone Challenge! ✨
If we hit 100 power stones, I'll drop 2 bonus chapters! Let's see if you guys can make me suffer! 😂
💬 Enjoying the story? Leave a review and let me know your favorite moment so far! It helps the novel grow and reach more readers!
Thanks for all your support—you guys are awesome! ❤️