Requested by: VioletHewitt

Prompt: #17

"I've already died, nothing scares me anymore."

Warnings: None

Extra: So sorry for the wait, I've been super busy with my non-Wattpad life and finishing up Mutant and Proud. Enjoy!

~*~

It was dark.

There was nothing but darkness. There was no feeling, nothing to listen to, nothing for her to stand on. There was nothing. Nothing was worse than a nightmare, it made (Y/n) think the worst about what was to come.

Then, there was a small light. Flickering, in and out, but it was there. (Y/n) tried to think of some way to move herself towards it. She reached out, at least, she thought she did. She couldn't see her hand, and she couldn't feel herself moving, it was more of a thought that she knew would happen.

She felt like she was getting closer to the light. It had stopped flickering and it was slowly getting brighter and larger. Sweet relief flooded through her as she got a taste of the light. It was beautiful.

Then, she felt a tug on her other hand, that's what it seemed to be. She was being pulled away from the light. (Y/n) thought of screaming out, and she heard the sound reverberating through her head.

The light was gone, and she was alone in darkness again. She felt her lungs tightening, she couldn't breath, she couldn't think, what was happening? She felt another tug, and her entire body began to hurt, like she was being dipped in boiling water. There was a new kind of light, it was grey, neutral. Neither Heaven nor Hell.

(Y/n) thought she closed her eyes, she couldn't see the grey light anymore, but she could still feel it. Half of her felt warm and the other half felt cold. There was one last tug, and she was pulled in completely.

"(Y/n), time for school!"

(Y/n) sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes. She sighed, getting up to get ready for school.

After putting clothes on and doing everything she needed to in the bathroom she met her parents in the kitchen. Her mom handed her breakfast, pausing when she saw the blank look in her daughter's eyes again.

"You had the dream again, didn't you?"

"It wasn't a dream," (Y/n) whispered, "You know that."

"We know," (Y/n)'s dad joined the conversation, "We also know that you told us it was getting better last week."

"How much better can it get?" (Y/n) snapped. She took in a deep breath before talking again, "I'm sorry, it's just hard dealing with everything."

"Well you could always drop your extracurricular," (Y/n)'s mom gave her a pointed look.

"You know I can't do that," (Y/n) finished her breakfast and grabbed her backpack, "I'll see you guys later."

"Bye (Y/n)!"

(Y/n) left her apartment building and began to walk down the street. The only thing on her mind was the 'dream'. It wasn't a dream, it was a memory. They always appeared at random times, but sleep was when they were most prominent.

Her 'parents' knew about them, and they did what they could to help her get through them, but therapy really wasn't an option and there wasn't medication for suppressing memories as powerful as the ones she got.

Her parents weren't really her parents either. She was adopted by them two years, and they were the best, and only, family she had ever had. She was lucky to get adopted in the first place. Older kids were rarely ever adopted, parents wanting to raise someone from their childhood. But her parents were a bit older and understood that raising someone who was older would make more sense. It took (Y/n) a year to open up to them, and that was after a bad episode.

From what records she could find, her birth parents had died in a car crash. She died too. But that was a whole other thing together. The source of her bad memories before she got out of the situation thanks to a close friend.

Aunt May made brownies yesterday and she told me to bring you some so I have brownies for you now

(Y/n) stared at her phone as she walked. Her thumb hovered over the keyboard before she shook her head and turned her device off. Her bad dream just seemed to allude to the bad day she knew she was going to have.

She had to break up with Peter Parker.

She didn't even plan on falling for him in the first place, but he was just so smart, and kind, and hot, that she couldn't help herself. While he didn't know she was a hero, he knew that she was in that car accident and she went into a coma for years - that was the official story at least- so he helped integrate her into society. Thanks to him she knew everything she needed to know about being a teen. If only he taught her how to break up with someone.

She didn't want to, it was the last thing she ever wanted to do, but her job as a hero was becoming harder and harder, even with the help of her partner in stopping crime, Spider-Man.

On top of that she didn't want anyone from the Hand or any villains to find out about Peter and go after him to get to her. So, in the classic 'I'm doing this to protect you' scenario, (Y/n) prepared herself to break Peter's heart.

Even imagining how sad he would be made her want to turn around and walked back home, pretending to be sick for the rest of her life so she didn't have to go back to school ever again.

"Good morning Midtown High, in today's news, a rabid racoon got into the trash cans behind the school, and one of the lunch ladies is out getting rabies shots. Get well soon Linda."

"Hey (Y/n)," MJ approached (Y/n), "You alright? You look like you're dying."

"Haha," (Y/n) deadpanned.

MJ, being the conspiracy theorist she was, was the first to figure out what really happened with (Y/n). Well, she figured out that she died, (Y/n) explained the rest in small increments throughout the years.

"No, but seriously, do you need to go home? You look sick."

"I can't get sick," (Y/n) sighed, stopping at her locker, "MJ I need to break up with Peter."

"That's going to go great," MJ said sarcastically.

"Shut up, I need to protect him," (Y/n) paused as a group of friends walked past them, "Do you know what the Hand could do to him?"

"You're really letting this become a 'I'm doing this to protect you' scenario?"

"I said the same thing to myself on the walk here," (Y/n) told MJ, "But I have to do it."

"Well, as a beautiful, beautiful man once said in the song of the century, if you love me let me go," MJ mock saluted before she left for class.

(Y/n) huffed, pulling open her locker and depositing her lunch box. She peeked out from behind the metal door to see if Peter was anywhere near her. She didn't see him, but she did see a birds fly by the window near her locker.

"It's okay, it's alright," a soothing voice cooed as (Y/n) wept on the floor, "I've been through what you have. The darkness, being ripped from the light. I know how scared you felt. Like a bird, unable to fly."

"Who are you," (Y/n) gasped out.

"My name is Alexandra Reid. I'm going to teach you everything you need to know."

"(Y/n)?"

(Y/n) blinked rapidly, tearing her eyes away from the window. She turned to make eye contact with Peter. She felt her heart break a little. He looked so happy, so full of life, no pun intended. She felt evil for what she was about to do.

"Peter," (Y/n) closed her locker, holding her books close to her chest, "I want to break up with you."

Peter's smile fell from his face, "What? Why?"

"I can't- I shouldn't be dating, not with everything going on in my life. I'm sorry Peter," (Y/n) touched Peter's shoulder before she walked away, feeling tears gathering in her eyes. She quickly wiped them away, flinching when someone bumped into her.

"Tears aren't permitted. Emotion isn't permitted. Emotion will prevent you from your mission. Is that what you want?"

"No ma'am."

"Good. I didn't think so. Now, wipe your tears. The next time I see them you'll be put through conditioning again."

(Y/n) entered class and sat down in her seat, her muscle memory leading the way as she stared blankly in front of her. She knew this would be one of those days, full of memories.

With what just happened, bring it on.

~*~

"Hey Spidey, what's got you so upset?" (Y/n) sat down next to Spider-Man on the roof of a random apartment building.

"I've had a bad day," he stated, staring straight ahead.

"You wanna talk about it?"

Spider-Man shrugged, "I got broken up with. I didn't even get a real reason. She said she shouldn't be dating, but...I could see in her eyes that there was something she wasn't telling me, she was holding back."

(Y/n) felt recognition form in her mind. She opened her mouth to say something before her com began to ring. She stood, making a motion for Spider-Man to wait a second while she took the call.

"Hello?"

"Hey (Y/n), just checking in to make sure everything is going alright."

"My parents told you about the nightmare didn't they?"

"No..."

"You know, for someone who can hear heartbeats you suck at lying Matt," (Y/n) smiled slightly, "I'm okay, today was just a bad day."

"Well if you want, tomorrow we can go out and do something, I don't have any cases right now so I'll be open."

"That'd be nice. I'm on patrol right now so I'll talk to you later Matt."

(Y/n) ended the call and sat down next to Spider-Man again. There was a small silence before he spoke up.

"Is Matt your boyfriend?"

(Y/n) let out a bitter laugh, "No, seems like life just loves to mess with us today Spidey, I broke up with my boyfriend today."

"Love sucks."

"Amen to that," (Y/n) stood again, brushing off the pants of her suit as if they were dirty, "Wanna see something cool?"

"Sure, why not."

(Y/n) looked around the roof before she saw a discarded cigarette butt. She bent down and picked it up, her nose wrinkling in disgust as she thought about who had used this before.

"Okay. Three, two, one."

The cigarette butt began to shift, its form taking on that of a candy. (Y/n) held it out to Spider-Man, who looked at it warily.

"I changed the molecules of it. There's nothing reaming that was a cigarette."

Spider-Man took the sweet from (Y/n)'s hand, hesitantly eating it. All was silent for a few moments before Spider-Man spoke up again.

"It's good."

"Took me a few tries to get it right, but, eventually I could change the molecules of things entirely," (Y/n) stated, staring out at the New York skyline.

From the street below there seemed to be a traffic issue. A few cars began honking at one another. It was a normal occurrence in New York, but with the day she had been having already, something about it set (Y/n) off and she felt herself being pulled away from the current time.

"Again."

(Y/n) huffed out a tired breath. She reached up and wiped both sweat and blood from her brow. She was too young for this, and yet she had been doing it for years.

HONK!

(Y/n) winced as a loud horn rang through the air. Alexandra kept the button pressed the button until she knew (Y/n)'s attention was solely on her.

"Again," she said, more firmly this time.

"Hey, you alright?"

(Y/n) shook her head as Spider-Man put a hand on her shoulder. She felt her hands shaking in her lap. She knew if she was standing then her knees would be shaking as well.

"I'm...I'm fine," (Y/n) mumbled.

"Are you sure?" Peter looked to the street below, "Are you afraid of the horns or something?"

"I've already died, nothing scares me anymore," (Y/n) sighed, rubbing her arm.

"You died?" Spider-Man's eye lenses widened, "Do you mean you really died or was it a Sherlock thing where everyone thought you did but you were just being a hero?"

(Y/n) chuckled, "I really died. Um, when I was younger, I got into a car crash...My parents didn't make it, and I almost didn't. But this organization called The Hand saw potential in me. They have these old ways of how to bring someone back to life and they brought me back. When I came back I had my powers. The next few years I trained under them, until Matt helped me get away."

"Is he a hero too? Cause I haven't heard of him, he hasn't fought with Captain America or anything has he?"

"No, he's Daredevil actually," (Y/n) leaned back on her forearms, "Probably shouldn't have told you that but you don't know his last name so it's fine."

As Spider-Man had more time to process (Y/n)'s story, he noticed some similarities between hers and the girl who just broke up with him. Both of them were in a car crash, both of them lost their parents, and both of them lost years of their lives.

When MJ was talking about conspiracy theories she always said that coincidence was an explanation used by fools and liars.

"Hey, uh, we've been working together for awhile now right?" Spider-Man turned to (Y/n).

"Yeah," (Y/n) gave Spider-Man a look of confusion.

"We have, right," Spider-Man stood up, (Y/n) following his action, "And if I'm right, then this is fine."

Spider-Man reached up and tugged off his mask. He knew his hair was everywhere, as it always was after he pulled his mask off, but it wasn't going to make him unrecognizable.

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!" (Y/n) took a step back. One of her hands went over her heart, while the other hovered over her mouth.

"Yeah, I'm Spider-Man," Peter shrugged sheepishly. All was silent for a few moments, "This is supposed to be the part where you show me who you are."

"You're going to hate me," (Y/n) muttered, but she pulled off her mask all the same, "Surprise."

The two stared at each other for a few moments, neither of them knowing what to do. Peter was right in his guess that (Y/n) was his hero partner, and (Y/n) was in shock because (Y/n) broke up with Peter to protect him from the hero world.

"Are things going to be awkward now?" Peter broke the silence first.

"I'm um, I'm not sure," (Y/n) laughed awkwardly, "But, I broke up with you to protect you, look how that turned out."

"You thought breaking up with me to protect me would be better than telling me who you were so you could protect both of us?"

"Yes...You know I'm not good with these sorts of things!" (Y/n) threw her hands up.

"Is that the only reason?"

"Honestly, yeah. You've been boyfriend and it hurt, a lot, knowing I had to break up with you."

"So, what do we do now?" Peter's eyes sparkled with hope.

"Well, I'm constantly a mess, I get flashbacks, and I broke up with you. But, now that we know who each other are-"

"Yes!' Peter ran towards (Y/n) and pulled her into a hug, spinning her in a circle before setting her down again.

"You didn't even let me finish," (Y/n) laughed.

"I read between the lines," Peter chuckled.

The two shared another hug, both of them laughing about the circumstances. (Y/n) had a grin so wide that her cheeks began to hurt.

Her horrible day just got a whole lot better.