Chapter Text
Peter felt like he was drowning.
Everything was dark.
His senses were screaming at him from every direction, but there was nothing for him to see, nothing to grab onto, nothing to tell him where he was. His lungs burned as he instinctively tried to breathe, only for the strange liquid surrounding him to rush into his nose and mouth.
Panic surged through him.
He thrashed.
His body immediately punished him for it.
Pain tore through every muscle, every joint, every bone. It was overwhelming-far worse than anything he was used to feeling. Peter normally healed quickly. Pain was something he could push through.
This was different.
His movements became frantic.
His hands swept through the liquid until his fingers struck something solid above him.
Glass.
Peter shoved against it.
Nothing.
He pushed harder.
Still nothing.
His chest burned.
His heart hammered.
His spider-sense was going completely haywire.
He slammed his fist into the glass.
CRACK.
Peter recoiled as pain shot through his hand.
He struck it again.
CRACK.
Again.
CRASH.
The glass finally shattered.
Fragments scattered through the liquid as Peter forced himself through the opening, scraping against the broken edges in his desperation to escape.
He dragged himself onto the cold broken cement floor.
For several seconds, he could do nothing but lie there.
He coughed violently, his entire body shaking as he desperately sucked air into his lungs.
His vision swam.
Nothing around him made sense.
Green light flickered across the stone walls. Strange shapes and carvings surrounded him. Behind him, the liquid he'd been trapped inside rippled softly.
Peter tried to push himself up.
His arms buckled.
He caught himself against the floor before collapsing completely.
His stomach twisted.
He suddenly vomited bright green bile onto the ground.
He gagged hard, coughing between breaths as his entire body shook. His hands pressed weakly against the ground, fingers slipping slightly against the damp stone as another wave of nausea hit him.
His stomach cramped painfully.
Peter retched again, his shoulders jerking with the force of it. His eyes watered, his breathing coming in short, uneven gasps afterward.
He tried to steady himself, but another nauseating wave rolled through him.
His body folded in on itself as he vomited again, completely exhausted and unable to understand what was happening to him.
When it finally stopped, Peter remained on his side, trembling.
He wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand and stared blankly at the floor.
His breathing was still ragged.
His vision was still swimming.
He stayed there.
Completely still.
His fingers dug into the stone beneath him as he tried to steady himself.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
He slowly lifted one trembling hand and stared at it.
It didn't look injured.
But it *felt* like it was.
His breathing remained uneven.
He looked around again.
Dark chamber.
Green light.
Ancient stone.
The strange pool.
Broken glass.
None of it triggered a memory.
Peter's eyes darted around the room, searching desperately for anything familiar.
Nothing.
His senses continued screaming.
He couldn't tell where he was.
He couldn't remember how he'd gotten there.
God he felt sick.
He felt tears prickle at the corners of his eyes, he felt like a useless kid again.
Peter took a deep, shaky breath.
“1... 2... 3... breathe... come on, **REDACTED**. You got this, buddy...”
A familiar voice echoed in his head, he couldn't hear some of the words it said.
A face flashed through his memory, someone he knew, someone important, but it was too hazy to make out.
Peter slowly sat up, wincing as he glanced down at his arms. Cuts from the shattered glass were still bleeding, thin trails running down his skin.
His black shirt was torn and soaked through. His sweatpants were shredded, one side ripped all the way up his thigh while the other was torn away up to his knee.
He stared down at himself, confused before trying to stand and falling back down.
He hadn't noticed the bruising on his ankle, it was swollen and definitly broken; he grabbed onto the side of whatever container- or PIT he had been in to drag himself up.
God his body hurt, it felt like he was crushed by a building, his vision swam as his foot touched the ground.
He felt towards his ear, he felt like he should have something in it but he didn't, why couldn't he remember anything?