Or you'll just say he's not the same, and you'll begin to wonder why you came. [ narrative ]
He didn't smell of sulfur. That was what May would remember, in bitter annoyance, when she thought back to this night. Her kidnapper didn't smell of sulfur. Reilly smelt of sulfur - or at least his teleportations did. She should've noticed that the moment she stepped outside the door after giving Benjy a kiss goodnight.
But all she felt was that familiar tingle. The one that said 'Reilly'. It was a comfort, the way maybe it always had been, even if she didn't know why. May had always trusted Darkdevil. Even though she'd heard all the rumors - violent vigilante, a monster in hero's clothing, wanted by the police, some sort of demon, not a man to be trusted. She'd even confirmed that some of those rumors were true. Yet she always knew, in her heart, that he'd never hurt her or her family.
Because he was family, and maybe some part of her had always known that.
"Welcome home, Mayday."
Yet - despite everything, May stopped in her tracks. She knew that voice. It was a comforting voice, so much like her's father's. Like - she assumed - late Uncle Ben's. But there were things in it May had never heard before. A weird sort of wistfulness. A subtle madness. She swallowed, hard, and looked up at the man smirking on her rooftop. She waited for that tiny tingle she felt so often in the Nexus. The one that that told her: alternate.
It never came.
"Reilly... ? Reilly Tyne?"
He threw back his head, laughed, and that was when she saw it. The patch over his eye. "What happened to your-"
She didn't see his weapon. She just heard the sound.
Bang.
May glimpsed strands of her hair as they floated past, the bullet whizzing by with them. It wasn't until much later that she'd realize she was breathing heavy. May had never been good with head injuries. Seeing them. Getting them. Not since the night Phil... she touched her head, feeling no wound, but still feeling the phantom blood. Phil's blood. It had been all over her hands. Blood and bits of Phil - his head, she'd tried so hard to put it back together, oh god - May swallowed hard again. Bit her lip.
"Don't scream." The clone told her. "Don't cry. You're going to need your eyes if you want a chance of beating me. Sorry, I know it's not right, messing with your head like that... heh. Head. But anyway! Desperate times, desperate measur-"
The clone reeled backwards from the blow. There was a tunnel left in the pavement, where he'd clenched his feet as he slid, clinging to the ground to stop his momenetum. "I don't know what you are. Who you are. I know who you look like, but if you do anything like that again, don't think it'll stop me fro-"
She leapt over him as his fist went flying. "Excuse me! I was talking, Reilly! I mean... not Reilly. Let me finish." Then, with a thwip!, and a turn of her torso to avoid his next punch, she webbed the gun. Tugged it out of his hand and crushed it in hers. "Now, whatever's going on here, let's talk about it like adults. You know. Instead of playing mind games with bullets."
The clone glowered. "I missed you." Then, he blushed and almost flailed. "I mean, the bullet! The bullet missed you! On purpose. I am a good shot."
"I know," May said softly. "If you're talking about what happened on that island, I know. But you really didn't need to prove it by shooting at me, crazy alternate. Or whatever you are."
"'Whatever you are'?" The clone repeated. Laughed Reilly's laugh. "I think you know what I am, Mayday. I am one of them. The part of our legacy no one likes to discuss because those rousing speeches about responsibility are so much more entertaining, so less confusing. You know what I am. Of course, what else would I be? I couldn't inherit anything from my father - you took it all. The costume. The weaponry. Nothing but the name for me. I am the same as Kaine. The same as my father. So much like the May you try so hard to forget."
May raised her fists. "You're a clone," she repeated. More for her own sake, to remind herself it wasn't really Reilly, than for clarification.
'Reilly' tapped his bingo. "Bingo. You're slow, sometimes, but you're quick to understand the heart of things. That's why you were his favorite."
May started dancing around the duplicate. "'His'. You're clones. Don't you mean 'that's why you were my favorite'?"
He advanced on her far faster than she expected. May knew, logically, that she was the faster of the two. Maybe because she was a girl, she didn't know, but it was true. It's just that she'd forgotten how fast Reilly could be.
She would not forget next time. The bruise would not let her forget. "Don't you dare compare me to Tyne. Don't you dare."
She flipped out of the way of the next punch. Dodged the kick. Repelled him across the yard as he charged. The idea was to exhaust him. Stupid as it was, even after he'd shot at her, May didn't want to hurt him. Because he had Reilly's face. Maybe because he had Reilly's face, but not all of Reilly's eyes. It had always been a fault of hers, trusting people.
May remembered talking with someone in the Nexus once, as she saw the clone pull out something new. Something that sparked. She wasn't sure who it was now - Hobby, maybe, or Peter. Someone older. The other Norman? No, she thought it was someone worried. May had done what she always did these days. She joked.
She didn't use to be such a kidder. She didn't use to dream of blood on her suit. Blood that was not her own.
"Hey, don't worry, I know it's probably going to get me killed someday."
"That was a terrible joke," May whined. The clone looked at her, confused. She almost laughed. Reilly had the best weirded out expression. May didn't have time to explain, though, because the clone was advancing on her again with his whatever it was. Then he was behind her, pointing it at her neck. May clocked him with the back of one fist, webbed it, and bravely resisted the temptation to make a vampire crack.
Then she realized what she was holding. Why the clone was grinning. Why her spider-sense had begun to pound harder than ever. The webbed device sparked in her hands.
The last thing May would hear for a while was the sound of someone being shocked. Screaming.
It wasn't until May woke up that she would realize she'd been hearing herself.