Work Text:
A shift in the clock tower's gears was enough to make the webline snap.
Gwen Stacy was falling.
Wind roared in her ears, everything around her was crumbling and falling apart, but all she could see was Peter.
Jumping after her, reaching out… too far away and far too late.
He wouldn’t make it.
Her back would collide with the ground, and she’d be dead.
She wanted to tell him it’s alright, that it wasn’t his fault. To tell him one last time that she loved him. But there wasn’t any time. She was falling.
Losing consciousness, the last thing she felt was how something wrapped itself around her middle.
A split second of relief.
Peter had caught her in time.
She would be alr-
🕷
CRACK.
Gwen woke up gasping for air, her body still trembling from the aftershock of the fall. Confused, she let her hands roam over the soft mattress underneath her.
Had it all been a dream? No, that couldn’t be; it had felt so real. Maybe Peter had caught her and brought her home after she lost consciousness. Maybe-
Her train of thought stopped when she took in her surroundings for the first time. She was on a small bed in the corner of an unfamiliar room. The sun was shining through a big window, bathing the room and its furniture in a golden light.
Where was she?
Gwen got up and carefully moved around the small flat. Once she was sure that she was alone, Gwen let out a sigh of relief.
There was something off about this apartment. She couldn’t quite put a finger on what it was, but something about the furniture sent shivers down her spine. Everything seemed familiar, but at the same time, she was sure she’d never been here before.
How did she get here? Did Peter-
Peter.
The memories of the night before came crashing back. She spotted her coat hanging close to the door, and Gwen practically ran over to it, her hands starting to tremble as she fumbled for her phone.
When she finally felt the cold metal, she jerked the device out of the pocket. But the phone she was holding wasn’t hers. It was much bigger, with a screen that covered the whole front.
Gwen stared at the locked screen, demanding something called ‘Face ID’. Not knowing what to expect, she swiped up anyway and… it unlocked.
In hindsight, she should have realized that her strange luck was more than a coincidence, but in that moment, she was too focused on contacting Peter to stop and think about the possible implications of that.
She went through all the contacts on the phone, some names she recognised but most of them she didn’t. And more importantly, there wasn’t anything under P.
Why should a stranger's phone have his number? A voice in her head berated her.
Gwen rubbed her hands over her face, trying to remember Peter's number. But every combination she tried ended the same way.
‘Beep…Beep…Beep… the number you dialed is not in service’
Frustrated, Gwen stuffed the phone back into the jacket. What was she supposed to do now?
After five minutes of pacing, she decided to swing around Peter’s place.
Gwen put on the jacket and a pair of sneakers that were standing in the hallway. Whoever lived here didn’t seem to need them at the moment, and her own shoes were nowhere to be found. Plus, the flat owner and herself appeared to share the same shoe size. She found her handbag standing on the table in the kitchen and quickly threw it over her shoulder before leaving the flat.
Once outside, it took a while for her to find out where exactly in New York she was. But to Gwen’s relief, she soon came across a familiar area and was able to find her way to Peter's house without further trouble.
However, he wasn’t home. In fact, his name wasn’t even on the doorbell.
“Are you here to see Miles?” a young voice behind her piped up, making Gwen jump.
She turned around to face a small girl with tight black curls.
“What?” Gwen asked.
The girl raised an eyebrow and said “Miles, my brother?” as if that would clear everything up.
“Uh, no? I’m here to visit Peter…” The girl gave her an unimpressed look, so Gwen numbly added: “Peter Parker? He lives in this house with his aunt.”
Two big brown eyes stared at Gwen.
“I think you’ve got the wrong address, Miss. I would know if my brother’s Spider-Man.” She giggled like Gwen was the silliest person she had heard all day.
“Who said anything about Spider-Man?” Gwen laughed nervously, “I only want to visit Peter.”
The little girl only giggled at her words. “Have you been living under a rock? It’s all over the news! Peter Parker is Spider-Man.”
Gwen’s stomach dropped like a stone at her words. There were a few beats of silence before the girl continued.
“Ookay… Well, my family lives in this house, sooo…” she said skeptically when she saw the shock on Gwen’s face. Then a thought crossed the girl's face. “Are you friends with Spider-Man?”
That woke Gwen out of her stupor. “Eh no, we must be talking about different Peters. Very common name, you know? I need to go now. You were right; I had the wrong, uh, address,” she spluttered, already turning on her heels and hastily backing away.
The little girl shouted something after her, but Gwen was already halfway down the street.
What was happening? How did the press find out about Spider-Man’s identity? And where was Peter now? When had he and May moved? And why had he never mentioned it?
Lost in thought, she walked aimlessly through New York until she ended up in time square. Her eyes lazily jumped from one shiny ad to the next before zeroing in on one.
It felt like somebody yanked the floor from under her feet. Spider-Man’s mask was displayed on every other billboard with blinking text running under it reading:
Two months after Spider-Man’s identity was revealed! What happened to our friendly neighborhood spider?
The photo of a teenager got shown next to Spider-Man’s mask with the name Peter Parker flashing next to it. She frowned. Why was that boy posing as Spider-Man?
Then her eyes landed on something even stranger; in the far left of the big screen, the time and date were displayed. But the channel must have made a mistake because the date read: 11/14/2024.
Gwen found herself struggling to breathe, heart violently beating in her chest and the busy noises surrounding her cancelled out by the blood rush in her ears.
She fumbled for the strange smartphone she’d pocketed earlier. Opening up the browser app, she quickly typed: What year is it?
2 0 2 4
How could that be? Yesterday had been 2014.
Her legs gave out under her, and Gwen sank to the ground, trying to get her breathing back to normal.
She couldn’t get her mind to stop from racing. If it really was 2024, then what had happened to her? Had she lost her memory? What about her mother or her two little brothers? And where was Peter? Who was that kid posing as Spider-Man?
“You okay?” a worried voice asked from above.
Without looking up, she shook her head barely choking out a “No.”
“Okay, there’s a bench to your right. Do you mind me helping you to stand up?” the stranger asked softly. She gave a short nod, and two hands gently helped her up and guided her to a nearby bench.
After she got her breath back under control, Gwen glimpsed up. Next to her sat a man in his mid-thirties with short brown hair and kind blue eyes.
“What happened? I mean, you obviously don't have to tell me, since we don’t know each other, but I uh- you looked like you could use someone to talk to.” She smiled at his words, his awkward rambling reminding her of Peter.
“Yeah, I guess I could use someone to talk to… I’m just not sure if you’ll believe me. Hell, I’m not even sure if I believe this isn’t a dream,” she began cautiously.
“Try me,” the man said with a strange expression.
“Well: I woke up this morning in a flat I’ve never been to before. I have no idea where my mom or my brothers are, my boyfriend is MIA, and the last time I saw him, he was in a pretty tight situation, so now I’m worried something might have happened. Oh, and apparently it’s fucking 2024 now, although it was 2014 yesterday.” The words came bubbling out, and her breath became shallow once more as her frustration grew. “And THAT,'' she spat, pointing at the teenager on the big billboard, “is not Peter Parker!”
The man silently listened, eyebrows raising at her last words. “You know him?”
“Seriously? That’s what you want to focus on? Not that, oh I don’t know, IT’S 2024 !?” she exclaimed.
The stranger gave a nonchalant shrug. “Well it was 2024 for me yesterday, so…”
Gwen's heart sank; he must think she’s a total lunatic. Before she could say anything, the man spoke again.
“But I agree that he isn’t Peter Parker…Or at least not the only Peter,” he continued, a thoughtful look making its way onto his face.
“What?” Gwen’s words made the stranger jump as if he'd forgotten she was there.
“I- Uh… Nothing, I’m just thinking out loud.” It didn’t look like nothing. Gwen cast the man a suspicious look.
He stared right back out of the corner of his eyes, as if searching for something. After a few more moments of silence, the man awkwardly cleared his throat and asked:
“What’s your name?”
She hesitated, “Gwen.”
A strange expression flickered over the man’s face. “Gwen Stacy?”
Gwen’s mouth fell open. “How-?”
“Interesting,” was all he said.
She crossed her arms in front of her chest.
“I used to know someone with that name,” he explained with a bashful smile. “Oh! I’m Peter, by the way.”
Anger sparked in her chest. “Very funny. And I assume your last name is Parker.”
He gave her an apologetic smile and Gwen's anger vaporized. He didn’t look like someone who went around playing with distressed strangers feelings.
“Seriously?” she asked weakly.
“Yeah…sorry I-“ he hesitated, “I feel like I’m starting to understand what’s going on, but I need to check a few other places first,” Not-her-Peter said while getting his phone out. “How about I give you my number, and we meet up later today. Then I’ll tell you what I’ve found out?”
Gwen stalled, “Why should I trust anything you say?”
“You probably shouldn’t,” he said earnestly, “But I’m your best bet. Listen, I’m in the same situation as you. Yesterday I was at home, reading a bedtime story to my daughter and waiting for my wife to come home from work. The next thing I know is I’m suddenly here… and my family isn’t. I want to get home as badly as you do.”
“Home? I- but this is New York. What-“ Gwen stuttered.
“Yes, but not our New York.”
She let out a laugh. “Oh yeah? And what else should this be? Unless we’ve been transported into an alternative universe… oh.” she trailed off. Suddenly everything made sense, the strange apartment that felt so familiar, her phone that wasn’t hers after all and Peter. Her throat tightened at the thought. Her Peter not being there.
“String theory and Multidimensional reality…all real.” She let out a choked laugh. “Oh, Peter would love this! - My Peter...” A thought occurred to her. “Wait, are you- does that mean you’re Peter Parker but from another universe?”
“Yeah? Probably not entirely…but that’s not what’s important right now,” Not-her-Peter said.
Gwen nodded. “We need to find out why we’re here.”
“And how to get back.”
🕷
They split up after exchanging numbers, and Gwen spent the next few hours doing a bit of research of her own. What she found only confused her more.
Apparently, there had been something called ‘the blip’. At first, she thought that maybe the blip could be the cause of her not remembering the last decade, but she quickly found out that the dates didn’t match up, the blip appeared to be a singular occurrence, and it wouldn’t explain why they had ended up in an alternate universe either, after that realization she abandoned that idea.
Gwen was about to deep dive further into a group of hero’s calling themselves ‘the Avengers’, when her phone vibrated.
The display read: incoming call from Peter 2.
Gwen had added the ‘2’ after saving his number in her phone; the digit made it easier for her to separate the two men.
The noise of her phone earned her a scolding look from the librarian sitting behind her counter.
Not bothering with small talk, Gwen picked up her phone and whispered: “What did you find?”
“Are you okay? Why are you whispering?” Peter 2 asked, concern creeping into his voice.
“I’m fine, trying to research at the library,” she explained.
“Ah, okay. Found anything interesting?”
“Nothing that would help us, just more evidence that this isn’t my universe. You?”
“Same here.”
A resigned silence spread between the two of them.
“What do we do next?” Gwen asked after a while.
A sigh from Peter 2. “I feel like it’s all got something to do with the Peter kid of this world… call it a hunch, but I think he needs our help. I-“ He stopped abruptly, not two seconds later there was a sudden hissing sound like a fire cracking into life on his end of the line.
“Everything alright over there?” she demanded, but all she got as an answer was a distracted:
“Gotta go.”
“PETER!” she hissed, earning herself another chastising glare from the librarian.
She cursed under her breath and sent him a text.
8:24 pm
Gwen: ???
8:25
Gwen: U ok?
She received an answer 10 minutes later.
8:35 pm
P2: Found a lead. Don’t worry. I’ll update you the moment I find out more.
With nothing better to do, Gwen made her way back to the flat she had woken up in. She had found the keys to the apartment in the bag she’d picked up before storming out of the flat earlier today, while going through the contents of it.
Once she arrived at the apartment, there wasn’t much she could do except wait. Every now and again, she received cryptic updates from Peter 2:
9:06 pm
P2: Found two more Peters! One of them is the kid from the news.
9:23 pm
P2: Know how we got here! Too long to write, I’ll explain later.
9:40 pm
P2: Working on a way to get us home. There’s something else we need to take care of first.
Gwen frowned. What could possibly be more important than going home?
Trying to distract herself, she turned on the TV. In the end, the exhaustion of the day got to her and Gwen fell into a restless sleep.
“Ladies and gentlemen…The Bugle tip line has just received a call from none other than the fugitive known as Spider-Man!” the penetrating voice of J. Jonah Jameson echoed out of the TV, waking Gwen in the process.
Confused, she checked the time on her phone: 2:36 am. There was also a message she’d missed from Peter 2 while she had been asleep.
11:11 pm
P2: What’s the last thing you remember before coming here?
“And where is ‘here’ exactly?” the voice of Jameson caught Gwen’s attention once more.
“A place that represents second chances.” the kid said, and the camera swung to reveal…
“The Statue of Liberty? Good God, folks, he’s about to destroy another national landmark!” Jameson sneered, but Gwen wasn’t listening anymore.
The Statue of Liberty? What was the kid trying to achieve? She wondered whether Peter 2 was there too. Without a second thought, she shot up and made her way out of the door.
🕷
About half an hour later, she finally stood in front of a giant construction site, where in her universe would have been the Statue of Liberty.
It was eerily quiet when she trespassed onto the building site. No shouting nor noises of a fight close at hand, only the wind rattling through the tarpaulin of the construction. As she got closer to the base of the statue, Gwen thought she could hear the faint metallic sound of footsteps echoing from the top. Determined, she started to make her way up.
She didn’t get very far; about two stories into her climb, deafening thunder roared over the sky, and Gwen had to steady herself on the railing. Slowly she inched closer to the edge of the construction in the hope of seeing what caused the disruption.
She almost gasped at the sight unfolding in front of her. Three Spider-Man were fighting what looked like a version of the Electro her Peter had been fighting. Watching the three vigilantes soaring through the air was mesmerizing. Just as she wondered how high the chances were of one of them being the Peter from her universe, something went wrong and one of them got hit by a crane after one of them shot a web and missed his target. As a result, one Spider-Man was hurled into her direction.
Gwen jumped out of the way as Spider-Man crashed into the construction and was buried under some poles.
“Peter?” she asked hopefully as she drew nearer to the pile of rubble.
Coughing, Spider-Man took his mask off to reveal the face of Peter 2 underneath it.
“What are you doing here?” he croaked disorientedly as he attempted to get out from under the metallic bars that had fallen onto him in the crash.
Feeling a bit stupid for getting her hopes up, Gwen ignored him and asked “Why didn’t you tell me you’re Spider-Man?” while helping him to remove the last bit of fallen rubble.
Peter 2 got up and stretched his back with a groan. “Why do I have to keep repeating myself? Is the word secret in secret identity really that surprising?” A crashing sound from above them made both their heads snap up. “You didn’t answer my question; why are you here?” he asked, pulling her towards the stairs leading down.
“I saw the kid on the news and thought-“ she started defensively, but Peter 2 cut her off.
“What? That you should run towards danger?”
“Hey! Listen, nobody makes my decisions for me. All right? Nobody- ah!” She yelped as Peter 2 grabbed her and swung them both off the side of the construction and down to the ground.
“Hey! Not cool.” she said a bit out of breath.
“Stay out of this, alright?” was all he said before swinging away again.
Gwen let out a frustrated sigh and started to walk towards the statue again. At that moment, a sandstorm encased the whole construction.
“What the-?” she screamed incredulously and took cover behind a big container.
From where she stood, she could see the battle unfold. The three Spider-Men seemed to have found a better rhythm, now effectively coordinating their moves.
Watching them she felt helpless standing there. But Peter 2 had been right; there wasn’t much she could do from the ground.
Gwen didn’t know for how long she had been cowering behind the container, but after a while, the battle seemed to die down. Carefully she got up and squinted to see what was happening.
Suddenly a bright green explosion near the top of the construction shook the whole site, and everything started to fall apart.
A scream made her look up again. A girl was falling in midst of all the chaos. Gwen could see how one of the Spider-Men jumped after her. Seconds later, a high-pitched laugh tore through the night, and the hero was catapulted out of the way.
Gwen started to run towards the falling girl, eyes never leaving her. Logically she knew there was nothing she could do. Nevertheless, she couldn’t just stand there watching the girl fall to her death.
Seemingly out of nowhere, a flash of red and blue collided with the falling girl. Another Spider-Man wrapped himself securely around the girl and landed on the ground.
Gwen stopped running and let out a sigh of relief as she took in the scene in front of her. It looked like everything had turned out alright, and the two of them were exchanging a few words. She was too far away to hear what they were saying. Peter set the girl down, and she quickly ran away without noticing Gwen.
Her heart stopped when she finally took in Spider-Man’s face. He wasn’t wearing a mask, and suddenly Gwen couldn’t remember how to breathe.
It was Peter.
Her Peter. With his messy brown hair and brown eyes. Eyes that were now focused on her. He looked like someone who’s seen a ghost, all of the color had drained from his face. She gave an awkward wave, and after another moment without any reaction from Peter, Gwen’s legs developed a life of their own, moving her towards him. He woke up from his stupor and met her halfway to wrap her into a tight embrace.
Gwen let out a laugh at his enthusiasm; however her joy quickly morphed into concern when Peter started to shake.
“Peter?” she asked.
The only response she got were his arms tightening around her. Gwen gave him another minute before she wiggled a bit, changing her position so that she could take a proper look at him.
He wouldn’t meet her eyes, but from close up, Gwen noticed things she hadn’t been able to see from far away. A sinking sensation creepy up on her as she realized that he looked older than she remembered.
Her heart sank: yet another version then.
The disappointment must have shown on her face because, suddenly, his eyes were on her. He appeared positively haunted.
Without thinking, Gwen ran a hand through his hair. “You alright?”
He shook his head. She quickly took her hand away, which made his grip around her tighten again.
“Hey,” she tried to get his attention when tears started to form in his eyes, ”Breath, everything's fine.” She said with what she hoped was a comforting smile. Her Peter or not, she didn’t like the sight of someone who resembled him so much looking broken. But her words only seemed to make it worse. There was a choked gasp from the man.
Gwen wasn’t sure of what to do; she gently ran her hand up and down his back in a soothing motion.
They remained like that for what felt like an eternity but couldn’t have been more than a minute. Then Peter glanced up and opened his mouth, starting to say something.
A loud noise came from the other side of the construction, breaking the moment.
He gave her a conflicted look. “I have to go… they need my help.”
“Yeah.” She nodded with what she hoped was an encouraging smile.
“Wait here- I mean- Not here , here. Go somewhere safe and then wait. For me. Uh-Please?” he rambled. Then his demeanor changed, “I’ll find you. Okay?” he promised with a determined look.
Unsure of what had brought on the sudden change, Gwen gave him a nod. “Okay.”
He still didn’t look convinced, so she ran a hand along his cheek and looked him straight in the eyes.
“You’ll find me. You always do.” She said, then she gave him a gentle nudge in the direction of the construction. “Go save the day; I’ll wait here.”
He gave a shaky nod, taking a few steps backwards. Then he took one last look at her before he swung away.