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Chapter Text

Miles was trying hard not to bounce as Hobie and Gwen lead him through the halls and into the dark central office of the Spider society, clutching the empanada they had told him the leader would like. He wanted to yell out a greeting as the man slowly descended towards them, wanted to let the man know how much he wanted to help, to do everything in his power to be allowed to stay and go on missions with his friends across the multiverse, but looking at the back of the man coming closer and closer he was stuck with a familiarity that he couldn’t shake. It wasn’t like when he met the other Spiders; their spider senses let them know the others were just like them. The suit wasn’t familiar being a very different design than any of the other Spiders he had gotten to know. 

“Miguel O’Hara,” Gwen started making Mile’s brain grind to a halt, “meet Miles Morales.” 

There was no way, Miles thought, but as the man turned the face that greeted him was one he had memorized years ago. 

“Tio Miggy?!” Miles yelped, “Holy- Gabi is going to lose it! This is so cool!” 

Miguel froze for a second, “What?” 

Miles could feel Gwen stiffen next to him and Hobie who hadn’t seemed to be paying attention was clearly paying attention now. He didn’t really register their reactions, much too thrilled to see his tio, even a variant. Miles couldn’t wait any longer, webbing himself up to the platform. He wanted to reach out and hug the man so badly, wanted to wrap himself around the frame that he could tell just by looking was too bulky, too tall to be his actual Tio. The more he looked the more differences he saw, the red eyes, the thick frown lines forming between his eyebrows, so he held back not wanting to get rejected by a man that practically raised him even if it wasn’t the right Miguel O’Hara.

Instead, his words came rushing out of him in the same way he wanted to rush to the man, “There was a you on my world. He was best friends with my parents and Uncle Aaron and his daughter has been my best friend since forever. Gabi is one of the few people on my world that knows about all of this! Oh, she’s going to be so excited to see another Miguel! Do you want to see pictures of her? I wonder how different she looks from yours considering you look kinda different from mi Tio.” 

“I…” Miguel's face had fallen from the angry scowl it had been in when he had first turned around, morphing into a look of startled befuddlement. He just grinned wider, pulling out his phone. 

"Here, I-" 

“Miles!” Gwen hissed and he glanced over to see her staring at the pair with apprehension. Hobie next to her was looking genuinely curious, eyes flashing between Miles and Miguel quickly. 

"Well, this isn't what I was expecting to see when I heard Miles was here. You getting soft on me, Miguel? I knew you couldn't resist the kid, he's like a ball of sunshine." 

From the ceiling appeared a figure, walking with ease over the various wires and machinery, pink robe flapping slightly. 

"Peter," Miles exclaimed glee bubbling in his chest, today was just getting better and better, "Dude!” 

He started towards his old friend and mentor only to be stopped by a hand on his wrist. He looked up to see Miguel, shoulders hunched and face wistful in a way that looked so much like when Gabi was watching videos of her dad on her bad days.  

Peter didn’t seem perturbed by Miles, passed a raised brow, as he lowered himself from the ceiling, and stepped onto the platform pulling Miles into a tight side hug. 

“You’re growing up on me,” He laughed, ruffling the boy’s hair, “You look great!”

“You look solid,” Miles replied earning a snort from Hobie and an eye roll from Peter. 

“Define ‘solid’,” The man huffed with no real fire in his words, “ Also what happened with the suit? You bleeding from the armpits?”

Peter grabbed Miles’ free hand, eyeing the way Miguel still held the boy’s wrist as he raised it up to look at the red strip down his flank, “Don't worry about the suit we can get you a new suit! Miguel, you’re feeling touchy today, what’s got you in the physical contact mood?” 

“Oh, that’s-” Miles cut himself off as he noticed the last bit of change to Peter’s outfit a harness strapped to his front, “What’s that?”

A tiny form went swinging nearly into his face before Peter snatched them easily by the leg, “Mayday! Try not to take Miles’ head off. He’s practically your big brother you know.” 

Miles stared at the little red-headed child hanging upside down in Peter’s grasp for a second before laughing, “You have a baby!” 

Peter’s grin was equally as giddy as he turned the little girl right side up and tucked her into the baby harness, “I have a baby!” 

“That’s amazing! I knew you’d make a great father.” 

Peter laughed, eyes still dancing between Miles and Miguel, concern clear the longer the taller man stayed silent, “Thank kid. Though I have to ask, what you say to get Miggy all quiet?” 

“Oh!” Miles said, “Remember the Tio I mentioned when we were breaking into Alchemax?” 

“Ah, yeah. The guy that introduced you to Doc Oct before you knew she was a supervillain. What about him?” 

“My Tio was Miguel O’Hara, and his daughter was basically my big sister growing up. I was just about to… Peter, are you feeling okay?”

Peter’s face had gonna unnaturally pale at Miles’ words and he turned from Miles in an instant to grab at Miguel’s bicep. 

“Hey big guy,” He whispered, “Tell me what’s going on in that head of yours. What can we do? What do you need?” 

 “He…” Miguel’s voice rasped as he spoke, “Morales said… she’s alive.” 

Peter drew in a slow breath, “Yeah, yeah that version of her is. Miles told me about his Gabi a little when we were there, I didn’t know it was your Gabi. So come on, what level of holding back are we at here? Do I need to clear the room? Call Jess? Should Lyla get your extra meds?”

“What are you…” 

“Miles,” Peter cut him off, voice still soft but with an air of seriousness he wasn’t used to hearing from the man, eyes never leaving Miguel, “Gabi died just under five months ago.”  

Miles felt a rush of ice crackle through him, and a sinking pit of grief welled up in his gut. 

“I’m so sorry,” he rushed out, attempting to shove his phone back in his pocket. Here he was so ecstatic to see his Tio again in any way shape or form only to just be a cruel reminder of what he had lost, waving it in his face like a fucking flag, “I won’t bring her up again, I pro-” 

“No!” Miguel lunged forward to grab his other wrist before he could put his phone away. Pain prickled up his arm and his eyes nearly bugged out of his skull when he saw talons digging into his arm. 

Miguel’s eyes were a little wild, “You called her your big sister. She’s older than you?”

Miles nodded, “Y-Yeah, only by ten days though, she just turned fifteen on-”

“July 24th,” Miguel finished for him, eyes darting down to the phone still clutched in Miles' hand, “Fifteen… She grew up…” 

Miles bit his lip, not wanting to know how young the Gabriella of this Miguel had been when she died, wondering if he had gotten as much time with his daughter as his Gabi had gotten with her dad, “Yeah and she’s doing amazing.” 

“Por favor…” His voice wavered, so soft that Miles almost didn’t hear it with his enhanced hearing, as if Miguel was afraid that if he spoke any louder the world around them would crumple, “Quiero... puedo…”

Miles understood well enough, “Do you want to see some pictures of my Gabi?” 

At the hurried nod he received Miles smiled again, maybe he hadn’t messed up so bad after all.

Chapter Text

Miguel’s anger had been itching hot under his skin since Jess told him about how Gwen had screwed up capturing the anomaly. How she had gone to see the child at the heart of the multiversal anomaly crises that kept popping up since the spider from Earth-42 had bitten someone in an entirely different dimension creating a Spiderman that for all intents and purposes should not exist. The anger only surged when he heard about how the boy had followed Gwen, screwed up the mission Gwen and Hobie should have been able to handle fairly easily with Pavitr, and ruined one of Pavitr’s canon events along the way. If it wasn’t for Lyla pointedly pulling up his serum he was sure he would have done something he regretted the second he laid eyes on the boy. Even with the stabilizer serum pumping through him he was still so ready to scream and snarl at the disgrace that had started it all. Hopefully, the boy wouldn’t put up too much of a fight because Miguel knew the moment he calm down he’d hate himself even more if he said or did anything too mean to the kid. 

Only… 

Only instead of snapping and throwing the harsh truth in the kid’s face, he had been stopped in his tracks. His very heart froze in his chest as Miles had taken one look at him and broke into a smile that rivaled the sun, had called him Tio Miggy in a way that held so much meaning, and told him Gabriela would want to see him.

Miguel wasn’t sure he really heard most of what Miles had said, too busy trying to make his lungs start pulling in enough air again because Miles knew Gabriela. He knew her. The daughter he had seen vanish before his eyes existed in another world, and in this world Miles Morales was important to her. 

He had called Gabi his older sister. 

Miguel was important to Miles and the boy’s family too. The title of Tio wasn’t just a friendly title, but one that held meaning and love behind it. 

He wasn’t sure how but he ended up on one of the couches in the secluded little corner of his office where Miguel would usually nap on days he was too tired to drag himself back up to his apartment to crash. Lyla had gotten permission from Miles to lightly hack his phone and they were going through the pictures he had of his Gabi on the holo screens. Peter, Hobie, and Gwen had joined them, little Mayday in tow, and they seemed to enjoy the little slideshow and Miles’ rambling explanation even as they kept shooting Miguel evaluating looks, concerned this was too much for him. He couldn’t look away, however, chest warm with absolute joy at seeing Gabriela again, even if she wasn’t his, even as grief twisted his guts and made tears prickle his eyes.  

Gone was chin-length lobbed hair cut, instead her brown waves went down to her mid-back, and wispy bangs across her forehead. Her smile was the same though, and her eyes, while much darker brown than his Gabriela’s, were still so bright and full of mischievous intellect that Xina always said Gabi got from him. 

She still played soccer, the jersey and trophy evident as she laughed over pizza with Miles and his parents, hair pulled back into a complex braid he hadn’t mastered before his Gabi had vanished. She was a center midfielder, making varsity as a freshman, and they had just won the championship match. 

She was also on her school’s robotics club. A short video showed her controlling a palm-sized spider-inspired robot to scurry through an obstacle course before jumping into the face of another teen Miles identified as Ganke making him scream as Miles and Gabi cackled. 

Gwen snorted, “Oh Peni would love her.”

Hobie nodded, “Margo too. Those techy girls would get on, eh?”

Lyla glitched into view on Miguel’s shoulder swinging her legs, “Ah Miguel she takes after you! You know without all the brooding and dramatics~”

He swiped at her grumbling as the others laughed, “I will turn you off.”

“Automatic restart, bitch.”

“Not if I use your hard drive as a nail file, shocker”

“Then who will make sure you don’t decay in front of the monitors?” 

Miles laughed, leaning lightly on Miguel’s shoulder so he could better see Lyla, “Oh Gabi would love you!” 

Lyla’s glitches took on a fairly heart-like appearance as she tried to appear nonchalant, “Well, of course she would. I’m adorable!” 

Miguel wasn’t sure what his heart was doing from the casual contact Miles was giving him. No one really touched Miguel casually other than Peter and Jess. Well, there was also Mayday but he wasn’t sure that counted, and Hobie when the teen really wanted to piss off Miguel but that certainly didn’t count. He wasn’t Miles’ Tio, but the boy already was placing so much trust in him, and so much free affection it made his bones ache. It reminded him of movie nights with Gabriela when she fought so hard to stay awake until the end of the movie just to fall asleep on him and he laugh as he carried her off to bed. 

“She’s fifteen, right?” Miguel felt himself asking instead of dwelling on the heat still radiating from where Miles was leaning on him, pushing passed the lump forming his throat, “Did she have a Quinceañera?”

He’s not sure why he asked. Seeing her grown up in a normal setting compared to the little eight-year-old he had held in his arms as she glitched out of existence was already painful enough, let alone seeing her all dolled up and being celebrated for being a woman instead of a little girl. Even so, he wanted to see his Muñequita shine so badly it made his insides twist. 

Miles winced at the question, pulling away, and Miguel felt his heart squeeze, thoughts running a thousand miles per hour. Was it a financial issue? Was she not embracing her heritage as much as he hoped she would? After all her best friend seemed to be verging on being a No sabo kid, though his Spanish accent did improve as he wove Spanglish into his explanations to Miguel. Did she protest to it? He knew some of the girls when he was growing up hadn’t wanted one as they didn’t like wearing dresses, let alone a big ball gown, or because they thought it was degrading to be ‘paraded around like cattle’. 

“Well,” Miles drew out, “She hasn’t had one yet.”

Miguel’s eyebrow furrowed at the wording, “Her birthday was months ago.” 

“We’re having it on November 2nd,” Miles said, suddenly looking anywhere but at Miguel. 

“Día de los Muertos? Why would you have her Quince on Día de los Muertos?” Miguel questioned, leaning closer to Miles to try and read the boy's face to get even the faintest idea of why they would make a choice like that for his daughter’s biggest day before she got married. 

Miles bit his lip before rushing out, “Shethoughtitwouldbethebestwaytohaveherdadthere.” 

Miguel’s heart jumped into his throat, cracking down the middle in the same breath. He could have heard Miles correctly, there was simply no way, “¿Que?” 

Miles sucked in a breath through his teeth before pulling his phone back and scrolling through it words tumbling out a little less rushed, “So Tio Miguel was a geneticist at Alchemax right? He was the lead scientist there before Doc Ock. Apparently, before Kingpin tried to find variants of his family to fill in the space left by their death, he tried cloning.”

Miguel closed his eyes, tongue running over his fangs as he remembered the screaming matches he had had with Tyler Stone over the same thing, the repulsion he had felt over the horrible things he had accidentally done when following orders for his boss, “Let me guess, it went shocking wrong and your Tio tried to quit.” 

Miles nodded, “We found his resignation letter, dated about a month before he died. The official story was he died when the testing chamber he was working with exploded. Gabi and I have hacked as much as we could from the computer I stole with Peter to see if we find any truth to this but too much was redacted so we’re still not entirely sure that’s the whole story.”

Miguel took a steadying breath, trying not to picture how that month had gone in his timeline, hands pressed harshly against his legs to keep his talons in, “How long ago?” 

Miles didn’t need him to clarify, “Two and a half years ago. Gabi’s been living with us since. Just fostering right now, but Mami and Dad have adoption papers that they’re planning on giving her on her Quince. And… well just watch.” 

The video was clearly shot without the subjects’ knowledge based on the odd angle it had. In the Morales’ living room were Jefferson and Gabi dancing around the living room as Rio clapped her hands and counted to the beat of the music. It went well for a moment before Gabi’s foot caught on something and she went tumbling down. 

“¡Maldita sea! ¿Por qué no puedo hacer nada estúpido, verdad?” She screamed as Rio paused the music and Jefferson knelt next to her.

“Hey, hey,” he soothed, grasping at her shoulders gently, "You're not stupid, Gabi. These dances are supposed to be hard, we just got to figure it out." 

"I just..." She sniffled and Miguel's heart clenched when he saw the tears trailing down her face, "I thought this would be easy. That I could get it and make my Papi proud." 

"Oh no," Jefferson cut in, firm but with such a kind softness that couldn't be ignored, "There is nothing, and I mean nothing that you could do short of... I don't know domestic terrorism, that would have made Miguel not be proud of you and everything you've done." 

At her sob Jefferson pulled her into a tight hug on the floor, Rio watched with sad eyes, ready to jump in at a moment's notice.

"Miggy loved you so much, Gabi," Jefferson breathed as he stroked her hair, "He would be so happy to see the young woman you're becoming. Do you know how much he bragged about how smart and kind and beautiful you were? Your soul is so undeniably good and he would have been bursting with pride." 

They sat there for a long moment as Gabi's sobs died down, Jefferson gushing her with quiet reassurance. 

"I'm glad you're here, Tio," Gabi said into Jefferson's shoulder as the video faded out. 

Miguel’s tongue was paralyzed, unresponsive as the noise around him faded away. Dully, he was aware of Peter looking at him and taking stock of the situation, redirecting the attention away from Miguel with questions and photos of his own daughter to distract the teens. 

In his head, he saw the man that had unhesitatingly stepped up for his daughter when the other him had been lost, the father of the anomaly that he couldn’t find it in himself to even be annoyed at anymore let alone hate like he thought he would after everything that happened. He thought about the tears in his daughter’s eyes and how Jefferson Morales danced with her, the love and care that was evident between them as they planned for the future, the hidden adoption papers just a nice little cherry on top. 

One of the three family members Gabriela had left was destined to die in two days. In two days Gabriela and Miles would have their third loved one in as many years ripped from them, all because Wilson Fisk couldn’t accept his family was dead. Miguel felt sick, mind and heart racing too fast and not fast enough for him to grasp the reality of the situation for a long moment. 

Miguel had two options. 

One, he silently watch as a version of his daughter and a boy he was growing too attached to too quickly to suffer such a great lost even when he knew exactly when it was going to happen and keep the multiverse unquestionably safe. 

Or 

Two, he could find the impossible solution on how to save both Jefferson Morales and Earth-1610 and see both the children be happy and loved as he knew they deserved. 

His head told him one choice but his heart was screaming, begging for the other, because he knew without question that he would do anything for the little spiderling next to him if it meant this version of his daughter could stay alive and smile as wide as she did in the pictures he had seen. 

What in the ever-loving shock was he to do?

Chapter Text

It felt like Miles had walked into Miguel’s office years ago despite the fact the boy had only come to him and thrown his whole worldview on its head an hour ago. Only a few short minutes ago he had made up some excuse to get them to leave towards the cafeteria for lunch, Peter easily shuffling the teens and baby out of his office, with a look that promised Jess or Peter himself was going to come check on him before long. 

“Lyla.”

She glitched into existence near his shoulder before he finished saying her name, the Arachnoid Humanoid Poly-Multiverse… okay he really needed to work on that name, already pulled up around them. 

“What we gonna do, Big Shot?” She said the teasing hollow as they gazed at the web of dimensions before them. 

“You’re on board? This could ruin everything we’ve been working on,” He didn’t know why he asked, he saw the way Lyla had looked at Gabi’s pictures too. 

“Or we could figure out that we were wrong all along,” She countered as she zoomed in on Earth-1610, “Maybe… Maybe we need to look at this from a different angle.” 

She didn’t go in far enough for them to be able to see people, and for that, he was thankful, but even so, he was struck by how familiar the scene was. 

Days that he and Lyla would spend the few spare minutes they had checking in on the world where Miguel O’Hara had everything he had ever wanted. It was always bittersweet but Miguel couldn’t help the loneliness gnawing at his soul seeing what could have been. What could have been if he had gotten out of Alchemax quicker, if Tyler Stone had never drugged him with Rapture, if he had never had the accident that lead to him becoming Spider-man. 

Xina and him would have gotten married and had a beautiful little girl, named after his little brother. Gabriel was off running a highly successful cyber security company but still was around for holidays and the like. Instead of being a researcher, this version of him was a Genetic counselor, a job he had never thought of in his timeline because Alchemax had always been so willing to use him and he had been too blinded by their promises. From the glimpses he got he couldn’t believe that was him, because he couldn’t believe that anywhere in the multiverse was Miguel O’Hara allowed to simply be content, let alone be as happy as this version of him was. 

Then came the jump that changed everything. He hadn’t meant to jump to Earth-1042, in fact when he first landed he had been baffled. Nothing of his surroundings looked like the cartoon-style world of Earth-1142 like he expected. That’s when the other him had walked in. 

The other Miguel had been so excited to see him, apparently despite being content as a genetic counselor his mind still was an always racing cacophony of theories and ideas of what human beings were capable of. Miguel had been weary as his other self had begun rambling on what the dimension-hopping do-hickey (and promptly got sidetracked when Lyla popped out to tell him the correct term was gizmo.) could do when he offered to take him home for dinner, to meet the wife and kid. Miguel always knew he was lonely, it was why he started spying on this version of himself in the first place, but never had it been more apparent than in that moment when the mere idea of a nice home-cooked meal in a space filled with care was nearly enough to bring him to tears. Other Miguel even offered him some of the extra clothes he had stashed in his office so he didn’t look quite so out of place as they walked back to the man’s house. 

It was on the walk home when everything went wrong. He never cursed his lack of a Spidey-sense more than when he heard the gunshot and saw the splatter of blood. The assailant was easy work for him to take down, a hitman he realized only after most likely sent by Alchemax. The blood was already pooling under his other self by the time he was able to turn back and as their eyes met he knew both of them were aware only one of them was going to be leaving this alleyway. 

“Do you have a family in your dimension?” 

The question was asked in a wheeze as the wounded man tried to sit up. 

“No,” He answered easily, earning a weary smile.

“I thought as much,” The response was too light, too casual for the situation they were in, “Hey hermano? Do you think you might be able to keep Gabriela safe? I know Xina can take care of herself but… mi Conejito has been my entire world, ya know? I just want her to be happy. Can you make sure she’s happy?” 

“Okay… I’ll see what I can do.” 

“Thank you.”  

The man was limp and cold before the words stopped echoing in Miguel’s ears. Carefully he made his way to the man’s house. He was greeted by a little wrecking ball slamming into his knees, babbling away at a mile a minute. He had gently scooped her up, and asked her questions right back, the smile on his face for the little girl light even as sorrow clung to his bones. 

Xina had watched him with a weary eye, not saying anything as they ate and watched some silly little cartoon movie with a talking dog and sentient computer virus. It wasn’t until Gabi was tucked safely into bed did she confront him with a knife pressed against his ribs. 

“Alright you’ve had your fun, you creepy bastard,” She hissed through gritted teeth, “Where’s my husband?”

He took a slow breath and didn’t try to move away from her, instead explaining how he came to be here. She relaxed some at his words of other dimensions and the gizmo that had brought him here.

“So Miguel was right about all that multiverse shit…” She mumbled, placing the knife on the counter next to them, “but that still doesn’t explain why you’re here and not him.” 

“I… Alchemax found us,” He told her, “They…Lyla help me.” 

Xina jumped as Lyla sparkled into existence but the explanation and videos they needed to show her made her face a stone mask that he couldn’t read. 

“He asked you to keep Gabi happy?” She finally said as they sat around the dining room table in near darkness. 

“He did,” Miguel confirmed.

“You’re not my husband,” She said, eyes glazed with unshed tears, “You can never replace him in that aspect, but Gabriela deserves a father. Are you willing to give her one?”

No amount of superpowers would give him the strength to say no to that question. 

And so… he disabled his gizmo’s main features. He was no longer able to dimension hop, nor could he contact other spiders with it. He sent a brief message to Jess and Peter B. explaining what had happened before turning off the feature. He had been remorseful at that, Jess and Peter B. were slowly becoming his friends despite his social awkwardness. He only left three features on, Lyla, the glitch prevention, and the emergency beacon. Lyla was able to make sure that if the others came looking for him he wouldn’t be found. He had spent too much time being Spider-man or bending to the whims of others and who he should be. All he wanted to be was Miguel, father to Gabriela O'Hara

For six long years, he was content in a way he didn’t realize he was allowed to feel. Xina and he had an applicable divorce and she was his closest friend, and Gabi, his Muñequita, was the light of his life. Lyla and Gabi got on like a house on fire as the girl grew up, and it was even through talking to the little girl that Lyla found the confidence in switching her avatar from the golden figure in a sundress to the spunky one she had now, the heart-shaped glasses specifically designed to match Gabi’s favorite pair. Miguel watched Gabriela sprout from a tiny tot to a bubbly child, loving every part from helping her pick out her outfits to making her snacks to every mishap and tantrum that happened in between. 

He should have realized sooner. 

He should have noticed he wasn’t aging the way everyone else was around him. 

He should have seen the little things that pointed to something being so very wrong, but he was too happy to be analyzing little detail like he once did. 

It wasn’t until the world started to glitch did he see how horribly wrong everything had become. He sent out the distress beacon and Peter B. made his heart sink when he greeted him. 

Time was constant across the Multiverse, sure the years and months may not line up from dimension to dimension but an hour in one universe was an hour in every universe. A day was a day. The only reason it wouldn’t be was if a dimension was growing unstable. 

He had spent six years in this universe, but to every other dimension he had only been gone six months. 

He tried so very hard to keep the world together. He tried until Gabriela had ceased to exist in his arms before he broke down completely. In that moment he completely intended to stay in that dimension, to have it swallow him up the same way it had everything around them, but Peter hadn’t let him. He doesn’t remember what happened super well after Gabi had vanished, wasn’t sure exactly what he had said to Peter or what he did, but the man refused to tell him even as he got clingier to Miguel than ever before. 

Now… Now he had made his bed of holding the multiverse on his shoulders so that no other Spider had to go through that. There was pain and heartache in being a Spider he knew, after all even with their powers you can’t save everyone, but if only a few had to die to keep everything stable? If he could create a space for those that had faced the worst events in their lives to be supported by others like them, then could he atone for his own sins? He liked to think so. 

Or he had before Miles had ended up here. 

“We only have two days,” He reminded Lyla as he zoomed the hologram back out, “If we’re going to try and prove ourselves wrong we need to start going through every instance of instability in the multiverse that was fixed, whether by us or by themselves. Are you going to be able to handle that kind of processing power?” 

Lyla gave him a blinding smile, numbers and codes flashing around her, “Aye Aye Captain!” 

“Great,” He said, pulling up his own hollow screens and pouring over the data before him as Lyla compacted it, “Let’s see if we can catch a pattern on this, and no that was not an invitation to change the pattern of my suit, Jess or Peter is gonna show up soon and I don’t feel like doing research in the medical wing.” 

"Why the medical wing?" 

"Well if it's Peter then probably a nosebleed, seeing as he's way too thirsty for a married man. If it's Jess then my bet is her laughing so hard she breaks her waters."  

Lyla cackled, glitching in front of him, “I missed this you, Jefe.” 

He paused for a second at that, she hadn’t called him Jefe since before the Dimension collapse, “What’s that supposed to mean, chaparrita?” 

She shrugged, not quite meeting his eye, “You know, the sassing me back instead of just snapping at me, the smiling instead of snarling, the stubborn spite of proving every person that doubted you wrong. It’s like I got the guy who created me back.” 

He swallowed thickly, he hadn’t noticed how much he had changed until she laid it out for him. 

“Well,” He sighed, reaching out a hand to cup under her feet, a gesture he used to do quite often as a show of affection, giving his tiny little friend a place to land even if he couldn’t really touch her, “If this works out then you’ll be seeing a lot more of him.”

“Glad to hear it, Miguel.” 

Chapter Text

Miguel and Lyla found a grove pretty quickly in their work, pouring over data and available information. They didn’t have much on Universes growing unstable enough to collapse, the only one they knew about was Earth-1024 and he hadn’t been monitoring its stability until it was far too late. So instead they focused on the other minor hiccups that appeared since he formed the Spider Society. His original hypothesis was all about Canon and the events that happened to each Spider. He had clung to this idea so hard he had made it the truth, but taking a step back he could see the holes in the theory that he hadn’t wanted to see before. Most spiders were bitten by a radioactive spider to get their powers, but not all, himself included. Most had an ‘Uncle Ben’ event but only really the Peter variants, sure the other Spiders almost always lost someone close to them near the beginning of their journey into being heroes, sometimes it’s an uncle, most of the time not. Could he really classify it as the same event? Could one person’s death substitute another? And the captain's theory, so many Spiders weren’t close to a Police Captain, hell in some dimensions Police didn’t even exist. This didn’t even include variants that he had just assumed had their own wildly different set of canon events that looked nothing like the rest of the Society, like Peni Parker, Ben Reilly, Silk, and Webslinger. 

Did he really look for a reason, any reason for the tragedy that had happened that he claimed a hypothesis that his high school general science teacher would have laughed out of her room was a universal fact?

The sinking pit in his stomach that grew with every new file he looked at told him that yes, yes he did. What made it worse was that every Spider that he had recruited, most of which with their own scientifically inclined backgrounds and degrees hadn’t seen fit to call him out.   

“Lyla, what you got on Earth-1328? Was their instability anything like that on Earth-86? I think if we can find-” 

“You weren’t kidding Peter, it’s like looking back in time.” 

The unexpected voice startled him, once again causing him to curse his lack of Spidey-sense. Now normally being startled by his co-workers entering his office unexpectedly would not be that big of a deal. This time however he had migrated from in front of the main holo-display and had been laying upside down over the side of his platform, his toe talons anchoring him, with a tablet to go over the data, meaning that little startle now sent him hurtling off a three-story drop. Luckily his reflexes were still working as he managed to shoot out a web and stop his descent before he gave himself a concussion. Once he had both feet planted firmly on the ground, he glanced over to see Jess staring at him with a raised brow and Peter B. trying desperately to hold in his laughter. 

“Dios mío, Do we have to go over the no Spidey-sense thing again?” He grumbled, crossing his arms and pretending his ears weren’t burning. 

“Sorry,” Jess said, voice way too amused to be sincere, “but I honestly haven’t seen that pose since we named your little club.”

He opened his mouth to respond but closed it with a click when he realized she was right. When Spider society was tiny, just a few Spiders he managed to run across during his own jumps for fun, he lounged around his office as he got reports in all manner of ways, from dangling by his toes, to web hammocks, to simply flopped down in any of the random nooks and crannies of his large central office.  It wasn’t until he had made the Society an official organization that he took to standing in front of the holo screens almost exclusively, mainly to try and give off an air of competence to the new members of the society when they joined, hiding behind this mask his fears on if he could lead all these people well and help them in the way he wanted to. After Gabriella… it became his atonement to stand guard physically and mentally against anything that the multiverse tried to send at his people, to keep an eye on as much as he could on the holo screens. 

“Just… looking at things from a new angle,” He offered which earned him more stares from the pair in front of him. 

“That was a joke. You’re making jokes. See I told you so,” Peter said to Jess, eyes not leaving Miguel, “He was even smiling earlier! And his eyes did that heart thing they do.” 

Miguel bristled, “My eyes didn’t do the heart thing!” 

“Oh they totally did,” Lyla said popping up next to him, lines of code still flying around her,  “I would pull up the picture but my hands are a little full.”

“Delete it,” He growled. 

“Not on your life.”

“Mocosa. I regret giving you an O’Hara personality.” 

“Yeah right, if I didn’t sass you you would never listen to me and we all know it.” 

He rolled his eyes but turned back to the pair, waving his tablet, “What do you two need anyway? I’m kinda in the middle of something. And where’s Mayday? Don’t tell me you lost her again.” 

Peter pouted, “I am not that bad.” 

“Dodging my question. I’ll send out an alert.”

“Hobie, Gwen, and Miles are watching her.”

“You realize her first words are going to be something along the lines of anarchy at this point right?”

“Or a Spanish curse word based on your mouth,” Peter retorted. 

“Boys, focus,” Jess snapped. 

“Yes, ma’am.” 

Jess gave him an unimpressed look, “Gwen messed up her mission to hang out with a boy you told her specifically not to go see because he’s an anomaly. They both messed up in Mumbattan and the kid even screwed up a canon event. I expected you to at the very least lecture the both of them on how much they might have ruined everything, instead the kids are hanging in the cafeteria, giggling at the 2099 burgers-”

“Lyla, will you seriously take those off the menu, already?” 

“No~”

“Peter basically dragged me here,” Jesse continued as if not interrupted, “saying that something had happened involving Gabi, and I half expect to see you dead on the floor or having a mental breakdown-”

“Are those options still on the table?” 

Peter smacked him in the arm, “No, they are not. Stop being broody for five seconds, okay?”

“Ugh Fine.” 

“-Instead, you’re flopped over like a big dumb house cat-” 

“Hey!” 

“-and are back to being snarky and acting like you did a year ago. So catch me up, what the hell happened?” Jess finally finished, foot tapping impatiently. 

He winced slightly. He didn’t know how to explain it really. Didn’t know why something that made him want to throw up from the guilt and dread it filled him with also made him feel hopeful for the first time since Peter dragged him from the collapsing Universe he had called his own for six years. He didn’t know why Miles, a kid he was convinced was the start of half of the problems he dealt with was also the kid that broke through the carefully crafted walls he had made, that Jesse and Peter had just barely started to put a dent in, like a wrecking ball. 

Except… Miles broke through his walls by knowing him in ways that he hadn’t been known, didn’t want to be known, in years. He stayed inside the shambled walls by being exactly the kind of person he had always wished Gabriela would have grown up to be and showed that in a universe Miguel hadn’t tarnished she was. Just from their short interaction, he could see that Miles was an intelligent kid with a heart of gold. The hope came, from knowing that even if he had ruined things, that atleast one Miguel had seen his daughter start to leave childhood. 

“I think I was wrong,” Miguel said instead, pulling the holo screens to him, showing the data he had already gathered, “I don’t think canon events are the key to the multiverse staying in balance.” 

He knew Jess and Peter were smart, that they would see the inconsistencies he had found within his own theory. He could see by their greying complexions and the grief setting in their eyes. He watched as Peter’s hand migrated to his back, rubbing at the surgery scar from when his vertebra had been shattered. Jess hunched in on herself, arms held over her baby bump, eyes glassy. 

“We’ve checked your work a hundred times,” Peter managed out, “How did we never…” 

All Miguel could do is offer a small shrug, “Survivorship bias?” 

It was a weak answer, he knew, but what other answer did he have? He had run the numbers many times over. Jess, Peter, and atleast three dozen other Spiders had seen the data and drawn the same conclusions over and over again. Canon Events had to happen, bad things had to happen to the Spiders to make sure the multiverse stayed whole and functioning. It gave meaning to all the suffering they went through, at least they had thought it did. 

“Miguel,” Jess croaked out, “How many…” 

The thought hung, unsaid, in the air, draining oxygen from the room.  Jess didn’t need to say it for the words to reverberate around his head. 

How many suffered because we were wrong?

“I don’t know,” was the only honest answer he could give. 

None of them seemed to have the strength to break the silence, at least until Lyla reappeared. 

“Enough moping,” She chastised, “You’re all asking the wrong questions. You screwed up, we know this. So the follow-up question is, How do we go about fixing it?” 

“I have one idea,” Miguel said, tapping the coordinates on his gizmo, “Pavitr is probably stressing out. I thought I might go see how the stabilizing efforts are going.” 

Chapter Text

Before they could open the portal, loud chatter announced the reappearance of the teenagers and Mayday.

“I thought you guys were going to show Miles around,” Jess greeted with a smile that almost looked real, “What are you doing back here so soon?” 

“Everyone knows B-grade leaves May’s stuff in here,” Hobie said, passing off the fussing girl to her father, “Poor thing needs a nappy change.” 

“What are you three doing in here?” Miles questioned, eyes flashing to Lyla before he amended, “Sorry, Lyla. I meant you four.” 

“Aw,” She said, glitching over to mime pinching his cheeks, “You’re so sweet, you’re giving me cavities, kid!” 

Miguel just rolled his eyes, huffing fondly at the scene, “We were going to make a jump to Earth-50101. Hopefully, the stabilization efforts are going well.” 

“Because of the-“ Gwen cut herself off, looking towards Miles. The boy in question looked confused before realization blossomed on his face and he turned back to Miguel with a small smile. 

“Oh! Jess said you wanted to speak to us about something before, but we kinda got sidetracked. Is it about that?” 

Miguel held back a frown. Speaking hadn’t really been on his mind when he had growled at Jess to get the teens into his office pronto, and what's more, the lecture he had prepared for them didn’t even apply anymore. 

“It’s not important, kid,” He said only to be met with the inquisitive stare of Hobie and the confused sputtering of Gwen. 

Miles looked at the other teens before glancing back at Miguel, “Seems pretty important to me, Tio.” 

Miguel chewed on his cheek for a second. The spiel he usually gave about canon events to all the new recruits didn’t hold up anymore. He knew that Gwen and Hobie were expecting it but was it right to tell Miles when very soon he would have to tell all of the Spiders that he had been wrong? 

“Come on,” Lyla whined as she glitched to his shoulder, “I know you love your little speech.”

He huffed but didn’t deny it, “Dios, dame fuerzas, roll the simulation.” 

She just laughed and glitched away. 

“I’m gonna be honest, bruv,” Hobie says as the display begins to load around them, “Never seen you quite so chipper.” 

“Gracias,” He said with an eye roll, “You really know how to make a person feel special, Hobie.” 

“I try.” 

Miguel had to fight to keep a smile off his lips. No matter what the others thought he was fond of the rowdy teens that had found their way into the Society, feeling very protective of the young spiders that had too much placed on their shoulders before they were even fully grown. It simply wasn’t fair. So just like every other member, he sought to protect them from what he could. Looking at them now though his stomach rolled, how many canon events had he forced these children to endure? How many others suffered because of his fool-hearted plans? 

No more. 

He went through his normal spiel about the canon and the web that interconnected all of the Spiders together but as he reached the end he faltered. He didn’t have all of the answers, he didn’t know the truth in its entirety at this point but he couldn’t let anyone else go on believing what he had forced upon them. 

“At least,” He said as the holograms faded, “That’s what I thought until recently.” 

Hobie and Gwen spun around from where they had been pointedly ignoring the heart-wrenching scenes of canon events too similar to their own. Their gazes were wild and pained and he fought back from flinching as they set their shoulders and gave him a pair of Spider-glares that would have even a rampaging Rhino freezing in his tracks. 

“Mate,” Hobie drew out, low and filled with ice, “What are you getting at?” 

“You don’t mean…” Gwen’s voice is breathless and he can see the hope smoothed under the anger in her eyes.

Miguel took a steadying breath before pulling up the reports he and Lyla had just created and complied. 

“Today was a bit of a… wakeup call for me,” He admitted as he showed the files to the children, knowing most of it would go over their heads but they were all smart they would get the gist, “I took another look at the data collected over the multiverse and I saw all the inconstancies I, and dozens of others, had never noticed before. I don’t have an answer yet on what role canon events truly play, but it's not as the main stabilizer of the multiverse. Though I haven't got a good idea of what actually is keeping the multiverse in balance either now.” 

“My dad doesn’t have to die,” Gwen whispered, and Miguel felt his heart break at the tears spilling down her cheeks.

He placed a hand on her shoulder, “No, mija. I don’t think he does.” 

“Wait, your dad?” Miles asked, startled. 

“One of the most common canon events,” Peter said softly, eyes glazed over slightly as he was in no doubt remembering his own Captain Stacy, “A police captain close to Spider-man gets crushed by falling rubble as they protect a child. Spider-man is unable to save them due to stopping another catastrophe nearby.” 

Miles was entirely too smart for his own good because from that statement alone he was staring wide-eyed at the other occupants in the room. 

“So Inspector Singh…”

“According to canon events,” Hobie answered the unasked question, “he should have died today. Instead, you saved him.” 

“You all knew about it?” Miles questioned, disbelief and hurt painting his form, “You all knew and were just going to let him die?” 

“We thought disrupting canon events would destroy the entirety of Earth-50101. If he lived everything else would have been lost,” Miguel told him, trying to get the kid to understand what they believed was at stake, “One life versus the billions that exist in Pavitr’s world.” 

“Miles,” Gwen said, “We really thought…” 

His eyes zeroed in on Gwen as he took a step back, “When you tried to stop me… it wasn’t to keep me safe. It was so the Inspector would die.” 

“I was doing both!” She yelled, clearly stressed from the anger and disgust Miles was pointing at her, “I didn’t want you hurt and I didn’t want Pav’s world to get hurt either.” 

“Kid,” Miguel cut in, the yelling starting to get to him. He could already feel his heart rate raising as the anger from before pulsed over his senses at seeing one of his spiderli- one of his youngest members so stressed, “Don’t be mad at her. She was working off of the information I had given her. It’s not her fault I didn’t see the holes in my theory until now.”

"Stop calling me that," Miles snapped before he stared at Miguel, deep and cutting as if the teen was gazing upon his very soul and evaluating what he saw.   

“If I hadn’t told you about Gabi,” Miles said slowly, uncertainty flickering in his eyes, “Would you be looking into this?”

“What does it matter?” 

“What does it-“ Miles gave him an incredulous look, “If I hadn’t known Gabi, if my universe didn’t have the O’Haras being my family, would you have just told me to let my dad, my Captain, die?” 

Miguel bit the inside of his cheek, knowing that the stability of the multiverse didn’t rest on the death of one man he could understand why his answer was not going to go over well. Even so, he was never a fan of lying. 

“Yes.”

Then Miles was yelling and freaking out about how dare they, and how disgusted he was with all of them because they knew and didn’t tell him, and fury that had been boiling underneath the surface before Miles had arrived returned with a vengeance.

He didn’t even think, body moving on autopilot to grab the containment cell from his desk and lob it under Miles, letting the forcefield envelop the boy. 

Cries of outrage rose up from Peter and Gwen as they turned to Miguel with confusion and anger. Peter tried to placate while Gwen matched the growl Miguel was trying desperately to keep from bubbling to the surface. 

“Kid,” He said instead, “If you would just listen-”

“I said,” Miles broke in, electricity dancing around his hands, "Don't call me KID!" 

With a yell, the electricity surged into the containment cell shattering it. For a second the Spiders all stared at each other in surprise before Miles turned tail and ran from the room.  

Miguel groaned, making himself through the counting exercises Lyla had forced him to learn in an attempt to not lose his cool entirely before looking at the small group around him, “I’m going to Earth-50101. Either come with me or go talk to Morales away from doing something stupid.” 

Gwen made to go out the same door Miles had just run out of only for Hobie to put a hand on her shoulder, “He seemed pretty peeved at you, Luv. Maybe go with Miguel and me. Give Miles a chance to chill out.” 

She bit her lip but nodded. 

Jess rolled her eyes, but didn’t make a comment as Miguel raised his Gizmo to send out an all-call, “All Units, if you spot Miles Morales bring him to My office immediately and do not let him leave the building under any circumstance.”

"Alrighty," Peter said, securing Mayday into her harness and slipping a Spider-man beanie on her head, "So we're gonna go calm Miles down and you guys are going to go check on the unstable dimension. You sure you're good for that Migs?" 

Miguel glared at him lightly but couldn't really blame the other man, he wasn't exactly thrilled about going to a dimension on the verge of collapse either. 

"Geez," Peter whined, "Alright Alright! I get it but I'm giving you an hour before I come and check on you." 

"I'm a shocking full-grown man, Parker,"  Miguel argued, "I don't need you to check up on me." 

"Sure you don't," Jess said, "Which is why the Baby Monitor protocol exists." 

"Don't you dare turn the Baby Monitor protocol back on," Miguel grouched as he fired up the portal, "I do not need a minder." 

He pointedly ignored the way all eyes slowly slide towards Lyla. 

"If you're coming, then let's go!" He told the teens before he stepped into the portal himself. 

Before the portal closed behind the trio he could hear Peter speak to Lyla. 

"Baby Monitor protocol is still on Miguel's gizmo, right?" 

"Yes, sir!" 

Stupid shocking friends