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Peter B. Parker will never forget his Gwen Stacy. The kind eyed girl who he met in school. Almost always with a smile on her face. That night, the night he couldn’t save her, haunts him in every action. Every patrol. If he makes a mistake again, someone else could die. Peter sees Gwen in his friends, in MJ, in his daughter. A single question in the back of his mind anytime he got too close: Who else would die because of his recklessness?
That was so long ago. But the memories became so much more bittersweet when he met 65’s Gwen Stacy. The Ghost Spider.
Whenever Gwen trips slightly, Peter grabs her arm. Don't let her fall, not again. At this point, Gwen has probably noticed the watchful eye that almost everyone in the Spider Society keeps on her. Everyone knows who she is, everyone knows how her story ended. But she was determined to change her destiny, and so was Peter.
Don't let her fall.
Peter had mentioned it to Miles offhandedly when they first met. If someone falls, web to the waist and web to the chest. Pull the person into you and arms around their body to soften the impact. Don’t snap her them to you too quickly. Don’t break their neck. Always be careful, civilians are fragile, they can't take hard hits like Spiders.
Miles was confused, obviously, but listened intently. After all, it might be important one day, Peter hoped it wouldn't though.
It was. Because of course it was.
Don't let her fall.
It was their final fight for the fate of the multiverse. Spot reeked havoc on Miles's home dimension, littering black holes and portals under everyone's feet. The spider-squad Gwen assembled came to help Miles, and, a few heartfelt apologies later, the group fought side by side with him. Spider Society, led by Miguel, came to fight Miles and all their opposition, as if the fight wasn't stressful enough.
As Peter ran around, he (and Mayday) helped civilians the best they could. He stopped paying attention to Miles, and Gwen, and even Spot. His main focus was watching Miles's dad, and making sure he was staying far away from the fight. Peter had already chased him off twice. And despite webbing him to a wall many, many blocks away, Captain Davis had made his way back to the fight. So Peter had webbed him even farther away.
"Hobie, Pav, need help?" Peter shouted.
"No!" Hobie replied, fighting off Miguel alongside Pavitr. "Focus on Miles's dad!"
"He's fine! Don't worry! I webbed him to the—" A loud beep interrupted Peter's words. "Shit, it's my watch, let me check—"
Canon Event Occurring.
...what?
A scream echoed through the street, one far too familiar. His spidey sense sent chills around the base of his skull.
Oh no, nononono—
He looked up at the tallest building in New York. Falling from it was Gwen Stacy. Time slowed down to a crawl. Peter was suddenly young again, watching one of the loves of his life be killed by an out stretched hand.
But he could help, he was on the ground. He could swing up to her and—
An earthquake took Peter off his feet, he wrapped an arm around Mayday as he hit the pavement. The ground shook hard, barely allowing Peter to stand back up. Behind him, a whole building began to crumble. And Peter could just barely see Miles's dad running towards it.
He looked back at Gwen, who was trying to web her way up the building. Her hand came empty, she was out of web-fluid.
He had to choose. He had to choose who to save.
He looked away, and ran to Captain Davis. This was the canon event, someone had to die. You can't save everyone, you can only try your best. Why couldn’t everyone make it out in the end?
He hoped that Miles could catch her. Or atleast, Peter hoped Miles's face would be a comfort on the way down.
Captain Davis and a child hugged. Any longer, and they would fall victim to the weight of the rubble. As quickly as he could, Peter webbed them both and followed them under the wreckage. He blocked the falling rocks and pushed them out of the former building. Captain David shouted, “Thank you!” and ran down the street with the child in his arms.
Turning back to his worst nightmare, he saw that Miles dove off the building to follow Gwen, who was halfway down. Don’t let her fall. Peter saw all of the Spider people stopped fighting, instead, everyone watched, no doubt thinking the same things as Peter was.
The world was slow again. He fell to his knees, too far away to do anything now. She was going to die here. It was a story told a million times, it was woven into the tapestry of the universe. Death loved Gwen Stacy.
Miles out stretched both hands, releasing webs. One to her chest, the other to her stomach. Once the webs landed, he pulled her into his chest. They spun in the air like divers on a collision course for the road.
Was Peter gonna lose them both?
You let her fall.
Miles held onto her with his left arm, and used his right to web on a nearby building.
Eyes welling with tears, Peter took a shaky breath. Of course, Miles wouldn't let her die. His watch buzzed, Canon Event Interrupted. The Spider people all took a collective deep breath, some even laughing, most crying. But strangely, the fighting had almost completely ceased, apart from Spot and Miguel causing havoc.
Death may love Gwen Stacy, but Miles loves her more. Miles loved so vibrantly, he was willing to tear the multiverse apart just for his father to continue breathing. Why would this time be any different?
With Mayday secure in her pouch, Peter followed Gwen and Miles.
As soon as he landed, he opened his mouth to speak, but quickly shut up when he heard Gwen and Miles. Eavesdropping, he hid behind the stair entrance to the roof.
“Gwen, are you okay?” Miles asked, and Gwen didn’t say anything back. “Gwen?”
“You saved me.” She said, voice shaking. “How..? I thought I was…”
“Hey, hey, it’s alright.” Peter peeked around the corner to see Miles, mask taken off, reach out and hug Gwen. She pushed him away. Miles’s eyebrows furrowed and he dropped his hands to his thighs, but he took a deep breath.
“You saved me.” She took her mask off. “It… I was supposed to die, how did you save me?”
Miles reached out again, almost on impulse, but pulled back and his hand hovered in the air. He sighed. “Because I love you.”
“ That should have killed me.” She took a few steps back.
He smiled and shook his head. “You know how I am, I don’t care about the canon.”
Looking at her watch, she gestured to it and showed Miles. “Canon Event Interrupted.” She laughed. “Which means your dad’s alive!”
Miles sighed in relief, and broke into a grin. “So, what do you think?”
Gwen looked at the watch, then at Miles, and back at the watch. “What I always think, I love you, too.” She said, cheeks flushed. “But, we can’t—“
He took her hands into his, stopping her protests. “Do you want to be with me?”
“Yes.” She said without hesitation.
“Then, let’s be together, okay? Who cares about what the universe thinks—?”
Without stopping to see if he would say anything else, Gwen cupped his face and kissed him.
“Oh, hell yeah.” Peter muttered.
A hand landed on his shoulder, and he would’ve screamed if that same person hadn’t slapped a hand on his mouth, as well. “Stop watching them.” Noir said, emerging from shadows that definitely weren’t there before.
Peter slapped his hand away, and instead chose to swat at Noir like a cat would when looking at a dangly object. “What were you doing then?”
“ Nothing , I was just—“
“ Guys!” Miles shouted, still holding on to Gwen. “Seriously?”
“Uhhh, it’s not what it looks like?” Peter said, caught like a deer in headlights.
Noir gently pushed Peter away. “I came to say that the battle is not over. You can make out later.”
“We weren’t—“ Gwen started. “Oh, whatever, let’s just go.” She was about to swing off the building, before she immediately doubled back. “Nope, no web fluid, I almost just killed myself again.”
“Here.” Noir passed her what Peter assumed was web fluid, or an extra shooter. It didn’t matter, because Peter turned back to Miles.
“So…”
“Nope!” Miles tugged his mask back on and jumped off the building.
Peter followed him without hesitation, holding Mayday as he jumped. “C’mon, kid—“
“Later!” Miles shouted as one of Spot’s portals opened in front of them. “Just keep my dad safe!” Was all he managed to say before being sucked in.
“Wait!” Peter kept swinging. “I was gonna say thank you, Miles! Thank you for remembering what I told you.” He said in a hushed tone to no one in particular. “And thank you, universe, for not being a total bitch today!” That was the wrong thing to say, as Peter then ran out of web fluid. “Fuck.”
“I got you!” Appearing behind him in the air, Gwen webbed him. “I’ll toss you on that building right there!”
“No! Don’t—!” She tossed him. As Peter flew through the air, he heard Gwen and Noir’s cackles and laughter grow fainter. He almost face planted, but rolled at the last minute. “Assholes.” He muttered, before smiling. “Well, my job here is done, I’m just gonna…” He laid down on the roof. “They don’t need me, right, Mayday? We can just relax.”
There was silence.
“Who am I kidding? There’s no rest for Spiderman.” He ran down the side of the building, ready to help in anyway he could.