Alexia drove home in a hurry, hoping to talk to Peter as soon as possible. She couldn't decide whether to tell him everything, or just ask him some questions and figure out the rest on her own. She wouldn't have to worry about it tonight, though; he was already gone, and she doubted he would be back any time soon.

She threw the now-cold ravioli in the garbage, her appetite gone. Even though it was getting late, Alexia felt too restless to sleep, and she opened the balcony doors to look outside. Impulsively, she went to the railing and sat on it, using the door for support. The view was much clearer here, the wind billowing through her hair. She felt calm, looking out at the full moon high above the New York skyline. Without warning, the hinge on the door broke, causing Alexia to lose her balance. She fell.

The feeling of time slowing returned. Less than 10 feet below the balcony, she stopped falling. Alexia looked in wonderment at what had stopped her. Her hand was stuck to the wall. The moment after she saw this, she looked down. The door was hurtling toward the sidewalk, only a few feet above a woman pushing a baby carriage.

What happened next was too fast even for Alexia to see. Her body acted purely on instinct, her hand moving into a position she had seen many times over the last month: her ring and index finger pulled back, and her newly re-designed body reacted. Her right wrist shot out a spider web.

It attached itself to the door, and the force of the sudden stop propelled it back toward her. She yanked it up the rest of the way, catching it. Alexia stared at it, astonished at what she had done. What she was doing. She tossed the door onto the balcony, the nerves in her body releasing the web from her wrist. She looked up, wondering if she could make it back up. The feeling of danger had passed, and she took this to mean that she could climb the walls without falling. She put her left hand onto the wall. It stayed. She lifted her right hand, and pulled herself up. It felt like rock climbing, just without the hand-holds. She continued climbing until she reached the balcony, and climbed over the railing. She placed the broken door in the corner to hide the web.

'I hope that will dissolve', she thought, 'It has to dissolve. If it didn't, Manhattan would be covered in them.'

She sat down on her bed as the realization fully registered. During the course of the last few hours, she had done almost everything she had seen Peter do.

'That is, short of swinging around Broadway in tights', Alexia thought, smiling.

What would she do about this? Hide it? Was that even possible? What if she were to get attacked in public or some other situation where she'd have to use her powers? How would people react to a 21-year-old-girl throw a 200-pound man over her shoulder?

On the other hand, maybe she didn't have to hide them. Maybe she could use them for something good. Maybe…

'No, I can't think about this now. I'll figure it out tomorrow, after I've talked to Peter.'

Alexia tried to put these thoughts out of her mind as she got ready for bed. She dreamed of rooftops and knife-wielding muggers.

For the first time in over a week, Alexia actually managed to eat breakfast at home.

'Even if home is a hole-in-the-wall apartment that's falling apart', she thought, pouring herself some orange juice. This morning, Alexia had noticed some more subtle changes about herself. Her muscles were more toned, no longer the sort curves of a typical model, and although she had never needed glasses, her eye sight had improved. She'd woken up with an abundance of energy, a craving for movement, and her little box of an apartment wasn't doing much to satisfy it.

She finished her breakfast quickly and left, pausing only to make sure that Peter wasn't home.

Alexia decided to leave her bike behind and run to school, even though campus wasn't within walking distance. She sprinted down a few blocks, faces and vehicles rushing past her. People were starting to stare. She knew that she was probably running faster than the last long-distance-running gold medalist. Maybe even this was too obvious. She slowed down and stopped, wondering what to do. Class was going to start soon, and she wouldn't have enough time to go back and get to her bike to drive to school. She glanced into a nearby ally, spying a fire escape ladder, wondering if it was possible to simply jump across the rooftops.

Alexia ran into the ally and, just in case someone was watching her, jumped onto the fire escape ladder and quickly climbed onto the roof of the building. After taking a deep breathe and reminding herself that if Peter could do it, so could she, Alexia ran to the edge of the roof and jumped. She travelled clear to the opposite rooftop, and jumped again.

Alexia made it to campus within minutes, smiling as she landed in a crouch on a building across from her class. She jumped down into the ally and walked the rest of the way to the auditorium, and waited as the rest of the students arrived, taking the same seat she'd occupied the previous class.

Her smile faded slightly as she saw Peter enter the auditorium. They had a lot to talk about. Alexia needed to make an important choice today, one that would change her life forever.

"Hi", Peter said as he approached Alexia, taking the seat next to her.

"Hi", she replied.

They sat in silence as Mr. Phillips announced that the class would be working in pairs for most of the assignment, and they would consist of one designer and one photographer each.

"Want to be my partner?", Alexia asked Peter.

"Sure", he replied.

They went to the area where the materials had been set out, and peter watched as Alexia set to work, fiddling with his camera. Alexia worked quickly, anxious for class to be over so she could talk to Peter in privacy. Her hands glided along the sewing machine, never missing a beat. She finished the outfit before class was over, with time to spare. Mr. Phillips came over and asked her if she wouldn't mind modeling her outfit for the class. She accepted, taking the clothes off of the mannequin and going to the change room.

All eyes were on her when she returned, her long black hair flowing down her back. The outfit she had made consisted of a black tank top glittering with red rhinestones arranged in a floral design over the front, and a long black skirt that went half-way past her knees, with slits up her thigh on both sides. The outfit was completed by her own shoes, knee-high combat boots.

She turned around slowly to let everyone see. It was actually a bit embarrassing; her modelling work was mostly done with a camera, not on a runway. When she was done, Peter asked if he could take a picture. Alexia agreed. After he had finished, she went back to the change room to put her own clothes back on.

"You make a good model", Peter commented when she came back.

"Thanks. From one model to another, you're not too bad yourself", she replied with a wink.

Then Peter did something that he could rarely remember doing since Uncle Ben had died; he laughed. The sound was infectious, and Alexia started laughing as well. Mr. Phillips told them to stop distracting the other students, and they quieted down, secretly enjoying their little joke. Then the bell rang, and everyone started filing out to go to lunch. They were still smiling as they walked into the hallway.

"I've never thought about it that way", Peter admitted.

"I was having breakfast at a café the other day, when I picked up a copy of the Bugle and saw your name in the by-lines. I nearly burst out laughing right there in the restaurant", Alexia commented.

"I really should ask Jonah to take that out. It's great for my career and all, but…", Peter trailed off, shrugging. The unspoken words hung in the silence between them: but someone might draw a connection. And Peter definitely didn't want that.

"Can I ask you a question?", Alexia asked .

"Sure", Peter replied.

They were standing outside the doors to the cafeteria when they stopped walking. Alexia looked around to make sure that no one was listening.

"How did it all start?", she asked.

A flash of pain shot across his eyes as he remembered.

"Can we talk about this outside?"

"Of course", Alexia replied.

She followed him out to a small park outside, and they sat down on a bench.

"It started in my senior year in high school. I was on a field trip to Columbia University, where they were doing research on spider DNA", he began, smiling faintly at the memory. "What they'd done was take DNA from a bunch of different species, and created fifteen genetically designed spiders. I guess one of them escaped. I was taking pictures for the school paper-,"he smiled again, remembering the last time he'd seen MJ before his life had changed forever. "I guess it had been hiding on the ceiling somewhere. It dropped onto my hand and bit me. The whole thing was just a very strange accident."

So maybe the research that had caused Peter's abilities had something to do with the syringe. Perhaps the Black Widow DNA had been meant for the same purpose Peter had just described. But she still had one more question, perhaps even more important than the one Peter had just answered.

"Why… why did you decide to help people?", Alexia asked.

The same hurt, clouded look she'd seen during the first class returned.

"After the accident happened and I discovered all of the strange things I could do, I was very confused. I had no idea what to do. I used to get picked on a lot… still do, actually. Well, one day, I had a really bad… incident with my powers. It ended up embarrassing one of the jocks, and he started a fight with me. I fought him off, which embarrassed him even more, but I was the one who got in trouble for it. My Uncle Ben and Aunt May had noticed that I was acting differently, so my Uncle Ben took me for a drive, and told me that he understood what I was going through, that I was changing… the whole nine yards. But one thing that he said really stuck in my mind. He said 'With great power, comes great responsibility".

His eyes started to glitter with unshed tears.

"It was one of the last things he'd ever say to me."

He paused as he tried to figure out what to say next.

"He'd driven me to the library, where I usually spent my free time, but that wasn't where I was going that day. I'd seen an ad in a magazine about an amateur wrestling competition. They would give three thousand dollars to anyone who could stay in the ring for three minutes. I decided to compete, hoping that I could buy a car and impress MJ. I figured that even if I couldn't fight the guy, at least I could avoid him long enough to win the money. I got a little distracted by the crowd, and the guy got a good shot at me. I ended up having to fight him after all, and I won. When I went to collect my money, the manager only gave me a hundred dollars, claiming that I wasn't entitled to the three thousand because the match hadn't lasted three minutes. I got angry and left. As I was leaving, a thief stole the money from him. I could have stopped him, but I didn't. I thought that he deserved to get robbed. But when I went to the spot where Uncle Ben was supposed to pick me up, I saw a crowd gathering around someone. It was my Uncle Ben. He'd been shot by the thief because he wouldn't give up his car. The same thief I let go."

He paused, his memories of shock and pain playing like a movie behind his eyes.

"I held onto his hand as he died. I could have prevented it. I could have stopped the crime that led to his death, but I didn't. My selfishness killed him."

He looked straight ahead now, his eyes fixed in determination.

"Ever since that day, I've done my best to make sure that no one would have to go through what my Uncle Ben did. 'With great power, comes great responsibility'. I'll never forget that.

He looked over at Alexia, his blue eyes mirroring her own.

"Why do I do what I do? I guess you could say, 'because I can."

Alexia nodded. The haunted looks, the distant expressions, the way he left at night and didn't come back until dawn no matter how tired he was, it all made sense now. Peter felt that he owed it to his uncle.

Peter checked his watch.

"I have to go, or I'll be late for physics class. But can I ask you a question?

"Of course."

"Why did you want to know all of these things about me?"

Alexia looked away, thinking about the previous night.

"Just curious. I have too many questions", she answered.

"I don't mind, I just wanted to know why. Well, I'd better be going."

He started to get up and leave.

"Wait", she said.

Peter looked back at her.

"Thank you", she said.

"For what?", he asked.

"For sharing with me. It meant a lot".

'More than you'll ever know', she thought.

Peter smiled.

"No problem."

Then he left, but Alexia remained on the bench for a few more moments, thinking. Delaying making the decision that she knew, in her heart, she had already made. All of her questions had been answered. The only thing left to do was figure out where to find some black spandex, and Alexia already had that covered.