Part 2 - 'Til Death do us Part
Chapter 34 - Frenemies
A few hours passed. Gwen tapped the door bell on the house she and young Miles were standing outside. She glanced at the mail box: it was surrounded by countless flowers, candles and portraits. This was definitely the right house. The door clicked.
"You guys are really sweet but please, no more fans today."
A woman with grey hair appeared, a baseball bat was just visible behind her.
"I understand, but we're not exactly fans, May. I'm Gwen. I'm from another dimension, and another time."
May sighed.
"Another victim of Kingpin?"
"Not exactly, but I was once."
"I think you better come in. Who's your friend?"
"I'm Miles. I was there when it happened. I am so sorry."
"Which dimension are you from?"
"Brooklyn."
May chuckled and stepped aside to let them in.
"You aren't the only spider people to be brought here by the collider."
Gwen glanced around and nodded.
"I know. Noir, Peni and Spiderham. I'm going through a lot of deja vu at the moment."
The other three spiders appeared from the kitchen.
"How do you know us?" Asked Peni suspiciously.
Gwen sighed.
"It's a long story. A five year long story to be exact. I'm kind of hoping three more spider people will appear, including another me and another Miles."
The spiders and May were visibly confused. Gwen pressed her hand to her chest. After a few seconds, the suit morphed into a small sphere of black, white, magenta and teal programmable matter. She threw it up in the air and caught it again, trying to think how she could explain everything without telling them too much of the future and upsetting a time patrolling version of Conall. May broke her chain of thought.
"Please, everyone sit down. Tea?"
Gwen shook her head. Some of the other spiders did the same, but Spiderham nodded vigorously. She sat down on the sofa, still throwing and catching the ball. Noir eyed her cautiously.
"So who are you?" He asked.
"Gwen, or Spider Gwen, or Spiderwoman. Originally from dimension 7065, or Earth-65 to you guys. I keep forgetting Conall hasn't gone on a rampage yet. Anyway, 65 but five years in the future. I hitched a ride on a TARDIS from Doctor Who, if any of you have seen that show. You won't Noir; you're still stuck in the 1930s. But then the TARDIS was destroyed and I'm trapped here. Also, you're all about to glitch any moment now."
The spiders looked at each other for a split second before bursting into strange displays of colour and writhing around on the floor. When they stopped, Gwen continued.
"I don't need to get to another dimension, unlike you guys. I just need to get back to the future."
"Hey, that's a film." Said Miles.
"I know, but it's irrelevant. Crap, I sound like a Borg when I say that."
She rubbed her scar then looked at the others a little awkwardly.
"I feel like I'm the only one doing the talking. Someone else do it."
The spiders began to whisper between themselves, except Miles who still felt like an outsider. He sat down next to Gwen.
"So...err...me and Gwen become a thing in the future?"
"Maybe. I don't know anymore. You were supposed to have a pretty important conversation with her on the bus here."
"What's it like, me and her?"
"Pretty good match."
"Do we have a family?"
Gwen's mind raced through pictures of her child. If neither she nor older Miles managed to get back to their time, Peter would be an orphan. She closed her eyes.
"You want to talk about those things you did?" Pressed young Miles.
"No."
"I don't see what could be so bad. Everyone says talking about it helps."
Gwen snapped, sick of his questions. She stood up and turned on him.
"You want me to talk about what I did? Fine! I killed every living thing on Earth! I still hear the screams as skyscrapers caved in on innocent people! I still see space ships over New York!" She shouted.
"Woah, calm down..."
"Calm down? You want me to calm down? How can I calm down when I'm trapped five years in the past with a one year old child back at home who's now going to grow up without parents? How can I calm down when for all I know the only other person I love is lying somewhere back at Alchemax with a tree stuck through them?"
She pressed the ball of her suit to her chest and it morphed around her.
"I'll be on the roof."
"Watch out. Some of the tiles are loose." Said May.
Gwen stormed out the front door and scrambled up the wall. She double tapped the side of her head, making the mask and hood morph away, and began to cry.
Twenty minutes later, Gwen spotted something which both gave her hope and filled her with dread. Her younger version and Peter B were supporting...no, almost dragging her Miles towards the house. She jumped down from the roof and ran over.
"Miles!"
He grunted. She noticed a faint trail of blood behind one of his feet. She took over from young Gwen and helped Peter lift him up the steps to the sofa. Young Miles helped them to lift him onto it. May knelt down with a bucket of water and a first aid kit. She looked at older Gwen.
"Can you get this suit off him?"
Gwen used one of older Miles' hands and pressed it to his chest. The suit morphed into the ball which she put out of the way. May gently bathed a large cut on the bottom of his foot. Gwen looked at her younger self and Peter.
"What happened?"
"He webbed us and used his wing suit to stop us hitting the ground too hard. Next thing we knew he was screaming in agony and there was a chunk of wood in his foot." Peter replied.
"He's lost a lot of blood. I think he's passed out." Said May, able to see the wound better now she had cleaned some of the blood off.
A large slit was clearly visible. Older Gwen stroked her husband's hair.
"Stay with me, Miles." She whispered, kissing his cheek.
May wrapped a bandage around the slit and took a step back, admiring her handiwork.
"I think he'll be OK once he wakes up. You all have some incredible healing abilities. Get some sleep, everyone. It's nearly eleven o'clock."
Older Gwen stayed awake all night, scared that something might happen to her Miles while she slept. In the morning she was struggling to stay awake as the other spiders began to wake up. They were standing huddled together in the kitchen, whispering to each other.
"I wish someone loved me that much." Said younger Miles.
He had stayed the night, scared of what would happen if he returned to his apartment at school.
"Someone already does." Replied Spiderham.
The spiders looked at young Gwen. She blushed.
"I don't know what went down with those two, but I don't like you like that. I'm still struggling to forgive you for the hair cut."
"Maybe we should sit down and talk things over. If nothing else we can always be friends, right?"
She narrowed her eyes at him.
"I'm gonna go talk to old me instead."
Miles' face turned from hopeful to sad. Young Gwen sat down in front of her elder. Older Gwen eyed her suspiciously.
"It's crazy how you and your Miles became so close. I mean, he seems like a nice guy. He's just such a..." Young Gwen started.
"A goofy idiot. I know. But he'll get better as he masters his spider powers."
"I've just realised, you haven't glitched once since you appeared. How do you do it?"
"It was an accident. Even the worst things have good consequences. Your haircut, for example: it makes you look cooler."
"Then why did you get rid of yours? I assume he did it to you as well."
"Yes. Him being allowed to like the haircut was a bit of a running joke for a while. I didn't really get rid of mine, just lost the will to keep it. Having it makes me feel like I'm actually Spiderwoman. Not having it just shows I'm not really her anymore."
"What do you mean? You fight like me, you look like me, apart from that scar."
"I unleashed the full power of something to defeat Conall in my time. So much power corrupts the best and worst of us, the best of us the most. I'm sure you heard my rant last night at your Miles."
"They probably heard it downtown."
Old Gwen cracked a smile before talking again.
"As I said, or rather screamed, I killed a lot of people. Not just people, I killed animals, insects, everything. Earth-65 is a graveyard. I strayed as far from being Spiderwoman as can be."
Young Gwen looked at the ground, not sure what to make of it.
"I mean...what about Peter? Not that one, the one I...we killed."
"That was an accident. What I did was on purpose. I...wasn't right in my mind."
"So...this is my future?"
"I don't know. It's all really uncertain now that me and my Miles have messed it up. You were supposed to have an important conversation on the bus back here. Obviously that didn't happen."
Young Miles walked into the room, heading for the front door.
"I'm going to school. You coming, Gwen? I mean my Gwen...not my Gwen...Gwen from my time."
Young Gwen glanced at her elder version with a raised eyebrow.
"I'd go. It wouldn't hurt. Technically the bad hair day was the last time I went but time is already screwed up. Go ahead, Miles. I want to say one last thing to this me. It isn't every day you get to go back and tell your past self all the things you wish you knew." Said old Gwen.
Miles nodded and waved. Young Gwen stood up slowly.
"Don't give up on him. Sometimes he might be all you have left." Old Gwen advised her.
"Right. Well...school."
"Don't let him get the other side."
Young Gwen grinned and ran after young Miles. Old Gwen suddenly jumped as someone tapped her shoulder. She looked round to see old Miles awake again.
"Interesting conversation."
"How much did you hear?"
"Most of it."
She sighed.
"Do you really feel like you aren't Spiderwoman anymore?" Miles continued, sitting up slowly.
His body felt heavy, and he felt dizzy, but he ignored it out of worry for Gwen.
"I am still Spiderwoman, I just don't deserve to be. Not after what I did."
She cuddled up to him on the sofa.
"You know that wasn't your fault."
"I listened to Conall and did what he said. It's my fault."
Miles was too dopey to argue anymore. He rested his head on Gwen's.
Things slowly began to return to how older Miles and Gwen remembered them. When younger Miles and Gwen returned, it was clear that younger Gwen had developed some sort of affection for him. Older Miles and Gwen took their leave just a few minutes before Kingpin rolled up with his workers, having followed the pair from school. They noted that Doc Ock's suit appeared to have been repaired, or perhaps it was a new one? It didn't really matter. Miles watched sadly as he saw Prowler be shot. There was nothing he could do. He and Gwen had messed up time enough, and it was of course not the first time he had lost someone he loved. Gwen glanced at him, but saw he was handling it well unlike his younger version.
"They're going to be wondering why we didn't help out." He said, looking at her.
"Then we tell them the truth. Or we just stay away from them permanently."
"Once they've all gone home we need to go home too. There's also Conall to worry about."
"We've no idea if he survived that explosion."
"It's Conall. He was fine in dimension 01, he can survive an exploding TARDIS."
"We need to pay a...what?"
Miles was staring at her, a big smile on his face.
"I haven't seen you this not depressed for three years. What changed?"
"I guess seeing my younger self. I wish we could go back to that, just two naïve teenagers falling head over heels for each other."
"Yeah. Me too."
Gwen almost seemed to pounce on him, pressing her lips to his as Kingpin's car raced away down the street and police cars filled the area.
A couple of hours later, older Miles and Gwen were standing in the middle of the carnage outside the Alchemax headquarters. A number of clean-up vehicles were parked nearby, but it looked like the workers had gone home for the night. Suddenly, their spider senses lit up. Miles rolled out of the way and Gwen backflipped as Conall slammed into the ground just in front of them. He regarded the spiders with a mixture of curiosity and frustration, then seemed to make up his mind. He drew a golden sword and approached Gwen who stood up, narrowing her eyes and double tapping the side of her head making her mask morph into place. Conall began to strike out at her. She ducked and grabbed his arm. He chuckled to himself.
"Bad idea."
Golden Ethereal energy crackled down it. A number of the bolts struck Gwen; she hardly seemed to care. Conall frowned; she should have been fried.
"What the..."
"Thanks for the boost."
She charged a fist from the golden energy and slammed it down into his shoulder. He hit the snow covered ground and stared up at her in shock.
"How can you..."
"You'll find out. In the meantime, we need your help."
Miles looked at her questioningly. She gave him a nod to say she knew what she was doing.
"Why should I help you?"
"Because..." She knelt down and plucked the sword from his hand, holding it to his throat. "In our time, I'm the one who killed you. I'll make you a deal. You help us, and I'll let you avenge your future self."
"Gwen..." Miles protested.
She raised a hand to silence him. Conall glared at her, then laughed.
"You have yourself a deal, depending on what help you need."
"Tell us everything you know about Helltreader. That's not all, but that's where we'll start."
"Get off me first."
"I have plenty of reasons not to trust you. Answer the question and I might."
"Fine. Helltreader is from a dimension in stream zero. Any living thing from stream zero is extremely resilient and powerful. Usually there's only one or two creatures per planet. 0734 is a super hot Earth, so Helltreader has heavy heat resistance. Thermal weapons would be like throwing a ball of paper at a mountain. When I say 0734 is super heated, I should probably have said super frozen. It's just super heated normally. The sun died there a long time ago, just not naturally."
Miles knelt down at Conall's head, morphing his mask away.
"How did it die?"
"Helltreader absorbed it. He went on a rampage in that dimension and did it to a number of other stars. His next goal is outside of his own dimension. He eats stars like we eat a salad."
"I'm confused. Start again." Miles interrupted.
"Helltreader goes around absorbing stars as often as me or you eat a meal. Of course that means the Milky Way is running low on stars and Helltreader is still hungry. He's set his sights on other dimensions. Part of my job is keeping him in his own. Of course, if I'm dead in your time he'll be running rampant."
"Not really. We've never met him. But he managed to take three Ethereal Plates and merge with them." Said Gwen, standing up but keeping the sword pointed at Conall.
Conall sat up and rubbed the blood back into his arms and legs.
"If Helltreader has even a single Ethereal Plate you're screwed. Any chance he'll have more by the time you get back?"
"The Doctor hid the Subtle Knife on Gallifrey. Of course, if Helltreader finds it there then that's it. And you killed the Doctor so that doesn't help."
He looked at her as if she was stupid.
"It's a TARDIS. Have you got no idea how they work?"
"I do, sort of." Replied Miles.
"Then you'll know they're an entire dimension inside a box. Not even I have the power to destroy dimensions. It would take all ten Ethereal Plates to do that, or a big red sword. Or a flux warhead but they're weird and nobody has them."
Miles bit his lip, remembering the fate of Middle Earth which had been destroyed by a missile, most likely exactly what Conall had just described.
"Also, a TARDIS has a defence mechanism. It temporarily redistributes itself. I must say the explosion was bigger than I expected. I just wanted to even the odds a bit when I hit it. The Doctor and his pet time machine are all over the place. We just need a sonic screwdriver, or something like that."
"'We' don't need anything. Me and Miles do." Snapped Gwen.
Conall sighed.
"Helltreader is on the loose in the multiverse, and you're fighting him with what...static electricity and string?"
"And a fleet of star ships." Added Miles.
"Right, that as well. But what did I say about thermal weapons and Helltreader?"
"Like paper to a mountain."
"Exactly. I want to avenge my future self, of course. But I want to defend the multiverse as well."
"You're a dictator." Said Gwen, narrowing her eyes and placing the sword's tip against Conall's neck.
"Perhaps. But being merciless has kept a lot of things in one piece. Miles, did you know that Dormammu tried to invade this dimension a few years back? As in a few years back from now. Who do you think stopped him?"
"You, I guess."
"Exactly. If I hadn't been merciless, his goons would be running rampant. The same goes for Helltreader. He brings nothing but death and lies. Being merciless is the only way to kill him."
"How do we kill him? We came to get the schematics for the collider to put him in temporal flux." Asked Gwen.
"That I have never discovered. I just know that mercy won't get us anywhere."
Gwen and Miles looked at each other, unsure whether to trust the person who had murdered their parents and so many others in cold blood. Gwen glanced back at Conall.
"Stay where you are or I'll stick this through you...again." She threatened, brandishing the sword.
She and Miles walked a short distance.
"I think he's being genuine. He's concerned about the fate of the multiverse in our time." Said Miles.
"If he will help us get the TARDIS back then we trust him. Agreed?"
"Agreed, but I don't think Edward will be too pleased."
"I know. But Helltreader sounds like a pretty significant threat. We know the power of Ethereal Plates, and on top of that the power of so many stars."
"Do you think it's just Helltreader? Or do you think he has allies?"
"We'll have to wait and see. For now, Conall is ours."
They returned to Conall who was still sitting, looking around at the mess. He looked up at them.
"We've decided you will help us. After that, I will keep my word and let you avenge your future."
Conall nodded and stood up slowly. Gwen handed him the sword which he sheathed causing it to completely vanish.
"Where do we start?" He asked.
"First, we need to make sure the other's get home. Peni finished the goober so it should be a waiting game. After that, we need the hard drive which May still has." Replied Miles.
"As long as it wasn't destroyed in the fight." Gwen commented.
"It's virtually impossible to break a hard drive by conventional means apart from a magnet, or a grinding machine. None of that will be difficult. In fact, we can probably ignore the others getting home. Time seems to have mended itself, mostly. That just leaves getting the TARDIS and the Doctor back."
"And where do you plan on finding a sonic screwdriver? As far as I can see the TARDIS is lost."
"That's a..."
Conall had wandered off without them noticing. He returned and handed Miles the Doctor's sonic screwdriver.
"It was lying on the snow." He said.
The spiders exchanged looks.
"There wouldn't happen to be an instruction manual in a tree, would there?" Asked Miles jokingly.
"No, but I assume it's just point and think."
Miles inspected the device for a few seconds before pointing it towards an empty spot on the ground. Gwen and Conall took a step back in case it exploded in his face or something. There didn't seem to be a button so he felt around a little until a touch sensor must have activated it. He focused on what he wanted, picturing the TARDIS in front of him as clearly as possible. Gwen and Conall looked around as small fragments began to fly towards the area Miles pointed the screwdriver. After a few seconds, there was a thump. The TARDIS stood in all its blue glory. Miles let his arm drop as the door opened.
"Being in a thousand pieces is not fun." Said the Doctor.
He spotted Conall and snatched the screwdriver from Miles, aiming it at him. Gwen stepped between them and Miles did the same.
"He's on our side." Miles said firmly.
"Oh really? I don't think so. What did you promise him?"
"A chance to save the multiverse."
"And to avenge his future self on me." Added Gwen.
"What makes you think you can trust him?"
Conall rolled his eyes.
"Because much to your surprise, I don't want to see the world burn. Not this one, not the ones next door in the Alpha Centauri system. Nor the dimension next door. Helltreader will devour everything."
"Devour?"
"He eats stars." Gwen explained.
The Doctor lowered the screwdriver.
"And you'll help us kill him?"
"As best I can."
He sighed and put the device away.
"If you dare to backstab anyone before your end of the deal I'll have your head on a plate."
"Sounds like a delicious main course."
The Doctor turned his attention to Miles.
"Have you got the hard drive?"
"No, but it won't take long to get it. And it should be diplomatic, not violent."
"Good."
A few moments later, the TARDIS materialised outside the wreck of May's house. May smiled when Miles appeared.
"Here before your younger self, I see."
"He'll be along. Right now I need the hard drive."
May walked over the pile of smashed plates and picked up the small metal box. She handed it to Miles.
"In all my time being Peter's person in the chair, I never thought I'd end up meeting time travellers. I probably have no right to know, but what will happen to Earth-65? All this talk of your Gwen committing genocide. It worries me that a spider would do such a thing."
"7065 is her home dimension. Or was. She was driven mad by the power of an object known as an Ethereal Plate. Using it she summoned an army known as the Reapers who's only purpose is to destroy every living thing. They did the killing. She blames herself, though."
May nodded slowly, taking in the information.
"It gives me hope that she has come back from that to some degree. Go, Miles. Your time needs you."
"Thank you, and sorry about the mess. That apology is five years overdue."
May laughed and waved him away.
The TARDIS rematerialized aboard the SGC Valour two days after it had departed. Miles and Gwen were first out. They froze, finding themselves face-to-face with a barricade of security officers pointing guns at them. However, the officers recognised the spiders a second later and relaxed. One tapped their com badge.
"Lieutenant Pine to Admiral Melbourne. They're back."
Only a few seconds passed before Edward sprinted into the small hangar. He kept his distance but seemed happy. Miles noticed one of the security officers taking out a small device.
"It's good to know you're still alive. When you took so long to come back we wondered if you were dead."
Miles shook his head and grinned.
"Nah, it would take more than the TARDIS being blown up to get rid of us." He joked, walking towards the admiral to give him the hard drive.
Edward raised his hand and took a few steps back until he hit the wall.
"Stay back. Things haven't exactly gone smoothly while you were gone."
Miles returned to Gwen's side.
"What's happened?" She asked.
"Well...we went looking for more allies, and people who might know about Helltreader. The allies quest took us to 2095, which is still Borgified by the way. In 2095 we stumbled across someone called Eddie who said they might be able to help. After devouring Eddie, the Venom symbiote is on a field trip. Shut up, Venom. They might be delicious looking to you but they're my friends."
"Oh..." Was all that Gwen said.
Miles realised the device the security officer was holding must be some sort of high pitched sound speaker.
"That's...not good. Did you get anymore allies?"
"None. We couldn't find the Avengers. And no informants about Helltreader either."
"Then it's a good thing we managed to make a friend. Sort of. I'm not sure people will want to call him a friend..." Replied Gwen.
She knocked on the TARDIS door and Conall walked out. Edward's eyes narrowed and he tensed up.
"You two have a lot of explaining."
Conall sighed.
"If I'm gonna die in the future, so be it. But there'll need to be a multiverse for me to die in. I know a lot about Helltreader, and I can help you fight." He explained.
"What's the drawback?"
"I promised him he could avenge his future self." Gwen replied.
"Is Miles OK with this?"
Miles shrugged.
"Not really, but I don't think arguing will change anything. Besides, Conall has to survive first. From what he's told us I don't think any of us will."
"In that case I see no other choice than to let you help. But if you put one step out of line, I'll kill you myself. Then eat your corpse, most likely."
Crossovers in this Chapter
- Doctor Who
- Venom