March 12th - 2028

Gwen was in their bathroom looking at her image in the mirror, applying the day's makeup. Earlier she'd taken a warm shower alone, despite some protests from Peter, but Gwen wanted a few minutes with her own thoughts and had thus wanted Peter to take the first shower. She smiled briefly before she quickly sprayed on some perfume and put on some new blue undergarments and left the bathroom. She walked down to the closet and found her shirtless handsome husband sitting on the bed engrossed in a data pad.

Peter looked up at the movement in front of him and smiled as his brown eyes roamed her body, she smiled back at him. It always gave Gwen a shiver down the spine when he admired her. They didn't speak to each other while she got dressed at the closet near him, but she could feel his eyes on her. A few minutes later she was dressed in a new satin blouse, light blue this time, and a pair of black pants. She heard Peter move behind her and then hugged her frame from behind.

Peter leaned against her neck and took in her scent as his arms wrapped around her abdomen.

Gwen smiled, "Something I can do for you, Spidey?" She asked, adding his nickname with a suggestive tone.

"Maybe," Peter answered hugging her closer and kissed her neck softly. "I love that curvy body of yours."

One of Gwen's eyebrows rose up and she feigned annoyance, "You think I'm fat?"

Peter tensed and coiled back a bit, "No, absolutely not I just-"

Gwen laughed as she turned around in his embrace and planted a hand on his chest, "I'm just teasing." She could feel his heart beating and the heat from his body and how he shivered from her touch.

Peter could see the mirth in her eyes and the grin that graced her lips. He shook his head, "That wasn't fair."

Gwen leaned in and planted a lingering kiss on his lips. She pulled back a bit when they parted and sucked on his lower lip before letting go.

Peter breathed out, "You are such a tease Gwendy."

Gwen smirked, she loved teasing her lover. "You'll have to patiently wait, though."

Peter chuckled, "It might be difficult to wait that long."

She shot him an evil grin as she moved her arms around his neck, "But you will have to play your cards right of course."

"Ah, always playing the angle Mrs Parker," Peter quipped. "Didn't I win a few points earlier this morning?"

She purred, "Mmm, well I did enjoy that wake-up call." Gwen planted a soft kiss on his lips once again.

Peter grinned after they parted, "I thought you would."

"I hope the rest of the morning was satisfactory as well."

Peter smirked, "You are such a selfless temptress Gwendy."

Gwen laughed, "Temptress you say?"

"Uh-huh."

She smiled for a few moments before she rolled her eyes and scoffed as she glanced at the direction of the AI console by the door, "Damn AI disturbing us like that."

Peter chuckled, "Yes, it wasn't the best timing ever. But Jarvis is still recovering from Ultron's virtual attack back at the Tower. Take it easy with him."

Gwen turned her eyes back to Peter and shook her head. "Of course..."

"I thought it would kill our little moment." Peter mused.

Gwen nodded but smirked, "It almost did, but I enjoyed being with you regardless."

Peter grinned, "I'm happy to oblige." He released his hold of Gwen. "I better check up on what Jarvis actually wanted."

Gwen nodded and Peter walked up the stairs to the AI console. Gwen closed the closet and followed suit.

Peter stopped at the AI console pressed the call button and Jarvis representation showed up immediately.

"Yes Peter?"

"Was there something you wanted earlier?" Peter asked.

"There's a certain Helen Stacy requiring Mrs Parker's presence through a video call."

Gwen's eyes shot up as she approached Peter. "Mom…? Where is she?"

"Helen Stacy was successfully evacuated to another military base on the country, we just made contact and she is now available in Peter's laptop." Jarvis informed.

Gwen smiled. "Wow, thank you Jarvis."

"You are welcome Gwen. I would also like to extend my apologies for the earlier interruption; I respect both you and Peter's privacy."

"It's alright. Thanks again."

"I'm glad." Jarvis' holo returned back to the panel.

Peter turned to Gwen's side, she was smiling, relieved. He slowly wrapped both arms around her waist and brought her closer to his chest. "You should talk to her."

Gwen looked up and genuinely smiled at him. "I know, it seems that things are finally getting better."

He kissed her forehead. "I'll give you two some space, okay?"

Gwen shook her head. "Definitely not…You're my husband, the father of my children, she wants to see you as well."

He chuckled softly, doing what she wants. He gave her a quick peck on the lips before moving his arms away from his from her waist. "Well, I'm going to wear a shirt then."

Gwen laughed. "I'm sure she won't mind, if she survives the view of my husband's toned abs." She joked.

Peter turned to Gwen and grinned slightly, "It feels nice to be loved by you, honey." He opened their closet's door and searched for a proper shirt.

Gwen sat on his desk and replied, "What are you talking about? I'm only with you because you're hot, there's no love involved." She teased as she turned his laptop on.

Peter returned and stood behind her chair. "It's only because I'm hot, huh?" He leaned down as he trailed soft kisses on the delicate skin of her neck.

Gwen giggled as she caressed his perfect hair. "C'mon now, you don't want us to be caught in the act by my own mom."

He laughed and kissed the side of her warm lips. "There's a first time for everything."

"Cliché…We aren't teenagers anymore." Gwen was about to continue if her husband hadn't started sucking the smooth skin of her neck. "Peter!" She turned on her chair and gave him a deadly stare.

"What?" He crossed his arms innocently.

"I swear to god that if you've left a mark on my neck I will -"

"Gwen? Is that you?"

Gwen turned the chair back to the laptop's direction and smiled happily. "Mom…!"

"Oh honey! I was so worried!"

"It's okay now," Gwen said sympathetic. "How are you?"

"I should've been the one to ask you that, I didn't know where my only girl was."

Gwen leaned on the desk. "I'm with Peter and the kids, it wasn't easy, but we're now safe."

"Thank god, I knew that you would keep her safe, Peter." She looked at him.

"She means the world to me, I would do anything for her," He replied as Gwen looked at him for a brief moment, glad for having him on her life. "But how are you guys?"

"We're on this base for weeks now, and just now that they managed to maintain contact with the rest of the installations."

"My brothers…? Are they okay?" Gwen asked.

Helen nodded. "Simon and Phillip are currently sleeping on their own rooms, it's early."

"And Howard…? Where's he? What about his wife and my niece?"

She sighed. "Howard... he left Miranda and Kate and enlisted, he's out there. They're here, thank god."

"You mean..." Gwen paused. Peter placed hand on her shoulder and squeezed her gently. "He's fighting? Those machines…?" She asked again, making sure that she heard the news right.

"I know how you feel; it's been always like that, I tried to stop him..."

Gwen completed her sentence. "... but he went anyways." She sighed and whispered, "Damn, Howard."

Peter interjected, "I'm sure he's fine."

"I really hope so, Peter…" Helen continued, "I was told that his unit might arrive at you guy's base, warn me if that ever happens, okay?"

"We will, mom." Gwen nodded.

"And how are my grandchildren?" Helen now smiled.

Gwen shook her head and forgot such thoughts. "They're doing well, better than I've actually expected. Liz is strong, you have no idea," She replied. "The boys are a bag full of energy to us, they cheer everyone up."

"Oh, did you know that Gwen wants a fourth child?" Peter teased, lightening the atmosphere up.

"Peter!" Gwen turned her head and narrowed her eyes at him with a cold glare. "I've never said that!" She stated.

Peter evaded her green eyes and focused in Helen's image on the laptop. "It's true, what do you think?"

Gwen opened her mouth at him in shock, before returning to her previous spot. "No, mom, it isn't like that."

Helen grinned and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't see a problem."

"Mom…! Don't encourage him!" She protested.

"See, baby…?" Peter leaned down and kissed her cheek from behind. Gwen just moaned in disapproval as she noticed a smile coming from her mother.

"Well, I think that you two have much to discuss." Helen grinned. "I have to go now, darling."

"This won't last any longer, mom."

"Hopefully, and you Peter," She looked up to the man who her daughter had chosen to live the rest of her life with, "Keep my girl safe and happy, like you always did."

He smiled. "Aye ma'am..."

Eventually, the connection was shut down and the married couple were now alone again.

Gwen rose from her chair and walked away without any word. "My. God. Peter, you're so annoying." She leaned her back against the wall and crossed her arms under her breasts and fixed him a glare.

He chuckled and slowly approached her. She cautiously pressed her hand against his toned chest. "Don't even think about it."

"I got my little revenge for all the teases you keep doing at me." Peter gently grabbed her purse and placed her hand against the wall and above her head as he pressed his chest against hers, adding some physical pressure.

"That's cheating, just because you're stronger." Gwen complained, looking up at his brown eyes.

"You could just walk away if you really wanted." He brushed his lips against hers, freeing her hand, before moving his own hands to her waist. "Yet, here you are." He whispered softly.

Gwen sighed. She was getting seduced by her husband and there wasn't anything that she could do about it. On Peter's arms, she always felt free, and now, her mother and brothers were safe, and she hoped that Howard was doing well, that was more than what she had before. She could now relax her mind and body a little bit.

"You're too much irresistible for that to happen." Gwen said huskily, she wanted to kiss those lips that were now on her neck.

He trailed soft kisses from her neck to and to the smooth skin of her cheek, stopping right in the corner of her lips to ask, "Do you love me?"

Gwen sighed, she was being tortured. "Yes... you know that."

Peter smiled and connected his lips to hers, sucking her lower lip and cupping her cheeks with his hands as she reciprocated the passionate kiss. She loved that man, the only person who knows her from head to toe, who completes her.

Suddenly, Peter broke the kiss and started laughing as he made his way towards their bed, leaving Gwen alone and swimming in a pool of confusion. "What's so funny?" She asked.

Peter rolled on the bed, bursting into fits laughter. "Oh, I'm only with you because of your body, there's no love involved!" He quoted her in a silly way.

Gwen glared him, for interrupting the passionate kiss, and for mocking her. "Ha,ha,ha.." She deadpanned as she approached the bed.

Peter lay on his back and placed his hands under his head. "You got to admit though, I'm a genius."

She crawled onto the bed and straddled him. "I know that you have quite the ego, maybe too much for this room."

"My charm..." He shrugged his shoulders.

"But again, I have the advantage."

"You're sure about that?" Peter smirked.

Gwen cocked her head and ran her hands under his shirt, touching his abdomen's defined build and chest. "I'm pretty sure."

He rose and slowly moved his arms around Gwen's slim frame, pulling her into a loving embrace. "You know, you make me forget about everything going on, it's hard to get back out there after spending moments like this with you and the kids."

Gwen smiled and kissed his lips softly.

He broke the kiss and cupped her cheek, before continuing, "I just want you know that no matter happens -"

"Don't talk like that, you know what is going to happen, you're going to kick Ultron out of this planet, and you're going to get back to us, to your family and friends."

Peter smiled, and replied with a passionate kiss, not wanting to be realistic about the possible outcomes, but just listening to his beautiful wife's words.

Later in the morning, Peter stealthily opened the door of his sleepy kid's bedroom and peered inside, seeing them still curled up on their respective beds and sleeping peacefully. Elizabeth was wrapped around the covers and had her right hand under her head and over the pillow, like an angel. He thought.

On the other side, not so surprising, but rather hilarious, David was facing the wrong side of the bed while Aiden was laid on the correct one. David's feet was lazily resting on his identical brother's chest, and he didn't seem to mind that all, maybe they were both used to each other's silly actions.

"How are they?" Gwen asked, standing behind her husband's figure.

Peter turned on his shoulder and grinned. "It's the perfect time for the best wakeup call of their short lives."

"You're evil."

Peter chuckled softly. "Every hero has a dark side." He winked and turned back at the door's direction. He slowly stepped inside with Gwen following him. Carefully, turned the lights on and spoke with authority, "Let's wake up people! It's already late for breakfast you three sleepy heads!" He approached the twin's bed and started to pull the covers away.

Elizabeth was the first one who started to lazily stir under the covers. She slowly opened her eyes and saw her father gently stirring her identical and youngest brothers.

"C'mon boys…!"

"Dad..." Aiden brought the covers over his face and turned to the side, accidentally exposing his brother on the process. David groaned softly in discontentment.

Peter joked once he noticed that David wasn't wearing a shirt, "You're just like your mother, put a shirt on, dude!"

Gwen silently scoffed and smiled from the other side of the bedroom.

Peter moved his hand underneath the sheets and stopped at Aiden's belly, and started to tingle him, before gently grabbing David's feet and rubbing it. They both started burst into soft fits of giggles while trying to free themselves for their father's evil hands.

Gwen chuckled as she approached Elizabeth's bed and sat beside her, being much more passive instead of her husband's aggressiveness to wake their children up. She caressed Elizabeth's stomach and leaned down to kiss her forehead, receiving a warm smile from her beautiful daughter that resembled so much to her.

"Good morning, sweetie."

"Hi mommy," She lazily stretched her arms and looked at her father who was tingling her brothers. "Is daddy okay?"

Gwen chuckled. "You know, he's always like that." She turned her head at him and smiled.

Aiden jumped onto his father's back and wrapped his arms around his with a squeal. Peter rose from the bed and hold Aiden's legs tightly, supporting him. "Oh, you want to fight, buddy?!"

"Yeah…!" Aiden replied between his giggles.

Not wanting to be left alone, David gave him a bear from hug, joining his brother's attempt to handle their father. Peter threatened to jump back to their bed, noticing the move; Aiden raised his hands to the ceiling and used his feet to stand upside down as Peter fell to the bed he shared with his brother. David couldn't control his giggles as he rested his head on Peter's chest.

"You think I can't get you there?" Peter challenged his spider minion.

"No!" He smiled.

"Boys…" Elizabeth mused. She gazed her mother with affectionate eyes.

Gwen chuckled. "I agree. They're something else. But you know the drill regarding your gifts, about not abusing them."

"With great power..." Elizabeth frowned, thinking.

Gwen helped her out, "Comes great responsibility."

Elizabeth smiled kindly.

It didn't took too long to someone knock the bedroom's door. "Guys, it's Flash." He warned through the other side of the door.

"In a minute…!" Gwen kissed Liz's forehead and stood up as she said to her boys, "Uncle Flash is here, we should at least look like a civil family."

Peter finished wrapping the twins around the covers, trapping them as they tried to break free while laughing at the same time. He looked at his wife and spoke, "Touché, Stacy."

Gwen grinned, enjoying the bantering. She unlocked the door and was greeted by the sight of her husband's best friend. "Hey," She smiled kindly.

Flash nodded. "Morning, someone you know is here."

"Who…?"

He replied, "Your brother."

People died in war. It was the simple nature of things. Even a small conflict was no exception. People died, and whenever that happened, somebody somewhere lost a friend or family member that they cared about. Even those on the other side had people that they loved, and they felt the pain when they died.

It seemed even worse when a person saw someone die right in front of them. People continued to die, and yet that person would just keep wishing and praying that they would not be next, that they would somehow survive the fighting and go back home. And when they got hurt, it would seem like an immense shock, as if they had been reminded of their own mortality, the fragile nature of their very existence. And they would wish to live, if not for themselves, then for their friends and family, just so they would not have to go through the pain and trauma of losing a loved one, and the lingering hurt of knowing that they would never see them again.

But for those who had a loved one being seriously injured, and waiting to know if they will even survive, the wait is just as painful…

Peter paced up and down the hall. Dimly he wondered if it was indeed possible for someone to wear a long, narrow hole in the floor from constant pacing. Sure, they may have shown that on cartoons and comedies, but that was different. Shaking his head, he realised that such thoughts were simply distracting him from the matter at hand. He turned to his wife.

Gwen was sitting in one of the chairs and with Elizabeth sat on her lap, hugging her mother. Gwen's body as stiff as a board, her hands twitching from extreme nervousness, and her face seemed frozen into one of intense worry. It looked as though she would only relax when somebody came out and gave her good news. If the news was bad… well, Peter simply did not want to think about it.

As if to answer his question, the door opened and a doctor stepped through. Gwen whipped her head around to face him. Her intense face relaxed into one of relief when she saw the smile on the doctor's face. Peter felt himself start to relax too.

"Howard is fine," the doctor replied. "The bullet just grazed his jugular, and we were able to fix it. We also removed all the pieces of shrapnel. He's recovering well and he's awake now."

Gwen gave the biggest sigh of relief in her entire life, and went to put her arms around Elizabeth in a comforting embrace.

"Can we see him?" Peter asked.

"Of course," the doctor replied. "In fact, he asked if he could see you three." He gestured into the room. Peter took Elizabeth's left hand while Gwen held her right one as they stepped inside.

Howard lay in the bed, his neck and other parts of his body wrapped in bandages, and a bracelet drip was in his left arm. Despite his obvious pain, he managed to give his family a reassuring grin. "Hey guys." He greeted somewhat cheerfully.

Gwen sat down next to her brother and held his hand comfortingly. "How are you feeling?" She asked softly.

"Better than before," Howard grunted. "Damn drone got me in the neck, and I'm on the ground. Some guy comes over to help me and a grenade takes him out. I got some of the shrapnel, but he shielded me from the rest." He sighed. "He gave his life for mine. It's a debt that I'll never be able to repay." He seemed very sorrowful about that.

"You're here now." Peter said, as he placed a reassuring hand on his brother in law's shoulder.

Howard nodded. He slowly turned his head to the other side and met Elizabeth's perfect green eyes. She smiled shyly at him. Howard spoke, "Hey little missy, I've missed you, you know?" He calmly moved his hand to her cheek, touching the delicate skin, and then gently pinched her tiny nose, receiving a soft giggle in return.

"I've missed you too." Elizabeth leaned over to kiss his forehead.

He smiled. "Where are your brothers? This place is awfully quiet, what happened with the Parker's?"

"Hey!" Peter protested.

Gwen chuckled, that was certainly her brother. She replied, "We left them with Natasha, they're very young, I wasn't sure if..." She hesitated for a brief moment.

"I know, and you're right." He squeezed her hand, softly.

Gwen smiled. "Now that you're here, safe, I can lower my guard, mom and our brothers are okay as well."

Howard sighed, happily, before asking about his wife, "How's Miranda?"

"I exchanged some emails with her, she's handling everything well." Gwen replied.

"And Kate…?"

"She misses you."

He looked up at the ceiling, relieved. Knowing that his family were safe, brought his spirits up, after all, everything could be lost, but that hadn't the same emotional weight as his family's safety. "Remember when she was born? When you hold her for the first time?"

"I do. I was pretty excited to hold my niece, and Elizabeth was impatient as well to see her little cousin." Gwen replied, gazing her brother's eyes. "We were at your apartment, minus Peter, who obviously was busy dealing with the city's problems." She elbowed her husband.

He shrugged his shoulders and deadpanned. "I made up for it later."

Gwen rolled her eyes at his inconvenient flirt.

Four years ago

March 19th - 2024

"Be careful," Howard slowly lowered his new-born daughter in Gwen's arms, before sitting next to his wife again, who couldn't help but smile at the brother and sister's typical banter.

Gwen narrowed her green eyes at him as she sat down on the couch, holding her niece with her arms. "Thank you Howard, but I'm pretty sure I know how to properly hold a baby." She turned to look at her daughter who was sat beside her, eyeing the baby on her arms with eyes full of curiosity.

"She's so small." Elizabeth said, gazing the baby who was tucked in covers.

"She's beautiful; you were just like her once." Gwen smiled, paying attention to her niece's beautiful features, her raven dark hair, pale skin and azure eyes, similar to Miranda's. She carefully caressed Kate's cheek with her thumb, and spoke, "Hey little one, I'm your Auntie, Gwen, and this beautiful girl next to me is your cousin, Elizabeth."

"Hi." She greeted.

At first, Kate didn't make a move, but just release a soft squeal. She opened her mouth and closed it, and Gwen instantly took that as a signal that she was ready to sleep, it was no surprise since new-borns spent most of their time sleeping.

"Looks that someone is ready to fall asleep," Gwen affirmed, before sighing, "Shame that your Uncle can't be here right now."

"Speaking of Peter, where's he?" Howard inquired, wrapping his arm around his wife's waist.

"Busy with his job, probably." Gwen replied.

Howard chuckled lightly, aware of Gwen's annoyance towards the subject.

"Helen told me that you're pregnant, Gwen, congratulations." Miranda smiled happily.

"Oh, thank you," Gwen nodded, "I was going to announce it for you guys now, but mom already took care of that." She smiled.

"How many months along are you?"

"Just one so far…" Gwen quickly eyed the baby on her left arm with a soft smile. She moved her right arm around Elizabeth's figure and brought her daughter closer as she fixed her eyes on the baby who was protected on her mother's left arm. "Two boys…twins."

"Wow, that's awesome," Howard said. "Were you two planning it? I don't remember you talking about it before."

"Surprisingly, we weren't planning anything. While myself and Peter knew that we would probably want another child in the future, we never talked about it recently." She explained.

"That's quite the surprise then." Miranda spoke.

Gwen grinned. "You have no idea." She looked down at the sleepy baby on her arms. "Kate's already sleeping; her father's traits are already kicking in." She teased.

Howard narrowed his eyes at his sister, "Hey!"

Present Day

"You were drooling all over my daughter, though." Howard chuckled, weakly.

Gwen smiled and stated proudly, "And I'm not ashamed, I have to be the best and coolest Auntie ever."

"Yeah, and I think that you've accomplished that."

"Thank you," Gwen leaned down and kissed his forehead, softly. "If you need anything, ask for me or Peter, get some rest, okay?"

"I will." He nodded, squeezing his sister's hand gently.

Gwen stood up and moved herself next to Peter as he patted Howard's shoulders and gave him a reassuring smile. "I'll give you my word; you'll be seeing your daughter again."

"Thanks, Pete." Howard smiled back, trusting his brother in law's words. He knew what Peter is capable of, and he was damn sure that he's essential for their victory over Ultron and his army, he would succeed, he always did.

Sorovia - Eastern Europe

Ultron carefully landed on the destroyed asphalt and stopped behind a platoon of drones who were assuming a guarding position. He calmly walked past them, gently moving some units by the shoulders to the side, giving him a straight passage to his objective.

He saw a line of captured soldiers in front of hill, all unharmed, some heavily injured, and behind each soldier, there was a single drone guarding each of them. They were being kept alive for interrogation, as Ultron demanded. Critical information about their allies and plans aren't going to be wasted.

Ultron used his red glowing eyes to analyse each one of the captured group, before speaking, "You'll know why you're here, after all, your wars always included this same method," He paced, "Your end is inevitable, but I'll make it come sooner than later if collaboration is present." He paused, waiting for a potential response, but it never came.

Ultron sighed and continued, "Your government fell, your heroes fell, and your army is soon going to be exterminated, there won't be anything left. There's absolutely no reason to continue this."

A scoff was heard. One of the soldiers looked up at Ultron's direction and said, "Just what I needed, a machine telling me what to do." He muttered.

"Computers have been doing that for years now, what's the problem?" Ultron inquired calmly.

"You... you remind me of a guy...Stark. Same arrogant attitude, but at least he collaborated with us when needed. You're nothing than a cheap knock off." He affirmed.

Ultron exclaimed angrily, "Don't compare me with Stark! He's a sickness!" He sighed, before taking one step closer. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I overreacted."

"Iron Man kind of does that when he wants attention."

"Well, do I look like the freaking Iron Man?" Ultron gestured to his own face. "Stark is nothing! I'm doing a favour to you all, something that Stark is incapable of achieving!"

"Killing everyone on sight?" He challenged.

Ultron chuckled. "You think I'm evil? Really…? That's a bummer." He sighed, before whispering to himself, "I'm offended to be honest."

"If we can't... The Avengers are going to finish you off, then all your nonsense will be over."

Ultron laughed. "I was designed, by them, to save the world. People used to look up at the sky and see hope. I'll take that away from you too." He turned to the left and shot one of the prisoners, instantly killing the fallen soldier. "By the way, that's killing everyone on sight. What I have in mind, is something much more meaningful than this. Or I would be no different from you all!"

The man was shocked at the sight of his companion now lying on the asphalt. "You're going to pay for that!" He tried to stood up if a cold and metallic hand from behind hadn't pressed him back to the ground.

Ultron raised his powered hand at the soldier's direction. "I'm already paying for your specie's future."

Peter returned to his room and strolled through the door. At the closet he saw Gwen in white lace lingerie made of diaphanous material. Her clothes were on the bed and she was rummaging through her part of the closet.

Peter headed over and smiled amused, "And what are we up to?"

Gwen glanced at him with a playful smirk, "I'm just looking for my sport outfit, underwear, and I'm going to head down and exercise. Do you want to join?" She added sultry, "A warm shower after cardio is always nice."

Peter approached her and hugged her from behind, wrapping his arms around her. He said downcast, "Sorry, Steve is teaching Flash some close quarters moves. But if you want to train to with us, go ahead."

Gwen turned her body slightly to look at him despondent; she had to postpone her daily exercising.

"Well, that's too bad." She teased, "I wanted to steal you for a while."

Peter teased back, "You're impossible."

"I have my needs," Gwen said coyly.

"I know you do," Peter smiled.

One of Peter's hands roamed her body a bit, caressing her toned stomach before he touched the diaphanous waistline of her thong and Gwen shivered with delight and beamed.

Peter raised an eyebrow and prodded, "Something wrong?"

Gwen smiled again and shook her head, "No, far from it I'm just enjoying looking at you. You're easy on the eyes, Peter."

Peter beamed, "Oh, well, thank you Miss Gwendy…Flatterer."

Her fingers subtly drew circles on his abs and she smiled slyly, "Hmm, yes. You know, I've been thinking-"

With a grin Peter cut her words short and pressed his lips to hers. Without any resistance from Gwen his tongue pushed its way into her mouth, exploring her tongue, sucking on it. He could feel her melt in his arms as her tongue responded and slid over his as they explored each other in the kiss. A soft content moan of appreciation slipped from Gwen while her hand slowly inched under the waistline of his trousers and explored while one of Peter's hands slipped under her blouse and travelled upwards as he gently caressed her skin. They both loved their physical affection and intimacy, they both loved making out and exploring their bodies even if it didn't lead to something more energetic, it was a way for them to express their desire for each other.

Gwen cut the kiss short; their breathing was a little ragged. She faux chastised peering into his beautiful eyes, "Dork, it's very rude doing that."

Peter smiled amorously, "I can't keep away." He wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged her close.

"And you're lucky I allow access," Gwen teased. She removed her hand and wrapped herself around his neck.

"I thought that was a mutual agreement," Peter pondered amused. "You have free access as well."

She countered faux arrogant, "Well, Gwen Stacy Parker is in charge of this relationship. A Goddess takes what she wants when she wants it. I don't need permission."

"I'm just catering towards your ego. I've figured you out, you know, my beautiful, and possessive woman," Peter taunted with a smirk.

Gwen frowned defensively, "You just don't figure out a woman, especially me!"

Peter chuckled. "You are addicted to lace, aren't you?" Peter smiled and looked down her cleavage.

"Pervert," Gwen said knowingly where his eyes were. She kissed his cheek and purred seductively, "I love thin lace. I love that sensuous feeling, and it's much more comfortable if you ask me."

"And you like being sensuous, don't you," Peter grinned and planted a few kisses on her shoulder.

"Sometimes…" Gwen affirmed wantonly. She turned in his embrace and placed her arms around his neck with an alluring smile as she pressed her body to his. She touched his shoulders and necked lovingly.

Peter kissed her lips and his hands wandered her back and butt, caressing and exploring her soft skin. He smiled as he looked into her gorgeous green eyes, "I was thinking we could later watch a film as neither of us will have anything to do."

"A movie…?" Gwen asked curiously.

Peter moved away his face just a bit and nodded, "Yes. I'll reverse the imager on the glass case so it faces the bed and we can snuggle and munch on some popcorn for some downtime."

"I'd like that," Gwen smiled. "What film?" She scoffed, "And not Fast and Furious again."

"Nope," Peter assured. He baited teasingly, "It's an old film I loved as a child. It takes a few pages from Hamlet, and that's all I'm saying."

"I love Hamlet," Gwen beamed. Then she frowned suspiciously and asked, "Hamlet? A young Peter Parker…? Not a combination I would have entertained."

Peter raised an eyebrow and said faux offended, "That's very presumptuous of you."

"I know you very well to know you and classics don't match even if I've tried to cultivate you," Gwen said snarky.

"I feel so loved by you, Mrs Parker," Peter deadpanned.

"And you should consider yourself lucky that you are," Gwen declared with a grin.

Peter chuckled and kissed her lips, "You are so adorably hot."

Gwen nodded with exaggerated enthusiasm, "It's not easy, you know, being adorable hot. It takes discipline and years of training. A lot of people don't appreciate that." Gwen beamed, "Thank you."

Peter chuckled and kissed her lips again, "You're welcome. I have some stuff to do, I'll head down and make some popcorn and be right with you when possible. "

"Good," Gwen smiled and amorously returned the kiss. She enjoyed their teasing banter.

"Want anything to drink?"

Gwen shrugged, "Ice water will balance out the salt."

"Okay." Peter quickly kissed her soft lips. He released her and gave Gwen and her lingerie an appreciative look as she smiled at the special attention.

Peter left, but before heading up the door, he detoured quickly to the light controls on the wall and set it a soft mood light. "I'll come to you soon."

"Peter, what can I do for you?" Adams turned on his chair as he noticed the person who trusts him to keep his secret identity safe stepping inside of the infirmary.

Peter rubbed the back of his neck as the doors behind him automatically closed. Flash had told him to pay Adams a visit and talk about his condition, easier said than done. He leaned his back against the wall and spoke, "Doc, can this stay only between us?"

"Of course," He nodded and crossed his arms. "What's it?"

Peter sighed. He didn't want to get through a whole battery of medical exams just because of some bruises here and there; still, his friends were getting worried. He had to overcome his natural stubbornness, for his own sake.

"Recently, I feel that my body is betraying me."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when I'm doing some activities, I feel dizzy...weak," Peter explained. "As you know, I'm genetically modified because of my father's work, and one of the benefits is that I don't get tired easily."

Adams frowned, thinking. "I see," He paused. "Do you know when those situations are most likely to occur? Any patterns…?"

"Yeah, most of the time, when I'm using my powers," Peter replied.

"Have this ever occurred before?"

"Now that you mention... Do you remember that time when I wore the black suit?" Adams nodded. "I had that same sensation, that's why I took it off. I was supposed to get better, and I did, now this..." He sighed.

"I can't really come up with a diagnostic right now; it seems your body is doing this to itself, without an external reason." Adams said, "I'll do some blood tests and I'm going to take a look at your suit's physicals readings if it's no trouble."

Peter nodded. "Sure, thank you, Doc. Anything else?"

"If you ask, could you bring a hot coffee to me?"

Peter took his seat next to Steve and close to the rather large circular table made of glass at the meeting room. Most of his teammates were already there and localized in their respective seats, just waiting for Tony who was standing in front of the table as he glanced the huge holographic panel in front of them.

Peter asked, "Where Pietro and Wanda are?"

Steve replied, "I don't know if they really are with us."

"It's complicated," Tony turned on his back and continued, 'They think I was responsible for their father's death in Pragia."

"Are you?" Thor questioned from his seat.

Tony shook his head. "Someone smuggled Stark's Industries missiles and used for the terrorist attack. It wasn't my fault."

"But you created those missiles." Thor affirmed.

"For the government, to help them to finish wars," He stated. "That's why I created the initials drones, to keep people safe, but Ultron... he was the ultimate solution, a peacemaker. I tried to give people peace through technology, improve their lives, and give them safety. The scepter was the key to conclude my job."

Natasha smiled, sarcastically. "Well, you did a wonderful job."

Bruce interjected, "I was part of Ultron's creation, we shared the same vision about this, progress can't be stopped, sooner or later, someone would create something equivalent to Ultron, with bad intentions, and if someone has to use technology as a way of achieving peace, that person is you, don't blame yourself for everything that's happening. This is a mistake, and it won't ever happen again."

Peter was conflicted, while the creation of Ultron was their fault, he couldn't help but agree with Banner, he couldn't condemn their actions, technology can improve people's lives, his own suit is part of that and he wasn't a hypocrite to deny the fact, on the other side, people can't be reckless with it, or else it will backfire, like Ultron did. The futures uncertain, but he knew that if they won the war, that's going to be a heated topic among people.

Tony stood calm. "I tried to create an armour around the world, no more aliens or wars. I know what I've done, and there isn't a single time when I'm not thinking about every family that I've destroyed. That's why we're here, to fix this." He turned to the panel behind him and showed the group some footage about an old Shield's helicarrier over Sorovias's city.

Peter deadpanned. "How...?"

"Ultron apparently has access to every single secret out there, and because of that, he found the carrier and is now using it as his mobile centre of command…His own castle." Tony explained as he crossed arms.

"And the Tesseract is there?" Steve asked.

"If the twins are telling us the truth, likely..." Tony said.

Peter spoke, "I believe in them, mostly in Wanda... Pietro is more problematic."

"Hothead…?" Natasha leaned on the table.

"Yep…." Peter nodded.

Steve sighed. That wasn't going to be easy. "So, what's our plan? It's the only lead that we got; we need to do something about it."

"And we will," Tony said, "We could launch an assault, the ground team is down on the streets, forcing Ultron to reallocate troops to fight them, while the other one infiltrate the carrier to recover the Tesseract and the scepter ." He suggested.

"We can't let the carrier intact, destroying it is going to be a massive win, who knows what's being kept there besides the Tesseract?"

Bruce intervened, "What if we carry a bomb to deploy at the carrier's core?"

"Too risky," Steve shook his head in disagreement. "Something can happen, causing the bomb to explode while we still are inside."

"The ground team can keep it while the infiltration team deals with Ultron and his forces on the ship." Peter added, "Better yet, we can have a third group to receive and deploy the bomb while we personally fight Ultron. This way, his forces won't be solely focused."

"Failure is not an option though," Natasha said. "We need someone capable of doing that while we distract Ultron."

"Noble team," Steve interjected. "I called them just in case; they're the most professional guys that we have."

Wanda and Pietro walked inside the room, "What about us?" She asked.

"That's up to you two." Steve replied.

Banner stated coldly, "Messing with people's minds isn't a good start."

"I could have killed Stark when he was alone months ago, your team was busy dealing with the Base's soldier, but I didn't."

"That now makes me comfortable." Tony chuckled sarcastically.

Wanda continued, "You guys have never been in our situation, we wanted justice for Stark's crimes, Hydra did this to me and Pietro, we volunteered because we wanted, we're not dumb." She crossed her arms. "I never knew Ultron's plans for mankind, I thought he just wanted to get you, Stark, and when I realized what he had in mind... it was too late."

"So, now what…?" Peter questioned. "Ultron's still a problem."

Steve spoke, "Tomorrow, it may be the day where this war will end, we get the Tesseract, and the scepter back. Are you two coming?" He looked up at the twins.

"I'm not sure I trust you all," Pietro replied. "In fact, how can I trust the guy who killed my father? That's reason why I have these powers, because of Hydra, because I would be able to handle you."

Wanda held his arm gently. "Pietro..."

Tony sighed. "Kid, I didn't kill your family."

"The bomb that dropped in our house had your name on it." Pietro stated, with piercing eyes.

"Not my fault, your country was in civil war, the US wasn't involved, someone smuggled it to your country. That person wasn't me." He argued back.

"We won't get anywhere if continue through this path; we need to work together. And you two, you can help us." Steve gave his advice.

Pietro and Wanda looked at each other's eyes, reaching a consensual decision. "Then what…?" She asked.

"Then you're part of this team, and Ultron will have two more persons to fear."

The twins stood in silence for a moment, before eventually nodding.

"This weapon you're building, its Hydra isn't it? Could you tell me truth about them?" Wanda took one step closer. Pietro followed her closely.

Steve nodded and said, "They worked in the shadows for years, shaping future, manipulating people, controlling information... innocents have died as they played their games. After the war, they became a radical group with radical methods. Always vanishing without a trace…" He explained.

"I see..." Wanda knew something about the organization, but at the time, she only seeks her personal goals, without caring about the rest and consequences.

"I'm glad you do. Is everyone ready to unplug Ultron's battery?" Tony inquired.

Steve smiled. "Well, I hadn't any plans for tomorrow anyways."

Later in the evening Peter had found Flash at his quarters and both friends had headed over to the bar in the lounge, accompanied by his boys, it had been some time since they both had taken time to drink a few beers and just talk.

"What can I get for you two?" Peter opened the fridge.

Aiden looked at his brother as they decided what they both wanted with a quick nod. "Can we get some soda?" Aiden inquired.

"You know that your mother wouldn't approve that for now."

David continued, "Please?"

Peter sighed. So much for following Gwen's desire, he had to be the super cool dad against the evil mother, maybe it was something defined by nature, he wondered.

"Just this time…" Peter grabbed two sodas.

"Yes!" Aiden cheered.

"And don't tell your mother." He opened the tin can with his finger and handed it to his boy's grasp.

"We won't." David grinned.

He knelled down on the floor. "Now give me a strong hug."

The twins giggled and did as demanded, hugging their father as he hugged them back. They parted and Peter stood up as the twins made their ways into the couch, ready to watch some DVDs they had found.

Flash took a seat on a bar stool and quipped, "Get me something of the hard stuff, will you super daddy bartender?"

Peter chuckled, "Something specific, sir?"

"Horosk…"

"What's that?" Peter asked and turned to the large shelf of booze behind the counter.

"Oh, if you could drink it you'd love it. That will knock you out cold if you aren't careful."

Peter shook his head, the bottles were luckily arranged in alphabetical order and he saw no horosk, "Sorry friend, nothing like that here. You should have put in a requisition order."

"Hmph, I'll sneak out and buy some after we're done with this war, just get me some beer then."

"Coming right up," Peter said and fetched his friend beer bottle. He turned to the counter and found a bottle opener and opened it before handing the bottle to Flash.

"Thanks."

Peter grabbed a bottle of beer as well, and turned to the counter.

"Hand me that stool," Peter said and put away his bottle.

Flash rose up and lifted the bar stool next to him over the counter. Peter grabbed it and sat it down on his side in front of Flash.

Flash mused as his friend sat down, "One hell of a month... Wanda, allying Thor's people with us and now planning the Tesseract's retrieval…"

"Don't forget Pietro," Peter pointed out and opened his bottle and took a sip from it.

"Think he'll be part of it?"

"I don't know."

"Too bad," Flash said and drank some beer before he sighed, "We lost some good friends. We're not coming out of this war unscathed, Pete."

He nodded slowly and drank some, "I know."

"But it doesn't look nearly as grim now with reinforcement, sure the war is messy, but Thor's army helps. Hope it'll do some good, even with politicians involved."

"Yeah…We have the Breach being built, but it's a long way until the end of the tunnel."

Flash nodded, "Indeed." He continued bothered, "In my army days, the only time I mixed with politicians was when I was under their orders."

"A lot of corrupt politicians…?"

"You have no idea," Flash murmured.

"It's always going to be like that, no society is void of corruption. Some places might be less corrupt than others."

"I get that," He took a sip, "And this brings something that I always wanted to ask you."

"What's it?"

"We have our values and principles, but for how long can we keep on them?" He paused. "Back at Afghanistan, we're little because most troops were moving back to home by the time, but I did some stuff... that I'm not very proud of."

"You do what you've to do, Flash."

Flash looked up, seeing that his old friend had indeed changed since the war started. He seemed colder. "What's the worse situation that you have been through? That's if you don't mind me asking, of course."

"When Harry took Gwen away from me, Harry wasn't just a simple guy that I could easily defeat, and then he dropped Gwen down and..." Peter stopped, remembering the night like if it was yesterday. "There wasn't time to think, just act."

"Harry was your friend if I recall, would you... kill him in order to save Gwen?"

Peter widened his eyes at Flash's question, remembering not so pleasant memories.

"That's not an easy question, Harry will always be my friend, he wasn't himself in that night, but if there wasn't any other option... Yes, I would," Peter replied. "That's not an easy thing to do, it can break you if you let it. I still can't forgive myself for... you know, but.. Its that or letting someone else I care getting hurt."

"I see... I know how important Gwen is to you, makes sense."

"Again, I would try to find the best solution." He clarified.

"No argument there." Flash quipped, "So you're not with Gwen tonight? What gives?"

Peter chuckled, "She actually mentioned earlier before we went our separate ways that she wanted an evening with some lit candles and a bottle of wine…but I made plans with you before she could voice them, we're going to watch a movie later."

"So you're stuck with me for now."

Peter chuckled, "You know what I mean. I have work to do, and you have to do better than 'what's what' to make me abandon it."

"So…that 'work' is that metaphor for someone special?" Flash teased drinking the last of his beer.

Peter smiled. "Well, in all fairness I'm stuck with your ugly face for a while so I've to spend some quality time with Gwen when possible, despite everything going on, we still are a married couple."

"What a lover boy."

"It looks like we have a little intruder in mommy's bed." Gwen smiled as she approached her bed and saw Aiden lying on her side of the bed, already wearing his blue pyjamas.

"Hi!" Aiden smiled happily.

She kicked off her slippers and lied down on her side of the bed and next to Aiden as she wrapped her arms around him while Aiden rested his head next to her mother's neck.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" Gwen kissed the top of his brown hair and caressed the soft skin of his stomach.

Aiden touched Gwen's neck with his small fingers. "I couldn't sleep."

"Why's that?'

"I don't know, it just never came. Liz and Dave were sleeping and I felt alone." He confessed.

"Well, I'm here now." She turned off the lamp, trying to make her son sleep peacefully. She embraced him again as she stroked his soft hair.

For a moment, he closed his eyes and slowly drifted into sleep on his mother's safe arms, but it didn't long once he remembered something that was on his mind. "Mommy…?"

"Hm...?"

"When are going to get back to our house again?" Aiden asked innocently.

"Soon, sweetie, daddy's working on that." Gwen moved her right hand underneath his shirt and caressed his back reassuringly.

"Okay," He hugged her neck. "I love you."

Gwen smiled kindly and brought him even more closely to her. "I love you too." She kissed the top of his head. "Close your eyes, rest, I'll be here, my big boy."

The minutes ticked by and the door opened on the other end and Peter returned with a tray in his hands with a plastic bowl filled with heated popcorn. There was a carafe of water and two glasses as well. He approached the office desk and placed the tray on the table as he booted up the computer and made several changes to the settings; the computer's monitor was extended to the glass wall and properly inverted to face the bed.

Peter walked towards the bed and saw his wife and son wrapped in each other arms and under the sheets. He sat next to Gwen and gently squeezed her shoulder, being careful to not abruptly wake her. She opened her eyes and slowly turned to her husband's side, giving him a genuinely smile.

"What are you doing with another guy in our bed?" Peter kissed her lips.

Gwen chuckled softly and replied, "Aiden couldn't sleep so he came here while I was taking a shower."

He nodded and caressed her cheek with his thumb. "Should I bring him to his bed? We can always watch the movie some other day."

"It's fine." She removed her arms from Aiden and lay on her back. "I wasn't really sleeping, just taking a nap while you were out. We should watch it."

"Alrighty…" Peter stood up and carefully retrieved his fast asleep son from their bed as Aiden instinctively rested his head on his father's shoulder. He gave her a wink and walked away, heading towards the door with their child on his arms.

Some minutes later, Peter finally arrived back to their bedroom. He set up the media player on his desk to fill the holographic screen in front of the bed and loaded the video.

"This should be interesting," Gwen pondered as Peter walked down the steps. "You're very secretive."

Peter assured, "It's nothing dangerous, you know." He placed the tray on the night stand and sat down on the bed and removed his shoes.

"I think so."

Peter lied down next to Gwen and now she smiled happily as she snuggled close. Peter wrapped an arm under the curvature of her body. He reached for the bowl of popcorn and placed it between them.

Gwen sighed content, "This was a good idea, relax a bit and just be together."

"I know," Peter said and kissed her cheek.

They watched the screen which was black and slowly faded in as an African chant filled the speakers in the room and a sun rose over an African grassland. The sky was coloured red with sparse clouds. A group of native African voices joined the solo voice.

Gwen frowned, "Didn't you say something about Hamlet? Hamlet takes place in Denmark."

Peter simpered, "I said the film had taken inspiration from Hamlet. Not that it was Hamlet."

"Uh-huh," Gwen uttered trite.

There were quick shots of African animals reacting to the song, they watched the sun rise. A rhino turned around, several topis did as well, a group of meercats gathered in the grass and a cheetah scaled a hill. Several marabou storks strolled through the banks of a river and another entered the frame and took to the skies and several flew over a majestic waterfall.

Once again Gwen grimaced; this was not a live-action film. Instead it was an animated film.

Gwen was confused, "We're watching an animated vid?" Her frown deepened.

Peter was indignant, his childhood was apparently insulted, "This is a classic, woman."

Gwen glanced at Peter and narrowed her eyes, "Citizen Kane is a classic. Gone With the Wind is a classic."

"Stop," Peter shushed her. "We're reliving my childhood. Eat some popcorn and be quiet." He grabbed a handful of popcorn and munched on.

Gwen shook her head before she pillowed it on his shoulder. The saving grace was to cuddle with her Peter.

For the next hour and a half the film continued on and Gwen softened and was amused by it and let the story take her on the journey of laughter, tragedy and triumph while she gladly munched on popcorn with Peter. She enjoyed herself and appreciated what Peter had wished to do; for both to be carefree and for Gwen to have a silly moment of respite watching an animated film, but just being a regular married couple was something she desired despite the war and its ramifications.

Finally the end credits rolled and some sappy romantic song played over it.

That song is probably right up Peter's alley, Gwen mused.

She turned a bit to face Peter and looked into his eyes, the bowl had been emptied during the film and stood on the nightstand and Gwen could reach out to Peter. She unbuttoned a few buttons on his shirt and slipped a hand in underneath and caressed his abdomen. She felt a pang of regret at her initial reactions to the film. She kissed his lips.

"I didn't mean to bash the movie, I was just surprised." Gwen apologized sincerely.

Peter shrugged, "It's alright." He smiled, "You seemed to enjoy the film after all."

"I did," Gwen smiled. "And the time we spent watching it. A film from your childhood you said?"

Peter's eyes sparkled joyful, "Yeah, I loved it – and still do. I've watched it over and over again, never get tired of it."

Gwen smiled at his high spirits, it was infectious.

Peter was happy his plan had worked and squeezed her body and beamed, "And this is not the only time we're going to watch it. Plus I have a whole library of all sorts of films I watched as a child or teenager that we're going to watch someday."

"Sounds like a great idea, Peter," Gwen said softly and kissed him which he gladly reciprocated as their tongues met and slid across each other in a deep and sensuous kiss as she sat on his lap and wrapped both arms around his neck.

Eventually, Peter broke the kiss and stared her green eyes. "What are you doing?" He asked, snaking his arms around her waist and slipping his hand under her blouse, caressing the smooth skin of her back.

"Absolutely nothing..." She replied, innocently.

He chuckled, before quickly kissed her warm lips again. "There will be an operation tomorrow."

"What kind of operation?" Gwen inquired.

"To retrieve the Tesseract…Ultron activated one of Shield's flying stations, it's enormous, and it's now stationed in one of the cities in Eastern Europe, the Tesseract is being kept there." He explained.

"Are you going?" She moved her fingers to his cheek.

"You know I have to." He tightened his grip over her.

Gwen touched her forehead with his and closed her eyes. "I know." She said softly.

Peter sighed as he closed his eyes at the intimate touch. "I'm not a man of making promises, but I'll do my best..." He cupped her cheek. "...to get back to you."

She whispered softly, "I'll hold you on that. There's so many things that I still want to do with you, so many things that I want to experience with you at my side. I refuse to believe that this is the end of our lives.

Peter held some incoming tears back. He just leaned his lips closer to her and slowly kissed them, savouring her taste, appreciating the passionate moment with the woman of his life, the only woman that ever knew how it is to be loved by Peter Parker, and how to love him, a nerdy, responsible, father and guardian of the needed, a man who wouldn't stop at nothing to simply save a cat from falling down from a tree, or to save the fate of the whole human race. It was an angel…Gwen's angel.

They parted and stared at each other's eyes. He moved a lock of her golden hair behind her ear and spoke gently, "It isn't, this is just a temporary obstacle in our lives, our family won't be destroyed because of it, and I won't allow it."

Peter hugged her again. She buried her face next to his neck and rested her right hand on his left shoulder, taking comfort on his presence. Peter pulled the bed sheets up and over them, covering their warm bodies as he turned the lamp off. It didn't take long to Peter feel a single tear drop on his shirt. He kissed the top of her hair. There wasn't anything to say, being wrapped in each other arms, in the silence and darkness of their temporarily bedroom, was enough for them, Spider-Man and his own protector.

The both stood in silence, safe in each other's arms, and slowly drifted to sleep, without heroes, enemies, and promises… Just them.

Waking slowly, but surely, Peter sighed. Eventually giving in to his body's needs, he opened his eyes and turned his head to the beautiful woman besides him.

Gwen was sleeping soundly next to him. Her soft breathing sounds whispered into his ear. Her arm was draped across his chest and one of her bare legs was entangled around one of his own. The blanket had dropped low enough to see the top of her chest. Her hair was mussed attractively and it seemed like she had a small smile on her face, like always.

She looked beautiful.

Turning slightly, his hand found the way to her thigh and caressed her smooth flesh. He briefly indulged himself with the soft feeling of her skin and was rewarded with a contented moan from his wife.

Looking over her shoulder, he read the time off the clock on her bedside table and knew that he needed to get up and get ready for the incoming missing. As much as he wanted to stay in bed and lounge, there's still a war happening.

Peter carefully slipped away from her arms and brought the sheets close to her neck. He sat on the edge of the bed and brought his hands to his face, sighing. The next mission wasn't a simple one, an assault towards one of Ultron's most security bases, recovering the Tesseract is trivial or else everything was lost.

He stood up and silently walked through the darkness of their bedroom and towards the bathroom. He opened the sink's faucet and filled his hands with cold water and then proceed to slowly clean his face as he stared his own figure through the mirror's reflection, marks of war could be seen on his body, tiny scars, bruises and purple stains on his skin, his advanced healing could do wonders when compared to the average human, but it's impossible to make a miracle happen, he's still a mere mortal.

The world is different now. The old rules no longer apply.

Peter returned back to the bedroom and quickly checked on Gwen who still was peacefully sleeping on their bed, resting a hand where his torso was supposed to be, while nuzzling his pillow. He smiled and reached for his part of the closet, grabbing the chest area of his now loosen and inactivated Spider-Man suit and proceeded to wear each piece of the armour.

So much pain…So many lives.

Peter holds his mask with both of his hands, feeling the now soft material, and gazing Spider-Man's golden eyes, a tool for achieving a better future. He turned around and walked towards Gwen's side of the bed and slowly sat next to her.

This darkness must end.

Feeling only slightly guilty, he met Gwen's lips and gave her a soft kiss to wake her up.

She sighed contentedly and sleepily returned the gesture before pulling away and opening her eyes. "Hi."

"Hi, mommy..."

"Is it morning?"

"Very, very morning," Peter answered as he yawned. "How's my girl?"

Gwen smiled. "I'm good, thank you, honey." She replied and stretched languidly.

He took the time to admire her form as the sheets fell away, reveal more of her white underwear's glory.

Noticing his stare, she smirked and propped her arm on the pillow and rested her head on her hand as she presented herself to him. "See something you like?"

He shook his lustful thoughts away. "I do, but I need to get up, unfortunately."

"I can see that," Gwen roamed his 'Iron Spider', as it was called, suit with her eyes, seeing her husband ready for whatever danger that crosses path him.

"Yeah," He nodded with a shy smile. "You know, my Uncle once said that you're pretty."

"I think you mentioned it before." Gwen said. "I wish I could've got to know him better."

"He's the best." Peter chuckled. "But I disagree with his opinion, though."

Gwen gave him a cold glare, causing her husband to grin.

"You're gorgeous," He leaned closer for a quick kiss which Gwen happily reciprocated. "When we go back home, I'm going to make you the best dinner ever, just you and me." He said as they parted.

Gwen smiled affectionately. "That might be a little difficult when you have kids, but it's a lovely plan."

"I'm sure the grandmas aren't going to refuse to spend an energetic night with them."

Gwen chuckled at the very plausible situation and gazed is brown eyes. The smiled disappeared and she eventually looked moved her gaze away from her husband, remembering that such moment could not happen due to the current events.

"Don't think about it," He kissed her hair. "I'll be back before you know it; get some rest. Tell the kids that I'll tingle them again if they decide to not leave their bedrooms." He placed his left on her cheek.

"I will." She kissed his palm.

"See you soon," Peter kissed her lips again and stood up, not delaying his departure any further. He unlocked the door and moved his mask down his face as he stepped outside, leaving Gwen in the darkness of their bedroom as she covered herself with the bed covers, and resting her head on his pillow.

3 Hours Later

Spider-Man approached Clint's chair from behind in the cockpit. He was fully armoured, and ready for action.

"It's approaching the city. The helicarrier is ten minutes away though." Clint informed.

Sorovia was seen in front of them, rapidly growing in the view screens. Even from this distance immense balls of fire could be seen, showing vast cities being annihilated by the Ultron's forces.

"Keep up; we're going to need you for the extraction." He patted his shoulder.

Spider-Man turned on his back and saw the rest infiltration team's member, Natasha, Flash, Steve and the famous four members of the Noble Team who were sat on the seats on the right side of the shuttle's bulk.

"C'mon, Matt, tell him." One of the members sat next to Matt whispered as he elbowed his teammate. The rest of the Noble team chuckled silently. "He's here."

Matt scoffed under his helmet. "Keep quiet, Kaidan…" He whispered back.

Natasha raised an eyebrow, before asking, "What's going on?"

"Nothing…" Matt replied in a professional tone. It wasn't every day when he got to work with Avengers. He didn't want to give them a bad impression.

Kaidan insisted, "Matt here, he's a very, very big fan of our -"

"Kaidan…!" Matt shrugged his shoulders and gave him a cold stare through his helmet's visor.

His partner raised his hands. "Right, I'm not sayin' a word anymore."

Another member of the group interjected, "Matt's a big fan of you, Spider-Man, even his boy and girl share this obsession. You got a fangirl over here." He chuckled as he leaned his back on the seat, avoiding Matt's glare.

Peter smiled under his mask. "Really…?"

Matt scoffed, shyly. "Yeah..."

"Peter's becoming popular, eh?" Tony joked through the private comm since he was flying outside.

Peter ignored his tease. "Well... that's cool."

"Tell me about it." Kaidan laughed again. "He's still mad because your movie never happened."

"Not really," Matt replied. "They would probably come up with a story that wouldn't do Spider-Man justice -" He stopped, proving his friend's point about his obsession with the masked hero.

The group chuckled as the mood was lightened, something that Peter always managed to achieve regardless of the moment's situation.

"I agree with you," Peter nodded. "I'll tell you this; we get this done, and I'll tell you some stuff about me."

"Wow - really?"

Peter chuckled. "Yup..."

"Oh man, now we're going -" Matt was interrupted as the ship's bulk trembled.

"We're being under heavy fire," Clint informed from the cockpit. "Time to jump, guys..."

The ship's back entrance was open, showing the group the enormous flying carrier's parking zone which was occupied with Ultron's drones

Steve undid his seatbelt and stood up. He placed his shield on his back. "Remember, no bad language in the comm." He ran towards the exit and jumped out from the ship.

Spider-Man cocked his head at Natasha's figure. "Did he have his parachute?"

Natasha grinned. "He does that all the time."

Spider-Man stretched his shoulders. "Ladies first…?"

"You could take some heavy fire for me, though." She replied.

He nodded. "Always a pleasure..." He took a step forward and ran towards the bridge's edge as he repeated Rogers' past movements, evading the incoming blasts by swooping his body on the air as the distance between him and the carrier's was shortened.

Gwen let out a frustrated sigh as the doors of their bedroom closed. She needed someone to talk to. She needed to vent her frustrations. She didn't have many friends right now did she? Peter was her confidant, whenever she needed to talk he was there for her, and she loved him for that. But now Gwen needed somebody else.

She activated Peter's laptop and quickly sent a message to MJ.

Maybe she can't even talk, busy with work perhaps.

The minutes ticked by and Gwen had given up hope to talk to her friend but a sudden beep was heard from the laptop and the screen lit up.

Gwen opened the message and smiled heartfelt. Yes, MJ had time for her oldest friend.

Mary Jane was sitting on her bed in her room. There were a couple of dozen refugee centers dotted around the installation. MJ herself worked at one of those run by the local government.

With a day off MJ had planned to take it easy for most of that day. Working day was between eight and twelve hours and after that a individual had to plan the rest of the day accordingly so he or she could get some free time after work and still would get enough sleep to work for the next shift.

For most of the day MJ had been glued at the news, she as everyone else had heard about the assault. She had also heard that the Avengers had arrived on scene and she had no doubt Peter and Flash and his team had saved the day. That her Gwen had survived alone for a brief time made her equally proud and scared. She had no doubt Gwen was a capable woman, but even the thought that Gwen could get hurt - or worse - sent a dreadful feeling through her body. MJ had confidence in her best friend's ever so sexy Spider-Man that Gwen would be alright.

MJ had been in the shower when the message from Gwen came, and she had been delighted to hear from her again. They kept in touch with e-mails but MJ preferred to talk to Gwen whenever possible. She had wrapped a soft robe around her body and leaned back on the pillows with her laptop in her lap. She had started the vid-chat program and was waiting for the connection to establish with Gwen.

A few moments later a connection had been established and MJ could see who she considered to be her older sister on the laptop.

"Hey Gwendy," MJ exclaimed joyous and relieved.

"Hey MJ..." Gwen replied happily through the laptop's speakers. "I hope I don't disturb you."

"Never, if I'm not working I'll always have time." MJ said giddy.

"And I as well…Don't ever hesitate to call."

MJ teased, "But what if you're preoccupied with Spider-Sexy what then?"

Gwen cleared her throat, "Well, if I'm busy - regardless of what that might be - I'll call you afterwards."

"How is the family?" She asked.

"We're managing, I was with Howard a few hours ago, the kids are with Flash now, and Peter... Well, I can't really tell what he's doing right now, it's not that I don't want to, but it's a matter of confidentiality."

"Oh, I get it, what about Flash? Is he doing well?"

"Yep…When he's close to Peter, they're pretty happy. In fact, he's teaching the kids how to make an origami. Aiden just recently brought one to me, a flower." Gwen smiled.

"Aw, your kids are so sweet, Gwen!"

"That they are. You give them love, and you'll receive love. While I wanted to be a mother someday, the thought always made me nervous, didn't know how good I would be at it."

MJ laughed, "You're one awesome mom. I still remember when you're preparing yourself for the wedding. Isn't it crazy how time flies."

"I know, I've been thinking about that too. So many things have happened in our lives, but I've been living a good life, accomplished the majority of things that I wanted, being a supportive wife, built and family, and now I'm here."

MJ teased, "You're old."

Gwen narrowed her eyes at her friend. "I'm not old! Just because you're one year younger, doesn't mean anything."

"I was just joking, you're still gorgeous." She giggled.

Gwen smiled.

"So what can I do for you?"

Gwen sighed and shook her head, "Ugh. It's about Peter."

"What's going on? He's treating you right I hope."

"Yes of course, always. But...I just caught some woman gossiping about him when I was having breakfast."

"About?"

"You know." She shrugged her shoulders.

"You're jealous!"

"I'm not jealous." Gwen replied coldly.

"Yes, you are. You're super possessive." MJ teased.

"Whatever, I'm possessive; he's my property, and nobody else's." Gwen stated.

MJ snorted, "You're mad? You should be used to this kind of harassment by now. I mean - your husband is the freaking Spider-Man! The world's most sexy hero…!"

Gwen scoffed. "She doesn't know who he is though. Peter only appears without his mask when close to people he trusts. I'm just annoyed that with everything going on, people are wondering if they can bed him instead of focusing on the war."

"True. Is she pretty?"

Gwen shook her head, "Not even the slightest." She quipped, "And I've a curvier body than hers so that's 1 million points in my favour."

MJ giggled, "Well, that's something Gwendy."

"I just needed to get this off my chest. Talk to someone and forget about this whole war for a brief moment. Peter is out and I can't really tell the kids this kind of stuff, you know?"

"Of course, I get you, I would be somewhat annoyed if the same often happened with Flash." MJ asserted with a sly smile, "And he better be with you for more things than your body."

Gwen giggled, "I assure you he's invested in me and that's not only because of my assets. Hello? Nine years of marriage?"

MJ nodded pleased, "Good."

Gwen reassured with a smile, "We have our ups and downs, but truth to be told, it's very good between Peter and me. Always have been, thank god we have a good communication."

"Oh? Care to explain?" MJ pushed as her face lit up by a curious smile as her best friend seemed to have lightened up a bit after venting her frustrations.

Gwen smiled heartfelt and was silent for a moment before she said, "Peter told me he was searching for the perfect house for our family to settle down after the war is over. Away from the city's problems, so we can spend the rest of our lives there. He says he's joking, but I think that he wants another child."

MJ squealed in glee and then covered her mouth with her hands

Gwen's cheeks flushed red despite her makeup.

MJ was ecstatic and dropped her hands and exclaimed "Oh my god this is amazing!"

Gwen nodded, "I told him I love what he was doing, and I want that as well."

MJ smiled coyly, "You never told me what you love about him."

Gwen chuckled, "Well…he is focused, sweet, determined, funny and very capable." Her smile got wider, "He's tall... sexy, mainly and quite handsome."

MJ smiled happily for her friend and exclaimed, "This is so great! You two are born to each other. I always knew."

Gwen smiled but was still blushing a little, "Well-"

"But you are telling me this now?" MJ complained playfully. "You can't sit on things like this without telling me! That's not fair Gwendy!"

Gwen teased, "Oh, I think it's very fair MJ."

MJ huffed playfully, "I think you should make amends and tell me something hotter from your relationship."

Gwen shook her head, "No, I don't think so."

"Yes," MJ pushed. "We're like sisters! C'mon! We have to share this kind of stuff."

Gwen chuckled, "Maybe. But you don't tell me yours either, I don't even asked you though, it's only fair."

"Gwendy…" MJ complained and pouted. "Why do I sense that's your doing?"

Gwen flashed a victorious smile, "I have to respect my husband's needs for privacy. But I'll tell you this: he's pretty amazing."

She chuckled and asked casually, trying not to seem overzealous, "So…when can I talk to the boys?"

"Well… Flash and Peter have been pretty busy recently, I guess it can be arranged," Gwen said friendly.

MJ exclaimed happily, "Great! Promise me that the next time we vid-chat that you'll have them with you."

Gwen chuckled, "Alright, I promise."

"And Gwendy, don't wait too long," MJ implored.

"When time permits we'll chat again and they will be present."

MJ nodded approvingly. She asked, "So what will you do later?" Not every conversation needed to be about her friend's relationship.

"Well, nothing fun sadly. I'm just waiting for Peter to come back, I miss him already. I asked Tony to give me some task. I'll oversee the restocking of the base with food and other supplies, and maybe some medical support if needed. "

"Doesn't Peter do anything besides saving the world?" MJ asked teasingly.

Gwen smiled, "He does, but my personal job is to assist him. He has a lot on his plate and if I can lessen some of his work he can focus on other things. So you were free from work today?"

"Yeah I was. What about you?"

"In a way, I'm planning on just taking it easy, there's been a lot to do recently, and just relaxing will be my goal today. Speaking of relaxing, Tony wants to make a little reunion of friends before the final move, spend what could've been everyone's last time together."

"Don't speak like that. It sounds great though; wish I could relax a bit." "MJ sighed. "Are you tired?"

Gwen nodded, "A little, it's been a hectic day to say the least. But it seems we'll have at least one day with administrative chores which will actually be welcomed. I think an evening with some candle lights lit and some classical music in the background would set me at ease."

"Sounds kind of romantic… just don't forget the wine," MJ said with a wink.

Gwen chuckled, "I won't. The base is well stocked with all matters of spirits and some very good wines in the bar."

"Lots of partying to blow some steam…?" MJ asked evenly.

"Not really. The bar is open to anyone. But we all have our different ways with coping with the war."

"Do you have any other establishments then a bar?"

"Yes, the bar itself is located in a recreation room with couches a poker table. We also have a library on the other side of our floor where's everyone we know is pretty much established."

"Wow."

"Yeah, this was built in case of a nuclear attack and to protect the president as well, so that's why the 'wow'." She chuckled.

"Are there any good books in the library?" MJ asked curiously.

Gwen shrugged, "Don't know actually. I haven't been at the library."

"I've been re-reading Robinson Crusoe lately. Have you read it, sis?"

"Yes, of course. But it was ten years ago last time. It's a good classic."

"It is. I think you could go to the library and see if it's there; it was ten years ago since you read it."

Gwen smiled, "Alright, I might do that. Look, MJ, I'll have to return to my upcoming duties, both professional and maternal, and I need some tea before I start working so I need to leave. But I loved talking to you and thanks for listening about...her."

"No problem Gwendy... Write again soon."

"I will, I promise. Bye MJ."

"Bye!"

"This is taking damn too long." Ultron complained as he gazed the containment pod lying on the floor next to him. There was a mysterious dorment figure inside of it, not making a single move. A cable stuck on the back of Ultron's head connected him and the pod together. Before getting back to the carrier, he used Loki's scepter to force Dr. Helen Cho to use her synthetic tissue technology, vibranium, and the scepter's gem to create the perfect body for him.

The most powerful substance on this planet, vibranium, was used to create a soldier's Frisbee. Ultron thought.

"Can't this go any faster?" He asked.

"Negative." One of the many drones located inside the room replied.

Ultron scoffed. "Doc, when is this going to be completed?"

Helen Cho stood next to a computer and replied, "It's your basic consciousness, Information noise. Soon -"

"How soon…? I'm not being pushy." He assured.

"We're imprinting a physical brain. There are no short cuts." She informed.

Ultron mumbled, "Stupid Stark can't even build some decent technology."

Suddenly, the locked large gate which was the only main entrance to the commanding room was burst apart with Iron Man and his Avengers' teammates carefully stepping inside. "Aw, junior, you're going to break your old man's heart."

Ultron's drones were about to engage if Ultron himself hadn't raised his hand, signalling them to do the opposite and wait to see how the situation develops. Being brought to reality, the Doctor realized what she was doing, but she stood quiet, not wanting to anger Ultron while the Avengers don't secure the place.

"If I have to…" Ultron cocked his head at Iron Man and removed the cable from the back of his head, interrupting the transference.

"Nobody has to break anything," Thor stood next to the billionaire and intervened.

"Clearly you've never made an omelette." The machine's leader joked. He looked at the twins who just recently entered the room. "Ah, Pietro and Wanda, I wanted to apologize for our previous encounter, I've expressed myself in the wrong way. Silly me..."

"What about me?" Spider-Man asked, "You left me alive, honey."

"I see. I'm getting cocky." Ultron mused. "Well, not happening again." He chuckled. "But, hey, twins, can we be friends again, start fresh?"

"We're never friends." Wanda stated, closing her fists.

"So you ran to Tony? What if I told you that this whole ship was designed by him?"

"This was never my life, Shield was infiltrated by Hydra, I wouldn't be surprised if they have stolen my technology when they're still active." Tony explained.

Pietro walked around them, "Oh, this is funny, and here I thought that I could trust you."

Steve interjected, "Pietro, please, give us a chance." He pleaded.

Ultron said disgusted, "Blah! Captain America, the god's righteous man, pretending to live without a war… I can't physically throw up in my mouth, but -"

"If you believe in peace, we should all start over." Thor affirmed.

Ultron took one step closer, "I think you're confusing peace with quiet."

"Yeah…? What's in that pod? And where's the Tesseract?" Tony questioned inpatient.

"I'm glad you asked that, because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan," A blue glowing light was now emerging in Ultron's hand. "Well, the short and cooler version is: you evolve...or you die!"

Ultron rapidly pointed his blue glowing hand at Iron Man's chest and used it to abruptly push him closer to his direction as he fired a red blast towards him, causing the billionaire to crash against the wall and land onto the floor. Drones suddenly appeared besides the other Avengers and engage them. Steve swung his shield around and quickly chopped one of the drone's head off and proceeded to deal with the others as Thor fought one in the air and Natasha abused of her melee attacks.

Spider-Man managed to jump at one of the flying drones as they both uncontrollably flied around the large room, exchanging punches as he tried to dominate the drone. Meanwhile, Iron Man flew from the ground and towards Ultron's direction as they collided and separated again on the air, flying blasts at each other. Ultron quickly grabbed a panel from the ceiling and threw at Stark's direction who punched the electronic with his right arm as it was torn apart, just as Ultron fired another blast at his armour's chest as he smashed against the bulk behind him.

"Distract those drones, I'll deal with Ultron. Noble team has to find the Tessaract." Tony ordered as he flied towards Ultron and to the ship's bulk, carrying Ultron along, before they collided against the metal and got through ship and into the outside.

After deactiving his past opponent who crashed back to the area's ground, Spider-Man landed in front of a huge window where he had a view of the entire city beneath them. "I thought I was already doing that." He gasped as one single drone appeared besides him. It tried to grab him if he hadn't quickly kicked the machine in the stomach and into the window as it crashed against the glass, falling off the ship.

Spider-Man turned around and approached the broken window, seeing the drone disappearing on the air while hearing the sound of gunfire coming from the city. "I wonder what Bruce is doing down there."

Captain America threw his shield across the room and hit the last enemy as the weapon went back to his grasp. "He's probably 'hulking' everything." He looked to the twins close to him and nodded professionally.

"Hey, Nash, how does the touching thing works again?" Peter asked Natasha as he glanced at the city. "Cause I think-" As his sense failed him again, one heavily damaged drone, from the ground, managed to fire a single blast at Spider-Man's back, making him fall off the ship through the window's hole.

Natasha quickly pulled one pistol from her waistline and fired at the drone's head, instantly deactivating it. She looked at Steve and Thor and asked somewhat annoyed, "Do we really need to save him?"

Steve smiled and shook his head. "Yep, but that's a task already taken by someone else." Steve reached for his earpiece asked, "Noble team, we haven't found the Tesseract, only an unknown pod that Ultron tried to protect." He gazed the pod as Wanda approached and touched the pod's cold surface.

"I can feel... It's dreaming." Wanda said perplexed.

Steve saw the Doctor who was once under Ultron's control and nodded to Pietro for him to check her out. He continued, "What's your status?"

"We encountered little resistance. Kaidan took one in the arm, he's fine though. No signal of the Tesseract." Matt replied through the comm.

"Damn," Steve sighed. "Right, anything else…?"

"Yeah, we've found the labs and... there were experiments."

"What kind of experiments?"

"Um... civilians... they were merged with cybernetics, they didn't talk, nothing, just…Soulless."

Natasha covered her mouth with her right hand. "Oh my god…"

Thor rested his hands on his hips and shook his head in disbelief.

Steve closed his eyes. He had seen bad stuff during the Second World War, sick experiments. He couldn't ever get used to it. "Did you... pull them out of their misery?"

We evolve or we die!

"Yes, sir…"

"Okay, this place is a nightmare, be ready to receive the bomb at any moment. We need the Tesseract first."

"Roger that. We'll keep an eye on it."

Steve shut down the connection and approached Wanda while trying to not think about what he just had heard seconds ago. "Can we crack it open?"

"It's too strong. I can't hack it either." Natasha replied from behind.

Steve reaches for his earpiece again. "Clint? We'll need to extract something."

"On my way, Cap." Clint replied.

Steve nodded and turned to look at his group. "This station can't stay working. We'll -"

The Super Soldier was interrupted when something in the carrier and meters away from their location exploded and caused the carrier to shake it a little bit, stunning them for a brief moment. He rose from the ground and looked at his surroundings, seeing his teammates recovering from the tremor.

"What happened?"

Hawkeye informed, "Um...guys, I don't want to hurry things up, but the four engines just blew up in case if guys haven't noticed."

Natasha said shocked, "No...the city, it will kill thousands of civilians if let this thing fall!"

Now evading the trees and chasing Ultron through the dense florest of Sorovia, Tony waited for the right moment to fire a blast at Ultron's back which quickly stunned him and caused him to crash against the ground as he rolled towards a tree which helped to stop his quick momentum. Ultron leaned the back of his head against the tree as Iron Man landed right in front of him.

"Talk..." Iron Man aimed his right hand at Ultron's face.

"Sure," Ultron nodded. "The Tesseract was never there, you just interrupted the connection. If I can't retrieve my creation -"

"You're not getting anywhere." A small missile rose from the armour's hand.

"Of course not, I'm already there. But first, you might come back to your friends, because that carrier is now falling down."

Inside the helmet, Tony narrowed his eyes at Ultron and fired the missile at his creation's figure, blowing it into pieces. He activated the propulsion system and flied away from the location and towards the carrier where his friends were supposed to be.

"Guys, we can't the ships intact, or else it will destroy the entire city."

Steve replied, "Tell me about it!"

"Where's the bomb?" Tony asked.

"Our troops are being obliterated, I've sent Peter and Falcon to assist them, and Noble Team has one casualty. We're running out of time."

Tony sighed, coming up with a plan. "Okay, wait for Clint and get out of the carrier along with that pod. Ultron doesn't want us to take it, I will assist the ground team with Falcon and the web-head." Tony spun on the air and changed his trajectory to the city.

We can do this.

"Thanks for the rescue, Falcon!" Spider-Man quickly jumped from Falcon's back and into the air as he punched a drone that had just flied past them on its jawline, sending its head meters away. He instantly fired a single web at Falcon's feet as they rapidly flied through the city to reach where the ground team was struggling to keep going forward.

"You're welcome!" Falcon replied, flying around a building, avoiding the drone's blasts while that smashed against the building's walls next to them, and carrying Spider-Man along for the ride. "You seemed to be stunned back there. You okay?"

"Yeah…!" Peter shouted from behind, holding the web-line tightly.

It didn't take long for the pair to arrive at street which was now a gruesome battlefield. Soldiers standing in one side while Ultron's forces stood on the opposite direction, exchanging blasts and bullets like if there wasn't a tomorrow. A crashed allied truck that was probably carrying the bomb could be seen behind the soldier's position; they seemed to be protecting it. Falcon approached their allies and dropped Spider-Man into their lines. Without a warning, like always, Hulk landed between the two factions and proceeded to absorb the enemy fire while destroying the units at his reach.

Spider-Man quickly approached the truck's metal door and went to push them apart since they were previously stuck, revealing stunned troops on their seats and the rather small nuclear bomb on the floor. "Guys…! You all can sleep tonight once we're dealt with this!" He offered his hand to the closest stunned soldier and helped to pull him out of the truck, repeating the process with the others until they were all standing on solid and firm ground.

He webbed the device and retracted the web-line, pushing it towards his direction, before holding it under his left arm. Through his mask's internal visor, Spider-Man opened the private comm with his team, and hid himself next to a car and informed, "I got the device, what's next?"

Steve replied, "Clint's here, get the device to the extraction point and I'll activate it as the team goes away."

"What? Are you nuts?" Spider-Man leaned his head out from his cover and saw Hulk ripping a drone in half, before throwing the pieces of metal at their enemies.

"Someone has to activate it remotely; we discovered that Ultron has planted a firewall around the ship that interrupts all types of outside connections." He explained.

Tony interjected, "Cap, you're the leader of our little gang, don't play the hero now."

"Well -"

Noble Team's leader, Matt, interrupted, "No, you're getting off this ship, this was a trap and we won't let Ultron succeed with it. We'll activate it.

"Negative, get back to the commanding room for extraction…You did enough, soldier." Steve insisted.

"With all due respect, sir, you're more important for this war than us. We've made our choice. This ship is an abomination, and it's falling towards to the very people we sworn to protect."

A brief moment of silence dominated the comms. They knew that whoever planted the bomb, there wouldn't be an opening for escape, and that they would be gone like the ship will, all because of Ultron, who made them entire team fall into a trap with not turning back. Peter couldn't help but think about those soldiers' family, he had read their dossiers, the best of the best, but even then, they're mere humans, and now they weren't getting back at home. He now understood in the skin what Gwen and his children have being through over the years.

"I..." Steve paused. "I'm sorry..."

"I'm not, we knew what we're getting into, it had to be us, and someone else might have gotten it wrong. It was a honour to fight alongside you guys, Avengers. Earth needs you. We'll be waiting for as long as he can -" Matt's connection was abruptly shut down.

"Damn!" Steve angered. "Peter, there's not time. They won't hold out for much longer and the ship is ten minutes from your position.

"I... Yes, I will."

"There's only one functional shuttle left in a few meters away from your position. Good luck." Steve shut down the connection..

Spider-Man signalled Falcon who was flying above him, meaning it was time to push forward and reach the point where the still functional shuttle crashed was located.

After seeing Hulk absorbing most of the blasts and that the ground troops were finally managing to push forward, Spider-Man quickly vaulted over the car and since there wasn't any enough tall building that would allow him to reach his objective by just swinging around, he ran forward like if the world was about to end in a blink of an eye.

Some drones saw Spider-Man and started to fire energy blasts at him as he quickly evaded a part while the rest stopped so close to him but he still was lucky enough to get unscratched. Iron Man flied above him and engaged back those drones, giving him little room to breathe for a brief moment as he ran his own personal marathon, jumping over cars, evading blasts, carrying the device under his left arm as the seconds passed by.

Unexpectedly, an explosion next to Spider-Man caused by a lost energy blast managed to violently spun him around on the air because of the impact as Peter uncomfortably landed on his back. He wasn't hearing that much, while conscious, Peter was somewhat stunned and unable to move. The only thing he could do was see through the mask's cracked lenses the enormous carrier's approaching his location.

What looked to be a person and not a drone walked close to him. Peter turned to his head to see who it was, but the sun's light was blinding him. The person leaned down and recovered the device from his grasp as two mechanical wings emerged from his back. He looked up and flied away, leaving Peter alone on the ground, hearing only the sound of the battlefield and Hulk's war cry echoing across the street.

He tried to stand up, but his body was starting to betray him. He eventually managed to stand on his knees as he glanced at the carrier that in a few minutes, turned itself into a blaze of fire across the once blue sky, all of that being reflected on his mask's lenses, the view of failure and tragedy, A trap which was perfectly crafted by the artificial intelligence, who apparently wanted to exterminate the whole human race; Another victory for the construct.

Peter stood in silence, realizing the lives that were lost a few seconds ago, the sacrifice of a team and probably Falcons who never stopped at nothing to deploy the bomb and save what was left to save. Was there any hope left? Is this the war where freedom would be finally destroyed? Could they even defeat Ultron? Those were thoughts that shattered his consciousness.

"Peter? I got you on the map. We can't stay here any longer. I'll be closing by to pick you up and... There's a place I want to bring you guys." Clint informed. "Natasha is arriving to take care of Banner."

'I... Understood…"

Six Hours Later

The trip back to the base had been very quietly, with no conversations at all. Clint had brought his teammates to his family's farm where his wife and kids were safe from the war since it was a very distant place from the city, recharge the spirits and visit a more calm place with fresh air. Most of his friends were quite surprised that Clint had a family, nobody besides Fury and Natasha knew that. The reason is that he wanted them to be off records, protect them from exposure.

As the Avengers' and the troop's shuttles arrived the base's LZ, Peter, who was still wearing the complete set of his armour, walked down the shuttle's bridge and saw a crow of officers waiting for them. Everyone was expecting to hear good news, which unfortunately, wasn't the current case. Flash approached him, noticing that his friend's suit wasn't that much intact, meaning that the assault wasn't easy at all. Something bad happened, he thought.

Steve respectfully nodded at the pair as he walked past them, heading over the crowd to explain what happened back at Sorovia, disappointed and hopeless sounds were now echoing. Everyone knew what was at stake, and how such important assault could have been defining for the war's conclusion.

"Hey," Flash approached Peter.

"Hey," He said emotionless.

"Are you okay?" Flash asked worried.

"To be honest with you; not really..." He shook his head gently.

"Want to talk about?" Flash placed his right hand on the back of Peter's covered neck.

"I... I don't feel well, I'm tired. Tomorrow…?"

Flash patted his shoulder gently "Sure. I'll respect that -"

"And that's why you have to leave the important job to real soldiers." An officer walked by with his friend and interrupted the pair as he faced Spider-Man with deadly eyes.

"What are you talking about, Williams?" Flash questioned from behind, eyeing the soldier's uniform badge.

"Walk way." Spider-Man ordered codly.

"Why do you think that the mission was a total failure?"

Flash shook his head. "What? Are you really blaming them?"

The officer turned on his shoulder. "I do. Why? Can't you see that we're not getting anywhere with them taking the lead? What makes them so special?"

Spider-Man replied for Flash, "Because we actually know what we're doing out there."

Not taking well the remark, the officer bit his lower lip and turned around as he swung his right arm at Spider-Man who evaded the punch by moving his head to the side as he quickly reacted and punched the soldier on the chin, being careful to not abuse his strength. He feel down on his knees as his partner tried to grab Spider-Man if Flash hadn't jumped forward to drop him on the floor, not letting him go away from his grasp.

Noticing the stir, Steve Rogers quickly hurried towards them and went to take Flash off the officer, but he was not letting him go that easily. "Flash, this is not the time!" He said, as he pulled him away.

The officer recovered his breath and slowly stood up, gasping heavily, while the other one cleaned the blood trace coming from his lips.

Steve looked at Flash and Peter and ordered, "You two go get some rest. We'll discuss everything about the mission some other day. You've done enough."

After checking on his children and making sure they're okay and safe, Peter stood in front of his bedroom's door and leaned his covered forehead against the door. Knowing his wife very well, Gwen was probably waiting for him on the other side of the door, worried about his condition, which was the least of the problems that he has to face it. Silently, he turned the knob and peered inside, seeing Gwen sat on their bed with one single lighten lamp as she peacefully read a book. She was wearing one of his shirts which turned out to be too large to her slim frame. It was a relaxing view. He wanted nothing but to relax and wrap himself on his wife's arms and forget about the war for a change.

As Peter stepped inside, he closed the door and locked it with the keys. He was pretty sure that Gwen head heard him now, and he turned to be right.

"Peter." Gwen closed her book and placed it over the bedstand next to her side of the bed as he walked towards him.

"Hey." He sighed and pulled his mask off, holding tightly with his left hand.

"Are you alright?" Gwen asked concerned as she cupped his cheek.

Peter closed his eyes and turned his head to the left, avoidind her gaze. "I... I can't do this." He shook his head.

"What do you mean? What happened?" Gwen rested both hands on the cold surface of his chest.

"We lost, that's what happened." Peter snarled and gently pulled her arms away from him. He took his now loosen chest piece off and dropped it on the ground and walked away to the nearest wall, letting his wife face his back as he leaned his forehead against the wall.

Now Gwen realized what went wrong, and how that was affecting her husband. She slowly approached him and spoke, "It's not over yet -"

Peter turned around and threw his mask across the room. "People died, Gwen! I saw everything! Do you know what does that means? It seems that you don't."

Gwen stood calm; raising her tone wouldn't do any good. "And you're blaming -"

"It means that it's over! Ultron won, and I can't do anything about it, I can't..." He closed his fists.

She didn't say anything, but just allowed her husband to vent his frustrations which was probably the best thing he should do at the moment.

Peter continued, "Hearing the agonizing screams, and knowing that I could done something about it instead of watching Noble Team disappear in a blink of an eye... You don't get it, you don't know what I have done to keep going and going.. I'm tired." He rubbed his face and took a heavy breath. "I'm tired of this... I'm a failure that's what I am, an accident." He whispered.

"If you listened to me just a little bit…"

"There's nothing you can say, what's done is done and you can't do anything about it." Peter snapped. He walked past her and headed towards the closet to wear normal clothes. "I need some time alone, I'll be back later. Don't follow me."

"You're not getting anywhere." Gwen stood next to him and crossed her arms.

"Yes, I will." He wore a shirt. "You will stay here."

"Could you please stop acting like an ignorant?"

Peter quickly closed the closet's door and turned to face her. "What do you want from me? Is being your sappy romantic husband and love toy not enough?"

Gwen ignored his snarky remark. "I want you to stay quiet just for a second and listen to me."

Peter scoffed. He tried to walk past her but she stood on his front with arms crossed. "Excuse me? Who do you think you are to stop me from doing what I want?"

"No. I heard everything that you had to say, and now it's my turn to say what I want. I'm your wife and I have every right of doing so." Gwen stated. "Why are you doing this to yourself? You take the world on your shoulders and if something bad happens, it's all on you? You think you failed someone?"

"I failed the entire human civilization, and now they're going to pay for my mistake!" Peter replied.

"They…? What are you then? An alien…? You're just a human like me, you're not perfect and you don't always win, but that's why you're so special, you never give up and you never cease to pursue your goal."

"This is no fairy-tale, Gwen."

"What's happening to you? You think you're the only who's suffering?"

"I changed! You think it's easy to put my head out there and ignore everything that's happening? You don't know anything. I'm out there doing what needs to be done!" He stated. "It's never that that simple. I thought you knew that."

Gwen pressed on. "It is! You lash out, snap and berate because you are unable to handle your emotions in a way that is considerate towards others…and yourself." She said saddened, "I understand you, I empathize with you. I care a lot about you! And your behaviour hurts me, especially when you attack yourself." Gwen challenged, "Are you going to treat your Aunt or our kids the same way you're treating me whenever things go bad from now on?

"What?" Peter demanded furiously.

"I understand your behaviour, were it comes from, I can help you to deal with this. But this has to stop before you destroy not only our relationship but also that with Elizabeth and the twins."

Peter folded his arms and demanded with a glare, "Venting your true feelings, are we?"

Gwen pressed on undeterred but with a calm voice. "You cannot lash out with such venom you've done recently at me nor can you bottle up your emotions and turn into a cold man. You have to properly express such emotions in a way more constructive manner than you're doing now, because the kids may not understand your plight and why your reactions are so fierce, and a baby even less so. You might ruin those relationships to the point where they are irreparable. You never have been like this before, Peter; don't let this war change the great man that you are."

Peter's head dropped and he unfolded his arms. He fidgeted with her fingers and breathed out exasperated, heeding his words. The last thing Peter wanted was to ruin his relationship to Gwen or their kids.

"Gwen... I'm.. I'm sorry for my behaviour," Peter said regretful. He looked up and his eyes were glazed and saddened, "I'm sorry for how I treated you. It wasn't fair."

Gwen asserted, "No, it wasn't fair." She didn't want to escalate anything, but she wasn't enthused about his behaviour. "All I wanted was to help you. All I wanted was your help, Peter. We should help each other. Instead you locked me out and almost walked away."

"I know, and I'm sorry," Peter replied softly. "I care about you, the thought of hurting you is unbearable, I wouldn't ever want to do that."

"You can't just shut me out when things go bad and sneer and say all the things you do. The attacks on me and you wear me down. You pretended like you didn't know me, accusing me of wanting sex when I wanted to help you and needed you to." Gwen sighed emotional.

Gwen deflated and his shoulders and head slumped in frustration. Here she chastised him – she wasn't wrong in what she felt – but he was actually mature to say he was sorry for his behaviour. But he had the right to be angry. He was still amped up on the ghastly sights from Sorovia, he was furious at Ultron. He was drained emotionally. It was all a jumbled mess of emotions.

Peter closed the distance and placed his hands on her waistline and rubbed affectionate.

Gwen asked softly, "Please just tell me what's on your mind. I want to help you. I have so many fears, and one of them is losing you to this war."

Peter looked down to meet her pleading eyes. Peter's eyes were glazed and he continued talking morosely, "I have this eerie warm lump inside me, and it's nothing good. And it consumes me and it has since after Sorovia, Gwendy. People play their political games, these politicians bickered and stalled and since this war started we had to play the same stupid game to appease them." Peter snarled frustrated, "This war…no, this slaughter…this is a damn slaughter and it took months before some people even did anything, and some stalled until two weeks ago. Nobody gets that we're torn they all think I, the Avengers, will get us out of this mess and I can't see how." Peter deflated from the pressure he was on.

Gwen wrapped her arms around Peter's shoulders in a tight hug. She felt increasingly remorseful and held back tears and whispered, "And you haven't told me this? What about all the things you've told me we're fighting for? Our family's future together…?" Gwen choked up, "Our future isolated house?"

Peter welled up with frustration and hugged her back, "I'm…just so exhausted, I don't know how long I can keep this going now that Ultron took the Tesseract because it feels like we're losing."

"I don't want you to hesitate to talk to me ever again because things like this destroy you. And us." Gwen pleaded heartbroken, "You don't have to do this alone. I'm just as scared and angry as you, Peter, but you keep me together. I know you project this persona of an unflappable hero leading the rest of us but let me back in so I can help you."

Gwen cupped Peter's face and pressed her lips to his which parted willingly and her soft nubile tongue slid into his mouth and their tongues mingled wetly, their eyes shut close in the tender moment. They kissed affectionate. The tension slipped away a bit and Peter got lost in her newly showered scent and her body pressed to his.

She broke this kiss and her hands slid down his cheeks to behind his neck where she caressed the skin with her fingertips. Their eyes met and both had a sense of deep longing but also pain.

"I missed you for hours," Gwen murmured. "I love you and I want you back."

"I just... I can't hold it together anymore, Gwen." Peter confessed saddened. "I don't want lose the people I love most on this world, but..." He breathed heavily.

Gwen hugged him closer reassuringly, drawing circles with her fingertips on the back of his shirt, before speaking, "Even if we fail..." She whispered softly.

Peter continued her sentence, "...what better way is there to live?" He kissed the top of her blonde hair. "Thank you so much." He wrapped his arms around Gwen's back and brought her even more close as he rested his forehead in Gwen's shoulder.

Gwen hugged him back, before whispering, "Just promise me that, no matter what happens, you will be there for us, just like you always were."

"I will," Peter replied softly. "I promise."

A/N : That was intense. It took some time, but it finally came out. This wasn't a simple chapter to write to be honest, probably the most tiresome one, lots of plot points running around and characters to handle, combine that with the cold I got before actually getting to the last part and it gets exhausting. I wanted to short it a little more, but I couldn't remove more parts than I originally did, one of them told how Gwen survived back at the clocktower, in the end, it didn't really felt necessary and somewhat out of place, I'm not so sure, but it may appear in future chapters if you guys are interested on seeing it.

After this chapter is published, there's only two chapters left, the next one being a quick update in one or two weeks and it won't feature any action as well, it will be everyone's last moment together before this storyline's finale.

And that brings me to another topic, originally and without spoiling too much, I wanted to write an extra "short" chapter that would be Peter and Gwen's last night together, as you can already imagine it, it would surpass the T rating, but I'm really compromised in making it very special and sweet, I wouldn't call it a lemon because there's a whole emotional strong stuff attached to it, in fact, it's mostly finished already, but then again, if most of you reject it, despite being totally avoidable since it's a separate chapter, I won't publish it. I would really, really like to hear you guy's thoughts on this one.

Oh, I have seen Age Of Ultron, and I quite like it, not as good as the first one though. Too much action. Ultron didn't felt that much threatening and he always failed most of the time. The rest are spoilers. The movie is very enjoyable.

Now to the question,

Are Liz, David and Aiden going to have Spidey's power? Because they are a little bit too normal. Or maybe it gonna come when they will be teenages...Hum..

Nice chapter, as usual :)

- Egg Man

First of all, thanks for the questions, I'm always happy to address any doubts. Peter's children have his gifts, months ago, remember writing a part where Elizabeth gets a cookie jar after discovering her abilities, so, yes, they can have Peter's powers, now, if they're going to use them like he did, that's a whole different story. I understand why you're having second thoughts regarding this, I admit I haven't written too many chapters where the kids use their gifts. Hopefully, this one make it more clear :) Also, you really need to make an account, haha!

I love my Beta for taking her time to help me out with this, you're the best, FireflySurvivor!

I hope the waiting was worth it and most of you felt satisfied. And I would love to hear you guys thoughts regarding that extra chapter. Have a good one!