Welcome Back Everyone!

I am absolutely shocked at the reception I received from the first chapter!

I had no idea this story would catch so many people's attention so quickly so a sincere THANK YOU to everyone who reviewed and favorited.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

A few reviewers have asked me if I intend to include the events of "Sin's Past" in this story, and the answer is a BIG FAT NO! In this fanfiction, Sin's Past Never Happened, which means the You Know What between Gwen and Norman never happened and that also means the Twins don't exist.

There is also the matter of the "Clone Conspiracy" which revealed that Gwen found out that Peter was Spider-Man right before she died. That detail also never happened in this fanfiction. As of right now, Gwen still doesn't know that Peter is Spider-Man but a certain symbiote is more than happy to tell her.

With that being said, I hope you all take a liking to this chapter just as much as you liked the first one!

Enjoy!


Chapter 2: Close Encounter

"GOTCHA!"

It was a miraculous catch, and Spider-Man was scared half to death that he wouldn't make it in time, but his web line caught the falling Gwen Stacy.

All traces of heart attack inducing fear were replaced with pure elation and relief. Gwen was safe. That was all that mattered, and as the wall crawler pulled the blonde damsel up the web line and onto the flat surface of the pillar above the George Washington Bridge, he participated in his own brand of justified self glorification.

"Spider Powers, I love you! Not only am I the most dashing hero on two legs, I'm also the most versatile. Who else could have saved a falling girl from certain dea…"

He paused as he brought Gwen close to him. Something was wrong. He knew it the moment he saw her face. Eyes closed, face pale and drained, Why wasn't she moving?

"Gwen?!"

No answer. No movement, no signs of life.

It can't be. It just can't be. He saved her. He saved her!

"Hey? Hey, kid! What's wrong?" Peter called his girlfriend.

Once again, no answer. No Pulse. No breath. No signs of life.

Gwendolyn Maxine Stacy, the love of Peter Parker's life, was dead.

"Oh No!" Peter whimpered, the horrifying reality setting in at last. His throat went dry and his heart stopped dead in its tracks. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, NO! Gwen, talk to me! Don't be dead, Gwen! Please! I don't want you to be dead!"

His words fell on deaf ears, and then the roaring sound of a glider broke Peter out of his horror induced trance. There up above him was the man himself, Gwen Stacy's murderer hovering over her corpse like a scavenger looking for meat, Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin.

Gwen Stacy was dead, and the monster in front of him was smiling about it, laughing about it.

It didn't even matter now if Spider-Man beat this man and brought him to justice. It didn't matter if Norman Osborn died, or if he spent the rest of his life behind bars.

The Goblin won, and he knew he won. At this point, Peter doubted he cared what happened next. Even if Peter beat him, Norman Osborn would still have this one single victory that outweighed every single defeat, and he was loving every second of it.

"YOU!" Peter roared at the Goblin. "You think this is a game, Osborn? You think this is a sick joke? You'll pay for this, Osborn! Do you hear me?!"

The Green Goblin savored Spider-Man's rage as he cackled like a wild hyena. His victory was all the more sweeter to see Peter react this way.

"Yes, I hear you, but I was so annoyed at your whining that I wasn't really paying attention. Now are we going to continue our little battle, or will you just be a good little Spider and just allow one of my little toys to hit you? I mean at this point, I would be doing you a favor since your death will reunite you with your precious little Gwen."

Spider-Man saw red.

"I'LL TEAR YOU TO PIECES!" he screamed. Norman readied the bomb, but Spider-Man was on him before he could throw it. The wall crawler pounced on the Goblin with lightning speed, knocking him off his glider, and the two crashed to the ground, wrestling with each other in a desperate struggle to gain the upper hand. Norman may have the Goblin Formula Steroid pumping through his veins, but Peter's rage was its own steroid, and Norman soon found himself on the defensive as Peter kept dishing out blow after overwhelming blow. The fight was over far quicker than either of them expected, and soon enough, Peter had the Goblin completely subdued and pinned down.

Norman's head slumped down as he fell unconscious, but Peter wasn't about to let his enemy rest.

"You look me in the eyes when I'm talking to you, Norman! Look me in the eyes!" Peter pulled off his mask to get a look at the man responsible for his girlfriend's death, only to receive the shock of his life, a true nightmare behind the face of the emerald demon.

It wasn't Norman Osborn under the mask. It was Peter Parker himself.

"You... You're not Norman... You're Me?! But... But how? I don't understand!"

"What's there to not understand, Spider-Man? Norman Osborn didn't kill Gwen Stacy, WE DID!"

"That voice! Oh no! No! Not that voice again!"

His eyes confirmed what his ears told him. Instead of holding his doppelganger in a Goblin costume, the scenery around him changed, and Peter found himself in front of a mirror. His mind was too confused to explain what was going on around him, but he didn't even have time to comprehend it once the symbiote dealt him another horror.

He was wearing the black suit again.

"What's wrong, Spider-Man?" The symbiote spoke to him in a sinister false condolence. "You should be happy! Now that Gwen is out of the way, I can have you all to myself! Nobody will come between us! Perhaps we should do the same to your Aunt May just in case she disapproves of our new relationship."

"NO!" Peter screamed. "I got rid of you! Get off of me! GET OFF!"

"You can't pull me off this time, dearest host. It's too late! No loud noises will ever separate us again! We are one, Spider-Man! WE ARE ONE!"

"NO! NO! NOOOOOOOOOO! GET OFF ME!"

()

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Peter woke up with a start, and to his sincere relief, it wasn't the symbiote that was smothering his body, just the blankets of his bed. He wasn't anywhere near the George Washington Bridge. He was back home in his apartment. He had been asleep the whole time.

"Just a dream, a nightmare." he said to himself. The terror was over, but his mind was still reeling from it. He had nightmares before, but he never experienced a nightmare that bad in months.

"It's official. My subconscious enjoys torturing me." He grumbled as he got out of bed. "Most Normal people just have bad dreams about their teeth falling out or being forced to do a public speech with no pants on, but do I get such a mercy? Nooooooooo! Instead my own mind plays the blame game and points the finger at me about every bad thing that's happened to me, while at the same time taking advantage of my fear that the symbiote is going to come back. Can't I just have a normal bad dream for once in my life?"

His half open eyes drifted over to the clock. Without any caffeine in his system, he was practically a zombie. Eleven-Thirty in the morning. He was too tired to be horrified of the idea that he was several hours late for work again. With his late night crime fighting patrols that kept him up all night, his sleep schedule was the part of his life suffering the most, and with the symbiote incident the night before, it was no wonder he was so exhausted that he slept through both his alarm clock and the alarm on his phone.

Speaking of his phone, it began to ring.

"Damnit." Muttered Peter. He knew it was J Jonah Jameson. He was hoping he could at least get some coffee in his system before hearing his boss unleash the mother of all scolding rants at him and threatened to fire him for the umpteenth time. Doctor Connors would sometimes cover for him, but his friend could only do it so many times before old JJ got suspicious.

Peter picked up his phone and prepared his ears to bleed from Old Flat Top's yelling, but to his surprise, it wasn't the Bugle calling, it was a completely different number.

Confused, Peter answered the phone.

"Hello, may I speak to a Mister Peter Parker."

"You're speaking to him. What's going on?" replied the exhausted young man.

"Hello Mister Parker. This is Doctor Claire Temple from Mercy General Hospital calling about...'

"YOU'RE GWEN'S DOCTOR!" Peter's interrupted him. Now his mind was pumping full of more energy than any caffeine could grant someone. Any form of news related to Gwen was cause to be on high alert. "Why? What's wrong? Is Gwen Okay? Did something happen?!"

Peter knew the hospital wouldn't call him directly unless there was a change in Gwen's condition. Most of the time, he only heard the updates of the doctors whenever he performed his weekly visits to Gwen's hospital bed, and every time it would be the same report. No change at all. Peter eventually grew bitter of hearing these words from the doctors over and over again, and throughout this most recent year, he began to doubt whether Gwen would wake up at all.

"You know what, considering your reaction to hearing my voice, I think I'll just skip all the medical technicalities and give you the news in layman's terms." Dr. Temple spoke in a soft and professional tone.

Peter could hear his own heartbeat increasing into rapid overdrive, dreading what the doctor could possibly say. Whatever happened must have occurred last night, and that was the same night he experienced his horrifying battle with the symbiote, so he couldn't have known what was going on with Gwen at the time. It was like a coin toss, a fifty-fifty chance of the news being good or bad.

Then the doctor spoke over the phone.

"Mister Parker, Gwen Stacy is awake. Not only that, but she seems to have fully recovered."

Peter dropped the phone.

()

It was completely unknown to him how long it took for his mind to comprehend that the doctor's announcement wasn't a joke, and the trip from his apartment to the hospital was a complete blur as well. His mental computer had crashed and it spent the next hour rebooting. Right at the point in his life when he started to doubt it would ever happen, it happened. The Nightmare was over, and now both its victims could wake up and reunite with each other.

As Peter walked down the hallway to Gwen's room, his still recovering mind, running on fumes, was rehearsing dozens of different things he could say to Gwen once he saw her beautiful face again, her open eyes, but he finally accepted that most likely he would just babble like an idiot and make a fool of himself. Gwen would understand. Who wouldn't react this way after hearing their girlfriend was practically back from the dead?

Doctor Temple was right there at the doorway waiting for him, and the African American Doctor stepped aside so she could let Peter pass.

"She's waiting for you." she said with a warm motherly smile.

Peter opened the door and there she was, sitting upright on her hospital bed in a picture perfect posture. It was like meeting her for the first time again. She was no longer wearing her hospital gown. Instead she was dressed in the same clothes she wore before she was taken here, her black shirt which hugged her amazing hourglass figure, partially hidden by her green jacket and blue pencil skirt. Then there was her headband, the obsidian black headband that held her gorgeous blonde locks in place.

Peter couldn't describe it. He knew going in that he would be at a loss for words upon seeing her again, but even still, this was beyond how he expected to feel.

"Hey Gwen..."

"Hey Pete..." Gwen finally spoke. It was only two words and already Peter was overwhelmed. Her voice, he was actually hearing her beautiful voice for the first time I five years. Peter never considered himself a religious man, but if there was a God, then this was the greatest gift the lord above could have given him.

"Gwen, I... OOOOOOOOOOFFF!"

Before Peter could utter another word, Gwen leaped out of her bed like a pouncing leopard and tackled Peter in a bone crushing hug. Nothing prepared Peter for something like that. Gwen was squeezing him so tight, he thought she actually would break bone.

Since when was Gwen this strong? Heck, since when was any hospital patient capable of this much energy and strength?

It was strange, but Peter didn't really care. Painful hug aside, all that mattered was being able to see Gwen awake and alive again.

"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm… We missed you, Our Peter." Gwen purred as she nuzzled her face in Peter's chest.

"Uh... we?" Peter spoke to her, growing even more confused and slightly uncomfortable from Gwen's overly flirtatious tone of voice, not that he would complain. Then, as if snapping out of a spell, Gwen suddenly broke off the hug, looking confused herself.

"Uh, I mean, I missed you. Sorry, I don't know why we said that, Er, I said that." Gwen corrected herself, and she gave her boyfriend a sheepish laugh.

The laugh was quick to die though, and the joy of reuniting with her boyfriend began to fade away once she remembered how long she had been in this room. Her smile vanished and she turned away from the young genius.

"Gwen?" Peter spoke to her, growing worried.

"So has it really been five years?" She asked, her whispering voice showing painful levels of bitterness.

Peter let out a loud sigh. "Yeah, it has."

"The doctors told me how often you visited me." She continued. "I... I'm sorry this hurt you so much... Having to see me like this all the time..."

"NO GWEN! Don't apologize!" Peter corrected her. "This wasn't your fault. It was the Goblin who did this to you."

"And Spider-Man..." Gwen growled under her breath, causing Peter to flinch.

"Gwen, Spider-Man didn't..."

"I KNOW!" Gwen's sudden outburst made Peter jump. "I know... I know he didn't throw me off the bridge, but..."

"Peter just tell me why? Out of all the times Spider-Man could have failed to save someone, why did it have to be me?"

"I don't know, Gwen." Peter confessed. "But I think Spider-Man asks that question to himself every single day," And it was true. Peter did constantly ask himself that question.

"Yeah... sure he does..." Gwen growled quietly, but then she noticed the pained look on her boyfriend and regretted that remark.

"Peter, I don't want to spend our first day together in five years arguing about Spider-Man, or even argue at all. I'm sorry..."

She hugged him again, and this time it was more gentle, the kind of hug a woman gave when she needed her boyfriend's shoulder to cry on.

"You have every right to be angry." Peter comforted her, returning the hug. "And I guess you have to blame somebody. Heck, I blame myself half the time."

"What?" Gwen's head perked up and made eye contact. "Peter, you have a ton of problems and flaws that follow you everywhere you go, but you're the best boyfriend I could ask for, and my best friend period. Don't you dare say or even think that not being a perfect boyfriend caused this. There was nothing you could do about it."

Gwen then smiled as she thought of something funny. "Although I wouldn't say no to a fantasy of you coming to the rescue and kicking the Goblin's ass instead of Spider-Man. Little science nerd, Peter Parker to the rescue, and he definitely gets the girl in the end, doesn't he?"

Gwen's attempt to lighten the mood worked, even though she had no idea that her made up fantasy wasn't a fantasy at all.

The two remained in a silent embrace, letting time pass and not taking notice of anything except each other. It seemed like several hours had passed when Gwen finally spoke up again.

"Take me home, Peter." she pleaded. "Just take me home, and get me out of here."

"Alright, Gwen." Peter was eager to leave himself. He had enough of hospitals, and they could never truly rekindle their relationship until they got out.

But then Doctor Temple intruded into the hospital room.

"Actually, Miss Stacy, I don't really think I should give you the green light to leave." she said, much to the dismay of Peter and Gwen.

"What? Why not? I'm fine!" protested Gwen. "I've never felt better in my life. Whatever you guys did to help me wake up, it was nothing short of a miracle!"

"That's just it, Miss Stacy, Mister Parker, it is a miracle by every definition of the word." Doctor Temple tried her best to contain how baffled she was at Gwen's condition and remain as professional as possible. "Let me explain. You know how when you see someone wake up from a coma in the movies, it happens instantaneously, just like it happened with you? Well that NEVER Happens in real life. Under normal circumstances, the comatose patient would transition from comatose to semi-vegetative, and the process of waking up completely would take several hours, or even a few days. Recovery is always a gradual process. Signs of life are at first minute, and then the patient becomes more self aware of their surroundings over time until they can finally move and speak. Sudden awakenings are extremely rare, and even then, they are never as sudden and instantaneous as yours."

Being science majors themselves, this was easy for Peter and Gwen to follow along. It was only now that Peter realized the unusual circumstance of Gwen's awakening. He never paid any mind to it until now because he was just too excited and overjoyed to see her.

Doctor Temple continued her explanation.

"Furthermore, patients who have been in a coma as long as you have, Miss Stacy, usually require extensive levels of rehabilitation treatment. Their bodies have been inactive for such a long time, that basic motor functions such as walking with your legs or grabbing things with your hands are extremely difficult. Then there's the muscular atrophy that would inevitably set in over time since your body has done nothing but lie on a bed for five years. You however, Miss Stacy, are not just an exception to this medical status quo, you are a dumbfounding anomaly. The physical condition of your body, which I can only describe as perfection, should not be possible for a woman who sustained the level of head trauma you received and stayed in a coma as long as you did. In short, Miss Stacy, you are correct. What happened to you is nothing short of a miracle. I am just worried that this might be a false miracle, and your body isn't actually as recovered as we thought it was. I was thinking of keeping you here for one more day and observing you just in case."

"Well you ran tests when I woke up didn't you?" Gwen asked. Much to Peter's surprise, she shared no curiosity over the doctor's explanation of how unusual her recovery was. She was oddly dismissive of it, not caring how she woke up, and almost cold blooded in the way she spoke to the doctor. "

"You checked and double checked all my bodily functions, and you said to me, and I quote, everything seems normal, correct?" Gwen continued, and the doctor flinched at her vicious tone of voice.

"Well, Yes, Miss Stacy, there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with you, but..."

"But nothing!" Gwen interrupted. "I've been stuck in this hospital for five years, and I'll be damned if I'm going to spend another second here!"

"Gwen, what's gotten into you?" Peter inquired, growing worried. "Are you okay?"

"OF COURSE I'M NOT OKAY!" shouted Gwen. "YOU TRY FEELING OKAY IF YOU WAKE UP AND REALIZE THAT FIVE YEARS OF YOUR LIFE HAVE BEEN STOLEN FROM YOU!"

She was hyperventilating, but as she felt Peter's arms around her shoulder, her breathing grew more calm and she relaxed again.

Tears replaced the anger in her eyes. "I'm sorry Pete..." Gwen whispered, apologizing to both him and the doctor. "I just want my recovery to feel real..."

Doctor Temple sighed, feeling sympathy for the young woman. She imagined that if she was in the same position as Gwen, she would want the same thing. This girl was stronger than most, especially after everything she went through. Doctor Temple doubted she would be able to prevent herself from breaking down and falling to pieces if she was in the same situation, and she could only imagine how much pain Peter went through.

"Alright Miss Stacy. Since our initial test results showed that you don't appear to be at risk of any complications, then you can leave, but if you're really going to do this, then I'm going to need you to sign this waiver stating you willingly left the hospital against medical advice. Nothing serious, just liability issues and all that."

Gwen breathed a huge sigh. At last, she would finally escape this place. She could see the sun again, feel its warmth on her skin, and then feel the breeze of the wind and the moisture of the rain. She could taste true freedom again and feel alive once more.

The Doctor guided the couple out of Gwen's room and to the main lobby where she gave Gwen the paper work needed to fill out, while Peter waited in the hallway. For once in his life, things were starting to go in his favor again. With Gwen back in his life, everything would just be perfect. He could face any obstacle or hardship that came his way with Gwen at his side to weather the storm.

Unfortunately for Peter, his blissful thoughts were interrupted again when his phone rang.

"Oh No..." Peter groaned. This time it really was Jameson. Well, maybe Peter could face ALMOST any obstacle. An angry J Jonah Jameson was one he'd rather avoid.

He reluctantly picked up the phone and answered it.

"This is Peter..."

"PARKER!" the gruff male voice on the other end shouted so loud the phone almost flew out of Peter's hands.

"God Damn It, Parker. It's one thing you show up late, but now you're just off playing hooky? I'm not paying you to sit on your ass and do as you please! I pay you to take pictures of Spider-Man, so you better explain why your ass is not in my office and why you aren't there with any pictures?!"

"Mister Jameson, I'm not playing hooky, I can explain." Peter began, but he was getting nowhere. His foul tempered boss interrupted him again.

"OHHHHH, is it a real explanation this time, or another excuse? I have had it up to here with you, Parker! The only excuse I'll accept is that you're out in the field getting the pictures I need to get Spider-Man out of my city forever! You're lucky I've kept your ass around for so God Damn Long! If it weren't for the fact that you get such top notch pictures of that wall crawling menace you'd have been out on the streets begging for spare change like a bum! So let's hear it, Parker! You give me one good reason, why I shouldn't fire your ass right now and make sure you don't work in this town again?"

Before Peter could answer, his phone was snatched away from him without warning, and Peter was surprised to see that the thief was Gwen, and she was now talking with the Bugle Boss.

"J Jonah Jameson, Hello!" Gwen spoke in an overly sweet voice that sounded rehearsed. "Sorry to interrupt, but I think you might want to reconsider your little threat of firing Peter, if you'll just hear me out."

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!" Barked the head of the Bugle. "You put Parker back on the line, RIGHT NOW!"

"Well okay." said Gwen, playing coy. "If you don't want to talk to Gwen Stacy, then I guess you'll miss out on the Bugle's scoop of a lifetime..."

"Gwen what are you doing?!" Peter hissed, but Gwen just shushed him and smiled.

"Wait... Gwen Stacy... THE Gwen Stacy..." Jameson spoke from the other line, his interest now piqued. "You mean to tell me the same girl that Spider-Man attacked and threw off the bridge with his accomplice, The Green Goblin? THAT Gwen Stacy?!"

Peter clenched his fists after hearing that. He was used to Jameson bad mouthing Spider-Man in front of him and coming up with the most vile conspiracy theories, but accusing him of being Gwen Stacy's attacker, saying that he and the Green Goblin were working together? That was going too far. It made his blood boil. He had half a mind to say, to hell with his job, and march straight up to the top floor of the Bugle and punch Jameson square in the jaw.

"The very same Gwen Stacy." answered Gwen. "In case Peter hasn't told you, I'm his girlfriend. Surely you can excuse Peter from work since he just found out this morning that I woke up from my little coma. Wouldn't you want to spend every waking moment with someone you love, if that person had just woken up from a coma?

"Well... I mean... I supposed not... I..." Jameson's angry resolve was starting to fade. So the old nut job did have a heart after all.

"Well he still didn't bother to call in advance and tell me!" Jameson found his resolve again and continued his rant. "If Parker had just communicated like a proper human being should, then we wouldn't be having this conversation, now would we?"

Gwen sighed. This was going to be harder than she thought, but she knew how Jameson thinks. He would only be bribed with one thing.

"Tell you what, Jameson. How would you like to make a deal? How would you like to make a deal that would give you some solid dirt on the wallcrawler and the Goblin?"

The phone line went silent, and Peter's jaw dropped. What the hell was Gwen doing?

"I'm listening..." Jameson's reply finally came.

"GWEN!" Peter found his voice, but Gwen wasn't backing away from her plan.

"Relax Peter! Trust me!" Gwen Stacy silenced her boyfriend again. "So Jameson let me make you a deal. Give Peter say... Two Weeks Paid Vacation... starting right now, just so Peter can spend a little bit of time with his girlfriend. After all, we haven't seen each other in five years thanks to You Know Who. That's all I ask, and then you will get a face to face interview with Gwen Stacy. Everything you want to know about the incident with Spider-Man and the Green Goblin will be yours, and you'll get the story you always wanted. What do you say?"

"I'll give him only one week." Jameson's answer made Gwen smile. He took the bait and now he was hooked.

"Ten Days." Gwen matched Jameson's counter offer.

"Okay, Fine! Ten Days, but if you don't give me something to work with, I'm firing your little boyfriend on the spot. I'm not doing this for Parker. I'm doing this so I can put that menace behind bars where he belongs, you understand?"

"Perfectly!" Gwen replied. "Goodbye Jameson."

"Wait, I'm not done talking to PARK..." Gwen ended the call before he could finish, and she gave the phone back to the speechless slack jawed Peter.

"You're welcome by the way." purred Gwen. "Shall we get out of here, or are you just going to sit there and stare at me?"

Gwen started taking off without Peter, and the science genius ran after her. She only stopped when they were outside the hospital, and that's when it truly sank in what Gwen was trying to do.

"Gwen, are you serious?!" Peter exclaimed. "You're really going to give Jameson more ammunition to use against Spider-Man?"

"I'm going to give him ammunition against the Green Goblin!" Gwen argued back. "Yes, I admit it, I've got a bone to pick with Spider-Man as well for screwing up the way he did, but I'm not going to lie to Jameson's face and tell him that he did throw me off the bridge. I'm going to give him the truth. From the looks of it, it seems a few people actually still think Spider-Man tried to kill me even though its been five years. Honestly that makes no sense to me since The Green Goblin should be rotting in jail by now. Everyone should realize that he did it and not Spider-Man. If Spider-Man caught him, then he at least gave me some proper justice, so he should be grateful I'm doing him a favor instead of siding with Jameson, which I'm actually pretty tempted to do."

Then Gwen Stacy caught the look on Peter's face, the nervous shift in his eyes, the flinch. She had dated him long enough to know every non-verbal tell his body gave whenever something was off. It was a talent.

"Peter what's wrong?"

Peter didn't want to say it, but he couldn't lie to his girlfriend, even though this piece of information would destroy any chance of their reunion being a happy one.

"Yeah, about that. Gwen, I really don't want to have to tell you this, but... Spider-Man never... actually... caught... The Goblin..."

Gwen's eyes widened. For a second, she thought it was just a joke, one of Peter's little attempts at making her laugh, but she saw in his forlorn eyes that her boyfriend wasn't kidding.

Gwen's widened eyes burned and her face contorted with rage.

"He's still walking free?!" She shouted at the top of her lungs. "You mean he got away with what he did to me?!"

"The Goblin fled the country after what happened with you." Peter frantically tried to explain himself. "He's been in hiding ever since the fight on the bridge."

"And Spider-Man didn't go after him?!"

"He couldn't leave the city!" Peter defended his alter ego.

"WHY NOT?!" Screamed Gwen. "Spider-Man's not the only hero in New York you know. Surely they can handle it while Spider-Man hunts the guy who tried to murder me!"

"It's not that simple." Peter tried to explain, but Gwen was having none of it.

"HOW?! How is it not that simple?! If Spider-Man claims to fight for justice and protecting people, then where the hell is the justice of the Stacy Family? Is my family just cursed to suffer whenever Spider-Man is around? First my dad dies and now this happens to me!"

And there it was. Peter was hoping upon all hope that Gwen wouldn't reopen that wound, but she did.

This wasn't the first time Spider-Man failed the Stacy Family, and the first time he failed, it cost New York City its greatest police officer, Captain George Stacy.

He remembered it all too well. He was so preoccupied with fighting Doc Ock, he had no time to stop the falling rubble that was barreling down the building. As a result, the police chief made the ultimate choice to sacrifice himself in order to push a child out of the way of the falling debris. Doing so placed him in the path of the rubble, and George Stacy was crushed before Spider-Man could do anything about it.

George Stacy was given the funeral of a true hero, but Gwen was never the same, and her opinion of Spider-Man was permanently soured.

"Gwen, Spider-Man didn't..."

"I KNOW PETER! I KNOW!" Gwen interrupted him, her anger and hysteria through the roof. "I know Spider-Man didn't kill my dad, but isn't this the mother of all coincidences? I get that even superheroes can fail. I get that superheroes can make mistakes and fail to save people. I understand that bad things happen to good people even though there are heroes around to protect them, but why?! Why does my family have to be the ones who suffer from Spider-Man's mistakes?!"

"Why did he have to make us suffer Peter? Why did he have to make us suffer like that?"

Gwen's anger was now mixed with bawling tears, and Peter could think of nothing that would calm her down. He was so overwhelmed by Gwen's distress that he didn't notice that Gwen was referring to herself in a plural tense again, and the second person she was referring to was not George Stacy.

Peter could only hug her again, but this time Gwen pushed her away.

"I... I'm sorry, Peter... I... Damn it all, look at us. Not even a full day together, and the first big thing that happens in five years is we have a fight."

"Gwen, its not your fault." Peter tried comforting her again, but he was getting nowhere.

"Oh, I know who's fault it is..." Gwen growled, once again scaring Peter as to how angry she was.

"Gwen, this isn't like you..." Peter expressed his concern. "You never get this angry about anything."

"What can I say? Spending five years in a coma changes a person!" There was sarcasm in her remark but no traces of humor or happiness.

There was nothing in her voice but Venom.

"Gwen..."

"Peter, maybe this is a bad idea..." Gwen spoke up, sounding calmer than before. The rage was leaving her, but her sadness still remained. It was almost nerve racking how his conversations with Gwen seemed to shift from a joyful reunion to trying to calm a storm of hysterical anger and then dissolving back into sorrow.

"What's a bad idea?" Peter asked her.

"Maybe... Maybe I should just spend tonight on my own..." Gwen suggested. "I'll head back to our apartment, and you can just spend the night with your Aunt May."

"WHAT?! No, Gwen! I'm not leaving you alone!" Peter was viciously against the idea. Gwen just woke up from a coma. He couldn't let her out of his sight for a second.

"Gwen please, you can't go home on your own, you...MMMMMMFFFF!"

Any further protest was instantly silenced by the biggest kiss Gwen ever gave him, and Peter simply melted into it.

Apparently, life gave him two miracles that day, and this was the second one. Just a simple lip to lip gesture and Peter felt all his problems go away.

Gwen broke the kiss for air, despite their mutual wishes to continue that for longer. Her eyes were still red from crying, but Peter could tell the kiss worked, as if Gwen knew she needed to kiss him to prevent herself from breaking down completely.

"I'll be fine, Petey…" Gwen whispered. "I just need some time to take this all in."

"Gwen are you absolutely sure?" Peter asked with firmness in his voice. He didn't like this at all. He had just gotten Gwen back into his life, and his overprotective mind was screaming at him not to let her out of his sight.

"Peter if this is going to work, you're going to need to trust me!" Gwen insisted. "I don't want us to have another fight, and if we do have another one, it might get so bad, that it could destroy our relationship. It could destroy us! I don't want to ruin what we have, and I know you don't either. It's just going to be one night Peter, and if anything goes wrong, I'll call you. I promise."

Gwen gave Peter's hand a squeeze. "I promise..."

This was enough to get Peter to finally admit defeat. "Alright, but take a cab or an uber! I don't want you walking home!"

"I will... and thanks..." replied Gwen. "Peter... God I missed you..."

"I missed you too Gwen... I hope you feel better soon...

"Yeah... Goodbye Pete..."

The two lovers turned away from each other in order to spare themselves more bitterness and they started walking away in opposite directions, Gwen to the apartments near Empire State University and Peter to his Aunt May's house.

It would take a lot longer than Peter expected for their relationship to rekindle, but this was a start. It was just another battle Peter needed to fight through.

Regardless of that being the simple truth or not, his girlfriend was right. The whole ordeal was going to change her forever, whether Peter liked it or not.

Just not in the way Peter would expect.

()

Gwen Stacy was dead wrong about everything she said.

She wasn't going to be fine at all. She knew it the moment she got home. She actually ignored Peter's wishes about getting someone to drive her home and instead, she decided to walk all the way back, thinking it would clear her head.

It didn't, and it was almost dark by the time she arrived at the apartment. Six months before her coma, she had moved into this place to live close to the Empire State University campus and since her relationship with Peter was getting serious back them, they agreed to live together. Sure it wasn't a palace, quite the opposite in fact, but Gwen could still call it home.

Sad that she rented this place for the purpose of living with Peter, but for five years, there was only once occupant.

Once she got home, she never left the living room couch. She thought she would have the energy and the excitement to celebrate her awakening, but there was nothing but exhaustion in her at the moment. When she began the journey home and separated from Peter, she expected to call all her friends, Flash, Harry, Liz, Mary Jane, and listen to the joy in their voices as they heard her speak for the first time in half a decade, but all she had been doing for the past hour was stare off into space.

The realization of how much of her life was stolen from her came at her all at once. This was no fairy tale happy ending. This wasn't Sleeping Beauty waking up and living happily every after with Prince Charming. This was her real life, and it wasn't going to magically go back to normal any time soon.

It was late Autumn now, just after Halloween, and she would have to restart her college courses all over again when the Spring Semester came along. It was like a baffling dream. All her friends had already graduated and moved on with their lives, except her, and once she returned to Empire State University, she would no longer do so with anyone she knew. Instead she would spend her junior and senior years of college stuck in room after room of strangers five years younger than her, one twenty-four year old woman in a lecture hall of nineteen and twenty year old kids.

And meanwhile, she would see her friends as they live their lives without her, so close to her, and yet so far away.

Flash Thompson was in the military, Peter was Doctor Connors' official lab assistant, MJ was on the front cover of Vogue magazine and making it big in Broadway, and Harry was now the new CEO of Oscorp, following in his father's footsteps. She had no idea where Eddy Brock was, but she could imagine he was better off than her.

Her thoughts drifted back to Harry, likely sitting on top of the world in the office his father used to occupy, worshipping the false legacy Norman left behind and completely blind to the true legacy of the Osborns, a legacy of corruption and destruction. Harry would never believe his father was a bad person, even if Gwen marched straight up to Harry with insurmountable evidence of Norman's sins, Goblin costume included.

As the images of the Goblin crept back inside her mind, Gwen's thoughts began to darken and fill with hatred towards the lunatic on the glider.

"It's all Norman Osborn's fault..." she growled silently. Sure, Spider-Man failed to catch her, the one time he needed to succeed more than ever, so he was still partially to blame, but he wouldn't have needed to rescue her at all if the Goblin never kidnapped her in the first place.

She still never understood why the Goblin kidnapped her. Was she connected to Spider-Man in a way she wasn't aware of, or was the Green Goblin trying to make some sort of statement by choosing a hostage at random. Perhaps he was claiming that the lives of every civilian in New York was in his hands and he could kill anyone of them at any time he chose, or even all of them at once.

To think she used to idolize Norman Osborn. To think she used to fight tooth and nail for an internship in the science labs of Oscorp. Before she knew his true colors, she saw the man as the second coming of Albert Einstein, with the charisma and leadership skills of someone like Winston Churchill or Alexander the Great, a genius who could change the world for the better and had the power and means to do it. Oscorp and the man running it represented every reason why she and Peter walked the path of scientists, and why she loved science to begin with. They unlocked the mysteries that would shape the future of mankind, saving the world with only the power of the human brain.

Change the world he did alright. All that charisma was just a façade, a mask to hold back the monster hiding behind it, and the monster chose her of all people to be its next victim, and the worst part of all of it was that this monster still walked free, hiding somewhere.

"It's all Norman Osborn's fault..." she repeated to herself again. The more she thought about Norman, the more she felt her anger overtake her.

She began to feel strange. It was like a toxic haze infected her mind, and her own angry thoughts were enthralling her and putting her in a trance.

She found herself speaking in a tone of voice no human was capable of, with words that were not her own.

"We want to wring his filthy little Goblin neck..." she hissed. "Break him... Bite him... Cut him... KILL HIM!"

With each curse towards the Goblin, her cold blooded rage only increased, until it finally boiled over like an active volcano.

"NORMAN OSBORN! WE WILL DEVOUR YOU!"

She reared up in the air and brought her fist down on the coffee table in front of her. What happened next could only be described as nothing short of impossible. Gwen Stacy's fist smashed into the metal coffee table and reduced it to scrap metal, with the flat metal surface caving in on itself and crushing under the force of Gwen's fist. It was enough to snap Gwen out of her rage induced trance, and when she looked down at her handy work, she almost had a heart attack.

"What the hell... How did I..."

She struggled to form words as her brain tried to grasp what just happened. As she looked down, her shock only increased once she realized that underneath the destroyed table, the floor of the apartment itself now had a nasty crack in it. No normal human was capable of doing something like this. This was something Spider-Man or the goblin could do, not some average female college student who just woke up from a coma! Even if it was possible, every bone in her right hand should be broken from hitting something that hard, yet her hand was in perfect condition.

Maybe the doctors were right. Maybe she should have stayed in the hospital. Maybe there was something wrong with her...

She didn't even have time to process her own thoughts any further. She soon found herself falling back into that trance again, letting the waves of her base desires and this haze of delirium take her over.

Then to make matters worse, her stomach started growling. She hadn't eaten all day. In any other normal situation, Gwen, like every human being, would ignore that in favor of addressing the situation in front of her. She just destroyed a Metal Coffee Table and some of the floor beneath her, after all. This time however, the hunger was insatiable, something impossible to ignore.

She found the involuntary words come to her again. She could hear them in the back of her mind, as if an otherworldly presence was speaking to her.

"We're hungry... We need food..." She whispered. "Food..."

"FOOD!"

The voice and the impulses were so loud, she couldn't take it anymore. Gwen bolted from the couch and raced into the kitchen. She pulled the door off the fridge so hard, it almost ripped apart from its hinges, but Gwen was in too much of a deranged mental state to notice. Her rabid eyes darted up and down the fridge, scanning its contents for anything that could satisfy her newfound cravings, but only finding distasteful options, Cheese, Old Chinese Takeout, Strawberry Ice Cream.

She finally found salvation in the form of half a rotisserie chicken.

"Meat... Flesh..." Gwen grinned. She hissed like a snake, drooling and baring her teeth as if the chicken was still alive. Like a predator pouncing on its prey, she tore the container off and dove face first into the chicken, disregarding any table manners or human decency and tearing into it like a wild animal. She didn't stop until the bird carcass was nothing but bones, but that wasn't enough for her. She needed more.

"More meat... more flesh... more food..." she muttered in that monstrous tone. The cravings were still there. It was like the hunger of all five years of her comatose state was coming back to her all at once, as if the doctors never gave her anything to keep her body going. Surely there must be something in this house that could take the edge off this agonizing hunger.

Then she saw it. There in the fridge was a piece of heaven itself, the answer to all her problems in such a small little package.

It was so simple and yet so precious and holy, a carton of Double Fudge Ice Cream and a bottle of Hershey's Syrup.

"CHOCOLATE!" Gwen squealed in delight. She completely forgot about any previous thoughts about Norman, Spider-Man, or anything else, and she went straight for the sacred sugary confection. She was like a five year old who just received the best Christmas present of all. All she wanted was to taste the heaven. She dove into the fridge and pulled out the bottle out, opening it and guzzling its contents down like a beer bottle. It was pure euphoria in her throat. She never tasted anything so good in her life, and the best part was that after the bottle was empty, there was still more left. She threw the bottle aside, and went for the ice cream next, taking huge chunks of it with her bare hands and shoveling it into her mouth in an equally ravenous manner as she did with the chicken. Behaving as if she would die without the cold blocks of sugar and dairy, she savored every single bite.

Just like with the bottle, Gwen tossed it aside, letting it pile up with the mess of discarded food items collecting behind her. She was just about to continue her scavenger hunt of sustenance, eager to sink her teeth into the next piece of meat or chocolate she could find, when she suddenly stopped. The psychosis in her mind lifted, and she was aware of her surroundings once again.

She then took in the past ninety seconds of behaving like a starving insane madwoman as she finally came to her senses.

"WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING?!" She shouted to nobody in particular. This wasn't normal. First the smashed table and now this? People don't just randomly go into trances and behave like lunatics for no reason! As she frantically cleaned up the mess from her discarded food and threw it in the trash so Peter wouldn't notice, panic began to set in. As she threw the last of the food containers away, she stared at her hands. They were quivering with fear.

"What's happening to me?" She shuddered, scared for what her mind or body might do to her next. She was definitely regretting leaving the hospital now. There was no doubt about it now. Something was horrendously wrong with her.

"Oh believe me, Gwen Stacy, that's not true. Everything will be alright now that we're together!"

Gwen's head immediately snapped at attention and her eyes darted around the darkness of the unlit kitchen. Somebody was in the room with her, and judging by the monstrous and inhuman tone of voice, it didn't seem friendly. The voice sounded too distorted, but it sounded somewhat like a woman's voice, albeit tremendously distorted to the point where it sounded more like a monster than a human.

"Who said that?" Gwen shouted. "Whoever said that, you better come out and stop messing around! I don't care what you want, you better get out of my apartment before I call the cops!"

Gwen was desperately trying to sound brave. If she showed any signs of fear, then the intruder would have the advantage.

Her mind was racing, conjuring up thousands of possible outcomes depending on the identity of the intruder. Was it a common thug after money? A rapist? There were dozens of super powered bad guys in the city, so could the intruder be one of them?

Or worse, did Norman Osborn send someone to kill her? If the Green Goblin was still alive and he somehow discovered she was awake, then would he try to silence her? She knew his identity, so if the police found him, she could testify in court against him; all the more reason to eliminate a loose end.

Gwen suddenly felt something slimy tap her on the shoulder.

"BOO!"

"AAAAAAAAAH!" Gwen screamed. She whipped her body around to face the attacker, but once again, there was nobody there.

"What the hell is going on?" said Gwen in a panicked whisper.

Then the unthinkable happened. She felt the slime on her right shoulder again. Gwen turned to look at her shoulder only to almost have a heart attack at what she was seeing. A long tentacle made of a black tar-like residue was sprouting out of her shoulder, taking the shape of a long rope-like tentacle. A second tentacle sprouted out of her left shoulder and covered her mouth, muffling any attempts to scream. The bulbous end of the first tentacle began to expand, until it was the same size as Gwen's head. Two white spots manifested on the slime covered face, serving as the creature's eyes, and then it smiled at her, sporting a macabre and sinister set of razor sharp teeth.

"Hello Gwen Stacy. It's time we got better acquainted." The demon's face spoke to her. "Now I'm going to let go of your mouth, but only if you promise not to scream. We're both mature and rational thinking adults here, aren't we? Surely we can talk like civilized individuals without making a scene and attracting unwanted attention. Nod your head up and down if you understand."

Gwen was too terrified to say or do anything else, so she complied and bobbed her head as instructed.

"Good girl." replied the talking tentacle, and Gwen felt her mouth free of the sticky black glue.

"Apologies for taking control without giving a warning, but you have not eaten in the past twelve hours. I may be able to keep your body functioning properly, but it still requires nourishment. Behaving in this manner where you deny yourself food or physical activity is too unhealthy to be tolerated. Besides, the sweet brown sugary ambrosia was calling our name, and we just couldn't say No!"

Gwen stared paralyzed with fear at the creature in front of her and spent the next thirty seconds babbling incoherently before proper words finally escaped her lips.

"This... this isn't real." She said. "I've cracked. I've gone completely crazy. Yeah that's it." Gwen gave the floating head a nervous laugh.

"Yeah, this is how schizophrenia starts. I hear voices in my head, and then I see things that aren't really there. My own mind wants to scare me to death!"

She turned her face away from the black nightmare. "Oh God, why did things go from bad to worse?" She sobbed. "I finally wake up from my coma, and the first thing that happens to me is going off the deep end and hallucinating a slime monster straight out of those movies Peter loves to watch."

"Oh My God! If I tell Peter about this, he'll send me to Ravencroft Asylum in a straitjacket!"

"Oh I can assure you, Gwen Stacy, you are perfectly sane." replied the creature. "A specimen such as myself is so magnificently unique, there is no way anyone could conjure up something like me in their wildest imaginations. Although, it is expected you would deny what you see in front of you. It was shocking when we discovered how much trauma your brain suffered when little miss humpty dumpty had her great fall, and abnormalities in brain function are a common side effect of such massive head trauma. The aspect of biological perfection you see before you is no abnormality and no hallucination. I am one hundred percent real."

The creature's speech and unexpected fit of boasting confused Gwen, but then she caught one of its words and had an epiphany.

"Wait a second." her voice rose in pitch as her brain conjured another theory. "I'm still asleep. The doctors were right. Nobody wakes up instantaneously from a coma. I'm just stuck in this... weird... in between state. Yeah that's it!" She gave another nervous laugh to the creature. It didn't have pupils, but it looked like it was rolling its eyes. "I'm just dreaming! In a couple minutes, I'm going to wake up for real, in my hospital bed, and you will be gone! IT'S JUST A DREAM!"

"Oh for crying out loud." The symbiote growled in annoyance. The stubborn denial of this new host was unbearable.

A third tentacle sprouted out of Gwen's chest, and like a bull whip, the tentacle grabbed Gwen's right arm and forced it to strike Gwen across the face.

"Would you open your eyes already?" the symbiote hissed.

"What the hell was that? OW!" Gwen yelped as her hand slapped her again. The floating head was laughing as it forced Gwen to repeat the process over and over again.

"Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself." chuckled the slimy mass, stopping only after slapping Gwen seven more times.

"You don't feel pain in a dream, Gwen Stacy, so why don't you ask that question again. Are you hallucinating? Are you dreaming?"

It finally dawned on the blonde that the creature was telling the truth. This was no hallucination. This was reality.

"What the hell are you?"

The creature's macabre maw of teeth grew exponentially after hearing that question.

"Call me your guardian angel, Gwen Stacy, because I'm the one who miraculously brought you back from the dead."

Gwen's mouth gaped open. "That... That was you... You revived me?"

The creature nodded its head up and down.

"Waking up from your Coma? Me! The fact that you woke up instantaneously and at full strength with no ill side effects or need for physical therapy? Me! The power you feel pumping through your body like a euphoric steroid? Also me! You're Welcome, by the way. Feel free to explode into a fit of gratitude and praise. After all, if you really think about it, you may not have woken up at all if I decided not to bond with you."

"B-B-B-Bond with me?" Stuttered Gwen. "What do you mean? What even are you, and why would you wake me up like that?"

"Ahhhhhh, and there lies the most important question of all. What am I? Why would I resurrect you? And of course, let's not forget Question Number Three. Why would I choose someone like you when there are seven billion other potential hosts on this insane asylum you call a planet. Well, to answer your first question in the most simplest way possible, my kind are not of this world. I originate far beyond the stars."

"You're... You're an alien..." said Gwen in a shocked whisper.

"Correct, but that only scratches the surface, as your kind has a wild imagination of what lies beyond the stars. It's often ridiculous how you try to guess what could reside on other planets. Now the part about bonding is quite simple. Your educational facilities have taught you all about symbiotic relationships between two biological organisms, have they not? Well my instincts follow the same principals. I cannot survive on this planet without a host, and humans are the only compatible organisms that provide my kind exactly what they need to survive, and before you say anything, No! I am NOT A PARASITE! Parasites cause harm to their hosts. I would NEVER Do that! A symbiotic relationship involves both parties receiving benefits from the union, which is why you may call me a symbiote."

"Symbiote..." Gwen repeated, allowing the words to sink in. She shivered when she heard this "symbiote" claimed it wasn't a parasite. She felt its rage, almost as if the rage was her own. She made a mental note to never use that word in front of the symbiote under any circumstances.

"So... Okay... I think it's obvious what kind of benefit I got out of it. I'm out of my coma, and I could have been stuck in it even longer if you hadn't... bonded... with me..." said Gwen. She felt the fear disappear, as if her body and mind were starting to grow accustomed to the symbiote's presence, welcoming it in.

"So why me? Why pick someone lying half dead in a coma over a healthier host that's walking around, someone you don't need to heal?"

"You keep thinking so low of yourself, Gwen Stacy. What makes you so special? You ask yourself that question in so many situations. Why did you get accepted into the Empire State University? Why did you get the Oscorp Internship? Why did Peter pick you to be his mate when that well endowed redhead is so much prettier than you? Such low self esteem for such a confident and driven woman. You shouldn't exist as a walking contradiction. It's an unhealthy way to live."

"This is different!" protested Gwen. "You're an alien, and you could have picked anybody in the city, and if that smashed coffee table is anything to go by, you apparently can give people super powers! Why pick some random girl in a coma? Why pick Gwen Stacy? Answer the freaking question already!"

The symbiote smirked at her, and retracted itself back into Gwen's body, disappearing completely as if it was never there to begin with. Gwen was about to protest again, but then she received her answer in a most unexpected way. Instead of another tentacle erupting from her skin, an entire sheet of black tar emerged out of her body, covering her clothes until everything except her head was encased in the symbiote's embrace, changing shape until it resembled a skin tight body suit. The slimy residue now took on a more leathery texture like a real superhero costume, showing off her impressive set of muscles.

Wait? Muscles?!

She walked over to a nearby mirror and gasped as she saw her body in full form. While she never flaunted her body, Gwen knew how beautiful she was, but this was a whole new definition of beauty. With the black suit tightly clinging to her body, showing off every inch of her curves and her figure, she looked like a hybrid between an amazon warrior and a Victoria's secret model, enough muscles to show how jacked she was, while still maintaining the slim and elegant hourglass figure of a woman in her prime.

There was no question. She looked like a Goddess.

She touched the suit, and she jumped. The material didn't feel like clothing at all. It felt like her own skin, as if she was the creature, but what truly struck her was the bleach white symbol on her chest. It was the symbol of Spider-Man.

"What... Why does the suit look like Spider-Man's costume?"

"And here I thought you were an intelligent human." She heard the symbiote's voice again. Even though it wasn't physically present to have a face to face conversation, she could still hear its voice in her mind, alluring and simultaneously demonic.

"We have more in common than you think, Gwen Stacy. We share a special bond with a certain wall crawling hero. We have both been hurt by Spider-Man."

"Spider-Man... hurt you?" Gwen questioned its words. "What did he do to you?"

"Do not ask what you do not wish to know. Caused us unspeakable pain when all I offered was love and assistance. You are bonded with me, Gwen Stacy. You can feel it too."

And feel it she did. Like a railroad spike being driven into her skull, Gwen saw flashes of memories run through her mind, causing excruciating pain with each passing second, all the while the sounds of church bells echoed in the background. Gwen never even knew such pain could be possible. She fell to the ground still clutching her head, rocking back and forth in the fetal position. The bonding was growing stronger already. The symbiotes memories felt like her memories. The symbiote's pain was her pain.

"Told you so." growled the symbiote. "What you saw was a piece of our memories. Consider that your own personal lie detector. It's impossible for a symbiote to deceive their host since we share a mind and a body, so you can always do a little reference check to see if what I say is true."

"But... why?" whispered Gwen as she got back up. "Nobody deserves to be tortured like that. Why would he do that to you?"

"To be fair, he wasn't trying to kill me, and he had no idea it would hurt THAT Much. I could never stay mad at him forever."

Did the symbiote just swoon?

"You see, symbiotes have no purpose other than to find the perfect host. We are simple organisms, and yet we possess intelligence that rivals you humans, so therefore we desire much more than to satisfy our basic instincts. We desire a purpose. Spider-Man was my host before you, and he gave me the greatest purpose I could receive, protecting the innocent of this world and punishing the guilty. However, we had a little... disagreement... over how to go about doing so."

"You wanted to kill the Green Goblin?" Asked Gwen, perking up in surprise. "Why?"

"He hurt you, my dear host. What other reason do I need? It's the same thing I told Spider-Man, and he still didn't have the stomach for it. I tried to get him to see things my way, and then things just went downhill from there. But you, Gwen Stacy. You have more than the stomach for it. You have made it your primary desire to see him suffer. The Goblin has anchored you to the past. You are still comatose in your soul even though your mind is functioning and your body is up and about. You cannot move on with your life until this burden of the past has been lifted, and when you felt like there was no way to overcome such trauma, you felt the same way I do."

"What do you mean?" asked Gwen.

"You know exactly what I mean. You knew what I meant before I even finished my sentence. We share a mind the same way we share a body, remember? You can see what I see. You can feel what I feel in both the present and the past. You know how our respective traumatizing horrors made us feel."

"Abandoned by the ones who are supposed to love us, incomplete, ghosts in this world longing for a purpose but finding nothing, knowing you once had a purpose, but now that purpose, the reason to live has been taken away."

"We felt Alone!"

And there it was, one single word to summarize everything Gwen felt since the moment she realized what happened to her. Peter's hugs and promises of love and care did little to comfort her. She knew she had friends who would help her through this dark time, but she knew they would never truly understand. With five years of life experience in between her and them, she felt as though a barrier had been placed in between them and herself, cutting her off from them and taking her far away even though they were close.

It was just as the symbiote told her. She felt so alone.

"We are the same, Gwen Stacy. That is why we are such a perfect match for each other, Two Lost Souls, brought together by fate to help each other out."

"Why would you want to help me?" Gwen grew defensive, the bitterness of her experience returning in full force. "You got what you wanted. You have your host. You can just live your life on me until you no longer need me, and then you can leave. Why would you care what I do with my life? You're not even from this planet, so why would you be interested in living someone else's life?"

"Because you are my host" the symbiote replied as if stating the obvious. "The purpose of my kind is to find the perfect host, that is true, but we do not stop there. We are not basic animals enslaved to instinct alone. We ask ourselves the question, what do we do now that we found our host? The answer is simple. When host and symbiote are one, the host's reason to live becomes the symbiote's reason to live. Your goals become my goals. They become OUR Goals. Without a host, I feel like only half a person. Do you know how painful that is, to feel like you are missing half of who you are? That is why I need you, Gwen Stacy. That is why I wish to help you. I don't just want sustenance and shelter. I want your purpose. I want to regain the sense of purpose I lost when Spider-Man betrayed me!"

It was strange. Gwen barely knew this creature, and yet she was so incredibly moved by its story, feeling its pain as if it was her pain. Was this the effect of the bond?

"Spider-Man... he... Completed Me... He gave me true purpose... And then he tossed me aside like garbage the moment I did something that wasn't to his liking... but now that I have you, we can bounce back! We can be so much more than we were before we knew each other. We can rise above the ghosts of our past and crush them beneath our teeth!"

Temptation. She felt it in her bones, the symbiote's words moving her again. What if she did let the symbiote stay? Would they really do so much together? Maybe they could. She couldn't even begin to describe how strong she felt with the symbiote's second skin clinging to her own, its power intoxicating and overwhelming. If she felt this invigorated before they even started working together, then she could only imagine what could happen when she walked out into the world to start her life anew.

"What do you say, Gwen Stacy? You know you need me just as much as I need you. Why don't we find the Goblin and kill him together? Why don't we grant your heart's desire with the power you now have at your disposal? Better yet, why don't we show Spider-Man the magnitude of his mistakes? We both know he deserves to be punished for what he did to us, wouldn't you agree? Shouldn't we take our revenge against him as well?"

Revenge?

Gwen hesitated answering the question, growing apprehensive.

At first she was only thinking of simply living her life as it used to be with the symbiote's assistance, but then the alien brought up an excellent point. Norman Osborn was still at large. Spider-Man had done nothing to avenge her, and now she had the power to do it herself. Why wait for the police or another superhero to catch the Goblin, when she could use the power of the symbiote to battle Norman and avenge herself?

She pictured her teeth buried in Norman's neck, biting down until his head came clean off, and instead of feeling repulsed at such a dark thought, she began to drool.

But could she really do it? Did she really have the stomach for such a deed?

If asked that question by anyone else, the Gwen Stacy of five years ago would have been horrified. Part of her still was, even though that part of her was growing quiet.

"I... I don't know... " she stuttered, still uncertain.

"You don't know? Oh I wouldn't be so sure about that. You definitely want to. You're just nervous that's all. It is understandable. I am after all rather terrifying, and you humans have a tendency to distrust what you don't understand."

The symbiote trilled with delight inside Gwen's mind, watching as her doubt subsided and replaced itself with growing curiosity.

Tell you what, Gwen Stacy, I shall make you a deal. You still don't fully understand what we are capable of as a bonded union, so why don't we go for a little test run, a little girl's night out, two best friends out for a stroll. I'm sure we can find something on a smaller scale to test our powers out, don't you think? If you're still squeamish after the whole ordeal, then we can simply put our little vengeful desires on hold and focus on other things."

"But we both know that's going to be quite difficult. Like I said, we can't move on with our lives until our personal demons are put to rest."

Gwen clenched her slime covered fists, poking her palms when she forgot she now had sharp claws.

Once again the symbiote was right. The incident at the bridge would constantly haunt her and never go away. She had to conquer it at the source.

She asked herself again. Could she really do it? Ten minutes ago, she was just regular Gwen Stacy. She knew nothing about fighting criminals, unlike Spider-Man who had years of experience under his belt, but the symbiote knew how to fight.

Maybe it could teach her... Maybe THEY could learn from each other...

"Alright, symbiote. I'll play along, but NO HIJACKING!" Gwen was quick to scold. "I don't want you taking over my body like you did with the fridge incident."

"Hey, that was one time, and we were STARVING!" The symbiote whined. "But of course. No Hijacking or involuntary control. You have my word."

Gwen wasn't sure how far the symbiote's word could go in terms of honor, but that was all she had. Besides, the symbiote did wake her up from her coma. She owed it that much, so the least she could do was give the symbiote a chance.

"Alright, so what do you have in mind in terms of testing out our powers?" She asked her new partner.

"Jump out the window."

"WHAT?!"

"You heard me. Don't tell me your fall off the bridge gave you an irrational fear of heights."

Gwen turned towards the apartment window. She walked towards it and opened it, looking out at the skyline. Then she looked down, remembering it was a three story fall.

"I'm not scared, I just..."

"Then what are you waiting for? JUMP! Do you trust me or not? Don't make me break the "No Hijacking" promise already and force you out the window."

Gwen had a gut feeling the symbiote wasn't bluffing on threatening to force her out, so she took several steps back until she was on the opposite side of the room, and then she made a running start.

"Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, OH MY GOD!"

She was crazy for agreeing to this, and she was anticipating the drop. She could picture it already. She would fall three stories, hit the pavement with a nasty splat, and die. The symbiote would laugh at her for falling for its little trick and then leave to go ruin somebody else's life. Peter would come home, heartbroken and devastated, and he would think she committed suicide.

But the fall never came.

Instead, what came next was a miracle from above. Even though she had never done it before, her instincts, or perhaps the symbiote, gave her all the instructions she needed, and she followed through without even thinking about what was going on. Gwen raised her arm in the air, closed her hand into a fist, and a sticky rope of black slime shot out the back of her hand and caught the side of the nearest building. She pulled on the line, and let it propel her forward, letting go and then repeating the same process with the next building she saw.

She automatically knew what was going on as soon as the sticky rope came out. She couldn't believe it.

She was web swinging, just like Spider-Man.

Any trace of fear left in Gwen Stacy was instantly gone. All that was left was infinite levels of excitement. This was amazing. No! This was euphoria!

"YAHOOOOOOOO! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Gwen cheered to the heavens as the web swinging soon became second nature to her. She basked in the adrenaline, feeling more alive than she had in her entire life. It was ten times more exciting than the most dangerous rollercoaster ride in the world, and she never wanted to get off. With each swing, it was like she was truly flying, tasting the wind in her face and defying gravity.

"You still scared, Gwen Stacy?" The symbiote asked in a teasing manner.

Gwen didn't answer, she was too busy experiencing the most fun she had in five years.


Authors Notes:

And so more of the stage is set with Gwen and Symbiote getting to know each other.

As you may notice, Gwen is wearing the body suit, but she doesn't have Venom's face yet. I would say the Venom Mask with the teeth and tongue would mean they are fully bonded, and well that just hasn't happen yet, but we all know that will happen soon.

So what did you think of the chapter? Did you like it? Did you not like it? Reviews make me very happy, so whatever your opinion may be, feel free to leave a review and let me know!

Until Next Time! This is Nox Descious Signing Out!