I'm officially back! (At least for now). Tried to make the writing quality a lot better since I really didn't like how I wrote in previous chapters (as I've made annoyingly clear at this point). It isn't perfect, far from it, and there are probably plenty of rough areas. However, I'm actually decently happy with how I felt like the quality has improved

Changed some stuff from the "preview" because it fits better

A silent figure watched from far away as Miles was swinging away from the warehouse. They studied carefully the scene that just played out. A boy, not even of adult age, was capable of overcoming the powers of a being once thought to be unbeatable. It was an unexpected scene, however it could be the one they needed to see.

"What is your verdict?" Another figure said next to them, a voice filled with rasp. "Shall we... assist the boy?"

"We are left with no choice now." The figure replied, their voice rumbling deeply. "We are nearing the point of defeat, and he is the only one to have shown promise."

"And what if he is the answer?"

"Then we reward him with the truth."

"And if not?"

"..." They were slow to respond. "He meets a fate worse than what the girl is going through."

"...He won't appreciate it if he finds out." The second figure was beginning to grow wary. They were walking on a tight rope. Either way, they were facing great danger. It was a choice of the lesser evil and a wrong decision could result in dire consequences.

"By the time he finds out, all will be sorted out, and it won't matter, or we will all be dead." The figure turned to the one beside him. "Either way, we must carry through. Whether he likes it or not. This means more than just a boy's feelings."

The second figure nodded. "Then we shall begin."

Miles found Cindy laying on the streets near the warehouse. She appeared to be unharmed but clearly was out cold. Miles quickly shook her back into consciousness.

"What happened?" She murmured. "I was just looking around, and all of a sudden, something punched me. It was some sort of weird dark man. He... kind of looked like Peter, actually." Though her face was covered by her mask, Miles could see through the amount of confusion that she was experiencing.

Miles hesitated. "It was Peter. Or... at least his body." Cindy was silent for a while. Though barely even for a few seconds, it felt like hours had passed by as the two silently contemplated their situation. No explanations were needed. They both knew enough now to understand what was happening to them, their friends, and potentially what could happen to the entire city soon. It seemed as though the whole world paused for the two. Not a single sound was made around them. The streets were void of any cars or pedestrians. Not even the crickets could be heard within the grass. Though the street lights displayed their bright, fluorescent lights on each of their small circles on the streets, not even the hum of electricity could be heard either. It seemed as though the darkness trapped their artificial light into each other tiny bubbles, refusing to let it pass through. The only source of light touching Miles and Cindy came from the moon itself.

"They got him too, huh?" Cindy asked, finally breaking the overbearing silence.

"And Gwen." Miles said quietly. His voice cracked, exposing how he was already so close to mentally breaking. Not because of how Gwen was changed, but because she was now gone. Despite everything he did to try and move on, there had always been a part of him, deep within, that still held on to the foolish hope that maybe she could still be around. Even if it was in the deepest of corners in the void of the Spider-verse, perhaps there may have been some way that he could eventually find her again. But now, Miles finally understood that her real, beautiful self is now taken over by a disgusting monster, leaving no traces of Gwen Stacy left to be seen. This realization made Miles go through all the stages of grief once more. It felt as though a part of him that was clinging on to dear life, scavenging for something, someone, to finally strengthen it, had finally died. A rage began to fuel his thoughts for a moment as he thought about how the monster was violating Gwen's body as it took over, but he quickly dismissed such thoughts. Right now, he and Cindy should only worry about getting home safely for the night.

Cindy, though his eyes were covered, could read every emotion and thought that Miles was going through. If she had already felt such immense pain after losing Miguel, she could only imagine how much Miles, someone who was so much younger but also was with Gwen for much longer than she had been with Miguel, was going through. She offered a silent nod to recognize his loss, but she also knew that this was no place to grieve for so long. "Well, let's go home, kid. I think we both need to be alone for a bit." Miles nodded and rose up with her.

The pair silently swung away; Cindy to her small yet quaint hotel and Miles back to his humble yet comfortable apartment. Neither spoke a word to each other. The silence was nearing to be unbearable for Miles now, and the sense of awkwardness was now settling in, though he wasn't in a mood to change it. All he wanted was to secluded himself in his room all night. Maybe he would sleep, maybe he would draw, maybe he would stare aimlessly at his ceiling for hours on end, maybe he would scream into the night and break down with tears, a feeling he's now been accustomed to for far too many times at this point. Whatever it may be, all he wanted to do was be alone to collect all his rampant emotions and running thoughts together.

To his surprise, Miles came home to see both of his parents still awake despite it being such a late hour already. They both had steaming hot mugs of coffee in front of them and from the dim lights as well as the small mess made from multiple coffee pots, Miles guessed they both were already at least on their fifth cup. The extreme, and slightly disturbing, amount of caffeine they were consuming seemed to have little effect, however, as even through the dim lighting, he could clearly see the deep bags forming beneath their usually vibrant and cheerful eyes.

"Miles." His dad gruffly said, immediately revealing just how tired he was before downing another mug of coffee.

"Mi hijo..." His mom groaned out. It was a stark contrast to her usual cheerful, albeit loud voice. "There's a guest here who wants to see you."

Miles's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Someone wants to see me this late? Who? And why are you guys up so late? You guys look like your souls got sucked out or something."

Jeff narrowed his eyes at Miles in order to glare at his son's slight jab, or perhaps it was just his body begging him to finally go sleep. "Go talk to them. Then you're coming back here and offering your mom and I an explanation about what exactly is going on." He said sternly. It seemed as though these words took the last hit of energy left from his body. Jeff's eyes were already starting to close, and it seemed to take a great bit of will to simply snap back open.

Miles sighed in annoyance. It seemed as though his alone time would have to wait a bit longer, but still, he complied. He took the quick walk over to his room, though missing his mother's wide, concerned eyes. Eyes filled with confusion but also eyes that were complementing a face masking such feelings to instead show the face of a caring mother ready to rush to her son at a moment's notice if something were to go wrong. All the lights in the short hallways were all turned off, giving a gloomy feel to the usual bright interior given by the sunlight. Various pictures of the Morales family were hung up along the walls, the order randomized with no chronology. Yet each was able to still tell a detailed story in milliseconds to the familiar eye.

The door to his room was already cracked open when Miles got to it, and his lights were already turned on. Though faint and nearly unhearable, Miles was able to hear a faint rustling inside. Cautiously, he opened the door fully. He wondered what sort of lunatic decided to visit the Morales household at 3 in the morning. He wondered even harder just what strategy would be most effective to kick them out of his room so he could finally rest. However, no amount of imagination prepared Miles to see the beautiful girl with a dancer slim figure. The girl who sported bright blonde hair that waved as if it were trapped in an elegant dance until finally resting above her shoulders.

"Gwen! Whoa! Uh, h-hey, how are you... here?" His shock and confusion masked the excitement he was feeling. Still, inside of him, his heart might as well have burst out of his chest with how intensely it jumped. It didn't make sense. Gwen was gone from this world. Her body was taken over by some shadow monster. However, though the girl in front of him was Gwen Stacy, one quick but more careful look told Miles that she wasn't Gwanda. She didn't sport the same hairstyle that Miles "inspired" where one side was shaved, but the other still displayed her signature locks

Rather, she looked the same as the first time Miles saw her. With both sides of her hair still intact. As intensely as his heart leaped for joy for a fool's moment of hope, it came crashing back down to reality for Miles as he realized that this wasn't the same Gwen that used to always be by his side.

"Hey Miles," this new Gwen replied, sheepishly. It was clear she felt out of place and awkward being in his room for what must have been a while.

"How..."

"Am I here?" Gwen finished his repeated question for him. "You, or I guess different you, sent us all back home through the collider. Then I went through all the dimension hopping stuff and then... I ended up here. So... the Gwen you know, or knew, or whatever, I'm not her." Gwen waved her arms around the room, signaling that she was in a completely new dimension. Miles figured as much, but still, the confirmation of the fact still devastated him. As much of a far-stretched fantasy as it would've been, part of him, perhaps the part that he felt died reviving back for one final gasp of air, still had hoped it was still somehow the Gwen he knew.

But something in her story struck his interest. "Wait, wait, wait, hold on. You came from a dimension that's like mine but is at a different time? And also, you're a version of someone that I know that goes through the same things, but just... behind?" Miles lightly gasped. "Is this like time travel?"

Gwen could only afford him a laugh and shrugged. "Apparently."

Miles's eyes widened, and arms dropped in amazement. Even after all this time, the Spiderverse was still so infinitely vast and complex that nobody could ever truly grasp and understand everything that could come out of it. "That's... crazy." He shook his head and got out his dimension hopper. All he had to do was simply bring her back home, and this entire situation could be taken care of quickly. "Well, let's get you home, yeah?" Miles quickly got the universe that this new Gwen was from and opened a portal. A sliver of bright energy sneaked itself into view before immediately erupting into an opening of pure energy and power that Miles still didn't understand. The hexagonal opening was radiating, burning bright orange energy, waiting to transport Gwen back to her home. Gwen gingerly took a few steps towards the portal next to Miles. Never had she seen a contained portal. She had only experienced a wild, uncontrolled portal. Products of hasty, dangerous, and reckless experiments. Yet this was a controlled portal. One that didn't produce any background thoughts worrying that the portal may tear her body into shreds and leave the parts floating around aimlessly in void space. "Something wrong?" Miles asked, noticing her concern.

"No, it's just... I've only seen these things look dangerous. But this is sorta... pretty."

"Yeah... pretty." Miles glanced over to Gwen as he trailed off on the last word. Certain thoughts of grief were again taking over his mind before he quickly dismissed them. "Shall we?" Miles offered out his hand jokingly. Gwen could only scoff at his "charm" and lightly smack his outstretched hand out of the way.

The pair entered the raging portal together. However, the moment Gwen stepped through the barrier of it, she suddenly began glitching. Immediately, her body collapsed to the floor, screaming in pain whilst her body writhed in agony. Not one body part was recognizable in the colorful mess of atoms in such an unstable state that it caused an excruciating, ever-changing shape of what was supposed to be a person. The glitch seemed more intense to Miles than usual, and though he may have been imagining things, the colorful mess seemed to last longer as well.

After several excruciating moments, Gwen's glitch finally stopped. Miles offered his hand out to her crumbled figure lying on the floor. "You alright?" Miles asked after Gwen was able to catch her breath again.

"Yeah. They're just... getting worse." She accepted Miles's hand and rose back to her feet. Gwen had already been trapped in an alternative Miles dimension for several days at this point. Her glitching likely was getting to the point where she could die soon.

They tried again to walk through the portal, but once again, Gwen's body collapsed into a colorful block of pain and agony. Miles was beginning to feel a sense of panic within him. When the glitch finally ended, they again tried to walk through, and again, Gwen's body twitched, fizzled, and turned into a rainbow of unnatural processes.

Finally, Miles closed the portal. Perhaps two times was a coincidence, but three times was all the proof one could need to know that something else was going on. Miles sighed, confused at why this Gwen all of a sudden couldn't handle going through a portal. She seemed to be perfectly fine in handling the collider. "Maybe we can figure this all out after some sleep." He tossed her his dimension hopper. "Here. You're gonna need this. For the glitching."

Gwen, exhausted from suffering from several glitches at once, gladly accepted. There was a small smile on her face when she put it on, though Miles couldn't tell if it was a smile of relief or something else. "Thanks," she replied softly.

Miles looked around the room, all of a sudden feeling a near overwhelming sense of awkwardness in their current situation. "We should probably get some sleep before figuring this out, so I guess... uh... you could take my room???" He said sheepishly. "Not that you have to." He followed quickly. "I won't sleep with you. I mean... not that I was thinking thay we would anyways. I'll just... I'll just leave you alone, yeah?"

He quickly ran out of the room and nearly slammed the door shut on Gwen, giving her no time to respond. Gwen could only laugh silently at his awkwardness. Despite only knowing a different version of him, it was still the same awkward yet almost charming Miles. On the other side of the door, Miles let out a sigh of relief before smacking himself in the face. Why was he so awkward around her? He already knew her. A different version of her, sure, but it was still the same girl, right? Perhaps it was just the stress of everything that had already happened that night. Perhaps he truly needed some time alone to think, more than he realized he really needed. All Miles could really do was walk over to a couch and try and process his thoughts. Maybe he could even get some sleep, though that possibility seemed out of stretch considering everything going on in his head.

"So what's going on, Miles?" Jeff demanded as soon as his son came into view. Miles internally groaned. He forgot about the bad mood his parents were in. Yet, he was also in no mood to talk to them either.

"Cmon dad, not right now."

"What did you just -"

"Dejémoslo solo por ahora," Rio quickly whispered into Miles's dad's ear. She looked over at his son with loving, motherly eyes that could pierce through the shielding mask of Miles and see through the immense inner turmoil he was currently going through. Her motherly nature that seemed to come so naturally for her could immediately recognize how vulnerable her son was and what he truly needed at this current time. "He needs it right now."

Jeff again looked at his son, and his eyes eventually softened, seeing the same thing as what Rio was also able to see in his son. "Alright, fine. But once you wake up." He pointed at Miles one last time before walking back to bed with Rio. Miles could faintly hear him whisper, "Wait, is she sleeping in his room?" Miles could feel a faint heat begin to rush into his face.

Miles immediately fell into the nearest couch, where his thoughts were finally able to spill over. Thoughts of the true Gwen that he loved running back into his arms, only to fade away and be replaced by a monstrous being. A being trying to manipulate and force him into becoming the same twisted being as she had turned into. A mind-washed Peter of a similar nature who was only watching, sneering at Miles as he struggled to get away from Gwen. Shadow trying to violate his mind and take over every inch of his being. A new Gwen, one he'd never met before. One who was so different and yet, also one who contained an aura that seemed so familiar to Miles as well. One he had never met before, yet one who he knew for so long already.

At the end of it all, however, all Miles could truly think about was how he lost the one Gwen he truly loved and now it seemed as though the universe, or rather multiverse, was now mocking him and replacing her with multiple other Gwen's. Ones who didn't know him for who he truly was like she used to, and ones he could never truly know or love. Tears couldn't fall despite everything that was happening to Miles. It seemed as though he used them all out, and his body simply couldn't produce anymore. Instead, all he could really do was slowly allow his body to sleep.

"I love you, Gwanda," he whispered before his body was finally allowed to sleep after what felt like years packed into a single 24-hour period. His dreams would be filled with past memories of him and Gwen. Memories of the two being happy simply because of their ability to be with each other. Even through times of sadness and hardships, they were still happy in these memories because of each other. They were a safe haven for Miles these memories. A mental safe haven filled with events that were now of history and of fiction. Not of happiness from what they were able to do together or of hope and excitement for what he could do with her the next day, but now of history long past and of imagination and fantasy.

In Miles's room, New Gwen was looking in the direction that Miles was sleeping whilst laying in his bed. Though multiple walls obstructed her ability to see him, she still felt a sense of where he was. She stared in that direction for a while, almost longingly before her eyes too began to droop. "Love you, Miles," she whispered before also going to sleep.

A/N

I'm actually pretty surprised with how quickly I was able to get this update out. It took me about a week, maybe a little under which I wasn't expecting. If updates are to truly continue, they will likely be slow for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, my writing was so over the place before and the plot just kept… going places (for a lack of better words). My stupid self also never wrote these things down so I completely forgot what I wanted to do with the plot so I'm spending a lot of time just trying to plan out what I'm really trying to do for the rest of the way. Essentially I'm trying to hit a soft reset while still keeping the plot going which… admittedly… is very stupid and difficult but I guess I sorta deserve it for ditching

Secondly, as mentioned at the beginning, I'm trying to make the writing quality improve. A large part of why I'm not proud of earlier chapters is because I never wrote details to actually develop stuff. For example, I feel like the big confession was sorta just Miles saying "I like you" and Gwen days "I like you too" and then huggy hugs with no build up at all. Or if they kissed it would just be "They kissed" with again 0 build up so it just made it sorta awkward to read. I'm trying hard to remedy this from now on but naturally that takes a lot more time

Lastly, I'm putting in a lot of effort in trying to make the dialogue similar to how I believe the actual characters would talk in the movies. Something that kinda irks me a lot in fan fiction (this is not a diss on other writers it's just my personal opinion) is that I find it very off putting when I read something like a Gwiles fanfic and Miles talks completely differently than he does in the movie. Something like Miles meeting someone and he says "Hello good sir" when in the movie he'd probably say something like "Hey whats up man" (stupid example I know, but hopefully you get the idea). Because of this, I'm really trying to imitate the speech patterns of some of the characters (in this chapter Gwen, Miles, Rio, Jeff) so it can be more "immersive" I guess and feel like an actual fanfic I suppose. It isn't perfect, but I'm trying to get it to improve to make at least my experience better. Again, naturally this takes a lot of time