Gwen put her father's phone back where she found it. She felt sick to her stomach. At the same time, she wanted to scorch the earth at Peter's feet. She wanted to burn his world down around him. Her and her father still weren't back to normal after the Flash incident. She let out a low growl scream as she paced. She was shaking, she was so furious. She finally picked up her phone and texted him. She wanted to call him out in that text. Tell him she knew. She shook her head and deleted it and retyped a simple message.

Peter, meet me at our spot ASAP.

She was still pulling on her jacket by the time she'd reached the glass doors at the front of her walk-up. She made her way to their spot. It was an old, abandoned subway line. The pair had found a place they could use to worm their way inside. Even now, six years later it seemed no one had discovered it but them. She chewed her thumbnail as she paced. Peter showed up half an hour after she did. He smiled that devious smile of his. Oh, why hadn't she seen it sooner. He walked over to her and moved to give her a hug. She wasn't having any of that and when he was close enough, she punched him in the face. She pulled the punch so she wouldn't do any real damage. He was laid flat. He rubbed his chin looking up at her. She stood over him with her fists clinched.

"How could you Peter? I trusted you!"

Peter stared up at her with wide eyes.

"What are you talking about Gwen?"

She was screaming at him now.

"You told my dad about Flash and I you fucking narc! You betrayed me!"

Peter flinched.

"I didn't, I swear!"

"Oh, don't bother lying to me you asshole! I saw the text message on his phone."

Peter's face fell. He looked a bit scared of her at that point. He stammered out an excuse.

"I… I… was worried about you, you weren't acting like yourself. I didn't want you to get hurt. Flash is just using you."

Gwen's scream of rage echoed off the bricks of the abandoned subway station.

"I can't believe I trusted you. I lied for you. All those times you told Aunt May and Uncle Ben you were coming over to my place and you were going to see Miles. Miles who I don't trust by a long shot but I let it go because you're my best friend. Were my best friend!"

Peter winced as if she'd hit him again. Gwen grabbed him by the front of the shirt and shook him violently.

"We're done. You're dead to me! I swear to God if you even look at me in school, I'm going to out you to everyone. I'm going to tell MJ you're using her as a beard. I will fucking tell Uncle Ben and Aunt May about all of it! I will burn your fucking life down!"

She released him and screamed at him again.

"Fucking traitor! I hope you weren't depending on that internship at Stark Industries to pay for school because trust me I'm going to tell Pepper and Obadiah just what kind of person you really are! The kind that will stab you in the back!"

Peter pushed himself away from her.

"Gwen let's talk about this, just Cal-"

"Oh, don't you fucking tell me to calm down. I'm not the one who betrayed his best friend. Betrayed his sister! We're so done. Hope you like abuse because I'm done protecting your scrawny ass. Puny Parker."

With some effort he pulled himself up and approached her. He stopped when he saw her fists close. She glared at him.

"Try and touch me again, I dare you."

Peter held up his hands. Gwen pushed past him.

"Lose my number Peter."

She squeezed out of the tunnel and walked down the sidewalk. The brisk February evening air froze her cheeks. Half-formed tears leaked from the corners of her eyes. Peter was the one person she trusted implicitly. If she couldn't trust him, maybe she couldn't trust anyone. It was at that moment, in the depths of despair, that she saw the tattooed man who had threatened her. He was with a couple of other sketchy looking men. She pulled up her hood and climbed up the wall of a nearby building. He wasn't hurrying. He was going into the various shops that were near closing. She wasn't sure what he was up to, but she was sure it was no good. He and his friends tried to enter a shop but found the door locked. He said something in Russian and nodded toward the nearby alley. Gwen peeked over the wall and saw an older middle eastern man throwing garbage bags into a dumpster. He noticed the tattooed man and pressed his back against the dumpster. The tattooed man got a wicked smile on his face.

"Your door was locked Mohammed, I thought you might have forgotten what day it was."

Mohammed spoke with an accent.

"No, James, I'll go get it."

Gwen smiled despite the revelations earlier in the evening. At least something was going right. She had a first name. Mohammed went inside when he came back out, he handed an envelope to James. James opened the envelope. It was cash. He ran his thumb over it.

"Looks good. Next week, your door had better be unlocked when we get here. Wouldn't want you to get stuck in your shop if there was a fire, would we?"

Gwen was grinning now. She knew exactly where he'd be next week. She felt her phone vibrating and frowned. Content she knew where to find James in the future she decided to stop following the trio. She sat cross legged in the center of Mohammad's roof and looked at her phone. It was her Aunt May and Uncle Ben's number. She answered the phone, her voice dripping with venom.

"I told you what would happen if you tried to contact me Peter."

She heard her Aunt May gasp.

"Gwen? What is going on? Peter says you punched him. Then you answer the phone like that?"

Gwen swallowed hard. In her haste to hate on Peter she'd just basically blew up at the nicest woman in the world.

"I'm sorry Auntie May. Peter and I are having an argument. I told him not to bother trying to talk to me and I thought you were him."

She could just see her Aunt May shaking her head. She heard the quiver in her voice.

"Hitting someone is never the answer, Gwen Stacy. Now you come over here right now and apologize."

"I am sorry Auntie May, I can't do that. Not after what he did."

"What did he do that hurt you so much Gwen?"

"Ask him Auntie May. I'm sorry. I probably won't be over at your house for a while. I just… I might punch him again."

"Everyone makes mistakes Gwen. I'm sure there is a perfectly good explanation for whatever he did."

Gwen sighed.

"I'm sure there is but I don't care. If I never see his face again, I will die happy. I need to go Auntie May."

Gwen hung up the phone and grumbled to herself. She hopped down into the alley where no one would see her and walked home. She needed to go beat some criminals up. The following week seemed to take forever. With her dad working again, her friendship with Peter in the dumps, all Gwen was left with was school, work, Flash and Spider-Woman. She was really glad about the latter. It helped work her frustrations out.

A week after the revelations about Peter and the resulting emotional fallout Gwen was leaving school. She saw Uncle Ben sitting out front in his car. She knew he wasn't here for Peter, he had debate club that night. She walked up to the car. Her Uncle Ben rolled down his window.

"I thought you might like a ride, Gwen. Maybe we could get some hot chocolate?"

Gwen let a small sigh escape her lips. Of course, Uncle Ben wanted to talk to her. She nodded and got into the passenger side. He pulled away from the curb and drove towards his favorite diner. He didn't say anything. He just let Gwen simmer until they were sitting down in the diner. The waitress came over and smiled at Ben.

"What can I get you Ben?"

"A coffee please, and a piece of apple pie."

The waitress looked to Gwen.

"And you Gwen?"

Gwen smiled at her.

"Just a hot chocolate please."

The waitress nodded. She poured coffee into the cup in front of Ben. Gwen watched her uncle put two packs of sweetener in it, and then three of the little cups of cream. He stirred it and glanced at Gwen.

"Gwen, we miss you."

Gwen sighed and couldn't make eye contact with her uncle. He continued.

"Now, I don't know what happened between you and Peter. And I'm not going to ask. I'm not here to choose sides. I was just hoping I could help mediate it. Your Aunt May really misses seeing you every day."

The waitress dropped off the hot chocolate and piece of pie. Ben smiled warmly at her.

"Thank you, Wanda."

The waitress smiled back and nodded. Ben looked back at Gwen.

"How have you been, Gwen?"

Gwen stared at her hot chocolate watching the bubbles on the top of it slowly pop one by one.

"I've been okay. I miss you and Aunt May too."

Ben pressed his fork into the pie and took a bite.

"Then you should come over. I'm sure whatever Peter did… whatever happened, you can work it out. You two have been like brother and sister. Hurts me to see you like this."

Gwen took a sip of her hot chocolate before responding.

"He… betrayed my trust. It's not something I can forgive easily. It's not something I want to forgive."

Ben took another bite of his pie. He seemed lost in thought for a few moments.

"Gwen, I remember what it's like to be a teenager. Everything is so important. Every failure, every fight, it seems like the end of the world. I assure you it isn't. Whatever it was that happened, you can forgive him. Even if you never speak to him again. Being angry, keeping that with you. It will poison you. Its toxic."

Gwen shrugged and took another drink of her cocoa. Her Uncle Ben ate another piece of his pie and spoke again.

"You know, you don't forgive someone for them, you do it for yourself. So, you can move on. The bible says forgiveness is sacrifice. Do you know why that is?"

Gwen shook her head.

"Sorry, I never listened in Sunday school."

Ben smiled.

"It is because you are sacrificing your anger. I just don't want you to regret this later on. Whatever Peter did, it was because he thought it was the right thing to do. That's how he was raised. That is how you were raised. Now is punching him the right thing to do? Pushing him away?"

Gwen closed her eyes a few tears were forming on the bottom of them.

"No."

Ben reached out and put his warm hand over one of hers. He squeezed gently.

"Your Aunt May and I love you like you're our own. We always have. We just don't want to see you hurting like this."

Gwen nodded as tears dripped down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry, I'm just so angry all the time."

Ben squeezed her hand again.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Gwen looked down at her hot chocolate.

"A lot has changed for me lately. Mom died. Dad and I are still not where we were. Peter betrayed me. Everything is different. And I have… all these gifts, power and they-it aren't helping. I can't change anything. I'm frustrated."

Ben nodded he squeezed her hand before pulling his back to take a drink of his coffee.

"I believe the world doesn't throw anything at us we weren't meant to handle. Gwen you are brilliant. That means you have a gift. And with that sort of gift, the world is going to expect a lot more of you than most people. It is your responsibility to use that gift wisely. It's not for self-gain. If you expect it to be, you're going to get hurt in the end. Bad people are going to want to use you for your gift. If you're greedy, you'll play right into their hands. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Gwen nodded. He sat silently and ate the rest of his pie. Once again letting his words simmer with his grandniece. Gwen finished her hot chocolate. She held the cup in her palms looking at the brown ring left at the bottom. She looked up at her Uncle Ben.

"Uncle Ben, if you knew there was a bad person… a bad person the police couldn't touch… and you could stop them. You had the power to stop them. You wanted to stop them. In fact, you wanted to hurt them maybe even kill them. There was no other way to get justice. What would you do? What if they say, killed Aunt May?"

Ben looked down at his empty cup of coffee as he mulled over her question. He took a deep breath and looked at her.

"That is a hard question, Gwen. You know what I say about anger. About power. A hard question."

Gwen continued, probably risking him figuring out what she was up to come the morning.

"What if you knew for certain they were a bad person? That you were one hundred percent sure of their guilt?"

He sat deep in thought for several minutes. Wanda had come and gone to refill his cup of coffee.

"The thing with taking a life is, it haunts you. No matter what the reason. In war, in self-defense, in revenge."

Gwen nodded. She realized he was talking about his time in Vietnam. He continued.

"No one man, or woman, can be, should be the judge, jury and executioner of someone's life. That is why we have a justice system. You just have to do right by yourself, the law, and have faith that in the end the guilty will be punished. Gwen, I believe you get back what you put out into this world. If you have violence in your heart. Violence will be visited back on you and yours. If you were to kill this person, if you were to take justice into your own hands. You will be hurt. It might not be you, it might be someone you love… Just tell the police what you know and have faith that justice will be done."

Gwen sighed. Most of her uncle's warnings fell on deaf ears. She believed he just didn't understand the situation. The conversation drifted to how her school and work were going. Eventually he dropped her off at home. He leaned down to look at her through the passenger window as she was about to close the door.

"Gwen, whatever you're going to do tonight, don't, please."

Gwen nodded and waved to him as she closed the car's passenger door.