In the morning, Peter had rushed to the hospital with MJ and Aunt May after hearing the news of what happened to Captain Stacy, as his fate wasn't clear yet.

Once reaching the hospital everyone was hugging Gwen and her mother. Harry was unsurprisingly there too.

"Do you have any clue on what happened?" MJ whispered to him away from everyone.

"Unfortunately I might, I was helping him find some killer, The Sin Eater. It was a gunshot wound like some copycats were using. Maybe it was the real one, or fakes I have no clue. Whoever did this, they're going to pay, big time." Peter expressed.

She frowned. "I've got a bad feeling you're blaming yourself."

"I am yeah, if I was there I could've stopped this. We knew The Sin Eater was out there and was going to strike again, if I kept on my toes I could've done something."

"Or passed out from a great lack of sleep." She pointed out.

"Maybe, still I've gotta find whoever this is. No hacking way I'm letting this SIn Eater escape me. Just have to get into their head." He remarked.

MJ shook her head. "Getting into the mind of a killer doesn't sound like the best idea."

"You're right." He sighed. "I've gotta do something to fix this. I'm going to find something, there has gotta be a way."

"Hey, let's focus on our friends here for now." She said putting her hand on his shoulder.

He nodded and then went back over.

Harry approached looking nervous and whispered. "I think the universe is trying to give me a sign, I can't tell what it is!"

"What do you mean? Why would the universe do this? I'm sure it's got a lot more important things to do. You both really think it's got a vendetta against you two, don't you?" MJ pointed out.

The guys looked at each other.

"It's true, you know." Peter replied.

"Alrighty then." MJ rolled her eyes.

Harry went back to sit next to Gwen holding her close. "It's going to be alright Gwen, your dad is a fighter! He's a tough guy!"

"I just don't understand it! Why would anyone hurt him? And find our home! Not to mention get past our security systems. It's insane, I don't understand it."

Her mother held her from the otherside. "We'll talk to the security company, this won't happen again. And we're going to have officers on watch for now. It'll be okay Gwen, your father is the toughest man I've known. We both never wanted you to experience this, I never thought he'd get hurt again after his promotion."

Aunt May also put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a cup of coffee. "Here you go, I'll be getting everyone food soon. I'm so sorry this happened Mrs. Stacy."

"Thank you Ms. Parker. Thank you everyone." She said kindly.

A doctor came out finally to give an answer about Captain Stacy. Everyone stood up and wanted to hear.

"He's going to pull through, but unfortunately the injuries were extensive. It could take weeks to get back to himself. For now, he's in a coma to help him pull through this difficult time, for now after what he endured he's going to need it. Quite bluntly speaking, he's incredibly lucky to have survived. Immediate family is allowed to go in, beware of the guards. I understand he was in danger. Have a good day." The doctor left.

"You see Gwen, he's going to pull through! That dad of yours is a heck of a guy!" Harry hugged her first, then she did with her mother.

"Let's go see him." Her mother said and so, Gwen waved to Harry leaving to check up on Captain Stacy.

Peter sighed wanting to check on him too, perhaps Spider-Man could if he was alone, but for the rest of the day, that wasn't going to happen. However, he did notice officers Carter and Dewolff talking cryptically.

"What's gotten into you? Hold it together Dewolff." Carter remarked.

"My head is killing me. I feel like I'm going to be sick." She expressed back genuinely not looking that way mysteriously.

"Head downstairs then, Dewolff. We need to stick around in case this creep jerk tries finishing the job on the captain. You're a good cop, right?" He expressed back looking serious, while off himself too oddly enough.

Peter found this highly suspicious, but was interrupted by Harry.

"This is really hard, I can't believe what happened to her father and now I'm not able to break up with all this happening. And just before this happened, she was mentioning going to Landon at some point, like for a while! For university even in the future next year! It's making me feel completely bewildered, man! I don't know what to do!"

"Just relax Harry, it's going to be fine." Peter replied, kinda not processing his friend's concern and then looked over at officer Dewolff leaving to walk downstairs. "Uh, I might have to duck out again for a little while, you know how work is and maybe I could even help find whoever hurt him?" He suggested with a shrug just trying to leave now.

"Alright Pete, hope you'll be able to help pal!"

He then hugged Aunt May and MJ.

"Call me if you need any help, you know?" MJ said to him seriously.

"I will, thank you MJ."

Now he departed determined to find The Sin Eater.

It was Spider-Man's turn to get to the bottom of what was happening and the first stop on this trip would be asking Officer Dewolff about any information she had. Quite frankly right now, it seemed she'd be the only ally he had. That other captain seemed to be nicer before and more trusting, but now something clearly must've changed.

"Hello? Officer Dewolff?" He found her outside taking a breather sketching her head.

"Spider-Man? What are you doing here? Come to check on the captain?" She grabbed her head again in pain.

"Bad head pain huh?"

She nodded. "I assume you're here to learn if I know anything about our shooter. All we really know, it was one person with a shotgun and must've staked out the captain's home before, found a way to disable the security systems."

"Must've taken some time, like The Sin Eater was always planning on going after him. Why, though? It's not like he's corrupted!"

Dewolff frowned and looked away.

"What are you keeping from me? Please! I want to help!" He persisted.

"IA, internal Affairs are looking into Captain Stacy. It stands to reason, he'd have dirty laundry if he was the target." She expressed sadness.

Spidey's eyes widened greatly, perhaps to the point where it seemed they'd explode and he fumbled over his words before clearing his throat speaking clearly. "Okay. What! Excuse me! Captain Stacy is a good man! How dare they have the audacity to believe he's dirty! What, do they believe in a serial killer's word?"

"His established motive fits and it's why they're making the investigation. We have no say in that. It's awful, I agree. He's a good man." She sighed.

"This is insane! When I get my hands on them, The Sin Eater, to be clear. I'm going to be giving them a fine whooping!"

She looked around to the front of the hospital. "You should go. People in the city still need you elsewhere, right?"

"Right." He admitted and skeptically left.

This is very fishy and not just the hospital food. I'm obviously missing something, major. What am I missing? That Carter guy maybe, I wish I could talk to him. He never liked Captain Stacy, a jump perhaps, but a real one maybe so! I'm going to use my time to keep my eyes peeled on him. He realized and then started watching the front door from afar wanting to follow Carter assuming he'd have to leave at some point. And having no other leads to follow on.

After what felt like hours of waiting, the hunch paid off. Officer Carter left driving off to an unknown location.

Thank you for the absurd amount of patience! He remarked to himself following along. Where might you be heading? To creak this whole thing open, please. I really want a simple badie to punch out right now!

As par Spidey's luck, it wasn't the case and he stepped out of his car to speak to a man he already knew pretty well, who wouldn't be getting punched today. Eddie Brock.

Brock? And Officer Carter? I need a closer listen. He reasoned and did exactly that listening in unknown to them both.

"What I'm going to tell you stays between us. Got it?"

"You have my word." Eddie replied.

Carter looked around, not spotting Spider-Man. "I'm aware of the Sin Eater's identity. They're a sick person, the Sin Eater and today, I'm going to bring them in myself. You get all the fancy details and can publish it. Everything in the envelope I sent you, it's legitimate and you can run with it as soon as I bring them in. First scoop on one of the biggest killings in recent memory. An entire cult operation. You get to blow the lid wide open. How about that?"

"Why go to me about it?" Eddie asked, interested.

"You cracked open the case on Cassedy awhile back. Why not go to you? And I've heard you've been desperate for a big break since that story. Now you get it, as long as my name is kept silent. That's the only catch." Carter said with his arms crossed.

Brock shook his head. "No, no this seems unusual. How'd you discover this for example? You gotta have evidence."

"There is evidence and it'd be shared with the public upon The Sin Eater's arrest. I can promise that everything I gave you will be put in with everything else. Got it?" Carter said looking unhappy.

He sighed and looked at the ground. "Fine, I'll do it. This better not come back to bite me. This is my life. A gamble quite frankly."

"It's a granted nothing will go wrong. Relax Brock. Trust me." Carter said and got back into his car leaving.

Eddie sighed, not sure of what to think about this.

His troubles weren't over, as Spider-Man creeped down behind him. "You appear to be up to something, suspicious. How do you know Carter?"

Eddie Brock partially jumped. "Spider-Man? How long were you listening?"

"Long enough to want my question answered!" He said more threateningly.

"I've talked to Carter sometimes, not very much, but enough. He's given me tips before and now he told me to come down here after getting his envelope. Which I haven't even opened yet so I couldn't tell you even if I wanted to." Eddie confessed.

"Do you have this mysterious envelope with you?"

He shook his head and looked back. "No, I don't. And there is no way I'm giving it to you! I've got no idea what your part in this conspiracy is."

"A conspiracy now?" Spidey asked and leaped onto the side of the building shaking his head. "No, this is very simple. A monster tried to kill a friend of mine. And I want to bring this person in, not let Carter do it. For all I know, he's got a role in it! After all, he and Captain Stacy, a real good man, didn't get along. So what does that say about Carter? Can't be so good!" Spidey persisted.

"Well, he's helped me out before. I trust him! This is my only chance, you don't understand I'm close to being let go! I've got a family, do you remember that when you came into my home, accused me of being a criminal?" Brock pointed out.

Spidey scratched the back of his head. "Clearly, you haven't had a great time, but you have a right to look more into this before reporting on it!"

"You want to know one thing I do know, Carter told me too that your friend took bribes in the past. Even covered up a crime!" Brock finally immidated.

Upon hearing those words, Peter felt flabbergasted. "Captain Stacy is a good and honest man! Carter is lying! Whatever he told you or any evidence he created out of thin air, it's a nasty lie!"

"We'll see, people have to know about these findings! He's a high ranking member of the NYPD. It needs to be said if he's dirty!" Eddie exclaimed.

"Do the research yourself! Keep it under wraps until you have a real answer!" Spidey shot back unhappy to say the least.

"It would be an obstruction of justice! I can't!" Eddie replied, shaking his head.

Spider-Man got right in his face, looking extremely serious, not feeling his playful self anymore at the moment. "And what if Carter is playing you? Heck! What if he's The Sin Eater trying to get you off his trail!"

"That seems far-fetched don't you think, I mean like you said, the only evidence you have right now is he doesn't like Stacy. I'm sure a lot of people have got issues with the guy! It's part of the job! Even more so if these allegations are true!" Brock responded.

"I'm warning you! Don't do this to him!" Peter pleaded one last time.

Eddie turned his back and walked off.

After he left, Spider-Man was thinking over what he learned and leaped back up to a rooftop, now starting to swing away.

Could Carter be The Sin Eater? Am I paranoid? Maybe it is some nobody I never even met before, how could I possibly know! And all this about Captain Stacy being dirty, it's craziness! I can't and won't believe it's true! He sighed and punched the air. There has gotta be something I can do to help! He's always helped me and Gwen, all this would affect her too. Major. I care about both of them and I refuse to go down like this! Maybe Peter Parker can help for real. Mr. Foswell, he'd want to learn the truth first surely and if he teamed up with Spider-Man, maybe they'd be able to creak this open! He reasoned and headed to the Bugle to do this.

Unfortunately, before he could head there, someone dressed like The Sin Eater was harassing people on a street below, which called his attention.

"The Sin Eater is finally doing what needs to be done!" They exclaimed with a speaker trying to spread the word. "Together we can clean up this broken city and cleanse it!"

Spider-Man obviously heard enough swinging down and kicking them in the face knocking them to the ground. "Did your boss tell you to do this, huh?"

"Yeah, she did! And warned me about Spider-Man!" The guy tried reaching for a gun, which Spidey easily webbed and snapped in half.

"I'm not playing games or feeling as friendly right now. So I'm just going to leave you for the cops, wise guy." Spider-Man webbed them to a lamppost.

"She told me to not let the dream die! Even with her being captured! She knows it's inevitable! We won't lose this war!" They exclaimed.

Spider-Man stopped for a moment. "The Sin Eater seems to be ahead of me. Ahead of everyone. This was planned for a long time wasn't it?"

"Of course! And you can't stop what's coming! Even if you bring in The Sin Eater, this won't end there! It's only getting started!"

He turned back, then webbed their mouth shut and now left, fearing this uprising of people inspired by them. It'd need to be brought down, but how, assuming all that was true. Could it already be too late?

Shortly later into the day, Peter had arrived and convinced Foswell to meet up with the web slinger to chat about the matter of The Sin Eater.

"Thank you for meeting me, Foswell." Spider-Man expressed and leaped down.

"Your welcome, I've heard about this Sin Eater. I wasn't sure if it was all true, entirely these followers have cropped up. I apologize for what happened to your friend, Captain Stacy. He's a respectable person." He admitted.

Spider-Man came down from a pole on the roof. "Does everyone know I'm close to Stacy? Doesn't matter, something more important is your co-worker. Eddie Brock. He's under the impression of Stacy being dirty and got it from an unreliable source I say. I'm sincerely hoping you can help!"

Foswell thought about it for a moment. "You want me to get behind his back?"

"Please, he's not really doing his job! And this could cost Stacy his livelihood, not to mention The Sin Eater is being apparently arrested today. With some evidence being kept underwrap by one officer! Nothing here is adding up and I think that guy is getting played because he's desperate for a great story to save his job!" Peter bluntly shared.

"You're right." He sighed deeply. "People need the truth and facts. I'll help you out here, reluctantly. It needs to be done. I just don't want to get him into a bad place, you know?"

Spider-Man nodded, feeling badly for doing this to Eddie Brock, but knew it was the only way to make things right. "It'll work out, I'm sure he won't lose his job over this. I might not be a fan of his, but he seems like a decent reporter."

"And person." Foswell added.

"Yeah, that too." Spidey admitted feeling not the best. "What can we do now?"

Mr. Foswell looked around and put his hands on his hips thinking. "Well, I'll try doing all the digging I can possibly do. Honestly Spider-Man, I might have to wait for this arrest to happen and for Eddie to share what he's found before I can investigate further."

"Right, that makes sense. I appreciate you helping me and believing in me." Spidey went to leave, thinking of heading back to the hospital.

"How will I contact you?" Foswell asked before he did.

"Right, uhh, use the Parker kid! That'd work well enough!" He then swung off.

Now back at the hospital, basically nothing changed since he left, but he did notice some officers being on high alert when he entered. Gwen and her mother were still inside visiting, MJ and Harry, along with Aunt May were still sitting around just chatting.

As expected, MJ came up to Peter first, giving him a hug and whispering to him. "You have that look on your face where you aren't feeling helpful."

"It's true. I've been trying to figure out who The Sin Eater is and so far I've discovered nothing at all. Besides a theory that I have no evidence for." He confessed disappointment and shook his head. "It's like I'm playing catch up! And I'm not a fan at all of playing catch up!"

"Hey, you always get the baddie. This is no different." She said, trying to encourage him.

"This time, it might be different. They've got an entire army! A movement even, all planned out going into action now. Unless it's just scare tactics trying to distract. I can't even tell anymore, this whole mess is making my head spin. I've got no clue what could happen next. I feel powerless." He admitted.

MJ pulled him closer to Aunt May who noticed he was feeling down.

"Oh Peter? What's the matter?"

He smiled briefly at MJ, seeing what she was doing and then frowned again. "Just worried about Gwen's father, I wish I could help."

"Don't you worry yourself about that, you are helping by waiting here and being so concerned for him and Gwen. That's enough sometimes. You always want to save the world don't you?" She remarked with a bright smile.

"Uh, yeah. I do, I guess." He replied.

Harry then piped up. "Holy moly! Watching the news actually has paid off! Come over here everyone! It's about that creep who hurt Mr. Stacy!"

They all listened and immediately came over.

It was true, on the tv the news were watching a press conference where officer Carter as he claimed had apprehended The Sin Eater having them in cuffs and their mask off, revealing the unexpected identity that Peter couldn't understand. The culprit was, seemingly, officer Dewolff. At least she was wearing the costume.

How can this be? Maybe she was acting weird early. And she knew The Scroption before, perhaps they both weren't great officers? Or could this be wrong? What's going on! He kept on listening and watching, as Carter came to speak.

"On behalf of Captain Watanabe and the entire NYPD, I come up here to say we've caught The Sin Eater. She willingly turned herself in and tragically, she's one of our own. Clearly suffering from mental issues we neglected. In these delusions, she attacked police Captain George Stacy. Along with killing others and organizing other followers. It's tragic seeing this happen to one of our own and she'll be getting a severe amount of help during her lifelong stay at Ravencroft. The threat of The Sin Eater is now over, apart from their followers. We will be arresting them all in due time, rest assured. In worse news, it's time to share another shame we've discovered during this investigation. It appears Captain Stacy may be getting criminal charges we can't share at this time, along with other targets The Sin Eater had. Thank you and stay safe everyone. Good day." Carter walked away with many reporters asking questions, while ignoring them.

Peter looked at MJ completely surprised, she was aware of who officer Dewolff was as he mentioned her a couple times before now. So they stepped aside again, as they did Harry and Aunt May turned to each other with their mouths dropped, shocked by that news about Stacy.

"What a lying jerk! No hacking way Gwen's dad is dirty!" Harry exclaimed, waving his hands around frustrated.

May frowned. "Why would that young man make up that lie!"

As they expressed their frustration. "I can't believe this, I just talked to that lady only hours ago now. Could it be the truth? Her, really? And that Carter guy lying about Stacy!" He expressed surprise and confusion.

"It's obvious he's lying. And you didn't know her that well did you? This is, what even is this? It's clearly some tricks, why?" MJ wondered.

He shook his head and frowned. "And I can't ask Captain Stacy for his thoughts on everything, he's not able to answer yet. By the time he can, it could be far too late! This smells very bad and I've gotta do something. I'm going to get to the bottom of this." He declared determined to find the truth.

Hope you all enjoyed it, I know that wasn't as action filled and certainly feels like a second part of the storyline. This was more of an info dump chapter wasn't it? Perhaps so, but I had a lot to drop and consequences will be felt next chapter and beyond. Looking forward to the next chapter and the fallout.

This time I don't have much to say, but the next chapter will make things clear and have more to speak about.

Actually, update! Saw Spider-Verse!

It was fantastic, so much better than I was expecting, honestly really felt like the core of why I love Spider-Man and all the other spider people in the first place. Really loved it so much about it, would take awhile to express everything. Anyway, I hope the final part concludes everything. The trans codding of Gwen was nice too, regardless if she is or not. It was really nice seeing that. Obviously meant a lot to me if you've been paying attention to all my ramblings. The movies do make me long for just standalone Miles and Gwen movies, even just Peter B Parker too. Just seems like they understand these characters so well. Truly just shows why I'm so passionate about these characters. I also regret haven't written this story better after seeing the movie, just seeing the potential that's there and being reminded of the core of these stories.

Nonetheless, I hope you all keep enjoying it anyways despite my shortcomings.

Finally, despite having such a great time watching the movie, I still haven't felt motivated to write for this. Ironic.