The smell of fried food followed by a heavy weight at the side of the bed pulled Gwen out of her sleepy state. Her eyes opened partly to see Peter perched on the bed with a tray full of food in his hands. She sat up with a stretch and rubbed the sleep from her eyes before giving him a questioning look.

"What's all this?" She said through a yawn.

Peter smiled. "Just a little breakfast. Today's a big day, you're gonna need it."

"Okay… now what's the real reason?"

"Do I need one?"

"No. I mean, it's very sweet of you. I'm just curious."

"Alright. I admit it. I feel kinda bad after everything that happened, and I know that these past few weeks haven't been easy on you with the heavy sickness, getting Simon back into school and planning our trap for Venom, so I wanted to make you feel a little better."

Gwen smiled at this, knowing that Peter still hadn't forgiven himself for lying to her despite the three weeks that had passed since she'd learned the truth. She had tried to ease his guilt, but it hadn't been easy with everything else happening at once. Moving the tray aside, she leaned over and planted a small kiss on his lips.

"Give me two seconds…" She said, getting out of bed.

"Where are you going?"

"I have to pee."

Peter chuckled as he watched her disappear into the bathroom, but his smile disappeared as soon as she did and he sighed. He couldn't wrap his head around the plan; not fully, at least. In fact, he hated it. Though as much as he did, he couldn't come up with anything better. Lord knew he'd been trying. A few minutes later, Gwen reappeared from the bathroom and he turned his head as she walked over to the dresser and took some time to pick out some decent clothes.

"Hey… look…" He said with a smile.

She looked up, confused at what he was trying to point out but followed his eyes to the mirror. Her reflection stared back at her, but still she couldn't see what he was getting at.

"I don't see what you're-" She began, but stopped as he got up and crossed the room.

He stopped in front of her and moved his hand to rest over her stomach. With the other, he pointed back to the mirror.

"Look…"

Gwen studied her reflection for a few seconds more. Her eyes drifted down to where the mirror reflected Peter's hand, and then she noticed what he was trying to point out. The skin of her stomach has expanded, forming a bump; small but evident.

"Oh." She bit her lower lip as her cheeks turned scarlet. "I love you."

"I love you too." He said, placing his palm against her cheek and leaning in close to kiss her. "Are you not happy?"

"No, I am… it's just that this might make the plan a little more difficult. I should probably throw on a sweater or something."

"Yeah." He sighed. "But I'm still not keen on the idea."

"Peter, we've been through this. It's either this or the nuclear option."

"I know. I just don't like the idea of Eddie alone with you."

"Then it's a good thing that I won't be alone. I may be the one luring him out, but he nor Venom will have a clue that you're there."

Peter gave a small smile. "Alright, I feel a little bit better that we have the element of surprise, but I still hate it."

Gwen's eyes drifted from the mirror back to Peter, and she brought her hand up to caress his face. He closed his eyes, finding comfort in the display of affection, and pulled her towards him, planting a kiss on her forehead.

"Don't worry, Peter. We've got this."

At this, he chuckled. "I will always worry when it comes to you."

She pulled away slightly and turned her attention back to the clothes she'd already picked out. "I suppose I should rethink my choice of outfit today."

Peter nodded. "Yeah, I don't think having Eddie or Venom finding out is a good idea." He half laughed. "Hmm, how about you eat up before the food goes cold and I will dig through our jungle of a closet?"

Gwen smiled and with a quick kiss, she sat back down on the bed and addressed the tray of food. Peter walked over to the closet and as stated, began searching through the endless mountain of both folded and hung up clothes.

"Wait, are you not going to eat too?" She called.

He stopped and looked back over his shoulder at her with a goofy smirk on his face. "Already did."

"Since when did you rise before me?" She questioned, biting off a piece of toast.

"It's almost noon, Gwen." He informed her, unable to hold his laughter as her eyes widened and she almost dropped the glass of orange juice.

"Huh…"

"It's like eleven forty-five." He chuckled.

"Peter!" She groaned. "Why didn't you wake me sooner?"

"Because I know how little sleep you've been getting and I wanted to do something nice instead of disturbing you."

Gwen's smile wavered. "Please tell me that you're not doing this out of guilt."

"I'm not!" He squeaked. "I'm just trying to be nice."

"Okay. I couldn't help but think…" She trailed off. "It doesn't matter, and I want you to know that I appreciate everything you do, Peter."

"Yeah…"

"And I'm sorry if I hurt you or you thought I was accusing you."

"You didn't." He answered, and turned back to the closet.

Gwen ate and Peter searched in silence over the next few minutes until he finally found something that would fit her well, and she'd finished with the tray of food, pushing it aside. With a straight face, he held the item of clothing up for her to see; a plain white jumper that was a little long in length.

"How's this?"

"It's fine." She confirmed, biting her lip as she wanted to say more.

"Right, well I'll leave you to it." He said, throwing the jumper down on the bed and turning to leave the room.

Her eyebrows pulled together in a frown and before she could think about what she was doing, she shot a web and pulled him back towards her. He came to an unsteady stop with his face inches away from hers and his breath uneven.

"I- I wasn't aware that you still wore those."

"We never know when we might need them." She spoke softly.

"Gwen…"

Unable to help herself, she sniveled. "I'm sorry… I just don't want you to continue to carry around the guilt that you have been having these past few weeks."

"We should get going if we're going to put the plan into action today." He responded, earning a sigh from her.

Although frustrated by his dodge of the subject, she forced a neutral expression and pulled away from him. "Right." She picked up the jumper and slid it on over her t-shirt. "Give me five minutes and I'll meet you downstairs."

"Five minutes it is." He agreed and exited the room swiftly.

After hearing his footsteps grow fainter until they became inaudible, she moved to close the bedroom and swiftly removed the jumper. With a second long pause, she proceeded to reach under the bed and pull out the black box that she had stored away the night before.

"Please forgive me." She whispered into the empty room as she opened up the box.

Meanwhile, Peter paced the hall downstairs as he waited for her to join him. Minutes passed and finally, she appeared at the top of the stairs, causing his mouth to drop open. As she reached the bottom step, he turned away.

"I thought I made myself clear about the suits, Gwen."

"You did…" She confirmed. "But I am not going to take it off and I'm not going to apologize. It's better to do this with the suits because then we don't draw attention to ourselves."

Peter closed his eyes and exhaled sharply before turning to face her. "Eddie has already seen us for who we are and so has Venom, so what's the point?"

"The point is that without the suits we are not Spider-man and Ghost-Spider, without them we are just Peter and Gwen. With the suits, we don't have to worry about a new threat finding out who we really are and they allow us to move better."

He knew she was right, and he knew that it was his own bad memories that had prevented him from putting the suit on recently, but he still hated it. He could look past the memories, those didn't bother him as much. But with the suit, the pregnancy would be much more noticeable, and he feared that Eddie, or most likely Venom, would use it against them.

"And what about that?" He asked, gesturing towards her stomach. "If they notice, which with the suit on they will, then they'll harm you just to get back at me."

"Then let them try." She snapped. "I am not a little girl, and I won't be fighting them alone."

"I never thought you were incapable, Gwen. I just know that if they find out about the baby then they will use it as a weakness."

"Ha, they wouldn't get very far. Do you seriously think that I would put myself in harm's way knowing what we could lose?" She questioned. "In fact, I'm doing this so that we can move on and so that we don't have to fear what could happen to our family. I've already lost my family once, Peter. I'm not going through that again."

Peter remained silent, thinking it through for a second. His eyes dropped down to his feet before he lifted his head and took in the sight of Gwen in the suit. Shaking away the argument he'd voiced in his head, he gave a small nod and hurried up the stairs to retrieve his own. He returned barely five minutes later, with his suit on and his mask atop his head ready to be pulled down.

"Happy now?"

"Why are you mad? I'm only thinking carefully before diving into things." She asked, placing one hand on her hip and pushing the other against his chest to stop him from walking past her.

"I'm not mad." He breathed. "And you're not the one who needs to be sorry. I know I'm being difficult, childish even, I really hope that we're doing the right thing though."

"I hope so too." She gave a small smile.

Hesitantly, Gwen paced forward a few steps before stopping and looking back. Peter was no longer in sight, and she knew that he'd already hidden himself. Though uncertain, she looked in front of her again and continued down towards the harbour. She knew, thanks to snooping around a little over the past few weeks, that Eddie would pass through very soon, and that is when she would make the first move.

A while passed with absolutely no sign of Eddie, and Gwen could feel Peter's eyes on her from some rooftop high above as she leant with her back against an old beaten up wall. She was about to move again when the sound of footsteps caught her attention; quiet and distant at first, but gradually getting louder and closer. Quickly pushing herself up off the wall, she watched intently as the source of the footsteps stepped into her line of vision, revealed to be Eddie.

Ensuring that he did not notice her first, she fired a web that hit him, sticking him to the wall, and then another that doubled the strength of its hold.

"Spider-man!!!" Eddie's voice bounced off the walls.

Gwen laughed as she stepped into view, causing him to gape. "Wrong."

Eddie's face flashed with panic and he writhed against the thickened web, trying to break free. His eyes didn't leave Gwen as he lingered on her every move.

"It's Ghost-Spider to you, buddy."

"Oh, Eddie… Are you really gonna allow yourself to be beaten by a weaker version of Spider-man?" Venom teased inside his head.

"You don't have to whisper, Venom. I know you're in there too." She taunted, moving closer to them. "Not for much longer I might add."

Gwen stepped even closer, so that she was only inches away from Eddie and inhaled deeply. Just as she'd hoped, there was a strong smell of whiskey and cigars reeking from him. She stepped back and a smirk etched its way onto her face as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a lighter, making sure that he could see it clearly. She then flicked it, so that the flame sprung from the top, causing Eddie's eyes to widen.

"No! Please! Don't!" He begged.

She simply laughed. "You're really gonna beg me? That's pathetic."

The flame danced around, reflecting in Eddie's eyes. Deep inside him, Venom was screaming, clearly afraid of the fire.

"Take her out before she destroys us." He hissed.

"I-I-" He stuttered in a panic.

Venom roared, having grown impatient with his host and soon Eddie became enveloped in the black tar-like substance. The webs that Gwen had used to stick him to the wall snapped in two, freeing them. She backed away, with the lighter still in her hand as Venom advanced forward. With all going as planned, she flicked the lighter once more before throwing it at Venom. Due to the substances that Eddie's person had been doused in, Venom went up like a light and shrieked; separating himself from Eddie and getting as far as he could before the flames could engulf him completely.

At the same moment, Peter swung in on a web from a nearby rooftop, throwing a bucket of water that showered Eddie before landing swiftly on his feet in front of Gwen. Venom let out another shrill shriek and took a swing at Peter, who did a backflip to dodge the hit.

"Missed me." He quipped.

Unimpressed, Venom jumped back on to Eddie, who was rolled up on the floor, cradling half of his face, and quickly took control of the body. He balled a giant fist and brought it down, with the intention of squishing them like ants. Peter shoved Gwen away, and shot a web that he used to spring to the nearest wall as Venom's giant fist pounded into the ground, sending tremors through it.

"Missed me again."

With Venom distracted by Peter, Gwen picked up a discarded piece of scaffolding and hit it against the nearest dumpster. Venom recoiled from the sound waves and Peter shot a web at his face, momentarily blindsiding him. Gwen hit the dumpster once again, creating another sound wave and giving Peter the opportunity to shoot more webs until Venom's movement was restricted. Gwen then shot a web of her own, and moved backwards before running and swinging forward on it, landing a strike against Venom's head. Letting go of the web, she landed on her feet as Venom retreated back into Eddie.

"What are you doing?"

"You can't expect me to fight the entire battle for you. Show me, Eddie. Show me that you are worthy of being my host."

"I am worthy!" He cried.

"Your simple words are not enough!"

Eddie shifted into a fighting stance and in the clear lighting, Gwen's jaw dropped at the sight of his face; his left eye had dulled in colour and the skin around his eye and cheek bone had dropped like melted candle wax. She swallowed hard, forcing back the urge to be sick, and shot a web at his other eye. He danced around, now completely unable to see and bumped straight into Peter who shoved him back and landed a direct hit to his jaw. The web over his eye broke and he smirked at Peter before reaching inside his jacket.

All Gwen saw was a flash of silver, and before she could process, Eddie lunged forward at her. Peter yelled as he swung in again from a web, landing in front of her and the flash of silver, which he quickly learned was a knife, plunged into his side.

"Peter!" Gwen cried as he dropped to his knees.

Tears sprang to her eyes and in a moment of rage, she shot a web that disarmed Eddie. For a brief second, she thought about picking it up and plunging it straight through his heart, but quickly decided against the idea; knowing that she would come to regret it later.

"There it is…" Venom hissed. "You performed well on your own. I can now truly believe that you are worthy."

Shock flashed across Eddie's face as he realised what he'd done. He swallowed hard and staggered back away from them.

"W- what do I do now?"

"You've wounded him. Now's your chance to get to her."

Gwen shot another web, only for Eddie to morph back into Venom and rip it apart. He then advanced towards her quickly and gripped her at the throat, raising her a few feet into the air. Peter struggled on the ground with blood seeping from his wound. As Venom morphed back into Eddie and he saw the same flash of silver, he realised what was about to happen. Gritting his teeth, he pushed himself back onto his feet and webbed his injury to prevent too much blood loss. Using another web, he launched himself at Eddie and landed a blow right in his face.

Eddie staggered back disoriented and his grip on Gwen's throat loosened, causing him to drop her. She landed on her back on the ground with a harsh thud and remained for a second, almost choking on the metallic taste in her mouth. Peter didn't give Eddie a chance to recover from the hit and used a web to quickly trap him against the wall once more. Gwen recovered vastly and got back to her feet, joining Peter's side as they closed in on Eddie.

Peter produced another lighter and held it clear for Eddie to see. He continued to stand despite the wound growing more and more uncomfortable, and maintained eye contact with the enemy.

"What are you going to do?" Eddie laughed. "Burn me again?"

"Don't make me!" Peter snarled.

"Peter…" Gwen tugged at his arm.

"He's threatening us. What are you going to do, Eddie?" Venom hissed.

Before Eddie could say anything, Peter closed the distance between them and rained down a flurry of punches on his face. Gwen stepped back, unsure of what to do as he began yelling.

"Either you get rid of Venom or I will end you both!" He threatened. "You barged into our lives and turned it all upside-down. Yet without Venom you are nothing but a weak, pathetic, person who can't handle his own emotions, so you project them onto others just so that you can feel strong!"

"I- I-" Eddie stammered.

"Tell me… Am I wrong?"

"Don't let him get inside your head, he's trying to break you."

Peter brought the lighter up to Eddie's face once more and smirked as he saw the reflection of the flame in his eyes. "Am. I. Wrong?" He repeated.

Eddie squirmed under Peter's demanding tone as he held the lighter even closer to his face. He opened his mouth, though afraid to speak, but was cut off quickly by Gwen.

"Oh no…"

Her words cut through the tension and Peter staggered back, and his grip on the lighter slipped, causing it to drop to the ground. Venom let out a loud shriek as Eddie was once again engulfed in flames. Peter watched in shock as Venom separated himself in the blink of an eye and disappeared from sight. Before he had the chance to search the area, Gwen's voice cut through Eddie's screams.

"Not here…" She groaned.

Confused, Peter's eyebrows pulled together in a frown and he turned so that he could see her. His eyes widened when he saw that she had removed her mask and her complexion had paled.

"What is it?" He asked.

"I'm gonna throw up."

"No!" He almost squeaked. "Not here." He whispered loudly.

"Yes. Here."

"Uh- Can't you just… I don't know… hold it in?" He questioned, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.

"It's not like going to the bathroom, Peter!" She yelled.

"I'm aware of that. Uh… Any chance of the feeling passing?"

She didn't answer. Pushing past Peter, she fled behind the dumpster. He removed his mask with a sigh and almost took off after her before Eddie's screams brought his attention back to their fight. He glanced around and located a fire extinguisher that had been discarded besides the nearest building. Without hesitation, he ran over and retrieved it, finding that it was still half full, then returned to Eddie.

"Better not make me regret this." He warned as he pulled the pin and unleashed the contents of the extinguisher on Eddie.

The violent flames died as he was showered in the foamy substance and once Peter was certain that no flame remained, he dropped the extinguisher and took off in the same direction that Gwen had gone.

Eddie heaved heavy breaths as he struggled with the pain in his blistering skin. The web that had been holding him had been destroyed by the fire, setting him free, but he couldn't move. He felt his legs weaken, forcing him to his knees on the ground.

"Hey, you okay?" Peter asked as he finally approached Gwen.

Bent forward with her arm against the wall and her head down, she sucked in a deep breath. "I'm okay, this was just… really bad timing." She answered. Finally able to stand up straight, she turned around to face him. "Did you leave Eddie alone on fire?"

Peter shook his head. "Nah, I put him out… and from what I saw, Venom left him. Though I couldn't locate him. We should be safe from now on."

"Huh, that was surprisingly easy to scare Venom away." She frowned. "Maybe a little too easy."

"Who cares? It's better for us and I'd say him being gone is a win. Let's take it." He said excitedly.

"O- okay." She agreed reluctantly. "And I know you're dying to celebrate, but I am really not feeling great, so do you think that we could take a rain check on that?"

"Sure." He nodded. "For now, maybe we should go home so that you can get some rest."

"What about Simon? School finishes in about an hour and-"

"Don't worry about that." He assured her. "I'll head out after I get cleaned up and collect him."

"You really don't have to… You were stabbed, you should be resting."

"It's okay, Gwen. I want to." He said with a smile. "And the knife didn't go very deep, a bit of disinfectant and a band aid and I'll be as good as new."

"Oh. Well… Thank you."

With his smile still bright on his face despite the pain his healing wound was causing him, he offered out his hand, which she took, and together they began walking away from the harbour. Though what neither of them were aware of was the fact that Venom was watching them still, from the rooftop above, where he was able to remain undetected. Once they were out of the vicinity, he moved from the rooftop and down the fire exit, back towards where Eddie was still kneeling.

Eddie didn't notice his presence until Venom latched onto his hand, causing his head to snap up as it created a tickling sensation against his sensitive skin.

"I don't wanna do this anymore." Eddie choked.

"Don't give up yet. The fight is not over. They have won only one battle, but we shall win the war."

"War! What war?"

"The war that Peter Parker picked with both you and I." Venom hissed. "However, it has come to my attention that they seem to be hiding something."

"Wait, what?" Eddie shook his head. "None of this is making sense."

"I have fought them before and they are not ones to walk away from a fight without finishing it. Yet that is what they did tonight… walked away and let us live."

"So they backed away, I'm sure he is every bit the coward that he looks."

"Wrong. We can't assume anything."

"Then, what do you want to do?"

"We must follow them and uncover whatever it is that they are hiding. It could be used to help us win this war."