Spider-Gwen 2 || Hanging by a Thread

A Deal || Gwen Stacy

"It's just the beasts under your bed, in your closet, in your head"

-Enter Sandman, The Warning (Metallica)

Gwen needed to take a rest from staring at her computer. She rubbed her eyes, feeling her eyelids aching from several hours' worth of diagramming more projects for Otto. Gwen had recently finished helping him with the microchip for the tritium stabilizer (or, as Otto had been calling them lately, 'his arms') and was now onto new topics that her boss wanted to delve into.

Several moments of rest passed before she let herself open her eyes once again, and the pair of light blue irises stared aimlessly at the ceiling.

"Are you sure this is where you wanted to be?"

Gwen nearly jumped out of her seat as an unexpected voice questioned her. She spun in her chair, seeing none other than Peter Parker seated in a desk next to her. He was scrolling through something on his phone, and chuckled softly as he looked at Gwen.

"Check this out..." Peter said, holding his phone out for Gwen to see. He'd been looking at some news articles, all of them dealing with tension between Oscorp and Octavius Industries. But the one he was showing to Gwen seemed completely made up-it detailed a literal fight between employees of the two companies.

"That's insane..." Gwen murmured, giving a suspicious look at Peter, who shrugged.

"Hey, not everything that's in your head is an absurdity." Peter responded, shrugging his shoulders before looking at something behind Gwen. "But I'd say that he certainly is."

He?

Gwen frowned, looking behind herself to see what Peter had been mentioning. Behind her was, once again, Owen Octavius. Otto's son was peering through a microscope, humming in interest as he studied samples of an unknown substance. "Interesting..." He murmured, his voice having an unexpected reverb while he continued looking through the microscope.

"Are you really going to keep letting him make the decisions for you?" Peter questioned, causing Gwen to shake her head.

"I... I don't..." She swallowed nervously, feeling her heart rate pick up as Owen glanced at her, winking playfully with a grin on his face. "I don't understand what you're saying." Gwen said, looking back at Peter again.

"Don't listen to him," Owen mused, finally taking his eyes away from the microscope before slipping his hands into the pockets of his lab coat. "He's just jealous that he can't be like us."

"Jealous?" Peter snorted. "Yeah, nice try, buddy. I'm just trying to do what I've always done, and that's keep Gwen safe."

Did I overdose on Effexor last night? Gwen thought to herself, wondering if she'd accidentally taken too many of her antidepressants and caused this trippy dream.

"Look, um, guys..." Gwen said, slowly getting up from her chair and looking between the two apparitions. "...I get it, I get it... you're trying to teach something to my subconscious... but I'm not understanding the point. There's nothing left to learn, really, if I'm going to-"

"Don't say it." Peter said sternly, his eyes widening with panic. "You've let him and Otto influence you into throwing your life away-"

"You doubt Otto's ability to bring Gwen back after she dies?" Owen snarled, his teeth baring at Peter. "We both know that he is capable-"

"-And now you're losing a second chance with Miles-"

"We are stronger without him!" Owen added, slamming his palm on the table and staring daggers at Peter. "Miles abandoned Gwen before, and he's abandoning us now."