Rating:

Teen

Category:

Gen

Fandom:

Marvel, Spider-verse

Relationship:

None

Tags:

canon compliant, daddy issues

Stats:

Posted on:

2023-07-28

Words:

957

A gunshot pierces the air.

“What was that?” asks Jess.

Miguel’s paused from where he’s tied up the Vulture. The bustle of the police is around them; the girl from earlier came from somewhere near the direction of the gunshot. This universe’s Spider-woman.

“Miguel,” Jess says, but Miguel’s already tossing the Vulture’s body over his shoulder and shooting a web into the rafters, where he’d seen the girl last.

“Come on,” he says, without looking back.

Jess takes the long way round with her motorcycle. Miguel gets there first. Through the metal and the debris, he sees two figures: the silhouette of Spider-woman, and someone else, with a gun pointed at her. A cop.

Miguel stays in the shadows.

“You have the right to remain silent,” the cop is saying. His grip around the gun is strong; his voice is hard. “Anything you say—”

“You don’t understand!”

“You don’t understand,” says the cop.

She keeps her hands up, keeping the cop at bay. And then, to Miguel’s disbelief, Spider-woman—no, the kid—pulls at the bottom of her mask. Over her head, and pushes down her hood. She is a kid, a blonde teenage girl, a baby face and freckled cheeks. She’d be Gabriella’s age, maybe a bit younger now. Or older. It’s hard to know how many years have passed since Miguel went back, since he lost everything—

The cop’s lowered his gun.

“Dad,” the kid says, and fuck, it was so obvious. “I’m—I’ve thought about telling you, but you can see why I didn’t want to. You can see why I didn’t want to tell you. I didn’t murder Peter—I didn’t know it was him! I didn’t have a choice—”

“How long have you been lying to me?” the cop, the kid’s dad asks. His blue gaze is piercing.

Miguel has long been acquainted with the idea of a dead Peter Parker; it’s a living Gwen Stacy that makes this canon different. She’s just a kid, and Miguel can hear the desperation in her voice as she says, “Can you just not be a cop for a second and be my dad and listen to me? Do you really think I’m a murderer? You’re in this to help people, right? Right?“

Jess appears by Miguel’s shoulder then. She must’ve slowed her bike when she realized what was happening; she’d quietly came up behind Miguel while Miguel was eavesdropping. “Is she okay?” she asks Miguel in a low voice.

Miguel presses a finger to his lips.

Gwen Stacy says, “The way to help right now is to listen to me! Please, Dad. You’re all I have left.”

Miguel doesn’t have anything left; not a strand of hair or a doll lying around somewhere. Only memories and dreams, reminders that maybe it wasn’t even real. Maybe he wasn’t meant to be happy, to have a daughter, a family; running the Spider-people across the universe isn’t that, it’s a business. It’s easier. He doesn’t have anything left to lose.

He’s already lost it all, anyway. But watching a girl plead with her father for acceptance, for parenthood, fills him with a bitterness, electrifying, pulsing in his fingertips.

The cop says, “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used in the court of law—”

“What?” Gwen’s voice is petrified.

Her father continues. His gun is lowered. “You have the right to an attorney—”

“Dad, are you really this afraid of me? No—”

“Don’t get any closer!“

Before the cop can even raise his gun again, Miguel’s already grabbed onto it with one of his shooters, jumping over them and tossing an imprisonment cell at him. It sizzles and wraps around him; Miguel doesn’t have to turn around to know it’s taken effect. The Vulture hangs limply over his shoulder.

“Dad!” Gwen shouts, but Jess cuts in, pushing her back.

“Hey, hey, hey,” she says. “Come here. Just breathe. We got you. Right, Miguel?”

Miguel’s already tossed the Vulture to the floor, and sighs through his mask. “LYLA, scan this mess.”

It’s not just a mess with the destroyed building, the Vulture from another universe too. Miguel can’t imagine being in a world as a father unable to love his daughter. The memories, the dreams of Gabriella that haunt him so. He doesn’t know how to sleep anymore. Doesn’t want to sleep. It wasn’t worse watching his entire world slip through his fingers, through time, through existence, just because he wanted a family. It was knowing that he didn’t have one, could never have one—that even with the moments permanently etched into his brain, that they were never meant for him in the first place.

He doesn’t look at the cop. The ungrateful bastard.

LYLA does a cursory scan of the area, then says, “No further anomalies,” with a salute. “Canon remains intact.”

“We can’t just leave her here,” Jess says, as Miguel opens the portal and tosses the Vulture into it. “She’s doing this on her own.”

Gwen’s staring down at her father in the cell. “I don’t know how to fix this,” she whispers to herself.

Jess looks at Miguel. Gwen’s standing alone in the dark, her father not even fighting, not shouting at her anymore. It’s like he’s not there; she’s another Spider-person realizing the reality of the world, that there’s no love, no family meant for them. They’re all doing it on their own. Miguel’s known this long enough now. They’re all meant to be alone.

And maybe Miguel wants a little piece of the universe’s power. This is part of the canon, after all.

“Yeah,” he says. “Well. Join the club.”

He tosses a wristband to Gwen.