SINS PAST pt. 3

"It can't be...can't be...it can't be..." Peter mutters sitting on the side of a building looking down at the city bellow. "The two who have been trying to kill me...trying to destroy Peter Parker's life...can't be Gwen's kids...they...even if she did have kids they would still be children, they wouldn't have aged enough too...unless they weren't born normal to begin with...I couldn't be the reason? Could I?- No, that's stupid, we never- I have to find out. I have to know for sure..."

He got up and swung off and away towards his and Rachael's apartment. He crawled in the window of there bedroom webbing the letter to the roof of their closet, Rachael heard him come in and opened her eyes seeing him climbing down the wall and shutting the closet, she put her head back down quickly pretending to still be asleep when he turned to her.

"Rachael? Rach, are you awake?" Peter whispers.

"Hmmm? No, I was asleep...what time is it?" Rachael yawns opening her eyes.

"Half-past really fucking early, but you said you wanted to wake up early so you could go work out before rehearsal." Peter says starting to take his suit off, his mask already having been discarded on the floor.

Rachael sat up looking at the clock and turning the light on. "When I said early I meant like six, it's two."

"Sorry...you just stay there. How about I bring you breakfast in bed? Nothing too heavy, just toast, juice, pterodactyl eggs..." Peter sighs.

"I'd rather you didn't." Rachael sighs shielding her eyes from the light coming from the bedside lamp.

"Is my cooking really that bad?" Peter scoffs.

"No, well kinda... but that's not the reason, it just that every time you offer to bring me breakfast, it usually leads to you saying you can't stay. I- Peter are you okay? You look like you've been crying." Rachael says concerned.

"I'm just tired...it's been a long night. And I'm sorry but I can't stay." Peter sighs.

"Yeah, I know." Rachael sighs looking at him sadly, she could tell something was wrong but didn't want to push him, he'd tell her when he was ready.

His head dropped to the floor with a sigh. "I'd...better go round up those eggs. The hardest part is finding a free-range pterodactyl at this hour of the morning, then catching it and squeezing the eggs out. As if that weren't bad enough last time the pterodactyl turned out to be male. We're going out on our third date on Wednesday. I-" Peter jokes.

"Peter? You know I love you right and that you can tell me anything, right?" Rachael says softly.

"Yeah, I know. I love you, too." Peter sighs, turning to walk out. "Back in a flash."

"He always tries to protect me. It's what he does. He doesn't understand. It's not that I don't want to be protected because sometimes I do. But sometimes I want to protect him and I can't do that when he's to busy protecting me. When he's keeping secrets. But I have to respect his secrets because that's what I do. I keep peoples secrets." Rachael grabbed a flash light from the night stand getting up and walking over to the closet where Peter hid the letter. Using the flashlight to find what he was hiding, but she didn't grab it, he was still home. She'd have to be careful about this, she'd have to wait until after work to look at it. "But what if I'm not sure I should keep them anymore?"

—

"I can't do this. I have to do this...I have to know. I have to. I have to!" Peter says out loud using his super strength to stab a small metal rod into the ground above Gwen's grave to get some of her genetic material. "Forgive me Gwen, it's the only way to be sure...I know, I know you'd want me to be sure. God, God, God....God, God...."

He collapsed to the ground crying, leaving the rod sticking out of the ground. Peter ran a hand threw his hair, sobbing and wonder what made his life come to this.

—

Peter was in the basement lab of the Avengers compound using the equipment to conduct his testing. "Can't afford to make any mistakes, can't go through this again. I just can't, Not a lot of genetic material to use, so I can't waist any of it."

Peter sighed, as he waited for the results of the DNA test. "Are these two Gwen's children? Are they mine, no they couldn't be, we never- Is it wrong that I kinda wish they were, though? Peter, stop it. That's awful...if they are Gwen's kids, no stop don't get ahead of yourself. If the answer is yes, my first question is-" Peter's thinks as his thoughts bounce around him mind, getting interrupted by a female voice.

"We knew you would come here. Well not necessarily here in this exact building but we knew you'd come to a place like this sooner or later. So we made a list of the best candidates and... well here you are. Should have known you'd come to your little wife's childhood home, or should I️ say one of them." The girl in an all black supersuit say walking towards him.

"Listen, I️-" Peter starts.

"No, you listen to me because we don't have much time. I told my brother I was going in, he'll be here any minute now. He wants to prolong this he doesn't want to kill you he wants to make you suffer. He wants you to see everyone you love die around you. Then, and only then will he come for you." The girl says pointing a gun at him.

"I-I just want this over with. Don't you? I know who you are. I know what you are, and what you've done. And if you have even a shred of decency you'll do the right thing." The girl sighs.

"Yeah, and what's that?" Peter asks.

"You let me kill you right here, right now. It's the only way to save the people you love, because you can't protect them forever, and Gabe is very patient. He'll wait and sooner or later he'll have his opening. And one of them will die, then another, then another and he'll kill them all. Unless you let me do this, if you're gone there is no reason for him to go after the others." The girl explains.

"You have the gun, what's stopping you?" Peter asks.

"You're to fast. You have to accept it willingly. If you're man enough to put the lives of others ahead of yourself for a change." The girl says with venom laced in her voice.

"For a change!? Listen-" Peter says slightly offended.

The DNA test finished and the machine made a loud dinging noise that startled the girl causing her to start firing her gun rapidly. Peter took the opportunity to flip over the bullets and knock her to the ground as a fight broke out.

"Oh no, you're not going anywhere until-" Peter shouts pinning her down and pulling her mask off. "No- oh my God..."

"Happy now? Gabe thinks I look just like our mother, what do you think?" The girl asked who resembled Gwen to the fullest extent.

"I-" Peter's Spider-Sense went off making him look out at the door to the lab. "He's outside!" A small explosion went off sending him and the girl flying.

"Are you Alright!" Peter asks, looking around once he gathered his bearings, only to find them both gone. "Yeah, well. There you go..."

Peter sighed getting up and walking over to the machine checking the results on the monitor shakily: Cross-Match Confirmed. His eyes started to water again. "It's true...it's true...."

—

Peter sadly climbed into his and Rachael's shared bedroom.

"Hey, tiger..." Rachael walking in as soon as she heard him holding up the letter.

"Rachael, I-" Peter sighed.

"I read it. I know I shouldn't have but...I had to know what was bothering you, Peter...I know who they are..." Rachael sighs already on the verge of tears.

"Then you have to know, you have to believe me...I swear to God, Rachael, they're not my children Gwen and I didn't, I mean we never, well we tried but her dad came home from patrol early, but we didn't-we were kids, we never-" Peter says nervously.

"I know. You don't have to convince me, Peter. I know you're telling the truth. And even if they were do you really think I would be upset?" Rachael says.

"You're not...mad?" Peter asks confused.

"No not at all, because I know who the real father of Gwen Stacy's children is." Rachael says tears pooling in her eyes.