This was all Gwen’s fault. If only she’d paid attention to the signs. Seen Harry spiraling because of Peter’s death. She could have stopped history from repeating itself. She could have prevented yet another violent confrontation with a friend.

Yet here they were in the sewer of all places.

A large reptilian hand crushes Gwen’s chest, pinning her to the wall. The pressure prevents her rib cage from expanding, making breathing difficult, and darkness starts to creep in at the edges of her vision.

Her hands are restrained by the reptilian man’s second hand, her left webshooter is crushed, and the antidote lies near the water by Harry’s feet. He hasn’t seen it yet. She struggles futilely against the larger and stronger creature that used to be her best friend. She searches his eyes looking for any hint of the man he was before, for any hint of Harry.

She looks into eyes she doesn’t recognize. All they convey is pain and anger. She knows that look. It’s one she sees often when staring in the mirror and she knows what she has to do.

Before she has time to hesitate she acts, kicking Harry in the chin. His grip on her hands loosens and she has just enough time to reach up and yank off her mask.

“Harry! It’s me! It’s Gwen!” She shouts.

The pressure on her chest lessens as his pupils revert from the slits they had become. Recognition flits across his face.

“Gwen? But how could you? ... Peter was your best friend.”

“I know...” her voice cracks. This isn’t how she wanted any of this to turn out. She was just a stupid kid who got amazing powers and didn’t realize her own strength.

“I deserve whatever comes my way but you can’t fall down this hole Harry. The serum will continue to change you until there’s no turning back. I can’t lose another friend because of my actions.”

He seems to be coming around but then his pupils return to being slits and a roar bursts from his throat, reverberating through Gwen’s own chest. Fear grips her. Ice pooling through her veins. The grip on her right arm loosens and she takes the opportunity to shoot the antidote with her webs and yank it into her hands. In one swift move she stabs and injects the serum into his neck.

He reacts just about as well as she expected. He throws her into the wall to his right. All the breath in her lungs being forced out upon impact with the concrete wall. A large crack can be heard and she’s not sure if it was her bones or the wall that made the noise. She struggles for air, desperately gasping while her lungs seem to reject the action. Every gulp she takes is cut short by pain shooting through her ribs and back.

Gwen tries to stumble to her feet but the world tilts sideways and something crashes into her from above, making it all go black.

When she comes to there is a steady trickle of water onto her head and a solid pressure on her back. The cooling sensation of the water on her head distracts her from the throbbing behind her eyes which she’s grateful for. She blinks her eyes into focus trying to take in her surroundings.

Harry lays not even 20 feet from her, sprawled on the ground, no longer in his reptilian form. He’s unconscious as water pours in from above. It’s filling the lower chamber that they are in and Gwen tries to move for the first time since awakening. Her movements are halted by the rubble that collapsed on top of her, held up from crushing her head and chest by a thick pipe. She’s trapped.

Gwen tries desperately to push the rubble up and off of her, to get to Harry, but her muscles scream at her with every movement. She pushes with everything she has left. It doesn’t move.

She collapses and gasps out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. She takes one last gulp before pushing with everything she has once again still to no avail.

She looks over to Harry in despair. His head is barely propped above the water by the jagged rock it rests upon. Something crumbles further, causing water to rush in quicker. If she doesn’t get to him soon he’ll drown and she’ll lose yet another person she cares about.

She’ll have no one to blame but herself.

That thought pushes Gwen to try once more. This isn’t just her life at stake. It’s Harry’s. Harry who she failed just like Peter. Harry who she wasn’t there for when he needed her most. She wouldn’t fail again. She couldn’t.

With shaking arms she pushes herself up, rubble be damned, she’s getting Harry out of there. Her injured body shouts at her that it’s too much but she drowns it out. A guttural cry rips from her throat as she pushes through the pain and slowly but surely throws the rubble off of her.

She stumbles her way out, grabbing Harry. Things are hazy as the bone deep exhaustion seeps in. The moments pass in a blur as she makes her way out. There’s no way she doesn’t have a concussion. But Harry’s safe. Maybe it’s not too little, not too late. Maybe she can have a second chance. She has to make this right.