Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The last 4 hours of Miles’ life has been hell.

He believed that Gwen really came to his dimension to meet with him after a year, believing that they would have never seen each other again.

He decided to follow her when there was a possibility of never meeting her again, and she got upset about it.

A villain that he had ‘created’ because he was trying to stop the multiverse from collapsing on itself was getting stronger to kill him, and his dad was going to die.

He finds out that this ‘Spider-Society’ had hundreds of Spider-Men included, but he was left out for some reason.

Canon events are revealed to him by the founder of the society, Miguel, and that he was never supposed to save Pavatir’s police chief, and that he was supposed to die, and that his father was going to die in 2 days by the spot, and that it needs to happen, and that he can’t save him.

He finds out that his ‘friends’ that he thought he had were able to visit him, but decided not to, and that they were also on Miguel’s side to let his father die. They even attempted a whole intervention to get him to ‘understand’ the situation by keeping him locked up for 2 days. He tried leaving, and he was met with each Spider-Man chasing him through Earth-928.

Even though The Spot mentioned it before, he was never supposed to be Spider-Man, he’s in the universe where the spider is from, not his universe, where there is no Spider-Man, he finds out his dad is dead here, his uncle is alive, and that the version of himself here is also the Prowler, the same persona that stalked him over a year ago.

He was chained and tied up, he was glitching, and he was also going to die, alongside his dad, in the next 2 days, without anyone knowing what happened to him.

He was alone, and everyone was against him.

It was the definition of hell, and the world morphed itself into it.

He was staring down the alternate version of himself, the power up gauntlet grazing his face as it hummed with power, the wielder ready to blow his head off at any sudden movement. It was to be expected, if a suspicious look alike suddenly showed up to your home and acted like they were you.

He rubbed his finger against the chains that held him against the punching bag, slowly but surely building electricity that flowed through his body, ready to discharge at a moments notice. He knew how he wanted to get out, and he was sure with their positions, he could pull it off.

Suddenly, the sound of breaking glass could be heard by the window, the pieces scattering across the ground as he heard the alternate Aaron grunt and seemingly shift his body to block the pieces from cutting him. The alternative Miles swiftly turned his head, the same sour expression on his face as Miles also looked in the direction of the impact.

He could see the outline of a human, but one that he was not expecting, and one not so soon either. The person wore a suit of chrome, using a webbed design that most spider people used. There was a symbol of a spider across his chest, pointed out by the glowing green light emitting from the suit, across the spider, and the lengths of the webbed design. It didn’t stay constant, as once the person regained their bearings and their situation, the lighting of the suit began to constantly change, shifting from purple to blue, to white and orange and red and what not.

“I saw everything back there.” The spider person raised their hand, one of the society's watches around his wrist could be seen as the suit’s light maintained a deep blue lighting, the formation of what seemed to be ice appearing from their hand and extending down to both of their legs. The ice shifted direction as a swirl of shards began to pick up from beneath the person, picking up in speed as he opened his hand.

“It seems like someone needs to take your side.” He spoke coolly through the chrome plating, as the alternate version completely moved his gauntlet from Miles side, and positioned himself to attack the new party, the mechanical face plating covering himself as the holo purple that he could be seen with came to life. He clenched his fist.

“I’ll be the one.”

***

2 days prior

Of the places he could choose, New York City was the most appropriate.

The Young Wolf strolled through the streets of Manhattan at a steady pace. The cold of the northern hemisphere was nothing new, both from the Last City, and the frontier of Jupiter's Europa. But he was fitted with golden age armor for the purpose of multi-regional situations, nonetheless, the vacuum of space, so the difference was noticeable.

Although it had only been 5 years, each look at the 100 feet buildings, lights illuminating from inside, the street lamps gentle hum in the evening, and the sight of civilians enjoying food, taking peaceful walks, or going on evening jogs brought a sense of warmth and accomplishment, besides the random upcoming of crime that was brought back into the city in those years too.

6 years prior, he was given the choice to shoot his companion, destroying them, whilst stripping him of his power, but with the benefit of stopping an event that their enemy, The Witness, required to construct their ‘Final Shape’. He refused to take the shot, and allowed the adversary to proceed with a link to ‘The Veil’, an artifact based on the memory of the universe, based on mental concepts.

This allowed the Witness to enter the Traveler, some being of light that spoke through visions and dreams, disappearing into a universe lost to time and space.

This chase, following them… the death and loss following, the reappearance of planets, all felt needless.

But Mercury was the key, using the Infinite forest with the assistance of brother Vance and Banshee, the former lost to time in the forest, and the other sacrificing himself for a device of safe passage.

Thus, the space was sieged, reunions with lost lights of the past came and went, an understanding of their past life…an understanding of power old and new, the reveal of the entity behind the traveler, the entities death, the fusion of light and dark, the defeat of the Witness and the permanent separation of it to darkness, and a choice…

A choice bestowed onto him to do with the power… to erase, create, reform… or to do nothing.
Something had to be done with it, something to repay, to atone for.

Thus, he decided what to do with the power of purpose, to manipulate, to reform, to erase, to create. After a meeting with important figures who came to aid in the Witness’ defeat, he placed his plan and suggestions:

The power was going to be used to reform each planet and moon in Sol to their state before the Collapse, and before any alien invasion.
This would not only remove any hostile forces on each planet, but would allow each body to become habitable once again per their terraformed states
However, anything added after the collapse that has no use to the Guardians or any allied force will be removed.

With the coaligned factions, that of friendly Eliksni, The Reef and Caital’s Empire, their home planets and locations would be restored, and added to the system of aligning bodies
This is also under the same rules as their planets before events that removed them.
This would solve the issue with the Dreaming City and the everlasting curse, and bring order back to the Reef, but their locations remained the same.

The system would be protected under a barrier of Paracasuality that only those aligned with the protection of the system, or with special access, would be allowed to pass through
A detection system of some sort would also be set up in the case of outside invasions, pre-determined by its own rules.

People are allowed to move anywhere they wish in the galaxy in due time, beginning with humanity reestablishing earth and developing further.
Governments for nations on each planet can be established and reestablished in agreement from Earth’s nations.
Neomuna is allowed to stay as their own independent nation if they wish, and are free to lend assistance to the rest of Sol if they wish.

The Vex were to be destroyed completely from the inside through the network with Mithrax’s assistance.
This would render anything vex related useless, unless their technology is able to be reproduced
This would eliminate the threat of the Vex entirely from the universe based on their patterns.

Doing all of this is guaranteed to remove the YW’s power from paracasuality completely, with or without his ghost, and there was the possibility of death as well.
In any case, he would request a vacant pyramid and some parts from the traveler during the process, and would retire after the process was done, fake their death, and live their life.

That was his plan, and conditions… which were approved by each leader in the end, and the process happened…

It was 5 years after losing his power, with his gear in a special place, people already moving from Earth, the system established, still in touch with his allies and fireteam, the hero of the universe leaving his mark on their home, whilst living in New York with his Ghost… indulging in his hobbies he developed before he died, and “died” and now… whilst attending school because he had to be made as a teenager so he could do something later in life.

Luck factored in his past operations being an immortal warrior, but now, it didn’t count towards anything he was doing now, especially the lack of power.

“I always wondered, why did you make that decision back then?” The voice of his ghost emerged through their neural link as the YW entered his apartment building's lobby, sporting a luxury design, but nothing he paid attention to when he passed by, before pressing the button for the elevator.

“Why the question, now, of all times?” The YW questioned himself. They had been living like this for years, with the assistance of the Vanguard as a ‘VIP’ for the country, and left behind his Guardian life.

“That power could have allowed you to continue as a Guardian, to stay with your fireteam, explore the universe, do something really good.”

The elevators ding signaled its arrival, before the metal doors opened. The YW entered, and positioned himself in front of a retina scanner. The machine scanned his eyes, before glowing green and automatically closing the door, as the elevator sprung into motion once more.

“You know the reason. The deaths, the non-stop fighting and wars every year, the choices, those I could have saved, the ones I killed…”

“It was not your fault, and you know that. Crota,Ghaul, Uldren, Savathun, the Witness, Nezer-”

“And it was ME who is at fault!” The YW shot back immediately to the final name, especially to the last name, to him. “Lusia wouldn’t have died if I was just a little faster to stop Crota’s swing, only a little faster to get on Ghaul’s ship, Cayde would have been alive, even if lightless, if I killed that abomination faster, Sagira would be alive if I took time to assist Osiris, Savathun would have never taken over Osiris if I had done something when he reported his investigations before Sagira’s death, Amanda, Asher, Brother Vance and Banshee would have been alive if I had done more during the pyramid’s arrival, I could have prevented Rohan’s death if I could get a grip of strand, and don’t even get me started on Nezerac!”

Silence fell upon the elevator, with his Ghost abstaining from manifesting to his side. It was a choice, one that he made, and one that would change their lives. He could have continued as a Guardian, as his ghost mentioned… but with that track record, more would die, and he would have rather died to fix it all and atone for every single one.

“You know I was a organic creation of Nezerac and another disciple, one still unknown, left alone to Nezerac on earth of control before the golden age, centuries prior… used as a puppet to begin wars, suffering, cults, his torture machine… and perhaps to catalyst to turn humanity into another subjugated species for the Witness. I was Nezerac and that unknown disciple, with Nez’s memories shared to me.”

“The Traveler saved me by removing my connection, in this very city, when it first arrived, during one of Nezerac’s psychological sprees, and I was allowed to live my life, and with my knowledge, what did I do? Absolutely nothing! I continued as if nothing happened, and it came back with the Collapse, and that lack of action got billions, Billions killed, alongside myself!”

“But you don’t know that for sure, do you?” Light emerged to his side as his ghost physically appeared with him, floating to his walking speed as he neared his apartment door, “The entity in the Schism, the one of the Traveler, recognized you, but didn’t have the chance to tell you what she needed to. That event is still a mystery, and there has to be a reason behind it.”

“But if I could do something to stop the Witness, why didn’t she let me? I had the information, and some of the power and knowledge, but I didn’t.”

“But you died saving people during your time in the United Nations during the collapse evacuation. You might have not said anything for a reason, but it did not stop you from saving people either. Perhaps it removed that thought because something needed to happen, something she planned…”

“So,,, she planned to let billions of innocents die?” The YW took their energy to turn their head towards their ghost with a mildly frustrated look to that suggestion.

“Maybe she needed a series of events to occur at some point, with some people, for something to happen, a gamble, if you like to call it.”

“And using gamble makes me think of Gambit” The YW lightly chuckled, audible, but barley. “So she could change the pattern? Back in the Schism, she mentioned a repeat with the Witness, being tired of running and letting civilizations die… so she stayed, and created the ghost as her final wager,”

“Similar to Unveling’s text, the ‘Gentle Kingdom ringed with spears’, quoted by the Witness, but I believe it lies in a similar context, and she wished to play that wager during the Collapse.”

“At this point, we know the Guardians were the wagger, but the timing, the reason… it doesn’t make sense, and it may never, but perhaps, like you mentioned, it was planned for good reason, and I always wondered about Elsie’s resets as well.”

The elevator came to a halt as they reached their level. Security precautions required another can from the user, or a specialized ‘key’ in the shape of multiple diamond like shapes. This time, Ghost inserted himself into the piece, allowing the elevator to scan and rotate him 720 degrees. The system recognized the user, with the access strip glowing green. The doors began to open, revealing his apartment of 5 years, which he had personally modeled for himself per… special accommodations.

The design consisted of a light brown, wooden plan, both the floors and walls alike. These were supported with pearl accents; To the kitchen table tops, to the ceiling around certain lights, to sections close to the supports on the bottom of the walls.

The rest of the main area was decorated with organic plants, carpets of red to contrast the brown, and with the length of the room, the wall was decorated with pictures of the Tower and his old team, the seals that he obtained during his service, trophies of his triumphs, and some of his more influential weapons showcased: The Last Word, Thorn, Lumina, Hawkmoon, Ace of Spades, Gjallahorn, Mythoclass, the swords from Willbreaker, Whisper, Lubrae’s Ruin… Nezerac’s Whisper… those that mattered

His kitchens flooring was tile(despite being uncomfortably cold barefoot), and the living room consisted of a red carpet floor, outfitted with two brown couches, with a low leveled glass table placed decently far from a long inched TV, underneath being a fireplace under a section of concrete to avoid fires. There were sections off to sides of the rooms that were open to display more of their achievements. There was even a section to the side sporting a cat bed, and a bowl for food and water, which lacked the cat to back it up.

To the side facing from the entrance was a glass plane with a door in the middle, leading outside to a platform. The platform in mind was fitted with wood flooring, sporting a rectangular pool in the middle, and guarded with lowered glass planes spanning each section of the platform. Around the frame contained long recliners and glass tables, alongside umbrellas above each section.

Inside the apartment laid a staircase to the left of the living rooms frame, with a long red carpet laid on each step from top to bottom, with another opening underneath the wooden frame leading to another room, more or less, fitted with musical instruments, filled with guitars, drum sets, orchestral instruments and those of band, sound proof to a tea.

The top of the staircase leads to a two way hall, with the right side down designed for guests, with another class protector to prevent injuries by accidental falls into the main section. In the middle of the hall was designed for something else. The guest rooms served for anyone who wished to visit him in their free time, and wanted to stay for the night. It was nice to have the company once in a while.

“When she mentioned the multiple resets after imminent defeat to the Witness’ forces, and traveling back to the day of Cayde’s induction of hunter vanguard, I proposed that there should have been a reason for that point of time'' The YW pondered as they scaled the staircase of their apartment, with their ghost floating right behind them, “And from that point, anything that happened was important to the events the Entity favored. I also think that maybe th-”

Splash!

The abrupt sound of water came from the central room of the hall, and the duo seemed to know what was going on immediately. Entering the room, two Pouka’s were seen from the makeshift pond at the edge of the room, illuminated by fluorescent light alongside the glow of the sun from the glass wall. Water was spilled on the floor as the two Pouka seemed to be playing with each other.

“And the Pouka, as I was getting to, had brought hints of the pyramid on Europa to Elsie, and suggested that I should deal with the Black Heart of the Black Garden, as something vital to deal with. But it didn’t seem like they needed to splash water on the floor.”

The Pouka, intelligent beings, looked down in guilt. After the meeting determining the use of his power, Nimbus came aside to see if he wanted to take two Pouka who seemed to have a liking towards him and his ghost. He didn’t mind taking them, more so, having two intelligent paracausal fish wasn’t bad, and decided to have a special room akin to the Pouka Pond from Neomuna for them to stay in.

“But, I can’t blame you two, knowing that there is barely anywhere for you to go, seeing as you aren’t really allowed outside Neomuna unless given permission… and that would raise too many questions and wanted attention. But just clean this up, alright?”

The Pouka let out something that sounded like an audible cheer, and immediately left the room and vanished downstairs.

“So maybe, we were some type of factor in this ourselves” Ghost pitched in the previous inquiry “The Black Heart was able to corrupt Guardians earlier, and we destroyed it, we also helped Eris, which saved her from her nightmares, and set an example of using darkness for good. Maybe we were the primary piece to some game between them.”

“I guess you can say that, but I’m stumped, we can leave this discussion for later, or drop it now” The YW yawned as they both exited the room and went the opposite direction to the otherside of the hall. The door to his room wasn’t anything to comment on, as it was another wooden door, as the rest of the bedrooms upstairs had. But opening the door… betrayed everything that seemed ‘elegant’ to the apartment.

The king sized bed was facing the Hudson River with the sun's light escaping into the room, with a closet for clothing and shoes behind the bed frame, with the bathroom on the opposite side of the room's entrance.

However, the rooms walls were decorated to the brim with posters, flyers, and physical copies of rock bands, from different albums from Pre-Collapse, and Pre-Golden age bags such as Zeberahead, Linkin Park, Disturbed, Guns N’ Roses, Sum 41, and Billy Talent. Guardians for the most part seemed to have some connection to their past lives with innate skills and personalities, and the memories from the Schism allowed the YW to know that he was a rock head… and it was no wonder that he and his fireteam seemed to love playing and practicing.

The YW plopped down on the bed as his legs seemed to collapse once he entered the room, not bothering to change out of his clothes, nor to take a shower.

“And you do know that you have a school trip tomorrow, correct?” Ghost questioned as he positioned himself above the YW as he sunk further into the bed, shoulder visibly collapsing as he accepted the bed's embrace.

“OuF Cuose ieH dOH! BaHT IeH Whena Selpp! Ihe WoauLD NEhvHA MiuHS soHemin fawr dA TrAVhlar! ” the YW mumbled under the sheets of the bed as he stopped moving once more, before audible snores could be heard from below.

“And off to sleep again…” Ghost shimmered with light as he displaced the YW into a correct position, and confirmed that he was actually asleep. “Can’t have you suffocating now.” Ghost shimmered away with light, allowing the YW to sleep as the sun disappeared.

***

Operating as a Guardian, the YW varied in timing, showing up either too late, too early, or exactly on time to either get something done, or completely miss it.

Retiring from operations must have guaranteed that he would always be late.

The bus for the trip would arrive at exactly 8, and required all students who were attending to be there at 7:50, at most.

It was currently 7:43, and he had only reached outside.

“And you didn’t think to wake me up at a reasonable time!?” The YW yelled as he jumped down the stairs of the apartment building, be made a beeline for his school”

“And you said you wouldn’t miss it! You know I’m not a sentient alarm clock!” Ghost yelled back between the neuralink between the two, and although the imaginary scuffle drew the heads of walking civilians, he paid no mind but the street ahead of him.

In his attempt to rush as soon as possible, he quickly got into his uniform, and scuried out of his apartment, not taking account of the dip in temperature. It was 23 fahrenheit. It was too early for this.

The sun had already begun to rise, thankfully so as America decided to remove the hour switching, and pushed the time back permanently one hour in the east coast. The light had begun to strike the windows of the buildings, bouncing to other objects… alongside the still bright headlights of Manhattan commuters.

Normally, from his apartment to his school, through central park and out the middle, and heading northeast, walking takes around 20-30 minutes, meaning his estimated time to leave was 7:10. Running to the school takes around 10-12 minutes with his speed, meaning a time of around 7:30. Therefore, he would on average, be late by 3 minutes, and miss the entire thing.

And although he didn’t mind doing make-up work which felt like it took an eternity and 2 halves, he had better things that he could do, like… sit around and feed flying rats pigeons.

Either way, he wasn’t having a great time at the moment, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to make it.

“Ghost, manifest skateboard… please.” The YW quickly let out as he turned a block and into Central Park, a clock by the side confirming the time to be 7:46.

A board manifested from light underneath his feet, as a normal board began to roll below as they began to descend into a slope. The YW quickly hopped onto the steadily faster board and leaned forward, slightly changing his posture to maneuver the board.

Central Park was as it was before the Collapse, the trees, lakes, statues, cracks in the ground that are prone for tripping, homeless people… the usual, as he remembered, minus the street performers. Continuing down the path, and under a tunnel lead him to the central lake of the park.

He olied down a set of stairs leading to diverging paths, separated by a central fountain. He leaned right and followed the path, swerving to and oling to avoid cracks in the path. It was not too long before he reached one of the main commercial roads that lead through the park, before cars began to pass by. Narrowly avoiding cars coming the opposite direction, the YW swang behind a car doing up hill the direction he needed, grabbing its back as it carried him upward

Current Time: 7:48

The car the YW grabbed onto was about to reach a red traffic light, and he decided to swing around the left side of the car to make it by. The momentum from the car launched the board and skater forward, the obvious signs of wind passing by as he began to lean forward to preserve the speed. Passing by the light, oncoming vehicles began to honk and brake as they noticed the student pass by them. Continually swerving around the traffic, the YW reached the other side of the road past the parks exit

At this point he was 4 blocks from the school, and looking at the time… still 7:48. And with that, he smirked as he focused again on the path in front, skidding at the corner to the street his school resided on.

“And with my luck, we are going to be one time. Now Mrs.Callahan can’t complain abo-” And his words were cut off as he tripped off the board from a pothole. The YW tumbled down the sidewalk, which felt like he was rolling on each spec of rock on the sidewalk before laying on his back. “Nevermind, luck sucks.” He grumbled as he got up from the floor, patting his uniform from the knees up.

“It’s now 7:49, we should hurry.” Ghost reminded him of the ticking time as the YW sprung into motion once more down the street, tunnel vision too deep to mind his surroundings.

“I don’t want to waste a day, I do not want to waste today, I won’t waste today” He chanted to himself as the school came into sight across the street… alongside the bus… and Mrs.Callihan waiting outside for students, but mainly the one missing.

There were no traffic lights for safe crossing, and so, he hailed Mary, and quickly ran across the street, before reaching the otherside without being hit, and continued running towards the bus. At this point, Callihan, a middle aged teacher with dark brown hair turned her head in his direction, composing a face mixed with disappointment and surprise.

“Mr.Patterson. And I for one expected you in another 2 minutes after the listed time.” The teacher spoke as she tallied off the final student, the red pen rolling on the paper off the clipboard. “On the bus, I need to check up on some things before we leave.” The teacher finalized before heading to the school.

Mortis High School, an elite private school for those of high status, knowledge, or talent, whether it’d be sports, technology, science, the arts, if you had some type of placement in society in the last 5 years, you were almost guaranteed to make it in. The fake name of Germaine Patterson, one of the last living descendants of a respected chief scientist at Braytech during the Golden Age. He would need to thank Ana for the fabrication that was totally legal, and Drifter for the wonderful name.

And although he rarely pondered about it, he always found it fascinating that there were many that lived outside the city, and some that made it outside of the system. It felt like the number of collapse casualties were reduced from around 9 billion to maybe 7 billion with the amount of people alive. But with that, and the school's status, there was bound to be a decent amount of…

“Hey Gizmo, when you actually decide to show up early for something, that’s when your parents are actually going to decide to come back from their voyage!” A masculine voice boomed from the back of the bus as he boarded, garnering laughs from the back of the bus as well.

Germaine sighed as he took a seat in the front of the bus, no one likes sitting in the front of the bus, taking out and inserting his ear buds. Of all the people to possibly join them, Flash Thompson, who displayed exceptional prowess in football. Wherever he came from, it was not the last city, and was raised a dick. And besides, the parents taking voyages to other planets was a good disguise story.

“Yeah, yeah, sure.” He quietly shot back as he planted his head on the back of the bus and allowed his music to take him away. He didn’t need a target on his back, no less too much attention on him… but it wasn’t making anything easier.

***

If it wasn’t for the main topic of the trip, Germaine would most likely still be sleeping.

There was a museum that opened a year ago. Name is irrelevant, but the content was worth looking at and studying… if it weren’t for the fact that he had seen most of them during his multiple lives in person.

By the hand of the Vanguard(and himself by proxy), alongside other collaborators, there were multiple artifacts from the golden age, the Collapse and even during the city age leading to the end of the supposed never ending war.

The group of students were lead through the primary gallery, multiple cases displayed timeless artifacts, from the frame of the Ares-1 Division, who landed on Mars to investigate the Traveler, to an axe of the Iron Lords, the remnants of the sword Will Breaker of Oryx, which all seemed to break off into sections for the different era’s before they reached this era: something that people called the Silver Age.

Although the Tour guide seemingly wanted to in chronological order, Germaine decided that he didn’t want to do that, and broke off from the group, already being an outlier. As much as he respected the Golden Age and what came from the Collapse, regardless of its status, he mainly wanted to inspect the City age stuff… mainly to generate entertainment.

Each display was brightly illuminated by artificial lights, highlighting each piece from the bottom up. One of the first things that his gaze stumbled upon was a ‘replica’ of Rasputin’s frame, dead and deactivated from his sacrifice 6 years ago.

The next was a depiction of the Veil, which lay secure on Neomuna.
Some others include enemies that were fought during the era that he fought, from Atheon, Oryx, Eramis, Riven, Savathun, Rhulk, Nezerac, the actual Witness. There were even some of the pyramid fleet that seemingly floated, but dangled still on transparent wires, but still had him reminiscing of their arrival, of dread, but with comfort of association.

There was even a section showcasing weapons from Khvostov, No Land Beyond, Outbreak, Tarrabah and..

“Cayde…” Germaine whispered as he extended a hand towards the hand cannon, losing himself in the moment, the memory… the death, the last breath, the last shots. Of course, these were not the real thing, they were locked down, or kept for personal reasons. If it was anything highly dangerous or important to an individual, it was a copy of the real thing, including all of his weapons, anything he considered too valuable to let stay here.. Mars and deepsite really were something to have.

“You seem really memorized from that weapon. Anything special about it?” A voice called out to him, and in an instant, he was pulled out from the trance, and jumped to face the voice’s direction. The other student sported brown hair and a set of black glasses. He stood around 5 '6, maybe a little less or more, and wore the male school uniform, outfitted with a white button up shirt and a light purple suit. It was accompanied with white dressing pants, and the shoes, as long as they were appropriate with the rest of the attire, was up to the student. This student also had a camera bag with him.

Oh, right.

Peter Parker, kid in Physics, involved in anything related to it, and newspaper cameraman under the Daily Bugle, which opened up fairly quickly in the city. But he also didn’t expect him to show up either.

“No, but yes! It was actually the weapon of the former Hunter Vanguard Cayde-6 during the city age! Great guy, good with jokes, a gun, a decent leader, reckless, had plans that either struck gold, or erupted on anyone and everyone who was close to it, and died to a bet…”

“Wow… I wasn’t expecting to hear all about this, especially way before the guide reached this section, but I think I would have gotten along with this guy, Quipps are my specialty too, even if they come out at the most inappropriate times,” Peter softly laughed as to not make too much noise “But you seem to know a lot about him too.”

“Oh, uh, yeah, I knew a guy who knew the guy. Talked about him all the time, and how he was too great..; especially to lose too early.” Germaine looked towards the weapon again. It wasn’t too long before the end of the war that he met Cayde again. The actual Cayde, not a nightmare of the Hunter. He was just like Ikora at the time, wanting to tell him about all the things that happened after his death, to Uldren, Eris’ return, the use of darkness, Clovis and the Deep Stone Crypt, and the Witness and information about the collapse. He was even able to get Crow to speak to the guy, and it even went well, all things considered, and it pushed Crow to become the Hunter Vanguard for once.

“But yeah, I just wanted to check up with you, since I noticed you strayed away from the group. No one has noticed you’ve been missing, so hurry back when you can.” Peter waved as he turned back the way he came, most likely to the Golden Age section of the gallery where everyone was.

There were also more things to look at in this section, including items from the DSC, or the Levithan, and over there w-

“COME”

An overbearing voice echoed in his head, as a stream of images flooded his brain: The Traveler, Pyramid Ships, the Witness, the Entity, the portal, the Schism, their fight, a motion of the paracasual powers, the final fight, ripping out the Witness from Darkness, the revitalization, a spider,,, Spider? Like the Mob Eliksni Spider, or another spider?

Germaine clutched his head as the images and voice repeated themselves, his ghost manifesting from light to check what was happening.

“What happened!? Are you hurt?” Ghost hovered around Germaine, seemingly inspecting each limb to find something, if anything attacked him. Germaine was not doing fine himself, his brain pounding intensively, something that he has never experienced before in his lifetimes, and it showed no signs of calming down either.

“I EXPECT YOUR ARRIVAL”

The overbearing voice spoke once more, the pounding intensifying, but concentrating on a single point, guidance of some sort… a road… path?

“FOLLOW THE PATH”

“COME”

Seemingly, a stream of a purple fluorescent aura spawned in the gallery, expanding, increasing in length, waving its pattern, always fluctuating: thinning, widening, leading to a certain piece in the gallery: of the Traveler and the opened gateway. Both individuals observed this path, whilst also reaching the same conclusion.

“This… This path… it’s guiding me… no, us, to something. And this path, constructed of…”

“Combined Paracasuality, the same from Traveler and the Veil… the same you had when we fought and destroyed the Witness.” Ghost finished as they inspected the piece. It was seemingly unreal, and felt impossible even more so that something like this was never found, or at least experienced at some point. But the more the thought roamed in his head, it came together.

“If this was linked to paracasuality… and could most likely, only be triggered by someone who has a connection to it as well… the reason this hasn’t been found at all is because no one with that connection has here, or more importantly, if not, it’s becau-”

“You are the only one to have that merged connection with both sides…” Ghost pondered, to Germaine's dismay. The Schism was an assortment of things, but primarily a concentration of Light and Dark, manifested in another plane of existence, and one requiring that connection to both sides of Paracasuality. It was there he learned to master some of the other components of Darkness, from the Nightmares, the Witness’ Resonance, their own power near its prime.,, and another version of the frequency of the universe, Consonance, a bright pink take on the domain of the universe, defining the purpose of correlation and consistency.

However, the insight of the Veil, Asha’s story of the Witness, and advice from Savathun of all people hinted to a mix of both powers if used in a specific method: Using both the teachings the Light and understanding each aspect of the universe, whilst incorporating each mental process of Darkness at the same time, a state of consistency, but the limitless potential of Paracasuality. It was also then that he was able to incorporate, combine, and define different pieces of Paracasuality at his own leisure, for whatever he wished. Strand didn’t need to be strings, Stasis the concept of ice if he wanted to.

And he never expected to find it again, the only one with the potential to use it, with past and present knowledge, will… and the only one who was up to the challenge and willing to use both sides of Paracasuality.

“Something like this is not good. We need to settle this now.” Germaine looked at Ghost, who nodded in agreement. They both proceeded towards the gallery piece, seemingly noticing that there was a gap behind the installment, one that wasn’t sealed by the museum owners.

“Money does things to the mind, doesn’t it?” Germaine mentioned as he attempted to push the piece to the side to open the way, slowly but surely opening the hole, but still loud enough that anyone in the Collapse gallery would be able to hear it… not that anyone would hear it of course.

Beyond the whole, the wave of fluorescent light continued down a dark path, descending further into darkness.

“Well, it's time to get this solved” Germaine began to walk down, Ghost’s light emitting from his eyes, as the duo began to follow the path that would lead to the answer, or hopefully grace them with one.

Or something a part of a greater design.

Chapter Text

Even mundane things always bring back memories. Dark tunnels, corridors that are forever clouded in darkness… it wasn’t the hive again, right? No less Xivu.

The fluorescent light followed the narrow path, its waves becoming less frequent, extending further into the darkness. The stone floor sloped down as Germaine carefully took long, sturdy steps, his Ghost floating in hand, dust thrown into the air after each press, sliding minimally.

The energy of the light gave a sense of nostalgia, for better or worse. It served as a reminder of what was… why it needed to happen, and who caused it. The bastards of that race… serving for purpose… Nearly shooting Ghost and remembering the retelling from Zavala was the first thing that came to mind when he followed his hands through it, but the satisfaction of ripping them all out from their purpose all came the same.

He knew there was something wrong with the voice in the dark, from Savathun’s hints of the dividing line to the perfect split. But the Witness defining themselves as darkness… it should have been obvious that their influence and strength was too strong. Mentalites, mental thoughts, the concept of life, and entropy… controlled chaos.

This is something that shouldn’t be here… but he couldn’t think of how… more so why.

“I know this is obvious, but this isn’t good.” Ghost pitched as a mechanical shifting could be heard from behind.

“Yeah… one could guess that from our observation not one minute ago.” Germaine threw back at Ghost, who flickered his lens to what seemed to be defiance. The stone inclining grew lighter as they continued forward, the light growing in concentration, widening, opening towards something.

“And I seem to believe that we are getting closer to our origin point.” Germaine spoke as the floor began to even out, the dust subsiding and the steps became constant, and the goal was clear.

The light reached the end of the pathway, before splitting off into two opposite strips. Germaine and Ghost exited the narrow pathway, and entered the room. It wasn’t large, with only a few pillars rising to the ceiling in the corners of the rooms. The stone design wasn’t betrayed… but now that he paid attention, the stone hadn’t decayed… almost as if it was new, or just formed. Perhaps it’s something that someone made… or something that was remembered.

The two waves surrounded the room, colliding with one another before branching towards the pillars, wrapping around and racing up to the ceiling, spreading out, enveloping the walls, and proceeding to the floor. The moment that the light fully concentrated on the room, pulsing as if alive, intensifying… it returned.

Germaine clutched his head with both hands as the pain grew constant, its tempo increased, and the throbbing continued. He was on his knees at this point, wasn’t he? It was too long since he felt pain on par with this… no, this was worse. It felt like something was coming back from him… but what?

“THIS WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN”

“YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE”

“YOU WERE NEVER MEANT TO BE SPIDER-MAN”

Spider-Man? Who was Spider-Man? Wait… Spide-

“I’m here to help”

“I know I can’t trust you”

“Sometimes it’s all we have, an old man told me once”

Who were they… the voices? Moments in time… future… past… Spider-Man?

Those thoughts seemed to betray him at the moment, as the pain stopped, and the concentrated light began to subside… but unbeknownst to the duo, it was focusing on a single point in the room… the center of the ceiling, the conformed and commanding chaos formed into arthropod… and one more so drawn by familiar connection. The Spider flashed with multiple colors, changing from red to green, to dark blue before changing to cyan, before sporting purple and light pink, all the way to orange, to white, before suiting deep black and black, white glowing highlights running through its legs.

This spider spun a string from its weave, the variety of colors reflecting onto the string, almost as if it was a beacon, responding to something.

That signal was below it, kneeling down.

The spider began to descend.

***

Carol Marsh lived a mostly secluded life early on.

Being born into a village in the remains of Japan was one of the reasons, and the same could be said to those in similar situations.

These off ‘Last City’ settlements continued far long after the dark age ended, and the ‘tyranny’ of Risen did as well. These followed with rules, not even limited to hers, as others told her. The main rule was to never stray too far from their settlements, but it was also to stay away from any and all Risen. This also meant that migration to the Last City, stationed in South America, was also forbidden. If they were able to keep away from their problems, then they would never be harmed.

It was believed that those light-bearers only cared for themselves, for power, control, and entertainment. If it was self-centered, it was automatically attributed to them by default. They claimed themselves to be ‘Guardians’, something to perhaps cover up their past mistakes, or to fool everyone so they could potentially do it all again. They weren’t going to fall for it.

No one broke the rules.

Eventually, an emergency broadcast was made by their Vanguard, alerting any personnel on any planet to elevate themselves by any means in the 5 hours. Each settlement had ships of its own, and everyone was able to get off the surface, and in a matter of 2 minutes… everything went back to normal.

Their settlement remained the same, but the atmosphere, the terrain, the landmasses, the life… nearby buildings, whole towns, roads, factories, apartments, houses… they all came back in an instant.

It was as if a miracle happened… a generous gift, something too true to believe in. But it was real.

There was another broadcast announcing the death of the one responsible. A Guardian, who went by the title of The Young Wolf, but casually went by Azarath. He didn’t take a class like most others and decided to learn from each one of them. He had a track record to follow his name and was the one who put down those responsible for the Collapse.

Most people cheered him on as a hero.

Those close mourned.

Others did not care.

Once a Risen, always a Risen.

From there, everything moved quickly. Previous world nations were founded once again as a basis for civilization once again, economies began to run once more, and everything else circulated around that foundation.

Others in the settlement said their goodbyes, and split to other nations, perhaps with a connection with their past lineage, or decided to move to continue their lives, and start families, to how it was before. Although her family originated from Japan and the United Kingdom, her parents decided that New York City would be the best option. It being the United States or personal preference, she never found it out.

Soon, schooling systems began to open once more, and children under each nation were to be enrolled… not that all citizens listened, however.

Each school began on even ground, but it wasn’t before the balance was broken into those more elite, seeing as the slate was broken completely. High schools and universities were formed with those standards in mind, and Carol managed to place them in the higher margin.

New York City had multiple schools, both on each spectrum of students and in choosing, she placed into Mortis, where anyone standing on a decent margin of talent and skill could get into.

Going into this, her parents warned that ‘Once a thief, always a thief. Once a liar, always a liar.’ She never used it directly, but she became aware of others, and who she should associate herself with. Majoring in Physics also seemed to help narrow her group down, and being attractive was already a factor too.

But a museum trip, one more or less about the events from the Golden Age to now, was something she was not excited about. Her friends even decided that they were going to tank the extra work, but she decided she didn’t and went alone.

There was also this one kid, Germaine, a physics and psychology major. He was attractive, that was for sure, but his introduction and his hobbies made him seem like an outcast, who had no friends, and was a target for the jocks of the school, Flash no less. Even more so, something about him just seemed off, as if he was hiding something from everyone. More so, no one had seen his parents in the school, even though they had ties to some of the greatest minds of the golden age.

So she found it more surprising that the moment they entered the museum and were about to enter the first gallery, Germaine was missing, although he was seen entering the building with the group.

“Excuse me, may I use the restroom?” Carol raised her hand from the back of the sea of students.

Mrs.Callihan could be seen nodding in the front to the tour guide, who then directed her toward the restrooms before the rest of the group migrated to the first gallery.

Carol did not go to the restroom.

Most people don’t take their surroundings into account for everything, but Carol also had as a precaution. She took note that Germaine had always stayed outside of groups, towards the back right or left, out of most people's sight, and stayed quiet during any gatherings, attempting to garner as little attention as possible.

This time, he positioned himself in the back right, and to the right of the entrance was the third gallery, under the ‘City Age’.

Whatever he was doing, he was most likely there.

As she began to move to enter the gallery, she was quickly pushed back by the sight of another student, that of Peter Parker, yet another physics and technology major, exiting the gallery.

Once he was gone and was seen entering the Golden Age section, Carol began to move as quickly as possible toward the gallery. When she entered, besides the multiple cases of artifacts given to the museum by the Vanguard, the obvious stickler was the moved case at the back of the room, behind what was a portrait of the Traveler post portal opening. Everyone in the settlement knew of it, everyone on Earth saw it.

And everyone was scared at the time.

Accompanying the moved piece was a pathway, one guided with a strange, yet familiar light proceeding into the darkness. She had her suspicions, and had the feeling Germaine went down, and that he was the one to open it in the first place.

She pulled her phone from her back pocket, and turned on the flashlight, its light illuminating the already lit hall. She sucked up anything holding her back, conscious or not, and began to follow.

***

“It happened again, are you alright?” Ghost immediately lowered his shell to Germaine, inspecting him thoroughly. But it was the same, nothing physically seemed damaged.

“Yeah, never better, just mentally suffering from all of… this.” Germaine waved his hand to the now dark and silent room. “And looking at it now, the paracausal energy is gone. Seems like we reached a dead end, and all of this was for nothing. We’re heading back.”

Germaine pushed himself fully to his feet, raising and waving his hand up to signal Ghost to follow him as well. He didn’t even notice that something planted itself on his hand as he rested it in his pocket.

They began to walk through the entrance of the room when Germaine swore he saw a light coming from above before it seemed to turn itself off or redirect itself.

“Did you see something further up the tunnel?” Germaine questioned as he pointed diagonally the way they came. Ghost moved further up and looked towards the direction, quickly inspected, and turned around.

“Nothing seems further up, I think we are in the clear.”

“Great, so let's hurry before some actually se-” Germaine began to walk forward to the tunnel, and suddenly, a pinch of pain came from the hand he stowed away in his pocket, causing him to the whiplash hand out and out towards the museum.

“And now I’m getting bitten by everything humanly possible, fucking hell!” He cursed as he inserted the same hand into his pocket, not giving attention to the bite, lingering with the same paracausal energy.

He didn’t know how big the museum was, but being seen down here was not going to do either of them a favor.

***

Germaine and Ghost had reached the base of the museum, the piece still to the side where they left it. No one else was in the gallery, so he assumed that he made it just in time.

He began to pull the piece back into position, blocking the pathway from view, and walking back outside of the gallery, Ghost demanifesting in light as they walked into a more exposed location.

“Conclusion: Nothing to mind. It dissipated and the energy is gone. And now, seeing everything again that happened 15 years ago, I feel some type of closure, if I didn’t have it all. So now, we just need to act like we were just coming bac-”

“Mr. Patterson!” He heard Mrs. Callihan call his name to the right, and he winced when he thought of the implication. It was the fact that he knew the result.

“HI Mrs. Callihan!” Germaine greeted with a slight wave and slightly hunched himself down to seem innocent. “I was just… going around and looking at stuff… yeah.”

“You went ahead, correct? Well, since you seem to know so much about everything that you can jump forward ahead of your classmates, I expect a 20 page paper, detailing each point of history from right before the golden age, all the way to five years ago, and I want that in, in one week. Tops.”

“Oh, well that isn’t bad, I think I can do that” Germaine accepted the assignment easily, and a little too easily.

“And I expect a full presentation, without that essay, to be presented 2 days after it’s been submitted. It will count towards 80 percent of your annual grade for my class.” She turned away from the flabbergasted student, left standing in the isolated primary room.

“We should have stayed at school.” Germaine added as he began to follow the teacher, who seemed to be in the next gallery.

“I concur.” Ghost spoke through their neural link as the two followed into the Collapse Age gallery.

***

Carol was surprised, to say the least.

She hadn’t mentioned anything she saw to anyone, including the room where a figure could be seen with another floating object, and no less the suspicious light that enveloped them as she stood outside.

By the time the light disappeared from the room, she had already turned around to leave the tunnel and return to the group. She had even heard one of them speak, assuming it was the human figure, talking about some ‘paracasual energy’.

Whatever it was, she was going to leave it alone, as it had nothing to do with her. And by the time the whole group made it to the final gallery, the piece was placed in its original position, and the pathway previously opened was now hidden.

And although she knew it had nothing to do with her, Carol wanted to figure out what happened, or what was going on.

She caught a glimpse of Parker to her side, inspecting what was Siva, a nanotechnology that went rogue and was obtained by the fallen to cause an outbreak 12 years ago in Russia.

“Hey, Peter, I know we usually don’t talk, although we see each other often, I saw you in this section earlier, and I was wondering if you saw anything suspicious.” Peter had turned his attention away from the nanotechnology and towards his peer.

“No, I came early to see if anything could catch my attention so I could make a story detailing some of the events for the Bugle. If anything, the only thing off was that Germaine was here before I arrived.”

“I see. Thank you for the information. I just need to ask him a question that I have been dying to ask for the past week.” She awkwardly waved bye as she made haste for Germaine, whose patterns made it obvious to find. He could always be seen on the outside of groups, as she noted from observing his weird activities during school hours as if he was hiding something. This was no different, as he could be seen observing one piece of weaponry or artifact, reading each, then proceeding to the next to do it once more.

“Hey, Germaine. I have a quick questi-” Carol began to speak as the other quickly turned his eyes to hers, simultaneously jolting his body and his attention towards her fully. “Uh-mm, yeah, hi? Carol, right? Some of the same classes that I have too. Did something happen, I was in the middle of looking at some of these weapons.”

“Yeah, sorry about that, I was just wondering, where did you go when we entered the museum? You seemed to vanish the moment the guide began to speak.”

“Hmmm… Honestly, you might have heard it from Callihan, but I went ahead of everyone to stick to this place, and she’s making me do some assignment. This place is cool, can’t lie about that.”

“And did you see some hole in the wall behind that piece over there when you were here?” Germaine perked up to that statement, quickly turning to the place where Carol was pointing, and began to slightly sweat.

“Honestly, no, I didn't see anything. I even went to the one before this, so nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Yeah…” She let the final word continue as if she was making the point that he was somewhat suspicious. “I’ll go, and look at the rest of this place. You keep on looking at the weapons.” She waved again and left his general area.

‘He said that he was here the whole time, and he never left either. He couldn’t have missed that pathway’ Carol mused to herself as she walked past some of the students, one hand on her jaw, positioning herself as if she was thinking about something, which she currently was.

‘Somethings up with him. I’ll ask him about it again later.’ She ultimately decided not to bring it up to the staff, as it would bring all the attention to her, and without anything to go off on, something would get planted on her for trespassing or the sort.

She was going to figure it out.

And she never noticed the glowing spider that stalked its way to her bag.

***

The trip was over, and the time was 4:30.

Germaine couldn’t and wouldn’t lie, he didn’t expect the trip to last 8 hours.

More so, he didn’t expect the rest of the content in the museum that was before the whole traveler's arrival to be boring.

To be fair, it’s not like it wasn’t important, nor the fact that each mention of some great terror had him remembering that he had some part in it.

But it was plain boring.

“I can sense your boredom.” Ghost spoke in his head as he walked back to his apartment. There was nothing left to do for the day, and it was the end of the week, and more so, one more week until winter break. He wished he could thank someone for that.

“Yeah, and my tiredness, I’m now thinking that future historical trips are going to be boring as well.” Germaine grumbled as walked around a grate on the floor. It was wishful thinking to walk on them and hope that they didn’t collapse under you, so he never took chances. “And now I have to deal with the fact that I have another long assignment and presentation that I need to do before I can catch a break of some sort!”

“It isn’t all bad. How about we both cook something at home? It could take your mind off it, and seeing as you haven’t eaten, I think it would be a wonderful distraction.” Ghost said, as Germaine’s stomach growled, if on cue. He forgot that he didn’t bring anything with him when he rushed out, including food and money.

Hell, he only worked online, and although it was kinda illegal… using Glimmer and reconstructing it into real money, it was more than enough to take care of himself. He was just hoping that no one would notice anything off about what he does, where the money comes from, or the job.

He had to stop underestimating everything he was doing.

“I guess. We’ll figure something out when we get there, but I know it’ll start to snow like 10, so we should focus on getting back.” The students were given the choice of figuring out their own way home, or taking the bus back to school and finding their own way if it suited them better. As much as Germaine wanted to get back home and rest, he wanted nothing more than to get away from that forsaken building as soon as possible. He walked 2 hours down south to get home and had to deal with NYC drivers too.

And he was starting to go back on that decision.

“Germaine!” He heard a voice call from behind. He continued to walk, not forgetting that he was on some time limit, but turned his body and head behind to see who it was, only to see a figure with medium-length brown hair riding towards him on a bike.

Where did he remember that from?

And then he remembered.

And he turned back around.

And tried to keep cool.

“I just saw you look at me, Germaine!” Carol shouted, noting that her voice was definitely closer to where he first heard it,

‘My luck’ he grumbled in his head as the rider flew past him before skidding down the sidewalk in front of him.

“Look, I’m just trying to get home, and I walked 2 hours just to get down here before finding out it’s about to snow, and it’s right there. Can this wait until next week?” He tried to go around the student, but she swiftly blocked his path.

‘This isn’t going to end fairly, will it?’ He silently questioned in his head.

“And I happen to live 4 minutes in walking from here, so I think we can both spare another minute. You mentioned that you stayed in that gallery the whole time before Callahan called you out. If I saw that pathway in the gallery, you should have seen it. I think you were the one to open it. How did you find it? Why?”

“Um… I still don’t know what you are talking about. I gotta get home before mom starts to get worried.” He attempted to go around the bike once more, to get blocked off once again.

“You mean the same mother who’s off on a trip with her husband off planet?”

“Yeah~ I usually video call her about my whereabouts around 5 every day. And besides, I gotta look after my cat, Gibson…” He quickly opened his phone to show a short white cat with blue eyes and hints of gray around his paws and whiskers. “The little guy gets himself into a lot of situations, so I need to go check on him real quick, so bye!” This time, he pretended to go one way, knowing that Carol would attempt to block him off for interrogation, before feinting his move, and spun around to the other side, passing her completely before ramping up his previous pace.

By ramp-up, he meant run.

He definitely didn’t make himself look suspicious.

That’s impossible.

Carol looked on as Germaine began to run from her, avoiding her questions directly, but leaving some form of satisfaction as well.

‘He’s a part of it somehow.’ She took her hand and reached into her bag, looking for her phone for a picture. Feeling its design, she pulled it out as she turned it on, and swiped to her camera. She took a quick photo of the fleeing student, something that could go towards something bigger. Once she did, however, a spider, one that was different in some form, crawled up to her hand, and before she had a chance, it bit her. She swung her arm in one motion, flinging it towards the ground, before noting that it disappeared from sight.

Although the bite stung, it seemingly went away, and without dwelling on it too much, she began to ride home, thinking of the possible implications of the museum, the wall, and Germaine.

She didn’t notice the same spider seemingly inserting itself into existence once again, before clinging onto her shoe.

***

It was Saturday morning, and Germaine didn’t feel like getting up at all.

The snow from yesterday was still falling, so he had no intention of getting up, and he wanted to push the assignment until later when he had the time. His room was dark, per the blinders of his windows blocking the sun from entering his room, the only things visible being the potential lights of devices in his room that he couldn’t see.

“Ghost, open up the blinds.” He groaned as he turned himself on his back, arm covering his eyes as he could see that the sun began to brighten his room. He was going to have to find something to do, but it was going to take time before he could compose himself to do something.

Germaine extended his hand towards one of his bedside tables, where he usually left his phone. He lifted his other arm from his eyes and blinked open his eyes. “What do you want to do in like… 2 hours? I need to get myself up in time, so I’ll let you choo-” He spoke as his outreached hand landed on something soft, warm… and something alive.

“SHIT!” He immediately sprung out of bed, higher than usual, and that same object his hand landed on was brought up with him. He roasted his body around when he jumped, his other hand reaching behind him as his back faced the ceiling, quickly closing the space between them. He felt his hand touch the ceiling, and he took time to stop panicking and looked at his hand.

“...Oh, sorry, Gibby.” He calmly soothed as the object he touched, his cat, dangled in the palm of his hands, his fingers over the cat's torso. He tried to release the cat, seeing as he was right over his bed, and it wouldn’t hurt him, but when he attempted to do so… he stayed in his hand. It was also at this time he realized that he also wasn’t falling down himself.

“What?” He turned his head around towards his hand, whilst pulling it forward, only for it to extend slightly, before planting down once again. He tried again, moving his palm off first, but now his fingers were planted as if some extremely durable glue was placed on his hands.

“Ghost! Situation!” He practically yelled as the light of his ghost manifesting could be seen next to him. “What is- What happened? Why are you on the ceiling?” Ghost spoke with slight panic as he inspected the cat and wall-clinging human, this being the least expected event of the month.

“I don’t know! Gibson was on the bed and I got scared, jumped with him in my hand, and now I’m stuck on the ceiling with him!” He waved his other hand with Gibson in hand, who despite the situation, was perfectly calm.

“Alright, then, calm down first, think through, and actually think.” Ghost threw that last phrase with intent, knowing the track record of Germaine and his out-of-track thought process. So Germaine did, closing his senses one by one, the thought of touch, smell disappearing, focusing on nothing, just an empty void in his head. It was the same feeling as the Void… he hadn’t felt it in a while.

All of a sudden, a purple aura began to frame his body, Ghost hovered back with surprise as Germaine still clanged to the wall. Then, one by one, each finger attached to the ceiling and Gibson began to uncling, continuing further until the cat fell from his hand onto the bed, and quickly moved himself towards another area.

“We used to do meditation back on Neomuna, I think we should both do it more ofTEN!” His calm suggestion turned into a high-pitched scream, as the last finger detached from the wall, and he plummeted into his bed. The mattress sank as he fell into it, before slowly rising back into position, Germaine face down, hands and legs outstretched in each direction.

“That’s not normal, that isn’t normal!” He quickly shot out from the bed and looked towards his Ghost, who seemed to have the same thought in mind, if someone wasn’t able to catch onto that. “I was never able to cling onto walls, it was as if I was some type of spider or something!”

He paused at that.

Spider.

Spider…

Man?

“Spider-Man?” Ghost and Germaine spoke at the same time, both for different reasons, of course. “Like are you something like a spider? What were you, bitten or something like that?” And Germaine came to a realization as his eyes began to expand before he sat back down on his bed.

“Yeah. Speaking of which, I actually think that it’s the case.” He got up from his bed almost instantly as he sat down, moving towards the bottom drawer of his main table. From there, he pulled a comic labeled Spider-Man, and brought it over to Ghost. “When we were down in that tunnel, I saw some visions, heard voices, someone mentioning Spider-Man. And immediately once it was done, I was bitten by something.” He raised his hand and rotated it towards Ghost to show… nothing.

He flipped his hand back and realized there was nothing. “More on that later, and somehow, I landed with powers that seemingly align up with this guy.” He then raised his other hand with the comic, displaying the title of ‘Spider-Man’, showing a man in a red and blue body suit with black lining and white colored opticals, following the aesthetic of an actual spider.

“He was bitten by some radioactive spider whose venom fused with his body cells, enhancing him in virtually every way possible, and he became a hero with that ability.”

“And the same thing happened to you yesterday… though you seem the same physically, seeing as you were already buff from workouts, and you can seemingly glow too.”

“Glow? But I didn’t glow at all.”

“But you did, on the ceiling. You just didn’t see it, your eyes were closed. Even more so, I detected a strong paracausal reading during that brief moment.” That caught his attention, as he quickly began to scour for possibilities for Ghost’s statement. And then he landed on something.

“The Void. I thought of the Void. It felt similar, like there was nothing but it was the Void, it had to be. And if that same reading came from me, perhaps now we…”

“...No, I don’t feel a connection between me and you. We might be here together, but that connection is still gone.” He soured at that truth. When he took that dive to correct the galaxy, he knew that he was running on one life, seeing as abandoning the whole paracausal power would include resurrection and his connection to his Ghost. It seemed even now that there wasn’t any type of connection. Being without a paracausal power also meant that he would age, and soon, he would die naturally, and final. He was fine with that, and he knew it too. That’s why he chose to settle down and live life normally after he was done and society picked itself up again.

He also should have expected criminals and whatnot to also be included, because some type of evil had to be around the corner.

“Speaking of which…” He wanted to see if the other sects of light were there with him. He focused deeply, trying to recall how he manifested the powers of the light before retirement, the knowledge and understanding. He felt a rush of adrenaline, the feeling of current, and at the same time, of expansion and energy, to fill in a piece, an aspect lacking. In unison, his body began to glow, a divide of cyan blue and bright orange began to surround his body, the elements of arc began to crackle, whilst a controlled ignition of solar sparked as well. At once, he thought it away, and both were gone.

“And now, the other side…” He began to concentrate on his state, his thought, and his mindset. He split his state into multiple points, attempting to hard focus each towards one state, towards one thought. He began to think of order, control, and domination in one sect. Another, connection, the greater thought, framing, and foundation. The next, collaboration, frequency. Another shifted towards fear and pain, another towards one definite purpose, another towards a defining state of will.

All the same, his body began to glow once more, the properties of a state taking form into reality. His body began to emit dark blue as perfect crystals formed onto his body, the space around him and his forehead emitting green strings, another section collecting into a light pink-red energy, vibrating, defining. Another portion began to emit a deep red, swirling with menacing intent, to another lacking light, a deep black and blue swirling and emitting particles of black onto the room. The last contained yellow-orange energy, swirling in motion, always formless, moving in unison, but always ready to change.

All in one, he collected his mind, focused on himself, and the room returned to itself.

Of everything that he had to learn under Paracausality, wielding multiple states of Darkness was the most time-consuming, and stressful. Having one state of mind wasn’t hard to grasp, especially when consciousness was connected to the power, but having different concepts at the same time felt impossible, no less when you were actually fighting with it. If he also wanted to wield the Light at the same time as Darkness, then this was a crucial requirement.

It wasn’t until he got more insight on Titan and during the resurrection of Savathun that he was able to get something going, seeing as she had some method to get through the portal, alongside the eons of knowledge she held. It took some time, but he was able to get it down before they went through the portal. Mastering that power was the reason they won, so although Savathun had to be resurrected, it was crucial to saving the universe.

And now, the powers were back.

That spider had to be Paracausal in nature. But why, and more so, how?

“And I still got it!” Germaine gave out an excited laugh as he moved towards his working desk, sat down on the office chair, and spun around. He came to a halt to face Ghost and could see Gibson in the back, seemingly curious, but ready to run out of the room. “And although I know I can go back, I’m not going to. Whatever this Spider-Man position needed to take was fate, for some reason. And besides… going back means risking it.”

And by that, he meant killing in general.

“And by that I mean her. She’s still a threat, but I’m making sure she won’t be able to do anything vastly dangerous to anyone in the future where I can.” His face turned sour rather quickly, compared to the enjoyment he experienced not even 10 seconds prior. He didn’t know if she actually bought the play, but it was something that he was hoping actually worked.

Otherwise, they would have a whole other situation on their hands, not including her active presence somewhere in the universe.

“I’ll need a suit, and I have an idea of how to get it, but I also need to make something clear between us.” He narrowed his eyes toward Ghost, who was still silently floating in the air. “I won’t be killing anyone, no matter how dangerous it might be, how dire it might become, and how dangerous the person is alive. I won’t be doing anything to risk us all, and these are humans at heart regardless. It was different before, but we are in the now. Do we both get it?”

“Yes, I get the idea pretty clearly.” His Ghost replied across the room pretty clearly. He seemed to have gotten the idea the moment he mentioned her. If anything, it would only draw her attention, and then they would be on the verge of another collapse, and he wasn’t about to go on a whole crusade bargaining war.

“Great. Now, suit-wise, I have an idea of what I want to do.” He rotated his chair towards his monitor, reaching for one of the side drawers, and pulling out what seemed to be some type of communication device, before turning the small dial in the middle to some frequency. Once he got it into position, Germaine tapped the base of the device before placing it next to his ear.

“Hey Nimbus, how’s it goin’? I need something real quick, real important.”

***

He wanted to get started immediately, but that wasn’t going to happen. Of course, it wasn’t going to.

He mentioned that Neomuna was a separate nation on its own up on Neptune, meaning like any other nation, it needed to be transported. Even in 3739, with advanced technology and all the jump drives allowing space travel, planetary travel seemed to be a pain.

What he expected to be something that took at tops three hours… took seven.

Seven fucking hours.

At this point he was sitting outside, watching the snow fall onto the floor, the pool, multiple umbrellas, earbuds in his ears, blasting early 2000’s punk rock. He had his eyes open, and the clouds had blocked the sun, guaranteeing he wasn’t going blind that day. Most of the time he was either playing in his music room to rock, practicing with paracasuality again, or getting a hand of this whole spider thing. The strength and everything was back, alongside the spider clinging thing, and jumping farther, and spider-sense, things like those.

The parcausality also meant he would be able to fly again right? That kinda defeated the purpose. But at least he could double jump… glide… use lift… and blink.

He felt less spider-like the more he thought about it.

Then, an individual came into sight from the sky, soaring down on a silver board with what he believed to be a chrome box. They also seemed to wear silver themselves but were about the size of a human. This person dove straight down, before leveling themselves in the middle of the air, and breaking by rotating their board sideways, as if they were riding a normal skateboard.

“Special delivery for… String Man?” The delivery person re-read their holo description, before looking down at Germaine, who was only looking up, still sitting down. He just waved upwards, and the delivery person slowly descended.

“That would be me. Don’t worry, I know Nimbus always had that name for me.” He quickly smiled as he grabbed the box from their hands and began to walk toward his apartment's entrance. “Thank you, and tell them I also said thank you, again!” He slid the door open, stepped inside, and slid it back closed.

He immediately dropped the box on the carpet, and a loud thud could be heard from rooms away. He wouldn’t be surprised if someone from below had also felt it too. He could see Ghost floating into the room, alongside the two Pouka, but also faintly heard the yelp of a cat upstairs.

Looks like he had woken up the cat.

The Pouka that had just entered was immediately attracted towards the box, seemingly inspecting and flying around it, their eyes seemingly scanning the chrome, the blue light reflecting off onto the floor. Seemingly, a series of mechanical parts began to shift as it began to open, only to reveal… more chrome.

Anti-climatic as it might have been, the exact same box and the revealed chrome came to life as Germaine kneeled down, and extended his hand towards the machine. Cloudstider tech was durable, as he heard from every single living being on Neomuna during the whole Calus problem, and that it was some type of advanced form of Siva. That same Siva that killed the Iron Lords. The same Siva that could construct cities in days. The same nanotechnology that the Devil's House used to start a plaque in Russia. Having that meant something… and using it while fighting changes mostly everything.

The cluster of chrome began to pull towards his hand, seamlessly latching on as the rest of the greater piece followed. The nanomachines slank around the hand, and passed through the gaps of his fingers before working their way up the arm, spiraling down the span as they lightly spread to his shoulder. The tech then began to work its way around his body, forming a layer of nanomachines that covered his shirt, working their way down and covering his pants to his shoes. The rest of the machines moved to the other pole of his width, covering his body with more chrome, now shrouding his entire body from the neck down. The remaining chrome had begun to slink its way up his neck and wrap itself around, making its way up his head, before finally enveloping his head. He now looked like someone who was covered in metal plating and was thrown in chrome paint, which was basically his situation at the moment.

The Cloudstriders used their tech and its development with the Veil to link consciousness to how it was controlled. And so he thought, and he thought deeply. His mind went black, showing an outside perspective of what he believed to be his body currently in chrome. If he wanted to show that he was Spider-Man, then he needed to have an image of what his Spider-Man would look like. And so, he yanked his thoughts on that point, imagining what his suit would construct himself to be. A simple design, two sharp eyes lens that he could see through, outlined with an edge from the chrome, to a decent spider design on both sides of the body, the chest sporting an arachnid with sharp fangs, the eight legs angled in both directions, with two of the legs up with the fangs. Although he would have split the spider in the middle to sport the sides of paracausality, refrained from using the choice. The chrome was modified to add lining across the suit, sporting a design that separated the suit rather than it being a blank face of chrome. The spider on the back was the same as the front, but vertically inverted, facing down towards his legs. He had also thought of something specific, but it wouldn’t work until he was in action, so the actual element was never shown.

His design was complete, and it didn’t even take 2 minutes. Technology was magic. The mindscape was closed, and he was tossed back into reality, his mind returned to normal, and his vision, was black. Until it wasn’t. Immediately, he could feel the parts of the nanomachines shift around his entire body. His vision was returned as the machines around his face moved to outline his visors. He faintly felt the outline of the spiders being lined on his back, the overlay of tech over another as the lining of the suit was now complete.

He didn’t need web shooters or fluid or anything like that. He already had that part covered.

“Look at that,” Germaine spoke under the tech as he raised his arms to inspect the designed machines, clenching his fist and moving his limbs simultaneously to get a feel of the suit and his movement potential. It was obvious that it being nano machines meant that it would be flexible, but he had a nagging feeling to try, nonetheless. “I think that we should go on a test ride.” He chuckled under the chrome as he raised his head towards Ghost, who nodded, and disappeared in light.

Germaine kneeled down to the Pouka, whose eyes were slowly inspecting the form the chrome took, but still recognizing the person underneath. “I’ll be back soon, just need to try this out real quick.” He then rose from the floor, turned around, and slid the door open once more, stepping out onto the snow, before closing it behind him. Though he should have expected it, he didn’t feel cold, a perk of having a modified nano suit developed by the best of humanity. He shrugged it off as he began walking towards the edge of the platform, peeking his head over the edge down to the city, which was a decent 1200 feet down. He looked to the left and noticed some buildings a little shorter than his apartment that he could maybe use.

Then he remembered that it didn’t matter.

“Here goes everything.” He silently muttered to himself as he backstepped three times for clearance, lowering himself for a decent start, assuming that he didn’t slip on the still falling snow. He braced and launched himself forward. Germaine paced three steps fit his previously placed prints, landing on the last, and propelled himself upwards and over the glass, bending his body backward as he began to flip into his descent.

The immediate pull of gravity from the major height was the first thing he felt, and it felt nice, with his track record of jumping from heights on purpose or getting kicked miles up in the sky, but the purposeful falling was on his mind. The pressure of air impacting his suit was barely noticeable, but it felt like it added some weight to the fall. He could see the city streets drawing closer, which should have been the first thing that he noticed. He pulled forward his left arm from his still pose and outreached to the left, and thought briefly about his plan. He should have thought of his method.

Swinging with a thicker thread with Strand had drawbacks the more he used it, seeing as the motion of a theoretical swing wouldn’t be ideal if the thread was tied around your wrist, more so if you were being dragged to the point. It wasn’t his design, but shooting from the wrist, and more so keeping the thread thinner but durable would allow for improved movement. Reading those comics back in the day seemed to do the trick. Why hadn’t he ever used that thinking when he was actually swinging with Strand when he was actually being shot at?

That thought came into existence, and a manifestation of a glowing green string began to form around his wrists. Using thought, he allowed the flow of the weave to extend itself to another point, where normally a web or wire would have no point to latch onto. But with Strand, the extension of its existence everywhere gave another advantage.

He wasn’t restricted to anything physical to swing on.

A point from the weave manifested into the physical world, the thread latching on as Germaine continued to fall. He rotated his body approximately 30 degrees to the left, the thread anchoring to the point, as the counteraction stopped the free fall and used the motion to swing his body in the same direction. As he rounded his apartment building with the first swing, he released the thread from the point and carried the force forward as he continued to fall.

At least he wasn’t thinking about cosmic water to swing with.

“This is exactly like the first time using the grapple, but more fun than stiff!” Germaine laughed as he threw out another thread that grabbed a building to his right, as he used its position to move right through a gap between two buildings. He planted his feet on the left building, running on the glass of the buildings before ejecting off and shooting another thread and swinging to the left.

“I’m glad that I don’t have to be out here for this.” Ghost sighed in his head as Germaine went for a late swing, waiting until he was closer to the street to shoot out another thread in an empty space in the air, allowing the momentum to level himself, before quickly releasing and rolling on the street. The street was still crowded, the sound of blaring horns in the distance was not missed, and never ceased, as he quickly realized. The city never slept, even in harsh weather.

He jumped to the right, planting his foot on the roof of a city taxi, before launching himself off and spinning in the air, brushing some of the snow off that clung on from his roll, before crossing the double yellow line, and planting his other foot onto the roof of a black SUV. He hopped from car to car, honk by honk, until he reached an intersection. He jumped from the final car and entered the intersection, raising both his hands upwards to zip to another manifested point.

That his sense went off.

And then he heard a horn.

Germaine turned his head to the left. There was a truck right there.

His lens widened, and “Aw, shi-'' He was slammed in the face as he heard the crack of glass and the all too familiar sound of metal colliding with something else. He instantly felt pain as he clenched his eyes, and felt his body roll onto the street. That counted the first time he was struck by a truck.

There was bound to be more than just this one occasion.

“Are you alright!?”
“What the fuck!?”

He heard at the same time, the ‘Are you alright sounded more internal, so he assumed that it was Ghost who said that. The other… sounded pissed. He didn’t want to stay for that. He also didn’t want to say that he wasn’t going to be paying for that. They should have insurance, they’ll be fine.

“Never, better.” He immediately shot up to his feet and threw out another thread that he pulled on, the motion pulling him towards the point at moderate speed. “They’ll be fine, it happened all the time before the collapse.” He reassured as he zipped once more.

“Yeah, and I would like to say that most of them weren’t caused by you?”

“Well, yeah… but only like 2 of them, they suck at driving.”

He zipped upwards once more, and propelled in the air, in the distance, he could hear a *BOOM, followed by a flash of orange that he could see, and smoke rising into the air.

A robbery down by the bank. Although not common, it wasn’t surprising, it happened maybe once every… 4 months or so, maybe less.

“Time for the first bust.” A hint of excitement and determination could be heard in Germaine’s voice. He extended both hands and shot out two threads, narrowing his body, and pulling hard, launching himself forward towards the scene.

The first determined the rest.

He hoped the first wasn’t bad.