Chapter 1: Questions and Answers

Author's Note: At long last, I am doing the sequel to Spider-Man Downfall. I've had different ideas of what I wanted to do for a sequel, but I had other projects that I was working on. But now I've finally gotten around to it. I hope you all enjoy!

Though it had been six years since it had happened, he still remembered that day as though it had been yesterday.

It was on the Brooklyn Bridge, the evening fast approaching. It's amber light shined down upon the scene that would haunt Peter Parker and his alter-ego forever after it had unfolded. Gwen Stacy lay unconscious on the edge of the bridge. Spider-Man, seeing the love of his life at the mercy of the green and purple colored sadist who hovered above her rushed in, instinct overriding all other senses save for his omnipresent Spider Sense that compelled him to dodge out of the way of Green Goblin's projectiles.

But as he was on the cusp of reaching him, the Green Goblin grabbed Gwen and hurled her over the bridge.

In that moment everything had slowed down and Spider-Man broke off his attack on the Green Goblin to dive after Gwen as she plummeted. Leaping over the edge of the bridge and attaching a web-line to it, Spider-Man swung around to catch Gwen, or else bring himself close enough to her that he could jump forward and catch her in his arms.

But the Green Goblin came around and smashed into Spider-Man with the full force of a speeding car, knocking Spider-Man backwards and away from Gwen as she continued to fall. Spider-Man tried to fight the Green Goblin off, but his grip held long enough that by the time Spider-Man broke free Gwen had nearly reached the water. Swinging in hard and fast and then divebombing down, Spider-Man shot out a web-line at the brooklyn bridge and another at Gwen. When he caught her though, he heard a snapping sound…

"No…"

Peter Parker's mind flashed back to the present and away from the painful images of the past as he happened upon the single worst part of it. Returning to the present in full, Peter looked on at the woman he had loved and then lost standing in his doorway looking as alive and well as she had ever been.

"Gwen...how…"

"Can I please come in?" she asked innocently.

Dumbfounded, but nevertheless complying, Peter wordlessly moved out of the way and allowed Gwen entrance into his apartment. Shutting the door behind her, Gwen turned to Peter. "I'm sorry it took so long for me to find you, but I didn't know you had moved out of your old apartment. It took me forever to find out where you live now."

"Gwen, I...how are you here?"

"What do you mean?" Gwen asked with a frown. "I just told you how I'm here. I learned you live here now."

"Gwen you...you died."

"I what? Peter what are you talking about? I didn't die. I was kidnapped…"

"What?"

"Well at least I think I was. I woke up in this dark room, and I couldn't remember how I got there. Nobody was around though, and there was nothing keeping me from leaving, so I left. There were some clothes waiting for me when I made my way out of the dark room. I put them on and then I tried to go home, but I saw people living in my house who said they'd owned it for years. I wasn't sure what to do at that point so I went looking for you."

"Gwen...you were dead. That's why people moved into your house. You've been dead for six years."

"But how is that possible? I...I'm here right now! I couldn't have been dead!"

"I don't know" Peter said. "But it's the truth. I went to your funeral Gwen. Your tombstone is still there, right next to your father's."

By this point, Gwen was fighting back tears and sat down as she struggled to come to grips with what Peter was telling her. "I don't understand…" Gwen said, on the verge of succumbing fully to despair at how she had been dead six years and was now alive and well.

"I don't either." Peter admitted. "Gwen, what was the last thing you remember before waking up in the dark room?"

"I…" Gwen closed her eyes as she strained to remember. "I...remember going with you to the Coffee Bean. We laughed, we kissed, we spent some time together by ourselves. Then I went home...and that's all I remember."

Peter went through his own long stored-away memories as Gwen said this. He too remembered that particular night, as it had been their very last night together. It was nothing particularly romantic. No declarations of love, no night of passion or intimacy, not even a trip to a romantic film together. If only Peter had known it would be the last night he would see Gwen alive…

But now it seemed that it wasn't after all. Facing him now was the woman he had loved, lost, and buried standing before him not only alive but also to be frank exactly as beautiful as he remembered. How could that be? That question had already entered Peter's mind well over a dozen times now, and still he could not give an even remotely satisfying answer. So for the moment at least he decided to give up the futile attempts. For now, he could bring himself to focus not on the how but on the what. And the what was that Gwen was alive again, sitting in his apartment, and every bit as clueless to how she came back as Peter was.

"You said I was dead for six years…" Gwen whispered. "What happened while I was…" Gwen lowered her head rather then finish her sentence.

"A lot." Peter said bluntly. "For starters, the Green Goblin died."

"He did? How?"

"After he…" Peter hesitated, the words becoming like a stopper in his throat before he coughed it up. "...killed you, he tried to kill me. He wound up killing himself instead when that glider of his flew into him."

"And then what? What else happened?"

"Well quite a bit happened Gwen...it was six years!"

"I have to know Peter" Gwen said with a pleading look on her face. "I have to know what happened when I was dead. What happened to you?"

Again Peter hesitated. The last six years of his life was a long thing to recount, especially when Gwen was asking to know everything. And of course that he still didn't know how Gwen could possibly be alive again only served to further complicate things. But he also wasn't sure how he could refuse, not when he saw the face of his first love looking at him with a sense of true desperation. That she needed to know what had happened in her absence or else she wouldn't be able to continue. And so with a sigh Peter began the story Gwen begged him to tell.

He began with the events following her death, how their mutual science professor Miles Warren had subsequently snapped and tried to destroy Peter with clones of himself. He told her about the Jack O'Lantern and Hobgoblin both picking up where the Green Goblin had left off, about the black suit that had taken over him and played off of his lingering grief and rage over Gwen's death to turn him into something he wasn't before he at last got rid of it. He told her then about how that suit had gone on to create a new villain in Venom who in turn spawned another symbiote that became Carnage, who came closer to killing Spider-Man than most. And though he hesitated to mention it, Peter also told Gwen of his love-life, and how he had pursued romances with both Mary Jane and Black Cat, though he neglected to mention how Black Cat had just recently confessed that she was still in love with him and also kissed him.

Finally, Peter came to the events of the last few months, with Harry Osborn having orchestrated a ruthless series of attacks on him and his loved ones and tried to kill him and everyone he loved, followed by Peter's being fired from the Daily Bugle and then finding Gwen herself alive and well.

"...and that's everything." Peter finished, taking in a deep breath as he did. And for the longest time after that there was silence as Gwen took in everything she'd just been told. Finally, after a great period of silence she said softly: "Wow. Amazing how much can happen in just six years huh?"

Peter nodded. "No kidding."

"...so what happens now?"

Peter sighed, letting the air in and out slowly and laboriously. There was no savoring the intake or exhale of the air though. "I honestly don't know Gwen. I mean I'm still dealing with you being alive…"

"Well I can't just go back to where I used to be. Like you said, people live in my house now. And since I'm supposed to be dead, I won't be able to get a new one without people recognizing me and getting suspicious…"

"Not everyone will instantly recognize you." Peter pointed out.

"No, but someone will recognize me eventually, and then they'll get suspicious and start looking me up. And then they'll know. Peter, I don't want to start a whole investigation and fuss over my coming back. I just want to be able to live my life now that it's apparently been given back to me. So what am I going to do?"

Peter considered. What Gwen said had merit. Her death had been big news when it had happened. And while it was possible that if Gwen were to show up in public again she could conceivably get by without being identified as the same Gwen who had died six years ago, Peter could understand her not wanting to take that chance. But then of course where was she to go?

For a moment Peter suggested she go someplace other than New York to live. Surely someone living in say, Colorado, would not recognize her? But of course then how would Gwen get there? She did not own a car of her own with which to drive to another state and he did not own a car either, meaning he couldn't take her somewhere else. And besides that, Peter did note the seeming callousness in telling Gwen to go away and leave behind the only home she'd ever known.

Finally, with another sigh Peter said: "Gwen, I...I don't know. I'll think of something, I promise. But for now...why don't you live here with me?"

Gwen's blue eyes lit up as Peter said this. "Do you really mean that Peter?"

Peter nodded. "Yeah, I do. I can set up a bed for you and everything. You can live here with me until I can think of some place else for you to go."

As Peter said this, Gwen rushed forward and enveloped him in a hug. "Thank you so much. I love you…"

"Yeah…" As Peter returned the hug, he found himself thinking back on the love he and Gwen had shared with one another so many years ago. A love that had been cruelly destroyed by the Green Goblin. But now that Gwen had miraculously returned, was Peter going to pick up where he and Gwen had left off? Was it really possible for them to rekindle that fire that had long ago burned out with Gwen's death?

As Peter thought these things and asked these questions, his mind in turn drifted to thoughts of Black Cat, and as he remembered the kiss he had shared with her only hours ago, he began to feel immensely guilty and conflicted. His feelings concerning the sultry cat burglar turned hero and ally were already complicated as is. Gwen's return and the opportunity to continue his romance with her only served to further complicate things, and Peter for one was unsure of what to do. For now though, he could at least allow Gwen to stay with him for her benefit. Whether or not he would choose to become lovers with her again, he could at least do this for her.

"I love you." Gwen repeated. "And I've missed you so much…"

"Me too," Peter said as he continued to hug Gwen. "Me too…"

Author's Note: I really, really should have gotten around to doing this a LONG time ago, but better late than never I suppose. At long last here's the sequel to Spider-Man Downfall. Before we begin I feel I should stress a few things:

1. The timeline of this story is the prologue picks up where Downfall left off, which is in 2012. Then we jump ahead six months, where the rest of the story takes place in 2013. So it's not quite the present day but not too far back either.

2. If you haven't read Downfall I STRONGLY urge you to do so before reading this story, or you will likely have no idea what is going on here. And for reference, read the re-write, as this story is a sequel to the re-write.

3. Yes, in my Marvel Universe Gwen knew Peter was Spider-Man, like in the Amazing Spider-Man films.

4. In respects to Peter's being so surprised that Gwen's alive again when as we know nobody in comics ever stays dead, the reason for that is because in my Marvel Universe resurrections almost never happen. When characters die in my Marvel Universe, they tend to not come back. Thus, Peter's being surprised that Gwen is alive again is not mere arbitrary skepticism.

And with those two things out of the way, I hope you enjoy my long over-due sequel to one of my greatest fan-fictions of all.