“Harry!” Gwen called, sounding surprisingly calm. The thing that Harry had become was holding Gwen in his arms as he hovered above the clock tower.
It pained Peter to see her in danger. She should have just stayed put, at the cop car, where she was safe, but of course, she didn’t.
“Harry is dead!” the thing growled. Peter honestly believed that but as Spider-Man he had to show a little more optimism than that.
“Harry! This is between you and me, not her,” Peter shouted up, “if you want to fight, fight me. Not her. Let her go.”
Peter could see Harry’s inane grin slowly disappear before he replied shakily, “Okay.” Peter sighed with relief until Harry quite literally let Gwen go.
“No!” Peter cried. He jumped up as high as his superhuman abilities would let him, hoping to catch Gwen in the middle. His world was spinning in slow motion until his hands wrapped around her waist and he had her in his arms again. Then they faced the clock tower.
Peter twisted around so that he would hit the glass first, not even feeling it when the glass shards ripped into his skin, focused solely on her. They landed promptly on one of the rails. Both of them panting heavily.
“You’re okay,” Peter muttered reassuringly. Gwen didn’t buy it just kept shaking her head. Peter scanned her for any injuries, he didn’t detect any but still, he had to get this fight with Harry over as soon as possible to get her out.
A bomb dropped right beside Peter’s head and he rolled to the side as the rail blew up beneath them. Gwen rolled out of his arms but he kept a firm grip on her wrist as he grabbed onto the side of the rail.
Gwen let out a muffled scream. “I got you, Gwen,” Peter reassured her again. “I’m gonna put you down right here.” Peter loosened the grip on her wrist and replaced it with a web and he let her down onto the massive cog on the next level.
Harry came flying in from the hole in the ceiling above, hovering on his board. Peter, perched on one of the railings, shot webs at the surrounding walls and railings. He flipped over Harry’s head and did the same thing over and over again from different angles, all while dodging his old best friend.
Jumping up and out of the ceiling, Peter shot a web at Harry, and on the way back down, caught him in a headlock. Pulling out a web and using it to choke him, Harry flew aimlessly around the small space inside the tower. he backed up straight into the wall, smashing Peter into it, but Peter pushed back and used one of his many pre-prepared webs to swing around on, catching Harry with a two-legged kick to the chest. Harry fell from his board and hit a metal bar with a heavy thud. Peter was aware of Gwen moving around beneath the fight and knew he had to keep Harry away from her.
Harry landed face down on one of the rails but his board on the other hand smashed into the rail Gwen was standing on. Causing it to shatter and her to fall. Peter jumped on to the next level and shot out a web, catching her wrist. Now he just had to figure out where to put the web to make sure she didn’t fall again.
Peter began pulling Gwen up, as if the web were a rope until Harry came up behind him and grabbed him around the neck, throwing Peter into the air and back down on the cog again. Gwen let out a scream of panic and Peter felt the web shift down.
Harry wasn’t stupid, he knew that the web in Peter's hand was the only thing keeping Gwen from falling to her death and so he slammed his foot down hard on the inside of Peter’s wrist. The cogs shifted. So did the web, causing Gwen to cry out again. He didn’t know what but Peter could tell something was blocking the cogs from rotating the full way around, and he just had to hope that whatever it was would hold out until he could get Gwen to safety.
Harry whipped out a knife of sorts and jabbed at Peter’s head. He ducked. Harry kept one of his arms pushing down on Peter’s chest, breathing was becoming difficult. Shoving out his hand he pushed Harry’s head away. Harry removed his arm from Peter’s chest and used it to shove Peter’s hand out of his face. Peter shot up and headbutted Harry followed closely by a punch. Harry sat back reeling and laughing maniacally. He jabbed at Peter again, but Peter shot a web out and tied his hand to a cog. Using his other hand, Harry got a good tight grip on Peter’s throat.
Peter was getting increasingly worried about that one small object keeping the cogs in place. Everything was groaning with effort and Peter knew if he didn’t act fast, he was gonna lose Gwen, and that was the one thing he could not do. Shooting a web at a cog on the far wall, he wrapped the remainder of it around Harry’s neck, choking him. The cogs moved and Harry’s head jerked back and he hissed.
Peter looked back and saw the one small object, was a lead pipe. Which had just now, broken. The web was going to break next. Peter could hear all the machinery straining but he stuck out his foot between two cogs anyway, he had to prevent the web from snapping at all costs.
“Peter?” Gwen called out. All the calmness from earlier had left her voice. Peter risked a glance down. He had to do something about the cogs, but he couldn’t even breathe with Harry strangling him. Then he heard it. The cog between his foot gave out and broke. Causing them all to shift.
All around him, chaos, from just one singular cog failing. They all shattered, fell to pieces. Every single one of them. Peter felt as if time had slowed to an almost complete stop. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Harry get thrown backwards, slamming into the far wall but that’s not what he was focusing on. Gwen was falling.
Peter didn’t even think, he just jumped from his level after his Gwen. He watched as all the broken pieces of the cogs barely skimmed past her on their way down. He had to stop her from falling. Extending a hand, he shot out a web. Everything was still happening in slow motion. His web seemed to take years before it grabbed hold of her stomach. Using his other hand, he reached out and grabbed hold of a bar sticking out. He swung off it for a couple of seconds. Gwen still falling for just a millisecond before she rebounded up. He heard the clatter of all the broken metal hitting the floor. But that was all. He couldn’t hear her. He couldn’t hear Gwen. Even with his enhanced hearing, nothing.
“Gwen!” he cried. A lump formed in his throat and tears in his eyes. “Gwen?” he tied the web off on the bar he was holding onto and jumped down the rest of the way.
There she lay. Staring up at the sky. She looked lifeless. “Gwen?” Peter whispered, letting the tears roll down his cheeks. He whipped off the mask.
He could see the tears rolling down her cheeks as well. The faint upwards movement of her chest and he nearly screamed in delight. She was alive. His Gwen Stacy.
“Peter?” Gwen croaked. Tears streaming down both of their faces, Peter ripped the web off of her waist and hugged her close to him.
“It’s okay. I’ve got you. Just breathe,” he said into her perfect blonde curls again and again. He didn’t know if he was saying it for him or her, but he said it anyway.
“Peter?” she croaked again, he pulled out of the hug but still held her on his lap, arms tight around her.
“Yeah?”
“Harry? What happened to him?”
“I don’t know, but I’m not worried about him, I’m just worried about you, okay,” he said hugging her close again.
“Thank you, Peter, thank you for catching me.”
“Always. I would do it a hundred times over just to save you.”
She chuckled, “Let’s not do that again, please?”
He kissed her forehead, then her lips. "Of course. Let's just get you home."