The day of your wedding was upon you. You and Miguel both looked forward to this day since he proposed. You looked beautiful, and he was absolutely radiant. His smile, his tuxedo, his boutonniere. You and him had both decided that the wedding would be open to Spider Society.
This was for two reasons. For starters, you both wanted the Society to have something to look forward to. The outpouring of love would be phenomenal, seeing every single spider there in their best outfits. It was going to be gorgeous, and you both were looking forward to it.
The second reason was a secret kept between you and him. Miguel wanted the whole of Spider Society to see just how beautiful you were. He wanted them to see you, someone who they all looked up to, be just as magnificent as he got to see daily. He wanted to quietly flaunt the fact that he was getting married to you. You.
But that was back then. Before the distance and the secrecy. Before it felt as though you and him were barely coworkers. Before new recruits had to ask if you two were married or not. Before you were standing here, looking over an alternative Manhattan. The heavy rain limits your vision, and the wind makes it hard to ignore the bullets of water pelting against your back.
Just as discussed, Margo had shut off power to the city, stopping this Electro from drawing power and prolonging the fight. Jessica drew Electro's attention, managing to drive through the Columbus Circle, avoiding the lightning from him. Slowly but surely, he will run out of electricity.
You and Ben Reilly were flanking on opposite sides, occasionally shooting webs in order to restrain him, which further tired out Electro. This went on for at least half an hour, and you were getting annoyed. On top of everything else that has been going on today, you had to deal with a Maxwell Dillon that just won't quit? Not even the rain was slowing him down... which is odd. The water should be causing him to short circuit. You didn't have time to focus on what didn't make sense.
Suddenly, everyone present glitched, even Margo... odd. Your watches were supposed to prevent that. But not today... guess you'll need to take that up with Lyla and tech after the fight.
Speaking of Lyla, she appears on everyone's watches the moment this happens. She's scared shitless. A long stream of "Are you okay?" And "Oh my God," and "What do I do?" All come from her as she quickly tries to figure out something. None of you know it yet, but she called for backup.
The nausea subsides as you and the rest return to normal. Unfortunately for everyone, save for Electro, he recovered first. Ben Reilly bore the brunt of this development, getting shocked hard enough to make anyone pass out. And pass out he did, falling to the ground immediately, tensed and twitching, burns running up his arms. It was horrifying. You push the image out of your mind and try your hardest to focus on the battle at hand.
The backup Lyla had called for previously has arrived, two spiders drag Reilly's seemingly-lifeless body through the portal, where he's presumably sent to the med bay. The three other spiders take to the nearby rooftops. You connect to the watch, presenting a video feed to the new arrivals, explaining what is needed. You let out a quick exhale before beginning.
"Everyone, the goal is to make this Electro dissipate as many volts as possible," you say, dodging lightning. "He's still got a while, so we will need to also land some hits on him. Focus on drawing his attention, and landing attacks that will cause him to struggle."
It seems like a solid plan, having more moving targets means that Electro is more likely to miss. Perfect, you can tire him further. Like clockwork, the spiders begin to shoot webs at the rampant Maxwell Dillon, drawing his lightning and wrath. Just out of curiosity, you call upon Lyla.
"Hey Lyla? Can you run a scan on Electro and tell me how many volts he's holding onto?" You ask, curious to see if she even can see that. "It's okay if you can't, I'm just curious if you can," you assure, flying through the air.
Lyla comically holds up binoculars, looking through at him. She's learned these little "animations" as she scans something. She mainly uses them around you as opposed to the others. They're cute. She puts her hand on her hip and says "You're at roughly 3 million out of his 10 million volt maximum. But he's recharging on his own at a rate of 7.6 thousand volts per minute."
"You hear that guys?" You say through the watch, offering encouragement. "We're almost there," you yell, landing a kick onto Electro. Surprisingly, you didn't get any sort of retaliation, but he's too focused on another spider to care about you. You kick him in the back, sending him flying towards the ground.
He lands with a thud, slowly getting up for more, but not before Jess webs him to the ground by his wrists. This won't hold him for long, but he's certainly getting more and more tired. Lyla shows up on everyone's watch. "Keep doing what you're doing, everyone. His regeneration rate is lowering significantly. Soon you'll have him within a capturable range."
Her words of encouragement earn a weary smile from you, Margo, and Jess. The three of you have been going at this for a while now. It's about time you guys got somewhere. Of course, Electro gets up, managing to break Jess' webbing. The other spiders pelted him with webs, and it all helped. His regeneration was decreasing, and his lightning strikes were less frequent. The quips and puns from the three other spiders made this uphill battle much more bearable.
But before a significant celebration is earned, Electro begins charging... something. It looks like it's his hail Mary. "Everyone, keep moving," you order into the watch. "We don't know where or who he's gonna shoot that thing at, so just keep moving."
And move all of you do. Each one of you become a blur around the circle. Bouncing off of buildings, running around the road... if this were any other time you all would look like a circus. But today your unorganized movements have a purpose: stay unpredictable. All of you take turns going in and smacking Electro with webs from a safe distance, enraging him and tiring him. Your web manages to hit him square in the eyes... oops.
His charging is complete, and to everyone's dismay, it's you he's decided to throw the lightning to. Your spider senses fail you, not allowing you to get out of the way after webbing his ankle to the ground.
As you slide across the concrete bricks, you meet with a bright flash of light. Like fire spreading through your veins, like a mule had kicked you in the chest. Your breath had been knocked out of your body, and you were rigid. The ringing in your ears drowned out the screams and cries of your teammates. The world is now cold and dark. Your synapses begin to fall. You have fallen to the anomaly.
A cold, yet welcoming fog seems to envelope you. The ringing won't stop, but it feels like an afterthought. You're floating down what feels like a river. A very cold, gray river. You know the edge of the river is coming, but you're... at peace. You can't even worry about the fact that you didn't get to say goodbye, or what you would have even said if you could. It's too late now, regardless. The air around you slowly transforms as you begin your ascent. There's... nothing. It's just a calm cradle slowly lifting you to a paler gray. You're extremely comfortable. It's the best nap you've ever had to take, even if it's at an absolutely awful time.
Later, in HQ, third person POV
Two rooms, their respective whiteboards labeled "Ben Reilly" and "Y/n O'Hara". Doctors are rushing in and out of the latter's room, and Reilly stares out of the window.
Reilly gets up and peers out of the window to the door. Doctors are rushing in and out of the room, and each one looks panicked. He opens his door, taking his IV pole with him. A doctor tries to hurriedly tell him to go back to the room, but not before Ben gets a solid look at the door. His eyes widen at the name hastily written on the door.
As he's pushed back into his room, his jaw hangs. Sitting on his bed, the heart rate monitor's beeping increases significantly as he runs his hand through his blonde hair. Just what happened while he was out? He immediately grabs his watch from next to him, and he calls Jess.
After a few moments of ringing, she picks up, her face frozen in worry. She's in the med bay as well, but not recieving care. She's in the waiting room. At the sight of Ben, she breaks. Tears fall from the eyes of the ever-confident Jess. Ben stares at his watch in awe and horror, he's never seen her shake or falter- much less cry. Clearly something has happened, and clearly it's bad.
As Ben opens his mouth to begin asking questions, a doctor comes into his room. Ben doesn't hang up the call, instead just watches the doctor read over his chart and his vitals. The smooth expression on the doctor's face doesn't match the turmoil going on outside the room and in his mind. The doctor takes a few notes, then hands Reilly a clipboard and pen.
"You're good to go when you're ready," the doctor says with a strained-calm voice. "Sign this before you go," follows the previous sentence, their voice threatening to break. The doctor removes the IV needle and applies a bandaid to Ben's arm. Their spider senses go off, and are promptly gone, heading next door. Reilly is close behind, quickly signing the release form. He tries to get a peek into Y/n's room, but she's surrounded by doctors. One rushes to the window and shakes their head, and closes the curtain.
Jess saw everything Ben saw on the other end, her hand holding a tissue clasped over her mouth. Margo appears next to Jess, hugging her, giving a short little wave to Ben. He starts down the hallway, hanging up the call and breaking into a sprint to try and get to the waiting room. He bursts through the door and immediately sets his sights on Jess and Margo.
He speed-walks over to them, sitting on the other side of Jess. Immediately he pulls Jess into a hug, Margo hugging on the other side. Ben still has no clue what happened, he's been out for a little while. All he knows is that something is horribly wrong, and that Y/n is not alright at the moment. He doesn't bother to ask, as both of the women before him are sobbing. It simply isn't a good time.
A doctor comes over to the three spiders huddled together and beckons them to follow him. Ben helps Jess up, and offers help to Margo. She declines, her hand on Jess' shoulder. Following the doctor, they walk down one of the many winding halls of the med bay. They're led to a living room-esque place. A crisis room, the idea founded by the Spider therapists. A relaxing space away from the regular waiting room for people to begin processing the events that landed them there.
The doctor welcomes the trio to take a seat wherever they'd like, and takes their leave. The silence becomes unbearable once again, only being chopped by Jess' sobs and heaves as she tries to calm herself. Ben grabs bottles of water for each of them, even Margo, and sets them on the table. Margo looks at the water a little sheepish, and it takes a moment for it to click with Ben.
"Give me a minute, I'll be back," Margo says before her hologram disappears. It's now just Jessica and Ben, but not for long. A portal opens in the room, knocking a few decorations over. It's Margo once again, this time in the flesh.
She sits next to Jess and hugs her once again, this time with human warmth. She breaks the hug to move to Ben, and he can now see that it looks like Margo was sobbing. She cracks open the water bottle, and takes a sip. "Thank you," she says with a strained voice. She opens Jess' bottle for her, and holds it up to her.
"Mrs. Drew, you need to drink some water," she says in a gentle tone. Jess manages to calm herself enough to do just that. With a shaky hand, she takes the bottle from Margo's hand, and takes a sip. It's not much, but it's something. Jess was able to steel herself for a moment, still shaking from the trauma of the event and the subsequent worry.
Ben decides that he can't wait any longer for information. He finally asks, "so... what happened?". The floodgates once again crack a bit for Jess, so Margo steps up. She folds her hands, and begins with a deep sigh as she tries to maintain composure.
"How much do you remember?" Margo asks, unsure if Ben suffered any memory loss after being hit so hard.
"I remember everything up until getting shocked," Ben states with a straight face, but his trembling hands betray his wish to look fearless.
"Okay... so after you were knocked out, backup came in. You were dragged out. The fight continued," Margo explains, fidgeting with her fingers. "This Electro was, and pardon my French, fucking awful," she raises her voice slightly, hands clenched into fists.
"He decided to throw a giant lightning strike at the end of the battle, and it hit Y/n. His strategy didn't even make sense! There were 5 other spiders including me and Jess," Margo raises her voice, disturbed at the lack of logic this Maxwell Dillon possessed.
She lets out a deep sigh before continuing, "I don't think her spider senses warned her that she was the target. She slid right into it. She immediately went into cardiac arrest." A tear quickly falls from Margo's eye as she looks down, biting her lip trying not to sob. She doesn't see the horror on Ben's face, and that's probably for the best.
Ben wraps his arms around Margo and Jess as best as he can. Everything makes sense. The sheer amount of doctors, the panic, the tears from Margo and Jess. Before Ben can even begin to try and find words, the door bursts open. Hobie and Peter B., worry all over their faces, dash inside the room.
Hyperventilating, the two plop down on a couch across from Jess and Margo, mortified looks on both of their faces. A collective tearful and puzzled look from the three in front of them leads Hobie to saying, "News spreads fas' when Lyla 'erself is freakin' out."
Ben nods, going back to his seat. Margo and Jess both begin to calm down with the new additions to the room. It seems everyone is up to date on what happened.
News certainly does spread fast when Lyla is scared. Once again the door swings open, presenting Pavitr and Gwen, both with tears in their eyes as they rush over to Peter and Hobie, throwing their arms around them. The room is now crowded, but that's okay.
Ben gets up and grabs the four new additions to the room some water. Gwen sits on the floor, hands atop the coffee table in the center, her mask tossed aside. Pavitr sits next to Hobie, bear hugging him and sobbing.
Hobie can't help to think to himself... "where's Miguel?"
Unbeknownst to Hobie, Peter was thinking the exact same thing. He wouldn't dare say it, neither of them would. But considering the events earlier in the day, you'd think Miguel would be here by now, no?
The small room is hot and humid with everyone's presence. It turns out, having seven people in one small room makes it warm. Even in the cold November air outside, which Margo decided to let in through a window, can't cool the room fast enough to keep up. But nobody seems to really mind, as the vague discomfort of being packed like sardines into a room is better than being alone in this very moment.
After what feels like forever, there's a soft knock at the door before it opens. A doctor comes in with a tired but vaguely happy expression. It's clear that this is one of the longer, more tiring shifts they've had. "Good news," they say. A collective sigh rings through the room.
"...And bad news." The room once again grows tense with anticipation and anxiety.
"The good news is, Y/n will be okay." A smile grows across every single person in the room. Cautious optimism is the tone that settles in the air.
"The bad news is, they are in an induced coma. They will be out for a while. Only 2 visitors are allowed into her room at a time."
The bad news reassures them all greatly. Variations of "Thank you, doctor" fill the room, as everyone hugs someone. It doesn't feel nearly as grim anymore. The doctor smiles and bows out, swinging down the hall to another room.
Funnily enough, the group quickly discusses the order in which they'll visit Y/n. Hobie and Peter call dibs on last, knowing that they will both take the longest. The group exits the room, dashing to Y/n's room, forming a little crowd outside. Everyone takes their turn with her, most leaving in tears before the next pair enters.
Finally, it's Hobie and Peter's turn. They give a silent nod, before walking into the room. It's so pale, the gray of the winter outside bleeding in. Y/n is out cold, a ventilator attached to her face, where an extremely smooth and emotionless look lays. Hobie takes Y/n's hand, and can't even begin to speak. He's choked up at the sight of his best friend before him. All of those nights where she'd hang out with him in his dimension and vice versa. The woman that was like a sister to him now lays before him, and all he can hope is that she's not in pain.
Peter rubs Hobie's back, the paternal instinct stronger than ever. At the touch, Hobie begins to sob. He can't begin to comprehend his own grief, or how sudden it was that Lyla came up on his watch. Peter silently begins to cry as well, the whiplash of the day taking its toll on him. Hobie wraps his arms around Peter.
The two wail in each other's arms, Hobie harder than Peter. They cry until they can't. They take turns hugging the unmoving body of Y/n, before quietly taking their leave.
"May I spen' some time wit' Mayday sometime?" Hobie asks, his intentions clear: to see his favorite young anarchist as a means to cope with the situation. Peter nods, a smile breaking through the tears. As they begin to discuss a time for Hobie to babysit, the seven spiders in the hallway all turn their attention to the man approaching.
Miguel O'Hara himself, damn near sprinting towards the room. He slows down as he sees the crowd. Hobie takes a large, angry step towards O'Hara, but not before Peter grabs his arm and shakes his head. "Not now," Peter whispers, a pained look of worry on his face. Hobie sighs, recomposing himself and staring down Miguel. Hobie walks past Miguel, hands in his pockets
"Where were you?" Hobie stops and whispers to Miguel before scoffing and walking off, bumping into him in the process.
What Hobie and Peter miss are the tears streaming down Miguel's face. The other five spiders see it, and slowly leave Miguel to enter the room his wife lays. They all exit the hospital, Jess being the last to leave. She locks eyes with Miguel. She doesn't say anything, but she's thinking the same as Hobie and Peter. She's catching onto his neglect.
Miguel O'Hara, Y/n's husband, is the last to learn that his wife will be okay. The last person to show up. He wasn't there when the life momentarily left her body. He wasn't there when it was returned. He wasn't there when Jess and Margo called HQ, screaming that Y/n had fallen. He only learned because Lyla wouldn't let him ignore her.
He wasn't there for the person who loved him most.
He wasn't there.
A/n: OMG HIIIIIIII Y'ALL
It took me a lot less time to write this one because I knew exactly how I wanted it to go, and I didn't need to worry about writing a confrontation.
I'm sorry the medical side of it is inaccurate, it's really really hard to find something comprehensive on the treatment for lightning strikes aside from "CPR and call an ambulance"
I'm very proud of the little details I worked into this chapter surrounding Electro.
I should probably clarify for anyone wondering. This is an AU where Miguel never pursued the alternative timeline and Gabriella. I didn't see myself being able to write that into the fic well enough.
Feel free to ask any questions or offer any corrections.