Sitting in the front row of the council beside Steve Rogers, Peter watched as his daughter and her girlfriend convened the meeting.

He did not have much to comment on the relocation of the alien refugees. He did not have an accurate account of today's politics and demographics to be of any use in that particular discussion. He was mainly here for the discussions of the preparations of the retaliatory actions that the Avengers and its allies were undergoing.

He did find the plight of the aliens sympathetic, and his heart bled for them, but his mind kept straying to what happened to him earlier that morning after he had arrived at the compound with his son.

[Flashback]

Peter Parker stood on the roof of the mansion, as he watched the morning sun, rise far into the horizon, beyond the skyline of Manhattan. The golden rays of the morning sun shadowed by the silhouette of the city fell on the soft mists created by the waterfall of the river by the mansion creating a beautiful dispersion of light that illuminated the river and the green trees by its banks.

Despite the calm visage that nature produced, his thoughts were clouded by the thoughts of his wife. He hoped to return to Crotonville to be by her side. His daughter had promised him to try and bring her to the mansion, but she was weary and tired from the ordeal with the Green Goblin. He would not begrudge her if she wasn't able to follow through when she had so many things to tackle in front of her. Like her new brother for example.

He was uncertain about that as well. He did not know how to interact with Jason without making the conversation awkward. He had noticed that his son? Was very observant, his analysis of his surroundings, his cautious actions, and so many other habits was very clear to him. Whether they were instinctual or trained by the Green Goblin he did not know. And he shuddered at the thought of the torture that the Green Goblin would have subjected him to, that he developed such a high degree of situational awareness.

His musing was cut off when the light that he had been observing dancing above the mists of the waterfall turned gray, and the water of the waterfall stopped flowing. His spider sense did not flare, so he wasn't on edge for he knew an old friend had come to visit.

"The web is changing Peter." A very soft voice came from behind him, and he let out a sigh.

"Madame Web." He said and turned to face his old friend. He leaned on the ledge of the roof lazily and looked at her questioningly. "You haven't visited me in a couple of decades now."

"I didn't need to. Your duty was done. The mantle had been passed on." She replied.

"Taking Karn's power really did suit you didn't it?" Peter commented as he stared up into the sky at the bird frozen mid-air, with its wings outstretched.

"They have grown on me yes, I can see everything. All that is, all that was, and a little of all that will be." She replied.

Peter looked at her blindfolded face, which had been old and weary once upon a time but had become so full of life and vigor when she faced the inheritors all those years ago.

"Is this about Jason?" Peter finally asked, giving her his full attention.

"Partially." She replied, and she stared at him thoughtfully for a few long seconds "He is change, or rather, things have changed, the entire web of life is changing, and I can't see much. Something is blocking me. But, what I have seen,...….. It's horrifying."

And for a moment, Peter saw her calm visage break, and the stress showed clearly on her face. It was as if, the youth that she had acquired after their fight with the inheritors and Karn was suddenly lost. But, she was quick to reel in her emotions, and the calm façade returned.

"Being the Spider at the center of the web, after Karn, The Master Weaver was killed, I could feel a certain connection to every entity that contained a form of your powers. I had an open window into their reality. And I could see everything much more clearly, into the future. I used those powers to stabilize the Web and monitor the stability of the multiverse through my connections to the individual totems. But as I grew accustomed to my position, and your daughter took her mantle, my vision started to get clouded. I started to feel the separation of the connections the totems had to the web, and I investigated."

She took a deep shuddering breath, as she recounted "Realities were imploding, major calamities were causing entire universes to die. And while that is the inevitable end for all universes in the entire multiverse, the ones that died this time, had not reached the end of their cycle. They are an anomaly." She paused again, took a calming breath, and continued "Just like ours."

That caught Peter's attention immediately, and he was on alert. "What do you mean?"

"Galactus." She said, and she weaved her hand to project an image of Galactus in front of Peter. "His existence is essential to the survival of our universe. Of all universes. He is an egg for the birth of the one that follows ours. He consumes life from Planets, devours them, and uses them to incubate for what will be, beyond what I can see. But, that time has not arrived yet. Something has fundamentally changed in him, something that has accelerated his need to devour everything. And at the same time, he is no longer preparing for the next universe. He just consuming. Absorbing, and the energy is not being converted into the matter for the next universe. Where it is going, I do not know. I cannot glean."

Peter sighed, a pensive look on his wrinkled face. "Do you have a plan?"

"I do." She replied, and Peter saw that she was no longer looking at him. She was gazing at the rising sun, its rays illuminating the river beyond them like a mirror reflecting the blue sky. "At the death of a universe, a void is created in the web, which causes adjacent universes to drift into it to fill the space if a new universe is not birthed. If two adjacent universes move to occupy the space left by a dead universe, it causes them to collide. That causes a domino effect in the web, the multiverse is slowly shattered from within. Generally, the powers that be, isolate a small section of the web in which the destructive domino effect has begun and use the energy released by its destruction to rebuild that portion of the multiverse all over again. They are not interfering now. I have no idea why. My plan is simple at its core. What we need is time."

"In essence, it's a simple ritual. Something that will stop the flow of time in our universe. The key to restarting the flow of time here will be sent out with a volunteer to a universe, that is relatively young in its cycle, and far away from the epicenter of the multiversal destruction, buying them time to investigate and fight against whatever entity is causing the multiversal collapse."

Peter listened again, the gears in his brain working as she explained her plan. It was a major risk. That was certain. But desperate times call for desperate measures.

"Why are you telling me this? You can already peer into the multiverse. You have traveled across the multiverse multiple times." Peter asked.

"When I said my vision is clouded, I really did mean it is clouded. I can only see very little a couple of universes outside of our sphere of influence. I cannot travel that way anymore." She replied.

"Why not get that kid Strange was so fond of, America Chavez I think, to open a cross-dimensional portal?" He asked.

"I have tried. She is... lost. After Strange died she went off on a journey in the multiverse, and her interactions with the web have completely stopped. I do not know where to find her, and neither does Emily Bright." Cassandra Webb replied, desperation clear in her tone. "I fear that whatever is preventing me from accessing the web, to its full potential is also stopping her form of inter dimensional travel as well."

"What do you need me to do?" Peter finally asked. "Why come to me, like you said, I am retired. Why not speak to my daughter?"

"I…..I can't. Your daughter... she's stubborn. Young, naïve. She will not understand. The only person that I believe should be sent on this task.... Is your son." And the shoe finally dropped.

Peter straightened his back. Anger bubbled in him. And Madame Webb tried to calm him, but he cut her off.

"He's a kid! He doesn't even know what we're up against. Why him? Of course, May wouldn't understand! She won't send her brother on a journey across the damn multiverse!" Peter said, his calm voice betraying his anger easily.

"Peter, he is the only hope. Before his arrival, there was none. Whatever is causing this, they won. His coming is the only last gasp I could see from the web. It is the only way. From now, effectively I am blind." She said desperately.

Peter's anger did not subside, but he could see that she was being honest. This truly was the only hope their universe had for survival.

"I.....I will see what I can do." He finally said and walked away into the mansion.

-

A/N; Vote :)