(Baxter Building)
Death is a natural part of life. Gwen learned that from a very early age. But what she did not know was what happened after. She wouldn’t say she was religious but she did not dismiss the prospect. She believed in science, and science said that energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form into another. So what did that mean when someone dies?
The theories have varied throughout time, but there have been consistencies. An afterlife. It has never been fully proven but always been speculated since the dawn of man.
Except now, Gwen feels like she can confirm that there is something after death. She can barely remember it, but she knows there was something after the bridge and before she woke up screaming here. But when she thinks about it, it hurts her head.
“Are you okay?”
Gwen opens her eyes and looks to Sue Storm, or rather Richards now, staring down at her with concern. The resurrected girl is laying on a medical table with wires attached all over. Monitors all around her and Dr. Richards stretching across the room looking over each one.
Gwen lets out a sigh and says, “I’m fine.”
Except she’s not. Here she is, sitting on a bed in the Baxter Building medical room, still not fully understanding how she is alive again. Dr. Richards is waving his hand on a holographic display that shows her vitals while his wife is beside Gwen, apparently there to be a sort of grief counselor. But how exactly can this woman help Gwen. She does not think little of Sue Storm, quite the opposite in fact. Sue Storm was sort of an idol to Gwen. The woman had it all. Beauty and brains to match. She was a renaissance woman. And now apparently, she is a mother to two kids. But she remains a well renowned respected scientist.
Everything feels like it got turned upside down and inside out. She barely can make heads or tails of any of anything she’s learned. To start, she is smart, but the science and technology has advanced beyond anything she could have thought possible.
Reed adjusts something on a floating holographic display, his fingers moving through light and data with practiced ease. The technology makes her head spin. When she died—when she fell—computers filled entire rooms and could barely do more than basic calculations. Now Dr. Richards manipulates three-dimensional images with gestures that look like he's conducting an invisible orchestra.
It doesn’t feel real. Not her being alive, but what Peter told her.
She watches as he brings the scanner closer, the blue light washing over her arm. It doesn't hurt, doesn't even tingle. Just feels warm, like afternoon sunlight through a window. "What are you looking for?"
"Energy signatures, primarily." Reed's voice takes on that particular tone people get when they're trying to explain something complicated in simple terms. "The Enigma Force that resurrected you—it's still inside you. Dormant, for the most part, but present. I'm trying to understand how it's integrated with your biological systems."
The Enigma Force. She been told about that, but it still doesn't feel real. Some cosmic power living inside her like a passenger she never invited. "What does that mean? For me, I mean. What can it do?"
Reed lowers the scanner, his expression thoughtful. "Honestly? We don't know the full extent yet. The Enigma Force is ancient, sentient in its own way. It's chosen hosts throughout history, but each manifestation is unique." He pauses, choosing his words carefully. "Peter was a host once. It gave him enhanced abilities beyond his normal powers. But you're different. You don't have a baseline set of abilities like he does."
Right. Peter. Spider-Man. Her ex-boyfriend who lied to her for their entire relationship. Who let her die thinking he was responsible for her father's death. The wound is still fresh, raw in a way that has nothing to do with cosmic powers or resurrection.
"So what? It just brought me back and now it's... what? Waiting?" The thought makes her skin crawl. Something ancient and powerful sitting inside her, biding its time.
"Can you feel it?" Reed asks, watching her face. "The power inside you?"
Gwen closes her eyes, trying to sense something, anything different. But there's just her heartbeat, her breathing, the faint hum of machinery. "No. Should I?"
"Not necessarily. Peter said he didn’t even know he had it when he did. And Sue and Laura were in the same boat not too long ago. But there have been reports of others who’ve hosted this power but it took over.”
That does not sound good. “It can do that? Take over my body?” Gwen questions with great concern.
Mister Fantastic nods, “I won’t lie to you Miss Stacy, it’s a strong possibility. I'd like to run a few more tests, if you're willing. Nothing invasive. Just monitoring your responses to various stimuli."
She wants to say no. Wants to demand real clothes and a way out of this building and answers to questions that have nothing to do with cosmic forces. But she knows that Mister Fantastic is trying to help. That understanding this power inside her might be the only way to understand what happened to her, and what happens next.
"Okay," she says quietly. "What do you need me to do?"
Reed's expression softens with something like relief. "Just stay still. This won't hurt."
He retrieves another device, this one larger, with multiple sensors arranged in a circular pattern. As he positions it near her, the sensors begin to glow with that same soft blue light. Gwen watches the holographic display, sees lines and waves fluctuate in response to whatever the device is measuring.
"Interesting," Reed murmurs, more to himself than to her. "There's a harmonic resonance here. The Enigma Force isn't just sustaining you—it's synchronized with you. Your neural patterns, your bioelectric field, even your emotional state. It's adaptive."