Issue #2: If This Be Our Destiny (in bed)

Nine days later...
(Day 10 P.G.R. -- Post Gwen's Return)

"We would like to thank Doctor Richards and the rest of the Fantastic Four for hosting this presentation," Mary Jane Watson said, stepping to the lectern at the front of the room. She was wearing a red and cream business suit - coat and skirt, blouse, hose, heels. Gwen Stacy, in a similarly professional suit in green -- and one of those bloody headbands, to boot -- was following her. Mary Jane picked up a control, clicking and bringing up a picture on a wall sized screen behind her.

The picture? A headstone, relatively plain as these go. 'Gwendolyne Stacy' it read, along with some dates, and 'Gone Too Soon' underneath them. A matching stone for 'George Stacy, Cpt.' with a New York City Police badge emblazoned on it was next to it.

"I think we'll start with a few words from my partner." Mary Jane nodded to Gwen.

"Hello," Gwen said. "My name is Gwen Stacy. Let me say, before we go any further, that I'm not a clone. I'm not a teenaged superhero from another world. I'm not a dream, or an imaginary story. I'm not a secret nefarious plot. I am Gwendolyne Stacy. I was born, lived, and according to that piece of marble sitting next to my father's... I died several years ago. There's even a body in the grave. But... that body isn't me. I am. The original Gwen Stacy. And like a lot of people in this room and even more people known to people in this room... I was dead and then came back to life.

"And as it turns out? That's a pretty big pain in the ass."

There was a chuckle in the room.

"You laugh, but understand. I wasn't a super hero, though I was associated with one. I wasn't a millionaire or a millionaire's daughter. I was a pretty average kid from Queens. I went to high school, graduated, and enrolled at Empire State University. I had friends, and CDs, and classes, and some pretty ridiculous t-shirts. I had a grade point average, a driver's license, a potential career, and a direction for my life. Then? I got thrown off the George Washington Bridge by a guy dressed up in a green and purple goblin costume. It happens."

Gwen folded her hands, looking around the room. There were super heroes and scientists, mystics and philosophers, lawyers and businessfolk in there, watching. Maybe once they'd have intimidated her, but her life had gone a different direction. "Today, I'm back from the dead. But if I go to the DMV to get my driver's license renewed, they tell me I need a birth certificate, and when I give them one they find a certificate for the same person, and then I have some awkward discussions and take the subway or the bus instead of driving. Empire State University has my transcript, including a pile of incompletes for that last semester, but it's been long enough that the program has changed and they're not one hundred percent sure they believe who I say I am, plus their enrollment's full for the year, and that doesn't even count the question of financial aid. And on that subject... I had a certain amount of money, plus money from my father's estate after his own passing. But all that went through probate and was disbursed years ago. For that matter? My friends picked over all my stuff to grab things that meant something to them, and the rest went to an estate sale which -- like I said. Probate. Disbursement." She paused. "Even the t-shirts."

That got another laugh. "And I'm humbly grateful for this renewed chance at life. Don't get me wrong. But... in terms of the State? I don't exist. I'm not a citizen. My social security number doesn't work. I have no money. I can't legally drive or buy . For that matter, how old am I? Am I the age I was when I died -- the age I am physically, still? Or am I the age I'd be if I'd lived? It matters."

Mary Jane picked it back up. "Gwen's situation is far from unique. To take a rather tragic example from our neighbors to the North..." She clicked to the next slide, showing a handsome man in a uniform, a pretty woman, and two other pictures of a man and woman in matching white Maple Leaf inspired costumes. "This is James MacDonald Hudson and Heather McNeil Hudson. They're both better known -- and publicly known -- as Guardian and Vindicator of Alpha Flight. They're perhaps two of Canada's greatest heroes, serving long and storied tenures together. And... they both died. James a few times, and then the two of them together the last time." Mary Jane looked somber. "And they both came back. Walked right through the Gates of the Underworld, or so I'm told. And because of their position, they were able to get their legal status sorted much more easily than Gwen's going to be able to do. With... one exception."

Mary Jane clicked to the next slide. A beautiful girl, two or three years old, smiling in between the Hudsons. "This is Claire Hudson. Their daughter. When the Hudsons were killed, custody was granted to adoptive parents -- very distant relatives of Heather McNeil's. Naturally, after their return... they sought to get custody of their daughter back." Mary Jane sighed. "But, well. They'd died. And the judge seemed willing to accept that they were in fact in his courtroom, but if they were super heroes, obviously they wouldn't be fit parents in the first place, so there was no reason to change her adoptive parents' custody." Mary Jane let that sink in. "Both birth parents. Both attested not only as good people and loving parents but literal national heroes... unable to get custody of their own daughter back. In almost any other circumstance, that wouldn't stand -- but this time? They were dead." Mary Jane shook her head. "For the record? Claire's adoptive parents were killed and Claire was kidnapped. Some other bad things happened connected to the Unity Party incident. At last account, Heather was in a mind-altered state, on the run, with her daughter. James is desperately trying to find them. None of which would have happened if they'd just gotten their daughter back."

"And yet," Gwen said, picking it back up. "Even that's not cut and dried." She looked a bit nervous, but clicked through to the next slide, showing a handsome man and woman. "This is Gabriel and Sarah Stacy. My twin children."

There was a bit of murmuring. Gwen let it settle down. "Due to some... abnormalities in their father's genetic code, they underwent rapid growth. In fact, I delivered them as fully developed twins after less than five months. They've since grown to adulthood at least in body in a fraction of the time. It's not really likely that custody would be an issue in the first place, given those circumstances... but if it were an issue... it has been a lot more years since my and rebirth than it was for the Hudsons. If my children were aging normally and were in a stable home, why would I be able to demand custody? Should I be able to demand custody? And at what point does the Hudsons' situation turn into mine? And what is my legal responsibility to them in all this? I honestly don't know. But if you think my life and weren't nearly weird enough before now?"

Gwen clicked to the next slide. Two pictures of what looked like her, plus a group picture of several more young women who looked like her. "This is the now deceased Abby-L, and next to her is Gwen Miles, and below them both are... a lot of additional girls who look like me. All of them are clones of me, generally by a man named Miles Warren, aka the Jackal. They all have all of my memories up to the point where I was thrown off that bridge. Which... for the record, are also all the memories I have until ten days ago, since from my point of view that was my whole life." She shook her head. "I'm... I guess the word is 'lucky' though this is terrible. Abby-L murdered Gwen Miles some years later, and then Abby-L succumbed to the Carrion virus and was destroyed. All the other clones also have been verified as having decomposed and been destroyed. And by destroyed, in all their cases, I mean they're dead." She paused yet again. "But if they weren't, then which one of us is Gwen Stacy? Me, because of continuity of life and memory? Gwen Miles, since she had established a life within the system? Abby-L, who had lived the longest of any of them -- of us? If there's ever anything that establishes Gwen Stacy as alive and well, which one of us would get to be the 'real' Gwen Stacy? And what about the number of situations where stable clones have been created, with all the memories and personalities of their forebears. Do we treat those as unique people? As revived from the dead? As the originals? Are they legally liable for their progenitors' crimes? Do they inherit their property? And for that matter, clones have some health issues you may have heard of... who's doing medical research for clone health and welfare?"

"And, just in case we haven't bombarded you enough with all this... there's also the question of the mechanism of revival. Of resurrection. There have been a number of ways the dead have verifiably come back to life. Gwen mentioned cloning, but it's also known that cloned bodies with no actual sentient mind have then had the minds and... souls, I guess... of their original progenitor implanted into them. I mentioned the Hudsons walking out of Hell -- there are other magical or mythic methodologies we've heard of. Tony Stark and James Rhodes were both wearing advanced versions of Stark-tech armor with memory caching and metabolic jumpstart capabilities when they died, which regenerated and returned them to life after their deaths. Even Gwen herself is a weird edge case--"

"Because why would anything about me be normal?" Gwen asked. That got a laugh.

"--since she was plucked from time at the moment before her , and a duplicate substituted. Did Gwen ever actually die? And what do we call the body underneath that headstone you saw at the beginning?"

"And while I have no idea if the technique used to bring me back is replicable," Gwen threw in, "the simple truth is these revivals are going to happen increasingly often. And if the ethics behind cloning have been thorny, consider the ethics of reviving the dead when it becomes available if your health plan is good enough, or you have enough money. When is it appropriate? When is it not appropriate. Who will decide?"

Mary Jane nodded. "And finally -- and for those of you who have been around one of these miraculous rebirths or lived through one or more yourself, you already know some of this... there's a question of acclimation. Of reintegration."

"Society has changed since I was thrown off that bridge," Gwen said. "The morning of the night Gwen Stacy died? Television and video entertainment was dominated by cable and satellite. Netflix was that place that sent you inexpensive DVDs through the mail. Facebook wasn't a thing, at least not mainstream. And Pierce Brosnan was still James Bond." Gwen shook her head. "Mary Jane got me my first smartphone about five days ago. I'm still stunned. How can you all just walk around with all human knowledge, instantaneous inexpensive worldwide communication, comprehensive music archives, video, tv, and movies on demand, and ridiculous games where you crush candy in your pockets like it's no big deal? I still think ringtones are pretty neat!"

Mary Jane smiled a touch. She was good at PR -- she was a model and an actress, among many other things. But Gwen was clearly a natural.

"More than that, though... I... was a little surprised... and kind of disturbed... to learn that I was fitted for a halo and wings somewhere between being thrown off that bridge and showing up alive and well now. Retroactively... every mistake I ever made seemed to be washed from peoples' minds, and every good deed I ever did was magnified. I'm a cute blonde girl who died too early because of the actions of a monster. That made me a martyr in peoples' minds, and saint is close after that. But I'm not a saint. I'm so not a saint. And..."

She paused, a little overcome, at least briefly. "A few nights ago, I went out to dinner with a few friends. Friends from before. Betty, Harry, Mary Jane, Peter... all thrilled and happy to see me. And... so... uncomfortable. I mean, they were relieved! But... my had been hard for some of them to get over. And... now I'm just not dead. And they have no idea how to handle that. And I can't blame them for that." She laughed, softly. "I... um... broke wind during dessert. Not a discreet little toot, either. I mean, this was 'oh God foghorn' level. And... from my point of view, a week and a half ago? They'd have cracked up at how ridiculous that was. Now? They were... stunned. Gwen Stacy doesn't fart. How can you fart when you're a perfect angel."

She kept going. "I walk down the streets and the stores have changed and the people have changed and the clothes have changed -- I'm lucky, half my preferred fashions are now considered 'retro.' And I look at how much history managed to happen between that bridge and ten days ago. The Beyonder. Thanos. The Dire Wraith war. Wars with Atlantis. A truly horrifying number of massacres, pogroms and disasters against the mutant population. Thanos again. Galactus again. Onslaught. All the heroes going away. All the heroes coming back. The House of M and Decimation. The Avengers disassembling. The Super Hero Registration Act. The Hulk invading Earth. Asgard and its Siege and destruction at the hand of a group of supervillain Avengers." She paused. "The United States Government giving the directorship of H.A.M.M.E.R. and all authority over superhuman affairs to the man who threw me off a bridge."

There was a gasp. Mary Jane figured someone must not have realized the Green Goblin was Gwen's murderer.

"And, you know. Little things. Like Terragin mist clouds everywhere and the entire island of Manhattan getting spider-powers. How did I miss out on spider powers?"

"Eh. They were okay," Mary Jane said. "Now, the Iron Spider armor? That thing's fun to drive." Another laugh. Tension deflation. Yeah, Mary Jane and Gwen made a good team.

"The point is this. In a very short period of time... the world has become a very different place. I wasn't entirely sure what strange algorithm it took to order a cup of coffee. All I know is I did it wrong because I got back a frozen drink with a lot of espresso, mocha syrup, gingerbread and I want to say a banana blended into it?" She paused. "It was awesome."

"And that's what brings us around to the point," Mary Jane said. "Gwen's acclimation, and the acclimation of all her friends. Points of history. Changes. Losses. I mean... how do you explain Bill Cosby to someone who spent the last several years dead?"

"Wait -- what about Bill Cosby?"

"Later." Mary Jane stepped back behind the lectern. "That brings us to why we asked to see you." She clicked to the next slide. It had a logo. Above it was a single word.

INANNA.

"The Inanna Institute for Post-Revivification Research and Advocacy is a non-profit organization dedicated to studying, supporting, and normalizing the process of the reversal of in our world. From being a safe haven for people to come and reacclimatize to society, to being a research facility examining the mechanism and long term effects, all the way to being an organization dedicated to finding fair and honest answers to the legal and ethical questions we have raised today... Inanna wants to examine all aspects of the return from , regardless of means, and spearhead both scientific, theological, and cultural movements in this still-frightening arena." Mary Jane smiled.

"As we build and develop, we're going to be looking to you... prominent members of the scientific, medical, superheroic, mutant, inhuman, and other communities to contribute," Gwen said. "Not money. We've got an endowment. But things far more important -- time, expertise, and experience."

"We've mentioned that a lot of you have undergone revivification or know someone who has. If we can begin to compile some of those experiences... begin conducting standardized tests and research... develop standardized tests and research... then we can hit the ground running, and proceed in a systemic way," Mary Jane said.

Gwen nodded. "And given the brilliance and breadth of skill and knowledge in this room, if we can involve any of you in the research and work, that will begin to make a monumental difference to the work ahead."

"In addition to the research, policy work, and potential social work we're going to be doing, Inanna also seeks to be a safehouse for the newly revived," Mary Jane said. "I've gotten to see up close and personal how scary this has been for Gwen, and she had close friends around her. Imagine going through that alone... for some of you, that's easy... because you have. Inanna will be a place to sleep, to learn, to feel comfortable as you get your feet under you and figure out what your life will mean now that you have it back."

"Thank you for your attention. I believe our hosts have provided refreshments."

The lights came up. Mary Jane looked around. The Fantastic Four were in there, of course. Tony was there, pretending he didn't know all of this. Carol Danvers. Janet Van Dyne. The blue furred Hank McCoy. Doctor Donald Blake. Doctor Stephen Strange. Doctor Voodoo. And so many many more....

This was when it would get interesting...