( TW: this chapter contains intense violence and a little gore, so proceed with caution )

Two Days Later
June 18th, 2005
7:45 P.M.

"So, how do you feel about coming over tomorrow?" Sidney asked shyly as she held the phone to her ear with a small smile. "It's been a minute since I've seen you... I'd like to spend more time with you.

"Of course I can come over!" Arabella responded enthusiastically before giggling. "I've missed you like crazy and I need to get out of the house. Being cooped up in my room can be quite lonely."

"I know the feeling," said Sidney as her smile grew bigger, shaking her head. "We can watch a movie or something... or annoy the hell out of Chris."

"Sid, I'm not coming over so we can wreak havoc on your sister," Arabella said in a fake-stern tone. "As much as we love to harp on her little romance with that Peter guy."

"Belle, we're just as terrible, admit it."

"You're right about that," she replied with a laugh. "But that doesn't mean it isn't different from them. Besides, we're better than them, according to you."

"I was just joking!" Sidney nearly shrieked with hysterical laughter. "Nobody is better than anyone else! You and I know this."

"Yeah, yeah, keep telling yourself that. I have to go, my mom and Mindy are helping prepare dinner and we're gonna have a movie night. My cousin, Julia, is coming over, too and I'm excited to see her."

"Sounds like fun," Sidney said. "Chris and I are gonna order some pizza, Mary Jane's coming over and we're gonna just chill before going to bed. I'll see you tomorrow, alright?"

"You got it. Goodnight, Sid," said Arabella in a sweet tone that she only used for her.

"Goodnight, Belle..." she whispered before ending the call.

After placing the phone back on the hook, she then walked out of her bedroom and towards the living room where Christina was sitting after having called in the pizza. She yawned before stretching her arms out to hint that she was getting sleepy but that only made her sister laugh.

"You can stay up for a few more hours," Christina said sarcastically. "Stop whining."

"A few more hours, my ass," Sidney fired back with a chuckle. "I'm exhausted... but I'll stay up for you. After all, 'I can't go to bed too early or too late.'"

"Correct," the blonde woman said with a smile before turning back to the television and absently watching whatever sitcom was on for the weekly night. Tonight, it was a rerun of the second season of The O.C. and it only made Christina slightly impatient for the third season coming in September. But she was mainly in her own little world right now, especially in a certain time when she couldn't really think of anything and she would zone out.

These small little moments were a time of peace, especially during a time period where work was stressing her out. She had been newly promoted to Senior Social Worker the day before and, although it made her happy, she was overrun by paperwork more than ever. She was relieved to have at least one day off to just relax for once, even though she would have to go back tomorrow and do it all over again.

She had talked to Peter on the phone earlier after getting home from having visited Harry at his penthouse to check on him, and she was relieved to hear that he was pretty much back to his normal self. She was aware that he still hadn't entirely told her everything about why he had acted weird the other day, but she just thought that he probably wasn't ready to tell her. She would give him some time to do so, knowing that he would eventually open up to her like he always did.

She was just glad that his voice had sounded cheerful and lively again, and nowhere near as depressed as he seemed before.

The blonde leaned forward on the couch as she tried her hardest to suppress a yawn, but she failed miserably.

"And you say I'm the one who's tired," Sidney remarked with a giggle, making Christina roll her eyes and give her the finger in return.

The landline phone then began to ring, making the blonde perk up with a small smile. "Can you get that?" she asked Sidney. "That's probably our pizza but make sure."

"Yeah, sure," Sidney said, crossing over to the small table next to the dining room and picking up the phone, pressing the button and holding the receiver to her ear. "Hello?"

Christina sighed a little tiredly as she rubbed her eyes, hoping Mary Jane would be a little quicker with getting there. Not only was she growing bored but she couldn't help but feel the slightest edge of paranoia, especially after having to drive home in the growing darkness of the city. She could remember having suddenly left Harry's penthouse with the sensation of worry in her heart; she had no idea as to why she had done so. Harry had seemed perfectly fine with his demeanor and attitude, but she just had the thought of needing to leave and needing to leave very fast.

She would have said to herself that she was just being paranoid but she didn't think that was it... maybe there was something else there... something she couldn't quite see yet. But she had no clue as to what.

"It's not our pizza," Sidney said with a puzzled tone. "It's a call for you."

Christina's eyebrows raised as she began paying more attention, but her eyes were still locked on the television screen. "Who is it?"

"May I ask who's calling, please?" Sidney spoke into the receiver, waiting for an answer. And then she said, "It's Harry...."

Christina's full concentration was set as she spun around to look at her sister for just a moment; then, she was on her feet with her hand held out for the phone, an expression of calm in her features. When a surprised and concerned Sidney hesitantly handed her the phone, she held the device to her ear, sighing quietly. "Hello?" she said uncertainly.

"Hello, Christina."

The blonde's heart seemed to completely stop upon hearing that familiar voice, her shoulders tensing up greatly at the way it sounded to her. It was Harry, but there was something... off about the way he was speaking. She didn't quite know what it was yet but she started to think that she would figure it out by the end of the night. She chose not to speak back for a moment, trying to think of what else he would say.

"Strange how memory seems to work," Harry went on when she didn't say anything. "I think we're long overdue for a talk."

Based on the sinister way he was talking to her, Christina knew that the outcome of this wouldn't lead anywhere good, but she remained as collected as ever. "I agree..." she muttered before peering at Sidney. "Call the police," she mouthed silently, praying Harry still could not hear her. Sidney listened and grabbed Christina's cell phone before booking it to her room to dial the police's number.

"I figured that, maybe, after remembering everything again, you'd want to know why I'm calling you," Harry then said, and it made Christina shut her eyes in annoyance as she

sat down in the chair next to Harry at his dining table, sighing from exhaustion as she buried her face in her hands. "Can I just pass out on your couch?" she asked with a groan.

"Long day at work, huh?" Harry asked jokingly as he chuckled at her mannerisms.

"You would be correct," she said sarcastically, nodding her head before staring up at the ceiling. "Thanks for letting me come over, though, I need it after going through all that paperwork and everything."

"You're welcome," said Harry. "I would have thought you wanted to spend time with Peter, though."

"He's been feeling down lately," Christina muttered, choosing not to delve into the nitty gritty details about what seemed to really be going on with Peter. "Depressed, you could say. I don't know.... I didn't want to bother him, that's all. I decided to give him some space so he can get better."

"Good idea," Harry replied as he leaned back in his chair. "Hopefully, he'll be okay again soon."

"Hopefully..."

"Are you doing okay?" Harry then asked. "You know, with work and everything?"

"You could say I'm just making it by the skin of my teeth," Christina said with a grin, making the both of them laugh. "I'm doing alright. I'm glad I got the promotion, I just didn't expect to get it so soon, you know?"

Harry nodded. "Well, I'm proud of you," he said. "You deserve it after all the hard work you've done getting that kid adopted."

Christina seemed to perk up a little bit as she peered over at Harry, frowning with confusion before tilting her head. She had no recollection of telling him that she had gotten Connor adopted by the Nelson family, and she was all the more bewildered that he seemed to know about that, so she squinted her eyes. "How... How did you know about that...?"

Harry's eyebrows scrunched together in what seemed to be his own sense of puzzlement. "I read about it in the paper, it was a huge deal, apparently," was all he said. "It talked about how you were the youngest social worker in the city to do that. His name was Connor Roberts, right?"

Christina slowly nodded to herself. "Right..." she whispered, her heart slightly dropping upon hearing this. For some reason, she had the feeling that Harry had never read about it in the paper and that he had found out some other way. Was it possible? No, it couldn't be, right? There was no way in hell...

But was there....?

Pretending to glance at her cell phone, she acted quickly and stood up. "I'm sorry, I have to go," she said, conjuring a lie right there. "I promised Sidney I would be home early to watch some movies with her."

"Chris, are you all right?" Harry asked in a sense of genuine worry for her, reaching out to put a consoling hand on her shoulder.

"I'm fine, really," she said with a kind smile. "I just didn't realize how late in the day it was getting. Thanks for letting me come over, again. I'll come back to check on you later this week, I promise. I'm sorry again."

And she had then bolted towards the elevator as soon as she was out of Harry's line of sight.

"You think you were so good with that lie," Harry continued, breaking Christina out of the memory. "Saying you needed to go home just so you could get away from me."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Christina deadpanned with a roll of her eyes. "I actually did need to be home early, dumbass."

"Did you, though?" said Harry. "Or did you realize just how much of a threat I can really be to you? I know all of your weak points, Chris, and I know just where to hit you in order to break you."

"Oh, do you now?" taunted Christina, chuckling sarcastically. "Things have changed, asshole, or did you forget? Besides, why even bother with me to begin with?"

"Call it a need for revenge," Harry muttered into the phone. "You know that you're defending a murderer for what he did to my father, right?"

"Hypocritical, coming from you," Christina hissed back at him, entirely unaware that Sidney had been dragged out of the dining room from behind her and knocked out in her bedroom. "Besides, didn't your father literally kill people? I seem to recall him vaporizing his board members in cold blood three years ago."

"That's a different case, especially when it comes to you," said Harry. "You decided to defend Peter after he killed Dad, also in cold blood. So I won't regret saying this to you as a comeuppance. My father managed to butcher Margaret... snapped her apart like a little drumstick. How does it feel to lose the only person that ever actually gave a shit about you?"

Tears pricked the corners of Christina's eyes as her throat became blocked from the urge to scream in agony. "Fuck you!" she shouted angrily, one tear trickling down her left cheek.

An eerie chuckle emanated from the other end and it made her squeeze her eyes shut as she suppressed a hidden rage building up inside of her. Her hands even started clenching into fists as she breathed evenly through her nose, trying her best to ignore that Harry's voice sounded so similar to Norman's that vivid flashbacks to the night she was abducted in 2002 came back to her.

"How does it feel to know that you weren't there for Margaret as she died screaming for you to help her?"

"If you don't shut the fuck up, I'll ensure that you die screaming!" the blonde snarled as tears rapidly fell down her face now.

"Heh," Harry chuckled. "Maybe. But you'll be dead before that happens. You weren't there for your precious mother, just like you were never there for little Sidney, and just like you're never going to be able to stop this."

That was when the deafening sound of exploding glass came from behind her, and Christina yelped as she hung up the phone. She whipped her head around and faced the now gone floor-to-ceiling window, recalling when the Green Goblin's glider had shattered said window three years prior to snatch her away from the safety of her apartment. Blinking the memory away, she peered out into the pitch black night and saw that it was a huge brick that had shattered the window.

It wasn't made any better when a silhouetted figure stepped into the living room and stared her dead in the face through the eyeholes of the black leather mask he wore. But the eyes were enough to make Christina confirm that this – indeed – was Harry Osborn and he had gone full fucking psychotic now.

Unlike that night when she was more vulnerable, she was more than ready this time.

Calculating a plan in a matter of seconds, she was racing towards the kitchen to grab whatever she could find, knowing that Harry was hot on her heels immediately. She grabbed a frying pan from the sink, not giving a fuck that it was filthy, and madly swung towards where he was right behind her.

The pan slammed into the side of Harry's skull, causing him to cry out for a moment before gripping the kitchen knife he had stealthily stolen from the knife block earlier and frantically swinging for her face. Christina, however, was able to dodge it and gripped the armed wrist with her metal hand, using all of her will to wrestle the weapon out of his hand. She then took it so he wouldn't be able to grab it again and began sprinting for her bedroom.

As she reached the hallway, a rough hand gripped the back of her t-shirt and yanked her back towards the kitchen. She landed on the hardwood floor with a painful thud and she grunted from the definite bruise that was sure to transpire from it.

Harry was then attempting to climb onto Christina to try and strangle her to death but she was quicker, delivering a sharp left hook to his jaw and bucking him off of her. When he was left vulnerable, she was back on her feet and reached her bedroom, slamming the door shut and locking it.

When she heard Harry ramming his shoulder against the door, she dashed for her nightstand and dug around the contents desperately as her hand began sweating from the pressure. Her heart was going what seemed to be a million miles an hour in her chest and she thought she would faint from the paralyzing fear at any moment; but she contained all of her courage in order not to do so, vowing to not have a recreation of her nightmarish night with Norman Osborn. It wasn't going to happen again, she swore to that.

The door was beginning to crack from the force of Harry trying to break it down, and that was right as Christina found what she was looking for: her .357 Magnum. Snatching it into both hands (her muscles flexing as she did so), she took the safety off and aimed for the door, firing three times. The gunshots roared in her ears and caused them to ring for a moment and the scent of gunpowder stung her nostrils, but she hardly cared about that.

All that followed afterwards was pure silence.

"Didn't realize I was prepared, did you, fucker?!" she shouted at the door, chuckling madly to herself with a smirk.

The landline on her nightstand then rang shrilly, causing the blonde to flinch. But she went over and answered the call, bringing the phone to her right ear as she held the gun with her prosthetic. She didn't say a word just in case.

"You missed," Harry whispered into the phone with a smug voice.

"Oh, I'm sure I did," Christina simply said as she dug through the drawer for more ammunition, placing three more bullets into the chamber of the gun. "Who knows? Maybe I hit a leg or an arm. If I did, good riddance."

"You're right," Harry replied, sounding genuinely impressed with her. "You didn't cower away like I thought you would. Guess you're tougher to kill than I realized."

"You can thank my dad for teaching me," Christina muttered. "At least I still have a father to teach me to not be a coward."

Christina fully expected Harry to scream at her in fury on the other end but, although he sounded completely pissed, he kept his cool as he continued. "You might but that still won't save you once I'm through with you," he growled at her.

"At least I actually prepared myself for this. You didn't because you're a fucking idiot. And now I won't stop until you're in the damn ground!"

Aiming in front of her once again, Christina then stomped for the bedroom door, prying it open and getting ready to fire.

But Harry wasn't there anymore, having seemingly taken off.

That did nothing to put her at ease, and she decided to keep the gun held upward. She took a deep breath and slowly walked down the hallway, checking every nook and cranny of her surroundings to make sure he wouldn't jump out at her to kill her. She wasn't going to allow the bastard to take her by surprise again, since she didn't want a repeat of every other time she had to be saved by Peter in the Spider-Man suit.

This time, there was no Peter or Spider-Man to protect her, and that was just fine with her. It was best that he stayed out of this.

"You know, you could have blamed Peter for Margaret's death, too," Harry suggested. "You still can. I mean, didn't he indirectly cause my father to kill her?"

"Keep talking, you bitch," Christina said, shaking her head to herself as she reached the dining room. "You and I both know that he had nothing to do with her death. That was all Norman, but you're too much of an idiot to make that connection. I mean... why are you this desperate anyway? It's not like he ever gave a shit about you."

"He never got the chance to improve," Harry said in an almost sad tone of voice. "He had promised me that he would be a better father, that he would 'rectify certain inequities,' but he never got to do that since Peter killed him."

"Well, if you count my mom as an inequity, then it seems that he got to do that before Peter supposedly killed the sorry bastard."

"You're gonna fucking die for that, you sad little cunt," Harry hissed into the phone.

An idea popping into Christina's mind, she suddenly lowered the phone and hung up on Harry. Then, as quietly as possible she pressed the star button and then the numbers six and nine to ring him back.

A ringtone emanating from the hall closet made Christina instantly aim and fire at the door and she thought she could hear a grunt of pain. Very close to sighing from relief that she had managed to get the job done, she inched closer to the door, her gun held at the ready as she became aware that there were five bullets remaining in the chamber.

But she didn't even make it a foot closer, as Harry's large form erupted from the closet and leaped at her. She went to shoot again but he grabbed her wrist and threw it upward so that the shot missed, the gun landing on the floor.

An agonizing flare of pain then invaded Christina's left shoulder and she howled with despair, her eyes bulging with shock as she stared at the steak knife embedded into her skin. The wound was so deep that the blade had come out the other side, nearly impaling her shoulder blade in the process.

She quickly shoved Harry off of her and attempted to make a break for the front door; but then it hit her that she still had no clue if Sidney was alright, and that was enough to make her turn back towards the hallway to her sister's bedroom. But Harry had caught up to her at that point, grabbing her by the arms and catapulting her against the wall.

Then the knife came down again; this time, it went into Christina's right inner thigh. Blood rapidly flowed out of the wound and down her leg.

The blonde shrieked in agony as she, once again, drove her metal fist into Harry's face. "GET THE FUCK OFF OF ME!" she bellowed as she threw him to the side, narrowly dodging another swing he took with the steak knife. Her eyes widened with terror as she saw that he still wasn't stopping with his pursuit, chasing her on the floor like he was a snake desperate to have its prey.

Knowing this, she grabbed the vase from the side table next to the sofa and smashed it over Harry's head, definitely drawing blood as the ceramic pieces buried themselves into his scalp.

"YOU LITTLE BITCH!" Harry roared at her as he swung the knife again just when Christina was standing back up. But the woman was able to violently kick the blade out of his gloved hand. He then got up and sprinted at her, his arms flailing about as if he were a legit monster.

Using all of the strength she had built up from Michael teaching her how to become physically tougher, Christina was able to hoist Harry upward and she threw him towards the coffee table. The wood splintered from his weight as he yelped out of surprise that she had been able to overpower him like this. And he was then seemingly knocked unconscious from what she had just done to him.

Christina herself then collapsed onto the floor out of pure exhaustion, barely able to breathe as the adrenaline finally began wearing off. She couldn't believe that this had just happened, but she then thought that this shouldn't have been surprising; she should have expected it, she should have seen it coming her way. It was inevitable that Harry would get his memory back sooner or later and come for her.

But she had been waiting for it, at least. She wasn't taken off guard.

Her gaze then directed itself towards the steak knife streaked with her blood that was laying two feet from Harry's right hand. If she acted now, she would ensure that he was injured enough to not come for her ever again; she didn't intend on killing him, but hurting him just to warn him that she could kill him if he did this again.

But what if he did come after her again? What if he never stopped wanting to murder her?

And that's when it hit her.

This was all just to get to Peter.

Now she was grateful that he wasn't here with her right now. He didn't need to see all of this.

She weakly got up and stepped over to the knife, grasping it into both of her hands. If she finished the job, she wouldn't have to worry about this shit anymore; the Osborn legacy would be finished and the Green Goblin would no longer haunt her dreams.

She then glared at an unconscious Harry before raising the knife over her head, gritting her teeth. And then she brought it down to him.

A fiery, piercing pain spread all over Christina as another blade entered her ribcage, causing her to croak weakly as she dropped the knife onto the floor. She peered down at the new place she had been stabbed and saw that a metallic blade was protruding from the glove on Harry's left hand, and it was built into the Goblin suit he was wearing.

No, she thought as she stared incredulously into Harry's flaring eyes. No, no, no... This can't be how I die, please...

Harry then yanked the blade out of her stomach and pushed her onto the ground, grabbing the steak knife from where it had been dropped. He straddled her and pinned her to the floor, looking directly into her fluttering eyes as he also raised the knife, aiming for her face.

Right as the blade was about to impale her skull, Christina reached out in one last attempt to defend herself. She gripped his arms and held him back as much as she could, groaning tiredly and in agony; she struggled to stay awake as he inched the tip of the knife closer to one of her eyes. She wasn't going out of this world without fighting one last time, and she prayed to the heavens above that it would all be worth it when she was gone.

"I'll... see you in Hell..." Christina hissed as the last of her energy slowly began giving out.

"HEY, ASSHOLE!"

Harry, who was staring Christina down with frustration, suddenly whipped his head in the direction of the new voice that had interrupted the moment. He saw who it was just in time to see a familiar woman grabbing Christina's gun and aiming it at him.

He abandoned his mission and made a mad dash for the front door just as the gun fired, once, twice, three times. One of the bullets just barely missed the back of his head by a centimeter as he found the staircase and sprinted down them, vowing to come back for Christina if she survived.

The blonde woman sighed with pure relief as she coughed quietly, her arms plopping onto the floor as she felt consciousness starting to ebb. She was close to allowing sleep to take her, or another further darkness that awaited her nearby.

"Oh, shit!" came Sidney's voice as her face came into view. Christina saw a tiny trickle of blood coming from her temple and concern flooded her; of course the son of a bitch had to hurt a child, too.

"Christina?!" came the familiar voice that had shot the gun and the woman actually smiled when she saw who it was.

It was Mary Jane.

"M.J...." she whispered inaudibly, reaching out to grab her hand with her bloodied one, and the redhead took it. She then cried out when Sidney's hands began putting pressure on her stab wound so she wouldn't bleed more.

"I'm sorry..." Sidney whimpered as tears welled in her brown eyes and Christina shook her head to ward off that apology.

"I'm so sorry this happened..." Mary Jane then said as she tried her best to stay calm as she helped Sidney put pressure. "I should have... I should have known he would come after you... I'm sorry I wasn't faster...."

Christina then did the only thing she could do in that moment; she just smiled gently as her head moved back and forth. "He didn't get me... you stopped him..." she croaked out. "Just know that... Tell Peter... that he never got me... that I fought back... that I...."

And, right as police sirens registered themselves to her, the blonde's eyes slowly closed as all of her energy vanished. And she allowed the darkness to take her.

"Chris...?" Mary Jane muttered as she lightly shook the woman to try and wake her.

"Christina?!" Sidney cried. "Please!"

"Oh, Jesus. Out of the way!" came a paramedic's voice as they and the police stormed the apartment.

"No... no, no..." Sidney whispered frantically as she reached out to hold her sister in her arms. "No, Chris!"

"Sidney..." Mary Jane mumbled as she gently grabbed a hold of the young girl, trying to pull her back. "We've got to move so they can check her condition, Sid."

"NO!" Sidney wailed as tears fell down her face in droves, not even caring that her head was killing her thanks to Harry hitting her over the head. "NO, NO, NO! PLEASE, CHRIS!"

"Miss, please step back," the kind male paramedic said to her just as M.J. pulled her away from a dying Christina.

"It's okay..." the redhead murmured as she held a sobbing Sidney close to her, doing her best to comfort her as she also cried quietly.

The paramedic then placed two fingers on the side of Christina's neck, feeling for something... anything.

"Pulse is still going, but weakly," he announced to the other paramedics. "She's still alive. We need to move now."

"Yes, sir," a female paramedic nearby said as the other brought in a stretcher and loaded Christina's limp body onto it.

A/N: i'm so sorry...🫤

ANYWAYS, thoughts on this chapter? i know you hate me now, so you can go ahead and press the unfollow button. :)

did you like the first scene with sidney talking to arabella on the phone?

did you like the subtle easter egg with the mention of julia carpenter (madame web in the comics)?

what about the phone call and how harry emotionally tortured christina?

what about the entire scream 6 inspired attack scene? did you like how christina immediately defended herself against harry? she wasn't fucking around!

and... i know you guys hate me for the scene where harry stabbed christina almost fatally... don't worry! again, she will be absolutely fine! i just needed to have more conflict around the halfway point and this was the best way to do it.

BUT, what did you think of the moment where mary jane saved christina's life as opposed to the typical expectation of peter saving her? like i said, she's more of a badass in this version, ESPECIALLY in part three! more badass mary jane scenes to come!😁😁

and what about sidney's reaction to what happened to her sister? i feel so bad for the kid...☹️

i know the cliffhanger pissed you guys off. sorry about that😬

predictions for the next chapter?

be looking forward to the next chapter... i guess...

-denbroughswife