( TW: moderate violence & graphic gore )

Six Hours Later
9:14 P.M.
Harry's POV

He stood in the main room of his penthouse, sipping from a glass of fiery bourbon as he stared at the portrait of his father hanging from the paneled wall. For a frightening reason, Harry felt patient and at ease for once after several months of being filled with complete hate for the man that took away one of the only people that seemed to even give the slightest care about him. None of his ex-friends seemed to understand how he felt, especially Christina after she had gone on her practically psychotic rant about how Norman Osborn had been a murderer that killed her mother the night he died.

She's fucking nuts, he thought to himself as he took another sip of the alcohol. She should be put in a straightjacket and thrown into a padded cell with the key tossed away.

Harry was completely unaware of how Christina was slowly but surely recovering... this time, for good.

The last time he had seen her and had attempted to apologize, she had seemed to be the closest to okay he had seen her since Margaret's death. That was until she had started yelling at him, telling him his apology was utter bullshit and kicking him out of her apartment.

Why the fuck do you think you deserve forgiveness?! That was what she had asked him that night.

He surely didn't regret telling her that she should have died the night her mother did; he felt bad for Margaret for having to raise such a pathetic excuse for a daughter. But, at the same time, he couldn't help but feel as though it were his fault that Christina had nearly taken her life after he had left. Guilt began to seep through him ever so slowly and he even had the temptation to call Christina, to apologize for real and to say that she was allowed to hate him forever if she wanted to.

She probably would anyway, and he wouldn't blame her.

Thunder crackled and boomed outside and the storm that had been predicted on the weather channel was going to arrive soon. And Harry was about to go to the balcony doors to shut them, as the curtains were billowing in the wind harshly. But something caught his eye.

Otto Octavius was standing in the doorway leading to said balcony, and his figure surrounded by the metal octopus-like arms made for a slightly creepy image. This was especially after he had been confronted by him the previous month, literally the night Christina had attempted to end her life. He was demanding that Harry give him more tritium than he had used before; that made the young Osborn extremely defensive and paranoid, since he knew what had happened the first time. He could have destroyed the building or at least a few blocks of the street.

This time, he could easily destroy all of New York City, and he wasn't going to have that, and Harry had called Otto a crazy hack. Then he had his life threatened, so he went to his last resort of desperation.

"Kill Spider-Man... and I'll give you all the tritium you need..." he had said, his tone low and dangerous-like. "On second thought, bring him to me... alive...."

"How do I find him?" Otto had demanded, staying as calm as he could, but he hadn't been able to control his rage all too well.

Harry had thought about it long and hard for a moment, not quite knowing how to figure out the answer due to his slurred and drunken mind. But then it hit him. "Peter Parker..."

And it seemed as though Otto had either persuaded or threatened Peter into telling him where Spider-Man was, since he saw the masked murderer entangled in barbed wire and held up in the air by one of the metal arms. He seemed to be unconscious.

"Where do you want him?" Otto asked him harshly, glaring at the much younger man through his sunglasses.

Harry had no choice but to slowly raise his right arm and point towards the stretched out sofa across the room, transfixed on the knocked out person that had slaughtered his father a year and a half ago. He couldn't believe he had the son of a bitch right where he wanted, he was fifteen feet away from him and entirely vulnerable. His free hand balled up into a furious fist and he was unable to tear his gaze away from the man he wanted to slash to pieces until he was unrecognizable.

"And the tritium...?" Octavius added as he advanced towards Harry, which made him quickly back away from him.

Suddenly remembering where he had kept it hidden, Harry removed the portrait of Norman from the wall after placing his glass down and revealed a safe built into the wall. He went through the combination and turned the latch on said safe, feeling a humongous form of guilt and dread crawl up his ribs as he stared at the small jar that contained a significant amount of what Otto Octavius wanted.

But, just as he felt that, a sharp jab of pain coursed through his right shoulder as one of the metallic arms slammed into him and knocked him back about three feet.

What the fuck was that for?! he thought incredulously.

Forgetting about what had just happened not too long afterwards, Harry turned to face the unconscious figure of Spider-Man still lying on the sofa. He barely even registered that Otto had quickly taken his exit from the penthouse, probably off to begin a new experiment of his own. What his goal was, Harry did not know.

And he certainly did not care.

His hand subconsciously found the dagger that sat on one of the side tables that sat on the hardwood floor next to him. His fingers clasped the handle tightly to the point that his knuckles began turning pale white, and his eyes narrowed into a sneer of pure and unadulterated hatred. He trembled from head to toe from the utter anger that coursed through his veins; his opportunity was finally here, after nearly two years of hunting down his father's killer, he had him in the place he wanted the most.

Dad will be so proud of me, he thought as he smirked to himself. He will be avenged and I can finally have peace.

For a moment, he did have second thoughts. Suppose someone found Spider-Man's corpse and traced the fingerprints back to Harry; he would probably have to make up a story about how he had been framed for the murder. It would be the only way to keep him from being thrown in a prison cell and it would help him remain at Oscorp, just like Norman would have wanted. He'd have to hide the body somewhere so nobody would find it, but he knew that news of Spider-Man's disappearance would be in the Daily Bugle papers and on television screens soon enough.

But he couldn't care less.

"If only I could cause you the pain that you caused me..." he snarled under his breath as he lumbered towards whoever the fuck this was.

He unsheathed the dagger, the metal scraping against the cover much like swords did in those medieval action films. He was almost reminded of the pirates in that movie that he had seen a year previously, Pirates of the Caribbean. Ignoring the thought for now, he stopped directly in front of the sofa, just barely noticing the figure lying in front of him beginning to stir.

He held the dagger high above his head, prepared for the inevitable strike; he knew he wouldn't just stab him. He would slaughter Spider-Man to the point that he was unrecognizable, and he knew he would be covered in the crimson beauty that was his blood.

But there was one more thing he needed to do....

"First, I'll see who's behind the mask..." he murmured furiously, his teeth gritting as his blood boiled in his chest. "Then I can look into your eyes as you die!"

And he reached towards Spider-Man and yanked off his fabric red mask!

Harry Osborn was in utter disbelief at who he saw behind those eye lenses.

It was Peter. His best friend.

That wasn't fucking possible, it couldn't be! There was no damn way this was true.

Otto probably couldn't find the actual Spider-Man so he had taken Peter and placed him in a replica suit after knocking him out, he frantically thought. Yeah, that has to be it!

Right?

The dagger slipped from his hand as soon as the realization hit him: he had been just about to kill his lifelong friend that he had known since he was five. He felt so fucking stupid now.

"Pete...?" he mumbled in pure shock as he staggered backwards. "N-No..."

His legs hit the armchair behind him and he tumbled down onto it, feeling as though he were being tied down and restrained. His lungs felt tight in his chest and he could hardly breathe now.

"It can't be!" he shouted with wide eyes, his hands quivering.

Meanwhile, Peter was staring back at Harry, completely aware that his mask was now off and the man who wanted him dead more than anything knew that he was Spider-Man. But, also knowing that there were greater things at risk – such as thousands or even millions of lives – he couldn't stay at the penthouse to explain everything to his ex-friend, as much as he wanted to.

So, his adrenaline pumping through his veins as his energy that had drained from stopping the train returned in full force, Peter sat up as quickly as he could. He ripped apart the barbed wire that had him trapped like he was shredding a single piece of paper. It was like it wasn't even there to begin with as he stood to his feet, advancing towards Harry, acknowledging how stunned he seemed to be but he couldn't focus on that. He had to be quick before he ended up being too late; he needed to save a good friend from Octavius and he had to figure out where Mary Jane was, he needed to stop Otto before he destroyed the entire city, and he needed to find out if Christina was safe and okay.

"Harry..." he muttered, trying to catch his breath from his energy surging back throughout him. He was trying to be patient but it was practically impossible. "Where's Mary Jane? Where is he keeping her?"

He noticed that Harry was still staring at him with his wide brown eyes, so he decided to emphasize what he was trying to say to him. Snap out of it, damn it! he thought.

"Harry, she was taken by him! He also hurt Christina some time ago... There's a chance he could have taken her, too!"

Harry finally broke out of his transfixed stare on Peter, stammering wildly to himself. "N-No..." he stuttered. "All he wanted was the tritium..."

Christina and Mary Jane being kidnapped by Otto? He one hundred percent regretted giving away that fucking tritium.

God, he was an idiot!

Peter's eyes grew to the size of saucers as he came to a horrific realization, recalling what had happened at the last presentation. He remembered how Christina and Harry had nearly been killed, how Christina had lost her mother's watch and how she had been violently thrown back towards the brick. Lord only knew how much further danger the woman he loved and his best friend were in!

"Tritium...?" he whispered, his jaw nearly dropping to the floor. "He's... He's making a machine again. When that happens, they'll die along with half of New York, at least! Now, where is he?!"

"Peter... you killed my father...." Harry said in return, the terrifying knowledge hitting him that his own best friend – ex-friend – was Spider-Man.

Peter sighed heavily, knowing he would have to explain everything at a later point in time. Now, his main focus was finding Christina and Mary Jane and then stopping Otto from doing something catastrophic. But, for just the moment, he took a deep breath and explained another point as best as he could. "There are bigger things happening here..." he said, "... than me and you. Harry, please, I've got to stop him!"

_____

Ten Minutes Later
Christina's POV

The brunette jerked out of her long and disturbing slumber with a sharp gasp, not even processing where she was. Another nightmare had plagued her subconscious for the first time in weeks, and this one had been hellish and terrifying, but also confusing.

In the dream, she was right back in her apartment the night she had been abducted by Norman Osborn. Her hair was blonde once again and she was wearing her purple hoodie and blue jeans again, and she had been staring at her spine-chilling nemesis again. Only this time, instead of being covered by the sickly green costume of the Goblin, it was the human Norman that was attacking.

And she hadn't been able to run this time.

Norman had grabbed a hold of her while she screamed deliriously, all while he mocked her screams, his expression twisted into one of diabolical fury.

And that's when she had woken up.

The first thing Christina noticed was how sore her arms felt, and she could still feel the dull pain in her chest; this made her remember that she had been knocked out by Octavius's metallic arm earlier, and she wondered if someone had brought her to a hospital of some sort. But when she looked to her left, she saw that it was clearly nighttime and, if it weren't for the illuminating and starry-like lights of the skyscrapers, she wouldn't have been able to see anything.

She then attempted to move both of her arms and that's when the cold metal of chains dug into her soaked skin from the dripping water on the ceiling. She grunted with the effort to free herself and, while the chains rattled, they refused to release her from their vice-like grip. "Oh shit..." she whispered to herself, her heart slowly sinking with dread. "Not this again. Fuck!"

Where the fuck was she?! Had Otto dragged her to wherever the hell she was and just left her there to suffer and decay? Was she alone? She had to figure that out.

"Hello?!" she called out, her crystal blue eyes wide as her brown hair clung to her face thanks to the water. "Is anybody there?!"

"Chris!" came a female voice to her left.

She knew that voice all too well, so she turned her head as much as she could and, wouldn't you know it, Mary Jane was next to her. She was restrained by rope, the fibers of which were piercing her flesh.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me..." Christina said as she scoffed humorlessly.

It was an exact recreation of what had happened that night in 2002, except the situation was different.

Just my fucking luck, she thought.

"Hey!" Mary Jane cried out to an ominous figure in front of the two women, trying to get the fucker's attention. She yanked at the ropes holding her back from wanting to pummel this bastard into the ground. "HEY!"

The only thing she could do was whistle in order to snap him out of his concentration.

"OTTO!" Christina bellowed at the same time Mary Jane let out that whistle.

Otto slid his safety visors off of his eyes at the sound of both women screaming at him, and they were honestly getting on his godforsaken nerves. He turned to face them.

"WE'RE TALKING TO YOU, ASSHOLE!" Christina screeched at him, fiercely ripping at the lock attached to the chains with her fingernails. She nearly lost a fingernail or two in the process.

"You've got what you needed for your little science project!" Mary Jane shouted sarcastically. "Now let us go!"

"I can't let you two go, you'll bring the police," Otto deadpanned before raising his eyebrows. "Not that anybody can stop me now that Spider-Man is dead."

While Christina became overwrought with dread for just a moment, it vanished quickly at the thought that she knew Peter was tough. He was Spider-Man, for crying out loud! He wasn't unstoppable but she was aware that he could surely handle his own; she remembered how he had rescued her in that rainy alley over two years prior and how he had taken on five guys at once. He had defeated them all with ease. If he had been taken to where she thought he was – He probably took him to Harry, she thought – then she knew for sure he was alright. She had complete faith and confidence that he was still alive.

She wasn't falling for that as she smirked at him defiantly.

"He's not dead," Mary Jane said in a disbelieving tone. "I don't believe you."

"Believe it!" Otto snapped back before slipping the visors back on. He then typed away at a few keys and his experiment began to revive itself as the sun started appearing out of seemingly thin air.

What Otto Octavius was unaware of was that Christina had dug the fingers of her right hand into her drenched hair and she was plucking a spare bobby pin she had used to hold it up earlier that day. He should have checked to make sure that she would have no way out of her restraints. After all, he had tied her up with chains because he knew she was a force to be reckoned with on her own; she had tried to shield Spider-Man from him, so he knew she was a threat.

Christina unleashed the bobby pin from her strands of hair and bent the smaller part of it as best as she could. After she was sure she got it right, she then stuck the metal makeshift key into the lock and attempted to pick it. She prayed that what she had learned from watching Terminator 2 would actually work and she would be free alongside Mary Jane.

Don't let me down, Sarah Conner, she thought amusingly.

Mary Jane happened to glance over at her best friend to see what she was doing and she perked up lightly, nodding her head to encourage her to keep going. That's what Christina needed, as she was able to hear the sound of the lock clicking, and she chuckled lightly out of pure relief.

"Surprise..."

The familiar voice that never failed to allow the butterflies in her stomach flutter wildly led to Christina's head lifting up, and she grinned at the sight of Peter in the Spider-Man suit. She felt utterly relieved that she ended up being right and that he was perfectly fine for the most part, with the exception of his skin still being somewhat torn from what happened on the subway train. She didn't ignore her goal of removing the chains, but she didn't take her eyes off of Peter. "Thank God..." she murmured.

Peter noticed Christina's struggle and reached out and quietly tore the chains from the rusty pipe she had been tied to. The brunette sighed with comfort as her arms slowly began to stop aching from the restraint of them being above her head for far longer than she would have liked. She removed the chains and finally felt herself being freed, and she shut her eyes for just a moment. She then quickly moved over to Mary Jane and began the tough process of untying the ropes binding her.

"As soon as you two get free –" Peter began but something being hurled at all three of them cut off his sentence, and Mary Jane yelped slightly with startlement. He then leaped off of the pipe and landed on the ground in his iconic crouch.

"I should have known Osborn wouldn't have the spine to finish you!" Octavius snarled at his nemesis.

"Shut it down, Ock," Peter retorted, obviously changing the tone of his voice so it wouldn't be recognized so easily. "You're gonna hurt a lot more people this time!"

"Well, that's a risk we're willing to take," Otto replied, obviously challenging him.

Peter glanced over at the thick power cables that connected to the experiment, and that led to Christina following his gaze for just a moment. And that was when she noticed a way that he could stop the life-endangering 'presentation' from taking place, and her eyes grew triumphantly wide even though she knew she shouldn't give her hopes up so quickly. But, knowing that she had a job to do, she successfully untied one of the knots of the rope, which made Mary Jane smile with relaxation.

"Well, I'm not!" Peter shouted before jumping towards the cables, but Octavius grabbed him and hurled him out of the broken down building.

Meanwhile, the sun behind Christina started growing bigger in size, and that only made her move even quicker to free Mary Jane.

Peter then swung back into the building through one of the windows and plowed into Octavius, sending the both of them through the rotted floorboards, making the brunette nearly jump into the air out of fright. But she tried her best to ignore the two enemies punching and kicking the shit out of each other, and she was completely unaware of the chains tied to the redhead's ankles....

This really is a repeat of the World Unity Festival... she thought sarcastically.

Out of nowhere, one of the rays of the sun reached out and struck one of the metal pipes ten feet from the two women; the pipe was eventually pulled towards the sun's force, which made the brunette's arms erupt in goosebumps. She didn't want this to happen again, because she knew it would end up being catastrophic and deadly like the last one. The day that had turned her life around even more than it already had been was going to take place once more and she didn't want that.

Christina then felt the sensation of freezing cold chains against her legs and she looked down, only to see them lifting up into the air. The terrifying realization hit her just as she and Mary Jane were both pulled away from the pipe, and the young woman whimpered with pure fear. She was in much more danger than the last time, and she wasn't able to scream from what was happening.

"Uh, Spider-Man?!" she cried out, not daring to reveal his actual identity to Mary Jane in case they both lived.

"What the hell's going on, Chris?!" the redhead screamed.

A tremendous force yanked them closer to the sun, making them both howl out of utter terror as they clutched onto one another tightly.

"JUST HOLD ON!" Christina yelled back, squeezing her eyes shut to prepare herself for what would happen. She just hoped it would be quick.

"HANG ON, GIRLS!" Peter screeched to them before delivering one final punch to Otto's face in order to disorient him for the time being.

The remaining piece of rope that Mary Jane was tied to caught on a spare nail on the pipe, which meant the two women were literally hanging by a thread. They both stared at what they were attached to, just praying that they could stay for long enough to be saved by Spider-Man. Christina had tried hard enough to free them but it wasn't good enough, and they were now going to die because of her.

The nail snapped off of the pipe and the two women went flying towards their demise; in the shock of the moment, Christina couldn't even cry out and Mary Jane could barely even let out a whimper because of what was happening.

They were both going to die.

Peter wasn't going to allow that, however.

He shot out a web, which attached to the rope and stopped them from flying towards their deaths.

But, in the process of them being halted, Christina's left arm slipped away from where it was holding onto her best friend.

Out of nowhere, the worst and most excruciating agony coursed through Christina's body and she let out a bonechilling scream. Her eyes squeezed tightly shut as the white-hot pain spread through her blood as her arm got caught in one of the small rays of the gigantic sun Otto Octavius had created. Her skin began to melt faster than candle wax to a single flame and her bones started to become horribly charred from the heat of the sun, and her horrified scream turned into a guttural croak as her vision went pitch black a few times.

Peter and Mary Jane caught a glimpse of this and both of them greatly panicked as the two women were yanked back to safety once the chains slipped off of the redhead's feet.

While Mary Jane landed carefully on her feet while still holding onto Christina, the brunette roughly collapsed to the ground with an almost inaudible cry of suffering.

Mary Jane saw the state of her friend's arm and held a hand over her mouth as she tried not to gag. "Jesus Christ!" she wailed in pure disgust.

Peter's eyes widened behind his mask in utter shock and bewilderment, and a new surge of guilt washed over him. "Oh shit..." he mumbled. "M.J, take her and run!"

He was then suddenly slammed down to the rocky ground by a wooden plank, making Mary Jane cry out in surprise. He was then lifted up by one of Octavius's metal arms and flung towards the other side of the building, where he painfully collided with the wall and hit the rotten floorboards.

Christina moaned in pain as she hesitantly lifted up her left arm to see just how bad it was; she stared at the result in utter disorientation, and she suddenly felt extremely faint.

The woman's arm was nothing but bone from just below the elbow all the way to her fingertips, and the bones were beyond charred and unrepairable. The skin that was unmelted was still horribly scalded and scarred, and some bits had turned to the darkest shade of black imaginable.

The sight of it alone was enough for Christina's blood to drain, and the unbearable agony made her topple over and hit the ground.

_____

"Christina!"

The woman on the ground groaned out of pure tiredness as she turned her head. When she tried to open her eyes, all she could see was white and, when she tried to breathe, it came out in a wheezy intake of very little oxygen. The whiteness above her was brighter than anything she had ever seen in her life, and it was almost beautiful.

"Christina, wake up!"

She could clearly hear her best friend's voice from her right, but she couldn't see her whatsoever. She moaned a little as Mary Jane's voice echoed in her brain and she tried to blink but it was as if her eyelids were being forced open. A dull pain was in her left arm and, for one single moment, she believed that she was back in her apartment and in her cozy and warm bed and that she had just slept wrong.

That must have been what the pain was.

"Christina, please wake up!" Mary Jane cried out just as the whiteness began to fade back to normality, but it seemed as though it took an eternity.

"Christina, wake up, sweetheart..."

The new voice that entered her mind sent Christina into a brief state of shock as her eyes widened. "Wuh-What...?" she whimpered, now blinking rapidly.

"Wake up, honey... Get up and fight like hell. You need to live."

"Mom...?" she mumbled.

Margaret Johnson's voice was vanquished just as Mary Jane's cut back in.

"Don't hallucinate on me, Chris! Wake up, you need to fight! Don't go back to sleep!"

The flaring and horrendous agony spread throughout her body like the worst flames of fire again as she truly came back to reality. A blood-curdling and agonized scream erupted from the bottom of her soul as she writhed in the throes of pain, and tears streamed down her face as her head slammed back against the ground from how much it hurt. She wanted to die right there, as the blazing aching ignited what was left of her arm like an inferno.

"IT HURTS!!!!!" she said in an excruciating bellow. "OH GOD, MAKE IT STOP! MARY JANE, PLEASE MAKE IT FUCKING STOP!!!!!"

"Chris, I'm gonna get you somewhere as soon as I can!" Mary Jane said desperately as she sobbed because she truly didn't know how she was going to get Christina out of this forsaken place. "I promise! You just have to stay with me! Stay awake, Christina!"

"JUST FUCKING KILL ME!" Christina screeched, the words appalling Mary Jane greatly.  "MAKE IT END! MAKE IT STOP! END IT, PLEASE!"

All Mary Jane could do in that moment was carefully lift the brunette into her arms and try to make a run for it. But a huge part of the building caved in and blocked the only way out, making the redhead swear to herself as Christina wailed hysterically from the pain.

Octavius had already been taken care of, having been electrocuted for the second time thanks to his failed experiment and the redhead barely noticed Spider-Man sitting in front of him. It seemed as though he was trying to get through to him with words instead of fists. But she couldn't focus on that now, as it seemed as though Christina was about to faint again.

So, she sat the brunette down against a large rock and scooped a hand through one of the streams of water that was flooding in from the river and she splashed it onto Christina's face. "Chris, stay awake, sweetie!" she cried out, her eyes filled with tears again. "Stay awake, okay? Concentrate and keep your eyes open for me, okay?"

"I'm trying..." Christina croaked as her eyelids fluttered, trying not to pass out from the horrible white-hot pain.

"Christina, think about Sidney, about Aidan..." the redhead advised as she held her friend's face in her hands, trying to keep her upright. "Think about Peter, can you do that?"

Christina almost smiled at the thought of them, but she cried out as another surge of agony hit her.

"You'll be alright!" Mary Jane said as calmly as she possibly could, her lips quivering. "It's going to be okay, I promise. Just stay here with me and I'll get you to a hospital."

After a while, the excruciating pain in Christina's arm began to numb out and she could barely feel anything from her shoulder downward. Her eyes were half-lidded from exhaustion and shock, but she stayed strong and tried to keep herself awake.

A sudden sound erupted in her eardrums and she weakly turned her head to see Otto rising up from the river stream he had collapsed against after being electrocuted, unbeknownst to her. For a few seconds, the older man looked directly at her and he seemed to look remorseful for everything he had done, especially when he looked down at her arm. If she weren't treading the line of death because of what happened, she would have understood that Peter had successfully gotten through to him and convinced him that what he was doing was the wrong thing.

But, then again, maybe a part of her temporarily shattered and confused mind understood a little bit.

A sudden wave of energy overcoming her, Christina gathered as much strength as she could muster to stand to her feet, her legs wobbling terribly.

"I got you, Chris," Mary Jane mumbled shakily.

"I'll be fine..." Christina replied gently, struggling to walk over to where Spider-Man stood, her eyes struggling to stay open as she held her mangled arm to her side.

Otto turned around one more time, this time looking at Peter as a form of respect and this time, Christina could see a sliver of sanity come back. And she knew what his intentions were: to attempt to stop the sun he created from destroying New York City. The brunette smiled as much as she could, admiring him for finally doing the right thing after all that he had done.

She felt faint again but she fought the desire to go to sleep and succumb to painless slumber and paradise. She kept her eyes as wide open as possible, barely acknowledging Mary Jane coming up from beside her and putting an arm around her waist to hold her up since she could hardly walk or even move. Her arm was now completely numb and she could just barely discern a dull and slightly throbbing pain where the melting process had ended.

Peter then suddenly spun around slowly to face the women as if he sensed their presence behind him – he had. Christina noticed right away that his mask was off and, if her life weren't currently draining, she would have been asking him a million questions. Right now, she just stared at him as she felt a sort of comfort that she was currently alive and all she knew was that she was just happy to see him and that she would be seeing Sidney, Aidan, Allyson, and Michael pretty soon.

She hoped so, anyway.

The gasp Mary Jane let out upon seeing Peter's face caught the brunette's attention and she glanced at her slightly stunned but knowing expression, almost as if she was ecstatic to finally knowing the truth.

Little did she know, Mary Jane was extremely happy at the fact that she had been right. I fucking knew it! the redhead said in her mind as she thought back to what she had said to Peter in that cafe before he saved her life.

"I think that you're Spider-Man."

And she was correct.

She was fucking right!

Christina just chuckled lightly as she turned back to face Peter, and she grinned even more at the relaxation of just looking at him. She prayed that she would live so that she could finally make her damn move when she recovered, so they could be together at last. When she saw him smile back, that only caused her heart to flutter a little and she briefly forgot about the situation she had been put in. Just for a few seconds, she felt at peace.

Peter couldn't help but smile back at Christina despite the state she was currently in; when he had seen how badly her arm had been burnt and that most of it had resorted to bone, he felt so much concern and remorse and he would never stop blaming himself. He had vowed to permanently keep her safe by staying away from her, but then he had run into her on that train and now she had lost half of her left arm.

Just fucking great, he thought.

It was all his fault.

He was the only one to blame for this.

His spider-sense then overtook him as he looked up, and his heart sank in pure dread as he screamed for the girls to get out of the way.

Christina's heart stopped for a moment as the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, and she turned around. The wall behind her and Mary Jane was plummeting towards them and it was plummeting insanely quickly. She cried out in fear as she grabbed the redhead's arm and attempted to tug her away to safety. But her feet hit a jagged floorboard and she hit the ground painfully, and she wasn't able to crawl away from how much her arm was hurting. As a result, Mary Jane tried shielding her from the force of the wall when it would land on them, not wanting her death to be more agonizing.

But Peter had jumped in front of the wall and placed his arms against it to stop it from falling even further. He was clearly still exhausted from the process of stopping the train earlier that day but he wasn't going to allow his good friend and his love to die. He grunted with the effort of keeping the wall upright before opening his eyes and looking at the two of them, smiling awkwardly at them.

"Hi," he said. It was all he had at that moment.

"Hi..." both of them replied simultaneously; Christina sounded utterly worn out and done with this shit, Mary Jane seemed completely surprised.

Trying to inject some humor into the moment, Peter opened his mouth to speak again. "This is... really heavy..." he let out, taking deep breaths to not tire himself out too quickly.

Christina scoffed. "No, really? I would have never guessed that," she fired back sarcastically, and all three of them actually laughed.

But the wall falling further and Peter struggling to hold it up cut off all sense of humor.

They had no time to see that Octavius was tearing down his biggest dream for the sake of humanity. He knew he had to do what was right so he could save lives, as Peter had told him. "Sometimes, to do what's right, we have to be steady and give up the thing we want the most... even our dreams." He had been right and he was going to sacrifice the thing he had always wanted to do.

Even if he died in the process.

"Christina..." Peter whispered down to her, and she stared back up at him, wanting to know what he was saying.

"What...?" she replied weakly, her voice coming out in a wheeze instead of how it normally did.

"In case we die... I love you," Peter said with a sad little smile. "I love you so damn much... and I'm never going to stop."

Christina closed her eyes and smiled lovingly before opening them again. "I love you..." she murmured affectionately, a single tear coming out of her left eye.

"I knew it!" Mary Jane shouted with a surprisingly happy chuckle as she grinned at the two lovebirds.

Christina then gathered whatever was remaining of her strength and placed her uninjured arm against the wall Peter was keeping away from them. She did her best to help him push it further away, even though it was a futile attempt. Her fingers were against his hand in the process.

Peter felt more energy at this gesture and he suddenly discovered the vigor to toss the wall away from himself and the women like it were a football. He looked down at them and began panicking when he noticed that Christina using her last bit of liveliness had caused her to faint once again. He instantly bent down after throwing the wooden beam that had them pinned to the floor and scooped his love into his arms. He then gestured for Mary Jane to come closer to them.

"You're gonna have to hang on and help me hold onto her!" he instructed the redhead, to which she nodded before she looked ahead of them.

"Peter, look out!" she cried out, putting an arm around his neck and the other under Christina's torso as he latched an arm around her waist.

Holding onto both of the women, Peter launched all three of them into the air as the entire building was sucked into the river.

And Otto Octavius drowned with it.

_____

Christina was barely awake when Peter strung up a gigantic web for all three of them to wait in until the police inevitably arrived and took the women to safety. When he crawled down the web to reach them, he carefully placed an arm around a half-asleep Christina and pulled her close, allowing her to rest her head on his shoulder. He held her to keep her from descending towards the river.

Mary Jane just smiled at the small interaction, glad she had been right about how Peter felt about her best friend. She thought they were truly adorable and that only made her wish that he hadn't said that he didn't love Christina earlier in the cafe, especially since she knew he had been lying.

But she needed to know one more thing.

"I had a feeling this entire time who you really were..." she spoke up, taking Peter by surprise. "I think I just... knew that you were Spider-Man."

"Well... now you and her know why I can't be with her..." he replied solemnly, caressing Christina's cheek as she fluttered in and out of consciousness. "Spider-Man will always have enemies. And I can't let her take that risk. She's been hurt enough."

"That's not your fault, Pete," Mary Jane attempted to assure him, shaking her head sadly.

"No, it is..." he murmured in a depressed tone. "She needs to be happy and safe. I can't put her in any more danger. She's already lost so much because of me...."

Christina was actually awake the entire time and her eyes welled up with tears behind her eyelids, and she didn't dare make an implication that she was able to hear the sad words Peter was mumbling quietly.

"I will... always be Spider-Man..." Peter said matter-of-factly, finally understanding what his Uncle Ben had meant two years ago when he said, "With great power, comes great responsibility."

"She and I can never be.... I love her more than anything, but... I can't risk loving her," he muttered, his voice cracking.

The police sirens filled their ears as Mary Jane simply frowned at what her friend was saying, before turning her head to see the flashing blue and red lights headed towards them.

She knew what Peter had said was going to destroy Christina, and she would be the one having to tell her this. Even though she wanted more than anything to not say this to her, she just had to accept that she would need to. So, in defeat, she glanced back at her good friend. "Well... it was nice to see you again, Peter," she whispered.

"You too, M.J," Peter replied.

After waking Christina back up – unaware that she was already awake – Mary Jane clasped an arm around the brunette's waist in order to keep her stabilized. In response, Christina placed her unscathed arm around her to hold on as Peter provided a web from his wrist to slowly lower them to the ground.

The entire time they carefully descended to a platform below, Christina didn't dare remove her eyes from Peter, and his heart broke at how depressed they looked. He had hurt her again, and he just wanted to pull her back and comfort her forever. But he couldn't. He had to stay strong and pretty much say goodbye to the woman he loved, since he wasn't going to allow her to be put in danger again. She had nearly died multiple times over the past few years because of him.

When the two landed on the ground, a new voice filled the air and made them look down.

"Mary Jane! Christina!"

It was John.

Instinctively, and with a little smile, Christina guided Mary Jane down the steep staircase of the abandoned building and John met the two of them halfway. He didn't hesitate to embrace his beloved fiancé, hugging her desperately and covering her face in kisses that she returned, utterly relieved to be reunited with him.

For one moment, Christina didn't feel disoriented or in pain as she turned to stare up at Peter, who seemed to be a million miles away. A few tears fell down her right cheek as she looked in his direction, knowing he was looking back. She mouthed the words "Thank you," glad he had saved her life. She then closed her eyes and wiped the tears away, being forced to accept the painful reality that her love for Peter was for nothing.

And then, she opened her eyes back up and wasn't surprised.

Peter was gone.

John and Mary Jane helped the brunette towards the ambulance as she cried.

A/N: so... that happened... lovely...😀

ANYWAYS, thoughts on this chapter? was it wild?

what did you think of my 'novelization' of the scene where harry discovers peter being spider-man? was it written well? let me know!

did you like how christina's nightmare was subtly described? what about the moment she picked the lock?

christina has lost her left arm from just below the elbow down... was that a surprise?

i felt so bad for her because of the pain she went through. poor chris just can't catch a break!

did you like the subtle but adorable moment of christina trying to help peter push the wall away?

i feel bad for both christina and peter because they love one another so much!

did you like how mary jane constantly helped christina after she was injured? she's such a great friend!🥹

predictions for the next chapter?

be looking forward to the next chapter!

-denbroughswife