"It was Juggernaut," Carol whispered as she continued to try and free herself. "Wasn't it? You had him drug me during the fight..." She blinked in an effort to stay conscious as the two super-villains smirked wickedly. She had finally been able to identify the man as the Green Goblin, one of Peter's most persistent tormentors. She wasn't sure if it was Norman Osborn under the mask, since last she heard he was locked up by S.H.I.E.L.D. However, she was open to the idea that he could have escaped, as criminals had done it in the past.

"Close, deary," The Goblin replied as he traced his finger along her chin. "So close...but so far...Well I guess I can't blame you. Peter's the brains between you two?" he taunted as he patted her cheek, like she was a child struggling with a homework problem. Sure, she didn't go to University like Peter had. And she didn't have any doctorates in specialized fields like bio-chemistry, or computer sciences. But very few people who knew her referred to her as being unintelligent. Not if they wanted to avoid what Peter referred to as 'The Mega-death glare.'

"Didn't know you two where on a first-name basis," Carol snapped as she tugged at the ropes. "Maybe you, him, Raven and I can arrange some sort of couples activity when you're behind bars..." she said as Mystique sauntered around the chair Carol was in. The blue-skinned Mutant seemed to be amused by something, as she traced her finger across Carol's now-bare shoulder. Her expensive dress had been ruined while she was unconscious. Just another thing that Mystique would have to pay for, in the end, when Carol came to collect.

"You seem to be operating under the impression," Mystique smirked as she grabbed Carol by the shoulders, shaking her violently as she did so. "That you two will make it out alive." That wasn't a threat to Carol, as much as what is was to Peter, and Carol knew it. And both Mystique and the Green Goblin knew that she knew that, as well. It seemed to give them a certain amount of glee, she could see it in their eyes. "You're going to live just long enough to watch him die. Then, I'm going to kill you myself."

"And you," Carol replied in as steely a tone as she could muster, "seem to be operating under the impression that he'll be coming alone." which he will, she thought to herself with a realization. He would never wait for back-up to come to him, not if he thought her life was in danger. Which was one of the things she both hated and loved about him. This gave her the incentive to continue her frantic, but calm, attempt to escape her rope bonds. She would make sure Mystique was out of the equation, at least.

XXX

"Are you sure?" Jessica asked as the two of them hovered above the seemingly abandoned warehouse. The very same abandoned warehouse that he had tracked Norman Osborn to after he had killed Gwen Stacey. He knew because it was burned in the back of his mind. This was the one in which the two of them fought their most draining fight of their lives. Numerous times, Peter had felt as though he had been about to die, and he was sure Norman had felt the same way. "I mean come on, Peter, there are so many others just like it-"

"I'm sure," Peter replied with a heavy tone as he readied himself for a fight. "Cap, eta?" he asked over the com-channel.

"Five minutes," Captain America replied hastily, "Wanda's bringing Stark and Hercules in a Quinjet, and Logan and I are almost-"

"It'll take to long," Peter snapped back at the revered world war two Captain. Without another word, he shot downwards, into the warehouse itself. He punched a hole in the roof and primed his two repulsors as he spun around, looking for a target to present itself. Any target at all, be it Mystique, the Goblin, or one of their henchmen. He scanned the area, finding only scurrying rats, and the descending Jessica Drew, who sighed. "Nothing," Peter spat, as he kicked a large, metal drum. "Clear!" he shouted.

"There's a lot of stuff here," Jessica muttered as she picked her way past discarded wood crates.

"Too expensive for the company to care about recycling it," Peter replied as he kicked away a second oil drum. He sighed to himself as his metal-encased hand brushed against the wall, and he remembered a fateful night. He remembered lots of screaming, pain, and blood. He remembered shoving his second-greatest nemesis against the wall, with every intent on killing him right there in cold blood. That would have been so easy.

And that was what made it so wrong. Killing the Goblin wouldn't solve anything. Neither would killing Kraven. Or the Vulture. Or Venom. If he killed them, then he would be no better off than they where. He'd be a murderer. And someone like the, Police, S.H.I.E.L.D, the Avengers would be forced to bring him in. Carol would be forced to bring him in, and that, he knew, would break both their hearts. He would be shattered beyond repair. She was his anchor in the darkest of times, as much as he was hers.

"Still..." Jessica muttered from the near complete darkness. "Isn't it kinda illegal to leave all these drums around?" She continued, as he voice trailed through both the wall and the team's com-system. "Some of them feel like they still got oil intheohmygod!"she finished with a scream, which forced Peter into action. They where in the Goblin's territory, after all. They needed to be prepared for anything, was what he told himself.

But he wasn't prepared to see Captain Marvel impaled by a glider against the wall.

It took him three painful seconds to realize it wasn't Carol. The person, or body, was to young. Maybe seventeen at most. A closer examination of her skin told Peter that she had been dead for more than a day, and starving before that. He looked around, and saw a small bundle of clothes in one corner of the room. And as they looked so ragged, he assumed they belonged to the dead girl.

"Who is she?" Jessica asked, losing the fear-filled tone she had screamed with.

"A druggie," He replied as he found her pants. "A runaway. An outcast. Someone who-" He stopped his words dead in his mouth as he opened the wallet. Inside was a clearly fake I.D., which wouldn't seem out of the ordinary at all. Especially for someone so young, if they wanted to get into nightclubs, or buy alcohol for themselves or friends. That was something he accepted.

What he didn't accept was the name on the I.D.

Gwen Stacey.

Obviously, the Goblin was still trying to get to him. He was trying to manipulate Peter into doing something rash and impulsive. He wanted Peter to push forward without a plan. Which what he set out to not do, as he realized it could end every badly for either him or Carol. His mind began to race as he got to his feet, knowing that Norman would have left him a clue, even if it wasn't intentional. It was in the Goblin's nature to want to taunt him with information, to make Peter work things out before killing him.

"What's wrong?" Jessica asked as Peter heard the roar of a Quinjet's engines, accompanied by the twin roars of motorcycle engines, which told him Captain America and Logan had arrived on-scene, as well as Wanda and Hercules. Which didn't give him much time, so he pressed his finger over Jessica's lips, telling her to be quiet.

"Her name," he whispered softly, "is Gwen Stacey and-"

"So?" Jessica whispered back with a look of shock, "why the-"

"Gwen Stacey died five years ago," he said promptly, hoping that she would catch the unsaid portion. He wasn't in the mood to explain everything, his whole relationship to the Goblin, to the Avengers, who stepped through the small doorway. Cap and Wanda bore a momentary look of fright as they saw the body. While Logan shrugged with indifference as he took a long sniff. Peter guessed that he was trying to pick up a scent of some kind.

"Five goons," the feral mutant grunted as he paced around the room. "Gang-rape-murder combo," he continued as he stepped past the girl's body. He didn't even spare a look downwards as he finished, "she was never here."

"I figured that," Peter shrugged as he continued to rack his mind for information. The Goblin wanted him to have Gwen on the forefront of his mind, so that was what he did. He thought about her, and the days leading up to and after her death. He remembered finding the note, telling him what Norman had done. He remembered fighting on the bridge. He remembered the fall. He remembered the warehouse. But what came next? Norman had disappeared from Peter's life after that glider had impaled him. He once more looked down at the I.D in his hands, this tome looking at the address. Which was the key. He remembered it very well.

It belonged to Osborn, but not in an illegal sense. The address was for the very same building in which Peter had been bitten by the spider all those years ago.

XXX

"Do you know where we are, deary?" the cackling fiend taunted as he set his foot down on her knee. Mystique had left the two of them some time ago, in order to prepare for the eventual arrival of the Avengers. Now, she was free to be openly repulsed by the Goblin's invasion of her personal space.

"No," she said as she launched a ball of spit in his direction, and received a slap to the face in return.

"This," The Goblin said as he backed away, towards the dim light in the centre of the room. Before, Carol had thought that she was in a small room, but now she realized that her senses had been playing games on her. She was in a very large room. Large enough to fit a medium-sized crowd inside. And full of machinery, which she could begin to see the outlines of as the Goblin passed his light over them. She caught sight of the Oscorp logo on the side of one of the machines, which made her more convinced that she was dealing with the real Norman Osborn. "Is all mine...or was, at least. The Government owns it all now. They put a lot of people out of work. Some of the-"

"Don't try and justify yourself," Carol snapped as she finally managed to free her hand. Instantly, she knew that she should keep that fact a secret, until the Goblin's back was turned at the least. She still knew she was nowhere near full strength, because of the effects of the drug. She had a feeling that she might currently have the physical stamina equivalent to a high-school cheerleader. Good, but not enough to go up against the Green Goblin, who was stronger than, and much more brutal than Peter, who always held something back in a fight. "You brought your company down on itself. Not the government," she snapped, hoping to keep the super-villain's attention on her words, not her hands.

"I was merely painting you a picture," the Goblin replied as he paced back and forth around the room. "This, my dearest Spider-slut," he continued, making sure to press her buttons as he did so, "was a nuclear radiation particle beam generator. If we got this into development as planned," the Goblin smiled in her direction, "I would have been able to buy Stark's company out from underneath him. Unfortunately, the prototype had a few problems."

"Like what?" Carol snapped, still working on a strategy to take him out. She knew that his nerve endings would be the same as a humans, so she could take him out like that. However, if she made one wrong move, then he would be able to kill her, or do whatever he could think of in his demented mind at his leisure. And there would be nothing she could do about it. She would only be able to wait for the pain to end if she failed.

"I'm surprised you haven't guessed," the Goblin snorted as he turned to face her, "this is the very same building in which our dear Spider-man was born in," he smirked wickedly, "fitting that he should die here, as well, don't you think?"

"He's gonna kick your ass here," Carol replied as she steeled herself. She could feel the adrenaline building in the room as the Goblin drew a knife from his belt, and smiled at her wickedly.

"He won't be in any mood to fight me," the Goblin mocked, "he'll be to busy trying to re-start your hea-" Kra-Koom! The entire building shook with an explosion, telling her that backup had arrived. The explosion also threw the Goblin off-balance, and gave her the time to snap her head forward and strike him hard. The knife clattered to the floor as she snap-kicked the deranged man in the face, before swinging the chair into his face. The wood shattered on impact and seemed to blind him, allowing her to grab his knife with the precious few seconds that she had.

"Yeah," Carol huffed as she assumed a fighting stance, "you're right. He won't be in the mood to fight you. We'll be to busy with date-night to worry about scum like you."

"Tell me," the Goblin sneered as he drew a second knife from his belt, "has Peter ever told you about the first woman he loved? I mean truly, beyond any doubt?" He continued as she twirled the knife in her hands. She briefly recalled some of what Peter had told her about Gwen Stacey. The two of them had been science majors in university before starting a relationship. Beyond that, she didn't know anything. She had always assumed they had simply broken up, and Peter had never bothered to tell her how. But, seeing the look on the Green Goblin's face made her think that he hadn't told her everything.

XXX

"It's a trap!" Logan snarled as the sparking form of Electro attempted to strike him from the side, and Hydro-man bubbled up from out of no-where. Together, they joined the ranks of the already fearsome-looking ranks of the Sinister Six. Who included Kraven the Hunter, an unfamiliar-looking Scorpion, Shocker and Sandman. And behind them stood twenty armed thugs, all dressed in Goblin-attire and wielding assault weapons. This told him it was going to be a bit of a long fight, even before the super-villains charged them.

Wolverine clashed with Kraven, who brandished two long knives and tried to hack away at the Mutant. To Peter's left, Captain America shielded Wanda from a barrage of bullets, as the latter worked her chaos magic against the thugs that where trying to nail Jessica as she rained a series of venom-blasts down below. Hercules, on the other hand, attempted to rush Scorpion and Shocker, the latter of whom blasted the demi-god with sonic vibrations that shattered glass windows. Peter would have helped, but he found that his feet where trapped in a mud-like mixture that began to rise from the ground. Once more, Sandman and Hydro-man had fused themselves to try and trap him. Only this time, Carol wasn't around to help him out of his jam, so he was forced to come up with his own solution.

He had implemented a web-shooter design into the armour, for the purposes of nonlethal combat. So, he was able to fire a web-line towards Shocker's gloves, and pull the man in his direction. At the same time, he also freed Hercules from the barrage of attacks, as the gloves now pointed in Peter's direction. The sonic waves served to separate the two villains long enough for Peter to escape their grip, and fire a repulsor blast into their midst. He didn't have time to savour his victory, however, as Electro swooped in for a deadly attack. One that would have killed him, if it weren't for his armour, which absorbed most of the blow.

Peter was quick to retaliate, as he fired back, against the electric villain. The blow struck his back, and Electro began to fall, only to be saved at the last minute by Sandman re-assuming his solid form.

"It's a diversion!" Captain America shouted as he took down an armed thug. "Spider-man, go! Find her! We'll-" he was cut off as Sandman swung a pair of massive fists in his direction. "Go!" the Captain continued after Sandman brought his fists back for another blow. Peter obeyed, but only after firing a blast into Sandman's stomach, knocking him back several feet and giving Captain America the time he needed to fully recover.

The battle with the sinister six suddenly became a secondary thought as he flew down the halls of Oscorp, looking for any sign of Carol, Mystique, or the Green Goblin. And praying for the best scenario possible to present itself for the hundredth time that night. Luck, however, was on his side for once, as he burst through the doors to one room, and nearly ran straight into Carol. He grabbed her by the shoulders, as he took note of the blood trickling down her arm.

"How did you-" he began to say, but she cut him off.

"Knocked him out cold, Pete," she replied hastily, "now let's go! Get me out of here! Mystique drugged me, so I can't fly!" she said in a pleading tone, to which he nodded to, and moved to pick her up in his arms. But his spider-sense wasn't fast enough to warn him of the incoming strike to the back of his head, which hit with impossible force. He was to stunned to react as Carol, who was really Mystique, ripped a section of his armour free, disabling it.

But not him. He was able to lash out with his palm and strike the mutant directly, sending her flying before she could do anything. He got to his feet, feeling the extra weight of the armour, which was about eighty pounds, impeding his movements somewhat. But that didn't stop him from reaching his destination, and lifting the shapeshifter into the air by her throat.

"Where is she?" Peter growled threateningly. He didn't need to, however, as a woman's scream came from down the hallway. So, with no other option, Peter struck Mystique on the side of the head, and knocked her out cold before sprinting down the hall. He ran as fast as he could, feeling chunks of his useless armour falling off as he did so. He veered left, into a familiar room, only to see his heart be thrown across the room by Norman Osborn, who held a bloody knife in his hands.

"Well, well, well," Norman cackled as he turned his attention to Peter. "You've got a habit of being late for these things, don't you?" the wicked man grinned as Peter balled his hands into fists. "Unless you wanted me to kill her..." he continued as Peter broke into a full sprint, and body-checked Norman away from Carol's prone form. But only by a few feet, which he was able to cross quickly, and swing his knife at Peter's throat, missing by an inch as Peter leaned to the side, and delivered a strong blow to Norman's stomach. Although his armour wasn't working, he still had more than enough in him to make the super-criminal feel pain.

"You aren't going to touch her again!" he roared as he kicked Norman's face, breaking his nose.

"What're you gonna do?" the former businessman sneered with a blood-caked expression. "Shoot me?" Norman taunted as Peter drove his fist into his face, only for the blow to be blocked, and something to drive into his stomach. Norman's knife, to be exact. He could feel the cold metal sticking into his flesh by half an inch, It hurt, but it wasn't enough to take him out of the fight, as he was able to block Norman's follow-up kick with his forearms.

Peter struck back with his foot as lightning clashed in the distance. Norman reeled back as Peter got to his feet and struck again, this time to be blocked. But, fortunately, a flash of lightning temporarily blinded Norman, and caused him to miss his next attack. This gave Peter the time he needed to recover, and kick Norman back, against a set of exterior windows, which showed a city in the middle of a thunderstorm. A nearly poetic setting, as far as he was concerned as he lashed out with his fist, and connected with the Goblin's jaw, who in turn swung a knife in Peter's direction. The blade nicked an exposed portion of his arm, allowing for a trickle of blood to fall to the ground as Peter delivered a powerful strike to Norman's head.

The Goblin bucked backwards several feet, giving Peter time to swing his leg around in an arc, and aim a kick towards his midsection. Unfortunately, pain lanced up his side as he spun around, forcing Peter to abandon his attack and nearly fall over in blinding pain. The Goblin wasn't so forgiving, and struck the back of Peter's head and the small of his back with a one-two strike. A quick leg sweep from Peter was enough to knock him off his balance, so that a descending stab glanced off what remained of Peter's armour.

Taking the opportunity to it's fullest, Peter body-checked the demon and forced him through the glass window. He stopped just short of falling over the edge, and made sure he had a firm grip on the Goblin. They both knew the fight was over, and that if the Goblin struck Peter, he would fall to his death.

"All that's missing is the bridge..." Norman chuckled as blood spurted out of his mouth, and the sound of footsteps precessed the arrival of the Avengers. Out of the corner of his eye, Peter could see Jessica nursing her arm, which must have been injured in some fashion. And Logan had a slight limp in his stride. "the cavalry..." Norman began, only for Peter to smash his fist into the side of his head, and knock him out cold before he turned around.

As he did so, however, his feet became unsteady and he began to fall, only to be supported by a rush of Scarlet fabric. Wanda supported a good portion of his weight, and helped him to the ground, beside Carol before he fell unconscious completely.

XXX

"So?" Steve asked the furred Mutant, who paced back and forth in the observation room.

"He shouldn't have gone out," Hank replied in a haughty tone as he ran his hand over him forehead. "Not in his condition. His blood platelets alone-"

"Okay," Steve cut in calmly as he glanced through the one-way window, to see the two people lying in their beds, carrying on a nice conversation as if nothing was wrong. Which was the complete opposite of the reality of the situation. "Next time her life is in danger, you tell him he has to sit on the sidelines and watch."

"He needs to understand that his body can't take the kind of punishment-" Hank began to reply.

"You mean like Logan?" Steve said in a somewhat firm tone, "and how he can't heal any more? Are you going to tell him that he's not to go out on missions? Because you and I both know-"

"Logan is a trained soldier," Hank quipped as he picked up a piece of paper.

"Peter's received almost as much training over the years as a Navy S.E.A.L would," Steve shot back quietly. "Between Shang-Chi, myself, and Carol, he's one of our most deadly-"

"he's still in no condition to be taking that kind of punishment," Hank said with a sigh as he set the piece of paper down. "She should be fine in a few days. The drug they gave her wasn't lethal, or permanent," he continued as he sighed under his breath. "Her ability to manipulate energy should return within the next forty-eight hours. The rest will return shortly after that, and she'll be cleared for duty. Peter, on the other hand," Hank said as he sucked in a deep breath, "At the very least, should wait until his armour is fully repaired. Though I still highly recommend against any-"

"He won't listen," Steve said with a slight smirk, "no matter what you say to him. But," the super soldier said as he indicated towards the window, and beyond to the couple who had sat up in their beds, and shared a single kiss. "She might be able to convince him to take a break, at least. Until you can figure out what's wrong with him."

A/N: Well? How was it? Do you think Peter will tell/should tell Carol the details on Gwen's death? Or will she find out on her own?