The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Day 9

Stifling a yawn, Tanya swiped her key card to let her into the lab that was running her experiment. She carried a cup of coffee in her right hand and balanced a stack of notes in the crook of her left arm. The sun was up and New York City was awakening but it had only just gone six, she wanted to check in on the experiment early so as to avoid James at all costs.

She took a sip of her coffee as she placed down the notes on the desk and put the cup down before taking off her blue coat and replacing it with a white lab coat over her burgundy skirt and grey shirt, her hair was already pulled into a neat ponytail on the back of her head but she pulled it out from beneath the coat and checked its stability anyway.

First she checked on the experiment and checked that it was all running smoothly. She saw that a couple of variations hadn't worked and the hypothetical test subject had deceased. She sighed in frustration before checking on the more successful attempts. They were running smoothly and she couldn't predict any more speed bumps, but then again she hadn't predicted the problems in the ones that had failed. She keyed in the variations and set up the failed experiments to run again. One of them failed within seconds and she groaned before abandoning that run and opting to concentrate on the others.

She set them all up and monitored the results for a few minutes before leaving them to run and write down her results, reasoning and hypotheses. She wanted to be thorough in case any of this research was published, she knew she should start on the paper before everything went out of her mind but she couldn't bring herself too. Just in case she failed, she couldn't bear to look at a paper which constantly reminded her of her failures. She had enough of those.

Suddenly she heard a loud crash followed by a groan and a low chuckle. She jumped and wheeled around but the lab was deserted. No one else was in that section of the building yet she knew that, she'd not seen anyone when she'd come in and she would have heard something before if someone had come in.

Tanya stood slowly and walked towards the door, she hated how the big companies had made the decision that until most employees were in the lights had to remain off. She supported how it supported the Earth but at moments like these it frightened her. Only a few lights were switched on the rest of the lab was in eerie darkness, the machinery whirred noisily like a hushed whisper and her breathing seemed to echo around her.

There was another crash at the far end of the lab and another low chuckle and she walked forward, she was sure it was just someone playing a prank on her to which she could yell at them for a few minutes before returning to her work. For a second she worried it might have been the Goblin, come to sabotage their hard work. But she was sure that if it was then he would be rampaging around much faster and more violently with the intent of doing as much damage as possible. Besides, she had left Harry sleeping peacefully that morning and she was sure he wouldn't wake until she got back.

She walked through to the other end of the lab and rounded a corner. A cupboard door stood open at the far end of the hallway and leading from it was a mess of objects. She investigated further and found a pair of legs sticking out from underneath a lab top. She recognised the shoes.

"James?" she asked loudly, her own voicing startling her.

"Tanya…" James whispered. She couldn't see his face and his ominous whisper frightened her a little, the shadows made everything more frightening.

"James come out from under there. Have you been drinking or something?" she asked and he slowly crawled out. He instantly reminded her of how Harry was when he was the Goblin except he was more put together, he was more sane and in control of himself.

"Tanya look at this…" James grinned with filed teeth. He flicked his wrist lazily and a glass thermometer flew across the room and smashed into the opposite wall. He had not touched it.

"James how did you do that?" Tanya asked with fear and awe in her voice.

"No one believed me. No one believe I could do it. But I believed in me. I did it." He said. He stood hunched a little in front of her. His hair was wild and manic and his teeth were filed and a glistening white. His eyes were darker, where they had been brown hey were now almost black. They daunted Tanya more than anything else. His fingers were elongated and his nails were ripped and bloody.

"James we need to get you to a hospital." She said as she surveyed him.

"No. we'll need to get the Goblin to a hospital." He whispered in his eerie, mutated voice.

"What?" Tanya asked, suddenly brought to attention.

"I created this. I created me in order to defeat the Goblin. We can take him out and I can be the hero. I'll be the one to save New York, not some spider kid. Or I could be. watch." He instructed her and then he morphed right in front of her. He immediately lost his deranged sense and he was the charming James she'd first met at university. His hair was styled neatly with a small quiff at the front, his nails and hands were normal, his teeth sparkled their usual white. The only things that remained the same were his deep black eyes.

"I can be whatever or whoever you want me to be." he said smoothly before reaching out his hand as if he was asking for her. She kept hers firmly at her sides and he waited a moment before sighing and flicking his wrist again. Tanya let out a slight scream of surprise as she felt her feet leaving the ground and she was propelled forward, toward him. He caught her neatly around the waist and held her close. She put her hands on his chest and immediately pushed him away.

"James! Stop this! You're sick! That serum is no good, we've proven that. And I do not want to be with you." She explained slowly and calmly despite the fact that her heart was beating in her chest so fast she thought it might burst out.

"I thought that me being like tis would change your mind." He replied, confused.

"No." she said firmly. "No James, you see I'm… I'm sort of with Harry now." She decided that honesty was the best policy. She didn't expect to be wrong.

"Harry? Harry Osborn, the monstrous Green Goblin? You're with that monster?" he yelled suddenly making her jump. He took a step toward her and she took a counter-step back and prepared to defend herself. She could see tears in his eyes but she had expected this.

"He's not a monster James. And you don't have to be either. Once we've found a way to help him we'll help you too. We'll get you back to normal and everything can go back to how it was. You'll carry on working here and I'll go back to England and…"

"No!" James roared suddenly and Tanya jumped back in fright but James was already there, his grip tight on her arm like iron. She tried to relax and pretend like none of it was really happening but fear was bubbling inside of her and threatening to spill out and show itself.

"You are a traitor. You're a lying, cheating little slut whore and you're going to pay for what you've done. First, I'm going to kill your little boyfriend and then I'm going to give you a choice, you're either going to choose me willingly or I'm going to kill you too. I don't want an answer now, just know that I'm very much into tying people up. And I think you'd look great with one of my ties around your neck." He hissed into her face as one of his hands closed around her throat, he applied a little pressure, just enough to make her feel uncomfortable like she was unable to get any air.

He took a step back after a moment and a second later he was gone. She stood in shock for a few moments before running back to the experiment and setting it up to run. She flung off her lab coat and pulled on her blue coat before picking up her notes and leaving the building as fast as she could.

As she was leaving the rest of the workers were entering the building to begin their days. She received a few odd looks and walked straight into Jonesy by accident.

"Oh my goodness I'm sorry!" she exclaimed but Jonesy shrugged her off.

"It's fine. Um, Tanya right?" Jonesy asked and Tanya nodded.

"Yeah." She replied.

"You're James' friend."

"I wouldn't call us friends."

"That's what you said about Harry Osborn, yet here you are. Listen, Tanya, if I can give you any advice get out now. Just leave. Go back to England and get away from this place because it's not the people in this place that are poisoned. This place is the poison. Get out of here whilst you still can, before you get hurt." Jonesy said and before Tanya could reply she hurried away.

She walked back to Harry's apartment and looked over her shoulder the entire time. She didn't believe that James, her friend for so many years, had a bone in his body that meant he was capable of killing. Even more so she didn't believe he could kill her. But he had threatened both her and Harry and that meant she couldn't keep it from wasn't fair on him to not have the opportunity to defend himself when she knew that James might be around every corner.

She knocked on the door to the apartment impatiently, hopping from one foot to another and when Harry opened the door she barged through. She pulled off her coat and hung it up neatly on a coat rack. Harry followed her through to the sitting area where she placed the stack of notes down on the coffee table. Harry stood behind the couch, waiting patiently. Once she was ready she stood and looked at him whilst she took a deep breath.

"Something happened today." She said with a sigh.

"Today? It's nine in the morning. I woke up and you were gone. I was worried. Where did you go?" Harry asked in his monotonous anger.

"I went into Oscorp to check on the experiment. It's all going okay I had to modify some of the failed experiments and one of them is completely failed but there are some that are still good to go." She explained and he raised an eyebrow in response. "Okay. But James was there and he wasn't right."

"Wasn't right how?" Harry asked, more curious than angry.

"He used your serum and adapted it. He's created a new form of Goblin essentially except he's more dangerous." Tanya said and Harry once again silently urged her on. "I told him about us and he threatened to kill you and then me. He wants to kill us Harry."

"Son of a bitch." Harry said flatly and began to stride toward the door.

"Harry!" she shouted, running after him and grabbing his arm to spin him around. He yanked his arm free of her grip and continued in the direction of the door.

"He threatened to kill you Tanya. That's not acceptable." He said glumly.

"I know that Harry but what are you going to do? Call the police?" she asked, hurrying after him and grabbing his arm again. Once again he pulled it free.

"No. I'm going to kill him first." He replied in a completely serious tone and Tanya stopped suddenly, the breath knocked out of her as she struggled to process what Harry had just said to her.

"Harry no." she whispered as he left the room and ventured out into the hallway. "Harry! No!" she repeated in a shout as she ran after him and rounded him to stand in front of him. She stood in front of him with both of her palms extended towards him, they hovered just in front of his chest and he stopped. He glowered at her but she refused to allow herself to feel intimidated. She had felt so intimidated in a single weekend she was getting sick of it, she was determined to regain control over her own life, to regain at least a little control over something she could at least have control over.

"Tanya. Move." Harry growled and she stood her ground.

"Harry if you go out that door with the intention to kill him, if you do kill him. Then you are just as bad as he is." She said.

"He threatened to kill you!" Harry yelled. "I'm not allowed to let that pass."

"I'm not saying you should. But if we show him his childish taunts have scared us then he has the upper hand. He has control over us. We have to act like there's nothing wrong, we cannot retaliate to him or it's only going to make things worse."

"I'm trying to protect you."

"Then protect me when he comes after me. But for now I'm here, I'm safe. You don't have to protect me. And even if that time does come you do not want to kill him. You want to overcome these feelings right? Remember how much you want to change."

"Change?"

"Yes Harry. Show me you've changed, show me that murder isn't the only thing on your mind now. Show me that you're not the Goblin, you're Harry Osborn. Please don't kill him." She begged, taking the step forward and resting her fingertips lightly on his chest. He seemed to stiffen slightly before he bowed his head and nodded it gently.

"Alright." He conceded. "You're right. I have changed and I need to show you that. I need to show you I don't want to be the Goblin. I just don't want you to get hurt. Not after everything you've done for Me." he said and took a sudden step forward. He wound his arms around her waist and pulled her close. Her hands were still caught on his chest and the rest of her was pressed there to join him in a moment. He held her close and kissed her forehead.

"I can't lose you." He whispered to her. "I need you. You are my cure."