Spider-Man and all associated characters belong to Marvel obviously.


2024


If somebody told you the events that had transpired these last few days was something Otto Octavius could've foreseen, even after the terrible accident that had fused four robotic tentacles to his body with their A.I. ultimately leading him down a dark path and doing battle with a man gifted super powers from a *spider-bite* flying around New York City in red and blue pajamas...then somebody lied.

It had happened so suddenly: having said-man at his mercy, his arm having him in a choke-hold after having found out the identity of the "hero" attempting to stop his second chance at realizing his dream of sustainable energy for the benefit of the whole world...being none other than the brilliant yet lazy boy he'd only gotten to know for a brief but nonetheless meaningful time, Peter Parker. The boy was trying to appeal to him, to convince him what he was doing was wrong but that it wasn't too late to turn back, but before he could get anywhere everything for Otto had vanished around him in an orange flash...and he'd found himself near a Hudson River very different from his own, and then very shortly after facing a Peter who was definitely not his and once that battle was over a VERY alive Norman Osborn.

He was then transported into the dungeon of a so-called "wizard", picking up quickly on the ludicrousness of the situation over time: this universe's Parker messing up some spell and pulling people from other realities into this one, and thus being tasked by the man with the goatee to lock up any others like himself and that already-captured beast so they can be sent back where they belonged. All Otto himself could do was ponder the question bothering him most since the bridge incident...how was Norman of all people here? It was definitely the Norman of his dimension, the demonic green armor being unmistakable, but the Green Goblin had died two years prior in a final confrontation with their version of Peter...right?

After Norman himself was brought in along with these other men with sand and electricity powers not too long beforehand, he'd finally asked the question everyone wanted the answer to...and found himself, along with all the others in the room, horrified with the possibility it had presented thanks to the revelation by this "Sandman" that for him both Otto and Norman were dead: most of the inter-dimensional travelers brought here accidentally by Parker were destined to perish in a battle with THEIR Spider-Men; and despite this young Parker's protests, the wizard man didn't care in the least at to what would become of them in the slightest...and that's when something happened that truly stunned Octavius: Peter chose to fight the wizard to save the lives of people he didn't even know, all he understood was they had all tried to kill him in their home-realities...and he somehow managed to best him. Offered to "fix them" so when they go home they perhaps wouldn't die facing Spider-Man...and Otto still had intense hesitation towards the idea, even after he'd left with Parker and sat helplessly as he and Osborn worked on a new inhibitor-chip for him.

Perhaps Otto truly grew too "attached" to the arms only he himself heard speak, or it was a last ditch effort from the arms knowing they'd lose their hold of the broken man yet thanks to the nanobots holding *them* in place for a change they couldn't take physical action to prevent their hold on Octavius breaking...only Otto truly knows for sure.

When he was finally free, the only voice in his head being his own once more, he was truly eternally grateful to the boy. Even though it wasn't his Peter, he'd still shortly grown a strong bond with him, one that was also quick to strengthen as they'd gotten to work on the cures for the other villains...just like it had with his own Parker.

Yet, like everything else good in his life; his dream, his career, his friendships with fellow scientists like Curt Connors...his dear Rosie...it was doomed from the start.

Norman had succumbed to the Goblin persona once more, and all hell broke loose: Max tore off the device sapping his powers and stole that Arc Reactor mechanism to heighten them beyond his wildest dreams, Flint saw the impending carnage and instead of helping him or Peter he instead chose to leave before he could be swept up in the madness truly only caring for his daughter and nothing more, and the lizard-man who was supposedly Dillon's Connors also took off (Otto didn't particularly care when this was revealed to him earlier: after all it wasn't *his* Connors, and any Connors that'd mutate himself into a monster and try to transform the world into a lizard-utopia is a Connors he didn't want to be associated with) while Parker was left alone to battle the demon hiding in Norman's soul. Otto attempted to help, but Dillon had blasted him out of the building before he could assist Peter or even make sure his beautiful and kind Aunt May made it out safely at the very least...the latter of which he would especially come to regret...

He had to make things right by the Parkers...he HAD to. Despite his fears, he took off for the Statue of Liberty (now with that odd shield attached to it) to aid Peter in finishing the mission...or rather the "Peters", as he soon discovered when he'd arrived: one of which clearly being his own, the other despite the similar suit he was clueless of. He faked having been consumed by the arms' influence again in order to fool Electro and allow him to get close and catch him by surprise, saving the two Parkers he had at this mercy. Once the mayhem had subsided for a moment it finally gave Otto a chance to properly re-unite with his Peter.

"Peter...?", the doctor speaks cautiously: not wanting to get his hopes up 'cause honestly who knows anymore what could happen in this kind of scenario with wizards and alternate universes-

The Spider-Man being spoken to walks forward, removing his mask to reveal himself to the man he once and still has immense respect for. "Otto..."

"...Oh it is good to see you, dear boy~"

"It's good to see you."

"You're all grown up...how are you?"

"...Trying to do better~", Peter intentionally calling back to the conversation they had upon first ever meeting each other, Otto genuinely smiling back at him.

Otto and Rosie never had the chance to have kids before her life was taken, being more focused on work before starting a family (another of the many, many regrets Otto will carry for the rest of his life), but sitting at the dinner table with her and Parker; the two of them particularly having bonded over their love of science and talking non-stop for almost two whole hours, Rosie and he giving him relationship-advice for this "secret love" of his...it truly felt like for that day at least, Otto had someone he would've been more than comfortable considering a "son".

And yet you tried to kill him, multiple times, to selfishly fulfill a dead dream doomed to never succeed.

Otto shut the negative thoughts out, whether they were still somehow from the damn arms still physically attached to him or now it was only his own conscience eating away at him it didn't matter: he wasn't in the mood to hear it.

Of course, as if he could somehow *feel* in the air that he was getting "too happy" again and the universe needed to put a stop to it, the Goblin finally swept down to destroy the Macchina di Kadavus and ultimately succeeded in doing so via slipping a pumpkin bomb into it right before Strange had taken it back from him; also tearing off one of Otto's tentacles in the process, something that in the long-run he probably wouldn't have too much regret for considering how much torment they'd put him in his reality and even the short while they'd been here. This reality's native Parker finally defeated him, but was about to cross a grave line before their Peter stopped him from impaling Norman with his own glider...ironically how he and Flint both respectively remember Norman having died originally in their history; perhaps their Peter (apparently having been referred to as "Peter-2" by the others to avoid confusion with 3 Peter's running around, the other Peter he didn't know being "Peter-3"...because of course these boys would rely on such a simple naming-convention to get around the issue. Truly brilliant, but lazy.) needed this as much as that other one did minutes prior, saving that girl from falling to her death, although of course Otto doesn't know the details behind that possible story.

Peter had taken a literal stab to the back by Osborn, and despite his inner rage and wanting to go down there and tear Goblin apart he refrained from jumping in and let the other two Parkers finally banish the monster from Norman once and for all.

The multiversal-destruction finally set to be undone, though unbeknownst to everyone but his best friend and his love it would take "Peter-1" sacrificing everyone else in this reality's memories of him in order to do it, Otto stood idly by (the Arc Reactor taken back from Dillon still in his possession) with the other now-reformed villains as Peter said his goodbyes to the other Parkers and swung off to speak with the sorcerer as the orange lights began to envelope him and the others once more to take them home.

Truly, not an adventure Otto could've possibly foreseen...nor did he, the actual outcome of it.

Another regret, to add to the ever-growing list...

Not making sure it was *guaranteed* he was sent back exactly when he was taken...or at the very least, saying goodbye to his dear boy when he had the chance.


2004



A warm, orange warmth covered Otto...but not the one of his out-of-control fusion reactor; it was instead the same morning-rise as the one overlooking him and the others just moments prior. Otto opened his eyes to find himself still on Liberty Island, but without the destruction laid upon it by the earlier battle between the Spider-Men and the super-villains. Wasn't it night-time when he and Peter were fighting? And why was he still HERE instead of his warehouse base? As he looked around in confusion, a horrifying thought crossed his mind...no...no, NO. He had to return to the city proper and get to the bottom of whatever was going on, and it couldn't DARE be what he was dreading...it couldn't. So, as mysteriously as he had gotten to the Statue of Liberty in the first place despite not having flight-capabilities, he raced back to New York.

Jumping across from rooftop-to-rooftop to avoid as much attention from the general-populace as possible, the loud banging of his arms landing each time undoubtedly still making this difficult to anyone on the top-floors of these buildings, Otto eventually found himself in Times Square...with his fears confirmed. He was sure the news-anchors were spouting off some pointless nonsense, but even if he wanted to hear it he couldn't. All that mattered, were the giant words scrolling by on loop as they did:

Memorial For NYC Hero Spider-Man To Be Held This Weekend, Public Figures Such As-

...Peter Parker was dead. Peter, was dead...and Otto already surmised how: the reactor he wasn't there to stop. Otto hoped that when he'd returned from his brief universal-hopping adventure he could somehow stop it before it went critical, maybe with the Arc Reactor he brought back with him...or even his life if that was what it took, and what he'd eventually come to realize secretly to himself after seeing Peter (including even other versions of him from across the multiverse) was a man willing to save even his own villains from their impending doom...there was no way he actually killed him during their final confrontation; HE was the one to give his own life to drown with his reactor, as Flint himself stated. He was ready now, with his second chance to be better, to make amends with Peter and start anew...but now he wouldn't get to. Peter, being the selfless man he is, laid down HIS LIFE to save the city...

from your mistake

from your mistake

FROM YOUR MISTAKE

FROM YOUR MISTAKE-

Otto collapsed to his knees and roared out at the heavens and anyone that could hear him in pure anger. He didn't care if he was possibly alerting the citizens below that he was still alive and free to roam the city as he pleased, because to him he may as well not be. He shouldn't be. "...I...It should be me at the bottom of the river, not...not PETER!", crashing his clenched fists onto the rooftop over and over; his robotic arms flailing about as if they were somehow in as much emotional-agony as him as well. He was supposed to be back when he taken by the spell, that was the whole point...but as it turned out, he and the others were returned *relative to the time they spent in that other universe*, and despite it having been only mere days it was more than enough to sentence his Peter Parker to be damned for his crimes.

Not only was he to blame for his wife's death, failing to listen to reason and shut down the initial experiment that took her life...but now he was to blame for taking the life New York City's hero, and cherished friend who'd also died having never made peace with him unlike his older counterpart...probably looking down on him with hatred and disgust from whatever afterlife there is, if there even is one. Otto at least wishes he were, despite the unlikeliness...he deserves as much for killing him.

If Otto didn't hate magic before, as a man of science and logic, he certainly did now.


And that's a wrap on the first chapter of my first real attempt at writing a story here, most of it of course being a slight recap of No Way Home but I deemed it necessary to help set the stage for the actual story itself. This idea actually came to me in the most random of circumstances, aka me watching Youtube reactions to the film out of boredom and when getting to the scene everyone finds out Otto, Norman, and Max were all going to die fighting their Spider-Men the idea of "What if everybody whisked over here *wasn't* actually taken back to the moment in time they were taken from, and instead dropped off the amount of time passed during the movie's events into their realities instead?"...and of course realizing what that would possibly mean for Otto, being moments before his big sacrifice in Spider-Man 2. Who would've had to take his place, but none other than Peter himself. The lengths Otto might go to out of grief, to make up for his numerous failings, and ultimately go down a road that'll give New York a "superior" hero in its wake. And from the character tags, you can probably guess how Otto might end up achieving such a feat...

I in no way promise consistent updates, unless you consider "whenever he feels up to writing a new chapter" as consistent, but at the very least I won't delete this (like my last attempt at writing a fan-fic from a couple years ago that hopefully nobody here remembers so let's not bring that up-) even if it's just this one chapter for awhile so...bam, it's here forever. Unless it's deleted by admins or whatever else, I dunno I'm new to this.

The focus will obviously be on Otto mainly, but I'm thinking for at least the next chapter or so delving directly into the impact Peter's death in this scenario would have on his loved ones; particularly Mary Jane of course, being the only other person besides Otto and Peter who was actually there. Soooo, yeah...see you then?

Edit: Messed up posting this the first time, if anybody saw that then yeah it should definitely be apparent I ain't used to this but eh here I am trying anyway-