I Didn't Know
And no one will care about that girl in the papers that is said to be dead. No one will care, no one. Maybe some internet friends, that's all...
This wasn't fair.
Five seconds she had been falling, and she realized it wasn't fair. It wasn't right for her to die now, it's a waste of a life if she died now. So much she hadn't done, or seen. This sucks, was what she thought as she screamed. She was going to die in another five seconds. Dead, right there splat. At least it would be quick, she doesn't like pain. And at least she would die, while feeling like she was flying.
But that didn't help the fact she was about to die. And it became harder to breath.
Then the buildings went by in a large flash of light, and she just screamed and screamed. Screamed until she felt something, and she stopped falling.
There was a mechanical arm hanging from the side of a building, with its open clawed, and a tentacle coming out of it. It was that tentacle that was wrapped around her arm. And slowly it pulled her to the roof of the building, where she saw Otto.
And she stared at him, shaking. It took a moment before she realized she wasn't dead. Then she jumped and grabbed Otto, shaking, and not letting go. She dug her hands into his shoulders, and cried.
"Don't drop me, don't drop me, don't drop me, don't drop me, don't drop me." She repeated, shaking.
She didn't think, she didn't care anymore what she was doing. She just grabbed the nearest thing, and tried not to fall again. Never fall again. Never. Never. Never die like that, never die now.
And Otto stepped back for a moment with this girl in his arms, surprised by her reaction. He took a moment to realize what she was doing.
"Don't drop me, don't drop me, don't drop me." She still whispered.
"I won't...I promise." Otto said.
Abbie still wouldn't let go, as she continued to cry.
"We have to go, Spider-man is coming." Otto tried to pull her off.
But she wouldn't let go. She wouldn't stop crying.
And it was one of the few moments, Otto didn't know what to do. And neither did the arms as they gathered around the child, and saw the water that came from her eyes. They recognized this motion of the human body, Otto had done this many times before.
They hissed at the girl wondering what was wrong, and Otto looked at them, telling them to stop.
And finally, Otto just let her cry, and grabbed her. Then they started to run, from Spider-man as he soon started swinging through the city looking for them.
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"Did I hurt you?" Otto asked her.
Abbie still cries, and stands still, trying to stay on the ground. Otto grabs her wrist where his arm grabbed her to see some dried blood where it had wrapped around her wrist.
They're home as Otto likes to call it, that abandon pier far from the city, far from judging eyes. And he knows somewhere, Spider-man is still looking for them.
Abbie wipes her tears with her other arm.
"Just a little." She whispers.
She's still shaking.
"I'll get you a bandage for that." Otto says, going towards what appears to be a cabinet in the corner.
"You're supposed to be the bad guy."
Otto stops, and turns to Abbie.
"I'm supposed to be a lot of things." He says.
"But...you kill people. You steal things... You're...The bad guy." Abbie says, looking down.
Otto turns, and his arms hiss.
"But...You saved me. Otto Gunther Octavius saved me. Doc Ock saved me..." She looks up at him.
She's still shaking.
"How do you know my middle name is Gunther?" Otto asks, trying to change the subject.
He doesn't want to talk about this. He doesn't want to explain himself for what has happened to him, and what he has done. Those people he's killed, he never wants to think about them again.
Abbie looks at him, teary eyes.
"You're the bad guy. The insane scientist... You kill, and you hide... Bad guys don't save people..." Abbie whispered. "But you did."
Otto turns his back on her, and goes to get the bandages.
"I told you, I'm not a murderer." He says.
It kept running through her mind. He saved her, Doctor Octopus saved her. He had done so much...He had killed so many...But he saved her...She didn't understand it. She wants to be a writer someday, and what she has seen and read in every movie and book is that there is good and there is bad.
She thought Doctor Octopus was bad.
"They say you wanted those things on your back, just so you could kill, they say you planned it, the whole thing. They say you planned the death of your wife and..." Abbie says.
Otto stops, and the arms drop to the ground. How could they think that? How could anyone suspect him of such an act? Kill Rosie, on purpose!? No! Why were people saying these things!? Why were they doing this to him!? He'd never do such a thing, never, never, never. How could they do this? The rest of the world think of him like that? How could they?
"I'm sorry...That was a horrible thing to say." Abbie says.
Otto turns back to her, saying nothing, with the bandages in his hand. He grabs her wrist and bandages it up, as if Abbie had said nothing.
"People say a lot of things, child." Otto says. "You shouldn't believe all of it." Then he started walking away.
"Well...that's what makes people wonder. All these things they're saying, they're wondering how such a...wonderful person could turn out like...this." Abbie said, as she walked in front of him.
The arms hissed as she stood in Otto's way, and Otto simply walked passed her. He didn't say much, just thinking about it all.
"It wasn't my fault." He finally said.
"What?" Abbie asked.
"They didn't know...They don't know what it means to be alive...They were just protecting me...Protecting me from the world and myself. They didn't know they were hurting me. They were just giving me what I wanted, what I needed." Otto whispers, not even looking at her.
Abbie didn't know what he was talking about, or maybe didn't want to know.
"I had to teach them...I still do."
Then those mechanical arms raised their heads and looked at her. And Abbie finally realized what was happening.
Otto finally turned to her. He wondered if she would believe him, no one else has. No one else has even bothered to listen to him, even if they did they still wouldn't believe him. Believe these...monstrous things on his back have some sort of mind.
"Listen to me. They're in my head, Abigail. Connected through my nervous system, originally designed so that I could control them. But ever since the accident...I can hear them. Voices in my head." Otto said, walking closer to her.
"They're alive?"
"They have their own personalities, their own interests, and minds. They are AI after all. They made me do it. Made me kill those people, because they don't know the value of a human life. And I...I listened to them when they told me it was all okay. They have the power to take control of me in a sense."
"But...What's stopping them from controlling you now?"
Otto took a moment to consider, and the arms hissed and gave him their answer.
"They have learned that I must be in control. They have learned what is wrong and what is right, more or less. We have come to settlements. In the end, I need them and they need me." Otto finally said.
Abbie didn't know.
"Are they talking to you now?" She asked.
"They always are. They want to know why I'm telling you all this, sadly enough I cannot give them an answer."
Then Otto turned his back again.
"I didn't know..." Abbie said.
"No one knows. It isn't my fault. It was never my fault."
The arms still stare at her with their red eyes, as she stands there, trying to understand.
He's not a bad guy. He was never a bad guy. It wasn't his fault, or those arms fault. They didn't know, he didn't know.
And why he told this child this, his secrets and his pains, he doesn't know why. She's just a child, she probably wouldn't even understand it all. But it felt relieving to say it, finally say it.
"Look, I was able to snag a couple grocery bags. Ah, Oreos, my favorite." Otto says, grabbing some Oreos from the plastic bags.
He changes the subject, as begins to open the Oreos.
"I didn't know..." Abbie still said.
"You must be hungry." Otto says.
"I didn't know..."
And an arm comes to her, carrying a grocery bag, she looks up at it, as it drops the bag in her arms. She stares at it, and it stares at her, with a red glowing eye. It twists it's head in curiosity of the young girl. And slowly she raises her hand, and places it on the Arm's claw.
The arm raises up, and backs away, hissing and shrieking as if hurt. It rises above Abbie, and screams at her, and she falls to the floor. The arm then returns to Otto, still hissing at her.
"They don't like being touched." Otto says.
"I'm sorry..." she whispers.
Abbie begins to walk closer to him, most likely the closest she's ever been to them. And as she comes, the arm she touched hisses at her, and twists away from her. She grabs an Oreo, and begins to eat.
"Why did you get upset when I saw Peter?" Abbie asks.
"First of all, how do you know Mr. Parker?"
"I saw him standing on the sidewalk across from the theater. I recognized him, and asked him about Spider-man. We kind of meet there every so often now." She said.
"Well, let me tell you a little secret." Otto said. "Peter Parker is Spider-man."
Abbie stood there for a moment, no expression on her face, she just thought about it.
"That makes perfect sense." Abbie said. "People always figured he wasn't Spider-man, more likely his cousin was or something...."
Then she grabbed another cookie.
"No, it's him. That's why his grades are slipping, that's why he's always tired, that's why he barely has a love life. I once called him brilliant but lazy. Ha." Otto laughs a little.
Abbie grabs another cookie.
"Are you going to kill him?" Abbie asks.
The arms hiss.
"I'm not a murderer. He gets in the way sometimes, that's all. All I have to do is knock him around a little, and go on with my life." Otto says.
"What did you do to him?"
"I threw him off the building. It doesn't matter though, with those webs of his."
"You think if you just told...told him about those arms he would understand?" Abbie asks.
Otto takes a moment.
"He knows already. He knew far before I did."
"Oh..."
Abbie looks away.
"You know, I saved the city." Otto says.
And the arms turn Abbie around.
"What?" Abbie asks.
"I saved it from my own invention. When everyone thought I was dead, yes. I almost died to save the city. How heroic huh?"
Abbie looks at one of the arms as it passes by her.
"I didn't know..." Abbie says.
"No one does, and I doubt anyone ever will." Otto says.
He eats a cookie, and tells Abbie to go to bed.
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Next Chapter: Home Sweet Home
Please R/R!
