Author's Note: Most extreme apologies for the, er… 'Extreme Corniness' and "stupidness" of that last chapter, but it was necessary (I wanna cry because it sucked but, reminder, it was necessary). And I promise to you, or I give up my spare time writing hobby (shudder, twitch)… it shall only get better from here, sorry, please guys, stick with me!

Anyway, on with chapter 12… Oh… one more thing, the tentacles talk from upper right to (1) upper left, (2) down to (3) lower left, then to (4) lower right.

Like I said before… The 'Sin eater' and everything in those couple of comics I mentioned earlier are the only things I know about.

Chapter 12: Heartbeat

Otto couldn't move. The splitting pain in his head gnawed at him every time he tried. How hard had he hit his head on the wall? Mentally, he tried to wake the presences of his actuators… no answer. Inside of his mind, there was nothing but silence, and it was eerie and slightly disturbing.

Huh? One, Two…Four? He called them by number inside his head hoping that, even if the others didn't wake up, the third one would chirp up in its usual fashion. No answer. Otto tried to open his eyes, but all he could see, even through the goggles, was blurry darkness.

Ever so slowly, his senses returned one by one. His sight was still extremely blurry and he was suddenly struck with a feeling of despair. He was still cold and wet from the melted ice.

"No…" He groaned, "I failed… I failed." His voice dropped to a low murmur, "I didn't get through."

"Yes you did," Rosie whispered back. She moved his goggles up to the top of his head and smiled.

His sight slowly moved into focus. He saw her in front of him, but… was it true or was he just hallucinating? He shook his head in despair. If he was still trapped in death, he couldn't help Peter. "Peter… no," he groaned.

Rosie couldn't believe it was really him. His face was so thin. That and he had four metal tentacles sprouting from his back. What had happened in the past few months? "It's okay…you're alive," she said running her hand down his cold face, "And… so am I," she said in astonishment.

Otto looked into her face. His vision swam with tears. All of the loneliness and angst had finally surfaced and he was not about to hold it back, Plus, he really didn't have that ability. Perhaps… maybe, he had succeeded, but before he could say anything, their lips met in a passionate kiss.

After a few seconds they both drew away.

"It is you," Otto said, tears streaming down his face.

Rosie leaned up against him and rested her head on his chest as he held her close. She chuckled to herself as she heard the steady rhythm within.

"What?" Otto asked quietly.

"Your heartbeat," She said looking up to his face.

"What about it?" Otto asked raising his eyebrow.

"It's the one I remember. It means you are still the same boy inside that I met on the college steps."

Otto smiled lovingly at his wife as tears continued to stream down his face.

By now, the actuators had all woken up and were staring at Rosie.

Is this?

Yeah... it must be

The lady?

Rosie...

"…If only you could see what I did…I'm no human. I'm a monster…" Otto said hanging his head miserably.

"No. That's what they think. You are still human, whether you want to believe it or not," she said defiantly.

Otto just smiled and held her close.

Peter swung on a webline high above the Manhattan streets. A feeling inside of him nagged for him to relax about Otto, but he was still concerned. He remembered the last time something went wrong. Peter shuddered at that thought.

"No, Stop!" a cry cut through the air. Peter landed on the street and faced a group of thugs who were pounding on a man.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" He taunted mockingly.

"Waste the hero first... then we can take care of this wimp!" One of the thugs yelled.

Three or four mean-looking men charged towards Spiderman brandishing knives. Peter merely yawned and patted his mouth. "Come on," He said defiantly.

One man, faster than the rest and clearly more stupid, charged straight for Peter, and raised his knife. As the man swung down, Peter leaned to the side. As he came back to his original position, he brought his fist with him and back-handed the crook, knocking him back at least five feet.

The other thugs came at him from different directions. Peter bent backwards, and, in one quick motion, leapt a foot in the air and executed a brutal, clearing kick. Applause erupted from the crowd of people that had gathered.

"Go Get 'em Spidey!" One girl screamed.

The thug that he had knocked backwards had gotten to his feet and pulled out a gun. Blood flowed freely from his nose and mouth which had a couple of missing teeth. Peter's spider senses nagged at him. The guy raised the gun and fired right as Peter shot a web ball a split-second too late. The bullet sliced through the skin on his upper left arm, shredding the costume there as well. The web ball knocked the gun out of his hand with a considerable amount of force.

The four of them rushed at Peter again as he leapt into the air and stuck to the corner of a nearby building. "Ow! Damn!" he hissed. The wound had begun to bleed quite heavily now. He put his hand over it in hopes to stop the flow a bit. Peter could feel his quickened pulse. He needed to be more careful.

Something caught his eye. It was a large fork-thingy on the sign of the building he was on. "Thank god," Peter chuckled to himself. He grabbed a hold of the prongs and yanked it up. The thugs by now were huddled in a group discussing amongst themselves on how they were going to, if possible, defeat him. Peter hopped to the building across the street and wound up. "Hey Guys! Fork You!!" He shouted, flinging the fork like a spear. It slammed into the wall, pinning three of them by their necks in its prongs. The last one began running away.

Peter laughed as he shot out a webline, reeled him in and began tying him up with more web. "You get it? 'Fork' You? HA! That's a good one, you were supposed to laugh. It is a joke after all," Peter said mockingly as he leaped up to the nearest light pole and securely tied the one man to it so he dangled freely. The cheers from the crowd became tumultuous. The men stuck in the fork struggled to get free in vain.

"Hey, thanks for saving me," The man gratefully said.

"You got it!" Peter said turning back to the defeated crooks. "Have fun guys!" Spiderman said as he leapt up and began swinging away. "Oh man, I really need to clean this up," He said to the gash on his arm. Blood now soaked the area around the torn part of the costume.

Peter went back to the apartment and stood on the balcony of one of the half-moon widows. Looking in to make sure no one was around; he opened it and slid through.

"Where have you been?" Otto said coming up from the stairs.

"Oh my god, you didn't die! Oh-uh, I mean, I-uh, was out… doing my thing, I guess." Peter said a grin spreading across his face. He was so relieved that Otto was still here. But… did he succeed?

"You better go get changed before May comes b- what the hell happened to your arm?" Otto said, his wry smile changing to a serious scowl.

"Nothin'," Peter mumbled.

After a few minutes, Peter came out of his room in some normal clothes. He had rolled up the sleeve of his shirt and had cleaned off most of the blood.

Otto pointed at his bed, "Sit," He said gruffly. He turned to a woman to his left. "Could you get me some-?"

"Yes," she said.

Otto came in and pulled up a chair as Rosie appeared with a small pouch of Epsom salt.

"Oh hi Rosie, What?-uh R-Rosie!" Peter said startled. A smile spread itself across her face as she handed Otto the bag.

"Yep, 'tis me," She said with a smile as she walked out of the room. Otto smiled as he reached into a black bag at his feet and took out a piece of gauze.

"How did you-?" Peter asked dumbfounded as Otto cleaned off the gash.

He shrugged, "I'll explain later," he said as he shook some of the contents of the small bag onto the cut.

"Ahhhow," Peter hissed.

"Well, what did you do?" Otto asked.

"I got shot," He answered painfully.

"And you're supposed to be 'Spiderman'," Otto said in a low voice. He wiped off the excess salt, placed a thick gauze strip over the cut and began wrapping it in a clean bandage. He put a piece of medical tape on it and stood up. "Now, as long as you don't pick at it, you'll heal quickly." Otto crossed his arms.

"Feels better already," Peter said flexing it.

"Yeah, well, don't get used to it… you'll be as sore as all get out tomorrow morning," Otto said.

"I'm tired of waiting!" Harry shouted to no one in particular. His desk, usually cluttered with stuff about Spiderman, was now littered with articles about his and Venom's attacks. Harry pounded his fist on one particular article from the planetarium incident. "Eddie!!" He bellowed.

"Ya' don't need to shout!" Eddie answered back lifting his head off of the couch.

"Be ready," Harry spoke stiffly.

"For what?"

"Just prepare yourself… 'cause when I say, we are leaving… whether you're ready or not," Harry said pointing at Eddie.

"Ohhhkay…" Eddie said as Harry left the room. "What's the matter with that guy? He's gettin' goofier every day," Eddie mumbled to himself. He rested his head back on the couch and began dozing off again mumbling something about 'Harry is a nutcase.'

The next morning, Rosie stood looking out of one of the half-moon windows. She watched as the red, morning sun rose slowly over the park. The gradually growing light cast streaks of pink, gold and violet across the gray dawn. As she sighed, she didn't notice the presence behind her.

Otto quietly came up behind her and wrapped his arms gently around her. She let out a very small gasp of surprise before laughing. "Do you always have a habit of sneaking up on women and taking hold of them?" She asked, her voice filled with candor.

"Maybe, my love," Otto said smiling. Rosie leaned her head back against him and looked up into his face. "Peter must be so stressed, what with him being Spiderman and all."

"Wait… how did-?" Otto started.

"Well, it wasn't that hard to figure out. He had the same physique as Spiderman, he was always tired, you could clearly see it in his eyes... And you dismissed him as lazy," She answered.

"Well I did have enough to think about at that time," Otto said embarrassed

"I called Kurt yesterday," She said changing the subject, still looking into his eyes.

"Really, what for?" Otto asked softly. He was so happy now. Even the fact that he had four metal actuators welded onto him didn't faze him a bit.

"Oh, just to say hi and to see if they replaced me at the university."

Otto had completely forgotten that before the couple had started their work on the fusion reactor, Rosie worked as a professor of literature at the university.

"It took me forever to talk to him though… he kept pausing and asking me, 'Is that really you?'" She said imitating Kurt's voice. Otto laughed. "He finally said that I can start next week."

"Oh that's good, I can visit you," Otto said lovingly. Rosie turned and tried to slap him playfully on the arm. He dodged and as she tried again, he moved in and kissed her. Rosie closed her eyes as she slowly put her arms around his muscular neck. They both reluctantly drew away as Peter walked into the room.

He rubbed his eyes and looked. Rosie was still there in Otto's arms. He had done it.

"Well, I'd better get going," Peter said as he yawned.

"Please be careful, Peter. Even though you are Spiderman, you are still prone to injury," Rosie said crossing her arms. "I don't think we need a repeat of yesterday, do we?"

"Wait a minute…" Peter started in shock, "You knew this whole time that I was Spiderman?"

"Yes, of course… but to explain… well, that would pretty much take up the entire day." Rosie said with a smile.

"In that case," Peter said popping back to his room for a moment then reemerging fully decked out in his costume. "I need to get going," he continued, nodding towards the window where, out on the balcony, Cat sat waiting.

Otto had replaced the armor to its original spot earlier that morning and, as police cars rushed by outside, he activated it. The armor had finally finished unfolding and locking, changing the black gauntlets to gold-colored. A belt of the same color hung loosely around his waist. The gold metal dimly reflected the morning sunlight proudly. Rosie stepped back to admire her husband. "I'm sorry to run off like this, love, but-" He started.

"It's okay, I understand," She said still smiling.

"Oy!" Peter called, tossing Otto his staff, still in its sheath.

They both ran to the window as Otto slipped the strap over his head. Peter and Cat leapt out into the air. Before Otto could, Rosie gently touched his arm. He turned to see her handing him his goggles. Otto placed them down over his eyes then moved them up to the top of his head in a stylish manner. He looked back at her one last time before she nudged him with her hand.

"Ah, go on, you silly ass," She whispered quickly.

Otto leapt from the window sill following after Cat and Peter.