Off to reply to those Loyal Minions who replied anonymously (and seriously, you ought to get an account, or sign in under it if you have it, because I think I'm breaking some rule by doing this):

To Song With No Soul: 1) There is nothing funnier to me than that America's Funniest Home Videos staple: a man getting hit or kicked right in the twins' playpen. 2) Well, the Osborn line is pretty smart. I hope that Harry got at least some of Norman's brains. Though he seems to have got all of his father's sociopathy. 3) Yes, MJ better watch her back.

To Lady of the Lake: Who says I'm going to kill her? Mary Jane as Spider-Woman is the greatest thing to happen to my hit count. And, as always, thank you for reading; I appreciate every Loyal Minion I can get.

The Trickster wishes everyone a Happy--uh, whatever you celebrate this time of year.

As always, whether old or new, read and review!

Chapter 6: The Animal I've Become

"So what if you can see

The darkest side of me?

No one will ever tame

This animal I have become.

Help me believe

It's not the real me..."

Three Days Grace, "The Animal I Have Become"

morning

"Old illusions die hard, Harry."

"What?" Harry sharply turned around. He was certain that no one else was in the penthouse. He suddenly realized the source of the voice was coming from the corner of his armchair. "I must be going crazy. I think my mask is talking to me."

"Forgotten your father so soon? Harry, you had your hands on the one you seek. Caring parent that I am, I gave you that opportunity—and you let it slip through your fingers!"

"What? I—don't remember exactly—"

"Stop whining. You sicken me. You practically ooze weakness, and I have a very low tolerance for weakness."

Come to think of it, the voice almost sounded like his father, in the middle of a rant on the subject on how worthless he was.

"I practically handed her to you! I did it. I went after her. I did what you were too spineless to do!" The Goblin nodded his head towards a nearby newspaper, the lead story of which warned the city of "The Big Apple's Newest Supervillain: Green Goblin on a Spider-Hunt!"

"And, if that wasn't enough, I found out who she is!"

His world spun, recalling a memory of the one time Harry Osborn had broken free of the Green Goblin, running from the monster into the—unnaturally strong—arms of his girlfriend…

Harry shook his head, not bothering to question the fact that he was carrying on conversations with a mask. He tried to convince himself that the Goblin was someone else entirely, not him, not Harry, who was no murderer, but a totally normal if wealthy and spoiled teenage boy and Spider-Woman was someone else, not—

"Spider-Woman is all but unbeatable," the voice hissed at him. "But Watson is flesh and blood. We can destroy her, and with her Spider-Woman."

"You can't ask this of me!" Harry shouted. "Mary Jane's my girlfriend! My lovely, beautiful—"

"They're all beautiful, Harry! But they're all a bunch of gold-diggers! Do you think such a low-class girl like that likes your personality? You don't have one! Look at her. She came to you, that greedy, scheming white trash, sniffing after your trust fund. She played you like a violin, connived her way into your heart and into your wallet, and how did she repay you?"

"It's true…oh God…she always did have an appetite for the nice things…"

"A dog turd with chocolate frosting isn't a birthday cake; it's just a frosted dog turd."

"So, what do I do about this particular frosted dog turd? Just take my mental pooper-scooper and shovel her out of my life?"

"More than that, Harry. The wench must be educated in the matters of loss and pain. Make her suffer for her impertinence. Make her wish she were dead, and then grant her wish!"

"How do I do that?"

"The cunning warrior attacks neither body nor mind, but the heart. She's a female, a member of that irrational, emotional, 'fairer' sex. She is especially vulnerable to this strategy. Let me tell you what to do…"

"So, is it still on? You've got to help me on my English exam, MJ. Flash is no good for it, and besides, he's putting up posters advertising his Webheads club." Liz Allen was rolling her eyes.

"Sure. In fact, you still live over by my Aunt Anna's, don't you? We meet there and she'll bake us some cookies." Mary Jane frowned. "I think I just imagined it, but I saw Harry again."

Liz Allen perked up. "Where?"

"He came to my house—and I got a—funny feeling about him."

Liz nodded. "Never doubt your female intuition," she advised.

Or your spidey-sense, Mary Jane thought, but she of course couldn't say that.

early evening

Mary Jane arrived at her aunt's house precisely after school, as she promised. Or, more precisely, she arrived at the train wreck that was her aunt's house. She let herself in, gasping. The smoke alarm was beeping. The cookies sat on a rack on the kitchen counter, untouched. The dining room set was trashed, chairs upended. Fragments of orange shrapnel lay around the room, and they almost look like…pumpkins. There were burn marks on the walls, on the carpet, from the turbo's and thrusters of the glider, and her cell phone was ringing to the tune of a popular pop song with the rather catchy name of "Gone Daddy Gone". The song, she recalled, was performed by a band with the equally catchy but perplexing name of Gnarls Barkley.

She instinctively flipped open her cell phone. She'd received a text message, and there was no doubt who sent it.

Can Spidey come out to play? XD

It was all she could do not to crush the cell in her hand. She furiously tapped out her response.

Where are they?

She could almost hear Goblin laughing as he sent his next text.

Having a little bridge work :-P

She unzipped her sweater, revealing her costume, dipping her hand into a pocket to retrieve her mask. Then she sent him her response.

c u there

And suddenly, she realized something. He knows. He knows who I am!

late evening

Sailing through the air, Spider-Woman sighed with relief as she saw the most welcome sight she could think of under the circumstances. There they are! I've reached the right bridge!

The circumstances, unfortunately, was that the Goblin was waiting for her, gliding slightly above the bridge, effortlessly holding her aunt in his right hand and her best friend in his left.

"Can you hear me now?" Goblin cackled as he caught sight of her. "Good!"

The answer was in the question, but Spidey was oddly compelled to shout, "What the hell are you doing with them?"

"This is why only fools are heroes, Spider-Woman!" he laughed back at her. "Because you never know when some super-powered lunatic will come along with a sadistic choice!"

It was times like this, she decided, that she thought what she needed was a full-face mask. The last thing she wanted the Goblin to see was the look on her face when he said something like this:

"That's right, little girl! Time for you to make a decision! One will die, because of you! You just choose which one to spare, your aunt or your best friend!"

Peter, you never warned me of this! What do I do?

"This is the path you have chosen! This is where the life of a hero has led you! Make your choice, Spider-Woman, and see how a hero is rewarded!"

With those words, he released his captives, and they dropped.

This was the Sophie's Choice that dangled before her. Peter had always told her that with great power always comes great responsibility. Forsaking this responsibility had led to the death of her beloved Peter. Would accepting it lead to the deaths of Liz and Anna?

And then she made her choice. It only took a moment. She chose to accept her responsibilities, her destiny. Then she chose to spare both.

Spidey swung down, just in time to snatch Anna by the sweater, deftly scooping her up. "I've got you!" she called, hoping her aunt wouldn't recognize the voice.

Liz screamed, still falling. Spidey pivoted on the web, caught Liz in a second web-line, jerking her up with a powerful right arm. Liz bounced back up like a bungee jumper.

"Grab on to me and hold on," Spidey commanded. And pray to God the Goblin doesn't come after me in this position.

Her spidey-sense rang with a passion, and Spidey—Anna in her left arm, Liz riding piggyback, and trying to web-swing with the right arm—groaned. I know Garth Brooks sang about Your greatest gifts being unanswered prayers, but come on! Cut me some slack!

So He did. Goblin swerved towards her, preparing to cut the web-line as he'd done before. He abruptly stopped his pursuit, distracted by something on the bridge.

Traffic on the bridge being halted, a small crowd of people had gathered to watch the fight. From her standpoint, a tall blonde boy who looked suspiciously like Flash Thompson had hurled an egg at Goblin. "You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us!"

Emboldened by Flash's act, the others followed suit, hurling shoes, rocks, bottles, vegetables, and generally showering Goblin with assorted debris.

A brick met its target, slamming into the side of Goblin's head. Flash shouted, "Take that!" followed by a few insulting names. The next thing Spidey heard him saying was, "Hi, I'm Flash Thompson, founder and president of the Webheads, the first and premier Spider-Woman fan club. For the nominal fee of 20 dollars, your membership can pay for an official Webheads t-shirt, a membership card, public relations projects to support your hometown heroine and counteract the bias of the Bugle, rallies, vegetables and eggs to throw at supervillains…"

It was all the time she needed to swing back over the bridge and deftly set Anna and Liz out of harm's way.

Dazed by their ordeal, the next sight these ladies saw was a black sedan. The driver opened his window, asking, "Need a lift?" while chomping his cigar and blowing smoke through the general vicinity.

"Aren't you J. Jonah Jameson from the Daily Bugle?" Liz asked suspiciously.

"Yeah. Get in the car."

"But why are you here?" Anna asked.

"I'm a newspaper man! Do you think I'd miss a story like this?"

"I don't know why you've done this, Goblin," Spidey shouted at the creature above her, "but this nightmare is over. You will never touch them again." Her spidey-sense started to ring, and a cable snaked around her waist, and she found herself lifted up, trailing on the glider to good-Lord-knows-where.

"Let me take you for a ride, Spidey!" Goblin cackled, delighted at the costumed teen's struggles, crowed, "Next stop, Roosevelt Island!" then turned and made a crash landing into an abandoned pier.

Spidey tore the rope off, and staggered to her feet. Then her spidey-sense rang, and her eyes saw those damned bat-winged boomerangs, spiraling in from all around and everywhere. Here we go again, she thought, not daring to cry out in pain as the shredded through her costume, leaving streamers of blood.

"Enough­!" Goblin commanded, and the bats flew meekly away, leaving their target staggering across the dusty pier, and then collapsing on her back. She rolled over, and saw Goblin hovering over her. Goblin reached down into his glider, pulled out a rod. He pressed a button, causing three blades to pop out of it, like a pitchfork.

Oh, boy, I really am in hell.

"Again and again, I tried to make my case. But you wouldn't listen to me. You wouldn't listen to reason. Had you not been so stubborn, your loved ones' deaths would have been quick and painless. But now that you've really pissed me off, I'll see that their deaths are slow and painful. Just—like—yours."

Grinning, as usual, Goblin stepped on her head with one foot to keep her still, and reared back with his spear, bringing it down swiftly toward her chest.

And suddenly, Spidey remembered a sign she'd seen hanging over Aunt Anna's couch. I don't just believe in miracles—I count on them.

And she said a silent prayer: I need a miracle. I'm counting on You.

At the last moment, Spidey caught the spear, stared into the monster's face, and her strength started to return. She yanked the spear from Goblin's hand and smashed it against his head. The blow should have decapitated him, but it only sent him spinning clear off the glider, sending him soaring back ten feet and sending him crashing to the ground.

Her heart filled with a nameless rage, leaving her a little guilty about failing to distinguish the sinner from the sin. But the monster before her was no longer a human of corrupted will, like Dr. Octavius, but a creature of corruption itself, personality and will only remaining as weapons wielded by a force of self-exiled negation. Finally, she'd found what hatred was made for.

It was Mary Jane Watson who was knocked on the floor, it was Spider-Woman who was bleeding and defeated, but it was Peter's gentle smile that got her back up almost effortlessly.

It was Peter's compliment, "You were almost amazing. Even without powers" that made her able to snap that spear over her knee.

It was Peter's dying declaration of love that grabbed the Goblin by the chest and pulled him up from the ground.

It was the robotic octopus tentacle that whipped out from her vision of Peter's death and threw a haymaker that would have dislocated Goblin's jaw but for his armor and came close to doing so anyway.

And it was Peter's warm hands that ripped Goblin's mask from his face and prepared to crush his sneer underneath a steel fist.

But it was Mary Jane Watson's eyes who saw the face of Harry Osborn underneath the mask, and Mary Jane Watson's ears that heard him moan, "Please, MJ," and Mary Jane Watson's feet that staggered back—

And Mary Jane Watson's hand that ripped off her mask, released Harry, who slumped on the floor.

"Mary Jane…thank God for you."

She was shaking, wavering in and out of reality. "Can't be…you're a monster…"

"Please, MJ, don't let him take me back. Protect me from him. I'm not a monster."

"Not a monster?" Mary Jane reminded him sharply. "You killed your father."

Harry shook his head. "No. The Goblin killed him. I loved my father."

"You tried to kill Liz Allen. My best friend. You tried to kill my Aunt Anna, the only real mother I've ever had."

Harry sounded even more desperate. "The Goblin did it all, I tell you! The Goblin wanted me to kill Spider-Woman because she killed my best friend. But not you. Never you. I could always count on you. I always knew you'd save me."

Mary Jane shook her head. "You know it was Doctor Octopus who killed Pete. I stood back and did nothing as he died, and I had to atone for it."

"I have to atone, too," Harry whispered, pulling himself to his feet. "Take my hand, Mary Jane, my beloved, always my beloved—"

Mary Jane's heart hardened, and she pulled her hand away. "I had a beloved," she said tightly. "His name was Peter Parker."

And then, Harry laughed, and smiled at Mary Jane. "I will always love you, Mary Jane. Godspeed, Spidey," he told her, and pressed a slightly raised spot on his sleeve.

Behind her was the glider, and a blade popped out of it as her spidey-sense rang danger, one more time. She leapt, long powerful legs hurtling her clear as the glider gained momentum, punching through Harry as a Ginsu through a watermelon, pinning him to the wall, the Goblin hoisted on his own petard.

It was then that Mary Jane started to weep, not for the Goblin, but for Harry Osborn, whom the Goblin had murdered just as surely as he had murdered Norman Osborn. She couldn't find her own words. Only the Bard's, only King Lear's, would do. "Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life/ And thou no breath at all? Thou wilt come no more/ Never, never, never, never, never!"

Only the epilogue after this, my Loyal Minions. What will happen next? Probably the soon-to-be-released Quirk of Fate, Part 3: The Shadow Spider, huh? Happy reading...