#here we go! i have my own no way home octogoblin aftermath fic at last!

[greenmenace]

The Way Home: Chapter 1

(Feel free to ask to be tagged in the next chapter! Thank you for reading and feedback is always appreciated! I hope you enjoy! :D)

“Just me…”

The moment was so pure and hopeful, why and how did it have to end so shortly? That was the very last sentence Norman had spoken before he was enveloped into the foreboding darkness, his recollection of standing in that back room with Otto Octavius who was smiling back at him with his large brown and endearing eyes with such fondness and ambition was cut so quickly. What comfort Norman had been gratefully feeling was taken away and replaced with confusion and panic instead.

It had felt as though he had blacked out, like he had promptly collapsed onto the floor from exhaustion. But he hadn’t at all. That was further from the truth. The intimidating blackness in his vision lasted like a brief flash from a camera, as if he had closed his eyes for the night. And then before Norman knew it, he was harshly falling down in an unknown location right upon his knees. His sight was overwhelmed with vivid colours of oranges and yellows that popped into existence, and the warm stuffy air of the room had immediately vanished and was replaced with the cold air of the early morning. The sounds of functioning machinery busy with constructing cures had gone and Norman could quickly hear the heavy breathing coming from himself.

What the hell just happened?

His head was pounding violently, more painful than a normal headache he’d usually receive after a long day at Oscorp or after those tiresome board meetings. And his ears were slightly ringing with an echo of an ominous cackle belonging to none other than the Goblin. He could barely feel a stinging sensation from his neck as well. Norman’s foggy eyes slowly focused on the being that stood before him. The person was not Otto, but Peter. The Peter Parker who belonged in this universe that was not Norman’s own. 

Norman squinted his eyes as his vision finally focused upon Peter’s young face, his face that was partly covered with violent cuts across his dirty and red face. 

The left side of Peter’s cheek was streaked with a horrid mark of purple and red and his eye on that side was painfully bloodshot unlike his other eye. Norman was shocked by the sudden sight. Why was Peter so brutally injured? 

Who had hurt him and created such a violent sight upon the boy’s face?

“Peter.” 

Norman managed to finally respond with an overwhelming amount of concern for the other. It was only then when he had noticed the expression of pure defeat yet anguish upon Peter’s face, his eyes were glossy with anger and hurt as he also breathed with weighty breaths. His shaking hands were closed into clenched fists like he was prepared for another intense battle. 

But, what happened? 

Peter was excited yet a little bit nervous when Norman had last seen him, he was beaming with confidence and that young awkward teenager energy of course. But now, he didn’t seem to be that same Peter that Norman had briefly known for hours. He didn’t seem to be the same person who once was so determined to change the fate of his opponents.

Norman was then quickly fearing the worst, his stomach began churning with nausea and fright. No. The Goblin couldn’t have taken control. This wasn’t happening. Norman had held up his guard high, he had firmly promised himself that he wouldn’t allow the Goblin to do what he pleased anymore. His eyes steadily widened with horror as his brows creased with an intense expression of realisation and panic upon his face. 

And then he noticed a blurry person on his left, he looked down only to see Peter laying on the ground upon his back, His Peter. The Peter he was introduced to by Harry. The Peter Parker that belonged to his universe. 

Only he was older, he was no longer that same remarkably intelligent teenager who wore glasses. He had grown up. And he was looking up at Norman with almost a relieved expression, however Norman paid no attention to that as he was alerted and shocked to see Peter holding his currently bleeding side with pain.

No…

No, no no…

Oh god, the Goblin couldn’t have…

Norman’s heavy breathing only increased with more horrified and panicked breaths as he turned his eyes back towards the other Peter who still stared with that look of fury and loss upon his battered face. Norman could already feel his eyes beginning to sting with salty tears as his throat became tighter with emotion. Everything that was once confusing had instantly become clear, and it petrified him. 

“...What have I done?” 

Norman had already known the answer after he had asked and he knew Peter wouldn’t answer him. He knew Peter wouldn’t because of what had happened, because of whatever the Goblin had done. The Goblin had taken over once again before the cure was complete, and it was extremely likely that he had caused chaos and had possibly killed more innocents. There was yet more blood upon his hands. 

But whose blood were they? Peter’s? What if it were Otto’s? It didn’t help that Norman recognized that he was wearing the Goblin armour, though parts of the glider and other unidentifiable pieces were welded and attached upon him. His purple hoodie was tattered and hung around his neck, almost like a cloak belonging to the Grim Reaper.

He heard another person enter the scene and their quick footsteps running towards the Peter that was on the ground, but Norman couldn’t focus on anything anymore.

He didn’t want to.

He turned his eyes to the metallic ground, briefly noticing the broken glider nearby, further evidence that the Goblin was the one that caused all of this havoc which brought more dread flooding into Norman’s gut.

Norman’s eyes stung with the familiar salt of tears and he could feel a horrid burning sensation beginning to ache through his bones and skin. What had the Goblin caused for this universe’s Peter to stare at Norman with that expression upon his face? For Peter to look like he’d suffered so much? Not to mention the cuts upon his face, the Goblin had definitely done that. The Goblin had made Norman harm Peter, he’d harmed Peter in so many brutal ways. And now almost certainly Peter hated Norman. 

Norman had recognized part of that same expression before, only it was upon Otto’s face years ago when Norman had tried stealing his life’s work from him, for betraying him and destroying their everlasting friendship. But back then, Otto hadn’t looked like he had lost something important. Like somebody close to him.

Did the Goblin kill…?

There was a violent and sudden cracking sound in the air and Norman looked up, wincing from the burning pain in his neck as he peered up into the brightening sky. One by one emerged cracks full of vivid colours that resembled galaxies in some form, and there seemed to be glowing figures of white fading into existence like ghosts! Pieces of the sky outlined with striking purple slowly floated with the opening of each gigantic crack. The unbelievable sight did not seem real, but at the same time it did! Norman couldn’t trust what he was seeing before his eyes, however it was very much real as he noticed this universe’s Peter swiftly swinging off to the top of the statue of liberty. 

Norman’s eyes darted to an extremely familiar figure down below at the bottom of the statue, it was Otto who had just finished climbing down with his actuators and helping a cured Max Dillon to the ground. And a couple seconds later after checking Max was okay and assessing the chaotic situation in the sky, Otto’s eyes finally landed upon him. 

Norman could see him offering a grateful and relieved smile towards him, but Norman couldn’t be able to smile back. Not after everything that the Goblin had caused, he was most likely responsible for the insane cracks exploding into the sky anyway. Instead, Norman had felt a tear from his left eye begin to trickle down his face, and he had to grit his teeth together to push back the burning sob in his throat.

His hands began to tremble, and Norman returned back to staring at the ground. 

His cure was nearly in his grasp, but the Goblin had taken it away from him so suddenly with a maniacal cackle. 

How did he manage to gain control so easily? Norman had put up a great fight against him for the longest hours he had done, but all that effort was for absolutely nothing. The Goblin had killed people again and it was all Norman’s fault. But why on earth did Peter cure him? 

Why did Peter save him?

Norman had found himself being plunged into those thoughts for god knows how long, his legs were numb and his chest was tight with horror and guilt that continued to rise. 

Before he knew it, his vision was once again filled with a bright light but it was not the same as when he regained control. The glowing light began to slowly engulf his entire body like a soft flame, but he felt no burning except from the growing ache in his bones. Norman knew this was the moment he was being returned to his universe. Perhaps he was going to be met with the blades of the Goblin glider being painfully impaled into his body. Perhaps he was going to live another day, however he found the first thought highly desirable. 

Norman closed his eyes shut as he gazed down at the floor, and felt the glow completely consume him whole.

He could sense that he was moving into a different location that was not at the bottom of the most famous landmark in America, everything was becoming darker and colder. 

The mild warmth of the morning sun had disappeared. And then there was a breeze that was becoming stronger, growing into a wind. He then felt weightless like there was no gravity, like he was floating in space. It somehow felt comforting, but that didn’t last long.

Norman was falling.

And he was falling so incredibly fast! He opened his eyes and saw that he was descending down towards an abandoned building that looked extremely decrepit and at least a century old. He screamed and flailed his arms around. His body flew and twirled downwards with no control like a pinwheel. Norman had absolutely no idea what to do as he ended up crashing through an already cracked window, he yelled out from a sharp pain from his chest though he couldn’t identify what that was as his plummet continued.

Through the shattered window, Norman’s back hit the broken wooden boards of a partly destroyed floor and shortly cascaded down hard upon the dirty and nature infested ground below. His body flipped onto his back, side and stomach again and again like an endless brutal cycle. Pieces and individual parts of his already damaged armour popped off onto the dusty trail behind him as his body quickly rolled and ceased into a stone bricked wall. 

Norman’s head was dazed and his head was hurting even harder, his ears ringing once more as he shut his eyes tightly. His body felt as though it was set alight, his bones were burning. He sucked in a sharp raspy breath through his teeth and grit them together tight, pressing his gloved fingers into his palms as he struggled to turn his body over to lay on top of his stomach instead of his back. He pressed his trembling palms against the floor and attempted to lift himself onto his knees again. 

But as soon as he lifted his stomach off the ground, a horrid flash of pain coursed through his body, through the bones in his legs and spine and he promptly collapsed back onto the floor with a excruciating yell. Standing up was not going to be an option, Norman decided. 

So instead, he once again connected his teeth together and pushed himself upwards with his hands. He rapidly rolled onto his side and before the pain and fire in his limbs could force him back to the floor, he conjured up as much strength as he could to push himself onto a sitting position so that he could rest his back up against the wall.

There was yet another blaze of agony from the sudden movement, to which Norman slammed the back of his head against the wall and held back the urge to yell out from his raw throat.

Norman took the time to investigate the pain that was still radiating from his body and looked down upon his armour that wasn’t in pieces on the ground before him, and the sight instantly sent him feeling incredibly nauseous. There, penetrating the weakest spots of the Goblin armour around the ribs were multiple shards of glass that stuck out like knives. Small streaks of blood emerging from the wounds trickled down over the green suit, even reaching the military belt across his waist. Norman was about to attempt to pull out one of the glass shards, but then he felt something warm slowly fall above his upper lip. Quickly moving a gloved finger under his nose, he looked to see blood upon his fingertips. 

His nose was bleeding. And he could taste it in his mouth too. The bottom of his lip was badly cut and busted. And Norman could feel that there were other wounds upon his face too.

Norman dropped his hand back down, perhaps this was best. He was alone, probably bleeding to death by himself. He was able to crawl out of here, however he decided against that idea. The Goblin had made him slaughter so many innocent people and was likely to have ruined the other Peter’s life judging from the way he stared at Norman. 

This was what Norman deserved for being responsible for the creation of that monster that took away countless innocents, and he would be more than content to stay here and bleed out however long that would take.

And so, Norman closed his eyes and allowed his head to lean down slightly as he patiently awaited for whatever was going to come for him next. Forcing back the quiet sob that made its way up his throat. If the Goblin had been here before he and Norman was suddenly transported to another universe, then Spider-Man wasn’t that far away. 

The antiserum probably didn’t rid Norman of the Goblin’s presence anyway, the Goblin would take control any second now.

~

He didn’t smile back. 

Norman’s face was filled with such horror and regret, Otto had never seen him like that before. Not even when they were in the bathroom together back in that condo before everything quickly moved into chaos. Otto had wanted so badly to rush down to him and comfort him but he was immediately distracted by the strange galactic-like cracks that were consuming the morning sky. The entire universe seemed to be splitting apart before Otto’s very eyes! 

How did it ever come to this? A few weeks ago he was simply building a fusion energy source that would provide safe and renewable power for the whole world, and now Otto was witnessing every universe beginning to collide with this one that wasn’t even his own! 

This universe’s Peter seemed to be talking with the wizard that was floating at the top of the statue of liberty and they must have come to some sort of solution as Peter was swinging back down to the other two Peter Parkers that were standing near Norman. 

Norman looked completely defeated, he was staring at the ground and seemed to be consumed in whatever thoughts he had running in his head. He looked lost in his own mind. He didn't look up or talk to the three, not even a glance in their direction. 

Otto had known about the Green Goblin’s existence since that first chaotic attack on the Oscorp Unity Parade. Norman always had an interest in collecting bizarre and unique masks, and Otto had seen the blueprints of the glider when he used to work late nights with Norman. He had read in the newspapers that Oscorp was in a bad spot, nearly losing their contract with Quest Aerospace. It was more than easy for Otto to figure out the real identity of the man behind that horrible green mask. And the Goblin’s reign of terror ceasing right after when Norman Osborn was pronounced deceased in his penthouse? The newspapers further confirmed his dreadful theory.

He couldn’t believe Norman was capable of such brutality when he had come to the realisation of that, and he was right to not believe it. 

Otto had never crossed the path of the Goblin as he had distanced himself far from Norman, but back inside the condo was their first proper meeting. He could never be prepared to see the harsh and cold look that invaded the face belonging to Norman so quickly. 

The glint of malice in the man’s eyes. 

Norman's mouth stretched into an unnatural grin that seemed so cruel and repulsive from the cheeky and heartwarming one that Otto was used to gladly seeing. 

But what had feared Otto and made him sick to the stomach was because he had not noticed the switch occur. He could have been talking to the Goblin who was pretending to be Norman and Otto didn’t even realise it. He had known the other for decades and he didn’t notice that his lifelong friend had completely vanished.

Had the Goblin been in the bathroom with Otto instead of Norman during that emotional moment of forgiveness? When they were constructing the cures together? When did the switch happen? 

Alerted to the same crackling sounds in the sky, Otto looked up to see that the large fractures of each universes colliding were slowly being fixed with golden glows of yellow and white. Pieces of the sky were moving back into place. And that same gleaming energy was beginning to slowly surround Otto and the actuators moving with curiosity behind him. Was this it then? Was he finally being returned home? Out of the corner of his eye, Max Dillon had disappeared with that same bright light. 

It must be then. 

Otto couldn’t help but take a quick glance towards Norman who still remained motionless and sat on his knees upon the ground. He mentally prayed to himself that Norman would be coming with Otto back to their universe. Otto didn’t want this to be the very last time he would see him, for his last look upon Norman who looked at a loss for everything. To look so regretful and full of pain. He didn’t deserve that. 

Otto looked upon the sky as the golden glow finally consumed him.

And then he found that he was falling right into a river with a yell. This was not what he had expected at all! The weight of the actuators instantly pulled him down below the surface as his own arms tried to swim upwards. His head popped up to the surface and he took a panicked and desperate gasp of air as everything weighed him down like a heavy rock. 

The actuators joined in with Otto’s panic as they tried to push themselves to the surface like Otto’s arms were flailing to do, but the intense weight was too overbearing and Otto was slowly being sunken further and further away from the surface of the water. His vision was black, he couldn’t see anything to grab onto in the water and the possibility of drowning was becoming greater with each second. The arms were weighing him down even though they were desperate to save him, their claws desperately searching for something solid as they all flailed around. 

He couldn’t die like this! Not by drowning! 

Somehow, one of the actuators finally had grabbed onto something, a tilted surface that was loose like dirt or sand but they firmly dug their claws into whatever it was. And they were swiftly pulling him through the water, pushing up to the surface. Otto’s lungs were burning for oxygen, and the moment his head broke out from the water he greedily sucked in as much air as he could. Otto coughed violently, spluttering and spitting out the horrid taste of murky river water from his mouth. 

The arms continued to pull him upwards on the bank of the river, the weight threatening to pull him back into the water. His boots finally caught the surface of the slope and Otto assisted with the actuators that pulled him away from the river. His gloved hands clutched the ground, crawling away from the water with heavy breaths. Water trickled as individual droplets that fell from the bottom of his now extremely weighty coat. 

Finally away from the threat of drowning, Otto collapsed onto his stomach and sighed with relief. The actuators hovered over him, chirping with concern and trying to take a look at Otto’s face as he regained his steady breathing once more. 

“Don’t worry, I’m okay.” He reassured them with a thankful sigh. 

They chattered to one another, and Otto could sense that they too were extremely glad to be out of the watery danger nearby. His clothing was completely soaked and he had lost his glasses, and he was beginning to grow colder with each second but he couldn’t care about that at the moment. 

He had just nearly drowned! 

Otto wiped at his lips with a gloved hand, the taste of the river staining the inside of his mouth as he spat at the ground. His stomach churned with nausea as he kept the coughs back in his throat. The curls of Otto’s hair stuck still to his forehead. His body had already begun shivering from the uncomfortable coldness.

Well. Otto hadn’t anticipated being teleported into a river. But he supposed that he should have seen that coming. He had been building the reactor in an abandoned warehouse in the middle of a river. But where the hell did it go? The warehouse was gone too, except from a few lonesome wooden beams sticking out from where it used to be. It had been quickly collapsing when Otto was last inside. So whatever remained of the building was probably at the bottom of the river.

What of the reactor itself? If the warehouse was gone, then the fusion reactor might have possibly dissipated in the river. His fate had changed then! 

“And you, Doc Ock. You drown in the river with your machine.”

Flint Marko’s words had been trapped inside Otto’s head from the moment he had spoken them, they used to be so haunting hours ago. However it looked like Otto and his actuators wouldn’t be joining his machine in the murky watery depths after all. Otto pushed himself off from his stomach with a groan, he could already feel the edge of exhaustion beginning to rise. How long had it been since the last time he had slept? 

Otto sat himself on his knees, rubbing his gloved hand across his damp and dirtied face as he took the moment to examine his surroundings. It was no longer the dawn of a new morning in the sky, rather it seemed to be the middle of the night. Beautiful glittering stars scattered high above the grey and misty clouds in the sky and the air was unfortunately chilly. It didn’t help in the slightest that Otto was drenched from the river and was becoming more and more colder by the minute. 

The area he was sat in seemed to be for industrial use as there were cranes along with a small harbour stationed at the other side of the river. Otto nearly did not notice nor catch the sight of somebody swiftly moving in the air towards his direction, but when he did, Otto’s chocolate brown eyes widened with surprise across his features. The figure was dressed in a bright blur of red and blue, and was swinging across the rooftops. The actuators perked and looked up to the direction of which Otto was facing. Their claws also opened with interest as the person shortly landed upon the bank of the river. 

Otto could see the alarm upon Peter’s face, but it had definitely softened once he realised that the scientist was in fact breathing and was alive. It wasn’t Peter from the other universe, but it was the same Peter that Otto was very familiar with. The one from Dr. Connors class. 

“Otto!” Peter exclaimed, rushing down to the shore where Otto was currently lifting himself up onto his feet with the arms aiding him. Otto noticed that he stumbled slightly. “Are you alright?”

Otto offered a relieved smile, brushing off his knees in a terrible attempt to rid the crumbs of dirt and tiny pebbles. “I’m okay, Peter. Just catching my breath. I landed in the river.”

Peter nodded, removing his mask from his head in one quick pull. Revealing a very grateful smile upon the boy’s — wait no man’s face. Otto still couldn’t get used to the fact that prior to being transported, Peter had just been a kid. A kid with a young face a few days ago. And Peter was now in his forties like decades had instantly passed before Otto’s very eyes! 

It was so strange, and saddening in some way.

“I thought you might. I didn’t know if you would be able to swim back with the actuators, I swung here as fast as I could as soon as I got teleported back.” That warmed Otto’s heart, Peter was really concerned for him despite Otto nearly having the city blown up by the fusion reactor along with kidnapping his poor girlfriend. Otto made a mental note in his head to apologise to her, if she was still dating or even married to Peter! 

Otto opened his mouth to explain how he’d managed to swim or rather climb back to the surface, but he noticed that Peter was holding the left side of his stomach covering what could very well be blood. Otto could spot little trickles down his spider suit. 

There was instant worry that had exploded in Otto’s chest as his eyes glanced to Peter’s face and to the wound. “Peter, you’re injured. What happened to your side?”

Peter blinked, as if he realised that he had forgotten something. “Oh! Uh, the Goblin did that a bit before we managed to give him the antiserum finally.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t worry, I’ve actually been stabbed before so I’m fairly familiar with this.”

Being stabbed before was certainly not reassuring to Otto’s ears, he nearly grimaced at the thought of a sharp blade being pushed into one’s stomach. He even felt his own stomach churn slightly in response to it. Otto hadn’t been able to witness the battle between the Green Goblin and both Peters as he was preoccupied with rescuing Dillon and anyone else that nearly collapsed along with the scaffolding of the statue. Part of him was thankful that he didn’t, but the other part wished that he had gotten involved so that Peter wouldn’t end up being wounded by the Goblin. 

Peter’s eyes widened with shock, after he did a brief examination of his side. It had seemed he had tried to at least fix himself up as there was a light pinkish white web stuck covering the wound, providing some sort of bandage. “Dr. Osborn! We cured him! I almost forgot, we need to find him!"

Otto’s expression quickly transformed into one of both mild worry and surprise, his eyebrows shooting to the top of his head from the realisation. Norman wasn’t with them. He was god knows where and most likely alone and probably even greatly alarmed from what happened in the other universe. The Goblin had been up to a lot of things after he took control, Norman had only regained control a few minutes before everything had been fixed and everybody had been transported back home. 

A sick feeling rose as Otto recalled Flint Marko’s words once again, but not towards him…but to Norman.

“Green Goblin, impaled by the glider he flew around on.”

Oh god no…

Would it be possible that Norman could be dead right now? Right after his mind was freed from that darker half? No, Otto didn’t want to believe it. He couldn’t have lost him again. Not after they had finally reunited and rekindled their long lasting friendship. At this very moment, Norman Osborn could be dead once more. Alone.

“Norman…” Otto whispered with a shake to his voice. “Peter, do you know where he could be? Flint Marko said that he was going to be impaled!”

Peter looked equally as panicked, his face seemed to even pale. He thought for the swiftest moment, and then looked up and made eye contact with Otto once more. If there was one person that certainly knew of Norman’s whereabouts at this very moment then it was definitely Peter, and Otto was already prepared to follow. Adrenaline steadily building in his body.

“I know where he is! I don’t think it’s too far from here, come on!” Peter exclaimed, to which Otto sighed with a relief that didn’t really last too long.

He nodded quickly as his actuators Harry and Larry assisted him with climbing up the river bank as fast as they could. Peter pulled his mask over his head and led the way. And together with a strong sense of urgency, they began their mission to locate and aid Norman Osborn in any way possible.

Otto silently prayed to himself again that once they had finally found Norman, he wouldn’t be a pale corpse impaled against the wall. 

He would hopefully be breathing, he would be fine. 

Norman wouldn’t be dead.