Work Text:
Once, there was a T.S. Eliot quote Rosie loved quoting back to him when, on occasion, Otto would doubt. It never mattered exactly what he doubted–himself, the calculations, the funding, because the one thing he never doubted was her.
The quote, taken from the preface for the Transit of Venus , goes like this: “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”
From the moment she died, he’d reach into the recesses of his mind for her, for that quote, only to be drowned out by the tentacles. Their drumming voices, pounding into his own–competing for space, for volume, for air. The new Parker boy, the youngest, had silenced them with a gadget he whipped up in a couple of hours.
Their silence revived her voice and though he would never hold her again, Otto is whole.
The tentacles merely slither at his sides as he stands on his own feet atop the scaffolding. The children are below–Otto can spot his Peter Parker among the other two, though a note of worry fills his gut at the way another Parker has to keep him upright. Osborn is with them, on his knees, dejected but himself. Or whatever version suits him at the moment, Otto cares not which it is.
The sky cracks and comes apart in shades of purple, green, and blue. The wizard is at the peak of the Statue, casting his spell to unwrite what the youngest Parker has scribbled.
Otto does not know magic, but he knows what awaits him in his universe, so he prepares. He removes his left glove with his teeth, lets the spell’s golden glint hit his wedding band. Somehow, he’d kept it together when he spoke to his Peter Parker, as his chest swelled with pride far too little, too late to make a difference, but now his eyes truly sting.
“Oh Rosie,” Otto says gently to the ring, as if she might talk back in his mind like the tentacles had. He closes his eyes, struggling to imagine her smile. It seems so long since he’d seen her, since his mind was quiet enough to conjure images of her over the bickering voices of the tentacles. The kind turn of her smile, her lovely eyes, her hands which often loved to hold his face.
He yearns, reaches for her again and finds the quote again. “I understand what he was talking about now. I went much too far, my love.”
The sun peeks out from behind a cloud and warms his cheeks, his forehead. Otto hums and fails to resist the smile. There she is.
“Forgive me. In seeking the sun’s power, I neglected her warmth and the reason why she’s kept far away from us.” Otto sighs, as something wet slides down his cheek. “I already had you.”
The spell takes his Peter Parker and his compatriot below. Osborn fades.
Otto knows he is next. He pecks his wedding band and steels his face. He will meet his end as himself.
“I’ll be with you soon, Rosie.”
He will not die a monster.