Otto: "Peter, even now, you doubt me."
*Peter shifts uncomfortably in the arms of Doctor Octopus', unwilling to say a word even as Spider-Man gets ready to break free*
Octavius: "Honestly I cannot blame you. I have inhabited your body, dated your mother-figure as a means to eventually usurp your cause, done heinous things to you and your family. But I must impress upon you that I genuinely want to do good." Doctor Octavius loosens his grip enough for Spider-Man to disengage from the fight, flipping from his precarious position so close to one of his many enemies to a wall, watching over Octavius and his machines as he gets ready to react to his Spidey-Sense. "But, and I must stress this enough and I will continue to stress it even as the police arrive-"
Spider-Man: "Police? Why would they come here, surely it couldn't be because of the tax fraud claim I called in for you, since you were so gracious a host."
Otto: "Amusing sentiment." He says with the most deadpan of faces. "But no. I've called them of my own accord, since you've entered my inhabitance even, because even dead I am still a Super-Villain, mind the dash of course, of yours and one with several warrants on his head even dead. But no matter on the course of whether or not it was wise to call them even if I am guilty of many crimes compared to personally turning myself in. I have been you Peter. I have been through a kind of hell I wish wish on very few people and seen how you have come out not only 'swinging' to use a common parlance, but laughing, even happy. I have seen that even in your worst, darkest moments you do not stop thinking of the good you can do even as your self doubt overwhelms your very sense of self, all because of a childhood error, or arrogance." *Otto shifts to look over the skyline, a calm sunlit day of New York, not even something monumental like a sunrise or sunset* "And in this, pardoning the poor grammer, I realized. I could never be the Superior Spider-Man. But, I would be the best Doctor Octavius I could ever be. Even as I was accepting my death and turn to the most appropriate afterlife Lady Death could lead me to, even as my spirit was becoming trapped in the latest scheme in the magic aligned Masquerade that you see to find yourself pulled in-to from time to time, I felt a kind of... Hope." *Octavius, no, Otto-as recognized a nickname from his few genuine friends he cares to acknowledge-turns to acknowledge Peter in full. Not just Spider-Man, hero to all of New York but better known as Queens' King of Swing, or Peter Parker the brilliant but infamously unlucky man from Queens' more well to do middle class neighborhood, but the man behind them both. The man who once was arrogant as himself, lost an uncle, and became the best of them all.
"Peter Parker. You who has seen so much tragedy. You who has all the reason to turn into a villain. You chose to become a hero. But not just *a* hero, but the best of them. Peter, after living your life even if just the *highlights* such as they are, I can think of no word to describe you but as a hero."
Peter, confused at Doctor Octavius, his one time hero's words, balks at this: "But-but why all of this subterfuge? Why would you go to such lengths just to say I'm a hero at the end of it?"
Otto smiles, not a manic thing full of the eagerness of a mad-scientist, but a gentle thing, one of perhaps a father or uncle congratulating a smaller familial unit of for passing a test of wits: "Because without this, I would not be found guilty of my crimes even by the most lenient of juries. Because I wish to do things *right* as penance. Because I want it to be known that Spider-Man really does help the city of Manhattan, best known as New-York, New York. Peter Parker... through your years of hell on this Earth, you have convinced this scoundrel of a Rogue, to borrow a term from an Alternate Earth you may or may-not remember, to become if not a hero, then repentant." *Otto takes off his signature sunglasses to reveal slight tears in his eyes.* "Peter, you have convinced an old, broken bastard like myself that even he has the capacity to do good. There is, after all, a reason why so much of my scheme relied on the worst of the worst to allow its so called fruition to come to pass. Easy targets your morals would have no problems with allowing some bloodshed or harm to come to them, as much as you hold back even now. I must, even now, prove that I am willing to be a hero through you genuine good graces, even if it comes from bringing down the worst I could hire. You smile through your pain and make jests even as you are terrified of what this next encounter may bring but keep going. Because of this, I will do nothing but do the same even as the law brings down its righteous hammer upon me , for nothing shows respect but doing as your enemy does in even the most dire of moments. And hold your speeches. I willingly chose this path. I am going to jail, hopefully without bail or any kind of parole, but even then I hope to allow my own good ideas and conduct to prove I am serious-Ah. Here come the sirens. Well, shall we be off? I, even now, am willing to go as quietly as my own self-admitted enormous ego should allow." *Octavius smirks, detaches his many prosthetic arms, and turns around for Spider-Man, no, Peter Parker, to handcuff/web-cuff him as he faces towards the outside of this warehouse complex.*
Otto: "And... Peter? Thank you, for all that you have done for our city. That is the least you deserve, but the most I can do with how little you rightfully trust me." *And with that, Octavius happily steps forward towards the future, with a flabbergasted Peter Parker behind him.*