Standing in front of the other, Spiderman, known generally by a select few as Peter Parker, stared at the other, his mask hiding the heartbroken eyes he owned. 

His friend... was now a villain...

Otto... why... how?...

I know you don't want to fight him, but you have to, the Symbiote said in his mind. 

I know that! he snapped before he stopped as he exhaled. Sorry, it's just that...

A friend, right? Venom asked. I know, but he won't listen to reason. Not right now, at least.

"You have a point..." he mumbled. 

Fight now, and talk to him later, Venom offered. 

Sounds like a plan, he agreed, and thought to himself, I hope that Jameson Junior's new suit will help me through this fight. Even if it helped me with the Sinister Six... There's no telling what Otto has in mind for me.

You will, Venom reassured him. Now let's go kick some butt!

Peter nodded, and slid into a battle stance, "I'm not going to back down..."

"Are you ready now then?" Otto asked him as his robotic arms began closing in on him. 

"I could say the same to you," he answered. 

"Good." 

With that, the battle began. Peter knew that the scrapes he got during the fight would be bad, but his body would heal it with no problem. 

It didn't mean that it didn't hurt, of course. It hurt. A heck ton. And not just physically. He was holding back, he knew it, and Doctor Octopus knew it as well. The villain's capabilities paled in comparison (and no, that was not arrogance, it was reassurance thanks to Venom) to his, yet he couldn't make himself hurt the other too much. No matter how much he tried, he couldn't make himself do anything to injure the villain, his former friend, Otto...

But as the battle progressed, as he kept fighting, something in him began to.. shift. 

The former hesitation slowly turned into... anger.... rage... and all its other relatives. 

How could he do something like this? How could his friend, Otto Octavius, be so... so messed up? 

With each question, with each thought, it only fueled the darkness, the evil thoughts in his mind, which boiled down into one thing; 

He needs to be stopped. He needs to PAY.

He didn't know how it had subconsciously translated itself into harsher attacks on Otto, ripping off his mechanical arms like it was nothing, destroying his defenses ruthlessly, whittling his ego down without a care of the world. His eyes only saw red during this time. 

When the adrenaline rush finally faded away, he was standing in front of a fallen Otto, whose eyes had grown wide as he looked up at Peter. 

And the first thing that registered...

What... just happened?...

Even as Otto was arrested without many quips, even as he headed home, swinging from building to building, he only felt... numb. 

Was this... was this the side-effect of working with a Symbiote?...

The question would have to be answered another day, he eventually decided as he fell onto his bed, and slowly let the subconscious realm take him away to dreamland after an exhausting workday.

XenoSaiyan I know it's really short and it's probably quite bad, but I did my best. I do hope you like it!