chapter six
Peter pushed the door the the training room and looked around, half the floor was hard, like how his school hall floor was, the other half was cushioned and had what looked like a wrestling ring in the middle. The ceiling had rafters he could hide in if things went south, and there were windows right at the top he could escape from. This was a good room. He heard hushed whispers from Romanov and Rogers but they stopped suddenly when they saw him. That didn’t mean he didn’t hear what was said ‘the ring though, Nat, that’s exactly how Buck described it.’ Peter didn’t know who ‘Buck’ was or what that had to do with him or his ring, but just to be safe, he slipped the ring into his pocket. That ring associated him with Hydra, but he couldn’t bring himself to get rid of it.
“Peter!” Rogers bright voice filled the room, why on Earth was he so enthusiastic? “Hop in the ring with me.”
With much trepidation, Peter slowly walked up to the ring and climbed between the bars.
“Now Pete, we’re gonna test how strong you are, so just hit me, don’t worry, I can take it.” He had added that last bit after seeing the concern on Peters face.
Rogers said that he could take it, but could he really. When Hydra created The Winter Soldier they’d managed to make his strength equal to Captain America’s, but when they’d created Hydra’s Spider, they’d made him so much stronger, double, even triple the strength.
“Isn’t there a better way to test this?” Peter begged.
Nat’s cold, emotionless voice silenced his protest. “Hit him Parker!”
Peter gently tapped Rogers chest a couple times before Romanov had had enough and yelled “hit him like you mean it Parker, damn it!”
That’s when Peter realised that Rogers stood in a very similar way to The Winter Soldier, and Romanov sounded a lot like the person who used to send him on missions. And then he didn’t feel like he was in the ring, he was reliving the past.
They’d just realised that The Winter Soldier had broken free of his conditioning, that he wasn’t just their weapon, so they’d taken him away. Twelve year old Peter had waited for hours for his friend, his protector to come back. One of the guards had come into his cell, drugged him and taken him to a room he didn’t recognise. He could still feel the burn of whatever they’d given him when he thought about it, it was all in his head, he knew that, but it felt real. The room was dark and grey and dingy. The Winter Soldier was standing in one of the corners, staring at him. Even at that age, Peter had looked at that figure, and in his heart he’d known that that wasn’t his friend, wasn’t his protector anymore.
“Hydra’s Spider, defeat The Winter Soldier, The Winter Soldier, attack Hydra’s spider.” Peter didn’t even know who’d said that, he only knew that it changed his life, took the one bit of security he had left and destroyed it right in front of him.
The figure starting walking towards him, backing him into a corner
“зима” Peter pleaded, hoping that the childish nickname would bring his friend back, that the memory of trying to teach him what The Winter Soldier was in Russian, and how Peter had only learned to say winter would snap him out of whatever trance Hydra had put him in. It didn’t. The first blow shattered half his ribs, the second took the wind out of his lungs. He didn’t let there be a third blow.
A voice screamed over the intercom, “you are Hydra’s Spider, you will fight back!”
And he did, he fought until The Winter Soldier was bloody and unconscious.
The screaming continued. The memory faded from his brain but the screaming continued. Blood. Why was there so much blood. Peter looked at the blue, unfocused eyes and realised what’d happen. Did he killed Rogers? We’re they going to kill him? He didn’t wait to find out, he threw a web onto the rafters and smashed through the window.
He could spend the night asleep somewhere hidden on the streets and then go to school the next day, act like that whole weekend hadn’t happened, maybe that way they’d leave him alone. So that’s exactly what Peter did. Blissfully unaware of what would happen at school the next day.