Shackled
The concrete was freezing on Peter’s back. He didn’t know how long he had been with this wizard. All he knew was how exhausted he felt. His hands ached from how long they had been behind his back, his stomach rumbling from starvation. The wizard did feed him, but hardly anything. Barely enough to keep his enhanced metabolism going. He could almost feel himself wasting away. He wasn’t even sure if he’d last much longer.
Peter’s heart sunk the moment he sensed the wizard. He couldn’t see him, a blindfold over his eyes. He knew the man was hovering over him, however, as the hairs on his arms stood up. He took a deep breath, struggling in the hold. As he did, however, the wizard started to chuckle.
“There’s no use, Peter. Those things could even hold the Hulk.”
Peter coughed. “What do you need with me? P-Please, just- just let me go home. Please, I just want Mr Stark- please!”
Tears poured down his cheeks, down to the same concrete floor that made him feel so uncomfortable. He strained, trying to pull his hands apart from each other to escape. Peter listened to his own tears. Somehow, he couldn’t believe it was him making those noises.
“Well, it’s all about Tony Stark. Isn’t it? You shouldn’t look up to that man, kid. He’s a coward. He cannot save anyone.”
“P-Please,” Peter whimpered. “Please. Let me go.”
The wizard pushed some hair away from Peter’s face, the same way that Tony would. Peter shuddered, trying to push himself away. He imagined Tony there, sitting beside him to tell him that everything was going to be alright. That’s all he wanted right now. He wanted his dad.
“So young, Spiderman. Just a child. Aren’t you?” The wizard (Peter still didn’t know their name) said to him, in a tone Tony usually reserved for him. “I’m truly sorry for doing this to you, but I have to.”
Thoughts started to pop into his head. Was this person a parent? Did he want revenge from something Tony did to him? Whatever happened, Peter wanted to scream that he wasn’t a part of any of it.
“W-why me? Please- It all hurts so m-much!” Peter screamed out, his whole body reduced to shaking. “I just want my dad!”
“Some people don’t get that privilege, Peter! My wife and child died! All because Tony Stark is a coward! If he just did his job to save my family then they’d all be back!” The person snapped. “So, stop screaming! Nobody can hear you, Peter. My child is in the grave and I won’t stop until Tony gets to feel that pain too. Sorry that you got pulled into this, kiddo. It’s a tough world, I’m sure you’ll figure it out soon.”
Before Peter could reply, he felt the wizard disappear. He cried, shifting his knees up to his chest. He put his head on his knees, sobbing violently from the pain. He shifted the blindfold off his face, against his leg. He blinked a few times as he adjusted to the harsh, blinking, ceiling light. He couldn’t quite believe he was in this situation. Alone again.
Peter had been missing for a week. A whole week. Tony went back in time for the kid. He invented time travel, but he still couldn’t do anything. Even that wasn’t enough. When he arrived back in 2018, he thought it would finally be over. Then, the kid was gone again. Tony didn’t know what to do.
Since then, Tony hadn’t been able to sleep (again, he was sure that he’d ever get his schedule back on track). His whole being worked endlessly on getting the kid back for the second time.
Natasha had called him up to the conference room, telling him an unknown source emailed a video to SHIELD. A video of Peter Parker. He had never ran as fast in his life.
Tony was sat on his chair in the room, alongside everyone else, when the footage started. Peter’s lip was busted, a bruise covering his face. His arms were tied. There was blood on his eyebrows, his cheek and just everywhere visible. His hair was dirty, messed up and his eyes were very much red. It was clear that the kid had been sobbing.
The kid’s voice is small and breaking. Tony’s never seen him like this before. He’s never been this... quiet.
The footage broke Tony. He immediately let out a gasp as soon as it started. Rhodey tried to pull him away, to divert his eyes, but Tony had to see. He had to know if his kid was going to be okay.
“Let me see- Please, that’s my kid-,” Tony said, pushing Rhodey’s arm away from him. “I have to- I have to watch,”
“Okay Tony...,” The man said, still taking his hand just in case.
I’m sorry,” Peter whispered, the first words that he spoke. Tony wanted to jump through the screen, he just wanted to clean his wounds. He needed to be there for him. He just wanted to make sure that he’s okay. The kid flinched on screen, something clearly happened behind the screen. “He- He wants me dead. D-Dad, I don’t know what to do. I need you.”
A hand reached forward to slap Peter around the face. A whimper escaped the teenager’s lips, making Tony’s fist clench. He needed to get to him somehow. “P-Please stop, I ju-just want to go home, please.”
“I’m going to break him even more, Stark. You’re going to feel how hard it is to lose a child. The next time you see him, I’m going to kill him. This is the last time you’ll see him alive.”
The wizard ruffled Peter’s hair, smiling into the camera lens as blood trailed down the kid’s mouth. Peter just stared at the camera for a second, the light behind his eyes was gone.
“Come on, little one. Smile for your dad. Him and the entire world are watching. Lets give them a performance!”
Peter refused. The wizard slapped him, over and over again. Tony’s crying at this point, trying not to think about how this is all his fault.
Peter’s begging at this point for all of it to stop, his words almost incoherent. He’s shaking back and forth. The only word anybody could understand was ‘dad’. It shattered Tony’s broken heart into a million pieces, he wasn’t sure how to keep going.
“Turn it off!” Tony Stark said, trying to shout. His throat, however, was hoarse which meant he couldn’t speak loud enough. His tears had been falling for hours before.
The screen shut off. The room grew quiet. Tony’s hands were shaking, the rest of his body stiff. Steve looked at him, his own face covered in horror. Bucky was sat beside him, a single tear falling down his cheek. Natasha was also crying. Tony couldn’t remember the last time he saw her cry, if he ever has. The whole team felt shell shocked.
“Tony,” Steve whispered. “We’ll find him.”
Silence.
“That’s my kid,” Tony said, eventually. He put the video up again and stared at the still image of Peter sat there. “My boy.”
“I know, Tony,” Rhodey managed to say, standing up. “We’ll get him.”
“I’ll send him billions, anything he could wish for. I just want my boy home,” Tony shook his head, moving his hand into his pocket. He grabbed his phone and looked at the lock-screen with blurry eyes. The picture was him and Peter, Peter asleep on his chest. All he wanted was for that to become a reality again.
“We can’t,” Fury said, sat at the end of the table. “They’re already dangerous enough, I can’t imagine what they’d be like if they got that much money. Plus, Peter wouldn’t want us to do that. We’ll find the kid.”
“He’s just an asset to you,” Tony said, anger rising in his chest. “You don’t give a shit about Peter. He’s a human being, you piece of shit. He’s a child! I don’t care if some lunatic gets a billionaire dollars, I need to get him home!”
Tony was only seconds away from calling a suit to search until he physically couldn’t when Fury replied to him, stopping him from leaving.
“A child with superpowers that you built a suit for, Tony. He’ll be okay.”
Tony stood up, his chair flying back into the wall behind him. “Don’t you dare flip this onto me. I asked you, I begged, to keep him away from these missions, but you told me that you’d keep him safe. Where is he? Do you know? Because I don’t! I’ve been searching for an entire fucking week, Fury! He’s more than just a team member to pawn off. What if they kill him? If I find my son dead then it’s all on you and you’ll be next.”
Before the Wizard came back to talk to him (before he filmed the video), Peter was able to take a look at his surroundings. He stared at the warehouse’s walls, staring through an average-sized hole in the wall, and noticed a familiar looking tree. This tree was a hit in the local neighbourhood with a singular tire swing hanging off one of its branches. Kids would flock there, including Peter Parker.
His favourite memories he had of his Uncle Ben was right at this tree. He thought that it could be a sign. Brn was still looking after him, shining a light directly on the tree to help Peter figure out the location. He remembered how loving the man was, pushing him back and forth, helping him act like his favourite superhero (Iron Man). A bit of fire raged in the pit of Peter’s stomach. He was going to get out of here. It wasn’t just to get back to Ned, May, Tony and everyone else, but it was also about making his parents and Ben proud. He was going to do it.
He knew exactly where he was. All he had to do now was get that to Tony somehow.
So when the wizard came to record a video to spite Tony about his capture, Peter managed to tap some morse code into the leg of his chair. He just had hope that Tony wouldn’t be too mortified by the stare of him to notice.
Tony was hunched over his desk, breathing in and out. He couldn’t believe that Peter had been in his grasp and, suddenly, the kid was gone again. He couldn’t feel anything, his whole body going numb. He crashed down to the floor and curled up into a ball, tears streaming down his lab’s cold floors.
Rhodey was by his side instantly, telling him that it was going to be alright. But, how was it? He was never going to get Peter back. The man who held him captive was going to kill him on the spot.
Steve joined them down in the lab moments later, getting a distressed call from the Colonel. He helped pick Tony up from the floor, taking him upstairs.
In normal circumstances, Tony would never let the super solider manhandle him like he was. It felt derogatory, almost. But here? It made him feel protected. It made him realise that these people living with him did care. They’d do anything for Tony, which meant they’d do anything for Peter. Which was good as Tony was prepared to do anything for that kid to be home.
The team watched as Steve comforted a sobbing Tony Stark. It was too much to watch for some of them, walking away to their own bedrooms. Steve held Tony for a second, waiting to take him to bed. He needed some company from his friends. If he didn’t, he’d collapse entirely.
Natasha sat by his side, rubbing his hair. She muttered something about how strong hd was to do this for his son. It was something like that, anyway. Tony wasn’t too sure. He wasn’t too sure about anything.
Thor had even come to the compound, rushing to take Tony into a big hug that almost stopped him from breathing. That wasn’t a good thing. It took Tony’s mind to a dark space. He imagined finding Peter but, in that moment, it would be too late. He’d find the kid on the floor struggling to breathe and then that would be it.
After standing in the kid’s bedroom, talking about Spiderman, to now, the kid had grown so much. He deserved more than anyone to live a life he wanted. He didn’t deserve to be tortured in front of a camera that broadcasted this footage across the globe. He wouldn’t be able to walk around without people recognising him as ‘the boy in the video’. His life would never be the same, and that was Tony’s fault. If, a pretty hopeful if, the kid survived then... then he’d be the most relieved person in the world.
Tony woke up too early that next morning. He rushed down to the lab to notice Rhodey asleep on an air mattress. Tony’s face fell, seeing how Rhodey stared.
“I camped out here as I knew you’d come back eventually. So, I got your back. We all need him and I need you to be happy. Let’s go get the kid back,” Rhodey told him. “Peter’s a smart kid. He probably sent you a message. I know the video is hard to watch.. but, maybe we should go through it to make sure.”
Rhodey had always been his best friend. That man had comforted him more than anybody else in the world. Having somebody so loving as his best friend meant everything fo Tony. One day, when this was all over, he promised himself that he’d make sure Rhodey knew that.
They both watched it. Tony never cried that much. He had also never seen Rhodey in the same state. People start tweeting about it. He knows.., because he has an alert set up with FRIDAY to notify him if the name ‘Peter Parker’ comes up too much on any social media outlet. That was supposed to be about his identity. Never like this.
Tony’s eye zoned towards the light tapping on the bound chair. The boy’s hands can hardly move, but Tony got the gist of it. It’s an address.
The kid said it’s not the exact location, but he thought that it’s like he’s in a worn-down warehouse. That’s all he said before he started to sob again.
It’s enough. Tony took as many people as he could, storming the building at 3am. As soon as local residents see the Avengers flying in, people start to gather. It’s a high profile case, after all, as Tony’s one of the main stars.
Tony wanted to scream at them at all that this wasn’t discrete. But, really, it would be hypocritical of him. Considering Tony brought all of the Avengers, waking then up, alongside some SHIELD agents. He almost crashed into the pavement when he saw a beam of light emerge from the building, a loud scream seconds later...