Did You Let Him Go?
~Steve
It didn’t take the team long to come up with a list of suspects in Tony’s kidnapping and narrow that list down to the perpetrator. There may be a lot of people in the world that hold a grudge against Tony Stark, but Secretary Ross had a special hatred for Tony that was obvious to the whole world. Natasha only needed fifteen minutes with a keyboard to uncover Ross’s heinous plan. Pulling Tony out of the peace talks would allow Ross complete control of the committee thus effectively ruining the Avengers initiative. Steve could only wonder how far Ross would go to shut Tony up until the committees were over.
Natasha pushed her chair away from the monitors a hard glint in her eyes. “I think I got him!”
Steve hurried over; eyes trained on the red dot pulsing on the screen. Steve crumbled his brow. “That’s not far from here. If Ross went through all this trouble to get Tony away from the peace talks wouldn’t he get him as far away as possible?”
Clint moved in to see the results of Natasha’s less than legal search. “Bastard must be very confident that he wouldn’t be found out. Bet he didn’t expect us to come looking for Stark.”
Sam nodded in agreement. “We can be there in less than twenty.” Sam paused, eyes flitting to the doorway. “Are we going to tell the kid?”
Bucky stood from his chair and pulled a gun from the holster at his hip. Bucky checked the magazine to make sure his weapon was fully loaded for the fight a head. “This is personal for the kid. If any of us were in his position, would you want to be kept in the dark?”
Sam’s face fell flat at the soldier’s words. “Come on guys, the kid is like 16! We shouldn’t bring him along on something so dangerous as this! Besides we have no idea what we are going to find there.”
That last statement held heavily over the room. Steve quickly considered his friend’s worries, but he already knew in his heart what they had to do. “The kid has already seen a lot. Peter was there in Germany and held his own against us, we know what he’s capable of.”
Sam groaned in disgust at the captain’s logic. “Steve this is his dad. What if things don’t turn out the way we want. What will that do to him then?”
Steve didn’t even want to consider that possibility. Before he answered Sam a photo on a bookshelf caught his attention. Looking at the photo closer Steve noticed it was a picture of Tony and Peter. Steve smirked picking up the photo to get a closer look. The first thing Steve noticed was Tony wearing a bright red shirt that read I am Irondad and Peter had on a gold shirt that read I amIronSon. The two of them looked ridiculously happy and were laughing hard at something unknown. Tony had an arm draped over Peter’s shoulders holding him close as he used him as a support from laughing so hard. In return Peter had his arm wrapped around Tony’s waist, his eyes glistening with happy tears.
“Steve?” Steve gave a slight jump at Natasha’s questioning voice. Placing the picture back on the shelf Steve turned to face his team. “Peter is going.” Steve held a hand up to silent Sam’s immediate protests. “I am telling him whether you like it or not. I am not going to be the one to try and stop him.”
A slight knock stopped any further augments. Peter stood in the doorway a look of curiosity on his face. “I heard some raised voices, am I interrupting something?”
Steve gave a final glance at the photo on the shelf then turned to the boy. “Actually, Peter we found something.”
“Steve,” Sam started giving the Captain a hard-disapproving look.
Steve ignored him and continued. “We have a location. We are confident we will find your dad there. “
For the first time since Steve arrived at the tower Peter looked hopeful. He no longer had an air of mistrust and anger.
“What are we waiting for,” Peter yelled running from the room. “Let’s go get my dad!”
Steve picked up his Wakandan shield from the coffee table and turned to his team. “You heard the kid, time to go.”
Sam shoved himself away from the wall and grabbed his duffel from the floor. “I got a bad feeling about this.” He grumbled lowly, Steve only catching the words thanks to his enhanced hearing.
Steve gripped his shield tighter as he followed after Peter. “Please Tony just hold on a bit longer.”
~Tony
Tony sputtered as he tried to clear the blood out of his throat, he refused to die by choking on his own blood. Tony could tell Ross was quickly losing his patience with him. Honestly, Tony really couldn’t care a less, but the more aggravated Thaddeus became he resorted to more creative and painful measures. Ross’s henchmen had successfully turned his body into nothing but a mass of blood and pain. All his joint’s ached and burned, his breathing had turned to shallow raspy gasps, and his heart stuttered unevenly, struggling to keep the beat.
Through all the pain Tony could only register exhaustion. He no longer cared when Ross returned for another round of questioning. When the pain started Tony could now feel himself begin to float away. After the latest round, Tony was finding it hard to ground himself and return to his body. Could pain cause hallucinations? Or maybe he was finally dying, either way he just wanted this to be over.
Tony felt slight vibrations in the walls causing dust to rain down. Tony tried to lift his head as shouts and blasts reverberated through his cell, but pain raced down his spine causing him to groan.
Maybe if he allowed himself to float a bit farther, he wouldn’t have to feel anymore. He had done his job; he had kept quiet. His team was safe and Peter, God Peter, his son would be sad, but he knew he would be safe with Rhodey and Pepper.
Another vibration rocked Tony’s cell sending violent waves of pain through his body. Tony gasped as he struggled to catch his breath his vision darkening at the corners. It was too much, the pain was overwhelming, and he had to let go. Tony smiled as he thought of Peter, a violent shiver wracking his body.
It was so easy to let go.
~Peter
Peter grunted as he sent an enemy flying with a powerful kick. He felt no pity as the man’s body cracked against a wall and crumpled to the ground. Peter was like a madman decking and weaving around oncoming attacks. He attacked his enemies quickly and without mercy, each blow he landed filled him with satisfaction. He smiled at the pain he was causing; he took great pleasure knowing he was repaying the pain that they had inflicted on his dad. His actions were justified.
Peter ignored the looks of concern that the Avengers were sending his way. Nothing was going to stop him from reaching his dad. He was prepared to destroy anything and anyone that got in his way. Peter flipped through the air grabbing the gun from his new opponent’s hands. The poor soul barely had a moment to register what happened before Peter brutally smashed the butt of the gun against his face sending him roughly to the ground.
Peter sneered under his mask as he unloaded the weapon before throwing it roughly to the floor. He was quickly growing agitated, he wanted this to be over with.
“Steve I’m moving on a head.” Peter yelled over his shoulder.
“Peter wait! We should stick together!” Steve called, landing a punch to his opponent’s jaw.
Peter ignored him, they were the Avengers and didn’t need him to take care of these gnats. Swinging himself over the rest of the fight Peter’s gaze landed on a suspicious looking door. Not taking the time to see if the door was unlocked, Peter gripped the handle and swiftly ripped the door from its hinges.
Peter was met with a cold dark hallway, throwing caution to the wind, he rushed inside.
~Steve
Steve growled in annoyance as he watched Spiderman disobey him and swing away from the battle and out of the room. It didn’t take him and the rest of the team long to finish taking out Ross’s men, but he didn’t like the idea of the kid going off alone.
Steve had just retrieved his shield when a heartbroken cry echoed through the room. His blood turn to ice as he quickly ran towards the source of the cry. The team burst into the darken cell to find Peter on his knees, his father hanging limply in front of him.
“Oh God,” Steve whispered as he took in the sight of Tony Stark. The man in front of him was a mess of cuts and burns, his skin was ghostly pale as if he had been drained completely of blood.
Sam pressed his fingers to Tony’s neck. “I can’t find a pulse. We need to get him down.”
Natasha and Bucky made fast work of removing Tony’s restraints and lowering him to the ground. Sam quickly maneuvered around them to start CPR. Steve felt frozen to the ground but the sight of Peter quaking on the ground forced him forward.
As he got closer to the boy, he could hear him whispering in time with Sam’s administrations.
“You promised, you promised me.” A breath.
“Stark men are made of iron.” 30 compressions.
“You are my hero.” A breath.
“You can’t leave me alone.” 30 compressions.
Sam gave a sad look to his friends losing hope. Steve could feel his chest tighten unable to comprehend what was happening.
A tear rolled down Peter’s cheek. “You are earth’s greatest defender.” A breath.
~~~~ For those who want the happy ending stop here and go to A Time For Healing~
“Come on, come on Tony don’t do this!” Sam shouted as he roughly applied 30 more compressions. Natasha placed a calm hand on Sam’s shoulder gently pulling him away from Tony.
“Sam it’s to late. You did everything you could.” Natasha whispered, silent tears racing down her cheeks.
Steve collapsed to his knees, grief tearing through him. They had failed, they had failed their friend and now Tony would never know how sorry Steve was. More importantly Steve had failed Peter and the kid would never be the same.
Steve watched as Peter made his way to his father. Peter gently cradled Tony’s head in his lap carefully wiping blood from his face. Steve felt cold at the calm icy demeanor Peter was radiating off. The kid looked hallowed of all emotions and for the first time since the two had met Steve was afraid of what the boy might do.
“Peter…” Steve tried.
Peter met Steve’s gaze; eyes filled with fury.
“Earth just lost its greatest defender. Who will protect her from me now?”