Chapter 10

Sorry not sorry about the last cliffhanger :) here you go!

I didn't wake up nearly as peacefully as I'd fallen asleep. In fact, I was awoken by being bodily thrown out of my bed. The world's most effective alarm clock, everyone.

My body slammed into the floor with a thud, the hardwood bruising my side as I collided with it. I was half asleep, but adrenaline spread through my veins as soon as I realized that something was very, very wrong.

Coughing a little, as the air had been slightly knocked from my lungs, I gasped and looked up blearily.

My breath caught in my throat. There were five hulking men positioned strategically throughout my room, trapping me. Two at the door, their backs facing the hallway, faceless, emotionless, merciless black masks focused on me where I lay sprawled on the floor, cutting off my most likely means of escape. One in front of the bathroom door, cutting off any place I could enclose myself from them. One at the window, curtains still drawn, still shrouding the room from the sunlight, cutting off that escape, too.

And the one in front of me, with the—with the—

The gun.

I felt myself trembling as I sat on the floor, legs folded beneath me, arms holding me up unsteadily. It was then I noticed the odd symbol on their coat sleeves, the tentacled head that haunted my nightmares.

HYDRA.

I scrambled back a little, trying to put distance between us, but any direction I went, I would just put myself closer to another member of the unit.

"Stand," the one who'd thrown me out of bed—christened Alarm Clock—said roughly. His voice shook me out of my own head, a little. I wondered if I could alert FRIDAY.

"Stand!" He said again, forcefully this time, nudging me roughly with his steel-toed boot. I winced and stood shakily, leaning against the wall. I almost tripped over Stella's food bowl.

Wait, where was Stella?

I cast a frantic search around the room, but she was nowhere to be found. Oh, God, I thought, as every horrible thought filled my mind and my lungs contracted in panic. Please, please God, let them not have hurt Stella. Not Stella, not sweet, little, innocent Stella.

Stella was my link. My…God, I didn't even know, but Stella seemed to represent everything good and pure and innocent left in my life, kept the light in my heart, and kept me sane.

I almost said her name, but God, if she was hidden, I didn't want these monsters to find her.

I shut my mouth in a thin line and pressed myself up against the wall, feeling myself shake like a leaf, my eyes never straying far from the guns surrounding me. I felt the darkness ebb at my mind, probing with sharp teeth, eager to tear at my awareness, but I choked it back. If I fell into a panic attack now…

Alarm Clock said something in rapid German to the others, and the other four nodded. I shrank back, but one of them—Window—grabbed my arm with a gloved hand. I jerked, trying to pull away from him, but he tightened his grip to the point of it being painful and dragged me forward, my socked feet slipping on the hardwood as I tried to gain purchase.

"Wh-what are you doing?" I yelled, panic invading my throat and leaking into my words. The remaining four agents flanked us, forming an impenetrable square around us, Bathroom and Alarm Clock in the front, Door 1 and Door 2 in the back. Window hauled me along, even as I tried to pry his hand off of my arm. It was useless. He closed his entire hand around my bicep. His fingers actually overlapped, I was so skinny; or maybe he just had big hands. "Let—let me go, I don't—stop it, just—"

He slammed the butt of his machine gun into the soft spot of my stomach with absolutely no warning, hissing, "Quiet. Your babbling is unnecessary." I yelled in surprise and pain, doubling over, my knees hitting the floor as I curled in on myself. I wrapped my free arm around my torso, coughing and pulling in air sporadically. He never let go of my arm, so my upper body was twisted at an odd angle as I tried to curl in on myself and he simultaneously pulled my arm upwards.

Oh, my God. Terrified, terrified thoughts filled my hazy mind. I didn't actually know if anyone else was in this Compound. I'd only ever seen the Avengers. I didn't know exactly what time it was. For all I knew, I could be alone with these agents. Oh, Lord, I wish I'd had Clint teach me how to use that gun, no matter how scared it made me. Or just how to throw a punch.

After a couple seconds of wheezing, and a couple more of stalling, he yanked me up so hard my shoulder popped. It wasn't dislocated or anything, but it didn't feel good.

I struggled to stay on my feet as he pulled me along, deeper into the Compound. I hadn't been to several areas other than the team floors. The team took me outside, sometimes, when it wasn't too cold, because they said I was too pale. Even so, I'd rarely been anywhere but Medical, the training room, and the living areas.

I panted out of both pain and apprehension as they quickened their pace. I glanced out the window, but it was still the middle of the day. The Avengers couldn't have left all that long ago, no more than a couple hours. I had no idea when they'd be back, either.

They took me to a medium-sized room, with no windows and almost no furniture. There was a table, two chairs on either side of it, and a wall in the far back with a mirror.

Oh, boy. Um. I was in trouble, because I was pretty sure the Avengers used this for interrogation? Right? It was a bigger than the ones on TV, but it still looked the same. That's how it was in all the action movies, right?

"Put him in the chair," Window said, tightening his grip on me as I squirmed. His voice was heavily accented. "Get rid of the table and the other chair. Set up the laptop. Prepare the webcam."

Wait, webcam?

I didn't like where this was going.

The Door twins heaved the table out of the way, and Bathroom grabbed the chair. Despite my (albeit pathetic) struggles, Window and Alarm Clock manhandled me into the remaining chair. Window held my arms down against the armrests as I thrashed, kicking and squirming, panic consuming my vision, my thoughts, my reality, because if they tied me down, it was over, itwasoverohGodnoTonySteveTasha, pleaseClintThorRhodeySam, SOMEBODYBuckyBruce please help me—

My struggles ceased with a quick hit to my jaw, snapping my head to the side. I saw stars for a second, but that was all the time they needed to zip tie my hands to the armrests. I jerked as they stepped back, but my arms wouldn't budge, and I only succeeded in making the ties cut into the flesh of my arms.

Oh, shit.

Alarm Clock brought out a stand and a laptop, opening it and tapping away. Window turned to him, saying something in German. Alarm Clock finished with the webcam, and he pointed it at me. I could see my own pale, terrified face, reflected in the lens and clear on the screen.

I didn't know what was happening, and that was probably the worst thing. No one had asked me a single question. They hadn't asked me for the formula, hadn't threatened me. They'd hurt me, but not badly, not nearly as badly as they could have. They'd tied me down and set up a camera. Who were they contacting?

I was shocked out of my reverie when Window set his gun loudly on the table, loud enough to make me jolt in the chair. I tugged subconsciously at the zipties. My arms were beginning to bleed, I was pulling so hard. But this was how I was redirecting my panic, keeping it away from my fragile mind.

Suddenly, hands roughly grabbed my forearms, shoving them down against the wooden armrests, and a face was inches from mine, terrifying mask in place. I jerked back, eyes wide, panic consuming my every thought, because he was too close to me and I was alone.

"Hello, Peter," he said, his thick accent doing nothing to obscure the malice dripping from his words. I shivered and would have continued to tug at the zipties frantically had it not been for his bruising grip on my arms. I leaned my head back as far as I could, but it wasn't far, and his face followed me, never more than an inch or two from mine.

"It is an honor to meet you," he said, and even through the opaque mask, I could sense the sneer. "Such an important boy, with a lot of important information."

I shivered, lips pressed into a thin line, trembling.

"But that," he said, releasing his bruising grip and reaching up to his face, peeling his mask back, "is not what we are here for today. At least, not right now."

He looked…so normal. I couldn't help but stare. He had blond hair and icy blue eyes, almost gray in the artificial light. His jaw was sharp, cheekbones high, lips thin. He was tall. If you put him in normal clothes, you could pass him on the street and not spare him a second glance. He didn't look evil.

This made him all the more terrifying.

"No, not right now," he said almost to himself. "Now, we need something else from you, Mr. Parker." Window bared his teeth in a smile and I flinched. What…? I didn't have anything but the formula, so what—

"It has come to our attention," he said as he pushed a few buttons on the laptop, "that the Avengers have become rather attached to you."

Oh.

Oh, no.

"See, HYDRA and the Avengers have a fairly adverse relationship, as you know," he said, almost as calmly as he would chat about the weather with a friend. "And, as we understand it, they seem to have whole-heartedly accepted you into their little family." He positioned the webcam directly on me, now, zooming out until you could see my entire form strapped to the chair. "Before we pursue our business with you, we must take care of the thorns in our side." He grinned. "You're going to help us."

I swallowed thickly. Tugging at my arms, the pain of the raw cuts being forced open dull in comparison to the fear in my chest, I sat, helpless, useless. Hopeless. Terrified.

"I have disabled Mr. Stark's Artificial Intelligence. FRIDAY, was it? That was difficult. Full marks to Mr. Stark. However, I managed to shut it down before she sent its distress signal." Window said blandly, striding towards me. I subconsciously recoiled, but there was nowhere to go. He leaned down, right in my face again. "I am going to turn it back on, so that I can contact your Avengers. You are not going to speak. You will sit quietly, do you understand?"

I licked my dry lips, unable to look away from his cold eyes. Because I am a stupid teenage boy with no self-preservation and everything to prove, I tried to reason with the scary semi-Nazi lunatic. "I—look, we can work something out. Please, you don't have to—"

He backhanded me hard across the left side of my face, my head snapping to the side, a grunt escaping my lips. I shut my eyes against the pain, against the fear, against the gnawing terror choking its way up my throat—

I felt blood trickle from my nose and slide along the curve of my upper lip. I almost gagged as I tasted the blood, memories resurfacing too quickly.

"As I said before," the man said, wiping a couple specks of blood off his hand and onto his uniform, "you will not speak. If you do, I will give you a bit more than that, do you understand?"

I nodded slowly, my head swimming. I felt heat rise in my cheeks as I fought the tears prickling against my eyes. I told myself it was because of the nose. It was just anatomy. When something hit your nose, it was such sensitive cartilage and so close to your eyes that your eyes immediately teared up, as a defense mechanism.

It wasn't because I was scared.

The man placed himself between me and the webcam, the other four guards spreading out to cover the exits, two on each door. I heard a blip, and my heart stuttered as familiar voices started filtering through the laptop.

"Hello, Avengers," the man said crisply, and I could here the satisfied, smug smile in his words. "It's lovely to see you face to face, like this."

"Oh, yeah, huge pleasure. So, who are you?" Tony's voice rang through, sounding tired and annoyed. "Are you another budding supervillain? Doctor Doom's apprentice? Please give us something better than Doom-Bots. I've been very bored."

The man chuckled lightly. "I appreciate your wit, Mr. Stark. But I'm afraid I'm not such a benign man as the fool Dr. Doom." He readjusted his sleeve, and I could tell he was allowing them to see the HYDRA symbol on his arm. I shivered. The air was growing colder, and goosebumps were covering my skin. Maybe it was shock. I was quivering in my seat.

I needed to do something.

There was absolutely nothing that I could do.

"You son of a bitch," I heard Bruce say through the webcam. Whoa, Bruce sounded mad. He never sounded mad, because of the whole Hulk thing. This was probably bad.

"I've been called much worse, Dr. Banner," he said, his voice almost reassuring. I pulled at the zipties. Fresh blood welled in the wounds. Wow, yeah, they were starting to really hurt now. I kept tugging. "We have a few important things to discuss, Avengers."

"First of all," Clint's voice said, "you're stupid for showing us your face, because I'm going to track you down and pull your lungs out of your ass with rusty pliers. Second, we've almost got your location, you bastard. Give us a few seconds and we'll make this very, very personal."

The man laughed. Full on, evil villain laugh. Tingles ran up and down my spine, like someone was walking on my grave. "Oh, Hawkeye, I am very much counting on your finding my location."

Silence for a few seconds. Then muttered curses from Tony that carried through the microphone.

"You're in the Compound." Tony said. It wasn't a question.

"I am. Did you enjoy our distraction? It must have been frustrating, to arrive at our alleged headquarters and find nothing." This was starting to make more sense. SHIELD had been fed false information, probably by one of the HYDRA spies, and sent the Avengers, getting them to leave me alone in the Compound. This had been planned from the very start. I tugged harder at the ties, the pain grounding me. "I want you to know, Avengers, that you're going to do everything I say." Reaching down a bit, he pulled a small knife from the belt around his waist, letting it catch the florescent lights and glow. I couldn't stop the choked off whimper that escaped my lips. "Otherwise, things may get a bit messy."

He took several steps back and then stepped to the side, revealing my presence to my friends.

I'd never forget the looks on their faces.

They were outraged.

"You stay the hell away from him," Sam seethed, fists clenched at his sides. I could see them all, now; they were all gathered around the camera, all of them on screen. They were in one of the bigger Quinjets. All of them had pinched, furious expressions, clenched fists, narrowed eyes.

The man chuckled and held the knife lazily, twirling it between his fingers. I hoped he accidentally cut one of them off. "So. Earth's Mightiest Heroes." He lowered the knife, letting it brush against my collarbone. I shut my eyes, tipping my head away from the knife, inhaling sharply. "When will you be getting back?"

A beat of silence. Window chuckled and pushed the point of the blade against the side of my neck, just where it connected to my shoulder. A drop of blood welled and slid down my collarbone, my shirt absorbing the liquid quickly. I gasped sharply in surprise.

"A few minutes," Rhodey said quickly, and I opened my eyes to see him glancing worriedly at the knife. "Seven, tops."

Seven minutes. Seven minutes away.

Could I handle seven minutes?

I toyed with the thought of telling them to stay away. I didn't want them risking their lives for me. Those thoughts disappeared when the cold steel touched my skin again. Pain lanced up and down my arms as I pulled at the chair's arms.

The man grinned. "Shall we play a game? How about…one finger for each minute it takes after five minutes, starting now."

I jerked sharply, unable to keep from looking at the screen any longer. I felt the tears I'd so valiantly held in leak out, mixing with the blood from my still-bleeding nose. Dammit. This sucked. This sucked. I needed—I needed all my fingers. I needed my friends. I needed them to storm in here and kick some ass, because I was tired of being scared. I was so, so tired of being so afraid.

But I was.

There were immediately shouts of anger. "We are doing all that we can," Thor growled, and I thought he might actually break the jet if he got any angrier. "You cannot fault young Peter for our delay. We will be there soon."

Window's hand cupped my jaw roughly, my teeth snapping together with an audible click. He forced me to look directly at the screen. I let my eyes go out of focus, the blurry camera screen fading. I didn't want to…I don't know. I don't know what I wanted. But I didn't want to look at them while I was like this. I didn't want them to see me like…like this.

Like a coward.

"Your delay, as you so quaintly put it, may just cost your little friend a limb or two." His hand tightened. I felt bruises blooming on my cheeks and along my jaw from where his fingers dug into my skin, and I squeezed my eyes shut. He moved a finger up to brush the blood along my lip and held it there. I shut my eyes even tighter. God, he was way too close. "I'm going to have a very good time killing him. After he's given us the information, of course. It's up to you, Avengers, how painful his death is."

Okay.

Okay, so that was a thing that had just come out of the sadistic HYDRA underling's mouth.

He was going to kill me no matter what happened.

Why did these things keep happening to me? What had I done to deserve this?

Universe, I'm sorry for that time I lied to Ben about not doing the dishes. I'm sorry for the time I threw May's meatloaf away behind her back. There, we good?

"We're less than four minutes out," Steve said with controlled calmness, though his eyes betrayed his bloodlust. "Get the knife away from him, alright?"

The man grinned again. God, that smile was going to haunt my nightmares forever. He dropped my jaw, wiping the blood on his uniform, standing beside me. I took in a shuddering breath. "I assume you know which room we're in," he said confidently, striding to the laptop. "Meet us here and leave your fancy toys. You have three minutes before I start my fun." The team's eyes widened, and the laptop screen went dark.

The shut was quiet. It was a small, thin laptop, so closing it wasn't this huge, heavy boom, or anything.

It was the loudest sound I've ever heard.

A/N: Sorry, not sorry. Two cliffhangers in a row? I feel a little evil, but, um, it helps the story? Right? I promise I love you all!

The response is overwhelming, and to each of you that's favorited and followed, I'm so, so grateful! To all of my reviewers for Chapter 9—story2tell, BabetteTW, mpathy, DemonSkitty, Spawn Hades, Melancholy's Sunshine, WordsAblaze, BabyPinkPuppy, EmilyF.6, totallynotachicken, AleuStark, Atlanta, Agent blue rose, The Striking Storms, BlueHeart007, monkeybaby, Andipandi5, OneOfYourFans, Cloudoffeathers, and GraysonSteele—you make me happy! Thanks so much for all the encouragement! A lot of you comment every chapter, and I look forward to it every week :)

So…next chapter…I think I'll leave you waiting. :D Love you all, I really do. But I don't want to spoil anything!