TW for this chapter:- Implied past non-con (Canon involving Skip Westcott) (This is only IMPLIED, there are NO descriptions or visuals)- Mention of past trauma and ptsd

It was supposed to be a celebration, a time of joy, not heartache. There was supposed to be laughter across the dance floor, not a pool alcohol staining it from all the smashed glasses thrown out of anger and grief. Peoples eyes should have been filled with glee, not bloodshot and dripping with tears. The Avengers were supposed to be celebrating the new additions to their team, not wondering if they were still alive.But then again, when you're living the life of a superhero, nothing ever goes the way it was planned. You have to be ready to act in a moments notice.

Date: November 19, 2017Time: 3:32 PMLocation: Midtown High School, Queens

"Peter, would you hurry it up?" Teresa called out to her brother who was standing a couple of feet behind her tying his shoe.

School had ended nearly 10 minutes ago, and she was quite eager to get the hell out of there, as was Ned who had to catch his bus.Normally he walked home with Teresa and Peter since they lived fairly close to each other, but he was going to his grandmother's tonight and didn't fancy being late. It was kind of adorable how much he cared about her, but then again, that was Ned with everyone. He was just an overall sweet kid.

"Just hold on a sec," Peter replied continuing on with his laces without moving any faster.

"Ugh, Peter, you're so fucking slow."

"Do you want me to die from tripping over my shoelaces?"

"It's not possible to die from tripping over a shoelace!" Teresa said throwing her hands up above her head in a somewhat sarcastic manner before bringing them back down to her sides rather rashly.She was always one to overreact in a superficial way, and this was just one example of many.

"Umm, yes, it is," Peter said referring to his sister's previous comment. "You can die doing pretty much anything."

"Oh my god, can we just get home already? We have to be ready when Happy comes to pick us up and Ned has to catch the bus!" She whined again while Ned remained silent. He had learned not long after meeting the twins, that getting in the middle of something with them was not the greatest idea. It was better to let them finish it off themselves.

Finally done tying his shoe, Peter stood up and jogged up to where his sister and best friend were waiting for him in the middle of the hallway.

"Alright, let's go!" He clapped his hands motioning to the stairs leading back down to the main floor of the school.

"Only took you 5 frickin minutes," Teresa mumbled to herself, though she wasn't really mad. She had that certain little smirk on her face and glint in her eyes saying she was really just having fun teasing her brother around. It was how they showed their affection to each other.

Peter made his way down the stairs with Ned by his side and Teresa just behind. At this time of the day the two boys indulged in what Teresa referred to as 'their dork off time'. And before departing for a weekend like this one where they wouldn't be seeing each other, these couple minutes were vital for their survival. Nerd talk was what they lived off of, it was like a form of oxygen for them.

"So, 12:00 am?" She heard Ned ask her brother who confirmed the question with a nod.

"And don't be a second late, their gonna sell real quick." He added.

"I know, it's going to be pretty intense. We better get ready early and bring some extra phones just in case. We don't know how this will turn out."

"Ok, hold up," Teresa stopped midway on the stairs and raised a hand signalling for them to do the same. "I know I've already got this all wrong because it sounds like you two are planning some sort of heist or on watching a black market drug deal, and I know there's no fucking chance in that happening. So, I'm just gonna skip the part where I keep talking and just ask you what the hell you're talking about."

Smiles immediately crept across both Peter and Ned's faces upon hearing Teresa's remark. It took quite a bit in them to hold back from bursting out in laughter.Even the way Teresa was talking wasenough to crack a smile upon anyone's face. She just had such a unique way of sassing sarcastic comments.

"Well, you're definitely not wrong about that fact that we aren't scheming on some heist," Peter said. "I mean, first of all, you need a group of people to do that, like a cult, and secondly—"

"And secondly," his sister interrupted, "Neither of you has the guts to try that sort of thing, let only pull it off."

"Hey! It's not like you'd be able to do it either!"

"Never said I could." She shrugged her shoulders and started down the stairs again.

"Care to tell me what you two were talking about though?"

"Oh, Peter and I were just going over our plan for buying Rogue One tickets, they go on sale at 12:00," Ned answered.

"Shit, I forgot the tickets were going on sale today. Well, tomorrow." Teresa corrected herself. "Can one of you get me a pass too? I'll pay you back."

"You can't get one yourself?" Her brother questioned.

"I have stuff with Nat and Wanda tonight after Tony's party. I won't have time. Besides," she said in a more sarcastic tone, "if you two already have a plan, I don't want to be the one to ruin it."

"Tess, I know that voice and I know what you're trying to do—"

"But you're gonna get the tickets for me anyway, aren't you?" She turned around smirking.

Peter let out a groan and nodded his head. "You know me too well."

Smiling contently, Teresa jumped down off of the last step to the main floor and turned around to hug her brother.

"Thanks, Pete, you're the best!"

"Ya? Well just wait 'till you get your ticket, you might not be thanking me later on," He grumbled quietly, but Teresa still heard.

"I swear to god Peter, if you make me sit in the couple's row again, I will personally ask Satan if I can be the ghost that haunts your dreams."

"Well, you did only asked for a ticket,you weren't specific," Peter added, which resulted in him getting a light flick on the back of the head.

"Ow..." He reached up to rub the spot that had been hit as Teresa raised her finger again threatening to do it again.

"Ok, ok, fine!" Peter said raising his arms in surrender. "I'll get you a good seat."

Teresa narrowed her eyebrows and stepped closer waiting for him to continue.

"And I'll make sure you sit beside us." He added mumbling. "Just promise you won't talk throughout the whole movie and explain the plot, Ned and I are the ones that got you into this series anyways, we know what's going on."

"Promise," Teresa said holing up her right hand, with her left hidden bending her back in a cross.

"Good."

The trio continued down the hall in a comforting silence, turning a few corners here and there until finally reaching the main doors that led to the front entrance of the school. They had to push past a couple of groups of seniors who were crowding the door, but that wasn't a problem for Peter and Ned because Teresa moved up front did all the shoving. At times like this, Peter was very grateful she had joined the wrestling team.At first, he had been skeptical about the whole ordeal, thinking she was going to get killed some 200-pound guy in grade 12. Of course, Teresa had always been an active kid, coming home with scrapes and bruises every night, but wrestling was a pretty big step up from that. She hadn't been bitten by that radioactive spider yet, though it didn't really make a difference because she held back on the mat now anyways to keep everything fair. But Peter was her big brother, older by 7 minutes, and his job was to protect her. He nearly joined the team himself to keep an eye on her, until she threatened to tell Aunt May about his skipping decathlon that was.But now, he had no doubt at all. Teresa was tough, she'd proven that her whole life. And Peter began to notice even more after the first few rounds of their daily outings as the Spider-Twins. She always had his back.

After getting out the doors Ned and Peter did their secret handshake, which really wasn't much of a secrecy anymore because Teresa knew the whole thing, and waved goodbye. Ned going down to the right hand of the sidewalk to catch his bus, and the twins walking the opposite direction to go home.

Teresa snickered a bit when her brother turned around and held up the Star Trek "live long and prosper" sign to Ned before he was too far away to see.It had been a new addition to their goodbye ritual after they watched one of the movies for the first time a few weeks back.

"What are you laughing at?" Peter questioned with a slight chuckle himself.

"Just you, ya' dork." Teresa shoved him playfully.

"Don't get so cocky, ya' geek." He pushed her back lightly.

"Hey, I only can be a geek," Teresa emphasized the can. "But I'm not a geek all the time, unlike you, who never takes the nerd shirt off."

"Oh, we're going there now, are we?" Peter smiled through his attempt to hold a neutral expression. He couldn't help but crack up a bit.

"Wow, wow, wow. What's going on here? I heard some raised voices. And was that I saw back there? Some shoving? Tsk, tsk, tsk." Someone from behind the two said, but they didn't need to turn around, that voice was recognizable anywhere. Flash Thompson.

God Teresa hated him so much. No, scratch that, hate wasn't a strong enough word. She despised him.She despised the way he talked. The way he acted. How he breathed.She despised that he had he held zero respect for anyone but himself. How he'd terrorize other students, including her brother. She was disgusted by his existence. But most of all, she was sickened by the way he treated the girls in the school. Hitting on all the 'hot chicks' and spreading rumours about the others. It was nauseating. Not to mention the fact at Flash also seemed to have a thing for Teresa. Continuously flowing her around the school, never allowing her to have some personal space, wolf whistling whenever she took her sweater or jacket off, calling her his 'pet names', the list went on and on.

"Babe," Flash said snaking an arm around her back, "Is this man bothering you?" He motioned to Peter.

From beside her, Teresa could see Peter tensing up and curling his firsts, he was ready to act within a moments notice.And as much as she appreciated his protective instincts, Teresa didn't want this to end in a fistfight. So she held a hand out in front of her either letting him know she could handle this. He looked her in the eye to ensure she wanted to do this herself, to which she nodded, so he backed off the slightest bit, but kept his guard up in case.

Taking a deep breath, trying to act unfazed by Flash's actions, Teresa held an emotionless facial expression and sneered back at him making sure her voice didn't waver.

"Flash, if you don't get your fucking hands off of me in the next three seconds, I'm going to dig through your binder, find that failure of a test you got back in chemistry, and shove it so far up your ass it'll come out your mouth."

Peter gazed over at his sister raising a brow in disbelief as to what she actually said, but smiled nonetheless. That was one of the best comebacks he'd ever heard from her, which was saying something since she used them dozens of times a day.

Flash, however, didn't take this the way Teresa had hoped. He only chuckled along with his group of friends and held her a bit tighter looking her in the eye. "Ooo, someone's feisty today."

And no sooner then the words had left Flash's mouth, Peter was tackling him to the ground.

"The fuck, Parker! Get off of me!" He screamed trying to roll Peter to the side as he received a punch to the face.

"Peter, stop!" Teresa yelled as she grabbed one of his arms to pull him away, but he kept fighting against her grip trying to hit Flash again.

"Peter!" She pulled his again and this time just enough to let Flash crawl out from underneath him and scramble back to his feet with the help of his friends.

"What the fuck, Parker! What's your god damn problem?" He screamed whipping some of the blood from his nose.

"You're my fucking problem, Flash!" Peter yelled back getting to his feet but remaining near his sister, this time standing slightly in front of her. "Don't you ever come near her again, or I swear to god—"

"Peter, stop. Let's go." Teresa whispered softly grabbing his hand to lead him away from the situation.

Reluctantly, he shut his mouth and followed, but only after giving one final glare at the boy who he'd just threatened.

The two siblings walked in silence making their away further away from school, and closer home. Neither said a word for a good 1 minutes, both unsure of how to start the conversation.

Trying to think of how to word her thoughts together, Teresa finally just gave up and started talking, hoping a sentence would just come to her when she opened her mouth.

"Peter," She said quietly, "You can't keep doing that. Fighting Flash. It's only what he wants, a reaction, and you're giving it to him."

"I know, I know." He mumbled looking at his feet for a second. "It's just, seeing him go at you like that, I-I had to do something. That look in his eyes, god," he shook his head.

Teresa stopped walking and held a hand out to stop her brother from moving past her.

"Pete, I know. I really do, and it's nothing new, he does that to a lot of people." She looked down at her feet for a second before meeting his gaze again. "But there are other ways to solve things, you don't have to keep fighting him. I don't want you to keep fighting him."

Peter laughed at this trying to lighten the mood. "Says you, ya' little beast. Like seriously, have you seen your wrestle? It's terrifying. You just flip people all over the place and—"

"Peter," she stopped him, "Not that I'm not grateful for your comment, it's nice to know you think I'm badass," she looked up at him with a small smile, "but can you just promise me you won't fight him anymore? Please?"

He hesitated for a second but nodded his head after."I promise." He told his sister placing his right hand in front of him but keeping the other behind his back with his fingers crossed. He had to protect his sister, even if that meant lying for the time being.

"But seriously Tess, are you alright?" He asked looking over at her once they started walking again.

Teresa bit the inside of her cheek, she knew what he meant. No matter how many years ago it had happened, there was always a part of her that wouldn't recover from that trauma. From Skip Westcott.With Flash getting so close, Peter was concerned. Not only because he was holding onto his sister like that, but also because of a possible relapse. It hadn't happened in a while, but he was always worried. Seeing his sister fall to pieces broke his heart.Of course, Teresa was better now, after being in therapy for five years. The flashbacks and nightmares weren't as bad, they were less frequent at least. And with the help from Tony's tech, some of her memories from the trauma were faded, others even blurred out completely. But nothing ever truly disappeared. There would always be something, if only a fragment of a piece, that would be behind.

"Umm, ya." Teresa looked up at Peter and took his hand. "I'm fine. I have you."

"I'll always be here." He assured his sister giving her hand a squeeze.

By 4:00 pm, they'd gotten to the lobby of their building and were now walking the stair up to their apartment.

"They really need to install an elevator in this place," Peter said to his sister a bit out of breath after reaching the top step on their floor.

"That sure would be nice. Especially for bringing up groceries, and all these textbooks." She added holding up her book bag up and accidentally knocking it on the edge of a step.

"Happy said he'd pick us up a 5:00 to take us to the tower, right?" Peter asked.

"Ya, we only have an hour to get ready for the part, so don't hog the bathroom, Cinderella!"

"Hey! You take twice as long as I do!" He turned around to yell back.

"That is so not true."

"Is too."

"Is not."

"Is too."

"Is not."

"Is too!"

"Ok, fine! I take more time," Teresa finally admitted to end the argument. "But only because I'm a girl."

"What does that have to do with it?" Peter questioned his voice cracking at the end it was getting so high pitched.

"I don't know, just unlock the door ya' dummy." She shook her head.

Rolling his eyes, her brother unzipped the side pocket of his backpack, which just so happened to be the fourth one of the month, and got the key out. He jammed into the door, maybe a bit more forcefully than needed, and twisted. But the was no click, the door was already open.

Both Peter and Teresa looked at each other confused. They were supposed to be the first ones home tonight, May had a late shift tonight and Peter was sure he locked the door after he left this morning. He remembered doing so because he had to pick the key up off the floor after Teresa scared the shit out of him and hurled it across the hall nearly taking her eye out in the process.

"You think May's schedule got changed?" He asked.

Teresa only shrugged and pushed the door open to take a step inside.

The next few seconds went by in a flash. Before either of the twins had a chance to call for their aunt, they were both hit from behind at the door's entrance, falling onto the ground in a heap. They both struggled to get back up into a standing position only to be knocked down again by a sharp tingling pain that wove up their bodies like electricity making its way through a circuit.

On the ground, Peter and Teresa started riffling in agony, their limbs spamming in whichever direction their bodies took them. They had no control over anything. It was like their bodies weren't able to comprehend what their minds were straining to do.

Everything hurt, from head to toe. Their entire bodies had seized up and their muscles burning some intense amount of pain.Trying to fight against the edge to just pass out and let the torment to be over, Teresa managed to crack open her eyes into a slight squint.Before her, stood a couple of men dressed in dark combat suits holding what seemed to be tasers, but she had no time to see for sure, because moments later, she could hold it together any longer. Her eyes shut, encasing her in a pit of darkness. Just like a blackout.

Date: November 19, 2017Time: 5:22 PMLocation: The Avengers Tower

"Tony, when will Peter and Teresa be getting here? Nat wants to know if there's enough time to—""Not now Pep!" He answered continuing to frantically make his way across the room balancing a tray of food in one hand, and a stack of cups filled with fruit punch in the other.

After nearly running into several people causing food to poor off of the platter without his notice, Tony ended up setting down a bear empty tray on the side table.

Pepper rolled her eyes, attempting to hide a small smirk, and followed the trail of crumbs Tony had left on the ground to try and talk with him again.

"Oh come on." She heard him mutter to himself before bending down and crawling across the floor on his hands and knees to pick up all the scraps he had dropped.

"Tony." She said sternly, however, he only continued to scramble around in his suit and tie picking up food."Tony." She said again placing her hands on her hips much like what a mother would do when arguing with a toddler.But still, with no response other than the sound of Tony ranting on about how clumsy he was, Pepper decided to take things into her own hands.

She walked closer to his outstretched hand and placed the tip of her shoe on the piece of cheese he was about to pick up and also managing to nick the tip of his finger.

Tony quickly retracted his hand to rub the injury.

"Ow. Pep, that hurt."

"Tony I haven't even changed into my heels yet, I only hit your hand with my flats. That cannot possibly hurt."

Getting back onto his feet, Tony stood up in front of Pepper."Says the person that has a pain tolerance of zero! Like seriously, last week when you cut your head on that door and were bleeding all over the place, you didn't even cry!"

"Tony."

"You didn't even seem to be bothered when you had to get stitches! How is that possible?"

"Tony, stop."

"Think about it Pep, after that Mandarin fiasco that happened a while back, you might still have superpowers even tho—" he was cut off by a figure that was pressed against his lip.

"Tony, you need to take a breath. You're winding yourself up." She said softly moving her hand to cup his face.

"I know these kids mean a lot to you and that you want this night to be perfect for them, but what you have to realize, is that you've already given those two everything. You gave them the world, Tony. You are their world, and there is no way that some platter of cheese is going to change that."

Tony took a breath and cracked a smile knowing she was right."Thanks, hon, I needed that," he said raising his hand to Pepper's and moving it down the side of his cheek to his lips.As Tony kissed her fingers lightly, Pepper leaned in closer to his and pressed her lips to his.

"What would I do without you?" He mumbled.

"Probably lose your social security number."

Lightly chuckling, Tony pulled his lips away from Pepper's but still held onto her hands letting them sway from side to side with his own.

"Do you even know what it is?" He asked raising an eyebrow.

"I know it off by heart."

"Sorry to interrupt this lovely moment," Natasha said, "But I just got a call from Happy saying that Peter and Teresa aren't home."

Tony frowned at this. "Are you sure?"

"Happy was waiting in the car for a while and they didn't come out, so he went up to their apartment but no one was home."

"Do you think they might have taken a bus or a cab?" Pepper asked.

"No, no, I told them Happy would pick them up. This doesn't make sense." He shook his head starting to panic.

"Tony," Peter said placing a hand on his shoulder trying to reassure him. "I'm sure they're fine. They probably just forgot."

"No, it's not like that. They wouldn't forget!"

"Kids forget things all the time, they have a lot going on. Especially these two. Between school and training, they don't get much free time."

Maybe Pepper was right, Peter and Teresa did have quite a bit going on at the moment. With wrestling season at its peak and decathlon every other day, both of them were probably stressing out.Oh god, maybe he should have waited for another weekend to have the party. Was this a bad time for them to come to a party? They didn't seem all that anxious the last Tony saw them. But then again teenager always tries to hide their emotions. Was this what they were doing, hiding how stressed they were? Why didn't they want to talk to him about it? Did they not trust him? Did he say something wrong?Tony's mind was about to explode. Fortunately, Jarvis interrupted his thoughts and brought his attention back to the present.

"Sorry to interrupt Sir, but I've received a call from Nick Fury requesting your presence."

"What? Oh um, ya, ok. Put him on screen."

"Right away, Sir."

The TV in front of the couch turned on and Nick Fury's visual popped up. All the Avengers gathered around the room to see what was going on.

"Good to see you all are together," Fury started off. "Now, I need all of you to listen to me very carefully."

The concern in the Director's voice caught everyone off guard. None of them, even Clint and Natasha who'd been his agent's for nearly a decade had every heard his sound so troubled.

"What's going on?" Steve asked from his seat beside Bucky and Wanda.

"Zemo escaped from SHIELD's custody today. He also blacked out our whole system while doing so, we've been offline for the past half hour. Hill's only just gotten the cell line back up.The whole compound is in shutdown now. No one comes in and no one goes out other than the teams I've sent."

"Wait, wait, hold on a sec. Back up." Tony spoke gesturing his arms in all direction. "You said Zemo escaped?"

"He has." Fury confirmed.

"But how? He— he would have needed help from the outside."

"We believe he did have help, Dr. Banner. Now I need to know, are Teresa and Peter with you?"

"What— oh um no, Happy left about 45 minutes ago to pick them up, but they weren't home… Wait, what do the kids have to do with this?" Tony asked.

"The last things Zemo said to interrogators today before escaping, was that he wanted revenge and that we was going to use the twins to do it."