The Power of Intellect

"...we know them"

"No," y/n torturer breathed, the drawl in his voice made Peter cringe, "don't look at me like that. You're the thief, you took it."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Y/n answered. Peter wanted to yell at her, he wanted to scream to just tell him. What did she take? When- how-

Peter didn't know how it was possible, she was watched every second of her life. How could she have taken something that warranted this response? Why was it so important that she endured this for it. "You- you have the wrong person-" her voice was weaker than Peter had ever heard it.

Peter looked away as the figure grabbed her hair with such force Peter was surprised he didn't rip it right out of her head. "I feel like a broken record-" the figure almost laughed out, "where is it?" Peter heard him yell.

"Fuck you!" Y/n screamed back.

Peter shot out of his seat, "Stop!" he yelled at the screen as if she could hear him. He couldn't help himself, what was she doing? "Just tell him," he breathed.

"Sit down, kid." Mr. Stark said gently as the figure murmured something in the background. Mr. Stark sounded exhausted, Peter had never heard him like that. Natasha and the others just looked at him with sad eyes. Why weren't they doing anything?

Their eyes all shot back as y/n cried louder than she had before. She struggled against her chair-

"Come on, you've done it before-" Peter heard Natasha murmur as y/n struggled against the restraints.

"I'm gonna ask you once more and this time I encourage you to tell the truth," the figure said tapping the bubbles out of a syringe, "where is it?"

Peter saw the moment Y/n gave up, as she sighed he could practically see the white flag waving in the distance. But then- "I'm telling the truth," she whimpered, tears slipping from her eyes, "I didn't take anything!" the pain- the fear in her voice as it buckled under screams- Peter knew, he knew in his bones that she was telling the truth. And somehow it scared him more, the fact that she was telling the truth- it meant that she was stuck, helpless. There was nothing she could do to make it stop.

"I really thought you were smarter than this Ms. Stark." She shuttered a breath as he pushed the needle into her neck-

For a moment there was silence. Then screams ripped from her throat. It was the worst sound he ever heard. He never wanted to hear that sound again, but it kept going and going. With every passing second of her torture, his patience splintered until it finally broke.

"Call them!" Peter yelled as Mr. Stark stood frozen in front of the screen.

"Call them!" he yelled again, they had to do something, anything-

The feed cut off a second later, a loud silence filled the room as they stared at the black screen.

After a moment that seemed to last for years Mr. Stark's phone rang. He swallowed before he picked it up.

"Tony," the distorted voice spoke, "that was a warning, return to us what your niece took at 2 am at Fort Wadsworth or she dies."

The phone hung up.

"She didn't take anything did she?" Peter asked Mr. Stark.

He shook his head, "No, she didn't."

"Then why are they doing this?" Peter asked again. He knew why, but he had to hear it from Mr. Stark to make sure.

"To get to us."

That's what he thought, this was their fault. He should've worked harder with her during training. He should've-

"Why would they distort the voice in the phone call but not in the video?" Natasha asked her face a lethal calm, Peter didn't even notice that.

"They're not the same person." Mr. Stark said, "They obviously aren't afraid of voice recognition. The one that keeps calling us..." Mr. Stark swallowed and finally looked back at all of them. "Whoever is doing this-" he sighed as a type of anger Peter had never seen before washed over him, "we've faced them before... we know them."