Caught In A Web

Chapter Four - The Sound Of Silence

Hello darkness, my old friend

I've come to talk with you again

Because a vision softly creeping

Left its seeds while I was sleeping

And the vision that was planted in my brain

Still remains

Within the sound of silence

-"The Sound Of Silence," Simon and Garfunkel

- - -

The days fell into a pattern. Wake up to a shock, jump out of bed, wait for the guards, go do the maze for hours, get a tiny bit of food and water, get dragged off for tests, wake up back in the cells.

The maze was never the same twice, and it got harder every day. Eventually, they stopped being able to finish it in time.

Tony dropped the the ground in exhaustion as he received a shock from his collar. The pain was so normal that most of the time he could ignore the feeling, even if his body reacted. The walls began to raise, and, to his surprise, Tony saw Peter in what used to be the middle of the maze. If he hadn't completed it either, why was the maze raising?

Peter looked as exhausted as Tony felt. He was resting his head on his knees, eyes half-closed, eye bags rivaling Tony's. Tony suspected that Stryker had been slowly lowering the amount of time they were allowed to sleep, and Peter's nightmares didn't help the situation.

Stryker walked towards them, stopwatch in one hand, cattle prod in the other. He swung the prod in his hand like it was a closed umbrella or a stick from the woods, handling it nonchalantly.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, you passed the twenty minute mark, boys. I told you it would be worse if neither of you made it fast enough! I can't be wasting my time watching you fail my tests! Since you failed this time, that makes it my choice as to who gets the prod. And you know who hasn't been shocked enough? Our mutant boy!"

Peter barely reacted to what he was hearing. He had won almost every race, and he always chose himself, so the prod was not a thing of fear for him anymore, only pain. He lifted his head up a bit and stared Stryker in the eyes as a small act of defiance before he was screaming and writhing on the floor from two synchronized electric shocks.

Tony had had enough. Enough watching his kid in pain. He shoved Stryker away from Peter and accepted the cruel backhand he got for it.

"Why can't you give us a break? Don't you see that he's exhausted and hungry? You've shocked him hundreds of times, Stryker. Is that not enough for you?"

"He's an abomination, Tony. He deserves nothing, especially not mercy."

"He's a beautiful child, and he deserves the world."

Tony was ignoring the pain shooting through him, speaking out and holding Peter close, running his fingers through Pete's hair.

"That collar really does nothing. Fascinating."

"Oh no, it definitely is doing something, it's pissing me off."

Tony had snapped and gave absolutely zero fucks about his safety at that point. Then Peter gave a whimper, crunching up his face in pain.

"Are- are you shocking him? He's doing what you want!"

Stryker smiled.

"That I am, Tony. I'd recommend that you be quiet now."

Glancing between Peter and Stryker, Tony bit his cheek and closed his mouth. Peter relaxed in  relief, curling up by Tony's side.

-

The food they got was both disgusting and barely filling. The water was never quite enough to quench their thirst. Today Tony got nothing but one glass of water. He drank it slowly and then sat and waited for the shock to knock him out.

It never came.

A group of guards came into the cell and grabbed him instead, and he heard Peter yelling through the speaker, just barely glimpsing the boy being shoved out of his cell before he was dragged around a corner.

Peter hated this part of the day the most. He hated the experiments, hated waking up not knowing what they did to him. But he found out that there was something he hated more: being awake as they did it. They strapped him to a table and cut into him and took samples, watched his healing start to take place before cutting again, letting him feel the agony of every slice.

They even took the tears from his face in vials.

He had stopped looking them in the eyes a while ago, he didn't know how long. He only ever spoke to Tony or when spoken to. He tried to reduce the pain, but his situation only ever got worse.

-

For the next few weeks, Peter was punished for anything Tony did wrong. Tony, in response, tried to behave, but they always found excuses to hurt Peter anyway. Through all of this, Peter still tried to protect Tony, still winning the mazes and taking the shocks, because the world needs Iron Man. The world needs its best defender. And he wouldn't survive the torture Peter took on every day.

Tony hated how helpless he felt. He hated not being able to help Peter. To hold a normal conversation with him. He hated seeing his kid stop fighting as much, allowing himself to be hurt and pulled around without protest. He hated seeing the burns all over his body. Many days, when he got back from the experiments, Peter wouldn't even say anything, he would just curl up under his blanket and try to sleep, many times waking up screaming from some horrible nightmare. 

And Tony couldn't do anything.

-

One day, they didn't get woken up. Their food and water were sitting in their cells when they woke up naturally, not much later than they usually would.

"Mr. Stark? I have a bad feeling about this."

Peter spoke quietly, but Tony heard. He nodded, looking at the still-opaque wall that Peter could see him through.

Me too, kid. It's alright.

Since they had nothing else to do, the two of them ate what they were given. Disgusting, as always, but enough to stave off death for a while.

"I miss Aunt May... I wonder what she thinks happened to us?"

Tony put his hand on the glass. He wasn't sure where this train of thought was going, but it was nowhere good. Peter, as always, placed his hand on the other side.

That's when he was grabbed from behind. Tony couldn't see what was happening, but he heard Peter cry out in surprise and then the sound of a struggle.

"Wha- No! Dad!"

And then he was gone.