Caught In A Web

Chapter Eight - Viva La Vida

One minute I held the key

Next the walls were closed on me

And I discovered that my castles stand

Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand

-"Viva La Vida," Coldplay

- - -

Tony's happiness didn't last long. About an hour after Peter escaped, he was dragged back into the room. This time, a metal cuff was locked around his neck to help chain him to a loop of metal that had been drilled into the ground after he escaped. 

"Pete... no..."

Peter was chained down to the loop with a chain that forced him to bend over while on his knees. His hands were cuffed behind his back. Tony was sure that Stryker had chosen to place Peter where he was to give him a perfect view of the boy's mutilated back.

Stryker strode into the room with the cattle prod and something else in his hand. Tony could still hear everything in the room.

"Our mutant wanted freedom. You chose to try and run instead of taking the escape you were given. Pity, because you wasted your chance."

Disgustedly, he shocked Peter with the cattle prod. Peter writhed, unable to scream.

"Tell me how sorry you are."

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Tony hated hearing the terror in Peter's voice. He hated it more than anything except Stryker. 

"I don't believe you. You knocked out one of my guards, and you don't seem sorry for that."

He hadn't gone down without a fight. Tony was proud. But his pride turned into terror as he realized what the other thing in Stryker's hand was.

A whip.

Stryker unwound it, and Peter whimpered. Whimpered. Tony was gonna kill Stryker.

"Remind me of what you are."

"I- I'm a mutant. Just a mutant."

You're so much more than just a mutant, Peter.

"Six words. Six lashes."

And Stryker delivered them himself. Shock after shock, lash after lash, asking Peter questions and then punishing him for answers, until the boy was limp and his back was covered in blood. Tony had stopped watching, listening in agony to the crack of the whip, the buzz of the prod, the terror in his kid's voice as he was tortured. And then he went silent save for shallow breathing.

I'm sorry, Pete. I'd take it for you if they gave me the choice.

Tony barely noticed the tears going down his face, the sobs that wracked his body as the door opened and he was dragged further away from Peter again.

-

Bucky made it out, and he ran. He didn't know where he found the strength, but he ran the few miles to New York City. To the Compound.

The door wouldn't take his prints, so he banged on it, over and over, calling for someone, anyone, to answer.

-

Tony was taken to a room that was dark and silent and far away from where he had been before. He was exhausted, but he wouldn't sleep. He was angry, he hated the tiny, silent room, so he punched the walls. Attacked the door. He was shocked again and again, until someone realized he wouldn't stop, and so they knocked him out. There he lay until he woke to the tremors shaking the ground.

-

There was only one person at the Compound, and that was Rhodey. He opened the door, speechless, and Bucky began his explanation quickly.

"Peter is still alive, I think Tony is, too. Reverend William Stryker has them, get me a map, I'll show you where. I'm sorry for everything, Stryker had one of the red books, apparently that still works on me. Peter helped me escape, but he got caught again. We need to get them back." He gave Rhodey a brief description of how bad Peter's state was as he marked down the location.

Rhodey suited up as soon as Bucky's pen left the paper. Four months of nothing, and he finally had a lead.

-

The rumbling got closer, and it felt like explosions were going off nearby. Tony curled up in the corner furthest from the door, hoping that they were a good thing.

-

Nobody laid a finger on Peter without getting his ass kicked. Rhodey finally had someone to blame for the disappearance of his best friend and the kid, and hands were gonna be thrown.

He flew in the underground base shooting. Guards were falling left and right, but more and more were taking their places Rhodey was getting in further, blasting down every door he came across, hoping to find some hope that Tony was still alive. That he wasn't too late.

Bucky had some more sense. He called for backup from the Compound as he ate and drank, and then headed towards the base in the Quinjet when Natasha, Sam, and Steve arrived.

-

Tony flinched as the light streamed into the room when the door was ripped off of its hinges. He stared up at the suit that was looking down at him, and in his wrecked state he didn't recognize who it could be, because that was one of his suits. It looked like one of his.

What was going on?

-

Rhodey had to step out of the suit and help Tony to his feet before his friend seemed to register who he was.

Tony looked awful. He was thin, his eyes sported darker bags than ever, they were bloodshot and his cheeks tearstained, his knuckles bloody and he wore a collar around his neck. His arms were scarred from cuts and burns. He stared Rhodey in the chest for a few moments before hesitantly saying,

"...Rhodes?"

"Hey, Tony. I've got you. You're safe now. Come on, we need to get you out of here."

Tony grabbed Rhodey's shirt then with a panicked look on his face.

"No! Peter. We need to get Peter. Augh-"

Tony collapsed into Rhodey's arms as his body was wracked with an especially painful electric shock. Rhodey, even readier to murder Stryker, ripped the collar off of Tony's neck.

"We need to go, Tony, Bucky's bringing more people to find Peter, you need medical attention-"

He tried to grab Tony, but Tony writhed around and darted back, shaking his head. 

The look of terror on his face was what convinced Rhodey to agree.