𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐆𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 | 𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒍

apologeticum

The guards detach my arms and legs from the wall I was strapped to and quickly seize my arms before I can attack, but I don't try to. They allow me to walk on my own with simply two guards, one at each arm, and we begin to make our way toward the exit. The interrogator's words ring through my ears, cutting through all the barriers I had built to withstand people like her. There's a high chance that the statement she said was simply to make me paranoid, to send me off worrying about one more thing.

But for some reason, I feel like that's not true.

We reach the door of my interrogation room and I put what the interrogator said behind me as the guards open the door. The hallway is much more chaotic than it was when I attempted to escape. People are running in every direction, all faces I've never seen before. My mind scrambles to try to take in every face, to look for any familiar features, but it isn't until I hear a voice from about 15 feet down the hallway that I find a match to anyone I know. And once I hear it, I wish that I didn't.

"Please, let me see him! Please, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please, let me go!"

I whip my head around at the sound of Peter Parker's voice. The teenager's face is distorted with pain and tears, his arms and face painted with bright, fresh wounds, and his eyes wet but wide open for the person he's calling for. He wrestles against the guards' grips, but even with his strength he can't break out of the grasp they have on him. He continues fighting against them and I do nothing but watch in pain, my eyes tearing up as my own guards try to pull me away from the scene.

"No, no, stop!" I say, resisting the guards as I try to pull my way towards Peter with my feet.

I debate about staying quiet and not revealing that I know him, but I quickly disregard that plan as I hear Peter continue to yell.

"Please, just let me go! Please! I know he's in there, I can hear him, please, I need to see him, I need to tell him that I'm sorry, please just let me see him and I'll shut up, I'll shut up I promise, I will, I'm sorry," he says through his sobbing, his voice hiccuping as he says the last couple words.

"Peter!" I yell, my guards pulling me away from him as they realize we know each other. "Peter, it's me, it's Aveline!"

His head quickly turns to my voice, and once he sees me he tries to force his way out of the guards' grasps with even more passion. The hallways begin to empty around us when the people hear our shouting, preferring to go back to their closed rooms than hear desperate pleas. Peter's still talking through tears as he responds back over the dissipating hallway.

"Aveline! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to, they were hurting me and it hurt so bad, and they said they wouldn't stop and I didn't know what to do and I'm so sorry Aveline, I'm so sorry," Peter gets out through his sobs and hiccups, making tears rush down my face at the boy who won't stop apologizing for reasons I haven't found out yet.

"It's okay, Peter, you're going to be okay," I say through my own tears, my legs still trying to force their way toward Peter despite having two guards on me holding me back.

My heart aches as I watch him continue to fight against his guards. My mind struggles to find a way to help him, but I come up with nothing. We're both helpless, but we're not willing to admit it.

Just as I'm about to give in and let my guards continue taking me where I'm supposed to go, a door a few feet past Peter opens. Two more guards step out with a severely injured man in between them, with bleeding wounds all over his arms and face, his clothing torn so aggressively it's barely clinging to his body, and his legs doing more dragging than carrying his weight. At first glance I don't recognize the person, but I quickly place him as he steps into the light.

It's Tony.

Peter immediately breaks down at the sight of his mentor, and Tony's head whips up when he hears Peter's sobs. Tony's eyes widen to an amount I've never seen before as he takes in Peter's current condition, and I watch tears fill his eyes as Peter begins apologizing once again.

"Mr. Stark, I'm so sorry this is all my fault, it was me I was the one who told them but it just hurt so bad, and they told me it would just get worse unless I told them what they wanted to know and I'm so sorry, I didn't want to and I tried not to but it hurt so bad Mr. Stark, I'm so sorry," Peter says loud enough for both Tony and I to hear, his voice breaking as he tries to explain what happened through his sobs.

Tony doesn't fight his guards, his body shaking as he takes a deep breath in. He turns to the guard on his left arm as says something too quiet for me to hear, but whatever it was the guard nods his head and walks Tony toward Peter. When they're a couple feet away from each other, still out of reaching distance but close enough to talk, Tony speaks up. His voice isn't loud but it immediately dominates the now empty hallway, and though his body is gory, his voice comes out soft and comforting, as if he's in no pain.

"It's okay kid, you did your best." Tony offers a gentle smile to the broken teenager in front of him. "You did exactly what you should of. I never meant–" He cuts off, his voice breaking.

He pulls himself closer to Peter and looks at the wounds covering all of his exposed skin, more most likely hidden under the same clothing I'm wearing. I've stopped struggling against my guards and they let me stay where I am now, about 10 feet away from the two. Tony takes a shaky breath before continuing and I feel as if I'm watching something I shouldn't be, that this feels too personal for me to be witnessing. I realize as Tony begins to speak again that this must be how Peter felt this morning when I had him read out the notes they took when I received a vision.

"I never meant for you to get hurt, I hope you know that. You getting hurt is the last thing I want. Remember that, please," he tells Peter as he looks to the guard on his left once again and nods.

They begin to walk Tony away from Peter, who's given up trying to get out of his restraints. Peter watches with tear-filled eyes and a shuddering chest as Tony walks away but doesn't say a word, keeping his promise of staying quiet if he got to apologize to Tony. Tony makes his way toward me, he and his guards on their way to the doors 20 feet away from me. The guards half-carry Tony down the hallway, and when he passes me he puts his feet down. He slows the guards down enough to whisper something in my ear, a simple statement that makes my heart stop.

"Prepare for the worst."