Finding Their Way Home

Prologue

Tony Stark woke with a start, his heart pounding frantically against his arc reactor. He sucked in a few harsh breaths, his right hand reaching up to pull through his sweaty hair. He tugged on his face for a few seconds, hoping to convince his lungs to do their job properly, before letting out a hoarse groan and rolling over to check the time.

It was only one o'clock. He let out a mumbled curse and got out of bed, his eyes straying to where his wife slept. His eyes softened at the dried tear tracks on her cheek and he pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. She muttered sleepily and cuddled closer to a baby blue blanket. Tony felt a stab pierce through his gut at the sight of his wife clutching his son's baby blanket like a lifeline.

Peter had been gone for almost five months now.

Tony let out another broken sigh before he left the room, awkwardly shuffling into his kitchen. The time seemed to stare accusingly at him as he poured himself a cup of coffee before he got to work.

He pulled up everything he had gathered on Peter's kidnappers. They'd had exactly seven phone calls since the heart-stopping day that he found Peter had been taken. He had been in a meeting when it occurred. He can't remember who he was seeing or who he offended by leaving in the middle of their speech. All he can seem to remember was the heart wrenching terror he felt when he heard Happy's frantic voice over the phone.

"He's gone, Tony. Someone took him. Peter's gone."

Tony sat up straighter, his jaw clenched unbearably tight, and forced himself to focus on the present instead of wallowing in his own guilt. He looked back at the screen, his stomach turning at the sight.

Seven phone calls. Six photos.

Six photos of his baby boy tied up to a chair, his screaming and frantic fear captured in full HD for Tony to see. His hazel eyes that Tony was used to seeing wide with wonder were wide with fear, his mouth open wide in an infinite scream. Blood dripped from an unseen wound on his head and it made Tony's hands clench into fists.

"Sir, I do not believe this is productive." came Jarvis' voice. Tony just growled and ignored him, swiping to the next picture. This one was worse than the first. It was worse because Peter wasn't awake. His baby's eyes were closed, but his cheeks were still wet from tears, and blood covered half of his face.

He swiped to the next one and this is where the scenery changed. The first two pictures, Peter was in some sort of warehouse, however now he appeared to be outside, a wide forest in the background. This was where Tony was stumped. It didn't make sense.

There was no real forest like that in New York, it looked like something you would see in the mountains, and that gave Tony real terror. Because that meant that the kidnappers had taken his baby far, far away and weren't afraid to show the police that.

Now, Tony wasn't a big fan of True Crime, but even he knew what that meant.

(They weren't planning on giving him back)

"Sir, please, do not torture yourself---"

"Buzz off J!" Tony snapped. "I need to find him!"

"I understand Sir," Jarvis said, his voice unusually caring and sympathetic. "However, currently you are harming your mental state by forcing yourself to look at those pictures. You've seen them several times before and come up with nothing."

"I have to keep looking." Tony insisted, swiping to the next photo. This one depicted his son crying for him, an ugly bruise staining his cheek. It was deep purple and looked incredibly painful, and it made Tony dig his nails into his palms to calm himself.