A scream filled the air, the tortured noise resounding through the abandoned buildings. Somewhere off in the distance, I'm sure some birds flew off in fear. I don't blame them. I would too if I could...

Another scream ripped from my throat as the cigar clipper was clenched around my finger again. Fun fact: I can regrow my limbs. It hurt, but they kept growing back. Yay me. Deep in my mind, I wished that they wouldn't so that my captors would just kill me already. Everything hurt and whenever I regenerated something, it was just a matter of time before it was cut off again.

I've been held here for so long now, all I knew was pain and screams and the sadistic laughs from the men who chained me to this chair. I assumed that Mr. Stark would have saved me by now, but it's already been days... My thoughts betrayed me and played images of him lazing around on a fancy beach somewhere with the other Avengers.

No. No, they would never do that to me. They would never forget about me. They had to be coming for me, they wouldn't leave me here. They were coming. They had to be...

Every time the door opened, I expected to see Mr. Stark standing there and apologizing for taking so long; or Captain America coming to break off my chains and call me son; maybe even Thor in all his Norse god glory... It just hurt so much more when it wasn't any of them.

"What's one thousand minus seven?" The man asked, moving around the side of my chair. I had learned early on that this was a tactic for keeping me sane through their torture, used only when they thought I was on the brink of losing it. I thought it was a joke at first... I had told them I hated math, and I'd much prefer a science question. They pulled out a tooth in response(which grew back in a day).

"N-Nine hundred and th-three..."

"Count backwards to one."

My breathing was ragged as I closed my eyes tightly, wishing to be anywhere than here as I started counting.

"Kill them..."

My eyes opened, the demonic voice ringing in my mind. What was that...?

"You pathetic child, kill them that hurt you."

"Wh-Who...?"

"Count!"

Another crunch and another scream, but no more strange voice. Was I really starting to lose it? Was the torture finally mounting up too high for my mind and destroying me? Was the counting failing? I was surprised it lasted this long.

The man left me, my 'session' finished for today. I was able to rest until my body healed at the bare minimum tomorrow. God, why didn't they just kill me already? They didn't even ask me questions! They just came in and tortured me then left. How was I supposed to get out of this if they didn't even ask questions?

"Why do you not kill them?"

I opened my eyes again, blinking as I looked around. I was no longer chained to the chair or in the room with blood everywhere. I was somewhere surrounded by red for as far as I could see. I turned around in a circle, trying to figure out what was happening. I didn't hurt... I wasn't bleeding and bruised either.

"I can do it for you."

My eyes drifted upward, seeing a figure in front of me that was covered in shadows.

"Who are you?" I was surprised by how strong my voice sounded. Like I hadn't just been screaming for days.

"I am you." They stepped out of the darkness, letting me get a look at their face. It was me... That was my body, but the whites of my eyes were black with red slits in the middle. "I will help you."

When their/my mouth opened, the teeth were sharp fangs that looked as sharp as a sharks. I stumbled backwards, trying to understand what was happening. It didn't make sense. None of this made sense.

"You weak creature... You can't do anything without me now."

When I looked up, the thing was standing right in front of me, its hand reaching down and grabbing the front of my shirt. I was hauled to my feet and brought face to face with it, a long tongue coming from its mouth and trailing across my face. My body tensed and my eyes shut, waiting for the pain that I knew would come soon.

My body relaxed slightly, a calm coming over me as I heard a voice calling me. My eyes opened and I was once again chained to the chair. Another man was standing at the door, his dark and lifeless eyes staring at me with a dark pleasure. It made me sick.

"Poor thing... You're barely hanging on now. Should I just kill you?" A chuckle left him as he started walking towards me.

A smirk slid across my face as I suddenly moved. The chains around my wrists snapped easily, allowing me to move to the man and jump behind him, wrapping the chain around his neck and pulling tight.

It didn't take much strength until he stopped moving and dropped like a rock. I stared at his lifeless body for a minute, feeling satisfied at the image. He deserved it. He's done worse to me, so he deserved this death.

I heard someone laugh from the other room, my eyes drawing to the door as I took a breath and stood up straight. Time for some revenge.

~*~*~

What have I done? Why did I do that? Why did I not just escape and leave those men for someone else?

"You did good."

"Shut up!" I held my head, holding my hair in fists as I slumped to my knees. My breathing was out of control as I tried to calm down, staring at my knees. My hands were caked in warm liquid, my hair knotted with the dry and crusty stuff. Blood. It was blood. From the men that hurt me. But I hurt them, so we're even.

No! No, I don't hurt people! I save people! This wasn't right!

"Peter?"

My head snapped up, seeing a very familiar gold and red suit of metal landing in front of me.

"Mr. Stark...?"

The suit opened up, Tony Stark himself stepping out and hesitantly moving towards me. Tony always made me better. He would know what to do. He had to.

"He doesn't care about you..."

I ignored the voice and launched myself in Tony's arms, burying my face in his shoulder.

"Oh kid... What the hell happened to you? I've been looking everywhere for you." Tony pulled me closer to him, his hand on the back of my head and brushing it softly. "I was... They all thought that you were..."

"I-I killed them," I blurted out. "I don't know what happened, but I just... I couldn't take it any more and I killed them all. Mr. Stark, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to! But they- they didn't even ask me any questions! They didn't even ask me questions!"

"Shh, shh, it's okay." He took a deep breath and patted my shoulder lightly. "Friday, alert the team that I've found Peter. Tell Bruce to get the med-bay ready. I'll meet them all at the Compound."

"Roger that, boss."

Tony gently led me to his suit, letting the metal wrap around him before lifting me up in the arms. It was cold and hard and not comfortable at all, but it was so welcoming and familiar... I wrapped my arms around Iron Man's neck and struggled to hold back tears.

"You're weak."

"Shut up..."

"What?"

I shook my head lightly as I closed my eyes, letting sleep overcome me.

I was in the red room again, staring at the evil version of me. We didn't speak, just stared at each other as we sat on the ground.

Stare.

Inhale.

Blink.

Exhale.

Repeat.

I don't know how long we stayed like that, but in one blink, I was staring up at a spotless white ceiling. I knew this ceiling... this was the med-bay at the Avengers Compound. I was home...

"It was a slaughter house in there..." I heard Sam say in a hushed voice. "It looked like something a wild animal would do, not a sixteen year old kid."

"He was backed into a corner and tortured for a week, I'm sure any one of us would have done the same to get free."

They were talking about me... They saw what I did to those people and were talking about it while I was asleep... Did they not trust me? Were they scared of how I would react to them? They were scared of me now.

A surge of pleasure swelled inside me at the thought of people being scared of me, but I shook it off. I would not take pleasure in that. I wouldn't... But it still felt good. If people were scared of me, then that meant they would never hurt me. Maybe it wasn't so bad to be feared.

"Peter, are you awake?" I looked up to see Bruce step into the room with a clipboard and a soft smile. "How are you feeling?"

I hesitated slightly, looking away before answering. "I've honestly been better..."

Bruce placed a hand on my shoulder, my body flinching and hunching away from the touch. I don't know why I did that... Why did I do that? Bruce would never hurt me.

"I-I'm sorry, Dr. Banner. I-"

He held a hand up, stopping my apology. "Don't say sorry, Peter. You've just been through something awful and it'll take time for you to heal, physically and mentally. If the others and I ever do something you aren't comfortable with, feel free to tell us so. We don't want you to feel trapped or scared with us. Okay?"

Trapped... Bruce had seen what happened with those men at the warehouse. He was scared I would feel trapped... or cornered. He was scared of me. He thought I was a monster.

"You should kill him." The voice whispered, "Show him true fear."

It mortified me when that thought stayed in my head for more than a second. I could never kill Dr. Banner! He was a great man that has done so much to help the world! I would never-

"Peter?"

I blinked and shook my head slightly, looking up at Bruce's concerned face. I then remembered what he told me and started nodding, "Yeah, yeah, okay. I understand."

"Okay..." He glanced down at the clipboard before putting it in a pocket on the end of the bed. "The others are all waiting to see you outside, think you can handle some company?"

I opened my mouth to agree, but Sam's words rang through my head again and caused me to hesitate. What if they really were scared of me now? Tony brought me home when I was covered in the blood of four people, plenty of people would view that as creepy.

"It's fine if you don't, Peter." Bruce smiled, "Remember, you can say no."

"Actually... I'm still pretty tired. I think I'm going to go back to sleep."

"That's fine, after what you've been through, you need as much rest as you can get." The doctor patted my foot gently as he left the room, turning the light out as he went. It was only then that I realized it must have been after dark from how the room turned pitch black. A surge of fear ran through me as I took in a deep breath and closed my eyes.

I wasn't there anymore. I wasn't waiting in a room for a man to dismember me. That was all over now. I had no reason to fear the dark.

"You should always be afraid of the dark..." The voice whispered, "You should always feel fear."

"Shut up." I opened my eyes and was back in that strange room with the strange me. It stared at me with those dark eyes, as if it knew something I didn't.

"You've tasted my power. You can't stop now, you will always need me to save you."

"What even are you? Where did you come from? Get out of my head...! Stop telling me to kill people! I don't want anything to do with this!"

"You say that now, but how are you going to react?"

"React to what?"

It only smirked at me before fading into nothingness.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, my heart hammering in my chest as I grabbed it and bent it away from me. I was in a blind panic as I wrapped my arms around a neck and tightened my muscles. I should look and see who it is that I'm defending myself from, but the chance of them getting free and hurting me again was too great. I had to end it now. Once and for all.

"Good."

"Kill him..."

"Just like that."

I felt the struggles start to slow down, felt the life slipping away from my foe. This was good. If they were dead, then I wouldn't be hurt anymore.

"Peter..."

My eyes widened as I looked at the head of black hair in from of me, the rough hands that were trying to pry my arms away from his neck. I quickly let go and stumbled away, panting hard as I watched Mr. Stark struggle to breath.

"Peter..." He glanced at me, an emotion I've never seen before reflecting in his eyes. "Kid, what..."

I didn't wait to hear what he was going to say, I turned and ran to the window. I busted through it and jumped out to the ground, running as fast as I could. The adrenaline pumping through my veins made it easy for me to push myself without feeling the pain of it. But even then... I wouldn't feel a thing.

They say that if you are hurt in two places, the larger pain outweighs the smaller.

The pain in my heart was definitely outweighing the pain in my legs and lungs.

I wanted to kill Tony Stark, my mentor and closest thing I have to a dad. I can't believe I would do something like that... And now... now what would he think of me? What would the others think of me? They would all hate me, they would think I turned into a villain and try to kill me as well.

They would want me dead...

I would just have to kill them first.