Spider-Man Whumptober - 2023

Left Behind/"Why Wasn't I Enough?"

(AN: This is a continuation of prompt number 9, "Scar Reveal/Interrogation/Presumed Dead", so if you haven't read that part yet please do so!)

Peter woke up in a small room that was darker then he ever could have imagined a room could be.

What happened? How had he gotten here? And why did his head hurt so much?

He gingerly fingered the sore spot, and after a long while of waiting for his vision to adjust, he gave up when he almost poked himself in the eye trying to see his hand in front of his face. The room was pitch black.

Peter crawled slowly across the floor with one hand out until he felt the wall, feeling slowly around the perimeter of the room for anything that might be a door or window. When he was sure he'd thouroughly checked each wall several times, he carefully lifted himself up and made his way towards the roof. There had to be way to move in and out of the room, otherwise how could he have gotten there in the first place? His next best guess was that there was a trapdoor or something on the ceiling.

After a long few minutes, Peter found the edge of a trapdoor. Trying not to get too excited, he braced himself, and then slammed his hand into it with all his might, trying to get it to bust open. Before he knew what was happening, he was on the floor as a short electric shock zapped through his body.

After his nerves calmed down, Peter gingerly traced his fingers over his hand, which was very clearly burnt and broken. He could feel tears welling up in his eyes as the pain started to register. He focused on taking deep breaths for a long while, and then edged towards the wall again. Before he could start climbing back up there to see if he had damaged the trapdoor, it swung open.

The woman was standing above him, and the light rushing into the room made Peter squint and drop his gaze momentarily. Her face brought back all the memories.

"Good. You're awake," she said coldly.

"How am I..." Peter started, remembering the gunshot before changing his question. "What happened? Where am I?"

"Did you really think we would kill you?" the woman asked incredulously. "You, my dear, are an asset. An opportunity that SABRE's been hoping to get their hands on for years now. We have so many uses for you."

Peter tried to hide his disgust over what she was saying. "Where's Mr. Stark?" he demanded, changing the subject.

"I'm afraid Mr. Stark is no longer with us," the woman said. Peter's heart dropped into his stomach, but then the woman continued, "Your little Avenger friends came to get him before we could extract our data. Fortunately, they left you to us."

"That's because they thought I was dead," Peter argued.

"I disagree," the woman said with a smirk. She held up her wrist to let him get a good look at the fancy watch she was wearing,, before pushing a button and letting a familiar voice fill the room.

"NO! COME BACK! YOU BRING HIM BACK!"

"He knew you were still alive. He was close enough that he could see you were still breathing." She pushed the button again, and this time Peter could hear his friends.

"Tony, what happened? Where's Peter?" That was Steve.

Silence, and then Clint was speaking. "We need to get out of here."

"Try not to dwell on it too much, hun," the woman cooed mockingly. "I'm sure they'll forget about you soon enough."

"No," Peter said, his voice rising, "you're lying! My friends would never abandon me! Mr. Stark..." he faltered, trying to think of a reason that his father figure, who knew he was still alive, hadn't told the others that Peter was okay, and that they needed to help him.