It's been several hours since Y/N watched some woman get shot and killed right in front of her eyes. No one ever went to collect her body. It even stayed there as Rumlow tortured her.
After Rumlow found out that Y/N is the only person who can break the block in her mind, he thought the only way she'd break it down is if her mind was too weak to keep it up. While the nightmares and the fake memories affected her, they didn't affect her enough. The thing he knows the most is physical torture, so that's what he decided to do.
He chained her up to the wall and pushed enough drugs into her system that it would take her hours before they'd finally fade from her bloodstream and allow her to heal. He used all the tools he had. He used knives to cut her deep enough to hurt but not deep enough to kill. He electrocuted her, beat her, whipped her, and not once did he ever break her.
It wasn't until Rumlow stepped out of the room did someone give him a better idea. "This is never going to work. She will never break and soon all the pain you have inflicted will heal. I would know." Rumlow looks to his right to see Gerard Argent staring at the beaten girl through the one-way mirror. "Physical pain will heal but psychological pain will last forever."
"We already tried that. It didn't work." Rumlow informs him, walking over to Gerard. Hydra was currently working out of Gerard's basement. He has rooms capable of holding Y/N and he's the reason they found her in the first place. It's also a place that no one would ever think of because everyone thinks he's still some sick old man who has no connection to Hydra.
"Have you ever heard of white torture?" Gerard questions.
"I don't think so," Rumlow wasn't sure if the question was rhetorical or not, but he answered anyway.
"It's also known as white room torture. It's a technique that aims for sensory deprivation and isolation. We put her in an all-white cell to deprive her of color. We put her in white clothes, and we only feed her unseasoned white food. The room is soundproof, and lights cover the ceiling to not allow shadows. Let's cut off all her senses then we'll drive her to her breaking point." Gerard explains.
"How do we do that?"
"Usually you wait a few months or a few years until they drive themself crazy, but we won't need to wait that long. I believe you still have copies of all the videos you took of her before. There's a certain video that I'm certain will break her if we play it over and over again." Gerard smiles sinisterly as he continues to watch the girl he plans to destroy. Stiles took his granddaughter's life, and he plans to watch Y/N take Stiles'.
***
"You're lying." Stiles takes a step back from Derek with a confused look on his face. Y/N must be here. There is no other possible answer.
"I'm not." Why would Derek lie? Why would he ever lie about his girlfriend being missing?
They turn towards the jet's entrance as everyone enters the quinjet. Steve walks in first carrying Peter bridal-style in his arms. They all have sorrowful and defeated looks on their faces. Stiles watches as everyone walks in but there is no Y/N. He knew by the looks they were giving him that Derek wasn't lying.
"I-I don't understand..." Stiles mumbles under his breath as Scott walks up to him. She was supposed to be here.
"We looked everywhere but she's not here. She was here at one point but she's not here anymore." Scott quietly tells Stiles.
Stiles' mind is running. He slowly sits down on the seat behind him as his mind blocks out the noise around him. The only thing he can think about is that his sister is gone. She wasn't here. They should've left sooner. There's a part of his mind telling him to yell at Steve that if he would've believed them sooner, they could've gotten her in time, but yelling at him won't change anything.
Scott knows Stiles has completely shut down. Usually, he would've yelled, he would've gone up to Hydra's base himself to make sure she really isn't there, but he has completely shut down. Scott wishes Stiles was yelling at them because it's better than silence.
The jet ride back to Beacon Hills is spent in complete silence. No one knows what to say and even if they did, no one wants to speak. Everyone is hurt and upset for different reasons. Tony is upset that he didn't get to reunite with his daughter, but he's glad they found Peter. The rest of the Avengers feel the same way. Derek is upset and angry that his girlfriend is being held captive by a terrorist organization. Scott and Stiles feel the same way. Kira and Malia are upset that their friend is missing. Peter Hale would never admit it but he feels the same way.
Steve slowly lowers the jet as they arrive back at the lake house. The sun is now up and he can see Stiles' friends running towards them from Lydia's place across the lake. Just another reminder that they didn't find Y/N.
When the jet lands the Avengers are the first ones out. Bucky carries Peter out and towards his room. Tony follows him so he can stay with Peter until he wakes up. The others head straight toward the living room ready to think of something else. They're frustrated and tired, but sleep is the last thing on their minds.
The pack is the last off the jet. Malia, Kira, and Peter step out and walk toward Lydia, Mason, and Liam who are running toward them. Derek steps off and walks towards the woods that surround them in hopes of collecting his emotions before going back inside. Stiles and Scott are the last ones off with the door closing behind them.
Stiles is looking at the ground as he feels a body collide with his. Arms wrap around him in a comforting hug. "I'm so sorry you didn't find her, but we will find her," Lydia whispers in his ear. Tears are quietly falling down her face.
Stiles doesn't know what overcomes him, but he starts to sob at Lydia's words and comforting hug. He doesn't know how he was able to hold it together until now. There were several moments on the ride home where he thought he was going to break but he didn't. Now, in Lydia's embrace, he can't seem to keep it together.
"What am I supposed to tell my dad?" Stiles sobs out.
"I don't know but we'll figure it out together," Lydia assures him, her hand rubbing up and down his back in comfort. Scott and the rest of the pack standing nearby decide to go inside so they aren't just watching Stiles cry.
His sobs start to slow down until they become sniffles before they stop completely. He steps back from Lydia and wipes away the leftover tears on his face as Lydia wipes her own away, "I'm okay now. Thank you for that."
"Always." She smiles sweetly at him, "You go inside, and I'll go get Derek." Stiles goes into the house as Lydia walks to the part of the woods she saw Derek disappear into. She walks for about a minute or two until she stumbles upon him sitting on a fallen tree trunk and staring at his hands. She silently sits down next to him knowing that he'll talk when he wants to.
After a few minutes in silence, Derek clears his throat before speaking, "I'll be back in a minute. You don't have to wait for me."
"I think Y/N would want me to make sure that you're okay." Lydia quietly tells him. She turns to look at him and, for the first time in her life, she watches as a tear falls from one of his eyes. Judging by the obvious wetness on his face, that wasn't the first tear to fall either.
Derek clears his throat again before standing up, "Let's get back to the others. We need to find her."
"Derek!" Lydia runs after him as he walks back towards the lake house, "You don't have to pretend to be fine around us. We know you're hurting just like the rest of us. Blocking us out isn't going to help anything."
"I'll be fine when we find Y/N," Derek states.
"Derek, we can–"
"Drop it." Derek cuts her off, quickening his pace towards the lake house.
As they walk inside, they notice everyone but Tony is gathered in the living room. "What's our next move?" Natasha asks, watching Derek and Lydia enter the room.
"A few of us should rest up then fly back to the base and collect as much information as possible. I'd call Fury to send a team over, but I don't trust him at the moment." Steve states.
"I'll go." Bucky volunteers. He wants to feel useful. He also knows that he knows Hydra the most and he would be the one to find anything that Hydra is hiding.
"Okay, Nat, Bruce, and Sam will go with you," Steve informs them.
"What about us? What do we need to do?" Scott questions.
"Maybe you should give them the videos," Sam suggests. "They were the ones to figure out where Hydra's base is, and they know Y/N better than any of us. If there's anything useful on those things, they'd be the ones to find it."
Steve thinks for a moment. They were right about the base, but he still doesn't fully trust them. What if not giving them to them makes them not find Y/N in time? What if they give them to them and they miss something important? "Fine, but those videos don't leave this house. I think it would be best if we watch them together so we can all look for something. We know Hydra best and they know Y/N."
Sam runs off to grab the tapes from upstairs. He's barely gone a minute before he runs back downstairs with a laptop and a hard drive, "I'm going to warn you now that the stuff on these tapes will probably haunt you for the rest of your lives."
Scott turns to his pack, "Liam and Mason, go home. We'll call you when we need you." They didn't need to be told twice. They want Y/N back like the rest of the pack, but they don't want to watch videos that will mentally scar them forever. "The rest of you can stay if you want or you can go if you think it'll be too much." Everyone stays where they are.
"These aren't in order, so we'll just go from where I left off for now," Sam states. He turns on the TV in the living room and quickly connects it to the laptop in his hands. He clicks on the video he stopped at and watches as it pulls up on the TV.
The video was clearly taken from a security camera. It appears to be a video of a younger Y/N in a holding cell. It doesn't look like the same cell where Nat found Y/N's bracelet. Y/N seems to be sleeping quietly on a cot in the corner of the room. They watch as they wait to see what happens next.
After a few more minutes of silence, an alarm from outside Y/N's cell can be heard going off. They watch as she slowly wakes up at the sound. They can hear shouting and gunshots, but they don't know what's going on since it's not happening within the camera's view. They watch as Y/N gets off the cot and huddles behind it in the corner of the wall.
The alarms and the gunshots continue to go off as Y/N stays hidden. A few minutes later, a large door can be heard opening and light shining through a door frame appears on the edge of the video. They watch as a young woman and man run into the room and towards Y/N. The woman seems to crouch down and talk quietly with Y/N as the man watches on. She appears to gain Y/N's trust and lets the woman grab her from behind the cot and hold her in her arms.
Scott can feel Derek stiffen next to him as they watch the woman and man leave the room with Y/N. Their faces are hard to completely make out because they're never fully turned toward the camera and they seem to be werewolves in their beta form. After they exit the room, the video stops.
"Now we know who took her," Natasha mumbles in shock.
"You can't really make out their faces though," Bruce states.
There's a moment of silence as everyone takes in the video before Derek grabs his uncle's neck and pins him against the wall next to him. His claws and fangs are out as he looks at Peter with betrayal in his eyes.
"What the hell?!" Scott exclaims, confused about what just happened.
"How long have you kept this from me?!" Derek growls at Peter, putting more pressure on his neck.
"I didn't know it was her until we started looking at the files. I never knew what happened to her after we left." Peter struggles a little against Derek's hand.
"What's he talking about?" Steve asks.
"The people in the video," Derek continues to glare at Peter, "it was him and my mom."