The days began to bleed together. Morgan only ever got one plate of food every day, and it was always delivered when she was asleep. At first, she'd made the mistake of eating everything on it, but quickly learned to eat little bits throughout the day, as it was all she would get.
She also knew that if she kept getting such small portions, she would not stay very healthy for very long.
But worse than the limited food, or the fact that she was forced to sleep on the cold metal floor, was that every day she could see Peter. And every day, the electric man came in and tortured him, always ending by carving those three words into Peter's chest with his little knife.
It started to get to the point where Morgan couldn't even look at Peter anymore; it was either that or risk succumbing to an anxiety attack. Besides, it wasn't like he could see her anyway.
She was in the middle of eating her second portion of her plate of food when the door slammed open. Morgan squeaked in fright, but her panic quickly turned into snark as she watched the man approach her.
"Oh no, what happened to your face?" she cooed sarcastically. The man growled and lunged at her, and suddenly she was being pinned by the throat to the wall.
"It's not so funny anymore, is it little girl?" he sneered as she weakly kicked out and flailed, clawing at his hands. Her eyes began to bulge, and finally he let her drop to the floor. Morgan wheezed for air, kneeling on all fours in front of the man, trying to hide the involuntary tears streaming down her face.
"That's better," he said, tilting her chin up. She jerked out of his grip and glared, angrily smearing away her tears, but when the man grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the room, she couldn't do anything to stop him.
They entered a pitch black hallway, and the only thing Morgan could make out was the grip the man had on her forearm, the scuffling sound that their movements caused, and her own frantic gasping for breath. She heard a door open, and when she saw the dangling light she realized where she was.
"Hello, Peter," the man said, squeezing Morgan's wrist uncomfortably tight, "I brought you something." He threw Morgan into the light and she landed face first on the ground. She looked up and realized that there wasn't a table in the room anymore. Peter was instead sitting on the ground, loosely chained to the wall by his ankle.
His eyes widened when he saw her. "Morgan!"
"Remember the rules," the man said in a mocking tone. Then the door was shut and locked, and they were left alone.
"Peter!" Morgan cried, fresh tears already rolling down her cheeks. She scrambled over to him and threw herself into his arms, hugging him tightly. He hugged her back as she sobbed into his shoulder.
"Peter, I'm so sorry," she whispered.
"Morgan, you don't have to be sorry for anything. I promise."
"No, you don't understand! They torture you because of me!" she wailed. He began rubbing soft circles on her back.
"No, they torture me because they're sick and soulless. They will do it whether or not you provoke them."
They sat together for a long time while Morgan calmed herself down. Finally, she sat up and looked at Peter.
"Do you... do you think dad is even coming for us?"
Peter's expression soured. "Morgan, I know he's looking for us. But they know about our chips, and they prepared for that." He looked at the ground with a crestfallen expression. "Dad's not going to be able to track us."
Morgan nodded, and with tears still in her eyes, rested her head on Peter's chest. Eventually, she fell asleep in his arms.
~~~
Peter only let himself begin to cry when he was sure that Morgan was asleep. This was worse, so much worse than being alone. This meant that they had leverage over him, because they knew he would die before allowing them to harm her.
Something on the other side of the room made a squeaking sound, and suddenly a half-eaten plate of food slid into the light, followed by a half-empty water bottle. Morgan stirred in Peter's arms as his stomach growled. Any nutrients he'd been given had been through an IV. The thought of eating solid food again was tantalizing.
Morgan sat up drearily, rubbing her eyes as she looked around the room. Her face lit up when she saw the food on the floor, but her happy expression soon morphed into worry as she turned to look at Peter again.
"Where's your food?"
"I already ate," he lied. Morgan, of course, didn't buy it as his stomach growled loudly.
"Uh huh," she said, crawling over to the plate, "that's what I thought." She held it out to him, but Peter looked away.
"Morgan, no. You need it more than I do."
"You're the one with the super fast metabolism."
"Yeah, and I'm also the one they want to keep alive," Peter fired back, immediately wishing he could suck the words back into his mouth as soon as he said them. Her eyes widened and began to fill with tears as she turned her gaze down and stared at the floor.
"I know," she whispered, "but I'm not going to eat unless you do too."
"Morgan, come on," Peter started, but before he could continue she'd shoved a piece of food in his open mouth. In his surprise, Peter swallowed it. His eyes went wide with fear.
"Morgan, back away! Now!"
Frightened and confused, Morgan scooched backwards, and then the reason became apparent. The door to the cell slammed open, and the hooded man entered the cell.
"You broke the rules, spider," he said as he sauntered towards the terrified boy. "And for that, you need to be punished."
Morgan's eyes widened in horror as the man reached for Peter's metal ankle cuff.
"No!" she shrieked, throwing herself at the man. Her momentum, combined with his unpreparedness for her attack, resulted in both of them hitting the ground hard. Morgan was quick to get back in her feet when suddenly, the man planted his hand on the floor.
"Wait, stop!" Peter cried, but it was too late. The metal floor pulsed with electricity, and both teens fell to the ground screaming and seizing. After a moment, the man stopped and rose from the floor, moving to stand over Peter.
"There will be new rules tomorrow, spider," he said, "but to make it more fun for me, I'm not going to tell you what they are." Then he was gone.
"Peter," Morgan said softly, "I'm so sorry, I didn't know!" Her tears became more angry than sad. "That's not fair! I didn't know the rules!"
"Morgan, please eat your food," Peter said quietly. She looked at him, hesitantly moving towards the plate.
"Is that a rule too?" she asked. Peter didn't say anything, instead opting to stare at the ceiling. She couldn't help but think about something her friends used to say all the time. The first rule of fight club is don't talk about fight club.
So Morgan reluctantly ate the food.
~~~
The days passed in a haze. Every day, two plates of food were pushed into the room, and every day, Peter and Morgan were forced to try and guess what the rules were. Once, they weren't allowed to talk to each other. Another day the room became freezing cold, but they weren't allowed to be within three feet of the other.
But worse than the ridiculous rules was that Morgan could see the fight draining out of Peter. Every day that passed took a little bit of life out of his eyes, despite the fact that his plate always arrived with much more food than Morgan's did. His earlier statement started to sink in.
I'm also the one they want to keep alive.
Morgan knew that it wouldn't be long before they stopped wanting to take care of her and just decided to get rid of her.
Finally, the day came when they only gave the teens one water bottle. It was laying on Morgan's plate. She eyed Peter nervously and reached for her water. He nodded. After the day that they'd been punished for speaking, much of their communication had been silent. Morgan twisted the lid off and raised the bottle to her lips to take a sip when suddenly Peter seemed to jerk to life.
"Wait, Morgan! Don't move!" Terrified, Morgan froze. Some of the water sloshed out of the bottle and splattered on the ground.
"Peter, what's wrong?"
"Something about that water is dangerous," he said, "pass it to me." Reluctantly, Morgan handed him the bottle and he waved it under his nose.
"Yeah, it's laced with something," he said. He frowned and lifted it to his lips.
"Peter, what are you doing?" Morgan asked nervously as he started to drink it. He took a long sip from the bottle before responding.
"My spider-sense isn't going off. I'm not in danger. You were."
"But..." Morgan started. She hung her head in defeat. "Thank you, Peter."
"You'rewelcomeMorgan," Peter slurred. The water bottle slipped from his hands, its remaining contents spilling all over the floor. His chin dipped down, and he fell asleep.
"Wait, Peter! No! Wake up!" Morgan cried, slapping his cheeks lightly and shaking his shoulders. He didn't respond. The door slammed open again, and Morgan couldn't help but start crying. She turned to see who it was, but instead of the hooded man, two mechanical tentacles moved into the light. They were followed by two more, and then a man came into the light. The tentacles were supporting him in the air, and two of them reached around Morgan and unchained her brother.
"Well, I'm certainly glad that your brother knew the rules today," the man said, "that much sedative would've killed you." The chain around Peter's ankle clattered to the floor and one of the four tentacles pushed Morgan out of the way while the other wrapped around Peter's lifeless form.
"Stop!" Morgan shouted. She tried to get out from behind the long metal appendage, but it was much stronger than her and didn't budge. "Leave him alone! Where are you taking him?"
The man only chuckled. "I wouldn't worry about that if I were you, my dear. Peter will be back soon enough." Then he carried Peter out and shut the door behind him, leaving Morgan alone.
~~~
"Tony, we came as soon as we... Tony?" Cap said, stepping into the large lab to find Tony passed out in a chair, his head resting on the workbench in front of him. With a sideways glance at Nat, she and Cap quietly moved towards him and got a closer look at the holodisplays that were still working as Tony napped.
Friday appeared to be constantly scanning the city for anyone who could have had a hand in the two teens' disappearances.
"We should let him sleep. Heaven knows he needs it," Nat said, but before she and Cap could step away the display chimed and began to glow green.
"Potential match identified," Friday said. Tony barely even stirred as Nat leaned closer to get a better look at the screen.
"Friday, send this file to me and get the garage ready," Nat said, striding out of the room, followed by a confused Steve.
They entered the elevator and Steve grabbed her shoulder, forcing her to look straight at him. "What's going on?"
"Friday found a suspect, and seeing as Tony's not really in the right state of mind to follow up on this lead, I figured we might as well do it." They entered the garage and Natasha climbed into one of the fancy cars, revving the engines impatiently as Steve ran around to the passenger side and got in. They roared out of the garage and Nat tore through the busy city streets, heedless of the speed limit or the lines on the road. Friday had pulled up a little map with directions while Nat passed Steve her phone so he could look into the files a little deeper.
Before long they had pulled into a parking lot and Nat climbed out, leaning menacingly against the side of the car as she waited for her suspect to exit the building. People walking by gestured and pointed excitedly when they saw the Black Widow in full costume, but the dark look on Nat's face kept them from actually approaching.
Finally, Cap watched from inside the car as Nat straightened before approaching a woman who had just come out the doors of the building. Nat gestured to the car, but the woman backed away and started arguing.
Then Steve opened the door and stepped out where the woman could see him. He, like Nat, was in full costume.
"We need you to come with us, ma'am," Steve said in a serious tone. The woman's frown only deepened, but she also seemed to understand that trying to run from two Avengers would only make things worse.
Nat drove them to a secluded area of the city and then climbed out of the car. The woman followed her out in a disgruntled manner, grumbling under her breath. Cap came around to the other side of the vehicle and leaned against it as Nat pulled up a holographic display on her watch.
Peter's picture floated above her wrist as Nat held the hologram up for the woman to see. "Do you know who this is?"
The woman instantly shook her head, denying that she knew the boy, but Natasha wasn't having it.
"That's odd," she said, tapping her watch a few more times until another image appeared. The woman paled as Nat read the information displayed.
"Karen Walters, age 48. Used to run Ms. Walters' Home for Boys. Has a criminal record including child endangerment and child abuse." Nat looked up and met the woman's eyes. "Funny. It says you were sent to prison not even six months ago. How did you get out so fast?"
"That's none of your business!" the woman snapped, saliva spraying from her mouth as she did so.
"Try again," Nat said in a low voice. Walters opened her mouth and spluttered incoherently for a second before huffing a resigned sigh.
"Someone bailed me out."
"Who? Why?"
Walters smiled. "I had information they needed, they had the power to get me out of that awful cell. We made a deal."
"What kind of information?" Cap asked, standing up straight and stepping towards the woman.
"I know Peter's secret," she said slowly, "and now they do too." Cap glanced at Nat. Her face was still stony, but her eyes told the whole story. If Cap wanted to keep this woman alive, he would need to get Nat away from her.
"Get back in the car," Cap told Walters, and she slowly complied, once again grumbling under her breath.
"She sold him out," Nat said angrily. "and she was happy to do it. Did you see her face? She's glad someone is hurting Peter."
"We're not going to let her get away with it, Nat. Let's go to the station and get a hold of Tony. He needs to know we have a lead."