(Stark's P.O.V.)
(Please turn your page setting to black (again I'm sorry in advance, and sorry it took so long to update, please don't hate me)
"Run me through this plan again."
I turn to Peter in the small alleyway that we are hiding out in, taking a break from watching my target.
I take a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves, before answering. "His name is Maxwell Davis. That's him over there." I point to a man loitering outside a small convenience store, smoking a cigarette.
Peter looks in the direction I'm pointing in and nods. "Are you going to explain how you know him, by the way?" Peter asks, turning back to me.
I fidget with my hands anxiously, avoiding eye-contact for some reason. "He...he knew Dave. He used to stop by our house a lot while I was younger. He always freaked me out. I don't think my mom liked him much." I shudder. "He always just had this creepy vibe to him. I should've known something was off."
"You knew him as a kid?" Peter asks, trying to verify what he just heard.
I nod. "Small world, huh?"
I look up at him to see him giving me that sympathetic look that he does when I mention my less-than-stellar childhood.
"I'm fine," I reassure him. "Anyway, so I'm going to go out there, looking lost and confused and....vulnerable, which hopefully will be enough for him to follow me into there." I point to the building across from us. "I've done some research on it. It's an abandoned old factory, full of empty space, and it's always unlocked. Technically it's public property and there are security cameras, so whatever happens in there will be recorded."
(Trigger Warning: Rape/Mentions of Rape/Potential Rape/etc.)
I take a deep breath before saying the rest. "The plan is to... to let him think he's... overpowered me. That way he will think I'm helpless and he will get overconfident. If he's overconfident, he's more likely to give a confession." I wince slightly and glance at Peter, who looks like it's taking all his self control to not swear.
"You don't have to do this (Y/n)," Peter says.
I look down, biting my lip. "Yes I do."
Peter grabs my shoulders lightly and makes me look at him. "No you don't, okay? You don't have to do anything. If you aren't okay with doing this, then you don't have to. We can go right now and go get ice cream or something. Or we could stop by to visit Fred and get some Pumpkin Spice Lattes."
I smile slightly. "I don't think they make those at this time of year."
Peter shrugs. "Then we'll get whatever the special is. Candy Cane Lattes maybe?"
I smile wider. "Maybe as a celebratory drink after." I sigh and my smile fades. "But I need to do this, Peter. I promised Vanessa. I can do this."
Peter's smile fades too. "(Y/n), I really don't like this plan. It's super dangerous! Even if you don't get physically hurt, mentally--"
"I know the risks, Peter." I cut him off. "I know that I can be a little reckless and I don't always think things through, but I have thought this through. I know the risks. I know what's going to happen. I'll be okay. I know you don't think I'm strong enough--"
"I don't think that!" Peter interjects. "(Y/n), I know how strong you are. You're one of the strongest and smartest people I know. That's not what I'm worried about." He sighs. "I'm worried you're just underestimating how much something like this can mess with a person."
"I know."
Peter hesitates for a second, before pulling me into a hug. "I'm never going to stop worrying about you, (Y/n). I know how capable you are, but that doesn't stop me from worrying. You've been through hell and back already. You deserve to be able to just relax for once."
I shrug. "Eh. I think I would get bored."
He pulls away slightly as he sighs and shakes his head, a small smile forming, but it disappears just as quickly. "I suppose there's no way to talk you out of this."
I shake my head. "By the way...there is one more thing..."
I hesitate and Peter grows tense, bracing himself for bad news, but he waits patiently nonetheless.
I look up at him with determination, to show that I am completely serious about what I'm about to say. "You can't intervene until he confesses."
His eyebrows furrow. "(Y/n), if things start going south--"
"No!" I insist. "You. Can't. Intervene! If you do, the entire plan will be for nothing!"
"So what, I just stand back and do nothing as I watch you get raped?!"
"I can protect myself, Peter." I look into his eyes intensely. "You need to promise me that you won't intervene until I say so. Promise."
"(Y/n)--"
"Please."
He runs his hand over his face. Yeah, I feel kind of bad for playing that card, but this is important.
"Promise," I repeat. "Intervening before the confession could put me in even more danger, okay? So please, just trust me on this."
"Of course I trust you, (Y/n). I just don't trust him. And he's the one who will have the upper hand in this situation!" He grabs my shoulders lightly again, whether to keep himself steady or to keep me steady, I'm not sure. "It's my job to protect you, (Y/n). I decided that that would be my job long before I knew your last name was actually Stark." He grips my shoulders slightly tighter. "Just let me protect you. Please."
I cup his cheek in the palm of my hand. "After we get a confession."
..................................................................................................................................................
After a few more minutes of debating, I reminded Peter that we didn't have a lot of time, so we started to put the plan into action. He had snuck around to the back entrance of the building so he could get set up as Spider-Man and wait for me to lure Max in.
Guess it's time for my part of the plan.
Here we go.
I wander around the street, in front of the convenience store where Max is loitering, doing my best to look utterly lost and confused. I retrace my steps four times, change directions twice, and end it with looking down at my phone as if trying to find a map. I hold my phone into the air, as if trying to get service, and then I wander into the building.
I glance up at the ceiling looking for Peter, but I don't see him. I start to panic, but it fades as Peter then moves out of the shadows, in his suit, and gives me a thumbs up. I grin and he moves back into his hiding place.
"Thursday," I whisper. "Check to make sure that all of the cameras are functioning properly."
"Right away," she answers. After a moment, she says, "they are fully functional."
"Perfect." I smile but it quickly fades as I hear footsteps behind me.
Step.
Step.
Step.
Step.
They grow closer and closer, so I turn around.
"Hello?" I call out with a hopefully naive and innocent sounding voice. I look around, confused, trying to see him in the building. "Is someone there?" I turn around.
He steps out of the shadows. "Hello," he calls back in a deep, scratchy voice. "(Y/n)."
Shit.
SHIT.
SHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT.
"I-I'm sorry?" I ask, still trying to keep up the innocent act and hide my rising panic. "I think you've confused me with someone else--"
"Cut the shit," he cuts me off. I freeze and try not to completely freak out. "I know it's you. You look just like your mother. Did you really think I wouldn't recognize you?" He asks, stalking closer.
I start to back away from him. "Seriously, I think you have me confused with someone else. I don't--"
"Know who I am?" He finishes for me. "I'm sure you must, your memory can't be that bad. And even if not, I know all about you, (Y/n) Stark."
SHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT.
THIS WAS NOT PART OF THE PLAN.
I start to panic, hesitating to answer. He chuckles, a kind of harsh, brutal, and merciless laugh that causes an intense sense of deja vu. "Did you really think he wouldn't tell me? Your dad and I-- well, I suppose he isn't your dad anymore, but Dave and I go way back. You really think he'd hold such valuable information from his best pal?"
"Who the hell is Dave?" I ask, keeping up the dumb act. I stumble a little, not noticing how close he's getting.
Suddenly, he lunges forward and closes his hand around my arm, gripping tight. I could get out of it easily, of course, but I still have to play powerless.
Even though things are not going according to plan.
"Stop acting stupid, (Y/n)."
"You're crazy!" I spit out. "I don't know what you're talking about!"
(Seriously TRIGGER WARNING! Here's where the trigger warning comes more into effect, just saying. I've never written a scene like this, so just bear with me. Writing this scene made me feel EXTREMELY uncomfortable and I hope to never have to do it again, but it was necessary for the side plot to close. You could probably skip over most of this part, since you already know most of what is going on. You know he knows that she's Tony Starks daughter, you know he remembers her, and you know he's going to try to rape her. Feel free to skip over the next part if you need to.)
He laughs again, then regards me closely. "You're not fooling anyone, you know that? Bloody hell, you look so much like your mother. Almost a spitting image, aren't you." He grins wickedly. "Your mother was always a beautiful woman, you know? Every time I was around her, I just wanted to get my hands on her, you know?"
This disgusting son of a bitch.
I cringe as fury and disgust flow through me, making me use all of my restraint to keep calm and play powerless.
He sighs, "but I didn't. Out of respect for your father. Or I suppose your Not-father. I promised him I wouldn't touch her." He suddenly grins maniacally. "But I never made any promises about you."
Here it comes. I take a deep breath in to try to brace myself
Suddenly, he roughly shoves me onto the ground, making me scrape my elbow on the pavement. He climbs on top of me before I have a chance to try to stand up.
"Get off me! I don't know what you're talking about!"
He roughly grabs my shoulders and slams me into the ground again, making me become dizzy as intense pain fills my head. I decide not to try to do that again.
"Please no..." I trail off, groaning in pain. "I don't want to end up like my friend..."
At least I was able to casually bring Vanessa into the conversation. At least SOMETHING is going according to plan.
He laughs and roughly grabs my neck, somewhat choking me, as his other hand fiddles with the sleeves of my romper, trying to tug it off. I struggle and try to push him off.
Okay, this is a lot harder than I thought it would be.
Peter was right. I had underestimated the situation. Sure, I had been practicing basic fighting skills with Nat my whole life, so I should be good, right? It's the same, right?
Wrong. It isn't the same at all.
I start to struggle again, for real this time, as he continues to try to tug off my clothes. I try to fight back, actually fight back, no more faking, but it's no use. He's stronger than me. He's bigger than me. He's heavier than me. And he has the upper hand.
What the hell was I thinking?!
"I'm going to enjoy this," he whispers.
Fucking creep.
I start to struggle more.
Deciding that I can't take much more of this, I decide to stop beating around the bush. "It...it was you, wasn't it? You're the one who raped Vanessa Posey! You're the one who is trying to kill her and her daughter!"
He laughs and tightens his hold on my neck. "You're a smart girl. Just like your mother."
I can see the look in his eyes. I see the pride, and that's exactly what I need.
Come on Max, boast about it you rotten, fucked up pig.
"It was easy, actually." He grinned evilly. "She was so powerless, just like you. I enjoyed it, quite a bit. Too bad she decided to start blabbing. I may have been stopped the first time by that little Spider-Brat and his bitch, but next time, I will succeed, and I will kill them, and I'll enjoy it."
"You're a monster."
"I am, and there's nothing you can do about it, little miss Stark."
I start to fight as hard as I can. I have the confession, but I want to get out of this myself. From all his talk about my mom and Vanessa in such a vile way, I want to fight him off, kick his ass, and yeah, snap his neck.
But the last one will probably get me in a lot of trouble, so I'll settle for the ass-kicking.
I continue to thrash and fight, but no matter what I do, it doesn't work.
Never have I ever felt this desperate and....powerless. Only in my nightmares.
But this is in real life.
As he finally manages to yank part of the top off of my shoulder, I decide that it's time to swallow my pride and let Peter take over.
(Okay, if you decided to skip over the scene, you can start here again. It's over)
"INTERVENE!" I scream. "INTERVENE!"
Peter wastes no time.
Just as Max's face shows his confusion, he is swiftly, and quite forcefully, kicked in the face, causing him to fall over and off of me. I quickly scramble away, putting the top of my romper back on properly and covering myself up.
I am so glad that I wore an undershirt under this.
I manage to stand up and run behind one of the beams supporting the building. Completely powerless, all I can do is tremble and wait for Peter to finish.
If only I'd brought my suit.
If only I hadn't underestimated him.
I should have known that this would affect me more.
I peek around the corner, rubbing my still throbbing head. I can't tell if I'm more confused or scared of what I'm seeing.
Yeah, I knew that there would be a fight, and I knew that Peter would have to punch and stuff.
But I wasn't expecting this.
I watch, confused and helpless in a daze as Peter absolutely beats the shit out of Maxwell Davis. Max fights back, of course, but it's no use against Peter.
The scariest thing is, that even when Max is powerless and can't fight back, Peter isn't holding back.
Peter is a good person. He doesn't hurt people. Not intentionally, or any more than he has to for bad guys in a fight. That's why this doesn't make sense. Usually he would've just tied him up by now or something. But no, he just kept hitting him.
Finally, I find my voice. "Pet--Spider-Man!"
I can't believe I'm saving that jackass. Maybe I should let Peter go full-on beast mode on him.
I shake my head, clearing away those thoughts. I don't care what happens to Max, but I know if Peter doesn't stop soon, it'll change him. Break him. And I can't let that happen.
Peter stops hitting Max and runs over to me. "(Y/n), are you okay?"
I look at him, wide-eyed, unable to find the right words.
What's gotten into him?
Even broken and bloody on the ground, hardly able to move, Max still finds the strength to laugh. That sick, cruel laugh.
But I'm more focused on all of his bloody cuts and bruises, the ones that Peter, my sweet little cinnamon roll could-hardly-hurt-a-fly Peter, gave him.
Max spits out blood, then continues laughing. "You're as cowardly and weak as your mother was too."
And then something inside me snaps.
I am mentally scarred, despite having planned everything out. Because nothing can prepare you for how helpless, vulnerable, and violated it makes you feel. But I am mentally scarred and royally pissed off.
Sure, I'm mentally scarred. Sure, he's the creep from my childhood that still haunts my nightmares. Sure, I think I just saw Peter's dark side which might be almost scarier than what happened to me today.
But he had brought up my mother one too many times.
I march over to him and punch him in the face as hard as I possibly can, despite the fact that he was already covered in bruises and blood. Then I grab his collar and slam him into the ground--hard-- just like he did to me. Then I kick him in the gut for good measure.
Peter doesn't do anything to hold me back.
I grab Max's collar and hold his face up to my level so he can tell that I mean it. "My mother was not weak. And she was not a coward. And if you ever say anything like that about her ever again or tell anyone who I am, I will personally hunt you down and make sure you won't be able to say anything at all. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"
Instead of cowering in fear as I hoped, he laughs. And laughs. And laughs.
"I won't tell anyone, (Y/n)." He says, grinning. His teeth are covered in blood. "I won't tell anyone because I want to see how this plays out. Your mother always thought that she could hold everything together too. Look how she ended up."
I slam his head into the ground again, and this time, it knocks him out cold.
.....................................................................................................................................
I had asked Thursday to mute the parts of the footage where Max says that I'm Tony Starks daughter. I also ask her to delete the part of the footage where I start to beat up Max, and part of when Peter was beating him up, so it doesn't damage Spider-Man's reputation. But I made sure that the part where he is confessing is loud and clear.
Peter had webbed Max up and called the police. We waited for them to arrive, and I stood back while Peter, as Spider-Man, explained to the police what had happened. Most of what had happened, at least. We left out certain parts, like how I'm Tony Stark's daughter and how we planned the entire thing.
"It's weird that parts of it don't have sound," one of the officers remarked as they were watching the footage.
"Well, the cameras are old," Peter said calmly. I was alarmed by how calm he was able to stay after beating the crap out of Max.
I wasn't very useful to the police. I was pretty shaken up.
I still am.
Even safe, back at my apartment, wrapped in Peter's arms as we sit on my stupid beige couch and watch T.V., drinking Candy Cane Lattes (which aren't as good as the Pumpkin Spice ones), I'm still not calm.
Peter pulls me closer and I lean on him.
"Do you want to talk about it?" He asks softly.
I shake my head. "I'm not ready. Not now." I sigh. "You were right, Peter. It was a stupid plan. We shouldn't have done it."
"You were right too," he says, rubbing my arm. "It worked. And it was the only plan we had." He pulls back slightly to look at me clearly. "That being said, you are never doing that ever again."
"Agreed."
Satisfied with my answer, he pulls me closer again and turns his attention back to the T.V.
"Do you wanna talk about what happened with you?" I ask quietly.
I feel him tense. "What do you mean?"
I pull away this time. "You know...about how you...kind of...lost control of yourself? Your..." I try to find the right word. "Dark side?"
"My dark side?" He repeats.
"...Yeah." I start to wring my hands, another one of my nervous habits. "Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man wasn't acting very friendly. I love you, Peter, but it was like you were a different person for a second." I shrug. "I know everyone has a dark side to them...I guess I just...wasn't expecting to see yours. It was kind of scary."
There's a moment of silence between us, so I try to lighten it with a joke. "Remind me to never get on your bad side," I say with a weak laugh.
"I'm sorry." He says, not looking at me.
I shake my head. "Don't be sorry, Peter. You saved my life."
"I'm sorry you had to see me like that, I mean." He sighs and looks up at me. "Is it bad that I don't regret what I did to him?"
"Considering I was this close to snapping his neck--" I hold up my fingers, almost touching-- "I don't think that I'm the right person to be asking about having a good moral compass."
He sighs. "Did I scare you?"
"A little," I admit. "I just...I was just so used to you being the one who always did the right thing, and always holding me back when I was going too far...I forgot that you're just human and that you can get angry too. You're just usually better at controlling it, I guess..." I shake my head. "I'm not explaining this right."
"You don't have to. I'm sorry I scared you." He runs his hands through his hair. "I just...I was so...angry. The last time I was that angry I think was when..."
When he doesn't continue, I ask, "when what?"
He drapes his arm over his eyes, so he doesn't have to face me. "When my Uncle Ben was murdered."
I sit there quietly for a second, processing that. "...I didn't know he was murdered."
Peter nods, taking his arm off his face to look at me. His eyes kind of watery. "It was when I first got my powers. I was being careless and...it was my fault that he was murdered."
I pull him into a hug. "It wasn't your fault."
"You weren't there, (Y/n). Yes it was."
"Peter Benjamin Parker, look at me." I pull back and look at him in the eyes. "Unless you're the one who aimed and pulled the trigger, or stabbed him or whatever, then it wasn't your fault."
"I didn't stop him though." His eyes start to water more, but he keeps looking at me. "He was just some petty thief who I caught stealing, but I didn't stop him. I had the power, but I didn't do anything. But Uncle Ben tried to. And then he was murdered. That was the angriest I'd ever felt, and I spent the next months, trying to track down and find the guy that killed him. And when I found him...that was my dark side." He looks down. "And when I had to sit back... and watch what happened to you today... it felt like it did then. I felt like it was my fault, like it was when Ben was murdered. I had the power to stop it, but I wasn't... and the anger I felt towards the thief for murdering Ben... was the same anger I felt towards Max for what he did to you."
I cup Peter's cheek and wipe away the stray tear that fell. "I'm okay, Peter. I...I will be. I'm still here."
"Yeah, but he hurt you," he says, his voice cracking. He sniffs and wipes his eyes. "I'm sorry."
I pull his head down slightly so I can kiss his forehead. "I'm okay. You saved me. You saved me, Peter, I'm still here." I cup his other cheek as well and hold his face up to mine. "None of what happened today was your fault. It was my choice. And what happened to Ben wasn't your fault either, and he wouldn't want you to blame yourself."
He leans in and rests his head in the crook of my neck. I wrap my arms around him and rub his back.
"Shouldn't I be the one comforting you?" He mumbles.
I smile slightly. "Let me be the one to save you for once."
I'll be okay.
So will Peter.
We will both be okay. We'll make it through this.
And we'll make it through whatever happens next too.
Because we're strong enough. And we're even stronger together.
And I'll always be okay by Peter's side.
I lean closer to him as I continue to rub his back.
We'll be okay.