Chapter Text
2015, Three Days After Ultron
Fury
Something wasn’t right. Sure, the threat was detained. The Avengers managed to defeat and deactivate Ultron. Yet, it felt like it was just the slightest bit too easy. There wasn’t any evidence that suggested outside forces interfered in some way (at least that he knew of), but something was off, he was certain of it.
2015, A Week After Ultron
Fury was, indeed, correct (no duh). After salvaging some of the robots, repairing security feeds that were still working, and gathering intel from agents and civilians around the area, proof of outside tampering and interference was found. It was discrete, to say the least, but it was there nonetheless.
Someone, or something, managed to hack into many of the bots, forcing them to fall and shut down, amidst the battle, after letting them run aimlessly for a while.
This set off many more alarms than usual in Fury’s head. The gears started working, and questions were surfacing.
How did this mysterious being hack into Ultron goons when some of SHIELD’s and Stark’s best could not?
Why did they decide to let the program run on these bots before disabling them, instead of shutting them down immediately? What was their motive?
And finally, and most obviously, who half-helped them in the first place?
This entity was unknown, and Fury heavily disliked the unknown. He needed answers, and hopefully he’ll get them sooner than later.
March 2008
Peter
“Go through the backyard and run, Peter. Run as far away as you can. GO NOW”
He ran like his mother told him to.
He heard his father and mother scream.
He kept running.
Two gunshots. Quick, crisp and clean sounding.
The screaming stopped.
He stopped.
Footsteps approach.
Hands grab him.
He can’t see.
He feels dizzy.
Nothing.
March 2008
Harley
He wakes up in a room, filled with other kids and the men that grabbed him guarding the door.
An hour passes, the doors open.
He’s brought into another room. Smaller, cleaner.
A man with glasses and a black coat sits behind a desk. Another man, wearing body armor and holding a gun, stands by the door.
The man wearing armor tells him to sit in the empty chair. Harley goes and sits in the chair.
The man with glasses asks him questions.
Harley answers the questions.
The man with glasses, seemingly happy with his answers, gives a nod to the armored man.
The armored man tells Harley to follow him.
He follows the armored man.
He exits the room, another armored man and kid his age goes in.
He hears the other kid answer a question.
He hears a gunshot.
He no longer hears the answers to the questions.
Without looking behind him, he keeps following the armored man.
They stop at a heavy and thick looking door, with a keypad on the wall beside the door.
The man enters a code in the keypad. The door opens.
He may be young, but he can clearly tell that a prison cell looking room can be seen on the other side.
The man shoves Harley through the door. In the room, Harley turns to face the door.
The man enters another code. The big metal door now dividing Harley and the man.
He hears the man walk away.
“For fucks sake” Harley mutters under his breath. He turns away from the closed door.
In the corner of the room, he sees the shadow of a figure.
He approaches said figure, said figure scoots closer to him too.
He sees a boy, probably younger than him, with short curly brown locks and chocolate eyes.
“ What’s your name? ”
“ Peter. ”
“ Hi Peter. I’m Harley. “
Peter gives him the best warm smile he can, considering the circumstances.
Harley returns the smile.
He doesn’t know how long he’ll be in this place.
He knows this is a bad place, filled with bad guys. No matter how young you are, that is at least pretty obvious.
But one thing, no matter how long he stays here, will stay the same.
He will protect Peter no matter the cost, and if the opportunity shows itself, he’ll escape with him so he can make sure Peter has the opportunity to live his best life.
November 2008
Peter
Without Harley’s presence, the room's cold and damp air becomes more noticeable. The darkness at night seems to stretch forever into a deep, black void even if the room itself isn’t very big. This feeling is unsettling, it’s scary.
They, or, Hydra is what Harley said he heard them call themselves, have been doing this for a while now. Since the third day he was here.
Since then, every four days, he and Harley would blackout after the armored men blindfolds them. They would both wake up back in the cell, but with bandages and sore limbs that weren't there before they left.
It happened like clockwork, it was now part of the routine.
They would blackout at dawn then wake up sometime in the afternoon. Nothing will happen for the rest of the day until night time. The armored men would remove the bandages, and they go back to sleep. The next three days were filled with combat, math and science lessons. Blackout day started again, and the routine repeats. It hasn’t changed once since the months he’s been here.
Well, until now.
Harley’s has not been back for a while now.
They usually return to their cell within a couple minutes of each other after the blackouts.
It’s midnight. Peter has been alone in the cell for eight hours already.
He can only assume that Harley has been in a blackout for eight hours longer than usual.
Peter misses his brother, the only person alive currently that he considered family.
He’s worried. He’s sore. He’s scared. He’s hungry. He’s tired. He wants to sleep.
But he can’t, not until Harley is back.
He feels his eyes starting to close.
…
He hears the door open.
He stands up and looks towards the door.
He sees the armored men holding Harley with his blindfold still on.
The men remove the blindfold.
Harley’s entire left eye is bandaged up, blood seeping through the cloth.
The men toss Harley back into the room. They close the door as they leave.
Peter is worried, sore, scared, hungry, tired, sleepy and angry.
He’s angry at the Hydra, angry at the world, angry at himself for being too small to help Harley.
The anger dies down though, leaving a passion to fulfill a promise.
He will protect Harley no matter the cost, and when the opportunity shows itself, he’ll escape with him so he can make sure Harley has the opportunity to live his best life.