The wind brushes a small strand of hair into Peter’s unconscious face. He leans against Pepper, her hair cascading down her shoulders in a glowing, incandescent blanket. Aunt May watches from a few feet away, fidgeting with a small remote tucked perfectly into her palm. It’s almost as if it was made for her.

She watched the pair, leaning against each other, and the different expressions hidden beneath their motionless faces. Peter’s looked young and innocent, with a hint of child-like hope laced in between. Pepper, on the other hand, looked tired. The strained, overworked look that followed her even when she was awake showed just how much of her energy she wasted each day on Stark’s billion dollar company.

May moved silently across the dusty floor and next to Peter. He looked like a fish snared in a net, with thick, rubber cables snaked around his body from his shoulders to his feet, and padlocked tightly together just over his stomach. Pepper had the same chord, but her’s bound her to the remainder of a cement pillar behind her, whereas Peter was free to move.

The beep from May’s watch stole her attention from Peter and Pepper. The small, illuminated numbers on the face of the clock read, “7:30”.

“An hour has passed.” May whispered to herself. Taking in a deep breath, she places a small vial of smelling salts underneath Peter’s nose. He takes a breath, before he coughs and shoots forwards into a sitting position. His eyes water with tears from the previous encounter, and he attempts to lift an arm to wipe them away.

“Where… am I?” He groggily squints around, before something clicks in his mind. This it it, the one place that Peter has always stayed away from, both physically and in thought. That’s the only reason that May brought him here.

Well, crap.

“Pepper?” Peter frantically looks around, taking a deep breath as he sees her slumped over next to him.

Aunt May just watches him struggle, laughing quietly from a few feet away. A certain courage and triumph courses through her veins, and it feels amazing. Her brain is clouded by one thing, and one thing only: revenge on Tony Stark. He took everything from her, and now she’s going to do the same.

Her phone rings, and Peter’s head snaps to see her. His eyes widen, and more tears well up in them, giving them a glassy, reflecting look.

“Tony.” Aunt May has to repress laughing into the phone. Oh, revenge is sweet.

“May, where are you?” Tony sounds out of breath.

“Oh, nice try, Mr. Genius.” She taunts. “But you’re going to have to do better than that if you want your precious son and wife back.”

“Don’t touch them!” Tony screams into her ear.

“We’ll see.”

“May, please.”

“Tick tock, Tony Stark. It’s 7:30, and Peter’s awake. Better hurry.”

“Let me talk to him!” Tony sounds hysterical, yelling into the phone. Aunt May just cackles in response.

“Is that Mr. Stark?” Peter croaks from the side. “Please, can I talk to him?” Aunt May slowly walks over to Peter. Laying the phone next to his ear, she listens to their conversation.

“Kid? Kid, is that you?” Tony desperately says into the phone.

“Yeah, yeah, Mr. Stark, it’s me.” Peter says, half-grimacing, half-smiling.

“Oh, Peter, thank God.” Tony whispers.

“Me and Pepper are both here, we’re both okay.”

“Peter, where are you?” Aunt May starts to pull the phone away.

“I know you’ll find us, Mr. Stark!” Peter yells, watching painfully as May ends the phone call and tosses the phone behind her. The sound of shattering glass strikes the air. Next to Peter, Pepper begins to wake up, springing forward and gasping with surprise as she realizes that she’s tied up and Peter is beside her.

“Peter?” She whispers, glancing at Aunt May.

“Yeah, yeah,” Peter says hurriedly. “I’m here, Pepper.”

“Oh, thank goodness.” Pepper breathes a sigh of relief. “And… Tony?”

“He’s coming.” Peter’s voice hardly tops a whisper, but he doesn’t care. He knows for a fact that Mr. Stark would never let him or Pepper be hurt.

“Oh, boo hoo.” Aunt May rolls her eyes and sits on the ground across from the two of them. “How upsetting this must be for your savior, the great Tony Stark.”

“You don’t have to do this, May.” Pepper’s voice is calm and cool, but Peter can hear the desperate edge to it, the uncertainty behind her eyes. It’s not going to work.

“Oh, but I think I do.” May laughs bitterly. “Peter was my life. He was the reason I got out of bed in the morning, the reason I had to care, to live. And then, to find that he was betraying me this entire time? That’s a feeling worse than death, Pepper. But, I knew I could make it through. I pleaded, I begged Tony to let me have another chance. To let me stay with Peter. But he insisted that I wasn’t a good parent. That despite the fact I had raised a teenager on my own since Ben’s death… I wasn’t good enough.” She took a second to compose herself, looking off into the dark sky above them. “And then, he took Peter. He took my life away from me, and for that, Tony Stark is going to pay with the only thing that I know will get to him. The two people that give him life.” Aunt May gets to her feet and grabs a remote off the ground.

It has only a few buttons, but she holds it expertly in her hand. Whatever horrible things are going to happen to Peter and Pepper are hidden within the remote.

“Now, I had an ultimatum for Tony.” Aunt May flicks the remote from hand to hand distractedly. “Every hour he doesn’t show up here, one of you gets hurt. At midnight, you both die. Let’s hope Tony knows you as well as you think he does, Peter.” A small chuckle, and then May’s eyes narrow into menacing slits. “Now, it’s almost eight o’clock. Who’s going to go first?”

“I will!” Pepper and Peter say in unison. They look at each other, arguing with their eyes.

“Let’s see…” Aunt May’s voice becomes light and airy, bouncing around the air as you would expect a balloon to. “Which one of you am I more angry with at the moment?” She looks between the two of them, jumping between both her options. Until finally, an evil smile twists her face as her gaze lands on Peter.

**********

“Think, Tony!” Tony had landed his suit in a park several minutes ago, and sitting there was doing nothing but wasting precious time. His heart hadn’t stopped beating a mile a minute since he had taken flight earlier that day, and his phone call with Peter had done nothing to ease his pain. It was almost eight thirty, what was he going to do if they were hurt another time because of him?

“There’s got to be something. Somewhere.” Tony replays the note over and over again in his head. “Think of the place that Peter would absolutely hate going back to, the place that he hurt the most when you abandoned him.” Tony’s first thought is of Iraq, but he didn’t abandon Peter there. Maybe Tony’s house, since he tried to abandon Peter there when going to Iraq? Aunt May said that they weren’t at her apartment, but what if that was a trick?

Tony ran his hands through his hair and focused on his breathing. Alright, he just needs to think. Think. Think. But he was thinking already, and he came up empty.

“FRI?” Tony croaked, desperate to hear a familiar voice. “Call Aunt May.”

“No signal. The phone appears to be disabled.” The automated voice doesn’t give any comfort, and Tony fights the urge to punch something. How can finding one crazy woman be this hard?

Wait. An idea sparks Tony’s brain. Like a circuit, his entire mind lights up with the glorious possibility of hope. His mask goes on, and at 100% power, Tony flies towards the place that he abandoned Peter after his fight with Captain America: Peter’s school.

**********

“Don’t touch him!” Pepper’s shrill screaming and her struggling against the thick cables tying her to a cement pillar brings Peter’s mind back to the situation. Aunt May was walking towards him, the remote gone and her hand digging through her pocket for something. Finding it, a cruel smile plays over her face like a shadow. She brings it out, a single knife, gnarled and sharpened beyond anything Peter has ever seen. His heart rate picks up just thinking about her intent.

“Don’t you dare touch him, May!” Pepper continues to struggle, but Peter knows it’s no use.

“You’re a coward!” Pepper is in a frenzy now, unable to stop herself. “You’ve spent your entire life running away from your pain, and you think that killing us will stop that? You know nothing, May. If you knew a single thing about love or family, Peter never would have been locked in that closet. Or hidden his secret from you.” Aunt May has gotten distracted, breaking her crazed gaze from Peter and directing it to Pepper’s words.

“You, May Parker, are a failure.” That’s all it takes for May to leap towards Pepper with a vicious snarl, and play the tip of the knife over her skin.

Peter hadn’t noticed it until now, but Pepper had been stripped down to a tank top and her pants, and Peter was shirtless. What was the purpose of that?

“Will Tony still love you if you have scars?” Aunt May says through gritted teeth, applying pressure to the knife. The second the pressure starts, Aunt May leans her mouth next to Pepper’s ear. “I guess it won’t matter, since you’ll be dead anyways.” Pepper starts to cry out, but bites her tongue and closes her eyes. Across her shoulders, down her arms, dotting her chest, the knife is dragged everywhere. Thin, spidery lacerations spread across Pepper’s entire body that start to spill droplets of blood down her skin, staining everything red. Through it all, Pepper says nothing. Just the occasional whimper or shuddery breath.

“Now all we have to do is wait for 8:30.” May says, wiping a droplet of sweat from her hairline. As if on cue, her watch beeps. 8:30.

Oh no.

“Well, looks like the fun just keeps on going.” She smiles at stares between the two, before leaning down inches in front of Pepper’s face.

“What do you think, Pepper? Should it be Peter’s turn?” Pepper opens her mouth to say something, but all that comes out is a warbled sob.

“I’ll take that as a yes, then.” Aunt May steps away from Pepper and comes to Peter’s side. Grabbing his face tightly in her hands, she grasps the remote in the other.

“I want you to look me in the eyes the entire time.” She growls. “And I want you to regret betraying me.”

A sudden surge of anger flies through Peter. “You may have raised me, but Tony and Pepper are my family. They’re the only family I need.”

With a furious gasp, Aunt May slams her finger down on the button.

Right away, nothing happens. Then, a watery cry of, “Peter!” comes from Pepper as the bands coiling around his skin start to glow red-hot. As it always is with heat, Peter feels the ropes around him turning cold. He’s confused, at first. Then, the heat sinks in. The sweltering, scream-in-pain heat. And it encircles his entire body.

**********

Tony slams in the door of the school, prowling through the dark hallways. He can hardly see anything in front of him, but his suit illuminates the rooms on the screen he’s seeing. He pulls his mask back into his suit, sweat dripping down his forehead.

“Peter!” He screams with all his voice, hearing the sound echo back to him. “Pepper!” Again, just the sound of his own, desperate voice bouncing back to him.

“FRI, scan the building.” A quick analysis reveals there are three heat signatures across the campus. He glides through the building, hope pounding through his veins and warbling his thoughts. He’s so close. He’s so, so close.

He slams into the door, throwing it off its hinges and slamming it against the opposite wall. The mask recedes back into the suit, and he stares at three guilty teenagers, holding random objects. Cursing violently, Tony flies back through the school and up into the sky.

I was wrong. I was wrong. I was wrong. His brain slams against itself, and he starts to take in deep breathes. He’s running out of time, and his suit clicks in his ear to remind him that it’s 8:30.

Great. He only has three and a half hours, and then…

Tony doesn’t even want to think about it.

**********

“You’re killing him!” Pepper cries desperately, ignoring her own pain to reduce Peter’s. “Put me in his place, please!”

“You had your chance.” May snarls. “But I suppose you’re right. That’s enough time.” She pushes the button again, and Peter cries out in relief. He has burns across his entire body, and even breathing hurts. His skin has started to peel, and he’s red everywhere.

“Peter?” Pepper calls out to him hopelessly. Peter just groans in response, but it results in more pain.

“Oh, God, Tony.” Pepper closes her eyes and tips her head backwards. “Hurry up.” Aunt May watches the two of them with a silent curiosity. She feels no ill feelings towards the pair of them; they do deserve it, after all. But most of all, she can’t wait to see the horrified look on Tony’s face when he sees his family ravaged by her. Oh, revenge. Is there anything as sweet?

/AN/ I'm sorry it took me so long, and hopefully I'll have another update before the end of the week. I love you all, and I'm so so excited to see that some of you have made friends through a comment chat (your messages are all very funny). If you wouldn't mind, I have a one shot that I published a few weeks ago. It's about Peter being gay and coming out to Tony and Aunt May. It was a request by someone else, so if you have the time, totally go check it out!! Thank you all, you are all amazing human beings!! /AN/