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The first thing Penny noticed when she woke up was the pain. It was pulsating in her left knee, and radiated throughout the rest of her body. She could feel blood drip down her nose, or were those tears? She raised a shaky hand to her face, which was surprisingly difficult, wiped her nose and pulled her hand back into view. Definitely blood. The next thing she felt was cool metal wrapped around her ankle. She looked over at her foot to find a metal cuff wrapped around it, which attached to a chain that was connected to the wall. The wall… it was some sort of brownish cement, and the floor she was laying on looked to be some kind of cheap tile. There were bars across one wall which also had a door. Penny was sure she could break those if she could only get her body to function again. Everything felt sluggish and dreamlike, and even a movement as simple as lifting her head proved remarkably difficult.
How had she gotten here? Penny tried to remember. She’d been… walking? Yes, she’d been walking home after a lab day. It was dark… Mr. Stark wanted Happy to drive her but she insisted she could walk on her own, she was Spidergirl! She was regretting that now. After she left the tower was when things started to get really fuzzy. Something about a van… and her knee… had she been shot? It certainly felt like it. Penny laid for a while, trying fruitlessly to break the chain on her ankle and maybe get a better grasp on how she got here. Eventually, just as she felt a bit of her strength returning, someone walked up to the bars. It was a man, tall but not very muscular, he had short, dark hair and eyes that carried no thoughts. His expression was almost dead as he gazed at her, like a robot with no feeling.
“You have a really good poker face.” Penny said lightly, trying to maintain her witty personality. The man cocked his head to the side and raised one eyebrow, making his face seem a little more human. He walked a little to the left where the door was and unlocked it, stepping inside the cell.
“I’m serious man, I mean you could win big at the casino if you gave up on this whole kidnapping-” Penny screamed mid sentence as his foot hit her stomach. She rolled over with a groan and wrapped an arm around herself.
“Don’t talk.” The man said threateningly. Penny didn’t dare respond as she lay there helpless. Suddenly she felt a sharp pain in her neck and she cried out again, weaker this time. Her head started feeling fuzzier again and limbs slowly stopped obeying her commands. Her arm fell from her stomach and the world went black.
Some indeterminate time later she awoke, once again greeted immediately by the pain in her leg and now her stomach. Her brain felt so hazy and weird. She coughed and felt something wet drip down her lips and chin. This time there was someone already outside her cell. A different man from the one earlier, he wasn’t quite as tall but was more muscular, and this one had blonde hair and blue eyes that reminded her a little of Steve Rogers. The man was on the phone with someone who sounded upset, though he was smiling coolly. Penny attempted to sit up but instead let out an involuntary gasp of pain when she tried to move her leg. The man turned his head towards her.
“It seems that our little bargaining chip has just woken up, would you like to speak with her?” The blonde man said into the phone. The person on the other end yelled once again, but Penny’s foggy mind couldn’t make out their words. The door opened once again and Penny tried to crawl away, afraid of a repeat of last time.
“No, no, no” the man said condescendingly, as if he were scolding a small child. She let out a weak cry of pain as he grabbed her by the hair, pulling her upward and turning her around to face him. Her knee and her stomach hurt so bad, and there was blood dripping in her eyes from what she thought was probably a nasty cut on her forehead.
“Penny!” a familiar voice cried. Penny opened her eyes as best she could and managed to make out Mr. Stark's face on the phone screen that the blonde man was holding in front of her.
“Mis’er S’ark?” She slurred heavily. Mr. Stark was on the phone, he was going to fix it. Penny looked around desperately for any clues to her location, though even turning her head proved difficult. If she could just tell Mr. Stark where she was then he could fix it. The walls… and the bars, It all seemed oddly familiar. She spotted a sign on the wall behind her captor. She struggled to make out the words, her vision blurring with pain. Something something prison. A prison! Then everything clicked. This was the abandoned prison a few miles outside of the city! She’d busted a huge weapons operation that had been going on here just a few months ago.
“The prison,” she said lazily “... abandoned prison… outside of town” She managed to get that much out before her captor kneed her in the stomach.
“Shut up!” The blonde man roared. She could vaguely hear Mr. Stark screaming over the phone.
“Well, now that Penny has so generously given up our location,” he said bitterly, landing another kick to her stomach, “ Why don’t you come meet us here. Come alone and unarmed, or we will not hesitate to kill her. Bring only what we talked about before”
With that he hung up the phone, looking disgustedly down at Penny. It felt like hours before Mr. Stark arrived, but Penny guessed it was probably more like fifteen minutes. She was laying on the ground, which she seemed to do a lot of these days, when she heard a loud bang in the hall outside her cell. She couldn’t bring her eyes to open but she heard her door open and suddenly there were hands on her.
“Mis’er Stark?” She mumbled.
“Unfortunately for you, no” Before her very sluggish mind could decipher the situation, she was once again lifted by her hair, letting out a weak cry of pain.
“You should’ve listened Stark. You thought you could storm in here with your suit and save her without losing anything?” The man holding her let out a disbelieving scoff, “You should’ve listened, and now she’ll pay the price”
Her spider senses screamed as she felt something metal be pressed to the side of her head. Penny cracked open her eyes as best she could to see Mr. Stark standing at the bars, his face mostly calm, though anyone who knew him could see the desperation and terror in his eyes.
“Please,” He said, trying but failing to remain calm, “You don’t need to hurt her, I’ll give you whatever you want”
“You should’ve listened.” Her spider senses screamed more than they ever had before. A loud bang echoed through the room, and then nothing.
———————
Tony had gone over the events in his head countless times in the weeks since it had happened, desperate to find out exactly what had gone wrong.
“Mis’er Stark” he heard her whine as he rounded the corner. But she wasn’t talking to him.
“Unfortunately for you, no” the man said unsympathetically. Tony was going to kill that man.
Tony had fully rounded the corner and was grasping the bars of the cage now, scared to move any closer lest he scare the man into shooting. The man grabbed her by the hair and yanked her upwards, causing her to let out a weak cry of pain that made Tony’s heart clench.
“You should’ve listened Stark. You thought you could storm in here with your suit and save her without losing anything?” The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a gun. Then, Tony’s worst fear came to life as he pressed it to Penny’s head. “You should’ve listened, and now she’ll pay the price”
She looked scared. Even with her almost limp body and her clear inability to grasp what was going on, she looked scared. Tony didn’t want her to die scared.
“Please” Tony begged. It hit him in this moment how much he loved the kid. He couldn’t lose her. “You don’t need to hurt her, I’ll give you whatever you want.”
“You should’ve listened.” The man growled. And then the worst noise Tony had ever heard. Penny dropped to the floor and blood spread rapidly around her head, soaking her hair. With nothing left to lose, Tony charged the man, tackling him and punching him unconscious, then quickly making his way to Penny.
She didn’t look scared anymore. She looked peaceful and that was worse. She didn’t look scared anymore because she was dead.
Tony wasn’t sure how long he had stayed there holding her, sobbing into her hair and memorizing every detail of her face, lest it fade from his memory. It must have only actually been an hour so before Rhodey found him. Rhodey too had dropped to his knees, crying for the girl that had called him her uncle. Rhodey was a little more clear minded though, and soon he helped Tony up, walking him to the car where Happy waited.
“Where’s the kid?” Happy had asked in a small voice, as if he’d already known the answer. He might have, considering the amount of blood on Tony’s clothes. Rhodey simply shook his head, and Happy too had cried.
Everyone cried for a long time. Pepper, Happy, Rhodey, and especially Tony and May. Had the kid known how many people cared about her? Tony hoped so. He wasn’t sure he would ever stopped blaming himself for what happened, and he didn’t think he deserved to. It had been his fault after all. he should’ve listened.