avenger!peter parker x avenger! reader
summary: peter loses you on a mission, and it's worse than he could've imagined
cw: body gore! mdni! i wanted to experiment with writing body horror, so it gets very graphic when detailing injuries/mutilation. there's no description of the actual events happening, just a lot of wording around the body designed to hopefully make you feel a bit squeamish!
if anyone wants, i'd love to do a part two with the medical-side juxtaposition as well, and give a sweet lil peter ending to turn this angst into fluff i fucking did and forgot to tag it! here it is!
peter shot one last web towards the wall, concluding his mural of men webbed along the hallway outside the security room. he gave himself a proud smile, admiring his work.
"you're telling me these guys are hydra? for a decades-long terrorist organization, they sure don't know how to train their front line very well."
you snickered beside him, sliding another bloodied man along the tiled floor to where you'd piled the others.
"i don't get why tony has us on security watch, this is light work. why even have me train under nat if i can't use my skills in practice? i wanna get my hands dirty, i wanna know what they aren't telling us." you kicked the foot of the man below you, turning to peter and giving him a frown. he offered you a knowing smile in return.
"yeah, i get what you mean. come on, lets just get in there and disable the security measures. then we can go back to the jet and try that chocolate i bought at the sokovian 7-eleven."
you grinned at him, heart swelling at the thought of some alone time with peter before the rest of the team was done.
"alright. you head in, i'm going to do one more sweep of the first floor while you're in there."
peter felt his senses go off for a second, a weird feeling in his chest. "i don't know, maybe we shouldn't split up."
you gave him a look. "what, you don't think i can handle myself? come on, you know we've cleared this floor already. plus, you've got like, three buttons to hit and we're home free, it won't be that long."
"but nothing, spidey. come on, work your tech magic and meet me out here."
he let out a breath, shaking off whatever bad feeling was sitting in his stomach. "yeah, you're probably right. one sec,"
peter ducked into the security room, a dissonant beep ringing through the air as he held the keycard to the lock. the light flashed green and let him in. he laughed, "thanks bad guys!"
he heard you chuckle from down the hall as he made his way into the room, a smile on his face. he would never admit it to you, but he liked that you two were handed the short stick on missions. you were in and out, leaving time alone before the rest of the team came back, and he relished those moments more than any chance of glory.
he reached the switchboard, glancing at the monitors as he saw the rest of the team on the cameras making their rounds on various floors. "god we're so badass."
(y/n) was right: it was a matter of exactly three commands before he had the systems disabled. he heard tony through his comms,
"thanks, kid. now, do us all a favor and get yourself to the jet. this shouldn't take long."
peter smiled to himself, a feeling of accomplishment coursing through him. did he press literally there buttons? yes. but he pressed three buttons as an avenger. man, that would never grow old.
he heard commotion from down the hall and called out towards you. "alright (y/n), we've had our fun. stop messing with them and let's fuck up some chocolate, shall we?"
he was met with silence, his chest feeling tight again. "(y/n)?"
he took one step out of the room before his head was met with a metal fist, the CRACK of his own skull ringing through his ears before he lost consciousness.
tony jerked back as his hand repulsor let out a blast, sending the guy on steve's back to the ground with a heavy thud.
"mr. stark, both peter and (y/n) have gone unconscious." FRIDAY echoed through the suit. his blood ran cold.
"both of them are in the building and their vitals are stable, however, they've both just lost consciousness within one minute of each other."
he felt his breathing pick up, his heartbeat commanding in his chest. he looked to steve and nat. "you guys good?"
nat threw a nasty headbutt, sending the agent in front of her collapsing to the ground. "go, tony."
he flew out without another word.
"FRIDAY, get me their most recent location."
"head to the security room, sir. take a left now."
tony reached the room in a matter of a minute, missiles out and on guard. he announced himself before storming the room, standing down once met with peter on the ground, no one else around him. he rushed out of his suit and to his side, shaking the boy relentlessly.
a few more desperate shakes and peter was gasping for air, fists flying and ready to fight.
"woah woah woah, hey— you're alright, you're okay. same sides, just me."
peter stalled his movements, taking a deep breath and allowing himself to grab ahold of his surroundings. he sat up slowly before immediately regretting it. man, did his head hurt.
"kid, you alright? you're bleeding. take of the mask, i need to see it." tony reached towards him, only to be swatted at.
"mr. stark, someone'll see!"
"kid, the floor is clear. i'm pretty sure you're responsible for that. jesus, how hard did you hit your head?" he pressed the spider emblem on peter's chest, revealing his blood-stained curls.
"pete, what the hell happened? for fucks sake, we need to get you out of here. FRIDAY, admister morphine."
"what? no, mr. stark don't— OW! mr. stark, what the hell??"
"kid, you're going to thank me in ten minutes. where's (y/n)?"
peter felt his mouth go dry. "w-what do you mean 'where's (y/n)''?"
tony's face fell. "shit. okay kid, let's get you to the jet. sam?" he called into his comms.
"get down here, i need you to get eyes on (y/n)."
peter shot up instantly, his mask climbing back up his face. "no, mr. stark, really. i'm fine. i can feel it healing already, honest. i have to find (y/n)."
"we aren't having a discussion on this."
"you're right, we're not."
peter took off, flying down the hallway and out of sight before tony could even get back in his suit.
"karen, show me heat signatures."
the team searched for a while, leaving no one in their way untouched. the fight to find you was growing tireless, and the more time that passed without a trace of you led to more panic spreading amongst the team — peter worst of all.
he'd grown feral in his search for you, bloodying any body he encountered.
"kid, we should head back to the jet. we need to gameplan this." tony rang through his suit.
"no. mr stark, her tracker is still in the compound and she's close enough to read vitals on."
"she's in pain, mr. stark. i'm not leaving this building without her."
peter continued to search for hours, detailing every single room in the building. he spent the most time in the room your tracker had led him to, but helpless as he couldn't find you anywhere nearby. he had screamed your name for the majority of the search, his throat raw as his own healing couldn't even keep up with his efforts. he felt the blood warm on the back of his throat, accompanying the warm flood of tears down his cheeks.
"this is all my fault." he let out a horse whimper, bouncing his head up against the brick wall in front of him.
he felt hopeless. he felt like the world was crashing around him, a wretched feeling in his chest ripping him apart from the inside. this was all his fault, he didn't—
the bricks against his forehead ground against one another before shifting backwards, causing peter to jerk his head up. he stared wide eyed to a portion of the wall having fallen back as though on hinges, a long hallway now standing in front of him.
"a secret door. you're kidding." he breathed to himself. "mr. stark?"
"yeah, kid?" tony rang through.
"i found a door hidden in the wall right where (y/n)'s location is. i'm going in."
"i'll be there in 30 seconds."
peter sighed to himself before stepping his foot over the threshold and down the concrete-lined hallway.
"this would've been way cooler 5 hours ago."
tony landed in the room, eyes on the hole in the wall as he made his way down. he spotted peter ahead of him, not quite to the room at the other end.
"mr. stark, i have (y/n)'s heat signature in the room about twenty yards ahead. she's alive, but her vital signs are unstable. i'll prepare the jet for medical intervention." FRIDAY alerted.
tony gave a deep sigh as he approached peter, a hand falling on his chest and preventing him from walking any further.
"mr. stark, what are you— we have to go, sir!"
"kid, just wait a second. i need you to be prepared for anything, okay? they had (y/n) for almost five hours, and you know what we came here for originally. just, prepare yourself."
peter scowled, a look of of uncertainty overtaking his features as though he was at war with himself. he met tony's gaze. "this is all my fault."
"hey, pete. you know that's not true. you're lucky we aren't finding you in this room too."
peter took a shakey inhale, turning back to the opening of the cold room before them. "i'll feel lucky when i have her out of here."
and with that, peter ran. he navigated the room, desperately following your heat signature as tony focused on the agents and scientists in the room. he hoped peter was entirely focused on getting to you because he sure as hell wasn't following the "no-kill" rule this time around.
with everyone else taken care of, peter ran to the other end of the room where karen had traced you. and while tony had done his best, there was nothing peter could've done to prepare himself for what he saw.
you were on the concrete floor, clothes ripped and shivering from the frigid temperature of the room. your eyes were closed as you flinched from the noises around you, but it wasn't your demeanor that stopped him dead in his tracks.
there you laid, at complete mercy of those around you. thick tubes entered your body through your arms and chest, a viscous, black sludge coursing into you. it leaked out around the edges, your torn skin wet from not only the liquid but from the amount of blood lost as well.
the tubes protruded two from each forearm and one on either side of your collarbones, each breath stretching the skin around them and causing more tearing on your chest. peter could see the outline of the tubing in your arms, your skin bulging as the tubes fished themselves up to your biceps. the sight made him lightheaded, beginning to panic as he fought to believe what his eyes were showing him.
the scent of everything brought tears to his eyes, a sickly sweet smell in the air as your body fought hard to reject everything that was happening. it was foul, a putrid scent similar to that of rotten fruit flooding his nose and raising bile in his throat. had it been from the stench alone, peter would've thought you'd been dead for hours.
he took a step closer to you and there was a crunch underneath his right foot. he lifted it and looked down, confusion coating his features. and then, there was nothing but terror.
he leaned down to pick up a tooth, skimming the area to notice another few molars scattered around your limp body. his eyes met with the bloodied pair of pillars on the ground, giving new and nightmarish reasoning to your blood-soaked mouth. peter looked back up to you and felt his knees give out.
he crawled closer, not daring to touch you to make anything worse. now, he got a better look at your face, and he almost wished he hadn't.
blood pooled down your chin and dripped onto your chest, notably from the missing teeth and whatever else they'd done to you that peter couldn't see evidence of. you let out a cough, but it came out more as a gag, blood filling your mouth at a higher rate than your body could handle. you choked, new waves of red liquid spilling from your lips and splattering across your torso as you fought to breathe.
somehow it wasn't your mouth that made peter feel faint, however. it was your eyes.
your eyelids had been crudely sewn shut, crusted over and bloody. your soft lids were torn to shreds, the flesh ripped raw — no doubt from unconscious efforts to open your eyes.
you let out a ragged breath. "hello? w-who's there?"
peter watched your eyes move underneath the lids frantically, the movement only proving his assumption correct as he watched the skin pull against the thread, flesh tearing apart at the struggle.
"hey hey hey, stop moving, please. calm down, it's just me. it's peter,"
he couldn't help the quiver in his voice, his body betraying him as tears flooded down his cheeks under the mask.
"i'm going to get you out of here, okay? i-i just need you to trust me, okay? i'm gonna get you out of here, i promise."
you nodded, the minimal movement enough to elicit a sharp cry from deep in your throat. peter winced, placing a hand on your head and running his fingers through your hair, careful not to get too close to your eyes.
"pete, i-i, please, i don't..."
karen's voice pierced through his mask, drowing out your pleas. "peter, we're losing her. you need to get her to the jet immediately."
he couldn't breathe. his vision was going dark around the edges, panic overtaking him as his eyes racked over your body, desperately hoping this was all just a horrible nightmare. at some point, the rest of the team had joined in on the fight, the sounds of gunshots and violence fading to the background as a ringing pierced his ears. he didn't know what to do, he didn't—
"p-peter? are you still there?" your trembling voice drew him out of his haze. he watched again as you fought to open your eyes, face controting in pain as you pulled against the thread. he grabbed your hand in his, giving it the faintest squeeze.
"hey, hey i'm sorry, i'm right here. please stop moving your eyes, try to relax them for me. i'm so sorry, (y/n), i'm so sorry." the last part a whisper.
you turned your head towards his voice, tears slipping through the loops in the thread. it rewet the blood crusted around your eyes, the tears running down your cheeks a pinkish-red.
"they told me i saw too much."
peter felt his stomach turn at your words, intrusive thoughts of them holding you down and stitching your eyes shut plaguing his mind.
"peter, you need to act quickly. start by removing the tubes from her arms." karen rang through his suit again.
he shook off the thought, bringing his attention back to you. "i need to get these tubes out, okay?"
you choked out an "okay", more blood spilling from your lips as you spoke.
"don't talk, okay? i'm going to get you out of here. just stay awake for me, please. i'm just gonna..." he placed his hand on one of the tubes, nauseous at their size in his hand.
he held tight, the movement alone from his grasp being enough to earn a whine from you, incoherent pleas to stop escaping your lips.
he felt panic bubble in his throat again. "karen, please. how do i do this, i... i don't... i don't know what i'm doing."
"it doesn't seem as though the tubes in her arms are intertwined with anything. the best course of action may be to pull as quickly as possible,"
peter could taste the bile in the back of his mouth.
"the tubing is about two feet long, peter. you're going to want to pull quickly and pull a lot further out than you think."
he took a deep breath, summoning all the willpower he had left. "okay, i'm going to take these out, alright? i need you to brave for me, this isn't going to feel great."
you choked out another "okay" as peter tightened his grasp on the tubing. he gave himself a mental countdown, closing his eyes and pulling as hard and as quickly as he could.
the sounds that filled his ears made him wish to never hear again. you let out a blood-curdling scream that forced an echo through the concrete room, the rasp in your voice telling peter you'd been crying out like this for hours. it broke his heart to hear you in so much pain, but somehow your deafening anguish wasn't the worst part.
he could hear as the tubing left your body. the squelching noises of the plastic running through your flesh burned to his memory, one he knew would haunt him at night. you let out another roar as the tubing left your body and peter opened his eyes, immediately looking at the now-open wound in your forearm. he no longer had to worry about the noises haunting him.
the tubing had left a gaping hole in your arm, a dark red mixture of various liquids splattering out of you. he was quick to throw a web on it, stopping the flow for now. he looked at you, tears blurring his vision.
"i'm sorry," he cried, out, nearly choking on his own sobs. "i need to keep going, i'm so sorry."
he grabbed the next one, wasting no time pulling as hard as he could. this time, however, he made the mistake of keeping his eyes open. he watched as the tubing moved from under your skin as though a snake was slithering inside of you, the bulging in your arms pulsing and raising as peter moved. the tubing hit the ground with a thud, and the next thing you could hear was peter dry heaving.
he continued with the other arm, apologies on his lips as though he was pleading for his own life. they were drowned out by your screams, the rasp in your tone growing stronger each time as you lost your ability to speak. you could feel your throat ripping apart as you cried, even more blood running down to your stomach than before. you heard the sounds of peter's webshooters and felt two more cool sensations on your left arm.
"okay, we just need to get the ones in your chest, okay? we're almost done, (y/n), i promise,"
he took a step back to examine the two tubes left before a voice cut through his ears.
"peter, you can't pull on these two, they're too close to her heart. you're going to need to sever them and leave them in so they can be taken out surgically."
the thought brought another gag to his throat. he nodded silently, reaching down to the boot on your left foot where he knew you always had a back up dagger hidden. he let out a sigh of relief as he felt the metal against his masked fingers, pulling out the knife and bringing it towards your chest. he noticed as your ragged breathing picked up.
"peter? w-what are you doing with that? what's going on, please?"
"it's okay. i have to leave these ones in here, okay? i'm going to cut them and then we're going to go," he held a firm hand on one of the tubes.
"you're going to feel some pressure, okay? you're going to feel me cutting it, and it's going—"
"—peter, she's losing consciousness. you need to make the cuts now."
"okay! okay, i— fuck, okay."
peter began to saw at the tubing, the back-and-forth movement ripping at the skin around the edges. it pulled, blood and dark liquid splashing out on your bare clavicle and turning everything he saw red. he braced for your scream, but felt even more panicked when he didn't hear one.
"hey hey, hey please no. please, stay with me, please i'm trying. just please stay alive."
he finished off the final tube, again using his webbing to seal the open ends and prevent anything else from going in (or coming out). he wrapped his arms around your limp frame, beginning to lift you. his whole body shook, the weight of the situation sitting on him like nothing he'd ever felt before. he let out a cry that hurt his chest, using everything he had left to get back to his feet.
he had you. he had you, and everything was going to be fine, he just needed to—
"kid, grab on!" tony yelled as he flew past, signaling peter to web himself onto his suit. he did so, holding you tight in his arms as tony flew them outside and towards the jet.
they landed outside, his arms shaking violently as he rushed you over to bruce who was waiting at the glider entrance.
"please, help her. please, you have to help her."
