Peter woke up groggily and rubbed his eyes. Almost immediately, he realized that he was not in the tower. He was back in a cell with HYDRA. It was identical to his old cell and Peter's heart sunk. He had begun to believe the Avengers when they said that they would never let him be taken, but if he was honest, he knew that HYDRA was too strong and one day they would come for him. He already had more time outside than he ever thought he would have. He shouldn't be greedy.

The door to his cell suddenly opened and Peter reflexively stood with his legs apart, his hands behind his back, and his head looking straight forward. Four men came into the room, heavily armed, Peter couldn't help but notice, followed by a dark-haired woman that Peter had always just called 'The Doctor'. He made his face a mask as his stomach dipped in a hollow fear.

She looked at him, assessing for something that Peter couldn't guess. He always seemed to make the woman unhappy. "Weapon. You have successfully been retrieved. You will be tested and retrained in the areas you are deemed lacking from your time wasted with the Avengers."

Peter could not say what made him speak. He knew better, but a spark of anger burst forth, "The Avengers are good! My time wasn't wasted!"

The woman strode forward quickly and Peter's head snapped to the side from the force of her smack. He tried to ignore the feeling of stinging needles in his cheek, but his eyes welled a little with tears that he attempted to blink back. When he looked forward again, he was rewarded with another sharp slap.

"You poor weapon, they have deceived you, even after all of our warnings. Even after the small number of months in their care, they have made you weak. One small smack because of your disobedience, and you are crying like a baby." The woman taunted.

"It's okay to cry. Mama says it's a bad rule." Peter whispered to himself, but the woman could still hear.

She laughed, a high-pitched, cruel sound. "Mama? Did they do better fooling you than I ever imagined? Weapon, they are not your family. They tricked you so they can use you. They knew you were a weapon and wanted to protect themselves from any danger by making you weak."

Peter shook his head in denial and the doctor almost gently reached out to his cheek and trailed her fingers along his red mark and down to his neck where she squeezed just to where it felt uncomfortable. "You know it is true, Weapon. But HYDRA will help you and then you will have your revenge and destroy those that tried to use you."

Peter's heart raced. He didn't know who to believe. "They love me." He whispered brokenly.

"Weapon, we have always told you the truth. What is love?" She sneered, pressing her fingers even deeper into his neck, where it was getting difficult for him to breath.

Peter gasped out the answer he knew she wanted. "Love is a fairy tale." He gasped out. A little less pressure on his neck. "It is for children and those too weak-minded to know the difference." He could breathe freely again. "Love does not exist." He finished reciting, tears welling again. Peter braced himself and stood stoic this time at the slap he received for his weakness.

"So you know the truth, and yet still were too weak not to fall in their trap. HYDRA will protect you, Weapon. We will build you even stronger than before. You know these weaknesses cannot be tolerated." She practically purred.

But Peter's ears had pricked to a noise he heard outside the open door. His sensitive hearing picked up on screaming, which at HYDRA was not unusual. But, Peter knew immediately whose screams those were. His face turned to stone and he growled, "Papa." Before head butting the doctor, who fell back, nose bloody, and screeching.

The soldiers converged on Peter almost immediately, but he was too fast for them. He jumped to the ceiling and skittered across the ceiling, leaving the room to follow the sounds of Bucky being tortured. He fell to the floor and stood in front of a steel door that was locked. With a quick tug, he took the door completely off its hinges and threw it at the man who was standing in front of a machine that Bucky was hooked up to.

Peter strode forward quickly. "Papa!" He called frantically. He looked at the man who had dark circles under his eyes, was sweating, and moaning in pain. "I found you, Papa!" Peter told him. Peter didn't quite know what to do, as he wanted to hug the man but didn't want to hurt him. He settled for ripping the restraints from his non-metal arm, as the metal one was completely covered by some sort of thick metal covering.

Bucky's shaking hand reached forward and pulled Peter close and Bucky breathed heavily as he carded his fingers through Peter's hair. He suddenly froze and the last thing Peter knew was Bucky calling out, "Peter! NO!" before he felt a familiar prick in his neck and then everything went dark.

When Peter next awoke, he was strapped down in a chair in an otherwise bare room. He tugged on the restraints, but he knew that HYDRA would make sure that he could not get out after the stunt he just pulled. He took a moment to panic because he knew he was in so much trouble. He tried to calm himself when he began breathing deeply, as it stung his stomach muscles. The soldiers must have punished him after they found him.

The door to his cell opened and Peter felt a thrill of satisfaction at the bruised face of the doctor as she strode into the room with a scowl, followed by two assistants who silently began attaching Peter to a machine. The room felt stifling as nobody spoke and all Peter could hear was his own breathing and loud heartbeat.

"Now, Weapon, it seems we have more work to do than I previously thought. We will begin easily today. I am going to show you pictures and you are going to tell me about them." The doctor told him in sugary sweet voice.

A picture was projected in front of Peter and he sighed in relief. "That's Pops."

"Tell me about him." The doctor ordered.

Peter licked his lips nervously before saying, "He gives me the best hugs and draws pictures with me." Immediately Peter began writhing and screaming in his chair as electricity poured through his veins.

"No, Weapon. Bad. This is Captain America and he hates HYDRA. He and the Avengers are trying to destroy our chances of making a better world." The doctor told him in a soft voice behind his ear. "Next." She ordered.

"Dad makes me sandwiches when I can't sleep and teaches me how to build things. AH!" Peter screamed again.

"Wrong again. That's Iron Man. He hoards technology to help Captain America. His nickname is the Merchant of Death." The doctor told him.

Peter paused when he saw the next photo. "Uncle Clint plays in the vents with me and is the official tower cookie taste tester with me." Peter grit out before screaming again. The photos went on. Peter tried to be strong, but the woman's voice kept telling him how he had been tricked, how the Avengers lied, how HYDRA would take care of him.

"We'll do just one more round today, Weapon. You just have to tell me who they are. Nothing else. We'll continue tomorrow after you rest." The doctor assured him. Peter felt her hand squeeze his shoulder gently and Peter hated that he liked the soothing gesture.

The first picture came on the screen. "Captain America." He whispered with a raspy voice. But it must have been good enough, as the next photo came up. "Iron Man. Hawkeye. Black Widow. Thor. Hulk. Asset." He listed each one monotonously, just wanting to rest.

"Last one, and it's the easiest." The doctor cooed.

Peter looked at the screen listlessly and then sat up straighter. He blinked at it, unsure if he was seeing correctly. "I know they tried to trick you. They wanted to change what you really are. What is on that screen?" The doctor came around and looked at Peter's face as he examined the screen and the picture of himself.

Peter opened his dry chapped lips and looked the woman directly in the eyes. "Peter." He screamed as the electricity shot through him.

"Who is on the screen?" She hissed.

"Peter." He said a little more strongly, choking the last part of the word on a scream.

"Who is that, Weapon?" She got close to his face.

Peter looked back at her furiously. "Peter." He screamed as his body shook with the power of the electricity. "I. Am. PETER!" He screamed as the door to the room flung open and the doctor and her assistants looked up in shock.

"Get away from my kid!" Tony's deadly voice boomed through the room. When they didn't move, Tony held up his gauntlets and the three found themselves blasted across the room and away from Peter. Tony strode forward and Peter gasped in great gulps of air, trying to control his sobs of relief as Tony ripped the wires that were coursing electricity into him from his body and shot lasers through his restraints and freed him.

He knew exactly what Peter wanted though as he stepped out of his suit and collected the shaking boy into a tight hug. "Dad. You came!" Peter cried into his shoulder.

Tony squeezed the boy tighter. "Always. I will always come for you. We all will. Let's get out of here." Tony told him, carrying him and the Iron Man suit followed closely behind, scanning the area that was hazy with smoke and debris. Tony froze and Peter tensed up when a figure came barreling towards them down the hall.

The suit raised its hand but did not shoot when Tony saw that it was Steve who dropped his shield and wrapped both his arms around Tony and Peter. Steve kissed Tony and then Peter felt him kiss his forehead, warm tears dripping on him. "Pops?" Peter asked softly. "You came too?"

"Of course, buddy, we all did." Steve said before letting them go and pulling Peter from Tony's arms so that Tony's arms could rest.

"I am Peter." Peter told him furiously.

"What?" Steve asked in a daze, looking down at the boy in his arms.

Peter looked up at Steve defensively. "I am Peter."

Steve cuddled Peter close to him and set off down the hall towards a large hole where the quinjet was waiting on autopilot. "You are. You're Peter and you belong with us."

Peter was greeted warmly with hugs all around. Bucky looked as relieved as Peter to see him and accepted his hug with shaky hands that didn't want to let go of the boy. But, Peter had other ideas. He let go of Bucky and stood in the center of the quinjet, looking each Avenger clearly in the eyes as his cracking voice said firmly, "I am Peter!"

The Avengers' hearts clenched and Peter grinned at their acceptance of his announcement. "I am Peter and I love you. And you love me because we're family. HYDRA is bad and lied. We are good and I want to go home."

Steve was the first to step forward and get down on one knee before Peter. He rested a hand on Peter's shoulder and said, "You're right, Peter. Let's go home." Peter flung himself into Steve's waiting arms and the rest of his family soon joined the hug.

Peter popped his head up, "When we get there can we have cookies?" Everyone chuckled at that, and Tony promised him he could have as many as he wanted. When Steve rolled his eyes and jabbed his stomach in disapproval, causing Tony to quickly backpedal, Peter grinned knowing he was finally heading home.

Author's Note:

Well, this is it for this story! I have a sequel in the works and once I finish outlining it, should have the first chapter out pretty soon. I'd like to take a minute and thank all of you lovely people who have read and left love and reviews. I have been seriously overwhelmed by people's response to this story. It was my first one and I was incredibly nervous to post, but have felt so welcome here! Thank you so much for everything!