Unravel

Part 4

Even with his decision made, Tony Stark was having a slightly hard time locating Peter. No one dared to report the Recluse while he was in their area, only after he left would the police be notified of the dead bodies in some rundown part of a neighborhood. But Peter would already be on the other side of the city by then...

Tony went to check one of the crime scenes, Natasha, Clint, and Cap tagging along to help out. They were the ones trained to track people down after all. Though even they couldn't do much good when the only thing there was a massive pool of blood and rotting bodies. 

It was their first time being at the scene physically, and it was horrifying. The pictures that they had all seen, and what had been shown in the news, had been greatly played down.

"Are you sure that this is Peter?" Steve asked in a whisper, leaning close to Tony so that the police wouldn't hear. "Because even if he had snapped, these murders... they aren't human."

Tony's heart was pounding in his chest, his throat closing up and his head fuzzy. Because Steve was right, this wasn't the doing of a human. These murders were animistic, savage, the work of a monster...  The way the bodies had been thrown into a pile in the corner of the room, some of the limbs separated from the person; the blood splattering the walls and reaching even to the ceiling before it pooled all across the floor... Could Peter really do this? Or was it something else? Was this the work of the underlings that had started to follow Peter's dark persona, the Recluse? 

There were so many questions that Tony didn't have the answer to, but what he did know was that Peter would be traumatized when he returned. Peter might not ever be the same again if this kept on for any longer... Not to mention if the news medias made the connection between the Recluse and Spider-Man.

"No, it's him." All eyes went to Clint as he crouched by the wall, staring at something on the floor. The others joined him to see what he was looking at, finding the Spider-Man symbol scratched into the floor. "Though, I don't think it's really him that's in control."

Steve glanced around, waving his hands at the policemen to signal them to leave. He waited until they were all gone to ask, "What do you mean?"

Clint stood, looking at Tony, "You said that when you last saw Peter, you felt something about him had changed? Like something had snapped inside of him? What if Peter created a split personality to protect himself while he was kidnapped by those men? He's attacking people now because he may think that they'll hurt him."

"He's still scared..." Nat continued, "He thinks that the men who hurt him are still out there? Or that everyone is out to get him now? So the second personality is still out and trying to protect him, but the real Peter may be trying to fight back, if this symbol is anything to go by."

"Scared..." Tony shook his head as he took a step back and ran his hands through his hair. "Does this look like the work of someone that's scared to you? This is literally a bloody massacre! This is the work of someone that's twisted and demonized, not scared! Look at the faces on the bodies, even in death they're agonized!"

"Tony-"

"It was my job to protect him!" Tony turned his back on them as he clenched his jaw, "I was supposed to protect him but I didn't and he was kidnapped and now this is happening! What do  you think is going to happen if we do get Peter back? You know how righteous that boy is, you know that this will destroy him in a completely different way!"

"So you're going to give up on him?" Natasha stared at the back of Tony's head, her eyes hard. "It took you long enough to decide to start looking for him, now that you're faced with the truth of what's happening, you're going to give up?"

"I never said that," Tony wheeled around to hold her glare, a fire in his eyes as he silently challenged her to say that again.

"You're acting like it."

"I will find him."

"We will find him," Steve placed his hand on Tony's shoulder, squeezing it firmly. "You aren't alone in this, Tony. And neither is Peter; we will find him and bring him back, and then we'll help him get through any memories he has of this."

The group looked at Steve, Clint nodding in agreement as Nat and Tony confirmed their determination with their eyes. They would find Peter as a team, and help him just the same.

"Now, we just need to figure out a way to track him down. Nat, any way you can find some of his followers? I'm sure they would lead us to Peter at some point."

The woman nodded as she crossed her arms, "Yeah, people like that will stand out. It'll be easy to find them and follow them back to Peter."

"Good, we'll move on your call then. In the meantime, we need to come up with a plan to capture him."

"Capture him?" Tony squinted an eye at the Captain, "You make it sound like he's-"

"An enemy?" Steve placed his hand on Tony's shoulder, "Tony, Peter is not himself right now and there's a definite possibility that he'll attack us as well. We need to be prepared for every possible situation if we want to get him back. He could attack us, run from us, hell he could even be scared of us. After all this time, and he still hasn't come back, I don't think he'll be too compliant now." 

Everyone was silent, knowing that Steve was right. This wasn't just a case of mind control or possession, this was mental. And even though they hated to admit it, Peter might never truly return to his old self...

"Excuse me," A voice interrupted as one of the police officers came back into the room, bringing the Avengers' attention on him. "I thought you would like to know, a family a few blocks over just received a package that contained her husband's head..."

"Okay?" Clint raised an eyebrow, obviously wondering why the officer would think this information would be good for them.

"It had a note in it from the Recluse."

Oh. That was why they needed to know.

"C'mon, let's go check it out." Tony stalked towards the door, letting the officer lead the way to the house. This news sent a chill down his spine, not liking this one bit... But if the Recluse wrote a note, it might help them a great deal when it came to reversing whatever physiological problems the boy had. And if not, at least it would let them have some clue about the new him.

With solemn expressions, the small team left for the grieving family.

A/N: So... I don't think this is staying to true to the Tokyo Ghoul season 2 plot line... Hopefully I can bring that back because without it I have no idea where this story is going. Maybe it would help if I actually watched the series again.....