Peter couldn't really tell when he was awake anymore. Were his eyes open?

There were sharp thuds outside his little cell, every now and then he could hear Liz doing something in the basement.

Was he dreaming? Every now and then he could hear someone talking to him, it kind of sounded like Wanda. Was Wanda captured, too? Maybe it was a trick. Peter shut down his mind, and never talked back.

Peter knew that he could get out of there, if he just refused the food. He had a good feeling it was laced with whatever Liz was using to make him less powerful, so he was dumping the food out whenever she gave it to him.

He was getting stronger, but he was also tired and hurt, still trying to heal on an empty stomach.

It was dark in his little cell, and he hardly ever saw Liz anymore. A few days ago, Peter guessed, she had pulled him out of his cell, trying to get him to break down. He refused. She had thrown him back in the cell, then mumbled something about how she would break him. How she would take everything from him.

He sat in the dark, unsure if his eyes were open or not. Unsure if he was alive or dreaming.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tony, Pepper, and Natasha had been remarkably less broken since the news of the breakthrough. They finally had a name. They finally knew who they were going to kill for this.

Ned and MJ had been watching Liz's social medias, trying to get a sense of where she might be holding Peter. Clint and Bucky had confided that they only figured out about Liz being the captor after she had used a credit card to buy spider repellent before the attack at the school, and tracing that lead back, had found that she had been the one to rent the unmarked truck from the mall.

"For a villain, she's not very good at it," Clint remarked.

But she was better than they gave her credit for, seeing as she was able to keep Peter's whereabouts rather unknown, and there hadn't been much else to go on.

Wanda had tried reaching out, but she wasn't getting any response, and she had no idea why.

"I don't know why he won't respond, it's like he can't hear me or he won't acknowledge me," she sighed, flopping down at the table.

"Maybe... maybe he thinks its a trick or something. Peter isn't new to this, he knows bad guys like to screw with people. He might be thinking its a trick to get him to reveal something," Steve spoke up.

"He may also be disoriented, depending on where he is being held. And how he is being treated," Loki offered. Pepper excused herself, and MJ slipped out of the room with her. It was hard to imagine their boy being held. Being scared and alone. Being tortured.

Tony sighed. It wasn't easy for him to sit here and plan for the worst, but he knew he had to be strong for his son in these moments. He had to be all the things his father hadn't been.

"Any clues on her social media?"

Ned looked up at the billionaire and the team around him. "Not really," he sighed. "She's been really careful about posting only when she is out of the house or in her room. She did say something kinda odd about needing to meet an old friend, like, 2 weeks ago, but I checked with a bunch of her old friends and no one saw her, so I think that's the day she grabbed Peter. Then she posted something about, like, remodeling? It was super weird."

"Okay, so we know its her. Annddd... that's it."

The team fell silent. Sure, they had a name, but it had been another week since their name breakthrough, and they were so scared for their boy.

"We need a way to make him talk to Wanda, we need a lead," Bucky said.

"And after that?"

"After that we have Strange portal us in, we grab him, and come back for Liz after Peter is safe," Tony said. Despite every fiber of his being screaming to kill the girl who had taken Peter, he knew he had to get his son to safety first.

"No portals," Strange spoke up. "No portals for Peter, we can portal in, but I'm not taking him out through another portal. Not when we don't know how she broke into the last one." Bruce sighed heavily, and put a hand on the doctor's shoulder. The surgeon had been distraught ever since Peter had been taken, and nothing Bruce said made him feel better. He was barely agreeing to the portals for the rest of the team.

"Okay, then we fly in. I'll grab Peter, you all wait outside. The less noise we make, the better, we don't know a lot about what she can do and I don't want to alert her to our presence earlier than we need to."

The team agreed, it was a pretty good idea. It would keep Peter safe.

"Now all we need to do is make sure Peter knows it's Wanda..." The team fell silent.

"I could bring up the science museum?" Wanda shrugged. It was a long shot, seeing as he might just see it as his mind playing tricks. "If he's in a bad shape, though, he might jut chalk it up to a dream. I heard him a few nights ago thinking about if he was awake or not, and that sort of thing."

"Wait, we was that confused?" Natasha finally spoke up. Wanda nodded, and Natasha sent a look to Bucky.

"What?" Tony's eyes were laced with worry.

Bucky sighed and Natasha kept talking. "If he's having trouble deciding what's happening and what's real, he is probably being kept in the dark. He probably has no sense of time or the difference between looking at a dark room and sleeping, and with Wanda's scattered thoughts, he maybe confused as to what is real and what is dreaming."

"It's an old HYDRA trick, and if they had anything to do with this, then we need to go get Peter, like, now. Yesterday," Bucky said, crossing his arms.

"To be fair," Natasha said softly. "It is a pretty common trick used in capture, lets not jump straight to HYDRA involvement."

The team was silent again. In any case, they were worried about Peter. Very worried.

"What if I try and reason to him? Like tell him he's not dreaming, tell him things only the family would know?"

"I'm worried that if it's stuff he knows, he'll think its a dream," Tony said, honestly.

"Oh! Tell him that I said 'coo-a-doodle-doo'," Ned said, imitating some strange bird. "Then yell "wake the FUCK up!" The boy smiled at the team, satisfied with his contribution. Shuuri laughed, nearly falling out of her chair.

"Why would I do that?" Wanda's stare was blank, similar to the other's looks.

"Because he'll know exactly what that means. Its a vine," Shuuri said. The table kept their blank looks.

"Its a joke, okay?" Ned rolled his eyes.

"Okay," Wanda said. "And after I say all that?"

"Then tell him to focus on his breathing. And tell him to use his hand to feel around the cell and tell him that means he's awake. Peter does well when he can use his senses," Tony said.

"Then ask him where the hell he is," Rhodey said.

Wanda smiled softly. She closed her eyes, reaching out with her mind. Peter, she thought.

Peter, brother, please...