Disclaimer: I own no Marvel characters or species or anything that Marvel owns, really.

PS. The drawing is mine, and the uploading schedule is at the end of the chapter after my author's note.

#

One thousand. Nine hundred and ninety-three. Nine hundred and eighty-six.

Clint clenched his fists as he listened to the jeering laughter and strangled screams coming from above him. The in-floor cage the aliens had stuffed in him was tiny; his legs were cramped against his chest, a metal grate cutting into the flesh of his back, his feet flexed up in front of him, his tendons stretched to the point it was no longer painful. It was so narrow that he had to hold his arms crossed in front of his chest. All he could do was to carefully count back from a thousand by the sevens while watching the minutes tick by on his digital watch.

Funny that he got to keep it.

The cage next to his was empty. Hours ago it contained Loki curled into a tight ball, his face hidden in his arms, so silent that Clint thought he was trying to smother himself.

Then the bounty hunters had opened the metal grating to Loki's cell. They had dragged him out and threw him onto a metal table on the far side of the cargo bay. The tall, blue-skinned alien crowded around Loki so tightly that Clint couldn't see what they were doing. But he saw the whips and knives and branding irons and heard the screams and knew.

One man - the captain, Clint thought, - stood on the periphery of the group, looking on with idle boredom, intervening occasionally if the others got too rowdy.

It had been like this for months.

"Not so clever are you now?" one of the men crowed.

Clint focused his gaze on his flexed, naked feet, listening to the crack of a whip followed by Loki's high-pitched scream.

"Come on, Silver Tongue, talk your way out of this one! Pry his mouth open," another of the aliens – Ver-Men, the only one besides that captain that came every time- said.

Clint closed his eyes, but he couldn't block out the raucous laughter. Underneath the jeers he heard Loki gagging. He felt sick to his stomach.

"Hold his mouth shut!" Ver-Men ordered. "Swallow it, Silver Tongue. Go on- Or do you like the taste?"

They screamed with laughter.

Eight hundred and ninety-five. Eight hundred and eighty-eight.

Suddenly one of the men cried out in pain. "He bit me!"

"Bite him back!"

"Bite his little hand off!"

If he could move, Clint would have considered trying to break out of the iron cage while his captors were distracted.

"Oi, no maiming!" the captain shouted. "He wants the trickster alive and whole. If we ruin his fun, it'll be us that he'll take it on."

There were some moans of disappointment, but soon there was a short scream from Loki and they began laughing again.

"Oh, you don't like that, do you?" the man who had accused Loki of biting him snarled. "Does that hurt? Do you want me to stop or do you want more? Well?"

A branding iron was snatched from the fire and Loki screamed again. The men laughed louder, almost as loud as the scream. They shifted as one, allowing Clint to see the small boy that was Loki on the floor, held in place as they burned him. The spell that had been put on him, before he was returned to earth, before all this, had reduced him to looking like a two-year-old.

It didn't stop his tormenters.

Six hundred and ninety-nine. Six hundred and ninety-two.

"Use that silver tongue or we'll cut it out, maiming or no maiming!" the man shouted, angry hysteria in his voice.

"He can't talk if you keep making him scream," the captain pointed out.

The sounds above faded, Loki's screams died, the men fell silent. Clint distinctly heard Loki's ragged breaths and moans.

"Well? Do you want me to stop or do you want more?"

"Stop," Loki rasped.

Clint nearly sighed in relief. It never lasted long after Loki started to beg for them to stop.

"What was that?"

"Stop," Loki pleaded, louder, his voice hoarse and broken.

"Hear that, boys? I think he wants us to keep going!"

Clint flinched. No matter how much he hated him, he could not imagine doing the things they were doing to him. Not when he had an adult's face. And never to a child, no matter what mind was in that body.

Four hundred and eighty-nine. Four hundred and eighty-two.

There was of a bone breaking, and Loki screamed again.

"Stop!Please stop! PLEASE!"

There was a triumphant cry from the man who had been hyping up the crowd. The sound of laughter rose again, almost drowning out Loki's continued screams and begging. Clint glanced up. They were crowded in tighter.

"PLEASE!"

The captain pushed into the crowd. "Enough! Apply the balm and stick him back in his cage. Make sure you get his face good. The mad titan doesn't want a disfigured prize."

The tight knot of men loosened, slowly dispersing, and Clint saw Loki crumpled on the floor, curling in on himself, shaking, bleeding. One of the men kneeled over the boy. He flinched. He tried to scramble away, but the man caught him. He flipped the little demigod over onto his back and then pinned him in place with one knee. The man dug his fingers into a nearby container and slathered the contents onto Loki's face.

Loki whimpered, trying to turn his head, but the man slapped him hard. The demigod grew very still, and the man continued, slathering his whole body before dragging Loki to his feet and shoving him towards the cells. The overhead grate was opened, and the man kicked Loki down into the cell next to Clint's.

Clint cringed, never getting used to seeing Loki like this. They had stripped him naked after the first time – to prevent him from strangling himself. He didn't know if it was the balm that had been applied to his body or blood, but Loki's skin glowed red. The short, dark hair was matted with it. Welts, cuts, burns and bruises were clearly visible under the blood, and his arm sat at a distinctly broken angle.

Loki's body heaved and he vomited. It was mostly liquid, spewing out of the small body until there was nothing left, but it didn't stop. The dry heaving retches were horrible to listen to. Clint tried not to watch.

The tiny cell, too small for a full-grown man, was still barely big enough for Loki to curl up into a ball, his back towards Clint. His body shook silently.

Three hundred and thirty-five. Three hundred and twenty-eight.

Once again, Clint found himself wishing that the bars between their prisons were wide enough for him to fit his arm through. Nobody deserved this. If he could have, Clint would have reached through to Loki and saved him with the snap of his neck.

"Aw, the widdle baby's cwying," Ver-Men said, coming over to laugh some more at the toddler demigod. Catching Clint's look, the man's grin widened. "What? Are you angry, human? Go ahead and say it. Maybe you'd like to take his place next time. The titan only wants him, not you. I'd bite off your hand... You want to see what else I would do?"

Clint returned his gaze to the blank wall ahead of him, gritting his teeth and remaining silent.

Two hundred and fifty-eight. Two hundred and fifty-one.

The captain suddenly appeared and grabbed the man by the collar. "I told you before, leave the human alone unless you want to pay the going price!"

Ver-Men hissed under his breath a moment, but squirmed out of the captain's grasp. Straightening his ragged uniform, he gave one last leer at Clint and then left. The captain watched him go and then crouched down to peer through the grating at Loki. He shook his head.

"I'd let them kill you and save you the pain, Loki, but every man has his price and the Titan knew mine," he said, more gently than Clint had expected. "I don't envy what you'll go through when we make the delivery. Perhaps it will not be so bad if you're already broken? Probably not."

Ninety-seven. Ninety.

"I did warn you what would happen if you kept crossing the Kree. We are not a forgiving people. You brought this on yourself." The captain stood. "We'll be docking to refuel in a few weeks. You'll have a few days' respite then. They'll find other entertainment while we're land-side. Enjoy it while you can, trickster, although until we get there-"

Loki curled into himself tighter.

The captain glanced at Clint then. "You'll be out of that cage soon enough, human. You'll need time to recover your strength before you go to auction. Nobody wants a crippled slave."

Clint glared at him until he walked away, and then looked through the grating at Loki's tiny, shivering body again.

Six. One thousand. Nine hundred and ninety-three.

#

Okay, hello everybody! Long time since the last chapter of The Path to Hell and Redemption went up, so I'd like to let you all know some things.

1. This is a AU spinoff from 'Redemption' breaking off in chapter 22.

2. This is AU from the movie series, breaking off after the end of 'The Avengers.

3. I do have more comic book stuff in this than I did Redemption, but basically only the different species.

4. In this universe, Clint had a little sister named Cindy that was murdered when she was three. He has no other family.

5. I am making up a back story for how Clint joined SHIELD and how he got Natasha into SHIELD that will be told through flashbacks. I'm going off what little has been said in the movies, and any similarities to the comics is purely accidental.

6. This is rated M for a reason. There won't be graphic sexual content, I will not be giving warning for any torture/gore/death on individual chapters.

7. Chapters will vary in size; some will be shorter, others will be longer.

8. Unlike for Redemption, I will not be giving virtual gifts to reviewers, mainly because this is of such a serious nature I couldn't think of any.