The trial went on longer than it should have; battered, tired and torn he returned to the farm. Everything was gone; the house, the barn, everything burned to the ground. No one had said anything to him; no one had let him know, the family he had sworn to protect all gone. His so called friends, or where they just teammates, or even that? S.H.I.E.L.D was gone, the Avengers had broken up, and all he knew was gone. HYDRA had played them all for fools, and blindly without much thought they turned on each other, well except him and Black Widow. The calling card was clear, this was payback, and he knew who was to blame. How they got what should have been top secret triple locked info was clear; the breakdown of everything made them all targets for their enemies. His information down to where he lived was stolen and sold on the dark web. He couldn't go to anyone for help; he didn't want them to get hurt, and he wasn't ready to forgive any of them for what the Civil War had wrought. He went from hero to criminal; the whole thing had been a fiasco from start to finish, and all he had done was retire. It wasn't the first time Iron Man had labeled him a criminal; he wondered if Tony even remembered him back then. They were supposed to be a team, and not at each other's throats.
The darkness enveloped him, and he left his quiver and bow safely behind; this undertaking would require close combat; he wanted to see the light go out of his enemy's eyes. He would put them all down; and lift himself on a pile of their corpses. His sorrows and instincts lead him to Japan; where he met Echo, and donned the black and gold guise of Ronin. He cut through the gangs, the Triads, the World Wide Mafias, the cartels, and the Yakuza. Ending their illegal activities, by spilling their blood, and cutting out their hearts. No one knew who he was, he was feared, and he was reviled. His blades never missed vital organs, never failed to sever arteries, and never dulled. He followed the trail, trying to find the one who everyone answered too. He dispatched lowly runners, minions, soldiers, high ranking persons, and clawed his way from the roots to the branches. This conglomerate had many appendages, and he would have to cut them all off to get to the heart of it all.
Then something happened; it was like time stopped, he felt pulled apart, but then put back together. It was like waking up in a dream; a unreal realm that seemed to glow in tones of blue. His family was OK, and his friends were not fighting one another. Everything was happy and warm like an easy summer day; he was giving archery lessons to their sitter Kate Bishop, and the kids were playing nearby. He knew it wasn't real; his heart and mind knew this happy realm was just an illusion. There was no time to hide; it took effort and the blue realm became yellow and he found himself out of the Mindscape.
