Title: Divide
Author: SLynn
Rating: T (language)
Fandom: Avengers (movieverse)
Characters: Clint, Natasha, Tony, Steve, Bruce, Maria, Jane, Fury

Spoilers: Takes place after the movie. Follow-up to Legacy. #8 in Recruitment series.

Summary: It was only a matter of time before someone tried to test their defenses; before the past came calling.

Notes: Thanks for all the follows and favorites and reviews! I've actually almost finished this thing and it looks like it'll be between 11 and 12 parts total! Thank you Tripp3235 (read her stuff) and thank you all for reading. Enjoy!


When the three of them arrived in Tony's office, the first thing he did was sit heavily in his chair.

"Okay, here's the problem," Tony said as soon as he'd taken a moment to gather his thoughts.

"Someone got into the Tower and is essentially screwing with us," Natasha supplied before he'd had a chance to continue. "Because, the way I see it, if they can get in here, mess with your tech, poison our team, then they could have just killed us in our beds and been done with it."

Tony nodded in agreement. It was what he'd thought himself.

"Do we know whom?" Pepper asked, more concerned now than before.

"We do not," Tony admitted, "but how long of a list can it be? Who has the funding? Who has the skills?"

"Not everyone sees you as saviors after what happened in New York, Tony," Pepper countered, shaking her head.

"SHIELD has plenty of enemies and Loki had Barton round them all up," Natasha added. "Factions that previously had no contact, no reason to work together, did and still do now. The list is longer than you think."

"No," Tony said, shaking his head slowly. "I don't think it is. I think... this is personal. This is someone with a personal vendetta."

"Then it's either about you or Barton," Natasha said firmly. "It was his weapons and your design. Everyone knows you, Tony. They'd have known you'd be there to watch your tech in action."

"You're forgetting another possibility," Tony said.

"Which is?"

"You."

"Me?" Natasha asked, clearly confused by his train of thought.

"Best way to get to you is through Barton, princess," Tony said, shaking his head as if it was common knowledge. "Loki knew it. Good chance all those other little minions of his found out for themselves."

Natasha didn't deny it, which in and of itself was an admission of sorts. She'd told Clint as much. When he'd been taken, she hadn't been herself. It had messed her up more than she had expected. A lot more than she thought it could.

"Okay," she said, "but if we're thinking along those lines... Pepper. If someone was to try and get to me through Clint, then... then they'd get to Pepper through you."

"I'm not sure..." Pepper started to say, wondering where Natasha thought she'd get enemies like that from.

"She's right," Tony said quickly, shaking his head and hating the thought. "Let's start pulling together lists of everyone we've wronged and I'll crosscheck them with companies and people who have the means to make this happen."

"Should we contact SHIELD?" Pepper asked.

"Agent Hill already did," Tony replied as if that matter was closed. "But... let's try and keep this in house for now. For as long as we can. Agreed?"

"Yes," Natasha answered, knowing it was directed more towards her than Pepper.

"Good. So, Pepper, start tracking," Tony continued. "Natasha, start that list. I'll just be carefully undoing what I hope isn't a bomb of some sort," he said, indicating the remaining arrows they'd left on his desk. "That should keep us all busy for awhile."

"Okay," Pepper said, still uneasy but feeling better knowing she had something to do, but she was the only one of them to move.

"Do we tell them?" Natasha asked still standing in place, a question that halted Pepper in her tracks.

Tony let out a sigh and shook his head as he decided. Finally, "No," escaped from his lips. "Let's see where this gets us first."

Natasha gave him a curt nod, as if she approved, and got to work as Pepper turned away, unhappy and distressed.

Back in the infirmary, everyone was quiet. After cleaning up the mess there wasn't much to say. For one thing, no one wanted to distract Bruce. For another, none of them really had much to say. Clint and Maria, while able to work together when they had to, didn't get along and had virtually nothing in common outside of SHIELD. In Clint's view, Maria was the epitome of every single person who had ever looked down on him. She had graduated high school early and left college with not one degree, but two. She'd worked hard, Clint had no doubt, but she'd also grown up surrounded by affluence and indulged with every advantage he'd been denied.

Some would call that jealousy, and they'd be right. It had become a lifelong struggle not to be jealous of people like Maria, and Tony, and hell, even Thor who grew up as a god. He liked to think he'd outgrown that particular emotion, but Maria Hill always managed to unconsciously, he thought at least it wasn't on purpose, push those particular buttons. And, when he was being generous, Clint did recognize that she'd abandoned all of that for a life of service in SHIELD, which was commendable. She'd probably had struggles, obstacles he couldn't imagine, which she'd not only overcame but persevered. Certainly she could have done other things with her life, but this is what she chose.

Still, he found her humorless and rigidly adherent to rules and regulations, which in his opinion was practically unforgivable. Personally, he couldn't like her, but Clint did have a grudging respect for her. Maria did her job and mostly she was good at it. Mostly. He didn't have to like her.

"How's everyone doing over there?" Jane asked across the intercom system.

From where she was sitting they couldn't see her directly. The lab she was in was walled off from the infirmary, but Bruce had asked JARVIS to set up a video feed which allowed them to virtually communicate face-to-face via monitor.

"I feel fine," Steve answered, whatever uneasiness he'd felt earlier having passed completely.

"It's a little warm," Maria said, "but I think the AC cut off so... What about you, Barton? You don't look so good."

"I'm fine," Clint answered, even though his stomach was still rolling in protest.

"She's right," Bruce said, crossing the room to get a better look at him. "You look... pale."

"I lost some blood," Clint insisted. "That's it." Bruce looked at the bio-hazard bags they'd thrown all of the clean-up supplies into as if he hadn't really considered that before. "I know my limits," Clint continued, hoping to reassure him and hoping his voice didn't sound as harsh to the other man's ears as they had to his own.

Apparently, he'd succeeded, since Bruce gave him a nod and went back to discussing something science-y with Jane, and the rest of them lapsed back into silence.

"Hey, guys," Bruce called out several long minutes after having finished talking with Jane. "Let's get another set of blood pressure readings and pulses. And, just to be safe, I want to get everyone's temperatures."

The outcome was not reassuring.

Steve was still perfectly normal, albeit with a slightly raised temperature, but even that had been within the prescribed normal range. Clint's blood pressure and pulse were still relatively high, which could be attributed to his wound, but his temperature was also inside of normal. Bruce's own readings were elevated from the last time he'd recorded them, even though he didn't technically have a fever, he was right on the cusp. Maria's were the worse. Her blood pressure and pulse were the highest and so was her temperature.

Jane looked uneasy when she heard the results.

"Is there anything you've been inoculated for that maybe Maria and Bruce haven't?" Steve asked, turning to Clint.

"If there's a vaccination for it, SHIELD has given it to me," he answered. "Field agents are given bi-annual health checkups and they review all our records so, I should be current."

"Everyone else is on an as-needed basis," Maria filled in. "All the major vaccines, I've done, but those don't include smallpox or anthrax."

"We'd be sicker if it was anthrax," Bruce said with a shake of his head. "And... I don't think I've had a flu shot in at least ten years."

"Mine was a lot longer ago than that," Steve admitted.

"I'm not sure that will matter," Bruce said with a faint smile. "I don't think this is the flu. Here," he said, calling them over.

Steve and Maria crossed the room. Clint made an attempt to get up, but as soon as he'd tried the whole room tipped precariously to one side.

"I'm going to sit this one out," Clint called out as he laid back again and shut his eyes. "Just... just talk loud, okay?"

"You sure you're okay?" Bruce asked.

"Peachy," Clint answered, draping his good arm across his eyes.

"Okay," Bruce yielded, sitting down behind the monitor and turning his attention back to Maria and Steve. "So, we've already determined this is synthetic."

Jane looked at them through the monitor and nodded in agreement, picking up her cue to continue. "It affected each of you first by knocking you unconscious."

"I wasn't," Steve said.

"We think the serum that's now a part of you, protected you," Bruce answered. "The rest of us weren't so lucky."

"Since it was released," Jane said, "it's mutated. The strain we captured first has completely changed, but the good news is that it's growing weaker."

"And the bad news?" Maria asked.

"We'll need blood work to be certain," Jane said, shaking her head and looking uneasy, "but it may be just the airborne strain that is growing weaker. Your stats all indicate that you've been infected with something... that your bodies are fighting off some kind of infection. Tony is working on getting the air filters to scrub the room of the contaminant. Oh, and Clint?"

"Yeah," he hollered from across the room, still not moving.

"Those splinters weren't tainted."

"Outstanding," he returned dryly. "I was only poisoned once today. Thanks."

"Ignore -" Maria started to say, but was suddenly and overwhelming nauseous. The feeling was so strong, her knees buckled and, in order to stay upright, she reached out and braced herself against Bruce's shoulder.

"Whoa there," Steve said, as he and Bruce just managed to keep her on her feet.

"Sorry," she muttered as Steve slipped an arm around her waist and led her to a nearby chair. "I don't know what happened. I was fine and then..."

"Give yourself a minute," Bruce said, having followed them over with an unopened bottle of water.

"Bruce," Jane said through the intercom, "I've got a call I need to take. I'll be back online in a few minutes. Start getting that blood when you can."

"Will do," he returned, his eyes darting from Maria to Clint. Clint was sitting up again, but looked worse than before. Both he and Maria were now chalky white and sweating, which was worrying enough.

More worrying was the fact he also felt a little off balance.