Sorry to keep you all waiting! I had to hammer out a few details before I could continue the plot. And don't worry, I think we'll see a bit more of Clint in the next chapter, which should be up in a day or two if I work really hard.

Stark turned a corner and only realized that he had completely circled the building because he found himself looking at that familiar star-spangled outfit again. Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, and Dr. Banner were still spread out in the warehouse searching empty rooms Tony had already searched and sifting through rubble that could tell them nothing. Hawkeye was gone without a trace, and there wasn't even a weapons cache here to recover. It had all been a set-up.

Tony's only consolation was that the rest of the team hadn't seen the way he panicked when he realized that Clint was gone. He had immediately called SHIELD for backup and had fought the remaining attackers all by himself until they were all dead or unconscious or running away like cowards. After a hasty search of the warehouse, he had flown around the building and then circled the whole block before returning to tie up a few of his unconscious adversaries before they could wake up and run off. SHIELD might need them to shed some light on the incident. With any luck, they were already being interrogated on board the helicarrier.

Steve looked up and stepped toward Stark, worry etched into his features. "Tony, it's been hours since we got here, and the trail has gone cold. I think it's time we head back to the helicarrier. Besides you just took down all those guys by yourself. You should probably get some rest."

"Rest?" Tony asked incredulously. "Clint's been captured on my watch, and I'm supposed to go home and get some sleep?"

"SHEILD has their best agents working on this. Teams are fanning out into the city. And they're already trying to trace Barton with a half-dozen high-tech methods that I can't begin to understand. But there is nothing more we can do here."

"We have to find him," Tony repeated for the hundredth time that day as if it had become his mantra. He looked behind Rogers to where Natasha Romanoff was now standing alone in the middle of the warehouse. Maybe he was just imagining it, but she looked much smaller and more fragile than usual, staring listlessly at the recurve bow in her hands.

Steve turned, followed Tony's gaze. "She didn't say a word the whole way here," he sighed.

Tony pushed past the Captain and stopped a few yards away from Natasha. "We'll find him," he said. Her eyes met his in the fading light, and his heart sank. Her usual self-control had faltered for just a moment, and suddenly she looked so… lost. "I swear I won't give up until we bring him home," he promised. "I'll stay here for as long as it takes."

"No," she said in a stronger voice than he expected as she regained her composure. "Rogers is right. There's nothing more we can do here."

"We aren't giving up," Banner chimed in from across the room. "We just need to regroup, step back and figure out what we're missing. Like you said, this was a deliberate ambush. There's more going on here than we realize."

And so the team, minus one sorely missed archer, gathered at the door and made their way dejectedly toward their quinjet.

When Clint came to, he was instantly aware of two facts. One, he had an excruciating headache. Two, he couldn't see anything. Clearing his throat, he found his voice to be in working order. "Tony?" he called into the darkness. No reply came, but as he strained to listen, Clint realized that he was hearing a low rumble, which was accompanied by steady vibrations beneath him. He was apparently lying on his side in the back of a moving vehicle. Also (and it seemed odd that he hadn't noticed this sooner), his hands and feet were bound.

After the initial shock of seeing only black around him, he was relieved to find that he could now make out dim light shining through the crack between what must be doors near his feet. Clearly this was the back of a box truck, and the sun was still up because he couldn't imagine it was already the next day. The whole truck lurched dangerously to one side and then leveled again. The road it was traveling along was very rough, if it was even a road at all. Clint was struck by the rather alarming realization that he was most likely being taken deep into the dense rainforest.

It wasn't long, though it felt like hours, before the vehicle lurched to a halt. Clint could hear voices shouting somewhere outside, numerous men calling to each other in both English and in the local dialect, which he unfortunately did not understand. The English speakers were saying things like "We've got him." and "Are you sure you weren't followed?" and "Bring him this way."

There was the sound of metal rubbing against metal as the back doors of the truck were unlocked and swung open. As Clint blinked against the sudden flood of light, someone took hold of his feet and hauled him toward the door. The rope around his ankles was cut before he was pulled to his feet. He was shoved forward roughly by a hand—no, the butt of a rifle—in the middle of his back, steered through the heavy door of a military bunker.

"The general has been looking forward to this," someone behind him snarled. Clint already suspected who this general was, and it made his pulse quicken and his mind race to plot an escape. Because if he didn't get out of here soon, he had a feeling he never would.

As soon as he was on board the helicarrier, which had moved into position just off the African coast, Tony forgot about rest and started researching the details of the fateful mission. The team spent the rest of the evening gathered in an unused computer lab, digging into all available intelligence about the mission, running various related searches within the SHIELD database and on the internet, looking up names and dates, surveying maps of the region.

Natasha spent a long time studying the militant anarchist who had supposedly stockpiled those non-existent weapons in Lagos. Tony was almost relieved to see that she had returned to her usual stoic self. He supposed it helped her to feel that she was doing something to find Barton. It helped all of them. "Joseph Oduamadi," she said aloud. "I know I've heard that name before."

Steve looked up from the maps he had been examining. "Heard it where?"

"I think Clint mentioned him once. Something to do with a mission from a long time ago, before he met me." This sent the team back to work, this time focusing their attention on the elusive African warlord.

It turned out that Oduamadi and SHIELD had been at each other's throats for the last decade. The self-proclaimed general of the "free army of Africa" was determined to arm his rebel soldiers with the most powerful weapons he could get his hands on, and it was likely that he had bigger plans than just ruling the jungles of west and central Africa. So for years, SHIELD had consistently shut down as many of his arms deals as possible.

Unfortunately, the team found few other details, and they suspected that most of the information about Oduamadi was classified (beyond even Agent Romanoff's clearance, apparently). They had hit a dead end with their best lead—at least until they could talk to Fury because Tony insisted he could get the Director to grant them access to the needed files. The clock read 3 o'clock, and now that the excitement of the day's events had passed, they were no longer able to hide how exhausted they were. Natasha fell asleep first, still sitting at a table, her folded arms acting as a pillow. Then Steve noticed Tony nodding off in front of his computer. The captain escorted Natasha to her quarters and directed Thor and Banner to make sure Stark went to bed, despite the fact that he was already back to insisting he wasn't tired.

The next morning, Jarvis woke Tony to inform him that he had "an urgent call from Miss Potts." Tony had sent her only a brief message the day before, telling her that he was alright but that the mission hadn't gone as planned and he wouldn't be home for a while.

"Tony, what happened?" she asked as soon as he answered his phone.

"Pepper, I really don't want to talk about it," he began, immediately recognizing that she wouldn't accept that reply. "Basically, it was a set-up. We were ambushed. I'm fine," he said before she could panic, "but they captured Clint. We don't know where he is… or if he's even…" He couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence.

"Oh, God… Tony." Pepper took a deep breath, letting what he had said sink in. "But you know he has to be alive. Who would capture someone just to kill him?"

"You're right," Tony said. "We're still looking. But like I said last night, I think I'll be staying here for the foreseeable future."

"That's alright. Do what you have to do," Pepper assured him. "Tony?" She paused—he could tell she wanted to say something else but wasn't sure how to bring it up. "How's Natasha?"

"Oh, she's fine. I mean, as much as can be expected. Trust me, this isn't the first time she's had to rescue that partner of hers."

"I know, Tony, but… well, just bring him home, okay?"

"We will. The Avengers don't abandon one of their own."

A threat from Stark to hack into the entire SHEILD database again was all it took for Director Fury to give the Avengers access to all related information, whether it was top secret or not. By that afternoon, they were back to work. None of them had spoken much in the past 24 hours; they were all focused on finding their missing friend.

"I've got something!" Bruce exclaimed not long into the search. The others turned to him, Tony and Natasha coming closer to peer over his shoulder at the computer screen. "Agent Barton had personal dealings with Oduamadi years ago, just like Natasha said. See? Clint was assigned to infiltrate his base back in '05."

"What was the outcome?" Thor asked.

"The report's a bit vague." Banner grumbled.

"Looks like he blew the base up," Tony pointed out.

Natasha frowned, "But apparently, he didn't manage to kill Oduamadi or bring him into custody. He just destroyed the base and killed the majority of his soldiers… and, oh God…"

Bruce was reading along with her, quoting the rest, "And 'sources believe that several of Oduamadi's eldest children were killed in the blast.'"

Tony cursed under his breath while Steve whispered ominously, "He wants revenge."