"Look, I know what you've got going on here is going to make Bruce's issues seem like a two year old having a temper tantrum, but I think we just need to calm down for a second. Loki's not here Clint; nobody's going to hurt you, so you can just stop destroying the room," offered Tony.
Barton continued to pace the room, frantically firing off arrows every once in a while into the walls. Tony wasn't sure, but it looked like the archer was muttering to someone before he fired. The situation was worse than he feared; of all the things that Barton could be hallucinating, Loki probably complicated the situation the most. If anything was going to amplify Clint's rage it would be the god that forced him to kill his friends.
Tony could handle crazy, he worked with crazy; hell, he'd even been accused of it himself. So now it was time to start talking to crazy... "Barton!" he called, trying to get the man to pause for a moment and listen. "What does Loki want you to do?"
Clint came to an abrupt halt and glared at Stark. Part of him knew this was wrong, that this man was his friend; but the voice that had started with the doubt and suspicion a few weeks ago when he first woke up in the hospital, had grown louder - so loud it drowned out his own voice of reason and sense of self. He turned over the key to the handcuffs in his hand; it would be simple to let them go but he couldn't do that. If he let Tony go he'd take Natasha back to Loki and have him turn her the way he had Barton before Manhattan, and the way he had corrupted the team now. "Like you don't know Tony; I'm not an idiot!"
Stark raised his hands in surrender. "Nobody thinks you're an idiot; I just clearly missed the memo about why Romanoff had to have her head bashed in. I mean he wants you to kill us, right?"
Continuing his pacing, Barton snapped, "why would he want me to kill you. You're the ones doing his biding. Natasha- I- I set her free, and I'm not going to let you take her back."
Pressure was nothing new to Tony; he'd been under pressure his whole life and always managed to pull a rabbit out of his hat. He'd become comfortably numb to risk and danger, mostly because the risk and danger involved just him; but lately there seemed to be more lives riding on his decisions and he had a habit of making some historically bad decisions.
Technology he could fix, scientific problems always had a solution, fights with the bad guys always had a clear goal; but how was he, and more importantly who was he, to fix Barton? "I can safely say she's not under anyone's control; but what do you say we let someone take a look at her. You don't want your efforts to save her to be for nothing if she dies from a head wound."
Stark could see the pain in Clint's eyes as he looked at Romanoff sprawled across the parquetry. The wound had stopped bleeding but there was still a puddle on the floor, and she had yet to stir since she had been hit. There was a rare flash in those grey eyes; a moment of clarity that had been missing since this whole thing started - Tony could see the minute tremor in his hand.
Clint looked at Natasha; really looked at her for the first time since he locked them in the living room. He couldn't find any traces of anything that would make him believe that she wasn't on his side, that she wasn't the same person who had his back despite everything he had done. Concern flooded his veins then disappeared under the voice that screamed at him to trust no one He tried to fight it; to grab at the thoughts and feelings that had been his own, had been so crystal clear just a moment ago - but a sudden blinding pain in his abdomen brought him to his knees. He hit the floor and wrapped his arms around his stomach in a futile attempt to lessen the agony.
"Barton!" yelled Tony. He shifted onto his knees to try and crawl over to the doubled over man and offer some comfort. Stark had memorized the list of side effects from the Keres project hoping to diagnose the archer long before it ever got to this point. Really he'd been hoping the nagging hunch he had developed when Clint first returned to the tower and turned into a full blown certainty mere hours ago, would be unfounded and just part of his over active imagination, but when had they ever been that lucky?
Tony was just about to place a hand on his team mate's shoulder, when Barton rolled away and shot to his feet. He pulled his hand back like it might be bitten off and stared up at the archer who was now towering over him. Barton's boot to the shoulder laid Tony flat out on the ground.
"You can't trick me Stark!"
Tony took a few deep breaths to alleviate the throbbing in his shoulder. He was definitely not qualified to deal with an unhinged assassin who was unable to understand reason because of some drug, a clearly more deeply unhinged scientist had dreamt up. He needed help to keep Barton from doing something that the rest of the team would regret. He needed a calm unflappable person to help stall while Bruce was, and he desperately hoped Bruce was, working on an anti-serum.
"Look you don't trust me, I get that, and Romanoff had to be freed, which you did; but what do you say we get someone less corruptible to help you figure out who you can trust?"
Clint thought about it for a moment. It would be nice to be able to trust someone when everyone he thought he could count on was against him. It had to be someone that was removed from the situation, someone Loki couldn't have gotten to, someone who wouldn't lie to him. "I want to talk to Pepper."
That was not the name Tony thought of, nor wanted to hear. "No, let's just leave Pepper out of this one Clint; I think one hostage situation for her is enough. I was thinking more along the lines of the Captain." He had weighed the options and there weren't any. Banner had to take care of the science end of this freak show, him and Romanoff were already up close and personal to the circus, and Fury would probably bring his merry band of leather clad freaks; all of which seemed a little too trigger happy and not the overly forgiving type for his own peace of mind.
That brief moment of clarity was back; Clint relaxed a fraction and some part of him knew bringing in Rogers was the right idea. In that moment, Clint understood what he had to do to protect them all. Deep down he knew who the real threat was and it wasn't a god who, as Stark had pointed out, wasn't in the room; it was him. He didn't think he had the strength to end this, but before that horrible voice reclaimed his mind and allowed him to make everyone he cared about suffer; he had to give them a chance. Steve would do whatever was best for the team; he would protect them with his last breath against anything, including a deranged archer that was currently holding his friends hostage. If it came down to it he knew Captain America would take him out and save the day. That's what heroes did after all.
"Alright; you can let Rogers in." Conceded Barton; then the moment was gone and all that remained were the whispers and screams that told him he had to kill everyone.
