A/N: It's time to update, folks! (BEAMS) BUT, before going that far…

THANK YOU, so so much, for all your reviews, love and support! This is a MAD ride, and it means A LOT that you've all decided to join in. (HUGS)

Awkay, because I know that you didn't come here for a mile-long author's note… Let's go! I REALLY hope that you'll enjoy the ride.

HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS, this'll get REALLY bumpy…!


A Few Tales of Broken Families


Laura trembled to the core of her being as she sat on a comfortable couch, safe and warm for the first time in… she didn't even know how long. Lila was sleeping in her arms, clinging to her with all might, and Laura knew that she was holding the child a little too tightly in return. But she didn't dare to let go, couldn't make herself even loosen the hold because she'd already been forced into letting go of one child.

Cooper had been taken by Tony's medical staff – which had materialized seemingly out of thin air at Pepper's call – and she didn't even know…

"Ford… I have no idea how he found out about us. But… One evening he called. Said that if… If I didn't file for a divorce, he'd kill Clint and have me watch what I made him do. And then his men came to the Farm." A tear slid down Laura's cheek as the horrific memory repeated itself. "I wasn't even allowed to call him. When he tried texting me, all Ford let me do was send back 'Leave me alone'."

Bruce nodded slowly. He needed a few seconds to digest the news. "I'm sure that Clint realized that something wasn't right."

Laura shook her head, her stomach knotting. "You don't understand. Clint… He's been abandoned or left by pretty much everyone he's ever cared about. It took me years to convince him that I'd be different, and then…" She trailed off, feeling sick.

Bruce was quiet for a while. Considering. "It's… worse than that." He met her eyes with an apologetic expression. "Clint… He thinks that you and the kids died. That… That we killed you."

For a few seconds disbelief paralyzed Laura. Then a horrific wave of nausea washed through. She brought a hand to her lips, feeling dizzy. "Oh no…!" She would've wanted to use far stronger words but didn't want to in front of her child, even though Lila was asleep.

She was so preoccupied that she barely noticed how Bruce received a text. She didn't notice how pale he became, or heard the hard swallow. "Laura… There's something…" Whatever news he had didn't reach her then.

Because just then the doctor who'd been treating Cooper was approaching them, and the look on the woman's face made the bottom drop from Laura's world.


"And in the red corner… Another member of the famous Avengers, and our reigning champion… The one and only Hawkeye!"

As the crowd exploded into deafening cheers Tony's heart sunk all the way to his stomach and ice-chips traveled through his veins. Right before his wide, disbelieving eyes Clint entered the ring with a frosty, murderous look on his face. The combination of rage, disbelief, frustration and grief soon transformed into what could only described as feeling sick.

Jacob Ford clearly enjoyed his far too open display of emotions. "See? Didn't I tell you that the red corner was going to be even more of a surprise."

"Steve's gonna kill him. You realize that, don't you, you sick bastard?" Tony was shaking from helpless fury. "Clint's not going to walk out of that ring alive!"

Ford's eyes held nothing but pity as they met his. There was a tiny, wry smile on the man's lips. "Just watch the show, Mr. Stark. Are you certain that you know your… friend?"

Just like so many times before Clint succeeded in surprising Tony. Because the archer didn't go down. Instead he faced Steve with the strength of an equal.

One. Two. Three punches. Two of them the Captain blocked. The third one sent him to the floor.

"What…?" Steve growled.

Clint's eyes flashed with such blind, senseless rage Tony had never seen before. "I wasn't strong enough to save my family from you. But now I'm strong enough to make you pay from what you did to them."

Tony stared. Unable to move, or do a thing to stop what was happening. And slowly yet surely understood. "How the hell did you manage to replicate the Super Soldier serum?"

"Does it matter how?" There was a sickening amount of lust and pleasure in Ford's eyes as they haunted Clint. "You should've heard how he begged for it, from the moment he knew that it was available. He really was born to be an avenger."


A nasty feeling settled into Nick Fury's stomach the second he received a text message from Natasha. Only three words. They were more than enough.

'Stryker killed Clint.'

He sent a team led by Maria Hill to Stryker's house immediately, hoping against all hope that it might not be too late. That for once in his life he might be wrong, or even lucky enough to be able to prevent a disaster. Time dragged on painfully slowly. Until hours later his phone began to ring.

"Did you find her?"

Maria's heavy sigh made his stomach knot, although he would've never admitted it. "No. But… We found Stryker. And… All evidence seems to show that she got here first."

Fury sighed heavily, his shoulders slumping in uncharacteristic defeat. It took his all to not mutter a few chosen words. "How bad is it?" It wasn't like he wanted to know, but he had to ask.

"Ross has declared her a fugitive."


Clint felt dizzy and breathless from rage as his fight with Steve continued. "Why, Steve?" he snarled in a voice he didn't recognize as his own. He was punched down but bounced up quickly, with the agility of a cat. "Why did they have to die?"

Steve shrugged. For a moment it looked like the soldier's eyes glowed blue but it must've been a trick of his imagination. "Because they had the misfortune of becoming your family."

"They never harmed anyone! My wife… My kids…" Clint wasn't aware of the single tear rolling down his cheeks. He kicked before even he saw it coming, satisfied by the cracking sound and grunt he received as a response. "They… They were my family! I was supposed to keep them safe!"

"Then why didn't you?"

That, if anything, was an unforgivable hit below the beltline. Clint felt like someone had stabbed and shot him simultaneously. "You think I don't ask myself that a million times a day? You imagine that I don't regret not seeing what you guys are all about?" A series of hammer-hard attacks had Steve on the floor. Clint jumped at the opportunity without wasting a second. "I trusted you! All of you! And you were with HYDRA all along?"

They spun around each other like two beasts on a hunt. They'd sparred enough times to know one another's moves. But never like this. Never with the intention to kill.

"I still can't believe that you were stupid enough to trust a group that was put together like that." Steve looked into his eyes, as though seeking something. "But I couldn't exactly recruit them all, now could I? Banner… He would've been a fantastic addition, but we couldn't trust the Big Guy. Stark is a loose cannon. Thor… He isn't even from our world. But Natasha… She took the opportunity greedily. Told us about your little family." All of a sudden a breathtaking kick was aimed right at his stomach, and Clint was the one pinned down with the soldier looking down at him. Pity and something worse appeared. "As for you… You were useless, weak. We could've left you alone. But you just had to put your nose into HYDRA's business."

It hadn't taken Clint long to discover that Ford's little organization was actually a tiny piece of HYDRA. An underground fighting ring was a great way to discover skilled agents with loose enough morals. Ford was one of HYDRA's most valuable recruiters. And yet, Clint made the mistake of imagining that he might be able to stop the criminal somehow.

How was he supposed to know that two people from what he foolishly assumed to be his second family would turn on him?

Steve leaned closer to his ear. "I was there when Laura died, you know. The last thing she ever uttered was your name."

That was all the trigger Clint needed. His hand slid to where he'd hidden a knife, and he wasted only two seconds on toying with the thought of where to plunge it. Steve had no hope of being fast enough for him.

A single fluent motion, and it was once again Steve's turn to get floored. Clint used to be a killer, after all – technically he still was. He knew exactly how to do this. The room's dim, treacherous lights played tricks on him, making it seem like there was a flickering blue glow in Steve's eyes.

Rage flowed through Clint like lava, triggered by the memories flashing through his spinning head. He felt Laura's kiss. He brought his fists down as hard as he could, right at Steve's left cheek. He saw one of Cooper's far too rare smiles. The second punch split Steve's lip. Lila's laughter echoed in his mind, along with her voice calling out 'Daddy!'. The third punch definitely broke Steve's nose, could've fractured the soldier's skull for all he knew.

There, tormented by the memories and the bitter weight of betrayal, Clint howled at the top of his voice.


After handling the HYDRA-agents Loki left him with Thor was frustrated, worried and tired. The last thing he wanted was more problems piling up. So he stiffened when he entered his motel room and found the TV open.

A reporter who looked uncomfortably lot like his Jane had a solemn look on her face. "… Ross just confirmed that one of the Avengers is sought out for the murder of…"

"You asked me what I was waiting for." Loki, who was stretched on the bed as though the trickster belonged there, nodded towards the screen. "This is it."

Thor shivered. His eyes narrowed. "What have you done?"

Loki only smiled. When there was an alert from the phone Thor once received from Tony ('You need one of these, Goldilocks, and I'm going to teach you how to use it even if it kills me') the younger Asgardian nodded towards the item. "Why don't you take a look?"

Thor did, although he was fairly certain that he didn't wish to know. What he discovered was a curt message from Tony, accompanied by a link. 'Please tell me that you've found Loki, because I'm going to make him pay for this.'

And then Thor could only watch the live feed of the fight between Clint and Steve. It took him a little too long to see his brother's impact in Steve's eyes. To realize exactly what was going on, who was the real force behind this.

"The good Captain has a very… interesting mind." Loki's tone was impossible to read. Most would've caught amusement but it was difficult to tell for sure. "So much darkness and anger, buried behind that perfect smile and those tedious moral codes."

"Stop this madness!" Thor roared. Sounding more desperate than he would've liked. His heart was hammering and breaking as he began to realize where this might all come down to.

"Or what? You'll deliver me to father dearest for another according punishment?" Loki's eyes flashed in a rare display of genuine emotion. "No, thank you."

"Please, Loki." Thor didn't care if he was pleading. This was his brother…! "Stop this, and come home."

Loki shook his head. "It isn't my home. Nor my family."

That truly, genuinely hurt. Thor gritted his teeth. "I may be the son father received. But you are the son he chose."

For a second, just one, it looked like he got through to Loki. The eyes meeting his were those he used to know, once upon a time in a different life. Then a bitter laugh erupted through the trickster's throat, and the moment was gone. "Oh yes. And he has regretted his decision almost ever since." Ice filled those once warm and twinkling, mischievous eyes. "I will rule this pathetic realm. And then I will show Odin true remorse." Loki got up elegantly and walked so close that he could almost feel the warm breath. Their gazes locked and held. "There is only one way you can stop me. We'll see how far you're willing to go for the families you received and chose."

With those haunting words Loki was gone, leaving their echo taunting Thor.


The audience watching the fight between Clint and Steve had gone wild. Most of them were also HYDRA, but none had been aware of what the Captain just revealed. Seeing two former Avengers battle it out clearly pleased the crowd to a sickening extend.

Tony felt nauseous, cold and horrified. The world Loki had plunged Steve into… The lies that'd been fed to both of the two…

"Stop this!" he roared at last. He couldn't bear watching but also didn't manage to look away as Steve gasped under the stab's vicious impact. "They… They're going to kill each! Do you seriously want that?" When the soldier twitched he finally succeeded in tearing his gaze away and glared at Ford with everything he could muster. "Do you really want Clint to die?"

"If it comes to that… Well, it'll be very unfortunate collateral damage." Ford appeared terrifyingly calm. Was there a blue glow in the man's eyes, or was it the lights…? "But why in the world should I stop this when this seems to have the exact consequences I was hoping for?"


From the sidelines a man who'd covered his face with a hood was filming the fight with his phone. Posting live stream for the entire world to see. Revealing the great Captain America's supposed real face to everyone.

Even if those two might somehow, miraculously, live the damage was already done.

What most of the audience or Clint didn't see was that Steve's hand wasn't only twitching. It was reaching out, towards the Captain's own concealed knife. The lights intensified the surreal blue glow of Steve's eyes.

Clint was blinded by rage and grief. Didn't see Steve's hand move until was too late. "Hail HYDRA", the Captain hissed, just loudly enough for the phone's camera to catch it.

Barney Barton smirked, and mused that he couldn't have scripted this Greek tragedy better.


TBC


A/N: OH… CRAP…! (gulps) I'll just… go hide now, yeah? Because I feel like I need to, after this…

SOOOOOO… Thoughts? Comments? Rants? PLEASE, leave a line or two into the box below! I'd LOVE to hear your feelings on this absolutely mad chapter.

Awkay, because I've got ambitious typing plans… Until next time! I REALLY hope that you'll all join in for that one.

Take care!


Anonymous: Intense it is! (gulps) I'm overjoyed that you enjoyed it! We'll see just how much insanity is up ahead…

Colossal thank yous for the review! Until next time.