AN: Well. This was unexpectedly quick. I've been thinking about this climax for a while now, so it was already in my head I suppose. Welp. Hope you guys like it.

I don't own Alex Rider or the Avengers. Obviously. That is obvious, right?

Alex was pale as he stared at Yassen.

"It was you." He breathed, horror filling his voice. "It was you the whole time."

"Of course it was me." Yassen said, looking amused. "Did you honestly think that Scorpia would be able to break into Avenger Tower unaided? Especially in its current form."

"You turned me over to Scorpia." Alex said, sounding almost betrayed. "You… You told them where I was and how to get me. Why would you do that? Are you trying to kill me?"

"Please Alex, give me a little more credit than that. I knew that you would escape relatively unharmed. I've taught you too well for the likes of Stefano to hold you. So no, I was not hoping that Scorpia would kill you."

Yassen paused, his gaze shifting from Alex to focus on Clint and Natasha.

"Though I will admit that I was rather hoping they would kill your friends."

"What?" Alex stuttered, his eyes huge.

"Je, uko tayari kuhatarisha watu zaidi? Are you ready to endanger more people? I asked you that at our last meeting, and it's time for you to answer me Alex."

Alex shook his head, slowly at first, but than more rapidly.

"No. No, this is not my fault! This… this was all you! If they'd died, it would be your fault for causing it to happen!"

"This time maybe." Yassen admitted, looking unconcerned. "But what about next time? There are plenty of people in this world that want to hurt you Alex, and they will stop at nothing. What will you do when your new friends get hurt trying to protect you? When they get killed? You won't be able to handle it Alex, not again. It will destroy you."

"So your solution is to cause it to happen anyway?" Alex yelled. "Why can't you just let me go? That's what you always wanted, right? For me to leave the spy world? I'm trying! And now you're the one who is pulling me back in."

"To protect you!" Yassen yelled back. "Do you think MI6 will just let you go? Or the CIA, or ASIS, or even SHIELD? They don't care about you! They will send you out to die, and they won't even feel bad about it! I am the only reason you are alive!"

"It's not enough!" Alex screamed. Yassen stepped back, shock on his face. Alex took a deep breath, trying to regain his composure.

"Just surviving isn't enough." He whispered. "I would rather die than keep living like this."

Yassen stared at Alex. For a moment, he looked almost sad, but then his features hardened.

"Fine. We'll work on that attitude when we get back. For now…"

Yassen once again focussed his gaze on Natasha and Clint. Clint swallowed, adjusting his stance slightly. He recognized that look. Things were about to get ugly.

Alex recognized it too.

"No." He said, stepping in front of Natasha and Clint. "No."

"Remember Alex." Yassen said softly. "You could have prevented this."

The next few moments were a blur. Alex and Yassen moved at the same moment, Alex desperately trying to hold the assassin back. Alex held his ground for a few moments, but Yassen got under his guard almost immediately. The teen went down hard, groaning as he tried to stand up. Yassen stopped him before he could even begin, slamming his foot down on Alex's ankle. Alex screamed as the bone snapped and curled in on his wounded appendage, tears streaming down his face.

Natasha ran forward before Alex's scream stopped, grabbing Yassen's arm and using it to flip his body. The assassin hit the ground but rolled away before Nat could follow through. He grabbed her arm when she tried to hit him and yanked her off balance. She stumbled but recovered quickly, twisting out of his grip and backing up to gain some distance.

Clint ignored the fight and grabbed Alex, dragging him backwards. He set the teen down behind an air conditioning unit, glancing back just in time to see Yassen smash Nat's head into the ground. Natasha went limp, blood streaming down her face.

Clint cursed, grabbing an arrow and aiming at Yassen. Unfortunately, he had forgotten about his injured shoulder. It didn't stop him from firing, but it slowed him down long enough for Yassen to be able to dodge his first shot. Clint didn't get the chance to try again.

Yassen was suddenly there, slamming a fist into Clint's bad shoulder. He let out a choked yell, dropping his bow and stumbling backward. Clint blocked the next hit with his left arm, but couldn't block the next one. It crashed into his head, and he hit the ground, his ears ringing.

Before Clint could recover, Yassen grabbed him by the throat, yanking him off the groud. Clint tried to escape Yassen's grasp, but he couldn't move. His right arm was in agony, completely immobile, and he didn't have enough strength to remove Yassen's grip with his left hand alone. As his vision began to darken, Clint realised that he was going to die here. He was going to die and Alex would go with Yassen and eventually die in some godforsaken corner of this planet, and it just. Wasn't. Fair.

Suddenly, Clint was released. He hit the ground painfully hard, but he didn't care, sucking in air and coughing as he tried to recover from the near choking. He looked up, confused about why Yassen would release him.

At first, Clint couldn't see a reason that Yassen would suddenly change his mind about killing him. Then he saw the bloodstain spreading from the center of Yassen's chest, an arrow protruding out from the center of it. The assassin fell to his knees, letting Clint see Alex who was standing behind him, leaning against the air conditioning unit to support himself. The teen lowered the bow, looking shaken as he stared at Yassen's prone figure.

"No!"

Alex's cry sounded strangled as he scrambled over to Yassen's body, crawling when his leg gave out.

"No no no, I'm sorry. I didn't… I didn't mean it! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, no no no."

Alex turned Yassen's body over, his hands fluttering anxiously over the wound as if he could somehow make it less lethal. Clint knew better. That shot was fatal. There was no chance that Yassen would survive it.

The man wasn't dead yet, and he raised a trembling hand to Alex's tear stained face.

"Don't… cry." He gasped. "I… I hate it when you… cry."

Alex whined, hunching over Yassen's dying body.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry…" he repeated over and over.

"Don't be sorry." Yassen whispered, cupping Alex's face with his bloody hand. He smiled at Alex. "You're finally ready. You'll live…"

Yassen's hand fell away from Alex's face and the man went limp. Alex froze, staring at the dead body.

Then he screamed.

Clint waved the medic away as soon as his stitches were repaired. He honestly hadn't been hurt that badly in the fight, mostly just reinjured. He would be fine in a week or two. Nat was alright as well. She had a slight concussion, but it wasn't anything bad. Alex had been hurt the worst, with multiple bones in his ankle being completely shattered. Still, it could have been a lot worse.

Those thoughts vanished as he took Alex in. The kid was perched on the edge of a gurney, staring blankly at nothing. Clint felt his heart break all over again. Alex had been completely hysterical when Yassen died. Clint had been forced to drag the screaming boy away from the body. It was only when the rest of the Avengers showed up that Alex had finally calmed down. If one could call going borderline catatonic 'calming down.' Alex hadn't reacted to anything since then. At least it made it easier to set and cast his ankle, but Clint would rather that Alex was awake and fighting them every step of the way than have him be like this.

Clint sat down next to Alex on the gurney. The teen twitched slightly, which Clint took as a good sign. At least he was reacting to something. Clint didn't say anything, waiting to see what Alex would do.

"You… you saw the videos, and you thought he was bad."

Clint started at Alex's words. He hadn't expected the kid to say anything.

"And, and you were right." Alex still didn't look at Clint, instead choosing to stare at the ground. "Yassen… he was bad. He abused me in every way possible. And that… that's not okay."

Clint nodded, but he still didn't say anything. He could tell that Alex needed to say this.

"But you didn't see the good times!" Alex said, almost desperately. "You didn't see how happy he was the first time we had a whole conversation in Russian without me making a single mistake. Or when he bought me that figurine in Prague because he could tell how much I wanted it. Or in the first months when I had a nightmare every night and he would sit there and sing to me until I could sleep again."

Alex squeezed his eyes shut, more tears trickling down his cheeks.

"I hated him." Alex gasped through his sobs. "I hated him so much. He hurt me every single day. He made me feel worthless and useless and like I'd never be good enough and I hated him!"

Alex finally looked at Clint, eyes red rimmed and tearful.

"So why do I miss him?"

Clint wrapped his arms around the sobbing Alex, holding him tight. Alex latched on just as tightly, burying his face in Clint's uninjured shoulder.

"I hate him, I hate him, I h-hate him…"

Alex's voice wavered. Clint let out a shuddering breath, pulling Alex closer.

"It will be okay Alex." He whispered to the shaking teen. "I promise you. Everything will be alright."

In that moment, Clint just wished that he could believe it.

AN: Oh boy. I made myself cry.

I feel like I should clarify. Yassen is not a good guy in this. There is no excuse for what he did to Alex. But he did care. He wanted Alex to survive, and that was all that mattered to him. And Alex knows this. He knows that Yassen cares about him, which is what makes Yassen's actions so hard for him. He knows that it's wrong, but in Alex's experience, people who care about you hurt so that others can't hurt you worse. So yeah, he gets attached. Because he's a kid who has been abused his whole life and doesn't know anything else, so he is going to latch onto to whatever kindness he can get. Even if that kindness comes from his abuser.

And I dunno. I feel like killing your abusive 'father figure' using skills that your new, non-abusive, father figure taught you has a nice sense of symbolism to it. Not sure what kind exactlly, but still.

Anyway, hope you guys liked it. And your welcome for getting this out so fast. I usually start stories with the climax already really planned out, so when I finally get to them, I just want to get them written as quickly as possible. :)

Bye for now guys! Prolly just one or two more chapters to this.