Lie To Me

Qweb (lol, your wish is my command, most of the time), Sandy-wmd (I know right? I'm cruel…but people seem to like that about me…^^), kimbee (Thanks so much! I'm relieved last week is over ^^ I'm happy to get this out to you guys ^^), discordchick (YAY! You asked all the good questions ^^ Most of which will be revealed below ^^), sv4me (I know right? Not for long…), thewriterstory (Ooo, you may want to skip this chapter then, lol), jpgFury (I didn't leave you guys hanging THAT long ^^)

Warnings for this chapter: Torture. Blood. Torture…some cursing…tread lightly ^^

Chapter Ten

Waking up was proving to be a challenge. Normally Clint would be wide-awake at even the lightest sounds at the tower, so it was odd to him now how hard it was to find the surface of consciousness. Slowly Clint came to the realization that he must be under the influence of a drug. Even though it had been a while since he'd woken up in a foggy-haze the feeling was ingrained into his mind. It wasn't a good thing. In fact it was a very bad thing. Bruce had promised no drugs.

Clint's throat worked an attempt to swallow. It was so dry that Clint thought someone had tried to feed him glass while he was unconscious. He tried in vain to open his eyes, but they refused to fight against the gravity that kept them firmly shut. All Clint could do was let out a small moan.

The sound he ended up making was pathetic.

Clint knew he was sitting mostly upright in some sort of seriously uncomfortable chair. It wasn't until he twitched that he realized his hands were cuffed behind his back by steel rings. The objects restraining his hands were probably handcuffs, but Clint wasn't bothered enough yet to check.

Weakly Clint pried his eyes open and blinked at the blur of darkness and light swirling together and totally obscuring his vision. His head tipped back and forth in a half-hearted shaking motion, but it did nothing to clear his mind. If anything the movement ended up sending his world into a violent tailspin that left him even more disoriented.

"Clint?" A voice asked. Judging by sound alone, the owner of the voice, Tony, was somewhere in front of him, but not exactly close by.

Clint blinked a few more times and finally managed to clear his vision enough to see his friend. Tony was bound to a chair exactly like himself. Trapped. Vaguely Clint recalled the memory of darts and darkness - and the voice.

Fear traveled so quickly through Clint he tried to stand only to teeter a bit in his chair and hiss at the sharp bite of the handcuffs digging into his skin.

"Clint!" Tony called through the panicked haze. "Clint, it's okay – well, not really okay, okay. Nothing about this is okay. But it'll be okay! Somehow. We'll make it okay. Together. We'll get out of here, but we need to keep our heads on straight."

Clint forced himself to swallow the fear down and focus on Tony's voice. He locked eyes with the other man and breathed in as slowly as his body allowed given the circumstances.

"That's it," Tony smiled. "It's best if you are the one that's calm and I'm the one that's over reacting. Because that's normal. I'm not meant to be the level headed one." He's grin and upbeat attitude seemed severely misplaced to Clint.

"So what's the plan?" Tony continued, seemingly unhindered by the fact that Clint had yet to say a single word. "I mean, if you can remember any of your voodoo bad ass training it would severely help our situation. A lot."

Clint winced again in response. He didn't remember. At least he couldn't remember anything he thought would help. Had he been in a situation like this before? It would make sense. Some of his memories were rather dire.

"Hey Clint?" Tony's voice dragged his attention back to the man sitting in front of him. "You okay there, buddy? You're freaking me out with the silent bit."

Swallowing drily once more Clint cleared his painful throat and shook his head. "I'm fine." He tried to form the words normally but they came out as more of a pained croak. Clint blushed ever so slightly and cleared his throat again. "Don't remember anything."

"Well," Tony's expression fell as his body deflated visibly. "That sucks."

"Sorry." Clint ducked his head slightly in return.

Tony sighed. "Not your fault. We'll get out of this, don't worry."

Clint watched Tony frown and his face glaze over into his 'thinking really hard' expression.

Ten minutes later Tony growled and slumped again. "Nope, I've got nothing. Looks like we're the damsels in distress this week." He sighed.

"Sorry." Clint repeated again, feeling useless. This was what Natasha had been so worried about. Clint couldn't remember, couldn't contribute in something as 'easy' as an escape.

"Again, not your fault." Tony huffed as if he were offended by the thought. Clint figured Tony was just trying to make light of a rather dark situation.

Clint sighed as silence fell over them again. Apparently whoever captured them wasn't in a rush to do whatever it was they were planning on doing. Clint wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not. The voice from before was too foggy to match to a face now. It could be anyone – someone from his current memories or even his past. Or maybe he didn't even know the person and his drugged brain had been messing with him.

"You were going to say something." Clint said suddenly, before his mind could even process what he was saying. "Before – this happened. What was it?"

Tony paled noticeably at the question, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water as he tried to come up with the answer. It made Clint's heart beat faster since he didn't know the reason behind it. Tony had said it wasn't him who had screwed up, but it still felt like he had done something wrong. All this time, maybe Tony was trying to make up for something. What if they weren't even friends? Clint couldn't bare to think that all of this had been some kind of manipulation. Wrong. It couldn't be that, but what if it were? He needed to know before the unknown drove him insane.

"It wasn't you." Tony managed to get out. "I over reacted about something – "

Before Tony could finish the sentence a loud crack of a door opening silenced them. Footsteps sounded and four men appeared from the darkness of the room.

For the first time Clint took in the equipment in the room. A weird machine and hospital looking bed were off to the side behind Tony. There were no windows or doors and only a few medical lights pointed at them leaving the rest of the room in shadows.

The leader of the group stepped out of the darkness and into Clint's direct line of sight. Their eyes locked together and the breath was suddenly gone from Clint's lungs. Randle's eyes were deadly sharp as they stared back at him. He looked pissed and pleased all at the same time. A smug smirk tipped up the flat line across his lips as he moved closer to Clint.

"I see you've grown up a bit since the last time I saw you." Randle commented as he reached out a hand to pat Clint on the head like a child, or maybe even an animal. "No longer as cowering and needy." Instinct to get away had Clint flinching back as far as his neck would let him. "Cute." Randle deadpanned as he turned his back to Clint and look at Tony. "Did you really think I'd let you superheroes keep him? He's the key to everything I've been working for."

"He's a human being." Tony snarled and took on the impression that he was extremely bored with the conversation at hand. "Besides, you're a half-baked scientist at best. Human studies are so seventy years ago." He huffed.

Randle laughed. It wasn't a pleasant sound.

"I don't see how that was funny." Tony frowned, clearly a little unsure about Randle's reactions to his taunts.

"He's part of science now." Randle turned his gaze to Clint again. "That is assuming that our little parlor trick still works." He smirked evilly and moved closer. "I know how much you missed me."

Clint's head filled with anguish when the pain shot through him. Randle was lying on purpose to get a response. Clint unavoidably winced, ducking his head as some form of protection.

"Ah, see? Still works, doesn't it." Randle bared his teeth as he grinned.

One of the guards reappeared, Clint hadn't even seen him leave but he froze when he saw what the man had brought. A tray filled with unpleasant things. Clint's mind flashed back to a time he had stowed away and forced himself to forget. He realized coldly what was about to happen. He was about to be tortured. Clint couldn't breathe.

"You killed Reese quickly," Randle mentioned, his voice suddenly oddly detached as he picked up a scalpel and studied it in the air.

Shame ran through Clint as he remembered how it felt to snap the woman's neck. The sound it made when the bone gave way under the pressure of his hands. He remembered how her lifeless eyes stared up at him in accusation.

"I didn't mean to do it." He whispered, his eyes on the floor as Randle towered over him. "I told her to stay away. I warned her. I didn't mean to do it."

"You killed her." Randle growled.

"Leave him the fuck alone asshole!" Tony suddenly shouted from the other side of the room. Clint stole a glance and saw Tony frantically trying to free himself to help. Maybe Clint didn't deserve his help but Clint felt lighter all the same. He wasn't alone. Tony was here with him, even if in the long run that wasn't a good thing. "He killed the bitch in self defense!" Tony added angrily.

Randle growled, turning towards Tony before he visably reconsidered and whipped around to face Clint once more. "I'm going to make you pay." He promised. "Slowly, for the rest of your pathetic life."

Clint felt the blood drain out of his face as he watched the scalpel being pulled over his skin. It hurt, but not as badly as he thought it might. He winced and resisted to struggle, knowing it would only make the cut worse if he moved.

At some point during the torture Randle had Tony's screams of protest silenced with a gag roughly inserted into his mouth by a guard. Eventually the knife was put to the side on the tray and Randle started to beat Clint with his fist. He aimed more towards Clint's stomach than his face, which was a small blessing, though it made it no less painful.

Finally after what felt like hours, Randle seemed to tire of the activity and used a towel to wipe up the blood that had gotten onto his hand. Clint was in complete disarray and Tony looked close to tears, red faced with frustration and concern, mumbling and shouting incoherent things through the gag secured in his mouth.

"You were a terrible test subject, but still, I'll take what I can get. This time, however I won't make the same mistakes."

Clint looked up fearfully, shrinking back as far as he could away from Randle as he neared him again.

"This time?" Clint managed to ask.

Randle moved closer and dipped his head next to Clint's ear, his voice lowering to a menacing whisper. "I'm going to take away everything you think you are. I'm going to bury it so far down that you'll never question anything ever again. You're going to be the prefect little prize-winning experiment this time around." Randle pulled back and punched Clint across the face, making the archer see stars from the impact. "But first." Randle continued, louder this time as he turned back to Tony. "I'm going to make you watch as I take him apart."

Tony's eyes widened a fraction as two of the guards moved towards him. "W-t, wh-t?" Tony formed the words around the gag with more clarity than Clint thought possible.

"He killed someone special to me." Randle explained as if it were the most simple thing in the world. "So I'm going to do the same thing to him. Except in a more humane way." The crooked smile Randle gave Tony was enough to cause Clint to snap out of his funk and start struggling against his restraints.

"Get away," Clint hissed. "Don't touch him! He didn't do anything!"

Randle smiled. "Neither did Reese and yet you killed her."

Pain lanced through Clint's head again at the lie. They both knew that Reese was just as much a part of the experiment as Randle was. She was just as determined to keep Clint under their power and control.

"Okay, maybe that was a lie." Randle nodded, but snapped his fingers. The guards grabbed Tony, who was struggling now and started to drag him towards the machine and more importantly the bed attached to the machine.

"Either way, you will pay for your crime." Randle commented as he watched the two Avengers struggling for their own reasons with pure joy written on his face. "I'm going to take away everything that makes Stark, Stark and maybe he'll even prove himself as useful as you did. Either way, say you're goodbyes. You won't remember each other in a short while." Randle told them, signaling to one of the guards to remove the gag from Tony's lips.

Tony snapped his teeth at the guy who pulled the gag free and snarled even though he was strapped down, his arms and wrists and body all in buckled restraints. Clint found it admirable and doubled his own efforts to get free.

"I realize this is incredibly cliché." Tony snarled, his eyes shooting daggers at Randle. "But you aren't going to get away with this."

"Of course I am." Randle smiled a deranged smile back at Tony.

Something inside Clint's head snapped as he saw Tony's head being attached to all the mechanical leads. The unrestrained fear in Tony's eyes seemed so wrong and misplaced. Clint wasn't sure what switched on in his brain, but the need to protect Tony, helpless on the table, broke through the barrier in his mind and stole the knowledge needed from his forgotten past.

In a swift motion Clint dislocated his own thumb and slipped a hand free from the cuffs. Once free Clint sprung into action, taking out the surprised guard closest to him with unnatural ease.

Next he moved on to the two other guards that charged towards him. Minutes later they were both down for the count.

Everything was going extremely well until Tony shouted his name just as something barreled into him from the side. A sharp pain pierced Clint's side and he struggled against who he vaguely recognized to be Randle as Tony shouted and cheered in the background from the table.

Clint screamed as the pain in his side increased after his opponent twisted something inside of him. Somehow Clint managed to get Randle into a chokehold Steve had shown him. So far he hadn't killed anyone else and Clint wanted to keep it that way. Eventually the fight died out of Randle and the man went boneless in Clint's grip.

Panting Clint made sure Randle was really down before standing and staggering towards Tony who's eyes were growing wide as he stared at the painful spot on Clint's side. Clint wasn't ready to look yet, so he focused on unstrapping Tony from the bed.

"Clint, holy shit, Clint," Tony's voice faded in and out. There was more said, but Clint wasn't focusing very well anymore. Hands traveled to Clint's face gently and somehow at the same time led him gently back onto the table that was suddenly vacated. Tony was free, Clint realized. That was good. Tony would know what to do now.

He blinked slowly and Tony vanished again. He hoped Randle wasn't causing any more trouble as his eyes slipped closed only to snap back open a moment later. Clint let out a piercing scream as the pain increased ten fold.

"Damn it, Clint, I'm sorry," Tony begged for forgiveness as he appeared in Clint's line of blurred sight. "I'm so incredibly sorry, but you're bleeding all over the place – I – I've got to stop it."

Slowly Clint nodded his vague understanding as he started to slip away again.

"No, don't go to sleep!" Tony's voice echoed in Clint's ears. "You can't, just hold on. The team is on their way."

Clint struggled to keep his eyes open, to do what he was told. He looked up at Tony, tilting his head so he didn't have to worry about supporting it anymore. "Saved you." He managed. Trying to joke, but it fell flat.

"Yeah," Tony sobbed. At least it sounded like a sob. Tony didn't really seem like the sobbing type. "Yeah you did, buddy. Just hang on, okay? Natasha will kill me if you don't."

"Try." Clint mumbled weakly in response before he lost the battle a few minutes later.

Wow, that was long…but it makes up for the week I skipped, right? I hope you liked it. The next chapter may or may not be the last. ^^ It's been a fun ride you guys.

Reviews and Reviewers are loved ^^