A/N: MAJOR spoiler warning! The events of this chapter all take place after the events of the "Future Imperfect" campaign, and as such will contain spoilers as to what happens. If you have not played through it yet, DO NOT read any further!

The mood on the Helicarrier was sombre to say the least. Clint regaining consciousness should have been cause for celebration, but as usual, they didn't get long to celebrate before they were on another mission. Clint's visions, for want of a better phrase, had been some kind of tremour through time. The Tachyon Storms had grown more intense, and with Clint's level of exposure having actually travelled through a time portal, he seemed to have been connected with a future, one that he had started to explain to them before he had slipped into a coma for a couple of weeks.

Over that time, the storms became more intense, and seemed to be gravitating towards the Helicarrier itself. Then, he had woken up, and told them the full horror of what they had seen, and what they had to do. They had to travel into the bleak future they had heard about in order to find Fury and secure the timeline.

It had been far worse than any of them could possibly have prepared themselves for. Most of humanity had been all but obliterated. The whole planet was left in a dust and tachyon blasted wasteland that was barely survivable. The few remnants of AIM that still existed were running on a then-obsolete program that there was simply no one to shut off, leaving them attacking anyone that was unwary at random.

And those were some of the less-horrible things they had seen.

Kamala hadn't seen the team so quiet, so shaken to their core, since they had all gone their separate ways during their first war with AIM. Bruce was never out of the lab; Tony had been shut up in his room. Cap was spending every waking moment in the HARM room, while Thor stood on the bridge, waiting like a sentinel, sitting for the moment to spring into action.

She was in the commissary, sitting with some soda, while Kate got herself some coffee. When Clint came in, they just sort of locked eyes and stared at each other for a moment, before Kate stormed out. They'd pretty much been that way since they had gone into the future. Kamala understood something had happened while they were out there, but she wasn't sure exactly what. All she knew was that while Kate was delighted that Clint was now conscious, something had happened since then that made her not want to be in the same room as him. Clint tried to ask her to stay but she was already gone by the time he got the words out. He instead, got himself something to drink and headed out too.

Two days. The whole place had been like this for two days. It was breaking her heart, trying to think of ways to bring everyone back onto the same page. Just to get everyone in the same room and talking again.

She'd finally had enough. She slammed her hands down on the table and got up, striding purposefully out of the commissary out towards the rooms. Everyone always said she had been the one to bring everyone back. She was the one that united the team. If that was what it took, she would do it again.

She saw Tony heading into his room with some parts, and followed him. He didn't have his usual heavy rock music blaring out, but even without that he didn't seem to notice her coming in. She let out a little cough, but he didn't respond.

"Tony?" She asked.

"Kamala, I'm kind of working with sensitive repulsor tech here." He warned her. "I'd prefer not to end up getting blasted into the wall...again...so, if you wouldn't mind not surprising me while I'm working?"

"Sorry." She said, before starting to wander around. "So, some pretty wild things we saw out there, huh?"

"Yeah." Tony agreed. "That's why I'm giving the old girl a tune up. Make sure we're ready for anything."

"Do you...really think that's the future?" She asked him. "You know, like...that's where everything's going to end up?"

"I don't know." Tony responded honestly. "Look, I'm not the real expert on tachyons or time bridges or all that, that's more Hank's baby than mine, but I don't like to believe that the future, ANY future, is set in stone. It's kind of like those 'what if' stories some people like to write. Like one of your fanfictions."

"I don't think even I could write something that messed up." Kamala grumbled. "In my stories the good guys end up winning."

"Yeah, that's why I like your stories better than the real thing." Tony said, giving her a wink. "Mind getting that soldering iron for me?"

"I just really hope we can figure out something." Kamala sighed as she picked up the soldering iron and headed over to his worktop, handing it to him. "I just really don't want to see..."

Her words tailed off as she kicked some of the stuff under the table. She heard a clink and looked down, seeing a bottle rolling out. It was a bottle of bourbon. She felt ill; she looked up to Tony who was looking at her in alarm.

"Kamala, that isn't what it..." He started to say, before she snatched it up and sprinted out of his room. "Shit! Kamala! Kamala, stop! Dammit!"

With that, he ran out of the room after her.

Outside, on top of the Helicarrier, Kate was sitting, her coffee in her hand as she just looked out over the skyline. Lucky was lying under her free hand, which was draped over him, absent-mindedly stroking him. Clint walked up behind her, carrying a case with him. She looked back, seeing him standing behind her, and just turned back to her view.

"The view's a lot better when the sky's not all purple and glowy isn't it?" He asked her. She just shrugged. "Mind if I sit down?"

She didn't answer. He knew she was upset, that she was hurting from what she had learned out in the wastelands. It had not been the way that he wanted her to find out. It was certainly a unique experience meeting himself from the future, the far future, but she had found out something he had wanted to tell her himself. He sat with her, laying the case down and started scratching Lucky behind the ears. He saw her coffee. "That...looks like its getting cold. Would you like..."

"You ASSHOLE!" She screamed at him, causing Lucky to flinch a little.

"Um...OK, it doesn't need to be coffee..."

"You wanted to retire?" She yelled. "You were just going to quit?"

"Katie..." She got up and started to walk away from him. "Katie, please, stop! I know this is a shock..."

"You know what? It was! It was a shock! But you know, maybe that's just my fault for actually having a little bit of faith in you!" She snapped angrily, throwing down her cup. It shattered on the deck, spraying pieces and coffee everywhere. Lucky got up and scampered away, leaving them alone on the deck. "I mean, I should probably have looked at the way you treated all those women I used to usher out of your apartment to know what kind of self-absorbed piece of shit you really are!"

"Kate, I...I wanted to tell you myself." Clint told her. "When I...the...uh...other me, told you, that was a dick move. I've never wanted to punch myself in the face more than at that moment and...God, that is a weird thing to say."

"So, you were going to tell me?" She asked. He just nodded.

"Of course I was." He assured her. "Kate..."

"You were going to tell me that you were just going to cut and run?" She asked him. "That you were going to slink out of all of this like a little bitch?"

"Kate...I was never training a partner." He explained. "I was always training a replacement."

"I never WANTED to replace you! Don't you get that?" She screamed, throwing her shades at him.

"Kate, this thing...it's not forever." Clint told her. "That's what the Young Avengers Initiative was all about! It was about finding people that would be able to take up the fight when we're not able to anymore."

As she turned away from him, he walked towards her, placing his hands on her shoulders, starting to stroke them gently.

"There are 206 bones in the human body, and I've broken most of them more than once." Clint carried on. "Without these hearing aids Tony made, I wouldn't be able to hear a thing. My right lung's collapsed four times, my left three. I wake up in pain every single day..."

"I get all that." She replied, turning towards him, the tears running down her face a little more freely. "But did you stop for even one minute to think how this would make me feel?"

"Katie..."

"I have lost everyone in my life that ever mattered to me!" She sniffed. "My mom, my dad...pretty much everyone on their roller deck stopped calling as soon as the money was gone. Everyone I ever thought of as family, as a friend is either dead or long since stopped giving a shit about me!"

"Katie..."

"And now you're going too?" She asked him. "I finally found one person in my life that stuck around, and you're just leaving now too?"

Clint grabbed her, hugging her tightly. Kate wrapped her arms around him as he held her, sobbing into his shoulder. Clint always knew that his decision would upset her, but he had thought that being on the team, her new position with them, would be enough to keep her mind off it until she forgot all about him.

"I'm sorry." He replied. "I never...I never meant to hurt you. That is exactly the last thing I would ever want to do."

He parted from her a little way.

"And if all this has shown me one thing, it's that me leaving, it's...it's not the right thing." He told her. "Not for me, not for you, not for the team, and most of all...not for any of this."

He wiped away a couple of her tears with his thumbs.

"I have...no Earthly idea what difference, if any, I can make in preventing any of this Kree Invasion thing going down." Clint told her. "But it's pretty clear standing on the sidelines isn't going to do a damn thing either. I've never been the smartest guy in the world, I've only been able to fight, and for what it's worth, if all of this does come to pass, whether good or bad, I'd sooner go out on my feet doing something to stop it than go out on my knees."

Kate launched forward, hugging him tightly. Clint returned the hug, holding her for a few moments, before finally releasing her.

"But, there is one thing that I want to give you." He told her. He went towards the case, setting it down. Kate came with him, kneeling down next to it. He opened it up, at which she just stared into it in confusion.

"Isn't that...?" She asked him. "I...I don't get it."

"This suit is for me." He told her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I've seen you in action, and frankly, you have the potential to be a way better Hawkeye than I ever was."

"But you said..."

"Hawkeye is officially retiring." Clint told her. "But Clint Barton isn't. That's what this is for."

"You're sure?" She asked. He just nodded, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Hawkeye is your name now. You earned it." He said with a smile. With that, she hugged him tightly. "You're welcome."

In his lab, Bruce was staring at a screen, on which he had a physiological makeup of the Hulk, along with some statistics. He swept his hand across the holographic HUD, looking at all the information before him and applying variables, pausing at moments to stroke his chin. The door opened behind him and he heard some loud, deliberate footsteps.

"Well, you asked me to warn you in future." Natasha reminded him. Bruce just smiled, but continued to work.

"That I did." He responded. She came up close to him, looking at the screen, copying his pose, hoping to make him laugh. He didn't, he was still too busy concentrating on his work.

"You know, I could stand here all day and pretend I've got the slightest idea what I'm looking at." She stated. "But it would be much simpler if someone with more PhD's than fingers could explain it to me."

"It's just some old work." Bruce told her. "It's some...very...old work."

"How old?" She asked him. Bruce just sighed and looked towards her.

"Nat, are we really going to pretend we didn't see what we just saw?" He asked her. Natasha had a feeling this was what was worrying him. They had all been shaken, all been left questioning how much hope there really was seeing what lay in store for their future if they failed. For most of them, it was very straightforward. The Avengers had fought, and they had lost, and lost badly. In the time they had gone to, most of them were dead. Their names only spoken of as myths. There had been a few things found that were evidence of their existence, and of their passing. But for Bruce, it was evidence he had actually survived that was ultimately worse.

They still weren't clear on exactly what had happened, or how it had come to pass, but somewhere during the war, only The Hulk had ended up surviving. Monica's "ultimate weapon" had in fact only frozen the remaining Kree in time, creating a stasis zone which held her, Fury and many of their forces in time, possibly forever. Left alone in the wastes, The Hulk had evolved into something even more horrifying.

"Bruce, that thing, that's not you." Natasha assured him.

"That's just the problem, Nat, it IS me!" Bruce told her. "Or at least, it's what I could be!"

"Maestro is a product of a future that all going well will probably never exist." She insisted. "All that time out there, all alone, who knows how any of us would turn out?"

"That's just the thing Nat, I've seen what I become, and it is so much worse than I ever imagined it could be." He said sadly. He took off his glasses, before gesturing to the display. "That's...what this is."

Natasha just looked to it, finally realising what it was.

"No." She whispered.

"Natasha..."

"NO!" Natasha yelled at him, becoming enraged. "You are NOT taking that way out!"

"Nat, I might not have a choice!" Bruce insisted.

"Bruce, you are better than that!" Nat protested.

"But I've already seen that I might not be." Bruce told her. "We both know that ever since Big Green came into existence, we all knew how powerful, how destructive he could be if he ever got out of control. Tony has a set of armour built specifically to fight him. A few of my friends have already got together to discuss a plan for what to do if The Hulk ever does get out and I can't bring him back under control."

Bruce just stared at the image on the screen.

"I tried so many times for years to try and destroy him. I knew it was a power that could cause untold devastation on this world." He told her. "Then somewhere along the way, we came to an understanding. Big Green was a force for good, and I started to believe that maybe, just maybe, he could be a force for good."

"He is." Natasha said soothingly. "How many missions has he helped us on? How many people are alive now because of him?"

"And what if I'm just kidding myself? It's like having the button for a nuke." Bruce explained. "I can sit here all day and tell myself that I'm in control, that it's a good thing because it's a deterrent, or that I decide when it goes off and where, but the fact is that terrible power is always there and all it takes is one mistake..."

"And you don't think I have any idea what that means?" Natasha asked him. "Bruce, do you know what the Coriolis Effect is?"

He just looked at her witheringly.

"Nat, I've been one of the world's foremost minds in physics for years, of course I know what it is." He told her.

"When I was about...eighteen, I was sent on a job by the Red Room." She explained. "I was sent to assassinate a warlord, a former ally that had become something of a loose end for my employers. He was a really paranoid guy; he wouldn't let anyone in or out of his capital city, so I ended up having to set up a sniper perch from outside the city."

She looked straight at him.

"Six MILES outside the city." She clarified.

"When you're lining up a shot, you have to take a lot of things into account. You have to factor in humidity, temperature, wind speed...at that distance I even needed to take into account the Coriolis Effect. The bullet would be in flight so long that the planet would have rotated and the target wouldn't be in the same place it was when I fired." She continued with her story. Bruce furrowed his brows, something of an expression she was used to. No matter what it was, whenever he heard things like this he couldn't help trying to internally do the maths.

"Six miles?" He asked. "That's...that's not even possible!"

Nat just looked to him with an expression that said all it needed to.

"There is precisely one thing that I am better at than anyone in the world." Natasha told him. "And it's the one thing that I swore I would never do again the day that I joined The Avengers."

"Nat..."

"But, that hasn't always been easy." She admitted. "We have run up against so many monsters, people who cause nothing but misery. Taskmaster, Crusher, Doom...and each time we put them down they get back up eventually, and a part of me thinks that maybe...maybe just this once, just this one time if we took that next step because this is someone that will never change their ways."

She came close to him.

"But I know I can never cross that line, no matter how easy it would make things." She replied. "Because what we do is more important than doing what's easy. And I know that whenever I have any doubts, that you're all there to remind me why I changed."

She wrapped her arms around him.

"And we'll always be here to remind you why that thing we met out there will NEVER be in your future." Nat told him. "Because all of us will be here, and as long as I'm alive, I always will be."

Bruce held her, kissing her passionately. It terrified him to see what he could become. He had always known about Nat's past, it wasn't like it was a secret to any of them, but he had never considered her still thinking like that, even now. As they parted, a thought occurred to him.

"As long as you're..." Bruce started to say. "...Nat, did you just...?"

"Don't overthink it." She replied with a smile, kissing him again.

Down in the hangar, Kamala was running, being chased by Tony through the Helicarrier.

"Kamala!" He called out. "Kamala, please, stop!"

She leapt down from the walkway and ran towards the opening, turning off the forcefield. She ran towards the edge, preparing to heave the bottle out into the sky.

"Kamala! Stop!" Tony yelled as he jumped down, landing somewhat more awkwardly than she did a little way off. He started limping towards her. "Kamala..."

He started to approach her, seeing her shaking. The wind whipped through her hair, and the air was chilling. He approached her, seeing her tears running down her face.

"Kamala, please, it's...it's not what you think!" Tony told her.

"BULLSHIT!" She screamed. "If you think I'm going to let you..."

"Kamala, please, I promise it's..." He started to say, but he saw her moving towards the edge. "Kamala, please, if nothing else, if you throw that bottle off here, it could kill someone!"

"It's going to kill someone up here." She sniffed. "What the Hell Tony? WHAT THE HELL?"

"Kamala, I swear to God..." He stammered, seeing her edging backwards. "Kamala, for the love of God, please come away from the edge. It's a long way down and I don't have a suit on to catch you."

Kamala stayed where she was, but she clutched the bottle to herself. She could only look at him in horror.

"Tony, I know things have been tough." Kamala begged him. "I know things have been really, really messed up, but..."

"Kamala, I promise that I am not drinking." Tony told her.

"Like you've never lied before..."

"Never to you!" He interrupted her. He could see how distraught she was, and he knew that she needed an explanation. "Kamala, please, listen to me. Giving up drinking was the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life."

She shivered in the cold air, her lip was quivering. She could already see the pressure building in her friends. She gripped the bottle tightly.

"When I gave up the first time, it was tough. Pepper, Happy, all my friends were there to get me through it, and it was a tough fight, but I did it." He continued as he edged towards her, but seeing her edge away, he pulled back, holding up his hands. He couldn't risk her moving any closer to the edge. "The second time, I had no one. The team were gone, Pepper was gone...but I knew I had to do it. And I have to say, that time was Hell. It really was!"

He gulped, seeing her breaking down right before him.

"For weeks, there wasn't a moment that went by where I didn't want to just grab the nearest thing with a drop of alcohol in it and pray that this one would be the one that finished me off. I had the shakes so bad that I couldn't do anything that required more than basic motor skills. I'd spent so long with a diet that was almost completely liquid that I didn't have a single solid shit for almost a month."

Kamala just sobbed as she held onto the bottle. Tony looked to her, pleading with her with his eyes.

"It was a habit, and once I broke it, I never wanted to go back." He assured her. "I'd be lying if I said there wasn't times I was tempted. Even now, I get times when all I want to do is take that bottle; rip the cap off and down the whole God damned thing!"

"I...I know." She whimpered. "So, why do you have it?"

"Because I need it!" Tony stated. He saw the look on her face; it was pretty much the worst possible thing he could have said. She turned towards the edge. "WAIT! Listen! I...I need it because I know that if it's there, and if I can go one day without touching it, then that day I've won."

"But...but why?" She asked him. He gulped.

"They say that giving up drinking is harder than giving up any other drug." He told her. "You can move away from your dealer, but what do I do? You can buy booze in pretty much ever store and bar in the nation. My friends all drink, Hell, one of them is literally drinks mead and ale like its water..."

"But why do you have it?" She asked him again.

"Because I know that if I try and stay away from it, then the moment I'm near it again, I'll be weaker." He explained. "I bought that bottle the morning I decided to stop. I've had it for four years, and I've never even broken the seal. I needed it because I needed to know that it was there, but that I didn't need to drink it."

Kamala sank to her knees and sobbed. Tony came over to her, falling to his knees and holding onto her, letting her weep into his shoulder.

"Kamala, I'm...I'm sorry I never told you. I'm sorry I put you through this." He told her, parting from her. "But I promise you, that bottle is never going anywhere near me ever again."

"I...I don't..."

"Kamala, I want you to have it." Tony told her. "Do with it what you want. But I only ask; if you do want to throw it away, for the love of God, please don't throw it off the edge of a ship that's over 30,000 feet in the air."

She looked to Tony, and then to the bottle. She ended up handing it to him. Tony took it, but put it out to the side as he held her warmly.

"Don't worry, kid." He assured her. "With you around, I'll never need it again."