A/N: Hiddy Ho Everyone! This is another story from some time ago that might be floating around here as well. If it is, like the others it isn't plagiarism it's me. The old pen name is me and this pen name is me so I don't want to be accused of it. I would have changed the tittle but I couldn't think of one that fit any better than the one I already had so I left it the way it was. I did update the chapter however and clean it up. So this is new and improved and I hope you all like it!
On with the show!
Disclaimer: I own sweet dick all. However I would love to own Loki or Clint after he became Ronin. OH MY GOD, is he hot! Not that he wasn't cute before of course!
Little Soul Found
Clint
Clint Barton ambled through Time Square weaving through people as he moved along aimlessly. He let out a long slow sigh. He left Stark Tower some time ago to clear his head before he spontaneously combusted. He and Natasha had another huge fight.
It seemed now that all they ever did was fight. They could barely get through a training exercise without beating the shit out of each other physically and mentally. He knew that there had been fissures and cracks forming in their relationship for sometime now. Up until now, he had been steadily refusing to acknowledge it. Unfortunately, Loki's mind fuck blew everything open like a giant catalyst and he could no longer do that.
For the most part, he considered himself to be recovering from the ordeal. However, he couldn't force himself to be the person he was before no matter how he tried. He knew that Natasha knew this and it bothered her immensely. It bothered her that she couldn't fix him like she'd done all times before this. Hell, if he could fix this entire mess and put things back the way they were before all of this, he would do it in a heartbeat.
Shaking out of his dismal thoughts, he realized that the sun was beginning to set. He decided it would be a really good idea to get back to the tower before Fury sent a search party on his sorry ass. He turned around and started walking back in the direction he came from.
Halfway back to the tower, he spotted a small coffee shop and stopped. He decided he might have better luck not having his head ripped off by Natasha if he had a peace offering and her favorite coffee might just do the trick. Crossing the street, he jogged up to the entrance of the coffee shop.
As he reached for the door handle, something suddenly caused him to freeze mid-way. While he had no real super powers, he did have an incredible sensitivity and awareness to everything around him. Natasha commented more than once that it was damn near super human and it's gotten him out of more binds than he cared to admit. Right now it was screaming at him that something wasn't right. Letting his blue-green eyes rove around the area, he saw that nothing seemed out of place.
However, when his eyes landed on the small alleyway next to the coffee shop, a huge jolt of awareness traveled down his spine and he knew the feeling would not leave until he investigated what it was.
"Oh fuck my life." He muttered to himself.
Approaching the alleyway cautiously, he entered it slowly. Almost immediately, he detected some small movement behind a very dirty dumpster. He hoped to fuck it was not just an alley cat or he might start shitting bricks sideways. Moving closer to the dumpster, he was suddenly assaulted by the acrid smell of very old human waste. The smell was so overpowering that it brought tears to his eyes. Knowing that something was definitely not right, he ignored the smell and moved around the dumpster.
What he found there made him almost vomit all over the ground.
A young girl no older than 19 years of age was tied to the side of the dumpster, judging from the state that she was in, for several weeks. The more of her appearance he took in, the angrier he became.
He saw that she was quite small for her age. Her hair was dark brown, very long, very curly and very matted. He couldn't even tell what color her eyes were because her pupils were so blown with fear.
Even though her face was caked with layers of dirt, he could see that her face was round and sweet looking. She had a small nose and a small mouth. He could even detect some freckles underneath the dirt. His eyes fell away form her face and focused on her neck. He could see the glinting of something metal around it and he frowned.
'What in the fuck is that?' He wondered.
Getting just a bit closer, he could finally make out what it was. It was a fucking metal collar. Just staring at it made the anger erupt through his veins. He couldn't understand who in their right mind would put a collar on a young girl.
Getting a good look at what she had on, he started to putting some of the pieces together. She had on some kind of gown that had been white at one point. He saw that it was too big for her and it exposed her left shoulder. It looked like it came from some kind of medical facility. He realized that she must have been institutionalized somewhere and they abandoned her here.
The thought of it made him sick. He would find who this and when he did, they were going to pay dearly.
Approaching the girl carefully, he bent down slowly to get a better at the metal shackle around her right wrist, he could see that the metal was attached to a chain that was wrapped around the handle thing sticking out of the dumpster.
It made him think that somebody left her tied up in this spot with the intention of returning to her at some point or they just dumped her there not knowing what to do with her.
As soon as he touched the metal around the girl's wrist, she suddenly came to life and went ballistic on him. Not that he could blame her. He tried to subdue her the best he could without causing her anymore pain.
"Woah, whoa, whoa! I'm on your side! I promise I won't hurt you." He said soothingly.
Hearing his voice, the girl's head snapped in his direction and she looked him straight in the eyes. He was taken aback at just how intense her stare was. He knew that there was just no way her could leave her now.
Slowly, he began to feel her panic ebb slightly and took the moment to examine the metal around her wrist. Finding something that looked close to an actual keyhole, his left eye almost started twitching.
Looking to the ground, he searched for the sharpest object he could find. He would be a pretty damn lame master assassin if he couldn't even pick a simple lock. Working at the lock, he managed to get it undone. It took a little longer due to lack of proper equipment but he managed to get the damn thing off of her wrist.
As soon as the shackle hit the ground, the girl examined her wrist and then looked back at him in shock and a just a little bit of wonder. He could see that fear slowly was slowly ebbing away form her eyes.
He finally got a decent look at her eye color and he was shocked. They were an unnatural shade of violet. Now he was certain that there was something really not right with this girl. However, his awareness was telling him that he needed to protect her and he trusted his sixth sense more than any person.
Suddenly, he felt the girl shift and was shocked to see that she was trying to move closer to him. Her small, dirty hand reached out and latched onto the front of his shirt tightly.
Despite the fact that she was very dirty and positively reeked, he let her come as close as she wanted. He didn't care about the smell or how she looked. The urge to comfort her and keep her safe far outweighed any of that.
"It's alright, you're safe now. I won't let anything happen to you again." He cooed, stroking her dirty, matted hair back.
At his touch, the girl seemed to calm further and she tried to crawl onto his lap the best that she could. For the first time, he could see how bad her legs were. They were covered in sores and cuts.
He saw that her upper thighs were smeared with blood.
Seeing the blood and knowing very well what caused it made his blood absolutely boil in anger. He knew that getting angry at the situation wouldn't do him any good right now. He forced himself to let his anger go for the time being. He would take it out on his targets later.
He realized very quickly that he would not be able to get her back to the tower on his own. Letting out an annoyed huff, he decided what his best option would be. He couldn't involve Fury whatsoever, he would take her away and do god knows what to her trying to figure out how she ticked and where she came from. He refused to let the happen.
His best bet would be to call Coulson. Coulson acted like he had an iron rod shoved up his ass all of the time but he knew Coulson could be trusted.
Fishing out his cell from his coat pocket, he punched in Coulson's number and was not shocked when Coulson answered on the first ring.
"Agent Barton, so you are coming back tonight, I'm shocked." Coulson's monotone voice droned through the phone.
Clint fought against the urge to roll his eyes at Coulson's lame ass attempt at a joke.
"Look sir, I'm sorry I'm not back yet but I've run into a situation." He explained.
"A situation? What kind of situation?" Coulson asked.
"I found a girl in an alley way, sir. I can't get her back to the tower on my own and she needs medical attention immediately." He explained further.
There was a slight pause and then Coulson spoke again.
"I see, tell me your location and I will send some men to help you." Coulson ordered.
He internally let out a sigh of relief. He was glad Coulson decided to help him. It would have made everything harder if he had to get her out of her himself.
"Thank you, sir. Also, can you not inform Fury of this yet. The girl is severely damaged and I'm afraid too much will overwhelm her." He asked, desperately hoping Coulson would agree.
There was another brief pause and then he got a response.
"Alright, I'll see what I can do but you know how Fury operates. He will find out one way or another. This had better not get out of hand and turn into another mess that I have to clean up." Coulson responded sternly.
He winced at that. He had no doubt that it would that this would turn into a giant mess some way at some point but there was no way that he could just leave this poor girl to suffer all alone.
After agreeing with Coulson that rescuing this girl would not result in a giant mess that he would have to clean up, he told him his location and hung up the phone. About 5 minutes later, his awareness began to pick up that help was coming.
Looking down at the girl in his arms, it seemed that she could sense it too.
He knew without a doubt that this girl was in no way human and wondered if this was part of whatever she was. She began to get agitated, and started to try and squirm away from him. He tried to calm her down the best that he could.
"Hush, hush, I know it's scary but these people are coming to help you. I won't leave you, I promise." He murmured.
This calmed her some but not much. It only got worse when the S.H.I.E.L.D medical personnel found them. They tried to pry the girl off of him so they could examine her properly and she let out a blood curdling, distorted scream.
As she tried to fight them off and reach out for him, her violet irises began to glow. Her hands began to glow and a right white light surrounded them. Then as quickly as the commotion started, it came to an abrupt halt when the collar around her neck suddenly came to life and tried to shock the life out of her.
She started to slump toward the dirty ground unconscious but he managed to catch her before she fell completely.
He couldn't even begin try and comprehend what just happened.