CHAPTER 5 - Alien Hospitality

"Barton! Barton!" someone cried. Considering only one person currently knew his last name, it had to of been Loki. Slowly, Clint cracked his eyes open. He was hanging by his wrists in the middle of the room. All around him on the walls were the other members of the group. Rocket and Groot hung pretty much together on the archer's right. Drax was behind Clint, or at least the archer hoped. Quill and Gamora also shared a wall on the left. And Loki was right in front of him.

"So, I miss anything?" Clint grunted, glancing to Groot, wondering why the baby hadn't just escaped. There was a snort of surprise from Quill even as Loki rolled his eyes. Clint ignored it and jut focused on Loki. "How many left?"

"Still a bit too many," Loki muttered. Clint groaned, hanging his head down onto his chest. Just his luck. Would be real nice knowing that Steve was out there trying to find him, or even had a chance of finding him. Or heck, even Sam would be nice. Maybe Scott. Just someone! "If we all had time to rest and heal correctly, it would be child's play."

"I am not a child," Drax called. Clint chuckled, he couldn't help it. It was just too much. But when the movement didn't bother Clint's side, the side he knew he had been hit on, the archer paused. What the heck happened? He tried to look down but it just pulled on his very sore arms and shoulders.

"Hey, man. You gonna be okay? They... They didn't seem nice with you when getting you up there," Quill wondered. Clint shrugged. A bit of stupid pride welling up in him that the aliens thought he was a force to be reckoned with.

"Had worse," the archer answered, wondering why he didn't actually seem as injured as he had felt before. A quick glance at the others and the archer noted none of them seemed to have any injuries as well. He knew shots had been fired on them in very visible areas. So where was the damage now?

"That doesn't make us feel better," Gamora pointed out. Suddenly a door that Clint hadn't seen opened by Rocket and Groot. Some type of creature came out and it took a moment to walk around the room, starting before Rocket and Groot and then heading to Drax. Once it came in front of Clint, the archer was able to focus on the alien. It kind of reminded him a bit of the Chitauri, the alien from Aliens and Deadpool all mixed together in a blender. "Trogziks."

"We demand to speak to the captain," the creature stated. Clint sighed. Of course they did.

"And if the captain don't wanna speak to you?" he sassed before anyone could speak. The creature snarled at him.

"Captain must speak," the Trogziks ordered. Clint scoffed, much to the consternation of the guardians hanging around him. Thankfully though, none of them actually verbally protested Clint's actions.

"Yeah, good luck with that," Clint snipped over Quill's slightly distressed noise. The creature got real mad then and suddenly he swiped Clint's chest and some sort of razor or something cut across the archer. Quill, Rocket, and Gamora cried out, trying to get the Trogziks attention. It turned away from Clint, ready to speak with them. All Clint could think was 'ah, hell no.' He was trained for this. He could handle it. "That all ya got?"

"Silence!" the alien snapped, spinning on Clint and attacking again. There now looked to be a giant X on the archer's chest. Clint didn't even wince.

"Make me," Clint dared, his eyes narrowing as if the alien was a mere child. The alien hissed, shifting up toward Clint. It waited for Clint to twitch but all Clint did was glare into the thing. With a snarl, it turned and left.

"What the hell was that!?" Quill cried once the door was closed. Clint shook his head. He really didn't want to get into what he was doing. If they knew, they'd stop him. Looking up he noticed even Loki had a scowl on his face. Clint smiled. He forgot that Loki had never seriously seen him doing his spy work. Hell, the first time Steve had ever seen it he had been really pissed. Likely because they both knew Steve could handle it better than him, but Clint just couldn't help but claim the attention for himself.

"I know what I'm doing," the archer soothed as if that made any of them feel any better.

"Yeah, trying to get killed," Rocket commented. The door opened again and this time two Trogziks came in. One was the first one that Clint could now see had dark blue skin while the new comer had greenish skin. Apparently the skin color wasn't the same on each one.

"Oh! You brought a friend!" Clint called before anyone else could say anything yet again. The green skinned one came over to Clint. Ignoring when Quill and Gamora tried to get the aliens's attention. And thankfully the first alien must have been really peeved by Clint as neither alien even glanced in the guardians direction. "Hi, how ya doin'?"

"You have a loud mouth," the alien pointed out. Clint nodded.

"Been told that a time or two," he retorted. The alien snarled and then snapped a closed fist into Clint's gut. Clint curled in a little at the pain as his body swung from it's chain in the room. He didn't make a sound. "Had that done as well."

"Ever have your tongue cut out?" the blue alien hissed. Clint raised an eyebrow.

"Thought you guys wanted answers? Can't answer without a tongue," Clint stated. The green one looked to the blue one. They hissed something back and forth to each other. Clint smirked and he couldn't help but hear Gamora talking in some random language softly. He figured she must be swearing at him. Quickly, his eyes flicked to Loki. The trickster's face was blanked out but Clint could see in his eyes that he was furious. "Boys, I'm feeling left out of the loop here. Wanna tell me what's going guys?"

"You no talk," the green one growled. Clint shrugged.

"Kinda fun to talk," Clint retorted. The green one snarled and it punched Clint in the gut again. And yet again, Clint made no noise. "Didn't work the first time won't work the second."

This time he was backhanded and apparently these guys got some sort of slime or aloe or something on them cause Clint's eyes quickly begin to burn. Holding back his fear, Clint just laughed at the alien. It grunted and walked off, the blue one following like a lost little angry duckling. As soon as the door was closed, Clint hissed, closing his eyes. Fuck not showing the others pain. This shit was messed up.

"You okay?" Loki wondered, having noted right away that Clint hadn't taken kindly to the back hand. Clint made a very small nod that had no one believing him. Now Loki was even more concerned. "Clint."

"Got something on their skin. My eyes are burning," Clint finally admitted, blinking quickly a few times to see if that cleared them. Loki frowned, knowing how much the archer relied on his sight. He could only hope along with Clint that it wasn't going to damage his eyes and wore off soon.

"Maybe you should just, ya know, not talk next time they come in?" Quill suggested. Clint scoffed and shook his head, scrunching his face when the blinking didn't help. There was no way he could allow the others to come into any danger. By taking all the alien's attention, it kept the others safe.

"I'll be fine," Clint promised before looking up at Loki. He needed someone to say that his eyes looked okay. Clint's eyes looked a little red but Loki couldn't see any permanent damage done. With a softer gaze at the archer, Loki silently informed Clint that his eyes were going to be fine in the long run. Clint couldn't stop a small sigh of relief at that. But, needless to say, they needed to get out of here and soon. "Can you use magic?"

"Yes, to a small degree. But I haven't been unable to undo the restrains on us. Nor do anything to the walls. There is some sort of dampener on it. Why?" Loki asked. Clint sighed, hanging his head again. He hadn't really meant that Loki should use his magic to escape. If Loki could have, Clint was pretty certain that the Lie-smith would have done it already.

"This is gonna get worse. I don't want anyone talking," Clint told the trickster. The room erupted into arguments about that. There was no way they would allow Clint to be the only one to talk. Clint shook his head, looking back up at Loki with a beg. With a frown as this was the first time Clint had actually asked for a spell done since their fight on the farm, Loki waved his hand, casting his silencing spell. The room dropped into silence. Clint sighed even as he saw Quill was still trying to scream even with no sound coming out. "Thanks."

"You are a pig headed idiot," Loki snorted. Clint smirked.

"Yeah. Been told that a time or two."


The aliens didn't come back for nearly an hour or two. By the time they did, Clint's eyes had already cleared and like Loki thought, there was no lasting damage. The giant X on his chest had also sealed over itself. Loki had sent out a spell, urging it to go a bit faster but Loki knew touching Clint was the only way he could truly heal the archer. When the aliens finally did come it wasn't the ones they had seen before. One was an ashen gray and the other was almost black. Clint chuckled at the sight of them. Even more so when they brought in some type of hovering table covered in various equipment. A quick glance and Clint noted that Rocket was trying his best to scream something. Clint could only bet that Quill was doing the same thing.

"Kinky," Clint noted when the table was brought over and the archer could see some of the items. Neither alien responded. "Gonna introduce yourself before we get started?"

"Chamio," the black one introduced. Clint smiled at Chamio. This one was new to this, likely young and inexperienced in torture techniques. It was especially noticeable when the gray one hissed at him.

"Nice to meet you Chamio, my name's Francis," Clint greeted with a small chuckle. Thankfully no one made a face at the switch of his name. Though Loki did quirk a bit of his eyebrow that the aliens thankfully didn't see.

"We no care," the gray one snapped before grabbing some type of container. Clint raised an eyebrow at it. Chamio winced at the sight but said nothing as the gray one opened it. The alien then grabbed something from the table that looked kinda like a spoon. Before Clint could make a comment on it, the alien dug into the container and launched the contents onto Clint's chest. Everyone could hear the burning of Clint's skin. Clint grunted, holding back his screams of pain. That was new. More painful than the archer expected and he had had acid poured over his skin with some rather large open wounds.

"Come on, you got to have something better than that," Clint growled after a moment. The alien shifted behind Clint and did it again. Clint's back arched at the feeling but again, he did not cry out. After a minute, the alien did it again on Clint's back. This time there was an angered hiss that escaped between Clint's lips. Glancing over, Clint noted that Quill was watching horrified. Gamora kinda reminded the archer of Natasha. Her face was blank outside of the tightness of her lips. Again, the alien tossed some more onto Clint's back and before Clint could recover, the alien did it again. This time, Clint did cry out with a soft pained gasp.

"Better?" the alien wondered, coming back around to Clint's front. Clint forced himself to chuckle and glare at the creature. No way was he going to admit how bad this was. Mostly for the sake of the others imprisoned with him rather than seeming tough in front of the aliens.

"A walk in the park," he hissed. The alien frowned and dumped the contents onto Clint's chest. Again, Clint couldn't stop the now louder cry but the archer worked hard to make sure it wasn't as loud and pained as it felt. Clint grunted when the pain vanished. If they stopped working on him now, the aliens would start working on the others. "Got any more?"

The alien scrapped his nails over Clint's chest, leaving three long marks. Marks that began to fill with some left over bits from that thing that had been on him before. Clint's cry this time was more like a scream. He couldn't help it. If he thought the skin attack was bad, god once it went inside it was like nothing the archer had ever felt. The alien laughed, moving back to watch Clint. After maybe half a minute, Clint's head dropped onto his chest.

The alien chuckled and moved to tilt Clint's head up to check on the consciousness. When the fingers got within range, Clint lunged forward and bit down hard. This time it was the alien who cried out. Chamio ran forward, punching Clint in the gut to try and get the archer to release, but Clint didn't seem fazed. With a growl of pain himself, Chamio lifted some more leftover liquid and slathered it into Clint's open wounds. Apparently this crap didn't effect the aliens.

It did what Chamio wanted. Clint released the other alien with a cry of pain. When Chamio and the other alien backed away, Clint regained himself and just smiled at the duo. The unnamed alien snarled at Clint and grabbed a wicked looking knife. It stabbed it into Clint's leg. Clint grunted, used to knife wounds. When the alien twisted the blade, that caused Clint to gasp. No matter how often he got hit with a knife wound, twisting the object inside of him always bothered him. It smiled, leaving the knife in Clint before grabbing something else.

"Maybe this shut you up," the alien laughed, plunging what looked to be a tool bit, that one used to drill holes with, right into Clint's gut. Clint groaned at the pain but just glared down at the alien. It smirked before turning to leave.

"Sir?" Chamio asked. The alien didn't respond, just walked out. After a moment, Chamio followed. Clint's head collapsed onto his chest, eyes closed as to not see the items still sticking out of him.

"Still liking this plan?" Loki questioned, a vicious sense of 'amusement' in his voice. Clint smiled, careful not to jostle whatever was in his gut. He could tell that Loki wasn't finding this humorous at all.

"It's good. I'm fine," the archer grunted. Loki raised an eyebrow.

"If this is fine, I don't want to know when you think things aren't fine," the trickster responded. That did get Clint to laugh and moan when the item in his gut shifted.


They were left alone for two hours again. This time, because Clint was slowly bleeding out, he hardly registered the return of Chamio and the gray alien. The alien laughed, finally making Clint look up. He tried to act like he had noticed them the second they entered but everyone (outside of Drak) could see the glaze partially over his eyes.

"Oh, hey, you're back," Clint groaned. This made the alien reach forward and twist the gut item. Clint cried out, trying to twist himself away. Blood poured out faster than before and Loki twitched. Clint subtly tried to shake his head no. But the trickster couldn't hold back.

"Stop! You'll kill him!" Loki roared. The alien paused, turning back to the trickster. Clint groaned. Son of a bitch.

"Fuck you. This is a pin prick," Clint snarled, trying to get the alien's focus back on him. The alien turned to look back at Clint and then to Loki. When it moved to Loki, Clint hissed. This was why he had wanted everyone silenced. He had to try even harder now to regain the alien's attention. Loki lifted his head a bit, ready for whatever was going to happen. He had half expected he'd draw attention to himself, but he couldn't just sit back and watch what was happening to Clint anymore. "What? Tired of me already?"

"Arath?" Chamio asked, watching the gray alien. Arath ignored the, what everyone assumed was, younger alien. The alien grabbed an item similar to the one in Clint's gut. Arath moved toward Loki. Clint was nearly in a blind panic right now. He knew that Loki had likely gone through some torture in his life but the Lie-smith didn't have to go through it now.

"HEY! FUCK FACE!" Clint roared. Arath ignored the archer and harshly stabbed the item into Loki's gut. The trickster gasped at the pain but didn't otherwise respond to it. Clint glared at Loki. The Asgardian shouldn't have spoken at all. Smiling, Arath turned to the table and grabbed something that looked like electrodes. Turning back to Clint, the alien started attaching them to various parts of the archer's body. Loki snarled, ready to cry out again but Clint's darkened gaze made him stop. The trickster was ready to go again but he realized now that Clint would never forgive him if Loki tried to take the attention away from him again. So, instead he looked to the other guardians.

Smiling even more, Arath just placed things in spots all over the archer's body. Chamio frowned but grabbed some random cream and moved forward. He pulled out the gut tool to Clint's gasp of pain. Then Chamio rubbed the cream all over Clint's wounds before moving down to the knife. Before everyone's eyes, Clint's wounds healed over. Clint chuckled at it even as his stomach dropped. This really wasn't going to be good. Maybe he took the whole pissing these guys off a bit too far. But he couldn't stop now.

"Nifty," he whispered. Chamio looked up as if shocked. Apparently most victims didn't like getting healed over so more torture could be inflected on them. Loki's mouth twisted into anger, his face darkening and promising extreme retribution. Once both aliens were done, they backed away. Arath grabbed some sort of remote and smiled.

"You answer questions," Arath ordered. Clint laughed.

"Then ask one," he snarked. Arath apparently didn't like that. He pressed the button and not to Clint's surprise, electricity raced through his body. This has been done to him so many times in the past that he was hardly phased. Arath really didn't enjoy that. Clint just smirked when the electricity stopped racing through him. Arath turned to Chamio and whispered something to the younger alien. Chamio nodded and rushed out of the room. "Well? Gonna ask?"

Chamio returned with a bucket of something similar to water but was clearly thicker. Frowning, Clint watched as the two layered it all over the areas the electrodes touched. It took a minute or two before they were done. Then they backed away. Clint stared at Arath, expectantly. Arath didn't speak, but he did press the remote again. Clint was stunned with the huge increase of pain from the electrify but he refused to react. Arath really didn't like that, so he just kept holding the remote out at Clint. It wasn't gonna be long before Clint cried out.

"Arath," Chamio whispered after Clint closed his eyes. The archer was attempting to focus on something happy other than the pain. Thoughts of his family drifted through his mind and then of the Avengers. Arath finally stopped. Clint sighed in relief. He wouldn't have been able to stand much more even with the happier thoughts.

"Who is your captain?" Arath finally asked. Clint sighed, his mind racing for a moment before he smirked.

"Morgan," the archer answered. Loki snorted, unable to stop himself. While he may not be from Earth, he did know the alcoholic drink.

"Which one of you is Morgan?" Arath demanded, looking around at the others. No one answered, mostly due to the spell Loki had put on them but also because it wasn't their name. When they stayed silent, Clint was shocked again. Still, no one answered and once again, Clint was so glad that Loki had laid the silencing spell on the guardians. "You lie!"

"Oh, sorry. That's my alcoholic drink," Clint chuckled. Arath didn't find that funny. He shocked the archer again. This time Clint grunted.

"Who is your captain?" Arath snapped.

"Picard." Again a shock. "Hook."

"WE NO JOKE!" Arath screamed at Clint. Clint just looked at him.

"Captain Crunch." Arath snarled and left the room. Clint sighed, actually disappointed for once. It was a nice challenge to come up with a bunch of Captain names. "Aw... I had a few more Captains set up..."

"You didn't want to say America?" Loki wondered with an amused smirk. He could tell all of this was wearing on Clint but he could also tell that the archer was determined to see this through. Loki wasn't going to take away Clint's choice in this. Clint shrugged.

"Would have gotten to him sooner or later," Clint admitted. Loki chuckled and looked around the room. Nearly everyone was glaring at him. With a sigh, Loki looked back to Clint. Clint huffed and nodded. Carefully the trickster undid his silencing spell.

"ARE YOU INSANE!?" Quill cried the second he realized the spell was off him. Clint glanced at him.

"Hmm?" the archer replied.

"Just answer the guy! Stop... Stop messing around," Quill called. Clint snorted.

"If I answer one, they're gonna want more. And I'm sorry, but do you want to admit being captain and having this friendly conversation with them?" Clint countered. Quill paled and Clint knew the answer. The guardian wouldn't be able to handle this.

"You don't need to do this alone," Gamora pointed out. Clint sighed. Might as well just explain why he could easily handle this and why it was more important that the aliens focused on him than giving them free reign to attack everyone.

"On Earth, I am a spy and assassin as well as being a superhero. Do you know how often I get tortured for information? As I told these guys. This, this is fucking child's play," Clint retorted.

"You are frackin messed up in the head," Rocket whispered. Clint looked to him.

"Again, you want to say that you're captain?" Clint accused. He needed to drill it into their heads that if they said anything, all this would move to them. Case in point being Loki. Rocket looked away. "Exactly. I can handle this, I know I can. When it gets too bad, I'll start actually answering them. For now, let me do this and keep you all safe. We all saw what happened when Loki tried helping!"

Loki winced, glancing down at the tool still in his gut. Everyone else also looked at him and winced. They had to admit, Clint was keeping them safe. Even if it was at his expense. Didn't stop them from wanting to help the archer. It was unfair that out of seven people only one was getting hurt.

"I am Groot," Groot called. Clint sighed trying hard not to laugh in relief.

"See, at least one of you appreciates this," the archer snipped.

They lapsed into silence after that. Clint sighed, looking down as his body. It was bright red like his skin had been waxed or a layer had been removed. The wounds from the gut thing were healed with only minor scars. Same for the wound on his leg. They all waited... And waited... And waited. Finally, Clint looked to Loki and then to Quill.

"Can I trust you to keep quite no matter what you see?" Clint asked. Quill frowned.

"What do you think is gonna happen?" Quill retorted. Clint sighed.

"If you think what's happened already was bad, wait for it. That was them just starting," Clint informed. Again, Quill and Rocket burst into upset chatter. Clint silenced them. "HEY! Look, if they have some sort of healing gel, it means they have a lot more in store. A lot more. Maybe even bringing me close to death. I don't want anyone getting any bright ideas."

At that last line, he glared at Loki who still had the tool in his gut. Loki huffed and looked away. Quill sighed, looking over to Loki as well. The guardian couldn't help but wince yet again. He really didn't want to know if he could handle that type of pain.

"Drax the Destroyer does not fear these urchins!" Drax nearly shouted from behind Clint. The archer sighed and nodded to Loki, who simply waved his hand and Drax was silenced again.

"You know, that's not cool," Rocket muttered. Clint looked to him.

"I'm trying to protect you right now. If it takes a silencing spell to do so, then oh well. Better than getting the shit beaten out of ya," Clint snarled. Rocket huffed.

"I won't speak," the raccoon promised. Clint nodded.

"If it looks like you will, Loki will put the spell on you," Clint ordered, giving the Lie-smith a quick look that said there would be hell to pay if the magic user did not do as asked. Loki nodded. He knew that none of the guardians would seriously be able to handle what Clint was. In fact, Loki doubted he'd be able to. Just this one item in hit gut was giving him a lot of difficulty. While Loki had indeed been tortured in the past, this item had some sort of poison that was running through him. How Clint had not felt that, Loki could only guess.

"I'll do it for any of them," Loki replied. Clint's eyes widened a fraction before dropping his head to his chest, tired.

"You barely know us. Why would you do this?" Gamora wondered. Clint shrugged.

"On Earth, I'm part of a team... We... We handle some big issues, protecting our planet and the people on it. Kinda sticks with a guy to want to protect everyone," Clint sighed. The door opened and a new alien walked in, some type of collar in his hands. Clint raised an eyebrow at it. Everyone stared at it, confused. The alien ignored them all and simply put the collar on Clint's neck and then walked away. "Uh..."

"Is it just me, or was that weird?" Quill questioned.

"Weird," Clint quickly answered before frowning. He looked up with a groan. "Aw... truth collar... no."

"You've faced this before?" Gamora inquired, surprised. Typically when someone faced one of these, they were killed once the questioner had gotten their questions answered.

"Yeah. A couple of times. Not really nice," Clint replied, a grimace on his face. They could all see that Clint hadn't wanted to answer.

"You have to answer truthfully but also, need to answer every question," Loki explained, noting the type of collar that was around Clint's neck. Clint nodded with a huff. Apparently they had moved on from torture for now. Arath entered the room without Chamio. There was a pleased smile on Arath's face.

"You forced to answer correctly now," Arath needless pointed out. Clint sighed. "Who is your captain?"

"Steven Grant Rogers," Clint retorted, his eyes closing in despair. Even though they were no where near him, Clint still felt horrible admitting it. Loki sighed now. It wasn't a lie. Clint and he were not part of this group, so they wouldn't know the actual captain of the Milano. Arath smiled.

"Which one is he?" Arath asked.

"None of them," Clint answered with a tiny wince, his eyes lifting minutely so he could see the alien. Arath frowned.

"Explain," the alien demanded. While not really a question, the collar still wanted him to answer the tone. Clint grimaced, closing his eyes once it again. It was clear he was trying to fight answering but the collar was going to get through him.

"I was transported out here by accident. Where I come from, I work underneath Captain Steve Rogers," Clint told the alien, his eyes flicking up to Loki before aiming back to Arath. Loki frowned. This wasn't going the way Clint had hoped it would. Apparently this was when Clint deemed things not fine. For half a second Loki thought about putting a silencing spell on Clint but the collar would injure the archer if he couldn't answer.

"Where do you come from?" Arath wondered. Clint tried to stop himself this time before glancing at Loki and holding the trickster's gaze. He got an idea.

"Midgard," he grumbled as if it was a chore. Arath made a face.

"What?"

"Midgard," Clint repeated, a sigh on his lips. He was so thankful that that had worked. Even Loki gave a small smile of relief. There was a slight chance that Clint could twist the battle in his favor again.

"Where is that?" Arath hissed. Clint shrugged with a soft laugh.

"Told you. I was sent here by accident," Clint said. Arath growled.

"Who sent you?" Arath snarled. Clint snapped his mouth closed. There was no way in hell he was gonna answer that. He'd die before that answer came from his mouth. Loki hissed in surprise. He knew what was going to happen next. Clint would be forced to inform these creatures about his family. Arath frowned. No one had been able to fight the collar before. "Who sent you?"

Clint growled, forcing his mouth to stay closed. Growling himself, Arath punched Clint in the gut, hard. Clint's mouth opened in surprise and that was all it took.

"My son," he nearly shouted out before he could regain control of himself. The room stilled.

"Who is your son?" Arath asked. Again, Clint snapped his mouth closed. No way. No way in hell was some alien race learn who his kid was. It was bad enough that they knew he had a kid. Arath snarled, punching Clint in the gut again. This time, Clint was prepared and his mouth didn't even budge. Arath's face darkened and he grabbed the abandoned knife from before. He stabbed it into Clint's right side. Clint grunted but his mouth didn't open. "ANSWER ME! WHO IS YOUR SON!?"

Clint's eyes went pinched as he continued to fight. He bit on his lower bit in an effort to hold his mouth closed. Loki frowned, watching the archer. No wonder he had had such a hard time getting information from him during the attack with the Chitarui. Clint was so much more mentally stronger than anyone had thought. Arath pulled the knife out and stabbed Clint again, this time in the meat of his left arm. Clint groaned, but still held his mouth closed. The archer now started biting his tongue. When that didn't work, Arath did it to the other arm. And when Clint didn't respond to that, Arath pulled on Clint's body, stretching the archer's limbs. Clint silently screamed, really fighting to keep his mouth closed. Arath cried out in anger and walked out of the room. Loki listened for a moment.

"They are gone," Loki announced, knowing Clint wasn't going to be able to hold it back forever.

"Cooper!" Clint finally cried, breathing heavily. Tears slowly began to fall down his face. That was so much worse than any of the truth collars he had faced at home. Fuck aliens and have better technology.

"I've never seen someone resit that for so long," Gamora whispered. Clint's head stayed on his chest as he tried to regain himself to a normal state. It was clear that even though Clint had lasted as long as he did, the archer would likely not be able to go through it again. "Never mind a Terran."

"He is much stronger than he looks," Loki softly pointed out. Clint gave a light chuckled but didn't speak. "But, you won't be able to last long."

"I know... It really sucked this time. I don't think I can do it again," Clint admitted, his eyes slowly looking to Loki before falling again. Loki winced. This was not good. They needed to get out of here. But no one knew they were here.

"Can you like, lock up the parts of his mind that he don't want to talk about?" Rocket inquired, looking at Loki. Loki shook his head.

"No. The collar would still go past that. As Gamora said, no one has resisted for so long," Loki explained.


Wow, lots of words this chapter!

Darius has been doing good this week. Giving me issues with bathroom problems still but otherwise only upsetting me when I'm tired or in pain. Which, I have been in pain. But, again. Good. Baby Jason is just as good as well. Currently watching his father put together a bouncer cause he needs one. Hope he likes it.

Might post another chapter later this week... Don't fully expect it as I might forget. So, at least until next time. Have a good week!