If you haven't read the previous stories in this series ... No, I can't help. I would advise you at least read Finding The Way, or you are going to be very lost. This literally picks up immediately where that one left off.
The editing/clean-up is going pretty quickly, so I'm hoping that will hold true and I can keep to weekly updates.
May 2014, Manhattan
Tony's lab was simmering with apprehension, no one speaking, no one even looking at each other, everyone focused on the screens in front of them.
Beside him, Darcy was vibrating a little in place, clearly a little out of her comfort zone, and Clint bumped his arm against hers a little, trying to offer her a little reassurance.
"The data has hit the internet," JARVIS announced. "I would expect the rest of the information shortly."
Tony cracked his knuckles. "Showtime."
It was like waiting for the perfect shot, except Clint had no control over this at all.
"The upload has started," JARVIS said. "I am shutting down unnecessary processes to assist. I will be splitting the upload between your four stations."
"Thanks, JARVIS," Tony said. "Okay, everyone take your time. This is a marathon, not a sprint."
It was a bit of an anti-climax really.
Clint half-expected windows to start popping up on his screen like there was no tomorrow; instead, he got one, with a number of folders that just kept multiplying, none of which were labelled with anything that made sense.
"Anything that you think someone else is dealing with," Tony said, "just flick it in our direction."
"Flick it?" Darcy repeated.
Tony made a hand gesture. "Like you're throwing something away. The system will know what you're getting at."
Darcy opened a file, tilted her head, and then pushed it in Bruce's direction. It immediately disappeared from her screen. "Holy shit," she said. "That's incredible. Use me as the overflow, guys; it feels like you guys have the urgent stuff."
"Good call. Let's get to work," Clint said.
Computer analysis was not his strong point, but Stark Tower had probably the most user-friendly IT system in the world, which picked up on intent as well as action, just as Tony had told Darcy. He quickly created several extra folders - one for SHIELD, one for HYDRA, and one for unknown.
Inside the SHIELD folder, he added an extra spot for any agents who would require immediate assistance.
Then he started searching for personnel files.
Not even five minutes had passed when JARVIS made another announcement.
"News footage from Washington DC are suggesting that things may not have gone entirely to plan."
Everyone turned automatically to the screen that formed on the lab wall, just in time to see one of SHIELD's helicarriers careening out of control and out of the sky, colliding with the Triskelion.
For a second, Clint was back in London, waiting for extraction in 2001, watching the World Trade Centre fall.
The Triskelion shuddered, and then seemed to collapse in on itself like a house of cards. He was shaking - he knew he was shaking - his lungs didn't seem to work anymore - he tried to breathe, but they wouldn't let him.
His vision went black for a second; when ht cleared, he was sitting down, his head almost on his knees.
When he tried to straighten up, pressure between his shoulders increased, and he realised that Bruce was physically holding him there.
"Not until you can breathe properly," he said firmly. "Deep, steady breaths."
Clint tired, he really did, but his mind was racing, and it kept coming back to the same thing. "Nat …"
"She's not here, Legolas," Tony said, but he sounded concerned. "Do you want us to call her?"
Clint shook his head. "No … No, that's not …"
"Move," Darcy said sharply, hip-checking Bruce out the way, either not knowing or not caring that he was also the Hulk. She crouched down so she could look up into Clint's face.
"Don't talk for a moment," she said gently. "Just take a few breaths. Is there anything we can do right now to help?"
Clint shook his head again. "She was in there." He could barely get the words out, could barely hear himself even with the new aids, so he was somewhat grateful when her eyes widened and she sucked in a breath and he knew that she had heard him.
"Are you sure?"
"What?!" Tony demanded, having clearly not heard him.
"That's the only …" Clint gestured hopelessly, still somewhat short of breath.
"That's the only place she could have released the data from," Darcy finished.
Bruce cursed, and Tony spun around to look at the footage still on the wall.
"JARVIS, cut the feed! And get me a line to Romanov."
"Won't answer," Clint said. "Phone's been destroyed."
Darcy hushed him, straightening up to hug him.
Clint let her, squeezing his eyes closed, telling himself that Natasha had gotten herself out of far worse scrapes in the past.
"I've heard the stories," Tony said, clearly thinking along the same lines. "If anyone got out of that, it was Natasha."
Clint nodded, pulling away from Darcy. "Sorry."
"Don't be sorry," Darcy said sternly. "You love her, right? Don't answer that," she added. "I know you do. We're just going to have to wait it out."
"Story of my life," Clint said, managing to get to his feet. "I'm just usually watching her through a scope at this point."
"I must offer my apologies, Mr Barton," JARVIS said. "I should have made the connection between the footage and where the data originated."
"Not your fault, JARVIS," Clint said. "But I think you can probably call me Clint by now."
"As you wish, Clint," JARVIS said. "The news channels have already made the connection between the leaked data and the helicarriers; social media is very active."
"I bet it is," Tony muttered. "Send anything relevant over to Pepper."
"Of course, Sir."
Clint made himself turn back to his work, forcing himself to push Natasha to the back of his mind. Every HYDRA agent he found, he committed their name to memory.
If she was dead, he was going to hunt them down and take them out, one by one, whatever anyone else said.
It probably wasn't the healthiest way of dealing with it, but it was keeping him going.
Occasionally, JARVIS gave them an update from the media - the general consensus was that Captain America had tried to stop HYDRA from launching an unprecedented attack on personal freedom.
It wasn't even that far off the truth, which was impressive.
The list of targets that had been released was truly impressive as well. Some of them made sense to Clint - dangerous countries, political groups (all left-leaning, obviously), outspoken activists.
Then there were others that didn't - random names that meant nothing at all to him, a country he wasn't entirely sure wasn't a myth, and - worst of all - a pre-school.
That had made Bruce turn a little green, and he took a few deep breaths. "Why are they targeting children?!"
"Actually, it makes sense," Darcy said. "The address is pretty well-known; all of the residents seem to be fairly left-wing. It makes sense, therefore, that their children might grow up to be a threat to HYDRA."
"Nothing about killing children is alright," Bruce protested.
"Of course not," Darcy said, rolling her eyes. "I didn't say it was alright. I said, if you're a trash terrorist organisation, it makes sense."
"Don't you mean trashy?" Clint asked.
"No, TRASH," Darcy said. "It's an acronym. Transphobic, racist, ableist, sexist, homophobic."
Bruce managed to crack a smile. "Fair enough. And I like that."
"Me too," Tony said.
"Sir, the media are asking for a statement."
Tony sighed. "Alright, send a tweet."
"Seriously?" Clint asked.
"Pepper'll do a proper statement later," Tony said. "Ready, J?"
"Fire away, Sir."
"It has come to my attention," Tony said, "that HYDRA are still active despite my father's work to eradicate them. We have been made aware that they have used dubious technology to formulate a list of people and entities that may be a threat to their highly prejudiced views in the future. The helicarriers brought down in DC today would have been used to indiscriminately murder the people on that list within the next few days. I am very grateful that Captain America and his associates uncovered this plot and were able to step in. Stark Industries will be issuing a statement in due course. My personal statement is that there is no room in any society in this day and age for the views held by these terrorists."
"Is that all, Sir?"
"That's all," Tony said. "Ignore anything that comes in; we can look at that later. Anyone that starts arguing that they can't be terrorists because they're white; just delete them. I am not their nanny; they can look at a dictionary."
Clint's phone rang, and he froze.
"Who is it?" Tony asked.
"Unknown number," Clint answered, picking it up. "Hoping it's Natasha. Hello?"
"Clint."
The sound of her voice sent relief flooding through him like endorphins, and for a second he couldn't speak. "Hey Nat." His voice cracked a little, and he hastily stepped out of the lab. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," she said. "Few scrapes, few bruises. Shoulder's a bit banged up. Nothing I can't deal with."
"Thank God," Clint breathed, sagging against the wall.
"Are you okay?" Natasha asked. "You sound a little odd."
"We saw the Trisk fall," Clint said heavily.
There was a pause on the other end of the line. "I'm so sorry, Clint. I called as soon as I could."
"I know," Clint said, the feeling finally returning to his fingers and toes. "I'm just glad you're alive, Nat. What are we looking at?"
Natasha sighed. "It's a mess."
"Well, yeah, I know that," Clint said. "Can you be more specific?"
The first person Pepper had checked was Jacob Ogden, her head of legal, because he was already in her office, and she was going to need his help.
She was pleased when he came back clear - but not entirely surprised; the chances of a devout Jew being part of group known for being highly anti-semitic (among other things) were very slim after all.
He had nearly fainted when she filled him in, but once he had recovered was completely on board with the concept of the Avengers Initiative.
She sent him off to deal with the fine-print on that, and she turned to combing through her employee files.
Kate sat beside her with a tablet, tapping away as she talked.
Pepper had really only asked for Kate's help to give the girl something to do that didn't involve looking through potentially horrific files, but she was pleasantly surprised, not just by how much it helped to have a sounding board, but by the insights Kate chimed in with.
They had just finished theorising about one of the scientists in R&D, when a thought came to her. "Are you writing all this verbatim?"
Kate snorted. "No, I can't type that fast. Except I don't know short-hand, so if you can't translate it, I'll do it later."
"Thank you," Pepper said. "Okay, put him in the maybe pile."
The office door opened with a soft tap, and Clint stepped inside. "Nat just called."
Pepper breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. We saw the building fall."
Clint nodded, coming to stand beside Kate. "Yeah, she's okay. Steve's been taken to hospital though; Peggy's with him."
"Is he okay?" Pepper asked.
"He should be," Clint said. "The serum should kick in. HYDRA had the Winter Soldier, who may or may not be his best friend Bucky Barnes, so I've asked Darcy to keep an eye out for any mentions."
Pepper frowned. "Did Steve even fight back in that case?"
"I hope so," Clint said, "or Peggy's not going to be happy."
"Dad," Kate said. "What aren't you telling us?"
Something inside Clint seemed to break, and he knelt in front of his daughter. "Katie, I'm going to be very unreasonable for a while, and I need you to humour me. I need you to promise me that you will stay inside this Tower."
"Yeah, of course," Kate said immediately. "I'm not stupid, Dad."
"I don't mean now," Clint said. "I mean for the foreseeable future."
"Clint …" Pepper said.
"Natasha had time for a tiny bit of finesse," Clint said, his eyes fixed on Kate's. "She did a quick search for your name and deleted any mentions, but …"
"Let me guess," Kate said. "HYDRA knows I'm your daughter."
"Not that we can tell," Clint said. "But you were on the list of Insight targets."
Kate froze, her mouth moving but not actually forming words.
"Why?!" Pepper demanded, on her behalf.
"I'm not sure," Clint demanded, still speaking to Kate. "I don't know if it's because they know you're my daughter, or they know I've been training you, or they don't know either of those, but they know about your time as a vigilante. I have no idea what's going to happen with their potential threats after all of this, so please, please promise me that you will not leave this Tower."
"What about school?" Kate asked, seemingly automatically.
"I'll talk to them," Clint said. "I have no idea, Kate; I just … I just need you to be safe."
"Okay," she said. "Okay, Dad; I promise. And because you're obviously freaking out, I also promise I will give you a month before I start being a brat about it."
"I'll put it in my diary," Clint said solemnly, pulling her into a hug.
He was trembling, and he held on to her like she would disappear if he let her go.
The window shields slid up, letting daylight in once more, and the lights adjusted to make up for it.
"Tony clearly thinks we're safe," Pepper said.
"The helicarriers are down," Clint said. "We don't need to worry about them coming down on us, but HYDRA are still out there."
"Of course," Pepper agreed. "I'll keep an eye on her."
"I'm not leaving," Kate said softly, her voice a bit muffled by his shoulder. "I promise."
Clint took a deep breath and released her, pressing a kiss to the side of her head. "Thank you."
Kate smiled shakily and signed, I love you. He chuckled and signed back, I love you more, before straightening up.
"Okay; I've got work to do. Nat's told me I'm not allowed to go to DC."
He was almost pouting as he said it, which made Pepper giggle. "I think she's as worried about you as you are about her."
"I wasn't the one in a collapsing building," Clint grumbled. "I'll see you later, ladies."
Pepper waited until he had left, before turning to Kate. "Kate …"
"Who's next?" Kate asked again, picking up her tablet once more.
Pepper sighed and gently tugged it out of her hands. "Are you alright?"
"No," Kate admitted in a whisper. "A fascist terrorist organisation wants to kill me."
Pepper reached across and took her hand. "Kate, you must remember that they no longer have the resources that SHIELD afforded them. They won't have the luxury of going after everyone on that list. Although I have a feeling that the Tower's not necessarily going to be the safest place in the world, because we're all on that list."
"Oh, that I can deal with," Kate said. "It's just … I don't know, the idea of someone wanting me dead personally."
Pepper nodded. "I understand."
Kate suddenly met her eyes, a kind of panic sparking in her eyes. "You don't think Dad would send me away to keep me safe, do you?"
Pepper hesitated. "I think that would break his heart," she said honestly. "I think he might consider it despite that, to protect you, but I also think he would dismiss it almost immediately, because he knows your fears." She squeezed Kate's hand. "And I'd talk him out of it, even if he didn't. You have a family with us. Always."
Kate nodded. "Who's next?"
This time, the question had a slight pleading tone to it, and Pepper nodded, handing the tablet back. "Let's move on to HR."
May 2014, Washington DC
Coordinating the fight against HYDRA from a hospital room was not the easiest thing Peggy had ever done, but at least she wasn't doing it from the actual hospital bed.
That was occupied by Steve, who was still unconscious with the fight with the Soldier on the helicarrier - and if she had one more panicked radio conversation with him seconds before he crashed into a body of water, she was going to have some kind of heart attack.
Pepper had been keeping her updated, and she was developing a list of 'uncontaminated' officials.
Congress were clamouring for answers - unfortunately, they were riddled with people taking bribes, something that did not surprise Peggy in the slightest.
Natasha had already offered to make a statement (when she was good and ready), so Peggy focused on reaching out to agencies across the world to clarify the situation, all the while keeping one eye on Steve.
Sam sat on the other side of the hospital bed. She had told him he didn't need to stay, but he seemed to have thrown all in with them.
He was a VA counsellor these days apparently, and told her - with a wry smile - that he had spent months trying to convince his veterans that it was okay to have a nice, quiet, normal life.
"They're not going to take me seriously after this," he'd said, "and my mother's going to kill me when I return her calls, so I'm hoping I can hide behind him."
Peggy liked Sam. It did not surprise her at all that Steve had befriended him in the slightest.
She finished her call with Agent Mills at MI5 and turned her phone off with a sigh.
"Trouble?" Sam asked.
"No more than usual," Peggy said. "Hayley's more or less cleared all of MI5, thankfully, and she's offered to handle all of the agents who need extraction, so that's one load off my mind. The international grapevine - political and otherwise … General consensus is that no one trusts the US."
"No one ever trusts us," Sam said. "We're assholes."
Peggy snorted. "Speak for yourself, I'm English."
"You're right, that's much better," Sam said, with an undercurrent of sarcasm.
Peggy laughed. "Touché."
Sam fixed her with an oddly serious look. "How are you holding up? SHIELD was your baby, right?"
Peggy sighed, her laughter evaporating. "I'm … tired. I'm so tired. I feel like the blows keep coming, and … You know when you're swimming in the ocean, and you get knocked off your feet, and the waves just keep rushing over you so you never have a chance to catch your breath?"
"Yeah, I hear you," Sam said.
"I remember when we started SHIELD," Peggy continued, "looking at the mess we'd been handed, thinking that taking down HYDRA was going to be a huge job. And now it looks like an even bigger job, and I feel even less qualified to do it, because they did this under my nose."
"Sounds to me like it's the Council's fault before it's yours," Sam said. "You're only human, even with the serum. You're not a mind-reader."
"Yeah, I know," Peggy murmured, watching Steve's chest rise and fall. "Doesn't make it any easier. I'm just glad I'm not lying in a nursing home watching my legacy burn."
"I guess there must be something to knowing you can fix it," Sam said.
"I can try," Peggy said. "It just feels … huge."
"Can I make a suggestion?" Sam asked.
"Please," Peggy said. "I'll take anything."
"SHIELD dealt with secrecy," Sam said. "It probably helped HYDRA because anything that seemed secretive or out of the ordinary was just written off."
Peggy sighed. "Yeah, you're probably right."
"And HYDRA will be continuing with that kind of logic," Sam said, "because they've been doing it for decades. So maybe you need to combat that by being as overt as possible."
"Great minds think alike," Peggy said. "Pepper's saying the same thing. Any chance we can convince you to pack up and come to New York with us? We could do with some more air support."
"I'm up for that," Sam said. "Ma'll be happy about me being closer."
"And being back in the thick of it?" Peggy asked.
Sam winced. "Well, maybe I won't tell her that part."
