The whip cracked in the air and came down on Clint's back. He couldn't hold the hoarse scream back. This has been happening for the last twenty minutes, the man in front of him asks a question, he doesn't respond, they tear up his back a little more. It's been getting boring.

Clint's head lies limply against his chest. He's panting for air. "Agent Barton? I know you can still hear me, "Where can I find Nick Fury? I know you know him, he killed my daughter so I killed him. But only recently I learned that he's alive. I'm going to kill him." The man goes behind him and Clint loses sight of him. He was unable to turn because it hurt too much and his position wouldn't allow it, he was tied to the ceiling with ropes, chafing his skin and the blood was dripping all the way down his arms.

Clint tenses. "Look man, I don't even know where Fury is half the time, so you won't be able to find him." A knife is dragged along his back, across all of the open wounds. His back arches and he jerks away. Clint releases a grunt of pain when the knife follows to the front of his torso.

"Just tell me and this will all be over." The man smiles before plunging the knife into the meaty part of his flank. The pain is overwhelming and he's in a world of agony.

When his vision clears, the man is nowhere in sight. But Clint knows that he's somewhere behind him. He became aware of the sticker pads on his chest. "Wha…?" Clint mumbles unaware that he's speaking.

Suddenly he hears a click from behind him and his body jerks backwards. He convulses under the electricity. As fast as it started, it's over and Clint is left limply gasping for air.

"Tell me where he is. I'm going to kill you if you don't." The man growls menacingly.

"Go…ahead." Clint pants out. "I've got…nothing to…live….for an-nnrghingg" Clint's strangled shout fills the room as the dial is turned up to halfway.

His shaking continues, the voltage being slowly turned up, and doesn't stop until a couple minutes later. By then, Clint is unconscious. Chunks missing from his tongue and cheeks. Blood was dripping down his chin.

The man walks slowly towards Clint, who's twitching from the excess electricity, and tips his head back. He starts choking on his own blood and jerks as a struggle.

Eventually Clint can't breathe so the man let's go and Clint's head falls forward, letting the glob of blood roll the other way in his mouth and drips out of his mouth. His airways open up and he gasps in free air. This is when his captor really realizes how hard it's going to be to get information out of him. He realizes it's a waiting game. If he can't get to Nick Fury, then he'll wait until Nick Fury comes to him. They'll have to rescue Clint sometime. Right?

…

Back at Avengers base, Steve was shouting at Fury, "So because of your mistake, our teammate is out there, god knows where, probably getting tortured to death!?" Fury nods guiltily.

"Captain Rogers, I know. I admit to my mistakes and my team and I are going to get Clint back, we already know where he is. His shield tracker stayed on until 1400 yesterday. But it had been in the same place for a couple days before that. We assume that's where he still is." Fury states. Practically telling Steve to back down

Steve growls. "We're coming with you. And we will get him back," He turns back to his team. "Let's go." While briskly walking out the door."

…

Clint has been broken. It's been official. He won't even talk anymore, no more defending himself or talking back. The man doesn't even think he's capable of telling the answer to him if he actually knew.

His eyes have grown hazy and his breathing has become irregular and raspy. About a couple hours ago, the muttering started. "I can take it...I'm fine...stop...being weak." It still hasn't stopped.

Clint was dripping with blood and was littered with bruises. His arms were covered with blood from the rops above his head and his back, while it was dried and partly scabbed over, looked gruesome. A muscle twitches every now and then from pain and electricity. It was a poor sight to see.

Nick Fury still has yet to come.

…

The door is blown down, announcing their entrance. The man, at the other end of the building, smiles.

The team is quick to find him, sitting in his chair. "Fancy meeting you here." He says this to Fury. This causes quick flashes of his dead daughter in his arms. Trying to keep her from dying. It had been an accidental fire from one of his men.

"Look, you kn-" The man holds up his hand to silent him. "So you do remember me. I remember you clearly, you're the man that killed my daughter. I have made you pay. I'll ruin your organization by killing each and every agent in it. I already have killed one." Natasha's breath catches and her gun wavers.

Nick stayed stoic. "Show us." The man smiles sadistically. "Follow me." Natasha debates whether or not she should shoot the second he turns around. She comes to her decision when she realizes that she still needs him to lead them to Clint. Then she will.

They follow him down a hallway and he opens a sturdy wooden door. Natasha forgets about her plan as soon as she sees Clint. He's hanging by his wrists in the center of the room. His eyes are wide and when she runs up to him she could start to hear the whispers. "I can take it…" Her heart breaks. That means he's broken, It's going to take a while for Clint to recover from this one.

"How could you do this?!" She roars. Turning on the man across the room. "So what if your daughter is dead, don't take it out on someone else. Get over it." The man's eyes are steel, boring into her soul. It doesn't affect her anymore. With a bang, the man is on the ground dead, bleeding out of his forehead.

Fury sighs, "I saw that coming." He mumbles. That's when he actually realizes how bad Clint is. "Shit. He ain't bouncing back from this one. At least not right away." Fury relates to an old trick that Coulson had shown him when he used to be Strike Team Delta's handler.

"Agent Barton, snap out of it. You are needed for action." His PTSD kicks in. Next thing everyone knows is that Clint's muttering stops and the only reason his eyes are unfocused is because of his concussion. "Sorry sir. I'm ready." Clint whispers.

"Huh, I gotta use that more often." Fury observes.

All together, they manage to chop off the ropes and lower Clint down. His shoulders popped back in during the process. Clint doesn't even acknowledge it. That scares Natasha.

Thor carries him back to the plane. Because they know Clint is unable to support himself. Natasha prays that Clint is able to come back from this. He literally looked dead inside when they first found him, not that he's much better now.

…

Time Skip: 4 months later

…

Clint has improved greatly. While he's still not ready for field action, he's improved both physically and mentally. He started talking about a month ago and started walking about a month and a half in.

The team was just about ready to cry when Clint spoke his words. Ironically, it was him asking for coffee when no one was paying attention to him. The whole conversation stopped and stared at Clint. "What?" His raspy and unused voice spoke again. Full of fear. "Sorry. N-nevermind. Um…I'll get it m-myself." Clint tries to stand up but his weak legs still don't support him.

"No no no it's fine I'll get it." Tony hops up, happy that his partner in crime is finally returning.

Anyways now he's walking, albeit with a slight limp and having to take breaks every so often, and he's just about at his natural social level. Making jokes and playing pranks. He gets scared more often, especially when someone walks from in front of him to behind him. He panics a little and turns around quickly to stare at the person who did, mostly Thor because he forgets. It's all good though because they apologize and then it's normal.

Hope you enjoyed this! I'm once again waiting for my ride to my marching band comp, I'll tell you guys the score at the next chapter. Wish me luck!

Thanks to KatieMacAlpine for reviewing. You have given me a lot of advice and drive instead of giving up.