CHAPTER 9 - Battles and Secrets

Clint's 'minor' bullet wound healed faster than his stomach bug which was a surprise to most of the Commandos. It especially didn't help that the archer wouldn't rest. Often times it was Bucky, Dugan or Gabe dragging him back into their tent. They typically found him on the outskirts of camp, shooting his bow. In the end, it took an extra two weeks before the Commandos found themselves in Czechoslovakia. Hydra seemed better prepared for them here. The group ran through the woods, shooting like crazy and dodging explosions left and right. Steve led the way with Dugan and Gabe on his right. Bucky, Clint, and Falsworth were further off on Steve's left. Morita and Dernier carried the back end, making sure no one surrounded them.

A bunch of regiments of troops followed in their wake, making sure to protect the Commando's backs, even if they didn't really need it. Getting to the base ended up being rather simple once they got past all the Hydra agents. Blowing up their various tanks was the main part of the fun. Clint enjoyed that part immensely. His joy was shared with Dernier.

"They're headed around us!" Bucky shouted as loud as he could, hoping that someone could hear him. Clint looked over and noticed what the Sergeant had seen. Muttering another quick protection spell on everyone, Clint continued with his assault. There was no way Hydra was gonna win this battle. A moment later, he was nearly out of ammo. He glanced around, noting that Bucky was the only one with sight lines on him. Grunting, Clint pulled out Izril, casted the spell for arrows and started shooting like mad. As he passed by his arrows, he muttered the vanishing spell while still keeping his other spell up. Something Loki had yet to teach him but with all the practice of keeping his draining ability down while still doing spells, it wasn't all that hard to mix it over, especially seeing as he didn't have to keep the draining spell up anymore.

And after maybe a half hour or so more of fighting, a collection of Hydra agents turned themselves in. Clint was half tempted to shoot them all on sight but Colonel Hayes (the newest leader of the closest base) had claimed he wanted to speak to a bunch of them. Why, Clint had no real idea. It wasn't like the agents were really privy to what Hydra was doing. And he doubted any of them had locations for the other bases seeing as Hydra started moving around a lot.

Clint headed off, leaving behind the regiments of soldiers that had followed the Commandos to search the rest of the site and get ready to blow it sky high. He was wandering off to the backside of the place when something caught his attention. A sheet of paper that had been removed from the base had scattered on the ground. Heading over to it, Clint looked down. While his German reading wasn't all that great, Clint could get the general location and time that a Hydra procession was going to happen. Clint smiled, running back to get Dernier.

"Veulent aller faire sauter un camion-citerne jusqu'à?" Clint asked the Frenchman once he found him. Dernier instantly had the biggest smile on his face and nodded. With a smirk, Clint went and gathered the other Commandos. If that vehicle got close enough to see the base, they'd likely turn tail and hide. But, if they could get out there and catch it before hand, well... (Want to blow up a tanker truck)

Setting themselves up on the roadside was pretty easy given the information they had. Morita, the fastest one out of all of them, positioned himself closest to the road to get better sight on the vehicles coming toward them. The others waited further behind. Dernier nearly vibrated with excitement. It wasn't long before Morita whistled. Dernier took off.

"Speedy dude when he wants to be," Clint grumbled. Bucky held back his snort as he just watched the Frenchman run onto the road, drop to his side and got himself positioned under the tank like truck before Dernier got run over. With the wheels in the way, no one saw how Dernier attached the bomb but when the tank passed, Dernier slowly stood up and went to blow a kiss. The explosion was pretty epic. Clint whooted as Dernier clapped his hands once and looked over. His pleasure made Dugan laugh.

After that, it wasn't really Hydra bases they went after. One of the other Colonels requested their help on a few of their own missions and they were more than willing to agree. On the second non Hydra related mission the Commandos did, they were stuck in a deep trench. Trapped and waiting on a supply run before they could even escape to the nearest camp. Clint didn't even think much on it, but then he finally saw Steve not doing so good.

"Steve?" the archer wondered. Steve looked up at the archer and smiled.

"I'm okay," the Captain told him. Clint frowned but accepted the answer. Afterwards, he wished he didn't. Steve had warned him once before that at some point he lost three days thanks to lack of food. In a trench for a few days, there wasn't enough food for everyone and secretively, Steve had been giving his rations away to the others.

"Stevie..." Bucky called, shaking his old friend with a frown when they woke up in the morning. Steve didn't even twitch. Something which everyone knew was highly unusual. "Stevie?"

"He won't wake up?" Dugan questioned before heading over and kicking the pads that Steve was resting on. Clint frowned, moving over to check on the solider. He gently smacked Steve's face before paling.

"When was the last time he ate?" the archer asked, looking dead at Bucky. The Sergeant frowned.

"I think... Maybe yesterday, but it was only one MRE," Bucky replied. Clint cussed.

"He needs food," the archer reported. Morita sat up, grabbing some supplies. "We need to figure out a way to get some food in him."

"What do you mean? No man acts like this when hungry," Falsworth pointed out. Clint sighed.

"Steve's system runs four times faster than the rest of us. Means, he runs out of nutrition before us. And it's why he can't get drunk," Clint informed, no one questioning how the archer knew this. Morita shifted forward.

"Here, this should help," the medic called before suddenly stabbing something into Steve's chest. Clint automatically knew what it was. They wouldn't have long. He nabbed the breakfast MRE he had grabbed and put it against Steve's lips so that the second Steve opened his mouth, he forced the bar into the guy to bite down on some. Hardly waking, Steve did so, eating what was in his mouth.

"Jesus. Stevie," Bucky whispered at the sight. Clint continued feeding Steve until the Captain slipped back unconscious.

"We need another way to wake him up so he eats," Clint ordered. Everyone nodded. In the end, it took them nearly three days before they finally got Steve to wake up on his own. For a bit, the Captain was a bit too delirious to really know what was going on. But Bucky and Clint basically hand-fed the guy until he took over himself.

"What happened?" Steve slurred once he was aware enough to notice everyone was staring at him. Clint sighed in relief as Bucky automatically began 'yelling' at Steve for not taking care of his stupid self. As the other Commandos doted over their Captain, Clint couldn't help but feel guilty. He knew about Steve's issue. Why the hell hadn't he thought to do anything to prevent it? But then he paused. Wait... Could Steve have only known that cause Clint handled it? Would the others have figured it out if he wasn't here? But... That would mean that he was on their timeline. And Steve knew...

Clint never was able to talk to Steve about it. Once they had gotten the Captain back on track with food, the supplies finally came in and they were all off to the nearest camp. The next day, it was another mission. It was during this planning that Clint noted reporters on site, recording the Commandos.

"Shit," Clint muttered to himself as he did his best to dance around the reporters. Bucky glanced over at him with a frown but said nothing. He figured it was just due to wanting to hide. As someone from the future, Clint wouldn't want his image saved for all to see. So, he did his best to help keep the reporters busy with Steve and himself. Somehow the others must have noticed as well, so they helped Clint avoid them without question.

"Go over there," Falsworth mumbled, pointing to the back end of the jeep that Steve was bent over with a map. "I'll stand slightly in front of you."

"Thanks," Clint whispered as the duo headed to the back of the jeep to hide. Morita joined them on Clint's other side. Clint sighed deeply in relief and patted Morita's back.

"Okay, so we know what to do?" Steve asked, looking everyone over. The Commandos all nodded their heads but Steve couldn't see Clint. He frowned but before he could draw attention to it, Falsworth and Morita nodded their heads to Clint behind them and while Steve's frown deepened, he didn't mention anything. Splitting up to get ready, Clint was relieved when the reporters followed after Steve.

"You okay?" Gabe wondered, walking toward the trio as Morita and Falsworth backed off to look at the archer they had hidden.

"Avez-vous peur?" Dernier asked. Clint snorted. (Are you scared)

"Pas peur. Famille ne sait pas que je suis ici," Clint retorted. It was technically true. The Avengers likely didn't know what happened to him and if they knew he was sent back in time, there was no way they could know what year he was in or that he was in the war. Though, Steve and Bucky might. Course, considering Steve had known him since 2012, Clint pretty much doubted that he was on the same time line as his future. No use getting himself filmed for the future to see, no matter what future it may be. There hadn't been mention of him before, so there shouldn't be any message now. (Not scared. Family doesn't know I'm here)

"Why doesn't your family know?" Gabe inquired. Clint gave a small grimace as Bucky came over to them.

"Cause you got sent away so fast?" Bucky 'questioned.' Clint glanced over at him before nodding. Thank god for the Sergeant, Clint had no idea what he should have said in this situation. With a smile of thanks, Clint refocused on the others.

"Sent away fast? You seriously didn't go through the six months of training?" Gabe huffed in disbelief. "I thought you were joking."

"Nope," Clint retorted, shaking his head. "Hardly had a chance to process it all before getting onto the bus."

"I still blame Steve for it all," Bucky grumbled. Clint rolled his eyes, looking over to him. The Sergeant raised an eyebrow, waiting to see what Clint was gonna do. When the archer narrowed his eyes, Bucky huffed. "If Steve hadn't been an idiot-"

"Not only would I have likely not met Erskine, but you guys would still be stuck getting tortured," Clint snipped. Bucky rolled his eyes, frustrated.

"He still shouldn't have done it," Bucky sharply reminded. Clint barked a quick laugh.

"You know how bad he wanted to get out here. You seriously going to not only deny his ability to, but also be angered when he finally is able to go through with it?"

"Steve was home safe," Bucky argued.

"And his best friend wasn't. If the roles were reversed, how would you react if Steve came over here?" the archer wondered. Bucky grimaced. Now he could see Clint's point. If he had indeed been in Steve's situation, he would have gone through the experiment in order to get over here and keep Steve safe. Sighing, Bucky caved.

"Fine. We need to go get ready," the Sergeant stated before spinning and walking off. The others trailed after him. It wasn't long before the group had their bags packed and ready to go. They weren't quite ready to leave right away so the group just shouldered their bags and headed off to get a meal. A few minutes into it, Gabe looked up.

"Heads up, Cap is coming. Those reporters still following," the man warned. Clint dropped his plate and stood, snatching his bag off the ground and headed out. Only to run into Peggy Carter. With a small scowl, he shifted out of her way.

"I've noticed you are avoiding the cameras," she called when he nearly stalked past her. He paused and looked to her. Thinking back, Clint frowned.

"Thought you were supposed to be back in New York," he responded. Peggy raised an eyebrow. "Forget it."

"No, I'm curious. Why do you think I should be in New York?" she questioned. Clint winced. Shit, he fucked up again? How did he keep doing this?

"Heard a rumor," Clint lied. Peggy chuckled.

"Don't you know it isn't always safe to trust rumors," she chuckled. Clint stilled for a second before understanding her meaning. He narrowed his eyes at her in slightly humor and embarrassment.

"Ha, ha, ha," he replied before turning to look at Steve speaking with the other Commandos. The reporters had all centered themselves around the Captain, clearly showing that they weren't trying to catch any of the others in their shots. "Not really avoiding so much as not blocking their shots."

"I see," Peggy snorted as she looked over to Steve and the others. Bucky was frowning deeply and glanced up to see the duo watching. Rolling his eyes, the Sergeant broke away from the group, heading over to them. Peggy smiled, turning back to Clint and placing a hand on his shoulder. He had to seriously force himself not to grab her wrist, twist it and then toss her onto the ground in surprise. "If it makes you feel any better, I am going to be off to New York by this evening."

Clint barely had a moment to respond before she spun and left him standing there alone. He was only alone for a second or two before Bucky was at his side. The archer turned to look at the Sergeant. Silently, Bucky nodded his head in Peggy's direction, basically asking if the archer was fine with her. Sighing deeply, Clint nodded. It was fine. At this point he shouldn't be able to fuck up any more worse then this. With that done, they both moved to watch the chaos of Steve trying to speak with the Commandos while the reporters got in his face.

"I'm kinda getting jealous," Bucky muttered after a while. Clint snorted.

"Cause he's getting all the attention?" the archer asked. Bucky huffed.

"Something like that," the Sergeant grumbled.

They finally caught a break on a Hydra base in late July. It was rather deep in enemy territory but Steve convinced everyone it would be a good idea to parachute in. All but Bucky agreed. Bucky thought the plan was stupid but considering everyone else was gonna go along with it, he might as well too.

In the end, it seemed only Steve really got close to the action. Somehow he had gotten into the camp before any of the others and had done some mighty good damage. Clint easily noted the exoskeletons on some of the agents and grunted. Hydra was getting better with their tech. If it wasn't for Steve having mentioned it in the future, Clint would have thought someone had gotten sent back with him and they started making all these weapons. The battle lasted into the next day and with it came this gigantic tank that nearly had everyone freeze.

"Holy fucking shit," Clint muttered to himself upon the sight of it. Steve nodded his head with a sigh, hitting the nearest Hydra agent aside. Clint turned to look at the Captain 'blindly' shooting four more agents coming up to them. "How ya gonna handle that?"

"Dernier, bombs," Steve ordered before running at the thing and jumping up top. Dernier tossed a vest of bombs to Falsworth, the only one seemingly not bogged down by Hydra agents, who headed over to help as Steve crashed his shield down onto the open seal. Someone came out to attack him and Steve just threw the man out and off the tank. With a whistle from Steve, Falsworth tossed the vest up to the Captain and Steve tossed it inside.

"He doesn't have much longer," Gabe grunted as Steve ran for the front. Behind him the tank began exploding and Steve landed with a 'hump' before running toward the group. Clint and Bucky cheered at the sight. After that, many of the Hydra agents began chomping down on their cyanide teeth. Clint huffed at the sight.

"Cowards," he grumbled.

"Search the area, make sure everyone is dead," Steve demanded, heading off on his own. "Dernier, set up the bombs. Let's make sure no one can come back."

Fighting with the Commandos in various battles, Clint was really beginning to feel like he was part of the family. It wasn't long before all of them were trading stories back and forth about different things. In fact, Clint actually found himself telling Steve a lot more details about the crap they had gone through together. Like the Battle of Manhattan, getting turned in a bird and a kid, and changing minds. Course, he'd always just say it was a story with the characters based on real people. Not that anyone really believed in aliens and stuff. Clint was careful with which stories he ended up talking about that involved Future Steve and certainly Future Bucky. In doing all this, he had almost began to forget what was coming. All the way up until he heard what was coming.

"We're aiming to capturing Arnim Zola," Colonel Phillips stated in the war room. Clint paled, praying that Bucky or Steve didn't notice. He couldn't stop this event... Couldn't try and save Bucky. God, he wanted to. He really did. But if he did, Steve might not have crashed the Valkyrie and then neither of them would end up in the future. And if he didn't... Would Bucky blame him for all those years under Hydra's control?

"Clint?" Steve's voice broke through. Clint hummed, looking to the Captain. The Commandos all chuckled as Steve rolled his eyes. Clint mentally winced. Apparently Steve had been talking about him doing something. "You okay to come on the train with Gabe, Bucky and myself?"

"Yeah," Clint croaked. Steve and Bucky frowned. This was something they hadn't heard from Clint before and it certainly didn't sound good. If it was anyone else, they'd just figure Clint was nervous about doing it... But knowing Clint, they figured something bad was gonna happen.

"Okay then. The train will be passing by within a day or two, go get prepared gentlemen," Phillips ordered. Once the meeting broke up, Clint slipped out of the room, not wanting to talk to anyone. Unfortunately for him, Bucky followed. Bucky waited till they were outside and a good distance away before reaching forward and grabbing Clint by the arm. Clint just barely held himself back from spinning and attacking the Sergeant. But Bucky did force him to turn around.

"Clint, are you okay?" Bucky asked. Clint stiffly shook his head, making sure to not look Bucky in the eye. Bucky grabbed Clint by the chin to force to archer to look at him. "Clint?"

"Buck, it's nothing," Clint snapped, pushing the man off of him. Bucky's frown deepened.

"Something's up. You've never acted like this. Not during the whole time I've been fighting beside you. It wasn't even like this before Azzano. What is going on?" Bucky demanded. Clint winced, focusing on Bucky with pleading eyes. Bucky's eyes widened. "Someone's gonna-"

"Bucky, please," Clint whined. "I can't tell you anything. Don't guess, please."

"But-"

"Bucky, I'm sorry but... This needs to happen. Trust me, I wanna change this... But," Clint whimpered. There was a long moment before the Sergeant understood. Bucky sighed, pulling Clint into a hug, worried about the archer even more now. Wouldn't do either of them any good to worry about what was gonna happen during the whole mission.

"It's fine. I understand," the Sergeant whispered. And Bucky did understand. Just like he understood at Azzano. Clint let out a gulping sob before folding into Bucky's hug much deeper. Bucky silently held Clint as the archer cried it out for a little while. When Clint was done, he released Bucky.

"I'm sorry," Clint softly said unsure if it was about the train falling or the seventy years of suffering that the Sergeant was going to go through. Bucky shook his head.

"We shouldn't have been guessing as much as we have. And we certainly shouldn't have been learning as much as we have," Bucky soothed. Clint let out a wet chuckle. Bucky sighed. "It's fine. We'll... We'll do what we're supposed to."

"I'm-"

"Don't be. To you, this already happened. We can't change it without changing the future. It's fine," Bucky called, his voice a bit sharper than he intended. Clint nodded as Steve came over to them.

"You two okay?" Steve wondered. Clint looked away from Steve, not saying anything. Bucky just shook his head. Steve sighed. "Okay, well, Clint, do you know the plan?"

"Wait till the train gets close, rappel down onto the train, get in, find Zola and bring him in," Clint reported. Steve frowned. He was certain that Clint hadn't been paying attention. But then again, he shouldn't be surprised. Bucky sighed.

"Stevie, can I talk to you?" Bucky asked. Steve nodded and the duo walked away. Clint let out another soft sob before heading out of the camp. Dugan, Falsworth, Gabe, Dernier and Morita came out just in time to see the archer leaving. With a confused frown, Dugan headed off to follow him. Neither man noticed the other four coming as well.

When Clint figured he was far enough away from the camp to not get noticed, the archer called up Izril. As it fell gently into his hand, Clint felt himself start to relax a bit. He missed firing his bow every day. Using guns had never been as pleasing for Clint as his bow. And while he used Izril a lot before Azzano, Clint didn't feel comfortable to practice after Peggy had found him. The Commandos had gotten so close to each other that finding any time to yourself was near impossible. So Clint hadn't been able to shoot.

Sighing deeply and calming himself, Clint lifted the bow and whispered the spell before firing. It had been far too long since he last fired his bow and it was as soothing as it normally was. Clint was maybe seven arrows into it when he felt someone watching him. He spun, getting ready to fire before seeing it was Dugan.

"Dude, I could have shot you," the archer snapped. Dugan shrugged, not the least bit concerned.

"I trust you," the man said. Clint huffed, shaking his head. At least Dugan already knew about his magic.

"Wow... Where did you get that from?" Morita questioned as the others appeared. Dugan jumped, surprised. Clint tensed. Should he get rid of it? Just put it away or hold onto it until they leave him alone? "Pretty sure no one asked for a bow."

"Uh," Dugan muttered, turning to look at Clint. The archer sighed before giving in. Forget the others, he needed to shoot. He turned around and began shooting again. Wasn't like he couldn't fuck with history anymore then he may have already. He just... Clint just assumed all he had to do was make sure Bucky fell from the train. That was the most important event. God did he wish he could though.

"Is... Are they appearing from nothing?" Falsworth gasped. Dugan chuckled.

"Kinda cool, isn't it?" the man told the others. They all watched Clint shoot for maybe ten minutes or more before they were joined by someone else. Clint ignored it and continued.

"He could have done this the whole time?" Steve's voice interrupted Clint's concentration. The spell vanished as the archer turned to look at the Captain with wide eyes.

"Steve," the archer stuttered. Steve looked to Clint with a confused smile. "I... I..."

"Guess you didn't want anyone to know?" Steve wondered. Clint gulped, looking briefly to Bucky, Dugan and Gabe.

"I..."

"Bucky, Gabe and I already knew," Dugan admitted. Steve looked to the trio confused.

"And you didn't tell us?" Morita complained. Dugan shrugged.

"Ain't our secret to tell," the man retorted. Clint winced.

"It's kinda cool," Falsworth pointed out. "Can... Can you tell us how you did it?"

"Uh..." Clint mumbled, unsure what to do about this.

"Magic," Bucky informed. Clint's eyes flicked to him again. Bucky shrugged. "Gonna have to explain it to them anyway."

"Yeah," Clint finally stated, nodding. With a sigh, Clint muttered his spell again and drew his bow back. With full view now, everyone saw as the arrow just appeared as if from the air itself. "The bow itself isn't the magic I do. It can appear and disappear when I need it or finish using it. The arrows are the spell. I... Honestly I don't really know how the spell works... I just say a few words, concentrate and the arrows appear."

"And you can make them disappear," Bucky pointed out. Clint huffed but nodded, turning to the tree he had used as a target and muttered the other spell. Instantly the arrows vanished.

"Holy-" Morita started. Clint gave him a weak smile. "Anything else you can do?"

"Uh... Not anything visible," Clint informed.

"You mean that protection spell thingy?" Dugan wondered. Clint nodded.

"I haven't been trained in a lot of magic spells before and the other few spells I know don't always seem to work as I want them too. Rather not do them until I'm certain I can get them right," Clint mentioned. "Lo..." Clint hesitated here. There was no way he could admit that Loki was his teacher. Everyone had to have known about the Norse 'God.' Clint wasn't going to risk changing that. "My teacher is able to reverse the spell if I mess it up so without him, I don't feel safe doing them."

"That's fine. We don't need to see anymore anyways," Bucky told him, harshly elbowing Steve when the man opened his mouth to ask some more about it. Clint sighed. "Besides, we all have a mission to prepare for."

Stuck at home... Stuck here trying to focus. Amazingly I am getting work done. Jumping between stories, both original and fanfiction but hey, whatever. I'm writing something.

Darius has been a bit of a pain in the butt. He loves arguing with us and pretty much laughs until we prove how mad and disappointed we are with him. House is a mess cause we have all decided that it's a bit pointless right now. I wish we could clean it a bit more, like unboxing stuff still but all we ever seem to do is move things from one room to another and make a mess in that second room. So aggravating. Maybe one day we'll finish unpacking and dealing with everything.