The Wizard and the Void - Chapter Two

Author: Milady Dragon

Clint Barton sighted down the bow, letting his arrow fly.

Of course, the arrow hit dead center of target.

"Now you're just showing off," Natasha snarked.

Clint turned away from the target he'd set up in the castle courtyard in order to smirk at her. He really hadn't set up his practice area in that section to garner attention; he'd done it because it was the longest length of uninterrupted wall and he really didn't want to leave the city every day to keep himself occupied.

Natasha was seated on a wagon that someone had parked next to his impromptu shooting range, cleaning out from under her fingernails with a small knife, the breeze blowing about her vibrantly red hair. Clint loved her to pieces; she was the sister who made up for the shitty brother he'd been born with.

"Why would I need to show off?" He flexed his biceps, partly to continue the joke and partly because his arms really were his best feature.

Natasha rolled her eyes at him, hopping off the back of the wagon and putting her knife away. "Come on, Marcus wants to see us."

Clint nodded, going to retrieve his arrows. Nicholas, Baron Triskelia and once one of the fiercest mercenaries in the Western Lands, didn't often send for them; but then, the Elf and Natasha were just prone to showing up on his doorstep anytime they felt like it. After all, the three of them had a history, had bled for each other, and they were as close to friends as they could possibly get.

One of their group was missing, though. One that made Clint's chest hurt whenever he thought of him, and time hadn't made it that much better.

Together, the pair made their way into the castle proper, dodging past the main corridors and heading toward the lesser traveled paths toward the Baron's quarters. Both of them were very familiar with the place; but then, it was what they did.

They had just arrived in Triskelia Town a couple of days ago on a whim, really. Clint and Natasha both enjoyed traveling, seeing the sights and kicking whatever asses needed to be kicked. Things had changed since they'd enjoyed cutting a good, destructive path throughout various places, but the excitement of being a mercenary bastard had faded away a while back, and now they were just happy doing work for Marcus on occasion and getting into trouble just so they could get back out of it again the rest of the time.

Marcus – or Nick, as he wanted to be called these days – had settled down, overthrowing a despotic ruler and putting himself on the Baronial seat of Triskelia. Clint thought it was just insane that their friend had become such a good Baron. He was still an asshole, and could be cruel, but Nick never did anything without good reason. His people respected him, and the prosperity he'd brought to Triskelia made him very popular with his people. There were even rumors that he was planning on marrying the current Head of Great Order for the Western Lands, Mistress Maria Hill, which was about as settled as a person could get, really; getting married and having a ton of kids.

Clint wasn't so sure about that one, but hey…if Nick wanted to do it, then he'd be happy for his friend, and then be the fun uncle that led whatever progeny came along into serious amounts of trouble and then hand them back to their parents hyped up on sweets.

The Baron's Chambers were at the rear of the palace and up three stories. Clint and Natasha had managed to arrive unseen, and Natasha didn't even bother knocking before entering through the hidden door that let into the bedchamber. Clint had always wondered if they would ever catch Nick in bed with someone, these days most likely Mistress Maria, but they hadn't as yet. It was as if he had some sort of sixth sense about when someone was going to show up, especially when it came to Clint and Natasha. Clint would have suspected magic if not for the fact that the former mercenary didn't have a magical bone in his body.

The Baron wasn't in the room, but his signature black cloak had been thrown haphazardly onto the rather ornate bed at some point. The enormous piece of furniture even had a canopy, about a dozen pillows, and the thickest duvet ever in steel gray that made it look like some sort of fluffy storm cloud, which Clint thought was hilarious. If anyone would have told him that their friend, Marcus Johnson, was a closet hedonist, he would have called them a liar before the first time he'd ever seen that bedroom.

Natasha strode across the room, so Clint went with her. He was curious as to why Nick had sent for them. Maybe he had a mission for them? Honestly, that would have been fantastic. Sure, they'd only been back a few days, but Clint wasn't fond of staying in one place too long, a holdover from the days when he'd been on the run from his own people, the Elves of the Hawk Enclave. Neither was Natasha, really, but for her own reasons that she didn't like to share.

She had with Clint, which had made him love her even more.

The room beyond was a sitting room that was just as opulent as the bedroom. Overstuffed chairs, couches that a person could disappear into, and tables of dark wood were the predominant furnishings. The fireplace was so enormous Clint could have knelt inside with plenty of room for Natasha to join him, its andirons as black as Marcus' soul…and he'd once made just that comment to their friend; Nick had laughed his ass off, which would have been disturbing if Clint hadn't known him all that well.

The floor to ceiling window showed the gardens, within the castle walls, which were in full bloom. Clint knew for a fact that the window was magically warded, so that no one could get into the suite through it. It had the unmistakable tang of Void magic; Clint might not have been able to sling any spells, but the Elves had always been sensitive to that sort of thing, and could recognize magic for what it was.

Nicholas Fury, Baron Triskelia, once known as Marcus Johnson, stood at the fireplace, leaning his arm against the mantel, which was plain and unadorned with any sort of trophies or personal items except for a dagger with a long, black blade that he'd once picked up during a job in one of the many Eastern Empires. He was dressed in his usual black: tunic, trousers, and boots, but unarmed; his sword was leaning against the wall near the door, a sure sign of the comfort he felt being in his own private chambers. He looked toward them as they entered, his single eye rolling as he said, "You two never knock, do you?"

Clint didn't answer, and neither did Natasha. They didn't have to, really. Nick had known exactly how they were going to arrive.

Nick wasn't alone, however. With him were two very surprising visitors…

Mistress Maria Hill, Head of Great Order for the Western Lands.

And Mistress Virginia Potts, Head of Cardinal Order and Maria's equal.

Clint had met Mistress Maria a couple of times. She was a tall, austere, woman, her dark hair pulled back in a severe bun, her blue robes cut for ease of movement, her wand in a sheath at her waist, ornamental dagger at the opposite hip. From what he'd heard, Mistress Maria had been a warrior, one that paired fighting and magic to destructive affect. Her dark blue dragon, Iliad, sat at her feet, as much at attention as his master was, head almost up to Mistress Maria's shoulder.

This was, however, the first time he was officially meeting Mistress Virginia…or Pepper, as she was more well known as. She was also tall, but her hair was a strawberry blonde and was loose about her shoulders. Her own Wizard robes were a silvery white, matching her dragon, Happy…who was living up to his name, lolling about on the carpet with his feet in the air, tongue out between jaws that were open in the draconic form of shit eating grin. Happy was one of the smallest of the dragons Clint had ever seen, about the size of a house cat, and the moment he caught sight of Clint he was flying up and draping himself over the Elf's shoulders, cooing.

Iliad looked as if he wanted to join in on the cuddle-fest, but he steadfastly remained by his Wizard's side, his training holding in the face of the Elf in the room. Clint was a little disappointed, but he had enough with Happy demanding attention.

The Elves had an affinity for dragons, as well. Clint couldn't go down the street without a dragon leaping at him, demanding attention, although he didn't have any sort of empathic bond with them, not like their chosen companions. All he could say was that it was a good thing he adored the silly beasts. His brother hadn't, but then dragons knew good people and hadn't bothered Barney at all, except to hiss at him on occasion.

Clint really should have paid attention to the dragons, back when he was young and stupid. It would have saved him a world of pain later.

"Happy!" Mistress Pepper laughed.

"It's fine, Ma'am," Clint assured her, reaching up to scratch under the dragon's chin. "Dragons just love me."

"I can tell!"

"When you said we were waiting for two more," Master Mistress said dryly, "I wasn't expecting Barton and Romanov."

"Is that who they are?" the Cardinal Mistress asked, acting surprised, although Clint got the impression that she'd known exactly who they were and was simply playing for the audience, as it were.

"We're just as surprised to see you here," Natasha commented, sounding almost as dry as Mistress Maria had.

"Children," Nick chided them, not sounding at all paternal. "Now that we're all here, I need to give you some information that's just come to my attention."

"It must have been very important to ask us to come," the Head of Cardinal Order said, smiling slightly. "I had to duck Tony in order to get here without him noticing, or else he might have tried to tag along."

Everyone knew that Mistress Pepper was married to Tony Stark, Baron Ferrous, and they pretty much felt sorry for her. Baron Tony was a notorious flirt and attention seeker, brilliant in a way that no one could quite understand. Not a Wizard himself, Baron Tony was, in fact, an inventor of great repute, one of the richest men in the Western Lands, and not as oblivious as he seemed. Clint had never met him personally, but he'd once seen him, and noticed immediately that what most people saw was a carefully cultivated mask, hiding an insecure man behind that irritating façade.

Clint always had been able to see better at a distance.

"Believe me," Nick said, "it is." He moved toward a small wine rack in the corner of the room, pouring them all a drink and passing the glasses around before he actually began. "I have it on excellent authority that there's a group of Void Wizards calling themselves Hydra that are trying to unravel the secret of immortality."

That announcement had both Mistresses turning grim. "How excellent is this authority?" Mistress Maria wanted to know.

"Impeccable. I would trust this man with my life."

Clint took a healthy swig of the spirits he'd been served, and it burned pleasantly on the way down. There had only been one man that Nick had once felt that way about, and Phil was dead. Hells, Marcus hadn't even trusted Clint and Natasha quite that far, and they'd known each other for years.

Mistress Pepper's eyes were narrowed as she regarded Nick. She didn't say anything, however, and Clint wondered if she was thinking the same thing that the archer, himself, was, but then dismissed it. There was no way that a Cardinal Wizard of her caliber would have ever met Phil, a Void Wizard, let alone known how close Phil and Marcus had been.

Honestly, there'd been a time when Clint had been jealous of their close bond. He'd gotten over himself pretty quickly, recognizing that they were more like brothers than anything else. Not that Clint had the right to get jealous, because he'd never said anything to Phil about his attraction. It was too late now, and he'd always regret not having the courage to stand up and speak his mind when Phil had been alive. For an Elf, 'always' was a long damned time.

Mistress Maria stared at Nick, and Nick stared right back, as if daring her to say something. The Great Wizard blinked first, so to speak.

"Alright," she finally spoke, "so, this…source…of yours, the one you trust. How did he find out?"

"Because they attempted to recruit him."

"So…a Void Wizard. Why haven't you called Master Gideon in on this?"

Master Gideon Malick was the Head of Void Order, the third in the triumvirate that headed the Guild in the Western Lands, and Clint knew that usually the head of whatever order was being a pain in the ass would have been contacted first thing. "You think he might be involved," the Elven archer said, before he even realized he'd spoken.

"It's a possibility." Nick held his hands up. "Right now, I don't trust anyone in the Voids. If word got back to whoever the hells is behind this, they could just go into hiding and we'd never catch them."

Mistress Maria snorted. "I'd trust Malick before I'd trust…well, there's Garrett, and Zemo, and then there's Coulson…"

Wait…what?

What had she just said?

"No," Mistress Pepper said emphatically. "Not Master Phil. You can't add him to that list."

Clint suddenly felt a little light-headed. Had they just said Phil Coulson?

But Phil Coulson was dead.

He'd been stabbed in the back by that crazy Asgardian Wizard, Loki. Clint remembered that. He'd been there.

Glancing over at Natasha, Clint could see that she was just as surprised as he was. All these years, they'd thought Phil was dead. What the fuck was going on?

Happy must have somehow sensed Clint's confusion and anger, because he cooed a question at him, and the archer scratched his head in order to get him to settle. Mistress Pepper gave him a look, and Clint wanted to curse at that damned bond. Happy must have communicated to her that he was worried about his new best friend.

She didn't say anything, however, for which Clint was very grateful. Still, he could tell that she wanted to.

"How can you be sure?" Mistress Maria demanded. "It's obvious that he's one of the most powerful Voids in the Guild. Maybe even stronger than Grand Master Pierce himself. He could take power anytime he wanted, and no one could stand in his way."

"He's not power-hungry, Maria," Nick defended. "Phil's content to stay in his Keep. He's not about to do anything like that."

"Baron Nicholas is right, Maria," Mistress Pepper agreed.

"How can you be so sure?" The Great Wizard was getting angrier the more they disagreed with her. "I know you're his patron with the gentry, Nick, but that doesn't mean you necessarily know him."

Clint was still trying to process the fact that Phil fucking Coulson was still alive, and no one had told him.

But then, why would anyone? No one had known how he'd felt for the Wizard. Clint had held that little nugget close to his vest. Only Natasha knew, but then she was very good. It was nearly impossible to hide anything from her.

Although, they'd managed to hide Phil's living status from her, as well, which should have been more of a surprise than it was. When Marcus Johnson wanted to keep a secret, not even torture or magic spell would get him to talk.

"Maria," the Cardinal Wizard said, "you've met my student, Novice Daisy."

"Of course I have." She was confused. "But what does she have to do with this?"

"Daisy is Phil's daughter."

Wait…what?

Since when had Phil had a daughter?

All these revelations were coming thick and fast, and Clint was having a little trouble grasping it all. He'd have to talk to Natasha about this, to get caught up on all the information they were getting bombarded with. Happy actually licked his face, in an attempt to comfort him, and this time Iliad actually broke his training and moved to his side, leaning into him. Clint rested a hand on his head in gratitude.

Mistress Maria didn't seem to notice her dragon's sudden defection. Instead, her eyebrows went up in surprise as she stared at her Cardinal colleague. "Your favorite novice…is the daughter of who is more than likely the most powerful Void Wizard of this age?"

"When Daisy came to the Magic School," Mistress Pepper explained, "and it was obvious just how promising she was, I immediately wanted her as one of my novices. Phil could have hidden who he was from me, but he didn't. He didn't want Daisy's teaching Master to discover anything by accident and then hold it against her…which I wouldn't have done, but I could see his point."

"Wait a minute." Mistress Maria held a hand up. "Why do I get the feeling there's more about Coulson than you're saying?"

Clint was just a little irritated that she wasn't using Phil's rank, which he'd earned. Still, it didn't even put a dent in the shock and hurt he was feeling at being kept out of the loop on Phil Coulson being fucking alive.

Nick was looking at Clint, his single eye confused, but then he turned to glare at Mistress Pepper. "He tell you everything?"

The woman nodded.

"Fuck." Nick ran a hand over his bald head, blowing out a breath. "Alright. Maria, I've been as honest with you as I can be about my past."

"You have," the Great Wizard agreed.

"Then you know I used to travel with the Void Wizard who called himself the Dark One…"

"I know, but we all know he was killed by Prince Loki…" Mistress Maria faded off, and such a look of incredulity crossed her face that it made Clint want to laugh. "Are you saying that Master Phil Coulson was the Dark One? The bloodiest Void Wizard since Harold Saxon? And he isn't dead?" She made a disbelieving noise, spinning to confront Mistress Pepper. "You knew about it and didn't say anything?"

The unimpressed eye roll would have been a pleasure to see if Clint wasn't so busy wallowing. All these years, he'd honestly believed that Phil was dead. That he'd been at least partially responsible for it, all because of Loki's mind control magic. He'd beaten himself up over the years, when it seemed like he hadn't needed to.

Damnit, Phil.

He was immediately hugged by Iliad, who by now had been noticed by Mistress Maria, who gave Clint a glare that would have melted steel if he'd actually cared.

"Of course I didn't say anything," Mistress Pepper scoffed. "Phil retired from all of that, faking his death in order to leave everything behind. He wanted to be a good father for Daisy. And he has been. He purposely stays out of Guild politics because all he wants to do is live his life in peace…" she glanced at Nick. "He was the one who passed along that information, wasn't he?"

Nick looked impressed. "Yes he did. Master John Garrett approached him, trying to recruit him. Apparently, he hadn't been as good at covering his tracks as he thought, because Garrett knew all about that Dark One shit. The moment Garrett left, he was contacting me, to warn me. Idiot decided to accept so he could get the inside scoop on just who was involved."

"Wait," Clint finally spoke out loud, "you're saying Phil – who I thought was dead until a few minutes ago – decided that it would be a really good idea to go ahead and join up with this Hydra in order to be some sort of spy?"

"He did," Nick confirmed. "And I thought you and Natasha already knew that Phil was alive and laying low, or else I would've said something sooner about him surviving Loki's little back stab."

"You both know the Dark One?" Mistress Maria demanded, crossing her arm in accusation.

It was Natasha's turn to roll her eyes. "We did occasionally work with the mercenary known as Marcus Johnson and the rogue Void Wizard who called himself the Dark One. You had to have known about that mess in Buda-Pest, so please don't pretend you weren't aware that we were all involved."

"Alright, yes. I knew about the Hawk and the Widow hanging out with Johnson and the Dark One. But, please excuse me if I've had all my preconceived notions about certain people tipped onto their heads."

"And Buda-Pest was a disaster," Mistress Pepper shuddered.

Clint couldn't disagree with that, although it had turned out for the best.

"And Phil just…what?" the Cardinal Wizard asked. "Thought that being our inside man was something he should personally do?"

"He did intimate that Garrett was willing to blackmail him to get him into their group," Nick added. "He was threatening to expose Phil as the Dark One to the Guild. You both know what sort of shitstorm that would have caused. Daisy may know the truth about him, but he wasn't about to risk her personal safety by telling Garrett to go and screw himself. He just believed it would be the perfect opportunity to get in and get what information we needed to bring Hydra down."

"And we do need to know just how Hydra thinks they're going to gain any sort of immortality," Mistress Maria allowed.

The current Grand Master of the Cardinal Order, Ianto Jones, was immortal, only through a special connection he had to the Deep Ways. It was controversial, and far too many of the Great Wizards objected to him using the primal Lifeforce of the Universe to keep himself alive, but from what Clint had heard it wasn't something Grand Master Ianto did on purpose.

"I want to know," he mused, breaking into what was turning into a minor argument about letting Phil – damnit, Phil! – do what he'd obviously planned: infiltrating Hydra. "If the Grand Master Ianto could unconsciously tap into the Deep Ways to make himself immortal, then what would stop the Voids from doing the same thing with the Deathforce, as it's called?"

Well, that certainly shut them all up.

"I mean," he went on, "would that necessarily be a bad thing? We're all taught about the balance, and how the Cardinals and the Voids balance each other out. There's one immortal Cardinal…why shouldn't there be an immortal Void to balance that out?"

That…had them all thinking. Mistress Pepper was chewing her lip thoughtfully, while Mistress Maria looked positively livid. Nick was shaking his head, his expression impressed. "Fuck, Barton…you had to ask that, didn't you?"

Clint shrugged. The most powerful Cardinal Wizard in the world was supposed to be a functioning immortal. He'd been named the Grand Master of Cardinal Wizards, because he just was that powerful. They'd put him in charge of all the Cardinal Wizards, over the Guilds and all the Heads of Cardinals in every country.

There were two other Grand Masters, one of each Order; one of those was Alexander Pierce, the Grand Master of Voids. But, if what he'd heard was true, he'd gained the position through politics, and not because he was actually the most powerful Void Wizard in the world.

That was possibly Phil Coulson.

Who'd been the Dark One, the evil Wizard that people still whispered about. Phil had been responsible for a lot of death and destruction, as he and Nick had cut a swath through the Western Lands – and into a couple of other countries – in their quest to…well, Clint didn't really know in quest of what, exactly, although both men had been furious at the world. Clint had always thought it hilarious that Marcus had named himself Fury, because that was what he had been for a long time.

The thing was, it was obvious that Phil hadn't wanted the position of Grand Master. He could have taken it easily. Instead, he'd left the mercenary life to raise a daughter – damnit, Phil! – and had been happy to remain dead as the Dark One.

"That's a question for another time," Nick stepped in before an argument could start…and it looked as if Mistress Maria really wanted to argue. "And, it wasn't Grand Master Ianto that Garrett mentioned…it was specifically the Deathless. So, you need to be considering how they're gonna pull that shit off instead."

There had been legends and tall tales about the man known as the Deathless for over a thousand years. Clint had heard a lot of them, through bards and other sources, and had thought they were all nonsense…until a man named Jack Harkness had shown up, claiming that really preposterous title, clearing up the rumors and romanticized events behind his becoming immortal.

Turned out, it had been an untrained Cardinal Wizard, a young girl named Rose Tyler, who had done the deed, albeit unintentionally, during an invasion made by what were still called the Nameless Demons, from the north of the United Kingdom. Somehow, Rose had managed to cast a spell that sucked the very lifeforce out of the rampaging demons and, not being able to disperse it herself, had channeled that lifeforce into one Jack Harkness simply because she didn't want him to be dead. The man was literally filled to the brim with all that life, making it impossible for him to stay dead.

The truth had come out about a hundred years ago, when Wizards began to re-emerge into the world, and Harkness had become Ianto Jones' lover. Being together with the so-called immortal Grand Master had brought him out onto the world stage, and now everyone knew just who the Deathless was.

"Captain Harkness' form of immortality cannot be duplicated," Mistress Pepper claimed. "We know that for a fact."

"Then maybe you should go and explain that to whoever the hells is behind this?" Nick countered. "Because, apparently, they must think they can."

"And they want Coulson's help to do it," Mistress Maria growled. "Nick, he might have been your friend… but he's also the Dark One – "

"Was, Maria. Was the Dark One. That isn't him anymore."

"Master Phil is a good man," Mistress Pepper insisted. "That was in his past. He's different now, and deserves the benefit of the doubt."

"All I can think of is all the death and destruction he's responsible for! He's a Void, and we all know every single Void skirts the fine line between good and evil – "

"And see," Nick interrupted, "this is precisely the reason Phil went bad to begin with…because people didn't believe that a good man could wield the Void."

He stalked right up to Mistress Maria, anger tight in his face. "It was those prejudices that started him down that path. He was six years old when his magic manifested. His parents were so damned proud…until he Tested as a Void Wizard. After that, they made sure they showed their disapproval at every fucking turn. So, by the time he'd gotten to school, he was positive that he was an evil person…so, why shouldn't he act that way? His folks made him the Dark One, Maria and, despite the best efforts of his teachers and his Master, he believed those idiots who'd birthed him. Thank fuck he found Daisy, because there's no telling what would have happened if he hadn't met that little girl. She was the one who finally convinced Phil that he could be both a good person and a Void Wizard."

"And whose fault is it that these prejudices exist?" Mistress Pepper pressed. "The Great Wizards have picked up right where they'd once been, back before magic vanished…poisoning the people against both the Cardinals and the Voids. All three Grand Masters have done their best to combat the lies that have been spread around, but what's coming out of the Great Order…you're all so convinced that what we do is wrong, that being able to tap into either the Deep Ways or the Void is anathema, and taboo."

"Because the ancient books say it is!" Mistress Maria shouted. "It's wrong to use the Deep Ways and the Void, they are just too powerful to ever be tampered with!"

"The Greats would go back to the time when both the Deep Ways and the Void were worshipped. But both are tools, just as the magic that permeates the rest of the universe. If you say that we shouldn't use either, then certainly we shouldn't be using the primal magic as well!"

Clint wanted to tune out the argument, and the dragons who were cuddling him were attempting to do just that, but they were failing. He wanted to slot the information about Phil into his head, into the mental picture that he'd been carrying around for years of the Void Wizard. If he was being honest with himself, the archer had known even back then that there was far more to Phil Coulson than what he showed on the outside, more than the Void Wizard who was more likely to tear down the world than to build it back up. What Nick had said about the Wizard's parents made more sense in the context of Phil's actions back then…except for a couple of extenuating circumstances that the Elf knew of. Clint had long considered Phil a good man, only one that was in so much pain he needed to make everyone else hurt, as well.

He'd tried to talk to Phil about it once, and it had caused such a row that they didn't speak for months. With the gift of hindsight, Clint could see that him asking about it had only hurt the man he…well, that he had been attracted to. He should have kept his big mouth shut.

Maybe then, Phil would have informed him that he'd survived Loki's attack and had adopted a kid.

"This is all well and good," Natasha finally spoke up, her words cutting across the recriminations like a hot knife through soft butter, "but these arguments aren't getting us anywhere. Clint and I trust Phil, and we'll do what we can to help him get whatever information he can about this Hydra."

Clint nodded in agreement. There was no way in any hell that he was going to let Phil handle this alone. Phil shouldn't be doing it anyway, not with a kid at whatever home he was living in now and being out of the game for so long, so to speak. "You'd think Phil actually volunteering for this sort of mission a sign that he was on the side of the good guys on this," he pointed out.

Mistress Maria threw up her hands. "Alright, fine. We're not going to solve any of this by arguing over old hurts."

"Agreed," Mistress Pepper capitulated. "Please let Phil know, if he wants to keep Daisy out of this, she's welcome to come and stay with me. We can always say it's for additional training."

"I'll do that," Nick said easily. "I know he was planning on leaving her under the protection of his Steward, but this might actually work out better."

The Cardinal Wizard grinned. "Well, if you can't trust Melinda May with your child, I suppose you really can't trust anyone."

Wait…Melinda May knew?

Damnit, Phil…

Clint was going to have words with the man, the next time he saw him.

"I'm assuming there's some sort of plan?" Mistress Maria inquired. She was still angry, but she was keeping it under tight rein. "And can I have my dragon back?"

The Elf couldn't help the smirk as Iliad made the choice to stay with Clint. Honestly, it had to be Elf pheromones or something that had dragons think he was some sort of drug, like a form of dragon catnip.

"I'm going to ask Widow here," Nick indicated Natasha and ignoring the dragon drama, "to do some digging into the Voids, to try and figure out just who's involved with this Hydra shit. She's the best one to handle that sort of thing, with the contacts she has."

She nodded in acknowledgement of the order.

"And, Barton here…he's going to be playing bodyguard for the Dark One."

Clint scoffed, even as his inner self was yelling and jumping up and down for joy…and perhaps a little anticipation at punching Phil's lights out when he saw him. "Like he needs any sort of protection."

"Phil might be a powerful bastard, but Loki still managed to get a shot in, and that was when he was on top of his game. Now, he's been retired for over ten years. He's out of practice and is gonna need someone to watch his back. Who better than the Hawk, the second-most feared assassin in the country? If not the world?"

Clint wanted to preen at that, but settled for crossing his rather impressive arms and putting on his resting face. He knew he was good at what he did; only Natasha was better. It was why the pair of them made such a formidable team and why he wasn't bristling at being called second best.

Still, from what Nick said…Loki had apparently managed to take Phil out. From what the archer could infer, Phil had simply used that injury to promote the Dark One's death to the world, so he could be left in peace. After everything, Clint really couldn't blame him.

He was just a little pissed off, though, that Phil hadn't managed to contact him in some way, to let him know that he really wasn't dead.

Clint might really have to punch him for that, because he'd thought they were friends.

"Where is Phil now?" he asked, instead of making his inner threats of violence public ones.

"He's set up in a place called Shield Keep, high in the Apalana Mountains."

The Elven archer frowned. "That's at least four days' journey from here."

"Well, yeah," Nick snarked, "if you went by horseback. Here." He removed a silver ring with a large black stone on it from his index finger. "Phil gave me this for when I wanted to visit without drawing attention to the fact that the Baron of Triskelia was visiting one of his subjects for no apparent reason. It's targeted on the Keep and the palace, here; Shield Keep is unPlotable, so it's the only way to get there via magic. If you have to, you can use it from anywhere, but you'll end up either here or there, whichever's closer. Use that to teleport to the Keep. I'll let Phil know you're coming, so he won't blast you out of existence when you pop in."

"I'd appreciate that," Clint couldn't help but be sarcastic as he accepted the ring, sliding it onto his thumb. The black stone glinted up at him, as if taunting him in some way.

"Tap the stone three times, and it'll activate." Nick rested his rather large hand on Clint's shoulder. "I don't know why he didn't contact you before this, but he must have had a good reason. All I ask is you hear him out before all the gross bodily damage starts, alright?"

"No promises." He couldn't make that one. He had no idea how he was going to react on seeing Phil again, and he wanted to keep his options open.

Nick smirked. "Yeah, I thought you'd say that, Barton."