Disclaimer: Do not own Marvel, DC or The 100
Warnings for PTSD, violence, brainwashing, murder and child abuse.
Hate-A series
Part 3
When at last, Clarke Griffin had met her mates, those sparks of hate still existed.
But she hated now how she could hold those sparks at bay.
Hate was safe for her. She wished to keep bathing in its salvation.
However, it seemed that fate would not allow such a thing.
For her mates, just their sheer presence alone, kept Clarke's pure hate at bay, almost all the time.
Like now?
As the Justice League appeared to be late to the party, and Clarke and the rest of the Avengers were dealing with a current enemy, that being a couple of human terrorists, working with HYDRA, which were under her claws now.
Clarke growled, raising her left hand, claws emerging from her fingers as she grinned down at her prey, venomous, ready to slice these men apart in only a few blows.
The men cringed on the ground.
Because Clarke was just a sadist, she had enjoyed clawing these peoples' arms and legs. There were bloody marks all over their bodies now.
She had taken at least one of their teeth out.
She had to admit, that she had enjoyed every fucking moment of it.
But that still wasn't enough.
Her rage was flooding her and she could feel it.
She needed to kill. Had to kill. Had to tear. Had to bite, had to claw.
She wanted to kill.
Slowly.
She wanted to tear these men to pieces, cut and slash and slice until there was nothing left.
Clarke knew the origins of her hate.
These men worked with HYDRA. The same people that had made her mates' lives hell.
They had brainwashed Natasha and Yelena as young girls, had done the same to Melina, had experimented on Wanda, and on Pietro-her brother, Wells's romantic partner soulmate, had almost killed Steve when they had gotten him trapped in ice for decades and decades, and had almost killed her other romantic partner soulmates and familial soulmates various times.
So, her reasons for hating HYDRA, she was positive, were not unfounded.
Which was why when she raised her claws and watched as the two men before her cringed, eyes filled with terror, her grin only widened then as she made a lunge for them.
A grin which admittedly, was lost from her face, when she heard her name called from behind her.
"Clarke!" Clint yelled, causing Clarke's claws to still.
She growled, frustrated, hearing her father trying to stop the carnage she wished to unleash.
Slowly, she turned around to face the archer, whose bow and arrow were lowered and he was looking at her imploringly.
"What?" Clarke growled between her clenched, sharp fangs.
She knew that neither man on the ground would even try to lift a finger to harm her or anyone else.
She could practically smell their terror.
This wasn't that rancid, warm fear that she smelled that told her that the person feeling the fear would try to lash out in panic or something.
No, this was cold fear. It felt fresh and icy. And that sort of fear, often told her that the person who felt the fear, was too scared to try anything.
And that was just fine with her.
Which was why Clarke felt no worry about either man on the ground as Clint spoke to her.
Clint said gently, "Clarke, they're down, okay? No need to tear them to pieces. We'll bring them in, alright?"
"I'd feel better if I could tear them to bloody pieces," Clarke growled.
Clint sighed, nodding. "I know," he confessed, a sad look in his eyes telling Clarke that he knew exactly how her moods were and he wished that she could mellow out more, even if he loved her for who she was.
Clarke tried not to flinch at that look given to her.
She didn't like disappointing any of the people that she loved.
Even if they'd forgive her a thousand times over for the things that she did.
The hate still lingered at her heart. But she was in control of herself enough right now that she knew that she wouldn't turn around and tear the two men's heads from their shoulders. At least, not yet.
Clarke then grinned at Clint as she added, "Do I get something in return for not killing them?"
"We can discuss that later," Clint assured her, "Now step away from them."
"Step away from who?" Clarke asked with mock innocence in her voice, "You mean the two pieces of HYDRA scum?"
Clint nodded and she could see it in his eyes that he knew exactly why Clarke wanted to kill these two men.
"Clarke," Clint said gently, "I hate HYDRA too. But these two are just puppets. We'd benefit more by keeping them alive and getting information out of them."
"You hate HYDRA," Clarke echoed, "You mean you hate the people that tortured Natasha for years, brainwashed her. Made her into their killing machine."
Clint's jaw clenched and Clarke was satisfied to see his grip around his bow and arrow tighten.
She snickered. She was glad to see that her words had gotten to him.
"Yes," Clint said, and his voice sounded harsher than before, "Exactly. And it's because of that, that we need to keep these two alive. If we get information out of them, information that might lead us to more on HYDRA? Then shouldn't we spare them? So that we can kill the people that are actually responsible."
Clarke scoffed.
So funny how the "benign" people came up with bullshit answers, even in the face of logic-like you know, "killing HYDRA, good."
But whatever.
"Fine," Clarke growled, "But whenever we find higher HYDRA officials, I wanna tear their viscera out."
Clint nodded. "I will get out of the way and let you do just that," he said, "When we find people higher up on HYDRA's ladder, when that happens. But right now? We need to get these two to SHIELD."
Clarke snorted, rolling her eyes, but nodded, whirling around and giving both still cringing men a gruesome smile, chuckling when she heard their terrified whimpers.
She and Clint none too gently, dragged the two men off to SHIELD.
They dumped both men with the guards and went off to join the Avengers.
"Hi, honeys, I'm home!" Clarke announced, as she and Clint got through the doors to the back of the base, where Natasha, Tony, Steve, Pietro, Bruce, Rhodes, Vision, Wanda, Bucky, Sam and Yelena were all getting cleaned up after they took care of the rest. Thor, who barely took any damage, because of what he was,
Clarke's romantic partner soulmates in the group; Natasha, Yelena, Steve, Tony, Thor, Bruce and Wanda, all lifted their heads and grinned at her.
"My love," Wanda exclaimed happily, "Good, you're back."
"What," Clarke chuckled, "Thought a few losers like that could do anything permanent to me?"
Wanda, Steve, Thor and Bruce all snorted, and Natasha, Yelena and Tony all smirked.
Clint went over to Natasha as Wanda ran over to Clarke and embraced her close, snuggling against her neck and Clarke smiled, holding Wanda close too.
Clarke's hearing was superb next to everyone else's. So, she heard what Clint told Natasha. He had told her exactly what he had seen and heard Clarke almost do to the two HYDRA flunkies.
Clarke looked over Wanda's shoulder, watching as Natasha nodded to Clint, and Clarke could almost detect what Natasha was trying to convey to her friend, without any words.
She was telling Clint that she would try to see if she could get Clarke to not be so angry.
Again, Natasha didn't say anything, but Clarke figured out Natasha's meaning to Clint with that nod, well enough.
A few days later, Tony, as always, had one of his parties, and as always, Tony, Bucky, Sam, Steve, Pietro, Rhody, Clint and Thor were having their pissing match and Bruce was awkwardly watching, but Yelena grinned as she watched, looking like she might break out the popcorn at any moment.
Wanda was talking with Pepper and Maria.
And Clarke saw Natasha coming near, as Clarke leaned back against the wall of the bar, aware that Natasha would choose tonight to speak with her.
Natasha came up besides Clarke, sitting down on a leather stool next to the bar where Clarke was perched.
"Hey, Nat," Clarke said softly, and wanting to avoid the subject as long as she could, added, "Think we should crash one of Batman's parties at some point?"
Natasha chuckled. It was never outright said by any of them in public, what any of the alter egos of the Justice League was, even if every single Avenger knew those identities. And honestly?
It wasn't that hard to guess what Batman's alter ego was. Who else had enough money to buy as many gadgets as Batman had access to?
And who else had a bunch of "wards" running around, who easily could be trained into being warriors?
The answer was simple; Bruce Wayne.
Really, Clarke honestly didn't understand how any actual smart enemy of his hadn't ended up at the Wayne manor yet, bearing all the weapons in the world.
Thankfully, most of his enemies seemed too mentally unbalanced to be able to think logically.
"Well, speaking of which," Natasha said, looking up at Clarke, "Your romantic partner soulmates from the Justice League want to see you, you know that, right?"
Clarke nodded. That was another uncomfortable subject she was hesitant to approach. She knew the people from the Justice League-her mates from the Justice League. But she didn't know them as well as she knew the Avengers.
"I know," she said, "I guess I'll talk to them later."
Natasha thankfully didn't follow up with that.
Natasha then said, "So, Clint told me what almost happened a few days ago. You almost slaughtered a pair of men that were already unarmed and defenseless."
Clarke shrugged, glaring up ahead, not wanting to meet Natasha's gaze. "Yeah," she said, "What of it?"
She heard Natasha sigh, "Clarke, I know how angry you are at anyone that works for HYDRA, but you know you can't do that. Not when they are defenseless."
"Why not?" Clarke asked, turning her head at last to stare at Natasha, a demand for the answer in her eyes, "Those same men work for the same faction that did horrific things to you, Yelena, Melina and so many other little girls. Experimented on Wanda and Pietro. Almost killed you and the others countless times. Why the fuck should I spare anyone who works for them?"
Clarke let the anger into her voice and she knew that Natasha could feel the hate that Clarke bore for HYDRA.
"I know, my love, I know," Natasha said softly, and it frustrated Clarke, how calm Natasha appeared, how unaffected she looked, being reminded of what HYDRA-what Dreykov had done to her and Yelena and so many others, "But we both know that you hating them, you torturing them to death, won't do anything. Finding more about HYDRA now, is how we'll stop them, not by torturing every henchman they have."
"Okay," Clarke shrugged, teeth gritting still, though, "But it sure as hell would make me feel good. And you know? I don't see how it wouldn't make you feel good too, Nat." Clarke added, a snicker on her lips then, "Should I ask Yelena if me torturing those men to death, would have made her feel good? Or if she would like a crack at them, herself?"
Natasha's green eyes hardened at Clarke's words.
Clarke knew that one of Natasha's many weaknesses, besides Clarke herself, Clint, Laura and their children, was Yelena.
Clarke bringing Yelena up, and bringing up how she likely would have reacted to the chance of potentially putting the hurt on two thugs that had worked for HYDRA, was a low blow and Clarke knew it, but she knew it was affective too.
Natasha looked at Clarke calmly, ignoring the words Clarke had said and asked, "If it wasn't someone who worked for HYDRA, would you have reacted the way you reacted?"
Clarke shrugged. She said, "Unlikely, why?"
Natasha nodded, as if that answer satisfied her, for some reason.
"Alright," she said, "Then let's be honest about the reason why. You did it out of hate. But hate is just a cover. For pain."
Clarke stiffened, and this time she glared at Natasha, knowing that the Black Widow had hit a mark.
Not exactly shocking, but still…
"So what?" Clarke demanded, still not raising her voice, as she eyed Natasha, "I didn't kill them. I did what you and Clint wanted. And guess what? I still feel hate. So, not killing them, didn't do anything."
Natasha nodded. "I didn't expect it to," she assured Clarke, "It's not like magic. There apparently, is magic enough for other things like tearing a whole open so people from other dimensions can come through. But not magic enough for hate to be gotten rid of," she admitted, and yes, Clarke almost snorted with laughter at that.
Because yes, it was rather ridiculous. There was magic that existed that allowed world domination, but not magic, outside of the brainwashing Mind Stone of the insidious Infinity Stones, which would only involve drastically changing one's brain, to eliminate something like hate.
It was ridiculous that there wasn't a more effective and less mind-altering magical answer than that.
But it was what it was.
"Do you love us?" Natasha asked, startling Clarke and causing her to stare at Natasha, stunned.
"Of course, I do," Clarke said, looking at Natasha now, as if the redhead was out of her mind.
Natasha nodded, appearing unsurprised as she said, "Then what for you is stronger? Your hate or what you feel for us?"
Clarke's surprise melted into an expression of frustration, but then softened. Because she could never feel a moment of hate with Natasha, not for a moment. And that was what made it all the more frustrating.
Clarke grunted, trying to sound angry, but couldn't, "You know that fucking answer already."
Natasha smiled, seeming satisfied by that answer for some weird reason and nodded, her eyes softening in a strangely tender way as she regarded Clarke.
Clarke shook her head, wishing to be angrier.
Because as much as her mates had gotten her to soften her hate a great deal, it was still bizarre. Her mates were so weird sometimes. Because how were they so forgiving? At least with her, anyway?
Hate, for her was safe. It was always safe. Why couldn't they just understand that?
"I wish I could hate all of you," Clarke said, and she wasn't sure she actually meant that, but she said it anyway. And was surprised to find that Natasha didn't look disturbed by what she said.
And to her further surprise, Natasha said, "I know. But aren't you glad also that you don't?"
Clarke stiffened, glanced at Natasha, who was giving her a gentle smile and Clarke scoffed slightly.
As much as she hated to admit it? Yeah, she was glad that she didn't hate her mates.