Little Tsu: Ok, ideas, words, images, & scenes are flashin' about rapidly in my head & mixin' with all that from other stories so before I forget, here's the next chap. Enjoy!

Ch:3

~"Aasterinian. I know you can hear me. Listen and listen well Malakete."

Alister glanced around herself nervously at the sound of the voice, but she couldn't see anyone at all. The planet she found herself standing on was mostly water from the looks of it and where she stood was what appeared to be a tropical climated island. It was only when she heard the voice directly behind her, did she jolt slightly and her dragon features shot out as she whipped around to lash her tail at whoever was behind her. Even her wings were at the ready since they had sickle styled claws on them. When her tri-axe bladed tail hit nothing though, she became even more paranoid till she suddenly felt a sharp ringing in her head and quickly clutched the base of her horns that covered her ears and her eyes clenching tightly shut in pain.

"I would suggest you not resist girl...You will only get hurt otherwise and I don't think you wish for that. After all,...I would hate...to have no choice but have you killed as well after I had already wiped out the rest of your kind for their refusal despite our...rough history between the our two races..." It was after the voice said this though that the owner of it finally revealed himself to her, causing the small Malakete to gasp and leap backwards. Standing there before her was a reptilian humanoid with green skin, an iguana styled head, short, wild black hair with red streaks, a long, flexible tail, and two fingers along with a thumb on both hands. His attire was of a cotton dark purple sleeveless tunic that halted at his waist on the sides and continued further down the front and back till his knees; a gold belt around his waist to keep it firmly in place. Matching shoes made of a tough cloth-like fabric was worn and covering his muscular arms was dark blue steel protective armor.

"You...You are a Sssth..."

"Correction Aasterinian. I'm the Sssthgar!" Hissing as he spoke, the Sssthgar quickly covered the distance between the two of them and grasped onto her upper arm roughly that was bare of any armor. Jerking the much smaller creature towards him, his reptilian tongue flicked out from between his muzzle and fangs. Considering the girl stood at perhaps only four foot ten in height at the most, Alister was completely dwarfed by the Sssth that had a grasp on her, who stood at a towering eight feet. "Now unless you wish to end up like the rest of your stubborn race, you'll do as I say. Are we clear on this?" When he got a shakey nod from the Malakete, a fanged, malicious grin slipped onto his features as his top half down to more her height and flicked his tongue out as it ran against her right horn, causing her to shudder in both fear and disgust. "That's a good girl...You are to gain these Avengers' trust and destroy them from the inside out...This will give myself and my followers the perfect opportunity to have a better edge in utterly destroying those Midgardians that had befriended and teamed up with that vile Asgardian, Thor. He will pay for what he did to my ancestor, the original Sssthgar. Do not fail me Aasterinian...Or you'll be joining them in oblivion."~

Alister's eyes then shot open as she gasped and jolted as she quickly sat up. Glancing around shakily, she noticed that she was in the room that Clint had given to her that was conveniantly next to his own within the Avengers Tower. As she tilted her head down, she lifted her hands up a bit as she watched them tremble from the fear she felt rushing through her entire body. She wished beyond anything that what she saw was just merely a nightmare, but no...She knew it was real and even worse, she was being given orders by the very one who destroyed her people; leaving her the only one left. As she tried to steady her breathing again and calm her heartbeat, the sound of rushing footsteps were heard till her bedroom door bursted open. Jerking again, as she was still shooken up, Alister darted her wide eyed molten gold gaze towards the door, only to see a bare chested Clint standing there while panting softly from his sudden waking up and rushing over. "C-Clint..."

Seeing the shakened and frightened look on her features, that was all he needed because in that instant, Clint closed the door shut behind himself and quickly strided over to the bed as he slid in on one side; gathering the smaller girl into his lap and arms as he craddled her. Yes, he was a deadly agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, but even he knew compassion and comfort when it was most definately needed. In this case, the one who needed it was the trembling girl in his arms. Lifting his hand that wasn't around her delicate waist, he ran it gently through her hair before he lowered his head and rested his cheek against the top of it. His hand still continued to stroke through her lavender hair gently. "Shh...It's ok Alister. It was just a dream. You're ok; you're safe. Knowone's going to hurt you." He didn't know what her dream had been about and he had no idea that it really wasn't a dream at all that she actually had. All that mattered to Clint at this moment was calming Alister down and letting her see that she was safe with him.

As they stayed like that for a little while longer, Clint felt the girl in his arms finally shift a bit and slowly loosened his grip on her. Lifting his head from resting atop of her own, he tilted his head to get a better look at her face. "You ok now?" When she faintly nodded her head, Clint smiled gently and shifted himself off the bed, taking Alister with him as he lowered her feet gently to the floor. "Alright now. It's still really early, but since we're both awake now, why don't we slip into the kitchen that the entire team shares and fix us something warm to drink? That should help you out in settling your nerves the rest of the way." Getting another little nod from her, he rested his arm gently around her shoulders and lead Alister out of her room while she was still in her pajamas and he in his sleep pants.

Walking down the hall, they soon stepped into the living room that was on the living quarters floor for the Avengers and made their way to the back of the room where the kitchen was. Motioning for the girl to take a seat at the island that was in the center of the kitchen, Clint got to work in fixing themselves both some hot chocolate. Yes, he usually prefered coffee, but this kind of situation called best for hot cocoa so he'd join her with fixing himself a cup of it as well. Once the water was boiling, he grabbed the pot and carefully poured the water into the two mugs before stirring in the mix. Setting the spoon into the sink for washing later, he grabbed the two mugs and held out the one in his left hand for her to take. "Here you go. Careful though; it's really hot."

"Thank you..." Carefully taking the cup into both hands, Alister watched the rising steam through heavy lidded eyes before finally beginning to gently blow on the cocoa. After a moment of this, she figured it was cooled enough and brought it to her lips as she took a sip. Shuddering lightly at the delicious, sweet taste touching her tongue and warming her entire body, her eyes instinctually closed in pleasure of it. All the while this went on, Clint stood there, hunched over with an arm propped up onto the island while sipping his own hot cocoa; his ice blue gaze on her the entire time. She had slipped off into her own little world of sweet, warm bliss that she didn't realize that he was watching her through it all. However, when her eyes finally did open and suddenly found themselves locking with the larger man's before her, a blush came to her cheeks out of slight embarrassment, causing her to glance down at her now half full mug shyly.

Seeing the Malakete blush and become shy all of a sudden, Clint couldn't help but arch a brow at this in amusement as a matching faint smile formed onto his features. A chuckle even escaped him as he found how she was acting to be amusing, but also rather adorable. Apparently, despite her obviously being a lot older than she actually looked, Alister didn't exactly have much experience with guys of any species towards certain matters, if any experience at all. In this case, she didn't seem used to having guys studying or watching her so intently. Was she actually selfconscious? Only one way to find out. "Something wrong Alister? You look a bit flushed. Don't tell me I actually made you uncomfortable."

At being asked this, Alister's eyes widened in surprise and her face flushed a slightly deeper shade of pink before quickly clenching her eyes tightly shut as she shook her head. "N-No. Nothing like that. It's just...I'm not used to males of any species look at me with such intent or facination...I was usually only ever given a look of respect among my kind and I did not exactly get to associate with other races when we traveled between planets..." Biting her bottom lip a bit, she managed to force back most of the blush and calm back down. Lifting her gaze somewhat shyly back onto Clint, she shifted on the stool she was seated on. "My kind may have been nomads, but...even my race had a caste system; a leader, a...vice...as you would possibly call it, and so on. I was the daughter of the High Priest; the strongest user in magic other than my kind's leader himself and being his daughter, I was treated in very high regard...I was, in a sense,...a princess in some manner of speaking. Because of this, no male of any race that was below me in the caste system ever spoke to or even made eye contact with me...So as you can see, everything you have done towards me has been quite new, but...I actually kind of enjoy it at the same time..."

"So your race wasn't all that entirely different from some of the countries that are here on Earth. There's past histories where in a number of countries, members that were really high up in the caste were treated like that as well. A lot has changed since then, but I think there are still some countries that have that way of life. America isn't really like that though and definately not here in New York." Chuckling softly at his own last comment, he set his now empty mug down on the counter and offered the girl a gentle smile. "I'm sure you'll get used to everything around here though and I'll be there to help you out with it all too, though when I go on missions, you'll be coming with me to help out and so I can constantly keep you with me. You'll get to gradually meet the other members of the team, but you'll mainly be around me all the time. Hopefully, you won't get sick of me, haha."

Cocking her head slightly to the side as she took in everything he said, she gently set her own now empty mug onto the counter and offered him a little smile after shaking her head lightly. "No...I do not think I could ever tire of you Clint...You have been nothing, but extremely kind and hospitable towards me even though your leader seems to think of me as a threat. I'm truly grateful for everything you have done for me already since my unexpected arrival here on Midgard...I do not think anyone else would have done so for me..."

"Nah, anyone else probably would've probed you." He was mainly joking for the most part on that, buuut...well, there was some truth to it. There were people out there that would've loved to have captured Alister and experimented on her. That was a known fact. Sighing softly in thought of this, he drifted his gaze over at the kitchen clock that was on the wall. It was around the time the sun would be starting to rise so he figured it was best that they head back to their rooms to get dressed for the day. Last thing he needed was a tired and hungover Tony Stark seeing them and getting the wrong idea. It's not that he didn't find Alister attractive cause she most certainly was, but he was her 'guardian' in a sense and plus, his job as a secret agent was more important than the thought of having any sort of relationship with the girl.

"We better head on back to our rooms so we can get dressed. It's too early in the morning to deal with Stark of all people if he comes in here while we still are." Even though she didn't know who he was talking about, she still nodded her head and slipped off the stool as she began to head back to her room. As she did though, Clint slowly followed after her as he kept a few paces behind the girl; studying her. Yes, he didn't have time on such things, but...maybe someday the girl could grow to be a reliable friend and partner out on the field during all his missions...

To be continued.

Little Tsu: *collapses* So...Tired...I'm surprised I even managed ta type up THAT MUCH...Till next time...x.x