Natasha Romanof would make a very good butcher, that much Tony could tell. The way she poked at Clint with needles, scalpels and other medical stuff was very disturbing. If you weren't aware of the close relationship both of them shared, you would probably think that she was trying very hard to kill the archer in the most painful way she could think of.

But Barton looked like he was used to it. As soon as Natasha ceased her never ending rant about the stupid ass he was for getting in trouble, the guy seemed to relax. It was as if it didn't bother him at all that Romanof pulled all of his stitches and pushed her fingers inside his bullet hole. Perhaps, Tony figured, Barton was so far gone that he did not notice it anymore.

By the door of the house, Steve was nervously shifting from one foot to another. He glanced through the window now and then, to make sure no one had been following them. Bruce stood beside the Captain and looked a bit helpless. Normally, he was the one who took care of the injured and he felt a little out of place as he stood there whilst doing nothing to help Clint. The only person who did not seem to be worrying at all, was Thor. The big guy sat down on a wooden chair in the kitchen as soon as he'd entered the building, placing Mjolnir at his feet. Natasha's way of treating wounds did not seem to be strange to him and the others all assumed that the Asgardians maybe had a different understanding of medical treatment than they had.

"Please, try to keep him alive," Tony murmured as Natasha was applying bandages to Clint's wound. Luckily for Stark, the Widow hadn't heard him. She was to concentrated, and was whispering fiercely to Clint.

"I guess this is worse than Budapest after all, you know?"

Budapest, there it was again. Those two always talked about Budapest this and Budapest that, but never told anyone what Budapest had been all about. Steve believed the idea that Budapest might some code word the spies used to refer to nasty situations, but he was not entirely sure about that.

"Maybe it is," Clint murmured faintly. He glanced at the others: "I am sorry that you had to rush over all the way to this godforsaken town to save my ass."

Steve was the first to answer: "Don't mention it. But the sooner I can leave this place, the better. It's freaking me out."

"I know," Clint whispered, "It's been months since I arrived, and I still feel uncomfortable around here."

"Why didn't you tell anybody about what you were doing here anyway?" Bruce asked Clint, and the archer sighed.

"Fury asked me not to. My mistake. Shouldn't have listened to him, maybe I should have told one of you guys just in case I … Auch!" Clint grabbed Natasha's hand, which was peeling aside the collar of his shirt.

"Don't be such a baby," she told him, but Clint did not let go of her hand.

"You should really learn how to be a little more gentle, you know that?" he snapped, his voice still weak.

"I was just…" Natasha began, but Clint cut in: "Yeah I know, but it hurts, so leave it for now."

"Fine."

"Thanks."

The others looked at the two former SHIELD agents and Tony asked: "Are you two done bitching?"

"Yes," they replied in unison. "Good, now can Barton please finish his story before he faints?"

Clint smirked: "I am not going to faint, but I would like a more comfortable place to settle down, if you don't mind. Now that I don't have to keep my eyes on the door anymore."

"Sure," Bruce said, and he walked over to Clint – happy that he could be of use, "Let me help you up."

"Thanks doc," Clint told him as Banner put his arm underneath Clint's left shoulder and slowly helped him to his feet. The archer winced slightly and had to lean heavily on the doctor, but did not faint. Natasha helped him by supporting him on his right side. "Where should we put you?" she asked.

"Couch will be fine," he muttered, as he blinked away the nausea. So Bruce and Natasha helped him, as the others watched in amazement. Thor silently admired the archers perseverance, as the guy did not black out or falter on his way to the living room. Once he was settled down, the others joined him.

"You good?" Tony asked Clint.

"As good as possible at the moment, Stark, thanks," Clint told him.

"Alright, now spill it! What happened?"

"Promise not to declare me insane, please?" Clint asked the others, while rubbing his sweaty forehead, "Because I will sound completely mental if I tell you the truth."

"I solemnly swear I won't," Tony said, and the others nodded. Natasha cocked her head and studied Clint.

"Alright than, stick with me. As you might know, or might not know, I was assigned to a mental facility after New York happened. People declared me insane, mental, blamed me for killing fellow agents. So I hid between the mentally insane, where everybody left me alone. Everyone started to believe I truly lost my mind, everyone but Fury and Nat. And Fury took advantage of that. He gave me this job in Kazahstan, a job no one should know of. He chose me because no one would miss me, or find my disappearance suspicious. So I left without telling anyone. I arrived here a couple of days before the Winter Soldier supposedly killed Fury. Fury believed that the people in this facility where working for Pierce, that they were the ones who experimented on the Soldier – as that guy speaks Russian and all. But he couldn't have been more wrong." Clint sighed. He was too tired to notice the Captains pained look as he brought up the Winter Soldier.

"This band of misfits was another group of HYDRA, who swore allegiance to Pierce. But soon, it turned out this allegiance was not very strong. When the news of Pierce's unmasking reached the ears of the officials here, they cut ties with the American HYDRA officials instantly. Soon after, he arrived: the famous Baron Von Stucker. The guy is supposed to be an elder, but he looks as fresh as a daisy. I want to put all my money on the fact that he is an experiment of HYDRA as well, but well – doesn't matter now. Anyway, he appears to be the European leader of the gang, but he was never interested in Pierces plans whatsoever. He had plans of his own, plans Fury did not know of. As soon as I found out about it, I wanted to contact Nick, but it was too late. He had disappeared, pretended to be dead, and I was alone. For one moment, I considered to run away from here, but …" Clint blinked a couple of times, trying very hard to stay awake.

"… but I couldn't. Not after I met Wanda and Pietro. Not after I found out about Von Struckers plan to build a race of enhanced people just like those two. I believe Natasha told you about them?"

The others nodded.

"Poor bastards, I don't know what they did to them. But it is not natural, I have never seen such thing. Wanda's abilities drove me insane, they thwarted every rule of nature. And Pietro, he is just fast. Annoying as hell as well... Anyway, I stayed because I was fascinated by them and because they did not deserve to be left alone. And because an army of people like them was not exactly something I would want to run into in the future. So I stayed, worked for HYDRA, picked up some of their plans but nothing to be really worried about just yet. After a while, working here became kind of a routine for me. I felt almost safe, until Nat spilled all of SHIELD's info on the internet. I suspected that they would find out about me soon after, but somehow, nobody seemed to notice. I have no idea how they could have been so stupid – although I can tell you a lot of stories about dumbass HYDRA people. For another two months, I stayed here, worked here, and nobody found out about my true motives. But one evening, one of my colleagues noticed something that got me really worried."

When Clint didn't continue his story immediately, Cap urged: "So what was it?"

"I wasn't sure at the moment, but I had a lot of time to think it over. The night I fled the facility, someone showed up on camera footage. I did not believe it at first, because he was barely recognizable, but now I am sure of it. It was Fury."

"What?" Natasha stammered.

"Yes, it was. I should have known. A week before the footage showed up, someone tried to break into the facility. Probably him as well. I got the feeling that he looked out for me. That he is the reason no one in this place questioned who I was or found out about my true motives. I don't know for sure if that was what he was doing here, or if he is still around. I did not have plenty of time to look for him, considering the recent events"

Clint motioned at the burning building that was barely visible through the tiny, filthy window in the living room.

"After Fury showed up on camera, things took a change for the worst. I talked my colleague out of reporting his presence to Von Strucker, but the guy became rather suspicious. Von Strucker turned out to already know about it anyway. Soon after the Fury bomb dropped, I noticed that Wanda Maximoff started to show an interest in me. She warned me to get out of the building as fast as I could, as if she knew…" Clint's voice died. After he did a little bit of thinking, he continued: "She touched my arm and because of that, she was able to tell my future. That's what I believe. She told me to run because I would soon be discovered, so I did. I took Loki's scepter with me and –"

"You got my brother's scepter?" Thor boomed.

"Why did you steal it?" Natasha asked.

"I stole it because I hate it, alright. I wanted it out of HYDRA's hands. And no, I don't have it Thor. Not anymore. Because I nearly got caught with it when I tried to make a run for it. Von Strucker ran into me at the garage, so I had to turn around and head back to my office without getting suspicious. And that's when Wanda used some more mojo on me. Time changed. Everything around me happened again, people forgot about recent events while I still remembered everything… It drove me insane! I hate to admit it, but I panicked. I managed to hide the scepter but after that, I ran for it. Killed Von Strucker and drove away. They shot at me (Clint pointed at his side) and I drove my car into the nearby river. I managed to get out of it before I froze to death, stayed underwater long enough for those HYDRA people to believe I drowned. I climbed out of the river and hid in an abandoned sheep shack and patched myself up with the little bit of tools I found. I changed location every now and then ever since, to make sure no one would find me."

"For how long have you been doing that?" Bruce asked quietly. Clint gazed at him: "Three days, give or take. I can't really remember, I lost track of time. I didn't sleep and all… This house has been my hideout for about a day by now as I couldn't move on my own anymore. But most HYDRA grunts had already left by the time I arrived here. I am pretty sure they took the twins with them."

"Dham it," Steve cursed.

"So we lost them?" Thor asked.

"Not quite," Clint sighed, "They're heading to South Africa."

"How do you know?" Natasha wanted to know.

"Wanda," was Clint's simple reply.

"Jezus, she seems to be the answer to all of our questions," Bruce said.

"Yeah, she is very mysterious. Speaking of which…" Clint pointed at the staircase. "Could someone retrieve the letter underneath the third step?" Steve stood up, with a frown on his face and did as Clint asked.

"What is this?" he said as he waved the paper in the air.

"She gave it to me. Wanda I mean," Clint explained. Steve took a look at it: "It's barely readable!"

"I know, it got all wet when I drove into the water."

"And it's bloody," Thor remarked.

"Yeah, but you can still make out some of it, if you take a very good look at it," Clint told Steve. Steve held the paper up and studied it.

"It's an address," Steve said.

"Uhu," Clint hummed.

"Does it ring a bell?" Steve asked Clint.

"Nope, never heard of it. Wanda wrote more about it, but that info was lost, as you can see. Unless you're able to read it?" Steve shook his head, but Tony said: "Maybe JARVIS can look at it and retrieve some of your info. The address points to where exactly?"

"Germany," Steve said.

Natasha sat up: "Germany? That's where Fury told me he was heading. But he showed up here in Eastern Europe, where he told Steve he'd go…"

"Well observed," Tony told her, "So what you mean to say is…"

"I am starting to believe Fury lied to neither of us – me or Steve. He went to both Germany AND Eastern Europe. He is onto something. Maybe what he is doing, what happened here and what that Wanda girl knew, maybe it's all connected?" Natasha said.

"Maybe it is," Thor agreed, "But for now, we cannot do anything about it. Nick Fury isn't here to ask, as isn't Wanda Maximof. Germany is miles away. For now, our priority should be retrieving my brother's scepter, after that, we can worry about the rest" Thor looked at Clint, "Where did you hide it?"

Clint looked a bit troubled: "That might be a problem. If they did not find it, it's in there." He pointed at the burning HYDRA building: "I hid it in a air-conditioning shaft above Wanda and Pietro Maximof's cells."

"That's a stroke of genius," Tony muffled.

"Cut me some slack Stark, it was the best and only option I had. Besides, no one would think I would be so stupid to leave the thing right under their noses. I hoped – and still hope – they assume I took the damned thing with me."

"Well, there is only one way to find out, is there?" Steve said before Tony could start an argument with the exhausted archer, "We'll have to look for it."