Please keep telling me what you want: sequel or three-part it's evn votes right now!
Natasha doesn't like Thanos. Honestly even if he wouldn't be a Madman trying to kill everyone she still wouldn't have liked him. It's not only the fact that he's ugly as fuck but also that he looks very very smug, like he's won already and Natasha hasn't even played yet. She's never been one for spotlight. This 'Avengers' thing has never been her... well thing. She's a spy and she's never felt the need to stand in the spotlight... Or to be a hero at all anyway.
All she's wanted since she joined S.H.I.E.L.D. is to wipe out her red. The blood that's still stuck on her hands, covering them and staying there even though others can't see it or she can't wash it off no matter how hard she scrubs.
She's always been content with being unknown, uncredited, secret missions, no one but she should know what she's doing because no matter how you want to look at it, Natasha Romanoff is not a hero.
Killing people to save other has always been in the shadows because she doesn't want people to get the wrong idea. To think she' actually good when she can never ever be forgiven for all the horrible things she's done. But at that moment, when that lunatics comes on stage and smiles like he's the lead actor that did all the work she really feels the urge to jump and cut of his head. See if the immortal Titan is still as smug without a head.
The Chitauri seem to like Thanos' head much more than her, suddenly their attacks are with much more force. You could say it's enthusiasm or maybe they just wanted to show off in front of the big boss.
Just when she almost beheads another extraterrestrial Thanosfan she hears their boss speak in a way that make the walls quiver. Or maybe it's just Loki doing his weird magic.
"Resistance is amusing yet very futile, give up now Odin All-Father and your people's death will be merciful and quick."
Odin looks like he wants to tell Thanos where he can put his merciful death but it's Thor's voice that Natasha hears next.
"Where is my brother?" he bellows, his magic hammer is thrown to Thanos who dodges it by taking a step sideways. Although he really doesn't look pleased that he didn't get a declaration of defeat.
He smiles in an unnerving way that makes her believe this man kicks puppies in his free time.
"You brother is right here." He swishes the Mind Gem a few times and then points at…. Loki? Natasha's not sure actually because no one ever explained but she has a feeling that the Loki Thanos is pointing at isn't really Loki.
"What have you done with him?"
Thanos smiles again and really it doesn't make him more threatening just uglier.
"I could have never done it without this." He swishes the Mind Gem scepter again.
"The energy needed to perform a task, a piece of art like this but the Mind Taker sure did what it was supposed to."
Suddenly the whole palace quakes again but this time the tremors do not come from Loki or Thanos but from the spear in the hands of Odin. Natasha almost loses her footing and with a curse she grabs the nearest column.
A wave of energy knocks her off her feet and she can see beside her that it does worse things to some of the Chitauri around her, a ringing in her ears makes it impossible to hear but she can see Chitauri around her grab their heads and open their mouths in what is for her a silent scream, blood splatters on the ground from where their eyes couldn't take the pressure anymore.
She sees Odin's mouth move but she can't make out the words and it's only when Thor starts to scream that she can hear again.
"You will pay for this!" he screams he tries to hit Thanos again but is deflected easily once more. From the corner of her eye she can see new Chitauri filling the room, it seems like there's no end to all of this.
"Oh but Thor, I like it this way." Loki's voice sounds unnatural, his words are twisted like he doesn't know how to properly pronounce them anymore and the smile that's on his face makes even Natasha sick, it's the smile of a psychopath on the face of a child.
Thor's rage only seems even more fueled by this and Natasha wonders if she's the only one that doesn't understand anything about this.
"Oh Thunder God, why do you not give up? Soon the Mind Taker will have consumed your brother, embrace him who stands before you now for it will be all that is left of your precious brother."
The New Chitauri are surrounding them quickly but they're too far away to do anything about it.
"Hey, hey Time out here guys, how about a little explanation for the people in this room who're not Norse deities?" Stark flails with his arms.
Thanos turns and when he sees Stark his eyes flash, like he's just remembered something important.
"Oh don't think we forgot about you, Man of Iron and your rousing speech back on Midgard."
Thanos turns his head to his right and Natasha sees the not-Loki teleport by his side and with a swish of his hand green smoke suddenly rises up from the ground.
"I was so very touched I decided to bring a souvenir back from earth."
At first the only thing Natasha can see is the Other standing there but then she sees that there's someone else, hovering behind him unconscious. She recognizes who it is a split second after Tony does.
"Pepper?"
XxXxXxXxXx
"What's wrong with you? You've never had any problems with missions before."
"I'm not saying I'm having problems with this mission Tasha, I'm just-"
"Look Clint, I don't care, we've got our orders." She snaps, putting the detonator in her pocket.
She's about to storm out, expecting her partner to follow but instead Clint grabs her arm and turns her around.
"Wait, Natasha please." His tone is almost desperate.
"You're the one who told me that by following orders I'd get a chance to do the right thing."
"Yes, but I never said to follow them blindly, think about this Natasha those are children."
"You think I don't know that Barton? Like I said we've got our orders."
"You can't just waltz out and detonate those bombs, you're going to kill thousands."
"And save billions! You've never had any problems with killing children before."
"You don't have to tell me who I was Natasha, I know full well what I used to do, that doesn't make up for this. These are sick people."
"S.H.I.E.L.D.'s orders were clear Barton."
"You wanted to wipe out the red in your ledger, Natasha, if you do this, it'll never go away."
She yanks her arm out of his grip.
"Orders are orders."
And then she's gone.
XxXxXxXxXx
"Pepper!" Tony screams, he flies as fast as he can towards her but then he suddenly smacks against a force field and with a loud CRACK he falls to the ground.
"Tut tut tut ," Loki smiles, with a wave of his hand Pepper floats closer to him and when she's close enough he grabs her, pressing a knife against her throat, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
"Let her go or I swear I will-"
"I tire of this game already." Thanos interrupts.
"Maybe it's time to finish this what do you think Loki?"
"I kind of like the look of despair he's wearing." Loki hisses as he presses the knife even harder against' her throat, a little drop of blood wells up at the tip of his knife and Tony wants to crush him but he's too scared to move, one wrong move and Pepper is dead.
Pepper, who's supported him all this time, Pepper, the only person who's brought stability in his life and the one he wants to protect the most. This is all his fault, he should've forced her to go back to Europe she would've hated him for it but at least she wouldn't be in the danger she is now.
Out of nowhere an arrow suddenly embeds itself on the ground before Loki's feet. The force field that stopped his suit hadn't even stopped the arrow a little bit.
The eyes of everyone in the entire room look at the person who shot it.
"Look who I found." Barton says, a new arrow already in his hand.
Behind him stands the guy Tony recognizes as the one that brought them here in the first place, Tyr. And next to him stands someone Tony's never seen but he can guess who it is.
Thor confirms his suspicions.
"Hela?"
XxXxXxXxXx
When the Energy wave hits Barton he's not prepared, he loses his balance quickly, his high spot that had seemed such a perfect spot suddenly doesn't feel like that anymore, he can feel his body being lifted and he's blown away with so much force that he almost flies out of the palace, around him Chitauri aren't having any better luck, they're knocked away like dominos.
Mid-air he somehow manages to balance himself and he quickly shoots an arrow with a hook and rope to the closest wall. He braces himself for the impact with the ground and his knees shake from the force of it when his feet touch the ground.
"I see all is going well." Clint whirls around, arrow already on his bow to shoot whoever decided to give him a heart attack but he lowers it when he recognizes Tyr.
The one who had spoken is not Tyr though, it's a woman, clad in a green cloak and wearing some kind of mask. Her long black hair seems to be unmoved from the wind all around them and behind her stand hundreds of black warriors. It's only when he narrows his eyes that he can actually see who's standing behind her.
The black warriors he sees aren't black, their flesh is dark and rotting, some of them don't even have any flesh left on their bones. The smell of rotting flesh, of the ones that actually have flesh that's rotting,is overwhelming.
"Who the fuck are you?" He snaps, pointing his bow and arrow at the lady before him. Of course behind her is an army of the dead so his arrow probably won't any good but hey, at least he's trying.
"I am Hela."
Clint narrows his eyes again.
"Why are you here?"
Hela smiles and suddenly half her body flickers like a bad lamp and for a split second Barton can swear he sees bones and rotting flesh instead the beautiful face he's seen seconds ago.
"As part of the deal I made with Loki of course."
XxXxXxXxXx
"You saw that?" Barton yells.
Oh he really wants to put his next arrow in that creep's head. This is the guy who's the actual cause of all of this misery, this is the lunatic that wants to kill everyone. Well Barton's going to be the guy who stops the son of a bitch and then, maybe then he'll finally get a good night sleep.
"You see this?" he motions to the arrow on his bow.
"Adamantium."
"An arrow cannot kill me you foolish Midgardian."
"You sure about that?"
Clint almost smiles.
"Cause this is one special arrow, you see her?" this time he motions to Hela. He can see the other Avengers looking at him like he's crazy and maybe he is, trusting this Death Goddess that made a deal with the bastard that took away his mind.
He can see Thanos is starting to realize what he's talking about. This is Hela and she's told him, that she can kill gods with her touch, then why not a Mad Titan by enhancing a simple arrow?
Barton expects Thanos to give up but he doesn't.
He just starts laughing.
XxXxXxXxXx
"Coulson's dead."
They don't have to tell him who did it. And Clint wills himself to blame him, to blame the God that took his mind and twisted his thoughts, forced him to do horrible things but he feels empty.
He feels like the air has just been sucked out of him, like he's not even sitting there.
The only thing he feels is self-loathing, it's his fault isn't it? Isn't it always his fault? It was his fault when his parents died because he had made their dad angry a few hours before they left. It's his fault Barney joined the military because he never tried hard enough to convince the Swordsman to take Barney as an assistant instead of him. It's his fault Barney's dead because he KILLED his own brother. It's his fault Coulson's dead because he let himself be possessed, be manipulated by Loki. It's his fault, everything is his fault if he hadn't taken Coulson's offer this would never have happened.
But when he closes his eyes the only thing he sees is the faces of the people he's killed or helped kill.
The only thing that keeps him sane these days are missions, he's been doing them with much more vigor, they give him energy and when he's doing a missions he's not having nightmares, it's gone as far that's he's been asking Fury for missions even the smaller ones that are usually for less specialized agents and he's been doing a lot more solo missions than he used to, something that agent Romanoff hasn't failed to notice. Sometimes when there are no missions for him and he just cannot sleep, when he closes his eyes, the nightmares come and sometimes he screams himself awake so instead he trains.
He trains every free minute he has, hitting targets from distances and angles he's never tried before, trying to find new designs for his arrows and he's even specializing himself more in knives too although they've never been his thing.
It's when he's training that Natasha talks to him. He's been avoiding the subject for a while now but she somehow corners him in the training room.
"The only thing you do these days is train." She says, leaning against his target.
Barton shrugs and shoot his arrow nonetheless. She doesn't even flinch.
"I do missions too." He counters, shooting three arrows in just as many seconds.
When all his arrows are embedded in his target and he goes to collect them she stops him.
"It's not your fault."
Clint almost laughs at her, of course it is his fault. He doesn't laugh though, he takes his arrows and begins again.
XxXxXxXxXx
It's been four months since Coulson's death and Clint still hasn't taken a break. Natasha has tried to confront him. This guilt that's eating him alive, it's not good, it's going to destroy him, it's already destroying him.
Every time she sees him he's training or doing something with his arrows. She's seen the sketches in his room, arrows with poison, arrows with acid, arrows that explode, arrows with trackers, you name it Barton has made a design and a request to their equipment and weapons facility.
He used to minimalize the casualties as much as he could, he used to at least try to knock some of their opponents unconscious instead of shooting them and being done with it. He didn't used to shoot an arrow in someone's leg when they don't cooperate immediately, heck he used to be the one stopping her from cutting off a body part or two.
He lashes out at everyone, aggressively snapping and biting at everyone who dares to come close to him. He's been doing so many solo missions excluding her from everything he does, distancing himself from everyone around him and Natasha wants to do something about it but she really can't.
What can she say other than what has been said already? Coulson's death hit her pretty hard too. Coulson was a good man, Coulson had accepted her easily and even helped convince Fury to take her in as an agent, to give her a second chance and of course she's thankful for that and she feels grief for his loss but Clint…
Honestly she doesn't know what kind of relationship he and Coulson had had. She knows it was Coulson who had given Clint the offer to join S.H.I.E.L.D. who had given him a way out. She also knows that it had been Coulson who had guided Barton through his first missions, who'd told him the rules, who'd given him advice and probably had changed his way of thinking towards the outside world. Coulson had meant so much more to Barton than he had to her, she understands but she also knows that Clint can't continue like this, that he'll have to let go.
They're on a mission when the opportunity finally arrives. They're supposed to get some information and then scram. They're sitting outside the building in a small car. Barton is looking at the building with the infra-red glasses they have been given by Stark Industries and she's breaking down every fire-wall the entire corporation has with ease.
"You can't go on like this anymore."
Her fingers race over the keyboard and Barton turns toward her but doesn't react for a few seconds.
"I think the mission is going pretty well." He states, looking towards the building again.
"You know I'm not talking about the mission."
"No? What are you talking about then?" he asks, feigning, she's sure, innocence.
"You have to let it go, Barton, don't think about it like that anymore, it wasn't your fault."
He surprises her with his answer and she doesn't know whether to be relieved or even more concerned at his words.
"My fault?" he says, they both get out of the car and when an agent spots them he shoots an arrow through his eye.
"It's not my fault."
He yanks out the arrow, the point is dripping with blood.
"It's Loki's."
XxXxXxXxXx
"You want to kill me little mortal?" Thanos asks.
Clint is about to answer to that but Thanos doesn't give him a chance.
"Oh I don't doubt that arrow has a fair chance of bringing about my death but what about poor, poor Pepper Potts?"
Thanos turns towards the unconscious Pepper and Clint hears Tony yell and shout curses but Thanos ignores him.
"Tell them Loki," when he puts the emphasis on 'Loki' he grins at Thor, daring him.
"What will you do when out friend shoots me?"
Loki cocks his head and smiles. He doesn't hesitate when he answers.
"Why, I'll slit her throat of course." He lowers his knife.
"But it'd be so much more fun if she was conscious!"
Suddenly whatever force that made her hover is gone and Pepper falls, waking up from her apparent sleep with a start but before she can do anything Loki's grabbed her by her hair, hoists her up and puts the knife at her throat again. Pepper looks terrified, she opens her mouth to speak but Loki presses the knife even harder down.
"Hush, now we don't want to break our friend's concentration, he might miss if we do that!"
"Let her go you freak!" Tony screams shooting at Thanos but the force field stops all the bullets and energy.
"I demand you release my brother and the mortal Thanos!" Thor bellows, throwing Mjolnir against the barrier but it does a s little as Stark's shooting does.
"But you know what?" Thanos suddenly says.
"I just had an idea to make this so much more interesting. How about this: Loki?"
He's not looking at Loki when he says this, he's looking Clint right in the eye, smiling.
"Kill the mortal anyway."
When he waves his scepter in Loki's direction Clint can see his eyes glow bright green, as if they're agreeing with Thanos.
"So what's it going to be? I can see it's your last arrow, Midgardian and if it has the power to kill me, killing the demi-god will be no problem, right?"
Loki pulls at his hostage's hair again, making her cry out and try and grab his hands but he slaps them away.
"Come one, little mortal." He taunts.
"Shoot the arrow."
When Clint doesn't react he pulls even harder and when the knife draws blood again he puts it at his lips and licks it off, the sight makes Barton nauseous.
"Or maybe you need some encouragement? Hmm? Wanna know how your friend looked when I killed him? When I put my scepter right through his heart? What was his name again? Culsen? Couling? Well I don't remember, I do remember the look on his face when he died, how I enjoyed it. Do you hear me Barton? I killed your mentor and I liked it. Would do it all over again when given the chance."
His words are meant to goad him to make him shoot that arrow at him and even though Clint knows this he can't help it, his words are working.
He tries to block out Loki, who's still describing how he killed Coulson who's telling him he'll go after everyone Clint cares about.
And suddenly Clint knows where he's going to point his arrow.
Taking a deep breath he pulls the arrow to his ear and he prays it'll hit its target. He'll enjoy this if it does.
And then he lets go.