CHAPTER FIVE

Two days passed with nothing out of the ordinary. He did not even get to see Natasha during that time, but he guessed she was probably out being much more useful than he was. He had not heard from Tony since the Avengers meeting, and was beginning to wonder what was up. Tony was hard to stop when he was determined, and Clint had thought him to be pretty resolved on his latest plan, so what could be taking so long?

Then, on the third day, as he was practicing his archery in the spare bedroom, he heard his cell phone ring and stopped suddenly. All of the Avengers, after Clint had returned, had cell phones that they only called in case of an emergency, but until now, they had never been needed. Placing his bow on a hook set in the wall, Clint picked up the phone and answered it, admittedly worried by the dozens of theories immediately rushing to his mind. Despite his dread for all of the possibilities, his voice came out completely normal, "Clint Barton."

"Clint, get to Stark Tower...now," It was Tony's demanding voice on the other end, and Clint could tell something had him on end.

"Okay," he replied, not knowing what to make of Tony's reply. It was so vague that it did not ease his mind one bit. As soon as the word left Clint's mouth, the phone went dead and he absentmindedly held it, trying to make anything of the situation. Surely, if he was going to Stark Tower, Tony had finally done what he had set out to do. But the almost urgency in Tony's voice reminded Clint that he should probably hurry.

He left the apartment and got in his car, anxious over what might be waiting ahead of him as he drove to the massive structure, which had been rebuilt since the battle.

As he got out, he looked around and saw no one else. He approached the door, but still it seemed he was the only person there. Why would none of the others be here?

He pulled open the door and walked in. The entire place was silent. He looked around, then felt someone grab him and stick a needle in his arm, and the next thing he knew everything went black.

There was a bright light over his head, that much he could tell by how red his eyelids were, and for a moment, he puzzled over this fact. He never slept with a light on, and he distinctly remembered closing his curtains, so how could there possibly be so much light?

About six million questions stirred in his mind as he tried to piece together a string of thoughts that made any sense in the strange state of mind he seemed to be in at the moment. He forced himself to open his eyes and was immediately blinded quite literally by a pure white light about five feet directly over his face...and then it all rushed back to him in one giant wave. Someone had captured him at Stark Tower and knocked him out, how could he possibly have been so stupid as to let that happen...again? How had they gotten inside? Where were the others? Surely taking him right from under Tony's thumb was the most idiotic thing for anyone to do. They had to know that a place like Stark Tower was under constant surveillance from every angle.

He turned away from the light, but his vision was basically dark fuzzy purple and he could not make out anything around him. What was he supposed to do now?

Then, gradually, his senses began to turn back on and he could vaguely hear someone say, "Welcome back to the land of the living."

Confusion swallowed Clint, his captors were certainly acting differently than before. He turned towards the voice, but his eyes had only recovered slightly and he could not see any details about the person.

Then the voice clicked in his mind, "Tony?"

The light went off with a click and, as Clint's eyes continued to adjust to the normal lighting, he became aware of vague pain from various limbs, "What happened?"

"You had about twenty sensors and chips inside you, we had to knock you out to turn them off long enough to get them out without them noting that anything was up," Tony was messing with various screens as he spoke, and, his eyes now fully recovered, Clint could see a row of metal chips on the steel table beside where Tony sat. He could still faintly feel the effects of whatever Tony had used on him, and this sudden rush of information was taking a significantly longer time than usual to process.

"All of those were in me?" but he was not asking the question because he did not know, his memories were perfectly intact, and he remembered what had happened back at the warehouse. He really did not know why he was asking, actually. Perhaps because he felt he needed to say something, or perhaps he was still trying to figure out exactly what was going on. Neither of those made any sense, it was not like him to ask questions while thinking hard as he was or for any reason such as breaking the silence. He just was not like that. No, he knew exactly how they had gotten in him.

He remembered...

Clint shot up in bed and immediately regretted it for the stab of pain from generally every part of his body. Of course, Tony must have had to remove the chips in basically the same way as they had been put in. No, he had asked to question because he wanted to know why.

"One in your brain, blocking some memories. What can you tell us now?" Tony was blunt and to the point, as usual, and Clint was fine with that, but right now, he just needed time to adjust to the two months worth of new memories now residing in his brain. They did not feel out of place now that they were actually there, as if he had grown accustomed to having them, as if they had never been missing. But he knew there was something...maybe just one small detail...that would really give him something to go on. Among all of the things he now knew, there was one thing there just looking him right in the eyes, as if knowing he saw it, and begging him not to notice.

Begging...

"Please! He doesn't have any of the information you want, he can't give you anything!"

"And you do. So tell us."

There was silence once more, then he felt the blade on his wrist slice through his flesh to the nerve, stopping just before doing any permanent damage. He could not hold back the scream that accompanied pain so strong it caused his vision to go black.

Before he completely slipped into unconsciousness, he heard the woman crying, and was thrown out of the memory and back to the lab in Stark Tower with such force, it took several seconds for him to adjust.

He was breathing heavily, and felt more than saw Tony waiting expectantly.

But once Clint finally met Tony's eyes, he just could not tell what he now knew. He shook his head, and Tony seemed to understand as he turned back to the screen in front of him.

For several minutes, Clint tried to make his memories form different conclusions, but in the end, he knew there was no way around it.

The woman had been Natasha.