A/N: Hey sorry I'm late updating again! Don't get discouraged though, I'm here. Thanks reviewers!
Disclaimer: Own nothing.
Phil walked out of S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, thanking his lucky stars that Fury was on the hellicarrier. He knew that the director and Hill had left for it shortly after he left the Tesseract's holding place himself. He kept to himself as he walked to his car.
Phil had been trying to think of places that the god might be holding Clint. He figured that wherever it was, it would hold some kind of significance to the archer and he knew that he was running out of time to save the man he loved. Phil Coulson had to think and think fast.
He'd grabbed all of the files on past missions with Clint and had scanned them on his way out of the building. He'd come across a few possibilities but even those seemed like longshots. Loki wouldn't be kind to Clint, the agent knew that. However, he wasn't sure where he'd take Clint that would break him. Phil was on his way out of Manhattan when it hit him. The god had access to all of Clint's memories. If Phil was an evil god, he thought that he'd want to hurt his prey as much as possible. What better way than to poison everything that person loved? The archer had few pleasant experiences in his life and fewer things that he loved. In fact, Phil thought that he and Natasha might have been the only ones that Clint still loved. Clint had loved Barney but after all that his brother had done to him, the archer wasn't so keen on his brother.
Phil knew that wherever Clint was being held would have something to do with the archer's association with himself or Natasha. As he drove, Phil thought through all of the missions Clint had of significance involving either him or Natasha. He decided that, as much as he wanted to find Clint as soon as possible, it would be a better idea to pull over for coffee and try to sort through his thoughts.
The agent pulled his car into a small diner and grabbed his pen and notebook before heading in. Once he was seated, a perky waitress came over and asked him for his order. Ordering only a cup of black coffee, Phil quickly set about his work as soon as she left.
He began by writing down all of the missions that he could think of. He made a list for missions with himself and Clint, missions with Clint and Natasha, and missions with all three of them. The waitress returned with the cup of coffee and peered curiously over his shoulder. "Hey mister, what'cha doin'?" He put on a tired smile and subtly covered the page with his hand, "Oh I'm just doing the crossword. It's a habit of mine." She seemed satisfied with his answer and perked back up, "Well if ya need anything else, just ask!" She left to tend to other customers and Phil returned to his work. Clint was his top priority right now and he would find him no matter what.
Fury had known that Phil would leave. Even though the man was the best agent that he had ever had, he knew that Coulson had a major soft spot for his archer. Barton had always been the agent's favorite, ever since he had been brought to S.H.I.E.L.D. all those years ago, even before Phil had officially become his handler. Fury had always known that they would become lovers. Hell, he had no problem with it; he would walk Coulson down the aisle while wearing a tux if it made them happy. He'd give Phil away if the agent wanted him to. However, the director also knew that having a weak spot made an agent easy to compromise and that was exactly what had happened to Phil. As soon as he had found out that Loki had taken Barton, he was ready to throw away everything that he had ever worked for and go against orders. Fury knew that he had to save the agent before it was too late. He couldn't afford to lose someone like Hawkeye and he sure as hell couldn't afford to lose an agent like Coulson. He figured that in order to get either of them he had to save both of them. Hell, these men were going to be the death of him.
He was prepared to aid Hill in calling the Avenger's together. The director had even come up with a game plan of who was going to get who, considering he wasn't about to get Stark. He was willing to get Rogers and Banner but refused to get Stark and figured that it was too much of a risk for him to get Romanov. It just ended up being more convenient for Hill and Romanov to stop and get Banner on the way back. Romanov was much cuter than Fury anyway and the director figured that sending an attractive woman in would be far less likely to set the man off than a large man with an eye-patch.
Hill ended up going to retrieve Stark on her own. It was a good thing the man had a woman like Pepper Potts around or else Hill would've needed to tase the man in order to get him to the hellicarrier and the way that woman tased people, Stark would've been lucky if his arc reactor was still working by the time she was done with him.
However, lucky for Fury, all of the Avengers were assembled, minus Barton and Thor, because no one was able to contact some god in a different dimension. Hell, maybe leaving more crazy gods out of this was a good idea.
"Avengers, I've brought you here because the world is in danger. Loki, a Norse god with a penitent for world domination, has returned to once again, try to take over the world. However, he's not messing around this time. He has stolen this," Fury passed around a photo of the Tesseract. Stark's face lit up at the sight of the alien power source.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, patchy, no one told me that this alien thing was a power source. Banner, have you seen this thing?" The smaller man closed his eyes and shook his head, looking tired and haggard though they'd just begun the discussion of the mission. A minute in a room with Tony Stark could have that effect on a person.
"Yes, the Tesseract is the greatest known power source in the universe. Very little is known about this item and what little is known resides with this man," He held up a picture of Erik Selvig. "Loki has taken him as well. We are blind when it comes to the Tesseract." Steve shook his head, "No, sir. I know something about the Tesseract, sir." Fury turned his hard eye on Steve. "Captain, what exactly do you know about it?" Steve stood up and met the director's eye, "Well, sir, I know that it has the power to kill. I have seen killing before, but never killing like that. It's as if one minute, a man is there and the next he's gone. Sir, this is why I put it in the ocean. I meant for it to never be found, sir."
Fury brought his hand up and lowered it, signaling for Steve to sit down again. "At ease, captain. We are well aware of Hydra's use of the Tesseract for executions during the Second World War. Are you aware of anything else, captain?" Steve nodded, moving to stand at parade rest, his arms behind him, "Yes sir, Hydra used the power of the Tesseract to manufacture weapons. Also, I know that this is a power never meant to be wielded by human hands. Sir, we don't understand what we're going after."
Fury nodded, "Yeah, captain, I guess we don't. But we really don't have a choice, do we? There's too much else at stake." Fury pulled out one final picture, holding it up so that they could all get a good look at it. No one said anything but Natasha's eyebrows twitched slightly. "Loki also has captured one of our own, agent Clint Barton. If he was here, he'd be here with us now, as an Avenger. However, he's under the control of Loki. Our fight is for more, remember that." The director stood and left, leaving the group to talk things out for themselves.
It took all of two seconds before Tony was talking, "Well, I don't know about you folks, but I'm intrigued by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s interest in the Tesseract. Doesn't it seem fishy, capsicle? I mean, Hydra used it to make weapons, Fury seemed more secretive than usual, and Loki's hostage was a side note. Something smells and it ain't me." He looked around the table for agreement, not receiving any. "Come on guys. Cap? You?" He pointed at Natasha who just raised a delicate eyebrow, "Dr. Banner?" Bruce looked at the rest of the table before nodding. "Yeah, I guess it does seem a little odd, but guys, I'd rather get to work in the lab trying to find Loki. I don't want the other guy to make a visit."
Tony smiled and slung an arm around Bruce's shoulders. "Not to worry, Bruce. Together you and I shall accomplish both. Let's go lab it up then, shall we?" Bruce nodded and he and Tony left the room, leaving Natasha and Steve alone. Neither spoke a word, Natasha because she didn't want to, Steve because he didn't know how.
"He's important to me." Steve looked up in surprise and saw the Black Widow staring at him intently, as if trying to read his mind. "Excuse me, ma'am?" She raised an eyebrow before repeating, "He's important to me. And don't call me ma'am." She stood up gracefully and approached him. "Natasha Romanov." She shook his hand as he tried to work out what to say. "Um Captain Steve Rogers, ma'am. Natasha." She inclined her head before turning and exiting the room, leaving Steve alone. He sat back down in the chair. Man, dames were sure different then they had been in his day.
Clint bit his lip until it felt like his teeth were going to sink right through it. He felt the skin being peeled from his arm, the warm blood dripping down his side, coating the floor in dark red. Loki chuckled close to his ear, "Are you yet satisfied with your wish, man of arrows? Are you pleased with the outcome?" Clint nodded slowly, "Phil is safe. That's all that I care about." He spit in Loki's eye, "Though it'd be nice to kill you, too."
The god growled, slapping the archer across the face. Clint knew how much the god hated to be humiliated. "Do you realize, man of arrows, that you have incurred further punishment? I was going to be benevolent and allow you to watch as I destroyed your mate. However, I shall make it far, far worse for you." Clint snarled, "Do your worst Loki. Nothing you can do will stop me. You won't kill him again. I won't let you." Loki ran a long finger down the archer's face to his arm, running his finger through the fresh blood and through the pulsing wound. Clint had to clamp his teeth down on the inside of his cheek to stop the hiss of pain from escaping.
"Do my worst, man of arrows? As you wish." Loki pressed a cold hand to Clint's forehead as magic flowed out of him and surrounded the two of them. Clint hated magic now; sure it gave him a second chance with Phil but he still hated it. He felt a tugging at his leg, first weak, then strong, then so strong that if felt like his leg was going to be torn from his body. He cried out in pain as the pulling became so strong that he swore he felt the tendons beginning to rip. However, just as he swore his leg was coming off, the pulling stopped and his leg was fine.
Looking around, Clint saw that Loki was smirking, his grin catlike and eerie. Looking more closely at his surroundings, Clint saw that he was in the circus. "Loki, what gives? Where are we?" He tried to keep the nervous edge out of his voice. Loki chuckled and squeezed his chin harshly, directing Clint's gaze towards the god's face. "Where does it appear we are, man of arrows? We have made the journey into your own past. Have you still not realized? Man of arrows, you are truly dumb muscle, as your people say."
Just then, Clint saw a young version of himself, walking into the room of the tent, the self-assured grin in place. Clint knew instantly what this was. He saw the lion tamer walk in, whip in hand. Loki cackled, watching with a pleased look as Clint was forced to relive his worst memories and fears, once more. With each snap of the whip, Clint's body became more and more rigid as he watched what was happening to his younger self.
"I shall break you, man of arrows. I shall break you." With that, Loki took Clint back to his next memory, each worse than the last. By the end of the journey, Clint was shaking so hard, if it hadn't have been for the magic chains holding him to the chair, he would've been on the floor. Loki ran his hand down the archer's cheek, pressing a gentle kiss to the other man's temple.
"My poor little archer, are you afraid?" Clint nodded, his eyes shimmering with the tears he willed himself not to shed. Loki ran his thumb over the archer's lips before leaning in and capturing them in a chaste kiss, filled with all of the evil contained within the god. "I, your master, can offer you respite, peace, and shelter from your fears, little archer. You must only place your trust in me. I shall make it all go away." Clint nodded and turned to Loki, looking broken, "Help me master, I trust you." Loki smirked, "I require no more. It shall be done."
Stepping away from the archer, Loki began his work, inserting new memories into the old memories and in each one inserting Phil in place of whoever Clint feared. Loki smirked; he would bring the world down yet, and he would do it by bringing down S.H.I.E.L.D. one agent at a time.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Towards the end there it started to get a little winter solider-ish. Also, I know some of Clint's past but not a whole lot so I'm sorry if I got it totally wrong, I did my best and I'm pretty sure that whole thing happened but if it didn't, this is fanfiction and I can do that, just treat it as non-cannon. So read and review! Thanks!