Chapter 4- can the past be my present
When Lila Craddock opened her door the shock of what she saw almost made her faint on the spot.
She had been expecting director Fury but what she had not anticipated was the fact that the Avengers would join him. Tony Stark was the first to push past her, giving her this long and rather peeved look as he passed. She was still recovering from that when Natasha Romonoff stopped in front of her to demand, "what did you do to him Doctor". Her stare was intimidating and Lila stepped back as fear rose up within her. She felt her back collide painfully with the door . Now she felt like a trapped frightened rabbit about to be consumed by a predator. "Enough Natasha", Captain America pulled the redhead away. She shot him a look that would have paralyzed the average man. Steve Rogers though just ignored the death glare and tugged her away.
Lila had only just breathed a sigh of relief when Bruce Banner told her, "this business with Clint makes me feel kind of angry". Since for him being angry was something that would be a life threatening event for her Lila Craddock found hot tears forming.
Seeing them Bruce Banner decided that his choice of words had not been wise. He could imagine she had terrifying images of the Hulk in her head right now. His hulk anger was of course only reserved for the enemy and that did not include the doctor standing in front of him. "I'm not that angry", he assured her quickly.
Lila nodded not trusting herself to speak. She did not feel all that assured that some sort of physical action would not be carried out against her by one of the Avngers.
"I think we all await your explanation" , Director Fury told her as he stopped in front of her . Thor, the God of thunder was waiting by his side. The man was huge and had a rather frightening scowl upon his face. He did not say anything to her though. Turning her attention back to Fury Lila croaked out, "Yes sir, come through to the living room".
Once in the living area Lila seated herself as far from Natasha and Bruce Banner as possible. Her living room felt overly full and it almost cracked with the energy put out by this group of people. Though most of them were sitting still and waiting for her Tony Stark was already busy in front of her computer. Lila took her eyes from Stark and onto Nick Fury as she waited for him to begin the questions. "Alright Doctor Craddock why do you think Clint suddenly decided to leave this house," the director aske.
Lila could feel the others eyes on her as they too awaited her answer. "I would like a little more information before I can give an accurate answer", she replied. There was in fact already some information she possessed but by itself it may be rather damning. That was why she was going to withhold it until she knew more. It would not be a popular move she was sure . Trying hard not to think about the others reactions Lila passed the dream monitors over to Nick. "Agent Barton was wearing these and as you can see they have been roughly removed. I am not sure if the information upon them is still all intact."
Nick handed them to Tony Stark who could link them with Javis's systems to get a full diagnostic.
"How was Agent Barton's counseling progressing Doctor",Nick asked. He did not want to wait for more answers, as it meant Clint was moving further away. As yet he had not appointed a SHIELD retrieval team to search for Clint. He thought there was a chance that the archer was just upset and may return on his own. Clint would not react well to being forcefully dragged back.
Lila wet her lips nervously as she answered, "not that well director, it was a cycle of nightmares ,talking about nightmares yet still having more nightmares. There were signs that the physical toll upon his body was becoming more pronounced. That was why I had to move him forward by using those dream monitors."
"So this was the first time they had been used", Fury clarified. "Yes, the fact they were a controlling type of technology bothered me. Agent Barton needed to feel that he was the one in control and not some device", Lila explained.
"He was previously controlled by an alien technology doctor",Fury huffed. "Yeah well sometimes our mind does not know how to tell the difference between types of control director. Clint only agreed to use them because he too was tired of making no progress.", Lila felt very much in defense mode.
The tension in the room shifted up a notch and Lila could almost feel a dangerous explosion coming. She wondered which of them would attack her first. Tony Stark broke a little bit of that tension, "I have found some baseline data for you doctor. Jarvis is still repairing the others systems , it won't be long though".
Lila moved over to sit beside Tony Stark and looked at the information he had retrieved. She could feel her brow furrow almost immediately.
Fury stood up and began to pace, "anything out of the ordinary happen last night doctor", he asked.
Lila could feel her face get warm and kept it down over the laptop so the others did not see. Stark of course was close enough to see the change in colour of her face."You know something, don't you", he stated. Everyones eyes were suddenly upon her and not one of them looked friendly. Maybe this was the moment the explosion would come. Natasha even stood up as though she was about to cross the room. Steve Rogers hand shot out to lock around her wrist. If she did not hurry up with her explanation then she was likely to be hurt. "Yes I know something but by itself it does not look all that good so I wanted more information first", Lila rushed out." I do not want anyone to take rash actions over Agents Bartons disappearance." That litte speech had the effect of making Natasha sit back down .She no longer looked quite a hostile and Lila marginally relaxed.
Fury folded his arms across his chest. Since this was on the unofficial SHIELD list of things you never want director Fury to do Lila felt panic rise up again. "So what happened that does not look so good", Fury asked . Lila took a breath then dropped what she knew upon them like a bomb. "Agent Barton talked to Loki about 2am this morning. I was not present at the time, just getting the time stamp from the laptops memory".
"He talks to Loki then disappears, I can see why it does not look good", Tony Stark muttered. Thor stood up, "if my brother has hurt Clint again I will rip his head from his shoulders and you can use it to hold your door open",he told Lila. The tone of his voice gave the impression he was one hundred percent serious. It conjured up some not pleasant images in her head. Tony Stark picked up on Thor's mood as well and countered, "as much as I would love to see that, all that Loki could do was talk". "Well he must have said something that upset our friend", Thor rumbled. He really wanted to take his hammer to Loki right now .
"All right calm down"."Why don't we find out exactly what Loki did say", Nick Fury told the God of Thunder. Even though this was a man from another planet who cause Fury some serious harm the God of war simply nodded his assent. Lila handed director Fury the laptop though she did not move over next to him. She was receiving a lot of data from the dream device and making sense of that was her priority.
All the others did cluster around director Fury though, in this big intimidating huddle. If Loki had any sense he would not play games and simply tell them what they wanted to know.
The God was sitting still in his cell and almost jumped with fright at the sight of his brother and the other Avengers. He quickly controlled his actions and fixed his face with his most annoying smirk.
"So first Barton now all of you, do you like to stare", Loki remarked. "So brother you admit to talking to him. I knew I should have killed you when I had the chance", Thor rumbled. "Oh so charming", Loki replied looking so totally unafraid. "Your reach would have to be very long indeed brother". In fact all of you hardly make any impression at all", Loki told them. It was of course a lie.
'You should be feeling afraid", Natasha told him firmly. "Really miss red in her ledger, why should I be afraid, all I did was talk to your boyfriend", Loki told her. "Yes but what did you say", Tony asked. Loki got the distinct idea there was some type of problem. He took note of the fact that the archer was not within the group. It was not to hard to make a guess at why they were calling. "Oh have you lost him then, what a shame", he said insincerely. His attitude was causing a lot of bristling. Thor looked ready to throw his hammer through the laptop. "He settled for growling," tell us right now or I 'll come and drag it out of you one painful word at a time".
As much as Loki enjoyed taunting them he knew Thor was very serious about extracting the information from him by painful means. He decided it was wiser to tell them what he knew. " All I did was gave him something. When I heard this screaming in his mind I reached out and promoted healing. Now whatever was in there is getting loose ."
Fury frowned at that. He was not sure that Loki was not playing them in some way. For Lila though the words just put one more piece in her puzzle. "Cut the link, I think I know what he's talking about", she told them. After turning off the laptop Nick Fury stared over at her. "Well doctor "he prompted. Lila looked down for a minute as she centered her thoughts." I think I have been looking at this the wrong way", she confessed. The stares she got back were frightening. "All of us thought this was about Loki but actually it is not". She could see their surprise and hurried on before the questions could start. "I collected data from Clint's nightmares roughly 3 weeks ago. When I compared them to the ones he is having now I noticed something significant, they are coming from a different part of his brain." Tony Starks eyes were widening as his own thought processed followed her logic. "This tells us what",Nick Fury asked. "The most recent nightmares are coming from the memory centres of his brain", Lila told them. There was silence for a few seconds as everyone mulled over this information. Natasha looked pale as she made the connection, "you are saying that these horrible things actually happened to Clint when he was about 7-8 years old". She was deeply concerned about Clint's welfare. When she'd heard he'd gone missing she'd tried to contact his cell phone and got nothing. The GPS was also inactive meaning they could not track Clint that way. Unless he chose to contact him or they pinpointed his location through other means they would be unable to find him.
Lila could feel emotions surging round her. All hostility had gone from Natsaha leaving sorrow in its place. Rather than talk about their feeling yet Lila simply replied "yes" . Everyone was still contemplating that thought when Tony Stark told them, "the repair work on the dream monitors is finished we can now watch Clints nightmare unfold for ourselves."
They gathered around the computer console in a small huddle. Tony pushed a button and a picture came upon the screen. They could see a young Clint strapped to a surgical bed in what was clearly a primitive type of operating theatre. It was like something from an old horror film. Only this was very real. Natasha raised her hand up to her mouth and she fought sudden nausea as she watched Clint struggle to escape. "This is truly horrible", Steve Rogers remarked. He too looked rather pale. "It must have been terribly traumatic for Clint to suddenly remember all of this". "So maybe he did just need some air", Bruce remarked softly.
They continued to watch with a morbid fascination. The detailing was incredible as was the feelings that came through , Clints terror almost filled the room as the doctor got closer. They could see a syringe with a long needle in his hand. If this had been a movie then it would have been close to Frankenstein.
A terrible thought came upon Nick Fury's mind as he stared at that doctor. The man looked unperturbed by his patients screams just reaching down to tighten the bonds holding Clint's right foot down. As Fury looked closer he could see that Clint's head had been shaved. This doctor was obviously going to undertake some sort of brain surgery. Since this was not a hospital then what he was about to do to Clint was most likely not an ethical act.
Fury could just imagine the type of feelings remembering this had kindled within Clint. He could guess what sort of action Clint would want to take to help resolve those feelings. "What are the chances that Clint has gone to put an arrow through that doctor", he asked the others. Natasha bit her lip, she knew how Clint thought, "I would understand that thought completely. It looks like that doctor tortured him, a bit of pay back is in order", she remarked. Thor rumbled his agreement. "Yes but if he does kill the man then he's going to find himself behind bars", Fury told them. "When Clint killed others during the Loki incident, he at least could say his mind was being influenced. That fact was the only thing that saved him from incarceration. This time although he may be upset he is most definitely making his own choices", Fury concluded.
"Could he even find this doctor, it was a long time ago", Bruce reminded them. "Yes but its not that hard to tap into aging technology then do a search of a data base for a match. Even Clint can do that much", Tony told them. He was working quickly on an aging program himself and soon had the computer searching every known data base for a man matching the doctors description. Steve and Bruce made coffees for them all while they waited. Nick Fury paced the floor wondering if holding off the retrieval team any longer was a good move. Clint though had enough of a head start that whatever happened was basically out of their hands.
"No match found using current image", the computer told them. "This is going to be harder than expected", Bruce muttered."No it's not because while the computer did not find a current match it did find one using the older image", Tony told them. He brought up a picture from a police record. Hardened though they were all of them were they looked away when they saw what was left of the man.
"It's a report from a murder of James Martin Denning" ,Tony reported. "He already known to the authorities because of his involvement in illegal surgeries. He used to be a doctor before he was struck off for performing non ethical acts." He would apparently do anything to anybody for a price".
"They found him dead one day and it looked like someone had performed surgery upon him. Either that or some type of torture. Nobody was ever arrested for his murder and the case remains open even today. Many of the suspects were victims of his failed surgeries", Tony concluded.
"What did that horrid man do to Clint", Natasha asked. "We have no way of knowing for certain", Nick Fury replied. "I remember when he first came to SHIELD ,the doctors did tell me he had some scarring upon areas of his brain. Clint could never remember what had happened to him. So we assumed it was caused by some type of accident."
The others were all still looking shaken so Tony brought them back to their current search. "We may not know exactly the damage done to Clint however we do know that he can't take revenge upon a dead man. Also Jarvis reports that there have been no other inquiries into the location of James Denning. Perhaps Clint may be looking for someone else."
They all moved back to the computer and returned their attention to the living dream upon the screen. Natasha noticed the petite woman watching from the back of the illegal theatre. "What about her?", she asked. Nick Fury frowned a little as he looked at the womans face, "I don't think Clint would find her either", he finally remarked. "Why", Bruce asked curiously. Fury's response was a question. "Look at the face and hair, who does she remind you of". "She looks like Clint , Steve Rogers remarked. "Yes she does", Fury acknowledged," I think that is his mother. She probably died not long after these events".
"His mother watched while a man known for causing others pain operated on her son", Steve voice dripped disgust. "It looks like that is exactly what she did", Natasha acknowledged. She studied the images upon the screen. "We are essentially looking at the memories of a child. What was happening to him must have been traumatic. I guess that is why he sees that image of himself."
The others had to admit that they'd focused too much on Clint alone and not considered the image of the other identical boy on an operating table further down the room.
"Even though this is a memory and not a nightmare about Loki's control Clint would have the same feelings, powerlessness and lack of control", Lila told them. She was about to tell them that's why he saw an image of himself when she stopped. When Clint had talked about this memory the part that had disturbed him the most was seeing an image of himself. Once again she had not be listening enough to what Clint was telling her.
Realizing that though still did not tell her an answer. Then again maybe they had the answer right in front of them and could not decipher what it was. She returned her attention to the recording.
Now the screams of two boys tore through the room. They were so piercing that the sound had to be turned down.
They watched as Clint's mother fell to her knees and sobbed. "Don't Forget", screamed Clint's double.
This was it Lila decided , the clue they had so far overlooked. "What does Clint need to not forget", she asked the others. Natasha pursed her lips, "I don't think it'd be the surgery, that looked traumatic. Goodness knows why his mother even let that man do this to Clint."
"Don't Forget", Lila rolled the words over her tongue." This surgery damaged the memory centres of Clint's brain and removed part of his memories".
Natasha had been leaning forward studying the memory closely. She prided herself on her observation skills. For one second she thought she saw something strange. "Slow the images down Tony", she requested.
They watched as Clint's double screamed ',don't forget', there came static on the image after that. 'A side effect of Clint's violent actions with the device", Tony told them. "It does not matter Tony", Natasha hit the rewind, going back a couple of frames. "Clint looks paralysed at this point, but look at where his eyes are focused".
Fury pushed closer to see what Natasha was talking about. "So he's just looking at the ceiling", he remarked. For a minute he had thought she was onto something. "Yes, its a reflective surface Nick, so how many Clint's do you see", Natasha asked.
It was Steve Roger's who answered, "3". There is Clint and his image, but then there is that other image. Why would that happen", he mused.
Natasha's face was almost pushed against the screen. He others tried to pull her back but she stood her ground. Twenty seconds later she fell back into her chair. Her face was white, "if you look closely you can see minute differences in the two boys. Clint has a little more bulk to his form than the other one. That would not happen if Clint was just seeing himself". She looked over at Lila and opened her mouth.
A burst of static from the computer stopped her speaking. The words that immerged through the crackling paralyzed them all. "Don't forget me Clint, It's Will".
"He has an identical twin", Lila said the words. Nick Fury found sets of eyes upon him. "It's not possibl..., well I suppose it could be possible. Clint could not tell us much about his early years. Now we know why." Nick thought some more, "when Clint first came to us, he was hunted by many unsavory types who wanted to use his talents for their own means". We offered him protection from them in return for working for SHIELD." Clint's brother could have been at risk from being used as bait by those types. That is the most likely explanation for why their mother removed their knowledge of each other."
"It is still horrible", Natasha remarked. "Neither of them were given a choice".
Tony had not been idle while they were speaking. Already he was at work trying to trace a man named Will who shared the same physical features as Clint. "Our friend was not thinking clearly . SHIELD is the best equipped to help find his brother".
"Yes so why haven't we had any type of clues that he existed, Nick countered. "Surely there would be something , like Clint being with us yet seen in another place. Why has that never happened", he wondered out loud.
A little while later it seemed the answer was that Will did not exist as Tony could find no trace within any of the data bases around the world. "Does that mean we are wrong about him having a twin", Natasha asked. "No", said Lila with certainty, "it is the answer that has been in front of us all this time. Only we did not think it was possible". "We may not be able to find a trace but Clint obviously thinks he can ", Bruce stated. 'Yes but how", Tony asked.
"I think he will be determined to find a way", Nick Fury replied. He took a breath. "Okay, I am not going to send a retrieval team to look for Clint. I will however list him as a missing person through police channels. " He will surface at some time. Then we will have a little chat".
Nick sounded more concerned than angry so none of them were worried that the little chat was going to involve yelling. "Do you think it is possible Clint will find his Will, and what happens when he does. I know that you would be concerned about the fact Clint has an identical twin. It raises some issues that may have to be handled carefully", Tony remarked.
Nick Fury was still feeling rather shocked about the revelation and had not yet considered the impact. Tony was correct Clint having an identical twin was a concern as SHIELDS enemies could mistake the two. He had to come to the horrible realization that he understood exactly how Clint's mother had felt and why she had taken such a drastic move to protect Will. For now he would do nothing as it looked like whoever had hidden Will from the world had done a very good job.