IHGW-20

Barton received the message and he and the Captain came up with the plan. A silent alarm went off at a bank that was just two blocks from the pub. The group of heroes made their way to the bank at their top speed.

Clint and the Captain ran across the rooftops, with the Hulk leaping along beside them in the street. Meanwhile the thunder god and Iron Man flew overhead. They arrived at the bank in less than two minutes.

The Captain and Thor came in the front door, while Hawkeye, Hulk and Iron Man came through the back of the bank, literally the Hulk came through one of the walls. A fury of electricity, arrows and muscle, along with a flurry of spider goo and the odd screams from the creatures as they died, or were wounded

This time Clint set trackers on two of the spiders instead of just one this time. He dodged a venomous stinger from one of the smaller sized spiders and shot one of his stunners into it. His temper had been all over the place since the encounter with Aife. The normally cool and composed found himself feeling rather like he thought Banner felt before he changed. With an effort of will he hoped the Doc would even be proud of, he pulled it back under control mostly and went back to work.

Thor's lightening arced from spider to spider, avoiding the human customers and employees of the bank. Tony kept meaning to ask Point Break how he did that. He blasted one of the moderately sized spiders away from the bank vault. The metal gate was already partially bent, undoubtedly one of the tank sized spiders had already tried to break through into the vault itself.

A loud shriek sounded from the rear of the bank where Cap had headed to make sure there weren't any humans trapped in the back offices. The high pitched sound was followed closely by a ball of white that splattered into the far wall and hung there next to Thor. The Thunder God would have ignored this except for the muffled groan that came from within the white sticky substance.

The Hulk had managed to corral, carry ,and generally gather the remaining humans, including the two wounded security guards into a reception area. When he'd tried to get them out through one of the entrances or the door he'd made, two of the spiders would try to go after any stragglers.

When a spider tried to go after one of the guards, the Other Guy picked up one of the couches from the reception area and used it like a fly swatter. The spiders were suddenly joined by reinforcements, the group began weaving a web to keep the Green Man and the other humans contained in the reception area

Then the Avengers saw even more reinforcements coming from where the "Spitball from Hell" had come from and yeah Tony was definitely owning that name. The replacements didn't really have him all that worried, the She-Spider that followed them with an enraged look on her face that was a bit of a concern.

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They stared at him for a second and then there were weak chuckles from the two women. The couple looked between each other in a cautious sort of way. The brunette woman who stood closer to him said, "Yeah okay honey, that's not really as funny as you think it is."

"Yeah, neither is the fact that the Morrigan has been shot," came the dry response from the only other male in the room as he rose from examining the body on the floor, "Not that I can think of anyone that will be sorry to see her shot, but it might cause trouble for you Doc,"

The blond came a little closer to him, and said, "I don't care," she said vehemently, "She was hurting Vex. If anything I'm only sorry that I couldn't make it more painful."

The brunette goddess looked a little concerned, and Vex felt a little perplexed at the deadly tone the blond used. "That doesn't sound like you Lauren," the brunette said.

Lauren smiled as she said, "Do you know that since I was enslaved for all intents and purposes by the Ashe. The time I've spent with you, Vex and the others is the happiest I've been in years?"

When the brunette smiled lovingly in response and wrapped her arm around the shoulders of the blond, the doctor continued, "I've also discovered a healthy anger with anyone who tries to take that away from me."

When the smile sort of fell off the dark beauties face, the blond continued, "You can't defend me all the time Bo, so I've decided to start doing a little defending of my own. It may make you uncomfortable, it may even go against my Hippocratic Oath."

"The problem is, to most fae I'm extremely expendable. I've learned to accept that in the past, when I didn't have anything to lose. Things are different now, now I'm going to do my best to stay alive. It also goes for this pack. You may not like it, but we are part of the Elders pack. I'm keeping myself alive. I'm keeping the Pack alive and I'm keeping you and Vex alive too." the blond smiled widely.

If there was a hint of hysteria or madness in it, Vex didn't feel the need to draw anyone's attention to it. He felt a little warmth to the obvious affection and protective instincts these two women had for him.

"Lauren," said the young woman kneeling by his torturer, who still hadn't roused. "What type of ammunition did you use on the Morrigan? Most bullets don't actually work on the fae."

The doctor smirked as she moved even closer to Vex and instead of answering began studying the restraints on the bed before saying, "Let's get these restraints off of you." She began unbuckling the wrists while Bo worked to remove the ones on his legs.

"Doc," said the redheaded male in a frustrated tone. "You need to talk to us about this."

"Why?" Lauren said absently as she went to Vex's other side to remove the other restraint. "You know when they find out that I tried to kill a fae, let alone the leader of the dark fae, that I'm going to…" she paused thoughtfully and as he unbuckled the cuff finally said, "be disappeared without a trace or something."

Reaching into a pocket se pulled out a small clamshell case and opened it to remove a syringe from the case before snapping it closed. She then gently took his upper arm firmly in her hand and injecting him with the contents.

"You'll feel better in a little while," she said to the Mesmer. "Dyson," she cut him off and replied, "When I decided to do this I had one of the guards at the compound teach me. Then I had a mage smith who owed me a favor, craft some bullets for me that had silver, iron, white oak, mistletoe and a variety of other things in them."

"That's got to be illegal," said the werewolf after his face blanched a pale white.

"Nope I checked composite bullets are not illegal in this state and apparently fae laws haven't really caught up with new technology…like guns." Lauren said cheerfully. Then added, "Shooting the sitting Morrigan, even if she is trying to kill your lover or significant other is another matter entirely," The blond said as she stroked the hair back from Vex's forehead.

"I still don't remember you love," Vex said sadly but then added hopefully, "but can I keep you anyway?"

"You weren't kidding?" Bo asked worriedly, before glancing down at the smaller woman. "Kenzi?"

Standing the grey eyed young woman moved toward him. He studied her and the ginger haired man who followed her closely. The red head screamed wolf to him and he knew that was right, but the tiny woman seemed like a child to him, so tiny. He knew she wasn't but the same protective instinct was there to protect this young woman.

"This won't hurt a bit Vexie," she said soothingly as she touched his temple with the tips of her fingers.

"I know," he whispered back. As he felt the feather-like touches under his skin, inside his head, like it was sifting through his thoughts and memories.

It took several minutes, longer than he thought it should be. Long enough for whatever was in the injection that Lauren had given him to start taking effect. The pain of his wounds was beginning to ebb, the tickle of blood rolling down his skin to drip to the floor had begun to slow. He felt less mutilated and more wrecked, and he was more than a little concerned that somewhere in his jumbled brain he knew there was a difference.

A sigh from over his head as Kenzi gently withdrew her fingers, the sigh and the gentle kiss she placed on the crown of his head let him know it wasn't going to be an easy fix. Good, bad, or medium news first?" she asked as she came around to lock gazes with him.

"That order, sounds fine." he said, vaguely aware that the two other women had each taken one of his hands in their own.

"Good new, this isn't some kind of mind whammy. Basically it's your own minds way of dealing with the trauma. It couldn't deal with the pain, the thought of your own death and losing everything and everyone that you love. So your brain shut off the memory, the reality of what was going on around you." the woman gave a tremulous smile as she continued.

"Now the bad news, the brain chemistry that causes this particular effect, isn't specific. That's why you can't remember anything, not just the traumatic events." the grey eyes remained steady on his but he had to interrupt her.

"That's the thing love, I do remember some of the things she did. I just remember it as if its happening to someone else and that I had to keep something secret." he said in a frustrated tone. Kenzi looked up at Lauren in confusion.

The blond doctors brow knit as she seemed deep in thought for a moment before it cleared and asked, "Vex did you take something before you left the apartment?"

He concentrated but he couldn't think of anything before the torture session started, he shrugged his shoulders helplessly and regretted it instantly as a groan escaped his lips.

"Use your words, lover." Bo said helpfully as she carefully gripped his fingers tighter, reminding him he could squeeze her fingers if he needed to.

Wait, how do I remember that?" he asked randomly.

"Remember what, Vex?" Kenzi asked quickly.

"I remember that Bo can handle it better than Lauren if I have to squeeze her hand," he said his eyes distant, "I remember that you are the closest friend I have and that Lauren… I don't usually call her Lauren but Doc, unless we're alone." he seemed to be getting upset as he looked past them to where Dyson stood watching.

Vex tried to point at where he stood, "I don't remember his name but I should because I've tortured him before, and why can I not remember his name but I know he's a wolf?"

"It's alright Vex, that's actually very good. You're already regaining your memories. The Cloud Serum you took is only supposed to work temporarily and apparently it worked with your brains own protective instincts in a strange way." Lauren explained to the Mesmer.

"Cloud Serum?" he asked with a slight scowl.

"It keeps people from reading your mind to gain information. Kenzi was able to scan you cause she wasn't actively trying to gain information from you just trying to assess you." Lauren continued thoughtfully. "Right now, it seems your subconscious knows us, remembers details or trivial things about us, but the main memories of us are blocked temporarily."

Kenzi added, "The Serum will probably determine when your memories come back. Do you remember the dosage you took?"

The Mesmer shook his head but he did say, "I think the bottle is at the breakfast bar in the apartment. I drank the whole vial though." He felt rather than saw Lauren flinch.

"Seventy-two hours," she almost whispered and he tried to crane his neck to look at her without success because of the pain and stiffness of wounds beginning to crust with dried blood.

She came around to stand between Kenzi and he as she whispered, "Seventy-two hours of torture. You wouldn't have survived even with a fae's accelerated healing factor. That's why you took the Cloud Serum to keep her from finding out anything she could use against you. So she would keep you alive to torture to find out your secrets. Only you were ready to die to keep them safe….Vex…"

He felt her sorrow and pain and suddenly something slammed open between them and he grabbed her hand as he said through his teeth, "No to keep you safe, all of you. Especially my dark and light goddesses though."

The bloody heap on the floor chose that moment to led out a rather guttural groan. Lauren actually flinched, and then flinched even harder as a loud commotion could be heard coming from the throne room. Several strident voices could be heard shouting, what was a bit startling was that while there were a few calling for the Morrigan, there were more calling for Vex.

"Don't worry," Vex said taking her hand, "They're looking for me, not you."

"Why are they looking for you?" Dyson asked as he took up a defensive position between the doorway and the rest of the occupants of the room, with the exception of course for the Morrigan still lying crumpled on the floor.

The Mesmer relaxed as much as he could into the torture table he was laying on, as he felt the ladies holding his hands both physically and mentally, "They're looking for me because I accepted their offer." he said in an almost dreamy state as the injection set in full bore. Luckily Lauren hadn't given him the full dose because of where they all were or he would be out by now. They did need to get out of here soon though.

With that thought in mind he tried to rise from the table. Only to discover a very uncomfortable fact, he was stuck to the table. "Damn this is gonna hurt."

Laurens eyes widened as she said, "I heard that." she said and patted him on the shoulder gently before saying, "Bo we need water he's stuck to the table."

The succubus nodded before she released Vex's hand and began searching the dungeon for something liquid. Kenzi meanwhile came around to stand at Vex's left hand side and asked, "What offer did you accept and who are they?"

"The Council of the Dark Fae, and I accepted their offer. I'm the new Morrigan."