Chapter 1: Clint's Farm - Menno, South Dakota

"Everything ready?"

Y-E-S.

"No, no. Remember? We learned this one- it's like knocking on a door," he waited patiently.

Yes.

"Good. Are you ready?"

Yes.

"On the count of three. One-" he glanced over to make sure she was ready, then turned away, "-two-" he turned back quickly, eyes wider to make sure she was really ready, then turned away, "-two and a half-" he heard a quick exhale- the closest she'd gotten yet to a laugh- and grinned, "-OK, three!"

They both let go of their water balloons. A few moments later there were twin yelps from the back patio.

"CLINT BARTON YOU ARE A DEAD MAN!" Natasha roared from below. Thor, over now the initial shock of the icy water, laughed heartily as it dripped down his flannel shirt. It reminded him of days of mischief with Loki as a boy. Natasha threw her head back to look up at the faces peeking over the balcony, "Nessa, don't let him corrupt you!"

Inessa ducked behind Clint quickly and grabbed the back of his vest, as if she could use him as a shield. "It's alright," he pulled away from her and turned to speak face-to-face, "she isn't really angry, you know that, right?"

The girl nodded and Clint patted her shoulder, "Fun's over. We'll plan our next mission in the morning. Did you brush your teeth?"

Yes.

"Take your medicine? Doctor Simmons said you still have to have it once a day or else you'll regress."

Inessa nodded and held up her arm to show him the fresh band-aid. Clint smiled. Goodnight.

"Goodnight to you too," he followed her back inside the pale green farmhouse. Inessa waited until he closed the door behind him to curl up under the blankets. Her silver eyes flashed for a moment and the shadows darkened around the single candle on the nightstand. The flame flickered, then went out. Inessa closed her eyes and let her mind slip through the walls and into the Valley.

The way outside to the Avengers led Clint past the study, where Steve was sitting, refreshing his email impatiently, "You know, it updates itself when something pops up in your inbox," Clint pointed out.

Steve sighed and hit the button again, "I know, but maybe this saves a second."

"Still no word on Bucky?"

"It's not Bucky I'm worried about right now," Steve ran a hand through his hair, "It's Dimitri Aristov."

Clint walked into the room and closed the door. He glanced around, then hit the light switch and clicked the table lamp to max, just in case, "You think Inessa's uncle is going to be trouble?"

"I think he's going to be the one in trouble if we don't find him soon. Skye over at SHIELD is scouring security feeds all over the place, we don't even know if he's in the same city."

"Oh, I'll bet he is," Clint sat on the arm of a recliner, "I've gone after people like him plenty of times, they never wander far from home. He's in that city somewhere."

"Well," he turned back to the computer and once again refreshed his email, "I just don't want to deal with the fallout if Bucky finds him before we do."

"You're sure he went after Aristov?"

Steve nodded, "Positive. You saw the security footage. Inessa tells you her name and that he's her uncle, Bucky flips through the Project Echo files, and suddenly he's running off to Illinois on vacation."

"And you're sure Bucky and Dimitri aren't in the same place?"

"Bucky was due back a week ago, based on what he told JARVIS. He blocked his comms and tracker- he's hardly going on a picnic. The day Bucky finally finds us is the day after he kills Aristov. You didn't see him when he killed Dennisson, he had this look in his eyes, like-" Steve searched for the word and came up blank.

"Was it something like bloodlust?" he nodded, "Listen, between what Dennisson had done to Inessa and what he did to Bucky, is it any surprise? If he finds Airstov I think he'll do what's right and call it in. Dennisson was personal, and he cares about what happens to Inessa. No matter what Dimitri did to her, he won't act before she can at least see he's been caught."

"Do you think she knows her uncle sold her out?"

Clint nodded, "I do. According to her only 2 people in the world knew what she could do. Now, I can't get her to tell me who the second person was, but her uncle was the first, and based off what we saw he isn't shy about how much he hated her. I've got no doubts she would have hated him too."

Steve was sick of thinking about Aristov and Bucky, and he was sick of e-mails. He shut the computer down and cracked his neck, "I've got one more piece of bad news."

"What?"

"Tony's used up the rest of Pepper's vacation time. He's going to be joining us here tomorrow."

Clint laughed and stood up, "Come on, let's grab a six-er and go tell the team. We can take bets on Tony's reaction when he finds out the only room left is in the loft with Thor."

As always, Natasha was the first one up in the morning- and one of the few Avengers not hungover. Careful not to wake her bed-mate, she slipped out into the hall and over to Inessa's door. Natasha opened it and peeked in. The room was swirling with black shadow- formless and all-consuming. "Hey," she whispered, "stop playing and come help me make breakfast."

It was like someone pulled the plug on a drain. The shadows began to swirl around the bed and condensed quickly into a small point, then vanished entirely. The room was bright and cheerful and Inessa sat on the bed, her silver eyes glowing. Shy as always, she was slow coming over to Natasha, but the older woman was patient with her- and being one of only two members of the team who knew sign language she was also the only other person Inessa could communicate with.

"What should we make this morning? Blueberry muffins?"

Yes.

"But what do we do first? Before the others wake up?"

Inessa didn't answer, but she walked over to a small dresser and from the bottom drawer retrieved a pair of running shoes- her and Natasha's secret. "Good call, meet me out back in five minutes. OK?"

Yes.

Natasha returned to her room to change and, as promised, Inessa was waiting for her outside. While Clint worked on her ability to socialize with the others, Natasha tried her best to help the girl become more sure of her movements- and for now that meant building muscle. One day she even hoped to teach the kid to spar. She couldn't rely only on her powers to protect her, and Hydra might come for her again. It was no secret she was a physical therapist, of sorts, for Inessa- but the others pretended to allow the girls their pretend secrecy. Sam and Steve ran along one side of Clint's farm, Natasha and Inessa along another.

"What were you doing in there?" Natasha asked as they began to run. She had to keep turning back to check on Inessa and see if she would reply. Some days were better than others. Inessa looked down as she ran, unwilling to meet Natasha's eyes. "Were you looking for Bucky?"

Inessa stopped abruptly, shaking. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. She kept repeating the sign over and over.

"Hey, hey, it's OK-" Natasha came back to her and grabbed her shoulders, forcing Inessa to recognize her presence. "You're allowed to use your powers however you want, as long as no one gets hurt. If you want to look for him, then do it. No one is going to get mad at you for it. Do you understand?" The girl nodded, still scared. "Let's keep running, come on." They began again.

After the first mile Inessa looked more relaxed. Natasha decided to venture another question, "You can't find him still?"

No. The small gesture was almost unnoticed as she swung her arms.

"Don't tell the others you are looking," she advised, "I think they're all hoping he will come back on his own, but there's nothing wrong with some help." Inessa had been looking for three weeks- ever since Bucky vanished. Only Natasha knew- only Natasha was ever awake early enough to see Inessa stirring the last shadows of the night.

They turned back towards the farmhouse when they reached the edge of the first corn field. Natasha kept prompting her on different topics- during the morning run, when her mind was made to focus on something other than the memories that haunted her, she replied more. Natasha was sure that soon she would speak- unless Tony scared her shitless when he arrived. Inessa took a soft touch- and Tony was more like a sledgehammer. Natasha told her stories about him until they reached the porch.

"Stretch, then we'll pick some blueberries as a cool-down," Natasha glanced at the rising sun- they had a couple hours before anyone else would be up. "Do you know how to make them?"

Yes.

"Really?" Natasha was surprised.

Yes.

She smiled broadly, "Good- then you'll take the lead."

It was mid-afternoon before Tony finally appeared. Clint, Banner, and Inessa were returning from a horseback ride around the borders of the farm and Natasha was continuing Sam's hand-to-hand training. They heard the boom of the suit dropping out of super-sonic speeds and waited as he circled the farmhouse.

"Here we go," Steve put down the book he was reading and came over to Natasha and Sam. Thor was perfecting his horseshoe skills and didn't even bother to turn and see the source of the noise. Tony landed in the middle of the makeshift sparring ring and immediately stepped out of his suit.

"Aw, cute, I like the 'Little House on the Prairie' vibe."

"It beats being stuck in Avengers Tower again," Steve pointed out.

Tony nodded, "I'll give you that- it was a bit of a prison the last few months. Though- funny side effect- I actually had trouble sleeping in the dark the first two weeks. Pepper had to sleep in a different room, she couldn't stand the lights being on. Speaking of which, where's the kid- I have something for her."

He looked around as several large, jet-propelled trunks landed next to him. Clint led the group over, but kept Inessa slightly behind him, "Remember Tony, take it easy."

"I always take it easy," he glanced at the trunks and snapped his fingers, "JARVIS, you know what I'm looking for."

"Yes, sir," the voice came from one of the trunks and it opened.

Tony pulled a large folder of paper out of it and held it out, several feet from Inessa, "This is a gift from Pepper- the lady you met before coming here. Do me a favor- take this, go inside, and bring it back to me when you're done. Understand?"

Inessa looked up at Clint, "Go ahead," he smiled to show her it was alright. Her eyes glowed for a moment and the paper vanished.

"What the-" Tony stared at his hand. Inessa gave him and his trunks a wide berth as she circled to the farmhouse. Once she crossed into the shadows on the porch her eyes flashed again and the folder fell onto the ground in front of her. She picked it up, glanced back again, then went into the house. "She's getting good."

"She can only make little things disappear in this kind of light," Clint nodded, "and it tires her out like nothing else. You'll see- she'll be asleep until dinner now."

"Well, no one interrupt her. I want to see how she does with those papers."

"What are they?" Natasha asked suspiciously.

"Nothing."

"They didn't look like nothing," Steve crossed his arms, "What's your angle?"

Tony shrugged, "I pulled a couple strings, called in a couple favors. We'll see how she does."

"With what?"

"No spoilers," Tony pointed to his trunks, "Where do I get to sleep?" he glanced at Steve, "Don't make me bunk with Cap."

Clint sighed, "You're in the barn with Thor. The loft has a fully furnished apartment and you can use the ground floor as a workshop. Just don't mess with my archery stuff in the corner."

"You're lucky I made noise-cancelling earplugs after the last time we roomed," he told Thor, "or else this would have ended badly."

"And you-" he pointed at Steve, "You didn't answer your email. Simmons called me to let me know they found some dirt on Inessa's parental units."

Steve swore, "Well?" he pushed, "Anything we can use to find Dimitri?"

"No," Tony started digging through the opened trunk for something, "Just that her paternal grandfather was some US army General, John Ryker-"

"Oh!" Banner was surprised, "Ew. I knew him." he looked like he'd smelled something bad, "That was her grandfather? God, I feel old..."

Tony stood up and held out too hands towards Banner as if to say ta-da, "I present to you, the killer."

"Be fair," Banner cautioned, "Hulk killed him. And he had it coming- he kept trying to kill me. Besides- he was the first person who came after me when I became him. I hadn't even begun to figure out how to control the transformation.

"Excuses, excuses," Tony went back to what he was doing, "Anyways, Steve, you knew her maternal great-grandfather. You're all over his file."

"Who was it?" Steve was apprehensive.

Tony pulled out a large black box and set it on the ground, "Arnim Zola."

Steve, Natasha, and Sam all began cursing at once. Tony glanced up, eyeing them, "Be honest, you practiced that beforehand, right?"

"Arnim Zola was her great-grandfather? Our little Inessa?" Sam was incredulous.

Tony nodded and pulled a large oblong machine out of the case, he handed this to Sam, "Put that on. And yes- Zola's son Levin moved to Russia, got married, had a baby named Emilie, and died- well, his wife killed him- twelve years later. Emilie, as you know, married Anton Ryker and produced Nadya Ryker- our Inessa, as Sam put it. Agent Skye thinks it was probably a very powerful marriage at the time, and Hydra would have been all busted up over the loss of two legacies like that. We've got to assume it's common knowledge to them that Inessa is alive. SHIELD thinks Hydra will come after her."

"That is hardly surprising," Thor had no idea who these people were, but if she was the product of two powerful figures it was almost a guarantee Hydra would be arriving to collect her.

"I'm upgrading the border security, the farm is very large. Two suits at the house, one stationed every mile around the edges of the property and I've got JARVIS assembling and bringing over two small but powerful repluser cannons. Hydra could send an army at us and we'd probably survive. Maybe."

Clint raised his eyebrow, "Thanks for turning my farm into a military instillation."

Tony came over to pat him on the shoulder and smiled, "You're welcome."

"Wait- the hell?" Sam had the device strapped to his back. When he held his arms out, the framework of his wings appeared, but the polymer plates that served the same purpose as feathers would on a bird were made up of bars of red light.

"Ah, that's the upgrade to your unit," Tony came over to show off. "It is now resistant to a simple tazer and, unlike the last model, you have weapons. The science is too difficult for you to follow, but basically you'll be able to launch these at your enemies. It works a lot like porcupine quills, actually."

"Weapons?" Sam was intrigued, "How do I fire?"

"You don't until I unlock the weapons system," Tony pointed out, "And I'm not doing that until we're far away from here and anyone you could accidentally maim or kill. Speaking of- any updates on our favorite half-metal hobo?" Tony continued firing off questions and quips a mile a minute until Inessa came out of the farmhouse and slowly approached him to return the folder. She was pale and trembling.

"Hey," Banner crouched down so she could see his face, "go grab some apple juice and get some rest before dinner, OK? It's NOVA-night and you promised to watch that documentary on gamma radiation with me."

O-K.

"She says 'alright'," Clint translated as Inessa returned to the farmhouse.

"Let's see," Tony flipped through the papers, "She's fast," he held the papers out and his suit moved to retrieve them, "JARVIS, score 'em."

"Do we get to know what they are now," Steve feigned interest. He wasn't a sarcastic person- unless Tony was within earshot. They'd made a truce during the whole Shadow invasion, but that was long gone.

The suit held the pages up to the faceplate and scanned each document quickly. Tony held up a hand and waited for the suit to finish and print out a small piece of paper, which he quickly collected and scanned. "Well, kids, we've got a problem."

"What?" Natasha stepped closer, "Is something wrong with Inessa?"

Tony nodded, "Something very bad. Her talents are being squandered."

Steve rolled his eyes and turned instead to the suit, "JARVIS, hand me the papers please." the suit obliged and he flipped through them, "Wait- an I.Q. test?" He found a second test underneath it, "And some kind of math thing."

"I told you, it was Pepper's idea. And that 'math thing' is the placement test for M.I.T's mathematics department. Inessa there aced everything short of calculus and trig, which I doubt she would have learned in a public high school anyways." he held up the small piece of paper, "And she's got a 156 I.Q. That's genius-level. Once I get my lab set up-"

"You get her two hours a day, like everyone else. But that's only if she'll go with you." Sam cut him off, "We have a system."

Now it was Tony who was rolling his eyes, "Fine, but we start tomorrow," he snapped his fingers and the trunks lifted off the ground, "JARVIS, conduct your orchestra." The suit flew off towards the barn, leading the luggage. Tony looked around at the farmhouse and the distant fields, "This'll be great, it'll be fun. Like... Summer camp."

Clint smiled broadly, "Yeah! Just like summer camp! And you know what our first fun-filled activity is?"

"What's that, Farmer Hawk?" Tony returned the mock enthusiasm.

"Mucking out the stables," Clint grabbed Tony's arm with one hand and scooped up the reigns of Inessa's horse with his other. Tony kept looking back at the others, astounded by Hawkeye's impressively unbreakable grip.

"Um, help? Anyone? Avengers? Seriously-" they rounded a corner and disappeared. Banner, grinning, followed.

Natasha, Thor, Steve, and Sam glanced at one another, "He's right about one thing," Steve mused, "I don't think any of us have ever been to summer camp-" he looked to Sam who shook his head, he didn't have to bother checking with Natasha, "right, but from the movie's I've seen there's always an obnoxious kid, now we have one."

Sam laughed and patted Steve on the back, the turned away from the group and readied for flight, "Hold it-" Natasha called to him, "we're not done yet."

"But mom~" Sam whined, then winked.

"Wings off, now-," Natasha repressed her grin, "and call me that one more time and I'll teach you some new and very painful moves."

Steve turned back to the porch to resume his reading. Before Thor returned to his game he called over to Natasha, "Black Widow, promise me something! When my father lifts my exile from Asgard, I shall call upon my Warriors Three. I would have you battle our Lady Sif, for I believe you two would be an even match and she has yet to meet her equal in all the nine realms!"

"I would be honored to wipe the floor with your friend," Natasha bowed then, when Sam tried to take the opening and topple her, she spun quickly, lowered herself, and knocked his legs out from under him.

Inessa watched the Avengers from the window of her room. She couldn't stop her hands from shaking- but it had nothing to do with her trick outside. What if they knew? What if they found out the truth about what she was stirring in the shadows? Would they kill her then? Imprison her? Torture her like Dennisson had until she forgot again what she'd done? What she still intended to do?

Her heart was pounding and she felt sick to her stomach just thinking about it. Inessa drew the curtains to send the room into darkness, then began to call up the doors of the Valley. She felt guilty even as she began, but she had no choice. It didn't matter how much pain it caused her-

Or how many lives it would cost.

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