Chapter 9- Old-Fashioned Ideas Coming Back
Yelizaveta entered the conference room after getting Clint squared away. Even though he was out, he looked to be in a lot of pain. He reminded Yelizaveta of junkies after they come off of drugs. Natasha volunteered to sit with him while Yelizaveta and Jimmy went to check in with Fury and the others. The true pain in her gut was from what she had heard from Agent Hill about Phil Coulson. Loki had killed him and that hurt just as badly as when she was told that Clint had been compromised.
Nick Fury was standing and Captain Rogers and Stark was sitting rather morosely. "How's Barton?" Fury asked.
"He's in the infirmary. Nat's watching him. Loki really messed him up bad. Like you said, his staff's like a HYDRA weapon," Yelizaveta said to Captain Rogers glumly as she sat down next to him and folding her hands over the tabletop.
"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket," Fury said as he tossed what looked like cards on the table. Yelizaveta looked at them. They were Captain America trading cards, that looked as if blood was all over them.
"I guess he never did get you to sign them," Yelizaveta said, picking up one by the corner that wasn't stained. Captain Rogers picked up another one.
"We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, the location of the Cube, Banner, Thor, I got nothing for you. I lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming. Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark knows this, and Markova only knows a little, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea. In heroes," Fury said as Stark got to his feet suddenly and stalked from the room. "Well, it's an old-fashioned notion," Fury said dejectedly.
Jimmy and Yelizaveta entered the infirmary. Yelizaveta felt relief at seeing Clint awake, but from the way he was moving he wasn't 100% all better. "Clint, you're going to be all right," Natasha said as Clint made a fist, the restraint tightening around his wrist.
"You know that?" Clint asked, sounding worried.
"She may not, but I do, Clint," Yelizaveta said, touching her friend's hand gently.
"Is that what you know, Vetty?" Clint asked with a mirthless chuckle. "I've got no window. I have to flush him out," Clint said in a breathless voice.
"You got to level out. It's going to take time," Natasha said.
"You and Vetty don't understand. Have you ever had someone take your brain and play? Pull you out and stuff something else in?" Clint asked as Natasha poured a glass of water.
"Yes. HYDRA did until you found me in Russia. Granted, not to the extent of what Loki did to you, but every day until you found me in that basement," Yelizaveta said, stroking Clint's hand gently.
But do you know what it's like to be unmade?" Clint persisted.
"You know that me and Vet do," Natasha said in a small voice as Clint started breathing hard and looked around. His eyes landed on Yelizaveta.
"Why am I back? How did you get him out, Vetty?" Clint asked, turning his hand to grip hers tightly.
"Cognitive recalibration. I hit you really hard on the head," Yelizaveta said with an apologetic grin.
"Thanks, kid. Natasha, Yelizaveta, how many agents did I-" Clint started to ask as Natasha removed the wrist restraints.
"Don't. Don't do that to yourself, Clint. This is Loki. This is monsters and magic, and nothing the three of us were ever trained for," Natasha said, shaking her head.
"Loki, did he get away?" Clint asked.
"Yeah. I don't suppose you know where," Yelizaveta said.
"I didn't need to know. I didn't ask. He's going to make his play soon, though," Clint said as the three of them stood. "Today," Clint said, taking a drink of water.
"We got to stop him," Natasha said, turning to face Clint and Yelizaveta.
"Yeah? Who's "we?" Clint asked.
"We don't know. Whoever's left," Jimmy said.
"Oh, right. Clint, this is James Banner; Jimmy," Yelizaveta said by way of introduction.
"Nice to meet you kid. Well, if I put an arrow through Loki's eye socket, I would sleep better, I suppose," Clint said with a laugh.
Yelizaveta sat next to him. "That's the spirit. Now you sound like you," Yelizaveta said with a smile and kissing his cheek.
"But you don't, kid. You may be called the Winter Soldier, but you are a spy, not an actual soldier. Now you want to wade into a war. Why? What did Loki do to you?" Clint asked, running his fingers gently on her face.
"He didn't. I just-" Yelizaveta started to say before looking down at her hands.
"Yelizaveta," Clint said softly.
"Me and Natasha have been compromised. We got red in our ledgers. We would like to wipe it out," Yelizaveta said flatly.
Yelizaveta and Jimmy entered the room where they had kept Loki to see Stark and Captain Rogers. "How's Barton?" Stark asked.
"Sore, but he'll live. I didn't hit him that hard," Yelizaveta said
"You okay?" Jimmy asked, looking between Stark and Captain Rogers. Yelizaveta knew he meant how they were dealing with Coulson's death.
"Was he married?" Captain Rogers asked, also meaning Coulson.
"No. There was a cellist, I think," Stark said.
"Yeah. Her name was Miranda. I don't think even she knew what all Coulson did for a living as all of us who have families were ordered never to tell our families what we do as it could put them in danger," Yelizaveta said, biting her lips to keep the tears from springing to her her eyes.
"I'm sorry, Liz. He seemed like a good man," Captain Rogers said in a consoling voice and putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"He was an idiot," Stark scoffed.
"Why? For believing?" Jimmy asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
"For taking on Loki alone," Stark said as he paced around the room.
"He was doing his job, which is all any of us can do, Tony," Yelizaveta said.
"He was out of his league, Catherine the Great. He should have waited. He should have-" Stark started to say.
"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony," Captain Rogers said.
"Right, I've heard that before," Stark said as he started to leave.
"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?" Captain Rogers asked.
"With the exception of her, we are not soldiers. But then again, neither is she. She's a spy and assassin that the Russians named the Winter Soldier. I'm not marching to Fury's fife," Stark said.
"Neither are we. I never was one to follow anyone's rules but my own anyway. He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does. But right now we got to put that behind us and get this done," Yelizaveta said with a brief smile.
"Now, Loki needs a power source. If we can put together a list-" Captain Rogers started to say as Stark looked to the console that operated Loki's cage.
"He made it personal," Stark interrupted.
"That's not the point," Jimmy said.
"That is the point, Hulk Junior. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?" Stark asked.
"To tear us apart," Captain Rogers said.
"Yeah, divide and conquer is great, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us, he wants to be seen doing it," Stark said as what he said, suddenly clicked in Yelizaveta's mind.
"He wants an audience," Yelizaveta said, feeling the color drain out of her face.
Right. We caught his act in Stuttgart," Captain Rogers said.
"Yeah, that was just previews. This is opening night. And Loki, he's a full-tilt diva, right? He wants flowers, he wants parades. He wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered-" Tony interrupted himself with a curse as he left the room.