Clint stares at the girl. They'd cleaned and packed her wounds with the medical supplies on the quinjet. No one had said a damn word the whole time. Tony looked ill the whole flight. Like he was either going to spew the truth or whatever he ate last.
Natasha's knees were tucked up and under her chin. Arms wrapped around her shins.
He sat near the girl. She looked younger than him, but that math didn't add up. Guess a 94 year old dad made sense that a 40+ year old woman would look like a young 18 year old.
He wonders if she was ever kept in a pod too. If she's Steve's daughter… then he grimaces. She most likely has no idea she's Steve's daughter. She may not know anything about her origin. His eyes trail to Natasha and he can see she's having the same waking nightmare. Another child stolen and used for an organization's sick purpose.
He hears the autopilot engage and Steve walks back, "how is she?"
"Seems stable." Clint answers, keeping his eyes away from either of them.
"Why keep this one?"
Clint looks up in surprise, "huh?"
"You didn't have any reservations about me slaughtering everyone else. Why keep this one?"
The word slaughter rings in his ears. Making him sick that Steve is describing his own actions that way. "She's… had a rough upbringing." Clint admits. As close to the truth as he's willing to go at the moment.
Natasha and Tony are listening with hyper vigilance. All of them feeling like they've just stepped on a mine.
Must remain perfectly still.
Steve sits looking genuinely interested, "what can you tell me about her? Was she close to Pierce at Shield?"
He can feel the stares of the other two pinned to him. Steve wants information to help the mission. But the answer to the mission is the girl. Woman— Adult —Person laying there.
"I'm not sure." Clint says, glad it's the truth, "I didn't know she was associated with Pierce."
"She's flying his getaway quinjet." Steve states blandly, "he obviously trusts her."
The nodding he does makes him more sick, his mind screaming to just tell the truth, "that's what I'm hoping." Clint says in a rush, " that she knows stuff."
Steve looks about ready to respond when a beep on the pilot's monitor flashes a red light through the cabin. He sighs, as if tired. "Strap her down."
Clint stands, knowing the sound as another approaching quinjet, 'What!? Why?"
Steve just turns back and glares at her, "fine done, I don't give a shit." Then he's taking control as another beep and flash.
"What's that?" Tony asks quietly, "what's that sound?"
"We've got company." Natasha snaps, "probably hydra after us for killing their snake of a leader." And then her eyes trail to the girl, "or…."
Tony makes a whining sound and sits down, clicking in his seatbelt, "why is someone always trying to kill us?"
And a slightly humored voice comes from the pilot's chair, "welcome to Shield."
—
You are in unauthorized possession of SHIELD property. Land immediately or drastic measures will be taken.
It repeats itself twice until Steve flips the comms off.
"Drastic measures?" Tony asks.
"Missiles." Natasha answers, "they're going to shoot us down."
"They can try." Steve's voice floats back to them. "Is everyone secure?"
Clint looks at the straps holding the girl down. "Yeah." He whispers out.
"Good. Get ready."
It only takes another 30 seconds for them to fire on them.
Clint hears the beep beep beep of the radar and he tenses, ready for the hit, but Steve swings left and tucks the nose down, evading the projectiles.
And the game begins.
They all gape as Steve deftly works the controls, tipping the wings left or right or diving or rising, avoiding every round they send their way. Clint watches him study the cameras that monitor the Quinjet airspace, accurately gauging the depth perception of how to evade the missiles without having to make wild movements.
The firing stops for a moment but Steve's voice once agains floats over his shoulder and into the back, "if anything else is loose and you don't want it flying around, now's the—"
A loud alarm cuts him off, blaring through the quinjet and making Tony jump. "What's that!"
"OOh shit!" Natasha gasps, looking at Clint, "they wouldn't!"
But Clint sees the tracking missile on the radar headed their way and he swallows, "seems like they would."
"Hold on!" Steve bellows, and Clint feels his stomach flip as Steve pulls on the controls, flipping the quinjet over, belly up to the sky.
The blood starts rushing to his head and he wonders why Steve's starting to do a barrel roll. "This won't help you avoid the missile!" He shouts.
Steve ignores him, and Clint's eyes widen as he watches Steve smash the emergency off switch. Cutting all the power to the engines. While t hey're still upside down.
Vertigo and gravity tug at his gut, the way the gravity pulls him down but his stomach rises up while his body starts to sink with the jet towards the earth.
Tony does throw up. And Natasha gasps.
None of them can find the ability to speak as the jet sinks faster and faster, the view of the ground rapidly approaching.
He hears a gasp that he doesn't recognize and he snaps his neck to the girl, whose eyes are open and her head is dangling off the table, staring at the cockpit.
"Steve—" Natasha manages to gasp out.
"Hold on!" He snaps, working at some of the controls. Clint sees the missile pass above them, zooming on ahead, none the wiser that it's target is beneath them, sinking with deadly speed towards the horizon.
Once the missile has past detection radius, Clint watches as Steve kicks back on the engines, making them scream against the effort of falling, but he doesn't give the controls an inch, swinging the wings back over, righting them and then banking left, causing them to spin around.
Now they face their pursuers, and Steve jams the accelerator forward, "Clint! Get up here on guns! Now!" Clint doesn't hesitate, releasing his buckle only to crumble to the ground from his head still spinning. He manages to half walk half stumble towards the chair and he locks himself back in. "You know how to fire them?"
Clint nods, and he handles the controls, "dead? Or able to land?"
"Land." Steve responds, "we don't know who's in there."
Clint starts shooting, aiming deftly to create enough damage to make them stop following them but not enough to kill their engines or make them spiral. The dogfight lasts a few minutes but eventually the other three start to drop and Steve doesn't wait around, swinging them back forward and jetting off, increasing the distance between them with each second. "Good work." The man says with a nod, "you've got incredible aim."
"Thanks." Clint whispers, still reeling from the entire event. "How did you know that would work?"
"It either tracks heat or was locked onto our electronic ping. Cutting the power and going belly up fixes both of those things."
Clint shakes his head, "you used to fly the old quinjets?"
Steve shrugs, "yeah. After I took a dive in a plane I didn't know how to fly they had me get my pilot's license." He huffs, like he's told himself a joke. "But they weren't called quinjet back then. It's a good thing they haven't changed my design much."
Clint's neck snaps at how quickly he looks over, "your design?"
The man is nodding slowly. "Phillips wanted something better than the war planes we had. Howard did the mechanics, but I did the design and functionality."
Clint looks back at Tony who is listening and looks on in disbelief. His eyes trail back to the girl, she looks passed out again. Natasha is watching him, and she signs, you okay?
He nods.
—
He offers but Steve refuses the suggestion to switch places.
"Where are we going?" Natasha asks, standing behind the pilot's chairs.
"Just somewhere to refuel and rest." He juts his head back towards the back of the quinjet, "and hopefully she does know something or we won't have another lead. And we're not going to be welcomed back to Shield HQ in a while."
—
Clint jolts awake, his fight response high as he sits up, looking around.
He's still in the co-pilot's chair. But it's on the ground and he's staring at giant metal doors.
SO they're parked somewhere. He's shocked he didn't wake on landing.
He looks back. Tony is asleep, mouth open and head lolled to one side. Then his eyes catch on the med table.
It's empty.
He jerks out of his seat, only to be held back by the seatbelt. His fingers jangle with the buckle and eventually he gets it off, rushing past Tony. He doesn't miss that Natasha and Steve are also gone.
The hangar is big enough for the quinjet but not huge. He can see a couple doors around the place and he wonders how Steve just happens to know where an available hangar base is.
Then he reminds himself that this is a 94 year old war icon. He probably knows a few things.
Like how to belly up a quinjet, cut power, and still save their lives.
He hears a rattle and follows the sound.
—
She's tied up, secured to a metal chair, head tipped forward, chin against her chest in unconsciousness.
Natasha sits in a corner, eyes watching the whole scene. Steve is no where to be seen.
"What's going on?" CLint asks.
"Steve went to go get food. Told me to watch her."
"And you let him tie her up?"
Natasha glares at him, "of course she's tied up! Doesn't matter who she is, it matters who she was raised by. And we don't know the answer to that." Then Natasha gestures to the girl, "and maybe we don't know what the hell we're talking about. We could be projecting onto her you know? Who knows who her dad is."
Clint balks, "are you kidding?!"
She stands and shakes her head, "we're all on edge because Coulson died and because of what Howard Stark said, but we can't just assume she's his kid! That's insanity! The likelihood—"
"She looks exactly like him!"
"Our minds are playing tricks on us." She snaps, "we can't decide that until we have proof."
"What more proof do you need!" Clint walks over and he rips off the bandage, he already knows what he's going to find.
"Wha—" Natasha starts.
"Look!" He points to her neck, where the bullet wound is still red and present but the wound is closed. Her footsteps are silent as she comes over. Her eyes nd then fingertips ghost over the wound.
"Holy shit."
Clint eyes tha bandage in his hand. "Do we tell him? Or no? How the hell do we even tell him?"
"He's not going to believe us."
"He has to." Clint urges, "and he's always talking about how he can tell when were lying. So he'll know we're telling the truth!"
Tony stumbles through the door, "I am never flying in that death trap again."
Clint huffs, "that death trap just saved your life."
Tony yawns and walks over to the little metal sink. "Where's Steve?"
"Getting food."
"Ugh, good, I'm starving."
"Yeah, cuz you puked it all up." Natasha quips.
"Hey." Tony grouses, "sorry not all of us got trained to be astronauts as a little shield cadet."
They both smirk and Clint settles on his heels in front of the girl. "She looks so young."
"Yeah, so does her pops." Tony rolls his eyes, "the serum is no joke."
"I wonder what Carter looks like." Natasha speaks, "and Barnes."
"Coulson recognized them." Clint points out, "so they can't look too different."
He's about to stand when he hears a sounds, like someone waking up, a throat swallow and a half groan. He freezes, his face only a foot or so from hers.
She shifts and then goes still, probably realizing she's restrained.
Clint pulls a Steve, "you wanna play possum a bit longer?"
The girl slowly raises her head, her piercing blue eyes meeting his, and her throat is raspy, "what's a possum?"
He blinks, not expecting that answer, "huh?"
She tugs at her restraints, "let me go."
"Not going to happen." Natasha calls, making the girl look over. Then her eyes catch on Tony and she seems to stiffen, "Who are you, what do you want?"
"We don't want to hurt you." Clint offers honestly, "we just have some questions."
She barks out a laugh and then winces, "oh— ow." She looks around, "where's the bastard who shot me."
"Out." Tony snaps. "And you shot him first."
The girl falls quiet and then huffs, "where's Pierce." They stay silent. Not sure if telling her he's dead will be the right choice. But she just gets annoyed, "if this is another fucking test, I swear!" Her voice is strange. Like a mix of accents. Clint's mind reels back to the old films his grandma used to watch when she would baby sit him. The Transatlantic accent. That's what she sounds like.
Natasha circles around, her spine rigid and face alert, "test?"
"I'm not going to try anything else." The girl says, "I've been proving that, haven't I? I've learned my lesson." She looks around and then closes her eyes, "do you hear that, Pierce! I'm obeying!"
He slides backwards, landing on his backside, the turn of events sending him off kilter, "what?"
She glares at him, "I'm not sure what he thinks this is going to tell him, I haven't had an incident since they woke me up. I know my place. I'm behaving. Why the test now? I don't need this. He can trust me."
Natasha is now behind him, leaning close to her, and he can see she's about to ask something, looking determined, when the door opens. They all startle, Steve's appearance like a shot of electricity, reminding them of what's at stake.
The girl goes stiff, her eyes widening even as they drop down to the bloody shirt he's wearing. Steve's eyes her back.
Then he walks to the counter and sets the large bags down. "Eat." He points to the three. "Learn anything?"
The girl leans back, "I'm not talking!"
Steve huffs and rolls his eyes, "they always talk." She glares at him but he ignores her, pulling out food. The smell wafts through the area and he tosses something to Tony, "you seem like a cheeseburger guy. Am I right?"
Tony just nods, ripping the wrapper off.
He throws something to Natasha, "I guessed grilled cheese."
She grins and snags the thick foil wrapped sandwich out of the air.
Then Clint turns and Steve cocks his head, "I wasn't sure for you, figure you would eat whatever I gave you. But—" he tosses something in Clint's direction, something told me to pick that." Clint feels the heat through the bag, two huge soft pretzels inside, dips at the bottom. He looks up. He hasn't had a pretzel since…
He thinks of Barney. Then he thinks of the circus days. "Thanks." His voice is a rasp. "I love pretzels."
Steve nods, pulling out something for himself, a huge tub of macaroni and cheese. He opens the lid, the steam rising off the top.
He walks over, carefully eating a bite and then looking at the girl, "you hungry?"
She narrows her eyes, "no."
Steve grins, "good, because I'm not in the habit of feeding neo-Nazi trash."
The girl wrinkles her brow, "what's a Nazi?"
They all pause.
Then Steve shakes his head, "geez, they really brainwash 'um young, huh?" He leans down, purposefully making sure the savory scent of his food wafts under her nose, "okay, little Hydra tyke, how about you tell us what we want to know and I don't leave you stranded here secured to this chair?"
She strains against her restraints and glares at them, "what do I have to do to prove it to him!? I'm not going to run again, okay? I'm going to obey. Okay!? Okay? Please, just tell Pierce I'm behaving, I don't get this! I haven't misbehaved in a decade! Why keep testing me!?"
Steve tilts his head, "I'm sorry, what?"
She looks to the corners, as if looking for a camera, "is he here? Just please, let me talk to him. I don't want to be put back in the chair. I'm not going to misbehave. Okay? I don't need more tests. I don't understand what I did to feel like he needs to test me again—"
Natasha steps forward, "what's your name?"
"I don't have a name!" She shouts, "I promise. I promise. I forgot it. Okay? The chair took it. I don't know it— I mean, I don't have one!" She looks panicked for a minute before schooling her face, "I am only called by what Pierce assigned to me."
"Which is what?"
"Collateral."
"Your name is Collateral?" Tony asks. "What kind of name is that?"
"It's not a name." She states. "A name implies I have a connection. I have no connections except to Hydra. Collateral is my assigned title."
It sounds like she's repeating this verbatim.
"Ugh." Steve responds, "that's heinous. Why would you allow yourself to be called Collateral?" His response seems to confuse her. But she doesn't say anything to the contrary.
"Okay," Natasha starts, "you don't have a name, but you have to have a mom. Who is yo—"
The flinch is so big it causes them all to startle and freeze.
"Ah—" the girl gasps out, squishing her eyes closed, "ooww—-" she sucks in a deep breath and then her head hangs forward, "I have no connections. I don't have a mum."
Clint hears his heartrate increase.
Mum.
Not mom. She had to have heard it that way to know to pronounce it that way.
He looks up to Steve who is staring at the girl in confusion, "what? Hydra goons aren't even allowed to have a family now?" He huffs, "geez, what a bunch of psychos."
Again she looks at him like he's the one who's insane, "what kind of test is this?" She looks at them as if she expects them to answer.
Clint crouches again, leveling their eyes, "this isn't a test. Alexander Pierce is dead and we need to ask you a few questions."
Her face goes blank, so flat that Clint imagines it's an involuntary response to try to cover up whatever emotions she's feeling.
"I don't believe you." She finally grits out, "I'm not going to be tricked. You hear that, Pierce?" She shouts, "I'm loyal, okay?"
Steve looks annoyed and he walks closer, causing the girl to have to look up, "where would Pierce send two high level cryo pods?"
Her annoyance turns to wariness. "No." She shakes her head, "stop. I'm not telling you anything. Like I told him last time, I don't track them! I leave them alone. I don't know them."
Every word she says just makes Clint's gut twist further.
Steve kicks Clint's boot, telling him to move and he does. Steve takes his place, crouched in front of the girl, and as Clint stares at them, he can see the resemblance even in their profiles. The only difference being her forehead and lips, which resemble her mom's.
"Listen, kid." Steve says with a tone that surprises Clint, almost… kind. "I know Hydra or whatever they called themselves to you have raised you to believe and think one way. But they've been brainwashing you. Hydra doesn't believe in the good of all mankind and its safety. They believe in power and keeping people in line." He tilts his head, "you've said they're testing you a couple of times now, right?" She doesn't respond but he doesn't seem dissuaded, "if they weren't interested in making sure you stay in line, why would your loyalties need to be tested, hmm? So I know they've probably done a number on you, but you're young—"
"I'm not." She snaps.
And Steve looks amused, "yeah, okay, you're like these guys over here," he juts a thumb towards the three of them and Clint remembers their first encounter, being tied up insisting they weren't rookies, "you're the wisest of the pack." Then he offers her a granola bar that Clint hadn't even seen him holding, "so if you're willing to talk to us, maybe we can talk about letting you go, okay?"
The girl looks confused, almost frantic, she shuts her eyes, "I don't understand. I don't understand."
"It's confusing." Natasha comments, walking forward and crouching next to Steve, "but I know what it's like to have your entire world flip upside down and what you thought was true isn't true at all. Okay? So please—"
The rending of metal cuts through the room and suddenly the girl is on her feet, she jumps back, and starts for the door, but Steve is there first, "wrong choice." He growls, grasping her arm and pulling her backwards. She kicks out, trying to catch his leg but he dodges, moving left and spinning her forcefully. She whips around but before she can get balance he drops, spinning his leg and catching her ankles, causing her to slam into the ground with enough force a normal human would have their breath stolen.
But she just growls and starts to get up.
But Clint hears the click and he gasps as Steve holds a pistol, hammer pulled back and pointed at his daughter's face, "maybe I miscalculated the strength of the Quinjet windshield when I shot you the first time. But there's no windshield to keep these bullets from entering your eye sockets and splattering your brain against the back of your skull. So try that again, and you won't even live long enough to regret it."
"Don't—" Natasha says with an urgent tone, "don't."
Steve glares at Natasha, pistol still aimed, "you're the one who tied her up, wanna explain?"
They look at the chair and see that one of the metal spokes is bent up.
"Must have been a rusty chair." Natasha lies.
Steve sighs and looks towards the girl, "you're a tough bird, I'll give you that." Then he hauls the girl up and onto another chair. "Someone get me the metal restraints from the jet."
Clint looks at Tony who shrugs, "how the hell am I supposed to know where those are?"
Clint rolls his eyes, "I'll get them."
Steve secures her, and triple checks it. "Okay, so I guess you're choosing the hard way. Unless you've changed your mind?"
Her teeth are gritted, "changing my mind about what?"
"Are you still loyal to Hydra and Alexander Pierce? Of so, you will be tortured until you give the information we want." He flips a knife that again seems to have appeared out of nowhere, and then he taps his knee with it, "or you give us the information that we want and I drop you in the middle of nowhere USA. Alive."
Her eyes narrow, "okay, if this isn't a test—" she says with spite, clearly still believing it is a test, "—prove it that Pierce is dead."
Steve turns to Tony, "any news coverage?"
Tony pulls out his phone and starts typing. Then Clint hears a newscaster speaking—
— day couldn't get anymore surprising, you'd be wrong. After the numerous attempts to get a comment about the files alleging the use of AI and other security tools to invade people's privacy, the most shocking revelation was that it was Hydra, a Nazi terrorist organization dating back to JoHann Schmidt. While Shield refused to comment at first, an employee, whose own grandfather fought against Schmidt, has revealed that Alexander Pierce, now known as the leader of the Hydra infestation into Shield was found shot to death on top of Shield HQ in DC." A Panoramic shot of the Triskelion shows and then back to the newscaster, "lots of speculation into who has killed the man, but that investigation may be overshadowed with how deep this conspiracy into our nation's security seems to go. More when we return."
Absolute havoc and panic and anger and every emotion floods the girl's face, she slams her eyes shut and pulls against the restraints, "it's still a test, this is still a test. Stop. Stop. I won't! I won't—!" Clint watches as her arms seem to shake, she's pulling hard, and he hears it. The creak of the metal restraints.
"Woah!" Natasha gasps, "stop!"
Steve's face shows one of the first moments of unsurety that Clint's seen. And then he surprises them all by grasping the girl's face, some sort of realization clicking on his expression, "hey, hey—" he snaps, getting the girl's attention, his hands on either side of her face, "hey, listen to me. This isn't a test. Pierce doesn't give orders anymore. Pierce is dead. And if you're really so scared about Pierce finding out about you being disloyal, then you don't have to worry about that, because he's dead. I shot him myself and watched him bleed out on that rooftop."
She's staring at him so intensely, "how am I just supposed to trust you? I don't even know you."
Steve pulls his hands away and he reaches behind her, crunching the metal restraints and releasing her, "all we want from you is information."
"What if I don't know what you want?"
"Then you leave. No harm no foul."
"What if I do know and I tell you and then you just throw me back to Pierce."
Tony steps up, showing another newscast,
—Shocking reports that the Director of Shield, now known to have been unknowingly harboring the old Nazi organization Hydra, has been shot and killed at the headquarters earlier today—
He clicks something and it switches—
—Unexpected death of the Shield Director—
Another
—unsure of the circumstances, but if Shield is able to rally, will they choose a new Director out of their remaining ranks? How do we know the new guy won't be Hydra?
Another
—in shambles! How are we supposed to trust Shield now when they didn't even know what was growing in their own backyard? And it seems very coincidental that the leader is killed mere minutes after the release of these damning files!
Clint hears a choked sound and he turns to see her crying, eyes wide as she stares at the screen, "he's dead?" She asks, "really? He's really dead?" She looks up at them, as if desperate to know if that's the truth.
And something shifts in Steve, his face growing solemn but he nods, "he's really dead."
Then the girl is laughing, sobbing and laughing and she covers her face with her hands.
Clint almost feels amused at the way Steve crouches by the chair and puts a reassuring hand on her shoulder, "seems like you knew he was evil all along."
She's shaking her head, "I hate him, I hate him."
"You hated him. Tony corrects. "And I'm guessing from the sound of it he knew that. Is that why he tested you so often?"
She's wiping at her face, nodding, "I tried so hard to hide it. But it's like he always knew. I hated the way he treated me like a pet. Like a dog that had to do his bedding or be whipped. The Asset always told me to stop wearing my emotions on my face, but I couldn't help it. I can't help it."
"The Asset?" Clint asks, "who's that?"
A moment of wariness before she takes a deep breath and seems to decide to trust them, "he's one of the two you're after I think. You said cryo pods, right?"
Steve nods, "yes, two of them."
"You're probably referring to the Asset and the Agent." She wrinkles her nose, "I haven't been in the same facility as them in years, and that was before they put me in the machine and cryo too, but they were Hydra's prized possessions."
Clint looks at Natasha who is trying very hard not to show her disbelief on her face while Tony is full on wide eyed and mouth gaped. "Agent." He repeats slowly. "Agent." He repeats, looking at Clint as if expecting a reaction. Clint makes a cutting motion across his neck and Tony covers his eyes with his hand.
"Machine?" Steve asks, "what machine?"
"Messes with memories."
"Oh my—" Tony cuts himself off, "I'm going to be sick."
"Stop throwing up!" Natasha snaps, then turns back to the girl, "do you know where they are?"
The girl shakes her head, "no. Pierce never lets me near him anymore."
Clint knows the answer, or he thinks he does, "why not?"
"His programming always gets weird around me—"
"Programming?"
She nods, "yeah, they both get wiped in the machine and reused for new missions occasionally. Like little assassin robots."
The banal way she says this makes Clint feel like puking too but he keeps that to himself.
Then she looks a bit wary, "is that why you're after them? You want to use them?"
"No." Natasha says so quickly it surprises him, "can the programming be undone?"
Surprise blooms across the girl's face, "it's something that has to be upkept anyways. Time undoes it."
Relief floods through him. Okay, that's the most hopeful he's felt in a while. "Why do you think his programming goes weird when you're around?" Natasha presses, "why you?"
The girl shrugs, "I don't really know. The Asset was supposed to train me, but he wouldn't do it the way they wanted and they got all bent out of shape about it and stopped letting me near him."
Clint feels an idea start to grow. "When was the last time they put you in the machine?"
She blinks, "I don't know, a few days ago? Right after they brought me out of cryo."
"How long were you in cryo?"
"Only 7 years this time."
Clint nods, and looks over at Steve who has just been listening quietly the whole time.
This time. Only 7 years. So calm. No idea that that isn't normal. It's really starting to hit him that this girl was raised with Hydra.
How many years has this girl actually lived? "How often have you gone in cryo?" Clint asks as if that's a completely normal sentence, which to this girl it is.
"Pretty often." The girl answers, "they still don't trust me."
"And why don't they trust you?" Steve finally speaks, walking forward.
She looks up at him, "because even though I couldn't explain how I knew, I knew they weren't good. The way they treated people of non 'value' to them? Who had nothing to give? I saw that. Watched them plow through people like they were useless or until they were used up. I never trusted them. So they never trusted me. I would ask too many questions and they would get annoyed and wipe me. Or store me for years." She says this so calmly. Having your brain wiped? No big deal. It's normal. "But I got tired of living that way, so I tried to obey and listen. Run their little missions for them. Pass their little tests. But I never did a very convincing job."
Something about that rankles his brain. If she'd been taken at birth… They would have been able to instill their "values" in her from day one. Breaking through that sort of psychological control would be incredibly difficult. She would have to have intuition and a moral scale to 'know' they were bad. She would have had to have been taught that. And if the Asset and the Agent went off programming around her.. that would mean that somewhere locked in their brains they know her. Which would be unlikely if they never saw her grow up.
He chokes on his own thoughts. Carter raised this girl. Somehow. Some way. She was involved.
"Do you know who they are?" Steve asks, "what their actual names are?"
She shakes her head, "no. I was never told." Then she looks worried, "but I might know other stuff you need."
"No one's leaving you behind." Natasha says quickly, reassuring the girl. "Are you hungry?"
She nods and Steve reaches over, snagging the bag off the counter and handing it to her, "eat up."
She pulls out another grilled cheese and starts eating, barely looking at them.
Her appetite reminds Clint of Steve's.
Steve turns to them and sighs, "I don't know what to tell you." He gestures to the quinjet, "we don't have a lead. She doesn't know where they are. Now that Shield and Hydra are both in shambles, who knows who knows. Or if they would tell us. Tony, you find anything in the Shield servers yet?"
Tony shakes his head, "Hydra may he's been in Shield's servos but it wasn't the opposite. We would need access directly to Hydra's files. And that's if it's recorded where they were taken."
Clint looks at Natasha and Natasha is looking at him.
They know. It's now. They have to tell him. Now.
"Steve." Natasha calls, her eyes still on Clint. "Steve, we need to talk—" The girl goes rigid, and then her eyes shut and she clutches at her head, "ah—" she groans out. They all turn to her, she's breathing heavily, wincing.
"You okay?"
"Is it the bullet wounds?" Tony asks.
She shakes her head. "No, no that's a glitch."
"What's a glitch?"
"Something gets triggered. Something they erased. They associate it with pain so you never willingly choose to think about it."
"Holy shit—" Tony breathes out. And Clint knows Natasha understands too because they're all just staring.
"What was the trigger?" Steve asks. Oblivious. Totally out of the loop.
Steve.
They erased the name Steve. Which means she knew her dad's name at some point—
He wants to fist fight everyone right now.
Instead he takes a deep breath and he steps forward, "we need to talk to you."
Steve turns, "me?"
Natasha steps up, "yes you. And you have to trust us."
He frowns, "why."
"Because you asked us to trust you, dammit, and we did!" She snaps, "so now it's our turn. We're going to tell you something. And your first instinct is going to be denying it and hating it. But it's the truth. And we can prove it to you."
"Maybe out of the range of listening ears, hmm?" Tony suggests, looking at the girl who is still eating.
"She doesn't know them. We can get to her soon." Natasha states, "Steve—" The girl winces, and Steve looks over, concern on his face, "listen to us. Howard was right. Sergeant Barnes and Agent Carter weren't killed in that —"
Steve steps back, looking at them in disbelief, betrayal clear on his face, "that's enough—"
"No!" Natasha shouts, "it's not enough! They're alive! They are the ones in the pods!"
"Natasha," Steve snaps, "you have no idea what you're talking about—"
She does." Clint steps in, backing her up "the Asset is Barnes. The Agent is Carter."
"You shut the hell up!" Steve stabs a finger at them, "That's impossible! I scoured every inch of this damn planet looking for them, believing Howard's theory! I looked—" His voice cracks and he growls, angry at them, "— for years. Even after I told Howard off, I still looked. Wanting to be wrong. Wanting to find them. But no." He's stepping back, shaking his head, "I raided dozens of Hydra faculties. I tore through them. I looked. I looked." The weight of the world seems to rest on his shoulders, "I even found out where Hydra buried their bodies and dug those places up. Hoping to find them." Clint feels sick. "It's not possible. I would have found them." He says it so firmly and so angrily that Clint can practically feel the guilt radiating off him in waves.
Natasha looks equally stricken. Howard had made it seem like he'd given up looking for them relatively quickly… Steve just hadn't told Howard that he was still looking.
"Did you know?" Tony asks, his voice raw, "did you know?"
Steve looks up, his face looking almost as old and weary as he actually is. "Know what?"
The air freezes as Tony speaks, "did you know she was pregnant?"
Clint expects a denial. He expects confusion.
He does not expect Steve's face to crack, the sides of his mouth moving down as his eyes turn red and he shoves his palms against his eye sockets, a silent shake of his shoulders.
Natasha gasps, and Clint feels the air leave him in a woosh.
He knew.
HE KNEW.
"You knew?" Tony shouts. "My dad's been wracked with guilt for forever and you fucking knew?"
Steve looks up with a confused expression, eyes red, "Howard knew?"
Tony reels back, "you didn't know he knew?"
Clint looks at the girl who is watching everything with wide curious eyes, looking confused.
"How did you know?" Natasha asks, "if you Howard hadn't told you?"
Steve's voice is brittle, "I heard it's heartbeat." His hands shake, "I heard it, and I knew." He covers his face again, "and I still let her go. I didn't even know if she knew yet. She hadn't told me." He looks up, anguish on his face, "it wouldn't have been fair for me to find out first or take away her choice or chance to tell me. I couldn't tell her I knew! I waited, hoping she'd tell me, but she didn't—" Clint can hear the decades of anguish rising up, and spilling over, something he's kept to himself for so long now just flooding out. "It was still so early and I let her go on that damn mission because of her pride! She would have hated that I found out first, or spoiled the surprise. So I said nothing. Let her go and—" He curls inward, "I got her killed. Them both."
Clint is reeling, fucking reeling. But he can't let him think that. "No, Steve, you didn't." He turns to the girl, "I'm very sorry to be throwing you into this." He grabs Steve's arm and yanks him forward, putting him in front of the girl. "Look at her."
Steve looks at him, confused, "what?"
"LOOK AT HER." Then he points to the hair, "see that? Match anyone else in this room?" Then he points to her eyes, "what about those?" Then he points to the girl's lips who is pulling her head back, "those look like Carter's lips. Can't you see it!?"
Steve looks at him like he's insane.
"She's your daughter." Tony explains, "she's your daughter."
Both father and daughter look at each other and then simultaneously say, "what?"
Natasha pushes in front of the girl, staring at her, "Steve." She says firmly. The girl winces and Natash points, "See! They tried to erase your name." The girl is looking at them like she's being held hostage again.
"This mission is getting to your heads." Steve snaps, "get it together."
Natasha doesn't relinquish her gaze, "what does the Asset look like?"
The girl shifts, "uh.. he's white. Brunette."
"Eyes?"
"Blue."
"Any scars or things you remember about him?"
The girl shrugs back, not liking the barrage of questions, "I don't know, he has a prosthetic arm."
"And the Agent?"
The girl winces again, "I-I don't think I've ever seen her."
"That's not true."
"How the hell would you know!"
"They erased her. Why?"
"I don't know."
"Yes you do! WHY?"
"I don't know!" The girl snaps back, "that's something they never talked about!"
"Explain why!" Natasha is pressing closer, making the girl lean back, "there's only one reason to erase someone's memory of someone else!"
Tony whispers, "they were important."
Natasha nods, "The Agent is your mom. Agent Peggy Carter."
The girl is shifting, "I don't have a mum."
Steve goes rigid, and Clint watches the recollection click. He's heard her say it that way now twice.
Suddenly he's on his knees in front of her, "maybe they erased what she looks like, but you'd know if what I say was right or wrong right? You'd feel it?"
She startles at his close proximity, but half shrugs, "I don't know."
"Something—" he practically begs, "there has to be something. She's unforgettable. No matter how hard they tried, if you knew her you'd never forget her."
Clint feels his eyes pricking, he looks up and Natasha is holding her throat very tightly.
"What do you remember about being a child?" Natasha asks, and Steve looks pale, like a ghost.
"Uh—" the girl seems to shy away from the pressure but she does seem to consider it. After a few minutes she sighs, "I don't know, a room? Some room? The only really coherent thing I can remember every time that they can't manage to erase was the tune."
"Tune?" Tony asks, "what tune?"
"Something that just replays in my head."
"Is it a song?"
"I don't know if there are words." The girl says, "just know the tune."
Tony looks at him, "anything Carter used to sing or hum a lot?"
Steve shakes his head, "she didn't sing much. Or hum, she preferred the radio or—" his eyes widen and they turn red again, his eyes glazed staring far away, and then he swallows and starts to hum, his eyes closed. Some soft melody that Clint doesn't recognize.
The girl's back straightens, eyes widening as she stares at Steve like he's an alien. She stands, pushing the chair back with her body as she backs away.
Steve doesn't stop her. His knees on the ground as he just stares at the wall.
"How do you know that?" The girl asks, looking scared, "how could you possibly know that!?"
Steve's head sinks, resting on the ground, his hands in fists against the concrete. Clint can tell he's not breathing. His body absolutely still.
She's looking at them like they should be explaining what the hell is going on. But Clint just shrugs and feels helpless.
"This is not possible." He hears Steve whisper out. "This can't be true." His head raises up and he looks at her, disbelief clear, "I shot you."
And she seems to not even blink, her body still rigid as she whispers back, "I shot you first."
Then it's like he needs confirmation, can't quite believe it, "are you… healthy?"
Her brow furrows, "excuse me?"
"Did they run tests on you? Take your blood?"
She nods, "yeah, all the time."
His eyes close, "they knew."
"Knew what?"
Guilt riddles his face, "that you're…" his voice goes quiet, "—mine."
—-