A/N: Have you guys also seen episode 13 x 13 of supernatural.? Sho0Keth. Have you guys seen the new Avengers: Infinity War trailer? Im sh00k.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers or Supernatural

Warnings: The regular stuff.

Funny and ironically enough, it was Clint who finally cracked. The split had already begun a long time ago, but only now had it shattered. A soft tap from a hammer against the fragile glass, and it all came tumbling down like a house of card.

He had been eating his cereal with the remaining team, consisting of Natasha and Tony, when looking at the wind made him realize something: Gabriel was like the wind. Wild at times, but calming.

"Okay," he said with a deadly calm voice, lowering his spoon as if only realizing that he had been missing something his whole life. "Okay. Am I the only one who's . . . worried about this? Is SHIELD even looking? I mean, if someone captured someone as powerful as Gabriel, shouldn't we have like whole organizations looking for him?"

Tony looked up. Tired lines ran down his face. "Well, yeah. We've tried everything Clint. We're searching everywhere in the U.S. Did you know there are more abandoned warehouses in the country than we expected? No doubt he's being held captive in one of those places, according to Natasha's inspection of the building in her dream." He shot Natasha a look.

Natasha took a sip of her coffee, not at all affected by Tony's hostilness. "I told them to look for any suspicious activity. Earthquakes in areas where they aren't. Forest fires, all that stuff. The sun moving, statues catching on fire, etcetera. It's not my fault Board isn't getting a search party of a thousand people because they don't believe in angels. Or God. "

lLint pursed his lips, unsettled by flood the information that hadn't really been necesarrry. "Has anyone even heard word from Thor?" he asked, trying to change the topic.

"He's searching in Alaska, I think," Tony said, noticing and taking the bait. "I don't know why, thought. I personally had a long conversation and told him that Gabriel said somewhere in the U.S."

"Alaska is an American territory, it makes sense," Natasha added helpfully, also going along with the change, "considering the fact he doesn't know all the geography of the world."

Clint shrugged. His gaze turned to look out the window, and no one added anything else.

o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o

Gabriel was resting, arms crossed in front of his chest and eyes open. He'd withdrawn himself into a memory of a time he went to Puerto Rico—always nice and warm Puerto Rico, right— when a sharp slicing sensation on his face snapped him out of his seemingly coma-induced sleep. The fact that his annoyingly weak, mortal eyes needed to adjust to the darkness allowed for the confusion to settle in.

"Wake up, angel boy."

Gabriel lets out a chortle that quickly turned into a large intake of breath when another jab of uncontrollable pain elsewhere on his body came. He allowed a curse to slip out. "Jeez Louise, looks like somebody woke up on the wrong side of bed today."

A punch to the face and a sharp "shut up" doesn't stop him from making jokes.

Obviously.

A young man with a reddish nose stepped into from the darkness. "Listen," he said in an exasperated voice, arms hanging down by his side. "Doing this is hard enough. It would be better if you shut up and stopped the commentary on how my cuts need to be more deeper. C'mon man, really? It's like you're begging for a long and painful death."

"You talk too much," Gabriel replied.

It was met by a sigh and another slap to the face.

"Just shut up and please, don't squirm this time."

o - o - o

The kid was silent as he surveyed his work.

It was a bold move—staying silent, for silence spoke louder than words.

Gabriel spat out a mouthful of blood, as he tried making out the face in front of him. "What, Mickey? You gonna stand there and look at me like some perv?" Gabriel asked, pushing his limits. "Or are you gonna take the knife and just slip it in my rib?"

Mickey shrugged. "You're egging me on," he concludes. "I know. I've hear about it from the other guys. You make it easier for them thought—you're crazy."

This time, Gabriel laughed loudly. "I like you," he said lazily. "Did you know that I called my brother Mickey to bother him? His name was Michael."

"Hm," Mickey said, wiping the sweat that ran down his face. He inspected the blade and gingerly put it aside as if it hurt him physically. "Well, see you next week, I guess."

Gabriel closed his eyes and gently poked at the spot where something seemed to fizzle on his face. "Yeah, goodnight, I guess."

As soon as Mickey had disappeared through the heavy iron doors, a familiar voice rang out. "How goes it brother?" it called, from the darkness.

"You again," Gabriel said, his voice strangely light as he tried his best to shrug. "Not as bad as I expected. But hey, I'm still alive aren't I?" He lowered his voice. "I think they are getting bored, maybe running out of ideas."

"What makes you think that?"

"Well, they sent Mickey again. You know that redhead-"

"Yeah, I know what he looks like," Lucifer said. He began to count the traits on his fingers, each one springin out as he went. "Redhead, greenish-brown eyes, tan skin, kinda looks like an orange. Annoyingly smart—"

"Exactly! Well, anyways" Gabriel continued, rolling his eyes as he weaily glanced to the door, "this is the third time they sent him. I think he's still a rookie in training. He seems hesitant to inflict pain, and man, oh boy, his cuts are sloppy."

Lucifer nodded. "You need to escape soon, or you'll die."

"I know that," Gabriel said. There was something in tone of voice that clearly said, I-know-and-I-don't-want-to-talk-about-it. "You've said it like thirty thousand twenty four times. But it's not like I can escape. They put up this new warding that blocks my powers."

"I know that, and you're going to die," Lucifer stated. He then smiled and focused his attention to his hands.

Gabriel paid no attention to the words, as he tried to pop his shoulder back into place. He continued, thinking out loud. "They say they are not working for the pruned grape, I dunno . . . but I haven't seen the Mad Titan in my paradise, dreams, or pain induced comas at all, though. Maybe he's plotting for another unsuccessful world domination plan. I should warn Thor."

"First, you should worry about yourself. Can you send out another message? The closest of your friends?"

Gabriel moved his arms. "I don't think I have friends"

"Don't you have like, an emergency supply of grace or something for emergencies like these?" Lucifer went back to pacing and picking at his nails.

"Oh, yeah," Gabriel said. "I almost forgot about that. Thanks Lucifer."

"Thank yourself."

Then Gabriel blinked, and Lucifer was gone.

o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o

At the early callings of the morning, the Avengers found themselves seating around a large table. Fury, at the head of it, and Agent Hills on his right side. He was leaning back in his chair, and once silence and ease had settled throughout the group, he began, "As you might have heard, Gabriel was sabotaged when locating the tesseract-"

"Geez," Tony interrupted, looking around. "Who would've thought? It's not like I don't hear his annoying yap or jokes anymore. Oh, and gossip about the Tesseract, and how it's locked up nice and safe in a secure and respected facility , like it's supposed to be right?"

Bruce coughed, edging an elbow towards Tony's ribs to shut him up. "You can continue, Director," he said.

Fury did continue—smoothly—throwing his own annoyed look at being interrupted. "As I was saying or trying to say, we as well, are trying to locate the Tesseract too."

Steve shrugged, adding his thoughts once Fury had finished speaking. "And how did you let it fall into the hands of an enemy? Not to mention, Gabriel, who should've been supervised and controlled-"

"It's not like we wanted this to happen," Fury bit out, both hands gripping his seat. "Gabriel is as powerful as the Tesseract, and apparently that also went missing right under our noses. Poof, two valuable weapons—gone, and no one knows where they went."

"I'm pretty sure Gabriel would whip your ass if he heard you call him a weapon," Tony exclaimed sarcastically. "He's powerful, but he isn't a weapon."

"Gabriel doesn't like to be controlled," Bruce added. "I thought you knew that Steve."

"What I meant was that if we had him under our scopes, or if we payed attention and actually talked to him —got him on our side— then it would be easier to predict where he went."

"Are you kidding me?" Tony said, throwing his hands up in the air. "He said he was an archangel, Steve. An Archangel. He told us that he isn't from around here, I bet not even from this dimension—yep that's right, I just said that—and you wanted us to get to know him? With what time? He disappeared every single time we fought or did anything."

Bruce seemed to get it, his eyes widened and he put his hands on the table. "Wait," he said, raising a hand, "let him explain."

Steve nodded, sitting up. "No, no. You're misunderstanding-"

Tony didn't give him a chance. "We didn't even know he existed until he came back with Loki's empty husk of a body to toll around. He's a divine power, up at the top. We won't ever be able to tell exactly where he's going."

"Unless we put a tracker on him," Hills interrupted. "Which, no doubtelty would've been found out as soon as we were thinking about it, which is why we didn't."

Clint shot Agent Hills an are-you-guys-for-real? look, but kept shut.

"Gentlemen," Fury barked out. "Now that we got all of that apparent ranting out of the way, I think Natasha and Clint have something to say. Stark, don't interrupt."

Clint directed his attention to the rest. "Bruce and Tony should know something about this, I guess . . . Gabriel said the Tesseract was dampening his powers or something," Clint provided. "So if that's happening, hypothetically, that means he must be close to the Tesseract. Somewhere near it at least."

Natasha nodded. "Yep, not to mention when we took him down the first time, he reacted negatively from Scepter. In my dream he was terribly weakened."

Steve was nodding again, a deep look of thought on his face. He said, "So it's plausible to say, that if we find a spike or reading from the Tesseract, we find him."

"Most likely," Natasha added. "If we don't, at least we'll get the guys who have the Tesseract into giving us information where Gabriel is."

Bruce stood up, looking at Fury. "Well, with this new information, I'm going to get started on trying to find a location of the Tesseract."

Tony jumped up, a seizing the chance to leave the group, almost tumbling over the chair. "I'll be going with Mr. Green, here, okay Fury?" He clapped Bruce on the back and steered him to the exit in a rush. "Let's get started Bruce, we got loads to do."

And as they vanished around a corner, scientific words and murmurs spilling from their lips, Fury let out a sigh. "Natasha—report. Have you seen or gotten anything else from Gabriel?"

"No, Director," Natasha answered. "But as soon as I get anything off or something that seems like him, I'll let you know immediately."

Fury nodded, looking around. "Rogers, Romanoff, Barton, Hill, you are dismissed."

o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o

"You don't find it strange that Gabriel was in your mind?" Clint asked. He was being careful not to sound too eager to find the answer. His fingers kept strumming his coat pocket. Natasha noticed, and Clint thought he wasn't doing a good job.

"Nope," Natasha answered, adjusting her jacket. "Never."

"You didn't feel anything? No fogginess, no feeling like you're underwater and your limbs feel heavy and far away? So it was just like a dream, except with Gabriel in it?"

"That's right," Natasha replied. "It felt like a very lucid dream that I couldn't control because it went at its own pace, but I didn't feel underwater or like I was being controlled."

"It didn't bother you that he was wearing Loki's, uh, body? DId you ever think it was just you having a dream about Loki?"

"At first I did, which is why when I tried attacking he stopped me at once, and as soon as I came face to face with Loki's body, Gabriel told me to take it easy, right after he announced his name." She smiled. "You know how he is. I immediately knew it was him."

Clint looked down at his hands and slowly curled them into light fists. "Oh," he said, feigning no chance despite feeling a drop of fear. "Well, um, I guess I'll be around."

"You should go and take a nap. Rest for a while. You look tired and it hasn't been helping we're looking for Gabriel all around the United States."

Cracking a smile, and retreating towards the end of a hall, Clint said, "Thanks Nat, you sleep too, alright?"

He turned around slowly, and walked away quickly without waiting to hear Natasha's response. It had been true. With everything going on, his limbs felt like lead.

So he went to his room, which was adjacent to the cafeteria, which was a good thing. He was hungry these days, but despite having eaten and eaten and eaten, the fatigue in his limbs, that seemed to seep into his bones wouldn't just go away.

So that instant, as soon as he had tossed his boot into a heap beside his bed, and his head hit the pillow, he was asleep.

o - o - o

Clint felt light headed as he came face to face with Loki. Despite the hours of therapy he went to, to try and clear his memories of what he had done and what had been done to him, the sight of Loki always made him feel sick. Made him shiver and sick to the pit of his stomach,

He waited patiently for Loki to start yelling, or screaming. Or unsulting and weaving his web of lies. He waited for the memories to play back, he waited for looks of familiar horror and fear that would be eventually wiped frozen, as an arrow sucked the life out of their eyes.

And Clint held his breath, telling himself that it would pass.

It was just a dream, it always was.

"I was kind of hoping for Natasha," the god said. "Or maybe Thor."

Clint felt his eyebrows shooting up in surprise. "What?"

And then, Loki broke into a ridiculously happy, weird grin and said, "Hiya Clint. I was wondering when someone would come around and sleep. Man, you scared me there."

Letting out a silent breath, Clint relaxed a bit. He knew that tone, and that somewhat arrogant, light behavior. "Gabriel," he said.

"Yep, that's me," Gabriel replied, pointing to himself.

But the relaxation didn't last long. It was replaced with slow creeping hostility and partial anger that spread all over his body. "What are you doing here? Are you even Gabriel?" Clint asked. "Didn't I tell you-"

"Course I am," Loki —Gabriel interrupted"Who else would have the magnificent power to get into dreams and all that good stuff? Not to mention looking devilishly handsome in the body of another? But besides that, did you get my message through Nat?"

That was a little alleviating, Clint guessed.

"Yeah," he said after a while. "She didn't say much, though. I don't know if it's because you didn't give her much to work with, or she forgot. Dreams do that…. She said only to look out for disturbances, weird ones. And to check underground abandoned warehouses or house and all that."

"I noticed that the information might have not helped bit."

"That's right," Clint said. "How did you even get captured? You're an angel—archangel. You're supposed to be an all powerful deity."

Gabriel laughed lightly, his hands curling up into fists. "Ah, ah, ah, Clint. You're thinking and looking at the wrong angles. I can—am powerful. But put two powerful things together, and things go to mush."

"The Tesseract," Clint supplied. That much was obvious.

"Bingo, pal." Gabriel snapped, and started to walk in circles. "The Tesseract does something to my powers, dampens them or something. I dunno, but it feels weird, like something is forcing itself onto me." He shivered.

"I know that, you said it before . . . " Clint said slowly, "And you're in my dream."

"Well that one is obvious." He raised his hands as if he were preaching at a church. "I didn't force my way here, nuh uh, that's not my code. But this"—he pointed around—"is happening only if you allowed for it in some way." He began to look around. "Yeah, I need help. And advice on picking locks. Like fifteen heavy duty locks."

There was a pause as Clint thought about what he had said, before reassuring firmly, "We're looking for you."

"Yep, I know that too, now with your experience out in the field, tell me how to pick a lock and beat up ten to fifteen men in a weakened body."

Clint let a small smile form on his face. "Oh boy, where do I start?"

And then for about half an hour, Clint proceeded to tell Gabriel everything he knew about locks.

o - o - o

"So is there a specific time when I get out or something? Or do you just leave leave? Do I wake up? How long has it been?" The questions ran out like the wind, untamed and unpredictable. Well, not unpredictable. Clint had been gathering such thoughts over the long period of silence where Gabriel had begun humming and playing chess by himself.

"Oh, well . . . Umm," Gabriel looked around and tapped his arm like he had something important engraved there. "I'm just keeping you here for now," he said simply, as if it were obvious.

"Why?"

"Because I'm lonely, and my brother is annoying," Gabriel answered. The tapping continued. It was like an itch. "I have many siblings, but this one is just plain annoying."

"You're brother? Another archangel? Then why the hell isn't he helping you get out?" Clint stood up and began pacing.

"Wellllll, It's because I think he's not real. I've begun to hallucinate," Gabriel said admitting it slowly, his face twisting to a grimace. "But he-I, it's all me, I think I can escape. Soon."

"Soon? Is soon a year? Because I'm not giving up a year of my life trying to find you."

Gabriel chuckled, still tapping at his wrist. "I have no doubt about that. But how about the Tesseract, hm? I've seen and heard stories of mortals, generations upon generations, looking for it. Their whole lives were wasted. They found it, but now it's gone. But-" he raised a finger and wagged it in front of his face—"if you find the Tesseract, you find me."

And once his big speech was over he smiled triumphantly and won the chess game.

"When am I going to get out of here? I'm bored too. And you seem fine by yourself, playing chess and all that," Clint said after a while. He was laying down on the floor, his eyes staring at a white sky.

"You look pretty well, I might say. Sane."

"I dunno, I don't think I was very sane to begin with," Gabriel joked. "No, Clint, wait I'm kidding, I am sane. Did you have siblings? Mine drove me mad, imagine—hundred and thousand and millions of younger siblings running around."

Clint made no comment on that. "So how do we find you? "

Gabriel shrugged and make a 'I dunno' noise, before he turned back to his new game of checkers.

"Natasha said the connection between her and you was cut short. Why?"

Gabriel made a dismissive wave, still not fully paying attention. "Well, duh. It's because I was terribly weakened and tired. But now, I have enough strength to send out a help signal."

"Going back to the subject of my dream, why me?"

"Last option, really." Gabriel stood up. "Bye."

Clint quickly sat up. "Wait," he said, a hand reaching out. "Is that it? You're just going to send me back without anything else?"

Gabriel let out a wistful smile. "I do what I want, hawkboy."

o - o - o

When Clint woke up, he was met by horrible white blinding lights that made it impossible to open his eyes. He let out a groan and flinched, curling up on himself because the lights signed right through his eyelids.

"He's awake," a voice said. "Step back, give him some air."

Clint groaned again. "Am I awake? For real?"

A hand touched his shoulder. It was gentle and reassure at the same time. "You sure weer. You almost gave me us a heart attack."

"Natasha?" Clint asked, his back feeling stiff as a board and his throat feeling like he had been stranded in a desert for a week. "Tash, that you?"

"Of course it is," Natasha answered. "Who else would be this close to whooping your butt for not waking up for three days?"

"Three days?"

"I know who would," a new voice called out. "No doubt Fury would. I mean, c'mon, have you seen his recently? His mood is...man, I can't even explain it.

"Tony shut the hell up or I'll shut you up," Clint growled out, his head in the beginning stages of a migraine. He was still having difficulty opening his eyes. "Man, what the hell. What is is with hospitals and all the clichéd lights?"

There is another soft murmur of words and rustling of feet against the smooth tiled floor. The lights slowly start to lower, before completely shutting off.

"There you go, buddy," Tony said, somewhere near the left of him. "Can you see better now?"

"Much better," Clint answered as his eyes adjusted themselves to the soft, naturally lighting of the room. He quickly sat up, and let his legs dangle on the side of the bed. "Oh boy, do I got some news for you guys," he said, his voice laced with excitement. "Guess who visited me in my dream."

Natasha cast him a knowing look, her eyebrow raised as she waited patiently to hear his answer.

Tony raised his hand. "Gabriel," he volunteered. "Right? It had to be him. Right?"

And Clint smiled and said, "Bingo."

SORRY FOR ANY MISTAKES MY EYES ARE LEGIT BURNING

A/N: Oof, sorry for shorish chapter. hahhahhRIP. I ran out of ideas. And also, I literally finished this at 12 am and I decided to clean it up and post it in the morning at 7, but then I couldn't even log into my account.