(hold, still writing) 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐰𝐢𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐬 - 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐚 𝐫.

[𝐒𝐈𝐗]

𝐊𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐀

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. I guess he never did get you to sign them." Fury threw the Captain America cards Phil wanted Steve to sign onto the table. "We're dead in the air up here." Steve picked up one of the cards, blood smeared on it. He stared at it, a sad look on his face. "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..."

I sighed, putting my hand on Steve's shoulder, comfortingly.

"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," I glanced at Tony who had his head hung low. "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." Stark got up and walked away.

I left the room, going to see if Clint was ok. I opened the door and saw him tied up. Natasha was pouring him some water as he spoke.

"You ever had someone take your brain and play? Pull you out and stuff something else in? Do you know what it's like to be unmade?" he asked.

"You know that she does." I said, closing the door. "You know we both do."

"Katherine." he nodded.

"Clint. How are you feeling?"

"Why am I back?" he ignored me and asked. "How'd you get him out?"

"You know, I really hate being ignored. It's called cognitive recalibration." I rolled my eyes.

"In other words, we hit you really hard on the head." Natasha chuckled, making him drink some water as I started untying him.

"Thanks... how many Agents did I-" Clint started.

"Don't." Natasha and I both stopped him.

"Don't do that to yourself, Clint." I shook my head.

"This is Loki. This is monsters and magic, and nothing we were ever trained for." Natasha said.

"Loki, did he get away?" he asked.

"Yeah. I don't suppose you know where."

"I didn't need to know. I didn't ask. He's going to make his play soon, though." he reached for more water. "Today."

"We have to stop him." I said and Natasha nodded.

"Yeah? Who's 'we'?" asked Barton.

"Don't know. Whoever's left." Natasha shrugged.

"Well... if I put an arrow through Loki's eye socket, I would sleep better, I suppose."

"Now you sound like you." she said as I sat down in the chair, in front of him, Natasha sitting on the bed, next to him.

"But you don't. You're a spy. Not a soldier. Now you want to wade into a war. Why? What did Loki do to you?"

"He didn't do anything. I just..."

"Nat... did he say something to you?" I asked.

As angry as I was with her, I could see something was wrong, and I wasn't going to ignore it.

"I've been compromised. Katherine, we've got red in our ledger. I'd like to wipe mine out." she looked at me and back at Barton.

"So would I, I guess." I said after a few moments.