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Aries' hands sifted through the dirt floor as she spoke.

"Clint showed up one night after a show in New York. I wasn't the first person to meet him, he actually met Zachary first. According to Zach, Clint came up to him after the show and told him that he noticed that he was down an acrobat. Clint offered to take the missing place and Zach asked him to perform so he could see how good he was. It was child's play for Clint and Zach signed him within the hour. After that he became apart of the team if you will. He has been traveling with us ever since."

Bruce frowned, "And he never mentioned anything about his past?"

Aries snorted "Have you ever met a circus performer? Everyone has a sob story past or some hard knock tale, we don't force them out of people. Clint only ever mentioned having some friends in New York, spending a bit of time in the military and a shit childhood."

"You said he had been with you guys ever since, is he here now?" Tony went straight to the point.

"I don't know where he is." Aries stared at them oddly. "I haven't seen him in a few hours, but we were supposed to meet here, he'll turn up eventually. He always does."

"Can you tell us about the last time you spoke with him?" Tony prodded.

"Yeah, he radioed me from his perch." She pointed to a wooden platform about three stories up. "It was really odd. He asked me to check if there were some men milling around the tent, when I told him that there were some guys he started to mutter really strangely. Then he asked for me to get as many of the performers out of the tent as possible, get him his black case from under the bed, pull the fire alarm and run. By then I was confused and scared, it didn't help that Clint wouldn't tell me why either. I knew something wasn't right, but I didn't know what. I made Clint promise me he would meet me here, but then I heard the gunshots and I was terrified. Zach called the police and the second he let me out if his site I ran in here. Clint was gone and there was a pile of bodies filled with arrows. I thought I saw him getting into a jeep with a man carrying a sniper rifle, but I don't know if that's true or not. All I know is the police are looking for him and the man with him, they think he's a psychopath or a sociopath or something. If he is, he is the sweetest, funniest , most coffee addicted killer I've ever met. Clint would never hurt anyone, you have to get them to believe that!"

Aries had tears dripping from her eyes by the time she was finished.

"We know." Steve put a hand on her shoulder. "But we need to know one more thing, can you describe the man with him?"

Aries shakily nodded "He was tall, with dark hair. I didn't see his face that well,he had his eyes blacked out with a black smudge. And you probably won't believe me, but I swear that his entire arm was silver."

That was when Steve lost all the colour in his face, Natasha's hand went to her gun, Tony's eyes widened and Bruce slumped back onto his knees.

__________________________

Clint woke up to the sound of his own teeth chattering and he silently cursed himself. It was winter, in Russia for god's sake and he was sleeping on a dirt floor without any coverups. Groaning slightly as he shifted up into sitting position, he felt the mattress move on its crates.

"Seb?" He coughed. "You awake?"

Above him he heard no words then saw two eyes peak over the edge of the bed. He was expecting sleep filled, half open eyes, but that wasn't the case. The eyes that looked down at him were unfocused and a little scared.

"Who are you?" Sebastian's voice sounded strange, "What are you doing here?" He was tensing up, getting ready to either fight or fly.

Clint's first thought was; What? Followed quickly by the calmer voice in his head replaying a memory.