Third Person's Point of View:
Aboard S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helipad
May 3rd, 2012
After the events that were caused by Loki and Katherine, everyone was beginning to settle down and regather. Unfortunately, Banner and Thor were no where to be found, and Coullson had perished at the hands of Katherine. Lucky for Clint though, Natasha had managed to break him from Loki's control after their encounter.
Clint started to slowly wake up, feeling his head pounding as he tried getting up but realized that he was strapped down to the bed. He tried getting out, groaning and trying his best to get his hands free but there was no use. As he kept trying to get free, he heard someone calling to him.
"Clint, you're gonna be all right." He heard them say to him.
He shook his head as he blinked his eyes a couple of times, closing his eyes and trying his best to break through Loki's control. "Katherine...?" He asked while he opened his eyes once again, but was slightly disappointed when he realized it wasn't Katherine, but instead Natasha. "Natasha?"
"You're gonna be fine." Natasha told him while he just shook his head.
"You know that? Is that what you know?" Clint asked her, waking up from Loki's mind control. "I got...I gotta go in though...I gotta flush him out."
Natasha got up, pouring him a glass of water before walking back. "You gotta level out, that's gonna take time."
"You don't understand..." Clint sighed. When Loki took control of his mind, he did exactly what he did to Katherine. Loki messed with every bit of emotion that Clint had for Katherine, he saw it as Clint's weakness and used it to his advantage. Clint was now healing from not only Loki's mind control, but from his heart which Loki had messed and manipulated. "Have you ever had someone take your brain and play? Take you out and stuff something else in...? You know what it's like to be unmade...?"
Natasha lowered her gaze, obviously feeling sympathy for her fellow Avenger and friend. "You know that I do."
Clint shook his head one more time, finally asking Natasha the question he's been itching to ask since he's woken from Loki's mind control. "Why am I back..? How'd you get him out?" Clint asked her.
"Cognitive re-calibration." She stated while he just looked at her. "I hit you really hard in the head."
Clint let out a small laugh before mumbling a, "Thanks."
Natasha smiled at him slightly before moving to release him from his restraints. Clint watched her as his mind was beginning to wonder to different things. And by different things, we mean Katherine. Clint couldn't help but wonder where Katherine was. While under Loki's mind control, he had not remembered a single thing. The last thing he remembers was talking to Katherine before leaving to the S.H.I.E.L.D. base.
Was she all right? Was she hurt? Did Loki get to her too?
"Natasha..." Clint whispered to her. Clint's mind was a little fuzzy, so he needed to remember what the hell happened after getting mind controlled by Loki. He needed to find Katherine and make sure she was all right but first... he needed to know the damage he had done... "How many agents did..--" He started asking her but she interrupted him.
"Don't." She started at him. "Don't do that to yourself Clint." Natasha gave him a hard stare. "This is Loki. This is...monsters and magic and nothing we were ever trained for."
Upon hearing Loki's name, something inside of Clint boiled. He still feels the stings of Loki's control messing with his heart. Loki might have been out but the damage to his heart for the feelings he carried for Katherine were still there. Clint wanted to get Loki back for messing with him, and for using his feelings for Katherine against him.
Loki played on his emotions and Clint wanted revenge.
"Loki." Clint glared. "Did he get away?"
Natasha shook her head. "Don't suppose you know where?"
"No...didn't ask." Clint said as Natasha stood up and turned her back towards him. Clint sat up straight, taking a deep breath while reaching over to take a sip of water. "He's gonna make his play soon though." He took a sip of water. "Today."
As soon as he said that, Natasha turned around to face him. "We need to stop him."
"Yeah? Who's we?" Clint asked her.
"I don't know. Who's ever left." Natasha shrugged while Clint smirked at the ground slightly.
The thought of getting revenge against Loki relaxed him a little. The thought of getting back at Loki for messing with him and his emotions for Katherine, threatening her... Loki had threatened to kill Katherine, Loki had threatened to have Clint kill Katherine, in every way that Clint knew she feared if Clint didn't comply with him.
The thought of hurting Katherine himself was something that Clint couldn't even imagine... And even worse... hurting her and having no control over his actions was something far worse. Clint had hurt Katherine once before, and he swore that he would never do it again...
"Well, if I put an arrow in Loki's eye socket, I'd sleep better, I suppose." Clint laughed slightly.
Natasha took a seat next to Clint, smiling a bit. "Now you sound like you."
Clint looked at her a tad confused. Natasha was his best friend, his only friend, and the only person he would ever consider a friend. They knew each other better than anyone and Clint told Natasha everything about Katherine and him. So Natasha knew what she meant to Clint, despite the fact that Natasha never had the pleasure of meeting her face to face, or even knowing her real name, since Natasha and Clint didn't meet until years after Katherine and Clint's first encounter in Bangladesh. All Natasha knew was there was this girl who had stolen his heart, Clint didn't give Natasha a name or a picture,...
"But you don't." He looked at her. "You're a spy, not a soldier. Now you want to wade into a war. Why? What did Loki do to you?"
Natasha looked at the ground slightly. "He didn't. I just....--" She paused as she looked away.
"Natasha.." Clint whispered to her.
"I've been compromised." She stated simply before looking over at him as he nodded at her and looked down. "I got red in my ledger, i'd like to wipe it out."
Clint just nodded at her, understanding completely where she was coming from. After all, if anyone knows anything about being compromised...
It's him.
*
Bangladesh
March 12th, 2000
Clint quickly made his way towards the building where they had just dragged Katherine into, taking out guards who got in his way.
This whole thing was crazy, he knew that, but there was just something about Katherine. She had gotten into his bloodstream and he couldn't help but want to protect her, save her...
Clint fought his way to the building, getting one of the guards to tell him that they had cornered Katherine on the roof before killing him and running to the roof to save her.
"Stop!" Clint yelled as he shot an arrow at one of the guards surrounding Katherine. They all turned to Clint who had his aim at them, ready to protect Katherine. "Let her go, or else you'll get an arrow straight through the eye. And in case you haven't heard, I never miss."
They all just looked at him while suddenly Clint's target walked forward. "Well I was wondering when you would show up." He smirked slightly at Clint who had his bow pointed at him.
"Let her go." Clint threatened as Katherine just looked at him.
"What is this? Love?" He taunted Clint.
Katherine, using everyone's distraction to her advantage, knocked back one of the guards holding her down and grabbed his gun, starting a shoot out between everyone. Clint quickly started shooting arrows at the guards, taking one down at a time before making his way over to her.
"Are you okay?" He yelled at her over the loud sounds of the gunfire that was ensuring.
"Bite me!" Katherine yelled at him. "Just because you run in here all knight and shining armor like doesn't make you my hero. You still lied and I won't forget that. Anyone who works for S.H.I.E.L.D. is not a hero as far as i'm concerned." Katherine berated him.
Clint tried reasoning with her over the sounds of the gunfire, wanting to get her to understand how sorry he was and how he risked everything just to make sure she was safe. Katherine however, was not interested in listening to it at all. Clint meant nothing to her as far as she was concerned.
At least she thought he meant nothing...
Katherine noticed her target running away with a briefcase as she shot more bullets from the gun she took off a dead guard before running after her target. As she was running towards the target, he turned around and smacked her across the face, knocking her to the ground. She groaned as shots were still being fired everywhere, the gas tanks on the roof leaking and getting ready to explode.
He had his gun pointed at her, panicking as Clint had killed off all of the other guards. He quickly thought on his feet, picking Katherine up and ordering Clint to lower his bow or else he'd kill Katherine.
Clint still had his bow pointed at him, getting ready to take a shot but slowly lowered his bow once he noticed the look of fear flash across Katherine's eyes. Clint sighed before lowering his bow and putting his hands up. The target smirked as he tossed Katherine towards Clint, who caught her before she could hit the ground. Katherine just scoffed before moving away from Clint, standing there with her hands up as well.
"Don't move!" The target yelled at them as Katherine just rolled her eyes. "You've become a real thorn in my side, now...It's time I remove you." He glared at Katherine as she looked at him a bit shocked.
Everything happened so fast, it was like Katherine didn't even get a chance to blink before she knew what was happening.
It was like their target had the gun pointed at her, he shot it but when she opened her eyes again, Clint was lying on the floor bleeding from his collarbone.
Katherine looked at him shocked before dropping to her knees to help him. "You..you took a bullet for me..?" Katherine asked him in a panic as she tried to stop his wound from bleeding.
"Yeah...ahh hurts a lot more than you think." Clint groaned as Katherine lifted her hands and looked at them with horror. She literally had Clint's blood on her hands. I guess that saying 'you don't know how much someone means to you until you almost loose them' is true. Katherine had thought nothing of Clint, nothing more than a passing face on an assignment but it turns out, he might be so much more.
"I'm so sorry..." Katherine whispered as she ripped off a piece of his shirt to tie around his wound to keep it from bleeding out faster.
"So sorry about your boyfriend sweetheart." Their target smirked as he looked away for a second to leave the building before he would set it off to explode in which Katherine used this to her advantage and ran up to him, kicking the device out of his hand and hitting him hard across the face.
He stumbled back as him and Katherine fought each other. Katherine got a few good punches in, but so did her target. He managed to bust open Katherine's lip and give her a little wound on her forehead. Eventually though, Katherine managed to get the upper hand and pinned him to the floor, getting ready to kill him.
"Wait, stop!" Clint yelled at Katherine. "Don't do it. It's not worth it."
Katherine stopped what she was doing for a second to look at Clint who was now slowly getting off the ground, trying to keep his bullet wound from bleeding out even faster. "He has to die." Katherine glared as she started to cut off his air supply.
Clint watched as Katherine's eyes turned dark, but he hadn't noticed it until after he had got shot and taken that bullet for her. It was as if she was doing this because... he got hurt...
"Please stop, it's not worth it. If you do this, you'll destroy every bit of good in you." Clint tried reasoning with her.
"How do you even know that I have any good in me." Katherine growled as she tightened her grip around the target's neck.
"Because i've seen it. I've seen it since we met...Please.." Clint called out to her, making her look at him with sad and confused eyes. No one had ever seen any good in Katherine, which is why she fell into this business in the first place.
"He hurt you." Katherine pointed out. "He has to die." Katherine argued as she still continued to cut off his air supply.
"No, no, he doesn't!" Clint yelled at her. "I'm fine, see. I'm still alive....So don't do this...I don't want to have to take you in..." Clint told Katherine as she just looked at him. "Don't kill him...Let's go. Me and you."
Katherine just looked at Clint with confused eyes as she slowly released her grip on the target's neck. She then proceeded to slap him across the face and hold his face in her hands, forcing him to look at her. "You take your sorry pathetic ass and you disappear." Katherine threatened him. "I never want to see or hear of you ever again, got it? Because if i do, so help me...You'll wish I killed you right now."
And with that, Katherine kicked him hard in the face one more time before walking over to Clint, helping him as they traveled back to where Clint was staying so they could have a much needed talk and patch each other up....
*
Third Person's Point of View:
Aboard S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helipad
May 3rd, 2012
After their little heart to heart conversation, both Natasha and Clint were called into the main room by Fury. They made their way over to the room, taking seats while them, Steve, and Tony were sitting there already waiting for them.
Fury had explained everything to the four avengers sitting around the table. He explained the plan to build weapons with the tesseract, but also how he betted on a plan to assemble a group of extraordinary people to be known as The Avengers to fight the battles that mankind couldn't.
Fury's speech also included a little speech of how Coulson died still believing in the Avengers Idea. Tony looked like he had enough of Fury's little speech before standing up suddenly and exiting the room. Natasha, Clint, and Steve were the only one's remaining. But soon Steve stood up, going to talk to Tony.
"Good to have you back Agent Barton." Fury looked over at a newly freed Clint, who nodded his head in return.
"Good to be back Director." Clint nodded his head. "Director, what are we up against?" Clint asked Fury a who Loki might have on his "team". Fury pulled up the files on the screen, letting them roll.
"These are the list of people who we know that Loki has under his control and who he might have." Natasha told Clint while he just looked at the screen but then one file in particular caught his eye.
"Wait, wait. Go back." Clint said as Natasha went back to the previous file. "No...." Clint whispered as he saw Katherine's file pop up on screen.
"Who is she?" Natasha asked as she looked at Katherine's file pop up on the screen.
"Her name is Katherine Thorne. Little is known about her except for the fact that she's a self employed assassin and is possible one of the most dangerous we've come across in a long time." Fury said while looking over at Natasha. "She could give you a run for your money Romanoff."
"Why is she named The Talisman in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s database?" Natasha asked Fury, ignoring his comment about Katherine being able to take her out.
"Because, do you know what a Talisman is Romanoff? It's an object which is believed to contain certain magical or sacramental properties." Fury stated as he looked over at Clint, who was just looking down in disbelief. Clint refused to believe that Katherine would be helping Loki. "We don't know much about Ms.Thorne but I've suspected for years that she might possess more abilities that she has shown since her first encounter across S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar back in 2000."
Clint refused to listen to anymore of this. Clint shook his head, not wanting to believe that Katherine could be helping Loki. "No, no way."
"Clint.." Natasha tried reasoning with Clint as he just stood up. "Clint, she helped kill people. She helped Loki, she killed Coulson." Natasha stated while Clint just left the room, going back to the room where he had 'woken' up in.
Natasha sighed before going after him. But not before reading more of the things in Katherine's file, seeing just as deadly she can truly be.
"Clint, Clint wait." Natasha told him while she entered the room.
"No way Nat. There's no way that Katherine would be helping Loki." Clint shook his head.
"Clint, I know that you care about her but...there's no denying the fact that she is helping Loki..." Natasha tried reasoning with him.
"Yeah, I know she's done terrible things in the past. We all have. But it does not mean that she's helping Loki." Clint argued. "She could be under Loki's control too. I was." Clint argued.
"If she is then she needs to be stopped."
"No, she needs to be saved. I just need to break her free of Loki's control. Then you'll see that she's not the evil person S.H.I.E.L.D. and Fury make her out to be." Clint argued with Natasha while she just nodded her head, not wanting to upset Clint anymore. He had enough going on, she didn't need to be making it worse for him.
But if it came down to it, she wouldn't let anything get in the way of bringing Loki and Katherine down.
"We've all done terrible things in our past but just because you've made terrible mistakes doesn't mean you're a terrible person for the rest of your life...people can change..you and I did.." Clint said while looking at Natasha.
"So..." Natasha trailed off. "How'd she really get the name The Talisman?" Natasha asked Clint.
He sighed before looking at her. "Back when we first crossed, like I told you before, i gave her a talisman...It was just something...They told me that a talisman would provide good luck for the possessor or possibly offer protection from evil or harm...And I wanted to protect her even if i couldn't physically be with her..." Clint looked down at the ground. "I suppose that is how Fury named her because she hasn't taken it off since...It's kind of like her symbol along with leaving a red rose at every one of her hits....."
Natasha couldn't help but crack a smile at Clint's sweet story. But despite Katherine meaning something to Clint, if they crossed paths on the battle field, Natasha wasn't going to go easy on Katherine just because of Barton.
She was going to take her down.