Of Gods and Shadows
Clint wasn’t often confused about what he saw in battle, not anymore. They had a giant green monster, a bio-chemically advanced human, and a man flying around in a metal suit fighting against aliens coming from the sky. He didn’t think his day could get any weirder, but of course, life liked to prove him wrong. Sitting next to him was someone in an all-black formal suit with a mask covering their face, and they were just giving him arrows out of seemingly nowhere.
This person hadn’t said anything, just kept giving him arrows after he ran out of his, and occasionally pointed at something they wanted him to shoot. The arrows were made of white wood with a tip that was pitch black and seemed to be made of a material he had never seen before, and the fletching was that same black just this time notably feathers. It was only when a chitari had somehow snuck up on him and tackled the man in black over the edge that he decided to move.
“Anyone have eyes on a man on black that just fell off from right next to me?” Clint asked, startled that an alien managed to sneak up on him.
“What do you mean?” Tony replied, obviously confused at the question, “No one was next to you.”
Clint huffed before saying, “Yes there was, they were giving me arrows after I ran out.”
“Maybe this can be saved till after the portal is closed,” Steve suggested with a grunt, obviously not having a good time on the ground. After that, Clint didn’t bring up his new, weird, acquaintance. That was, of course, until the Avergers saw a spear lodge itself inside of a leviathan. At that time, Tony was redirecting a nuke into the portal, Natasha was working on closing it, and everyone was still very, very busy. Clint was the only person to get a half-decent look at the person who had chucked the spear.
“That’s the guy who was giving me arrows!” Clint exclaimed, glad he wasn’t just hallucinating it.
“That’s great,” Steve said distractedly, still doing his best to keep chitari focused on him. Only later would people realize the significance of this newcomer implies.
After Loki was stopped, when he was surrounded by the Avengers, did the rest get to “meet” the man in black. Loki had just asked for the drink he was offered earlier when everyone heard a drink shaker being shaken behind them. Tony turned around to see someone he had never seen before seemingly making themselves at home behind his bar.
“What are you doing?” Tony inquired of them, to which their only response was to visibly look from the shaker in their hand, to the martini glass they had set out, and then to Loki. Looking baffled, Tony asked, “You’re making Loki a drink?” When this new person nodded their head while pouring the drink into the glass everyone was a bit stunned. Why would this person give Loki a drink? Were they on Loki’s side? Steve visibly tensed up, ready to fight this person if they were gonna try and run away with Loki. Everyone parted when they moved towards Loki, some practically waddling from how tense they were and some almost flowing from shock. Even Loki himself was shocked at this person giving him a drink.
“Why are you giving me this?” Loki asked them skeptically. He wasn’t a fan of the thought of getting poisoned. When the person just held the drink out at him, not making a move to explain themself, everyone just got more confused. Loki obviously didn’t know them, but neither did any of the Avengers, so what was this person doing? What was their plan?
Eventually, Loki took the drink, taking a tentative sip, then another. The drink was a bit sweeter than Loki generally liked it, but it was still good. After a few more seconds of awkward silence, the person in black walked over to a broom closet, bowed once, and then walked into the closet and closed the door behind themself. Clint quickly walked over to the door, looked, and found no person inside. None of the Avengers or Asgardians knew what to make of what they had just witnessed, and only later, when there were a number of inconsistencies, people saying that Captain America or Iron Man saved them when said person was at another side of the battle, did Fury start to realize a few things: first that the person in black was most likely on their side, and second that this unknown person seemed to only be noticeable when they wanted to be. Natasha and Tony also realized this individually but kept their thoughts of it to themselves. None of them wanted to be wrong about this unknown person.