Chapter 9
Chapter 9
// Clint, I do really advise that go back and get some rest until Colonel Rhodes can do a proper medical assessment. //
“For the last time, Friday, I’m fine.”
// My scans show that you have a few broken ribs, a broken eye socket and a concussion. //
“See? Fine.”
As soon as they had arrived at the safe house (which ended up being one of Tony’s old vacation homes outside of Tokyo) Rhodey had excused himself for a moment for a debrief. “Don’t go anywhere, Clint,” he had warned before stepping into what Clint could only assume was some communication room that Tony had for his old business meetings.
And, to Rhodey’s credit, Clint had tried to sneak out as soon as Rhodey was gone but FRIDAY had locked the house down. So begrudgingly Clint had found a bathroom and took a shower before falling onto the couch. He hadn’t realized how tired he really was until he had laid down and he had drifted off to sleep, only to abruptly waken when his nightmares resurfaced as he watched his family turn to dust once again. “Coffee it is,” he muttered to himself as he went into the kitchen to make himself a pot.
And that was when FRIDAY had insisted that he went to get some more rest and how Clint found himself arguing with an AI about his current physical health. //With all due respect, Clint… //
“Which means that what you’re about to say, I’m not gonna like…”
// You were held captive for two days and were tortured. //
“If that’s what you want to call that. Compared to some of the shit situations I’ve experienced, that was just a minor inconvenience.”
// Logic dictates… //
“That’s the problem, FRIDAY,” Rhodey interrupted as he emerged from his brief, dressed back in his civilians and looking more hardened than Clint would have liked to admit, “There’s nothing logical about Barton.”
Clint actually managed a smirk and a chuckle under his breath as he brought the now full pot of coffee to his lips to take a sip. No point in dirtying a mug when he was planning on drinking the whole thing anyway. “Let me guess, you called Tasha and Rogers to let them know where I am.”
“I did.”
“And they’re already on their way to Tokyo to bring me back.”
Rhodey didn’t answer, which meant that Clint was probably right. Well, so much for the pot. “I’m not going back, Rhodes…”
“We found Thanos.” Clint stopped talking right away. His whole body went stiff as he slowly put the pot of coffee down. “Where?”
“Off planet….long story.”
And there it was – a little spark inside him that he hadn’t felt in a long time. A little shimmer that warmed his dark soul. “Well what are we waiting for?” Clint asked, getting ready to step past Rhodey to grab his gear.
Only Rhodey put out an arm to stop him from moving. “He’s dead.”
And like that, that spark that had just ignited was doused with a cold breeze. “What?”
“We found him and we went to force him to undo what he did. But when we got there…he had destroyed the stones. He used them to destroy them so no one could undo what he did.”
The stone in his stomach grew heavier and heavier as the weight of what Rhodey was telling him sunk in with each passing second. No one could undo what he did….Laura and the kids…. “Barton, I’m so sorry….”
“Don’t,” he muttered, his voice void of any and all emotion. It was the final blow. The final string pulled to unravel what he was. “Just…just don’t…”
Clint walked past Rhodey, his movements slow as he needed to sit down. His legs were barely holding him up as he walked and he had to grasp the back of the couch to finish his trek lest he fell onto the ground in rage and anguish. In a mere matter of seconds, Clint’s world had fallen out from under him again. And maybe he was an idiot to think that there was even the slightest chance that his family could be brought back to him. Yeah, sure, it was a long shot and unlikely to happen, but even if he didn’t admit it to anyone, there had been a small part of him that had hoped that maybe one of these days the Avengers could have figured out how to make it happen and undo what Thanos had done.
But now, he knew for a fact that it would never be.
His family was gone.
As Clint sat motionless on the couch, his grey eyes staring straight ahead and visibly appearing to have no emotion on his face, Rhodey had made his way to the coffee table and sat down upon it. To him, he was quickly reminded of the day of Howard and Maria Stark’s funeral and how Tony had closed off to the world. But where Tony had drank and slept his pain away, Rhodey was already seeing the darker, more bloodier path that Clint was bound to follow. “I know there’s nothing I can say to make this any better or take that feeling away from you, Clint. I wish there was a way for us to go back and undo this mess…but you know that they wouldn’t want you to do this. They wouldn’t want you isolating yourself from your friends. Just…come back with me, Clint. We’ll get through this together. And who knows, maybe there’s another way to bring them all back…”
“There…is…no other way,” Clint muttered so softly that Rhodey almost missed it. “You said it yourself – he made sure there was no way that anyone could undo what he did, so unless you know another alien titan god person that could, I don’t know, go back in time and fix things, then there is nothing that can be done.” His eyes seemed to focus on Rhodey as he spoke. “There is no hope. There is no avenging the fallen or whatever you think those of us left are able to do. And you and I both know that if Tony were here that he would agree with me. There’s only accepting this reality and moving on.”
Rhodey’s eyes narrowed a bit until he realized that Clint hadn’t been there when Tony had been carried in on a dead ship. “Well, if you come back with me, you can ask Tony if he agrees with you.”
When he spotted Clint’s confused face, Rhodey clarified, “Tony survived. He was stranded in space but Danvers stumbled upon him.”
Clint couldn’t believe it. Tony was actually alive? Well I’ll be damned, he thought to himself. It made him feel a little happier knowing that Tony hadn’t been dusted after what Clint had said to him on the Raft and he wondered if maybe he should reach out to Tony and apologize. After all, he owed it to the man. But that meant going back and he could not do it. He couldn’t bring himself to face the team now. “So….you’re coming back?” Rhodey asked after Clint had been silent.
Clint shook his head as he pushed himself up off the couch. “Sorry, Rhodes, but I can’t. There’s nothing for me there anymore.”
“There’s your friends, Clint,” Rhodey stated, a bit more harshly as he stood to meet Clint’s eyes when he spoke, “We’re your friends. You’re just going to walk away, just like that?”
“I lost my family!”
“We all lost someone, Barton!”
“Yeah? Who did you lose, exactly?” Clint’s words were like venom as he continued, “Last I checked, Pepper was still around and, lucky you, you got Tony back. Congratulations, you’re lucky. Not everyone was fortunate enough like you.”
It wasn’t fair – Clint knew that. Rhodey had watched everyone turn to dust in front of his eyes. He had been there when the Avengers had failed and half the population had been wiped out of existence. “I lost my sister and my niece,” Rhodey replied.
Clint, honestly, had no idea that Rhodey had a sister or even a niece and he felt even worse about it now. “I’m sorry…”
“Don’t be, Barton. Like you I tried to keep them away from this whole superhero business. Lily, she…well, she probably would have wound up becoming an engineer like Tony.”
Clint felt himself smirking a little at the thought of a mini-Tony running around making Iron Man suits. “You’re not alone, Clint. Don’t act like you are. Right now, we need to stick together because whether we like it or not, we’re all we have now.”
Rhodey had a point but Clint wasn’t going to admit it. He just shook his head. “It’s better if I’m on my own.”
“Why?”
“You know why. Where I’m going…what I’m gonna do…it’s not exactly Accords-approved.”
“Then come back and we can do this properly. Without as much blood spilt and more chances of you not getting yourself killed.” Rhodey paused, realizing that his words had stiffened Clint. “Wait….you’re hoping it does, aren’t you?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You don’t have to,” Rhodey mentioned as he pointed to his body posture, “Actions speak louder than words. You think your family would want you to go off on a suicide mission?”
“At least I would be with them again.”
Rhodey shook his head. “And what about us? About Steve, Tony…Natasha?”
Clint sighed as he shook his head. “You’re all better off without me.”
Clint stepped around Rhodey, not wanting to talk about this anymore and probably sneak out before whoever Rhodey called got there. “I’m sorry, Barton.”
Clint was about to ask for what when he felt a tranquilizer dart hit his neck. He spun, looking confused as he saw the tranq gun Rhodey had pulled out from his holster and how it was leveled at him. “I’m not going to lose another friend,” was the last thing Clint heard before the drugs finally put him out.
TBC…