Chapter 8
They get out of Wakanda pretty quickly, thanks to Friday and someone called Shuri who said ‘she doesn’t agree with her brother’. Whatever that means. So now they are flying in the general direction of the RAFT not really knowing where it is, as they just found out that it can move, apparently. And, honestly, What. The. Fuck. Clint is seriously thinking about retiring after this. For real this time.
Even though they are going as fast as they can, they are still too slow for his taste. “Friday, any update on Tony?” he asks after almost three consecutive hours of planning
For a moment silence reigns as the others stop charging and checking the weapons they have on board to listen. “I…” she hesitates “I’m not sure how he is” she answers finally “after Captain Rogers broke in, they increased the security, both physical and technological, rendering it impossible for me to access their video or audio feed” she says sounding defeated “but” she pauses, sounding unsure “I was able to get a video from two days ago”
He nods and one of the screens lights up, showing Tony slumped in a cell.
“He looks bad” Scott says horrified, Sam putting a hand on his shoulder for comfort, and Clint has to agree.
He looks somehow worse than when they last saw him, shivering and pale, with contrasting deep dark bruises under his eyes, showing his lack of sleep, a sheen of sweat covering his skin and even thinner than before, swimming in his old tattered clothes. He has several cuts and bruises and burns and who knows what else showing along his arms and face. His left arm seems limp, even as he moves and shuffles to get more comfortable.
The sound of a door opening is loud, and Clint notices that there’s no sound of a lock turning, like they know he won’t go anywhere even with the door unlocked. Like he’s too weak to.
Ross comes in, without guards, a testament to how physically weak Tony is, and crouches in front of him
“Listen” he says softly “I know you know where they are” he says slowly, as if talking to a child “and I know you’re tired of all…” he gestures vaguely to the cell “this” he looks back at Tony “so, I’ll make you a deal. If you tell me where they are, I’ll make you a free man” at Tony’s scoff he keeps going “of course, you would need to keep a low profile, but hey, we can’t have you walk around as Tony Stark, now can we?”
Tony furrows his brow, looking as if he’s considering it. Clint really hopes he took it, at least to stop the torture “I’ll… I’ll take your deal” he says defeated, looking down and Clint breathes a sigh of relief “and shove it up your ass”
Clint’s eyes snap back to the screen, stunned “that’s not what you say to an offer like that!” Scott yells scandalized
Tony looks tiredly up at Ross “f’course I know where they are. That doesn’t mean I’m gonna tell you, you dickhead” he says exhaustion clear in his voice, slurring slightly
Ross bristles, getting up and crossing his arms “you know” he says calmly “that was your last chance” he looks disappointedly at Tony and shakes his head “and you wasted it” he sighs “no matter” he says “I’ll just have to wait for the to come to me”
“Yeah” Tony drags out the word “right, and what, pray tell, makes you think they’ll come to you?”
Ross smiles “isn’t it obvious?” Tony just raises one eyebrow in question “you”
Tony snorts, then laughs, and when his laughter dissipated he looks back at Ross “Oh, you’re… serious” he says wide eyed “you do realize that they left me behind once already, right?” He asks slowly, before the realization hits him and he looks at Ross with pity “Oh” he says, eyebrows scrunched up in fake sadness “oh you poor thing, you reallythought they were gonna come for me”
And apparently Ross doesn’t take well to pity because he gets closer to him, raises his leg and presses down on his shoulder with his shiny shoe, putting most of his weight on it, making Tony whimper in a way Clint has never heard from him. But most worrying is how Tony doesn’t move a muscle to stop him apart from closing his eyes in pain.
As soon as he stops Tony looks at him with a blazing hatred in his eyes “they love Iron Man, you dumb fuck!” He snarls “Tony Stark? They don’t love him! They love the hero, the selfless, the perfect one! Me?” He laughs “You think that just cause I love them they love me back?” he laughs loudly “sorry to brake it to you, but doesn’t work like that buddy. They don’t love me. They despise me, they hate me, they left me to freeze and die, they let in prison to rot” he spits out
Ross raises a brow at the outburst “You’re bitter”
“Ya think?!” Tony yells
Ross narrows his eyes at him “just take him to surgery” he says to someone outside the door. Clint doesn’t think much about the surgery as it’s probably to take care of whatever problem there was with his arm.
That’s the end of the video
“He doesn’t really think that” Sam says, wide eyed, then looks at Clint “does he?” He asks, looking horrified. Scott isn’t in a much better condition, looking at Clint with his puppy dog eyes, pleading him to say that no, of course he doesn’t, why would he?
But Clint doesn’t. Because Tony looked so sure of what he was saying. And Clint knows lies. That wasn’t one. So he just looks down, closes his eyes and rubs at them with his hand. He takes a moment to breathe and regroup. He needs to focus. Tony. That’s what matters. He needs to find him, free him, and then, then he will think about how much they failed him and how to fix it.
“Okay, let’s get to work”
Hours later they have finally found the exact location and have the bones of a plan. It’s a pretty simple one. They still know the layout of the RAFT, so all they need to do is get in and incapacitate the first guards they meet, dress in their uniforms to pass unnoticed, then go to the room where the camera feed are kept, incapacitate the guards there, and find Tony in the screens. Then as Clint’ll get him, Scott’ll find the Iron Man suit and give Friday access to it. They’ll make their way to Clint and as quietly as possible get out. Sam’ll stay in the jet, ready to take off and with a medical kit for Tony and possibly whoever gets hurt. They won’t even notice Tony’s gone
And, mostly, it goes to plan. Right up until Clint gets to Tony.
When he opens the door, he expects to see a battered Tony, skinny and tired, bloodied and shivering, angry and with a snarky comment ready, and most of all, with both his arms
He should have known better than to expect anything
He’s having a nightmare, is the first thing he notices. He’s whimpering and begging, and Clint’s heart breaks. The second thing he notices is how small he looks. He’s almost swallowed whole by his ruined clothes, and the way he’s balled up on his left side, back to the door, isn’t helping. He looks like achild. So he goes to him, kneels and gently shakes him, whispering sweet nothings to him like ‘it’s okay’ and ‘you’re okay now’ and ‘it’s just a nightmare’, like he does when his own children have nightmares.
Tony wakes with a gasp, turning on his back to look at him, and asks in a small, sosmall voice “… Clint?”
The third and final thing he notices, is that he doesn’t have a left arm
Tony whimpers “Clint-” he breathes, looking at him wildly, desperately “Clint I can’t- I can’t feel my arm” and then his eyes roll back and he goes limp
Clint stares. And stares. And stares one last time at the point where the missing arm should be, and almost screams. Because it’s not okay.because he’s not okay, and it wasn’t just a nightmare.
“What are you - where is his arm?” Scott asks from his shoulder. He must have finally caught up with him. “It’s- where’s his arm?” He asks again numbly, with trepidation in his voice “I… I don’t get it” he says softly, stumbling back
“I… the surgery” Clint realizes
“what do you mean- where is- what happened?” Scott asks, and oh, he’s in shock.
Clint gets up and places one hand on Scott’s shoulder and one on his cheek, forcing him to look at him and not at Tony “hey, hey look at me. Look at me” he says, tears in the eyes of both of them “we need to go” he says as steadily as he can “we- we need to get himout of here, okay?” Scott sniffs and hesitantly nods, wiping at his eyes uselessly as more tears escape.
And then Clint sees Friday, or the Iron Man armour, looking at her creator and still as a statue, and then, softly, she whispers “Boss?”
“Friday” he starts
“Let’s go” she interrupts him, and her voice is disturbingly robotic, and knowing her it isn’t a good sign
He breathes shakily and turns to Tony, not ready to pick him up and not feel the missing arm. Not ready to make it real. Thankfully, Scott notices. “I’ll pick him up” he says and does so. They turn around and go through the RAFT without interruption. Clint barely notices the yelling and pounding coming from each door they pass. It must be Friday, she must have locked the doors. That’s not a good sign either
They get to the jet and get in, Sam not looking back as Friday had set him up with the live video feed of what was happening. Not a word is exchanged as they take off
Friday opens the lateral panel of the jet and points her arm at the RAFT. A panel in the suit’s wrist opens and a rocket shoots out. A rocket as big as his pinky and he has the distinct need to laugh.
He doesn’t. All he can think is what a pity it is that Ross isn’t inside. The RAFT explodes. Nobody says a word.
He turns back to Scott and finds him on a seat, Tony’s head in his lap cradling him with the most care he’s ever seen form the man. Clint takes the medical kit and kneels in front of them. He cuts the shirt off and cleans the wounds, stitching them up and applying the cream to the burns. He’s grateful for the fact that the shoulder is already bandaged and seems okay. By the time he’s done with the wounds they’re almost there. When they land Friday stays in the jet after giving each of them a secure phone and then takes the jet to somewhere in the middle of the ocean where she’ll make it self-destroy.
She can’t physically come with them as an Iron Man suit would be extremely noticeable. She’s still in their phones though.
They walk for two hours, going to the second closest town and, following Friday’s direction, find a car there. They get in, Clint driving and Sam beside him, with Tony laying back, head in Scott’s lap. They drive for hours, thankfully there’s food and drinks in the car already, when, just as the sun is setting, Tony cries in his sleep. Clint looks in the review mirror concerned and Sam turns around completely. Before they can say anything, Scott does. “Shh, shh, it’s okay, shh” he whispers carding a hand through Tony’s hair and he stops crying, relaxing.
Clint almost smiles