V
The Avengers eyed the black-clad newcomer curiously as he sat on one of the chairs in the conference room.
“Clint.”
“Cap.” He nodded slightly.
“How are Laura and the kids? Are they….” Natasha quietly asked.
“Cooper disappeared. Everyone else is fine.” He didn’t even flinch.
“We all lost someone, but we are working on a solution and prepare for any other attacks.” Steve supplied, looking around the room and meeting everyone’s eyes.
“Is this all we have left?”
“Yes, with Tony still missing. So what happened to you?” Rhodey changed the topic.
“After the Accords, I still worked for SHIELD, covertly of course, so I created another alter-ego. Hawkeye is no longer a safe codename, so I now go by Ronin. Then Cooper happened, I needed some answers, that’s why I am here.”
The Avengers filled him in on what happened, starting all the way from Bruce and Thor’s encounter in space until the disappearance of half the population.
“I guess Tony was right. The last we met, I was furious at him, and I, said some pretty nasty stuffs.” He sighed.
“Its not your fault. All of us did let him down one way or another. All we can do now, is to stay strong for him and do our best to defeat Thanos.” Natasha walked over to him and offered a gentle squeeze on his shoulder.
“Yes, we will defeat Thanos.” Thor agreed.
“It’s good to have you back, Clint.” Steve offered a small smile.
-PAGE BREAK-
Pain.
No, I don’t want to wake up. I don’t want to… I don’t… I don’t want….pain.
Against his will, he slowly drifted back into consciousness. His heart rate sped up, panicking under the pretence that his body would be put through the agony again.
He soon calmed down as he realised the pain in his head had subsided and his broken left hand no longer felt raw.
Numb. His left hand felt numb.
Slowly, he opened his eyes, only to be greeted by Thanos peering at him from above, to which he flinched slightly.
Ignoring the Titan, he peered down at his left hand, curious to see the damage done, only to see a stub halfway through where his forearm was supposed to be at.
He had lost his hand! No no! No!
“My… my hand!” His voice was raw from disused.
What am I without my hand? I…I can’t build… I can’t fix…. I….I am nothing…
Tears started to spill as Tony went into a panic attack. He froze in place however when he felt the familiar palm rubbing his hair.
“Shhh. Shush little one. Calm down.” Thanos was gentle, scared to break his child even more.
“Why… Why did you break my arm?” Tony wanted to yell, but he was scared, and so he sounded even more broken than before.
“You had to learn. With failure, comes punishment. With success, comes reward. You have failed me in Vanaheim, and so, you must learn.”
“You could’ve mind rape me again! You should know how much my hand meant to me!” As he regained his strength, his voice became louder and firmer. He pushed Thanos’ hand away and wiped off the tears that were still flowing freely.
“Little one…..”
“You are one inconsiderate bastard!” Tony interrupted and brought his knees up to hide his tear-stained face.
I’m so weak, so useless.
“Anthony, I have a gift for you.” Thanos went to the corner of the room and opened a metal case.
Tony wanted to retort but was shocked to see a black metal fore arm laying in the case. It was clearly engineered to function like a normal hand, and was the size of Tony’s hand.
Why would he break my arm only to replace it with a mechanical arm? It doesn’t make sense.
Then he remembered that most part of Nebula is robotic. Thanos must have done the same to her. But why? Why would he replace…..
Replace. Substitute. Repair.
Enhance.
Now, the only expression on Tony’s face was pure intense horror at the realisation.
-PAGE BREAK-
Tony was struggling to regain his breath when the tenth scrapper finally fell onto the ground unmoving. There were cuts around his limbs but for the most part, he was uninjured.
“Well done.” Thanos was outside the ring, in his usual spot, but this time he finally had a smile on his face. He was proud.
Tony didn’t know how long had he been in this ring. Days maybe. But relief washed over him as he finally defeated the scrappers. It took him months of trials and injuries to make it this far.
“Now, for your final test.” Thanos spoke up, confusing Tony.
Tony felt his stomach drop when the guards dragged Nebula into the space and unceremoniously dropped her into the ring, locking the gate behind them.
“Your sister decided to betray us again. We need to show her the wrongs of their way. She needs to be corrected.”
Tony stood and stared in silence. That explained the absence of his sister this past couple of days.
As Nebula got up onto her feet, she glared at Thanos and looked at Tony, ready to pounce. She dreaded this day. She knew that the day Tony was ready, they would be pitted against each other.
Tony took a deep breath and made the first move, lunging towards her face with a high right punch which she deflected. Tony followed up immediately with a knee kick to her gut.
Nebula was taken by surprise and had to slightly back off and went down to avoid the attack.
She threw him a slight glare and caught his left knee, wrapping her arms around it, she toppled him over and punched him in the ribs.
Tony grunted and swept her legs beneath her and got up.
Nebula couldn’t help but smile slightly seeing her brother’s improvements.
They kept going at in rounds after rounds with Thanos spectating with a satisfied beam.
Nebula knew one of them had to come out victorious soon as Tony was slowing down, obviously tiring out.
She let her guard slip when he brought a right uppercut towards her jaw and it hit her square, sending her reeling to the ground.
This is it brother. Finish it.
She knew she couldn’t make it obvious and so she rolled to the sides to duck out of his incoming assault, only to come closer to his flank so that he could land the killing blow.
Unexpectedly, he did not. Instead he left his flank completely unguarded and Nebula had to go with the flow and flipped Tony onto the ground. His head hit the floor and he lost consciousness.
“Well done, daughter. Seems like he is still not ready.”