Chapter 27
[Classified Location], SHIELD Helicarrier
April 2011
Tony attacked the Mark V.
He’d commandeered Fury’s engineering labs and chased three protesting SHIELD guys out. They could find other workspaces, and Tony needed these specialized tools.
He took a soldering gun to the cracks in the armor, creating ugly but effective repair jobs. He just needed a sealed carapace to make it to the tower, then he could retrieve the Mark VII and take Loki down.
Tony was going to told a repulsor to Loki’s head. He was going to either kill the Asgardian or throw him in a hole so deep he’d never crawl out. He was going to avenge Phil Coulson, who’d been more Pepper’s friend than Tony’s but a friend and a good man nevertheless. He was going to get payback for those people in Stuttgart and for Maria Hill.
Tony knew he wasn’t a hero. But maybe you didn’t have to be to get things done.
[Classified Location], SHIELD Helicarrier
April 2011
Clint knew he shouldn’t be here. He should be in the bridge, helping Fury coordinate the repairs - he’d do a better job than Lang, that was for damn sure. But he wasn’t. And that was a problem.
Then again, this was Maria. Clint’s friend and - colleague, although neither word encompassed what Maria was to him. They’d gone through the SHIELD academy together and jockeyed for top spot the whole time. The competition had spawned some friction at first, but once they got out of the academy and weren’t in the exact same stream all the time, they’d gotten closer. Maria’s ambition and calculation were great complements for Clint’s more easygoing wing-it attitude; she focused on rising in the administration, where Fury recognized her potential and took her under his wing while Clint made a name for himself as a highly effective field agent, albeit one with a track record of ditching orders. They worked well together, and Maria’d overseen plenty of Clint and Natasha’s ops over the years.
Now she was lying unconscious and strapped to a gurney, sweating buckets and occasionally twisting and mumbling restlessly. Needless to say, Clint was concerned.
To hell with Fury and his orders. Clint was staying right here until he knew whether Maria would be all right.
He wiped her forehead, realized that his water pitcher was almost empty, and went to refill it.
When he stepped back into the room, Maria was sitting halfway upright, body rigid as a tree and wide eyes staring at him.
“Maria,” he said, setting down the pitcher. “It’s okay. You’re gonna be fine.”
“You know that?” she whispered, laughing mockingly. “Is that what you know?”
“Yeah,” he said firmly.
Maria closed her eyes and slumped back down, shuddering. “I have to flush him out.”
“You’re fine. It’s fine. We have time.”
“No,” she said, turning to look at him again. Her expression was more normal this time, a trace of the focused, driven, intense woman he knew and - cared about reappearing. Clint hid his relief. “He’s going to make his move soon. Today.”
“Do you know where?” Clint asked.
She shook her head. “He didn’t… I didn’t need to know. They didn’t tell me.”
“Do you remember… much?” Clint asked.
Maria was trembling now, he saw, trembling all over. “You don’t know what it’s like, Clint. To be… unmade. To have someone else go in and… write over everything you are.”
“I do.”
Both Clint and Maria flinched, turning to stare at Natasha.
She stood in the doorway of the recovery room. “You don’t know who you are anymore. You don’t fully trust yourself; you always wonder if one day you’ll let down your guard and there the controls are again, waiting to take you over. You remember being controlled, being someone you’re not, wanting things you don’t and shouldn’t want, and it terrifies you.”
Maria was staring at Natasha. “Does it… does it ever get better?”
Natasha smiled faintly. “I find that revenge helps.”
“I suppose if I stuck a knife in Loki, I’d - sleep better, I suppose,” Maria said.
Natasha stepped around to her other side. She and Clint started undoing the restraints.
Clint didn’t know what to do with this new development. Natasha and Maria had always had a thin layer of I-don’t-fully-trust-you sitting in between them, which was why Clint usually went in for operational briefings. Maria couldn’t get past Natasha’s past and Tasha knew it.
He really, really hoped this was a good sign, and that Maria wouldn’t do what Maria often did after someone saw her vulnerable: shut down, shut them out, and act colder than ever. Tasha wouldn’t take that well. She didn’t bare herself like she’d just done lightly.
In fact, Clint had a sneaking suspicion that she’d done it for him.
Maria stood up slowly, testing her limbs, and winced. “I’m sore. And I need a change of clothes.”
“Here.” Tasha grabbed a backpack from the floor outside the small room. “Tactical suit and basic toiletries. Go change.”
“What now?” Maria asked.
Natasha quickly summarized the situation, softening nothing and leaving nothing out, a proper soldier’s report. Clint saw the news of Coulson’s death hit Maria like a blow - Phil had been like a father to her - and how she squared her shoulders and bore it.
Everyone in this room was made of steel inside.
“We don’t know what’s going on,” Clint said when Tasha was done. “We can’t talk to anyone until communications come back online, which means we also can’t track the cube. So… just be ready for anything, I guess.”
“I’ll go change,” Maria said. “And… freshen up, if I can.” She took two steps toward the attached bathroom and then hesitated, glancing at Tasha. “I… Thank you, Agent Romanoff.”
Natasha raised an eyebrow. “Clint here once told me that friends use first names. Maria.”
Maria nodded once, stepped into the bathroom, and closed the door. Clint heard the shower start up a second later.
His relief was crippling. His Maria was back, and she and Tasha were allying for the first time in all the years the three of them had worked together.
Now if only they could find Loki and wreak a little havoc, the better Clint would feel.
[Classified Location], SHIELD Helicarrier
April 2011
Natasha slid a sideways look at Clint, taking in the absence of the tension that had gripped him since Hill - Maria - had been compromised. She was… happy for him, she realized. He cared a lot more about Maria, and Maria for him, than either of them would admit. Maybe now they’d get their chance.
Which meant she couldn’t take him with her to go after her Soldier.
Natasha realized that with a sick feeling that she hated instantly, because it meant she’d come to care. She’d found someone she would miss.
With a lurch, she realized she’d miss more than just Clint. Prickly Maria, cocky Stark, principled Rogers, the unassuming Banner - they were all kindred spirits, of a kind. All of them screwed up and bitter and broken so many times that they’d learned to rely only on themselves and a very few, very trusted companions. It was an uncomfortable epiphany.
Perhaps when she had her Soldier back, she’d keep in touch with these people. She didn’t think they would continue working for SHIELD. She and her Soldier would go their own way and do as they wished and paint Russia red with the blood of everyone who ever used them and manipulated them and kept them apart.
A small smile grew on her lips at the thought.
“How’d you get her back?” she asked.
Clint glanced over. They sat side-by-side on the bed. “Cognitive recalibration. Apparently if you hit someone really hard on the head, you knock a couple things loose. Like creepy mind control.”
“Good job,” Natasha said.
“Thanks.”
“We’ve got to stop him,” she muttered.
Clint laughed hollowly. “Who’s we?”
“Whoever’s left.”
“So not Banner.”
Natasha shook her head.
“I’m going to fight an alien god with a bow and arrow,” Clint muttered.
“You sound like you again,” Natasha said.
Clint looked at her. “Huh?”
“Since you got Maria back. You were a little… off.”
“You don’t sound like you, though.”
Natasha gave him a questioning glance.
“We’re not soldiers, we’re spies,” Clint elaborated. “You especially. Now you want to wade into what’s probably going to be one hell of a war. Tasha, you’re a black ops agent. If you go out there you’re violating every rule in your rulebook. What did Loki do to you?”
“I’m surprised you think I care about the rule book,” Natasha said.
Clint waited.
“Fine,” she said irritatedly. “He hurt you when he took Maria, and by extension me.”
“I didn’t know you cared,” he said.
Natasha sighed. “You’re in an exclusive club.”
“Card-carrying member of the Natasha Actually Likes Me club,” Clint said, suddenly laughing.
Natasha smirked. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
He swatted her on the shoulder.
Neither his smile nor hers lasted long, though. Natasha was torn between this fight and thoughts of her Soldier, trying not to think about what might’ve been done to her in the intervening years, or where he might be.
She registered that the shower had turned off sometime in their conversation. “Maria’ll be done soon.”
Clint sighed. “And then we go find whoever’s left.”
“Me and Stark.”
They looked up and saw Steve standing at the door.
“How many interruptions can a man get?” Clint complained.
Steve blinked. “I’m sorry, am I intruding?”
“No, come in,” Natasha said. “Banner?”
“No sign of him. Stark’s convinced Loki’s going to use the arc reactor at Stark Tower to power his device. We’re going to suit up and go check it out.”
“I thought the Iron Man suit was damaged,” Natasha said.
Steve shrugged. “I trust Stark to get it working.”
“When do we leave?” Clint asked.
“Now. Fury’s distracted and he’ll saddle us with minders who’ll only slow us down if he knows.” Steve gave them a hard look.
Natasha kept her face unreadable. “You’re asking us to willingly and consciously go behind our superior’s back.”
“Yes.”
Clint snorted. “I’ll admit this is not what I expected of you, Cap.”
“Don’t call me that,” Steve said. “Captain America… he died in the ice. He gave everything he had and then some for this country. I’m still figuring out exactly who I am in this new century, but it’s not that noble Captain who always followed his orders to the letter. I’ve got my own right and wrong.” He stopped. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to start speechifying.”
“Touching,” Maria said, hauling open the bathroom door.
Natasha and Clint both tensed. Natasha’s hands strayed to the shockstick at her belt. Maria had always been a stickler for the rules. If she tried to shut this down or go running to Fury...
Maria squinted at Steve.
“Bravo,” drawled a fifth voice, and Tony Stark stepped around the corner of the doorway, clapping sardonically and kicking it shut behind himself. “I think I like this version of Stephen Rogers a hell of a lot better than the one in dear old Dad’s bedtime stories. So.” He swept his eyes over Natasha, Clint, and Maria. “Is anyone gonna be a tattletale today?”
“I agree with Steve,” Natasha said, standing. “Playing by Fury’s rules hasn’t worked out so great this far.”
Clint shrugged, eyes on Maria.
Fury’s left-hand woman - well, right hand now that Coulson was gone - blew out a sigh. “I suppose you have a point. And you really should have someone responsible along for the ride.”
Clint smiled instantly. “Kay, that’s everyone, let’s go. How’re we getting there? Jet? Submarine? Do we all get Iron Man suits? Or is Thor gonna carry us in a monkey chain?”
Maria snorted. Clint shot her a gratified look.
“Jet,” Steve said, then froze, staring at Stark. “Stark, are there cameras in here?”
“Probably. Nick Fury is like Exhibit A of People Who Rely On Paranoia. But no worries, I always carry a jammer on me and it’s been going since I showed up to eavesdrop on your speech. Excellent performance, by the way; you should sell tickets. Speak freely, old man.”
Steve rolled his eyes. “All right. We’re taking a jet, Stark his suit. We’ll meet at the Tower unless we get there after the fight starts - we’re kind of dead in the water here.”
“Radio updates?” Maria asked.
Stark shook his head. “I had JARVIS get me a report from the bridge on my way here. Loki’s virus-” Maria winced- “seems to have turned our own jamming fields back on us. No comms, no radio, nothing for eight miles out. We’ve gotta get out of that range and hopefully recall Jane’s jet. Right now… Nothing.”
“Then let’s go,” Clint said.
“Hold on.” They all looked at Maria. She spoke slowly, as if weighing each word before it left her mouth. “Fury, Coulson, and I instituted a fail-safe in the hangar. No jets can launch unless there’s express permission from the bridge. The doors won’t open.”
“Stark, can you get around it?” Steve asked.
“JARVIS?”
Stark’s AI spoke from his master’s StarkPhone. “I believe I can modify the code used on the Pentagon and imitate a bridge release for the Hangar Three bay doors within one hour. Will that suffice?”
“Should be fine,” Stark said.
“Suit up, then. Meet at Hangar 3 in an hour. Get there without being seen on camera if possible, although in this chaos I doubt anyone will notice.” Steve looked around at this group of people that had somehow, some way, become something resembling a team. Natasha looked at Clint and Maria; all three of them stood to lose or endanger their positions at SHIELD over this, but not a hint of hesitation showed on anyone’s face.
“Looks like we’re all sick of following the rules,” Stark said snidely, reaching for the door. His comment appeared mostly aimed at Steve. “Welcome to the dark side.”
Natasha caught Clint’s eye roll in her peripheral vision as she followed Stark out the door.
[Classified Location], SHIELD Helicarrier
April 2011
“Sir, we have an unidentified launch from hangar bay 3.”
Fury whipped around and stared at the understandably nervous third-year agent. “What did you just say?”
“Th-there's been an unauthorized launch from Hangar 3,” the agent stammered.
“Get me eyes on that bird!” Fury snapped. Inside he was cheering.
The chaos around him intensified. Slightly. Seconds later, a video feed from one of the escorts popped up on Fury’s screen.
He would never get tired of being the one giving the orders.
“It appears… that Captain Rogers, Agent Black-” Fury smirked a bit at Romanoff’s code name- “and Agents Barton and Hill have hijacked a jet.”
“Hill?” He'd been expecting the rest of them to make a run for it, but- “What the motherfucking hell does she think she's doing?”
“I don't know, sir, but that's definitely her in the cockpit.”
Fury gritted his teeth. He had wanted to keep Agent Hill. She was a brilliant woman and they'd worked well together for years.
But any war has its casualties. And the rest of it was still going according to plan.
Fury set his jaw and ordered the escorts to stand down, let the jet leave. Lang questioned him. “That's the Avengers,” Fury snapped. “Focus on the important things, like maybe getting our engines back online!"
“Yes, sir!”
He watched Lang jog away. Hill was an idiot, and she'd made her choice. Odds were she would die in the firefight to come. And if she didn't?
Depending on what she saw, if she survived, Fury might have to eliminate her himself.