Kate Bishop

shootstraight-nevermiss :

A week. At least, that’s what Clint thought as he sat in his cell. A week at least had gone by and things were……abnormal. When he came to the last time he was freezing in his cell, but he wouldn’t admit it, even as he huddled in a corner to try and keep himself warm. He couldn’t. But then the heat magically turned back on and him and Kate had been taken from their cells and treated? Maybe it was just Zemo’s way of ensuring that they lived long enough to suffer but a week had gone by and never, not once had Zemo had one of them fetched. Left alone to heal. The bruises coating him remained but that was the only sign of his captivity. “I spy with my little eye,” he began, completely bored with nothing to do, “Something white.”

Tony had gone silent. Almost not talking. He had gotten what he wanted, but at a certain prize he was sure would cause some arguments between him and the rest of the world. He however had bigger, more important interest in this. He knew, that he needed to buy time, in order to complete his plan. In a week span, they had put him on suspended sentence. Poison, antidote, poison… he had paid for his demands, still were. He kept Zemo’s interest on him, on what he had to offer. He wasn’t giving Zemo essential information, the man, as he found out, was obsessed with Steves and how to end his life. He also had a strong interest for one of Stark’s project, he had hoped to hide better. He was keeping the man’s interest on him, and paid the prize for it. There wasn’t a day he didn’t look like a corpse lying there. He was not eating, barely drinking, almost always vomiting. Multiple needle marks showed just how many times they had played with his life, by injecting his own research every time he worked on it, with the consequences it had. “Please stop talking” Tony begged in a corner of his room where he was curled up. Every noise was hurting his pounding head. He had not been around much , but at least Clint seemed bored, that was a good sign, made this all seem …more worth it.

Tony hoped they wouldn’t take Clint that soon, but he knew that this was a merry go around that would not stop until the other one was satisfied, which would not be any time soon. He watched him go and looked at Kate. He would have preferred a beating, something physical, something he could look at and control, but his heart, he never could control it , and he hoped that it wouldn’t give up just now. He swallowed heavily. “ I’ll make sure of it hun” he replied and coughed heavily. God he felt like shit. His chest was hurting more and more, and he knew that his fail-safe would kick in eventually, he just hoped it would sooner than later and he knew that the fact that he was still alive was due to what was hiding underneath his white paper shirt. He took a deep breath and fell asleep again until the door opened and he saw Clint. He swallowed thickly. “God” he whispered horrified. Clint was not really responsive upon arriving, so he left him be, but as the minutes went by, he felt some cold air go through the holes. “Clint?” he asked and taped on the glass wall. “CLINT , Wake up !!” he begged. “You need to wake up…” he asked and coughed. He then looked at the camera. He was not even angry, just frustrated, fear of another kind had taken over. If in Afghanistan he was afraid to die, to lose, right now, it didn’t matter. This was his team mate and his protege. He felt a responsibility towards them. He stood up, and stumbled to the door. “ Tell the Herr Zemo, I wish to talk to him. “  The guard laughed. “ Yeah, right , like you can make any dem -” The guard stopped when the door opened. Tony gave a smugger smile despite his tired and pale features.  “I guess your boss disagree. Shall we ?”

  Kate had managed to drag herself to the wall separating her cell from Clint’s, curling on the floor and sighing as she listened to the exchange between Tony and the guard. “What is it with you old men and trying to act all noble? ‘Take me first.’ ‘I want to talk to the Bastard.’ I swear...” She was mumbling, to herself considering Tony had been led away and Clint was too far out of his head to even know she was there from the looks of him. She curled tighter into herself, forcing her mind to settle enough for some kind of sleep and hoping she’d get through without nightmares.

iron-ic-stark :

Tony smiled tiredly.  “Good enough for the audience” he whispered back , low enough for Clint’s aid to catch it, but not loud enough for the mics to pick it up. “They injected me with something… seems a slow proce-” he looked at the further door opening.  “ Go to her… I’ll be fine, she needs you more” he whispered.

God bless Tony and his brilliance, not that he would say that out loud. Just so the cameras wouldn’t know something was up he kept looking straight ahead and not at Tony. But when they dragged Kate in, he couldn’t hide his anger. He was torn between going to Kate and staying with Tony but at Tony’s words, he pushed himself to his feet and made his way to the barrier between him and Kate. He barely made it two steps when the door to his cell opened, followed by two men. “I don’t know if I should feel insulted or not. I mean, only two guys?” He asked as they approached restraints at the ready. Well, if they wanted a show. As soon as they reached for him he blocked their grab and threw them into the wall. The second made the same move but he was able to push him away. He knew he was gonna lose but he was putting on a show for those watching. He had a plan, despite the fact he knew it wouldn’t end well. The cattle prod to the ribs reminded him of that as he collapsed, the restraints quickly forcing his hands behind him before they drug him out.

iron-ic-stark :

Tony took a deep breath and baby walked to his spot.  “Peachy” he replied , not giving anyone the satisfaction of hearing him say he felt bad. He knew Clint would detect the irony in his words. 

“You’re a horrible liar,” Clint muttered, rolling his head to look at Tony. It was obvious something was not right in the way he was moving. “You want to tell me what’s wrong or you gonna tell me to stop being an overbearing old bird?”

iron-ic-stark :

Tony sighed. “nothing, I’m just exhausted “ he muttered and pushed himself from the wall to somehow end up on his mattress again. No answers would be taken out of him because he had passed out . So anyone could look at the imaginary middle finger he had not the strength to put up right now. 

Clint groaned, resting his head against the glass as Tony barely made it to the mattress. Fuck, fuck, fuck! All because he couldn’t keep his damn mouth shut. Out of frustration he hit the glass wall before looking up, trying to spot the damn camera that he knew was watching them. It was easy to spot, the damn thing. With his gaze firmly on it, he walked towards the center of the room and signed into it. It wasn’t a pretty phrase, or a nice one, but it got his point across. “Asshole,” he muttered before going to sit back against the back wall and bounce his head on it again.

iron-ic-stark :

“It will be you …next or after her, or after me. You know how these things work Clint. Maybe we get to share the party next time.” Tony shrugged.  He crossed his arms and closed his eyes.  “Keep me posted on that project.”he was shivering, appearing extremely pale under those lights, almost grey-blue, he was feeling cold, and his left arm was just feeling heavier and heavier with even more twitching sensations. He vaguely heard what the girl was saying, she was further away and he was not really willing to stay alive to think about what had happened .

As much as Kate was probably right, Clint had a bad feeling about Tony’s condition. There was something not right - the paleness, heavy breathing, the fact he was shivering and sweating like he had a fever and the twitching - those didn’t lead to good things. “Something’s not right, Kate,” he said, looking over at her. “Hey, Tony, I know it’s hard but I need you to tell me what they did.”

iron-ic-stark :

“You mean beside your big mouth and the predictable result it had ? “ Tony licked his lips.  “December 16th….1991 … a great movie… maybe he’ll show you the tape as well” Tony grimaced feeling his chest cavity tighten and his left arm go numb with some needle like feeling in it.  He moved it slowly. “ He’s called Zemo”

His gut felt like it twisted as he reminded him it was his fault. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. “It should have been me.” He knew that date - the day Bucky killed Tony’s parents. The bastard had the tape and showed it to him? Oh he was gonna….his face blanched when he mentioned Zemo. “Zemo?” Oh no, not good. That bastard messed with Barney and now Tony? “I’m gonna kill him.” He was done with Zemo messing with those close to him.

iron-ic-stark :

Tony did not want to talk.  He knew that he would never escape  the cameras, even in his worst moments. He came to this world with cameras on him, he would die and suffer with cameras on him.  Therefore his act never failed to impress, because Tony never showed his real mask, just like he did not in Afghanistan. He swallowed , being the leader they needed him to be. “Give me a minute” he whispered more to himself than to Clint and  hid his item under the mattress they had given them. One hand, then the other, he pushed him up but his body protested and he fell like a sack of potatoes against the window separating him from Clint. He laid his temple against the glass and looked in front of him. “ What do you want ? “

It truly pained him to see Tony this way, more so when he looked like he could barely move. And it was his fault. As Tony fell against the wall between them, he wanted to say he was sorry, that it should have been him, but all he could ask was, “What happened? ”

iron-ic-stark :

By the time Tony came back, he could barely walk. They had done nothing more than inject him with whatever was in that syringe, but sometimes the less obvious was the more dangerous. Tony was trying to make sense of what had just happened with that Zemo guy, and he had a feeling that he would paint all those white walls black in his mind. He had a feeling Zemo had found a way into his mind without him even realizing it, and it all started with a simple tape.

He was not really sure how long he had been gone, but he knew that he needed to do something because he would grow weaker. He stumbled and fell between Clint’s and  Kate’s cell and remained on all four , head down , while his breathing was more than errantic.  “Get up genius”  He did not move. “I said get up “  The guard was about to hit him but was stopped by his colleague. “Nein, he wants him unharmed. “ he added and the other sighed. Tony was counting, he had already anticipated their moves. When dragged up, he lifted his arms and passed the chains of his shackles around the one who wanted to hit him and let himself hang, which resulted in strangling him.  “ LASS IHN LOS !” the other yelled and with difficulty got him off him before dragging him to his cell to then with the help of another guard get the restraints off and push him to the furthest corner of his cell before leaving him there.

It seemed like Tony had wasted a shot at escaping and lying on his side, back to the other two , he seemed to have wasted whatever strength he had, but in truth, he had gotten what he wanted. Stolen from the guard he had strangled, it was firmly held in his hand , away from view.

As soon as Tony was gone, Clint found himself going stir crazy. At first he started pacing, watching their babysitters. Studying them. He wanted to pinpoint their weaknesses so when it was time to bust out, he was ready. Kate managed to get a rise out of them (good girl), giving him a good tidbit of information. They wanted something from him and Tony, but what? Eventually he got bored and sat against the back wall, bouncing the back of his head gently against it. The heavy feeling of guilt sat in his stomach, gnawing at him. It was his fault they took Tony. His attempt to get drawn out to see where they were being kept failed and put his friend in harm’s way. It was his fault. Out if the corner of his eye he spotted Kate and promised himself he wouldn’t let anything happen to her. Not while he was still breathing. It was his fault she was in this mess. He brought her into this life and now here she was. Good job, Barton. When they finally dragged Tony back in he was up in a flash, running to the door to see if he was okay. He didn’t look injured but he didn’t look well either. “What the hell did you do to him?!” He demanded, hitting the door with his fist. “You’ll see soon enough.” Clint cast icy daggers at them through the glass before his attention was drawn to Tony who was trying to choke out the guard. He felt proud on the inside until they pulled him off and deposited him in the corner. As soon as they were gine he scrambled into the corner and knelt next to the glass, trying to get a view of him. “Tony, look at me,” he nearly pleaded, hoping he would respond.

iron-ic-stark :

Tony rubbed his temples.  “Dumb move Barton”  he muttered and almost counted the seconds before someone came. He was the lucky winner for this round. He looked up at them and their demands.  He glanced at the two other cells, and looked back at this captors.  “Still have legs, might as well use them “  he stood up, following them out of his cell, with all intent on memorizing every inch of what he was seeing , just like last time. He did not give a second look at his companions of misfortune and disappeared with the guards around a corner. 

Clint smirked as he saw the goons walk in. Oh he was ready for them but when they opened up Tony’s cell instead, he ran over to that wall and watched helplessly as they entered the room. He couldn’t hear what they were saying but thank God for being partially deaf because he knew how to read lips. “No, no, no,” he muttered as he saw Tony get up. “No, Stark! Tony!” He followed them along the wall until he got to the door and started beating on it. “Hey, idiots, leave him alone, or so help me God I’ll….” but he couldn’t finish his sentence as the speakers in his cell started transmitting a high-pitched frequency that caused his hearing aids to feel like they were going to explode. He crashed to his knees, pressing his hands to his ears to try and silence the noise, groaning loudly but not screaming. Oh no, he knew better than to do that. When the noise went silent he looked up to see that they were gone, Tony included. “Shit, Tony!” Well that didn’t go according to plan.

iron-ic-stark :

Tony couldn’t help but laugh even more bitterly.  “the kid is not wrong. I spot with my little eyes  some eyes on us “ he agreed.  He moved slightly, grimacing as he did so. God he was so sore.  He flexed his hands then lifted his sleeves to see just what the disaster was. Actually they had done a pretty need work, he wouldn’t even have any scars left, probably not.  “ Shall we take bets on who is going to go first ? “ he asked and crackled again.  Borderline folly was never a good sign when it came to Stark. It actually meant his mind was working high tours on nothing and everything at once without coming with a solution, therefore getting to the absurd side of despair.

Of course they were being watched. That was not a huge shocker. Leaning against the back of the wall he stared straight ahead, not bothering to look over at Tony or Kate. There was not much he could see in this room - mostly all he could see was the glass walls separating him from the others and freedom. What he needed was a view of what lay outside the door to their cells. “I can tell you now it’s not gonna be either of you two,” he said, slowly pushing himself to his feet and walking to the door of his cage where he started banging on the door. “Hey! Anyone out there?! I think you gave me the wrong set of white paper pants and paper dress thing!”

iron-ic-stark :

The room was colder than what he remembered waking up the first time. Whiter as well. Brighter, too bright for his eyes to be open.  He vaguely remembers how they got here, wherever here was. Flashes at most, from how he got from Washington to this place. He was freezing, his body was contracting on itself into a fetal position. Tony had no idea when it all happened. How it happened. Questions without answers. All he knew was the face that had greeted him upon his arrival.  They took the suit as well, he locked it just in time.  The man sighed. They had not touched him yet, he wondered why. He cracked his eyes opened , meeting the white whiter than white again and sighed, then sat up. A tray was at the door, with the basics, he was not touching it. God knew what they put in it, even in the water, but of course that was making him weaker. Maybe a bite, just one bite. No, no bite. He had given up on looking for exits, for that he needed out of this cell, and they only had open the door to throw him in, and get him that scratchy white thing he was wearing. White was not his color. The first time when he woke up, he saw scars on his arms, and understood that they had removed his ships , any ships…even one on his thigh he did not even know he had, probably Natasha, who else would put random ships on people to track them. He heard shuffling noises next to his cell and looked to the cell.  “Morning sunshine, today on white spa, Hydra distaste for black and red, a shocker really…all the white… “ he chuckled. Was he already losing his mind ? Or did he just know how this was going to end, for having lived it before , therefore the bitter irony just taking over everything else in his mind. The wait for it to happen just drove him mad… he was not built for torture and he was not built to witness torture of people he cared about.

The first time Clint had come around, he had been alone in some dark, manky cell. The first time he’d woken up, he knew that if he was alive that it was for a reason and in more cases than most, it wasn’t for good reasons. So this time when he nearly was blinded by the white light, he knew things were already starting to get worse. Why was it that whenever bad organizations kidnapped people they put them in cells that were either dark and manky or sheer blinding light? For once he’d like to be locked up somewhere that wasn’t the cliche. He groaned as he rolled onto his side, feeling the new hospital gown he was currently in which just made him even more annoyed. Really? They couldn’t torture him in normal clothes? As soon as he heard Stark’s greeting, he rolled over and glared. “Really?” he asked, pushing himself up into a sitting position. It didn’t show but the fact that they had Tony too did not bode well for anyone.

  Kate had been awake when they were moved, her muscles aching with effort as she struggled against the drugs they’d injected her with. She’d passed out between point A and point B, and woken back up at the feeling of hands on her bare skin as they replaced her dress with plain black sweats and a matching tee - a perk she’d someday learn came along with her last name - and had yet to fall asleep again. She could move now, her fingers drumming against her ribs as she laid on the cot and stared at the same spot on the ceiling for hours, just listening to the faint signs of life she could hear over the buzzing of the near-blinding lights.    A smirk tugged at the corners of Kate’s lips when Tony spoke up, followed by Clint, her expression contradicting how he actually felt in that moment. This would’ve been better if they weren’t here with her, them being here meant it was something bigger. Bigger than what, she wasn’t sure, just like she wasn’t sure why they would’ve taken her too. She was hardly someone that should’ve been on Hydra’s radar yet, even with the missions she’d taken part in against them, and why pick her up if they had two Avengers? It wasn’t logical, so far as she could tell.   “I’d say it’s less that they hate it, more they know you don’t like it.”