I was killing time reading various BTVS crossovers and then took a drive. This idea came to me. Buffy's always the strong one. After she died and came back, she was more than a bit broken. Spike took advantage of her vulnerability. What if she had a big brother? One that would do anything to protect her from the hand destiny dealt her? This story is set after Buffy's death right before her resurrection in season 6. For the Avengers, it would be after the 1st movie.

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy or any of the BTVS characters nor do I own any Marvel characters like the Avengers. None of the characters in this story are mine. Only this story is mine.

Chapter 1: Buffy's Brother

*****Spain*****

Clint Barton, known to many as Hawkeye, returned to his SHIELD base in Spain when his longtime partner, Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, intercepted him on the way to file his report.

"Clint, there's some guy here who claims he's your father," she told him.

"What? My father?" Clint said, puzzled.

"I thought your father was dead," she said.

"That's what Ma told me," he said.

"Well, he's in the conference room. I couldn't get anything out of him," Natasha admitted.

"Really?" Clint asked in surprise. There were very few men immune to her charm—Clint never had been.

"He seemed too distracted, almost grief stricken really," Natasha said.

"Hmm," Clint said. He went to the conference room. Natasha was behind him. "I can handle this, Nat."

"I'll be right outside if you need me," she said. Clint nodded.

The man looked up when he opened the door and stood. Clint could tell that he was almost Clint's height—maybe an inch taller—with his hair and eye color. Interesting.

"I'm Clint Barton. How can I help you?" Clint said, giving the man a friendly smile.

The man blinked at him wordlessly. Then he held out his hand. "Hank Summers."

Clint thought about it. "I don't think we've met," he said as he shook the man's hand.

"I last saw you when you were three," Hank said, looking shame faced. "I'm your father."

"My dad's dead, or my mother is a liar. Are you calling my mother a liar?" Clint said coldly.

Hank held up his hands. "No, of course not. Your mother was a wonderful, amazing woman. We had a brief affair when I was in college. I supported her all during your pregnancy, and I was there when you were born," Hank said. "But I couldn't get married until after college. Your mom got fed up with me, and she left me. I let her."

"Can you prove this?" Clint said. He hated to think that his beloved mother had kept something like this from him, but she was a complicated woman.

"We can get a DNA test. You can ask her. She's still alive?" Hank asked hopefully. When Clint nodded, the man looked unusually relieved.

"Why are you suddenly here telling me this?" Clint asked. "I'm grown now. Not sure that I really need a father anymore."

"No, you wouldn't need me. I've mostly been a failure as a father," the man said with more than a hint of self-loathing. Taking a deep breath, he plunged a head. "I'm here because your baby sister needs you."

"What?" Clint asked. The thought of a sister was more unsettling than this man claiming to be his father.

Hank handed him a photo of two girls. One was a very pretty blonde around fourteen, the other was eight or so. "That is a photo of Buffy and Dawn, your half-sisters. That picture is six years old. I've lost contact the past year or so because I left the states and have been traveling for work. I recently found out that their mother is dead. She was a great woman. Buffy's been taking care of her sister," Hank shared. "I'm ashamed to admit that I've not been there for them. Now Buffy's gone, and it's too late. My little girl is dead."

"Excuse me?" Clint asked, his mind whirling. He had sisters, but one was dead. His temper, rarely let loose, was starting to boil.

"Dawn called me and left me a message telling me that Buffy was dead. I didn't get the message until a few weeks ago. I tracked you down using some government contacts. Buffy fell off some high tower somehow in Sunnydale, where they live. It happened a few months ago," Hank said. "Somehow, Dawn thinks it's her fault. I tried to call her, but she is so angry with me. She has hung up every time I've called. I finally got a hold of one of Buffy's friends, who are living in the house with Dawn—Joyce's house. She told me what was going on. She said that Dawn was fine, and that they were watching out for her. She started her new year at school. She's going to be fifteen soon."

"So, let me get this straight," Clint said, trying to reign in his temper. "Not only did you abandon me as a baby, letting my mother struggle to care for me my entire life, but you have done the same thing to your two daughters. I'm sure they might've needed your support when their mom died. But now one is dead, no thanks to you!"

"I know," Hank said, unable to look him in the eye anymore. "You can't possibly hate me more than I hate myself. But don't hate Dawn. She's my baby. So smart and inquisitive."

"What exactly do you want from me?" Clint asked. His whole life he wanted siblings. He'd always wanted a little sister or brother. When he got married to Laura, they both agreed to have at least two children, so their kids would never be lonely.

"Can you go check on her? Make sure she's okay?" he asked.

"I'm a stranger. Don't you think it'd be better if you went? Step up and take care of her. Does she have any family to take her in?" he asked.

"She has aunts and uncles," Hank said. "But besides me, you're the closest blood relative she has."

"How about we start with that DNA test? Then we'll go from there," Clint said flatly. If this man really was his father, he knew that he'd be unable to walk away from his sister who had lost both her mother and sister in less than a year. Obviously, their father was a worthless piece of shit. He clenched his fist to keep from hitting them man. If the man turned out to be his dad, there was no way Clint was going to let his one remaining sister fend for herself.

*****A Week Later*****

Dawn came home from school and went to her room. Tara was home, so she was allowed to go straight home. Some days she had to go to the Magic Box. Her entire life was so screwed up.

"Dawnie, are you home?" Tara asked.

"I'm in here," she said.

Tara came to her doorway. "How was school?" she asked.

"Okay. Nothing exciting happened," she said.

"Do you want to make some enchiladas for dinner? I have my mom's recipe," Tara said.

Dawn perked up. She loved cooking with Tara. "Okay," she said.

"Get started on your homework, and I'll get the ingredients ready."

Dawn reluctantly got out her math book. A short time later, the doorbell rang.

Dawn was startled by the sound. None of the gang ever rang the doorbell. Curious, she went downstairs to see who was at the door.

Clint had made his way to Sunnydale as soon as he'd confirmed that Hank was his father. He went home and shared the news with Laura, who insisted that Clint bring his sister to them. Natasha insisted on coming, but Clint made her stay in the car rental. She could sometimes make a tense situation worse.

A blonde woman answered the door. "Hi," she said, giving him a shy smile. "How can I help you?"

"I'm looking for Rupert Giles, Willow Rosenberg, and Dawn Summers," he said.

"Rupert's at his shop. Willow is still in class, but Dawn's here. What do you need them for?" Tara asked.

"May I ask who you are?" Clint asked.

"I'm Tara. I live here with Dawn and my girlfriend Willow," she said. "Who are you?"

Clint held out his hand. "I'm Clint Barton. I recently found out that my father is alive, and his name is Hank Summers," he said.

Tara blinked, not expecting the man to say anything of the sort. "Do you want to come in while I call Rupert and Willow to get here?" she asked, stepping back.

Clint stepped through the door, taking her question as an invitation. He saw a pretty, gangly girl with long brown hair and huge haunted eyes staring at him. He could tell from her expression that she'd heard his remarks. "Are you Dawn?" he asked.

She nodded, stepping closer to him. "Is that true? Are you my brother? How could Hank have another child? You look kind of old to be my brother," she said.

"Hank told me that I was three when my mom dumped him because he wouldn't commit. He was still in college. I guess, he met your mom a few years later," Clint said. "I didn't know anything about you and your sister until he found me."

"You know about Buffy?" Dawn said, her voice cracking.

"Did someone call me?" a cheery voice called.

Clint was surprised to see a woman who looked exactly like the picture of his sister Buffy but older. "Who are you?" he asked her.

"I am Buffy Summers. That is my sister Dawn. I don't know you," the woman said in a very odd voice.

Clint's shock was on his face as he stared at the woman. "I thought you were dead," he said.

"I am not dead. I am very much alive. Right, Dawn?" Buffybot said, giving Dawn a bright smile.

Tara came back and saw the scene and blanched. "Oh, well, that's not really Buffy," she said weakly.

Clint felt like he was in a scene he didn't have the lines for. "What the hell is going on here?" he demanded.

"She's a robot," Dawn said.

"Willow and Giles will be here soon, and they can explain," Tara said.

"She's a robot?" he asked.

"I am the Buffybot," the robot said proudly. "I take care of Dawn because the slayer died closing the hellmouth after defeating the evil hell bitch Glory."

"She's got a few bugs," Tara said quickly.

Clint spent enough time with Tony to recognize something science centered was definitely going on, but what he didn't know. If that was really a robot, Tony would go nuts when he saw it—her. Could robots lie?

"I don't think I have bugs," the Buffybot said defensively.

"It's okay," Dawn assured her. "You're fine."

"I'll go start you your dinner," Buffybot said with another too bright smile. So, okay, that wasn't exactly human. Clint could see how her odd behavior gave away her inhumanness.

"How about you just set the table?" Tara said. "I'm getting dinner." The Buffybot left to complete the task.

Giles and Willow made it a few minutes later, arriving at the same time. It was obvious that they rushed over.

"He's here?" Willow asked. Then she turned to the strange man in their living room.

"Hello, I'm Clint Barton," he said, holding out his hand.

"Willow," she said, shaking it. He had such intense blue eyes. His muscles flexed as he shook her hand. "That's Giles."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Giles said, shaking his hand. "So, can you explain how you happened to discover your relation to Dawn?"

Clint took them through his meeting of Hank and the proof that the man was indeed his father.

"So you saw my Dad?" Dawn asked. "Is he coming to see me?"

Clint saw the girl's hopeful expression and wanted to beat the shit out of their father. "He sent me. He expressed a lot of regret and didn't think you'd want to see him," Clint explained. "He said he'd called a few times, and you made it clear you didn't want to talk to him."

"She's fifteen and heartbroken. He called exactly twice!" Willow said angrily. "He didn't even show up when Joyce died. There's not even any child support anymore."

"I promise you that I will personally kick his ass," Clint said grimly. He looked at Dawn. "I'm married and have two kids. Lila and Cooper. Your niece and nephew."

"I'm an aunt?" Dawn asked in surprise.

Clint gave her a warm smile. "Yep. My wife and I would very much like it if you came to live with us in Iowa."

"Iowa? That's so far away!" Dawn exclaimed in dismay.

"You want to take Dawn away from us?" Willow asked, upset. If they brought Buffy back, she'd want to see Dawn. If Dawn was gone, she'd freak. Tara grabbed her hand and squeezed.

"He's her brother, Willow. He just wants to help care for her," Tara said reasonably.

"But we've been taking care of her!" Willow said defensively.

"I'm sure you have," Clint said with an easy smile. "I know this is weird. I'm not going to just take her today. I'll spend some time making sure she's comfortable. But this is what her father wants."

Xander came in while they were all staring at Clint, trying to come to terms to the bombshell. When Xander found out about it, his reaction wasn't nearly so calm.

"What the hell, Giles? You're going to let some stranger we don't know just come and take Dawn? Over my dead body! She's all we have of Buffy. Buffy would want us to take care of her!" Xander exclaimed.

"He's her brother, Xander. Her father sent him," Giles said.

Xander gave Clint a suspicious glance. Clint actually flinched under the man's gaze. "He claims that he's her brother. We don't know anything he says is true! After everything we've been through with the Initiative, the Mayor—you think we should just take this guy's word for it?" Xander asked.

A voice came from the doorway. "Well, the President of the United States trust him. Maybe you should, too," Natasha said. "Sorry, Clint. I got tired of sitting in the car."

Tara and Willow's eyes bugged out a bit at the incredibly sexy woman leaning in the doorway so casually. Xander's mouth fell open. "Who are you?" he squeaked.

"This is Natasha Romanoff, my partner. We both work for the government," Clint said.

Willow's eyes widened as she realized the woman looked very familiar. Then she glanced again at Clint and back to the woman. Then it hit her. "Oh, my goddess! You're Avengers! The Black Widow and Hawkeye!"

Xander gulped as he finally recognized the sexy spy. "Dawn's brother is a SHIELD agent?" he asked in wonder.

Clint nodded. "Actually, yes," he admitted.

"Well, I guess that means we can probably trust you," Giles said with a reluctant sigh.

"I will call Hank and make sure he contacts you, Mr. Giles," Clint said.

Dawn was looking at her new brother in awe.

"Tara, is dinner ready yet?" the Buffybot asked, coming into the room.

Natasha looked surprised. "I thought your sister was dead?"

"She's the robot decoy," Clint said. He looked between Giles and Willow. "I'm assuming it was to fool the authorities and keep DHS away?"

Giles nodded. "Without their father's cooperation, we saw no other way to not lose Dawn," he said with a wary sigh.

"What about what the robot said about how Buffy died? Is that true?" Clint asked the group. They all avoided his eyes a moment.

"I suppose if you're going to be sticking around, you should learn the truth," Giles said, taking off his glasses and cleaning them. "The world is older than you know. . ."

*****A Week Later*****

Clint shared everything he learned with Director Fury. He spent five days getting to know his sister and getting a crash course in the supernatural and the life his late sister had been living since she was Dawn's age. It was so incredible that if he hadn't seen vampires staked in front of him, he wasn't sure he would've believed it. The more he learned about the past five years or so in Buffy's life, the more apparent it was that his sister had been fighting a war nightly without any support but a few untrained friends. The anger at the injustice of it was burning him from the inside. Not even a visit home had managed to calm him.

Fury listened without interrupting. If Natasha hadn't been there to confirm what Clint was saying, he might've thought some new type of mind control had gotten a hold of the spy.

"So, you're telling me that a portal to another dimension—a hell dimension at that—resides in Sunnydale, California and could destroy the world if it was opened? Only by the efforts of your sister and a group of civilians has it remained closed?" Fury asked incredulously.

"Yes, sir. I went on patrol with them more than once. They go out every night with the Buffybot. Willow leads them. She's a powerful witch. They slay any vampire or demon they come across. They even have a neutered vampire to help them," Clint said.

"Excuse me?" Fury asked.

Clint gave him a quick rundown of what had went down in Sunnydale by the government group less than two years previously.

Fury picked up the phone and demanded that Agent Hill get him the files from Sunnydale and any military ops based there. "How did we not know about this?" he asked.

"That's what I'd like to know," Clint said, showing his anger for the first time. "My sister is dead because she had no one to help her protect Dawn from some hell god like Loki! There was a Loki-like creature in our country, and a group of civilians had to fight her. Buffy gave her life closing the portal."

"How exactly does that work?" Fury asked.

Clint shrugged. "Dawn's blood has some mystical property that can open the gate—probably her relation to Buffy. Once her blood opened it, only her blood could close it. Buffy realized that their blood was the same, and she jumped!"

"She sounds like an amazing girl," Fury said quietly.

"I'll never know," Clint said sadly.

"If she's gone, does that mean another slayer's been activated to guard the hellmouth?" Fury asked.

"According to Giles, the line now moves through Faith, the rogue slayer who's in prison for murder. Buffy was dead for a minute or so when she was sixteen when a Master vampire drowned her," Clint shared. "Her friend Xander resuscitated her. That's how the lines were split. Another slayer was called—"

"Kendra," Natasha supplied.

"Kendra. She only lasted a year," Clint said grimly. "From what Giles has said, the slayers usually only last a year or so. With rare exceptions, Buffy is one of the longest lived—or rather she was."

Fury stood and began pacing angrily. His mind racing. This new threat was incredible. Something inside their own damn planet could kill them all. He was just getting used to the extraterrestrial threat, now this. "Maybe we can get a new slayer activated if this Faith girl isn't salvageable," he suggested. He looked at Nat. "Go check her out. Talk to her. Find out all her secrets."

"In the prison or as a visitor?" Natasha asked.

"Whatever works," Fury said. "You choose. I want dossiers on all the players in Sunnydale asap. Compile what you gleaned while you were there."

"They're an incredible bunch, especially Xander. He's like me. A normal guy in the midst of extraordinary people, mostly women," Clint said grinning.

"Until Willow recognized us, he was about to rip Clint's head off for daring to take one of his girls," Nat said, snickering. "I had to come rescue him."

"I'll send Rogers and Tony down there to assess. Tony can access the science end—see if there's any readings coming off the hellmouth. Roger can access what type of presence we need there," Fury said.

"Tell him to leave Banner because the last thing the Hellmouth needs is the Hulk," Clint said.

"He'll want to take Banner and insist that he'll stay in the lab," Fury said knowingly.

"From what Dawn told me, it's impossible for civilians to stay completely out of combat situations. Both her mother and she have been witness to invasions from outside hostile threats to the home on more than one occasion," Clint said. "Xander said he spends a lot of time replacing windows and stuff."

"Okay. I'll make it clear that Banner has to sit this one out," Fury said. "Maybe, he can bring Dr. Foster. She is an expert in portals now."

"Good idea," Natasha said.

"So what's your plan?" Fury inquired. "When does she move in with your family?"

"She has a fall break in a few weeks. We're going to bring her to meet Laura and the kids and stay for a few days. If all goes well, I'll push her to pack up on our return," Clint said. He didn't want his sister living another day on the hellmouth and would take her away from the daily threat to her life as soon as possible.

"Sounds good. I know if she was my sister, I'd feel the same way," Fury said.

"She's strong, though, and smart," Clint said.

"She's been through a lot," Natasha added. She'd been drawn to the girl. Her wounded eyes would flash out every so often, but she tried hard to hide it behind a carefree chatter.

"Keep me posted," Fury said. He would learn everything there was to know about slayers, hellmouths, and this Watcher's Council in England that was operating on American soil without following proper protocols.

*****Sunnydale*****

After her brother left, Dawn went to her room and picked up her journal. She didn't want to forget anything.

I have a brother that is a real-life superhero! His name is Clint, and he can shoot a bow and arrow even faster than Buffy. He wants me to live with him and his family. I'm really scared to leave home, but at the same time, I can't wait to get rid of these daily reminders that my mother is gone, and my sister will never be here again.

Buffy is dead because of me. If I told Clint that I wasn't real—just a key made human by some monks—would he leave me, too?

How did I get two siblings that are so amazing when I'm so not? Only my blood is good for something.

If I live with my niece and nephew, I'll be like the big sister since they're younger. That will be kind of cool. I'll get to be the one who knows things for a change. What if they don't like me?

Before Clint left, he hugged me and told me that he loved me. He's known me less than a week, and he already loves me! How cool is that?

It only took me a day to love him. He is so awesome!

*****Chapter End*****

Although other Avengers are mentioned and may make a short appearance, Clint is the prime focus in this first story. Tony will appear, though. Reviews are greatly appreciated.