Title: Conquer
Author: SLynn
Rating: T (language)
Fandom: Avengers (movieverse)
Characters: Ensemble
Spoilers: Takes place after the movie. Follow-up to The Set-Up. #13 in Recruitment series.

Summary: While Phil and Clint settle back into their normal lives, Natasha begins to see that things are not the same.

Notes: Fair warning, I am still writing this fic. I've reached about the halfway point (I think) with my draft and thought it was time to start posting again. I plan on at least posting weekly, but if I finish up and feel good about it, I will start posting more frequently. I am excited and anxious and happy and a little petrified about this one because... well, you'll see. Thank you for reading. Enjoy!

PS - thank you, Tripp3235. No beta endures more. :)

i.

The storm was worse than Tony had thought because it was seriously compromising his tech. The comm lines were down. The flashes of lightning were blurring his vision and in the chaos he'd lost track of the second target not long after they'd vacated the house.

After trying, and failing, to contact both Morse and Sitwell, and Steve and Maria, Tony made the decision to return to the jet.

"Sitwell's line got hosed," Morse called out, meeting him on the landing ramp along with Thor and Natasha. "He's working on it but that's probably trouble."

"Can't you turn this off?" Tony asked Thor as his faceplate slid up and he gestured wildly at the clouds.

"It is as I told you, one cannot put a bottle a storm," Thor replied, unfazed as the lightning grew more intense around them. "One can only set it free."

"That's beautiful," Tony said. "Poetic even. Remind me of that next time, before we crack one of these open again, okay?"

"Tony," Natasha said, catching his attention for the first time. She was at the very top of the ramp, looking out around them, her whole body tense.

Unnerved, momentarily, Tony whipped around and scanned the tree line.

"We are not alone," Thor said quietly, having also sensed the added presence.

They all felt watched.

"Hey," Tony shouted, hoping to be heard over the crash of thunder above. "Whoever you are out there, I hope you realize what you're about to mess with. I don't deal with amateurs."

"Turn on the lights," Natasha ordered Morse, taking a few steps further down the ramp.

"They're on already," Morse answered.

"No, the exterior lights," Natasha replied, her eyes still looking around the horizon.

"Why don't I paint targets on our backs, too," Morse muttered as she complied. "There you go. We're lit up like Broadway."

"Tasha, you got a plan here or..." Tony started to ask but before he could finish they all heard it.

The four of them turned at the unmistakable sound of a person dropping to the ground. They could all see him, they could tell it was a man now, in shadow, as he stood up from a crouched landing and hesitated. For a split second, he hesitated and then began to first walk, and then to run, in their direction. Thor and Tony both tensed reflexively, but Natasha took another step forward.

She didn't dare trust her eyes but she thought she recognized that silhouette.

She thought she knew...

He was close now, still running at a good pace, but without a weapon drawn and without any real sign of aggression in his movements.

That's when the floodlights switched on.

Not the floodlights from their jet; floodlights from above.

The man stopped dead in his tracks and looked skyward as the light from above spotlighted where he stood.

While everyone looked up at the intrusion, Natasha kept her eyes trained on the target.

On Clint.

With one arm raised to block the light from the jet hovering above him, Clint had froze and Natasha's heart did the same.

Tony finally flicked his eyes in Clint's direction and paused for a split second before blasting upward to see who had crashed their party. He got eyelevel with the pilot of the Quinjet, not recognizing the woman at the helm, and waited.

"Standby for landing," the woman announced over the loudspeaker so that everyone could hear.

Whatever emotion it had been that had previously kept Clint in place passed when he recognized the latest addition to be SHIELD. He moved back and away, but was careful to stay in sight and probably more importantly, to keep everyone else in sight. Tony stayed airborne as the jet landed and spotted in the weakening storm a different jet landing in the distance up by the house where he'd left Steve and Maria.

As soon as the SHIELD Quinjet touched down Morse was on her way over, looking furious and having obviously instructed both Thor and Natasha to stay back. They didn't listen. Two guards had already rushed out and over to Clint who didn't fight back. As a concession, they didn't restrain him, only escorted him back to the waiting jet without explanation.

"I have my orders," the SHIELD pilot was saying as Tony landed, joining the group bunched up between the two jets. The woman wasn't anyone he recognized, short with dark hair and skin, but she didn't appear to be wary of them in any fashion. "You are free to follow us back to the Helicarrier."

"Who sent you?" Morse barked. "How in the hell did you even know we were here?"

"I wasn't told who," the woman insisted, losing some of her professional calmness and sounding genuinely surprised, "but, Agent Morse, these orders came from up high. We were told to trail you from the Tower. Something strange is going on," she continued, casting a glance back towards the jet. "And not just back-from-the-dead strange."

"What happened, Agent Ryan?"

"Six agents failed to show for duty tonight," the other woman answered. "Their rooms were ransacked. They left in a hurry. The whole place is on lockdown. Director Fury is, well, furious. Sorry I didn't make contact before but... it's been a crazy night, Bobbi."

"Okay, well..." Morse said, looking a little apprehensive by influx of information. A little surprised by the easy admissions. "Cindy, can one of us ride along?"

Tony and Thor both turned and looked at Natasha, ready to see her push past them and walk up the ramp without further invitation, but she didn't. She hadn't moved. Natasha stood there and after a moment or two passed it was clear she wasn't going to volunteer.

"Yes," Agent Ryan answered with a nod. "I've got room."

Again, they all expected Natasha to jump at the chance, and when she didn't, Tony stepped up.

"We'll be right behind you," Morse said as Tony looked anxiously up the ramp and Ryan gave her a smile.

"Peters is airborne," the co-pilot called out. "They've picked up Agent Coulson. Says Captain Rogers and Agent Hill are riding with them, so no need to wait."

Morse nodded and motioned Thor and Natasha back to their jet.

"Last chance," she said quietly to Natasha, casting a glance over her shoulder where Tony and Agent Ryan were still standing out on the ramp.

In response, Natasha picked up her pace.

"Okay," Agent Ryan said as soon as Morse's group was back onboard, "Mr. Stark, I only ask that you let me fly my jet. And try not to override anything midair. It makes me jumpy."

"I don't make promises," he returned, but it was half-hearted at best, as he followed her up the ramp and turned immediately to where Clint was sitting in the back of the hold.

Clint Barton looked different than he remembered. He looked smaller somehow. Diminished. He was most definitely thinner. Clint's hair was longer than Tony had ever seen it and he hadn't shaved in weeks. His clothes all looked as if they'd been procured second-hand. As he sat there, head in hands, every bit of him at odds; exhausted and relieved.

Tony was at a loss for words.

Instead of speaking, Tony took the seat directly opposite Clint's and waited as patiently as he could. When that didn't prove to be enough, Tony reached out and touched Clint's hand, wishing he'd at least gotten out of the suit before he'd climbed onboard.

"I'm fine," Clint said quietly, meeting Tony's eyes as if to prove something to himself. "I am."

"Are you ever not?" Tony asked with a faintest of smiles which earned a laugh in return. Granted, it was a weak laugh, barely more than a grin, but Tony took his victories where he could.

The rest of the ride was silent as not even Tony could find anything to say. When they landed, Tony half expected Director Fury to be there waiting, but instead there was no one. The two armed guards who had escorted Clint onboard the jet walked him off leaving Tony behind.

"Where are they taking him?" he asked Agent Ryan.

"Debriefing," she said as she ran through shut-down procedures. "And before you ask, they're not going to let you in."

Before he could ask, because Tony would always ask no matter what, he heard his name being called.

"How have you already changed?" Tony asked Steve, not at all surprised to see him. "What exactly holds that suit of yours together? Velcro?"

"Not now, Tony," Steve said, waving for him to follow. His face set and stern. "Fury is with Coulson. I don't think he's ever been at a loss for words before in his life but right now... Come on, let's go."

Tony took a few minutes to properly stow his own suit before following Steve through the Helicarrier towards the debriefing rooms.

"He say anything?" Steve asked. "Did Clint tell you anything about how this happened?"

"No," Tony shrugged. "He was a little out of it. What about Phil? What did he say?"

"He's not well, Tony," Steve said, and for a moment the facade slipped as he began to sound dejected. "There had been some kind of accident, that's how they escaped, but he was injured. On top of already being injured which... Fury is with him in medical..."

"Fuck."

"... and he's not letting him out of his sight," Steve finished as they entered the observation room. They were completely alone in it, except for the giant two-way mirror that dominated one entire wall.

On the other side of that wall was Clint and Maria.

"Just start at the beginning, Barton," Maria said with her usual demeanor. It was almost as if this happened every day judging by the look of her.

"I don't know if I remember the beginning," Clint said with a heavy sigh. "I told you, I just woke up somewhere else."

"Were you drugged?" she asked, running down a checklist on her tablet.

"Probably."

"Yes or no," she reminded.

"Yes."

"Did you recognize any of your captors?"

"No."

"Were they in uniform? Organized in any way?"

"Yes. They all had the same... suit? Uniform, I guess. Tactical. Black. They always kept their faces covered. There were... there was a medical team. Kind of. They wore white."

"Did they question you?"

"No."

"Never?" she said, surprised.

"No. They never spoke to us except over a loud speaker."

"Us? You and Agent Coulson?"

"We weren't the only two there. There was another prisoner. A woman. I think her name was Carol but we never spoke so... so," he sighed and looked anguished, "I don't know for certain. Phil said her name was Carol, too. Maybe I got that right."

"Did they torture you?" Maria asked, making a note indicating she'd return to the previous question later.

Clint's eyes darted up to the mirror behind Maria and did not answer. Maria inclined her head slightly before hitting the pause button on the remote, halting the video recording of the interview.

"We need to know," Maria pressed.

"I don't have to be here, Hill," Clint said through gritted teeth. "I'm only doing this because Phil's banged up and I promised him I'd cooperate with SHIELD. I owe this to him, not you."

"I know," she said with a nod, "but I still need answers for SHIELD." Clint dropped his eyes to the table before him and let out a huff of air. "Here," Maria said, hitting a separate button and allowing Clint a look into the room. "It's just Rogers and Stark," she confirmed. "They can't be in here because of protocol and if you'd like, I can ask them to leave, but they are the only ones watching right now."

She hit the button again and the mirror was a mirror once more while Clint looked a little easier.

"No," he answered. "It wasn't torture but it was... it was something."

"Can you describe it?"

"No," he said, shaking his head. "And not because... I don't know what they did. They put us to sleep and I think they experimented on us but I don't know for sure."

"How did you escape?"

"Luck."

"Can you expound on that?" Maria asked, carefully keeping her tone as polite as possible, which wasn't easy. It wasn't natural to her and furthermore, she didn't like his demeanor. It felt off, like he might possibly still be drugged. Or else it was shock. And Maria had known Clint for over eight years, had seen him in the aftermath of some truly terrible situations; if he was still in shock, it had to have been horrific.

"Something spooked them," Clint said, leaning back in his chair slightly and shaking his head. Finally, he looked as if he was relaxing, if only a bit. "About a month back things changed. They stopped taking us into the experiments. We'd... we couldn't communicate directly, me and Phil, so... When I realized Phil was there, I knew that no one was coming to pick us up. We all thought he was dead so I assumed everyone thought the same about me. It took a long time to relay that information to Phil and we knew we'd have to get out on our own. Maybe they picked up on that and wanted us in a more secure location, maybe it was something outside... something more, I don't know. A lot of this, Hill, you can't understand how... how isolated we were. Whatever the reason, they decided to move us and there were problems with the transport."

"What happened?"

"I don't know," he repeated, showing more strain in his demeanor than before. Showing real anger. Hill always made him irrationally angry, even now, but for once she didn't mind. It was good to see him reacting again, even if it was negatively towards her. He'd been entirely too mellow for her liking up until now. "I don't know. They had us drugged. I woke up and... I guess we crashed. They drugged us for the transfer. They drugged us for everything. I woke up and there was debris and fire and I heard Phil -"

Clint stopped abruptly and shut his eyes as if the memory was too much.

"He was pinned underneath a bench, some part of the plane. His leg looked really bad. There was a dead guard nearby. I took his gun and took out the other three guards. We looked... We looked for hours after but Carol wasn't there. She wasn't on the transport with us and... and I don't know what happened to her."

"This crash site," Maria said after a moment of silence. "Do you think you could locate it?"

"Absolutely."