"I'm in the middle of the Mojave, searching for heat in a desert. I see something wrong with this picture," Clint remarked into his earpiece as the ATV trundled over the sand. His thermo-vision goggles scanned the sand endlessly, sending out beacons, hoping beyond hope that she was out there somewhere.

No one had seen or heard from his little cousin, Violet-Sky, in almost a year. Summer was in full-swing and she was still gone. Soon-to-be nineteen years old, the former SHIELD agent and archer with the purple eyes and dark brown hair was missing. The Avengers had been searching the entire globe, with the help from Nick Fury, trying to track her down. But there was no trace. No sign. It was almost as though she never existed, even though the equipment and clothes she left behind suggested otherwise.

Not to mention they'd had to put off the search for a while to beat the snot out of Tony's sort-of-good-idea-gone-bad, Ultron.

"Just keep looking," Violet-Sky's boyfriend, Captain Steve Rogers, said quietly. He was somewhere nearby on a motorcycle, also running beacons and thermal scans. If she was out there and still on the planet's surface, they'd find her. Neither Hawkeye nor Captain America wanted to lose their Amethyst (but if she knew they were calling her that she'd punch them both).

Beep beep! Beep beep!

Hawkeye's gaze refocused on his goggles. "Cap! Five hundred meters ahead there's a thermal signature! It's small but it's strong."

"On it!"

Clint zipped forward as the beacon got nearer and nearer. When it was ten meters away he slammed his ATV to a stop and leapt off. Without thinking or even grabbing his bow he rushed forward, tearing his goggles off. When he saw what the signature was, he collapsed to his knees.

Violet-Sky was curled up on her side, unconscious, breathing deeply, a peaceful look on her face.

Clint cradled her in his arms, trying not to cry from relief. "Cap, I found her. She's here," he murmured.

As he waited for the super soldier to make his way over, Hawkeye checked her over. She was intact. A little feverish with a spiked heart rate maybe, but intact. The burn scar all the way down her left arm from the fight with his older brother two years before looked like it was fading. There were small, almost imperceptible holes in her skin from hypodermic needles, but they were healing too.

Captain America finally jumped from his dirt bike and knelt next to Hawkeye. "We should get her to Tony and Bruce," Steve murmured.

"Bruce is still missing," Clint pointed out.

"Well then, we gotta get her to SHIELD or FitzSimmons or someone!"

"Keep your hair on, Soulja Boy," Clint snapped. "I wasn't disagreeing. I'm going to trust you to get her back to the Quinjet since you're stronger than me."

Captain America leaned forward and scooped Violet-Sky up. The first thing he was conscious of was how warm she was. Normally, because of his super-fast metabolism, he was a lot hotter than she was and she always felt like she was freezing. But not this time. She felt uncomfortably warm against the bare skin of his arms. His eyebrows scrunched and his eyes narrowed.

"Yeah, I felt that too," Clint remarked when he saw the question in Steve's face. "Feel her heart." The smaller archer was small enough that he could hold her entire body in one arm, so he shifted her to free one and pressed his palm against the center of her chest.

Despite being unconscious, her heart was racing. It seemed stronger than it had ever felt before as well.

"What did HYDRA do to her?" Steve demanded quietly.

Hawkeye shrugged, a murderous glint in his eyes. "I don't know. But whoever did it to her, I'm going to kill them and throw their body in the Mariana Trench with a millstone tied to their ankle!" he growled. The captain didn't doubt the older archer's threats one bit.

He mounted his motorcycle, carefully positioned Violet-Sky so she wouldn't fall off, and zipped away from Clint, heading back for the Quinjet they'd left with Violet-Sky's old trainer Tristan several miles back.

Hawkeye paused for a moment, eyes looking for tracks around where she'd been lying. Nothing. Probably blown away in the wind. He cursed under his breath and stormed off.

The Quinjet breezed into its landing at Avengers Tower and rested on the ground with barely a jolt. Steve hadn't let Violet-Sky go the entire ride across the country and only released her when a woman and a few other doctors, including Tony Stark, ordered him to put her on the stretcher so they could give her medical attention.

The other Avengers gathered over the course of the young woman's examination in the room where they'd first met Ultron and sat together in intense silence. Steve's hands were clenched into fists on his knees and Hawkeye was pacing. Black Widow was drinking something pink that looked like lemonade, Bruce was missing, and Thor was physically trying not to snap. They'd all grown very fond of Violet-Sky over the past few years and no one was telling them anything. Nothing was more frustrating. Tony's voice occasionally crackled over the intercom with a joke or something while they examined Violet-Sky. Once in a while they could hear, "You're okay, Vi. You're gonna be okay."

Finally, Steve couldn't stand it. He marched out to the balcony and gripped the railing so hard he dented it. Clint joined him after a moment, leaning back against the glass idly, staring back at the glass of the building. He sighed.

"She's a fighter, Steve," Clint murmured quietly. "She's a fighter." He sounded more like he was trying to reassure himself more than Captain America. "She'll fight to the end."

"Clint," Steve remarked. "It's okay. I know she'll be okay."

"Yeah. Yeah. She'll be okay," Clint muttered.

Violet-Sky's dreams were plagued as the doctors started to make sure she'd be okay. She started convulsing. "It's not because of us! It must be something in her mind!" She heard it as though through cotton, pushing through into her dreams.

Looney Tunes Band-Aids all over her legs, one or two on her arms. Lying on a gurney, thrashing. Pain in every limb. Heart beating faster than she knew her body could safely handle. "She's a fighter. She'll be alright. Look! She's already pushing through!" There was that voice—the one with the foreign lilt. She lifted her eyes and closed them, losing herself in her memories. Cuddling with Steve, watching Phantom of the Opera in Tony's basement. Kissing him—multiple times—the first being on that dance floor in that ridiculous but oddly beautiful red dress. It helped her get through the torture of that sick, sick man's experiments on her.

"She's coming up!" Through cotton in her ears she heard voices. "Someone tell the Avengers! She's fighting!"

"Vi! Come on kiddo! You can make it! Come back to us."

"Vi?" The cotton was being removed. She could feel herself surfacing.

As her eyes drifted open, the only thing she saw were two sets of blue-gray eyes.

End Note: GGGGUUUUUYYYYYSSSSS! GUESS WHO'S BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!? So, I thought I'd put this one up now instead of later because I have a LOT of chapters already written even though I still have no idea where the heck this thing is going. It's been so much fun to write for the last several weeks! I hope you guys enjoy!

For those of you who don't know and don't read description/summaries, this is the sequel to my Under a Violet Sky series. In fact, this is the third one. I suppose you don't have to go back and read UaVS 1&2... but I would highly recommend it so you know who Violet-Sky is and everything that's happened up until this point. Honestly it shouldn't take you very long to read them. Coupled together they're about 80+ chapters with roughly 1,000 words in each chapter.

For those of you who do know and/or have already read UaVS 1&2, WELCOME BACK! I HOPE YOU ENJOYED MY HIATUS AND ARE FULLY PREPARED TO JUMP BACK IN! I KNOW I AM!

Thanks for reading! See you soon!

~Cass