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Widow's Vengeance - Chapter 24
🕑 Added 2023-08-03 15:26:31 +0000 UTCChapter 24 -
"Report," Director Fury demanded, tiredly staring out of the windows of the helicarrier. The deck of his incredibly expensive flying ship was currently empty beside the two other people in the room with him.
Loki had done a ton of damage to the helicarrier, straight up flushing millions of taxpayers' dollars down the drain. Many of his men and women had been killed or even injured, Fury had every intent of making that son of a bitch pay, but the problem at the moment was that he had no idea where the smug-looking bastard had gone off to. Right now, his people were running around like chickens, trying to do damage control. Loki, with the help of Barton who was suffering under some sort of mind control mumbo jumbo - And wasn't that just great? People can be magically mind-controlled right now, - had managed to destroy one of the helicarrier turbines. Perhaps he could help convince Stark to help with that, he was sure the genius playboy could think up something.
"Sir," Maria Hill spoke up, sounding just as tired. Her beautiful face had several scratches and a small cut on her cheek, standing next to her was Phil Coulson who looked somewhat banged up but was mostly okay. "The death toll is thankfully not as high as we originally anticipated, it's only ten."
"That is still ten deaths far too high for my liking," Directory Fury growled out, not at all pleased.
"Loki has escaped, but all of his men have been captured," Agent Coulson chimed in. "We plan to interrogate them as soon as possible, but it's likely that they don't know anything. They appear to be mercenaries, we're running their information through our systems, we should soon be able to find out who they are."
"And what of Barton?" Fury asked, wanting to know about the status of one of his best agents. "I saw him earlier."
"I would also like to know about that," Natasha Romanoff said, walking into the room.
"Agent Romanoff, we were having a private conversation and..." Maria Hill began but stopped after a gesture from Director Fury.
"Agent Coulson?" Director Fury asked. "Report,"
"Agent Barton is currently in the infirmary, he was placed there by Revenant," Agent Coulson answered. "Revenant advised we let him get some rest, says that the mind control will work his way out of his system."
"Are you aware of Agent Revenant's true identity?" Natasha asked, despite already knowing the answer. A large part of her did truly want to rush to the infirmary to check on Clint, but right now she had questions that she really wanted and needed answers to.
"You discovered his identity then?" Director Fury hummed thoughtfully. "That might explain why I can't currently find him, it's fine, he'll be back when we need him." He said, Natasha was somewhat surprised by the amount of confidence in Director Fury's voice. The way he said it made it clear that he did not believe that he had merely given an opinion, Revenant coming back was a fact that he did not doubt at all.
"You have no idea where he is," She said, it was not a question, even though she phrased it as one.
"I imagine he'll pop up when we need him," Director Fury replied confidently. "Perhaps you should visit Barton while we look around for him." He suggested.
"Sir, I've worked with Revenant more than any other agent here, I'm his primary partner," Natasha said, her tone still quite respectful. "I know more about him than any other agent that works for you, none of you ever saw fit to reveal his identity and I did not ask out of respect and because I'm a professional. But now...Director, what's going on? We're dealing with super soldiers and gods and giant green monsters. Those can be explained, science experiments gone either very wrong or very right are why we have Captain America and the Hulk, as for Thor and Loki, they can be explained as just being aliens. But Revenant, he...at first I was able to brush off his abilities as tricks and some advanced technology, but that's not it, is it? It's real, he does actual magic, doesn't he?"
"Agent Romanoff, I have not revealed much to you about Revenant," Director Fury spoke in a patient tone. "And that was at his request, Revenant has suffered a great deal throughout his life, and he continues to suffer even this very day. If you wish to know more then you must speak to him, as I will not betray his trust or his history. If there is nothing else, Agent Romanoff," He turned his attention back to the open window and stared out of it. Natasha, recognising the clear dismissal, stayed silent before she turned and walked out of the room, heading straight to the infirmary.
It took her a couple of minutes before she arrived at her chosen destination, once she had gotten inside she found Clint had a room all to himself. The skilled archer was currently lying on his back in a bed, unconscious, with his ankles and wrists strapped to the bed. Something that was unfortunately a necessity, given that they couldn't be sure if he was still under Loki's control or not. Natasha stiffened slightly as a familiar presence seemed to wash over her, the room briefly darkened before returning to its normal lighting. The sounds of heavy footsteps lasted no longer than a second before she felt Revenant standing next to her.
Turning to her right she found him standing next to her and staring down at Clint, looking as stiff and imposing as ever. It was hard for the agent to believe that this larger-than-life, unstoppable gun was also the same person who could barely stand up. Was it an act? An illusion? Fury stated that she was that Revenant had and still is suffering, was his other state simply a result of using his powers?
"Is Clint going to be alright?" She asked.
"He'll be fine," Revenant said simply, always a man of few words.
"Thank you," Natasha said gratefully. "Your help is always appreciated, Revenant. Though that does lead me to ask, do you prefer it if I call you Revenant or Potter?" She asked, her gaze fixed firmly on him, hoping to get a reaction out of him. Revenant didn't say anything, though he did turn his head to look at her. "Got to be honest, you saving me from the god of mischief was not how I was hoping to discover your identity. I was kind of hoping we'd have enough trust between us for you to tell me." Revenant didn't say anything. "Well, now that I know, perhaps we can be a bit more honest with each other." She reached up to grab his hood, he reacted just as she suspected he would, quickly grabbing her wrist before she could pull his hood down. "Why did you stop me?" She asked, genuinely curious. "I've already seen your face."
Revenant stared at her for several seconds before leaning forward, bringing his head closer to hers, she felt his gaze behind those emerald lights that were much brighter than the green eyes of Harry Potter. Natasha felt her body freeze, her hyperactive mind slowed down, her breath stilled and her gaze was firmly locked on the glowing, bright emerald orbs that passed for his eyes. She stayed still, waiting to see what he would do, what he would say.
Revenant didn't say anything.
"Am I going to get a single word out of you today?" She asked with a hint of impatience.
"N...Nat," Clint's voice interrupted.
(.)
"Nat, are you alright?" Clint asked as the trio were walking out of the gates of Hogwarts along with the other students, the first year of school had finally finished and the students were all heading towards the train station so they could ride the Hogwarts Express, apart from three of them. The trio separated from the rest and stood to the side as the other students began walking away.
"Oh, I'm fine," Natasha waved him off, "Just daydreaming a bit," She told them with a small shrug of her shoulders.
"Ah, hello children," A familiar voice called, the trio turned and spotted Albus Dumbledore step up next to them, dressed in a purple and red robe combination. "I trust that you have all enjoyed your first year at Hogwarts?" He asked with a grandfatherly smile, looking every bit like a kind and senile old man. Natasha had to admit that the old headmaster was a fairly good actor, not as good as her though.
"Yes, Professor Dumbledore," She said in her usual innocent voice. "What are you doing here?" She asked, making herself sound curious.
"I sometimes like to see the students leave," Dumbledore explained simply, smiling down at her. "Speaking of which, don't you believe that you three should be heading to the Hogwarts Express? It's a fairly long walk and you'll want to get there on time if you want to get good seats. I dare say that if you take too long then you might miss the train entirely. Also, do forgive an old man for being curious, but where are your things?" He asked, noticing that pretty much all the other first years had trunks while the trio before him did not.
"Oh, we got a couple of prefects to shrink them for us," Clint said, tapping his trouser pocket. "They both said that the spells should last about an hour apparently,"
"Ah, plenty of time to get them on the train then," Dumbledore nodded approvingly, he was prepared to continue speaking when all of a sudden Harry spoke up.
"Oh, we're not going on the train," Harry said with an excited grin on his young face.
"I'm sorry," Dumbledore blinked, feeling somewhat confused. "Whatever do you mean?" He asked.
"We decided we didn't want to go on the Hogwarts Express, it's nice we suppose," Clint began explaining. "But it takes a very long time, we've got a faster away."
"Oh, and what would that be?" Dumbledore asked, unsure if he should be amused or not. The students in front of him clearly couldn't apparate and they most likely didn't have portkeys on them, where would they even get them from? Before Dumbledore could continue with his line of thinking, he heard a familiar sound that he was already starting to hate.
Not even a second later felt something pass over his head, something big, something heavy. A familiar nightmare landed in the form of an actual nightmare, the old headmaster watched as the nightmare horse basically ignored his presence in favour of heading towards young Harry. The young boy quickly showered the dark creature with plenty of praise and affection, as if it was a mere house cat or puppy, and shockingly the monstrous horse lapped up his attention happily, confusing Dumbledore.
He was positive that what was in front of him was indeed an actual nightmare, one of the most feared creatures in the wizarding world. As unpredictable as they were dangerous and untameable. They were creatures that could just as easily crush a skull as they could drive a person to insanity, and yet somehow it was now under the control of one Harry Potter, the boy who lived and the chosen one, spoken of in the prophecy. And if that was not weird enough, it had also stolen his wand, the elder wand, and given it to Harry. There was far too much going on for him to comfortably ignore.
"It's good to see you, boy," Harry told Knight who looked mightily pleased before going down to the ground, allowing Natasha and Clint to climb on his back. "Thanks," Harry added before climbing up and sitting in front of Natasha who wrapped her arms around his waist.
"You...you can't be serious..." Dumbledore gaped as he stared at the three of them. "...You...you plan to ride this creature all the way to your home?!" He blurted out, Knight glared heavily at him, and bursts of smoke shot out of his nostrils as he looked only a second away from attacking Dumbledore right there and then.
"He doesn't like being called a creature, Professor," Harry said, giving Dumbledore a disapproving look for the way that the headmaster had talked about Knight.
"I apologise," Dumbledore said, looking like he swallowed a particularly sour-sweet. "But you can't just..."
"Don't worry, Professor Dumbledore," Natasha said in a sweet voice as she cut him off. "It's perfectly safe."
"That is a highly debatable point," Dumbledore began. "And I..." Knight, who had had enough of Dumbledore, spun around and kicked some dirt at Dumbledore, dirtying his expensive robes whilst also resulting in some dirt going in his gaping mouth. The pleased nightmare trotted forwards before he started running quickly, quickly zooming out of Dumbledore's sight. "Well...that was rude." The brightly-coloured headmaster huffed after spitting out the dirt, he turned and headed back inside the school. 'I really need to find a way to get that nightmare away from Harry, the beast could spell the doom of us all.'
Comments
Christian Jeffress
Thank you very much for another excellent chapter, I’m very curious about Bart and Natasha past with a future version of Harry, a seemingly very tragic version of him.
