lost (Hawkeye)

Chapter 48

Apollo:

It was a good feeling to shoot again. I haven't shot for a long time, I missed the pressure on my fingers when I pulled back the string, the sound of the arrow, whenever it flew through the air. When Jarvis switched to level seven, the targets started to move. I pulled a regular arrow out of my quiver and shot. It hit the bull's eye. Clint picked up his black bow, looked me in the eye and shot. His arrow split mine right down the middle. Show-off. I nodded appreciatively, but I wouldn't have expected anything else from my grandson. "Not bad. Jarvis, the highest level please." Immediately the discs began to swing back and forth. They went up, sideways, changed size...I pulled another arrow from my quiver, focused and shot. It hit the bull's eye. "Wow, where did you learn to shoot like that?" Clint looked at me in admiration."It's my area of expertise." I shrugged and looked at him more closely. His technique was perfect, clearly his training had been pretty good. He had a strong, trained, muscular body and a friendly twinkle in his eyes. He looked at the target with concentration before he let go and the arrow drilled into the black. "What's your real name?" I flinched slightly and the arrow flew just past the target. I had missed. I, the god of archery had missed! I just hoped my sister would never know. I looked to Clint, who was looking at me, waiting. "My real name? What makes you think Fred Peter shouldn't be my name?" "I was looking for your files when I first saw you." He shot another arrow. "I found a few Freds, but none of them were called Peter." He shot another arrow. Again into the bull's-eye." I send them a picture of you and there were many pictures of you. All under a different name, but it's you in all of them." He put the bow down and looked me in the eye. "So who are you?" Oh crap, I had to think of something fast. "You're right, Fred Peter is not my name, nor are the others my names. My family has a lot of enemies, so sometimes you have to take on other identities. In fact, my name is Solace, Will Solace." I said the first name that came to mind. "Will Solace?" He didn't really look convinced. "Feel free to look it up." Hopefully my son had a record, otherwise I was going to be in pretty deep shit.Clint picked up his bow again and we continued shooting. "Where did Percy get her scars?" I swallowed slightly. "Don't you think she should tell you herself?" He was silent for a moment. "She doesn't like to talk about it and I don't want to make her sad." I nodded. "She really doesn't like to talk about it. All I know myself is that her boyfriend fell into a camp full of enemies. She didn't want to leave him alone, so she jumped in after him. Down there, only one has ever come out alive. It's impossible to survive there, but they did. When they came back, they both had severe mental problems and were covered in blood. After that, they weren't like they were before." I looked sadly at the ground. "Who are your enemies?" I saw nothing in Clint's eyes but concern and something else. Was that love?" I can't say. But no one can help us with that. Not even S.H.I.E.L.D." I said as he opened his mouth to say something. "Where are they now? Why aren't they attacking Percy?" "They're everywhere. Except with Percy, even they aren't stupid enough to fight her. Percy killed their leader last year, she hasn't been attacked since. But the price of victory was high." I looked over at Percy, who was talking to Thor. Clint looked to her as well. "Is there anything I can do to help her?" "You can be there for her, time will sort out the rest." Clint nodded dejectedly. I wanted to cheer him up, so I asked him if he wanted to shoot with my bow. He agreed and so we swapped. His bow was a lot heavier than mine and the string was of poorer quality. Client's eyes sparkled with joy when he pulled an arrow from my golden quiver. "Uh I would..." BOOM before I could warn him, he was already firing. The target flew into the air and burned before it could even land. "Oh, that must have been an exploding arrow..." I rolled my eyes. "Good call." He grinned and fired again. This time with the right one. "What are the advantages of being in your family anyway? Why don't you just run away and live in safety?" I thought about it, it was actually quite a good question. 

"It's our family, we have friends there. Everything is open to us financially and if you know the right people, you can become something big. It's not always safe with us, but on your own you'd be dead quicker than you could say 'help'." He eyed me. "Don't look at me like that. It's dangerous and you could die at any moment, but you definitely lived before that. There are many extraoridnary possibilities in my family. For example, my sister goes hunting with young girls. We have a camp where you prepare for life..." "Seems like a very big family." "Oh yes, sometimes you don't want to know who all you are related to." "Have you ever had problems with any of your family?" I laughed out loud, it wasn't a real laugh. "Problems with my family? Loads of them. My father hates me, so does my aunt. My grandpa too and there are many more. But Percy has it worse. She is hated for no reason. With me, I can understand if people are jealous of my super looks and wonderful talents, but Percy really has an unfair life." "What happened?" He looked at me with curiosity. "When she joined the family, she was accused of stealing something. My father wanted to kill her for it. So she set out to get it back. She almost died in the process. Afterwards she had to get something, otherwise the camp would have been destroyed. You have to know that Nico had a sister. Percy and some friends were supposed to bring her to the camp when they were attacked. David was taken and when they went to rescue him and my sister, Bianca, Nico's sister died. That was the first time Percy had ever seen a friend die. Shortly after, another child died. Nico blamed her for his sister's death and disappeared. The year after that, there was a war. A friend of Percy's betrayed us all. He defected to the enemy. Percy was very upset by Luce's betrayal, but even worse was Matt's betrayal. He was like a brother to her, they both died in battle, as did many others." I took a deep breath. "You would have thought she deserved her rest after that, but our aunt kidnapped her. From there it gets quite complicated. To cut a long story short. With six others, she went across the country to stop someone. In Greece there was a fight and many died except her. After that she went to her mother, as she was the only one she had left. Then you came into her life, her mother was kidnapped and now you have to save her." Clint looked at me with mixed emotions in his eyes. He wanted to give me back the bow, but I didn't take it. "Keep it, I yes many other bows." I also took my quiver and gave it to him. "I can't accept this Will." I pressed it to his body. "Well, you do. You need them more than I do and as I said, I have more." He thanked me. "But you need to stay with her on this mission. With this arrows you are able to protect her, even from our enemies. I know you have feelings for her. Don't hurt her, she deserves to be happy." He looked at me, startled. "How do you know about that?" "It's obvious mate, even a blind man would have noticed." I grinned at him. My melancholic feelings were long gone. "She is in love with you too, or at least close to it. Everything is built on trust, so trust her. You won't regret it." "Thank you" hehad a huge smile on his face. I walked over to Percy but turned again in calling to him "Oh and you must know the sun makes a perfect tan." "I have a good tan" I heard him mutter behind me. I laughed softly and stood by Percy. "Cousin." "Cousin." We nodded to each other. "I have to go. Always remember the past often repeats in the future. Face it and don't run away." She looked at me, confused. "Just a gut feeling." I turned to Nathasha. "We will meet again, darling." She longed at me but I dodged her laughing. "Thor, practice flying straight again for a bit." With those words, I left the tower.