The Winter Witch (A Hawkeye/Avengers fanfic)

Chapter 17

Winter quickly left the doorway and ran to the open arms of her gift, tackling him onto the bed. Clint laughed as he caught Winter in his arms as she proceeded to kiss him all over his face.

"I missed you so much!" she exclaimed.

Clint leaned back so he could get a better look at her. He placed his hands on either side of her face.

"You're even more beautiful than I remember."

Winter blushed at the complement. "So," she said as she maneuvered herself next to Clint, "tell me, how is everyone? Have you found anything out?"

Clint sighed, "We have been hitting dead end after dead end. Barnes is driving the rest of us crazy. Not having you around has caused him to go almost manic."

Winter furrowed her brows, "What do you mean?"

"He has been asking Furry if he knows anyone who can go into his head and try and pull out any memories of your guys' time in Hydra so he can remember who was in charge. Piece the puzzle back together."

Winter's eyes got big and she jumped up from the bed. "Clint! I can!"

Clint sat up on the bed. "What do you mean you can?"

Winter began pacing in front of the bed. "I can enter James' mind. Find the memories and piece it together so we can put an end to all of this!"

"Babe," Clint said as he reached out and stopped her from pacing. "You don't even remember your early years with Hydra, how are you going to be able to pull Bucky's memories if you can't pull your own?!"

Winter sat down, "Loki has been working with me. It seems there is something blocking my memories, but that doesn't mean I couldn't access someone else's! I have to at least try Clint."

******
"Absolutely not!" exclaimed Thor. "What if something goes wrong?"

"You think you can handle it?" asked Loki.

Thor abruptly turned towards where Loki, Winter, Clint, and Frigga were standing. "You can't be seriously thinking of letting her do this! Mother, you don't agree to this, do you?"

Frigga stood in silence, the wheels in her mind turning as she contemplated the idea that Winter came up with. "My dear," she said as she made her way to Winter, taking her hands, "You are absolutely sure you want to try this? It is very complicated magic and it could result in you getting lost not only in your own mind but your friends too."

Clint's head snapped up at those words, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm with Thor on this, are you sure this is safe?" He quickly grabbed Winter's arms, turning her towards him. "I'm not gonna lose you over something as trivial as Bucky's memories. We can find another way. We'll keep searching Hydra bases. You and I can escape to the farm, no one will find us. I'll retire! We can start a family and live a normal life together!"

Winter put her finger on Clint's mouth, stopping his rambling. "Clint, I want to do all the things you just said, but until we put an end to this, Hydra will always come looking for me and James. I have to at least try. And if I do this with Loki and Grandmother with me, then I will be ten times safer while performing the spell." She turned and looked at Loki and Frigga, who had tears in her eyes at being called Grandmother.

Frigga nodded her head, "Yes, we can bring this James here where it will be safer with our healers to watch over you both as well. I will speak to Odin and we can have everything prepared within the day. Thor, go and collect your friends. We need to do this as soon as possible."

Thor huffed, realizing he wasn't going to win this argument. He stepped towards Winter. "You are sure about this? I just found my niece, I'd hate to lose you too soon."

Winter smiled and hugged him, "I have to do this Thor. We need answers."

With that, Thor nodded his head and summoned Mjolnir, making his way to the Bifrost to collect Bucky and the others.

"Now," Frigga said while clapping her hands, "We have work to do before he returns, and I need to speak to Odin, but knowing him he already knows what we are planning." She walked out of the room leaving Winter, Loki, and Clint.

"Let's go to the library and pull a few books. I want to be sure we do this correctly." Loki said as he made his way to the door, Winter and Clint following behind.

********

As Loki and Winter made their way around the various bookshelves, Clint was standing in the middle of the library looking around.

"This isn't a library, this is a museum!" he exclaimed as he went to go touch something shiny on a pedestal.

Loki quickly grabbed Clint's wrist. "Don't touch anything! Last time a non-Asgardian was here and touched something they entered a hundred year sleep."

Clint gulped, "Sounds like sleeping beauty."

Loki looked confused. "I don't know if I would have called her a beauty but I wouldn't say she was ugly."

Winter rolled her eyes at their banter, turning back to the books on the shelves. Suddenly, a midnight blue spine with gold writing caught her eye.

"Loki, what is this one?" she asked.

Loki made his way over and took the book from her hands. "Ah, this would be the prehistory of Asgard, prior to the birth of Thor."

Winter's head snapped up, "You mean my father?"

Loki paled slightly, "Yes, I suppose he would be included in this volume. Although from my years of reading, I have never been able to find a true tale of the prehistory since Odin had both Tyr and Hela stricken from the volumes."

"Whose Hela?" Clint whispered to Winter.

"My crazy Aunt that was banished to the underworld."

Clint's eyes got wide, "And I thought my family was weird."

Loki smirked, "Weird doesn't even begin to cover it."

Winter began thumbing through the volume. During her short time on Asgard she slowly had begun to pick up some of the language, so she was able to understand a word or two of the pages. But it was the pictures that began to catch her eyes. Pictures of a woman who almost looked like Loki with long black hair and green eyes. A strange large crown was on her head as she road a wolf that was bigger than a house. Winter looked down at the caption. Hela rides into battle on her great wolf Garmr. Winter turned the page and her heart suddenly stopped. A large man, with long dirty blonde hair and a large beard stood with a massive sword in one hand while a decapitated head was held in the other. His leather armor was covered in blood. Winter glanced at the caption. Tyr the destroyer of man.

Winter suddenly dropped the book and took a step back. Clint caught her as she stumbled back.

"Winter? What's wrong?"

She was trembling as she pointed to the open page of the book that was on the floor. Loki came over and picked it up, looking over at what she had been looking at. He glanced to her and his face showed concern.

"Winter, you look as if you have seen a ghost."

Unable to speak above a whisper, she quietly answered, "It's him. The doctor who did the experiments."

Loki and Clint quickly looked at each other and back at Winter.

"Who Winter? Who was the doctor that did the experiments?" Loki asked as he brought the book closer to her.

Winter pointed to the open page, "Him. My father."