Running Blind (Avengers Fanfiction)

Chapter 15

Tony doesn't think he's ever seen tumbleweed in real life, and yet as he standing on the dirt path, a huge ball of the stuff just blows right past him. He lifts his eyes to Clint whose eyes are scanning the area. It looked like they were on some type of farm, but there were no crops, all the grass around them was brown, and the house in front of them was completely charred as if it had gone up in flames.

"Where's Loki?" Clint asks, turning to Tony. "You said he was here." Tony looked at the man for a moment before walking over. "Well was he here?"

"Why are you here?" Tony asked. "I had the feeling from our last conversation, you'd be hightailing it back to your own little farm life." Clint shook his head before turning away. "You're curious about all of this, aren't you? You want to see her." Clint didn't say anything before he just turned and walked off. Tony shook his head before stalking after him. "Do you remember her?"

"No," Clint replied and Tony furrowed his brow before rushing to catch up.

"Then why are you here?" Tony asked again, and the archer still didn't answer the question and because Tony couldn't take the silence anymore, be quickened his step to block the man. "Just say it." Clint looked at the man, suddenly remembering just how annoying he could be.

"You said she called me Bart, and I called her Kat." Clint said with a shake of his head. "It's just I-" he turned back to Tony. "I've been having these weird dreams, about this woman who I've never seen before, and she calls me Bart, and when she does I don't hate it."

"What happens in these dreams?" Tony asks hoping they could help them figure out what they should do.

"Sometimes she's there in times and places she just wasn't. Like the whole fight in New York, she was standing there with us, fighting with us." Clint turned away as the dreams he's never talked about out loud finally comes out of his mouth. "Or sometimes we're..."

"You're what?" Tony asks and Clint turns to him with a looks that Tony understands. "Oh. I assume you've never told anyone about this?"

"How could I? I thought they were just dreams. Laura knew they were getting to me, but I couldn't actually tell her about them." Clint once again begins looking around. "How do you tell your wife you're having dreams about another woman. I don't know, it was just something about them that felt so..."

"Real?" Tony said, and Clint turned to him and gave a nod. "Well I think that's because they were. She was here. She was my best friend and she was your wife and I think all of this is happening because we're supposed to bring her back."

"And what happens then, Tony?" Clint asks turning back to the man. "What if the lives we have now were only possible if she wasn't here? What will bringing her back do? My wife, my kids-" he shook his head unknowingly making Tony ask himself the questions he hadn't thought about. What if bringing Katie back somehow would undo his life with Pepper, and with Morgan? Was he really willing to risk that?

Natasha found herself standing at a total loss of what to do next. Presumed dead Loki appeared and now Tony and Clint had disappeared and she had no idea where they were.

"Just so I got this straight, Tony rallied the team because he believes that we need to bring back some woman who none of us remember, except for him and before we left, he and Clint disappeared into some sort of portal to follow Loki, the alien we all thought was dead?" Sam looked between Bruce and Natasha who simply gave a nod. "That's just perfect. Should we be worried that the bastard who once tried to take over the world just kidnapped two avengers?"

"He didn't kidnap them." Natasha said with a shake of her head. "They followed him willingly. He told them they'd find the answers they were looking for."