Monstrous (Avengers Fanfic)

Chapter 13

"Uh, care to repeat that Barton?"

Lila frowned. "Barton? Who's Barton?" Everyone looked expectantly at Clint and he winced, scratching his head sheepishly.

"I possibly - sorta - kinda - changed my name?" It came out as question.

"WHAT?!" Yelled several people. Lila snarled dangerously and stepped protectively in front of Clint, her wings blocking him from sight. "Hey hey, calm down Lux! Breath in and out, there you go." He smiled down at her with a look in his eyes that none of the other occupants of the room had seen before. "I'm the big brother, I'm supposed to be protecting you." His tone was teasing but there was a sad undertone to it.

Clint turned to the Avengers and the X-men and sighed, this was going to take a while. He gestured for everyone to sit down. Once everyone was seated - sans Lila who was sat on Clint's lap, his arms curled around her waist possessively - he began his explanation.

"19 years ago, the only thing I loved was taken from me." He glanced lovingly down at Lila, kissing her head gently, like she was made of glass.

The Avengers where, in a word, astonished. None of them, not even Natasha, had seen this side of Clint. It was like he was an entirely different person.

"Our father left us high and dry when Lila was 2 so she doesn't remember him, but I do. He was the sort of man who liked to hurt others who were smaller and weaker than him because it made him feel strong."

There was something in his words that went unspoken, but he didn't need to say it. The way Lila's eyes flashed  a bloody red and the undertone of barely disguised pain in Clint's voice told them all they needed to know.

"It only got worse after he left. Our mother -" He spat this with a venom unheard of in one with such a calm disposition as Clint. "- was different after he left. At first she was just distant, unattached to the reality that she had children to take care of, so I took care of Lila and myself. We needed no-one but each other. Then Lila turned Six." Clint's eyes darkened with a rage that made everyone shiver, just slightly.

"Lila screamed in her sleep and I jumped out of bed and ran to her room, moving faster than I ever had before. I thought that our mother had finally decided to do something about the unwanted freak children that she was forced to provide for. Instead, I found Lila in her bed writhing and crying, calling out for me. It wasn't a nightmare." Lila flinched back into Clint's chest, the memory still fresh in her mind like it was just yesterday.

"It took three days. Three days of constant pain, every painkiller in the house ran dry, but finally, her wings tore through the skin of her back."

Multiple people turned slightly green at this, even the iron - or rather the adamantium stomached Wolverine.

Clint winced at the memory, tightening his hold on Lila, trying to comfort himself as much as her.

Lila surprised them by piping up quietly. "I cried for a long time. I thought that I was even more of a monster than mother already thought I was. She never said it outright, but I wasn't so young as to not understand the disgust in her eyes when she looked at my silver hair and violet eyes." Then she smiled, ever so slightly.

"But James didn't look at me and my new wings with horror, he looked at them with wonder. He sat behind me telling me how beautiful they were and how much he would give to be able to fly like I would soon learn to, as he cleaned the blood off them. Without him, I would have grown up hating myself, and the monster I was to become."

Enthralled as he was by their tale, Steve did not notice the look in Tony's eyes and clap a hand over his mouth like he usually would have, so Tony spoke up, ruining the moment.

"Ok this is fascinating and all, but why do you keep  calling him James?" His curiosity would one day get Tony killed, Steve was sure of it.

"I'm getting there Stark, shut your pie hole and listen!" Lila snorted at her brother's reprimand of the irritating little man.

"Anyway, not three months after Lila grew her wings, men in white coats showed up at the house. I was doing homework in my room at the time so I didn't notice anything until I heard Lila yelling for me. I bolted down stairs and got to the door just as then men threw Lila in the back of a van. I tried to get to her but mother held me back. I wasn't very big or strong for my age so I couldn't get past her to help Lila. I just had to watch as they drove away with her."

Sadness turned to hatred in a spit second. "She sold Lila. That witch sold Lila to those monsters and just expected me - the normal child -" he spat sarcastically, "to go along it. That night I packed everything I had and ran away. I was born James Clinton Rosanna, but as soon as I was old enough, I changed my name to Clint Barton because I didn't want to have anything to do with that witch that sold my baby sister."

There was a tense silence. No-one knew what to say or do after a story like that. Good thing for them, Tony excelled at distracting people in the most annoying way possible.

"So, James..."

Clint groaned, resting his head on Lila's shoulder.

What had he done?