Avengers: Endgame(Book 10)

Chapter 1- Where are they?

2018-Five years ago

"Okay, hold on, don't shoot. You see where you're going?" Clint Barton asks his daughter Lila as he teaches her how to shoot a bow and arrow.

Lila nods her head. "Mm-hmm."

"Okay. Now, let's worry about how you get there. Gotta move your foot here. Point your toe this way." Clint corrects his daughter's foot to the proper position and adjusts her shooting stance. "Your hips here. Okay? Can you see?"

"Yeah," Lila replies. Clint pushes Lila's dark hair in front of her face while covering her left eye.

"How about now? Can you see now?"

Both Lila and Clint giggle. "All right. Ready? Three fingers."

"Nice!" Cooper, Clint's older son, says as he plays catch with his younger brother Nathaniel.

"Nice throw, kiddo." Laura, Clint's wife, says. The Barton family were outside on their farm having a picnic. Laura was at the table preparing the food.

"Here you go," Cooper says, throwing the ball back to his little brother.

"Mommy, why couldn't Auntie Kait come over today?" Nathaniel asks.

"She's very busy, Nate. But she says she's sorry and hopes to come over very soon." Laura smiles at her son. She looks over to Clint and Lila. "Hey, you guys want mayo? Or mustard? Or both?"

Lila looks at her dad. "Who puts mayo on a hotdog?"

"Probably your brothers." Clint looks at his wife. "Uh, two mustard, please! Thanks, mama."

"Got it!" Laura shouts. She looks at Nathaniel. "Nate, mayo or mustard?"

"How about ketchup?" Nate asks.

"Or ketchup. I got ketchup, too." Laura says.

Lila aims the arrow at the target. "Mind your elbow." Lila releases the arrow, and it hits the target directly in the bullseye. Clint laughs. "Good job, Hawkeye. Go get your arrow."

"Hey, guys! Enough practice. Soup's on!" Laura says.

"All right. We're coming. We're hungry. Lila, let's go." Clint looks behind him, but there's no one there. Dust swirls around the spot Lila would have been standing in. "Lila?" Clint starts to look around for his daughter and picks up the bow she had. "Hey, babe?" Clint searches the farm only to find that Laura and the boys are also gone. Thunder rumbles in the distance as Clint looks for his family.

He starts to panic and jogs over to where they were. "Babe? Babe?" He whistles. "Boys! Boys! Laura!"

That same day. Clint gets a call. It's from Steve.

"Yeah?" Clint asks, answering the phone.

"Barton...it's Kaitlyn. She's...she's gone." Steve says. Clint freezes in place and doesn't say anything after hearing what Steve just said. "Thanos got to her. I'm so sorry. It happened so fast. I couldn't save her."

Clint drops his phone as his eyes begin to brim with tears. He couldn't believe it. The one person he deeply cared for and treated like a second daughter is gone. She wasn't taken away by the Snap like his family was. She dies from her physical wounds caused by a spear Steve Rogers plunged through her abdomen. Steve tells him the reason why he did it, and he understands. Clint doesn't blame Steve for what happened. He blames Thanos. He's pissed. And who wouldn't be?

After Kaitlyn's funeral, he disappears. No one has heard from him since her death almost three weeks ago. It's like he dropped all communications. Before they laid her to rest, Steve hands Clint the arrowhead necklace he gave her for her fourteenth birthday. He keeps it close to him. He never stops thinking about her. It's what keeps him going. As long as he continues thinking about Kaitlyn and his family, he still has a reason to keep fighting, to avenge their deaths.