21 Days [A Hawkeye/ Clint Barton fic] [HEAVY EDITING]

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PSA: AVENGERS INFINITY WAR TRAILER WAS AWESOME...but where's Hawkeye? :D

And I am getting so many ideas for the sequel, which will be called 27 Hours. More agents of Shield will show up, the Maximoff twins will be back, Thanos or Loki may be in it...and obviously there's going to be bad news for Clint. Is it weird how I was kind of slightly inspired by the old insane asylums when the "treatments" were inhumane? Well, Clint's Shield medical treatments aren't going to be good...

Anyway, enjoy!

Natasha stepped out of the room for a moment, leaving Clint alone to change into the new set of clothes she had brought him. The archer sat on the edge of the medical bay bed and shakily pulled on his jeans. His vision started blurring in and out of focus, making Hawkeye shake his head quickly, thinking it would work. "'Tasha..." Clint groaned, moving on to pull on his shirt and jacket. The Black Widow didn't hear his quiet call.

Everything went blurry again, then eventually black. Clint fell back on his bed and right into a nightmare.

Red Nails was standing over him when Clint snapped awake. "Look who's back." she smirked.

Clint squeezed his eyes shut. "This isn't real. You're not real..." He then proceeded to scream for Natasha.

There was a bright light, and the next thing Clint knew was that he was standing in the center  of a dusty circus ring. His clothes were ratty, his poorly cut hair a disgusting mess, half washed off clown makeup that now looked like someone smeared random watercolor paints across his face, and there were bandages all over him. He had his old longbow in his hand, and a leather sheath around his shoulder and resting on his back. 

There was a screaming audience in the stands, some laughing and some screaming at him to 'get to it already.' 

Where was Shield? He was his present day age, but still a circus act. Oh, wait. Shield never arrested him. 

The Swordsman, looking the same way he did in the past because of the costume and makeup, looked at him as if he was a disappointment. Clint then noticed the Ringmaster on the edge of the ring, loading a pistol and aiming it at the archer's stomach. 

Clint couldn't move much or speak, so he squeezed his eyes shut when the Ringmaster pulled the trigger.

A flash of light changed the next nightmare scene. He was back at Shield, wearing his standard issue black uniform and combat boots. Clint walked down one of the many hallways of the Shield base, nervously looking up at the ceiling when a light flickered and eventually went dark. 

"Fury? Tasha? FitzSimmons? Coulson?" Clint called, listening to each name echo off the gray walls. He swallowed thickly. "Anyone?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Clint saw a girl in a red dress and black boots. He snapped his head in her direction, but as soon as he did, she was gone. Was it the girl from the lab? What was her name? Wanda?

He turned and hurried toward the doorway he spotted her in. "Hey!" He skidded to a stop when Jemma Simmons stepped in front of him, dressed in her lab apparel. She seemed surprised. 

"Agent Barton, what're you doing here? It's too dangerous for you here; you're very sick." She grabbed his arm in a hurry, making the archer flinch and give her a confused look.

She rolled her eyes, annoyed that he didn't know what was going on. "It's been 27 hours since Fury signed you away to Shield's new facility for treatment. Why are you still here?"

"Treatment?" Everything was confusing.

"The Dominion's facility allowed Hydra scientists to experiment on you. Fury signed you over to our new facility for treatment. You were supposed to undergo your first procedure seven hours ago, but considering that you're standing right here, that obviously didn't happen. I need to tell Director Coulson and Fury. They haven't trusted your head since the Loki incident." Simmons let him go and walked away, but as soon as Clint tried to run after her, she disappeared into thin air. 

The scene changed again. He was now in Coulson's office with the lights off. The lamp on the director's desk was on, illuminating an open file on the desk. Curious, Clint rushed over to the desk and picked the file up. 

It was his file.

A large red stamp that read 'DECEASED' covered the bottom left corner of his picture. 

Before the Avenger snapped awake, the last words he read in the file were:

'death by euthanasia. Signed off by  Fury, Nicholas J and Banner, Bruce.'

Clint jerked awake with a yelp. He tried to raise up, but soon realized he was once again strapped down against the Medical Bay bed. "Tasha!" he screamed, fighting the restraints...that were only in his head. 

Natasha ran in to his room with Bruce trailing close behind her. The Black Widow forced Clint's arms down against the mattress as he fought against his invisible restraints. He stared blankly into his partner's eyes. "D-don't euthanize..." His speech was slightly slurred. Natasha turned to Bruce for answers. 

The scientist uncapped a needle, then jabbed it into Clint's thigh, which made his teammate yelp. He pressed down on the plunger and released the sedative into Clint. "It's just the painkillers..."

"It's not the painkillers. Clint acts like a total idiot while he's on those! What the hell is going on?! He thinks we're gonna kill him!"

Bruce sighed, stepped back, and let Natasha handle Barton. "Barnes told me that the facility specializes in biological weapons. He said that Shield came down hard on them in the seventies, which forced them to shut down the program. They started putting patients to sleep, er....euthanize them, and then dispose of them before Shield could find out. Many of them were actually lucky to escape."

"21 Days..." Clint whispered, staring at the ceiling for a moment before snapping awake from his hallucination state. "Nat!" He seemed surprised to see her and pushed himself up into a sitting position. 

"Why did you just say 21 days?" Natasha asked, concerned.

"T-They were gonna kill me once I destroyed you guys...something about security protocol..."

Bruce and Natasha looked at each other, and Bruce was the one to speak. "That's their new way of making sure no biological weapon is discovered by Shield. Once Shield finds out, that patient would already be dead."

The strong sedative Bruce injected into Clint only moments before was starting to show its effects. Clint rested his head against Natasha's shoulder, feeling lightheaded and tired. 

Bruce stepped away from them and walked toward the door. He stopped and turned around. "Let him sleep, there's no use of running away if he's going to have to be carried out." Natasha seemed surprised Bruce knew their plan. "Fury made sure there were cameras and microphones in here that even you couldn't find." The scientist left the room. 

Natasha growled and threw a shirt and jacket at Clint's head, making him perk his head up and fight sleep again. Clint slowly pulled on the shirt and then fumbled with the jacket. "Get dressed. We need to get go-" 

The Black Widow was cut off by the power being cut off and the room falling into complete darkness. 

"Stand down, Agent Romanoff!" It was Fury.

How was that? I hope you guys liked it! No flames, please! Thank you!

So...what do you guys think will happen next???? I'd like to see if anyone guesses correctly just for the fun of it. I feel like everyone's going to be close though. :)

Next Chapter: My Life As A Weapon