Chapter Text
Ava was in a gas station.
Which was certainly not what she expected. Sure, bad things can happen in unassuming places, but there were a few problems with this particular location appearing in the Void.
Most notably, she’d never been here.
“We’re diversifying.” She mumbled to herself jokingly. “Get your own traumatic memory, relive someone else’s for free.”
She wandered through the aisles, watching the only employee (owner, maybe?) shuffle around behind the counter for a few moments before the door swung open.
A kid entered.
He looked nervous. His eyes were shifting around, his hands tucked into his pockets. The owner of the store didn’t even look up until the kid had made it to the end of the aisle, reached up, and knocked over a few cans of Tab, sending soda fizzing all over the floor.
The owner jumped in surprise and started making his way over. “You gonna pay for those, kid?” He asked, sporting the dry sense of humor a customer service worker takes when they know they’ll be blamed for a situation.
“I’m sorry, mister,” the kid said, instantly putting on an innocent countenance, “but I don’t know where my mom is.”
“Well, that’s not even remotely related to what he asked.” Ava quipped to herself, rolling her eyes- looking away for just long enough to notice a woman sneaking over the counter behind them.
Ah. Mom.
“Okay, now- where was your mom?” The owner waved a hand, his tone torn between concern and irritation.
“I had to go to the bathroom, and we’re going t-” The kid scrambled for an answer as the owner started to turn back to the register.
“Okay, just stay right here-”
“I WANT MY MOM!” Shouted the kid, trying remarkably hard to keep the owner’s attention on himself.
“Okay, alright-” The owner looked resigned- right as the woman began loudly rummaging through the drawers.
Ava winced at the noise she was making on instinct. Unless this was the first time they’ve ever stolen something, that was an unacceptable amount of noise to be making. She’d never been that loud on a mission. And sure, maybe she had an advantage as Ghost, but she had also been extensively trained on stealth too- HYDRA (or SHIELD, for that matter) had never been one to rely exclusively on super powers.
Sure enough, the owner turned instantly, his vague worry immediately turning to anger as he rushed to the counter. “Hey! Hey, what the hell are you doing- what are you doing?”
The woman reached under the counter and pulled out a rifle, raising it just in time for the owner to reach the barrel and force it aside, wrestling her for it. Ava raised an eyebrow, leaning casually against a rack of candy. This was escalating quickly.
The gun skittered out of both their hands, and the owner grabbed the woman. “You ain’t going nowhere-”
“Clint!” The woman shouted, and Ava held back a gasp, glancing back over to the kid, who had picked up the gun and was now aiming it squarely at the struggling duo. “Clint, come on! Come on, we gotta get out of here.”
Clint. Clint Barton.
What luck did Ava have that she got stuffed into an Avenger’s Void Room?
The kid (Clint Barton-) hesitated, the barrel of the rifle shifting ever so slightly to aim between the man and woman. Between his mother and the owner of the small store she was robbing.
A knot tied itself in her stomach. What a shitty choice.
The owner was trying to convince him to put the gun down while his mom egged him on, trying to convince him to shoot. Clint’s gun wavered.
Ava felt the moment he made his decision. He aimed, just a little too far to the left, and pulled the trigger. The window shattered. In the near distance, the passenger’s side of a parked sheriff’s car got shot, and the sheriff ducked for cover before turning towards the store.
The mom’s face darkened in betrayal and fury. Clint slowly lowered the gun.
It didn’t take long after for the sheriff to make it to the gas station. The owner of the place kept a close eye and grip on the mom. Little-Kid-Clint was sent outside to sit on the pavement.
Ava went with him.
She probably shouldn’t have been surprised when Adult-Clint was sitting outside, fiddling with an arrow. He shifted over as Kid Clint came out, until he was sitting side by side with his past self.
Ava opened and closed her mouth a few times as the Sheriff entered the gas station, not sure where to start. Eventually, she stuck with what she had been thinking. “Shitty choice.”
Hawkeye chuckled, seemingly unsurprised with Ava’s appearance in his memory. “Yeah, it was.”
“Seems like you made the right move, though.”
He shrugged helplessly. “It wasn’t right, what she was doing. What she made me do.”
Ah, guilt. Her old friend. “Sure it wasn’t.” She agreed, maneuvering around the Sheriff as he brought out Clint’s Mom to shove into his car. “But did you know that then?”
The mom was glaring at Clint. The kid swallowed, his voice still young enough to be a bit squeaky. “Mom? I’m sorry. I missed.”
“You never miss.” She said coldly. Out of the corner of her eye, Ava could see Hawkeye mouthing the words along with her.
They just sat, for a few moments. Well, the Bartons sat. Ava leaned against the door frame.
The kid slowly faded as the Sheriff’s car drove away. Another car pulled up- one that Ava could distantly see was being driven by the mom. The scene had reset.
“I figured it out, eventually.” Hawkeye said finally. “Should’ve figured it out sooner.”
Ava scoffed. “You were a kid.”
"Doesn't excuse it.” He frowned bitterly. “I knew it was wrong.”
“You were a kid.” Ava repeated. “You could hardly make a choice about it. She was all you had, right?”
Barton looked at her judgementally over his shoulder.
“Sometimes people are raised wrong.” Ava continued. Little-Kid-Clint went into the store, his mother following mere moments later. Ava scrutinized her as she passed. She looked far too casual for what she was about to make her kid do. “That’s not the fault of the kid, that’s the fault of the guardian.”
It was quiet again, for a bit. They listened to the muffled sounds of the fight inside.
“She didn’t… take advantage of my innocence, or whatever you’re thinking. I knew what I was doing.”
“Don’t doubt it.” She smiled softly. “You seemed like a smart kid. Which is why you did that.” She jerks her head in the direction of the window. As if on cue, the rifle sounded and the glass shattered. The sheriff started running towards them.
Clint hummed noncommittally. “So this is getting ‘fwoosh’ed, huh?”
Ava graciously didn’t mention the abrupt change in topic. “Yeah. This is the Void.” Kid-Clint came back out the door to sit once more, and this time, Ava joined them. “Reliving shameful memories. We’ll need to find Bob, and pull him out. Remind him that he is not the worst parts of himself.” Clint gazed out over the nondescript midwest fields, lost in thought. She leaned over and nudged his shoulder, snapping him out of it. “None of us are.”
Clint stood, holding out a hand to help Ava up. “So how do we get to Bob?”
Ava snorted. “As much as I personally like to subscribe to throwing yourself into work to avoid emotional problems, that might not be the move this time.”
“Mom? I’m sorry. I missed.”
“You never miss.”
“I know.” Clint said. “But I think… I think I made my peace with this already. I just didn’t know I had.”
Ava reached up and grabbed his hand. He pulled her up to her feet. “Alright. To the next room, then.”
“There’s just… endless rooms?”
“Pretty much. We keep going through them until we find Bob.”
Clint gestured vaguely. “Lead the way, then.”
“Now, see, that’s the hard part.” Ava bit her lip, looking around. “I think… I think it might be back through here.” She hesitantly opened the door to the convenience store. The room beyond looked familiar. A living room, plastered in papers. Her throat was suddenly dry. “
Oh.”
Clint raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“This one’s mine.”
“Oh.” He echoed. “Well. Keep going through, huh?”
“I guess.” She inhaled deeply and walked through.
Void Ava stood, glitching, staring at the turned back of Void Bill Foster. She was out of her containment suit, in a grey hoodie with heavily worn sleeves from where she pulled at loose threads. It was a habit she used to share with Bob- one that, luckily for all her sweaters, she had slowly stopped as her phasing pains got more manageable.
Void Ava looked like she hadn’t slept in weeks.
“We’ve got to get that lab back,” Void Foster murmured, mostly to himself. He was still facing away from her, but both current and past Ava knew he knew she was there. He always could tell.
“What?” Void Ava asked nervously.
“Ah,” Ava said at the same time, realizing where she was. “Quiet room.”
Clint sent her a quizzical look.
“My team, we’ve been sent into the Void a few times. Not full-blown ‘taking over New York’ like this, that was just the once. But Bob doesn’t have the best control of his powers, so sometimes he accidentally sends us in when he’s having a rough day and we touch.” She holds up a hand demonstratively, her eyes never leaving the Void versions of herself and her pseudo-father as they discussed the dangers of her phasing worsening. “We’ve categorized them,” She continued, keeping her voice as level as she could. “Violent rooms are usually particularly traumatic. Quiet rooms are more shameful.”
“So mine, that’d be a quiet room?”
Ava dipped her head in agreement, closing her eyes as the Void version of her voiced one of her darker thoughts. “Lang. He has a daughter, right?”
She felt more than saw Clint go rigid next to her as Void Ava began to storm off, Foster chasing her. “You can’t mean that… Ava?”
The Void version of her turned, a desperate sort of dedication written on her face.
“I tolerate a lot of the things you do out there, but I won’t be a part of anything like that.”
“You’re not the one who’s about to fade away into nothing, Bill. I am!”
“You didn’t-” Clint spoke up, his voice faltering.
“I didn’t.” She confirmed, before the accusation was out. “But… I wanted to. At the time. I’m glad I didn’t, now, but-” She huffed a laugh that sounded a bit more like a sob. “I was in so much pain.” It all felt closer, now. She had felt it again. She’d thought it was over, but she felt it again. “I thought I’d do anything to make it stop. I don’t know if I would’ve gone through with it.”
“You lay one finger on that little girl, I won’t help you. And we’re done.” Void Foster was saying sternly.
“Fine.” Void Ava’s mouth twitched up into a smile, just shy of manic. “There are other options.”
“What did you do instead?” Clint asked, watching Void Ava storm out of the room- through a wall, of course.
“Found his friends. One of them had been dosed with truth serum, we weren’t the only ones looking for the lab.”
“Truth serum!” Clint exclaimed, dropping the last of his uncertainty in his surprise. “That exists, in the future?”
Ava smirked. “Depends who you ask. We should find the door.”
“Right, right.” Clint nodded, and the two began making their way around the room as the argument reset.
“You’re not the one who’s about to fade away into nothing, Bill. I am!”
“So, uh. What did you mean by that?”
Ava stopped from where she was opening a closet door. “Are you… are you making conversation in the middle of my shame memory?”
“Excuse me if I thought you might want to drown it out.”
“No, that’s fair.” She finished opening the door, closed it again, and opened it futilely. No helpful passage to the next room. “My phasing wasn’t exactly stable. It was literally tearing my molecules apart, and they weren’t coming back together right. It was only…” She paused, turning towards a cabinet. “Recently in this timeline, I think another four years in the original timeline, that I got it fixed.”
“But you can still phase.”
Ava waved a hand. “Science bullshit. That’s Foster’s job to study, I was just thankful I wasn’t in pain anymore.”
Clint didn’t seem to know what to say to that, and there was a short silence before he broke it with an “Aha!”
Ava turned. The room’s archway, which Void Ava had entered from and stormed out of, was now glowing white.
“Perfect.” She walked towards it in sync with Clint, but he stopped her the moment before she was about to go through.
“Thank you.”
“What?”
“For not going after his kid.” Clint sighed. “I’ve got kids. I can’t even imagine how I’d feel if they got targeted.”
The knot in Ava’s stomach tightened. “I think that was the absolute least I could do, actually.”
“Yeah.” Clint allowed. “Thanks anyway.”
He stepped through before she could respond. Hesitantly, she followed, a tight smile on her face and anxiety worming through her core.