------------
If you enjoy please support me on my patreon Future 80+ chapters at patreon.com/Darkphoenix11
-----
Argus prison
Late afternoon
"Hey Clint. How are the wife and kids?" Alexei asked and Clint flashed a dark smile.
"You're lucky we still need you," Clint sneered and Natasha put a hand on his shoulder to calm him.
"Let me guess, you want to know Lord Savitar's plan?" Alexei asked and they fell silent. "Don't worry, I'll tell you everything you want to know."
"And why would you do that?" Natasha asked suspiciously and Alexei smirked.
"Because there's not a thing you can do to stop him," Alexei bragged.
"What's he planning?" Barry demanded and Alexei laughed for a moment.
"It's sad you haven't figured it out yet. Maybe when you became enlightened, you also became smarter," Alexei goaded and Barry scowled.
"Just tell us what Savitar is planning. Or things might get…unpleasant," Natasha said with a smile that brought back painful memories of training with her for Barry.
"Relax Natalia. I told you I'd tell you everything you wanted to know. Lord Savitar plans to rewrite the multiverse," Alexei said, to the confusion of everyone present.
"Did Barry hit you a little too hard?" Clint asked after a moment and Alexei sighed.
"The multiverse is an endless stream of earths, all existing in the same space but never interacting. That is, until Barry created the singularity," Alexei said as he looked over at the stiff Barry. "Since then, people from the different earths have been interacting with each other and traveling to other earths at will. This has caused untold problems, as enemies from other earths have crossed over, myself included. Lord Savitar sees himself as a creation of traveling between earths, a monster of his own making. My lord plans to merge all of these earths into one in order to prevent this problem."
"That's-that's insane!" Barry exclaimed after a moment of shocked silence.
"Which is pretty much Savitar's trademark," Clint muttered.
"Does he have any idea the consequences this could have?!" Barry exploded.
"He is aware. It is likely that many lives will fade from existence once the earths merge together," Alexei explained to their growing horror. "But that does not change what needs to happen. Lord Savitar will then bring about a world without war. Without pain and death. He will bring peace to this new earth."
"Not like this! Not with such a high cost!" Barry exploded.
"How does Savitar plan to do this?" Lyla demanded.
"Lord Savitar has a machine; it needs to be activated on Earth-1 because all other Earths are modeled after it. It will merge all the other earths together. And there's nothing you can do to stop it," Alexei said smugly.
"This machine, how does it work?" Lyla demanded, trying to get everyone back on track as she saw Clint about ready to lung forward.
"He needs a stable fusion reaction for the machine to work," Alexei said and it clicked n Natasha's head.
"That's why he stole the Prism," Natasha said and Alexei nodded as Barry looked confused.
"We'll explain later. Tony said it could be used to cause a nuclear explosion," Clint said and Alexei nodded once more.
"That is a possibility, yes. Which is why Lord Savitar plans to use his suit to focus the blast, to shield the machine," Alexei explained.
"You'd still have to stabilize the machine," Barry pointed out and Alexei smirked.
"That's what the symbiont is for, right Lyla?" Alexei said and they all looked over at Lyla.
"What's he talking about?" Clint asked.
"Yesterday, Roy broke into an Argus facility and stole a sort of symbiont. It was retrieved from a crashed meteor shortly after I became director. I thought it was too dangerous to be left alone, so I had it put somewhere it would never be found," Lyla explained.
"If he could use it right, could the symbiont stabilize the machine if the blast was contained?" Barry asked pale.
"I don't know, but Savitar certainly seems to think so," Lyla said.
"Well, his plan will either nuke the city or destroy the multiverse," Clint grumbled.
"Savitar's insane. God, how could I lose it this much?" Barry wondered, putting a hand to his face.
"Don't beat yourself up kid. We still have time to stop him," Clint said only for Alexei to laugh manically.
"No, you can't. As I said, Lord Savitar cannot be stopped Clint. He knows almost everything about you, your family, your team. He knows your next move before you make it. You won't be able to stop him," Alexei said smugly.
Unable to take it anymore, Clint lunged at him, slugging Alexei hard in the mouth. Alexei's head whipped to the side and he couched, spitting out a mouth full of blood before he turned back to Clint with a smirk.
"Go on Clint, do it. Kill me. You know you want to," Alexei egged on and Clint trembled with rage. "I tried to kill your family. Not that it'll make a difference. Soon, Savitar will create a new world order and I will die, knowing that you failed to stop him."
As Clint trembled with rage, Natasha, Barry, and Lyla simply, wondering what Clint would do. But they made no move to talk him one way or another, this was Clint's choice.
"No, I'm not gonna kill you," Clint said as he took a few steps back. "You see, dying, that's easy. Its living that's hard. My team and I, we're gonna stop your psychotic boss. We're gonna make sure he never hurts anyone else again and we're gonna get our friends back. But you? You are gonna spend the rest of your miserable life in this cage, knowing that we won. Knowing that you failed. And you'll be forgotten. No one will even remember your name in a few years. Because you're not worth spending another second thinking about. You're just…you're not even worth killing. Goodbye Alexei."
Clint then turned and began walking out of the room without looking back. Barry and Natasha him and Lyla closed the door behind them. As it closed, they heard Alexei scream in rage.
"What's this about a Prism?" Barry asked as they tried to ignore Alexei's muffled rantings while making their way to the elevator.
"Savitar went back in time and recruited Leonard Snart, had him steal the Prism from Dayton Optical Systems," Natasha explained and Barry started.
"Snart?" Barry asked shocked and they nodded. "You didn't get there in time?"
"We were a little…distracted," Clint said as he and Natasha exchanged a glance. "We'll tell you on the way back. For now, I believe I have someone I need to talk to."
"Speaking of, Lyla, I wanna talk to you about something as well," Barry said as they got in the elevator.
Not long after, Roy was in his bed in the med bay, staring lifelessly at the ceiling. His thoughts were in turmoil, his guilt of his actions while Savitar controlled him eating him up inside. It was this scene that Clint walked into as he entered the room.
"Hey kid," Clint said but Roy didn't react. "You're Roy Harper right?"
"Yeah. And you're Clint. Savitar told me about you," Roy said in a monotone, not looking at Clint.
"We need to stop him kid. I don't suppose you know where he is?" Clint asked.
"I did, but it's gone now. Savitar, he knew how to use the scepter, he put in a failsafe so we'd forget where Savitar took us after we were free," Roy said as he sat up and Clint sighed.
"Well, that's a damn shame," Clint said as he sat down in a chair next to Roy's bed. "Look kid, I know what you're going through."
"Somehow, I doubt that," Roy scoffed.
"You feel like someone took your brain out of your head. Like they played around with it, pulled you out, and put something else in there," Clint said and Roy froze, staring at Clint in shock. "I know all about it kid. A man named Loki used the scepter on me, made me his flying monkey. I killed people, people I knew, people who I'd worked side by side with for years."
"How'd you get passed that?" Roy asked slowly.
"To be honest kid, you never really get passed it. But you do have to move forward. It wasn't you kid, it was him," Clint told him.
"It. Was. Me," Roy said fiercely. "I remember everything I did. I remember putting arrows people. I remember putting a gun in a man's mouth and pulling the trigger. I remember breaking a man's neck and I remember liking every second of it. If I remember all that, doesn't that make it me?"
"I get it kid, what happened, it screws with your head. We've all got darkness inside of us. What matters is how we use it. That darkness, it either rules you or you rule it. You need to channel that darkness into something you can use, make it a tool. Did Savitar tell you what he's planning?" Clint asked and Roy blinked a little bewildered at the change in subject.
"No, it wasn't my job to know," Roy said.
"He's planning on wiping out the multiverse. A lot of people are gonna die if he does that. You up for some payback?" Clint asked.
"Yeah…I think I am," Roy said, a dark look coming over his face.
Elsewhere in the building, Barry and Lyla were walking down the hall, in a heated discussion.
"I'm not happy about this Barry. You barely know him," Lyla grumbled.
"I know enough. He's a good man, he saved everyone here. How'd you pick him up anyway?" Barry wondered.
"We found him in Central City, surrounded by bodies. He wouldn't let us get close, so we had to tranquilize him. We assumed he came here with Zoom, so we locked him up," Lyla explained.
"He hates Zoom, the only reason that he came here was to save someone he cared about," Barry explained and Lyla sighed. "I'm not sure what happened that led to that, but he's not a monster."
"Okay, but he's your responsibility," Lyla warned him.
Barry nodded as they stopped in front of a door. Still looking displeased, Lyla scanned her thumb print and the door unlocked. She opened it up to reveal Logan lying on a bed.
"Well, it took you a few minutes longer to convince her than I expected," Logan said as he got to his feet.
"You're his responsibility. But if you step one toe out of line, give me one reason to think you might be a threat, I'll take you down," Lyla warned him and Logan scoffed.
"I'd like to see you try," Logan said and Barry resisted the urge to face palm.
"Logan, you're not helping," Barry snapped and Logan shrugged.
"Wasn't trying to," Logan said and Barry sighed, already feeling like he was going to regret this.
------------
If you enjoy please support me on my patreon Future 80+ chapters at patreon.com/Darkphoenix11
-----