#would be willing to help him / be decent to him otherwise -> bargaining chip to earn favor

[brittlebutch]

brennan trend of characters who view their bodies not necessarily as themselves but as a Tool they can use to earn favor from / a place with other people (often as an Apology for who they are) has me thinking about Zelda's Ending of All Things vision again

[argylemnwrites]

Fight or Flight - Chapter 10: Why

Pairing: Drake Walker x MC (Riley Liu)

Book: The Royal Heir (canon divergent from the end of book 2)

Word Count: ~4400

Rating: PG-13 (language only)

Summary: Five days since The Walker Absconding

Author’s Note: This series follows the Walkers, their friends, and Cordonia as a whole after they flee the country with their daughter during Barthelemy Beaumont’s attempted coup. To catch up on this series, check out it’s masterlist. (link can be found via my bio - sorry, Tumblr is once again not putting my posts with links in tag searches)

“I know the location of the former Duchess and Duke of Valtoria and the Queen-Regent of Cordonia.” Her tone was even and calm. Amalas wasn’t giving anything away.

“Is that so?” Olivia asked, her mind scrambling to let go of her irritation with Leo and figure out her best strategy here. “How did you happen to come across such information?”

“Oh, they don’t call me the ‘Spy Queen’ for nothing.”

“And why are you calling me? This would seem like the type of information that would be more useful to the acting monarch than me.” She tapped her nails against her desk, trying to come up with a way to get Amalas to reveal more. As helpful as it would be to hear how she had tracked Riley and Drake, finding out why she was following their whereabouts would be infinitely more invaluable.

“Interesting. I would have assumed that you had a vested interest in keeping them from being taken into custody.”

“Why would you think that? The Walkers are traitors who deserve whatever comes to them.” She and Hana had rehearsed variations of that sentiment with each other over the past few days. Hana had opted for a gentler stance, focusing on how sad the whole affair made her. Olivia knew that righteous anger was more believable from her, though.

Amalas was silent for a few seconds before she responded, “Very interesting indeed. Can you give me a way to get in touch with King-Regent Rashad, in that case? I’m sure he will find my intel quite valuable.”

She was trying to call her bluff here. There was no way Amalas had just decided to contact her out of the goodness of her heart. There had to be a reason why she came to her first. Olivia knew she had to keep pushing. “Of course, I would be happy to do so.”

Another pause followed. “Thank you; that would be so helpful.”

“You’re welcome, Your Majesty. You know, you might want to look at your staff’s performance, though. If they can’t keep track of the palace’s contact information, I worry about what other details might be slipping through the cracks.”

The silence lasted longer this time. Jackpot. Olivia knew she was on the right track. “Just some friendly advice,” she continued, “unless you don’t want to interact with Rashad for some reason.”

“Why would you possibly think that?”

“Because he’s just a placeholder. You want more influence. He has nothing of value to offer you. An agreement with him could very well fizzle into nothing after the Conclave in a couple of months. So that means I have more bargaining power here than you want to admit.”

“There’s no need to be so confrontational about this, Lady Olivia. As I see it, this can be mutually beneficial.”

“What are you hoping to gain here?”

“The same thing I’ve always wanted - an alliance between Monterisso and Cordonia. And I’m willing to help poor Mr. Rys regain his place on the throne to arrange that. You see, we can help each other.”

Olivia frowned. She didn’t trust Amalas, not one bit. Her being more tolerable than Bradshaw and Isabella wasn’t any sort of ringing endorsement. But it was possible that they weren’t going to have better options. She needed to tread carefully here. Not commit, but not close the door.

“I’m not sure how much help any outside power would be at this point, quite frankly. Why don’t you give us a taste of how useful you can be. It’ll be what I bring to Liam, so you might want to make it convincing.”

“Well, I’m not a fan of giving away my hard-earned information for free… but let’s just say that the Walkers might be doing a good job of not allowing their financials to be traced past Ioannina, but that if Cordonia had the surveillance and facial recognition technology of Monterisso, or if Greece actually cared about those warrants that have been issued, bringing them in would not be difficult. Have a nice day. I’m sure we’ll be in touch soon.” And with that, the line went dead.

Olivia massaged her temples. There were just too many moving parts, too many different parties with their own agendas here for her to try and do this solo, or even just with Hana’s help. It was time to end Leo’s lackluster efforts at support. She needed Liam back in the fray.

She marched through the keep to the quarters customarily given to the reigning monarch upon a visit, quarters that Liam had used for years and that she wasn’t going to prevent him from using now, even though both he and his brother were titleless at this point. She knocked on the door, waiting a few moments before Leo flung the door open, a glass of scotch clutched in his free hand.

“Liv! I knew you wouldn’t be able to stay away.”

“Yeah, not here for you. I need to talk to him.”

Leo stepped to the side, gesturing grandly as she passed. “Of course, Your Grace.”

She rolled her eyes and looked around the sitting room. There was Liam, wearing a green sweater, a pair of jeans, and a pair of plaid slippers. It was his equivalent of not getting out of his sleepwear. He was also holding a glass of scotch, a highlighted copy of what appeared to be a section of Cordonian National Law laying forgotten on the coffee table in front of him as he instead was intently focused on the television, which had some sort of football match playing.

“Really, Leo?” she hissed at him, “I thought you were joking about getting him drunk.”

“Relax, Olivia. He’s not drunk drunk. And it’s Cordonia vs. Barcelona, so he’s actually distracted. I thought you wanted me to improve his mood,” he said, under his breath, before raising his voice enough to carry across to his brother, “Hey, look who came to join us?”

Liam glanced over, and Olivia was pleased to notice a little more life behind his eyes. “Olivia? But you hate football.”

Leo clapped a hand on her shoulder and attempted to guide her to the couch, but she rolled it off, walking over to join Liam on her own. “I actually came because I think it’s time we talk about some details, start planning your next steps.”

“Of course,” said Liam, setting his glass down with a little more force than usual, but otherwise not showing any signs of any tipsiness or drunkenness. He moved to grab the papers he’d abandoned in front of him, but Leo interrupted him.

“Hey! I thought we were getting drunk and watching football? The one thing I suggested since I’ve been here that you actually showed enthusiasm for, and now she gets to just cancel the plans?”

“Leo, if Olivia needs-” Liam started, but she held a hand up, stopping him as she glared at Leo.

“Unlike you, I think he and I are capable of multitasking, but I will not drink that swill you two are having. If you go a fetch me a decent Merlot, I will stay and have a drink with you while we talk. And the game can stay on.”

Leo grinned and gave her a little nod before turning and heading out in search of her wine, likely aware he wasn’t going to get a better deal from her than that one. When the door closed, Liam started apologizing.

“Sorry, I wouldn’t have agreed to drink with him if I had known you wanted to meet. But he’s just been insistent, and with this match, I thought-”

“It’s fine, Liam. I wouldn’t have disturbed you two if I hadn’t just received a very interesting call from Amalas.”

Liam’s eyes widened at that. “She… called you?”

“Yes. She is apparently still looking for a formal alliance with Cordonia.”

His eyes dropped to his lap just briefly. “That’s not exactly our place to consider at this point, though.”

“Liam…” Olivia wasn’t quite sure what to say. She had never been good at the whole comforting, shoulder to cry on thing.

“It’s fine,” he said, shaking his head slightly. “Why did she want to speak to you and not Rashad?”

Olivia knew he was deflecting, but she didn’t know how to make him open up to her, particularly not when she actually needed to tell him about that phone call. “She’s thinking long term. She made it pretty clear she’s willing to help you with your bid to reclaim the throne in exchange for the promise of an alliance going forward.”

Liam sighed heavily, letting his head sag. “Alliance via betrothal? As per her original terms? After everything with Auvernal, I struggle to envision Drake and Riley…” he trailed off, “I guess that doesn’t matter at this point does it?”

He had a point. If they were able to regain his title through the Conclave, it was highly unlikely that Bridget was going to remain his appointed heir. But at this point, that felt so far off, like a concern that didn’t really warrant discussion until a much later date. “No, that’s not really worth worrying about right now. To answer your original question, she didn’t state her preferred terms.”

“Did she elaborate as to what she intended to offer in exchange?”

“Not much. The only thing I was able to get out of her is that she knows where Drake, Riley, and Bridget are.”

His head whipped around to face her fully at that, so she continued, “She’s not going to do anything with that info yet. It’s leverage when negotiating with us, but she gets nothing from telling it to Rashad.”

“How does she know, though?” His eyes were wide, the fear clear in them. “And what if she decides to contact Greek authorities?”

“Via facial recognition tech, apparently. But going to the Greek authorities costs her the best bargaining chip she has. She only wants to tell us, Liam. I’m sure of that.”

“I feel like we can’t be sure of anything at this point.”

Olivia took a breath before she spoke again. “Speaking of not being sure of anything, before your brother comes back, you need to know that he was asking me a lot of questions surrounding Drake and Riley.”

“Wait, he was?”

“Yes. I think it’s nothing, but just be aware.”

Liam shook his head. “Leo hates politics. Hates the monarchy, even. I can’t imagine him having any sort of agenda here.”

“Yeah… I know, but I think we need to be cautious here.”

“I’m finding myself being exceedingly cautious lately.” He frowned slightly, then picked up his glass and took another sip of his scotch. “Did he tell you why he was so interested in Drake and Riley?”

“It seemed like he had a possible interest in… reaching out to provide some assistance.”

“Ah,” Liam said, taking another drink. “That’s understandable, I suppose.” He stared at the match, but in a way that made Olivia think he wasn’t exactly watching. 

“Look, you know Hana and I are trying to help them in little ways where we can, but if you’d rather not hear the details, then-”

Liam shook his head. “No, I need to know what’s going on, don’t I? It’s not like I want any harm to come to them. It’s all just so… muddled at the moment.”

Yet again, she wasn’t sure how best to comfort him, so she just placed her hand gently on his knee and gave him a little nod. He seemed to understand her intent, as he forced a smile before reaching for all the papers scattered in front of him.

“Why don’t you warn Drake and Riley that Amalas is tracking them? Then we can go over what you’ve heard about staff in Portavira we might be able to buy off.”

Olivia gave him a little frown. “Are you sure you're ready to do this today? If you wanted to watch this match or-”

“I’m sure, Liv. Too many pieces are moving for me to sit still.”

“And you’re up for this?”

He nodded. “More or less. Enough to be productive at the very least.”

Olivia wasn’t sure about that. He was clearly still processing everything, but maybe having a goal to work towards would be good for him. She wasn’t sure if it was the healthiest coping mechanism she was providing him with, but at least it was a useful one. So she shot a quick text to Drake before settling in to discuss what she’d been working on. It wasn’t much, but it was a start.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Drake tried to shift in bed without disturbing Riley or Bridget. Usually, Riley was a heavy sleeper. At home, on nights where he couldn’t sleep, he could move about, sometimes even turn on a light and read, without waking her. But since they’d fled Cordonia, she’d been waking up much more easily, and he figured it wouldn’t do any good for both of them to be sleep deprived.

He knew it was a bad idea, but he grabbed his phone to check the time anyway. 2:04 am. Great. Another night where he would be lucky to get four hours of sleep. He resisted the urge to look for more news stories out of Cordonia on his phone, instead shifting onto his back and staring at the ceiling, a rickety old fan clicking as it spun above them.

Not only was he finding it difficult to relax enough to sleep these days, but he’d been having strange dreams too. Some of them didn’t take much effort to see their meaning. He’d had several nightmares where Bridget was wailing and he couldn’t find her, often with Riley sobbing somewhere out of sight, crying out for him to fucking find their child. In others, some combination of Bridget, Riley, and Liam were missing, and he couldn’t move his legs to go find them. It didn’t take a professional to figure out why he was having those dreams.

The dreams that featured his dad were a bit more unsettling. These dreams were more varied, but they all featured his father, now a giant, looking down at him as an adult and expressing his disappointment in him. Once it was for breaking the motor on the boat and lying about it. Once it was for running out of Mom’s line of sight at the store. Most of the time, Drake couldn’t even remember what he’d done wrong in his dream when he woke up, only recalling Dad shaking his head in shame repeatedly.

He hadn’t really dreamed about his father much over the past decade. For the first few years after his death, it had been a somewhat common occurrence, but eventually, those dreams faded. But now Dad was back, judging him for his actions over and over again. He supposed those dreams didn’t need to be analyzed by a therapist either. The message was pretty damn clear.

So often, he wondered if his dad would have been proud of the man he grew into. This was the first time in his life he didn’t need to wonder at all - he knew his father would have been disappointed in him. He’d fled, acted without honor or regard for his duty towards his country. And he just didn’t think all his reasons would be good enough for Dad. The man had put king and country first time and time again, even when it meant letting down Mom or him and Savannah. He’d given his life for his cause.

But Drake hadn’t been able to do that. When Riley had stood there, crumbling to pieces on the palace drive, a panicked mess of terror, he’d just held her tight and done what she needed from him. When Olivia and Liam had asked him to return, he’d denied their request. He’d done what his wife and daughter had needed each and every time. And he couldn’t even bring himself to regret about that choice. Hell, it hadn’t even really been a choice, not when it came down to it.

But that fact that he’d been so able to ignore his other obligations, ignore Dad’s lessons, weighed on him. He both felt like he did the wrong thing and that he’d made the absolute right choice all at the same time, and that conflict had settled into his gut as a massive pit of guilt. And with everything going on, he’d been reluctant to share these thoughts with Riley. She was just now seeming to trust him to be there for her and Bridget. Today, when she’d come back to find him in the park, he couldn’t even be irritated that she would have been wasting precious time if that woman had been a threat. He was just so relieved that she hadn’t wanted to leave without him, so different than her instinct back at the palace.

He knew he should probably talk to her about how he was feeling, that these feelings weren’t going to get better the longer they stayed on the run. And she’d always been good at listening to him in a way that made him feel understood, not stupid or dumb. She got what he meant when he stumbled over describing things or when he couldn’t quite put things in words. But she was still frayed and on edge herself. Today’s trip to the park proved that.

Besides, there were more pressing matters to discuss. Like what they were going to do about aliases. Or the fact that Amalas had apparently located them. Olivia had told him she had it under control, but Drake was still unsure. He hadn’t brought that up with Riley yet. She was already kicking herself after the trip out, and he hadn’t wanted to pile on, but he knew he would have to let her know in the morning. She wasn’t like his mom, who had adopted a clear “ignorance is bliss” policy when it came to obvious dangers his dad had faced at work. Riley was tougher than that, and she really was his partner in this. He would have to let her know so they could decide what they wanted to do next.

Letting out a sigh, Drake rolled to face Riley, sprawled on her stomach with Bridget curled up next to her on the far side. He inched closer to her, but the fact that her hair no longer smelled like peaches was just one more unsettling change in their lives. But that couldn’t really be helped. All he could do was watch his wife and daughter sleep and hope that seeing them safe would calm him enough to get some rest of his own.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Hana shifted in her seat slightly, uncrossing and recrossing her ankles as she smoothed out the wrinkles in her skirt. She glanced around the little cafe, but she didn’t see any members of the press. She usually wasn’t deemed interesting enough to be followed, but given everything that had transpired in the past week, that could have changed. Thankfully, it just seemed to be other patrons, absorbed in their own meals, phones, and conversations.

She’d decided to extend this invite to a public venue in the capital because that felt like neutral ground. Although the estate at Valtoria would have provided privacy, she couldn’t be bringing outsiders in there. Not until she was sure that no information could be gleaned from a visit.

Of course, the investigators hadn’t left much anyway. The office had been emptied essentially, as had the bedroom, the private lounge, and the library. Thankfully, they had only done a cursory check through her personal belongings, and they hadn’t checked under the floorboards she’d pried up in her quarters, now filled with Drake, Riley, and Bridget’s passports, some of their favorite pieces of clothing, Riley’s glasses and spare contacts, a few of Bridget’s toys, and a handful of framed photos.

It was strange, still living there without Riley, but Hana knew she had to stay as long as she was allowed. She wasn’t even sure if she technically could be there now that Riley had been stripped of her title, but no one had told her she needed to vacate the premises just yet. The staff all gave her a wide berth, clearly unsure what to make of the whole situation. Hana knew gossip must be running rampant, and she wondered who was sympathetic to their former employers and who saw them as selfish and reckless.

The little bell over the door rang as the woman Hana was waiting for entered, large sunglasses covering her eyes. She gave a little nod of acknowledgement from the doorway, then joined Hana, sitting down across from her, a slight tremor visible in her hand as she pulled out her chair.

“Hello, Hana.”

“Hello, Kiara.”

She pulled off her sunglasses and placed them gently in front of her. “I’m surprised Olivia approved you meeting with me one on one.”

Hana shook her head. “Olivia doesn’t have much interest in speaking to you directly, I’m afraid.”

“So she sent you to do her dirty work?”

“No, she has no idea I asked you to meet for coffee.”

Kiara stared at Hana for just a moment, her eyes wide and her eyebrows raised. “Vraiment?” she finally asked, “That’s not what I expected.”

Hana gave a little shrug, signalling a waiter and ordering their drinks before she responded. With as much as Olivia had on her plate, she’d decided that she could handle this conversation herself. Additionally, Olivia’s one size fits all, rather aggressive approach didn’t feel right here. She and Kiara had been friends, or so she had thought. They were certainly closer than Kiara had been with Riley or had even been with Olivia herself. She wanted to see if she could reopen a line of communication here, handling things far more gently than Olivia would ever support.

“Look, I always considered us friends, Kiara, but what happened last week…”

“I know. I didn’t want to do that. I don’t know if you can believe that, but it’s the truth. I even tried to warn Riley ahead of the vote.”

“What happened, Kiara? I’m just trying to understand how this all came to pass.”

Kiara glanced around, likely scanning for any obvious eavesdroppers, before she answered, “I can’t get into it all here. If he found out we were talking…”

“Barthelemy?”

“Or my father. Look, Barthelemy has foreign support for his bid for control.”

“Kiara, what do you mean?” Hana was trying to put together these little scraps of information, but she just did not have anywhere near enough to go on at this point.

“I can’t give you more details than that, at least not in public.”

“Then where do you propose we meet next?”

“The Social Season is currently delayed, but it will have to resume again soon, oui? So we will have to talk then. Step away from curious ears discuss things without arousing suspicion.”

All Hana could do was nod. As helpful as it would be to gain more information today, she needed to tread cautiously. She was relatively new to this degree of political maneuvering, and she didn’t want to damage the connection she had here by pushing too aggressively too quickly.

A few moments later, their waiter returned with their drinks. “Will you ladies be ordering lunch as well?” he asked, reaching for his pad of paper.

“No, thank you,” Hana said, turning to Kiara to explain, “I’m meeting with Rashad at the palace in less than an hour.”

Kiara pursed her lips at that, glancing around once more before saying, “If that’s the case, I would recommend trying to persuade him to delay the Social Season for at least two weeks.”

Surprised by that statement, Hana returned her coffee to the table and looked Kiara dead in the eye. “Why might you suggest that?”

“Old bylaws are pretty strict about both the minimum length of a Social Season and that it must conclude prior to the apple harvest.”

“Yes, I’m aware. It’s only happened twice in Cordonian history, if I recall correctly, that the Social Season had not technically concluded by the first harvest.”

“Correct. And both those times the Social Season was merely suspended until the next calendar year, picking up for its conclusion in early January.”

Hana knew there was some important detail here that Kiara was dancing around. If the Social Season got pushed into the next year, so would the Conclave. But that wouldn’t benefit Liam unless…

“Kiara, has your father set a date to formally transfer his head of house status to you yet?”

Kiara widened her eyes significantly as she nodded. “Oui, I will claim the title officially on New Year’s Day.”

“Congratulations! So you will represent House Theron in all matters after that point?”

“Indeed, and while I look to my father as an inspiration for how to lead, I think you will find I am interested in striking my own path as well.”

Hana opened her mouth to try and clarify things a little further, but Kiara shook her head.

“Enough of these matters. I went wedding dress shopping with Penelope the other day, and she was hoping to get your opinion on some options. Shall we look at some photos I took?”

It was a clear redirection of the conversation. Hana knew she was unlikely to get anymore information from Kiara today, so she nodded and gave her a smile, scooting her chair over to look at her phone screen. But instead of photos of Penelope in white gowns, she was surprised to see a blank message thread, an unsent text typed at the bottom of the screen.

You will want me voting at the Conclave, not my father. His vote is decided. Mine is not.

Hana looked at her, but Kiara just nodded, not taking her eyes off the screen as she pulled open her gallery and scrolled to a series of photos taken a few days earlier. As Hana oohed and ahhed over dress after dress, millions of questions swirled through her mind. And even though she didn’t have most of the answers, at least she felt like she was making progress. That had to count for something.

Permatag:  @walkerswhiskeygirl   @riley--walker  @bebepac @ravenpuff02 @oofchoices @octobereighth @drakewalker04 @kimmiedoo5  @mfackenthal  @thequeenofcronuts  

The Royal Romance/The Royal Heir: @iaminlovewithtrr @ao719 @mskaneko @katedrakeohd @jovialyouthmusic @marshmallowsandfire @axwalker @kingliam2019 @sirbeepsalot @texaskitten30 @princessleac1 @ladyangel70 @dcbbw @yaushie

Drake x MC: @no-one-u-know @drakeandcamilleofvaltoria  @iplaydrake @gibbles82 @drakewalkerisreal @notoriouscs  @drakesensworld @drake-colt-lover-99

Fight or Flight: @masterofbluff @burnsoslow @bobasheebaby @shz256​

[wits-writing]

Earth’s Mightiest Retrospective Ep 19: “Widow’s Sting”

(Directed by Vinton Heuck, Written by Kevin Burke & Chris Wyatt, Original Airdate: December 19, 2010)

Here’s one that almost made me re-think my watch/recap order for the series. Wikipedia and a couple other places where the episodes of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are officially hosted put this right before the trilogy of Kang episodes, but other hosting sites and the Blu-Rays I’m using list it after. This is likely due to confusion around the original airdate, which was placed before that story arc. It honestly doesn’t matter that much, as the parts of the EMH’s overarching plot “Widow’s Sting” interacts with have little to nothing to do with the Avengers battles with Kang. Since it could easily take place before or after that storyline, I decided to go by the order on the Blu-Ray.

Developments in this episode revolve around two things, the partnership of Hydra/AIM and Hawkeye’s on-going hunt after his ex-partner Black Widow. Clint enters the episode by interrupting a deal between the two about the research AIM is putting into creating the Cosmic Cube for Hydra’s purposes. MODOK’s asks for more money from Grim Reaper, so AIM’s work can continue right as the archer ambushes them. Hawkeye manages to disable several agents on both sides of the deal, but not before their respective leaders can retreat. He faces Nick Fury’s anger for his trouble, since the Director of SHIELD doesn’t want an ex-SHIELD agent busting up every Hydra operation he comes across. Fury knows all about Hydra’s ability to rebuild after minor incidents, so he’s planning and biding his time until he can make the move that takes down all of Hydra at once.

Much to everyone’s surprise, Iron Man agrees with Fury and tells Clint to stop his hunt for Widow and keep to Avengers business. Hawkeye does what’s rapidly becoming his go to move in this series, deciding to go off on his own if no one will help him with his personal mission. Captain America and Black Panther end up deciding to join him despite what Fury and Stark had to say on the matter, plus further help from SHIELD agent Bobbi Morse, codename: Mockingbird. However, the three Avengers quickly reveal that they know Fury sent her in to spy on them. They tell her they know exactly where to find Grim Reaper before she has a chance to send them on a wild goose chase for random Hydra ops.

Mockingbird’s a good character pull from the comics, since she’s been paired with Hawkeye there even more often than Widow, they were even married for a while. While no relationship near that level gets built between Hawkeye and Mockingbird here, there is a sense of flirtation between the two as they go on to compliment each other in combat once they start going after Hydra. The pair puts up a decent fight against Reaper and his goons until they let themselves get captured, leaving Cap and Panther to track their signal, until they disappear thanks to Hydra’s stealth tech halfway to their destination, Hydra Island.

The time the episode spends on the island gives us a brief look into the scope of how Hydra has been operating since “Breakout.” Viper (aka, Madame Hydra) and Black Widow report to Baron Strucker about the various crime and government organizations willing to make deals with them. Reaper brings Hawkeye and Mockingbird into Strucker’s throne room, only for Viper to suggest that an Avenger would make a better bargaining chip than a body to add to the pile. While Clint and Bobbi are being kept in Hydra’s holding cells, Widow comes to talk to them. Hawkeye justifiably has zero patience for anything she has to say to him, since she’s the one that framed him and got him kicked out of SHIELD in the first place.

Once Black Widow’s gone, Hawkeye immediately breaks Mockingbird and himself out and start busting heads. This sequence mainly consists of them dealing with the overwhelming odds against them, alleviated once Panther and Cap finally manage to track them down. There are two moments of note amidst this otherwise repetitive brawl. First, Hawkeye having a clear shot to finally take down Black Widow, but instead using it to save Mockingbird from Viper. Second, when Clint goes back to his pursuit of Widow, he gets caught in the grasp of Strucker’s life-draining gauntlet. Before the Baron can finish him off, Widow shoots him in the back and tells Clint she’s truly sorry for what happened between them. The fight on the now self-destructing Hydra Island ends with Widow carrying Strucker away. It’s not a complete loss for the heroes, as they’ve managed to arrest Grim Reaper and Viper.

Fury’s wrath isn’t quelled by those pieces of minor victory, since all it did was again interfere with his own plans to take down Hydra strategically with SHIELD’s resources. The closing moments of “Widow’s Sting” end up going through one moment of deception after another. Widow lies to Strucker about how he was knocked out on the island. MODOK comes to meet the two of them in order to return the money Hydra was giving them to develop the Cosmic Cube, saying the project was a failure. Thanks to an earlier scene, we know AIM realized the Cosmic Cube could be made to work, rather than serve as a project to entice Hydra into funding their experiments. It’s a deception Strucker easily sees through as MODOK cordially admits to their failure. Finally, Nick Fury and Mockingbird go to look over Viper’s body (I guess she died earlier, I must’ve missed it on my watch) now reverted to its true form, a Skrull infiltrator.

This is a decent episode to push Hawkeye’s character further along his arc for the season by giving him the first hint that not all is as it seems regarding Black Widow. It also marks the first major tension between the Avengers and SHIELD since the series began, we’ll have to see where that goes from here.

Next time, the Avengers are given a cold taste of how vast the powers of Asgard’s magic can be.

If you like what you’ve read here, please like/reblog or share elsewhere online, follow me on Twitter (@WC_WIT), and consider throwing some support my way at either Ko-Fi.com or Patreon.com at the extension “/witswriting”