Hawkeye

Black Lantern Quicksilver was incredibly fast. He quickly found his next target. He had endured for a long time, and this time, he was going to unleash everything.

He slaughtered people madly, using much the same method each time: his vibrating hands pierced into their chests, then tore out their hearts!

That heart-wrenching pain was not something ordinary people could endure. Most terrifying of all, those whose hearts were torn out could only watch helplessly as their own hearts were pulled free and devoured! Black Lantern Quicksilver's terrifying speed and methods threw the entire city into panic. At first, people did not believe the news at all when they heard it, but when Black Lantern Quicksilver rushed toward them a minute later, they regretted it bitterly.

The Dark Blade in Black Lantern Quicksilver's hand grew brighter and brighter. He greedily watched every person and said, "Running does work, but that depends on who's running!"

The people were terrified and fled in every direction. For a moment, everyone ran home, but how could they know that running would do no good?

Just as Black Lantern Quicksilver was about to catch the nearest child, an arrow shot toward him. The arrow was incredibly fast and powerful. Black Lantern Quicksilver easily dodged it, then turned to look at a figure atop a building.

The figure had a quiver on his back, short blond hair, and wore casual athletic clothes.

"Hawkeye?" Black Lantern Quicksilver gritted his teeth. Still, running into Hawkeye here was not a bad thing. For instance, he could eat Hawkeye's heart.

Just as he was about to move, three arrows came shooting toward him. Black Lantern Quicksilver flickered through the air, dodging all of them. He mocked, "You think you can hit me? You're wrong. Your reactions aren't fast enough."

"Oh? Is that so?" Hawkeye tilted his head and gestured toward the three arrows he had just fired, prompting Black Lantern Quicksilver to look back. "I successfully drew your attention. You completely failed to notice that the arrows I fired carry a paralysis effect!"

All three of Hawkeye's arrows erupted with silvery-white lightning. While Black Lantern Quicksilver was talking to Hawkeye, the lightning struck with blinding speed. He could not dodge now, because the instant he turned around, the first bolt had already hit him. He let out a howl, his body turning into a white blur as he tried to flee, but his paralyzed body had drastically slowed him down!

The second bolt arrived right on time. The Dark Blade in Black Lantern Quicksilver's hand continuously granted him speed, but he had no way to break free at this moment.

"Bastard!" Black Lantern Quicksilver cursed as the Dark Blade easily blocked the third bolt.

Hawkeye had appeared here because he had received the intelligence Tony sent earlier, and patience was what Hawkeye had most of all. He patiently tracked crime rates in various cities. Whenever new information appeared, he would verify and analyze it.

This time, the rate of two deaths per minute made Hawkeye sense danger, and he quickly arrived here. He had also laid all kinds of traps. From the start of the massacre until now, Black Lantern Quicksilver had killed nearly a hundred people. Hawkeye could no longer endure it, and he finally made his move when Black Lantern Quicksilver was about to kill a little girl.

"Are you really Quicksilver? The Quicksilver who sacrificed himself to save people?" Hawkeye knew the paralysis would last a long time, so he asked Black Lantern Quicksilver with disappointment and confusion, "I don't remember you being this violent. Do you know that you've already killed more than a hundred people?"

"Really? I don't remember saving anyone. Maybe I just became an idiot!" Seeing Hawkeye talking to him, Black Lantern Quicksilver knew his chance to turn the tables had come. So he deliberately stalled for time and continued, "Those days were so brief. What did they mean?"

"We protect everyone, keep them from getting hurt, and do our best to protect the Earth. So why are you..." Hawkeye did not lower his bow. He merely frowned as he struggled to think about the past.

Perhaps he had never been especially close to Quicksilver, but his memories of him were good. This Quicksilver was practically defiling the Quicksilver in his memories! He was furious, yet nostalgic. He did not know whether he should kill this Quicksilver, nor did he know whether this Quicksilver could somehow be reborn.

But what Hawkeye was most curious about was how Quicksilver had come back to life.

Listening to Hawkeye, Black Lantern Quicksilver retorted, "So Tony created Ultron? So Thor could leave Taiyi on Earth and let Earth suffer catastrophic losses? So you can get lost and still righteously talk about protecting Earth and protecting its people?"

"Do you still remember Sokovia? I do. I remember it perfectly!" As Black Lantern Quicksilver spoke, the Dark Blade in his hand continually repaired his body.

At that moment, Black Lantern Quicksilver sat crouched in the empty street, looking somewhat lonely. He continued, "Please, wake up. Have you seen the despair on those people's faces? They spent their whole lives struggling to live, yet you judged them like gods, or rather, made their entire lives meaningless. You call yourselves heroes? Please. I think what I'm doing now is giving them release, understand?"

Hawkeye gritted his teeth. "You're insane."

After Tony told Captain America about Quicksilver's resurrection, Hawkeye had acted alone. He told Captain America not to intervene, because Wanda—the Scarlet Witch—would also be sent on the mission if he did. That was why Hawkeye had hidden his actions from them and gone alone. He had believed he would not be affected by what had happened to Quicksilver before his death, but now it seemed... he truly had been affected.

Black Lantern Quicksilver shook his head. "I'm not insane. I'm playing your role, casually deciding one person's fate after another. To them, you are the gods, the source of disaster! Without you, the people of Sokovia would not have suffered such terrible casualties."

"No, you've forgotten. If we hadn't done it, even more people would have died."

Black Lantern Quicksilver burst into laughter, as though mocking a fool!

"Do you know what a hero's mission is, since you call yourselves heroes? Saving people. Yet in order to save people, you killed innocent civilians who had nothing to do with your fight. So let me ask you: are you saving people, or killing them?" Black Lantern Quicksilver spoke faster and faster. "The fates of those people thrown into the sky were originally set—they would have been killed by Ultron. But in order to change their fate, you dragged innocent people into it!"

Hawkeye could not bear to listen any longer. He roared, "If we hadn't done that, Earth would have been destroyed! And even if some of our choices were truly wrong, or truly inappropriate, we would never kill people indiscriminately like you!"

Hawkeye's arrow shot out at high speed. It was not that he could not bear to listen, but that Black Lantern Quicksilver's words had made him understand his mission—we were not heroes. We were Avengers! Some of what we did was indeed wrong. We truly bore a responsibility similar to that of gods, but so what? We had fallen into the villains' trap, and we could only choose this path. Otherwise, in the end, we would not even be Avengers, but a group of people watching Earth slowly be destroyed.