Lillian Barton

**Lillian Violet Barton** is an Avenger, a former Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the younger sister of the original Hawkeye.

## Biography

Lillian Violet Barton is the third child and only daughter of Harold and Edith Barton. For the first years of her life, she grew up in Waverly, Iowa, alongside her brothers Barney and Clint. Their father was an alcoholic and tended to take out his frustrations on his wife and children, with Edith often stepping in to protect her kids. When Lilly was five years old, her parents picked her up from a piano lesson, Harold behind the wheel despite his intoxicated state. He was drunk and angry, and while his wife desperately tried to calm him down, their daughter could only curl up on the backseat and pray that it would be over soon. She got what she wanted, but in the worst way. Due to his lack of attention, Harold sped past a red light, causing a crash with two other vehicles. Both he and Edith died before the ambulances arrived to take the injured, including Lilly, to the nearest hospital. A police officer brought Barney and Clint there to see their little sister. The encounter was full of tears out of both grief and relief, and it would be their last moment together for years to come. While Lillian still recovered, the boys were already sent into foster care.

After several weeks in the hospital, the girl ended up in a group home in Des Moines, without any real clue where her remaining family went. For over a year, Lillian regularly alternated between orphanages and temporary foster homes - some of which awakened less than pleasant memories in her traumatized mind. She was getting used to the idea that the entire rest of her childhood would look like this, when she unexpectedly hit the jackpot.

In May 1992, Lilly was fostered by a nice couple. He was a mechanic, she was a teacher and they already had three kids. Their oldest daughter had recently moved out to attend university overseas, the second talked about going to Canada, and they decided that they now had the space and nerve for a fourth child. Lilly latched onto their son, her new brother, because he reminded her of Clint. After six months, the family legally adopted her. While she was initially wary about her new father, the pain caused by Harold still fresh in her memories, she soon came to realize that he was rough around the edges, but a lot nicer and more responsible. She began sticking around when he taught his son about cars and machines, and it sparked her interest in the matter. With her adoptive mother, she often painted or just talked. The woman also took her to horseback riding lessons, after Lilly refused to take piano classes due to the association with that fateful day. In 1995, they moved to New York, and despite Lilly's worst fears, they didn't leave her behind. All in all, Lillian had a wonderful time with her new family, but she always had a dreadful feeling telling her that it wouldn't last. She tried to chalk it up to pessimism, until she was finally proven right.

In 1996, then ten year old Lilly realized that her adoptive mother was sick. She had blackouts and seizures, scaring the girl terribly. Her condition just wouldn't improve, so she was eventually brought to a hospital. The staff spent months attempting to find a cause and a solution, while her husband was left alone with two kids and a demanding job. He tried his best, but the situation took a toll on the whole household. The children skipped classes to visit their Mom, cut ties with every friend that didn't seem to understand their emotional turmoil, and finally even picked fights with fellow students who called them the wrong names. Soon, the welfare service heard of their behavior, and since their mother still wasn't getting better, their father couldn't do anything when they took Lillian away from him.

The threat of going back to foster care only worsened Lilly's mental health. She was put in a group home in New York, where she met and befriended a girl named Skye. They bonded over their fascination with technology and their similarly sarcastic sense of humor, but the system tore them apart after less than three months, leaving Lilly alone in the world once more. She was dropped off with a foster family, including an alcoholic mother, a workaholic father, a terrified girl with bruises all over her and a boy with a violent streak as well as a stash of drugs under his bed. Unwilling to accept any more pain, fear and disappointments, Lillian ran as fast as her feet would carry her.

For almost two years, the blonde survived by stealing, lying and sneaking around. She tried to find her brothers, but that proved to be more difficult than she thought, because they fell below the radar too.

In March 1999, she stumbled across a wandering circus, and upon finding out that they were heading west, she decided to join them. She was hoping that they'd allow her to accompany them, at least until they reached Iowa, where she had better chances to find Barney and Clint. Luckily, the director seemed to like her, and let her work with the animals. A few months later, she started participating in acrobatic acts in the ring, especially with the horses. By the time they got to Iowa, Lilly almost felt at home with the circus, but she had a clear goal in mind, and she achieved it by accident.

Her brothers, on the run and bored halfway out of their minds, came to see the show. Even after roughly a decade, Lillian recognized them. She approached the boys after the curtain closed, clinging onto Clint as she explained the situation through broken sobs.

After a whole night of hugs and stories, Barney and Clint decided to join the circus alongside their sister, desperate to get away from bad memories and lost hopes. The director agreed, and from then on, the siblings were reunited. Things were finally starting to improve for them.

During the next year and a half, all three Barton's learned, trained and grew up alongside each other. Lilly mostly stuck to animals and acrobatics, but also began working in the fortune teller's tent. The boys picked up knives and swords, and Clint turned out to be a talented archer. He actually loved the sport so much that he insisted on spending his bonding time with Lilly teaching her all about it. Life in the circus was exhausting, but never boring, and they settled in well. Considering how well everything was going, Lilly already had a feeling they were going to face another catastrophe very soon.

In February 2001, the ringleader introduced an old friend of his to the trio. The look in the stranger's eyes made the blonde feel sick to her stomach, and it only took days for her to find out that her judgement had been correct again. She stepped out of her trailer one evening, only to have an odd smelling rag covering the lower half of her face and the cold barrel of a gun pressed against her temple. Feeling dizzy, she just barely heard a voice calling her name. The freezing metal left her skin, and then there was a loud bang. Immediately afterwards, the world seemed to vanish around her.

Later on, Lillian would hardly remember the following few weeks. Bright lights, hard surfaces, rough hands. She couldn't move, and she frequently lost consciousness. She might have screamed or struggled at some point, but she couldn't tell for sure. Everything was a blur until S.H.I.E.L.D. came to rescue her, ready to change not only Lilly's life but also Clint's. Agent May knocked out the girl's captors, then Agent Coulson brought the youngest Barton to her older brother, who had to tell her that Barney died trying to save her. Less than twenty-four hours later, the siblings arrived at S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ and met Nick Fury.

Clint went into training as soon as he agreed to work for Fury, but Lillian was injured, traumatized, not to mention only sixteen years old and struggling to understand the powers she gained through recent events. She spent her time studying and recovering while her brother started going on missions. In 2002, Clint introduced her to his new girlfriend: fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. operative Bobbi Morse. The couple got married in April 2003.

Once Lilly was old enough, Fury recommended her to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy. She found the Department for Science and Technology fascinating, but due to her lack of formal education in previous years, she wasn't qualified enough. Instead, Fury sent her to the Department of Operations, where specialists and field agents were trained.

A few days after her arrival at the Academy, Lilly met fellow agent-in-training Antoine Triplett. In a time when she felt lost and pressured, he made her laugh and helped her to relax. They quickly became friends, and soon, "Trip" was Lillian's first real boyfriend. They were thick as thieves during their time at the Academy, and even when they'd graduated and went to work on separate teams, they remained close. In New York, they even shared an apartment. She also often took him with her to babysit her nephew, Frankie, who was born while Lilly was still in training.

In August 2005, Bobbi and Clint signed the divorce papers, but Morse stayed in touch with Lilly. The women had become good friends, and Lillian still considered Bobbi family. In October 2007, Clint married a woman named Laura. Even though Lilly and Trip had ended their relationship a few weeks before the wedding, they swore to stay friends and he still accompanied her as her date.

Almost two years later, they were also invited to Bobbi's second wedding, the groom being Amadeus Ravenclaw "Lance" Hunter. On the dancefloor, Lilly confessed to Antoine that she'd met someone recently. Said someone was her new partner in the field: S. H.I.E.L.D. operative Ava Starr.

Lilly's relationship with Ava was a complicated one. Both women had a lot of emotional baggage, and comfort was a difficult topic. Due to a science experiment gone wrong, Ava "phased" in and out of reach. Without the suit designed for her by SHIELD, she could barely control her unwanted ability, which made physical contact of any kind almost impossible. Because of these circumstances, Ava was hesitant to even get involved with someone, and she told Lillian after mere months that they just couldn't work. Following Ava's wish, Lilly requested a new partner, even though it hurt her.

While taking a break from romantic relationships, Lilly became an aunt two more times. In May 2009, Clint had another son and named him Cooper. In November 2010, he and Laura had a little girl. In honor of his sister, Clint called her Lila.

In 2013, Lilly got involved with Lance Hunter, who was by then the second ex-husband of her friend Bobbi. They collaborated on a few missions overseas, and Lilly's long since forgotten crush on him sneaked back to the surface. They spent a few weeks together, essentially as a couple, but both agreed that they weren't ready for something more serious. Hunter, especially, just wasn't over Bobbi yet.

A few months later, in mid-June, Lillian met Billy Russo. The pair immediately clicked, with Russo even introducing his new girlfriend to his best friend when they'd barely known each other for three weeks. She was nervous, but Frank reassured her, informing her that she's the first woman who made Billy act like this and that he looks genuinely happy. Only a month later, Frank's kids started talking about "Aunt Lilly and Uncle Billy", and she was beginning to feel like a real part of the family. In late August, Lillian told her boyfriend that she was ready to return the favor and introduce him to her own loved ones. Unfortunately, both Billy and Frank left for a fifteen month deployment in Afghanistan in September, and they couldn't arrange a meeting before then. Russo promised her that they'd find time when he got back, if she could wait for him that long.

During the first three months of his assignment, Lillian sent letters to Afghanistan. She did not intend to stop, but more urgent matters demanded her full attention.

The blonde was present when HYDRA revealed itself within S.H.I.E.L.D., effectively tearing the agency to shreds. Fury and Hill assigned her to Coulson's team, where she was also reunited with Trip, May, Morse, Hunter, Mack, Fitzsimmons and Skye, whom she'd known when they were both still children. She participated in several missions and helped them to rebuild the organization most of them had devoted their life to.

Ten months after the HYDRA Uprising, they landed in San Juan to search for the Kree City. The team planned to destroy it, afraid of what would happen if HYDRA found it too. Fitz, Simmons and Trip placed bombs in the tunnels. Shortly before the detonation, they discovered that Raina, Skye and Lillian were still down there. Trip returned to the tunnels to defuse the bombs, and then found the three women standing around the Kree artifact known as the Diviner. He was determined to get Lilly and Skye to safety, but it was too late. The mist had already begun spreading. In a last, desperate attempt to protect his friends, he destroyed the artifact. A shard of it hit him in the side as the mist turned him into stone. While he died, the three women all had the Inhuman gene, and therefore received powers instead.

Unaware of what exactly happened to her, Lilly only cared about the fact that she'd just lost her best friend. She screamed and sobbed, unintentionally damaging the already crumbling Kree City further. After she'd just barely made it out alive, she insisted on leaving the team, even though Coulson wanted to keep an eye on her. Grief and self-hatred drove her to her family's homestead in Missouri, where she spent her time with her brother's kids and the animals. She soon got a coded message from Fitz, warning her about the possibility that she'd gotten Inhuman abilities, which she had already suspected at this point due to some strange occurrences.

As her powers continued to grow, she practiced out on the empty fields and meadows surrounding the homestead, wanting to determine how destructive she could get before she risked using these abilities near people. It did not take long for her to realize that she could likely tear down entire cities if she wasn't careful enough, and that knowledge made her feel both horrified and empowered.

Considering these frightening changes, Lilly was quite surprised when Fury gave her a new assignment only a few months after San Juan, unsure if he knew what exactly happened there. He sent her out to find Bucky Barnes, who seemingly vanished off the face of the Earth a year ago, not anticipating the consequences of his vote of confidence.

It took less than two months for Barton to find Barnes in Europe, and when he panicked, she actually managed to overpower him without causing unnecessary harm. She ended their fight with an offer he most certainly did not expect: She promised to help him hide until he was ready to face Steve Rogers, provided he allowed her to stay with him. The suggestion was spontaneous but completely sincere. Lilly, not unlike Bucky, just wanted to hide from the world for a little while, not ready to face the judgement, responsibilities and questions surely waiting for her back home. They were united by grief, guilt and the fear of being used for what they were capable of.

During the following months, Lilly looked in the mirror and almost saw a whole new person looking back at her. She followed Bucky across borders without complaints, enjoying his company and their global game of hide and seek a lot more than she thought she would. Days were spent learning new languages, trying out recipes and teaching her companion about technology and the 21st century. She was worried but not at all surprised when she first admitted to herself that she was falling in love, but decided not to tell him, afraid he would get overwhelmed in his current state of mind. That same concern, alongside the awareness of multiple targets on both of their backs, shattered her peace and joy when Lilly found out they were expecting a child.

For the first time, Lilly brought up the possibility of returning home and calling Steve, without telling Bucky the reason for her sudden change of heart. An argument ensued, and, desperate to protect her unborn child, Lillian left alone.

The first person she talked to was Natasha Romanoff, who would also stay the only one who knew the whole story for years to come. Then, she went back to Missouri. She explained her pregnancy to Clint and Laura, omitting the identity of the father for both his sake and the baby's. She merely told them that it happened during a mission overseas, and nobody could know the true origins of the child. She asked them to play along, pretending that her son was actually theirs. Several falsified documents and belly prosthetics later, Nathaniel Barton was born.

## Personality

> **"You've got heart, kid. That, brains and a whole lotta attitude."**
>
>

Lilly is a bright, sarcastic young woman with several layers of trust issues, typically hoping for the best but expecting the worst in any given situation. She has a strong sense of morality, putting her beliefs above orders on many occasions, but her dedication and eagerness to improve made her one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s very best. She always aimed to learn from the experts and work until she could keep up with them, even though her powers made many skills virtually unnecessary from the get go.

While she's generally rather independent, Lillian evidently pays close attention to the people she admires and often ends up mimicking them in various ways. A prime example is Natasha Romanoff. Not only does Barton drive the same motorcycle as her longterm best friend, she also picked up a lot of Romanoff's tactics in combat, not fully aware of the extent of the similarities until Yelena Belova pointed it out after a fight during which Barton was disguised as Romanoff.

## Abilities & Powers

* Cryokinesis
* Electrokinesis
* (Flight)
* Sonokinesis

* Expert Combatant
* Archer
* Hacker
* Sharpshooter
* Spy
* Pilot
* Acrobat
* Amateur Inventor
* Equestrian
* Polyglot

## Equipment

* Glock 17
* Smith & Wesson M&P
* Walther PPK/S
* Glock 26
* Heckler & Koch P30
* Night-Night Gun
* I.C.E.R.
* Customized Bows & Arrows
* Widow's Bites
* Batons
* Photostatic Veil
* Quinjet
* Bus
* Harley-Davidson LiveWire
* S.H.I.E.L.D. Uniform
* Tactical Suit
* Stealth Suit

## Facilities

* Barton Homestead
* New Avengers Compound
* S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy of Operations
* Providence

## Relationships

* Edith Barton † (mother)
* Barney Barton † (brother)
* Clint Barton/Hawkeye (brother)
* Andrew Ritter (adoptive brother)
* Bobbi Morse (former sister-in-law)
* Laura Barton (sister-in-law)
* Frankie Barton (nephew)
* Cooper Barton (nephew)
* Lila Barton (niece)
* Nathaniel Barton (son)
* Matthew Murdock (former love interest)
* Ava Starr (former love interest)
* Rick Mason (former love interest)
* Daisy Johnson (former love interest)
* Lance Hunter (former affair)
* Billy Russo † (ex-boyfriend)
* Bucky Barnes (boyfriend)
* Nick Fury (employer, mentor)
* Phil Coulson (mentor)
* Melinda May (mentor)
* Anne Weaver (mentor)
* Maria Hill
* Jemma Simmons
* Leo Fitz
* Alphonso Mackenzie
* Yo-Yo Rodriguez
* Michael Peterson/Deathlok
* Victoria Hand †
* Isabelle Hartley
* Lincoln Campbell † (brief love interest, friend)
* Eric Koenig †
* Billy Koenig
* Sam Koenig
* Steve Rogers/Captain America †
* Tony Stark/Iron Man †
* Sam Wilson/Captain America
* Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch
* Scott Lang/Ant-Man
* Hope van Dyne/Wasp
* James Rhodes/War Machine
* Peter Parker/Spider-Man
* Bruce Banner/Hulk
* Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel
* King T'Challa
* Princess Shuri
* Ayo
* Okoye
* Kate Bishop (mentée)
* Yelena Belova
* Stephen Strange/Doctor Strange
* Wong
* Brunnhilde/Valkyrie
* Pepper Potts/Rescue
* Joaquín Torres/Falcon
* Eli Bradley
* Sarah Wilson
* AJ & Cass Wilson
* Brock Rumlow † (former colleague)
* Grant Ward † (former ally)
* Helmut Zemo (situational ally)
* Sharon Carter/Agent 13 (former friend, situational ally)
* Kara Palamas/Agent 33 † (former colleague)
* John Garrett † (former mentor)
* Daniel Whitehall †
* Jiaying †
* Raina †
* Gordon †
* Ian Quinn
* Jasper Sitwell † (former colleague)
* Thanos †
* Cull Obsidian †
* Proxima Midnight †
* Ebony Maw †
* Corvus Glaive †
* Karli Morgenthau †
* Wilfred Nagel †
* Georges Batroc †

Clint Barton