Chapter Text
It was dinner time in Avengers Tower, and that meant the mouth-watering smells of Clint's cooking and good hearted bickering. At least that is how it normally was. This night, however, was quiet. No one ate, but instead all eyes were turned to Natasha. Stark broke the silence.
"What?" He said incredulously, wrapping an arm around Pepper's shoulders as if they were going to target her. The spy rolled her eyes and took a drink from the bottle of rather expensive tequila she held. Normally Tony complained about her tendency to drink him dry. Tonight he didn't.
The two spies looked banged up. Agent Romanoff had a nasty looking gash over her eyebrow, and the right side of Barton's face was scraped as if it had been ground into the concrete.
"The Red Room." She repeated. "After everything from SHIELD was leaked onto the internet, my cover was blown.We’ve been over this." Steve rubbed his face. He was sitting between Sam and Clint on one side of the table. Tony sat between Bruce and Pepper at the other side, and Natasha had one end while Thor took the other.
"Bucky?" He stared at her. "You were in the same program as Bucky?" She took another drink.
"Years later, yes. They were working on reprogramming DNA by my time, though. I was just one of hundreds of infants genetically modified and trained to be perfect assassins." This was the most information any of them had ever been given about her past, other than Clint, who knew more than anyone. She didn't like it--knowledge was power and she didn't want anyone to have power over her. But they deserved to know why they were in danger.
"Hundreds? What happened to all of them?" Steve watched her drink with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.
"In the final stages they had us fight to the death. They wanted to weed out the weak ones--they threw off the experiments. The men were a disaster-the scientists tried to give them extra testosterone for muscle growth, but it backfired and the test subjects gave in to their more...primal instincts." She stared at the bottle. "Killed a lot of the girls before the scientists terminated them." Falcon looked like he wanted to throw up. Banner spoke up.
“So that’s where you got all your superpowers." She raised an eyebrow at him. "The super strength, seduction, high pain tolerance and fast healing are all traits of yours I've observed. I could never figure out how you could be human, but by all definitions of the word, you aren't. Your DNA has been manipulated,” Bruce said, sounding intrigued. She shook her head.
“Some of it has to do the modifications, a lot of it was from training.”
"Even if you fought to the death, they would want more than just one of you to survive, wouldn't they?" Steve asked.
"You're right. In the end there were twenty five of us."
"What happened to them?" Pepper questioned. The spy took another drink and paused.
"One by one they went crazy. A lot of them were free by that time." Clint pinched the bridge of his nose as she continued. "I killed them. All of them," she added, answering Tony's unspoken question.
"If they went crazy..." She snorted and shifted in her chair, wincing. Broken ribs, most likely.
“Don’t worry, you’re safe. If I go crazy, which I probably won’t, Clint is authorized to take me out by any means necessary.” Bruce was watching her warily.
“I think I should check you out.” She looked at him.
“Both of you,” he clarified. “For injuries.” She pointed a finger almost accusingly at her partner.
“He got shot in his leg. Do your medical thing to him.” The archer scowled at her from across the table.
“She’s got three broken ribs,” he whined. “Make her.” The doctor rolled his eyes.
“How about I make both of you. God, it’s like you’re turning each other in.” He stood and grabbed her arm firmly, jerking his head at Clint. “Come on you two.” The other man stood reluctantly.
“The last time someone said that to us there were men with guns shoving us towards a shallow grave,” Clint muttered.
“Needless to say that grave got filled,” Natasha finished darkly.
Banner dragged the two of them into the infirmary, with the others tagging along behind. He made them sit on the edge of a cot as he examined Hawkeye’s messily bandaged shin. Tony, Pepper, Steve, Sam and Thor stood in various positions with their arms crossed.
“And remind me why they’re coming after us?”
“The Red Room, also affiliated with Hydra, wants us for several reasons. I’m one of their last living early human experiments. Bucky’s presumably on the run from them or they would sent him. We’re also what’s standing in the way of total world domination, not to mention Steve, Sam and I killed a lot of their operatives.”
“The guys they sent after us were half functional, at best. They had metal arms and human bodies, but something was wrong with them. I don’t know if they were flawed, or diseased or what. That’s a reason why they would want Nat. They want to study her and know what they did right with her,” Hawkeye said as the doctor bandaged him up. A slight shiver ran down her spine at the thought of more experimentation. Only her partner noticed. “Another reason is they want to use her again.”
“How could they do that?” Steve looked confused.
“A combination of brainwashing by means of electrical shock and physical, mental and psychological torture,” he spoke for her, as she wasn’t making eye contact with anyone as Bruce prodded gently at her ribcage. “It’s also possible though not probable that the guys were sent not from Hydra but from Russia, in which case it’s pretty obvious why they’d want Nat,” Hawkeye said. “Hydra made her kill a lot of people and the country wants payback. We don’t think that’s very a likely option because she’s an Avenger, and we’re currently known as the people protecting the world.”
“What he’s saying is that it’s possible they’re not after you at all, and me being here is compromising your safety. I should be at my apartment not getting you guys killed.”
"No way," Tony said firmly.
"We're not safe here, either way. They know exactly where we are." Clint said. "You don't happen to have a Stark safe house in Russia?"
"I thought the bad guys are in Russia."
"Hiding right under their noses..." Natasha said slowly. "That could work." She glared at Bruce as he unzipped her suit and bandaged her ribs tightly.
"Of course I do. I'll get the jet prepped."
"No, they'll be monitoring air traffic in and out of the tower. If we do this, we’re going to have to do this our way."
"Your way?"
"Like spies."
*
The airport was crowded on a Saturday, so in their civilian clothing and hooded faces the Avengers blended. They each were catching different flights to Russia so as not to draw attention to their suspiciously familiar looking group. Natasha had constructed complex backstories for each of them that spanned from their names to the cities they were born in. Their tiny earpiece communication devices went past the airport security, but weapons didn't. Thor hid his hammer, knowing when they touched down he could summon it from across the world. The rest of them would have to make do with Stark's backup stash of weapons. Steve, Clint, and Natasha's flights were A gates, on the left wing of the massive airport, while Tony, Thor, Bruce and Sam were in the B wing. In one ear they had their private and secure communication line, the other a Bluetooth or an earbud so if seen talking to themselves, it would be assumed they were on the phone. Steve was ahead of Natasha near gate 82A, leaning against a wall with a hoodie and baseball cap and looking bored. His flight didn't take off for another two hours, so he was settled in with a bag of potato chips and keeping an eye out for Hydra operatives. Clint trailed along with sunglasses and a hoodie, watching Natasha's blue hood several paces ahead of him. Unlike many of their missions, there hadn’t been time to locate escape routes and tap into security cameras. By the time they left Stark towers that morning, a dark van was already casing the joint.
A man in a black suit grabbed Natasha's forearm and spun her around so fast the hood fell off. He saw her eyes widen in shock and Clint started pushing through the people between them. The hallway was too packed to break into a run.
"I'd recognize that body anywhere." He heard the man say through Natasha's com. Her face contorted with rage, screwing up her beautiful features into something much darker. "You always were my favourite, Red," he purred, flashing a set of perfectly white teeth. Natasha lost it. Her hands flew to his throat and he went down, people screaming and giving the two a wide berth. He had never seen her fight like this. She knew how to kill people and she could be vicious when doing it, but what she was doing now was downright animalistic. The guy managed to get a shot into her before she tore his gun away. Instead of ending him instantly like she normally would have, she shot him in the shoulder, then broke his arm, dislocated his other shoulder and elbow before setting in hitting his face, over and over and over.
"Tasha!" He grabbed her around the waist and tried to pull her off, but she clung to the barely conscious man. Suddenly she whipped out a knife (how did she get that past the metal detectors?) and buried it hilt deep in his groin. A high pitched scream was ripped from his lungs and Clint finally managed to pull his partner off him.
"I need backup here!" Steve appeared over his shoulder, having heard the attacker through his earpiece and only now managed to push through the crowd. Natasha was still trying to get at the mysterious man, who was howling as blood pooled on the floor.
"What the hell?" Clint handed him a bleeding and furious Black Widow, and it took all the soldier's strength to hold her, kicking and screaming. The archer picked up the fallen gun and shot the attacker through his skull, killing him instantly. He wasn't going to leave any loose ends. More screams came from the onlookers, but he ignored them.
"Stark, we're compromised, no telling how many guys they've got in here. Tasha's hit, I can't tell where. We need out, now."
"Shit. Go into the nearest women's public bathroom on your left, barricade the door and we'll blast through the wall from the outside. I told you this wouldn't work." He and Steve quickly moved off, carting Black Widow with them. Everyone had cleared out of the bathroom to watch the fight, so they had no trouble slamming and locking the door behind them. The screams from outside were muffled now.
"Hold her still." Steve pulled her closer, her back against his chest and her feet not quite touching the ground. Clint came around to face her. "Tasha, Tasha, listen to me. Hey!" Steve flinched as he slapped her across the face, hard. She went limp and her gaze finally met his.
"Clint."
"Yes."
"Is he dead?"
"Yes. He's dead." Steve let her go and she fell into her partner's embrace.
“I killed him.”
“No, Nat, you didn’t kill him, I killed him.” he looked confused now. She sunk to her knees on the tile floor.
“No, I mean I killed him back in Russia.”
“What?”
“When I was 12...I reached the training stage for killing and I refused..they sent him in, to...and he kept...until I snapped and killed him…” She seemed to have forgotten the com link was on, or she was just too out of it to care. “They needed me to kill so they...he was dead, Clint. I snapped his neck. He was dead.” The wall behind them exploded but she didn’t so much as blink. Clint picked her up carefully and followed Steve into the open Quinjet that waited. The minute he was inside the hatch closed and they flew off at full speed, disappearing into the clouds.
“Jarvis, I want to know if anyone tries to track us, and I want you to lose them if they do.”
“Yes sir,” the cool voice replied. Clint laid Natasha on the floor and unzipped her jacket. The bullet had hit her right side where her liver was, leaving a growing stain on her tee shirt.
“Always getting shot,” Bruce muttered, kneeling down next to her. The good thing was that there was an exit wound, so the bullet wasn’t still inside her. “You guys realize I’m predominantly a scientist, not a doctor, right?” Steve ripped open two gauze packets with his teeth and handed them to Bruce, who applied one to each side of the wound and pressed firmly. Clint handed him a needle from the med kit and he swiftly injected it into Natasha’s neck. Her eyelids fluttered shut and her muscles relaxed as the sedative took effect. It was a large injection, enough to knock out Thor, but her genetic modifications gave her a resilience to medicines and tranquilizers.
“Who the hell was he?” Tony sat on one of the benches next to Sam and Thor. Clint, Bruce and Steve sat down on the floor around the spie’s unconscious body.
“I’m not sure who. At least we know now that it’s Hydra that’s after us and not the Russians.”
“How do we know this?”
“The guy, I think it might have been Michael Kozlovsky, he was from the Red Room. That’s what the guys called her there, Red.”
“I thought she said that they killed all the males because something went wrong?” Steve rested his back against the side of the jet.
“That was the male assassins. These guys were genetically modified in different ways to train the women.”
“Train?”
“Torture, rape, starve, pretty much anything to prepare them for the possible outcomes of their missions. The scientists needed grunts to do their dirty work, shoot them up with sedatives to perform tests and shit.” Hawkeye looked angry, angrier than any of them had ever seen him.
“What?” Steve gaped.
“Don’t worry, your precious Bucky had it somewhat better than them. Probably even got to partake,” he snarled. The captain raised his hands in a ‘whoa, dude, sorry’ sort of way.
“That’s not what I meant. That’s just…”
“Unforgivable,” Thor finished.
“So if they weren’t modified and trained to be assassins then why would they send them to round us up? You’d think they’d send someone more qualified, unless they’re complete morons.”
“Probably thought she’d be travelling alone. She never worked with a partner and they trained her not to trust anyone, so they’d assume that she doesn’t really trust any of us. That and the fear factor of seeing Michael again would be enough to get the jump on her, at least enough to sedate her or disable her. Must have forgotten that when Nat gets scared she gets angry.”
“Who is this Michael anyway? How do you know him?”
“Forget it.”
“He’s one of the guys after Natasha and us, it’s our right to know.” Clint swabbed some of the man’s blood from his partner’s knuckles and put it in a bag. He would run tests to determine if his suspicions were correct.
“He was one of the guys after her. And he’s dead now.”
“It still matters,” Steve insisted.
“If you want to ask Natasha intimate details about just who it was and how they tortured her, be my guest,” he hissed. “There are things you tell your best friend and your partner that under no circumstances are to be repeated. I’d rather die than betray her trust.”
*
“Nngghh.” Natasha opened one eye. She was lying on a soft surface, and blurry faces were starting to come into view, starting with Clint. “Where are we?”
“We’re in Sam’s old apartment. Figured we’d be safer here until we figure out a plan of attack.” She nodded.It made sense. Natasha was lying on the large bed in the now bare bedroom that had belonged to Sam. The others were sitting in chairs brought in from the dining room table, listening to music or playing on their various electronic devices. They turned them off when she woke and Clint propped her pillow against the headboard so she could sit up.
“Sorry for screwing up the plan.” Tony shrugged.
“Our wing of the airport was crawling with them, someone would have recognized us eventually whether or not you decided to kick the shit out of that guy. It was only a matter of time.”
“Speaking of that guy, Clint got samples of his blood, I was wondering if you’d mind if I took a look at them?” Bruce pushed his glasses up his nose. “For scientific purposes.”
“They weren’t the modified soldiers or assassins,” she started, but he cut her off.
“I know, I know, but they were still genetically modified. I just want to know the modifications.”
“You don’t.”
“What?” His face clouded with confusion.
“You don’t want to know.”
“Natasha, I’m a scientist,” he said softly. “Of course I want to know. The more I know the more we have to use against these guys.” She rolled her eyes and put a hand to the side of her head as if it would alleviate her throbbing headache.
“Clint, would you,” she gestured vaguely at Banner and squeezed her eyes closed. The overhead lights were a little too bright, the voices a little too loud. She always had a headache after being sedated, but this one was particularly bad. All she wanted to do was curl back up on the mattress and fall back asleep, so she sank back under the blankets.
“You can study the sample if you want but it’s not going to get you far, Doctor. These guys were only genetically modified to be relatively smart and then the scientists tampered with their reproductive cells.”
“Tampered?”
“I don’t really know the details.” The other men were pretending not to hear, but he knew they were listening. Natasha’s breathing had evened out, thankfully. He didn’t think he could keep explaining with her beautiful green eyes watching him calmly. “I think size, stamina, etcetera...”
“If they made Natasha and the other girls sterile then why would they tamper at all? They eliminated the possibility of them getting pregnant when they removed her ovaries.”
“Natasha can’t have kids? How are you two going...” Steve asked, a hint of sadness in his voice. Clint rolled his eyes.
“They’re considered a liability, a distraction. Plus it’d be pretty damn hard for her to fight while pregnant, Steve. And Bruce, it’s bad if you have to carry a kid, but it doesn’t matter if you get someone else pregnant. These guys were there of their own accord, the bastards didn’t mind knocking up a few civilians. And when those children were born, they were taken away and went right into the program. A steady stream of test subjects,” he spat.
“Is that how she got there? Someone raped her mother and stole her when she was born?” Steve couldn’t stay out of the conversation, and the others were no longer pretending to be busy doing other things.
“Her history is...complicated.”
“Cut the crap, Clint. There are about a hundred guys surrounding Stark Towers, that airport was bombed after we left, killing innocent people. So I don’t really give a shit about covers and lies right now, I want the truth,” Steve had to restrain himself from yelling, lest he wake Natasha. Clint sighed and glanced at his partner. As long as he didn’t go into too much detail, and left the important parts out, she wouldn’t kick his ass. He wasn’t so sure about the others, but they had brought it on themselves.
“The short story is that her parents were killed in a fire by her uncle who worked with the KGB. They brainwashed her and trained her in martial arts, sniping, tons of other forms of combat that’d take too long to name. They gave her false memories, and when she worked out they were fake they’d just torture her and start all over again. She said her first mission she was 13, she worked for them until she was 17 at which point she killed a SHIELD agent and I was sent to kill her. I decided not to, she defected to SHIELD, we became partners. We worked a bunch of cases and rose up to become top level SHIELD agents. Under Fury and Maria, she’s the highest ranking agent there is, followed by me. She was kidnapped and tortured so badly that she returned to the KGB and it took me six months to infiltrate. They tortured her that whole time. I got her out, barely, and we returned. Even with her fast healing it took three months for her to heal after what they did to her. Than other girls from her program started going crazy, shooting up public places or killing themselves, and we were sent to kill them. The last one we killed in Budapest, where we were locked in a full out war with KGB soldiers. We got out, she took me to a hospital. Then the Russians put a bounty on her head and snipers took her out, she was shot six times. After that Fury thought we’d be safest with the Avengers, a plan that had been circulating for a while, and Nat was sent into your operation,” he nodded to Stark. “I was still hospitalized from Budapest, ‘cause I don’t have any genetic superpowers.” They stared blankly at him.
“Holy shit,” Sam commented.
“How many times has she been shot?” Tony questioned.
“Well she was shot those six, and Bucky shot her twice,” Steve started to count in his head.
“The Winter Soldier shot her seven times.”
“What?”
“You haven’t noticed she shares some of his moves? He was one of the guys that trained the girls, a ‘specialist’ they called him. He shot her five times there, once to kill the scientist she was protecting, and then again during the whole Hydra incident.”
“I understand why she has trust issues now,” Thor muttered, examining his hammer.
“You happy now, Steve? Satisfied?” Clint couldn’t keep a hint of anger from his voice. Tensions were running high the longer they sat holed up in the dingy apartment.
“Not exactly the word I’d use,” he replied diplomatically. “But you have to admit that it’s easier for us to understand when we know the whole story.” Hawkeye just snorted. “That was the full story, wasn’t it?”
“Excluding a few unimportant or personal facts, yeah. You don’t need to know everything about a guy in order to kill him.”
“I think you do.”
“We don’t even know if the same guys are running the KGB, and even if they were, Nat never told me names. I think it’s fair to assume that if they’re shooting at us, they’re bad guys.” They all agreed to that, and things settled down a bit.
It wasn’t until a few hours later that Natasha woke up again, bolting upright with sweat glistening above her brow and her chest heaving.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Clint said quietly, drawing her attention. “You’re okay.” He squeezed her arm comfortingly and she swiped a hand across her face, her gaze taking in the room, the exits, the people.
“So what’s the plan?”
*