Chapter 14
Steve checks his gun and then his watch.
The explosives set on the charge are set to detonate in two minutes.
The compound isn’t large, the size of a small prison and seems to be made up as such. He watches the guards patrol again and shoots the first with deadly aim, and then the second.
He doesn’t like guns.
He doesn’t like those who hurt his friends more.
Idly, he wishes he hadn’t listened to some of Clint’s stories of the Red Room, it makes him feel more feral.
“Ready Cap,” comes Clint’s call.
There’s commotion near where the downed guards are, and he shoots two more that have come to see what is happening.
Ten seconds and he feels the adrenaline dump through him.
His vision narrows and he feels at war.
The explosion rocks the prison.
He ignores the sounds of yelling, that sounds too much like a battlefield.
Soldiers and women run out, the honey trap set.
More, he thinks, he wants more to come out.
The guards fan out and he presses the remote detonator to blast the two charges, sending bodies flying.
It’s a clean up job near him, four down, he becomes pinned behind a wall. The sounds of shooting and shouting and screaming.
“Clint?” he presses the offensive, throwing his shield and hearing it reverberate across the wall, knocking down three.
There’s girls dressed like Natasha, they appear like ghosts.
“Clint; the widows are here,” he calls again. It seems Clint has his own set of issues.
“Change to tranquillisers,” he hears Clint shout, “they’re not going down without a fight, and I don’t want to kill them. It’s not our call.”
He sounds out of breath.
Steve changes guns, holstering the lethal one and holds his shield in his other hand, as he wonders just how potent these are.
“Go for the neck,” he advises, as the first dart shot into the widows chest doesn’t even slow her down. He throws his shield again, but they vault over it easily.
Distracted, they don’t expect the shot of the dart that hits two of them in the neck as they drop immediately.
Potent then, he surmises grimly.
Two more launch at him as he runs away, hiding beyond the gate they came through.
He climbs quickly as they catch up to him, reading his stance, as they both exchange blows.
They’re fast, and strong, and don’t hold back.
It’s luck that another charge explodes, and he gets off two shots whilst they’re distracted.
“Clint?” he calls, watching as four more widows approach, “where are you?”
“At medical,” Clint responds quickly, “I’ve found her, they’ve got her guarded. We’ll be coming out hot, can you cover us?”
Steve hears a shout and then… swearing.
He quickly reloads the gun and fires on the women.
Two drop, but the third and fourth still come.
He runs to where he left Clint, the two in hot pursuit as he throws a smoke bomb, then a frag grenade that lights up the path.
It’s knocked them over, and he takes the opportunity to shoot them so they don’t keep coming.
More shouting, and Clint yells that he’s coming.
The sewage pipes are large, and stink more than Steve wants to admit.
He tells Clint he’s setting charges for them to collapse once they’re free and clear; which he does with the remote charges.
He throws in two smoke grenades for cover and waits.
“Now!!” Clint shouts as he emerges; Natasha unconscious in his arms.
Steve does as he’s told covering them both; and sets the charges off.
The tunnel collapses inwards, he hopes not on any widows.
They race to the car, the compound flaming and smoke billowing as they leave.
Clint holds onto Natasha for dear life as Steve gets in, the Quinjet parked not far away.
It just feels too far right now.
.
Clint can hear the commotion, the distraction working as he works his way into the belly of the beast.
Medical isn’t that far from the point he emerges. He tries to keep out of the sight of the cameras, but it’s almost impossible.
He just hopes they’re so distracted by Steve that they don’t even think to look inwards.
Steve tells him the widows are coming for him.
He wants to wish him luck. He doesn’t want to kill them, wondering if they all are as tragic as Natasha.
There’s a reason that they chose girls no one would miss.
Looking to his left, he realises that medical is a locked ward.
He should have known.
The swipe key is on a guard.
He shoots him as he comes round the corner; uncaring, knowing exactly what the guards in this place are known for.
Steve calls to him. He knows it can’t be this easy.
“We’ll be coming out hot,” he assumes. Even if they won’t be, he wants to burn this place to the ground.
Taking the swipe card, he enters, finding two widows and Natasha strapped to a gurney.
“You’re here for her,” one says, as he raises his gun.
“Let her go,” he asks, his Russian stilted.
“She’s a traitor!” The other shouts. “She will always be ours. She will always be one of us!”
He shoots her in the neck, dropping her immediately.
The other swears, loud, as he shoots her too.
Natasha looks to him with dead eyes as he approaches her.
“Hey,” he says softly. “You’re okay, tell me you’re okay.”
“I’m okay,” she says robotically, eyes staring straight through him.
He reaches to touch her and she can’t help the involuntary flinch.
“Tell me what’s wrong?” he asks, backing off, hands up.
“I know you, don’t I?” she says in thick Russian, a languid blink
He stops in his tracks, looking her up and down.
“What?”
What have they done?
“I’m telling you want’s wrong. She.. I know you.”
Natasha shakes her head, squeezing her eyes shut as if in pain. She swallows visibly.
“Of course you know me,” Clint says slowly.
“Are you here to kill me?”
The question is like a sucker punch.
He hasn’t moved but know he has to; Steve is likely to get pinned, and there’s surely more widows coming. If not them, then the guards of the building.
“No, Nat, no,” he placates, unstrapping her from the chair; worried at the way her body is shaking slightly.
“I am not Natasha,” she tells him, getting up off the gurney, slightly angry and a frown on her grey face.
“Of course you are,” he says; making her stand on shaking legs.
There’s a grunt as her legs buckle and he tries to catch her.
She strikes first and hard, punching him in the face. He’s ready though, he’s thankful that even when she’s not herself, she’s predictable.
Clint takes the punch, rolling his body into hers, stabbing her with the injector and depressing the needle.
“No,” she whispers, tired eyes staring at him.
.
Steve is quiet as Clint checks the auto pilot.
Tony sits on the other side watching them both carefully.
Holding her hand, Steve squeezes it hard, hoping it conveys everything he needs it to.
Her widow suit has tears through it, the thick material frayed, but they don’t want to remove it without medical being present. Clint already suspects a broken arm.
Steve’s breathing quickens, he starts to panic; what if’s slamming into his brain like gunshots, as he notices blood on her mouth.
In war, everything was fair game. The women in that compound weren’t at war, but they were being trained for it.
Moved like soldiers, reacted like them. Enemies of America, his brain supplies.
He can feel his breathing quicken, and closes his eyes.
Bringing her cold hand to his face, he smells gunpowder on his own hand.
Steve remembers sitting with Bucky, the war raging as they shared a meal and talked about home.
The flashback isn’t bad, more of a memory, but still leaves him desolate that Natasha might have similar memories of her own wars.
She doesn’t have memories of home, not that she’s told him about.
What would she talk about with someone on a step?
What good memories does she have to keep her going through any of this?
How old was she when she got out the first time?
He holds her hand tighter, wanting to convey everything in it. That he’s sorry, sorry for everything she’s had to endure; that they sent her back into a hell because they couldn’t fix what the Russians had broke.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers, breathing shallowly.
“Hey,” Tony’s voice breaks through his melancholy, “hey, let go.”
Gentle hands take his from Natasha’s, and he realises from the redness just how hard he’s been gripping it.
“She’s going to be okay,” Tony tells him, repositioning her hands by her side.
Unconvinced, Steve stands, joins Clint, and leaves Tony with Natasha, pain holding his heart as he looks back tentatively, wondering if things can ever be okay again.
.