Chapter 42
Clint knew that his partner had many quirks and that she would often do things that made sense to nobody but her. He was content to just follow along and learned to not question the way she did things until she was ready to explain.
Getting a text from her that she was going dark for a little while was not out of character for her. She would slip under the radar for a little bit, often when overwhelmed, and Clint could respect that.
So when he got one of the usual “going dark” texts, he merely gave her a thumbs-up emoji as a reply and that was that. He focused back on life and was content to leave things be.
Then he got another text not too much later after the first, something odd when she would go dark. She would usually be radio silent during that period. He had been busy at the time, knowing that she could get in contact with him if it was urgent.
When Clint finally saw the texts and his blood ran cold.
9:23 PM
Tasha: do you believe in higher powers?
Tasha: like do you think we come back after we die?
Natasha was often oblivious to how worrying the things she said were at times. For all that Clint knew, she was visiting a church. Or she was burying a dead body. Or she was hurt.
9:44 PM
Tasha: i no longer need to share the other half of my cupcake with you.
He thought of the same day every year that she would go dark and how he would sometimes tag along, unsure of the significance of the date but understood how meaningful it was when she would shed tears. They’d split a single cupcake and they would go to an animal shelter. He doesn’t understand why she would mention it.
9:47 PM
Tasha: he took her from me.
Tasha: i can’t let her slip away again.
9:55 PM
Tasha: there is nothing that will stop me from completing my task. don’t come after me
The final one had Clint’s heart dropping into his stomach.
10:01 PM
Tasha: i’m sorry.
11:34 PM
Clint: where r u?
Clint: ???
Clint: remember how we talked about thinking before we act?
Clint: Tasha.
Clint: Nat.
Clint: Natasha.
Clint: If you don’t pick up then I’m gonna sic Maria on you.
11:38 PM
Clint: don’t make me track you down. I won’t make it fun for either of us
11: 51 PM
Clint: don’t get yourself killed until i arrive
Each text had gone unanswered and Clint sighed as he started to pack his things up so he could go and drag his partner back from whatever undeniably weird situation that she had found herself in.
“So what is the plan now?” Natasha demanded, gesturing around her. “We’re in the middle of fucking Egypt, your Gods won’t give us any help, and for all I know Yelena’s body is nothing more than pink mist on the ground!”
“Shut up!” Layla snapped at her, running a hand over her head. “Just-- lemme think!”
Layla paced in the sand anxiously, counting under her breath with each step as she tugged at her hair.
Finally, Layla turned to look at her, stopping in her tracks. “I have to join the fight.”
“I thought you said we couldn’t?” Natasha growled in frustration, resisting the urge to slam Layla into the ground and demand her to find better answers.
“I said that you and I couldn’t,” Layla corrected but that still left Natasha clueless. “But my Goddess can join.”
“How?” Natasha could not follow all the rules that came with being an avatar to a God.
“Just as Yelena’s God took over her body, and Nour’s God took over her body, I need my Goddess to take over mine,” Layla swallowed hard, looking nervous.
“You don’t sound very confident in your plan,” Natasha pointed out, watching as Layla hunched in on herself.
“Yeah, well…” Layla kicked at the sand with her boot, letting out a large sigh. “You heard what Yelena’s God said. He’s going to try and bring her body back to us. He wasn’t just being an asshole…” She tilted her head back to stare up at the sky. “Human bodies are not meant to wield Godly powers. Our Gods can pilot us safely and use small amounts of their powers while possessing us. But two Gods full-out brawling to the death is not something that humans come back from really.”
Natasha let out a long exhale as she realized what Layla wasn’t saying. “It’s practically a suicide mission then?”
Layla rubbed the back of her neck, wincing at the words. “Essentially? Yeah….”
“You would really kill yourself for this?” Natasha inquired, watching as Layla shrunk in on herself in defense. “Would you really die for Yelena?”
Layla scoffed. “Of course I would,” she said, no hesitation in her tone. “I love that kid to bits.”
Natasha raised an eyebrow. “It was my understanding that you two haven’t known each other that long.”
“So?” Layla shrugged, a small smile crossing her face. “Watching a stranger bleed out on your living room floor will really forge strong bonds.”
Natasha doesn’t know how to reply to that. “So our only idea is a suicide mission,” she states. The fondness faded from Layla’s face as she slowly dipped her head into a nod. “Okay… how do we do that?”
“We?” Layla echoed and Natasha nodded her head firmly.
“I don’t care about your foolish rules regarding Gods and their fights. That’s my little sister and I’m not letting her go again,” Natasha said firmly, making her stance known.
Layla nodded her head, folding her arms as she let out a soft sigh. “Okay. We’re doing this then. I just need to make sure that my Goddess is alright with it.”
Natasha waited for a moment before she tilted her head to the side. “How… do you do that?”
Layla winced, shrinking in on herself. “Uh, I sent her away to check on the kid. I dunno if she can hear me. I might… I don’t want to make this weird or anything--”
Natasha waved her off. “I doubt that whatever you do will be any weirder than the last twenty-four hours of my life.”
Layla nodded. “Fair enough,” she conceded. “Let’s get somewhere safe. I need to make a small offering and pray.”
“Alright.” Natasha gestured to the vast sandy dunes. “Lead the way.”
Clint would be the first to admit that he wasn’t a genius. He was a brilliant agent but he always had someone pulling the strings. They’d point him in a direction, shove a bow in his hands, and off he’d toddle like a good little soldier. He doesn’t have to piece together crime scenes very often and his partner was usually the one who was good at that sort of thing.
Unfortunately, his partner was the person that he was trying to find. Clint knew that White Knight was probably at the center of the whole thing so he couldn’t bring SHIELD in on it without getting Natasha in trouble. The last thing he needed was to rescue Natasha but then have White Knight be arrested by SHIELD. His partner was determined to save whoever they were and would undoubtedly kick his ass if he let them get captured.
Clint wasn’t even going to delve into the whole ‘child assassin’ thing that they had going on. He had his orders to stay far away from them so he couldn’t let anyone know that he was blatantly disobeying them.
So he went to the first place he could think of to look for evidence: Natasha’s little hidey-hole.
It was an apartment that Maria secured for Natasha for those days when she just wanted to run and hide. Very few people knew where it was.
The only piece of evidence that Clint could find was that Natasha was looking into someone named Nour Sohl. She hadn’t wiped her computer, something that rang alarm bells in Clint’s head because his partner was no rookie when it came to not leaving traces behind. Either Natasha was so frazzled that she made a simple mistake or she had wanted someone to find it.
Clint dug around in his partner’s laptop. He found that she was running DNA that matched to the woman she was researching. That gave Clint a good starting point.
He looked up prior addresses to Nour Sohl and went on his way.
“You were foolish,” Apepe smirked, circling around the body trying to catch its breath. “To pick a child as your vassal.”
“You were foolish…” Khonshu tried to gather himself up, small limbs burning with fatigue as the lungs struggled to inflate. “To pick a fight with my avatar.”
“You could have let her go,” Apep moved forward, grabbing a handful of white suit to yank him up to his feet. “Cut your ties. We could have worked something out. I wouldn’t have had to kill my avatar if you just let her have the stupid girl.”
“That is where you are wrong,” Khonshu gripped the wrist grabbing the suit, fingers tingling with power as he burned the flesh of his enemy’s vassal. “She is mine.”
“Do you usually get so attached to your playthings?” Apep shoved him away, grinning as Khonshu stared at the own damaged flesh on the hand he used. “You’re going to burn right through her body at this point. Just give in.”
Lightning cracked through the air, the smell of ozone burning as fresh skin slowly knitted together over burned tissue.
“I will die before you get my avatar,” Khonshu declared, righting himself as he shrugged off the pain and fatigue that he hadn’t felt in eons.
Apep let out a roar and they dashed toward each other once again. “Then die!”
Layla was indeed having second thoughts about her half-baked plan, not that she would let the Avenger in her living room know that.
A suicide mission. Layla was planning to go on a suicide mission for a kid she had known for less than a year.
That doesn’t change the fact that she loved Yelena like a sister. It was time for things to end. Layla only had to hope that after she died, if Yelena went with her, then they could be together on the other side.
She wondered if being dead hurt. She had never thought to ask Yelena whether she could still feel the hurt after dying in a painful way. Yelena never spoke about her deaths very much and Layla always felt it inappropriate to ask.
Would she see her father again? Would she have to pick an afterlife?
Would her heart even weigh on the Scales Of Justice?
Throughout her racing thoughts, Layla prayed, having burned one of Tawaret’s favorite muffins for her. She needed to get through to Tawaret, even though she loathed the thought of leaving Yelena alone in limbo.
“Layla?”
Layla jumped, opening her eyes to see Tawaret looming above her with concern in her eyes.
“I could feel your fear. You’re scared. What happened?” Tawaret fussed over her, looking for any injuries.
“The Council was no help,” Layla said, startling Natasha who whipped her head around to try and see Tawaret. “We must do things ourselves.”
“How is she?” Natasha stepped forward, her eyes raking the room for a figure she couldn’t see. “Is she alright?”
“Her body is having a hard time wielding the power of a God,” Tawaret answered although Natasha would not hear. “She is struggling.”
“Her God is fighting and it’s taking a toll on her body but she is alright,” Layla settled upon relaying to Natasha before turning her attention back to her Goddess. “I have a request to make of you.”
Tawaret’s face smoothed out into something akin to disappointment and Layla already knew that Tawaret was aware of what she would ask.
“I’m sorry,” Layla told her. She refused to be sorry about helping someone she cared about, for finally putting an end to things, but she was sorry that Tawaret would have to find another avatar so soon.
“You realize what you are asking of me?” Tawaret asked in an unusually somber tone.
“I do,” Layla inclined her head, staring down at her feet. “I thank you for graciously giving me the opportunity to serve you but this is something I must do.”
Tawaret’s hand settled on her shoulder. “I know,” she said softly. “That is why I will do it.”
Layla nodded her head slowly, taking a deep breath. “I, uh… suppose that I should get my things in order quickly. Just in case.”
Layla had to cling to that sliver of hope that she would make it out on the other side.
“I will be here when you are ready,” Tawaret assured her.
Clint recognized the broken door when he came across it. His heart sank into his stomach as he realized that someone had broken into the abandoned apartment complex a few blocks away from Nour Sohl’s apartment, albeit they had been careful. It was near the alleyway where her daughter had died and Clint figured that if any woman was going to go batshit crazy then they’d at least want to stay near the last place her daughter had been alive.
He jimmied the lock that was already broken to let him inside carefully. The first floor was clear and he could hear no sounds of anybody inside. However, there was a distinct smell of something metallic and foul.
He followed the scent down the stairs and nearly gagged at the sight, leaning against the wall to regain his balance.
There was a table with restraints on it, coated in congealed blood that was starting to crust and flake as it dried. There were knives spread along a tray and bloodied footprints tracking on the floor.
As Clint swallowed down nausea, he approached the tray and saw that there were a few fingernails and a tooth, all bloodied and with signs of being removed with force.
Someone had been tortured in the abandoned apartment right next to where a little girl had died.
He immediately started to look for signs of his partner, for any indication that she had ever been there. He hoped that she wanted to still be found.
“Don’t make me call in SHIELD,” Clint murmured to himself, praying that he would not have to report Natasha as going AWOL and possibly in danger. “I don’t wanna deal with the paperwork.”
Then he saw it. A small crack in the wall from being kicked.
Natasha had her own fair share of meltdowns over the years and Clint had seen her get frustrated enough to knock things over, slam her fist against tables, or even kick the wall in order to stop herself from homicidal tendencies.
SHIELD ordered special boots for their agents meant to protect their feet in rough conditions. They were steel-toed, with grips on the bottom for better traction in all terrains. Clint could easily recognize the crack of a steel-toed boot slammed against the wall a few times, having seen his friend do it enough at SHIELD that Maria set aside a small budget specifically to repair whatever Natasha breaks.
So Natasha was here at one point. Great! Where was she now?
Clint sighed and turned to look at the evidence.
He could put together a few clues, right?