Prologue
For two months she had been on her own, unable to or unwilling to contact any of her former fractured team. On the run, hiding from Ross and the government, and avoiding as much contact with potential enemies as possible. Steve had found refuge, along with Sam, Clint, Bucky and Scott in Wakanda. Tony was using his tech to help Rhodey, while he worked on healing from his event in Siberia. Natasha knew all this, having kept tabs on them to make sure everyone was okay. But she did not belong with either side.
Longing for the team she used to have made it difficult for her to reach out. They were her family, or had been. The last words Tony had said to her still stung, despite how hard she tried to pretend they didn’t. She couldn’t be angry or even blame him for it, because she had betrayed him, and she knew he was hurt more than anyone.
It didn’t change the fear she felt when she thought he found her. He had told her to hide from Ross, but perhaps his anger would make him want to help Ross find her.
Years of teamwork, crashing down around her like rubble. Her family torn apart. She was in the wind, resorting to her old lifestyle to stay alive, moving from place to place, never settling. At times it seemed like she was constantly running, and there had been a few occasions where she had nearly been caught. A barely-healed gunshot wound to the hip throbbed at the reminder of one such close call, gunned down on a highway.
She had no backup. SHIELD could not help her, although she knew Fury was keeping tabs on her as best he could, trying to help. He had managed to get her medical treatment after she had been shot. He even managed to get her food supplies from time to time, during weeks where the government was practically guarding every store, food market, and food bank in the country. It was an achingly familiar feeling, one that she had not had to deal with for so long after Clint had saved her. Now it was back, and she was nothing, lost and alone and missing everyone she loved.
Pain in her heart. She had signed the accords, and then she had broken them. Her reasons for signing and breaking them were the same. To keep the team together. But Steve had been so stubborn, refusing to stop. People were getting hurt. Her team was getting hurt. So she let them go.
In her heart she knew she had no hope of stopping two super soldiers, despite her skills in combat and widow bites. Both of them resisted the effects of electricity, and while she was more skilled tactically, they had the stamina, regeneration, and strength to easily defend themselves. Bucky had done it several times already, although only as the Winter Soldier. With T’Challa, she probably could have stopped them. But at what cost?
She had thought it would be worth it. But seeing the pain of her betrayal on Tony, followed by what happened in Siberia, she wasn’t so sure that it had been. He was right to hate her. The rest were right to leave her behind.
Who could ever trust a spy?
Footsteps on the roof, soft and quick. She jolted up right in an instant, on her feet, gun raised and ready. They had found her, again. Natasha cursed herself for staying still for so long, wishing she had another week or two for her injury to heal so she could at least lose the limp. She moved, her dark suit allowing her to blend into the shadows of the warehouse she had been camping. It was night, and there was no electricity in the building. It wouldn’t matter, as the agents likely were wearing night vision gear.
She moved quickly, ignoring the pain in her hip. Her eyes were well adjusted to the dark, and easily spotted the movement to her right. She ducked, fired, and one agent went down with a yell. She ran.
Quick, efficient. Upstairs two agents screamed as they stumbled into her electricity trap, tumbling to the ground. The front door exploded inward, triggering the smoke bomb at the entrance that flooded the air full of dust and debris. She ducked to avoid randomly fired bullets from semi-automatic weapons, and lunged through a window she had smashed before hand just in case. The other section of the warehouse seemed empty, until someone stepped out in front of her. She dropped, skidding across the floor on her knees before jolting upward, ramming one leg into the agent’s groin, before punching him viciously in the throat. The man gagged, and she shoved him out of the way.
She ducked to avoid a baton, using her good leg to hook another attacker’s legs from beneath him. She propelled herself down, forcing him to crack his head against the floor from her added weight. Up, move, run.
Her hip throbbed in tune with her heart beat.
Men were screaming all around her. Bullets were flying by. She was almost out of the building, out the secret exit she had crafted for herself. Something suddenly fell on her, heavy and feeling like webbing. It tangled up in her legs and she pitched forward, tumbling to the ground. They had dropped a net on her, she realized.
Before she could even move to cut it open with her knife, it crackled to life, and her body seized with pain. Electricity flooded through the net, pouring into her body at every point of contact – and there were many, considering how she was tangled all through it. Her teeth smacked together painfully as she bit back a yell of pain, and she writhed in agony on the metal floor as the electricity continued to assault her, unyielding. Somewhere, through the haze of pain floating before her eyes, she saw a man raising a gun to her.
He fired. A pellet burned into her shoulder, and then there was even more electricity. It was a taser, crippling her in agony even as she thrashed in pain from the electric net. Her heart was racing under the strain of all the currents flowing through her, and she couldn’t hold back a pained cry, biting her own tongue in her efforts to remain silent.
“Sir, we have her. She is being neutralized,” a voice spoke, loud and clear near her ear as the burn of electricity chased her into darkness.
2 Months Later:
Tony greeted Ross with the bare minimum amount of professionalism as he stepped onto the Raft, having remembered his last, no so pleasant visit here. Of course, it had been slightly redecorated since then, with Steve having broken all of his team out. Tony had not admitted to anyone that he had been relieved to hear that news, because in spite of everything that happened, he couldn’t feel happy about them living in what was practically a cage. Especially Wanda, forced into a collar and straight jacket with a glazed look in her eyes that spoke of heavy amounts of drugs being pumped into her blood stream. He had wanted, when he had seen that, to say something then and there. But his relationship with Ross was shaky to start with, and if he ended up thrown onto the Raft? He couldn’t help anyone. Normally he would doubt anyone would be able to do that to him, but having signed his life away to the Accords, something he was really regretting.
It sounded good at the time. But it tied his hands real tight when he saw something going on that he didn’t like.
Ross had called him over to look at some prototype containment fields, designed to create a kind of ‘barrier’ that would be useful in decreasing collateral damage during avengers-related conflicts. It sounded good on paper, but Tony knew that explanation of use was a load of shit. He knew they were being designed to capture Cap and his team.
He couldn’t say no. But maybe, just maybe, he could make some modification that would prevent them from causing real pain to a target. Ross didn’t care about the damage he caused to ‘freaks’, as he called them.
Tony was really hating Ross. Hindsight was not only 20/20, but it was seriously biting him in the ass these days.
“Glad to see you made it, Mr. Stark,” Ross said in a tone that suggested he didn’t care at all if Tony made it or not. Tony knew Ross knew that Tony hated him. And he was perfectly okay with that. Ross had him on a leash, like a tamed mutt, and everyone knew it.
“So what presents you got to show me?” Tony asked, getting straight to it. The sooner he checked them out, the sooner he could get off this shitty floating prison and away from a place that likely had tormented someone he cared – or used to care – about.
As he was led through the Raft, his gaze traveled to the cells… or… a cell, to be exact. He paused, not having expected there to be anyone here. The person was huddled up on the floor, wrists bound in front of them, ankles bound together. They had a sack over their head, loosely tied around the throat to prevent them from pulling it off themselves. He could tell that the person was female based on the body shape, but the sack hid all distinguishing features, even the hair color. A knot of anxiety built in him. This was wrong. Something was wrong.
“Who is that?” He asked, trying to sound curious but unconcerned.
Ross glanced over, almost looking surprised to see who he was looking at. “Oh, that’s an enhanced we found causing havoc in a few countries. She has some annoying abilities that we are trying to counter so we can remove all those bindings. Make her more comfortable, when it’s safe to do so,” Ross said, sounding almost sympathetic. Tony could tell he was full of shit.
He didn’t like this at all. No one deserved to be left like that. Bound, blinded, unable to understand what was going on around them.
He glanced over again, realizing that the person had shifted slightly, head tilted towards him. She was trembling, faintly, and whether it was due to fear, exhaustion, or being cold, he wasn’t sure. Troubled, he looked back at Ross who was waiting for him, disinterested.
“Surely there’s a better way to keep someone contained than that,” Tony said mildly, even though his heart was pounding uncomfortably, and he was getting more nervous and angry by the second.
Ross sighed. “I know you don’t condone this kind of thing. But she had taken down over a dozen guards when we brought her in, and nearly escaped twice. After one of my agents was killed trying to stop her we had to step up the restraint,” he said. Tony frowned. Ross was watching him closely now, too closely. Almost studying him. Tony knew he had to act his part.
“I guess someone that dangerous is best left in here,” he said, trying to sound callous. He didn’t miss the way the woman in the cell slumped at his words. The sense of wrongness was brutal, now.
For the next hours he went over the gadgets, testing them out, tweaking them slightly, and making recommendations that were often ignored or shut down entirely. He could not stop thinking about the woman in the cell. There was simply something familiar about her. When he left, he took one final look, and his stomach practically dropped to the floor.
That small form, with a lithe, cat-like body he had seen in many combat situations again and again. She was very thin now, having lost muscle in her captivity, but he knew her.
It was Romanoff.
Four hours later, Tony was back in his tower, trying not to hyperventilate to a worried Rhodey about what he saw. The last time he had seen her, it had been telling her that being a double agent was in her blood, and seeing her reaction – barely a reaction, but enough of one that he had known it had hurt deep. Too hurt himself and too angry to take it back. Then she had gone, disappearing like a shadow, her scathing anger only adding to his guilt.
Rhodey’s expression went from panicked to concerned and then to angry as he finally understood what Tony was saying.
“What the fuck?” Was all he said.
Tony reached for the phone. He couldn’t do this alone, and as much as he didn’t want to call or see them right now, he knew he needed them. Because the only thing that was going to save Natasha was her team.
Tony dialed the number, knowing it was time to get the Avengers back together. He wasn't sure he was ready to see them, but the life of Natasha was more important than his own comfort and feelings.