He leans against the ropes binding him to the chair. "She's not worth anything, she's a new SHIELD agent. I brought her with me because-" Wham.
His mouth fills with blood and as his vision clears he can see Natasha across the room. She's tied with her arms above her head, her dislocated shoulder hanging at an impossible angle. He's not sure that arm isn't broken, now he thought about it. She's covered in blood- it matches her hair. Or maybe her hair's bloody too. He doesn't know anymore.
The man working on Natasha pulls her drooping head up by the hair. "I think she's worth much more than you say. The famous Hawkeye doesn't run with amateurs. Besides, I recognize this one. The Black Widow. Never thought I'd see you again." Natasha glares at him. "Go to hell." He smiles, and the grin is full of hatred. "I'm sure that the famous Black Widow will be a hard nut to crack. It's a good thing I like a challenge." She continues staring with her trademark Natasha glare, and he withers a little bit, and then realizes she was still chained up. He laughed. "You can do nothing, for all of your bravado. And I have a sneaky suspicion that your friend over there will do anything to save you. So, what'll it be?" He glanced at Clint, and then looked back at Natasha. Clint stared hard at Natasha, who subtly shakes her head.
"No."
"I'm sorry, I don't think I heard that correctly." The man was puffing up, he was sure Clint would tell him everything. "I said no. You don't think I'm hard to crack? Try me."
"Alright. I will." The man dropped Tasha's head and walked to the door. "You can come in now." Another man walked in, this one looking much more sinister. "Hawkeye and Black Widow. What a pleasant surprise. Now, I know your names, you reputation proceeds you I am afraid, but you do not know me. I am Alexander Drakov, and this is my friend, Sergei. " Natasha stiffened noticeably. Drakov noticed too, and his smile grew wider. "Yes, I thought you might remember me, Natalia. We met, once upon a time. But that's all ancient history. We would like some information, and it will be much easier for all parties concerned if you just cooperate."
"Like hell." Natasha was quiet, but the words were spat out with such fury that you couldn't help but hear them. "I was almost hoping you'd say that. I do owe you a fall, my dear." Clint looked back at Natasha, who looked murderous. She was glaring with such intensity at the two men that they stepped back a little. "You owe me a fall, Alexander Drakov? Your daughter was owed a fall. She was the one-" Drakov slapped her. "You will not speak about my daughter like that- you were the cause of her death-" Natasha looked up at him and spit blood from her mouth, hitting him in the face. "You'll pay for that, you little-" Alexander raised a hand to stop Sergei. He used a white handkerchief to clean his face off, it came away red. He turned away from Natasha.
"So, Hawkeye, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind answering a few of my questions? I've seen your partner in action; I know she doesn't crack easily. But you, you are a different story. You would do a lot to protect her." Clint clenched his jaw. "I'm not telling you anything. Pound sand." Natasha grins at him, her teeth stained red. Alexander shrugs, and nods to Sergei. He pulls out a jug of water and forces Natasha's head back, slapping a towel over her nose and mouth. The water begins to pour and Natasha's back arches, instinctively trying to get away from what's drowning her. After about 10 seconds, Sergei stops and lets go of her head. It falls forward as she coughs, spewing water out of her lungs. She coughs for forever, and then takes a deep breath.
"Waterboarding, Sergei?" She gasps, her breath short. "Amateur." Clint laughs out loud at that. Sergei swells up, looking extremely indignant. Clint files away that he's easily insulted. Sergei tries again, poring water over her head, this time for longer. She coughs and flinches away when it's over, but other than that, makes no response. Alexander chuckles. "Sergei, my friend, you'll just have to be creative now, won't you?" Sergei nods, and pulls out a knife.
Two hours later, Natasha is laughing through her screams, telling Sergei over and over again that he's an incompetent interrogator. Her body is bruised and cut and beaten. Clint is sure he heard a few cracks, which means broken bones. They have a running tally of who's broken the most. He used to be ahead. Not anymore, if he counted correctly. Natasha spits more blood out of her mouth and coughs some more. Punctured lung? He's praying that SHIELD gets there soon, that Stark and Steve can get there. Thor isn't on Earth, Banner is off somewhere helping SHIELD with a nuclear problem, but Stark and Steve can come, they can rescue them.
He's just been asked a question. His response is what it has been this whole time: "Screw you." He's been opting for different variations, but he's mostly just praying that they start in on him soon. Anything to get them off Natasha. He's been backhanded and kicked a couple times, but nothing like this systematic sadistic torture. What he's gotten out of Alexander Drakov's words so far is that his daughter was running a terrorist network along with him, and that someone had taken out a contract on her to get back at him. Natasha had filled the contract before she worked for SHIELD. Clint got the gist. This wasn't just because they were both terrorist's dreams, not that Natasha had dirt on every single government in the world, oh no. For Alexander Drakov, this was very personal.
After another three hours, Natasha isn't laughing. She's mostly unconscious, her blood pooling on the floor. Clint assumes she's too dehydrated or has lost too much blood to form proper words, because her insults were slurred, her words choppy and unrecognizable. He'd broken a while ago, done with the torture and watching her suffer. He'd offered to tell them anything they wanted, screamed at Natasha to crack and spill the secrets only she knew. She had shaken her head at him, told him not to talk, and so he'd shut up. If he could do nothing less, he was going to listen to his partner. Especially if this was her last request.
It was another hour of this. At least half of that time was focused on him; Natasha was too out of it for them to get anything from her. She was floating from conscious to unconscious, and unconsciousness hurt a lot less. Clint yelled as they worked on him, but he remained with his earlier conviction of 'Screw you', which didn't go over very well. After the second 'fuck off' there were gunshots from outside. Drakov motions to Sergei to go check it out, giving Clint a respite.
"So Hawkeye, you get a break. Your girlfriend didn't quite live up to her reputation…the famous Black Widow. I'd be surprised if she doesn't crack soon." Clint says nothing, breathing heavily through the pain. He grins at Drakov. "I wonder where your henchmen has gotten to- shouldn't he have been back by now?" Clint was positive by now that it was a recovery team. Come on guys…hurry up. Drakov stands, and opens the door.