2 Days ago….
"Agent Barton, we have a mission for you." Director Fury handed him a file.
"The Black Widow Sir?" Clint opened and began to read her file. What he read shocked him. The girl was only sixteen years old and had already killed over 200 people. That included men, women, and children. It looked like the Red Room had control of everything Natalia did, but that didn't excuse her not making the choice to walk away, run away, anything else.
Barton thought back to his own childhood. He knew it was seriously messed up, but even after his parents died, he had Barney for a couple years while they were in the circus.
"Will that be a problem Barton?" Fury asked eyeing him, trying to gauge one of his best agent's reactions to the new mission.
"Has any prior surveillance on her been done?"
"Yes, actually" Phil Coulson adds in.
"Our information tells us that she will be attending a gala in Russia 2 days from now. Rumor has it that she is planning the murder of an American diplomat, Justin Roth. He holds some very interesting information about the Russians and their training programs that have been in place since before the Cold War. We need to have her taken out; the longer she's out there, the more potential risk she is to us and the rest of the world." Coulson finished with his usual air of authority.
"When do we ship out?"
"0400 hours tomorrow morning" Fury responded. Barton and Coulson began to leave when the Director spoke up again.
"Oh, and Barton?"
"Yes?" Clint responded in his usual cocky tone that almost every authority figure on the base had grown used to.
"Try not to let her kill you; you're our best agent at the moment." Fury said in place of a goodbye.
Coulson knew better. He could tell that Fury was very worried for Barton. The council assigned it to him, despite his young age and short time in SHIELD. This girl was no amateur. She has been a trained assassin almost her whole life. SHIELD also had Intel that was cause to suspect that she was injected with some sort of super soldier-like serum.
After they left the office, Clint turned to Phil,
"I'm going to go pack my stuff, see you in the morning, Phil"
"Please TRY to get some sleep tonight Barton, don't be in the gym all night"
"Okay MOM" He responded before promptly removing an air vent cover and hopping inside. He was heading for SHIELD's armory. One of the head developers had apparently come up with some new arrowheads for him to try.
Phil Coulson walked away, deep in thought. He didn't know how the kid was so relaxed right now. This mission would be the single most dangerous one he's ever been on. Slight anger and annoyance at the kid was how Phil coped with Clint being sent out on missions like this. If he didn't, he would worry himself sick on a regular basis.
Clint stayed up in the gym all night, working out his own personal demons that haunted his nightmares, before collapsing into his bed at 2:30am. But he wasn't the only one who didn't sleep much that night. In a room across the Helicarrier, Phil Coulson could only fall asleep for 30 minutes at a time, worry ever present in his brain.
0400 hours the next morning
"But Coulson…." Clint Barton complained when his handler refused to let him have an 8th cup of coffee.
"It is not my fault that you kept yourself awake until all hours of the night in the gym. But I will not have you bouncing off the walls of this Quinjet in an hour because someone decided to drink 8 cups of coffee with extra sugar!" Phil exclaimed, slightly annoyed, yet also amused at the archer. That kid and his coffee were bonded at the hip. Without it, Barton would become unusually whiney.
Clint scowled and gave Coulson the finger.
"Hey! I have seen that finger a few too many times this week for my liking."
"Wanna see the other?" Barton half-jokes.
"Wanna see probation with suspension from field duty?" Phil threatened.
"Bastard. You wouldn't dare. Fury, you, and almost everyone else on base know that suspending me from field duty is a bad idea. " Barton stated matter-of-factly with a smirk on his face as the Quinjet took off. Everyone knew he would just end up messing with the Junior Agents. Probation is the worst torture SHIELD could ever think up. Because he becomes so bored, probation for him means pranking the Junior Agents and getting them yelled at by Maria Hill. And boy did that woman have a set of lungs on her. The Junior Agents practically pee themselves any time they mess up an order, and then don't fix it, which is what gets Hill pissed.
In short, messing with the Junior Agents was always guaranteed to be entertaining.
Clint Barton pulled out his IPod, plugged his headphones in, and prepared to get some sleep. He always did sleep better on flights. He soon fell asleep, mentally preparing for the tough mission ahead.
Many, Many hours later…
By the time they had landed on the S.H.I.E.L.D. base just outside of Moscow, it was already 7pm. A well rested Clint Barton and his weary-from-worry handler stepped off the Quinjet and onto the runway. A SHIELD issued car was already waiting for them, and after unloading their things from the jet, they immediately packed it back up into the back of the car. Easily snatching the keys from the Agent sent to greet them, Clint looked over his shoulder at Coulson.
"I'm driving."
"Like hell. Give me the keys, Barton."
"Nope." Barton answered while getting into the car, adding emphasis on the P, producing a pop at the end of the word. At that point, Coulson gave up, allowing Barton to do whatever he wanted. With this mission ahead, the kid deserved a break.
Once they arrived at the SHIELD safe house an hour later, both Agent and handler needed their rest. The flight had absolutely exhausted both of them. Tomorrow was the gala, and Barton would need to be at his best. After a long, hot shower, Clint flopped down into bed wearing only a pair of sweatpants, and quickly fell into a dreamless sleep.
The day of the gala…
Natalia Romanov wasn't the only one going over weapons and getting ready for their mission. Across the city from her, Clint Barton was being tossed a garment bag from the person in charge of his wardrobe for the mission that evening. When he unzipped the bag, Barton pulled out his tactical vest, cargo pants, combat boots, and damn, Coulson even remembered to pack his wool socks which would be perfect for a mission in the chilly night air. After strapping a gun to his hip and ankle, and hiding about 5 different knives on his person, Clint pulled his favorite weapon out of his bag of gear. Admiring how it had been freshly cleaned, he swung his quiver of arrows onto his back, the bow soon following.
In a final pre-mission ritual, both Barton and Coulson put their com links in and synced them with each other so that they would have constant communication during the mission.
"Be careful out there Barton." Coulson shot one last worried glance at the archer as Clint pulled out of the driveway of the safe house and headed towards what would be one of his two vantage points for the evening.
When Barton arrived a block away from his first perch, which would be on the rooftop of a building across from the gala, he hid his car in an alley and climbed up the fire escape. He figured that taking the rooftops would be less conspicuous than walking on the ground in his current attire.
Barton's Intel had said that the Black Widow was always fashionably late to big parties. She just loved making her entrances that never failed to make many jaws to drop at her beauty. And she was beautiful, Clint couldn't deny that. But she was also incredibly deadly.
While thinking, Barton also kept a close eye on the entrance to the gala. Even if he couldn't shoot her in the front walkway area, he wanted to have some sort of idea of how she acted around people, god forbid he should have to confront her in a hand-to-hand fight. His skills were excellent, but there was no denying that hers were better.
And then as someone stepped out of a car, he saw a brilliant flash of red. Well damn her hair was bright. Natalia tossed her keys to the Valet worker who could only stare in awe. She easily slipped security, and was soon out of Clint's sight.
All he could do was wait for her to leave with Roth and then follow her to whatever hotel Roth was staying in and hopefully kill her in an alley on the way there before she killed the diplomat.
Keeping his eyes trained on the door, he soon saw Justin Roth arrive.
"Roth has arrived, keep you posted, Phil"
"Copy that Hawkeye" Phil responded quickly, anxious for Clint to just finish the mission and get back.
Soon, both the Widow and Roth were out of his line of sight. After waiting for 30 minutes, he began to worry that he had missed them leave. She must have taken the back door out of the gala and taken a taxi to the hotel. He quickly arrived at his next position on a roof overlooking an alley right outside the hotel that Roth was staying at. Barton was mentally kicking himself for letting her get away with Roth.
"Goddamn it" Barton said into his com.
"What happened? Hawkeye report." Phil responded, worry evident in his tone.
"She snuck out the back with Roth, I'm at the next point by the hotel, but chances are she's finishing her dirty work now." Coulson could clearly hear the self-loathing evident in the archers tone.
"Not your fault Clint, continue to keep me updated."
Soon after their conversation took place, a familiar red head walked out the door in what appeared to be Roth's coat. If killing wasn't enough, now she had to steal from the guy too? Watching her with his hawk-like eyes, he watched her shiver from the cold, and upon closer analysis of her face, it appeared the Widow was seconds away from having a mental breakdown.
Seeing her enter the alley, Hawkeye noched an arrow back, ready to fire when all the sudden, the ice-cold Black Widow collapsed on the ground in what looked like a poorly held together ball, trying to get a grip. This was unheard of. A deadly assassin acting like this? 'Well someone obviously does have some sort of feelings and guilt in their soul' he thought.
At the start of the mission, Clint Barton had planned on killing this girl without a second thought, but now, he wasn't so sure. He saw her uncontrollably shaking and in a brief moment of insanity, he said words he never expected to come out of his mouth on this mission.
"Coulson, change of plans. I'm bringing her in. Meet me with an evac team here in twenty minutes, Hawkeye out." Barton stated, turning off his com link before Phil could reply.
And without another word, he silently dropped to the ground.