A/N: Once again, I referenced the video at the end of the last chapter for preforming a stealth operation in whiteout conditions
Warning: past trauma, torture, mentions of brainwashing, blood, and gore.
Her
Natasha opens the front door and steps out of the shack, walking onto the porch and staring into the white nothingness surrounding them. By her calculations, the whiteout is at its peak and while this operation will be difficult, getting an advantage over Hydra has never been more important. The sooner the Avengers strike, the sooner they can take down the organization for good. She slides her thermal goggles over her eyes as Clint and Rhodey exit the shack. The men move to stand on either side of Natasha as they gaze out at the invisible landscape.
"Ready?" she asks.
"As we'll ever be," Rhodey responds.
Natasha nods despite knowing the other two won't be able to see the motion. She laces her fingers with Rhodey and Clint's before giving their hands a quick squeeze. "Don't let go of my hands—it's easy to get lost during one of these. We'll stick together until we reach the base. Agent Hill, can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear," she responds. "I'll scout ahead and let you know what's coming."
"Alright," Natasha says. She takes a quick breath before stepping off the porch and into the storm, with Rhodey and Clint matching her careful pace.
Despite what she implied to Pepper and the rest of the team, there was only one other time when Natasha was forced into conditions. She and Katerina had just finished a mission and were caught in a whiteout while trying to go to the extraction point. When the storm rolled in, their handlers radioed in for them to go to the nearest safe house and remain there until the weather cleared. They passed the time in the hidden cabin by talking about the mission, playing cards, and fucking. Natasha lost her virginity to Katerina and discovered that she enjoyed being with a woman as she does with a man.
She shakes her head in an attempt to clear her mind. Ever since she talked to Katerina last week, she's found her thoughts running back towards the past—a past she hasn't consciously thought of since the first trial. She licks her wind-chapped lips and briefly wonders what Russia has in store for her.
"Alright, you're just outside the base," Hill says after what feels like a year of walking.
Natasha looks up ahead and sees the rough outline of three buildings in addition to the heat signatures of several soldiers. She nudges Rhodey and the three of them move to duck behind a nearby rock.
"There are fourteen men in total—six snipers and eight foot soldiers," Hill says. "There are two snipers on each of the three buildings; the soldiers on the ground are patrolling in pairs. The buildings themselves are close enough that you can jump from one roof to the other if needed."
"Yeah, if you're Captain America," Clint mutters under his breath.
"I'll take care of the snipers and leave the soldiers on the ground to you," Hill says. After a few minutes, six silenced and precise shots are barely audible over the sound of the wind. "They're down."
Natasha carefully scans the perimeter. "We need to get to the roof of that building up ahead. We can use it as a vantage point to better observe the area and take out the rest.
"We move on three," Rhodey says before taking a brief pause. "Three."
Rhodey leads the way out of the cover, taking slow and precise movements. When they reach the building, he pauses in front of the ladder and looks around. "Natasha, you go up first," he says before letting go of her hand.
Natasha slips her fingers from Clint's before gripping the ladder in both hands and climbing up. She pokes her head over the edge of the roof and sees both snipers dead. Nat finishes her ascent and places her hand over the comms. "Guys, it's clear. Come up."
Clint and Rhodey join her on the roof after a few minutes. Together, they slowly lie flat on the surface and low crawl towards the opposite side, peering over the edge when they arrive. The group of three carefully watches the soldiers patrol, cataloging their positions and patterns.
"Is this a good spot?" Nat asks.
"Yeah; I'll be able to get clean shots if needed," the archer says.
Natasha hears the sound of a pistol's safety being taken off before Rhodey addresses her. "You ready to go down?"
"Ready spaghetti."
"Nat," Clint says with a groan. "That wasn't funny the first twelve times you said it."
"Yet, I can bet that you're smiling right now," she says while wearing a grin of her own. She reaches over and pats Clint on what she hopes is his back before turning around and crawling back to the ladder. Rhodey descends first and she follows when he says the area is clear. Once on the ground, she and Rhodey split up. He goes left and she goes right.
Natasha hugs the side of the building, crouched low and peeking her head around the corner when she reaches the edge watching as two soldiers walk away from her. She waits until they stop in front of a snow pile before making her move. Keeping low, she pulls out dual blades, twirling them around her fingers before clasping them tight in her hands. She slowly approaches the men remaining hidden in the whiteout while the two chatter in Russian. As soon as she's behind them she strikes, jumping on their backs and jamming her knives in their throats before they can scream. She gently eases back down to the ground, bringing the bodies with her. Nat wipes off her knives and sheaves them before moving the bodies to the side and carefully rearranging them under snow. When that's complete, she returns to the side of the building and calls it in.
"That's two down," Natasha says, her fingers hovering over one of her guns.
"Two are down for me as well," Rhodey announces.
"Alright, Rhodey there's two more guys ahead of you. Go forwards five feet and turn, they'll be on your left. Natasha, stay along the edge of the building and make a right. Follow the wall until you reach the other side and make a left—they'll be right in front of you," Clint informs.
Natasha lowers her hands from her comms and pulls out her knives again, following Clint's instructions until she reaches the other pair of soldiers. She moves the same as before, sneaking up on the soldiers before knifing them both in their throats. She wipes and sheaves her knives before hiding the bodies in a pair of trashcans nearby.
"My side is clear," Natasha says.
"Clear on my end," Rhodey says.
"The area is completely secured according to my scans," Hill states. "I'm going to contact the team and send them your status and location. In the meantime, rendezvous with Barton on the roof and remain there until the others arrive."
"Understood," Natasha says. She turns to leave when she sees something jutting out of the wall next to her. Upon closer inspection, she notes that it looks like some sort of power box. Removing the cover, she reveals a series of breakers, electrical wires, and USB ports. "Hey, I think I found a way to upload the flash drive. There's a power box outside one of the buildings with a USB port."
"Go ahead," Hill says.
Natasha reaches into her pocket and carefully pulls out the flash drive before sliding it into one of the ports. Even though the area is clear, Natasha glances around just to be safe. Some habits are hard to break.
"I have word from Fury that they're in the system," Hill says after a few moments.
"Natasha, I'm coming in on your three," Rhodey says. Seconds after he finishes speaking, he slowly comes around the side of the building, gun in hand clasped in his hands. He slides over and kneels next to Natasha, who is still crouched on the ground.
She smiles in greeting before realizing that he won't be able to see the gesture. "Nice of you to join me."
"My other plans fell through so I figured, why not."
Natasha's smile widens.
"Guys, this isn't a Hydra base," Hill says slowly and Natasha imagines the woman's brow is lowered in confusion as she tries to process what's in front of her. "This is Department X, specifically the Infamous Red Room."
Natasha's smile slowly turns into a dangerous smirk. She's going to enjoy this immensely.
"So, who are we dealing with exactly?" Pepper asks. The other three Avengers have just arrived on location and met up with Natasha, Rhodey, and Clint on the roof.
"Department X, the same people we dealt with during the first trial," Natasha explains. "Winter Soldier was the leader of the Spetsnaz until we rescued him. I have no doubt in my mind that Lukin has doubled, if not tripled, the amount of soldiers in his charge."
"So what do we do?" Bruce asks.
"The alarms for every building are all connected to the same system, which is a terrible idea," Hill interjects. "Well, terrible for them and excellent for us. Once the alarms are turned off, none of the buildings can call for assistance from the others."
"Clint and I will go into this building below us and disable the alarms," Natasha says. "The rest of you wait until for our signal. Once we call it in, eliminate the other two buildings in whatever way you see fit." She taps Clint, who is next to her, on the arm three times, which is their signal for starting the mission.
Once on the ground, it doesn't take the assassins long to get into base after slipping in through a back door. They immediately duck for cover behind a large crate nearby before scanning the area. There's a lone soldier standing at the end of the long hallway that leads into the depths of the base; Natasha doesn't see anyone with him, but she's not naïve to believe that he's alone in this corridor.
"Bruce, you got anything for us?" Clint asks over the comms.
"It looks like the control room is on the third level according to the schematics Fury sent me," Bruce says. "According to him, JARVIS has the cameras on a thirty second loop. From what I can see, there are about thirty soldiers between your current location and destination, but I wouldn't rule out the possibility of more.
Clint doesn't respond to Bruce, instead he looks over at Natasha. "You ready?"
Natasha nods her head before the pair cautiously makes their way through the base, taking care into memorizing the guard's routes so they can slip by without alerting any of them. There was one instance where they were passing by a sleeping guard with no cover around them when a loud banging noise that sounded like someone dropping something resonated throughout the structure. The assassins froze in place, hands hovering over their weapons as they watched the guard with slight panic, ready to move at a moment's notice.
By some miracle, he didn't wake up.
Once they left that room, they were able to make it to the control room without an incident. Clint locks the door while Natasha goes over to the keyboard and disables the alarms.
"It's done," she announces over the comms. "Attack the other two bases when you're ready."
The sounds of explosions cut through the silence of the base almost immediately after Natasha finishes speaking. She hums and turns to Clint who is grinning and staring at the monitors. After a few minutes of silence, she says, "You want to go down and say hi?"
"Aw, you remembered how much I love making an entrance," Clint says as his grin widens.
She follows Clint from the control room and they quickly take down the soldiers on the third floor. They walk over to the stairwell and peer over the edge, watching the soldiers move around on the floors below them. Clint loads an arrow into his bow and aims it towards the ground level. He fires the arrow into a group of soldiers on the second floor, smiling when the arrow explodes and knocks back several enemies. Nat pulls out her pistol and fires several rounds at the soldiers looking up in their direction, picking off the enemies before they can shout for help. When all the soldiers on the second floor are eliminated, she motions to Clint and they slowly move downstairs before implementing the same method on the first floor.
Natasha takes down the last soldier before seeing a blur move out of the corner of her eye. "Clint, there's a runner. Come on, we need to catch up with them. They might have Intel," she says before taking off down the stairs to her right. She and Clint chase the lone soldier into a nearby room, blocking the doorway and aiming their weapons at the person's back. "Put your hands in the air and turn around slowly."
The soldier wordlessly complies before turning around. Natasha tightens the grip on her pistol as she stares into familiar brown eyes. "Silvia."
The woman smirks. "Hello Natalia."
"You know her?" Clint asks, keeping his arrow pointed at the woman's head.
"Silvia Arent; she oversaw everyone's training, including mine," Natasha explains. "It was her job to make sure we were groomed to perfection.
"And now, I'm the Commander of the Spetsnaz," Silvia adds. "Someone had to take over after the Asset vanished. Pity though; it was such a good leader."
Natasha grits her teeth when Bucky is referenced as an object. She cocks her pistol and keeps it aimed at Silvia. "Where's Hydra?"
The woman frowns. "You're not in any position to be making demands—"
Natasha cuts the woman off by shooting her in the kneecap. Silvia screams and falls to the ground, covering her busted knee with her hands. Nat can feel Clint's eyes on her, but keeps her gaze on the woman lying on the ground. "And you're not in any position to refuse them. Now, tell me, where is Hydra?"
"Not here," Silvia says once she recovers her breath. She shakes her dark hair out of her eyes as she rips off a piece of her jacket sleeve and bunches the fabric over her knee to stop the bleeding. "Not in Russia. They're scattered around other parts of the globe."
"How many?"
Silvia mutters something under her breath.
Natasha responds by shooting her in the other knee, listening to the woman scream in agony. "I said how many?"
"I don't know! I don't fucking know!" the woman screams, eyes wild and panicked. "I'm not high enough to know that information. The only person who knows is Lukin. He's downstairs—in the basement."
Natasha's entire body goes rigid at the mention of Lukin, unable to process that the man who ruined everything is right here, right now. She can finally take him out and there's nothing that anyone else can do.
"That's all I know, I swear," Silvia says, voice breaking as she begins to cry.
Nat looks at the woman without seeing her. "Thank you for your cooperation," she says, tone void of all emotion before shooting Silvia right in between her eyes.
"Nat, are you sure this is a good idea?"
She pauses in her stride and turns to face Clint. "You don't have to come with me."
Clint looks offended for a brief second before he schools his expression. "You know you're stuck with me."
The corner of her mouth quirks upward. "I was hoping you'd say that."
Nat turns and continues navigating through the lower levels of the basement with Clint trailing behind her. It doesn't take long for the pair to reach the lowest basement level. A single door and several armed guards stand between her and Lukin. She and Clint make quick work of the soldiers without getting a single scratch. Natasha reloads her pistol and leads the way through the double doors, immediately freezing when she realizes where she is.
The laboratory is cold. Stainless steel tables are set in rows across two thirds of the room, which some type of machinery above each one. Cabinets filled with medical supplies line two of the four walls. On the other end of the room is a doorway that leads to what Natasha thinks is someone's office but that's not what she's focused on. There's a chair sitting in her direct line of vision a few feet away from the office, surrounded my machines and monitors and she can't shake the feeling that she's seen this somewhere before ("Wipe him and then place him in cryo. We'll deal with this in a few years," one of the scientists shouted before running past Natasha who was hiding in an air duct). Standing next to the chair is a man in a white lab coat, gray hair sticking up at every angle. The man has his back to them but Natasha would recognize him anywhere.
"Lukin," she growls in a low tone.
The man in question turns at his name, smirking when he spots Natasha and Clint on the other side of the room. He extends his arms in greeting. "Natalia . . ."
"My name is Natasha," she announces before crossing to the center of the room, stopping in between the rows of lab tables and glaring at Lukin through narrowed eyes.
Lukin hums as his arms fall back to his sides, looking between Natasha and Clint, who is still hovering by the doorway. He pursues his lips and tilts his head to the side in thought. "Where is the asset? I know he was last seen with you."
"He's dead," Natasha reveals without hesitation.
"That's impossible—you're lying," Lukin accuses, actually managing to look shocked. The Winter Soldier was the Red Room's greatest success—created by Karpov and handed down to Lukin.
"I may have been brought up to lie, but I am most certainly telling the truth," she responds. "I buried him myself."
Lukin opens his mouth to continuing speaking but hesitates. He's silent for a few minutes before another smirk crawls over his face. "Tell me, Natalia. Before he died, did he remember you?"
"That is none of your business," Natasha says too quickly, which gives Lukin his answer.
"Natalia, you know it had to be done. You tempted him."
"I made him human," Natasha bites out, her hands curling into fists, as she is unable to stop her past from pushing its way to the forefront of her mind.
Natasha grew up at this base. She and nine other candidates were to be trained by the greatest assassin known to humanity: The Winter Soldier. He taught her everything she knows and they worked brilliantly together, one of the best partnerships Department X had ever seen and it didn't take long for their relationship to shift from professional to personal. She loved him—more than ever loved anyone before . . . but he didn't remember.
She tried her best, but the Red Room was so thorough that even after Bucky gained his memories back, she was still a ghost that was never to be seen again. It's her fault—she should have never asked him to come with her to Budapest. He went with her, making it only to the border of the Soviet Union before they caught up with them. He told her to go on without him; she didn't want to but relented, hiding and watching Department X drag him back to the Red Room. For the longest time, she thought he was dead or worst. Then, the Avengers initiative happened and the rest is history so to speak.
Natasha forces herself out of her thoughts (Inhale. One . . . two . . . exhale). She glares at Lukin, who is wearing a self-satisfied smirk on his face that makes Natasha want to gut him. He's proud of what he's done—he's thrilled that he ruined hundreds of lives making and unmaking them, torturing them and forcing them into servitude until they are no longer required of use. In the history of the Red Room, only six people managed to escape. Six . . . out of hundreds. She curls her freehand into a fist, mind flashing over all the people she couldn't save: Dmitri, Ivan, Samora, Pax, Damien, Trii, Ava, Amora, Gal.
Bucky.
"Where's Hydra?" Nat demands after a few minutes of tensed silence.
Lukin spreads his arms wide again. "They're everywhere," he says gleefully. "Oh, they were so generous, Natalia. You should have heard the things they promised—they were going to help restore Department X to its former glory!"
"But, only once you handed over Winter Soldier, correct?" Natasha questions, barely managing to conceal a smirk.
His eye twitches before his entire face contorts into anger, mouth curling into a frown and beady eyes flashing with rage. He slowly reaches for something behind him without taking his eyes off Natasha. "Listen here, you bitch—"
Several gunshots ring out and Lukin is dead before he can hit the ground.