I'm sorry I'm a terrible author and wrote this terribly. I hope I get the point across anyway though.
"Been wondering when you'd show up." Hunter Ribner replied calmly from wear he was pinned to his car, pistol held up to his forehead. "A little later than I expected Barton, girl begging you not to leave her again?"
Clint pulled to gun away and threw a quick right cross the the man's jaw, sending him to the ground of the parking lot. His expression was cold, unreadable, but his eyes were filled with pure hatred.
"I always though you were the kind of man who likes to make it slow, not just a bullet to the brain." Ribner laughed maniacally, as if he enjoyed the pain. "Guess I shouldn't get my hopes up, my guess is that she isn't dead?" He laughed again when Clint picked him up by the hair, slamming his back against the car. "Oh no, I'd be getting it much worse than some stares and a beat down. Lets get this over with, shall we?"
Minutes later, Ribner was on the ground, spitting up blood with bruises quickly forming all over his body, he laughed when Clint picked him up again and he heard his own bones creak in pain.
"You're insane." Clint spat in his ear as he turned him around, holding a knife to Ribner's throat.
"Probably true, by your standards." He huffed between the breaths and laughs. "But you have no idea, do you?"
Clint threw him on the ground again, putting the gun against the man's temple once more. "What?"
"Ah, of course you don't know. The fact you came after me at all should have have it away." Ribner stated as if it was the silliest thing he's ever done.
The butt of the pistol slamming against his temple had him reeling for a few moments, before continuing. "You think word didn't get out about the Widow? You think a high class martyr like her could just disappear for a year and a half and no one would notice?
"Oh no, programs were keeping tabs on you two, the Red Room eying your girl. Now don't shoot the messenger, but the first step is to break the kid. I assume I filled my part in that?" He hissed in pain before laughing again when a bullet skimmed his forehead. "Yeah, What am I saying? Shoot me all you want Barton, ain't gonna stop RR."
The archer grabbed the spy by his collar and hoisted him up so they were face to face, his feet dragging on the pavement. "Where are they?"
"You won't like what you find there Hawk."
"I don't care." He pushed Ribner against the side of the car once more, tightening a hand around his throat. "Now where. Is. The base."
"Fine, fine I'll tell you, I'm dead anyway." The insane man laughed another time. "Moscow. Russia. Middle of the city, hiding in plain sight."
Clint grinned evilly before quickly taking out the blade again, slashing the Russian's throat. The archer didn't spare a glance back as he bled out, already planning his flight to Russia.
"это он покорил?" (Is he subdued?)
"It does not matter." A large Russian man told one of his guards, his English heavily accented. "Hawkeye, is not going anywhere."
The base in Moscow was surprisingly easy to sneak his way into, Clint's original plan just to blow it all to hell quickly went to the pit itself when the blond found himself out numbered by nearly hundreds of men and women. The archer was taken to a small, dark room, hands cuffed behind his back and a single light bulb shining over his head from where he sat in a wooden chair, two guards standing beside him.
"Now why would you expect me to do that?" He asked his rather intimidating captor, a large cocky grin spread over his face.
The main Russian mimicked his expression, leaning his face close to Clint's. "You want to know why Ribner just gave up so easily. You want to know why we sent an agent who would talk just because he was about to die. And more importantly." He straightened his posture and his smirk quickly faded away. "You would like to know how we found you and your children."
Clint's smirk faded away, his expression cold and unreadable while he stayed silent through his captors rant.
"Tell me, Clint Barton. How exactly did your lover die?" The archer stiffened in his chair, the mention of Natasha's past relation to the Red Room had him suddenly curious at why they were bringing her up now. "A sudden car crash from a drunk? Hawkeye, I heard you were in great despair at her death, but are you really so blind to not realize what actually happened?" He tilted his head and the smirk was back. "For gods sake, the impact came from the passengers side. Any ordinary person could have survived that with only a few bumps and bruises."
"I buried her." Clint spat at the standing Russian, refusing to believe his words.
"You buried a fake."
"And how do you know?" Clint's eyes met his captor's, the question burning with anger and laced in hatred.
The man tilted his head back a bellowed out a laugh. "You think we really just let her walk away all those years ago? Just because of one man with an outstretched hand told her it would be safe?" His tone instantly took a dark turn. "You think that an assassin with her abilities and experience would go into SHIELD with blind faith?
"Barton, Barton. It was never real! You were just another man blinded by her beauty! She played you like all the others." He smiled wider and turned towards the door. "Leave boys, Natalia would like to have a few words with the hawk." The three marched out the door, leaving Clint in the chair.
And Natasha behind him.
"Why?" Clint didn't turn his head to face the woman.
"I'm sorry Clint." Natasha's tone was soft and secretly full of despair. She closed her eyes, not moving in front of him, she couldn't face him.
"I asked you why!" His head snapped down to his chest, facing slightly to the left so his eyes could peek over his shoulder. "All ten years was just a lie? I was just another target to you?"
"Clint, it was not a lie." She said more steadily than she felt.
"Then why are you standing here while your kids think you're dead! While they think you loved them and actually cared! If this isn't a lie, why are either of us here at all!" The questions were not questions, they were commands.
"I tried to get out of this!" Natasha snapped back him, eyes wide open and in danger of gathering moisture. "It was just a con at first, trust me I just wanted to get I over with. But Clint you showed me something, what it felt like to do something good. Then the New York happened and I-" She paused a took a breath. "I started to do something I was trained my whole life not to do. I was falling in love with my target." She stopped again, giving Clint the chance to say something. Natasha knew he wouldn't take it.
"When I didn't report back one month a few years ago they sent an agent in. I told him that I was done him everything. He told me that it was either kill you, or the new batch of kids they brought into the program." She finally stepped out of the shadows and in front of Clint, he didn't make eye contact. "They knew I had changed. They knew I wouldn't choose so they have me an offer. You live, the kids live, I get to stay where I was, if I give them a girl with the power of the worlds greatest assassins."
"And Phillip?" Clint asked, eyes trained on the floor.
"They weren't happy. They made me find out gender after I already told you we wouldn't. A few weeks before he was born, the Red Room set up a mark. You remember those weapons dealers? In Africa?"
Clint didn't answer. He kept his eyes in the floor, letting the info sink in.
"That was my punishment. And a warning." Her eyes fell ever so slightly. "So I was forced to try again. When Amelia was born I fell in love with her, and when she was five RR told me to hand her over. She was ready to enter the program. When I refused," she swallowed thickly, keeping tears at bay. "they set up the crash, I fell unconscious on impact. They drugged me up and brought me back, said it was me or Amelia."
There was a long pause until Clint finally looked at her and spoke gently. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"They would have found a way to kill you."
"What about Ribner?"
"I disobeyed an order. They got mad."
"Who even is they?" He needed a name now, of course.
"Viktor, Erickson, other people who run the Red Room."
"We can stop them. Natasha we can stop this whole thing. SHIELD-"
"SHIELD is not as strong as they think they are. Traitors walk through the base every day."
"Natasha, we can stop them. Please. You can come home." Desperation leaked it's way into Clint's voice.
"I can't." She choked out, water slowly leaking out of her eyes. "But you have to go." Natasha quickly wiped a hand across her face and went back behind the chair. She started to unlock the handcuffs restraining Clint.
"What are you doing?" He asked as the cuffs came off and she pulled him up from the chair. They heard voices from the outside of the door, their time was up. Natasha dragged the chair in front of the handle.
"I'm disobeying again." She headed towards the back of the room and opening a vent cover. She took out a gun from the strap on her thigh and held it out to him. "You are escaping."
Clint didn't move. "Not without you."
"Yes without me." Natasha pointed the gun to her own side and fired before Clint could stop her. With a gasp she slid down the wall onto the floor, breathing heavily.
"Nat!" Clint leaned down beside her. "What the hell, Natasha. You're such an idiot."
She outstretched her hand to the side of his face. "I'm making a different call."
"You don't have to die. We can make it." He begged her. It was useless, of course. With all the shit that she just tore open. Every memory of them racing through his head. Clint loved this woman, even after everything. One of the biggest betrayals he would ever experience, she still managed to get his heart. He would not give up on her.
"Clint. They can't hurt me anymore. Go, I am free. I love you." Her eyes slid closed as she expelled a last breath. Her hand slid down from Clint's face.
"I love you."
When the other Russian men finally broke through the door. The archer was gone, the Black Widow dead on the floor.
No other soul knew what had been said in that cell.
