A/N: Well well, happy Thanksgiving/Black Friday you guys! This is the weekend of stories even though I'm totally behind on what I aspired to get done—we'll just see how it goes. I've been in Tennessee all weekend enjoying time with my family and I hope that you guys have been doing the same. But now it's time to spend time with my otherfamily, and you can maybe guess who that is. Thank you again for all of your reviews, I'm so glad you guys are still interested in this story. I know it's not as action-packed right now but it'll get there, I promise. We're still building up to the real good stuff. It means a lot that you guys still care about this little thing. The plan is to update this today, Paper Stars on my Tumblr tomorrow (it's a Rennerson story, check it out, you may love it, who knows) and maybe a special something heading your way on Sunday? Who knows. In the mean time, enjoy. :)


Chapter Seven: Knowledge is Power (and Danger)

Katniss had numbly walked into the house with Natasha on her heels, able to feel the daggers she was shooting right in her back. Tony was shouting out obscenities as he flew around the house like a whirlwind, trying to get himself together before they took off. Clint and Steve were nowhere in sight as Katniss watched Tony dart around as though he was a chicken with his head cut off. He was going out of his mind and Katniss could do nothing but stand there frozen, being an onlooker. She felt a dainty hand land on her shoulder, Natasha's low voice in her ear. "Go downstairs to Tony's lab and wait for me," she instructed. Katniss didn't move. Again, Natasha leaned in. "Now."

Something in Katniss began to will her feet forward, moving like a zombie towards Tony's lab. All she could think of was Tony's face and the sheer anger in his voice after Natasha had said Happy's name. Katniss wanted to know what had happened to Happy; what Natasha had meant by on site or what the damage done by the explosion was, but it wasn't like she was going to get any type of answers. Instead, she just kept adding on to the list of questions that was steadily growing at this rate.

Making it inside of Tony's lab, the glass doors closed behind her as she looked around. The lab was messier than his one back at home in Avengers Tower; parts and tools were scattered everywhere amidst food trash and crumpled up pieces of paper. Katniss could tell that each of the pieces went to another Iron Man suit, and she wondered just how many additions he'd made to the Mark. Chances are, the number would surprise her, and she had high expectations.

Katniss began to wander through the lab, her hand running over some of the lab tables and different pieces Tony had manufactured. No wonder that he was losing so much sleep; he had been working on so much and there seemed to be no end goal in sight. Biting her lip and frowning in disapproval, she shook her head at the thought of Tony losing all his sleep over something as simple as this. New York had done him in in so many different ways, beyond her imagination's worth and it was clearly not getting better. She was so lost in thought fretting over Tony's wellbeing that she almost didn't hear the sound of the doors sliding open once again.

She turned around right as she caught sight of Natasha approaching, her face in a deadest expression. "I—" Katniss started, but she never finished.

Natasha knocked the words right out of her mouth as both her hands wrapped around Katniss' arms, slamming her against one of the lab tables forcefully. Pieces and tools clattered straight to the ground, Natasha's fingernails digging into skin. "What the hell is wrong with you?" she hissed between her clenched teeth, rattling Katniss again for emphasis. "First you explode this morning for no damn reason, then you're about to tear Steve a new one for so much as speaking to you? I know that I might not be the most pleasant person ever but you sure are making your way on up the list."

"Let go of me," Katniss howled. Natasha's grip didn't slacken any, just another shove against the table. "Look, I didn't mean—"

"Cut the bullshit, you meant every bit of it and you know it."

Katniss reached up, pushing Natasha off of her forcefully. "You're right; I did mean every bit of it. I want you and Clint and Steve and Tony and everyone else off of my fucking case." Her eyes narrowed into slits as she sized up her mother, Natasha doing the same.

In the time that Katniss had known her mother, she'd never seen her go into Widow mode. Sure, she'd seen her mom get serious and get tough when it came to taking down the bad guy, but according to what Clint had told her, it was nothing compared to what she had been like before SHIELD got to her. She was like a wild animal, he'd said; she was feral and there was no stopping her. Looking at her from her stance a few feet away, she had a dangerous look in her eyes, her teeth grinding together. "I'm giving you one chance," she snarled, upper lip curling, like a dog. "You tell me why you're really here, or I'm going to Fury."

Katniss' blood ran cold, and she was sure that the look on her face mirrored the feeling. "I…" she stammered out, voice octaves softer than it had been initially. "You can't go to Fury."

"Right, because he has nothing to do with any of this?" Natasha prompted, and that was the minute that Katniss knew Natasha was on to her. Somewhere deep inside her subconscious, she knew it had been child's play, thinking she could pull one over on the Black Widow. Folding her arms of her chest, Natasha continued. "It's Pierce, isn't it? He was the one who you were talking to in that office at Tony's party?" Her voice wasn't as sharp as it had been, but there was still a certain danger lingering in her tone.

Katniss knotted her fists into her hair, yanking angrily on the roots from frustration as she turned away from Natasha. "It's not like I asked him to drag me off to some room and give me an itinerary that I wanted nothing to do with," she shouted in exasperation. "I couldn't not do what he asked, not when he was threatening you and Clint and everyone else that I cared about."

"Why didn't you say something?" Natasha coaxed. "You're not supposed to protect us, it's supposed to be the other way around—"

"And what, let you guys get hurt? You all always try to protect me, but who protects you? Who's the one who's gonna do that if you're all worrying about me? And when he's dealing out the threats he is? No…no, I have to do what he asks me."

Natasha ran her fingers through her hair, sighing. She opened her mouth, reciting what seemed like a mantra Katniss and herself had lived by for years now. "You are an Avenger," she started slowly, eyes closed. "And an Avenger only. You're only allowed to be used at SHIELD's disposal—"

Katniss had had enough, growing frustrated as she slammed her hands down on a lab table and throwing all of the contents into the floor with the swipe of her hand. "He doesn't care, Natasha!" she shrieked, her vocal cords straining. Whirling around, she stared at her mother with frantic eyes, tears pricking at the corners. "Pierce does not care. I told him that and his response is that you and Clint and Steve are. Piece doesn't give a fuck." The words flew out of Katniss' mouth forcefully, her breathing shaky as she stared at Natasha.

"So what does he want? What does he want with you, what makes you so crucial to…whatever plan he's got brewing?" Natasha finally asked, throwing her hands up and letting them slap her thighs as they fell.

"I…I don't know." Katniss was stumbling over her own words, the tears blinding her as they involuntarily rolled down her cheeks. "I don't know, I don't know! He just wants me, says people trust me, people feel safe when they see me. He wants me to be a distraction, wants me to 'be the veil', whatever the fuck that means—"

"—that veil has been gone the minute aliens came out of a hole in the sky," Natasha interrupted, falling silent after seeing the rabid look on her daughter's face.

"Yeah, well, he wants it back, and he wants me to put it back up. I don't know how to do half the shit he wants me to do, I don't even know what half of his directions that he sends me even fucking mean, I just…I refuse to let him take you away. Not if I can do something about it."

Natasha's eyes were locked dead on her daughter, watching as Katniss' chest rose and fell quickly with her now irregular breathing trying to stabilize. Taking a deep breath, Natasha started to speak. "Look, I know you don't want me to, but—"

"No," Katniss warned, her eyes growing wide as she jabbed a finger towards the cavity of Natasha's chest. "No. You cannot tell him. I wasn't even supposed to tell you; for god's sake, you might be shipped off in a box overnight now that I've told you Pierce has got every damn eye he can think of on me. If you tell Clint, I swear to god I will never forgive you."

"I have to tell him, Katniss, you're his child. You saw what he almost did to Fury two years ago when he pulled you from the safe house, do you really want another episode?" Natasha looked around the room before her eyes fell back on Katniss. "Besides, you won't be in it alone if you tell him, we can help you, protect you—"

"Stop saying you can fucking protect me, you can't!" Katniss shrieked, lashing out both verbally and physically, her hand knocking off a face mask for another Iron Man suit into the wall behind her. "You can't protect me from this, you can't protect me from anything anymore! That ended the minute Fury pulled me out of those woods. Pierce is not going to let you talk him out of this; he's going to kill you if he knows that I said a word about it! God, Happy was probably my fault—"

"Katniss, Happy's accident was not your fault—"

"—and how do you know that? Huh? The Mandarin might have claimed it, but he's an egotistical maniac, Pierce might have been behind it the whole time and pinned it right on the guy who wants attention on him. He's everywhere, Natasha! It's possible, and it could be any of us next, any of us!"

The tears kept flowing as Katniss ripped at the contents on the nearby tables, throwing them towards the wall and scratchy screams leaving her throat. Over and over again, she sobbed the same thing: "Just let me go!" The plea ripped from her as she bent over, Natasha's arms locking around her torso and trying to pull her away from Tony's things. Natasha was strong, but Katniss' adrenaline rush as she completely panicked was stronger as she thrashed against her mother's grip.

"Katniss…Katniss, shh," Natasha soothed, smoothing back the dark mess of hair on her daughter's head. "Listen to me. Everything is going to be okay, no one else is going to get hurt. But you have to promise me that you're out of this. You didn't follow orders before, you can't now. They want you as a mascot so they can eventually turn you into a puppet. It's what he wants, it's what they always want. You're out, okay? Be done."

Katniss only wished she could do as her mother asked.

. . .

Tony, Clint, and Steve had yet to return, so Natasha and Katniss had the house to themselves for the remainder of the evening. After her meltdown in the lab, Natasha had left Katniss be, allowing her access to any files she wanted to look at that involved the bombings. A certain weight felt as though it had been lifted off her shoulders now that her mother knew something in terms of what her mission was, but in its place a heavier weight had been added. She didn't even want to think of the repercussions that would come along if Pierce discovered anything, so she tried to reassure herself with the thought that at least it was Natasha who knew. Natasha had secrets that had age-old secrets of their own, she could handle herself. Someone like Clint or god forbid, Steve, would have thrown her under the bus; unintentionally but nonetheless.

The files that Natasha had let her read were intriguing at the slightest. According to the various reports and accounts of each and every 'bombing' from the Mandarin, that whole image was a ploy and something else was going on, since most victims thus far had been war veterans. They believed the Mandarin was merely a cover up, a guy for hire solely around to stir up trouble and keep people from looking into the bombings. In sloppy handwriting and circled in red pen at the bottom of one of the documents, Natasha had written 'Steve—SSS, Abraham Erskine'.

The longer she spent flipping through reports and research, the more she found herself looking at a clock. Pierce's deadline on the flash drive was nearing and she had yet to act on it. Chances were he wasn't going to wait around forever for an answer, much less giving her any sort of extension. She hated to move in on Natasha and her personal space so soon, especially after the Happy incident and her meltdown in the lab, but she had to do what she had to do. Regardless of what her mother wanted, Katniss had to protect them. Being selfish was a quality that was no longer allowed.

Glancing up at the clock after reading Natasha's notes in the margins of a report, she bit down on her lip. It was already past midnight, and something in her told her that there was a transmission from Pierce's offices—whatever the hell he meant by that—awaiting her. "JARVIS," Katniss called out warily.

"Yes, Miss Romanoff-Barton?" came the smooth voice of the AI.

Straightening up on her bed, she closed the file warily and picked up the tablet Natasha had lent her. "Pull up security feeds for the house, room by room." The screen on the tablet shifted, JARVIS pulling images from each room in the house up in different little boxes across the screen. Scanning over each box, Katniss tried to pinpoint each room and whether or not it was occupied. "Zoom in on the lab," she added, and the small little box in the corner grew larger. Katniss watched as a black-and-white grainy film Natasha in the lab paced back and forth. If she's in the lab, her room is unoccupied. Might as well start there for the drive.

"Thanks JARVIS," Katniss said as she threw the tablet across the bed, rolling off and letting her feet hit the floor.

"Any time, Miss Romanoff-Barton."

Katniss was sure to pull the door open as quietly, careful to make as little noise as possible. If Natasha caught any wind of movement, she'd be on her trail faster than she'd have time to run. Her footsteps were light and quick as she moved through the dark mansion, heart hammering in her ears. Natasha and Clint's room was on the opposite end of the house, behind a white door with a handmade sign on the doorknob with Tony's chicken scratch scribbled on there, the words nearly illegible. Pressing her ear to the door, Katniss' shaking hands found the knob and slowly turned it.

Pushing the door open, Katniss slipped in before closing it softly behind her. Her hands moved along the wall, searching for a switch. Fingers moving up the surface of the wall, they caught a lever and pushed it up, light flooding the room. If she didn't know any better, she would have figured the room was uninhabited. The bed was perfectly made with hardly any personal touches to the room that signaled people slept there every night.

"Okay, if I was a world-renowned assassin, where would I store a flash drive?" Katniss muttered under her breath, resting her hands on her hips as she looked around the room. Her eyes flitted back and forth before she saw the light catch something resting on the dresser. Moving towards it with eyebrows furrowed in confusion, she realized that it was a necklace resting atop a jewelry box.

Her fingers reached out to grab the necklace, the miniscule charm sitting in the palm of her hand. It was a tiny little arrow on a silver chain; very plain and simple, but very Natasha. With one hand clutching onto the necklace's chain, she opened the jewelry box carefully with bated breath. There was nothing in there. "Dammit," Katniss hissed, her shoulders falling in defeat.

She stared at the empty box, mind racing. If I was a spy, I wouldn't leave something out in the open. Sure, I'd put it in something inconspicuous, but I'd go the extra mile. Hoping that her hunch would lead her to the jackpot, she reached in the box and grasped onto one of the dividers that were meant to store rings. "Come on," she whispered in her pause before pulling up on the bottom, it sure enough rising up and out of the jewelry box. Fake bottom, knew it.

Sure enough, resting there in the fake bottom was a small little silver flash drive, exactly what Pierce had requested. Looking over her shoulder for good measure, she pocketed the drive and slammed the bottom back into the jewelry box. She closed the lid, carefully arranging the necklace on top in the exact way that she had found it, using her still-shaking index fingers to shape the chain in the way she wanted. Once it looked perfect, she turned on her heel, flicked the light switch on her way out and closed the door behind her. There was only one thing left to do, and that was get this to Pierce as fast as she could before he decided to evict Natasha in the early hours of the morning.

Sorry, Natasha.


A/N: Damn, if she didn't go through with it. Of course, I still have a lot more planned and Katniss isn't going to get away with stealing the flash drive as easily as she hopes, but for now, it looks like she's still going along with Pierce's instructions. Why do you think she's so adamant about following his orders; can it be about anything other than wanting to keep Natasha and Clint safe? Do you think Natasha is going to tell Clint or keep quiet, especially after she notices that the drive is missing? And this one doesn't have a whole lot to do with the characters, but how do you think the IM3 plot is going to weave itself in here? I'm just curious. I also loved the whole Katasha (my pair names are back, man) interaction, it was so fun to write. What did you guys think? Let me know what you thought about all of these questions, as well as anything else you may want to add. Reviews make me write a whole lot faster, just in case you were wondering, and it does get a whole hell of a lot more exciting. If I were you, I'd review, or else Natasha is going to jump you—and not in a good way.