A/N: Yep another chapter! I told ya'll I would be getting better about updating haha now that my muse has made itself known again and won't leave me alone I think this story will be updated much better now! Thank you to all the amazing and wonderful people who reviewed/favorited/followed this story! The alerts always make me happy!

A big thank you goes out to my Beta (Aeris Mae) for being so wonderfully awesome! If you have the time you should definitely check out her stories on here they are fantastic ^_^

DISCLAIMER: nope, unfortunately they still don't belong to me

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She wasn't alone long in the Tower before Steve and Tony showed up. She'd sent Stark a message letting him know she was coming here to track him down and could use some help. He was all too eager to help her disobey Fury and was on his way with Steve within a few minutes of receiving the message. She'd been sifting through Nutian's emails and calls and financial transactions to the best of her ability but it wasn't easy without the S.H.I.E.L.D database. Hence Tony. He hacked into the database almost daily and she knew he would be able to help her with this.

She was actually falling asleep when the two men showed up. She quickly jerked awake, annoyed and ashamed with herself. She needed to focus. Clint was out there and he needed help. Now was not the time to sleep. Tony frowned at her, "Maybe you should get some rest. You haven't had decent sleep in days. Barton would kill us if we didn't make you rest. Cap can let you know if we figure anything out."

Natasha shook her head, "No. I'm not sleeping until Clint is back."

Tony sighed and glanced at Steve who looked at Natasha sympathetically, "I know you want to do whatever you can to help Clint. Right now, that means sleeping. Let your body heal at least a little. You're no good to us if you're falling over in the middle of a fight. You can sleep on the couch if it makes you feel better."

Natasha sighed but nodded reluctantly, "Fine. But you have to wake me up if you find anything. I don't care if it's in five minutes. I want to know right away."

Tony gave her a small nod, "We'll tell you if we find anything. Now shut up and sleep. You're distracting me."

Natasha suppressed a smile and curled up on the end of the couch. A blanket was draped over her body and when she glanced up she saw Steve smiling down at her. She returned the smile before she finally drifted off to sleep.

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Tony sighed out softly as he saw Natasha's body fully relax into the couch and her breathing evened out. She'd fought sleep for all of three minutes before her body couldn't take it anymore. He was worried about her. He knew she was tough and she'd been through worse, well he figured she'd been through worse, but it still pained him to see her like this. In the time he'd known Natasha Romanoff he never saw her like this. Never saw her weak. Not even when Clint was under Loki's control. Sure, they could all see her worry for him but she hadn't been like this. So…compliant. Normal Natasha would be up and demanding he hurry the hell up. They needed to get Clint back quickly or he wasn't sure what would happen to her.

Steve raked a hand through his hair as he settled in beside Stark in front of the screen piled with information on Nutian Natasha had been going through before they arrived, "Do you think we can find him?"

Tony smirked, "Please. A few key strokes and we'll be in the S.H.I.E.L.D database and then it shouldn't be too hard to figure out who has bird-brain.

Steve nodded, still looking flustered and worried, "She's going to fall apart if we don't find him. We won't be able to get back our Natasha if he dies. So don't mess this up."

Tony didn't like the sounds of that, "She's tough Cap. If he does die she'll keep moving forward, that's the kind of person she is."

Steve glanced at Natasha's sleeping form, "Maybe. But she's going to be devastated and it will change her. She and Barton are very similar. If he's killed she won't stop until she has her revenge. She will burn the world down if she has to. He was more than ready to do the same for her."

Tony's mouth set in a frown. He knew Steve was right. Natasha and Clint were cut from the same cloth. They were vengeful people by nature. They were with the good guys now but underneath that first layer they were still assassins. They were trained to kill and they were extremely good at it. He just hoped they could find Clint before it was too late and they lost both of them in one swing.

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Natasha didn't know how long she slept before she felt someone looming over her. Instantly her eyes snapped open and her hand wrapped around the throat of whoever was hovering over her. She blinked twice before she realized it was Steve. She released him quickly, "Sorry. I forgot where I was for a moment. Future reference, just call my name and don't stand over me. You're lucky I didn't have any weapons on me."

Steve nodded, "I'll remember that. Tony says he may have found something."

Natasha sat up now, fully alert, and glanced over at Tony who was looking through some files on his computer. She stood and moved behind him, recognizing bank statements and a few correspondences. The emails were encrypted, not surprising, but the bank statements painted a very clear picture and everything made sense to her. There were deposits regularly for the past three weeks from an A. Vargas. She felt her blood run cold. She and Clint had shared their stories of "before". The time when they were assassins for hire and Vargas was an all too familiar name.

She cursed under her breath and Tony looked at her in confusion, "A. Vargas. That's Antonio Vargas, a major drug lord in Spain. He was supposed to have died a few years back in a plane crash but apparently that story was false. Clint killed his wife back before he was with S.H.I.E.L.D. The man went crazy with rage and Clint said he had to spend the next year and a half looking over his shoulder until he joined up with S.H.I.E.L.D. If Vargas is behind this then we need to hurry. Can you find a location for him?"

Tony rolled his eyes, "Did you really just ask me that? Go get changed and I'll get some coordinates. When you're ready we'll leave. I take it we're not calling Fury on this one?"

Natasha sighed, "We can call him once we're sure we've located Clint. We're going to need backup and even if he's pissed at me Fury won't risk losing two of his best agents or any of his Avengers. He'll send help."

Tony nodded as Natasha headed for the elevator. Tony had been gracious enough to give them each their own floor within the tower after the Loki battle. She tended to split her time between here and the Hellicarrier so she had plenty of weapons and clothing to bring along with her. She pushed the button for the twelfth floor and waited impatiently for the soft ding on her floor.

The doors slid open and she was greeted by the sleek apartment she called her own. It was pretty bare compared to Clint and the other Avenger's floors. Sparse furniture, little food in the fridge and not a speck of dust anywhere. She was a neat person and she never kept too many belongings. She never knew when she would have to pick up and make a run for it. Running was easier when you didn't have to worry about personal belongings.

She made her way to her bedroom, stripping out of her hospital clothing along the way and dropping everything in a waste basket just inside her room. She pulled out one of her S.H.I.E.L.D mandated uniforms and changed into it, thankful it covered all of the bandages decorating her body. She strapped her thigh holsters and belt on and slid her Glocks into place. She slipped her fingerless gloves on and adjusted the widow's bite bracelets on her wrists. She winced as they irritated her wounds. She sighed and put them back on her dresser. She shouldn't need them with Tony and Steve covering her. She pulled on her boots before heading back out to the elevator. Now she felt more like the real black widow. She felt deadly.

She took the elevator to Tony's garage and when she stepped out she was greeted by Tony and Steve, suited up and ready to go. A quinjet was sitting ready for them and Natasha quirked an eyebrow, "And how did you manage to get one of those here?"

Steve raised a hand sheepishly, "I may have borrowed it for the time being. I figured Director Fury wouldn't mind too much. He didn't put up much of a fight."

Natasha smirked, "That's because he wanted you to take it. He probably knows we're going to go after Clint and if we have a quinjet he can track us down easier."

"Well at least that means the reinforcements can find us," Tony said with a shrug, never one to apologize for doing what was needed.

Natasha followed Steve onto the quinjet, Tony just behind her, "So where exactly are we going?"

She moved in the pilot seat, glancing over at Steve who was settling in beside her as co-pilot, "We believe Vargas has Agent Barton in one of his less used warehouses in Málaga off the Costa del Sol. Apparently the whole area is known for housing criminals, makes sense Vargas would try and hide there."

Natasha nodded, it sounded logical to her. She took one last deep breath and maneuvered the quinjet out of Stark's garage and pointed them toward Spain and her partner.

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Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

Clint had to bite back the groans of pain that were threatening to voice themselves. He wasn't going to let Vargas have the satisfaction of hearing him in pain. He had no idea how long he'd been in this damn room with a riding crop whipping across his body. His legs and arms were covered in small lashes, blood leaking slowly from the wounds. None of them were ever deep but they all stung horribly. He grit his teeth as the crop came down on his knees, striking another lash that was already there. He didn't know how much longer he could endure the pain though. Sooner or later, he would scream. And then Vargas would win.

"You should not bottle your feelings like this, hermano. It is unhealthy," Vargas said, a small smirk on his face as he whipped the crop across Clint's shins again.

Clint glared at him, and spat at his shoes, "You will not draw a scream from me, Antonio."

Vargas chuckled and shook his head with a tsk, tsk, tsk, "Oh mi amigo, you know me better than that. After all, you were there when I tortured my enemies and you watched them all scream and beg for their lives. You will become just like them, trust me on this."

Clint gritted his teeth and simply endured the lashes that followed those words. He knew he could stay strong for a long time but he also knew Vargas would eventually find his breaking point. He always managed to find his enemies' weaknesses. It was a talent of his, one Clint had respected until he realized just how dark and evil Vargas truly was. He would be your best friend up until the moment he slit your throat in your bed. He was a master of pretenses and lies.

Clint had worked hard to ensure none of his former enemies would ever be able to find him and yet here he was, in a room with a man he thought dead. A man who hated him for killing his wife. Perfect.

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Thirteen hours. That was how long the flight took. Thirteen long and painful hours of simply waiting and wondering. Natasha knew that on a normal plane that flight could have taken up to thirty hours and she thanked whoever was listening for the speed of the quinjet and its ability to maneuver outside of regulations. They were cloaked at the moment, hovering just over the warehouse Vargas should be in. Natasha wanted to get this over with, go in there and save Clint already. But Tony and Steve both reminded her that being rash right now could very easily get Clint killed. She didn't know when Tony started behaving so rational but she figured since even he was telling to her calm down and wait then maybe they were actually right.

"Five more minutes Natasha. I'm scanning the entire building for heat signatures and hopefully I can locate our lost bird," Tony said.

She rolled her eyes at the bird comment but said nothing. He wasn't just looking for bodies either, she knew he was also downloading the blueprint and saving it so they could use it to navigate with ease. While she was grateful and knew that his scanning would more than likely save all of their lives she also just wanted to do things like always. She could go in and be out before anyone knew she was there. But Steve reminded her that she wasn't in top condition, not like normal. She had to take into account all of her injuries or she would get not only herself but also Clint killed.

"Done," Tony said, turning toward them and tapping the side of his helmet. The face mask slid back to reveal Tony's face and with another click the building's layout was glowing in front of them. Orange bodies were milling around, each one holding what Natasha assumed was a gun. And they were big guns. She cursed inwardly, of course Vargas would have his men carrying the best money could buy in weaponry. Especially with a S.H.I.E.L.D agent held captive.

Her eyes quickly scanned the entire schematic, quickly memorizing the entire thing. Then her eyes zeroed in on two people in particular. One was sitting and the other was standing, lunging toward the sitting person. Every time the standing person withdrew the one sitting flinched. And Natasha instantly knew that was Clint in the chair. That was Clint and he was being tortured. She grit her teeth, anger boiling hot in her blood.

"There's at least fifty armed guards scattered throughout the building. It looks like they have Barton in a basement room with two guards stationed at each end of the hall. There's an air shaft with roof access that leads down into the room but getting into it won't be easy. The roof alone has five guards patrolling it and the entrance is right in the middle of them. I don't think that's a coincidence," Steve said, his fingers tracing over the shaft and pointing out the guards as he mentioned them.

Natasha pointed to the roof, "There's a gap in their pattern though. For about thirty seconds every five minutes none of them are within visibility of the entrance to the shaft. I could easily use that thirty seconds to my advantage and slip into the shaft. I'm small so fitting won't be any issue and I'm probably better at being silent than either of you are, no offense Cap."

Tony frowned, "I can be quiet too but that's beside the point. We can't just let you go in there alone. Even if you are completely silent and manage to get down to Barton's room there's no guarantee he can come back out that way. We don't know what condition he's in, and if he can't make it through those shafts then you're stuck fighting through about forty-five guards before you make it back out."

Steve pointed to the front of the building now, "We can cause a distraction here once we know Natasha is inside. It will draw the guards and if it's a big enough commotion we may be able to empty the building enough for Natasha to make it out the back door without needing to fight off more than a few guards."

"I don't like it but it may be all we have and we need to get Barton out of there," Tony said as he clicked the map back off.

Yayyy! Another chapter down! I'm thinking there's going to be about three more chapters….maybe more maybe less depending on how my muse is feeling. As always, reviews are loved and welcomed! ^_^

Til next time,

Luna