Clint woke up to the sound of the first alarm buzz. He didn't know if Nat was awake but he got up and walked over to the desk with the alarm and clicked it off, he stretched and sat back on his bed. He loved being an agent most of the time but other times it was hard times like this that he wished he had a more suitable career, one that didn't require going on missions you didn't know if you were going to survive. Standing back up he felt bones in his body pop and crack, his knees, his elbows everything seem to be the opposite of what he wanted before he went on a mission.
Jumping in the shower he washed off his grogginess and pulled on his mission cloths- his slim black shirt and purple stripes going down his sides, over it a jacket that would shield him from the coldness of the outside and finally black pants with several small pockets to hide knives, extra bullets, a poisonous vial… SHIELD always gave an agent a vial of a drink that would kill you within a few minutes; it was a last resort thing- it was for when you were being tortured and you didn't want to give up anything and yet you couldn't take it anymore. He had never given it much thought until today, could he use it as a weapon rather than against himself? He shook his head and grabbed his arrows and bow and turned to Nat's bed, even in the darkness he could make out… nothing. She wasn't in her bed.
"Tasha?" he called into the room. He turned on the light finally saw something laying on the bed, a folded white piece of paper. His stomach dropped as he grabbed it and carefully unfolded it, his hands were practically shaking.
Clint Barton,
We have taken Natasha and we will keep her alive as long as you cooperate, if you refuse we will kill her- don't think we won't. Travel to 232 Andrássy Avenue, don't notify your superiors- or we will kill her, easy to understand correct? Turn yourself over and we will not torture her. We'll expect you at about 12:00. Don't be late Mr. Barton.
-Red Room
Clint stared at the note for a while, his body not knowing how to react. He looked over Nat's bed and noticed something he hadn't before, the window had been fiddled with and wasn't closed all the way. She wanted to stay by the window to get away, but really it contributed to her capture. He crumpled the paper and fell to his knees and screamed.
"GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!" He screamed. He shot up and punched the window which shattered and cut his hand in the process. Were they already torturing her? He checked his watch- 11:00, he didn't know how far the location was but hell itself would have to rain down on him before he was going to be late.
It took him about 50 minutes to find the building. He walked through the streets asking people with his limited speaking skills with some help from a book. The whole time his head was cloudy and he felt sick. He thought of the Hungarian agent that was in charge of them, what would he think when we found that Clint and Natasha weren't in their room? Hopefully we wouldn't lose his job.
After pushing his way through the streets he did find the building and it was on the edge of town, it was a beautiful goldish looking exterior with grand windows that had heavy black curtain behind them- it looked like something a millionaire would buy for vacation, and it was hanging off of a cliff (how fitting).
Running up the tower of stairs reaching the red door, ironic, he used the door knocked which had the head of a dragon like animal on it. The loud clank seem to echo through the house on the inside and Clint waited a total of 4 seconds before it swung open.
Walking inside he kept his hand on his bow just in case he would have to shoot something real quick. He suddenly heard a scuffle from behind the door and like he was a machine, pulled an arrow out, loaded his bow and aimed it toward the sound. He was surprised to see a teenage boy to come out from the large door. He looked like a ghost- his skin was as pale as pale can be, his skin looked like it was loosely sewed onto his bones and his eyes were deep with black circles around them.
"Welcome Mr. Barton," the boy spoke with a smile his voice hallow and unemotional, Clint noticed he was missing several teeth his gums were spotted with black. "I would put that down if you want her to survive." He walked away expected Clint to follow him and he did.
Walking through the house Clint memorized it the best way he could. There was almost no furniture, the walls were peeling with white paint and you could see the old patterned wallpaper underneath. They walk through the front room, through what looked like to be a reading room and finally descended down stairs. He saw out the windows in the stairwell over the cliff and it felt like with just one more wind blow the whole house was going to come down. They reached the bottom of the stairs and finally came to a room which cement flooring and wood walls. The boy quickly swung behind Clint and locked the huge oak door behind him.
"Nice for you to join us Mr. Barton." A voiced cooed from the center of the room. Clint spun around to see a man, black suit with sunglasses, standing over someone, who he presumed was Natasha, in a chair with a black bag over their head. "I honestly thought we would have to put up a fight against you, guess I was mistaken for how much you care for her." Clint kept his eyes trained on the bag covered Natasha as the man undid a string and pulled the bag off revealing a battered, bloodied, bruised up Natasha. Clint sucked in his breath. She looked as if she was trying to keep her eyes open, she look like she went three rounds with Muhammad Ali.
"Tasha-" he breathed a little too loudly, the man heard him.
"A pet name really?" he smirked. "You know what we used to call her? Эндер. Which means 'ender' in English, if we wanted something done we called her." He stroked her check, Clint tensed up. "Oh I'm sorry, I've been completely rude, and I'm Ivan. We've met." He took off his glasses to reveal his red eyes which made Clint shiver.
"I'm not here to have a conversation," Clint tried to keep his temper down for the sake of Natasha. "What the hell do you want?"
"You of course," Ivan smiled. His answer took Clint by surprise honestly. Ivan must have sensed his confusing and let out a flustered sigh. "Do I really have to spell it out for you? We knew you would grow close to our pretty little rose here," he smiled eagerly at Natasha who was still trying to find her bearings. "No one can resist her; then we take her and that'll give us you- the one with all the secrets."
"I thought you would want her back, I did steal her from you." Clint had to admit he felt a little pride by doing that.
"Steal her? Boy, you are sadly mistaken. You merely borrowed her, she is the most cunning. Grow close to you, make you trust her and lead you back here." He walked around Natasha dragging his fingers across her shoulders.
"I know Nat better than you think I do, I know she wouldn't do that." Clint said with as much confidence as he could muster up.
"It's funny how you think that, I don't know how it is in America but here, family is everything." Ivan sneered.
"How does that have anything to do with Nat?" Clint was getting annoyed by all the talking.
"She didn't mention it? Well she was always a little quiet when it came to us. I'm her adopted father, raised her from a mere age of six." Clint's eyes widen. Nat had mentioned being brought up by the Red Room but Ivan an adopted father? "Ah yes, when she was younger her family was caught in a 'fire'. She was the only one to survive and I took her in and trained her to what she is today." Ivan pulled out and knife and cut the ropes that held Nat. Clint expected her to shoot up and beat the living hell out of him, but instead she slumped in her chair, his heart and stomach sank. "Ask her yourself," he kicked her toward Clint, he ran and caught Nat just as she was about to face plant on the ground.
"Tasha," Clint whispered to her as he held up her face to hers. Her eyes barely opened and he saw how tired she was.
"I'm sorry," were the only two words that escaped her lips. Clint opened his mouth but never got to say anything as Ivan yanked her by her collar and pulled her up to his chest, gun to her head, he was easily twice her size and by the condition she was in, could easily overpower he if he wanted to.
"Now Clint, if you want her to go unshaved," he paused and looked at her hungrily. He leaned his head towards her neck and kissed it repeatedly, making sure Clint got a view of every single one. Blood or not- it sickened Clint to his stomach and heat rush through his veins. Nat finally looked like she was in walking condition and flinched as he touched her, down her side just a little too low on the hip. "I suggest you take her place." He mentioned the gun over to him. Clint started towards him but before he could even take a step Ivan stopped him. "Aha, ah, ah, put down your bow and arrows and the knives in your boot." Clint winced as he let his bow drop and took off the arrows from his back. He knelt down to his boot and took out 3 small knives concealed in it, his fingers brushed over the poison vile but didn't take it out, and he didn't know if he would need it later. After stripping himself of all weapon Clint walked over to Ivan and stood eye to eye with him. "Good boy," Ivan threw Nat on the ground who luckily was able to catch herself in time and whip back up. Ivan took Clint by the arm and squeezed, Clint shuttered a little as he was surprised to feel how forceful it was.
"Get away from him Ivan," Clint turned to see Nat holding the bow and arrow aiming for Ivan, at least he was hoping she was aiming at Ivan (he didn't know how good her aiming skills were).
"I highly doubt you want to do that doll," Ivan smiled and took Clint by the neck and tightened his grip, cutting off any air Clint had. At first Clint didn't mind but after the grip started tightening crushing his throat he gasped for air. His body was screaming for it, begging for it. "You know very well Natasha I can crushed his neck like an egg, so if you want your little play thing to live put the bow down." Nat didn't move at his treats. Clint began clawing at Ivan's arm, who promptly looked at him, picked him up and flung him to the ground. Clint felt his head bounce off of the concrete and may have made a tiny crack, he blacked out for about 5 seconds and then came back to. He had gone at least a minute without air and he couldn't hold much longer. "Or how about we make this interesting."
"How?" Natasha asked in a very curious tone.
"I offer a way back in, the Red Room." Ivan offered.
"Why in the hell would I want to be back in the Red Room?" Nat rolled her eyes.
"Because if you don't, I will take him and torture him to all ends. Keeping him barely alive just enough so he can feel the pain, you know our ways Natasha." Clint looked at Nat to see her eyes wide and ghostly just as if she was reliving the experiences. "However if you decide to join us, I'll just take him prisoner, he'll have a sad, short and lonely life but he will be alive." Clint could feel his body giving out now, his eyes started dropping. "You better hurry up Natasha, looks like Clint doesn't have a lot of time." Through his blurring vision Clint could see Tasha putting the bow down slightly and think for a second while looking at him. Her face was plastered with pain and sorrow, her shoulders drop.
"Deal, I'll go with you," Nat spat out. Ivan released his hold on Clint who took in a big gasp of breath. He hadn't gone that long without oxygen and his body felt it. He gasped and coughed until he felt a little closer to normal. Ivan back away from Clint seemingly to allow Natasha to check on Clint which she did. She ran over and hugged him. She brought her mouth close to her ear and said something that send chills down his spine.
"My ledger needs to be cleaned." She whispered. And almost what seemed like in a matter of milliseconds Natasha turned around, ran up to Ivan and swung the knife over his chest while he yelled out in surprise.
"Bitch!" he yelled. He covered part of the wound with his hand and tore it away from his chest to see it dripping red. Clint felt uneasy as he next saw the skin on Ivan's chest literally reattaching itself like it was sowing itself back up. Ivan was going to be near impossible to defeat but he didn't have any time to reminisce on what he thought as Ivan tried to come after him again. Luckily Clint had enough oxygen in his body to block the hit by rolling the side and jumping up.
Ivan reached into his coat and pulled out a small handgun which he fired repeatedly at Clint. Running away from the bullets he was surprise he didn't get hit; he made it to a small wooden door which he yanked on, but to his sadness it was locked with no hope of opening. Twirling around he saw Ivan aiming for Natasha who still only had her small knife. They made brief eye contact and once again it was like they were psychically linked. He ran towards Ivan who turned around just in time to see Clint's boot come in contact with his face.
Falling to the ground Nat ran just in time to jam the knife in Ivan's back before he fell to the ground driving the knife in deeper. Ivan let out a horrifying scream which rattled Clint's ears who at that exact moment had a brilliant. Frantically looking around he saw his arrows still scattered on the ground. Basically tripping over to get them he picked one up and reached down to his boot and pulled out the poison and doused the arrow tip in it. After the metal was covered in a green running liquid Clint skidded over to the still fallen Ivan and drove the arrow down into the center of his chest. Blood rushed all around Clint's hands as he drove the arrow deeper and deeper until only half the arrow was sticking out.
Standing up he looked over a bruised and bloody Ivan who himself was having trouble breathing now. Clint didn't care if he was super human or whatever, no one could survive being stabbed in the back, chest and have poison running through their system and survive. Nat ran over to Clint and saw his point of view; Ivan's eyes were getting droopy and his breathing was shallow and slow.
But Ivan started laughing, His sick, twisted cackling filled the room and made Clint cold, it sounded like a mad man's laugh. He shot a side look at Nat who seemed just as surprised as Clint did. While laughing with the remaining breath he had Ivan used his shaking hand and pushed something on his side. There was a small beep and a bunch of lights suddenly came to life around his waist.
"If I'm not making it out of here, neither are you two sons of bitches." Ivan spat through the blood running down his mouth. It's a bomb the words suddenly ran through Clint's mind. He grabbed his bow and arrow out of habit and ran towards the door he had come through, he pulled and pushed to no avail, the wooden door seemed to be made out of steel. He ran over to the windows and tried to break them, he punched them, tried to rip them out of their place on the wall. He even went as far as shooting an explosive arrow which only blackened it.
"Clint," Natasha said. Clint didn't hear her, he circled the room again and again trying to break anything that could seem like a way out. He hated being trapped it made him feel like an innocent ant under a boot, but mentally it was worse. Not being able to help, trying your best to do something but it not paying off in the end, it reminded him of Barney. "CLINT!" Nat seemed to scream, it vibrated off the walls. Clint turned to see Nat strangely calm while he could feel hot tears forming in his head. She motioned her head over to Ivan who was lying still on the ground while the beeps from his bomb belt grew closer together and faster.
"I need to protect you, I promised." Clint whimpered out. He felt himself slowly loosing his mind, if the blast didn't kill them the fall to the gorge underneath would surely.
"It's ok," Nat pulled him into a hug. The beeps were growing faster and louder, they only had a few more seconds. Clint thought the only thing he could do was at least take the blast but he had to be at the last second so Nat wouldn't put up a fight. The beeps were quick and Clint pulled his move. While still hugging Nat he turned them both around and pressed her against the wall.
"Clint what are you-" Nat didn't finish before the blast, Clint put her head in his arms in order to protect her and fest the heat and the pressure press against him and the blast decimated the room.
I was falling, Clint's arms wrapped around me as we fell faster and faster. I didn't realize he was going to take the blast until the last second. How selfish could he be? Taking the blast instead of her, she didn't care about his promise. As they fell she saw Clint, who she didn't know if he was alive or dead falling beside her. Turning her head she saw a gray and rocky river fast approaching them. She didn't know if they would survive or not but she was going to try her damndest to make sure they at least had a chance. She aimed both of them in a diagonal position, the best way to survive a fall in water she had been taught. She could feel the water's coolness rush up on them and suddenly the dry gray world turned to cold and black. She lost her grip on Clint as she hit the bottom of the 15 ft. river. Frantically she swam up and looked around, just rocks and white rushing water all around them, she didn't see his head. "Clint!" she called out while water rushed in her mouth. She ducked under and looked in the water and she saw him. His leg was caught in-between two rocks preventing him from going anywhere. Swimming her way over she popped up and took one more breath and she went under and grabbed his shirt with one hand and started pushing against the rocks with another. After a couple of seconds his leg finally went free and they swept down the water uncontrollably. Natasha swam with all her might and by some grace of a god she caught a rock at the edge of a rock near the shore.
She pulled herself and Clint up on the cold ground and spat out all the water she had taken in and saw Clint wasn't breathing. She doesn't remember how but she ended up giving Clint eh hillock until he spat out water and looked around widely.
"Clint you're ok, you're in Budapest." Nat gave him a quick summary of where they were in a single breath. Suddenly she heard shouting from behind her and it was as if hell itself had produced what she saw next- about 10 of Ivan's associates running at them with knives and guns. "For fucks sake," she cursed and quickly checked her person for any weapons, all she had were 3 small series of knives but even before she shot up Clint grabbed what was left of his arrows and started shooting at them. Nat quickly joined in and threw her knives, being smart about it tough. Clint took out 6 and Nat threw the knives dead center in 3 of the enemies' chest. The last one looked at them, then at the bodies on the ground. He quickly dropped his gun and ran away.
Nat smiled, not only had they just survived a hundred foot fall but they also managed to defend themselves a quick spur of the moment attack. Turning to Clint he fell to the ground in a heap.
"Not now, Clint!" she cursed him and knelt down beside him. She slapped him trying to get him to wake up. Finally, with no one around she cried. Hot tears stung her cold face as she looked over the maybe or maybe not dead of the only true friend she had ever known. She had never known love until him. She owed him a dept. He was her partner; the list went on and on in her head as she read off what Clint was to her. Mentor, sparing partner, best friend, someone she would die for. She fell beside him silently cried.
"You promised to protect me," she whispered. "Well, you better keep it."