Lost in the seas of forgotten memories
A/N: DUDES! AUTHORS LIVES! It's been a while so RECAP TIME!
RECAP: So the Avengers have just found out that the papers they recovered during their mission were BRAIN TRANSPLANT PROCEDURES! On top of that Maria Hill AKA second in command has been MIA (missing in Action) for a WEEK! Clint knew this cause she told him vaguely that she was going to all fall off the face of the earth of a little while - he just didn't know WHY. Natasha is pissed off - as usual. Clint goes all out and pours his heart out in front of her and the coward basically runs away. Smooth russian spy smooth. The avengers follow Clint as he confronts Fury about all the secrecy shit happening at the moment. Fury basically TELLS them to get their butt off his helicarrier and figure out what's going on. Now they are on the mystery trail armed with an address, some clashing super personalities, some disturbing information and an unknown enemy on the horizon. INTENSE!
But FIRST - they must get there in one piece.
ENJOY!
Chapter 14
It was 11 hours into their flight to the Philippines and Tony was getting antsy.
"Clint can you fly this thing any faster?" Tony whined. Clint rolled his eyes and didn't even spare the childish man a single glance.
"You've lasted 11 hours Stark – you can last one more," Clint said simply as he continued to steer the jet over and through the clouds above the Pacific Ocean – it was soothing in a way. Flying always made him feel like he could forget about all his problems and just focus on moving as far away from them as possible. Sadly the feeling was dampened by the fact that his current problem was sitting in a corner reading a stack of reports and acting like he doesn't exist. Life was full of ironies. Tony groaned and sunk deeper into his chair.
"Hey Brucie…?" Tony mumbled from his slouched position in his seat. Bruce looked up from his book and gave his friend a pointed look.
"If you ask for one more piece of gum to stick under these seats the answer will be no just like the first 10 times you asked," Bruce said bluntly. Tony pouted.
"Oh okay...Um…have you ever been sky diving?" he asked suddenly. Everyone in the cockpit gave Stark an are-you-kidding-me-look.
Cricket…cricket…cricket…
"Tony, think about who you are talking to before you ask certain questions," Bruce said frankly.
"So if I opened this latch and pushed you off the jet you'd just hulk out without a second thought right?" Tony asked the wary doctor sitting across from him securely strapped to his seat with an extra reinforced safety strap just in case.
"That's the idea…"Bruce said warily. He unconsciously tugged on his seat belt just to make sure it was still there.
"What if we gave you a parachute?" Tony continued to probe. Bruce shifted awkwardly beneath of his extremely curious gaze.
"I don't particularly like heights Tony – let alone free falling," Bruce answered slowly.
"Well let's say we got hit by enemy fire – and we had to jump – what about then?" Tony asked leaning forward. Bruce gave the overly curious genius a long look.
"I have enough control to not hulk out under most circumstances Tony," Bruce said with a sigh.
"When you say most are you excluding the time when you and red -" Tony started to say but Bruce was finally fed up with this line of questioning – he didn't like where he thinks it would end up.
"Stark if you value your life – don't finish that sentence," Bruce warned.
"Aw come on! It's good to know thes-"
Click.
Tony paled as he glanced at the pistol aimed at his head connected to the arm of a silent Russian spy reading a mission file.
"Who's up for hot chocolate when we land?" Tony asked quickly changing the subject. They all rolled their eyes at Tony's bipolar behavior. Bruce simply sighed in relief now that the interrogation was over.
"Find something better to do then slowly drive Banner insane Stark," Natasha said flipping through her notes. He snorted.
"Like what? Sulk in the corner like a lost puppy or continue to pretend like the gigantic obnoxious elephant in the room is going to just disappear the longer it's ignored?" Tony asked dryly. She tensed as the implications behind Tony's words were lost on no one.
"Don't talk about things you know nothing about Stark," Natasha said darkly. Tony stared back at her guarded eyes with a challenge in his own.
"Oh I may not know a lot about who you were 3 years ago Natasha – but trust me when I say I know a lot about who you were 3 weeks ago. And this right here? This is a ticking time bomb," Tony said gesturing towards the two guarded SHIELD agents. She narrowed her eyes at the overconfident bastard – he glared right back. She threw her forgotten files onto the seat beside her and stalked over to the superhero who was just asking for it.
"If you want to say something say it straight otherwise keep your mouth shut and your flimsy opinions to yourself! I don't care what you're trying to imply but it's not there understand?" she growled shoving the genius against his seat with the tip of her gun shoved right up against his arc reactor. He didn't even flinch – he simply stared back at her angry eyes with an icy calm gaze.
The tension in the room skyrocketed. There was one thing about playful gun pointing – it was a whole other story when she looked like she actually meant it.
"You're always so quick to get fired up Red – but am I really the one you're angry at?" Tony asked calmly. Her grip around her gun faltered for only a second before she steeled herself once more.
"You don't know me," she said heatedly. He chuckled humourlessly.
"You don't even know yourself. Face it – you're a mess Natasha Romanoff. You're falling apart at the seams and you're too damn stubborn to let anyone actually help you," he shot back. The fire in her eyes seemed to only grow angrier by the second but the tremble in her hand was the true give away.
"Tony…" Bruce said carefully. He ignored the warning.
"One day you're going to wake up and your chance at happiness is going to be long gone. Don't tell me about any stupid sob story or whatever. We all had a shitty life – but that doesn't mean you can't change it," Tony said ignoring the cold gun pressed against his mechanical heart. She wouldn't shoot – he knew she wouldn't. She had a ledger after all.
"People like me don't do happy Stark," Natasha said guardedly. Tony scoffed.
"Oh cut the crap – you started searching for a happier life the moment you stopped being a mindless assassin for a bunch of money hording mobsters. You joined SHIELD out of your own free will Natasha. You chose to become agent Romanoff instead of just another number on a hit man list. You chose to do something about your ledger and you may not remember it but you chose to be on this team too. You did those things for a reason Red," Tony said slowly. Natasha tensed.
"People do things for all sorts of reason. But the people who have too much faith in others are the first to fall," Natasha said blankly. Tony's eyes narrowed – she just didn't get it.
"Bullshit, people with no faith have lost their humanity. Sometimes I feel like you're just a heartless machine Romanoff. Sometimes I wonder if you have a heart at all," Tony said seriously.
BANG!
They all froze as the gun shot echoed around the cockpit.
Natasha set down the gun and walked out of the room without a single glance back. Tony sat there with a smoking bullet hole 3 cm to the right of his left ear. He took a deep breath and looked up at the wide eyes of his fellow team mates.
"Well that went better than I expected," he said dryly. The rest of the Avengers just stared at the calm Avenger like he was crazy – they already knew he was but this was a whole new level of insanity.
"You have a death wish Stark," Steve said slowly shaking his head.
"Someone had to tell her," Tony said with a shrug.
"It wasn't your job to tell her anything," Clint said glaring at the window in front of him as he gripped the steering rod harder.
"Well maybe I wouldn't have to if the person who was supposed to do it was actually doing their job," Tony said crossing his arms over his chest.
CRASH!
They all fearfully stared at the closed latch leading into the other room on the jet.
"I think someone should go back there and make sure she doesn't accidentally blow a hole through something important we need to stay in the air," Bruce said warily. He didn't want to die. They all instantly looked at Clint.
"I'm piloting this jet guys. I can't do it," Clint said not taking his eyes off the miles of water in front of them. The obvious tension in his shoulders said otherwise. He was dying to go after her.
"So? Cap is a solider – he can fly this thing," Tony said with a shrug. Steve gave Stark a calculative look – what was he trying to do…?
"No offense Steve but if I remember correctly the last time you piloted an advanced jet like this you ended up a thousand feet under a sheet of ice for 70 years," Clint said apologetically. Steve coughed sheepishly.
"I've learned a thing or two about modern day jets Clint – I can keep us up while you go do your thing," Steve said reassuringly. Clint glanced back at his team who were all sending him the same look – deal with your woman and deal with her fast - we don't want to die.
"I swear you guys are all cowards underneath all that superhero bravado," Clint muttered as he put the jet into auto pilot and shot his team a pointed look before going after the likely fuming redhead.
"We love you too buddy," Tony said as the door shut in their face. He quickly turned around and started searching through his bag for something.
"Why did you do that Tony?" Bruce asked quietly.
"Because they need to get their shit sorted out before we reach the ground – I have this bad feeling that something is going to go horribly wrong 5 minutes into this shady mission," Tony said pulling out his own crumpled notes and staring at his messy scribbles across the paper.
"Something always goes wrong during Avenger missions…" Steve said shaking his head from the helm of the jet. He didn't know how Clint did it – it was just staring at boring open water for miles! The rest of the Avengers glanced at the closed door behind which hopefully two high trained assassins weren't beating each other to death.
"Yeah it's like we all take turns completely screwing up each and every operation," Tony said rolling his eyes.
"It is indeed a miracle we are successful in our endeavors," Thor added thoughtfully.
"Yup miracle…" Tony said as he held his notes in one hand and scrolled through his phone with the other. It was the uneasy look on his face that really bothered Bruce. Bruce watched him scan whatever it was on his phone with a suspicious look.
"You're doing it again," he said simply. Tony glanced up for a second but quickly went back to his phone.
"Doing what?" he asked vaguely. Bruce raised an eyebrow.
"The I know something you don't know face," Bruce replied dryly. Tony rolled his eyes.
"Didn't you think it was strange how everything sort of fell into place from the abrupt mission for Natasha to the classified information we happened to stumble across?" Tony asked carefully. Bruce nodded slowly.
"It was a little suspicious…" he said. Tony looked up at the cautious doctor with a wary look in his eyes.
"What if this is a trap?" he asked suddenly. They all looked at each other – that's happened before.
"So what if it's a trap? That doesn't change the fact that agent Hill is missing somewhere on the ground," Steve said heatedly. Tony shook his head.
"What if it's not a trap for us? What if it's a trap for Natasha our amnesiac avenger specifically?" Tony asked slowly. They all froze.
"Then we better make sure the trap doesn't work," Bruce replied seriously.
Clint slowly walked through the narrow gap that led towards the small storage room on the jet. He knew the things Stark had said had definitely rubbed Natasha wrong way. There was a 50/50 chance that she could have chosen not to purposely miss her target. He sighed.
Stark was a certified masochist. The day Pepper learned how to use a gun he was dead.
He slowly opened the second door and walked into the dimly lit storage room. He glanced around to see where Natasha had gone – it wasn't very big. He was slightly worried that it was so quiet - too quiet.
"Natasha?" he called out.
"If you're here to 'calm me down', I'll make your life easier and promise not to kill anyone. Now leave me alone," a voice said angrily from somewhere in the room. Clint snorted.
"When have I ever listened to anything anyone has even said?" Clint asked trying to figure out where Natasha was hiding.
"Never –that is exactly why you always end up in so much shit," Natasha replied curtly. Clint sputtered.
"Hey! I'll have you know my impulsiveness has saved our asses countless times in the past!" Clint said defensively.
"What about the other 50% of the time?" she asked dryly. He winced.
"Well we survived that too. Let's take it as a learning experience," he said walking a few steps into dark room. Where was the light switch for this place?
"Go away Barton," she said with a sigh. The anger had finally left her sails.
"Can't do that Tasha. We're all in this together remember?" he said feeling his way through the aisle of shelves and trying to pin point where her voice was coming from.
"Then why do I sometimes feel like we are on two different sides?" she asked from behind him. He spun around and came face to face with the distrustful expression of a world wary spy.
"Team relationships are not black and white Tasha – you know that," he said.
"I'm not talking about Stark," she said shaking her head. He nervously shifted from side to side.
"Look Tasha – I'm sorry about putting you on the spot earlier-" he started to say.
"I don't know," she suddenly said interrupting him. He paused.
"What?" he asked in confusion.
"I don't know…what I feel. I don't know what we are anymore. It's all too fast Barton," she said staring at her hands. Clint sighed and rubbed his forehead uneasily.
"I'm sorry Tasha – it's my fault-" he never finished his sentence because the next thing he knew he was talking to thin air.
CRASH!
A box of grenades fell to the floor and rolled out of the box as Natasha leaned heavily on to the shelf and slid to the floor holding the side of her head in pain.
"Oh my god! Tasha what's wrong?" Clint asked anxiously as he fell to the floor in front of her. Natasha could barely hear what Clint was saying through the loud buzzing in her ears. She froze when black spots started appearing in front of her eyes.
"Shit why do these things always happen at the worst possible time?" she muttered angrily.
"What? What are you talking about?" Clint asked in confusion. She swayed from side to side as her vision flicked once more.
"Damn memories…" she cursed before she promptly passed out. Clint caught her limp body in time so that she wouldn't crash into the floor and have a concussion to make the dire situation even worse.
"Natasha? NATASHA!" Clint shouted frantically shaking his unconscious partner. He was so scared it wasn't even funny. Normal people didn't pass out just because they were reliving past memories.
The Avenger's jet faded away and the next thing she knew she was in a thunder storm – with an army of fire blade wielding Vikings rushing towards her in the distance.
"Everyone understands the plan?" someone that sounded strikingly like the Captain shouted over the battle cries. Natasha whipped around and stared at her drenched team huddled around a glowing blue stick in her hand. Except it wasn't in her hand - it was in the hands of a girl that looked just like her.
What the hell was going on?
"We distract Viking mafia while Mr. Lightening god powers the time gap to send these barbarians back to their time correct?" Tony said in his Iron man suit. Natasha just realized she's never really seen Stark in action before.
"Don't forget the glow stick of destiny," her doppelganger said dryly. Natasha stared at her twin as the realization finally dawned on her.
Aw shit she was stuck in her own memories. Great.
"Hey be happy the stick will close the time gap on the other side and it doesn't have to be one of us!" Tony shouted over the pouring rain. The sky flashed bright white due to a lightning strike not to from their location. However the following loud crack of thunder nearly burst their eardrums.
"Thor can you tone down the thunder please?" Clint asked holding his hands over his abused ears. Thor coughed sheepishly and moved the storm farther away from them to reduce the effects.
"My apologies Clint," Thor said apologetically.
"You're such a baby Clint," the memory version of herself said while rolling her eyes. Clint stuck his tongue out at her.
"My ears are sensitive – leave me alone!" he mumbled. They all rolled their eyes.
"Alright is everyone ready?" Steve said as the Viking army approached with weapons viciously at the ready.
"Yes!" they all replied in unison.
"Okay 1, 2, 3 – go!" Steve signaled and they all ran off in opposite directions. Natasha's vision promptly went black right before the fighting started. The next thing she saw was the familiar SHIELD debrief room with several Avengers sitting around the table – including herself. It didn't make sense – these memories were all over the place!
"Thor, what's his play?" Steve suddenly asked.
"He has an army, called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract," Thor replied. Natasha paused – she remembered reading about the enemy during the Battle of New York in the SHIELD mission reports. They were still trying to figure out what was going on here.
"An army. From outer space," Steve said. Natasha rolled her eyes – where else would aliens come from?
"So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for," Bruce chimed into the conversation.
"Loki has them under some kind of spell. Along with one of ours," the Natasha in the memory said staring at the table blankly. Natasha froze – Barton was compromised in this mission. She was talking about Barton.
"I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here," Steve pointed out.
"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him," Bruce said warily. Always the logical one Natasha thought offhandedly.
"Have a care how you speak! Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard and he is my brother!" Thor said crossly. Natasha simply stared at him in disbelief.
"He killed eighty people in two days," her memory version said.
"He's adopted," Thor said frankly. Natasha snorted – crazy aliens. The memory faded again and another scene flashed in front of her. Some things were familiar while other not so much. She looked around the training facility and realized it was a room in Avengers tower. She watched as Stark, Pepper and her memory self had a conversation in the center of the room.
"How do you spell your name, Natalie?" Tony asked whipping out his phone. Natasha froze – oh god no. Natalie? She went undercover at some point?
"R-U-S-H-M-A-N," her memory version said patiently. She looked down at her style of business/sexy clothing – definitely undercover. Like hell she would wear uncomfortable clothes like that along with those insanely high heels. So unpractical in a fight.
"What, are you Googling her now?" Pepper asked incredulously. Natasha face palmed in the corner. So Stark.
"I thought I was ogling her?" Tony asked as he openly leered at the slightly younger version of herself. Natasha thought she was going to gag. Ugh! Stark was hitting on her at some point too? This was just so disturbing on so many levels. She was happy when the memory faded but groaned when she realized the next one was with Stark too. What was the narcissistic bastard going to do now?
"Can I ask you something personal? If this was the last birthday party you were going to have, what would you do?" Tony asked staring at the cup in his hand. Natasha paused as she watched her memory self actually consider the annoying man's question. He actually sounded sincere for once.
"I would do whatever I wanted to do, with whomever I wanted to," her memory self replied. Natasha paused as she watched a certain expression cross the genius' face. He totally didn't take what she said the right way. She could just tell by the funny spark in his eyes. The narcissistic bastard was back. The memory faded before she could see what he would end up doing. The next memory however scared the shit out of her.
"Your world in the balance and you bargain for one man?" Loki asked menacingly. Natasha froze as she watched the familiar scene play out in front of her.
"Regimes fall every day. I tend not to weep over that, I'm Russian... or was," her memory version said. She felt an uneasiness start to fill her body.
"What is it you want?" Loki asked narrowing his eyes.
"It's really not that complicated. I've got red in my ledger, I'd like to wipe it out," her old self said frankly. The dark look that passed over Loki's eye instantly made her blood run cold.
"Can you? Can you wipe out that much red? Drakov's daughter, Tugenov, the hospital fire? Yes, Barton told me everything. Your ledger is dripping, it's gushing red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything? This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer...PATHETIC! You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you, and they will never go away!... No, I won't touch Barton. Not until I make him kill you! Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear! And when he wakes, he'll have just enough time to see the work he's done, and when he screams, I'll break his skull! This is my bargain, you mewling quim!" Loki shouted with a crazy look in his eyes. Natasha gripped the side of her arm until her fingers started turning blue. She may have been a good actress – but no one came out of a confrontation like that unscratched. No one. Not when it was all true.
"You're a monster!" her memory self said backing away fearfully. Definitely acting; but the flick of slight panic in her eyes that disappeared in a second was real. For a second – Natasha Romanoff was not acting.
"No, you brought the monster," Loki said darkly. She watched the emotions drain from her face and leave a neutral expression behind. Loki seemed severely confused. She has done her job right.
"So, Banner... that's your play," her old self muttered as she walked away. The scene faded just like all the others and left her feeling empty and more alone then she's every felt in her entire life. It was one thing to watch that conversation on security footage – it was a whole other story when you were reliving it through your own perspective. She slowly fell to the ground as the colours swirled around her and changed shaped multiple times. The scene finally stopped moving in a SHIELD containment room. She looked up from the floor and her eyes zoned in on the pair of familiar spies having a conversation in front of her.
"Clint, you're gonna be alright," her memory self said quietly. Barton took a few deep breaths and simply stared at her. That was definitely not that right thing to say Natasha thought warily.
"You know that? Is that what you know? I got... I gotta go in though. I gotta flush him out," he said shutting his eyes and trying to block out wherever demons were haunting him at the moment.
"You gotta level out, that's gonna take time," her old self said firmly. He shook his head weakly.
"You don't understand. Have you ever had someone take your brain and play? Take you out and stuff something else in? You know what it's like to be unmade?" Clint asked with a faraway look in his face. Natasha froze as several moments from her life before SHIELD came to mind – she quickly shoved those back into the dark box she created to lock them away. She could see her memory self do the exact same thing.
"You know that I do," her old self said quietly.
"Why am I back? How'd you get him out?" Clint asked glancing around as if he was going to relapse any second. Natasha watched him barely in control – she never realized how hard it must have been on him to be basically turned into a puppet against your own free will. It must have nearly destroyed him.
"Cognitive re-calibration. I hit you really hard in the head," he old self said dryly. The scene faded at the end of her comment and once again she was lost in the darkness of her own mind. Amongst the flashes of these fleeting memories were some of the most horrifying moments she had ever experienced in her entire life. The one memory that was going to haunt her until her last breath was when new scenery painted itself across her vision in front of her and she came face to face with a picture of Clint lying in the ruins of a battle field bleeding to death. Her heart nearly stopped as she watched him take a ragged breath and cough up his own blood.
"CLINT!" someone shout from behind her. She spun around and watched herself run across the street littered with smashed cars and half caved in buildings. She looked like she had just fought through a war – maybe they did.
"I'm okay Tasha, I'm okay!" he croaked from the ground. Natasha couldn't breathe – he was so not okay. He was practically on his death bed. The memory version of herself fell to her knees completely disregarding the bruises she would get from the impact. Natasha slowly fell to her knees beside them as well.
"This is not considered okay! Don't you dare say any of this is okay!" Natasha shouted as she frantically ripped some fabric off her already ruined shirt and started putting pressure on the gaping wound bleeding from the side of his stomach. There was just way too much blood. It soaked through her uniform immediately.
"Guess I'm not as super as the rest of them eh?" Clint said with a painful laugh. Natasha shook her head in disbelief– how could he joke in a situation like this?
"Stop laughing you're not being funny," memory Natasha said angrily wiping something that suspiciously looked like a teary eye away with her sleeve. Clint froze.
"Why are you crying?" Clint asked incredulously.
"I'm not crying!" Natasha shouted defensively. He gave her a look of disbelieve.
"I saw some mist in your eyes! I'm not even dead yet!" Clint said in shock. Memory Natasha scowled viciously at the wounded archer and promptly smacked him upside the head.
"OUCH! Why would you hit a dying man Tasha?" Clint cried at he held is bruised head in pain. Natasha looked down at the rapidly bleeding wound in his side – if he lost any more blood he was going to pass out. He was down playing his injury. The lying bastard.
"You just said you weren't dying!" memory Natasha shouted furiously. Clint gave her a sheepishly smile that turned into a grimace. He had minutes left – and they both knew it.
"Tasha I didn't really want to tell you like this…but I lo-" he never managed to finished his sentence because they next thing they all knew an explosion went off to their right and completely drowned out all the other noise around them. Natasha's world went black once more but not before the searing pain of metal and fire making direct contact with her skin spasmed through her brain. Normal people don't survive explosions like that.
Her eyes shot open and the hazy vision of a dark and cool storage room appeared in front of her.
"Natasha!" Clint shouted worriedly as he helped her into a sitting position. Her mind was still crowded with the information overload she just experienced in the last 5 minutes. The last scene she saw continued to reply over and over again in her mind. She couldn't get it to stop. She swayed from side to side and suddenly lost control of her stomach.
"I think I'm going to throw up!" she said as she rapidly turned green. Clint quickly dragged and random box towards her and held her hair back as she promptly threw up into the box of random ammunition – highly unlikely to ever be used again. She leaned back against the shelf beside them and took in several deep breaths as she tried to calm her chaotic thoughts. She weakly grabbed onto Clint's shirt and pulled him towards her – he came willingly despite looking very confused.
"Tell me. You're not. Dead," she wheezed as she tried to take in as much oxygen as physically possible and calm her frantically beating heart. He looked at her with a worried expression but complied with her request nonetheless.
"I'm not dead Tasha – I'm completely okay," he said slowly. Natasha scowled at him.
"I hate the word okay," she said angrily. He froze.
"Colombia," Clint said with heavily realization. Natasha stared at him in confusion.
"What?" she asked. He sighed in resignation.
"You remember Colombia?" he asked slowly. She gave him a calculative look.
"Were you on a street in the middle of nowhere bleeding to death?" she asked slowly. He winced.
"Yup," he said warily. She glared at his vagueness.
"What the hell happened?" she asked impatiently.
"Ivan happened…" Clint said glancing away from her frozen expression.
"That bastard! Is he still alive?" she asked angrily – there was murder in her eyes as clear as day. Clint quickly grabbed onto her shoulder and forced her to look at him.
"No Tasha – don't go there again. Trust me it doesn't end well – for anyone involved. We can't win against people like him," Clint said firmly. The anger in her eyes continued to simmer.
"Why the hell not?" she shouted. A haunted darkness settled into his eyes.
"Because the last time we tried to confront him he had a 4 year old girl strapped to a bomb and made me choose between you and her," Clint said quietly.
The silence was deafening.
"Did you choose the girl," she asked expressionlessly. He didn't respond. She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and shook him vigorously.
"DID YOU CHOOSE THE LITTLE GIRL?" she shouted.
"Yes," he croaked. She let go of his shirt and stared at the floor.
"Why am I alive?" she asked finally.
"Because Stark is good with bombs – they got to you before I could," Clint said staring at a point on the wall above her shoulder. She opened her mouth to ask another question but he beat her to it.
"Don't ask Tasha – you don't want to know," Clint said slowly. She shook her head – she wouldn't sleep tonight either way.
"Where is she?" she asked dreading the answer. Clint tore his eyes away from the wall and made contact with her own steady gaze. His haunted eyes spoke volumes. She clenched her jaw and angrily punched the floor.
"That's why you were bleeding to death," she said angrily.
"I couldn't save her," he said with a faraway look in his eyes.
"This is one of the reasons why agents aren't supposed to be compromised Barton," Natasha said quietly after a few moments of silence. Barton shook his head sadly. No matter what shit happened in their lives – that was the one thing he would never lose hope in.
"You don't decide to be compromised or not Natasha – it was never your call to make. Whether you accept it or not – we've been compromised for a very long time," he said honestly. He watched as the stubborn streak finally drained out of her system and a tentative resignation took its place.
"Maybe that's why I fight it so much," she said quietly.
"When are you going to stop fighting Tasha?" he asked staring at her straight in the eye. She stared right back at him with something different shining in her eyes for the first time in 3 weeks. A part of the Natasha he used to know from before the accident was back.
However the intense staring contest was interrupted by the resounding sound of an explosion taking out of the side of the plane. They both crashed into the wall as several boxes fell out of their shelves.
"What the hell was that?" Clint groaned as pushed himself off the ground and looked up at his frozen partner. He realized half a second later why.
The engine wasn't running anymore.
And then everything started falling.
Natasha and Clint stared at each other and rushed back towards the front of the plane. Clint quickly shoved open the door and stared at the arguing bunch of avengers at the helm.
"I didn't know they were there!" Tony cried waving his arms at the unimpressed Captain standing in front of him.
"How could you not see fighter jets 100 feet to our left?" Steve asked incredulously.
"It's dark outside!" Tony said guiltily.
"There's a radar right there!" Steve said pointing at the flashing red screen in front of them.
"It's not my fault!" Tony said taking his hands off the helm.
"How is this not your fault?" Steve asked in disbelief.
"I'm not the one who went to the bathroom and left an inexperienced pilot at the helm!" Tony shouted. Steve stared at the red faced genius.
"YOU FREAKING BUILT A FLYING SUIT THAT YOU CAN PILOT INTO SPACE!" Steve exclaimed in disbelief.
"IT'S NOT THE SAME!" Tony said defensively.
"EVERYONE SHUT UP!" Natasha shouted effectively ending the dispute.
"Get out of the pilot chair before we all crash and burn," Clint said glaring at the pair of idiots. Tony and Steve quickly moved away from the controls and Clint swiftly righted the nose diving plane. He tried to bring them back up to safer altitude – except the thrusters were not cooperating.
"Why are we still falling…?" Bruce asked holding onto his seat for dear life.
"Ah…does anyone know how to fix a crankshaft in under 30 seconds?" Clint asked as he frantically tried to figure out what happened to the system.
"Why…?" Tony asked as they all stared at the fast approaching earth.
"Alert. Alert. Thruster is disengaged. Impact in 60 seconds," calm voiced reverted around the cockpit.
They all froze.
"WHAT DID SHE JUST SAY?" Tony yelped.
"Okay everyone get out!" Clint shouted as he jumped out of the pilot seat and pushed them all towards the back of the plane.
"This is like World War 2 all over again," Steve said with a sigh.
"If that is so, every day is like World War 2 Captain," Thor said watching Tony and Clint freak out in front of them.
"My Iron man suit!" Tony cried frantically glancing around.
"There's no time for your Iron man suit!" Clint said incredulously as he busted open a cabinet and pulled out a pile of parachutes.
"YES THERE IS!" Tony cried as he dived under his chair and tugged his suitcase out of the gap and towards the rest of the team.
"30 seconds until impact," the calm computer voice spoke again. Bruce stared at the parachute that was suddenly shoved into his hands.
"Oh hell no…" he said fearfully.
"Oh hell yes! Put it on!" Tony shouted as he threw his own parachute on and opened up the latch on the floor of the jet.
"Is everyone ready?" Clint asked loudly over the sound of the air rushing past them.
"I'M NOT READY!" Bruce said fearfully.
"TOO BAD!" they shouted in unison and shoved the poor doctor through the gap in the floor.
"AHHHHH!" Bruce shouted as he fell through the sky waving his arms around frantically. The rest of the team jumped after him and suddenly they were all in free fall. They all pulled the parachute inflation strap one by one until there was only one flailing avenger still falling through the sky.
"PULL THE STRAP BANNER! PULL THE STRAP!" Natasha shouted as she fell beside him.
"I can't! I can't! It's not working!" Bruce said frantically trying to get his parachute open. Steve huffed and tugged on the damn piece of fabric for him and they all watched the doctor get pulled up by the force of his parachute inflation.
They all awkwardly started floating to the ground 500 feet above the surface. Bruce looked like he was ready to throw up.
"Well that was fun," Tony said dryly as he awkwardly hugged his travel Iron Man suit.
"We didn't even reach the right country yet and you already managed to blow up our ride," Natasha muttered beside him.
"Yeah it's not as uncommon as you may think," Steve said dryly. She stared at him in disbelief.
"People shoot you out of the sky on a regular basis?" she asked incredulously. They all shrugged.
"What can we say? We're popular target practice," Tony replied. They all rolled their eyes.
Whoosh. They all watched warily as their smoking and flaming jet rushed passed them and fell into the ocean with a gigantic splash.
"How are we getting back home exactly?" Tony asked staring at their totaled jet as it sunk to the bottom of the ocean never to see the light of day again.
"Not with you!" they all replied in unison.
A/N: Hey guys it's been a while but I didn't forget about you! I really love this story and I was just wondering if you guys are still interested in reading it? Because I know around 200 people are following but I don't know if you like where the story is going or if you just hate it to pieces :( only a few people review so I don't really know what the majority of you think. Please let me know so that I can make it better! Feedback is really appreciated!
I'll keep writing if you guys want to keep reading!