Author's Note: I'm back and also apparently an accident just waiting to happen. Opened up my laptop, cat jumped behind it, knocked it into my mouth...and now I have a fat and bleeding upper lip... Ahh... life. Now then, onto the second part, starting off directly where the last chapter ended, enjoy another slightly longer(okay... doubly-longer) than the norm for a chapter. Figured I owed it to you guys.
Happy birthday today to levi97100. Here's your present, kind sir!
Chapter 21:
It seemed her eyes were burning a very searing hole into the decade old file that sat in Steve's hand. She watched as his crystal blue eyes looked down to it in concern before he lifted it and held it out for her to take. Natasha wasn't really sure why it surprised her so much that he handed it over without a second thought, but she pulled it into her hands along with Bruce's. The simple fact was, there were things in this file that even she didn't know, things in her past that could be answered without the lies that had been so easily fabricated in her mind by the people who weaponized her from early childhood. It held the answers to every question she had and some that she likely didn't know she had.
"You alright, Nat?"
"Why wouldn't Red be alright?"
It was Tony's voice and she watched Steve grimace when he realized his comm was on, "She tripped."
And Natasha kicked him in the shin before rolling her eyes. Nobody was going to believe that and she whispered the thought aloud, "You're a terrible liar, Rogers."
"Riiiiight."
Regardless, it did make her chuckle as she looked for something to shove the files in. It wasn't often she came across physical files anymore, not when most people digitized anything and everything, it wasn't something you typically prepared for. Apparently, you needed to prepare for everything when it came to HYDRA, and there was no chance she was leaving these here to come back for. While Steve was on a search of his own, her eyes skimmed through the folder on Bruce and she narrowed her eyes a little as she got towards the end. Natasha glanced up to make sure he wasn't looking still before she tugged the end pages of the files out and slipped them into her suit through the front zipper. Steve was the one who found the leather knapsack that he handed over to her and she quickly shoved the files inside before pulling it closed and tying it to her belt at her lower back.
Steve was one of the few people who seemed to always have her back even when she so clearly hadn't earned it. Not revealing Nikolao's serum before now hadn't been an intentional exclusion on her part, just another part of her past, a past she rarely spoke of since so much of it was still so uncertain. The reason for never having found the file before now was far too clear. Nikolao had taken it ten years ago when he had ripped her from Red Room, ripped her from her mind and her fabricated memories, and he had given it over to HYDRA.
"You want to tell me what's in that file?" Steve whispered out the question just before he peered out the door and into the hallway they had entered from.
Natasha really didn't if she was being honest, but given how much she had already neglected to tell him, it seemed unfair not to give some sort of answer. "It's Red Room's file on me," she finally answered just before he swept into the hall silently. She followed behind him and glanced back at where they came from before she spoke again, "Hard to say exactly what's in there besides a good sixteen years of my life...or why HYDRA would want it."
"How about how they got it?" he questioned next as he paused outside the next door, "Take it your friend had to do with that, too?"
Her gaze was locked onto the wall, something about it just seeming off to her, but she couldn't place why that was. She hadn't looked at it twice when they had entered from the door just next to it, but something now had her looking not just twice but three times before she finally looked back at Steve and answered the latest question, "Probably."
Again he pushed the door open. Again, he went low as she went in high with her gun raised. Again, nobody was inside the room. A sweep of the room led to nothing conspicuous or important along with the next several doors in the long corridor. She paused and kept perfectly still when Steve stopped at the edge of the corner that led around to the next hallway and he moved his hand across her middle to keep her halted.
He held up two fingers and she nodded before she gave him a closed fist signal that told him to stay. Steve just gave a nod and that was another thing she liked about working with him. Like Clint, he didn't question her, he knew she was able to hold her own and that situations such as these were one of her many specialties. Natasha nodded her head up to the rafters the hung above their heads and without hesitation he cupped his hands together and bent down. She stuck one foot in his hands and he boosted her onto them with ease. She shifted quickly and silently from one metal rafter to the next until she was just above the two men.
They were turned away from Steve now and she could see him glancing around the corner as his eyes shifted up to look at her position. She eased the metal hilts that Bruce had given her from her pocket before she dropped halfway down the rafters, her knees keeping her hanging upside down. The two men looked stunned as she hung before them and she winked, "Hey, boys." She squeezed the hilts as and pressed them to their necks, watching as the two men seized, writhed, then dropped to the ground in instant.
Steve was already moving in her direction as she gave a small swing with her upper body and landed in a crouch.
"Those are handy."
And Natasha was pretty sure that his comm was still active when she gave the weapons praise, "I think so, too. Banner made them. If you're nice, maybe you can get a pair too."
There was that awkward little chuckle of disbelief from Bruce in her ear which proved that Steve's comm was indeed still on. She was moving right behind Steve as he pushed on down the hallway before it changed from bleak and gray walls to a muddy tunnel lit with stringed lights along the top. They were dim and almost useless and she didn't like the foreboding feeling that trailed at the thought of going down it, not even a little bit.
"Oh good... they're literally tunneling like the rats they are..." Steve muttered.
She inclined her head a little in agreement, "Yeah and I wore my good boots, figures."
Steve looked genuinely amused with her odd humor, just as he always did on their missions together, and he shook his head a little with a small smile. That smile faded when he seemed to hear something that she couldn't and his eyes were peering back in the direction they had come from. For a few seconds she couldn't figure out why until she felt the rumbling of the ground beneath her feet.
"What the hell is that?" she dared to ask. Both of them wandered painstakingly slow back in that direction before she looked around the corner with wary precaution. Now she knew why that wall had seemed so damned odd. It wasn't a wall at all. It slowly raised up, sort of like a garage door, and from the cracked opening in the bottom she saw water start to creep out in rough spurts. She said the only thing she could think of in that moment, "I think they know we're here."
"And I think our original entrance is out as an exit," Steve mentioned when the rumbling actually turned into more of a quake. How much damn water was behind that to cause so much pressure? Steve grabbed her hand and yanked so hard he nearly pulled her arm from it's socket, "Go! GO!"
He definitely didn't need to tell her twice. Natasha followed him back towards their original destination, that dirt and mud tunnel, moving as fast as her feet allowed. Of course she did the idiotic thing as they started hefting their trek down the tunnel, she looked back.
The water came bending around the corner like a rapid river on a mission and when she turned her head forward it was only to see that the end of the tunnel was a rather large metal wall raising from the dirt in the ground. It was the only exit other than the one they came from and the reality of the was that they would never get back there now. HYDRA was trying to seal them in and very likely drown them. Steve was ahead of her, already leaping up and onto the top of the rising wall before reaching his hand down in wait for her.
"C'mon, Nat! C'mon!"
That wall was dangerously high now, high enough that if Steve didn't move to the other side it was going to crush him in the next thirty seconds. Thirty seconds wasn't enough for her to get to the wall and have him pull her over, not even if she thought she could still reach his damned hand. Instead she did the one thing that seemed to hold the most logic.
The files were more important than she herself was. She untied the knapsack from her waist and tossed it up into his hand. That look in his eyes said it all and she shook her head, "I'll figure it out. Go."
He was an inch away from being crushed.
"You have the files, Rogers! GO!"
That panicked look didn't leave his eyes, but he knew the mission had to come first when she used his last name rather than his first. Yet again she was reminded of why she chose to follow Steve as a leader. He finally gave the smallest of nods and rolled off onto the other side.
The onslaught of voices in her ear was almost bothersome and obviously they all heard the entire thing.
"Thor, Wilson, keep these guys busy!" came Tony's voice over the comm, "I'm on my way, Red. Get ready."
Get ready? She frowned a little, stuck between where the water was rapidly flushing down the tunnel to slam against her and the metal wall blocking her in. Natasha took a deep breath and pressed against the wall as the water crashed against her and knocked the wind right out of her. Taking the deep breath had been nothing if not useless and her ribs felt like they just might explode before she got the will to get her head above the water that was rapidly filling most of the tunnel.
She sputtered the water from her mouth before dragging her aching arms into motion as she swam without any real coordination towards the original entrance her and Steve had used. Unfortunately it took even less time for the small amount of space she did have between the top of the water and the top of the tunnel to fade to almost nothing.
There was no chance. She could swim better than most but there was no chance she could hold her breath long enough to make it all the way back. She was sure as hell going to try though.
She sucked in the deepest breath she could at the last possible opportunity before diving under and making long strides her her arms and legs. It fizzled out her comm, and really, maybe this would give Tony a reason to make the damned things waterproof. It felt like the most useless endeavor as she made it to the first corner and rounded it. It was surprising enough to have made it this far let alone that fact she got another foot or so down the hall before the edges of her vision went black. There was no moving faster after that, only slower as she tried to push on, and it was too far.
That was when she saw the sheen of red and gold at the other end of the water. The sparks that trailed even through the water told her it was Tony in the Iron Man suit. He made it to her in seconds, metal arms latching around her before he pulled a fairly graceless one-eighty degree turn and fueled them back from the direction whence he came. She choked on the water at the last second before he flew them both out and they landed even less gracefully as he went back first out the door of the building.
They skidded across the dirt of the ground, and for most if it he had her tucked tightly to him and took the brunt of it, not that she would complain much being that the water that had been sucked in sputtered it's way back out from the impact. Natasha shifted to her hands and knees as she hacked out and spit the muddied water to the jungle-bed floor, then she sucked in deep breaths before she realized that Tony was apparently saying something. A metal hand clasped over her shoulder and she settled him with an uncertain gaze before glancing around. She smacked her hand to her ears with the realization that almost everything was more than a little muffled. Almost like background noise.
A few more seconds and it all came in a little clearer and she shook her head to loosen the rest of the water lodged inside. Gunfire. Thunder. Lightning. Tony's voice. Feral growling. Natasha shifted her head in the direction of the last one.
"You hear me?" she finally caught Tony's words as he pulled her up on her feet and studied her through the Iron Man helmet.
She nodded before she remembered to speak, "Yeah, yeah I can hear you. The Big Guy is out?"
Tony nodded, "Yeah. Think he uh...think Bruce lost it when you..." he trailed off and she supposed he really didn't need to finish it.
She winced a little when her ear piece crackled back to life with a weird little shrill before it returned to normal. Well, maybe they only needed a slight upgrade for water damage, at least it hadn't completely died when submersed.
"You got her, right Stark?" came Steve's voice. It was still grainy and sounded a little far off, but crappy comms were better than no comms.
She activated her own comm, "I'm good, Rogers." And she could actually hear the relieved breath he pushed out at her words.
"Well... be glad Bruce went green, you might need him," came Steve's next comment.
"Oh, that sounds wonderful," came Sam's sarcasm over her comms.
"Found Stark's tanks."
Natasha was pretty sure Tony was grinning even though she couldn't actually see behind his helmet, "Naturally, just what Shellhead here wanted."
"Romanoff, third building on the left, need you back down here," Steve ordered next. It was just the way they worked, 'Romanoff' and 'Rogers' always when others could hear, they were teammates on missions with everyone else and friends with just each other. It was stupid really, but a way to keep things straight, a way to make sure that priorities weren't shifted during a mission. That same reason why she had made sure to say 'Rogers' earlier after he called her 'Nat'. To make sure that he put the mission first.
"On my way," she responded as she made her way there with Tony clearing a path of anyone who got in her way. Steve was getting better at it, getting more willing to make those tough calls, and it was very likely the reason that Fury had teamed her up with him in the first place. Natasha was likely the best person to teach the American hero how to make those. How to put friendship after the mission.
Though there were moments where she had failed in that lesson with him. Moments where he taught her that sometimes friendship was more important. She wasn't sure, but that might have been Fury's secondary reason for teaming them up. Clint had given her a reason to work for SHIELD, a reason to not give up and try to wipe some red from her ledger, and even shown her that people could be more than targets. They could be friends. Meanwhile, Steve had shown her absolute and complete blind faith, that trust could be given before it was ever earned, and that she could trust someone other than Clint.
She hadn't taught Steve nearly as much as he taught her and the few lessons she did teach him were mostly that she was someone who shouldn't be trusted.
Yet all these people willingly teamed up with her. Allowed her the privilege of her secrets, besides Tony, though she didn't begrudge him that. She was actually starting to like the jerk, nosiness and quirks aside, he was actually a generally good person if you dug below the surface. She might have never seen it before if it weren't for his easy friendship with and obvious protectiveness over a single person: Bruce.
She glanced at the blur of green that rampaged onto the battlefield just as she got to the door of the building Steve had urged her to enter. Natasha caught the Big Guy's eye for a moment as he paused and looked her way. Somewhere behind that angered and hostile face she thought she saw relief before the ground of the jungle opened up to reveal metal and a ramp that led down underground.
And Tony's tanks sounded their way up that metal ramp and caught the Big Guy's eye.
"The tanks have arrived!" Tony's voice sounded a little overexcited by that fact and she rolled her eyes before she peered through the door into the building. No one awaited her inside and she took one last look back as The Hulk picked up the first tank and threw the thing a good few yards until it crashed against a tree.
She sank further into the building and made her way quickly and quietly down the halls. Bruce and his greener meaner half were an even stranger anomaly in her already strange life than Clint and Steve had been. Emotions weren't something she did. Relationships definitely weren't something she did. His awkward stammering when she flirted, his dorky comments that made her smile, it just stirred something in her that she couldn't seem to put aside.
But she tried. She really tried to. Then he had to go and take a bullet for her. His other half had to go and jump off a building for her. Her own body seemingly rebelled against her in her sleep and clung to him. And then he had to go and kiss her.
She snaked around several more corners cautiously, like another rapid of water might come careening out of nowhere, though nothing did. There wasn't even a soul in sight, which she was grateful for, but it was a little worrisome.
Still, the other thoughts crept back in. Natasha had kissed Bruce back like a mindless and compliant imbecile, not only that, but she had taken it too far. She hadn't meant to. She hadn't meant for any of it. Nobody had ever actually evoked a real physical response from her and it was fascinating.
Near death experiences made her think far too damned much and she released a shaky breath as she trudged on down the hall. Thinking so much right now was dangerous and she shoved Bruce and all his dorkishness to the back corner of her little box. The box the was slowly being filled with things she tried to ignore about him and things she tried to pretend never happened. It pissed her off to no end that she couldn't seem to forget these things. Her box had never failed her before.
It was failing her now.
Natasha was never more glad to have two men in the hallway she turned into next. She kept her steps quiet even as she moved more quickly. At least this was a way to take out her anger and frustration with her 'feelings'.
Something crackled over her ear piece. Just noise at a high pitch that made her pause mid-step for a moment and shake her head to try and get the ringing from her ear. The crackle and static only lasted another second before it went away and she moved forward again.
And the two men, they never saw her coming.
Soaking wet, dripping, they never saw or heard her.
And she pounced, using her body in the lethal ways it was created and crafted for. She slammed the head of the first guy into the wall and kicked her leg back so that her foot caught the chin of the second. It was like a cog turning in a well-oiled machine. Thoughts went out the window and red seared through her vision. She pulled the first man into a headlock and twisted his neck until it snapped before she reared on the second. His fist came at her sloppily and she grabbed his wrist and twisted it around behind his back. She used that same arm to force him to the ground with enough pressure that the pop resounded and he screamed out in agony.
That probably alerted anybody nearby and she placed her palms on either side of his head before she bent and yanked and snapped his neck as well. Natasha knew quickly that she was right about alerting anyone nearby. She vaguely heard the grainy sound of Steve's voice telling her that she had company heading in her direction.
The red from her ledger permeated her vision as she pounded forward on quick feet when a HYDRA soldier exited from a door on her right. She didn't waste time as she rammed her elbow into his gut, slammed her fist under his chin in an uppercut, and then threw him head first into the drab cement wall of the hallway. The guy behind her likely thought he was unseen and unheard when he was anything but, he was sloppy and loud, impossible to miss even for an untrained ear. She reached back over her shoulder, got a grip around his neck and somersaulted as she vaulted him onto the ground in front of her.
Natasha yanked the knife from her boot and drove it into his heart, then she removed it, stood up and moved further down the hall. She heard the two sets of footsteps running before they ever rounded the corner ahead and she yanked out the second knife from her other boot. The moment they rounded the corner she reeled her arms back and threw both knives. Each one met their mark and both men fell in an instant. It had been ages since she left a trail of dead bodies like she was now, but the red was everywhere, seeping into her and driving her for more blood.
She couldn't form a coherent thought other than kill. Kill, kill, kill. She ran forward as her wet boots pelted the dirtied gray of the corridor floor and she yanked the knives from both mens' chests before she slipped around the corner. Two more men coming towards her and she launched forward to wrap her arms around the neck of one man and got her legs around the neck of the other. She twisted with enough force to bring them both to the ground, rolled, then dragged the knives home as they slid across their throats.
"Romanoff!"
She looked up in an instant, yanking a knife from one of her victim's throats and throwing it towards the voice.
"Whoa!" Steve's voice rang out as he shifted to the side just in time to avoid a blade to his face and Natasha thought for a moment she was supposed to stop. The Black Widow doesn't stop. The Black Widow kills. She pulled the second knife away from her victims and ran towards him. "Natasha! Nat, stop!" and he grabbed her wrist as she tried to plunge the knife into his chest. In an instant she lifted her other hand but he grabbed hold of that wrist as well. "Natasha! What are you doing?!" he sounded utterly perplexed and pissed and stunned by her onslaught.
She wasn't supposed to be doing this. She knew him, but she's not supposed to care if she knows her target. Not supposed to care.
"What's going on, Cap?" came Tony's voice through her ear.
"I don't know! It's Natasha—she's—"
She didn't give him time to finish. She wrenched her knee up and put it right below the belt. His grip on her wrists loosened for a fraction of a second as he grunted and grimaced, enough to get her going again. She used his hold on her wrists as a weapon as she launched herself feet first between his legs. The momentum was enough to flip him over from the unexpected maneuver and he landed with another grunt on his back.
Natasha rolled back gracefully and landed with her knees on either side of his chest as she raised the knife up with both hands.
"Nat! Stop!"
She froze for a moment with the knife mid-plunge as she stared down at Steve. Steve... Steve. That screeching noise crackled to life in her ear again for a second and she saw Steve's eyes narrow a little as his eyes shifted from her own eyes to her ear. A lower pitched noise hissed away and after another moment she was free. Free. Not...not this. The red was fading.
"Natasha?"
The red was all but gone now and she sucked in a shaky breath as she moved off Steve within a fraction of a second and let the knife clang to the ground.
"Hey...hey," he was sitting up, gripping her shoulders, "Breathe, Nat. What just happened?"
Considering she just tried to filet him, Steve was being ridiculously nice, worried in that weird way he had when his friends had just tried to murder him. "I..." she paused. What the hell had happened? "I don't know..." and Steve looked more than a little wary, especially when she gave that for an answer and she really couldn't blame him one bit. She just tried to kill Steve Rogers, Captain America, the posterboy for the Avengers. "I couldn't think..." she finally admitted. His brow furrowed almost infinitely as he glanced around to make sure nobody was nearby before taking a gander at the mess of bodies.
Steve looked at her like she grew another head and she squeezed her eyes shut to the headache that formed. He seemed to think she was going crazy and maybe she was. Maybe she was losing her mind.
"I found their computers, I need you for this, Nat," Steve told her as his grip on her shoulders kept her grounded, "Are you good?"
She supposed there wasn't much of a choice. He seemed willing to trust her to go on, albeit a bit reluctantly, so she snapped her eyes open and nodded her head. "I'm good," she wasn't sure if that confident tone was to reassure him or to reassure herself.
Natasha wasn't sure it was effective either way, but she let him pull her up to her feet and after retrieving her knives, she followed him down the next to corridors that led to the room he spoke of. Sure enough, computers were a dime a dozen in here and she let her eyes flicker over each. She let her fingers stroke over the keys of the first one she came across, her eyes skimming over information as it passed by while deciding if any of the files she opened were worth a damn. So far, none rung any bells. And it was too easy to look through them. There had to be something more. Something hidden.
She moved to the next computer over and went through much of the same motions while Steve kept in the doorway to lookout for any possibility of trouble.
There was a cackle of distorted noise in her ear and she grimaced a little at it. If she didn't need it for communication, she would have smashed the bothersome thing under her boot. Her motion must have caught Steve's attention because she felt his eyes burning a hole in her back as she fiddled with the ear piece before she went about her business. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she went to open one file that actually brought up a username and password. Steve was watching with interest between his glances out the door as she brought up a bypass screen and went to work. Given that someone in HYDRA had to be a decent expert at computers, it still only took her three minutes to get around the username and password.
"Not much here... a list of failed experiments on—on something." She gave it a second once-over, "Or someone," she corrected. "But that isn't really my expertise, Stark or Banner will need to check these out," she told Steve.
"I'll open a line for you to upload the information from the terminal to the jet, just gimme a sec," came Tony's distorted voice through her ear. A boom sounded over her ear and she winced at the feedback over the comm.
Steve frowned as he watched her and she settled him with an annoyed expression, "Stop giving me those worried looks, Rogers."
"Your earpiece not working right?" he questioned.
"Not since I tested its ability to be used post-submersion," she quipped dryly.
It at least worked to set Steve a little more at ease around her again, though only for a second and then he gave her a pathetic little frown, "I shouldn't have left you..."
She turned to him fully now since she was still waiting for Tony to start the uplink, "That was exactly what you should have done." He looked even more frustrated and she tilted her head to the side a little, "Steve, I trust you." It only seemed to make him even less comfortable with leaving her behind so she had to finish that statement quickly, "And I trust you because you can do the hard things. That was the hard thing, the tough choice, and the one that I trusted you to make."
He looked a little relieved at that, still bothered, but relieved.
"Uplink started. Fire away, Romanoff."
Natasha turned back to the computer and tapped away at the screen as the files began to transfer to JARVIS and the jet. She tapped away at the next computer, skimming over the information until a screen popped up that didn't look good. She had clicked on something that said 'Twins' and in an instant an alarming wail pierced over the speakers around them and the screen began a countdown that started with 10m00s. "Shit..." she muttered.
"That doesn't sound good..." Steve offered uselessly over her shoulder.
She tapped away at the screen, bringing up the same bypass as before, and her fingers moved flawlessly and quickly over the keys. She kept focus and disregarded Steve's obvious wariness.
"Nat..." 8m37s. "Nat... what is it counting down?"
She blinked for a second but continued tapping away as she answered, "If we're lucky? The computer will short circuit or something."
"And worst case?"
"Do Zola and Jersey ring any bells for you?"
6m15s. "Let's go, Nat," Steve told her quickly.
"I can do this."
"Romanoff, let's go!"
She swiveled her head to him but she understood that was an order this time. She lifted her hands off the keys and followed after him.
That crackling noise sounded from her ear piece again, followed by another equally annoying high pitched squeal. It crackled, sputtered and wailed and Natasha paused again as she cringed and shifted her head to the side a little.
Steve froze in the doorway and looked up and around the room before he seemed to realize the noise was coming from her ear piece, but she couldn't give it any thought, her vision seared again. The tiniest gasp released from her lips as the pain edged at the back of her eyes and she saw him turn to look at her. And the red. So much red.
"Crap..." came Steve's disgruntled disbelief. In some ways he seemed to understand that she was lost much like she was before. Lost somewhere behind the veil of red. And she rushed him in seconds. "Natasha, don't..." she heard him mumble.
Natasha's fists met his forearms as he blocked her flurry of attacks. Even his legs blocked her kicks. At one point, she must have surprised him, because she slipped the knife into his shoulder and heard him hiss out in pain. Steve must have decided there was no time to keep this up and she couldn't help the noise of surprise when he shoved her to the floor, lifted her under one arm and ran.
Squirm as she might she was lodged in and tucked tight between his waist and his arm until he drove both of them through the door three minutes later and out into the jungle.
With just seconds to spare.
The flames shot up out of every building and the ground shook and she took the golden opportunity that presented itself. Natasha rolled over onto him and pinned his arms to his sides with her knees as she yanked the gun from her thigh holster and shoved it under his chin.
But she never got to pull the trigger. Large arms wrapped around her and threw her aside and she tumbled a few times before she landed on one knee and looked up to see Thor staring back at her as Steve stood up beside him.
"Lady Natasha, what has gotten into you?" came Thor's stunned and pained question as he stared at her.
"It's her ear piece, get it out of her ear," Steve grumbled out, "It's making some sort of noise. I think that's what has her going so crazy," he paused and she narrowed her eyes a little as she glanced between the two, or make that three, as Sam landed on the other side of Steve.
They weren't attacking her for a reason. A reason. Then she heard the reason.
She twirled in an instant, swiftly pulling the metal hilt from her pocket before she squeezed it and swung out the baton. It met Tony's helmet with a sizzling blue crackle and she ducked as he went careening onto the ground of the jungle.
"Shit! She just short-circuited my suit!" Tony growled out.
Natasha knew these four. Knew them. She couldn't fight all four and that meant there was only one logical course of action.
Run.
She turned on her heel in an instant and took off through the vast expanse of foliage in the surrounding area. The dense trees formed from the wet season were her best defense now, her greatest means of being hidden, and she used them without thought as she moved.
"Natasha! Natasha, stop!"
She didn't stop. She kept her movements light and easy as she left no trail behind her. She weaved in and out of trees that were in her path and gracefully hopped over logs or bushes that marred her path onward. She kept on like that for what felt like ages even after she stopped hearing them behind her. She had concentrated so hard on what might be following, she never thought about what might be ahead, not until she broke into a clearing of overgrown grass and vibrantly colored flowers and foliage.
And one very large and pissed off Hulk.
He snarled and turned in an instant when she stomped into his territory and she sucked in a breath and dived to the side when he sent a tree branch sailing through the air in her direction. Natasha tucked herself into a roll before she came up on her feet, about to run from him when the crackling sounded in her ear. She hissed a little at the low pitch screech that sounded before she lost her footing when she had only just gotten it. She stumbled over with her hand on her head as the last of the crackling noise faded along with all the red and then she glanced up to the angrily concerned look on that large green face.
She stayed crouched where she was as she rubbed at her eyes to try and dull the throbbing behind her eyes. She couldn't for the life of her figure out what was going on, it just hurt.
By the time she opened her eyes again, The Hulk was standing only about a foot away and she had half a mind to jump back. But the Big Guy did the strangest thing. He held out a purplish bush with a few roots still attached at the bottom and she fought hard to suppress a chuckle from escaping her lips, "That uh—that for me?"
He huffed a little as he squinted his eyes at her and nodded.
Given that he seemed a little miffed at her original sudden intrusion into the area he had been in, she figured it was probably a good idea to try and calm him down, and definitely not laugh at his very Hulkish offering of what she presumed he thought were flowers. "Thanks, Big Guy..." she offered up, "Might need a uh... bigger vase in my room for that though." He looked mildly befuddled behind the anger and then he looked at the bush and seemed to sort of understand. He plucked one of the purple buds off almost delicately and offered it as he tossed the rest of the bush aside.
Nobody would ever believe this happened and she couldn't really fight the smile that curled at her lips when she took it from him, "That's a lot easier to hold onto...thanks."
Of course, he didn't really seem to care all that much as he turned and went back to trampling around in the slightly serene meadow that was hidden a midst the jungle. She quirked an eyebrow up as he uprooted a smaller tree and slammed it onto the ground without much effort, then repeated picked it up and slammed it again. Her ear piece crackled a bit and she groaned a little. It seemed to pull his attention back to her and she figured she should probably get Bruce back. Try to figure out what the hell was going on with her. "Hey...Big Guy," she called softly. She offered up her empty hand as she raised it up slowly, "Sun's gettin' real low."
He snarled a little, looking pissed and riled, likely from the actual fight with tanks and soldiers he had gotten to be a part of. He huffed and puffed a little, like the big bad wolf, then tossed the uprooted tree aside as he trudged over towards her with heavy steps that shook the ground a little. It was a ridiculous and nervous little feeling that hit her like she might just get smacked by him one of these times during all of this, a feeling that hit each of the times she had tried to do this. She settled the feeling away as he glanced from her face, to her hand, her face, and then finally her hand again. The hand that was stained with the blood of her earlier victims. But it was far too late to be worried about that.
A long release of air came from his giant green nose before those enormous brown eyes softened just a little, looking more like Bruce as they got a little wider, a little less angry and a little more awed at the offering of her hand.
Even the angry lines around his usual stoically enraged features faded away a bit, like he was surprised to have her sit here and trust him, surprised she hadn't run off in fear yet. Then he slowly raised his hand up and left it facing hers just as he had the two previous times. Natasha cautiously turned her hand over, not allowing her eyes to leave that more passive face even as he settled his eyes on the upturned offering of her hand. He still looked a little twitchy and unsure, but he finally plopped his hand palm up into hers with only the slightest hesitation still left before he looked up at her face again. She had to remind herself not to let out a breath of relief before she slowly moved her hand up and onto his arm, shifting her eyes back to his as she trailed her fingers down to his palm and then his fingertips.
All in all, he was only a little twitchy while she did it, then she pulled her hand back slowly and watched as he stared at her for a good ninety seconds with a ruffled brow. For that minute and a half she thought maybe it wouldn't work, that maybe all of this was useless and he wouldn't change back into Bruce, but then he moved backwards slowly. Stumbling, really. And then she blew out the breath of relief she had held in as she tried to ignore the whiny feedback in her ear. Tony really needed to work on waterproofing these better.
It took Bruce a few minutes to come back around when he was writhing on the ground. Even then, it was only because of the voices in his ear yelling back and forth with something about Natasha and how she was apparently losing her mind. He groaned as he rolled to his hands and knees, forcing aside a bit of nausea as he shifted his attention to where the Natasha had been minutes before. She was still there, eyes squinting with a bit of a pained expression as her hands rubbed furiously at her temples.
"She doesn't seem crazy..." he half mumbled into the comm in his ear. She just looked like she had a rather wicked headache.
"She's with you?" came Tony's stunned voice.
Bruce shifted so he was sitting and blew out a breath, "Yeah. She De-Hulked me.."
"And she hasn't tried to kill you or anything, right?" came Tony's next question.
Bruce felt his brow ruffle a bit at the question, "Natasha wouldn't do that...not that I think anyone could do that."
There was silence for a moment before Steve's voice came through his ear, "Banner, get her ear piece out, it's doing something to her."
"Doing something?" he dared to ask.
"She tried to kill Rogers," Tony whisked out next, "Twice."
Bruce almost couldn't believe that, but given that Steve wasn't denying it, it must have been true. He took another half a second to catch his breath before wobbled to his feet and he edged his way a little haphazardly to where Natasha was seated. He eased down to sit in front of her with absolutely no grace whatsoever, it wound up being more like plopping down, "Hey..." It seemed he didn't need to take her ear piece out, she seemed to have figured it out all on her own because she was twirling it in her fingertips in disdain and she looked guilty. It was that look that made him move his hand to her cheek. "Mind if I take that?" he asked quietly. She didn't say anything but she held it out to him without a second thought and dropped it into the palm of his other hand.
"We're already heading your way using the tracker in Romanoff's suit... just uh—you know, let us know if she goes batshit again," Tony added over his comm. Bruce had to resist rolling his eyes but Natasha probably already had a vague notion of the conversation that was being held.
He watched Natasha as she took a few shaky breaths before she closed her eyes. He frowned a little more before he pocketed her comm and hesitantly moved his hand and placed it on her knee, "Hey...Steve doesn't seem to think it's your fault."
She still said nothing and even her eyes wouldn't quite meet his. It seemed when you tried to kill Captain America twice you lost a bit of perspective. Her eyes were locked onto the strange and squished purple flower in her hand as she fiddled with the petals and it caused his eyes to roam the weird little area they were in before they landed on a pink and white lily sitting just a foot away. It was probably a ridiculous thing to do, but he retracted both hands from her and reached out, plucking it before offering it to Natasha. Her eyes shifted from the one in her hand to the one he held out to her and her head tilted just a fraction to the side while her eyes took on a rather bemused glint.
She was a bit of a mess to look at really. Her uniform was soaked and muddy, her face had streaks of smeared dirt and blood that wasn't hers and her hair was equally as wet with dirt stuck in it. Finally her blood-caked fingers reached out and almost daintily took hold of the flower before her eyes finally drifted up to lock onto his and the corners of her lips curled upwards just slightly, "Thanks, Bruce."
Natasha's voice came out soft and genuinely grateful and he watched as she tucked the flower stealthily by her thigh. For a moment he could quite figure out why, not until he turned and saw Steve, Sam, Thor and Tony. Tony who was sans his suit. "Where's your suit?" he dared to ask.
Tony gave a rather menial shrug, "Eh, your batons fried its circuits."
Bruce felt his brow furrow as he glanced at Natasha but she had a rather empty expression on now. That 'someone else is here' mask that she threw on. So he made the only comment he could, "Oh..."
"Nat, you okay now?" Steve questioned.
Bruce followed her eyes to the bloodied slit in Steve's shoulder before the numbed word left her lips, "Yes."
If he wasn't exhausted already, the hour trek through the jungle to the jet pretty much sealed the deal, and the awkward silence that hung in the air certainly didn't make anything more comfortable for any of them. Steve gave occasional and wary yet concerned glances back at the redhead who trudged along beside Bruce and if he had enough energy, he might have dared to shoot a glare at the supersoldier to try and make him stop.
Natasha seemed just numb enough by the time they were inside the jet that she took the seat directly beside him and Bruce was admittedly more than a little surprised when she closed her eyes. It was a few minutes into Tony taking off that her head lolled to the side before he felt the warmth of her breath tickle his shoulder and he blinked over at her a few times. His eyes searched around at the others, but they seemed to be looking anywhere but where Natasha decided to rest her head. Frankly, he sort of wanted to do the same, but the remnants of the conversation between Tony and Steve were finally ringing in his brain.
"Let me get this straight, Capsicle. You think her ear piece set her on a path of murder and mayhem?" came Tony's disbelieving tone.
"Yes..." Steve answered. Even Bruce had to admit the man sounded mildly uncertain.
"Didn't she say that file you've got in that bag is her Red Room file?" came Tony's next question.
"Yes..." Steve answered again.
"Well, hand it over, maybe it has answers."
Bruce knew that Natasha was awake the moment she stiffened a little against his shoulder. To Steve's unending credit, he looked a little annoyed that Tony would even suggest leafing through the file. "You're not snooping through her past, Stark. I'm sure you've done enough of that already on her SHIELD files," the supersoldier stated through gritted teeth.
"You want her to try and filet you again? Fine, have at it. I for one don't happen to have juice from a bottle inside me that will heal a stab wound in a single day," came the snarky retort.
"I must admit that though I did not enjoy what overcame Lady Natasha, I am against prying into her life without her permission. That is hers and hers alone, I do not feel comfortable sorting through it against her wishes," and leave it to Thor to be the voice of reason among the group of heroes.
Sam looked a little indifferent to it all, but Bruce figured maybe that was because the man had already seen one of Steve's friends try to kill him, so maybe a second wasn't all that surprising at this point, "Whatever you decide here, Cap...but I sort of agree with Thor and Stark..."
Surprisingly Steve looked like he might just hand it over as he pulled open the knapsack and peered inside and just as Bruce was about to stand up and intervene, Natasha's hand gripped his arm and forced him back in his seat, "Just give it to him, Steve." All eyes turned in their direction and even Bruce couldn't help but stare at her in surprise. She just shook her head a little with her eyes still closed, "Loathed as I am to admit it... he's right. I—we—need answers. Maybe it was a fluke or maybe not, but we still need to know how it happened, and hopefully how to make sure it doesn't happen again."
The silence was eerie besides the sound of Steve pulling the old and worn file from the knapsack and handing it over to the billionaire. Then he yanked out the manila folder, came over to Bruce, and put it in his hands, "Natasha found that, figured you might want to take a look."
He glanced to the file now in his hands, then to Steve, and finally to Natasha who had finally opened her eyes. He flipped it open and peered over the contents.
There wasn't really much at all inside the folder, apparently just whatever they had dug up on him recently, and none of it seemed all that important. Just the original awry experiment that made him what he was, possible methods of 'containment' and possible methods to 'neutralize' him, both of which made him scoff a little. He wasn't sure what was more ridiculous, the idea that HYDRA thought they could contain his monster, or that in the event they couldn't that they thought they could kill him.
"Anything important?" she finally questioned.
"Doesn't seem to be..." he admitted in relief, "Nothing nobody else doesn't already know."
"Colorful list of neutralization techniques they have there," she mentioned nonchalantly, "I rather like the one where they just stick you in an indestructible pod and throw you in the ocean."
Her tone came out so dry that Bruce couldn't help but snort a little in response. He flipped through a few more uselessly detailed pages before he realized something with the file wasn't quite right. It looked like things had been ripped out after the last page. Things were missing. "Somebody tore things out," he mentioned with a furrowed brow.
Natasha's fingers reached out and took the file as she moved the pages with ease. Her expression never changed as she handed it back, "Looks that way."
"Useful..." Bruce mumbled as he took the file she handed back to him and tossed it onto another seat.
"And what of the information that Lady Natasha sent from their computers, Stark?" came Thor's question.
"Jarvis is filtering through that and he'll let us know if there's anything to go on, could probably have more, but it seems anytime someone lets Romanoff and Rogers near a computer at the same time, the bunkers containing them tend to go boom," Tony quipped.
Steve and Sam were shaking there heads with little sighs, Thor was snickering, but Bruce was mostly surprised to see that Natasha hadn't reacted at all. She had that vacant look that told him she was over-thinking something.
"Hey Red."
Bruce watched as Natasha's eyes flitted over to Tony.
"I think Captain Depends was right," he admitted as he motioned her over, "Take a look at this." Bruce watched as Natasha shifted and stood, then moved to Tony at the cockpit.
She leaned over this shoulder and peered at whatever he found and it was one of the first times any of them in the jet saw her face falter in the presence of so many people, saw her eyes give away everything, and Bruce found it unnerving.
She looked not just horrified but as though somebody had told her all her life that the grass was greener on the other side, then just as she got to the fence, told her it was actually worse on the other side. "You're telling me that Red Room made a specific frequency of noise that could flip a switch in me and send me into a 'kill everyone' spree?" she questioned.
"Looks like it, though... technically they say violent fit of rage."
"But it has an off switch," she said next.
"Yeah," he agreed, "But it doesn't mention what either frequency is, what exact decibel of noise would cause it. Cap was right...it was a freak accident. So—at least nobody hacked your brain on purpose?"
Bruce supposed Tony had tried to offer that up to make Natasha feel a little better but the look on her face said it only made things worse.
"I need you to find those frequencies, Tony," came her next comment. It seemed to surprise everyone, "If there's ever another freak accident, or if somebody out there does know what they are, it means we need the off switch."
Tony gave a grim nod at that, "Sure thing." His eyes flickered down to the file in thought before he snapped it closed and handed it to her, "But just so you know, you're getting your own special cage."
"Tony!" Bruce groaned out in disbelief.
"What? God forbid I find the right frequency and she tries to snap my neck or put a pencil up my nose and into my brain or something," Tony stated with a shrug, "I need a line of defense between me and her."
Bruce was glad to see it when Natasha's lips curled into a tiny little grin, "I would come up with something more clever when it comes to your imminent murder, Stark." Tony cringed a little. "But the pencil up your nose is pretty creative, I'll use it for my muse," she told him with a pat on the shoulder. Bruce felt himself smile a little as she came over and sat back down beside him. He never saw her do it, but at some point she had picked up a t-shirt and handed it to him, and he quickly shrugged it on.
"Thanks..."
She gave him the smallest nod as she held the file tight in her hands and closed her eyes again. This time when he breathing evened out, Bruce was pretty sure she was actually asleep, and when he glanced towards the file he could see a purple petal and a pink petal barely peering out the edge of her gun holster. The little smile he had grew just a bit more before he leaned his head against the wall of the jet and closed his own eyes.
Okay. There's one large chapter for you. Hope you enjoyed it!