Lost in the seas of forgotten memories
A/N: That wasn't too long of a wait. Enjoy!
Chapter 25
Natasha narrowed her eyes as she stared at the one man in the world who made her blood boil. If he was saying what she thinks he was saying she was done here.
"I was supposed to get shot with the trigger earlier today wasn't I?" she said dangerously. Ivan shrugged.
"It's not like it matters anymore –this just means you're on another time limit Natasha," he said with a sadistic grin.
"You know Ivan...you may have been spewing bullshit this whole time but it doesn't really matter anymore. Because I always keep my promises," she said dangerously aiming her gun at his heart.
"Are you really going to shot me Natasha?" he asked calmly. She tensed and she held the gun firmly in her hand.
Clint's face flashed through her mind.
"Yes," she growled before she pulled the trigger.
BANG! She shot him in the chest and promptly ran for it as a rain of bullets flew over her head from two different points of the alleys. The snipers were amateurs.
She was a god damn profession assassin.
"Ivan!" someone shouted in the distance.
Natasha didn't look back once.
Ivan grunted as he collapsed to his knees and leaned heavily against the wall behind him.
"Ivan you idiot!" James shouted as he rounded the corner and stared at the bloody mess his boss was in. The man was insane.
"No James. You're the idiot. You're worse than Rogers. After 70 years you still never understood brilliance in disguise did you?" Ivan wheezed as he spat out another large amount of blood that had accumulated in his mouth again. He took a deep breath and pushed himself off the wall with relatively no trouble. James gaped.
"But-but she fully shot you in the chest!" he exclaimed in shock. Ivan sighed.
"I know genius. That is why you wear a bullet proof vest when dealing with Natasha Romanoff," Ivan said leaning forward and massaging the bruised part of his chest. It hurt like a bitch – but he definitely wasn't dead yet. Not yet.
"She beat the shit out of you boss…" James said warily. Ivan winced as set his nose back in place. Crack!
"I know," he said steadily.
"Why did you let her do that?" James demanded. Ivan smiled slowly.
"Because now she thinks I'm dead," he said simply. James shook his head – crazy.
"The virus didn't take effect did it?" he said warily. Ivan's eyes darkened as he was reminded of that little detail.
"No – which means I'm about to ask a very important question James. And if I don't like the answer – you won't like what I do next," Ivan said dangerously. James tensed – shit.
"Were you the one who was in charge of making sure Romanoff got hit with the trigger?" Ivan asked with the warning apparent in his voice.
"Ah…if I say no will you kill a random hit man instead?" James said warily. Ivan narrowed his eyes.
"James you may have your own super serum running through your veins but I will kill you…" Ivan said dangerously. James paused as he heard the promise in his boss's voice. Scapegoat time.
"Before you finish that thought I would like to mention that Cairo accidently set off the bomb in the tower back in the States," James said swiftly damning his fellow associate. There was no comaradian amongst villains. It was every bastard for himself.
His statement was meant with silence.
"Where is the bastard now…?" Ivan asked darkly. James internally sighed in relief – he wasn't going to die to today.
"Still in America trying to tag the explosion on some other small time avenger nemesis," he explained. Ivan flipped open his phone and watched as the news silently displayed the damaged Avengers Tower in all its fallen glory.
"Someone is going to pay for that," Ivan growled.
"Seems like everything went to shit at the moment," James said dryly. Ivan paused as he continued to watch the disaster back in Manhattan capture the attention of the American nation. He stared at the faces of Jane Foster and Pepper Potts as they flashed across the screen listed as two of the people still stuck under all the rumble. Unless…
"No…not quite – find out where Barton is. Make sure Cairo still has his ass in America. This could work in our favor. And next time I give you a job Barnes – don't miss," Ivan said warningly before he threw the ruined bulletproof vest on the ground and stalked away.
There was always more than one way to destroy someone. There was always more than one way to reach your ultimate goal.
memories meomries memories memories memories
"Time's up guys," Steve said in shock. They all shared a worried look for all of 3 seconds.
And then they immediately got fired upon from 3 different directions.
"ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?" Bruce shouted as he shoved Tony to the ground while the genius ignored everything and everyone around him as he continued to try and get a lock on Romanoff. The time was up - so what?
He wasn't going to give up.
DING.
"FINALLY! I GOT IT GUYS! I GOT! What do we do now?" Tony called out to his teammates covering him as he finally managed to get a lock on her phone. She was 3 miles away from them near the central city train station. And she was moving fast. Well…that could mean many things. It could mean she was alive and running towards or away from something or someone else had Natasha Romanoff's phone.
"Just call her DAMN IT!" Bruce shouted as he blocked another round of bullets using a trash can lid lying on the floor beside him. He couldn't get hit and hulk out now. It would completely compromise their team if they had to deal with a hulk in this entire mess.
"Are you trying to make my shield look obsolete doctor?" Steve asked dryly from beside him. Bruce snorted.
"Cap your shield is like the mother of all shields. A trash can lid is simply a hundred times easier to find," Bruce said whipping the lid towards the gunmen ahead of them and racing back down the alley. They quickly picked up Tony's Iron Man suit backpack and dragged the man himself down the alley and around the corner. They finally had a lead.
"Hurry up with the call Stark!" Bruce said as glanced over his shoulder. They needed a better plan on getting rid of their new friends. Tony quickly dialed Romanoff's number as they all continued to run for their lives.
They were getting tired of running.
memories meomries memories memories memories
The time was up on Maria's phone and the silence between the two of the most important SHIELD agents was deafening.
"We need to get those metals bands off of you before we go looking for anyone Maria," Coulson said being the first to break the tense silence. She narrowed her eyes.
"There is no way we are going to waste time doing something as pointless as that. She could be in trouble right now," Maria said in disbelief.
"And you could be dead right now," he said angrily. She glared at him.
"Stop being fucking selfish Coulson!" she shouted furiously. He clenched his fists at his sides.
"The virus is not meant to kill Natasha Maria. Of all the things it could do to her – it's not going to kill her," he said angrily. Maria's eyes darkened.
"How the hell do you know that for sure?" she growled.
"Because this is all way too big to be a simple assassination plot! It's something bigger than Natasha Maria! This is something bigger than the Avengers even," he shouted angrily. She froze as she suddenly realized something about their shitty situation.
"Coulson if we're all out here…who's left back at SHIELD we can trust other than Fury?" she asked slowly. He gave her a wary look.
'No one else is left at SHIELD Maria. No one," he said vacantly. She tensed.
"Shit. We need to find Natasha and get everyone off this island now," she said banging her fist against the wall beside her. Too many things were happening way to fast all at once.
"I knew you'd say that," he said with a sigh. Click.
She froze as she felt a cool metal object make contact with her head. It was a standard tranquilizer.
"Coulson…" she said warningly. Shit he was such as bastard.
"I'm not sorry Maria," he said firmly. He would never be sorry for trying to save her.
BANG!
She lost consciousness before she felt herself fall into the arms of possibly the only man in the whole world who was looking out for her in this gigantic mess. If Maria Hill spent all her time and energy protecting her agents – who would protect her?
Once he was gone – who would even remember that Maria Hill needs protecting as all?
Those were the question he found himself asking nowadays.
memories meomries memories memories memories
Natasha cursed as she nearly tripped over her own feet as she dashed around another street corner.
Her phone was ringing.
She didn't know why but something compelled her to pick it up.
"You finally decided to pick up your phone did you? We have been trying to find you for the last HOUR!" Tony shouted through the speaker. Natasha narrowed her eyes.
"Shut up and get to the point I don't have time for your stupidity right now!" Natasha shot back as she ran through the alley and as far away from the disaster behind her as she could. Tony paused as he listened to her very Natasha like response. Huh. Sane enough he supposed.
"Give me one second," Tony said turning towards his two teammates still covering him as they ran from their own little party of gun men.
"SHE'S NOT DEAD!" Tony hollered at the other two avengers.
Natasha banged her head against her palm. That was her rescue team?
"Fantastic! Ask her if she knows about the stupid virus!" Bruce shouted back. Tony snorted.
"Red – do you know you are kind of screwed with an amnesia causing bug right?" Tony asked just before he ducked as a spinning metal crowbar whipped over his head.
"Hey! Hey you! I'm on the phone here!" Tony shouted at the assassins dancing a bloody dance with his teammates. Steve and Bruce both groaned in unison.
"Hurry up!" they shouted at the same time.
"Yes, yes I know. It's not active at the moment. How do you know?" she asked incredulously.
"Coulson – long story. Maria Hill's health was possibly involved in the scandal," Tony said dryly. Natasha sighed. So it was just her and Barton who were out of the loop. She froze.
Barton still didn't know.
Barton still didn't know anything.
"I got to go Stark," she said quickly speeding up. Tony froze.
"Wait – no! No! No! No-" he shouted in alarm.
She promptly shut her phone and hung up on the narcissistic bastard. She would never stop calling him that even though she didn't quite believe it anymore. He was too soft underneath all the sarcasm and swag.
For the first time in her life (that she remembered) Natasha Romanoff was finally running after someone else.
Oh how the stubborn have fallen.
She stared at her phone and quickly called Clint's number.
Ring. Ring.
BEEP.
"This line is currently unavailable at the moment," a robotic voice answered.
BEEP.
She stared at her phone in shock. Barton always picked up his phone.
How on earth was his line BUSY?
"What on earth are you doing Clint?" she asked incredulously. She chunked her phone back into her pocket and started weaving through the crowded manila streets. She was wary of all these people around her when she had the unknown dormant virus in her body. She was silently freaking out as she tried to imagine every possibility the trigger could have. She only really came down to two that mattered.
Either the trigger worked in his body and did something horrible or it didn't.
There was a 50/50 chance for both.
"Where would he be? Where would he be?" she whispered anxiously looking around trying to figure out what a scorned Barton would do after she…left. She smacked her palm against her forehead. They were both idiots.
She froze as a thought finally occurred to her.
He would leave.
She spun around and ran back the way she came. She was sure she passed a train station not too far back.
"Please be okay. Please still be here. Please still be here," she muttered as she ran into the station and started searching the massive crowd for a brown haired archer. It was almost 8 in the evening and the place was packed with people going home or leaving the city for the weekend. Even if Barton was here she could easily miss him. She ran through the crowd and scanned as many heads as she could. She froze in front of the largest departure and arrival time board in the station.
There were literally hundreds of trains departing within the next 2 hours to 20 different locations.
She was doomed.
She paused as she stared at the flashing part of the screen that said the current train in the 3rd platform was departing in 5 minutes. There were a hundred places he could end up - But he would choose… the one that would leave this place the soonest.
She ran towards the sign the said train platforms like her life depended on it. In some ways it did.
"Damn you Barton I know you're here. Where are you?" she muttered as she quickly ran onto the platform and scanned the crowd for a certain archer. There was only 3 minutes left before the train left. She was running out of time herself.
They were always running out of time.
"Too many places for you to hide," she growled as she ran down the length of the platform. She reached one end of the train and still hasn't found him. She huffed and turned around to face the other side of the platform.
"CLINT BARTON ANSWER ME DAMN IT!" she shouted into the noisy crowd rushing all around her.
A world wary SHIELD agent sitting slumped against a seat at the other end of the train suddenly groaned and banged his head against his compartment window.
"I can't believe I'm still hearing her voice again," Clint growled. Why was his mind playing tricks on him? Wasn't it good enough that he was already plague with her face in his thoughts at every waking second? Now he was hallucinating too?
He covered his ears and tried to ignore the voice that sounded scarily like the one girl he ever cared for.
But he knew she would never come back. Natasha Romanoff would never run after him. She was way too stubborn.
Oh how wrong he was.
"Clint you bastard where are you?" Natasha growled as she started running down the train again peering into every individual train compartment window. He had to be here. He had to be here. Something was telling her he was here.
"Mommy…what is that girl doing?" a little boy asked as he sat on a bench with his mommy waiting for his daddy to come home after 8 months of serving in Afghanistan.
"She's looking for someone honey," she said as they both watched the redhead spin around and stare up at the large clock hanging from the ceiling. It was 2 minutes away from departure time. She started searching through the windows faster.
"Is she going to find that person?" he asked hopefully looking up at his mommy. She smiled and patted him on the head. Ah children – they were so innocent.
"Maybe. She might if she's lucky," she said quietly staring down at her wedding ring. She remembered the day many months ago when she was here saying goodbye to the man she loved. Maybe this girl regretted letting her love go too.
"But you can't be lucky all the time mommy…" the child said furrowing his brow.
"That's right – but sometimes you can make your own luck sweetie," she said pulling the little boy into a tight hug.
A train conductor walked past the last compartment on the train near the control room and paused as he look at the lone man sitting in the compartment.
"Are you okay Sir?" he asked the man who was staring at his knees with a faraway look in his eyes.
"I don't know," Clint said blankly. He just wanted it to all stop. He didn't want to feel the emotions anymore.
The conductor sighed. Young love.
"It's a girl isn't it?" he asked with a knowing look. Poor man – looked like he really got the short stick.
"Have you ever fallen in love?" Clint asked still staring at his knees.
"Yes sir, indeed I have," the older man said with an odd look on his face. It was a long, long, long time ago though. Longer than anyone alive today was likely to remember.
"Was it the type of love where you need her like air whether her love was soft and sweet or burned like a blazing fire?" Clint asked still with the glazed look in his eyes.
"Can't say I have," the conductor said quietly. So that's how deep this boy was in. It's a shame she's letting him go. Such a shame….
"Guess the girl I love is just a bit too unique," Clint said with a sad laugh.
"Guess so. Good luck sir," The conductor said giving the young man a nod. Clint was hardly in the right frame of mind to respond. The conductor slowly closed the door and walked down the hall connecting all the train compartments. He took the conductor hat off his head and tossed it into the control room.
"Barton's on the train," the conductor said into a speaker oh his wrist. He pulled the elderly looking mask off his face and it was James in all his bastardly glory. It was time to show Romanoff they mean business.
Natasha frantically continued to look through all the compartments. She still had 13 more to search through until she would reach the end. She heard the train whistle blow from the front of the train. She had less than a minute left to find him.
"Please be here, please be here, please be here," she chanted as she continued to run past all the windows that didn't contain the one man she was looking for. She was seconds away from reaching the last window on the train.
Clint looked up as something suddenly banged against his window.
He nearly crashed to the floor as he stared at the out of breath figure of Natasha Romanoff standing on the other side of the glass.
"Clint…" she whispered out of breath. She finally found him.
"Natasha?" he asked in shock.
And then the train started moving.
Natasha's hope shattered as her hands dropped to her side and the window holding the utterly shocked face of Clint Barton moved out of the station.
Their eyes stayed in contact with each other for a few agonizing seconds before she lost sight of him as the train curved around the corner. He was gone.
And she was left with silence.
She walks off the platform in a daze and into the bustling station. Everyone was rushing in and into with somewhere they had to go. She didn't know what she was going to do now. He was alive – but he was also gone.
How could she have missed him?
How could he be moving hundreds of miles away from her without even knowing about the trigger running through his veins?
…Or the virus running through hers.
For the first time in her life…Natasha Romanoff was lost.
She stopped walking when heard the big clock chimed 8 times. Time was just no on her side.
"Natasha?" someone called out from behind her. She froze with one hand on the door leading out of the station. No...it couldn't be. He was definitely on the train moving past the window beside her.
She slowly turned around and stared at the bruised and out of breath image of Clint Barton. He had twigs and grass sticking out of his hair and mud all over his pants.
He looked like he had just jumped off a moving train.
She had the strange feeling that's exactly what he did.
"Clint…" she whispered.
"Why did you come back Tasha?" he asked still breathing in ragged breath. She took a deep breath herself.
"Because you're the only one on the team who doesn't know what's going on…" she said still in shock that he was standing in front of her. He was here. He was alive. He was still sane.
"I…I have no idea what you're talking about Tasha," he said slowly. She froze. How was she going to tell him?
"Clint remember when you pushed me out of the way and got shot with something we thought was a sedative?" she asked uneasily.
"Yes…" he said waiting for her to continue.
"It's wasn't a sedative Clint. It was trigger for something else," she said slowly.
"I am still confused..." he said steadily. She winced.
"If you get the virus Clint – we don't what will happen to you," she said anxiously. He froze as he processed with she just said.
"But nothing has happened to me yet…" he said in confusion.
"No, nothing yet," she said the relief evidence in her voice. He shook the looming implications away for now he had more important things to ask at the moment.
"Then forget about the trigger for a second. Why did you run away Tasha?" he asked needing to know if she was just going to leave again if he did something stupid. She held her breath as she tried to find the right words that were honest enough to explain her jumbled thoughts. In the end she couldn't come up with anything too eloquent.
"Because you scared the shit out of me Barton," she finally said while shaking her head. He laughed brokenly and dragged his fingers through his hair. God she was something.
"Of all the things to be afraid of Tasha – only you would be afraid of a confession. An angry confession at that," he said giving her an incredulous look.
"It was more than a confession Clint," she said looking away. He sighed.
"Yeah, yeah it was," he said quietly. It was too much to throw at her at once. But he still needed to know. "Are you going to run away again Tasha?" he asked sadly. She froze. Was she?
"I don't know," she whispered.
"How about if I promise not to scare you with big secrets anymore?" he asked hopefully.
"I-" she started to say something but was immediately cut off by a deafening sound.
BOOM!
The entire station shook as a sudden explosion went off not too far away from their location. They both grabbed onto the wall beside them as the tremors continued to shake the foundation of the building. The two agents quickly looked out the window at what was going on outside. They froze.
"The train you were just on…it just got blown up didn't it?" she said slowly.
"Yes…yes it did," Clint said staring at the large fireball rising to the sky in the distance.
"We have to go Tasha…" Clint said seriously as he glanced around at all the people shouting and running out of the station behind them. Civilians were always so over dramatic.
"Clint I haven't told you something yet," she said anxiously.
"Later Tasha –it's not safe here anymore," he said taking a step forward to grab her hand.
She took a step back and didn't let him touch her. He paused as he gave her a quizzing look.
"What's wrong Tasha?" he asked worriedly. Her actions were raising certain red flags he didn't want to analyze to closely at the moment.
"I have the virus Clint," she said staring at her hands.
Clint's heart froze.
"Tasha…Tasha if I have the trigger and you have the virus…" he said slowly as a deep dread started creeping into his heart. Please tell me it's not true Tasha. Please tell me it's not true.
"We're in deep trouble Clint," she said looking up at him with a hundred different emotions swirling in her eyes.
They both held the power to destroy each other in more ways than one now.
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A/N: And now it finally all comes full circle. It's time to test their love before it's game over.
Remember:
Natasha had the virus since chapter 1.
Clint had the trigger since chapter 17.
It's chapter 25.
How will the knowledge of poison running through their veins affect their relationship?
Also. I seem to really like trains. ^.^
(¯`v´¯)
¸.•´¸.•*• ƸӜƷ
ღ°•. .•° Clintasha will live through laughter and tears °•. .•°ღ