Chapter 45
Natasha Romanoff had always liked flying. There was something about being so high in the air, looking out at the drifting clouds that was so calming. It was as if the clouds were unaware to the wars that raged below them as they swam by, like the ocean.
She did hate, however, flying on a public transport.
Having tony in a quinjet was hard enough (although perhaps she should be well trained in the art of dealing with annoying talkative people) let alone a plane full of people trying to suffocate her. She had chosen a seat by the window, sporting a brunette wig (just in case someone had already caught wind of her blonde hair) and sunglasses. Everyone seemed up for a conversation. Her neighbour had questioned her about where she was going before reciting her own weekly plans she intended to do on her own break to New York City. Natasha was only half listening, the other half of her attention was focused on the child having a temper tantrum behind her and was kicking at her chair. Thinking of ways to kill the child's parents for not controlling their spawn was enough to keep her busy for the journey.
It was best to travel this way, in the public eye you were hidden. The government or Hydra would never expect to find her on a plane full of people. Always do the unexpected, she told herself often, to keep them guessing.
When the plane landed, it was a breath of relief to be free of her neighbour's questions and stupid anecdotes she thought were funny.
She wished Clint was with her, his anecdotes were at least funny. She hadn't seen her favourite partner in months now, and hadn't worked beside him in years. How she missed the old team.
She was approaching the building closer now. Now she was free of the plane and could travel at her own pace, having stolen a car easily parked at the side of the road. She would return it, she told herself, realizing It was probably very unlikely she would. It was a nice car, and she needed a way to travel around the city discreetly.
She could see the large 'A' now, decorating the grand building. She had to squint, but she could still see. She put her foot down on the accelerator. Every second she took was a second longer Barnes and Charlotte were held captive by Hydra.
She needed Tony's help.
*~It started with Pizza~*
The man himself had told Jarvis not to be disturbed by anyone, his doors on locked down as he tried to focus on working. If he was honest his thoughts weren't entirely with the work as he hammered away at it, trying to distract himself. Nothing could, and nothing probably ever will. Thor was on a different planet, Hulk was missing, Natasha had gone undercover, Clint and Steve were hiding off in goodness knows where. He was the only one left of the original team.
Whilst everything seemed shit. He couldn't deny the good things in his life. Moving day was soon, that would be good for the avengers. With half the team missing they needed more protection and moving to the outskirts of New York offered the protection he was looking for, especially for Pepper. The two had been going well recently, he didn't want to ruin that with another alien invasion or civil war.
With the distraction with his thoughts he completely miss aimed his hammer off the table, almost hitting his own knee if he hadn't of moved out of the way in time.
Tony sighed, "Well done Tony, you're destructive to yourself just as much as you are with everyone else…" With an annoyed growl, he threw the hammer back down on his work surface, giving up with his own task and collapsing back down on his office chair.
He needed some sleep. Exhaustion washed over him.
"Uh – Mr Stark?"
Trying to stop his eyes from closing, Tony forced himself awake and listened to his one, loyal friend.
"Yeah? What is it Jarvis?"
"There's someone outside this room who's in desperate need of talking to you."
Curious, Tony lifted his head, and squinted his eyes at the locked door wondering who could possibly be outside. They must have already passed most of his security to get to the floor level Tony was on. Whoever it was, must have known the passcodes for Jarvis to only be notifying him now. He would have to go through their security measurements with Happy again if that was the case.
"Who is it?"
"They said to keep that from you, in case there were prying ears"
Even more curious, Tony got up, "friend or foe?"
"That is difficult to estimate, I suppose it depends on your current mind-set"
"Dangerous?"
"unlikely."
Just to clear his mind of worry he asked, "Pull up the cameras in that room J."
In front of him a screen lit up. His cameras were state of the art and no matter how much he zoomed in on the woman (he could at least assess that she was female) he didn't recognize her. The blonde hair… the sunglasses… although – perhaps. He zoomed in on her face again and saw the infamous Romanoff Smirk as she looked up into the camera.
"Let her in," Tony decided and the doors sprang open.
"Well if it isn't my favourite assassin," Tony clapped his hands as Natasha Romanoff came strolling in, her eyes already roaming the room… for what he had no idea. "Romano-" suddenly, Natasha flew at him and pushed a hard hand over his mouth. In the force he backed up against the desk.
"Don't say my name out loud, I don't know whose listening in." slowly she released him and Tony caught his breath from the sudden spring of movement.
"Wow, okay, good to see you too – I'm not sure about the blonde, it doesn't suit you."
"it's a good cover."
"That's true, I barely recognized you on the camera."
"barely?" She scoffed, "you weren't meant too at all."
"Going to have to stop smirking I'm afraid."
"I'm not sure I can do that," Natasha remarked coolly, offering him the smirk. Tony had had enough of the friendly banter and wanted to know why she was there. It wasn't like Natasha to drop in for a chat, especially when it was him that had caused her to go on the run.
"Not that I'm happy to see you, but why are you here?"
Natasha's smirk fell, "I need your help."
"Say again?"
Glaring, Natasha wasn't impressed, "You heard, I'm not going to say it again Stark."
"I never thought I'd see the day," Tony remarked, offering her his own smirk, "Is living on the run not suiting you, Romanoff?"
"No thanks to you," she responded swiftly, all humour evaporated from her voice. The tension rose and Tony could do nothing but nod in agreement. He had been in the one to tell Ross about her betrayal to the team, he should have known her loyalty wasn't secure, she'd been much better friends with Steve. He shouldn't have expected her to betray him the way he thought she would. He shouldn't have betrayed her.
He was no better.
"I'm sorry," Tony bowed his head, finding it hard to look her in the eyes. He should have covered for her. Not knowing what else to say he added, "What can I do for you?"
"I need to find Steve."
He hadn't been expecting that.
Almost chocking on air, he looked up and blustered, "Why do you think I can help?"
"You can find out where he is."
"You're not the first to ask," Tony said. It was true, the government had asked him countless times to try and find Captain America and the rouge Winter Soldier and he'd had no luck. He frowned, it was an odd request for her to come to him for this, surely, she had other contacts, "Why are you asking me?"
"I seem to be limited on friends at the minute," Natasha glare hardened as her frustration increased. Surely Tony had something that could help her, he was the technology expert, he would know how to track them. If only she hadn't lost contact with Clint, even his own family hadn't heard from it. It was probably for the best, both him and they were safest that way.
"Sorry about that too…"
"Even if I did know I'd have told Ross before I told you."
"Would you?" Natasha raised an eyebrow, calling his bluff, "I don't believe that."
Tony shrugged, thinking of no sarcastic comment to reply with. He was truly exhausted.
Tony heard Natasha sign angrily from the other side of the room but by the time he looked up she was already smiling at him, "I've heard you've been filling your time well – what was it, training underaged people to become superheroes? That's reckless even for you… What's with it and this Spiderman kid?"
"and I heard you've been spending your time in England… tell me is it really as rainy there as they say?" Tony wished she'd wipe that smirk off of her face, he was really starting to regret inviting her in here.
"You have been tracking us."
"Not exactly, just enough to check you're all still alive."
"How sweet," Natasha grinned and although she said it stiffly, she couldn't deny she felt touched by his words. She knew he had never planned to tear the avengers apart. Getting back to the point she asked, "Where's Steve?"
"Wakanda the last I checked," Tony gave in, betrayal swimming through his voice. The panther guy had turned against him too.
Natasha narrowed her eyes, that wasn't very specific. She'd never been to Wakanda but it was still a whole country to search and Barnes and Charlotte didn't have that amount of time. Who knows where they even were now. If she could fight Hydra single handily she would, but she needed the Avengers by her side if she had any hope of winning. She doubted Tony would be happy with helping the Winter Soldier though, "I don't know specially where there but…" she could tell this was against his better judgement as Tony got up and went over to a closed draw, opening it and pulling out a flip phone. He went to hand it to her but then pulled his hand back, "How bad is the situation."
"Life and death," She admitted.
"Okay, mysterious… not gonna tell me anything more?"
"I'm not sure if you'd be up for helping me if you did know."
Tony nodded trying to judge what he should do, "More mysterious and slightly worrying."
"Please." Natasha Romanoff could count on one hand the amount of times she had pleaded in her life, normally she would try manipulative tactics to convince him but Tony was in a vulnerable state, and despite everything that had happened he was her friend, and she trusted him to make the right decision and help her.
"It's Barnes isn't it?" Tony gathered, looking up at her to try and read the spies face, "I tracked him in England too, him and Charley. That wasn't a coincidence was it."
"You really have been doing your homework," Natasha reasoned, he had known where most of them was this entire time and hadn't informed the authorities on any of it.
"I asked you a question."
"Yes." She nodded, "I know stuff has happened in the past-"
"It wasn't just stuff… he killed my mum." Tony clenched his teeth together in anger. Natasha nodded understanding his fury. She only knew because Barnes talked in his sleep, one restless night he had slurred out about Howard Stark and the pieces came fitting together.
"I know," She nodded, "But that was under Hydra's control."
"he still did it."
"He's back with them," She admitted. There was no point hiding the truth from him, and reminding him that it was Hydra's fault that his parents were dead might just be the right motivator for him to help her bring them down, "him and Charlotte, I managed to get out and I'm coming to you for help. We both know how dangerous the Winter Soldier is in their clutches, and if they have Charlotte too you know they'll use her against him."
Tony considered this and the anger ebbed away from his face.
"I can't believe I'm doing this," he groaned, giving her the phone and slamming it in her palm as if he was signing away his death note, "I'm going to regret this… Steve gave me the phone, told me to ring him if I ever needed him."
Natasha smiled – not smirked – but truly smiled at the billionaire. Perhaps they could all see past this phase in the end.
For the first time in her life she pulled in to hug him, "Thank you, Tony."
Unexpected at first, he stood there awkwardly before she felt a few well-timed pats on her back, "uh- this is a first? Is it just the hair you changed or the whole personality?"
She pulled away, now eyeing the phone and Tony shifted awkwardly from foot to foot, rubbing a hand down his face, "So what now?"
"I call Steve and hope he comes to help."
"I can help," Tony said unsurely. She wasn't sure if it was because he wasn't sure if she would accept his help or if he even wanted to help at all. As far as she was concerned he had already done enough. After all the Winter Solider had torn apart his family, and orphaned him.
"You'd help Barnes?"
"Not him," he shook his head, "I'll help you and Steve though."
Natasha smirked, she knew Tony would pull through.
*~It started with Pizza~*
Curled up in a ball, Charley cradling the headache that seemed to still be banging on her skull. Two days. It had been two days since she had seen any other human life, although judging by the cameras on the wall she had no doubt in her mind that they had seen her.
Her room was dark and dingy, rocky walls enclosed on her with a simple window in the centre that was barred up, she'd already tried pulling on it with all her strength but it was no use. She knew that allowing her to see the snowy hillside landscape in the distance was just to toy with her. That the only thing separating her and freedom was the thin bars. If only she had superpowers and could blast it open or pull them off.
Off to the side of the room, behind a door was a single toilet and sink. The only non-humiliating thing about it was at least there was no cameras in there. There was no shower, however, and the dirt was beginning to stain her clothes.
From her steel bed and thin mattress, she glared up at the metal door which hadn't moved for the past two days. Not even a meal had come to her. She was starving and exhausted. The time alone was at least giving her time to think about her new-found memories, day and night. She could barely sleep. How could she sleep in a place like this? Not knowing where Bucky was or if he was safe, not knowing what was going to happen to her. Were they going to starve her? Was she going to die slowly and painfully in this dingy dark room.
Her glare hardened as she decided that no, she would not die here.
She was done with it. She had spent countless days the past months, locked up whether in her own mind or quite literally locked in a room against her will. She was through with being the weak, dependent, helpless one. For goodness sake, she could fight half as well as Natasha Romanoff could and she knew the assassin would never allow herself to be in such a situation without at least trying to escape.
What would she do? Charley thought to herself as she looked around the room. She must have something in there that she could use. She needed to get their attention.
Struck with a sudden idea, Charley bolted up straight and pulled herself up. She tried not to concentrate on her wobbly steps as she went up on tiptoes to reach the camera. With one big tug she pulled it down and let it collapse onto the floor.
"Fuck you," She said darkly, sitting back down on the shitty bed that barely had a mattress. Clicking her heels together she waited for ten minutes until the well anticipated clank of the keys being turned on the door was heard. She sat up straighter, willing herself to show no fear despite the aching beating of her heart in her chest.
The door swung open revealing the bitter face of Volkov he strutted in and leaned down in front of her. She tried not to back away as he pierced her with his predator like eyes.
"What was that for, missy?" Volkov jeered, gesturing to where the camera was supposed to be on the wall, "that wasn't very nice."
"I wanted your attention," Charley said with a quiver in her voice.
Stay strong, she told herself, confidently straightening.
"Where is Bucky?" was her first question. Even though the answer terrified her. She looked behind Volkov and saw two armed guards, their guns strapped to them, ready to pick up at a moments notice.
"The asset is on a mission."
Cringing at his choice of name for him, Charley decided to ask, "Where?"
"None of your concern."
"Tell me."
Volkov laughed and Charley lit up red, this was a dead end. What even was she trying to achieve? There was no way she was going to escape all on her own, "I like your fire but you're in no position to demand things from me."
She decided to press on, she needed to know more in the little time she had, "Has he been wiped?"
"No need too, he's being a perfect little soldier knowing we've got you here – we've promised him if he does well we'll get you a meal for tonight."
Charley let out some swear words, "You're fucking cruel, why can't you just leave him alone!"
Volkov grinned, flashing his yellow unsettling teeth that made Charley want to gag, "you think we're so cruel, neither are you are here against your own will." He jumped up, startling her, "I'll tell you what, from now on we'll leave your door open, and you can walk out whenever you want." She held on, waiting for the catch, "but, we'll wipe the assets memories again and he won't be coming with you. He can leave too, but of course, we'll kill you for that."
"I don't think that's exactly freedom," Charley huffed, fed up with Volkov's games. She didn't want to play. She settled for looking outside, trying to determine where they were. The snowy setting was so unnatural to her.
In the reflection of the window she saw Volkov open his mouth, not wanting to hear another word she snapped across him, "The Avengers will come."
"Doubtful," Volkov snorted, although there was a flash of doubt that passed through his eyes, "They don't even know where we are."
"They took out a whole alien army and you don't think they can defeat you-"
Suddenly Volkov flew at her grabbing her face and pinching it between one hand. Gasping out of shock she tried to pull away but he just held her harder and she feared her head might explode from under the pressure.
"Don't try to frighten me, girl,"
"I don't need to try," Charley shuddered, "You already are scared."
Volkov pulled away his eyes flashing dangerously at her and the gun strapped to his guards leg and Charley thought she'd over stepped her boundary. She noticed though, that he didn't have his own weapon on him. Which was curious. If it was just him alone, she was sure she could beat him.
Uncontrollably her hand shook as he took a relieving step backwards.
Calm down, Charley stressed to herself aiming to try and control her breathing. think, what would Natasha do in this situation.
She certainly wouldn't be panicking.
"You better be careful," Volkov growled.
"No, you better be careful," She swung around to face him, matching her glare, "I'm not going to sit and cower in this fucking room anymore, the Avengers are coming and they're going to fight you and I know Hydra isn't prepared to fight the Avengers again, not after Captain America and if any of them are coming it'll definitely be him. I am going to fight you and Bucky is going to kill you because he's not your asset anymore, he's a human being who has the power to make his own choices."
"Did you just pull the camera off to threaten me little girl."
"No, I broke your stupid fucking camera because I'm not a caged animal to be observed, and I got you in here to warn you. You're going to die, I promise you that," with that she spun around and flopped down on the bed, looking out the window and narrowed her eyes at her surroundings. Now she just needed to find a way to tell the Avengers where her and Bucky were. They would come, or at least Steve and Sam would. That would be enough.
Volkov didn't have anything else to say as he stepped out of her room, making a point of leaving her door open. She was free to go if she wasn't, but she wasn't going anywhere.
Two hours later a small meal of what looked like mash on a plate, telling her Bucky had completed a mission for Hydra once again.
A/N
So so so sorry for the long update, I know it's been about two months now. I was sort of hesitant to update as I'm seeing Black Panther next week and wanted to know what was actually the next chapter in the MCU before I updated but I may have to just settle for the fact I'm going to have to go full AU from here on out.
Thanks for sticking with me!
Mcduffie145: Sorry, it was actually your review that got me motivated to update because the main part of this chapter has been written for months but I never got around to finishing it off, Thanks so much for sticking with me.
Hkhorch: Thanks so much for the lovely long review, it made my day :D haha, I felt bad for writing her mum so negatively… in my head I feel like her mum genuinely thought she was doing the right thing to keep her kid safe but it ended up screwing them all over :/ Thank you so much again for the review!
Lainiebot: sorry I've finally updated, sorry for taking so long. I hope you enjoy this chapter
Dally'sTUFF: Thanks so much for the review, I'm glad you found that bit funny.
StatusUpdate: That's what I was thinking when I was writing her memory loss, I didn't want it to be instant, but at the same time I didn't want to drag it out. I hope I levelled out the timing of her memory loss well, rather than dragging it out longer then necessary. Thanks so much for the compliment. I'm glad you're enjoying it and continue reading. THANKS SO MUCH! (and sorry for the long update :/)
.2018: Thanks so much!
Donny Donowitz: To be honest, as my updates are taking so long I'll probably be writing until Avengers Infinity War and I'll get so many more ideas once that comes out. Thanks so much, I'm sorry for taking so long and I hope you enjoy this chapter hun. Thanks for reading!
