A DAY'S WORTH

Chapter 9

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to their respective owners.

-ADW-

2nd November 2011

J-Mansion, Queens

New York.

Harry sighed as Natasha ran her hand over his naked chest. She used her finger tips to go down, over his toned stomach towards his crotch. He shivered when she came near his manhood and a full body shiver ran through him when she gripped his sensitive person.

"Are you seriously hard now?" Natasha looked at him incredulously and Harry grinned at her. "And wipe that silly look off your face or I will wipe it off myself."

Harry just chuckled. For the better part of last night the two had literally been joined at the hip. They would have still been at it had Natasha not threatened to shoot his dick if she brought it anywhere near her again.

"It has been over two hours."

"Shut up." Natasha replied even though she continued stroking him. "So, where have you all been cooped up all this time?"

"My country home." Harry replied. "I imagine Fury has been going bonkers?"

"Oh you have no idea." Natasha chuckled. "The fact that he had absolutely nothing he could about it made it even worse."

"And what is this I hear about us being brought in for questioning?"

"Well, when the board found out that Ombra can teleport, they decided that he had helped our mysterious attacker escape." Natasha replied. "Fury didn't agree though and convinced them to drop it."

"This board, do they know who Ombra is or what I can do?" Harry asked and Natasha shook her head.

"No, there are just a few of us who know." She looked at him then. "By the way, what happened to Jenny, was she taken by Ombra like you?"

"No." Harry replied figuring there wasn't really any harm to tell her. "We all have certain...items. You could call them teleporting devices with set destinations. All four of us have in case of an emergency."

"Wow." Natasha breathed shaking her head. "So, Ombra can't teleport by himself?"

"I didn't say that."

"Are there others that have access to it?"

"Nope." Harry said firmly. "This tech is very dangerous in the wrong hands and if anyone finds out about it, they won't hesitate to try to recreate it which wouldn't end well for them."

Harry could see that his message had been received loud and clear.

"So, where is she? Jenny I mean." Natasha changed the subject. "I know for a fact she hasn't been going to school as Fury has agents watching it."

"Well, that day when we were attacked, she had just decided that she was going to build a school for herself." Harry told her. "What I hadn't known was that she had no plans of going back to Midtown High."

"Wow. That's... I don't know what to say about that."

Harry laughed. "Understandable. She then declared that she will not go to school untill hers was finished. Me and Jack had no choice about it."

"That doesn't sound responsible on your part."

"Oh, I know." Harry chuckled. "Claire has promised to drag her to school herself when she gets her hands on her. So she ran away."

"What?"

"I imagine she is probably in Africa visiting her friends or Crystal."

"Africa?"

"Yeah. She went with Jack for a trip, and got them in a situation." Harry told her. "Somehow, she ended up friends with the sister of the guy who had tried to kill them."

"That's..." Natasha trailed off at a loss of words.

"I know." Harry then shifted to his side and looked at Natasha very seriously. "I did some digging about our mysterious attacker."

"You did?"

"Yeah." Harry nodded. "But before I tell you anything, you will have to promise that whatever I tell you stays between us."

"I can't promise that."

"His name is Anthony Masters." Harry told her. "And I believe he was there for you."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because, Taskmaster as he calls himself is the one who runs the Red Room."

Natasha froze as her eyes pinned Harry with a smoldering stare. Her whole body on attention and looked ready to spring into action. Her fingers twitched even while her face was a completely blank mask.

"Get dressed, Natasha." Harry told her getting out of the bed. "We have alot to talk about."

Harry went into the walk-in closet and changed into a pair of black jeans, a black v-neck t-shirt and a pair of boots. He then put on a long coat that went up to his knees. Each of these were enforced with Imperturbable charms.

When he walked out, he found Natasha in her full Black Widow suit as she secured her utility belt. He lat his eyes rove over her figure that was even more pronounced by the skintight suit as this was the first he was seeing in person. "Now I can see why men are afraid of fighting you."

Natasha rolled her eyes even as her lips twitched into a brief smile but it was short-lived.

"Come on, I will explain in the car." Harry walked down the stairs with Natasha following.

"Where are we going?"

"Russia."

"What?"

"Well, Hells Kitchen first but our destination is Russia."

As they raced their way to Claire's home, Harry filled Natasha in on what he had found in Tony Masters' mind without telling her of his source. He told her of the man's powers where he is capable of watching and copying fighting techniques while also improving them. How he had found himself being in charge of running the Red Room.

However before he was to be in complete charge, he was tasked to neutralize Natasha Romanoff. The greatest success and the greatest failure of the organization, but how he went about that was up to him.

Taskmaster, being the opportunist, had developed a code that was designed to bring out the Black Widow in Natasha, something that had been ingrained in her with the others during training. Tony found a way to bring it out through overriding her current consciousness thereby turning her into the Red Room's slave doing all they asked without question.

Natasha was quiet as they slid into the dreary looking neighborhood where Claire had bought the Temple Penthouse. She didn't question Harry the eligibility of his source, it never even occurred to her to doubt him.

"I am not the only one." She said at last just as Harry slid into Claire's driveway.

"I know, though my source had no idea who the other person was." The fact was that by that point, Harry's mind probe had become painful as the man's over active mind had been trying to fight him. Under normal circumstances, that wouldn't have been a problem but with how unstable his magic had been, he had to withdraw lest he find himself lost in the man's mind.

"Her name is Yellena Belova." Natasha stated looked at Harry. "But we...are not exactly friends."

Harry grinned at her. Somehow he he had the feeling that Natasha would be awarded the chief of understatements when he met Yellena Belova.

-ADW-

THAT SAME DAY

THE SUN WAS ALMOST SETTING.

SOMEWHERE IN RUSSIA

"That was interesting."

"Not the reaction I was expecting but I guess it will do for now." Harry said as he stowed away the chain that had been the port-key. "Are you sure this is the place, looks quite... mundane."

And it was. While not to the extent of Privett Drive, it was definitely a close second though Harry doubted Russians could pull it off.

"If there is anywhere my little sister would be, it's here." Natasha said as she matched to one house.

Unlike Privett Drive, no one peeped or opened a curtain to look at the new arrivals. Even the two little kids who rode their bicycles past them didn't even look at them twice.

Natasha knocked and a moment later, the door opened to reveal a blonde woman who looked no older than Natasha herself. The first thing Harry noticed was that she was quite beautiful, and much curvier than Natasha as it was obvious from the tight leather pants she was wearing. She also had a white top and a black leather jacket opened at the front to show her admittedly generous chest.

Harry finished his observation and met blue eyes, holding her gaze for a bit before she broke it and raised an eyebrow at Natasha.

"Hello sister." Her eyes took in Natasha. "I wasn't expecting you, especially like this."

"Trust me this is the last place I expected to be at this moment."

"Trust you, Natasha?" The woman shook her head. "Those words have no business being in the same statement."

"Uhm, girls can we take the reunion inside please." Harry pipped. "I really don't like the way the fellow over there is looking at me."

The man in question frowned at him and muttered something in Russian before he continued on his way. Harry doubted it was a complement.

"Who is this?"

"That's Harry, he is the reason am here."

"Hi, I have to say you look exactly as I expected." Harry waved with a smile let. "Only sexier, and curvier."

She glanced at Natasha and then Harry whose grin became even bigger and gestured for them to enter.

"So, what brings you all the way here, Natasha?" Yelena said as she poured herself a glass of wine.

"I am sure you already know." Natasha answered. "Or else you wouldn't be hiding down here."

"I do not hide, sister. Surely you of all people know that."

"Looks like hiding to me."

"And you think I care about your opinion." Yelena chuckled. "Please you know me better than that."

"Yeah." Natasha agreed. "The opinions of others never mattered to you in anyway."

"So says the turn-cloak."

"Are you even listening g to yourself?" Natasha laughed. "We are trained killers, spies. All our lives we have been manufactured to be turn-cloaks."

There was a moment of silence.

"Why are you here, Natasha?" There wasn't alot of warmth in her voice.

At this point Harry tuned out the to the conversation if it could be called that and looked around the living room. There wasn't much to see, it looked like any ordinary Russian living room, not that he had seen any. What was obvious however was that Yelena Belova had not been here for more than three days even though Harry already knew that thanks to what he had gotten from her mind.

It had been something that had needed to be done given that Natasha hadn't told him much except that they are not enemies. Knowing that they were likely going to be on the same team, Harry had taken it upon himself to know her better.

Apparently, she was trained in the Red Room Academy, where she claimed her physical test scores exceeded those of her rival Natasha, but unlike those who were a part of the Black Widow Ops Program she underwent only physical training. What other form of training was there, Harry could only guess as Natasha hadn't been exactly forthcoming about what went on in the Red Room.

Yelena while trying to one up Natasha to prove that she was the better Black Widow had gotten herself in a situation that Natasha had been forced to go and rescue her. The redhead had then done something that Yelena seemed intent on suppressing that Harry didn't dare dig up or his mental prod would have been felt. However, whatever it is that Natasha did, it had made the blonde woman hate Natasha even more than before.

After the whole affair was over Natasha revealed that she had done it to try and help Yelena see that spies were not heroes, but tools who get used for nasty business. Yelena felt violated and compared it to a rape of her identity. She had tried to kill Natasha from then on a number of other occasions and failed every time. Somehow, the two had started respecting each other, even going on some missions together with Natasha before she had become entirely committed to SHIELD.

All in all, while not what one would call friends or even allies, the two women can definitely work together especially if both their lives depend on it. Harry was interrupted from his thoughts by a loud crash. He ran back to the living room from the kitchen where he had wondered off in his bid to give the ladies some privacy.

He found Natasha lying on the floor, a broken bottle of wine by her head in a small puddle of blood. The table where he had left them was in pieces and there were were other things that were broken. It was clear there had been some sort of a struggle and Natasha hadn't won it seeing that Yelena was nowhere to be seen.

Before he could take another step, a sharp pain erupted on the back of his head and he slowly turned and met a pair of amused blue eyes and the familiar ring of a gun silencer before his vision went black.

-ADW-

"Bloody hell." Harry groaned as he came to. He found himself in a very familiar room, one he had entered years ago when he met his two friends for the first time at the facility.

"Well, it's about time." A very familiar voice said and Harry twisted around into a crouch, ready to spring into action. "Whoa, mate. I don't think this is a good time to test whether I can be hurt here."

"Who the hell are you?"

"Jacob Summers in the flesh." His Friend's look alike gave a ridiculous bow. "Well, I guess in the spirit would be more accurate given that I am dead but you get the point."

Harry looked at the man who had been his friend looking exactly as the day he died, his wedding suit and makeup all there. Looking at his own body, Harry saw that he was wearing the very same clothes he had been wearing when he was shot point blank in the back of the head.

"Well, this is new." Harry commented. "So, are you really Jake?"

"Yeah." Jake nodded. "And going by your reaction, I am guessing you hadn't expected this when you got yourself shot in the head."

"I hadn't planned on being shot." Harry shook his head as that hadn't been part of the plan at all. "Or to appear here either."

"Just ask your questions Harry." Jake laughed. "You little interrogation skills won't work here. You are lucky though, one can never tell a lie here so, fire away."

"Why was I brought here, this has never happened before."

"The threat is on the horizon, and your part will come faster than expected." Jake said. "You need to seek out the stones, for they have the power to build and break the world and life as we know it."

"Oh, that was informative." Harry nodded. "Ah, one more question do they have classes for speaking cryptic or you just pick it along the way."

"Great, can I go now." Harry told his friend's look alike. "And the next time you want to give me your stupid instructions, I would appreciate it if you didn't wear my friend's face."

"Wait!" Harry turned to look at the entity. It closed it's eyes and after a moment, Harry knew something had changed. The light green eyes that Jenny had inherited now looked more...human. The cold detachment that had been there earlier was now gone, replaced by a familiar warmth. "Hey, mate."

"Hey. Been a while, hasn't it." Harry hugged his friend.

"Yeah, it has. But I don't have long." Jake said grimly. "I need to ask you a favor."

"What's up?"

"I would like Jenny to meet her mother."

"I doubt she is very interested." Harry told his friend. "Neither am I given that she dropped her at an orphanage as soon as she could."

"And I don't blame her for it." Jake said and the pain was clear in the man's eyes. "Not with how Little Jenny was conceived."

"What do you..." Harry trailed off as it finally clicked. "You raped her."

It was more of a statement than a question.

"It is the single most thing I regretted my entire life and still regret even now." Jake sighed, the anguish almost tangible in the air around them. "I wasn't exactly a model teenager. I was intoxicated that night and I barely remember how it happened, I just remember waking up in the morning and realizing what I had done."

Jake sighed. "I have never hated myself more than I did that day. I thought of committing suicide but I was too much of a coward to do it. So I joined the army in the hopes that I would end up dead somewhere in Africa or something."

"And then I met you with your magic and all." Jake smiled bitterly at Harry. "You told me of the blood-relation location spell and I knew that I could at least try to do something right only to find her at the orphanage. Meeting Jenny, I didn't want to open old wounds and told myself that she had moved on and probably wouldn't appreciate the man who raped her coming back into her life."

Harry watched Jake for a moment, having a hard time relating the man he called brother with what he was being told right now. But he knew people grow up and the regret was still apparent even at this point. Light green eyes, so much like Jenny's looked at Harry imploringly.

"I know I am asking you alot and dumping on you something that I should have been responsible for but Jenny deserves the truth." Jake said. "I failed her, like I failed her mother but I know she is in good hands with you and even Jack in her life. Whether you tell her all this or not, it's up to you though I would rather she knew the man who her father used to be."

"Jenny believes you are perfect." Harry said after a moment. "Despite how many times we have told her of your dancing skills."

Jake cracked a smile even as Harry continued.

"She is pretty unpredictable and currently going through a phase and I have no idea how she will react to this." Harry ran a hand through his hair. "But like you said, she deserves the truth."

"She has some pretty powerful friends." Harry said. "And I mean that in every sense of the word so don't be surprised when I show up here again soon."

"So you will do it?"

"I didn't have much of a choice now did I?"

"You did Harry." Jake said. "And I trusted you to make the best choice. You taught me that, remember?"

"Yeah, I guess I did." Harry chuckled given that it was because of his choice that had gotten him shot in the head.

"Thank you Harry." Jake told him even as Harry's vision started getting dark. "Tell Jenny that I love her."

-ADW-

Harry's eyes snapped open and he took a deep breath, only now realizing that he never at any point breathed during whatever had happened between him, the entity that was probably Death and then his dead friend.

"That took longer than I remember." Jack said between a mouthful of pizza. There were three other empty boxes on the couch.

Harry strode over gobbled down the remaining slices. He conjured a glass of water and thanks to a refilling charm he was sure he had taken about two liters before Jack pulled it out of his grip.

"Slow down mate, are you trying to choke yourself?" Harry took deep breaths as Jack handed him the glass again. "You never had this kind of reaction before."

When Harry had calmed down, his body now fully aware that it was alive he sank into the couch. Jack was right, the transition between waking from the dead had never been like this. It was like his body had independently been trying to prove to itself that it was alive again. Which didn't make sense at all.

"I don't remember you behaving like this the other times you had died." Jack said worriedly. "Is something wrong?"

"I talked to Jake." Jack gaped at him even as he retold the encounter with their friend.

"That explains a lot of things then." Jack finally said and Harry nodded.

"Like why he never touched anything that was capable of making him drunk."

"Or how he refused to take any of your potions unless they were tested on me." Jack frowned. "Even the unsuccessful ones."

"Oh please, I am an accomplished potions master. I don't make unsuccessful potions."

"I have no idea what that entails and I still don't believe." Jack laughed and Harry laughed with him.

"She is not going to take it well." Harry knew exactly who the she was. "But she is a smart girl, am sure she will understand."

"I hope so." Harry agreed knowing you can always count on Jenny to be the very opposite of what you are expecting. "But before we get to that we have a couple of beatings to deliver."

"Yeah, you were right." Jack said. "The hot Russian, and I don't mean Natasha, drugged her. Even then, she put up quite the fight but as you can see it wasn't enough. What I don't get is why she killed you instead of capturing you."

"It probably means they have no idea who I am." Harry mused. "Or they just didn't deem me important enough to be involved in their plans."

"Well, they're about to reconsider." Jack grinned and Harry was sure it was reflected on his face.

"Yeah, no one kills me and gets away with it."

"Oh, catchy."

"You like?" Harry's grin became bigger. "I have wanted to use it since forever."

-ADW-

Natasha came to with a jolt. Her senses were immediately assaulted with familiar secents. Things she had burried deep in her mind when she left her old life behind. Memories were pulled to the front of her mind even as she tried to use her exercises that often helped in suppressing them. It didn't work.

She saw the day she was first brought here like it was yesterday. The feeling of hopelessness that had haunted her for the better part of her life starting from that day came back tenfold. She watched as she tried to fit in with the other girls only to be rebuffed. She had been weak, small and couldn't punch to save her life. She hadn't belonged here then, and she knew she didn't belong here even now.

She watched as her peers tossed her younger self around the room. The little girl fighting to find a sense of belonging that others were not willing to permit her. Little Natasha had then withdrawn into herself, knowing that she couldn't depend on any one but herself. She had learned to make do with what you had and unknowingly reached the mindset that the rest couldn't. Turning her into the model Black Widow, something their minders had tried to instill into the others with little success.

She remembered killing a number of her peers. The pleasure of proving to them that they had been wrong about her, that she was the better Black Widow. That pleasure of snapping another's neck so easily that she barely put in any effort. She remembered the look of pride that their instructions used to give her. Those more than anything had been the first thing to make begin to reconsider. She didn't need them, she didn't need their approval or their pride in her. She was her own person and if they were so proud of her then the best thing to get rid of it was to disappoint them.

As the graduation ceremony approached, she had started doing the exact opposite of what they had been taught. She tried to make friends knowing that they wouldn't kill any of them with all the effort they put in them. She became sloppy in the training and got a bunch of broken bones in return. When the final assessment happened, she intentionally failed the tests.

The reputation she had built however worked against her. Madame B had been disappointed in her having known right away that she had failed intentionally. She had then personally taken Natasha through the initiation ceremony before she had been deployed to the field.

"Good of you to join us again, Natasha." Madame B's voice stopped the onslaught of memories and brought Natasha back to the present. "It has been a very long time. Don't you agree Tony?"

Natasha turned her head as it seemed it was the only part she was capable of moving from where she was tied on the bed. Standing there was the dreaded face of Madame B and standing next to her was the figure that had attacked them, his skull mask boring into her. Next to them on Madame B's left was Yelena standing at attention.

Natasha's eyes widened slightly and Madame B smiled at her thinking it was out of fear. Natasha however just continued looking at the blue orbs that stared back at her just from the edge of the shadows.

Ombra was here.

-ADW-

AN: So, that happened. Harry died and came back. Apparently not for the first time. The threat is coming faster than we expected and we get a hint of the stones.

Most of what happened here hadn't been planned for, it just seemed to write itself. Next chapter will probably have loads of action so sit tight my people.

Untill then, Stay home, Stay safe.