A/N: Been a while since I've updated, so here we go. I know that this ends in a cliffhanger and I'll try my best to get the next chapter out ASAP. Also, just wanted to say thanks to everyone who reads this story, because I appreciate all of you. A few days later, Natasha woke up to utter bliss. The baby was still asleep after being changed and fed at 5 am and now it was almost 9. She could feel Maria's arms wrapped around her and she was just so comfortable. The sun was gently shining through the curtains and Natasha was still obsessing over how utterly happy she was. She'd never been this happy, and she never thought she would be. And the great thing was that she never got much sleep anyway, so having a baby didn't really change that much.

Speaking of the baby, Violet was already absolutely adorable at just 7 days old. Only a week and she was the light of everyone in SHIELD's life. She cried a lot, that was for sure, but other than that she was the absolute sweetest baby in the world. When she cooed her voice rang through a room, making everyone smile. She was checked by doctors every day since she was born so early, but she was remarkably healthy and had already grown 6 ounces, making her 3 pounds 5 ounces. She had soft tufts of dark red curls that contrasted beautifully with her eyes, which were like emeralds, piercing and fierce. Tony joked that when she got older they would hold no mercy, just like Natasha's.

Natasha, as you well know, was happy. Sickeningly so. Sometimes she thought about her life at the moment and laughed, because it just seemed so ridiculous that things had taken such a turn for the better for her. But she was willing to accept it.

She started gently working out again, and she certainly hadn't lost it. She could still kick incredibly high and hard, and her punches were still lethal, as Clint painfully discovered. Being who she was, childbirth hadn't affected her body that much, but everyone still told her to take it easy. So she did, hanging around with everyone who had missed her while she was gone.

Tony was very happy to have her back, simply to have someone to make fun of again. But the baby had also made him go soft, and he was often found on Nat's floor talking in baby voice to Violet. Clint was making plans to record him and use it for blackmail. The rest of the guys acted pretty chill, but everyone knew they were happy she was back. Especially after she walked into SHIELD bleeding and passed out after 5 months.

Wanda was particularly glad she and Maria had returned, because she had survived as the only woman in the group aside from Pepper for far longer than she would have liked. However, her relationship with Vision had grown, and the two of them were often sneaking off to who knows where to do who knows what. But she had opened up, and you could see it.

"Hi there beautiful." Maria mumbled, sighing and pulling herself up onto her elbows.

"Don't call me beautiful, babe, you sound like Boris." Natasha groaned, reaching up to kiss Maria.

"Who's Boris again? Was he one of those gross guys you told me about?"

Natasha nodded, laughing bitterly at the memory of the disgusting men. She ran a hand through her hair and got up, putting on pants and a sweater and heading to the bathroom to brush her teeth. But she never got there.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

Maria leaped out of bed, hurriedly putting on her uniform, tying up her hair, and placing her guns in their holsters. They both knew what the obnoxious beeping noise was - it was an alarm. A bad news alarm. (Well, technically that's not what it was called, but that was its point.)

Violet started wailing, and Natasha scooped her from the tiny bassinet and covered her ears as best as she could. Then the three of them rushed downstairs where everyone else was converging.

"What the hell?" Steve yelled over the noise, going straight for Fury, who was looking out of windows and yelling orders to agents.

"He's here. Salty-face, or whatever his name was." He said seriously.

"Sidorov." Natasha whispered, holding Violet tighter to her chest.

"Hill. Get Penman, Berridge and Sakai. Tell them to get to the entrances, now." He ordered. Maria nodded and began running off somewhere. "Rogers, calm down. Take Stark and Barton down to the arsenal."

"Why is he in charge?" Tony mumbled, but headed off with Steve and Clint.

"Romanoff, go with Maximoff and Vision. You two, lovebirds -" He pointed to Wanda and Vision. "Protect the baby. That's what he wants. Downstairs, upstairs, I don't give a shit. Hide her. Hide Romanoff. And Romanoff -"

"Sir?" Natasha said, her heart pounding out of her chest and people rushed to and fro in a panic.

"Don't get killed."

Natasha went with Vision and Wanda and settled in the basement. Not many people knew about the basement, and there were two exits which meant that there was an alternate escape route. Natasha had gone agent-mode, her face completely emotionless. She had one mission - keep the target from Sidorov. So she kept the target close. Very close.

"I guess we just… wait here?" Wanda said anxiously, twisting her hands in her lap as she sat down on a cracked bench. It was filthy in the basement because nobody bothered to clean it. That made sense because nobody had been down there in at least 3 years.

"I suppose so. I don't think that this 'Sidorov' will make it inside anyway. The SHIELD staff are well equipped for this type of thing, I doubt anything will happen." Vision said, floating calmly next to Wanda.

Natasha considered. What did she want to happen? I mean… she wanted him killed, right? She wanted him dead and gone. Then he wouldn't terrorize any more children. She had killed Dreykov years ago, so Sidorov must have been the one in charge of the Red Room. She should have asked Sasha…

But there was a tiny part in her brain that was protesting against it. An eeny-weeny itty-bitty unwanted part of her brain that didn't want Sidorov dead. Every particle of her body hated it, but that part was there. That part was ingrained in her. She'd grown up under the supervision of this man, whether it was good supervision or not. He had taught her, he had punished her, and although Dreykov was the one who had really raised her, Sidorov was personal to her. He was the one who had put his hand on her shoulder when Ana was taken away, even though the hand was creepy. He had been the one to guide her fingers the first time she shot someone, even though she hadn't wanted to do it. And he had been the one who looked at her with that terrifying smile, every single damn day, always critiquing her, always making her a better assassin. If it weren't for him, she would have died in the Red Room. She never would have been who she was today, if she would have even made it to today. He had broken her but he taught her how to hold those cracks together so she didn't fall apart.

But it was her family who had fixed her. It was Clint, Fury, Steve, Laura, Bruce, Tony, Wanda Thor, and all of the people who cared about her who had glued her back together. Just because she was alive because of him didn't mean that he let her really live. No, she found her family. Then she found Maria. And she had Violet. And she loved her family.

Love was not weakness. Sidorov was going to die today. This was going to end.

"Natasha, did you hear that?" Wanda whispered, leaning in a little bit closer. Natasha listened with her perfect hearing and knew what Wanda was talking about. There was a faint clattering coming from the stairs.

"Hide." She said, pulling Wanda into a corner. Wanda stood protectively in front of Violet, while Vision phased behind the wall. The clattering got louder and closer, and Natasha closed her eyes.

"He's upstairs!" A familiar voice squeaked, and two pairs of footsteps were heard entering the room. Along with sniffling. Relieved, Natasha stepped out to see Laura and Cooper, Laura carrying Nate. Even in the dark Nat could see that Cooper was crying slightly, but they seemed unharmed.

"Where's Lila?" Nat asked, walking up to them.

"She's upstairs with Clint and Tony. We were separated but she's okay, she's protected. We would have stayed with her but… that man managed to get inside and we ran. Clint told us where to find the stairs to the basement." Laura explained hurriedly.

"Wait. Sidorov got inside?" Natasha choked. That meant that he had gotten past the tens of SHIELD agents posted all around the building. If he got down here, they would have no chance.

"There were robots. Probably about 50 of them, maybe more. They have guns and they're pretty indestructible. I have no idea how he got his hands on them, but the guy himself is nowhere to be seen." Laura said, tears running down her face.

"Robots?" Natasha asked incredulously. She'd had enough of robots. "How did they get past all of the agents?" She began to pace, glancing at the stairs every once in a while.

"They were shot from a distance. The robots were hidden all around the building."

Natasha stopped pacing. There were 20 people posted outside. 10 people inside, not including the Avengers. He'd killed 20 people already. And she could hear screaming and gunshots and mayhem coming from upstairs. Thor wasn't there, so they had even less of a chance. They didn't deserve this… but then she looked down at Violet. Her baby. The literal miracle that had completed her life. And she was so happy… It was a classic trolley problem. Sidorov would be so powerful with the help of robots that the choice was herself and her baby or the rest of SHIELD.

She kissed Violet's head.

"Hold her. Keep her safe." Natasha said, holding the screaming baby out to Wanda and Laura. She didn't care which one took her. She'd be safe.

"What? Nat, no." Laura said, her eyes going wide as Wanda cautiously took the baby into her arms. She grabbed the younger woman's arm and tried to stop her from going upstairs. But Natasha shook her off and gave the group a small lopsided smile, then started walking up the dank steps.

"Wait!" Wanda yelled, placing Violet in Laura's arms now that Nate was sitting on the bench. "I'll go. I can overpower them." She stopped twisting her hands nervously and instead they started glowing with red energy. She straightened Natasha's red jacket that she'd basically adopted at this point and pushed past Natasha to the stairs.

"Wanda…" Nat began, but Wanda shook her head.

"No. I'm doing it. I'm more powerful than any of them." She said, determined. Natasha hesitated, but nodded. Wanda disappeared up the stairs and they all watched her go.

They were losing, and Maria didn't even understand how. This guy was just an old man! But there were robots, and that was the issue. He had programmed ruthless robots to kill everyone just to get his hands on Natasha and Violet. Hadn't robots been a bit overused at this point?

They were marching everywhere, shooting down anybody in sight. They were big and gold, and since the rest of SHIELD was across the country they were taking people down fast. Most of the agents but herself had been killed or badly injured. Her friends, her colleagues…

"Must locate target. Must locate target." One of the robots chanted, and Maria ducked its blast, the beam destroying the patch of wall behind her. She shot it in the only weak spot she had been able to find, which was the back of the neck, but another one came up behind her and she cried out as she turned around to see its blaster right in front of her face.

"For god's sake, we understand. 'You must locate target.' Your social skills suck." Tony said sarcastically as he smashed the robot attacking Maria to the ground. She sighed in relief.

"Yours aren't much better." She responded cockily as she shot robots as best as she could while avoiding blasts.

"Stark!" Steve yelled from across the huge room. He was jumping off of a table, shoving his shield into the robot's neck. Tony ran off, and Maria yelped as she ducked behind a table from another blast. She watched another agent go down. Only a few people were left now - herself, Fury was upstairs somewhere, Bruce and Clint were keeping Lila safe, having barred themselves inside the armoury, and even though Clint's arrows would have been super useful right about now, he wasn't willing to risk his kid. Steve and Tony were out here trying and failing to shoot most of the robots, along with one other agent. There was one left.

"Hill! My gun's out!" Lilith said, ducking behind the table with Maria. Lilith Carr, one of Maria's only friends. She wasn't really the friendly type, but she and Carr had hit it off on the first day they met each other. Maria had just been appointed as Fury's second-in-command, and Carr had come up to the couch she was sitting on, tossed her a bottle of beer, and said "Congrats." They hadn't talked for the rest of the evening, just sat there. It was the most fun Maria had had with another SHIELD agent, besides Nat.

Maria handed Carr a cartridge from inside her vest, and she reloaded her gun. They turned back-to-back and kept on guard in case they were spotted by the robots.

"We're losing." Maria stated miserably.

"Pitifully." Carr agreed. "Where's Fury?"

"I have no idea, after he told us what to do he just left."

"Where do you think he might've-"

There was a sharp yell, and Maria poked her head out from under the table to see Stark standing over Steve, who was clutching his leg. He caught his shield and continued to fight, but he'd been shot. They were losing badly, and they needed help. And where the hell was Fury?

Just then, the door from the hallway burst open and an explosion of red filled the room as Wanda marched in. She flung 5 robots into the opposite wall, which knocked more into others. There were no traces of nerves on her face. It was just like the battle of Sokovia.

Maria grabbed Carr's arm and steered her away from the chaos, over to where Tony and Steve were standing in shock as the robots quickly formed a sparking pile in a cloud of red magic.

"Welp." Was all Tony said, and they watched as the last robot was smashed to the ground and Wanda stopped, turning to face them. Slowly, her eyes faded back from bright scarlet to their regular colour.

"Damn." Carr whispered.

"Did you need some help?" Wanda asked with a slight smile.

"I think they did." A cold voice said from the corner of the room. They all swiveled around to see Sidorov standing in the corner, unfazed by the fact that all of his robots had just been smashed to the ground.

And he was holding someone by the back of the neck. But it wasn't Natasha.

It was Cooper.