So here ya'll go, gonna be going on a trip soon so I'll have plenty of time to type...kinda glad the movie for avengers isnt out yet cause if u've seen my transformers fanfic ill be riding in the car with the same annoying person who made me watch DOTM 800 times in stead of writing... anyway here you go...oh and im sorry for any spelling/missing word errors, I type some of these chapters around midnight and my fingers arent good at keeping up with my mind sometimes
Chapter Two- Not A Good Beginning
"Russia? Are you kidding?" Tony said looking closely at her screen.
"I'm afraid not. I didn't entirely expect Durov to return to his homeland for this. I need to inform Director Fury right away, where is he?" Elaina asked Tony.
Tony shrugged, still looking in shock at her findings on the screen. Elaina gathered her belongings and wiped the computer screens, Tony still looking at them. She walked up on the main deck to where Fury usually was, she found Agent Maria Hill in his place, deciding to ask her where he was.
"He's with Dr. Banner," Agent Hill said.
Elaina thanked her, proceeding cautiously to Dr. Banner's lab on the second deck. Dr. Bruce Banner had to be the most effective and most dangerous of the team. Well, not Banner himself, if you didn't know his secret you would never suspect that. Banner was one of the most caring and nicest people Elaina knew, however, when he did get angry -and it wasn't too often lately- you didn't want to be in the same city as him. An overabundance of gamma radiation exposure made Banner turn into the enormous eight-foot-tall, muscular green monster everyone -including Banner- called the Hulk whenever he got too angry. The Hulk would destroy anything -friend or foe- in his way, but somehow Banner had learned to do controlled transformations into the Hulk. This proved helpful during the Manhattan battle so that the Hulk only targeted enemies and not his allies. Elaina also thought that S.H.I.E.L.D didn't want to have to redo about seventy-five-percent of the Helicarrier's interior again. She proceeded with caution only because she didn't know why Fury was with Dr. Banner.
The doors to Dr. Banner's lab slid open before Elaina knocked. The lab was airy and light, filled with high-tech gadgets provided by Stark. The rear part of the lab was made of glass, looking out at the sky from the back of the Helicarrier.
"Please, come in, Miss. Barton," came Dr. Banner's voice.
Elaina smiled and came through the doorway. She saw Fury standing opposite of Bruce, a table between them, Fury's hands were behind his back. Bruce was a few inches taller than Elaina, his dark brown hair was very neat for a change and he wore thinly-framed glasses over his brown eyes. He was a couple years younger than Tony, but the two were on basically the same level of intelligence. They often talked in their own language when it came to technology or science leaving the others wondering what they were saying.
"I was just telling Dr. Banner about the mission. I assume you've found something if you're here?" Fury said.
"I have, sir, something very important," Elaina replied.
Both men looked at her curiously, Banner shifted.
"She's fast," he said with a laugh. "Guess Tony and I have rubbed off on her a little."
Elaina smiled and Banner smiled back at her.
"Sir, I know where Durov is hiding," she said nervously.
"That's good, very good, Agent Barton. Let me gather the Avengers for a meeting and you can tell all of us then," Fury said walking out of the lab, leaving Elaina and Bruce alone.
"That man is definitely different," Bruce said suddenly.
"I'm going to assume you won't be on the ground for this mission?" Elaina asked Bruce.
"You're right, I'm guessing S.H.I.E.L.D doesn't want the...other guy in threat of being mind controlled, if that's even possible," Bruce said.
Elaina knew what he meant, the Hulk being under the control of enemy forces against S.H.I.E.L.D means that S.H.I.E.L.D wouldn't stand a chance. She was sure -as was Bruce, apparently- Fury didn't want to risk finding out if it was even possible for the Hulk to be mind controlled if Durov had somehow managed to build his weapon already.
"I better get going, you coming?" Elaina asked.
"Yes, I'll be right there, you go ahead," Bruce said gathering up some papers on his desk.
The meeting room wasn't really a room, more like an area to the back of the main deck with a large round-edged, rectangular, glass-topped, black table. Elaina sat between Clint and Steve, Tony and Natasha were on either side of them, Bruce was just walking in before taking a seat next to Tony and Fury was on the other side of the table. The table was large enough that there was at least a foot and a half between each chair.
"I have called you all here concerning our most recent mission, by now you've all been informed about Dr. Durov and his...interest in some of our work," Fury said. "You are here because Agent Barton, Elaina, has found Dr. Durov. Agent?"
"Thank you, Director. My information suggests that Dr. Durov is in central Russia at one of his known labs. This lab is made out of an ice cave that he's reinforced with concrete and stone. Now, part of the lab is hundreds of feet below the ground and may prove a challenge in traversing and finding him in it. I do not know where in the lab he is I just know that thermal imaging picked up human signatures in that area..." Elaina said.
"You don't know for sure if Dr. Durov is in there?" Fury asked.
"I do know, sir, Durov wouldn't leave his men there without him, besides he has a particularly...odd heat signature which I found in the area. He was definitely there," Elaina continued.
Fury nodded and Elaina noticed Natasha had been looking at the ground the entire time, her red hair covering her face. Elaina knew Natasha probably had bad memories of past assignments in Russia or just memories in general.
"We'll log the location into the navigation and will be arriving at Russia in...about ten hours. You're dismissed," Fury said.
The Avengers got up and went their separate ways, Tony and Bruce leaving for Bruce's lab. Elaina walked up to where Fury was at his command post by the computers, giving him the location of the lab.
The Helicarrier had turned around, heading across the Atlantic toward Russia. Elaina had time to read over the file in the next couple of hours, a lot of the information she knew, but a lot of it was new to her. After that she got bored sitting in her room with nothing to do, so she got up and decided to find the work out room. She'd heard there was one, but had never actually been in there yet, and that's just what she needed at a time like this. She wasn't about to go into a mission -a potentially dangerous one at that- without having fired a gun in over a month. She went down a level from her room, finding the room on her own rather quickly. It was large, black-walled and very spacious with different sections for various methods of fighting. There were weights in one section with an open space to train with them in. Across from that there was a shooting range with different sized targets and different sized ranges. The best part about the room to Elaina was that it was empty, not another soul was in the place, just what she needed. Elaina walked over to the target that was medium-sized and had about a ten-foot range, taking her normal, black handgun from its holster around her left thigh. She loaded and checked the gun before aiming it at the target and firing once. She was pretty shocked when she saw the bullet had hit right in the center of the bullseye. She smiled and decided to make it harder. She moved to a smaller target, pressing a button on the wall so the target was now moving from side to side. She aimed and fired three times as it moved back and forth, the bullets all struck the bullseye.
"Guess I haven't lost my touch," she said to herself.
She'd known how to shoot a gun since she was very young, younger than she could remember, it had become second-nature to her by now. She was only twenty-six and, yet, her past was filled with horrible, bloody memories of past assignments in her younger years that she would never forget. Natasha and Clint were the only ones who could truly understand what her life had been like. The only ones who could relate, could know what it was like because their lives had been just like hers. After all, just like them, she was a trained assassin.
Five hours, that's all the time it had been since the Helicarrier had been put on route to Russia. Elaina had spent three of those hours reading the file, the other two were spent in the work out room. One of the effects of being an assassin for so long -that Elaina had definitely noticed- was that if she wasn't doing something she would quickly get bored and have to find something to do. It was around ten o'clock at night when Elaina walked back up to the main deck to check the location again. She wasn't about to have S.H.I.E.L.D go all the way to Russia if Durov had already left his lab there. Elaina pulled up the location on a computer within minutes, and ran thermal imaging over the satellite image. Sure enough, whoever was there hadn't moved or decided to leave. An overly loud clap of thunder made Elaina jump, almost falling from her seat in the process. She hadn't even noticed the start of the rain pelting the glass front of the Helicarrier, it was like it came out of nowhere. Lightning streaked blue lines through the pitch-black sky, the giant claps of thunder shaking the Helicarrier. Elaina could hear high-speed winds whistling around the huge ship, she knew they must be going through a heavy storm for the winds to be shaking the Helicarrier like it weighed so little.
"Go back to your room, Agent Barton," Fury told her. "Try to get some rest."
Elaina nodded, not needing to be told twice.
Lightning blazed right next to the Helicarrier, flashing a blinding light into the ship. The thunder that followed shook the carrier so hard Elaina fell to her knees trying to go up the main deck stairs. She got back up, straightening her uniform and continuing to walk back to her room. She didn't get far before stopping when she noticed some S.H.I.E.L.D agents looking at something with concerned faces. As she got closer she realized what the agents were staring at was Clint, but he was on the floor shaking uncontrollably. Worry gripped her and she moved cautiously toward him, the agents behind her. When she was a few feet from him she motioned the agents back.
"Give him some space," she said, the agents complying.
Elaina looked down at Clint, his face was contorted in anger and pain, but his eyes were tightly shut. She'd never seen him like this before, he was always calm and controlled.
He's having a nightmare, the storm must have triggered it, Elaina thought, she knew what it felt like.
"Clint..." she said softly, trying to wake him. "Clint."
The muscles in his arms were clenched tightly, straining against a nonexistent force.
"Clint," Elaina said forcibly without yelling.
All of a sudden, Clint was on his feet, he threw his arm out at Elaina. She thanked God for her split-second reflexes as she threw up her arms, blocking Clint's blow. She knew he was like a cornered animal, but in his own mind, not seeing her because he threw another blow at her. She blocked one of his arms but her back was to him. He went to hit her again, but she threw up her elbow, catching him hard below his cheekbone. She spun out of his way.
"Clint! Stop!" she exclaimed throwing back two more attacks.
She finally trapped his forearm between both of her forearms, preventing him from moving.
"Clint, you're alright, you're fine," Elaina said.
He seemed like he'd snapped out of his fear because he was looking at Elaina in shock. They were both breathing hard, Clint's arms were glazed with sweat from the nightmare, she released her hold on him.
"Elaina..." he seemed to think about what he'd just done. "Did I hurt you?" he added, looking horrified.
"No, you didn't, I'm fine," Elaina replied.
"I'm sorry," he said walking away.
"Clint..." she said after him, but he just kept walking.
She frowned, knowing Clint felt horrible, she could see it on his face. It wasn't his fault, she didn't want him to feel bad about it. However, she did know better than to follow him, he needed space away from everyone else. If he wanted to talk about it, Elaina decided he'd come to her.
Returning to her room to get rest like Fury ordered had been the best thing for Elaina to do. The storm had blown over in a few minutes, but had pushed their progress back a whole hour. Elaina had learned that when she'd fallen going up the stairs wasn't from the thunder, lightning had struck one of the Helicarrier's engines. The lightning had short-circuited the engine and Tony had to restart the entire system. She was sitting on her bed reading the last few pages of the file on Durov before falling asleep.
She was standing in the freezing-cold room, pulling the black fleece wrap around her shoulders. Her red floor-length ball-gown didn't provide much warmth considering it was one-sleeved. Her blond hair was in a curly updo, a few of the curled strands had escaped and hung around her face. A man at least twenty years older than her walked into the room, smiling as he saw her. His black hair had started graying around the part in his hair, he wore a black dress-jacket over a white shirt and black pants.
"I had fun tonight, Ashley, did you?" he asked her with a slight Russian accent to his words.
His voice was deep and smooth.
"I did, Aaron, the dance was very nice," she replied with a smile.
He handed her a thick wool blanket that she quickly wrapped around her.
"I will be right back, and then we can do whatever it is that you want," the man, Aaron, said.
He walked out of the door he'd come through, the only door in the room. She stood there, wondering what to do. This all seemed so hard, to get this far with him and for what? For her to form an emotional bond that wasn't real, that was fake to her but real to him, only to have it broken by the certainty of her assignment? It wasn't long before Aaron returned, smiling at her as he always did.
"What would you like to do, my dear?" he asked her.
"Could you show me around your place? I'm very curious," she asked.
"How could I resist you? Of course," he replied.
He took her hand in his, leading her out of the room. As they walked down a corridor, she looked around marveling at the creations made out of gems that lined the walls. Suddenly, a small child, a little boy about the age of five, ran up to Aaron.
"Daddy, please come play," the little boy said innocently, holding onto Aaron's hand.
The sound of his little voice tore into her heart, making her feel hopelessly lost. If she thought the assignment was hard before, it was impossible now. She knew she couldn't kill this man.
"Elaina," his voice woke her from her sleep.
"Elaina?" Clint's voice came over her earpiece.
"Clint, what is it?"
"Could you come up here?" he asked.
All grogginess from her sleep washed away as she heard the troubled tone of his voice, he never sounded anything like that, ever. She knew where he was, it would only take her a minute or so to get up there.
"It's fine if you don't want to it's late, we all need sleep, I know..." he paused. "It's just..."
She was almost there, she hoisted herself up on the metal platform next to where Clint sat.
"'Just' what?" she asked him.
He turned on her quickly, looking shocked that she'd snuck up beside him.
"Air vents," she replied to his expression. "Didn't think about those did you?"
He smiled, looking down at the floor many feet below where they sat. Elaina could see out over the main deck of the Helicarrier, she could watch every person, see every computer screen and she could see out of the glass front of the Helicarrier. Now she knew why Clint spent most of his time up here, it was very peaceful and away from most of the noise and rush of a regular day on the Helicarrier.
"I always think about the air vents," Clint said looking back at Elaina.
His eyes fell on where her arms rested in her lap next to him.
"I did hurt you..." he said nodding to her bruised forearms.
"Not as bad as I hurt you," she said motioning to the black and blue bruise spread across his cheek.
Clint looked out ahead of him, he was silent beside Elaina. She looked at him and saw the strong-willed archer she knew him to be wasn't present, something had snapped in Clint earlier that night.
"I was back to when Loki had me under his control," Clint said.
Elaina didn't say anything, she decided just to let Clint get this off his chest.
"It was horrible, I tried to fight it, but when I did it just gave him more power over me. I couldn't move on my own, only when he wanted me to, I couldn't sleep. It was like he was playing with me, like I was a tool or weapon to him. Tasha wouldn't tell me how many people I'd killed under his control..."
"You didn't need to know, Clint, it wasn't your fault."
Elaina couldn't stand him blaming himself for something that had been completely out of his control
"What if I'd killed one of the Avengers or you? I wouldn't have been able to live with myself."
Elaina could tell he was appalled by the very thought of killing one of the Avengers. Natasha had told her what Loki said he'd make Clint to to Tasha. To have him kill her "slowly, intimately" then to release his hold on Clint's mind just for Clint to see what he'd done to Natasha and kill Clint. The thought sent chills down Elaina, making her glad Natasha had slammed Clint's head into a railing unknowingly breaking Loki's control.
"Last night all of that was the present, not past. I'm sorry I attacked you," Clint said.
"It's nothing I couldn't handle," Elaina said.
Clint gently grabbed her arm as she walked away.
"Elaina, I really am," he said.
"Clint, I've had plenty worse, trust me. You don't have to apologize, we've all been there before, I've almost killed people in my sleep. All you did to me was give me a little hand-to-hand combat practice before the mission," she said with a smile.
He smiled back at her. As she maneuvered her way back she realized with everything that had happened already, this wasn't a good start to a mission that hadn't even begun.
So a little in sight into Elaina's past. Anyway working on chapter 3...almost four now. I dont know when I'll upload now, but summer break is a half a day away so yaay. If you liked it review below
:) ~SHSK