Hey guys! I finally finished up putting the finishing touches on this chapter and I'm really happy with how it came out. It's longer than the other chapters, but not too much. I hope you enjoy it. Disclaimer: I own nothing but my imagination.
Chapter Seven: Black Widow
A hard slap lands across my cheek with such force that is sends my head flinging to the side. A stinging sensation envelopes the side of my face and I glare at the woman in front of me. Madame B stands just a few feet from me, a scowl adorning her slightly wrinkled features. Blood leaks from a gun shot wound in my thigh that I'd received maybe fifteen minutes earlier and it also flows from several deep cuts across my arms and legs. My hands are chained together above my head and I'm currently sitting against the wall directly in front of my assailant. My ribs ache and I can already tell that at least two are bruised, luckily they're not broken. A boot clad foot suddenly comes slamming down on top of my injured leg and I grit my teeth, compartmentalizing the pain and shoving it down deep so that I don't show any emotion. Unfortunately even just my slight grimace is enough for my former teacher. She gives me a disapproving looks and adds a little tsk tsk for emphasis.
"Your time with the Avengers has made you weak Natalia. You never would've showed your pain when you worked for me." I shake my head.
"That's not my name." She offers an almost sympathetic smile and kneels down so that we're now eye level.
"Oh but it is Mrs. Romanova. You've tried so hard to distance yourself from your past but honestly that's the most impressive thing about you. Without my training you'd be nothing more than another pretty face, another common girl in the crowd of lost souls that we call humanity. All you are is a heartless assassin, Natalia, and that's all you'll ever be. Well mostly heartless, except for when it comes to that circus freak you call a partner. Tell me, when did you become so soft? So caring and trustworthy or, dare I say it, compassionate?" I do nothing but keep holding her questioning gaze with an icy glare. She stands and walks in a slow circle around the small room. Suddenly she stops and addresses me. "You and I are no different you know. In fact, we're exactly the same." Her statement causes anger to boil over inside me.
"I'm nothing like you." I spit out. She simply smiles at me.
"That's where you're wrong dear. You and I are, how do Americans say it, cut from the same cloth. You're Russian, I'm Russian. You kill, I kill. The only real difference is that you betrayed us, you abandoned your training and decided that you wanted to become some sort of hero." She shakes her head disapprovingly.
"Believe me, I'm no hero." Madame B nods her head in agreement.
"Trust me, I never thought of you as a hero. After all what kind of person would ever believe that a former member of the Red Room could ever be more than an assassin? You are no exception, Natalia. You're nothing more than a cold blooded killer, a murderer, and there's nothing you can do to change that. You think that if you do enough good deeds and wipe the red from your ledger that it will make up for all of the innocent blood you spilled in the past, but you're wrong. You can't change who you are. Those lives that you took will be with you forever no matter how much you think you've gotten rid of them. They're skeletons in your closet and, let me tell you, your closet is overflowing my dear. Red gushes from your ledger. All you ever do is follow orders. You're nothing more than a puppet controlled by her strings." I glare at the woman in front of me and she returns my gaze with her own icy intensity. Suddenly she smiles. "How about we see how the rest of the puppets are doing?" Without warning six guards come in and surround me. One of them moves to unchain my hands and Madame B speaks up. "Don't do anything you'd regret, Romanova, I would hate to have to cause your team mates any more pain than I have to. Reluctantly I listen to her command and when they release my restraints I don't struggle, in my current state I don't think I could escape without being shot anyway. I'm hauled to my feet and am soon being drug down the hallway, careful to keep most of the weight off of my injured leg. Eventually we're standing outside of a door that's looks suspiciously like the one that kept me confined in my cell only minutes before. One of the guards reaches out and opens it before I'm shoved inside the room. The door slams behind me and I'm met with a blast of freezing cold air. I immediately turn to look at the contents of the room. My breath catches in my throat when I see the space's other occupant. Clint is shackled to the wall across from me looking much worse than when I'd seen him last. His lips are blue and he's shivering violently. There's a deep cut in the shape of an arrow in his chest, his wrists are rubbed raw, and his lip is busted. It by far not the worst shape I've ever found him in, but it's definitely not the best either. I rush over to him and drop down onto my knees. My hand reaches out to touch his face and I flinch back when my fingers touch his cold, clammy skin. A feeling of panic rises in me and I tap his cheek to try and wake him. No response.
"Clint." I say tapping his face a little harder. "Clint!" For a few agonizing moments he doesn't answer me. Then, much to my relief, an unintelligible mumble passes through his lips and the smallest hint of a smile adorns my face. He starts to struggle suddenly and I place my hands on his shoulders. "Hey, Barton, you're ok. It's me Tasha, open your eyes for me ok." My partners eyelids sluggishly flutter open and I breathe a sigh of relief.
"T-tasha?" His words come out slurred and it worries me. I take one look at his shivering form and, now that I'm not focused on whether or not he's actually alive, I can tell he has hypothermia. S.H.I.E.L.D required agents to know the basic treatment for hypothermia and I thank them for that now. My training kicks in and I try to recall the steps we were taught. I quickly ask the man in front of me.
"Clint, what's eight times nine?" (A/N I know this seems random, but it is actually something you do to determine the severity of hypothermia A/N) His eyes screw shut and I can literally see the gears turning inside his head. After about a minute and a half he shakes his head.
"I don't know." I nod slowly.
"Can you stop shivering?" Again he shakes his head. I let out a sigh. He's got moderate hypothermia, freaking fantastic. I've got to get him warm before it becomes any more severe. I move over next to him and wrap my arms around him in an attempt to warm him up.
"T-t-thanks." He stutters out between shivers. I nod. It's at that moment that Trickshot and Madame B enter the room.
"Aww. Isn't that sweet." Trickshot snarls. "Get up." He draws an arrow and points it at me. I shake my head defiantly, refusing to leave my partner's side. It's only when he aims his bow at Clint that I reluctantly stand to my feet. As soon as I do this three guards come in and aim their weapons at me, although they're making sure that they're standing out of my reach. When he's sure I won't be going anywhere Trickshot walks over to Clint and unshackles his hands. The second Barton's arms are free they fall limply at his side, this worries me. On instinct he wraps his arms around his sides in an attempt to warm himself up, the only other archer in the room takes advantage of his vulnerability. Trickshot kicks Clint in the ribs, sending him falling to the floor and wheezing. An enraged shout escapes me and I make a move to advance towards my friend's assailant. Before I can get near him he's once again aiming an arrow towards Clint and I have no choice but to retreat. All I can do is watch as another kick connects with his stomach. After taking a few more hits Clint's form lies on the floor, unmoving. I stand there for several seconds waiting for him to make some sort of movement. When he remains still Trickshot walks over to him and kneels by his side. My partner's eyes snap open and, with all the strength he can muster, punches the man right square in the face. The villain goes sprawling across the floor and a small smile lights up Clint's face, it's then that I notice that he's stopped shivering. Oh no, that's not good. He hasn't gotten any warmer so that means he's starting to enter the last few stages of hypothermia, I've got to get him somewhere warm and fast. Suddenly Barton starts coughing violently and I rush to his side. I place my hands on his shoulders and wait for it to pass. When it does Trickshot suddenly appears and has a gun pressed to the back of my skull. Instead of ordering me away from my partner, he snarls at me.
"Get him up." I hesitate, unsure of what's going on. "Now!" Not wanting to end up with a bullet in my brain, I do as he says. I put one of Clint's arms around my shoulders and begin to haul him to his feet. He isn't completely dead weight, he's still functioning enough to stand, but it still isn't easy to get him to his feet and I do my best to keep most of the weight off of my injured leg. It immediately starts to get colder now that Barton is leaning against me, there's barely any heat coming off him. Once we're both somewhat steady Trickshot motions for us to exit through the door, reluctantly we do. Two of the guards go in front of us while Trickshot, Madame B, and the rest are following us from behind, there's too many and they're too spread out to deal with in our current state. They lead us down a series of hallways and we've been walking a good while before I feel Clint weakening. He's breathing heavily and I can tell he's on the verge of blacking out. Immediately I stop walking to try and give him a short reprieve but our enemy's having none of it. "Keep moving." I feel a gun barrel being pressed into my back but I don't move. A guard shoves us forward and before I can do anything my partner goes crashing to the ground, unconscious. Immediately I drop down next to him and glare at the group.
"He's suffering from hypothermia and most of his body still hasn't gotten full circulation back yet. The blood has just started to pump to his arms and legs again, he can barely walk. If you keep him going like this, you will kill him." This causes Trickshot to frown before nodding his head and motion to one of his men.
"Fine." The man grabs Clint and throws him over his shoulder roughly before proceeding to make his way down the hall. I throw one more icy glare at the man in front of me before following the guy carrying my partner. After another few minutes of limping along in silence we reach a large cell, but this one is different. Instead of thick concrete walls there's only what looks like jail cell bars and I stare at it puzzled, how do they expect to hold us in nothing more than a common jail cell? Then I see the green magic surrounding the area and it becomes clear. The guard carrying Clint stops short directly in front of the cell and I follow his lead. It's at that moment that I realize we're not alone. The rest of the Avengers are all inside the jail cell. Suddenly a hole appears in the magic surrounding the room and I'm shoved through where I land on my face in the dirt that covers the floor. Clint in tossed in after me and I flinch when his body collides with the ground making a loud thud. Trickshot and Madame B offer us one last smile before walking back down the way we came. The second they're gone I dash to my partner's side and check for a pulse. I let out a sigh when I finally find one. Steve quickly comes to kneel down next to me.
"Natasha, are you alright? What happened?" I momentarily turn my attention away from Clint to address Steve.
"I'm fine, Clint's suffering from hypothermia." Upon hearing about my partner's dilemma, Thor walks over and smiles.
"Fear not, lady Natasha, I will take care of Clint Barton while the Captain assesses your injuries." The big Asguardian seats himself by the archer's side and swiftly removes his cape before laying it on top of him like a blanket. Although he's still shivering, I can tell that Clint is grateful for the sudden warmth. Satisfied with Thor's efforts I turn to Steve, who immediately begins to check me over for injuries. Steve frowns at me.
"Widow, you are definitely not fine. There's a gun shot wound in your leg and if we don't do something hing about it you could bleed out or it could get infected." Cap's mother henning is really starting to get on my nerves and I roll my eyes.
"Relax Steve, it's nothing I have t deal with before." His frown deepens and the man gives me one of his angry leader looks to which I scoff. "You really need to work on that glare, Steve." It's his turn to roll his eyes as he tears a piece of fabric off of his uniform and ties it around my leg. "Happy now?" He nods and I turn away from him and scoot back over to where my partner lies. On instinct I lay a hand on his arm and let out a sigh. Steve automatically notices my concern.
"He's gonna be ok Natasha." A frown adorns my face at his optimism and I adjust my position so that I'm once again looking at him.
"That's just the thing. When you live in a world filled with monsters and magic, you only fear the big things. You forget the little things, the human things. And the thing is that we're all human, we all have weakness. You think your biggest concern is being killed by a raging alien army when in reality you could easily meet your end by a bullet. You make the smallest mistake and that's it, you're done. I had started to think Clint was invincible, he survived Asguardian mind control for pete's sake, but then in an instant I'm reminded that anything can happen. My partner literally almost died from the cold. You neglect to protect yourself against things like that, you forget that the cold is just as dangerous as any crazed super villain that we meet. We've been so naive and now we're facing the consequences." Steve shakes his head at me and goes to respond but I shake my head, causing him to fall silent. I turn my back on him and look down at Clint, the constant rise and fall of his chest is the only comfort in the cell that we are currently in. I close my eyes and out my hand over his heart, letting the steady beat of it lull me into a sense of peace.
Well thats it for chapter seven. Like it? I hope so. Once again I'd like to say that I'm not sure when I'll update next, but I'll try to make it soon. Reviews are welcome, I'd really appreciate it if you'd leave one. Thank you to everyone who's taken the time to read this story, it means a lot. Until the next chapter!