I should point out that IDGAF about the cannon ages. In this Natasha's like in her mid-30's cause that's the only way everyone's ages work (the kids and Natasha's age at the beginning) and Clint's a few years older. Just clearing up. Also changed my pen mane or whatever.

October 18 2011

Klara was woken by a hard slap in the face. Her mouth was still gagged but for a change of pace she was tied to a chair. Immediately she started to panic and tears formed in her eyes. The man standing above her smiled.

"You look much like your mother." He said under a thick Russian accent. Klara struggled against the ropes, but to no avail. She had a rough idea of how to get out of this, she'd seen it done. Clint would tie Natasha to a chair and she'd get out then they'd swap. Klara had never been able to get out Natasha's way by standing up and breaking it. She been able to lean backwards and break it by slamming backwards onto the floor but she'd also knocked herself out. Klara stayed silent, mainly due to the gag in her mouth but she also couldn't think of anything to say. Her eyes darted around the room and the man laughed and took the gag off her mouth, Klara greeted him by spitting at him but he just kept laughing.

"Any idea where you are Klara Romanova?" he asked, Klara glared.

"It's Barton." She stuttered, she didn't want him to know she was scared, but the tears in her eyes and her voice were betraying her.

"Ah yes another one of my girls who adores that man." He said bitterly. Klara frowned

"I'm not your girl."

He hit her again "дать ему время милая" (Give it time sweetheart). Klara spat at him again, no one called her sweetheart, not ever.

As soon as Clint and Natasha touched down in Russia SHIELD contacted them to inform them that Klara was not in that country, in fact she was still in New York. The organization had set up a base outside the city, it was run down and not well guarded but it was there. Natasha fired the clip of her gun into the frozen ground at her feet. Clint grabbed her

"Tasha." He soothed. She kicked at the ground "This was stupid, this is stupid and wrong and we knew it. We weren't thinking. I wasn't thinking!" she screamed, scaring a nearby flock of birds. Clint kept hold around her as she continued kicking at the dirt. Clint looked around, the woods seemed dead, barren. There was a gravel road to their right. Natasha tried to get out of Clint's arms and it took all his strength to keep her there.

"Clint we have to go! I wasn't thinking clearly, I wasn't thinking like a spy I was thinking like a mother. WE HAVE TO GO!" he clasped his hand over her mouth.

"Nat shut up." She elbowed him in the stomach but still he held onto her. She bit his hand.

"Nat, we're here. They have girls here, and how much do you want to bet whoever is running this hellhole is with our daughter which isn't here. Nat I want to get Klara and I want her now but she's across the world there are girls here now. Girls like you, going through the same thing." He whispered. This calmed Natasha down, girls like her. She stopped struggling against Clint, he let go of her. She went back onto the jet and reloaded her gun and turned on the Tasers in her wrists, Clint notched an arrow.

"Girls like me." Natasha said quietly. Clint nodded. "We should call in some backup." Natasha raised an eyebrow "Really? That could get us all killed." he smiled

"I was kidding."

Bella sat in the lobby of Stark tower. She shouldn't be there, she shouldn't have left the house but the building was open this late and it was busy. It calmed her down, she always liked the way it was designed. This wasn't the first time she'd just sat here either. Once every two weeks since she was about 15, since Iron Man made an appearance. She hoped that he'd just happen to be in the lobby of his building. She buried her face into her hands. Once every two weeks.

"I'm a groupie." She uttered. She couldn't do anything for Klara, not now so why not sit in Stark tower with her calculus homework? She heard the clicking of heels across the lobby and a small scream, Bella's had snapped up. She recognized the woman, Pepper Potts. She was the CEO of Stark Industries and she was staring at Bella like she'd seen a ghost.

"Natalie?"

Bella's eyes widened "Oh no, not me."

Pepper looked shocked "Sorry you look like someone I knew, the resemblance is she turned out to be… anyway."

Bella nodded "Weird, well I'll be going." She said while rooting around for her mother's car keys.

"Are you related to a Natalie Rushman?" Pepper pressed. She knew Natalie was really a spy but Bella's resemblance was unnerving her. Bella frowned, she knew that had been her mother's alias.

"Nope, don't know her." She lied horribly while shoving her textbook back into her bag. She began out towards the door.

"Big fan by the way." Bella said, just as the door behind Pepper opened and Tony Stark came out.

"Oh god you." He said, Pepper shook her head. Bella stood there frozen. Her mother was in her 30's. Bella was turning 18, she couldn't look that much like her. But Natasha did look younger than she was. Bella stared at Stark.

"Love what you've done with the arc reactor." She stuttered and backed out of the building practically tripping over her own feet.

Klara never got the chance to get out of the chair because she'd been moved into what used to be an office with bars on the window and locked door. Which probably had a guard outside of it. Klara searched the room for something she could pick the lock with but it was clean and she didn't have anything on her either. Klara vowed to always have a least one bobby pin, Bella did. She managed to break the window, but what she really managed to do was injure her hands. At least she had something resembling a weapon. Klara was fully prepared to use it against anyone she encountered, she knew her effort would be futile but she could say she tried. Her chance came when the girl who'd tased her came inside Klara lunged at her with the shard of glass, the girl was taken by surprise but she was bigger, stronger and more skilled then Klara. The glass was knocked from her hand in a second, she got a kick in before being shoved into a bookshelf. Klara got right back to her feet, the girl aimed a kick at Klara's stomach who grabbed her leg and threw her onto the ground. The girl tried to get to her feet back Klara kicked her back down, then in the head. The blond lay hopefully unconscious, Klara didn't think the alternative was possible. She knelt down and took the taser from her jacket pocket. Mildly surprised she didn't have a more lethal weapon. Klara knew there weren't any security camera's which was nice. She held the taser out in front of her like she would a gun and looked around, no one had heard anything that or this is what they wanted. Klara settled with whoever else was here remained oblivious to her escape and searched for an exit.

Natasha hoped Clint was right about Ivan not being at the compound because he would have taken his best guards and a few of the older girls with him. Getting over the barbed wire topped fence and into the compound wasn't hard. It was what to do next that required some thought. The obvious choice were the dorms, although they were more like nicely decorated prison cells. This early in the morning that's where the girls would be. Next was how to handle the situation without anyone dying. Clint frowned

"They'll shoot at us first."

Natasha checked her guns and glanced over at Clint then at the long low grey building that function or at least it used to function as the 'dorms'. Natasha nodded and they sprinted for the door.

Getting in was easy since it was unlocked and so was taking out the first few guards that came at them, the others were smart and ran. Clint took after them but Natasha stopped him. Hey heard stirring inside each room Natasha tentatively opened the first door. There was a girl standing there in clothes that were least 3 sizes too big for her holding a pen out as a weapon. She was older then Klara, maybe about 16. Her black hair fell just past her shoulders and dark eyes studied Natasha. The girl's eyes and hair contrasted her sickly pale skin.

"Natalia Romanova." Natasha said. The girl's eyes widened

"They told us you were dead." She said with a thick German accent. In Natasha's time all the girls had been Russian she was surprised that had changed. Natasha held out her hand

"We're here to save you." She said, the girl grabbed her hand. Clint was having less luck, the girl he had tossed a table lamp at him and screeched she didn't need saving in Russian. Natasha felt sick, the girl Clint was trying to coax out of her room couldn't be older then Klara, Natasha looked away and turned to the next door, they'd probably been born in the same year. Clint opted put her into a sleeper hold and carried her over her shoulder. She'd had the same look in her eyes Natasha had when she was going through withdrawal. He'd never wanted to see it again, much less on a 14 year old.

"Is here any identification anywhere?" he asked while opening another door.

"In the office." Natasha answered, surprised she remembered everything.

The next two girls were perfectly compliant. A blue eyed girl with mouse brown hair and a hazel eyed girl with bright orange hair. The brunette was around 15 and the redhead looked about Bella's age. The last girl they could find looked much healthier than the others which meant she hadn't been there long. She had olive skin, dark brown hair and dark green eyes, she was young. 11 or 12.

"There should be more." Natasha said.

"Other countries." The girl with blue eyes muttered. Clint grimaced.

"This is a lot bigger then it was 20 years ago."

Natasha frowned and turned to the girls. She pointed to the two oldest the redhead and the first girl.

"Carry her." She pointed to the unconscious blond hanging over Clint's shoulder.

"There's a jet, get in and strap her down. Understand?" Natasha asked, the 15 year old nodded. The two oldest took the blonde from Clint, Natasha sighed and handed one of her guns to the 15 year old.

"Break the lock on the fence, go down the road you'll see it."

The girl nodded and led the others out the door. Other guards never came.

"That's weird." He said drawing his bow. Natasha shook her head "Not if there's other bases, if these were the only girls…" she trailed off.

"There should be a brick building behind this one it's the 'hospital' there could be girl in there. I'll get their identities from the office." Natasha ordered. She'd stopped thinking as a mother and started thinking like that Black Widow. Clint ran out of the building his bow raised. And Natasha made a beeline for the opposite exit.

Bella tried and tried to get some sleep but to no avail, she was sure she wouldn't be going into school the next morning. She expected someone from SHIELD to call but I was likely chaos, especially if someone found out she broke her lockdown. Bella smiled, she'd seen Tony Stark. She'd always admired his work but within the first few weeks of her senior year she'd changed her ambitions. Besides she was only 17, if she knew what she wanted to do with herself. Great, if not who cared? Thinking about the future was usually Bella's distraction but tonight she couldn't stop stressing over Klara not having one. If something happened to her Bella didn't know what she'd do. She wanted to call SHIELD, but even you are one of their best agent's kid you can't just call them. Right on cue the phone rang. Bella leapt to her feet and lunged for it.

"Hello?"

"This is Agent May, we are commencing a rescue operation shortly is there anything you'd like to know?"

"How'd you find her?"

"Traffic cameras, cell phones Intel we already had."

"Where is she?" Bella asked frantically.

"Just outside the city. Are you safe?" May asked.

"Of course I'm safe, just save my sister!" Bella demanded.

"We'll do everything we can." Said May and then she hung up.

Bella tossed her phone onto her bed and curled up under the covers, Agent May hadn't said anything about her parents.

Klara's brief escape didn't last long "I thought I'd be kind to you." The man who was obviously in charge had told her as she was bound and gagged all over again. The cuts on her hand stung but not as much as the welt on her face from being hit. Klara looked up pleadingly at the two girls, one had a very large bruise on her face and a fresh cut on her forehead, the other was very jittery. Both of them ignored her. Klara felt tears roll down her cheeks as she was hoisted to her feet and dragged outside. There was a van up ahead of her. Klara struggled, she wasn't getting in that van. She could see New York in the distance, Klara would not be leaving the state. She went limp, making it harder to drag her. The one girl groaned and tightened her grip on Klara's arm. Klara threw herself to the side knocking the blonde over and rolled away from them. Klara kept rolling and waited for them to come get her but they didn't. Klara glanced at them, the blonde slammed the brunette's head onto the van, and Klara kept rolling then she heard a sickening crack. Klara looked back again, the brunette lay limp on the ground. Klara shuddered, the blonde had snapped the other girl's neck. The blonde got into the van and drove away following a black SUV that had left in the other direction. Klara lay on the ground gagged, bound and completely confused. She'd probably saved Klara's life and would pay for it, likely with her life. Klara thought about the blonde coming to the room she was being kept in. There wasn't any reason for her to be there, the cut on her forehead had likely been punishment. Klara hadn't done it and it wasn't there before she'd escaped. Klara sighed the best she could with her mouth gagged. All she'd wanted to do was help her and Klara had kicked her in the head. Now she was left with the dilemma of cutting the ropes.

The Red Room's infirmary might have been the most terrifying room Clint had ever seen, and he'd seen a lot. The walls were stained with stained with blood that had suck into the paint, the entire place smelled like bleach and there were surgical instruments on the table's that Clint would have first guessed to be torture devices. In a sense, they were. Worst was the fridge, filled with vials and pills Clint couldn't recognize. Except two, there was more of them than anything else. Large syringes full of an ice blue liquid. He knew it doubled as a drug that supressed free will but worst of all, it was addictive. Made people malleable. Easy to bend to someone else's will, person A say's jump, person B asks how high. The next came in the form of pill, it altered a person's memory and their perception of reality, also addictive. The two pills combined made for one hell of a recovery, something Clint never wanted to see anyone go through again. He thought of the girls who were hopefully by now on the jet, some of them would have to through the same hell Natasha did, a few of them could have it easier. But all of them were terrified, all of them were abused, all of them were warped. He grabbed everything he could for analysis and searched the room for anything else of use. Finding nothing he ran from the building in search of Natasha.

Natasha grabbed every file she could find, locations of bases, employees, the girls. It was her life's mission to take down the red room. Natasha wasn't going to stop, these files could give her what she needed. Natasha had ever been able to track the red room because they never had anything to go on except for one base in Russia that never appeared active. The red room must have figured out how to get past SHIELD surveillance, this unnerved Natasha because when she'd been there the Red Room had never been able to evade SHIELD. The agency picked a time to take out Natasha and they did, well Clint was supposed to. She searched the room for anything else, bank records and receipts. Anything that could tell her more about what they were doing. If anything had changed. She found nothing, which was unusual. Everything was off, the guards running away, the only thing in this room being files. As if no one used it.

"Nat. The girls are in the jet, ready to go?" Clint's voice sounded in her ear. She stood in front of the barren desk in the office. It was surreal to her. She used to stand here, terrified, receiving orders from a man she'd been conditioned to call her father. When he was the farthest thing from.

"Yeah. I'm done here." She replied, and slowly turned on her heel and left the building.

As Natasha crossed the deserted compound she thought back to almost 18 years ago when Bella was born. There were moments in Natasha's pregnancy were she regretted it. Regretted bringing a child into a world where she'd never be safe. And as she watched Bella grow older it hurt her even more. She never spoke about it with Clint. There were times when she debated finding a better home for Bella, a safer life. Natasha knew they were always being watched. That's what stopped the idea in the back of her was never voiced. She'd be safer under the protection of SHIELD. Then Klara happened. And she thought about it less, until the girls were taken. And Natasha knew she could still do it. No matter how wrong it was. SHIELD couldn't protect the girls the way they needed to be protected, up until now Natasha hadn't been vigorously training the girls, especially Bella. Klara liked to practice archery more than anything else. As she left the compound she vowed to train her girls the way they should be. SHIELD couldn't protect them. They'd have to protect themselves.

Klara never thought she'd be related to see Agent May, the woman had always been indifferent to her but now she was unbound and in the backseat of an armoured SHIELD car being driven by her. Klara knew she never went out into the field. The Agents were quiet and the cars never left formation. Klara was bleeding in several different places and there were shards of glass in her hand. But everything was so quiet, so serious. She decided to keep her mouth shut. Agent May glanced behind her, for a moment Klara swore she looked worried but the agent became stoic once more. Klara sat up and turned around, at first nothing seemed wrong until she noticed another black car, not SHIELD.

"They're braver then I thought." May muttered before slamming on the acceleration. Every car did the same. But they weren't fast enough to evade a second Red room vehicle coming straight off a side road and into the driver side of the car. Klara May and the other agent screamed. Before everything went black.