Six months later
Kim, Natasha and Steve rounded a corner and were immediately met with resistance. The bullets whipped past their skin, none quite meeting their mark, but close enough that the next few could do some serious damage.
"This is pathetic." Muttered Natasha, and turned to shoot their two assailants, wasting only one bullet.
"Where to now?" asked Kim into her earpiece, and the British lilt of Laura Stark came into their ears.
"Down this corridor and to the left. There you'll find the Winter Soldier program's facilities. Steve, if he's anywhere, he'll be here."
Steve gave a small hum of response and took off down the corridor, Natasha and Kim at his heels.
"What makes you so sure Bucky's even here?" called Kim, struggling to keep up with the older, more experienced Avengers.
"It's a Russian facility. He was brought back by the Soviets. Any more evidence required?" shouted back Steve.
"Also this place is called Объект Зимняя для упавших солдат, or The Winters facility for fallen Soldiers. Winter Soldier. They didn't exactly make it hard." Laughed Natasha, executing the Russian in a faultless accent.
They took the corridor to the right, and were met with a set of steel double doors. Nat and Steve stood aside and Kim rushed forwards, whipping out her sat phone and using it to decipher the code for the door.
5491.
She typed in the code, and the doors swung open.
The warehouse that the doors revealed was massive, spacious and foreboding. There was a rush of cold air that blew Natasha and Kim's hair behind their faces. The most disturbing factor… it was completely deserted.
"I don't like this… I've got a sort of… bad feeling." Muttered Kim.
Then, gunshots from nowhere. They ducked behind a small cart to the right of the doors as Natasha started aimlessly firing back at invisible targets, ghosts.
Then there was a movement; a man started charging towards them, using a bin lid as a shield against Natasha's constant onslaught of bullets. He reached her, tripped, and fell straight on top of her.
She rolled away and stood up, aiming her gun at him once more. Then she faltered.
"I-Ivan?" she said, she voice quivering as tears clearly sprung to her eyes. Then there was nothing but fear in the assassin's face as the man gave an evil grin and getting up slowly.
"Natalia. So good to see you again." He had a thick accent; Russian.
Steve stepped forwards and put his hand on her shoulder as Kim hissed down her earpiece at Laura, asking her what was going on.
Natasha jumped at Steve's touch, her face panic-stricken and pale.
Who was he? How could one man make the most fierce and strong woman Kim knew turn into this?
"I-I wish I could r-r-return the compliment." Natasha said, the desperate struggle for control evident in her voice.
She started to hyperventilate, her face growing paler and paler with every breath, before her knees gave out and she collapsed into a crouch, her hands on top of her head.
Suddenly the panicked voice of Laura entered Kim's head.
"Kim… get out of there now. Out! Get out right now! None of you are safe. Steve, you can come back and get Bucky another time, GET OUT NOW!" she shouted, before being replaced with Coulson.
"Frost, get them out of there. Natasha can't handle this without… just get out. Bucky can wait, right now we focus on Natasha. Get. Her. Out." his voice was calm, so much so that it was scaring Kim.
"Yes sir. I'll try my best." She said, before aiming a gun at this 'Ivan'.
"Tell me who you are now or I'll shoot." She said, her voice dangerous and threatening.
"Ivan Petrovitch Bezukhov. I trained Natalia here." He said in his thick accent, a sick humour in his harsh tones. "Natalia did I train you to become a snivelling mess every time you see a familiar face?" he addressed Natasha now, a sadistic smile on his bearded face.
"Don't speak to her. Don't look at her. Don't breathe around her. Don't even think about her. Clear?" Kim asked, confidence growing.
"Crystal." He answered, his smile growing more and more psychotic by the second.
"Why are you here?" she asked.
"This is the Black Widow program. The name's just a ruse. I designed it to train the best of the best." He said, still smiling.
"Now we're gonna go. You're gonna stay exactly where you are. Steve, pick up Natasha and get behind me now. You're gonna stay right there until we leave this place. Understood?" she asked as Steve crept around her to scoop up Natasha and slip towards the door.
"Understood." He was still smiling. Why was he doing that? Almost like he knew somethi-
"Steve?" asked Kim, making sure he was still behind her.
"Yeah?" he replied in a whisper.
"It's a trap. We're gonna be attacked." She muttered back, never for a second taking her eyes off Ivan.
Then there was madness. The bullets from nowhere started up again, and Natasha sprung out of Steve's arms and into action, like she was on a sort of autopilot. She ran at Ivan, getting him to the ground in a blink of an eye, as three armour-clad men appeared through the doors they had just come through and attacked Steve. Kim aimed her gun at Ivan, but never getting a good shot for fear of hurting Natasha. There was a noise from behind her, and Kim was faced with several more masked soldiers, all armed, not with guns, but with a knife each. She ran at them, disarming the first in an instant and using his weapon to slash wildly at the onslaught of soldiers. She felt a knife scrape at her left thigh as a pain spread rapidly through her left leg. She used her right to kick this particular assailant and knocked him out cold. Then she was greeted to a knife to the throat, which she hastily responded to by stamping on his foot and ducking underneath the knife, gaining a small cut to the cheek. She stabbed out once again, and then was met with no resistance as she stood in the middle of the out-cold bodies of the soldiers.
Then there was a scream, and Natasha was pinned to the ground with a knife to her neck.
Steve too was pinned to the ground, with another soldier aiming a gun at him.
Kim reached up to her ear. "Coulson, we need maximum backup now! Hello? Coulson? Laura? Anyone?" No-one answered her pleas as she looked helplessly between the two scenes.
Kim didn't know what to do. She felt herself loose control as tears started to well in her eyes, her face flushed and she started to shake.
Then the doors were smashed open and Coulson and Laura rushed in, followed by Tony, Skye, May, Clint and a smattering of other S.H.I.E.L.D agents.
Ivan stood his ground as Laura gestured for Kim. She tiptoed over, her breathing claming down as she went to the back of the group.
Natasha was whimpering as Ivan pressed the knife closer to her throat.
Then Natasha made a noise.
"What was that my little spider?" asked Ivan, the sadism in his voice so present it could have cut the room in two.
"C-Clint…" she said, trying to turn.
"Clint? Who is this Clint?" asked Ivan, looking accusingly at the group of S.H.I.E.L.D agents. He got up and pushed his knife into Coulson's face, drawing a small amount of blood as Laura slipped around him and knelt by Natasha, trying to help her up.
Clint drew his gun and stepped forwards towards Ivan.
"Hi." He drawled, spreading his other arm out as if to say 'that's my name, don't wear it out'
Kim rolled her eyes. Typical.
"I don't think so child." Ivan said, turning to look at Laura ever so slightly.
Big mistake.
Laura used his moment of distraction to her advantage, grabbed her icer and shot the man above Steve as Coulson did the same to Ivan. More people came running behind them, attacking the group from behind. But instead of soldiers like the others, they were girls. Little girls from around the ages of five to sixteen.
"Use icers only!" shouted Coulson above the noise. "Laura, Steve, Kim, get Natasha out of here! Be careful!"
Laura, Steve and Kim looked each other, and each took a different person. Kim ran at the unconscious body of Ivan as Steve ran at the barely conscious Natasha, who was still muttering Clint's name on the floor. She slipped one arm over her shoulders and ran through a different exit on the other side of the warehouse, Laura and Steve in hot pursuit. Clint joind them within thirty seconds, taking control of Natasha and carrying her bridal style down the corridor.
They reached the bus without fuss, and dumped Ivan into the interrogation room.
"Laura, I want a word in a minute." Steve said with a dangerous tone.
Laura paled and nodded, before focusing on Natasha.
"Kim, call FitzSimmons. They're on the bus somewhere and they can help her. I'll put her in the lab."
Kim nodded as Laura put Natasha's other arm over her shoulders and Clint replacing Kim, giving her the chance to slip free and quickly ascend the staircase.
They helped Natasha slowly into the lad, and lay her down on the table as Fitz and Simmons came running into the lab. Clint leaned against a desk in the far corner and raised an eyebrow; he wasn't moving.
"Laura can you give us some room?" was all Fitz said as he slung his lab coat on. Simmons didn't even acknowledge her presence as she started to attend to her patient.
Laura sighed and walked out.
Kim was stood in her bunk when she heard shouting from outside. Steve.
"I can't believe you, Laura! You put yourself in danger once and now again. You can't keep doing this in your state!"
"Well what was I supposed to do? Your life, the only other life I care about on this earth, was threatened. What do you think I would do if I never saw you again without having the chance to redeem myself! I had to go!" Laura shouted back.
Kim raised her eyebrows at her closed door and tried to ignore them as the shouting continued. It was going to be a long night.