Okay... before you kill me for taking so freaking long to update let me defend myself! My life has been ridiculously insane for the last month and a half. I have been singing every two days, so that means rehearsals and sleep deprivation. I have also been struggling with mental health and stuff like that, other head crap irritations. Added with school essays and projects all being due at the same time, and a ridiculous amount of assignments. So, I want to apologize for taking so long! That being said, I really hope y'all enjoy this chapter! It was kind of hard to write Natasha this way but it was also super fun! Enjoy!

1. Natasha

Two hours after the team had decided to get some sleep. Natasha sat awake on watch, biding her time before waking up Steve for his turn. She stared at the door to the cell, rubbing her head as the ache behind her eyes worsened slightly. Her head had begun hurting about 30 minutes after everyone had fallen asleep and she didn't know what it was. She figured it was just residual aching from the ambush. Leaning a little heavier against the wall, Natasha rubbed her temples in an effort to release some of the pain. She sighed and clenched her eyes shut momentarily, pulling her legs up to her chest. The back of her mind screamed at her, warning her against showing weakness while in captivity. She felt a glimmer of confusion as to why she was allowing herself to portray any semblance of sensitivity or injury. Usually she was more controlled than this. She was trained better than this.

"Yes you were," her blood chilled in her veins as a hauntingly familiar voice breathed down the back of her neck, "you know better than this, Natalia."

Natasha tucked her chin to her chest, burying her head in her knees, "no," she whimpered, trying to convince herself that it wasn't real. It couldn't be real. She'd killed him. She had killed Dreykov. She'd watched him blow up.

For some reason, Natasha was unable to pull up her usual mask of calm. instead her panic reached the surface and manifested in the form of an anxiety attack. She gasped for breath, her lungs failing to inhale enough oxygen. Her limbs trembled as she listened to the voice. She shook her hands, trying to expel some of the anxiety through her hands. She rubbed her knuckles into her chest harshly, trying desperately to drag in a full breath as her panic threatened to overwhelm her. No, this was not how she was trained to handle things. She could handle this-

"Why me?" A little girl's voice spoke up, and all Natasha's attempted coping flew out the window. She curled in on herself and pressed her hands to her ears. Natasha stared in horror as Dreykov's daughter emerged from what looked like a pile of ashes, "why me, Natasha?"

***Line Break***

Bruce looked over as he heard someone on the team shift around and mutter. Natasha was sitting up staring at something in the darkness.

"Nat," Bruce asked, "what is it?"

"No," she muttered, "no, no, no. I ki- I killed you."

"Natasha?" Bruce frowned, concern rising as he realized that no one was there, "Nat, no one's there."

The assassin continued muttering to herself as she stared at the corner, the primal fear on her face keeping Bruce from approaching her. While he was the resident doctor, he had absolutely zero desire to be decapitated by the woman sitting in front of him. INstead, he opted to wake up somebody who might know what was going on with her.

"Clint," Bruce nudged the sleeping man with his foot, "Clint, wake up. Something's wrong with Natasha. I need you awake."

"Mmm," Clint's eyebrows scrunched together as his eyes opened and sat up, "what happened? Tasha? Who's there?"

"You're dead," she insisted, as if she hadn't heard them, "get out of my head," her fear turned to a primal, protective growl as she moved into a crouch, "go away."

"Natasha," Bruce moved next to her, " Natasha, what-"

"Get away," she shoved him backwards, causing him to roll onto his bruised and battered torso.

"'Tasha," Clint slid in front of her carefully, "Tash, it's okay. Who's there?"

"No!" Natasha screamed, scrambling away from them and waking up the others in the process, "no! Stay away from me! Don't touch me!"

"What the hell...?" Tony stared at the assassin cautiously, "what's wrong with Natasha?"

"I don't know," Bruce ran a hand through his frazzled greasy hair as he watched Nat tremble in the corner, "Tasha..."

"No!" Nat curled even tighter in on herself, "No!"

"Lady Natasha," Thor spoke more gently than anyone had ever heard before, "we will not touch you, but you must tell us what haunts you. We cannot help you otherwise."

Nat's brown eyes peeked out from under her arms, the stark fear in them shocking the others, "Drey..." her voice trailed off and her shaking renewed.

"Dreykov," Clint finished, wincing as Natasha shrieked, "is he here, Nat?"

Natasha shook her head frantically, "daughter..."

***Line Break***

Natasha stared in horror as Antonia crawled forward, her twisted and burned features contorting into a vile expression of anger. Clint was crouched in between them and Nat's skin crawled with terror as Antonia reached for his arm.

"No," she screamed, launching herself forward and throwing Clint across the room, away from Antonia.

"Lady Natasha," Thor's arms appeared around her and she was pulled tightly against the god's chest, "stop! You cannot hurt Clint!"

She was too out of it to hear Clint's grunt of pain as he collided hard with the wall, and she definitely didn't hear the other's shouts of protest at her actions. She just continued to watch the maimed little girl in front of her. Natasha watched as the child cocked her head curiously and turned slowly to face Tony, who was still curled against the wall. Nat's heart thudded in her chest as the little girl looked back at her, the young mutilated face twisting into a vile grin.

"Don't touch him!" Nat screamed, ignoring Thor and trying to throw herself at Antonia, who was now crawling towards Tony, "leave them alone!"

"Nat?" Tony had his hands up in a surrender position, completely vulnerable to the twisted demon crawling his way, "I'm not touching anyone."

"No!" Nat shrieked, successfully freeing herself from Thor as she rammed her heel into his knee, "stop," she threw herself at Antonia and rolled to a stop in front of Tony, practically snarling in fierce protection.

"Tash," Bruce was there now, trying to calm her, "Come on, Tasha, breathe," he begged, "Tony won't hurt anyone."

"She'll hurt them," Nat panted, her fear making her breath come short as she tried to brokenly explain what was happening to her clueless teammates, "she has to go..."

"Nat," Steve crouched next to Bruce, both of them directly in the path of the crawling horror who had procured a knife from somewhere and was making her way back towards the team," who are you talking about?"

"Move," Nat begged, trying unsuccessfully to push them out of the way, "she'll hurt you! Move!"

Steve grabbed her arms and pulled her tight to his chest, blocking her view of the burned apparition, "Nat, I need you to breathe," he snapped, trying to wrestle her down to the ground to keep her from hurting herself or someone else, "Bruce, what's wrong with her?"

"I don't know," Bruce sounded desperate, "she was fine when we all fell asleep."

Natasha didn't understand what they were saying, which only added to her panic. There was nothing wrong with her! Couldn't they see the threat that was right in front of them? She was trying to protect them! They were going to get themselves killed!

***Line Break***

Steve struggled against Natasha, not wanting to hurt her but also wanting to keep her from hurting someone else. Clint had his arms wrapped around his reinjured ribs and his head was bleeding where he had collided with the wall. Tony looked absolutely terrified and, quite frankly, Steve didn't blame him. Natasha hadn't ever tried to hurt someone on the team before. She was usually the very definition of control, so to see her like this was disconcerting. Steve grimaced as he caught one of Nat's fists to his face.

"Come on, Nat," he groaned, trying to hold her down, "just cooperate. No one here is going to hurt you."

"She's gonna hurt us all," Nat shrieked, her eyes wild with fear as they roved across the room, trying to see behind Steve, "let me go. She's gonna hurt us."

"Nat," Tony approached slowly, "there's no other female in here. You're the only 'she' here."

Nat's struggles slowed minutely, "you can't see her...?"

Tony shook his head, "no one is in here, Nat," he slowly took her hands from Steve and all the Avengers tensed, knowing that Nat could easily break every bone in his body if she wanted to, "look. We can't see anybody. You're scaring us, Nat. No one else is here."

"She..." Nat was staring at a single spot up against the far wall, "she's there... watching..."

Tony shook his head, "there's no one there, Nat," he said gently, "we're actually relatively safe in here. I need you to calm down."

Steve stared in wonder at this new side of Tony. He'd never seen the other man so calm and controlled before. And his tone wasn't scathing like it normally was either. Tony was talking to Nat with all the gentleness of a therapist and the rationality of a sane man. Steve shot the man a questioning look which Tony translated perfectly, and nodded affirmation.

"Tash," Steve said gently, standing slowly, "I'm going to go stand in that corner and show you, okay? We're alone in here."

"Steve, no!" Nat struggled against Tony, who was quickly replaced by Thor, "she'll hurt you!"

"No one will hurt the Captain!" Thor assured her, horrified to see tears gathering in Nat's eyes, "he will be okay, Lady Natasha."

"No," Natasha's bloodcurdling scream nearly stopped Tony's heart in terror, "don't hurt them! Leave them alone! They had nothing to do with it," her gaze darted over to Clint and became even more panicked, "no!" her shriek rose in decibels as she struggled harder against Thor, "he didn't know! Leave him alone! Stay away! Stop!"

"Tash," Tony spoke up again, his voice a little louder and sterner, almost like it was in battle, "where is she?"

"She over there," one of Nat's flailing arms gestured to a spot a few feet away from Clint, "stop her! She's going to hurt him!"

"Captain," Tony snapped, "go backup Hawkeye. Thor and I have Widow. Banner, stay where you are and wait for the next command."

"Copy," the team caught on quickly to what Tony was doing; making Nat feel validated and like everyone was recognizing the threat.

Steve crouched in front of Clint protectively, his hands ready in a fighting position, "Hawkeye covered."

Nat calmed a bit, no longer trying to break Thor's arm to get away. She stared at Tony, instead of the empty spaces. He nodded at her and watched as she visibly calmed a bit more. Tony continued to treat the hallucination like an attack; continuing to help relax Nat.

"Where is she now, Nat?" Tony asked, watching the assassin carefully.

Nat blinked hard, examining the entire room carefully before blinking again. Her shaking slowed gradually and she continued swinging her gaze around the room. Thor gently released her, letting the exhausted woman slide to the ground, staring at every corner of the room.

"She's gone," the assassin whispered, her face carefully sliding back into a neutral mask, "she's gone..."

Clint slipped out from behind Steve and crept over to his partner, "are you okay now, Nat?"

Her mask slipped a bit and she fought to keep her face from crumbling, "she was gonna..."

"I know, Tash," Clint murmured, pulling her into a tight hug, "it's okay now. She's gone. Take a breath. You're okay."

It took a good long while for him to calm her down completely. The others hovered awkwardly, not sure how to help. Eventually they settled for forming a shield around the two, keeping them hidden from the door. It seemed to help calm Natasha a bit more, keeping her hidden from the outside world. When she was finally calmed down enough, Clint pulled away, keeping one arm wrapped around her. The others scooted backwards so that they weren't crowding her; none of them wanted to send her into another panic. She looked embarrassed and kept her gaze on the floor so, Clint took over speaking as Bruce checked over his injuries.

His gaze darted towards the doors where he knew their captors would be watching somehow as he spoke to the team, "well..."

He trailed off, not wanting to intrude on Nat's privacy, but also knowing they needed answers. Thankfully, the ever diplomatic Tony Stark stepped in with the blunt question they all wanted to ask.

"What the hell was that?"

***Line Break***

Down the hall in a small, dark room lit up only by computers screens, the two ex-Hydra operatives watched the Avengers try to puzzle through what had happened. The doctor in the corner of the room shook his head in disapproval of their actions, but kept his mouth shut. He glanced down at the clipboard in his hand, filled to overflowing with notes and jotted down one more.

Romanov: Complete

Okay y'all! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I apologize for the ridiculously long wait but it was sadly completely unavoidable. I love y'all all and can't wait to post the next chapter! Up next is either Thor or Steve so leave a comment which one you think it will be! Tony will be the last for those of you wondering (considering the fact that if you've ever read my Avengers stuff before you know I'm an avid Team Tony member) Tony's chapter will be the last one. Mostly because the poor guy has a lot of demons so... yeah. Just be prepared for that. I'm trying to figure out the order I want them in so if y'all have any recommendations feel free to PM me or drop it in the comments! Love ya'll!

- storyspinner16