Chapter Text
“Agent Romanoff, can you come to my office?” Fury’s voice coming from the speakers echoed through the Compound.
Natasha took a sip of her coffee as she listened, a slight frown forming on her face, her knee rhythmically bumping up and down.
“Someone’s in trouble.” Tony arrived in the kitchen and made a beeline for the fridge, a smug smile on his face.
Natasha huffed at him, finishing her coffee. “Shut up Stark.”
Tony raised his arms in fake surrender, already making himself a sandwich.
Grabbing her jacket and moving up from the chair, Natasha placed her empty cup on the sink and walked to Fury’s office. She put on the black jacket and stuffed her hands on the pockets, her mind wandering to why he called only her.
Natasha didn’t bother to knock as she made her way in and closed the door behind her.
Fury was sitting on his desk, with a slim folder between his hands. His eyes held a faraway gaze as his finger lightly tapped the paper.
“Sit down, please.” He acknowledged Natasha’s presence and motioned for the chair in front of his desk.
Her eyes held an inquisitive look as she sat down, and when she did, Fury slid the folder towards her. She raised an eyebrow to him and he motioned for her to open it.
Natasha picked up the brown folder and opened the pages, there was just one piece of paper inside. It was someone’s file, but it had only a name, gender, approximate age, some affiliations, and a last-guessed location. No pictures, not even a basic appearance description, nothing.
“There’s basically nothing here.” Natasha’s voice held a questioning tone as she looked back up at Fury, folder still in her hands and a small amused smile on her lips.
“A good friend of mine passed away two days ago.” Fury stated with a neutral voice, masking well his grief.
“She’d been an agent for as long as I can remember, and in her whole career she only asked me one favor.” Fury motioned to the folder on Natasha’s hand, making her look down at it again. “She handed me this folder before she passed, asked me to look after her daughter.”
Natasha had a sympathetic look in her eyes, she nodded her head slightly. “Is she missing? There’s almost no information about her here.”
Fury let out a huge sigh and massaged his temple to chase away an incoming headache. “Yeah, before she told me, I had no idea this daughter even existed, it’s been a private project.”
He raised his head to look at Natasha with a serious expression. “The father took her when she was only four, when they discovered she was… Special.”
Natasha braced her elbows on the table, digesting all the new information. “Powers?”
“I believe so. The mother had been trying to find her ever since, but the father works for a group called The Black Mamba, they specialize in stealing high-value information and selling to the highest bidder. Always moving, almost impossible to find.” Fury explained further.
“I’ve heard that name, they built quite the reputation.” Natasha mused as well.
“From the few whereabouts we know, we believe she’s with them. Maybe willingly, we don’t know. But she was raised in the job.” Fury raised an eyebrow pointedly at Natasha, took a moment to look away, and then back at her.
“She’s a ghost, Romanoff. I’ve dug as deep as I could, this is all the information I have on her. There’s no way to know what she looks like, or what those powers may be. We know the name because of her mother, but maybe even that was changed.” Fury’s eyes let Natasha know he was aware of how much he was asking, but he looked just as lost.
“And you want me to find her?” Natasha leaned back on her chair.
“You’re the best we’ve got.” He smiled halfheartedly. “And we do have a good lead on where she may be going next. But if she appears with a group, it’ll be up to you to try to identify.”
Fingers lightly tapping on paper, Natasha let out a breath. She bit the inside of her cheek on thought.
Fury sensed her doubt, and rightfully so, he knew he was asking a lot. “It’s a favor for a dear friend, and you would be doing me one if you took this. I’m not asking you to succeed, just try.”
Natasha chuckled, this was no high importance mission for Shield, only for Fury, that’s why she would be going alone. But who was she to back away from a challenge?
“Okay, could be fun.”
A visible weight seemed to be pulled away from his shoulders. Fury relaxed slightly. “We don’t know which side she’s on, we try to bring her in as peacefully as possible. But if not, just don’t kill her.”
Natasha’s boots made a thudding noise as she walked through the empty gallery, the pristine flooring reflecting her figure. This was, hopefully, your next stop. Coming after high-value documents stored away in the office and Natasha would safely bet on some paintings as well. The gallery had long been closed and the Roman-like architecture held an eery aura at night.
She twirled around on her heels, taking in her surroundings in search of any movement.
“We’re closed, miss.” A soft voice spoke from behind her. Natasha was surprised she didn’t notice the presence.
Turning around with her eyes already narrowed and a distrusting look, Natasha looked you up and down. “You work here?”
Your smile was an amused one as you rounded one of the pillars, clearly comfortable in the situation. “Maybe.”
“Do you work here?” You raised your eyebrows at the redhead, taking a slow step towards her. She was gorgeous, and you were intrigued.
Why would anyone else be here at this hour? The first thought is that she could be one of your father’s thugs, but then she would already be attacking. Maybe she was just another thief, but that also seemed unlikely.
Natasha kept her gaze fixated on you, her eyes analyzing every movement you took. Her hand hovered slightly over her gun. She wondered if you were her target, but that would be almost impossible because you were part of a group, and it would be reckless to take a job like this alone.
There was a possibility you were just a nosy civilian trying to feel brave in breaking into the gallery, but you were too comfortable for that. “What are you doing here?”
You shrugged your shoulders, looking around the gallery at the many old paintings hanging on the walls. “Appreciating art.”
Natasha’s eyes narrowed slightly, her muscles tensing as she took a couple more seconds to let her eyes wander over you. Maybe you were a threat, maybe not. Either way, she knew she needed you out of her way.
“You should leave.” She took her gun out of its holster.
A smirk appeared on your face at her actions. Definitely not a civilian.
“But I just got here.” You stuffed your hands on the pockets of your pants to ground yourself, there was no need to make a scene.
Natasha huffed, her jaw clenched in annoyance at how smug you looked, as if you were controlling the situation.
Taking a big step forward, with a look on her eyes that would send the bravest man running for the hills, Natasha placed the end of her gun to your forehead. “Leave, this is none of your business.”
Your eyes fixated on hers for a moment, you noticed they were green, with a kind of fire within that kept you captivated. Your gaze didn’t waver from hers as you felt the slight touch of metal on your forehead, only a trace of your smile was left as you took her in.
Natasha’s lips parted ever so slightly at the sight of you not budging.
Then, in one swift motion, Natasha’s gun went flying to the side as you disarmed her. Swiping her legs with your own, you had her hitting the ground with a thud. “Sorry babe, I can’t do that.”
Natasha’s blood was boiling, her fists clenched at how you managed to catch her off guard. But she wasn’t expecting you to know how to fight.
In one jump, Natasha was on her feet again. With a new kind of energy flowing inside her now that she knew she didn’t need to go easy on you. Her smirk was enchanting as she landed a particularly cruel blow to your face.
The punch made you take a few steps back, hand flying right over your jaw as a sharp pain came right after. “That was pretty good.”
Your smile was a genuine one as you praised her form, you saw confusion written all over her face and took the moment to land a heavy kick on her middle.
Natasha let out a huff of pain, chuckling as she straightened her posture again, she didn’t know if it was from amusement or anger. “You won’t quit.” It was more of a frustrated statement than a question.
“Not really my style.” You quipped back at her, moving your feet quickly towards her and landing punches that she skilfully blocked.
Losing her patience, Natasha moved to jab you in the face again, which this time you blocked making her grit her teeth. She didn’t have time for this, her target would be here any minute. Throwing a punch right into your gut, she made you bend over and then landed another right under your eye.
That sent you stumbling back both from lack of air and from the pain. “That was not-”
You couldn’t finish your complaint, because suddenly one of the windows broke and a small device was thrown in just a couple of feet in front of you. You saw a red dot, but before you could even move, the small bomb exploded.
It sent both you and Natasha flying away with its force. But you took the worst of it because you were closer.
You hit the ground hard and rolled over, your body suddenly hurt all over and you felt like you had just been hit with a bus. The ringing in your ears wouldn’t stop, your vision was blurred all over and you were seeing double.
Bracing yourself on your elbows you tried to get up but it was to no use, you just hit the ground again, too weak to keep yourself up. Letting out a pained groan, you touched your temple and felt wetness there. Great.
As your blurry eyes gazed around, the main thing you saw was dust and rubble. But you could make out at least six people coming in from the window. You recognized your old uniform immediately.
Not a second after you saw the redhead from earlier getting up, she charged at them. You wondered yet again what her deal was, what she was after. She fought with an impressive amount of skill and agility, taking on two or three at a time like it was nothing. You quickly realized she was no random person. This was a highly trained agent.
You cursed your vision as it was getting in and out of focus, you could feel the faint taste of dust in your mouth. Your eyelids were getting heavier, and the last thing you saw was the woman getting shot at.
She fell to the ground when the second shot hit her in the stomach, you fell unconscious again right after.
You couldn’t say how long it had passed when you woke up again, this time your vision didn’t take as long to focus. You guessed that it hadn’t been too long, as little flecks of dust were still settling down.
You sat up on the ground, your body still very much in pain. You looked down at yourself and saw that you were covered in dust, some small scrapes and bruises already forming. “Perfect.” You muttered out in annoyance.
One hand flew to your head as a sickening headache made itself known, you felt dried blood on your temple.
With much effort you managed to stand up, your other hand came to clutch at your ribs when you felt a thug of pain there. You could only hope there was nothing broken.
Your eyes roamed around the empty gallery, your old group was probably out and far away already, and with the things they came here for. You cursed at yourself for getting so distracted, and that’s when you remembered the other person that was here.
Urging your wobbly legs to work, you took a few steps forward. She had been shot, you wondered if she was dead.
After only a few steps, you saw a body sprawled on the ground. You recognized her red hair immediately. She was still unconscious, there were droplets of blood coming from her forehead and nose, and you could already see the one big pool of red forming underneath her. Stepping closer you saw the source of it, she was shot, in the stomach just as you thought. It was in the side and apparently just a graze, a big one, but the bullet went in and out no problem.
You pursed your lips as you looked down at the woman, your hand clutching your ribs twitched to move. She had dirt all over herself as well, there was a cut already swelling her lip and the blood was still slowly coming out of her stomach. And yet she looked morbidly peaceful.
She was going to die, you realized. If not from the blood loss, the dust entering her lungs would happily do the job, as you knew she wouldn’t be waking up on her own anytime soon.
I have enough problems of my own. You thought to yourself as you tightly shut your eyes and turned around. Your feet were heavy to carry.
You didn’t make it ten steps.
The heavy weight on your chest didn’t let you.
“Who am I kidding?” You groaned out loud and turned back for her.
As you picked her up in your arms, with much difficulty and pain, there was only one thought in your mind…
I’m gonna regret this.