Marvel one-shots

10. Assassin P1 - Natasha Romanoff

A/n: This is about Clint saving Natasha from the Red Room - idk if there is a canon/confirmed way this happened, if there is I haven't seen it, so here's my idea of what could have happened.

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Third-person

Clint got his gear together and put his hand to the earpiece.

"Where does it say she is?" Clint asked.

The voice came back with, "Your 10 o'clock."

Clint looked around.

"Red hair, black suit?" Clint asked.

"Yes. S.H.I.E.L.D wants her crossed off."

Clint collapsed his bow and slipped it into it's holder and followed the target as she began to walk away.

"Who does she work for? A weak Hydra branch?"

"Agent Barton, just eliminate her, focus on the mission."

"But maybe she's controlled?" Clint asked, not taking his eyes of the woman.

"The Red Room," Agent Maria Hill replied with a sigh.

"Alright, she went into a building, gun in hand," Clint reported.

"Go in, eliminate her, get out," Hill ordered.

"Yes Agent."

Clint followed the red-head into the building, keeping well out of her line of sight and creeping silently up the stairs a few meters behind her. After following the woman up two flights of stairs and down several corridors, she went into a room and closed the door behind her. Only then did Clint realise - they were in a hotel.

"Maria, how many people are in this hotel, are you able to run a count?" Clint asked into his earpiece urgently.

"Um... hang on a minute, Nick!" Clint heard Hill reply over comms.

Suddenly, as Clint stood outside the door, there was the sound of gunshots from inside.

"Clint we-" Agent Hill began but was cut off by Clint saying, "She's fired her gun, I'm going in!"

"Agent Barton, be careful!" Hill warned, but Clint was already through the door, bow aimed with an arrow loaded.

He looked around and saw the woman standing over a limp body laid on the floor. The assassin had her back to Clint. The gun hung from her hand which had a loose grip. The woman simply was staring down at the limp body on the floor. Clint noticed with a shock that crimson had stained the beige carpets around the body. Clint pulled the arrow back further, aiming it at his target.

"Turn around and drop the gun!" he shouted.

The woman lifted her head and turned around briefly. Her bright green eyes pierced a stare through Clint's own blue eyes. Clint felt his heartbeat quicken as the woman's grip tightened on her gun. Her expression was unreadable, she just stared into him, whilst her body stance posed as aggressive.

"Drop the gun, I won't ask again," Clint ordered.

"Barton, just shoot her," Maria's voice came through the earpiece.

Clint wanted to follow orders, have the mission over and done with, get back to his pregnant wife and little boy. But - although almost perfectly covered - Clint could see something deep in the woman's emerald eyes. Was it despair? Pain? Clint couldn't tell. He slightly lowered his bow. The woman blinked once, before running towards the window, shooting it to shatter it. Clint raised his bow again but within a blink, she had used a zipwire to leap out the window.