As Yelena was staring down the iron sights of her gun, Clint got the feeling that he was being watched and a milli-second before she pulled the trigger he threw a silver throwing knife her direction and split the bullet in half, sending the two pieces away from his head. Yelena ducked just in time before the knife pierced her skull and watched it stick into the brick wall behind her.
"Look I know I'm a hard man to kill but you could at least try to play fair." Clint shouted sarcastically at her as he pulled a small black object from his jacket pocket. The TV remote size object expanded into a foldable bow and arrow.
He quickly aimed towards her heart and shot an arrow as she jumped off the fire escape onto the ground, ducking and rolling as she landed twenty feet away from him, her gun in hand.
"Well unfortunately that was my only arrow; can't really bring a quiver into a grocery store without raising any suspicions. It's better to win a fair fight, so if you could put the gun away." He raised his eyebrow and gave her a small smirk while gesturing towards her gun.
She gave him a blank stare before firing another round towards his head. He ducked immediately and felt the bullet ripple through the air above his head.
"OH COME ON!" He shouted as he threw a small flashbang towards her. She closed her eyes and stumbled back at the unexpected bright flash of light and loud noise. He took the opportunity to kick the gun out of her hands and pin her to the ground. One arm holding her shoulder down and the other across her chest so that she wouldn't be able to get up.
"Now that things are even, wanna tell me why you're trying to kill me?"
She glared at him before wrapping her legs around him and flipping him off of her and pushing herself into a fighting pose.
Clint landed on the ground a few feet away from her and looked up at her with an irritated look. "If you're gonna try to kill a guy, then the least you could do is tell him why."
Clint ran towards the bow he dropped as he was being flipped while she lunged towards him. He grabbed the bow and swung around at Yelena to aim a blow at her head, which she redirected flawlessly. They threw a series of punches and kicks towards each other, each blocking or redirecting the other smoothly. Clint used the curved side of his bow to push Yelena up against the wall, which gave her the opportunity to punch him across the side of his face and take the weapon from him, he stumbled back which gave her a chance to kick him in the chest. He was forced backwards and placed his hands on the ground to stabilize himself as he pulled out a tactical knife from his belt.
"Still not gonna talk, huh?" He ran towards her trying to slash her stomach which she dodged and sent another series of punches and kicks his way.
"Your murder spree included someone I loved." She said with anger as she caught his arm when he tried stabbing her again.
"No one I killed as Ronin was innocent." His voice was filled with anger and seriousness.
Furious after hearing his words she brought his arm up and swung his arm over his shoulder, straightening it against the bend of his elbow in an attempt to break it, but Clint counteracted just enough to stop her from snapping his elbow. He let out a grunt of pain as she straightened his arm then threw his knife to his other hand and tried slashing her across her face.
This time she used her wrist to stop his slash midway and wrapped her arm around his and twisted it to make him drop the knife into her hand. She caught the knife as it fell down and went to stab his head as he ducked out of the way. They circled each other and Yelena threw another stab aimed at this stomach, only this time he caught her wrist and twisted it so hard she dropped to her knees on the ground.
"You could at least tell me your name." He huffed out as he was trying to catch his breath.
She looked up at him with a pained expression and shaky breath before dropping the knife out of one hand and catching it with the other then slashing his thigh. He yelled out and staggered backwards and Yelena pushed him into the wall and held the knife up to his throat as he grabbed the blade guard to prevent her from plunging it foreward. His eyes widened as he realized how familiar the fighting style seemed. Natasha.
"Her name was-" Yelena was cut off by a loud bang and a bullet grazing the back of her shoulder. She let out a yelp of pain and turned to see a dark-haired woman with her gun aimed towards her.
"Let him go." The woman said in a serious and cold voice.
Yelena knew she couldn't outrun the bullet in the barrel of the gun aimed towards her. Dammit. In a split second she kneed Clint in the stomach, making him topple over and then threw the knife at the woman as she ducked under it.
Clint regained his composure and looked around to see that the mystery assassin was gone and that he was just left with the dark-haired woman that saved his life.
"Agent Melinda May. How nice of you to show up." He joked as he gave her a smile.
"You really sent us an SOS signal over one person? Coulson thought we'd have another Budapest situation on our hands." She sarcastically told him as she moved over towards him.
"Huh, is that why he sent the Cavalry?"
She smiled at him. "You alright?"
"Just a scrape, I'll be fine."
"You're losing your touch Barton." She joked with him
"Wonder what does that say about the S.O. that trained me." He gave her a knowing smile.
She gave him a small smile.
"I'm gonna need a ride on your jet."
"What for?"
"Whoever that was... she knew my routine. She knew exactly where to find me and where to hide so that I wouldn't see her. That means she's been stalking me and knows about my family. I'm gonna bring them to the Avengers tower in New York to keep them safe."
May nodded and gestured for him to follow her.
Clint called his wife on the way to his farm and explained everything that happened to him and that they had to go to the Avengers tower to keep the kids safe. She agreed after lecturing him about how he could've died if he hadn't been more careful.
Laura picked the kids up from school and loaded them up into the quinjet as May fixed up Clint's leg. While May was stitching up his thigh he made a phone call to Steve and explained that someone was trying to kill him and that he and his family needed a place to crash for a bit. When they were all ready to go, May piloted the jet to New York and landed on the runway of the multimillion dollar building. Clint's family started exiting the jet when May pulled him to the side to talk to him.
"Try not to die, will you? Coulson was already enough of a mess over Romanoff, I don't need him to be moping around about you too." She said with little to know emotions, but he knew that she cared, even if she didn't show it.
He gave her a smile and a nod as she walked back into the jet to return to D.C.
Clint and his family were immediately greeted by Steve at the entrance of the Avengers Tower.
"Cap."
"Barton."
They shook hands as they greeted each other, then Steve gave a friendly smile to Laura and the kids before leading them inside.
"Please, come in."
"Thanks for letting us crash here."
"Clint, you and your family are welcomed here anytime."
They followed him into the building and down the halls as he showed them to their living quarters. It was an apartment segment built in the Tower, it had four rooms, a kitchen, two bathrooms and a living room. Tony had it built specially for Clint after he found out about his family, in case they ever wanted to visit.
Clint left his family to get settled down as he went down to the meeting room where Steve was. He told Steve all about his attacker and told him about how May had to come save him from her and that her fighting style was somewhat similar to Natasha's.
"Are you sure? I mean there's no way someone could fight the same way Nat did." Steve raised his eyebrows with concern and confusion.
"They weren't exactly the same. I don't know how to describe it... it's like they were trained in the same fighting forms, but adapted it to make their own unique fighting style. I don't know... something about it just feels similar. SHE HAD A RUSSIAN ACCENT FOR GOD'S SAKE."
"The Red Room. Nat told me you guys shut it down right?"
"Yeah, back when she first turned to SHIELD."
"What happened to the girls who were still a part of it?"
"The ones that were still very young were put into therapy and then given to CPS."
"And the older ones?"
"I don't know... they just disappeared with the Red Room."
"Then maybe this woman got out when you guys brought it down and got in with the wrong crowd. Some of the ones that you killed."
Clint had to take a deep breath to process all of the information that he just received. Then looked at Steve with a look of realization and then back at the ground.
"You're gonna go after her, aren't you?" Steve's question was met with silence at first then Clint turned to face him and gave a small nod.
"Maybe there's a way for me to get through to her."
"Clint-"
"Besides this wouldn't be the first time I tried convincing a Russian spy to join the good guys." He chuckled as he looked down at the ground. Steve gave him a warm and sad smile.
"She's not Nat, you know."
"I know... but if Nat were here right now then she would try everything in her power to break through to her. So that's what I'll do."
"You don't owe her anything."
"I owe her everything, Steve. She gave me a chance to see my family again. And I've been trying so hard everyday to be worthy of what she gave me. But I don't feel like I am. Maybe this'll help me..."
They were silent for a while; an unspoken understanding between the two.
"So how are things around here?" Clint finally decided to break the silence. Though he had been out of the loop for a few weeks now, he genuinely wanted to know how things were going. He wanted to make sure that everything Natasha helped build was still standing.
"Well we got some weird metal guy with a cape stealing god knows what from a Hydra base, but other than that you know, can't really complain.
Clint chuckled. " So basically nothing has changed?"
"Nope." They both let out a silent laugh. "We could use your help with this though, if you're up for it."
"Maybe when I sort out this situation with the mystery assassin. So what about you? How are you holding up?"
"Well, being Captain America again is weird, but I'm slowly getting used to it."
Clint gave him a solemn look. "That's not what I meant, Steve."
Steve gave him a confused look.
"She was your partner. How are you holding up?" Clint gave him a caring look. He genuinely wanted to make sure his friend was okay.
Steve gave him a pained look. Honestly, I'm a wreck. I miss her so much, more than anything and more than I ever thought possible. She was my partner... and so much more. She was the only one that stuck by me through everything: the fall of SHIELD, The Sokovia Accords, and The Blip. She was the only thing that gave me hope after I came out of the ice. And now she's gone. How could I ever be okay again? And all I can think about now is how I failed her, how I left her during those five years and now I'm continuing her work as if that'll ever make up for the way I abandoned her.
"I'm fine." He gave Clint a small, fake smile and looked down at his fingers.
Clint knew he was lying. He knew how much Natasha Romanoff meant to Steve Rogers. The unspoken truth between them; he knew Steve was in more pain than he let on, but that he wouldn't want to talk about it, so he let it go for now.
"Well I should probably go say goodbye to the fam. If I don't leave in the next thirty minutes it's probably because Laura murdered me for being an idiot."
Steve chuckled as he gave him a wave goodbye and returned to his work.
Clint quickly took the elevator to his family's apartment and told Laura everything he had just talked to Steve about and though she was against him going, she understood that this was something he had to do. She watched her husband's guilt of the things that he had done and the killer he became eat him alive and wanted nothing more than to see him have some peace.
"I have to do this Laura."
"I know." She whispered as she pulled herself into his chest and hugged him. "Just make it back alive, okay?"
"I promise. I just want to make things right. If I did kill someone she cared about during my years of blind rage then I have to try to make things right."
Laura nodded her head in understanding then moved to give him one last kiss on the lips as he slung his black duffel bag over his shoulder and walked out the room. "And Clint..."
He turned to look back at her.
"I think Nat would be proud of you." She gave him a tearful smile which he returned.
He left the apartment and went into the Avengers meeting room to meet up with Sam. He hoped Sam could somehow help him find Yelena with his tech, but without a picture or even her first name there was no way Sam would be able to track him down.
"Sorry man, but there's no way we can find her if we don't even know who she is."
"Dammit... wait." Sam looked at him with a questioning look. "I know how to find her. Tell Steve I'm borrowing one of the quinjet. I'll return it later." Clint half-shouted as he ran out of the building and onto the runway towards the jet.
Yelena had been tracking him for probably weeks and he realized then that all she wanted was to kill him and judging by the lengths that she went to achieve that, she must have wanted it bad. Clint realized then that he didn't have to find her... he just had to let her find him. So, he was on his way back to his farm in Missouri.
He arrived back at his farmhouse and went into the big open field on the side of his house and sat down on the grass. He had changed into his tactical gear on the jet, a bow and a quiver full of arrows was strapped across his back with other weapons and tools in his utility belt and holsters. I'm gonna look really stupid if you don't show up, so you better hurry up and find me. He sat there for an hour, picking at the grass and waiting until he felt someone sneaking up behind him. He slowly stood up, looking ahead.
"Took you long enough, my legs were starting to get numb." He turned around with a small smile to see a blonde woman in a white suit with a dark-blue tactical vest, with a long staff in her right hand, pushed up against her back. She was staring right at him with pure hatred and rage in her eyes.
"Oh boy..."
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Sorry if the fight scene seems a little messy, I'm not great at the one on one fights, but I'm trying my best. Anyways, stuff bout to go down...
I've been releasing chapters every three days so far, but I just started my senior year of high school so my updates will probably slow down a bit. Sorry. But I'll still try to post at the very least once a week.
Please comment and vote if you enjoyed it.
Thanks for reading!