Summary: When Kate, Natasha, Yelena, and Clint go on a mission together, things go horribly wrong, and Natasha ends up being forced to make a choice that she may never entirely forgive herself for having to make despite how necessary it may have been.
"Hey, look, I'm like that guy off Star Wars with how slick I am," Kate declared, extremely pleased with herself and how she had just now managed to so efficiently land her shot into the padlock's keyhole with the key-forger arrow. Yelena rolled her eyes, but Natasha seemed pleased with Kate's handiwork.
Kate, Natasha, Yelena, and Clint had all gone on a mission together to bust a super soldier scientist for Hydra that had been experimenting with mixing nuclear, radioactive material and some form of the super soldier serum together to make a new brand of dangerous, mutant warriors.
Fortunately, he was reported to be relatively harmless because he had no real fighting experience. But the odd part of the entire thing was that he seemed to be working in extreme secrecy underground with minimum security. Kate had thought that maybe they figured he would be hidden, and he would be safe.
However, Yelena and Natasha believed that the minimum security must be their best guys or that he might be more dangerous than they thought.
"You're going to have to be more specific," Yelena told her, pulling her from her thoughts, and Kate huffed. Natasha simply raised an eyebrow at the both of them as they started into the building carefully.
"You know!! The guy! I've never watched it, but he looked slick!" Kate tried to tell her, making her voice a little quieter as they walked in, and Yelena just huffed from where she was walking on the opposite side of Natasha from Kate.
"You mean the wookie?" Clint questioned over the commlink, his voice sounding way too amused. Kate huffed, actually having just enough knowledge of Star Wars to remember that the wookie was that thing that looked like an overgrown Yorkshire Terrier.
"No! The man! He's played by that actor! Old what's-his-name!" Kate tried to jog her memory. Yelena's eyes suddenly went wide as she took in a sharp breath.
"Oh!"
"You remember him?!" Kate excitedly questioned, and Yelena nodded quickly.
"Yeah, it was Yoda! Oh, wow, I do see the resemblance," Yelena pointed out as she gestured to Kate's face with a huge smirk. Kate let out a deep sigh, knowing now that she definitely was not going to get the answer out of Yelena. Clint laughed heartily in her ear, and Kate knew she was not getting the answer out of him either.
"Tasha, what's his name?"
"I didn't watch it," Natasha shrugged, looking apologetic, and Kate let out a deep sigh.
"You did watch it, you stinky poser. You just fell asleep when it started," Yelena accused, and Natasha just huffed, rolling her eyes fondly before directing her attentions to Clint on the other end of the line.
"Barton, you picking up any signals of the radioactive material?" Natasha questioned, and Clint let out a sigh that was surprisingly crackly sounding. Kate immediately knew the connection was getting worse.
"No, and the further you guys get in there, the harder it is to hear— must— diffusor—"
Clint's voice suddenly blipped out, and Natasha let out a sigh as she looked at the other two. Yelena nodded slowly.
"There must be a signal diffusor killing outside communications," Yelena stated, and Natasha nodded, glancing briefly in Kate's direction.
"Meaning that they've been expecting us," Natasha explained, and Kate swallowed, furrowing her brow as she withdrew her bow and held it in her grasp as she tapped her fingers along it gently.
"Okay... Maximum stealth from this point onward. Keep your head on a swivel and don't let them get the drop on you. I'll take point, and you bring up the rear," Natasha said as she pointed at Yelena. Yelena nodded, and they started to head through the building.
They remarkably did not run across anyone as they reached an elevator, and Natasha furrowed her brow as she looked around suddenly.
"There's no one here in this building," Natasha pointed out, and Yelena looked at her oddly, tilting her head.
"The guy's not here?"
"Not necessarily. I've dealt with something like this in the past. They've pulled this same trick before. No security in sight and the guy we're after at the bottom. As soon as we got to the guy, security came in to storm us from where they were hiding in these cell-like rooms near the bottom floor," Natasha told the both of them, and Kate remained quiet as Yelena spoke up again.
"So split up and close up the rooms? Everything here except the outside door has had a metal door that seems to be opened from a main controls room, so they probably won't be able to break out if somebody circles around and closes them up," Yelena stated, and Natasha nodded easily. Kate knew that most of their additional explanations were for her benefit to tell her what they were doing and explain the logic behind it.
"Yeah... That's probably the best idea," Natasha agreed, and Yelena hummed in acknowledgement.
"So Kate can go find the control rooms and me and you go down to start finding our guy?" Yelena questioned, and Natasha shook her head. Kate tried to resist letting out a breath of relief. She honestly did not particularly relish the idea of having to go through this creepy, cold building alone despite the fact that she would have willingly done it for the good of the mission.
"No... Little one, you take care of the control rooms. Me and Kate are going to head down," Natasha explained, and Kate felt a sense of happiness and relief overcoming her with Natasha's words.
"What? Why? Me and you are way better equipped to handle him and any surprises," Yelena disagreed, and Natasha shook her head as she looked at her.
"But if I'm wrong about the security and they're just in a different part of the building, we'll be sending Kate into their midst, and she's not ready," Natasha argued, and Kate felt rather awkward having to listen to their conversation about her right in front of her.
Yelena stared at her for a long time before finally letting out a sigh, looking away. Natasha stepped closer to her, placing her hand on the side of her face.
"Look at me," Natasha spoke, and Yelena finally met her eyes, looking rather unhappy.
"We'll be fine. Besides, I know you can get the job done fast because you have the experience," Natasha assured her. Yelena nodded a little and Natasha kissed her nose briefly before pulling away and moving into the elevator. Kate followed her quickly, and they both watched as the doors shut and Yelena headed off to go and find the control rooms.
"So... Are we going straight to the bottom?" Kate asked, and Natasha moved forward to hit the button to take them to the bottom floor.
"In my experience, that seems to be the best place to start," Natasha answered, and Kate nodded briefly, feeling nervousness coming over her and a need to fill the silence overcoming her as well.
"So do the commlinks that are inside the building connect with each other or does the diffusor thingy shut down all communications?" Kate asked curiously, and suddenly Yelena's voice came into her ear.
"Yeah, and it'd be really nice if you'd turn yours off until you're ready to say something important so I don't have to hear you breathing and asking stupid questions," Yelena told her, and Kate narrowed her eyes a little, getting the answer to her question. Kate, however, did not bother turning off her commlink.
"Hey, it might be good to keep up an open line of communication so we don't have to waste time clicking it on and off if we get in a rough spot," Natasha explained, and Yelena groaned. However, as her breaths continued to resound in Kate's ears, she knew she had left it on as Natasha asked her to.
Before long, they reached the bottom, and Natasha withdrew her gun. Kate readied her bow, and the doors of the elevator opened carefully. To their surprise, there was not a single enemy in sight, and the room was empty. Natasha shared a brief glance with Kate, and they tentatively started into the room, looking all around as they remained ready for a potential attack.
"I've accessed the control room and shut all rooms down except two escape routes leading to your floor. I see him down there, but I can't get a good idea of where he," Yelena suddenly stopped, going dead silent. Natasha immediately paused for a moment, her attentions on the commlink.
"Yelena? You there?" Natasha questioned worriedly.
"Yeah, it's just... The cameras went out. The doors are still locked down, though. Be careful," Yelena answered, sounding a little on edge. Suddenly, Kate caught movement out of the corner of her eye and she turned her head quickly. To her shock, the scientist was standing there with a large machine gun, and Kate's eyes went wide as she realized it was aimed directly at Natasha.
"TASHA!!!" Kate cried, jumping forward and colliding heavily with Natasha's body. Natasha hit the ground immediately, Kate's weight firmly on top of her as they landed behind a nearby bulk of sturdy-looking metal.
"What's happening?! Natashka?! Kate Bishop, you'd better answer me right now!!!" Yelena demanded, her voice positively panicked, and Kate swiftly rolled off of Natasha as they both got their bearings. Natasha backed up so that she was directly against cover. Kate swiftly accompanied her, making sure she was ducked down below it as the bullets flew.
"Sweet girl, we're fine... Kate saved me," Natasha assured her, and Yelena let out an audible breath of relief that resounded through the commlink. Kate let out a breath as she flinched a little as a particularly close bullet whizzed by her ear.
She withdrew further into the cover, and Natasha furrowed her brow as she attempted to take a look to try to gauge the gunner's position. Kate followed her example, but as soon as she managed to get a glimpse of him, he started shooting again, and Natasha yanked her back down.
"We've got a problem. Yelena, see if you can get behind this guy. We've got him distracted at the front, and we're going to try to hit him, but if you get an opening, take it," Natasha explained quickly.
"Don't worry, I'm already almost at your position now," Yelena acknowledged, her breath coming in pants, and Kate quickly realized the older woman must have been sprinting at full-speed when she heard Kate yelling about Natasha.
She was quickly distracted by another set of bullets flashing by her, and Kate swallowed hard, grasping her bow as she held onto it tightly to ground herself. She had never been shot at quite this much before, and the steady onslaught of bullets was starting to unnerve her. She could not help the feeling that she was about to be hit by one of them.
"Hey, hey, calm down," Natasha spoke softly, interrupting Kate in her terror-filled thoughts as she reached out to squeeze her arm.
"We've got this, okay? You're doing beautifully, and you saved me. It's okay," Natasha assured as more bullets whizzed far too close to the top of her head. Natasha ducked down a little further but kept her light greens locked onto Kate's as she attempted to reassure her. Kate nodded quickly, swallowing hard.
"Now this guy is going to reload in a second, and if you can shoot one of your explosive arrows at him, that should take care of him," Natasha told her, her voice calm and reassuring as always. Kate nodded with a swallow as she reached into her quiver and withdrew one of the arrows in question to prepare herself. Natasha smiled slightly in wordless approval.
"Okay... He should be having to reload any minute now. I've been tracking the time," Natasha told her, and Kate just remained quiet, trying to wait until the firing died down. As soon as it grew quiet, Kate knew it was the time to act.
Kate swiftly shot up, aiming her arrow at the man and setting it loose. It quickly collided with him and blew up in a considerable explosion that knocked him over and against the wall. Natasha quickly raised up alongside her to look at the situation and at that moment, Yelena came rushing in on the other side of the room.
Once there was a moment of silence and it seemed that the guy was not getting up, Natasha let out a breath of relief next to Kate, and Kate could not help a slightly nervous chuckle as she relaxed and put her bow over her shoulder.
"Amazing job, shchenok," Natasha praised, her voice full of nothing but the most warmth as she reached over and squeezed the back of Kate's neck softly yet firmly. Kate beamed under her compliment, and they both stood up as they started to head for the center of the room. Yelena was already running over, and Natasha opened her arms for her to receive her quickly. Yelena instantly crashed into them as soon as she was close enough, and Natasha stroked the back of her head.
After a long moment, Yelena released her, and her gaze fell upon Kate. Kate just looked at Yelena somewhat uncertainly, not sure what the blonde was about to do. Yelena reached out hesitantly to squeeze Kate's shoulder.
"Thank you," Yelena expressed, and Kate smiled a little, shrugging easily and nonchalantly despite the huge swell of pride and happiness washing through her at the older woman's approval.
"Nah, it wasn't that big of a deal. I mean... It was cool, but like... she would've done the same for me," Kate attempted to downplay it a little despite her admittance that she felt it was rather cool. She was fighting between her instincts to tone down her own achievements and her desire to revel in the monumental victory she just had.
"Well, yeah, but that's because she majorly gets off on self-sacrificial BS," Yelena informed her, and Kate just grinned widely as she caught Natasha's displeased wrinkle of her nose.
"Do you seriously have to put it that way?" Natasha asked, and Yelena smirked with a far too large, self-satisfied smile as she gravitated nearer to the redhead.
"But seriously, Katie-Bear. Thank you," Yelena expressed, her arm wrapping around Natasha. Natasha looked at her with a smile, and Yelena glanced between her and Kate, offering Natasha an especially soft and adoring look. Kate narrowed her eyes a little at the use of the nickname, still having to say something in opposition to it as was so customary of her.
"Don't call me Katie. And hey, super soldiers are apparently not always that super. I mean... I knocked that one out cold. Oh, gosh, I can't wait to tell Clint about this!" Kate could not help but note excitedly as she felt the thrill filling her at the thought that entered her mind suddenly. She wanted more than anything to see that proud look on his face that he so occasionally offered her.
"Look, super soldiers aren't easy to knock out. But I guess this one was especially arrogant and stupid for staying in one place for too long and made it a little easy for you," Yelena pointed out, and Natasha rolled her eyes affectionately as she ruffled Yelena's hair playfully.
"C'mon, you two. Let's bag this guy before he comes to, okay?" Natasha told them.
It was almost like her words had flipped a switch, and it was like everything went in slow motion as Kate suddenly felt a bullet crash into the right side of her chest and another hit her in the leg. Her eyes went wide and she fell backwards, crashing on the ground as she took in the scene unfolding in front of her.
Yelena turned quickly toward the source of the bullets, and she moved herself in front of Natasha, pulling them both to the ground. Natasha threw out several grenades and shocked them with her widow's bites. They exploded in quick succession around the super soldier, and when they finished going off, Kate was almost sure that he was not entirely in one piece anymore.
She let her head fall back against the pavement as she grasped at her chest with a hand, trying to keep the hole pulled together as she gasped for breath and tried to remain as still as possible to keep the bleeding from speeding up too much.
This was most certainly not how this mission was supposed to go at all.
After a few moments that felt like agonizing hours, she was finally met with Natasha rushing over to look her over, her hands touching Kate's face softly as she grasped her. She almost had tears in her eyes, and Kate had never really seen her quite this freaked out before.
"Hey, hey, you okay?! Where all did you get hit?" Natasha questioned, her voice urgent in a way Kate had never heard from her. She sounded one shade away from completely panicking, and Kate swallowed hard.
"'M fine, just my chest and my leg," Kate admitted, and Natasha swiftly looked down at her leg as she took in the sight of it. Kate gritted her teeth as Natasha placed her hands around her leg.
However, Natasha finally just shook her head and took her hand connected to the arm on her good side as she pulled her upright. She carefully grabbed at her, and Kate whimpered in spite of herself as Natasha pulled her over so that she was sitting upright against a nearby crate.
Once Natasha had ensured she was sitting straight up, she rushed back over to Yelena, and Kate quickly understood precisely why Natasha was so freaked out.
Yelena was lying there on the floor, completely unconscious with what looked to be two or three holes in her. Natasha was almost freaking out totally as her hands shook like a leaf and her eyes were ridiculously wide in utter horror.
"Sweet girl, detka... Come on, wake up, we've got to get up and get out of here," Natasha spoke to her swiftly, and Kate took shallow breaths, trying to keep from causing herself to cough. The bullet had truly hit in a terribly inconvenient place.
"Kate, can you walk?" Natasha questioned, and Kate swallowed as she tried to pull herself to her feet. As soon as she put weight on her leg, it gave out from underneath her, pain exploding. Kate yelped in spite of herself, and she bit the inside of her cheek hard as she attempted and failed to keep the noise down. Natasha moved toward her quickly, helping her sit back down.
Natasha was looking frantically between the both of them, and Kate could see the conflict on her face.
The fact of it was that Yelena was in far worse shape than Kate, and while Kate was actively bleeding out, Yelena was in a horrible state and was even knocked out. Kate knew Natasha knew this, and she also knew that given both her and Yelena's condition, they would not be able to walk.
And given Natasha's abilities, the redhead would only be able to support or carry one of them at a time. Which in Yelena's case could mean the difference between life or death depending on what she chose.
If only there was not a signal disruptor on the building that kept them from communicating with Clint on the outside.
"Tasha, take her," Kate commanded gently, and Natasha immediately snapped her gaze to Kate, looking positively horrified.
"What?! No, Kate, I'm not leaving you," Natasha determinedly informed her, and Kate let out a shaking breath, her head undeniably growing a little light.
"Tasha, you know that if you don't take her, she's going to die," Kate stated it far more bluntly than she meant to, and Natasha looked sick to her stomach. Kate immediately regretted it, but she knew it was the truth. Natasha knew it, too.
"But what if I'm not able to get back to you in time?" Natasha questioned, her voice breaking a little as her gaze looked positively torn. Kate shook her head, looking between Yelena's fallen form and Natasha's light greens that were boring holes into her own eyes right now.
"It's a chance we have to take. Now take her," Kate insisted, and Natasha shook her head, starting to say something in opposition to Kate's words.
"Just go! Please," Kate told her, raising her voice just a little as she tried to get it through to Natasha. Natasha blinked for just a moment before giving Kate the most pained, agonized look she had ever seen on any being. Natasha leaned forward quickly, kissing her forehead firmly before pulling back.
"I love you. Stay alive, angel. I'm coming back for you," Natasha expressed before running over to Yelena and grabbing her in her arms, lifting her up as she carried her out quickly.
Kate let out a breath, closing her eyes as she tried to ward away the pain that was growing exponentially by the second.
The last thing she could think of as she lost all senses of consciousness was that she really wished she could remember what that actor's name was.