White Knight

Knighthood

Natasha Pov

It was quiet around the compound no new missions and the excitement of Y/N had died down. Tony was in the lab constantly with Bruce trying to come up with new ways to keep us safe and make us better suits. Wanda was in the library reading an old book with Vision sat with his eyes closed, I think meditating. Peter was at school most days but when he was around the compound he was in the lab with Tony. Clint had gone back home, to see Laura and the kids I went up to visit now and again. Thor was back in Asgard and Steve and Bucky were constantly training. Sam was back at work with the airforce. Which left me if I wasn't training or cooking everyone dinner I was at shield headquarters with Fury. Right now I was led in bed staring at the ceiling when Friday came through the speaker. *Miss Romanoff, you are needed in the meeting room* Thank God! I few out of bed and into the hallway. And crashed into Wanda coming out of the library.

"Where is the fire, Nat? I haven't seen you move so fast" She laughed as we walked to the elevator.

"No fire just sounds like a mission and I'm in the mood to knock some people out. That's all." I replied sweetly and gave her a small smirk. She shook her head and laughed.

Her laugh faded when we entered the meeting room and sat down everyone was silent and I saw Fury with a stern face at the end of the table. This didn't look good.

"Avengers. There is a mad physio running around the world right now with a sword killing highly important members of the United Nations." He said surprising calm he turned around and flicked on the screen behind him. There was a picture of a man with a sword mark slicing across his chest. I heard a gasp from Wanda at the other side of the table covering her mouth and looking away. She looked like she was going to be sick. Steve looked the same and looked down at the table, I'm not surprised at their reaction I had seen a lot of different assassinations and so had Bucky we both looked at each other scanning one another to see if either of us knew who this was. Both of us came up blank.

"I mean swords were extremely outdated maybe he needs a history lesson" Bucky spoke up first, I rolled my eyes and stared at the strange wound. Fury began to pass out black files to each of us.

"Clint uses a bow and arrow, can't blame the guy for wanting the be unique," Tony replied as Clint glared at the billionaire.

"You can't fire use a bow Tony, no need to be jealous" Clint replied, I saw Fury's jaw tense I knew he was getting irritated by the childlike arguing.

Flicking through the file there was nothing to give any indication on who this could be. They were all important people that had the same mark across their chest same size same cut from chest to hip. There was one. A strange man with no power also in the file, with the same wound, had a small ancient cross-branding on his right wrist.

"Fury who is this?" I said quickly and handing him the photo I was studying.

"A nobody Agent Romanoff. We pulled up all the files that were similarly related and this one was the last record of a similar incident. The body was found on the edge of a town in Nigeria. The locals said it happened a lot. Told the Agent that questioned them the legend of the 'Knighthood' they were an old organisation that where a group of highly trained assassins that would go into town and take young men from the ages between 6-19. None of them was seen after they were taken. But their mothers wanted to believe they were still alive." Fury replied bluntly. "I want you all to look into this and find the sworded freak. Dismissed" He said as he walked out the room with no other words.

"Where do we even start," Steve said looking at us all, with his eyebrows raised and bunched together. Stressed.

"We need to look into this Knighthood thing. It could be like Hydra or KGB." Bucky said back to Steve trying to make him less worried by placing a hand on his shoulder.

"That's some old wives tale to comfort mothers who's. Kids were kidnapped. Nothing more." Tony said blankly. Wanda sat listening to everyone not knowing what to say she saw me looking over and gave a small smile knowing I had seen something.

"This random dead guy has a branding. We need to look into that. I think Bucky might be right tho. Hydra was a myth and so was the Red Room. We can't rule it out without us looking into it." I stood up from the table and looked at each of my friends. "Bucky, Steve you guys go with Clint and see if you can find some more about the Knighthood. Wanda, me and Tony will look into this branding and the other you guys need to look to see if there is a pattern on the United Nations leaders and see if we can find out who is next" I finished and everyone jumped out of their seats and headed off to do their job.

"Nice job Nat you sound like a better captain than me" Steve nudged me and laughed as we headed out the door.

I met up with Tony and Wanda in the lab. Tony had Friday, to analyse the branding on his wrist. * This branding is of a 13th Century Medieval Cross. There are many images throughout history indicating secret security for the Kings and Queens around that period. Similar to the story of the knight of the round table in Camelot. They were a group or even just a single Knight selected by the Magistrate themselves, to provide protection. After the 17th century, there was nothing similar.  Until the year 1906 when there was a church in Nigeria that had a similar cross placed on a church in the centre of the town. A few years after there were over 840 kidnappings until the year 1990.*

"That's 10 kids each year," Wanda said quietly after Friday had finished with the information. "That's kind of strange..." Wanda sat down tracing the picture of the cross in front of her.

Tony was reading some of the information Friday had pulled up. "I recognise the branding but I can't work out where from"