The Stars We Dream Of | A. Romanoff-Barton

chapter 3: The weight of loss

Natasha and Clint watched helplessly as Pierce stripped their daughter from them. They would have chased them and gotten her back. But this damn serum was preventing them from moving! By the time the serum had worn off, it had been five hours. There would be no use in trying to catch their little girl. She was gone. Clint began to cry. Natasha held him as she shed her own tears. Their little girl was gone. They had broken the promise they made five years ago.

Natasha quickly dialed the one person that came to her mind. Her voice wavered, "Fury? It's bad. HYDRA, they found us, they took Ali. Fury, Pierce took Ali." Fury froze, "I'll be there in five, sit tight." Natasha replied sadly, "Al, alright."

True to his word, Fury was there in five minutes with Agent Maria Hill. Clint was still sobbing into Natasha's shoulder. He blamed himself. If he would have moved faster, his best girl would have been okay. Natasha held his hand, for his sake and her own.

Fury spoke gently, never seeing his best agents all messed up, "What happened?" Natasha explained, "I didn't trace anyone on my way back from debrief. Everything was fine. We were eating dinner when the lights flickered and we heard heavy sets of footsteps. We tried to fight them but there was just too many of them. They had this serum that paralyzed us for about five hours. They took her and ran." Maria placed a comforting hand on Natasha's shoulder. Natasha looked down, letting tears pool her eyes.

Natasha hardly cried. Regimes fall every day, she tended not to weep over that. But this wasn't a regime. This was a child. Her child. The one that she gave birth to. The one that she held every day. The one who comforted her along with Clint whenever she had a nightmare. The child she grew to love and to care for. Stripped from her when she was most vulnerable.

Fury spoke, "We'll find her. Hill, send out tracers, scanners, teams to every possible base in the world. I don't care how long it takes, do it. We're getting the kid back. Even if it's the last thing we do." Natasha nodded, leaning into Clint's side, still crying. Maria spoke kindly, "If you like I could stay." Natasha shook her head, "We'll be fine. Thank you though." Maria nodded, "Take as much time off as you need." Natasha nodded, whispering a light thank you.

Right after Natasha closed and locked the door, she broke down into sobs. She never cried. And seeing the infamous Black Widow who was incapable of crying looking and feeling so broken and hurt, it was scary.

She had failed her child. Her little light. HYDRA was known for being ruthless, human experimentation, torture, murder. They took her for a reason, vendetta against the two assassins. They were going to hurt Alivana. Her innocent little kid who just wanted to live with her Mama and Papa happily.

Clint was also sobbing, guilt-ridden. Natasha spoke, "Clint, it's not your fault. What could you have done? You tried your best, we both did. We'll get here. We won't stop until we get her back." Clint nodded, "We get to kill him." Natasha nodded, walking back towards the sofa, curling up into Clint's side. "Yes we do."

The next few days, the assassins changed. No more were they the happy, warm-filled people. Natasha hardly spoke, hardly ate, and just went out on missions. She isolated herself from the world. Was she mourning or grieving? No one dared to ask. Before losing Alivana, she wasn't so ruthless. The effects of the Red Room died with the birth of her child. And now they were back. She didn't hesitate to kill her opponents in the most ruthless of ways.

Clint Barton, a man who always had a smirk on his face, smiled no more. He didn't laugh, smile or joke around. His face was just pressed in a thin line. He was silent, and didn't eat. He was in pain, his little girl was somewhere hurting. And he couldn't do anything about it.

Fury kept on monitoring for the tiny Romanoff-Barton, because hell, he cared about the kid.

He hated seeing his best two agents so sad, and so masked into their former shells. They didn't smile, or enjoy anything. It was as if he had found them, all those years ago, broken in pieces.

A/N: Hey guys. So? I know it's pretty similar to the original one but it goes more in depth and is going to focus a lot more on Alivana not just as a character, but the protagonist of The Stars Series.