Shackle the Past

Inside Out

Natasha gasped. Pain ran throughout her whole body causing her to shake in agony. It was clear something was wrong. She tried sitting up & this time managed to. No bright lights, no clinking, no people. She was literally in the middle of nowhere. As she stood up memories started flooding back. Clint & her were fighting. Fighting against Hydra. A new group of Hydra had recently formed & they were completely outnumbered. What the Frick happened? She thought. The last memory was her being dragged away & everything went black. Unless Hydra felt bad & decided to patch her up & leave her in the middle of New York as a peace offering, they must have done something to her. But what? She had no recollection of what happened after that besides waking up in a white room then being drugged again. She looked down at herself. She was wearing a huge white t-shirt with a blood stain on it right where her stomach was. After a minute of recovery, Natasha decided it would be best to walk along until she found someone or a gas station. After about a mile of painful walking, a car finally drove by. Before she even had a chance to call it over it pulled up next to her. The window rolled down & a middle-aged woman who looked very concerned asked, "Are you alright darling? Do you need a ride?" "That would be great, " Natasha said trying to look not as freaky & demented as she must have at that moment. Once they had gone 20 minutes down the road the lady started bombarding her with questions. "Where'd you come from? Are you hurt? You know there's blood on your shirt, right? Why don't you talk?" "Sorry, " Natasha began, trying to keep her cool. "I'm just tired." "Oh don't worry dear. Once we get you to a hospital they'll fix you right up." "No." "Sorry?" "Is it possible you could take me to Avengers tower?" The woman laughed.  I would stay far away from there if I were you. The government isn't exactly happy with the Avengers right now, & I've heard they're dangerous. If you really want help I would recommend urgent care or maybe a therapist?" Natasha rolled her eyes. "Look just take me there and if you give me your number I can maybe arrange to pay you back." The thought of money perked the lady right up & she agreed to drop Natasha off half a mile from there.

It was another hour before the lady dropped her off in a parking garage half a mile away from Avengers tower as promised. The lady gave Natasha her number & left. Now came the challenging part. Don't be caught or seen. Just about everywhere there were signs, billboards, & ads that any Avenger spotted should be reported to the police. Ever since one of the more recent fights the Avengers had with an alien clan the government wasn't too happy with them & the damage they caused, but Natasha had a funny feeling the whole situation involved Hydra trying to stab them from the back.

She managed to make it to the parking lot of Avengers tower. When she got up to the door, she wasn't surprised to see the doors were locked and everything shut down & blocked off. She hadn't expected anyone to be there with the police search for them, but nevertheless, there could possibly be something in the building she could use. She managed to break through one of the side doors. The building looked significantly different since the last time she saw it. Almost all the technology had been taken, most likely by someone from Hydra working among the government. With all the technology gone the building looked mostly empty.

Natasha knew where she was going. The elevator was broken so she took the staircase. Level 21. There was a secret section in the wall in the 3rd hallway after labs A, B, & C. Weapons & other kinds of things were kept there. If Hydra hadn't already gotten their hands on them then they could definitely come in use. She finally reached the panel. All she had to do was place her hand onto the wall & hopefully it would let her in. Natasha let out a sigh when the panel slid open. Inside was stock full of weapons. She didn't want much. She took batons, a Glock, & some ammo.

Afterward, she headed to the room where Wanda had stayed before she isolated herself & left, making no contact for the past 3 months. If Natasha was being honest she was kind of hurt by that & wished Wanda had at least reached out to her.

Nothing. Hydra had even taken what was left of all their belongings. "Ridiculous, " she muttered aloud to herself. She was going to leave to try the room where Pepper would occasionally stay if Tony had pissed her off & she wanted to be alone, but the sensation that someone else was there & a creak from behind her told her she wasn't alone. She whipped around gun pointed in the direction of the sound. Around the corner came, "Bruce?" "Nat?!" Bruce was there & a little green had been creeping into his skin, ready for a fight, but when he saw Nat the green instantly disappeared. Natasha lowered her gun. "What are you doing here? It's dangerous." "What am I doing here?" Bruce asked, obviously taken aback by her question. "I might ask you the same. We thought you were dead!  Clint said Hydra dragged you away. It's been 4 days &-" "Clint's alright?" "Yeah, he's fine, but-" Bruce gasped as he saw the blood stain on her shirt. "Don't worry, it's old." "Nat, that's fresh," Bruce said with concern in his eyes. Natasha looked down & sure enough the small bloodstain that had been there 2 hours ago had expanded 2× bigger. "Nat. What-what happened? Can I look at that?" "Clothes." "What?" "I need clothes, " she said gesturing down to the t-shirt she was wearing. Bruce sighed. "I can get you that, but promise me you'll let me look at that after." "Alright, " Natasha said softly. "Follow me." But before any of them could move an inch a voice said, "Freeze!"

A\N: Sorry if there are mistakes. It's 1:00 a.m. 💀✌