A/N: This is my first Avengers story so don't hate me if I screw it up. It's set about a week after Thor 2: The Dark World. Please read and review, constructive criticism is more than welcome.

Basically if you could label the day when everything Natasha Romanoff knew went to ruins it would be the day they found her on that island.

Natasha sat next to Clint as they travelled towards their destination on a helicopter. She was glad to be on a mission with him, it had been a while since Fury had sent them out on a mission together. Recently the Director had been making Natasha train new agents which was the furthest thing from productive life at SHIELD could get.

The mission was going to be easy anyway.

Just recently a very rich scientist, Dr Harold Blake, had been discovered conducting illegal experiments. They had been sent out to his private island to check it out and make sure none of his experiments were deadly. It was only an easy job, but Natasha still had a bad feeling.

"We're nearly there," the pilot told them. "You might want to get ready."

Natasha stood up, so did Clint, his bow at the ready. The chopper would be landing on the island. There was a helipad there so the Doctor could access his island. The chopper would wait there for them. All of this was routine and Natasha should've had no reason to be shaky. This still felt like a bad idea though. Natasha had no clue why S.H.I.E.L.D needed them to do this. It wasn't the sort of thing you'd expect them to be concerned about.

"We're coming in now!" the pilot called to them.

Natasha got her first glimpse of the island as they got closer. It wasn't very big, but it was big enough for a giant white marble mansion. Soon the chopper hit the ground with a thud. Natasha climbed out first with Clint following. The pilot nodded at them and shut down the engines. Natasha spotted the mansion and headed towards it. Clint jogged to keep up.

She reached the front door and surveyed the mansion closer. The hedges were neatly trimmed, showing evidence of a gardener, there were decorative marble pillars that held up the balcony on the second floor. The windows were all arched shaped and had the blinds shut. The house seemed empty. But there was no way to be sure unless they checked it out. For someone who was supposed to be rich, Natasha found it odd that there weren't many security devices in place. The front door just had an old fashioned lock on it. Natasha was insulted for a minute that Fury would give her such a mission.

Clint looked at Natasha, then to the door. "Ladies first," he said.

Natasha gave him a look then cocked her gun. Clint drew an arrow just as Natasha slowly opened the door. She stepped inside and swept the surrounding with her gun held high. Clint followed after with his bow raised. They had stepped into the Grand Entrance. The place was empty and dark, but they knew that turning the lights on was a bad idea.

Natasha moved towards the kitchen while Clint headed in the other direction. She looked around all the corners and checked everywhere. The assassin moved on down the hallway checking all the room. At first she didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

Eventually when she entered the Doctor's large study she finally noticed something suspicious. The study itself was large and ornate with a fireplace at the end of the room, a large desk, and It even had stuffed animal heads mounted on the wall. Natasha fought the urge to roll her eyes.

What she noticed in particular was the bookshelf. All of the books were either stacked messily or knocked off the bookshelf, and were covered with dust. Except one. There was a green book with gold bindings that stood perfectly stacked and there was not one speck of dust anywhere on its cover.

Natasha moved towards it and looked at the book closely. It didn't even have a title. She put a hand on it and pulled it slowly. She stepped back quickly as the bookshelf slid sideways revealing a doorway that led into a room that looked like an office.

Natasha scoffed. "Could you get any more cliché?" she muttered to herself as she walked into the room.

It was a plain white colour with a single desk and a file cabinet. The desk contained a computer, a container of pens and a leather bound notebook. Natasha closely inspected the scene for anything that stood out, like traps or maybe a deadly weapon. She declared it all clear.

Again, what stood out was the really, really bad security in the giant mansion. Either Doctor Blake was very stupid or there was something more sinister going on.

"Hawkeye are you there?" Natasha asked through her earpiece.

"I'm here" he replied.

"I think I might have something," she told him. "I'm in a secret room connected to the study."

"A secret room?"

"Yep. Hidden behind the bookshelf would you believe?"

She heard him scoff on the other end of the earpiece. "I'm coming."

Sure enough he arrived a few minutes later and gave the doorway that led into the office a sideways glance. Natasha sat with her feet on the desk looking through the leather bound book that she had now discovered was a sort of log book. She held it up for him to see.

"I found out exactly what he was up to," she informed her fellow agent. She began reading from the book. "Test Subject 1 is deceased approximately one hour after receiving treatment." She turned over several pages. "Test Subject 2 received treatment that caused severe side effects of hallucination, anxiety and has also turned feral. Action taken in the form of termination."

Clint gave her a confused look. "No wonder these experiments were classified illegal. What was he trying to do? What's this treatment he keeps talking about?" As usual she was awarded with a bombardment of question. Natasha didn't really mind though.

The Black Widow began flipping through the pages. "I think it said something about it way back…Here!" she called out in triumph when she discovered the right page. "I believe I have discovered the secret to superficial abilities far beyond what they were able to comprehend fifty years ago. It will be through a series of trial and error attempts for me to be able to come close to shaping the treatment into perfection."

"Well it's official. This guy is a total creep," Clint said after a long moment of silence. "Do you think he might've succeeded in whatever he was trying to do?"

"I don't know I haven't checked out the back of the book yet, just give me a minute," she began leafing through the book yet again and eventually came to a page that made her sit up straight and take her feet off the desk. "Listen to this. Finally I have found the correct formula. It has been exactly 24 hours since Subject 7 received treatment and has responded positively. Signs are already showing of super accelerated brain activity and the subject has begun to show unique abilities almost instantly. The subject has been appropriately named Phoenix."

Natasha slowly lowered the book and looked up at Clint. Then the screen in front of Natasha blinked to life. At first the screen was fuzzy, and then the picture cleared. Natasha saw six separate boxes appear on the screen, each of them showing a different scene.

"What the hell?" Clint asked.

"It's a security system," Natasha answered. "Doctor Blake was obviously monitoring something from this office. I think the real question here is. What was he monitoring?"

There was a sudden loud noise from below them that caused loud screeching alarms to begin blaring. Over the screens Natasha saw a door slam open and fly off the doorframe. Natasha sat up straight immediately and watched the screen closely. Nothing happened, until a shape appeared out of nowhere and slammed into the camera, causing one of the six sections of the screen to go static. Natasha jumped in shock and she heard Clint take a step backwards.

"I think that answers our question," Clint stated.

"Yep," Natasha agreed.

They jumped into action and ran out of the office, Natasha quickly grabbing the log book and stashing it into the belt of her SHIELD uniform. Natasha led the way down a hallway and spotted a door to a lift. Clint motioned with his bow for Natasha to press the button.

Finally there was some action at hand. Previously this mission was slowly making its way to the top of Natasha's most boring missions list. The Black Widow was not a woman that got excited often, but her body happily accepted the rush of adrenaline that coursed through her veins.

The lift arrived in front of them and opened. The interior was silver, but the alarm had caused a red flashing light which made the lift look a bit like an epileptic nightmare. Cocking her gun, Natasha nodded for Clint to walk in first. He obliged and carefully made his way inside Natasha following closely.

The lift reached the bottom level after a minute and when the stepped out the alarms seemed to stop. Natasha held her gun at the ready and scanned her surroundings.

She was in a room with white floors and tiles. There were several white desks with working monitors on them on either side of her. Directly opposite the lift, there was a door that must've led out into where they had seen the door blown off its hinge.

Clint reached the door first and opened it. Natasha slowly peered over his shoulder. There was a long corridor with doors all along it. She could see the broken door lying in on her right. There was no sign of any other person, which was a bad sign. When you can't see your enemy things get complicated.

"You watch the door," she signalled to her partner. "I'll check the security cameras."

Natasha moved towards the desk that displayed the images of different surroundings in the small basement complex while Clint stood by the door. She made sure to carefully inspect every single image on the screens in front of her. She saw nothing out of the ordinary, but it gave her a chance to see what was inside each room.

There were laboratories, with desks, computers, bottles of liquid and various other things you might find in the lair of a mad scientist. There were also medical rooms and rooms with near identical content to SHIELD's stimulation rooms. It was an odd setup, but not too odd once you connected the dots. This complex was designed specifically for Doctor Blake's experimentations.

"Anything sign of a hostile?" Clint asked her from his surveillance position at the door.

"Nothing yet," she informed him.

Movement on the far right monitor caught Natasha's attention and she saw something dart across one of the laboratories and hide in the far corner which was a blind spot for the camera. Natasha couldn't get a good look because it moved too fast, but it didn't take a genius to figure out what it was.

"Clint, we've got movement in one of the laboratories," Natasha called to him. He moved to her side and Natasha pointed to the screen where she'd spotted the movement, and played it back for Clint to see. Even in slow motion the picture was hard to make out.

Then there was movement on an opposite screen, whatever it was moved almost too fast for Natasha to see. "Wait hang on a minute. Give me a minute to work out the new position." She began quickly scanning the screens. Then Natasha finally spotted it. "It's running down the corridor to another room. I still can't get a clear picture."

"I'm going after it," Clint replied. He prepped his bow and moved out into the corridor.

"We don't know what we're dealing with here Clint," Natasha warned him.

"Then let's find out."

He ran out into the hallway and Natasha cocked her gun before going after him. She entered the corridor just in time to see a shape dart inside one of the rooms. It was human, Natasha could tell that much. Clint ran inside the room after it, the door automatically locked behind him.

She wasn't normally concerned for Clint's safety on missions. She knew full well that Agent Barton could handle himself. Without even properly processing the risk that might be waiting for her on the other side of the door, some instinct inside of Natasha awakened at the thought of her partner in danger. Her limbs moved faster than her brain. Natasha kicked the door open. Clint stood on the opposite side of the room and had his bow aimed at a person facing him.

They were small, smaller than Natasha had expected, and she could tell even from behind that this person was female. Her hair was long messy and tangled, not to mention bright red, nearly the colour of fire, a colour much more orange than Natasha's hair. Natasha aimed her gun and cocked it. The girl heard the sound turned, Natasha was finally granted a proper look at the mysterious girl. She was a young teenage girl, maybe 15 or younger. She had sharply defined features, with hollowed cheeks and dark blue eyes that were sunken and ringed with dark half-moon crescents. Her skin was most likely supposed to be pale naturally, but maybe lack of sun or even a sickness gave her skin tone a sickly effect in colour. Not only did this girl look ill, but she looked almost like she was in a permanent state of mental and physical pain.

There was no such thing as coincidence in the Black Widow's opinion. One she put all the pieces together it was obvious. The girl standing in front of her was Test Subject 7. The girl was Phoenix.

Natasha had killed hundreds of people. She was first trained as a ruthless assassin then as a S.H.I.E.L.D agent. The first thing you learned was it doesn't matter who they are, they are a target and your enemy. The second thing they taught her was never show sympathy or mercy. Rule three, probably the most important rule that Natasha ever heard, and she lived by like it was her own personal mantra, and it practically was.

Never, ever hesitate.

Natasha made a decision and stuck with it, knowing full well that she was going against everything she knew. Natasha Romanoff held up her gun towards the ceiling and held up her arms so Phoenix could see that she meant no harm. "It's ok," she did her best to reassure Phoenix "We don't want to hurt you we want to help. Don't be scared it's ok." With a stern look from Natasha, Clint lowered his bow but he didn't look happy about it.

Phoenix looked in fear from one agent to the other. Natasha knew that it was a better idea to stay out but she couldn't help herself from slowly inching closer to the girl. As Natasha moved forward, Phoenix back away. "Go away," Phoenix finally spoke. Her accent was basic and common but her voice was shaky, clearly indicating that she was frightened. "Leave me alone. Go away," Phoenix raised her voice.

"It's ok, you don't need to be afraid. We want to help," Natasha attempted to convince the girl she wasn't a threat, but as she kept talking it seemed the girl was growing more and more scared. "Just come with us. We need to ask you a few questions. It's ok. You're safe now."

Phoenix backed up so far she hit the wall and continued to press herself up against it fearfully, attempting to put distance between herself and the advancing assassins. As Natasha got closer she saw the girl was in tears. "You're a liar. You're all liars," Phoenix sounded near hysterical. "Get back. Get away from me!"

"It's ok," Natasha tried to reassure her. She was close now. Close enough to reach out and touch her. It was at that moment she realised exactly why Phoenix was freaking out. They had backed her into a corner. It was the same concept with lions put them in a corner and they will strike. With no obvious exit for the girl and with no idea of what she might do, the future was completely unforeseeable.

But it clearly wasn't going to be good.

Natasha observed a change in Phoenix's eyes. Something became different within a split second, almost too fast for Natasha to see, but with her highly trained eyes Natasha caught it. The fear in her eyes was replaced with a vicious edge. Desperation, anger, fear.

She was going to strike.

Phoenix made eye contact with Natasha. "Get away," Phoenix hissed.

Natasha only had a second to react when she saw the fire curl around Phoenix's hands.

"DOWN!" she shouted the warning to her partner and they both dropped to floor within split seconds of the inferno,

Fire exploded all around the room around their heads and the assassin dared not look up. The flames licked up the walls of the room and threatened to consume them. Natasha felt the heat on her back and heard the roar of the fire. Strange how it could make so much noise in the confined room.

Then it stopped, the flames just put themselves out straight away, like turning off a light. There were scorch marks all around them where the fire had touched the walls. But there was a much more serious issue at hand. Phoenix was gone, having fled the room while the two Agents cowered from the flames.

Natasha wasted no time in reacting.

"Come on!" Natasha shouted as she ran out of the lab and down the corridor with her gun armed and raised. She reached the lift just as it began heading upwards. Natasha waited patiently for the lift to arrive. Clint caught up to her just a second after she reached the lift herself.

Natasha spent the time going over how stupid she had been. A pyrokinetic. How had she not seen it coming? A Phoenix is a mythological bird that will set itself on fire and then be reborn from the ashes. It was obvious. Natasha was so grateful her clothing was fire and heat proof.

Clint put a hand to his earpiece radio. "This is Agent Barton. We've got a hostile on the run. Female, roughly 14 or 15 years of age, about 5'4, orange hair. Take extreme caution the hostile is fast and can manipulate fire. I repeat take extreme caution."

"Copy," the voice on the other end of the line confirmed.

Natasha and Clint moved fast once the lift reached them. The minute they found their way back to the first floor a radio call came through to both of them. "The hostile is spotted running across the front yard. It looks like she running to the edge of the island."

Natasha and Clint shared equally confused glances. They both knew that it was a twenty foot drop off a steep cliff, all around the circumference of the island. If Phoenix jumped off she might survive, but she would never be able to swim to the nearest land mass.

Natasha reached the front door and attempted to open it, for some reason it wouldn't open. Phoenix had locked them inside. She was smarter than Natasha thought, but that made her even more dangerous. Natasha signalled to Clint and he nodded in understanding.

"Keep the hostile contained," Clint told the Agents over the radio. "Don't let her get away."

"Copy. We are approaching hostile now," one of them reported. "Hostile is looking down the edge of the island. She is standing near the helipad but has not spotted us yet. It looks like she found a gun. We are about to advance. Wait, the hostile has spotted us."

Natasha tensed and Clint waited for more details. "Hostile is advancing and is carrying a firearm weapon. Do we engage?" Clint paused as they asked the question, trying to decide whether they could shoot Phoenix or not. Natasha furiously shook her head at him, trying to tell him no. "Agent Barton do we engage? Agent Barton...!"

Screams erupted on the earpiece and gunshots fired like crazy. Clint started panicking and shouting into it. Natasha mustered all of her strength and kicked the front door open. Again, very rich Doctor with a super-secret complex in the basement for illegal experiments, but really crap security.

Natasha ran outside towards the helipad and saw Phoenix standing over the bodies of two men that were lying on the ground. Then she turned around and started running towards the cliff. Natasha ran after her but she was too late. Phoenix jumped off the cliff and straight down into the waters below. Natasha reached the cliff and peered over the edge. She saw nothing, not even a bubble.

She began to think that Phoenix died and sunk to the bottom when a speedboat raced out of a cave that was hidden in the side of the island. Phoenix was driving. She glanced back at Natasha before turning the speedboat and heading east. Towards what Natasha knew was California.

Clint caught up to Natasha and saw the speedboat as well. He grabbed her shoulder and pulled her away from the edge. "Don't even think about jumping in there and swimming after her. S.H.I.E.L.D can track her. There's nothing more we can do here. Go start up the chopper and contact them. Tell them we have two Agents down."

Natasha nodded and headed for the chopper. She felt like kicking herself really, really hard. If she hadn't been such an idiot she could've stopped Phoenix back in the basement and the two agents would still be alive. It was her fault they were dead. She turned on the engine and grabbed the radio.

Director Fury was going to give her hell for this.