It only took us three days to reach the desert by car. Steve hotwired it, and after half an hour of arguing, he was still adamant on returning it to its rightful owner. He wrote the address the people lived in on a piece of paper, saying thanks for letting us borrow it, and left it in a gas station parking lot in the middle of the night. Nat shook her head and continued on from there. Clint had spotted an old house, so we broke in the boarded up door and claimed it as safety for the night. Steve and Natasha slumped down into a corner of the living room. Without air circulation, the house was hotter than the atmosphere outside.

If only I had obtained Iceman's powers when I had the chance. Damn me and my moral high ground on not obtaining any more powers. If anyone managed to brainwash me like the Black Widows...it'd be over. What exactly? Not sure. It would depend on who was doing the controlling. All I know is it wouldn't be good. 

I glanced at Natasha, who laid her head on Clint's lap as she stretched out on the ground. Barton and Romanoff...strange. I didn't even know something very important about the people I called friends. "What are your stories? Like..." I paused, contemplating on how to word it. "How did your guys' stories start? How did you become who you are today?"

Natasha winced and looked away, a blank expression taking over her features. Barton noticed and set his hand on her arm. Her reaction gave him a reason to respond first. "I'll, uh, I'll go first then. My..." Clint knit his eyebrows together for a split second, recalling the memories flooding into his mind. "Harold Barton was a tough son of a bitch. He drank and beat my brother and I countless times. And one day, his alcohol addiction went too far. He got into an accident while my mother was in the car, killing them both."

"I didn't know you had a brother," Steve spoke up softly, joining in on the conversation. His eyes were full of pain as he listened to more of the story.

Clint nodded. "Bernard. His name was Bernard...We were put into countless foster homes. One day, we just got tired of it and ran away. We were just kids; we didn't know what to do or how to get food. We saw the Carson Carnival of Traveling Wonders was in town and decided to join it."

"You?" I snorted, "Clint Barton joined the carnival, and I'm just hearing about this now?"

He pushed my arm playfully. He could sense the dozens of jokes clouding my mind, just waiting to come out. "Yes, now will you shhh? I'm telling a story here," he hushed me and continued.

"I was trained by two guys that went by the names Swordsman and Trickshot. I was entering the tent to retrieve something for the event and I caught the Swordsman stealing from the money stash. He offered to give me some of the pay if I became his partner. We got into a heated argument. Worse came to worse and I fell off of the high wire. He left me there to die...I told Bernard about what had happened, and he had the audacity to yell at me for not taking the deal. He abandoned me too..."

Clint seemed to be lost in his memories now, his eyes wandering about as if the events were unfolding right in front of him. "Trickshot took me under his wing and convinced me to go after this criminal named Marko. I went and nearly killed one of his guards." He sighed and waited a second. He flexed his fingers and resisted from getting angry. He closed his eyes as he spoke with wholehearted pain in his voice, "It was my brother. I severely wounded my own brother...the one that taught me self-defense...the one that was there for me when we were little..."

All of us sat in stunned silence. Natasha set her hand on his and ran her index finger in a circle against his skin. She knew the story already. I bet the first time she heard it, she had the same reaction we were having. I was speechless. Steve's features morphed into a grim look.

Barton opened his eyes to look at Nat and continued, "Then S.H.I.E.L.D. recruited me. Saw my knack for archery and thought 'Hey, this guy's pretty cool'."

"That is not what they thought." Natasha rolled her eyes.

Barton shrugged. "A guy can dream, Nat."

Half of me yearned to know what Nat had gone through, but the other half of me was frightened to ask. After hearing Barton's story, I was afraid hers would be two times worse. If I didn't know what to say to Clint, then how would I respond to her?

Steve draped his arms over his knees, his legs bunched up against his chest. His face seemed pale against the moonlight shining in through the window and his sparkling blue eyes were dull. All of this sadness must have done a number on him by now. He had taken enough already in the past year. Finding out his best friend was alive, nearly dying at the Winter Soldier's hands, Peggy dying, the bomb going off, it might have been too much on him. "Nat, it's your turn."

"Why can't you go?" She whined and flopped onto her side, facing him.

Steve shook his head. "I'm just a kid from Brooklyn. You guys know my story. I don't really know yours, even after all this time we've known each other. Out of the team, the only backgrounds I know are Tony's, Peter's, and Lilly's."

"I don't know if you guys want t-"

Barton quickly interjected, "Nat, you can trust them. No one is judging. They're just listening."

Natasha's muscles relaxed from their tense state as she leaned against me, her head laying on my chest. Her free hand traced the wood along the floor as if her fingers were skaters in a rink. It was a nervous habit of hers she only did a few times since I've been with the group. Her past must have really bothered her because Natasha hardly showed nervousness.

"I grew up in a rough time. My parents died in a fire and I was saved by a Soviet soldier that raised me as if I were his own. The Soviets wanted me to grow up as a master assassin, but I was saved. Wolverine trained me for a bit so I could learn to defend myself while I pursued the dream of becoming a ballerina. I fell in love with a pilot named Alexi Shostakov later in life and married him." She smirked at the name slyly, but as the next few words came out of her mouth, it disappeared. "He was away on a mission and he tragically died in an experimental rocket. I was so distraught that I...had a miscarriage."

God, why did I have to ask about their pasts? I didn't think it would be this tragic.

Natasha continued, her voice completely shutting down from emotion, "After I got myself together, I enlisted to be an intelligence operative in their memory. The Soviets put me in the Red Room. The Winter Soldier trained me." She glanced away from the memory. "I was lost for a while. Following orders as the Black Widow. Killing people. Saving others. Clint finally opened my eyes when he was sent to kill me and made a different call."

Clint nodded in agreement slowly and added, "A lot happened in Budapest. I'd rather not talk about it."

I opened my mouth to ask about what happened in Budapest and stopped when I heard voices outside. All four of us became quiet instantaneously and listened. Steve and Clint stayed low and made their way to the door slowly.

"Look, dude, I don't know why they sent us here. This house is a complete disaster. No one would be hiding inside," one man commented.

A woman spoke up with an unamused tone, "They could be inside. It's not like they have any other choice than dumps like this."

"Well, it was just a thought," the man gave up. The door handle twisted and the door opened.

The agents walked through the door, but didn't get far. Steve and Clint grabbed each one from behind and cupped a hand over their mouth and nose. They waited for them to pass out before gently setting them on the ground. Steve gestured us to follow, so we did quietly.

There were few trees by the house, mainly to shade it during the day from the scorching rays of the sun. The rest of the land contained dirt, dirt, and more dirt. Cacti covered the grounds and ranged in different sizes. It was like a minefield out there. Throw the heat from the sun into the mixture, and it created a deadly mixture of hell on earth.

Clint fell back to help Natasha, pushing me up front with Steve. I turned around for a few seconds. How do we expect to hide out here?  I signed, putting emphasize on the word 'hide'. My eyes widened before he could answer, staring at the person behind them.

Barton glanced back, saw the young agent holding a gun pointed at us, and got in front of Natasha. The man fired, sending a dart flying through the air. I tried to push it away with my powers, thinking it was partially made of metal.

Unfortunately, I was wrong.

It pierced right into Clint's neck. This all happened in a matter of seconds, so I was sure Steve and Natasha had no clue what had happened until it was over. Barton collapsed onto the ground unconscious. The kid ran to tell the rest of the group where we were.

"Clint!" Natasha kneeled down and examined the dart. She contemplated and her green eyes scanned the area. Her face cringed in slight pain as she heard voices rising from around the corner of the house, growing louder each second. Her fingers grazed Clint's arm before she stood up to face us. "Go."

"What are you talking about?" I questioned.

Steve almost tugged her arm and stated, "We aren't leaving you here."

"You're leaving me. Go," she ordered and glanced back towards Clint. "I'll observe the facility and find a way to get everyone out of there. Clint needs someone to talk to on the way there, anyways. Might as well make both of our trips enjoyable." She stepped passed his body and cracked her knuckles, getting ready for a fight.

Rogers moved his mouth to say something, but I stopped him. There wasn't a point in arguing, and clearly, not enough time to do so. This is what Nat really wanted, otherwise she'd still be looking at us. We weren't going to change her mind. "Come on, Steve. She has a phone with her. We can track it until she gets to the facility, find a way in, and break all of them out." Steve reluctantly drew back and followed me into portal after portal, hopping from one point in the desert to the next like leap frog.

Natasha climbed the tree with the most leaves and perched there, waiting. The agents really did take their sweet time gathering their group together. Natasha thought that she could have just dragged Clint with them as they escaped, but her decision was already made. Lilly and Steve were already gone. There was no turning back now.

The government agents came into view. She recognized some with S.H.I.E.L.D. armor on, which meant Coulson had given into the government's commands. No point in fighting over something like this. Nat was sure that Coulson did it to better the company and not put it in jeopardy. With Hydra still out there, the agency was needed.

She jumped down from the tree and landed on one of the guys. Soldiers yelled and all attacked her at once. She collided her fist into one's jaw and threw him over her shoulder. He landed on other agents, taking them all down. Nat kicked a man in the shin and a woman in the stomach. Her elbow dealt a blow to an agent's shoulder blade, the pain searing through their shoulder so bad, they passed out.

About four more soldiers to go, but reinforcements were down the street.

Black Widow stole the dart gun from an agent's hands and used it on him, taking him down the easiest way possible. Someone grabbed her hair, so she took hold of the soldier's wrist and twisted it. He cried out in pain and let go, allowing her to jump onto his shoulders and put him into a choke hold using her thighs. He reached down for the taser on his belt and attempted to use it on her, but she took hold of it and wrestled around. She couldn't get it out of his grasp, so she did something simple.

Natasha aimed the weapon at another soldier and pushed the trigger. The woman squirmed and reached upwards to grab a hold of it to take it off, but twitched and collapsed. The agent she was on let go of the taser and pushed Nat up against a tree. She grunted and flipped him over, sending them flying in a backwards flip. He hit the ground unconscious. Tasha got up triumphantly and exhaled quickly. She worked out a sweat there, but the adrenaline rushing through her veins made her feel three times better.

The last agent sat on the floor, shaking and scrambling to get to his feet. The fear of God settled in his wide eyes, terrified of what she was going to do to him. "I give up!" He put his hands up, indicating he wasn't holding any weapons.

Natasha nearly laughed. He was so frightened, like a puppy meeting a bigger, more ferocious dog. She walked over to him, put a hand on his neck, and found a pressure point. She waited until he crumpled onto the ground and strolled over to where she heard a group of agents forming in front of the house. They all stared at her, some with determination and others with fear in their eyes. She cracked her neck and glanced around, a sly smile forming on her lips. "Who's next?"