Chapter Text
Jason knows it’s naive, but it almost all too easy to stay here, in this other dimension. He wants revenge against Bruce, against the Joker…. But the Joker doesn’t even exist here. He’s as far from that monster as he’ll ever be able to be.
And there’s no one here that knows him. He has a chance to get away from Talia and the League.
He knows Talia was keeping him away because Ra’s would kill him if given the opportunity.
But here?
Here, he’s free from Batman, from the League, from anyone who wants to try and control him.
A bullet ricochets off the building next to him.
Well.. free as soon as he gets these German octo-idiots off his tail.
They’re morons. But by god, they’re well-connected morons. Somehow they’ve managed to chase him across three borders, from bum-fuck-nowheresville, Russia to mediocre-as-fuck-City, Turkey.
You’d think they’d be less attached to him after spending barely a week with him before he burned down their base and killed all their men.
And right after he killed his first German asshole too.
Egon and HYDRA are two different types of scumbags. But they’re still scumbags.
Jason hops another fence, scrambling to the top of the dumpster and then up the first level of the fire escape.
He pauses as he hears shouts around the corner. Well, it’s as a good a time as any.
They corral themselves into the alley way, fully dressed in their tactical gear, blaring red Nazi-armbands and all.
The first guy is the biggest, Jason takes him down fast, the second… he get’s a little sloppy but honestly, he doesn’t care when the spare asshole impales himself on Jason’s knife. Gonna be a bitch to clean though.
The third guy takes a bit more of a tussle and right when Jason gets in his face to start asking questions, the jerk smiles.
“Hydra will get what it wants from you, child. Cut off one head, and another shall take its place.” There’s a suspicious crack before the man’s mouth fills with foam as his eyes roll back.
Jason drops the body in disgust. A waste of information. He glances at the first guy, it’ll be a pain to lug to an abandoned floor but… probably worth it to find out why they’re chasing him.
Jason walks over and yanks open the guy’s mouth. Now where is….? Ah ha!
It takes a bit of prying with his blade but moments later, Jason holds a bloody cyanide capsule in his fingers.
It crushes uselessly beneath his feet.
After getting leverage under the guy, Jason is able to haul the limp man up the two flights of stairs to his current empty safe-house.
Okay, yes, safe-house is a bit of a stretch. As it is neither safe anymore, nor been a livable house in a long time.
It’s because of this that Jason doesn’t even bother putting a tarp down before tying the man to a chair.
“Wakey wakey, assface.” Jason says, slapping him.
There’s no response except a mild groan.
Then screaming as Jason plunges his still-dirty knife into the man’s collarbone.
He smirks. Time to ask Nazi Number-1 some questions.
———
When Coulson gets the assignment to Northern Turkey for the bodies of two dead Hydra agents, he’s almost expecting it to be boring.
Of course, the moment he lands he finds out they’ve found the third body. Any hope for boring goes out the window as he looks at the multilated corpse of what used to be a Hydra agent.
This was torture. Expert torture. Combined with the skill of the two dead in the alley below and the chase his ground agents have been able to track.. they’re dealing with a professional here. And not a new one.
But somehow, they have nothing on the assassin. That makes him dangerous.
Coulson steps into the hallway of the abandoned building to make a call.
One ring.. two… three..-
“Hello?”
“Hawkeye.”
The tone changes over the phone, “Coulson? What’s wrong?”
“Care for a search and remove mission in Akyaka, Turkey? We have an unknown assassin that’s popped up with three dead Hydra already under their belt. Could use a good pair of eyes.”
Coulson could hear the smile on the other end of the line, “You know I’m always up for some sightseeing.”
“I’ll send for transport.”
The call ends and Phil glances back through the open doorway at the body. Whoever did this… they were looking for something. He thinks they must have found it.
Clint shows up on a private red-eye the next afternoon; and with barely a greeting, the two launch into the search.
Between the two of them and the bevy of SHIELD agents at their beck and call, this should be a straightforward mission.
It’s not.
The killer is always a town or a city ahead of them. There’s no aliases to track or face to ID, with the red sweatshirt he wears constantly, hood up, face down. They barely have a height or body type estimate by the time two weeks roll past.
Seven more Hydra agents show up dead in that time, and it’s becoming the most dependable way to track him.
When they realize the man is making towards the airport in Erzurum, Clint calls in Natasha.
It takes them another week still to find where the man will be staying for a few days before moving on.
When they find it though, Coulson has the place locked down within the hour, entirely discreet.
He and Natasha are acting as the front, hopefully this will go diplomatically. If not.. that’s where Clint comes in.
The man walks through the darkness of the apartment, heavily dropping groceries & supplies on the counter.
Just as they’re about to wonder if perhaps they were wrong about this person or their skills, the man pulls two guns directly at them.
“Who the hell are you and what the hell do want from me?”
“Mr. Smith. I’m glad to see you are the person we’ve been looking for. However, it would be best if would lower your weapon and cooperate with your arrest.”
“Phil, wait-“
“I’m not cooperating with shit, baldy.” The man cocked his guns, completely ignoring Natasha.
She quickly flicked on a light switch, illuminating the shadows of the man’s face.
But that was the problem. It wasn’t a man, it was a kid.
“How old are you?”
The kid hesitated, already a bad sign, he snarled, “What does it matter, lady?”
“It matters because this changes things, Coulson,” She looked at him, “He’s just like us. We can’t just let him be.”
Coulson’s face was serious and understanding, “Listen, kid, we can help you. Now that we know-“
“Now that you know? Know what? You know nothing,”
“We can help you, please just come with us, SHIELD can-“
There’s a spark of recognition, “You’re Shield.” He raised his guns back up from where they’d gone slack, “Which makes you Black Widow. Greatest living product of the Red Room.”
A flash of surprise passed through her eyes, “How do you-“
“I read a lot about you. And let me tell you this. Both of you. I just got free from one shadow organization, I’m not about to join another. I’ve been both soldier and weapon, now I’m neither. I plan to stay that way. Even if it means killing you and every black ops agent in this building.” The kid growled, finger pulling on the trigger.
An arrow pierces through his forearm, forcing him to roll backwards into his kitchen. Natasha leapt towards him, halting when he raised a gun back at her face.
He wavered between pointing it at Coulson or Natasha, breathing heavily through the pain.
“Tell your buddies thanks but I’m good. Freedom suits me just fine.” Without a moment’s hesitation, he leapt for the window over the sink, crashing through the glass and into the air outside.
Natasha didn’t even have time to stop him before the kid was gone. No sign of him on the street below save for a blood trail that tapered off quickly.
——
Hours later, Natasha’s eyes opened from sleep in the darkness of the safe house.
Why was she awake?
A small creak sounded from outside the room.
An intruder.
Slowly, Natasha wrapped her hands around her gun and slunk out the door, tapping Clint on her way.
There was a groan and slight clatter in the kitchen.
She motioned for Clint to go around.
As she came to the kitchen, she flipped on a light, immediately aiming her gun at the figure.
It was- the kid?
“Hey,” he groaned, leaning on the counter, blood on his face and clothes, “you said SHIELD could protect me?”
Natasha nodded, not lowering her gun.
He pulled his hand away to show the blood oozing from a large wound on his stomach and looked up at her pleadingly, “That offer still available?”