Chapter Text
Part I: The anatomy of a heart
“The way that you glow,
Everybody knows.
You’ve got a heart of gold…”
The gala was grand. There were so many people that conversations overlapped with each other. Everyone was dressed to the nines. Live music played filling the room with even more noise. Servers provided champagne glasses. To most people, this was where people made connections, pitched their ideas. Boasted to others how successful their company was and how much they were going to donate because of it.
Kate hated it.
She had gone to far too many since she was a child. Enough to know that what most people saw as an event that hosted some of New York's wealthiest for some kind of fundraiser, underneath would always be a lie. It seemed that those with too much money never got enough of it.
Most of these galas she was dragged into due to her mother… But this was the first one she came to out of her own volition. At least she knew what to expect from these events.
Kate scanned the room, her breath controlled and her mind focused. She noted all the exits, which were all blocked by crowds of people. There seemed to be minimal security which uneased Kate. But then again, Kate already knew that her target wasn’t going to be present at this event. Maybe that would make this task easier for her.
Despite that, she could hear Clint’s annoying voice in her head telling her to not let her guard down.
About three months ago her entire life flipped upside down. Both in good and bad ways. It was the craziest Christmas she ever had. She got to meet her hero Hawkeye and partner up with him against the tracksuits and eventually Kingpin. But nothing’s ever simple for Kate’s life cause she also ended up discovering that her mother worked for the mob lord. It ended in Kingpin going missing and Kate sending her mother to prison on Christmas Eve.
The brunette sighed and straightened out her black suit. She started to move fluidly through the crowd. She treaded carefully to avoid being noticed.
She slipped her hand in her pocket grasping around the collapsible bow from Clint. He had given it to her after she told him what she had been planning to do. Seeing that Kate wouldn’t budge from her self appointed task, which Clint considered to be ‘finding trouble’. After all, what twenty two year old had the sanity to try and expose all of Kingpin’s associates?
After a promise to contact him if anything got too dangerous and to not get caught, Kate set forth to undo all the damage her mom did. She already sent off 2 different associates of Kingpin to the authorities. It never seemed to erase any of the damage that she felt had been done.
Either way, Kate steeled herself preparing for the next part which she always found fun. She made her way across the room. Once she nearly reached the exit she planned to sneak out from, her shoulder bumped into someone. Kate turned her head to that person.
“Sorry-” Kate said. But her breath caught as her eyes landed on a beautiful blonde. Kate’s brain barely got the chance to catch up, because the blonde simply shot her an annoyed look and then disappeared into the crowd.
Kate stood there for a moment even though she could no longer see the woman. Part of her wanted to go back into the crowd to find her. But the logical part of her brain reminded her that she was literally in the middle of a mission. Now was definitely not the time to get distracted by pretty women.
She then diverted her attention back to the task at hand. The archer slipped past a security guard and up the stairs. She waited until the coast was clear at the top floor before walking through the hallway to her destination. She was about to turn the corner before she recognized that she was not alone. Kate slipped back, hidden behind the wall.
The brunette peaked past the wall. She spotted a raven-haired girl, not much older than her, guarding the door. Even from the distance Kate was at, she could see that the plaque on the door read ‘Dr. James Wesley’. Gotcha.
Kate took out her bow, plus the arrow she needed from the inner lining of her blazer. She knocked the arrow, and waited a second. Once she was sure that the bodyguard wasn’t going to move, Kate aimed and shot. The arrow whizzed through the air until it grazed the guard’s arm just right, then it hit the wall behind her. A mist of smoke was released from the arrow and the guard moved in surprise.
Kate then went in, she went in for a punch. Kate gasped when instead, she felt a hand grasp her wrist before her fist could land the punch. Next thing Kate knew was that she was on the ground caught off guard.
“Oof,” Kate said as the woman was on top of her and delivered a devastatingly strong punch to her face. It seemed like the woman was entirely unfazed by the smoke that surrounded them.
The brunette luckily saw the next incoming punch and dodged it. Kate kicked her knee up as it hit the woman’s stomach. The woman rolled over. But by the time Kate stood up, the other woman was already up on her feet.
The woman ran to her and Kate prepared to block the punch. But once again she found herself on the floor. Kate groaned and stood back up. The two then threw more punches at each other, Kate only managed to get a few in. But the other woman successfully hit Kate each and every time. It was only till Kate kicked her that she backed up the slightest amount.
Kate held a defensive stance as she caught her breath, then the woman pulled out a baton.
“Woah, give a girl a break,” Kate joked.
When Kate looked at her opponent, she only saw a blank face. Kate’s eyebrows creased as even the girl’s brown eyes seemed to elicit no reaction. They remained steeled and emotionless.
“Not a fan of jokes I see,” Kate said, more so to herself.
In response to weaponry now in play, Kate pulled out her collapsible bow. In seconds she was back in the fight, she took a few more hits. One in the ribs and another one at her back. God, this woman was good. Kate blocked a swing with her bow. She managed to hold her place, until the woman kicked her backwards. Kate’s head hit the wall behind her. Hard.
The pain shot through the back of her head. But there was no time to deal with it because Kate was dragged to her feet, the baton against her neck. She felt the pressure and struggled for air.
The girl behind the baton showed only a look of indifference.
Kate tried to grip and pull the weapon away, but it was clear her opponent was much stronger and skilled than her.
She was going to die.
She was going to die and then Clint would resurrect her and kill her all over again for getting herself killed. But there was no escape, Kate had no back up and there definitely wasn’t enough time for Clint to come and save her.
It was her own stupid fault, cause she was still a newbie and didn’t evaluate her mission as thoroughly as Clint had taught her to.
Kate struggled more, but the lack of oxygen was starting to get to her. She started to see black dots crowd her vision.
Then suddenly Kate could breathe. She realized that she was on the floor again. The archer should have probably assessed her situation first, but she focused on taking big gulps of air instead.
Once the dizziness went away, Kate heard the sound of punches being thrown telling her that there was still a fight going on. Was Clint here?
She looked up. It wasn’t Clint. It was someone else in a black tactical suit similar to Kate’s opponent. Though there was a mask that covered this entire person's face. Who the hell was that?
Kate watched as the two fought gracefully yet deadly. The masked person jumped up in the air, grabbed the neck of the opponent and used that momentum to swing themself around to knock the opponent off her feet.
“Woah,” Kate whispered in awe. Kate’s daze was shattered as someone threw a knife that stuck to the wall. Right next to her head.
Oh, yeah. She was still on a mission. Kate slowly stood up and saw she was right next to the office door. She opened the door and walked in despite all the pain that shot through her body.
With the guard now occupied, Kate scanned the room. She immediately went to the desk. Papers and files filled the drawers and atop the desk. No one who worked for Fisk would dare leave any incriminating evidence anywhere obvious. So Kate kept searching. Then she saw a little notch in the wood. A smirk adorned Kate’s face.
While they may not make it obvious, every corrupt man was just the same. Kate used a Swiss knife to get to the hidden layer in the drawer. Once she lifted it she found a gun, a stash of cash, a passport, and a USB.
Kate grabbed the USB. Once she did, Kate heard a loud shatter of glass. She was about to leave the room, hoping that she could sneak away. That was not the case, because in a split second, the masked person was blocking the door with a gun aimed at her.
The brunette raised her hands up in the air. “Hey, we’re on the same side,” Kate said, knowing that they had fought the same opponent.
Then the person took their mask off.
Kate felt like she couldn’t breathe again but for an entirely different reason. It was the blonde woman she ran into earlier. Her face was annoyed and angry just as Kate saw before. Yet Kate still couldn’t deny that she found her beautiful.
“Who are you and what business do you have here?” The blonde asked, her voice raspy and with some kind of accent- probably Russian. It was kind of hot.
Okay… not what she should be thinking of right now.
“Kate. I’m Kate. I’m just trying to get evidence on James Wesley. He works for Kingpin, he shouldn’t be walking around free.”
At that, the blonde lowered her gun. She let out an exasperated sigh.
“You’re a kid.”
Kate scoffed as she lowered her arms. “I’m twenty two! Plus you can’t be much older than I am.” There was a youthfulness that Kate could see, but it seemed drowned out by the maturity she also held.
“Maybe, but you are clearly untrained.”
“Wh- Hey! I’ll have you know, I’m the best archer in the world.”
“Hmm, your entire fight was hand to hand combat.”
“Y- you saw all that?” Kate got no response. “Oh, and- um thanks for saving my life back there.”
The blonde simply nodded. “You should leave.”
“Right, is she…”
“She escaped.”
“Oh. Alright, I’ll head out then.” Kate walked over to the door. But before she could exit the room a hand was extended to stop her.
“Put it back. You’ll make yourself a target. And you do not want her to come looking for you.”
“That’s fine, I’ve got a tracker on her. I’ll know if she does.” Kate never missed so she knew that the tracker on her smoke arrow lodged itself into the guard's arm.
A look of surprise flashed across the woman’s face for a second. “You know where she is?”
Kate nodded, noticing the sound of interest in the blonde’s voice. “Yeah… Were you here for her?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“Okay, then I should go. Before anyone else comes back up here,” Kate said and walked past the Russian woman. Kate snuck downstairs unnoticed into the public bathroom. She tucked the USB into her inner blazer pocket, then quickly washed her face, getting rid of all the blood from the cuts on her face.
Kate then walked out, blending in perfectly with the crowd until she made it to the back exit of the building, ready to head to her car. The cool air hit her face, she was so ready to go home, take a bath, and then hack into whatever firewall was on that USB.
“I need that tracker.”
“Oh my god!” Kate jumped in surprise. She turned around to see the blonde Russian leaning against the wall next to the door she exited from. “You scared the crap out of me.”
The woman was unfazed.
“Why should I give it to you?” Kate asked.
“Like I said, not your business.”
“So I see no reason to give it to you. I probably need it more anyways.”
She saw the woman clench her fist. Kate realized it probably would be best not to anger the Russian, not after what Kate saw she was capable of.
“How about a deal?” Kate suggested.
The blonde tilted her head in curiosity.
“You help me arrest Wesley and I help you find his bodyguard,” Kate said.
“You’re just going to get yourself killed if you go after dangerous men.”
“I know. But if not me, then who will?”
The blonde rolled her eyes and seemed to curse in what sounded like Russian.
“Fine. Deal,” She said as she stood up and walked towards Kate.
“Cool. What’s your name?” The blonde glared and opened her mouth to say something, but Kate beat her to it. “And don’t say it’s not my business. If we're going to work with each other then I should at least know your name.”
The woman sighed, annoyed.
“Yelena.”
*****
This was how Kate found herself on the rooftop with an impatient Russian pacing next to her.
“How much longer?”
“You asked that five minutes ago. Let me work,” Kate said. She was typing away on her computer trying to decode the firewall placed on the usb.
“Why do you even need the evidence? I could just kill him for you.”
Kate’s head shot up to look at Yelena, thrown off by how casually she used the word ‘kill’.
“Got it, no killing. Less fun.”
“Are you trying to kil-”
“No,” Yelena sternly cut her off.
“Then wh-”
“Are you always this chatty?”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Kate went back to her hacking as she gathered that Yelena would not like her prying more.
It took a minute longer, but Kate managed to get in.
“Yes!” Kate said as she accessed the files.
When Kate opened up she was immediately disappointed. The file was written in several languages. She opened more of them and it was all the same. Each file seemed to be written in a mix of Russian, Mandarin, and Japanese.
She felt a presence next to her, Kate turned to see that Yelena was kneeling beside her. The blonde looked at the files.
“You’ve certainly found yourself quite the dangerous man, Kate Bishop.”
“Wait, I never told you my last name.”
“I never work with people I know nothing about,” Yelena said as she sifted through the files.
Something told Kate that she should probably be more concerned by that fact, but she didn’t. Instead, Kate just took in the focus that splayed across the blonde’s face as she read.
“You can read that?”
“Yes. It looks like you’ve found Wilson Fisk’s right hand man, Kate Bishop. That would make sense in how he managed to hire a Black Widow.”
Kate’s brows furrowed in confusion. “Black Widow? Like as in Natasha Romanoff?”
The brunette saw the moment that Yelena realized she said too much. But luckily she elaborated without Kate having to pry. “No. As in Black Widow Assassin.”
Huh, Kate never knew that there was more than one Black Widow. Then again the term assassin probably had to do with that fact.
“If she’s an assassin, then won’t she kill you if you try to attack her again?”
Yelena laughed. It surprised Kate, but a little smile crossed Kate’s face.
“Her? Kill me? You are funny Kate Bishop.”
Okay, weird. Kate didn’t really see how it was funny.
“I can translate these and you can hand it off to the authorities. Seems like the majority of this shady information will, without a doubt encourage them to take action. Though he seemed to be smart enough to not include any trace of Wilson Fisk.”
“Oh okay. But what about his security detail? Surely he might escape the authorities if they protect him.”
Yelena handed her a set of binoculars.
“His security detail is reduced to 4 men and the widow. We must deal with the widow.”
Kate looked at the building across from them. She scanned through finding the men and Widow.
“So what’s the plan?”
*****
This was not the plan. To be fair, Kate really did try to stick to the plan. One that the blonde Russian had stressed to not mess up. Now Kate was debating if it was better to deal with the wrath of the 4 guards and Black Widow assassin chasing her rather than the blonde’s.
It was going perfectly fine. However, she didn’t expect that the Widow was going to walk in the exact same moment that Kate chose to go in and distract the guards.
Maybe she should have called Clint earlier. Cause Yelena was definitely going to kill her if she managed to survive this.
A crackle of frustrated Russian came through the earpiece that Yelena had given her.
“How did you manage to mess this up already, Kate Bishop?”
“I- it was not intentional. It just happens,” Kate said as she ran for her life. “What do I do?”
“Keep running.”
“What? That’s it?” Kate really needed to pick up on cardio along with her archery and hand-to-hand combat training. Her legs were already killing her. “Yelena?” There was no response.
Ugh, why’d she even agree to this? Kate continued to run through the dark hallways of the abandoned building. She probably should’ve tried to memorize the layout of the building cause the brunette had no idea where she was going.
Of course, it got even better when Kate tripped over something when she reached an open-spaced area of the building. It seemed to still be under maintenance as tools and hardwood littered the area. Office walls were being built, but only partially finished. Kate felt the cool cement against her face as she hit the ground. She listened for the footsteps that followed her.
She only heard one pair, which was odd. But either way, it wasn’t good, as Kate knew who was trailing close behind her. She quickly got up and pulled out her bow. She knocked an arrow as she faced the entryway. The archer let loose her arrow the second that she saw movement. The assassin appeared and it looked like Kate managed to hit her arm in the dark, as she could now see a red gash. Kate couldn’t think about it too much because the injury didn’t seem to slow the assassin down at all.
The brunette was kicked in the ribs and crashed through the half-formed wall behind her. Kate groaned in pain. Kate seriously needed a vacation after this. She’s been thrown around and beaten up far too many times today.
The archer could feel the sharp pain across her chest as she attempted to get up. She tried to bite through the pain, but she could only taste the metallic tang of blood from her now cut lip. The room was spinning, which Kate had a feeling it shouldn’t. Especially when an intimidating and very dangerous figure was approaching.
Yet the figure never reached her. Kate took a moment to regain her focus and well… vision before she could make sense of what was going on. She slowly pulled herself up and grabbed her bow that lay a foot away.
When she finally took in her surroundings, she found Yelena and the Widow locked in an intense battle. Kate realized why she didn’t hear the struggle or efforts of a fight while she took a moment to regain her senses. Their fight was soundless as it was effortless. They were matched in skill. Though of course, Kate might be a bit biased to say that Yelena did seem to be better, then again it could be the fact that Kate didn’t want to find out what would happen if the Widow won this fight.
Kate grabbed an arrow from her quiver, prepared to be Yelena’s backup at a moment's notice. She watched as Yelena tackled the Widow to the floor before Kate could even blink.
“Kate Bishop!” Yelena said.
This immediately caught Kate’s attention. She knocked her arrow. But there was no clear shot for Kate to take as Yelena held down the Widow’s arms.
“Shoot the vial,” Yelena instructed.
Kate’s eyebrows creased. She was about to ask what vial until she saw Yelena throw something up into the air. Kate acted fast, her senses focused on the item and aimed. She took a controlled breath, and let go.
The arrow hit the vial dead center and it shattered into a million pieces. The arrow landed a distance away, but what caught Kate’s attention more was the red dust that dispersed over Yelena and the Widow.
It seemed like Yelena was no longer struggling with the widow. Even so, Kate knocked another arrow and slowly approached. As she did, Kate could hear Yelena saying something, but not to her. It was to the widow? It also seemed to be in another language, Russian, Kate guessed.
Then the Widow’s eyes locked with hers. Fear. That was the emotion that splayed across the face that once was… empty. Something about it made Kate want to put her weapon down, but this woman nearly beat the life out of her twice.
Yelena then turned to look at her and said the last thing that Kate expected to hear. “Put it down, Kate Bishop. It is okay, she is safe.”
Kate then listened and placed her arrow back into her quiver. She then desperately wanted to ask Yelena what the hell was going on. The woman who was deadly and could definitely kill her, was now looking like she was afraid of Kate.
Though when she looked back at them, Yelena was talking in a hushed and gentle? Tone as the widow focused on the blonde.
Eventually, Yelena got up and she helped the Widow up with her. Yelena then walked up to her.
“We are done here. I must take her to the safe house.”
“Wait. I’m… like really confused here. Wasn’t- is-” Kate stumbled on her words.
Yelena rolled her eyes. “This is why I didn’t want you involved in the first place. It is confidential.”
Kate just stared at the blonde, completely confused.
Yelena sighed. “You helped free her. It is a good thing, Kate Bishop. Now, don’t keep meddling in messes that you can’t handle. It would be a shame to lose the world’s best archer.” The blonde offered her the arrow Kate used just moments ago. When did she even have time to grab it?
Kate took the arrow and Yelena walked over to the Widow and headed to a corridor. Before the two disappeared into the shadows, Kate called out.
“I can’t tell if that was a compliment or an insult.”
All she got in response was a chuckle.
If you asked Kate about that day, she would tell you it seemed to just be some odd dream or a figment of her imagination. Cause once she came home, it just didn’t feel real. Aside from the injuries she had gotten from the day’s events, of course. But two days later, when Kate found a pot of mac and cheese made on her kitchen table with a USB drive she couldn’t help but smile knowing that she hadn’t completely made the blonde Russian up in her head.