"That looks sharp," she remarked with a cocky grin "you wouldn't want to cut anyone now would you?"

He pressed the blade against her neck so it drew a little blood, she inhaled deeply, she would have to act quickly. Reaching slowly for her knife so he wouldn't notice she gave a small smile before grabbing a hold of it and lodging it deep into his neck, he looked to her in annoyance, she watched in horror as he pulled the blade out of his neck and dropped in onto the floor "you'll have to do better than that," he said returning the smile she gave him earlier.

She ducked evading his grasp and rolled under his legs swiftly grabbing the knife he had dropped on the floor as she went. She made a run for the door but he was quicker, she gasped as he grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back, she kicked his jaw with her right leg and punched him in the eye with all her strength, he grabbed her fist and squeezed smiling at the sickening crunch it made. He pushed her back and she landed against her glass bookcase, she crumpled to the ground leaning against the wall in pain, some of the glass shards had cut her deeply. Her vision began to cloud from the blood loss, she saw him striding over to her, she knew that if she went with him she was going to die, she remember the knife she had in her hand and remained still until he crouched down to her level "you put up more of a fight than I thought you were capable of," he jested, his hand reaching for his sword, drawing it out and resting against it on the ground "At least you put up a fight," he snorted, she waited for him to rest his hand on her shoulder before she move her move.

She stuck the dagger into his eye, the man flew back in pain, Natasha pushed herself up as well as taking his sword and holding it with both hands "Guns were always my preferred weapon," she revealed walking slowly towards the man who was contorting on the ground in agony "but the sword well, I don't mean to brag but," she went on the smile returning to her face "I was always the best with one," she recalled placing her foot on his chest "And now you demise will be by your own weapon," she smiled and mimicked him "At least you put up a fight."

She sank the sword into his chest in one swift blow, the sticky black blood escaped from the wound at his back and pooled around her feet, he breathed his last breath the shocked expression still covering his face. There was blood everywhere, she could tell which was hers and which was his, his blood was black, ink black and trickled like syrup, it wasn't a pleasant sight, she pulled out the sword from the body and lay it on the kitchen counter.

She sighed and looked at her wrecked living room, she sat down on her sofa and stared up at the ceiling, she had lost count of the number of people she had killed, at first she hated it, despised what she had done and for every life she took she shed a tear, but it was difficult, having emotions was difficult, when you've killed so many people it becomes easier to shut out the pain, to become a robot. What everyone including herself failed to realise was, she didn't feel anything but pain, waking up with an empty heart, faking a smile whenever Steve told her a lame joke, and then Luke came along. When he took her to the ice rink that day she had sworn she could have felt a hint of joy, for once it replaced the pain, for one moment in her life she had let her guard down and she got hurt, trusting people was the hardest thing for her to do and she was almost there with Luke, so close to opening her heart and she didn't know it.

Fury came rushing into the room followed by two other agents "Natasha what is going…." He trailed off as they set their eyes upon the body that was lying on her floor "are you okay?" he asked reaching for his gun instinctively.

Natasha calmed herself down, she had half expected the attack, someone was definitely following her earlier. Her hair was a mess and there were patches of blood covering her dress "I've lost a lot of blood," she admitted suddenly noticing a shard of glass that was pressed deep into her back but she healed quickly so she wasn't worried.

"Natasha, I know your physical capabilities exceed themselves so I'm not worried about that," he said moving past the other agents and taking a seat next to her "do you remember what you said when you first came to S.H.E.I.L.D?"

"I never want to return to my old life," she quoted, pulling bits of glass out of her arms and marvelling as the cuts healed almost instantly.

"And I'm guessing that was someone from your old life," Fury said in understanding.

"I've never seen that guy before," she said shaking her head, her soft red curls slipping loose.

Fury's brow furrowed in worry, he stood up and made his way over to the body "Go stay with a friend tonight," he ordered "we'll need to block this area off," he explained typing orders into a small screen attached to his wrist.

"Can I get changed, I'm covered in blood," she asked gesturing to her torn dress.

"Pack a bag," he said dismissively "but don't leave the building Natasha, you may be in danger."

"He is dead," their leader announced making the rest of them look at him in shock.

"We have underestimated them Malekith," an older man said from the corner walking towards him, his eyes filled with wisdom and darkness.

"They are petty midguardians," he spat pushing the old man aside "they are made to be ruled by us, as are the asgardians."

"You are not thinking about your acti.." the elf interjected.

"Damn them," Malekith said his wild hair thrashing across his shoulder as he turned to face him "they will all fall."

She breathed in slowly and dialled the number "Natasha," the voice grumbled.

"Hey Steve can you get back here, something's happened," she chimed.

"Did you kiss Luke again?" he slurred, she rolled her eyes and leaned back against the wall.

"You're drunk," she moaned letting her backpack slip to the ground.

"And you're a bitch," he shot back, she heard several of her friends call for him in the background.

She was considering hanging up, he wasn't being very helpful "Put Maria on," she said and waited as he insulted her several more times before she heard some grab the phone of him.

"What do you want Natasha?" Maria asked calmly.

"I need to stay at your place tonight," she answered "just stay at the dance it's fine I'll explain later."

"It doesn't sound fine," she fretted, Clint was asking her what was going on in the background, Natasha didn't get a chance to elaborate before a worried Pepper took the phone from Maria.

"I am so mad at you!" she shrieked "I can't believe you, what did I say? I should have stayed with you from the beginning, why are you still up? You told me you were going to sleep, oh god has something happened?" she rambled, Natasha sighed, typical Pepper, always needing to know what was going on. She couldn't just tell her she'd killed a man and wrecked her apartment while doing so.

"Calm down," she soothed "put Maria back on, this is important."

"Why Natasha?" she asked defensively "why can't you tell me?"

"Please don't do this Pepper, I can't tell you," she sighed fiddling with a zip on her bag in boredom.

"I guess I'm not a good enough friend huh?" she hissed "do you know how many times I've stuck up for you?" he asked her voice rising into a squeaky pitch "defended you"

"Really Pepper you don't want to hear about this," she warned, Natasha almost felt bad, Pepper was trying her best but she could never truly understand as much as Maria what had happened to her.

"Here, I'll put Maria on, just don't come running to me for help when everyone, even your friends hate you," she sneered shoving the phone back over to a shocked Maria.

"You are a mean bitch Natasha," Maria said as soon as she had the phone "Pepper's really upset."

"I don't care," she said coolly "there is a dead body in my wrecked apartment and I don't have time for any of a teenage girls petty shit," she added getting up and walking over to Maria's door "now, this phone call is a courtesy, I'm going to use your shower, change my clothes and crash on your sofa and you are going to enjoy your evening and not bother me when you get in, are we clear?"

"I understand why no one likes you now," Maria said ending the call. Natasha shrugged it off, she didn't need anyone and no one needed her, that was the way she always thought and the way she would think until the day she died. She was able to fake empathy and compassion when it was useful for her and she wasn't bothered about what her friends thought of her. She didn't quite know why she kissed Luke, perhaps she was curious or felt like she owed him something, she had put it down to both.

Fury had given her a key to Maria's apartment, she opened the door with ease and dropped her backpack on the floor next to a coat stand. She walked through Maria's bedroom, it was as she had expected plain except for the covers which had been changed to a light blue and a small wooden clock by the side of her bed, she opened her bathroom door and marvelled at the sight of herself in the mirror.

She looked dangerous, in her element. Her curls were coming loose from her crown and her emerald green eyes shone back at her brightly, she smiled and lifted the crown from her head, her hair fell down her back and stopped around midway, she slipped out of her dress and into the shower putting it up as high as it could go, washing away the blood and glass from her skin.

Her eyes blinked open and she pushed aside the blanket she had been using the previous night, Maria clearly wasn't up yet. She looked in her fridge, her eyes fell upon the yogurts perfect she thought taking one out and taking a seat on the sofa she had slept on. She was still wearing her pj's but she had the sense to pack her school uniform. It was a small improvement from last time with new black pumps to replace the other clunky old ones that she hated.

After she'd finished her yogurt she clambered over to her bag and picked it up swiftly. She was about to knock on Maria's door when the brunette opened it up before she could do anything "Hey Nat," she grumbled sleepily having just woke up.

"Can I use the bathroom?" she asked stepping back slightly so Maria could pass through.

"What is this pre-school? Go ahead," she muttered in return, sauntering over to the kitchen and taking out a box of cereal from the pantry.

Natasha nodded before heading through her room once again. When she was there she walked over to the mirror and dampened a nearby cloth before cleaning her face with it. She took off her t-shirt and boxers which served for sleepwear and changed into her uniform which she drew out her bag. She found her brush in there also which she set aside to use later, she was glad Maria wasn't too mad at her, maybe she was just too tired to think about what had happened last night.

Once she was changed she picked up her brush and bag and walked out while running it through her soft but tuggy hair "Hey Maria," she said emerging from her room.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" she asked not bothering to return her greeting.

"I wasn't going to actually," Natasha answered sitting down at one of the chairs near the window.

"Whatever, I'm sure Fury will tell us all later anyway," she sighed in annoyance "I'm going to go get changed now," she added taking the blanket Natasha had used and folding it into a white fitted wardrobe, the same one she used for storing towels and sheets in as well.

Natasha didn't say anything in reply, she just looked out the window at the agents that were bustling around outside. As the sun rose she could see the agents that had finished their night shift retire back to their housing units as they did every other day, but something was different, there were several scientists from completely different sectors heading to most secluded building in the whole base, everything there was top secret, she definitely wasn't allowed in, none of them were. She wondered what they had in there, highly powerful weapons under development, secret experiments on humans, aliens, she scoffed at that, she was many things but not a lunatic.

She got up from the chair and grabbed a piece of paper, she would leave a note for Maria before she left, she produced a pen from her pocket and wrote I'm leaving early, see you later that would do for now. Leaving the apartment she bumped into an angry looking Steve.

"Steve," she nodded cautiously.

"You don't have to act like everything's okay Natasha," he said looking at her with big sad eyes. She had to get out of there.

"I don't want to have this discussion," she muttered under her breath.

"You should have thought of that before you kissed Luke," he said through his teeth before adding "Are we dating Natasha?"

"Steve we've talked about this before I-"

"Yeah, you'll kiss other boys but not me," he interrupted his expression turning to that of disgust.

"Don't twist my words," she said walking over to the stairwell, she didn't want to be caught in a lift with him.

"You really are a slut," he said turning away to knock on Clint's door. Natasha smiled, they all thought they could break past her barrier with mean words and friendship. She walked down the stairs until she reached the bottom where she found a car waiting for her, they could all go in another one, she couldn't face any of them.

Once she was at school she walked up the familiar stone steps avoiding Pepper's judging stare. She guessed that none of the girls would want to talk to her now aside from Maria who had barely tolerated her that morning, she wasn't that concerned about them, she focused on everyone around her, looking for anyone suspicious. To her knowledge, she was good for now.

"All alone this morning princess," a familiar voice drawled from behind her, he was going to be trouble, a lot of trouble and she wasn't sure if she cared.

Thanks for reading and keep reviewing :)

- Anna