Chapter 25
"Alexei…" Bucky continued "he's very obsessed about Natalia. He always has been. He…" Bucky trailed off, the words weighed heavy on his tongue, he doesn't wanna say it, he relived the memories of how awful and violent he is as a person. "um… he abused her physically and sexually."
Those words were like a sword to Steve's heart. He felt numb, a million things running through his head. He felt sick. His girlfriend was abducted by the man who has abused her. He wanted to cry, to scream, to punch someone. He was angry at himself.
A deafening silence fell upon the room.
"I always wanted to protect her from him, but all they have to do is to fuck up my brain, and I'm out of it." Bucky sighed, painful memories came rushing back.
"Barnes…" Fury called his attention. " is it possible that he got a shot of the super soldier serum?"
"You all know that HYDRA made those, too. The Red Room wanted some for themselves, but HYDRA won't let it happen, they just gave them the lesser version of the super soldier serum. They tested it on the girls, but many didn't take it well and died, until Talia, she was the only one who took the serum well and responded positively."
This didn't surprise everyone except for Sam who is the only one to hear that Nat has a super soldier serum running through her veins, which, he deemed, made more sense now, coz of her stamina, reflexes, strength, agility, and many more. He wonders how the rest of the team would react to this, especially Stark.
"That's where I came in, HYDRA sent me to train her." Bucky continued, enlightening Steve where and when they met. "Apparently, Alexei also injected himself with that version of the serum."
"After HYDRA and Red Room discovered my relationship with Talia, they took me away, I've never heard anything about him until now."
After that, they planned about their search for Natasha, which was maddening because they didn't have a clue on where to start.
Fury called it a day, after almost two hours of brainstorming, and still ended up with nothing.
"So, we're just supposed to sit here and do nothing while Nat is in hell with a man she despises?" Steve said, stopping Fury from walking out on them.
Fury turned back.
"No. I'm asking you to gather yourselves up, take a rest. What good will it do if we stay and continue planning while we still couldn't get to wrap our heads around what we just discovered?"
Steve just sighed. He knows Fury is right, but it was his guilt talking.
The man turned on his heel and continued talking. "Rest and meet me at SHIELD tomorrow at 9."
Hill followed him.
Steve felt like he needed a drink, though he knows he couldn't get drunk, still, he needs one, he went to the kitchen and got a bottle of vodka, the smell of which he had gotten a liking to, since Nat drinks it so much.
He opened the bottle and gulped down almost half of it.
"She really has rubbed off on you."
He saw Clint approaching him on the kitchen counter.
Steve just shrugged.
"Steve… I just want to say…" Clint started.
"Don't." he stopped the man from apologizing. "I understand, Clint."
"Still, I was irrational."
"I get it, Clint. You don't need to apologize." Steve assured him, patting his shoulder.
"We're good?"
"We're good."
Steve got Clint his own bottle of vodka.
Both men settled in silence drinking down vodka, along with their pain for Nat's absence.
Talinn, Estonia
Natasha blinked a few times, her vision getting clearer and clearer. She saw a man, walking towards her. Suddenly, everything came crushing back to her
Poker
Clint
Fighting
Alexei
She immediately became alert and was about to get into her fighting stance, that was when she realized her hands were chained up.
As her vision of Alexei became clearer, horrors of her past came rushing back like a flood.
She felt defenseless, it frustrated her.
"Natalia." he said in a voice that made the hairs at the back of her stand.
"Get away from me." her voice shaking lightly, God knows how much she wants to strangle him to death right now.
He chuckled.
"I looked for you after you turned your back on the KGB, I waited for years to find a lead on you, and finally, Budapest!" he said, his Russian accent slipping on.
Budapest
"Agent Barton, do you have eyes on her?" Clint heard Fury on his comms, which he really wants to take off right now. Fury has been very annoying on repeating to him that he has to take Romanova out. They have been looking for her for years after news broke out that she went rogue from the KGB. And after years of waiting, they had intel, she is going to be at a party in Budapest to take out David Chenkov, an arms dealer that is high on SHIELD's list of wanted persons. Why she wanted the man dead, they didn't know, Fury's goal was to hit two birds in one stone. So he assigned Barton to the assignment.
"Yes. I'm gonna approach her. I'll turn off my comms."
"Don't you dare, motherfu-" he didn't let him finish.
Clint made his way towards a black haired woman wearing a blue satin dress. She's beautiful, Clint admitted to himself the moment he spotted her, pictures didn't do justice to her beauty and elegance.
She was about to take a glass of drink from the waiter passing by, but he swiftly took her hand and led to her the dance floor.
"I was getting worried you'd never approach." she greeted him coolly.
It took him aback.
"Oh come on, you Americans are never good at espionage, I can spot you from a mile away." She said, rolling her eyes.
Clint chuckled.
"Well, if you've spotted me earlier, why hadn't you done something?"
"With all due respect, I didn't come here for you."
"Chenkov."
She didn't make a comment on that.
" So, CIA?" she diverted the conversation.
He shook his head.
"You here to take me out, or squeeze any information out of me and then get rid of me afterwards?"
It was blunt and he felt bad for her, a lot of government agencies from different countries must have been hunting her down. He knows that emotions and sympathy should be set aside on a mission, but he somehow connected to her.
"No. I'm here to offer you a chance to switch sides." Fury will definitely kill him.
"And why should I trust you?"
"I should've made an attempt to kill you, not talking to you."
"No, thanks." she replied. "I'm better off on my own."
"I've had had you within my grasp for quite a while now, Bolivia, Sudan, Cairo, Vietnam, Bulgaria… I could have had made my attempt to kill you then, but I didn't… I just never reported it back to my superiors, because I know you're lost, and believe it or not, I know what it's like, just… let me help you. We could use someone like you, Romanoff."
"It's Romanova." she corrected him.
"I know, but Romanoff sounds better on you, don't you think?"
She was about to respond when Natalia saw Alexei approaching, holding out a gun towards them. She knows he won't kill her, so he must be aiming to shoot the agent she was dancing with. She didn't know why, but she suddenly wanted to protect the man who was obviously sent to kill her, she slowly reached to the slit of her gown and got the syringe of sedative out and injected it on the man she was dancing with.
Alexei fired the gun, she pushed the man down who is now unconscious, and she went on fighting a couple of Alexei's men. Guests panicked, screaming and finding their way out of the place.
She took them down, but more came, and one of them had managed to stab her inner thigh. She was bleeding ridiculously. She was sure Alexei would get her. But a sound of helicopter landing made Alexei and his men go away.
A man with an eyepatch approached her.
He looked at the man she was dancing with earlier, now, on the floor, completely out of it.
"He's fine, I just sedated him." she informed him.
That made Fury rethink his decision to take her out right then, he needed to subject her to interrogation.
"You'll come with us, Romanova.." The one-eyed man ordered.
She doesn't know, but this feels liberating, she knows she will be held captive, but she feels like something will change, a good change.
So she smiled, which Fury found odd.
"Actually, it's Romanoff now."
They both stared at the man lying on the floor.
"Oh Barton will never hear the end of this." He muttered under his breath.
"I looked for you after you turned your back on the KGB, I waited for years to find a lead on you, and finally, Budapest!" he said, his Russian accent slipping on. "If SHIELD hadn't interfered, I would have had you back then. For years, I have waited to strike again, but the precious Avengers were always around, now… I finally got you."
Natasha spit on him.
"You haven't changed one bit." he said, wiping the spit of his chin.
"You never had me. You never will!" she yelled, furious.
"Oh. We'll see about that."
He grinned.
A/N: ooookaaaaaay, that's my version of what happened in Budapest. Lol. Anyways, tell me what you think.