Chapter 2

Natasha was shocked when she saw Ali standing near the doorway though she couldn't say that she was the last person she expected to see.

She automatically pulled her little girl in for a hug and Ali hugged her back tightly.

When Ali pulled away Natasha took the time to check her over and slightly smirked at the badly dyed red hair though managed to remain with an angry expression.

"Ali you shouldn't be here."

This lit a flame in Ali as her temper started to rise.

"Where should I be then if I shouldn't be with my mum? I get to see you once a year. Once a year! I can't do that. I can't only have one phone call a month and then spend the rest of that month wondering if you are dead. Since you have been away I have been training. I knew I wasn't ready but I am now. I can't keep living like how I was. I just can't."

Ali shook her head at Natasha while tears sprung into her eyes. The knife was still in her hand and when a person with blond hair who looked a little younger than Natasha stepped around the corner something stirred and a memory popped into Ali's head.

With out thinking Ali let go of Natasha and divided at the woman before grabbing her head and holding a knife to her neck.

The woman was so shocked at seeing Ali that she said nothing.

"Why do I remember you?!"

"That's impossible. You shouldn't be here. You shouldn't remember me. As far as everyone else knows you are dead."

Natasha managed to tear Ali away from the woman but it took a lot of effort and if Ali had tried to fight her then she wouldn't have managed it.

"What is going on!?"

She stayed between the two of them but was closer to Ali who now had angry tears rolling down her face.

"I remember her from before. From before everything in my life happened."

Natasha said nothing as she tried to think.

"What do you remember?"

The woman was now looking at her curiously.

"Your face nothing more."

"That's a good thing. You don't want to remember any more."

With that the woman moved into the kitchen and started to pack a bag which it seemed was what she had been doing before Ali had gotten there.

Ali made to follow her but Natasha put a hand over her heart to show that she trusted the woman before they both went into the kitchen.

"What is your name?"

"Yelena Belova. Was part of the red room and under a serum that controlled my mind. It made me do stuff that… Nothing apart from the antidote and you could ever break the serum. You were never a cure either just a treatment. As soon as they made me get rid of you I was once again completely under their influence."

Natasha now was now staring at Yelena with Ali standing slightly in front of her.

"What are you talking about."

"I have no time to explain after you brought the antidote back here."

"I killed the red room. I killed Dreykov."

Ali was still trying to process what Yelena had said. While Yelena continued to pack a bag and Natasha watched her.

"You saw his body?"

"There was no body. There were no remains. He was blown up."

"Natasha the red room is alive. It has been mind controlling people. Those people included me until I was given those serums that I sent to you and then you brought them back here!"

Natasha stepped forward and wrapped one arm around Ali's shoulder as she started angrily at Yelena.

"I was attacked and barely escaped with them."

Ali saw a picture on the table next to Yelena and moved towards it before swiping the picture and looking at it.

"Someone came after me not 30 minutes after I had found the serums."

"Taskmaster."

Yelena whispered it under her breath but everyone in the room heard her.

Natasha was just about to say something when a crash was heard from the other room and red lasers that were used in guns suddenly appeared.

Ali stuffed the picture that she had grabbed from the table and placed it into the pocket that she had placed her own photos into before both Yelena and herself made a dash for where her mother was as she was nearer the door.

Shots rang out and Ali could feel the bullet as they cut their way through the air. They were way to close for comfort.

The three of them dashed out of the kitchen and into the corridor after Natasha had made sure that Ali was with them.

They came across three other figure in the corridor and Ali quickly kicked one of them in the back of the leg which caused them to fall to the ground before turning and running out of the door.

Ali heard a set of explosions but didn't look back as she raced down the stairs. As soon as she had jumped down one flight shots rang out from beneath her and she stopped and took cover behind a pillar next to her mum and Yelena.

She watched as Yelena through what she need to be a small grenade down on those shooting bellow them before starting to race up the stairs.

"Yelena where are we heading!?"

"The west side of the building! I have a motorbike around there."

They continued to climb until they reached the roof. Ali just followed Yelena and her mum as they ran across roofs. She could feel that someone was chasing them from behind and so didn't slow down for a second.

Shots were still fired and almost all of them were to close for comfort.

As they reached the edge of the building Yelena grabbed onto a thick pole at the edge of the roof and started to push it.

Ali probably would have laughed at her if the situation had been different but instead she pulled out the bolt which was attaching it to the roof and pushed it away before jumping onto the pole.

She looked around to make sure that the three of them were still on the pole as it tipped over.

Ali looked down with horror to see her mum falling and the woman that had been in pursuit of them on the pavement below them.

"Mum!"

As soon as the pole had connected with the building and broken the window Ali rolled through it and ran down the stairs to the pavement below. She didn't even worry about the glass which she knew had cut her cheek.

When she reached the pavement she paused to watch as her mum bent over the woman lying there. The woman pressed something and Ali saw the light leave her eyes. It had been very clear to her though that that woman had not wanted to die.

Yelena had managed to catch up to Ali and was standing behind her with her backpack still on her back.

"Do you trust me now?"

Natasha nodded her head before taking one last look at the dead woman on the pavement and then walking over to them and grabbing Ali's hand.

"Ali if anything happens you are to go with Yelena. Okay? You do not wait for me or go back for me. Got it?"

Ali sighed but nodded her head knowing that the only way she would not be back on a plane in less than two hours would be if she agreed to this condition though she had no intention of following it.

Natasha then turned to Yelena after she had seen Ali nod her head.

"Yelena if anything happens…"

"I know."

Natasha nodded in Yelena's direction and they both started sprinting over to Yelena's motorbike.

Ali saw Yelena looking for her keys and silently laughed to herself before dangling them in front of her face. She had taken them from her just after the explosion since she knew that Yelena had the answers to her childhood.

Before Yelena could swipe them from her Ali quickly through them over her head and Natasha caught them in her hands before climbing onto the bike and putting them in the ignition.

"Ах, сука."

Ali laughed at that before climbing on behind her mum. A second later she felt Yelena get on behind her though the crash of a car as it landed on it's roof sounded right next to their ears and Natasha sped off.

A few backstreets later and the tank that had been following them was replaced with people in black on motorbikes.

Once the reached the main road Ali saw exactly what was going to happen just before it happened which was why she jumped off the motorbike just before it crashed into the wall as it managed to just about miss getting hit by a train.

She managed to roll gracefully across a moving car and land on her feet while she watched the other two have to pick themselves up off the ground.

Ali followed Yelena and watched her as she threatened a guy before stealing his car and getting into the passenger seat.

"You can't just steal a guys car!"

"What do you want me to hunt the guy down and instead it?"

Ali smiled slightly at the comment before climbing into the back of the car just as her mum strapped herself into the front.

They all heard the sound of cars being crushed and knew that the tank was back.

Natasha started trying to get out the the parking spot.

"Any day now…"

"Shut up! Ali get in the front and share Yelena's seatbelt I am not having you sit in the back!"

Ali sighed but crawled into the front and sat next to Yelena who undid her seatbelt so that she could pull it around the two of them.

After a few more crashes of cars from Natasha trying to get out of the parking space they were free and racing down the road.

Suddenly shots rang out and all of the glass windows shattered.

Ali ducked her head and covered it with her hands. When she lifted her head back up she felt some resistance but it soon vanished. She quickly realised that Yelena had used her hands and body to cover Ali as much as she could.

"There's a motorbike behind us. Not looking very friendly."

More shots rang out and smashed the windows.

"Definitely not friendly."

Yelena would have laughed at Ali's comments if the situation had been different.

"So have you got a plan or should we just stay duck and cover?"

"My plan was to drive us away…!"

"Well your plan sucks."

"Agreed."

Natasha glared at Ali when she heard her last comment. It was a side glare but would have left anyone other than Ali trembling in their boots.

Ali could see a plan formulating in Yelena's head and so grabbed the wheel from Natasha and quickly jerked it to the right.

The car spun so that they were now facing backwards and Yelena kicked the door off of the car.

They all watched as it hit the motorbike and the woman riding it rolled to the ground.

Natasha quickly righted the car so that they were now facing the right way round and glared at the road.

"Your welcome."

Ali and Yelena said it at the same time which made Natasha smirk. The two probably would have ended up high fiving if it weren't for Ali still feeling slightly uneasy about Yelena.

Yelena was from her past before everything went wrong so that meant that she could easily be the cause of everything that had happened. It would make sense, especially since she had said that she was from the red room. The only thing that was making Ali trust Yelena right now was her mum and the photos she had found on the table. It was very clear who they were of.

Their celebration didn't last long though as soon they heard the crash of cars behind them. Both Yelena and Ali turned their heads to see out of the back window and they both saw the tank.

"Oh shit. He's back."

Nobody said anything but Ali periodically looked out the back window as her mum started to drive faster down the road.

She was the only one to notice the bow.

"Mum, he's doing a Clint!"

Natasha glanced behind her through one of the mirrors and saw the bow and arrow that the taskmaster was holding in their hands.

"Yelena cover her and pull your seat belt tight!"

"Your so overprotective!"

"Your such a mum!"

They said it at the same time and both meant it as an insult but for a brief second Natasha felt good just hearing those comments.

Then everything tipped upside down and glass flew everywhere.

Natasha curled up into a ball to protect her face and Yelena curled herself around Ali.

For Ali everything seemed to happen in slow motion as she saw every shard of glass as it slowly moved through the air towards them.

A shard of glass was flying directly at Yelena's neck. Without even thinking Ali held her hand out in order to block it. She didn't think about catching it but knew she wouldn't have been able to anyways.

The pain was awful at first but her thoughts started to come back and she started to remember where she was.

Once the car had stopped rolling the deep cut on her left hand no longer seemed important. She didn't even try and remove the massive shard of glass that was still imbedded in it.

As soon as the car had stopped moving Ali immediately unclipped the seatbelt and took it off. As soon as she had done that she fell onto the roof of the car and Yelena fell beside her. She already had some cloth in her hand.

Natasha started to crawl out of the car and Ali followed suit completely forgetting about the deep cut in her hand as she put pressure on it as she crawled out of the car. This only pushed the shard of glass in deeper which caused the cut to become more severe and for blood to start dripping more forcefully from it.

She continued to ignore it though and counted herself lucky that her mum hadn't seen it.

Once Natasha was sure that Ali was out of the car she went to help Yelena who was struggling to get out.

"Natasha no. I'm bleeding."

Yelena went to wrap the cloth around her arm but Natasha grabbed her arm which forced her to look at her.

"No. Not now. Trust me."

With that Natasha helped Yelena stand before the three of them ran towards the escalators.

Instead of riding them down they slid down the middle. All three of them could feel that the taskmaster was behind them and also felt the wind as the shield came flying at them. That was why they all rolled onto the floor when they come to where the escalators ended.

They could hear the shrieks of people but didn't look back.

Natasha quickly lifted both Ali and Yelena into the vents of the subway before disappearing. She was gone for about 5 seconds before she pulled herself into the vents and quickly pleased the panel back in place behind her.

They watched as the taskmaster followed the trail of blood that Natasha had created and saw them disappear into the sewer beneath them.

All of them sighed in relief.