Ready this time, Katya rolled directly underneath Aneszka's lunge, grabbing Aneszka's wrist right behind the gauntlet and using her momentum to flip her over, where she landed hard, on her back. Simultaneously, with her other hand, Katya'd grabbed her butterfly knife from her boot, pulling it out swiftly as she stood up from her roll, turning back to face Aneszka. She must have had the wind knocked out of her as it took her a moment to get up, but she did,what would still be considered immediately to an onlooker, whirling around to face Katya. Over Aneszka's shoulder, she could see Peter still webbing up and apologizing to tourists as he did so, which gave them a wide enough space to avoid casualties. Not that Katya wanted to turn this into a fight.
"Look at you, malenkiya, all grown up. I told you I'd kill you this time, defector-" Anezka sent a pulse of energy out of her widow's gauntlet which Katya was just able to dodge. She pulled her own sleeve down, exposing her bare wrist.
"I'm not here to fight, look!" She tugged down the other sleeve of her coat as well- she'd since pocketed the tracker, just in case. Aneszka raised an eyebrow, and Katya sheepishly realized that the hand she was currently holding up also held her knife. She'd only pulled it out out of habit, and she didn't want to completely disarm herself, but she reluctantly did so, dropping it on the ground and kicking it out of the way, where it skittered across the sidewalk, disappearing into the crowd. She muttered into her comms.
"I really like that knife, pauchok, if you happen to see it-"
"I'll grab it, copy."
"Then who are you talking to?" Aneszka snarled as they began to circle each other.
"Doctor Melina." She blurted the first name that came to her head, that Aneszka would probably still trust. Aneszka scoffed.
"Like you'd have a direct line to Dr. Melina." She lunged again, grabbing Katya's wrist and pulling downwards, forcing Katya's knees to hit the pavement painfully. She readjusted the grip on Aneszka's arm so she now had control of her forearm and pulled her down with her, rolling over immediately- before Aneszka even had time to fully fall- and straddling her , keeping her knees on Anezka's biceps and her hand on her head. Aneszka was still yelling something, and she could feel her wriggling underneath her- she wasn't going to be able to keep her down very long.
"Pauchok, get her legs!"
There was a whiplike crack and Katya could feel Aneska's limbs stop flailing, but she didn't wait to make sure before she shoved her hand into her coat pocket, slipped the serum from it's casing, and smashed the glass vial on the pavement directly next to Aneszka's face.
Aneska screeched like a wounded animal as red dust filled the air between them, but Katya could feel Aneszka's body slowly stop fighting her, so she rolled off, coughing.
She lay there next to her, both of them panting, as the dust settled. There was commotion still from the crowd, and Katya could vaguely hear Peter's voice calling back to civilians, but Katya was too focused on the blood rushing through her ears to understand any of it. .
Anezka coughed violently but didn't move to sit up yet, her eyes blank, staring straight up, pupils darting in everywhich direction-
Katya shifted a bit so she could grab Aneszka's outstretched hand. "Sestritchka?" Aneszka's hand squeezed her own, but she said nothing. Katya sat up, not letting go of her hand.
"Don't worry, there's a lot- look at all of the colors," she said, her voice soft, "they're christmas lights. It's a Christmas tree. Isn't it pretty?"
Aneszka still seemed too stunned to say anything but she nodded.
Katya smiled, pulling her up by the hand so they were both sitting. She reached forward to stroke the older girl's hair, who barely seemed to notice it- Katya didn't blame her, her entire brain was recalibrating. "You're in New York," she told her, " and you're safe. And you're free."