40 : RED IN HER LEDGER**
"Surrender Avengers!" John Garrett said from his helicopter. "We will spare your lives. You are outnumbered"
"Never!" Steve replied
"Avengers do not surrender to you!" Thor boomed
"Okay, then" Garrett said "Kill them all"
Tony flew into the air and fired bullets from his shoulders armor. Thor summoned lighting and struck the tank and vehicle. Hulk just rampaged through everything. Steve did the covering for Hawkeye and Natasha.
"We can't hold them off all night, Cap" Clint shouted
"Where's the Bus team?"
"Twenty minutes out" Tony replied
"Don't think we have about twenty minutes guy, we barely have 5 minutes right now" Natasha chimed in
Many things could happen in that five minutes and everything could go wrong. Tony got knocked out of the sky but Hulk managed to catch him. Thor helped Falcon from the rockets that followed him behind. Captain America cannot control everything when nothing seemed to go according to his plan.
"Hulk! Thor! Take Tony, Clint and Sam out of here. Nat and I will hold them off for you"
Hulk grabbed Clint and Tony, while Thor flew away with unconscious Falcon. Every minute in the battle seemed to make the situation worse. Natasha got hit in the arm but there was still some luck for both of them. When a bomb exploded at the other side of the compound. Steve carried Natasha in his arms and ran into the jungle.
He ran as fast as he could so HYDRA couldn't follow them. He knew that they will hunt them both down but he had to take Natasha to the safest place he could find.
"Steve, put me down" She told
"No"
"Steve, I can walk"
"You are injured, Nat and we can move faster this way. HYDRA might be tracking us down right now"
Natasha knew he was worried so she let it slide this time. Steve was running with a speed that no one could follow them by now.
"Steve, slow down. They cannot follow us now"
"No, we are still in range"
"Steve, calm down. We are safe"
He stopped and took a look at her. She was fine except for a bleeding wound at her left arms. He gently put her down near a small waterway.
"Let me take a look at your wound"
"It's nothing"
"You are bleeding"
She stopped protesting and let him do whatever he wanted. She was too tired to argue with him anyway. He saw that the bullet was still in her arm. He used one of his belts and tied it above and below her wound to stop the bleeding.
"I will take you to the nearest town" He said "We should find at least a small village along this waterway" He picked her up in his arms "You take some rest. I will get you there in no time"
Steve began to run again. From his calculations, it must be almost two hours after they fled into the jungle. Natasha slowly began to fall asleep. Finally, Steve found a small village. He stealthily moved and found them a safe spot to get some rest. It was a barn at the skirt of the village.
Steve gently placed Natasha on the stack of hay. She stirred but he whispered sweet words to keep her asleep. He needed to find a medical kit but he could hear someone walking outside the barn.
He picked up his shield and readied for the attack.
The door opened and there was a man and a woman with guns in their hands, pointing at Steve. They must be the owners. Steve held his hands up.
"We just need a place to stay for the night" He spoke to them in Spanish "And she is injured"
They still didn't believe what Steve said so the Captain stepped aside and revealed his injured girlfriend.
"You are not one of those with the rebellion?" The man asked
"No, we are not"
"Good. Because if you are, I will shoot both of you"
"Sir, we are not. We are here to stop them"
"Camila, get the girl to our house" The man said to his wife
"Are you sure, Pedro? They might be one of them"
"He is Captain America"
The woman looked shocked but hurried in to help Steve with Natasha. The Captain said he could carry her so Camila led them back to her house with Pedro at the back to make sure no one see or follow them.
Camila took the bullet out of Natasha's arm and tended to her other wounds. The spy could barely open her eyes. Steve was there to hold her arms and tell her he was here for her.
"There could be a fever. She should rest for a day" Camila told
"We don't want to stay here for long. Someone might follow us and we will put you in danger" Steve replied "We will head out when the sunrises"
"Son, she's not in the condition to go anywhere" Pedro warned
"She is stronger than you know"
"And you are injured too. Let me take a look at them"
Steve let Camila take care of him. His eyes never left Natasha who was asleep. Pedro was telling him about the conflict with the rebellion and some weird mercenaries that terrorized the areas. Steve knew he was talking about HYDRA.
Pedro and Camila insisted that they should stay here until Natasha was fully recovered and they will send them into the city. Steve was worried that they might not have that much time.
"Do you have a communication device? Satellite phone?"
"Our village leader has one. I can try borrowed from him."
"You trust him?"
"I do not but he is the only chance you have" Pedro said "You should get some sleep too. I will borrow that phone for you in the morning"
"Thank you for everything, Pedro."
Steve didn't exactly get much sleep last night. He was worried and he wasn't fully trusting the strangers, he learned a very hard way not to trust anyone except from his closest of the closet friends.
He was laid in bed with Natasha in his arms and she started to stir.
"Steve…" She murmured and hugged him tightly
"Hey…beautiful" He greeted and kissed the top of her head
"How long did I sleep?"
"Eight hours"
"I shouldn't sleep that long. Did I have a fever or something?"
"No, maybe you just exhausted. You should be because yesterday battle was very hard"
Before they could say anything else, Camila brought them breakfast and Pedro informed them that he got the satellite phone.
Steve got out of bed and quickly dialed the number and didn't have to wait long.
"Who's is this?"
"Hand, this is Captain Rogers"
"Captain, where are you?" Hand asked "You've gone off grid for almost 16 hours"
"Romanoff and I are 20 miles north east from the compound" Steve quickly said "There will be a small village near by the waterway"
"Copy that, rescue team is on the way. Ironman and Thor are ahead of them. We will be there in 1 hour"
"You better hurry. HYDRA is still hunting us"
"Iron Man told me that you can activate the tracker embedded in your suit. It is hidden in your left shoulder so he can find your exact location"
"Copy that"
Steve hung up and handed the phone back to Pedro.
"Hope that nothing will happen in this one hour" Steve quietly said.
"You and Natasha should eat your breakfast first" Camila told
Steve did as she told and ate his breakfast. Natasha's wound was better than yesterday and she began to prepare herself. The couple checked themselves and thanked the married couple.
"Thanks for everything" Steve said to Pedro and Camila.
Natasha heard a helicopter noise from a far. She became on high alert as she anticipated the worse case scenario.
"Steve, we better move. We don't know if that is HYDRA or just the rebels. We don't want to risk their lives too".
Steve picked up his SHIELD but the sound from outside stopped the heroes before they opened the door.
"Captain America and Black Widow surrender yourselves before we destroy this entire village!"
"You don't need to…" Pedro said "They didn't know that you were here. You can sneak out at the back of the house"
"I cannot do that, Pedro" Steve replied "We cannot risk your life"
"Captain! This deal will end within 10 seconds"
"Nat, you stay here. Wait until our team comes. I will stall them"
"Steve, be careful"
"You know I will"
He gave her a quick kiss before he walked out the door. It was a HYDRA troop but he knew Garrett did send his full troops.
"Get on your knees, Captain!"
Steve did as they told him. He hoped that his team would come soon. Natasha called Hand again to inform that they were surrounded by HYDRA and had civilian in the area. Then she heard an AC/DC's song 'Shoot to Thrill' and she knew that Tony Stark has arrived and a thunderclap followed.
Natasha got Pedro and Camilla into safety. Clint joined her and gave her new weapons. Steve tasked them with handling the civilians while the rest tried to distract HYDRA from targeting civilians.
The fight was very intense. Bullets, rockets missiles, arrows, and lasers were everywhere. It was really hard even for the superheroes to identify and separate their enemy when adrenaline rushed in their veins.
Natasha and Clint were checking the last section of the village to make sure that there were no civilian left. Clint went on the roof to get a better view and cover for Natasha.
"Nat! Hostile on your right" Clint said. "Be careful, there are civilians"
She saw HYDRA agents coming her way and she engaged in the fight right away. She managed to take them down easily and out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a quick movement. The Black Widow whirled around and fired her pistol because that person was aiming a gun at her.
After another second, she realized that she hadn't shot a hostile but she shot a mother holding her baby. The bullet went through her body and into the baby. Right then, Natasha broke down.
And she thought that meet with James again brought back a lot of terrible memories but it couldn't compare to this one. This one single bullet straight through the heart of the woman holding gun to protect her baby.
And the bullet was sent straight through the mother and killed the baby. The innocent little baby. Another innocent life she added to her ledger that was already dripping red.
Dreykov's daughter, Hospital's fire, Sao Paulo, every innocent life that she took, it's all came back to her.
She almost lost it, if a warm, protective embrace didn't envelope her and pulled her closer, whispering to her ear, consoling her.
Natasha fell to her knees. Steve followed, not letting her go.
She just added another mark of red to her ledger.
AN:
- Thank you to my proofreader, RushmanNatalie!
- Please kindly leave a review!