THE SHADOW OF THE FIRE

chapter 17

Kyla's pov
- we will be landing in 5 minutes, get ready girls.
Nat gets up at the sound of maria's voice and gestures for me to do the same. Maria gets up as well and they lead me to a wall, nat pressed a button and the wall opened to reveal all kinds of weapons.
- you can take what you need.
Nat handed me a pair of her widow's bites and i smiled appreciatingly.
- thanks.
I took two double sided knifes and a gun with a few spare bullets.
- let's go over the plan once again.

We had just landed, i put on my mask and maria gavs us the earpieces.
- careful, girls.
- don't worry, ria. Bye clint.
- don't die.
Clint replied in a serious tone, Nat just laughed. She seemed relaxed, at opposite, i was tense, i could feel the adrenaline running trough my veins. It had been a while from my last mission, and if this place wasn't really abandoned we would have to fight. What if they capture nat? What if she gets injured? I realized that i wasn't thinking how it could be a danger for me at all. All my troughts were about her. Fuck, stupid love.
- are you ready?
Her soft voice took me back to reality, together with her hand gently put on my biciep.
- i will never be.
She smiled.

2002, red room
- kyla, are you ready?
We were about to go to our second mission together. We didn't know it at the time but it was going to be a blood bath, four widows killed, others deeply injured, including nat.
- i will never be.
From that day, every time she would ask me if i was ready for a mission i would reply like that, because it was the truth. I always hated going on missions, because it meant hurting people. I have killed people, but i have always hated it, hated myself for doing what i did.

We walked for a bit in the woods, it was late in the night, so it was really dark. You couldn't even see the moon because there were clouds. We decided to streak at night, so there was a smaller possibility of being spotted. Nat was walking behind me, i could hear her footsteps and her breathing.
- kyla, we should be there in 200 meters.
- ok.
I could hear maria's voice in my ear telling me the distance from the building. When we were there i could see the building better, because the moon was out of the clouds. It was exactly how i remembered it. I froze and nat bumped into me. We fell to the ground and she was already pointing her widow bite at me. When she realized it was me she huffed and rolled her eyes.
- i'm sorry.
- don't worry, kyla.
I helped her get up.
- are you ok? Why did you stop?
- i... I just...
- ok, i understand.
She took my hand and gave it a sqeeze.
- let's go.
We entred from a window and i put on my glasses. The Red Room had made them with a thermo-scanner and nocturnal vision. We were in a room with white walls and a few metal beds without mattrasses. It was dirty and seemed abandoned. I opened the door and i was in a corridor. It looked similar to the room, white walls and ceiling, black floor. Wooden doors were at the sides, behind the doors there were similars rooms. The doors were broken or rotten. Nothing had changed. I stopped in front of a room with a metal door, engraved in it you could read "gefährliche Menschen" (dangerous people). Here they kept the people with genetics mutations, like me. I opened the door. In this room there weren't beds, just small blankets and handcuffs with chains that were attached at the wall. Nat entred the room after checking all the other rooms on this floor.
- all clear, hill.
She then turned to me and asked softly
- is this where you grew up?
- yeah.
- it is horrible. Were there other people?
- yes. But they didn't make it trough the training. Another girl made it, and tried to escape. They killed her. Ours was a parallel project to the winter soldier one. We were people with a genetic mutation, they searched for us in all europe.
- were you taken from your family?
- no. But now we should go, we wasted enough time.
I started walking out, nat behind me.
- now we take a look at the ground floor, and then the basement, right?
- yeah.
We walked down the stairs, all was exactly how i remembered. The ground floor was clear, there were control rooms with 40' tecnology, some bedrooms for the soldiers. Now the basement. There were two floors, the first of labs and training rooms, the second was where they tortured and killed.
We went down another stair and we arrived in a thin corridor with metal doors. I knew that the ones on the right were labs and the ones on the left were training rooms. I had one just for myself, it was fireproof. Nat started to look at all the training rooms and i looked in the labs. I felt shivers run down my spine seeing all the objects, a lot of them still staines with dried blood.
- kyla... Come here.
Nat's tone was strange. I had never heard her taling like that. She sounded scared, but also disgusted. I run to where she was and i understood why she sounded like that. On the door there was written "shadow" and the inside was horrible. There were targets, punching bags with blood stains, weights. I saw nat looking at the floor. There were traces of blood on the floor. My blood.
- let's go, nat. Nat?
She didn't move, so i gently took her hand. Her eyes were still fixated on the blood on the floor. I stepped in front of her and i placed a hand under her chin, making her look at me.
- nat... Are you ok?
She nodded.
- words, please.
- yes. I am ok.
She didn't sound sure but i let it go, for now.
- all clear here. Maria do you copy?
- yes. Now go. The archieve should be in the next floor.
We walked to the stairs again but i stopped her.
- this floor is painful. Please, don't open the doors. I will do it.
- kyla, you don't have to. I...
- i don't want you to see it. Please, do as i said.
- ok... Ok.
I smiled and i kissed her cheek. We went down the stairs hand in hand and this time you couldn't see the end of the corridor. There were cells on either side, i looked in them and they weren't used for a long time. When we reached the end we found the archieve. We took the files and we were about to go out when something catched my eye.
- hill, files retrieved, we are heading out.
- wait. That... It wasn't there... Nat... It wasn't there...
There was a door in one corner. It was way too modern to be from the war. My breathing was irregular, my heart was beating fast and i could feel the blood running trough my veins. Then i understood.
- natasha, when the red room was here... Did they use this place?
She widened her eyes and whispered
- they didn't, but i am not sure... We have to find out...
- yes we have to. Go out of here, nat.
- no. We are doing this together.
- ok.
I picked the lock of the door and there was another archieve. It was made not too many years ago.
- hill, we have a problem.
In that moment six soldiers opened another door and started to fire at us. Nat immediately fired back. I hesitated a second and i felt a sharp pain in my arm. I ingored it and i set myself on fire. It burned, like always. The soldiers were scared and stopped the fire. After i was done with them i stepped into the other room. It was a lab. It was empty. I turned to look at nat and she gave me a concerned look.
- your arm... You are bleeding.
- i know. And i don't care.
- well, i care. So we are going. We have the files.
- wait. I want to see what they have in here. It could be useful. It would make sense if they stored the informations here.
She sighed in defeat and nodded. She went to look at the archieve and i looked in the lab. I didn't find much, but nat found files on every widow from Austria.
- what if they have one in each state?
- we'll find out.
- kyla, let's go. You are bleeding all over the floor...
She was right. Blood was dripping from my arm, the bullet was still there and it hurt. My whole body burned and i was sure that i had burned myself using my powers. I was slightly light headed for the blood loss.
- yeah, let's go.
My earpiece was destroyed when i used my powers, but nat's was still ok.
- hill, we are heading out now. For real this time. Kyla's injured, a bullet in her arm. She says she's fine but she clearly isn't.
I didn't hear her response, but when we arrived at the jet maria was waiting with clint and as soon as we arrived clint took off.
- come on, kyla, i need to check your arm.
Maria took me to the med room and i took off my mask.
- i need to take off the whole suit because i can't just roll up the sleeve.
- ok. Do you want me to call nat?
- no need.
I started taking off my belt, the straps, the gloves, and i unzipped my suit. I had a sport bra and shorts on so it was ok. I kicked off my boots and i took off my suit completely. I sat on a chair and i let maria look over my wound.
- the bullet is still here, we need to take it out.
- ok. Do it.
- you'll need anestesia.
- no i don't. If you want i can take it out and you just stich it.
She smiled
- you can't take a bullet out of your arm... It would be painful and-
- done.
It hurt but after a few times you get used to it. Her mouth hung open and she was staring at me like i was a snake that was writing. I snapped my fingers in front of her face and she composed herself again. She stiched it up, i put on a t-shirt and went back in the other room.
- kyla, we talked and we decided to stay a day in an hotel.
- what? Why?
- k, you need to rest. Your blood pressure is low, you are pale. You lost too much blood.
- do i have a say in this?
- no.
Nat walked to me with a smirk. She took my arm and looked at my wound. I hissed in pain.
- shit sorry.
- don't worry.
We walked to the hotel, it was almost 7 am, i was tired, and so were the others. My left arm was on fire, not literally, but you know what i mean. We arrived at the reception and clint asked for four single bedrooms.
- i am sorry, but i only have two single rooms and a double one avaliable.
- we'll take that, thanks.
He gave us the keys and clint headed straight to his room.
- so, wo will stay alone?
- maria, i think you should. I just want to make sure that kyla is not doing stupid things while she's injured.
Maria smirked knowingly.
- that is the only reason, romanoff?
- yes. Kyla, are you ok with it?
- yeah, no problem.
And just like that maria went to her room, leaving me and nat alone.