Red Room

RR20 - Danger

"Good job, where is he?" Natalia was overjoyed to have finally gotten closer to finding James. She needed him to answer so many questions. She watched as Skye pulled up the location.

"Kazakhstan."

"Shoot me the coordinates." With that, she left the room and headed to her own. She was ready to go. She passed Darcy on the way and gave her the heads up. Darcy looked sad at having to leave so soon but she knew not to question the red head. Before she even got to her room, she knew Skye was following her, but she continued on. When she slid open the door, Skye rushed in after her and closed it.

"What are you doing Skye?" she asked as she started throwing her stuff into her pack.

"I want to go with you. You might need me over there. I'm a trained agent. Please!"

Natalia didn't even have to think about her answer. "No. Thank you for all of your help, but I have Darcy to help with anything. It's too dangerous, and you aren't even supposed to know about it anyways."

"Natasha, think about it. Is Darcy anywhere as good as me? If she was, I'm sure you would have asked her to find The Winter Soldier."

"I said no, Skye." She shot the young girl a death glare that shut her up.

Skye rolled her eyes at the assassin, accepting defeat. "Fine, but take this." She handed Natalia her handheld. "It's got a bunch of encryption codes and some of my own algorithms to throw off any HYDRA agent."

Natalia was pleased, she could use it to keep SHIELD or the Avengers off her trail. She didn't care about HYDRA.

"Thanks." She threw it into her pack and turned to leave, Skye still following. She headed to the ramp to wait for Darcy. The other agents on board sensed that The Black Widow was leaving and came to say their goodbyes. After a few handshakes and good wishes, Darcy finally made it to the ramp, followed by Agent Simmons. Natalia could see that the young doctor was still nervous around her. Darcy said her goodbyes and they both thanked the group for their hospitality. She shot a wink at Skye and then walked to a waiting car.

May had a car waiting for them that they used to drive to the airport and they arrived with no complications. Natalia was sad that she had to leave her newfound weapons behind, but knew she could get more. She was more deadly with her hands anyways. She left Darcy waiting at a chair as she went to order tickets. She was dismayed at the long line, and then again when she learned that they had to catch a connecting flight later on. She was eager to get to Kazakhstan before James left again. She knew his constant changing of locations was to keep anyone from following, but she wasn't just anyone.

She walked back to where she left Darcy and found her missing. She shot her eyes around the room and sighed in relief when she saw the girl emerging from the bathrooms.

"Got the tickets, we leave in an hour." Darcy just nodded. Natalia narrowed her eyes as the girl sat back down, not making eye contact with her. She wasn't acting herself.

Natalia dropped her bag to the floor and sat beside the girl, placing her hand on her shoulder. Darcy visibly jumped, and Natalia snatched her hand back.

"Darce, I'm sorry, flashback?" she asked the girl.

"Umm yea, sorry, you just caught me by surprise. I'm gonna go grab some coffee." Darcy jumped up and headed in the direction of the nearby Starbucks. Natalia brushed off her weird behavior.

40 Minutes Earlier

Darcy watched as Natalia went to get the tickets, and then quickly became bored. She decided she would try and get a hold of Jane so she walked over to some payphones. She put her money in and dialed the familiar number. Her heart sank as it went straight to voicemail. Not giving up, she dialed Clint's, then Tony's, then Steve's, all going straight to voicemail. Noting the weirdness of every single one not working, she dialed the Avengers Tower main line, and found that it wasn't in service. She even tried the lobby. This was just too weird. She tried all the numbers she knew, and none worked.