Red Room

RR24 Succumbed

Natalia was now on her own in this mission. James wouldn't help her, hell, he didn't even remember her. All she could do now would be to continue by herself. She made up her mind to go to Russia and find her old base before returning to New York to complete her mission. She was thinking that someone in the Red Room would contact her when it was all over. Being completely without intel on a mission was not new to her, but the fact that she had years of memory wiped made her confused. She needed some more information. If the base was indeed destroyed, maybe they put her name on the file as a red flag to investigate. Maybe they had left behind some information for her.

Could this be her final mission? She remembered Ivan talking about a successor after he leaves, is she going to be this successor if she completes this mission? She became giddy at the thought and started to formulate plans in her mind. She gathered supplies from around the town and used them to make traps around her room so that she could sleep without anyone catching her. James didn't seem too friendly towards her at the moment and she wouldn't put it past him to attack when her defenses were down.

Her dreams were plagued with nightmares. It was freezing cold, and her hands felt like ice. It was so white that she couldn't see anything. The wind was howling through the trees and she heard distant voices behind her, she was running from them. All she felt throughout her sleep was the bitter cold. She woke up physically freezing and even a shower couldn't warm her heart. She felt more rested, but her mind was even darker.

She fell back onto her bed after she changed and tried to work up the energy to get up and leave. She needed to make it to Russia soon, before the blizzards set in and made it even harder to navigate. A little later, Natalia disassembled the traps around her room and then left for the plane she came in on. She saw no more of James; he had probably moved on to the next town since his cover was blown.

XXXXXX

Back at the Avengers Tower, hours after Natalia had left, Loki apparated out of there and away from the team. He purposely waited so that he could give Natalia time to get away before the team figured anything out and went after her. She would have a few hours lead on them.

"What the hell Tony! I thought you had this lab locked down? How did he leave?" Clint was furious, as were the rest of the group.

Tony was looking flabbergasted. "I don't know! Something must have happened to the defenses!"

"Or maybe it was her..." Darcy said darkly.

"How could it be her?" Tony walked over to the computer and saw that they were the only souls in the building. "There's no way she could have gotten in, or out of here..." he trailed off as he looked at the air vent. "Shit."

Clint rushed a chair over and sat it underneath the vent. He popped open the screen and cursed to himself when he saw blood. He grabbed on to the sides and hoisted himself up into the vent to have a look around. He followed the trail and noticed that part of the wall was down where Natalia had disabled the wall with some hacking technology. He should have known that Natasha had it stashed up here for when they spied and played pranks on Tony. His hand landed on something small and metal when he went to turn back. He picked it up to discover it was a bullet. He found two more and held them in his hand as he made his way back to the team. Tony moved as Clint dropped from the vent.

"Damn it," was all Tony said as Clint showed him the bullets.

"She was here, but why didn't she do anything?" Darcy was concerned but not afraid.

Steve chipped in with "maybe she didn't want to try and take us all on while she was injured."

"My brother most likely sensed this and left as soon as he could. He is probably with her now. Not to worry though my friends, I do not think he wishes to harm her." Thor didn't seem too worried, but he was secretly hoping that this was the case.