Red Room

RR 52 Run

Thea was almost in a state of shock after leaving Natasha behind. She had been warned all her life to stay away from her, but yet she had saved not only her life, but her daughters as well. It didn't take a second thought for Romanoff to grab her and spin herself in front of the oncoming knife. There was longing in the red heads eyes as she told Thea to run, to get as far away from the danger as possible.

She didn't know what to do; Echo had found her, and Luka was gone. Her thoughts wouldn't gather correctly as her instincts told her to keep going. As far as she knew, Juliette was still a secret, though Romanoff now knew. Romanoff... she was almost positive she was dead. She knew the Echo agents had reached her moments after she made her escape. And exactly how did Echo find her in the first place? All of these thoughts as well as a dozen more swirled through her mind as she tried to get to a new safehouse. From there, she would try and figure out her next step.

Back at the old motel, the chaos from the nights events had come to a close. In the midst of fighting the plethora of Echo agents, the assault seemed to suddenly halt. The remaining agents backed off and within moments all was quiet.

"Where the hell did they all go?" Dove called as he caught up with Bobbi and Darcy in the hallway to the room. Bobbi took off with Darcy hard on her heels before answering. "They must have gotten what they came for."

"Shit," Dove sighed as he caught back up to them, "they probably found the girl."

As they ran down the stairs to the ground floor, they prepared themselves to bolt to the car and try and meet up with Natasha, who had the baby. What they were met with though shocked them.

Dead agents were everywhere. The blood pooling around the room made them halt, something bad had happened. Dove and Bobbi immediately split off to try and picture what had happened, to see of Natasha had made it out okay. A few minutes of Darcy worrying passed before both Dove and Bobbi made it back to her side with sullen faces.

"They took her," Bobbi concluded. She didn't even have to say who before tears sprung into Darcy's eyes.

"What happened?" she asked.

Bobbi sighed before showing her. "She must have been met by the agents in the lobby. There are bullet holes in the wall behind us, and I think she got hit. See where the blood smears to behind the fountain?"

"She must have been trying to protect the baby," Darcy commented after composing herself.

Dove cocked his head in confusion. "What baby?"

Bobbi quickly explained as Darcy took in the scene in front of her, trying to see what Bobbi saw.

When Bobbi saw the focused look on Darcy's face, she continued. "Nat couldn't have taken all of these men out on her own. There are shell casings all around this room. I think she had backup, Thea maybe, coming back for the kid. And look here..." she said pointing to the bloody footprints leading from the fountain to a spot a few paces away, "she went down, and based on the pooling, it took her a minute to get up. She was leaned against the wall here, and after that I lost the trail until it picks back up here, where she was dragged away."

"But its not necessarily Nat that was dragged away, right?" Darcy asked hopefully.

The glance between Dove and Bobbi confirmed her thoughts, though Bobbi tried to remain hopeful for her. "Let's look around, I could be wrong, and Nat would be bound to meet back up with us here. If not...I think it would be a good time to call for backup."

Darcy knew Bobbi, and she knew she was right. She only hoped that Ksenia was still a secret, as well as Ksenia's daughter.

The mood of the team had darkened as well as the night. Many miles away and hours later, Natasha had begun to stir for the first time since she had been taken. Her temple burned as she tried to rub it, but it was in vain as she discovered her hands bound above her head and her feet barely above the floor. Her entire body ached as the drug she was given started to wear off, and she growled to herself in the dark room. Trying to piece together what had happened as the fuzziness left her mind, she came to the conclusion she was being held captive by Echo. Dread creeped into her heart when it all finally came rushing back, Thea could very well be Ksenia based on their last encounter. But how? She had mentioned Loki's name, could he be messing with her? So many thoughts swirled around in her mind as she tried to focus on how to get out of there. Her hands were chained with metal shackles too tightly to shake, and it was too dark to see a way out. There was no window, but she assumed that a door was directly in front of her based on the pinpricks of light coming from underneath it, which reflected oddly in a puddle of water right beneath her feet.