"You and the Asset shall fight. One of you will die. That is your punishment for failing in your duties." James nodded as if it was a reasonable punishment but Natasha was horrified. He didn't remember, but she did. She couldn't kill him. She wouldn't kill him, but she didn't want to die either.
As she stepped into the cage and the bars were drawn behind her, she wiped her sweaty palms on the side of her suit. She was nervous, he was not. Someone clanged the bars and they took it as their cue to fight. They were trapped, like animals, Natasha thought bitterly.
He made the first move, springing towards her and throwing a powerful fist at her head. She felt the wind of it as she ducked to the side and managed a kick to his ribs. He stepped back slightly and they began circling. She kept a wary eye on his metal arm but an even warier one on his real arm. She remembered way back when they used to train together, that he would often use the distraction of his metal arm to deliver the fatal blows with his flesh one. It worked many times.
The bars clanged again and so she jumped forward, using his crouched leg as a spring board up onto his shoulders. She hoisted herself up and sat on him, her thighs wrapped tightly around his neck. She twisted her fingers into his hair to steady herself whilst he tried to frantically throw her off. Pierce watched impressed whilst she rode him like a bull, holding on for dear life as he charged backwards and slammed her into the bars.
She cried out, but held on. Eventually he became smart and used his metal arm to bruise her leg. She shifted at the sudden pressure and he used it as an opening to flip her over. She hit the ground hard on her back and gasped as the air was knocked out of her. She rolled to the side as a metal fist cracked the concrete where her head had been not moments before. She raised herself to her knees before blocking a booted foot and rolling again to the side. He followed her, stomping desperately at where her head or vital organs would be but she kept moving away.
Finally she had nowhere to go and he lifted her up by the lapels of her suit. His metal arm closed around her throat and she kicked out at him wildly. In response he slammed her hard against the metal and her head bounced forward, her teeth sinking into her tongue. Hot blood filled her mouth and she spat it into his face. He flinched away and she used his moment of weakness to wrap her legs around his flesh arm and constrict with all her might. She was cutting off the circulation in his arm and he had to let go of her throat just so he could pry her off.
She flew like a kicked puppy into the other corner and staggered to her feet, using the cage behind her for support. Her hair had come free and was sticking to her temples and neck. She was sweaty and bloody and on the edge of just giving up. Pierce noticed and signalled for the soldier to stand down. He did so hesitantly. "Everything ok agent Romanova?" She ground her teeth.
"Just peachy." He nodded and then looked to the soldier.
"Good. Then finish her off." He turned on his heel and left, closely followed by the remaining Hydra personnel. Natasha waited fearfully as the soldier assessed her. He was going to drag it out, she'd made him bleed and no one, I repeat no one, made the soldier bleed without consequence. His eyes were alight with something akin to savage pleasure and she pressed herself into the bars behind her, at least there was some sort of emotion in him.
"I would say you know me, but I know you don't remember. I was there." He twitched.
"I don't know you."
"Not anymore you don't." She'd accepted by now that her James was gone and that she was going to die by the hands of the monster that lived within him. "But you did."
He sprang at her, delivering a solid blow to her jaw which dislocated. She slammed her palm into his nose before wrenching her jaw back into place. She rubbed it tenderly before a blinding kick to the kidneys had her on her knees, pain shooting up and down her spine. She groaned as something cracked and she fell forward.
He used the edge of his boot to turn her over, now she lay dazed and in pain. She stared up at him with the bad lighting creating a fuzzy halo around his head. She laughed. He frowned in confusion. Normally people who were about to die didn't laugh, but she did. It was a nice sound, it brought a sense of peace to him. He shoved that aside, his mission was to kill her.
Her hair fanned out in a red wave beneath her. She stared up at him with big green eyes, their jade colour highlighted by her pale skin. She kept on staring at him and he was lying if he said it didn't unnerve him a little bit. She was searching for something. Her words came back to him and he became angry all over again. He couldn't remember her, couldn't remember the man on the helicarrier either, and it infuriated him. The only thing inside him was emptiness which he had to fill with something. Rage came most easily.
Something stirred in his eyes and Natasha allowed herself to feel a little bit of hope. That hope came crashing down though when he suddenly snapped and his metal hand curled into a fist and struck her hard. Her head cracked against the floor and spots danced in her vision. She moaned in pain and felt him hesitate. That hesitation was put aside as another blow split her lip and busted her nose. Another one pounded her and she felt the skin around her eye begin to swell up. He grasped her by the shoulders and lifted her up before slamming her back down.
He let the rage consume him. The only thing he knew, the only thing that was steady and solid, was that she was his mission. He told her that, screamed it at her as he threw her around like she was nothing more than a rag doll. She let it happen. She didn't fight back once. In fact, when he yanked her by the hair and dropped her to the floor she laughed. She actually laughed. It came out gurgled and half choked but it was a laugh. This woman infuriated him and she knew it.
Calmness overtook her as she hit the floor for one last time and his weight settled across her stomach. She peered up at him with barely open eyes, pain the only thing keeping her from succumbing to exhaustion. It had been a long day. He made sure she was watching as he curled his metal hand and raised it above his head, ready to strike the final blow. She wanted to say something, something that if James remembered would help ease the pain. The only thing she came up with was, "it's ok."
He stopped. Was this woman telling him it was ok to kill her? No begging, no pleading, simply telling him to do it? This woman was a puzzle he hated. "It's okay James. It's okay." She finally closed her eyes. A half strangled laugh came out of her but tears were slipping between the cracks of her eyelids. "It's ok. If you can hear me James, then know that I'm sorry. Sorry for putting you in this position. I shouldn't have been careless." He stared down in wonder at this red head. She was apologising?
"You probably won't remember this but I'm going to say it anyway, this isn't your fault, this is Hydra's. And baby, if you manage to break through then I give you full permission to blow this place to hell." She laughed slightly and he felt a tug in his chest. Her voice was no longer the hated snarl, but sweet and gentle. She was no longer a fire haired demon, but a red haired Angel. The name James caused something warm to bloom in his chest and he desperately tried to cling to it. A small crack had been created in his mind and he pushed it, hoping it would give way.
"Remember that the coldest nights bring the warmest hugs." She smiled faintly and the crack crew bigger. Images started to seep out. "You taught me that milli moi. You taught me a lot of things." She closed her eyes and sighed. "You taught me how to be human." She drifted off just as the phrase brought a name to his lips.
"Natalia."
With the name came images and with images came vivid memories. He stared down in horror at the mistake he'd made.
Hydra would have hell to pay.
Caged
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