Forgotten Ghost | Natasha Romanoff

Chapter 40: Face To Face

The Winter Soldier was back. And this time, he wasn't working with her. He was there to kill her.

Sitwell got thrown into oncoming traffic, never to be seen again, which ruined their whole plan of getting into HQ unseen. But stopping the launch was currently the least of their problems. Because the man on the roof started shooting down, the bullets easily finding their way through the thin metal and into the car. 

Natasha climbed on Steve's lap in the front seat to avoid the bullets raining down on her. But Katya was way too enabled with her shoulder to do the same, so she rolled herself into a little ball and crammed herself into the space behind Sam's seat, which came with a lot of whimpers and pain-filled groans. 

The car came to a screeching halt when someone pulled the break handle and Katya could hear the soldier on the roof tumble off. She crawled out of her hole and stared in shock at the man she hadn't seen in years, but never forgot. 

His coldness, strength and danger made her more terrified of him than she had ever been of a person. Although it was questionable if you could even call this empty shell of a man in front of the car still a person. Whoever he once was, whoever he had been, had been pulled out of his body and destroyed. This was a soldier, a killer, nothing more and definitely nothing less.

It felt like the whole world stopped moving, frozen in time, as everyone in the car watched the Winter Soldier stand up from the asphalt, cars speeding past him. A mask covered the bottom half of his face and goggles his eyes. Long hair indicated that personal care was not of any importance to him.

''It's him.'' Katya's whisper sounded loud in the silent car.

Natasha was the first one to snap out of the trance. She pointed her gun at him and was ready to shoot when a big car hit theirs from behind, causing the weapon to fall from her hand. Everyone jolted to the front as they were pushed forwards, with Sam desperately trying to steer away but without any luck.

The Winter Soldier jumped back on the roof of their car as Sam stomped on the brakes and Natasha tried to find her gun which lay somewhere at Steve's feet. It was such chaos that Katya for once in her life didn't have a solution or a way out of this situation. That may also have something to do with the man on top of their car and the fact that she knew how powerful he was. 

Everything came rushing back the moment she saw his metal arm and the memories she had carefully stored away surfaced all at once. The mission she had done with the Winter Soldier had been a nasty one, full of bloodshed and murder, the part she hated about herself the most. 

Katya tried desperately to shake it all off and focus on the threat in the present when a loud smash pulled her out of her head. The metal fist had punched through the windscreen and grabbed the steering wheel. With one big pull, it came free from the car and was thrown out in a similar fashion Sitwell was earlier. 

''Shit!'' Sam yelled loudly as he felt the wheel slip from his hands. Now they were truly done for. Without a way to steer the car, there was no other option than to leave the vehicle and Katya could already feel the bruises and cuts that would come with that. 

Natasha started shooting at the roof, but the Winter Soldier had already jumped off, on the car behind them. Without any way to steer the car, it dangerously swerved from left to right on the highway. To make things worse, the HYDRA car behind them drove into the car from behind again, which caused it to hit the crash barrier. 

Katya could feel the vehicle was about to topple over, so when Steve grabbed his shield and pulled Sam and Natasha closer to him, she wasted no time in jumping forwards and grabbing Sam's shoulders. Whatever Steve was planning, it was a way out of this death box. And after all the missions she had done with Steve and all the times he had had her back, she trusted him enough to get them out of there safely.