Natasha had to admit, it was lonely flying in her new jet by herself. She was used to isolation all her life but since having Darcy room with her, she kind of missed having a human presence. She was sure that Tony had located his jet that she had stolen by now, but she was already hours away from dumping it and stealing a new one.
Finding that private airport had been a lifesaver. Tony's jet didn't even have a full tank of gas and she was in danger of running out of fuel. She landed it safely though and then dumped all of her electronic devices on the pilot's seat with a scribbled note that simply read 'sorry guys, I had to. Please don't follow me.' She grabbed her pack and then stole the fastest looking jet she could find
Russia was still just as cold as she remembered it. It was snowy, wet, and cold but it didn't bother Natasha all too much since she was always cold now. Dumping her jet in an open field, she grabbed her things and set out on foot for town. She knew she was close to the old Red Room base but she couldn't bring herself to visit it yet.
Trekking through the forest reminded her too much of the night she lost Ksenia. With those memories fresh in her mind, it felt like only a little while ago that it happened. Every pile of rocks she passed, every bare spot she saw, and every small cave she crossed she couldn't help but wonder if Ksenia could be in that spot. It would take a lifetime to search all of Russia to find her daughter so she knew it would be best to try and wait for Lady Sif, no matter how long that took. She only wished that Loki wasn't upset with her so that he could tell her, or even show her. Based on their last meeting though, she knew that it would mean trouble for her if she tried to get in touch with him. But if he was so mad at her, what was stopping him from finding her?
After hours of walking and reminiscing, she finally found a small town that was only a few miles from the Red Room. The town was a dump with not many people out and about, probably due to the weather or some other unforeseen danger she wasn't aware of yet. A small inn caught her attention so she went in to request a room. The old man at the shabby little desk never said a word, but instead took her money and thrusted the room key in her direction. He seemed annoyed to have being disturbed by the red head but Natasha was used to people like that. It took all of it in her not to smack him across the face but that could get her recognized and thrown out. And judging from the size of the town, this could be the only place she would be able to find.
She quickly found her room and was pleased to find that it was semi clean and spacious. It had two beds and a lumpy old couch that was a shade of sickly green. She threw her bag onto it and then fell back onto the bed, covering her face with her hands.
Now what do I do? She was freezing and tired. Deciding to go ahead and get some rest, she took a long shower and then went to bed. Sleep was hard to find as nightmares plagued her dreams. She felt even more tired when light peered in thought the window the next morning. She groaned and then rolled over for another few minutes. Those few minutes passed, and then a few hours. Natasha had fallen back asleep. This was something she hadn't done in years. When she woke back up, it was around noon. Freezing, she got another warm shower and then tried to think of something to do. She went through her bag and counted her weapons, cleaning them as she went. When she was done with that, boredom sunk in.
Not finding anything else to do in her room, she decided to explore the town. She pulled on her hat and wrapped her jacket back around her and headed into the cold. When she locked the door and turned to leave, she almost collided with a man in a dark hood. The man quickly hurried off and then disappeared around the corner. Brushing off the strange encounter, she continued on her path.
The town was actually a little bigger than she originally thought, but not by much. It did have another inn on the opposite side of the town and next to it was a little tavern. Pawn shops, grocery stores, computer repair shops, and small little eateries littered the streets along with some apartments. She steered clear of the alley ways, not looking for trouble in this unknown town.
Quickly becoming bored, she decided to visit the tavern down the street from where she was at. It seemed to be dubbed the bad side of town with graffiti and old broken down cars lining the streets. Well, all the town pretty much looked like this but it just felt like the bad part of town.
The tavern was pretty empty save for a group of old men sitting around a table. She picked a seat at the bar and ordered her favorite, straight vodka. She smiled as the drink burned going down though it only warmed her up slightly. All she wanted to do at that moment was get lost in the bottom of her glass but the conversation at the table of men caught her attention. They weren't exactly whispering but it was loud enough for her to hear them. They were talking about HYDRA. She quickly gathered that they were former HYDRA agents and they seemed to be reminiscing on 'the good ole' days' of terrorizing the world. Natasha stiffened when Red Room came up. They were talking about old legends of father Petrovich and what he used to do to those that disappointed him.
"Sir Petrovitch was a glorious man," she heard from one of the men. "He gave so many ideas to HYDRA that are still used to this day! I only wish I could have met him before that agent went rogue and took him out. Ungrateful little bitch."
Really? If only he knew what kind of horrors went on behind closed doors. Natasha tried to remain calm.
"Hey Viktor, I heard a rumor that the rogue agent was the Black Widow." The man called Viktor seemed to not agree with him.
"Maksim you idiot. How could it have been her? That would make her almost as old as us! The Black Widow now is too pretty to be an old woman"
Maksim didn't back down from the harshness of Viktor's tone. "You don't know the kinds of experiments Petrovitch put his followers through."
A third man from the table took Maksim's side. "Yeah, you've heard of Captain America I'm sure. He's not exactly young either."
Viktor glared at the man and then let out a hearty laugh. "You take me for a fool! I know that, but he was frozen, preserved if you will." His comment shut the third man up but Maksim continued his defense.
"His body preserved, yes, but his life force still lived due to that serum. Are you telling me that the frozen beings scientists dig up, say, a mammoth for example, that it would still be able to walk this earth today?
"Well, no." Natasha could just feel the wheels turning in his head trying to process the information. "So do you think she was given the same serum?"
Maksim beamed at his theory. "I do not know old friend."
The third man was now a little confused. "That is a very interesting theory. If the two women are indeed the same, then I would definitely not want to be in the same room as her"
"Sasha has a point there. All those years of experience...talk about deadly."
And deadly she was. Little did they know but she was the same woman who took out the Red Room and who was sitting there in the same room with them today.
As Natasha stared into her glass, frowning at how empty it was becoming, the door to the tavern swung open bringing in a freezing gust of air. A man in a dark hoodie walks in and sits a seat down from Natasha. She recognized him immediately as the man she almost collided with earlier. Sure it was a small town, but for him to end up in the same place as her, it made her wary. Ordering another drink while the conversations of the old men droned on, she noticed that the man ordered the same thing as her; another coincidence.
"I would swear on my life that they are one in the same," Maksim continued. The third man, Sasha was still unsure but Viktor still wasn't convinced.
"Wasn't that agents name Natalia though? Different names, different people." Viktor beamed at his revelation thinking that he had won the argument. Natalia couldn't help but to pick up bad vibes from the man at the bar as the old men talked. His knuckles were white as they gripped his glass. He was clearly pissed at something.
"Yes," Maksim agreed. "Romanova I believe, but think with me here. If you were a devoted follower, Petrovitch's top assassin, and you decided one day to kill him and take down the most influential organization of that time, wouldn't you want a new identity? To change your name and flee the country?"
Conversation stopped momentarily as the sound of shattered glass echoed through the air. Everyone glanced at the hooded man who had squeezed his glass a little too hard. Somewhat normal for a bar, the men picked back up on their conversation.
"Well yes I would, but..." Viktor was cut off again by Maksim.
"And her name, Natalia Romanova versus Natasha Romanoff. Very similar, and Romanoff is a Russian name.
"I've never thought about it that way. I'm still not convened though, and you're still an idiot." Sasha burst out laughing at Viktor's remark and the subject was then changed.
"Speaking of rogue agents," Sasha began, "I heard that the ghost took out one of the HYDRA bases up North last week. He leaked a bunch of files as well."
"Yeah I heard," Viktor responded with a grimace. "He is a pest that needs to eradicated."
Natasha took it that HYDRA did not very well like this ghost. She heard a small scoff from the hooded man. He was clearly listening in on the conversation as well.
"No one really knows where he is at the moment. He just slips in there a boom, takes us out. I don't know how he does it."
Viktor puffed out his chest in anger. "If I were a few years younger, I would find him and deal with that ungrateful brat."
Maksim took this moment to jump back into the conversation. "Like the Widow, I heard he was a top agent. What went wrong to make him defect?"
"No one knows. He will get what's coming to him and stop this vendetta."
The old men's conversation took a lull and the Maksim broke the silence. "I have to get going, the wife will be wondering where I've gone. Hail HYDRA."
"Hail HYDRA," the other two men said in unison.
When the group had left the tavern, a very angry Natasha ordered one last drink. She downed the whole thing in her fury and wished she could have taken the men out but she didn't want to blow her cover. A voice then pulled her from her anger.
"Old men and their stories." The man in the hoodie said to her in plain English. Okay, she thought, now I know he following me.
Playing along, she responded with "all stories had to have originated from somewhere. And speaking of stories, what's yours?" She tried her best to not make eye contact. If he knew who she was yet, he hadn't said anything. "And why are you following me?"
The man then looked up from under his hoodie, he was definitely American. There weren't many black Russians in this part of the globe. He then got up from his seat and threw back the rest of his glass. "I wouldn't know," he said, "apparently, I'm just a ghost." He then flashed her a smile and quickly headed for the door. Natasha put two and two together and chased him outside but he was gone. He was the man that the old geezers were talking about. But why was he here?
The clear full moon caught her eye as she retraced her steps back to the inn to get a good night's rest. She had been in that tavern for hours and didn't even feel buzzed. It was a beautiful night but she had so many things running through her head that she couldn't really enjoy it.
The sound of footsteps pulled her out of her thoughts as her body went on high alert. Someone was following her. Her bones ached for a good fight and she was ready. She didn't have to wait too much longer when she felt the wind rushing to her as an arm reached out. Instinctively dropping to the ground, she sent a spinning kick into her opponent, but they were ready. They blocked her leg to avoid the collision and she dodged a punch from the attacker. Natasha retracted her leg and dodged the punch to her face before sweeping their legs from beneath them.
The hooded attacker hit the frozen ground and Natasha got in a good kick to their side. She reached down to remove the hood but the attacker rolled away and popped up, sending another punch in Natasha's direction. Natasha grabbed the arm and spun the person around, wrenching the arm behind their back.
In one fluid motion, she reached into her boot for her knife and brought it down to the attackers heart.
"Whoa Whoa Whoa it's me Nat!" The knife had already penetrated the hoodie and just barely nicked the skin when Natasha realized who the voice belonged to.
"Darcy what the hell! I almost killed you!" She released the girl and they both watched as a single drop of blood slid from the knife onto the white snowy ground.
"Whoa. Yeah bad idea on my part to try and get you." Darcy gulped as Natasha wiped the blade on her boot and then slid it back in.
Natasha brought her hand to her forehead and sighed trying to calm herself down. "How did you get here?"
"That would be me," a third voice chimed in. Bobbi finally caught up to them after being ditched by Darcy. The two clearly weren't on the best terms at the moment.
Natasha looks at her and then turned back to Darcy. "I don't want you here Darcy. You shouldn't have come."
Darcy rolled her eyes, used to Natasha's attitudes, "Well it's nice to see you too. And before you say anything else, I don't care that 'it's too dangerous'. It's not your decision to keep me back so suck it up and deal."
Bobbi could see that Natasha was pissed and she still didn't completely trust her. She didn't know the whole Natalia saga but she could see when someone was about to lose control. "What the hell is your problem? Do you know how hard she tried to get here? To you? What is going on with you! Is it daddy issues?" she mocked.
That last comment hit a nerve in Natasha and it made her take an involuntary step back as memories slammed into her mind of Ivan, her "father", breaking the wall she tried so hard to put up. She wrapped her arms around her and then looked so lost. Darcy knew this look and took a step towards her red headed friend. Natasha put a hand up and in a shaky voice whispered "don't."
As she turned to walk away, Darcy could have sworn she saw a tear turn to solid ice before it even slid down her face. "Natasha don't..." but she was already walking away. Darcy then turned and glared at Bobbi before walking after Natasha.
"Was it something I said?" Bobbi asked herself. There was something seriously wrong happening and she had no clue as to what. If she was going to help them, she needed to know what was going on. Natasha Romanoff was one of the deadliest assassins in the world and for her to completely shut down and look that vulnerable... damn. She shook her head and then followed behind Darcy. What have you gotten yourself into this time Bobbi?