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.
Just as her wounds started to ache more as the last of the drug wore off, she was blinded by light as what she had correctly guessed as a door was flung open. Standing in its light was a man who couldn't look happier at the sight before him. He reached over and flipped a switch, illuminating the room with a dull light. Natasha blinked the last of the pinpricks from her sensitive eyes as the man walked around her, as if inspecting every inch of her body. Whatever this man wanted, she wouldn't give him a thing.
"Do you know why you are here?" he asked from behind her hanging form.
She didn't answer, and this seemed to amuse the man as he huffed a small laugh. Natasha then flinched as pain tore through her back, but she refused to utter a sound. The man had pressed into either the bullet wound, or knife wound in her back.
"Ill ask again," he said, still behind her. "Do you...son of a bitch!" he yelled after being cut off from Natasha's headbutt. She had thrown her head back in an attempt of payback and was rewarded with the man's angry cursing. When he rounded on her to look her in the face, she couldn't help but smirk at the blood running from the man's nose.
He spit out the blood running into his mouth before giving her a well-deserved crack across her face. Her cheek and lip had been split open but that isn't what had bothered her, it was the look the man had in his eyes. It was so familiar, and it disturbed her in a way she couldn't quite describe.
"I knew you would recognize me," he said as he gingerly wiped the blood from her cheek with his thumb.
She lunged forward this time, trying to catch him again but he just simply took a step back out of her reach.
"Now that wasn't nice," he said.
Angry and confused, Natasha spat out a wad of blood before asking him what he wanted with her. The man looked amused by her question, but after waiting for so long for this moment, he seemed to want to drag it out as long as possible.
"Oh, my dear, there is so much I want from you, but before that, I need to gather some information. One thing I need to know first though, is how much do you know about the girl?"
The girl, Thea. What exactly did Echo want with a young girl? Could this have anything to do with the search for her long-lost daughter? It seemed impossible being that very few people even knew she existed, and even more impossible since she herself had only just been tipped off that Thea could be Ksenia.
She would just have to play dumb, she wouldn't give the girl up, even if she wasn't Ksenia. Not with an infant in play. "What girl?" she asked with a sparkle in her eye.
This made the man angry. He grabbed onto her injured shoulder and squeezed, reopening the bullet wound in hopes that the pain would make the red head talk. When Natasha barely even flinched, he realized he wouldn't get anywhere with torture, she was trained for it.
"Fine," he sighed as he gazed into her green eyes, "I realize that this isn't going to get us anywhere, but just as I have questions for you, I can guarantee that you are going to have many more for me."
That gaze... it was all too familiar and sent chills down her spine. She was almost sure she had never met this man before.
The man backed away and clasped his hands together before audibly sighing. "Look, you aren't going to get out of here so you might as well make yourself comfortable." He snapped his fingers and the chains disconnected themselves from the cuffs. Not being used to supporting her weight, she dropped to the floor into what she had first thought was a puddle of water, which ignited all of her injuries at once. When she tried pushing herself up, she realized that the puddle of water was actually her own blood. No wonder she was feeling so weak and lightheaded, she was slowly bleeding out as she hung there unconscious for so many hours. She looked up at the man who then bent to her level.
"Natasha, I have to find that girl. I've got to see if my hypothesis is correct, which I'm pretty sure it is. And no one is going to stand in my way, not even you." As he spoke, he pulled out a vile from his pocket which contained blood and inspected it.
"What do you want with me and my blood?" she asked weakly from her position on the floor. "Who are you?"
He smiled that familiar smile at her, "oh this isn't your blood," he said as he stood back up and reached back into his pocket and pulled out another vile. "This one is your blood."
"Then who..." she asked before a noise from the hallway caught her attention. She assumed it was guards, and they were dragging something. When they passed the doorway, everything clicked into place and she felt as if her entire body had become numb.
The man next to her laughed when he realized she was starting to figure it out. "Yes, Natasha, we know you had a daughter with the man they just drug down the hallway. Mr. Barnes seems to be playing dumb as well, either that or he just doesn't know. Either way, as soon as we have the girl in our custody, we will have our answer and Phase 3 of the Black Widow Program will start."
"No." Was all Natasha could say in her complete shock.
"Yes," the man said as he walked from the room and turned to look at her broken form. "Come on sister, look on the bright side, we can finally bond, that is after I finally break you. I still haven't forgiven you for murdering my father. And I really thought you would put up more of a fight." At that, he slammed the door shut with her yelling into the darkness.
"Yuri wait...!" The name had turned sour in her mouth. It was a name she knew and detested. She had tried finding him when she had first joined SHIELD, but every avenue was a dead end. She had always hoped he wouldn't follow in Ivan's footsteps but clearly, he had.
As Natasha tried to figure out how to get out of the mess she was in, Darcy, Bobbi, and Dove had all decided that they did indeed need help. They were just out of resources, and now they were out of time. Natasha had been taken and there was now an innocent child at play. They had no idea if Thea and the child had been taken or not, but it didn't matter, they were in danger.
Bobbi was able to get into contact with Skye and she had arranged for them to get a jet out of there. Instead of getting SHIELD's help, they were going to the Avengers for a very off the book rescue mission. That is if they can convince the team to help them after everything they had gone through with secrets and lies. They were going to go back to the tower, and they hoped that with all of Tony's technology, it would help them locate Natasha much sooner than if they had to wait in Russia to relay information back and forth.
The waiting jet was located at a private airport, and it was many hours away; but Skye was able to pay someone to drop it off close to their location, only about an hour away. It was a trek through the woods to the clearing it was waiting in and they were making good time. Only a few minutes from the jet though, Bobbi slowed her pace at the lead. Darcy suspected that the hit she took back in the motel room was bothering her, but the blonde's body language told her otherwise. She let her own senses roam and then got the feeling that they were being watched. Dove caught up to her and she saw that he was onto it as well and nodded to the left up a snowbank. Whoever it was, they were good, but they didn't want to lead them to the waiting jet. They would have to make some sort of move and take them out before they could attack first.
Getting an idea after Dove dropped further back to put distance between the unknown and his team, Darcy jogged up to Bobbi and tried to make some sort of scene, hoping that Dove would get the message and try coming up behind whoever was following alongside them. She hoped that whoever it was would be preoccupied at the scene and forget about Dove for a few moments.
"Bobbi! What did I tell you about pushing yourself! Did you not think I would see you struggling along like that?"
To be honest, Bobbi looked confused for a moment before catching on. "I'm fine Darcy, just a little winded. We need to get to the rendezvous."
"Bobbi wait, your bleeding," she lied loudly as if surprised. She prayed that whoever was following them couldn't see due to the black jacket Bobbi was wearing. Blood tended to blend into that color anyways.
As Bobbi tried to pull away from Darcy, she pretended to collapse onto her knee to which Darcy flew to the ground next to her in concern. Pretend pain was etched across her face as Bobbi gave a small cry.
Darcy pretended to tend to her fallen teammate until they heard grunts from up the snowbank. It had sounded like Dove and moments later, he appeared with their follower tightly in his grasp. He pushed they guy along until they stopped before the two women. He had his hands held up in surrender, but they couldn't see a face under the winter mask and bulky coat. Darcy saw the man glance to Bobbi in concern before realizing he had been tricked.
"Who are you?" Darcy asked.
The man fretted for a moment before a female voice came from behind the mask. "I need your help."
Recognizing the voice, Darcy stepped up and pulled the hood and mask off to reveal a very worried looking Thea before them. A small cry erupted from underneath the coat and the sound made Dove let go in surprise. Thea unzipped her coat slightly to reveal the baby beneath before zipping her back up. She assumed the shocked stares was because of the baby, not because of the lavender eyed woman before the group.
"Is Natasha with you?" Darcy asked before looking behind them for any sign of her mentor.
"No," she said, clearly sad. "Echo took her."
"Thea, right? What happened? Why come to us?" Bobbi asked as she seemed preoccupied with scanning their surroundings. Dove grabbed ahold of her again too, just to be safe. She had after all attacked them several times.
"Look, I'm not happy about it either, but Echo found me again and I barely escaped with my baby this time. I don't think they saw her and I want to keep it that way."
"What do they want with you?" Dove asked this time. Thea hesitated and then began surveying her surroundings as well in paranoia.
"I'm...different. They have been after me all of my life and I've been trying to stay off their radar. When I got back to the motel after Echo had arrived, I expected the worst. I thought they would have discovered Juliette and taken her, but that's not what happened. My dad has warned me for as long as I can remember, to stay away from Natasha Romanoff for reasons I can only imagine. He said she was dangerous and would come after me one day. I thought that was what happened when you guys hacked into my files, so I panicked and came after you guys to keep the information secret. Everything from that point tipped off Echo and they reactivated."
"That still doesn't explain things." Bobbi said, still scanning the forest.
"Look, when I got to the motel, they had Romanoff surrounded and I just kind of snapped. I didn't want anyone else hurt, so I took out the agents and that's when I discovered she had Juliette with her. I was so scared, I thought she was there to hurt her, but then I realized she had saved her and was trying to protect her. The way she looked at me after she called me... she called me..."
"Ksenia." Darcy finished after Thea composed herself. Bobbi and Dove snapped to attention and tuned in.
"Wait..." Dove started before Darcy put her hand up to silence him.
Thea scanned their reactions to the name and became even more frustrated. "Why does everyone but me know what that name means? Was that my name at one time?"
This time Darcy was confused. "At one time?"
"I've been around for... a while; kind of." She stated in embarrassment. "But what does it mean?"
"It means..." Darcy started before changing the subject. She wasn't sure if now was the time to let everyone in on the secret. "It means that we still don't know what happened to Natasha. Why do you trust us all of a sudden after being hell bent on taking us all out?"
Thea sighed. "She saved our lives. She was hit multiple times, but she still tried to protect us. After I got everyone down and after she called me by that name, she saw a threat behind me. One of the guys was getting up and he had a knife. There was this look in her eyes, it was...so fierce that I couldn't explain. She grabbed onto me and spun me around. She caught the blade into her back instead and went down. I killed the guy and I don't know, I was upset. It was this weird feeling, like some sort of a connection. Anyway, she told me to run, to get out of there with Juliette. It was so selfless, and I realized my father was wrong about her, my brother Luka too."
"Luka?!" Dove asked in bewilderment. "Luka is your brother?"
"Yes, adoptive brother anyways. Why?" When no one answered, she continued. No one was really sure what to do. "Look, I don't know why I came to you guys, but after what happened I feel like I can trust you. Why do I feel like I can trust you?"
No one knew what to say. Their mission was standing right in front of them, and she was beautiful, stunning eyes and all. There was no way Natasha would ever forgive them if they didn't at least try.
When Bobbi became distracted again and walked off from the group, Darcy knew something was wrong. "Bobbi what's wrong?"
"Thea," Bobbi began as she seemed to listen to the forest, "these snowbanks are pretty steep, how did you get from that side to this side so easily?"
Confused, Thea shrugged as she too began scanning the shadows. "I didn't, I stayed on this side where it was a little easier."
To everyone's surprise, Bobbi hurried back over to them and pushed Thea behind her towards the middle of the group. "It wasn't Thea I heard following us," she said. Realization dawned on the group and they took position around Thea and the baby. "I think Echo followed her."
She couldn't be closer to the truth. Within seconds, Echo agents dressed in snow white suits surrounded them. They counted a solid ten and hoped that was all.
"Hand over the girl," the lead guy demanded. "Hand her over and we will dispose of you quickly.
"Not a chance," Darcy growled. The men seemed to scoff at the small group, they knew their chances of taking them down were in their favor. Darcy on the other hand felt confident that they could get out of this situation with at least minimal damage. "I suggest you guys pack up and go home before you regret what is about to happen next," she threatened.
For a moment, the world seemed to stop before erupting into complete chaos. An unseen signal was given, and each Echo agent attacked in a single motion. Darcy became disoriented in the attack but after receiving a few blows she calmed herself and fought back while trying to avoid being shot. Using her electric chain, she was able to stun several of the men momentarily while she tried her hardest to take more out. She was able to glance around for a brief second and saw Dove a little further from her grappling with several men. Bobbi on the other hand was side by side Thea and was defending her as well as absorbing a lot of the blows to keep them away from the precious cargo beneath Thea's jacket. Even though Thea was being shielded for the most part, she was getting in some good hits as well.
Darcy's vision was then blocked by another agent who had a knife aimed straight at her. She dodged the blow but slipped before gaining her footing. The guy went down with her and straddled her midsection. It took all of her strength to hold the knife wielding arm away from her neck. The cold of the snow seeped into her clothes as the knife came closer and closer until it nicked at her porcelain skin.
Knowing that he was going to win, the man became cocky and threatened her. "Don't worry girl, we will take good care of your new little friend once we take her. And that baby she has...let's just say Yuri is going to be a very happy man."
Fear flooded Darcy's entire being. Not because she was about to die at the hands of this Echo agent, but at the realization that they now know about the daughter Thea has. Having no other option out of her predicament, she prepared to electrocute herself so that the contact with the man would taze him too. She only hoped that it wouldn't make her release the mans arm holding the knife, ending her life immediately.
Just as she was about to do it, the weight of the man was thrown off her and she quickly rolled to her feet. She looked over just in time for the snow to run red with blood as Dove used the man's own knife to end his life. Stunned in the chaos, she didn't see Bobbi running for her; she linked Darcy's arm with hers and violently pulled her along into a run for the jet. Darcy got her arm back as she ran and glanced over her shoulder. She saw Dove running after them with even more Echo agents on their tail. What she didn't see though was Thea running with them. Darcy almost stopped and turned back when she spotted her, surrounded by more Echo agents than she could count. There was no way they could get to her without being killed. Dove grabbed her then and pulled her along knowing that Darcy wanted to help Thea. She was positive she could hear Thea yelling for them to run, and it broke her heart. They had failed not only Thea, but Natasha as well.
When they finally reached the jet, Bobbi hit the pilots seat and fired it up. Moments after closing the door, they could hear the banging of the agents that were following them. As soon as the heat of the engine became too much, the men backed off and then they were in the air. No one spoke for a few minutes as they struggled to catch their breath. Stinging caught Darcy's attention when she realized her leg was bleeding. Doing a quick check, she found multiple lacerations, bumps and bruises from the intense fight, but she was fine over all. The exhaustion she felt though was overwhelming.
She looked over to Dove who was seated next to her and saw that he was fairing just as she was, cut and bruised. He gave her a reassuring smile before wincing at a cut on his lip.
"Bobbi how are you doing?" she asked loudly towards the pilot's seat. When she didn't get an answer, she got up in concern. Bobbi was in the thickest of the fighting, protecting Thea and Juliette from Echo trying to take them. When she reached her, she slipped slightly and looked down, discovering a small pool of blood that seemed to be growing.
"Bobbi you bitch, I told you to stop doing that!" she yelled causing Dove to hurry over. Bobbi was slowly drifting into unconsciousness until Dove pulled her from the seat and laid her on the ground with her back against the wall. Most of the blood was coming from her leg where it looked like she had been shot.
"Stop yelling, its not that bad," she slurred as she tried waving Dove off her. "Ahhh! Fuck you," she cursed at him as he wrapped a strip of cloth he had torn from his shirt around her thigh.
Her jacket had also become wet, and not just from the snow. "What else are you hiding," Darcy scolded as she unzipped the puffy jacket. "Okay that is a VERY good thing to hide," she stated in relief before switching back to worry, "and this is NOT a good thing to hide."
"I'm sorry," Bobbi panted as Darcy carefully removed what she was hiding. "It all happened so quick, there was too many of them and she just knew. She handed her over just seconds before there were more agents and then she was just gone."
"Its okay," Darcy soothed as she quickly looked over the baby that was hiding in Bobbi's jacket. Apart from her blankets being covered in blood, Juliette was unscathed and just beginning to cry after being taken from the warmth. She handed her over to Dove who looked more scared than ever at being handed a tiny baby. Darcy then began to apply pressure to the knife wound that had gone through Bobbi's shoulder as well as another gash across her side. Her previous injury was bleeding slightly but it looked better than anything else she had. "It's okay, you did the right thing or else you and the baby would have been taken as well." Her words fell on deaf ears as she realized Bobbi had passed out. Her injuries weren't great, but it was the blood loss that was the problem. Darcy got her patched up the best she could and then got Bobbi comfortable.
"Do you think we can all go 5 minutes without everything going to shit?" she asked Dove as the baby was thrust into her arms. "I don't know what to do with this!" she yelled as she awkwardly held the screaming baby.
"Well neither do I!" Dove yelled back as he stepped over Bobbi and took over in the pilot's seat. "Besides, do you know how to fly a plane?"
Darcy sneered at him as he glanced back at her with a smirk on his face. "I hate you," she mocked as she made herself comfortable on the floor to keep an eye on Bobbi. Color had started to seep back into the blonde's cheeks at being in the warmth of the cabin and having her bleeding stopped. She then focused her attention on trying to calm the baby who she now knew was called Juliette. The baby looked to be a few months old and Darcy could make out the pretty lavender eyes behind the tears. When she finally had her calmed down enough and back to sleep, Bobbi woke back up.
"You look miserable," the blonde remarked as she took in the picture of Darcy sitting as still as possible with the child in her arms.
"Oh yeah? Well you look like shit," Darcy replied in a whisper as she glared at her teammate. "What happened out there?"
Bobbi winced as she sat up a little straighter a reached for Darcy to hand her the baby.
"Are you sure?" Darcy asked as she gently handed her over.
"Yeah its fine, and she's not a bomb Darce, you don't have to handle her like one." She mocked with a light in her eyes.
Darcy laughed and then stretched her back, tense at being in the same position for so long. Juliette looked so natural sleeping in Bobbi's arms and if she had a camera, she would have taken a picture. "So," she asked again, "what happened out there?"
Bobbi became solemn. She was upset that Thea had been taken after she had tried so hard to keep her shielded. "We were doing...okay, for a while at least. They kept coming at her and it was hard to keep myself between them. Someone got in a good hit with a blade and I caught it to my shoulder. Eventually, more agents came out of nowhere. Once we had a small break, Thea unzipped her coat and handed me the kid before taking out a few of the guys. I put her in my jacket and then I lost Thea in the chaos."
Darcy leaned her head on her friend's uninjured shoulder and sighed. "Its not your fault. There were too many of them and we were caught off guard."
"I know," Bobbi groaned. "Maybe if I had figured it out sooner we could have all made it to the jet..."
"No," Darcy interrupted. "Do NOT blame yourself. It's no one's fault but Echo's."
"Maybe," Bobbi halfheartedly agreed. "After I lost her, I heard her yelling for me to run. I saw her then several yards off and I just knew I wouldn't be able to make it to her. She yelled at me again and I ran. I felt the shot to my thigh, but I kept going and grabbed you along the way. You know the rest, its kind of fuzzy for me."
"You keep getting yourself in these situations you know."
"Yeah," Bobbi agreed, "call me a martyr." She then glanced over to Dove in the pilot's seat. "You doing okay up there?" she asked.
"I'm fine," he replied. "You already had the coordinates put in, I'm just looking out for us in this weather. I think we are going straight through this storm."
"That I do know," Bobbi said in response before then glaring at Darcy. "What I don't know, Darcy, is why you were so cool when we discovered that Thea could very well be Ksenia."
Darcy's face paled which told Bobbi that she knew more than she was letting on. Darcy opened her mouth to deny it, but when Dove turned around with the same accusatory expression that Bobbi was showing, she crumbled. "Okay fine, Loki came to me earlier and told me some things, but I had to keep it a secret!"
"Why," the other two said in unison.
"Because..." she started, "because if Echo found out then they would have everything they would need to start it all over again. They would get it out of one of us, or Thea, who still doesn't know by the way and then we would all be screwed."
"Know what, exactly?" Dove asked.
Darcy sighed and then spilled everything in one long breath. " Loki came to me at the bar and told me that Thea IS Ksenia, and the leader of Echo is Yuri Petrovich who is trying to start the next Phase of Red Room and follow in his father's footsteps and he told me not to tell anyone because it could be dangerous and then he told me where to find her and that she had a daughter before leaving to help Thor somewhere."
All Bobbi and Dove could do was to stare at her in shock as the seriousness of the situation overtook them in waves. Bobbi hugged Juliette tighter as if she thought her embrace would protect her from everything going on. She then leaned her head against the wall and closed her eyes before telling them what they already knew. "We have got to find Natasha."