VENUS VADYAEVA. RED Room trained assassin, graduate of the Black Widow program. She'd nearly always been at the top of the class. Cold; smart; ruthless. The qualities that they were looking for. It'd taken a little while, but eventually, she'd gotte...
DESPITE HIS BETTER judgement, Clint found himself standing beside Fury as the two of them observed the screen that ran the feed from the camera in Natasha's room. Both of them were staring at the footage in complete surprise. The conversation that they had just watched, many parts of it hard to hear through the speaker, had garnered results that neither of them had expected. Fury had begun to battle with the pity that had begun to rise within him as he listened to the conversation. He wasn't entirely sure how he though it was going to go, but he knew it wasn't like this. As Natasha began to give a brief overview of her time with SHIELD, the two men turned to each other, wondering what to do now.
"I don't think we should've watched it," Clint admitted honestly, feeling invasive for listening to the two women talk while Fury still wondering how the blankest Agent he'd ever had had somehow wormed her way into one of the spaces in heart. He knew that if it were anyone else, he wouldn't be pitying them, but he had grown fond of her and the way she followed orders without questioning them, and the way she seemed to make Natasha so much brighter than she was normally. He knew that neither of those things came from a good place in Venus' past, but maybe they could contribute to a good place in her future.
Fury didn't say anything, though he tilted his head towards Clint in recognition as he went over what both the man had told him and what the two women had said in Natasha's room. It seemed that the Red Room, the place where both of them grew up, had wanted a stronger weapon after they could no longer have their infamous Black Widow, and had decided to change their best remaining operative, 'adapt' her, as Venus had put it. He didn't know quite how they had done it, but from what Clint had told him, they had given her the ability to essentially kill anyone her bare skin came into contact with, using some kind of poison or venom. It was a double-edged sword, and Fury was sure that there were many times that Venus wished that the ability hadn't been thrust upon her.
"What do you think she meant by 'conditioning'?" Clint asked a short, awkward silence in which he could practically hear cogs grinding in Fury's head, deciding to break the hush with another of the questions that had begun floating through his head. There were so many things that he was wondering about that it would probably be easier to go and ask Venus, but he was still slightly unnerved of her because of the recent discoveries.
"Nothing good. Probably something to try and get her in line," Fury complied to answer, his tone a little more curious than the last time Clint had heard him speak, which had simply been to comment on the silence that the two women had been sitting in, both of them barely moving. Clint didn't like the way that sounded. He had known that the Red Room was incredibly harsh and that Natasha had wanted nothing more to do with it the second she'd got out. It helped to explain Venus' unnerving blankness, knowing that she had been through even more than Natasha had in that place.
"We should probably interrupt, get Venus to tell us about her 'adaptations' herself," Fury suggested, though it was more of a command that they should do that now, before the two women caught onto the face that they were being watched. Neither of the men would've been particularly surprised to find out that one or both of the two in Natasha's room had known about the camera, but Fury would prefer to keep that information from them, on the off chance that they hadn't worked it out themselves.
And so, the two men found themselves marching through the metallic corridors of the Triskelion, on their way to stop a woman, who over the next year and a half became one of their best agents, from working out years of torment with her oldest friend, who might always have been something more.
NATASHA HAD SPENT the last twenty minutes explaining her more complicated life to Venus, though she was still trying not to familiarise herself too much with the other woman. She wished that they could go back to what they had been, but it didn't seem plausible. What they had been, it had been a defence mechanism. The two women had found shelter in each other when the Red Room became too much. But now, that threat wasn't there, and as far as Natasha could tell, Venus would rather be living as quiet a life as possible rather than working for SHIELD.
Venus hadn't chosen this, just like she hadn't chosen to be in the Red Room or become 'stronger in their eyes. Venus hadn't chosen to be in the KGB either, and for the past few months, Natasha had had a lingering feeling that her getting Fury to let Venus stay wasn't going to help any bond that she hoped might've held over the years. In fact, she felt that it was much more likely to damage any chance that remained.
"Why did you say no?" She asked after a few minutes of silence while both of them seemed to contemplate something in their minds. They were still standing side by side, shoulder to shoulder, with their eyes fixed on the old calendar that hung on Natasha's wall. It was painted a pale yellow, similar to the colour that the dorm room had been all those years ago, though those had been far dirtier and less welcoming. Venus didn't answer immediately, and Natasha decided to take a guess. It wasn't so hard, now that she knew what the Red Room had done to her once Natasha had left.
"Is it to do with your.. adaptations?" She asked carefully, phrasing it as Venus had, hoping not to say something wrong. This was a very awkward subject to talk about, and Natasha felt as if this was the closest she'd ever felt to a situation where the phrase 'walking on thin ice' could be used.
"Partly," Venus conceded, her face remaining almost unnervingly still as she spoke the single word. She assuredness that her reasons were valid had worn of very quickly after she'd made the decision, but no-one else had to know that.
"I didn't want to hurt you." The second sentence that Venus added was only a whisper, almost sounding like an afterthought, though she knew Natasha had heard it, because they both turned to face one another. A sort of understanding settled in the gaze between the two women, though their calm, complacent atmosphere was interrupted harshly as someone banged on the door, both women snapping into defensive mode. While Natasha relaxed at the sight of Fury and Clint, Venus remained tense, not sure what was to come.
{A/N:} This is a pretty shitty chapter, sorry about that xD. Anyway, pretty average update and all that. I have to go back to proper school on Wednesday and I'm not looking forwards to it. Anyway, I've got a few chapters of Trapdoor prewritten and ready to go up over the next few weeks and yh.
Pls vote, comment, let me know what you think, etc.,
1275 Words
Written: 08 / 03 / 2021
Published: 08 / 03 / 2021
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