𝑩𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝑴𝒐𝒐𝒏 ✘ 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐀 𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐅𝐅

{2⁸} {DEAD!}

∆ {2⁸} {DEAD!} ∆

THE MIRROR SHATTERED.

Venus ignored the way that Natasha had instinctively levelled her gun at Venus' head, and the way that Clint's bow now rested in his hands rather than on his back. Instead, she watched the glass as it fell to the ground with an intensity that made each individual shard gleam under her golden gaze.

It was almost enthralling, the way it, and only it, seemed to fall apart in slow motion. The bullet had gone through first, punching a circular hole in the glass, before the cracks had extended outwards as the force of the shot seemed to catch up with the mirror. She watched carefully as the cracks wound and twisted, jerking in different directions every now and then until they reached the edge of the mirror, where the glass met its twisted, rusted frame. 

But then, the glass had almost burst. It had leapt away from the frame with such vigour that they shone with an alluring iridescence, one that brought Venus' mind back to only one place. That was the dance studio, the one only a few corridors away from here. The one with its worn, yet smooth and shining floors. The one with ghosts dancing so beautifully and precisely that it seemed that they feared failure as much as they did death. That was because both amounted to the same. Perhaps not anywhere else, but here? If you couldn't learn the desired discipline, then you would be unfit for missions, and then, whatever place in the world that one of the girls had never had would be taken from them. It was simple, it was effective, and it was terrifying in the most literal sense of the word that Venus had ever found. It was if an ice tore through your veins, so harshly that they ached, and a pain, a cry, desperate to be heard would claw up through your insides, shredding them to pieces until you finally gave in. But Venus never had. It didn't matter if she'd had no place in the world, because she'd been surviving. Living to see the light of another sunset, to have one more moment of silence where she would watch the stars and lose herself in the enrapturing music that had always seemed to fill that small room, with the redhead who'd always been top of her class.

Venus had been good, yes. She could dance, and far better than most of the other girls in their group, but when Natasha slipped on her shoes and lost herself in the nature of whatever music she found filling the room around her, it was as if she flew. She did everything exactly as it should've been done. Never had there been a tremor in her leg as she pirouetted, never even the slightest loss of balance in the middle of a routine. Natasha had been perfect in almost every way, but she'd had one issue. She'd cared too much. But, it was caring that had got her out of this place, while Venus - who at the time was still unapologetic about the idea of killing someone because they threatened her chances of survival - had stayed. It had taken Venus two years to realise that perhaps, Natasha had been right, and that she wasn't going to survive much longer if she continued living as she was.

Because Venus couldn't afford to speculate as if she was living life as she wanted to; she was too focused on staying alive, feeling heart pump her toxic blood over her body. Even now, when she resided among people who had shown her countless times that she should do nothing accept trust them, let them in, everything in her mind was screaming for her not to. Because it was wrong. She was not supposed to let people in; that was what she'd been told. Letting people in made her weak, and if there was one thing that Venus Vadyaeva was not, it was weak.

Yet, as she found herself staring at the remnants of the mirror on the floor, that gleamed like the stars in the sky that she'd once found so much peace in, she couldn't help but reason with herself, that perhaps it wouldn't be too bad to let someone in. Someone who understood, someone who knew that Venus needed time, some distance, patience. Someone who already knew the ins and outs of her. Not Blood Moon, but Venus; the real one. And while she knew that she would never return to that rebellious, hopeful child with life gleaming through her eyes even after all she'd been put through, perhaps there was hope that she could reform herself. That she could become more than she'd ever been. More than an assassin, more than a name in the Red Room's list of candidates for graduation. Perhaps, there was a chance, that she could simply be herself. Not a warped version of her, twisted by others' beliefs or actions, but a version of herself that was simply her to her core. Maybe there was an opportunity for her to truly be herself for the first time in twenty eight years. And the person, the one that she'd let in? She only knew one person like that.

She moved her eyes slowly from the ruins of the shattered glass to the redhead's face, ignoring the way that the woman still had a gun levelled at her, and found one of her walls torn down by Natasha Romanoff. It didn't matter if she hadn't been intending it, which she hadn't. It had still happened. It was then that Venus realised that the woman before her would always be the largest, most meaningful part of her life. The redhead's influence had probably saved her. Persuaded her, that perhaps, there was a chance for good to thrive, for hope to flourish. And there had been. It had just required Venus to look past all she had been brought up to believe, and at the time, she was still filled with dread every time she even blinked at the wrong time while speaking to the higher-ups. But now? 

Now, Venus Vadyaeva was willing to try.

{A/N:} Okay, so this is quite a complex chapter. I do like it, though I also realise that there's no dialogue in this. I'm working on that lmao, it's something that I'm really not good at. I hope you enjoyed me going a bit more into the way Venus remembers the Red Room. I'm also trying to build up her character a bit more so lemme know if I've managed that. Also, Idk when I'm publishing this, but either way, I'm sorry for the wait. Thanks :).

1150 Words

Written: 28 / 04 / 2021

Published: 24 / 05 / 2021

JABBERJAY_011