The Road to Redemption | Natasha Romanoff x fem!OC

Chapter eight

Standing in the middle of the ring of bodies, Aria observed her handiwork. With a quick check to everyone's pulses, it was confirmed that every agent was, in fact, dead. Slowly but steadily, Aria could hear a ringing in her ears accompanied by a nice throbbing in her left shin. While it certainly wasn't the worst injury she had ever had, it still wasn't pleasant. 

Clint surveyed the three of the agents. Natasha had a gash at her temple that would probably need stitches, but was otherwise unharmed save for a few scrapes. Aria on the other hand, looked terrible, despite her attempts at hiding it. There was a massive cut on her left leg and a hint of bone could be seen through the injury, although it was hard to tell through the blood, and her eyes were unfocused. "You good, Aria?"

The only response he got was a dazed, glassy look in his general direction until about five seconds later, her eyes focused and hardened with a quick nod. Exchanging a glance with Natasha, they silently agreed on the fact that she was very obviously not fine. 

"We either need to head inside or go back to the jet before backup comes. If we leave now, they will almost certainly not be here when we come back."

With little hesitation, Aria held the redhead's gaze and responded, "No, I can go." Masking her doubt, she turned on her heel and silently walked into the massive concrete building."

One thing could be said about the Hydra base; it was dark, dank, and 100% depressing. In just the big atrium, the only thing the trio could see was concrete and metal. In the center of the large empty room was a semicircular reception desk and no one behind it. There were four hallways leading in different directions: two on the left and two on the right. In the back of the room was a pair of massive double doors. 

While Aria was surveying the room, Natasha went about turning the surveillance cameras off using the computer at the reception desk. Clint was peeking around the corner into the hallways and Aria kinda just stood there. 

Internally groaning at the prospect of needing to move, she cautiously peeked around the corner of the hallway closest to her. There was nothing interesting about these either. All along the hallway were metal grey doors each with an ID scanner next to it.

Next, she limped to where Clint was looking. This hallway looked exactly the same as the one Aria had first looked in. A quick silent conversation between Clint and Nat confirmed the hallways on the right looked the same as well.

"This was too easy. Why is the entire place deserted?" Clint broke the silence and even though he was whispering, they could still hear the echo throughout the room. 

They could see Natasha silently peeking into all the doors with glass in them, to try to gauge where everyone was. Aria tried to search her brain for what Hydra might have done if this happened when she was still there and her eyes flew open.

"It's a trap. It's extremely likely that they're packing up their things and running away. If all Hydra bases are the same, the hangar should be in the southeast corner." With a look of concentration, Nat came back to the computer in an attempt to override the ID scanners and gain access to the area.

After approximately 3 minutes, there was a satisfying click that echoed throughout the empty room. Natasha flashed her signature smirk at Hawkeye before going back to the computer in an attempt to find blueprints or a map of the massive Hydra facility.

"There's no need to do that." Aria's voice carried through the chamber for the first time in a while. "Almost all Hydra bases have roughly the same layout. The hangar should be in the southeast area on the lowest level. If you trust me enough, I can show you, or you can wander around aimlessly and waste time none of us have."