{ON HIATUS}
"What was that?"
"Freedom. A 'thank you' would be nice."
Astraea Petrescu was once the Red Room's most prized possession, their own super weapon with no free will, until their target gave it to them and they defected...
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A decently large shard of glass sliced Astraea across the face but since they could simply shapeshift and heal it, it didn't bother them that much. What did bother them was the fact the widow who shot out the glass was getting a little bit too close for comfort and Natasha wasn't doing anything about it.
The blonde voiced both of their concerns as the redhead weaved in between cars to try and throw her off. "Okay, you got a plan, or shall we just stay duck-and-cover?" Yelena didn't need to yell but her frustration got the best of her. "Yeah, my plan was to drive us away." Natasha didn't need to yell back to her but she did.
Astraea, who had shifted back to their actual face simply sighed from the back seat and spoke like a normal person. "That's a shit plan Natalia. Lena, spin now." Yelena didn't have time to focus on the nickname because she went to follow their orders, pushing the steering wheel as far as possible unexpectedly.
Natasha tried to straighten the car out as they drove backwords but the cars' balance was thrown off when the brunette in the back seat launched their door open, catching it on a lamp pole, flinging it at the widows motorcycle.
The car spun around again, facing the way it was originally and Yelena and Astraea muttered the same thing at the same time, freaking the driver out slightly. "You're welcome." They continued racing down the streets of Budapest the same tank from before rushed in from a connecting street, demolishing a car that wasn't theirs luckily.
Every vehicle that happened to be in its' way were wrecked ruthlessly and they most definitely didn't want to be next. A figure emerged from the tank just as Astraea peeked to see how far the tank was. Their face was covered by a large helmet, mask thing that gave them no indicator on who was behind it.
Natasha saw in the rear-view mirror that the person had pulled out a bow with a bomb arrow she had seen Clint use more times than she would've liked. At the sight of the weapon the redhead yelped to the others. "Put your seat belts on." The brunet and blonde rushed to do as they were told but the latter couldn't help but comment.
"You're such a mom." A few seconds after her dig the figure was no longer holding an arrow and a rapid beeping was approaching them. The three braced for impact as their car was thrown into the air from the explosion, fire scorching at the bottom of the car.
They all felt the car land on another only to be launched off again and down a lot of stairs, Astraea assumed it was the metro station and they were correct. The car spun a few times on its roof as they all took a second to recover that they didn't have. The brunette was able to get out first through the gap where their door used to be, the redhead followed and they joined effort to pull the blonde out.
In shock the youngest of the group clung to a little towel and tried to hold it to her arm where she was bleeding. "I think I'm bleeding. I'm-" Yelena tried to explain but she was cut off by Astraea who bent down slightly to land a chaste kiss on her arm before picking her up to run. "There all better. Lets go." The brunette muttered to the blonde as they looked behind them to see the same masked figure following.
Astraea pursued the eldest of the group, seeing her slide down the middle part between the escalators, not having time to think it through before pushing Yelena to go before them. As they fell to the floor, a metal shield lodged itself into the pole in front of them.
With wide eyes they continued further into the Budapest metro station leaving a faux trail of blood to a manhole using Yelena's wound. They watched as the person jumped into the sewer from the little vent above the train tracks. Astraea helped the blonde tie a makeshift tourniquet above her cut arm, wincing a long with her.
Natasha looked at the two in concern before whispering. "You okay?" The brunet just nodded and rested against the wall of the vent, letting the blonde answer for the both of them. "Yeah. Great plan. Love the part where I almost bled to death. This is cosy." The redheads' attention didn't flicker from the bottom of the vent as she responded.
"Barton and I spent two days hiding out up here." Astraea gulped at the mention of her partner in literal crime but neither of them noticed luckily. "That must have been fun." As Yelena spoke sarcastically she looked around at the many games of tic tac toe etched into the walls.
Natalia decided it was finally time for a relevant question to be asked. "Who the hell is that guy?" The brunet didn't know the answer to that question so they sat up when the youngest answered. "Dreykov's special project. He can mimic anyone he's ever seen. It's like fighting a mirror. Dreykov only deploys him for top-priority missions."
The redheads' eyebrows furrowed as she rubbed her head to soothe her terrible headache. "This doesn't make any sense." Yelena scoffed and continued. "Well, the truth rarely makes sense when you omit key details." Natasha finally looked up from the vent and looked at the blonde before questioning. "What is that supposed to mean?"
The two women locked eyes and the younger practically sneered. "You didn't say one word about Dreykov's daughter. You killed her." Yelena's lips fell into her exaggerated frown. "I had to. I needed her to lead me to Dreykov." This time, Astraea was the one to scoff, their eyes resting on their hands, not daring to look at the heartless woman.
Memories of that day raced through both Natasha and Astraea's minds as the former continued. "Dreykov's daughter was collateral damage. I needed her to be sure." Her lack of empathy struck the brunet terribly. Natasha and Astraea remembered Antonia so incredibly different it was astounding.
The brunet Asian remembered her as an angel who could do the world no wrong, a little girl who enjoyed art and drawing over mathematics as she struggled with it, a girl who who was meant to live a long life, a daughter who was elated to show her father the high grade she received in her last class test, a child who she was meant to look out for and protect.
The redhead simply saw her as a mean to an end, a cheap shot to be 'free'. Astraea couldn't stay silent anymore, it was physically hurting them to at that point. "Do you consider me to be collateral damage too Natalia?"
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A/N: Sorry for the long wait between chapters, somedays writing feels like a chore so I make sure to not force myself to write on those days. I really want to thank each and every one of yous who are reading this book, its been a little over a month since the first chapter was uploaded and it's already over two thousand reads which is mindboggling. Anyways, I APPREACIATE AND ADORE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU AMAZING, BEAUTIFUL HUMANS BECAUSE YOU DESERVE TO BE LOVED. DON'T FORGET TO EAT FOOD, DRINK WATER, SLEEP AND TAKE YOUR MEDS, I LOVE YOU.
