No Tears | NR

Chapter 19

Unknown Location

TW: Description of a corpse and blood

After Natasha had strapped the parachute to Yelena and opened it, she had had to let go of her. Taskmaster had apparently followed them and was diving for the redhead.

Natasha fought Taskmaster while they kept falling and only survived her landing on the ground because she had clung to Taskmaster whose parachute had opened shortly before they landed. They rolled a few times before both of them got up again to finish their fight.

Natasha managed to steal Taskmaster's sword and held it out in front of her body. Instead of using it, however,  she moved her hands and dropped the sword on the ground next to her while holding her hands up. She didn't want to fight Taskmaster anymore. Her attacker had been her creation, at least partly, and she felt guilty.

But Taskmaster didn't have a choice. The fighter grabbed the Avenger by the throat. Natasha defended herself by pushing the arm away and jumping on Taskmaster's back. She pressed a few buttons on Taskmaster's arm causing the helmet to open. Then she used her body to fling the fighter underneath her to the ground. Taskmaster's helmet flew off in the process, revealing a young, scarred, female face. The woman had dark hair that was secured tightly in braids on her head.

She crawled towards Natasha and was about to get up. At the same time, the redhead jumped up elegantly and landed in a kneeling position, breaking a vial in the process that spread red dust into the scarred face of the other woman. Antonia was her name. She was Dreykov's daughter as the man himself had informed the Avenger earlier and she was another one of his many victims. In fact, she had likely suffered more than most of them.

Antonia finally broke free from Dreykov's mind-control. She was staring at Natasha, panting. The redhead was kneeling in front of Antonia with their foreheads touching. Then, Natasha fell backward and Antonia dropped to the ground breathing heavily.

The Avenger crawled over to the other woman and looked at her with tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"Is he gone?"

Natasha nodded. "He's gone." Her answer came out in a whisper.

It took the Avenger a few minutes to find the strength to move again, but when she did, she stood up and looked around taking the chaos in that had resulted from them taking down the Red Room.

Then, she suddenly remembered that Yara didn't have a parachute. Panic rose in her as she stumbled around desperately trying to find the brunette.

"Yara!" She kept on repeating the woman's name, hoping to get an answer, but she never got one. Instead, she caught a glimpse of a white piece of fabric. It was a parachute.

The redhead limped over to it as fast as she could and found Yelena lying underneath it. The blonde didn't move and Natasha felt like her heart was about to break.

"Yelena?" The redhead knelt down and carefully placed her hands on each side of the younger woman's head looking down at her.

Yelena finally opened her eyes, making Natasha sigh quietly in relief.

"We're bot upside down", Yelena made a reference to something, her and the redhead used to do during their time together in Ohio.

Natasha smiled and helped Yelena sit up. The redhead held on to the other woman, her sister, and apologized. "Извини, моя маленькая сестра. I should've come back for you."

"You don't have to say that", Yelena tried to stop the redhead. She didn't want Natasha to say that out of pity. She wanted her to mean it. "It's okay."