watch your back

chapter 2

„i told you it was stupid.", steve said. „too soon."
„oh shut up, it wasn't. i was treating her like a human being, contrary to you.", tony replied in his usually arrogant tone.
„that's not what this is about! if we had taken more time, thought it through, had a plan, then she wouldn't have run away."
„she was damn fast.", yelena said, grinning.
„she would have run away either way! it's not about time, it's about us. she doesn't trust us just as much as we don't trust her. maybe if we would've been more welcoming" - he threw a look at steve, then wanda - „she would've stayed."
„we had no reason to show any trust regarding her person. the place she was kept ought to have turned her into someone difficult." visions voice was calm as usual. natasha, who had been watching them fight from a distance, backed away now, quietly. she was good at that. leaving quietly. but, for this group, not good enough.
„where are you going?", kates voice echoed through the hall, when she had followed the spy just long enough that the others couldn't hear them anymore.
natasha sighed, obviously annoyed to have been caught.
„to find her. you heard it, didn't you? she knows something. or... everything."
nat was very good at lying, you wouldn't have been able to tell if she was by any visual perimeter, but in this rare scenario she was telling the truth. a rather disruptive factor was that kate, given the circumstances, didn't believe her.
„well, you have no choice either way.", romanoff replied to kate voicing that concern. „it's not like you can stop me."
kate pressed her lips together, then she grabbed her bow tighter. „it's not like i won't try."
she quickly grabbed an arrow and shot it at romanoff, who was already sprinting down the stairs. she ducked and could hear the air sum when the deadly metal passed her head. nat jumped over the railing to skip the rest of the stairs, when an arrow hit her and gave her an electric shock.
„why do you even wanna stop me?!", natasha yelled out, clearly in pain.
„because we're supposed to work as a team in this! going after her alone is stupid and risky, and who knows who it'll lead to? have you learned nothing from tonys ego trips?"
the black widow grunted, then the shock released her. she managed to get to the next floor beneath her where the vehicles were stored, but kate was right behind her, shooting arrow after arrow.
„you know if one of these hits me, i'll be dead!", nat shouted and kate had to grin. romanoff had grabbed a motorcycle and was on her way out already. there was no chance kate would catch her now.
„yeah, but you know they won't.", kate whispered, shaking her head and smiling.

as soon as she had escaped kate, natasha had time to think about where it was she was going. where would that girl have run off to? at the end, there was only one place that really made sense. back to the mansion. or maybe it didn't really make sense, but it was the only approach she had. something about that girl had shaken her up. the way she talked about the prison, the people she was there with... it reminded nat of her own past. and that was dangerous. she felt she had to do everything so that girl didn't turn bad. evil. like she herself almost had.
in the same time that natasha took to get back to the scenery of the last fatal mission, kate returned to the room where the rest of the avengers had been fighting in. only steve and yelena were still there, the rest left after a heated fight. yelena was playing tetris on one of tony's huge computers, trying to crack jarvis' old record and steve was sitting at the table opposite to her, face buried in his hands.
„so romanoff left to chase the runner.", kate announced. steve raised his head. yelena kept playing tetris.
„of course she did.", the blonde woman said with her russian accent, still madly focused on the computer.
„why?", steve asked, clearly annoyed with everyone right now. the avengers had once again managed to piss each other off.
„i don't know.", kate said defensively, shrugging. "i tried to stop her, but..."
yelena laughed and if she hadn't known the woman a little longer now, she would've thought she was laughing at her. but because she did know her, she only gave yelena a lopsided grin.
"i mean i'd say i got close.", kate argued sarcastically.
"we have a real problem.", steve said suddenly.
"if that girl is right... if we really released a bunch of monsters into the world..." he shook his head.
"maybe she isn't right. maybe she was just trying to scare us.", kate tried. but the captain didn't even hear her, he was already wrecking his head, trying to find a way to stop everything before it escalated. he didn't know that it was that notion, that would lead everyone into chaos soon.

a black motorcycle stopped slithering on the gravel path that led to the old, dilapidated mansion that would look nothing like a prison to any normal person passing it. the woman that got off the motorcycle was dressed in all black and when she took off her helmet, she revealed her beautiful reddish hair. if there had been any bystanders and if this was some cheap, a little bit sexist movie, they would've gasped in awe. but because there weren't and this isn't, no one gaped at her elegant arrival. she stomped through the snow, carefully taking a look around. natasha was sure the girl had to be here. she didn't know why, but it had to be that way. then she suddenly sensed something and turned around. natashas intuition never fooled her.