The Sokovian Shadow

Chapter 10

TW:
- Fighting
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I followed Ultron and the twins as they followed the man. I stopped focusing on the conversation when they reached a shelf of Vibranium. Out of curiosity, I sent my soul sense out to see who else was here and was disturbed to find the Avengers had entered the area. I came back to the present to find that I didn't have a headache, which was a plus.

'Keep your friends rich and your enemies rich and wait to find out which is which.' Ultron. But I'd heard that line before, from...

'Stark.' The man looked up from his phone. Which he had pulled out at some point to check something. I saw numbers on the screen and realized that Ultron had transferred billions into the man's finances account. I shook my head. Humans were weird.

'What?' It troubled me to no end that I couldn't read this guy. Was that genuine or was he feigning confusion? Whatever the case, the man elaborated.

'Tony Stark used to say that... to me. You're one of his.' I winced. That was the wrong thing to say.

'What?!' Yep. Ultron was pissed. Good luck, buddy. 'I'm not...' He grabbed the man's arm. 'I'm not. You think I'm one of Stark's puppets, his hollow men?' I had to suppress a chuckle at that. 'I mean look at me, do I look like Iron Man? Stark is nothing!' A flash of light purple pain as Ultron cut off the man's arm at the elbow. One of his henchmen went to grab a gun, but Wanda used her powers to force the gun to his side. 'I'm sorry. I am sor... ooh, I'm sure that's gonna be okay.' There was a flash of pink confusion in everyone's souls as the robot continued apologizing and I had to agree. 'I'm sorry, it's just I don't understand. Don't compare me, with Stark!' he kicked the now one-armed man down a flight of stairs and his henchman followed him. I stopped paying attention to Ultron's rant as I snuck away to find Black Widow.

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I watched for a while as Natasha knocked her opponents to the ground. When she stopped to catch her breath, I folded my wings to my back and approached her with my mask and hood up. I deliberately kicked one of the men's guns, so she knew I was behind her. She froze and spun on her heel with a gun that I hadn't noticed she had on her in her hand and aimed directly at my forehead. I quickly raised my hands in surrender. She narrowed her eyes but didn't move the gun. I slowly removed my hood, exposing my white skin, black hair, and eyes. Her eyes widened and the hand holding the gun dropped to her side. We maintained eye contact and I matched the ferocity of her stare. This was a challenge I wasn't going to lose.

Eventually, she smirked and put the gun away. She hadn't given in by any means, but we didn't have time.

'How old are you?' She inquired. I took a deep breath. This was going to hurt her.

'I turn 16 in a couple of days.' I replied, not looking at her to avoid looking at the pain in her eyes.

'16?' I knew it. I turned to face her. There was the expected pain, but also some form of admiration. I cocked my head to the side as I tried to figure her out.

'And I can relate to what you went through except with of others of both genders.' I maintained eye contact with her this time, and her eyes widened with horror. I took another deep breath and continued. 'And there were only five years training. Most were supposed to start at five, but I started at three when I made my first kill early.' The look on Natasha's face only made me feel worse.

'Five?' Natasha's voice was barely above a whisper. I closed my eyes and nodded. I don't know what I was expecting, but I certainly wasn't expecting her to ask me for my name. My eyes snapped open and I stared at her in confusion. She had her head tilted to the side as waited for my response. I smirked.

'That depends. Do you want my birth name, the name I was given when I made my first kill, or my undercover name?' I asked, and Natasha gave me a curious look.

'Undercover name.' She replied.

'The Sokovian Shadow.' I replied. I grabbed my knife from the sheathe on my arm and threw it with accuracy to rival Hawkeyes. She didn't even flinch as it spun over her shoulder mere millimetres from her ear and embedded itself squarely in the forehead of the man trying to creep up on her. I walked over to retrieve it and she turned as I did. I yanked the weapon from the man's head and wiped it on his uniform. Natasha remained silent, but when I re-sheathed the knife and turned to face her, she spoke.

'How many lives have you taken before his?' I couldn't meet her gaze. My silence was enough to answer her question. I'd killed enough to not bother counting. Her next question surprised me. 'Do you work for a higher power, or do you work for yourself?' I hesitated before responding.

'I'm not sure.' I began slowly. 'I still bow to a higher power, but I decide who I kill. Mainly murderers, rapists, anyone who's committed a crime punishable by death that either hasn't been caught yet, or the government doesn't do anything about.' She nodded, but I wasn't done. 'I was trained as a spy. But I don't waste time gathering intel. I do that during the day. I hunt during the night. I've killed at least one person per night for eight years.' I finished. Natasha looked aghast.

'And I thought my leger was red' It made sense that she'd switch to Russian

'Something else to add to my training. I can speak almost any language.' I almost laughed at the look on her face. 'Truce? I don't want to fight you. I feel like the results would be both of us getting more and more frustrated when neither of us wins.' She laughed and agreed. She turned towards the oncoming tide of Ultron's sentinels and I pulled my hood up again as I ducked back into the shadows.

That could have gone worse.

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A/N: I feel like I could have written the conversation between Natasha and Aorta better.

Anyway, what do you think so far?