Seven Devils // Natasha Romanoff

Part 15 - Should've Taken the Stairs

Natasha recognizes the look on my face. "What do you need me to do?" she asks.

"Get her helmet off."

Natasha nods, turning back to Antonia as Antonia lunges at her. I spring forward, grabbing Antonia's right arm before she can use it to attack Natasha.

A gasp escapes my lips as she head-slams me, and all thoughts leave my head besides one: pain. The only thing that I feel is pain throughout my whole body. My vision goes completely white for a few seconds, intensifying the sensation of sheer agony as I release Antonia and my body slams into the ground.

My vision begins to return as I breathe heavily, trying my best to pull myself to my elbows. I look at Antonia to see her toss Natasha off of her before roughly lifting her by the shoulders. She uses all her strength to throw Natasha across the room so that she slams into an already-cracked wall, multiple pieces of plaster breaking off around her.

Antonia begins to stand up to finish Natasha off, but I throw myself at her, landing with my hands on her helmet as I try to rip it off.

However, this does nothing to delay Antonia as she grabs each of my arms and pulls them down to tear me off of her. I break free from her grasp and wind back to deliver an uppercut, but she swings her fist downwards into the center of my chest, the sheer force of it slamming me into the ground.

I try to pick myself up, but she punches me in the face before I can even comprehend her attack. While I'm trying to pick myself up again, she punches me again. This time, a loud crack sounds throughout the room, and I feel yet another round of unbearable pain in my nose.

My head falls to the ground, my body being so tired of the pain that it doesn't even bother to muster up a reaction. Luckily for me, Antonia doesn't deliver another blow, giving me some time to recover. Wait a damn minute - Antonia should be beating the living shit out of me right now while I'm down.

I turn my head to look at Antonia to see why she hasn't punched me, and I am horrified by the answer. She was pulling a knife from her belt, which she is now raising to the side, making it clear that she is going to go for a quick and clean slashing motion.

Not having enough time to defend myself, I throw up my left hand in a desperate attempt to stop her. She begins to swing the knife, and I realize at this moment that I am truly, utterly screwed.

But then a miracle happens.

Antonia's helmet leaves her head, and I look behind her to see Natasha triumphantly holding the helmet in her hands. Antonia backs up, recoiling from having her helmet taken off so abruptly, and her knife moves back with her. The knife slashes across my open palm, splattering the surrounding area in a minimal amount of my blood.

However, the majority of it lands on Antonia, a few drops landing in her eyes. She blinks multiple times reflexively, not realizing that's only helping her eyes absorb my blood. She looks around, clearly disoriented. Her gaze lands on her knife covered in my blood and she quickly drops it, allowing it to clatter to the ground. She looks down at me. "Vallonia?" she whispers, her voice shaky. She looks up at Natasha. "Natasha?"

Natasha glances at me in shock, clearly not expecting this. She quickly looks back at Antonia, lowering herself to her knees beside her. "Antonia?"

I jump up from the ground, immediately embracing Antonia. "Antonia," I whisper, my voice cracking as tears of joy (and probably pain but I don't care at this point) fill my vision.

Natasha quickly joins into the hug as Antonia hugs us back, the three of us sitting in silence for a few moments besides the sounds of our heavy breathing and sniffling from our joyful tears.