Lost Widow

Chapter Five

"I see you like red wine a lot. Kind of a surprise. You look like the vodka type," Nadia said as Natasha put five bottles of wine in the cart.

"So I've been told. Vodka's nice but a nice bubble bath and a big glass of red wine are sometimes the only thing that brings me peace. Without it I would have strangled my entire team," she joked.

"The avengers? They're like your family right?" Nadia questioned.

Natasha nodded, "Yeah."

"I heard what happened to them. Do you miss them?"

"Every day," Natasha said.

"Why don't you just break them out?"

"I was planning to. I was waiting for things to cool down but then-"

"I attacked you," Nadia finished.

Natasha didn't say anything. She didn't want the girl to think it was her fault. Instead, she ignored the girl and put more food in her cart.

"So you gonna tell me how you got that scar?"

"Which one?" Nadia responded looking away.

"The big one on your back," Natasha said.

"What big one?" Nadia played dumb.

"Don't play dumb with me kid. We made a deal," Natasha stated.

Nadia rolled her eyes, "would you quit calling me that?"

"Nope. Now start talking," Natasha told her.

"Hydra. They experimented on me," she said.

"Why?"

"I don't know. They were trying to make me better than you. Better than this girl. Something Jhonson. I don't remember," Nadia shrugged.

Natasha's face dropped. "Daisy. Daisy Johnson?"

"Yeah...do you know her?"

"No, but I've heard of her. She's a shield agent and an inhuman," Natasha answered.

"What powers does she have?"

"She can cause earthquakes. That's all I know. Did hydra succeed?"

"Not sure. I wasn't told anything after they experimented on me. They just started to train me harder than they ever have. Then they sent me to capture you," Nadia stated.

"Did it hurt?"

"What?"

"The experiments," Natasha questioned.

Nadia paused for a moment. In an attempt to describe what she endured, she said, "If I was given the choice of continuing with the experiments or dying, I would choose death. The pain was unbearable".

"What about the other scar? The one on your neck," Natasha pointed to it.

Nadia began to explain, "I made a friend in the red room. I became rebellious after my mom was taken away. Punishments were constant. Whenever my food privileges were provoked, she would share whatever little bit she had with me. She was always there for me. I was always there for her."

"I had to spar with Alena one day. There is no room for weakness. You know how it goes. Kill the opponent," she said looking down.

"But I didn't want to. I couldn't. But she could. She didn't hesitate. She tried to slit my throat."

"Before she could I killed her," she added.

"That wasn't your fault. You know that right?" Natasha asked.

Nadia sarcastically laughed, "Sure it wasn't."

"What you did was self-defense," Natasha stated.

"It doesn't change the fact that I killed her," Nadia says.

Natasha replied, "Okay yeah. You killed her. The red room trained us to be killers Nadia. But that was back then. You get to make your own choices now."

"What if I make the wrong choices?" She quietly spoke.

"Then you accept your regret. And you use it to avoid the wrong choices in the future," Natasha advised.

Nadia looked inside the cart "I think we're missing something."

"The eggs," she realized.

"I'll go get it," Nadia told Natasha.

To get the eggs, Nadia went to aisle three.

As Natasha waited for the girl to get the eggs, she heard a muffled scream. Running towards the noise she saw someone trying to drag her out of the store. Natasha ran up to him and jumped on him but the man easily threw her off. Nadia quickly kicked him in the stomach. Natasha went to deliver a cyclone kick but flew back and landed hard on the floor. The masked figure threw a shield that was similar looking to Captain Americas at Nadia. She dodged just in time but the shield came back and knocked Nadia in the head causing her to fall to the ground unconscious.

The masked figure headed right for Natasha. For the second time in Natasha's life, she was scared. The only one who ever made her feel this way was the hulk. The figure took off their mask and Natasha gasped.

Her jaw went slack, "Nikolai."

"I'm sorry Natasha," he said, reaching for his weapon.

"I have to complete my mission."

He closed his eyes and raised his weapon. He whispered, "Hail Hydra."

"NO!" Nadia yelled.

Suddenly the man flew backward. His hands covered his now bleeding ears. Helping Natasha up they ran out of the store and ran to the car. Natasha began to drive, keeping her foot on the pedal.

"How the hell did you do that?" Natasha questioned keeping her eyes on the road.

"I-I don't know. Maybe it wasn't me," she sputtered in dismay.

"Nadia," she said solemnly.

"When you screamed he was thrown back. Who else could have it been?"

Natasha looked in the rearview mirror and saw Nikolai chasing them on a motorcycle. She moved to the left lane to pass the slow truck in front of them. Nickolai took out a gun and shot at their car.

"Trade places!" Natasha exclaimed.

Taking over the wheel Nadia went into a tunnel. Natasha lights a pipe bomb and throws it out of the window hoping to throw him off track but he evaded it. Nickolai threw his sickle at their tire blowing it out causing the tire to bounce into another vehicle at speed. Damaging their car. Now only with three tires Nadia could only go straight because of the further damage she could cause. But a big truck causes her to take a sharp right and make the car roll over.

Nadia and Natasha climb out of the car. Natasha had a bloodied head wound. Nadia felt like bones were broken. With her hands shaking Nadia got up. Her vision was blurry and her hearing tunneled.

Natasha shouted something but she couldn't hear due to the ringing in her ears.

"What did you say?! I can't hear you," Nadia yelled.

The ringing only lasted a few seconds and she heard Natasha say "I said he's retreating."