𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 | 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐬

Chloe's Long Way

"𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦, 𝘊𝘩𝘭𝘰𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘮𝘺 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘸𝘦𝘣𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴, 𝘐'𝘮 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘶𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘶𝘺𝘴 𝘥𝘰 𝘪𝘵."

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Runrunrunrunrun.' Chloe relentlessly tapped her fingers against her temples. The voices were active and loud again, repeating themselves over and over. They insisted about danger coming and running. Running from who is what they wouldn't say.

"Chloe! Chloe!" Natasha yelled in vain. She was sure she'd been yelling the woman's name for a good five minutes and even though they were right in front of each other, Chloe was in another world. "Dammit, Chloe!" She yanked Chloe's hands from her head. "Chloe!"

Chloe unscrewed her eyes to meet Natasha's irritated gaze. "What? Let me go!" She pulled her hands from Natasha's and stepped back.

"You blanked out on me again—you've been doing that more often," Natasha noted. "Are you okay?"

"No, of course not. My best friend is in a hospital because she was poisoned!" Chloe frantically gestured to the hallway bustling with nurses and doctors. "Kind of question is that, Natasha?"

"Easy," warned the redhead, tilting her head. "Those chocolates—they were poisoned, weren't they?"

"What?" Chloe shifted, her head even turning away from Natasha. "Of course not."

"It's the only explanation because the bakery's been cleared. Your chocolates had poison in them which means that somebody was trying to poison you," Natasha pointed at the woman. "Not Seren. It's like I said in the beginning, Cyannide was too easy of an avenue against Seren. To poison her, they need to synthesize something. You, however, are as human as they come" — she flicked Chloe's forehead — "save for a few alien perks, but still 100% human. Who would want to poison you, Chloe?"

"I don't—I don't know what's going on!" Chloe smacked the side of her head when the voices started raging about an 'accident'. Was she going to have an accident now?

Natasha's nose scrunched as she watched Chloe hit herself a few times. "What the hell are you doing now?"

"It's the voices!" Chloe screwed her eyes shut again. "The Hive Mind — it's so fucking annoying lately!"

"Bet this is the reason you hardly sleep, then." Natasha wondered what else the Hive Mind had been doing lately.

"Hey," they heard Steve call seconds before he joined them. They stood only a few inches from Seren's room. Steve wasn't risking anybody entering while he wasn't in there, not even the nurses. He looked between Natasha and Chloe, noticing the pale shade of Chloe's face. He wondered if she'd been skipping sleep again. "So, what do we have right now?"

Natasha had continued to stare at Chloe until she decided that the latter was not going to be very forthcoming on her own. "Well," she said, crossing her arms, "I have nothing but it's not my fault."

"It's not?" Steve said, confused. Whenever Natasha went on a mission, she always got what she needed.

"Yup," Natasha said, "Because Chloe has all the information and she refuses to tell me anything."

Chloe's eyes widened. "What!? I don't know anything!" she practically yelled, attracting the attention of the staff passing by in the hallway.

Steve could see her breathing heavily and those flickering eyes of hers weren't making it any easier to believe her. He'd never seen her act like that. "Chloe?"