STRAIGHT ESCAPE.

Unless You Say You're Sorry

This interrogation had to be the longest Natasha has ever witnessed. And God knows she's been doing this for years now.

It's been hours, Maria Hill was on the verge of losing her mind and Fury stormed out a couple of hours ago. It was like asking questions to a shell.

Nothing.

That's about everything they learned about that little girl during this cruelly long time. Absolutely nothing. Not even her name.

The last time Natasha heard her talk was when she told her everyone hated her. No words has come out of her mouth ever since. She had been resilient, followed Natasha to the interrogation room and obeyed, but nothing ever since.

She played absentmindedly with her fingers, seemingly not paying attention to whatever Maria was telling her. Hill wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. She turned to Natasha.

"Are you sure she isn't mute ?"

Natasha sighed. She lost track of how many time the agent has asked her this question, but it had to be a hell of a lot.

It's like the kid had disconnected from reality. Like the adults weren't even here, talking to her.

After 10 long minutes, Maria ended up giving up too and asked two agents outside of the room to take the little girl to one of the S.H.I.E.L.D cells.

She followed without a fight, Natasha watching her from afar as she walked behind the agents. Maria was desperate at the kid's behaviour, she walked to Natasha's side as they went down several flights of stairs.

"Nick still wants at least the beginning of a file on her. She needs to undergo a health check and some basic tests tomorrow." She whispered to the redhead.

Natasha looked at the little girl who was walking with her eyes firmly trained on the ground.

"Must not be hard if she lets people lead her anywhere." Natasha's voice was low, she crossed her arms on her chest and gave Maria a quick look.

Both of them were reluctant to let that girl be locked up. She looked so young, she must not even reach 10 years old. Yet everything about her screamed danger. There was nothing else to do but to keep her still before any more information came out of the unknown.

As they reached the white corridor filled with cells wherever they looked, the small blonde suddenly stopped walking.

Natasha and Maria exchanged a look. The redhead had a bad feeling about this.

A really bad feeling.

Both of the women got startled when a shot followed by a loud scream filled their ears.

One of the agents was clutching his abdomen with a wince, blood dripping on his hands and forming a big red stain on his uniform.

Natasha's eyes dropped to the gun in the kid's hand and she stopped thinking.

In a swift movement, she rushed to the child, who immediately pointed her weapon at her head. Natasha slid on the floor in a calculated way and got up directly on a knee just behind the little girl.

She was now the one holding the gun in her hands, pointed at the kid.

When she took the time to look at her opponent though, the little blonde stood in the same position as Natasha, holding the second agent's gun in a stable grip.

They stood face to face as in a mirror, staring at each other with an oddly similar wariness.

Everyone just stared at them as Maria quietly commanded the first agent to take the injured one to the medical bay.