All the Colors of Earth (Natasha Romanoff)

4.7

Natasha

The next morning I wake to an empty room. Marzda hadn't come back to the room last night, but the place where my child had been sleeping was empty and cold.

"Olympia?" I call out, hoping that maybe she'd just gone to the bathroom but there was no answer. Throwing off the blankets, I scan the room, "detka? Where are you?"

I try not to panic as the echo of my own voice bounces back to me in the otherwise silent room. Rushing out of the room, I look both ways, hoping that maybe she'll just be playing in the hallway.

But just like the bedroom, it's empty.

"Detka?" I yell. "Olympia this isn't funny!" Looking down the hallway, I'm trying to decide what way to go when there's a slight rumble and the marble stones start to vibrate in a path leading away from me. "This better be you Marz," I mumble as I follow the moving stones out into the courtyard and towards a part of the grounds I hadn't been to yet.

The stones stop at the edge of the courtyard, a well worn dirt path leading away from the last one. Following it away from the castle, I'm sucked into tall shrubs that block out everything around me. The further I go the higher my anxiety at the feeling of being caged in.

Just when my skin feels like it's about to split, there's a loud laugh that I'd know anywhere. I follow the laughter around a large bush and stop in amazement- in front of me is a field of flowers much like the one from Marzda's memory. The only difference is now instead of the two of us, our child is running around trying to catch butterflies.

She's still wearing her white nightgown which now has grass stains, but she's happy and laughing. Just the sight of her calms me down and a low whistle greets me. I turn towards it to find Marzda staring at me with a soft look. Her hair is hanging loose and she looks more relaxed then she has in days, probably even years.

She's still wearing all black, but she's in shorts and a sleeveless shirt, her marks showing harshly against her skin. I hadn't realized that they trail all down her body, ending at her ankles.

My heart hurts at the sight of them, and Marzda frowns slightly, looking at me questioningly. Heading over to her, I trial my hand across the flowers and watch the butterflies. In less than a minute she's in front of me, her hand hesitantly reaching out to take mine. She looks relieved when I let her take it, her skin warm against mine, before she squeezes it briefly and lets go.

"How'd you sleep?" She asks.

"She's like you," I say with a smile as I turn to Olympia who's still running after the butterflies. "She hogs the bed. Speaking of, you didn't come back last night."

She's silent for too long so I look over at her, confused by her guarded expression. "I.. stay at Keema's after missions. She helps me sleep. I'm sorry, I should have told you."

"It's ok," I tell her softly. "But what's not ok is you taking Olympia without telling me."

She chuckles slightly, "she took me."

"What?"

"I snuck in to get more clothes and she was awake, demanding that I take her to catch butterflies," she tells me. "She grabbed my hand and all but dragged me out here."

I look back at my child, "how'd she even know about this place?"

"This is Frigga's garden. I think she brought the kids out here the other day."

"Oh," I mutter as I watch her play. "It looks like the meadow from your memory."

"You saw that?" She asks with clear surprise.

I nod, "yeah Wanda gave it to me for Christmas. It was nice, after I got done being pissed at you for dying."

"I truly am sorry that you felt that," she tells me again.

"At least we know it's not really a one way Bond," I try and joke.

"Yeah," she sighs. "So how badly did you beat up the other me?"

"I didn't," I tell her. "Don't look so surprised," I laugh as she gives me a shocked look. "Sure I was pissed, but I think I was more angry at myself than at you. And I didn't quite realize it until I saw you again and everything came crashing in."

"I'm sor-."

"Stop apologizing," I tell her. "We both messed up. We both have things to be sorry for. But you did save us. You saved her, and she is all that matters." I level my gaze at her, "you said that the Daxomites were coming for her. Why would they do that? What do they want with her?"

"It doesn't matter," she tells me. "They all will die before they get anywhere near her again."

"Marz," I say adamantly. "It does matter. I can't help protect her unless I know everything. So please, tell me why they want our child."

Shock flashes across her face when I say our child, and I see her resolve breaking. "They think she's the child of an old Colorian prophecy," she says slowly. "They, the Daxomites and many other people, think that she's Tu'rok."

"Like that old lady in the market," I say softly.

Marzda nods, "yes, like her. Zara is one of the last remaining elders and priests of my people. She was in the prison mine that I was in. I had arrived there in bad shape and she healed me... and figured out that I'd had a child." She sighs heavily, "so I told her. I told her everything and I shouldn't have. But it was just so nice to be able to talk to one of my people. Someone who came from the same place I did, who still remembered our world. But I never should have trusted her. The second she figured out I was a quake, she started plotting on how to get her hands on Olympia."

Realization dawns on me, "you think she tipped off the Daxomites."

"I do. Zara knew I'd bring you here, within her reach," she says bitterly.

"Obviously she has to die," I say quickly. "But why do they want Olympia? What do they think she's going to do?"

"Tu'rok is said to have the greatest power of all Colorians. That they only rise when our people need them," she says heavily. "Tu'rok is a world destroyer. The Daxomites want to kill her and my people want her to kill our enemies."

"She's a child!" I explode. "She has no powers yet!"

"I'm extreme circumstances our power can be forced to come out through old magic. But the only one left who knows it is Zara," she says. "But she's not getting anywhere near Olympia ever again. This is not my child's war, and I will kill anyone who tries to make it so."