Red Thorn

Chapter 34

December 2016

A hand collided with hers and Red felt her wrist shatter, the pain forcing a scream from her throat. Distracted by the sheer agony it caused her, Red didn't see her trainer raise his other fist, hitting her in the jaw and sending her flying to the floor.

"Debout," Madame C ordered, but Red couldn't stand. She grabbed the young girl by the collar and hauled her to her feet. "J'ai dit debout."

The room span around her, the floor unsteady underneath her, black dots clouding her vision.

"Pathetic," she said, her French accent as strong as ever.

Red swayed, hand clutched against her as tears streamed down her face.

"Stop crying, it is weakness," she went on. "Weaknesses must be eliminated. You are weak, should you be eliminated?"

"Non."

"Non?"

"Non, Madame," Red assured. "I can go again."

"Hmm..." She clicked her tongue and with a wave of her hand both Red and her trainer were back in position. "Again."

On Madame C's mark the pair started fighting again. The pattern was the same, meaning Red could easily avoid her trainer's blows and sure enough, when the hand raised to strike, her own raised to catch it. They hit her harder than before, or maybe it only felt that way because of the broken bones in her hand, but Red didn't give in, biting her tongue so hard in a bid not to scream that the taste of copper filled her mouth.

Momentarily caught off guard, Red's opponent left himself open to her next attack and that split-second was all she needed to turn the tide in her favor. A punch to the ribs, knee to the nose as he doubled over and then she hooked her foot around his ankle, leaving him tumbling to the floor. He rolled over, but Red was already there, one dagger at his throat and another threatening to slip through his ribs into his lungs should he attempt any sudden movements.

"Red..."

Her hand shook from the pain, the world spinning from the concussion she most definitely had, but it was the first time in the six months they had worked together that she had managed to best her trainer, the first time she had him in a position where in one quick moment, it would be over. A flick of her wrist, jerk of her hand and he would be dead, his bloodied nose a reminder of how easy it would be, how messy it would be.

"Red!"

She could hear Madame C calling out to her, demanding she do it and Red wanted to, to prove to that she wasn't weak, that she was everything the Chambre Noire wanted her to be, but as she looked into her trainers eyes something inside her broke, she saw a human, a man, someone whose pain reflected her own.

"Charlie..." His voice was hardly above a whisper but it cut through the world that had built itself around her. She looked up, eyes meeting his baby blues. "Charlie, hey, you okay?"

Red didn't say a word, her gaze simply falling to the man lying beneath her, and to the blades she was holding firmly against his throat and ribs.

"Who's the show off now?" he quipped, his face covered in blood, his nose broken.

She pushed off him. "It's not showing off if you're just better."

Her comment earnt her a laugh from Sam, Bucky smirked too, but she couldn't relish in the moment, in the glory of proving to the supersoldier that she was the better assassin, her mind reeling with where it had taken her, with what it had led her to do to Bucky. She sheathed her blades and stepped out of the ring, desperate to get out of the gym as soon as possible.