The Damned
{The De Luca Crime Syndicate}
This is a story about survival.
He has "Questa Cosa Nostra" tattooed on his chest while she has "Жизнь за жизнь."
This thing of ours VS A life for a life.
La Cosa Nostra VS the Bratva
She is running from her...
Please listen to the song above, it is the theme song of the whole story...
At the start of every chapter, there will be a snippet of Nandini's past. Flashbacks to the beginnings are in italics.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
~
February 22nd, 2000
Baghdad, Iraq
The Leader's fist collided with her face, sending her to the ground so quickly that her hair whipped around her face before she hit the mat. She stayed there for a moment, frozen on the boxing ring's floor, almost dead, before she tried to push herself up.
Natasha had been 6 at the time of this. They hadn't given her a child her own age to train with but she had trained with the Leader of the Academy every day from the day she had arrived.
Her arms wobbled, and her chest rose and fell as she desperately tried to get the air back into her lungs. She managed to get to one knee before crumbling back onto the mat. Pitiful.
"Get up, Natasha. You are not weak." The Leader had said to her, even as blood dribbled down her chin. She could feel her heartbeat in her mouth.
She was disgracing herself in front of the very people who needed to respect her the most. The room was filled with people who actually matter in the Academy. Not the maids that made their beds but the mercenaries that trained everyone else.
She didn't move, she just lay there like a dead thing. Neither a human nor an animal.
"I said get up!" With a small, frustrated cry, she pushed herself to her feet and threw herself onto the ropes of the ring in order to stand, as Alexandria stepped forward to hold on to her.
"Nat? Natasha? Are you alright?" Alexandria Cortes asked her, glancing at the Leader, wide-eyed when she did not answer. The Leader had waved a hand at the mercenary, training Alex, who stepped forward and pulled Alex back.
"Let her go. And I swear to God Almighty, Natasha if you fall again..."
"I'm fine." She had pushed the loose strands of her dark hair behind her ear and stood straighter as she raised her wrapped fists. She shook her head a few times and tried to maintain her composure.
"See? She's fine. Now start again," The Leader had said to Alexandria, whose little mouth twisted further into a frown. The last statement was aimed at little Natasha who still held onto the ropes of the ring but she had enough fight in her to curl one of her hands into a fist.
"Ma'am, it's been 4 hours—" The mercenary started, before the Leader snarled at him. The mercenary believed that Natasha was still a child but the Leader wanted to shape her into a weapon.
