Freyja

Final Act.

'What is it?' She asked.

'I want to know why you're telling me all this stuff about Akira now. What does any of that have to do with you shooting at me just moments ago?'

Her eyes watered. '... I was just conflicted. I needed to let off steam.'

'You crazy bitch.' I growled. 'How dare you use such a stupid excuse to try to kill me?!'

'You know damn well you'd be dead if I really wanted you dead!' She hissed back. Venomously.

She was telling the truth. And because I knew that fact damn well, my blood ran a little cold. Was that why I was attracted to her? If so, then I definitely had issues of my own. My fiance was The fucking Widow dammit. No one could attest to her ability to kill better than I could.

But right now I was angry. And I desperately wanted an argument just so I could let off steam too. The fact that she was The Widow didn't matter to me, I wanted to strike her for shooting at  me. And so we glared our fangs at each other dangerously, waiting for the other person to make a move. Any move. It just had to be substantial enough to justify a counter.

But that move never came, and so the sky's drizzles gradually became droplets. The face-off became stale, and the animosity slowly dissipated.

'I... I...' I stammered sheepishly.

'You what! Are you about to apologise? You never really do, you know.' Her face lit up like a beacon.

I frowned. 'You're the one who owes me a goddamn apology.'

'I know,' she teased.

'That's my line.' I flashed an offensive look in her direction.

'Well it's my line now dumbass. Besides, if that's the face you make each time you're nursing your patients, then I'm surprised you still manage to keep your job at all.'

We both giggled. We stopped as we heard the McGee's cat meow in the distance. It was clawing at the front door, trying to escape the rain perhaps? I hated that creature, it never accepted anything I tried to feed it.

'But to really answer your question,' Freyja continued, 'I wanted you to understand just how stupid it would be for us to go after the Twins this time. We had a damn good chance before and we blew it. They used us. Now they've grown much too big to fail, just like a Hydra. Cut off one head, and two more grow in its place.'

I thought hard.

'Okay Freyja,' I continued, 'we may not have gotten rid of the twins last time, but we did at least manage to disappear from their radar. We can do the same thing this time. We have you, the Widow, for God's sake. Possibly the finest assassin on the planet. But we also have allies, remember? Reinholdt, Mandela, Catelyn and Cesar. They helped us a lot when you came up with the plan to take down the Ivankovs. Let's reach out to them!'

Just then, she bit her lower lip hard and then tears started to form out of her already watered eyes.

'That's the first thing I wanted to tell you.'

I began to fear the worst. I parted her wet hair away from her lovely face.

'What do you mean?' I pressed.

She pursed her lips as she fought to hold back tears.

'Reinholdt. Mandela. Catelyn. Cesar. They're all dead. The twins knew I'd try to reach them, so their assassins got to them this afternoon, just before they gave me the ultimatum.'