O U T O F T I M E
book 3 in the 'chaos series'
in which lusine returns to earth and is reunited with steve, but not everything is as it was when they said their farewells after the events of the battle of new york. with new companions in tow, ol...
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nine "a change of heart"
To say that Natasha Romanoff mistrusts Lusine Volkov would almost be an understatement.
Increasingly so the longer the agent spends trawling through security footage from before, during, and after the events of The Battle of New York. The day of many deaths. The day the Avengers saved Earth.
The day a monster had a sudden change of heart.
That monster's heart was a liar's heart. Through and through. After centuries of violence, anger and chaos, how could a heart so black suddenly see the light?
Her fingers tap away on the keyboard, searching for anything and everything that could validate the suspicions everyone else dismisses with a wave of a hand and a reminder of the second chance she'd gotten all that time ago when Clint made his call.
That was different.
She was not a goddess. She was not a child of chaos itself. She was human, able to be downed by bullets. Lusine is not. She's entirely the opposite. If she really wanted to, Natasha was sure that Lusine could wipe out the city and still have room for plenty more destruction.
Even the thought of that spurs her on, fingers darting across the keys, eyes locking onto the screen when her familiar figure glides into the shot, grinning like a maniac.
When almost every other agent has gone home, and the clock strikes two, Natasha has found all she needs.
Satisfied, every incriminating clip is saved on a drive ready to be shown to whoever she could convince to watch it, including those who Lusine has already managed to draw in with her eyes of blue and smiles of velvet.
Those silvered smiles would burn to the ground. Replaced with ash and smoke. And, when that finally clears, the true identity will be revealed.
The creature who had made her home on Earth and crawled her way into their organisation with sweet talking and a common enemy would turn tail the moment the false was burned away to reveal true colours shining blood red and stolen gold beneath.
Though a crest of dishonesty is branded into the chest, the plague would be burned away, one way or another.
Natasha slips the drive into her pocket and zips it tight. Her little secret weapon designed to destroy whatever life the extra-terrestrial woman thought she was making for herself on Earth. Not out of malicious intent, but out of good intentions to protect her home.
It was her duty.
Done for the night, she switches off the monitors she'd been using and exits the room, but when she passes by the training room, a lone figure stands, fists up, ready to strike.
She moves quick, beating the punching bag to a mess of stuffing and leather, collecting at her bare feet. Through the still silence of the night, thick as the veil between worlds, heavy breathing and fists colliding with the bag is all that rings through the dark.
