CHAPTER TWO:

The Budapest safehouse was pretty much just how me, Nat and Clint had left it. Before Nat even opened the door we could hear a muffled voice from the inside of the flat. 

"I know you're out there." I go to grab one of the retractable swords on my belt but Natasha stops me, shaking her head along with a glare.

"I know you know I'm out here." Nat kicks the door open, taking a gun out she slowly walks through the flat, pointing it in her walking direction. I slowly walk around, hand on one of the swords as I walked.

"Then why are you skulking about like it's a minefield?" Nat carries on to walk down the hallway and I pick up one of the swords anyways, but not retracting it yet.

"'Cause I don't know if I can trust you." 

The other voice chuckles. "Funny. I was going to say the same thing." 

Nat stops me before she walks around a corner. "So, we gonna talk like grown-ups?" Nat turns the corner and I stay there for a moment as she slowly walks forward. 

"Is that what we are?" The voice had an unmistakable Russian accent. Natasha walks out of the doorframe so I can no longer see her. I retract the sword and I turn around into the room, only to see them in the kitchen. There's a long silence in the whole flat before they start to completely annihilate each other.

I shake my head in disbelief as I see Nat get thrown into a door, smashing the glass that, prior the Nat being thrown, was in the door. I then get a good look at the other in the flat. She had blonde hair and a grey blazer on. Which was really nice, until she started to hurdle towards Nat with a knife in her hand. 

I lunge forward and block the kitchen knife the girl was holding. She then goes to swipe me with it, which didn't go too well for her. I shatter the knife out of her hand and she doesn't seem to happy about it. 

"Air- this is my fight, not yours." Nat says, I look over at her and she's standing up again, obviously better from being smashed in the face with a plate. I retract the sword and put it back on my belt.

"esli vy thuck uverens." If you're so sure I mutter in Russian, walking past the two girls into the kitchen. I look around as they both continue to fight like children, and I eventually found a bottle of vodka.

I look back over and see the two of them strangling each other with a fucking certain. I pour myself a drink and watch it all happen for a moment until Nat pulls away, speaking in Russian. "Truce." I shake my head in disbelief as I let down the shot of vodka I had in my hand. "vy vyrosli" You've grown up Nat comments as the other girl gets out of the tangled curtain.

"net, blin." No shit the girl mutters back as she walks into the kitchen. I raise my eyebrows and roll my eyes at Nat as she walks into the kitchen also.

"You had to come to Budapest, didn't you?" Nat asks her. I still didn't even know her name.

"I came here because I thought you wouldn't." The girl pours herself some of the vodka that I'd left out. "But since you're here, what bullet does that?" She nods her head towards the holes in the kitchen wall.

"Oh, that was Clint, right?" I say. "They ain't bullets, those were arrows."

"Ah... Right." She nods.

"If you didn't think I'd come here- why did you send me this?" She puts the red glowing vials on the kitchen table.

"You brought it back here?" The girl downs her own shot of vodka before walking through the flat. Well, obviously coming here was a bad idea, but goddamn did you have to throw the plate at Nat, and then shout at her?

"I'm not here trying to be your friend, but you need to tell me what that is." Nat says, following the girl.

"It's a synthetic gas. The counteragent to chemical subjugation. The gas immunizes the brain's neuropathways from external manipulation." The girl says, as if all three of us present in the safehouse were all on the same page.

"Maybe in English next time?" Nat asks.

"eto protivoyadie ot control nad razumom." It's an antidote to mind control The girl mocks, I try to hold back a smirk but it doesn't really work.

"nastoyashchiy zrely." Real mature Nat remarks back.

"Why don't you take it to one of your super-scientist friends? They can explain it to you." She continues. "Tony Stark, maybe?" She suggests. 

"No thanks." I mutter.

"Why, what happened?" She furrows her eyebrows and looks over at me.

"Oh... Yeah, we're not really talking right now..." Nat says.

"Great! Perfect timing! Where's an Avenger when you need one?" The girl overdramatises it all.

"Well, you're in a room with two of them..." I mutter quietly.

"Two EX-Avengers." Nat corrects me. "Look- I don't wanna be here. We're both on the run. You could've gotten us killed." She turns back to her.

"Well, what was I supposed to do? You're only superhero person that I know. That was the whole reason I sent it to you." The girl tries to defend herself the best she could as she closes her bag. "I kept checking the news, expecting to see Captain America bringing down the Red Room." The girl sighs before leaving the room and walking to the room next to it. 

"What? Taking down the Red Room?" Nat follows after her and I sigh a little, following so I still somewhat understood the conversation. "What are you talking about? It's been gone for years. Dreykov's dead. I killed him." 

"Correction- we." I point out.

"You don't actually believe that, do you?" The girl turns to Nat. She takes a little glimpse at me then back at Nat when the silence makes it clear. "You really do believe that."

"Dreykov is dead. It took us almost destroying the entirety of Budapest- just to get him." I say

"If you're both so sure, then tell me what happened. Tell me exactly." The girl crosses her arms and I look over at Nat.

"We rigged bombs." She says.

"You two?" 

 "Barton, as well." I lean up against the doorframe as Nat continues. "Killing Dreykov was the final step in my defection to S.H.I.E.L.D." 

"Simple as that?"

"If you class simple as imploding a five-storey building. And then shooting out with the Hungarian Special Forces." I say. 

"It took ten days in hiding before we could even get out of Budapest." Nat finishes.

"And you checked the body? Confirmed the kill?" I look over at Nat who had a weird look on her face.

"There was no body left to check." Nat claims, walking away.

"You're forgetting Dreykov's daughter." The girl calls. I look up at her, unsure of what she was saying. There's a long silence between all of us until the literal ceiling opened up. Yeah. Why did I become an Avenger again? I roll around to the side as I see a sniper's light go across the rooms. I look over at the girl as she puts the red vials in her bag.

After a moment I see her run away to the direction of Natasha and I mutter a line of curses under my breath. The lights suddenly blow a fuse and I run forward, tackling one of the attackers to the ground before running after the girls who had the same idea to me.

"Where are we trying to get?" Nat asks as we run for our lives.

"Motorbike! East side of the building." The girl calls back. We climb through one of the windows onto the roof of the building. We slide across the roof and run towards one of the large piped chimneys. I unhook the bottom and the others grab on as we push away. I look over and see an uninvited attacker. Nat goes to help them up but they only try to slash her with a knife. How thoughtful. We crash against the other building before I can do anything about the attacker. I fall into the window of the building and I let out a groan.

"Ouch." I murmur.

"Get up. Natasha isn't here." I look up and see the girl, holding out her hand for me to get up. I'm hesitant but I take it and she helps me up. We run down stairs as quick as we can. "You're Aerus, right? The Red Dragon or something?" 

"Yeah... Not to be rude but what's your name?" I ask her as we continue.

"Yelena." She says before we get to the bottom of the stairs. We get out the door to see Nat and the attacker's body, they didn't seem to be moving. "Do you believe me now?" Yelena asks the both of us. I see the Black Widow symbol on the attacker's belt.

"How many others?" Nat asks.

"Enough."