Forgotten Ghost | Natasha Romanoff

Chapter 76: A Pyrrhic Victory

The next days were spent sleeping, resting her leg and trying to silence her head. It was excruciating, not knowing what was going on outside with Steve and Tony, but it was no use spending all her time worrying about. Katya couldn't do anything about it anyway.

She figured out pretty quickly that mealtimes were at random time intervals to throw her off. It worked because at one point, she had no idea how long she had been inside. All days blurred into one, the minutes no longer differenciating from the other. She guessed a couple days, basing it off three meals a day, but it was unclear.

A guard made continues rounds in the circular room outside their cells. Always one, armed to the teeth. They switched shifts at random times too.

Katya ignored them and didn't talk to anyone. If she or the others tried to talk, the guard would slam his baton against the bars loudly and yell at them to shut up. Sometimes her hands itched to wrap them around his throat, but it was useless to waste that energy.

Wanda hadn't said anything all together. Every now and then, she moved and sat somewhere else, or she waited for someone to feed her. Literally. Since she couldn't move her arms, someone had to stuff the food in her mouth and make her drink.

It was absolutely horrible to see. The woman was treated like an animal.

Katya's leg hurt, but the medicine helped a lot. Every day, a doctor came in under heavy security and swapped the bandage for her. Again, at random times. She had allowed it at first, until Katya had refused to let her touch her and wanted to do it herself. With all her experience of wrapping and stitching herself up, Katya was almost a doctor herself.

The blonde doctor had hesitantly agreed and given Katya the tools, staying until it was all done. She wasn't afraid of the ex-Avenger, proving she had worked with worse criminals here.

On the third day -if that's what it was- after the meal that she believed to be dinner, Katya lay on her cot to get some sleep. She slept short amounts and coordinated with Clint or Sam on who would sleep, so at least one person was alert and awake at all times.

Katya turned on her side, facing the wall. She hadn't showered at all, her brown hair oily and tangled as hell. It was disgusting and she smelled herself. No change of clothes either, and she wondered when they'd drag them out of their cells to shower. Maybe once a week?

A deep rumble sounded from somewhere deep in the raft, but she paid no attention to it. It was probably a shipment of food or other supplies or something had fallen over. 

But then there was a second bang, about the same volume, too much like the last one to be random. 

She pushed herself up on her elbows curiously, ears wide open. 

More noise. People running in the hallway and the guard outside her cell reaching up to tap his earpiece, listening to what was being said, then rushing out the room. 

The brunette hoisted herself up and off of the bed, seeing the men in the other cells wandering to their glass doors too. She had the quickest eye contact with Clint, but it was enough to confirm he thought the same. People were breaking into the raft, which could mean two things.

They were either criminals looking for a way to kill the ex-Avengers -maybe even the Winter Soldiers, who knew-, or they were their team mates. In which case Katya expected Steve and not Tony. 

And only when that smallest fire of hope flared up in her stomach, did she realize it never fully extinguished. She had always trusted Steve, and maybe even Natasha, to get her out. Never had she believed she would spend the rest of her days in there.