True North [Stucky Fanfiction - IN PROGRESS]

41 - Caution

A "no!" rips itself from his throat at the same time Sasha screams "sienna!"

Natasha lunges forward, grabbing Sasha for a moment before the woman tears herself away. The two go tumbling through the open doorway at the end of the hall in a pile of muscled, scrabbling limbs.

Steve misses the resolution, spinning around to confront his partner behind him.

There's no one but a longer stretch of empty hallway. No Bucky. Closed doors. For all intents and purposes, the man had disappeared, hopefully to one of these side rooms where Sasha's voice can't reach him.

It soothes his heart for a second, not meeting those blank eyes. Bucky will be fine.

He returns his gaze to the two assassins grappling in the doorway. If Bucky is okay for the time being, then he can dedicate himself to stopping Sasha.

The black-haired woman kicks Natasha off and scrambles away only a few steps ahead of Steve. The interrogation hallway opens up into a wider meeting room that Steve hasn't seen before, given they usually come the other way from the elevators. He finds himself one step ahead of Natasha this time, gaining on Sasha with his superior version of the serum. She notices, leaping over the wooden table in the middle of the room with gazelle-like precision and continuing across.

Steve groans and gives chase, Natasha following on the other side of the table as Sasha bursts through another door and weaves across another room. She can't possibly keep this up for much longer, not with all the blood she's lost and time she's spent in the interrogation room, but she's always just a few steps out of reach, just a bit crafter than her pursuers.

It's not long before they're chasing her down a stairwell, their footsteps and breathing sending loud echoes bouncing around the deep chamber. Steve's concerned that Sasha is running down rather than up; he knows where she's going, and that gives him the energy he needs to keep tailing the assassin down the seemingly endless winding steps.

Sasha stumbles through a doorway near the bottom of the stairwell, pursued through a familiar white hallway and another metal set of doors that has been warped and nearly torn away. She's determined to execute her plan, Steve supposes.

Natasha is equally determined to prevent her from doing that. Sasha falters just briefly, potentially looking around for a weapon, and the redhead slams her into a table. Steve hangs back and watches Natasha land one hit, two, and Sasha is restrained on the floor before he can contribute much of anything.

Sasha yells gutturally and struggles feebly, but it's just out of frustration. Her plan failed a third time. She kicks the floor once and stills. If it's a ploy to get Natasha to loosen her grip, it doesn't work; the former Avenger keeps her hands in a vice around the woman's thumbs and a knee pressed to her lower spine to prevent her from getting back up.

"Sasha, we want to help you," Steve says, remorse coming naturally as he watches the woman on the floor. "We're just at a loss as to what to do."

In response, she gnashes her teeth and does her best to toss her bloodied black hair over one shoulder. "We're two sides of the same coin. Kill me if you want. If I can't escape this hell, then I might as well be dead." She laughs wetly / wryly. "But you're probably above that, aren't you?"

Steve experiences a moment of pause. They are at a stalemate. Sasha is too far gone to recruit, but too dangerous to set free. Her actions have only further planted her into the enemy category, but what to do with the enemy in a situation such as this?

"Or," Sasha begins again, "I could give /him/ the signal and just have him kill me instead of you."

"Absolutely not," the two Avengers boom in unison. The suggestion makes the hairs on Steve's neck rise. The image of Bucky being used against his will as a murder tool and the fallout of the action is enough to make him shiver.