Giving me to you

March

Natalia was shocked to say the least when Madam B pushed a mission file and a familiar girl towards her.

"Mission in Budapest with Aria, Natalia." Madam B had a sweet smile on her usually stern face, motherly and adoring, which made Aria slightly shiver. Natalia furrowed her brow, the strange sense of anger and pity welling up in her again. Aria... How could someone so uselessly frail go on a mission. She would only be an obstacle...

When Natalia said her objections to Madam B, she laughed and shook her head. "All healers know how to kill before they learn their ways of healing, my dear. Aria is one of the best."

Madam B's blue eyes were cold as ice. "It seems that we have taught you well, dear Natalia, but not well enough that you are weary of all the dangers you will encounter."

Natalia didn't know what expression she held as Madam B twisted Aria's head this way and that. The girl obediently complied, looking like a life sized claydol than a real person. "She is not quite a Black Widow, much more fragile, delicate , poisonous. Aren't we, my little Dwarf Viper?"

The delicate girl lowered head, seeming to look ashamed. What is there to be ashamed of? Natalia felt a strange sense of betrayal, a panicked fuelled emotion. All this time, she had been fighting for the title of Black Widow, seeing Aria as just a girl with healing powers, being less wary of her, allowing herself to be relaxed around Aria's presence, but then Madam B tells her that this harmless thing was as powerful as she, if not more.

Dwarf Viper... One of the smallest yet most poisonous snakes in the world, masters of disguise and the art of poisons. A fitting name for an assassin, yet the name seemed to fit loosely around Aria, like a hanging rope around her neck, like a child who is trying to wield a double handed sword, tipping out of balance.

Madam B chuckled at Natalia's disbelief, her eyes glinting under the fluorescent lights. She was not young, yet age as not made her lose her beauty, it condenses into her aura like how wine condenses over time. It made her dangerous, like how a snake is dangerous, wrapping around her prey whilst drugging them into a deep, sweet slumber. Is Aria the same?

"We have news from one of our eyes in S.H.I.E.L.D." Madam B opened the file, spreading the papers out one by one on the desk. A man in his late twenties with a black bow and a tuft of long blonde hair stared out of the photo, his eyes piercing, like a hawk's.

"Agent Clinton Francis Barton." Madam B tilted her head slightly, as if in a good mood. "He is on a mission to exterminate our Black Widows, and to protect this man."

Another photo pushed forward, his name, age, blood type, family, listed out one by one. "He worked for us, but now we need him dead before he says too much about us."

Madam B drew a handkerchief, wiping down her fingers one by one, her soft gaze not leaving either of the photos. "Both of them needs to be exterminated. Am I understood?"

"Yes Madam." Natalia answered.

"Yes, Madam..." Came the more hesitant reply.

"Good." Madam B smiled, picking up two small packages and handing them to Natalia. "Passport, identification, you know what to do, Natalia."

She did.

She couldn't remember how many times she had went on these missions, alone, or with a partner, sometimes even a team. She would be disguised, as a ballet dancer, an university student, a refugee...

She looked again at Aria, who didn't meet her gaze.

Did Aria go on missions like this too, without Natalia ever noticing? Did she disguise herself too, like how Natalia does, spinning her web in a dark, musky corner, waiting for the flies to come? Yet looking at Aria's eyes...

How could someone who has killed, who has blood on their hands.... Look so... so like those people from the outside world, where the sun shines on them and the breeze stroke freely through their hair? How could someone who lives so others die... feel so warm, and care, and heals instead of brings more carnage?

Instead of these, however, her question came out clipped and harsh. "Have you killed before?"

Natalia pursed her lips tight. It made her sound as if she wasn't guilty about the blood, about the missions, as if she was really as cold hearted as the stones that makes up the walls here.

A small wave of panic and self loath crossed Aria's eyes, then she lowered her head, hiding her features under her long black locks. "O.. Once."

Natalia felt that mixture of feeling welling up again, relief, anger, pity, all bubbling under her thin surface of calmness. She furrowed her brows, squinting at the girl, trying to figure out how she felt, yet it must have been misinterpreted. Aria shrank back further, and Madam B patted Natalia on the shoulder, half as a warning half as comfort.

"Don't be so strict, Natalia, I am sure that Aria is a fast learner, like you have proved to be."

Natalia felt sick, for the first time, for the mission she was about to go on. She felt sick when she saw the pale face pale further, as if it were even possible, and saw the pink lips lose their colour.

"We are nothing in this world." She hear herself say. It echoed around her head, her brain, her ears, and she wanted to take it back. She did not mean to say it, it simply slipped out, as if someone else had taken her body, and was speaking through her lips.

"No..." Aria looked up slowly, her eyes dull, repeating after Natalia, like some sick code which was forced out of her mouth. "We have no place in the world."

"Exactly." Madam B whispered, her eyes sharp again, like a vulture on her prey. "There is no place in the world for you. Do what you are asked, girls, and you will be given a place, here."

"Given a place..." Aria whispered after Madam B

Natalia felt her nails ig hard into her palm, her fingertips tracing the air, as if trying to catch something, which slipped just through her fingers, dissolving into the tense atmosphere of the room, lost, forever.