The Unknown Enemy ∘ Marvel [3]

Chapter 26: Confrontations

For Christ's sake

Sienna's hands went to her hip after she put the wrapping down, left fingers sliding back to grip the handle of her concealed pistol. Her hard breaths from strenuous activity began to still as she focused in her array of emotions. Sweat dripped down her forehead as she waited for her sister to make the first move. The sound of the door shutting echoed over the open space, her asking after the reverberations dimmed, "What are you doing here?"

Zerina made her way down the stairs easily. Her hazel eyes darted between the steps and the woman at the bottom of them before finally uttering her first direct words to Sienna in over seven months, "Bad dreams."

Firman's jaw clenched as her stomach pulled itself into fitful knots, noticing the Sprouse girl wasn't armed. Still, she wouldn't take the chance of giving her the benefit of the doubt. She didn't speak after that, instead removing her grip from her pistol and going back to the punching bag. She didn't turn her back on what could be a potential threat and observed her in sideways glances.

"What about you?" Zerina pressed. Her voice was cold and rather smooth, but one look at her body language suggested otherwise. The rigidness of her muscles showed her poorly concealed apprehension and perhaps anger.

Another quick jab at the leather before she curtly replied. Natasha's voice still flickered in the back of her mind, piling atop irritability to make her tone sharp, "So now you want to talk."

"You can't blame me for taking my time." The sister returned the blunt edge of the words, her balanced facade falling without too much pressure.

Sienna wiped her temple with the back of her hand, meeting the other woman's stare. She watched her left hand curl into a fist. Her initial observation of her sister had put violence as a possibility, but now the agent wasn't sure. Yes, it was obvious she was mad, but Firman didn't take her as one to immediately go to throwing punches. Maybe Sprouse just wanted to scream at her.

Whatever the intention was, she wasn't going to handle it this moment with so much else going on. Too many echoes in her head, "Can we not do this right now?"

"What?" Zerina's brows scrunched together as she mocked the younger's statement, arms folded over her chest, "Not at least give me an explanation I'm owed? I really shouldn't be surprised I guess. That's kind of your thing."

Sienna's teeth gritted together, looking back to the bag in front of her. Vexation breathed under her skin as she focused on a two sequence hit followed by a swift side kick, knowing that fighting the actual person in the room wasn't a good idea. Instead, she settled for the lump of contained sand, not giving into the obvious bait for conflict, "Look, you know I didn't kill Nya-"

"Don't forget about lying to me about definitely murdering my mom. You almost got away with that one." Sprouse tried to adopt an aloof rage, and it was actually fitting her chilling accusations now.

Another quick set of jabs made more noise to fill the tense break in conversation. She didn't avert her eyes from her target as she cut to the chase, "Okay, did you come down here to try to stir something up or is this just coincidence?"

"If you call confronting my mother's killer and possibly my sister's 'stirring something up' then-"

"I didn't kill Nya." Sienna clipped, breaking away from the activity to glare across the room.

"You're the reason she's dead."

Firman's shoulder muscles tightened as she found herself facing another stark truth. Her head swam with the knowledge of both Morocco and the unfortunate death of her murderous half-sister. Nya had died from a fall, and then presumably a kill switch implanted in her by her superiors. But why had she even been in that position? The best guess was it was all to avenge Isabelle.