Bird Set Free | Natasha Romanoff ✓

Chapter Twenty-Five

Aquila had transformed in Talons, her wings were pressed against her body as she crouched in the shadows, waiting for her moment to strike. 

Her sharpened eyesight picked up the detail in the ship even though the darkness surrounded her. 

Ultron was addressing Tony, Thor, and Steve not too far away but she had her own mission. 

Her talons ripped into guards, leaving gaping holes in their chests. With her wings outstretched in the darkness, she truly looked terrifying. 

She quickly looked around, still hovering in the air to see that any hope of talking the situation out with Ultron had abandoned and a full on fight had taken place. 

"Guys?" Aquila called through her specially designed earpiece, flying through the air. "Are you alright?"

Unfortunately, she didn't hear a response as she saw a red flash come her way out of her peripheral vision, as what looked like a girl wearing a bright red dress walked away. 

The red flash came into contact with Aquila's head, causing her to stop flying and fall roughly to the ground. 

Her eyes, which were usually a golden brown when she was transformed, flashed red, as Aquila's ability to see faded away as she got dizzy and her thoughts were quickly replaced with her worst memory that she had relived many a time in the form of nightmares. 

Aquila turned only to quickly realize that she wasn't on the boat anymore. The familiarity washed over her, as she looked around at the one place she had felt at home for the majority of her life. 

She could easily spot her parents, standing there, smiling up at her. Her grandmother standing next to them, providing her own encouraging smile. 

"Cadman." A voice said as Aquila whipped around to see who said it, it was Burnell, their old chief. 

The memory continued, her eagle appearing before her, looking striking. The strange feeling of her soul being entwined with Talons'. 

Aquila inhaled sharply as she knew what was coming next. 

Chaos started, arrows raining down on the crowd. But Aquila couldn't move, there was no Burnell whispering in her ear this time, warning her to flee, assuring her that the others were right behind her. That everything was going to be alright, when it wasn't, nothing ever was actually alright. 

She was forced to stay in place watching the destruction, her grandmother falling to the ground, her parents disappearing into the crowd. 

Fires dotted through the crowd, as red stained the ground. Animals jumping up to fight only to be quickly slain. Aquila whipped around to observe the severity of the destruction only to come face to face with all the Avengers, her second family, standing there looking at her in disgust. 

"You are a monster."

"You really think you were ever important to us?"

"This is all your fault."

"Did you ever think that I deserve someone like you?"

"No!" Aquila shouted. "This is just a dream!"

"Don't kid yourself, Aquila." Aquila whipped around to face her parents who had joined her, wearing similar looks of disgust. 

"Even now that you found us again, you just left us again. 

"You don't care about us."

"You always just flee from the trouble."

"You didn't even try to save us, you just left us."

"You think just because you can fly, that you are suddenly a good person, you are a killer, a cold, ruthless killer."

"I could never love someone like you."

"Stop!" Aquila shouted as the voices overlapped, merging into one hell of a deafening chorus. "This is fake! This is pretend!" Aquila shouted again, her hands pressed firmly against her ears, in an attempt to block out her worst memory and fears. 

"Aquila is out too." Clint's voice cut through the haze.

"Make it stop!" Aquila screeched. "Please make it stop." Aquila sobbed out, crying for what seemed like the first time in a while. 

"Please. . . ."

The first thing that Aquila noticed when she opened her eyes next, was the silence and the tense atmosphere. Rubbing at her eyes, she slowly sat up, noticing her throat was dry and scratchy. 

It didn't take long for her to realize the source of the tense mood. 

Similarly to what she was still trying to fight off, pretty much, everyone had suffered from the mind tricks that the little witch in the red dress had inflicted on them all. 

Aquila carefully picked herself up, walking across the Quinjet on wobbly legs before sitting herself down next to a still-dazed Natasha. 

Aquila took a deep breath, the poisonous words that Natasha herself had uttered still circulating around her brain, but she quickly pushed them away, grabbing Natasha's hand gently, offering her a small smile. 

Natasha eventually leaned her head down to rest on Aquila's shoulders as the two of them sat there for a while, old memories still haunting them as a fear of what would happen with admitted feelings also swirled around.