on their own, they're powerful. together, they're nearly unstoppable.
In which a broken assassin
finds love in a 100-year-old super-soldier
CA: WS
A: AOU
CA :CW
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SHE HAD BEEN ON THE RUN FOR MONTHS. Moving from place to place every week. By now she supposed she was in middle or northern Europe. The language seemingly a mix of Italian, German, and French. She assumed Switzerland, but she wasn't positive. She hadn't really been keeping track of where she was on the globe, just as long as she was as far away from Moscow as possible. Her hotels were far from five star. In fact, they were motels. The kind of motels that drug addicts and alcoholics would camp out. She usually never left the comfort of her room, though it wasn't comfortable at all. The bed had stains she wished not to know the cause of, the old carpeted floors were starting to come up, and the ceilings were peeling with mold. These were far from suitable living conditions, but it would last until Laikyn felt ready to pack up and move again.
As the dark-haired girl approached her room, her senses were on high alert. She noticed the lamp, that provided very little light, was off and she swore she had left it on. The only reason she had left her room in the first place was to get a few items that would last her until she made it to the next motel. She unlocked her door as quietly as she could, her hand reaching back to grab a tight hold of the gun tucked into the waistband of her jeans. She gently pushed the door open and stepped inside, her dark eyes sweeping across the somber room. Her copper-colored irises landed on a small frame in the corner.
"You're one hard chick to track down." A feminine voice spoke. The woman clicked on the lights revealing herself. She was dressed in a black catsuit, her red hair hanging down to her shoulders. Her left hand rested on the gun in her thigh holster. The right situated on her hip. Laikyn's eyes narrowed. She vaguely remembered the woman. She was her mission once. "You can lower your weapon. I'm not going to hurt you," The redhead said slowly.
Laikyn only clicked back the safety of her gun. Her shoulders square, fingers ready to pull the trigger. "Who are you?"
"You're not going to shoot me. If you wanted to kill me, you would've done it before I had even known you were here," The redhead stated matter-of-factly. "Put the gun down and we can talk."
Laikyn's brown eyes narrowed at the woman. Her gaze was heavy. She knew the redhead, who looked like an agent of some sort, was right. Laikyn could've killed her without hesitance, but she wasn't that person...not anymore. That didn't stop her from being on high alert. She was lost, alone, and on the run in a world that she wasn't familiar with. A few moments passed and she slowly released her grip on her gun and clicked the safety into place. The redhead let out a quiet sigh of relief. She was confident in her skills to get her mission to comply, however, she wasn't quite as confident in her mission's stability.
"Who are you? How did find you find me?" Laikyn asked. Her accent heavy. A thick mix between Russian and Romanian.
The redhead crossed the room slowly, her green eyes never leaving Laikyn's copper ones. "Natasha Romanoff. I work for SHIELD. You may or may not remember me but I remember you."
Laikyn's eyes quickly met the floor before she held Natasha's gaze again. "I do remember and I'm sorry. I don't do that anymore."
"I know. That's why I was sent to get you and take you with me."
The dark-haired girl only stood up straighter, her 5'8 frame casting a shadow over the former KGB assassin.
The redhead gave her a small smirk. "You don't trust me?"
"I don't trust anyone," Laikyn replied back sharply.
"That's fair," Natasha responded cocking her head to the side, "But don't you want to hear what I have to offer."
The curly-haired girl didn't respond. She just gave a simple nod of the head.
"My boss is putting together a team. A team of soldiers that might just be able to save the world. He thinks you'll be a perfect fit. Nobody else does though. Everyone else sees you as a cold-hearted, cold-blooded killer," Natasha explained.
"They're right," Laikyn replied, her face stoic and voice unwavering.
"My boss doesn't believe that. He just thinks you fell into the hands of some bad people who wanted to do bad things. He wants to do a good thing though. He wants to give you a chance to do something right... to make up for the wrong you've done. If you come with me, you can get a chance to do that. If not, you stay on the run until they've found you."
"They'll come for me," Laikyn stated.
"And SHIELD will protect you," Natasha could see that the young woman was unconvinced. "One shot, Laikyn. You've got one shot to turn your life around. One-shot to be the better version of who you already are... one-shot to be a hero."
One-shot to be a hero.
Those words struck a chord deep within the dark-haired girl. She had always been told that she would be a killer. Nothing more, nothing less. Now, a stranger believed that she could be a hero. That she could save lives instead of taking them.
Laikyn didn't know why she believed the words coming out of Natasha's mouth, but she did. She could only hope that they were right. She hoped that one day she would be able to see the hero they already saw in her. "Okay."
