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Summary: Winter Soldier attempts to kill Natasha, but ends up sparking old/wiped memories instead.
Date: March 6, 2009
Log Title Assassin vs Assassin
Rating: R for violence, etc..
Natasha's Apartment
He knew she was awake. With so much foresight of her status as a fresh, Hydra target, why would the notorious 'Black Widow' let her guard down? The Winter Soldier takes a moment to screw a silencer onto his pistol as he eases in through the fire escape to the restroom, pausing as moment to reach out and brush a fingertip along the bathroom tile. The Floorplan tells the soldier the bedroom in on the other side of the wall…that would mean Natasha would probably have the best shot from…here. Several silenced rounds cut cleanly through the walls towards the woman. Hello.
"There goes my security deposit," Natasha says as a shot rips through shower curtain moments before she pulls the rod down and throws the curtain over Winter Soldier's head as she flips over him to land in the door frame of the bathroom, staring forward with a pistol in one hand, held loose, the other wrist aiming her Widow's Bite at him. "You're better than I remember."
"That's funny, I hardly remember you at all." Barnes replies coldly, casually dropping a clip from the weapon and slapping a fresh one in. "You have to understand, though, that this isn't anything personal." He says, lifting his dark eyes to stare up at the woman and relaxing his form.
Natasha watches him through emotionless eyes, burying the sting of his words with everything else she's pushed deep inside of her. "That would explain a few things," she murmurs more to herself than to him, leveling the Widow's Bite at his chest as she let's off a bolt then dodges for cover. "It's never personal," she agrees as she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. "What did they do to you, James? Did they try to beat it out of you like they did me? Reprogramming? What was it?"
It seems the Winter Soldier has little to say, or perhaps little he /can./ Say. He doesn't know what happened or what she's talking about so, clearly, the Black Widow must be trying to cloud his mind. He dodges forward, tumbling as the woman's muscles began to tense for the blast and rising to rip the bathroom door from it's hinges with his false arm and charging forward; using it as improvised cover. "The Red Room has done you a disservice, Widow. I'm not dead yet."
Natasha sighs as she sees the door charging for her. Luckily for her, it's a door, and thus very unwieldy. Natasha dodges to the left, kicking a table over, under his feet to give her enough of a chance to get out of the way. "If I was trying to kill you, you would be," she assures in a soft voice from behind the couch. "You see, my guess is reprogramming. Red Room is such a fan of that. I was always surprised that they didn't try it on me." she resets the widow's bite, tucking the gun in a safe place for later, easier grabbing. "I imagine they figured that this would be much more difficult for me."
Before the table gets the chance to tumble into the soldier, the door is flung with alarming force at the woman's head, the assassin slipping a few fingertips across the ground as he flips over the makeshift missile and threatens to throw a follow-up jumpkick a few feet to Natasha's side. "You underestimate my competence; or maybe you just overestimate /yours!/"
"I hadn't meant on a physical level," Natasha corrects, preparing herself for the kick as she moves into it to grab his ankle, hooking the leg under an arm as she twists the two in opposite direction, giving him the option of tumbling or a broken ankle. She then pulls down, trying to flip him over her head.
The Winter Soldier instead uses the momentum of the twist to roll with Natasha, arching backwards to place his hands on the ground for support and kicking both legs around her to suplex her into the floor head first.
Natasha relaxes as she feels the momentum shift, releasing his legs as his wrap around her. Arms drop down to catch her fall, body curling to a safe position as he moves to the ground with her, the only place he has to go. She twists her body to turn and face him, hands whipping in a flurry of blows.
The Winter Soldier crosses his arms in front of his face to weather a few strikes before rolling his arms to grip Natasha's by the wrists, immediately whipping her weight around to roll on top of her. He grinds his teeth as he leans in to headbutt her, pausing right before the moment of impact inexplicably and staring into her eyes, his long hair brushing past her cheeks. He's enraptured. "I could kill you right now. It would be easy."
Natasha goes still in his grip, staring up into those dangerously familiar eyes. Green narrows as she watches him. "Maybe not so easy," she murmurs, her head falling back against the ground. If he were going to, he would have by now. Still, her mind wanders to the hidden gun beneath the couch. "James," she whispers. "Tell me what they did to you."
The Winter Soldier remains silent as he stares back, his lack of a response speaking more than a rehearsed speech. With uncanny force, he repositions the Black Widow's hands above her head, using his cybernetic arm to pin them with vice-like force as his other hand raises to brush past her cheek. It slowly slides and caresses her side, easing it's way down past her arms, then her waist…finally resting at her hip. "How do I remember…" He starts, easing his fingertips further until they crawl past her inner thigh. CLICK. It raises to rest the barrel of a revolver against her chin. "…you keep a weapon here?"
Natasha watches him without emotion as silence answers her question in more ways than he could know. He was reprogrammed. He didn't just forget her over time, he forgot her almost completely. As his hand slides down along her, she flexes, frowning, eyes narrowing further when she hears the click. "Because you always knew where it was," she says as the gun presses against her chin, a smile blooming in place of the frown. "Because it's not the first time you've had cause to reach between my thighs." He remembered that. A good sign.
The Winter Soldier frowns as he lowers the weapon and pushes himself to his feet, still gripping Natasha's wrists and lifting her in the process until hauling her up and studying her eyes thoughtfully. His hair cascades aside as he takes a step forward and tilts his head, closing his eyes and moving close enough his lips barely brush her own. As he releases her arms to reach out and caress her face he pauses, snapping back to reality and taking a step back to level a pistol between her eyes.
Natasha takes a deep breath as she's pulled up by her wrists, feet dangling at first before he settles her on her feet. Her eyes flutter shut at the almost kiss, though she doesn't lose herself to it entirely. She isn't stupid, after all. Her arms fall to her side, a hand sliding back to the gun he didn't find. She leans into the caress, eyes widening to stare into his even as the gun is pressed between her eyes. There's a click as the safety is released from her own gun, pressing into his chest.
The Winter Soldier falters in his determination and stops, lowering his pistol and taking several steps back to start slowly guiding himself towards the bathroom. Once he reaches the door he pauses completely, lowering the firearms and looking down with confusion before tossing the gun to the floor and sprinting back out from whence he came. He failed his mission tonight.
Natasha watches his retreat, her gun still trained on him until he's gone for atleast a few minutes. Slowly her gun moves to her side, eyes focusing on the weapon he tossed down. He remembered. Maybe not enough, maybe not even more than a flash or two. But at the very least it shows her that their programming is weak, breakable. Thoughts filter quickly through her mind as she picks up the weapon and slides it back along her inner thigh. She scans the room with a shake of her head. She's not dealing with this tonight. Someone's going to be staying at the Avenger's Mansion for a good long time after this.