"I never had a chance to be soft.
I was always bloody knuckles and shards of glass.
So, tell me,
Now that you've seen me bare my teeth and witnessed when I stripped lungs of their breath,
Do you still think I have a chance at being soft?"

NADINE

Her opponent lurched forward.

She blocked his fist with her forearm, uppercutting him with her right hand. He stumbled backwards enough to give her a chance to kick him in the chest. The momentum threw him onto his back, but he recovered quickly and blocked her jab, narrowly missing her cheek with a punch. Nadine stepped back, hands placed in front of her face. They circled each other slowly for a minute to study their weaknesses.

"I am impressed," he said in a rough accent, but she couldn't pinpoint from where. The way he kept moving his jaw assured Nadine that her punch hurt. "I did not expect that."

"I noticed," she retorted, bending backwards as he ran forward and lifted his legs into a double roundhouse kick. She blocked his jab and sidestepped when he threw a second punch, grabbing his hands and pinning them against her torso with one hand, while holding him steady so she could knee his gut. Then she threw her right leg backwards and pushed herself into the air into a flip. The momentum threw him to the ground, his head locked between her calf and thigh and his arms still pinned by her hands. He trashed violently to get her off, screaming something in what seemed to be Romanian, but Nadine held on as best as she could. "Sorry? I can't hear you."

Everything was going her way, but Nadine made the mistake of looking into the crowd. She looked right at Steve's worried gaze, and her strength faltered. The man managed to turn them sideways with enough force to get her off of him and she scrambled to get back onto her feet before he recovered. When she turned, though she narrowly avoided it colliding with her face, his cross punch still managed to find her shoulder, which threw off her balance enough for him to punch her in the gut and grab her wrist to throw her over his shoulder with ease.

When her body collided with the floor, black spots adorned her vision and she could feel the stinging on shoulder from where she took the blow. The air was kicked right out of her as he landed a kick to her gut, then another, until she grabbed his ankle and pulled him forward. In one swift motion, she slashed the tiny knife in her ring on his ankle. He yelped in pain at the sensation, and she let go of him only to kick his leg out from under him. Nadine pinned him under her and punched him in the face. Then she did it again, and again, and again. She switched hands as she did, her knuckles stinging and most likely starting to split with every blow she landed. The sound of a crunch just egged her on, but she didn't stop until he coughed out blood, his lip split open.

She stood up, her breathing heavy and her fingers still curled into fists. "Stay down," she said, shocked at the harsh growl embedded into her words. She could barely breathe with the blows she sustained to her ribs, but the adrenaline coursing through her helped her ignore it.

But he didn't stay down. Her opponent slowly but surely stood back up, balancing his weight on his uninjured leg and putting his hands up to cover his bloody face. "This ends only one way... predarea nu este o opțiune."

What the fuck did he say?

She must've looked confused at his Romanian, because he rolled his eyes. "One of us...." he panted as he swung forward, and Nadine outmaneuvered it whilst landing a kick on his side. He lurched sideways, briefly touching where she hit him. "This ends when one dies."

"Then so be it."

Nadine swung, and he evaded or deflected her moves, but she just wanted a ploy to study the cut on his leg. Judging from the blood stain and how he continued to place his weight onto his uninjured leg, it was throwing him off. Putting her hands behind her back, she took off her ring and twisted the blade out. When she blocked his jab by grabbing his wrist, she slashed the blade on the outside of his arm.

"You fucking bitch!" he screamed, and Nadine ducked when he attempted to kick her in the face. She proceeded to kick his leg out, and down he went once again.

The cries of pain were enough to make her stop. "Stay down," she repeated, her body starting to tire. Not good. Not good at all. She knew that there were only two options to combat that: either she reasoned with him and made him surrender, or she'd have to finish the job before she lost focus and he could attack her weak spots. "Neither of us has to die."

"D-Do you think," he growled, spitting out the blood that wasn't letting him speak clearly. "Do you think they will let us live, you foolish girl?! Look around you!"

She'd forgotten about the crowd, but she could hear their faded cheers now that he mentioned them. They were going wild for the fight, that she could tell. Some were yelling at her directly, and though she didn't understand what they said, she didn't need a translator to know what they wanted.

They wanted her to kill him.

He got up again, but his balance was shot. Both his legs were injured and one of his eyes was starting to swell shut. So she kicked his chest, ducked his jab, uppercut his jaw, and kneed his side, until finally he lost his balance once more. When he was on his knees, she brought her leg up into a roundhouse kick onto his face, and down he went. Nadine looked up and saw Natasha. She was concerned, which threw Nadine off because during their time together, the message was always clear.

Finish the job, unless you want it to come back and kill you.

And yet, here she was, looking at Nadine like she'd lost her.

Ignoring her, Nadine lifted him from the ground and wrapped her arm around his neck, hands placed on both sides of his head. The cheers rattled her head. They were pushing her to the brink, to the side she struggled to keep at bay.

The side that liked the blood on her hands and the terror she could bring if she'd just give in.

She twisted his head slightly, ready to break his neck.

Her eyes fluttered towards Bucky, his chest rising and falling sharply as he stared her down. She could've sworn she saw something in his gaze. Fear, maybe?

She tightened her grip, her knees trembling. For a moment, she hesitated. Was she really that quick to fall back into her old ways?

No, never. This was merely survival.

And yet, after all that she'd done to prove that she wasn't the monster that Jameson wanted her to be, here she was, debating whether to put another life to the list of murders she'd committed.

She couldn't debate any further, however, because it all stopped with just one word: "Enough."

The crowd went quiet, and Nadine froze in her spot, losing her grip on her opponent. He slid down to the ground again, groaning as he tried to sit up. In another time, maybe she would've tried to help him, but her brain couldn't seem to get past the fact that she knew that voice.

She knew that voice, but it couldn't be.

Nadine's blood ran cold as a woman, dressed in glittering silver, appeared from the crowd and stood right where the hostess had. Her platinum hair was short, brushed into glamorous waves that complimented her sharp face. She looked older than the last time they encountered each other, but the light blue eyes and threatening smile were permanent features that would never disappear with age.

"Kristina," her voice was barely above a whisper. Suddenly, she was a teenager again, and she remembered the times she'd spent following the woman like a shadow, learning everything she could. When she couldn't keep up, she remembered the times she almost froze to death after being left to her wits in snowy Siberia. 'You will either learn to survive, or you will not', Kristina had told her after unlocking her cell, motioning to the guard to pick her then thirteen year old body off of the hard ground.

She almost lost her fingers, which she was glad she didn't. She wouldn't be able to put a bullet in the woman's head without them.

"I am sorry." Kristina's posh Russian accent was as cutthroat as ever, just like the iciness in gaze. "I know you were expecting the Hand. They are not here."

"Of course not," Nadine muttered, a small huff escaping her as she looked at the man. He was unconscious, no longer a threat, and the surge fueling her instinct to kill him was already dissipating. All she could concentrate was on the woman standing a few feet from her.

Kristina ignored her snark, her stoic gaze unflinching as she stared her down. "It has been a while, Cестра. You look stronger."

"Don't," she spat. She didn't want to listen to her act any more than she had to. "Of course you planned this. You just wanted Emilia and me in your clutches."

This time, Kristina smirked, and the Russian Arctic was nothing compared to the frigidness in it. "All those years away, and it only made you more predictable. It is time you and I talked."

_______________________________

WORD TRANSLATION:
1) predarea nu este o opțiune. (romanian) - surrender is not an option.
2) Cестра (russian) - sister

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A/N: Nadine just wanted to get her friends out, not get tangled with this hoe

Anyway, hello again, Wattpad! It's been a while, clearly. I apologize for my really late update, but hey, I hope the wait was worth it? Lmao

Juggling school and a job really took a toll on my mental health, and I've been in and out of some depressive episodes for a bit now. However, thanks to this pandemic, everyone in PR are self-quarantining, and this has helped me get a breather in and finally finish this chapter. So, I guess I have the Coronavirus to thank for the inspiration, lol

I want to thank y'all for supporting this story and to welcome all the new readers that have picked this up. This is a safe space and I'm glad y'all have fallen in love with my characters <3

Y'all don't know how happy it makes me every time I see a vote or a comment or that y'all are adding this to your reading lists. It means so much, so thank you again for all the love.

Also, LOOK AT MY NEW COVER I MADE IT I FEEL SO PROUD IT'S SO NICE:

It's been up for a while now, but I just wanted to geek about it because I'm proud of how it turned out!

But anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and I hope you're all staying safe with this pandemic!

WASH YOUR HANDS AND STAY INSIDE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN PLEASE, I DONT WANT Y'ALL EXPOSING YOURSELVES OR EXPOSING OTHERS. PLEASE THINK ABOUT YOUR FAMILIES OR FRIENDS WHO MAY NOT BE AS HEALTHY AS YOU GUYS AND WILL FOR SURE BE SUSCEPTIBLE TO A VIRUS LIKE THIS. THINK ABOUT THE RISKS AND DON'T BE AN ASS.

Enough about that for today. Thank you again! <3