"I am the tall dark stranger all those warnings prepared you about."

NADINE

Nadine didn't know if she'd passed out after the explosion.

The force threw her back and she hit something solid before collapsing onto the ground. She opened her eyes, her vision doubling for a moment before she could finally see. She coughed out dust made from stone or clay, and when she tried to get up, Nadine realized that a painting had fallen on top of her. Pushing it aside, she staggered to her feet, her legs shaking and her breathing fatigued like she'd been punched in the gut. When she looked up, her eyes locked with Kristina's; she had blood on her silver dress and was seething with a rage that she'd only seen a few times during her childhood. The woman seemed to be saying something, but Nadine didn't have time to register it before she noticed the gun in her hand. She was tackled to the ground behind the velvet seat before any shots found her; when she turned towards her savior, it was Kaia, whose lips were moving, but no sound came out. Was she whispering?

No, she was yelling, but Nadine couldn't hear anything. She hadn't noticed that her ears were ringing.

When she peeked over the couch, Kristina was gone, the men that had accompanied her all on the floor; whether dead or alive was an unanswered question she didn't care to figure out. Nadine stood back up, quickly running over towards Taj and Dante, who were lying on top of a mess of broken pieces from the chairs they'd been tied to. Reaching towards her partner to help him up, he pushed her hands away as he stood on his own. His mouth was moving, so she assumed he was saying some stupid shit about how he could do it all on his own. Kaia waved towards the door as a figure stepped into the room: Sam, who was controlling a red, drone-like object with his watch and was holding a gun in front of him. He said something, but she couldn't hear. After concentrating on his lips, it seemed like he was saying "-Anyone hurt?"

"How about a little bit of a warning next time before you blow shit up?" Emilia mouthed, or shouted, Nadine didn't know what to call it. The woman was pulling out splinters due to crashing onto the coffee table.

Nadine shook her head to try to stop the ringing. "We can't let Kristina escape," she said, but she could barely hear her own voice.

"Girl, we need to go," Sam countered, a little louder this time. "This place is about to come crashing down."

"Kristina is a part of the Bratva, Sam," she replied as she made her way to one of the men on the floor. She didn't check to see if they were alive and simply took the gun, confirming the amount of ammunition it still had before proceeding to turn back towards the Falcon. "That woman is the next step in finding that sphere."

Sam groaned dramatically. Clearly, he wasn't all that keen on spending any more time in the building. "Fine, you and I will go."

"What about Dante and Taj?!" Emilia questioned, and Nadine looked at them. Kaia was helping them up, but neither were in shape to fight.

"You and Kaia can take them. We'll rendevous at the safe house and work from there." She sighed in relief as recovered her hearing again.

Sam motioned for her to follow him through the tunnel.  As they came face to face with two men she didn't think twice about pulling the trigger, aiming for her opponent's torso. She jumped over them and continued towards a flight of stairs that Sam pointed to. When they reached the top, he slid the door open -a picture frame, actually- and quickly disposed of the man guarding it. She realized they'd just walked into the lobby, where chaos was everywhere. The scene reminded her heavily of their mission in France which, if she was honest, led to this whole fiasco.

She pushed past the screaming crowd, side-stepping and evading any hits with a quickness as re-entered the casino lounge. Her eyes scanned faces, trying to find the Russian that escaped her. When she turned to her left, there was a woman, her slinky green dress a contrast to the white gun in her hands. The gun that was pointed right at Nadine.

"Nadine!"

"James?"

She didn't have time to react before she was tackled to the ground, bullets colliding with the blackjack table that was turned into a shield by Bucky. When she opened her eyes, she was met with his neck. His arm -his metal arm- was covering her head, and the rest of his body was hovering over her protectively. He was putting himself in harm's way for her.

Bucky pulled back to look at her, worried eyes assessing every inch of her to see if she had any new injuries. "You okay?"

Nadine was tongue-tied and let go of his shirt, which she hadn't even realized she was clutching. Part of her couldn't believe he'd done such a dumb thing, but the other part loved that he did. Her gaze drifted towards a rip on his suit, which revealed blood. He was bleeding. He was bleeding.

"You're hurt, James, y-you're-"

"-It's fine," he assured as helped her up. Keeping his arm hovering over her head, he quickly led her towards a column, placing himself in front so she wouldn't be exposed.

"You saved me." Nadine was dumbfounded. It was probably the concussion she most likely had.

Bucky stopped looking over the column, his eyes averting towards his hand, which was once again covering her head from any danger. "Guess we're even now."

He wouldn't look at her. She knew it, he was afraid of her.

Before she had time to answer, a shimmer of silver grabbed her attention. Kristina, with two men, being escorted out a passageway, most likely heading back to the tunnels they had just been in. She was getting away. "No," Nadine hissed, the bubble of rage returning at the thought.

She couldn't let Kristina get away.

"Nadine, wait!" Bucky's hand grasped her hand and pulled her back before she ran off behind her.

"Let me go!" Nadine threatened, her tone sharp as she tried to escape his grip. His hand quickly maneuvered towards her wrist, which just made her angrier. "Let go!"

Bucky pulled her towards him once again and before she could react, she was pinned between him and the column, their linked hands stuck between them.

"Nadine, listen to me." His face was close to hers and he clutched her chin firmly to make her look at him. His blue eyes were desperate, begging for her to listen. "We need to get out of here. This place, the bombs... I don't think Romanoff was able to stop them."

Nadine's breathing was heavy, but her anger at him was dissipating. "James, I need to do this," she pleaded, ignoring the desperation in her own voice as well.

Bucky let go of  Nadine and stepped back to give her space. He seemed hurt by her words, but she didn't understand why. Nadine didn't think much of it, though, as she quickly ran left towards the secret door Kristina took, leaving a hurt Bucky behind her.

She pushed the painting aside and entered the tunneled hallway once again, sprinting quickly to try to make up for the lost time. "Kristina!" she called as a group of people came into view. The Russian stopped dead in her tracks and turned to face her, her face void of any emotion. The only sound was the chaos that was still happening behind Nadine.

Nadine held her fists up defensively, her eyes never leaving the woman for a second. She would be damned if she let her roam free. "You didn't think I'd let you leave, did you?"

Kristina scoffed, almost as if she was amused. The corner of her mouth turned upwards in a deadly smirk. "Kill her."

The men pulled out knives and lurched forward.

She felt an arm pull her back, a body coming between her and the men that ran forward. Bucky quickly punched one while another kicked him in the chest.

"Go!" he motioned for Nadine to run, Kristina already disappearing down the tunnel. She ducked a punch and maneuvered her way through the fight and ran down the corridor, determined not to let her escape. She caught sight of the silver color as she turned left, only to be met with a gun pointed at her. She stopped just a few feet away from Kristina, who smirked. "I still don't like you, Mira. However, out of respect for Jameson's memory, you can leave. Take this as a warning."

"You're really going to hide behind a gun?" Nadine mocked, clenching and unclenching her fists as she tried to hide her agitation. "Never took you for a coward, Kristina."

"I am not stupid enough to fall for your wordplay," she replied. "I'm older than you by a decade. Everything you know, I've known for years."

"And yet you weren't enough," she pushed, her shoulders lifting into a shrug. Kristina's smirk faded, so Nadine decided to hurt her resolve. "Jameson could have shut down that school once your grandfather died and you were born, but no. He had to get more kids."

Kristina's eye was twitching.

"Funnily enough, he only considered closing it once Emilia and I stepped into the fold," she muttered casually, almost as if they were discussing something mundane like their next hair appointments. "Guess you weren't that impressive."

Kristina ran forward, closed the gap between them, and placed the gun under Nadine's chin, forcing her to look at the woman. The coldness in her eyes was unmatched, something that sent a chill down Nadine's spine. "My father may have placed his faith in your abilities, but make no mistake: you cannot best me, little sister."

A memory flashed before her eyes. Nadine, fourteen years old, struggling to get up from the ground as Kristina brutally beat her in a duel. She could still feel the pain in various parts of her body and the metallic taste in her mouth, as well as Dante's arms around her as he helped her up. "I should put her out of her misery," Kristina had muttered under her breath. Nadine almost dared her to do it.

Time to call her bluff.

"Do it," she urged, never breaking her stare. "We both know that Jameson always liked me best and that bothered you. It ate you up on the inside to know that no matter what, no matter what you accomplished, you would never be enough for him."

Her grip on Nadine's arm tightened and for a moment, Nadine believed she'd cemented her death. But suddenly, a flash of blue caught her vision which made the hairs on her arms stand, and down Kristina went, convulsing violently. When Nadine turned, she saw Natasha and Bucky, who were positioned defensively as they expected another attack.

"That was my last taser disk," Natasha remarked as she confirmed Kristina was down. She brushed a few stray locks out of her face. "I put the bombs in stasis."

Nadine breathed a sigh in relief, watching as Bucky silently cuffed the unconscious Kristina and picked her up. Her body was limp over his shoulder as he continued down the hallway without giving Nadine so much as a glance.

Natasha stopped her for a moment, her tight grip on her bicep meaning she was asking for Nadine's full attention. "She was going to kill you."

"No, she wasn't," Nadine said, her tone calm and collected. She was about to follow Bucky down the end of the tunnel when Natasha grabbed her arm again. "What?"

Natasha raised an eyebrow. Nadine almost felt like her eyes were staring into her soul. "We both know that's a lie."

The woman continued down the hallway, leaving Nadine to collect her thoughts. She couldn't stop herself from looking down at her hands; her knuckles were marked with red, purple, and blue, and her head relayed the events of the night. The violence, the rage, the way she egged Kristina on...

As she made her way down the tunnel, she couldn't help the unsettling guilt that was building in her stomach. The hurt in Bucky's face, the way he couldn't look at her, it confirmed what she feared.

Jameson wasn't so wrong about her after all.

_______________________________

A/N: And welcome back to another very random update!

I hope y'all are doing good and holy shit, I'm so glad 2020 is done. That shit was AWFUL lmao

But hey, that is done and now we're in a new year. So far 2021 has been rather pleasant *she says while knocking on wood so it won't be jinxed* and I finally updated after SO LONG!

Let's see if the next one will be quicker LMAO

Thank you guys for sticking around and THE FACT THAT THIS STORY IS ALMOST AT 100K VIEWS???? NEVER IN MY LIFE WOULD I HAVE THOUGHT IT WOULD GET THERE??

THANK YOU SO MUCH. SERIOUSLY. THANK YOU. WOW.

Now I'm actually gonna take advantage of me being on a roll here and continue the next chapter. See ya next time!