ten
"the battle of a thousand pieces"

The room is far too small for the five people who squeeze in to witness Natasha's demonstration.

At the glower of Fury, Lusine feels her cousin tighten her grip around her arm and sink into her side. Not in fear. No, she is no coward, but as a reminder that she is there. That Lusine is not alone as she walks into a kind of battle she has not fought in a very long time.

The battle of a thousand pieces. Moving one forward, another back. Putting everything into place to demolish the opponent in a masterful checkmate.

Both women have played this game before, and both will likely play it again before their time is up.

"Well," Lusine says, placing a hand over her cousin's as it rests on her arm, "shall we get this over with?"

Confidence is forced to ooze from her every pore as she stands face to face with what has the potential to send her away from this new safe-haven she's secured for herself.

She must tread carefully.

She thought she'd escaped court politics when she came to Earth, but it turns out this place is exactly the same. S. H. I. E. L. D. is exactly the same. Pawns, knights, princes, kings and queens all moving into place, following orders, making demands.

Though she is undecided on whether they're quite as hostile as her home planet.

It seems Natasha is taking on the task of making up her mind alone as she replies, "Yes, I think that's a good idea."

A few taps on the screen later and the still image of herself appears before them. It's definitely her, but it's almost as if she's an entirely different person. Full of life and thriving as the void bubbles and boils beneath the milky skin.

If only that woman had known what would befall her between then and now. Maybe then she would've been prepared for the onslaught of her grief-torn mother.

Though perhaps nothing can prepare a child for the wrath of their parent.

The image before them comes to life and Lusine's heart leaps into her throat when the camera pulls to a wide shot. Sat at the desk in front of her as she strides into the room, full of arrogance, is Agent Phil Coulson.

She watches herself clamp a hand down on his shoulder before he can turn to greet her and those infamous eyes of her shudder to black.

"Agent Coulson," she hears herself say, "I want you to tell me everything you know about this... organisation and the team they are currently constructing."

And, with no choice in the matter, Coulson is more than happy to oblige.

When Coulson is finished divulging everything she wishes to know, that devoted woman stands and extends a hand to him. They shake and she thanks him greatly, leaving the room. The moment she steps out, he is himself again and none the wiser to what had occurred.

The screen goes black.

Lusine swallows, but her expression is unflinching. "You already knew I read your files. This isn't new information," She says calmly, though her cage has been shaken.

"There's more," Natasha simply replies, flicking onto the next clip of surveillance.

This scene is much later down the line and she knows what she's about to witness from the moment the clip begins.

Her past-self struts down the corridor, wet hair slicked back from her face and dripping down her spine. The guard at the door is no trouble for someone like her and he's under her spell in an instant, another abuse of her power for selfish gain.

The camera switches angle to show her walk into the room where Loki was held captive. Her chest tightens at the sight of him and, witnessing it from the outside, she can almost see the relief on his face when she enters his presence.

If only she'd believed it then, maybe things would've been different.

The moment the past version teleports inside of his cell, she feels Steve's eyes slide to her and dig right into the back of her skull.

She wants to turn to tell him not to watch this, but she can't tear her own eyes away as she watches her reunion with Loki. Her lips part and throat clenches as the once private exchange unfolds before an audience of prying eyes, evaluating her every move.

Her with her hands on his chest, gazing into his eyes as if that was a love that could do either of them any good.

Back then, all it ever did was break them. Over and over again.

Now, they were better for the distance and Lusine intends to keep it that way, even if she has to continue his rouse of death.

The moment Loki's hands slid onto her waist, Lusine forgets to breathe. Her head snaps to the side, rage boiling inside of her as she's overwhelmed by the experience of reliving a memory she'd rather forget.

She locks onto Natasha. "Turn it off," She demands, just as her past-self expresses a desire to 'rule the world' at Loki's side.

The agent simply glances to her and then back to the screen as if nothing was said, only succeeding in infuriating Lusine further.

Lusine rips herself from her cousin's grip and manages to take two steps forward before Natasha pulls her pistol and aims between the eyes.

Ignoring the lovers embrace being displayed for all to see on the screen, Lusine grits her teeth and repeats herself, "Turn it off."

"Nat, I think that's enough..." Steve tries, but he lacks the conviction.

"If you have nothing to hide," she flexes her finger over the trigger in a clumsy warning, intended to be seen by all, "then why shouldn't we continue?"

The screen fades to black just as the first inky vein begins its climb up her forearm.

Confused, Lusine looks to the screen. "There's more to that than what was shown," She protests, hands balling at her sides. "You can't just pick and choose what to show. I'm sure if I got inside your head, I could find a thousand damning thoughts if I took them out of context."

"You will not be getting inside anyone's head, Miss Volkov," Nick Fury says, his voice a steady beat in the rising heat of the room.

"That depends on whether she holsters her gun or not," She shoots back without hesitation, done playing polite just to get in his good books. She's sure he's capable of seeing through those kinds of facades anyway.

"Agent Romanoff," is all he has to say for the weapon to lower, however reluctantly, and reattach to her belt.

Everyone can see the strain in Lusine as attempts to control her power. Those memories of the days where she couldn't only send her tumbling back and the void relishes in that. Takes full advantage and rears its ugly head once more, yanking against the reins.

Her eyes flicker a shade of violet as she stares Natasha down. Another black vein crawls up her neck, leaping over the crest of her jaw and onto her cheek.

"She cannot be trusted," Natasha insists. "She's a danger to this world and needs to go back to her own."

She hisses as if she's been scalded and another blur of fury washes over her. The familiar jaws clash against the iron bars, cage rattling beneath canines.

"Do you want to know what happened last time I went home?" Lusine's jaw feathers and almost cracks under the weight of her grinding jaw.

"You don't have to," Olea protests gently, though the quiet fury underpinning her voice is quite unnerving. "You owe her nothing."

Her magic, still weak, shudders under the pressure, but she relieves it in an instant as the illusion comes slamming down. She stands as her true self. Battle-scarred, hollow, and, most surprising of all, breakable.

In the shock of it, she surges the change to rush towards a surprised Natasha and seize her by the shoulders.

In a matter of seconds, her entire horror story of her final visit home plays out in the mind of the Black Widow. When it's over, both women stumble back from one another.

Olea catches Lusine and bundles her into her arms as her body sags.

Natasha grips the console, steadying herself, heaving for breath as her eyes search the ground for nothing as her mind whirs with a new understanding of the woman she'd tried so hard to prove hostile.

Olea glances between the captain and the director. "If we're done here, I'd rather like to get her home where she can rest," She says clinically. Then, she turns those forest-green eyes onto Natasha. "I hope it was worth it for you to reduce my cousin to this."

Lusine rests heavy in her unfaltering arms. Conscious, but elsewhere.

"Yes," Fury says, "we're done."

She seems to hear the words too because she stands straighter, blinks once, and walks from the room, Olea hurrying to link their arms should she fall again.

Steve, finally spurring into some kind of action, follows after a moment and has to jog to catch up as the two Asgardians are approaching the elevator.

Olea presses the button and then turns to him, hooking an arm around a completely zoned out Lusine as she regards him.

"I think perhaps it's best for you to give her some space to rest up, Captain," She advises, though it doesn't sound like he has much choice.

He'd never seen this new acquaintance on the battlefield, but, if Lusine is anything to go by, she's likely to be deadly.

He nods his head. "Okay." His eyes dart across to Lusine's scarred face. "Is she going to be alright?"

"Yes, of course. It's Lusine, she's dealt with much worse," Olea assures him, knowing this first hand. "Come by our home tomorrow evening. She'll be awake and herself by then. I'm sure she'll have a lot to talk about with you."

"I'm sure she will," He agrees. "And you'll be okay getting her home?"

"Florian is waiting for us downstairs. The two of us will be able to manage, I'm sure." She offers a comforting smile, understanding the worry in him is good natured. "In the meantime, I suggest you speak with Agent Romanoff. If Lusine showed her the exact events of that awful day, then she's going to need you right now."

"I'll find her right away," Steve replies, thankful he hadn't been shown the same recount of the events, only pieced it together through Lusine's map of scars. "Thank you."

"We'll see you tomorrow, Captain," Olea says as the lift opens behind them and she ushers Lusine inside, shushing her gently when she mumbles something incoherent, likely another language that he cannot speak.

"See you tomorrow," He confirms, standing there watching until the doors slide closed, concealing the emotionally exhausted woman out of view and leaving him to wonder how it all went so wrong so quickly.

Steve, frowning, turns around and walks back into the room where he'd left Natasha and Fury and finds her alone, still holding onto the console for support.

"Has she ever shown you that?" Her voice is deathly quiet. Eerie and shaken by the horrors she'd witnessed.

"No," Steve replies, stepping into the room and closing the door behind him, sure that she won't want anyone else to witness her like this. He'd never seen her this distressed before. Between the paleness to her cheeks and the furrow of her brow, she is utterly shaken. "She's told me, but never shown me."

"Good." Natasha begins to nod, wetting her dry lips. "You don't need to see that." Her fingers grasp the console tighter, knuckles as white as her face. "I didn't need to see that."

"She read your file. Maybe that was Lusine showing you hers." He crosses his arms, leaning back against the closed metal door. "Though her method was brutal, I suppose now you're even."

"Even?" Natasha raises her brows. "She just showed me something no woman should've been able to survive. Brutal is an understatement for that... for what happened to her." She swallows thickly, turning her eyes back down. "If you'd give me a moment alone, Steve, I'll be able to compose myself."

"Alright," He replies, opening the door. "Come and find me if you need anything, okay?"

Woodenly, she nods, but her eyes stare down as if she's replaying the scene over and over and over.

She's right. He doesn't need to see it. Not to know how horrific whatever had occurred to Lusine had been. He already knows it from the scars that mar her body, the nightmares she loses sleep over, the fragility she'd returned to him with.

All of it flare like warning signs and yet there's nothing he can do to help. He doesn't know what she needs, and she won't tell. She just grits her teeth and keeps on moving through the rain, hoping to emerge at the other side in one piece again, understanding what went wrong.

But maybe she can't.

Maybe she won't ever be in one piece again.

Maybe she'll never understand what went wrong.

But, if she does, then he'll be there for her, in whatever shape or form she requires.

-

2226 words
22.4.19

wow it's been a while, but here's another update. I had to rewrite this chapter because word somehow deleted it? So that's why it took so long, but here it is at last! Let me know what you thought & sorry for the delay! Thank you for your patience.