{Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia}

Malaysia is a beautiful country, especially when it came to Kuala Lumpur. The place manages to blend the luxury of industrial high-rises while maintaining its pride in the locality through restaurants and shops. It was still a bustling city on the ground and that September breeze that carried rich spices and the smell of the sea hit any person that was either power-walking to work or soaking in the beauty of the secluded island. The same sentiment could be said for a trained killer on an international mission of shutting down a Kuala Lumpur lab in downtown that carried a solution of a famous brain-controlling serum.

In other words, it was another normal day in the life of Yelena Belova.

Sipping on a lovely Teh Tarik that was bustling with bubbles, she was enjoying the simple gifts of life. The past few years had been full of exploration. She had the pleasure of enjoying ski-riding in the Philippines and sight-seeing near the waterfalls of Croatia. There were also busy nights of eliminating targets in a market of Singapore or blowing up an illegal arms trade port in Greece. The life of Yelena Belova was quite an extraordinary one. However, it seemed like nothing to her.

That was due to her trying to find her purpose in life. The amount of times someone can see a knife go through the soft portions of skin or unloading a fully-loaded weapon on dozens of men can get more redundant by the day. Those travels only made her envy more of what she had seen. She had seen a couple propose their love to one another in Zürich and there was a time she saw a family play on the grass of Nuuksio. Compared to hers, she was feeling something boiling inside her that was completely void.

That sunken feeling crept us as she read the contents of the burner phone sitting beside her drink.

Eighth floor. Room looking over main street. Quick response time. Get payload and get out. Thanks xoxo.

"Asshole." She muttered at the bottom of her tongue. It felt like a needle had stuck behind her when the waiter approached upon hearing her sentiment.

"Any problems with your drink, madam?"

As easy as holding down a trigger, Yelena kicked herself into a smile. "Oh, it's nothing. You know, it's great actually. The best thing I've tasted since getting here."

"Ah, you're visiting? How has the trip been so far?"

"Oh, it's nice. So many sights, so many people. Truly welcoming. I totally love the vibes of the restaurant." Just like a snap, she cracked a friendly laugh. "And the smell of this place. Can't get any better on this side of Asia. It's wonderful."

"That sounds great. We're glad you're enjoying your stay! If I may, but where do you come from?"

"Well, I'm..."

Where do you come from?

What could she answer. The Red Room? From Ohio where she lived in a fake family just to be brought up as the perfect assassin? That was an answer that Yelena could not even begin to think about. No. She was starting to get over it. It was a promise to her sister after all.

"Madam?"

"Yes?" The instinct answered.

"Your eye."

Yelena brushed the side of her cheek to see that it was wet. It was the only thing she could not control nowadays. When she was at a young age, they had taught her to be resilient and to resist those kind of emotions. She could not tell why that training was faltering now.

"Are you okay?"

As quickly as possible, she rubbed any evidence of the prior interaction off her face. It was not the time for that. It was not the time to look so weak.

The mascara's going to be for nothing, was her excuse. All that work towards her makeup would have been for naught. Totally.

"You know what? I'll have the check." Yelena's smile replaced her confused expression previously.

"Of course, but if I could ask if you're al-"

"The check, please." She had now avoided eye contact, staring off into the distance.

"R-right away, madam."

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as the waiter left her vicinity. She laid out a hundred ringgit on the table before promptly leaving the restaurant. It was a day to be kind. Especially after her small "out-of-body" experience she calls.

The building that she had been shading the past few days was right in front of her. It was tall and the outsides were mainly glass windows that extended from top to bottom. The high-rise shared similar traits to those you would see in New York. It looked more menacing with the crowd of people passing around it.

For Yelena, it just meant a longer time to get the job done.

Her attention went to the back entrance of the building where there were less people. Employees would naturally be there, but those kind of people were easier to handle. That would also mean the stairs were right beside it. She took that as a win-win opportunity.

Pushing through the wave of people, she made her way to the back door. It was a single metal door in the back alleyway of the building. Nothing but a street lamp and dumpsters were noteworthy in that alley. One could assume that deliveries were rolled through there. Still, as a lab that was carrying a dangerous serum, Yelena assumed that all the money went into just that.

Two knocks was Yelena's guess for someone to answer the door. As if she was waiting at the line to the bathroom, Yelena leaned on the wall while whistling to a song that she heard on the flight on the way to Malaysia-Where Is My Mind? by the Pixies.

The sound of footsteps enlightened her mood as she began to murmur the lyrics to herself, "With your feet in the air and your head on the ground... try this trick and spin it."

"Siapakah itu?" A kind-hearted looking woman came to the call of the door. Yelena, ever the courteous lady, aimed her Heckler & Koch P30 at the woman who jumped back in fear. "T-tolonglah! Jangan tembak saya, saya ada kelurga!"

"Chill. I'm not going to shoot you." She welcomed herself in and closed the door behind her. The employee was at the point of screaming her cries. Sadly, Yelena did not have the energy to shut her up. "Look, your name is..?"

"Farah! Farah! Saya akan lakukan apa sahaja!"

"Farah. I'm not 'gonna kill you. Do I really look like a killer?"

At that moment, two armed men dressed in tactical gear came running down the stairs. Their shared concern was to the lady that, from a distance, was being held at gunpoint by Yelena. Instinct took over for them as they reached over to their pistols at their waists. With two precise shots, Yelena managed to get both of them by their necks.

That only frightened and rile Farah up even more. Her screams would have been heard throughout the building. That, along with the gunshots, must have alerted every one of her presence.

"Maybe I spoke too soon." Yelena mouthed herself before turning back to Farah. "Is the lab really at the eighth floor?"

"Berhenti! Berhenti!" The poor girl desperately crawled to a corner to get away from Yelena.

"I overstepped. I'm sorry," Yelena raised her hands to the air as if she was being talked down by police. "Let us start over. I'm some random woman, and you're Farah."

"Tolong jangan bunuh saya..."

"Farah, I won't kill you! Unless you give me a reason to, but you're fine!"

"Be-betul ke?"

"Yes! Saya tidak akan membunuh awak."

"Janji?"

"Pinky promise." With that response, she saw Farah's shoulders relax and her body tried to shift comfortably on the floor. "Now, I'm assuming the lab is on the eighth floor."

"Yes..."

"And you have guards on standby, yes?"

"Yes..."

"I appreciate it." Yelena was about to run off before she glanced at Farah again, "Sorry 'bout that. You should get out of here."

As trained as she was, walking up the stairs was one thing that Yelena hated. There were inventions like elevators-why did she have to walk? The fact that each floor was tall just made the walk up that much more excruciating.

"Your head will collapse... hah... if there's nothing in it... whoo... and you'll ask yourse... God, this is too many steps."

Just before she could reach the eighth floor, the P.A. went on and screened an announcement throughout the entire building.

"Terdapat kemungkinan ancaman tahap dua. Semua kakitangan dinasihatkan untuk berjaga-jaga."

"That's not good."

In front of her was a door frame filled in with frosted glass. The other side was blurry but there were some things that could be made out from it. It was a tight corridor that led to a doorway covered in shadows. What did not seem right was the shadows on the walls were moving. Whatever it was, they were not doing a good job at hiding.

Yelena hid her firearm to her side, leaning into the frosted glass. There were at least eight of them-their long weapons aimed at the glass. Even from a far, the breaths coming from them were loud enough to hear. This was easier than she thought.

"Here goes nothing." Yelena muttered to herself before violently slamming into the frosted glass. "Tolong! Ada penembak! Dia membunuh dia or-"

Before she could continue embarrassing herself with her putrid Malaysian accent, the door unlocked. She came face to face with a guard who was just as surprised as her.

"That easy? Seriously?"

Instinct got the better of her.

The security force were helpless. They were confused whether they were watching someone mercilessly wrestle with their brethren or were witnessing a masterclass in ballet. She was effortlessly tossing the guards to the side while simultaneously using them as shields as the rest were stuck deciding whether to shoot or tussle with her. Their decisions rendered too late by the time they made it.

The occasional bullet that was fired was either from Yelena killing a target or them making a split second decision that was countered anyway. The last two guards retreated to the corners of the room, making the last of the space to be able to get a shot off.

Before they could shoot, she grabbed one of the guards and wrapped her body around his. The other was left deciding, which was when she swung their bodies to the wall knocking the two guards' weapons to the ground. Using the force in her waist, she suplexed her initial target and sent him to the ground. Barely suffering a scratch, she got back up and looked at the work she had just finished.

Blood was sprawled throughout the wall and the silent groans of their breaths were leaving their body. That scene looked familiar. Not when she was Black Widow. The similar thought crossed her mind: did her sister look like th-

The last two guards were still moaning loudly for Yelena's comfort. She shot them two and proceeded forward.

Opening the door at the end of the hall, she was greeted with a bright light. Being in the shadows, even for a little while, managed to knock her senses a bit. Once her eyes got adjusted, she was greeted with confused scientists holding up chemicals in the middle of a mixture.

"Okay, who's the lead scientist?" Yelena asked calmly due to the silence that filled the room on her arrival.

They continued staring at her, their movements frozen to a still. It was getting a bit to her. They looked like children watching her pass by in the Red Room. It was eerie. She did not like it.

Yelena fired two shots into the ceiling, at which point they flinched and screamed. "I know you speak English, so who's the lead scientist?!"

Some resisted, but those who were easily frightened gave in and pointed to a bearded, middle-aged man who was standing at the back of the room. She aimed her weapon and approached him.

"Where's the serum?"

"Saya tidak tah-"

"English," Yelena interrupted as she cocked her gun, "or I blow the kneecap off of one of your colleagues."

"Which serum, assassin?"

"You know what I'm talking about."

"It's not ready..."

"I don't care."

The man pointed at a small chamber on the top of the table. There were small vials inside: some filled, some were not. Yelena walked over while placing her gun and phone on the tabletop. The employees were impulsively keeping their hands up as she did her job.

Opening the contraption was simple. Without any guidance, she twisted the top which opened it and grabbed ahold of one of the vials. It was a liquid red inside of it with bubbles of molecules continuously jumping to the top. Yelena looked at it like she was a deer and it were headlights. There was something captivating about it.

She remembered it from somewhere. The freezing touch of steel grabbing her skin with blinding lights staring directly back at her. Men dressed in coats and masks experimenting on her. That syringe which contained that same color injected into her. It was painful. It was horrible. How could they look at her while she was screaming and think it was reasonable. There used to be days she would daydream of doing it back to them. However, those days seemed to be buried too deep.

All she could afford was sighing while examining the vial.

"This could get messy..."

"Put it down!"

Yelena turned to see that the scientist had picked her weapon up. Even with fear in his eyes, he continued to aim it at her. Her, on the other hand, could not care less.

"You're aiming a weapon at a deadly serum that you haven't even tested on yet."

"You don't know if it works."

Yelena raised her eyebrow, "want to bet on it?"

She kept the vial on eye-level with him as she slowly crept towards him. His trigger finger was too shaky, whatever he would pull would miss the target. There was still danger, though. Yelena took it carefully as he was the one who had the gun.

"Don't move!"

"Mhm," Yelena hummed. "I don't think you know who's in control."

"I'll shoot you!"

"Yeah? You can always shoot me."

"I'm warning you!"

"You have been for the past minute."

"Stop!"

"Nope."

"I'm shooting!"

At that exact moment, Yelena's phone started ringing. The scientist's attention went to the phone which gave her time to throw the vial up into the air while knocking the gun to the floor. She took her small pocket knife on her side and took a stab at him, throwing him over her and into the ground. Luckily, the vial fell onto the man's stomach and bounced to her perfectly placed hand.

"Still shooting?" Yelena mocked, taking the phone and pocketing the knife.

The puncture she made around his stomach area generally was not too deep or deadly, so she decided to deal with his constant groaning. In the scuffle, most of the scientists had cleared out the lab. There were only a few left hovering around. They were surely loyal to this particular scientist. Yelena did not care too much as she picked up her phone and began moving to the exit as well.

She spoke annoying into the phone after glancing at the caller, "what is it?"

"How's my favorite work girl?"

"Annoyed. Why are you calling me?"

"Well, I just wanted to know we have a drone incoming. It's going to be blow up the floor."

Yelena glanced at the injured man still holding onto the puncture to stop himself from bleeding out. "Give it ten minutes."

"Two."

"I'm sorry, but this is my mission."

"And I'm the one who gave it."

"I have the vial. Do you really want to blow this place up while I'm in it."

She could hear a sigh coming from the other end of the line, "Five. Just don't die, Yelena."

"Good. Make sure it doesn't-"

"Jatuhkan!"

The order came from another woman scientist that was now carrying her gun that was on the floor. She did not care that she was scared or the fact her hands were shaky, the scientist kept the gun pointed at her. There was a hint of red in her hair-that subtle off-coloring. It made Yelena freeze. It looked just like her.

"Saya akan tembak awak!" The woman cried out.

From the side, the lead scientist reached out to the woman. Almost like he was trying to get her to stop. "Nadia! Jangan buat."

"Dia menyakiti awak! Saya tidak akan biarkan dia pergi!"

"Tolong biarkan ia pergi!"

Yelena could not think straight. It looked like her. Her sister.

On the other end of the phone, her contact kept asking questions of what was going on. Yelena could not answer. She could not move except for that impulse to sheath the knife from her pocket.

"Don't." Yelena asked solemnly, whispering her next word, "please..."

The woman could not help herself. She did what she said-she fired at Yelena.

Everything happened in that one second. Yelena opened her eyes to see that the knife was not in her hands. Her body was not hit with anything. It was what she expected. But she did not expect to see the woman staring back at her-speechless. That same knife had hit close to her heart.

"Nadia!" The lead scientist screamed immediately, ignoring his previous injury and running over to the woman who fell to the floor. The rest of the scientists were in shock. They were in the same state as Yelena. "Awak baik. Awak baik, sayang. Betul ke?"

"Oh my god..." Some of the scientists muttered, rushing to the woman. "Dia tidak akan berjaya."

"Nadia!" He screamed, holding her body near to his.

"Yelena? What the hell is happening?"

Yelena stumbled backwards, hitting the table but not reacting altogether. She fumbled her next words, "I-I'm fine... I'm just... I don't..."

"Look, you have four minutes. Just get it done." The line cut off and she was left all alone.

"Ev... everyone..." Yelena tried to get their attention but her voice was not following her urgency. "You need to get out of here."

One of the scientists turned to her direction and pointed, "Anda adalah raksasa!"

"I-I'm not... I'm trying to help."

Yelena bumped into boxes as she was moving backwards. They fell over and began making noises inside. There was something to get her mind off of what happened. She turned to see that they were filled with guinea pigs. Instinctively, she opened each one which allowed them to run off. It kept her busy. It allowed her to ignore what was happening.

They were still calling her things. She knew they had the gun there-loaded with a few more bullets. Maybe it was wishful thinking. They could shoot her right there. End it right there.

"Saya alam bunuh awak!"

Alas, nothing happened.

Yelena was opening the last of the guinea pigs when she stopped at a box where its owner was not leaving. It stared at her. She was about to grab it before she was caught in a trance as well. Maybe it wished to die, Yelena thought. It took her a while to realize-she was staring at a reflection.

Moments later...

She felt sick to her stomach. It took all her willpower to drag the guinea pig and herself to street level and away from the tower. Aimlessly shifting through the crowds, Yelena had basically been unarmed. If someone was out to get her, then she would have to deal with consequences. Her will had to beat her survival instinct. She was that tired.

A couple of steps later, she was already a block away from the building. At the same time, her phone began ringing once again. She had been debating whether to answer it or not. With one hand holding the guinea pig and the other with the phone, she begrudgingly pressed "answer."

"God, Yelena! Could you answer any slower?"

"What?" She exhaled a day's worth of air in one go.

"Well, isn't someone tired? I was calling to ask if you were away from the building."

"I am."

"Good. The drone's there in about... now."

Yelena turned at the sound of glass breaking. She saw that a small drone busted into the eighth floor of the building. In moments, the floor bursted out into flames. Men, women and children alike screamed in fear. People got down and covered from the debris. The nearby police officers rushed into the scene and tried to clear the confusion immediately.

All this assassin could do was watch timidly. That was her work. Whoever died, it was going to be on her. It was always on her.

"So, you got the serum, right?"

"...And a guinea pig."

"And a what now?" Her contact was too flabbergasted to even stay on that topic. "Look, whatever you got from there you can surrender it over to the gentlemen in the suits as always. You get the drill."

"Okay."

"Hey, Yelena?"

She did not answer. In fact, she looked away from all the destruction. It was tiring. All the bloodshed. The red.

"Yelena?"

"Yeah?"

"You did a good job today. I'm proud of you."

Proud. That was all it took for Yelena to snap out of it.

"Of course."

Because for her, this was a regular day in the life of Yelena Belova.

https://youtu.be/lwKEvK9WqJQ