Chapter 5 ━━ The Anchor

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Hedeon, Yelena and Natasha make it to the edge of the rooftop and they hang onto a pipe over the side of the building as an attempt to escape before pushing it. The metal creaks when a Widow also jumps on as well.

"I got you!" Natasha holds into the widow when her hand slips. But the Widow uses her blade and scratches her arms, causing Natasha to lose her grip on the Widow, who falls into the alley below. "No!"

Yelena ends up crashing through a window while Hedeon lands in the alley next to the Widow along with Natasha. But in the process, he hits his head hard, ending up having a blackout on the ground.

Meanwhile, Natasha stops the injured Widow from moving. "Hey. Don't move. You're hurt. Let me help you."

"I don't wanna do this." The widow sobs, lightly as she raises her activated spider bite, the bracelet which has red lights.

"What are you doing?" Natasha asks, confused.

"He's making me." Breathing shakily before she electrocutes herself and ends up dead in her own pool of blood.

Yelena rushes out of the house she crashed into, with a vial of red dust. But then she realises that it's too late. "Do you believe me now?"

"How many others?" Natasha asks as Yelena spots her unconscious best friend.

"Enough." The blonde hurries to Hedeon and shakes him. "Hedeon, hey. Wake up."

Hedeon grunts in response, opening his eyes slowly while coughing repeatedly, trying to recover from his killer headache. "That sucks."

Yelena chuckles softly in response.

His eyes land at the sight of the blood and cringes. He gulps as he begins to feel the demon inside him awakening.

"Hedeon? What's wrong?" Yelena asks, noticing his stiffened body and darkening eyes.

Hedeon's breaths labours as he looks away from the dead Widow, rubbing his forehead, trying to distract himself away. "There's something wrong with me. Everytime I see or smell blood, I want more. It's like an unhealthy addiction."

"Blood addiction?" Natasha asks.

"Something like that." He nods. "Shall we move? I don't want to stay here anymore."

It is Yelena who questions him this time as they walk towards the motorcycles. "Where did that come from?"

"It was there as long as I remember and I can't control that shit." He mumbles, looking around for danger.

The blonde grabs into his arm, stopping him and he turns his attention to his best friend with a sigh. She's furious about him hiding things away from her. "When are you going to tell me that?"

"There's a way to control it." Natasha speaks, watching the two.

Hedeon raises an eyebrow at the redhead. "Что это?" (What is it?)

"An anchor." She replies. "The touch of the someone you have deep feelings with, it calms you down."

Hedeon's eyes briefly directs to Yelena at the mention of feeling before he lets out a non humorous laugh. "It's just a waste to talk about it further. I'm not in love with anyone."

"You don't have to fall in love for that." Natasha shrugs before they stop at the line of motorbike parked. "Which one's yours?"

"Black. Brown seat. Where are my keys?" Yelena looks for her keys when Natasha shows them to her. "...Ах сука." (...ah, bitch)

"Where are we trying to get?" Hedeon asks, loading his guns.

"Subway station." Natasha replies, while Yelena jumps on behind her.

Hedeon nods and stands on his spot, not moving.

Yelena raises an eyebrow at him. "Wait. What are you doing?"

"We have company." He motions towards a group of Widows heading towards them and turns to Yelena. "Go with her. I'm right behind you."

"Be safe." Yelena says.

"You too." Hedeon smiles sweetly before Natasha drives off. He ducks behind his motorbike and aims his gun, ready to shoot.

"Привет! Я прямо здесь!" (Hey! I'm right here!) He exclaims, rapidly waving at the Widows with his goofy grin. "I feel myself a celebrity."

As they reach his shooting perimeter, he begins to shoot each of them one by one until no one is alive. "That ended surprisingly quickly."

Reviving the motorbike, he speeds off to the direction of the Subway station. The tyres screech every time as they curve and bounce over the rough ground.

He notices two of widows once again following him behind on motorbikes as he makes it to the highway.

He tries to avoid the gunfire as he drives, taking cover from the other vehicles.

The moment he escapes them, he lets out a triumphant cheer only to crash and throw off the motorcycle.

He groans, getting up on his feet and dusting off his clothes to realise the front of his shirt is ripped, his abs are on the show. He sighs with a pout. "Too bad. I kind of liked that shirt."

A car screeches to a halt beside him. Yelena turns down the window with a grin. "Get in, mister."

Hedeon quickly gets into it when Natasha drives them away.

"What happened to your shirt?"

"Those ladies couldn't keep their hands to themselves. I know I'm hard to resist. But they were too obsessed." Hedeon tells, searching through his backpack for a shirt.

"That sounds like a load of lies." Yelena chuckles as he changes into a plain, dark blue shirt.

"I know you love my godly abs." He smirks, suggestively.

"And I have a dick." Yelena adds.

"I don't mind at all." Hedeon says, smugly through the gunfire. "If we talk about my sexuality, I'm into bit of both di-"

"Don't end it." The blonde cuts off with a glare, which he shrugs in return. "Okay, Natasha, you got a plan, or shall we just stay duck-and-cover?"

"Yeah, my plan was to drive us away." Natasha replies, looking at the two.

"That's a shit plan." Yelena says.

"You know what? I'm going to shoot her down." Hedeon says gesturing at the Widow pursuing them when Yelena stirs the wheel roughly to the left, causing the car to go in reverse, tires screeching in the process.

She opens the car door, causing it to hit a pole ahead, breaking the door which hurls at the bike chasing after them and sending the Widow tumbling off her motorbike and knocking out. "You're welcome."

"Badass." Hedeon comments with a prideful grin, which she smiles in return. But his grin soon turns into a smirk. "You almost gave me a boner."

"You're gross." Yelena grimaces and Natasha laughs.

The sound of a car crash behind makes Hedeon glance behind over his shoulder, spotting a familiar vehicle. Taskmaster. "Oh, shit. He's here."

"Put your seatbelt on." Natasha demands her sister.

"You're such a mom." Yelena grumbles, putting on the seatbelt.

"Listen to your big sister, kiddo." Hedeon jokes.

The redhead glances at him through the side mirror. "You too, Hedeon."

"I'm a big boy, mama." Hedeon mocks Yelena, putting on his seatbelt as well.

Suddenly, they're attacked by Taskmaster, who shoots explosive arrows at the car, causing it to topple over and land in a subway station, upside down.

Hedeon grunts, unbuckling his seatbelt to end up in the roof of the vehicle. He crawls out to notice Natasha helping out Yelena, who has an injured arm. He steps back, keeping his distance from the blonde. People in the subway are clamouring, pointing at the group.

"Natasha, no. I think I'm bleeding. I'm..." Yelena trails off, trying to wrap her injury but Natasha stops her, shaking her head.

"No. Not now, trust me." Natasha looks at the guy. "You okay, Hedeon?"

Hedeon nods his head lightly, observing Yelena with worried filled eyes. "We should go."

Natasha nods in approval before running through the murmuring crowd. They reach an escalator and immediately slide down. Natasha is the first to go, Yelena in the middle and Hedeon at last.

Hedeon spots a shiny shield heading towards his head. He pushes himself into the floor along with Yelena and Natasha as the shield lodges into the pillar in front of them. "We should move."

After getting up, they trick and evade Taskmaster by dripping Yelena's blood to another direction and are able to find a hiding spot, a vent.

Yelena groans, tightening a cloth around her wound to stop it bleeding further.

"You okay?" Natasha asks her.

"Yeah. Great plan. I love the part where I almost bled to death." Yelena mumbles sarcastically before glancing at the uncommonly silent guy in the room.

Hedeon scrunches his nose at the smell of blood engulfing him, making him scoop himself away from her as possible. His eyes are darkening as he closes his eyes, trying to distract himself.

"Comfort him." Natasha suggests her sister.

Yelena snaps her head at the redhead in disbelief. "What? I'm the one who is bleeding."

"Trust me on this."

"No, no. Stay back." Hedeon says, pulling on the roots of his hair, crouching in the corner.

"If he goes all killer mode on, it's on you." Yelena says to her sister before carefully moving to Hedeon and pulling him into an embrace. He struggles to move away, but she holds him tight, making him finally give up and nuzzles his head into the crook of her neck, inhaling her scent, which oddly calms him down. "Shh... It's okay."

As they pull apart, Hedeon weakly smiles and mumbles a 'thank you' which Yelena pokes on his cheek returning the smile.

"This is cozy." Yelena says, looking around the hiding place.

"Barton and I spent two days hiding out up here."

"That must have been fun." Hedeon mumbles, running his hand through his messy hair.

"Who the hell is that guy?" Natasha asks, referring to Taskmaster.

"Dreykov's special project. He can mimic anyone he's ever seen. It's like fighting a mirror. Dreykov only deploys him for top-priority missions." Yelena explains.

"This doesn't make any sense."

"Nothing makes sense. Does it?" Hedeon says, leaning his head to the vent wall. He's in need of rest and he avoids the conversation, not wanting to be a part of it anyway.