You know nothing of power.

ALEXEI is dawdling. OZEROV is somewhere in the station!! Another WOLF SPIDER. He lacks ALEXEI’S conscience. HIS HONOR.

HIS PLAN has backfired. JESSICA JONES is more STUBBORN than ALEXEI anticipated.

“FINE!!” He snaps, and goes. SHE will follow. SHE is also FORTUNATE. His flat is close.

Natasha nodded and turned away. She raced up the stairs, not bothering to waste any time. The handlers hadn’t heard their firefight below – silencers were amazing inventions. She jumped on the first one’s back, wrapped a rope around his neck, and shot the next one in the leg. Both were knocked out within moments.

She paused for a moment before returning to Alexei, the gun still held tightly in his hand. He couldn’t turn on her now, the Red Room would never forgive him, but he could go rogue.

“Debrief me,” she requested.

ALEXEI does not squander a moment. In minutes, PALYCH falls apart like a DECK OF CARDS. Alexei WONDERS when the Red Room allowed FAILURES like Palych to share responsibility. HE leaves an unconscious Palych to dangle by the legs above a RUNNING sink.

HE can escape. WILL HE?? Alexei does not know.

NATALIA returns. Alexei puts the safety ON and stows the gun away. TRUST. She needs it.

“They are the first wave. The second is due in a month. The next wave is a NEW BATCH of WOLF SPIDERS.” Palych’s babbling warned ALEXEI; they are rabid. Monsters. Alexei is the only successful one.

He left. Like Natasha did – escaped. Got away from them. “And that’s why they’re after you now,” she says. It’s not a question. It didn’t surprise her that the Red Room hunted down their defectors. Didn’t even bother trying to get them to return to the fold, just went for the lethal option. She shakes her head again. “You don’t have to face them alone. That’s all I’m saying here. I track down people for a living, maybe I can figured out their next move at least. Where they’re holed up in the city.”

“NOT HERE.” They are already EXPOSED. Alexei may be acting DELIBERATELY unhelpful. He shrugs. “MY PLACE or YOURS??” She may slap him, but PERHAPS that will PUSH her away. IF NOT, the CONVERSATION will wait.

“I know. I didn’t vote for him.” Clint shrugged, wondering why this guy seemed to dislike him. Usually, he got at least a couple more sentences in before people starting hating him.

"GREAT.” Alexei is still BORED. “Excuse me.” 

HE leaves.

“DEAL,” he said, like it was ever a QUESTION. Fuck, he needed the cash. “How soon can you get it to me? I need it FAST, man.”

IMPATIENT. Barton must need THE MONEY. Alexei GUESSES the man is a gambler.

“Monday.”

“My registration? Chaos was always coming. Self appointed law enforcers running unchecked. It could never last.”

ALEXEI can’t BELIEVE he is entertaining this ARGUMENT. “IT will last longer than you think.”

“Many have, most of them think without Batman, the heroes in Gotham would just crumble,” she added, though she didn’t believe that. “Why? Looking for a way to make some cash?” 

“SOMEWHAT. I’d give you a CUT, if you provided any INFORMATION.”

She remembers that word from before. It sounds so much more natural on his tongue than English. “The Red Room, I’ve heard of them” she says slowly, remembering the little bits that Natasha has told her, the fragments she’s been able to dig up. It’s not much. Not nearly enough to be useful.  “I’m not trying to interfere, asshole, I’m trying to keep you from winding up in a gutter yourself.”

She pauses for a moment, trying to piece it all together. “Did they send you here? Is that why you’re in the city?” Are you one of them? 

THEY will not approve. Another AGENT has turned, if JESSICA already knows of the RED ROOM.

“You are no match for them,” Alexei tells her, flatly. It is UNWISE to send away a friend. друг. “Do not underestimate what you do not understand.”

“YOU MUST believe everything that happens is meant to then. I respect that.”

"I SUPPOSE.” Alexei isn’t sure. “You CANNOT make your luck.”

“I’m THIS close to leaving this dimension. Even the world with nothing but shrimp beats this BULLSHIT.”

"Then go.”

“My finger might slip,” Natasha shot back. It wasn’t a threat. She wouldn’t hurt him unless he gave her reason to believe he might do the same to her.

She let him take the lead and stuck to the back. She watched him for a moment, analyzing his progress. He was a good shot (not as good as Clint). He didn’t hesitate, although he hadn’t in the past. What she was searching for was notable changes, things that she could use against him if he ever attacked. So far, she saw none.

Her examination was over in a moment. She took aim at kneecaps, nothing fatal, and took out the first two agents that crossed her path. It wold be over quickly, like she’d said to Alexei, they only expected one. 

NATALIA makes every Red Room agent EASY PICKINGS. She won’t kill, but HE will.

TWO down. Three. Four!! PALYCH, the last one, crawls away from ALEXEI, bleeding and broken.

“ONCE IN A blue moon, so today is your lucky day. If you believe in that.”

"I don’t.” ALEXEI’s lucky days involve no one speaking to him. Today is an unlucky one. 

❝ it’s called initial SHOCK . in my opinion , i think a lot of it is dying down already . ❞

"Thank GOD!!”

“MONEY can’t buy happiness, but it sure makes misery easier to live with.”

"Do you always wax poetic to strangers on the street??”

“Legs heal. Eventually,” she says flatly.

What people don’t say is almost as important as what they do, and Alexei’s silence speaks volumes. So he is a goddamn spy – shit. She’s not quite mixed up in this, but she’s peering at it from the periphery. A smarter person would’ve walked away, but she’s straining for a better look, leaning further over the edge. 

“Yeah, I guessed that much,” Jessica says carefully. “Question still stands – why?” she prods, unable to help herself. She pauses, glancing down the alleyway before her eyes land back on him. “Look, whatever shit you’re mixed up in, it’s probably none of my goddamn business. But I know a couple good lawyers, friends that might be able to help you out.” 

SHE is EXHAUSTING. Alexei gives up.

“YOUR LAWYERS will end up in the gutter, друг. THESE men are graduates of THE RED ROOM. Abandoning the CAUSE is not an option.” He can’t go into FURTHER detail. Failing to return NATALIA to Moscow is basis for a KILL ORDER. Alexei’s accepted THAT. “Do not interfere.”