Baby Assassin

37

Sasha's P.O.V

We walk along the fence and I see Momma become tense as she watches Melina.

Alexei: Honey, we're home.

I don't know how I feel as I recognize the woman, flashbacks gowing threw my mind. She walks past us with emotion on her face.

Alexei: Come on, girls.

We walk to the house and Melina opens the door.

Melina: Welcome to my humble abode, make yourself at home.*sighs* Let's have a drink.
Momma: Hey, no funny business.
Melina: I am putting away my weapon.

I walk over to Momma, leaning against her side.

Momma: Are there any booby traps around here?
Clint: Anything we need to know about?
Melina: I didn't raise my girls to fall in traps.
Momma: You didn't raise us at all.
Melina: Oh, maybe so. But if you got soft, it wasn't on my watch.

We sit at the table awkwardly, hearing sounds from the bathroom.

Melina: Let's drink.
Alexei:*enters* Okay.*grins/clears throat* Still fits.

Melina wolf whistles and I bang my head on the table.

Yelena:*mutters* Oh, my God.
Melina:*laughing/clapping* I never washed it once. Come and drink.
Alexei: Family back together again.
Melina: Mmm. Seeing as our family construct was just a calculated ruse that only lasted three years, and some weren't around, I don't think that we can use this term anymore, can we
Momma: Agreed. So, here's what's gonna happen...
Alexei: Okay. A reunion then, huh? And, uh....I want to say something right off the bat. You haven't aged a day, huh? You're just as beautiful and as supple as the day they staged our marriage.

Yelena, Clint, and Momma roll their eyes and take their shots.

Melina: You got fat. But still good.
Alexei:*chuckles* I just got out of prison. I, uh....I have a lot of energy.

The rest of us groan and shake our heads.

Clint: Please don't do that.
Momma: So, here's what's gonna happen.
Melina: Natasha, don't slouch.
Momma:*glares* I'm not slouching.
Melina: Yes, yes, you are.
Momma: I don't slouch.
Melina: You're going to get a back hunch.
Alexei: Listen to your mother.

My eyes dimly glow as my annoyance grows.

Momma: Oh, my God, this...
Alexei:*sitting straight/to Momma* Up, up.
Yelena:*to Melina* I don't want any food.
Melina: Eat a little something, Yelena, for god's sake-
Me:*abrubtly stands/yells*All right, enough. All of you!
Clint: I didn't say anything. That's not fair.

I glare at him with white eyes. He wisely shuts up.

Me: Here's what's gonna happen. You're gonna tell us the location of the Red Room. And your gonna stop trying to play family. Because you and I both know exactly what you are.

The air is tense and dangerous.

Momma: Finding Dreykov is not a fantasy. It's unfinished business.
Melina: You can't defeat a man who commands the very will of others. You never saw the culmination of what we started in America. Nor did you.
Alexei:*as she walks away* Natasha, always focus, focus. Get what you want.

She sits back down with a tablet and I can hear a beeping sound.

Melina: Come in.

The door opens and a pig comes in, snorting.

Clint: Did that pig just open the door?
Melina: Yes. It did. Good boy, Alexei. Good boy. *feeds it a scrap*
Alexei: You named a pig after me?
Melina: You don't see the resemblance? See, he sits just like dog. Amazing. Now, watch.
Alexei: It's a little weird, to me.

My eyes widen and my heart starts beating faster as I hear a familier tapping and beeping.

Melina: Stop breathing.

Pig Alexei grunts and is silent. My own breathing slows.

Melina: We infiltrated the North Institute in Ohio. It was a front for S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists. Actually, it was Hydra scientists at that time. In conjunction with the Winter Soldier project and 0001, they had dissected and deconstructed the human brain to create the first and only cellular blueprint of the basal ganglia.

Clint and Momma look at Yelena as her eyes harden, Clint meets mine and looks concerend.

Melina: Was the hub for cognition. Voluntary motor movement, procedural learning. We didn't steal weaponry or technology. We stole the key to unlocking free will.

Pig Alexei groans and flops to the floor. My breathing quickens.

Momma: What are you doing?
Melina: Oh, I am explaining that the science is now so exact, the subject can be instructed to stop breathing and has no choice but to obey.
Me:*darkly* Okay, you made your point. That's enough. Shut. It. Down.
Melina: Yes, all right. Well, don't worry, Alexei could've survived 11 more seconds without oxygen. Good boy. Now, you go back, back home where it's safe.

The pig grunts before leaving.

Melina: You go. You go back home, back home where it's safe. Good boy, Alexei. The world functions on a higher level when it is controlled. Dreykov has chemically subjugated agents planted around the globe.
Yelena: And do you know who they test it on?
Melina: Hmm...No. That's not my department.
Alexei: Ah, come on, come on. Don't lie to them. Hmm?
Melina:*offended* I'm not lying.
Alexei: You're Dreykov's architect, huh?
Melina: What were you? If I was his architect, you were his partner. You were his business partner!
Alexei*bangs table* No, no, no. I was patsy!
Melina:*annoyed* Don't give me that....
Alexei: He sell me ideology.
Melina: Stop with the politics.
Alexei: All the while, bigger-
Momma:*explodes* Shut up! You are an idiot. And you're a coward. You're a coward. And our family was never real, so there's nothing to hold on to. We're moving on.
Alexei: Never family, huh? In my heart, I am simple man. And I think that for a couple deep undercover Russian agents I think we did pretty great as parents, huh?
Melina:*softens* Yes, we had our orders, and we played our roles to perfection.
Momma:*angry* Who cares? That wasn't real.

Clint touches Momma's shoulder as Yelena weakens.

Yelena: What?
Momma: That wasn't real. Who cares?
Yelena:*desperate* Don't say that. Please don't say that. It was real. It was real to me. You are my mother. You were my real mother. The closest thing I ever had to one. The best part of my life was fake. *exhales deeply* And none of you told me.

Yelena glares at Melina and bangs the table softly.

Yelena: And those agents you chemically subjugated around the globe? That was me. Mmm. And you, you got out. Dreykov made sure no one could escape. Are you gonna say anything? No.

Yelena gets up and shrugs off Melina's hand.

Yelena: Don't touch me.
Momma: Yelena.
Yelena: No.

She slams the door and I smile sarcastically, standing.

Me:*angrily* And that, 'fasinating science' crap your so proud about. Was used to torture me. Every. Day. Every day I had to feel like I was dying, over and over again. Until I wish I would die. How do you think that felt as a child. Wishing for the pain to stop, wishing for death just to have peace? How the woman hugging your Mother as a child, could cause you to feel like that?

I teleport outside as the tears start to fall.