Silence was not uncommon amongst Yelena and the rest of her family and under the circumstances they found themselves in she expected it to be as quiet as it was in the safe house. Natasha was back from the dead. Beaten and abused by the Red Room again, but alive. How? Yelena had no idea and she knew better than to harass Natasha about it now. So, she stood in the doorway of Melina’s room, watching the woman tap her foot furiously as she stared down at the floor. It wasn't like Melina to be so affected. Yelena would have excused it for Natasha’s return but she knew better.
“Who was that woman?” Yelena asked, her voice a little harsh. She felt out of the loop. Everyone else seemed to know who the Red Widow was but her.
“Your memory fails you,” Melina mumbled, not moving an inch.
“You think I've met her before?” Yelena asked, a frown on her brow.
“I know you have,” Melina said flatly, standing suddenly and making Yelena flinch a little. She walked over to a draw, opened it and dug right to the back, fiddling for a moment before she produced a photograph which she brought over to Yelena.
Looking down at it she saw herself as a child, three years old, just before the Ohio mission. A little blonde girl that didn't know the torment she knew now. Beside her, a girl of maybe the same age, maybe a little younger. Black hair and bright grey eyes with a sweet smile as she chewed on her fingers. They were holding hands.
“And this is her? This is Vienna?” Yelena asked, glancing over at Melina who had gone back to sit on her bed. “Vienna Retnikopf?”
Melina nodded as Yelena sank down onto the bed beside her mother, memories of the girl she used to share a bunk room with flooding back into her head.
“Was she meant to come with us?”
“No,” Melina shook her head, “she was part of something else.”
“What?”
“It doesn't matter.”
“It clearly does.”
#####
1992
A little girl with jet black hair peered out from behind a stool as the camera clicked. A Christmas tree was up and decorated in a display room in mid July, sheltering presents while other props stayed out of view of the lense. Vienna wasn't a part of playing dress up, Melina had told her very clearly to stay back. Two other girls had that pleasure. Holding cardboard boxes wrapped in shining paper, one with red hair, one with blonde.
“Vienna,” the soft voice of her mother whispered as she approached. Melina knelt down beside her daughter, holding a small present in her hands. “You've been very good, try this one.”
“Empty,” the two year old whispered, leaning into Melina’s shoulder as she shook the little present gently.
She had held the tape while Melina had made the fake presents earlier on, watching as the boxes remained empty.
“Not this one,” Melina shook her head, tearing a piece of the paper to get Vienna started, “look.”
Cautiously, Vienna unwrapped the present, ripping off the paper as she and her mother huddled at the back of the room. Opening the box, Vienna found a small stuffed bear. Immediately, she hid the bear in her jacket, looking over at her mother for reassurance.
“Yes, to hide,” Melina nodded, a small smile on her face, happy to know that Vienna knew what to do. “Keep it safe, I could only get one.”
A bright smile broke across Vienna's face as she cuddled the bear beneath her jacket.
The Red Room didn't allow their Widows to have children. Vienna Retnikopf was a test for an experiment. The theory was that picking girls from the street and abandoned hospital beds was inefficient, that too many girls failed the training. If the Red Room could make their own Widows, breed from prime stock, then less girls should fail the training. Melina had been chosen to make the initial test and Vienna was the result.
#####
2025
“But they didn't breed us,” Yelena said, frowning as she listened to Melina’s story, “I still had my uterus taken out, so did everyone else.”
Melina nodded with a vacant look in her eyes. “I failed. When I got back from Ohio, she was gone. Sidorov said that she was killed, then years later he told me that he lied and he had her. I didn't believe him.”
Yelena held silent. Sidorov. The threat of the devil. An omen more than a man. And then Yelena realised that she didn't remember the two year old in the picture, but she did remember the ten year old she used to share a room with. Vienna had survived beyond Ohio at least.
“I helped him create a machine,” Melina said quietly after a moment, her foot starting to tap on the wooden floor again, “we were constantly looking for ways to control the mind. The Mind Over was a test to cut into the brain, but it was a glorified lobotomy machine. Most of the subjects died, we didn't understand it properly, it was a failure. But those scars on her face… He used that machine on her.”
“All Widows are brainwashed somehow,” Yelena said, turning her head towards Melina, “we both know that all too well.”
“Let me show you something,” Melina said, grabbing her tablet from her side table and tapping on the screen for a moment before a recording started to play.
“Your machine works beautifully,” a male voice said with a sickly sweet amusement, “listen.”
Some hisses of compression sounded and then a sharp clunk. Immediately, a painful scream followed by whimpers and strangled cries until the silence fell.
“My little miracle. It's her second turn.”
The recording ended with a deafening silence, leaving Yelena’s skin crawling.
“Why would he send that to you?” Yelena asked, her face contorted into a frown, “if he kept her in such isolation, away from everyone, why even risk it?”
Melina shrugged, the defeat and guilt in her face like nothing Yelena had ever seen her show. “Sidorov isn't like Dreykov or the others. He's more malicious. The power over the world doesn't seem to interest him in the same way. He wants complete control over the Widows. And he has it over Vienna, you saw her. She can't even imagine getting away from him, she can't form or accept the thought.”
“I saw what she did to Natasha,” Yelena said, shaking her head as she stood up to stop herself getting wrapped up in sympathy like the others, “Natasha gave her life to save the world and Vienna tortured her for God knows how long.”
Melina’s head fell into her hands, her mind reeling with a loss at what to do. Two daughters back from the dead, both broken, one within reach.
YOU ARE READING
Widow of Siberia
FanfictionThe feeling of Vienna Retnikopf's shoes slamming down against the concrete roof distracted her more than she thought it would. The pain of it caught her attention with every step. She was running for her life, towards a man she had never met before...
