Red Room

RR64-Butterflies and Hand Grenades

Waking up was hard. Especially when every time the world had started to come back into focus, even before moving so much as an inch, it was all taken away. Over and over, Natasha's body fought off the sedatives, and then was given more to throw her back into the darkness. What else didn't they want her to see? Besides the glimpse of soldiers with strange fluids running into their new supercharged bodies, what else could there be? Eventually, she was allowed to wake, unbound, and the memories of whatever serum was given to her to allow her to return to the world of the living caused her to involuntarily flinch as she shakily rose from her place on the floor. The only thing she could compare it to was when she was given the original super serum. Although no pain in the world could compare to that, this new serum that for sure brought her back was pretty damn close, but longer lasting. Grabbing at her stomach as a sharp pain pierced it, she lifted her shirt to see that she had none of the same injuries that she had collected on the mountain cliff. The pain was where she had felt the blade go through. Oddly enough though, her older scars, like the one she earned from Bucky all those years ago remained. What the hell did they do to her? She thought they couldn't kill her, or wouldn't, but what made them change their mind? Some kind of power play?

When she shook the last of the cobwebs from her mind, she found the room that she was in bare and empty. Not just empty of material objects, but empty of hope; she had been moved. Whatever hope she had for Loki to find her now was all but non existent. The only thing that made her smile now was the thought of Ksenia being far away from this place. She couldn't thank Loki enough for saving her, once again. A few tears of relief fell from her face as she did a quick survey of her room. They fell into a pool of standing water and after the ripples faded away, she caught sight of her reflection for the first time in weeks. Angry, she kicked at the pool and grabbed at her head in frustration. She vowed that the next time she looked at the shell of who she had become, that woman would be gone. She controlled her breathing and felt a small bit of her old self creep back in. She was beginning to realize that other people didn't have power over her, she had power over herself and she needed to get that power back. Ksenia was gone; she could now make decisions that would affect only herself and not ones that would endanger her daughter. After that realization, a wicked smile cracked across her lips and her entire mindset shifted; she felt strong, no longer feeling weak or weighed down. She was going to have to channel herself as well as Natalia if she was ever going to make it out of here. Looking into the pool of water once again, the woman she saw before was gone. She just became the most dangerous woman in this facility once again.

Hours later, a power surge ripped through wherever she was, and the single, dimly lit bulb above her shattered, casting the small space in complete darkness. A groaning sound seemed to echo throughout her prison as the power went out, alerting her to the fact that wherever she was, it was still a large compound. What the hell? She thought as the automatic lock on her door made a *clink* sound; it had unlocked, startling her for a moment. An involuntary twitch almost caused her to turn to guard Ksenia, but Ksenia wasn't there, and neither was the old Natasha. With nothing to hold her back, she crossed the small space but then flinched violently when it felt as if 10,000 volts of electricity hit her. She was forced to her knees as visions of waking up after being brought back again ripped through her mind. As soon as the shock came though, it was gone. Shit, she thought as she pulled herself up and tried shaking it off. She realized that she was still not over the side effects of the serum and it caused her to worry further. She had already pieced together that it had to have been the Lazarus serum. It was one of the few words that she had made out on a computer screen as she was coming to; right as she made out Dove standing next to it. Having no solution to her predicament, she continued on and surprisingly found the door to be unlocked. It was definitely locked before, so she wondered if this was a test, a trap...or something else. Fighting with the decision to stay put, she wondered what she would gain from that. Deciding that she would gain zero intel, she pulled at the handle and the door opened freely.