1: The New Red Room Assassin

Chapter 6

Ana's POV

I was in the medical wing for a few days, Natalia stayed by my side pretty much the whole time. Clint popped in every now and again to check on Natalia, but I could read him, he was wary of me, scared. I shrugged it off though, as I did shoot him in the leg.

As I grew stronger, I began to remember what I was taught, the weakness that had overpowered me temporarily was subsiding. I woke up one morning and glared at the traitor in front of me. Natalia saw the change me, and stiffened.

"Ana?" She said quietly, I had never had a nickname before, but Natalia called me by Ana now.

I looked at the women in front of me, this monster we were told she was, her eyes filled with concern, this failure, this traitor. But then I remembered the stories she'd told me in the last couple of days, how she'd saved the world from an alien invasion, and an attack from a robot army, I wasn't used to the idea of protecting the world. I was used to killing. I was jealous of the women in front of me, she seemed to have it okay, she didn't take orders from people, but instead people listened to her, she wasn't scared and ashamed all of the time, she was proud of what she achieved, and mission by mission was righting her wrongs.

"Why did you leave?" I asked, "why did you betray them all?"

Natalia, who was still sitting stiffly, watching my every move, seemed to relax at the question, she was quiet, I could see she was searching for an answer,

"I guess there are many reasons, I was brought to the Red Room when I was 6, I had been living on the streets prior to that, they raised me to. I did a lot of bad things, and came onto SHIELD's radar for all the wrong reasons. Clint was sent to kill me" she paused, scanning my face carefully,

"Clint made a different call, I was brought back, kept in a cell much like one you were in, and I was talked to, not interrogated, not tortured, but listened to. And then I listened to them, I had a special skill set, the same as your own, that was useful to them, instead of throwing me in prison, or executing me for my crimes, they offered me a job, a chance to do good"

Nat's POV

I watched as she hung on every word, her eyes were still impossible to read, but her posture was leaned in, I could tell she was listening.

"It wasn't easy, I had to unlearn most of what I had learnt, SHIELD had to undo a decades worth of brainwashing. I had meltdowns to" I said, I watched fear run across her eyes for a second, before she put a wall back up.

"I didn't have a meltdown" she said quietly, looking down at the bed, ashamed, scared...

"No...meltdown was probably the wrong word, but they're in your head at the moment, they control you, they've always controlled you, like they controlled me. And it's not easy to just turn away" I said, trying to reassure her that it was okay

"So why did you turn away?" She asked, "you said Clint didn't kill you, you said they listened to you, but why betray the people who made you into who you are?"

"Fury didn't trust me at first, but he trusted Clint. I didn't trust any of them. But I knew I had to play their game if I wanted to get out, so I went along with it. Passed all the training, and went out on my first mission with Clint. I had back up, he constantly checked in with me, and we fought so well together, then they distracted us, someone had snuck up on us behind. Clint saw them before I did, they had their gun raised, pointed at me, and they fired. But I didn't feel anything. Clint had jumped in front of the me, the bullet wedging in his arm. Everyone on missions with the KGB was selfish, it was each for their own, and here I was clutching his arm, because the idiot had taken a bullet for me" I smiled slightly, yes seeing him get shot wasn't nice, but