B U D A P E S T
hungary
June | 2016
"Seventh Circle Prison?" Natasha asked behind the wheel inside of the car.
The one they were 'borrowing' this time. Though the owner would be fortunate for it to come back in one piece after an Avenger used it.
Alex, sitting in her designated spot in the backseat -because she didn't call shotgun fast enough before Yelena punched her arm- let out a sigh.
"Yes. At least that's what Marc told me." She confirmed, holding her tongue being back in the presence of the famous hero.
A cackle joined to converse in the conversation. "You mean the guy who tried to kill you, while you tried to kill him?" Yelena turned her head over her shoulder with the strain to mock the irony of the coincidence.
Alex rolled her eyes in response. "Obviously. Who else do you think I'd be in contact with? Not many other options to choose from when most of them are dead."
Yelena shrugged in defense with a mindless shrug. "Oh sorry to touch a sensitive topic Alexandra, I was just clarifying for my sister. Y'know since she's out of loop to Black Widow system for a couple of years." She said, earning a glare from Natasha while Yelena raised her eyebrows in an innocence that was still so abnormal to see for Alex.
"Anyways," She continued with her focus back at Alex with a smirk growing on her lips. "Just kind of funny to me for that guy to lend you some help and was willing to cooperate."
"Yeah well, that guy wasn't my first pick for a lead." Alex instantly avoided her gaze while shifting her position, staring at the laces on her leather boots that rested on the compartment between the two front seats. "He's just another asshole, but it's what I'm stuck with Belova."
"Ha!" Yelena shouted with a tease in her tone while earning the gesture of Alex sticking her tongue out.
"Can we focus please?" Natasha snapped, glancing straight at the other two through the rearview mirror. Yelena and Alex sneered at each other until they both huffed in their seats.
"How do you know how this guy isn't lying, Alex?" Natasha proceeded interrogate the facts that were laid on the table. "Do you think we can trust him?"
He did spare my life. Twice. Alex thought to herself, glancing at her shoulder where her jacket slipped off from. Still beyond to her knowledge, there was no answer as to why he didn't just kill during the first encounter. That silly weapon of his only leaving a scratch when piercing her chest instead would have been a much quicker solution. If he was an assassin like herself at least.
Leaving her a even bigger question.
Why did Marc Spector let her live when his boss wanted her dead?
She adjusted the jacket to cover the bandage and crossing her arms. Then slouching further in her seat while chewing the inside of her mouth while she looked out the window.
"I don't know." She huffed.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Natasha questioned as her tone increased. "You're risking our mission on this guy you just met-"
"I told you. I don't know!" Alex yelled in frustration. "You have any better ideas of where to find Alexei, please share Ms. Romanoff. I'm open to any suggestions you might have."
Natasha shut her mouth with a clenched jaw as she breathed out shortly through her nose. Swallowing her comment.
"Oh nothing?" Alex mocked while Natasha remained quiet. "Well, then. The Seventh Circle prisons might be our best bet."
After letting of steam, Alex returned to watch the horizon, putting her elbow on the window sill and resting her head on her knuckles. The sun had gone down and the night sky took over. The sound of the tires cruising on the highway and passing by headlights on the road. The night sky illuminating the moon shining down on her while pondering the mystery of a mercenary.
"Did you two know that this is the first piece of clothing I ever bought for myself?" Yelena asked, interrupting the deadly silence in the car. Causing Alex to peak her head from behind the seat to see a dark green vest that Yelena was showing off.
Natasha scoffed with a small glance at her little sister. "That?"
Yelena titled her head and said. "Yeah, you don't like it?"
"Is that like an, army surplus?" Alex added, while Natasha looked back at her in the mirror once again, exchanging a chuckle with her as if the previous tension didn't exist. A small part of Alex wanted to think the Avenger wasn't as bad.
"Okay it has alot of pockets!" Yelena said in high defense. "But I used them all the time and I even made some of my own modifications."
Natasha chuckled again, mocking Yelena's obsession with a vest. Alex only shook her head before looking back out the window, not knowing Yelena was capable of being this humorous. Realizing how even a simple pure emotion of laughter was innocent. Something else taken away by Dreykov.
"Both of you shut up!" Yelena snapped with a hint of pain straining in her words. "The point is I've never had control over my own life before and now I do. I want to do things."
Speaking a truth that Alex barely thought of since being free. She could go explore the world instead of destroying it like she had been forced to do all these years. She could find that coffee shop in Florence and read fairytale without the demand of assassination.
Maybe, find a place of her own to settle down. Get a real job if possible for an ex-vigilante, and do normal people her age did.
"I like your vest." Natasha said, breaking the long moment of silence in the car.
"Ah! I knew it. I knew it!" Yelena held her hands up in fist, proud of making a point and approval. "It's so cool right? What about you Alexandra?"
Alex laughed, remaining in her seated position. "It's nice Belova." She confirmed with a grin.
Yelena exaggerated a nod as if she were a parrot, continuing to express her newest obsession. "And you can put so much stuff in there! You wouldn't even know!" She said, appreciating the joy found in a piece of clothing.
Letting out a sigh after a few moments, Natasha let out a sigh. "So? Seventh Circle Prison? Did you're friend mention how to get there by any chance?"
Backtracking to her interrogation with Marc Spector, Alex recalled how stubborn the man was. She brought her knees up, resting her feet on the edge of her seat as she slouched.
"He's not my friend." She stated. "Just an ally. But our business was cut short before I had the chance get any more detail. So no, we still don't know how to get to the Seventh Circle Prison. I'm sorry."
The tension of exasperation was on the tip of a scale. Alex was ready to chew the Avenger out again.
"Luckily for us," Natasha said, avoiding another debate with Alex. "I know someone who might be able to help us get there."
S E V E N T H C I R C L E P R I S O N
russia
Traveling by helicopter wouldn't have been Alex's first choice. A jet would have been better and much smoother. Instead, they managed for the rickety aircraft that would have to do.
Fortunately, getting to the Seventh Circle Prison was bearable. It was adding Alexei on board that almost drove the three Widows insane.
"Alexandra Balandin!" He exclaimed as he saw her, sitting down on the cot across from her. "It's been so long since I've seen you! Look how big you've gotten!"
Alex wanted nothing to do with Dreykov's business partner. He was just as responsible for crimes of the Red Room. Yelena and Natasha filled her in on their lives in Ohio.
Barely giving him an eye, Alex huffed with her arms crossed as she leaned back in her seat. "Well, at least I haven't gotten as big as an idiot like yourself."
"Ha! You're funny Alexandra." He boomed in a loud scoff and slapping his knee. "I guess you and I never really met, but I'm Alexei Alanovich Shostakov-"
"I know." Alex cut him off as she looked out the window.
Alexei chuckled without picking up on that she didn't want to talk to him. "Alexandra Baladin. Nice name right? Yours is almost like mine, no?"
Alex let out a long sigh before sitting up to grab a pair of headsets and put them over her ears. "I'm running out of patience faster than this thing will run out of fuel." She spoke into the comm.
"And you thought Natasha was bad?" Yelena snickered back at Alex.
"Shut it Belova." Alex shot back with the roll of her eyes, not planning to take off the headset anytime soon if it could block out his voice.
"I'm so proud of you girls!"
At the corner of her eye, Shostakov was on his feet waiting for a response from his two daughters.
"Oh none of you can't hear me! Huh?"
Alex flinched over as she watched him gestured at his ear. His charade tempting her to slice his throat right then in there. Even more so when he pointed directly at Alex with a thumbs up after. Walking to the other side of the helicopter. Every ounce of patience flying out the window when she saw him grabbing a headset of his own. Using all of her strength to restrain from strangling him.
"Heh, wow!" He chuckled, leaning himself between the two pilot seats.
Dreading his voice even more on the comm, Alex didn't know how much longer she could put up with this filthy man. Even with his overgrown beard and ragged prison clothes were not able to hide the careless face Alex met when he delivered her to Dreykov.
"Ow Johny!" Shostakov cursed as he took a step back, caressing his nose from the blow of Yelena's fist.
Alex could hold back her grin. The younger widow doing a huge favor. Making note to return it later.
After wiping his face from the pain, Shostakov huffed in confusion. "Why'd ya aggressive?"
Was it not obvious? Alex thought to herself. Rolling her eyes as he acted as if he was the victim.
"Is it you're time of the month?"
That's it!
The question fumed each nerve Alex had for this fat man and wanting to ignite it. Highly considering taking him out right now with the gun in her jacket.
"I don't get my period, dipshit." Yelena said. "None of us have a uterus."
"Or ovaries." Natasha added.
Shostakov only stared blankly as if he was seeing dinosaurs in front of him. He even checked behind him to confirm with the third assasin in the craft. Alex shrugged and raising her eyebrows, as to clarify his consequences.
"That's what happened when you sent innocent little girls are sent to the Red Room. They gave each one of us an involuntary hysterectomy, if you're smart enough to know what that means." She left it at that, hoping it sunk into the sliver of pain the Widows faced.
"Yeah," Yelena continued, not dropping the subject anytime soon. "They kind of just go in and rip out, all of your reproductive organs."
Her hands showing a summary of the procedure intriguing Alex. She shared a glance with Natasha who scoffed as if this wasn't new behavior of Yelena.
"They just get right in there, and chop them all away." She said while mimicking with invisible tools in her hands. "Every thing comes out-"
"Okay! Okay!" Alexei shouted.
"So you can't have babies."
"Okay!" He demanded louder for her to shut up. "You don't have to get so clinical and nasty!"
Yelena tilted her head before facing forwards. "Oh, well I was going to talk about fallopian tubes, but okay." She finished while refocusing on flying the helicopter.
Although humor was found briefly, that method of torture was only a smidge of their suffering. Flashes of memories from the beginning, haunting her as if she were expected to return to Dreykov and obey his will. The place stealing all agency for a normal life. Down to where even her natural ability of biological power had to be governed and taken away.
Shostakov scoffed while conversing with his older daughter. "Oh look at you huh? All business?"
"Trust me, this isn't pleasure." Natasha said as she shook her head with a sigh.
The red head was starting to grow on her. Alex realized Natasha, being a spy, agent and now an Avenger gave her the advantage of taking charge.
"Little Natasha!" He retorted with a whine. "Influnced and doctrinated in the Western agenda."
"I chose to go West to become an Avenger." Natasha clarified. "Because they treated me like family."
"Really." He scoffed. "Family? And where are they now?"
That question was directed at the Avenger, but it didn't stop the familiar heartache scratched in her chest. Alex, clenching her jaw ripped off the headset, dropping it to the floor. No Balandin or any other didn't exist for her, at least to her knowledge. Alex wasn't privileged to have a fake family like them. She could hardly grasp on anything from before the Red Room. The only memories were buried deep down. Hoping to never remember it in her life time.
"Okay can we through him out the window now?" Yelena suggested, pulling Alex out of her thoughts. So deep she didn't notice that Natasha was sitting next to her.
She hear the mention of Dreykov's daughter, but didn't need to hear the context to know what she missed. Yet Yelena's suggestion was music to her ears.
"I've been literally waiting for since the moment he go on." Alex agreed as she stared down the Red Guardian with a taste of revenge on the tip of her tongue.
Revenge she sampled before.
S T. P E T E R S B U R G
russia
"I swear if I hear one more word from him, I will kick him in the face." Yelena stated as she walked with Alex and Natasha.
"Natasha." Shostakov called while Natasha rolled her eyes as she stepped back.
"You don't need my permission to wait." Alex scoffed after the two assassins' shared a look as they abandoned the aircraft that did not have enough fuel for St. Petersburg. "I'll even help you hide the body too if you decide you want to kill him too."
Yelena smiled a little bit with a nod. "You'll be the first to know."
"The knucklehead is asking for it," Alex said. "Especially if he keeps saying things like he did on the helicopter about Ohio, I wouldn't blame you."
Yelena bit her lip as she focused on the ground as they walked with a slow nod. Reminiscing cherished childhood memories with a father being destroyed by complaints of a man who only cared about himself. It made Alex's trauma feel like a privilege in never experiencing the betrayal of a false sanctuary.
From that, Alex made a promise, let nothing happen to Yelena Belova. A promise that was returning the favor of pulling her out of Dreykov's control.
"Y'know Alexandra?" Yelena said with a grin on her face. "That Red Dust made you less of a pain in the ass."
Alex scoffed, her eyebrows displaying a disapproving offense. "Oh shut up!" She snapped back, punching Yelena's arm. "At least I wasn't the one giving the cold shoulder every time her successor made eye contact with them."
"But she was also the one who convinced Dreykov to give that successor a second chance when she failed him." Yelena said, reminding Alex of that day that could've been her last.
In that remembrance, Alex saw an advocate in Yelena, but the potential of a hero. Someone who one day could be worthy of the praise like her older sister. That influence to help others from experiencing that pain and suffering in the Red Room.
Alex glanced over at Yelena with a soft smile of appreciation. "Thanks Yelena." She said, changing the sarcastic tone. "For that, but also for freeing me."
Yelena huffed with the tilt of her head in response. "No problem.
A sad gleam in her eyes that Alex wished she could know more. She couldn't imagine the way she was processing this mess of her life that didn't deserved to be inflicted on her or any Widow.
"You haven't seen Yelena or I in 20 years, and your going to ask me about you!?"
Alex and Yelena turned their heads, picking up the start of contention rising. The two stopped walking at stepping into be apart of the conversation.
"What is with this tension?" Shostakov said, putting his hands in his pockets while looking hurt and clueless at the glares he was getting. "Did I do something wrong?"
Yelena scratched her forehead as she turned towards him. "Is that a serious question?"
He opened his mouth with a different demeanor than his glorified pride in himself. "I only ever loved you girls!" He declared with a tender gaze at the two sisters until his eyes landed on the third Widow. Flabbergasted as he blinked a few times that strengthened the barrier between them. "A-and Miss Balandin, I'm sure you're family loved you too wherever they are."
Alex shook her head at his ignorance and forgetfulness of her history, proceeding to walk away with a clenched jaw, exchanging a nod of approval with Yelena to hurt him later. Doing her best to tune out the conversation. Trying to listen to the rustle of leaves and her footsteps instead of hearing Shostakov pretend everything that was done was something to celebrate as if it were a holiday.
"We accomplished our mission in Ohio!" He exclaimed like that jolly old fat man that Alex saw in one of the American Christmas cartoons. Shostakov turned to his other daughter, grabbing her shoulders. "And Yelena! You went on to become the greatest child assassin the world has ever known! No one can match your efficiency or ruthlessness!"
Yelena tilted her head in deep annoyance and backing away. "Accoording to Dreykov that's Alexandra Balandin. I was only second best." She said as she looked at her past oppenent.
Alex scrunched her nose in deep regret. The first time of her life, felt guilt and not proud of being labeled as the best. No longer was it an accomplished victory but a weight of remorse.
"Is that so!?" He boomed in disappointment, sneering at his child's competitor, as if it was her choice to be a Red Room champion. Then his bushy eyebrows raised as if pulled by a string. "Well second best? First best? No matter! My Yelena is still one of the best assassins in the world!"
He brushed off the hint they were both trying to imply that none of this 'vicotry' that magically worked out, was what any of them wanted.
"Natasha! Not just a spy. Not just destorying empires from within..." He paused until he lowered his voice. But an Avenger."
He took Natasha by the wrist, followed by grabbing Yelena's arm. "Both of you have killed so many people!" Shaking their arms to express his excitement for them while Alex watched them glare at him for his ignorance. "You're ledgers must, dripping, just gushing red!" He exclaimed.
"Can you please!" Alex raised her hand in a frustrated signal with that patience of hers almost out of fuel. "Just stop talking!" She said as she walked off, down towards the unmarked trail that lead to a forest of trees.
"Oh sorry, Balandin! I'm sure you have done just of a good job as my amazing daughters!" Shostakov called out as attempt to lighten the mood and not exclude her.
Yet it only made her feel worse about herself, reminding her of the blood of innocent lives on her hands. Tired of his carelessness in thinking they should be proud for ledgers that prominate. She had one purpose. To help take down the Red Room, kill Dreykov and retrieve Marc Spectors stupid duffle bag.
The group made it to a secluded farmhouse in the middle of no where. Alex couldn't only hear the loud snorting but also the stench of the pigs. Finding Melina outside with a smile on her face as she greeted the girls and her partner. Alex wasn't entirely sure of the relationship, but knew they played the role in making Natasha and Yelena believe they could have a normal life.
"Come in and eat!" Melina offered as she waved her hand to usher the group inside, spotting an extra face that wasn't part of the family. "Yelena you're friend can join us too!"
This woman was just as responsible as Shostakov was for the damage on countless Widows. Only Melina caused way more internal pain that Alexandra couldn't dismiss.
Yet the woman decided treat this family reunion as a time to celebrate.
With that, Alex shook her head and stepped away from her hospitality. "I'm not hungry." She said as she walked over to a bench near the pigs running around inside of a fence.
_________________________________________
YIPPEE!!
Kind of a filler chapter. And idk when I'll update again, but hopefully this is good for now.
But I missed writing this story! (I know I kind of abandoned it to write my spiderverse fic but I can't forget this one!)
Comment your thoughts! I also love side commentary too. Spam the comment section with whatever!!
-marie ❤️
P.S Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! 🎄☃️🎁🥰