R E D R O O M
russia
Unknown
A new life awaited her,
was what she was told.
Yet every waking day was the anticipation of if she was going to survive another day of torture. Of in being forced to a perfection she didn't ask for.
But the young girl knew there was no way out of this kind of place. Leaving no choice but to surrender. Fulfill the role of what she was destined to become. Reminding her of the first thing he said to her.
"This is your home now."
June | 2016
Stirring awake in her sleep, Alex's eyelids fluttered open as she found a bright light shining down on her. But it wasn't the sun.
"This is a much less cool way to die." She heard the dreaded statement to her right.
Finding Yelena laying down, held captive by restraints and directly under a bright light like herself, Alex tried to figure out where they were.
Alex then noticed the man dressed in scrubs and a surgical mask with an assistant behind him. She watched at the surgeon finished drawing the outline of Yelena's forehead with a black marker. The horror of the unknown procedure instantly triggered Alex, her eyes widened.
"Hey!" She yelled, attempting to sit up and stop them from treating Yelena like a science experiment but held back by restraints the kept her body bound.
Then she knew. As the memories flooded in from how she got here.
She stood outside of the perimeter of the farmhouse house. Patiently waiting for the family reunion to be over soon so they can get on with the mission. Alex also wasn't a huge fan of the stank from the pig pens. Then the lights of the property all shut off in sync like the storage room days prior. Panic surged through her as she whipped out her gun.
"Yelena! Natasha!" She screamed into the house while standing guard when a helicopter approached. Coming to Melina's place was a trap for the 3 widows.
All she could remember next, as she was about to run inside to find the others, she missed a step of the porch before blacking out. To now waking up in a facility.
Back in the Red Room.
Meaning the plan failed. Her and Yelena were now to be subjugated again.
"What?" Yelena said out of nowhere.
Alex glanced over at her with a confused frown. Yelena communicating with her eyebrows and discrete nod.
"What are you going to do to us?" She asked the surgeon and the assistant, but both didn't respond. Only conversing with each other in Russian.
"Keep them both awake for cranial incision." The Surgeon informed the other, striking panic inside Alex.
Depending all her hope on Yelena and the assumption she had a plan for escape.
Springing into action by cutting off the straps holding her down, Yelena shoved the assistant and using a blade to swipe towards them. Then she loosened the bands securing her friend.
"Thanks!" Alex grinned as she got up.
The two doctors came to grab the freed Widows, while Alex and Yelena shared a look. Alex maneuvered to kick the assistant in the chest while Yelena hit the surgeon in the elbow right as he stabbed the needle in her shoulder as she let out a cry of pain. Before he could fully inject anything in her, Yelena wrapped her leg around the surgeons arm and knocking him out by hitting him the face.
The assistant tried to get up but Alex took one of the medical knives on the table, chucking it as the blade landing in his neck, leading to his downfall. Now catching her breath, Alex looked over at Yelena who was on the floor, pulling out the needle.
"Not bad, Belova." Alex smirked as she helped Yelena up on her feet with the cup of her hand.
"Not bad yourself, Balandin." Yelena responded out of high respect to her previous opponent. "Now where did they- I swear if anything happened to it-"
"Looking for this?" Alex stated with a hint of smile, interjecting Yelena's curses while holding the object in question.
"Oh," Yelena gasped as she rushed over to snatch the vest. "Thank goodness! They would have paid if they did anything to it."
"Fair." Alex tilted her head. "How about we destory the Red Room in case they didn't get the memo the first time?"
The blonde cracked a light laugh. "I like the way you think Alexandra Balandin." She shook a finger before walking past her.
"You couldn't have told me that sooner?" Yelena spoke, pointing at the comm in her ear to affirm Alex's confusion. "Yeah I have Balandin with me."
Yelena grabbed two wipes, handing one to Alex, looking at a reflection in a broken mirror to remove the marker.
"Where are the vials?" Yelena asked as she continued to walk, making her way out of the lab while Alex was close behind, trying to pick up the conversation with what sounded like Melina.
"...You and Alex have to expose the Widows to this antidote."
Yelena glanced at Alex as she let out a sigh. "Yeah, sure. Alexandra and I are on it."
Alex and her left the infirmity, heading down a hallway. Then she unexpectedly stopped.
Glancing back at her friend, Yelena asked. "You alright?"
"Get to the Widows and help your sister, I'll find you." Alex said, stepping backwards in the other direction. "There's just something I need to do real quick."
Then she took off without another word.
-|-
Navigating through the giant facility, that didn't come naturally like Alex had hoped. The unknown labyrinth of bare walls with each corridor recognizable to some degree but not by much.
Searching, door after door, and still she didn't find what she was looking for. Her heart racing in the rush in fear of Dreykov or one of his men catching her.
Then, familiarity came over in the next hallway.
Echoes haunted her as she cautiously made her way down the dim lighting. Horrors flashed into her mind the brutal routines and expectations that could never be imperfect. Back as a young girl who didn't dare to present herself as scared, when she was terrified. It became easier to master when the subjugated chemicals were enforced.
Alex didn't realize how afraid she was, until her fingers made contact with the icy metal. Her hand retracting back as if it were a plague. The rusty crooked handle.
Leading to the neverending misery from every command. Her heart thumping like a earthquake, shaking off the obedience that she didn't need anymore.
With a deep breath of assurance, she twisted the handle in an instant, opening back to the empty room.
The room were she had been locked up for years. Waiting for the day she could escape, instead of mindlessly watching cartoons or training for her graduation ceremony. Gaining scars all over, both mental and physical. Her only accomplishment, was a ledger in the darkest shade of blood.
Then her eyes found it. Not wanting to waste anymore time, Alex snatched the object she came for and left that dreadful containment.
-|-
The Widows, now free from Dreykov's control, followed Alex as The Red Room began to collapse. Sliding open the door, Alex ushered the group of women into an aircraft. All while the two sisters went to stop Dreykov and free his daughter.
Now left up to Alex, as she got comfortable in the pilots seat.
"Everyone hold on!" She screamed, her memory of flying skills limited to whatever training she had. In which most of it wasn't her conscious self. Her knowledge to the skill vague. She prayed, to whatever being would listen to her that she wouldn't crash, if one existed at least.
It's not like there was one listening to her after years of childhood trauma. Which God would listen to a vigilante like herself anyways.
"Watch out!" A widow, Helen, seated next to Alex in the cockpit pointed out the window.
Alex did her best to dodge the falling debris, but failed. The aircraft shook, thrown off balance. Alex did everything she can to gain control again. Pulling up on the console in her grip and pressing buttons in hopes to keep the ship from spiraling out more.
"Balandin!" Helen screamed.
"I'm trying!" Alex shouted in frustration, foolishly thinking there could be a miracle where they all came out of this alive. Not just this moment, but to walk away from the past.
To find control of that pain.
"Pull again."
Two words echoed into her mind as if it were a faint whisper. But she didn't recognize the voice. It wasn't Helen or anyone else on board. Trusting in that prompting, Alex tugged on the wheel again, giving her strength to lift the plane up for a smooth landing with a hiss as the wheels kissed the ground.
"How did you do that?" Another widow asked with amazement at her colleague.
Alex took a deep breath while staring at the command panel, trying to comprehend the situation herself.
"I don't know."
-|-
"Can't believe it's actually offically over." Yelena said with a smile of relief as she finished telling Alex the entire defeat of the Red Room. How Dreykov was gone for good, that his daughter was exposed to the Red Gas like the other Widows. "Thank goodness Melina is planning to send us more antidote as we only have a few."
Alex nodded her head. "What are you going to do after we free them all?" She asked.
Yelena started at the ceiling from where she laid on the hotel bed. "Definitely get a dog."
"Any specific breed?"
"I don't know, but a fluffy one for sure. Maybe find a job. The fashion industry possibly." She said.
Alex smirked, sitting on the edge with on leg. "I mean, you can be a great advocate for the department of vests."
Yelena huffed. "Ha! I know I will!"
As the conversation paused after Alex let out chuckle to Yelena's optimisim. Her gaze landing on what was resting on top of the dresser.
"How about you Balandin?" Yelena returned the question from behind her.
A few seconds past when an idea suppresses Alex's mind. "Well,"
Standing on her feet and walking over, Alex snatched the handles before tossing the weight onto the bed.
"I did promise my acquaintance I'd bring this back to him as part of our deal." Alex stated as she crossed her arms while forming another plan. "But, there was never a promise to how soon that'd be."
Alex started to unzip the bag as a scoff came out of Yelena's mouth. "That? Why would something like a bag be so important-"
There in the duffle, among a few other personal belongings of Marc Spector, piles of bundled papers. Each one marked with the Sphinx of Giza and other icons of Egypt. Alex grabbed one and held it up. "It's not much, but it can give us a start."
"On second thought, I'll use this to buy a new vest." Yelena said with a nod and resting her chin in her palm, her elbow propped up on her knee on where she sat. "I gave mine to Natasha."
Alex shook her head as Yelena acted as if she were in a long distance relationship with her pout. It was like she was missing the vest more than her own sister.
Then Yelena glanced at Alex with a grin. "So, Miss Alexandra Balandin is a spy and theif?"
"I'm not a thief, I'll return this eventually." Alex battered her eyes innocently with a hand hovering her chest. "I don't think he'll miss a couple hundred pounds. Besides, his money is supporting for a good cause."
A cackle blurted out past Yelena's lips like a elephant and she cupped her mouth with her hand.
Alex then raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell your goody-goody sister about it. I'll be getting a lecture from her or her friend Captain America."
Yelena pretended to zip her mouth shut. "My lips are sealed. But by the time she finds out, the Avengers will be calling her to fight another alien army to even let that take priority."
She then tossed a bundle at Alex, hitting her face. "What will you do with you're share?"
"Not sure yet. I thought about buying myself an apartment, which you're welcome to visit once I do." Alex started as she brainstormed all the possibilities of her life, now in her control. "An apartment near want a bookstore or a coffee shop. Catch up on everything that my young self missed while being a mindless robot."
"That sounds nice." Yelena said with a genuine smile that would leave the mystery of how she was ever an assasian. "You'll have to keep me updated on how it goes."
Alex let out another simple laugh with a nod and a wink. "You too Belova."
Sitting there with Yelena, being able to have a normal conversation and to not worry about who was in control, Alex knew thus was the end. The end of that waking, awful, nightmare in the Red Room.
But now entering a beginning of a new chapter. Where she could find a place to call home and explore the world without relying a name on a hitless.
This was her story now and it always will be.
________________________________________
A
nnnnd I'm back! Kind of a filler chapter as it's mostly black widow territory and not so much Moonknight, but I think this helps set up Alex's character or at least what I have planned.
Anyways, I hope to keep this fic going because I do really love writing it and I miss my sweet Moonboys so much!
ALSO! Happy late happy birthday to Oscar Isaac Hernandez Estrada!!! (Aka my favorite grumpy eagle)
Yes he's my celebrity crush, but Moonknight truly was a blessing for me when it came out and I can't thank him (and the others) enough for it. If I ever meet him to say it to his face, I'm going to be a mess.
Anyways thanks for reading!
-marie