I woke up in a warm bed, which was weird, because I was pretty sure I was dead. I pulled the covers off myself and looked around my surroundings... I wasn't in the Avengers Tower, that's for sure, and I wasn't in Ivan's base. I was in a room that looked like it belonged to a teenage girl, kind of like my old room back in Chicago, dressed in hot pink pajamas and a woollen jumper... a vanity table and beanbag were in the right corner, and the walls were covered in posters of hot guys wearing boxers and carrying surfboards under their arms, from a TV show Ashley used to love called Baywatch... I shuddered.
"Not today, Zac Efron," I muttered, standing up and wincing as I put weight on my left leg. I looked down and swore when I saw that it was covered in a blood-soaked bandage. I frowned, looking out of the window. The spiralling, onion-shaped pillars of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour rose above the sprawling city metropolis that stretched as far as the eye could see, ending at a large forest and a mountain.
OK. So I was in Moscow.
The room's door was ajar, so I pushed it fully open and saw a set of stairs leading down to the bottom floor of the house I was staying in. The delicious, meaty smell of frying bacon wafted up into my nose and I hobbled down the stairs, frowning.
The bottom floor consisted of a modern, fancy kitchen and a large living room with a plush sofa and a massive TV playing the Russian news, telling of a military base on Mount Gestola - Ivan's base - having been recently destroyed. I gasped when somebody tapped me on the shoulder.
It was a pretty woman, older than Natasha but not old, with ash blonde hair wrapped in a messy bun. She smiled a warm smile and said in a thick Russian accent, "hey, kiddo."
I swallowed. "Who are you?" I asked, not caring how rude I must sound.
The woman laughed softly, pulling out a chair for me to sit down at the table. "My name's Tina," she said. "We found you on Mount Gestola after the explosion last night."
"We?" I breathed, looking around. "What happened?"
Tina placed a plate in front of me and piled bacon onto it. The delicious smell wafted up into my nose and I dug in ravenously. "Yes, we. My son and daughter, actually. And in response to your second question, I don't know. We found you unconscious lying in a snow drift at the bottom of the mountain. We took you to a hospital. You almost died."
At the mention of children, I whipped around to see two kids, a boy and a girl, looking at me. The boy, who looked about ten or eleven, had messy blonde hair, like Tina, and was wearing a baggy T-shirt with the words 'Lego Master' on, but the girl was different. Her hair was a deep red, like mine, her face petite and pretty. She reminded me of Wanda, and then Natasha, and that made me want to cry.
The boy grinned at me. "I'm Ben," he said, shaking my hand. "Are you a spy?"
He reminded me of Taiga. I smiled softly at him. "Something like that."
"Cool!" Ben plopped into the seat next to me and started to fidget with a little action figure in his pocket, his hyperactivity reminding me of... well, me. "You kinda look like my sister. She's adopted, by the way. That's why she doesn't have blonde hair, like me and mum and Captain America."
I almost choked on my bacon. "You a fan?" I croaked.
Ben nodded excitedly. "He's my hero," he gushed. "I'm gonna be an Avenger when I grow up, just like him."
The girl sat down next to him and ruffled his hair. "It's a weird obsession he has," she admitted. She smiled at me. "I'm Evie."
"Kira," I said.
"Well, Kira," said Tina, pouring me a glass of orange juice, "you really gave us a fright there when we found you on the mountain. Evelina had been on a mountain-climbing camp, you see, and we were driving home when we saw the base explode. It was... really scary, to be honest."
"It was SO COOL," Ben said, his excitement clear on his chubby face. "We were just driving and Evie was watching her dumb TV show and then the base just went BOOM! AND THERE WAS FIRE AND FLYING THINGS AND PEOPLE SCREAMING AND IT WAS SO COOL!!"
"Cool it, Cap," Evie said, giggling and poking Ben in the tummy. He laughed.
"Wait." Something that Tina had said before made me freeze. "Evelina?"
Evie blushed. "That's my real name," she admitted, tugging on a strand of crimson red hair like I always did when I was nervous. "I don't really like it. My birth parents named me that though, and Mum decided to stick with it."
Tina looked at her lovingly and planted a kiss on her forehead.
Ben frowned at me. "Are you OK, Kira the Spy? You look kinda pale."
I stood up, my orange juice glass falling over with the sudden movement. I looked around the room and addressed the three of them: "Thank you for your hospitality, but I really need to go," I said urgently. "Thank you so much."
I began to move to the door, reaching for my locket... but it wasn't there. I gasped and swung around when Evie said, "you looking for this?"
My locket dangled from her fingers, the red stone, the same bright shade as her long wavy hair, glinting in the warm morning light. I nodded. "That's mine," I said. "I need it back."
"Kira, honey, you need to sit down," Tina crooned. "You had a bad fall on the mountain and you're probably a bit disorientated. But you can stay with us, I promise. It's safe here." She reached for me but I lurched away. "Kira, sweetie..."
I looked at Evie, who handed me my locket gently. I attached it to my neck and gasped when she pulled out a locket exactly the same as mine from under her jumper. "What?" I couldn't believe my eyes. "How...?"
"I've had it forever," Evie said. "Ever since I was in the orphanage. I got it from my sister, Tori."
Now, I couldn't believe my ears. I gaped at her, the shock clear on my face as a million questions raced across my brain. Evie looked freaked out, Tina looked like she thought I was insane, and Ben looked like this was the coolest thing that ever happened to him.
"Tori is the name of my sister," I breathed.
"No," Evie exclaimed. "Tori was my sister. She died when I was six when she went into surgery."
I squinted at her. Either she was lying or telling the truth, and Evie seemed a too genuine person to be doing the former. "That's weird," I said. "Because I was told that my sister - Tori - died in surgery too, but that was wrong. She lives... well, lived. She was in the explosion on Mount Gestola last night." I saw Evie gasp. "Which orphanage were you sent to?"
Tears were forming in the corners of Evie's eyes. She slumped down onto the couch and turned off the TV. Tina pulled her into a hug, stroking her hair soothingly. Ben turned to me and said softly, "Bardasen Orphanage in London."
I let out a long breath. Nothing was making any sense: somehow, me and Evie had lived the same life. We'd both been raised by Ivan in Russia, but only I remembered that. I wouldn't tell Evie that she was raised to be a killer just yet. We'd both had a sister called Tori, who may or may not have been the same person, who supposedly died in surgery when she was seven years old. Then, we'd been adopted when we were ten, by kind families - mine, of course, being a family of agents working for S.H.I.E.L.D. Evie had lived a normal life, but I'd remembered my tremulous past, and because of that, had been enlisted by the Avengers to become Bruce Banner's intern.
Damn, life was confusing.
I felt horrible - partly because I was scared and missed my Avenger family, but mostly because I knew that I was dragging poor Evie into a horrible mess. I was so confused: did Evie know about her past? Was Tori the same person for both of us, or was she two different people? I didn't remember Evie from my childhood, and that scared me...
"Why are we living the same life?" asked Evie softly. Tina stroked her hair and I felt a pang of jealousy spear through me - nobody had held me like that, not even Himara or Jeanne.
I sat down cautiously. "I don't know," I admitted.
"Is Tori really dead?"
"I don't know." I felt tears prick the corners of my eyes but I forced them back.
This time Ben asked a question. "Why did you freak out when Mum said Evelina?"
I knew the answer to this question, which was good. But I didn't know if I could actually tell them the truth, especially with Evie so freaked out. I shrugged and gave the boy a small smile. "Evelina was..." I saw Tina look at me with concern in her beautiful dark eyes. "...Somebody that I used to know," I decided.
I saw Tina open her mouth to say something but stopped when a BOOM rattled the side of the house. We all dropped to the ground behind the couch as another BOOM resounded. Tina pulled Evie close to her and I shielded Ben from whatever was outside, standing up slowly, hesitantly, ignoring Tina's cries. I peeked over the corner of the couch and let out a sigh of relief when I saw who it was.
"Hey, Mr Stark."
Ben
Evie
A/N: Hey guys! Just letting you know, Evie, Ben, Tori and Peter Parker (yeeeeee Tommy) will be coming in a lot more in the next few chapters. Hold in there!