“Are you ready to jump Natasha?”
She replied with a simple nod and then told him to jump to tomorrow night. Little Natalia wouldn’t be waking up anytime soon.
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Bruce watched with concern as his teammates monitors jumped to life as they went under the anesthesia. The TV screen turned on and the window to the world was open. He, as well as Clint and Thor, watched as they confronted the fire. There wasn’t anything they could do to comfort their favorite red head since they were in the real world. It was up to Tony to take care of her.
Clint was impressed at Tony. He was being sensitive and caring towards Natasha, something he never thought he would see. He was also a little jealous that Tony was the one to accompany her through this event. He watched as Natasha fell to her knees in the cold winter snow, looking longingly towards her once beautiful and happy home. He walked over and squeezed his friend’s hand, trying to comfort her. He knew she couldn’t feel it but it made him feel better all the same.
Thor simply stood quietly and watched the events happen. He didn’t quite understand Earths history or human emotions. He did know for sure though that this was a horrible time for Natasha and he would be there to support her when she woke up. When the little girl was put into the chair, he had to turn away and cover his ears. The screams were so horrible and it scared him that a human being could do this to another human, especially an innocent little girl. He looked over at Clint and Bruce and they were also facing away from the horror on the screen.
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The night after the brainwashing, the little girl was finally waking up. She looked around, dazed. Tony noticed that she didn’t look scared, only confused. He watched as she got up and walked over to the door. She called out a simple hello and a few minutes later, Ivan, the doctor, and a few armed men came into the room.
“Hello there little girl, can you tell me your name?” The doctor began the interrogation to see is the brainwashing worked. Ivan looked on with a small grin on his face.
“I, I don’t remember,” she said. “Where am I? What happe-?” Before the girl could finish her sentence, she was sent flying across the room with a smack to the face. Her arm landed in the small fire and she let out a small scream as the flame burned her skin. The doctor glared at Ivan, who had smacked the girl for speaking out of order.
Ivan kept his face straight and watched the girl pull herself up. She walked back over to the men and stayed quiet, this time with a glint of fear and pain in her eyes. He noticed a small trail of blood lead from her lip to the stone floor below, as well as the large burn wound on her arm.
“You will only answer our questions, never ask them. Is that understood?”
Little Natalia looked at the scary man and nodded her head yes.
“Now, doctor, you may continue.”
The doctor looked sympathetically to the girl and continued.
“So you do not know your name?
“No sir.”
“Do you know where you are?”
“No.”
“Do you remember what happened last night?”
“No.”
“Do you have any parents?”
“I don’t know.” When she responded to this, she looked down to her burning arm. She missed the next question. She was fascinated by the blackened skin. When she didn’t answer the question, the doctor saw Ivan moving in to punish the girl for not answering but he blocked him with his arm.
“Wait, I want to see something,” he said. Ivan just looked at him strangely and then looked back to the girl. He then noticed the concentrated look on the girls face.
She was holding her arm, just looking at it. She then looked towards the fire and walked over to it. She stared into its flames for just a minute. Tony had no idea what she was doing. He looked over at Natasha for the first time but she was just simply watching.
Out of nowhere, the little girl jumped into the fire and started screaming. Ivan, the doctor, and the armed men all rushed to her aid and tried pulling her out.
“No!’ she screamed. “They are in there! My parents! They are in the flames! I see them! Help me get them out!”
The men finally dragged her burned body out of the flames and Ivan looked pissed.
“Send her back to get her treatment,” he said.
The doctor looked horrified and responded with “sir, she was just brainwashed yesterday, she needs to recover, and we need to have her wounds looked at!”
“I don’t care! You have failed! She remembered!”
“Ivan, listen to me, it was just a trigger. If it weren’t for the fire, she may not have even remembered. We just need to keep her away from fire.”
Ivan thought about this for a moment. “No. we need to break her of this trigger. Use it against her. This is the only way. Now send her for her treatment, and then you may look at her burns. I’ll be in my office.”
The doctor looked at him stunned. How cruel could this may actually be? When the super serum is ready, how far will he push this little girl? He simply nodded to the man and had the guards pick the girl up and carry her back to the room she was in the night before.
Tony couldn’t believe what just happened. He also couldn’t believe how Natasha just stood there and watch herself be hurt like that, but that’s when he noticed that she wasn’t looking at the scene unfold before her. She was looking into the fire.
“C’mon Nat, let’s go. Or do you want to stay here?”
“I'm coming.” She turned on her heel and made her way to the room with her childhood self.
When they reached the room, the little girl was already strapped in the chair. They headpiece was put on and the doctor was about to flip the switch. He then sent the guards out to give the girl some privacy. He debated on whether or not to flip the switch but he knew he had to. Without looking, he flipped it. The girls scream tore through the silence once more as blood ran from her eyes and nose. This time Tony noticed a few drop come from her ear. Her back was arched again and she fought against the restraints, trying her best to get away from the pain. When it was over, she just lay there.
Tony was shaking from anger. He walked over to the doctor and tried to punch him square in the face but his fist simply went through, as if he was a ghost. It made him angry. He wanted, no, needed to hurt someone. His breathing became rapid and he was close to losing it, but then, he felt a cool hand on his shoulder. He looked and found Natasha standing there.
“It’s not worth it Tony. In the long run, I deserve it.”
“No one deserves this Nat. Not even you. You had no control over whatever you did. They did.”
“Tony please, I need you to be strong. For me.”
Tony then noticed the haunted look in her eyes. She wasn’t dealing with this. He needed to pull himself together. He took a deep breath and then turned back to the scene before him.
The doctor was putting burn creams on the little girl and was humming soothingly to her. He saw her eyes flutter and she started to wake up. She looked up at the man hovering above her and once again, looked unafraid.
The doctor went over his list of questions again and this time, nothing happened to trigger her memory. He then went over who she was.
“Your name is Natalia and that is it. You have no last name. You are a ballerina and you are very good at it. You are to do anything that is said to you with no questions asked. No talking back, no questions, no hesitations. The man you are about to meet, you will call him father and he will be your instructor. Tonight, you train to do what he tells you. Got it?”
“Yes sir.”
He then took her by the hand and walked her to Ivan’s office. Her steps were shaky but this treatment had no side effects like last time when she was unconscious for a whole day.
Ivan was over the top with excitement when he saw Natalia and that she was okay and knew nothing of her past. She was almost a newborn. She had no fear because she hadn’t learned it yet. She obeyed every order withought hesitation. Through the next few time hops, Tony watched as young Natalia grew and became a dangerous killer by her next birthday. He watched how one wrong step would cause a blow to the head or a strike of a whip. He watched as she learned to be the best.
She was now being trained alongside 24 other girls in the Black Widow program. They trained together, and fought against one another. They all thought of each other as sisters, even though it was dangerous to be close to someone. You never knew when that person would be taken away. Natalia remained the favorite of Ivan and he had her training doubled. She was now extremely skilled at ballet and gymnastics. The way her body could twist and turn fascinated him. She was already skilled with almost any weapon.
One day, Tony watched as she sparred with one of the girls. The other girl stopped suddenly and asked Natalia where she got her burns from. Natalia froze. Her body was covered in burns, and not just the ones she got from when she was in the fire. There were dozens more from when she started to remember or said something and she was tortured, with fire.
Natalia almost started to cry. Father had said that in order to avoid punishments, she would be allowed to break whatever made her ask. She knew that she was burned when she said certain things, she just didn’t know what it was anymore because all she could think about was the punishment that she would receive. She was surely broken now and never triggered. She was terrified of fire though. She saw father watching them and he gave her a nod. He had heard them.
Tony knew what was coming next. He almost wanted to cover his eyes but he couldn’t. There was something beautiful about the way Natalia moved. The little assassin took a fighting stance and saw the look of regret in the other girl’s eyes. The other girls in the room sensed that something was up and all crowded around. Natalia took the first shot. She flew to the ground and swiped her leg in a circle, knocking her opponent’s legs out from underneath her. The other girl, trained for this type of situation recovered quickly and matched Natalia blow for blow until Natalia was able to flip over the girls shoulders and grab her head, flinging her onto the ground. She jumped onto the girl and straddled her midsection, prepared to choke the girl to death. The look of pure terror in the girl’s eyes startled Natalia. She started to let the girl get up but lost her focus and was caught off guard when she was thrown off in a last attempt of the girl to escape the clutches of death. The other girl tried jumping onto Natalia but Natalia jumped up and grabbed the girl again, throwing her back onto the ground. This time, the girl landed on her feet but slipped in a pool of her own blood and Natalia didn’t hesitate to bring her foot down onto the girls back, breaking her spine instantly, killing the girl. The other girls in the room showed no emotion. They knew that if someone died in Red Room, it was their own fault. They then went back to sparring with each other. Ivan walked over then and grabbed Natalia by the arm, dragging her out of the room. Tony and Natasha followed.
Tony saw how much this time hopping to horrible events was affecting the redhead. She looked as strong as ever but the way she now carried herself made Tony worry. He knew they would have to take a break from this soon. They didn’t get tired, no matter how long they were in the dream state because in the real world, they were technically asleep. Natasha though, was looking real bad and Tony was deeply concerned. She didn’t talk as much and all she did was follow him around and stare blankly at the horror around them.
Ivan pulled Natalia out of the room and slammed her against the wall. He looked down on her and was furious. She knew why he was mad though. She had showed mercy. Ivan wasn’t sure what to do with her. She was his best girl and the rest of them could go to hell for all he cared. The serum was ready, enough for one girl; he only needed to test her out first. She needed a punishment and he knew just the one. He leaned down and whispered in Natalia’s ear.
Tony strained to hear what he was saying. He looked to Natasha for an explanation. A look of horror covered Natasha’s face and she broke down.
“Oh my God, not this, not this!”
Natasha started shaking, knowing what was coming next for Red Room. A panic attack was coming on and Tony rushed to her aid as she collapsed onto the floor. He heard the door to the room open and close and noticed that Ivan and Natalia had gone back into the room. But what was going to happen that made Natasha collapse like this?
“Go, Tony, you wanted to see,” she said between gasps for air.
“It’s okay Natasha, I don’t have to, I want to make sure you’re alright.”
“I'm fine, now go.”
“But-,” he said before he heard screams come from the room.
“GO TONY!”
Tony reluctantly left his teammates side and opened the door. What he saw almost stopped his heart.
Natalia was dancing. It was so beautiful. But why was there screaming? Then he saw the blood. It was a dance of death. She was moving so gracefully it seemed like a dance. But she was killing them all. All 25 girls in the room were moving, being attacked by one girl, Natalia.
Tony looked on in horror; he turned back to the open door and noticed that Natasha was lying on the ground, still. She wasn’t moving. He rushed back over to her and saw that she was unconscious and barely breathing. He had to get her out of there. He cradled her in his arms and pressed the button on his wrist that would bring them back to the real world. But it wouldn’t work. Why wouldn’t it work? He looked at Natasha’s face and suddenly realized that he couldn’t live without her. Her life was fading and it was his fault.
Then he had an idea. The rest of the guys were watching from the TV.
“Bruce! Get us out of here! NOW!” He felt a tingling as they began to fade from the dream world. He looked back through the door and saw that the room was red with blood and the girls were still fighting. She couldn’t possibly kill them all, could she?
The test had begun.