At first, there were twenty-eight orphan girls in the Red Room. Twenty-eight girls, ranging in age from five to fourteen, all chosen because they were 'special' and with no attachments, though the later was sometimes newly required under questionable circumstances. Natasha Romanoff, near the middle of the pack at age nine, was one of the new 'no attachments' group. Her family had died in a fire nearly a week ago, just two days after she took out the trained soldier that had raped her sister. She should have done nothing, maybe then they'd still be alive…
The first test the men in black gave the girls was physical. Fourteen of the twenty-eight failed the test, and they disappeared the next day. Majority of the girls that failed were five and six, though a few from different ages also failed. The remaining fourteen didn't know what had happened to the others, but you didn't have to look too close to guess. How would you stop a group of people that nobody would miss from talking?
The second test was biological. Each of the fourteen was injected with a type of serum. Five died right after the injection, another three within twenty-four hours. Two tests down, the twenty-eight was down to six; one five, two nine, one eleven, and two fourteen year olds.
The third test was psychological. Each girl was handed a gun and led into a different room. Each room held someone tied to a chair, and the girls were to kill them. Every room had at least one gunshot go off in it, and some had more than one. The rooms where more than one shot was heard held the girls that didn't leave. This time, three girls were left; Natasha-age 9, Lizabeta-age 14, and Lada-age 14.
Next, the men in the black suits took the girls and trained them. For three months, the three trained in the Red Room. They were taught survival skills of all kinds and learned their own personal strengths and weaknesses, and those of the others. They were taught to fight alone and together. All three could kill by hand-to-hand and long range.
Lada leaned toward poisons. She knew every kind of poison out there, and was working on creating a few of her own. Lizabeta was better at longer distances, and was rumored to be the best marksman as of late. Natasha, however, claimed the spot in hand-to-hand.
The three girls were close to surpassing their superiors when each was given a separate assignment, and a separate mark. They were given information about the places their marks would be at and about their marks, but given the freedom to decide how to complete their individual missions.
Two missions were a success, and one was a failure. Lada, Lizabeta, and Natasha were all brought into a lightly lit room. The three of them looked to one another, before silently standing to attention. There was one chair in the room, but not one of them dared to sit in it. They waited for someone to come for what seemed like hours, or may have just been a few minutes.
Eventually, a large man wearing a black uniform not so different from what the girls are wearing stride in. Lada and Lizabeta both tense, but Natasha did not. While Lada learned information at an unnatural rate, and Lizabeta could see vulnerabilities from long distances, Natasha read people. She read that this man would see tensing as a sign of fear, and that he lived off of fear.
"The three of you were sent out. Two of you succeeded, one of you failed." The man was Russian, most likely from the capitol based off of the slight inflections in his words, and looked at the here in disgust.
From behind, two men came forward to grab Lada. Lizabeta took out one of them, and Lada, the other one. Eventually, though, Lizabeta was secured by three, and Lada was tied to the chair. Throughout the scuffle, Natasha stayed poise, staring straight at the man smirking at their resistance. Natasha knew at that very moment, that she'd learn to hate this man before the end.
"Are you two finished?" The man kept his smirk in place as he looked between the two identical blondes. Lizabeta looked up, her dazed eyes just now coming into focus. Lada's fear filled eyes met her twin's focusing one. It was obvious which one had failed.
The man strolled over to the tied up girl before slapping her hard across the face. "You failed. Why?" Blood dribbled down the side of Lada's mouth, the man kept smirking, Lizabeta kept crying, the other men didn't move, and Natasha…Natasha kept her face and form expressionless.
"The…the wife. She drank the wine first." Lada stammered out the reason for her failure, just in time for the man to hit her again. And again. And again. And again.
"Stop it!" Lizabeta's cry broke the rhythm of hits. She fought against the men holding her back, but she wasn't strong enough nor knew enough to escape their hold.
The man stops hitting Lada to turn and glare at Lizabeta. He waves the men holding her away. Lizabeta stands there, her desperation evident for all to see, as the man walks up to her. He pulls a gun from his holster and hands the butt end out to her to grab.
Lizabeta takes the offering with wide eyes. "What do I do with this?"
His smile doesn't reach his and he doesn't back away. "I want you to stop your sister's pain. Take that gun, and shoot her."
Natasha listens as Lizabeta keeps saying 'no, no' to herself, and the man steps off to the side. What catches her attention, however, was the tied up girl. Lada locked gazes with her, and nodded towards her sister and silently shook her head 'no'. The thing that made Natasha 'special' is her ability to read people. She knew what Lada was asking of her, and gave a slight nod to indicate that she understood. Lada's eyes close in relief before turning her attention back to her twin.
"You either kill her, or I kill the bother of you. Choose." The man, whose name they didn't know, gave the order to the crying Lizabeta.
Hand shaking, Lizabeta levels the gun at her sister. "I'm so sorry." She turned her face away and closes her eyes… to suddenly open them at the sound of another gun going off. She hadn't yet pulled the trigger of the gun in her hand.
Lada's body lay slumped in the chair, a bullet hole between her eyes. Natasha's arm was still outstretched with the gun she had taken from a nearby 'guard' to shoot the tied up girl. Natasha handed the gun back to the annoyed 'guard' and the man took his back from the now in shock Lizabeta.
"Why did you do that, Natalia?" Only Natasha could read the nervousness behind the man's words, and fight the urge to smirk.
Instead of smirking, she rolls her eyes. "Because I was tired of waiting. Can I wash off now? I still have blood on me from my successful mission."
The man nods his permission. Walking out, Natasha can just see Lizabeta's still shocked expression. She feels guilty, but she hadn't known what else she could do. She still doesn't know what she could have done.
Lada hadn't wanted her twin to live with the knowledge that she killed her, nor died with her. The only thing Natasha could think of to do was to do the deed herself, which is what she did. Her third kill since entering the Red Room, and she had yet to reach her tenth year.