Title: Grand Duchess Natalia
Author: Shaneequa
Summary: An Anastasia AU. Closely based on the animated movie.
Dislcaimer: I don't own the Avengers or any of the rights to it. I also don't own the rights to the animated Anastasia movie that this is based off of. I don't own anything.
Rating: T
Author's Note: Someone on tumblr asked for an Anastasia AU. While I've been working on a loose AU of Anastasia which may or may not be posted, this was super easy to write and I loved seeing Natasha and Clint as Anastasia and Dmitri... so I wrote it. I hope you guys like it! Please review so that I know you are all interested for this to continue :) This story is mostly finished, but the publishing of the story depends on if you guys want it or not.
All mistakes are mine, please let me know if there are any and I will fix them.
Chapter 1 - The Curse
Natalia Romanova was a happy young girl. She had a mother and father who dotes and loved her very much. She was the oldest of two children, her brother Alexei was set to inherit the crown, as king of all Russia. But he was a sickly child and Natalia did her best to cheer him up and make him happy.
At eight, Natalia showed promising beauty. Her firry red curls made her stand out from the crowd around her and her grace and poise illustrated her wealthy background. She was the top dancer in her ballet class, a scholar at such an early age who can recite poems with finesse.
But what Natalia loved the most was to dance, in her beautiful gown, in a ballroom so large and filled with the dignitaries and royalties of countries she had yet to study. Her father, Alan the Emperor of Russia would twirl her around, her dress swooshing around her.
"Again, Papa!" Natalia demanded her arms outstretched calling for her father to spin her around once again. Natalia loved being twirled around, it made her feel like a bird, flying through the air.
"No more, Natalia," Alan stated setting her down to run around he dance floor. The guests look around as she makes her way back to the head of the dance floor where her grandmother was sitting watching the crowd when she sees something catch her eye. Something that didn't belong in the picture.
The son of the kitchen servant was trying to blend in as he looked longingly at the fruit basket.
"Would you like one?" Natalia asked him standing beside him. He shook his head.
"I am here to guard, ma'am. Not eat."
"Well, I am Natalia Alianovna Romanova, and I say you can have one."
The little blonde boy looked at her with shock and awe. "Really?"
"Yup! I'm the Grand Duchess, I can do what I want."
"Thank you," the boy said attempting to bow to her out of the lessons that his mother taught him before she died.
"No problem!" Natalia replied walking away to her grandmother. Her grandmother, Marie, had her arms open, waiting for her favorite granddaughter.
"Grandmama! Papa says you are leaving again for Paris," Natalia stated with a pout. Her grandmother always went to Paris, she loved the city, and always came back with stories of the City of Lights and its magnificence. It was a fairytale for Natalia, those stories.
"I am."
"I wish you would stay," Natalia stated draping her body on her grandmother's lap.
"I have something for you," Marie stated with a smile stroking the red hair on her granddaughter's head. "To make the separation easier for the both of us."
Natalia looked up to see what her grandmother was holding: a small circular music box. "It's a music box."
Natalia grabbed at the mix box from her grandmother's hands and frowned when she couldn't figure out how to open it. Marie laughed at Natalia's antics and pulled out a necklace.
"This necklace opens the music box," Marie explained to Natalia. She laced the necklace into the slot and turned it. The music box opening to a special song which Marie had customer for the music box to play.
"It's our song, grandmama!"
"It is," Marie smiled at her. "This necklace is for you to wear, so you remember my promise that one day…"
"We will go to Paris," Natalia smiled turning around so that her grandmother could hang the necklace on her. "Thank you, grandmama!"
The crowd continued to dance while Natalia and Marie sat and watched the people of the dance floor. Moments passed before anybody took note of the different aura in the room. The lights flickered and dimmed.
"What is going on?" Alan bellowed looking around him. A cold wind passed him before a clocked figure made its way at the center of the ballroom.
A collective gasp was heard when the clock revealed the man inside. "Ivan!"
Ivan Petrovich was the helper of the Queen, Alexandra. Alexandra relied on Ivan for science and medicine for her weakening son Alexei, the heir to the Russian throne. Ivan had been a close confidant of Alexandra and knew the workings of the castle. Until the caught him practicing dark magic along with dark experiments with children as his test subjects. Ivan was banished immediately and sentenced to death.
"How dare you step foot in this palace!" Alan exclaimed. Guests scattered around in chaos trying to leave.
Ivan laughed darkly. "I am your hand."
"Get out you traitor! You are to be sentenced to death!" Alan exclaimed pushing away his wife and children from the dance floor, walking menacingly towards Ivan.
Ivan shook his head. "You think you can banish me? I am Ivan Petrovich. It will be I who curse you!"
Alan looked at him bewildered as the lights continued to flicker. The ballroom guests were still in chaos looking for a proper exit to get out of the tensions rising. "If you leave now, I will ensure you have a quick death."
"You will be the one wishing for an easy death," Ivan replied. He waved his hand and men came to take Alan, Alexandra, and Alexei. "Now kill them all!"
Gun shots rang throughout the ballroom and guests screamed.
Natalia was dragged away by her grandmother who was trying to find a place for them to escape the building but they were in the kitchen and she had never been there.
"Hey! This way!" the little boy from earlier shouted at them, finding a latch in the wall and opening it. "Follow me!"
The little boy led them through the maze that he had memorized in his efforts to escape kitchen duty. He got them safely outside.
"Thank you, dear boy," Marie stated with a smile.
"The train station is to the right, you have to hurry!" the little boy said with urgency as the castle gates filled out with men in black clocks: Ivan's men.
The boy ran back inside the castle, leaving Natalia and Marie running towards the train.
"Grandmama, I can't keep up!" Natalia screamed out through the chaos, her arm getting dragged by her grandmother's fast and long steps compared to her shorter strides.
Marie got on the train and took Natalia's hand to hoist her up when Natalia felt a tug on her leg. A man was trying to pull her off the train and put himself on but both she and man went tumbling off the train.
"Natalia!" Marie screamed seeing her granddaughter unconscious on the floor as her train left further and further away.
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