Chapter Title: A Glimpse of the Beginning

Time: Pre-Everything

Screaming and heat brought Katerina to consciousness. At first all she could see was red. She jerked up, staring wide-eyed at the flames that were licking at her bed. A crash, and she whipped her head to the gaping hole that was now on the floor of her room. She caught sight of a man who jumped out of the window.

"Mama!" She yelled at the top of her voice. "Papa!"

"Katerina!-" her mother paused as she broke into a fit of coughing. "R-run! Go!"

Katerina's whole body shook, and she curled up into a tight ball and gave herself a squeeze before jumping through the hole in her room to the window she had just seen a man escape out of. She hit the snow, gasping at the sharp contrast between the heat of her burning home and the chilly Russian air.

"Mama," she whispered brokenly.

"HELP!" she tried. "HELP! FIRE! FIRE!" Nothing stirred. The streets remained dark and isolated.

She started running. "HELP! Please, someone, please!" she rounded the corner and slammed into a giant block of a man.

"What are you, child?" he asked dangerously.

Katerina swallowed her fear. "My name is Katerina Markowski and I am 4 years old," she rattled off.

She paused, wondering if this man was to be trusted. "Please help me," she said.

"What is it, child?"

"My parents... a fire..."

"Petrovitch!" a voice growled. "Please, feel free to waste more time on interrogating collateral damage."

"Karenin." Ivan replied shortly. "She's an asset," he added, straightening up.

"She's a target."

"She escaped the fire"

"Well, someone must have helped her. And when I find out who..."

"No one helped me," Katerina interrupted. "I helped myself."

Ivan Petrovitch raised his eyebrows pointedly at the man.

"Fine," Karenin spat. "But if she is a liability she will be your liability." He left to continue his hunt for survivors.

"Come my child," Ivan said, caressing her cheek. "You don't belong in this world."

He pressed a damp cloth to her face, and Katerina's world turned back to black.

She awoke again to a flash of red. She was in a metal cell with only a tiny glass window. She had been placed on a cold bed to which she was handcuffed.

"You're up," a voice said beside her. He smiled at her.

"Where am I?" her voice was hoarse.

"There's been... an incident," the man said. "I'm afraid you were placed here because of your rather... disturbing behavior."

"What did I do?" she whispered.

"Natalia..."

"Is that who I am?"

"Your name is Natalia Alianovna Romanova. Surely you remember?"

"Of course," she said quickly, trying to hide her distress at her complete lack of memory. "Tell me what I did."

"That doesn't matter, Natalia... you're a criminal - no, a monster. A monster who murdered her own parents deserves no place in this world."

"Why am I here," Natalia spat. "Why didn't you just kill me, then, if no one wants me."

"I want you, Natalia. We, the Red Room, want you." She held her breath. "You may not have a place in this world but you will have a purpose, and that purpose is to do as the Red Room asks - and what I ask.

"You could do that for me, couldn't you, my child?" Ivan cradled her cheek.

"Yes," Natalia whispered.