AN: Thank you to everyone who has alerted this fic!
Disclaimer: I tried to trade my marshmallows for BlackWidow. Stan Lee didn't go for it. So Marvel has still got her.
With every fiber of her being, Natalia concentrated. Her opponent was a handler, three time her small nine year old size. She could not warp her arms around his middle. He bore down on her as she dodged his first three punches. The last found its mark and she fell with a hard thump on the mat.
The older Daughter glared at the handler, making him back off with her eyes alone. Striding forward, she pulled Natalia back to her feet. Her name was Irina. She was the best hand to hand fighter Natalia had seen, and therefore, Natalia had done everything to be selected to train with her. Irina proved to be a hard teacher.
« Your thighs are the strongest part of your body. They are the biggest muscle you have. Use them. Watch. » With a wave of her hand, the handler went at her. Natalia watched as she lept up, caught the man's head between her thighs before twisting hard and forcing him to the ground. The handler did not get up. Natalia glanced up at Irina.
« Teach me. » she said, determination lighting up her face.
For the next hour, Natalia hit the mat more times than she had ever had in one day before. She struggled to get her body high enough. Irina had her jumping as high as she could. When it proved not to be high enough, she showed Natalia a little trick by using the arm of her opponent as a stepping stone on her way to the neck.
By the end of the day, Natalia hurt everywhere, but she successfully took down a handler over six feet tall. While he did not get knocked out, Irina gave her a few quick excercises to strengthen her thighs. Every day, Natalia practiced. She modified the move ever so slightly to manage snapping the neck when she twisted, if she got the angle right. It became her signature move. The Master smiled whenever she used it. And when the Master was pleased, Natalia knew she would live just a little bit longer.
The next day was one of the big ones for Natalia. Several clients of the Master's were in, and he seemed determined to put on a good show. He decided on three match ups in the pit. And the first was to be Natalia against a newer girl. For that, she was thankful. She felt a little like the Master wanted her to win. Just a little.
As Natalia was given her weapon (a single tiny dagger), she swallowed and stared up at the people watching. The clients were observing her as the Master presented her. There were at least eight or nine of them. And then there were the Daughters. Almost seventy girls, most of them young, but a few older, watching with cold unfeeling eyes. Across from her was her opponent, and that made Natalia swallow hard.
Though she was newer than Natalia, she was older, by at least a year, not to mention being taller and bigger. Her blond hair glinted in the light and her brown eyes watched Natalia's movements nervously. Determination stired in her stomach. She was going to win. And if she didn't, it didn't matter because she would be dead.
A gong sounded, and the clients were hollering and cheering. Two of them were waving money around. She quickly blocked them out. Focusing on the task at hand, she eyed the girl opposite from her. And she saw her opening.
Twisting through the air, she moved as fast as she could, her foot connecting with the other girl's wrist, effectively disarming her. The girl looked scared now. She tried throwing a punch and kick, both of which Natalia dodge before counterattacking, her knife tight in her grip, and feeling it dig into the girl's flesh. She was rewarded with a screaming, and a step back.
The girl stared at her, anger in her eyes now. Ripping the knife out of her own thigh, she started advancing on Natalia. Dodging the first few attacks, the other girl landed a hit of her own, and Natalia did all she could to not think about the pain. Pain was dangerous. It could overcome her mind, cloud her senses and kill her.
She kick with her injured leg, kicking the knife out of her opponents hand. And with not a second of hesitation, she lept up, wrapped her legs around the girl's head and twisted hard.
She fell. She fell and tried to get up, slowly. Natalia landed neatly, and grabbed the girl's discarded knife, lifting the girl's head by her hair.
She looked up at the Master just then. He was wearing a pleased smile, just hidden behind his large beard. She had won, she thought as she slid the knife along the girl's throat. She did not think about the fact she had taken the girl's life. Chances were she would have died anyway. Natalia knew chances were not in her favor to live too; more girls died than lived in this place. Those that did were the very best. She had bought another day with another's life. But the Master was pleased. And as the blood soaked the ground and the girl's head fell forward, never to rise, Natalia stood and walked out of the pit. She did not limp. She ignored the burning, until she could not feel anymore. Not the pain. Not anything.
The doctor patched her up with his magic balm, and it burnt more than Natalia had ever felt. But the next day, there was nothing to say that Natalia had been in a fight to the death. There was nothing on the girl training her heart out to say that she had taken a life. She hid everything deep and well.
She hated the doctor. Only someone as sadistic and evil as him could wear a smile on his lips as he transported body after body out of the training room. She had honestly thought that she could not dislike someone more.
And then he had gotten a partner.
This doctor, more of a scientist apparently, was called Dr. Veselov. She had seen him for the first time wandering the gallery with the Master as they talked in hushed voices. She had made her way to a very specific spot, with her nunchucks, and continued her excercises. She had learnt, quite by accident, that the accoustics allowed her to listen to a conversation from this exact place without fear of being caught. And so she used it to gain information, to gain an edge. It had allowed her to win her last two fights. The Master had been discussing the strengths and weaknesses of her opponents, as well as herself. She had listened to his words and used them to her advantage, making the kill in under a minute.
This doctor however, seemed to be kissing the Master's ass. He was watching the young girls in the room, with a solid, observing eye.
« My experiments have led to several different results. Some I am sure you would be interested in. » he was saying, as Natalia swung the metal around her shoulder.
« What exactly are the effects you want to acheive? I don't want my Daughters exposed to something that could harm them. » It took all her concentration not to crack a smirk at that. What a lie. The Master constantly put them all in dangerous situations, on an almost daily basis. She had been here for nearly ten years. She would have the scars to prove it, if it were not for the Doctor's burning concotion.
« Things like speed. Muscle mass. Reaction times. Senses. These can all be sharpened. Also pheromones. I understand your girls use their... assets... to their advantage. » she could hear a slippery sound as Dr. Veselov licked his lips.
« Indeed. My Daughters are the best. I am willing to give it a try. Pick three. They will be your subjects. » Veselov looked over the moon, until the Master leant in and added « If you fail, don't bother looking for a way out. »
That evening had been her first injection. She had been hauled away from her supper by a handler, and sent to a new room, one that smelled of disinfectant. It pinched Natalia's nose, but she stood stoically, and did as she was told. Dr. Veselov was staring at all of her, all but her face, but it did not make her nervous. She used her information to her advantage. Even though she had not been told what was going to happen, she still knew.
Once she was tied into a chair, it was several more moments of pacing and fiddling before he approached her with a needle. She did not wince. She did not shutter. Other twelve year olds might have screamed and kicked and bit. She sat in perfect silence, still as a rock, commanding her body.
When he leant over and injected the strange reddish liquid into the vein of her arm, she held so still, he made a comment about how the bonds might not have been necessary.
And then the freezing started. She felt as though ice had been pumped into her very skin. She tried to hold still, but a shiver escaped. At least it was not a scream, she thought, mentally trying to push away the cold. Being Russian, she had had her fair share of experience in the cold. But this was different. This cold was INSIDE her.
Dr. Veselov sat across from her and watched as she did all she could to stop shivering, and to keep from screaming out as the cold pushed itself from her skin to her very core. She could no longer feel her fingers or toes, and she wasn't sure if it was from clenching them too hard, or from the serum in her body.
An hour later, when she began to think that the cold would be a part of her for good, and she had not uttered a sound, nor moved more than a shiver, Dr. Veselov untied her and told her to go to bed. She did, running in the vain hope that it would warm her up.
That night sleeping was painful to say the least. She shivered hard under the blankets, but did not get any warmer.
By morning, she had determined that the cold in her blood was here to stay. So without wincing once, she dressed and went to train, letting the cold take over her body, as long as it didn't slow her movments.
She did not notice her speed until the Master ordered all the Daughters to run around the circle several times.
She had not been a particularly fast girl, though she trained hard to be. She had always been in the middle of the pack, even as she sprinted to get ahead.
Not today.
It felt like always, running, but her muscles could move faster. She was at the front of the pack and pulling away, before they had even completed one lap. That was when she saw Dr. Veselov in the gallery, with the Master. He had a masterful smile on his face. She looked behind her and saw that while she was fastest, two other girls, Anya and Svetlana, were only a few feet behind her. She looked down at her moving legs, and tried to comprehend, but didn't. She was faster.
Veselov waited two weeks until his next experiment. This time, she was a little curious to see what effect it would have. The serum, this time a horrible yellow color, was injected, but all she felt was sleepy. As if he had injected a knockout, rather than a performance enhancing drug.
That night, she had slept better and deeper than ever before.
That was the only thing she noticed with that particular serum. It was not a change the Master noticed, or that affected her performance in the training room. It was a deeper enhancment than that. He had given her the ability to sleep well.
She considered that . It was not necesarily an improvment, more of a risk. A person was vulnerable when sleeping. And deeply could mean a death sentence.
However it proved to be otherwise. She slept deeply, but her sixth sense was always engaged. When a handler snuck into her dorm and held a knife to her throat, she woke up without warning and had his own knife burried in his chest before she was fully awake. While the kill had been performed on nothing more than instinct and training, the fact that she had woken up when she needed was enough assurance that sleeping was not dangerous for her anymore.
Anya was not so lucky. She did not sleep in the same dorm as Natalia, but she did not appear again at training, nor did Natalia ever see her again. She wondered if it was the serum or the handler that had killed her.
Week after week, experiment after experiment. Veselov was impressing the Master. More and more girls were getting serum injections. Not all the girls, she noticed. Only the really promising girls. But Natalia could not complain about the treatements. They were giving her every edge she needed to survive. To make the Master happy. And for that she found herself ever so slightly grateful, despite the pain she endured from his hands.
Her muscles did not grow bigger, but they did grow stronger. She was able to lift more weight. Her hair got redder. This one she wasn't sure was entirely because of the serums, or because of puberty. She was never told what enhancement wsa being used. But Natalia noticed her hair becoming more vibrant, everywhere on her body. Her night vision also improved. The dim light of the gym was not such a disadvantage anymore. Men, the handlers especially, were looking at her with dialated pupils a lot more. Her reaction times, already trained to be as fast as they could, became even faster.
It was several months after her last treatement that she noticed the Master not being happy. She immediately wanted to know why. If he was mad at her, she needed to prepare. But from her secret eavesdropping spot, she heard him talking to a handler about Veselov's recent work.
« He has not injected a girl in a month. What else has he got coming? »
The handler stayed silent. She assumed it was one of the thugs that had lost his tongue somewhere, or he was smart enough not to answer. The Master did not care and continued his monologue.
« If he does not give us something by the end of the week, end him. »
She could only assume the handler had nodded, and the last thing she heard were angry footsteps leading away.
Natalia never did see Veselov again. In total only she and three other girls had been given every single injection. Most of the others had only gotten three or four of them. And none of the newer girls would get them.
She was thankful. It meant she had an edge younger girls would not have. As horrible as it was, it was an advantage to exploit. She did it shamelessly, knowing it was the only way she was going to survive.
A birthday as one of Drakov's daughters was not anything special. There were no cakes or presents. There was only an acknowledgement that you had lived one more year.
Until her thirteenth that is.
That morning, an older Daughter had been assigned to her. Yuliana was one of the oldest girls there, nearing her twenty fifth birthday, and easily the prettiest one the Drakov had kept for himself. She had ebony hair that fell in perfect soft waves without effort, no matter how much she trained or how she tied it up. Her eyes were forever changing, sometimes green, sometimes blue. She took Natalia down to a room she had never seen. It was a large spa like room, with a bath, sweetsmelling soaps and lotions, scrubs and soft fluffy towels. For one wild moment, Natalia wondered if she was dreaming, before remembering that she did not dream anymore.
As Yulianna went around the room turning on the faucet of the tub and grabbing a towel, she began speaking to her, in a serious voice that made Natalia listen very carefully.
« Tonight is the most important night of your training. Your first time.» Natalia felt her brow crease and she forced herself to correct it before Yulianna noticed. "A man will come for you tonight. You have parts of you that are interesting to him. You will pleasure him. And the Master will reward you." she began removing Natalia's training clothes.
"What must I do?" Natalia asked, standing still as she was stripped down.
"First, we get you clean and dressed. Then I will teach you what to say, and do." As Natalia lowered herself into the tub and Yulianna scrubbed her within an inch of her life, she listened to the older girl talk.
"You know men are made differently from women. They have different parts, like pieces of a puzzle. When men want to solve the puzzle, they must find a woman. And a... an act occurs between them. It leaves men in a very vulnerable state. This is why the Master want you to learn this." Yulianna said as she rubbed shampoo through Natalia's red locks. "Your puzzle has never been solved and your first time is important. Men like being the first. The men this week, in the gallery, they were watching you and one of them will pay to be your first."
Natalia simply nodded. She was not as naïve as Yuliana seemed to think she was. Still, it was not something Natalia knew yet how to do. It was a lie to say she was as calm as she looked; nervousness was chewing at her stomach. She hoped that Yuliana would be an appropriate teacher.
As she dressed into a small skirt, white blouse and small flats, Yuliana then took her to an adjacent room which was dominated by a large bed.
"The Master will be watching. So be very careful about your emotions. You cannot show fear. But if you show pleasure, that is a good thing. Your man will also be pleased. I'm going to walk you through everything that will happen. But you must be ready. Each man likes it different. Do not be surprised. Just go with it." Yuliana then proceeded to show Natalia how to enter, what to say, and a little more about her anatomy.
For several hours, Natalia soaked up as much knowledge about sex as she could. When evening finally came, she was as ready for her ordeal as she could be.
That evening, Natalia entered a new room to find her client waiting for her. He was tall and rather handsome, with nearly black hair and eyes to match. She thanked what ever gods that might be out there that he was not too old, maybe thirty or so. Standing in the corner of the room, in a forest green robe, a smile playing on his lips, he looked up when she entered.
"Hello." he said softly taking her in. His voice was a lot higher than she had expected. Yuliana had dressed her in a short dressing black gown and nothing else. Her still developing curves were accented by a red belt tie with a bow. She looked at him shyly as Yuliana told her - chin down, eyes up, hands behind back and one ankle gently scratching the other - before introducing herself.
"My name is Natalia, sir."
"And I am Pyotr, my dear. Please." he motioned her forward, handing her a flute of champagne.
"I understand that this is your first time. Indulge me." She took it, a small smile playing on her lips, forcing panic back down. Yuliana had not covered drinks, she had just said to go along with whatever he did. He held his own glass out, so she touched her glass to his, and she watched as he took a small sip. She copied him. He gave her a smile, revealing crooked but white teeth, and she hoped he was pleased.
"Come," he said, gesturing to the bed. "Lets begin our adventures." She had started to think that he was kind then. He seemed to be trying to make her comfortable, but Natalia did not let her guard down. Granted, she never did.
Natalia climbed onto the bed, joining Pyotr, lying on his side across the soft sheets. He lifted a finger to her chin and placed his lips on hers. Strange, she thought. She tried to think of the last time she had been kissed. Probably before her parents had died. The man kissed her softly, letting her respond. Yuliana had taught her to kiss, puckering her lips just right, and letting him open her lips and slip his tongue in.
That was when everything changed.
Suddenly, his lips were not soft, but biting her bottom lip hard. His hands were demanding, not caressing, as they grabbed her wrists and pushed her into the mattress. She felt a flicker of fear, and did all she could to not let it pass on her face. She commanded her body not to react, not to lash out, not to even shutter at his dual personality. She was aware that he was holding both her small hands in one of his, and the other was pulling apart the belt of her dressing gown, revealing the smooth skin of her young body. The hand began grabbing at her developing breasts, before dipping further down. He leered a smile at her reaction, his eyes black and sparkling. She felt him push a finger into her core, and Yuliana had already given her the desired response. She inhaled with her mouth open, closing her eyes. All she wanted to do was scream. Her body was not hers. It never was. She commanded it, and it obeyed her. Her reactions were not natural, they were acted.
"You like that, dirty little girl?"
She did not answer. Yuliana told her to wait until she had more experience before trying talking in bed. It was important to know your target before using your words as a tool.
His finger was plunging in and out of her, and her body was getting slightly used to it. Then he pulled his finger out of her, and sat up on his knees, removing his robe as he did so. A moment later he was back, and this time is was not his finger pressing into her, but something much bigger. She put all her concentration into not screaming, or lash out. She knew she could snap the man's neck before he had time to move. But she also knew that if she did that, she would be dead within the hour.
As he slid into her, her nerves were screaming in pain, but she did not move, only closing her eyes tightly and letting him move within her. She concentrated on her breathing to get through. Inhale. Exhale. He did not seem to want a rhythm. He plunged and surged erratically and his heavy pants washed over her. Inhale. Exhale. She kept her eyes squeezed shut. And she waited.
What felt like an eternity later, he gave a large grunt, and relaxed falling on top of her, crushing her. Though she could barely breathe and she felt like her entire body was a house of cards in a breeze, she remembered Yuliana's words, and stroked the man's black hair. For several minutes, they both lay there, each wrapped up in their minds. Then he lifted off her. Pulling out of her, he got out of the bed, put on the robe again, and left. Natalia allowed herself to give a relieved sigh. She had done it. resting only a moment longer on the bed, she gathered her thoughts and ignored the stabbing pain in her core, before getting her robe back on and leaving the room as well. She had mastered her reactions during sex. It was easy now to hide pain, to force it down, to ignore it completely. One way or another, sooner or later, it went away.
That evening, she was transferred from one dormitory to another. Here, all the girls had had the same experience she had. They had all sold their virginities, and lived to tell the tale. Not that they actually said anything about it. Each one was just like her. They were good, not just at fighting but at hiding and languages, and ignoring their own bodies. Now they were available, Yulianna had explained.
She had told Natalia how it was expensive to keep the academy going; feeding the girls, paying the handlers and the doctor, buying weapons, it all took money. So the Master would let clients buy a girl for a night, so as to fund his center, his academy for young girls. She had passed the hurdle and was now available for sale in the evenings, should a client want her. Yulianna had also said not to worry about it too much. She would not get asked for too much early on, because she was not experienced enough. Not yet anyway.
Natalia had been promoted for lack of a better word. Better sleeping quarters, more work, and a few more days of life.
From then on, she had lessons four time a week in seduction. Yuliana taught her for a while, but then she disappeared, and other girls continued. She learned how to move in a room to attract all the attention of every person in the room, the opposite of which she could do very well already. She learned to move her body to pleasure men until they screamed. She learned all the whores' tricks she could, because men, in their post coital bliss, more often than not, would sell their souls. And if she needed information, using her body was an excellent way to get it.
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