Chapter Four

The Family We Choose

Natasha turned in time to see the agent's knife plunging into the wall near her head. He had screwed up, but so had she. She faced forward again, just as he had closed the gap between them.

The man gave her a right hook, and Natasha leaned back to dodge it. His fist swung past her face so closely she could feel it slicing through the air. That punch bought him time, and he used it to grab the wrist of her weapon hand. The man pulled with both hands and tried to seize her Glock.

Uh-uh, Natasha thought. She leaned forward but maintained her balance and grip. She then kicked her opponent's leg to bring him down before her. The guy refused to let go. She hammered his arms and followed with a reverse elbow to his nose.

The man spun away, grunting. He rolled to his feet, but Natasha gave him a front kick to the chin. His body snapped back and slammed against the cabinets behind him. As he bounced off, Natasha pulled him down for a knee strike. The blow brought him crumpling to the floor. Natasha pistol-whipped the back of his head to knock him out for good.

"Always gotta make it hard," she muttered. She crouched down to check her fallen foe. In his jacket, she found a leather wallet with his SHIELD badge and ID card. Agent Lawrence Brooks. Also Level 7.

Natasha had no idea who this guy was. However, she was able to find a keycard tucked into a slot behind his ID. What's this for? She hadn't seen any doors with electronic locks. Of course, she hadn't been to the basement yet. There was a door in the corner of the kitchen, which had to lead down there.

Pausing for a second, Natasha considered what Agent Brooks had been searching for. It didn't matter. The worst thing she could do was dilute her mission objectives when she didn't even know what to look for. She was only there for one reason: To find her friend.

Taking Brooks's card, Natasha went downstairs. The air in the basement was musty, and there was only a single light bulb down there to provide illumination. The basement floor was smooth, but covered with dust and mountains of old junk. Natasha noticed a dustless area on the floor in front of a pile of cardboard boxes. Pulling the boxes aside, she found a door with a slot to swipe the keycard through.

The door slid open to reveal a dark staircase that led even deeper into the earth. Both the stairs and the walls around it were made of concrete. They appeared to be newer than the basement was.

At a point about fifteen steps down, the stairs turned right. Around that turn, Natasha could hear a pair of men chattering.

"That must be Brooks," one of them said. He sounded like he was very close to the stairs.

"Huh," another man said from further away. "Wonder if he found it."

Natasha charged downstairs. She jumped as she approached the turn, and she kicked off from the wall there. Coming down into a wide, well-lit hallway, she delivered a flying kick to the face of the nearest man.

"God damn!" his partner yelled. He was sitting behind a counter that allowed him to look out into the hall. Jumping from his seat, he drew a gun.

Quickly, Natasha pulled a taser disk from her belt and flung it at his chest. Stunned by its sudden surge of electricity, he fell back against the wall of his office.

Natasha looked down the hall to see if anyone else was coming. So far, she was alone with her two unconscious friends. She took the opportunity to hop over the counter to see what was going on over there.

The office seemed to be a security station. On the wall was a large display panel, split into ten different screens. These monitored several halls, as well as an armory, a gun range, a gym, and a few storage rooms. Several men were inspecting guns inside the armory. Another was entering a room from one of the halls.

On the desk was a clipboard with a register. More than two dozen names were written on it. Half of them were strangely crossed out with scribbles of black ink. Natasha read down the page until she recognized a name near the bottom.

Priyanka. She could hardly believe it, after running into so much other crap. The register said that Priyanka was in Room D6. Natasha turned toward the display panel and saw a room with that number in one of the halls. It was unguarded but secured with another electronic lock.

She searched the man she had stunned, and she found another keycard. With the card and her suppressed Glock in hand, she ran over to Hall D.

Turning into the hallway, she raised her gun half expecting to be ambushed. Nothing yet. Slowly, she walked over to Room D6. Please be inside. Natasha swiped the card and stuck it into one of her pouches. She then raised her gun, before she turned the door handle to go in.

She had just seen the bare bed on the other side of the room when someone jumped on her from behind. Someone small, with a fierce shriek and even fiercer hands. Two arms wrapped around Natasha's neck, and she could feel the weight of a person hanging from her. Natasha twisted for two seconds, before she threw that person onto the bed.

She took aim, but she kept herself from firing when she saw that it was Priyanka.

"Wait! Stop!" she said, lowering the gun as she saw the girl rolling to face her. "Don't be afraid. It's me. Natasha..."

Priyanka stared at her with big open eyes, seemingly frozen with disbelief. Her body was tense, and she kept gasping as if danger lurked just outside the room.

"You remember me, don't you?" Natasha said as she took a step forward. Priyanka jerked back slightly, and her hands balled into fists. "Please. I'm here to help." Slowly, Natasha stepped forward again and opened her arms. To her relief, Priyanka leaned forward and embraced her.

Natasha clutched her tightly. She knew that there wasn't time for this. That they should be getting out of there as soon as possible. However, Priyanka's sobs filled her ears, and she couldn't help sharing the girl's pain for a few brief moments. "It's okay. It's okay..."

With great difficulty, she pulled back a bit and looked at Priyanka. She had visible marks on her neck and shoulders, in addition to the star-shaped, quarter inch wide scar behind her left ear.

According to Priyanka, her sister Sanjana had a matching scar. Sanjana had cut those distinctive marks before their separation, hoping that it could confirm their identities if they ever saw each other again after many years. A scar like that was still Natasha's best hope of finding the older sister. She had told all of her underworld informants to keep their eyes open for it.

That scar was familiar, but it was unfortunately not alone. Priyanka had a number of cuts and bruises that looked more recent. "What happened?" she asked the girl. What did they do to you?

Priyanka's lips quivered. "They...They killed everyone."

"I'm sorry." Natasha hugged Priyanka again, lightly patting her back to try to calm her. She wished for more time to comfort the girl. Time she didn't have, as proven when someone stepped into the room behind her.

That should never have happened. Natasha's well-honed instincts took over, and she drove her leg back into the person's stomach. Spinning around, she saw a handgun rattling into the corner of the room as a woman fell flat on her back. Good thing for her. If that woman had still been armed, Natasha likely would have put three bullets through her chest.

Natasha narrowed her eyes and raised her gun toward the woman's face. "Who are you?" she asked in a low, menacing growl. "What are you doing with her?"

The woman maintained her composure as she crawled backward on the floor. "Help! Help!"

"Wrong answer," Natasha said.

"No!" Priyanka pushed past Natasha and threw herself on top of the woman. "Don't!" she shouted, clutching the woman as tightly as she had Natasha.

From the hall outside, Natasha could hear the footsteps of several men. They were close. She was trapped in that room, with no way to get Priyanka out before they arrived.

The girl didn't even want to escape. Why was she helping this woman? There was a possibility that she had a real reason for that. However, Natasha always suspected the worst. She knew from experience that people made excuses. That they often stood up for those that abused and manipulated them.

Keeping her gun up, Natasha studied the woman's face. That woman was staring back at her over Priyanka's shoulder. She was middle aged, with glasses and blonde hair that she kept tied up in a bun. Despite that, Natasha was able to tell that she was the same woman as the one in the picture upstairs. Her face was older and wearier now. More hardened. Even accounting for the stress of the current standoff, she didn't seem like a very happy sort.

"Drop the weapon!" a security guard yelled. He stormed into the room with three other men. They were all dressed in black and armed with submachine guns. "Drop the weapon!"

"If I go, then she does," Natasha replied.

"Leave her alone!" Priyanka yelled at the men. "She's my friend! Natasha!"

"Stand down!" the blonde woman yelled. The men lowered their guns, and Natasha did the same. The woman got up from the floor with Priyanka. "Agent Romanoff. I thought it was you."

"You know who I am?"

The woman chuckled. "Everyone knows who you are."

"Hmm." Natasha nodded in acknowledgement of her unwanted fame. "And you are?"

"Dr. Judith Stanton," she said as she pushed her glasses up. "Psychologist. I'm the one SHIELD hired to run this Day Care."

"Why wasn't I told about this place? What's the Day Care even for?"

"It was created to be a sanctuary. Somewhere for the talented but...vulnerable young assets that SHIELD kept picking up."

"A sanctuary?" Natasha asked. It smelled of bullshit. Unsavory arrangements were often dressed up with better-sounding words. During her childhood inside a Russian training facility, her mentor had often told her how much he "loved" her. How everything he did was for her good. "Is that what they're calling it these days?"

"I know what you're thinking, Agent Romanoff. But I assure you, the Day Care is no Red Room." Dr. Stanton tenderly placed her hand on Priyanka's shoulder. "My job is to look after these kids. To make sure they have some semblance of a normal upbringing."

Suspiciously, Natasha turned to Priyanka for her perspective.

The girl nodded in agreement. "She's nice."

"How many kids do you have in here anyway?" Natasha asked the Doctor.

"Including her? Seven. We were scheduled to receive some more, but I doubt that's gonna happen now."

"Did Director Fury know about this?"

"It was his idea. He wanted us to keep these kids safe. Separated from the rest of SHIELD."

Natasha seethed at the fact that Fury hadn't seen fit to keep her in the loop. She understood that compartmentalization was normal. That a lack of trust came with the territory. It was still a struggle not to project her feelings onto Dr. Stanton. "Separated until they were ready. Am I right?"

"Yes...Of course."

"Well you weren't exactly safe," Natasha said. "I busted right in here without any problems. No offense, but your security sucked."

"It was lot better a week ago," one of the guards said.

"Before half our guys yelled 'Hail Hydra' and tried to kill the rest of us." Stanton let out a wistful sigh. "Caught one of them sticking a needle in Priyanka's arm. I had to shoot him myself."

"You probably thought I was doing the same thing," Natasha said. "Sorry for the scare."

"My mistake," Stanton said. "By the way, how did you get down here?"

"I took Agent Brooks's card. We fought in the kitchen. He seemed real desperate to find something there."

One of the men laughed. "That would be the peanut butter."

"That's it? Really?"

Stanton shrugged. "Give Larry a break. The guy was forced to shoot his best friend. After doing something like that, you'd look for small comforts wherever you can."

Natasha turned to the guard leader. "Why are you all still here? You should've left after the Hydra attack."

"We were ordered to take shelter in this bunker," he replied. "They told us to wait here for further instructions."

"Those instructions aren't gonna come. Big SHIELD doesn't exist anymore."

"What do you mean?" Dr. Stanton asked.

"If I'm right, and I usually am, the government has probably labeled SHIELD as a terrorist organization. They've been questioning a lot of agents. Arresting a whole bunch of us. You probably saw them raiding my house on the news."

"Did they get Director Fury?"

"No," Natasha said. "But that's because Director Fury is dead." Her statement drew gasps and confused looks from the others in the room. Natasha gave them a few moments to soak it all in, but she didn't offer any explanation. She knew how to lie, even if she hated doing it sometimes.

"What do we do now?" one of the guards finally asked.

"I suggest you leave. Take everyone here to Avengers Tower. My friend Tony Stark can protect you." That was if he hadn't already washed his hands of her...

"It's gonna take us a while to pack up," Stanton said.

"That's fine. I wanna look into a few things anyway."

Three hours later.

Natasha sat in Dr. Stanton's spare office on the other side of the bunker. On the desk, she had laid out all of the cell phones and computing devices taken from the Hydra agents who had been killed at the Day Care.

The devices had all been encrypted against any loyal SHIELD personnel outside of their secret circle. Not in any way that was particularly skillful though. The Day Care's tech expert could have probably broken in within minutes. But since he was lying in the freezer with a .45 caliber slug in his head, Natasha had been forced to do the job herself.

She had the last phone connected to Dr. Stanton's desktop computer, and she had just broken into it. This one belonged to a Level 6 agent named Randall Walker. Eagerly, she began to read through Walker's messages hoping to find a piece of crucial information that the other devices had lacked. Come on. Give me something...

The door opened, and Dr. Stanton stepped in. "The men are almost done. You find anything yet?"

"Let me see," Natasha said as one of the messages caught her eye. She focused and slowly read it out loud. "I want the other sister. Make sure she isn't harmed." The vague statement set Natasha's mind into motion, and she looked up at Stanton. "That came right after Hydra activated their sleepers. You know which girl they're referring to?"

"Well, we only have three...Abby's mother was just sixteen when she had her. She died in a prison during childbirth. And Ling? She's from China, so I'm pretty sure she's an only child." Stanton sat down across the desk from Natasha and gave her a knowing look. "You're going after her, aren't you?"

"I have to. This is the first new lead on Sanjana in more than a year. Priyanka needs her."

"What she needs is some stability." Stanton sighed and shook her head. "You know, her birthday's coming up next week. Or at least the day we're calling her birthday. I was gonna throw her a little party, and then all this happened...I don't think it's wise to get any hopes up about her sister."

"I'm not gonna tell her in advance."

"I wasn't just referring to Priyanka's hopes."

"It doesn't matter how I feel," Natasha said. She tried to deny her emotions, even as she felt them bubbling up again.

The girl's plight gave her focus, and purpose. Natasha hated what Priyanka had gone through, because she had experienced the same things during her own youth. Injustices that she needed to set right but knew that she never actually could. Natasha figured that if she didn't quite know how to be happy anymore, then she was going to ensure that Priyanka and Sanjana would grow up differently.

"Her sister is all she has," Natasha said. "You can't choose your family. Or replace it."

Stanton lowered her head. "Is that so?"

To be continued in Chapter 5: The Things They Say About Her

Author's Note: Stay tuned! While Natasha begins her search for the other sister, we'll be checking in on Steve Rogers in the next chapter!