Natasha woke up and found herself in a different room. She was laying on a table, strapped down with metal restraints, and there were a couple of IVs going from her right arm to a bag that looked to have just water in it. Looking down, she found herself to be in some sort of hospital gown. There was a heart monitor hooked up to her finger as well, and she couldn't help but hope for just a second that she had been rescued and was now in a room at Stark Tower. The hope didn't last long, however. The creak of metal door rang out through the room, then a loud bang as it shut behind someone.
"I'm so glad to see you awake!"
Natasha cringed at the voice, everything in her telling her she had to kill the man and get the hell out of the building. Her survival instincts began kicking in. She laid still, staring up at the pale grey ceiling, listening as Victor began walking around the table so that he was standing near her head. He stood over her, his head in her line of sight, staring down at her. She wanted to look away, but she couldn't force herself to. She tried reading his expression, attempting to understand what was going through his head. She wanted to know what his plan for her was. He was unreadable though. Then he smiled.
"I hope you're ready for the next training session," he spoke loudly, his voice echoing in the room.
Her body tensed, still sore from the previous training session. Part of her hoped that she wouldn't be going back to the chair, but another part was scared of it being something else because the possibility of it being worse than the chairs was far too high for her liking. At least with the chair, she knew what she would be expecting, even if it did make her want to scream out in pain and almost give in to his will.
She kept her eyes on Victor as he walked away from her. He seemed to be looking away from her, but she could tell that he was watching her from the corner of his eyes as if preparing himself in case she decided to attack him and run. She was too tired for that, though, but was that it didn't show. After a few moments, he walked back toward her, a sneer across his face. She held her ground as best as she could laying on a table. She heard the steady beeps from the heart monitor and was thankful that her heart did not give her fear away.
The restraints were soon off and she sat up, but Victor quickly tied her hands around her back before she could do anything. She wasn't going to be stupid again, though. She knew that, at the moment, there was nothing she could do to escape. She just had to hope that Tony and the rest of the team would be able to track her down and rescue her from this hell hole.
Victor pulled Natasha off the table and set her on her feet, taking a gun out and pointing it at her. "No funny business. I won't hesitate to put a bullet through your head, then the heads of all your dear friends."
Natasha's heart seemed to have stopped in her chest. She couldn't feel air going into her lungs and her chest was painfully tightening up. She stared at Victor a moment too long before getting her face back to its neutral form, so he was able to see how that affected her. His cruel smile returned and he grabbed her arm, pulling her out of the room.
"You've given me a great idea. But it'll be saved for later." Victor snarled in her ear, leading her to another room.
Natasha swallowed hard, both at his words and at the table in front of her.
Natasha now laid in a small room with a very small mattress and a sheet. The walls seemed to be smeared with dirt and blood and who knows that else, distracting any viewer's eyes from the bright yellow they were. To her, it felt like she was in a hospital room, the colorful far too cheery for what happened in the room. She shivered, pulling the sheet around her, pulling her knees up to her chest as she curled in on herself.
She was entirely too weak and tired for her liking. Victor had put her through several more "training" procedures in the past few hours, and each of them drained her to the point of almost passing out. But Victor seemed to know just when to stop so that she wouldn't black out again, and would then inject her with something foreign which caused her energy levels to spike up high enough so that she would be awake and somewhat ready for the next procedure.
As she closed her eyes, she could see flash images of everything that happened. Her laying on the table, wires being attached all over her body, hundreds of them. Victor had control of another controller, and she found that it could control which wires sent shocks to her body and the intensity of the shocks. She had been able to handle this procedure better than the chair, but by the end of the session, she was still completely drained of energy until Victor injected her with his chemical mixture.
She opened her eyes and stared straight ahead at the wall across from her. Tears threatened to leave the corners of her eyes, but she blinked them back. Never has she felt so weak against someone. This feeling was new to her, defeat. In a way, she couldn't understand why she was no longer able to handle this torture anymore. She had been able to before, been able to stay strong and take the worst of the punishments Red Room had to offer. But here, now, after all this time… She just couldn't do it, mentally or physically. She just wanted to give in, do something to provoke Victor to shoot her, to end all of this pain and suffering.
But that would mean that he would go after her teammates.
Sighing, she turned to lay on her back and look up at the ceiling. She knew she wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight. Her body was too sore and every move she made sent a sharp pain throughout her entire body. She continued to stare up at the ceiling, imagining what might have happened between her and Tony if she hadn't been kidnapped. Thinking of Tony made her heart ache. She hadn't realized until now how much she was missing him. Even though he could be a bit of jackass sometimes – all the time – she still couldn't help but miss being in his presence, holding his hand and kissing him, even if it was all for show. Part of her still hoped that maybe it wasn't all for show. That maybe, just maybe, he had the same feelings for her as well.
This thought helped her slowly fall asleep, smiling slightly as she imagined Tony laying right beside her.
...
Victor grabbed a fist full of her hair and pulled her head back so that she was looking at him. She glared at him, never breaking eye contact while he glared back at her, a small, amused smile on his face. From his eyes, she could see that he was pleased with what he was doing to her. Breaking her down, little by little. She could also see that he had bigger plans in mind, plans that she feared would break her down much more quickly than any of the previous tortures have done.
"Now, we're going to make a little video for your lover," Victor said in a mocking tone.
Natasha's eyes grew wide for a moment before she caught herself, quickly going back to her pokerface. But it was too late. He had seen her reaction and knew that this was something that triggered her, and that Tony was someone he could use against her. The smile on his face grew into a full on wicked grin.
"It's not going to be that bad, sweetheart. Just a little time in the chair again."
Her stomach twisted. She hadn't been in the chair in a while, and she did not want to go back. And she definitely did not want to be recorded for Tony to see on the chair either. But she didn't have a choice, and she felt herself being lifted up and lead to the room, her body too tired and sore to fight back much. Instead, she focused her energy on mentally preparing herself for the pain that was soon to come. She couldn't let her body show just how much pain she was going to be in, she couldn't let Victor have that satisfaction.
She was put in the chair again and quickly restrained. She noticed that it was a different room than her previous visit to the chair. She also saw three cameras pointing to her at different angles. She clenched her jaw, staring at her captor. He merely looked amused, standing behind the cameras with the remote in his hand. After a few seconds of them staring at each other, Victor pressed the button on the remote. A ripple of pain went through Natasha. She clenched her jaw tighter, her hands forming fists. He must have adjusted the settings on the chair because the pain this time was a lot worse than before. She knew he had done this to get a good reaction out of her. But she would do everything in your power to prevent that from happening.
Victor slowly stepped toward her, but turned around the face the cameras. The pain had ceased for a moment, but Natasha knew it would be back soon enough.
"Hello, Mr. Stark and friends," Victor said, addressing the cameras. "I don't believe you know me. My name is Victor Hemmings. And I have something very dear to you."
He stepped away to reveal Natasha behind him. She looked down, not wanting to look at the cameras, afraid that her features would betray her and show how much pain she was in, how tired she was.
"We've been having a good time, her and I," he chuckled, stepping back in front of her. "So much so that I believe I won't give her up. That is, of course, unless you do something for me."
Natasha's head snapped up so that she could glare at him. She knew that she was just part of a trap. Victor wanted something from the Avengers, and he knew they would do anything he asked in order to get her back.
"Don't listen to him!" she yelled at the camera. "Guys, don't, I'll be fine. Just stay!"
She kept yelling pleas for them to stay and not come to get her because it was a trap. Victor had snapped his fingers and a guard came over to her and put a gag in her mouth. She was yelling helplessly against it now, not caring how weak she looked. She would do this a thousand times over if it meant that her friends listened and didn't come for her, that they stayed safe.
"Well, I hope to see you soon, Tony, so that we may discuss this further. I'm depending on the fact that you can track this video." He started to walk away from the camera, then stopped and walked back to where he had been standing. "Oh, by the way, to ensure that you or your friends don't try anything, if you do, just know your precious sweetheart will go through so much worse than this."
With that, he moved out of the line of sight and pushed down the button. Pain like nothing Natasha has ever escaped course through her body. Her nerve felt like it was on fire. She screamed against the gag, feeling tears escape the corners of her eyes. She struggled in the seat, unable to get away from the horrendous pain.
Through your cries, you somehow heard a very familiar, and in that moment, angelic voice.
"Sorry, pal, but I don't like it when people take my stuff."