"Milk it for all it's worth.
Make sure you get there first.
The apple of your eye.
The rotten core inside.
We are all prisoners.
Things couldn't get much worse.
I've had it up to here, you know your end is near."

-Had Enough, Breaking Benjamin


"The Red Room base of operations is here," Yelena pointed to an area in Russia near Moscow.

"What kind of security," Captain America asked the Little Spider.

"All kinds," she revealed, "all the top measures in the world."

"That's great," Tony muttered.

"Well it should be no problem," Yelena smirked, "After all, two of you have taken down the Red Room before."

Clint and Natasha stirred, Clint sighing to himself quietly. They thought they'd taken it down. Well, the council had. Clint and Natasha had both been certain there was more. It was like HYDRA, you can never completely uproot it.

"Send the Hulk in, mix some things up, set off a few alarms and sneak inside," Tony proposed.

"That actually just might work," Natasha snorted in surprise.

"The Hulk can handle whatever gets thrown at him," Steve agreed.

Yelena looked wary but agreed, "Da perhaps that would work. It is imminent that we act quickly before they realize I have been captured!"

"You head out tonight," Fury said, walking in to the conference room.

It was several hours later that they piled into the quinjet. On the way, Yelena slept. That's when the nightmares began.

"Mama, mama!"

"Yes, Lena?"

"Mama, I drew you a picture!"

"Oh, it's beautiful, Yelena. Let me put it on the door."

Yelena's mother hung the crudely drawn image of Yelena with her parents on the door with a magnet. Yelena tottered around on her little legs as the six year old wandered around her small house. Yelena's father sat in living room reading the Russian newspaper. Everything was peaceful.

Then there came the knock at the door.

"I've got it, hun."

Yelena's mother dropped what she was doing in the kitchen and went to the door. When she opened it, a shot rang out and she fell to the floor, dead, murdered by a man dressed in black.

As soon as the shot rang out, Yelena's father leapt up from his seat and pushed little Yelena into a closet. She started crying but her father told her strongly to remain silent.

"I love you, my little цветок (flower)."

He kissed her on the forehead before shutting the closet door and shouting at a man who was coming down the hallway.

"Where is she?!"

"Who?"

"The girl. Yelena Belova?"

"I don't know who you're talking about."

"ублюдок (bastard)."

A slap was heard as Yelena's father was hit across the face with a gun.

"I won't ask you again," the man said, "Where is the girl?"

"Go to hell."

A second shot was heard as Yelena's father was shot in the head. Men began scouring the house for the young Belova girl.

They'd come because she was something special. Her intelligence was off the charts compared to the other girls they'd surveyed. She had strong legs and bones. Her DNA was pure. She was special. They'd asked the Belovas to hand her over and when they'd gotten a no, they took matters in to their own hands.

"Come out, little girl."

Yelena cowered into the back of the closet, stifling a cry for help. She didn't understand what was going on but she was scared, she was terrified. Where were mama and papa? Why was she told to stay in here? Who were these strange men outside?

Suddenly the closet door was swung open and a gun was thrust in her face.

"There you are, Little Spider."

Yelena woke with a start, no one but Natasha and Clint noticing her labored breathing and sweaty face. Natasha met her eyes and nodded slightly. She knew. She understood.