Red Secrets and Black Widows

This was obviously a set up, Natasha Carter had been working and living as a spy for far too long to not know she was being lured into a set up. But it was a set up she couldn't resist because it offered answers to some long held questions. A while back Natasha had been ambushed on a mission and held captive. Something about that whole thing had never sat right with Natasha, but she'd never been able to figure out why. Melinda had been assigned to investigate it all following Natasha's rescue from a secret base on an island in the Andaman Sea, and had come back with it all having been tied to Alexander Pierce and his attempted takeover of S.H.I.E.L.D, but that had felt wrong to Natasha. A part of Natasha had always thought that the integrations she went through were superficial to her capture's true purpose. Especially after the nightmares of being strapped down to a bed, the clank of metal instruments clattering on metal trays ringing in her ears. Not to mention the visceral reaction she now has to the smell of antiseptic and medical grade cleaning products. Whoever was setting Natasha up now, they'd done it with bread crumbs that promised answers to what really happened to her back then, and she just couldn't refuse following the trail.

That trail leads her to an apartment in Budapest that was all too familiar to Natasha. It had been one of her and Clint's safehouses back in the day. There were still arrow holes in the walls from the fight when it's location had been compromised. Gun drawn Natasha sweeps the rooms only to find herself face to face, barrel to barrel, with a young woman with blonde hair and bright green eyes.

"I didn't bring you here to fight." The younger woman says as they circle each other.

"Then why am I here?" Natasha replies, gaze locked with the younger woman's as she takes in her every movement.

"Because I need your help." Comes the reply in a thickly accented Russian voice.

Natasha snorts. "Why would I help you?"

"Several reasons," The blonde tells her. "We have a common goal for starters, and because we have something else in common as well."

"And what would that be?" Natasha questioned, eyes narrowing as she watches the younger woman take a step back from her, disengaging, and lowering her gun.

"Alexei Shostakov."

Natasha doesn't respond physically but she is surprised by the name. She was damn good at her job so it didn't take much to link the Red Guardian with Russia's original Black Widow, especially for a curious and talented young spy trying to get to know her birth mother better. "Who the hell are you?"

"My name is Yelena." Yelena answers as she moves towards the kitchen where she pulls a bottle of vodka out of the fridge and grabs two cleanish looking glasses. She pours them each a drink and as she holds out the glass to Natasha she says, "Alexei Shostakov was my father. He was your father too."

Skill and training keeps Natasha's expression neutral as she takes the glass but she doesn't drink from it. "I have no idea what you're talking about." She really didn't, Natasha didn't know a damn thing about her biological father other than he was dead and her biological mother might have been the one to kill him.

Yelena rolls her eyes. "I know who you really are, Natasha Carter. I know your birth mother went by the American name Dorothy "Dottie" Underwood, and that she was one of the first Black Widows to come out of the Red Room. I know that your birth father was Alexei Shostakov, the Red Guardian. I also know that your mother wasn't the only Black Widow in Alexie's bed."

"So, what, you're saying we're half sisters?" Natasha asked doubtfully. What the hell was she supposed to think of this revelation? What could the young Russian agent gain from this? "My birth father was killed before I was born, and you are clearly younger than I am, so how the hell are you supposed to be my sister?"

"Don't need to have sex to make a baby these days." Yelena says as she pours herself a second drink. After downing it she put the glass on the table and looked at Natasha with a serious expression. "Look, I didn't bring you here for some sweet long lost siblings meeting for the first time moment. I have information you want, and in exchange, I need you to help me."

Natasha's head was spinning a bit but she was firmly in Black Widow mode so she was able to push aside the sudden whirlwind of emotions and thoughts she was thrust into. "Help with what?"

"Taking down the Red Room once and for all." Yelena answers.

The scientists behind the Red Guardian had taken every kind of sample the human body can give, and in an attempt to breed the perfect Russian soldier a Black Widow scientist had procured a particular kind of sample and used it, resulting in Yelena. "General Dreykov found the idea of breeding a super soldier appealing, especially since no one has had any luck recreating Erskine's work, though they came close with Alexei, and later Karpov almost had it with the Winter Soldier." Yelena pauses to look over at the redhead sitting beside her in the car. "When he discovered you existed, who you were, who your parents were, he knew you might be his only chance to try."

"How did he find out who I was? My parents were very careful to conceal the truth." Natasha informs Yelena as they make their way towards the outskirts of Siberia. It had been years since she'd come across an agent of the Red Room, she'd thought she'd finally put an end to it, keeping the promise she'd made in memory of Dottie. "Not that knowing would do him much good. I don't have any super soldier abilities."

"Aside from Alexei and you, there was only ever one other person your mother had any genuine feelings for." Yelena answers as they pull off the road onto a narrow path that leads through fields of wild lavender. "Melina Vostokoff, she was the closest thing your mother had to family. She also happens to be my mother."

"I doubt very much that Dottie would have told even someone she was close to." Natasha huffs. "She didn't trust a whole hell of a lot of people, especially if they were connected to the Red Room."

Yelena nods. "You're right, but Melina's familatery with your mother and Alexei allowed her to identify their DNA in the blood on the knife I stabbed you with on one of your first missions."

Natasha's blue-green eyes went wide as her mind recalled the memory of a data retrieval mission, one of her very first official S.H.I.E.L.D missions, and the young blond counter agent who'd stabbed her in the gut as they fought over the intel. "That was you!"

"I had no idea who you were at the time." Yelena nods.

"Would it have made a difference?" Natasha counters as she shakes her head. This was all a lot to suddenly take in, and she had a bad feeling that this was only the tip of what she was about to uncover.

Yelena is quiet for a long moment and then shrugs. "I don't know."

Natasha watches the young woman for several long moments. Yelena was excatally what Dottie hadn't wanted her to be turned into, a child assassin and spy, caught up in the cold, bloody, heartlessness of the Red Room.

On what seemed to be a pig farm on the outskirts of Siberia, Natasha met Yelena's mother, Melina, who finished suppiling Natasha with the answers she'd been looking for. Melina had tried to hide Yelena from the Red Room, and had even managed for the first six years of Yelena's life, but they were discovered and after that every Russian Black Widow from that point on had been sterilized. "Which means," The older Russian woman with dark hair and eyes explains, "Yelena was of little use to Dreykov, he needed another female source with similar properties. I gave him you."

When the full truth of her capture finally came out, Natasha was livid. She felt violated, but now was not the time to deal with that. For now she would allow her anger to fuel her actions despite hearing her mother's voice telling her going into this full of rage was a bad idea, but what other feeling could she possibly go into this with? "What do you mean the Red Room has my embryos?"

"Help us take down Dreykov and I'll make sure you get them." Melina says, unaffected by the younger spy's outburst.

"We can't get to him." Yelena explains. "It's something with our conditioning, something they started after your mother killed Madam B and Dreykov's father, we literally can't touch him." She catches Natasha's eye and holds her fiery gaze. "But you can."

"He's a fucking human trafficer, of course I'm going to take him down." Natasha says firmly. "And, as a friend's little brother likes to say, we'll burn it all to the ground along with him."

As the three very different black widows strategize and come up with a plan, Natasha gets a glimpse of what her life could have been if Dottie Underwood hadn't given her to Peggy Carter. Melina is cold, distant, calculating. Yelena yearns for whatever relationship the pair might have had while hiding in Ohio when she was small. It's painful to watch the disjointed relationship between a mother and her daughter, knowing what it should be like because of what she had with her mothers and with her own daughter. Natasha felt sorry for Yelena, and whether or not she was actually her half sister, Natasha was starting to feel like she wanted to help the younger woman in whatever way she could. As long as the younger woman didn't betray her in the end, of course.

With a plan in place the trio prepare. Leaving Natasha and Yelena to gear up in the small weapons room inside her home, Melina goes out to her barn to get their transport in order. Things were finally going to fall into place for her, so of course something unexpected had to happen.

"Well, I see the Iron Maiden is finally ready to pull back the iron curtain and take care of the man pulling her strings."

Melina closes her eyes and groans softly before responding, "I knew you weren't dead."

The woman known better as Dottie Underwood smiles. "Of course I'm not dead, lisichka."

Melina tensed up. "Don't call me that." She warns, and then tacks on, "Alyona." Hoping to get the same uncomfortable reaction.

Dottie raises an eyebrow. "Am I supposed to react to you using a name I haven't used in decades? Really, lisichka." Dottie lowers her voice to a seductive tone. "If you really wanted to get a rise out of me you should have called me mamochka the way you use too."

There is a deep blush coloring Melina's cheeks as she turns to face the older woman. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you think I'm doing here?" Dottie replies. "You've dragged my daughter into your machinations against Dreykov. You should have left Natasha out of this, Melina. You had Alexei's child, use her and leave mine out of this." Dottie's voice was a firm and deadly threat, but then it softened. "You couldn't help yourself could you, lisichka? You must have suspected something, otherwise why go through all the trouble of having his child too."

"I suspected, yes." Melina replies after a long pause where she simply stares into the other woman's once familiar eyes.

Dottie softens a bit more. "Why didn't you ever tell anyone?"

Melina chuckles harshly. "I was still young, naive, and in love, but then I grew up, and I realized that if it were true, if you really did defect to protect Alexei's child, I could possibly use that to my advantage someday."

Stepping closer Dottie says, "Someday has finally become today. I know you, my little fox." Dottie reaches out and cups Melina's cheek. "I made you." She withdraws her hand, a smirk on her lips. "You don't want to take the beast down just to stop his rampage. You want the program for yourself."

"I want to protect my daughter." Melina replies honestly. "Same as you."

Dottie snorts a soft laugh. "Despite evidence to the contrary, I actually believe you." She pauses a moment, looks into Melina's eyes, and then adds, "Alright then, with Natasha's help Dreykov dies, and our girls are kept safe from him and the Red Room."
She nods an affirmation and then adds, "Melina, Natasha must never know I'm still alive. It's what's best for her."

"That's Alexei." Yelena says softly as she moves to stand beside Natasha who holds a weathered old picture she found on one of Melina's shelves. "Bear of a man isn't he? Especially beside our mothers."

Natasha nods. She'd seen file photos of the Red Guardian from her study of the archives, but she had no idea that the man she was studying was her biological father. Until now all she'd known for sure was that he was dead, presumily at Dottie's hands, but now she wasn't so sure. The people in this picture looked genuinely happy to be together, but then again if they were all spies it was probably an act. In the picture Alexei Shostakov stood on a beach in a pair of tiny, tight, red and white swim shorts with an open white linen shirt. He had his strong arms around the shoulders of younger versions of Melina and Dottie, both in swimsuits, smiling.

'Weird, right?" Yelena asks, once again breaking the awkward silence. "Seeing them looking like normal people."

"Were they a unit? A team of some kind?" Natasha asks as she shifts her gaze from the picture to Yelena.

Yelena shrugs. "I'm not entirely sure. Melina isn't much of a sharer."

"Our ride will be here soon." Melina calls out when she finally returns. "Ready?"

"As we can be." Natasha replies and Yelena nods her agreement.

Melina tranquilizes Yelena, and when the transport arrives Natasha too is out cold. Melinda orders that they be gently taken aboard. Dreykov runs his operation out of an orbital station that's continuously on the move and tricked out in all kinds of stolen tech that he'd either had his own people steal, or he'd bought off the Power Broker. It's why he'd been so hard to find. When they land, Melina has the girls sent to holding cells while she goes to see Dreykov, to tell him she'd brought him the American Black Widow.

"Millions of Solievt soldiers died during the world wars." Dreykov says as he circles Melina. "Solivet sons, brothers, and fathers leaving behind families who could barely survive without them. When the Red Room was first created we took in girls who would have otherwise died of poverty, illness, starvation, the cold of a Russian winter. Some families gave their daughters over with ease, glad to have one less mouth to feed, one less girl to try and marry off someday. Others were less willing, but some girls just seem to have a natural talent that couldn't be overlooked. So, the program took them regardless of the family's wishes." He guides Melina into a chair in front of his desk and then sits on the edge as he smiles at her and recalls, "My father, a young military officer new to the program at the time, often told the story of one conscription. A young girl with natural attributes and great potential, when his unit went to retrieve her, the girl's grandmother, a tiny woman with red hair and sharp green eyes, beat off two of his soldiers with her cane. My father restrained the old woman as his commander tore the girl from her mother's arms. The mother fought against him, but she was a starving woman against a trained soldier. When she lunged at the unit commander a second time, one of the men who'd been struck by the old woman's cane, struck the mother in retaliation. The old woman grabbed my father's pistol upon seeing her daughter stuck down and her granddaughter stolen away, and shot the man who'd struck her daughter. She would have shot the others if my father hadn't knocked her unconscious. Quite the sturdy, resilient, and feisty family of strong Russian women."

He reaches out to cup Melina's face, she tries to stop him at first, but then allows his plump, stumpy fingers to graze along her jawline and up just behind her ear.

Dreykov's smile is sickening as he peels away the photostatic veil. "You should be very proud of your Russian lineage, Agent Carter. It is what will make the next generation of Widows the finest yet." He smiles at her before back handing her hard enough to knock her from the chair. "I have known Melina since she was a small child. Did you really think you could fool me?"

"No," Natasha replied. "At least not for long, but I didn't need you to believe I was Melina forever, just long enough."

"Long enough for what?" Dreykov demanded. The base suddenly shook, the room turning red as warning lights and alarms began going off. "What have you done!?"

"What Carters do best." Natasha answered smugly while drawing her weapons. "Toppling egomaniacal men high on power trips."

Men like Dreykov had backup plans on top of backup plans, but he had never taken into consideration an outside force like Natasha Carter, the American Black Widow. She wasn't Red Room conditioned, her birth mother had saved her from that, which meant he had no protection from her other than his bodyguard. Cowards like Dreykov always had cannon fodder to protect them. Natasha would admit later it was a tough fight, one she almost didn't win, because her opponent seemed to know her every move. But Natasha had prepared for this, pulling out of her catalog of fighting styles something she'd never tried before. She would have to send Okoye a really nice gift when she got home.

When Natasha got to her feet following her fight with Dreykov's attack dog, she found herself at the wrong end of a pistol. "This is my father's pistol." Dreykov tells her. "The one the old woman used when his men ripped your bitch of a mother from her family and home." Natasha rolled her eyes. He was taunting her because he thought she was weaponless, and despite having just beaten his perfect soldier he still saw her as just a woman. The Black Widow is never weaponless. She throws the knife from her belt before he can finish ranting at her about being a worthless American whore. Dreykov actually looks surprised for a split second as the blade embeds itself in his throat. "That's my knife," She tells him as he sinks to his knees, blood bubbling around the wound as air escapes along with it. "I used it to scrap bubble gum off my boot last week."

After making sure Dreykov was dead, Natasha took the ring from his pinky. As she and Melina swapped faces, the older woman told her it was the key to Dreykov's whole system. So she used it to again access, download everything, and then purge all of his computers, wiping out of existence all of his files, all of his research, multiple lifetimes worth of work, putting an end once and for all to the Red Room. Then Natasha followed one of Nick Fury's golden rules, leaving behind Dreykov's body with a headshot just to make sure. As she ran for the rendezvous point where she was to meet Melina and Yelena, the base shook again, only this time more violently. Reaching up she activated her comm. "What the hell was that?"

"Don't worry, I evacuated all the girls before I blew up one of the engines." Came Yelena's reply.

"Why?" Natasha demanded.

"Burn it all to the ground, remember?" Yelena answered.

Natasha groaned, "We're still on the damn thing, Yelena!"

"So run faster." Yelena called back. "Maybe you can do one of those superhero poses on your way out."

Of course getting out wasn't going to be easy, the place was crawling with guards and black widows, but Natasha manages to catch up to Melina who hands her an insulated case with a liquid nitrogen canister inside. "Your payment." Melina says as Natasha straps the case to her body. "In full."

"All of them?" Natasha demands.

Melinda nods. "Every last one."

"You swear you gave me all of them?" Natasha demanded.

Melina looks into Natasha's eyes and says in a voice that spoke true. "On the one thing that I actually love in this whole wicked and wretched world, my daughter, that's all of them."

Natasha believed her. Which was strange because Natasha hadn't trusted Melina from the moment she met her, but now, looking into this woman's eyes, she didn't doubt her in the least.

It was a mad dash to escape the now plummeting base, a task made harder by Dreykov's bodyguard who wanted a rematch. Natasha had given Yelena that superhero moment she'd wanted when she ended up jumping out of a window to escape a blast that fireballed behind her after Natasha used an explosion to finally deal with the bodyguard. Laying on the ground surrounded by debris, smoke, and fire, Natasha added Shuri to the list of Wakandan women she needed to buy gifts for because without the tech in her suit, she'd be dead. She finds Yelena first, she's injured but alive. Melina, however, didn't make it. The jet she'd managed to get too had taken damage when she'd flown towards the crumbling base to get Natasha and Yelena. Natasha's heart broke as she watched Yelena fall to her knees beside her mother's body. The young woman's hand trembled as she reached out to caress Melina's face and hair as she quietly repeated the word mama. After sending word to the Avengers via Charlotte, her personal Stark A.I., Natasha walked over and knelt beside Yelena, but didn't say a word. She just put her arm around the girl as she mourned for her mother.

Natasha gets to Peggy before anyone else, like say either of the Rosses, can get to Yelena. She takes the young woman back to the compound with her, and while Yelena's in medical getting treated for her injuries and having a blood test, under the watchful eye of Steve, Natasha steals a moment alone with her mother and Tony. She sets the insulated canister on the table and stares at it before looking up to meet the concerned faces of her mother and cousin. "I need these kept secure, safe, and off the books."

"What is it, Poppet, what's in the case?" Peggy asks, looking at the item on the table for a moment before returning her worried gaze to her daughter.

Natasha takes a deep breath and then lets it out slowly as she rubs her neck. She still didn't quite believe it, she'd have to have it verified, and even then she'd have a hard time believing it. And if it did turn out to be true, if those really were hers, then what? What was she going to do with them? "Embryos."

"What?" Peggy replies with shock she didn't even bother to hide. "Whose?"

"Mine." Natasha tells her. "Or so I've been told."

"What!?" Peggy gasps, eyes wide as her gaze darts back and forth.

Tony's eyes are wide as well, his mouth agape, and then he blurts out. "Holy shit, those are Carter-cicles?! Martinelli-pops? Nattie-nuggets?"

Peggy shoots her godson a look that makes him shut up and look sheepish. Then she turns her concerned gaze back to her daughter. "Natasha?"

"I don't know, Mum." Natasha shrugs and then rubs her face before shaking her head. "I have no fucking clue." Then she sighs, suddenly feeling tired and vulnerable and a little lost. "For now, just, just keep them safe."

After leaving her completely flabbergasted mother and gobsmacked cousin, Natahsa heads down to medical to check in on Yelena. She's given confirmation that Yelena is in fact her half sister, so at least she's gotten that out of this whole ordeal. Natasha had never longed for siblings, she'd had Tony and Sharon, but she found she didn't dislike the idea of having a little sister.

"So now what?" Yelena asks as soon as Natasha steps into her line of sight. "I go to some secret S.H.I.E.L.D prison?"

"No." Natasha says with a shake of her head. "Now, you get to make your own choices in life." She smiles as she stands beside the younger woman's bed and looks down into her eyes. "And one of your options is to stick around for a while."

Yelena raises an eyebrow. "With you?"

"Yeah," Natasha nods. "I'd really like to get to know my little sister."

The younger woman looks uncertain but she smiles anyway. "Ok, I'll stick around."

Somewhere in the North Pacific

Melina Vostokoff awakens to the sound of songbirds outside a slightly opened window. As her eyes flutter open, she sees a ceiling fan above her, slowly turning as it circulates cool air from an old wall mounted air conditioning unit. The room is bright with natural light coming from the widows and sliding doors. Her head is pounding, the light doesn't help, and she moans softly from the pain as she sits up. She's on a white cast iron framed bed with light linen coverings, and she's dressed in a summer shift and nothing else. Her dark hair is down and loose, wavy from the tight braids she normally wore. Where was she? What happened? How did she get here? A quick search of the room doesn't yield any weapons, or her uniform, or any answers. The sliding glass door is locked, but the main door to the room is not. Silently, slowly and on high alert Melina makes her way out of the room and down the hall, her bare feet not making a sound on the cool, dark, hardwood floors. There doesn't seem to be any guards, no technology she can see, not even a phone line or television. Melina is starting to think that wherever she is, she's alone. Until, that is, she steps out onto the wrap around pouch.

The small colonial era house is tucked away under a canopy of trees and tropical brush. A tall woman with her red hair tucked under a wide brimmed sun hat, the hem of her short summer dress fluttering around her knees, smiles up at the dark haired woman standing on the pouch angrily glaring at her. "Sleep well, lisichka?"

"What did you do?!" Melina demands of Dottie as the older woman continues walking towards her, up the path from the small flower garden she'd been tending. "Where are we?!"

"The girls and I took down the Red Room." Dottie answers sweetly. "Killed Dreykov, destroyed his mainframe, meaning all of his data is gone, every file, every tiny little piece of information about the program, all the research and technology and intel, all gone." She brushed her hands together as if dusting four or dust from them, and continued to smile as she passed Melina at the top of the stairs. "Made sure to give Natasha back what belonged to her, faked your death to free Yelena from your nonsense, and then brought you here." Dottie poured them each a glass of iced tea and held one out to Melina. "A private tropical paradise. Happy retirement my dear, darling, little fox."

"You bitch!" Melina hissed with rage.

"Now, now, lisichka, be nice." Dottie scolded. "This really is for the best for everyone involved. The girls have each other now, and you and I, well, when you're done being mad at me, perhaps we could find out if I can still make you call me mamochka."