Suddenly, Katya woke up, she was immediately overwhelmed by what was going on around her. Lights were aimed right into her eyes, so she could barely see, her hair was slightly damp, and the room reeked of rubbing alcohol and metal. A huge feeding tube was shoved down her throat and she felt like she was being suffocated. In her panic, she tried to sit up, but her arms were restrained against the table she was on. She desperately tried to breathe through the heavy tube. A doctor came over and tried to get her to lay back down.

"Shh… It's okay sweetie you're fine." Katya desperately tried to talk and fight against the doctor who was pushing her head back down.

"I need some assistance please. I promise you, we're just trying to help you." Then, another doctor came over and pulled her head over slightly so that she was looking at her so that the other doctor could put her under again.

The next time, Katya woke up slowly, more peacefully than she ever had before. As her eyes adjusted to the light her previous panic set in again. The beeping of her heartbeat on the monitor accelerated quickly. She took large breaths of air as she tried to sit up. Her wrists and ankles were now restrained to a hospital bed. The material of the restraints rubbed against her raw skin, and she winced and relaxed so that she was laying down again. She tried to calm down as she took in her surroundings. She was wearing a hospital gown, and had another feeding tube, this time it was in her arm. She wanted to run and hide, but she couldn't, so she did what she always did. Closed her eyes and pretended she wasn't really there.

"Marta, are you awake?" Nurse Franklin asked the girl. No reply came.

"It's alright, we aren't going to hurt you. We are just cleaning you up and giving you nutrients, because you were losing a lot of weight."

"What happened? What did you do to me?" Katya said hoarsely, her throat was extremely sore, and she eyed Nurse Franklin with a look of pure mistrust and hatred in her eyes.

"We couldn't just sit there and watch you starve yourself. You may not realize this, but we aren't like the bad guys, we don't want to hurt you, we don't want to watch you suffer. I gave you an anesthetic so that we could bring you here, and treat you better." The nurse said, looking down at her.

"Where am I?" Katya asked, more irritated than the nurse had ever seen her before.

"I'm afraid that's classified."

"Can you at least tell me the country, the continent, anything?"

"America."

"What time is it?"

"5:36 AM. June 30, 2005." She replied as she looked at her watch.

"Thank you. I've been wanting to know that for weeks."

"Why didn't you ask?"

"I thought you were going to hurt me."

"Why would you think that?" The nurse asked kindly. The girl opened her mouth, then shrugged her shoulders, clearly wanting to avoid the subject.

"It doesn't matter. Now, I know you guys wouldn't do that, it seems like you need me." The nurse just smiled and nodded as she left the room. The girl closed her eyes, and relaxed her muscles. She didn't hear a sound for hours, but suddenly there was a voice beside her. It spoke in Russian softly.

"I know you are not asleep." The girl didn't even twitch.

"You know, most people are afraid of the big bad wolf…" Agent Romanoff said, sitting beside the hospital bed.

"But, me, I am more afraid of little red." Both the agent and Katya said in unison. It was the passphrase that Red Room agents were taught to identify each other outside of the school.

"You are a trainee at the Red Room?"

"Yes."

"You look familiar, what year were you born?"

"1990." Natasha Romanoff recognized the girl from long ago.

"You should take off your wet shoes and socks, then you'll stop shivering so much." The girl said without taking her eyes away from the task at hand.

Katya began to do as she was told, but her stomach let out a shockwave of pain as it was folded over to reach the ground. Katya winced again, louder this time.

"It's okay, I've got it." The girl replied calmly. Katya felt instant relief, this girl may have inflicted some of these wounds, but she really was lucky that this girl was kind enough to help her. She pulled off her shoes and socks and left them by the radiator to warm up. She pulled up the sleeves on her sweatshirt, her arms were covered in deep, purple bruises, and blood. The girl wiped the blood off and cleaned her wounds. Katya let out a cough into her elbow. A small splatter of blood was left behind. She tried to hide it from the girl who was helping her, but it didn't work, her eyes were too sharp. She grasped her arm and looked at the crook of her elbow, then back at Katya. She cried heavily. The girl wiped away the blood, then her tears.

"Please don't tell anyone." Katya whispered.

"Don't worry, I won't. Crying shouldn't be a crime, but it is here." The girl said sadly.

"I'm Natalia, by the way."

"I'm Katya."

The memory seemed to be a million years ago, when it was only a few. They had trained together, though Natasha was much older than the girl, and graduated shortly after meeting.

"Have you graduated yet?"

"No, I was on a practice mission, I'm only 15."

"But you have the scar, from the ceremony?"

"Yes, Madame thought it would do me good to have it done early." The girl replied with an eerily blank expression, but for a fraction of a second Natasha saw a sad look flash in her eyes as she absentmindedly fiddled with the sheets on the bed.

"Katya?" Natasha asked.

"How do you know my name?"

"We trained together for a brief time, you probably don't remember."

"I'm Natalia." Saying her birth name brought back too many painful memories of her past for Natasha. Katya looked up at the red head, and remembered when they trained together. Natasha had won of course being more experienced, but she came to help clean up her wounds after their headmistress beat her. The redhead was lethal, she knew, but also extremely soft in a way that not many people see.

"Did Madame B. send you here?"

"No, I no longer work for the KGB, I work for the Americans."

"What do you want from me then?"

"You are the only one who has information about the Red Room's current status, we need you so that we can destroy it, for good."

"If I do, Madame B. will kill me."

"No, I'll make sure that won't happen. You shouldn't have had to grow up the way you did, but you did. Now, I need you to help me to make sure no one goes through that kind of hell again."

Katya nodded shakily, she was afraid. She didn't know if this was a trick or not, if Madame B. was just testing her, to see how loyal she really was. Katya could feel herself shut down, she wanted to cry, to scream, but she knew she shouldn't. But still, it came. She tried so hard to bottle the tears up, then they silently glided down her cheeks. The tears turned to heavy breathing, which turned to wheezing, then finally, suppressed hysterical sobs racked through the girl's frail frame. Over ten years of built up tears came pouring out. The large amount of emotion was too much for her to bear, she gasped for breath as the pressure in her throat was slowly released. Natasha hugged the girl tightly as she sobbed, and stroked her dark brown hair gently. She took over the role of an older sister like she had when they were younger. Every girl at the Red Room were orphans, they had become each other's family. Some became sisters, cousins, or aunts, and others became more nurturing like mothers.

"Shh… It's okay, you're safe." The agent said as the girl rattled in her arms. Natasha took off the girl's restraints realizing she wasn't dangerous. She was scared. She held her arms stiff as Natasha continued to hug her, she wasn't used to physical affection before. Natasha noticed that Katya awkwardly maneuvered her arms to quickly wipe away her tears, ashamed at herself for showing emotion. She grabbed her wrists in response.

"Don't worry, crying isn't a crime here. You can let them out, it's okay." Natasha said as she held Katya's wrists firmly in her grasp. Katya was fighting it, she fought so hard to wipe the tears away, she had been trained from birth that emotions were bad, a weakness, she was scared that Natasha would beat her right then and there for crying. Natasha went in to swipe Katya's hair out of her eyes, Katya flinched away and closed her eyes, her body tense, waiting for the abrasion to come.

"Hey, it's okay, I promise you are safe now, The Red Room can't hurt you here. Now, I'll be back soon, you should get some rest." Katya nodded as she sniffled and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. Natasha left and locked the door behind her. Katya was exhausted, and even though she was starving, crying, and imprisoned she had never felt happier. She was free in a way. She could laugh, she could cry, she could be normal. She played with the word around in her mind.

Yes, normal. I am not a spy. I am not an assassin. I am not a weapon. I am… I don't know…

She curled up in a ball, and pulled the blanket over her head. Then, as the last few tears leaked out, she fell asleep.