Early the next morning Natasha went to wake up Katya for their mission, though there was probably no need. As soon as Natasha opened the door, Katya sat bolt upright in her bed and looked around anxiously.
"Katya, get ready. I'll meet you in the kitchen in 20 minutes, then we will head out." Katya quickly got dressed in the darkness of her room. She wore black pants, shirt, jacket, a protective vest, and a pair of sneakers. She tied her hair into a ponytail, then headed to the kitchen. Bruce, Steve, and Clint were already up and fully dressed, a few minutes later Tony showed up dressed, but his hair disheveled and his clothes were wrinkly. Thor appeared shortly after, fully dressed in armor, with his hammer in tow. They headed to the quinjet, and got settled in for the long flight to Russia. Tony's AI was piloting the ship, so nobody really had anything to do. Many of the Avengers just used the time to go back to sleep, while others relaxed by reading, meditating, or listening to music. Katya didn't really know what to do, her thoughts were too wild to read, or listen to music, and she knew sleep was definitely out of the picture. She just sort of stared at the floor for a while, trying to slow down her heart rate. She felt Natasha slide into the seat next to her.
"Hey, you alright?"
"Yeah." She said without further comment, Natasha knew she was hiding her feelings, she had done the same thing many times, she knew the look well.
"As soon as this is done, no one will ever be hurt again." Katya nodded without looking up.
"Okay good talk, try to get some rest. I know you didn't sleep well last night." Nat patted Katya on the shoulder, and as she did so Katya felt a strange little prick on her shoulder and it suddenly began to ache. Natasha smirked as she sauntered to sit beside Clint. Katya looked over and pulled out a small but strong needle attached to a small disk. It was a sedative.
"Natasha you little shi…" Then everything suddenly went dark as she was plunged into unconsciousness. In what felt like only five minutes, she was awake again.
"Really Nat, really?" Katya asked, annoyed. Most people would have woken up groggy and exhausted, to her it was just a minor nuisance. The whole plane was now awake and snickering.
"Sorry, you need to rest." Natasha replied with a sly smile on her face as she plunged another small needle into her arm. This time Katya didn't protest, she just watched as the needle went in.
"You're such a mom." Katya joked as Natasha brought Katya's head down so that it was resting on her lap. Then, once more Katya fell asleep, a lot easier than the first time. Natasha used a stronger sedative and she was asleep for much longer.
"Wake up, sleepy head, we're almost there." Natasha said quietly. It was barely a whisper but Katya still woke up immediately.
"Okay so here's the plan Nat is going to go in disguised as a teacher that she will take out. Stark will put up the electric barricade around the school, while Nat, with Katya disguised as a student, will block the underground entrances. Then, they will work together to capture the teachers, and rescue the students. Thor, Tony, Clint and I will work together to capture as many as we can. Bruce will stay with the jet and treat any of our injuries, or some that the girls there might have after the fight. " Steve said.
"Okay, be safe out there guys, because these girls need our help, they are watching eachother get murdered everyday and this cannot go on any longer. Let's do this." With that they left for the school. Katya and Natasha went to the town where they found and captured one of the teachers. While she was leaving a cafe, they dragged her into an alley and knocked her unconscious. Natasha swapped clothes with the teacher, put on a wig and a special mask that modulated her voice and face to look like the teacher. After a long trek through the snow, they approached the side entrance to the school and entered using the teacher's special ID badge. As soon as they got inside, they shook the snow out of their hair, and headed towards the basement. A group of guards were down there playing a card game.
"Get out of here now, you imbeciles! I need to teach this girl a lesson!" Natasha shouted in Russian as she held Katya's arm in a tight grip. Katya's face went stark white in terror, it was faked, but it didn't take much effort. Just being in the building had Katya on edge.
"Yes of course Madame Novikov. So sorry." The men said as they quickly left.
"What the hell is wrong with you! Your mission was so easy, and somehow you managed to mess it up! We don't give second chances, you're done!" Natasha shouted at Katya with a wink, before firing her gun at a nearby bag twice.
"There, that should make it seem believable. Now let's block these entrances." Natasha said much more quietly. Katya carefully pushed a part of the wall leading to two separate tunnels.
"I'll take the left, you take the right." And so they split up and traveled down the dark tunnel. It was easy for Katya, she had been down this tunnel many times. It was almost second nature now. Natasha fumbled around at first, then her memory came back to her and it was just like old times. Katya pulled out what looked almost like a blue grenade, she removed the pin and threw it at the end of the tunnel. Then, she ran. The strange sound the grenade made seemed to follow her, it was almost like a bubbling sound that echoed against the stone. The grenade releases a foam-like substance that would expand and harden into an impact proof wall. Natasha exited shortly after Katya did. Natasha then talked into her earpiece.
"The underground exits are secured, we're ready whenever you are."
"Awesome, Tony's almost done with the barrier out here."
"Romanoff, don't you think you were a little hard on the kid? It's her first mission with the Avengers, you sounded harsh when you yelled at her."
"Shut up Tony. There were guys down there, we needed to improvise."
"Alright, all done. Let's destroy this son of a bitch." Tony said through the earpiece, before he started playing very loud rock music for all of the Avengers to jam to while they fight.
Katya quietly walked down the hallway grabbing younger children from their rooms as she walked. She unknowingly did so to the rhythm of Tony's 80's rock song. Some guards started to notice her, and she shot them before they could ask any further questions. She rushed the group of toddlers into one of the corners of the barrier, with Natasha following behind. Like a game of dodgeball, as soon as the girls were safe and away from the fight, she ran back to the school to rescue more girls. She almost got to the nursery where the newborns were kept when a girl tackled her from behind. Immediately, they engaged in combat, punching and kicking at each other. Eventually Katya landed a blow right on the girl's jaw and she got knocked unconscious. As an extra measure, Katya stunned her with one of her widow's bites. Then, Katya grabbed four newborns, which was as many as she could carry and rushed outside. The young girls squirmed and cried in her arms as she ran.
"Shhh. Everything is going to be okay I promise." She softly soothed the babies in Russian. Then, she handed the babies off to some 8 year olds that were already rescued.
"Try to keep them warm, stay here, I'm going back for more." Tony was grappling with a surprisingly strong teenage girl and was being fired at by many guards. She carefully aimed and fired so the guards were injured enough to stop fighting. She ran back in, and almost ran right into Natasha who was holding three newborns and had about five six year olds trailing behind her like little ducklings.
"Here, take them away from the fighting, I'm gonna double check to make sure we got everybody." With great caution, the babies were passed between them and she jogged out of the building so the kids behind her could keep up.
"Come on, you guys are almost there, just a little bit farther." Then, she was face to face with a woman with grey hair, a mostly youthful face, and dressed in her usual blazer and skirt. It was Madame B.
"Oh Katya lovely to see you dearie, I was beginning to wonder where you ran off to. And, I see you brought your Avenger friends. Too bad, you were pretty promising, oh well sacrifices must be made." With that she raised her gun and fired right at Katya. The blow was so strong as soon as it made contact with her torso she fell over, desperately trying to protect the babies in her arms. The children she was leading looked at her in concern and fear, she weakly handed the babies to them.
"Run… run over to the other girls over there." She groaned. She was in so much pain, but she managed to stand up, the bullet only hit her chestplate. She was lucky to be alive. Madame B fired another bullet that went straight through her arm. The pain registered but it was overcome by anger. Without thinking she tackled Madame B. to the ground, and flung both their guns aside.
"You always were a tough cookie." Madame B said with what sounded like a laugh. Katya repeatedly punched her in the face, turning her into a more blue and red color than her usual pale face. Everytime she made contact, ripples of pain shot through her arm. Madame B flipped them over so that she was now sitting on top of Katya.
"You forget child, that I taught you everything you know." Katya tried to kick up wards but Madame B was pinning her legs down with her body.
"You know it's kind of cute watching you squirm around." Madame B was enticing her, Katya knew this and tried to relax instead. Katya then continued to squirm beneath her just to distract her, then spat right in her eye. Instinctively Madame B used her hand to wipe her eye, Katya seized the opportunity and threw her off of her. In a whirlwind of fury Katya wailed on Madame B without thought, strategy, or mercy. The area around her fell eerily silent, and she was suddenly very attuned with all of her senses. She felt the icy snowflakes drop on her face, the sound of snow crunching beneath someone's feet, and the smell of frosty grass in the air. She realized that Madame B was no longer fighting back, but she could not will her body to stop fighting.
"Katya, Katya, you can stop now, the fight is over." Natasha said as she pulled a bloodied Katya off of the barely conscious Madame B. Katya looked around bewildered, the snow was splattered with patches of red blood, and many teachers and older students lay on the snow covered in blood and bruises.
"We did it." Without thinking the two hugged each other tightly, the place that had caused them both so much pain was finally gone.
"Come on, let's help get all the girls into the jets and the staff into a prison." She carried children and handed them off to nurses into the jets to be checked over. Many of the younger girls were crying while some of the older ones looked confused or completely emotionless. Leaning heavily on each other, Katya and Natasha headed back to a fairly vacant jet once everyone else was loaded up. They both flopped in seats exhausted and a nurse came to fix their injuries. The nurse recognized Katya.
"Marta, is that you?"
"Katya is my real name, I made up the name Marta, but yeah that's me."
"Good to see you again, how are you feeling these days?"
"Pretty good, I could be better."
"Do you mind if I take off your protective vest and shirt?"
"No." Nurse Franklin pulled the vest over her head, and examined her injuries more closely. Her face was covered in cuts, and the bullet wound in her arm was gushing with blood. She winced in pain as Nurse Franklin examined a large bruise on her stomach. Natasha also took the chance to see all of her injuries herself, including her many scars, courtesy of Madame B of course.
"Oh my God Katya! What happened to you?" Natasha asked, realizing the true extent of her injuries as blood began to form a small puddle in her seat.
"My crazy principal shot me."
"Make sure to have this checked out when you get to the compound, I think you might have a few broken or at least heavily bruised a few ribs." Katya nodded as her torso was wrapped up in bandages in case she had any broken ribs it would keep it stabilized. Then, the nurse began to clean and stitch both sides of her bullet wound. She was lucky it had pierced straight through the muscle, so it didn't have to be pulled out or suffer through any broken bones. After their injuries were patched up as best as they could be, they relaxed their tired muscles.
"Excuse me?" They both turned to see a young girl with dark brown hair and freckles, standing beside them.
"I just wanted to say thank you for saving us." They were both touched.
"Of course we would have done anything to rescue you guys." Natasha said.
" I remember you…" The girl went on, pointing at Katya.
"You were always nice to us and would read us stories when you had time after training." Katya smiled shyly at the girl. Natasha looked over at her curiously, she always thought that she knew her pretty well, but she had no idea just how nurturing she was. Katya closed her eyes and smiled as she rested her head on the back of her seat. Everytime she took a breath, Natasha would notice that she winced just slightly, as her lungs would expand and put pressure on her ribs. Carefully, Natasha took out another one of her disk shaped sedatives and was just about to inject it into Katya when…
"Don't even think about it." Katya said without opening her eyes.
"Fine. Nurse Franklin, can you give Katya some pain reliever please?"
"Sure. Here you go." She handed Katya a small dixie cup of children's Motrin.
"Thank you."
A few hours later, all the Avengers flopped on the couch in the living room.
"Well, you weren't kidding Widow, I totally just got the shit beaten out of me by a 15 year old!" Tony exclaimed.
"What's going to happen to them now?" Katya asked.
"For now they will be under the care of doctors and psychiatrists to heal their wounds and try to reverse the brain washing. Then, the older girls will most likely be recruited for SHIELD, and the younger ones will probably be adopted or live with foster families."
"That's good. Well, I think I'm gonna go to bed. Goodnight you guys, and thank you."
"Night Katya, see you tomorrow."
"Goodnight."
"Sleep well."
"So, What's gonna happen to Katya now?" Steve asked Natasha.
"I'm not exactly sure. She already fulfilled all of her tasks, maybe Fury will recruit her."
"I do not want to see the halfling leave."
"Yeah, That seems cruel, the poor kid has been through so much and now she's just gonna get thrown right back into the spy game."
"Can't we just keep her? Please Nat? Please?" Tony said with puppy dog eyes.
"That's up to her, I'll ask her in the morning and see what she says."