Три (Three)

Sascha had possessed many false identities in her lifetime as a spy, but she had never impersonated anyone before. This was a first.

"How are things going so far, Princess?" Yelena said through the radio in her ear.

"You've got to stop calling me that."

"Why, you don't like it?"

"I like it too much."

Yelena chuckled and Sascha could clearly picture her mischievous smile. "I'll keep that in mind for later."

Sascha bit her lip, Yelena's promising words sending chills up and down her spine. "Seriously though, I need to focus."

"Yes, you do. Didn't our trainers drill into you to never become distracted?"

"And to never have anything become more important than a mission," Sascha finished. "That was before I met you." She rounded a corner and faced a sealed doorway. "First security panel ahead," she announced. She approached the screen, touching it with a fingertip, causing it to blink to life.

She had to lean down for the scanner to scan her face for the facial recognition technology. A too-bright red light flashed across her face a few times, up and down, side to side, until there was an affirmative beep.

Princess Kalyna - Confirmed

Another scanner appeared, this one to scan her eyes. With such unique eyes, it made sense for the princess to have set up this into the security, and thankfully, Yelena had thought of everything, including the contact lenses.

This time the light, still way too bright, flashed in her eyes, until there was another affirming beep. She was in.

"That was a breeze." Ha, so much for their high-security. Maybe this strange resemblance thing would come in handy in other ways... She might have to use it more often. "I'm in."

"Good, I'm glad, you're doing great. Now, palace records are in the basement."

"Going down, then."

The elevator ride was smooth, but seemed to stretch on forever as it carried her down, down, down, far beneath the palace. If it went any further she would hit the underground train lines.

Finally, it drew to a halt. The doors slid open revealing another set of doors. She had to go through the whole scanner process again. Again, she fooled the system.

These doors opened and when she stepped through them fluorescent overhead lights blinked on.

"Боже мой," she exclaimed.

"What is it?"

"The Sokovian royals keep extensive records." Before her were rows upon rows of filing cabinets, no doubt stuffed full of records. And along the wall were various computer screens for digital files. "I wish you'd come with me. This may take a while..."

She had come this far - as overwhelming as it looked, she couldn't stop and turn back now. "Better get started..."

"Take your time. I'll be here the whole way."

Sascha set down to work, starting with the princess's own personal file.

"Any luck?"

"Not with the resemblance so far. But there are some goodies here..."

"Oh I bet."

"Let's just say the Princess of Sokovia is keeping a pretty damn big secret, one that is particularly interesting with the whole Accords deal going on."

She continued, file after file after file.

"Huh, did you know that Princess Kalyna and Prince T'Challa of Wakanda had an arranged engagement? That's awkward, they're like best friends."

"Interesting."

"Guess they thought it would strengthen their alliance. Sounds super old-fashioned to me."

"I'm going to try hacking into the system's digital records, see if there's anything there."

"Thank you, that will help." Even with two of them searching it would take them forever to go through all these files.

While Yelena hacked into the system, Sascha continued to flip through the masses of files with little luck. But oh, she could think of some people who would literally kill to get their hands on some of this information.

"Huh, here's some files on Sokovia during the war. The Allies, Sokovia as part of the Soviet Union... Hang on-" Something caught her eye, or rather someone.

"What?" Yelena asked when Sascha remained silent for a few moments.

"I found another."

"Another?"

"Look-alike."

"Who?"

"This is an old S.H.I.E.L.D. file, the S.S.R. then. This is post-war, 1949. Must have been a mission in Eastern Europe. But she looks just like me... But that doesn't make any sense, this is the '40s. It's impossible..." She had thought it was impossible before, but now it just kept seeming to become more and more so.

"Who is she?"

"An agent. Karen Granger. It seems she was being monitored, as well as others. Agent Margaret Carter, Agent Jack Thompson... Cold War stuff, I guess."

"Anything else on her?"

"Not that I can see here - it's like she was there and then she just, well, disappeared..."

"Uh, Sasch, I've got eyes on security cameras. You've got company coming. One guard, armed."

"Okay, Спасибо." She drew up her sleeve, where her widow sting wrist guard sat.

The doors slid open a few moments later to reveal said guard. He looked surprised to see her. "Здравствуйте, принцесса."

"Здравствуйте," Sascha replied.

"I thought you had meeting."

"I did. I do. I was just checking something."

"да. I will take you to your meeting then."

"Okay... I'll be just a minute." She continued to scan the file, more urgently now. "You know, it's fine, I can go on my own."

"It is my duty, принцесса." He wouldn't budge.

"да..." Well, he really left her no choice...

There was a flash of red as she zapped him in the neck. He collapsed to the floor.

"Stand down." A heavy accented voice, like hers only with a Sokovian accent, spoke from the doorway.

Sascha turned to face her other visitor. "Well, this is awkward." Princess Kalyna stood in the doorway.

The princess's two head guards stood armed on either side of Sascha, the princess herself standing before them, arms crossed.

"Surprised?" Sascha asked after a long silence that she just wanted broken.

The princess gave a brief smile. "Not exactly. You?"

The Russian woman shrugged. "Wish I could say I was."

"Trust me, this-" Kalyna gestured between them. "-Is as much of a mystery to me as it is to you, sorry. And we're not the only ones."

"Yeah, apparently not. Comforting. Well, I guess I can take these lenses out of my eyes now - and good thing too, they're stinging my eyes."

"Tell me, what's a spy and assassin doing impersonating me and snooping through my records."

"Ex-assassin."

"Pardon me, spy and ex-assassin."

Sascha smirked - two could play at this. "Tell me, what is the enhanced Princess of Sokovia doing signing the Sokovia Accords limiting enhanced beings."

Something flashed behind the princess's eyes, her expression changing ever so slightly. Sascha caught it though, subtle as it was. She also caught the subtle stiffening of the guards at her sides. She had to give the other woman credit for holding such composure to hearing probably one of her biggest secrets out loud.

She continued. "I wish I had some fancy power, like fire perhaps, жар-птица-"

"Enough," snapped the female guard.

"Niyah." The princess shook her head to the guard before addressing Sascha again. "I have to put my country and its needs first."

"You must feel very trapped."

"You have no idea."

"Oh I do, I've been there. Different context, but still trapped."

"Well, Sascha Alexeyevna Shostakov-"

"How do you know so much about me?"

"We have a mutual friend."

Footsteps signalled someone else joining them. Now Sascha was the one who was surprised.

Natasha smirked at her. "Hello, Sister."

Translations

Боже мой - Oh my God

Здравствуйте, принцесса - Hello, Princess

Здравствуйте - Hello

принцесса - Princess

да - Yes

жар-птица - Firebird

Our Black Widows have reunited! ;) And yes, this story does feature/mention the OCs from my Black Panther and Bucky stories, who also star in my Infinity War and Endgame stories! :) It's all connected!

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :) до свиданья! (Goodbye!)