A/N: I'm very sorry for the late upload. Finals got the best of me, I'm afraid. Summer's nearly here and I'm vacationing somewhere technology is a foreign thing so... :/ But never fear because I will finish this. For those who are reading/following Second Chances, Second Tears I'm updating another chapter this week so watch out.
BTW, I am not good in Russian and I just used Google Translate so I'm sorry for any mistakes. I also took an artistic license to muck around the proper procedure of pregnancy and childbirth so if I raise a few eyebrows during this fic, just bear with me *winces*
This chapter is dedicated to RobertDowneyJrLove because I love you too :) Thanks for all the reviews and follows!
Natasha slowly blinked her eyes.
Her head ached as if someone had hit her with Thor's hammer and her arms and legs hurt like there was no tomorrow. She began to take into account her injuries like this was just any other mission and not the most important one in her life. Looking down, she sighed in relief seeing that her beloved bump was still there. She then tried moving her arms around, but the realization dawned that she was strapped down in a chair; wearing nothing put a papery hospital gown. There were tubes connected to her arms and a blue one attached to her stomach. A beeping machine was placed to her right side and with a dreadful comprehension, she saw a table full of torture instruments. She should know, because she used them herself before. Right in front of her there was a video camera set on a tripod, ready to take a video.
Mind racing, she thought of different ways to get out of the room, but she came up blank. Her arms and legs were firmly bound to the chair and she couldn't budge an inch even if she tried, and try she did. After a couple minutes of squirming, her mind went down on another horrifying track.
My baby!
Her water has broken hours ago and she had been out for what she guessed four hours. Surely she must be giving birth or even given birth by now. Trying to come up with a rational explanation to this, she barely noticed the dark-haired man that came inside.
"How the mighty has fallen," the man said, "Natasha Romanoff a.k.a Black Widow, top agent of SHIELD, savior of New York and by extension, the world. Is that really what you are? фигня*! You are a weakling compared to that glorious woman! A fallen and forgotten icon. You are a disgrace to everything you were once! You are the Black Widow, the ultimate of the Red Room and yet here you are, weak and pregnant by none other than our sworn enemy. Captain America, of all people!" He spat the name as if it was something disgusting.
"What did you do to me?" She slurred, her tongue struggling to work properly around her dry mouth. She deliberately ignored the taunts made by Alexei, but deep inside her, what's left of heart lurches in pain. "What did you do to my child?"
"Don't worry, дорогой*. I am not doing anything. Yet." Alexei sneered. "You see, when you defected to America, the Red Room was left with subpar operatives, nowhere near as the original Black Widow. They were adequate, I guess, but we Russians are through with taking only enough. We, I, want it all." He said ominously, stroking the side of her face gently with a gloved hand. "The grand missions and operations set out for you were never fully realized, but we still had to push through using those defective agents. Long story short, it was a - as your beloved Americans would say - bloody mess. Then Captain America and his goons happened. All those years. Wasted. And now we found you, not only a traitor but the fiancée of the enemy! Pathetic!"
Natasha ignored Alexei's words. Her child took priority. "My child. What did you do? Why haven't I given birth yet?" She tried to sound strong, but inside she was deathly afraid of what they had possibly done.
Alexei went to the camera and pushed some buttons. A red light pulsed, indicating that it was now recording. Natasha felt a sickening premonition on what was to come.
"We put you on a serum that would prevent childbirth. Your water has broken, yes, but amazing what our doctors here could be persuaded to do. We reconstructed your amniotic sac and currently your child," he said while he knelt in front her and caressed her stomach lovingly, "is safely ensconced there, all warm and snug. With no idea of the pain to come."
"I wonder though, if a baby that small feels pain all the same?" the maniac laughed and sent a forceful slap to Natasha's face ringing in the room. Nat spit blood to the floor. She called on her training. Cold, detached. Think through. But how could she be detached when the very life of the child she loved is in the hands of this laughing maniac?
"What d-do you want?" She sounded out around the blood pooling in the insides of her cheeks.
"I want Captain America to beg, to see how pathetic Black Widow really is. I want Captain America to break, to see the light from your eyes fade as we torture you again and again. I want Captain America to go insane with the need to find you, all the while knowing that it is too late," he said while letting the light glint off the scalpel that he picked from the table, "and finally, I want him to die with the knowledge that his child will grow in the hands of his enemies, honing the child into a weapon to use against his beloved United States of America!"
Natasha could only look with horror upon Alexei. Alarm bells that were ringing inside her head are now ringing with a different urgency. They were going to use her and the child to subdue Steve. Hell if she let them.
She tried to seem disconnected and cold, "Good luck with that. He already thinks the worst of me anyway."
"Will he? When we will tell him the truth about what really went on that mission seven months ago, Natalia?" Alexei said silkily. Nat couldn't help but stare at him with defeated eyes. "No. Don't" She whispered. Alexei grabbed both Natasha's cheeks with one hand, forcing her to make a small 'o' with her mouth and made her face the camera. "Look to the camera, дорогой, and tell your fiance, I meant, ex-fiance who really took the vial and knocked him out cold. Tell him."
"No."
"Tell him. Now. Before I lose patience Natalia."
A beat passed, then two. "No, I won't" Natasha said with a finite tone in her voice.
Alexei punched her in the stomach. "I said tell the truth NOW!" Natasha bent over, or tried to, to ease the pain that was originating in her belly. I'm sorry baby. She started praying, if there really was a God like Steve so fastidiously believed, to save her child and forgive her. "No."
"Very well. If you won't, then I will," Alexei said. Scalpel in hand, he drags it along the Nat's arms, blood welling quickly. He had to give this Natalia credit though, because she barely flinched. The pain was there in her eyes though, and it made for a very interesting video. Perfect.
Alexei faced the camera, all the while tracing bloody patterns on Natasha's skin with the scalpel.
"Captain America, or shall I say Steve Rogers. Did you know that it wasn't this tragic woman who stole that vial from you? The current Red Room's agents may not be on par with Natalia Romanova but we definitely also have a quite competent assassin by the name of Yelena Belova." Alexei dropped the scalpel on the meta tray and proceeded to get two electric clamps and a wire. "She also is a lover of disguises and loves to dress up as her predecessor. Want to guess? Well, I'd bet you guessed right. Yelena loves to play dress up ... .as the Black Widow." As he was saying this, he wound the wire over Natasha's legs. He put a wad of cloth in her mouth, but it didn't really mask her pained moans when he turned on the electricity.
Oh, how he loves this. Now, if he could only make her scream...
Avengers' Tower, New York (24 hours later)
Steve's phone rang. He stopped from his rigorous tempo of punching the punching bag and he bent down to pick his phone from the bench.
"Hello?"
"This is Fury. We need you to come in."
"When?"
"I have a car waiting downstairs. We have a situation. You need to go now."
"I'll be there."
He turned off the screen and hopped in the shower for a minute. After his shower, he donned his Captain America suit and rode the car all the way to Triskelion.
"Director, you wanted to see me?" He asked.
"Sit down, Steve. Please." Fury said in a subdued voice.
The tone caught Steve off-guard. Fury doesn't sound subdued. If he ever did, then hell had already frozen over. He'd have to ask Stark and Banner about that. Maybe even Barton. He sat down on the chair in front of Fury's desk and looked at the monitor and video that appeared.
The face of a Natalia Alianovna Romanova stared back at him, and at her back was a dark-haired man. "Captain..." Fury said, and Steve felt a strange sense of foreboding.
Fury pressed play.
Thirty minutes later, with a lot of revelations and feeling as if the world has caved in around him, the Captain America passed out.
*фигня - Bullshit
*дорогой - darling