Chapter: 24
So, did any of you notice in Iron Man 2 during the restraint scene when Natasha sat down and Fury wrapped an arm around her? That's were part of this chapter and the next one came from.
Ivan Petrovich sank into the chair behind his desk with a confident smile on his face, well, as much as a smile as the man gave. The only time that he would even truly smile was when it was filled with dark promises and it was usually followed with pain to whoever was on the receiving end. That smile was mostly reserved for his enemies or the girls he trained that were found to be more free willed and stubborn headed than he liked. Natalia Romanova was a constant on the receiving end of that smile. It still made her shiver when she saw it. No matter how hard she had tried to hide it he had seen it. It felt good to know that he could still strike fear in her heart. Fear is a sign of control.
Ivan reached for the bottle of Vodka he had brought with him from Russia and poured himself a glass. He then sat back and took a sip, welcoming the burn it gave as it slid down his throat, and enjoying the fact that they would be going home in the morning. He would be taking his Natalia home with him and then he would make sure she would never betray him again. To say that Petrovich was angry at her would be an understatement. He was downright furious when he learned of her running away with some SHIELD agent. So angry in fact that he had ordered the girls in training to pair up and fight each other to the death. It was a regular part of training, it happened once a month to thin out the weak, but it had already taken place for the month. He watched as the girls fell one by one then when it was over he called for the Winter Soldier. He ordered him to infiltrate SHEILD and bring his agent back home, to bring the director, and whoever was responsible for taking her away.
Barnes had told him the name of the man who had taken his Natalia. Clint Barton, also known as Hawkeye. Ivan had heard of the man before. A man who could shoot from incredible distances, from angles no one else could shoot from, in the dark or the light, and never misses. He had wanted the man brought along so that he could kill him in front of her. So that she could see the consequences of her actions and to break her. He was not pleased when Barnes came back without the archer. In fact Barnes was probably already back in Russia to be put back to sleep until he was needed again. Now that he had Natalia back with a deal from SHEILD to stay away, Ivan didn't need the Winter Soldier's help. They would simply keep her unconscious until they were home and everything would be fine. He reached for his drink again but just as his fingers touched the coolness of the glass an alarm began to blare out loudly.
She didn't know what had woken her up, but when she opened her eyes she knew that something wasn't right. Little Natalia sat up in her bed and looked around her room. There was smoke everywhere. Her eyes widened and she struggled to push the blankets away from her and get out of bed. She reached for the small stuffed bear that had been her constant companion since she was a baby and hugged it close to her chest. In the distance she heard screaming, it was her mother's voice. Her father's voice followed soon after and she felt her eyes begin to burn. She wanted to run to their room that was just down the hall. She wanted to scream and yell for them but there was so much smoke and it was still pouring in. Fear gripped her tight and her heart beat furiously. As if moving on their own, her feet walked back away from her bedroom door until she was stopped by the wall behind her. More screams came and the smoke grew thicker, she slid to the floor and moved over to the corner of the room. She hugged her bear tighter as the smoke grew thicker, making it harder for her to breathe. She felt tears fall down her face and began to cough. It made her throat and chest hurt and she wanted her parents to come in and make it all go away. She shut her eyes tightly wishing that it was all just a horrible nightmare that would go away.
Heavy footsteps caught her attention and she looked up towards her door with side eyes. There was someone yelling but the words were too muffled for her to make out. She thought that maybe it was someone there to help her. To help get them all out of the house and into safety. She felt something close to hope rise up in her but then her door was busted open and three men all dressed in black rushed into her room. Something told her to run but she was frozen in place. Her terrified eye landed on the men and watched as they spotted her and rushed forwards. Then she was moving. She got up and tried to run but one of the men picked her up. She struggled in his arms and cried for him to let her go but her pleas went unanswered. The men dragged her out of her room and she was stunned for a second. Everything was on fire. The flames were growing all around her and it was hot. She could feel the flames and hear the popping and crackling as it spread around her home. Natalia could hear her parents yelling for her over the fire and she screamed. She screamed for them to help her, to come save her, and she fought to get free. She cried for her parents, for the men to save them but they simply yelled at her to shut up and kept moving. The man who had a hold of her repositioned her so that she was lying over his shoulder and the movement caused her to lose her grip on her bear. It fell to the floor as she was brought out of the house. Away from the flames, away from her parents, and away from the only home and love that she had ever known.
"Natalia!" Her mother's screams echoed though her head. "Natalia!" Slowly the voice grew fainter as everything began to get darker. "Natalia!" The long and stretched out whisper of the scream was followed by complete darkness.
"Natalia!" A new voice snapped, but it wasn't a new voice at all. It was a voice that was ingrained into her past and haunted her nightmares. Slowly she managed to get her eyes open and was staring into Zholdin's eyes. "There you are, you fell asleep on me Natalia," he said and turned to the tray that was beside him. She wanted to reach up and punch him in the face. "Are you excited to be going home my dear?" She managed to work up a glare and he chuckled at her which only made her want to kill him even more. "You know," he held up another syringe as if he was inspecting it for something. "We could stop this if you'd just give in. You know that you will eventually anyways so why prolong the inevitable hmm?" She felt his finger trace up the side of her arm and she tried not to cringe. She swallowed, her throat felt like sandpaper, and managed to speak.
"I hope…" she paused and tried to swallow again.
"What was that dear," Zholdin leaned down a bit to hear her.
"I hope Ivan drags you to hell with him," her voice was raspy and quiet but he heard her. He simply stood up and pushed the needle of the syringe into her skin.
"You'll be coming to my darling." He injected the liquid and pulled the needle out. The sound of the alarm made him drop it and look around the room in shock.
Out of the men who had volunteered to accompany them only one of them survived. Fury led the way towards the room that they had been brought to when they had been held captive. Clint followed close behind him. Hill, who had agreed to come with them, was behind Clint. The other guy followed behind her and Coulson brought up the rear as they walked through the darkened building. When the alarm began to go off Fury sped up and soon they reached a heavy looking door.
"Barton," Fury said but Clint was already getting into position. They got the door open and was greeted by the sight of a man in a white lab coat standing over an unconscious looking Natasha. Shots were fired from both Coulson and Hill as the two stepped inside the room. The man fell and they rushed in to make sure he was secured.
"We need to find Petrovich," Coulson stated and with a nod from Fury he and Hill set off with the other agent.
They approached the table slowly so as not to startle her. Something they found to be pointless once they saw that she had fallen unconscious. Fury took in the device that was attached to her, the empty syringes on the table, and the blood smeared on the table that had come from her back. He looked down at the woman strapped to the steel table and for the first time since he had laid eyes on her he saw her as what she was. She was a child, a kid that was taken from her home and forced to become what she was. He had seen it when he was watching these men hurt her, how haunted her eyes had been and the fear that she had tried to hide but failed. Looking at her now he could see that child that never really got to be a child, a kid who was hurt and is still hurting both mentally and physically. Without even thinking about it he reached out and gently moved some hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. Barton looked up at him, an angry glare at what had been done to her plastered on his face, but he didn't comment. As carefully as they could they removed the electrodes attached to her skin. She twitched and jerked ever so slightly but that was it. They went to remove the straps. Her wrists were badly bruised from the chain that had been around them earlier, the same with her feet. The straps had also left some markings from where she had fought against them. While they worked to free her she occasionally jerked. It was when she was completely free that she started mumbling.
"Romanoff," Fury said in a soft but commanding kind of way. Her eyes snapped open but saw nothing as she struck out at them.