A/N: Whoa! I didn't really think this story would get ANY followers or favorites. But, you guys have certainly proved me wrong! This chapter is dedicated to you guys!

I'm just going to give an overall disclaimer, 'cause I really don't want to do this over and over again. So here goes, I don't own ANY of the characters from Marvel's The Avengers, Thor or the Iron Man series. Likewise, I also don't own any songs that may appear in this story. They all belong to their respectful owners.

"We've found her. We've found Katya."

Natasha feels her world has narrowed to that one sentence. 'Katya. She's not dead, how is she not dead?! I saw the house burn down with my own eyes!' Natasha sways and grabs the back of Bruce's chair for support. She feels her face drain of the little color it had gained over the course of the morning. Judging by the looks on the faces of everybody from Rhodey and Pepper to Bruce, she must look like a ghost.

"Natasha, what's wrong? Who's Katya?" Bruce asks anxiously. Natasha just closes her eyes, letting the tears slide down her cheeks. As the pain and grief of over half a century rolls over her, she hears Phil's voice as if from afar.

"Director, what's going on?" He is worried about Natasha. Neither he, nor Clint has ever seen Natasha this open with her emotions before and they've known her the longest.

Fury sighed, "Yekaterina Alianovna Romanova is Agent Romanov's younger sister by 10 years. She was supposedly killed in the fire along with their parents. However, we've recently found evidence that Katya DIDN'T die in the fire but, rather Red Room saved her. They put her in a separate program called The Oriental and injected her with the Super Soldier Serum. Our inside man tells us that for the past 74 years, they've been training Katya as a backup Black Widow, nicknamed the Cobra. However, ever since Agent Romanov defected, they've started to torture her. We think that they're thinking if Katya's tortured enough, she won't dare defect like her older sister."

Tony snorted, but his eyes look pained. He looks at Natasha. During Fury's explanation, she kept her eyes closed and struggled to keep her emotions in check. Pain and grief flashed through her face and were replaced by outrage. Once Fury is done, Bruce turns to face Natasha and asks, "Why didn't you tell us any of this?" He sounds more curious than angry but, Natasha can still hear it.

She opens her eyes, full of pain and grief, "Because I never wanted any of you to know that the darkest and biggest smear in my ledger was that of my sister's. She was only a baby and I promised myself that I would be the best big sister ever to her. I broke that promise the night of the bombing raid." She takes a shuddering breath, trying to keep the tears in, but a few tears still escape, sliding down her cheeks. Bruce cups her cheek and brushes the tears away with his thumb. Pepper and Jane are wiping away tears at this point and even Loki looks outraged.

"Where is she, Director?" Steve asks. His eyes are bright with unshed tears and his hands are clenched in anger.

"Yekaterinburg. Under the Ipatiev House, there is a second cellar that Yeltsin didn't know about. After the Church on Blood in Honour of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian Land (The Church on Blood for short) was built, the KGB transferred Katya to the underground cellar. She's been there for the past nine years." Natasha, by this time, is so stiff she doesn't think she'll ever relax again. Her eyes are glinting with anger and pain.

"Those ублюдки* put her under Храм на Крови*?!" Everybody is worried now. Natasha doesn't usually use Russian unless she is SERIOUSLY ticked off about something. "When do we leave?" she growls.

"In half an hour," Fury answers. He hands her the manila folder he had brought with him and squeezes her shoulder. He nods to the others and leaves the tower. Seeing Natasha's legs about give out from beneath her, Bruce quickly gets up and gently pushes her into the seat. Her hands shaking, Natasha puts the folder on the table and opens it. The team quickly gathers around and starts to read the contents.

It turns out that not only is there a cellar below the Church on Blood, but there is also a massive network of passages, crisscrossing each other and weaving throughout the whole city. The passages lead to almost all of the major cities, including the St. Nicholas monastery where the remains of the royal family are found. The main entrance is the Church on Blood itself; there is a secret door in one of the mosaics. There used to be a bunch of guards and scientists along with dozens of other political prisoners and cooks underground with Katya, but the scientists, political prisoners and cooks recently either disappeared or were transferred, leaving only the guards and Katya underground.

They concocted a plan in ten minutes; Natasha, Clint, and Loki would go through the entrance at the St. Nicholas monastery while Thor, Tony, Steve and Bruce would go through main entrance. At the end of the debriefing, Phil reminds everyone that this was a rescue mission, anybody who wanted out was welcome to come; anybody who stood in their way would be left behind.

As they walk to the landing pad, Natasha warns the boys, "Just please remember guys, don't walk in there all decked out in your superhero clothes. We don't need the extra attention. And don't you guys DARE damage ANYTHING. There would be a great number of people outraged and crying sacrilege if you guys did that."

"Ahh, Nat, don't you trust us?"

"I trust you about as far as I can throw you, Stark," Natasha retorts. She turns to Bruce and Steve, "Bruce, Steve, please make sure that he doesn't damage anything." Both men nod. They arrive at the landing pad.

"Be safe, all of you. If any of you got hurt, I don't think the four of us would be very appreciative," Pepper warns.

"Don't worry; we'll be home before you know it."

A/N 1: Ok, so the ACTUAL rescue WILL be happening next. I just had to lay down the groundwork for it in here. As always, please leave reviews and constructive criticisms! They make me happy and the more I'm happy, the faster I'll try to get the story updated.

A/N 2: The Church on Blood and the St. Nicholas monastery are real. Google it if you don't believe me. I actually don't know if there ARE interconnecting secret passages underneath all the major cities. That's purely my own creation.

A/N 3: Here are the translations for those curses Natasha used in this chapter.

*ублюдки- Bastards

* Храм на Крови- The Church on Blood