A/N: Thank you guys for hanging with this story! I'm sorry that I haven't updated in so long and I promise to have super-long chapters as early Christmas gifts!

The ride takes forever, or so it seems to Natasha. Agent Green had volunteered to pilot them to Yekaterinburg. The Avengers sit in their seats and talk quietly. Tony is flipping through the folder again, trying to find some photos of Katya. Finally, he closes the folder in frustration.

"What's wrong?" Steve asks.

"Nothing, I just wanted to see if there was a picture of Katya in there," He sighs. He understands that Natasha feels that this girl really was Katya, but Fury wasn't the most trustworthy person ever. Maybe they could do a DNA test on the girl when they got back to HQ.

"She has crimson red hair with amethyst purple eyes. Other than that, she looks like me. Pale skin, small nose, everything." Natasha says simply. She refuses to let her emotions get the better of her now, not when Katya depended on her older sister keeping her cool.

"Oh," Tony says. He's quiet for the rest of the trip. Bruce takes Natasha's hand and rubs it comfortingly. They soon arrive at the St. Nicholas monastery, where Clint, Natasha and Loki get off. The others continue on to a spot 10 miles outside of Yekaterinburg, where Green drops them off. Before leaving the quinjet, Loki makes sure to cast a glamour spell on Tony, Steve and Thor to hide their Avengers get-up. All they need to deactivate the glamour spell is think of their hero suit. Bruce, Tony, Steve and Thor walk across the city, acting like tourists, before finding the Church on Blood. As the four men are walking across the plaza in front of the Church, Natasha, Clint and Loki are making remarkable progress. After having quickly found the entrance to the tunnel at the base of the altar, Loki shields them and they enter the passage. Loki spelled their feet to walk really fast and after only 15 minutes, they find themselves in front of a wooden door.

"That seemed a bit too easy," Clint remarks. His two companions are in agreement as well. The passages should've been more confusing, but they account it to the fact that they probably hadn't factored in Asgardian magic. Natasha opens the door, gun at the ready. Nobody was on the opposite side, and the three quickly make their way down the passage. The Quick-travel spell had already worn off by this time. As they turn a corner, they can hear sounds of heavy footsteps. Natasha motions for them to flatten themselves against the wall. As the group passes them, Natasha sees a glint of metal reflecting off of the torch's light that the men carry. Guards. After they can no longer hear the footsteps, they continue to make their way to Katya's cell. According to the maps in the folder, her cell would be directly under the spot where their relatives were killed. Soon, they hear another group of heavy footsteps; Natasha gets ready when Loki stops her.

"It's Thor."

"You're sure?" Clint whispers. Soon enough, Thor, Steve, Tony and Bruce walk up to them.

"Hey," Tony says. Natasha would like to reprimand them on not walking more quietly but, decides not to. She motions for them to continue. After ten minutes of winding passages and no other close calls, they reach Katya's cell. After listening quietly at the door, Natasha works quickly to pick the lock on the metal door. Two minutes and a few whispered curses later, she gets the door open. Opening the door slowly, she looks into the room that Katya was in for the past 9 years. A small, metal room that's bare of almost everything except a wooden wardrobe next to the door and a metal bed with a thin mattress and a threadbare blanket on top of it. Shivering underneath the blanket is a small person, girl, with crimson red hair.

"Katya!"

"Natasha, wait!" After checking to make sure that the room is clear of traps and cameras, Clint lets Natasha go to Katya. She hurries over and turns her over carefully. She gasps loudly. The girl's eyes are open wide with fever and they're a deep amethyst purple. Loki walks over, with the others taking up lookout positions. He checks Katya over with his magic. As the green light of his magic fades, he reports,

"Besides the obvious physical injuries, she has 3 cracked ribs, internal bleeding in her legs and a high fever. She is also severely underfed."

"We need to get her out, now," Steve says, taking position of commander, "Clint and Natasha, you two will scout for guards. Tony and Thor, you guys pick off any guards that get past Clint and Natasha. Bruce outfit, stay close to Loki and me and don't Hulk out unless necessary. Loki, do you need to stay in contact with Katya?" Loki nods, "All right, then, let Katya piggyback ride you. I'll bring up the rear. Are we good? Right, let's go then." The team leaves in that formation. They make it out to the outer passages before having to fight with some of the guards. Natasha and Clint flip and punch their way through, leaving a path of unconscious and injured guards in their wake. The rest of the team follows. Soon, they see the passage that will take them to Moscow. However, as soon as the passage is close enough to touch, a group of guards step out from the shadows. The guards all wear standard brown uniforms with a red star on the right breast. In the center of the circle, there's a small man dressed in a Soviet army. He steps out into the light and Natasha recognizes him instantly.

"Boris, сволочь! What have you done to Katya?" she growls.

"Oh, nothing too harmful. I've just made sure that she will never defect like you," he smirks.

Natasha suddenly snarls, and deals several guards fatal blows to their heads. As she kicks and punches her way through to Boris, Clinton, Loki and Captain America pick off the guards who get through Natasha. As the others are fighting, Natasha personally deals with Boris. She breaks several bones in his body then injects him with a slow, painful and fatal poison. They leave him writhing on the ground in pain. Suddenly, a rumbling noise fills the tunnel and Bruce sees a burst of fire speed its way toward them.

"Run!" Loki makes a sign with his hand and suddenly, all of them are on the Quickening spell and traveling at 50 miles per hour with the trail of fire following them. In ten hours, they finally reach Moscow, right under the Red Square, with the blast of fire closely following them.

"What kind of fire IS that?" Tony asks.

"I don't know WHAT it is, but I have no desire to find out!" Steve says, "Bruce, if you would do the honors?" Bruce nods and transforms into the Hulk. Roaring, he breaks ground, jumps into the air and lands in the square right in front of Lenin's mausoleum. Natasha and the others quickly follow. Natasha looks around, and seeing that it's Lenin's mausoleum, she laughs bitterly and turns her back on him. She contacts Agent Green who flies to Moscow to pick them up. Once safely on the way back to HQ, Natasha takes watch over Katya and Bruce watches over Natasha.

SHIELD Hospital, SHEILD Headquarters, New York City, New York

Natasha's POV; 3rd person

The medics wheel Katya off the quinjet and into the hospital. Natasha is very worried about Katya. She doesn't look very well; her skin is still pale and sweaty with fever. The numerous scars and bruises stand out, new ones on top of old. There are even some burn patches on her left arm, legs and her right hip. Her legs are still bleeding internally. Once in the hospital room, the doctors hook Katya up to a bunch of machines. The Avengers (for future reference, Loki's counted as one of the Avengers), Fury and the inside man, Sergei Nikitin make their way to the meeting room. Fury starts off by telling them that he wants a report at their earliest convenience. Then, Sergei starts talking about just exactly what Red Room put Katya through.

"At first, they taught her all that she knows about being a spy and an assassin. In the Oriental program, they taught her fighting styles that range from the hard Shaolin style to the soft Wudang type. They also gave her an extensive knowledge of poisons and antidotes. She knows how to torture and kill you without EVER leaving a mark, physical or chemical. She also acquired a variety of other skills. Then, after Natasha defected, they gradually stopped her lessons and increased the amount of torture, until one day, they moved her to the cellar underneath the Church on Blood and tortured her every day," He finishes in a hoarse voice, as if he had suffered along with her. The others just look shell-shocked. By this time, Natasha looks slightly ill. A doctor comes in to the room and reports to Fury. Besides the physical injuries, he reports that she has also suffered huge amounts of brainwashing, how extensive they won't know until she awakes. They also need a hair sample from Natasha so that they can compare the two girls' DNA. Fury nods. The doctor also mentions that Katya's body shows signs of rape.

"What?" breathes Natasha. The doctor nods. She looks to Sergei.

"She…she got assaulted when she was 13."

After returning to the Avengers tower, Natasha quickly goes to the gym to take out her anger on the robots. Bruce follows her. The rest of the team goes to the living room and collapse on the various couches and sofa. Rhodey, Pepper, Jane and Phil rush into the living room from the kitchen to find them sprawled haphazardly around the living room.

"Are you guys are all right?" Jane asks as she and Phil check on Thor and Clint respectively.

"Yeah, just tired out. Red Room actually planned to trap us underground with Katya and the others. They gave the information all too readily to Nikitin and there weren't any guards outside of Katya's cell." Tony sighs.

"Was anybody hurt?" Rhodey asks as he and Pepper sit next to Loki who looks like he went a few rounds with the Hulk.

"Don't give me that look, Pepper. I'm fine, just a little bruised. Besides, I'm more worried about Katya and Natasha." Loki retorts as Pepper was indeed giving him a look said that he should've taken better care of himself. Pepper gives him a reproachful glare but, it held no heat.

"Why are you so worried about the two sisters?" Jane asks. She had finished making sure Thor wasn't seriously hurt and had sat next to him, his arm around her.

Loki answers tiredly, "Katya's suffered a lot over these past years and Natasha feels that she's to blame. Which she isn't, I mean, who could've known that Red Room would do something like that?" Thor is rather surprised and pleased that his brother can empathize with the Romanov siblings. THIS is what Father and I were hoping for. At Phil's confused look, Clint summarizes what Sergei had told them, including the rape. By the time he's done, everybody has expressions of horror and outrage on their faces.

Loki groans, standing up, "It's been a long day, and I know for a fact that all of us have ran over 1,000 miles. Let's just get some rest."

Steve stands up as well, albeit slowly, "Loki's right, we can deal with this tomorrow. Let's go and persuade Tasha and Bruce to rest as well." As one, they all go downstairs to the spy gym to persuade the Russian woman and the other half of the Science Bros to get some sleep.

Hospital room; Katya's POV

There's a white light surrounding me. It's so bright that it hurts my eyes and I squint to try and see through it. There's a sudden whooshing sound, and I open my eyes to see a white tiled ceiling. My arms lie atop a white blanket and I'm hooked to a heart monitor and a bunch of other machines. I close my eyes and take stock of my injuries; most of my wounds are old, so I don't pay attention to them but, I do remember a pain in my legs and I wiggle them. Hmm, feels like somebody bandaged them. I hear the door opening and in walk 4 people. My eyes light up when I see Sergei Nikitin, my protector for the past decade. At 6 foot and two and twenty years, he towers above me and has traditional Russian looks; dark blond hair with sapphire-blue eyes. But, I'm confused as to why he would be with these people. In front of Sergei is a tall, black man in a black trench coat with a patch over his left eye. Looks like in his late 40s. On both sides of the man are two people in black; a man in a black suit and a woman in a black catsuit. The man is about half a head taller than me with short brown hair. The woman in the catsuit is a shorter brunette who looks to be in her late twenties. I look curiously at Sergei. He clears his throat,

"Katya, these people are from SHEILD. They're here to help you," He says in English. I raise an eyebrow at that.

"SHEILD? Isn't that an American secret agency? Where are we actually?" I reply.

The man in the black trench coat steps forward and says, "We're in New York City."

*New York City! I'm definitely NOT in Yekaterinburg.

A/N: Thank you guys so much! You guys are the best reviewers and readers an authoress could ask for! Please leave your constructive criticisms in the box below and I'll update as fast as I can for you guys.

*Unless otherwise noted, all of Katya's thoughts are processed in Russian. She can speak 14 languages in total (Russian, English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Manchurian, Mongolian, French, Spanish, Latin, Greek, Welsh, Irish, Scottish and German) but, the dominant one is Russian. There WILL bits and pieces of Russian and other languages floating around and I'll do my best to translate all of them. I'm using Google translate for all translations so, if I make translation mistakes, please don't hesitate to tell me!