Nadezhda Extrema Romanoff – POV (Point of View)

Her footsteps echoed lightly as she walked dignifiedly (Auto-correct says its not a word? Is it?) to the nicknamed 'Rainbow Room'. Her face showed no emotion except for strict professionalism. She held her back straight and her chin up but inside she was slouching. She never dared slouch or call it the 'Rainbow Room' in front of her teachers. She learned the hard way, the only way, through hundreds of whippings, shocks, and beatings. She learned that professionalism was a necessary and unavoidable part of her training.

She walked into the 'Red Room', under girls scared, rushed breaths the nickname "Colorful Torture" ran through the school for the dreaded room. Today she saw it had been transformed into a conference room for her return. There was an empty chair at the end of the table close to the door and she knew it was for her. She did not dare sit down yet without permission.

The Chairman spoke "Experiment 2893. Sit down." Natalie now sat down knowing full well the chair was rigged and without the correct answer she would be shocked with high voltage rays. She already had Lichtenburg Figures running up and down her arms. She remembered the day she got those scars in her veins called Lichtenburg Figures. They had strung her up to a lithium pole using copper wires because she had failed her mission. They put her on the roof during a thunderstorm then she got struck by lightning. She screamed with all her might in agony for what fell like hours but was truly only a couple seconds long. Needless to say she never failed her mission ever again.

The chairman spoke again "Experiment 2893, Mission Report." This brought Natalie's attention back to the leaders seated on the perimeter of the table. Natalie then stated her mission report.

She started out with "I have the complete disk drive of all SHIELD files open or confidential." She removed the Flash drive from her hair and placed it on the table. She continued speaking "The Emergency self-destruct protocol went off unexpectedly after the mass download. I made it out with seconds to spare. They have no evidence of who infiltrated the facility because of the explosion. There was not enough time for them to transfer the security footage to another for they would not risk a life for that, and they would not have thought of doing so in the 3 minutes they had till the building exploded. All of my DNA samples went up in flames with the explosion."

The chair vibrated with blue light and in a millisecond Natalie knew what was coming. She opened her mouth, turned her face towards the sky and screamed with such ferocity she knew every other soul in the building heard her cries of pain. Natalie was brave and had a high pain tolerance but it was hard even for her not to scream with hundreds of volts of electricity passing through her body every second. While she was screaming the attendants came up to her carefully putting leather restrictions (it was leather so the attendants were not shocked by the electricity) around her arms and legs restraining her to the chair.

A muscular looking man then came up behind Natalie and pulled out a barbed wire with a wooden handle on the end. He pulled up her shirt off her back but leaving it sagging in the front. He gripped the wooden handle tightly and flung the wire at her back over and over again while the electric shocks were still pulsing. She arched her back with the timing of the whips as a futile attempt to escape them for a second. They finally stopped the horrid torture 20 minutes after they started. Her back was completely soaked with blood and had burn marks on her wrist and ankles form the electricity.

The female second-in-command spoke once Natalie's gasps for air finally stopped. She screamed at Natalie "They were not even supposed to know you were there until you were gone and we bombed the place before they noticed! Now you gave them time to escape, send footage, and now they know someone after us! Never let this happen again! This mission will be recorded as successful but your failures will not be tolerated again. You are now excused to go to your quarters." I simply nodded then hung my head in shame. My red hair fell precisely around my head in a halo while the attendants rushed over to remove the leather that were keeping mefrom moving. I stood up and walked back to my quarters.

On the outside I appeared to be a beautiful girl walking away in perfect health and with confidence, but the inside was an entirely different story. I felt on the inside like I was hideous, barely walking away with shaking legs and a slouching back. They had told me to go to my quarters so I obeyed.

I only stepped in her cramped room for a minute to grab a change of clothes for the current ones were dyed red with my own blood. Her room was less like a room and more closet. It provided barely enough room for me to walk around the fold down cot and get to the actual closet. My walk-in closet is bigger than my room for it needed to be. It held all the clothes I had ever used and all I would ever need no matter where in the world I went. I picked out a black V-neck tee, a black pair of pants and a pair of red combat boots. I was wincing at the scars on my back at attempting to put my hair up in the required bun.

I knew my back had to be attended to so I headed to the medical unit. I knocked on door 246 knowing 1 person behind it personally. Dr. Valetta opened the door surprised to see my small frame staring back at her. She quickly hid her surprised face.

"Hey, I was not expecting you. Come in, come in. Sit on the examining table please. So what is wrong this time?"

I quickly retorted back at her with the snarky comment of "How do you know that I didn't come her just to talk?"

Dr. Valetta replied with a quote from the very large book all in the organization of "the Red Soviet Center" was required to memorize. "Rule 1276: No agent or work member are permitted to have feelings, sentimental, romantic, or otherwise, to any person whether they are a member of the organization or not. So now, you are not here to socialize. So, what is hurt this time?"

I turned around on the examining table and painfully pulled up the back of my shirt. Since I was only with Dr. Valetta I made no attempt at hiding the pain. I have known Dr. Valetta all my life and she was the only doctor to treat me like a person and not a machine. I have never had friends for they were not permitted but she might be the closest thing to one. She gasped when she saw my back her eyebrows furrowed, if her eyes were opened any wider she would probably split her eyelid.

Dr. Valetta quickly hid her surprised face under her 'Soviet' mask. She transformed from a kind young lady to an experienced doctor when she found a patient in need. She quickly started going through her cabinets while giving me the diagnosis and correction procedure at the same time. "You have ribbons of skin on your back, some of them will heal while others will not. I will put you under amnesia then I will cut off the unhealable skin. I will then bandage you. Afterwards I suggest at least 3 days of rest." I then began laughing because of the comment she made about resting. Dr. Valetta herself realized I wouldn't rest but she at least tried to suggest it so there was possibility of that happening, however small that chance.

I went back to my room and fell on to my back on the bed. The clean, fresh, pressed sheets becoming wrinkled.

Minutes after I laid down on my bed the intercom system crackled on in my room bringing the following message, "Experiment 2893 please report to room 429 for briefing." I internally groaned because I hadn't gotten any rest. Just because I can survive 3 weeks without sleep doesn't mean I like to.

I opened the doors to the meeting room, the same one I was tortured in just a few hours ago. The members all sat in the same place as if they had not moved around since I zapped. Actually now that I think about they probably had not moved. A light yellow slid across the table and landed in my hands. Missions were color coded so light yellow meant assassination.

My curious self asks "Who is it this time?" The chairman replies "The greatest one we have trained but also the biggest traitor. She needs to be exterminated before more information leaks out about us."

I open the folder and my eyes catch on the picture and the bright red hair.

? ﾟﾘﾱ A/N: I am sorry I have not updated sooner, my fault. College life caught up to me sooner than I thought it would with Finals. Here is a long chapter as sorry, 1666 words Woo Hoo.? ﾟﾘﾓ