Seven Devils // Natasha Romanoff

Part 11 - Don't Blink

After Melina explains her plan in detail to me, gives me an earpiece, and leaves, I spend the rest of the day doing all the physical activity I can do to prepare me for when Natasha shows up at Melina's. Melina suspects that it will be any day now, so I have to be ready.

That evening, after being discharged from the medical wing, one of the medics notifies me that Dreykov would like to meet with me. I make my way to his office, hoping to get this over with as quickly as possible; I don't have the energy to put up an act pretending that I don't know shit about what he's been hiding from me.

Nevertheless, I put on a smile as I step through Dreykov's office door. "Good evening!"

"Ah, Vallonia, it's great to see you getting back to normal!" he greets, standing up from his chair. He motions for me to sit in the chair across from his desk and I do so, watching as he walks around the desk and leans against the front of it. "So, are you thinking that you'll make a full recovery by tomorrow?"

I nod. "Seems like it. Why do you ask?"

"I'm considering sending a team out after Romanoff tomorrow. We haven't gotten any updates on her location, but I'm hoping to get one soon."

"I'm up for it," I shrug.

"Perfect."

I watch him as he carefully looks me over, being able to sense that he has something else on his mind. "Did you only need to ask me about being ready to go on a mission tomorrow, or...?"

He sighs, clasping his hands together. "When you were on your mission with Romanoff, did the two of you engage at all?"

I raise a brow. "Yeah, of course we did. We fought, she kidnapped and held me hostage, remember?"

"Yes, yes," he waves dismissively. "I mean converse at all."

"Well, obviously. She wanted to know why I was trying to kill her, and I told her revenge of course."

"And when she asked what you were revenging?"

"I told her Budapest."

"Did she question you on that?"

"No. She managed to get away at that point."

He places his hands at his sides, tapping at his desk behind him. "You see, we managed to track down some Google searches made from the location of Natasha's trailer, and there were plenty. Many of them were along the lines of trying to find which Widows were involved in the Budapest bombing. Did she ask you about this?"

I scoff lightly. "I mean, she kept insisting that I wasn't there. Can you believe that? I'm pretty sure I know that I was there."

He nods cautiously, intensely watching my expression. Shit, he's hella suspicious. "You see, Vallonia, I trained you to be a fantastic liar. However, I also trained you to have a tell, a tell so subtle that only I could notice it." He reaches towards me, pushing a hair out of my face. I mentally curse myself as I stiffen upon his contact, betraying just how tense I am. "You blink before speaking when you are telling the truth; when you're lying, you blink during the first word. Take a wild guess as to when you blinked."

Oh fuck.

I glance to the door, mentally running through all my options. I could make a run for it, but I would certainly not get far, especially with all the mind-controlled Widows. Attacking him is a non-option; he wears a pheromone that prevents anybody from attacking him. Or maybe I could see where he's going with this.

He chuckles to himself. "Oh, Vallonia, I knew from the moment we took you that you would be a different Widow, just like Natasha. You have that cold-killer instinct, yet you also are very kind and compassionate. How much have you figured out? Do you know about the mind control situation and your exemption?"

I slowly nod.

"Okay, perfect. I've always loved your personality, how you make jokes but not too many, very strong-willed, but most importantly, loyal and dedicated to the mission. Do you want to know why, despite all of this, I've always been skeptical about your being free from mind control?"

I remain defiantly silent as he leans forward, making sure he annunciates these three words: "You're too good."

"Excuse me, what?" I interrupt.

"Your kindness and compassion is what sets you apart from other Widows, but it's also what made you realize that we were the bad guys and defect from us. Ultimately, that compassion is what made you hesitate to kill Romanoff and find the truth; you were somehow able to tell she was good and not kill her. I must admit, it's quite impressive, but that is, unfortunately, a skill that I cannot do with."

I scoff bitterly. "Are you serious? You're going to kill me because I'm too good?"

He turns to me, a look of shock on his face. "Kill you? No, no, that is a waste of talent. I'm going to do what I should've done from the beginning; place you under my mind control."

He leans forward. "Vallonia, I would like to thank you; you were my experiment to see if relying on pure loyalty was enough to keep a Widow from defecting. Thanks to you, I now know that the only way is through mind control."

"That's bullshit," I scoff. "You're tearing away thousands of women's free will just because you're running a program so miserable that they want to risk their lives just to defect. This isn't a problem with the Widows; it's a problem with you."

He whistles as he leans back. "My, I forgot to mention that you're fiery when you're pissed off. What's keeping you from attacking me? Did you find out about the pheromonal lock?"

"I attempted to throw a rock at you as a joke one time when I was younger; it didn't work and Melina noticed, so she told me about the pheromones. Bet she didn't think I'd still remember it now."

He chuckles. "You're a smart one. You'll be quite unstoppable once under my control."

I cross my arms, leaning back. "Who are my parents? Or should I say were?"

"How'd you figure out that I lied about that?"

"Natasha said that you know everything and just lied to most Widows about their parents. I'm also starting to think that you lied about pretty much everything in my life."

He chuckles as if this is some game for him. "Yes, I remember your parents. Americans. I had them both killed so we could take you. Staged it like a car crash too; it was quite tragic."

"What were their names?" I ask, now standing up from my chair.

His lips twist into a satisfied smirk as he looks at me, the amusement clear behind his eyes. "I don't know."

My rage cannot be put into words. He knows their names alright, and he wants me to know that he knows.

I stare at him spitefully, sure that my eyes are on fire. "I'm going to kill you in the most gruesome and painful way imaginable, then I am going to bring this entire operation to the fucking ground."

He slaps me across the face, and it only increases my rage when I go to punch him and am stopped by an invisible source. The fucking pheromones. He pushes me back into his desk, and I slam into the hard wood, beginning to fall down the side.

While I'm falling, he harshly grabs me by the neck and slams me onto the desk, forcing me to look up at him. I struggle against his hold, but his body is too heavy, pinning me down. I grab at his arm as I feel my lungs burning for air, but I can't do anything to actually fight him off due to the damn pheromones.

He watches condescendingly, pulling a syringe of what looks like sedative from his pocket. "I predict that Natasha will be attacking sometime in the next few days. I'd like to have a gift to welcome her with."

I grab at the collar of his shirt to try to pry him off, but he simply uses his arm holding the sedative to pin my arm to the side. "Don't worry, I'm not going to put you under my mind control until after she gets here so I can force her to watch; then I'll have you kill her. That's just what you wanted, isn't it? To kill her."

I do my best to use my free hand to pry his hand off my neck, my words coming out as a croak. "Go to hell."

I feel a prick in the side of my neck as he injects the sedative, and everything goes black.