Red in my Ledger

Chapter Eight

YEAR: 2009
MONTH: September

A week before my 18th birthday, I was on a mission with the Winter Soldier.
Despite my efforts to shrug him off since last February, we have gotten closer. And I've just accepted it. I enjoyed his company, and he helped me train and become stronger.
We retrieved the package we were sent to locate, killing our target successfully along the way.
"You ready to go Weiner?" I asked as we stood over the dead man's body.
"Only if you stop calling me that" he sighed.
"I'm sorry, what am I supposed to call you" I laughed.
"I don't know. Not that."
"Well unless you can think of another nickname for the Winter Soldier, you have to deal with it."
We headed back to the car.
I was about to open the door when I saw something in the reflection of the window - someone on the rooftop behind me pointing a gun at me.
I ducked just in time and whatever was fired hit the car window. It wasn't a bullet. I quickly ran round the car to the side the Winter Soldier was on.
"Are you okay?" he asked. "What was that?"
"I don't know. But we need to get out of here" I told him.
We ran down the street and into an alleyway but it was a dead end.
"Crap" I muttered.
I looked up and saw a couple of people on the roofs above us. They jumped down in front of me.
Two more people appeared at the end of the alley.
The Winter Soldier lifted his gun.
"No, wait" I stopped him. "I... think they're widows."
"That's impossible. The Red Room was destroyed."
"That's what I thought too..."
We were back to back, until I turned to face him, pulling him by the arm so he faced me too.
"I'm gonna go with them."
"What? No, what if-"
"I'll be fine. But you should go. I don't want them to do anything to you."
"They could try-"
"Please. I promise I'll be okay."
He looked hesitant, and he squeezed my hand briefly. Then he turned and left.
I was surrounded by the four widows.
I put my hands behind my head in surrender, and I felt a sharp pain hit my back. One of them shot me.
I instantly regretted the decision I had just made to go with them as I fell to the floor unconscious.
———
At some point on the journey, I had woken up with a bag over my head and handcuffs around my wrist.
I reached up and managed to pull the bag off my head, and saw that I was on a jet.
I looked down at my handcuffs, which I knew how to take off, but didn't as there were eight other widows sitting around me. I felt I could probably take them on, but I didn't want to test that right now.
We landed on some sort of massive hovering aircraft in the sky, and I was taken inside.
I was escorted through many different doors and rooms - everything looked so much more modern and technological then the old Red Room.
And we got to an office, presumably Dreykov's that seemed so much larger than his last one.
"Thank you widows" he nodded at those that had brought me in, and they left me in there with him.
I bent down and stepped on the chain between my handcuffs. Then I ripped my hands up, breaking them.
My wrists only bled a little.
Dreykov was sat in his chair with his legs up on the desk as I stood on the other side of it.
"Dreykov" I nodded.
"Y/n" he stood up and walked round the desk. He sat down on it, facing me. "You left."
"I didn't leave."
"You didn't come back to find me."
"I thought you died."
"I raised you better than this."
"I thought you were gone, and the Red Room was gone. Hydra found me after the explosion, so I have been-"
Dreykov punched angrily at my face.
I wiped the blood from my nose and glared at him. I so wished I could hit him back. But I knew I physically couldn't.
"Why didn't you bring me back sooner?" I asked.
"I've been looking. I only just found you."
"Why couldn't you just let me go?"
"Because you are too valuable to lose."
"Flattering."
"But I wonder if that's still the case."
Before I could question it, the door opened and five widows came in. They surrounded me.
"You've gotta be shitting me" I muttered.
They attacked at the same time, and I tried to fight them all of. I hit them to the floor one by one, but they kept getting back up. I didn't want to hurt them, that would satisfy Dreykov too much. In the end, I was forced to knock each of them out.
I looked up at Dreykov when I was done.
"Do that again, I kill them" I lied, but I knew Dreykov believed me.
———
DATE: September 30th

My 18th birthday. As he did every year, Dreykov called me into his office.
"Eighteen" he said. "You're an adult."
I didn't say anything, so he continued.
"I have known you for all of those eighteen years, and you have become my greatest assassin. You should be proud. And as your reward, I am willing to offer you one thing you want. Anything. A gift from me to you on your birthday."
I paused. I didn't want anything material, but there was one thing I had wanted to know. Always. I didn't know whether to ask or not.
"Well?"
"I have something I want to know" I admitted.
"What's that?"
"Can you tell me about my parents?"
"Excuse me?"
"I want to know."
"Oh you're not serious. After everything I have done for you. I have treated you like my own child. You are my daughter. And now you want to betray me and find out about the people that abandoned you. The people that could never love you enough to give you a home. I gave you a home y/n. Is that not enough for you? And if you were thinking you could go and find them, you can't. They are dead. I am all that you have got. I am your family. But if that's not enough for you, then leave. Go. And then no one will love you."
"I'm sorry" I mumbled.
"I can't believe after all these years you would betray me by asking something like that."
I felt horrible, but that didn't stop the feeling I had that he was lying.
He sighed in disappointment.
"Is there anything else you want for your birthday? Choose before I change my mind."
"Um. Can I have a phone?"
"Why do you need a phone?"
"To pass the time. And I could, uh, use it on missions."
He didn't seem to approve.
"You can, you can track my location. If I- if I had a phone you can see where I am" I reluctantly informed in.
"Fine. I will get you a phone."
I nodded gratefully.
I stood awkwardly, waiting for him to tell me to go.
"Y/n..." he said. "I have waited eighteen years for you. And I have a gift of my own choosing. You should enjoy it. If not, at least I will."
I looked down to where his hands were.
Why did this keep happening to me?

YEAR: 2014

I reconvened with the Hydra agents and we drove to the shopping mall, where they had tracked their location to.
We split up, and I was unfortunately paired with Rumlow.
"Here" he put his arm around my shoulder. "Now we look like a couple in a shopping mall."
"Get your hand off me unless you want to lose it."
"Cool it. We're in a public place."
"Trust me. That won't stop me."
He laughed but removed his hand anyway, and we continued to look around.
We went to the Apple Store where the signal had come from, but there was no sign of them.
—
As Nat and Steve left the Apple Store, Nat saw you heading towards it with Rumlow.
"Crap" she said. "We need to leave. Y/n is here."
"Y/n as in the Winter Widow? The one that killed Fury?" Steve asked.
"Yes. But trust me we don't want to stay and fight."
"Okay."
"And we should call Stark."
"Tony? Why?"

YEAR: 2009
MONTH: November

You were watching TV with some of the other girls, and a press conference with Tony Stark came on.
Dreykov entered the room, just as Stark started speaking. He noticed you were looking less than impressed.
"I am Iron Man" Stark said on the screen.
You took the remote and switched it off.
"Someone needs to put that man in his place" you commented. "Honestly his ego is larger than his bank account."
In the corner of the room, Dreykov smirked with an idea.